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Popular Meetings for the Purpose of petitioning for the Difmiffion of Minifters. Motion to that Effect in the House of Lords-in the House of Commons. The Duke of Bedford's Motion on the State of the Nation. Mr. Grey's Motion on a Parliamentary Reform.

N the course of the fpring feveral popular meetings were held agreeably to the restrictions of the new act, the avowed object of which was to petition his majesty for the difmiffal of miniflers. In most of these meetings the petitions were carried unanimoufly, particularly in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark and the county of Middlefex. The petitions contained heavy charges against the miniftry, but that of the city of Westminster was fuller than moft, and equally ftrong with any. It commenced with charging the minifters with having wantonly involved the nation in a ruinous war, in confequence of which they had fquandered upwards of ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY MILLIONS OF MONEY; and laid on taxes to the amount of SIX MILLIONS AND A HALF annually. The lives which

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they had facrificed, and the fum they had added to human mifery, it was added, were incalculable. The petition proceeds:

"We humbly reprefent to your majefty, that in the hands of those minifters nothing has fucceeded.

"Inftead of reftoring monarchy: in France, they have been com pelled to recognize the republic there established, and to offer propofals of peace to it. Instead of difmembering the territories of that republic, they have fuffered it to add to them the Netherlands, Holland, and great part of Italy and Germany; and even a part of thefe kingdoms, which the fleets of that republic have infulted, has only been preferved from the calamities of an invafion, by the accidents of the feasons.

"In their negotiations for peace, they have been equally unfuccefs ful. It was to be expected. When

they

zhey asked peace, they were abject, but not fincere; they acknowledged their impotence, but not their errors. They discovered the moft hoffite difpofitions towards France, at the very time they proved their utter inability to contend with

her.

"When they wanted to obtain our confent to the war, they affured us that it was neceflary for the fafety of our commerce. At this moment, most of the ports of Europe are fhut against us; goods to an immenfe amount are lying upon the hands of our merchants; and the manufacturing poor are ftarving by thousands.

"They affured us the war was necessary for the prefervation of property and public credit. They have rendered every man's property fubject to an order of the privy council, and the bank of England has stopped payment.

"They affured us that the war was neceflary for the prefervation of the conftitution. They have deftroyed its beft part, which is its liberty, by oppreffive refrictions upon the right of petitioning, and upon the freedom of the prefs; by profecuting innocent men under falle pretences; by fending money to foreign princes without the confent of parliament; while, by ereating barracks throughout the kingdom, they give us reafon to fufpect their intention of finally fubjecting the people to military defpotifm.

They affored us the war was neceffary for the prefervation of the unity of our empire. But they have fo conducted, and are still fo conducting, themselves in Ireland, as to alienate the affections of that brave, loyal, but oppreffed and perfecuted pation, and to expofe the moft flourishing of its provinces to all

the horrors of lawlefs military violence.

Thefe are no common errors. They are great crimes; and of thefe crimes, before God and our country, we accufe your minifters. Our affections to your majefty's perfon, our loyalty to your government, are unabated:-your majesty's virtues are a pledge for the one; the conftitution which makes you king, for the other. But duty to our fellow-countrymen, and to our pofterity, which is but another name for that affection and loyalty, impels us to reprefent to your majefty, that your minifters are defrauding us of the benefit of thofe virtues, by deftroying the channels through which they flow. They have arnifhed the national honour and glory; they have oppreffed the poor with almoft intolerable burthens; they have poisoned the intercourse of private life; they have given a fatal blow to public credit; they have divided the empire; and they have fubverted the conftitution."

