Star. — London, England, 1801-03-26 00:00:00

II far it is impreper always to j udlt. 1, ttc ; but where, on an muncule kale of ortations, every think ntileariies, I mitt! conclude tlia: there never was much chance offuecefs. I would Moon c, Sir, into this lubjed, not only to eentiti c the iturs, but to read a lcifon to the nov. lam told that they are dell' ous of peace. I hope, Sir, the repot is true ; but I cannot forget that they have uniformly fupported their predecetfors, and that they all applauded the fentiments of the Right Hon. Gentleman, who thanked heaven for the failure of the negociation at Liiie. Therefore, this condua fhoulJ bz invefligated for the fake of example, to fatisfy the public, and to rzmove all doubt from the minds of our ctierni;:s. The next fi.b . Hl to which I ye.) , ild beg your at tention is our fituation with regard to foreign powers. What are the etudes which at the end of a long war have Rimed up a formidable con federacy againft ns ? This flidden change is alma without a parallel, and the conkquencrs of it no man can forefee. Again commit our fituation now, with what it was when you rejated die over tures of Bonaparte. One principal argument ofed by a Right Honourable Secretary ou that occafion, was a long ii.t of the powers with which France was at war. I cant - els filch an argument is not without weight ; but haw deep an impreflion mull it make when Atte enemies were all lately our a llies, when they were all lately combined againa France, and now join France in a confederacy againft you! I formerly went pretty much at large into this fubjett, and my conduEt upon that occafion, I am told, excited furprife. I can only fay, that I wifhed to recommend moderation and temperance. I withed that we would not lathly come to any decifion, but try firll what would be done by forbearance and conciliation. I wiffied, in fhort, to recommend to your example the wife conduct of the British Government in 1780. But though I expreffed no opinion then, I had one ; and the more I reflect upon it, the more firmly I am convinced that it is well founded. The fub kit I (hall enter into fully in the Committee. I would now afk, Are we not bound to inquire into the circumflances from which this confederacy has arifen ? Here I am not afliamed to repeat a fenti-. ment I have exprefled before— , 4 All true and totted policy mull be founded on juffice.!' There is no thing new in it, I confefs, but it is . valuable. Has then our condua to the Northern Powers been guided by juflice ? I know that charges in official notes have been brought againft us by the Swedes and other neutral stations. They have com plained that their trade was molefltd ; that their !hips were detained; that juftice was refuted them in our Courts, or at leafi fo long delayed that it was ufelefs. This charge is a ferious one, and, whether true or falfe, deferves to be minutely in veffigated. We may thus have provoked the neu trals to alert their dormant claims, and produced • rupture which may prove fo calamitous. Into the matter of right, to far as it depends upon the public law of Europe, I (hall not at prefent enter, but content myfelf with obfcrvinge that the more thdb queffions are confidered, they will be found to bc the more intricate, perplexed, and contra dl&ory, and that they generally arc decided by forte, the skims ratio mum. Betides, an unpro fitable right is not in my opinion worth difcutling. The fubjea is purpofely involved in fuels contu ion, that it is not eery to give a perfpicuous view of it. It is Paid that you would give the enemy =limited means to equip their navy. Them are two queffions moll diffina, which yet are always (confounded together. That with regard to contra band, and that which refpeas free bottoms making free goods. Withcontraband sue have at prefent no thing to dn. In the convention oft 780 and the pre tent there is an article which exprefsly excepts con traband. Whethernaval llores are to be confidered as contraband, it is not cafy perhaps to deter mine ; but fortunately we are relealed from all perplexity, becaufe there is a reference to their particular treaties with ps, and by there they fay they will be found. By fiveral treaties formed with the Northern Powers about the middle of the IA century, the power of fending naval Itores to the belligerent nations is esprefily conceded to them ; Denmark