who must be fuppofed to be pretty well acquainted with the ftate of affairs there, yet, My Lords, different perfons cannot help on the fame matters entertaining different opinions. The Noble Marquis undoubtedly spoke what he feels and believes on the fubject; but yet there are others equally well informed of all circumstances, who give very different accounts. I have, My Lords, received feveral accounts from that country, from authority on which I can perfectly rely, which reprefent it to be in the moft alarming and lamentable fituation. Thefe accounts are not written by men who pretend to be politicians, or who are actuated by a spirit of party, but by plain dealing and plain fpeaking perfons, who are interested in displaying the truth alone, and they inform me that the whole of the country is in a state of the most alarming difaffection and agitation. And this is attributed to the coercive measures which have been fo unfortunately pursued to fo great an extent in that unhappy country. I feel myself, my Lords, particularly ininterested, and particularly called upon to ftate to your Lord, fhips, all I know of the ftate of Ireland. My stake in that country, as well as my regard for many valuable perfons in it, render me very much alive to every effential matter which concerns it. Some are of opinion with the Noble Marquis who spoke fo lately (Downfhire), that coercion is neceffary, while others, on the contrary, think that nothing but lenient measures and conciliation can fave that country. Whichever of thefe is the beft, it feems equally to call upon your Lordfhips for a change of Minifters. If coercion is abfolutely neceffary, for God's fake employ men who can render coercion effectual. The prefent Minifters have long tried it, and have reaped from it nothing but misfortune. But what, My Lords, is to be hoped or expected from a country kept in fubjection hy military tenure alone. Can any good be the confequence? Impoffible. And yet, my Lords, I do maintain that Ireland is at this moment held by military fubjection only. I beg your Lordships to confider what must be the confequence to this country if it lofes Ireland. Scotland, I am informed, from appearances on the late trials, is not in the most defirable ftate either; and if any defection takes place there, how will England by herself be able to keep up the expence of her various diftant dependencies? The reflection is of the utmost moment. I wish the Court of this country could be brought to think feriously of its fituation in time, before it is too late. I with the public could hit upon fome mode of arrangement in a conftitutional way, as fhould roufe a fenfation adequate to the perilous fituation we are in; but I am afraid those wishes are

I think an immediate peace abfolutely neceffary to the

falvation

falvation of the country. I know the general opinion is, that if the prefent Minifters were to retire, and others were to conclude a peace, that the prefent Minifters would foon find their way back to their former stations. Let them, I fay, let them come back, fuffer others to conclude a peace, and then, why hang them if you will: a speedy peace is actually neceffary. The prefent Minifters cannot procure it, and, therefore, I think I do a most effential fervice to my country by supporting the prefent motion, for their immediate difmiffal from his Majefty's councils."

Lord Mulgrave afferted that it was not folely to the choice of the King, or to the favour of the Court, as infinuated by the Noble Marquis (Lanfdowne) but to the according and unanimous approbation of the people, that the prefent Ministers were indebted for their fituations and for their continuance in office. Not only was the conduct of his Majefty's prefent Minifters arraigned in the fpeeches of the two Noble Lords who preceded him; they moreover extended their cenfure to the Minifters of almoft every other country, for their ill management of that grand confederacy in which they had embarked against France; their conduct was alfo ftigmatifed by another Noble Lord (Holland) as bordering on fomething like fwindling. This was a foul and unjuft charge against Minifters, who had fulfilled all their engagements with our allies. And how were they enabled thus rigoroufly to fulfil them? Was it not by their unremitting endeavours to fupport the fate of our finances; for to them was undoubtedly owing the flourishing condition to which they had been raifed; and by the able conduct of Minifters in this refpect, was the nation put in a fituation to meet the unparalleled exigencies which it has fince experienced. It had been stated that one campaign coft the enemy not less a fum than one hundred and forty millions! while the expences on our own fide of the fame campaign did not exceed our ordi nary refources. The confidence of the people was alfo forcibly evinced in the abilities and integrity of the prefent cabinet, by the fpirit and alacrity with which they now preffed forward with voluntary contributions in aid of the growing exigencies of the flate; which, however they might be treated as bubble bubble contribution by a Noble Marquis (Lanfdowne) could not fail to do equal honour to their feelings and judgment, and prove beneficial to the great caufe, in fupport of which they were bestowed. The Noble Marquis had complained of the Bank for the fupport afforded by its Directors and body of proprietors to Government. He appeared more jealous of their rights than they did themselves; but, notwithstanding the hubble bubble, the proprictors had not yet expreffed themfelves diffatisfied.

His Lordship next commented on the part of the speech of the Duke of Bedford that related to the refpective negotiations for peace with France. The Noble Duke had made a calculation of the expences of the war, between the period when, according to his Grace, we could have obtained peace, and the prefent. But eager as his Grace had been in the former debate of that evening to commute money for confinement, much and warmly as he appeared to entertain a preference for liberty over wealth, in his calculations of the expences of the war, he had not calculated the dangers to the country from French principles and the war of French anarchifts against this country, and againft the whole of Europe. The prophecy of a Noble Marquis that if Minifters perfevered in the prefent war, they would foon fee France established into a military republic,' had been rapturoufly quoted. Now if really France were a military republic, what, he would ask, would be her defeription-what her fituation after peace? Why, she would acquire the means of propagating her destroying principles, while we opened the doors of all the Cabinets of Europe to her emiffaries. This was not to be controverted; it refted for proof on the conduct of the rulers of that country. Yet under thefe circumftances, the Noble Duke had appeared to be extremely angry that Minifters did not make peace. But has the Noble Duke forgot that a time came, when negotiations were fo far advanced, that it was propofed by our negotiator to France to state any terms on which they would treat for peace, and that they declined giving an explicit anfwer, but demanded to know if he had full powers? With refpect to the infinuation that we went originally to war on a principle of scramble, was it in the nature of fuch a principle to offer to give up our conquefts? Of the laft negotiation, it were to infult their Lordfhips, did he add any remarks of his to what they had read, fo well explained in the papers laid before them on the fubject.

