HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Monday, Feb. 27, 1786.

Debate relative to the Fortifications concluded..

M R. Sheridan rofe immediately on Lord Mahon's fitting down, and began a fpeech of nearly two hours, with declaring, that he gave the Noble Lord full credit for the principles he had professed, with respect tothe conftitution; and that he di i fincerely believe, that the Noble Lord would not vote for the meafure then under difcuffion, but upon a fuppofition, that its tendency was rather to diminish than augment the military power of the Crown; upon this ground, therefore, he would meet him, and he was fanguine enough to believe, that the Noble Lord might be induced to alter the opinion he had declared, unless indeed he was restrained from exercifing his free judgment upon the fubject. What was the Noble Lord's argument? he had refted the matter entirely upon the ground taken by his Right Hon. friend, (Mr. Pitt,) that the purfuing this system of Ffication would actually diminish the ftanding army in this country, and that the number of troops being fo diminished, there would be proportionally lefs caufe for that conftitutional jealoufy, with which all parties agreed, it was our duty to regard the encreafing military power of the Crown. That this fyftem of defence by Fortifications, could under any circumftances have the effect of reducing the ftanding army, Mr. Sheridan utterly denied; fome plaufible arguments indeed had been adduced in fupport of this notion, which, however, when fifted, would be found fallacious and contradictory; for the prefent, however, he would wave that point, and admit implicitly, that the ftanding army of the country would be reduced by the measure proposed precifely in the proportion ftated by the Noble Lord; it then, however, remained to be POL. MAG. VOL. X. MAY, 1786.

proved, that giving the Noble Lord his premifes, he was right in his conclufion. When we talked of a conftitutional jeal oufy of the military power of the Crown, what was the real object to which we pointed our fufpicion? what was the datum, as the fashionable phrafe was, upon which they proceeded? what !— but that it was in the nature of Kings to love power, and in the constitution of armies, to obey Kings. This was delicate ground he knew to touch upon, but the circumftances of the question that day, called for plain dealing; he could not be fufpected in the fmallest degree of alluding to the prefent Monarch on the Throne, or to the army under his com mand; he agreed moft fincerely to the diftin&tions made with refpect to both by a worthy Baronet who had spoken before him; but at the fame time, it must be admitted, that whenever we fpoke of a conftitutional jealousy of the army, it was upon a fuppofition, that the unhappy time might come, when a Prince, milled by evil Counsellors, and against the fuggeftions of his own gracious temper, of courfe might chérif the difafterous notion, that he could become greater by making his fubjects lefs, and that an army might be found fo forgetful of their duty as citizens, fo warped by feelings of falfe honour, or fo' degraded by habits of implicit obedience, as to fupport their military head, in an attempt upon the rights and liberties of their country. The poible existence of this cafe, and, the probable coincidence of thefe circumftances, was that to which every gentleman's mind muft point when he admitted an argument upon the fubject, otherwise, we burlefqued and derided the wisdom of our ancestors, with the provifions of the Bill of Rights, and made a mere mockery of the falutary and facred referve, with which, fora fhort and limited period, we annually intrufted the executive magiftrate with the neceffary defence of the country. This plain ftatement being really the cafe, to what in fuch a crifis were Y y

we

we to look? were our apprehenfions only to be directed to the length of the mufter roll of men in the King's pay? Were we to calculate only the number of foldiers he could encamp at Hounslow, or the force of the detachment he might fpare to furround the lobby of the Houfe of Commons?-No-the jet and fubflance of the queftion lay briefly here; In which of the two fituations now argued upon, would the King and his evil advifers find themfeives in a ftare of the greatest military force and preparation, and moft likely to command and to receive a military fupport? In this point of view would it not be argued, that thefe fortreffes, which were to be capable of refifting the fiege of a foreign enemy landed in force, would be ftrength in the hands of the Crown, when the enemy was his people? Would no ftrefs be given to the great and important d ftinction, already ably urged between troops e'ected and feparated from their fellow citizens in garrifons and forts, and men living fcattered and entangled in all the common duties and connections of their countrymen? Was this an argument of no weight when applied to the Militia, who were to form a part of thefe garrifons?, or would it for a moment be pretended, that men under fuch circumstances, and in fuch difciplined habits, were not a thousand times more likely to defpife the breath of Parliament, and to lend themfelves to the active purposes of tyranny and ambition, than the loofe and unconnected bodies, which exift even with jealoufy under the prefent fyftem? It was unneceffary to prefs the diftinction; the fact was, that thefe ftrong military holds, if maintained as they must be in peace, by full and difciplined garrifons; if well provided, and calculated to stand regular fieges, as the prefent plan profetfed, and if extended to all the objects to which the fyftem must inevitably lead, whether they were to be confidered as inducemen's to tempt a weak Prince to evil views, or as engines of power in cafe of an actual rupture, would in truth, promife tenfold the means of curbing and fubduing the country, that could arife even from doubling the prefent military eftablishment, with this extraordinary aggravation, attending the folly of confenting to fuch a fyftem, that thofe very naval ftores and magazines, the feed and fources of our future navies, the effectua! prefervation of which, was the pretence for thefe unaffailable fortrefles, would in that cafe become a pledge and hoftage in the hands of the Crown, which in a coun

try circumftanced as this was, muft infure an unconditional fubmiffion to the moft extravagant claims which defpotifm could dictate.

