of coming into office, had in one of his declamatory invectives pointed out Queenborough, as a friking inftance of the corrupt practices of administration, and of the lavish expenditure of the public money in the department of the ordnance. On that ground lord Townshend had ordered an enquiry, had received the report of the fuperintendant, and had given exprefs orders for the execution of the plan in the clofe of the year 1783. The duke of Richmond however, eager as he always was to ferve his country, and to proceed immediately to bunnefs, had after kiffing hands, gone immediately down to the board room, and entered a minute upon his own authority, to check the officious zeal of the fuperintendant, and fave the loyal freemen of Queenborough from deftruction. Mr. Courtenay declared his refolution to vote for the bill. Mr. Martin followed him upon the fame fide, and expreffed nota little aftonishment to think how any gentleman, who fupported Mr. Crewe's act, could reconcile it to his mind not to vote for the prefent bill. The bill was fupported by Mr. Clerk Jervoife, and Mr Sawbridge. It was oppofed by Mr. Grenville, Mr. Pyc, Mr. Drake, Mr. Gafcoyne, fir Edward Deering, and fir Charles Middleton. Upon a divifion the numbers appeared, ayes for the fecond reading 41, noes 117.

We have given fome account in our volume of the two bills of lord Mahon, now carl Stanhope, for the regulations of elections. The former of thefe, which was the most important, received the fanction of the houfe of commons in the preceding feffion, and was rejected in the lords at the particular inftiga tion of lord Thurlow. It was accordingly introduced anew into

parliament early in the feffion of 1786; and its author, in the fpeech he made upon the question for leave to bring it in, was particularly fevere upon its dignified oppofer in the other houfe. He faid, that it had been treated on that occafion on the part of one person with all the candour, with all the decency and decorum, and with all the refpect to the houfe of commons who had adopted it, which that affembly unquestionably deferved; and he ftigmatized the conduct of_that perfon, as containing in it fomewhat more, than one would have thought quite fufficient to gratify the most bitter tory spleen.

The bill was oppofed upon its fecond reading on the twelfth of May, by Mr. William Grenville. He stated it to the house as a fyftem of impracticability and Eutopianism. A bill fimilar to the present had been paffed in the parliament of Ireland in the courfe of the last feffion, and fuch had appeared likely to have been its operation and effect, that, had any vacancy for a county member happened, there would not have been a fingle freeman qualified to vote for the candidate who of fered to fill up the vacancy. He understood therefore, that the very first act of the Irish parliament in the prefent feffion had been to pafs a bill, to fufpend the operation of their act of the preceding feffion. The bill was farther oppofed by Mr. William Young, Mr. Powys, and Mr. Bastard. It received the fupport of fir Jofeph Mawbey, fir William Dolben, the earl of Surrey, and Mr. Pitt. Upon the quef. tion for fending it to a committee, the houfe divided, ayes 98, noes 22.

The bill having paffed the commons, at length came under the difcuffion of the houfe of lords. It was a circumftance favourable to its

fuc

fuccefs, that lordThurlow was at this time confined to his houfe by indifpofition. Lord Stanhope, in a fpeech which he delivered on the twentyninth of June upon the motion for the fecond reading, endeavoured to explain and recommend to the houfe the measure of which he was the author. He obferved that the bill had been called a bill of diffranchisement. Every measure for regulating and reducing with method and order a bufinefs like that of election, muit neceffarily be capable of that operation. His bill however had greatly the preference over that of Mr. Powys, which had been paffed in the year 1780, and which had directed, that the mode in which county voters fhould be afcertained, fhould be by the books of the land-tax affeffors. By that bill any mistake, whether involuntary or by defign, of omitting or even mifpelling a name, difqualified the perfon to whom the error related. By the prefent bill, no man could be disfranchised but by his own fault. Such was the abfurdity of the exifting law, that at the last general election it was discovered, that more than one half of the freeholders of the kingdom were under disfranchifement. The duplicates of the land-tax, which ought to be figned and fealed by three commiffioners, had fome of them been figned only by two, fome by one, and others not at all. In a particular election an exprefs had been fent poft hafte to town to an eminent counfel, to know what was to be done. The counfel very ingeniously advifed his client to proceed directly in the teeth of the act of parliament, in order to get over the difficulty, and to give to thofe votes the prima facie appearance of good votes. This was done, and no perfon making an

Another

objection it fucceeded. great object of the bill was to fupport Mr. Grenville's bill. Gloucefterfire committee of the houfe of commons had fat for three or four months, and the Bedfordfire committee, though Bedfordfhire was a fmall county, between two and three months. Upon the Buckinghamshire petition it had been almott impoffible to obtain a ballot. fo averfe were the members of the houfe of commons to submit to the confequent drudgery. If at a general election there fhould be ten or fifteen petitions from large counties, there would be an end to the most excellent act of Mr. Granville, unlefs fome plan, fuch as that propofed by the bill, to fhorten the proceedings before Mr. Grenville's committees, were adopted.

