The following appear to us to be among the moft ftriking and weighty of his obfervations and arguments in the prefent debate. He faw nothing, in what is called the lamentable example of France, to prove to him, that timely acquiefcence with the defires of the people was more dangerous than obftinate refistance to their demands. The fituations of Great Britain and France were fo effentially different, there was fo little in common between the character of England at this day, and the character of France at the commencement of the revolution, that it was impoffible to reafon upon them from parity of circumftances or of character. It had been faid, that the house poffeffed the confidence of the country as much as ever. "This, in truth, faid Mr. Fox, is as much as to fay, that his majesty's minifters poffefs the confidence of the country in the fame degree as ever, fince the majority of the houfe fupport and applaud the meafures of the government, and give their countenance to all the evils which we are doomed to endure. Is confidence to be always against the people, and never for them? It is a notable argument, that, because we do not find, at the general election, very material changes in the reprefentation, the fentiments of the people continued the fame, in favour of the war, and in favour of his majefty's minifters. The very ground of the prefent difcuffion gives the answer to this argument. Why do we agitate the queftion of parliamentary reform? Why; but because this houfe is not a fufficient reprefentation of the people? We muft argue from experience. Let us look back to the period of the American war: it be

came unpopular, and the king's minifters loft the confidence of the nation; yet, on the general election which followed the diffolution of parliament, in 1780, not more than three or four perfons were added to the number of those who had, from the beginning, oppofed the difaftrous career of the minifters in that war."

The grand topic of declamation against the minifter, and that on which, notwithstanding his defence of changing times and circumftances, he was conftantly teized and badgered, was, his alleged apoftacy, from his profeffed principles of parliamentary reformation. And that not only by the fpeakers ufually in oppofition, but even, in fome inftances, by others, on the whole, by no means adverse to administration. This inftrument of attack, though fo common, was not difdained by Mr. Fox; but he wielded it with his ufual fuperiority of addrefs. I remember, faid Mr. Fox, that lord North, after the general election juft mentioned, made use of the same argument precifely as is now made ufe of, and the present chancellor of the exchequer made ajust and striking use of it to demonftrate the neceffity of a parliamentary reform. Referring to the general election, ftill decidedly in favour of the minifter of the day, as to a demonstration of the neceflity of a parliamentary reform, he faid, " you fee, that fo defective, fo inadequate, is the prefent practice, at least of the elective franchife, that no impreffion of national calamity, no conviction of minifterial error, no abhorrence of difaftrous war, is fufficient to ftand against that corrupt influence which has mixed itself with election, and which drowns the popular voice.”

Upon this statement, and upon this unnfwerable argument, the right honourable gentleman acted in the year 1782. When he propofed a parlim ntury reform, he did it exprefly on the ground of the experience of 1780, and he made an explicit declaration, that we had no other fecurity by which to guard ourfe'ves against the return of the fame evils. He repeated this warning in 1783 and in 1785. It was the leading principle of his conduct. Without a reform, faid he, the nation cannot be fafe; this war may be put an end to, but what will protect you against another As certainly as the fpirit, which engendered the prefent war, actuates the fecret councils of the crown, will you, under the influence of a defective reprefentation, be involved again in new wars, and in fimilar calamities."

This was his argument in 1782, this was his prophecy; and the right honourable gentleman was a true prophet. Precifely as he pronounced it, the event happened; another war took place, and I am fure it will not be confidered as an aggravation of its character, that it is at least equal in difafter to the war of which the right honourable gentleman complained. "The defect of reprefentation, he faid, is the national disease; and, unless you apply directly a remedy to that difeafe, you must inevitably take the confequences with which it is pregnant." With fuch an authority, can any man deny that I reafon right? Did not the right honourable gentleman demonftrate his cafe? Good God! what a fate is that of the right honourable gentleman, and in what a ftate of whimsical contradiction does he stand! During

