Sir William
Lemon,

Mr. Chan

Journals be accountable: but fince they were, he held that the House were bound to see them carried into effect. Before he fat down he said he must take notice of a circumstance which he had heard, and which he thought of fufficient authority to warrant him in putting a question to the right honourable gentleman. It was rumoured, he said, that His Majefty had, with the most paternal attention to the wishes and opinions of that Houfe, propofed a measure for effectually answering their refolutions, by the formation of a new Ministry; he begged the right honourable gentleman to fay whether this was fo or not, and what was the reafon that His Majefty's paternal wishes had been fruftrated.

Sir William Lemon faid, that he wished not for any union on the principles now held forth. The Minifter had made every conceffion which his perfonal honour and official fituation could permit him to make; and as these two must live or die, or stand and fall together, he was in hopes he would not stoop to any improper negociation. He had never liked the refolutions of the House: he thought them arbitrary, violent, and perfonal. Many allufions had been made to the unfortunate reign of Charles the First, when. the Houfe of Commons had fwallowed up all the other branches of the Legislature. But he begged gentlemen. would recollect that then the people and their reprefentatives were unanimous. The right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) oppofite to him feemed abundantly fenfible that this was not the cafe; for the public were all in a ferment against the former Minifters, and unanimous for the prefent. For this reafon, inftances drawn from that unhappy period were by no means applicable to the prefent. He was glad the Minifter had difcovered fo much refolution in fo good a caufe; and he hoped he would perfevere, as the national credit depended on that circumftance, more perhaps than the House in general would be willing to allow.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt was happy to give way to any cellor Pitt. honourable gentleman, anxious to hear what their fenti. ments on fo important a point were. At the fame time he would be thought naturally called upon to fay a few words on the very extraordinary fpeech which had been juft delivered by the right honourable gentleman oppofite to him. A great part of what had been faid was evidently founded in a mifconception of what he had ftated previous to the debate. He was in the recollection of the Houfe, but he

would

would appeal to all who heard him, whether he had stated what he said as a meffage from His Majefty. The truth was, that he had not fignified any immediate communication with the Throne on the subject; and in order to put the matter out of doubt, he would repeat his words, and leave the Houfe to judge of their accuracy: "That His Majefty had not thought proper to difmifs his Ministers in obedience to the refolutions of the House, and that his Ministers had not refigned." This declaration he stood pledged to make previous to the prefent difcuffion, and thought it his duty to ftate what he had done; but he little apprehended fuch a ufe could have been made of it. He had meant it only as an intimation of the prefent fituation of Ministry, that they were precifely in the fame predica ment that had produced the refolutions which had been fubmitted to the confideration of His Majefty. The right honourable gentleman, however, had, with his ufual eloquence and ingenuity, laboured this as a direct answer from the Throne. He, for his own part, wifhed as much to bring the question to an iffue as the right honourable gentleman affected to dread it. An attempt was made to colour the putting off the fupplies, as if it was only the pause of a moment, and that this paufe was occafioned by a circumstance which the Houfe had not foreseen, and which put the House, the country, and every thing in quite a new fituation. Allowing all this to be true, which he would not allow but for the fake of argument, how could fuch an explanation of things put a difpute on facts which the least difcerning might fee through? The fupplies were to all intents and purposes stopped. The right honourable gentleman affects to call it poftponing, but he trufted the people of this country would fee that the trick attempted to be put upon them and on this Houfe, was too fhallow to have effect. It could not, he was well perfuaded, fucceed against the good fenfe of the people of this country. But why would not gentlemen come openly and plainly forward? He was fure no man would doubt that he allowed the right to the Houfe of Commons, of withholding the fupplies, whenever the circumftances of the cafe would justify fuch a measure; but he was in hopes no man would fay the prefent was a crifis of that kind. The right honourable gentleman, conscious of the fact, was very prudently and confiftently averfe to push the queftion. It was then only that his Majefty's Minifters could be fully inveftigated.

It

It was on this ground, and for this end, he would urge the going into that question; and he challenged those on the other fide to meet it fairly, openly, without difguise or subterfuge, like men. For in this difcuffion, the different motives of the contending parties would be obvious; and he would fay with the utmost confidence and fincerity, that it was a decifion he could urge, for which he was anxious, as he knew from the temper and principles of the House, they would be thy indeed, in the present state of the country, to withhold thofe fupplies on which the harmony and energy of Government depended, and for which the national faith was pledged.

