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nation, correction, and controul. It was particularly, of the very effence of that houfe, to enquire, to regulate, and to controul; and whenever it was called for properly by the occafion, and that they fufpended, concealed, denied, or refufed to exercife that right and duty, then every object of their meeting and deliberation was at an end; and they were no longer the fervants of the public, or the reprefentatives of the people who had fent them there.

The minifters were by no means difpofed to enter into any difcuffion of this fubject; and notwithftanding the connection between the gentleman who had moved the bufinefs and them, it was foon feen that he had acted totally independent of their opinion and liking, in thus bringing forward the queftion of competence at fo critical a feafon. For although they highly approved of, and openly applauded the doctrine, yet they did not by any means choose to expofe a queftion of fuch importance, and which might be fo advantageoufly referved until a proper opportunity offered, to the rifque of an irrevocable decifion, in the prefent ftate of things without doors, and of temper, which that ftate of things had produced, within. Nor would the alternative of its being carried in their favour, (a matter, however, of great doubt) be at all more defirable. On the contrary, it would have feemed fraught with great danger. For as the establishment by a vote of the incompetence of parliament, to fuperintend, or interfere, in the civil lift expenditure, would amount to a virtual, if not direct rejection of the general prayer of

the petitions, the poffible confequences of fuch a measure, seemed of too ferious a nature, to be then thought of without a paufe.

They accordingly endeavoured to get rid of the queftion as easily as poffible, without at all bringing it to any decifion. With much applaufe therefore of the doctrine laid down in the propofition, and many compliments to its framer, they, however, declared their averfenefs to the meeting of abflract queftions, and must therefore oppofe the difcharging the order of the day, and the bringing forward of the prefent into difcuffion. They afferted that it could be confidered in no other light than that of a mere abftract queftion, which no man was bound to refolve. That they never could think of difcuffing fuch a question, unless it clearly arole from the immediate bufinefs before the houfe. That no perfon could fay that was the cafe in the prefent inftance. The principle contained in the propofition militated clearly against the principle on which feveral claufes of the bill were founded; the matter of both would come then fairly and naturally before them, when they went into the committee, and came to confider the feveral claufes. Gentlemen then, who disapproved of any claufe, would oppofe it on fuch grounds as appeared to them the moft fure and conclufive; fome on the grounds, that the office propofed to be abolished was not an useless one; others, that proofs of the allegations contained in the bill were neceffary; and a third defcription perhaps, that parliament had no right to interfere in the civil lift expenditure, on any other account, than that of notorious

abuse.

abufe. The first law officer of the crown in that houfe, declared, that he was averfe to the difcuffion of the question, for he could fairly affure them, that if it fhould be put, he did not know whether he fhould give it a negative, or an affirmative.

The oppofition inftantly perceived the dilemma, in which this propofition had involved the minifters, and at once determined that they fhould not get easily out of it. Mr. Fox first feized the occafion, and in a speech full of fatire and irony, as well as of ftrong fenfe, highly complimented the right honourable framer of the propofition, for the open, direct, and manly language which he had held. He had delivered his fentiments with that firmness and candour which fo uniformly characterized his conduct in that houfe. He thanked him moft cordially for the opportunity which it afforded to both parties to come to an iffue. It would fpare much time, and fave infinite trouble. It militated direaly against the bill on the table; for certainly, if that houfe was not competent to enquire into, or controul the civil lift expenditure, the bill was founded in the moft glaring injuftice. But while he gave credit for the direct, open manner in which the honourable gentleman had declared and fupported his opinion, he muft alfo declare, that it involved doctrines of a moft alarming nature; and which appeared to him to be fubverfive of the first principles of the conftitution. He therefore fincerely hoped, that before the house proceeded further, they would confent to let in this propofition; and proceed to difcufs it; for it would be

equally nugatory and ridiculous, to go into the committee on the bill, until the fenfe of the house was taken upon that queftion. It must be first got rid of, before any one claufe in the bill could be taken into confideration. He could not at the fame time help declaring, that if it should be refolved and determined, that parliament had not a right to interfere, to reform, to arrange, and, if neceffary, to refume the grants they had made to the crown for public purpofes; in fhort, to fee to the proper application of the monies they had granted; there was at once an end of the liberties of this country. Give princes and their minifters, faid he, the exclusive right of difpofing of any confiderable part of the public treafures, and our liberties, from that inftant, are gone for ever.

