to do any thing that must prove diftreffing to the country. Why then were the Houfe of Commons fo circumstanced by the obftinacy of His Majefty's Minifters, or the advisers of His Majefty, as that they could not preferve their own rights, the rights of the conftitution, or the rights of the people, without fuch an affertion of their prerogative as must be attended with the moft ferious and affecting mif chief? Who were to blame for all this, but those who defied a majority of Parliament, and fet up their own fagacity in oppofition to the collected wifdom of the Houfe? He was fincerely forry any individual should fo far forget his confequence, however refpectable,, as to think it beneath him to submit not to any perfonal etiquette, but to the honour of the House, to that voice which has always prevailed in the pureft times in this country, to that decifion which no Minifter till now had ever the hardinefs to contest, to that conftitution which it had always been the greatest glory of the greatest men to venerate and obey. What then was the principle on which we beheld at this moment a Ministry. without the confidence of the Houfe of Commons? An ex.ecutive government in which the House placed no degree of trust whatever. How fhould a phenomenon in the conftitution be accounted for on thofe great and liberal principles which had ever been its proudeft diftinction? He was unwilling to adopt any language that might be capable of misconstruction; but it was fair and manly to say, that the defign of ruling this country without the voice of the people was now obvious. He would readily abfolve the right honourable gentleman from any imputation of this fort, but he would not fo readily abfolve those who had fecretly advised His Majesty to appoint a set of men to the execu tive government of this country in opposition to a majority of the House of Commons. These perfons, whoever they were, had adopted a fyftem of politics totally inconfiftent with the functions of this Houfe, hoftile indeed to the fpirit and character of a free government. It was their evident intention to render the Houfe of Commons the mere tool and organ of defpotifm. He hoped the spirit of a brave and a free people would defeat the base design; but the defign would not appear the less dark and difingenuous that it was not permitted to fucceed. He had long obferved the machinations, hatched and harboured by a combination of perfons, against the liberty of this country, whose political principles were too well understood to need any farVOL. XIII.

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ther illuftration. These perfons had long endeavoured to have the voice of the people on their fide, have long struggled to make the people parties in their own ruin, have long endeavoured to make them at enmity with their best friends, and to perfuade them that thofe only who run every risk, and facrifice every thing defirable on their account, are most hoftile to their intereft, and leaft inclined, as well as leaft able, to do them any real fervice. This is one of their most capital manœuvres, which they are playing off in the face of a country which bleeds at every pore, and under circumftances which render us the derifion and contempt of all the world. But how is it meant to demolish the confequence and utility of this House? Have they not refifted every idea of delicacy which ought to have operated in favour of that majority which opposes the Ministers they have put in, and continue to fupport? Have they not trifled with the voice and inclinations of the Houfe, fo forcibly and explicitly announced by the feveral refolutions in the Journals? Have they not procraftinated that iffue which the business of the public and the wishes of the Houfe have fo long and repeatedly urged, till the patience of the Houfe is nearly exhausted? He hoped that virtue would prove fuperior to the temptations it had now to encounter, though, as all delicacy was over with one branch of the Legislature, fome might think it ought also to be at an end with another. He was of a different opinion, and held it their duty to continue in the fame prudent, and respectful temper in which they had begun. Notwithstanding the plan laid to precipitate them into an immediate refufal of fuch fupplies as were neceffary for carrying on the public bufinefs, he was not without hopes that the House would act fuch a part as would justify them to their conftituents. Whether they fhould go immediately into a decifion which should finally fettle the difpute between the privileges of Parliament and the prerogatives of the Crown, or whether fome anterior ftep might not be deemed more eligible? What this would be, whether two or two hundred expedients might be moft advifeable, were, in the present state of his mind, questions to which he dared not hazard any anfwer whatever. He would only fay, in general, that whatever had the most diftant promife of anfwering any pacific purpose, he, for one, would be anxious to adopt, and, if poffible, by every expedient which human fagacity could fuggeft, to avoid al-together a difcuffion fo hoftile to public tranquillity. He

wondered by what principle the honourable gentleman could reconcile his prefent fituation to the feelings of his own mind. He was fatisfied he could not be where he was from choice. Was every one, then, who faw and admired, the difplay of his great and fplendid abilities, more fenfible of their prefent improper application than he was? He certainly meant no perfonal disrespect, and he perfuaded himfelf the right honourable gentleman would not take it in that light, when he fufpected he was the dupe of those who were enemies to the conftitutional importance of this Houfe. They prefumed on his youth, the popularity which attended the family to which he belonged, and the illuftrious name which he bore; and were he to use the fame freedom in this Houfe which one friend might use to another, and in a room with the right honourable gentleman alone, he would address him on the prefent conteft in these words "You are contending in the House of Com-, mons not for the prerogatives of the Crown or the conftitution, connected with the exercise of these prerogatives, but for a set of men, who are only making you the instru ment of their ambition, and that object gained, they will make you nobody. It is their intention to make you only, an acceffary to their own plans, and whenever their schemes are fulfilled, they will deftroy your utility for ever. They make you exert your utmoft endeavours to pull down this afylum of liberty, but you unadvisedly involve yourself in its ruins."- If therefore Minifters are determined to brave the power of Parliament, and oppofe their own perfonal feelings to the honour of the House and the welfare of the people, they must abide by the confequence. The princi ple on which they act is an everlasting bar to any profpect of unanimity in this houfe. He was alarmed more by this than any other circumftance whatever. It ever had bore to. his mind a menacing afpect to the liberties, not of the Houfe only but of the country. It affected that great vital. and active principle in the conftitution on which all the privileges of Englishmen hung; and while that impediment remained, no coalefcence could be expected. It placed an ocean between them, which it was impoffible to pass, and put every with of agreement or connection altogether out of the question. These were a few of the circumftances which at prefent preffed on his mind the abfolute neceffity of a folemn paufe. This question itself was a question of the laft importance, when ftated in an abstract and general

