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HOUSE of COMMONS.

Tuesday, January 24.

THE Speaker, accompanied by feveral Members having returned from the Houfe of Lords, reported that he had attended urfuant to his Majefty's command, and btained a copy of his moft gracious fpeech From the throne: after which he stated the ames of the places for the election of rerefentatives, of which he had iffued writs n the room of members,' who had either secome Peers by inheritance or were deeafed the fweaning in of two new members ind going through one ftage of the progrefs of pathing a bill, the customary form of commencing the bufinefs of the feffion, the Speaker read the fpeech diftinctly to the house.

Mr. John Smyth (member for Ponte fract) rofe to move an addrefs of thanks to his Majesty, in return for his most gracious fpeech, a speech fo unexceptionable in all its parts, that he did not conceive there needed any argument that he could urge to induce the house to vote an Addrefs unanimoufly in return. He fhould therefore content himself with letting the addrefs he should have the honor to move, reft on its own merits, were it not due to the houfe, that he should fay a word or two in order to thew what the reafons were that prompted him to move an addrefs. Mr. Smyth then entered into a fhort but well worded commentary on the feveral composent paragraphs of the fpeech, by way of enforcing the comfortable and fatisfactory impreffion they must neceffarily make on the minds of Englishmen, and on the feel ings of every individual who had the hapepinefs, the honour, the prosperity and the glory of the British empire at heart. He congratulated the houfe on the affurances the fpeech gave of the tranquillity of Eu rope, and of the friendly difpofition of foreign powers towards this country, deducing from them grounds promiffory of greater advantages among the growing bieffings of peace, than thofe already enjoyed in the happy circumstances of the extenfion of trade, the improvement of the revenue, and the increase of the public credit of the nation. With regard to the Irish propofitions, he faid, unfortunate as their event had hitherto been, it must afford every member of the houte the most heart-felt fatisfaction to recollect that they had done every thing on their part, to prove that their liberal fentiments towards Ireland and their fincere withes to admit her into a free participation of the commercial POL. MAG. VOL. X. JAN. 1786.

advantages of Great Britain, without the fmallest defire to violate or infringe the legiflative rights of the former, which they all prized as dearly as their own. He expreffed his complete happiness on hearing that part of the ipeech, which recommended to them the maintaining our naval ftrength on the moft fecure and permanent footing, obferving, that it was the object of all others dearest to that house, because it was the best security for the preservation of the empire and all its interefts, from the attacks of foreign enemies. He commended the idea of a fixed plan for the reduction of the national debt, as an idea fit for immediate adoption, and spoke of the minifter in terms of warm panegyrick, abftracted from the motives of private friendship, for having had the boldness to propofe and carry into execution measures for the fecurity of the revenue, when that revenue was fuffering the most violent depredations and depreffion, in confequence of illicit practices carried on in a manner fo fyftematic, that it feemed almoft impracticable for the wisest policy, or the firmeft execution to check their career, much lefs radically remove their exiftence. Having thus ftated his reafons for moving, he read the addrefs, which, as ufual, was a mere echo to the fpeech, and handed it to the chair.

Mr. Addington feconded the Address, in one of the most elegant speeches we remember to have heard on any fimilar occafion. He faid, in fubftance, that he had no doubt of the houfe agreeing unanimously to vote the Address just moved by his honourable friend; for furely no gentleman could object to return his moft grateful thanks to his Majefty for a speech in which his Majefty had been graciously pleased to affure them of the continuance of their enjoyment of peace, and its attendant bleffings, and in which he asked for little more than economy and regulation. He dilated on the bleffings of peace already in our poffeffion, inftancing the extention of our trade, the improvement of the revenue, and the increafe of public credit; and argued upon the little doubt that house could entertain of the neceflity to pay the most zealous attention to the furtherance of objects fo immediately conducive to thofe interefts which involved their own. faid while they felt juft caufe for exultation in the enjoyment of thefe happy confequences of the peace, he doubted not but that they all lamented the unfortunate jealoufies and ill-founded alarms that had induced the fifter kingdom to reject a plaa F

