prefent Majefty. Henry loft all his they had purfued in the American bufifather's conquefts, and all his heredi- nefs, to refuse them in one feffions what tary provinces in France; George has they were ready to grant them with adalready feen the conquests of his grand- ditions the next. Before he concluded father wrefted from him in the Weft his long and animated speech, he made Indies, and his hereditary provinces in fome pointed obfervations on the new America erected into a feparate empire. A promotions; chiefly that of the Lords His Majefty fet out in life with the Hillsborough and Carlifle; the first to brightest profpects; poffeflid of im- the fecretaryfhip of the fouthern demenfe dominions, and the warmest af partment, and the latter to a feat at the fections of his people; his acceffion to board of trade. He knew not how a the crown was compleatly flattering_certain learned member [the Attorney both to himfelt and his fubjects. How B General] could bring himfelf to fup. fadly is the fcene reverfed! his empire port the one whom he once threatened dilmembered, his councils distracted, with an impeachment, and was at a and his people falling off in their fond- lofs to affign a reafon for the appointmels for his perfon! They were already ment of a fupernumerary commiffion beginning to murmur, and their pati- for the other. He remarked how deence was not unlimited-there certain- Cpraved indeed that administration mußt ly would be disturbances. The mife- be, when thofe who had fupported rable flate to which the nation is re- them through many dirty measures duced cannot, he faid, be wholly ow were afhamed to affociate with them ing to ignorance, there must be defign; any longer, and had made room for there muit be treachery. The noble the changes which that day had been Jord may think himself fecure in his in-Dannounced; but changes of that fort, nocence, and hope protection from the w; but when the law is perverted, and the people are reduced to feek juftice by force of arms, the law of nature then takes place, and those who have Leen the caufe of the distraction will then be the first facrifices. he faid, were but palliatives, and nothing but the amendment then under confideration could fave the nation from impending ruin. He therefore gave the motion his hearty concurrence. Ld Adv. of Scotland had a prefentiment, hefaid, that efforts would be made After contrafting the prefent reign to impede government, and embarrafs with that of the glorious reign of Wil- his Majefty's fervants in the conduct of Fam the Third, he proceeded to conti- the national bufinefs; for which reader the critical fituation in which Ire- fon he had, contrary to his ufual cuf2nd then flood with respect to this F tom, turned his back upon his profefkingdom. Every evil with which we fional avocations, to give his fupport to are threatened from that quarter he the measures of parliament, which he imputed directly to the bad policy of had every reafon in the world to be adminiftration during the latt feffion. lieve would be confidered with temper, He appealed to the Houle on the pro- and exerted with vigour. Refpecting priety of their voting in the addrefs, the prefent motions, he faid, he faw thanks to his Majefty for his atten- in the one a plain, direct, clear, and tion to the state of his loyal and faith- applicable addrets to his Majesty, afful kingdom of Ireland;" and chal- furing him that his people would unite lenged minilly to point out a fingle as one man in the moit vigorous exerintance in which that attention had tions against the ambitious and treabeen manifefted. He adverted to the cherous confederacy of his powerful cafe of the members of the Irish houfeH and inveterate enemies: in the other, of commons, who had been fworn, a vague, imperious, and infolent rewith bayonets at their breaths, to vote quifition, ill-becoming the dignity of as the people dictated; and warned mi- majesty, prefuming to dictate to the nitry not to adopt that li the line of fovereign, and to decide on the demeconduct with respect to Ireland which rits of his fervants, without one fingle fact fast to fupport the charge. Was it a fufficient ground to addrefs the Crown for new counsellors and new councils, becaufe a rumour had been circulated that the King was his own minifter, and that those who held the first employ. ment in the state were totally irrefponfi-A ble for the measures adopted in the feveral departments over which they prefided? For his part, he never heard fuch language advanced; and, if he had, he should have held himself obli would happen on the first day of the prefent fellions, and no lefs humourous on the reafons he gave for adopting one propofition, and rejecting another, becaufe he was totally ignorant of what either of them meant. It was, he faid, an unquestionable proof of the hon. gentleman's courage, that he ventured to appear in the Houfe at fo perilous a juncture with tuch unanfwerable arguments to fupport an endangered miniltry, as thofe of total ignorance. Such ged to treat it with the contempt it de-Ban advocate was worthy of fuch a'cause. terved. As to the affairs of the ariny, he would answer for it, when they came into difcuffion, his honourable friend the prefent fecietary at war would explain them to the full fatisfaction of the Houfe; nor had he the leall doubt but that