nection will be beneficial to our country. ing a coalition of parties-a coalition of the heads of great and commanding bodies-a coalition of men poffeffing the confidence of diftinct influences-it is a coalition made up of the fcraps, the tatters, the refufe, the remnants of all par ties, but not of the parties themselves. This coalition has not been able to reconcile even a fufficient number of perfons to fill up the confidential departments of the King's fervices. At this inftant it confifts of no more than two perfons, and these two perfons cannot agree on the very fubject on which they have coalefced, nor on any other.-The laft miniftry, who indeed had not continued long enough in office to get warm in their feats, had been charged with having feized upon government. He denied the affertion. The public waited fix weeks for a ministry; and every means were tried for a new one without the af fiftance of the coalition; but failing in every attempt, the minifters all quitted the cabinet fo that if they seized upon it, it was by marching in after the garrifon which ought to have defended it had fled; and as they were going out, cried, What a terrible curfed thing is this coalition, that is driving us from our fituations.But if we became poffeffed of government, we are at worst charged with having carried it by storm, bravely, in the face of the enemy, not by fap, not by mining in the dark, and blowing up the fort before the garrifon knew there was an intention to attack it. He begged, however, that the Houfe would believe, that they had been difmiffed, very much againft his will indeed, but by the fair, conftitutional, and regular exercife of the Royal prerogative. The cabinet, which they had found empty, they had left fo. It was at this inftant perfectly ungarri-' foned, and if they might believe report, it was likely to remain fo: one perfon had already retired, others had already refufed to accept of the firft offices in the ftate; and whether we were to have an administration or no-who were to be the minifters-and what period they were to endure-it was impoffible for the Houfe at prefent to tell. They might laft for a year, for a month, for a week, or for three days-for each of these terms they would find a precedent, and which of them they would felect, was yet unknown; though perhaps it was pretty accurately conjectured which of the periods it would prove to be. His Lord thip concluded with declaring his approbation of the motion, Several other members fpoke, and the motion was carried without a divifion; and on being reported to the Houfe, was agreed to. The following is the addrefs, prefented on Dec. 24. with the answer. "That his Majefty's most dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Commons of G. Britain in parliament affembled, think themfelves bound in duty humbly to represent to his Majesty, that alarming reports of an intended diffolution of parliament have gone forth. "That his Majefty's faithful Commons, acknowledging the wifdom of the conftitution, in trufting to the crown that just and legal prerogative, and fully confiding in his Majefty's royal wildom and paternal care of his people for the moft beneficial exercise of it, defire, with great humility, to reprefent to his MajeBy the inconveniencies and dangers which appear to them, from a confideration of the ftate of the nation, likely to follow from a prorogation or diffolution of the parliament, in the prefent arduous and critical conjuncture of public affairs. The maintenance of the public credit, and the fupport of the revenue, demand the moft immediate attention; the diforders prevailing in the government of the Eaft Indies, at home and abroad, call aloud for inftant reformation; and the state of the Eaft-India Company's finances, from the preffing demands on them, require a no lefs immediate fupport and affistance from parliament. "That his Majefty's faithful Commons are at prefent proceeding with the utmoft diligence upon thefe great objects of government, as recommended to their attention by his gracious fpeech from the Throne, but which muft neceffarily be fruftrated and disappointed by the delay attending a diffolution; and moft efpecially the affairs of the Eaft Indies, and the affembling of a new parliament, not prepared by previous inquiry to enter with equal effect upon an object involving long and intricate details, which his Majefty's faithful Commons have inveftigated for two years paft, with the moft laborious, earnest, and unremitting at tention. "That his Majefty's faithful Commons, deeply affected by thefe important confiderations, impreffed with the higheft reverence and affection for his Maje. fty's perfon and government, and anxious to preferve the luftre and safety of bis government, do humbly befeech his Majefty to fuffer his faithful Commons to proceed on the bufinefs of the feffion, the furtherance of which is so effentially neceffary to the profperity of the public; and that his Majefty will be graciously pleased to hearken to the advice of his faithful Commons, and not to the secret advices of perfons who may have private interefts of their own, feparate from the true intereft of his