is an exception, probably becaufe Den mat k had no naval Rams to fend. Holland had the power, and exercised it, and if the poffeffed the power, it was of little confequence to whom it was denied, as the then carried the commodities of al moll every nation in Europe. There is nothing in the convention with regard to fupplying block aded places which cangive us any offence. here are even limitations in this refpeel of the conven tion of 1780, and their definition of a blockaded place is unexceptionable. They nest claim a right to trade from port to port with the enemy, which we imagine will not be difputed with them. The only two points to be difculled, therefore, are Whether free bottoms make five goods ? and whe ther neutrals have a right to fend merchant velFels under convoy without being liable to fearch ? Of whatever value the maxim of free bottoms free good: may be to the Northern Powers, it does not give them any teeth powers to fupply our enemies with naval it:4res. Therefore a great many po pular and captiva:in7 arguments againfl it eall the ground. la would only enable France, if file has any goods for the foreign market, to get tncni crp..rt:d. It would not even in :my degree iicreare her naviga, lens. f afoul.' think that prima fade the principle aullhl ht moft favourable to that poser whieh has moll foreign commerce. The trade of Franer we have :•eard i, completely annihilated, and !),: mni:rt!4,11111:1 are ruined.— What asi...antagy tlu.n ea:: at !he prefent mo nten!_, derive Gun, :Itc 1,1:1L;I.L, or of what detri ment can it be to us ? r - : ing the other fide of the queftion, ter t: the gez, by your denying the principle. France ;: joioed b.: the powers of th• 7 North, and :•oti are ditabityi by the ruin of your commerce. Brfires, fhoisid bo no gai. ? Wl.•eo v.-t. are font out of eve: y port on the Con tinent, wcio.el it be no aalvtilita.! • to be able to have mat.t.CaCtures and c•iharkt . produce carried fe curtly the Atm•tic..lis t . By that very principle, N. h.::: you a::,1 P • :1 : t :o ti:ecc.mmerce.l•lthetuC `' • aa 4. 4.. r 445 '1 vita facility, which is ii.4w • 4t. • . t interruptiims. I am Wavy Lo. isA, :114 :.Cjidrid VCEt=l,6 frequentlp trade realy between this country and France, and that they carry front England not only goods to fup ply France, but likewite Come cf the furrounding nations. In cafe of a Northern war this commerce mull be very mach inerealed, and France will h.- come a depOt for the reit of the Continent ; thu you give her trade in one cafe, whereas in the other ' the would have none. Admitting the value ofthe right, Gentlemen should ferioutly con rider whe ther it ( - eight to 1w put in competition with the lopport which France will receive in every war from the ailitlance of all the North of Euroilie.— This now is the fecund time that at the end of ! a war the Northern Nations have confederated againit its, and they will continue to do fo in limi lar eircumitances as lung as men are governed by interett. Sioppole you fuccoed in your rights, how are you to !icon.: them ? Can they be irrevocably confirmed by a piece of parchment, or , attached to a fortified place ? Injury will quicken their fettle of interett, and they will be (purred on not only by a love of gain, but a fpirit of revenge. —From the prefent condua of Denmark you may form a pretty fair effintate of the value of forced conceilions. It has been laid be an Hon. Gentleman, you might as well burn all your !hips and difeharge all your failors. Had not this fen timent come from a pet fon of very great *authori ty, I thould have treated it as abfurd. By the treaty of 1674, the point was conceded to Holland, and by various treaties during the courie of the hat century to France, to Spain, and to the Porte. Yet during. that period our navy was created, art gained the moll fplendid triumphs. Would, Sir, we could revert to thofe days of power, plenty, and happinefs! The Englith name had then reached a pitch of glory beyond which the molt fitnguine cannot hope to raife it. I call upon thole who have any doubt with regard to the value of the right, to think ferioufly of the policy of en forcing it at the prelim moment. After eight firth years of war, ought not every new fubjeEt of difpute to be avoided with care ? Why have vee not followed the wife example fet us on 1780 ? Againft Lord North, his bittereß enemy never urged his condua at that period ; and though we had waved our claims, never was the maritime fu per?ority of England fo decided as during the pre fent war. Authority is certainly againit us in the right of fearching merchant veffels under convoy tof a (hip of war. In t 6.72 it was exprefsly given up. The reafon of the thing is against us not lets. [—Can it be expeaed that an independent Rate, [lnch as Denmark or Sweden, fbould allow its ' fleets to be fearched by an Englifh frigate or Cuf 'tom-houfe yacht ? Did we ourfelves never affert this right which we now fo Routly deny ?