Thus far we have thought proper to infert; because from the fubftance of one, the reader will be able to judge of the general tenor of these petitions. The fuccefs which the petitions experienced in the public meetings, and the general clamour and diffatisfaction at the conduct of minifters, which appeared to prevail throughout the nation, encouraged fome of the leaders of oppofition to bring for ward motions to the fame effect in both houfes of parliament. The firft of these motions was made on the 27th of March, when the earl of Suffolk addreffed their lordships on a fubject which, he faid, it was the duty of every Englishman to difcufs. The present fituation of the country was become truly alarm

ing; and it was a matter of the highest importance, that its fafety and protection fhould no longer be left in the hands of a man who had fhown himself so totally incapable in every refpect, except in the arts of deception. His lordship, after adverting to the neglect and ill treatment given by minifters to wards brave veterans who had diftinguished themselves by valor and patriotifm, as the late lord Rodney, lord Howe, and fir Charles Grey, fpoke of the recall of earl Fitzwil liam, which he said could only be mentioned in the strongest terms of difapprobation. A language had frequently been ufed, he remarked, tending to throw an odium on all who fpoke freely on the state of affairs, infinuating that they were friends to commotion and to French principles: his lordship reprobated fuch infinuations with feverity; afked how it was poffible any one could fuppofe he could be fo loft to all fenfe of honour, to the reverence and refpect he owed to a long line of ancestry, to the pater nal affection he had for his prefent. children, and the regard due to pofterity, as to countenance principles which might be fubverfive of thofe honors and that rank which he had received and was bound to tranf mit? Such an argument was abfurd- but it alfo deferved public refutation; it was unfair, uncandid, and untrue. After more obfervations of this nature, his lordship declared he confidered it as his duty to himself, his family, his king, and his country, to move," that an addrefs might be prefented to his majesty, humbly requesting him to difmifs from his councils his minifter, the first lord of the trea fury, whofe pernicious meafures had deprived him of the confidence of the country."

Lord Grenville opposed the motion, because he thought the noble earl had not founded his objections upon facts. He warmly vindicated his friend, the first lord of the treafury, refpecting the measures of which he stood accused; he was confident the neglect and failure of any of them was attributable only to thofe errors to which human nature was at all times liable, to those accidents which no human prudence could prevent, or to those difpenfations of Providence which no human wisdom could controul. The public caufe was faid to be injured by removing fome officers from the public fervice to make room for others more ferviceable to private views. Gallant officers it was affirmed had been neglected; but, without entering into the invidious task of scanning deferts, his lordfhip begged to remark, that admiral Rodney had received the peerage he fo well deferved, befides certain pecuniary grants, fufficient, with economy and management, not only to have fecured the poffeflor from inconvenience, but to have fupported his title with becoming fplendour. If occafions occurred when his majefty found it difficult to employ all the talents, ardour, and activity of individuals, according to their zeal and merit, it was imputable to the vaft fund of abilities and energy in the nation, which rendered it perplexing where to make a preference.

He then came to the confideration of the conduct of the war. That the allies had not been as fuccefsful as they expected, he was ready to admit, and also that fuch accidents had happened as were incidental to all wars; but he hoped all parties would acknowledge that the exertions of this country had

been

been unparalleled in the page of hif tory, and had been attended with unparalleled fuccefs; our naval victories had been more brilliant than ever before diftinguifhed any age, and it appeared peculiarly hard that all the honour, all the praise, and all the glory fhould be reaped by individuals, whilft all the cenfure and all the refponfibility were thrown on ministers.

Lord Hay (earl of Kinnoul) faid that he never was more surprised than to hear a motion of this important nature no less than for removing the prime-minifter of the country from his high ftation, without one fingle proof of mifconduct whatever brought against him. He praised the conduct of the war, and gloried in the fucceffes. He therefore gave the motion his decided negative, and only obferved further, that lord Rodney's family were perfectly fatisfied with his re

muneration.

Lord Suffolk defired to retract part of what he he had faid relative to admiral Rodney; he believed the penfion had been rightly stated by the noble lord-still, however, it was certain that this brave officer was afterwards, from a variety of law-fuits, reduced to a state of great poverty, and his body for a confiderable time feifed upon, and

denied the rites of burial.

