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Cornwallis at York Town. Parliament was to meet on the 27th. "It is with great concern," said the Royal speech, "that I inform you, that the events of war have been very unfortunate to my arms in Virginia, and have ended in the loss of my forces in that province." It none the less spoke of prosecuting the war with vigour.^[1] In both Houses amendments were moved to the address; in the Upper House by Shelburne, who insisted on the absolute impossibility of continuing the struggle, and moved an amendment which he supported with especial reference to the condition of the finances of the country. The last loan of twelve millions, he pointed out, had been borrowed by giving stock worth twenty-one; eighty millions had already been added to the National Debt, which would amount to one hundred before the next campaign was over; America could not be conquered by arms, and in Europe England had not a single ally. He then proceeded to say that he could easily account to himself why the King, who had seen his empire, from a pitch of glory and splendour perfectly astonishing and dazzling, tumbled down to disgrace and ruin with a degree of precipitation which no previous history could parallel, should rise in greatness of mind superior to the dreadful situation of his affairs. As little was he surprised that ministers should take advantage of the noble sentiments of their monarch, and contrive and fabricate such a speech as should best flatter his personal feelings; but it was to be remembered, that those ministers had never governed long for the people's advantage in any country, who had not fortitude enough to withstand the mere impulse of their master's sentiments.^[2] The ministerial majority in the House of Lords was however not to be shaken, and the amendment was negatived by 75 to 31. In the House of Commons the case was different. There the Opposition, led by Fox and Burke, by Barré and Dunning, and reinforced by the rising talents of Pitt and Sheridan, carried on an incessant warfare against the Ministry during the whole of the session before Christmas, and

1. Parliamentary History, xxii. 634.
2. Ibid. xxii. 644.