from acting without that authority. It is known that regiments have published declarations in which they state that certain perfons fhall find, before they are delivered into the hands of the civil power, that fuch a regiment is not to be trifled with. Thefe infulting proceedings too are fanctioned by the countenance of Government. What then must be the fatal confequences of thefe meafures, if not checked by the introduction of a more conciliating fyftem; and what profpect is there that conciliation will ever be employed with fuccefs by men who have loosened by their mifconduct the bonds which unite Great Britain and the fifter kingdom. “I think that I have faid enough to fhew that you are now called upon to addrefs his Majefty for the difmiffal of his prefent Ministers: I am curious to hear what arguments will be employed to prove that the prefent Minifters are the best qualified of any men in the kingdom for the offices they hold. They have been often warned of the mifchief with which their meafures were pregnant. They have laughed at all advice, and have perfevered in their own fyftem with an obftinacy equalled only by the calamities which it has produced. But it may be faid their intention was good. Admitting that this were the cafe, how has it happened that every act they have performed has tended, not to raife, but to difgrace the country. Perhaps too it may be contended that they are the only men qualified for the ftations they occupy. They may arrogantly maintain that they are the only men whofe loyalty and integrity are beyond doubt. I will be bold to affert, however, that in this and the other House of Parliament there is a fufficient number of men of great talents and fair character to form a cabinet capable of conducting the affairs of this country with ability and fuccefs. Will Minifters deny this to be the cafe? Perhaps, however, the arrogant language which fome of his Majesty's Minifters have held may be fuppofed to allude to those with whom I act; for I fcarcely think that I fhall be confidered as a candidate for office, or as holding myfelf out as qualified for high public fituations. Thofe perfons, then, with whom it is my honour and pride to act, are they against whom these fufpicion are infinuated. I afk, then, what is there in their conduct to juftify the charge, or to fupport fo arrogant a pretenfion? Who are the men who may be confidered as candidates for office! Are they not the men of compliant difpofition, who will defcend to every artifice to gain power-who court majoritiesmen bold and prefumptuous in fuccefs, weak and fubmiffive in danger? Have we deferted the principles we have profeffed; have we by every fawning art courted the favour of majorities; have we abandoned the uniform line of conduct upon which we 5 N 2 have By tendance as not only nugatory, but mischievous. If fuch, however, be the alternative which Minifters chufe to hold out, it becomes our duty to prove that the calumny is ill-founded. withdrawing the attention of the country from us, and fixing it upon Ministers, we are defirous that they fhould reflect that no evil can be greater than the continuance of the present Minifters in office. Then they will find men able to conduct their affairs, men fitted to conciliate Ireland, to obtain peace; men in whom the French will have no title to think conceflion is weakness. When we hold a Reform in Parliament to be neceffary, we know that this meafure is very unfavourably received by the majority. We are convinced, however, that without this the country can never be placed upon a good footing. We stand pledged to take no thare in any adminiftration, in which this is not a leading object. In faying this, however, I am ready to confefs that there are fome measures which appear to me to be more immediately neceffary than Parliamentary Reform-a peace with France, the conciliation of Ireland with the queftion of Catholic emancipation, and Parliamentary Reform in that country. While I admit this, however, I hold a Parliamentary Reform eflential to the falvation of the State. With thefe fentiments I declare that I shall never make one of any adminiftration with which Parliamentary Reform is not a leading object. This I fay merely in anfwer to the charge of being a candidate for office, for I fhould be ashamed to talk of myfelf as fit for any office in any other view. Upon this fubject I likewife declare that the fpecific plan propofed laft year in another place has my concurrence. I will fay farther, that without a peace with France, without conciliation with Ireland, Parliamentary Reform could be of no advantage to the country; while the latter is neceffary to fecure and to improve the benefits of the former. There may be men of talents and integrity perfectly well qualified for the firft