at prefent? France was fafe by her fami ly compact, as to any fear from Spain; and the had by the late treaty quieted all poffibility of dread from Holland, which, in deed, had never been very powerful by land. Her only caufe of alarm, there fore, was the Court of Vienna, and that, notwithstanding all former affurances of good fellowship, and notwithstanding the fill more endearing bords of connection cemented by family union, was a conftant and ferious fource of alarm; but that caufe of terror we had put to reft, having given his Imperial Majefty great difguft, and rendered his feelings adverfe to Great Britain. Mr. Fox explained, that he meant the part the Elector of Hanover had taken in joining the Elector of Saxony, and other Germanic Princes in the league founded on the plea of preferving the liberties of the Empire. Upon this he defcanted in a vein of great animation, and declared, that the fafety of France by land was effectually fecured by the effect of that league on the mind of the Emperor, and that we fhould find her hands ftrengthened confiderably in any

future war in which we might be engaged with her. France, he faid, had nothing to wifh for before that league was made, but that fome circumftance or other should happen to create a jealoufy and dislike of Great Britain in the Em peror. That circumstance we had ourfelves provided, and provided gratis, at a moment when France would have paid us any price for it, far more than the had expended in bringing about the peace between the United States of Holland and the Emperor. The most fanguine individual of that fanguine people could not, he faid, in his moft fanguine dream of national good fortune, have pictured to himfelf the poffibility of fuch a fortunate event happening in favour of France. Mr. Fox put this in variety of ways, in order the more forcibly to imprefs its importance on the minds of the Houfe, and did not quit it, till he appeared to have faid all that human ingenuity could make of it. Mr. Fox faid, there was one circam ftance that looked propitious to the country, which he had heard from fuch authority as he could rely on, and therefore he would mention it. At the fame time, he did not doubt but the Right Hon. Gentle man, as a Minifter, was aware of it, but as it was a favourable omen for Great Britain, he was glad to be the perfon to announce it in that Houfe, that there now offered a good opportunity for renewing

a Treaty of Commerce with Ruffia, and that it was in a fair way to be renewed with fuccefs. He declared, he was aware of the fashionable mode of calling Treaties Commercial and Treaties Political diftiuft and separate forts of Treaties; but he was not to be blinded by any fuch new-fangled and ill-founded diftinétions; Treaties of Commerce entered into between two coun tries, had ever influenced their politics in a very great degree, and he had no doubt but a Treaty of Commerce, entered into between the Court of London and the Court of St. Petersburgh, would have its due and falutary effects, politically as well as commercially; he was glad, therefore, extremely glad, of a circumftance to promifing to the interefts of both countries. At the time, however, that he mentioned the treaty that was likely to go on between Ruffia and Great Britain, he thought it fair to say that he had heard Ruffia would enter into a commercial treaty with France; of that, he had received his information from a very different quarter, from an authority not equally good, as that from which he had heard the other, and therefore he hoped, and believed, that the informa tion was ill-founded. From thefe facts, Mr. Fox proceeded to take notice of the pending commercial treaty between our Court and that of Versailles. He faid, he had no opinion of good refulting to this country from any fuch treaty, and his reafon for not thinking that fuch would be its effect, was, that the experience of past times proved that this country had grown great, profperous and flourishing, from the moment that the quitted all her commercial connections with France. He expreffed his strong disapprobation of the idea of putting the country to the expence of two different establishments for two different Plenipotentiaries to Paris, and contended that it was idle and unneceffary. There were, he faid, two ways of doing the bufinefs of this commercial treaty, and finithing the negociation of it. Either the noble Duke now there might do it, or a perfon like Mr. Crawford, who had been employed already, might act under him, and manage the mere matter of detail. At any rate, he declared he faw no reafon for fending out a Gentleman, whofe rank in life rendered it improper for him to act in a fubordinate capacity. He took occafion to direct fome ironical fatire at the appointment of Mr. Eden to his new fituation. The Right Hon. Gentleman at the head of the Treafury, he faid, had undoubtedly chofen a Gentleman for the

