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duty, my fixed regard for the conftitution of our ancestors,
maintain me ftill in this arduous fituation
It is not any
proud contempt, or defiance of the conftitutional refolu-
tions of this Houfe; it is no perfonal point of honour,
much less is it any luft of power that makes me ftill cling
to office; the fituation of the times requires of me, and
I will add, the country calls aloud to me, that I fhould
defend this castle, and I am determined therefore, I will
yet defend it.

Mr. Sheridan warmly supported the motion, and made a fpeech full of pointed fatire.

Sir Cecil Wray faid, he was extremely surprised at what Sir Cecil had lately fallen from his colleague (Mr. Fox) who had faid Wray. fo much relative to the great applause he had received from: his conftituents. Does the right honourable gentleman mean to plume himself on having been hiffed and hooted by his conftituents? For hiffes and fimilar marks of disapprobation must have been confidered by him as marks of applaufe. Sir Cecil then faid, he was just come from a refpectable meeing of his conftituents, where he had been informed that the address against the late Administration was figned by no less than five thousand odd hundred electors of Westminster.

Lord Mahon then rofe. He faid that he fhould indeed Ld. Mahon. have been as much furprised as the worthy Baronet who fpoke laft appeared to have been, at what had fell from the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) relative to the general meeting held in Weftminster Hall on Saturday last; if any thing that could be afferted, by that right hon. gentleman in that Houfe, could ever create in his mind any fenfation whatever of furprize. He did not, he faid, think it decent to contradict the right hon. gentleman, because he could not give him as direct and flat a contradiction as he deserved to receive on that fubject, without his doing it in terms which would not be decent to use in that affembly; neither did he think it deceut to make any contrast or comparison between the credit due to Mr. Fox and the credit which all men, of all fides, allowed to be due to the worthy baronet who had just fat down, and who was, in his opinion, as well as in the opinion of the public, one of the most upright, one of the most virtuous, one of the most honourable and independent men, of the most unblemished public (as well as private) integrity, and unquestionable veracity, of any of the fairest and pureft characters who were then fitting, or who, in

the

the purest times of the English hiftory, had ever sat in that House. He would not bring such a witness to contradict the bold affertions of the right honourable gentleman; but he would use the very words of the right honourable gentleman, in order to make those words contradict what the right honourable gentleman had just faid himself. It was not the first time that he had, in that House made the right honourable gentleman contradict himself out of his own mouth; neither would it probably be the laft - The right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) had, on that day, made the roundest and most unqualified declaration which he had ever heard made in that House; the most wonderful and extraordinary of all the wonderful and extraordinary declarations which had ever been made even by the right honourable gentleman himself. The words of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) as he had taken them down were thefe, I am fure that as to Westminster, I never had, at any period, more the real, warm zeal, and hearts of the people, than I have in the prefent moment." The right honourable gentleman, when he thought proper to make this unaccountable declaration, had undoubtedly forgot, that in the fame speech he had faid but a few minutes before, that " he got great unpopularity by the warm and decided fupport which he had given to the tax upon receipts; and that he had also been rendered unpopular by the ideas which the public had taken up relative to his East-India bill, which it was impoffible for the people to understand.” The right honourable gentleman had undoubtedly forgot, that he had, in the fame speech, owned and afferted, that "his coalition with the noble Lord in the blue ribband had produced to him great unpopularity, great odium, and great obloquy." Does popularity then confift in "unpopularity?" Does the right honourable gentleman poffefs more than ever he formerly poffeffed, "the real warm zeal and hearts of the people;" because his fcandalous and unprincipled conduct has raised up againft him "great odium and great obloquy?" Does he mean to take groans for applause, and hiffes for approbation? There was a time when the right honourable gentleman did, in a very great degree poffefs the confidence of the people. There was a time, when what fell from him in numerous and popular affemblies, fell with that weight, and was attended to with that filence and refpect, as if an oracle had been speaking, Why? Becaufe the public at that time fondly believed him to be their friend

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friend Because they credulously thought he was fighting their battles, and because they thought he was acting as a bustling, but fincere and honest tribune of the people. But now mens eyes are opened He is no longer seen in the light of a tribune of the people, because he has lately attempted to raise himself above the free conftitution of his country, by afpiring to the fituation of an absolute dictator. Did the right honourable gentleman, in Westminster Hall, laft Saturday, receive the fame kind of applaufe as the right honourable gentleman had received in the fame place three years before? The right honourable gentleman may, if he likes it, confider the reception he met with laft Saturday from his conftituents, as marks of their love, refpect, and approbation; but what were those marks of approbation? The general execration of the people whom he had deceived. The real and warm zeal of the people” was, it is true, expreffed on that day; but in what words? In the fhort but expreffive words of No Coalition! No Receipt Tax! No India Bill! and in words ftill more honourable, and still more perfonally flattering to the right honourable gentleman, of "No Grand Mogul! No India Tyrant! No Ufurper! No Turncoat! - No Traitor!-No Dictator! No Cataline!" If fuch be the popularity which is coveted by the right honourable gentleman, and if fuch be the marks of approbation of which he boafts, long may he enjoy that popularity, and long may he receive fuch convincing marks of approbation.It were better, however, that he did not deferve them Much has been faid in this Houfe, of the fonorous voice of a noble Lord, who, Mr. Fox fays, is himself an hoft. It is true, that hoft was prefent at that popular affemblyThat hoft, however, did not join his voice in that scurrilous language, but that hoft had ears to hear it-That hoft ftood near the right honourable gentleman, till the huftings, which had been ill erected by Mr. Fox's friends, broke down It was confidered a pantomime trick of fome honourable friend of the right honourable gentleman, though it was not known exactly from what farce it had been ftolen. The worthy Baronet (Sir Cecil Wray) was on the field of battle with the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox) in the forenoon of that day; the worthy baronet was alfo on the field of battle in the afternoon. The right honourable gentleman who appears, or rather affects to appear, fo extremely well fatisfied with the fplendid degree

