The Sun.
London, England, 1802-03-30 00:00:00

' post-tltise,' to the conclusion of his Speech* Whe-
ther the Hon. Gent!eman's objeawas to excite the
compassion oft he e'ormni tree for tiloSe men.ssitto'm
the security of the State hattrendered it necessary to
prosecute, or whether it was the Hon, Gentleman's
inteniion. to discuss the • question; Wlither those
persons who had been confined, and were now Jibe_
rated, ought to pay any portion• of the sum' which
it was now proposed to vote, he could not deers...-.
mine-[Here Mr. Stir RInAN cameiota the House].
If the- latter was the Hon. Gentleman's intention,
Ise had just received a most seasonable reinforce-
ment : he supposed'from the Hon: Gentleman's ar-
riving at that moment, that he knew at what pe-
rind of his Hon. Friend's Speech that subjed was to
be introduced, though he could not but wonder that
the Hon.. Gentleman had deprived himself of the
pleasure he must have derived from hearing the
whole of that Speech. He would nor, however,
argue whether there had • been anyseditious,• any
treasonable practices in this Country ; he would not
take up the time of the Committee now by inquir-
ling whether, if it had not been for the precautions
Which Government had taken, those pradices might
not have proceeded to the most dangerous extremities;
'he would not allude to the Rebellion in Ireland, nor
to the Societies of United Irishmen and United
Englishmen, because all these subjeds had undergone
previous discussion ; upon all these subjects the so-
lemn judgment of Parliament had been passed.—
The Hun. Gentleman had endeavoured to persuade
.the Committee to rejea.- this - Motion, by a refer-
ence to transadions upon which, when they were be-
fore the House, the sense of a large 'majority had
' been decidedly. hostile to the opimoh of that Hon.
Gentleman, whose arguments went to prove, that
when there were the strongest symptoms of treason
in. the Country, that it was oppressive for. Gover-
nment to attempt to ward-off Treasons rather than to
meet Rebellion in the field; and that the deteaion of a
traitorous Conspiracy was less the duty of the EXecu-
tive•Power, and of His Majesty, who had the ad.
ditional obligation of' an Oath upon this subject,
than of any other' persons in this Country. These
arguments, it• could not be expeaed 'that he should
occupy the time' of 'the House by discussing, nor
should he now stop to investigate. whether the mea.
sures adopted by Government were, or were not
such as the occasion required. Those who felt • as-
the House had always felt during the whole of the
eventful period which we had passed, would agree
with him in thinking, that if there was reason to
believe that the spirit of Treason both in this
Country an.] in Ireland had gone to a dangerous
length, and that legal .proceedings were therefore
necessary for the security • of the State, the expencea
attending which wele greater than in ordinary
times, that it Would not. be consistent with justice
to throw the whole burthen of that cipelice upon
the Crown. There. was, how-ever, • something
whimsical in the compassion which the Hon.• Ge-
ntleman manifested for those persons •; for ,he did nor
propose a remedy for these whom he conceived to
have been injured ; bile in speaking upon this sub-
let% the • Hon. Gentleman seemed to think that all
the persons who had been accused had been acquit-
ted.: there were' several persons conviaed, and
certainly there was one conviaion which ought
not to have escaped the recolleaion of the Hon.
.Gentlernan. and those who sat near him. But what
was the great hardship of which the Hon. Gentle-
man had' so pathetically complained ? It was that
this sum of 900,0001. which' would be -defrayed
by so many millions of His Majesty's Subjeds,
would fall particularly .heavy upon certain United
Irishmen, and 'persons of a similar description.—
Now', in all the discussions which had- taken place
upon this •subjeCt, it could not be forgotten that
one of the strongest arguments urged to spew the •
impossibility of any treasonable plots existing, and
an argument which had been repeatedly urged
with .great humour by an Honourable Gentle-
'man opposite to him (Mr. SHERIDAN), was the
extreme • poverty of the • persons accused. But
now the argument had been completely changed;
'and those men whose poverty was urged- as a
proof of their -innocence, were now represented as
likely to suffer severely by paying-their portion of.
this 900,0001. in common with so'. many millions
of His Majesty's Subjects. This was a subjea which
had excited the tender mercy of the Hon. Gentle-.
man, •and that warmth, and all that flow, of elc_ •
quence with which he had concluded his speech.
The.flon. Gentleman had .objected. -to paying the
occasional charge e now, with regard to Law Pro.
ceedings, he knew, .and he believed that other
,Gentlemen would agree with him in thinking, .that
Law' Proceedings could not be carried on but at a con-
siderable expellee, by all the parties concerned. But
by objedingoi the Hon.Gentleman,had done, to the
whole ofthe Mot ion,;he would leave unpaid the King's
'tradesmen, -to whose claim the'Hon. Gentleman had
stated no objeaion. He knew the expansion, the libe-
rality,. and the• philosophical nature of the Hon. Gen-
fles-lan's' mind—he knew the Hon. Gentleman's at-
tachment to his Constituents, though he did not
see them often, and represented them still lesS fre-
quently ; hat, he wished•he would ask his Consti-
tuents, particularly those who'served 'the House-
hold, whether, in order to avoid butting their feel-
ings,. or injuring the property of United Irishmen, •
the Butcher, the Baker,' and all the other tradesmen
were to be left unpaid ? Yet this was the part of
the case for which the Hon. Gentleman. seemed to
have reserved all his powers, and colleaed all his
eloqUence; and he could nor but lathent, consider-
, ing how. seldom the Hon.. Gentleman gave the
"House the satisfaflion. of him; 'that the
Hon. Gentleman 'should have wasted so much of his
talents upon such a subled. With regard to the
other parts of the Hon. Gentleman's• Speech, he shoUld
not digress much, • or' go into any greater extent of
argumeNt than was necessary. All that the Hon.
Gentleman had said .resolved itself into two'points :
the ritSt was, that it was inconsistent with the duty of
Parliament, and contrary to the system upon 'which
the Civil List was granted to the Crown-for life; in
any case to pay a debt contracted upon 'that Civil
List---the other question was with respea to the
meaning of Mr-Burke's' arguing upon
this, and indeed upon almost every other subjea,
the Hon: Gentleinan had alwayS shewn himself
fonder of quoting any other times than his own,
from ally Ministers rather than those whom he has op-
posed, and- from -any Parliament rather than those-