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to inform the houfe, that it was, in fome refpects, rather a fubftitution of other taxes to thofe that had been relinquished, for the eafe of the public, than the impofition of new ones: he alfo ftated, that fervices unprovided for, and of which the propriety was evident, would demand the means of performance. Having withdrawn the tax on printed linens and callicoes, calculated to produce one hundred and thirtyfive thousand pounds, he would now propose to replace that deficiency by a tax upon dogs, computed at one hundred thousand pounds, and by another on hats, eftimated at forty thoufand. To these two taxes he would now add one, of twenty pounds a ton upon wine, which would yield fix hundred thoufand pounds, with very little addition of expence to the confumers of this article.

The fcarcity of money was, at the fame time, he noticed, an object of essential attention to miniftry, and every effort would be exerted to find a remedy. This fcarcity proceeded, in fome measure, from the neceflary fupport of our foreign allies, and the extraordinaries for our numerous forces; but there were alfo other causes: the immenfity of commercial fpeculations, the vaft capital in conftant employment, and the infufficiency of the pecuniary medium to anfwer mercantile demands. To remove this difficulty, he propofed to fund the public debts remaining, unfunded, which would enable the bank to make larger advances on their bills to merchants than while it was fo much applied to for difcount, in confequence of the debt unfunded.

The total of the fums demanded, by Mr. Pitt, for the fervices unpro

VoL. XXXVIII.

vided for, amounted to two millions and a half, and the annual charge of intereft for the fums to be levied, in order to provide for thofe fervices, and for the funding of the unfunded debt, arofe to five hundred and feventy-fix thousand pounds. The loan, which was to furnifh the means of carrying the above fcheme into execution, would amount to feven millions and a half, at the moderate profit of three pounds fix fhillings and three pence per cent. to the lenders. This, he obferved, was an incontrovertible proof of the flourishing fituation of this country, of its furprifing refources, and of the confidence repofed in the miniftry by people of property. It ought to filence the mifreprefentations of those who took fuch pains to ftate this country as reduced to diftrefs, and who had thereby encouraged the French to affume the arrogance of dictating the terms of a peace, when their own finances were wholly fhattered, and the whole country and nation involved in every fpecies of public and private embarraffinents, from which nothing but a peace could poffibly extricate them.

Mr. Grey replied with great fervour to Mr. Pitt. He charged him with coming to the houfe no lefs than three times in fourteen months, with three different budgets, as if he well knew that he had only to atk, in order to obtain : but the fact was, that the minifter's addrefs to the houfe, on this day, was, though an indirect, yet a clear acknowledgement of his errors and mifconduct, and a plain, though vainly concealed, endeavour to rectify them. Parliament, however, was bound, in juftice to its conftituents, to fubmit to no fal[F]

lacious

lacious and illufory accounts, and to investigate the minifterial ftatements with the feverest ftrickness: this would fhew, that in many circumstances, they were not to be relied on. Mr. Grey went into a variety of particulars, in proof of his own affertion. Notwithstanding the loan of twenty-five millions, intereft had not, he faid, been provided for the outstanding debts. He warned the houfe to be ware of giving credit to the affeverations, fo regularly brought before it, of French diftrefs, and incapacity to maintain the conteft. To fuch delufion the war was owing, together with its fatal protractions. He concluded, by aflerting, that if a fair investigation was made, by a committee of inquiry, it would appear that provifion had not been made, as flated, for the intereft of the public debt.

After an answer from Mr. Pitt, juftifying his affertions and ftatements, and controverting thofe of Mr. Grey in the most effential particulars, Mr. Fox took up the fubject with great animation. He coincided with the affertions of Mr. Grey, and treated, with marked afperity, the idea, that a people plunged, as the French were deferibed, in the gulph of bankruptcy, fhould compel the British miniftry to demand fuch endlefs fupplies of money, and call upon the people of this country for fo enormous a fum as twenty-five millions within little more than a year. He noticed, with equal feverity, the arrears due in a variety of departments, particularly the retention of the fmall allowance to the emigrants, who had fhewn fuch confidence in our generofity, and who had no other means of fubfifience.

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Other members fpoke on each fide of the question. On putting the refolutions moved by the minister in favour of the new loan, and additional taxes, they were carried without a divifion of the house.

The mortality that had fo fatally prevailed among the British troops in the Weft Indies, and the inadequateness of the fucceffes obtained there, to the expectations formed from the fums expended on the expeditions against the French iflands, were topics of general converfation and complaint. Oppofition afcribed the difappointments that had happened in those parts to the incapacity, or ill conduct, of miniftry, and demanded the production of the papers relating to thofe expeditions.

