order of the day, which was carried by 209 against 86. The earl of Lauderdale made a similar motion to that of Mr. Wil berforce, in the house of lords, on the 5th of June, and supported it with much the same reasonings. Spain, he observed, was the only ally that was not in the pay of Great Britain. The loss of Holland ren. dered an augmentation of the military strength of the coalition imprac. ticable. Every power in Europe, even those hostile to France, had virtually if not formally, acknow. ledged the French republic. It was indecent in government to arrogate the exclusive privileges of deciding on the propriety of negotiation in so weighty a case as the present, parliament had a right to interfere: he would therefore move, that an address should be presented to the king, requesting him to enter into a negotiation with France for a speedy and honourable peace. Lord Grenville opposed this mo tion, chiefly on the ground that the Frenchwould construe a negotiation, thus recommended by the voice of parliament, as proceeding from des. pair of success. The hands of mi. nisters would be tied down, and freedom of action would be taken from them in the most essential execution of their office. Such, in the mean time, were the preparations for the ensuing campaign, on the part of the emperor, aided by the power. ful subsidies of Great Britain, that a force would be brought into the field fully competent to meet that of the enemy. A vigorous resistance to the ambition of France was necessary for the security of Europe. To speak of the empire as disposed to a pacification, without recovering the provinces seized by the French, betrayed a total want of insight into its indispensable inte. rests. The presumed willingness of the French to negotiate was a manifest error, as they had even refused to treat for so usual a thing in war, as an exchange of prisoners. After a few other observations from both sides, lord Lauderdale's motion was negatived by 53 against 8. The Imperial loan was the next subject that engaged the attention of the house; it was brought for. ward, on the 28th of May, by Mr. Pitt, who observed, that every se curity had been provided for payment of both the interest and prin. cipal to the lenders, and moved that the whole should be guaran teed. Mr. Fox objected to the agreement made by government with the emperor, as placing our. selves in his power, without any certainty that he would perform the stipulations agreed upon. From four to six millions were to be advanced him, proportionably to the augmentation of the force to be employed against France, beyond the original stipulation of two hundred thousand men. But nothing precise had been decided, and we were totally uninformed of the exact proportion intended. The conduct of the emperor in the military tran sactions that had taken place, did, by no means, entitle him to such implicit faith from this country. It had been asserted, and not contradicted by ministers, that, in a situa tion of the most imminent danger, he had refused the assistance de manded of him, and evidently needed by the British troops. Notwith. standing this ungenerous and in. equitable treatment, we still continued to pay him one hundred thousand pounds a month, and this too too at a time when he had quite deserted us. Other breaches of good faith, in the court of Vienna, were particularised by Mr. Fox, which ought, he said, to render us extremely circumspect in our pecuniary negotiations with that minis, try. Should it conclude a peace with France, as not a little to be apprehended, what an immense sum would have been lavished to no effect: he dwelt with great indigna, tion on the uncertainty to which we submitted in the emperor's conduct, and demanded, with great firmness, that the committee of the house, now sitting upon that important subject, would express their sense of it in explicit terms. After seve, ral reasonings, by other members, the ministerial resolutions in favour of the loan, were carried by 77 to 43. The second and third readings of the bill relating to this loan, were attended with very animated contests. The two-fold character of the emperor, as head of the empire, and as the sovereign of other dominions, occasioned a variety of discussions; some insisting that he could not well separate these characters in practice, and others alleging, that neither of them interfered with the other, and that were he to conclude a peace with France in his Imperial capacity, he might still continue the war as king of Hungary and Bohemia, and sovereign of other states, from which he derived far greater importance and power than from the Imperial dignity. A repetition took place, as usual, of the many other arguments already em. ployed by both sides on this subject, which terminated, at length, by the passing of the bill. In the house of lords, the bill was strongly opposed by the dukes of Norfolk and Grafton, as introduced too abruptly, and without a suffi. cient explanation on the part of mi. nisters: it was a measure involving the dearest interests of the nation, and tending to deprive it not only of its property, but of the very right of disposing of it; which, by the present arrangement, was in reality lodged in the hands of mi, nisters. Their conduct was zealously vin. dicated by lord Grenville, who se verely censured the reasonings drawn from the defection of Prussia, against confiding in the emperor; as if every sovereign could be supposed void of honour and honesty. He denied the disapprobation of the war by the people at large, and asserted, that the public had never been more thoroughly convinced of its propriety. The bill was strenuously opposed by the earl of Lauderdale. He adduced a variety of reasons why it ought never to have been produced to the house in its actual form, which divested us of all security from the emperor, and left it at his option to act independently of every motive that could bind him to do us justice. His zeal for the com mon cause was very precarious, and, since the disasters of the last cam paign, he had proved a useless ally. Ministers boasted of what had been done in the West Indies, and of what was projected against France: but fifteen hundred thousands pounds, issued for the relief of the people in our islands, proved how little these assertions ought to be credited, and our disappointments on the coast of France, shewed how ill-founded our expectations were in that quarter. To these and other allegations the earl of Mansfield replied, much in the same style of arguing us d by those who supported the bill; and was answered by the earl of Guild. ford in like manner: other lords spoke also for and against it with equal earnestness in each sid. The debate finally concluded with the pass.rgo, the bill, by 60 votes in its favour to 12 against it. CHAP. CHA P. XII. Motion in the House of Commons, by Mr. Wilberforce, for a final Abolition of the Slave-Trade.