be treated. He did not yet despair but the people would not only continue to see their own interest, which they had already done, but that they would besides know how to distinguish between their open friends and foes, and learn to discover their worst of enemies,-their concealed ones. From their open ones they had nothing to fear or hope: by their secret and determined enemies they might be deceived; they had been often betrayed by them; but he hoped they would not be able to do it now, by votes which meant nothing if not followed up by efficient measures, and worse than nothing, when thus shamefully abandoned almost in the very instant in which they were given.

racter.

For his part, he was determined, after Monday next, to absent himself from that House. He would make one trial, one effort more, in expectation that those who had deserted their principles would endeavour to retrieve their public chaIf that last effort should miscarry, he should then know what to do; he would exert himself without these walls, as he had continued to do within them, as long as he expected that any benefit could be derived from it. He presumed his learned friend would propose some measure which would come in the form of an ultimate test; for his part, he should propose none himself, though he would support any which might be proposed, to the best of his abilities. If this last trial should meet with a similar fate to that of his learned friend's motion that night, he would quit that House, and leave ministers responsible for the consequences. [A great cry of hear! hear] He was persuaded that the gentlemen who cried out so vociferously in the exultation of victory, hear! hear! would be very glad of it; but he begged leave to assure those gentlemen, that not one of them wished more sincerely for such an emancipation from a fruitless attendance there than he did. If those gentlemen, however, imagined that his future conduct would be directed to measures promotive of public confusion, they were very much mistaken; the people had resources still left; they were furnished by the constitution. A general election was approaching, and then the people, by the choice they might make, would have it in their power to obtain that redress, by sending only such representatives to parliament as entertained sentiments congenial to their own. There would be no occasion for armed committees or warlike associations. The constitution was not so imperfect as to compel men to take arms in support and defence of their rights; the means which a general election gave them were strictly consonant to peace and good order; and if those means were resorted to, and judiciously and firmly exerted, he did not despair; nay, he was perfectly

convinced, that the next parliament would give that redress to the complaints of the people which every good and independent man wished for, and which it would not be in the power of the influence of the crown to defeat or prevent.

Lord North extended the protection of his eloquence to those who had drawn on themselves this severe attack. He said, Mr. Fox's language was such as no provocation could justify; it was, indecent and improper; an invective, and not a parliamentary speech. He bantered the leader of Opposition with considerable humour and effect, on his irritability at finding himself in a minority again, after having, for a short moment of his life, been in a majority, and contrasted it with his own philosophical calmness, when he stood in so unexpected and novel a situation. He did not think himself justified in rising in the anguish of defeat and disappointment, and accusing those who had frequently voted with him, of baseness, treachery, versatility, and other improper motives, and he advised Mr. Fox not to be, for the future, so rash and hasty.

Mr. Fox rose to explain what he meant by the words base, scandalous, and disgraceful, as applying to the vote given by those on the 6th of April who divided against the motion made. that night by his learned friend. He said, when he made use of those epithets, he applied them in this, and in this way only. He did not mean to say that they had acted disgracefully, shamefully, &c. that night; he meant to convey this idea, that the gentlemen who voted on the 6th of April, that the influence of the crown had increased, and ought to be diminished, and that it was the duty of that House to redress the grievances complained of in the petitions, were bound and stood publicly pledged to perform one or the other of these two things; to support such measures as might be suggested in consequence of those resolutions; or if they appeared to be such as they could not conscientiously vote in support of, that then they were bound to propose some other resolutions or measures, conformably to the ideas they entertained when they gave the vote of the 6th of April. If they refused to do that, or neglected in time to do it, so as that the measure proposed might at the late period of the session have a fair pros pect of passing into a law before any prorogation or dissolution of parliament should take place; in such a possible event he was prepared to re-assert and repeat, that a conduct of that kind amounted to an abandonment of their declared principles, of their solemn promises plighted in that House to their constituents and the people at large; and in that light were scandalous, base, treacherous, shameful, and disgraceful.

VOL. I.

BILL FOR SHORTENING THE DURATION OF PARLIAMENTS.

MR

May 8.

R. ALDERMAN SAWBRIDGE moved for leave to bring in a bill for shortening the duration of parliaments. Earl Nugent opposed the motion, and asked if they were prepared just then to take away from the crown the right of appointing sheriffs for the counties? And if they were not, the power of the crown, he said, would be considerably increased, if parliaments were either annual or triennial. He had conversed with Mr. Speaker Onslow on the subject of triennial parliaments some years ago, and that great man had told him the proposition was an absurd one; because if it were adopted, the first year would be taken up wholly in hearing petitions on elections; in the second year the House would be able to do business; and in the third, the members would principally be engaged with soliciting votes, and making interest against the next election. Annual parliaments he objected to, as totally impracticable in the present state of public affairs. Mr. Thomas Pitt said he was fully convinced, that, so far from diminishing the influence of the crown, annual or triennial parliaments would considerably increase it. The influence of the crown was not confined within those walls; if it were, we should be a great and happy people. It was the influence of the crown without doors that was so alarming. The increased public revenue was the great source of influence. Had gentlemen forgot how many great families even now were ruined by their endeavours to get into that House, and had spent their whole fortunes in election contests? Was it to be learnt how hard would be the case of every honest, independent country gentleman, if the minister was to have the power of starting a court candidate against him every year, or every three years? What fortune could bear the expence?

