nagement, I feel that it is neceffary. Although we have no authentic documents upon this fubject, the papers which have been circulated every where, contain certain facts of which there can be no doubt. When the mutiny firft broke out the failors made demands, many of which, in the opinion of every one, were reafonable; others not. So far it is known that certain requests were made; to these the Admirals made offers, -which were rejected. The Admiralty then raifed their offers, and the agreement was concluded. What was given, however, is thought to be reafonable, but the conduct of Minifters in of fering less than they afterwards granted, fhows that they thought this more than was reasonable. Are you then, after the examples of incapacity which they have manifefted, and the evils their measures have produced, determined to devote your country to destruction? (Here there was a cry of Hear! hear !) I come here with as great an intereft as any man in the Houfe in the fafety of the conntry, and I repeat, are you determined to devote your country to deftruction, by leaving its affairs to the conduct of men who have already involved you in fuch complicated calamities? When rebellion runs to that height which the Executive Government cannot control, then I hold that the country is brought to destruction, and that a new line of conduct and a new fyftem of measures is neceffary for its falvation. I am unwilling to dwell upon this topic, where there is fo much danger of mifrepresentation, but I felt it my duty to speak freely, convinced as I am that the Conftitution of this Country cannot long remain upon its prefent footing, if the prefent Minifters are fuffered much longer to remain at the head of public affairs. "I trust that I need not detain your Lordships much longer, by dilating on thefe various topics. I truft I have already faid enough to fhow that to the conduct of Minifters we owe a great part of the calamities under which the country now fuffers. I think that I have flated grounds to juftify the Motion for the dif miffal of Minifters, with which I fhall conclude. I am defirous, however, to mark diftinctly the grounds on which the Motion proceeds. It is not merely the fituation of the country, but it is the fyftem by which the country has been governed which the Motion aims to remedy: without a new line of conduct, without a new fyftem of Government, we cannot hope that things will continue upon their prefent footing. Various confiderations prefent themfelves upon this fubject, and many changes are felt to be neceffary. The moft falutary of thefe is a change in the Reprefentation of the people. But even thefe changes must be idle and nugatory without others more important. Without retrenchment and economy in every department, with out out correcting the abules which prevail, and fairly looking at our fituation, we cannot expect that co-operation of the country which is neceffary to give effect to the vigorous measures requir ed to extricate us from our prefent ftate of difficulty and danger. The facts which I have already ftated I think are fufficient to warrant the conclufion I have drawn from them. Minifters contend that the war was juft and neceflary, but they have may difcovered a total incapacity to conduct that war which they began, and they have equally proved, by their attempts to negotiate, that peace is not to be expected under their aufpices. The critical ftate of Ireland, the important events which have taken place in England, prove that their fyftem, if pursued, threatens ruin to the Empire. On the one hand, one of its moft valuable branches is almoft driven from its connection, while the means of our safety seem to lofe all vigour under their conduct. "There is only one point remaining to which I shall say a few words, with the indulgence of the Houfe. For four years. paft I have conftantly endeavoured to difcharge the duty which I owe to the public as a Member of this Houfe. Previous to that period I was accuftomed to look up to a fet of men whofe principles and talents commanded my confidence till they ceased to act upon those principles which they had formerly profeffed, thofe at least which I had imbibed. The circumftances in which the country was then placed, called upon those who difapproved of the fyftem then began, to come forward and oppofe what they deemed pregnant with danger. For four years I have en1 deavoured to imprefs the Houfe with the opinion which I feel of the public meafures which have been purfued, and to roufe your Lord hips to a fenfe of the evils which they threatened to produce. Would to God that I could fay, that the fears which I formerly exprefled of the ruinous confequences of that system had been idle and unmeaning apprehenfions! I am afraid, however, that I can boaft (if it can be boaft) to fee realized the calamities I have predicted; that the event has but too faithfully verified the opinions which I entertained. In the course of these exertions, I have been fubjected to obloquy, to invective, to the moft foul and malignant mifreprefentations. Such treatment has never excited in me any emotions of anger, for I could not be angry at what I fo much defpife and contemn. It has never deterred me from performing my duty, for I fhould hold myfelf to be mean and daftardly if my conduct could be actuated by fuch confiderations. I have been fubjected likewife to charges of a more serious nature: I have been told that to my indifcretion was owing the difturbance which lately broke out in the fleet. Had fuch an event actually been owing to any conduct of mine, though though I should have been happy to reflect that I was innocent of any bad intention, yet, had I been confcious that from my indifcretion, fo great a calamity had arifen, I fhould have hid my head from the world, and buried myself and my name in oblivion. When fuch a charge was brought forward, I indeed expected that fome proof of it would have been offered, though I fhould have been no lefs furprifed at the attempt, as I can only confider the imputation as a rafh thought, not a ferious accufation. Yet none of thefe infinuations, none of thefe charges fhall deter me from doing my duty. I feel that it is the duty of every man to exert himfelf for the advantage of his country, in the ftation in which he is placed, if his efforts can be employed with the lighteft hope of fuccefs. For four years, however, I have ftruggled to oppose a system which I conceived to be pregnant with to much difafter. Notwithstanding the calamities we have incurred, and the misfortunes we have fuffered; notwithstanding the incapacity which Minifters have manifefted, the fatal fyftem has maintained its afcendancy in this Houfe.