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hon. gentleman in the representations he by the state of the finances of a counthought fit, from time to time, to make of try. Now, let us see how far the right the general temper and disposition of the hon. gentleman has adhered to those salucountry. He, for his part, did not believe tary maxims. It is no small part of wisthat any great portion of the people were dom, if a man be not over-sagacious himinfected with Jacobin principles. Several self, to profit from the foresight of others. trials had taken place for acts of alleged But the right hon. gentleman was, in this treason; many persons had been taken up respect, incorrigible. He placed implicit and confined under the suspicion of trea- reliance on the statements and represensonable machinations; yet were ministers tations made to him by the emigrated nonot able to produce a single proof that blesse of France, and built his schemes on there existed large and formidable bodies the report of persons whose interest it of men who panted for innovation, and was to deceive him. Were these the who wished for revolution. Under the proofs of his transcendant abilities, these pretence of guarding the country from the credentials of his being "a heaven. imaginary evils, this political Quixote, born minister?" He would now pass on this fighter of windmills, had exposed it to another of the right hon. gentleman's to real ills. Under the pretence of weak- experiments. How far it was consistent ening, he had strengthened and aggran- with morals and the dictates of hudized France. The more he reflected on manity, to form the project of starving a the ruinous consequences of the late war, whole nation, he should not stop to inthe more did he feel impressed with gra- quire, but confine himself merely to the titude to the present ministers for having result of that notable experiment. concluded peace. It was the war which was to that scheme, and to the badness of rendered that peace necessary; that cala- the preceding harvest, that we owed the mitous and destructive war, begun and car- scarcity with which we were ourselves afried on by the late administration, and which flicted in 1795. To bring back the corn had terminated in a total failure and miscar- trade to its regular channel, the right riage of all the objects for which they pre- hon. gentleman was obliged to drain the tended to undertake it. Waiting, how country of its specie, in order to procure ever, the issue of the war, he would now corn from the foreign markets; the conproceed to investigate the point, whether, sequence of which was, the stoppage of and how far, the right hon. gentleman the Bank in 1797. Such was the result had manifested ability and skill in the of the right hon. gentleman's humane atconduct and management of it? On this tempt to starve twenty-five millions of subject there were three wise and funda- fellow-beings! The next point on which mental maxims which he wished to press he should animadvert was the ambiguity upon the attention of the House. They of the right hon. gentleman's conduct. had been ably stated in a political work, By this he had alienated not only the best by a late writer, certainly no way attached of the royalists, but had more particularly to the revolution and existing government forfeited the alliance of the king of Prusof France; but yet who had loyalty, sia, who deserted us the moment he persagacity, and penetration sufficient to see ceived that our views were directed to our the impracticability of conquering France on the system proposed by the right hon. gentleman. That intelligent writer had laid it down as an essential maxim, in the first place, never to trust to the accounts which emigrants give of the state of the country from which they have expatriated themselves. The second point was, never to rely on the success of the invasion of a country because dissentions may obtain among its inhabitants. In case of invasion, says this able politician, party dissentions will be laid aside, and all will unite against the common enemy. The third and last maxim was, never to welieve that the success of an invasion can be calculated and determined

own aggrandizement. The French Royalists felt outraged, and justly so, when they saw us take possession of Valen. ciennes, not in trust for the French princes, but for Austria; and Toulon, with the fleets of France, in the name of the king of Great Britain. In the article of subsidies, the right hon. gentleman had carried his system to a length far beyond any of his predecessors. It was the enormous and lavish subsidies granted to foreign powers which most essentially contributed to the hardships, distress, and scarcity, under which the country laboured. As to the system which he had pursued with respect to St. Domingo, it was difficult to say what was his real aim

of Russia. Yet, rather than concede this point, the minister chose to embroil the country in a dispute, which, but for the opportune death of the late emperor Paul, might have led to the most disastrous consequences. That the war was now over, even under disadvantageous circumstances, afforded him sincere satisfaction. He was ready to admit that the terms of the peace were not the most auspicious, and that they were such as could only be justified by the calamities brought upon us by the war. But however infelicitous the terms, they reflected in no wise on the present administration, who were justly entitled to the praise and credit of having restored to the country the blessings of peace-whilst all the miseries under which the country had so long laboured, and all the inconveniences it must still continue to experience, were ascribable to the measures pursued by the late administration. There was one point on which he knew the late prime minister not a little prided himself, and for which he had great credit given him by his friends. This was his rare abilities as a financier. He wished to see how far the right hon. gentleman's pretensions were well-founded. In this view, he should analyse some of his boasted acts. To commence with the Income tax. What was the effect of that odious measure? It ope rated to the degradation of the English character; it debased the man, and compelled him to submit to an inquisitorial system, totally repugnant to the principles and spirit of the British constitution. What was his sale of the land tax? What but an act equally impolitic and unwise? He boasted of having kept up the funds. True, he had done so-but how? By an injurious extension of paper money; by an exorbitant rise in the price of all the necessaries of life; by reducing the tradesman to poverty and wretchedness, and by filling the poor-houses with thousands of miserable inhabitants, who, for the last two years were doomed to perish, to the amount he would not say of hun

