[On the 17th of May following, Mr. Fox moved, "That it is the opinion of this house, that the act of the 6th of George the 1st, intituled, 'An act for the 'better securing the dependency of the kingdom of 'Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain,' ought to be repealed;" which motion was unanimously agreed to.]

In April 1783 Mr. Eden was sworn of his Majesty's privy council in England, and was appointed Vice

they were communicated, and intended to be gradually produced. The recall of the Viceroy, however, was so sudden and unqualified, that it looked like a plan to deprive him of all the credit due to him for his good intentions, and to transfer the popularity that belonged to them to others. Hence, perhaps, the sudden appearance, the arguments and motion made and urged by Mr. Eden in the British House of Commons, on the 8th of April. Certain it is, that the House of Commons of Ireland were highly satisfied with the administration of the Earl of Carlisle, as appears by the following vote of thanks, which passed in that house without a division soon after the arrival of the Duke of Portland, and on the very day that the new Lord-lieutenant sent a message to the house by the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, Secretary of State in Ireland, "that his Grace had it in command to inform the house, that his Majesty being concerned to find that discontents and jealousies are prevailing among his loyal subjects of this country, upon matters of great weight and importance, recommends it to this house to take the same into their most serious consideration, in order to such a final adjustment as may give general satisfaction to his kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland."

"Monday, April 15, 1782.

"That the thanks of this house be presented to the Right Hon. Frederick Earl of Carlisle, for the wisdom and prudence of his administration, and for his uniform and unremitted attention to promote the welfare of this kingdom."

treasurer

treasurer of Ireland, which office he resigned in the month of December following.

In the session of 1784 he was chosen chairman of the committee appointed to inquire into the illicit practices used in defrauding the revenue: he was also in the same session chairman of the select committee appointed to examine the Reports of the Directors of the East-India Company. The Reports presented to the house by those committees were made the foundation of several parliamentary measures.

In the next session he took an active part in opposing the Irish propositions; and by his suggestions, and the suggestions of those gentlemen who acted with him, the propositions, before they received the ultimate sanction, were rendered infinitely more practicable, by various salutary modifications, alterations, and amendments: an incontrovertible proof that the presence of an opposition, composed of wise and able men, is at all times highly useful, and that a secession from parliament is not only a breach of a high constitutional trust, but as absurd and ridiculous as the quarrels of children who say " they'll play no more," because the dressing and management of a doll is not to be surrendered to them, while the supreme control of it is officially vested in others.

In December 1785 Mr. Eden was appointed one of the Lords of the Committee of Council for Trade and Plantations, and was named Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the court of Versailles, for the purpose of concluding a treaty of commerce between Great Britain and France. That treaty was accomplished

plished and signed September 26, 1786. On the 15th of January 1787 he signed with the Comte de Vergennes a farther commercial convention.

On the 31st of August, in the same year, he signed with the late Comte de Montmorin a convention between his Britannic Majesty and the most Christian King, for the prevention of disputes between their respective subjects in the East Indies.

In these truly important treaties, the consummate abilities of Mr. Eden as a man of business, his intimate knowledge of British commerce and British manufacture, and the true interests of both, shone forth with distinguished lustre. The mildness of our negotiator's manners, his accommodating temper, and his unassuming tone, aided by his adroit management of the various interests and concerns entrusted to his care, produced the most complete success. The commercial connection between the two countries was placed on a footing certainly not in itself disadvantageous to France, but in so superior a degree beneficial to Great Britain, to that upon which any former commercial treaty had rested, that the country was contented to reap the fruits of it in silence for nearly three years, before France discovered, or was pleased to acknowledge, that it was possible for her negotiators to be over-matched by an Englishman.

The convention signed by the late Comte de Montmorin was of still higher consideration than the commercial treaties, important as they were. It in

volved

volved interests of state policy of the first magnitude and consequence, and put an end to the claims so often previously set up by France upon our right of sovereignty in India. It annihilated for ever, as far as the most solemn compact can have that effect, every question, dispute, or challenge of our right that could hereafter be brought forward.*

On the 27th of October 1787, Mr. Eden, in concurrence with the late Duke of Dorset, signed and exchanged the declaration and counter-declaration with the French minister, by which it was agreed to discontinue all warlike preparations, and by which the court of France disavowed the retaining hostile views towards any quarter in consequence of what had happened in Holland.

In March 1788 Mr. Eden went to Spain as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. On his return from that embassy in October 1789, he was promoted to the dignity of the Irish peerage; and a few weeks afterwards was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the States General of the United Provinces.

* In the discussion of the late definitive treaty of peace, in the House of Lords, a question was raised, whether the nonrenewal of this convention in the definitive treaty did not let loose the right of sovereignty of India, and once more reduce it to the form of a difputable claim? But the question was fo ably and satisfactorily refuted by the noble negotiator of the convention, that it may be almost considered as a beneficial incident of debate, that any doubt was started on the fubject.

In May and June 1790, on the occasion of the disputes with Spain, and of the Spanish armament, he negotiated with the States General the prompt and friendly detachment of a considerable Dutch squadron to Portsmouth under Admiral Kinsbergen. On the 10th of December, 1790, Lord Auckland concluded and signed the convention between the Emperor Leopold and the Kings of Great Britain and Prussia, and the States General of the United Provinces, relative to the affairs of the Netherlands.

In 1792 and 1793 he took an active part as Ambassador in Holland, in preventing and repelling the mischiefs which have since overwhelmed so many of the continental powers. In April 1793, after the repulse of the French armies, he attended the congress of the several Princes, Ambassadors, and Generals at Antwerp. On the 18th of the following month he was promoted to the dignity of a baron of Great Britain, by the style and title of Baron Auckland, of West Auckland, in the county of Durham.

A few months afterwards he retired from the line of foreign embassies, in which he had manifested a variety and versatility of talent for diplomacy rarely found in any one minister whom this country had sent to different foreign courts, and in the same short period of time entrusted with such unlimited discretionary powers, respecting matters of the highest national importance, though of an opposite nature in almost every instance.

Having thus rendered his country the most essential and valuable services abroad, Lord Auckland re

turned