every other confidential member of the cabinet would be ready, as the noble lord in the blue ribbon had been, to do the fame. Such an argument the noble lord in the blue ribbon had himself advanced with refpect to the affairs of Ireland, when, after the long notice he had received from that Houfe, and the alarming moCtives which he had for an enquiry into the grievances of that oppretied people, he had come into the Houfe, and frankly confefled he was equally ignorant of the cause and the cure. He afked, if there could be a more forcible reafon D for the difiniffion of a minifter urged by his most inveterate enemy than the noble lord's own declaration again himself? As to the affairs of Ireland, he a knowledged himfelt totally unacquainted with them; yet he could not think them in the alarming fituation, in which the hon. gentleman [Mr. F-x] had reprefented them. Ireland, it was known, was in It was in vain, he faid, for the noble great diftrefs; and, in proportion to its lord and his advocates to endeavour to neceffities, he was bold to fay, would be E difunite the cafes of Ireland and the its relief. England would not withhold American Colonies. The mad, cruel, from Ireland what it was proper to grant; and accurfed American war may be nor would Ireland require from England traced in every fingle feature, circumwhat it was proper to withhold. ftance, and step which have contributed He then went into a juftification of to call forth the fpirit, the relentment, the naval campaign; and followed Ld F and refolution of the Irish nation. N-th in every part of his argument. Amuted by delufive hopes, and taught He remarked on the inconfiftency of by repeated difappointments to place no oppofition, who last year expreffed the confidence in the most folemn aliurances frongeft apprehenfions for the fafety of of minifters, and their fpirits rifing ia this kingdom: but now, when the at- proportion to their wants and diftreffes, tention of administration to that object what would have been received as a had given full refutation to their fears, favour la feffions is now demanded as they were urging it as a crime against a right; and if refused, will afluredly them, that they had not taken from Sir burtt forth with tenfold mifchief, and Charles Hardy's force a detachment to in a ftorm ftrike this nation, and shake rainforce the fquadron in the Weft In it to its lowest foundation. dies. He concluded with affigning his reafons for declaring against the amend-H ment, as founded on charges without proof, and fupported by arguments without confiftency. Mr. B-ke was very jocular on the hon. gentleman's pre-fentiment of what To the plan of policy adopted here, what more could be added to exalperate a nation already driven to the latt extremity? Inftead of continuing the British parliament, and calling together the parliament of Ireland to give them fome certainty of our good intentions towards towards them, the minifter, groffly de- ing the patent was not made out in the parting from every line of prudence and ufual form, and that the prefent comcommon fenfe, prorogued the parlia- mander in chief owed his appointment ment of G. Britain, and called the par- to his rank upon the staff, and in virtue liament of Ireland; the confequence of of his fervices and experience, he made which has been, as every man of com- no doubt but his lordship would give mon understanding forefaw, riots and A parliament every fatisfaction that should infurrections, and to allay the ferment be required refpecting the promotions an unanimous vote of both houfes of fo much complained of. He totally the Irish parliament infifting upon a difapproved of the amendment, he faid, FREE TRADE. Such is the prefent as it conveyed cenfure without proof, critical fituation of affairs in that coun- and decided without enquiry. He adtry; and should the mifchievous effects B verted to the high encomiums that had enfue, which there is but too much bren paffed on the glories of the latt reafon to apprehend, he would boldly reign, affering, that no gentleman preaffert in the face of the noble lord in fent revered the memory of George the the blue ribbon, that they generated in Second more than himself, but he could oppreffion, and were foftered by the not help obferving, that there were pefolly and ignorance of thofe counsellors Criods in his reign when the empire was whofe removal the amendment pointed in fituations much more critical than to; and would infallibly prove fatal if that in which it was at prefent; yet it thofe counsellors were fupported by the fortunately emerged, and that great influence of the crown, and continued monarch terminated his reign in a series against the voice of the people. of national glory and unprecedented Diuccefs. From whence he interred, that his prefent Majefty having met with fimilar embarraliments in the course of his reign, might live to enjoy the fatisfaction of beholding his people profperous and happy, and himself adored as their great deliverer. Mr. 7-nk-n (Secretary at War) rofe in juftification of the commander in chief. Difcontents, he owned, had arifen on account of commiffions granted to fome noblemen and gentlemen contrary to the ufages of the army; but thofe difcontents had grown out of the preting exigencies of the itate, when E all that could be derived from fudden and extraordinary