place, not as merely theoretical, but as fairly and openly reduced to practice. He was one of those who could not account for the conduct of the Minifter, in fo flatly contradicting the opinion of the Houfe, and treating their most earnest wishes with contumacy and infult. He hoped, for these and various other reafons, which he stated with great modefty and pertinence, that the mode of the prefent pro pofition would meet the general approbation of the House: He was fure none, all things confidered, could be more moderate, more refpectful to the Crown, as well as more becoming the manliness, the dignity, and the temper of the Houfe; and whatever answer it might produce, though even attended with none of thofe effects which undoubtedly might be expected, ftill it would remain on the Journals of the Houfe an express and ftriking inftance of their magnanimity, under circumstances fingularly provoking and novel. He was very certain that the American war was originally the war of Parliament. It originated with Parliament, and was fupported by Parliament. The voice of the people was alfo in the first inftance in its favour. The miferable confequences only which attended its progrefs opened their eyes to its iniquity and the ruin which would affuredly mark its farther profecution. This he ventured to foretel would most undoubtedly have been the effect of the India bill. Whatever murmuring must have attended its promulgation, the operations of fuch a plan would foon have produced the most popular impreffions. It appeared to him one of thofe few measures which was fingu larly calculated to please the people of this country. They were fond of whatever afferted the general rights of humanity, and this was the character of that bill in a very eminent degree. Lord Mulgrave reprobated the motion, as not by any means Lord Mutz calculated to produce the object to which it pointed, and grave, for the attainment of which it feemed principally defigned. He reminded Lord John Cavendish of his ancestors, and ftated their politics in the reign of King William the Third. This he brought home to the prefent question, and at the fame time declared, that in no period of our history were parties fo equally divided. The comparison between the prefent Minifters and their predeceffors appeared to him unavoidable. The abilities on both sides the House were, in his mind, great, and hardly to be paral lelled in any other age or nation on the face of the earth. VOL. XIII. K But Mr. Fox. Lord' Mulgrave. Mr. Demp fter. Lord Malgrave. Mr. Sherikidan. But the falvation of the country required virtue as well as Mr. Fox here called the noble Lord to order. The name of Majefty ought never to be used in the house to affect the debate one way or other; and therefore he apprehended the ufe which had been made of it chargeable with that confequence and impropriety. Lord Mulgrave endeavoured to establish a distinction between mentioning the name of Sovereign, as affected by the proceedings of the Houfe, and affecting them. He then inveighed againft Mr. Fox, and called him invader and plunderer. Mr. Dempfer called his Lordship to order a second time, and appealed to his own candour and good fenfe, whether his repeated afperities did not tend to widen instead of clofing thofe diffentions which at prefent exifted both within and without doors. Lord Mulgrave expreffed his obligation to his honourable friend for this interference, and apologised for any expreffion which he might have dropped liable to fuch a conftruction. Mr. Sheridan faid, the noble Lord had laid down a principle fome days ago, which prevented him from being surprifed at any thing the noble Lord fhould advance. He ftated, that in the appointment of Minifters the Crown ought not to confider beforehand, whether they should be able to obtain the fupport of the House of Commons. It had frequently been faid, that when there was a good understanding between the Ministers of the Crown and the Houfe Houfe of Commons, there was ground for apprehending. that they were under the influence of corruption; but at present the noble Lord might rejoice; for there was not now the leaft room for apprehending that the House was in danger of being corrupted by keeping up too good an understanding with the Minifters of the Crown, who were now at open variance with the House. If the Ministers and the Houfe of Commons were clofely united, the noble Lord might poffibly call their union adultery; but when the Ministers and the House of Lords were united in the fame bands, his Lordship would probably call that union a legal marriage. As to what the noble Lord had quoted about Lord Somers, it was not at all applicable to the prefent cafe; for Lord Somers, on the occafion alluded to, ftood upon very different ground from that of the present Minifters: there was an impeachment in one cafe, and none in the other. The right honourable gentleman at the head of his Majefty's Councils had on a former day faid, that he ftood firm in the fortrefs of the conftitution; but could any fortress be called the fortrefs of the constitution, which was not garrifoned by the Houfe of Commons? They were the natural defenders of the fort. There might poffibly be indeed a Lieutenant-governor of the fort, who, though he did not mix in the battle, was not lefs the commander, though his orders were not publicly delivered. The Houfe of Commons ought to infpect the works, and see that no fap was carrying on which might dismantle it. The present Minifters were labouring to erect a fabric, that might fhield them against every attack; but they were erecting it on ground that was already undermined; and however ftrong the pillars might be, however folid and firm the buttreffes, however well turned the arches; yet, as the