offices of the State who would not confider Parliamentary Reform as a neceffary ingredient in their system. Such men I should congratulate upon their boldness in undertaking the conduct of public affairs upon fuch terms. So long, however, as they acted for the public advantage, they should have my support, though I fhould referve to myself the right of bringing forward the queftion of Parliamentary Reform whenever the proper moment arrived. "But the calumniators to whom I have alluded, not fatisfied with thefe changes, have alfo dared to infinuate that I am not averfe to the fuccefs of the French, in their defigns against this country. Much as I defpife the authors of these attacks, I think it neceffary to repel calumnies fo grofs. I cannot help help confidering it as a disadvantage to this country, to hold out to the enemy that on landing here they would find fupporters. Yet fuch are the falfehoods which thefe calumniators affert, fuch are the means by which they encourage the French to make the attempt. After they have by their own lies induced the enemy to judge unfavourably of the temper of many people here, they turn round and impute the blame of encou ragement to thofe against whom they forge the original calumny, and afcribe to us thofe impreffions of the enemy which they have occafioned. But in cafe of invation, who would be the men from whom the Directory might flatter themselves with affiftance? Would it not be from thofe mean fycophants of power who follow every change, who have alternately been the creatures of every one in authority, and whofe loyalty "Is the blind inftinct that crouches to the rod, "We have ftood forward in the defence of the rights of the people, and the enemy could not think that we would join with them in deftroying thofe rights. Every man in the country must know that if the French were to fucceed we fhould be the moft degraded and abfolute flaves that ever exifted. It is therefore that I diflike thele calumnies, because they may be turned as an engine to the enemy. But if the calumniators have fhewn they will go any lengths, they have fucceeded in part with refpect to a man whom I am proud to call my friend. And though they have been wholly unfucceffful in their attempts to induce a belief that he could ever be difloyal to his King, or inimical to the conftitution; yet they have fucceeded in impreffing a fufpicion that he is not proper to be entrusted with arms in the hour of danger. I only touch upon this, because if it be difcuffed, it ought to te made the fubject of feparate difcuffion. My Lords, determined as I am never by any act of mine to contribute to the continuance of the prefent war, I will be among the foremost to maintain the liberties of my country againft all oppreffors, tyrants and invaders. If the French fhould appear upon the coaft in force, I fhall be proud and eager to receive the commands of his Majesty, only anxious to be placed where it is the hotteft. I never will fight for the prefent Minifters, for I know of no more decided enemies to their country and to their king than they are. I may for the moment fufpend my oppofition to them, but it will only be for a moment. When I return, I return as decided a foe to them as ever. I abhor their conduct, I deteft their principles, and againft the fyftems upon which they have acted I vow eternal enmity. If ever an an unmanly timidity fhould make me enter into an alliance with them, if ever bafe fear fhould induce me to join with them in oppreffing my country, may the just indignation of the people purfue me, and may the great Creator pour down his heaviest curfes upon my apoftate head!" As the Duke was much exhaufted with fpeaking fo long, and the Addrefs was very long, his reading it was difpenfed with, and it was read by the Chancellor, and afterwards by the Clerk of the Houfe: and is as follows: "That an humble Addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, most humbly to represent that, from the commencement of the war to "the prefent moment, his Majefty's Minifters have had all the ad. vantages which could be derived from the entire confidence and "fupport of Parliament; that this confidence and fupport have "given them the unlimited command and difpofal of the power "and revenue of thefe kingdoms; that, with means profufely furnished to obtain fuccefs, the Councils, which have had the "direction of this power and the application of these refources, have been attended with no effect but to exalt France to her "prefent formidable greatnefs, and in the fame proportion to im"pair the relative fituation of Great Britain; to expofe her with reduced strength and diminished refources, to all thofe dangers, "which it was alledged could be averted only by an early and fuc"cefsful combination to refift the principles as