power who holds one foot of her territory; previously therefore to a negociation, the Allies muft give up the fortreffes they have taken, and, once affiliated, Brabant, Savoy, and Nice must be put in poffeffion of the Republicans. In the Weft Indies you must abandon Nicola Mole; and in the Eaft you muft evacuate Pondicherry, and every other conqueft which tells you that their power there is annihilated for ever. His Lordship then touched upon the permanent nature of the Revolutionary Power, and again quoting the opinions of M. Briffot, fhewed that it ftruck at every thing like authority and order, and that the finews of its power were confifcation and rapine. But, faid his Lordship, the Noble Earl feems to be completely unacquainted with the prefent ftate of France. If he thinks that the people are unanimous in any thing, I will tell him, that, from the commencement of the Revolution, a period of more violent diffenfion never exifted; nor were the minds of men ever more averfe to what pretends to be the Executive Power of the Country. Notwithstanding the dreadful denunciations of the merchants, and every defeription of perfons one degree better than the Sans Culottes of Bourdeaux, at Marfeilles, and at Lyons, fo little dependence can they place on the affections of the people, that at Lyons, for instance, not one wretch could be found fufficiently depraved for their confidence, and Paris was obliged to fupply the Municipal Officers of the South. In the capital two Committees are ftruggling for the afcendency; and they are deceived, who imagine that the faction, which has difcomfited Briffot, may not fpeedily fall before a more bloody rival. That the prefent fuccefsful men perceive the fame neceffity for order as their predeceffors, and labour to obtain it, is fo ludicrously proved, that, to the aftonishment and laughter of all mankind, we find the merciful Robespierre become the advocate of the Chriftian Religion. Men formerly thought themfelves mighty in the caufe of freedom when they deftroyed the Baftile: at the time of its demolition only two ftate prifoners were then incarcerated for opinion. Look at the prifons of France, and at the prefent moment more than two hundred thoufand perfons are the victims of fufpicion and the revolutionary power. In Paris, the gaols, the abbeys, every den which they can convert to the fafeguard of the only men of worth in France, is full of thofe unhappy objects of a diabolical vengance, and about 5000 perfons now languifh in the dungeons of Paris. Nay, a late and memorable event may fhew in a moft glaring light, the total indifference to even the miferable forms of juftice remaining. A great number of the unfortunate wives, &c. of those unhappy prifoners came in a body to the bar of the Convention, to befeech that their relatives might have the common justice of trial D2 afforded afforded them, that if guilty, they might be punished, but if innocent, reftored to their homes; then they were admonished, after fome fulfome allufions to the mother of the Gracchi, to employ. their time better than to think about the deftiny of fufpected perfons. But, however, fomething was to be done; and a motion was made to commit their cafes to the investigation of the Committee du Salut Public. This was negatived; for it was impoffible for patriot citizens to fpare fufficient time for fo humiliating a task; it was therefore decreed that two members taken from their Society, fhould, just when they had nothing better to do, enquire whether any of them were worth faving, and report accordingly. Thus, in defiance of every principle of law and justice, thefe perfecuted beings are delivered up to the favage judgment of the very men by whofe arbitrary authority they are compelled to people their prifons. His Lordship concluded with the firmeft confidence in the ultimate fuccefs of the allies; and, feeling the noble talk which that House were then met to perform, he deduced from the decifion of that night, and the bleffing of Providence upon their councils, the restoration of order and government to France; and the prefervation of the laws, the religion, and the liberties of Europe. Lord Lauderdale faid, that although the doctrines of Equality was not established in England, yet liberty of fpeech was; and in that House, no Minifter had a right to prefcribe to any Member, when he should speak, or when he should anfwer him. With regard to his having brought a charge against a Supreme Court of Juftice, he faid he would, when convenient to himself, enter upon the investigation of it; and he pledged himfelf to the House for inftituting an inquiry into the fubject. He faid, that his Noble