On the 21ft of April, Mr. Sheridan, after many strictures on the conduct of miniftry, moved for a return of the men carried off by disease and fatigue in thofe countries. So fhameful, he afferted, was the neglect of the troops, that, on their arrival in that deftructive climate, they were deftitute of fhoes and ftockings. Had not difcafes ravaged the enemy's forces, our own muft have fallen an eafy prey into their hands. The hofpitals were crowded with the fick and wounded, for whom neither medicines nor bandages were provided. Such was the inhumanity they fometimes experienced, that ninety, or a hundred, of thefe unhappy men, were once left to pass, a whole night on the beach, in fequence of which only feven or eight furvived. With fuch motives. for an inquiry how could it be declined? He required it, together with an account of the force employed. under lord Moira in 1794 and 1795, and which ought to have been dif

con

patched

patched to the relief of the troops
in the islands, and not kept inactive
at home. He would alfo require
a lift of the officers and foldiers loft,
fpecifying the lofs of each regiment.
Such information would fhew what
a drain thefe expeditions had proved
from the population of the British
iflands, and how much they tended
to weaken them. Accounts ought,
by the fame reason, to be laid be-
fore the houfe, of the numbers
carried off in the ports of South-
ampton, Portsmouth, and Plymouth,
were it only to make known the ini-
quitous neglect of those who could
leave troops confined feven months
on board, expofed to the infallible
effects of fuch a clofe imprisonment,
notwithstanding the remonftrances
made to government. He moved,
at the fame time, for the produc-
tion of other documents of the fame
nature, by which he pledged him-
felf to prove the mifconduct of mi-
nifters; adding, that unless they
felt a confcioufnefs of the rectitude
of his charges, they would gladly
feize the occafion, now offered them,
of vindicating themfelves from the
imputations to loudly and generally
laid to them by the public.

The difficulty of the minifter's fituation was ftrongly reprefented by Mr. Dundas. Papers and documents were demanded from them, of which official fecrecy prohibited the communication to the public. The time would certainly come, when they would gladly meet the ftricteft fcrutiny of their conduct, fure that it would ftand the fevereft teft. All had been done in the Weft Indies that circumftances would permit, and reinforcements and fupplies of all kinds had been tranfmitted without delay, on the firft notice of their being wanted.

In the courfe of this debate, the tranfactions, under fir C. Grey, came into difcuffion. Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Francis, and general Tarleton, inferred, from words spoken by Mr. Dundas, that he meant to inculpate the conduct of that officer; but both he and Mr. Pitt beftowed the highest encomiums upon him. Mr. Grey, the member, declared, however, that fir C. Grey was earnefily defirous to give every elucidation refpecting the bufinefs with which he had been entrusted.

He

On the twenty-eighth of April, a violent debate took place on thofe fubjects. Mr. Dundas entered into a minute and elaborate recapitulation of the conduct of government, refpecting the Weft Indies. carefully detailed the forces of the kingdom, and what had been detached from them, on expeditions to thofe parts. He gave a circumftantial account of all that had happened there, and exerted himself to thew that the difafiers and difappointments, that had befallen us, arofe from accidents that were wholly unavoidable: the conduct of our commanders had been judicious, and that of miniftry irreproachable.

This apology did not prove fatisfactory to the oppofition. The imputation of having neglected the troops, in the Weft Indies, was reallerted, by Mr. Sheridan, with much pofitivenefs, and the diftribution of the forces affigned to the various fervices that took place at that time, improbated as ill-judged; and fome of the fervices themfelves reprefented as unfeasonable, and interfering with the others. The troops deftined for the Well-India expedition were allo deferibed as unworthy the name of foldiers: they con[F2]

fifted

fifted of elderly men, and mere boys, with raw youths at their head. This certainly was no better than mockery and parade. Mr. Dundas having exprefled, with much warmth on this occafion, his hope that the Cape of Good Hope would never be reftored to the enemy, Mr. Sheridan took notice of the mortifying impreffion that fuch a declaration muft neceflarily make on the ftadtholder, who could not fail, thereby, to perceive, that what we took from the Dutch we were determined to keep. The ftadtholder, in his retreat at Hampton, had, indeed, the fatisfaction of feeing his fleets, and foreign poffeffions, falling, not into the hands of his enemies, but thofe of his friends; yet, as thefe friends dragged him into the war, under the affurance of protection, he might well fay, with the Roman poet,

Pol me occidiftis Amici, non servâft s!" HORAT.