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of commercial intercourfe that would have admitted her to a participation of the fame bleffings; he trufted, however, that the time was not far diftant when the arrows of prejudice would have fpent their force, and the mifconceived idea of any defign in the British Parliament to refume the legiflative rights of Ireland, or in any degree trench upon its independence or confutution, would no longer exift. He compared the prefent profperous fituation of public affairs, with their former alarming condition; and faid, he trufted even thofe who had been the innocent inftruments of incurring thofe burthens with which the country had been loaded by the heavy expences of the late unfortunate war, would join in the general joy at the happy change of circumftances, and chearfully co-operate in endeavouring to alleviate the public burthens by every means that eco nomy could dictate, or the wifeft managemeni effect. He obferved, that the great points recommended to them in the fpeech all went to the neceflary revival and ftrengthening of that conftitution, the fabrick of which had not long fince tottered, and been in danger of being fhaken to its foundation; he was perfuaded therefore, every gentleman would feel it to be a common caufe, and not hefirate on the prefent occafion, to give his ready fupport to the Addrefs. He paffed an encomiuin on Mr. Pitt, and faid, he faw no neceffity for fetting a watch on the feelings of private friend hip, because the commendation he was bound to bestow was due to the public conduct of the Minifter, and confequently food diftin&t and feparate from his partialities for the man. He added fome other hand fome fentiments in Mr. Pitt's favour, and concluded with feconding the Addrefs.

As foon as the Addrefs was read from the Chair, Lord Surrey rofe, and began a feries of objections to the praifes of the Minifter, that had been given by the Honourable Gentlemen who had moved and feconded the Addrefs. His Lordship be gan his fpeech in fo low a tone, that it was fome minutes before we could catch his fentiments. We understood him to fay, that he could by no means concur in the opinion of the Honourable Gentleman who had fpoken firft, nor in that of the Honourable Gentleman who had fince, with fo much eloquence, difcuffed the few topics that had made up the component parts of the fpeech; much lefs could he join in complimenting the Right Honourable Gentleman now at the head of

his Majefty's Councils. He had declared, when the adminiftration of affairs i came into that Right Honourable Ge tleman's hands, he had no confidence in him or his coadjutors in office; his op nion had not been in the leaft altered br all he had feen fince; on the contrary, was confirmed and eftablished. So far from thinking him deferving of his coa fidence, or that of the Honourable Gentle Inen with whom he acted, he had ever reafon to think the confidence of thes Gentlemen who had hitherto fupport the Minifter, ought now to be diminifted and withdrawn. As his reafon for enter taining this opinion, his Lordship fe thofe measures which the Right Honour able Gentleman had brought forward, and which had fucceeded, were bad measures in themfelves, and ought never to have been propofed; while fuch of his mea fures as were good and deferving of fuccefs, had uniformly failed, which was, k his mind, an unanswerable proof of ha being an incapable Minifer, and unwor thy of the confidence of that Houfe. Ia illuftration of this pofition, Lord Sun! took a curfory review of the principal festures of Mr. Pitt's adminiftration, ard ftated his different parliamentary proceed. ings. The Right Honourable Gentle man's first measure, he obferved, bad; been his India Dill, which, infead of kcuring peace and order in India, had produced the opposite effect, and had excited the most violent clamours and difcontents. The fecond measure of the Right Hon. Gentleman had, he faid, been as wife a one as ever was brought forward by any Minifter, and in which he had himic joined, and endeavoured to fupport him moft heartily-the attempt to effect a Reform in the Reprefentation of the People. The Right Hon. Gentleman's failure in that measure, and his want of power to carry it, convinced him that he was unst for his fituation. The other meatures of the Right Hon. Gentleman had been, in his opinion, unwife and mischievous in their tendency, as well the oppreffive taxes he had impofed, as the Refolutions for an adjuftment of a Commercial Intercourfe with Ireland, which he had brought for ward in fo ftrange a manner, and which had given fo much difguft to both countries. His Lord fhip faid, it appeared to him very extraordinary, that an allufion to thofe Refolutions made any part of the Addrefs; what neceffity was there for mentioning them at all, after his Majetty had told them from the Throne,