Friend's Amendment went no farther than to propose terms of peace; but at prefent by no means to propofe the precife terms. The Lord Chancellor left the Woolfack, in order to notice infinuations of a Noble Lord (Lauderdale) which he should with the Noble Lord would bring forward in a fair and unequivocal manner, and he would then answer them in a direct manner. He defended the character and juftice of the Judges in Scotland, on whom fome very fevere reflections had been caft by the Noble Lord, and hoped the Noble Lord would bring forward that businefs before the House as early as poffible, when he was convinced it would appear they had not deviated from that character of honour and juftice that diftinguished them; and that they were not to be deterred by all the threats that had been levelled at them, and all the dangers which furrounded them, from discharging that duty which they owed to their country, however fevere it might fall on those who attempted to fow the deftructive doctrines of French anarchy in his Majefty's dominions. With many of them he had long long had the honour to be acquainted, and he knew them to be men of the greatest talents and integrity: he knew they would temper judgment with mercy: but they were not to be warped by threats, or any other confideration, from fairly executing the laws against audacious offenders. At prefent there was nothing but mere fuggeftions and dark infinuations, which fhould with more propriety have been paffed over in contemptuous filence, but the integrity of the venerable Judges who compofed that Court ought to be above fufpicion. His Lordship apologized for detaining the Houfe at fo late an hour, but thought it his duty to defend the Learned Judges, fo feverely impeached. Lord Lauderdale ftated, that, in order to give the public that free information which they were entitled to, he should lay before their Lordships a particular account of those proceedings which the Noble Lord had alluded to; and, as an Hereditary Member of that Houfe, he fhould claim all that freedom of fpeech which the nature of the fubject might require. The Question being called for, a divifion took place, when the Contents were 97-Non Contents 12-Majority 85 The following are the Names of the Peers who voted for the Amendment to the Address: The Duke of Norfolk Duke of Bedford Marquis of Lansdowne Earl of Derby The Earl of Lauderdale On the Motion of Lord Earl of Albemarle The Earl Stanhope Lord St. John Stanhope, their Lordfhips were ordered to be fummoned on Thursday the 23d.—Adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. SOME minutes after the Speaker had entered the Houfe, which was about Three o'Clock, the Ufher of the Black Rod appeared, and summoned him to attend His MAJESTY in the Houfe of Peers, which was inftantly complied with. On his return, the Speaker, being difre bed, informed the Houfe, that he had, in purfuance of the Powers invested in him, caused new Writs to be iffued for the Boroughs of Higham Ferrers and Horsham, in the ftead of John Lee, and James Baillie, Efq's. dec. Several Members were then fworn in, among whom were Mr. Secretary Dundas, Mr. Jenkinson, Mr. E. Eliot, Mr. John Anftruther, and Mr. Canning. Mr. Dundas presented the different Conventions and Treaties concluded between July and December laft, between the Court of London and the Kings of Spain, of the Two Sicilies, of Pruffia, the Queen of Portugal, the Emperor, the Margrave of Baden, and the Landgrave of Heffe Caffel; and alfo his Majefty's Declaration addreffed to the People of France.-Ordered to lie on the Table. Major Major Maitland moved, that they might be printed for the use of the Members; which Mr. Secretary Dundas informed him might be more properly made the fubject of a diftinct Motion. The Bill to prevent Clandestine Outlawries was read twice. Copies of the Declaration of his MAJESTY'S Minifters of the 29th of October laft, and of Lord Hoop's Declaration to the Inhabitants of Toulon, were ordered to lie on the Table. ADDRESS. Lord Cliffden rofe to propofe an Addrefs to his MAJESTY. He could not, he faid, expect much oppofition to the Motion he fhould fubmit to the Houfe, as it went only to acknowledge doctrines that were incontrovertible, and to admit facts that were notorious. None could oppofe the Addrefs, he thought, who did not maintain that we were to defert all our Allies, and make peace, or at leaft endeavour fo to do, without their concurrence; and this was a measure too much fraught with dangerous confequences to admit of defence. The Power of France was at once, he contended, both the offspring and parent of mifery and mischief; maffacre and rapine