The National Register. — London, England, 1817-01-27 00:00:00

QOut• ding, Cottoo ann IL ttivo. No. 468.—V0t. X. MONDAY, JANU MW 21' 1817. Ittgat Ziograppn: tee functions of governmeut we e now exercised in all the political contests in parliament, . was never once imagined that any forego influence was i.,lt : bet, in the reign of Charles 11. when the House or Commons, from a well founded jealousy of the crown, fered mare than it aught to have done, in negotiation witlt'enreign powers, foreign in fluence prevailed in proportion to the extent of the inter ference. Ought they then to tal.e the pewee of negotiating from the crovrit, and give it to ihe people, when it was evi dently for the advautage. of the latter that it should remain in the executive government, where the constitution had wisely placed it? " The debate, Mr. Grant observed, haul taken a new turn in the hands of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Wind ham) who spoke last. Every other person who had spoken in favour of the resolution, had complained that they were called on for supplies, without having any information what ever.of the subject for which they were. wanted; but the right honourable gentleman, in tlia entirse of his speech, had turntd round short, and declared, that they had all the in. formation that it was in the poster of the ministers ever to give. If so, upon what ground:: he asked, was it necessary to deny the minister that conftdertee, without which the negociation could not be carried-on with effect? With regard to confidence, Mr. Grant observed, that it was not personal confidence that was expected, or that sort of coutideuce which A. gives B. but that confidence in the executive govern ment, which the constitution, 1* wise purposes, had vested Ia ministers. " An honourable Baronet,whollad spoken some time /dace, had said, the instant the country W4ii pot to any expcnce, the House was bound to enquire for what purpose; and he had given a sort of challenge to the House, aid defied any gen tleman to produce a single instance, where they had keen called on tOr supplies without previous explanation. It so happened, Mr. Grant said, that he recollected a case pre cisely in point, and that was 011 the Journals, upon turning to which in March 1717, it would he found, that the King sent a message, stating to the Hollir in the most general terms pos sible, that he was carrying on a negotiation, in order to tire serve the balance of power in Europe, and calling upon the House for supplies necessary ta carry it on with effect. fu that instance, without any further information, the. House, bad voted supplier; but no person thought of withhold ing the necessary confidence from the servants of the crown. Nay, the present parliament, in the present session, had fully and fairly acknowledged the principle; how else was it to be understood, that, at the commencement of the year, they had voted all extraordinary number of seamen, but upon the confidence in the minister, when, without •:s -centling into particulars, he ;,hedged himself their services would most likely be wanting. " Having furnished these precedents, Mr. Grant took no• tire, that Mr.Windlimn hail coticlusled a very eloquent speech with a deelienatiim against the heiror , of war, and then ex , pressed hie wish l . O" peace. Ile jained iu deprecatiug the calamities of war ; but the eight tiononrable 4eutleman seemed to have forgotten that the armament heel 'fur its object the maintaining the permanency of peace by actually avert . iug the evils of war, and duly supped:lig the balance of power in Europe. A supply was accordingly voted, but shortly after the general sentiment of tie nation Was so strongly ex• pressed against the war fit a place so obviously Mi.. • important as Oczakow, that the Premier was obliged to yield, nr he would have lost much of his influence with the commercial part of the empire, upon whose favour and countenance ha always seemed greatly to re ly. The Opposition seized vpon this moment to move a vote of t usurc upon Mr. Bit, but his political friends were still ready to support him, whether he determined to light for or abandon 047-a kow to the Russians. Mr. GRANT, like a sturdy champion, in ttirtonque paralus, a falcon ready to fly at all game, was prepared to defend ' the abandoning of °maker!) as an object of warfare. After some preliminary skirmishing, in which his usual logical acuteness was very ably displayed, he proceeded to esti mate the value of Oczakon , , which. the Opposition at sonic times considered as - every thing, and ut others as nothing, but which he should Tate between the ex tremes, as something of a certain value, but not to be ' purchased at too dear a price. To this end he considered the demand which the Empress had nt first made ofzliessarabia, Moblevia, and Wallachia, for an independent kingdom under a christian Prince ; and that although she had afterwards abandoned this point, yet she. adhered must pertinaciously to the keeping of Oczakotr. " This," said Mr. Gittser, " afforded a clear proof, tliat, however barren the district, or insignificant the plate, she deemed it of great importance to her Political views. " More denended on the care to avert distant dame' . Oita wits generally imagined; aud it frequently happened, hum not looking further than the preseet. the grounds of moose quences, infinitely mischievous to the dearest inte•ests'of e state, were laid, as it were, imperceptibly at flit mometa: He instanced the alliance which Oliver Cromwell entereil Into with France, and which had since been considered by most politicians us extremely unwise and impolitic, although its consequences were unt foreseen at the time it took plate : but it was in eonsequenee of teat alliance, that, clean+ . I'S after the wars began, which cos: this country and all Europe AO much blood. and to tench money. tee alluded to tee beitilli les to casioned by the ambitious views of Lewis the Fatirteenth. Cy the alliance crelew e ft had entered into with Y.. slice, lie gave ['sluice a peedomisat . Joe 1,0 3 ,1ce in the. scale treeEnrope powers, and sunk Mae I of Spain iy:low its proptree. Hay* at that time over t OR, MentOirsofthepresenteludges. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR WILLIAM GRANT, MASTI:II 01: THE ROLLS. (Coatimaed from our We.) THE first time that the name of Sir WM. GRANT appears in the debates of Parliament, was at the period of what was called the Russian Armament. This war like demonstration of the Minister, who was then con sidered peculiarly the friend of peace, the youthfal re-. Viver of the financial prosperity, the Atlas of the com mercial interest of his country, the last William Pitt, was undertaken in dread of the sudden increase of the Russian Power; when the mighty Catherine, with more than manly vigour, wielded the sceptre of the colossal empire of the north, and threatened in a short cam paign to lay prostrate the power of the Turks, and plant her standard on the walls of Constantinople. The balance of power in Europe had not then been ri!aken by the French Revolution, and the Ministry of the day seemed to entertain more anxious and perhaps more just apprehensions of the rising strength of the • .gigantic power, whose empire extends over great part of Europe, and nearly all the robust and hardy sons of Asia, than at present. Now, the acquisition of the greater part of Poland, and of all Finland is allowed •o the Russians without apprehension, and her path of conquest facilitated along the two shores of the Baltic by treaty with all Europe in convention. Then, however, the pmsession of Oczakore, a small town and set-port in the Black Sea, was deemed an event of sufficient importance to disturb the tranquillity of Europe, and rouse the watchful spirit of the British Premier. Mr. Windham, who became afterwards so conspicu ous in the Ministry, was then the friend of Mr. Far, and one of the champions of the Opposition. He ac cordingly opposed the armament, not having then ranged himself on the side of the alarmists. Mr. GRANT, then Member for Shaftesbury, exposed with great talent what he stile(' the absurdity of the legislative intruding itself into the executive part of the Government. He considered it as wholly uncon stitutional, and as depriving the public of a part of the security which the constitution had given them ; for it' Parliament interfered with the executive, the Ministers would be the slaves of the Parliament in the first in stance, and that elective body would cease to be a con trouling power. He contrasted the conduct of Mr. Fox on a former recent occasion, when he left Ministers to their respon sibility, upon a bare statement that an increase of sea men was necessary, and compared it with what he was doing upon the present, when, with Mr—lnsiruther, he inquired not as to the means, but as ta the object a the nesgociation going on. " Lt %Vitt 4.Tret ti, Mr. tirant said, on all hauls, that it was the prerogative of the crown to make war and peace, anti cart yon negotiations. Why, theretOre, was the necessary confidence to he denied to the executive government in the present, more than in any other instance ; because it was ad mitted, that the ineastire in gnestion was a negotiation, mid whether an armed or an unarmed negotiation, he •eclared no person had disputed that it made any sort of difference. From he nature of the proceeding, a negotiation was ma tinee(' by the minister, because he rout(' himself conduct it. and was responsible for the whole. To what effect, he asked, war it negociation likely to be carried on. if it was to be ma • staged by live hundri it persons? it that house took nerd eiations into their own hands, they might as well proclaim them in newspapers, since they must have all the different tin ciao ambassadors at their bar to vxamine them as to the yoiota in trams,. Excluwie of this, Mr. Grant said, there were othee objections of a strove nature. Popular assem blies were liketS• to be corrupted in negotiation. •' The neressat y consequences of the negociations in the hands of ntnutroos bodies, from the popul•'l assemblies of Athens to the Polish diet, eve r bad been, and o'er would be, the publication of what ought to be secret ; ititrigues,diSbPll. liens, cabals, sad the int; rrosilion of fortign indueuce, As !tOr .!.:•‘ . _l,aittinali lit t itqt. PRICE 94d. turned the balance, it cost immense armies, and immense sums, to set it right again, in the reigns of King William and Queen Antic. " As to the question of policy. he observed it could not al. ways, in the affairs of state, be estimated by the actual value of the thing contended for, but by thins to which it might lead. And, as another instance from what small, and •poit reittly trilling and insignificant places being starred tii re main in the hands of the suceessfill power, great mischiefs subsequently ensued, he mentioned the history of Philip of Macedon, and the Athenians, and particularly his famous letter to them, in which lie expressed his senriwetus of jestice and moderation, in %% Inch he gave them assurances of his good disposition to the liberty of Greece but solicited some small towns, which the Athenians granted ; many of them saying they were so obscure, and of so little value to them, that they did not even know their names.