—Negatived.—Acquittal of Mr. Hastings.-Reflec tions on the History and Issue of his Trial, and on his own Character and Deportment.-Motion by Mr. Windham, tending to maintain Discipline, and increase the Strength of the Militia Regiments.-Carried.-Bill passed for new-modelling the London Militia.-Motion for introducing into the Militia the Use of Artillery.-Carried,—Extra Allowance to the Army for Bread and Meat, made to the Army by Government, without the Participation of Parliament.—A subject of Alarm to Oppositim, and many others.-Motion for a Censure on this step, by General Macleod.Negatived.-A Loan of Public Money to the Merchants of Grenada and St. Vincent's.-Statement of East India Affairs.-Regulations in favour of the Officers in the Military Service of the East India Company.— Marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Princess Caroline of Brunswick. -Settlement of his Revenue.-And other Pecuniary Affairs. WHILE these discussions, on the great objects of the war, employed the abilities of ministry and of opposition, a large portion of the public sincerely lamented that an object, which had lately been favoured with the peculiar attention of the people at large, should remain almost in a state of neglect, especially as the wishes of a majority of the nation were considered as friendly to the intentions of those who first brought it before parlia ment. This was the long-agitated business of the slave-trade, so zea lously reprobated by one party, as equally criminal and digraceful, and no less warmly justified by the other, as absolutely necessary in the actual situation of the commercial and colonial affairs of Great Britain. Those two contradictory opinions still divided numbers, both in and out of parliament, and were main. tained by the respective adherents to each, with great fervour and variety of arguments. Mr. Wilberforce, the original promoter of this business, recalled the attention of the house of com. mons to it, on the 26th of February. He reminded the house, that a formal resolution had passed in the sessions of 1792, that after the expiration of the month of January, 1796, it should no longer be lawful to im port African negroes into the Bri tish colonies and plantations. He recapitulated the chief motives that had led to this determination; such as the barbarity of the practice, and the excessive loss of seamen in the unwholesome climates where that trade was carried on. He adverted to the reasonings adduced to prove its impolicy, and to the acknowledgment of nearly the whole house, that they were justly found ed. ed. He strongly objected to the idea, that civilization first flourished on sea coasts: some persons, he ob. served, had travelled three hundred miles from Sierra Leone, into the interior parts of Africa, and had discovered civilized people, inhabiting considerable towns, possessed of the knowlege of reading and writing, and of many more of the conveniences of life, than were known to the inhabitants on the sea shore. He took notice of the manifest disposition of the newly im. ported negroes to rise against the white people, and of the consequent necessity of maintaining a numerous military force to keep them in awe and subjection. He urged several other arguments against their farther importation into the West-India islands, and concluded by moving a final abolition of the slave-trade. He was seconded by Mr. W. Smith, and opposed by Mr. Dent, Mr. Barham, and Mr. East. Were such a bill to pass, these gentlemen thought the property of planters would be greatly endangered: they deprecated all discussion as extreme. ly dangerous in the present crisis: were the negroes once induced to hope for emancipation, disappointment would render them ungovern able, through the irritation it would occasion, and the com. parisons they would make between their situation and that of their countrymen in the French islands. Were even the bill to pass in the commons, it was not probable the lords would acquiesce in it. They were answered by Mr. Whitbread, and Mr. Fox, who pointedly noticed the length of time employed by the house of lords in the examination of witnesses on this subject. But even those who were averse to the abolition of the trade, had not ventured to justify it. The calculations of Mr. Wilberforce, respecting the sufficiency of the ac. tual number of blacks in the islands, for their cultivation and improve. ment, were undisproved. The more moderate their numbers, the less would be the danger from them, and the better their treatment. The French system of disciplining their negroes ought to be an example to us in proportion as we shewed them confidence, they would be. come attached and faithful. At all events, it became a British parlia ment to discontinue the countenance it had shewn to so iniquitous and inhuman a trade. Mr. Dundas alleged, in reply, that the motive of deferring the abolition until the beginning of 1796, was, to afford time to the planters to make suitable arrangements for it: but the war had prevented the recruiting of the present numbers, which were not sufficient for their exigencies. He approved of the abolition, but was of opinion it ought to be gradual. Mr. Pitt declared for an immediate abolition. The numbers of slaves imported into the colonies, had, he said, been large enough during the three last years, to answer every purpose of the colonists. The negroes themselves were not desirous of these importations, as they found, by experience, that their own labours were not lessened thereby, nor their condition bettered. After a variety of other argu. ments for and against the abolition, the motion was postponed for six months, by a majority of 17. This decision was conformable to the expectations of the public, which had, for some time past, begun |