Portland from his prefence and Councils for ever: that this addrefs was not complied with, and that the House received no answer to it. Nevertheless, faid the learned gentleman, the House went on to grant the fupplies exactly as if they had repofed the most implicit confidence in thofe Minifters. From thence the learned gentleman had inferred, that there was no ground for refufing the fupplies at prefent, because there was a want of confidence in Minifters. He must beg leave, Mr. Fox faid, to remind that learned gentleman, that he had either forgot the history to which he alluded, or done what was worse, wilfully mifreprefented it. The fact was, at the time the addrefs alluded to had been voted, and fent to the Throne, the noblemen in queftion were no longer Minifters. They had been removed in 1700, and the addrefs was an addrefs requefting his Majefty to ftrike them out of the lift of Privy Counsellors. The money voted in 1701, and the fupplies that were granted, were not voted in confidence to the noble Lords alluded to, because they were not Ministers at the time. The only allufion, therefore, that had been made by gentlemen on the other fide of the House to a former period, had been completely and abfolutely mifquoted. Indeed thofe gentlemen would find but little to their purpose in thofe more happy and fortunate periods, when the liberty of this country had been protected, cherifhed, and maintained, in all that purity and vigour that had made us the wonder of the world. In these periods, the Princes on the Throne had refpected that House, and their first and greateft glory had been to attend to its withes, and liften to its advice. God forbid, he faid, that thofe fecret advisers of His Majefty fhould induce our prefent gracious Sovereign to be the first of his name, and of his race, to neglect the counfels, and turn afide from the advice of his faithful Commons; advice which had hitherto been well taken, and ftrictly followed by every Prince of the houfe of Brunswick, and the neglect of which would bring us back to thofe dark, inglorious, and arbitrary periods of our history that he had fo often mentioned. The ground, the unconftitutional ground, on which the prefent Adminiftration ftood, was fo totally new, and fo abfolutely the contrivance of the prefent Minifter, and of those advisers, of whom he hoped (for the fake of that right honourable genleman's reputation) he was the tool and the dupe, that it was not poffible for him to forget what he had faid upon that fubject within a very fhort period. He remembered, at the time when he differed from the noble Lord near him upon public principles, when the American war was the subject of debate, when he thought the continuance of that was ruinous to the country, to have asked the noble Lord, why he did not quit a fituation, which he could no longer hold confiftently with the good of the country. The noble Lord replied to him, that it was not his affertion that would induce him to quit his fituation. But that as foon as he fhould find that he no longer poffeffed the confidence of that Houfe, he would quit it. Mr. Fox declared, his reply to the noble Lord at that time was, "many thanks to him, for doing what he couldnot avoid ;" and be confeffed at the time, he thought the retort a good one: he did not at that time know, that the noble Lord was fetting an example of conftitutional conduct, which was very foon to be difregarded by his fucceffor. He did not then know, that inftead of making, what he then thought, a good and folid answer to the noble Lord, he was guilty of a grofs impertinence, for giving the noble Lord no merit nor praife, when he had fo much, by refifting every attempt that could be made to make him act contrary to the principles of the Conftitution. He could now fee, indeed, why the objections to the noble Lord, from certain quarters, were fo ftrong and vindictive. The noble Lord would not lend his name to thofe unconftitutional attempts of refifting the opinion of that Houfe, which had been fo ftrangely left to be the work of the right honourable gentleman over against him. Had the noble Lord chofen to adopt his measures, had he fet at defiance the first grand principles of our conftitutional freedom, he would have been applauded, where he was now reviled; he would have been courted, where he was now perfecuted. Finding, therefore, that his best thanks were due to the noble Lord, when he declared that he would refign, when he loft the confidence of that House for a determination to act as he did, indeed in conformity to the Conftitution, inftead of the uncivil retort he then made, he did now most heartily beg pardon of his noble friend for his fhort-fighted and impertinent fpeech. Mr. Fox said, he was fure, if either a diffolution of Parliament was to take place, or if a reform in the reprefentation was to be effected, he could have no objection whatever to appeal either to a new Parliament, or to a reformed reprefentation, for he defied any person to state any disadvantage that would arife to the prefent majority in that House by either of thofe events. He did not mean to fay that there would not take place, as at present, those small changes in numbers, which all who attended attended to that Houfe knew muft take place from accidental circumstances, but which did not, upon the whole, effentially change the defcription of individuals, of which either fide was compofed. If there was an alteration in the reprefentation, by adding to the county Members, he was not afraid of any dimunition of numbers from that event. When he looked round him, when he recollected thofe of that defcription who compofed the prefent majority, he found a very great proportion of the reprefentatives of counties, and another defcription of perfons equally respectable and equally independent, though not reprefenting counties; he meant independent country gentlemen, who reprefented boroughs. If they were to be increased, if Parliament were to be diffolved, did the gentlemen on the other fide of the House think they would be benefited by fuch an alteration ?