exposed, crush her commerce wherever you can, make her feel heavy and immediate diftrefs throughout the nation, the people will foon cry out to their government: whilft the advan tages fhe promises herself are remote and uncertain, inflict prefent evils and diftreffes upon her fubjects, the people will become difcontented and clamourous, fhe will find it a bad bargain having entered into this bufinefs, and you will force her to defert an ally that brings fo much trouble, and distress, and misfortune, the advantages of whofe alliance may never take effect; or if they should be subject always to disturbance from this country, which it always ought to be, and which I know you are able to give if you once get your hands clear of America. What is become of the antient fpirit of this nation? Where is that national spirit that ever did honour to this country? Have the prefent Minifters spent that too with almost the laft fhilling of your money? Are they not afhamed of the temporizing conduct they have ufed towards France? Her correspondence with America has been clandeftine, compare that with their conduct towards Holland fome time ago—but it is the characteristic of little minds to exact in little things, whilst they fhrink from their rights in great ones.-The conduct of France is called clandeftine; look back but a year ago to a letter from one of your Secretaries of State to Holland, "it is with furprife and indignation" your conduct is feen-in fomething done by a petty Governor of an island-while they affect to call the measures of France clandeftine: this is the way that Minifters fupport the character of the nation, and the national honour and glory: but look again how that fame Holland is fpoke of to-day, even in your correfpondence with her your littlenefs appears,

Pauper & exul uterque,

Projecit ampullas, & fefquipedalia verba.

From this you may judge of your fituation, from this you may know what a ftate you are reduced to: how will the

French

French party in Holland exult over you and grow ftrong; fhe will never continue your ally when you meanly crouch to France, and do not dare to stir in your defence: but it is nothing extraordinary that she should not, whilst you keep the Minifters you have; no power in Europe is blind; there is none blind enough to ally itself with weakness, and become partner in bankruptcy; there is no one blind enough to ally themselves to obftinacy, abfurdity, and imbecility.

Mr. Fox, Nov. 26, 1778.

THERE is not in the whole history of this country, a period that resembles the prefent, except the reign of the unfortunate Henry the VIth. His family, like that of his present Majesty, did not claim the Crown as their hereditary right; it was by revolutions they both obtained it. Henry was an amiable and pious Prince, fo is his present Majefty: Henry was the son of the most renowned Monarch that ever fat upon the Throne; George was the grandson of a Hero; Henry loft all his father's conquefts, and all his hereditary provinces in France: George has already feen the conquefts of his grandfather wrested from him in the Weft-Indies, and his hereditary provinces of America erected into an empire, that difclaimed all connection.

His Majefty fet out in life with the brighteft profpects that a young man could have wifhed for: poffeffed of immenfe do'minions, and the warmest affections of his people, his acceffion to the Crown was completely flattering both to himself and his fubjects. How fadly is the fcene reversed! his empire difmembered, his councils distracted, and his people falling off in their affection for his perfon, I only speak within doors the language that is held without: the people are beginning to murmur, and their patience is not unlimited: they will at laft do themselves juftice; there certainly will be infurrections: and though it is impoffible that the calamities that will attend them can be justified, or compensated by any good that can be obtained by them, yet they certainly will take place,

It cannot be a fecret to this Houfe, that the prefent Sovereign's claim to the Throne of this country was founded only upon the delinquency of the Stuart family; a circumstance that ought never to be out of his Majesty's recollection. It was true, indeed, that the unfortunate race of that name, was univerfally detefted in this country, and therefore his Majefty had little to fear from their pretenfions: but he should ever remember, that it was the conduct of wicked and ignorant Ministers that excited that deteftation for them. If there should be at this day one of that unfortunate House remaining, what a scope for upbraidings and remonftrance could he not find in the present reign! Could he not fay, "You have banished my ancestor from the "Throne, and barred the Sceptre from all his progeny for the "misconduct of his Minifters; and yet the Minifters of the pre"fent reign, are ten times more wicked and more ignorant than "thofe were; and whilft you all agree in giving to your pre"fent Sovereign the title of beft of Princes, his Ministers have "rendered his reign beyond any degree of comparison, the most "infamous that ever difgraced this nation." The Minister, though with fuch a load of national cenfure and national calamity on his head, has the hardinefs to boast of his innocence; but it is not a confcious rectitude of mind that could excufe a Minister from criminality. What he calls innocence may be another name for ignorance, and ignorance in a Minister is a crime of the first magnitude. But the wide ruin that the counfels of Administration have fpread through this great empire, and the miferable ftate to which they have reduced it in the short space in which the present Parliament have been fitting, is fo far beyond the natural effects of mere ignorance, that I cannot help adopting the opinion of an Honourable Friend (Mr. J. Townshend) that there is treachery at the bottom of the national councils. His Lordship (Lord North) may flatter himself as much as he pleases in the protection of a majority, or in the fecurity of the law; but when a nation is reduced to fuch a state of wretchednefs and diftraction that the laws can