levies became neceffary, and when private feelings must be facrificed to public fecurity. As to any agreement, fuch as the hon. gentleman [Mr. F-x] alluded to, between the commander in chief and the officers on half pay, he declared, he never before heard of it, and he believed it never exifted, any more than the charge made early in the debate, that the King was his own minifter, and that the confidential fervants of the crown, under that mean fubterfuge, held themselves exempt from all refponfibility; for his own part, he held no fuch opinion; for every act of mifconduct in the waroffice, fo far as the fame came under his immediate controul, he declared himself accountable; but at the fame time acknowledged, that the patronage of the army was not lodged in his, but in abler hands; and that, notwithstand. Mr. We-rb-ne [Attorney General] faid, the motion for the addrefs made by the noble lord [L-wish-m] appeared to him unexceptionable, as it went no farther than jutt to carry up to the throne thofe expreffions of duty and F affection, which has ever been the language of parliament in anfwer to the fpeeches of their fovereign; on the other hand, the amendment proceeded to condemn without difcrimination not thofe minifters only, who had been in Goffice during the time when the adverse circumftances had arifen, but those alfo who, as he understood, had just been promoted. This, he faid, though fufficient ground for rejecting it, was not all; it went ftill farther, to require his Majefty to adopt not only new counfellors, but a new fyftem of government. Taking it in this view, it became neceflary to know what the fyftem of Britifh government now was, and what that fyftem of government which was to be adapted in the room of it. As the noble Lord who made the motion, and these who had fupported it, had left the House wholly in the dark with regard to those particulars, he begged leave to communicate what he conceived to be their meaning. By the prefent fyftem of Government, the Conftitution has placed the exclufive power in the Sovereign, the official functions of which are performed by, perfons of his appointment, each of whom is refponfible for his conduct in his refpective department.-Such is the prefent fyftem; and fuch it ought to be. But if any new fyftem fhould be adopted, who knows what anarchy may arife? By changing the prefent fyftem, the nobles may acquire a most dangerous afcendency over the Crown; or the Commons, encircling the King like a fpider's web, with a Ministry of their own, may fo model government, that instead of constitutional confiftency, it may degenerate into an anftocracy, and become worfe than a republic. He ridiculed the notion of the King's being his own minifter, as the most childish opinion that ever was propagated, and fuch as no man in a refponfible office could be weak enough to entertain; he was fure the noble Lord at the bar of the army, whether he held his poft by patent, or as the firft general on the staff, entertained no fuch opinion. The late departure from the freight line of promotion, was juftified by preffing neceflity and he flattered himself, from the known pradence of the Commander in Chief, that he would confine his deviation within the ftrict limits of that neceflity. He contended, that we were now in a far better ftate of fecurity, than at the clofe of the laft feffions; our fears of an invafion were over, our militia difciplined; our fortreffes repaired and well provided; the enemy defeated and difmayed; and foreign powers more willing to enter into alhances, which every one knows are binding only in proportion as each contracting party is confidered as capable of furnishing reciprocal affitance. The temporary fuperiority of the enemy over us at fea, had been reprefented by fome gentlemen, he faid, as a novelty in hiftory; but it was a still greater novelty, to fee the whole House of Bourbon united in a maritime war against us, without the leaft check or GENT. MAG. Feb. 1780. control from any continental power whatever. He gave King William due praise for his heroifm, in not only defending the liberties of his own country, but thofe of Europe; at the fame time he called to mind the grofs treatment which that Monarch had received in that houfe during his lifetime. He touched flightly on the changes that had just happened in the Cabinet, and faid fome handfome things of th noble Lords [Gower and Weymouth] who had refigned, but exhaufted his whole ftore of panagyric on young Lord Carlifle, who had devoted his great talents to the fervice of his country, at an age when pleasure is fo apt to captivate the minds of men of his birth and ample fortunes; he defended his appointment to the board of trade in oppofition to Mr. Fox, on the ground of wanting fo powerful an affiftant at that board, when fo great a question was in agitation, as the fettling a plan of a trade for the equal advantage of this country and Ireland. Of Lord Hillsborough, he avowed the opinion which he once entertained of the famous letter which that nobleman fent to America, and still afcribed to that letter all the evils that have fince occurred on the American contest, and wished, he faid, that if fome facts appeared upon examination as reprefented by an honourable member, his Irish correspondence may not turn out as unfortunate to that country, and