—No, the reverfe was the truth. He had examined every defcription of perfons refpectable for their reprefentation, refpectable for their independence of spirit, refpectable for their love of the Conftitution, refpectable for talents, zeal, and exertion, in that glorious caufe; he had found it extremely difficult to discover an inftance of any clafs or denomination where any change, fuch as he had alluded to, could poffibly give a majority to the prefent Adminiftration. At laft he had been able to lay his hand upon one set of men, who, if they were increased, would produce a change indeed in the state of the majority in that Houfe. He meant thofe perfons who procured their feats in that House by the favour of the Treasury. He believed this was rather unparliamentary language; but he meant thofe perfons who had obtained their fituation there by means of the noble Lord near him, those who had under the Adminiftration, and by the favour of his noble friend, accumulated fplendid fortunes. These were the perfons, who, if increased, might perhaps produce the effect that the right honourable gentleman wifhed. It was upon those men that he depended for fupport; while the increase of fpirit, of independence, of refpectability, would be of no avail, the increase of ingratitude, of desertion, of every thing that could blacken and difgrace the character, would ferve his purpofe. He took notice of what Sir William Wake had faid relative to the American war having been gone into from a falfe notion of preferving the dignity of that House. That was, he faid, a mistake, the American war had not been more the war of that Houfe than of the other branches of the Legiflature, but that Houfe had been the firft to fee its errors, and to put an end to the war. He alluded The Chan alluded alfo to Sir William Dolben's having afked a few nights fince, if the prerogatives of the Crown were to be ferved up as a collation, like Sancho's banquet, to feaft the eye alone, and not the appetite: he faid, he by no means meant to deny that the prerogatives of the Crown ought to be fubftantial; all that he contended for was, that the House of Commons, who granted the public money in large fums to Minifters upon confidence, had a right, at leaft, to have a negative voice in the appointment of thofe Minifters. He argued much at large upon the eventual effect either of the continuance of the prefent Adminiftration, or of the return of the laft into power; and fhewed, that neither of the two would be able to carry on fo vigorous a government as the fituation of the country required: he therefore ftrongly recommended an union, for the purpose of forming a firm, efficient, extended, united Adminiftration, which fhould equally fhare the confidence of the Crown, and the confidence of Parliament. He particularly infifted on the neceffity that the confidence of the Sovereign fhould be fairly participated; and after an ample difcuffion of the subject of the addreffes prefented in Charles the Second's reign, and a comparison between them and the addreffes lately prefented, and an infinite variety of arguments on general grounds, he returned to a confideration of the queftion, which he said was abfo- · lutely neceffary as a kind of falvo jure to gentlemen, before they could confent to vote the fupplies in the present fituation of affairs. After the queftion fhould be carried, and he trufted it would be carried by a confiderable majority, he declared, he should have no objection immediately to receive the report of the ordnance estimate, and vote that fupply: but he begged to be perfectly understood, as not by any means giving up the conftitutional right of that Houfe to ftop fupplies; but as it was a queftion of infinite moment and alarm, he wifhed the Houfe to adopt every means of procraftination and of delay, to avoid coming to its decifion. The Chancellor of the Exchequer rofe the moment Mr. Fox cellor of the fat down, and spoke fubftantially as follows: The right hoExchequer. nourable gentleman, Sir, has gone through fo vaft an expanfe of matter, he has embarked the Houfe in fo wide an ocean of politics, that it is impoffible for me to follow him through the whole courfe of his fpeech. I beg leave, however, while both the House and myself are fresh in the recollection of it, to prefs upon them again what the right honourable gentleman himself, at the clofe of his fpeech, has this this day at laft been driven to confefs, though I had long la boured, and, as I began to fear, had laboured in vain, to convince him of it, namely, Sir, that if the right honourable gentleman and the noble Lord in the blue ribband should regain their fituation, fhould expel all His Majefty's prefent Minifters, and refume their old measures, their restoration would not enfure the reftoration of peace, of happiness, and of content to this diftracted country. The right honourable gentleman now confeffes it; and yet, Sir, he ought also to confefs, and to know and feel, that his prefent measures do moft directly tend to the re-establishment of that coalition, to the certain exclufion of His Majefty's prefent Minifters, and to that very calamity which he himself now begins to dread, and with the dread of which, I had fo ftrenuoufly endeavoured to infpire the House. Procrastination is now become his plan. I wish not to be understood as calling out for violent measures; but this I will fay, that merely to temporife is no man's duty at the prefent moment: if, therefore, every violence is intended against this Administration, let us not keep the country in fufpenfe, but let us advance like men to the iffue of this conteft; the prefent queftion is weak and feeble, compared to thofe which have gone before it; and I dare fay, therefore, every gentleman muft expect that it will be without effect. The right honourable gentleman, Sir, has appeared to-night in a character perfectly new to him, but which he has fupported (as, indeed, he supports every one of his characters) with wonderful dexterity: he is to-night the champion of the majority of this House against the voice of the people; not the champion of any large majority against the doubtful opinions and feeble voice of the people; he has endeavoured, indeed, in this his new character, to depreciate, nay, and to calumniate the voice of the people of England. Impofture was the word ufed by his learned friend; the right honourable gentleman improves upon the idea, and tells you that impofture was a word ufed merely by way of civility; it is by way of complimenting the people of England, that the right honourable gentleman fays their opinions are founded in impofture; and then, by way of libelling thefe addreffes, and of libelling this reign, he recals to your mind the addreffes offered in the infamous reign of King Charles the Second, affecting to furnish the House with a cafe fomewhat in point, and warning them not to truft at all to the most unanimous addreffes of the people of England, by fummarily mentioning those which were offered to that Monarch, requefting the Crown to take into |