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his conftituents that they were not: it required men of greater minds and more upright intentions to bring about this object. He would take up no more of the time of the houfe than by moving "that an addrefs be prefented to his majefty, befeeching him to difmifs from his councls his prefent minifters, as the moft likely means of obtaining a permanent and fpeedy peace."

Sir William Milner faid, that in feconding this motion he followed the opinion of his conftituents, and, though he defpaired of its fuccefs, he was convinced, that if the fenfe of the people were to be taken upon the fubject, the minifters would no longer continue to heap diftreffes upon the country.

Mr. I. H. Browne oppofed the motion in a speech of confiderable length, in the courfe of which he took a view of the whole conduct of administration for the last twelve years, and declared he approved of their measures. The gentlemen who had spoken had both of them declared they thought themfelves bound to follow the inftructions of their conftituents; and as the reprefentatives of the two first cities in the kingdom, their opinions were certainly entitled to the higheft refpect. He had, for his own part, the honour to reprefent a very populous place; his conftituents' confifted of about two thoufand;, in returning him their reprefentative, they had enabled him to act for them to the best of his judgment: If his conftituents chofe to inftruct him, he should follow his own judgment if he differed from them in opinion; and if they were difpleafed at this, they might reject him at the next general election. He therefore diffented altogether from the worthy alderman and the hoLourable baronet on the fubject of

obeying the inftructions of his con ftituents. He looked upon himfelf as really an independent man, and had neither received nor folicited any favour from minifters. With regard to the prefent adminiftration, he thought the country owed every thing to them: the three greatest bleflings which could be poffeffed, liberty, internal tran-' quillity, and general profperity!

He firft enuinerated the libertiesthat juries had been invefted with the right which had been difputed, of judging of all the circumftances of the cafe, in point of law as well as fact: it was under the auspices of the prefent adminiftration, and against very high and powerful authority: that the continuance of an impeachment had been carried. It was under the fame administration that the bill fo obnoxious to the people of Canada had been repealed, and a fyftem of freedom established in its ftead. Even the abufes of liberty had been touched with a lenient hand, and the bill' for preventing and punishing fedition had been limited to the term of two years.

Mr. Browne dwelt upon the inftances of what he called lenity, and then proceeded to notice the fecond point, tranquillity, which, he faid, were fo clear from the excellent meafures which had been adopted, that it was unneceffary to go farther into the fubject. He then came to the third, the general profperity of the country. In the year 1784 the prefent minifter came into office; and from that time to 1792 no country had ever flourished more. By means of his fi nancial abilities he raifed the funds, which he found at 64, during the courfe of that period to 98. the fame proportion with the funds the trade, manufactures, agricul03

In

ture

ture, and ingenuity of the country kept pace in their increase-there was indeed a period to which he muft now aliude that formed a painful reverfe: thofe evils, however, which had caufed it were entirely owing to the French revolution, which had fuddenly rifen to a head, and, like a torrent, burft every natural and artificial bound, and fwept away all before it. It threatened destruction to every civilifed ftate and regular government in Europe. Much, he obferved, had been faid on the poffibility of avoiding the war, and great blame imputed to minifters for not doing fo: he denied its having been poffible to avoid it, and attributed our prefent tranquillity to the wisdom of the minifters. The French had demanded the most dreadful requifitions from every power on the continent; and the grand duke of Tufcany had been obliged to fell his jewels to raise the laft 100,000 crowns which they had levied on him. From thefe evils we had been faved by this administrationand could we change it for any fet of men more likely to be of more fervice to our real interefts? No! He took then an average of the bills of inclosures and canals, during four years before the war and the fame period fince its commencement, hewing that they had greatly increased in the latter. He concluded by giving his decided diffent to the motion.

Aldermen Curtis, Anderfon, and Lufhington, Mr. Bootle, and Mr, Brandling opposed the motion.

Mr. Curwen faid it was common for perfons in the house to pretend that they were right in exercising their own judgment in oppofition to that of their conftituents: it was his opinion that members of parlia ment were not only bound to liften

to the inftructions of their confti. tuents but to obey them; they ought to fpeak the fenfe of the people, which could not be done but by faithfully reprefenting it. He confcffed he had never heard any arguments which could convince him that the profperity of the country was at all owing to the prefent adminiftration; the commencement of the war undoubtedly belonged to them, nor did they negotiate for peace when a favorable opportunity prefented itseif, by the French being driven back within their territory; it was obvious they might then have made better terms than at any other period, and their neglect was a fufficient proof of their intention to interfere with the government of France; it prov ed that the war was, as it had been called, a war of kings against the people.

