MR. FOX's MOTION, IN A COMMITTEE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION, "THAT NO MORE OF THE OLD CORPS BE SENT OUT OF THE Kingdom."

THE

February 2.

HE order of the day being read, for the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of the State of the Nation; the several estimates, papers, and accounts which had been moved for, were referred to the said Committee. The House then went into the Committee, Mr. Pulteney in the chair. Upon which,

Mr. Fox rose, and after an apology for the trouble he was going to give the Committee, and noticing his own personal good fortune in having his audience reduced *, being per

"This day, a vast multitude assembled in the lobby and environs of the House of Commons, but not being able to gain admission either by intreaty or interest, they forced their way into the gallery in spite of the door-keepers. The House considered the intrusion in a heinous light, and a motion was directly made for clearing the gallery. A partial clearing only took place; the gentlemen were obliged to withdraw; the ladies, through complaisance, were suffered to remain: but Governor Johnstone observing, that if the motive for clearing the House was a supposed propriety, to keep the state of the nation concealed from our enemies, he saw no reason to indulge the ladies so far as to make them acquainted with the arcana of the state, as he did not think them more capable of keeping secrets than the men; upon which, they were likewise ordered to leave the House. The Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Norton, and nearly sixty other ladies were obliged to obey the mandate." London Chronicle.

"When a member in his place takes notice to the Speaker of strangers being in the House or gallery, it is the Speaker's duty immediately to order the Serjeant to execute the orders of the House, and to clear the House of all but members; and this, without permitting any debate or question to be moved upon the execution of the order. It very seldom happens that this can be done without a violent struggle from some quarter of the House, that strangers may remain. Members often move for the order to be read, endeavour to explain it, and debate upon it, and the House as often runs into great heats upon this subject; but in a short time the confusion subsides, and the dispute ends by clearing the House; for if anyone member insists upon it, the Speaker must enforce the order, and the House must be cleared.

"The most remarkable instance of this, that has occurred in my memory, was at a time, when the whole gallery and the seats under the front gallery, were filled with ladies; Captain Johnstone of the navy (commonly called Governor Johnstone) being angry, that the House was cleared of all the "men strangers," amongst whom were some friends he had introduced, insisted, that "all strangers" should withdraw. This produced a violent ferment for a long time; the ladies shewing great reluctance to comply with the order of the House; so that, by their perseverance, business was interrupted for nearly two hours. But, at length, they too

suaded he should not have answered the great expectations which had brought them down to the House, stated the motion he was about to make, and the grounds of it, in the following, but much more correct, elegant, and energetic,

manner.

Sir; it is my intention to enter this day only into the minor part of the business, which I hope will undergo the consideration of this committee;-a committee, Sir, appointed for the important purpose of considering the present alarming State of the Nation. I must, however, beg not to be considered as the mover in this momentous concern; it is the nation that calls for this enquiry, and I am only one instrument in the bringing it about. What I have to beg of the House, is not to mix this day's business with any thing that has passed before, but to go plainly and directly to the business, to consider what is the actual state of the country, and how Great Britain can be saved from the critical situation in which she

now stands. And in considering the subject, I would wish gentlemen would agree with me at least so far, as to divest themselves of all former opinions, of all favourite ideas, and of all prejudices which may have been contracted in the course of past debates, and take them up anew as they are the result of the present enquiry, and the fair deductions from the information now conveyed to the House. I would wish gentlemen to forget their animosities, and consider themselves neither as friends nor enemies to America, nor that country either with love or hatred, but regard it with a calm and dispassionate mind, as a part, and a very considerable part, of the British empire.

Sir; the method I have chalked out to myself, as the most likely way to bring men to a right understanding of the present state of the nation, and to point out what conduct it is our interest in future to pursue, is to state facts as they appear from the papers on the table; first, with respect to the Army, that in the years 1774, 1775, 1776, and 1777, there was such an army, consisting of so many thousand men, and that such and such operations were performed;

were compelled to submit. Since that time, ladies, many of the highest rank, have made several powerful efforts to be again admitted. But Mr. Cornwall and Mr. Addington, have as constantly declined to permit them to come in. Indeed, was this privilege allowed to any one individual, however high her rank, or respectable her character and manners, the galleries must be soon opened to all women, who, from curiosity, amusement, or any other motive, wish to hear the debates. And this to the exclusion of many young men, and of merchants and others, whose commercial interests render their attendance necessary to them, and of real use and importance to the public." Hatsell's Precedents, vol. 2. p. 172.

I shall, secondly, state the impossibility of increasing that army; and, thirdly, the enormous expence that has already been incurred. The resources in men and money thus failing us, the conclusion naturally is, that there must be some sort of negotiation, and in this part of the business I cannot too much lament, that my motion for papers relating to what has already passed on this subject was rejected. This would have enabled the House to judge of the impediments that have hitherto prevented such negotiations from taking place, and to provide some adequate remedy.

After having stated these facts, and drawn this conclusion, which, I think, may fairly be deduced from them, I shall go retrospectively, and shew that the war has been mismanaged, even on the principles of those who undertook it. It will be, then, a proper time to look back, and see to what our want of success has been owing, as I believe I may lay it down as an incontrovertible axiom, that, when a country falls, within the short space of a few years, from the highest pinnacle of glory to which any country, either in ancient or modern times, ever arrived, there must have been some radical error in the government of it: though at the same time I will allow, that if it should turn out that there is a radical error, it is not of itself a proof of the criminality of ministers. I am inclined to think, that there has been a radical error in carrying on the war at all, and likewise that there have been errors equally great in the conduct of it.