The refult of this debate was, that miniftry acquiefced in the motions made by Mr. Sheridan, which were for accounts of the number of men deftined for the expedition to the Weft Indies, under fir C. Grey, in 1793; for accounts of the number withdrawn from that fervice, to form an expedition against the coast of France under lord Moira, and of the numbers, who, after the conqueft of Martinico, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe, were detached to St. Domingo. But the other motions, made by Mr. Sheridan, for a variety of official papers, relating to the circumftances of other armaments and intended expeditions, were negatived, on Mr. Dundas engaging to give explanatory anfwers to the queftions upon thofe fubjects.

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The expedition to Quiberon, in the fummer of 1795, and its unfortunate illue to numbers of the French emigrants embarked in it, had beena fubject of univerfal difcuffion in this country ever fince it had happened, and had given occafion to the fevereft cenfures of thofe to whom the management of it had been entrufted. The perfon whofe fall was moft lamented was the count de Sombreuil, a French gentleman of a moft amiable character, -anu highly refpected for his many excellent qualities. He had, with many others, fallen into the hands of the enemy, and, like them, was condemned to death as a rebel. On the eve of his execution he wrote a letter to Mr. Wyndham, wherein he alluded to two others, one written to fir J. B. Warren, the other to Mr. Wyndham; a copy of this laft, was demanded by general Tarleton, as being of a public nature, and conformably to the defire of the count himfelf, who had, in the letter to fir J. B. Warren, expreffed a wifh that Mr. Wyndham would publish it: but this gentleman alleged it was more of a private than a public nature. In the mean time it was publifhed in a daily paper, and Mr. Sheridan affirmed that he found it related to matters of public importance, and reprefented the expedition alluded to in a very unfavour able light to minifters. Mr. Wyndham, in reply, afferted that it concerned the count himself, who was diflatisfied with the part affigned to him in that expedition. He did not, however, force it upon the count, who acted merely from his exceflive zeal in the caufe, he had embraced. This anfwer provoked

By G--, my friends, ye have not served, but ruined me. HORAT.

another

another from general Smith, in which he reprefented Mr. Puifiaye, who had the charge of that expedition, as unworthy of it, and as an emigrant of little confideration among his countrymen. Other members fpoke on this occafion: but the debate ended by Mr. Pitt's moving for the order of the day; and Mr. Sheridan's motion for the latter was thereby negatived.

Years had now elapfed fince the famous declaration, made by the houfe of commons, during the American war, "that the influence of the crown had encreased, was ftill encreafing, and ought to be diminished." At that period feveral refolutions had alo pafled for the reform of various abules. But though this falutary work had been proceeded upon, it had gradually been laid afide, and the public had long ceafed to hear of any progrefs in the alterations propofed and promifed at that time It was to recall thefe divers objects to notice, that the marquis of Lanfdowne moved for the feveral papers relating to them. On the fecond of May he made a long and elaborate fpeech, in the house of lords, on the fubject of their contents, urging, with great force, the propriety of taking them into confideration at a time when the purpale for which the regulations contained in them were framed, and which was the retrenchment of

needlefs expences, demanded the attention of the legislature more than ever. The marquis entered into a number of particulars in order to corroborate his affertion, that a ufclefs and expenfive augmentation of places and offices had taken place. The patronage thence arifing to miniftry had proved enormous: but the most dangerous was that de

rived from the influence they poffelled over the bank, of which the management was now become entirely their own, contrary to the spirit of its infiitution, and the fafety of the conftitution itfelf, which was manifeftly endangered by fo vaft an acceffion of power to the executive branch of government. Who could "have the face to deny that these were glaring abuses, and that they called for immediate remedies? He would, therefore, in this critical fituation of affairs, endeavour to procure the realizing of those mea fares of reform, fo long refolved upon, and which ought, from every motive of duty and honour, to be no longer delayed. For this purpofe he would move, that an inquiry fhould be inflituted into the caufes that had prevented the profecution of thofe reforms fo folemnly fanctioned by the legislature, and fo ftrongly recommended by thofe to whole wifdom and integrity it had formally committed the infpection of that department most effential in all ftates, the revenue and finances of the nation, and all that was connected with this important object. He made other motions tending to the fame end; and concluded, by renewing the difapprobation he had fo often exprefled of the war, as deftructive of men, and wafteful of treafure, beyond all precedents.

The reforms alluded to were acknowledged by lord Grenville, in reply, to have been thought expedient by the commiffioners who had been appointed to examine the public accounts; but it fhould not be thence inferred, that they were applicable to all times and emergencies. The propofal, for inftance, to throw fome of the revenue-offices into one was [FS]

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