refer chiefly to that negotiation in which Lord Malmesbury was employed, the documents of which are before the Houfe. fhall entirely put out of view the fincerity of Minifters in this attempt, or the fincerity of the French Government in meeting the advances which were made. I fhall grant that both parties were defirous of peace, provided it could have been obtained upon their own terms. This fubject has been so often difcuffed, that I fhall not go into it in much detail. I hold it clear from the documents produced, that Minifters were willing to make peace, provided Belgium was given up to the Emperor, or placed in fuch a fituation as to be independent of France; and that France was willing to conclude a peace if we had agreed to cede Belgium. That this was the real difpofition of both parties the Houfe will entertain little doubt, if they look into the papers upon the fubject. When I reflect upon the conduct of Minif ters upon this occafion, knowing as they muft have done the critical fituation of the country, and the ftate of our refources, I confefs that I cannot feel much confidence in the fuccefs of any attempts at negotiation which they may find it neceffary to make. They were apprifed of the danger which threatened public credit; they were able to judge how far it was wife to infift upon terms when they compared them with the means by which they could be enforced. It cannot be denied, that the reftoration of Belgium was peremptorily infifted upon. The friends of Minifters indeed contend that this was but the opening of negotiation, that the French flew off, that no opportunity was given to remove obftacles or fettle differences. Upon this fubject I muft refer to the facts which the letter of Lord Malmesbury contains. The English Minifter gave in a memorial, propofing the general restoration to the Emperor of all the acquifitions which the French had made at his expence. Upon this propofition a converfation enfued between Lord Malmefbury and Charles Delacroix. Lord Malmesbury opened the fubject in a manner which, I have always thought, did him the higheft credit. He told the French Minifter that the magnitude of the fubject ought to exclude fineffe; that they ought to fpeak out with freedom and truth. He feems to fay that the reftoration of Belgium to the Emperor would be infifted upon, but defires a contre projet, but he adds, that no expectation fhould be admitted that Belgium would be retained. Its ceafing to belong to the French was admitted to be a fine qua non of any contre projet. No man then can contend, unless Lord Malmesbury had acted in oppofition to his inftructions, that the Minifters of this country had determined that Belgium fhould not remain a part of the French Republic. I would ask the Houfe then feriously to confider the time and the circumftances

in which the point was so obftinately maintained? After what they must have known of the internal fituation of this country, after they were apprized of the danger with which the Bank was menaced, I would afk, if it was wife to put Belgium in competition with the public credit of this country? I would atk, whether thofe thort-fighted Minifter, who rifked the main fpring of our profperity, and the deftruétion of that grand fource from which flows all our wealth and all our greatnefs, by infifting upon a demand which they had no profpect of ever being able to enforce, can juftify the confidence of the Houfe, or infpire hopes of fuccefs from their future exertions?

"The next point to which I would call the attention of your Lordships, is the ftate of the finances. I am not prepared to ftate from memory the exact amount of the debt which has been incurred by the war; I am afraid, however, that the payment of the intereft is but fcantily provided for; the annual amount of the new taxes is feven millions and a half; but I believe a very confiderable additional fum will be requifite to cover the whole expence that has been incurred. Should the war continue three months longer, or for the whole of the year, and few will be fanguine enough to expect peace at a much earlier period, three millions more must be raised to defray the intereft of the debt which this war has created. I fhall ftate the grounds upon which this opinion is founded: It appears from the Report of a Committee appointed to examine into the fubject in the year 1790, or 1791, that for the average of the five years preceding, the peace ettablishment of this country was 16,850,000l. including the annual million for the reduction of the National Debt; different circumftances will make an addition to that peace eftablishment of 500,000l. the whole of the expences already incurred, and the fum of which will be found outstanding on the winding up of the accounts, which I compute at 15 millions, the whole of the new peace eftablifhement, with the additional 200,000l. annually voted for the reduction of the Na-. tional Debt, will amount to 26,300,000l. The permanent taxes previous to the war, were ftated at 13,890,000l. taking the taxes impofed fince 1793 for what they have been given, a ftatement which is much too high from the experience of what they have already produced, and ftating the Land Tax at its ufual amount, there remains upon the whole a deficiency of three millions! Enormous as the burdens already impofed upon the country are, we have to lament the additional burdens they muft yet undergo. Ten millions and a half are required to cover the intereft of the debt which the prefent war has created! No one year have the people yet borne the burden of more than three millions, fo that the dreadful weight of feven millions and No. 41. 9 I

a half

a half annual burden which they have not yet experienced, must be added to the preffure under which they already groan.

