may sometimes be finished by a clamour for the question. I should not have alluded to the trials, had not an allusion been rendered necessary by what fell from the right honourable the chancellor of the exchequer. Our belief of the alarms is said to be contrary to the opinion of nine-tenths of the people. I do not think so; but if it were contrary to the belief not only of nine-tenths, but of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand, I should still be equally inclined to declare my opinion; but I should augur very ill indeed of the people, if I thought that they could resist such evidence as was adduced upon the trials. Perhaps I flatter myself that I am not in such a minority as the right honourable gentleman supposes. What I am in this House, I know not. What I am in the country, I am equally ignorant of; but I do know, that if I speak of that part of the country which I am best acquainted with, I have the good fortune to agree in opinion with a decided majority. When I was called to order, I was observing, that there was no ground for the original alarm in the year 1792. I was going to remark upon those trials, that the prosecution of innocent men was disgraceful to the country, and their acquittal honourable. How comes it that so many were acquitted? Because so many were prosecuted who ought not to have been prosecuted. Sorry I am, that I shall frequently have occasion, to offend the honourable gentleman who called me to order, if recurring to past actions, in order to form my opinion of the future, be against the established rules of the House. The country, I allow, is in a situation of great difficulty, in a situation of danger, cruel danger, but not so much from any apprehension of an invasion on the part of the enemy; it is in a state of peril from which there is no way to extricate it, but by a retrospective view of the measures of ministers, and a judicial examinination of their conduct.

I have stated that the three bills are doubtful measures, even supposing extraordinary measures to be necessary. In 1794, after the great arming of the country, we were told that the force then embodied was sufficient to resist any invasion that might be attempted. What is the situation of the country now? An honourable friend of mine states that it is in a state of great internal quiet. In this opinion, as in most others, I perfectly agree with him, if he means that there is in the country a general love for the constitution. I have no doubt of it; the people are universally well affected to the constitution, I believe; but that they are more attached to the constitution as it is now, than as it was at the commencement of the war, I cannot allow. I cannot believe that I am one of those

"eighty thousand incorrigible jacobins whom nothing can reconcile to the monarchy of this country. So far from thinking their number to be so formidable, I believe that it will be difficult to find one of that description. But if those be incorrigible jacobins who detest the measures of his majesty's ministers, who are of opinion that their conduct has tarnished the glory of the country, and that they have conducted pusillanimously a contest which they rashly and unjustly commenced-who think that not only an inquiry into their conduct is indispensable but that a reform is absolutely necessary, in order to prevent the country from being cursed with such ministers as the sent, if any such can ever curse the country if these are the incorrigible jacobins, I am glad to hear that they amount to eighty thousand. I wish they amounted to eight millions.

pre

The right honourable gentleman, who states that there is so much necessity for going into the committee, does not disdain, however, to give us some information. He says, that his apprehensions of the danger of an invasion are increased lately; and he said this in so emphatic a way, that I, for one, do not wish to press an opposition to the measure. If the minister really thinks that there is any danger of an invasion, I will not object to some increase of the militia force; but even in that case, I will only suspend my inquiry into the causes that have brought us into this danger. The right honourable gentleman, however, must be aware, that if an invasion is likely to be attempted in England, one system of measures will be necessary, which will not apply, if the invasion is likely to be attempted in another part. Let the minister state this, in order that the means may be adapted to the exigence. Suppose, for example, that Jamaica was in danger of being invaded, you would hardly think it necessary to adopt any precaution in Great Britain; the same observation will apply to parts nearer home. If any other part of the British territories is in danger, the measures calculated to repel that danger ought to be applied to that part, which is conceived to be particularly menaced. In observing upon the speech of my honourable friend, the right honourable gentleman said, with a

"In England and Scotland, I compute that those of adult age, not declining in life, of tolerable leisure for such discussions, and of some means of information, more or less, and who are above menial dependance, may amount to about four hundred thousand. Of these four hundred thousand political citizens, I look upon one-fifth, or about eighty thousand, to be pure jacobins ; utterly incapable of amendment; objects of eternal vigilance; and when they break out, of legal constraint." Burke's Letters on a Regicide Peace.

kind of triumphant air, that he admitted the general support of the people to the government. I heard distinctly what my honourable friend said, and I conceived him to express his opinion, not that there was a general support of the measures of his majesty's ministers throughout the country, but a general indifference; whether this is the same thing, I leave to the right honourable gentleman to decide. He must know that his only chance of support is from the indifference and lethargy of the country, and from their natural consequence, ignorance. Such kind of support, however, as this, can hardly, I should think, be as cordial and satisfactory to his feelings, as that which is the result of judgment and the effect of deliberation. When I consider the basis upon which the constitution stands, I confess that I consider this indifference as an alarming symptom. I hope it does not exist to any great extent; for sure I am, that the best security against an invasion will consist, not in the indifference of the country, but in its zeal, its firmness, and its unanimity. I understand the right honourable gentleman to say that there is a real danger: a miserable assertion this, by the way, for the House to proceed upon without more substantial evidence; but, however, the danger we are told is real. That such is the case, is matter of serious concern. Of the ultimate issue of any attempt at an invasion, I am as sanguine as his majesty's speech expresses; but I shall be more sanguine, in proportion as I see the people less indifferent to the constitution, as the minister found it, not as he has made it.

