niary concerns, I should like to try the effect of this mode of reasoning. Suppose, for a moment, that we were in a state of neutrality with regard to the French republic, and it was proposed that we should lend money to the French, would the minister say we should lend them money? Certainly he would not: and, yet, if good faith in pecuniary engagements is to be measured by heroic qualities, there are none to whom we should be more ready to lend our money; for of their valour they have given abundant proofs.

Mr. Fox then proceeded to state the situation of the em peror and the French at this moment, in which he maintained that with all the successes of the Austrians in the latter part of the present campaign, another could not be opened under circumstances of more advantage to the emperor, than those in which he had been placed at the commencement of the last. He here took notice of the recent successes of the French in Italy, and by way of answering the praises that were bestowed on the good qualities of the house of Austria, he instanced the cruelties that had been exercised on the unfortu nate M. de la Fayette, which he said excited horror all over Europe.

Mr. Fox then proceeded to observe, that the minister had that night omitted the brilliant comparison which he had often made between the English and the French finances. The French had been stated week after week, and month after month, to be not on the verge but in the gulph of bankruptcy. He had omitted also to state that the French had, by becoming the allies of the Dutch, partaken of the sluggishness of the Hollanders. He did not know, he said, whether the French had passed the gulph of bankruptcy. He hoped they had, for while they were in it, they were most dreadful enemies to this country. But to return to the minister's calculation of events. He had, year after year, calculated upon the events of the war, and year after year the public had been misled by his calculations. At one time he was sure the navy debt would only be a million and a half; after that he calcu lated the same debt at four millions, then at six or seven millions, and now it was stated to be above eight millions. What security had the House and the public that the minister would not miscalculate in future, as he had already done, in the course of the present war? By his miscalculations he had added to the debt of this country one hundred and fifty mil lions. By his miscalculations rivers of human blood had been made to flow all over the world. The minister now talked of peace. He hoped in God we should soon enjoy that blessings but as the minister was so fond of his own calculations, he wished he would some day or night sit down in his-closet and

calculate what a sum of human happiness he had destroyed by his false calculations already; what a waste of human life he had occasioned, because he could not sooner discover that the French were "capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other powers." He did not wish to distress the minister with any unseasonable applications, but he believed he should puzzle him a good deal were he to ask, at what period the French became more capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other powers than they were at the moment. when we entered into this contest.

Here Mr. Fox took notice of the great difference between the ministers of the Elector of Hanover and those of the King of Great Britain, with respect to the prudence of all powers making peace with the French republic. He had heard it often said, that the spirit of the people of this country was very great. He believed it to be so. He gloried in that spirit. But if the system on which this war was carried on was to be continued much longer, he had his doubts of the continuance of that spirit. A great people who saw hundreds of thousands of their fellow subjects fall, their national debt increased above one hundred and fifty millions, their credit sinking, the necessaries of life becoming, by their price, almost entirely out of the reach of the labouring class, and all this merely because one man, or a few men in the country made false calculations, were not likely to preserve their old spirit. Such were the evils which the minister had already occasioned by his false calculations! To these charges he hoped the right honourable gentleman would have an opportunity of answering at the bar of the public. He knew that every man who reasoned fairly would be deeply affected by these things. Every man who thought deliberately upon the subject would mourn over the hundreds of thousands of human beings who had lost their lives in this contest, because the minister of this country had miscalculated the power of the French; and what, in comparison with the loss of so many human lives, was trifling, but which, in other respects, was mightily important, was the accumulation of our burdens. The national debt of this country was now above four hundred millions. He had not calculated exactly what portion of it was owing to this war altogether; still less was he able to guess what part of it was accumulated at particular periods of the war; but he was now ready to declare, what he had often declared, and still oftener felt, that he thought this war unjust in its commencement, and impolitic in its progress, and he believed there was not one man of sense in this country, who had any wishes for its welfare, who did not