"It is a principle of the Conftitution of this country, that the people fhould as early as potiole be apprifed of the burdens which they muft fupport. The prefent Minifter, it pursuance of this principle, ufed to boat as a particular merit, that he faced the difficulties we had to encounter, and never concealed the burdens which we had incurred; but how has he observed that principle which he beafted as the rule of his conduct? Upon this point, I refer to the documents contained in the Reports of the Committees before the Houfe. I fhall not go at large into this branch of the subject, as upon a former occasion I called the attention of the Houfe to it particularly. There were feveral points however, on which I was obliged to curtail my obfervations, efpecially upon the correfpondence between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Bank. The conduct of the Minifter in the whole course of these transactions I ftated in terms of strong difapprobation. I ftated that it was a tissue of fraud, treachery, and deceit. Thefe are harsh epithets, but they are juftified by the evidence contained in the Report. From the beginning of the year 1795, the Bank Directors were frequent and earnest in their remonitrances to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; they reminded him of the advances which they had made to Government, and his promifes of payment; they ftated the amount of their advances on Treafury Bills to be between two and an half and three millions. Thefe reprefentations, urged upon different occafions, were uniformly anfwered with promifes, that the fubject of complaint fhould be remedied, and that the advances fhould be repaid. Thefe promises were never performed, and new applications for fresh advances were made. In answer to the demand of the Bank of the 30th July 1795, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ftates, that warrants were making out at the Treafury, and that the payments fhould immediately be made. What is the confequence however? From the account it appears, that four weeks elapfed from this period before any payment was made. On the 6th of Auguft the Chancellor of the Exchequer applies for an advance of two millions and an half on the confolidated fund; he pretended the ́utmost concern for the welfare of the Bank, and expressed his furprife that the Directors could imagine that its intereft was a lefs object with him than with them. The event however fhewed the fincerity of his expreffion of regard for the Bank. The Bank Directors again accede to the demand, on the express condition, however, that 1,100,000l. fhould be paid on account of their advances upon Treafury Bills in the month of October, a certain proportion in April following, that the amount of Treasury

Treasury Bills fhould never exceed 500,000l. a regulation which fhould be adopted before November. All thefe conditions, however, were neglected; the remonstrances of the Bank were defpifed, and the amount of their advances continued to increase. They warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the fatal confequences of the drain of cash to the Emperor, and the inevitable ruin which would enfue from that fyftem. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer was equally indifferent to their warnings and to their folicitations; he ftill continued to procure advances upon renewed promifes which he continued to break, and on conditions which he never performed. In 1796, the complaints of the Bank continued with as little fuccefs, a fhort time prior to the embafly of Lord Malmesbury, the Bank made a folemn appeal to the Cabinet upon the danger with which they were threatened; the Minifter could not be ignorant of the ftate of the country, but it produced no effect upon his meafures, nor on the conduct of the negotiation. The promises of the Chancellor of the Exchequer were broken, as before the Bank was deluded into new adIf the confideration of the whole correfpondence between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Bank, to the moment when it was compelled to ftop payment, does not excite the indignation of the Houfe, nothing which I can add It has ever been held as the best could have any influence. means of preferving and extending the public profperity, to face our difficulties and to meet all our expences; here, howhowever, the object of the Minifter was by a chain of perfidy and deceit to difguife the amount of our expence, and to conceal the real burdens of the people; money was applied to purpofes different from thofe for which it was granted, provifion was never made for the fcale of expence which was employed, the Bank of England was reduced to the fituation of topping payment, and public credit expofed to utter ruin to fupply an expenditure, which Parliament had not fanctioned, and to fupport the mischievous fchemes and wafteful prodigality of Mi-. nifters. Had the real object of the war been fairly avowed, or the expence of it been fairly ftated, I am convinced that peace would long ere now have been concluded.

vances.

"I come now to confider the internal fituation of the country the laws which have been paffed on pretence of preferving internal tranquillity will afford an additional proof of the pernicious fyftem on which Minifters have acted; laws which I hold to be difgraceful to a free Government, repugnant to the Conftitution, and inconfiftent with the principles of the Revolution !--""

Lord Sydney called to order, and faid, that fuch language The ought not to be applied to laws which ftood upon the Statute Book.

912

The Duke of Bedford continued.--." The whole fyftem of the prefent Adminiftration has been incompatible with good Government, or with the fupport of the Crown, which they affect to be fo anxious to maintain. But for the most striking illuftration of the wretched policy of Minifters let us look to Ireland. When I fpeak of this country, I know not in what terms of reprobation to exprefs my abhorrence of the fyftem which Ministers have purfued. Earl Fitzwilliam is fent out as Lord Lieutenant, as we understood, upon the wife and falutary plan of making thofe conceflions which would fatisfy the expectations of the people of Ireland; he was deceived by Minifters, and facrificed to their old fyftem. On a former occafion, when I ftated that Earl Fitzwilliam was beft calculated for fecuring the happinefs of that country, I was accufed of throwing a reproach upon Lord Camden; from the reports I have heard of that Noble Lord, with whom I am not perfonally acquainted, I am led to entertain as high an opinion of his private worth as I feel upon the experience of private friendship for the virtue and worth of his predeceffor. But Earl Fitzwilliam went out to carry into execution a fyftem dear to the wishes of Irishmen. Lord Camden went out to direct a fyftem far different. and avowedly hoftile to thofe meafures which the people of Ireland were led to expect, and on which their hearts were fixed. What has been the confequence of that fyftem which Ministers chofe to employ? Every attempt to coerce has only spread more widely the fpirit of difcontent; their blind perfeverance in coercion has heightened difcontent into difaffection, and endangered the connexion of the two countries. Such are the effects which were predicted from the fyftem which Minifters chose to put in practice at a time when the utmoft tranquillity was faid to prevail. With what juftice that opinion was entertained, the event has now fhewn. At home we have deeply to regret the events which have taken place under the conduct of Ministers. Circumstances have occurred which never happened before. The first appearances of these events I do not mean to impute to Minifters.

"I now allude to the disturbances which have-lately taken place in the Navy. I am firmly convinced that we cannot difcharge our duty if we withhold from fpeaking any longer, and that filence would be an additional mifchief. I am aware that the subject is a delicate one, but its importance forces itself on our attention. While I entertained the hope that the exertions of Minifters would be fuccefsful in reftoring tranquillity, I forbore faying any thing upon the fubject, but when I am convinced that we cannot be fecure in any quarter under their management,