afford

afford the people no relief, they will give a Minister who has caufed the evil but little protection.. What the law of the land could not do, the law of nature would accomplish; the people would inevitably take up arms, and the first characters in the kingdom would be feen in their ranks !

Mr. Fox, Nov. 25, 1779.

THE neceffity of my faying fomething upon the present occafion, is fo obvious to the Houfe, that no apology will, I hope, be expected from me in troubling them even at so late an hour, (two o'clock in the morning.) I fhall not enter much into a detail, or minute defence, of the particulars of the EastIndia Bill before you, because few particular objections have been made. The oppofition to it confifting only in general reasonings, of little application fome, and some totally distant from the point in question.

This Bill has been combated through its paft ftages upon various principles; but to this moment the House has not heard it canvassed upon its own intrinfic merits. The debate this night has turned chiefly upon two points-violation of charter, and increase of influence; and upon both these points I fhall fay

a few words.

The Honourable Gentleman, who opened the debate, (Mr. Powys) firft demands my attention, not indeed for the wif dom of the observations which fell from him this night, acute and judicious though he is upon moft occafions) but from the natural weight of all fuch characters in this country, the aggregate of whom should, in my opinion, always decide upon public measures: but his ingenuity was never, in my opinion, exerted more ineffectually, upon more mistaken principles, and more inconfiftent with the common tenor of his conduct, than in this debate,

The Honourable Gentleman charges me with abandoning that cause, which, he fays, in terms of flattery, I had once fo fuccessfully afferted. I tell him, in reply, that if he were

to fearch the hiftory of my life, he would find that the period of it, in which I ftruggled moft for the real, fubftantial caufe of Liberty, is this very moment that I am addreffing you. Freedom, according to my conception of it, consists in the fafe and facred poffeffion of a man's property, governed by laws defined and certain; with many perfonal privileges, natural, civil, and religious, which he cannot furrender without ruin to himself; and of which to be deprived by any other power, is defpotifm. This Bill, inftead of fubverting, is destined to stabilitate these principles; inftead of narrowing the bafis of freedom, it tends to enlarge it; inftead of fuppreffing, its object is to infuse and circulate the spirit of Liberty.

What is the most odious fpecies of tyranny? Precisely that which this Bill is meant to annihilate. That a handful of men, free themselves, should execute the most base and abominable defpotifm over millions of their fellow-creatures; that innocence fhould be the victim of oppreffion; that industry should toil for rapine; that the harmless labourer fhould fweat, not for his own benefit, but for the luxury and rapacity of tyrannic depredation. In a word, that thirty millions of men, gifted by Providence with the ordinary endowments of humanity, fhould groan under a fyftem of defpotism, unmatched in all the hiftories of the world.

What is the end of all government? Certainly the happiness of the governed.-Others may hold other opinions; but this is mine, and I proclaim it. What are we to think of a government, whose good fortune is fuppofed to fpring from the calamities of its fubjects, whofe aggrandifement grows out of the miferies of mankind? This is the kind of government exercised under the East-India Company upon the natives of Indoftan ; and the fubverfion of that infamous government, is the main object of the Bill in question. But in the progrefs of accomplishing this end, it is objected that the Charter of the Company should not be violated; and upon this point, Sir, I shall deliver my opinion without difguife. A Charter is a truft to

one