what then would be the fituation of the country? We must go offer up our prayers and fupplications for mercy at the feet of the enemy-fubmit our repentence---all the honour and independence and wealth of the country, to their goading Majefty---that honour, fuch as it was when our ancestors bled for freedom!--that honour, fuch as it is when their defcendants defire to preferve it inviolate, as an inheritance to be yet enjoyed in its purity and fplendour by their offspring? And, he would afk, was that the proud manner of the English character? Was it in the difpofition of an independent people to wage a neceffary war against an aggreffing, unjuft foe, and feek its termination in the ruin of their country, and their own shame? He begged their Lordships pardon if he had too warmly expreffed himself concerning these matters, fo interesting to every Englishman; and which, if he had not commented upon that night, would have occafioned emotions that, glowing in his bofom, he could not suppress, nor lay his head down quietly on his pillow.

Of the Noble Duke's ftatement, refpecting the conduct of Minifters, it was nothing more than a repetition of affertions. wholly deftitute of foundation. Repeatedly had they been hazarded within the walls of that Houfe with lefs of judgment than zeal; their Lordships, on every renewed attempt at misreprefentation, oppofed their difbelief to confident affertion, and arguments to declamation and mifquoted facts. The Journals of the Houfe bore him out in his statement, and if he W13 compelled at all times to ftate his opinion on the Journals, it had been because of the wonderful talents of the Noble Duke to miftate them here, and mifreprefent them to the country. The fpeech from the Throne, in the year 1794, had ever been miftated. Of it your Lordships had heard it faid, that it fought nothing fhort of the total extermination of the French people. But where, in this fpeech, had any Noble Lord feen it flated, that the prefent is a war of extermination. In it there is not a fentiment, that a mind of candour can revolt at. Not only in this fpeech did Minifters declare the principles of the war, but they had twice every year fince ftated the grounds of it, and the fituation of the country, as it had been affected by the circumftances of the contest. All these too had been recorded on the Journals of that House; and was it reasonable to fuppofe, that Minifters had meant to deceive the Country and Parliament, while they were thus producing public papers. If, however, there was any proof of fuch an intention, why not ftate it? Why not examine the papers themfelves? But his Lordship was certain, that not any two papers could be pointed out, in which contradictory principles and fentiments are de-,

clared, or any one paper, in fhort, wherein his Majefy's Minifters had not explicitly avowed, as well their own fentiments of the war, as thofe of the country. Laft year he took an opportunity of flating his opinion of the conteft; and he was fure that not a man in the country had entered into it without reflecting, that it might be a long, ferious, and painful contest.

His Lordship entered then into a general reply to wh at had been faid by the Noble Lords oppofite to him, with refpcct to the conduct of the war as far as it related to foreign alliances. He had never faid that the allies would not defert us; he had only stated his belief they never would be unfaithful. It was true that he had faid, that if even what was given as a loan turned out to be a fubfidy, it was to be endured, becaufe then the country could keep its allies. Of the conduct of Pruffia in the alliance, he would fay nothing: the adherence of Auftria was bound by the double cord of intereft and honour, What, he would afk, would the Noble Lords think of the Minifters of the country, who, being involved in war by the aggreffor, when offered affiftance, declined it from the paltry motive of not incurring a certain expence, to avoid an uncertain advantage? It was curious to hear the Noble Duke affert, that with our allies we might have concluded a peace, yet it was the greatest calamity to be without them to carry on war against an exhausted country. But what had been the conduct of France? What the affurances given us by its public declarations and acts, of their treating us honourably even in a state of peace? Have Noble Lords not feen the country of independent fovereign Princes, not in alliance with them, over-run for their neutrality, while thofe in their alliance faw, without power of refiftance, the gates of their palaces opened by plunderers to admit robbers. He regretted that France poffcffed this power, both on our own account and that of thofe Sovereigns: but, he contended, that while in the alliance against France they weakened that nation by their exertions, and England had now to contend with the enemy in a ftate of weakness. It was worthy remark, that not one of the heads of difcuffion in the fpeeches of the Noble Peers Bedford, Holland, and Lanfdowne, ftate the naval fuccefles of the country. Thus was the Houfe called upon to decide the question without comparing our felves with the enemy as a maritime power. It was, however, to this he looked first. It was first, in folid importance, firft in real glory, firft in duty and attention, in the affections of that Houfe, of Minifters, and the country. But events of whofe caufes his Majefty's Ministers could not know much; the defeat of armies, whofe operations they could not wholly direct; the rupture of negotiations and formation

formation of alliances which they could not control-were
made the grounds of accufation against them; while the naval
hiftory of the country appears never to have been perused in
the whole courfe of the war. He would put in for his fhare
of the glory, but to the gallant defenders of their country was
due all the panegyric.
He defired Noble Lords to compare
the prefent naval war with any of the former wars.
When,
in any period of hiftory, had we the naval power of France,
and Spain, and Holland to oppofe, and Breft, Cadiz, and the
Texel blocked up by our fleets. Thus, then, would their
Lordships fee that for difafters, in which Minifters had no
fhare, they were blamed, for fucceffes in which they had a share
they were allowed no credit.

