his constituents that they were not: it required men of great minds and more upright intentions to bring about this object. He would take up no more of the time of the house than by moving "that an address be presented to his majesty, beseeching him to dismiss from his councils his present ministers, as the most likely means of obtaining a permanent and speedy peace."

Sir William Milner said, that in seconding this motion he followed the opinion of his constituents, and, though he despaired of its success, he was convinced, that if the sense of the people were to be taken upon the subject, the minister would no longer continue to heap distresses upon the country.

Mr. I. H. Browne opposed the motion in a speech of considerable length, in the course of which he took a view of the whole conduct of administration for the last twelve years, and declared he approved of their measures. The gentlemen who had spoken had both of them declared they thought themselves bound to follow the instructions of their constituents; and as the representatives of the two first cities in the kingdom, their opinions were certainly entitled to the highest respect. He had, for his own part, the honour to represent a very populous place; his constituents consisted of about two thousand; in returning him their representative, they had enabled him to act for them to the best of his judgement: if his constituents chose to instruct him, he should follow his own judgement, if he differed from them in opinion; and if they were displeased at this, they might reject him at the next general election. He therefore dissented altogether from the worthy alderman, and the honourable baronet, on the subject

of obeying the instructions of his constituents. He looked upon himself as really an independent man, and had neither received nor solicited any favour from ministers. With regard to the present administration, he thought the country owed every thing to them: the three greatest blessings which could be possessed, liberty, internal tranquillity, and general prosperity!

He first enumerated the liberties: that juries had been invested with the right which had been disputed, of judging of all the circuinstances of the case, in point of law as well as fact: it was under the auspices of the present administration, and against very high and powerful authority, that the continuance of an impeachment had been carried. It was under the same administration that the bill so obnoxious to the people of Canada had been repealed, and a system of freedom established in its stead. Even the abuses of liberty had been touched with a lenient hand, and the bill for preventing and punishing sedition had been limited to the term of two years.

Mr. Browne dwelt upon the instances of what he called lenity, and then proceeded to notice the second point-tranquillity, which, he said, was so clear from the excellent measures which had been adopted, that it was unnecessary to go farther into the subject. He then came to the third-the general prosperity of the country. In the year 1754, the present minister came into office; and from that time to 1792, no country had ever flourished more. By means of his financial abilities he raised the funds, which he found at 64, during the course of that period, to 98. In the same proportion with the funds, the trade, manufactures, agriculture,

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and ingenuity of the country kept pace in their increase there was indeed a period to which he must now allude, that formed a painful reverse: those evils, however, which had caused it, were entirely owing to the French revolution, which had suddenly risen to a head, and, like a torrent, burst every natural and artificial bound, and swept away all before it. It threatened destruction to every civilized state and regular government in Europe. Much, he observed, had been said on the possibility of avoiding the war, and great blame imputed to ministers for not doing so he denied its having been possible to avoid it, and attributed our pre-, sent tranquillity to the wisdom of the ministers. The French had demanded the most dreadful requisitions from every power on the continent; and the grand duke of Fuseany had been obliged to sell his jewels to raise the last 100,000 crowns which they had levied on him. From these evils we had been saved by this administration;and could we change it for any set of men more likely to be of more service to our real interests? No! He took then an average of the bills of inclosures and canals, during four years before the war, and the same period since its commencement, showing that they had greatly increased in the latter. He concluded by giving his decided dissent to the motion.

Aldermen Curtis, Anderson, and Lushington, Mr. Bootle, and Mr. Brandling, opposed the motion.

Mr. Curwen said, it was common for persons in the house to pretend that they were right in exercising their own judgement in opposition to that of their constituents: it was his opinion that members of parliament were not only bound to listen

to the instructions of their consti tuents, but to obey them; they ought to speak the sense of the people, which could not be done but by faithfully representing it. He confessed he had never heard any arguments which could convince him that the prosperity of the country was at all owing to the present administration: the commencement of the war undoubtedly belonged to them, nor did they negotiate for peace when a favourable opportunity presented itself, by the French being driven back within their territory: it was obvious they might then have made better terms than at any other period, and their neglect was a sufficient proof of their intention to interfere with the government of France: it proved that the war was, as it had been called, a war of kings against the people.

Mr. H. Browne had made the passing of the correspondence bill, and the suspension of the babeas corpus act, grounds of defence for the ministers. It was rather extraordinary that these violations of the liberties of the people should seriously be urged in defence of these who had committed them. From these two bills which had passed, the country had experienced the most disastrous effects: the navy had been disorganized, and disaf fection widely diffused, and, if the present system remained and was persevered in, these discontents would increase, till at last they would burst forth, and carry all before them. He was not for such a change as should only have for its object the putting one man into the place of another. The influence of government must cease-that influ ence by which the right honourable gentleman had created about onehalf of the present house of peers.

