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the mean time, daily intelligence was arriving of the rapid and irresistible progress of the French in Holland, which might now be considered as totally lost to the confederacy. The inhabitants of the Seven United Provinces were never, indeed, sincerely cordial in the cause of the coalition, looking upon them. selves as sacrificed to the interests of the house of Orange, by whose influence and authority the people complained, they had been forced into the present war..

In order to supply, if possible, the place of so considerable a member of the coalition, no other method appeared than that of increasing the force to be employed against the French, by numbers proportionable to those which were furnished by the Dutch, previously to their re. duction by France. To this pur. pose, ministers found it necessary to prepare, by times, the funds that would be requisite to keep the coalition together; and to prevent the whole weight of the victorious enemy from falling upon Britain, without alliances to divert it.

The opinion of the British pub. lic, at this juncture, was, that, being involved in a ruinous war, it was

indispensable to exert the full strength of the national resources, in order to extricate the kingdom from the dangers that threatened it. Discussions on its justice and necessity, as well as on its judicious or imprudent management, should be referred to a future opportunity; and all the vigour and abilities of the different parties, that had di vided the nation, ought to unite, on this pressing occasion, for its defence, against the formidable ene. my that now threatened it with a destruction which would become unavoidable, without a sincere and spirited union at home. This alone could save the country; no depend ence ought, in prudence, to be placed upon foreign assistance; our allies wanted either power or inclination to make sufficient efforts to resist France. The truth was, that they relied upon Britain much more than Britain could rely upon them; nor was even their good will to this country unquestionable. Its superior state of prosperity, and the perpetual obligation to have re course to its finances, were circum. stances highly offensive to their pride, and excited their envy much more than they conciliated their gra titude and attachment. The in[M3]

tended

tended desertion of Prussia and of Spain was well known, and the apprehension of their changing sides not less suspected. In this complication of difficulties stood the only remaining members of the coalition, Austria and England, when the ministers of this latter were summoned to call forth their resources for the joint support of both.

The house of commons met on the second of January, in a committee of supply. Mr. Fox, who foresaw the large demands that would be made, required notice when the loan would be proposed, that the house might have a due attendance. The imperial loan was an object of disagreeable speculation to all parties, and they felt with disgust the necessity of supporting a power that had drawn this country into his own quarrel, and whose readiness to abandon it, the moment he could procure tolerable terms, no intelligent person doubted. This neces sarily created a reluctance to answer his calls for fresh supplies, which as soor as granted, might be converted to quite other purposes than those for which he should obtain them. The case of Prussia was exactly in point: twelve hundred thousand pounds were acknow. ledged, by the minister in the house, to have been advanced to the Prussian monarch; who employ. ed that immense sum in executing his designs on Poland.

On the seventh of January, a motion was made, by admiral Gardner, for an augmentation in the number of seamen and marines. The ser. vice of the navy would this year require a proportion of eighty-five thousand of the former, and fifteen thousand of the latter. A remark

able discussion took place, on this occasion, upon the construction of the English ships of war. Mr. Ro. binson asserted their inferiority to the French, in the circumstance of quick sailing. Captain Berkeley admitted they were better built, but denied their sailing faster; the French models he acknowledged to be superior to the English;, but these had the superiority in workmanship. Admiral Gardner, however, allowed the quicker sailing of the French; and ascribed their superior construc. tion to the premiums given, by their government, for the best models, which were regularly submitted to the examination and decision of the academy of sciences. But the vessels taken from them had lately been the means of considerable improvements in the building of

our own.

In consequence of this discussion, it was observed by Mr. Fox, that the knowledge and experience of the people of this country in naval affairs ought, long ago, to have enabled them to surpass their French rivals, in a point of such importance to the honour and security of the nation. It was neither creditable to the ministry, nor the admiralty, to have so long suffered this degrading inferiority. The sooner it was remedied the better, at this critical period, which required un. common exertions of skill and valour in every active department, but principally in the naval, on which the safety and glory of the nation so visibly depended. He complained that, considering the decided supe riority of the British navy, its at chievments had not been adequate to the expectations which the nation had a right to form. Our ex. ertions at sea had, he noticed, been greatly

greatly impeded, by the extensive efforts lately made to strengthen the service at land. The bounties given to recruit the army took off numbers of able men from the navy; on which, however, every judicious man placed more reliance against an invasion of this country, than upon itsland forces. The incessant threats of the enemy ought to render govern. ment peculiarly solicitous to provide, in time, the means to frustrate them. The navy was the bulwark of the realm, and it were criminal at the present juncture, not to pay it a much higher degree of attention than military operations on the continent; which the experience of three campaigns had shewn to be ineffectual for the main object of the contest, the reducing France to submit to our own terms.

Mr. Dundas, in vindication of ministry, stated, that no efforts had ever been made superior, if equal, to those which had taken place in the naval department of the king dom, since the commencement of the present war. The number of seamen, at that period, amounted only to sixteen thousand, but was, at this day, no less than ninety-fie thousand. He was convinced, from good information, that our acting force at sea was double to that of the enemy much, he observed, had been said in favour of the superior skill of the enemy in naval architecture; but we were confessedly the superior in action, and while we retained this superiority, the collateral advantages of construction and expeditious sailing would be of little avail to the enemy.

Mr. Sheridan made several ob. servations on the assertions of Mr.

Dundas; he particularly noticed the difficulty of overtaking vessels

so much more advantageously constructed for quick sailing than ours, as the French seemed to be gene.. rally acknowledged; and reprobated with much severity the neglect of government, in not accelerating the improvements necessary to remedy,

so essential a defect.