office of Extra Plenipotentiary, who knew fomewhat more of the details of trade and commerce than he did himself. That the Right Hon. Gentleman was better acquainted with commercial concerns, laft feffions had pretty well convinced the Minifter on more than one occafion, but ftill he faw no reafon for employing even that Right Hon Gentleman's talents on the subject, and he feared the appointment had been rather made out of respect to the perfon, than from any neceffity for the exercife of the Right Honourable Gentleman's abilities in the way in which they were to be employed. Mr. Fox added fomething complimentary to Mr. Eden, mixed with fomething farcaftic on his having quitted a connection, whofe principles he had repeatedly declared his approbation of, at the fame time that he had by his votes proved, that he held the continuance of the prefent Ministry in power to be dangerous to the existence of the Conftitution. Mr. Fox, while he was upon this fubject of the Commercial Treaty, faid, the new Board of Trade, which was undoubtedly compofed of men of great abilities and inen of higher rank than the Members of the old Board of Trade, were the most extraordinary timeifts, if he might fo call them, that ever exifted. Last year, after the Propofitions had come over from IreJand, and just as the British Parliament was called upon to vote them, the New Board of Trade proceeded to enquire, whether the Propofitions were fuch as were fit for either country. In the cafe of the Commercial Treaty, they were equally fingular in the time of their fending out à perfon with proper powers to negociate it. By the Treaties of 1782, a Treaty of Commerce was to be negotiated between this country and France, on or before the ft of January 1786, and from that day all negotiation was to be at an end. Now, therefore, when the time of negotiation was past, the New Board of Trade were bufy with the fubject, and they were about to send out a Negociator. Mr. Fox exercised his railiery at the expence of nifters in this particular, and said, he fuppofed no ftep had been taken, nor fcarcely any progrefs made, within the time prefcribed by Treaty.

As another proof of the bad timing of our political proceedings, in the course of what he had faid refpecting the Treaty of Confederacy entered into by France, Spain, and the United States, Mr. Fox mentioned, that Sir James Harris had

3

prefented a Memorial to the States upon the fubject, but unfortunately not till af ter the Treaty was concluded. He paid Sir James Harris many compliments, and faid, when he read the Memorial, he pitied the fituation of Sir James, as he could from his own knowledge declare, that Great Britain never had a more refpectable, a more able, or a more active and accomplished Ambassador at any foreign Court.

Mr. Fox next called the attention of the Houfe to the fituation of affairs in India, and faid, ever fince the Board of Controul had been established, a dark veil had been carefully drawn over all that had paffed in that diftant part of our dominions, and he verily believed not without good and fufficient reafon; fecrecy he was perfuaded, was the only fafeguard for the conduct of thofe Cominiflioners, whofe orders had added to the confufion of our affairs in India, rather then produced any one falutary effect in the British poffeffions in that quarter of the globe. Mr. Fox reprobated Mr. Pitt's Bill in terms of molt acrimonious reproach, and called upon that Gentleman to fay, if after all that had happened, he ftill would venture to talk of it fo triumphantly as he had been wont to do? Every man, he admitted, was pardonable for entertaining a fpeculative opinion of the probable good effect of any mcafure of his own before it came to be tried, but no man ought to be allowed to indulge himfelf in expreffions of felf praife, which experience had proved that he by no means merited. His India Bill had been attacked on the ground of its taking away the Charter of the Eaft India Company, after proof of its having been grofsly abufed, but the Right Hon. Gentlemen's Bill did what was ten thoufand times worfe; it took away the una lienable rights of individuals, and deprived British fubjects of their birth-right, the right of trial by jury, and of trial by their Peers; a right fecured to every Englishman by the great charter of our liberties. Mr. Fox laid great ftrefs on this point, and contended that the alarm, indignation, and disgust the Bill had occafioned in India, were the natural confequences of a meafure fo alarmingly pregnant with injuftice, oppreffion, and injury. The claufe, obliging all the fervants of the Company who came from India, after a certain period to give an account of their fortunes on oath, he reprobated as most unjust and delufive. It held out protection and fecurity to the

