The Chan affairs he thought then, and he thought fo ftill, that the fupply ought not to be withheld; but he thought also that it ought not to be voted unconditionally. Some measure ought neceffarily to be adopted; fuch, for inftance, as that which had been alluded to by the honourable gentleman who spoke laft but one; upon the fuccefs of fome fuch measure he was ready to vote the fupply, relying, with the utmost confi. dence, that His Majefty would attend to the voice of his faithful Commons, and gratify those wishes with which their anxiety for the Conftitution infpired them. The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid he would not enter into cellor of the any compromife; he would not ftipulate any condition for the Exchequer. paffing of the fupply. When any propofition fhould be fabmitted to the House, it would be for the House to dispose of it as they fhould think proper; but he would never make a compromife on the fubject. Mr. Fox. The Hon. C. Marsham. Mr. Fox replied, that he wanted no compromife; but he defired the right honourable gentleman would recollect, that he (Mr. Fox) was not pledged to vote for the fupply; he thought it ought to be voted; but at the fame time he thought the vote ought to be preceded with some other, without which he was of opinion the fupply ought ftill to be poftponed a little longer; and the more fo, as this particular supply was not in its nature very preffing. The Hon. Charles Marfham declared, that in voting last night for poftponing the fupply, he never entertained an idea of refufing it entirely; and therefore he felt himself not a little hurt by finding that the Chancellor of the Exchequer ascribed to him, and to the other very respectable and independent gentlemen who compofed the majority on the queftion of last night, motives which they never felt. The right honourable gentleman faid, the majority meant wholly to withhold the fupply -with refpect to him, the charge was not supported even by the fhadow of truth; for he declared laft night, and he now repeated it, that he meant only to poftpone the vote, until the Houfe fhould have confidered what previous ftep ought to be adopted. He therefore advised the right honourable Chancellor of the Exchequer, not to take up flightly, opinions that were injurious to the characters of men who refpected their characters. For his own part, he did not think he ought to confider himself in a better light than that of a Frenchman, who met in an affembly with others, to register the edicts of a Sovereign or his Minifter, fince he was not to dare to exercise his freedom of acting, without bringing down upon himself the most illgrounded grounded charges from the Minifter of the Crown, which would make him appear in an odious point of view, as if he had refused the fupply. The right honourable gentleman ought to recollect, that when he threw out fuch reflections against members, he must not expect to be looked upon in his private capacity of a member of that House, but as his Majefty's Minifter, whofe menaces are injurious to the cause of liberty and the freedom of debate. The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied, that he did not take The Chanup his opinion lightly; he thought last night, and he thought cellor of the fo ftill, that to pafs fuch a vote as the House paffed last night, Exchequer. was, under all circumstances, tantamount to a refufal of the fupply; and it was not upon flight grounds he formed that opinion; and furely he had a right to deliver thofe fentiments which occurred to him on a tranfaction in Parliament, without giving the honourable member any reason to think himself in that affembly for the fole purpofe of regiftering edicts of Kings or Minifters. Mr. Fox with fome warmth charged Mr. Pitt with having Mr. Fox. fhewn the most fovereign contempt for the Conftitution, and with having arrogantly and infultingly tried with the opinion of the Houfe in defiance of which he had dared to give fuch unconstitutional advice to his Majefty, as made him give fuch an answer to his Commons as none of his race ever gave before. Mr. Wilberforce declared, that to him the vote of last night Mr.Wilber appeared in no other light, than in that of an attempt wholly force. to refuse the supply, and by that idea he had been guided in the vote he gave. Mr. Honeywood faid, that when he voted for poftponing Mr. Honeythe fupply, he never dreamt of withholding it entirely; he wood. looked only for a fhort delay, until the Houfe fhould have time to confider what ought to be done in fo critical a fituation of affairs as the prefent. Mr. Powys hoped his character was fo well known that it Mr. Powys. was not neceffary for him to declare, that whatever he thought, he dared to fay, and whatever he said he dared to think; and therefore he flattered himself that it was not neceffary for him to affure the House, that when he faid he meant only to delay, not to refuse the supply, he meant what he faid. If he wifhed not to poftpone merely, he would have done like a noble Lord (Lord Camelford) who a few years ago, diftinctly and avowedly moved, that no supply hould be granted. VOL. XIII. Y The Mr. Fox. The Chancellor of the Exchequer warned the House to beware of the confufion into which the nation would be plunged if the fupplies fhould be withheld. Mr. Fox faid, the confufion could be created only by the right honourable gentleman, by his obftinately refolving to remain in office. When Lord Camelford moved that the fupplies be wholly denied, he by no means intended to create confufion; but he had fo high an opinion of the patriotifm of the noble Lord in the blue ribband, of whom in other refpects he thought very ill, that he knew the noble Lord would not throw the nation into confufion by ftaying in office, after the fupplies fhould have been refufed; but that he would have immediately quitted his fituation and in a minute all would be peace again. It would be juft fo with the right honourable gentleman. Confufion could be created only by his remaining in office; and the moment he should retire from it, all would be harmony again. He concluded by moving, "that the fitting on the ftate of the nation be adjourned to Monday," on which day an answer might be expected to the addrefs, which he hoped the House would vote to-morrow. A few words paffed between Mr. Rolle