foundation must be weak, when the ground was undermined, not only the building could not stand, but the very weight of it would ferve only to precipitate its fall. Secret influence was what undermined the whole; it conftituted a fourth estate in the constitution; for it did not belong to the King, it did not belong to the Lords, it did not belong to the Commons. The Lords difclaimed it, and the Commons found themselves thwarted by it in all their operations. An honourable member had afked if the coalition of the right honourable gentleman with the noble Lord had not leffened the confidence of his friends in the former he would endeavour to give as fatisfactory an answer K 2 as as he could to this queftion. When the idea of a coalition with the noble Lord was firft ftarted, he confeffed that he had advised his right honourable friend not to accept of it, and his reafon was this: His right honourable friend had great popularity, which he might lofe by a coalition; refpectable friends, whom he might difguft, and prejudices of the strongest nature to combat. He made no doubt but fimilar objections occurred to the friends of the noble Lord, and that they were urged to him, in order to diffuade him from coalefcing with his right honourable friend. Mutual diffidence between men long accuftomed to oppofe one another, might naturally be expected. The prejudices of the public all concurred to prevent this coalition. The middling clafs of people, for whom he had the highest refpect, and to whom the House of Commons must look for fupport in every emergency, fooner than to the great, were not certainly the beft qualified to judge of nice and refined points of politics: accuftomed to judge of measures by men, he apprehended that they would give themselves no time to examine the principles, motives, and grounds of a coalition; but condemn it on its first appearance, merely because it was compofed of men who had long been political enemies on thefe grounds, full of apprehenfion for the character of his right honourable friend, he moft certainly gave him his advice againft a coalition. But when the neceffities of the times at laft pointed it out as the only means of falvation to this country, when from the opportunities he had had of feeing the noble Lord and his friends, and proving the honour, fairness, opennefs, and fteadiness of their conduct, not only he did not condemn the coalition, but he rejoiced that it had taken place in fpite even of his own advice; diffidence foon gave way to the most perfect reliance on the honour of the noble Lord, and on that of his friends, and their fteady adherence to thofe principles which had been laid down as the bafis of the coalition. It was unneceffary, therefore, after faying this, that he fhould tell the House his confidence in his right honourable friend had not felt the fmalleft diminution: fully acquainted with his character, he knew that he looked down with indifference, if not with contempt, on riches, places, and dignities, as things by no means neceffary to his happiness; it was his right honourable friend's ambition to deferve and preserve the esteem and confidence of his friends; and he was fure that he would facrifice neither, for all that place and emolu ment ment could bestow upon him. Having faid fo much in defence of the coalition, he could not help expreffing his furprife that he heard fo much about it from the other fide of the Houfe; and the more he looked at the Treafury Bench, the more his aftonishment grew upon him; for there the gentlemen who were actually fitting upon it were divided into pairs, each of which was compofed of a member who had fupported the noble Lord in the blue ribband and of another who had oppofed him. Thofe gentlemen, speaking to each other, might thus addrefs each other one might fay, "I fupported Lord North through the whole of his adminiftration, but left him at laft, when I found he had formed a coalition with that abominable man Charles Fox." The other might reply, " And I joined Mr. Fox for many years in his oppofition to Government; till at last I found it neceffary to abandon him, when he difgraced himself by a coalition with that abominable man Lord North.". If the ftate of the public credit and the funds fhould become the subject of difcuffion in that Houfe, one of the memhers of the Treafury Bench may very probably fay, "it was the curfed American war of Lord North that brought this ruin upon our funds;" this would inftantly call up his friend on the fame bench, who would immediately reply "no; the American war was a juft and conftitutional war; it was the oppofition given to it by the rebel-encourager Charles Fox, who caused the failure of it; and this brought ruin on the country." Thus a Treasury, formed on anti-coalition principles, was itself a chain of coalitions: the grand coalition, which was the butt of every man's invective, had begot other coalitions; but there was this difference between the parent and the offspring, that with the former all was harmony, concord, and union; while the latter retained the heterogeneous principles of their original oppofition, which made them ftill a prey to difcord and confufion. An honourable gentleman had faid that the majority in the coalition was formed of perfons who reprefented the rotten treasury boroughs, and who were brought in by the noble Lord in the blue ribband, when he was at the head of the Treasury: but that reproach was ill founded; for the coalition had been purged of fuch members, fome of whom having fpurned the hand that made them, and turned their backs on their friend and benefactor, had found a happy afylum in the bo❤ fom of Adminiftration. From this fubject turning to ano ther, Mr. Sheridan obferved, that if it was improper to in terfere |