He denied that the question was abstract, as thofe who had a mind to get rid of it were pleased to asfert. The propofition, as connected with the bill, was no ab. ftract question, because it amounted to a direct and fpecific denial of its principle, which was a thorough reform in the whole of the civil lift expenditure. There was no ground for the other apprehenfion, that the people might be milled by the declaration. How milled! Nothing could be a more clear rejection of the petitions, than the fuppofition of the principle in queftion, fairly propofed by one gentleman, and highly applauded by thofe who would fain poftpone it. The petitioners fay, that ufelefs and finecure places ought to be abolished; that exorbitant falaries and perquifites ought to be reduced. Where did thofe evils originate? In the expendi

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who heard him, whether he had uttered a syllable, which the most fertile imagination could fo interpret. No man revered the rights of the conflitution more, or would go farther in maintaining the rights of the people, within that houfe, where only, in his opinion, fo long as parliament exifled, they could be conflitutionally defended. He

ture of the civil lift. Where was the reform recommended, to operate? Mo clearly, where the evil exifted. But the propofition holds that no reform can there operate. It was then evident, that if the propofition fhould appear to be the fenfe of a majority of that houfe, it would comprehend, one or other of these two answers to the petitions; that, your petitions are ill-maintained the right of the people founded, and no reform is neceffary; or, that though they are well founded, our hands are fo tied up, that we are incapable of affording you redrefs. He declared, that if the propofition fhould be agreed to, by a majority of that houfe, he fhould confider his toils and labours as at an end; and that as his prefence there could be of no farther ufe or confequence, he never again fhould enter it.

Mr. Burke, Mr. Townfhend, General Conway, Mr. Dunning, and other diftinguifhed members of oppofition, took and fupported nearly the fame ground; diverfified according to the character and genius of the feveral speakers.

Mr. Rigby, who introduced the bufinefs, was aflonifhed at what he called the unaccountable mifinterpretation of words, or perverfion of fenfe, which prevailed on the other fide, in the interpretation which was put upon his propofition. He declared with energy, that he would not readily refign the first place, to any man, who fhould profefs to entertain a more warm and fteady zeal for the liberties of his country, than himfelf; and that it was with no fmall degree of furprize and emotion, he heard fentiments imputed to him, tending to the overthrow of the conftitution, He appealed to all

to petition every branch of the legislature; but it was in that house only, that their voice could be fairly known and acknowledged; and from thence only it could be furely and fafely collected.-He ftill adhered firmly to his original opinion, and to the propofition founded upon it; and notwithftanding the difficulty in which the queftion involved administration, fupported the oppofition in their intention of bringing it to a decifion; declaring, that as he would not be bullied out of his propofitia by one fide of the houfe, fo he was refolved not to be flattered or cajoled cut of it by the other.

The friends of administration endeavoured all they could to foften, and in fome measure to explain away, the apparent fenfe and meaning, or at least that in which it had been first underflood, of the propofition. Nor did they only attempt to rescue it from the sense put upon it by their adverfaries; but likewife from fome part of that, which had in the beginning drawn forth applaufe on their own fide. They infifted, that it did not by any means involve in it a denial of the right to reform abules; but that it only asserted, that it would be unjuft to interfere in the civil lift expenditure, without proper proof of abufe, previ

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ous to the interference. And this maxim, they faid, was fupported by the conftitution; admitting the right to exift, in the ftrongest manner in which it had been stated or fuppofed on the other fide. But as the purport of the propofition had already been misconceived or mifreprefented within doors, there could be no doubt, that it would be much more mifconceived, and mifreprefented, out of doors. And they could not help faying and thinking, that the eagerness fhewn to bring the right honourable gentleman's propofition under difcuffion, could proceed from no other motive, than that if the house fhould agree to it, it might furnifh grounds for fpreading falfe rumours, and creating popular delufion.

