Star.
London, England, 1801-03-27 00:00:00

a.as the firft place which a Commoner coold f,ll ;
but it teemed a ftrange humility, and a fingolar
want of ambition, that had induced two Gemle-
men fuccellively to defccnd, for the public gor d,
no doubt, to Rations of leis dignity. Scald,: as
be was of the merit of thefe Gentlemen in the
Chair, he could not think that it was fur the credit
of the Houle that the Chair thipld be the rood
ether employments. The Noble Lord who ear,
Secretary of State for Foreign Atfairs, he lefee c-
ud as much as he could any one with 1•:!-.i.n1 lee
was fo little acquainted ; but he could not but re-
member that the Noble Lord had he-n as violent as
any Member of the Houle againit Jacobiniem, mid
that he had propofed marching at once to Paris
to put an end to it ; and he could not help
thinking too, that conlidering theft: laniments of
the Noble Lord's, it was not very relpeallil to
place him in a lituation in the Cabinet, io which,
after the language he had held, lie would be eilleet
upon to make overtures of Peace. Bonaparte had
been reviled by epithets of reproach, the recol-
keftion of which ought to imprele svith Iharne thole
-rho had ufed them. lie had beea ityled the Child
and champion, the mere lei,audy Puppet of
_Leo-
bininn. Now what a humiliating. fpeaacle, to fee
thole who had held and approved that Logiiage,
10,..e:e; to the man they had treated with filch in-
di a.ity ! eks to the change of Adraiaidration, he
eha lan coalider it in Weil as an unfortuaate oc-
tirreace for the country. Sonar, indeed,
Opeit, i.orn the patiegyric of the Riielit Hun.
ea-edema:l, that the new %Miters were only the
Veppets dirceted by thole who hod
Lear itations. Hill,: new Mlol,lers (.-.at
taeir own motives, they would he In miadi th
mae: ituworthy of confidence, if they hid ad' pted
fyitern of their prialeceifors, with the additional
Li.ii.a: of being huttile to the Catholic claims.
refpeet ao the Catholic claims, he had under-
leaxi that a pledge had been given them, !Tat this
was denied. hue was not tome poorelfe, lent
htere held out? need thole pro.nifes might have
been given leparateiy, and in fuch a /wooer as
to produce the mifunderitanding that entitled. Th:.
Catholics might be told that the Union would ren-
der their claims more favourable, while the foes of
the Catholics might be deceived by the alfurances
that the Union would create a greater facility than
brio= of refilling thole. claims. If thi•s was the
cafe, for what reafon was it that the Right Hon.
Gentleman, hitherto an enemy to the meafure,
luoald tee now refigned his place, bee-attic lie 1,
could not carry it ? Could not the Right Hon.
Gentleman bring fonvai•d a motion in toe Howl:
which be could nut in the Cabinet ? But was it
not a rei:edion on the Conflionion ? Was it not
a refiestion on the Houle, for a Member of Par-
liament to fay, as had been by the Right Hon.
Geutleman, that he could not bring forward a
rootioo of which he approved ? If the Right Hon.
Gentleman had the recipe for relloring tranquillity
to any :art of the Empire, why did `he not F...
race it It reended him of a Paying of Mr.
larke =another occall -a, that if ever torture sCas
jellitiable, it was.in a cafe when a perfon avowed
e....firlf pattied of a dilcovery capable of produ-
cing fu much public good, but would not commu-
nicate it. The Right-Honourable Gentleman Paid,
lied, that if he had brought forward his plan, it
would have been upon grounds which would have
given little fatisfaaion to the Oppofition fide of
the Houle. What that plan was, however, he
has not explained. For my own part, exclaimed
Idr. Fox, I will not‘be feared out of the principles
of liberty which I entertain. I differ from the
Right Honourable Gentleman refpeeting grounds
on which the millake might have been founded • I
believe in the original Rights of Man ; I believe
that all legitimate Governments are founded, dot
only in raft, but in confequence, upon thole prin-
ciptes, and that no Government is adequate to its
bale ends which does not recognife them. The
Catholics hay.e rights, as well as the Proteftants,
and I think that no man fhould be deprived of his
rights becaufe he worfhips GOD according to the
dictates of his own confcience. The Right Hon.