The duke of Norfolk fcrupled not to condemn the measures of administration, which, he contended, only required to be fairly and critically examined to be univer fally reprobated. The noble lord (Grenville) had infinuated that the charges were not fubftantiated upon facts; and demanded proofs: the proofs were every where: they prefented themselves to every eye; they made impreffions upon every heart; they compofed a living epi

1797.

taph upon the infatuation of minifters, and, in the language applied to the memory of fir Chriftopher Wren, by pointing out his fublime production, that aftonishing piece of architecture, the cathedral of St. Paul, he might exclaim

Si monumentum quæris, circumspice. The marquis of Townshend and the earl of Warwick oppofed the motion. The latter faid he was convinced there was a confiderable faction deeply infected with French principles in this country, and it was not impoffible that a part were to be found within the walls of the two houfes of parliament. He would advife noble lords not to indulge themselves in thofe irritating and intemperate expreffions which too frequently were uttered. He was forry to read fuch language had paffed in another houfe for granting the people all they asked. He was for granting ail fuch rights as were demanded in a conftitutional manner, but not to thofe who demanded them with arms in their hands.

The earl of Derby expreffed, his aftonishment that any advice fhould be thought neceffary for their lordfhips refpecting the language they ought to ufe in that houfe; for himfelf, he always endeavoured to use parliamentary language, and was not confcious of any failure in this point. He was apt indeed to speak warmly, and it was his duty to da fo, when he decribed the mifcon duct or incapacity of minifters, and the pernicious effects of bad meafures. Allufions were made to what paffed in another house, and difapprobation manifefted on granting rights to men with arms in their hands. He hoped they had not yet procured thofe arms, and that they never would: but if it ever fould

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be the cafe, he was convinced the impolitic and oppreffive meafures adopted by the prefent minifters would be the occasion of those difaftrous confequences.

Lord Romney faid he was concerned to hear perfons on all fides, both within and without the walls of that house, talk of the fituation of the country in the moft defponding manner; for his own part, he thought very differently of it, and that nothing was wanting to reftore it to its former strength but active energy. He was clear that a plan might be adopted which would raise an immenfe fum, and would ferve to convince the enemy of the British fpirit-this was, to fet on foot a subscription for a voluntary gift, as far as the generofity and circumftances of indivi. duals would allow. He would fubfcribe five thoufand pounds, and thought there would eafily be found a hundred thousand who would fubfcribe their one hundred each. He propofed that this fhould be paid by inftalments, for inftance he would commence on the 1ft of January 1798, and pay five hundred pounds a month, fo that in ten months he fhould have paid the whole. Each fubfcriber to do the fame, according to the fums fubfcribed, even fo low as fifty: the whole of the money to be fubject to the controul of parliament-Such a meafure, if carried into execution, would counteract any impreffion which might be made on the French government to our difadvantage, By the defponding ideas of fome as to our ftate, or by the language of others as to the mifmanagement of our minifters.

The earl of Moira thought the prefent motion highly neceffary; the mifmanagement of minifters had brought us to this prefent de

plorable condition, and they could not too foon, be deprived of the power of continuing to do fo; the war had been conducted, he said, in a fhameful manner; the wealth and refources of the country expended in making conquests of diftant fettlements, when the French fhould have been attacked nearer home. His lordship applauded the plan of lord Romney, and did not doubt but it might produce a confiderable fum of money; but it was a queftion how far the house of commons might approve of mo. ney being raised to carry on the war through any channel but their own. He concluded with giving his hearty affent to the motion.

The earl of Carlisle lamented, that the fineft opportunity of forcing the enemy to make peace had been loft by the conduct of the admiralty, which had given fuch abfurd orders to admiral Colpoys Had we deftroyed the Breft fleet, we should have ended the war.

The marquis of Lanfdowne blamed the admiralty on this occafion alfo. He faid he would fooner fee one minifter justly punished than fee twenty changes. It was not a change of men but measures which he wished, confequently did not approve the motion: changes of minifters had fometimes done mifchief to the country. Sir Robert Walpole was removed by popular clamour at the time he was carrying the finking fund into execution, and the nation suffered very confi derably by his removal. The alteration he propofed would be in the fyftem of government, which ought to be conducted on the old conftitutional principles of the country. Any one who wished to know the prefent fyftem, might perufe the army extraordi, naries, and would find millions fquandered

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