avoided to mention any instance of the success of our armies, or the prosperity of the country, might be dif pofed to approve of the motion, and of the removal of ministers from a situation which it was calculated to represent them as unqualified to hold. Other gentlemen, who looked to an honorable and lasting peace from a vigorous and effectual war, rather than from a dishonourable submission-those who did not impute a temporary interruption of success to want of judgment or to guiltthey would not, he was sure, withdraw their coufidence from His Majefty's ministers, without proof of their want of capacity. It would not be to make room for those who had disapproved of the war from its commencemen, and who, instead of meeting the crisis, would be disposed to shrink from it; but for persons better qualified to prosecute, with vigor and effect, a war founded in justice, and connected with the most important interests of the country." Mr. PITT concluded with moving

"That the House do now adjourn."

Mr. SHERIDAN rose next, not, he said, "from an idea that any exertions of his could give the least additional force to the arguments which his right honorable friend had urged with so much ability and eloquence; but in order to make some remarks on what had just fallen from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He felt the utmost confidence in asserting, that the arguments of Mr. Fox had, in no one instance, been answered by the right honorable gentleman, though possessed of talents which seldom left him without resources upon such occasions. Mr. SHERIDAN had therefore this farther reason for being satisfied with the impressions which his honorable friend's animated and brilliant speech had made on his mind: he was fully persuaded, that it was unanswerable. By way

of

of proof, he need only refer to the very reply made by Mr. PITT, who, with great ingenuity and art, had passed by and neglected all the arguments which carried with them the most irresistible conviction, and had totally misrepresented and mis-stated the few he had thought proper to notice. The question which had been put to the House for their investigation was, Whether or no so great a portion of calamity had been suffered by the country during the progress of this unhappy war, as to shew that blame must be attached somewhere; and whether it was not becoming the dignity and character of the House to inquire where that blame lay? Mr. PITT, however, had stated, that the motion was brought forward for the purpose of reversing the determinations of the House; and that it was too late, because the effect of it would be to make the House retract the whole of the declarations they had made from the beginning of the session. This was a gross misrepresentation; for the question of war and peace had been carefully kept out of sight during the whole of the speech of his honorable friend. The House, indeed, had been called upon to inquire, whether they chose to pursue the same object by the same means; and whether they would leave the execution of their designs in the same hands in which they had so long been vested? According to Mr. PITT's mode of reasoning, no calamities which might befal the country, no neglect or misconduct of ministers, however productive of the most pernicious consequences, would justify a call upon the House to inquire into the actual state of the nation, or to investigate the causes of such calamities, and the effects of such misconduct. That right honorable gentleman had, indeed, allowed, at the conclusion of his speech, that the misconduct of ministers was a proper object of inquiry, and that, if it should be proved, a mo

VOL. 11.

DD

tion

tion ought to be made for their removal, insinuating, at the same time, that successors should not be appointed who would disgrace the country. Mr. SHERIDAN did not believe it a difficult matter to find men, even in the lines of opposition, who would not disgrace the country so much as its present ministers. Another invidious insinuation had been thrown out by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in pronouncing an eulogium on the conduct of the army and navy, as if Mr. Fox, by omitting to state their services, had forgotten their merit. The House, however, Mr. SHERIDAN observed, were too well acquainted with the candor of his right honorable friend, to allow that he had, upon any occasion, taken away from their merit, or lost an opportunity of paying that tribute of just applause, which the services and bravery of our army and navy had so repeatedly merited from every friend to the country. Mr. PITT had also contended that the discussion ought to have been brought forward previous to the vote of supply; but, if this had been done, would not the right honorable gentleman have said, that it could only proceed from a factious and turbulent spirit to agitate a question of such a nature while the enemy was at the door, and the House had not granted the aids that alone could enable the country to resist the dangers which threatened them 2 And now, when ministers had brought the country into a situation of the utmost peril, they told the House, that having agreed to provide for the necessities which their misconduct had brought on, it was pledged to support them with unlimited confidence, and without being informed how those necessities were produced! Did all inquiry cease, when the supplies were voted? Did they operate as a temporary act of indemnity and screen the minister from all the sins of the session In that case, Mr. SHERIDAN thought that the House had

better

better suspend its parliamentary functions, and vote a dictator at once, till the war was over, than continue them with such a disgraceful acquiescence. Having fully il lustrated this leading point, he entered into a minute exposition of the other fallacies, mis-statements, and unfair conclusions in Mr. PITT's speech. The drains from our population were evident from a review of the present state of the recruiting service, where we saw regiments filled up with decrepid old men and boys. The increase of exports was temporary and unnatural, arising from the number of captures of our outward-bound trade, which were to be supplied by fresh cargoes. As to the revenue of the country, and the efficiency of taxes, were one to be imposed on places and pensions, according to the example of an allied kingdom [Spain] it would be more productive than all the late expedients put together. Experience had sufficiently demonstrated the folly of relying on the cordiality of our allies: the king of Prussia's breach of faith was not the only instance: the same thing might be said of the Empress of Russia, who had never yet fulfilled one of the stipulations to which she was pledged. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had treated in a very loose manner the remarks made by Mr. Fox, on the language of our ambassadors at foreign courts; and had highly extolled the moderation of the British cabinet towards neutral nations. The uniform tenor and spirit of that language, in all the instances which had been mentioned, shewed that those ambassadors acted in strict conformity to their instructions; and in what did the boasted moderation of the cabinet consist? It had been carried to the extremes of cringing and of mean submission towards Denmark, Sweden, and America, powers whom we dared not offend, while we bullied the petty states of Italy with the most outrageous insolence. We had called on them

in a menacing tone to abandon their neutrality. Yet is had been expressly stated, in a speech from the throne, as a matter of praise, that this country had so long remained neuter, at the early periods of the contest with France. On what principle then of the law of nations could it become a crime in other states to preserve that very neutrality, which had been the boast of the country, said to be forced into the war? Mr. PITT had adopted another mode of shifting with respect to the affairs of Ireland; he had dwelt so long upon the topic, that any person, who had not heard Mr. Fox, would have supposed that an inquiry into the state of that country had been the sole object of the motion. Unfortunately, however, for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was in the recollection of every gentleman in the House, that full three hours of Mr. Fox's speech had elapsed previously to his saying any thing on that part of the subject. It must also be remembered, that notice had been given of the present motion long before any account was received of the embroiled state of the sister kingdom. The whole, therefore, of Mr. PITT's remarks on that head fell to the ground. The subject was certainly very proper as a collateral foundation for inquiry into the ruinous system pursued by ministers; for when only this one circumstance remained in their climax of folly, that they should contrive to place the Irish in such state as to hazard, through their irritation, a separation of the empire, it was a great aggravation of the rest of their misconduct."

Mr. SHERIDAN did not forget, in the wide range of his observations, to point out the bad effects of the temporizing policy which had been pursued with regard to France, in concealing the precise object of the wara policy, by which the return to royalty, had the nation been