and Mr. Erskine, on an expreffion imputed to the latter in a former debateAfter fome converfation the motion paffed." February 20. Soon after four o'clock the Speaker took the chair, and Mr. Powys, calling on Mr. Powys, that honourable member ftood up and faid, that he had to beg the indulgence of the House to a motion which he had already intimated, but imperfectly. He was however now fully prepared to ftate it as diftinctly as he had conceived it. The grounds, the objects, and the effects of fuch a propofition as he now thought proper to mention, claimed the attention of the Houfe. The preffure of public calamity and embarraffment, pointed to the motion he would fuggeft. He only begged he might have leave to put what conftruction upon his own words and acts he beft knew fuited the intentions and principles that gave rife to them. He came forward with the motion he was now to make, from a conviction that the Conftitution was in danger. This was the idea which preffed upon his mind, and to which he owed his prefent feelings; and this, as well as every other ftep he fhould take, he would direct to the preservation of the dignity, the honour, the utility of the Houfe of Commons. No man, when the right honourable gentleman ftated the anfwer anfwer of the Crown to the refolutions of the Houfe, who' thought with him but were of opinion, that fome step ought undoubtedly to be taken previous to ftopping the fupplies. Then what was the measure moft eligible on that occafion; and which, while the Minifter retains his fituation without effect, the houfe was in fome degree bound to adopt. Suppofing the fupplies had preceded this motion, what would have been the conftruction of that conduct? "You were told that his Majefty had not, after taking your refolutions into his moft ferious confideration, thought proper to difmifs his Ministers, and that his Minifters had not refigned." You, notwithstanding this intimation, voted the fupplies. Was not that a moft perfect and implicit acquiefence with a rejection of your own refolutions, and confequently of the honour of the House, so far as it is connected with thefe refolutions? In what fituation then can you ever be which can justify your demurring when this did not? The only reafon therefore which exifted against this laft deed, this ultimate refource of the House, was their confidence in the paternal care of Majefty, who felt for the public, and would undoubtedly not be wanting to relieve them. He was not one of those who dared conftrue his Majefty's demurring on the prefent delicate queftion, as a negative to the opinion thus folemnly ftated and refpectfully announced. He would not fuffer himfelf to put fuch a fenfe on the Royal conduct, whatever might be the reason for the prefent apparent indecifion in Administration, he was perfuaded that on reconfidering their situation, they could not refift the ftrong and emphatical wishes of this Houfe for their removal. This brought him to confider the effects of his motion He did not mean it fhould produce the ignominy or degradation of the right honourable gentleman. That it fhould put an end to his prefent fituation, as inimical to the honour of Parliament, and the progrefs of public bufinefs, he fincerely and heartily wifhed. But he could fee a very strong distinction between perfonal honour arifing from the difcharge of public duty, and that fpecies of honour connected with fuch a fituation as proved a bar to it. He hoped the right honourable gentleman would confider again and again before he finally determined on perfifting in an opinion fo diametrically oppofite to that of the Houfe of Commons. What were the fupports to which he looked" for countenance and efficiency? The confidence of the House of Lords was one. But how is that fupport announced? Their address had not, in his opinion one word directly in his fa Y 24. your your. He confidered it as a neutral manifefto, from which no party could derive any material advantage; and it would be viewed by the public and pofterity only as a fimple pledge of their preference for the right honourable gentleman as oppofed to thofe who preceded him in office. Perhaps his chief dependance may be placed on a large body of the people, who were undoubtedly on his fide. The question, however, was ftill to be asked, on what grounds? Why did they prefer him? Was there a member in the House fo blind as not at once to comprehend the motives which influence most of those without doors, who were avowedly and decidedly for the prefent Miniftry? They were attached to his perfonal virtues and accomplishments. The glory of his father's reign fhed a luftre on the political conduct of the fon, which charmed the people, and he hoped that charm would not eafily be diffolved. But they could not ground their attachment on any thing he had yet achieved for the country. They were not in a fituation to be able to decide on the present conteft. It was too conftitutional and abstracted to come within their mode of thinking. But the qualifications of the Minister, and the illustrious name he bore, were objects of their adoration. It was a subject, however, which he ought to contemplate with much deliberation and impartiality, whether the people at large, or any very strong party of them, would long continue fo very inattentive to their own rights, as to fupport him against their own reprefentatives, their own intereft, and that Conftitution which is fo peculiarly theirs. The objections which had been held out against that general and fubftantial union fo defirable to the Houfe and to their conftituents, were three; the Receipt tax, the India bill, and the Coalition. In every one of thefe, conceffions had been made in a manner which did infinite honour to the right honourable gentleman and his noble friend beneath him. The Receipt tax, he, for one, had ever thought a proper, a neceffary, and by no means an oppreffive one. The state of our finance made it indifpenfable. He had voted for it in company with the right honourable gentleman and a Ministry whom in a great many other things he had opposed. But by a late decifion of the House, the Minifter had adopted it, and therefore no obftacle whatever on that fubject could now remain. Was it then the late India bill which retarded a measure of fo much confequence to the public? That bill he had from |