After preffing this ftill more forcibly, Mr. Sheridan refumed the conceffion he had made, and argued on the fallacy of holding out expectations, that a fyftem of defence by Fortifications, could in fact end in a retrenchment of the standing army; the firft fallacy in this argument was, he faid, the fuppofition that the fyftem of defence by Fortifications was neceffarily to ftop when Portimouth and Plymouth were fecured, and that the reafoning upon which the extenfive works for thole places were juftified, would not apply to any other parts of the kingdom, however their importance called for defence, or their fituation expofed them to attack. The fhorteft method of refuting this idea, was fimply to fuppofe the fame Board of Officers, acting under the fame inftructions, and deliberating under the fame data, going a circuit round the coaft of the kingdom, and called upon to report upon the various places in their progrefs, and let any perfon fairly confider the fuppofitions under which they make their prefent report, and then hesitate to confefs, that they must of neceflity recommend a fimilar plan of defence proportioned to the importance of every place, to which their attention was directed. It was unneceffary to dwell on the circumftances which no longer perniitted us to confider Holland in future otherwife than as a province of France, or which rendered it equally reafonable to look with an eye of apprehenfion to the neighbouring coafts belonging to the Emperor; the fact was evident, that in the cafe of this country being engaged in a war against a powerful Confederacy, upon the fuppofition of which alone the prefent fcheme was recommended and juftified, every motive of prudence muft compel us to direct an attention, as vigorous and vigilant to the Eaft coaft of this country, as to the South. On this idea Mr. Sheridan enumerated various places, which with Chatham and Sheerness, where most extensive lines had actually been begun under the auspices of the noble Duke, muft neceffarily be provided for in the new fyftem of protection, and called upon any perfon to compute the ftationary defence neceffary for fuck places, in addition to the 22,000 men demanded for Portsmouth and Plymouth, and allow for any moving force in the

country

country befides, and then decide what chance there was that this prolific fyftem would terminate in a reduction of the ftanding army!

Mr. Sheridan next took notice of the attack made by Mr. Pitt on the late Adminiftration. In whatever point of view he was that day to regard the Right Hon. Gentleman; whether as that glorious orb which an Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Luttrell) had defcribed him to be, whofe influence and power was more than to compenfate to the nation for the lofs of an hemifphere; or whether his luftre was calculated rather to dazzle and furprife, than to cherish and invigorate; whether he merited the lefs complimentary language of a Right Hon. Friend of his (Col. Barre) who had faid that his conJcience had been furprized in this bufinefs; or whether it had capitulated upon regular approaches; whether he had been fuccefsful in repelling the infinuation of another Gentleman that he was not in earneft in this caufe, by the vehemence of his manner, or had confirmed it by the weakness of his argument; whether the Right Hon. Gentleman moft deferved the prafes or reproach he had that day received, he would not embarrafs himself with difcuffing, but one part of his conduct there was, which he was aftonished had efcaped the panegyric of his Friends.-He meant the fpirit and enterprize with which, taking his hint probably from the fubject in debate, he had endeavoured to carry the war into the enemy's country, and purfuc meafures of offence and attack, while all at home was expofed defenfelefs and unfortified.

For what was the ground of this ftrenuous charge? The late Adminiftration, the Right Hon. Gentleman afferted, had fubmitted part of this very plan to the judgment of Parliament; but at the defire of the Houfe had withdrawn that part for reconfideration; and now, if upon reconfideration, they had in any respect altered their opinion, it was the groffeft inconfiftency of conduct and dereliction of principle-an extraordinary charge, and particularly fo from the Gentleman by whom it was urged! He had reconfi dered many fubjects, without aspiring to the merit of an obftinate adherence to his first opinion. He had reconfidered his American Intercourfe Bill, and had publickly avowed that he had parted with every idea that he had once held on that fubject. He had reconfidered his India Bill, and before it was engroffed had

