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 faid in allufion to the great Duke of Buckingham was, that those persons who owed their promotion to the perfonal 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 fpoke 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 Houfe 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 business revifed; but as long as it stood as it did at prefent, he must 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 House, 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 question 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 laft night before his Majefty, when there appeared

For the motion, 211; against the Minifter 24.

Against it, 187. Majority

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 Thurfday.

February

February 5.

*

After fome previous unimportant bufinefs, Lord Beau Lord Beau champ begged leave to fubmit to the Houfe a motion, 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 House of Lords had taken into confideration a refolution which this House 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 resolution which had been propofed in the House of Commons, and which had been adopted on Chriftmas 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 fpeak 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 House, to exercise a power which they might or might not exercife, at their own difcretion: there were a thoufand inftances in the Journals, of inftructions given to all the public boards, with respect to the exercife of powers vefted in them by act of Parliament; and there was not before yefterday, 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, becaufe there were certain regulations relative to thefe places then actually deVOL. XIII. pending

L

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 Houfe 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 House 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 subject in which the public purfe, 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 Treasury, 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 should 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 Houte 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 House of Lords. The Commons had a right to exercise 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

of

of men, not known to them, and in whofe judgment and integrity no confidence could of course be repofed. He admitted, that he proposed the refolution of the 24th of December in a thin houfe: but that was not his fault; he did it not by furprise; nor with an intention to avail himself of the advantage which he might be fuppofed to derive from the abfence of the right honourable gentleman over against him, and of feveral other gentlemen, who having vacated their feats, by the acceptance of offices under the Crown, were gone to new elections. The nature of the cafe, and the then fituation of affairs, appeared to him to be fuch as to call for, and juftify the motion he then made. However, he would not enter any farther into the fubject at prefent; it would be first neceffary for the House to know what had been done by the Lords, relative to the refolution he had made; and therefore he moved, "That a Committee be appointed to examine the Journals of the Lords, and fee if any, and what proceedings had been had by them on the subject of a refolution agreed to by this Houfe on the 24th of December laft, or any other refolution, and that they make a report to the Houfe."

Mr. Eden feconded the motion, but without making any fpeech.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer declared he had not the The Chanleaft objection to the noble Lord's motion. If he was defi. cellor of the Exchequer. rous to know whether any thing had been done in the House of Lords, founded on a refolution of this Houle, the mode his Lordship had adopted was certainly ftrictly parliamentary, and conformable to the practice of this Houfe. He did not mean to take any notice of what had been urged by the noble Lord in fupport of his refolution, because he did not wish to anticipate what might be the fubject of debate on the report which the Committee now moved for might make. He meant fimply to observe, that he by no means believed the noble Lord had it in contemplation to take advantage of the abfence of feveral gentlemen in office, when he moved his refolution before the holidays; ftill it was very true, that it was paffed in their Houfe, when of courfe they had no opportunity to refift it.

Mr. Fox begged the right honourable gentleman would Mr. Fox. recollect, that the circumftance of his abfence ought not to be memtioned as a kind of oblique cenfure of the refolution moved by his noble friend; for fo far was the noble Lord from withing to take an unfair advantage of the right ho nourable

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nourable gentleman's abfence, that it was that very abfence which made the refolution neceffary; for had he been then a member of that Houfe, and prefent, it was probable the refolution would not have been preffed upon the Houfe, or fo much as moved; for the noble Lord would have put fome queftions to the right honourable gentleman, and if, in anfwer, he had affured the Houfe, that until their next meeting after the recess the Lords of the Treafury would not confent to the acceptance of any bills drawn upon the Eaft-India Company, there would have been no neceffity whatever for the refolution, and confequently it would not have been propofed. With refpect to the proceedings of the Lords yefterday, there was fomething in them which ftruck him as exceedingly fingular, and very well worth the attention of the Houte. The refolution which gave their Lordships to much offence was paffed on the 24th of December; the Lords, who conceived it to be a daring encroachment on the part of the Commons, and a violation of the Royal prerogative on one hand, and of the privileges of the Houle of Peers on the other, met on the 20th of January; and yet, though they fat almost every day fince, they never once took notice of this bold attempt of the Commons till the 4th of February. Were the Lords indifferent, during all this interval, about their own rights, and thofe of the Crown? Or did any thing recently happen, which had ferved to awaken their fenfibility? Yes; for the Houfe of Commons had, on Tuesday, agreed to a motion for laying certain refolutions, which they had paffed, before his Majefty. The very next day, and not before, their Lordships proceeded to take into confideration the refolution which the Houfe of Commons had paffed fo long ago as the 24th of December laft: fo that before they thought of taking this daring, this illegal refolution into confideration, they waited until the Commons had agreed to a meafure ftrictly legal, ftrictly conftitutional, and strictly parliamentary, namely, a measure for giving advice to the Crown. From this proceedure of the Lords, this curious and alarming leffon might be collected; that as long as the Houfe of Commons fhould agree in opinion with the Minifters of the Crown, fo long they might pafs what refolutions they pleased, unheeded by the Lords; but that they no fooner fhould differ, and advife the Crown to remove them, than the Lords would ftand forth their champions, and commence hoftilities against the Houfe of Commons. For his own part, he had long fufpected, and the hiftory of the last three

weeks