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body fufpected him of corruption in this bufinefs. He did not know what the minifter had done in every refpect upon this loan: but when he faw a method followed which favoured the probability of corruption, by furnishing an opportunity of putting millions of the public money into the pockets of individuals, he did not like to have it defended by mere affertion. Had any reafon been fhewn for making the loan fo early? Had any thing been urged by the minifter to induce a belief that the reafon for negotiating was not as ftrong in his mind long ago as at prefent? The loan, he contended, was not only in itfelf difgraceful, but it would have a bad effect in future; men would say there was no fafety in a public competition: it was true, a competition was talked of; but the minifter might recollect fome private promife he had made to an individual, and that, after they attended to bid, he might give an option to that individual to take it to himself.

Mr. Sheridan obferved that they were two diftin&t things, to fay that the minifter has no part of the bonus himself, and to say that he has not contrived to make a distribution of it to others. In 1783, lord John Cavendish, who, it was clear, had been influenced by the pureft motives, had been far from tenderly treated refpecting the loan he had made. He totally doubted the minifter's ignorance of the fubaltern fubfcribers to the prefent loan, and wifhed the houfe to call for a lift of the contractors, and then for the Tubordinate lifts of the bankers. The lord mayor, he obferved, was faid to have two millions of the loan; and he pointedly noticed the conduct of that magiftrate repecting the meetings which re

garded the two celebrated bills. He thought there was full right to faften a fufpicion on the diftribution of the loan. Could any man in the fhape of a politician, and circumflanced like the miniffer, affert that he did not, on the 25th of November know that the French were already in poffeffion of fuck an order of things, or in the course of obtaining it, as could juftify a negotiation for peace? Mr. Sheridan proceeded to remark what he confidered as inconfiftent in the minifter, who, on the opening of the budget, had declared the French in the very gulph of bankruptcy, and yet came forward with another propofition, afferting that the or der of things in that country was favourable to a treaty: Could it be thought that the minifter had made no estimate on the probable duration of the prefent government of France, when he bargained for the loan? It might have been expected from his declarations, that the prefent council of 500 did not elect themselves, and that four out of the five members of the council of ancients had not imbrued their hands in the blood of their fovereign. Yet the reverse was the fact. Upon a review of the circumftances of the loan, there were, in his conception, grounds for frius fuficion, that it the minifter had not been guilty of perfonal corruption, he had, through the means of particular agents, ufed one of the most pernicious fpecies of bribes that had ever been reforted to by the most corrupt government.

The lord mayor afferted that he had never made a declaration in the common hall that he would oppofe the bills. Out of 8000 of his conftituents, a majority of 2000 had indeed oppofed the bills, but thefe he could not confider as a ma

jority of the whole. He declared in the face of God and that auguft affembly, that he knew nothing of the loan, “till his hair-dreffer, an koneft fellow, told him that the houfe with which he was connected got 2,800,000l. of the loan." God knows, he had no impure motives! much stress was laid upon a bonus, but would any one take a loan without a bonus?

The house, after much oppofition, agreed to a close committee, which all members who pleafed were allowed to attend.

This committee, after fitting a confiderable time, and examining feveral witneffes, completed their report, which was brought up by Mr. W. Smith. After a speech remarkable for its force of argument and accuracy of detail, Mr. Smith moved a ftring of refolutions eftablifhing the principle of an open competition that the loan was bad and improvident and that the minifter, in adjusting the terms, had been guilty of a departure from his own principles, and of a breach of his duty. Mr. Smith obferved, that 8 millions of the loan was divided amongst thofe gentlemen who had fupported the measures of the minifter in Grocers' Hall; and this yielded a clear profit of 90,000l. Mr. Boyd had, he faid, urged, that his claim to the loan was a right, founded in juftice and the nature of things, and recognised by conftant practice and public opinion. How came it, then, that the chancellor of the exchequer, who had fo long adminiftered the finances, fhould he fitate about it? Inftead of five millions of the fcrip remain ing in the market at the time the loan was made, there was only 1,400,000l. In 1794, Mr. Boyd bad made a barg in for the loan a month previous to the last pay