The next accufation of the Noble Duke was, that his Majefty's Minifters had been grofsly negligent in policy. We were to fuppofe what Pamphlets and Paragraphs had told us, that there was a period at which France was willing to make peace. When this was afferted, it was neceflary that the precife time fhould be pointed out. As far as he had been able to collect, he believed the precife time alluded to was while France was under the dominion of Robefpierre, a dominion which he could not hope to characterize fo ftrongly as it was done by every Frenchman, but moft efpecially by thofe who ferved him when in the plenitude of his power. Yet this very period was that in which the parallel of Rome and Carthage was firft brought forward by Barrere in an Official Report. Yet at that period there exifted no Government at Paris, but France was ruled by affaffins, butchers, and hangmen, with whom it was not poffible to have concluded any fort of peace: yet, to add to the horrors of the time, it was then that that Government paffed a refolution to give no quarter, a refolution which the French army, whom his Lordship was certainly not disposed in general to praife, did not obey. This was, however, the only fymptom which they had at any time given of a difpofition to peace. He himself thought it fo far from being the time for peace, that he did not even think that it would have been poffible to have opened a negotiation, but that the Minifter whom we fhould have fent for the purpofc, would have been guillotined.

From that period to the time at which the first negotiations were begun, no opening for treaty had been paffed over. The circumftances of that negotiation were fo well known, that he could not help interrupting the Noble Duke, when he flated that the plan propofed by the British Government, was a plan for the fpoliation of the lefier powers, and the aggrandizement of the greater. He himself had framed that projet, which

moft.

moft of all avoided the evils which were charged upon it. With refpect to the Cape and Ceylon, we had made an offer, that was certainly liberal, to reftore it to the only power to whom it was proper to restore it. We faid to France, begin with making Holland again an integral and independent nation; when this is done, we will give to her the means of her commerce, nay, more, we faid that if it was not in their power to comply wholly with this demand, we would confider how far we could wave our intereft, in order to continue the negotiations.

The Noble Duke then paffed to the last negotiation, in which, as he could not find fault with the conduct of Adminif tration, he was contented to attack their choice of a negotiator. It would be improper for him, in the prefence of the Noble Lord himself who conducted that negotiation, to fpeak what he thought; but he fhould only fay, that his Lordfhip appeared to be of all men the most fit, as one against whom, in thefe days of malignity and faction, malignity and faction had never uttered a breath.

Lord Grenville obferved on the impropriety of what had fallen from a Noble Lord, on the fubject of a difcuffion which had paffed in the Houfe previoufly to his having a feat in it. He thought the Noble Lord, inftead of adverting to what he could not know, fhould rather turn his attention to the present conduct of France. He would pafs over the affair of the Scheldt, the order given to Dumourier to attack Holland, the attempts of Genet to ftir up the Americans to war with us, and the other acts of aggreffion and perfidy on the part of France, and would call his attention to more recent events, from which he would fee whether they were now better inclined to good faith. He wished his Lordship to look to the fituation of Genoa, and to that of Switzerland, the oldeft ally of France, the first asylum of freedom in Europe, contending for her exiftence. His Lordship would there fce, that France was making a general attack on every Nation, but that thofe countries were most the objects of her hoftility, which appeared favourable to the happiness of mankind.

From thefe topics, the Noble Duke had turned to the domestic state of the country. When the demands of an enemy were fo monftrousjas to preclude all poflibility of peace, he should be flow in afferting that we were at the end of our refources, even if he believed that fuch an affertion was really true. But the contrary was the cafe: he faw great exertions making, and the general prevalence of a fpirit cheerfully coming forward in fupport of the State, and making Voluntary Contributions. The Noble Marquis difapproved of this mode in which the

public fpirit difplayed itself, and quoted a paffage from Mr. Burke, to fhew that when Voluntary Contributions begin, property is at an end; yet he remembered, that the Noble Marquis, when Minifter, came forward with an affurance to his Majefty of the profperity of the country, and adduced as a proof of it, that large offers had been made of Voluntary Contributions. With refpect to the Bank Subfcription, which he reprefented as having been conducted in fo hafty a manner, he begged to inform him, that the opinion of the council for the bank had been taken on the subject, and that it was favourable.

Minifters were next accufed of having facrificed the most valuable parts of the conftitution. This he pofitively denied to be the cafe. He wished to speak of certain correfponding focieties, with which the party of the Noble Duke had formed what a Noble Lord had properly termed a myfterious and equivocal connexion. He trusted that he fhould hear this connexion explained before the Houfe feparate. He had heard that night from a refpectable quarter, that in Ireland the effects of these correfponding focieties were felt, and even the United Irishmen would be lefs daring without the correfponding fociety. A mutiny had broken out in the fleet :-between its ringleaders and the correfponding fociety a connexion is found to have fubfifted. He repeated what the Marquis of Downfhire had faid, that coercion was abfolutely neceflary for the fafety of Ireland. Conciliation had, he said, been always. the line of conduct which the prefent Administration had purfued with refpect to Ireland. One of the first measures of his Honourable Friend at the head of the treafury, on his coming into office, was to offer to Ireland the boon of free trade. The measures of conciliation which it was now neceffary to purfue, were certainly thofe which were most likely to fecure to the inhabitants their fortunes and their lives.

His Lordship faid, he refted the caufe of Minifters here; there were certainly among the fupporters of the prefent meafures men more able than himself, to whom he should refign the rein with pleasure, yet not without regret that he should not be thought worthy of partaking in the profecution of this measure in common with thofe than whom, for talent (himself excepted) and for integrity, no men were more diftinguished. But would the object of the Noble Mover be answered by this fubftitution? The question of Radical Reform was now brought forward, and the Noble Duke and his party faid, that unless his Majefty and the Legislature would confent to this, they would never take a fhare in Administration. However the Noble Duke and his Friends might deteft the measures of Administration, he detefted the idea of Radical Reform still more.

He