Lord Hawkesbury repeated and applauded the arguments of Mr. Pitt.

Mr. Curwen thought that the prefent motion was fo far from being mifchievous, that even the dif cuffion it had occafioned, would do good, in afmuch as it would fhew the Irish nation, that there was a part, at least, of the British parliament, who were mindful of their interefts.

Lord Wycombe thought that the difturbances, which had taken place in Ireland, manifeftly proved a difaffection to the British government. Conciliation, instead of rigour, fhould have been tried: for it was time enough to employ force when mildnefs failed. He could have wished that the Irish parliament had been left, for the fettlement of affairs, to themselves. But that, he well knew that, being for the most part, at the beck of the English cabinet, they had foft the confidence of the nation.

He really dreaded that, if the British parliament did not interfere; we might lofe Ireland altogether: a lofs that would be more fevere to us than the lofs of America.

Mr. Benjamin Hobhouse, made the following threwd remark; that the chancellor of the exchequer feemed to have prefumed in the whole train of his reafoning, that it was the object of the present motion to request the king's interference, exclufively of his Irifh parliament. No, fir. It only prays his majefty, in connexion with the Irish legiflature, to adopt measures of a lenient nature, with a view to appeale the unhappy spirit of difcontent which prevailed throughout the country.

Mr. Fox made fome obfervations in reply to the principal arguments that had been advanced against his motion: on which the houfe di vided. Ayes, 84; Noes, 290.

CHAP.

N the midft of fo many difficulties and dangers as affailed Great Britain at the fame time in the ftormy year, 1797, it was not poffible that government, to whom, in every country, the people are apt to impute more than a juft fhare of either the good or the evil that befals them, could efcape public and fevere animadverfion. Petitions were prefented for the removal of his majesty's minifters, from almoft every county, city, and town of note in England and Ireland.* The general difatisfaction at the conduct of minifters, which, from the number and tenor of those petitions, appeared to prevail throughout the nation, encouraged the oppofitionparty, in parliament, to bring for ward motions for a change in the administration. On the 27th of March, the earl of Suffolk declared, in the houfe of peers, that he confidered it as his duty to himfelf, his family, his king, and his country, to move, "That a humble address might be addreffed to his majefty, humbly requefting him to difmifs from his councils, his minifter, the first lord of the treafury, whofe per

nicious meafures had deprived him of the confidence of the country."

Lord Grenville opposed this motion, and warmly defended his rela tion and friend, who, he contended, had neither loft the confidence of the moft refpectable part of the public, nor deferved to do fo. That the allies had not been so successful as they expected, he was ready to admit; and alfo that fuch accidents had happened as were incidental to all wars: but he hoped all parties would acknowledge that the exertions of this country had been unparalleled in the page of hiftory, and had been attended with unparalleled fuccefs. Our naval victories had been more brilliant than ever before diftinguished any age; and it appeared peculiarly hard, that all the honour, práife, and glory, fhould be reaped by individuals, whilft the cenfure, and all the refponfibility were thrown on minifters.

The duke of Norfolk, in answer to lord Grenville, who had infinuated that the charges brought against Mr. Pitt, were not fubftantiated on facts, faid that proofs of his misma

nagement and misconduct were every where. They prefented themfelves to every eye, and made an impreffion on every heart. They compofed a living epitaph on the infatuation of minifters, and, in the language applied to the memory of fir Chriftopher Wren, pointing to the cathedral of St. Paul's, he might exclaim

Si monumentum quæris circumfpice. The motion was farther fupported by the carl of Derby, the earl of Moira, the earl of Carlisle, and the duke of Bedford: but oppofed briefly, and on the ufual grounds of defence, by lord Romney, the marquis of Townshend, the earl of Warwick, and again by lord Grenville. The most remarkable circumftance that occurred in the courfe of this fhort difcuffion on the conduct of minifters, and the state of the nation, was, a very generous plan for carrying on the war, fuggefted by lord Romney. This was to fet on foot a fubfcription for a voluntary gift, as far as the generofity and circumftances of individuals would allow. He would himself fubfcribe five thousand pounds, and thought that there would be eafily found a hundred thousand who would fubfcribe, each their one hundred, befides others who would fubfcribe fmall fums. Such a measure, if carried into execution, would counteract any impreffion which might be made on the French government to our difadvantage by the defponding ideas of fume as to our ftate, or by the language of others as to the conduct of our minifters.

Lord Moira applauded the plan of lord Romney, and did not doubt but it might produce a confiderable fum of money: but it was a queftion how far the house of commons might

approve of money being raiseds to carry on the war, through any other channel than their own.

The marquis of Lansdowne faid, on this fubject, that any one who perufed the army extraordinaries would find millions fquandered in the most improvident manner, and afked, what the noble lord's fubfcription of 50001. would do to ftop fuch flood-gates? As to the motion for difmiffing the minifter, he did not much approve of it. The change he defired was not a change of men, but in the system of government, which ought to be conducted on the old conftitutional principles of the country.

