539 
 
 
 A Short History of the Last 
 Session of Parliament, 
 with Remarks . 
 
 Thomas Lewis O'Beirne
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 A SHORT 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LAST SESSION 
 
 O F 
 
 PARLIAMENT, 
 
 W I T rt 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 ET CRIM'INE AB UNO 
 
 DISCE OMNES. VlRG. 
 
 L O N D O' N-: ' fc* 
 
 % 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. ALMON, AND J. DEBRETT, OPPOSITE 
 
 BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY. 
 
 M UCC LXXX,
 
 533 
 \ 7 SO 
 
 A SHORT 
 
 HISTORY, &c. 
 
 THE Period is arrived to which the 
 nation has long looked forward with 
 the greateft anxiety, and earneftnefs of ex^ 
 peclation. The truft vefted in their Repre- 
 ooientatives by the People, is again returned 
 *" to themfelves. They are empowered by the 
 S Conftitution to require an account of their 
 flewardfhip from thofe to whom they had 
 ** committed the care of their moft important 
 interefls j and either to confirm them in 
 that truft in approbation and reward of their 
 fidelity, or to punifh the iniquity that has 
 abufed their confidence, by transferring it 
 to others. 
 
 In the People thus determining for them- 
 
 felves in their collective capacity, the think- 
 
 ing part of the nation has of late placed 
 
 i their only hopes of deliverance, from our pre* 
 
 fent ftate of domeftic and foreign ignominy. 
 
 B 2 Tha- 
 
 306785
 
 [4 ] 
 
 That all the calamities entailed upon 
 this country, owe their origin and progrefs 
 to the Corruption of Parliament, is a fact 
 that will hardly be controverted. Without 
 that blind and implicit obedience, which 
 the Majority of the Commons have indif- 
 criminately paid to every Adminiftration, 
 under every flufting of Government, through 
 every change and fluctuation f contradic- 
 tory meafures for fo many years paft, the 
 nation could never have fallen a facrifice, 
 as it has done, to the ignorance, incapacity 
 and folly, of the moft profligate fet of men, 
 that ever entailed ruin on the nation they 
 governed. 
 
 As the corruption of Parliament, there- 
 fore, has been the fource of our calamities, 
 the redrefs of them can cnly be expected 
 from its restoration to Freedom and Inde- 
 pendency. However hopelefs the attempt 
 was, of obtaining fo deniable a blefling from 
 their own voluntary repentance and atone- 
 ment, yet it has been made. It was at the 
 time, the only expedient the Constitution 
 fuggefted. The event is too well known. 
 To their breach of truft, they added mock- 
 ery and infult. Their treachery to their Con- 
 ftituents, they aggravated by an avowal of 
 their crime, that ended in an accumulation 
 of paft injuries. They confefled thru they- 
 had fold themfelyes to the purpofes of the 
 Crown; that they had joined \vith its fer- 
 vants in helping on their country the evils 
 of which it complained; yet, at the fame in- 
 
 ftant
 
 [ 5 1 
 
 jftant of time, they perfifted, in conjunction 
 with thofe fervants, to withhold every hope 
 of redrefs; thus throwing afide even the ap- 
 pearance of fhame and decency, and feeming 
 to make a boaft of their having plunged 
 themielves into the laft fink of proftitu- 
 tion. 
 
 What then was left for us, but to wait 
 for the prefent Period, when the power they 
 had fo wantonly abufed, fhould be taken 
 from them ; when the People fliould have 
 their redrefs in their own hands, and an 
 opportunity would be given them of aflert- 
 ing their own rights, and fulfilling the 
 wifhes and hopes of all good men. 
 
 To doubt of their difpofition to fulfill 
 thofe hopes, or to confound the national 
 character in the fame invective that branded 
 the corruption of Minifters, and the dege- 
 neracy of Parliament, has been refented by 
 fome as little lefs than treafon againft the 
 State. The fpirit that broke forth in the 
 late county ariemblies, was maintained to 
 encourage this prejudice in favour of pub- 
 lic virtue. It grounded a conclufion, that 
 whenever the appeal fliould be carried to the 
 Freeholders at large, in a manner clearly 
 and unequivocally provided by the Confti- 
 tution, they would be found as true to their 
 interefts, and as incorruptibly tenacious of 
 their rights as the moft virtuous and inde- 
 pendan't of their anceftors. 
 
 I will not enter on the difcuflion of this 
 queftion. Taken merely as matter of argu- 
 ment,
 
 f 6 ] 
 
 merit, it would, at beft, be ufelefs. All oc- 
 cafion of controverfy will foon be fuperfeded 
 by proof. The immediate decifion is in the 
 hands of thofe whofe difpofitions and prin- 
 ciples would give matter to the difpute. 
 
 I can only ailure them, that this nation 
 never knew a more important or momen- 
 tous crifis than the prefent; or one, that, 
 on their parts, called for f > much vigilance, 
 caution and integrity. I will even venture 
 to affirm, that on their decifion, the Liber- 
 ties of this country, and all her future hap- 
 pinefs or mifery, abfolutely and finally de- 
 pend. I t will lay it down as a prophetic 
 truth, v/liich derives none of its forebode- 
 ings from vifionary fears, or unwarranted 
 apprehenfions, that if by their fuffrages, 
 they return to the next Parliament a majo- 
 rity of thofe men, who for the laft fix years, 
 have held themfelves independent of their 
 Conftituents, and acled as the reprefenta- 
 tives of the Minifter, and not of the Peo- 
 ple, they will fet the laft feal to their own 
 ilavery. They will irrevocably fix the pe- 
 riod of their departed Liberties ; they wilt 
 eftablifh the commencement of that aera 
 that fees them reduced to the fame degene- 
 rate date with fo many neighbouring na- 
 tions, who were once as free as we have 
 been. 
 
 A long and hopelefs independence of 
 feven years, is to fucceed. Fearlefs of their 
 refentment, and as regardlefs of their fu- 
 ture, as they have been of their paft com- 
 plaints
 
 t 7 ] 
 
 plaints, their Reprefentatives will purfue 
 their venal courfe, without fear or controul. 
 And whoever attentively conliders the ftage 
 from which they are to fet out, and fuppofes 
 a progrefs in their proceedings proportio- 
 nate to the changes that have taken place 
 for the laft fix years, as well in point 
 of national profperity, as in the temper 
 and difpofitions of the People, will find, 
 abundant reafon to admit my worft fears, 
 and to form with me the moft gloomy ap- 
 prehenfions. 
 
 If fuccefsful in the prefent flruggle, the 
 authors of thofe changes will have reafon 
 to hold themfelves fupported by the People. 
 They will not fail to perfevere in a fyfcem, 
 for which they can fo plaufibly plead the 
 general approbation. They will maintain 
 that the appeal has been made to the nation 
 at large, and that the majority of the Free- 
 holders hold the fame opinions with the 
 majority of the Reprefentatives. That the 
 degeneracy of Parliament was, as it always 
 muft be, fympathetic, and the neceflary con- 
 fequence of the degeneracy of the nation ; 
 and that by perfevering in their attempt to 
 introduce the fyflem of government they 
 have been fo long meditating, they only 
 conform themfelves to the circumflances of 
 the times, and the difpofitions of the People. 
 
 I beg, however, it may be underftood 
 that I only moot the cafe, and that my fears 
 are merely fuppofed. I am myfelf inclined 
 to hope better things from the collected 
 
 virtue
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 virtue and integrity of the nation. It is 
 not poffible that they can fo foon confent tc* 
 forfeit the privileges their anceftors bled to 
 preferve to them. They cannot fo tamely 
 confent to relinquifh a Conftiturion, the 
 happy fruits of which they themfelves once 
 enjoyed in the becoming pride of national 
 glory, in the enjoyment of a free and un- 
 interrupted commerce to every part of the 
 globe, to mod of it exclufively, and in the 
 increafe and fecurity of private property and 
 domeftic happinefs. 
 
 My only with is to imprefs the People 
 with a thorough fenfe of the great and de- 
 rifive points on which the friends of this 
 country, and the friends of the Miniftry, 
 are actually at iffue before them, The 
 pains that will be taken by both parties to 
 influence their votes, will be in proportion 
 to the vaft and important confequences that 
 muft follow their determination. 
 
 But in this contefr, the advantages on 
 both lides are by no means equal. On the 
 part of the Minifter will be the weight and 
 authority of government, and that ail-rul- 
 ing influence of the Crown, to which all 
 our fufferings are afcribable, the nurnberlefs 
 tribe of Placemen, Penfioners, and Retain- 
 ers of Officers, difperfed through every 
 corner and cranny of the Kingdom, and 
 above all, the command of the public trea- 
 fures, and all the fources of bribery and 
 corruption fources by which he has al- 
 ready bought up the virtue and integrity 
 of Parliament, and by which he depends 
 
 to
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 to be equally fuccefsful among their Con- 
 itituents. 
 
 By this laft expedient, he will be enabled 
 to employ his agents in the moft barbarous 
 and infulting tyranny that ever a deluded 
 People fubmitted to. He will make them the 
 fellers at once and the purchasers of their 
 own freedom and property. The treafures, 
 which he has levied on their indigence by 
 every oppreffive mode of taxation, under pre- 
 tence of the exigencies of the State, he will 
 lavifh in buying from the voters the return 
 of thofe very men ? who affifted him in 
 creating thofe exigencies, and whofe intereft 
 it is, as well as his own, that they fhould 
 increafe inftead of leflening. 
 
 To thefe corrupt auxiliaries will be added 
 all the arts of falihood and mifreprefenta- 
 tion, and the fame caufes I have enumerated 
 above will give thefe alfo circulation and 
 fuccefs. The fame calumnies, the fame il- 
 liberal invectives, the fame imputed crimi- 
 nality of motives, with which their hireling 
 writers have been accuftomed to brand their 
 opponents, will now be propagated with 
 increafed induftry. No pains will be neg- 
 lected, no expences fpared from the Trea- 
 fury, to lead, the People into the mpft fatal 
 of all errors, that of miflaking their friends 
 for their worft enemies, their worft enemies 
 for their friends. 
 
 Againft thofe dangerous and powerful 
 
 engines the friends of the People can only 
 
 C oppofe
 
 t 10 ] 
 
 oppofc the importance of their caufc, the 
 integrity of their intentions in the profecu- 
 tion of that caufe, and their zeal to avert 
 the dangers that hang over their country. 
 To the falfhoods and mifreprefentations of 
 Government, they can only fet in contrail 
 a plain and candid flate of facls, on which 
 the People may judge for themfelvcs. To 
 offer theft is all they can do. If the People 
 are not true to themfelves in forming their 
 judgment, and acting in confequence, it is 
 not in the power of any fet of men, how- 
 ever zealous and well intentioned, to fave 
 them. 
 
 To promote fo defireable a work is the 
 intention of the following EfTay. The 
 Author is of opinion, that nothing can 
 be better calculated to give a proper idea 
 of the refpective merits of the parties, who 
 now claim the confidence of the people, than 
 a faithful narrative of the proceedings of 
 the laft Parliament, impartially fubmitted 
 to public confideration. 
 
 It is not my intention, however, to fol- 
 low the Minilter and his adherents through 
 the vaft variety of matter that has occurred 
 within thefe laft fix years. This, in fad:, 
 would be no lefs than to write a complete 
 hiftory of the decline of the rnoft power- 
 ful and formidable empire that ever wa$ 
 raifed by the virtue and induflry of a brave 
 people. 
 
 Other States have verged to their fall by 
 gradual and flow degrees. Their founda- 
 tions
 
 tioris have been undermined by prbgreffive. 
 evils, almoft imperceptible at the time of 
 their influence, and which the induftry of 
 iubfequent hiftorians was obliged to draw 
 out in a regular feries, before they could 
 trace them to their fources. 
 
 But in the fhort fpace of little more than 
 five years, the men, whom God in his 
 wrath permitted to govern this country, af- 
 fiiled and countenanced by the guardians of 
 the people, have crouded all the calamities 
 and difafters that have opprefTed other na- 
 tions in as many ages. 
 
 Shortly after the commencement of the. 
 prefent reign, Great Britain poffefTed the 
 larger! extent of territory, the greater! mare 
 of power and opulence, and, in all human 
 forefight, the moil permanent ilate of fe- 
 curity and {lability of any nation upon the 
 earth. Reputation abroad, and concord at 
 home, diftinguifhed that period as the moft 
 fplendid and happy this Kingdom had ever 
 known. 
 
 Every part of the empire and its de- 
 pendencies enjoyed a ftate of perfect traii- 
 quility. Our flag flew triumphant and un- 
 rivalled from one end of the globe to the 
 other. The lioufe of Bourbon was com- 
 pletely humbled. The family compact, if 
 hot really, was at leaft effectually diflblved. 
 Their finances reduced, and their power, 
 both by land and fca, almoft annihilated, 
 they could not attempt to carry its objects 
 C 2 into
 
 into execution, without expofmg themfelves 
 to a renewal of all the miferies and difgraces 
 it had drawn after it en its firft formation. 
 Our Colonies had attained the full vigour 
 of manhood. They confidered themfelves 
 as bound to us by the indiffoluble ties of 
 common origin, common names, common 
 language, religion, intercfl^ and there fub- 
 fifled, between us and them, the happieft 
 reciprocation of wealth, affection, and 
 power. 
 
 The fcene indeed began foon to be re- 
 verfed. A fatal change was fhortly intro- 
 duced into the fyftem of Government, and 
 good men began to form the moft melan- 
 choly forebodings of impending evils. 
 
 But it was reierved to the days of the laft 
 Parliament, to adopt the fatal meafure that 
 has, in fo fhort a time, effected what it was 
 impoffible for the moft apprehenfive and ti- 
 morous minds to forecaft to their fears. 
 
 In i775> the Nation was plunged into 
 the American war. From that accurfed 
 meafure, as from the womb of the Trojan 
 horfe, have iilued all our calamities. The. 
 eye turns with horror from the difaftrous 
 catalogue. But they prefs upon our feel- 
 ings with too importunate a weight to al- 
 low our oppreffed fpirits even a momentary 
 refpite we can no more fly from them 
 than from a tainted and deadly atmofphere 
 that wraps and envelopes us wherever we 
 turn our fteps. 
 
 Abroad
 
 f .3 ] 
 
 Abroad the Empire diimembered. Ifs 
 former ft rength converted into its weaknefs. 
 Our Colonies revolted, and forming the 
 bond of union to one of the moft danger- 
 ous confederacies that ever conlpired againft 
 the Crown and People of Great Britain * 
 Abandoned by all our former friends and 
 allies : even thofe of them, who are indebt- 
 ed to us almoft for their exigence, driven 
 by the weaknefs and fottifhnefs of our 
 Councils, with which they would think it a 
 difgrace to conned: themfelves, into an arm- 
 ed league, for the exprefs purpofe of top- 
 plying our enemies, and of co-operating 
 with them in the long-wifhed for opportu- 
 nity of overthrowing and annihilating our 
 naval power. 
 
 At home, an impoverished people, op- 
 preffed with accumulating taxes, (to which 
 there is no profpecfc of either meafure or 
 end); diflracled councils; factions in the 
 Cabinet, in Parliament, in the Navy, in 
 the Army ; lofs of all credit and mutual 
 confidence; diminifhed rents, lands funk at 
 leaft one- third in value; daily bankruptcies; 
 difcontents breaking out into public acts of 
 fedition and lawlefs violence ; the blood of 
 citizens flowing through our ftreets in pu- 
 nifhment of mifguided excelfes, to which 
 the weaknefs and pufillanimity of Govern- 
 ment had given rife ; the Kingdom abfo- 
 lutely under the difcretion and power of a 
 
 * See the King's Speech, Nov. 1779. 
 
 military
 
 t '4 ] 
 
 military force, independant of the Civil 
 Magiftrate*; an univerfal face of diftruft 
 and difmay, and fearful expectation of fome 
 decifive calamity, for which, in the confef- 
 fion of all parties, our actual fituation fhould 
 induce us to prepare our minds. 
 
 Thefe are facts of equal fhame, grief, 1 
 and notoriety . There is not an individual 
 who does not feel their truth in the utmoft 
 extent of their moft baneful confequences ; 
 and it would be an infult on the common 
 fenfe of the nation, to fuppofe that they flood 
 in need of any exhortation to refcue itfelf 
 from the treachery of a fet of men, who co- 
 operated with a weak and profligate Admini- 
 ftration, in tumbling it from the height of 
 glory and affluanee, into fuch a gulph of mi- 
 fery, poverty, difgrace, and almoft final ruin. 
 
 To enter into a detail of all the blunders 
 on the part of Miniftry, and the fervile in- 
 difcriminate compliance on the part of the 
 Commons, that has reduced us to this me- 
 lancholy fituation, would, as I have ob- 
 ferved, be impoflible from the urgency of 
 the prefent moment. I fliall therefore, con- 
 fine myfelf to a brief narrative of the pro- 
 
 * At the time of the late riots in London, an order 
 \vas iflued out for the Military to ait, without waiting 
 for the authority of the Civil Magiftrate. The violence 
 of the rioters, and the remiflhefs of the magiftrare?, ren- 
 dered fuch an extraordinary ftretch of the prerogative 
 neceflary. But Minifters greedily feized this opportu- 
 nity, and extended the orders to every part of the king- 
 dom, though fuch nccefiky exifted in the capital alone. 
 Thole outers have not as ye; been formally recalled. 
 
 ceedings-
 
 [ '5 1 
 
 feedings of the laft feflion. Moft of the 
 great events, that mark its features, will 
 come home to the feelings of the People. 
 They belong to their cognizance in a very 
 peculiar manner, as immediately relating 
 to the moft declared and acknowledged duty 
 they had a right to command from their 
 Conftituents. They alone are fufficient to 
 anfwer all the falutary purpofes which this 
 eflay is defigned to produce. 
 