from his heart wish it was at an end. This he was sure was the general wish of the people of this country. It was the wish even of that House, else he was strangely deceived. This brought to his mind what had been recently published by a gentleman whose talents he always admired, and for whom, notwithstanding every thing that had happened, he had still great esteem, he meant Mr. Burke; that gentleman had lately published it as his opinion, that the minority in parliament speak the sentiments of the people of England at this hour, and that they have done so for some time past. On the subject of the war, Mr. Fox said, he had no doubt, that the minority spoke the sentiments of the people. On the subject of the war, at least, he would maintain that to be the case; he believed it to have been so ever since the time of Robespierre; but he would defy any man to shew that this was not the wish of this country only, but also that it was not the general wish of all Europe at this hour. He would go farther, and say, that in the opinion of Europe at large nothing had impeded the arrival of general tranquillity for a long time, but the opinion of the ministers of this country. All this arose from the miscalculation of the right honourable gentleman. However, that very minister now talked of peace; but let him consider on what terms we are likely to obtain it, and compare such terms with those which we might have obtained a great while ago, and then let him endeavour to sum up the mischief which his false calculations have brought, not upon this country merely, but also on all Europe. Perhaps he might think the Cape of Good Hope an equivalent for all we had suffered. If he did, neither his humanity nor his judgment were to be envied. He was afraid, he said, that there was no point to be stated in the resolutions of that night that brought in question the propriety of lending money to the emperor, without the consent of parlia ment, and therefore he could not manifest by his vote his opinion upon that subject. However, when it should come before the House, he should certainly meet it with his direct negative, for it was a violent and daring attack on the British constitution. It was essential for the House to come to a vote upon the question, Whether the minister was to be permitted to apply money for foreign alliances without the consent of parliament or not? and that we should know whether we were in a free country, or were mocked only with the name of freedom. He should say no more now upon this subject; but would take a future opportunity of delivering his sentiments with respect to the particular taxes.

The resolutions for raising the supplies were then put and carried.

December 8.

The resolutions of the committee of ways and means were this day reported to the House. On the motion "That the said resolutions be now read a second time,"

Mr. Fox rose and said: It is not my intention, Sir, on this evening, to enter into any detailed argument upon the resolutions. Future opportunities will occur of discussing the particulars of which they consist; and it is my earnest wish that every member of the House may pay the most serious attention to the subject to which they belong, under a strong conviction, that the greatest exertions will be necessary to put the finances of the country in a proper situation. But this is not the point to which I propose, on the present evening, particularly to call the attention of the House. I wish them now to attend to the degraded situation in which the Commons of Great Britain stand, in relation to the executive government of the country. It will be easily perceived that here I allude to the 1,200,000l. which has been granted to the emperor by ministers without the consent of parliament a grant which I contend to be directly contrary to positive law, and a flagrant violation of the constitution of parliament. I certainly should have expected, since the right honourable gentleman did not think it worth his while to apply to the House of Commons before he advanced such a sum to a foreign power, that when he informed them of the circumstance, he would have accompanied it with some explanation. But from the mode in which the money was given, as well as from the speech of the minister on opening the budget, I evidently perceive that the whole affair has been conducted, not for the convenience of ministers, or the advantage which they might imagine would result from it, (though, God knows, this would have been bad enough!) but that it has been done for the purpose of setting a precedent in the annals of the constitution, from which the public money is to be understood as lying at the disposal, not of the representatives of the people, but of the ministers of the crown. When I went home last night and reflected upon the various subjects which had passed under discussion, I must confess that I felt hurt at the idea of having appeared to give my assent to, at least at not having positively dissented from, resolutions which struck me as being so extremely unconstitutional. I considered myself as having been guilty of a neglect of duty, and as called upon by the relations in which

I stand to my constituents and to the country, to come forward this day and enter my solemn protest against a measure which I regard as an infringement of the rights of the people, and of the privileges of this House: for I should look upon myself as a traitor to the public were I to vote one shilling, or one man, for the service of the crown, without the consent of parliament. We have been in the practice of hearing for some time past, very warm and elaborate eulogiums upon the constitution of the country, notwithstanding all the wounds which it has lately received; and I always thought, that whatever differences of opinion might subsist upon some points, there were others on which we were all agreed. Though we might differ in sentiment respecting the preponderance of power in one branch of the constitution over another, and in affixing precise limits to each, I thought and believed that there was no man who would maintain that it was right and proper for the executive to usurp the legislative power; or, that it was just and lawful for the crown to supersede the office of parliament.

But, let us consider the nature of the transaction before us. Had ministers, when parliament was not sitting, found themselves called upon by an imperious sense of duty, dictated by a combination of urgent and unforeseen circumstances, to grant a certain pecuniary aid to the emperor; and had they taken the earliest opportunity upon the meeting of parliament, to submit the whole of the business to its consideration, then would have been the time for the House to pass a decision upon their conduct, after a candid and impartial review of the situation in which they were placed, and the motives by which it was fair to suppose them to have been actuated. But the present case is wholly different. In the course of the last three months of the last parliament repeated applications were made to them respecting their intentions of granting or withholding pecuniary assistance to the emperor; and, from the silence which they persevered in preserving on the occasion, it was natural to infer that they would not grant such assistance without the previous concurrence of parliament. In fact, however, we find that a great part of the money given to his imperial majesty has been granted without that concurrence, not during the parliamentary recess, but when parliament was actually sitting. If parliament had not been sitting, and ministers had thought it prudent to grant pecuniary assistance to the emperor, I say it ought to have been assembled for the purpose of deliberating upon it; but when parliament was sitting, in God's name, why was not proper application made to the House? Was it because ministers were. afraid that the House wanted confidence in them?