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January 29.

Another conversation and debate took place on the affair of Mr. Hamilton of Bergany; and the matter being explained to the fatisfaction of every one, the order for his attendance was discharged.

Mr. Fox faid, this was the day in which it was intended Mr. Fox. to refume the Committee on the ftate of the nation. He regretted, that when this order had been made, the circumftances in which it originated were not fo effectually changed as to occafion in his mind any fubftantial reason against a literal compliance with it. The Houfe and the public ftill faw, to their forrow, a Miniftry in this country retaining their fituations in direct oppofition to the House of Commons. They faw the fervant of the Crown claiming the privilege of fetting up his fingle opinion in oppofition to theirs. They faw an obvious intention of putting all their refolutions and measures to defiance. Was it not refolved, after the most folemn and deliberate difcufion of a very full Houfe, that the prefent Miniftry, who came in on fecret influence, and were fupported by every fort of influence except that of a public and avowed one, were difhonourable to Parliament, and injurious to the fervice of the country?

It was on account of their occupying this very fingular and unfatisfactory ground, that their conduct had engroffed fo much of the attention of the Houfe. And were matters now altered for the better? What new facts had been ftated, what other reasons affigned than thofe already heard from the right honourable gentleman? The House confequently was reduced to the disagreeable and mortifying fituation of being infulted and defpifed with impunity. Was this an honourable or decent fituation for fuch an affembly? It was a fituation in which Minifters could do no public good whatever. National affairs were perfectly at a tand. And why? The right honourable gentleman faid he would infift that his judgment was preferable to the collected wisdom of the Houfe.

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But let gentlemen confider what the prefent ftate of the public is. Does not the bufinefs of the community actually cease? What is it that can be carried on of any confequence to the community at large, while the Ministry and their reprefentatives are not agreed? He knew not what facts the right honourable gentleman might be in the

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humour to deny ; but he was perfectly founded in faying, that whatever depended on the concurrence of Parliament, was by his pertinacity or obftinacy perfectly at a ftand.

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In what bufinefs then were Minifters engaged? There were always things enow to do in the mere etiquette of office. The world were not to learn that much private favour had been lately diftributed. But would Minifters and their partizans fay with what view thefe valuable gifts were vouchfafed? Was it not to ftrengthen, ftimulate, and promote certain views which had excited Minifters to increase a body of men which it was their object to render inimical to the conftitutional influence of that House?

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This was a project which evidently originated with the fecret advisers of the Crown, whofe intereft it was to vilify and traduce the reprefentatives of the Crown; and thofe who would thus ftoop to be their tools, their inftruments, and their creatures, were always fure of encouragement at Court. The confidence of the Houfe of Commons, of the public, and of the world at large, was no object, no recommendation to them. But in proportion as they conciliated the good opinion of the public, in proportion as they flood well with the Houfe, in proportion as their meafures were likely to be of general and eminent advantage, in the fame proportion would they be condemned, cenfured, and expelled the confidence, the careffes, and the favour of the Sovereign. What then fignified a majority of the Houfe of Commons to a Minifter who stood on such a ground? It might ferve him to carry a few neceffary meafures, but would never exhibit him as an eligible fervant of the Crown. No. It was only in fo far as he deviated from the Conftitution, as he fhewed a contempt for the opinion of the people, as he preferred his own judgment to that of Parliament, that he fhould gain in the Royal esteem, or merit the approbation and fupport of those who were conftantly exercised in whispering the worst things of the best men.

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These were the glorious and important purposes for which the whole patronage of the Crown had devolved on them, and was used with all the licentioufnefs and partiality of private property. He always expected to be told on fuch topics as this, that the prerogatives of the Crown were not to be impaired or reftrained. He was the laft man who would ever wifh to fee one of the three eftates ftript of any of those powers with which it was legally invefted. But

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were not all thofe powers originally given with a view to the public fervice? He would be glad to know how such an object as this could be ferved by the late creations which had taken place. He trufted nothing he faid would be understood in any degree as perfonal; but he thought it his duty to mention the intereft which, as it ftruck him, the public undoubtedly had in whatever either directly or indirectly affected their intereft.

He would infift on it that Minifters were refponfible to the House of Commons for the exercife of every prerogative belonging to the Crown. It was in the Houfe of Commons, or by the people in their original capacity, that every exertion of thofe powers which diftinguifhed the Sovereign of the Empire, were ultimately to be tried, and in proportion as they answered the primary intention of their inftitution, be acquitted or condemned.