 But before I enter on the fubjecl, it may 
 not be amifs previouily to ftaie the lituation 
 of things, when the fixth feffion of the laft 
 Parliament >vas opened by a fpeech from 
 the throne. The conduct of the majority 
 of the Commons will thereby be more clearly 
 illucidated, and their merits more fully un- 
 jderftood by the People. 
 
 The difgraceful campaign of 1779, had 
 juft clofed, and men had time to collect 
 their thoughts, and to review the dangers 
 they could fcarce believe they had efcaped. 
 The combined fleets of France and Spain, 
 the junction of which Minifters had not 
 taken a fingle Hep to prevent, had retired 
 into port, after braving fwept the channel 
 in triumph for feveral weeks, and fpread 
 terror and difmay along our coafts. A 
 ftrong eafterly wind and an epidemic difor- 
 cler, that defolated the crew of every fhip in 
 their fquadron, had refcued us from their 
 menaces, and fruflrated their intended fcheme 
 of invafion. To thefe providential circum- 
 flances alone, it was acknowledged by all 
 
 parties.
 
 [ '6 ] 
 
 parties, we were indebted for our prefe 
 tion. The enemy found the whole extent 
 of our coafl unarmed and unprovided. Ply- 
 mouth, to which they directed their firft at- 
 tempts, was naked, defencelefs, and un- 
 covered. The fleet of England had been 
 ignominioufly chaced up the channel, and 
 compelled to take {belter in its own har- 
 bours *. Squadrons of privateers infefted 
 every part of the coafts of the three king- 
 doms. They fpread terror through all the 
 maritime towns, and captured our mer^ 
 chant fhips, even in fight of the fhore. All 
 trade was at a ftand. Our manufactures 
 were equally affected, and the lower orders 
 of the People crouded the ftreets idle and 
 unemployed. The merchants would not 
 venture to fhip off their goods, while the 
 channel was rilled with the cruizers of 
 France, Spain, and America. The traders 
 and dealers of the maritime counties were 
 fearful of fending the commodities they 
 purchafed of the farmers, by fea, and were 
 thereby prevented from, circulating them, 
 as they were accuflomed to do, by the cheap 
 conveyance of water-carriage. Thole who 
 did run the rifque, did it under the di fad- 
 vantage of an unheard-of infurance. This 
 
 * The fquadron under Sir Charles Hardy, remained 
 at Spithead, till the retreat of the enemy. It was then 
 ordered to put to fea, at the rifque of being difperfed 
 and fcattered by the ftorms that prevail at that feafon, 
 and this to anfwer no purpofe, but the purpofe of an 
 empty parade, and to amufe and delude the public. 
 
 afforded
 
 [ 17 1 
 
 afforded the freighters a pretext of buying 
 them up at the lowefl rates, while at the 
 fame time it raifed the markets to which 
 they were fent, as it was paid back by the 
 purchafer in the increafed prices they coft 
 him. The confequence was a failure of 
 rent among the farmers, bankruptcies 
 among the lower tradefmen and artifans, 
 an univerfal diftruft and lofs of credit. 
 The diftrefles into which thofe evils natu- 
 rally reduced the landed gentlemen, joined 
 to a monopoly of money, by thofe who ne- 
 gociated the loans for government, reduced 
 the value of lands from thirty-five and 
 forty, to twenty-five, and twenty years pur- 
 chafe *. 
 
 Our accounts from abroad were all of the 
 fame difaftrous tenor. The Portugal trade 
 remained locked out the whole fummer. 
 The Mediterranean and Levant trades were 
 utterly gone. The Newfoundland fimery 
 was nearly demolifhed. The Eaft India 
 trade had taken refuge up the Shannon as 
 far as Limerick. There it remained for ten 
 weeks in conftant terror, till being refcued 
 at length by the voluntary retreat of the 
 enemy, it got into port, with the lofs of 
 one fourth of the fquadron, wrecked near 
 the Ifle of Guernfey. 
 
 Our Weft-India merchantmen had, in- 
 deed, arrived in fafety j but fo unexpecl- 
 edly, and in a manner fo contrary to all 
 
 * In one of the beft counties in England, an eftate 
 was Cold laft year for eighteen years purchafe. 
 
 D human
 
 human, calculation, that Minifters them* 
 felves were compelled to attribute the event 
 to the gooclnefs of Providence alone. 
 
 From the Weft-Indies, every day brought 
 over the news of fome frefh difafter. Do- 
 minica captured St. Vincent wrefted from 
 us and Grenada once more reduced to the 
 dominion of France. If St. Lucia avoided 
 the fame fate, it owed its fafety to the gaU 
 lantry of Colonel Meadows *, and to the 
 ikill and intrepidity of Admiral Barrington, 
 who, with four men of war and a few fri- 
 gates, was left, in this fecond year of koftili- 
 ties i ice, expofed to fourteen fail of 
 
 the line, under Monfieur D'Eftaign. 
 
 In . i, that grave of Englifh valour 
 
 and of Engliih glory, things wore, if pof- 
 iible, a ftili more unfavourable afpecl:. 
 Rhode Ifland had been evacuated, and this- 
 only iafe retreat -f- for our men of war, from 
 
 Halifax 
 
 * This gallant officer, who has been foremoft in 
 cv: r v action fmce the beginning of the American war,, 
 is fr:;l a lieutenant-colonel on the Englifh eftablifhm^nt, 
 whiie huif-pay lieutenants, and clerks in o&ce, are at 
 the head of regiments. 
 
 f New- York is by no means a fafe harbour to make. 
 Exc!ufr--e of the (hallownefs of the bar, on which, with 
 fmooth water, and gentle winds, fixty four gun fhips 
 h-ve of;cn ii;uck, there are very few points of the com-. 
 pa;s frc.m \vi:;ch large fhips can run for ic in a Oorm. 
 M"he ., which are the prevailins hiah winds, 
 
 bknv :; of the b:iy ; and fuppofing a large fieec 
 
 t-> Lv i\ir;:.;i- ..d by a ^aie from the South-eaft, a good 
 way wltiiin the large bay that is formed by the aft~end 
 of L , and the Capes of the Delaware, with- 
 
 out tL:;. -g to attempt the bar at ^andy-Hook, it would 
 
 be
 
 r 19 ] 
 
 Halifax to the Weft- Indies, relinquiihed 
 to the enemy, whofe fleets are now riding 
 there, unoppoted, and meditating hoflilities 
 againft our devoted army. All active, of- 
 fenfive operations were fufpended. The 
 whole attention of the immenfe force col- 
 lected at New- York was taken up in pre- 
 paring for its defence, and guarding itfelf 
 from being furprifed by an army, which 
 this infatuated country v/as made to believe 
 did not amount to five thoufand men. 
 
 Ireland was in a ftate little fhort of re- 
 bellion. Admin iftration continued to turn 
 a deaf ear to her reiterated complaints, in 
 breach of the public faith pledged to her 
 the former feffions ; and her afibciated corps 
 were then determined to extprt, by force, 
 the redrefs (he had folicited in ; vain as a 
 mark of favour. 
 
 The very Minifters were quarrelling a- 
 mong themfelves ; and as it generally hap- 
 pens in fuch cafes, their iniquitous fecrets 
 had been divulged by fome of their own 
 body. Lord Gower, who had acted with 
 them moft fteadily, and with the moft for- 
 ward zeal, and who had fupported them 
 through fo many dirty meafures, had, a few 
 
 be fcarce poflible for them to avoid the fhoals of Barne- 
 gat. Not one of thefe difficulties can be applied to 
 Rhode Ifland. The whole navy of England might get 
 in there with any wind, and ride there in iafety. Yet 
 the nation is told that it has caufe to triumph, becaufe 
 we have relinquifbed that place to get pofleffion of 
 Charles Town, which a frigate cannot approach with, 
 fafety. 
 
 D 2 days
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
 days before^ relinquimed his feat at the 
 Council Board. The habitual indolence 
 and inattention of the Minifter, and his cri- 
 minal neglect, which, he averted; it was 
 impoflible to find words to exprefs, were 
 the reafons he afllgned for his refignation. 
 Thefe he further Strengthened by a public 
 declaration from his feat in Parliament, that 
 he could no longer act with fuch men with 
 honour or confcience. To concur in their 
 meafures would be infamy, and a crime 
 againft his country, too much even for him 
 to fubmit to *. 
 
 I beg of my readers that they would care- 
 fully attend to this detail of facts, and 
 efpecially to the laft circumftance. I have 
 already given my reafons for thus particular- 
 ly enumerating them. The Reprefentatives 
 of the People/ who at fuch a moment, 
 and after fuch a declaration from the very 
 Prefident of the King's councils, could con- 
 tinue to vote with the authors of thefe 
 complicated calamities, and to give them a 
 blind and implicit unenquiring fupport, 
 can furely have little hopes of efcaping the 
 execration of their Conftituents at this time 
 of general account. 
 
 * This Nobleman was one the moft forward and 
 fanguine among the Miniftry for enforcing hoftile mea- 
 fures againft the Colonies. He has lived to fee his er- 
 ror, and, as far as a public acknowledgment goes, has 
 made atonement to his country ; yet a majority of the 
 Reprefentatives of the People continued to fupport an, 
 obftinate perfeverance in that reprobated meafure. 
 
 Such,
 
 Such, however,- was the perilous (Itua-* 
 tion of our affairs both abroad and at home 
 when the Minifter prefumed to meet the 
 Parliament. The defection of his col- 
 leagues, the loud cries of the public, the 
 confcioufnefs of his own inadequacy to the 
 place, the conviction he muft have felt that 
 all the miferies of his country were folely 
 to be afcribed to the ignorance and imbe- 
 cility of his councils, feemed to have no 
 weight with him. Secure in the numbers 
 of his venal fupporters in both Houfes, 
 which he had previoufly calculated, he 
 equally fet at defiance the clamours of the 
 people, and the inquifitive indignation of 
 the virtuous and patriotic within doors. 
 
 The immortal Pitt, in all the pride of his 
 moft brilliant fucceffes, never met the great 
 Council of the Nation, to congratulate with 
 them on their victories, with more confi- 
 fidence than this man afTumed, with fuch a 
 load of national cenfure, and national ca- 
 lamity on his head. 
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 The Addrefs, which he had the audacity 
 to get propofed in the Upper Houfe, fet out 
 with calling on the Peers to exprefs their 
 cwrvi&ion of the bleffings we enjoyed under 
 his Adminiftration. Let the reader but re- 
 collect the time, the circumftances, fuch as 
 I have jufl defcribed them j and then form 
 
 a judg-
 
 a judgment of thofe Lords, who, through 
 the perfon of their Sovereign, voted thanks 
 to the Minifter for procuring fitch blej/ings 
 to the Nation. 
 
 The remainder of the addrefs was pretty 
 much the fame in both Houfes. It was, as 
 ufual) an echo to the fpeech, an eulogy on 
 Adminiftration, and an unbounded promife 
 on the part of the Commons, to levy on 
 their Conftituents whatever fupplies an 
 avowed profecution of the fame ruinous 
 meafures that had caufed our misfortunes, 
 fhould call for. 
 
 It was to no purpofe that the gentlemen 
 of the Oppofition, reminded the Reprefen- 
 tatives of the People, of the facred duty 
 they owed to their Conftituents. In vain 
 they afked them if they considered that the 
 awful moment was approaching, when they 
 fhould be called upon to give an account of 
 their ftewardfhips. With what face could 
 they appear before their Conftituents ? Could 
 they inform them for what purpofe they had 
 pledged themfelves to levy additional taxes, 
 on a People already groaning under a debt 
 not much fhort of one hundred and fifty 
 millions, and which when the unfunded debt, 
 and the expenditure of the fucceeding year 
 were added to it, would be little fhort of 
 two hundred millions, requiring an annual 
 intcreft of eight millions and a half? What 
 reafons would they afiign for fupporting a 
 let of men, under whole baneful aufpices, 
 we were reduced to that extremity of dif- 
 
 trefs
 
 trefs, which the fpeech acknowledged ? 
 Would they fay that they fupported them 
 becaufe the glaring abfurdities, the crimi- 
 nal omiffions, and fcandalous inconfiften- 
 cies of their Administration, had raifed the 
 * moft dangerous confederacy, that ever was 
 formed againft the Crown and People of Great 
 Britain; becaufe notwithstanding the im- 
 menfe fums that had been voted to the dif- 
 ferent fervices, far beyond the utmoft ex- 
 travagance of any previous time, they left 
 the kingdom fo unprovided and defencelefs, 
 that nothing -\-but the intervention of Providence 
 could \\Vf$fruftrat4d the defgns and attempts 
 of our enemies to invade it. Would they fay 
 that they fupported them, becaufe their own 
 colleagues, fpeaking like men willing to 
 make fome atonement for tljeir errors, and 
 beholding fuch things as were tranfafting 
 among them, declared, that they could no 
 longer be prefent at their councils with ho- 
 nour or confcience ? What would they tell 
 their Constituents had become of the Ame- 
 ricon war ? Ministers had pafled it over in 
 the filence of death. Neither in the Speech, 
 nor in the arguments of thofe who were in- 
 ftrufted to move the Addrefs, was there a 
 fingle word dropt upon the fubjeft. Were 
 we to fit down content with the lofs of 
 the many millions, and the rivers of blood 
 filed by our brave countrymen, which it 
 had already coft the nation ? Or was it Hill 
 
 * Vide King's Speech. f Ibid. 
 
 to
 
 I 24 J 
 
 to continue to drain away the ftrength that 
 fhould be turned againft our natural ene- 
 mies ? They could not inform them. The 
 Minifter had not condefcended to take the 
 leaft notice of it. 
 
 What excufe would they tell them, had 
 the Minifter himfelf alledged to the Houfe ? 
 By what palliatives did he cover his own 
 crimes ? " I have always acted to the heft 
 " of my underftanding. If my meafures 
 " have failed, they can at leaft plead the 
 " merit of goodnefs in my defigns, and in- 
 " nocencein my intentions. The perils with 
 <c which we are furrounded are not the fault 
 " of my Adminiftration. They are owing 
 " to the ingratitude of the powers confede- 
 " rated againft us. Am I to blame if the 
 " Colonies be difloyal ; if France be ambi- 
 ~" tious, and if Spain be a dupe ? I wiflied to 
 <c have prevented the junction of the French 
 " and Spaniih fleets. I knew it was the only 
 c< meafure that, under any human agency, 
 <e could poffibly fave us from deftruction. 
 fc But the French had the fagacity to know 
 " my wifhes. While the fleet of England 
 " remained at anchor at Torbay, Monfieur 
 c< D'Orvilliers flipped out from Breft, and 
 <c failed to Cadiz." 
 
 Thefe were, in facl, the chief, nay the 
 only arguments made ufe of by the Minifter 
 to repel the attacks of the oppofite fide of 
 the Houfe. An unblufhing avowal of his 
 ignorance, his incapacity, his inactivity, was 
 his only plea to favour. *' He afted to the 
 
 bcft
 
 t *5 ] 
 
 be/I of his underftanding" His crime was 
 his defence, and it was remarked that he 
 urged it with fuch infolence as nothing but 
 the venality of Parliament could have in- 
 fpired him with. He had previoufly taken 
 care to render his defence, whatever it 
 might be, unanfwerable. The majority of 
 the Members had facrificed, at the Trea- 
 fury, all the facred obligations they owed 
 to their Conftituents. 
 
 It is worthy of being obferved to the 
 Freeholders, on this occafion, that during 
 the whole debate on the Addrefs, not one 
 Englifhman opened his lips in approbation 
 of the Minifler or his meafures, except the 
 Secretary at War, and he only fpoke in 
 anfwer to accufations urged againft himfelf. 
 Two Scotch advocates, one of them now a 
 Peer, and at the head of one of the Courts of 
 Law, and a Gentleman of the fame country, 
 who in confideration of fome military pre- 
 ferments, which he has fince received, was 
 that very day enrolled on the Treafury lift, 
 were the only perfons who openly flood up 
 for the firlt Minifter of England, in the 
 Parliament of England, at a crifis when 
 meafures that tended to her very exiftence 
 were under deliberation. But, alas ! what 
 do I talk of deliberation. The Minifler 
 fcorned to afk the advice of Parliament, 
 even at fo perilous a crifis. The form of 
 the approbation of the Majority", to the mea- 
 fures he had already determined on, was all 
 E he
 
 he called for. They could not refufufe him 
 his own. He had bought it at a price *. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Towards the clofe of the laft feflion, the 
 diftrefles of Ireland had become the fubject 
 of parliamentary attention. The i ith of 
 May, on a motion of the Marquis of Rock- 
 ingham, an unanimous addrefs was voted, 
 recommending to his Majefty's moft ferious 
 confideration, the diftrefiTed andimpoveriflied 
 Hate of the loyal and wcll-defervmg People 
 of that kingdom, and praying that fuch fleps 
 might be taken, as fhould tend to promote 
 the common ftrength, wealth, and com- 
 'merce, of his Majefly's fubje&s in both 
 kingdoms. The following day his Majefty 
 returned a gracious anfwer to this addrefs, 
 and promifed to give directions to comply 
 with the prayer of it.' A confiderable time 
 elapAd however, and not a fingle ftep was 
 taken by Ad mini Oration in this important 
 and preiling bufmefs. The recefs vvas at 
 hand' The clamours of the People of Ire- 
 land became more loud and vehement, in 
 
 * " A i'ullen Majority," faid one of the Country gen- 
 tlemen, * 4 fiient wuhin aoprs, loquacious vithoqr. j^i 
 44 every other place, hut in the Houfe, tp the amazc- 
 . *' ir.ent of ali fpeculaiive poluic.ans, c( M 'iclen nii>i< the 
 ^' mtafures, ar.d execrating the men 'whom they c/.me 
 " tliere to hi;. port. 1 ' Would to God that fo fhameful 
 a record couic! he concealed from the knowledge of fq- 
 reigner.s, and '.he researches o/ our defccnclajits'.
 