The fpeech of earl Stanhope was replied to by lord Sydney. He urged strongly the fhortnefs of the period that remained for difcuffion; and, remarking that the bill had been many months in the other house, afferted, that it would be indecent not to allow their lordships as many days for its confideration. Earl Stanhope had furnished one exceedingly ftrong argument in fupport of the motion which lord Sydney intended to make. That nobleman, who profeffed himself to be converfant with the laws relative to elections, had afferted, that all the laws on the fubject were defective and replete with error and contradiction. Surely the truth of an ̧ affertion of fo important and comprehenfive a nature, required inveftigation. It was not his cuffom, added lord Sydney, to addrefs his arguments to any fpeech delivered at another time in another affembly; but, as lord Stanhope had himfelf been in the houfe of commons when the bill was introduced

there,

there, perhaps he could tell the house that it was introduced with a fpeech, attacking certain arguments which had been advanced within those walls, and taking very great liberties with a most refpectable authority. Lord Sydney was not in the habit of faying things in a flip pant way, and he hoped he fhould never accuftom himself to fuch expression, as that this was abfurd, that was foolish, and the other was ftuff. It was eafy to apply a debafing epithet to any thing, but with men accustomed to examine before they determined that mode of debate would have little weight. The nobleman to whom he alluded had by moft irrefragable arguments convinced the houfe in a former feffion

that the bill ought not to pafs. The abfence of that perfon was of itself a ftrong argument in his mind against proceeding any farther with the bill at prefent. The reafonings of lord Sydney were anfwered by: the marquis of Carmarthen, and the bill was farther fupported by lord Hopeton. The noblemen who spoke on the other fide were doctor Warren, bishop of Bangor, and the earl of Sandwich. Upon the fecond reading the houfe divided, contents in favour of the bill 11, not contents 4; but upon the third reading the houfe having mustered in a fomewhat greater number, and feveral proxies being given, the final divifion was contents 15, not contents 38.

T

HEfubject, which the minifter feemed to intend fhould make the principal figure in this feffion of parliament, was the propofal of a finking fund, to be applied towards difcharging the national debt. We have already endeavoured to difcover the general merit of projects of this fort, when we had occafion to treat of the plan of the French caiffe d'amortiffement, which was instituted in the month of August, 1784. There are few writers whofe works are more inftructive or more ufeful than the ingenious inventors of paradoxes. While they are in the purfuit of a propofition which is neither plaufible nor true, they occafionally illuftrate various inci

dental fubjects, and the fingularity of their ideas enables them to fuc ceed in difcoveries, which the plain and artlefs enquirer after truth would never have thought of. Thus it has notoriously happened in the prefent inftance. The æra at which we are arrived, has produced reafoners, who have endea voured to demonftrate that the ex-' tinction and the reduction of a na tional debt are vain and visionary theories; that they can never be effected in any important degree, and that the purfuit of them is pregnant with diftrefs, calamity and ruin. Maintaining a propofition fo indefenfible in its tenour, they have taught us in a more striking

manner

manner than any other political fpeculatifts, that an object of this kind may be purfued with an extreme aud a destructive vehemence; that, fo long as the prefent fituation of things fhall continue, the carrying on of wars upon loans is a matter of indifpenfible neceflity; that the increafing the number of our taxes is no infallible receipt for the increasing our income; and that in the hands of a fkilful financier the abolition of impofts will fometimes be found to enhance the amount of the general revenue. Thefe fpeculations have not been without their effect upon our practical statefmen, and upon the ministers of the frit courts in Europe. M. de Calonne, in the inftance to which we have alluded, fet apart no greater a fum than an annuity of 120,000l. as the original foundation of his finking fund; and we fhall find Mr. Pitt laying few additional burthens on the people of England for the creation of his favourite object of an annual million.

