mercial interefts, fuch probable confequences refulting from the increasing power of the Emprefs, and the total tate of inability to coun eract all thefe defigns, in which the Turks will find themselves, if we confent to what Ruffia requires ? and have be Turks no ftrong fortrefs near Cherfon and the Critaca, on the Ruffian fide of Conftantinople? But if Pruffia is fearful, are we not to pay fome regard to her interefts, when we find them combined with our own, though no treaty obliges us to ftep forward in her defence. It as been faid, that the treaty we have with Pruffia has been but of little advantage to us: but is it fair to say fo? Was it not to Pruffia we were indebted for the re-establishment of our alliance with Holland? Is it not to Pruffia that we owe at this moment the exiflence of Sweden, as an independent kingdom? Did not Pruffia prevent her total overthrow, by threatening to invade the rich province of Hol ftein, uniefs the Danes withdrew the forces they had already fent into Sweden? And may we not believe, that our al liance with Pruffia, and, by Pruffia's means, with Holland, contributed fome little towards bringing the Spaniards, in our late negociations with them, to the terms which we infiled they were to comply with? Prufia has been of fervice to us; and it would be ungrate ful in us not to allow this: but if gratitude between nations is never to be admitted as an argument, let us confider how our commercial interefts are likely to be affected by a war, fhould a war enfue. Our trade to Turkey has been much undervalued. I pretend not to fay, with any degree of exactitude, what our exports to the Levant have amounted to, during these last two years; but from good authority I have heard, that in the last year they have not been much fhort of 800,000l.This, however, is certain, the trade is increafing rapidly, and has been increafing, ever fince the French intereft at Conftantinople has been on the decline. The Turks are every day more and more imitating our manners, and accuftoming themfelves to require our manufactures and the articles we export to their country; they are emerging from their inactivity and indolence, and improvements of various kinds are introduced among them. Printing preffes have been very lately established in their capital; and we may reasonably hope, that foon the demand for our articles of exportation in Turkey will be very great, and that we may count the Levant among the best markets our manufacturers have. But our Ruffian trade, many cry out, will fuffer; that is a trade we cannot lofe; we want it for the fupport of our hipping. In anfwer to this, let it be confidered, that if we 3 fuffer fuffer fome inconveniences from a fufpenfion or interruption of this trade, the Power with whom we are at variance will fuffer infinitely more. The immenfe fums of ready money we fend to Ruffia for the purchase of the raw materials we import from that country, for the ufe of our dock yards, are what fuftain the credit of the paper money now circulating in Ruffia, at a difcount of 50 per cent. The balance of trade in favour of Ruffia, to the amount of 1,500,000l., is paid in the moft advantageous manner to Ruffia, in the moft difadvantageous manner to ourselves. Our merchants pay a year beforehand for the goods they purchafe; for thofe they fell, they allow fix months credit: befides thofe, they labour under other difadvantages, from which the merchants of every other country are exempted. They must pay the duties and caftoms at Riga and Peterburgh, one half in the coin of the country, the other in dollars, and thefe dollars are only taken at fuch a price, fifty per cent. lower than they can procure them for; which, ofcourfe, is an increafed duty of 251. per cent. which our merchants have to pay more than the merchants of every other country. Surely, fo unfavourable and mortifying an exception, fhould not incline us to think the Emprefs friendly to this country; as one who loves the English, who is grateful for all the advantages the reaps from our trade, and one whom, on thefe accounts, we fhould be particularly fearful and cautious of offending. But wherefore is it, may be asked, that fhe has tried fo to mortify our pride, and forced our merchants to fubmit to fuch indignities, for fuch exceptions iu her ports, to our difadvantage, are indignities? Because she thinks he has us in her power; and that under the neceffity of trading to her country for fuch and fuch articles we can procure no where elfe, we muft fubmit to thofe conditions the chufes to impofe. But let her beware! fortunately the Baltic is not all her own; fortunately, there are other ports in that fea, befides her's, to which our merchantmen can have accefs; I mean thofe of Memel, of Dantzick, of Elbing. To thofe towns, the articles we most stand in need of can be brought, not fo conveniently, but not with much more inconvenience than to her port of Riga. Riga hemp, the moft effential article to us that we import from the Baltic, grows chiefiy in the northern provinces of Poland; from thence it is fent down the rivers to the Ruffian ports; but it might be fent down other rivers, which rife in the fame provinces, to other ports: it would be difficult to procure the fame quantity for fome time by this new channel; but in time this would be the cafe, and the quality of the hemp fo procured, would be the fame we now buy from Ruffia. When Mr. Whitbread. When trade once changes its direction, it is not eafily brought back to its ancient courfe. The Empress is not a woman whofe paffions blind her to her own interefts, and thofe confiderations must therefore have their weight in her mind. Before I conclude, faid Mr. Stanley, I must now add, that though for the reafons I have given, I do not think a war with Ruffia, fhould the refuse to liften to our negociations, would be inexpedient or unjuftifiable, on the principles of policy or of justice. Yet, confidering how very exhausted this country is, I might hefitate more than I do in giving my vote for measures that may lead to war; but I repeat that I let my opinion be influenced, in addition to these reafons, by the confidence I have in the Minifter. Jealoufy, it has been well faid, is a an old parliamentary word we should not lofe fight of; I do not, but reserve a place for it in my bofom against future times, when other Minifters may govern; but to a Minifter who, for feven years, has ferved this country as our Minister has done, I give confidence; to a man who has recovered England from its lowest ebb of