his own experience, but the conduct of Adminiftration, ten or twelve years ago, was fuch as, he hoped, no future Adminiftration would ever adopt. It was then the practice for Minifters to come to Parliament on the beginning of every important tranfaction, and get their fanction to proceed in it, fo that they not only fhifted the refponfibility from their own fhoulders, but whatever might be the confequence of their measures, they brought in the fanction of Parliament as acceffary to their mifconduct, arguing that they asked for advice, and had received it. He difapproved much of that oppofition which gave improper information and advantage to our enemies, and contrafted former Adminiftrations with the prefent, which had his hearty fupport. He difliked coming forward with general principles upon any particular queftion, and he believed that they were introduced for the purpose of difplaying oratory, more than convincing by argument. With regard to the armament, they had only to confider whether the exifting circumftances warranted it or not; and unless gentlemen were previously determined to oppofe whatever the Minifter did, he thought the prefumptive opinion was, that he, having the best knowledge of their circumftances, had acted right, and was entitled to the confidence of the Houfe and the country. He would confider the question in three diftinct points-juftice, expediency, and policy, upon all of which, if it were not trefpaffing on the patience of the Houfe, he would fay a few words, and to free his obfervations from all heterogeneous matter, when he came to confider the juftice of the war, he fhould be obliged to call the attention of gentlemen to the hiftory of Ruffią for fome time back, and he could prove, that in the war between her and the Porte, fle was the aggreffor. From the arguments of fome gentlemen, there feemed to be a political partiality for Ruffia, which he did not think the merited; and here he introduced the armed neutrality, the attack upon the Turks, and other matters relative to the conduct of Ruffia. He afcribed the origin of the prefent war between Ruffia and the Porte, to the interview between the late Emperor and the Empress, which was for the exprefs purpose of dividing Turkey between them. He contended, that Ruffia had often broken the treaties we had made with her, and inftanced that of 1766, which gave a preference to our woollen manufactures over thofe of Silefia. This fhe had difregarded and broken; and fhe had been guilty of fimilar violations of all treaties which related to our trade, by favouring other countries, in defiance of treaties which he had entered into with us. Mr. Grant went into a minute detail of the trade between Ruffia and Great Britain, ftating, as he proceeded, its advantages and difadvantages to this country, and deducing from

from it arguments in fupport of the juftice of the war. He then came to the expediency. Oczakow, he thought, should not remain in the poffeffion of Ruffia: he confidered, that the aggrandifement of Ruffia, to fuch an extent as might deftroy the Ottoman empire, was highly dangerous to the balance of power in Europe; and he believed that the trade. with Turkey might be fo improved, as to become of greater confequence than that with Ruffia now was, however highly gentlemen might value it; and the trade which was now di vided between two countries, might be carried on by one. He averred, that the oppofition now made to the measures of Government, would, in the refult, tend to establish a monopoly against us of all thofe articles which we had fuch immediate occafion for.

Mr.

Mr. Windham declared, that it excited his aftonishment that the Minifter, who had been fo repeatedly called upon, Windham fhould not have thought proper to rife and ftate to the House how this war came to be either neceffary or expedient. Certainly, the House of Commons had a right to call for explanation before they expofed their county to the ruinous calamities of war. What principally made him rise now, was the extravagant and extraordinary doctrine which the Minifter's friends wifhed to prefs upon the country; they had before gone a great length upon confidence, but now, their arguments went to deprive the Houfe entirely of their deliberative capacity upon matters of the most important magnitude to the interefts of the nation. In fhort, their fyftem was nothing less than a bold and alarming attempt to annihilate every right and privilege of the Houte; and this fort of reafoning they had been driven to, and affumed in diftrefs and defpair, when all their other fallacies had failed them, and in lieu of thofe monftrous defences, which they had been obliged to make for their monftrous conduct. The idea of prerogative was very high, indeed, with thofe gentlemen, when they declared. that the power of the Commons to stop the supplies was an infringement upon the King's prerogative to make peace and war, two points as diftinct as any two could be. They were two diftinctly different powers vefted in two diftinctly different bodies. After dwelling upon this part of his argument, Mr. Windham next mentioned that degree of confidence, which had been urged with fuch intemperate zeal by all the Minifter's friends, confidence in individuals was a fubject into which he would not go; but the neceffary confidence in the executive Government, he was as much a friend to as any man; however, he could not carry that confidence so far as to say, that the country ought to proceed to war upon a fecret article of a treaty, which no perfon knew of or understood, except the Minifter of the

Crown.

Mr. W,
Grant,

Crown. The Minifter's friends had ventured too far on this point, for, they had been obliged to deny what on a former night they had laid great ftrefs upon. Their fyftems of alliance certainly ought to be looked into, that we might know whether any thing like good faith was part of it, and to find out this, he would go to the inmoft receffes of the Cabinet. As to the war, the country had decided against it long fince: it was no fudden war, for it had already lafted more than three years, and certainly, though there might be fome who feldom troubled themfelves with looking into foreign affairs, it was our business to understand it, and determine what connection it had with the British interefts long ere now. He remarked on the effect which the arrogance of our demands was likely to produce on the lofty fpirit of the Emprefs, and on the plain proofs of the Minifter's incapacity to manage foreign alliances. War was a queftion of great importance to the lives of thoufands, and no man or member of an affembly, who decided on it rafhly, could think himself free from guilt. The general fenfe of the country was againft this war, and the manufacturers in many places, and particularly in the city of Norwich, were much alarmed, left the profecution of it fhould bring irretrievable ruin down upon their com

merce.