—We have often been in the relation of a neutral to wards Spain, who flora religious motives never makes peace with the Rates of Barbary. Yetwe have often lent contraband in (hips of war to Algiers, and how thould we have felt had a Spanifb frigate infißed upon examining them? I once put the quef tion to the Captain of a man of war, " Blown her out of the water, to be Cure," Paid he. The right of fearch, under proper regulations, is not dif pitted, and is the pretence of - a fhip of war not as good a guarantee as the papers which are reckon ed rufficient ? The Right Honourable Gentleman Rated that this claim was not only against the law of nations,but contrary to an exprefs treaty entered into by Ruffia in 1793. Any one, however, who confiders the terms of the treaty, and reads the declaration of the Emprefs to the Court of Sweden, mutt be convinced that this is a grofsinifreprefenta tion. When the Houle has been thus milled, an in quiry becomes doubly neceffary. If the right is of ' great value, one would think it of high importance that it llsould be uniformly exercised, and that we ought to chaffife every nation that calls it in quef tion, Pruflia not letsthan Denmark and Sweden. , Was the condo& of Pruflia, I all, Sir, one whit lefs offenfive t Upon a Fruition fhip carrying con traband goods to the enemy being fcized, violent complaints were made, and Cuxhaven and Rutz bottle were feized by the Prufilait troops. Did we declare war egoista Proffitt? Did we kin all the i veffels belonging to that power in our ports? No; ' we meanly induced the city of Hantburgh to pur chafe the !hip and rellore it to the King of Pruflia. This was a mere quirk, hut it would not do, Cux haven was not abandoned ; and the Daiiith Mini tier (Count Betiofforff) had Rated to Mr. Drum mond that the Convention of Armed Neutrality had been entered into betwixt Denmark, Sweden, Italia, and Pruflia. The difference of our condua towards Pruflia and the other Powers could only be attributed to this, that we were more afraid of the power of Prtillia. In the whole of this buil tiers Miniflers had neither aged with policy nor with confiltent thinners. Our condua to the King of Pruflia reminds me ‘f a Rory I have heard of a noble Lord, who, taking offence at a Gentleman in company, applied his cane very libe rally to the Gentleman's back. The Gentleman fubmitted to the chailizemeat with great ploilofo phy, but being a few days after at a coffee-houfe, without much provocation, he kieeesi a &How to the door.—The Noble Lord heard of the affair, and Aced his old friend to explain it. Said lie, " You and I, my Lord, know whom we kick !" From Denmark and Sweden we have not very much to fear. The King of Pruilia might Mut up the port of Hatnhurgh, and feize the clear:rate of Hanover (or perhaps has a:Wally feized it.) — Much as I have raid, much remains for Inc to fay h:fore I rekale you from the trouble of hearing brar! . 14:.a all park of ily yi.j I come now to fpcak of the internal Rate a tile country.—Two hundred and feventy mil. lions have been added to our motional debt, min five of Imperial and other loans, and of the re diilion citified by the linking fund ; and yet we are told by the Ex-Minifiers that they leave the country in a flourifloing fituation. I ask any man, whether, from dirnibillied comfort s.or front potitive dithers, he does not feel this declaration an infult. 'Afk the ruined nonnufailowers of Yorkthite, Man., cheiter,_ and tirmingliam; alk the flarvin3inhalti. tants of Lontion and Vt'etimintlerl In lonic parts of Yorkihire, formerly the nu.:`. Ilourithiee, it ap pears from an au th entic paper which I tidal in my hand, that the poors' rates have him:aled from poi to 60001. a year; though the wheic raek4ent of the pal s not exceed to 'la In;:tr.. hail:, I know, limn multi:11)1:d authority, there are near I I,cc - .) who %c .1 v..: parochial relief, though t 1... who;e tit irlianitants cannot c -.lnd ol a a re tinned oac of t h e m o il prolpeolits in Er ;Land. 