 [ 27 ] 
 
 proportion as their diftrefles increafed, and 
 their hopes of redrefs appeared more remote. 
 It was evident to the moft. inattentive ob- 
 ferver, that fome effectual remedy Ihould be 
 immediately applied, or that the moft fatal 
 confequences were to be apprehended from 
 the defpair of a brave People, reduced to 
 fuch a ftate of calamity and diftrefs, as was 
 experienced by no other nation that ever 
 exifbd, unlefs fcourged by war, peitilence, 
 or famine. 
 
 Upon this fhameful contempt of the re- 
 commendation of Parliament, andthis breach 
 of afTurances folemnly pledged by the fer- 
 vants of the Crown, a motion was made on 
 the 2d of June, reflating the neceffity of 
 giving fpeedy and effectual relief to Ireland, 
 and intreating, that if the Royal Preroga- 
 tive vefted in his Majefty, was not adequate 
 to adminifter the neceffary relief, he would 
 be pleafed to continue the Parliament of this 
 kingdom, and give orders forthwith for call- 
 ing the Parliament of Ireland. To induce the 
 Minifter to concur in this motion, all the 
 confequences that afterwards took place, were 
 predicted and fet in the ftrongeft colours. He 
 was told that he was already confidered by 
 the People of Ireland, as having declared 
 open holtility againft their country. He had 
 thrown out, by his fole influence, a trifling 
 favour, which before his coming down, and 
 oppofing it with all the energy of his elo- 
 quence, as well as authority, the Commons 
 feemed difpofed to grant them. If to this he 
 E 2. would
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
 would add a contempt of the united wifhes of 
 the Britifh Legiflature, and perfevere in re- 
 filling them relief, there was no forefeeing to 
 what fatal exceffes, their indignation and def- 
 pair might tranfport them. The example of 
 America, was fet before his eyes- He was ex- 
 horted not to drive this only furviving child 
 of Great Britain into fimlar circumftances, 
 or compel her to extort as a right, what (he 
 wifhed to receive as a favour. But nothing 
 could rouze him fromhisobftinate inactivity. 
 He indulged his lethargic indolence in the 
 fecurity of his influence and numbers. The 
 Parliament of England was prorogued. No 
 orders were fent to convene the Parliament 
 of Ireland, 
 
 From this unfeeling inattention to the dif- 
 trefTes of that kingdom, and this contempt 
 of its poflible and natural refentments, the 
 Minifter proceeded to a renunciation of its 
 Government. He refufed them protection 
 in the hour of their greateft danger, and 
 virtually releafed its inhabitants from their 
 allegiance. 
 
 Spain had acceded to the French and 
 American confederacy. Bojh channels were 
 overrun by the fleets of the Allies. Ireland, 
 as well as England, was threatened with in- 
 vafion, and the enemy had actually begun 
 to infult her maritime towns. In this emer- 
 gency, flie applied to Government for pro- 
 te^tion. But alas ! the gallant troops that 
 could have avenged her caufe upon her in- 
 vaders, were wailing their ilrength in the 
 
 wilds
 
 [29 ] 
 
 wilds of America, in the profecution of a 
 cruel and favage war, againft her fellow- 
 fubjects. She received from the Minifter, 
 the anfwer that was returned to our ancef- 
 tors, on a fimilar application to the Senate 
 of Rome; " You muft arm in your own 
 defence, we have not the power to protect 
 you." 
 
 Thus was the Government abdicated, and 
 the People abandoned to their fate. But 
 they were not wanting to'themfelves. They 
 found in their national bravery and virtue 
 defence, not only againft the arms of their 
 foreign enemies, but againft the fatal effects 
 and complicated evils of rnal-adminiftration. 
 at home ; of calamity entailed upon them by 
 tyranny without hopes of redrefs j of iron- 
 handed power without protection. They ex- 
 hibited a political phcenomenon. They 
 transformed vveaknefs into ftrength. From,* 
 the loweft ebb of national mifery and pub-' 
 lie dependency they fuddenly rofe into the 
 fullnefs of vigour, fpirit, and Ability to 
 command a redrefs of all their grievances. 
 
 Forty thoufand men, completely armed, 
 regularly difciplined, felected from the no- 
 bility, gentry, merchants, citizens, and re- 
 ipeclable yeomanry, clothed, furnifhed, and 
 maintaned at their own expence, firft fe- ' 
 cured their country againft its foreign ene- 
 mies, and then united their efforts in corn- 
 felling that juftice with arms in their hands, 
 that had, as with America, been denied to 
 humble applications, and the repeated re- 
 
 prefen-
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 prefentations of their mifery and diftrefs. 
 They peremptorily infilled upon that re- 
 drefs which they had before fupplicated. 
 Their demands were enforced by the points 
 of forty thoufand bayonets. 
 
 Yet amid this fcene of danger, while this 
 fpirit of refiftance looking towards indepen- 
 dency, dictated the refolves of every meet- 
 ing of the Aflbciators, and peremptorily 
 controuled the deliberations of the Great 
 Council of the kingdom, the Minifter, to 
 whofe fhameful inattention and criminal: 
 neglecl: in the firft images of the difcontents, 
 it was folely imputable, flill remained un- 
 decided and inactive. He confeffed that he 
 had never properly turned his thoughts to 
 the fubjeft. He was ignorant of the dan- 
 ger, and confequently was unprovided with 
 a remedy. He heiitated, protracted, fhuffied, 
 nor was it till the J3tb of December that, 
 baited and goaded on by the importunate 
 attack of the friends of their country, he 
 came down to the Houfe, and directed his 
 creatures to acquiefce in whatever propofi- 
 tions Ireland might think proper to de- 
 mand. Whether thofe proportions were 
 derogatory to the glory, or contrary to the 
 
 commercial interefts of this Kingdom 
 
 or whether they would throw too great a 
 weight into the fcale of Ireland, was then 
 no time to confider. There was no longer 
 any room for deliberation. Miniftefs had 
 let the moment pals when the refpective 
 rights of the two countries might be delibe- 
 rately
 
 rately adjufled, and when Ireland would 
 have refted content with indulgences far 
 (hort of what (he was fairly entitled to ex- 
 pect. The exigency of the moments, thanks 
 to our wife and provident rulers, left no 
 other alternative but an implicit acquief- 
 cence or another civil war, and no facrifice 
 could be thought too great that, in our pre- 
 fent fituation, would prevent a diflblution. 
 of the constitutional connexion between the 
 two countries. 
 
 During the whole of this important bufi- 
 nefs, the majority of the Reprefentatives of 
 the People, as ufual, followed the Minifter 
 through all his fhiftings and windings, 
 contradictions and * inconfiftencies. They 
 watched over him in the flumbers of his in- 
 dolence and inactivity they flood by him 
 in his ftarts of peremptorinefs and obfti- 
 nacy. They denied when he refufed ; when 
 he relaxed, they granted ; they gave their 
 fanclion to his meafures before they were 
 put into execution, and they fcreened him 
 from cenfure when their baneful effects be- 
 came notorious, and called not only for re- 
 drefs but punifhment. 
 
 It is impoflible to read the account of 
 this important bulinefs without calling to 
 mind the beginnings of the unfortunate 
 conteft with America, and comparing the 
 conduct of Ministers towards the two coun- 
 tries I find this done in fo mafterly a man- 
 ner in the fubflance of Mr. Burke's Speech, 
 on the 6th of December, publifhed in Al- 
 
 mon's
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
 don's Debates, that I fhall content myfelf 
 with tranfcribing it for the benefit of my 
 readers. 
 
 " Ireland fpurned at the Britifh claim 
 " of dominion ; (he looked upon herfelf 
 *' free and independent. A mob had rofe 
 <c in Dublin, and non-importation agree- 
 " ments had taken place. Why not, as 
 cc was the fate of Bofton, (hut up the 
 " Port of Dublin ? Why not burn Corke, 
 " reduce Waterford to afhes ? Why not 
 
 ." prohibit all popular meetings in that 
 ft kingdom, and deftroy all popular elec- 
 " tions ? Why not alter the ufual mode of 
 <c ft riking juries, as was done by the Maf- 
 " fachufet's Bay Charter Bill ? Why not 
 < bring the Dublin rioters over to this 
 tc country to be tried by an Englifh jury ? 
 " Why not fhut up their ports, and pre- 
 c< vent them from trading with each other ? 
 "Why not prefcribe the principal lead- 
 " ers, who hold commiflions, not under the 
 " Crown, but by virtue of the free elec- 
 " tion of the very corps which they com- 
 
 ." manded r Why not put them out of 
 '* the King's peace, and declare the whole 
 *' Kingdom in rebellion ? The anfwer was 
 " plain and direcl. Minifters dare not. 
 " Sad and dear - bought experience had 
 " taught them the folly, as well as imprac- 
 
 . *' ticability of fuch meafures. The danger 
 " of the prefent awful moment made in- 
 " folence and arrogance give way to fear 
 " and humiliation/ 1 
 
 ARMY
 
 [ 33 1 
 
 ARMY ESTIMATES, &c. 
 
 In the midft of the debates on this im- 
 minent danger, to which the nation was ex- 
 pofed from an interior convulfion, fimilar 
 to what the fatal meafures of Adminiftra- 
 tion had raifed in America, the bufmefs of 
 the fupplies was carried on as ufual. The 
 majority of the Reprefentatives of the Peo- 
 ple, heedlefs of the diftrefTes of their Con- 
 ilituents, were voting away their money 
 without meafure, account, or enquiry. To 
 fuch a height of infolence and effrontery 
 had their fecurity in the venal fupport of 
 Parliament elated the Minifters, that the 
 Secretary at War openly afligned, as a 
 ground for his application for the enormous 
 land- force he meant to have paid, what a- 
 mounted to an impeachment of the Firft 
 Lord of the Admiralty. That Minifter had, 
 from his feat in Parliament, confefied, that 
 a perfon in the office he filled, who fhould 
 not always have in readinefs a fleet equal to 
 the combined force of the houfe of Bourbon, 
 deferved to lofe his head. Yet his worthy 
 colleague, Mr. Jenkinfon, did not hefitate 
 to inform the Commons, that the neceflity 
 of augmenting the army arofe from the 
 alarming inferiority of our fleet *, and its 
 confequent inability to give that protection 
 
 and 
 
 * Here the Secretary at War afligns the weak Jlate of 
 
 the navy, as the caufe of the great fupplies required for 
 
 the army. Lyrd North, on opening his Budget, in- 
 
 F formed
 
 I 34 ] 
 
 and fecurity, either to the Kingdom itfelf 
 or its dependencies abroad, which, in all 
 former wars, had been, derived from that 
 eftablifnment. The forces to be employed 
 he ftated at 179,500 men; and for their 
 pay and cloathing, he demanded no lefs a 
 iimi than 4,130,000!. 
 
 A military eftabiifhment, that fo infinite- 
 ly furpafled whatever had been heard of be- 
 fore in this country, fpread a general alarm 
 among thofe gentlemen who had invariably 
 oppoitd the lyftem that had reduced us to 
 a itate, which called for fo enormous a 
 force. Not that they objected to raife the 
 required numbers. The exigencies of the 
 times, however created, might make the 
 meafure necefiary. But the Country Gen- 
 tlemen, in particular, were loud in calling 
 on the Houie to confider, before they gave 
 their votes, how far it was wife and politic 
 to agree to the eftimates ; how far the re- 
 maining refources of this opprefied and im- 
 poverifhed country, were adequate to the 
 fupport of the unparallelled expence, which 
 they would occafion. 
 
 /is to the policy of agreeing to them, it 
 was urged, that it would be the utinoft ex- 
 formed th ? HiJufe, that it was the greatnefs of our navy 
 jb'r.-.r.t rhru devoured the refources of the country, 
 and 10 rh-t he principally attributed the enormity of the 
 year'* exptnces. Jn fuch contempt do Ministers 
 hold the undemanding of Parliament ! So heedlefs are 
 they of the language in which they addrefs them ! Thus 
 do they all join in fporur.g with the fufferings of their 
 country ! 
 
 travagance
 
 [35 ] 
 
 travagance of political infanity, for this 
 country ever to rely on any other fecurity 
 or mode of defence, than that of a proper 
 naval force. A defence, which our iniular 
 fituation, and the experience of all paft 
 times, pointed out to Great-Britain as her 
 natural fecurity. To confefsourfelves weaker 
 on that element to which we owed all our 
 wealth, glory, and importance, as the Se- 
 cretary at War had done, and to acknow- 
 ledge with him that we were incapable of 
 remedying that weaknefs, by any other 
 means, than that of a land army, was the 
 moft alarming and affliding intelligence, 
 that Parliament ever conveyed to the nation. 
 
 As to the inadequatenefs of the nation 
 to fupport the expence, if there were any 
 who were not blind to what flared every 
 man (except thofe who wilfully (hut their 
 eyes) in the face, they might foon be con- 
 vinced from the forcible teiiimony of de- 
 creafed rents, ruined farms, and bankrupt 
 tenants. The deferted fields, the towns 
 empty of manufacturers, and fw arm ing 
 with foldiers, and the gaols crowded with 
 reduced tradefmen and farmers, would af- 
 ford the moft melancholy and irrefragable 
 proofs of the general poverty and diflrefs. 
 
 But if the exigencies of ,the times com- 
 pelled the Reprefentatives of the People, to 
 vote the eftimates as they flood, they were 
 called upon at leaft, not to vote them pre- 
 cipitately, or without examination. Before 
 they gave away fo enormous a fum of the 
 money of their Constituents, they fhouid 
 F 2 a*
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
 at leaft know to what objects fuch a force 
 would be directed ; what ufe was to be 
 made of it, or how far it was applicable 
 and adequate to effect the great purpofe of 
 the war, the obtaining a fpeedy and ho- 
 nourable peace. They fhould be allured 
 that the ftricteft ceconomy fhould be ob-r 
 ferved in the expenditure, and that no part 
 of that -Turn, or of the enormous extraordma- 
 ries and contingencies that would be tacked 
 to it, fhould be plundered from the Public 
 by ruinous contracts, ufurious Jobs, and all 
 the douceurs with which Minifters pur-? 
 chafed fupport and influence, out of the 
 public purfe. 
 
 Theie, and fuch like arguments, were 
 prefied upon the Houfe with all the warmth 
 of zeal, and the energy of eloquence. But 
 to the queftions that were propofed to the 
 Minifters to obtain the wanted informa- 
 tion, they returned a fullen filence; or if 
 they were fo clofely prefied as to be com^ 
 pelled to rife, and fay fomething in their 
 defence, they were not prepared ; they had 
 not brought their papers; they were not 
 refponfible. Their creatures called for the 
 queftion, and the fmall, though urgent 
 voice of the Friends of the People, was 
 drowned by the clamours of the Treafury- 
 Bench*. MID- 
 
 * In the courfe of this debate, Mr. Townftiend called 
 Cn the Secretary at War, to aflign a reafon why the ex~ 
 j ences of the (iaff for the prcferu year, fhould be 82,000!. 
 x\bi!e :he ftafF of rhat glorious year 1762, was but 
 69>ccol. He thought the Hoiife had a right to afk in 
 
 the
 
 t 37 1 
 MIDDLESEX ELECTION. 
 
 While the Truflees of the Public Purfe, 
 were thus facrificing the interefts of their 
 Conftituents to the favour of the Minifler 
 within doors, he was himfelf no lefs active 
 without, in attempting to violate the moil 
 eflential of their rights in the free choice of 
 their Reprefentatives. On a vacancy for 
 Middlefex, Mr. Byng, an independent Gen- 
 tleman of the county, was called upon by 
 the declared fenfe of the Freeholders, to of- 
 fer himfelf a candidate in the room of their 
 late Member. To comply with their de- 
 fires, it was requifite that he fhould vacate 
 the feat he already held in Parliament, and 
 with this view he applied to the Minifter for 
 the nominal place of the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 On this application he received a letter from 
 the Minifter, informing him that he had al- 
 ready given a vacating feat to a Member of 
 Parliament who meant to offer himfelf for 
 the County of Middlefex, and that he could 
 not give another. 
 
 The Gentleman, to whom this preference 
 was given, was Col. TufFnel, Member for 
 Beverley, and a creature of the Duke of 
 Northumberland, Lord Lieutenant of the 
 
 the name of their Conftittients, on what grounds this 
 cxcefs of 13,000!. fliould be voted. The anfwer ic- 
 ceived from the Secretary was, that he did come down 
 prepared on the fuhjecl:, and therefore could not fatisfy 
 the Houfe. The fame anfwer he repeated the next day, 
 and there the matter has refted. 
 
 County. 
 
 ..'506785
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
 County. It was known at the time, and the 
 event has placed it beyond a doubt, that 
 this candidate was brought forward in di- 
 reft oppofition to the wifhes of the Free- 
 holders. Yet by refufing to give a vacating 
 ieat, as this great arbiter of our privileges, 
 expreffed himfelf, to the object of their 
 choice, the Minifter feemed determined to 
 ompe) the Electors to accept him. 
 
 Here was an avowed and barefaced attack 
 upon the Freedom of Election beyond the ut- 
 molt infolence of all former Mi nifters. It was 
 no fecret intrigue managed in the dark, by 
 concealed agents, and under-hand inftru- 
 rnents, but a direct, formal, open robbery, 
 on the molt valuable franchife, the fubject 
 can boaft. If the attempt had been crowned 
 with fuccefs, we ihould not have had even 
 a hope of fafety left. The precedent would 
 have been eftabiifhed. Adminiftration would 
 have claimed a prefcriptive right of difcharg- 
 ing from the iervice of his Conftituents any 
 member whom they might pleafe to favour, 
 and of deciding who ihould offer them- 
 felves to the Electors, for their choice. 
 