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hat they could not do any thing respectng them? It feemed by no means prober for the Houfe to fay any thing upon the fubject; and, therefore, he should nove, by way of amendment, to leave out the whole paragraph of the Addrefs that alluded to the Refolutions in question. With regard to the furplus of the revenite, he could not for one admit, that Minifters deferved the credit of it; and, though he was ready to admit that œconomy was fit to be attended to, he did not think the neafures of the Minifter proved him any great friend to it. Was the maintaining in Ambaffador to Madrid, at a large exence, for two years together, during all which time he had never once been in Spain, a proof of the economy of Adminiftration? Or was their having two Amballadors upon feparate eftablishments it Paris, to be confidered as its teft? Poffibly the Right Hon. Gentleman who was appointed the new Ambaffador, with new powers, and whom he did not then fee in his place, [A loud laugh, as Lord Surry looked to his right and left, and Mr. Eden was fitting oppofite him at the time] could convince him that he was in an error, in thinking that two Ambafladors to one Court were neither neceffary nor economical; and perhaps the fame Right Hon. Gentleman would state, that he had been furnished with reafons to induce him to give his confidence to that very Adminstration, for withholding his confidence from whom he had at different times fupplied him with fo many reafons. His Lordship next took notice of that part of the Speech which recommended the maintaining the naval strength of the Empire, on the moft fecure and refpectable footing, and faid he fuppofed, that went to an encrease of the Navy. [Mr. Pitt rofe, and reminded the noble Lord, that there were no fuch words in the Speech,, upon which the Speaker read the paragraph in queftion.] His Lordfhip renewed his argument, and faid, by maintaining our naval ftrength, he hoped it was not meant the confining our navy to its prefent establishment, or governing it by what it was in 1748, or at the end of the war before the laft, but that the criterion of the number and itrength of the British navy would always be the ftrength of the navy of the Houfe of Bourbon, and that our marine would be at leaft equal to theirs, fince upon that circumftance alone depended our fecurity. If this was to be understood, he should have no objection to that part of the Addrefs, though he

owned he should have been far better pleafed, if the recommendation of mainraining our naval strength on a respectable footing, had been accompanied with a declaration that the ftanding army was to be reduced. His Lordfhip faid, he faw no occafion whatever for keeping up fo large a military force during a ftate of dif membered and diminished empire, as be fore fuch a diminution took place. His Lordship dwelt for fome little time on this idea, and, after adding a few more ob fervations, declared he fhould not objec to any part of the Addrefs, but to the paragraph which mentioned the Irish propofitions, the whole of which he moved, by way of amendment, to omit.

Mr. Fox began a very long fpeech, full of a great variety of political matters and opinions, that proved his knowledge and ability as a statesman, with declaring that of all the fpeeches from the throne he ever remembered to have heard delivered at the opening of a feffions of parliament, of all the fpeeches of that kind that he had ever heard of by relation, or read of in history, he did not recollect to have met with an inftance of one fo cautiously worded, or that afforded fuch very little ground for objection of any kind. He rofe therefore to fpeak to what was out of it, rather than to what was in it; to that which perhaps ought to have been there, rather than to what was there. The propriety of a Minifter's contenting himfelf with addreffing a British Parliament from the throne, with general ideas of the political fituation of a country, inftead of fpecifically adverting to facts and circumftances that deeply and materially concerned its first and deareft interefts, relatively confidered with thofe of other ftates, would be for others to judge and to decide upon; it was enough for him to fay, that there were fo many matters pending, and fo much had been lately done by foreign powers, the confequences of which might more or less critically affect Great Britain in proportion to the meatures that his Majefty's Minifters had purfued on the ground of thofe tranfactions, that he had looked for fomething more than vague, general affurances of the tranquil tv of Europe, and had expected his Majesty's speech would have given that Houfe a variety of lights upon a variety of great and important fubjects, intimately connected with the future profperity or ill fortune of the empire; upon all of which the Speech left the Houfe in utter and impenetrable darkness. With regard to the extenfion

