with catcases of the dead? Had we supported morality by this war? What examples could we produce? The king of Prussia? The dungeons of Olmutz? Or could it be discovered in the conduct of those petty tyrants who buzzed about us when they had hoped for success, and disappeared when our case. became desperate?

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His grace then went over the negotiations, much condemning ministers in making Belgium a sine qua non, when the bank was menaced, and the public credit in imminent danger. He next called the attention of the house to the state of our finances: the annual amount of the new taxes was seven millions and a half; but he believed that very considerable additional sum would be requisite to cover the whole expense which had been in curred. Should the war continue three months longer, or for the whole of the year, three millions more must be raised to defray the interest of the debt which it had created. No one year had the people yet borne the burden of more than three millions, so that the dreadful weight of seven and a half annual tax, never yet experienced, must be added to the pressure un der which they already groaned! It was a principle of the British constitution, that the country should be apprised as early as possible of the burdens which they were to sup. port; and it had been the boast of the present minister that he had observed it-surely without foundation. Our difficulties, our dangers, and our expenses, had been concealed till they could not be hid any longer, and our state was deplorable. There were several points on which his grace said he was obliged to curtail his observations, especially upon the correspondence

between the chancellor and the bank. From the beginning of the year 1795, the bank-directors were frequent and earnest in their re monstrances to him: they reminded him of the advances which they had made to government, and his promises of payment ;—they stated the amount of their advances on the treasury bills to be between two and a half and three millions. These representations were uniformly answered with promises that the subject of complaint should be remedied, and the advances repaid: but they never were performed, and new applications for fresh advances were made. On the 6th of August the chancellor applied for an advance of two millions and a half on the consolidated fund, pretended the utmost concern for the bank, and expressed his urprise that the directors could once imagine that its interest was a less object with him than with them. The event proved his sincerity. The directors again acceded to his demands, on the express condition, however, that 1,000,0007. should be paid on account of their advance on the treasury bills in the month of October, a proportion in April,and that the amount of them should never exceed 500,000/-a regulation to be adopted in November.

All these conditions were neg lected, the remonstrances despised, and the amount continued to advance. They continued to warn him of the fatal consequences of the drain of cash to the emperor, and the ruin which must insue from such a system: but he was indifferent to warnings and solicitations, procured advances upon renewed promises which he continued to break, and on conditions which he never performed; and if the whole correspondence between the chan

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cellor and the bank, to the very moment when he was compelled to stop payment, did not excite the indignation of the house, his grace said he despaired of adding any thing to its influence. The bank of England was reduced to the situation of stopping payment, and public credit exposed to utter ruin, to supply an expenditure which parliament had not sanctioned, to support the mischievous schemes and wasteful prodigality of ministers. Had the real object of the war been fairly avowed, or the expense stated, peace would long before now have been concluded. The laws which had passed on pretence of preserving tranquillity was another proof of the pernicious system on which ministers had acted. But for the most striking illustration of their wretched policy we needed but to look at Ireland. Earl Fitzwilliam had been sent out as lord-lieutenant, as was understood, upon the wise and salutary plan of making those concessions which would satisfy the expectations of the people: he was deceived by ministers, and sacrificed to their injudicious measures. He went out to carry into execution a system dear to the wishes of Irishmen. Lord Camden went out to direct a plan far different, and avowedly hostile to that on which the people of Ireland had fixed their hearts. What had been the consequence? Every attempt to coerce had spread more widely the spirit of discontent; blind perseverance in coertion had heightened discontent into disaffection, and endangered the connexion of the two countries. At home ako, we had much to regret under the conduct of ministers. The first appearances of dan gerous events he did not mean to attribute to them; but he must