 But fortunately the attempt was made on 
 a body of Freeholders, whole independent 
 (pint has, on all occafions, fet an example 
 t3 the Kingdom of the moil commendable 
 zeal and activity in the prefervation of the 
 nVil and deareft of their rights. They 
 fourned at the combination that had been 
 formed againft them, and as they could not 
 have the candidate of their wifhes, they 
 prevailed on a Gentleman of the moft ap- 
 proved
 
 [ 39 1 
 
 proved worth and difmtereftednefs to ftep 
 between them and the creature of the Mi- 
 nifter, and they returned him unanimoufly *. 
 As foon as Mr. Wood took pofieffion of 
 his undifputed feat, he preferred a petition 
 to Parliament, complaining of this injury 
 that had been offered to one of the moft 
 eflential and undoubted rights of the Peo- 
 ple. This petition contained a direct and 
 formal charge againft the Minifter byname. 
 It accufed him of a wanton and arbitrary 
 abufe of powers, which, if not wholly 
 ufurped, had, in many inftances fimilar to 
 the prefent, been exercifed to the utter fub- 
 verfion of all free election. It was figned 
 by a long lift of the moft refpectable Free- 
 holders. The greateft part had, indeed, re- 
 fufed to fet their hands to it. They con- 
 ceived it to be a ufelefs attempt to addrefs 
 themfelves to Parliament even on fo notori- 
 ous and crying an invafion of their rights, 
 and the fubfequent conduct of the Houfe 
 juftified the imputation. They fcreened 
 the Minifter from cenfure ; they refufed the 
 Freeholders redrefs. 
 
 * Tt appeared that the whole of this bufinefs was a 
 ju'.'irle between Co). Tuffnel and the Minifter. His 
 Lordlhip had never given him the Chiltern Hundreds, 
 nor had he ever vacated his feat for Beverley. In the 
 courfe of the debate it appeared, from the teflimony of 
 Mr. Byng, that a man, who had been condemned to death 
 for coining, had been refpited becaufe he promifed to 
 procure the Treafury fifteen votes, in cafe of a conteft, 
 while a poor woman, who was under fentence for the 
 /ame crime was, for want of fuch intereft, burnt. 
 
 OECO-
 
 t 4 ] 
 
 OECONOMY in the PUBLIC EXPENDITURE* 
 
 At the time that this queftion took 
 up the attention of the friends of their 
 country within doors, a new fcene was 
 opening without that promifed to produce 
 the happy Reformation, to which alone it 
 is on all hands agreed, the Nation can be 
 indebted for its fafety. 
 
 The daily accumulating diftrefles of the 
 country began at length to open the eyes of 
 the Public to the fcandalous profulion with 
 which all our affairs were carried on, and 
 the neceflity of a ftricl: and parfimonious 
 oeconomy in every department of the State, 
 It was evident that the evil fo frequently 
 foretold, and fo anxioufly dreaded by the 
 friends of the Conftitution, had unfortu- 
 tunately happened in our days. We had 
 only to read the Journals of the Houfe to 
 be convinced that the Crown had acquired 
 fuch an irrefiftable weight of pecuniary in- 
 fluence, as to buy up all Public Virtue, and 
 to turn the Conftitution againft itfelf. Par- 
 liament feemed to meet for nothing elfe than 
 to eitablifh. grievances, and fanctify them 
 into laws. They voted every meafnre that 
 was propofed to them, without a fhadow of 
 information, or the moil diflant enquiry 
 .into their tendency; they engaged theircoun- 
 try in wars, without once examining into 
 their juftice or expediency j they lavifhed 
 away the money of their Constituents with- 
 out meafure or account. The Court had but 
 
 to
 
 topropofe, and thofe creatures of its power 
 acknowledged ho other duty but to approve 
 and fupport. Freedom of Debate, was be- 
 come a term of mockery. Reafon and ar-^ 
 gument, were held in equal contempt with 
 Patrictlfm arid Public Virtue. Even facts of 
 the greateft notoriety were voted not to exift, 
 and grievances, the moft public and acknow- 
 ledged, were proved to be bleffings, by the more 
 than almighty fiat of a majority of votes. 
 
 In vain did a few independent members 
 in both Houfes, attached to the Conftitu- 
 tion, endeavour to oppofe' this torrent of 
 Corruption. Obftruction feemed but to in- 
 creafe its violence* The more ardent and 
 fpirited were their attacks on Adminiftra- 
 tion, the more lavifhly did thefe difperfe the 
 crown treafures in the purchafe of frefh 
 mercenaries to fight their battles. What 
 then remained for the People 1 but to take 
 their caufe into their own harids ? To ex- 
 amine by themfelves into the origin of their 
 fufferings, to trace the national calamities to 
 their real fources, and inftrucl: their Repre- 
 fentatives, in the forms allowed them by the 
 Coriftitution, to procure ample redrefs. 
 
 The zeal and indefatigable induftry of 
 feme of the leaders of Oppofition, had 
 greatly contributed to convince the People of 
 the immediate neceflity of fuch interference. 
 
 On the yth of December, the Duke of 
 Richmond moved the Lords to prefent an 
 humble Addrefs to his Majefty, befeeching 
 his Majefty to reflect: on the manifold dif- 
 treffcs and difficulties in which this country 
 G is
 
 [ 42 ] 
 
 is im'olved, too deeply felt to ftand in need 
 of enumeration, and to reprefent that, a- 
 imdft the many and various matters that 
 required reformation, and muft undergo 
 correction before this country could rife fu- 
 pcrior to its powerful enemies : the wafte of 
 public treafure called for inftant remedy. 
 Among the many inftances of increafmg 
 profufion that came out in the debate on 
 this motion, were the following. The ex- 
 pence of foreign embaffies, in the glorious 
 reign of King William, was about 43,000!. 
 in the prefent, they had fwelled to the 
 enormous fum of 90,000!. In the moft 
 expenfive year of the lail glorious war, 
 under the councils and aufpices of the im- 
 mortal Pitt, fecret fervice money never ex- 
 ceeded 237,000!. from the prefent accounts 
 they amounted to about 280,000!. 
 
 But the great difcovery to the Nation, 
 of the fhameful neglect and fcandalous 
 profufion of the prefent Government, and 
 ail the fecrets of contract jobbs, army ex- 
 traordinaries, and contingencies, was made 
 on the i5th of December, in the Houfe of 
 Lords. By a deduction of facts and reafon- 
 ing, that forced conviction on the minds of 
 the moft venal and interefted, the Earl of 
 Shelburne, on that day, enforced the bane- 
 ' fal confequences that have flowed to this 
 country from the boundlefs pecuniary in- 
 fluence acquired by the crown ; the wanton 
 dilllpation of the public treafures in all the 
 v/icked modes of corruption j the fhame- 
 ful profufion in all the public offices ; the 
 
 enormous
 
 [ 43 1 
 
 enormous annual increafe of the army ex- 
 traordinaries, voted as things of courfe, 
 without enquiry or account ; the ingenuity 
 of the Minifter, in creating new employ- 
 ments for his inftruments at the public ex- 
 pence, and his barefaced devices for enrich-' 
 ing his favourites with penfions drawn from 
 the induftry of an irnpoverifhed people. 
 
 On the comparative proportion between 
 the extraordinary military fervices of the 
 late war, with the prefent, he ftated the fol- 
 lowing alarming fa6ts. 
 
 In the year 1757, the expences were but 
 8oo,oool. thofe of 1777, including the 
 tranfport fervice, were 2,200,000!. 
 
 In the year 1762, when our arms were 
 borne triumphant to every quarter of the 
 globe, when we had a force of eighty thou- 
 fand men in Germany, befides victorious 
 armies in North America, in the Britifh 
 and French Weft-Indies, in Eaft-India, in 
 Portugal, on the Coaft of France, at the 
 Havannah, the extraordinaries did not a- 
 mount to more than two millions. In the 
 difgraceful campaigns of 1778 and 1779, 
 they amounted to upwards of three mil- 
 lions each year : yet it was well known, 
 that ceconomy was not the diftinguifhing 
 virtue of the Earl of Chatham. 
 
 From thefe facts he made it appear, that 
 in the four laft years of difgrace and defeat, 
 the very extra military expecces would form 
 no lefs a fum than eight millions and a 
 half: a fum very nearly equal to the whole 
 expenditure of the four firft years of King 
 G 2 - William,,
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 William, and fully equal to the two firft 
 years of the great Marlborough's immortal 
 campaigns. 
 
 In dragging to view the fhameful arcanas 
 of jobbs and contracts, he pointed out the 
 difference between the conduct of former 
 Minifters and the prefent. During the laft 
 war, it was thought fufficient to employ 
 one contractor ; the prefent Firft Lord of 
 the Treafury multiplies the number to 
 twelve. So many different friends are; 
 obliged by this expedient ; fo many affbred 
 votes are added to his influence, 
 
 During the laft war, the Contractor was 
 obliged to furnifh provifion on the fpot, in 
 America, at fixpence a ration, including all 
 expences. What was the bargain with the 
 prefent Contractors ? To deliver rations at 
 the fame price in Cork. Freight, infu ranee, 
 rifque, all was taken from the pockets of 
 the public, and beftowed upon the friends 
 cf the Minifter. Forty thoufand pounds were 
 paid to one man, a Mr. Gordon, for fnper- 
 intending the loading of the provifjons on 
 board the victualling fhips *. 
 
 From among the Favourites on whom the 
 Minifter lavlfhed the plunder of the Public, 
 Mr. Atkinfon was particularly brought foiv 
 ward. In the laft four years, that gentleman's 
 contract amounted to one million feven 
 
 * This man charged no lefs a fum than 5000!. for 
 parting, though the merchants in Cork loaded rhe lighter^ 
 at tht-'ir warehoufc doors ; nor was a fingle car or cart 
 ever ufed for the purpofe. This fat myft not have beep 
 Jcnown to his Lcrdfhip, as he made no mention of it. 
 
 dred
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 dred thoufand pounds. One of thefe was 
 made for five thoufand hogfheads of rum, 
 at a price actually double to what it could 
 be purchafed for on the quays of London. 
 A committee of merchants, trading to the 
 Weft Indies, had examined this Contract, 
 difapprpved it, and reported accordingly to 
 the Commons $ yet not a fingle ftep had 
 ever been taken to make the fraudulent Con- 
 tractor refund. On the contrary, he was 
 again trailed by the Minifter, and continues 
 to receive greater favours than any other of 
 the tribe. 
 
 Mr. Alderman Harley, was next diftin- 
 guifhed. This gentleman had tranfmitted 
 $o America, no lefs a fum than three mil- 
 lions feven hundred thoufand pounds, for 
 the ufe of the troops j yet, in pretending to 
 account for it to the Commons, he had not 
 produced a fingle voucher. The paper he 
 prefented, confuted of ftatements of fuch 
 capita) fums as forty and thirty thoufand 
 pounds in a lump, without any fpecifica- 
 ]tion whatever, how or in what manner, or 
 to what ufe they were applied. 
 
 When it appeared that millions were thus 
 jfiued from the Treafury, without any re- 
 ftraint or controu], and that the Reprefen- 
 tatives of the People neglecled to require 
 the leaft account of. them, was it to be won- 
 dered at, if the army extraordinaries fhould 
 have become, what the noble Earl called 
 them, the Civil Lift of the Minifter, and 
 filled up the bottomlefs gulph of fecret fer- 
 vice- money ? Could it be any longer a fe- 
 cret
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
 cret from what fource the venality of Par- 
 liament drew the purchafe of its pliability, 
 and fubferviency to the Minifter of Finance? 
 Could there be a doubt to what caufe we 
 fhould attribute the calamities, which a pro- 
 fligate Adminiftration had been enabled ta 
 entail upon this country ? 
 
 The prodigality of the Commons in their 
 blind and unconditional grants to the endlefs 
 claims of the Civil-lift, to fallacious eftimates y 
 arbitrary extraordinaries and contingencies, 
 fupplied Batter for the prodigality of the Mi- 
 nifler. They grantedin order to be paid. Their 
 boundlefs profufion was at once the caufe 
 and eiiect of that enormous influence of the 
 Crown, to which all our grievances are to be 
 attributed. It was a fund of corruption, that 
 multiplied as faft as the exigencies, real or 
 pretended, of the ftate required, an addition 
 of taxes and impofitions. Under its encou- 
 ragement, the very errors of Adminiftra- 
 tion, and the ruinous confequences of the 
 meafures purfued by an iniquitous Mmifter, 
 widened the circle of his influence. The 
 enemies he armed againft his country, the 
 porTeflions of which he dripped her, the re- 
 fources he cut off, and alienated from her 
 for ever, furnifhed him with new claims to 
 opprefs, to impoverifh, to exhauft her. He 
 laid his rapacious hands on her with impu- 
 nity, bccaufe the fund to which he owed 
 his fafety was increafed by his rapacioufnefs a 
 and his crimes, while they accumulated, be- 
 came his fecurity. 
 
 After having conveyed fuch fullnefs of 
 
 inform
 
 [ 47 1 
 
 information to the Houfe, Lord Shelburne 
 was well warranted to call on all the friends 
 of the Conflitution to join with him in 
 checking an evil, which, in the prefent dan- 
 gerous poflure of affairs, threatened the 
 State with immediate dhTolution. Well 
 might he conjure them to. join the men, 
 with whom he was connected, in adopting 
 a fyflem of rigid ceconomy fuited to our 
 impoverifhed condition. But, alas ! how 
 could he hope for fuccefs in the refult of 
 fuch a motion within thofe polluted walls ? 
 How could thofe, who toiled for the fame 
 purpofe among the Commons, hope for it ? 
 Fenced in with the very places, penfions, 
 contracts and emoluments, which their fyf- 
 tem undertook to fave to the Public, the Mi- 
 niflers voted their accufations to be ground- 
 lefs, without attempting to refute them, and 
 proved their own innocence, by fetting their 
 face againfl every propofal for an enquiry. 
 
 While this important queflion was de- 
 bating among the Lords, Mr. Burke was 
 zealoufly engaged in pleading the caufe of 
 the People before their Reprefentatives. He 
 lamented that the defire of fome oeconomi- 
 cal reformation in the public expenditure 
 operated every where but where it ought to 
 operate moil powerfully. Thofe to whom the 
 Conflitution had entrufled the exclufive ma- 
 nagement of the public purfe, were the only 
 perfons who did not feem to have turned 
 their thoughts that way. The cry for ceco- 
 nomy refounded in the flreets and high 
 ways. Thefe complaints of the People were 
 
 an
 
 [ 4 J 
 
 an accufatibn againft their Reprefentatlve^ 
 The Lords had taken the lead, and the pro- 
 fitions lately made by the Duke of Rich- 
 mond, and thofe which were that very day 
 making by Lord Shelburne, were a reproach 
 to them. 
 
 From Adminiftration, not a tingle ex- 
 preffion had dropped on this fubject of 
 ceconomy ; they had not even thrown an 
 oblique hint which glanced that way. In- 
 duftry and ingenuity were put to the ftretch 
 to find taxes to fupport the war. The Mi- 
 nifter fuggefted, planned, adopted, yet, in 
 all his begettings and adoptings, in all his 
 fchemes practicable and impracticable, he 
 never once thought of Oeconomy. 
 
 Our enemies might have instructed him 
 better. The war, on the fide of France, 
 was a war of ceconomy, the moft dreadful 
 of all wars. Monfieur Neckar, the French 
 Minuter of finance, could boaft that he had 
 brought his fixed and certain expences to 
 an equilibrium with his receipts. In thofe 
 fixed expences, he reckoned an annual fink- 
 ing of debt. For the additional fervices of 
 the war, he borrowed only two millions. He 
 borrowed not for perpetuity, but for lives ; 
 and not a fingle tax was levied on the fubject 
 to fund that loan. The great fund, from 
 which he meant to draw the intereft, was 
 ceconomy, improvement of the public reve- 
 nue> and the abolition of unneceflary places. 
 
 The proportions towards our enemy in 
 the other Houfe had been rejected by Mi- 
 nii-tei's. There was every reafon to fear 
 
 they
 
 I 49 J . 
 
 they would equally combat every propo- 
 fition of the fame tendency from the Com- 
 mons. But though they oppofed, what it 
 was their duty to promote, and what their 
 place gave them the power of effecting, yet 
 the important bufmefs would not be left 
 unattempted. It (hould be brought into 
 the Houfe. He fhould himfelf fubmit a 
 plan to the confideration of Parliament af- 
 ter the recefs, that would partly tend to 
 iatisfy the wifhes and defires of the People. 
 He fhould be fupported by a fet of men in 
 both Houfes, to whofe union this fyftem 
 formed an indiflbluble Cement, and who 
 would ftrenuoufly and unanimoufly direct 
 all their labours to the fame defirable end. 
 The defect of power fhould be made up by 
 fidelity and diligence. They relied on the 
 am* fiance of the People > if they were not 
 true to themfelves, it was not in the power 
 of any fet of men, however zealous and 
 well inclined to fave them. 
 
 The accumulating fufferings of the Peo- 
 ple, and the loudnels of their clamours, ex- 
 torted from them by the oppreffive grievances 
 under which they laboured, gave undoubt- 
 ed aifurances of this fupport. The Genius 
 of England began to ftir itfelf in the North. 
 The attention of the whole kingdom was 
 directed towards its motions. It dictated 
 the refolutions of the afTembly of the Free- 
 holders at York, and its animating fpirit 
 foon diffufed itfelf through moft of the 
 counties of England. A deep and unive'r-* 
 ial alarm feized Minifters and their adhe- 
 H . rents
 
 rents. They were attacked in their ftrdng 
 hold. The conteft was not only for their 
 fafety, but for their lives. All the forces "of 
 government were called out. Their emifTa- 
 ries were difperfed through every part of the 
 country. Power and falfhood, intereft and 
 mifreprefentation, threats and promifes, 
 went hand in hand, through the kingdom, 
 to corrupt, to divide, to rniilead, to weaken, 
 by any and every means, to defeat a com- 
 bination, that threatened ta refcue the na- 
 tion from their hands. In fome coun- 
 ties, they aded by their agents ; in others, 
 they toiled in perfon. Rewards were held 
 out to the zealous, threats to the luke- 
 warm, and punifhments to the * refractory. 
 But the fuccefs fell far fhort of their ftrain- 
 ings and ftretchings, in this favourite caufe 
 
 * The Lords, Pembroke and Carmarthen, were re- 
 moved from their places for their conduit on this occa- 
 fion. A Nobleman of a different character, who ex- 
 erted all his powers to defeat the Petitions, has been 
 fince rewarded with one of thofe places, the abolition of 
 which he oppofed with fuch prudent zeal, he is now 
 Treafurer of his Majef.y's Houfcold. After this, let the 
 tools of the Miniticr prefutne to impofe on the Public by 
 invidioufly attributing the zeal of Oppofition to their 
 envy of the places enjoyed by the friends of Adminiftra- 
 tion. The one labour night and day, they exert all their 
 intereft to aboiiih thofe places ; the others unite all their 
 perfonal powers, all their influence to preferve them, 
 and in reward, enjoy them at the expence of an im- 
 poverifhed People. The abon:ion of thofe places is an 
 indifpenfible condition, without which the leaders of 
 Oppofition birvt refufed to undertake the government 
 . {for the ctjfftr has been made 'to them) ; the prefervation of 
 thofe places is a necefiary requifite to the continuance of 
 ihc prefe-nt Miniftry. 
 