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of trade, the increase of the publick eredit of the nation, and the growing furplus of the revenue; thofe were circumftances in which every man must rejoice, and at which no party, no political faction, no fer of perfons of any name or defcription whatever, could fupprefs their exultation, because they went to prove, what must be to all ranks of men and all political parties a matter of folid fatisfaction and unrestrained triumph, the reviving ftrength and returning vigour of our refources! But were thefe matters of furprife, were thefe circumftances to caufe aftonishment? Undoubtedly they were Almost every man knew there would be fome furplus; almost every man expected it; they only differed about the amount of that furplus, one Gentleman alone excepted, who had certainly contended, and had endeavoured to prove, that there would be no furplus, but that gentleman had probably been fince convinced of his error, had retracted it, and as every man of candour would do, he had no doubt he was ready publickly to acknowledge that retractation. That there would be fome furplus, he had ever admitted; what that furplus was, he would not then attempt to enterinto the difcuffion f; indeed it was not poffible for him fo to do, till he knew what it was, till he had it ftated to him, and its amount was fairly before him, and capable of argument and of difcuffion. He would not, he faid, affert to what the figns of returning vigour were afcribeable; that might bc matter of much ufelefs difference of opinion; feveral of them might be owing to the fuccefs of fome of the measures of the prefent administration; he would not be fo uncandid as to deny that they were; but more, far more, he believed, were owing to the failure of others of their measures, which had they fucceeded, must have been attended with confequences, the moft pernicious, and the oft fatal to the revenue, and to the national credit and profperity, that could poffibly be imagined. Nothing but the alarm and difguft created by the agitation of thofe bad meafures could have to long kept back the returning trade of the country, the natural confequence of peace, and which ever had been the cafe at the end of every war. Thofe alarms and difgufts had been done away, in a great degree, by the failure of the measures to which he alluded, and the tide of trade was now returning to its old and natural chanael.

Having defcanted on this point with confiderable warmth and energy, Ma Fox faid, he certainly fhould not obe to the Addrefs in general, though might probably vore with his noble friendfor his amendment; but there were tw~ matters of confiderable importance, whic in one inftance, arofe out of the word ng of the fpeech, in its first paragraph, and in another, was mentioned in a fubfequent part of it, upon both of which he mut fay a few words, and expect to receive fome answer; whether the answer wo i be fatisfactory or not, the event woul prove. What he meant was, to enqui what fort of conftruction, whether a broa or a narrow one, was to be put upon a part of the fpeech, that related to the tranquillity of Europe, and ftated, tz his Majefty continued to receive te ftrongest affurances from foreign powers g their friendly difpofition towards th country? He wished alfo to know wiz was meant by the manner in which the Refolutions relative to an intended adjus-j ment of a Commercial Intercourfe wi Ireland was mentioned, and whether t were to understand, by being told fre, the throne, that they were incapable & making any further progrefs in the wo the Refolutions were compleatly abande ed and given up, or that they were to revived, and endeavoured to be car into effect at any future period of time On both of thefe points it was exceeding material fuch information fhould be gives that each might be clearly and precies underflood. With regard to the fift, the mention of the tranquility of Europe alluded only to the end that had been put to the threatened war between the Emperor and the United States of Ha land, in that cafe the conftruction wa too narrow, and his Majefty's minifies greatly undervalued the information c that Houfe, and not of that Houfe ooh, but of every man who read or attence: to the political tranfactions of Euren. and who was at all aware of what part, on the Continent, the different treati that had been lately entered into by di rent foreign powers, and the cond that ought to have been pursued a view to counteract the operation of the treaties and traniactions, as far as it was likely to prove or capable of proving prejudicial and injurious to the interefts: Great Britain. In fpeaking of this pan of his fubject Mr. Fox faid, he was awar that being no Minifter, he had it in i power to fpeak in a style, in which :l