fcarcely fuffered one word to remain which belonged to it, when it was brought in. He had reconfidered his Irish rellutions in every part, provifion, and principle; having firft offered them as a bounty to Ireland, he had reconsidered the boon, and annexed a price to it, and then reconfidered his reconfideration, and abandoned his own indifpentible condition! And yet this Minifter, whofe whole government had been one continued feries of rafh propofitions, and ungraceful conceffions, held it out as a palpable enormity in others, that reconfideration fhould have produced alteration of fentiment, and that too, upon a subject where the first opinion must have been taken upon credit, and the fecond was called for upon minute information and authentick enquiry. Hav ing pressed this very forcibly, and applied the argument to many Gentlemen round the Minifter, who had formerly given a decided opinion against the Fortifications, but were then fuppofed to be inclined to favour them, Mr. Sheridan proceeded to a more detailed defence of the conduct of the late Administration, in which he proved, referring to the estimates and journals of 1783, that they had not the leaft occafion to refort to the juftification of having changed their minds in confequence of better information; for that the fact was, that they never had, in the flighteft degree, committed themselves in any opinion or approbation whatever of the prefent plan.

With regard to the history of the rife and progrefs of Fortifications in this Ifland, upon which the Right Hon. Gentleman had laid fo much ftrefs, as if he had proved, that that, which was not new, must be conftitutional, and that which had been often tried, must be fit to be done; he maintained, that every word urged on this fubject made against the cause it was brought to fupport; for experience, even by their own ftatement, had taught us nothing but that the nation had invariably been deluded and defrauded upon this unprincipled plea of Fortifications; that much had been done and undone, many fchemes and many projects tried; many millions fpent, and the object avowedly as diftant as ever! So that repeated proofs of past deception were al they urged as arguments for prefent con fidence, and it was modeftly expected they fhould believe that because a point had been always unfuccefsfully attempted, it was now at last certain of being wifely accomplished.

Yy 2

Mr. Sheridan, at this period of his Speech, adverted to the Report itself, he admitted that those who had entrenched themselves in conftitutional objections only, refusing to be bound by the advice and authority of any board of General Officers or Engineers whatever, upon fuch a fubject had taken ftrong and refpectable ground; thofe alfo who had argued the fubject more with a reference to the state of a revenue of the country, and had feemed to confider the measure as advifable, or otherways according as it hould be found confiftent with the neceffary principles of economy, were undoubtedly entitled to every attention. For his own part, however, he did not go to the extreme of the reafoning used on either of thefe topics-every hour produces inftances where practices highly dangerous by their precedent, and evidently infringing on the established rights of the fubject, were reforted to, unavoidably perhaps, for the purpofe of retrieving and maintaining that public credit, without which the affairs of this country were completely defperate. The Right Hon. Gentleman had pledged himself not to prefs this bufinefs, unless he could make it appear to be a measure not lefs effential to national fafety, than even the prefervation of public credit itself. Upon this line of argument the dangers to be apprehended to the conftitution, which were ftated to be eventual and remote, muft of course give way, and the point of economy was wholly out of the queftion. The Right Hon. Gentleman had alfo ftated that the decifion of a Board fpecially appointed for this enquiry, and confifting of perfons eminently qualified for the judgment re quired from them was the beft authority which the country could obtain on the fubject, and afforded a better guide for the opinion and conduct of that Houfe, than the arguments or information of its individual members could fupply. To this he had already affented, and now repeated his affent; nor did he hesitate to renew the pledge the Right Hon. Gentleman had appeared fo anxious to fix him to, that he for his own part, mindful of his terms upon which the question was fufpended at the clofe of the laft Seffion, was content to abide by the decifion of a Board fo defcribed, and to withdraw his objections to the plan, if it could be fairly made to appear that thefe gentlemen, whofe names and characters he freely admitted did intitle them to the confidence which

was claimed for them, had upon a full in. veftigation of the whole of the furject propofed last year in Parliament to be fubmitted to their enquiry, and being left to their own free and unfet ered judgment in forming their decision—had reported as their decided and unqualified opinion, that the plan propofed by the Nobie Duke, and then under difcuffion, was a meature which it became the wisdom and prudence of Parliament to adopt. Upon this point they were at iffue, and the Report in his hand was the only authority to which he fhould appeal, and the fole ground upon which he fhould argue.

Before, however, he entered into a difcuffion of the matter of the Report he could not omit to take notice of many circumstances attending the manner of its formation. Upon thefe Mr. Sheridan, without reflecting upon the officers who compofed the Board, commented with great feverity; particularly fupporting the complaint which had been urged by

the

first fuggefter of this reference, (Colonel Barre) that in violation of the confidence repofed in Minifters, they had not referred the queftion of a fyftem for the general defence of the country, to the Board, giving them due time and materials for forming their opinion upon the great and extenfive subject, but had merely required from them a short answer relative to two points of attack under certain data, of their own imp fing.

