Mr. Fox. nary, on the entire refignation of office on the part of the prefent Adminiftration; but though he poffeffed an employment of eminence, it was not one of choice, and he trusted, whenever a favourable opportunity offered, he would prove himself not to be tenacious of power, or defirous to cling to office, but that he acted from patriotic, not private confiderations: his duty obliged him to preferve his fituation till another arrangement fhould be formed, and not fuffer the nation to remain in that ftate of anarchy which it experienced on a former and fomewhat fimilar occafion; if gentlemen wifhed to treat on fair public principles, let them lay afide the trifles of etiquettes and ceremony, which could answer no folid purpofe; let them proceed on terms of candour, by which alone an union might be formed on a permanent and firm foundation, which could alone preserve this country, while ruin and mifery must be the inevitable confequences of divifion. Mr. Fox faid, if the honourable member before had not manifefted his confidering himself fuperior to this House, he in this inftance had clearly expreffed, ftanding up the unconftitutional Minifter of the Crown; he defpifed the refolution of this infignificant affembly. The honourable gentleman remarked on the advantage of appealing to the fense of the Houfe, and very juftly; the honourable gentleman was himself the only Minifter who ever defpifed their approbation, creeping into power by means unfair, as they were unconftitutional; he did not pretend to that confidence which fo eminently diftinguished the late Miniftry, the confidence of this Houfe, and the confidence of the people. Ceremony and etiquette he might be eafily induced to forego; nay, he should even, on fome occafions, facrifice his own honour, and that of his friends, and fuffer their dignity to be diminished, if the emergencies of his country required it, but on no occafion would he fuffer any facrifice to be made of the honour or the dignity of the House of Commons; both the one and the other were at ftake in the contempt of their refolutions: as long as they conveyed a cenfure, as long as they reprobated- the principles on which the Ministry held their fituations, fo long would he refufe to unite with them; fo long would he oppose them, though they fhould poffefs all the abilities, all the virtues, and the popularity which any former Adminiftration might have poffeffed, or which night poffibly fall to the fhare of any fubfequent Adminiftration. But how does the gentleman attempt to defend himself? On what ground does he ftand 1 against against the cenfure of Parliament? Because (he fays) the majorities against him are diminishing. How would he exclaim if this argument had been used againft him in the year 1782, when we loft a divifion by a majority of one; and next queftion gained it by a majority of 16. The Ministry of that time had the fpirit to refign when they loft the fupport and confidence of Parliament, circumftances effentially neceffary in the former Minifters; but the love of power and station has, in the prefent Minister of the Crown, always predominated over every other confideration; from the removal on a former occafion may be dated the mine, which at length blew up the late Ministry. I have been much myself (faid Mr. Fox) in the habit of differing from a majority, but it was on public points in which I had no concern as their fervant. If I had at any time found the fenfe of the House against me as a Minifter, I should immediately have refigned, and faid, you must find fome other inftrument to do your bufinefs, for I fhall never be agent in any cause I do not approve. Mr. Fox, with infinite point, and infinite fuccefs, combated all Mr. Pitt's pofitions, avowing a determined refolution to enter into no terms with the Minifters of the Crown while they continued in office. The question was again called for, and agreed to without a divifion. Mr. Fox then rofe, and moved that the Houfe fhould go Mr. Fox. into the committee on the ftate of the nation on Thurfday next the 29th. The Houfe accordingly adjourned to the 29th, The following Speech having through error been omitted, it is thought neceffary to infert it in this place. Vide Vol. XII. page 482. On Mr. Erikine's motion that an addrefs be prefented to the King," &c. Mr. Beaufoy, in reply to Lord North, Mr. Beau spoke to the following effect: Notwithstanding the pleafantry of the noble Lord who spoke last but one in the debate, notwithstanding the jocular mood in which he addreffed you, I cannot but affent to the melancholy reflections with which the honourable gentleman who moved the addrefs introduced that motion to the House. For that the prefent feafon is indeed a feafon of alarm; that the diftreffes of the kingdom are great be yond C2 foy. yond the experience of any former period, and that for a confiderable time past fearful apprehenfions of the future have feized on the minds of men, are truths which no one who loves his country, or who values the conftitution, will venture to deny. Surely, Sir, in such a situation, the first queftion which every reflecting man will afk, will not be, "Shall we address the Sovereign?" it will rather be, "What are the causes of this unufual diftrefs? who are the men who have brought thefe evils upon the State?" Does the noble Lord hear this question? The time may come, perhaps, when his country will propofe it to him. What was the ftate of the nation when the noble Lord firft became Prime Minister of the kingdom? Refpected and revered abroad as the foremost nation of the earth, and profperous at home even to their utmost wish, the English faw themselves the happiest people of the world. Extenfion of commercé, improvements in agriculture, increafe of income to the ländlord, increase of profit to the tenant, were the circumstances which diftinguished that fingular æra. Indebted, indeed, the nation was, but not beyond her ftrength; engaged too she was in an unhappy conteft, but the means of reconciliation were in her power, for at that time Mr. Penn's petition had not been rejected. Such was the ftateof