before any one had time to look into it, Mr. William Pitt rose to make a motion upon it. He said that from the book that had been just laid upon the table, it appeared that forty-four millions of the public money had been issued to public accountants, who had not passed any account whatever for these sums before the auditors of the imprest: he did not wish to be understood to mean that such a sum was due to the public, and might be recovered; he did not believe there was even an hundredth part of it that was due or recoverable; nay, he knew that many of the persons who stood as debtors to the public, in the book then on the table, had actually passed their accounts before the treasury; nay, that in the case of contracts, the money had actually been due, before it had been issued from the exchequer, because the service to which the contractors were bound by their contracts, had been performed before the issuing of the money: but still though the money had been accounted for in substance, it had not been accounted for in form, because the accounts had not passed before the auditors of the imprest: this, he said, might be an argument against the present forms of passing accounts in the exchequer, as such a length of time must necessarily elapse before they were likely to be called for, that in the mean time the money might be dissipated. He said, that it might be proper to pass an act of parliament to operate as a quietus to the representatives of accountants, to whom money had been issued fifty years ago, and where the vouchers for the expendi ture might, through lapse of time, have been lost; but on the other hand, it would be as proper to compel accountants of a later date to pass their accounts, and pay such balances as should be due to the public. He concluded, by moving, "that an humble Address be presented to his majesty, representing to his majesty, that it appears that large sums of money, which have at different times, and many of them very long since, been paid for public services to sub-accountants, amounting in the whole to above forty-four millions, have not yet been accounted for before the auditors of the Imprest; and that though many of them may have been otherwise accounted for in the course of office, yet others, to a very large amount, have not been accounted for at all. That it appears to this House to be of the utmost importance, that all public accounts should be brought forward with as little delay as possible, and that therefore they do humbly beseech his majesty to be graciously pleased to give directions, that the most effectual measures should be taken to enquire concerning the persons to whom the said sums have been issued, or their legal representatives, and particularly those to whom money has been issued in the course of the late expensive war, and to take measures in all cases where there shall appear to be sufficient ground to compel them in due course of law to account for the same; and that this House will in due time co-operate in such measure as may, on full deliberation, appear to be proper, in order to prevent the like delays for the future." Mr. Grenville seconded the motion. Mr. Sheridan moved two amendments to the motion. The one was to • leave out the words " it appears to this House," and insert in their

stead the following, "this House having reason to believe," the other to leave out the specific sum of forty-four millions, so that the phrase would run generally that great sums, &c. had been issued, and had not been accounted for.

Mr. Secretary Fox said, he would adopt the amendments in preference to the original motion, because he preferred truth to falsehood: it was true that he had reason to believe great sums were still to be accounted for; but it would be a falsehood to assert, when no authentic document was before the House, that " it appears" to the House, that great sums are still unaccounted for; and still more false would it be to state these sums to amount to forty-four millions. But the right honourable member probably had his views for stating a specific sum; such, probably, as those persons had, who when his noble relation (the late Lord Holland) had about 400,000l. of the public money in his hands, called him the public defaulter of unaccounted millions; and said, that he had forty millions still in his hands to account for. Fifty millions of public money unaccounted for, had been roundly asserted to be the sum that the motion of the 28th of February would bring to light. The right honourable gentleman, who made the motion, had now chosen to say, he had talked only of forty-nine millions, and lo! the book upon the table, in proof of the authenticity of which the House had heard so much from the other side of the House, stated only forty-four millions, of which the right honourable gentleman had himself declared, he did not think the "one hundredth part" of the sum was recoverable, or much of it due. Having put this in a point of view that flashed conviction with it, Mr. Fox took notice of the manner in which the book had been brought forward, and said, if he were obliged to pass an opinion on the fact, he should certainly declare, that his noble friend did wrong to present the book at all. His noble friend's well-known, extreme candour, and his wish on all occasions to please every person, added to the idea, that producing such a book might gratify the curiosity of the House, were certainly reasons that obviously accounted for his noble friend's having been induced to present the book at the bar. But if he had been consulted, he should certainly have advised the noble lord not to have brought it in; and he was persuaded, if his noble friend had taken more time to consider of the matter, and it had occurred to his mind, that so ill a use was likely to be made of the book, when presented, he would have been of the same opinion. After urging this very strongly, Mr. Fox observed, that it was a little extraordinary that the right honourable

gentleman who moved the address, and his friends who supported it, should so loudly and so vehemently complain that ministers were averse to enquiry, and that they were determined to oppose every proposition of reform, when neither his honourable friend who had proposed the amendments, nor any other person who had spoken in favour of them, had made the least opposition to the main object of the address. To that nobody objected. The amendments would neither prejudice or diminish it. Considered as an enquiry, with a view to prospective regulation, the book upon the table was every way adequate. If the enquiry was meant to be retrospective, undoubtedly the book was not a ground of sufficient authenticity to rest a proceeding upon. But what purpose would it answer to go into a retrospective enquiry, where there was so small a hope of benefit?

The amendments were adopted, and the address as amended, agreed to.

ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE

SESSION.

November 11.

HE King opened the session with the following speech to both Houses :

THE

My lords and gentlemen; I have the satisfaction to inform you that definitive treaties of peace have been concluded with the courts of France and Spain, and with the United States of America. Preliminary articles have been also ratified with the States General of the united provinces. I have ordered these several treaties to be laid before you; and I am happy to add, that I have no cause to doubt but that all those powers agree with me in my sincere inclination to keep the calamities of war at a great distance. The objects which are to be brought under your deliberation, will sufficiently explain my reasons for calling you together after so short a recess. Enquiries of the utmost importance have been long and diligently pursued, and the fruit of them will be expected. The situation of the East India company will require the utmost exertions of your wisdom to maintain and improve the valuable advantages derived from our Indian possessions, and to promote and secure the happiness of the native inhabitants of those provinces. The season of peace will call upon you for an attention to every thing which can recruit the strength of the nation, after so long and so expensive a war.The security and increase of the revenue, in the manner least

burthensome to my subjects, will be amongst your first objects. In many essential parts it has suffered: dangerous frauds have prevailed, and alarming outrages have been committed. Exertions have not been wanting to repress this daring spirit, nor pains to enquire into its true causes. In any instances in which the powers of government may not be equal to its utmost care and vigilance, I have no doubt that the wisdom of my parliament will provide such remedies as may be found wanting for the accomplishment of purposes, in which the material interests of this nation are so deeply concerned.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons; I have ordered the estimates of the expences for the year to be laid before you. From those you will perceive the reduction which I have made in all the establishments, which appear to me to be brought as low as prudence will admit; and you will participate with me in the satisfaction which I feel in this step towards the relief of my subjects. At the end of a war some part of its weight must inevitably be borne for a time. I feel for the burthens of my people: but I rely on that fortitude which has hitherto supported this nation under many difficulties, for their bearing those, which the present exigencies require, and which are so necessary for the full support of the national credit.

new.

"My lords, and gentlemen; in many respects our situation is Your counsels will provide what is called for by that situation; and your wisdom will give permanence to whatever has been found beneficial by the experience of ages. In your deliberations you will preserve that temper and moderation which the importance of their objects demands, and will, I have no doubt, produce; and I am sure that you are unanimous in your desire to direct all those deliberations to the honour of my crown, the safety of my dominions, and the prosperity of my people."

An address in the usual form, was moved by the Earl of Upper Ossory, and seconded by Sir Francis Basset. Mr. William ̃Pitt animadverted with great triumph on the inconsistency of the ministerial side of the House, in voting an address of thanks to the king, for having concluded definitive treaties of peace, the very transcript of those preliminary articles which they had before voted to be inadequate and dishonourable. He likewise called loudly on the minister to bring forward without delay some plan for securing and improving the advantages that might be derived from our possessions in the East; a plan, not of temporary palliation, of timorous expedients, but vigorous and effectual, suited to the magnitude, the importance, and the alarming exigency of the

case.

Mr. Secretary Fox returned his warm thanks to the right honourable gentleman, and said, that few things could give him greater satisfaction than to find that both the speech and address appeared unexceptionable to him, and that they were to be honoured with his support. At the same time he could not allow that there was any ground for the triumph of the

honourable gentleman, when he exultingly observed that the present address to which the House were called upon to assent, was substantially the same with that to which, in February last, they gave a negative: the right honourable member wished to fasten on the present ministers the imputation of inconsistency; there was a circumstance that he had thought proper not to mention, which would make the inconsistency vanish. He (Mr. Fox) thought the preliminary articles such as the then situation of the country did not warrant; and yet he was ready to vote for this address; but why? because the signing of the preliminary articles had pledged the faith of the nation, and rendered the signing of the definitive treaties a matter not so much of choice as of necessity; and therefore as it had become necessary to conclude them, it was surely proper to thank his majesty for having put the finishing hand to a treaty which he could not refuse to sign, without a violation of public faith. During the last session of parliament, he had declared his opinion pretty roundly about the preliminaries of peace; he then pronounced them to be less advantageous than, from the relative situation of affairs, this country had a right to expect. He still was of that opinion, and considered 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 House the situation of our affairs at that time. In the East Indies, where our affairs had been said to be the most desperate, 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 apprehension, than that which every humane man feels, who repines at the prospect of an event by which much human blood must be shed, and uselessly too, after a peace is concluded? When any man said that our fleets had decreased, and our finances had been disordered, and then assigned these circumstances as reasons for concluding such a peace as the last, it was incumbent on that man to prove, that the decrease in the one, and disorder in the other, had taken place simply, and without being accompanied, by similar misfortunes in the fleets and finances of the enemy, for if, when it is proved that we have suffered, it is also made manifest, that the enemy has suffered in the same proportion, then the relative misfortune on our side cannot be set up as a good argument to justify the making of the late peace.

Our finances, it was true, were not in as good a state as we could wish; but in order to shew that the state of our finances pointed out the necessity of making peace to avoid a national bankruptcy, it ought to be proved that the treasury