Majesty and his people." His Majefty's Answer. «Gentlemen, "It has been my conftant object to employ the authority intrufted to me by the conftitution, to its true and only end ways happy in concurring with the wishes -the good of my people; and I am aland opinions of my faithful Commons. "I agree with you in thinking, that the fupport of the public credit and revenue muft demand your moft earneft and vigilant care. The ftate of the Eaft Indies is alfo an object of as much delicacy and importance as can exercife the wif dom and juftice of parliament. I truft you will proceed in thofe confiderations with all convenient fpeed, after such an adjournment as the prefent circumftances may feem to require. And I affure you I fhall not interrupt your meeting of prorogation or diffolution." by any exercise of my prerogative, either The Speaker having returned, and read the answer, Mr Fox faid he was not quite fatisfied with it. His Majefty's prefent minifters had been, it seemed, driven from their intention of diffolving the parlia ment; but ftill the affurance went no further than the meeting after the recess. He talked of the weakness of young men in accepting offices under the prefent circumstances of affairs; and mentioned their youth as the only poffible excufe for their rathnefs. He recommended a fhort adjournment. Lord Beauchamp then rofe, and, after a fhort preface, moved, "that the chairman Mr Huffey be directed to move, That it is the opinion of the House, that the Lords of the Treasury ought not to confent that the Directors of the Eaft. India Company do accept any more bills, unless they shall be able to prove to parlia ment that they have fufficient means to provide for the payment of them, after they shall have paid their dividend, and difcharged the debt due to government. Mr Fox feconded the motion. Lord Lord Mulgrave faid, the Lords of the Treafury were authorised by an act of parliament to give their confent that the Directors should accept bills to a certain amount; it would therefore be abfurd to confine them by a refolution of one branch of the legislature from doing that which by law they were authorifed to do: in the exercise of their judgement, in obedience to an act of the legislature, they ought to disregard a refolution of that House. This laft expreffion made many members take fire. Mr Burke and Mr Fox found it perfectly confiftent with men who were come in under the influence of the Houfe of Lords, to defpife the refolutions of the Houfe of Com mons. After a fhort debate, the resolution was carried without a divifion. On Dec. 26. the House adjourned to the 12th of January. On Monday, Jan. 12. the Commons met after the recefs. Mr Fox rofe to move the order of the day for entering upon the ftate of the nation; but several members waiting to be fworn, Mr Fox was under the neceffity of fitting down. Mr Pitt was the laft fworn, and then took his feat on the Treasury Bench. Mr Pitt and Mr Fox rofe at the fame time, which produced a general uproar, the friends of each gentleman calling upon him to proceed. Mr Pitt faid, he had a meffage to deliver from his Majefty. Mr Fox expreffed the highest respect for a meffage from the King; but his duty to his country rendered it neceffary for him to persevere in moving for the order of the day. The Speaker decided in favour of Mr Fox, on the ground of his having rifen to move the order of the day before Mr Pitt came into the House. Mr Fox then moved, that the order of the day be read; which being feconded, Mr Pitt infifted, that no cenfure for diforder could fairly be imputed to him, his perfeverance being in confequence of a meffage from his Majefty, which he would now poftpone till a free opportu sity offered to lay it before the Houfe. He complained, with fome afperity, of the rapid refolutions which the Houfe had been surprised into during the abfence of his Majefty's minifters, whofe prefence was effential to all proceedings in parliament. As the Minister of the VOL. XLVI. Crown, he was ready to hear every thing any man had to propose in that House; but he was not to be influenced by partyheat or the fpirit of violence. At prefent, he thought the motion for the order of the day ought to be withdrawn; there were many cogent reasons for de ferring it. The fituation of India was alarming, and demanded immediate attention. The rejected bill he had oppofed from a confcientious conviction of its evil tendency. He ftated it as militating with the conftitution; creating a new power; giving influence and patronage to particular men; and as being a violation of chartered rights, fanctified by repeated acts of parliament. He enlarged on the unjustifiable manner in which it had been hurried through the House, before it was poffible for gentlemen to be apprifed of its malignity; and concluded with wishing the House to wave the confideration of the order of the day, and give him leave to move a new India bill. Mr Erskine rose, and with great animation juftified the refolutions of which the Rt Hon. Gentleman complained. He thought it his duty, as a member of that House, to exert himfelf in averting the impending ruin with which that Rt Hon. Gentleman's misguided