well as the power "of the French government; and, after an unavailing expence of "blood and treafure, to compel his Majefty's Minifters to open a "negotiation for peace by a total dereliction of all the principles "on which the war was faid to be unavoidable, and by fubmitting "to abandon thofe fafeguards and defences, which, in the early "period of hoftilities, were infifted on as abfolutely indifpenfible "to the fecurity of thefe kingdoms. "That, without looking back to the caufes of the war, or in"quiring now whether it might or might not have been avoided, and referving for another moment all confideration of the charges "which may hereafter be brought against those perfons, who ori"ginally advifed his Majefty not to acknowledge the Republic of "France, nor to liften to any terms of accommodation: we think "it our duty humbly to lay before his Majesty the situation in "which we are now placed. "We are awed by the refult of the war itself, and astonished at "the conclufion drawn from it by his Majefty's Minifters, who, "with all the means of vigorous attack, have reduced us to a "state of precarious defence, yet still have the confidence to affert, "that in the fame councils which have proved fo incompetent in profperity to direct with advantage the affairs of the nation, the "best means are to be found of relief and fecurity in our prefent "difficulty and diftrefs; and that we are fill to look to them "alone for the attainment of a fafe and honourable peace. なく "That this Houfe, and every Member of it, is ready to pro"vide for a vigorous defence of the country, and will not fhrink from "from any perfonal difficulty or danger that may attend the per"formance of this duty. That whatever differences may exift, "with regard to the principles and policy of our internal Govern"ment, we are determined and unanimous in our refolution to "refift all foreign interference. But inftructed as we are by a "long feries of events, and corrected by experience, we are "bound by our duty, and compelled by neceffity, to fubmit to his "Majesty our humble opinion, that the fituation of the country is "too critical, and the dangers that furround it are too ferious to "admit of any further trial of the fame councils which have con"ftantly failed; or of the fame perfons, for whofe continuance in "office, notwithstanding the heavy and unanfwered charges "which have been brought against them, even themselves have "nothing to plead, but a feeble, unavailing rectitude of intention, "conftantly overpowered by the fuperior policy and vigour of the "enemy, or a pretended apprehenfion, equally falfe and malig"nant, of the defigns and principles of thofe whom his Majetty "night appoint to fucceed them in the administration of public "affairs, as if, in the prefent cabinet, were to be found the only "efficient perfons whofe loyalty and attachment to the Constitu"tion were free from all fufpicion and doubt. "That lamenting, as we do, the failure of the late negotiations "for peace, we befeech his Majefty seriously to reflect, whether "when conducted by his prefent Minifters there could be any rea"fonable hope of their fuccefs. We have not forgotten their haughty and fupercilious rejection of all offers of accommoda"tion previous to the commencement of hoftilities; and we too "well remember the terms of inveterate and irreconcileable en"mity on which the conteft was placed at the outfet, and on "which it has ever fince been conducted, to hope for any conci"tory difpofition between the enemy and the original advifers "of the war. We cannot be furprifed that any overture which "may now be made by his Majesty's Ministers, after having wil"fully neglected, or infolently refufed, every favourable oppor"tunity of negotiation, fhould be received as an acknowledgment "of weakness and diftrefs, rather than as a proof of fincere difpo "fition to peace. "Further, to reprefent to his Majefty, that the fituation of the "country is in all refpects pregnant with dangers unknown at any "former period; our domeftic diftrefs is great, and is hourly in"creating; the principles of our free Conftitution have been violat"ed, and fome of the most effential fecurities of our liberties def"troyed; the connexion with our Sifter Kingdom is threatened "with diffolution, and all the foundations of our importance and "power in Europe are rendered precarious and uncertain. "To extricate us from fuch difficulties, requires much fortitude "and wisdom. For thefe qualities we cannot look to his Ma"jesty's prefent advifers; under them we cannot hope for a fuc"cefsful profecution of the war, ftill lefs for the conclufion of a "fecure and equitable peace. "We therefore fubmit this our humble reprefentation to his "Majefty, trufting that his Majefty will fee as we do, the urgent No. 18. "and |