Mr. Powys.

Mr. Mar

tin.

Sir Cecil
Wray.

Mr. Powys lamented that his honourable friend fhould oppofe a refolution which he was in hopes would have met a pretty general, if not unanimous, concurrence of the House. Whatever might be his honourable friend's opinion of the coalition, which by the bye he himself had not very well digefted as yet, the queftion was not now, whether that coalition ought or ought not to have been formed; it was now in exiftence; it was forinidable from its numbers, and from the abilities of thofe who compofed it; and it was fupported by a majority of the Houfe. But this was not all: the Houfe had thought proper to go fo far as to declare it had no confidence in the present Administration; and whether from good motives, or bad motives, or no motives at all, the House not only paffed this declaration, but also adhered to it. It was impoffible, therefore, that the prefent Minifters could carry on the bufinefs of the nation; and confequently, while fuch a declaration exifted, they could not remain Minifters. His honourable friend must be therefore convinced, that a general coalition was now become a matter of neceffity, not of choice; and that a man could not oppofe it, without voting, in effect, that the bufinefs of the nation fhould ftand still, to the utter ruin of all our affairs. When his honourable friend fhould have well confidered all these points, he made no doubt but he would concur with him in supporting a motion, the object of which was, to cause an Administration to be formed, which fhould be able to carry through that House and the other, fuch measures as fhould be found calculated to promote the public good.

Mr. Martin faid he would not take up for a minute the attention of the House. The honourable gentleman who spoke laft but one, had fo well expreffed his fentiments on the prefent queftion, that he would barely fay, that he moft heartily concurred with him in every thing he had faid.

Sir Cecil Wray oppofed the motion. He thought he could not, confiftent with his duty, give a vote which might contribute to recal back again to the cabinet thofe very men, who, for the daring attack made by them on the rights and property of their fellow citizens, had been fo very juftly, and fo very properly difmiffed by His Majefty from his fervices, fome of whom ought to have been brought to the scaffold. Exclufive of this general objection to the reftoration of the late Ministers of the Crown, he had a particular objection to the motion then before the House it stated, that there were divifions and distractions among the people. He wished fome body would prove, or at least attempt to prove that affertion:

for

for his part, he did not believe one word of it; he believed
the people were nearly all of one opinion relative to the men
who at present advised the Crown, and those who had been
lately difmiffed from the service of his Majefty. He believed
that the former were generally esteemed, regarded, and be-
lieved by the people to be a wife, an honeft and virtuous fet
of men ;
while the latter were looked upon as perfons who
had been deservedly driven from power, because they had at-
tempted to abuse it, for the purpose of raifing a new and un-
conftitutional power in the state, and invading the most fa-
cred rights of the people. There was fcarcely a fecond opi-
nion on this fubject without doors; and therefore he was well
founded in his objection to that part of the motion, which
ftated that there exifted divifions and diftractions, because the
House had of late held a language different from that of the
people. The House had declared, that it had no confidence
in the prefent Minifters; but the addreffes which poured in
from different parts of the kingdom fhewed that the people
placed the highest confidence in them; and confequently these
addreffes proved, that the voice of the Houfe of Commons
was no longer the voice of the people of England. He wish-
ed moft devoutly, that by way of trial on whom the confi-
dence of the nation rested, the Members had been fent back
to their constituents by a diffolution: he was fure it would
then have been found that the present, and not the late Mi-
niftry, poffeffed the confidence of the nation; and then the
prefent advisers of the Crown would have been able to free
themselves from the fhackles forged for them by the framers
of the late refolutions which had paffed the House.

Sir Peter Burrell expreffed his aftonishment that the prefent Sir Peter Minifters fhould have given fo much trouble to the House, af- Burrell. ter the explicit declaration that it had no confidence in them. One might have imagined that fuch a declaration would have produced a proper effect, and made the Minifters retire, when they found they could no longer expect to carry on the bufinefs of the nation in a Houfe which placed no confidence in them. Were the refolutions of the House to remain a mere dead letter? Were they to be inoperative? Were they to stand solely as a monument of the difgrace of that House, and of its impotent folly in having paffed refolutions which it was not able to enforce? The dignity of the House called for farther proceedings; its honour was deeply engaged, and it could not now recede, without furrendering its own confequence, its dignity, and its honour; and without betraying the most effential rights of those whom they reprefented, and

to

Governor

to fupport whose weight and influence in this Conftitution was one great part of their public duty.