ambition threatened his country. The title of Minister of the Crown, which the Rt Hon. Gentleman arrogated to himself, was a new character, which the conftitution of England neither acknowledged nor knew. He called upon the Minister of the Crown to be informed, whether it was his intention to prorogue or diffolve the parliament? If the meffage was for that purpose, he muft fay, that minifters had abused the confidence of the House, and that the Houfe had the confidence of the people. He was furprised the Rt Hon. Gentleman could think of being a minifter when there was fuch a confiderable majority against him. It was a task invidious in its nature; it was dangerous. If parliament were to be diffolved, the reprefentatives of the people might be faid to be mere tenants at will; the crea tures of defpotifm, affembled only to regifter edicts of the minifter of the day. He drew a picture of Mr Pitt's fituation now as a minifter; and at the time when his country looked up to his abilities and his name as one of the great props of the conftitution. He defcribed his own feelings when he first heard him; but muft view him now as Hamlet did the pictures C of T meature was fuch as would produce the wished-for effect. Reports were abroad, that the existence of parliament depended upon the fate of this bill. If oppofed, a diffolution was to follow. He urged this as a reafon for the state of the nation to be entered upon as a previous bufinefs, even though the bill was to be brought in by the King's minifter. He doubted not the King's prerogative to. diffolve at the end of the feffion; but lawyers had doubts upon the power of diffolving at a crifis like the prefent; and a ftatute of Richard II, was pofitive for prohibiting diffolutions while petitions were pending. He digreffed to a long defence of the coalition, which be confidered as the only means of restoring the nation to profperity and luftre. of his father and uncle. Here he pronounced a paraphrafe on Hamlet's fpeech, drawing a picture of what Mr Pitt was, and what Mr Pitt is. He contrafted his conduct with that of Mr Fox. He ad verted to a former declaration of his, that he would never accept of a fubordinate fituation; but Mr Fox had paffed through fubordinations in office, to acquire wifdom and experience. He had fupported laborious oppofitions, and ac quired the power to ferve his country on conftitutional principles; not by fecret influence, dark intrigues, and the flameful privacy of back ftairs.- Mr Erfkine digreffed in fupport of the coalition, and in vindication of Lord North. To the American war he had ever been an enemy; but if the Noble, Lord had been deceived, fo was the majority of parlia ment, fo was the nation; and the Noble Lord had never defcended to be the minifter of a closet. Mr Powys wished to fee the diftracted government of this country broadly and permanently established, not to be deprived of the great abilities of the Rt Hon. Gent. Mr Fox, though at the fame time he was happy the prefent administration had not that perfon in it who had brought on the calamities of the American war. The bufinefs of the day he confidered as a ftruggle for power. In no moment of his life was he better pleafed than when he heard the Eaft-India bill had been thrown out; but he fhould have been ftill more pleafed, if it had been loft in that House instead of the Lords. He thought the diffolution of parliament a hazardous neafure; but would by no means advife minifters to pledge themselves against it. He declared against asperity in debate, and expreffed his confidence in the new minifter. He execrated the conduct of the prefent oppofition, by condemning in the grofs, and cenfuring without the leaft fhadow of a crime, and before any one measure had been carried into effect. The India bill intended by the prefent minifter he knew nothing of. If he liked it he would fupport it; but he thought nothing ought to divert the attention of the Houfe from that most important object. Mr Fox ridiculed Mr Powys's caution against afperity; retorting, that no man in the House made greater ufe of it. He had himself been often its object. He admitted the neceffity of urging forward the India butinefs, provided the Lord Mulgrave ridiculed the idea of conftitutional precedents in the reign of Richard II. when the Commons were fo ignorant, that they confulted with the Lords for information. He stated the time for fuch refearches to begin at the Revolution. Mr Fox had often attacked Lord North as the creature of influence, but now, connected with him, his Lordship held it in abhorrence! He imputed to oppofition a fpirit of contention inconfiftent with their profeffions of patriotism and public good. He regretted, that men of abilities fhould be excluded from a fhare in the government of their country, and ftrongly urged a general coalition. He reprobated the idea of fecret influence, and ftated the queftion before the Houfe as an obvious one, whether this kingdom was henceforth to be governed by a faction, or by men refponfible for their actions? and whether the Sovereign was to be a free man or a flave! Perhaps fecret influence was lefs to be dreaded than another fort