to this too, as the American correfpondence to which the honourable gentlenran had made the allufion. He comprised in his fpeech a vast variety of matter, and left fcarce any one, topic that had been advanced, untouched; and at length concluded, with difapproving the amendment in every part. THE veracity of Crito's state of the Average Price of Wheat, having been questioned in the St. James's Chronicle, he begs the favour of Mr. Urban to infert the following note under authentic records. "See the true account of the Price of Wheat, down to 1749, in the Museum Rufticum, vol. 2. From that period to the prefent, the returns of the Clerk of the Market at Windfor, and the publications in the Gentleman's Magazine." The Extern Tale, the Illustrations of Mr. Dodiley's Poems, Mr. Bentham's Favours, &c. &c. in our next. A ferious Addrefs to the Gentlemen of land ed Property throughout England.. Gentlemen may recollect that about ten or twelve years ago the cry against the farmers was loud and general. They were reprefented as men without feelings for the miseries of the poor, and by fome writers, as hardly poffeffing fentiments of humanity. To their combinations, added to the artifices of thofe dependent upon them, the fufferings of the people in the middle ftations of life, (which about that time were very fevere,) were for the moft part attributed; and they were execrated as a clafs of men abforbed in one fordid passion, that of engroffing the produce of the earth, and converting it to their own felfish interefts. It was further urged against them, that now they were become rich, the fame arts by which they had been able to raife the price of provifions, would ftill operate to keep thofe prices up; and it was echoed and re-echoed from rich to poor, and from parent to child, that they would never have the neceffaries of life upon the fame eafy terms as they themselves had experienced fcarce twenty years before. In this opinion all men agreed, tho' the reafons for their affent were very different. A writer of no fmall credit in the lite rary world undertook to prove the impoffibility of things ever reverting to the old ftandard. To the combinations and artifices already mentioned, he fuggefted a still more plaufible impediment arifing from that inundation of wealth which then began to pervade the whole kingdom by the return and difperfion of armies of gentlemen enriched to an enormous degree by the fpoils of the Nabobs of the east; or by fervices, if not the moft honourable, yet lucrative beyond all former precedent. Remarking the change which the lavish profution of wealth fo fuddenly and fo lightly obtained, had already begun to produce in the modes of life in the neighbourhood where any of thofe gentlemen were fettled, he ventured to predict, that in proportion as this new lyftem of luxury prevailed, the diftreffes of the poor would of courie multiply. He faw immenfe tracts of fertile land rapt from the Soame Jennings, efq. in his Thoughts on the Caufes and Confequences of the prefent High Price of Provisions. Printed for Dodley. plow and converted into parks and pleasure grounds; and he faw innumerable little bargains taken from the occupiers, in order to make way for a new set of inhabitants, buffaloes, zebras, and other innovators, the very names of which were till lately utterly unknown in Great Britain. And his conclufion from all this, and a variety of other obfervations of the like kind, was, that as long as the treasures of the Eaft continued to be diffused thro' the innermoft parts of Great Britain, fo long would the high price of all forts of provisions continue to accompany them in their progrefs. It is, however, foreign to the purpofe of this addrefs to recount the reveries of fpeculative reafoners at that very diftreffing time. A thousand false caufes were affigned for the then dearth, but very few attended to the true one. Whoever was hardy enough to affert that the seasons were in fault, was marked as a friend to the farmer, and by inference an enemy to every other fellow subject. But as the tone is already changing, and compaffion for the poor farmer begins to take place of execration against the rich; the following extract will now probably be read without prejudice. It is taken from a practical book, entitled, The Complete English Farmer†, which was published when the refentment of the public against that clafs of men was at the height. The author, after laying down rules for cultivating several forts of grain, proceeds, in course, treat of Oats, to which he endeavours to draw the farmer's more particular attention by the following arguments. "There is reafon to believe (fays he, p. 237) that the time is approaching when oats will become more the ordinary farmer's care than at prefent is generally apprehended; and my reafon for it is this, that the culture of wheat is now become an object of the greatest attention throughout Europe, and not in Europe only, but in America alfo, from whence all Italy, Spain, and Portugal, at this hour are chiefly fupplied. When our crops of wheat therefore begin to exceed our home confumption, our markets for the overplus will be foreftalled, our ftock in hand will encreafe, and the price of courfe will fink fo low, that no farmer in England will be able to + Printed for F. Newbery at the corner of St. Paul's church-yard, |