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opposition had nothing to allure them with, nor the minister to corrupt them by. For himself, he wanted neither place nor pension; there was but one thing which he ardently requested;--it was the restoration of our excellent constitution.

Mr. M. A. Taylor urged strenuously for the dismissal of the king's present ministers. The more he reflected upon the dreadful waste of blood this war had occasioned (for the waste of treasure was comparatively an insignificant calamity), and of the opposition he had given it for these four years past, the more was he satisfied with his own conduct. That the restoration of monarchy in France was the object of the war, was acknowledged in the protest of lord Fitzwilliam. But it had been asked, if you cannot trust ministers, whom will you trust? perhaps it might be supposed that he would answer-his friend Mr. Fox. This gentleman certainly had opposed all the acts of ministers by which such misery had been heaped upon the country;-of those ministers whose incapacity was so notorious: and surely, in any situation of life, we should not be inpeople who had led as into difficulties and dangers instead of those who had always sought to extricate us. Gentlemen of rank, fortune, and high station, were daily requesting his majesty to dismiss his present ministers. Only a sense of duty could make these gentlemen act as they did; for the

Mr. William Adams thought this was a time to oppose every motion which tended to diminish lawful authority, or impede the operations of the executive power. All party, all prejudice, should be thrown aside, and every description of individuals should unite to support the dignity of our national character. Unanimity was our best resource, added to confidence in ministers.

Mr. Hobhouse rose. He begged to advert to the subject which had so often been discussed-the necessity of the war: it was of little consequence, he said, which party first had issued declarations: the question was, who had commenced hostiles. He stated the following facts as reasons for affirming that we were the aggressors: the prohibition to export foreign corn to France, whilst it was permitted to be sent to other countries; the passing the alien bill with a view to exclude Frenchmen from our territories; the correspondence between M. Chauvelin and lord Grenville, the former of whom appeared as solicitous to preserve peace, as the latter to disturb it; and, finally, the dismission of M. Chauvelin, which alone, in consequence of his official situation as ambassador, was, according to the treaty existing between France and us, to be considered as a declaration of war. These plain matters of fact were proofs that the cabinet of St. James's was determined upon a war with France, and that France

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when ministers were charged with occasioning the discontents of the seamen, and the disturbances of Ireland.

Mr. N. Jeffreys said he would answer one question by another: it had been demanded, if the present ministers were dismissed, where. should we find others? He replied, where could we possibly find worse? Mr. Ellison professed to speak as an independent member for a respectable city (Lincoln). He always listened to the advice of his constituents with deference, claiming, at the same time, the privilege of acting from his own opinion. He could not think this was the proper season for agitating questions for reform, and bringing charges against ministers: it would be like attempting to reform a family when their house as beset with thieves and robbers. Unanimity at home, and valour abroad, was the best mode of obtaining peace for the country.

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Mr. C. Sturt execrated the conduct of ministers in the strongest terms for their having plunged the country into the miseries of wartheir having cheated the nation of their money by pretended overtures of peace-their abominable expedition at Quiberon--enlisting prisoners who were notoriously attached to republicanism, to re-establish monarchy in France-their, sacrificing millions of money at St. Domingo, and the flower of the British army-their opposing the just claims of our gallant protectors, the sailors. [Here he was called to order.] But Mr. Sturt declared, no cries of order,whilst he was not disorderly, should deter him from delivering his sentiments; and all the success, nay, the very existence of the country, depended on the support of the present motion.

Mr. Pierrepont averred that neither political predelictions nor party views in the least influenced his vote; be bad much to 'ose-and the motion under discussion was of a tendency to introduce confusion, and to hazard property.

Mr. Burdon could not but think, he said, that the dismissal of ministers was a measure which would, rather than accelerate peace, and, instead of allaying the present ferment in the public mind, kindle and foment disturbances. Viewing it in this light, he had nothing to add but his negative.

The question was loudly called for. Ayes 59. Noes 242-majority 183.

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Tuesday, the 30th of May, the duke of Bedford rose to make a motion for taking into consideration the state of the nation. The sub- * stance of his excellent speech was as follows. Our calamities, he said, were great, and the extent of them unexampled: in stating their causes he must necessarily advert to the conduct of ministers; it was not his inclination but his daty he must consult in going over this painful part of the subject. But he did not mean draw inferences, only to lay before them facts. It had been said, this was a war for the preservation of law, religion, and morality ;---a war in defence of our liberty, our constitution, and cur property. What was the state of our property now? Had our laws been ameliorated? On the contrary, had not the best of them been suspended, and others made against that very liberty which we were said to fight in defence of? But it was for the preservation of religion. Alas! did we expect to protect the altar by surrounding it with blood, or to secure it from violation by piling it