Many of the right honourable gentleman's arguments had been addreffed perfonally to him, but with what propriety gentlemen of feeling and delicacy would judge. There were points in perfonal honour which no man of spirit could for any object whatever forego; and whatever were his connections or attachments, he hoped never to forfeit feelings, without which he could not retain confiftently any opinion of himself. He would therefore declare once for all, that he confidered his perfonal honour deeply and infeparably concerned in the prefent fituation which he held; and that he would not on any account, or by any means, first refign, and then stoop to negociate; that was, leave his place in order to make part of a new Adminiftration. What! would he tell the world by fuch a ftep as this, that he was capable of facrificing any thing to the love of fituation? No. It did not become him to trifle in this manner either with his own character, or His Majefty's confidence. But at present he held a connection with perfons who contaminated him. Would this be any where elfe believed? And what was the meaning of all thofe perfonalities fo repeatedly pointed to him, but that he should relinquifh one fet of men in whom he truited, and knew he could truft with fafety, to another; that he fhould begin to ferve his country by doing a private. injury to those whom he could not but regard with admiration; that he should be obliged for a paltry fhare in office to facrifice his perfonal feelings, and treat those with whom he had been long in habits of intimacy and esteem with a neglect which bordered on perfidy. He was convinced the 'Houfe, the public, those who knew him at leaft, did not expect him capable of purchafing the honour of office at fo dear a rate. These were his ultimate fentiments on a fubject about which he had been much preffed, and he hoped they would be confidered as final.

Mr.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt had now fat down, but as Lord North Mr. Chanhad juft role to fpeak, Mr. Chancellor Pitt begged to be cellor Pitt. heard on a point which had efcaped him. It was certainly true, and he was happy to have been reminded of it, that his Majefty had been induced, out of his paternal_regard for his people, to propofe another Administration. But the noble Duke to whom application for that purpofe had been made, put a very fummary period to the bufinefs. A perfonal conference had been defired, which however could not, it feems, take place till Minifters refigned their fituations; and it was moreover to be a condition in this formation, that the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) was to have the fole nomination of the new arrangement. He had to regret that His Majefty's endeavours did not meet with nore fuccefs.

Mr. Fox ftated the propofition made to his Grace the Mr. Fox, Duke of Portland, as hinging entirely on the House of Commons. This was a circumftance which his Grace was not by any means difpofed to give up, and therefore every propofition to that purpose would be nugatory, while this material and effential preliminary was not adjusted.

Mr. Bamber Gascoigne here called Mr. Fox to order, and said he rose only to explain, whereas he had gone into an answer.

The Speaker then owned, that he had inadvertantly fuffer- The Spea ed the right honourable gentleman to encroach on the order ker. of the House from the material information which he was expected to give on a point of fo much importance.

Mr. Fox then rofe again, and after infifting that he was perfectly in order, refumed the fubftance of what he faid above.

Mr. Powys role to explain - He faid it had been thrown Mr. Powys, out by a right honourable gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that there was an intention to mislead the House by the prefent amendment. Members had been cautioned. against those masks and disguises under which a point of the laft importance was covered. He would fpeak his mind freely on these points. He was the dupe of no man's politics; neither did he believe that there was any intention in any person to mislead or blind the Houfe. He hated every fpecies of fophiftry, and spoke always what he meant, and meant what he spoke. Such was the general tenor of his principles and of his conduct. It had been afferted, that there was a wifh in fome perfons to withdraw the confidence VOL. XIII.

X

of

Ld. North.

The Chan

Exchequer.

of the public from Ministers - This was never his wifhHe had again and again expreffed his high veneration for many of them; but amidst all the refpect and efteem he entertained for them, he still entertained a higher respect for the Conftitution. He would ftill afk, whether there was not a misunderstanding between a majority of the House and Minifters? This was the point on which the question hinged, and till this was decided by the refignation of Minifters, he thought it would be improper to proceed to an immediate grant of fupply. He therefore would move, "that the Houfe adjourn the farther difcuffion of the queftion to Friday."

Lord North rofe only to put the honourable member in mind, that the words of his motion were nearly, if not altogether, the fame with those which had been originally propofed in the motion of his honourable friend to this Mr. Powys agreeing,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose to explain what he cellor of the had originally ftated to the Houfe He had not long fat down before he had found his words and fentiments mifunderstood and mifapplied. He had delivered no opinion from His Majefty; what he had stated was fimply this, "that His Majefty having taken into confideration the resolutions of the House of Commons, had found no reason for dismifling his Minifters, and that they had not refigned." This was what he had stated to the House, and which, by varoius comments and different accommodations, had been mis-stated and mifapplied. It had been thrown out that these gracious confiderations of His Majefty were the objects of an address to the Throne. He however thought that the best mode of expreffing the gratitude of the House for His Majesty's gracious confideration of their refoutions, was by granting the supplies.

Ld. North,

Lord North rofe up to give his fentiments on the prefent afpect of affairs. He could not confider them but in the moft ferious light. The conteft feemed now to reft precifely on this point, whether the existence of this House was to be continued or not. This question, fo interefting in its nature, had been denominated a Parliamentary punctilio. But in what did this punctilio reft? Did it owe its exiftence to a conftitutional collifion of principles, or to the obftinate pride of the right honourable gentleman now at the head of Administration? He for his own part was rather inclined to attribute this circumftance to fome fuch