The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-10-24 00:00:00

_

THE ST.

IC SI yet, untouched, and we ihall be able to
64 bring them into action with a degree of convert
6‘ and effect, worthy of the character of the Briii‘h
6c nation, and of the cause in which they will be
66 employed. These resources have iK them, NO-
" THING HOLLOW OR DELUSIVE: They
6.6 are the result of an accumulated capital, of gra-
-s",dually increasing commerce,. of HIGH AND
4t- ESTABLISHED CREDIT; and they have
":been produced while we have been contending
;IC. against a country, which exhibits, in every re-
• 44".. spect, thereverse of this picture*."
Such, Gentlemen, was the language of the Minis.
ter and his adherents at the beginning of that Ses-
sion, during which took place the memorable event
recorded in the foregoing letter ; and before you
proceed any further, I beg you to look well at it. I
beseech you to consider it well. If•you do so, you
never will be deluded again by any high-sounding
assertions, let them come from what quarter they
will. These, which I have just quoted, are memo.
rabic words. They arc precious matter for history.
They go a great way in enabling any one to judge
of the character of Mr. PITT, as a Statesman, and
especially as a political economist. Gentlemen,
there is no such thing as answering me here. No
one can contradict me. What I have laid before
you is indubitably true; arid, as such, I am surei' it
will have weight upon your minds, whatever your
prejudices heretofore may have been. • .
The adherents of Mr. Prrt had been told all that
we have now taken a hasty review of ; and, though
they Ought never to have believed it, having con:
staidly been warned against the delusion by Mr.
Fos, Mt.' Smetana :4, Mr. Ntenow, Mr. Hon.
HOUSE, Mr. GREY, Mr. TIERNF:Y, and others, but
especially by tise three former; though they ought
not to. have believed, and would not, had it not
been fortanblinding influence of the fears excited
in their minds, bare believed in those delusive
Assertions and 'predictions; still, if they did be-
lieve in them, they were not (if they looked
upon the principle of the war es being (just and
wise) to be blamed for supporting the Minister;
but, when experience.had undeceived them; when
they saw the proof of their error ; when clearly
established facts told them that they were in the
wrong course; when they had before their eyes,
that which could not possibly leave a doubt in any
man's mind, that the system which they had so long
eitipperted was ruinous to their country; when they
saw the Bank of England stop payment of its notes,
and take shelter **skean Order of the Privy Coun-
cil, immediately followed by In Act of laden:miff.
cation, that is to say,. au act to shelter the parties
concerned from the penalties of the law ; when
the adherents of Mr. PITT saw this; when they
beheld these effects, this mighty ruin, which that
adherence had brought upon their country ; when
they beheld this, they ought to have withdrawn
their support; and, if they had done this, though
I am very for frois saying, that they could have
restored 'Gold and Silver payments at the Bank,
and am still less inclined to say, that they
would have put ti stop to the workings of the French
Revolution, I am decidedly of opinion, that there
was yet time to give such a turn to that revo,
lotion as to render it less violent in itself, less severe'
towards Enrope in general, and infinitely less dan.
gerous to this country, as we, in all likelihood,
never should have seen an Emperor in France, ank
of course, should nut have had to dread, and to
guard against, the effects of his ambition' and his
power. It must, I think, be now clear to all the
world, that to Mr. PITT, supported by- the great
mercantile aud mottled bodies, BONAPARTE owes his
rise and his greatness ; and, that, instead of being,
as Mr. PITT ouce called him, 66 the child and the
champion of Jacobinism," he may be truly called
the child of Mr. PITT and the paper-system, that
system, the effects of which we shall, every day, I
feel more and more; that system, of the evils of.
which almost every man seems now to be thorough.
ly convinced ; that system, of which to prevent,
or, at least, retard, the still greater evils, the Bul-
lion Committee have proposed that remedy, into
which we shall, by.anti-by,. have to examine.
Mr. PITT, who was, in the House of Commons,
boldness personified ; who never seemed to feel as
men in generedo upon being defeated in argument,
or at being detected and exposed as to points of
fact ; who always appeared to increase in boldness
hi proportion as he was wowed in the contest,
dues, however, seem to have, for a while, it least,
felt himself humbled upon this occasion, and to
have been, as the vulgar saying is, completely chop.
fallen ; and, after what we have seen him (in the
above-quoted passages) assert, only four months
Wore well might he feel humbled ; well might he
feel afraid to open his mouth in
,the presence of
those, Who hail so often:told him that such would be
the result of his system, and whom lie had, as often,
reproached with the ?rant of love for their country,
and even ate hose opinions not only himself but his
underlings, had been accustomed to laugh. To come
to the House of Commons, that scene of his long-.
enjoyed triumph ; to come to that bench, whence
'he had so long been in the habit of dictating to all
around him, and of dealing out his sarcasms upon
all who dared question his infallibility ;• to come to
the same bench, and thence to deliver a Message
from the King (27tli Febibary, 1797,) announcing
"the Stoppa,le.of Gold and Sliver payments at the
Bank of Emgland; to'do Otis: and to funk Mr.
Folk in the 4ace, seemed to be too much even for
MT.. PITT ; .to come down to the Muse; and say,
that necessity had compelled hot 'to issue an Order
.of
the King's Council to forbid; or to protect, the
Bank of England from paying the just demands of
its creditors, was more than he was able to do
Without faultering, and it is, perhaps, more than
any other man upon earth, under similar circum.
•
stances, would have been able to do at all.
y His confidence seems, for once, to have failed
him ; and, what is upon record 'as to the ilebate,,
clearly proves, that he died not know what to do;
that lie literally was at his wit's end. , Having do.
livered the Message, and laid a copy of the Order
of Council upon the table, he moved for the Mee.
sago to be-ttikeu into emisideration• the nest day,
and, at the same time, gave notice of a motion' for,
appOntint a Cominittee to inquire into the concerns
UM Birakt.aa ioqiiiry, he said, which •' would
ttesololl‘ to cpnions the " solidity of the Bank

• • *be Parlisenestary Daiwa? 04141.;:,6.