to reft upon the following grounds: The firft effect which this was likely to flow from this Address was immediate peace, without which there was no hope or chance of falvation. Under the present Administration, was there any man fo fanguine as to fuppofe that peace could be obtained. He fhould not notice the miferable farces which, under the name of negotiation, had been acted at Bafle and Paris, nor the unfuccefsful journey of Mr. Hammond to Vienna. But was there a Noble Lord in that House, or a man in the country who did not feel immediately upon the Emperor's concluding a separate peace, a negotiation fhould have been epened at Paris for the purpose of fecuring a peace for this country? If we had nothing but our financial embarraffments to contend with, common prudence would have dictated such a measure. But this was not the most forcible argument upon whlch it rested. It was unneceflary for him to call the attention of their Lordships to circumftances, in the present state of the country, of greater moment and far more prffing urgency. Befides the effect of immediate peace, the measure would be productive of the most beneficial confequences upon the kingdom at large. Their Lordships were not unacquainted with the prefent critical fituation of Ireland. The great body of those who had been a few years ago friends to Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipation, were now united with the few, who at that time wifhed a feparation from this country: and a great party, under the name of United Irishmen, were at this moment ready to join any standard under which they could find relief and protection. The difmiffal of his Majefty's Minifters would be followed by conceffions to the difaffected in that kingdom, which operating in conjunction with the restoration of peace, would allay difcontent and remove the dread of a feparation. The fyftem of Minifters was calculated to produce that unfortunate event, and the delay of peace went in aid of the other measures which they were pursuing. His Lordship next confidered the effect of the Address upon the Island of Great Britain. He did not think that the opinions for the fuppreffion of which we had gone to war had loft any ground in the courfe of the last five years. He did dot fuppofe it would be contended, that these opinions, had suffered much from the influence either of our arms or our laws. Did they not fee, he afked, that revolutionary opinions, and revolutionary measures were gaining upon them every hour? Some great change, he ventured to predict, was near at hand. That change, whenever it fhould happen, or of whatever nature it fhould be, he trusted would tend to the advantage of the country. Had they really fo little difcernment to suppose, that the people would fubmit to live under a Conftitution without in quiry, which, in the courfe of five months, had brought upon them calamities unprecedented in their nature, incalculable in extent? He was not fo unreasonable as to suppose that a war of great and unexampled magnitude could be conducted without a vaft expence but he was unreasonable enough to expect that Parliament fhould exercifę fome control over that expence. He wished to país no heavier cenfure upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer than the Chancellor of the Exchequer had paffed upon those Minifters who had gone before him. How far that cenfure extended, their Lordships would fee by recurring to the Report of the Committee of Finance in 1782, which he recommended to their perufal. They would there find that Mr. Pitt had made grievous complaints against all the fyftems of finance which had ever been acted upon, and to which he himself afterwards recurred. They would there find that extraordinaries were called little lefs than money raised without the confent, and expended without the knowledge of Parliament. They would find in that Report the conduct of the former Admini ftration condemned upon examination, and the conduct of the prefent condemned in anticipation. To all the other defects, therefore, which the measure propofed by the Noble Duke would produce, would be a correction of the extravagance in blood and treasure, for which the prefent, beyond all former. Adminiftrations, had been diftinguithed. There was another topic upon which he found himself called upon to say a few words, namely, the expediency of a Reform in the Representation of this Country. He had long differed upon this fubject with Gentlemen for whofe opinions he had a great respect; and though many of his doubts were removed, and he had by no means the fame terror of the plan as fome others, he confefled he was not a convert to the measure, He confidered it as a remedy weak and ineffectual for the complicated evils of which they had to complain, and therefore he could not recommend it as a cure for the diseased state of the Commonwealth. He befeeched their Lordships, however, to weigh well how they voted on this evening. He befeeched them, if they diffented from the Addrefs, not to be contented with merely negativing it. If they approved of the fyftem upon which Minifters had been acting, he befeeched them publicly to announce it, and to fay fomething in their favour. Their cause, he affured them, needed fupport. He entreated them to proclaim, if they thought fo, that their conduct had been able, upright, and economical, that their alliances had been well chofen, and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been right in promifing to pay the advances from the Bank to Government, and in breaking his engagement as often as it was made. If, however, they they treated this Motion with filent contempt, or got rid of it by a fimple negative, he fhould feel it ridiculous to propofe any other meature, or to trefpafs upon their patience with a repetition of the fame propofal, till he had fome better profpect of fuccefs. Lord Auckland obferved, he differed fo extremely with the Noble Lords who argued for a Reform of Parliament, that he thought it useless to trouble the House by a minute difcuffion of a fubject which had been fo frequently the topic of public animadverfion. He controverted the financial statements of the Noble Duke who brought forward the Motion, both with ref pect to the total amount of the expences of the war, and to the produce of the respective taxes. There was, in his opinion, one fource from which the prefent gloomy fituation of affairs" might be justly fuppofed to originate. It was an easy task to depreciate the value of the advantages poffeffed by the nation, and to reprefent matters totally contrary to what they in fact were. To that fixed fyftem of apparent defpondency and artificial melancholy, affumed for the purpofe of introduing new principles, he would, without hesitation, afcribe a confiderable part of the momentary embarraffment of the country. But while our navy, our army, and our trade, were