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fel the Crown, and to mingle in the affairs of the country. He had expreffed a diftruft in the political integrity of men who had much to gain, and nothing to lofe. This was a language to which he had not been unaccustomed. It was a language which was founded in no conftitutional maxim, and which he had ever reprobated as unfriendly to that fpirit of equality, and to that importance which every individual claimed, and was entitled to in this country. Did not the noble Lord know, or was he fo much blinded by the affluence of his fortune, or the diftinction of his fitua tion, as not to perceive, that it was not the men of the greateft eftate who either poffeffed the greatest virtue, or were entitled to the greatest fhare of repute in the kingdom. He stood up for men of fmall property. He knew them to be as honeft as men of affluence, and as fubfervient to the interefts of the country. Was it not the collected property of fuch perfons that conftituted the greatnefs of the nation, abridged the power of the rich, and refcued them from the tyranny of affluent oppreffors? Was there any ground, therefore, for the noble Lord's affected degradation, or affected diftruft of fuch characters? Such obfervations might be adapted to flatter the pride, or to give falfe confequence to the character of men of fortune; but they were furely founded in no rational principles, and were the arguments, not of a man of fenfe, but of a man of eftate. Look at different countries, trace the fources of their affluence, and it will be found that these originate not in the feparate and detached fortunes of scattered individuals, but in the united and collected riches of lefs opulent fubjects.

The noble Lord had afked the House if they were prepared for the reception into office of a dictator, who had framed and patronised the India bill? Did the noble Lord recollect to whom he made that appeal? It was to a House that had given it its fanction. For his own part, he should always rejoice in the flattering reception it had given to that bill. Its principles he had defended. They had met with the approbation of the Houfe; a circumftance as honourable to him, as the rejection of another bill, framed on a different ground, was difrefpectful to its author. To affert, therefore, that any demerit was imputable to him on this account, was infulting the fentiments, and arraigning the decifions of the Houfe. It was an affertion grounded in prejudice, unfupported by argument, and unfounded in common sense. He himfelf was no dictator, nor did the party to which he had attached himself, and of whofe coincidence of fentiment VOL. XIII.

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with that of his own he was proud to boast, affume the air or the character of dictators. He had never renounced his allegiance to that Houfe. He had never stood forth, in oppofition to its decifions, the avowed and unconftitutional advocate of Royal prerogative. He had never called himself the Minifter of the Crown. He had always acted agreeable to the decifions of the Houfe, and the intereft of his conftituents. If fuch was the conduct of a dictator, if fuch were the fentiments of a dictator, he was bold to acknowledge them, and to avow that he gloried in them.

Much had been faid of the fubordinate appointments of that Adminiftration with which he had the honour and the happiness to be connected. He was convinced that merit had, on this point, ever been the rule of decifion. He therefore challenged and dared enquiry on this ground, and would even hazard his reputation on the decifion of this question.

The noble Lord had affected a difrefpect for the late refolutions of the House, respecting the prefent Administration. These he had treated in a manner not altogether becoming the character of a member of the House. These refolutions, however, he thought himself bound to believe well founded, till fuch time as they were refcinded, or as they appeared to him to reft on falfe grounds. The noble Lord had expreffed a hope, that they would foon be refcinded. He wished to meet the noble Lord on this ground. He hoped he would make a motion for this purpose at a fubfequent meeting, not far diftant and early in the day, as he was not on every oc cafion difpofed to honour the House with his presence to the conclufion of a long diet, nor to give the decifion the fanction of his concurrence and vote.

He wished therefore to refcue himself, his friends, and the House from the falfe imputations of the noble Lord. His character, nor his principles he had never laboured to conceal; with refpect to them he challenged enquiry- He was conscious of his own integrity, and confirmed in the consciousness of the rectitude of his own conduct by the repeated refolutions of the House. He had never affumed the character of a dictator. He had never appeared as the mean candidate of popular approbation. He had never ftood forth the unconftitutional champion of prerogative. He had never attempted to deftroy the equality and importance of individuals by trying them by their property; nor had he ever afferted, that the great and opulent were the only perfons that merited the attention of the Sovereign, or refpect from the

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legislative or executive Administration of the country. These were charges from which he was exempt, and which he hoped would never be laid at his door.

The motion of adjournment was then put, and agreed to. Adjourned to Monday.

February 2.

