tion on the ancient laws and confti- room to doubt of this fact. A still stronger circumftance is their having never yet dared to truft a jury with a fingle decifion upon thefe new acts, though cafes have certainly occurred in which indictments might have been framed upon them. The acts remain, therefore, as was predicted (we think by lord Thurlow), a dead letter upon the ftatute-book; and will undoubtedly be brushed away as ufelefs lumber, on any change of administration. CHAP. II. Abflract of his Majefly's Speech at the Opening of the Sffion. Debates on the Addrefs-In the Commons-In the Lords. Committee on the high Price of Corn. Bill renewed for allowing a free Importation. Motions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer refpecting the Corn Larus, &c. Debate on thefe Motions. Report of the Committee on the high Price of Grain. Bounty on Importation of Corn moved for by Mr. Pitt. Bill enabling Overfeers to extend Relief to the Poor at their own Houses. Mr. Whitbread's Motion for raifing the Wages of Labourers. Negatived by the Interference and Influence of Mr. Pitt. Engagement entered into by feveral Members of both Houfes to reduce the Confumption of Wheat Flour in their Families. Motion of Sir John Sinclair for the Cultivation of wafte Lands. IN N the preceding chapter, the meeting of parliament, on the 29th of October, was noticed, as well as the extraordinary circumftances which attended his majefty's progrefs to and from the houfe of lords. The fpeech from the throne opened by ftating his majefty's fatisfaction that the general fituation of affairs, notwithstanding many events unfavourable to the common caufe, was materially improved. The French had in Italy been driven back, and were checked on the fide of Germany. Their fucceffes, and the treaties of peace they had entered into, were far from compenfating the evils they fuffered from the continuance of war; and the unparalleled embarraffinent and dinefs of their internal fituation appeared to have produced in them. an impreflion, that their only relief muft refult from peace and a fettled government. The crifis in which they now were, muft probably produce confequences important to the interefts of Europe. If this crifis terminated in any thing affording a reasonable expectation of fecurity in any treaty, the appearance of a difpofition to treat for peace on juft and fuitable terms would, his majefty added, be met on his part with an earnest defire to give it the speedieft effect. The acceleration of this defirable end required, however, that we should prove our ability to profecute the war, till we could conclude it in a peace fuited to the juftice of our caufe, and the fituation of the ene my. my. To this end the moft vigorous naval preparations were making for fecuring our fuperiority, and carrying on our exertions in the Weft Indies. The hoftilities committed by the United Provinces had, his majesty obferved, obliged him to treat them as at war with this country. The northern fleet had received the most active affiftance from the emprefs of Ruffia. Treaties of defenfive alliance had been entered into with the two imperial courts, and the American treaty of commerce had been exchanged. The commons were informed, that, "further additions to the heavy burders which had been unavoidably impofed on the people," would be neceffary. But this preffure would be alleviated by the flourishing ftate of commerce and manufactures, and our expences being letfened by the prefent circumftances of the war. The addrefs to both houfes of parliament concluded with a fhort view of the measures neceflary to be taken refpecting the deficiency of grain. From the business which, immediately after the delivery of his majefty's fpeech, took place in the houfe of lords, refpecting the outrages he had that day received, the debate on the addrefs first took place in the commons. The addrefs was moved by lord Dalkeith, and feconded by the honourable Mr. Stewart. Thefe gentlemen concurred with the fpeech of his majefty refpecting the improved fituation of public affairs. The advantages gained by the enemy on the continent were, they conceived, pretty equally balanced by their loffes in other quarters. And though, in the West Indies, our profperity had not been eminently confpicuous, yet the profpect there was promifing; and in the Eaft Indies our fucceffes had been uniform and important. The finances and the flow flow operation of the principles of the French in that country indicated their probable fhort poffeflon of it. any cordial co-operation, but to eat English meat, and to learn Englifh difcipline. If, as had been stated, general difcontent would produce fome change in the fituation of French affairs, and lead to a better order of things, the people of England were, by