rich,

rich, while it obliged the poor to fubmit to its fevereft operation; which pofition he illuftrated by fhewing, that it gave all that wifhed not to fubmit to it three years to return home in; this,the opulent, and the opulent alone, he remarked, could take advantage of. He alluded to the boafted accounts of the promifing ftate of the Revenues of India, and faid, iftead of only fourteen hundred thousand pounds deficiency, they would now, he believed, find not more errors of fractions, but errors of millions. The circumftance of Lord Macartney's coming home, and the arguments that could be drawn from it, dinot efcape Mr. Fox's penetration. He ftated, that Lord Macartney had acted throughout the whole of his ftay in India upon the most upright principles, and had come home with hands perfectly clean and unfuilied. He faid, his Lordihip from a conviction of the neceffity of the meafure, had taken the collection and management of the revenues of the Carnatic out of the hands not of the Nabob, but of his agents and ufurers, who plundered the natives and robbed him, and had vefted both in the hands of the Company. This measure the Board of Controul had overthrown by their orders, and directed the collection and management of the Nabob's revenues to be reftored to him. The fatal effects of the order had spread alarm and terror through the Carnatic, and impreffed the Council a Fort St. George with fo ftrong an idea of its impropriety, that Lord Macartney went himfelf to Calcutta, to remonftrate with Mr. Haftings, and to deprecate the confequences. Let the Houfe, faid Mr. Fox, guefs the furprize of his Lordship, on finding Mr. Hattings depart ed for Europe, and a commiflion there appointing him Governor-general, a fituation it was impoffible for him to accept, while the order to restore the collection and management of the Carnatic revenues to the nabob continued in force. Mr. Fox pointed much of his fevereft argument against the abfurdity of removing the Governor General, who recommended the measure Lord Macartney had reprobated, and appointing his lordship to the poft of Governor General with orders to do, what he himself had found to be equally unwife and mischievous to the intereft of the Company and the interefts of the Nabob, and had condemned. Mr. Fox gave the highest encomiums to Lord Macartney, and before he quitted this part of the fub ject, declared he did not fpeak from any authority derived from Lord Macartney,

nor did he wish to be understood, that what he had faid was any thing more than what he, in common with the reft of the public, knew and was acquainted with.

The laft point Mr. Fox brought under his difcuffion was the business of the Irish Propofitions, refpe&ting which, as he had before obferved, he faid it was highly neceffary that parliament and the public fhould clearly know what was intended. He reminded the House, that when the fubject was firft ftarted the Right Hon. Gentleman, in fome of the most vehement ftrains of his all powerful cloquence had condemned the noble lord in the blue ribband for having given Ireland certain grants, without having firft afked her whe ther they would be acceptable, and for having left matters as they stood, when the propofitions were first taken up, the Right hon. Gentleman having again and again told the house, it was impoffible they could remain as they were. He defired to know what was the true conftruction and meaning of that part of his Majesty's fpeech then under confideration, that mentioned the refolutions, but a declaration to that houfe, that matters mufi remain as they were? Mr. Fox dwelt on this for fome minutes, and with reat force of ridicule animadverted on all that had paffed upon the fubject, and especially on the language that had been held by the Minister and Mr. Dundas, upon the propriety of the line of conduct that had been pursued, in firft taking the fenfe of the Irish Parlia ment in order to afcertain their expectations, before the English parliament were called upon to confider the fubje&t. He urged the flat contradiction that the event of the business had given to all their predictions refpecting its fuccefs, and stated in strong terms the mifchief that he conceived the agitating the matter at all, had done, by difgufting the manufacturers of Great Britain, and teaching them that the Houfe of Commons would difregard their petitions, ftating their dread of the mifchievous confequences to their feveral branches of manufacture, were the intended system carried into execution; as the beft means of checking the evil, and preventing the effect of having ever entered into a difcuffion of points, which, he said, he was convinced ought never to have been disturbed or brought before the pub lic, he advised the Minifter explicitly and unrefervedly to declare his determination to abandon all further thought of attempting to carry a measure fo odious and deteftable in the eyes of the manufacturers

and

f.