of influ ence, which had been recommended, but he trufted, perished in the India bill. Mr Pulteney obferved, that two great rival factions had forgot their enmities, and were united to monopolife all the power of the country into their own hands, and to render the King nobody. To break that power, a diffolution of parliament might be neceffary. Lord North never felt, he faid, during the twelve years he had been in office, that fecret influence under which he had been fuppofed to act; but it from thence by no means followed, that no fuch in fluence did really exift. For aught he knew, there might have been a mine under under his house, and though it was not blown up, it was no proof that the mine was not there. Not knowing or fufpect ing it, be might live in fecurity; but he must be a madman who, with his eyes open, would build his houfe upon a mine, which his enemy might blow up whenever he chofe fo to do. Secret in Bluence, which might formerly be problematical, was now openly avowed. A Peer of parliament had given fecret advice, and gloried in it. The prerogative of the crown to dissolve parliaments was unquestionable; but prerogative could receive efficacy only from the fupport and confidence of parliament. Without thefe it would be a scare-crow prerogative, and without them the King would be nobody; but when the prero. gative was fupported by the confidence of the nation, it made the King fome body; it made him the greatest prince in the world. fteps; but these diffolutions loft the firft his head, and the last bis kingdom. He then drew a contraft between the late Earl of Chatham, and his son, the present minifter. The former quitted his office of minifter, because he found behind the throne fomething greater than the King; while the latter was avowedly introduced into the cabinet by that very fomething which had driven his father from it. The wording of the King's answer was obfcure. Why could not the Right Hon. Gentleman come forward, and declare openly, that the parliament was or was not to be diffolved? This is a point which the parliament had a right to know. Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer in reply faid, that when his Hon. Friend (Mr Banks) had pledged his name to the Houfe on the fubject of the diffolution, and faid, that he (Mr Pitt) would not advise fuch a meafure, his intention at that time certainly was not to advise the crown to diffolve the parliament; but it could never be fairly inferred from thence, that in no poffible future contingencies fuch a measure would not be adviseable. Mr Sheridan rofe in great warmth, and faid, the Rt Hon. Gentleman had fhamefully, fcandalously, and hypocritically deceived the Houfe. How shuffling was this conduct in a young minifter, unhackneyed in the ways of men! This was an inftance of duplicity scarce to be parallelled by the most hoary hypocrite that ever guided the councils of a great nation. If, in the very outfet, the young minifter thus tramples on the conftitution, what may not be apprehended from the audacity of his riper years? Mr Sheridan digreffed to point the edge Mr Dundas wondered that the Noble Lord was not able to fpeak more decidedly to the existence of a fecret influ ence. It was ftrange, indeed, that the Noble Lord could live twelve years over a mine without once feeing or smelling it out. The Noble Lord had taken great pains to prove propofitions, fo evidently true, that no man could difpute them: the King, without the fupport of his people, was nobody; with it he was a great prince. But where was the ground to fuppofe, that in the late changes the King had not the fupport of his people? He advised the Noble Lord not to use out-of-the-way expreffions, which might be remembered when the circumftances with which they were coupled might be forgotten of this kind was the expreffion of fcare-crow prerogative. A learned friend of his (Mr Lee) was greatly of bis fatire at Mr Dundas: to match mifreprefented in public, for faying a charter was only a fkin of parchinent with a piece of wax dangling to it. In the fenfe the learned gentleman ufed them, the words might be perfectly juft; but, remembered alone, had given rife to a print with a label, "An attorney. general to be only a carcafe dangling at the end of a rope." Gen. Conway faid, the advocates for the abfolute prerogative of the crown in calling and diffolving parliaments, ought to look back to the hiftory of this country. Charles I. ufed to diffolve parliaments at his pleasure, as did alfo Charles II. Unfortunate James II. trod in their the attorney general's dangling at a rope's end, might be drawn a striking likenefs of the learned gentleman and a label from his mouth, expreffing an appeal from the parliament to the people; or he might be drawn after he fhall have been difmiffed from office, as stretched on a bed of torture, with a label out of his pocket, "The martyr of the chartered rights of mankind;" and, as a contraft, another label might come from his mouth, with the title of his own bill, "The government of India." He concluded his ferio-comic fpeech, with a ftory from the journals, which happened in the reign of Charles II. of a Sir Ri C 2 chard |