their fufferings and calamity, in a high road to its attainment. Mr. Sheridan next cenfured the delay in the failing of the Weft India armament, and the difafters encountered by the emigrants in their expeditions to Noirmontier and Poitou. British blood did not, indeed, flow in thefe expeditions; but British honour bled at every pore. A defperate effort was, he obferved, to be made for faving the iflands. In Martinique there was only one regiment of effective men, though the nominal force was fix regiments. He doubted the policy of extending our Weft India poffefhons, as draining this country of what it could leaft fpare, men. Fifteen thoufand troops had been landed in St. Domingo, of which one thoufand five hundred had been fent to Grenada; and of these, in four months, fourteen officers and four hundred men had been loft. They were packed in hofpitals, in the moft deplorable fituations; and, by unaccountable negligence in the different departments, were deprived of the aid both of medicines and furgeons. From inattention in providing tranfports, ninety inftead of forty were put on board each fhip. It was in vain, he said, to connect the poflibility of negotiation with any new occurrences: this pretext fhewed that the object of the contest was to restore the depotifm of France. He called upon minifters to discover, like the king of Pruflia, what government the French armies obeyed, and to ne The word fat sfaction, which had occurred fo early in the fpeech from the th one, excited the furprize of Mr. Sheridan. As the fpeech of the minifter, he profeffed his intertion to exercife his right, as a member of parliament, to examine it free.y. To be fatisfied with every thing, was esteemed a mark of piety and Chriftian refignation; certainly, then, minifters were the most pious men in the world. They were fatisfied with the improvement of our fituation fince laft year. It was ftated that a check had been received by the French in Italy; but it was forgotten that at that period the repub-, licans had not penetrated into Italy. It was likewife faid, though only on the authority of a French newspaper, that the army on the Rhine had been forced to retire. The army, however, had not last year croffed the Rhine, and now were only prevented from advancing to the Danube, and obliged to limit their prog efs on the German fide of the Rhine. The war with Holland night perhaps be confidered, by minifters, as an improvement of our fituation! The feceffions from the confederacy against France, and the progrefs from fcarcity, with which we were formerly threatened, to an acknowledged famine, might incrcafe the fatisfaction of the minifter. From a review of the fpeeches made by his majefty at the opening of the two laft and of the prefent feffion, Mr. Sheridan inferred, that peace appeared more than over at a diftance. He ridiculed the idea of the affiftance to be expected from the ficet of the emprefs, which came not to afford gotiate gotiate with that as he had done, as Spain had done, and as the elector of Hanover had done. The declaration of Louis XVIII. was fuppofed to be penned in this country, with the concurrence and under the direction of minifters. He thought thofe who advised his majefty to fpill the blood of this country for the restoration of defpotifm in France, were as great traitors to their country as the mi nifter of Charles II. who advised him to enter into the pay of that country Leagues with the defpotic monarchs of France,expelled the houfe of Stuart from this country: and indeed, could any league be more deftructive to its interefts than one with the houfe of Bourbon, which had ever been the inveterate enemy of Great Britain, of its liberty, and its commerce? He could not, he faid, move any amendment to an addrefs which he difapproved in toto, but would fecond one which embraced three points, first, that the people fhould not be burthened with taxes to fupport the delufive views of minifters in the restoration of the monarchy of France, or till fome form of government fhould be eftablished which they may not ima gine incapable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity-that a strict inquiry fhould be inftituted into the conduct of minifters in the profecution of the war-and that the moft fpeedy termination fhould be put to it, by declaring a willingness to treat with France.. Mr. Jenkinfon confidered the prefent time as extremely improper for negotiation, and recapitulated the ufual arguments for the commencement of the war, the conduct of which was, he faid, to be defended by examining its effects upon the fentiments of the people in the interior, or by the preflure of an external force effecting a change in their temper and inclinations. The latter of thefe objects had fucceeded; and the principles of the