The appointment of the Noble Duke to be Prefident of the Board, had been before enlarged upon, and Mr. Sheridan made ufe of many additional arguments to enforce the impropriety of that nomination. Other Gentlemen had alluded, he obferved, to peculiar circumftances of the Noble Duke's perfonal character; he had been defcribed as a man who had been never known to give up a point; whether this was the cafe or not, or whether there were fome principles of publick profeffion, which the Noble duke had not very rigorously adhered to, he would not pretend to decide, as he might be fufpected of speaking from party prejudices: there was one characteriftic, however, of the Noble Duke's mind, which he thought might be fairly alluded as it was a peculiarity which had been publickly brought forward in argument by a high authority in that house; and, if now referring to it, he were to reprefent that noble perfonage as of a temper eager to extravagance and vehement in the ex

treme,

treme, if he were to defcribe him as a perfon who, having taken up a juft principle, was capable of defeating all falutary proceeding upon it, by driving on with a heated imagination to the moft flighty and prepofterous conclufions, the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite to him (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) would be his authority. He was the perfon who had leffened him, and the Houfe, into that opinion, as must be in the recollection of every gentleman, who in a former fethon heard that Right Hon. Gentleman difcufs the Noble Duke's principles of Parliamentary Reform, and recollected the terms of indigeant ridicule, with which he had cautioned them against the fchemes of fo wild and vitionary a projector. If therefore, he was arraigned for following any plan of the Noble Duke's with a peculiar degree of jealoufy, he fhould leave his juftification in the abler hands of the, Right Hon. Gentleman.

Mr. S. now brought himself to the ground upon which he was principally pledged, the authority to be derived from the board of Enquiry. But before he began this difcufion, he ironically, complimented the Noble Duke on the ftriking proof of his genius as an engineer, which appeared even in the planning and conftructing of the paper in his hand. The profeffional ability of the Mafier General thone as confpicuoufly there, as it could upon our coafts. He had made it, he faid, an argument of posts, and conducted his reafoning upon principles of trigonometry as well as logick. There were certain detached data, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a distance from the main object in debate. Strong provifos covered the flanks of his affections; his very queries were in cafemates. No impreffion, therefore, was to be made on this fortrefs of fophiftry by defultory obfervations, it was neceffary to fit down before it, and affail it by regular approaches: it was fortunate, however, to obferve, that notwithstanding all the fkill employed by the Noble and Literary Engineer, his mode of defence on paper was open to the fame objection which had been urged against his other fortifications; that it his adverfary gor poffeffion of one of his pofis, it became ftrength against him, and the means of fubduing the whole line of his argument. Having very fuccefsfully illuftrated this by fome inftances, Mr. S. proceeded to a minute inveftigation of every part of the Report.

The points which Mr. Sheridan con

tended he had diftin&ly established from the authentic document before the House, notwithfanding the mutilated state in which it appeared, were,-fift, that not one word, hint or fuggeftion on the part of the naval officers, tending to give any approbation either diely or by implication to the fcheme of fortification then in debare, was to be found in that paper, but that on the contrary, from the manner in which a reference was made to the minutes of the Naval Officers, of which the refult was withheld, a ftrong prefumption might be grounded, wholly independent of information which the Houfe had received from Members of that Board, that those minutes did contain a condemnation of the plan. He did not expect to hear it argued that the refult of thofe minutes could not be communicated, because they were mixed with dangerous matters of intelligence; they had fhewn a fufficient degree of ingenuity in the manner they had extracted them from the Report; and it would be exraordinary indeed, that wherever the judgement was unfavourable, it fhould have been fo blended and complicated with matters of detail and dangerous difcuffion, that no chymical procefs in the Ordnance laboratory could poflibly feparate them, while on the contrary, every approving opinion, like a light fubtile oily fluid, floated at top at once, and the clumfieft clerk was capable of prefenting it to the House pure and untinged by a single particle of the argument or information upon which it was produced.

His fecond point was, that the opinion given by the land Officers in favour of the plan, was hypothetical and conditional : and that they had unanimously and invariably throughout the whole business, refufed to lend their authority to, or to make themselves refponfible for the data or fuppofitions upon which that opinion was to be maintained. This Mr. Sheridan dwelt upon for a confiderable time, as fo much ftrefs had been laid upon this circumftance, and the Report had been fo artfully managed, as in many points to appear to fupport the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the contrary affection.

The third point was, that the data themselves were founded on a fuppofition of events, fo improbable and defperate, that the existence of the cafe contained in them, carried with it not the imminent danger of Port fin.outh and Plymouth only, but the actual conquest of the Island. Upon this Mr. Sheridan reafoned con

I

cifely