measures, which had, he faid, been adopted for the raising them, had difgufted and diforganized the people to fuch a degree, that it was impoffible the Government could long exist against the anarchy and deftruction which threatened it, in confequence of its ruinous and oppreffive measures. Against these, my Lords, the Noble Secretary contrafted the comparatively trifling expence at which we carried on the war, and the truly conftitutional mode in which the expences of the war were levied upon the fubjects of this kingdom. What however has been the confequence, my Lords, of the Noble Secretary's boaftings and predictions on this particular head? Why juft this, my Lords. The French have not only contrived to carry on feveral fuccefsful campaigns fince, but, in the course of thefe, we have found them calling in thofe immenfe milliards of affignats; they purchased them for about fix or feven millions. fterling, and ever fince paper money has been kicked out of the market, and hard cash fubftituted in its place. But what, my Lords, have been the melancholy contraft in this country? I am truly forry to mention it; but the very reverfe of this has been the cafe with us. This very Adminiftration, which found the country, at the commencement of the prefent war, in a state of unexampled opulence and profperity, after all their vaunting predictions about the ruin of the French finances, had, by their mifmanagement and incapacity, fo exhaufted our own, that what had never been fo much as dreamed of in former periods, had lately most unfortunately happened; the Bank of England has stopped its regular courfe of payments; and, what is ftill more unfortunate and afflicting, Minifters have been obliged to refort to fuch measures for raifing the fupplies, as have never before been heard of, and were hitherto altogether unknown to the conftitution of this country.

"My Lords, this has continually from its commencement been ftyled a war for the defence and prefervation of property, but in my opinion it has operated the very contrary way, and ftruck moft forcibly and deeply at the very root of all property. I requeft leave to call your Lordships' attentions to the favou rite measures fo recently adopted by the prefent Administration, and I would fain know what in its principle can be more pernicious. I do not with your Lordships in a matter of fuch moment to be guided by my opinion alone, and therefore I fhall endeavour to ftrengthen it by that of a Gentleman high in the confidence of the prefent Minifters, and whofe wifdom and talants have long been held in the higheft eftimation by the world in general; I mean, my Lords, the late Mr. Burke. What, my Lords, was his opinion of the principle of voluntary fubfcription? I will, as nearly as poffible, give it to your No. 18 Lordships

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Lordships in his own words, " If you come," fays he, "to fpeak of voluntary fubfcriptions, by way of raifing the fupplies, it is the first approach to the diffolution of all property." Then, my Lords, if this was the opinion of this enlightened Statefman, on the mere principle of voluntary fubfcription in general, what would he have faid, or what will or can your Lordships think, of voluntary fubfcriptions fuggefted and carried into effect by fuch means as are the prefent? By the recommendation and example of chartered bodies and corporations, who have ftepped forward, and with a mischievous, and, in my opinion, unjust alacrity, moft copioufly and liberally fubfcribed money with which they were entrusted for other and particular purposes, without confulting even their own council, whether they legally might do fo or not? No perfon, my Lords, has been more in a long continued habit of paying a fuperftitious, I had almost faid, refpect to the wisdom and integrity of the Directors of the Company of the Bank of England, than I have myfelf-but what am I henceforwards to think, or what opinion are your Lordships hereafter to form, of the conduct of thofe Directors, when, from a paper on your Lordships' Table it appears, on their own fhewing, and under their own hand writing, that they had been prevailed upon to advance to Government feveral immenfe fums of money, against every principle of their charter, against every principle of law and juftice; and yet, in a very few months afterwards, on the fuggeftion by Minifters of a voluntary subscription, they eagerly come forward, and immediately subscribe so large a fum as Two hundred thousand pounds of the money entrusted to them by the proprietory at large, without ever confulting their council on the legality or propriety of fo doing, and even without confulting the proprietors at large? Why is a council appointed to all public and chartered bodies but for the purpofe of giving them legal advice? And where is the ufe of council, if their advice, in matters of fuch magnitude and importance, is not even afked for? I have faid, my Lords, that the Directors have fubfcribed this very large fum of money, which they hold in truft for others, without confulting and obtaining the confent of the proprietory at large, and I repeat it, for I do not deem a meeting of a handful of proprietors called together in a hubble bubble manner to conftitute the fenfe of the proprietory at large. This conduct of the Directors has been, my Lords, fo contrary to the opinion I had always entertained and expreffed concerning them, that I think it a kind of duty incumbent on me to qualify the favourable reprefentations I have always before given of their former conduct, by this candid statement of the difapprobation in which

I hold that which they fo recently adopted and purfued. And here I cannot help faying that new, and, in my opinion, very dangerous doctrines are held forth concerning property of which I will give your Lordships a fhort proof from a memorandum, which, if I am rightly informed, ought to alarm your Lordfhips, as I affure you it has alarmed me; it relates to what paffed in another Houfe. I will give an opportunity to explain the doctrine away, or else it shall come before your Lordships again and again. It is ftated to have been faid "That offices and places were held by a stronger tenure than any freehold." I will never fuffer that doctrine to go unrefuted. To confider offices and places under the Crown of equal weight or fuperior to freehold property, is a doctrine of the moft monftrous na

Offices are commonly obtained by accident, intrigue, or court corruption, and they should never be put on a footing with a freehold. True it is indeed, my Lords, that these doctrines do not ftartle many of your Lordships much, because ideas of property are not much examined. The reafon of that is obvious it is because property has hitherto been pretty secure in this country, and men feldom examine much into things that are not difputed.

