That the King's right to appoint his Minifters was not, nor could not be queftioned; nor could the right of that House be denied, to control and check the actions of Minifters, whenever they appeared detrimental to the public welfare.-If Minifters were not fuffered to proceed in neceffary official bufinefs, the King's prerogative then became useless, the executive power of the ftate was but nominally in him, just actually vefted where the Conftitution would not truft it, where the people would not fuffer it. That if a refolution of that House could avail to suspend the execution or alter the nature of a law, for the formation or repeal of which law an union of three parts of the Legiflature had been required by the wifdom of the Conftitution, then that Houfe became paramount to the other two, and though nominally three parts, the Government virtually confifted but of one. That the Lords had their diftin&t privileges and being not bound to adopt the measures of that House, ought not to be cenfured for ufing their difcretion. If the conduct of affairs had been entrusted by his Majefty to men of no property, corrupt morals and profligate lives, there would be reason to reprobate his choice. He paid a handfome compliment to Mr. Pitt, faid an unblemished moral character was a nifi qua non in a Minifter. He was very fevere on the coalition, obferved upon what Lord North had faid of the Banbury addrefs, and told the House the paragraph alluded to had originated in the Oxford paper.

Governor Johnstone, Mr. Fox, Sir William Dolben, Sir Edward Aftley, and Mr. Cawthorne fpoke fhortly to the question.

On a divifion the numbers were, Ayes, 175; Noes, 168. Majority, 7.

March 1.

About a quarter before five o'clock, the Minifter having Mr. Fox. juft come down to the Houfe, Mr. Fox moved that the order of the day fhould be read, which was for taking into confideration His Majefty's anfwer to an addrefs of the Houfe for the removal of Minifters. This having been done, Mr. Fex ftood up, and begged the Houfe might allow him to preface what he now deemed it his indifpenfable duty to fay, with a fhort review of thofe peculiar circumftances, in which the Houfe of Commons, the people of England, and the Conftitution of the country, were all inevitably placed by His Majefty's late anfwer to the addrefs of his Commons. He connected

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connected all thefe particulars into one view, because they were all formed to ftand or fall together. It was not in the wit or machination of man to diffever them for a moment, and whoever made the attempt, would be taught from the iffue that it was nugatory and chimerical. But on what ground did they now ftand? Had not His Majefty put a negative on their joint wishes? Was not this a fituation to which they had not been reduced fince the glorious æra of the acceffion of the Houfe of Brunfwick to the Throne of thefe Kingdoms? The two firft Princes of that aufpicious and illuftrious family were not, perhaps, wholly without favourites for what Prince ever yet was? or who could blame a King for having friends? It is the confolation of human nature to be fufceptible of fuch predilections as fuit the peculiarities of every temper, character, and fituation. Where is the man, or the Minifter, who would prefcribe terms to Royalty, which injures the feelings, and would bar the comforts of an individual? Notwithftanding this, which perhaps was the feature of all reigns, unanimity marked those both of George the Firft and George the Second. Whatever attention they might pay to fecret advisers, whatever degree of curiofity or inquifitiveness might affect their hours of focial and friendly intercourfe, the harmony of the nation, the public bufinefs, the great concerns of the public were feldom or never interrupted by an ill-advised and unconftitutional preference of any man, or fet of men, in oppofition to the reprefentatives of the people at large. In the late reign efpecially, Lord Hardwicke evidently poffeffed much of the royal confidence. His abilities were unquestionably eminent, and justly procured much respect both at home and abroad; but when the circumftances of the country demanded a furrender even of his couafels, when fome of his Majefty's fubjects were in open rebellion, and when the Crown was fatisfied that a new fyftem had become indifpenfable, was not every fyftem of favouritifm readily, generously, and magnanimously relinquished? Had it been otherwife, and had those who were faid to have deferved His Majefty's favour, retained their fituation, and in direct oppofition to all the calls and expoftulations of the Houfe, the country, and individuals, all those fplendid and incomparable actions which graced the fubfequent war, had moft undoubtedly been prevented; the glorious victories which then took place, and overwhelmed all Europe, and all the world with aftonishment, had not been acquired. The vaft appendages of the British empire

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muft confequently have been fo little as to have excited no envy, it is true; but neither would they, in this hypothetical fcale, have produced fuch emoluments, fuch wealth, fuch grandeur, fuch influence in the fcale of nations, as they unqueftionably did. If on that preffing and interefting occafion the fyftem of perfonal favour had not given way to objects of public fafety and tranquillity, the illuftrious name of Pitt had never been known in this country, had never given the people of England fuch an influence in government as the Conftitution has affigned them had never infused such a fpirit of intrepidity and enterprife in the executive government of the country, as muft for ever diftinguish the period in which he reigned, and the measures which originated in his advice.

