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Mr. Banks.

Mr. Rigby.

terfere by any means with the exercise of the prerogative,. the Houfe was to blame for having agreed to the refolution which paffed yesterday unanimoufly, which ftated that a firm, efficient, extended, and united Administration was. neceffary in the present state of affairs: for supposing such an Administration was now formed, what might not the advocates for the prerogative of the Crown infer from it ?. That nothing could be more dangerous or more unconftitutional than fuch an Administration; for being composed of all the heads of parties in both Houses, they would of course be supported by majorities in both; and then the King would have forced upon him an Administration which he could not difmifs.

Mr. Banks fpoke against the motion, as did Sir George Howard, who condemned all the refolutions that had been paffed against the prefent Miniftry, because they were unfounded, being fupported only on vague reports and idle rumours. Before he would confent that these refolutions fhould be laid before the King, he defired fome fault might be alledged to have been committed by the right honourable gentleman: for it was contrary to every principle of justice that punishment fhould precede a trial.

Mr. Rigby replied, that it was by no means necessary that a fault fhould be alledged against the right honourable member, whom by the bye he thought faultlefs; it was fufficient for his removal that he poffeffed not the confidence of that House. When a motion was made for an address to remove Sir Robert Walpole, there was no crime or fault laid to his charge; and when he found that he had but a majority of one, he took the hint, and never after fet his foot in the Houfe of Commons. When a motion was made to refolve that the Houfe had no farther confidence in the noble Lord in the blue ribband, there was no charge of crime or fault brought against him; and yet, though he negatived that motion by a majority of nine, he thought it prudent to retire, and did fo. What could keep the right honourable gentleman in his fituation, in defiance of the refolutions of that Houfe, he knew not; but this he knew, that the consequence of the Houfe muft fall, or the right honourable gentleman muft retire. It had been objected to the late Ministers, that they had not been able to make a fingle Peer; this was not an objection that could be made to the prefent Minifters, who had already been pretty liberal of honours and it was not a little fingular, that of the

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four Peers who had lately been created, three of them lived in a county where there were a great many of those places which are generally called rotten boroughs. These creations were not like thofe of Queen Anne's reign, which were for the purpose of giving the Minifter a majority in the House of Lords; for the prefent Minifters were already in pofeffion of a majority there: but these creations had taken place, in order that perfons might be had who would do bufinefs in the Houfe of Commons. Thofe who remembered how the Duke of Northumberland gained his former honours, could not be furprised to fee that noble Duke, tottering under the weight of ribbands and coronets, ftill anxious to add to them the coronet of another barony. It had been often fuggefted that if this Houfe fhould go on with refolutions, the Houfe of Lords might come to counter refolutions they might fo; but he trusted there was still too much sense in that Houfe, to countenance any measure that might make a breach with this. If they did, however, the counter refolutions would not prove the Commons in the wrong and he hoped, that when the Commons conceived themfelves to be in the right, they would not be intimidated from the discharge of their duty by the proceedings of any other affembly.

Mr. Aubrey and Lord Fielding fpoke against the motion,

as did Governor Johnstone, who made the Houle laugh Gov. John heartily, by faying, that the right honourable gentleman on stone. the floor calling upon the right honourable gentleman at the head of the Treafury to refign before he would treat with him, put him in mind of the fable of the fox and the raven, in which the former faid, "Monfieur Corbeau, come down from the high branch on which you are perched, and then we fhall fettle thefe matters.

The Solicitor General difclaimed any intention to be per- The Solici verfe, or to make ufe of any afperity; but, fome few days torGeneral. ago, a gentleman on the other fide of the Houfe had ufed very harsh and indecent language to his right honourable friend, and which might juftify retaliation. He then called for the charge on which his right honourable friend was to be condemned; he defied his bittereft enemies to produce one that could affect his character. He concluded by moving an amendinent to the motion for laying the refolutions before the King, to this effect: "Although, after various examinations into the ftate of the nation, no charge what

ever

Mr. Sheridan.

The Solici tor General.

Mr. Powys,

Mr. Fox,

ever was brought forward or proved, notwithstanding His Majefty's Minifters had repeatedly called for the fame."

Mr. Sheridan faid, that if the honourable gentleman, in ftating that harsh and indecent words had been used by him fome time ago to the right honourable gentleman, meant any allufion to any thing that had fallen from him, he wifhed he had quoted his words: the honourable gentleman had a convenient, if not an accurate memory. What he said in allufion to the great Duke of Buckingham was, that those persons who owed their promotion to the personal favour of the Crown, and ftood on the principle of favoritifm, were minions of the Crown: the right honourable gentleman appearing to him to ftand on that principle, he had, in very proper parliamentary language, called him one of the minions of the Crown.