were the objects of her purfuit, and the infallible confequences of her dominion. If, therefore, we were to permit the prefent grand alliance of Europe to diffolve, this confequence would enfue, that France, in her prefent fituation, being more than a match for the Powers of Europe feparately, would in turn over-run every State, and fpread her frantic fyftem of defolation at length into this Ifland. We might not be the first facrifice; but affuredly neither we nor any exifting Power in Europe could long efcape her dominion: no one, he thought, could doubt of this, who confidered the prefent character of France, as fhown alike both in her avowed principles and undisguised acts. Peace he, as well as every friend to his country, most certainly wifhed for; but it must be a peace in fact, and not in femblance only. At prefent it was not to be obtained with fafety; and any fufpenfion of hoftility would in the end prove a most destructive delufion. Among the many acts of horrid atrocity in which the prefent Convention of France gloried, it was impoffible, he said, not to remark one, which partook, however, of the attribute of Juftice. Briflot and his fiction planned and accomplished the murder of his Sovereign, and the deftruction of Monarchy. This fame Briffot, and the accomplices of his deeds, had ignominiously perifhed on the fcaffold they themfelves had erected and fupplied with victims. In this fact, he faw not only juftice, but warning to those who might think lightly of Monarchy; a power fo effential to the fecurity of property, and the protection of individuals. It was no fmall fatisfaction, he declared, to find the fenfe of the people of this country fo confonant to found reafon and their true and lafting interefts. The protection which the Constitution af forded forded them, they gratefully repaid by attachment and fubmiffion; all the malicious endeavours of the difaffected had failed; the good fenfe and honeft difpofition of Englishmen had been proof against them all. The wife and vigorous meafures adopted in the last Seffion, had been productive of the most beneficial consequences to the peace and profperity of this kingdom; by them the Jacobinical faction, which lurked among us, had been expelled, and that beaft of prey is now compelled to confine his defolating ravages to his own den. In Ireland, efforts no lefs daring and violent had been reforted to by the fame agents, or thofe actuated by the fame principles; but the power of reafon rofe pre-eminent over the intrigues of villainy and anarchy, and the tranquillity of thefe countries were now, he trufted, happily fecured from all innovation; to render which permanent, to maintain our national honour and character, and to make the whole civilized race happy, were objects which, he had no doubt, a firm perfeverance in the war would fecure. The War, he contended, was not only just and politic, but forced on us by a neceffity which left us no choice. The circumftances of the war, he faid, were neither difcouraging nor difhonourable. The territories of our Allies had been, fince the period of our being forced, by every poffible aggravation, and by every principle of felf-defence, to take a part in it, reftored and protected; our commerce had fuffered no material curtailment; the difpofition of a great majority of the people, he was senfible, was friendly to the laudable purfuit of fuppreffing the reign of outrage, bloodshed, and rapine; and the fyftem on which our fanguinary foes carried on the war, could not be of long duration, as their defperate refources muft have their limits. They declared war, and commenced hoftility. The late temporary fuccefs of France on the Rhine had again demonftrated her principles, and the views of her advocates at home. Wherever the conquers, her armies fhew the fame fpirit of pillage and devaftation they fhewed last year in the Netherlands; and at home, we find on the first news of her fuccefs, the enemies of our Conftitution creep out again like beafts of prey from their fecret dens. He hoped, and doubted not, however, that every attempt of this nature would inftantly be crushed by the united fpirit and loyalty of the people. He concluded by reading the Addrefs he moved, which, as ufual, was an echo to his Majefty's Speech, adopting the principles, and admitting the facts it contains. Sir Peter Burrell said, that he should not have thus come forward, on the prefent occafion, in fo confpicuous an undertaking as that of feconding the Addrefs to his Majefty, did he not feel a thorough conviction that it behoved every man, who entertained a wish for the well being of fociety, the protection of his country, his |