The prefent feffion of parliament appears to have commenced with ideas, if not honourable to the minifter, at least extremely favourable to the fuccefs of his operation. We found Mr. Fox in our preceding volume, treating the fubject of the finances of his country with a language full of apprchenfion, and with expreffions ftrongly importing the immediate neceffity of extraordinary measures. In the fpeech which he made upon the first day of the prefent feffion, he appears to have altered his tone. He no longer doubts of the profperous ftate of the revenue, he only requires to be allowed in a degree of fcepticifm refpecting the causes of that profperity. With regard to the extenfion of trade, the increafe of the public credit, and the growing

furplus of the revenue, these were circumftances in which every man must rejoice. No party, no political faction, no fet of perfons of any name or defcription could withhold their exultation upon a fubject of fo general benefit. The conclufion that was to be drawn from thefe appearances, the returning vigour of our refources, must afford matter of folid fatisfaction and unrestrained triumph to all ranks of men and all parties in the flate. But were thefe matters of furprise, or circumttances to cause astonishment? Undoubtedly they were not. Almost every man knew there would be fome furplus; almost every man expected it; they only differed about the amount of that furplus. Mr. Fox would not pretend to affign the caufes to which these fymptoms of returning vigour were afcribable: that might be matter of much ufelefs difference of opinion. Several of them might be owing to the fuccefs of fome of the measures of the prefent adminiftration; he would not be fo uncandid as to deny that they were. But more, far more, he believed were owing to the failure of other of their meafures, which, had they fucceeded, must have been attended with confequences the most fatal to the revenue, and to the national credit and profperity that could poffibly be imagined. Mr. Fox flated in frong terms the mischief the meafures to which he alluded had already produced, by difgufting the manufacturers of Great Britain, teaching them that the house of commons would difregard their peti tions, and bringing into difcuffion a variety of points which he was convinced ought never to have been disturbed. Nothing but the alarm and difguft attending the agitation of thofe bad meafures could have

Lo

trade of the country, the natural confequence of peace, and which had followed upon the conclufion of every war in which we had been engaged. This alarm and difguft had been in a great degree removed by the failure of the Irish propofitions; and the tide of trade was now returning to its old and natu

ral channel.

Two days after the copies had been delivered, Mr. Pitt opened his budget in a committee of the whole houfe. He congratulated parliament in a very animated ftyle, upon the fpectacle with which this day prefented them. To behold their country, emerging from a most unfortunate war, which added fuch an accumulation to debts before immenfe, that it was the belief of furrounding nations, and of many among ourfelves, that our powers muft neceffarily fail, and that we' fhould fink under the burthen: to behold the nation, instead of defpairing at its alarming condition, looking its fituation in the face, and establishing upon a fpirited and per manent plan, the means of relieving itfelf from its incumbrances, gave fuch an idea of our refources, as muft afford the most interelling fpectacle to ourselves, muft aftonith the nations around us, and must enable us to regain that preeminence to which we were on many accounts fo justly entitled. wifhed-for day was at length arrive ed, when all defpondency and gloo my fear might be laid atide, and when our profpect brightened on every fide with exultation and hope. With how much pleasure was Mr. Pitt able to add, that this could be carried into effect without laying any new burthens of confiderable magnitude upon the people. This was beyond the expectation of every man, and was indeed a fubject of the greateft rejoicing to every friend of his country.

Mr. Pitt moved carly in the fefffion, that feveral papers fhould be laid upon the table of the houfe of commons, to enable them to form an eftimate of the annual national income, as well as the amount of the public expenditure, in confequence of which they would be empowered to judge of the exifting fur plus, and of the fum it would be farther neceffary to provide, in order to raife the total to the amount which was intended to form the original bafis of the intended finking fund. On the feventh of March Mr. Pitt farther moved for the appointment by ballot of a felect committee of nine perfons, to examine the papers, and to lay the refult before the house. His intention was to take every poflible ftep to give full and complete fatisfaction to the nation in a matter of great and general concern; and he conceived, that the folemnity of a committee, and the formality of a report would anfwer this purpofe better, than a fet of unconnected papers or the affirmation of a minifter. The members of the committee were the marquis of Graham, Mr.William Grenville, Mr. Edward Eliot, Mr. Rofe, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Beaufoy, Mr. John Call, Mr. Smyth and Mr. Addington, the two laft of whom had been the mover and feconder of the addrefs upon the fpecch from the throne. The report of this committee was laid

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