Mr. H. Browne had made the paffing of the correspondence bill, and the fufpenfion of the habeas corpus act, grounds of defence for the minifters; it was rather extraordinary that these violations of the liberties of the people fhould feri oufly be urged in defence of those who had committed them. From thefe two bills which had paffed, the country had experienced the most difaftrous effects: the navy had been diforganized, and difaffec tion widely diffused, and, if the prefent fyftem remained, and was perfevered in, thefe difcontents would increafe till at laft they would burst forth, and carry all be fore them. He was not for fuch a change as fhould only have for its object the putting one man into the place of another. The influence of government must cease-that influence by which the right honourable gentleman had created about onehalf of the present house of peers.

The

The meafures which minifters had purfued in Ireland, had reduced that country to a state of the great eft diforder. Nothing fhort of the complete emancipation of the catholics, and a thorough reform in the reprefentation of the people, could now prevent that kingdom from being totally feparated from ts. He did not believe the present ministers could make peace for this Country; and as the fituation of the nation depended upon that bleffing, and upon its being speedily procured, he felt it to be his duty to fupport the motion.

Mr. M. A. Taylor argued ftrenuoufly for the difmiffal of the king's prefent ministers; the more he reflected upon the dreadful waste of blood this war had occasioned (for the waste of treasure was comparatively an infignificant calamity), and of the oppofition he had given it for these four years paft, the more was he fatisfied with his own conduet. That the restoration of monarchy in France was the object of the war, was acknowledged in the proteft of lord Fitzwilliam. But it had been asked, if you cannot truft minifters, whom will you truft? perhaps it might be fuppofed that he would anfwer, his friend Mr. Fox. This gentleman certainly had oppofed all the acts of minifters by which fuch mifery had been heaped upon the country of thofe minifters whofe incapacity was fo notorious and furely, in any fituati. on of life, we fhould not be in clined to trust people who had led us into difficulties and dangers inftead of those who had always sought to extricate us. Gentlemen of rank, fortune, and high station, were daily requesting his majesty to difmifs his prefent minifters. Only a fenfe of duty could make thefe gentlemen act as they did; for the

oppofition had nothing to allure them with, nor the minifter to corrupt them by. For himself, he wanted neither place nor penfion; there was but one thing which he ardently requested — it was the reftoration of our excellent conftitution.

Mr. William Adams thought this was a time to oppofe every motion which tended to diminish lawful authority or impede the operations of the executive power. All party, all prejudice, thould be thrown afide, and every defcription of individuals fhould unite to fupport the dignity of our national character. Unanimity was our beft refource, added to confidence in mi. nifters.

Mr. Hobhouse rofe: he begged to advert to the fubject which had so often been difcuffed-the neceffity of the war: it was of little confequence, he faid, which party first had iffued declarations; the question was, who had commenced hoftilities. He ftated the following facts as reafons for affirming that we were the aggreffors: the prohibition to export foreign corn to France whilft it was permitted to be fent to other countries; the paffing the alien bill with a view to exclude Frenchmen from our territories; the correfpondence between M. Chauvelin and lord Grenville, the former of whom appeared as folicitous to preferve peace, as the latter to disturb it; and, finally, the difmiffion of M. Chauvelin, which alone, in confequence of his official fituation as ambaffador, was, according to the treaty exifting between France and us, to be confidered as a declaration of war. These plain matters of fact were proofs that the cabinet of St. James's was determined upon a war with France, and that France O 4

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on her part was amicably inclined towards Great Britain. But, if another proof were wanting, he appealed to an occurrence in the winter of 1792. General Dumouritz wrote to the executive council for leave to feize upon Maeftricht, without which he could not defend the Meufe or the territory about Liege. This city he propofed to keep in his poffeffion during the war, and afterwards to return it to the Dutch; its owners. The executive council refused to comply with his request, because an attack upon the ally of England would give offence to England, and become a certain ground for war.