 Of
 
 t 5' ] 
 
 pf corruption. The fen fe of the public mi- 
 fery, and the feelings of the People,, bore 
 down even their almighty influence. By the 
 meeting of Parliament more than one hun- 
 dred thoufand Freeholders had petitioned 
 for an immediate reformation in the public 
 expenditure. The Table of the Houfe of 
 Commons prefented a fpectacle that could 
 not fail of being highly grateful to every 
 Englimman. It was reftored at length to 
 the pious ufes for which it was raifed by 
 our anceftors. It was become once more 
 the Altar of the People. Piled with their 
 facred inftructions, the nation looked up to 
 it, as to the fhrine, from which alone they 
 expected their falvation. 
 
 The firft of the Petitions that made its 
 way into the Houfe, was the Petition of the 
 Freeholders of the county of York. It was 
 prefented by the moft incorruptible hands 
 that ever conveyed the grave and folemn 
 fentiments of an aflembled People to their 
 Reprefentatives. The importance of the 
 fubject, and the anxious expectation of an 
 opprefled Public, had drawn together the 
 fulled attendance of Members and ftran- 
 gers that had ever been known. We were 
 (truck with a new (and for many years) an 
 unhoped-for fcene. It made its impreflion 
 even on the Treafury- bench. We loft fight 
 of that haughty, confident air, with which 
 they had fo long been accuftomed to furvey 
 their Band of Mercenaries, 
 
 A deep iilence, and a fixed attention pre- 
 vailed on both fides of theHoufe,and infpired 
 H 2 the
 
 [ 5* ] 
 
 the moft trifling minds with awe and re. 
 peel, when Sir George Savile rofe, and laying 
 his hand on the Petition, exprefled the Senti- 
 ments of 8000 of his Constituents. 
 
 The object of their prayer was an en- 
 quiry into the public expenditure. The di- 
 minifhed refources and growing burdens of 
 the country, had convinced them that the 
 frricteft frugality was indifpenfably neceS- 
 iary in every department of the State. They 
 long had ob Served with grief, that notwith- 
 (landing the calamitous and impoverished 
 condition of the Nation, much public mo- 
 ney had been improvidently Squandered ; 
 that many individuals enjoyed Sinecure 
 places, efficient places with exorbitant emo- 
 luments, and penfions unmerited by pub- 
 lic Services, to a large and flill increafing 
 amount. The danger reSulting from this 
 evil to the Nation was not confined to the 
 mere bad conSequences which muft necef- 
 Sarlly flow from unbounded profufion ; it 
 was the Source of that unconstitutional in- 
 fluence of the Crown, which, if not check- 
 ed, might Soon prove fatal to the Liberties 
 of this country. They appealed to the 
 juflice of their Representatives, to whole 
 cuflody ; the national purfe was in a peculiar 
 manner entrusted, and they intreated them, 
 that before any new burdens were laid upon 
 the country, effectual meaSures might be taken 
 by the HouSe, to enquire into and correct the 
 grofs abuSein the expenditure of the public 
 money; to reciuce all exorbitant emoluments, 
 to refcind and abolifh all iinecure places and 
 
 unmerited
 
 t 53 ] 
 
 unmerited penfions ; and to appropriate the 
 produce to the neceflities of the State in 
 fuch manner as to the wifdom of Parlia- 
 ment fhould feem meet. 
 
 " Thefe (faid Sir George) are the great 
 * f objects to which 8000 of my Conftituents 
 <c exprefsly inftruct this Houfe to direct 
 * f their immediate attention. They are re- 
 " prefented calmly and with moderation. 
 * c Nothing is faid of the conduct of Minif- 
 " ters ; no ftrictures are made on their pad 
 (f meafures j the moft pointed care has been 
 " taken to fhun all appearance of party. 
 " They ground their application on the too 
 <c manifeft and acknowledged calamities 
 <c with which the Nation is furrounded. 
 " They do not take upon themfelves to dictate 
 cc any particular mode of enquiry or redrefs 
 <{ of the grievances of which they complain. 
 < They do not inftruct Parliament where 
 " they are to go, or what particular fteps 
 " they are to take. They only expect, from 
 " the wifdom and integrity of the Repre- 
 " fentatives of the People, that they fhall 
 " not be put off with palliatives, excufes, 
 " fliuffling artifices, partial expedients. 
 t Mock enquiries will not anfwer their ex- 
 " pedatioris. 
 
 " Miniftry I know, continued he, will 
 <c not dare to refufe to give the petition a 
 " hearing. But it may be an eafy matter, 
 " with fuch Miniflers, to hear a Petition, 
 " while they fccretly refolve not to comply 
 ct with the prayer of it." 
 
 Before
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
 Before I proceed to give an account of the, 
 fubfequent proceedings of Parliament, and of 
 the fliameful and flagitious expedients, the 
 palliatives, the excufes, the {hunting artifices, 
 the partial expedients, by which the Mi- 
 nifter verified the hints thrown out by Sir 
 George Savile on the fuccefs of this and 
 the other petitions, I (hall briefly flate fome 
 concomitant circumftances that are efTential 
 to the proper information of the Public. 
 
 The Petitions intreated, that before any 
 additional taxes fhould be levied on the 
 country, an enquiry ihould be iniHtuted in- 
 to the expenditure of the produce of thofe 
 already laid. The Minifler began his ini- 
 mical oppofition, by declaring his intentions 
 of poftponing every confideration of the 
 Petitions to that of ways and means far 
 raifmg the fupplies. When Ireland had 
 applied for a redrefs of her grievances, fhe 
 began by voting a fhort money bill. Till 
 her prayer fhould be heard, and her peti- 
 tion for a free trade granted, fhe refufed to 
 raife any further fupplies. This conduct 
 was admired, applauded by the Minifter, 
 and he granted her demands in reward of 
 her public virtue. But the People of Eng- 
 land had, it feems, no claim to fuch in- 
 dulgence. There was one law for the Aftb- 
 ciations of Ireland, and another for the 
 Afiembiies of the Freeholders of England. 
 But the difference was obvious The Par- 
 liament of Ireland adopted the language of 
 its Conflituents j the Parliament of Eng- 
 land,
 
 [ 55 1 
 
 land, it was well known to the Mmifter, 
 would facrifice their Conftituents to his 
 continuance in office. 
 
 I have already hinted at the alarm into 
 which the firft report of the Petitions threw 
 the Miniftry and their adherents, and the vari- 
 ous arts and unconftitutional attempts they 
 made ufe of to defeat their defigns. Among 
 thefe, the moft daring was the removal of 
 the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Carmarthen 
 from the employments they held under the 
 Crown. This event took place fome time 
 after the prefent period ; but I fliall take 
 notice of it here, that it may not interrupt 
 the narrative of the bufmefs of the Petitions. 
 
 The Marquis of Carmarthen, a young 
 nobleman of the greateft hopes, was Lord- 
 lieutenant of the Bail Riding of York, and 
 Chamberlain to her Majeily. But he poffef- 
 fed thofe places with that fpirit of Indepen- 
 dence, with which nice principles of honour, 
 and an attachment to the Conftitution may 
 naturally be fuppofed to infpire a young 
 man, the dignity of whofe fentiments was 
 equal to the high rank he was born to fill 
 in the State. He would have thought him- 
 felf difgraced by any mark of the royal fa- 
 vour, that would require the facrifice of the 
 duty he owed his country. When, there- 
 fore, he began to weigh with himfelf the 
 miferies that hung over thefe Kingdoms, 
 fhould the meafures purfued by the prefent 
 Servants of the Crown continue to be fup- 
 ported, he refolved to withdraw from them, 
 
 and
 
 f 56 ] 
 
 and to unite with the men, tawhom he en- 
 vied the boaft of having uniformly oppofed 
 a fyftem of which he had not, till then, per- 
 ceived all the ruinous effects. To the dif- 
 guft, occafioned at Court by the avowal of 
 thefe intentions, was added a public letter, 
 written to the Chairman of the Yorkfhire 
 Petitions, wherein he expreffed his approba- 
 tion of the principles of the County Peti- 
 tions, and the conviction he felt of the ne- 
 ceffity of the reformation they were defign- 
 ed to effect. The confequence was the re- 
 iignation of his Chamberlain's Staff, and 
 his immediate difmifiion from the Lieute- 
 nancy of the Earl Riding. 
 
 The anceftors of the Earl of Pembroke 
 had been Lordk Lieutenant of Wiltfhire 
 ever fince that office was known in England.- 
 His Lordfhip was remarkably popular in 
 the County, and his conduct, upon all oc- 
 cafions, had been fuch as to merit that po- 
 pularity. But he voted, on the 8th of Fe- 
 bruary, for Lord Shelburne's motion, for a 
 commiffion of public accounts, and in a 
 few days after he was removed from his em- 
 ployment of Lord Lieutenant, without re- 
 ceiving any reafon whatever f jr fuch a mark 
 of his Sovereign's difpleafure. 
 
 The fevereft marks of difapprobatron, un- 
 der the influenceoftheprefent Councils, could 
 be no difgrace to men of their high fpirits and 
 elevated Nations. But they deeply refented 
 the blow that was ftruck through them at 
 the dignity of Peerage, the freedom of de- 
 bate, and the independency of Parliament.
 
 ( S7 ) 
 
 But the mifchievous 'councils of the mi- 
 nifter looked much further than even this 
 daring attempt on the independency of par- 
 liamcnr. The militia was originally infti- 
 tuted as a conftitutional force, and pointed 
 to two objects; to be a defence to the King- 
 dom againft oiir foreign enemies, and that 
 this defence might be compofed of men not 
 immediately dependent on the crown and 
 its ministers. But the conftitution of it had 
 of late years undergone a total change. Un- 
 qualified perfons had been permitted to ferve, 
 merely as mercenaries, in conficleration of 
 pay and rank. Inftead of the men drafted 
 from the different parimes, fubftitutes had 
 been received, and continued to ferve beyond 
 the three years for which they had engaged. 
 Additional companies had been raifed in moil 
 counties, exactly in the fame mode, and on 
 the fame terms that regulars beat up for re- 
 cruits. The militia by thefe means differed 
 very little from the {landing army; one only 
 fecurity was left to the kingdom; the con r roul 
 of the lieutenants of the feveral Counties. In 
 difmifling thefe two noblemen from that office, 
 the minifter had taken the firft ftep to with- 
 draw that fecurity alfo. If lieutenants were 
 fuffered to be diirnifled, merely for their po- 
 litical principles, and for exerting that inhe- 
 rent right of the conftitution, of fpeaking 
 with freedom, and voting according to their 
 confcience, pretences would never be want- 
 .ing, as they could be continually created, for 
 diiplacing pofleflbrs of that great truft of one 
 I defcrip-
 
 defcription, and replacing them by others of 
 more pliant principles. By thefe means it 
 would be a much Icfs difficult tafk to manage 
 the militia than the army ; and the minifter 
 would find the provincial force much more 
 fubfervient to his wifhes than the eftablimed. 
 One would have imagined that an attack 
 on the very vitals of the conflitution, of fuch 
 complicated guilt, and extenfive dangerous 
 tendency, would have united the whole body 
 of the reprefentatives in imprecating cenfure 
 on the advifers of it; but the Commons did 
 not make a fmgle effort to interpofe the 
 authority of the people. The independent 
 Lords", indeed, inveighed in the Upper Houfe 
 againft fo direct and formal a violation of 
 their privileges, with the indignation it de- 
 ferved. They moved a vote of cenfure againft 
 the advifers of fo dangerous a ftretch of his 
 majefty's prerogative j but as ufual, they 
 found corruption and influence too powerful 
 a match for the pride of birth, dignity, and 
 confequence. They were outnumbered, and 
 the minifter was protected, even in fo glaring 
 an inflance of arbitrary and unconftitutional 
 proceedings, by ninety-two peers againft thir- 
 ty-nine. 
 
 The laft meafure of the minifter which I 
 fhall confider under this head, is the the pro- 
 tejls which he laboured to procure againft 
 the petitioners. The methods he employed 
 to induce the deluded people to fign thefe 
 inftruments of their own flavery, would form 
 
 as
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 as black a page as any in the records of his 
 infamous administration. 
 
 The very principles of the protefts was a 
 renunciation of the firft privilege of an Eng- 
 lifhman, the right of petitioning parlia- 
 ment. They declared the exercife of that 
 right to be unconftitutional. They branded 
 the meetings held for the purpofe of exer- 
 cifing it, with the imputation of fedition and 
 rebellion. Every mean, invidious, oppreffive 
 expedient of force and artifice, threats and 
 allurements, were put in practice to procure 
 numbers to fign them. Letters were fent 
 round to every man connected with admin i- 
 ftration, defiring him to ftay away from the 
 county meetings, and to exert all his influ- 
 ence in preventing the attendance of others : 
 a conduct the moft daftardly that ever men, 
 in the hour of their timidity could ftoop to; 
 that betrayed a bafe fear, a confcious dread 
 of enquiry ; the influence of which could 
 arife only in meannefs of heart. 
 
 On fome the protefts were pafled for the 
 petitions. By this (hameful impolition, many 
 were beguiled to fet their names to them, 
 who afterwards declared that they would 
 have loft their right hand, rather than have 
 figned a proteft againft a petition praying for 
 ceconomy. 
 
 How different were thefe protefts from the 
 petitions ? the petitioners, with all decency 
 and reipedt, carried their complaints before 
 their reprefentatives. From them alone they 
 fupplicated redrefs; from their legal inter- 
 I 2 fcrence
 
 ( 6o ) 
 
 ference alone they hoped for relief. They 
 made thier grievances known in the face of 
 the legiflature, according to the eftablimed 
 modes of the conftitution, in a form that 
 would necetfarily procure them a public 
 hearing. But what was the conduct of the 
 proteftors ? Kow did minifters direct them 
 to proceed ? (for the meafure originated from 
 the cabinet*) Did they apply to parliament ? 
 Did they offer any counter petitions ? Did 
 they fpecify any reafons why they thought 
 the prayer of the petitions mould not be 
 granted ? The very atrempt to offer their 
 protefts to parliament, was fcouted by every 
 fide of the houfe, as an object of the molt 
 palpable fcorn and contempt*. Mr. Smith 
 however, reluctantly ', yet in obedience even to 
 fp fmall a part of his electors, propofed to read 
 this proteft to the houfe. The minifter himfclf 
 was the moft hearty in joining in the laugh, 
 that the very attempt inftantly ipread from the 
 fpeaker's chair to the Trealury-Bencb, from 
 the Trcafury-Bench to the Gallery. 
 
 By this it too plainly appeared, that thofe 
 infiduous instruments, hatched in darknefs 
 and privacy, produced in corners and bye- 
 ways, fed by cunning and menace, were 
 meant to have effect, not within doors, but 
 without. It was but too obvious that they 
 were meant not to convey to parliament the 
 
 fenfe 
 
 * It was in the cafe of the Nottingham petitition, 
 figned by fix of the burgefles.
 
 ( 6i ) 
 
 fenfe of their conilituents, not to quiet the 
 minds of the moderate and peaceably inclined, 
 as was pretended, not to carry proper infor- 
 mation ro the throne, but to raife the flames 
 offedition, which miniftry affected to dread; 
 to fpread abroad that feditious fpirit which* 
 mimfters had the audacity to impure to the 
 favourers of the Aflbciations ; to divide tne 
 people into parties and factions, and to arm 
 them againft each o-her; to deceive parli- 
 ament, to impofe on the fovereigp, and to 
 keep the genuine cries of his oppreffed fub- 
 jects from reaching his ears. 
 
 Mr. Bur kit Bill for regulating the Civil 
 Lift. 
 
 firft attempt that was made in the 
 of Commons, to obtain the oh* 
 ject of the county petitions, was, on the 
 eleventh of February. On that memorable 
 
 day, 
 
 * Lord Hillfborough, in a tranfport of that furious zeal 
 that firft denounced the vengeance of adminiftration againft 
 the devoted colonies, and tore afunder the ties between the 
 two countries, branded thefe humble and dutiful petitions 
 of the people, to be relieved from the heavy burthens un- 
 der which they laboured, asfaftious, and founded merely in 
 a fpirit of violence andparty. The conftitutional meetings 
 jfor conveying the fentiments of the conftituents to their 
 repreftrntatives, he maintained to be dangerous^ diJJoyal y [edi- 
 tions combinations, evidently tending to rebellion. Lord 
 Mulgrave ufed nearly the fame language, but added, 
 that the promoters of them Jfjould be punijbed with juj1icf t but 
 #ithout pity,
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 day, memorable as long as integrity fliall 
 challenge veneration, or talents command ap- 
 plau.fe, Mr. Burke introduced his plan for 
 the better fecurity of the independance of 
 Parliament, and the (Economical reformation 
 of the civil and other -eftablifhrnents. 
 
