House had witnessed what security his verbal pledge had proved! Thus might he go on promising and promising ad infinitum, and a work that ought to have been begun before, and that would not admit of longer delay, be deferred till we found ourselves again involved in a war; and he was not yet brought over to the opinion that war was the fittest season for the discharge of the national debt.

Mr. Fox took notice of Mr. Pitt's sneer at his having argued in support of the imposition of new taxes on an occasion, where no taxes were necessary to be imposed. In answer to this, he said, he conceived the question of the day would decide whether new taxes were necessary or not; and therefore it was, of all others, the fittest moment for pressing the argument. Were there no doubt in the case, and were it the decided opinion of that House that taxes ought to be laid, any argument of his in support of such an idea, would undoubtedly be superfluous; it could only be of use where the question was in contest. Mr. Fox, in answer to Mr. Pitt's allusion to the India bill, said, the very conduct that the right honourable gentleman had at that time imputed to him, he was now practising himself,-that of holding out fallacious accounts and false statements of the revenue, to mislead and delude the public. With regard to India, did any man now believe, that the accounts presented to that House by the directors of the East India company last year, and upon which they had proceeded to pass a bill into a law, were not fallacious? After what he had lately seen from Bengal, after what the learned gentleman next him (Mr. Dundas) knew of the affairs of the company in India, did the right honourable gentleman think the accounts of the last year were to be relied on? He was persuaded he did not. With regard to the putting the office of chancellor of the exchequer in commission, he had no such intention, nor if he had, should he have thought of putting the chancellor of the exchequer at the head of that commission, any more than he should have thought of putting the office of master general of the ordnance in commission, and have placed him at the head of a board of commissioners appointed to controul the executive branch of his own department. The sort of committee he wished to have instituted, might, he said, prove essentially serviceable, by investigating facts, and reporting them to the House, whence they would have the way cleared, and be enabled to proceed with certainty. To a committee of the House, be it composed of whom it would, he was ready to trust that or any other business, because he was convinced by the conduct of a committee last year, that however gentlemen, who were chosen in a committee, might generally differ in their politi

cal sentiments, they would always form such a report as would do them honour, and would prove of essential benefit to the public, by affording the House a species of useful and authentic information they could not otherwise obtain.

The motion was negatived without a division.

ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.

THE

January 24. 1786.

HE King opened the session with the following speech to both
Houses:

My lords and gentlemen; since I last met you in parliament, the disputes which appeared to threaten an interruption to the tranquillity of Europe have been brought to an amicable conclusion; and I continue to receive from foreign powers the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards this country.At home, my subjects experience the growing blessings of peace in the extension of trade, the improvement of the revenue, and the increase of the public credit of the nation.-For the farther advancement of those important objects, I rely on the continuance of that zeal and industry which you manifested in the last session of parliament. The resolutions which you laid before me as the basis of an adjustment of the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland, have been, by my directions, communicated to the parliament of that kingdom; but no effectual step has hitherto been taken thereupon, which can enable you to make any further progress in that salutary work.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons; I have ordered the estimates for the present year to be laid before you: it is my earnest wish to enforce economy in every department; and you will, I am persuaded, be equally ready to make such provision as may be necessary for the public service, and particularly for the maintaining our naval strength on the most secure and respectable footing. Above all, let me recommend to you the establishment of a fixed plan for the reduction of the national debt. The flourishing state of the revenue will, I trust, enable you to effect this important measure with little addition to the public burdens.

"My lords and gentlemen; the vigour and resources of the country, so fully manifested in its present situation, will encourage you in continuing to give your utmost attention to every object of national concern; particularly to the consideration of such measures as may be necessary, in order to give farther security to the revenue, and to promote and extend as far as possible the trade and general industry of my subjects."

An address in the usual form being moved by Mr. Smyth, the member for Pontefract, and seconded by Mr. Addington, the Earlof Surrey moved by way of amendment to omit that part of the proposed address which related to the commercial negociations with Ireland. After which,

Mr. Fox rose, and declared, that of all the speeches from the throne which he had ever remembered to have heard delivered at the opening of a session of parliament, of all the speeches of that kind which he had ever heard of by relation, or read of in history, he did not recollect to have met with an instance of one so cautiously worded, or that afforded such little ground for objection of any kind. He rose, therefore, to speak to what was out of it, rather than what was in it; to that which perhaps ought to have been there, rather than to what was there. The propriety of a minister's contenting himself with addressing British parliament from the throne, with general ideas of the political situation of a country, instead of specifically adverting to facts and circumstances, which deeply and materially concerned its first and dearest interests, relatively considered with those of other states, would be for others to judge and to decide upon. It was enough for him to see, that there were so many matters pending, and so much had been lately done by foreign powers, the consequences of which might more or less critically affect Great Britain in proportion to the measures that his majesty's ministers had pursued; and, indeed, upon the ground of these transactions, he had looked for something more than vague assurances of the tranquillity of Europe, and had expected his majesty's speech would have given that House a variety of lights upon a variety of great and important subjects, intimately connected with the future prosperity or ill fortune of the empires upon all of which the speech left the House in utter and impenetrable darkness.