in these transactions, whether he meant to take possession of that island in trust for the French king, or to establish in it a government of Blacks. If the former had been his object, he might easily have attained it, as the inhabitants would willingly have submitted to royalty. On the first expedition sent to that island, only 750 men were employed; yet before we had done with it, it cost 25,000 lives, and two millions of treasure. In 1799, the memorable expedition to Holland was undertaken, another Quixotical experiment, which ended in discomfiture and disgrace. Then followed the infraction of the treaty of El-Arish, which event, among other lamentable consequences, put it out of our power to protect and succour our ally Portugal. The army under the justly lamented Abercromby, which might have defended Portugal, was obliged, in consequence of the breach of the treaty of El-Arish, to be sent to Egypt. The next instance of incapacity and delinquency was the answer sent to the overture made by Buonaparte. He would appeal to the House whether there was a single gentleman at this moment who did not regret the rejection of the overture made by Bounaparté, in 1800. The peace which had just been concluded was on terms much worse, and far more humiliating. And what infinitely aggravated the guilt of the right hon. gentleman was, that, at the very time when he scornfully rejected the overture, he knew the country to be labouring under the deepest distress, struggling with famine, and involved in difficulties from which peace alone could relieve us; yet turned he a deaf ear to all remonstances, and determined to persist in his career of war and bloodshed. For this purpose, he excited Austria, in the autumn of 1800, to renew the war, though he must have foreseen that she was not in a state to prosecute hostilities. The consequence was that Austria was completely subjugated by France and compelled to sue for peace. One of the next incidents in this eventful chapter was, the unfortunate dis-dreds, but of thousands. [Strong and pute with the Northern powers; a dispute which might easily have been prevented, by giving up Malta to the emperor of Russia. Why such a measure should be deemed impolitic, he was at a loss to conceive. In his opinion, Malta, under the auspices of Naples, was infinitely more likely to be dependent upon France, than if it had been placed under the direction

general murmurs]. I say, Sir, that thou sands of persons have perished in the poor houses within the last two years. If any gentleman doubts the accuracy of this statement, let him move for a committee of inquiry, and I pledge myselfto produce such damning proof as shall make his hair stand on end. The right hon. gentleman claims great merit as a finance minister.

he was about to propose, that gentlemen | most tremendous storm they had ever would be now called upon to bring into encountered, and who looked back upon view the general merits and demerits of the scarce subsiding waves with emotions government, and, upon a conscientious of calm delight, and unspeakable satisfacrevision of their whole conduct during tion? Every man, not lost to all virtuous the war, to decide for or against the mo- and honourable feeling, or whose inteltion he intended to submit to their consi- lects were not wholly benumbed, must deration; and he was far from wishing have felt at the end of the year 1792, and any gentleman to vote with him who did at other periods of the war, no common not feel entirely satisfied that their merits anxiety for the fate of his king and counvery much outweighed their defects. He try. Let them turn their eyes on their thought indeed that, considering with the present situation, on the vessel of the smallest portion of candour, the unprece- state, having weathered the storm, riding dented difficulties of the late contest, and in triumph and security in her native port the liability of man to err, it would not be and then let him ask the House, whether conceived extraordinary, if the late go- some credit was not due to those who had vernment should occasionally have be- steered her uninjured through a sea so trayed, in their conduct, the imperfection threatening, so awful, and so tempestuous ? of human nature. In the motion which He could not avoid shortly stating a few he intended to propose, he included those of the most prominent features of the danministers who had been principally con- gers they had escaped by the fortitude and cerned in conducting the affairs of the na- exertions of the late administration. They tion in the arduous contest in which it had had not only France to contend with, had been engaged; but he meant cer- but French principles supported by arms. tainly to point both the vote and his re- They had not only a foreign enemy, but marks chiefly to the late chancellor of the a domestic one to alarm them and increase exchequer, who had been, for so many their difficulties. While they had recourse years the leading member of his majesty's only to legitimate means of carrying on councils, and to whom the country was, the contest, France, in a state of unbridled above all others, indebted for the distin- licentiousness, had recourse to depredation, tinguished character that it at present confiscation, and blood, to recruit her conheld. The other ministers who held high tinually-exhausted finances. In the early responsible situations, would partake in part of her revolution too, the deformity the honour of the vote in proportion to of her principles was veiled by appeartheir merits, or conscientious discharge ances so specious and alluring, that they of their duty, and undoubtedly, in pro- for a while infused their fatal poisons even portion to the opinion entertained by the here; and the disaffected availed themHouse and the public of their respective selves of the delusion to spread their treaservices. He should now proceed to sons in England, Scotland, and especially touch upon some of the leading circum- in Ireland, where the materials to work stances of the late war, and the conduct of upon were more combustible, and better the government. In the first place, he suited to their diabolical designs. Withwished principally to hold up to the con- out dwelling, however, on this part of the templation of the House, the striking subject, he should only add his firm concontrast between the situation of the viction, that had it not been for the country at the present moment, and at vigilance and firmness of his majes the end of the year 1792-he said at the ty's government, at the time when the present moment, because, although last life of our beloved monarch was traitorously year a new administration had succeeded endangered, dreadful would have been the to the management of public affairs, yet, confusion, desolation, and bloodshed in this in the conduct of the war, they followed metropolis.-The next point he wished to the system adopted by their predecessors advert to was, their great success in the in office. Comparing, then, the present contest in different parts of the world. In period with that of the end of the year the course of the late war their conquests 1792, let him ask the House, whether had been many, their losses none. they did not feel themselves a little more House had had repeated opportunities of secure now? than they did at that time? contemplating with admiration the immorWhether they did not feel themselves tal exploits of the navy; the army too had very much in the situation of mariners, excited their applause and eternal gratiwho had just escaped the dangers of the tude. He begged leave then, to ask,