the nation when the noble Lord firft became its Mini, fter What was his conduct? The happiness of the country was vulnerable but in one part, and there the attack was made. With an appearance of candour and plain fincerity, he armed the pride of Parliament against its most esfential interefts; he perfuaded the people that the Americans were their subjects as well as the King's; he cherished the contemptuous opinions, and foftered the furious refentments of the Houfe, till the folly of the Minifter seemed loft for a time in the madnefs of the Parliament. The confequences of his conduct I need not state: we all know its effects on our foreign dependencies; on America, on Ireland, on India, reduced by his means to that very poverty which is now made a charge against her. Its effects on the internal happiness of the kingdom we all deeply feel: the country gentleman feels it in the decline of agriculture, in the diftreffes of his tenants, in the diminution of his income, and the enormous increase of his annual expence. The ftockholder feels it in the total annihilation of his fortune, and the fearful uncertainty of the fate that may attend the rest. The - The merchant and the manufacturer feel it in thofe accumulated taxes that enrich the fraudulent trader, while they weigh down the exertions of the honeft, and finally confign him to a prifon. The friends of the noble Lord applaud his good humour, and his claffic wit; and it must be acknowledged that the forrows of his country have not reached him; for while Britain beholds, with deep difmay, the ruined state of her finances, ruined during his admi niftration; while the laments the lofs of half her empire, a lofs which even his affociates afcribe to his folly; while The mourns the blood of her people, fhed under his conduct in a most accurfed caufe, he himfelf poffeffes the utmost hilarity of temper, and infults her forrows with his jokes. What was, the conduct of the noble Lord after he was driven from office? At that time, great as the calamities were which he had brought on this unhappy kingdom, two sources of confolation ftill remained: the public faith had never yet been broken; and the British conftitution was as yet entire. It was therefore hoped that if the, fhattered remnants of the empire could ftill be faved by the establishment of peace, time and means might be found for the gradual reduction of the public debts; and for this purpose a plan of great ability, fince published, was formed, at the particular requeft of the Minifter who fucceeded the late Lord Rockingham; that plan the noble Lord's return to power rendered utterly abortive; that peace which faved the nation when on ruin's extremeft verge, to which he had conducted her, he reprobated. What was the next measure that marked his Lordship's conduct? A plan. I am forry I cannot ascribe it wholly to him, for a person whose name once was dear to this country, ftood forward on this occafion a volunteer against her; a plan it was for violating the public faith folemnly pledged to the India Company; a plan that tended to unroot from the minds of men all confidence in the State; a plan that converted questions of right to queftions of mere convenience; and that left to the Bank of England, to the South-Sea Company, to the corporation of the city of London, and to the proprietors of the public funds, no other reasonable hope than that of be ing laft deftroyed: nor was this all; for left the foundness of the Conftitution fhould at length throw off this rotten excrefcence, the Conftitution itself was to be attacked. Executive authority was to be given to the delegates of the people, and the Government be changed from a wifely limited limited and admirably-conftituted monarchy, to an aukward and ill-regulated republic. I fay, Sir, an aukward and ill-regulated republic; for what is a republic but a government in which executive authority, as well as legiflative, is given to the delegates of the people? If the noble Lord was perfuaded that the influence of the Crown ought ftill to be diminished, why did he not propose triennial Parliaments? Why did he not propofe the exclufion of penfioners from feats in this affembly? Why did he not propose a juft and equal reprefentation of the people? In all thefe I would gladly have fupported him, for thefe are conftitutional means of leffening the influence of the Crown: thus, Sir, I have pointed out (what, on enquiry into the ftate of the nation, it was my duty to fhow) the measures that have brought us with a rapidity unknown to paft ages, and that will be incredible to the future, from the height of profperity to the uttermoft diftrefs, from wealth to poverty, from power to weaknefs, from extended empire to mutilated and curtailed dominion. Does the noble Lord deny that the calamities of the State are imputable to the measures of his administration? Let him ftand forward and affign, if he can, any other reason for the evils we now endure. As to the queftion before us, I do not much object to the motion itfelf, for God forbid that I fhould deny the right of this Houfe to addrefs the Sovereign; but I dread the fpirit from which, on this occafion, it appears to me to be offered to the House. The refolutions of the Houfe in the year 1641 were not illegal; few of them could be called unconftitutional; yet the spirit that dictated those resolutions fubverted both the law and the Conftitution. If in the proceedings of a certain party in the prefent times, the fame fpirit that governed the long Parliament fhould appear; if they fhould be found to act on fimilar principles, if their conduct fhould difcover the fame contempt for the Peers, the fame defire af rendering them ufelefs to the State; and above all, the fame diflike to the perfon whom the Conftitution venerates moft, it is time for every man who wishes well to his country or values the Conftitution, to ftand upon his guard; for if these things be fo, the danger will not only be great but immediate it will fall not on a diftant age, not on a remote people, but on the age in which we live, on ourselves and on our children. January |