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would be highly imprudent for his Majefty's Minifters to exprefs themfelves, and as the matters that he should have occafion to treat of, were of confideration infinite, he should endeavour to make himself as well understood as poffible. Mr. Fox after this preparation went into a copious detail of what had lately passed abroad, and stated the various treaties that had been entered into by the Courts of France, Spain, and Holland, and between the Courts of Verfailles and Vienna, &c. He alfo ftated the confequences they were Likely to produce of a hoftile nature to this country, unless counterbalanced by alliances entered into on our part with other powers. He faid, in speaking of the naval force of the country, and what ought to be the criterion of its number and ftrength, his noble friend had mentioned only the naval force of France, forgetting that France was but one branch of the powerful confederacy of maritime powers, that had been entered into with a profeffed hoftility to Great Britain; for though all treaties were avowedly treaties of a defenlive nature, and entered into upon a pretence of mutual defence, every man who knew any thing of the meaning of treaties, knew that their true intent and purpose was offenfive to all who, in the opinion of the contracting parties, took any measure, that they confidered as inimical to their interefts, or the interefts of either of them. The treaty, therefore, which the Houfe of Bourbon had perfuaded the United States to enter into with them, and which effectually fecured Holland in their hands, was to be confidered as a treaty hoftile to this country, inafmuch as it combined three of the most powerful maritime powers of Europe in a confederacy against Great Britain. That it was unadvifeable and impolitick for the United States to enter into any fuch treaty, Mr. Fox faid, was moft firmly his opinion, but, as the treaty was made and executed, it behoved our Minifter to be vigilant and affiduous in engaging in fome alliances with other European maritime powers, whofe connection and fupport might enable us to counteract the mifchievous tendency and effect of the operation of the confederacy in cafe of a war with either of the contracting powers. In explanation of the confequences to be dreaded from this cenfederacy, he reminded the Houfe, that our late war with France had been purely a maritime war, as we had carried on no military operations by land, excepting only against our ovu fubjects in America, and thence he

drew arguments to fhew the extreme and urgent neceffity for our forming a clofe and intimate alliance with the Court of Petersburgh, declaring emphatically, that if the two Cabinets properly understood the relative interefts of Great Britain and Ruffia, and how much they were by the character, commerce, and maritime fituation of each mutually involved, and naturally combined, they would lofe notime in the negociation of fuch a treaty. There had, he faid, been two years ago a crisis formed, of which this country, ought to have taken advantage, and which he had at the precife moment pointed out in that House as many Gentlemen might recollect; the moment to which he alluded, was that, he faid, when the Emprefs of Ru fia had fettled her differences with the Porte, on the fubject of the Crimea. Though it had been admitted on all hands, that the fettlement of thofe differences about the Crimea had formed the crifis he talked of, and that the most glorious opportunity had been afforded for Great Britain to help herself, had the circumftance been managed with dexte rity, yet nothing had been done. dwelt upon this for fome time, and mentioned the recent advantage France had acquired as a maritime power, by obtaining poffeffion of a port in the Baltic, a circumftance which should, if poffible have been prevented.

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In one fituation of affairs, the poffeffion of Gottenburg, Mr. Fox faid, it was true France could make but little ufe of; but in cafe of a war, the advantage must be prodigious to her. He bid Gentlemen recollect, that in all her wars, France had been most embarraffed by her continental fituation, and the dread of an attack from the neighbouring powers; the whole of her policy there fore had been directed to engage them in fuch a manner as to add to her fecurity; and hence it was, that during her laft war, fhe had been able to render her mari time force fo refpectable and fo powerful, becaufe fhe had no occafion to give her attention to the ftrengthening of her frontier towns, the adding to her internal fortifications, the recruiting her garrifons, and all that variety of confiderations neceffarily kept alive, while it appeared poffible for her continental neighbours to feize the opportunity of profiting by her being engaged in hoftilities at fea. Nay, fhe was even able to aid her refources by a reduction of her army in time of war, and apply the faving to the encrease of her maritime ftrength. What was the cale

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