'Flick are into wlii, It pm will do w-11 to enquire. It is ti.t thot.:4: uue half of our property is gone, it is well :ed, ae. is ii.a.:.tvcdthe re mainder. Sir, I deny the atgalion. One half of our propetty is gone, but tic reni.tinder is in gre.o , l - elan%er than b..:fore ; and 11. n.• long it may remain lath its owners, it is intpoffible to fay. ja enbinifin has been eel, ri:med beyond the terrors of the molt a pprelictiliv , ,, it it i.; it lie that Bonaparte is it; child ..nd its champion. If cur d...ty4er mole from French aggrantli!emeot, how dt.:.1.11O1 mutt it be now! Has alas ( onftitution been preterved ? • The power of the ('rosen Las been inci.:ateti, but the britiflt Contlitution has fillered in proportion. This mull have been the can: met Iran the itn !, menfe increal- 01 . our debt and taxes ; :o:d it was well laid by a Noble Friend of mine, that in a country where filch a revenue is cone:led by the Crown, the people cannot enjoy political freedom. That. the influence of the Clown is great and alarming, you may find proris xvitholit going to any very great dill:ince. The dire'} inci cute has likessik been inimente. The addition to offices has been far beyond the reduCiion Arca,..l by Mr. Burke-. Laws have been palled, which have made MiMtters Completely abfolute, and they have an -1 nihilated the freedom of the profs, that laft and only guardian of the Contlitution. They pre tend an aversion to innovation, but have them klycs been the greatell innovators. The cifefts which the Union will produce, it is at prefent impoffible to calculate ; but that they will be im portant there cannot be a doubt entertained. A change not left confiderable has taken place in the other Houfe of Parliament. During the Adntini firation of the late Miniller, eighty new Peers have been added to it, and I am ashamed to fay that, of the hereditary Peers, thofe who do not hold offices are a minority in the Houfe The Right Hon. Gentleman, I will affirm, has afted en Jacobin principles. He has deftroyed our privileges, he puts our property in requifition, imprifims our per fons, and tries our fellow fubjefts by a military tri bunal. The fituation of the Sitter Kingdom is alarming in the extreme, and more than any thing elfe calls aloud for inquiry ; for thefe four years pall, ever fince the recal of Earl Fitmilliam, Ire land has been the fcene of tranfaftions the must flocking to humanity. Is it now in a Rate of tran quillity-? A few days ago a Bill palled this Houle, which we were told was abfolutely nccelary for its Way. Though rebellion had been put down in the field, it was !hid, like the atihirm, it Hal lurked in fccret. The mafs of the population was difal. fefted, and nothing prevented the feparation of Ire land from this country, but the inability of France to fend a force to the help of the rebels. Prima fade, wherever a Government complains of con- Rant plots and cent - piracies, that Government is bad.—Whatever any libeller may affert, I cannot perfuade myfelf that there is anyinnate depravity in the frith nation. I mull believe that, if they were well governed, they would be (ober, indullrious and orderly. I appeal to thole Gentlemen who fupported this oppreffive fyflem on onikkoce, whe ther, after a four years experience of its effefts, they will continue to fupport it Rill ? Will they not infia upon inquiry, when that meafure is re jeCted which was declared by Marquis Cornwallis to be the only thing which can lave Ireland from being deluged with blood—when an Adminittra tion go out becaufe they cannot carry this meafure, and another comes in rootedly hoftile to it? This change is of ktfelf a titfficient ground of inquiry. The deepett myttery hangs over at. If the Minifters who have now retired from his blajelly's Councils had it in contemplation at that time to retire on the grounds which they now hold forth, I thould like to know, Sir, why they were never difclofed in the flightea degree when the Seffion of Parliament commenced ? Theft things, I contend, they are hound to explain to the Houk. I am fir, indeed, from laying, that inability to bring forward a meafure fuppoted to be conflated with the bell interelts of the empire would not be a justifiable caufe of retiring from the direition of public affairs. On the contrary, I allow that this would he a fair and juftifiable ground of refigning any office which involved a degree of refpoalibilt ty particularly connefted with Inch a 'mature.