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whether some merit was not attributable | the persons of the Irish gentlemen? He to those who directed the public service, preparatory to such splendid achievements? It was the publicly declared opinion of one of the greatest heroes of this or any other country, that a large share of the merit due to the ever-memorable victory of the Nile was attributable to those who originated and planned that expedition. If they turned their eyes to India, the conquests in that distant quarter of the globe had established their reputation on a basis so firm, that the country need not be apprehensive of the security of their possessions there, under the direction of hands less able, and understandings less enlightened and comprehensive than those of the present governor-general, who had acted a master-part in the late splendid transactions in that part of the British empire. If he should be asked, how he connected their conquests in India with the late government? he should in his turn ask, whether the governor-general's instructions did not come from hence ? And if he should be asked, how he connected lord Wellesley more especially with the late chancellor of the exchequer? He would say, was he not brought up in the school of his right hon. friend? Did not the House see him within a very few years strenuously and ably contending with him here for the maintenance of the honour, dignity, and character of the nation, in the great contest in which they had been engaged? He ought not, in that place, to omit to give the merit due to the late government, for the promptitude with which they called forth and organized the patriotic zeal of the nation, manifested by all ranks, in the alacrity with which they voluntarily stepped forth to defend the country against the threatened invasion. He next came to speak of the Union with Ireland, which was too remarkable a feature of the late government to be over looked-an union which originated in an attempt, on the part of France, to disunite us for ever, but which ended in a union entire, and, he trusted, indissoluble. Already the good effects of the Union began to show themselves in Ireland, by diminished irritation and augmented confidence and industry. Here too, he might be allowed to speak favourably of its effects; for he could confidently appeal to the Speaker and the House, whether more propriety of conduct, urbanity and good sense, had been ever witnessed, than in

congratulated the House and the country upon it; and, although the union was as yet in its blossom only, he thought he might fairly anticipate its fruit ripening, and that speedily, into richness and abundance. And to what influence and per. severing resolution were they chiefly to attribute the union, but that of the late chancellor of the exchequer? He considered it unnecessary to go into any detail, to prove the increase of the commerce and credit of the nation under the fostering protection of the late government, or to specify the many wise laws introduced by them for the security and welfare of the people. He was aware that he had omitted topics which might have been brought forward in just eulogium of the late ministry; but he could not forget one, on which the reputation of the late chancellor of the exchequer might be con. sidered principally to rest; he meant his unrivalled talents in managing the finances of the country. By his sinking fund system, he had wisely contrived to uphold the public credit, and to ease the burthens of posterity; but, what was worthy of peculiar admiration was, that, in the midst of a contest of unexampled difficulty, his right hon. friend had had the resolution to leave the sinking fund untouched, and to have recourse only to legitimate sources of revenue to supply the necessary means of carrying on the contest with vigour : but he did more; for, trusting to the firmness and disinterested magnanimity of the country, even at the time when nearly two millions had been voluntarily contri buted to the support of the war, he pro posed the tax on income as a war impost, which was readily adopted, though it fell at the moment with peculiar weight on the country. This tax, excellent in theory, though somewhat defective in operation, was a most powerful weapon in the hands of his right hon. friend to fight the battle of the revolution, of public credit, and of the country. In fine, he might be truly said to have established a system of finance, by means of a rigid adherence to the integrity of the sinking fund, in times even of great peril, which might be called the magna charta of public credit, which no future minister would venture to depart from, and which, whilst it attracted the admiration of this and other countries, was calculated to preserve the country wealthy, prosperous, and independent. He was now going to