and merchants of Great Britain and Ireland. He spoke of the manufacturers in terms of the highest refpect, and declared he was fatisfied that to their ingenuity and te industry, and to their fpirit and perfeverance, the country owed its exaltation to the ftate of refpect, character, confideration and profperity, to which its trade, manufactures and commerce, had been raifed in the eyes of all mankind. He took notice of the reafoning ufed by the Secretary of State for Ireland in his celebrated letter to his conftituents, in recommendation of the propofitions, on the ground, that as the British manufacturers confidered the grant of the propofitions to Ireland to be highly injurious to their interefts they muft neceffarily be advantageous in an equal proportion to the interests of the Irish manufacturers, as an argument perfectly found and forcible in itfelf, but as an argument extremely humiliating to the British minifters, and which placed them in a very contemptible light. After remarking upon this, and a great variety of other facts and obfervations, Mr. Fox briefly recapitulated the heads of his fpeech, which he admitted was rather a series of reasoning against what was out of the speech than against what was in it, and then lat down with defiring an explanation of the two main points of the fpeech to which he had alluded, declaring, that if they were fatisfactorily answered, he would give the house no more trouble on that day, though most of the topics he had touched upon, would he obferved require a full difcuffion on a future occafion in the courfe of the feffion.

After a fhort paufe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer rofe and faid, that he waited to fee if any gentleman had objections to make to the Address; for the Right hon. Gentleman who spoke laft had certainly made none. He could not avoid bearing teftimony to that peculiar, and almoft diftinctive dexterity, with which the Right hon. Gentleman was enabled, on all occafions, to leave out of the difcuffion fuch parts of the fubject as were unfavourable to him, and he had, on the present occafion, equally an opportunity of admiring a fimilar talent of introducing, however foreign and unconnected, fuch matter as he expected would be favourable. Thus he had entirely abandoned the various fubjects of the fpeech, in order to difcufs fome that were, he complained, left out, and indeed had almost professedly confined POL. MAG. VOL. X. JAN. 1786.

himself to these omiffions. The Right hon. Gentleman's fentiments, with refpect to the fituation of the country being rather of a gloomy and defponding caft, he had, no doubt, an expectation of finding fumething in the King's speech that would have afforded him an opportunity of indulging his melancholy feelings on the ftate of public affairs; but finding every part of the fpeech filled with the happiest intelli gence, he had been obliged to travel into foreign countries in purfuit of his object. He had traverfed the empires of Germany and Ruffia; He had vifited Turkey and the Crimea for this purpofe; but finding, like other modern difcoverers, Europe too narrow for his enquiries, he had carried his fpeculations to the remoteft parts of the globe, and had ranfacked the Indies for fources of complaint and defpair.-Although he by no means intended to follow the Right Hon. Gentleman in his deviations from the fubject as largely as he had fet him the example of doing, he fhould yet make some anfwer to each part of the Right Hon. Gentleman's fpeech, allowing him however, a latitude of avoiding to give any opinion whatsoever on fome particular parts of it, though on all fuch as he thought he could with propriety do it, he would freely deliver his fentiments. The Right Hon. Gentleman had acknowledged that he confidered himself at liberty, in his prefent fituation, to fpeak of foreign courts, and their views and interefts, in a manner that would be contrary to the duty of his Majefty's minifters to do. For his own part, although he was ready to admit that there was a ftronger and more facred restraint on those who were in the immediate confidence of his Majefty than on other gentlemen, yet he must also obferve that the duty of members of parliament, although in some, from their additional character of minifters, it might differ in degree, was, in general, of the fame nature with refpect to all; and that part of his duty which enjoined a delicacy and caution, when speaking of foreign ftates, was one from which he would not fuffer himself to be diverted by the Right Hon. Gentlentan. The Right Hon. Gentleman had defired to be informed to what particular part of continental politics that part of his Majefty's speech alluded, which announced the profpect of a general peace. He could take upon him to fay, that it folely related to that particular transaction