Mr. Hobhouse then flated all the opportunities which minifters had loft of making an honorable peace: When M. le Brun wrote to lord Grenville on the 16th of April to requeft a palport for M. Maret, who was to come with full powers to terminate the horrors of war, not even an after was returned. When the French army was in a fiate of diforganization at the defection of Dumouriez, we might have offered terms which would have been acceptable. After the capture of Valenciennes we might have negotiated advantageoufly;-in frort, with minifters, no time was proper for it-they were bent up on the profecution of this difaftrous war, in which they had expended one hundred and thirty-five millions, laid upon the people annual taxes to the amount of fix millions; in which they had shed a profufion of English blood, without having attained one of the objects for which they profeffed to contend. Was it for Holland we had drawn the fword? Holland was no longer our ally, but that of our enemy. Was it for the re-establishment of monarchy We had been com

pelled to folicit a peace with the republic of France, to make a tender of reconciliation to the very men who had imbrued their hands in the blood of that fovereign whofe death we had been fo defirous to avenge.

Had one of our menaces been carried into effect? We were to march to Paris and feize upon the perfons of the convention! we now were preparing to defend our own coafts against the invasion of the fame enemy. We had encouraged the nation to profecute the war upon an affurance that the French were on the verge, nay in the very gulph of bankruptcybut alas! what was the state of our own finances? How low had our own credit been funk by the difcontinuance of the bank of England to make its accustomed payments in fpecie?

Mutato nomine, de te
Fabula narratur.

He appealed laftly to the repre-
fentatives of the people ;-Did they
wish to extricate the country from
a ruinous war, and enfure to them-
felves the bleffings of a folid peace?
let them addrefs the king for a re-
moval of his minifters. Did they
with to repair their thattered fi
nances? let them addrefs the king.
for the removal of his minifters.
Did they wish to restore the British
conftitution? - he concluded with
the only method of doing it - ad-
drefs the king for the removal of
his minifters.

Mr. Dent thought that before the houfe could adopt the prefent motion, it would be neceffary to know who thofe gentlemen were, to whom it was wifhed that the administration of public affairs fhould be commit ted. He lamented that in the course of the debate affertions had been converted into accufations, particularly,

when

when minifters were charged with occafioning the difcontents of the feamen and the difturbances of Ireland.

Mr. N. Jeffreys faid he would anfwer one queftion by another: it had been demanded, if the prefent minifters were difmiffed, where fhould we find others? He replied, where could we poffibly find worfe? Mr. Ellifon profeffed to fpeak as an independent member for a refpectable city (Lincoln). He always liftened to the advice of his conftituents with deference, claiming, at the fame time, the privilege of acting from his own opinion. He could not think this was the proper feafon for agitating queftions for reform, and bringing charges against minifters: it would be like attempting to reform a family when their houfe was befet with thieves and robbers. Unanimity at home, and valour abroad, was the beft mode of obtaining peace for the country.

Mr. C. Sturt execrated the conduct of ministers in the ftrongeft terms for their having plunged the country into the miferies of war — their having cheated the nation of their money by pretended overtures of peace their abominable expedition at Quiberon-enlifting prifoners who were notorioufly attached to republicanifm, to re-eftablish monarchy in France- their facrificing millions of money at St. Domingo, and the flower of the British army-their oppofing the juft claims of our gallant protectors, the failors. [Here he was called to order.] But Mr. Sturt declared, no cries of order, whilst he was not diforderly, fhould deter him from delivering his fentiments; and all the fuccefs, nay, the very exiftence of the country, depended on the fupport of the prefent motion,

Mr. Pierrepont averred that neither political predilections nor party views in the leaft influenced his vote; he had much to lofe—and the motion under difcuffion was of a tendency to introduce confufion, and to hazard property.

Mr. Burdon could not but think, he faid, that the difmiffal of minifters was a meafure which would retard rather than accelerate peace, and, inftead of allaying the prefent ferment in the public mind, kindle and foment disturbances. Viewing it in this light, he had nothing to add but his negative.

The queftion was loudly called for. Ayes 59, noes 242, majority 183.

Tuesday, the 30th of May, the duke of Bedford rofe to make a motion for taking into confideration the state of the nation. The fubftance of his excellent fpeech was as follows. Our calamities, he faid, were great, and the. extent of them unexampled: in ftating their caufes he must neceffarily advert to the conduct of minifters; it was not his inclination but his duty he must confult in going over this painful part of the fubject. But he did not mean to draw inferences, only to lay before them facts. It had been faid, this was a war for the prefervation of law, religion, and morality-a war in defence of our liserty, our conftitution, and our property. What was the fate of our property now? had our laws been ameliorated? On the contrary, had not the best of them been fufpended, and others made againft that very liberty which we were faid to fight in defence of? But it was for the prefervation of religion. Alas! did we expect to protect the altar by furrounding it with blood, or to fe cure it from violation by piling it,

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