many high compliments to the private character of Lord North; he believed him in private life an honeft, upright, and honourable man; but as a ftatefman, he had ruined the country; and he could not think it decent or proper to concur with that noble Lord in an addrefs of thanks to the throne for having concluded a ruinous war, of which the noble Lord had been the author; nor could he ever bear to fee the affairs of this country in the hands of the man, who had reduced the greatnefs and power of the British empire. He applauded the peace; and faid, that if it had been laft feffion denied to be a good one, the events of the past summer, and the low ftate of the funds, proved it to be not only neceffary, but the only thing that could have faved the country from abfolute bankruptcy and ruin. He reminded the Houfe, that the prefent minifters had ftrongly condemned the preliminary articles laft feffion; and obferved, that it ill became them now to call upon the Houfe to return thanks for their having concluded and figned definitive treaties, grounded upon and almoft exactly the fame with thofe preliminaries which they had fo lately reprobated. He declared, that had he felt the fame difapprobation of the preliminary articles, expreffed by the prefent Minifters, and been in their fituation, he would have refused to conclude any treaty built upon their bafis. Sir Jofeph was on his legs for fome minutes; but from the noife that prevailed in the house while he was fpeaking, we were able to catch only at the few obfervations that we have reported.

The Right Hon. W. Pitt rofe next: he said, that he in- Right Hon. tended to give his hearty affirmative to the addrefs moved by W. Pitt. the noble Lord; and as there was not one exceptionable idea expreffed either in the fpeech or addrefs, he was of opinion, that the unanimity so often recommended from the throne, but fo feldom feen, would appear on this occafion, when he could, without any impeachment of his character for confiftency, vote with every member of adminiftration on the prefent queftion. He would not take a view of the circumstances which had happened during the recess, nor commence any captious oppofition. The motion was framed in a becoming manner; it pledged the Houfe to nothing fpecific on the topics which it ftated, but expreffed affurances of loyalty, zeal, and readinefs, which gentlemen from all fides must be eager to teftify to the Crown. To the first part of the addrefs, which thanked his Majefty for concluding the definitive treaties of peace, he must neceffarily give his affent, as

thefe

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thefe treaties were, according to the noble Lord, in fubftance the fame as the preliminary articles: he had therefore to congratulate his country, and at the fame time to felicitate. himself, and thofe with whom he had acted, that notwithftanding all the objections which had been ftated to the preliminary treaties, the definitive treaties were avowedly little more than a tranfcript of them; he had therefore to rejoice, that by them the country had been refcued from the ruin that threatened it. He must however obferve how fingular it was, that the Houfe fhould be now called upon to exprefs their thanks for the figning of the definitive treaties, though they were in fubftance the fame with thofe very preliminary articles, for the figning of which, that House had in the very laft feffion refufed to thank the Crown. The addrefs on that occafion was fubftantially the fame as that which was now propofed; it was then negatived; but it was now propofed to carry it: gentlemen muft fee that he would of courfe vote for it; and the vote of this day would prove the panegyric of thofe Minifters to whom the Houfe had on a former occafion refufed their thanks. But while he was willing to vote for the addrefs, he could not help obferving, that it was to him a matter of furprife that the figning of the definitivé treaties had been fo long delayed; and the more fo, as they contained little or nothing different from the preliminary articles. Had any thing happened to juftify the delay, he fhould like to hear of it; but if nothing had happened that neceffarily might occafion delay, he thought his Majefty's prefent Minifters culpable in having fo long delayed the figning of them. As to the affairs of India, no one could be more convinced than he was of the neceffity of attending to them most seriously, and without a moment's lofs of time. He hoped that Minifters had thought maturely on that bufinefs; and that they would come to Parliament with a well-digefted plan, or rather fyftem of government, for the British poffeffions in that part of the world. They were confiderations of fuch vaft magnitude, that they could not be too foon gone into; they might, indeed, have been fooner fettled; and he looked upon Minifters to be as much pledged and bound down to bring forward a well-weighed and wifely-digefted fyftem, applicable to India, as men could poffibly be. Nor would it be enough for them to attempt measures of palliation, or measures of a temporary nature, that would only effect delay, and increase the danger by removing its diftance for a fhort period; they muft probe the matter to the bot