--' True (said De mosthenes, afterward , ) you did not know the names of these small towns, hat they are keys to provinces, to which Philip will find his way, anti endanger at last your liberty,' " Philip passed from town to town, and from province to province, until at last he had the dominion of all GrePee. So in this ease the Empress might profess moderation, and add furtress to fortress, until she became sole mistress of the Me. diterrarean, and of Egypt. It mit es ideat, therefore, that it was nut the obscurity of a town, and the want ails beiug known, that made a line of conduct less justifiable or politic, inasmuch as though a town might not be generally naticed, it ;night prove of much importance, as being the key of the kingdom concerned. " Mr. Lin ANT from this inferred, that Oczakow, although apparently of trifling value at present, might prove of infinite importance in the use made of it hereafter he the Russians. In the consideration of this point, it appeared to him that there was reason in the measures adopted by the misaisi erg It was a material thing, in his opinion, for the interest of this country, that Russia shoal(' nut gain a maritime ascendency. At the same time he could see disiinctly,that, imp )tans as it might be, it Was nut worth a war, under the peculiar drea m. stances in which it war must have been carried on against Russia, while the people of this country divided in opinion on the subject. " With regard to the right honourable gentleman Navin; put the country to the expenee of an armament, purposely to keep oczakner out of the hands of Russia, and nevertheless given it up, that was by no means a matter that might not be amply justified. Many points had been again and again given up by negociators, eat only after armaments had been set en foot, but after battles had been fought, and victories actually obtained. lustanees might be quoted almost its every reign, and front every page of history %%herein objects had been re linquished, Raft were deemed of great importance at first, and td obtain which great national expellee had been income& "To refer only to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that prin cess, in the reign of Henry 11. of Flatlets, insisted nit regain. big Calais. She armed, went to war; but coma:tiled her ne gociatiou for peace withunt obtaining Calais. She next made terms with the Hugonots, and promised them protect.un, on their delivering up Hat re, watch she thought might hi.ip her to Calais. She afterwards übtooloned them, when they made terms with the ling of France. let would an) hotly say that the ministers of Elizabeth did nut act wisely in attempting to recover Calais? Trey certainly did; bat they abandoned it when they faun/ the object more difficult to obtain thou they had at first imagined it would prove. So it might be said with regard to out! efforts to regain Oczakow; to a certain point it was proper to persist, but circumstances altered the case. "It had been said, however, by an honourable gentleman, if the minister thought his q' 'lion right, and he was obliged to change it, he ought to have refigued his place. Mr. GRANT argued, that if ti.eininister's opinion ha,CLeen overrated in the • cabinet, it would have been magnanimote:to have resigned his office ; undoubtedly it would ; nay, it would not, perhaps, harm been honottrable, but the reverse, tut Iron to have held it of terwards ; but the case was surely different, where the mi nister did nut yield to the supra for and predominating opinion of any other minister, Gut to. the opmitsas if the majority o' th e people of England, which, in so important a point as that of com b , meowing a war, ought 4/100s tote attended Is. As to a paper which had been severely commenter upon, and bailibeen delivered from the Vizier to Sirßoleert Ainslie, at Constantinople; that paper he saw it' even authentic, related to a mediation, but last to .a negociation, and was, however harsh and severe, tin satire on the present ministers in pat-ti t:Mar, but might just as well apply to the gentlemen on the other side, who were in all probability as good ciiristians 'as tOt - members of the present administrution. • " Mr. GRANT added litany other pertinent and pointed oh. servutions ;4nd-expressed a hope that the ~.1 16e would that • Mehl. skew it was their opinion, that, un all the existing circitinstances ministers had acted tightly, amid argued rpm the liceessity of %Meg a reasonable degree of costfidence to Inc i a ee entive gavel 'latent ; admitting at the came time, it was hans to some some ; but that the constitution, after winch: balancing the degree of good and evil, had ches:itsa to et dvii it, .me the least dangerom option of the two. He Friacobeili vie long speech, with deelaeitie, t h at be should .ate Attila!' the motion, fl'Otil a CUlWieliOn that ministers had 4eus the hest they could raider sod :he cireamstinces of thv case." These speeches evince no ordinary talent. They are the pleadings of a political lawyer, accustrinted to argue on either sidc, but there are few lawyers in . the House of Commons at any time, tvil , t co* bring retssp (lily to the question, so 4: of historical information, and of acute political - reasoning as are here displayed. Thikt he must have been a great acquisition to any wini . stry must be obvious, and it that whatever rewani has been g,iveti hint, he has earned it by the so. periority of hiitaleuts. (To ba concluded in oar nest) • r • r+ tg 0 ((,.•,;, t, • , • 'i , '. 7 -• . . 41. t.,... li.K" 71. 1 NU= V