— But, Sir, I read with aßonithment in a moll extra ordinary publication, that theft very men, who from their inability to bring forward the meafure have chofen to retire from refponfible fituations, should at the fame time give allurances of their with to bring forward this meafure, while they laid that at prefent they find innumerable obflacles to its fuccefs. If the Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Pitt) whole name is attached to this publication, chutes to deny its authenticity, then indeed my conclufion may be affe&ed • but unlefs he does this, I have a sight to hold asat it is the real pro dation of thole whole name it bears. On the Ilip polition then that it is authentic, I Mould with to know what the obaacles ace which now exill to the bringing !inward of this meafure ? They mutt either, sir, have originated from the decifion of ! a majority of the Cabinet, or from the immediate influence of the Crown. That they were not found ed in the oppolition of a majority of the Cabinet, i. fufficiently apparent from the flightea attention to the number of whom that Cabinet was cons poled. The point then refolves itfelf into this, that the meafure to be propofed was perfonally objec tionable to the tiovereign. This, Sir, is a delicate (Utica, on which.l am extremely unwilling to en large on the prefent occafion. I can Jure the Houk that I an; at all times unwilling to introduce the name of the Sovereign into a debate, and that it is not now introduced for any unparliamcn tary reafon. If asty bad &efts should now rcfult from it, to his %jetty's late hlinitlers and not to nit is it now to be imputed. I do not deny, Sir, dint on finis a fuppnfition as this, which I have none Itated, it was pertiftly juttiffable for Miniftets to retire horn their fititations ; but this I will fay, that their minds tos: ; lit to have been impreffed with the ftrougell convi‘tion of the neceffity of :lc zn:a,- fure, before they endeavoured to force it on the aecept.tnee of a Sovereign v..1:61e pure mind have been influenced by let urtles concernia:.. propriety. If this was the duty of ally Minitters, much more was it the duty of t fit& who, durita , long Adminillration, ox rd every thing to a SoYe reign% ..lenerofity, and k•Ito ot: ; :tt to haveli attached to him by every tic of obligation, lay every feeling of gratitude. What then were tic reafons which now convinced them of the neceff.re and propriety of bringing forward the meafure It has been laid, Sir, that Minifters were ent , a.c to the Catholic.; to bring forward the meaft , rc. and that their fupport to the linitts was let:tired b the prof ?e& of emancipation. T. this enlogenterr. really founded in Ina? If lit, it is t o f the crimes of which any Miniller. :yet f ood tr , nsiC.eti But, Sir, I will aik, if they ever entered into alt filch engagements, had they authority from th Crown that they would be :Crdly ratified? 1 di not believe they ever had any ft:eh anthority tc cotara& tlefe engagements. I cannot for a mo ta.rnt feppote that, if any ft:::11 authority had been given. :he benevolent nature of his Majelly %raids have raftrfed it ratification. Mneit Sir, can I flippole this to be the eak, v.lien it ten a ineafttre of beneficence, 1 ineafttre calcultated the comfort :Led harpinefi or a great proc7, - rtit a of his people. I cannot help confider ing it, there fore, as an a& of the greaten ci iminality, to pluee the opinion of his Malay thus .is it wc:a: dirat oppolition to the wither of his Min:Thers, or the welfare of his robjeas. I with fardier to afit the Noble Lord who had fe principal a fharc in the manoeuvres by which the Unit :n accompliihtd, if this engagement was made widi the Catholics, whether Lord Clare was acquainted with the agreement ? No man dilfents more than I do from the principles of Lord Clare, and what is called the High Proteflant party in Ireland ; but Ilia, Sir, I will maintain that in a meafure of a general nature like this, in which all parties were ro materially concerned, they were entitled at lean to the obfervance of good faith. If filch an en