under-rated in that falfe eftimate, which was alone conducive to the introduction of anarchy, the Noble Lords who talked in fuch melancholy ftrains feemed to forget that we had deftroyed the navy, the commerce, and the foreign poffeffions of France. Hecould not, therefore, too pointedly reprobate a fyftem which raised the power of the enemy at the expence of our own, and in which the poverty of the country, not the opulence of it, was continually held out to infpire fentiments incompatible with English glory and indepen dence. It formed, howevever, a fubject of infinite confolation to him, that the defperate and gloomy ftate of the nation was only to be found in the defperate and gloomy fpeeches delivered in Parliament. The Earl of Suffolk wifhed to know, whether the Noble Secretary of State meant to perfevere in filence? If he had no intention of answering thofe important queftions which had been put to him refpecting the ftate of the Sifter Kingdom, he felt himfelf called upon by a fenfe of the duty which he owed to his King and Country, to communicate to the House and the Public, the private information which he had upon the fubject. [The Noble Earl having fat down, no reply was made by Lord Grenville, but there was a general call for the question.} The Earl of Suffolk faid, he could not fuffer the question to be put without communicating to the Houle the information No. 41. * 9 L which which he had from a respectable quarter about the ftate of Ireland. He fhould therefore read a part of a Letter upon that fubject, which he had received from Brigadier General Cooke, an officer of acknowledged worth and talents. Lord Silney doubted much of the propriety of the Noble Earl reading a part of a Letter from a private friend of his own, which was not written with a view to be laid before the House. The Earl of Suffolk replied, that that ought to be left to his difcretion, and proceeded to read the Letter, in which Ireland was ftated to be "really almoft in a state of infurrection; that, "whenever the fword was drawn, all was over; and that the cc country was not in a much better state of defence than before "Christmas." The Earl of Westmoreland called the Noble Lord to order, as giving the opinion of a military officer upon the infufficient ftate of the defence of Ireland. The Earl of Suffolk declined proceeding with the Letter, as the House did not feem difpofed to receive the information it contained. The Marquis of Lanfdowne exprefled his furprife that Minifters would not give the public any fatisfaction upon fubjects fo interefting to the country, and that they even carried their dif pofition to fecrecy fo far that they put a negative upon information, when it was offered from another quarter. As they had, however, been fo forward in fuppreffing the information which was difinterestedly offered by his Noble and Worthy Friend, who had just sat down, he did not confider it as prefumptuous to expect that they would have the gracious condefcention to give what they themselves thought fafe to be given. He wished rather to hear than to speak, and he had come down on this day, prepofieffed with an idea, that fome notice would be given by his Majefty's Minifters, that a negotiation had commenced between this country and France, or at least that overtures for a negotiation had been made. Had this been announced, he fhould not have troubled them on the prefent evening: he confeffed that he had no other ground for the fuppofition, than general report, which to a willing mind was often apt to go for more than it was worth. What could retard propofitions for negotiation, he was utterly at a lofs to divine; the original causes of the war no longer exifted; we had no longer the opening of the Scheldt to refift; the fate of the Low Countries, he was afraid, was already decided, deferted by all our allies, we had only our own intereft to care for; the caufe of the delay, there fore, to him, was utterly inexplicable. Minifters furely could not be abfurd enough to be waiting for the mediation of fome Northern Northern Power, who knew nothing about the fettlements which were to be the fubject of difcuffion between this country and France; befides, in nine cafes out of ten, these mediations tended rather to retard than accelerate the object to which they were directed. Allies now we had none! God knows we had had enough of them! He trufted that they had not the madness to attempt to make Auftria renew the conteft. He reminded them of the bad faith of the allies with which we had acted before, notwithstanding the firm perfuafion expreffed by his Majetty's Ministers of their undoubted honour and fincerity; he remembered its having been ftated, that it was quite impoffible for the King of Sardinia to defert us. He was told alfo that the Minifters of his Pruffian Majesty were the best and most honourable Minifters in Europe! When he had talked of a fubfidy being fent to the King of Pruffia, Minifters exclaimed, "Subfidy! do you call it a fubfidy? It is a cheap economical contract." They had had plenty of contracts of this nature; whether it was a cheap one or not he could not fay; perhaps it was more economical than fome of thofe which had been entered into in St. Domingo. Auftria, our moft faithful ally, had alfo deferted us. But perhaps it might be faid, "It is an ill-wind that blows nobody good," and that as we have hitherto been fending money out of the country, we may now expect that it will return. He expected to hear that the Bank of Vienna, upon the return of peace, would have refumed its payments, and that not only the intereft of the money we have lent to the Emperor will be punctually paid, but that the capital will be gradually liquidated. "Not one word fays the Noble Secretary to this," exclaimed the Marquis. "Ifee he fmiles, however. It is really good fun! Well he may laugh at having fo dexterously cheated the country out of fix millions of money, and the country deferves to be cheated while they fubmit to be taxed in wind and in air without one murmur againft the authors of the oppreffion." The Marquis faid, he was decidedly of opinion, that propofals for peace fhould be fairly and openly made; and if in that cafe they were rejected, the people might arm unanimoufly, as they would then know what particular objects they had to fight for. Since the lofs of our Allies, the question was indeed brought to a fmall compass between us and France. The prefent calamities might be all traced to the myfterious conduct of his Majefty's Minifters. In the late bufinefs of the Seamen, that kind of ftate mystery had particularly prevailed which uniformly proved mischievous to the community. He would maintain that Loyalty was the chief feature of that valuable class of men, and they carried their idea of it fo far that it became a neceffary ingredient in their fongs, and in all their merriment. They of 9L2 courfe |