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point of view. He was, however, happy to find that the particular species of fupply now moved was not immediately indifpenfable, and that no material disadvantage could poffibly happen, at leaft for the very fhort space to which he wifhed the Houfe to adjourn. He fhuddered to debate a' propofition of fuch magnitude. "Tempus inane peto fpatium requiemque furori." He wifhed only for fuch a paufe as would allow gentlemen time to re-confider all the steps. which had yet been taken, or might be farther neceffary to put a proper period to the conteft which had unhappily fo long interrupted the bufinefs of the public. He concluded with fhortly moving for the adjournment.

He

Mr. Powys, Mr. Potoys faid that the motion of the right honourable gentleman was the only proper courfe to be purfued in the prefent circumftances of the country. It was the moderate courfe; for he confeffed that he dreaded to come to the decifion on the question of supplies. If the House must be called to that queftion, if they were yet to come to issue on the point, he trusted he should have conftancy of mind to meet it; but he ftill perfevered in imploring gentlemen to withhold from the alarming extremity, yet to moderate their temper, and to confider that while this dreadful pause exifted the affairs of their country were running into waste. muft, he faid, give his concurrence to the motion which had been made, as the only means of yet giving us a breatheing time, in the profpect that a compromife might yet be brought about; and he confeffed that he thought a com promife might yet take place. It was true that the answer which they had received from the Crown put the Houfe* into a very delicate fituation. That House must support their refolutions. They must not, for the fake of any fet of men, the Minifters of the day, facrifice their character, their duty, their office in the conftitution. But they might take a gentle courfe in pursuing the means which were neceffary to their prefervation; the answer of the Crown could not pafs without a notice. [Mr. Powys was given to underftand, by figns and in whifpers, that the House had not received any direct answer from the Crown.] He said that they had unquestionably received an intimation of the will of the Crown on the subject of their refolutions. The Minifters were not changed, nor had they refigned. Was this an answer that either did or could fatisfy the Houfe? Muft not the Houfe take fome farther step on the occafion? He knew it was the fenfe of the House that they should do

fo, and he wished to propofe a moderate courfe. It was, that they should either present an addrefs, or pass a refolution, declaring that they had the confidence that His Ma jefty would yet take meafures which fhould give effect to their refolutions. By this propofition, which, if he found that it met the fenfe of the House, he faid he should move, he trufted the end which they had in view would be an fwered. His Majefty would have opportunity to re-confi der the refolutions, and they would not come fo readily to the alarming queftion, which must be the refult if no other answer was given. In the mean time he faid the right honourable gentleman had great merit in his moderation. He had proposed an adjournment, by which Minifters were yet enabled to fhew that they were actuated by better motives than the mere luft of power. Of Mr. Pitt he still profeffed he had the higheft notion, and he confided in his patriotifm, and in the integrity which he had always fhewn, that he would yet deliberately confider the merits of his fituation, and yield to the preffing calls of his country. It was the faying of a diftinguished writer, that there were some men whofe abilities were born with them; fome men who achiev ed abililies; and a third fet, upon whom abilities were thrust. Thefe, the writer faid, were the three orders of able men; and all these three diftinctions of ability met and were combined in Mr. Pitt. He had the highest opinion of him, and, in taking the part which he did on the prefent occafion, he by no means intended oppofition perfonally to him. He had confidence in Mr. Fox and his friends, that they had fair and honourable defigns in the propofition which had been fubmitted to both parties of an union. In defiring him to refign before they could negociate, he might be af fured that they did not mean to trick him. The whole country would be pledges to him of his fecurity, for the country would not bear to fee a Miniftry formed without him. His Majefty's anfwer undoubtedly did not fatisfy their wishes; but fo far as it went it merited their thanks: but the only real anfwer that they yet had to their refolu tions, was the feeing the right honourable gentleman in his feat on the Freafury Bench. He trusted he would be able to give a better account of the matter than that he retained his office against the collective wifdom of the House, and that he acted in a capacity prescribed by the resolutions of the House. So far as thefe refolutions were injurious to their country, let the majority who put them upon the

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