the Royal Family (numerous as I thank God it is) ftill growing and rifing up in a third generation: a Family, Sir, which I moft fincerely wifh may be as immortal as thofe Liberties and that Conftitution which it came to maintain. Mr. William Pitt, April 14, 1736. THOUGH charity obliges us to believe, that all men are fincere, till the contrary evidently appears; and though decency often obliges us to avoid telling them they are not fo, yet one cannot help a fufpicion arifing in one's breaft, when we find Lords profeffing their readiness to join in an inquiry, or in exerting our birth-right of being the great Counsellors of the Crown, and yet upon all occafions oppofing it; and in support of their oppofition offering fuch arguments, as, if they were admitted, would render it impoffible for this House ever to inquire into the conduct of paft measures, or offer any advice in relation to future. The Noble Lord (Lord Ila) fays, we ought never to offer our advice in affairs relative to peace or war; that is to fay, in any foreign affairs whatsoever, unless called upon by the King to do so. My Lords, I know nothing elfe we can have occafion to offer our advice in, unless it be, whether the King fhall go to the play or the opera, whether he hall fhew mercy to a thief, or order him to be hanged, or fomething of equal importance; for in all domestic affairs of great importance, our King, thank God! is limited by the laws, and ought not to tranfgrefs them, even though this House fhould advise him to do fo. And as to our being called upon, we know from experience, that though this House be the hereditary great Council of the Crown, yet our advice is very feldom afked in a ferious manner. Kings, my Lords, are generally for confulting with fuch as are of their own chufing, and thefe are often fuch as have no dignity, privilege, or right, by their birth. We know the greatest empire that ever was on earth, was once governed by the fole advice of a freed flave; and one of the greatest empires now in being, by the advice of a Cabinet Cabinet Council of Eunuchs, and fuch as they shall chufe for their Privy Council; therefore, if we never offer our advice but when it is seriously afked by the Crown, I am afraid we fhall very feldom exert that privilege, which is our birthright. How this House has of late years come to be fo much suspected of blabbing, I do not know; but it is a very new doctrine to say, that nothing can be communicated to this House, without making it public. The very first inftance of our being refused any papers we thought neceffary for our information, for fear it should thereby be made public, was in the year 1721: fince that time, indeed, it has been commonly and frequently practifed; and yet whatever fecrets our Minifters may have had fince that time, I do not think the nation had ever any fewer in any equal period of time. Earl of Chefterfield, Dec. 1, 1740. I AM forry to obferve, that it is now become a common topic of debate here, as well as in our conversation without doors, that public praise ought to be despised, and the opinion of the giddy multitude altogether difregarded. This, my Lords, is a most terrible symptom, if Mr. Addison be right in his obfervation; for in one of his Spectators I remember he obferves, We then only defpife commendation, when we cease to deferve it. As I am acquainted with the Noble Lord (Lord Ifla) who spoke laft, I am convinced he will never cease to deserve commendation; but I was really in pain, when I heard him endeavouring to perfuade your Lordships to despise the opinions, the suspicions, and the clamours of the people without doors: I fay I was in pain, left fome of those who are not acquainted with his Lordship, fhould think of this obfervation, which I am fure is very unjuft, when applied to him. The defire of fame, the defire of applaufe, is one of the most exalted, and one of the most useful affections of the human mind. It is fo closely connected with our nature, that I believe no man can intirely rid himself of it; and therefore no man will pretend to despise the reproaches or the fufpicions of his countrymen, but he that is confcious of their being juft. A man of steady resolution will not allow himself to be carried away with every new opinion that prevails among the people, nor will he do what is wrong, in order to gain a popular applause; but surely he will not allow his character to lie under fufpicion amongst his countrymen, if he can by any means clear it up. The multitude may fometimes be artfully led into a wrong way of thinking, or they may be induced to clamour without reafon; but it is not the part of a good citizen to defpife that opinion, or that clamour; it is his duty to endeavour to fet the people right, and if the opinion or clamour be against himself, for the fake of his own character, as well as in duty to the public, he ought to take the most proper and the most speedy method for his juftification. This, my Lords, is the duty of every private man, and much more is it the duty of a Magiftrate or Minifter. Even in abfolute governments the Minifters ought to take all proper methods for gaining the affections and