gagement as this was entered into without their knowledge and concurrence, this was an act of criminality not much inferior to that by which they agreed to it without the conc.:tit of 'the Crown. —Having thus conlidcred the conduft of the War —the manner in which the feveral pall Negncia tions have been concluded—our relation with Fo reign Powers—the internal lunation of the Country -the Rate of the Sifter Kingdom, the fituation of which may, from ciretimllances to which I have adverted, become loon a more fcrious fubjea of confederation, and pointed them out feverally as fubjeas of inquiry, I have now little further to urge to the Houfe before I tit down. However, 1 think it neeeffary to make a few obfervations on the fubjea of the new Adminißration :—We have been called upon, Sir, not to prejudge their me rits, and, before we pretend to form a decifive opinion, wait for the exhibition till their aaions !hall difclofe their principles and their conduel.— I would Mk, however, what would he the eon dal of an individual if he were looking out for a pet/on to take on him the direaion of his private affairs ? Would he take for this purpofe a patois of whom he had no knowledge ? or, waddle not, rather raY, you may be a perton fully qualified for the fituation which you offer purred to fill, but at prefent my eftate is embarratred, and it is ne ceffary that I fhould be ferved by a fiction of tried abilities and unquetlionable knowledge, the refult of experience. On this principle, the new Mini tiers are hitherto entitled to no port from their talents, to no confidence from their knowledge, to no attachment from their erperience. But, ST, is there no experience which we have already had, by which we may be enabled to judße of the cha raaers of chore Minifters now entering on the Ad miniftration of public affairs? The part they have previoutly taken in public life I thould conceive to be a pretty fair means of jadging of their abilities and charaaer. Molt of them, Sir, have bees known in this way to the Home. Many of them have been in fubordinate lituations under aide Minifters who have retired from official and the reR hare been kaown for the rapport of heir rneafurcs. Allowing all that la fairly due to want of praaice in the particular lamp tions which they are now to fill, I do not think they are fuch Minifters as the country requires, under its prefent perilous circtimitances. We are told, Sir, not to prejudge their principles but has it not been already declared that their principles and fyßem are fienilar to thole of their predeceffors ? Is it conceived then that thefe prin ciples and this fyftem will be carried on Viith Ilia fuller effeet than under the former Adminiltras tion ? If I were to alk any of thofe who lupported the old Minifters, whether they fuppoled that this: would be the cafe, I do not believe that a tingle Member in the Houle would be boid enough to make fuch an affertion. What then is it that we arc to look for under their meafures ? Is it the profecution of the war with the fame maliguant 4)44, or the rejection of all ofters of negociatiae with the fame infolence, as dithinguilbed thofe whom they have rucceedeat ? We have already leen that they fully approved of the condua of the war, fo pregnant with dila-tiers ; that the re jeaion of the tevernl negotiations entered into met with their warm concurrence ; that they ap plauded the f.ntimcnts of joy whi. h the late Minitlers exprelfed at the failure of loch uegoeia tions. We cannot, then, feel much confi - dence from the principles of their Adrrinittration. there is, indeed, any difference in their princi ' pies—if there is any improvement in their vii.ws, this night will give them the meanrof difrovering them to the liunfe. They hnow that the former Miniticts were accufed of alnifing their influence in the Houk Int- the molt dangerous purpofe—fiv avoiding =oration and Rifting inquiry. It they then are to aft on other ptinciples, let them come forward to give their fupport to the prefent MOD ,tion, whole objeft is to alcertain the real State of the Nation. Here, sir, I than leave the fubjeti in the hands of the Houle, conjuring them to give it all that confederation which its extreme importasix demands. If they are perfnaded, by tire reprecte cations of Gentlemen on the other fide, that the Country is in a gate of prufperity ; 'tither are fa- i:: I 1