The Solicitor General faid it was not to that honourable gentleman who spoke laft that he alluded, but to another. Mr. Powys faid, that looking upon the charge originally brought against the right honourable gentleman to be completed by the refolutions of the Houfe, the House was, of courfe, bound by them; and could not properly bear that language, which faid that no charge had been brought. A charge, and of a very ferious nature, was certainly brought, and after various debates, refolutions were finally agreed to. He would, indeed, gladly have the bufinefs revifed; but as long as it ftood as it did at prefent, he muft look upon it as completed. He ftill believed that it had been intended that the prerogative fhould be fet up in oppofition to the rights and privileges of the Houfe, and therefore he had voted on the oppofite fide to the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) to whom he was a fincere friend, but he was a ftill greater friend to the Conftitution.

The queftion was at laft called for, and put, when the Solicitor General's amendment was rejected without a divifion. The Houfe then divided on the original queftion for laying the refolutions paffed last night before his Majesty, when there appeared

For the motion, 211; against the Minister 24.

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Mr. Fox then moved to adjourn the farther fitting of the Committee on the ftate of the nation, which stood for this day, to Monday next; and the Houfe adjourned to Thurf

day.

February

February 5.

:

After fome previous unimportant bufinefs, Lord Beau- Lord Beau champ begged leave to fubmit to the Houfe a notion, to champ. which he did not believe there could be any objection he confeffed, he had no better grounds for making it than rumour; but he was of opinion, that every one would allow rumour was a very good ground for enquiry. From rumour he had heard, that the Houfe of Lords had taken into confideration a refolution which this Houfe had paffed on the 24th of December, and made it the foundation of what he conceived to be a very unwarrantable attack upon the privileges of the Houfe of Commons. His furprife was great, indeed, this day, when he was informed that the House of Lords had been fitting laft night in folemn deliberation on a refolution which had been propofed in the House of Commons, and which had been adopted on Christmas eve. That refolution conveyed to the Lords of the Treafury an opinion relative to the farther acceptance of bills drawn from India on the Eaft-India Company; and he understood that this refolution had been conftrued to amount to an affumption on the part of the Houfe of Commons, of a power to fupercede an act of Parliament, or, in other words, to take away, by a resolution of one branch of the Legiflature, a power granted by all three. But this furely was a conftruction which the refolution would not admit; and nothing but captious malignity could think of torturing it, fo as to make it speak a language fo little in the contemplation of the House when it agreed to the refolution. The Houfe of Commons affumed no new power, when it attempted to ftate to a public board, how far that board ought, in the opinion of the Houfe, to exercise a power which they might or might not exercife, at their own difcretion: there were a thousand inftances in the Journals, of inftructions given to all the public boards, with refpect to the exercife of powers vefted in them by act of Parliament; and there was not before yesterday, one fingle inftance in which fuch inftructions had been declared to be an attempt to difpenfe with an act of Parliament. The right honourable gentleman at the head of the Treasury had, at the conclufion of the laft feffion of Parliament, moved a refolution, that certain places, which it was clearly the juft prerogative of the Crown to fill up, fhould not be difpofed of till the next meeting of Parliament, because there were certain regulations relative to these places then actually deVOL. XIII. pending

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pending in the Houfe. Had any one ventured to affert, that the right honourable gentleman in moving, or the House in adopting his motion, had attempted, by the refolution of one branch of the Legiflature, to take away from the Crown a prerogative vefted in it by the law of the land? No one had been fo abfurd as to advance fuch a propofition : and if it was not improper to ftate to the King an opinion of. the House of Commons, relative to the exercife of a power. given to His Majefty by law, could it in fairness be faid, that it was improper or unconftitutional for the Houfe to ftate an opinion to a public board? It ought to be particularly obferved on the prefent occafion, that the resolution which had given the Lords fo much offence, and which it was to him matter of furprise they had not long fince taken into their confideration, related to a fubject in which the public purse, of which the Commons were peculiarly the keepers, was deeply concerned. The Directors of the Eaft-India Company are by law empowered to accept bills drawn upon the Company to the amount of 350,000l. but when the fums drawn for exceed 350,000l. then the Directors must apply to the Lords of the Treafury, for leave to accept fuch bills, or as many of them as exceed in value that fum; and the Lords of the Treasury have a difcretion to grant or withhold that leave, as they fhall think fit, or to grant it to what extent they may judge expedient. Now it was well known that bills to the amount of between one and two millions fterling had already been drawn and received, and that many more were expected from India. The fums for which thefe bills had been drawn were immenfe, and far beyond any thing that had been imagined by Parliament when the act alluded to was paffed. If the Treafury fhould permit the acceptance of all the bills, the public credit would be thereby pledged, and bound to provide for the payment, if the Company fhould not be able to take them up; and would any man be bold enough to affert, that the House had not a right to give an opinion in a cafe which might fo very materially affect the property of their conftituents? He did not expect that this right would have been queftioned by any one, and much lefs by the Houfe of Lords. The Commons had a right to exercife it at all times; but more particularly in an alarming fituation of affairs, when the names of the Lords of the new treasury board were not fo much as known; fo that it would be improper for that House, and a breach of its duty to its conftituents, to truft fo important a concern to the difcretion.

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