which

which had taken place fince the conclufion of the laft feffion-the treaty of peace be tween the Emperor of Germany and the States General of the United Provinces, by which a difpute was terminated, that until then feemed to threaten the peace of Europe, and that had been taken notice of in that light by his Majefty, in his fpeech at the opening of the last feffion. As to the queftion the Right Hon. Gentleman had thought proper to afk, whether there did not exist between any other Princes or States of Europe fuch feeds of difagreement and ill humour, as might probably break out into future wars and quarrels That was a fubject on which he thought proper to decline giving any opinion what foever. The right hon. gentleman had expreffed himself apprehenfive of a hoftile difpofition towards this country in certain courts of Europe; to this he could only anfwer in terms fimilar to thofe contained in the fpeech, that there was every affurance of the most friendly intentions from them all. With refpect to the treaty with the Emprefs of Ruffia, it was in a state of forwardnefs, and he had every reafon to hope would be completed in fuch a manner as should give general fatisfaction. The German confederacy, to which his Majefty, in his capacity of Elector of Hanover, had acceded, had also been mentioned, and Minifters had been called upon to defend its propriety. He fhould by no means take upon him to make fuch a defence; as he was ready to confefs, that whatever might be the merit or demerit of that meafure, he and his colleagues in office were by no means intitled to either. He enlarged confiderably on the fubject of the connexion with Hanover, pointing out that however accident had placed the fovereignty of that country, and of this in the fame hands, it by no means followed that the interefts of each must neceffarily be the fame; though he was willing to admit, that from the circumstance of their having one and the fame Sovereign, it was likely that their interefts might fometimes be parallel, when without that circumftance they might be different, and perhaps it might be for their mutual advantage to make their interefts as reconcileable to each other as poffible. Yet he defired to have it understood, that Great Britain was by no means committed, or bound by any kague lately entered into by the Elector of Hanover; nor did he look upon it as incumbent on the minifters of this country to lay before Parliament, except in cafes

of neceffity, fuch arrangements as have been made for Hanover, by the as vice of the minifters of that elect rate.

He pointed out the inconfiftency of Ms Fox's extreme apprehenfion of our beist involved in difficulties through the means of his Majefty's German territories; and yet his expecting, that the administratio of those territories fhould be subordina to, and regulated by, the Minifter of Great Britain, as if that very circum ftance would no of itself render it abfo lutely neceffary that this country fhoud on all occafions confider itself as bound to protect and affift the electorate. Where the only way for Great Britain to ave embroiling herfelf in quarrels for Har ver, was, by our administration standing as much as poffible independent of Hanoverian politicks, With respect to the fil tuation of India not being touched upon i the speech, he apprehended the right hot. gentleman might as well have objected to i a fimilar omiflion concerning any other ci the foreign poffeffions of the empire. Thei complaint was that our Indian affairs haci not been mentioned, as they used to be inj former fpeeches, ever fince the appointment of the Board of Controul. The reafon of this was perfectly obvious, and had been explained on the first day of the laft: feffions; it was, that there had appeared fo many errors and mifcarriages in the govern ment of that country formerly, that his Majefty for many feffions had been induced to call upon his parliament to adopt fome mode of effectual regulation, by which a ftop might be put to the enormi. ties complained of that parliament had at last taken up the bufincfs, and applied a remedy which had been found effectual; and therefore the neceffity of the Crowa reminding them of it no more exifted. The right hon. gentleman had been carried away by his warmth on this fubject to far as to introduce a topic, which formerly he was extremely averfe to hear mentioned

the violation of charters. On this head the right hon. gentleman had gone great lengths, for he had ftigmatized the mode of trial appointed for East India delinquents as an infringment on the Great Charter by fetting afide the trial by jury, He made a handsome panegyrick on that mode of trial, but contended, that there might be tribunals in certain particular cafes that would be found to answer all the purpofes of public juftice in an equal degree, and particularly inftanced the prefent mode

of