Now, however, the fecret came out on which the present arrangement proceeded; they forfeited the confidence of the House, or, what was the fame thing, treated it with the greateft contempt, because it enfured them a welcome reception from their private employers. Their conduct was therefore no longer a mystery to the public. It was written in the moft legible characters. They not only oppofed their own official confequences to that of the Houfe, but by their obftinacy and temerity established a most melancholy and dangerous variance between the Sovereign and the people. Through the medium of this ill-omened Adminiftration, the fubjects at large, and their Supreme Magiftrate, were taught to regard each other with jea loufy and miftruft. This was one capital object of their fyftem, and it was undoubtedly very well calculated for attaining its end.

To what lengths the Houfe would be juftified in going. under fuch a circumftance, it did not become him to say; but neither would any one oppofite to him pretend to affirm that Parliament was not defied by Minifters. Why did they not condefcend to gratify the public, to meet the wishes of the people, to facrifice their attachment to place for the fake of reftoring tranquillity to the country, and confidence in an Administration which might do the bufinefs of the people as it ought to be done? Who did not remember to whom the interregnum of laft year was owing? How was the interval of public bufinefs then filled up? Things were then done which the nation could not foon VOL. XIII.

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forget;

forget; and they were done under the fame circumstances of public difcontent, and the fame inftruments which gave them their formality and effect. A fimilar indignity to the country in the eyes of all Europe was now going forward; was perpetrating in open day; was infulting thofe radical and hitherto undifputed powers which the Constitution had lodged in the Houfe of Commons. All the world were witnesses to a farce which the prefent actors could only submit to play. — They kept the country without a government at a period when the preffure of public bufinefs never was greater; for at this time it could not be faid we had in fact any thing like an effective government. He trufted in God men's minds would foon open to the ridicule of their own fituation, and fave the British name from that ignominy, that contempt, infeparable from rulers of fuch , a description.

But how long were they deftined to continue under all the disadvantages of fuch an executive power, which was altogether deftitute of energy, of influence, of respectability? How was the Houfe of Commons, thus irritated and infulted, to conduct itself? He had conceived from their late conduct the best opinion of their resolution, their sense of dignity, and their attention to their honour and privileges as a body; he fhould therefore hope they never would fuffer themselves to fall into the fnare thus laid for them by thofe who wished, and only waited to take every poffible advantage that might arife from their conduct in a fituation thus critical and trying. They had already disappointed those who had thus proved them, by a temper, a moderation, and a magnanimity, which did them the highest honour. This was the calm, the deliberate, and the manly line of conduct in which he hoped they would perfevere, and from which no temerity, no haughtinefs, no obftinacy from those individuals who had set themselves against them, would ever tempt them to depart. He, for one, would not wish to precipitate things to fuch an extremity as might even be juftified by their peculiar disposition and mode of thinking, to which the nation was obliged for all its prefent calamities. He therefore recommended firmness without obftinacy, and moderation without pufillanimity, as that which, notwithstanding every confequence, would ftill juftify the strongest measures in the eyes of the public.

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He therefore propofed the Houfe fhould adjourn till Monday, in which, did nothing occur to give public affairs a more favourable afpect, it would certainly be neceffary to resume the Committee on the ftate of the nation. The few days refpite which fuch an adjournment would afford might be employed as thofe which were paffed had been. He trufted the well-meant endeavours of fuch as wished to produce fomething like an union, might not again prove abortive. But he was bound in confcience once for all to declare, that while the prefent Ministry retained their fituations, every effort of that kind, however laudable and well intended, must be useless and unavailable.

Exchequer,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not rife to oppose the The Chanmotion of the right honourable gentleman, but was called cellor of the up in very exprefs terms to ftate his objections to the mode of arraignment thus conftantly adopted by thofe on the oppofite fide of the House. Against all that very high language thus perfonally addreffed to him, he would only oppofe his fimple affertion, as no more argument was used on one fide than he fhould affect on the other. Indeed he doubted not the Houfe would think with him that fuch a torrent of criminating affertions were not by any facts whatever to be established. He was confcious to himself no part of his public life or official conduct ftood in the least need of any apology.

The delicacy of his present situation required discretion. He was determined to fuftain it with as much firmness and decency as he could. This refolution was the refult of deliberation, and no invective or afperfion which the right honourable gentleman could throw out fhould divert him from that fort of behaviour he had already purfued; he could only act in fo far as his own judgment directed him. This direction he trufted would not lead him into any very palpable mistake; and while he retained a confidence of this kind, it was in vain to expect he would be the dupe of any other.

The right honourable gentleman, in faying they did not poffefs the requifites of a legal Administration, was wrong, as they certainly had every formality which belonged to them as the fervants of the public. These epithets, fo well calculated to throw an odium on them, were therefore improperly applied; for whatever the right honourable gentleman might think of a majority, he would not allow

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that

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