allude to the disturbances of the navy, in order to perform his duty to his country. Silence would add to the mischief. When the mutiny first broke out, the sailors made demands, many of which were reasonable in every body's opinion; some of them were not so. It was certain that the admiralty made offers to certain requests which were rejected, and afterwards raised their offers, and the agreement was made. What had been granted, was only thought to be just; and ministers, in offering less than they afterwards granted, proved that they could not judge, or did not act with uprightness these were examples of incapacity which they had manifested. He had already stated the evils which their measures had produced; and he now asked, if the English were determined to devote their country to destruction? [Here there was a great ery of "Hear! hear !"] His grace proceeded: I come with as great an interest as any man in the house in the safety of the country. Will you leave its affairs to men who have already invelved you in complicated calamities? I entreat your lordships to reflect upon our state as a nation ; that you would devise some means of avoiding the complete ruin with which we are threatened: and 1 therefore move, "that an humble address be presented to his majesty, earnestly soliciting him, by dismissing his present servants, to give to the people of Ireland the strongest proof of his disapprobation of that system of treachery by which their discontents have been fostered, and of his majesty's intention of securing the connexion between the kingdoms, by extending to men of ail descriptions in that oppressed country the blessings of the constitution under which they were born:

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and, finally, to dismiss those mi nisters from his presence for ever, whose measures had impaired the liberties, and whose extravagance had injured the property, of his subjects; to restore the spirit of the British constitution, and to adopt such a system of retrenchment as was alone consistent with the prosperity of his exhausted people."

Earl Strange (duke of Athol) agreed that the present crisis called for exertion; but the measure moved by the noble duke was not calculated to meet the exigency of the times. Into the conduct of the chancellor respecting the bank he did not mean to inquire-but be was convinced that a satisfactory explanation could be given of every part of it. In reply to the question, What had we gained by the contest?" we had ga ned. he said, the privilege of sitting and deba ing in that house; and if we had not entered into the war with France, neither he nor the noble duke would have been peers of the realm. Of the sedition and treason acts, though he acknowledged them to be infringements to a certain degree upon the constitution, he approved, as measures dictated by urgent ne essity. He cprosed the address, as tending to detract from the energy of government--to unhinge the administration--and even to unhinge the country.

The duke of Grafton rose; and, after taking a review of our wealth, our manufactures, our military force, our naval power, and the prosperity of England till the year 1792, he reviewed with much apparent concern the picture of our present state. "Great Britain," said his grace," is at this moment stript of, or deserted by every ally on the continent which could bring any es

sential aid." The bank of England, owing to the most fatal neglect of the lords of the treasury concern.ing the circulating specie of the kingdom, when many schemes might have been proposed, probably to prevent, certainly to lessen, the evils which had happened,-the bank had received a wound which could not be remedied; our credit, a blot that could not be expunged: his grace said he meant the effect of the order of the council. His next subject of regret was St. Domingo; which, without any conflicts, without a battle fought, besides the millions lavished there, proved to be a grave for the greater part of the troops sent thither; the number of officers and men who had fallen victims to the climate exceeded what would be credited, and their relatives had to thank the wild project of an incompetent minister, who might callously assert, "Such was the chance of war!" He did not dare acquaint their lordships to what a small remnant the regular infantry of England was reduced. He knew what it was, and mentioned it as a warning to the lord in office, that he, with his colleagues, might not be weakening this defence still farther, by employing them on more fatal projects, when it ought to be the prin ciple of all measures to give security at home. The navy afforded a fresh proof of the want of sagacity in the administration. Who but themselves did not see the necessity of assisting the seamen, when, at the moment of the high price of provisions, considerable indulgencies had been granted to the soldiers? As to Ireland, that kingdom was to be considered in so critical a state, that, unless there was a temperate reform in parliament, and a full emancipation of the catholics, with a total

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change of the men who now con ducted the affairs in that country,we soon should see it added to the list of republics which our fatal measures had been the cause of erecting al over Europe: but with this conse quence-if a revolution took place in Ireland, it inevitably would produce a revolution in Great Britain. To prevent these evils, there was but one effective remedy, which he earnestly recommended to the consideration of their lordships-a parliamentary reform; without which our constitution would slip from under us. There were not wanting people who might say, these disasters had befallen us by chance; but, continued his grace, let us not condemn chance for our situation or cur sufferings, but the ministers who were now before us, and had brought us hither. Their lordships had to this day given them their support; but let them give it no longer: wisdom was never more conspicuous or amiable, than in the acknowledgement of error-but all assistance bestowed on the same ministers from this moment ought to be bestowed openly, and in the eyes of the public, that it might involve the person with the minister in the guilt of every future fatal project. For himself, he protested, that, so far from abetting the pernicious councils which had brought on the downfall of the empire, he had endeavoured, by constitutional means, to avert them. If this metion was to be received with the same cold indifference which had been shown in common times, and if the same confidence was continued to the ministers, he should not think it necessary to trouble the house with his remarks again. But before he retired to fortify his own mind against the approaching calamitics, and prepare

