legiflative 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. Grosvenor rofe as foon as the ordinary bufinefs of the Mr. Grofday was concluded. His rifing was attended by a dead venor. filence in the Houfe, 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 intestine divisions, 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 Houfe. 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 separately 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 resolution should be offered to the House, which, if it fhould be adopted, would of course 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 House. He con cluded by moving, "That it is the opinion of this House, that the prefent arduous and critical fituation of public affairs requires the exertion of a firm, efficient, extended, united Administration, entitled to the confidence of the people, and fuch as may have a tendency to put an end to the unfortunate divifions and diftractions of this country."

The Hon.

The Honourable James Luttrell feconded the motion. He J. Luttrell, had declined for fome years attending party questions 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 fuppofed on its paffage out; for the Adminiftrations must become a fucceffion of contradictions, if the violent opponents were to change fides every fix months. Both parties he conceived too ftrong for either to govern the kingdom; and public credit must fink every day more and more, till Government was ftrong enough to carry on with vigour the bufiness 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.

Sir George Co nwall,

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 Cornwall defired to caution the House against confidering the speech of the honourable gentleman who seconded the motion, as containing the fentiments of the meeting where the motion had been first 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 hinfelf. The honourable gentleman, Sir George obferved, had declared himself to be a fair, independent and impartial

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 those 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 fuch a liberty.

Sir Edward Aftley paid a handfome compliment to Mr. Sir Edward Luttrell, who, he faid, had fhewed himfelf 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 thofe 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 service muft neceffarily fuffer. He had often given his opinion of the coalition, which had carried thofe refolutions through the Houfe; and he had often expofed 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 speakers over against him; but when there was a queftion 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 description of gentlemen, to which he belonged, the country gentlemen; but if he had, he certainly would not concur with them in the resolution now under the confideration of the Houfe. 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 should bring back again into 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 oppofed.

Mr.

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 existence; it was forinidable from its numbers, and from the abilities of those who compofed it; and it was fupported by a majority of the House. But this was not all: the Houfe had thought proper to go fo far as to declare it had no confidence in the prefent 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 business of the nation; and confequently, while fuch a declaration exifted, they could not remain Ministers. 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 ftill, 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 fupporting a motion, the object of which was, to caufe an Adminiftration to be formed, which fhould be able to carry through that House and the other, such 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 Houfe. 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 those 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 restoration of the late Ministers of the Crown, he had a particular objection to the motion then before the House: it ftated, that there were divifions and diftractions among the people. He wished fomebody would prove, or at leaft 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 prefent advifed the Crown, and those who had been lately difiniffed from the fervice of his Majefty. He believed that the former were generally esteemed, regarded, and believed by the people to be a wife, an honest and virtuous fet of men; while the latter were looked upon as perfons who had been deservedly driven from power, because they had attempted to abuse it, for the purpose of raising a new and unconstitutional power in the ftate, and invading the most facred rights of the people. There was fcarcely a fecond opinion on this fubject without doors; and therefore he was well founded in his objection to that part of the motion, which ftated that there existed divifions and distractions, 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 higheft confidence in them; and confequently thefe addreffes proved, that the voice of the House of Commons was no longer the voice of the people of England. He wished moft devoutly, that by way of trial on whom the confidence of the nation refted, 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 Miniftry, 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 should have given fo much trouble to the Houfe, 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 House which placed no confidence in them. Were the resolutions of the Houfe to remain a mere dead letter? Were they to be inoperative? Were they to ftand folely 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 Houfe 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 thofe whom they reprefented, and

to