"My Lords, I conceive the continuance of the war, and the measures adopted in fupport of it, as tending to the direct and fpeedy fubverfion and deftruction of all property in this country. Property once broke in upon and deftroyed, my Lords, we may from that moment bid adieu to our liberties. these must inevitably follow; for the hiftory of the world is full in proof, that property may exist without liberty much better and eafier than liberty can exift without property. I find, my Lords, that fome days ago a Noble Friend and Relative of mine made a motion in this Houfe for papers, containing the correfpondence with the Auftrian Minifters, relative to the queftion of Belgium, whether the Court of Vienna had made a request to our's, that the reftoration of the Low Countries fhould be the fine qua non of peace. Had I been in the Hoafe I fhould have faved him the trouble of moving for any fuch papers; because I could have told my Noble Friend that Minifters had no fuch papers as he wished for. They have no papers from the Emperor refpecting Belgium, my Lords; I know they have not. They might have fhewn my Noble Friend fome finance diplomatic correfpondence, that nobody would give them two-pence to fee. In God's name, if they had, could any thing poffefs their imagination on the 27th of December, 1786, to make that abfurd demand upon the French. What do you think of the heads of fuch Ministers, my Lords Is it conceivable that fo much abfurdity can enter 5Q2

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the mind of man as this will appear to be. when you come to compare the dates. They infift at this time on the restoration of the Milanefe Savoy, and that every thing should be put on the footing of the ftatus quo ante Bellum. In less than four months after this, it appears that the Emperor opened a nego tiation with the French, in which he ftipulated as a preliminary, not to infift upon any of thefe points which our Minifters infifted upon for him. Is it conceivable they thould have done this, had they the communication from the Emperor of what was then the view of the Court of Vienna? This negotiation opened on the 17th of April, 1797. Here our Minifters proceeded as if they were the governors of all Europe, at the fame time when all Europe was laughing at them.

"My Lords, I now beg leave to call your recollection to the many flattering pictures which were drawn by the prefent Minifters relative to the ftate of our allies, and the various be neficial confequences that were to refult from them. The fubfidies paid to the feveral powers on the Continent were held up as masterpieces of policy, and every man that prefumed to doubt of the fincerity and good faith of our allies, was deemed a fceptic of the moft obftinate fort, if nothing worse. I remember it was faid by the Noble Secretary of State, that when the Emperor was paying into our Bank 400l. for every 300l. that he was to receive from us, it was not either candid, juft, or even gentlemanlike to throw the leaft doubt on his good faith. The fame had been faid, with very little variety, with regard to the King of Pruffia; and yet, notwithstanding all the va-. riety of promifes and predictions fo plentifully beftowed by his Majefty's prefent Ministers, every ally we had, had one by one deferted us, till, with the exception of Portugal, we were left to finish the contest by ourselves.

"My Lords, we have at length been reduced to an entire new fyftem. All idea of offenfive war on the continent is at an end-there we cannot fhew our heads. What the hiftory of Europe never exhibited to the world like the prefent moment is come to pafs-a congrefs of the different powers has fome time been fitting, without any the most diftant reference to Great Britain. We have no ambaffador there, and the concerns and interefts of this country are no more attended to or mentioned in that congrefs, which confifts of all our late allies, than if Great Britain were blotted out of the map of Europe, or had never been entitled, to a place in it. My Lords, the fame propofition which is now fubmitted to your Lordships' confideration, has been in fubftance laid before you more than once before; and I have as often given my opinion against it: but, my Lords, I will now give you my reafons why I did fa,

and

and why I fhall on the prefent occafion give my vote in favour My Lords, I heretofore was against the propofition, because I did not fee any immediate good confequence that could refult from it. I fhall now fupport it, because I firmly believe that if it is not fpeedily adopted, the most lamentable and afflicting confequences will be the refult to this country. My Lords, I consider this Empire as confifting of Great Britain, Ireland, and the dependences belonging to Great Britain. The dependences, as they are called, I can by no meats confider in that beneficial light in which they are held by many. I rather look upon them, particularly the colonies, as difadvantages than the contrary, and attended with more expence than profit. Even the Eaft Indies, with all the wealth that is drawn from them, if nicely examined into, will perhaps, my Lords, be found to be counterbalanced by the great number of lives which are facrificed to keep them; the immorality which flows from the accquirement of immenfe wealth; and the pernicious principles which are alfo imbibed in that acquirement. The great and effential interefts of the empire, I therefore take to lie in the strict and folid union of Great Britain and Ireland. When I feriously reflect on this, My Lords, I almoft shudder to think how much the best interests of the empire have been neglected, or facrificed to the fchemes of conquest and extenfion of dominion. We have, in the courfe of the prefent war, conquered iflands till we are tired of them, and found them no longer worth our keeping. We have expended immenfe fums in the acquifition of the ifland of Corfica, and have quitted it without the fmalleft compenfation, and apparently without regret. I wish, My Lords, I could perfuade his Majefty's Minifters to quit as easily the mad fchemes of conqueft in St. Domingo. I beg leave to mention to your Lordfhips a proof which I have received lately from America, relative to this fubject. A Gentleman writes from thence, and gives a description of the immenfe plenty and luxury which at this time prevail at Montreal, owing to the activity of the people in the neighbouring colonies, and that these good confequences chiefly refult from the giving up of thofe very pofts for which but a fhort time ago we were nearly entering into a war with America. This plainly thews that extenfion of dominion is not beneficial, but the contrary, and that the confolidation of our internal interefts at home, is what is most defirable for the general welfare of the State and people. The fituation of Ireland, My Lords, at the prefent moment, is truly critical and uncommonly alarming; and, notwithstanding what has been faid by a Noble Marquis of that as well as of this country certainly deferves great attention, as coming from a perfor

who