against the opinion and in the face of its members, although the honourable member * assures you how he exerted his oratory to deprecate the address. As for Hackney, I behold over against me a most valiant chieftain † who is just returned from that field of Mars, whose brow, indeed, is not, as before, adorned with the smile of victory, but from whose mouth I doubt not we shall hear a faithful, although, alas! Sir, a most lamentable history of that unfortunate flight and defeat. Whether at Westminster it is sufficient proof of victory to say, "The people would not even hear me:" whether that right honourable gentleman, who once could charm the multitude into dumb admiration of his eloquence, and into silent gratitude for his exertions in the cause of freedom, and of his country; whether he, the champion of the people, once emphatically named "the man of the people," is now content with the execrations of those multitudes, who once, perhaps, too much adored him; whether, in short, Sir, the sonorous voice of my noble friend was a host itself, or whether it might not have become a host by being joined to the voices of the host around him; all these are points I will not decide: but sure I am, that the right honourable gentleman will not persuade me that the voice of the people is with him, if Westminster is his only example. There is one thing the right honourable gentleman proves merely by strong affirmations, to which, therefore, I can only oppose affirmations as strong on my part: he says his late majorities have been composed of men the most independent in their principles, respectable in their situations, and honourable for their connections; I can only affirm as roundly in answer, that the minority is by no means inferior to them, in point either of principles, of respectability, or of independence. Having thus disposed of the people, and of the minority in the House of Commons, large as it certainly is, the right honourable gentleman proceeds next to dispose of the majority in the House of Lords, and he denies that they were respectable. Sir, if the right honourable gentleman will trouble himself with this kind of calculation, I am not afraid to match the

majority there against the minority, either on the score of independence, of property, of long hereditary honours, of knowledge of the law and the constitution, or on the score of any thing that can give respect and dignity to peerage. And, Mr. Speaker, when I look near me, [looking at Mr. Pratt] when I see near whom I am now standing, I am not afraid to place in the front of that battle, (for at that battle the noble peer whom I allude to was not afraid to buckle on his old armour, and march forth, as if inspired with his youthful vigour, to the charge) I say, Sir, I am not afraid to place foremost at the head and in the very front of that battle, that noble and illustrious peer (Lord Camden) venerable as he is for his years, venerable for his abilities, adored and venerated through this country on account of his attachment to this glorious constitution, high in rank and honour, and possessing, as he does, in these tumultuous times, an equanimity and dignity of mind that render him infinitely superior to that wretched party spirit, with which the world may fancy us to be infected.—

But, Sir, I am carried away too far; my warm admiration of the subject has hurried me into expressions, perhaps, not perfectly becoming the strictness of this debate. The point which I should particularly speak to, and the great subject of contention between us, is, whether I shall resign, in order afterwards to return into office; and the example of the noble lord in the blue ribbon is held out for my imitation: for he, it is said, is willing to sacrifice his personal pretensions for the sake of unanimity. Good God! Mr. Speaker, can any thing that I have said, subject me to be branded with the imputation of preferring my personal situation, to the public happiness? Sir, I have declared again and again, only prove to me that there is any reasonable hope, shew me but the most distant prospect, that my resignation will at all contribute to restore peace and happiness to the country, and I will instantly resign. But, Sir, I declare at the same time, I will not be induced to resign as a preliminary to negociation. I will not abandon this situation, in order to throw myself upon the mercy of that right honourable gentleman. He calls me now a mere nominal minister, the mere puppet of secret influence. Sir, it is because