Governor Johnstone faid that this appeal to the honour of Johnstone. the Houfe had heretofore produced the worft of confequences; and he was apprehenfive, that a mistaken notion of honour might plunge the Houfe into difficulties and contests, which every honeft man ought to prevent as far as lay in his power. It was this idea of falle honour which fet the Houfe of Commons at variance with their conftituents on the great queftion of the Middlesex election, and involved it in a contest, which ended by no means to the honour of that House; for the attempts which were renewed every year, notwithstanding the difheartening circumftance of repeated defeats, for refcinding the refolution on that question, fucceeded at laft, and the refolution was expunged; fo that the journals now bore witnefs that the Commons had actually spoken a language different from that of the people: and what made them fpeak fuch a language? A falfe idea of dignity and honour, which operated like a charm on the minds of men, and fet them at variance with the people. It was an appeal also to the honour of the Houfe, which procured fupport for the American war; gentlemen having once voted for it, were called upon to act with confiftency, and not betray the honour of the Houfe, which ftood committed, as it was argued, by the first vote that was given on that great and important queftion. This appeal to the honour of the Houfe might, in the prefent inftance, involve it in the most difagreeable confequences; and therefore he begged gentlemen would confider, not that they had given fuch or fuch a vote already, but whether adherence to that vote would be found prejudicial or advantageous to the public.

Mr. Fox.

It

Mr. Fox adopted the motion with the utmoft readiness. He would not, however, confider it, or have it confidered by the Houfe, as including a fenfe which it did not bear, and with which thofe who acted with him could not agree. It was, in his apprehenfion, fubftantially the fame with that which the public expected this day from the House. went to all the points which gentlemen could wifh, as it expreffed a fentiment in which the public feemed not a little cordial, that the prefent fituation of this country with refpect to an Adminiftration, was, at leaft, not altogether fatisfactory.

In fuch an idea he doubted not every one was ready to join. He did not indeed conceive how a different opinion

could

could be entertained. At least, whoever would contradict this idea, were, in his mind, bound to fhew that all the House had been doing for fome time back was radically and effentially wrong. Conceiving the propofition as thus ftated, he would give it his firmeft and moft cordial fupport, which he begged the Houfe would believe he would not do from any motives of accommodation whatever. The fenfe in which he understood it, as ftated to the House, ftruck his mind as a complete approbation of all those steps which the conduct of Miniftry had impofed on them, and which they could not depart from till the Miniftry fet them an example of relinquishing their fituation. It gave decifion to their proceedings, and proclaimed aloud that they were not content with thofe who at prefent filled the oftenfible depart ments of State. And he would be glad to fee the man who would give the negative to this propofition. What but this difcontent, this ominous, this portentous difcontent, could have proved fuch a bar to public bufinefs?

Under this notion of the refolution now moved, he was under the neceffity of recalling the attention of the House to a variety of topics, of which no man who revolved in his mind the prefent diffentions which prevailed, could be wholly ignorant. Thefe conftituted the fubject of every public and private circle in the kingdom, and very juftly, as involving whatever was dear to men, either as individuals or members of one great fociety, which depended on the iffue of the prefent difpute.

Gentlemen were not to learn that the weakness of any Administration, as rendering it inefficient, muft alfo render it a bad one to this country. For what was to be done without a Parliament? How were public affairs to be carried on against the reprefentatives of the people, not only without their concurrence, but in flat oppofition to their defire? Thus circumftanced, the beft men on earth would be inadequate to such a fituation. The Government of this country did not require ability or virtue fingly or combined, nor any other perfonal qualities of the most popular defcription poffible to conceive. But all these united were abfolutely infignificant without such an influence as would always carry the Houfe along with it on every material and interefting queftion.

Why then did the House make it a point to remove the prefent fervants of the Crown? Not certainly from any perfonal motives or averfions, but folely because their reVOL. XIII. F

taining

taining their fituation on the grounds of an undue and unconftitutional influence was an impediment to the progress of national bufinefs. This was an object on which the feveral refolutions of the Houfe, concerning the aukward condition in which they ftood, in regard to the executive power, undoubtedly were founded; and till thefe were done away, it was impoffible any folid union, any form of union whatever, between the two fides of the Houfe, could take place.

His opinion of fuch an union as had been defired, was nofecret. He thanked God the perfonal facrifices which he was or might be called to make, would prove no obftacle whatever. A punctilio between perfons merely, were pitiful and abfurd indeed, where fo much was at ftake: no man could expect any thing like a relinquishment of principle or honour; and thefe great and effential qualities fecured, what had any man, who wifhed well to his country, which he would not renounce in her favour? Was it perfonal confequence or perfonal pride which could ftand a moment in competition with duty? He, for one, detefted the imputation. The prefent ftate of the country demanded a permanent Administration, and where was the individual who did not think himself bound by every obligation which could attach the heart and affections of a man to his country, to mankind, to contribute all in his power in effecting this event?

He trufted at the fame time it would, as it well deserved, be remembered that they were not now fettling any point of ceremony among perfons. The punctilio which remained to be adjufted was, in fact, between the House and the fervants or fervant of the Crown; and the question now to be decided was, whether his opinion, his authority, or that of the Houfe was to prevail? Should he be able to support himself against a majority of the House, then the bufinefs ofthe public was at an end; or fhould his obftinacy and lingering in office weary those who had hitherto oppofed him of doing their duty, and by that means fecure him ultimately fuch a majority merely as might carry on the objects of parliamentary difcuffion, from that moment the Conftitution would be irrecoverably ruined. This great object ftared every man of fenfe in the face. It was big with mifchief, as terminating in a diffolution of that divine Conftitution which had already fubfifted fo long and for gloriously.

The