DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6915#0024
1-2
FINE ARTS OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
The exertions of Mr. Dunning in this parliament, and his unrivalled reputa-
tion at the bar, caused him to be considered one of the most active and for-
midable of the powerful band, which, in the next House of Commons, united
under Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, to oppose the administration of Lord North.
In the first session of the new parliament (1774-5) he, on every occasion,
vindicated the proceedings of the Americans. Notwithstanding their armed
resistance to government, and the seizure of forts and arms belonging to the
crown, he insisted that they were not in rebellion; and that every appear-
ance of riot, disorder, tumult, and sedition, arose, not from disobedience or
treason, but was created by the conduct of those whose views were to establish
despotism in America, as a prelude to realizing the same wicked system in the
mother-country.
In this session too, Mr. Dunning fixed the practice of the House, in receiving-
petitions under the Grenville Act, in opposition to the opinions of Mr. Thurlow
and Mr. Fox; and in the notorious cases of Saltash and Shaftesbury, he showed
a rigid abhorrence of the corruption and bribery which stigmatized those
boroughs.
In the session of 1775-6, although the Americans had so far thrown off" all
disguise as to attack the King's troops, Mr. Dunning did not approve of the
project entertained by administration, to subdue them by force; he opposed
the address on the King's speech, and resisted, in every shape, the employment
of foreign soldiers in the British service. He dwelt with peculiar severity on the
auxiliaries which the administration had called to the assistance of the British
constitution ; Catholics from Canada ; Irish Papists ; a new militia in England,
composed of a description of men exceedingly different from those who formed
the old one ; a Scotch militia, of a description he would not name; Hano-
verian mercenaries to garrison the two great fortresses of the Mediterranean ;
and, to crown the whole, 20,000 Hessians, to protect the legislative authority
of this country. But his indignation was still more vehemently excited, when
the ministry proposed to draw from Ireland 4,000 of her regulars, and replace
them with an equal number of foreign protestant troops, if it should be the
desire of the Irish parliament. Against this measure he directed, though
without effect, repeated efforts of his wit and eloquence.
FINE ARTS OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
The exertions of Mr. Dunning in this parliament, and his unrivalled reputa-
tion at the bar, caused him to be considered one of the most active and for-
midable of the powerful band, which, in the next House of Commons, united
under Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, to oppose the administration of Lord North.
In the first session of the new parliament (1774-5) he, on every occasion,
vindicated the proceedings of the Americans. Notwithstanding their armed
resistance to government, and the seizure of forts and arms belonging to the
crown, he insisted that they were not in rebellion; and that every appear-
ance of riot, disorder, tumult, and sedition, arose, not from disobedience or
treason, but was created by the conduct of those whose views were to establish
despotism in America, as a prelude to realizing the same wicked system in the
mother-country.
In this session too, Mr. Dunning fixed the practice of the House, in receiving-
petitions under the Grenville Act, in opposition to the opinions of Mr. Thurlow
and Mr. Fox; and in the notorious cases of Saltash and Shaftesbury, he showed
a rigid abhorrence of the corruption and bribery which stigmatized those
boroughs.
In the session of 1775-6, although the Americans had so far thrown off" all
disguise as to attack the King's troops, Mr. Dunning did not approve of the
project entertained by administration, to subdue them by force; he opposed
the address on the King's speech, and resisted, in every shape, the employment
of foreign soldiers in the British service. He dwelt with peculiar severity on the
auxiliaries which the administration had called to the assistance of the British
constitution ; Catholics from Canada ; Irish Papists ; a new militia in England,
composed of a description of men exceedingly different from those who formed
the old one ; a Scotch militia, of a description he would not name; Hano-
verian mercenaries to garrison the two great fortresses of the Mediterranean ;
and, to crown the whole, 20,000 Hessians, to protect the legislative authority
of this country. But his indignation was still more vehemently excited, when
the ministry proposed to draw from Ireland 4,000 of her regulars, and replace
them with an equal number of foreign protestant troops, if it should be the
desire of the Irish parliament. Against this measure he directed, though
without effect, repeated efforts of his wit and eloquence.