Geadernan Ironed to decline bringing forward the
caw:lion upon fome fuppenion of obhacles in a
particular quarter of the Conititution. He was
colivinced, however, that no obflacics of that na-
toe.: could be euppofed to exit, becaufe it was a
c •Se that was not •juftified by the legal prerogatives
of the Crown. Whether or not the Right Hon.
Gentleman adhered to office might be colleted
fr'm the communications to the Catholics. The
Riaht Hurt. Gentleman, indeed, might with to re-
ti. c for a Craton until overtures of peace, which
lie could not make without feelings of mortifi-
cation to the man be but. lately to much infult-
and the confillion of the Right Honour-
able Gentleman, :hat office seas not at the prefent
moment an objeft of ambition, was a proof that
lie did not credit his own flattments relpeaine; the
fuerefs of the war, and • the proeperity of our a-
'emcee. Mr. Fox then jufttied iiimiClf -from the •
charge of retiring from Parliament, and raid that
he was willing to locrifice his own private purfuits,
comfort and haminces, when there was a prof.
pea of being ufeful to the public, but he did not
himfelf called upon to forego thefe when
it could be attended with no advantage. He fiiid
that nothing coll.! have the count:; from a dee:it-
fug negotiation or aninfeeure peace, but a return
to that ennflittitional jealously of Parliament, un-
fler which the Nation had Antal-46d, and wars
been conduaciii with glory and fucccfs. Many ex-
amples occurred even in his own recolleetion of
auctions for inquiry into the Date of the Nation
laving palled. Whatever difference might have
appeared in examining the details, there Pod rare-
ly been any objeaion to the principle of the-mo-
tion. Mr. Fox reprobate& t.hc cant common to
men of little minds and contemptible underflanci-
"ga, that dependency would be excited by Lying
oeen our real fituation. He thought that the
truth fhould be told. It was not by concealing
the exhaufted Date of France that Bonaparte hid
bt•al able to create armies, to animate enthuliafm,
4nd to perform fuch prodigies, as the tali came-
aign had exhibited.—He then proceeded to con-
the ftate of Ireland, which mull be vary &I-
tufted and critical, becaufe the Houk had agreed
to place it trader Martial Law fur three mat"'

Tie that the mats of tic ropte en.. 1.1 nr t er
he difatfeaed without gre.tt du: :n lie
Government. He cow idertal the ernidna which
had prod .:ced havuck, coni'aigrition, and
horrors of e...ery defeription, pteviotts to the re-
... 1), as cnargeable with mach ot, the calamity
,!,.!t :.ti..! tV3ii`.: Ireland. Ile fiti.l that the re-
Pi! ewilliarn !lad been attended wi:li
t t tr.tl cont:.:quenc,:s ; for then the Rels:.
b their correfpondence with France,
opaitioz,r • f any rind and conciliating Govern-
meat. fI c repreli:nted in forcible larguage the
tte of oar relations with foreign powers, the de-
cay of oar mantifaatites, and the miftry of our
lii6trers of every kind, many of whom were on•
able to fu:ply thcmfclvcs with the necefiries of
life. day, therefore, in our external and
internal fituation, called loudly I. inquiry.
Mr. Pit t role to explain, and denied having
Et'id he would not give what informar:cn he was
in poffeflion of to the Ho:.k, refpeCting the Catho-
lic (Zlie:tion, when it thould he agitated.
Tha amc:a.toa of the EF.CII/,.IJrR raid, he
could nor coni7.nit to give a lilent vote on the im-
portant Inhi....ft before the Houle, yet he would
.lot trouble the Houle any length of time. After
what had been fitid, he obferved, by his Honour-
able Friends, he fhould not find it necelfary to do
to. They had already lb ably junificd their own
c.ondtt:t, that it merely remained for him to re-
markon a few obfervations which fell from the lion.
Gentl:m as who preceded him ; but beforehe
he he:,-,,;ed leave to :iffire the Hoot; that the llttia-
tioa to which he had the honour to be called by his
501,....2; _t to fill was one whieli he was aware noill be
atLifie'd with di iicultics, and to which he mull fa •
ri:ce many of the domenic er.joyments of a hufband
and a father. The honour that Houfe had done
him in ti.ree fitcceffive Perli:trients in eltooling him
as f.. is Speaker, had left the molt Lang impref.
him on his mind, and the frata;ion in which their
choice had yla..cd him he relinquillted only from a
fence of duty to his Soy:: ciot and his Country.