the whole courfe of his adminiftra tion, and particularly during the courfe of the prefent war, every prediction that he has made, every hope that he has held out, every prophecy that he has hazarded, has failed; he has difappointed the expectations that he has raifed; and every promife that he has given has proved to be a fallacy and a phantom. Yet, for thefe very declarations, and notwithstanding these failures, we have called him a wife minifter. We have given him our confidence on account of his predictions, and have continued it upon their failure. Though no one event which he foretold has been verified, we have continued to behold him as the oracle of wifdom! But, in thể only inftance in which what he really predicted, as if by divine infpiration, has come to pafs, in that we have treated him with ftubborn incredulity! In 1785, he pronounced the awful prophecy, without a parliamentary reform the nation will be plunged into new wars; without a parliamentary reform you cannot be fafe against bad minifters; nor can even good minifters be of ufe to you." Such was his prediction! and it has come upon us. It would feem as if the whole life of the right honourable gentleman, from that period, had been destined by Providence for the illuftration of his warning. If I were difpofed to confider him as a real enthusiast, and a bigot in divination, we might be apt to think that he had himself taken measures for the verification of his prophecy. He might now exclaim to us, with the proud fervour of fuccefs, " you fee the confequence of not liftening to the oracle! I told you what would hap pen; it is true that your deftruction

is complete; I have plunged you into a new war; I have exhaulted you as a people; I have brought you to the brink of ruin, but I tol you beforehand what would happen; I told you, that, without a reform in the reprefentation of the people, no minifter, however wife, could fave you; you denied me my means, and you take the confequence!" I fay, fir, that if I were to confider him as a bigot to his doctrine, or that his mind was tinctured with fuperft tion, as we have heard of enthufiafts whofe lives have been devoted to the fulfilment of their own predictions, I should fuppofe that the right honourable gentleman's administration has been haped, and his meatures framed, for bringing into a terrible demonftration the political doârine with which he commenced his career.

Mr. Grey's motion was rejected, by 258 votes against 93.

The fame attack on the meafures and apparent views of government was continued in the houfe of peers. On the thirtieth of May, the duke of Bedford, after reviewing the weak and unprofperous conduct of adminiftration, the burthens that had been impofed, and the dangers which, from their misconduct, ftill threatened the nation, moved "that a humble addrefs be prefented to his majefty, earneftly foliciting him, by difmiffing his prefent fervants, to give to the people of Ireland the ftrongeft proof of his difapprobation of that fyftem of treachery, by which their difcon tents had been foftered; and of his majefty's intention of fecuring the connection between the kingdoms, by extending to men of all defcriptions, in that oppreffed country, the bleffings of the conftitution, under

which they were born; and, finally, to difmifs from his prefence for ever, thofe minifters whofe meafures had impaired the liberties, and whofe extravagance had injured the property, of his fubjects; to reftore the ipirit of the British conftitution, and to adopt fuch a fyftem of retrenchment as was alone confitent with the profperity of his exhaufied people." This motion was oppofed by the duke of Athol, as tending not only to unhinge administration but even the country. But

The duke of Grafton was of opinion, that, if this motion was to be viewed with the fame cold-indiffer

ence, which had been fhewn in common times, and if the fame confilence was continued to the minifters, he should not think it necellary to trouble their lordships with his remarks again; but, before he retired, to fortify his own mind against the approaching calamities, and prepare his family for what they would probably have to undergo. It was a duty incumbent upon him, to lay before his fovereign the reafons for this conduct, flattering him. felf that he fhould be allowed that gracious hearing which his majefty had fo often given to one, from whofe lips he never heard but the dictates of the heart, as fincerely as they were now delivered to their lordships. His grace, in viewing the diftrefsful and dangerous ftate of the nation, took notice of the dereliction of our allies; the ftoppage of payment in fpecie at the bank; the blood and treasure facrificed at St. Domingo; and the improvidence of minifters in not anticipating the peremptory demands of the feamen, when, in confideration of the high price of provifions, confiderable indulgencies had been

granted to the foldiers: but, that which appeared to his grace to be the greateft fubject of alarm, was,, the critical ftate of Ireland; in which kingdom, if a temperate reform in parliament did not take place, and a full emancipation of the catholics, with a total change of the men who now conducted affairs in that country, we fhould foon fee it added to the lift of republics, which our fatal-measures had fo largely contributed to erect all over Europe with this confequence, that, if a revolution took place in Ireland, it would evidently produce a revolution in Great Bri

tain.

Lord Romney differed from the noble duke in every fentiment, except in the fincerity which he profelled. One paffage, in the propofed motion, he thought, might produce the moft pernicious confequences; namely, that in which it was ftyled an oppreffed country. What would the Irifh fay, if this addrefs fhould be voted, and the fentiments of that houfe, that it was fo, declared to all the world?