With respect to the bill in question, in consequence of the declaration of the right honourable gentleman, I shall not object to the recommitment of it; but unless it be materially altered in the committee, I cannot consent to the passing of it, because I do not think that it contains remedies adequate to the evil. The measure, as far as I have been able to learn, creates much alarm. I think it liable to objections, and I feel that I should not do my duty if I did not state those objections. The other bills appear to be defective in principle, and I cannot see any amendments that can reconcile me to them. One word more. The right honourable gentleman says, that a great danger threatens us. I agree with him in calling upon the people to resist an invasion on the part of France. Resist it, I say, with all your might. Be unanimous in your exertions: be vigorous in your efforts: draw your purses freely contribute your personal labours cheerfully. But when I call upon the people to repel any attempt that may be made by France, I also call upon them not to be so alarmed at the danger as not to adopt such measures afterwards as may make the struggle beneficial to themselves. Let

them not struggle against France, only to yield to the artifices of the present ministers. My advice to them is, Be vigilant against the French, be vigilant also against the minister of this country, who has brought you into this situation of danger. Beware, that while you take measures to prevent your becoming a prey to the French, you do not become a prey to the minister. I say be vigilant against domestic as well as foreign enemies; but learn to distinguish who your domestic enemies are: you have been in prosperity, you now feel adversity. Judge not by the assertions of those who have robbed you of your rights; judge not by their comments; judge not upon presumptive evidence; but judge by your own good sense. Reflect upon your condition; consider how you were brought into it. The situation of your finances must shew you that it is paradoxical indeed, if you could have been brought into it without considerable errors (to use the softest word) on the part of ministers, for I wish to speak tenderly even of them in the present conjuncture. I hope you will judge, not from the assertion of those who brought you into the calamities you now feel; but that you will attend a little to the sentiments of those who opposed them in their mad I hope you have not quite forgotten the calamities which the American war brought upon you, and which you would not have suffered to any thing like the extent you did, had you not given to ministers confidence which they did not deserve. But, it seems, we who oppose ministers are not a tenth of the nation. Be it so; then ministers cannot complain that we have been any material impediment to them. This is their artifice, and I think I understand it pretty clearly. It has been always the trick of governments whose proceedings are unjust and foolish, to say, "Our measures were wise, but they were thwarted in much of their efficacy by opposition." I hope the public will not be the dupes of that artifice any longer. I hope they will discriminate between their domestic enemies and their domestic friends, and that they will not suffer their affairs to remain in that paradoxical situation which was some time ago stated, that ministers by their misconduct may have brought the country into such a state of danger, as to require that the people should continue to give them confidence, in order to prevent public ruin. Some may think, by a strange perversion of reason, that the same causes which conducted us to the brink of ruin, may ultimately lead us to safety; that folly and wickedness will in time have the same effect as wisdom and virtue; as it has been said that some animals can counteract their venom, by the repetition of their own bite. We must look for some such fabulous remedy in our misfortunes, if we give ministers any further confidence;

for it is too much to expect a relief from maxims of truth, if such is to continue to be our system.

BUDGET FOR 1797.- TERMS OF THE LOAN - ADVANCES TO THE EMPEROR WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF PARLIA

MENT.

December 7.

HIS day Mr. Pitt produced his annual estimate of the public revenue and expenditure, with a demand of supplies, usually called the Budget. The sum total of the supply required for the year 1797, digested under the heads of army, navy, miscellaneous services, diminution of the national debt, ordnance, and deficiency of taxes, amounted to 27,647,00ol. The ways and means, proposed by the chancellor of the excequer, for raising this supply, amounted to 27,945,000l. New taxes were to be laid for raising the interest of former debts to be liquidated, and sums now borrowed or anticipated to the amount of 2,110,000l. The interest on the loan was calculated at 6l. 15s. per cent.

The new taxes for raising the interest on public expences, contracted or to be contracted, being stated, Mr. Pitt said, that these were diffused over so many articles, that they would operate with equality, and yet not bear hard on the poor. By the production of the taxes it might be inferred, that the war had not materially injured the sources of our prosperity, Having explained the grounds of his estimates, as nearly as he could, both of the requisite supplies and the means of receiving them, he took notice of an expence of a particular nature that had occurred in the interval of parliament: an aid granted to the emperor. A sum of about 1,200,000l., he believed, had been allotted to that prince. To have withheld this assistance would have been to sacrifice the best hope of this country of bringing the present contest to a fortunate issue. It was his intention, if this conduct should meet their approbation, to claim and solicit their confidence, in continuing the same system. He could not, for obvious reasons, propose any specific sum to be granted to his imperial majesty. But if they should think proper to repose the same confidence in ministers, in granting such occasional aid as they might see to be necessary, it should, on their part, be exercised with the same caution. He therefore proposed a vote of three millions, chiefly with a view of enabling ministers to make advances to our allies, if we should be compelled to persevere in the war. After Mr. Grey had impugned the chancellor of the exchequer's statements as erroneous and false, and his demands as unsuitable to the situation, and unnecessary to the true interests of this country,