On a divifion of the houfe, there appeared for lord Suffolk's motion, 16; again it, 86.

A motion, for the difmiffal, not particularly of the firft lord of the treafury, but of his majesty's minifters in general, was made in the houfe of commons, on the 19th of May, by alderman Combe, who ftated it to be the general opinion of the people of this country, as well as that of his conftituents, that the calamities which preffed fo hard upon the people were, in a great meafure, if not wholly, owing to the minifters having plunged us into the prefent war. This, he would not deny, at the commencement, appeared to be popular: but it had long ceafed to be fo; to which nothing had contributed fo much as the incapacity of those who carried it on. The public, however, had never been informed of the real or even oftenfible ground on which it had been undertaken: nor had they been able to obtain any fixed or fettled principle by which their governors had been guided. Sometimes we were said to fight for one

purpose,

parpole, fometimes for another; and ftill we were in the dark, though left alone in the contest. He was perfectly of opinion with his conftituents, that it required men of greater minds, and more upright intentions, to bring about peace, in our prefent circumstances fo effentially neceffary. He therefore moved, "That an addrefs be prefented to his majefty, befeeching him to difmifs from his councils his prefent, minifters, as the most likely means of obtaining a permanent and fpeedy peace."

This motion was feconded by fir William Milner, and fupported by Mr. Curwen, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Hobhouse and Mr. Sturt. On the other hand, it was oppofed by Mr. Hawkins Browne, the aldermen Anderfon, Curtis, and Lufhington, Mr. Bootle, Mr. Brandling, fir Gilbert Heathcote, Mr. Adams, Mr. Jeffereys, Mr. Pierrepoint, and Mr. Burdon. On a fubject so often difcuffed, as the merit or demerit of the minifter, and particularly the policy or impolicy of the war, in its origin and conduct, there could not well be very much length of debate, at this period, at once new and important. It was not improper for the different fpeakers to call to mind, in the difcuffion of a great question, arguments that had been urged again

and again, even to tritenefs. But it might appear tedious, and would be improper to give fo many editions. of the fame topics and arguments in a written volume. In all queftions of importance, whether relaing to the ftate of the bank, the flate of Ireland, the origin and conduct of the war, or negociations for peace, the general plan or fyftem of minif terial management, was conftantly introduced. We fhall therefore con tent ourselves, as in fome former inftances, with a very general outline of what paffed in the houfe of commons on the prefent occafion. Mr. Hawkins Browne took a full, as well as methodical and clear view of the conduct of adminiftration for the last twelve years, and, on a review of the whole, declared his approbation of their meafures. To the prefent adminiftration he afcribed our enjoyment of the three greatest bleflings that could be poffeffed: liberty, internal tranquillity, and general profperty. Juries had been invefted with the right, which had been difputed, of judging of all the circumftances of the cafe, in point of law, as well as fact. It was under the aufpices of the present adminiftration, and against every high and powerful authority, that the continuance of an impeachment* had been carried. It was under

the

the fame administration, that the bill, fo obnoxious to the people of Canada, had been repealed, and a fyftem of freedom established in its ftead. Even the abuses of liberty had been touched with a lenient hand; and the bill for preventing and punishing fedition had been limited to the term of two years; nor had they prevented meetings for any purpofe within the number of fifty. Mr. Browne then proceeded to notice the fecond point; tranquillity, This, he faid, had always been fo clear, from the excellent measures adopted by minifters, that any illuftration of it would be unneceffary. Mr.Browne, on the third point, the general profperity of the country, divided this head into two periods: the first from 1784 to 1792; the fecond, from 1792, to the prefent moments In the first period, by means of his great financial abilities, he raifed the funds from 64 to 98. In the fame proportion with the funds, the trade, commerce, manufactures, agriculture, industry, and ingenuity of the country, kept equal pace in their increase of general profperity, and the country had arrived at the moft unexampled height of happi

nefs. The other period, to which he had now to allude, he was forry to fay, was a very painful reverse. Thofe political evils, however, by which it had been occafioned, were entirely owing to the French revolution. The country owed every thing to the ministry for entering into the prefent war: for, by that, he believed, and by that alone, they had kept the fcene of action entirely from this country.

Mr. alderman Curtis fhrewdly remarked, that the inftructions given to his worthy friend, and colleague, by his conftituents, were to move for an addrefs to his majesty to difmifs, from his councils, his prefent weak and wicked minifters for ever. Now, faid the alderman, his worthy friend had left the words weak and wicked out of his motion, (even though he profeffed himself bound to act according to the inftructions of his conftituents) which plainly fhewed that he did not think they were fo.

Mr. alderman Anderfon believed, "there were a great many men, without doors, who were very bad indeed, and who wanted to introduce anarchy and confufion." For