This change of ground produced fome awkward fituations and circumstances, which afforded room for laughter and farcafm on the other fide. As to limiting the right of controul, to the previous proof of abufe, it was faid to be ridiculous. How was the abufe to be difcovered or proved, but by examination and enquiry? If parliament was competent to the correction of an abuse, they must be competent to the means of its difcovery. To talk of any power of controul, without that of enquiry, or of enquiry without that of controul, was too abfurd to deferve an anfwer. The fuppofed injuftice of enquiry, before the proof of abufe, was, if poffible, more fo; and could be only equalled by the fuppofition, that although a man ought to be punished for the commiffion of a crime; yet it would be unjust to try him, until his guilt was

proved.

The question now before the houfe, and on which both parties were to bring forward their utmost force, was, whether, according to the order of the day, it should be refolved into a committee on Mr. Burke's bill, or whether they fhould first enter into a difcuffion of, and decide upon, Mr. Rigby's propofition. The question being put about nine o'clock, the refolution for the order of the day was carried by a majority of fix only, the numbers being 205, to 199This divifion was marked by the fingular circumflance, of Mr. Rigby's voting in the minority, ard in oppofition to all his friends in administration.

The first claufe in the bill, and confequently the firft queftion before the committee, was that for abolishing the office of third fecretary of ftate, otherwife fecretary for the colonies; which was afterwards modified to the fimple defcription of one of his majesty's principal fecretaries of ftate.

Much of the ground, which we have formerly had occafion pretty accurately to mark out, on the applications of the crown to parliament, for the difcharge of the civil lift debts, and for an addition of revenue to that establishment, and which we have fince likewife feen not unfrequently trodden upon other occafions, was now again gone over by both parties; and its principal pofitions ftrongly and warmly difputed. The tenure by which the crown held the civil lift revenue was again agitated; the friends of adminiftration confidering it as a life eftate; as exclufive and private property. The right of parliament to interfere at all, and in any cafe, in its difpofal or expenditure,

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expenditure, was rather doubtfully fpoken of by the most guarded and temperate, who paid fome attention to the tenderness and difficulty of the ground; but others, particularly fome in high office, abfolutely denied it, without qualification or referve. But if the right of interference were admitted, the minifters contended, that it muft be in cafes of grofs abufe, previously and incontrovertibly proved. When that was once done, that houfe was undoubtedly competent to point out to the fovereign, the proper mode of removing and correcting them; but that mode was not by paffing a law of refumption; an extremity, which if at all reforted to, it fhould only be in fome cafe of the laft neceflity, when all ether means had been tried, and had been found ineffectual.

But even fuppofing that it were right and fit for parliament to interfere upon motives of public œ. conomy, another question would arife, whether the object to be attained, namely, the faving propofed, was of that magnitude to juftify the house, not only in an innovation, but in the fuppreffion of an useful and neceffary office. For in the contemplation of the committee, it must be deemed an ufeful and neceffary office, until the contrary was clearly proved. They were not to estimate the office that was propofed to be abolished, merely upon its own intrinfic value; but they were like wife to confider what the measure of abolishment led to. The claufe before them, formed but a part, and a very fmall part indeed, of the multifarious bill to which it belonged. But if the propriety of this claufe fhould be eftablished,

the fame principle would reach to every other part of the bill; and its effects would be extended to all the branches of the royal houfhold, and even difturb the domeftic arrangements within the palace.

But confidering the clause merely upon its own proper ground, and fuppofing the bill to be formed on the fentiments contained in the petitions, would any gentleman venture to declare that the office was a finecure; that it was attended with exorbitant fees, perquifites, or emoluments; that it was a heavy, expenfive eftablishment; or, that it was a fource of much influence in that house? It perhaps would be faid, that it was ufelefs and unneceffary. If that ground is taken, let the gentlemen on the other fide bring forward their evidence; let them demonftrate to the committee that it is fo; but let not affertion pafs for proof, nor mere opinion for argument. It will then be incumbent upon them to establish the right as well as the expediency of interfering, and of refuming the grant made to the fovereign on his acceflion; a grant which he received as an equivalent for that ample revenue, to which he was entitled, from the inftant of his being proclaimed king of this country; and they will still be called upon to fhew, that the reform is not only juft and neceffary, but that the mode propofed, is the only one, or the beft, which could poffibly be carried into execution.

They expected, they faid, to hear it obferved, that the abolishing of the office in question would be no innovation, as it was only of modern date, and of a few years ftanding; but to provide againft

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