With regard to the extension of trade, the increase of the public credit of the nation, and the growing surplus of the revenue, those were circumstances in which every man must rejoice; and at which no party, no political faction, no set of persons of any name and description whatever could suppress their exultation, because they went to prove, what must be to all ranks of men and all political parties, a matter of solid satisfaction and unrestrained triumph, the returning vigour of our resources. But, were these matters of surprise, were these circumstances to cause astonishment? Undoubtedly they were

not.

Almost every man knew there would be some surplus; almost every man expected it; they only differed about the amount of that surplus, one gentleman alone excepted, who

had certainly contended, and had endeavoured to prove, that there would be no surplus; but that gentleman had probably been since convinced of his error, had retracted it, and as every man of candour would do, he had no doubt he was ready publicly to acknowledge that retractation. That there would be some surplus, he had always admitted; what that surplus was, he would not then attempt to enter into the discussion of. Indeed, it was not possible till he knew it, till he had it stated to him, and its amount was fairly before him, and capable of argument and of investigation. He would not assert to what the signs of returning vigour were ascribable; that might be matter of much useless difference of opinion; several of them might be owing to the success of some of the measures of the present administration; he would not be so uncandid as to deny that they were; but more, far more, he believed, were owing to the failure of others of their measures, which, had they succeeded, must have been_attended with consequences, the most fatal to the revenue and to the national credit and prosperity, that could possibly be imagined. Nothing but the alarm and disgust created by the agitation of those bad measures could have so long kept back the returning trade of the country, the natural consequence of peace, which ever had been the case at the end of every war before the last. That alarm and disgust had been done away, in a great degree, by the failure of the measures to which he alluded, and the tide of trade was now returning to its old and natural channel.

For his part, he certainly should not object to the address in general, though he might probably vote with his noble friend for his amendment; but there were two matters of considerable importance, which, in one instance, arose out of the wording of the speech, in its first paragraph, and in another, was mentioned in a subsequent part it, upon both of which he must say a few words, and expect to receive some answer: whether satisfactory or not the event would prove. What he meant was, to inquire what sort of construction, whether a broad or narrow one was to be put upon that part of the speech which related to the tranquillity of Europe, and stated, that his majesty continued to receive the strongest assurances from foreign powers of their friendly disposition towards this country. He wished also to know, what was meant by the manner in which the resolutions relative to an intended adjustment of a commercial intercourse with Ireland was mentioned, and whether they were to understand, by being told from the throne, that they were incapable of making any farther progress in the work, that the resolutions were completely abandoned and given up, or that they were to be revived, and endeavoured to be carried into effect at any

future period of time? On both these points it was exceedingly material that such information should be given, that each might be clearly and precisely understood.

With regard to the first, if the mention of the tranquillity of Europe alluded only to the end that had been put to the threatened war between the emperor and the United States of Holland, in that case the construction was too narrow, and his majesty's ministers greatly undervalued the information of that House, and not of that House only, but of every man who read or attended to the political transactions of Europe, and who was at all aware of what passed on the continent, the different treaties lately entered into by different foreign powers, and the conduct which ought to have been pursued with a view to counteract the operation of those treaties and transactions, as far as it was likely to prove prejudicial to the interests of Great Britain. He was aware, that not being a minister, he had it in his power to speak in a style, in which it would be highly imprudent for his majesty's ministers to express themselves, and as the matters that he should have occasion to treat of, were of infinite consideration, he should endeavour to make himself as well understood as possible. With respect to the naval force of this country, and what ought to be the criterion of its number and strength, his noble friend the Earl of Surrey had mentioned only the naval force of France, forgetting that France was but one branch of the powerful confederacy of maritime powers, that had been entered into with a professed hostility to Great Britain; for though all treaties were avowedly treaties of a defensive nature, and entered into upon a pretence of mutual defence, every man who knew any thing of the meaning of treaties, knew that their true intent and purport was offensive to all who, in the opinion of the contracting parties, took any measure, considered as inimical to the interests of either of them. The treaty, therefore, which the House of Bourbon had persuaded the United States to enter into with them, and which effectually secured Holland in their hands, was to be considered as a treaty hostile to this country, inasmuch as it combined three of the most powerful maritime powers of Europe in a confederacy against Great Britain. That it was unadviseable and impolitic for the United States to enter into any such treaty, he verily believed; but, as the treaty was made and executed, it behoved our minister to be vigilant and assiduous in engaging in some alliances with other European maritime powers, whose connection and support might enable us to counteract the mischievous tendency and effect of the operation of the confederacy in case of a war with either of the contracting powers. In explanation of the