Mr. Pitt confessed that extraordinary efforts had been made by the French to increase and strengthen their navy: but, like their exertions at land, they would not be of a du. rable nature: they were too hurried and precipitate to last. He proceeded from this topic to the general state of that country; the vigour and resources of which he represented to be on the decline. Herein he was contradicted by general Tarleton, who described both as very far from being exhausted; and their ingenuity as incessantly, on the stretch to profit by every opportunity that occurred. Their system of acting had, since the fall of Roberspierre, undergone material alterations; convinced that severity and terror were not so effectual as lenity and conciliation, they had wisely adopted these wherever they could be applicable. Hence the aversion formerly excited, by the merciless proceedings of their late government, had given way to sentiments less hostile and repugnant to the principles they were labouring to establish. The treatment of their prisoners, in particular, since that time, had been much more humane, and they seemed, upon the whole, studious to acquire a character of mildness andmoderation: all these circumstances should be taken into consideration. When we animadverted on the

present state of that nation, as they had been lately described with jus[M4]

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tice, as ferocious and sanguinary, they ought, by the same rule, to be represented, at present, in more favourable colours. It was, by treating each other with equity, that nations at variance drew nearer to reconciliation, and not by in dulging in reciprocal defamation, which only tended to eternize en..y.

In answer to some strictures, on the conduct of the admiralty, that were thrown out in the sequel of this debate, it was observ. ed, by admiral Gardner, that, in the course of the last year, applications were made for one hundred and eight convoys, which had been accordingly granted. This service had employed one hundred and forty ships, exclusive. ly of sixteen constantly cruizing on the coast to protect its trade.

Mr. Lambton took this oppor. tunity to notice the efforts of the French, to put their navy on a formidable footing. Models of the various parts and timbers, proper for the construction of ships of the line, were sent to the several provinces, where wood for such pur. poses was procurable. Here the la. bouring people were directed in what manner to cut down and prepare the trees selected for ship-building, which were conveyed, in the rough, to the dock-yards, there to be completed by the ship.wrights, and put together with all possible dis. patch. By this expeditious method of proceeding, they would be able, according to their cal. culation, to add sixty new ships to their fleet in a very short time. Such a process, in their construction, would not certainly admit of mach solidity and duration; but these were not wanted: the quan.

tity, not the quality of the ships, for immediate service, was the, only object in request. Such being the plans and intention of the ene. my, government could not be too anxious in preparing to meet the numerous marine that might so shortly be created, through these extraordinary exertions. In con. sequence of these various discus. sions, one hundred thousand sea. men were unanimously voted for the service of the present year.

On the 21st of January, Mr. Windham presented to the house the estimates of the army. These amounted, including the regulars, the militia, and the new levies, to one hundred and fifty thousand men; a force that was deemed amply sufficient for the preservation of internal tranquillity, and the protection of the kingdom against all enterprises from abroad. The expence of maintaining it was computed at six millions six hundred and fifty-two thousand pounds. He moved, that the ar my establishment, for the present year, should consist of the number stated.

General Tarleton severely reprehended the methods used for the ordering and recruiting of the ar my. Veteran officers thereby were loaded with heavy expences, to which, if inadequate, they were li able to have rw young men set over them. He cited some precedents of promotions of this na. ture, equally offensive to officers of long standing, and detrimental to the service. Hence, he said, the recruiting business had fallen into the hands of crimps and school-boys. The avarice of the former and the inaptitude of the latter, was accordingly vi

sible in the individuals whom they enlisted. He next adverted to the expence of maintaining the army; the statement of which he censur. ed, as not sufficiently explicit. To the enormous sum already mentioned, were still to be added, those wanted for the support of the ordnance, and for the extraordinaries, to say nothing of the im. mense subsidies to foreign powers. These, he observed, necessarily absorbed a fatal proportion of the money that ought to be reserved for the various expeditions that employed our own people, whose numbers, from that cause, had proved inadequate to the services on which they were sent. Hence it was, that instead of ten thou. sand men, sir Charles Grey was placed at the head of only half that number, to reduce the French West Indies, that were provided with a larger force to defend, than he to attack them. He then reviewed the events of the campaign upon the continent, where he ascribed many of the disasters that had befailen the coalition, to the perfidious conduct of our allies, as well as to the avarice with which they economised, for their own purposes, the vast sums of money which they received from our profusion and credulity. What ever successes might attend the arms of the coalition, in the next campaign, they would never compensate the misfortunes of the last.

In answer to general Tarleton, and to Mr. Hussey, who seconded him with arguments of much the same import, it was replied by Mr. Pitt, that, in order to enable the navy to make a proper impression on our foes abroad, we ought to place ourselves in a state

of complete security at home, which could be done only by keeping a formidable army on foot. The expences arising from this necessary measure were, doubtless, great, but the dangers thereby averted were much greater. True it was, that the confederacy had suffered severely; but this country not only maintained its superiority on the seas, but had, in the midst of every pressure occasioned by the war, increased both its commerce and its resources, in a manner that opened the most promising prospect of being able to carry it on with the utmost vi gour, and that afforded the strongest presumption of terminating it finally to our honour.

To these assertions Mr. Fox opposed the continual failure of every attempt of the coalition, and the perpetual success attend. ing the arms of the French, in all their undertakings. To speak in a style of exultation, after experiencing such a series of calamities, was, he said, to insult the understanding of those who heard him. But what was now the object he proposed, by persisting in this unfortunate contest? it could not surely be the reduction

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of the French, who were now in a situation that entitled them, without vanity, to assume that style of superiority which it so ill became the minister to affect. A counter-revolution was no longer to be expected; the powers of which the coalition consisted had been so completely humbled by their defeats, that they did not seem to harbour the least idea of that tendency. It would, therefore, be temerity, not fortitude, on us to conti. nue a quarrel on our single strength,