The earl of Guildford befeeched their lordships to weigh well the fide on which they gave their approbation this evening. It was an important crifis, big with the fate of empires. The earl of Suffolk, too, fupported the motion, as a fiep towards the falvation of the country.

The marquis of Lansdowne faid, that he had come to the house, on that day, prepoffeffed with an idea, that fome notice would be given by minifters, that a negociation had commenced between this country and France; though, he confeffed, he had no ground for the fuppofition but public report. He was utterly

at a lofs to devife what could retard fuch overtures. We had no longer the opening of the Scheldt to refift; the fate of the low countries was decided: deferted by our allies, we had only to confider our own intereft. The caufe of the filence of the minifters was, therefore, to him, inexplicable. He trufted they had not the madness to make Austria renew the conteft. He expected to have heard, that the bank of Vienna, on the return of peace, would have refumed its payments; and, that not only the intereft of the money we had lent to the emperor would have been punctually paid, but that the capital would have been gradually liquidated. Not one word had the noble fecretary uttered upon this point. He even fmiled at the idea of having cheated the country out of fix millions of money. And it deferved to be fo cheated, whilft it fubmitted to be taxed in light and air, without one remonftrance. He recommended it to minifters, to declare their readiness to negociate; which, if it ferved no other purpose, would at leaft folve a problem, never yet folved: what had been the real object of the war? He declared, on the best authority, that Ireland was in a ftate of imminent danger.

Lord Grenville was fatisfied, that the melancholly tone of diftrefs imputed to the country began and ended with the lords who fupported the motion. It seemed to be a thing affumed by thofe who fupported the motion, that the removal of minifters would be grateful to the public mind. But, would it be equally grateful to the public mind, if they themselves were to occupy their places? Was it not apparent, that the meafures of his majefty's

minifters

minifters were not only acquiefced in, but generally popular? Had not the war been approved of by a vast majority of the country, and profecuted, through all its various ftages, with the concurring and moft decifive approbation of parliament? Was it not to his majesty's minifters that the country was indebted for the prevention of that anarchy to which the language of thofe who opposed them fo ftrongly tended? When he confidered the prefent fituation of public affairs, and turned his thoughts to all the confequences likely to refult from a bafe and ferville compliance with the leading doctrines of the day, he fhould boldly fay, that his majefty's mi nifters would not tamely defert that honourable poft, which they had hitherto fo happily filled, by directing all their efforts to the eafe, contentment, and happiness, of the people. He confeffed, that, were the motion to be carried in the affirmative, it would impart to him the most serious concern and regret; not on his own perfonal account, but, that he would, thereby, be cut off from the best opportunities of contributing his talents, fuch as they were, to the fecurity, intereft, and happiness, of his gracious mafter and his country. It would not, indeed, become him, he faid, to make any comparison between his own capacity and that of any of the noble lords who uniformly oppofed his majesty's minifters: but, on the ground of an active zeal for the real interests of the state, and of a decided and unalterable refolution to oppofe, by the most unwearied exertions and the moft vigorous efforts, thofe principles which ftruck at the very exiftence of the conftitution, he would be

He

bold to maintain, that he was fe cond to none. As to a reform of parliament, the chief measure propofed by noble lords in oppofition, he had ever opposed that innovation, and even a temperate reform. concluded by intreating their lordfhips to reflect, that, if they once opened the flood-gates of innovation, the torrent of anarchy would fpread fo forcibly and wide, that it would not be in the power of their lordships, by oppofing their feeble hands as a barrier to deftruction, to prevent the conftitution from being overwhelmed in general ruin.

He

The duke of Leeds, with a dignified modefty and candour, expreffed, in delicate terms, a degree of diffatisfaction at the lofty tone of the fpeech the house had juft heard; at the fame time, that he did not wifh, at the prefent crifis, to urge all that might be advanced against the conduct of adminiftration. The abilities of the present minifters, he was ready to allow, nor would he fay that they had been intentionally, wicked. could not help conceiving, however, that they had been peculiarly unfortunate, and therefore, he begged leave to fubmit to the re-confideration of the right honourable fecretary, whether it would not be more delicate and decorous to leave the talk of praifing either their own talents or virtues, to others, than taking it, and that, he could not but fay, on fo many occafions, particularly in that house, upon themselves. He could not help conceiving that the noble fecretary had, as it were, made the conftitution depend for prefervation, not fo much upon its own intrinfic merit, as upon the continuance of the prefent minifters