And he could not help regretting that the °Rent'.
ble place he held in the pr.:lent Adminilltation
was likely to expofe him to differ in opinion with
many Hon. Gentlemen who:': friendfhip he had a
long time partied. Mr. Addington, in adverting.
to his colleagues, and hinifelf, (aid, it was by no
means fairlo prejudge them. He atfitred the Hon.
Gentleman who aecuiie them and him of :Wing
tinder the directions and influence of his Majetty's
late Mi7itters, that the ch.,rge was an unjuft one.
He stinted the Hon. Ce:ttleman to know, that
however much he ref led thofe Right Honour-
able Gentlemen w'. :..:tve jun gone out of office,
he knew, he rec ,aized no lyttem but that which.
appeared be" lie the fervice of his Sovereign.
A great el .i had been faid by thofe Hon. Gentle-
men abtatt his Majelly's prefent Minincrs not prf-
fetfing the confidence of the People, he trtt;tcd.
!-.)wevcr, that the con.lua of that Houfe, :IA of
the country, would not bear the Hon. Gentleman
out in his alfertion. With refpeet to the Northern
Confederacy, the principle; laid down by. his Right
Hon. Friend, (Mr. Pitt) were not dented by the
Right Hon. Gentleman; the code of maritime
Law is too clear to admit of difpute. It is very
true, as the Honotn'able Gentleman obferved, that
the King of Proffia did deny the jullice of thote
laws, but he was afterwards induced to relingitith
the principles he had efpoufed. The right of fearch,
he faid, fhonld be ever exercifed with lenity, and
he Rill hoped thene.gociation with the Danes might
fucceed. But the right of fearch was all and all
this country. He trolled that though a heavy cloud
might be fufpended, yet firm and temperate con-
duct would Aired!), difperfe it. In refiseet to
the queftion of Peace, Mr. Addington obfervcd,
that his Majeßy's initters were dif;orifed and
determined to take fuch Reps as they conceived to
be calculated for peace. No form of Government
in France Ateuld be an obßruftion to negocia-
tion'; and with this difpofition on the part of this
Country, the fitecefs of the attempt would depend
wholly on tams. He had no reafon to fuppofe that
the enemy were - adverfe to negociation. But it
would be in vain to talk of their fincerity, if
they demanded terms that were incontinent with
the honour and fecurity of this country. He dd.
liked afperity of language towards any percon,
and was always concerned when it was tiled. He '
united a firm and temperate conduct, both to-
wards Frame and Neutral Nations, would Coon dif-
pel the clouds that hung over this country. With
relPeet to Ireland heoblerved, he had no inclination
to erea the flandard of intolerance, yet at pee-
tent he did not 'feel himfclf called upon to eater
Ul 03 the tubjeCt of the Catholic expectations.
Thus far he would fay, that Catholic and Diften-
ter he looked upon as good fub,eCts, and entitled
to the proteEtion of the Houle and the Country.
He contended, that the diflreffes of the country,
.and the high price of prnvifions, did not, as the
lfnaoar.ebleGentleman had atferted, arife out of
the war ; thofe dill:vita, he faid, arofe ont of the
feafons. The Honourable Gentleman, he faid,
contended that the interference of that Houle had
had no gond eife& on the price of provifions, for
his part all he hoped for was anfwered; he was
always perfuaded the great good that would
wife would be the incrcating fupplies and dimi•
uilhirtg confumption, and who would lay theft two
important ends were not anfwcrcd ?—He denied
that inve Rigation was ul ways the eonfequencc of the
meature being propofed in that Houle, as flitted
by the Honourable Gentleman—he inflamed four
cafes, from the year taao, to the commencement
of the late Adminifkration, when Committees of
Enquiry were either refuted, or wheat voted by
the Houk, not acted upon. He would abßain
(corn declamation; thofe who knew him would,
he trolled, judge from their own knowledge;
thole who did not he alto trolled would wait to
from their judgment from experience; he would,
therefore, throw himfelf upon the 1-loufe and the
Country.
As Coon as Mr. Addington fat down, there was
a general cry for the Qtteition.—Sir Gregory Page
Turner (poke againft The motion, and fir. Dent
in favour of it. Mr. Grey replied, and faid he
was happy to find the tone of the late Admini-
nration changed to kudzu:no of more becoming
moderation. •