 This was not a dream of fpeculation, a 
 phantom blown up to dazzle and deceive. 
 It was calculated " to include in its execu- 
 ** tion a confiderable reduction of improper 
 * c expence; to effect a converfion of unpro- 
 fi table titles into a productive eftatej to 
 '* lead to, and indeed almoft compel a pro- 
 " vident administration of fuch fums of 
 " public money as muft remain under dif- 
 " cretionary trufts ; to render the incurring 
 *' debts on the civil eftabliihment, which 
 *' muft ultimately affc'cT: national ftrength 
 ' and national credit, fo very difficult as to 
 ** become next [o impracticable*"." 
 
 But 
 
 * The Enrl cf Shelburne had, on the 8th of February, 
 introduced his motion for a committee of accounts. 
 But ministry threw it out by a majority of 101 to 55. 
 The minority lords entered, on this occafion, the ftrongett 
 proteft that ever appeared on the books of the Houfe. It 
 is figned by thirty-five of the wealthier!, and moft diA- 
 tinguifhed peers of the realm. It contains a ftatement 
 pf the melancholy grounds on which the motion was 
 framed, and the reafcns for prefling it upon the houfe. 
 It records the moft palpable inftances of the profligacy 
 and profufion with which the public treafures have been 
 Javifhed, without examination or accounts. It anfwers 
 all the objections that were urged againft the motion, 
 in the courfe of the debate, and will remain for ever an 
 
 authentic
 
 But what this eloquent fpeaker, and in- 
 corruptible fiatefman " bent the whole force 
 " of his mind to, was the reduction of that 
 " corrupt influence, which is itfelf the pe- 
 ct renial fpring of all prodigality, and of 
 te all diforder; which loads us more than 
 *' millions of debts which takes away vigour 
 " from our arms, wifdom from our coun* 
 ** cils, and every 'fhadow of authority and 
 " credit from the moil venerable parts of 
 " our conftitution." 
 
 The moderation and candour, the extent 
 and variety of information, the depth of 
 judgement, the perfpecuity of reafoning, and 
 the elegance of manner with which this 
 plan was introduced, extorted the warmeft 
 and moft unreferved applaufe, even from his 
 enemies. I mean, from the enemies of his 
 country; for they alone can be enemies to 
 this truly great and amiable man. The 
 minifter was himfelf the firft to extol it 
 above all the poffible productions of the moft 
 brilliant characters within the circle of his 
 knowledge. But under the infidious veil of 
 this unbounded approbation, he concealed 
 the defign he has fince unhappily executed, 
 of defeating all the falutary purpofes of the 
 
 plan. 
 
 authentic monument of the degeneracy of the prefent 
 Houfe of Lords, who could deny their bleeding country 
 the relief this motion held out to it; and who could fa- 
 crifice their duty to the defence of a fet of men, againft 
 whom fueh crimes ^nd mifdemeanors were thus au- 
 thenticated ?
 
 plan. He honoured the whole of the pro- 
 pofitions it contained, with an effuiion of 
 compliments; but when each diftinct part 
 came under consideration, he oppofe.i, he 
 he condemned, he rejected it ; and though in 
 the progrefs of the bill he fufFered a few of 
 the claufes to pafs at different ftages, he 
 afterwards took care, when he had com- 
 pleatly triumphed over the decency and 
 honour of the houfe, to have them thrown 
 out. 
 
 Sir George Saviles Motion for the Penjlon 
 
 This plan of Mr. Burke's was followed 
 on the 2 ift of the fame month by a mo- 
 tion of Sir George Saville's to addrefs his 
 Majefty, that he would be gracioufly pleafed 
 to give directions, that there be laid before 
 the houfe an account of all fubfifting pen- 
 fions granted by the crown during pleafure, 
 or otherwife ; fpecifying the amount of fuch 
 pennons refpectively, and the times when, 
 and the perfons to whom fuch penfions were 
 granted. 
 
 This motion went directly to the great 
 object of the petitions of the people. They 
 had prayed that penfions, unmerited by pub- 
 lic fervices, all fmecure places, or efficient 
 places with exhorbitant fallaries (hould be 
 retrenched, and the favings appropriated to 
 the public fervice. But without an authentic
 
 lift of the perfons enjoying fuch penfions, it 
 would be impoffible to appreciate their fe- 
 fpeclive merits, or obtain the information 
 necefTary to comply with the requifitions of 
 the people, in the full and manifeft fenfe of 
 their application. There could be no other 
 means of gaining a certain knowledge of the 
 fums fquandered away in that fcandalous 
 traffic. 
 
 This motion gave rife to one of the moft 
 extraordinary debates that ever was heard in 
 a legiflative affembly. As it will afford one of 
 the ftrongeft criterions by which the people 
 can judge of the con duel: of their reprefenta- 
 tives, it will be neceffary to be more par- 
 ticular and circumstantial in my account 
 of it. 
 
 The Minifterhad neither the virtue to ac- 
 knowledge the juftice of the motion, nor the 
 courage to reject it. It went fo clearly and de- 
 cifively to the prayer of the petitions, that ho 
 did not dare to get rid of it by an abfoluteand 
 unqualified negative. He was at the fame time 
 defirous of giving his creatures Tome co- 
 lour able excufe, for fupporting him in fo 
 poiitive an oppotition to the demands of their 
 conftituents He therefore moved an amend- 
 ment, which feemed to pay fome attention 
 to the requeOs of the people, but which in 
 fact, defeated all the falutary effects that could 
 be expected from the motion, as it came pure 
 from the mouth of the virtuous mover, and 
 unadulterated by this ftate-craft. 
 
 K He
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 He was called upon to fubmit to the con- 
 fideration of Parliament, a lift of #// penfions, 
 and he propofes, by his amendment, to pro- 
 duce two, which he fays, muft content the 
 people. 
 
 What were thofe lifts? the one was the 
 the lift of penfions payable at the Exchequer. 
 The other is the private penfions, or what 
 he called, Lord Gage's Lift. 
 
 The amount of thefe, he faid, had been 
 already prefented to the Houfe, on an appli- 
 cation to Parliament for an encreafe of the 
 civil eftablimment. 
 
 In the lift ef private penfions, he refufed 
 to fpecify names; they lay at the public 
 office, they might be feen by any one who 
 chofe to apply for them. 
 
 He refufed to fpecify the feperate fums, 
 as paid to individuals ; the total amount muft 
 fatisfy the Parliament and the people. If 
 there were any abufes, any improper perfons, 
 or any fums undefervedly granted, to be 
 found on either of the lifts, the gentlemen 
 of the oppofition fhould point them out, and 
 not fufpett where they could not arraign. 
 
 Thefe were what the minifter was pleafed 
 to call his unanfwerable arguments againft 
 the motion ; let us fee on what grounds they 
 flood. 
 
 The virtuous and independent among the 
 reprefentative body, agreeable to the inftruc- 
 tion v s of their conftituents, call for information. 
 The minifter, with all the appearance of can- 
 dour
 
 ( 6? ; 
 
 dour and condefcenfion, tells them they fhall 
 have it; but how will he acquit himlelf of 
 this promife ? he will give them fuch infor- 
 mation as they have already had, and which 
 they confequently do not want. For this 
 information had been already given, and 
 the tv/o lifts he propofed to produce at the 
 requeft of the people of England, had been 
 laid before Parliament on an application of 
 his own, for an encreafe of the civil lift. 
 
 But the information which could alone 
 fatisfy the doubts, and meet the expectations 
 of the people the information that could 
 alone bring properly to light what, or if any 
 individuals enjoyed finecure places, effici- 
 ent places with exorbitant emoluments, and 
 penfions unmerited by public fervices, that 
 they fhould not have. Nay, one of his orato- 
 rical iupporters, the Lord Advocate of Scot- 
 land, had the audacity to declare, in the full 
 hearing of the houfe, members and ftrangers, 
 that the petitioners did not want that in- 
 formation. Words could not be more precife 
 or explicit, than thofe which the petitioners 
 had ufed to recommend fuch an enquiry ; yet 
 this gentleman, with all the fire of his zeal, 
 did not hefitate to affirm, that if they were 
 called to the bar, they would, one and all 
 declare, that the penfion-lift was not one of 
 the objects of their complaints. How low, 
 abjecl: and fervile muft the reprefentatives of 
 the people have been in the eyes of that man, 
 to encourage him to offer fuch arguments to 
 them by way of influencing their votes ! 
 
 K 2 But
 
 ( 63 ) 
 
 * But why not produce the names of the 
 ' private lift ? f.dd the friends of the people.'- 
 
 It would not be right. It would not be 
 delicate. [t would be fubjedting the penfion^ 
 ers to the flan derous comments of news-paper 
 writers, and the dealers in fcandal. Their 
 honor and their peace of mind might be de- 
 ft royed, by fo unfeeling a difcovery. So ten^ 
 derly did his Majefty's confidential fervant 
 feel for the honor of his pensioners ; hut for 
 the people of England he had no feelings. 
 The miieries of the public could not be re- 
 dreffed, they fhould be eternal, if they could 
 only be removed at the expence of the peace 
 of mind of bis friends. 
 
 " But there was no neceffity to produce 
 *' them; if the people wanted to be fatisfied, 
 '* they might apply to Lord Gage's office, 
 " and there they fhould find them." 
 
 So contemptible were the unanimous pe- 
 titions of the people of England, in theefli- 
 mation of this infolent miniiler ! to gratify 
 their wifhes, he would not even condelcend, 
 officially to fubmit to their reprefentatives,a lift 
 which he infinuated, might be procured by any 
 unauthorized perfon who would take the trou- 
 ble to call for it. The wimes of the kingdom 
 at large, might be gratified by fo trifling a 
 mark of his attention ; yet he exerted all his 
 powers, he called together his moft trufty ad- 
 herents, and fought at their head, as for his 
 very exi Hence, to prevent being compelled to 
 grant this indulgence.
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 If the names on that lift were fuch as mould 
 command the approbation of the public ; if 
 they were fuch as had indifputable claims on 
 the gratitude and liberality of a generous na- 
 tion, for fervices performed; if there were no 
 fears that a- y mould be found among them, 
 who blufhed not to add to their princely for- 
 tunes Ibme miferable ftipend, fqueezed from 
 the toils and iweat of the people ; if there 
 were none who received the infamous wages 
 of a filent vote, without the fhadow of a merit, 
 or even a pretence of public fervice ; if there 
 were none who could be fufpected to have 
 been hired* to libel every friend of the people, 
 to turn every thing that fhould be held facred 
 and venerable by Knglimmen into ridicule, 
 to brand all pretentions to patriotifm, or the 
 love o! ones country with mockery and fcorn, 
 openly to attack the moft invaluable liberties 
 of the fubje6t, ami to revive, under the reign 
 of a Brunfwick, 'he arbitrary dodrines and 
 high prerogative principles of a Stewart If 
 the minifter had no fears of this nature, why 
 not produce the lift ? - The people would 
 be undeceived The odium that was meant 
 to be brought upon his immaculate admini- 
 ftration, would recoil upon thofe who de- 
 yffed it. 
 
 He 
 
 * No lefs a fum than one thouTand pounds a year, ar$ 
 paid in pen/ions to the editor and eftitb) ifhed writers of 
 the Morning ^oft.
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 He proceeded ' The fums are trifling. 
 " They are no object They fhould be lels 
 ' than nothing in the eftimation of a great 
 " and wealthy people." 
 
 But to what did thefe arguments lend ? 
 To the giving a negative to every feperate ar- 
 ticle as it occurred in the detail of this im- 
 portant bufinefs, and fo effectually defeating 
 the general reform. But how did he prove 
 that the fums were trifling ? Did he dare to 
 aver that thefe were the only lifts which in- 
 gulphed the treafures of the public ? Where 
 was the lift drawn up in darknefs, and under 
 all the terrors of fliarne and guilt, which was 
 no fooner prefented, approved and difcharged, 
 than it was committed to the flames, and the 
 very afhes of it fcattered abroad to the winds- 
 The lift of thofe members of parliament, who, 
 at the end of every feftion received the wages 
 of their fervile acquiefcence to minifters, 
 and their treachery to their conftituents ? 
 How many were there at that inftant in the 
 houfe, whofe criminating eyes would meet 
 the minifter's if he attempted to deny the ex- 
 iftence of fuch a lift ? Where was the lift of 
 fecret fervice money ? Where was the lift paid 
 from the privy purfe ? Were the fums to 
 which all thefe amount, trifling, and below 
 the attention of a great and wealthy people ? 
 
 Or was the amount of thefe fums the only 
 confioeration that induced the freeholders to 
 demand a general reformation. Were there 
 
 no
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 no conftitutional confederations blended with 
 their requifitions for ceconomy ? Did the 
 abolition of the dangerous and deftrudlive 
 influence which the minifter purchafed by 
 thofe penfions, trifling as they were, form 
 no part in the object of the county petitions ? 
 Was the fum to which Mr. Hampden was 
 taxed for his portion of (hip-money, the 
 only motive that induced him to reiift that 
 un conftitutional impofition ? 
 
 Such was the main purport of the argu- 
 ments on both fides, when a majority of the 
 houfe fupported the amendment of the mi- 
 nifter, and enabled him to refufe to gratify 
 the wifhes of the people, or to grant them 
 even a hope of redrefs. The worthy mem- 
 ber from whom the motion originated, dif- 
 claimed it with its amendment. It could 
 not convey to his conftituents the informa- 
 tion, bethought it his duty to procure them. 
 It could furnifti no grounds for obtaining 
 for them that relief which was his object in. 
 making the motion. 
 
 The Minijler*s CommlJJion of Accounts Bill. 
 
 This motion of Sir George Saville being thus 
 difpofed of, a bill was introduced, in confe- 
 quence of the petitions, on a fide of the houfe, 
 from whence nothing could be expe&ed, but 
 that fcene of deceit, fallacy, and collufion, 
 to which the only meafure that has been 
 granted even in pretence to the prayers of the 
 
 people
 
 , ( 7* ) 
 
 people gave rife. Col. Barre hid given 
 notice to the houfe, that on a certain day, he 
 intended to bring in teave for a bill to appoint 
 a commiffion for an invcftigation into the ex- 
 penditure of the public accounts. He meant 
 it, he faid, as an efTential part of that reform, 
 which was the object of the county petitions, 
 and he was in hopes it would tend to the 
 fame falntary purpofes which his friend, Mr. 
 Burke, propoied to the public by the plan he 
 had exhibited. 
 
 He entreated the concurrence of the mi- 
 nifter, he {hewed him his plan. ^-It had his 
 approbation He promifed it all the fup- 
 port of his authority, and the affitance of 
 office*. 
 
 Yet to the utter aftonifhment of the houfe, 
 in a manner unprecedented in the annals of 
 parliament, by a device which would have 
 difgraced any man who pretends to the cha- 
 racter of a gentleman, the minifter came 
 
 down 
 
 Col. Barre, in the courfe of his fpeech, on the 21 ft of 
 March, gave a moft ftriking account to the houfe of the 
 trick and~imp6fition, with which this bufmefs was ma- 
 naged. " I called upon gentlemen faid he, in the ref- 
 pe<5tive offices at the Exchequer, and prefled expiditfon 
 in making out the accounts called for. I called at the au- 
 ditor's ; they directed me to the chamberlain, the cham- 
 berlain to the pells, the pells to the teller's, and foorjt 
 ad inftnitum. When I endeavoured to make myfelf 
 underftood, they refpedlively flared, and feemed fur- 
 ' prifed, and alternately fhifted me off from one t> the 
 " other, till I was inclined to believe that the requeft Ihad 
 * made of the noble lord, was only agreed to in order to 
 " render me ridiculous to the clerks in office."
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 down on the fecond of March, and propofed 
 a commiffion of accounts, framed by him- 
 felf for the purpofe of this enquiry. 
 
 Several circumftances had concurred to 
 compel him to adopt this infulting meafure. 
 The loud voice of the people had begun to 
 make an evident impreffion within doors as 
 it had done without. A formal and declared 
 oppofition to their requefts might make 
 even a power more firm and eftablifhed than 
 that which the obfequious complaifance 
 of parliament had enabled him to acquire. 
 He had juft difcovered a defection in a quar- 
 ter from which he had long derived an au- 
 thorative fupport. The fhamelefs incon- 
 fiftency and unblufhing duplicity of his con- 
 dud:, joined to a conftderation of the fatal 
 confequences of his meafures, had given dif- 
 guft to the fpeaker, and that able and ex- 
 perienced fenator had thrown all the weight 
 of his abilities and knowledge into the fcale 
 of the people. 
 
 In thefe circumftances, a commiffion of 
 accounts with retrofp'ective powers to en- 
 quire into pafl abufes, and confifting of great 
 and independent characters, without the 
 magic circle of his influence, boded the mofl 
 fearful confequences. If he fuffered the gen- 
 tlemen who favoured the wifhes of the peo- 
 ple to introduce a bill for that purpofe, they 
 would have the power of prefcribing the 
 objeds of the enquiry, and propofing the 
 members who ihould compofe the com- 
 L mittee.
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 mittee. Nothing, therefore, was left for 
 him but to take the meafure into his own 
 hands, to introduce a bill bearing a fpecious 
 title, and feemingly in compliance with the 
 prayer of the petitions. Thus at once to 
 fteal fome little popularity, and guard againft 
 the appreheniions he had fo juftly conceived 
 on the firft propofal of the meafure. 
 
 Thus what he was fearful of attempting 
 by force, he effected by ftratagem. But 
 what could the Sicilians hope, when the 
 redrefs of their grievances was configned to 
 Verres ? What profpect of relief was left to 
 the petitioners when their caufe was thus 
 fnatched from the hands of the honefl mem- 
 bers who had introduced their petitions, 
 cherifhed and fupported them, to be info- 
 lently taken up by a fet of men who had 
 repeatedly fpurned and contemned them as 
 factious and the bafe fpawn of fedition ? 
 How could they hope to have their griev- 
 ances examined into, and redreffed by the 
 very men who contended that they only ex- 
 ifted in the diftempered vifions and frantic 
 ravings of popular madnefs ? 
 