his family for what they would probably have to undergo, it was a duty incumbent upon him to lay before his sovereign the reasons for his conduct, flattering himself that he should be allowed that gracious hearing which his majesty had so often given to one, from whose lips he never heard but the dictates of the heart, as sincerely as they were now delivered to their lordships.

Lord Romney said, he differed from the noble duke in every sentiment, except the sincerity which he professed. He asserted that the war was necessary, and had not been disastrous. One passage in the proposed motion might produce, he thought, the most pernicious consequences: speaking of the people of Ireland, he mentioned their being "an oppressed people." What would they say, it this address was voted, and the sentiments of that house made known as such upon the subject? He contended that our ally, the emperor, was faithful and magnanimous; that the mutiny on board the fleet was owing to French intrigues; and that, if the sailors would be true to their country, we might defy the combined attack of every nation upon earth.

The earl of Guildford attributed the aggregate sum of our calamities to the misconduct of ministers, nor could there be any hope of peace without their dismissal. To all the other effects which the proposed measure would produce, would be added a correction of the extravagance in blood and treasure for which the present administra❤ tion had been distinguished. He beseeched their lordships to weigh well the side on which they gave their approbation this evening. It was an important crisis, big with the fate of empires.

The

The earl of Suffolk supported the motion as a step towards the salvation of the country. It was as idle as false, to affirm that England did not at this time suffer from the most alarming disorders, which only could be remedied by changing men and measures. If those in power yet denied the existence of such circumstances in England, let them turn their eyes to Ireland, where would be found a great deal to fear and lament. He produced a letter from a private frien of his own, in which it was stated, that Ireland was nearly in an insurrection: but the earl of Westmoreand calling him to order, and censuring the impropriety of giving the opinion of any private individual upon that subject, the earl of Suffolk declined proceeding with the letter.

The marquis of Lansdowne expressed surprise that ministers would not give the public any satisfaction upon subjects so interesting to the country, and that they carried their secresy so far, as to put a negative upon info:mation offered from another quarter. The present calamities, he said, might all be traced to their mysterious conduct, and it had uniformly proved mischievous to the community. As he wished rather to hear than to speak, he had come down on that day, prepossessed with an idea that some notice would be given by the ministers, that a negotiation had commenced between this country and France. Had this been announced, he should have been silent; though he confessed he had no ground for the supposition but public report. He was utterly at a loss to divine what could retard such overtures: we had no longer the opening of the Scheldt to resist; the fate of the Low Countries was decided de

serted by our allies, we only had to consider our own interest; and the cause therefore, to him, was inexplicable. He trusted they had not the madness to make Austria renew the contest. He remembered its having been stated, that it was impossible for the king of Sardinia to desert us. It had been said, that the ministers of his Prussian majesty were the best in Europe! When he himself had mentioned the sending a subsidy to the king of Prussia, niinisters had exclaimed, “Do you call it a subsidy? It is a cheap aconomical contract." The marquis observed, we had had plenty of such contracts, whether the Prussian was an economical one or not, he could not pretend to say; perhaps it was cheaper than those entered into in St. Domingo. He expected to have heard that the bank of Vienna, upon the return of peace, would have resumed its payments, and that not only the interest of the money we had lent to the emperor would have been punctually paid, but that the capital would have been gradually li quidated. Not one word had the noble secretary uttered upon this point: he even smiled at having cheated the country out of six millions of money :--and it deserved to be so cheated,whilst it submitted to be taxed in light and in air, without one remonstrance! As to prospects of peace, he confessed he had the sin of believing that the French government were always inclined to pacification, and he recommended it to the ministers to make a declaration that they were willing to negotiate; which, if it served no other purpose, would, at least, solve a problem which had never yet been solved-what had been the real ob ject of the war. He adverted with much severity on their silence

when