From these facts and fpeculations, he defired the House to obferve what part they now acted. They were, in his opinion, ftanding up for the Conftitution, as enjoyed, as eftablifhed, as tranfmitted by their ancestors to their pofterity. This ground they had taken; in this it was their duty to intrench themselves; and from this afylum he was certain no honeft and fincere friend to the Conftitution would wish to drive them. They were at leaft founded in the conftitution of the country, and whenever they fell, fo would it. They were fo united as to live or die together. It was now, perhaps, more than ever committed to their care, who had always been its prefervers; and to abandan it thus befet, thus affaulted, thus doomed, for aught he knew, to destruction, would be to deal perfidioufly with their obligations to the public and to their conftituents. When he complained, that no other Prince of the race of Brunswick had ever given such an answer to an addrefs of that Houfe, he was answered, no Houfe of Commons had ever made fuch an addrefs. this queftion he would beg leave to anfwer with an anterior queftion - Did ever the Crown, fince the Acceffion, keep in office a minifterial arrangement, not only without the confidence of the House, but against its exprefs requifition? This made the matter altogether new and unprecedented: but new and unprecedented as it was, it did not originate in the Houfe; they had acted only on their defence, and would have ill deferved the confidence repofed in them, had they not done every thing in their power to preferve the privileges at once of the Houfe, and those for whofe great original rights it was at first inftituted. He referred to the cafe of Sir Robert Walpole. No man ever poffeffed the confidence

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of the House of Commons more completely than this Mi nifter. He would not enter into the queftion, whether he deferved it or not; but the fact was notoriously as he had stated it. Was he then refolutely inclined to dispute the eager defires of the Houfe to remove him? Did he refift all their efforts for that purpose? No; when the moment came which convinced him that he was no longer the perfon on whom they chofe to rely, inftead of urging the inconfiftency of fuch a revolution in the political fentiment of the Houfe; inftead of taking fhelter in the arms of Prerogative; instead of placing any dependance on thofe about the Throne, who had been long his faft and tried friends, he freely and at once abandoned a ftation to which, from this fingle circumftance, he found himself inadequate. How, then, was the conftant harmony which then fubfifted in every part of Government fuftained and cultivated? It was, at leaft, as often owing to the compliance of the King with the fentiments and wishes of his faithful Commons, as of their com plaifance to his inclinations. He did not deal in the extenfion of prerogative, nor they in the affertion of their privileges. A reciprocal difpofition to cordiality and accommodation in cafe of any accidental collifion was not inore predominant in the House of Commons than at Court. Since the unfortunate reigns of the Stuarts, prerogative had never been fo much the topic of difcuffion as it had become of late in Parliament. His ideas of whatever the Conftitution had vefted in the Crown were no fecret; he ever had and ever would avow them. No prerogarive of the Crown was, in his opinion, diftinct or unconnected with the whole of that free and liberal fyftem in which our Government chiefly confifted. The people were the great fource of all power, and their welfare the fole object for which it was to be exerted: but who in this cafe were to be the judges? The House of Commons undoubtedly were competent to protect the rights of the people, to pronounce on whatever they deemed an encroachment on their privileges; and the moment they could not prevent every thing which ftruck them as fuch, they were not equal to the defign of fuch an inftitution. This he called a due feafoning or modification of that enormous power devolved by the Conftitution on the executive Government of the country. The House of Commons confequently were poffeffed of the power of putting a negative on the choice of Minifters; they were ftationed as centinels by the people, to watch over whatever could more or less remotely or nearly VOL. XIII.

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affect their intereft; fo that whenever they difcovered in those nominated by His Majefty to the feveral great offices of ftate, want of ability, want of weight to render their fituations refpectable, or want of fuch principles to give effect to the wishes of the Houfe; in any or all of fuch cafes they were entitled to advife His Majefty againft employing fuch perfons as his faithful Commons could not truft. They would then fay to fuch Minifters, and fay it with the greateft propriety, "We admire your abilities; we love your virtues; and we wish your politics were of a fort to exite our admiration, and conciliate our confidence: but your fyftem is inimical to the object we have moft at heart. We wish to encrease the weight of the people in the Conftitution; your object is to leffen their weight. We are anxious to eftablish a strong, an efficient, an united Administration; you endeavour only to preferve one who poffeffes none of all thefe qualities. We would found an executive Government on public, open, unequivocal responsibility; you are endeavouring, in its room, to perpetuate a cabal. We affert the controul of Parliament wherever the general intereft requires their interference; you are attached only to what you imagine is the independence of the Prerogative. In fhort, we are the friends of the people; they made us what we are; to them we are accountable; and for them, as far as the Conftitution bears us on, we will act but you avow fentiments fo materially and flatly contradictory to these, that we are bound in duty to withhold from you that confidence, which your avowed attachments and opinions muft inevitably lead you to abuse." Much offence was taken, it seemed, against the Houfe of Commons, on the fcore of not putting the moft unlimited confidence in the prefent Ministers: but why are not the jealoufies, which are the causes of this treatment fo loudly complained of, also taken into the account? Would any man come forward and affirm, that the House had no caule of jealoufy; or had acted capriciously in the several fteps which it had been oblged to take in its own defence? He begged gentlemen would recollect the mode in which his Majefty's Minifters had been called to office. What was the manner of the nomination which took place, and was the only reason that could be alledged in behalf of Ministers? Were not grounds of jealoufy involved in that circumftance, which juftified the diffidence of the House, which had put them on their guard, which had treated them with a difrespect to which they had for a long and happy period been Strangers?