 This folemn mockery of the public was 
 received by the majority of the reprefenta- 
 lives, as all other mandates of the minifter 
 have been received. We have feen it carried 
 into execution ; we have heard it claimed as 
 a merit by the minifter ; it has been urged as 
 an inconteftable proof of his willingnefs to 
 hear the people. But how does the matter 
 
 really
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 really (land? Parliament has conferred to 
 delegate the moft facred truft they had re- 
 ceived from the people, into the hands of 
 the creatures of the minifter. They have 
 fubmitted to the moft intollerable infult that 
 was ever offered to the Commons of Great 
 Britain. In the moft debafing manner to 
 themfelves, and with the utmoft injuftice to 
 their ele&ors, they have fuffered their beft 
 privilege to be annihilated. 
 
 The conftitution had vefted the infpeftion of 
 the public accounts in the reprefentatives of 
 the people excluiively. By this ad: of the 
 minifter's, it is transferred to a fet of men, of 
 whom the people have no knowledge, in whom 
 they can have no truft, of whom they can 
 have no bond of fecurity, no feal of cer- 
 tainty that they will faithfully and honeftly 
 difcharge their duty. By thus betraying 
 the confidence repofed in them by their con- 
 ftituents, they have parted with half the 
 power of the purfe, and the tranfition from, 
 this to the giving up the power of voting the 
 public money, is not very difficult. 
 
 In the firft ftage of the bill, the minifter 
 pledged himfelf, that the perfons he would 
 nominate fhould have neither place, peniion, 
 nor employment. Yet the very firft man 
 whom he dared to offer to the houfe, was 
 a creature of his own, poffeffing an employ- 
 ment under him. Not even the infojence 
 with which the fervility of parliament had 
 infpired him, could perfevere in this attempt. 
 L 2 But
 
 But though he confented to withdraw the 
 name of Mr. Bowlby *, yet the lift, which has 
 been confirmed by the fanction of both houfes, 
 prefents an authenticated violation of his faith, 
 and an irrefragable teftimony of that corrupt 
 influence, to which Parliament has fold the 
 glory and intereft of their country. 
 
 In the fyftem lately adopted for the re- 
 
 fulation of the army j men have been ta- 
 en from the defk and placed at the head 
 of regiments. In appointing the commif- 
 fioners, they have been taken from the head 
 of regiments, and placed behind the defk. 
 General Carleton, whofe great military talents 
 might have been happily exerted in the 
 fervice of his country, has been recalled 
 from his command in Canada, with every 
 aggravation of ill ufage and infult. But to 
 make him amends, he is put at the head of 
 a commiffion, that requires a turn of talents, 
 and a line of practice to which, from his 
 former habits he mufl be an utter ftranger. 
 Add to this, that he is himftlf very largely 
 concerned in the accounts he is appointed 
 to infpecl. 
 
 Expedition in fettling thefe accounts, 
 would be one great means of giving fatisfac- 
 tion to the public, and this the minifter pro- 
 ieffed he had himfelf in view when he form- 
 ed 
 
 * Mr. Bowlby has, fince that time, been appointed 
 commiflary general to the army. A good encouragement 
 to the reft or the minifter's lift, who have been confirmed 
 by Parliament ! are not thefe things palpable ?
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 cd the lift of the commiffioners. Yet he 
 has entrufted it chiefly to Matters in Chan- 
 cery. If the method to which thefe gentle- 
 men are accuftomed in making up their own 
 accounts be adopted by the reft of the com- 
 miffioners, there may not be a fingle veftige 
 of this conftitution left by the time it can 
 be expected that they will complete their 
 bufinefs. 
 
 Can fuch a commiffion be called not only 
 a commencement of ceconomy, but an am- 
 ple and fatisfa&ory compliance with the 
 petitions of the People ? Can fuch a com- 
 miffion put an end to the abufes originating 
 from the influence of the crown ? Can it check 
 the profufion of the public expenditure, and 
 can it prevent the impofitions of contractors ? 
 Jn what does it end ? In altering the confti- 
 tution, and robbing Parliament of its inher- 
 ent rights. In encreafing the influnce of the 
 Crown, by creating new dependants on the 
 minifter. In enabling him to defraud the 
 public with greater fecurity and eaie, by em- 
 powering him to appoint ftewards, depend- 
 ant on himfelf, to cheque and controul his 
 accounts. In creating a new board, and in- 
 flead of leflening, encreafing the expences of 
 the Hate. 
 
 Contrattors Bill. 
 
 The corrupt influence which the Crown 
 has acquired in Parliament, was one of the 
 
 principle
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 principle fubjects of the complaints of the 
 people. To reftrain it, was the only way 
 left to fave the conftitution, and refcue the 
 ftate from ruin, and no method that could 
 tend to effect that falutary purpoie was left 
 unattempted by the friends of the country, 
 Among the mod obvioufly necefTary of thofe 
 attempts, a bill was introduced into the 
 Houfe of Commons early in the feffions, for 
 excluding contractors from being members 
 of that Houfe. 
 
 In the midft of a war in which nothing, 
 among all its unhappy circumftances, was 
 more remarkable than the prodigality with 
 which it was carried on, it was evident that 
 the corrupt fupply of military arrangements 
 tended, in a very extenfive degree, to. increafe 
 the Court influence in Parliament. Oppref- 
 fed with actual impofitions, and terrified with 
 the certain profpect of encreafing heavier 
 burdens, the people could not receive a more 
 fatisfaclorV" proof of the willingnefs of their 
 reprefentativcs to grant them effectual relief, 
 than by enabling, that none fhould have a 
 power of laying thofe burdens who mould 
 have fuch an intereft in encreafing them as 
 the contractors had. 
 
 The abufe of fraudulent contracts was one of 
 the great caufes of the public diftrefs, Nothing 
 thererefore could be more unfit, than that thofe 
 who were the principal fubje&s of complaint 
 fhould fit as comptrollers of their own condud. 
 On thefe^ftrong grounds the bill was introduced 
 
 into
 
 .( 79 ) 
 
 iiito the Lower Houfe. Here it met with 
 no opposition. But the public were early 
 prepared for the fate it was to prove by a 
 fpeech of one of the Secretaries of State, 
 among the Lords in a debate on the bill 
 when it was firft introduced into their Houfe. 
 He told the Peers, that the time was come, 
 when the hereditary legiflators of the realm 
 {hould exercife the powers they were veiled 
 with from the conftitution. A phrenzy of 
 virtue, he faid, began to mew itfelf in the 
 Houfe of Commons. The people bad run 
 mad, and the infection was gaining upon 
 their reprefentatives. It would therefore be 
 the duty of the Lords to interfere in their 
 controuling capacity, to ft and in the gap, as 
 he expreffed himfelf, and to prevent the other 
 branch of the Legiflature from adopting, a 
 reformation that was only grounded on the 
 vifionary complaints of an over pampered 
 people. We were little furprifed, therefore, 
 that it fhould have been fuffered to pafs 
 through the Commons, without oppofition. 
 The odium of defeating this effential reform 
 was evidently referved for the Lords. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the i4th of April, when it was 
 read to them for the fecond time, they did 
 not blufh to ftand between their opprefled 
 county, and this firil ftep that was taken to- 
 wards fupporting the independency, integrity 
 and virture of Parliament. The privilege 
 vetted in them by the conftitution, they 
 availed themfelves of in the moft unconfti- 
 tutional manner ; in a queflion that related 
 
 folely
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 lolely to the interior regulation of the Houfe 
 of Commons. That intervention which they 
 had fo frequently refufed to exercife for the 
 prefervation of their country, they now ex- 
 ercifed, at the nod of the minifter, for her 
 destruction. At a time when the people 
 were juftly complaining of the destructive 
 influence of the Grown, in a moment when 
 the Houfe of Commons had folemnly re- 
 folved that this influence (hould be diminifh- 
 ed, they flood in the gap, they proved the 
 ready instruments of the vindictive fpirit of 
 the minifter, and executed the implacable 
 vengeance he had denounced againSl the 
 people. 
 
 If this country can poSTibly efcape the pre- 
 fent crifis ; if ever She can hope to reStore 
 her conftitution to her former fpirit and 
 energy, it will be recorded among her an- 
 nals, with all the becoming pride of national 
 integrity and honour, that a majority of the 
 hereditary peers of England preserved them- 
 ielves pure from fofoul a reproach. Scotch 
 peers, and ambitious prelates, penfioners and 
 Lords of the bed-chamber, joined to the 
 members of administration, and Lords in of- 
 fice, alone com pofed the degenerate number 
 that rejected the bill. 
 
 Mr. Crewe's Bill for preventing Revenue Of- 
 ficers from voting at Elections. 
 
 This bi f il had its fource in the very fpirit 
 of the conftitution. It was introduced on 
 
 this
 
 ( 8r ) 
 
 this obvious principle, That to prevent de- 
 pendance within doors, the fpeedieft method 
 was to fecure it without. If the eleftors are 
 corrupted, we can have but little hopes of 
 integrity from the elected. Both implicitly 
 obey the mandate of the minifter. The one 
 nominates, the other vote in the fame fpirit. 
 That the revenue officers can fcarce be 
 faid to have a franchife 3 that they can fcarce 
 be faid to have a vote of their own -, that they 
 can in no inftance fupport the candidate their 
 confcience approves, without running the 
 rifk of lofing their places, it is a fact too no- 
 torious to ftand in need of proof. Who does 
 not know that the members of the Cinque 
 Ports, and of moll: of the boroughs on the 
 fea-coaft are the reprefentatives of the mini- 
 fter and not of the people ? The only pof- 
 fible remedy that could be applied to this, 
 evil, was to exclude thofe creatures of the 
 minifter from the right of voting, It was 
 infmuated, that this was a violation of the 
 franchifes of the people. But this objection 
 had been obviated by the refpectable gentleman 
 who introduced the bill. His only defign" 
 was to have it eftablifhed as a rule, that 
 while men poflerTed offices fo immediately 
 under the controul of the minifter, their right 
 of voting for members to ferve in Parliament 
 fhould be fufpended. If an a<5t for that pur- 
 pofe fhould pafs, there could not be a fha- 
 dow of hardfhip to any individual. Every, 
 man would know on what ground he was 
 to ftand, and would have the option, either 
 M of
 
 ( 82 ) 
 
 of not accepting the office, or of agreeing that 
 his right of voting mould be fufpended while 
 he held it. 
 
 But it was not to be fuppofed, that this 
 ftrong fortrefs of Court influence would be 
 Buffered to be levelled to the ground. The 
 minifter flew to its affiftance with all his 
 force, and the bill was loft at the fecnnd read- 
 ing, by a majority of twenty-fix. The very 
 vote that threw it out, was the cleareft proof 
 of the exiftence of the evil it was meant to 
 remove. The reprefentatives of excifemen 
 and cuftom-houfe officers decided the quef- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Runnings Motions upon the Petitions, 
 
 Thefe meafures, which the independent 
 gentlemen exerted all their powers to prefs 
 upon the Houfe, though they were bottomed 
 on the prayers of the people, and tended 
 effectually to redrefs their grievances, were 
 not introduced, in confequence of any im- 
 mediate motion, towards taking the petitions 
 into confideration. This ftep was deferred 
 till the 6th of April. The tranfactions of 
 that day, when compared with the fubfe- 
 quent conduct of the commons, have fixed 
 a ftain on their journals which no time can 
 efface. 
 
 Nothing could be more judicious than the 
 manner in which Mr. Dunning opened this 
 important bufinefs. The people had peti- 
 tioned
 
 ( 8 3 ) 
 
 tioned their reprefentatives in a peaceable 
 and conftitutional manner. It was the un- 
 doubted duty of thefe reprefenfatives, to liften 
 to what thole who had fent them into par- 
 liament had fo ftated, to enquire into the 
 facts alledged by them in their petitions, and 
 if they were found to be true, to grant them 
 immediate and effectual relief. The firft 
 flep therefore to be taken, was to appeal to 
 the Houfe upon the truth of the firft great 
 allegation of the people. That once deter- 
 mined it would be ealy to proceed to a con- 
 fiderntion of the points on which they requi- 
 red relief. 
 
 With this view, Mr. Dunning moved, 
 " that it was the opinion of the Houfe, that 
 " the influence of the crown had encreafed, 
 " was encreafing, and ought to be dimi- 
 " nimed." 
 
 This motion tied the Houfe down at once 
 to an explicit unequivocal decifion. It was 
 a refolution of fact, and required no argu- 
 ment. The notoriety of the univerfal pre- 
 valency of fuch influence, the allegation of 
 one hundred thoufand freeholders, an allega- 
 tion exceedingly fimple in itfelf, and which 
 it was not likely the petitioners would have 
 made, but upon thorough conviction, the 
 confcience and feelings of every individual in 
 the Houfe, were the chief arguments of which 
 the fuccefs of the motion was made to reft. 
 
 The only objection made to it by mini- 
 
 flers, befides denying the fact, was, that it was 
 
 an abftract proportion, and that fuch pro- 
 
 M 2 pofitions
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 petitions were never voted by Parliament. 
 This affertion was proved to be falfe, and an 
 inftance to the contrary was given, from the 
 reign of King William, an ii ftance of a quef- 
 tion that was voted though immediately &>&*&&, 
 which this motion by no means was. This 
 was found to be exprefsly listed in the 
 petitions, and Mr. Dunning had taken care to 
 obviate the objection, by declaring that the 
 queflion was defigned to be the ground of 
 other refolutioDS. 
 
 While the minifter himfclf appeared dif- 
 tradted,. and evidently undecided about the 
 mode of getting rid of the queflion, the Lord 
 Advocate cf Scotland boldly propofed to 
 throw the bufir.efs out at once, and by moving 
 that the chairman of the committee leave the 
 chair, to give an early decided negative to the 
 prayers of the petitions. 
 
 This threw the Houfe into a ferment. 
 Such contemptuous treatment of the people, 
 it was affirmed, could only have originated 
 from oi.e, whofe political principles, as far 
 as he has declared them in Parliament, are 
 as foreign to the fpirit of the Englifh Con- 
 fHtution, as his accents are barbarous to an 
 Englifh ear. 
 
 The minifter fcrved to encreafe the dif- 
 order. 'While the debate was confined to 
 the motion before the Houfe, he had ob- 
 ferved a fullen fulky filence. But, as focn as 
 Mr. Pit, in a torrent of eloquence, char- 
 ged him with the calamities entailed upon 
 
 his
 
 his country ; when he inftanced his conti- 
 nuance in office, as the moft indubitable proof 
 that co aid be given, of the enormous influ- 
 ence of the Crown, and fupported this afTer- 
 tion, by a glowing enumeration of all the 
 tranfation$ of his inglorious adminiftration, 
 his fullenefs gave way to violence and refent- 
 ment. The juftnefs of the reproaches, and 
 the confcioufnefs of his guilt, roufed him out 
 of his uiual phlegmatic infenfibility, and he 
 burft out into focti terms of illiberal invec- 
 tive, that an univerfal cry feemed to break 
 from every part of the Houfe, demanding 
 that his words might be taken down. 
 
 This alarming difcovery, of fo general a 
 change in the fenfe of the Houfe, feemed to 
 terrify him. He directed the Ltd Advocate 
 to withdraw hi^ motion. But what this gen- 
 tleman could not erF-& by force, he endea- 
 voured to accomplim by ftraugem. He 
 rnoved an amendment, and put it a's the main 
 queftion, that " it is necejfary now to declare, 
 * that the influence of the Crown had en- 
 " creafed, is encreafmg, and ought to be di- 
 " minifhed." 
 
 He afterwards confefled, that this defign, 
 in moviiig this amendment, was to induce 
 the Houfe to reject the whole proportion. 
 He was in hopes {hat the danger, which 
 w.ould threaten the minifter, if the period of 
 this increafed influence fhould be fixed to the 
 time of his adminiftration, as it muft be, by 
 admitting the neceffiy of making fuch a decla- 
 ration
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 ration now^ his friends would unite in the de- 
 fence of their patron, and reject a motion, 
 which from being general, was now be- 
 come perfonally directed againft the minifter. 
 But he was deceived in his hopes. The 
 gentlemen in the oppofition readily admitted an 
 amendment, that fo forcibly ftrengthened their 
 original propofition, that juftified fo fully 
 the application of the people to their repre- 
 fentatives, from the neceffity of the cafe, and 
 that fo clearly fubftantiated their allegations. 
 The queftion was put with its amendment, 
 and was carried by a majority of eighteen. 
 
 The principal allegation of the petitions 
 being thus acknowledged, and admitted to be 
 juft, Mr.Dunning proceeded to eftablifh another 
 fundemental propofition. He moved, that it 
 is the opinion of the committee, that it is 
 competent to the Houfe of Commons to exa- 
 mine into, and to correct abufes in the ex- 
 penditure of the civil-lift revenues, as well as 
 in every other branch of the public revenue, 
 whenever it mail feern expedient to the wif- 
 dom of this Houfe fo to do. 
 
 This propofition, the cleareft and tnoft 
 indifputable that ever was drawn from the 
 conftitution, ministers endeavoured to nega- 
 tive. In the feveral debates on the claufes 
 of Mr. Burke's bill, they had, fome more, 
 fome lefs covertly, laboured to eftablim a 
 contrary doctrine. They made repeated ef- 
 forts to have it received as a maxim, that the 
 King had an exclufive right tothem.oni.es 
 fettled on him by Parliament 3 that he had 
 
 the
 
 ( 8? ) 
 
 the fame title to his civil lift, which any pri- 
 vate gentleman had to his eftate, that it was 
 as much his own, and that his purfe was too 
 facred for the other parts of the Legiilature 
 to controul. 
 
 If fuch a doftrine were once eftablifhed, 
 there would be an end to the constitution. 
 For what would be the neceflary confe- 
 quences of it ? The King might convert his 
 revenue to what purpofes he mould think 
 proper; he might employ it to the deftruc- 
 tion of the flate, and the fubverfion of the 
 conflitution. Whatever abufes he might 
 make of it, Parliament were to be mute 
 fpe&ators, and not make a fmgle effort to 
 prevent the mifchief. 
 