efteem of the people, and confequently for removing every fufpicion and clamour that may happen to arife against them: but in a free government, this is not only the duty of the Minifters and Magiftrates, but they are under an abfolute neceffity to do fo, if they have a mind to continue in their office for the diftinguishing and fole fign of a people's being free, is that of their being governed by those laws and those men they approve of. If a law comes to be thought inconvenient or oppreffive, by the majority of a free people, it will be repealed; if a Magiftrate or Minifter comes to be hated or despised by the majority of a free people, he will bé removed; and therefore, if in any country a law stands unrepealed for fome time after it begins to be disapproved by a majority of the people, or if a Magistrate or Minister continues in office for fome time after he begins to be generally hated or defpifed, that government is not a free government, that Peo VOL. I. e ple ple have no pretence to call themselves a free people. For this reafon, I am furprized to hear it faid, that our Minifters defpife the clamours of the people, or that they do not defire your Lordships affiftance for allaying thofe clamours. My Lords, if they despise those clamours, if they do not defire to take the most proper and the most speedy method for allaying them, which is by an impartial parliamentary inquiry, I will affirm they have, or at leaft they think they have, found out another method of governing, another method of preserving their power, than that which is the only method in a free country, I mean the esteem and affections of the generality of the people; and if they have any fuch thoughts, I hope they will foon find themselves disappointed. Earl of Halifax, Dec. 1, 1740. I AM not only against some particular Clauses of this Bill, but against the whole contexture of it; and though, my Lords, Bills of this nature have been canvafled in both Houses by men of far greater abilities and experience than I can pretend to, yet I should think myself highly-blameable, if I did not, as far as in me lies, oppose a Bill which strikes directly at the root of the conftitution, and is an infringement both of the liberties of the people, and the prerogative of the Crown. In the fequel of what I fhall offer to your Lordfhips, I think, I can plainly make out this affertion; but fhould I be mistaken, my Lords, I will venture to say, my head, not my heart, will be in fault. To weigh the merits of this Bill, it will be neceffary to take it from its birth, confider its parents, and how and upon what occafions it has appeared. My Lords, this bleffed plant was fown by party and faction; it was nurfed by fury and difcontent; lofs of English liberty was its fruit. It was the first step by which Oliver Cromwell, and fome few others, mounted up above the liberty of mankind. It was framed to divide and destroy the bulwark of our conftitution, the Parliament: and surely, my Lords, it would be very extraordinary, if Parliaments again fhould fhould cherish this cankerworm, which fince its birth never has dared to appear, but when a diftempered air hovered round us, and, like sudden and intense darkness, was the forerunner of a ftorm. My Lords, the very preamble of this Bill sets up a standard of divifion between the Crown and the people; it declares their intereft feparate, and of confequence they must draw feparately; which is a doctrine quite different from what I have been taught from my cradle. I am fure, it is a moft melancholy doctrine; for a State divided against itself can never stand long. But, my Lords, to be more particular, let us confider (should this become an Act) what effect it would have, first by excluding all but fome few of the most important places from the House of Commons, and afterwards by excluding the army. First then, with regard to those places of importance which it does not exclude, and those leffer which it excludes, I shall only beg leave of your Lordships to put a few questions; if then we exclude all but those of the greatest trust, and where the very being of public affairs is centered, how fhall we in the next age find men capable of filling them? For by taking away the leffer, we take away the proper steps to the greater: how are those who are young and inexperienced, to acquire a knowledge in business, so as to be able to tranfact affairs, on the well or ill conducting of which depends the public good, or the mifery of this whole nation? My Lords, how fhall we find men fit for these important pofts? It is an undeniable fact, that business makes men of business; the greatest natural capacity a man was ever blessed with, can never teach him the intricate road, form, and routine of public officers; practice muft do it, and practice alone. If then the means of practice be cut off, how muft young men arrive at this knowledge? It must be by inspiration, or by one fingle way else, which is, by the great men of the present age turning School-mafters, keeping a school for foreign and domeftic politics. I am apprehenfive they will not easily be induced to turn pedagogues; not to mention that they themselves |