ments of Meffrs. Morgan and Angerftein for the last loan: what, then, was the opinion of Mr. Boyd and of the minifter? Mr. Smith next argued, whether, had the claim of Mr. Boyd been well grounded, there was a neceffity to conclude the bargain during the time of his exclufive privilege.This, from a review of the different means by which money might have been raised for a fhort time, he contended was not the cafe: Mr. Morgan himself had offered to lend five millions. Mr. Smith objected to the calculations of the minifter refpecting the terms of the loan; and contended that there was 120,cool. more profit upon it than he had stated. The preference given to the three per cents. in the bargain, was, he argued, extremely unfavourable for the public. The terms of the loan might certainly have been more advantageous; Mr. Morgan would have been content to take it at three fhillings, long annuity, lefs. In every way, whether calculating by the unusual amount of the premium, by the difference between the real and oftenfible intereft, or from Mr. Morgan's offer, he eftimated the public lofs at near half a million. The king's meffage had produced a further profit of 900,000l. fterling. He feverely centured, as difgraceful to the country, the bills ante-dated from Hamburgh, but drawn on unftamped paper in London, on the Treafury, by Mr. W. Boyd. When, he faid, he confidered the amount of the late loans, the liqui dation of the national debt, which had been theoretically held out, appeared to be practically impoffible. We had lately added to the mass no lefs than fifty-two millions fterling. Mr. Smith further remarked, with great ability, the bad effects to a

commercial country in taking money out of trade to employ it in money fpeculations.

valid. The mode of executing them was dictated by the neceffary regard to fecrecy. The fervice renThe conduct of the chancellor of dered to government by this tranfthe exchequer was fupported, in a action was by no means of futh fpeech of confiderable length, by magnitude as to give Mr. Boyd Mr. Sylvefter Douglas, and by Mr. a ftrong claim upon it; nor did Steele. It was again arraigned that gentleman think fo; and was by Mr. Francis. Mr. Pitt, in a it likely, he asked, under the preffing" very adroit fpeech, obferved that neceffity he was in of making large he thought himself fully warranted demands of money that he fhould in affuming the benefit of the opi- add eight or ten per cent. to the nion of the committee, which, af- public burdens? Mr. Pitt remarkter a laboured investigation, had ed upon feveral inconfiftencies he decided that there was no diftribu- thought had arifen in the evidence tion of the loan for the purpose of of Mr. Morgan to the committee. corrupt influence. It had, he ob- Had he determined to throw the ferved, been indirectly infinuated, loan at all events into the hands of that, with undue partiality, he had Mr. Boyd, would he have delibecontrived to enrich Mr. Boyd at rately announced his intention of the expence of the public; and for competition, and invited competithis purpose frequent allufions had tors? How could Mr. Morgan conbeen made to the Hamburgh bills. tend that he had fuftained injury from In every loan, he faid, parliament having prepared his property to quainferted a claufe, holding out a lify himself to be a bidder, when he premium for the prompt payment ftated, that till the 22d of Novemof the fubfcription, as the money ber he never began to doubt that might probably be wanted before there would be a competition? It the inftalments became due. Go- had, he obferved, been proved, vernment, therefore, had entered that he teftified ftrong prejudice, into a negotiation with a monied and great reluctance to depart from houfe to advance fuch fums as were the fyftem of competition, and wanted for the fervice. The aid did not agree to it till it was of parliament could not be had brought forward in an uncontrowithout calling it together at great vertible way. No exprefs condiinconvenience. In confequence of tion indeed fubfifted: but were there this, treasury warrants were offer- not other confiderations equally ed; but Mr. Boyd faid, bills of ex- binding to the obfervance of a change were a more mercantile claim founded in juftice and hocommodity; and, to avoid the ex-nour? He had promised the conpence of ftamps, they were dated at Hamburgh to make them foreign bills of exchange. In all this there was nothing unwarrantable, or which gave Mr. Boyd an exclufive right to dictate the terms of a future loan. The bills were merely a fecurity from government for the fums: whether on ftamped or unftamped paper, they were equally

tractors for the loan of 1795, that there fhould be no payment on any new loan before February 1796: he was therefore bound to act as he had done, and was confirmed in its propriety from a reference to what had been done in fimilar circumstances. He warmly vindicated the terms of the loan, and thought much credit was due

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to thofe efforts by which government had been able to contract for fo large a loan in the fourth year of the war, and upon terms fuperior to what had been obtained in former years. The king's mef fage was not in his mind when the bargain was made; nor, if it had, could he poffibly have fore feen the rife of stocks: nor could it have arisen from the meffage, which only intimated, that the time was arrived to which his majefty had alluded in his fpeech to parliament. There were other collateral caufes for the rife, as the Auftrian victories, and the increafed diftreffes of the enemy. The profits upon the loan, he averred, amounted to no thing like the fum stated.