Sir; I shall not now enter into any more of the proceedings relative to America, than are necessary to shew the immediate steps which have brought us into our present situation. Without discussing the various questions which have been for many years agitated in parliament, I shall take up the measures relative to America in the year 1774, when the riots at Boston first called for the attention of this House: papers were, indeed, called for and granted, but there were some things that tended that year to shut the eyes of ministers tò the true state of that country, and the true interest of this,— which was to prevent, rather than stimulate and increase the general discontents in the colonies; every body must allow, that the agreement with the East India Company was a most unfortunate one, and the immediate source of all the troubles that have since followed; every body knows what happened. Here began a capital mistake of the ministry; they mistook a single province for a whole continent; they mistook the single province of Massachuset's Bay for the American empire. Virginia, a colony no less jealous of its rights, nor less warm in its assertion of them, was entirely forgotten it was not thought possible that any other colony should unite with the

Massachuset's; now, whoever fights against ten men, and thinks he is contending only with one, will meet with more difficulties than if he was aware of the force brought against him; for I believe I may lay it down as an undoubted maxim in politics, that every attempt to crush an insurrection with means inadequate to the end, foments instead of suppressing it. The case here was, you took a great object for a small one, you took thirteen provinces for one; and not only that, you imagined the other twelve were with you, when the very act you were then doing, made those twelve equally hostile; for another misfortune at this time was the taking a violent step against the town of Boston. If America was not before sufficiently united in a determined resistance to the claims of this country, this measure made all America combined; they were all from that moment united with the town of Boston, which might have been before the object of the jealousy of the rest. Another mistake was the altering the government of the province of Massachuset's Bay, whereas the acts of all the other colonies, as well as this, plainly shewed it was not the form of government in that province which occasioned the commotions there, because other provinces, which depended more on the crown, and which have the appellation of royal governments, were not less early or less vigorous in their opposition and resistance. Now, Sir, if the form of this government was not itself the cause of the troubles in that country, then the alarm given by the alteration of that government was certainly a most capital mistake; because it gave the whole continent reason to think, and to fear, that they had no security in the permanency of their government, but that it was liable to be altered or subverted at our pleasure, on any cause of complaint, whether real or supposed; their natural jealousies were awakened; by the same reasoning, the governments of the other colonies, though much more dependent on the crown, might be rendered entirely despotic, and they were all from thence taught to consider the town of Boston as suffering in the common cause, and that they themselves might very soon stand in need of that assistance which they were now lending to that unfortunate town.

But, Sir, there was another circumstance which tended to mislead the House, and for which the ministers and not the House were entirely to blame, and that was the partial manner in which they laid papers before the House; they laid the accounts of facts, but no opinions of people upon the spot as to the extent of the resistance, the temper of the people, or any other circumstance concerning it. Now, Sir, if men are endued with passions, if they are not mere machines, the knowledge of facts is nothing, unless it is accompanied with a

knowledge of the springs and motives from whence such actions proceeded. Suppose, for instance, a person in a distant country had no other way of judging of the temper of this House, and of the motives of their conduct, but from our printed votes; could such a man form any judgment of the reasons why such a line of conduct was approved, and why such a one was rejected? Sir, it would be ridiculous in the extreme to suppose it. Now, Sir, I will venture to affirm, that this House was not in the year 1774 informed of the spirit of opposition there was in America, and of their prejudices against taxation. If they had, I should hope they would have thought it wise, if not just, to have applied such remedies as might have healed rather than irritated the distemper. But, instead of any thing of this sort, other bills were immediately passed, shewing that all was of a hostile nature, and that nothing was to be expected from this country but coercion and punishment, particularly the Act, as it is called, for the more impartial Administration of Justice; I mean the Act for sending over persons to be tried here in England. This gave the idea of a great and effective army, as a provision for the consequences of much bloodshed and slaughter. And, after all, what sort of an army was sent? As that Act excited their terror as well as indignation at our injustice, so the army that was sent excited their derision, without at all lessening their resentment. It taught them to contemn the power of this country, as much as they abhorred its injustice.

But, as if all this was not sufficient to irritate and provoke, the Quebec Act was passed, the contents of which every body knows. The principal purpose of this Act was to form a great interest in Canada, to be a perpetual check upon the southern provinces, and to keep them in awe; it was considered in this light in America, and was held up by the violent party in that country, as a specimen of the form of government that might be introduced and established in every part of that continent. Hardly any man after this would say a word in favour of the British legislature; every remaining friend to government, as he was called, that is, every man less violent than the most violent, had nothing to say in favour of the good intentions of the mother country. After this Act passed, it put an unanswerable argument in the mouths of all parties, that the intentions of Great Britain were vindictive in the extreme. The makers of the Quebec Act, whoever they were, thus became the friends to the violent party in America. If they had not thus seasonably interposed, there was a chance of America being divided, or at least of there being different degrees of resistance in its colonies. This made them all not only more firmly united,

ΙΟ