I will not become a mere nominal minister of his creation—it is because I disdain to become the puppet of that right honourable gentleman, that I will not resign: neither shall his contemptuous expressions provoke me to resignation: my own honour and reputation I never will resign. That I am now standing on the rotten ground of secret influence, I will not allow; nor yet will I quit this ground, in order to put myself, as the right honourable gentleman calls it, under his protection, in order to accept of my nomination at his hands, and in order to become a poor selfcondemned, helpless, unprofitable minister in his train a minister, perhaps some way serviceable to that right honourable gentleman, but totally unserviceable to my king and to my country. If I have, indeed, submitted to become the puppet and minion of the crown, why should that right honourable gentleman condescend to receive me into his band? It seems, however, that I have too much of the personal confidence of my sovereign, and that I must resign, in order to return into administration, having only an equal share of it with others. But the right honourable gentleman knows that my appointment would, in that case, be only as a "piece of parchment." Admit that I have more than my share of the king's confidence, yet how is my being out of office two days to make any diminution of that confidence? The right honourable gentleman, therefore, every moment, contradicts his own principles, and he knows that if I were first to resign, in the forlorn hope of returning as an efficient minister into administration, I should become the mere sport and ridicule of my opponents; nay and forfeit also the good opinion of those, by whose independent support I am now honoured; for when I shall have sacrificed my reputation for that support which I am told shall arise to me from that right honourable gentleman's protection, when I shall have bartered my honour for his great connections, what shall I become but the slave of his connections? The sport and tool of a party? for a while, perhaps, the minister appointed by that party, but no longer useful to my country, or myself independent.

The right honourable gentleman tells you, Sir, that he means

not to stop the supplies again to night, but that he shall only postpone them occasionally. He has stopped them once, be cause the King did not listen to the voice of his Commons, he now ceases to stop them though the same cause does not cease to exist. Now, Sir, what is all this, but a mere useless bravado? a bravado calculated to alarm the country, but totally ineffectual for the object for which it was intended.. I grant, indeed, with him, that if all the money, destined to pay the public creditors is voted, one great part of the mischief is avoided. But, Sir, let not this House think it a small thing to stop the money for all public services; let us not think that, while, such prodigious sums of money flow into the public coffers, without being suffered to flow out again, the circulation of wealth in the country will not be stopped, nor the public credit affected. It has been said indeed," how is it possible that parliament should trust public money in the hands of those, in whom they have ex-. pressly declared they cannot confide ?" Is there any thing then in my character so flagitious; am I, the chief minister of the treasury, so suspected of alienating the public money to my own, or to any sinister purposes, that I am not to be trusted with the ordinary issues? [a cry of "No! No!"] Why, then, Sir, if they renounce the imputation, let them renounce the argument.

By what I am now going to say, perhaps I may subject myself to the invidious imputation of being the minister and friend of prerogative; but, Sir, notwithstanding those terms of obloquy with which I am assailed, I will not shrink from avowing myself the friend of the king's just prerogative. Prerogative, Sir, has been justly called a part of the rights of the people, and sure I am it is a part of their rights, which the people were never more disposed to defend, of which they never were more jealous than at this hour. Grant only this, that this House has a negative in the appointment of ministers, and you transplant the executive power into this House. Sir, I shall call upon gentlemen to speak out; let them not come to resolution after resolution, without stating the grounds on which they act; for there is nothing more dangerous

among mixed powers, than that one branch of the legislature should attack another by means of hints and auxiliary argu ments, urged only in debate, without daring to avow the direct grounds on which they go; and without stating in plain terms on the face of their resolutions, what are their motives, and what are their principles which lead them to come to such resolu tions. Above all, Sir, let this House beware of suffering any individual to involve his own cause, and to interweave his own interests in the resolutions of the House of Commons. The dignity of the House is for ever appealed to: let us beware that it is not the dignity of any set of men: let us beware that personal prejudices have no share in deciding these great constitutional questions. The right honourable gentleman is possessed of those enchanting arts whereby he can give grace to deformity; he holds before your eyes a beautiful and delusive image; he pushes it forward to your observation; but as sure as you embrace it, the pleasing vision will vanish, and this fair phantom of liberty will be succeeded by anarchy, confusion, and ruin to the constitution. For in truth, Sir, if the constitutional independence of the crown is thus reduced to the very verge of annihilation, where is the boasted equipoise of the constitution? Where is that balance among the three branches of the legislature which our ancestors have measured out to each with so much precision? Where is the independence-nay, where is even the safety of any one prerogative of the crown, or even of the crown itself, if its prerogative of naming ministers is to be usurped by this House, or if, (which is precisely the same thing) its nomination of them is to be negatived by us without stating any one ground of distrust in the men, and without suffering ourselves to have any experience of their measures? Dreadful therefore, as the conflict is, my conscience, my duty, my fixed regard for the constitution of our ancestors, maintain me still in this arduous situation. It is not any proud contempt, or defiance of the constitutional resolutions of this House; it is no personal point of honour; much less is it any lust of power that makes me still cling to office; the situation of the