Mr. W. Grant remarked, that the conftitution had wifely committed all negociations with foreign powers to the Crown; that the cafe was precifely the fame with respect to an armed and unarmed negociation; and that if the House were to interfere in negociations with foreign powers, they ought to take them wholly into their own hands, because their interference would render them impracticable by the Miniflers of the Crown. The neceffary confequences of negociations in the hands of numerous bodies, from the popular Affemblies of Athens to the Polish Diet, ever had been, and ever would be, the publication of what ought to remaiu fecret, intrigues, diffentions, cabals, and the interpofition of foreign influence. As the functions of Government were now exercifed in all the political contents in Parliament, it was never once imagined that any foreign influence was felt; but in the reign of Charles II. when the Houfe of Commons, from a well-founded jealoufy of the Crown, interfered more than it ought to have done, in negociations with foreign powers, foreign influence prevailed in proportion to the extent of the interference. The confidence which the Houfe was called upon to give, was not a confidence in any particular person, but a conftitutional confidence in the Minifter. It had been ftated, that when the Houfe was called upon to vote money, the hour of inquiry commenced: but the affertion was not true either in principle or in fact. It was often neceffary to vote

money

money without a particular inquiry into the circumstances on which the vote was founded, and, before the recefs, the House had actually voted an additional number of feamen to the ordinary peace establishment, on a bare declaration that the circumftances of Europe made it neceffary, and without inquiry or diffent. It had alfo been faid, that there was no inftance of an application to the Houfe by the Crown for money, without an explanation of the purpofes to which it was to be applied. There was at least one inftance in 1717, when the King fent a meffage to Parliament, ftating, in general terms, that he was carrying on negociations, and a fupply was voted, without a divifion, to enable his Majesty to give effect to thofe negociations. It was not likely that his Majesty's Minifters were ignorant of the conftitution, or that a family but recently called to the throne, would attempt any thing contrary to the ufual practice.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt declared, that notwithstanding the Mr. Pitt. many calls which had been made upon him, and the many harth epithets which had been applied to his filence, his fenfe of the duty which he owed to his Sovereign and his country, should still remain the rule of his conduct. He meant to enter into no details of the pending negociations, into no explanations inconfiftent with his official duty, but to flate fuch general confiderations as, in his opinion, ought to guide the conduct of the Houfe. No man who did not believe, whether with or without reafon, that he was capable of wilfully deceiving the Houfe, would fufpect that he wifhed to keep back any information which it was proper to give, or that he was lefs alive than any Member of the House to the confequences which the decifion of peace or war involved within it. There was nothing in the fyftem of Government fince he had been honoured with a place in his Majesty's councils, which did not fhew that, as far as perfonal confiderations went, he had as much to lofe, both in fame and character, by involving the country unneceffarily in a war, and interrupting its growing profperity; but he should ill deferve the fituation which he held, were lie capable, on that account, of avoiding to look fairly at the general fituation of the country with respect to foreign powers, and confulting his prefent ease and convenience, at the risk of great danger to the nation at fome future period. What was then the nature of the question, and what the circumstances not before in difcuffion? Government was not calling on the Houfe to proceed or follow up the addrefs on his Majefty's Meffage with any farther vote; but those who moved and fupported the Refolutions, were calling upon them to retract the addrefs which they had voted. He did not mean to fay that they ought not to retract, if they thought that they had fallen into an error;

but

but they ought to do it with fimplicity and candour; which the Refolutions, if voted, would not do, for they did not refcind the addrefs. They only fettered the executive power in a particular inflance, by declaring a general position; and they did that obliquely, and by halves, which ought to be done fully and directly, if done for any found purpose. The first ground of argument in fupport of these refolutions was, that the House muft not pledge their conftituents to support a war without a diftinct view of the caufe. But, was the Addrefs voted without any explanation? Certainly not. His Majefty's Meilage exprefsly ftated, that an armament was neceffary to give effect to the negociations in which he. was engaged, for laying the foundations of a folid and lasting peace, and to have stated the particulars of thofe negociations would have been to defeat them. But the Houfe was not pledged to engage in a war without farther explanation, as had been argued on the other fide. Had it been said, that the negociations bave failed, and his Majesty's Ministers have advifed a declaration of war in confidence of the fupport of the Commons, promifed in the addrefs, thofe who now contended that it pledged the Houfe to war, would have been the first to affirm that it did not. The Houfe would give confidence to the fervants of the Crown pending the negociations, but that was fubftantially different from pledging their constituents to fupport a war, fhould their negociation prove unfuccefsful. In a negociation, the moft material particulars could not be ftated; but, the caufe of war was definite, and could eafily be explained; and therefore the House was never understood to be pledged to it till that explanation was given; nor were the fupplies ever called for without it. Meffages fimilar to the prefent, demanding fupplies to strengthen the hands of the King, had often been fent. If the ground of the prefent addition to the naval force arofe clearly out of the treaty of alliance with Pruffia, it could be clearly and eafily ftated; but reafons of expediency arifing from a combination of various views and circumftances, which he formerly explained to be the reafons, could not be ftated fafely. The Houfe, on the confidence repofed in Minifters, had admitted the expediency of an armament, and voted an addrefs, but whether war or peace fhould be the refult of that armament, and he defired to be understood as giving no affurance either way, they were not pledged to fupport a war; they had not given up their judgement on the cafe when it came before them they might withhold the fupplies, and call the Minifters to account for the advice they had given. That which was a fufficient cause for an armament, might not be a fufficient cause for a war; and thofe who contended that fupplies for an armament ought not to be voted without a particular ex

planation,