Mr. Fox said he should be under the necessity of speaking more fully to the present question than he otherwise would do, because, as he had for years voted uniformly against the question, and as he meant now to vote for it, it was due to the House, and due to his own character, that he should state the reasons of this difference of conduct. He said, he revered those wise and great men who brought in the Septennial Bill; because the principle on which they acted, in promoting that measure, was every way laudable, and every way justifiable. At the time of the passing of this bill, the House of Brunswick had been just called to the throne, by the unanimous voice of the people, in defence of their liberties, and in order to protect them from the alarming attempts of a pretender, whose family was deservedly become odious for their tyranny, and by their repeated endeavours to subvert

the constitution, to change the religion of the country, and to bury the liberties of the people under the fabric of arbitrary power, which it had been their constant wish to introduce and to erect. George the First was a prince beloved by both Houses of parliament, and looked up to as their guardian and protector; it was very natural, under these circumstances, to take every precaution to keep out a third person, a pretender to the throne, and to maintain the House of Brunswick in possession of it. With this view it was, that the three branches of the legislature had agreed to take such measures as were most likely to exclude the pretender. And what measure could promise to be more effectual than the passing of the Septennial Bill? Thereby keeping together that Parliament who were so well disposed towards George the First, and who doubtless had no idea that a day could ever come when the liberties of the people would be in danger from the House of Brunswick; who never could suppose that the influence of the crown would be so increased in the reign of a prince of that House, that it should be voted by the House of Commons, that it had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished. They had therefore acted wisely, and he had ever admired and revered such men. It was from this admiration and this reverence, that he had uniformly voted against shortening the duration of parliament. But what was the case now? The people of England, in whom the sole right of the duration of parliament lay, called upon that House to shorten it. The people of England made this requisitiona requisition which they alone could make, and which, like every other requisition that came from the same quarter, he should ever hold himself bound to comply with, and to obey.

He then answered Lord Nugent's question about the sheriffs, and said, undoubtedly if the bill now moved for should be passed, an act must necessarily pass to make that alteration. He also turned off the objection urged by Mr. Pitt, relative to the frequency of elections, and the enormous expence which would unavoidably follow to private families, and honest and independent men, if parliaments were chosen either annually or triennially; shewing, that even now parliaments had no certain time of duration, for that it was in the power of government to put an end to them, whenever it should be most for the purpose of government so to do; and that consequently government might harass individuals at present, as much as they could do then. One of the arguments upon which Mr. Fox principally rested was, that annual parliaments would lessen the influence of the crown, declaring, that if any of his constituents were to ask him what

our present misfortunes were ascribeable to? he should say, the first cause was the influence of the crown, the second, the influence of the crown, and the third, the influence of the crown; to that, and that only, in his mind, could it be owing, that an unpopular and unsuccessful ministry, whose measures had ruined their country, kept their offices. He ridiculed Mr. Onslow's opinion as stated by Lord Nugent, and said, that the noble lord's whole speech was a sample of that contemptuous conduct, which ministry assumed whenever they thought themselves secure; their way constantly was to be afraid, when they first heard of any thing that looked like danger approaching them, and as soon as they began to think themselves safe, to turn the object of their former terror into derision. So it was with the petitions of the people; at first nothing could be more humble than the language of ministers respecting them; they had promised every thing; but now having again their majority, they affected to laugh at, and to deride that, which they had most seriously dreaded.

The motion was also supported by Colonel Barré and Mr. Thomas Townshend. Lord North, Mr. Rigby, and Mr. Burke spoke against it. After which the House divided:

REPEAL OF THE BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF ROMAN CATHOLICS.

June 20.

THE House resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, to take into consideration the numerous petitions against the act of the 18th of his present majesty, intituled, "An Act for relieving his majesty's subjects professing the popish religion, from certain penalties and disabilities, imposed on them by an act made in the 11th and 12th of the reign of William the 3d, intituled, An Act for the further preventing the growth of popery." In order to quiet the minds, and to remove the apprehensions, of such well-meaning but ill-informed persons, as might be among the petitioners, the following resolutions were moved by Lord Beauchamp: 1. "That it is the opinion of this committee, that the effect and operation of the act passed in the 18th year of the reign of his present majesty, intituled, " An Act for relieving his majesty's subjects professing the popish religion, from certain