new conftitution had fixed civil liberty upon much more reafonable foundations than it flood at the commencement of the war. Should it be reduced to practice, the objections to the fluctuating nature of their government would be removed. That we had fucceeded in repelling the dangers which threatened us, was certain. The fucceffes of the war had excited various royalift infurrections; and from thefe one of three alternatives was to have been expected,—either that the enemy would have been unable to oppofe the allies,-that a counter revolution would have been effected, or that a civil war would have burft forth. Unfortunately, however, the fyftem of terror under Robespierre took place: but that this gained ground in confequence of the war, he ftrenuoully denied. It tended to abridge that fyftem, and the miferies it produced in France. The determination of the French to retain Holland, was, he thought, an infuperable obftacle to an immediate peace; and the remedy for her enormous acquifitions was to endeavour in another quarter to obtain fomething to change or to compenfate. A few months might place us in a fituation to treat with greater advantage. At the beginning of the war, he had equally wifhed and expected the restoration of the emigrants, and of the monarchy of France; and this he thought, if attainable, a fair fubject of war, but believed it was not. In the courfe of his fpeech, Mr. Jenkinfon entered into a defence of his former affertions re fpecting fpecting the march to Paris," which had been attacked by Mr. Sheridan, and did not think the overthrow of the French government fo chimerical as had been inferred: the defeat of the fcheme was in a great part attributable to the want of fidelity and exertion in the allies. General Tarleton confidered the fpeech of his majesty, and the arguments that had taken place upon it, as far from fatisfactory. Little confolation arofe, he thought, to us, from the prevention of the invafion of Italy. The troops lately employed against Spain would probably now be directed against Italy. He cenfured his imperial majefty for neglecting to fortify Luxemburg. As a military man, he indulged very faint hopes of the Weft-India expedition, and thought it as eafy to fubdue the united ftates of America as St. Domingo. He pointedly blamed the conduct of the expedition to Quiberon, and the minifters, if they had any part in the weakness and infamy of that tranfaction. The prefent scarcity was attributed by the general in a great degree to the lofs which agricultural employments fuftained from the millions of men who were now engaged in war, particularly in Brabant, on the borders of the Rhine, and in the fertile fields of Poland. Our late allies, the king of Spain and prince of Heffe Caffel, had left us to ruin France by ourfelves. To effect this, we mult ruin ourfelves. "Away, then," faid the general, "with fophiftry! away with delufion! away with all the agents of a corrupt and profligate adminiftration!" A juftly incenfed enemy would not probably give terms when we chofe to demand them; perhaps might not even confent to the meafures we propofe; we muft adopt a new fyftem, appoint new minifters, and adopt an energy fuitable to our embarrassments. Mr. Fox cenfured the fpeech, and the minifters by whom it was written. It was not, he faid, enough that they fhould for three years perfift in a war for miferable fpeculation, add one hundred mil lions of debt to the capital, load the people with four millions per annum of permanent taxes, and make them feel all the miferies of fcarcity, but they must be infulted by the falsehood of being told "their fituation was improved." How improved? It could not be fhewn from the fucceffes of the Auftrian army. After the loan voted to the emperor, and the pretences upon which it was granted, the people were told that it was an improvemeat of their fituation, that the French had been recently obliged to retreat from pofts of which they were not in poffeffion at the time of the guarantee. Was it an improvement, that they had extended their dominions beyond the Rhine, had got Manheim, and over-run the greater part of the Palatinate? Was it because the French had not overrun Italy, that our fituation was improved? Mr. Fox fpoke in ftrong terms of the lofty difdain with which he had been treated the preceding feffions, on occafion of his predictions refpecting the fcarcity of grain. When another gentleman (Mr. Huffey), at a later period, and upon certain information, ufed the fame forcible diffuafive againft war, he was rebuked for a fuggeftion which was treated as unfounded in fact. Was the verification of thofe warnings an improvement? The fufferings of the poor he ftated to be extreme. Oh! but France was reduced to unparalleled diftrefs, and this was our com |