Mr. Grofvenor rofe as foon as the ordinary business of the Mr. Grofday was concluded. His rifing was attended by a dead venor, filence in the House, as the motion which he was about to make had been formed by the country gentlemen who held the different meetings at the St. Alban's tavern, for the purpofe of effecting an union of the different parties that then divided the attention and confidence of Parliament. He faid, that as nothing could tend more effectually to destroy the country than inteftine divifions, fo nothing could tend more effectually to retrieve the credit of the nation, and render her refpectable in the eyes of Europe, and formidable to her enemies, than an union of all the able and great men in the kingdom, and a coalition on a broad bafis, of all the contending parties, which at that moment divided the House. To effect fuch an union, had been the object of many refpectable country gentlemen, who, wifhing to avert the dangers that might well be apprehended from the divifions which had of late prevailed, had met feveral times, in order to devife means to bring about fo defirable an end. Several of them had feparately recommended union in the House; but the recommendation of individuals had hitherto been without effect. It was the wifh, therefore, of the gentlemen to whom he had alluded, that a refolution fhould be offered to the Houfe, which, if it fhould be adopted, would of courfe have that weight, which did not attend a recommendation from any number of individuals, in their feparate and private capacities. A motion to that effect had been drawn up, which he fhewed to many gentlemen; and he was happy to fay there was not one who faw it, who did not declare it gave him perfect fatisfaction, and hoped that it would now meet with the concurrence of the whole Houfe. He concluded by moving, "That it is the opinion of this House, that the present arduous and critical fituation of public affairs requires the exertion of a firm, efficient, extended, united Adminiftration, entitled to the confidence of the people, and fuch as may have a tendency to put an end to the unfortunate divifions and distractions of this country."

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The Hon.

The Honourable James Luttrell feconded the motion. He J. Luttrell, had declined for fome years attending party queftions founded on private ambition; but was happy to join with independent men, whofe object was the public good. The Parlia ment met in vain to raise the public credit of the nation, or give laws to the Eaft Indies, unless a strong, extended and united Adminiftration can be formed; he wifhed, therefore, to fee the ableft men in the nation joined upon public principles. How could a Government regulate the affairs of India, when by the time one fyftem of regulation arrived in that diftant part of the empire, the very reverfe might be supposed on its paffage out; for the Adminiftrations muft become a fucceffion of contradictions, if the violent opponents were to change fides every fix months. Both parties he conceived too strong for either to govern the kingdom; and public credit muft fink every day more and more, till Governinent was ftrong enough to carry on with vigour the bufinefs of the nation. Europe was, in his opinion, ftill pursuing a system of maritime power, to humble the confequence of Great Britain, and finally deprive her of all her foreign dependencies : but we must have peace at home, before our Government would have leifure to look abroad. He recommended to have always an equal force in the Eaft Indies with foreign powers during the peace, left the Dutch fhould return the compliment we paid them at St. Euftatia, or France imitate that mode of commencing a war with us.

He obferved, that the honour of Parliament, and the honour of the nation being infeparable, no etiquette ought to ftand in the way of union; and he conceived, that if the prefent Chancellor of the Exchequer was intended to have that office in the new Adminiftration, as had been rumoured, he did not fee it neceffary to move him from his office by refignation, because he could not be appointed by more conftitutional hands than the Sovereign, whofe clear prerogative it was to appoint his Minifters. That in our prefent difputes and quarrels, he really thought we must appear to all the world a nation of geefe, rather than a nation of foxes.

Sir George Sir George Cornwall defired to caution the House against Cornwall, confidering the fpeech of the honourable gentleman who se

conded the motion, as containing the fentiments of the meeting where the motion had been firft propofed and thought expedient to be made in the House. That meeting had not argued in the manner in which the honourable gentleman had delivered himself. The honourable gentleman, Sir George obferved, had declared himself to be a fair, independent and

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impartial man. He did not doubt in the leaft, that he was the character he declared he was; but he could not help faying, he wished his fpeech had been as fair and impartial as the honourable gentleman had profeffed himself.

The Hon, James Luttrell rofe again, and faid, he certainly The Hon. had not spoken the fentiments of the refpectable meeting al- J. Luttrell. luded to, nor affected to have spoken thofe fentiments. It might be very proper for the chairman of that meeting to have declared what the fentiments of that meeting were, but it would have not only been improper, but highly indecent for him, a private individual, to have taken such a liberty.

Sir Edward Aftley paid a handfome compliment to Mr. Sir Edward Luttrell, who, he faid, had fhewed himself no lefs able in Aftley. that House than he had proved himself at fea. He then obferved to the House, that having been prevented by the badnefs of the weather, from attending his duty fooner fince the holidays, he had not given a vote for any of those refolutions, which had been fince fo much the fubject of public converfation: when he read them, he felt unfpeakable concern, because he saw that in the great ftruggle of contending parties, the public fervice muft neceffarily fuffer. He had often given his opinion of the coalition, which had carried those refolutions through the House; and he had often exposed himself to be well trimmed and cut up, as the phrafe is, for having ventured to condemn it: and, indeed, it would in general be imprudent, in fo poor a speaker as he was, to provoke the wit and fatire of the able fpeakers over against him; but when there was a question of his country's good, he would difregard what they could fay to him, and he would freely deliver his opinion. He was forry he had not been able to attend the meeting of that defcription of gentlemen, to which he belonged, the country gentlemen; but if he had, he certainly would not concur with them in the refolution now under the confideration of the House. The country had already fuffered greatly by the coalition; the very name of which actually ftunk in the nation; and therefore he would not vote for another coalition, which fhould bring back again inte power thofe very men whom, he had been fo happy to fee driven from it. Confiftent, therefore, with his former principles, with his oppofition to the American war, with his oppofition to thofe, who carried it on, and fupported it, and with his abhorrence of the idea of giving them any countenance, he would not bind himself to countenance any propofition, which would tend to bring again into power those very perfons whom he had fo long opposed.

Mr.

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