Mr. Fox faid that ftill he muft accuse the chancellor of the exchequer with having made an improvident bargain; and he had been aftonished to hear him ftate it as a mere peccadillo. Was improvidence in him to this extent a mere peccadillo? "Improvidence (faid he) in a minifter of finance is no fmall crime: and when I fee this improvidence accompanied by fuch circumftances as the prefent, I cannot conceal my fufpicions; though, when I cannot prove, I will not allege." He did not conceive the loan to have been used as an inftrument of corruption in that houfe: there was certainly no occafion to increase the majority; if it was made a fubject of influence, it must be an influence of another kind. It was not, however, neceffary to couple corruption with improvidence, to criminate a chancellor of the exchequer: and if there was any fpecies of improvidence which it was proper to check, it was that which tended to procure to the minifter, from great and powerful men, a great and powerful fup

port which he cannot conftitution. ally poffefs. However innocent the minifter, the loan was divided among men from whom he might derive more folid advantage than from a few votes in that houfe. Mr. Fox next adverted to the principle of competition in transacting loans. Let it, faid he, never be forgotten, that in 1793, when he made the most extravagant bargain that ever was made by any minifter, he juftified his conduct folely on the ground of competition. With refpect to the question, what motive the minifter could poffibly have? were he unable to 'difcern the motive, he must demur to fuch a queftion. To afcertain the motive, it was important to confider with attention the period and manner in which the chancellor of the exchequer first attended to the claim. of Mr. Boyd. The year before laft, a loan was bargained for by the minifter. The following May, when it was thought advisable to fend a loan to the emperor, the former contractors objected to its falling into other hands, fo that the question was by no means new. During that year there was another loan; but no agreement was ftated declaring the point on either fide. It was material for the honour of the minifter's character, to tell when he had the first notice of Mr. Boyd's claim. Mr. Fox pointed out feveral apparent inconfiftencies in this point between the account given by the minifter, and by Mr. Boyd. If Mr. Boyd's claim was juft, it ought to have been af certained; if it was not, the minifter had broken his faith with the public. Was it nothing, after hav ing made a pofitive promise to prefer an individual, to give notice to the governor of the bank of a public competition, in which the

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minifter knew at the time he could not perfevere, and which he had been obliged to abandon? The evidence given by the governor of the bank, went, he faid, directly to invalidate the claim of Mr. Boyd; and this opinion was fortified by fact and juftice. As to the reluctance of the minifter to accede to the claim of Mr. Boyd, -reluctance was, he obferved, often a veil to conceal the commiflion of acts which ought not to have been committed. Reluctance was fometimes put on to fave appearances. Of this coynefs in the minifter, this fweet, reluctant, amorous delay," the reluctance appeared to be of the doubtful kind. The qualified competition talked of by the minifter, after the manner in which the loan had been made, could deserve no other character than a mere mockery. If that fyftem had any folid advantages, why was it abandoned? The motive which actuated the hafty transactions of the loan, was, he thought, the Hamburgh bills. If this was not allowed to be a means of corruption, it certainly had fome reference to what had taken place in September, when Mr. Boyd raised 2,500,000l. for government upon treafury bills bearing a fictitious date from Hamburgh, though drawn here. This tranfaction was reprobated by Mr. Fox, on the authority of the governor of the bank, as extremely difcreditable to government, and as difgraceful to thofe who fet it on foot; by impofing a fictitious fecurity, it did injuftice both to the drawer and indorfer. From a train of reafoning deduced from the advantages derived by the minifter from Mr. Boyd in this bufinefs, Mr. Fox again thought the relation eftablished between that tranfaction and the negotiation of the loan.

The mode of negotiating a prefent fupply till after the holidays, could not, it had been objected, have been explained to France, nor have given her that idea of our financier's fuperiority which the muft neceffarily have formed from fuch a highly-creditable tranfaction as raífing money by fictitious Hamburgh bill. How falfe and how ridiculous an argument! With refpect to the caufes, independent of the king's meffage, for the rife of stocks, the Auftrian victories were, he said, known before the 25th of November: and, fince that time, had the French finances decayed fo rapidly that even the most fanguine calculator found his calculations far short of the truth? This language was the more furprifing, as eight months ago they were defcribed as in the agonies of death, "in the very gulph of bankruptcy." These were, he faid, childish and contemptible pretences, to veil the fufpicious conduct of the minifter.

The report of the committee was pointedly cenfured by Mr. Sheridan. The examination, he faid, had been chiefly in the hands of the friends of the minifter, who, he did not think, could plume himfelf on the refult of an inquiry conducted by perfons notoriously dependent on his own political character. The loan, he still thought, had been used as a means of extending political influence. Nay, the houfe, he said, had witneffed enough to bear out that affertion. The lord mayor had obligingly come forward to correct the monftrous error he had fallen into of ftating that his banking-houfe had been favoured with only two mil. lions of the loan; whereas, according to the worthy magistrate's better knowledge, the fum was not two millions, but two millions eight

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