As to what was advanced refpecting the prefent ftate of Ireland, this the Noble Lord felt to be a delicate fubject, and whatever opinion might be held refpecting the neceffity of what was called conciliatory measures, the prefent was not a ftate of things to admit of conciliation. All our conceffions to

that country were faid to be from meannefs and fear, but this was an accufation against Great Britain, and not chargeable on the conduct of Minifters. On former occafions no cause of complaint had remained unredreffed; but if the demands they now fet up are to be conceded, then indeed will they appear to be conceded from meanness and from terror. Here the Noble Lord inveighed against the principles and conduct of the United Irishmen, who, he faid, were prepared to throw

ག

their country into the hands of the enemy, and make it a province of France; that fuch was their intention he endeavoured to prove from a paragraph in a morning paper which expreffed a refolution not to attend to what either Houfe of Parliament might fay, nor to accept of any thing fhort of a complete emancipation of their country; or, in other words, what France holds out as a temptation to the rebels of every country. But if that country was ever unfortunate enough to fall under the tyranny of the Directory, it might now anticipate an idea of the horrid flavery under which it would be bowed, by reflecting on the fituation to which they had already reduced all thofe who had liftened to the invitation of fraternization; then (hould they learn the fruits of peace with France, then should they tate the fruits of complete emancipation. These were the ftal effects which he heartily deprecated from a peace with France, and on thefe he refted his refiftance to a conciliation with the rebels of Ireland, and his prefent defence of the conduct of Minifters. On the fubject Reform, his Lordfhip afked, how was the House and the country to know that the Noble Duke and his friends entertained the fame fentiments as to what ought to be its extent? Radical Parliamentary Reform had been mentioned. Was it clear that the head of the Correfponding Society and the head of the Whig Club (alluding to Mr. Fox) (Here fome Lords of Oppofition hinted if it there was no perfon of the latter defeription.)-His Lordfhip continued, that he could not fay what were the other dominions of the Right Honourable Gentleman, but evident it had appeared to many that they were coalefced. He did not therefore wonder that the French were fatisfied with the declarations of certain men in and out of Parliament, and looked to them with confidence for fupport. And while he could most cordially admire the fplendid, the magnificent talents of the Right Honourable Gentleman he had alluded to, what affurarce had the House, that upon his being in office, fhould ever the country and Parliament not concur in his plans of Reform, he would not refort to the Societies. He would not, however, impute to the men of whom he spoke, the intention of treacherously joining France. But when it was ftated, by the Noble Duke, that Minifters could not make peace, and by the Noble Lord, that they could not conciliate Ireland, was there not great reafon to apprchend, that France, viewing a change of Minifters, as a change of the fyftem of the war, and an acknowledgment that we were the original aggreffors, would extend her demands with the lamentations of the new Ambaffador, and grow in infolence, as the Minifters of the new creation enlarged their fympathies and profeffed their grief. 5 R

No. 19.

Un

der

der thefe circumstances, he could not approve of the motion of the Noble Duke.

Lord Grenville faid, that he had rather chofen to wait the opinion of others than to deliver his own on the prefent fubject, and if he could be fuppofed to be actuated by a fentiment of real pride, and a real defire of fame, that fentiment must have been gratified by the fpeeches which he had that night heard, and by the praife of the refpectable Lords who had delivered thofe fpeeches. After what thofe Noble Lords had faid, it would be at once prefumptuous and arrogant in him to expect to add any thing to the force of the arguments against the motion, or to the impreffion already made upon the Houfe. But while he faid this, he begged at the fame time to be understood, that if he offered himfelf at all to their Lordships' view, it was not from motives perfonal to himfelf, or the other perfons with whom he was connected in office, knowing that like him too they refted on what they had fo often, and in a way fo flattering, been honoured with the approbation of their Lordships and of the country. With refpect to the difcuffion of that night, the topics dwelt upon with fo much emphasis, and with an air and port fo folemn and auftere, it must be in the recollection of their Lordships, that they have been again and again difcuffed in that Houfe, and as often decided upon. Knowing this, and venerating, as he did, decifions founded upon profound confideration of the fubject, nothing could have induced him then to go at all into detail, but the conviction that not only did the paft and the future safety of the country depend on the vote of that night, but equally with these the prefent glory and honour and dignity of the people. Their fame throughout Europe and the world, the diftinguished rank they have ever held amongst civilized nations as a people at once juft and generous, uniting to unrivalled prowess the highest paffions of humanity and forbearance, thefe would wholly and for ever be blotted out, did the affertion of the Noble Duke remain uncontradicted.

The Noble Duke had afferted, and fure was he their Lordships heard it with indignation, that the prefent war was commenced, in a fpirit of eternal enmity to France. In fact, from what the Noble Duke had faid on the fubject, the question appeared to his Lordship to be-whether the people of England ever embraced the idea of exterminating the people of France. "Good God!" exclaimed his Lordfhip, "could it have been imagined that any Noble Peer would have conceived fo unworthily of our national character? It was not to be endured, thus to afperfe and libel a great people." But were we even to admit this, along with the other affertions of the Noble Duke,

what