tom,

tom, and apply a new, a complete, and a proper fyftem, deeply confidered, and fully matured. There were fome among them who had been clamorous in calling for fuch a fyftem, and from whom a fyftem of the fort in queftion would naturally be expected. He was willing to fay, that they were now become the object of the greatest confideration in the empire, one only excepted; gentlemen muft foresee that he meant the ftate of the finances of this country. Distracted by a ruinous war, from which the preliminary articles had happily freed Great Britain, the finances ought to be the primary care of his Majefty's Minifters. Peace would be but of little avail to us, if the respite it afforded from hoftilities and the expences of war, was not employed in endeavours to raise the finking credit of the nation, and prevent thofe frauds which make the revenue unproductive. England could never expect to recover her fituation among the nations of Europe, unless her Minifters, by a rigid attention to economy, fhould make her revenue at leaft equal to her expenditure: fomething more might be expected, a redundancy might be raised, which by being employed in extinguifhing fome part of the national debt, would furnish us with the means of carrying on with vigour a future war; an event, however, which he hoped was far, very far remote. He recommended to Minifters to act with boldness; they must not conceal from that Houfe, much less from the nation, the ftate of their affairs: the amount of the funded and unfunded debt should be laid before them; they should be made acquainted with their fituation; nothing fhould be held back or concealed; the people would then be convinced of the neceffity of fubmitting to new burdens, and would bear them chearfully, knowing that by no other means the public credit could be fupported. Our fituation was undoubtedly new in many refpects, it therefore called more loudly for enquiry; nor could profperity be expected if the danger was fhrunk from, or the true ftate of the nation concealed. The country was under great difficulties, it was true; but ftill it was neither ruined, nor its condition irretrievable, if proper, wife, and vigorous measures were proposed by Minifters, and Parliament had the fortitude, fo well recommended in the fpeech from the Throne, to meet the difficulties of our fituation, and confent to bear fuch burdens chearfully, as were abfolutely neceffary to fupport the national credit. Every part of the fpeech and addrefs had his moft cordial approbation: but he lamented that the fpeech, and the mover and feconder of the addrefs, VOL. XII.

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were filent on one particular point, on which he might have expected to hear a great deal. Gentlemen would eafily anticipate, that he meant the commercial treaty with America, During the last feffion of Parliament, and very foon after the figning the preliminary articles, the late Adminiftration had. been frequently reproached for not having been able to conclude in a very short space of time, a treaty, which to thofe who were not then in the cabinet, feemed to be a work of the greatest facility; and yet a confiderable part of that feffion, and the whole recefs, had paffed away, and the commercial treaty, once pronounced to be fo very practicable in its nature, was not fo much as mentioned in the fpeech. Minifters had fent to Paris a gentleman, of all others, as they themselves faid, the beft qualified to treat on commercial matters; a gentleman not a little fanguine of fuccefs in his undertakings, certainly not of a defponding turn of mind; and yet this gentleman, not much accuftomed to imagine or defcribe any thing in a fhort compass, after having exerted all the inexhauftible refources of his genius, has returned from Paris, without bringing any commercial treaty with him. He alfo contended, that if cenfure lay against the Adminiftration, in which he had borne a fhare, for not having mentioned the treaty of commerce in the provifional articles with America, ftill greater blame was imputable to the prefent minifters, for having figned and concluded a definitive treaty with America, without taking the leaft notice of it, He mentioned the confidence with which thofe Minifters had formerly infifted on the poffibility of fuch a treaty's being fuddenly and fpeedily concluded; but faid, they began to talk of this being fo practicable with fomewhat lefs confidence towards the end of the feffion, when the time of the operation of a bill then in difcuffion, giving them power to act difcretionally, was extended very confiderably by the Lords; and the alteration, material as it was, paffed in that House in a manner unnoticed, and, he believed, almost unknown to the majority of the members, the attendance being on the particular day extremely thin. However, the nation had a right to expect, that without delay, a complete commercial fyftem, fuited to the novelty of our fituation, fhould be laid before Parliament; he was acquainted with the difficulty of the bufinefs, and would not attribute the delay hitherto, to any neglect on the part of the prefent Minifters ; he was willing to afcribe it to the nature of the negociation: but he expected, however, that the bufinefs would foon be

brought

brought forward; not by piece-meal; but that one grand fyftem of commerce, built on the circumftances of the times, fhould be fubmitted to the Houfe for their confideration. If the measures that Minifters intended to propofe fhould meet his ideas, he would not endeavour by an ignoble oppofition to defeat them; but would, on the contrary, give them all the fupport in his power

Mr. Secretary Fox returned his warm thanks to the ho- Mr. Fox. nourable gentleman, and faid, that few things could give him greater fatisfaction than to find that both the fpeech and addrefs appeared unexceptionable to him, and that they were to be honoured with his fupport. At the fame time he could not allow that there was any ground for the triumph of the honourable gentleman, when he exultingly obferved that the prefent addrefs to which the Houfe were called upon to affent, was fubftantially the fame with that to which, in February laft, they gave a negative: the honourable member wished to faften on the prefent Minifters the imputation of inconsistency; there was a circumftance that he had thought proper not to mention, which would make the inconfiftency vanish. He (Mr. Fox) thought the preliminary articles fuch as the then fituation of the country did not warrant; and yet he was ready to vote for this addrefs; but why? because the figning of the preliminary articles had pledged the faith of the nation, and rendered the figning of the definitive treaties a matter not fo much of choice as of neceffity; and therefore as it had become neceffary to conclude them, it was furely proper to thank his Majefty for having put the finishing to a treaty which he could not refufe to fign, without a violation. of public faith. During the laft feffion of Parliament, he had declared his opinion pretty roundly about the preliminaries of peace; he then pronounced them to be lefs advantageous than, from the relative fituation of affairs, this country had a right to expect. He ftill was of that opinion, and confidered the preliminary articles, in every point of view, as inadequate to our claims; and he begged leave to call back to the memory of the Houfe the fituation of our affairs at that time. In the Eaft Indies, where our affairs had been said to be the most defperate, what had happened to make us - rejoice that peace had been concluded?-Had any Englishman looked to an engagement between the British and French fleets, in that quarter of the world, with any other apprehenfion, than that which every humane man feels, who repines at the profpect of an event by which much human

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