--Yet, after all the arguments I could employ, and all the illuf- · trations which experience has afforded, I have not gained a single inch for the country. In thefe circumftances there is nothing left but to retire. In thus retiring I hope I fhall not be accused of inconfiftency, if, in the courte of a week or a month, I fhould Whenever I can indulge the hope of being ufeful again return. I fhall return. In acting in this manner I may be accused of rath folly, but, at least I thall escape the charge of inconfiftency. What I have now to propofe I do not bring forward with any hope of its being carried. All I afk is, that your Lordships would turn it in your minds---that you would reflect feriously upon the fituation of the country---that you would try to devife fome means of avoiding the complete ruin with which we are threatened. By the fyitem that has hitherto been pursued I cannot hope that the impending deftruction can be averted. Some other line of conduct, fome other fyftem of meafures must be adopted. What that new fyftem fhall be I am not fo preíumptuous as to decide: all I defire is, that you would refolve to embrace fome other one, and to put an end to that from which we have already fuffered fo much calamity, and from which we have yet so much to dread. I therefore move-- That an humble Addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, to remind his Majefty that his dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Lords • Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament affembled, have, during this calamitous war, uniformly given every aid and affiftance < that could contribute to that fupport which his Majetty has ex<perienced from a brave and a loyal people. To affure his Majefty that it is even now with deep regret we approach [LORDS. approach his Throne, to lay before him the grievances under which his people labour; but that a sense of duty compels us to ftate to his Majefty, that the defertion of all our allies, the triumphs of an enemy we were taught by his fervants to defpife, the public credit of the country impaired, the coafts of thete Kingdoms with impunity infulted, the exertions of the British navy fufpended, and the melancholy fituation into which Ireland has been induftriously brought, prefents to our view a feries of calamity unparalleled in the hiftory of our country. Humbly to ftate to his Majefty, that we cannot attribute this ' uniform fucceffion of misfortune to accident, or even to the 'miferable incapacity of his fervants; that we must regard it as the effect of a fyftem of Government, deftructive of the exertions and hoftile to the conftitution of our Country. That we feel it our bounden duty humbly to represent to his Majefty, that much as we lament the blood that has been fpilt, and the burdens that have been imposed on his Majesty's Subjects in maintaining the difaftrous conteft in which we are engaged, deeply as we deplore the perilous ftate of his Majefty's kingdoms, we can alone regard these our prefent mistor tunes as a prelude to more ferious calamities, which we view ' with horror, but which we look forward to as the fure confequence of perfevering in that fyftem of policy which his Majes'ty's fervants have pursued. That under thefe circumftances we beseech his Majefty, by difmifling thofe Minifters from his prefence who have con'ftantly infulted the enemy by their difcourfe, and encouraged them by their incapacity, to give to his fubjects a proof of his anxiety to procure that peace which his people fo anxioufly ' defire. ་ We entreat his Majefty, by difmiffing from his Councils 'thofe men whofe extravagance and want of good faith have 'impaired the credit of the country, to difplay his defire of uniting with his Subjects in reftoring that Public Credit on which the importance of his kingdom fo materially depends. We earneftly folicit his Majefty, by difmiffing his prefent Servants, to give to the people of Ireland the ftrongest proof they can receive of his Majefty's difapprobation of that fyftem of treachery by which the prefent difcontents of that country have been foftered, and of his Majefty's intention of fecuring (if it is yet poffible) the connexion that fubfifts between thete kingdoms, by extending to men of all defcriptions in that oppreted country, the bleffings of the Conftitution under which they were born. Finally, we implore his Majefty, that by difmiffing from his ⚫ prefence for ever, thofe Minifters whose measures have impaired the the liberties, and whofe extravagance has injured the property of his fubjects, he will afford a fure teftimony of his gracious intention of co-operating in reftoring the spirit of the Bri tih Conftitution, and of adopting fuch a fyftem of economy and retrenchment as is alone confiftent with the profperity of his 'exhaufted people." The Duke of Athol agreed, that the prefent crifis was one which loudly called for exertion, but he did not think that the measure proposed in the Addrefs moved by the Noble Duke was at all calculated to meet the exigency of the times. The war he acknowledged to be a great fource of the difficulties under which the country laboured. These, however, were more or lefs the confequence of every war, and were perhaps infeparable from fuch a conteft as the prefent. He had not changed his opinions of the causes of it, and thought them of fufficient importance. It was in his opinion neceflary for the prefervation of order, religion and law; and when thefe objects, which we had gained, were compared with what we had loft, he was not of opinion that we had good reafon to complain. Without detailing the conduct of it, for which he was not equal, he declared. he entertained no doubt of the Minifter's defire for peace, because he thought the Minifter had every reafon to procure it.. The Noble Duke had not put his obfervation about the ceffion of Belgium fairly, inasmuch as that we were not in the fame fituation now that we were in during Lord Malmesbury's negotiation; he did not conceive the retention of it now, depended folely on the different circumftances of the different times in which those conditions were difcuffed. He declined following the Noble Duke through his calculations, but obferved, that in taking down the fums he seemed to have leffened the produce of the taxes on one fide, in order to increase the expenditure on the other; and in regard to the Fifteen Millions fupposed to be neceflary at the winding up of the war, the Noble Duke had eftimated the rate at which it was to be borrowed at the present price of public intereft. After the long differtation of the Noble Duke concerning the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Bank, he should beg leave to mention one thing, which he believed to be a fact. That was, that greater advances had been made by the Bank to Government in former wars than in the prefent, and that at a time too when our resources were inferior, and our exports one third lefs. There was another point which the Noble Lord on the crofs Bench (the Earl of Liverpool) ftated on a former night worthy confideration, as one of the real caufes by which the Bank was involved. in difficulty. He alluded to the Act of Parliament for restraining the rate of interest to 5 per cent. whereby people employed their money in Loans, 9 K which No. 41.. * |