 If under the reftraint of a parliamentary 
 power to infpedt it, the abufes which were 
 acknowledged to have fprung from its appli- 
 cation were fo extenfive, where would the 
 mifchief end if this power was to be given 
 up, and the Houfe of Commons to increafe 
 the civil revenues in proportion as they had 
 done of late years, merely on the requisition 
 of the minifter, without examination or ac- 
 count ? But the fupporters of that dangerous 
 doctrine were forced to give it up, when it 
 was thus explicitly put upon iffue. Mr. 
 Dunning's propofition was admitted without 
 a divifion. 
 
 This refolution was followed by a motion 
 of Mr. Pitt's, " That it is the duty of the 
 " Houfe to provide, as far as may be, an. 
 
 " immediate
 
 ( PR ) 
 
 " immediate and effectual redrefs of the 
 " abufes complaintd of in the petitions, pre- 
 " fented to the Houfe f om the different 
 " counties, cities and towns, in the kingdom." 
 
 This queftion paiTcd unanimoufly, and the. 
 feveral resolutions having been immediately 
 reported, tie committee broke up and ad- 
 journed to the loth. 
 
 The proceedings of that day were equally 
 favorable to the wilhes and expectations of 
 the people with thofe of the 6th. A mo- 
 tion of Mr. Dunning' s for " fecuring the 
 " independency of parliament, and obviat- 
 " ing any fufpicion of its purity, by laying 
 " exact accounts before the Houfe within 
 *' feven days after the firft day of every fe- 
 '* fion, of fuch fum or fums of money as 
 '* have been paid in the courfe of the pre- 
 " ceding year to Members of Parliament out 
 " of the civil lift, or any other part of the. 
 " public revenue, to them, to their ufe, or in 
 " truft for them, or on any other account, 
 ** fpecifying when or on what account fuch. 
 ' money was paid," pafied with merely fome 
 observations on the part of the minifter. 
 
 His fecond motion, of the fame tendency, 
 for exc uding certain placemen, whofe offices 
 fubjedled them to the mandate of the minifter, 
 from holding feats in Parliament, was, after 
 a ftrong conuft, carried for the people, on a 
 diviilon of 215 to 213. 
 
 This appearance of repentant virtue in 
 the Commons was received by the people 
 with all the extravagance of unexpected joy, 
 
 and
 
 and the efFufions of mutual congratulation. 
 They received the vote of the 6th as a vote 
 of atonement from their reprefentatives, and 
 gave a generous and implicit credit to the af- 
 furances they received of obtaining immedi- 
 ate redrefs for the grievances, of which it 
 was acknowledged they had complained with 
 juftice. With the moft unfufpecting confi- 
 dence the counties aflumed a milder tone. 
 They withheld their affociations. They a- 
 dopted lefs refolute meafures, in the certain 
 hopes of procuring redrefs from thofe, whom 
 they were happy to confider once more as 
 the faithful guardians of their freedom and 
 pofleffions. 
 
 And furely they had the ftrongeft reafons to 
 flatter themfelves that they mould befpeedily 
 delivered from the deftrudtive fyftem, and ruin- 
 ous councils of a fet of men, to whom they 
 juftly afcribed all their fufferings. For how did 
 the two hundred thirty-three of their reprefen- 
 tatives, who voted in the majority of the 6th of 
 April, ftand pledged to them as gentlemen and 
 Members of Parliament ? They had acknow- 
 ledged that noiv, under the aclual direction 
 and immediate aufpices of thofe men, the 
 corrupt influence of the Crown had encreafed 
 to fo alarming a degree, as to require an im- 
 mediate and effectual check. With what face 
 then could they ever after fupport the mi- 
 nifter, who under the preflure of that vote 
 itood condemned of having fquandered the 
 public treafures, and plundered the people in 
 N acquiring
 
 .( 9 ) 
 
 acquiring and diffufing that influence ? Was 
 there upon record an inftance of fo flagitious 
 a charge having been brought home to any 
 adnV'niftration, of fo ignominious a fentence 
 having palled upon any minifter in all the 
 annals of our hiftory ? And could the men 
 who confirmed that charge and pronounced 
 that fentence againft his adminiftration, be 
 the perfons to fupport him in office ? 
 
 They affected to prove their zeal in the 
 fervice of their conflituents, and to recom- 
 mend themfelves to their future favor and 
 fupport, by complying with the prayer of 
 their petitions ; and could they have the face 
 to fupport the minifter, who in every ftage 
 of that bufinefs, had withftood thofe petitions 
 with all his weight and influence ? who, 
 when the fatal effects of his adminiftration 
 firft compelled the freeholders of England to 
 attempt this only expedient they then had to 
 fave themfelves and their country from utter 
 ruin, left nothing untried to ftifle them in 
 their birth, and to procure applications of a 
 direct contrary tendency ? who branded them 
 with the opprobrious ftigma of fedition, as 
 the offspring of faction, and the laft defperate 
 effort of a contemptible party to force them- 
 felves into office ? who, fmce their introduc- 
 tion into the Houfe, had exerted all his pow- 
 ers in withftanding every attempt to procure 
 the object of their prayer, and in endeavour- 
 ing to defeat every motion grounded on their 
 complaints ? and who required no other teft 
 
 of
 
 ( 9' ) 
 
 bf the fidelity and attachment of his merce- 
 naries, than to go through with him in thofe 
 infulting proofs of his enmity to the people. 
 
 But while the diftant counties indulged 
 thofe flattering hopes on fuch probable and 
 obvious grounds, thofe who were nearer the 
 fcene of action foon began to conceive other 
 thoughts. The very day after he had been 
 branded with this ignominious fentence he 
 had the infolence to appear again before the 
 Houfe of Commons as the confidential fervant 
 of his Majefty, and the firft minifter of this 
 country. His adherents, far from being de- 
 jected or depreffed, affumed all the haughti- 
 nefs of a triumph, and boaftingly foretold to 
 the friends of the people, that their majority 
 fhould prove a rope of fand. 
 
 This unprecedented contempt of the au- 
 thority of Parliament, and the fubfequent ac- 
 complifhment of this prediction, have in- 
 duced many people to fuppofe, that the whole 
 bufmefs of the 6th was a preconcerted mea- 
 fure between the minifter and his creatures. 
 
 It was a facrifice he permitted them to 
 make to the frantic virtue of their conftitu- 
 ents. Inftead of injuring, it would ferve his 
 own caufe. By voting that the Crown had 
 acquired a corrupt influence, while adminif- 
 tration was exerting all its powers to prevent 
 fuch a vote from palling, they would give 
 the moft plaufible proof of the falfity of the 
 accufation. Could fuch an exteniive and 
 dangerous influence as was complained of, 
 be confident with an oppofition to govern- 
 N 2 ment
 
 ( 9* ) 
 
 ment in lo eiTential and delicate a point ? 
 Their confdtuents could not poffibly expect 
 a ftronger proof of their integrity and inde- 
 pendence, and muft, on every future occa- 
 fion, give them credit for voting according 
 to their judgement and confcience. 
 
 True they had voted bendes, that it was 
 the duty of the Houfe to give the petitioners 
 fome immediate and effectual relief. But 
 this was an abftract queftion that led to no- 
 thing. By no conftruction could it be held 
 as binding to any one precife, determined 
 point. Though they had agreed to the pro- 
 pofition, yet they were ftill free to oppofe 
 any mode of reformation that might be pro- 
 pofed by its abettors. This meafure might 
 not pleafe them ; that meafure might not 
 come up to their ideas -> they might withhold 
 in the detail what they had promifed in the 
 grofs. 
 
 Several obfervations that fell from the 
 fpeakers on that fide during the fubfequent 
 debates, tended very ftrongly to confirm thofe 
 fufpicions. The conduct of the trimming 
 members was a ftill ftronger confirmation. 
 This expedient was the exact outline of their 
 proceedings. They rejected every propofi- 
 tion that was offered, with a view of reliev- 
 ing the people to whatever objects it tended, 
 or however framed, but never once propofed 
 a fingle meafure of their own that might ac- 
 quit the engagement under which they ftood 
 pledged to their conftituents.
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 If this be a true ftatement of the .cafe, the 
 fenate of Rome, in her moft degenerate days, 
 when tyrants, who were a reproach to huma- 
 nity, had reduced that once glorious aflembly 
 to the vileft and moft contemptible depth of 
 fervility, never ftooped to fo foul a difgrace. 
 Among all the indignities to which they fub- 
 mitted, they never confented to confefs their 
 own infamy by an authentic vote, and to in- 
 fcribe that confeflion on their records with all 
 the formalities of their legiilative proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 Others, indeed, upon better information 
 aflerted, that the loud clamours of the people, 
 and the fears of an approaching election, had 
 fpread a real alarm among the members who 
 did not owe their feats to the immediate gift 
 of the treafury. Thefe felt a momentary 
 terror, and having once deferted from their 
 colors, might, from the apprehenfion of a 
 change of mailers, have perfevered in their 
 defection, had not the minifters made fuch 
 good ufe of the recefs that was occafioned by 
 the illnefs of the Speaker. This event took 
 place while the committee for taking the pe- 
 titions of the people into confideration were 
 fitting. One of the moft refpectable mem- 
 bers in the Houfe, in a debate on the 1 8th of 
 May, charged the minifter with having em- 
 ployed that period in corrupting the mem- 
 bers. To this alone he was indebted for the 
 majority he had regained. If the charge was 
 falfe, he was called upon by another mem- 
 ber,
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 ber, equally refpectable, to apply- to the 
 Houfe to have the words taken down, and to 
 bring the fad: to ciifcufiion. But, added this 
 gentleman, " he dare not. He knows the 
 " charge to be 'too juftly founded. If he 
 f c calls for proof, it can be fubftantiated in 
 " his very teeth." 
 
 However the people may be difpofed to 
 determine on the caufe of the apoftacy, cer- 
 tain it is, that it appeared in the moil ihame- 
 lefs violation of all mame and decency, im- 
 mediately on the meeting after this adjourn- 
 ment. The public, by this time, was pre- 
 pared for the change. The minifter could 
 not contain his triumph on the fuccefs of his 
 negociations with the apoftate members. 
 His adherents took care .to publifh abroad 
 the certainty they were in, that on the firffc 
 fitting of the committee for the petitions, the 
 oppoiition would prove to be what it was 
 foretold it mould prove a rope of fand. 
 Under thefe impreffions the fupporters of the 
 petitioners went down to the Houfe on the 
 24th of April. They found their worft fears 
 verified. A motion of Mr. Dunning's for 
 giving fome affurance to the people, that Par- 
 liament mould not be dhTolved or prorogued 
 until proper meafures mould be taken by the 
 Houfe to diminim the influence, and to cor- 
 rect the other evils of which the petitions 
 complained, and, as the Houfe had acknow- 
 ledged, with juftice, was rejected by a majo- 
 rity of fifty one. 
 
 The
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 The divifion on this motion completed the 
 triumph of the minifter, and determined at 
 once the fate of the petitions. They were 
 from that moment left at the mercy of an 
 adminiftration hoftile in every point to the 
 prayers of the people, with power to defeat 
 every attempt of reformation by prorogation 
 or diffolution. This power, as was then fore - 
 feen and foretold, they have not failed to exert 
 in the moPc arbitrary and contemptuous man- 
 ner. They firft prorogued and then diflblved 
 the parliament without a fmgle ftep having 
 been taken to fulfill the folemn engagement 
 the Houfe had entered into with their confti- 
 tuents. 
 
 After that day, the only notice that was 
 taken of the petitions, was to add infult to 
 injury. The minifter feemed to take a pride 
 in aggravating the public fufferings by a 
 mockery of words. He affected: to exprefs 
 the utmoft difference to the demands of the 
 people, and the greateft willingnefs to re- 
 clrefs their grievances, while he defeated every 
 attempt of the kind on the part of oppofition, 
 without ever fubftituting a fmgle expedient 
 of his own. 
 
 After that day he lorded in the houfe with 
 his ufual majorities. After that day he pur- 
 fued the great objects of his fyftem without 
 fear or reftraint. The fenfe of duty, the 
 pride of confiftency, the call of honour, the 
 upraidings of confcience, the remembrance 
 pf the faith they had folemnly pledged to 
 
 their
 
 their condiments and to each other, were all 
 facrificed to his power by the apoftates from 
 the majority of the 6th of April. They fup- 
 ported him in his daring encroachment on a 
 privilege, of which the conftitution has been 
 at all times moft tender, and watchful. They 
 authorifed the King's troops to remain in a 
 borough town during the time of election for 
 members of Parliament, and eftablifhed a 
 precedent that will not fail to be improved in 
 the bleffed hands that propofed it. They 
 countenanced the -dangerous innovations he 
 introduced into the fyftein of army promo- 
 tions, and fanctified the abufes by which the 
 navy has been brought to its prefent difgrace- 
 ful condition. They voted blindly and in- 
 difcriminately the enormous fums he de- 
 manded for the fervices of the prefent year, 
 far beyond the moft boundlefs profufion of 
 all former periods, and enabled him to reje6b 
 every application for accounts of the manner 
 in which this plunder on the public fhould 
 be employed. They joined with him in all 
 his fallacious fchemes of railing new and 
 oppreffive taxes * on the people, in open vio- 
 lation 
 
 * The annals of mankind cannot exhibit fuch a fcene of 
 minifterial impofition,and political feduction as the prefent 
 fcrft Lord of the Treafury has praclifed by his fyftem of fi- 
 nancing, fmcethe commencement of the American war. A 
 decreafe of taxes, and a diminution of the public burdens 
 was the oftenfible pretext for entering on that accuried 
 meafure. Thefe were the motives that firft induced the 
 country gentlemen to concur in the hoftile refolutions 
 
 that
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 lation and contempt of their petitions. In 
 every meafure he propofed they carried their 
 complaifance beyond even their own former 
 
 fervility 
 
 that had been formed in the cabinet againft the devoted 
 Coloniffs. 
 
 Thefe Colon ids, they were told, had been called upon 
 to bear a proportinate Share of the heavy incumbrances, 
 which, chiefly on their own account, had been brought 
 upon the nation during the laft war. A few ungovernable 
 fpirita at Bofton had oppofed this claim ; but a little ftrenu- 
 ous exertion, and the very found of hoftile preparations 
 on our fide would (hortly break this turbulent temper; 
 and the right of taxation would be admitted in fuch an 
 extent as to eftablifh a fund of productive lafting revenue. 
 
 The miferies that followed thefe fallacious promifes need 
 no enumeration. But mark the conduct of ourminifter 
 of finance, as the ruinous circle of, the war enlarged 
 itfelf. 
 
 In the firft two years, one of which was a year of 
 declared hoftilities, not a Shilling did he borrow. A 
 veil dark and impenetrable as that he threw over the dif- 
 pofitions and real fentimentsof the Americans, was drawn 
 over the expenditure, that it might not meet the eye of 
 the public. By his management of the finking fund, by 
 difpofing of it without the confent or authority of Par- 
 liament, by anticipating its produce ; by the credit of the 
 Bank, and by various fhifts and expedients in the mar- 
 ket of the unfunded debts, he contrived to let the laft 
 fefiion of 1776 come nigh to a clofe before he applied to 
 Parliament for the loan of two millions. To pay the 
 intereft, fome trifling particulars were taxed, that affe&ed 
 a very fmall part of the people. 
 
 The next year, farther claims, and a new loan. But 
 the people muft be kept in the dark. A tax on fervants 
 and auctioneers, would not bear very hard on the mafs 
 of the public. 
 
 Another year; and again the fame game. A tax upon 
 houfes, inconfiderable in itfelf, would only be felt by the 
 opulent. 
 
 O A
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 fervility, and feemed anxious to make him 
 ample attonement for the momentary virtue 
 into which they were betrayed. They funk 
 even below the infamy with which they be- 
 gan their exiftance, and like hardened and 
 defperate fmners, encreafed in profligacy as 
 their diflblution approached. In fhort I can 
 venture to aflert, and pofterity, at leaft, will 
 confirm the aflertion, they have added to 
 the annals of our Parliament, a feries of the 
 jnoft difgracing, profligate, deftructive pro- 
 ceedings that ever flamed the journals of the 
 Commons. 
 
 On the 8th of June, the feflions was con- 
 cluded by a fpeech from the throne; and on 
 the i ft of September, the Parliament was 
 diflblved. Whether this be a blefling or not, 
 muft remain with the freeholders to deter- 
 
 A fourth year came, with ft ill encreafing expences ; but 
 the rich, and thofe who could indulge themfelves in fuper- 
 fluous eafe, were alone to fuffer. Poft chaifes, and poft 
 horfes were taxed. In fhort a debt of upwards of twenty 
 millions, drawing after it an intereft of more than a million 
 per annum^ was artfully, and by ftealth flipped^ if I may 
 be allowed the expreffion, on the public ; and when the 
 upftiot of the means propofed to raife the intereft came 
 to be examined, we found that the taxes were fo delu- 
 five and unproductive, that they did not amount to one 
 half of what they were taken for Thus the taxes that 
 have been this year laid on fome of the immediate necef- 
 faries of life are but the beginning of our miferies. The 
 people already complain of infufferable burdens, but what 
 will it be when they find themfelves obliged, not only to 
 bear the preflure of new loans and encreafing expences, 
 but to provide likewife for the deficiencies of years paft 
 which they were falfely told, had been born exclufively 
 by the fuperiour clafies, 
 
 mine.
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 mine. By the prefent choice of the repre- 
 fentatives, that queftion, and others of equal 
 importance, muft be decided. A few weeks 
 will prove how far the only hopes we had 
 left of efcaping the final ruin with which our 
 conftitution and ftate are threatened by a per- 
 feverance in the prefent fyftem, are founded, 
 or if the record of degeneracy muft equally 
 ftigmatize the Parliament and people of 
 England, 
 
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