misfortune; who has reftored order to our finances, which were believed almost irretrievable; who has raised us to our former place among nations, from a ftate of general defpondency; to fuch a man I must give fome confidence, and of his principles I cannot bring myself to harbour all at once mistrust and jealousy. Mr. Whitbread faid, it had not originally been his intention to have offered himself to the Speaker's notice that night, but that of late he had been particularly anxious to catch his eye, because he wished that a line of difcrimination fhould be drawn between thofe gentlemen who maintained, as fome had done in the courfe of the debate, that the doctrine of confidence was that of the conftitution, and those who thought it both ftrange and unconftitutional. He, for his part, did think it both ftrange and unconftitutional; it was a doctrine which he would deprecate with his earliest and lateft breath in that Houfe; a monfter, with which he would grapple wherever it appeared, and ufe the utmost of his efforts to overthrow and to crush. In every debate on every subject. fince he had had the honour of fitting in Parliament, this doctrine of confidence had met him, and wherever it had met him, he had been alarmed; it had ferved in place of argument for every meafure that had been propofed on the other fide of the Houfe; it had ferved in place of an answer to every argument which had been adduced for any measure that had been brought forward on that fide of the House, When When the part of the community by whom he was sent to Parliament, elected him their reprefentative, he conceived that they had placed a confidence in him, on the express condition that he should repay it, not by confidence in others, which he would never beftow, unless extorted by the urgent neceffity of circumftances, but by the livelieft jealousy and the most active attention. The great precept which conftituents gave to their reprefentatives, was to take care "Ne quid damni caperet Refpublica." They were delegated to watch, to check, and to avert every dangerous innovation; to propofe, to adopt, and to cherish every well weighed improvement, and bound, by every tie of nature, honour, and religion, to deliver to their pofterity the conftitution unimpaired, and without the smallest derogation. How could that be done, if gentlemen delivered up their confciences, bound hand and foot, to the Minifter? The noble Lord (Belgrave) who moved the previous queftion, and the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Ryder) who had fpoken fince him, had not ufed any arguments to the point; and indeed the right honourable gentleman had faid he would not difcufs the refolutions then before the Houfe, and in that he had ftrictly kept his word; but as he knew that it was not from want of ability or eloquence that this happened, he was warranted in concluding that the ground on the fide which they endeavoured to maintain, was not tenable. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had enveloped every thing in mystery and darkness: to borrow a quotation from the claffical learning of the noble Lord, and to apply to the Chancellor of the Exchequer a character to which he had a peculiar and diftinct title, for he was the foul, the vital principle, the providence of the other fide of the Houfe, into whofe hands gentlemen delivered up them felves, their confciences, and their votes, whofe acts they bowed to and commended, and whose dark, inexplicable ways they did not pretend to fcrutinize or arraign, he would fay, "Nube polum pater occupavit;" and to carry on the idea which the noble Lord had given. him, he would fay, in the words of another poet, "Pater mediá Nimborum in nocte corufcá, We see the baneful effects of the right honourable gentleman's which it once was, when they were told, "Ye are met here to grant fubfidies, but not to meddle with matters of "State; thofe are queftions far above your reach, and ap propriated to the Prince alone, or to thofe Minifters with "whom he is pleafed to entrust them;" and from this abject ftate they had rifen, not by confidence in any Minifter, or feries of Minifters, but by laborious exertions, by jealous attention to their own rights, and by active investigation of the conduct of the fervants of the Crown. Having, feebly perhaps, eftablished, what, however, he strongly felt, that it was his right and duty to investigate the conduct of Minifters, he should proceed to ftate the reafons why he thought the refolutions propofed by his honourable friend ought to be adopted by the Houfe. A right honourable gentleman (Mr. Ryder) had faid that examples of applications to Parliament, under circumstances fimilar to the prefent, were numerous, and had mentioned a variety of precedents, particularly one of the year 1720, when Sir J. Norris was fent into the Baltic, (of which he would take fome notice hereafter) but he contended that no Minifter, either in the inftances quoted by the right honourable gentleman, or in any other inftance, ever came to Parliament for supplies, in a manner fo unconftitutional as the Chancellor of the Exchequer did. The caufes of the armament had not been avowed or explained, and great eulogiums had been beftowed upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer for his fecrefy; it was allowed he gave no information, but it was at the fame time infifted upon that none was neceffary. Gentlemen wifhed to know nothing. In private life, a proper mixture of openness and fecrefy begot friendship between man and man; but it would appear ftrange, were a perfon to fay, "Ihe more mysterious "and concealed your conduct is, the more fatisfied shall I "be that it is right; the lefs you tell me of what you are "doing, the more fhall I believe you are doing well; and "I then fhall be most contented with you, and have the "higheft opinion of your integrity, when you tell me nɔ"thing at all." But this was precifely the language held by gentlemen refpecting the Minifter. Every thing here was to be gueffed at; it was to be conjectured why the tranquillity of the nation was to be disturbed; and it must be remembered that thofe "fhoes were not yet old" in which gentlemen had come down to vote fupplies for an armament which a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Dundas) to gild a little the pill of taxation, and make it go down with fomer degree of facility, had faid, was to procure permanent tranquillity to this country; it had ftruck fuch terror, and had fuch an effect in Europe, that no power would venture to |