of

"

of popularity which he now enjoys, mentioned that popularity at the end, not at the beginning of his fpeech. He did right not to mention it at the beginning of his fpeech, for it could not be what was uppermoft in his mind. At the beginning of his fpeech, he talked of his own unpopularity, he repeated what a learned friend of his had faid in a former debate, "that the prefent addreffes and opinions of the people were founded on impofture." In the beginning of his fpeech, he had the arrogance and infolence to declare, that he thought it his duty to oppose the madness of the people, when he differs from them in opinion." This is the conftitutional and decent language of the Man of the People, held in the prefence of their reprefentatives in that Houfe! But let the right honourable gen-tleman have the goodness to tell the House why he is fo eager in the present moment to oppose what he is modeftly pleased to call "the madness of the people;" if he himfelf never poffeffed to a greater degree than he does at prefent" the real warm zeal and hearts of the people?" The colleauge of the right honourable gentleman has juft informed the Houfe of the prodigious number of fignatures of the real electors of Westminster, which are al ready contained in the addrefs of thanks to his Majefty for having difmiffed his late obnoxious and unpopular Ministers, of which that right honourable gentleman himself was one. Let Mr. Fox again after this tell the House, if he dares to do it, that he is fure that his perfonal popularity stands as high as ever- Let him dare to tell the Houfe in the unwarrantable language of his advertisement, figned C. J. Fox, that at the late Westminster meeting, he carried every thing before him by a majority of at least fix to one; when he himself has, in this Houfe, on this day pofitively declared, that thofe even who were very near him in the Hall, could not diftinguish one word that was faid by him or by any of his friends. What he moved or what they moved was confe quently not heard by the many thousand electors then and there prefent, who had therefore no opportunity of affenting to or diffenting from what was propofed by Mr. Fox. Therefore Mr. Fox draws the following clofe and logical conclufion. Because the motions were not heard, because the purport of them could not be understood, and because the object of them could not be known by even one in one -hundred in the affembly; therefore the right honourable

gentle

gentleman ventures to affert, that thofe motions were ap proved of and carried by a majority of at least fix to one. Such an affertion does not deferve refutation, fuch an affertion only deferves contempt. The right honourable gentleman boafts of this victory Let him do fo- And, as long as he abandons his public principles, as long as he breaks his promises to the people of England, and as long as he continues his violent attacks on the Conftitution, and his defperate attempts against the public credit of this country, and endeavours by the most unwarrantable means to throw the whole country into complete confufion; may the right hon. gentleman never obtain any other fpecies of victory than that which he has fo lately obtained in Westminster! On the question the numbers were, Ayes, 197; Noes, 177 majority, 20.

While the majority were in the lobby, Mr.Fox faid, it was the idea of gentlemen who stood near him, that in confe quence of the high language which had been held in the debate, an address fhould be propofed on the motion. The members joined in. an unanimous declaration of Hear him! He then faid, that if it met with their approbation, he would move it after the determination of this queftion, and that it should be carried up to the Throne by the whole House. They joined in the fame general shout on this propofition also.

When the numbers were declared, Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt rofe together, and their friends, in preffing for their refpective leader, were loud. A good deal of clamour enfued. At length Mr. Pitt faid, that it amounted exactly to the fame Mr. Pitt. thing, whether the fenfe of the Houfe was taken on his motion for the Speaker to leave the chair, or on the motion for the addrefs, which he understood the right honourable gentleman was about to propofe. He therefore yielded the point. Mr. Fox then faid, that as the right honourable gentleman Mr. Fox. and his friends had met the refolution of that day with a high language, and had treated the House in every refpect fo cavalierly, it was the idea of the gentlemen with whom he had the honour to act, that a motion fhould be made, without farther delay, for an addrefs to the Throne on the refolution of that day, and that it fhould be prefented by the whole House. He entered fhortly into the fituation into which the obftinacy of Mr. Pitt had brought the House, and concluded with moving for an address to the King in the words of the resolution.

The honourable Charles Marfham feconded the motion.
VOL. XIII,

E e

Mr.

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