state and distribution of our naval force; but that foreigners, whether hoftile or friendly, were no objects of concealment with the minifters; they were not fo totally ignorant of themselves, and of the nothingness of their counfels in refpect to other nations, not to know that they were incapable of producing any fecrets which could be worth the smallest purchase to an enemy. It was parliament, and parliament only, that the wretched policy, the concealments and fecrets of the minifters reached to. If they could withhold all means of information from the representatives of the people, and from the hereditary guardians of the nation, and thus lead them in the dark, from one fcene of public error, delufion, and impofition, to another, as they had hitherto fuccefsfully practifed from the commencement of the American conteft, their defigns were accomplished, and they arrived at the fummit of all their wishes. Their fyftem of fecrecy went no further. It might be retailed in foreign and domeftic gazettes, without giving them the finalleft uneafinefs, provided that it were withheld from parliament, or that a majority would accept the terms official information and fecrets of government, as a bar to every fpecies of information and enquiry, and a plea for the most obftinate blindness, and unpardonable igno

rance.

They concluded, that there could not be a ftronger evidence of the bad condition of the navy, and of the mifapplication of the vaft and unusual fums of money, which had of late years, been granted for its fupport and in

creafe, than that dread which the minifters conftantly fhewed, of all enquiry into its real ftate. If it had been in that which they pretended, they would have been as eager to particularize and display its ftrength, as they are now ftudious to keep every thing relative to it in darknefs. And with great reafon, faid they, for befides the honour which it would do to themfelves, as minifters, and the love and gratitude with which it would infpire their country, it would afford the beft fecurity which they could poffibly obtain, for the good faith and pacific conduct of the Houfe of Bourbon. They would then have no occafion to tremble at the thoughts of a war, nor to degrade, under that apprehenfion, as they have done for feveral years, the Majefty of this country, by crouching to every infult, indig nity, and real injury, offered by foreign nations.

On the other fide, fome gentlemen did not think that fuch enquiries were parliamentary. Others did not recollect that details of the fort had been ufually entered into upon fimilar occafions. Thofe who particularly defended the Admiralty faid, that they wished for nothing more than to lay open a true state of the navy, in every particular, to the whole world. That its formidable condition would ftrike terror in foreign nations; it would put domestick fac tion to fhame, and give real comfort to every well wither to his country. But if it once came to be a practice to lay thefe matters before the public, when it was thought expedient to make a dif play of our ftrength, there may be times, when a prudent conceal

[D] 4

ment

ment would be argued as a proof of weakness. It was in contemplation of fuch future occafions, and as a general principle of policy, and not from a confcioufnefs of any prefent defect, that the ftate of the navy was wished to be held back from parliamentary infpection. The Commiffioners of the Admiralty, however, being very clofely preffed. at length confented to enter into the detail, under certain modifications.

A ftatement of the navy being accordingly given, feveral of its parts were controverted, and fome faid to be in a great degree unfounded. The affertion of the first Lord in the other House, and which was confirmed by his colleagues in this, that we had 35 fhips of the line for home defence, fully manned, and fit for imme. diate fervice, befides feven more, which only wanted fuch a number of their complement of men as might be fupplied with the greateft cafe and expedition, was contradicted in the most exprefs and unqualified terms. Indeed that affertion had the fortune to experience the fame fate in the other Houfe; and it was ftrongly infifted upon in both, from what was faid to be undoubted information, that our whole force in condition for immediate fervice on the home defence, did not at most exceed 20 fail of the line.

Thefe ftrong charges on the one fide, were combated by affertions equally ftrong on the other. It was infifted by the Commiffion ers, that the British navy had never been in a more refpectable or flourifhing ftate than at prefent; and that, whether it was confidered with relation to immediate fervice, or

preparation for future, it was, in either refpect, far fuperior to the united maritime force of the House of Bourbon.

Some few of the oppofition objected to the motion for 60,000 feamen, merely as tending to the fupport of a war, the principle and object of which they detefted, and which, they said, could never be brought to a conclufion, under the inability with which it was conducted. Others objected to the enormity of the fupply, at a time when we were at peace with all the world, excepting only the trouble we had in chaftifing a few of thofe ragged mobs in our own colonies, who had fo long been the objects of our contempt and ridicule. They obferved, that when the famous French armament was deftroyed at La Hogue, we employed but little more than half the number of feamen which was now required. That, in the glorious year 1759, the naval establifhment did not exceed by a fingle man the number which was now demanded; and the whole expence, including naval ordnance, ftores, and a large debt of a million, amounted only to 5,200,000l. though the peace establishment for the year 1778 will exceed five mil lions. And that, if France could thus rain us by an infupportable expence under the name and delufive appearance of peace, any state of war would be preferable to fuch a condition.

As a conviction of the neceffity of a ftrong naval protection was much fuperior on all fides, to any confidence repofed in the good dif. pofition which the minifters attributed to foreign powers, the refolution for 60,coo feamen was

accord

accordingly agreed to in the committee without any divifion.

Upon receiving the report next day from the committee, thofe gentlemen who had more particularly and directly attacked the Admiralty Board on the score of its condu&t, having now obtained Tome fresh information as to facts, renewed their charges with a degree of vehemence, which brought on much heat and perfonal afperity on both fides. The report being however received, and paffed without a divifion, Mr. Luttrel, in order to fupport his charges, moved that the laft weekly returns, received at the Admiralty, from the commanders in chief at the home ports and ftations, fhould be laid before the Houfe. This was at firit oppofed, on the old ground of affording improper intelligence to our enemies; but it being perceivable, that the fenfe of the Houfe, with which the minifter alfo coincided, feemed to lean to the other fide, the Lords of the Admiralty at length acquiefced, and the motion was agreed to.

The bill of the preceding feffion for the fufpenfion, in certain cafes, of the Habeas Corpus law being now near expiring, the Attorney General, premifing that the fame aufe ftill continued, namely, the rebellion in America, which had at first rendered that measure neceffary, moved for leave to 26th. bring in a bill to renew the powers of the former during a certain limited term,

This revival of an act which they had originally deemed fo obnoxious, renewed the activity of fome of the gentlemen in oppofition, who contended, that it was first neceffary to know what effect

the former bill had produced, before they confented to a renewal of its powers. Upon this ground, Mr. Baker moved for and carried an addrefs, requiring a correct return and full description of all the prifoners, with an account of the prifons, whether in Great Britain or America, in which they were confined, together with copies of their feveral commitments, an account of the bail offered for their enlargement, and all other proceedings whatever of the privy council, in confequence of the powers vefted in them by the late bill, to be laid before the Houfe. This motion was afterwards amended and enlarged by the fame gentleman, fo as to include all perfons who had been taken up for high treafon, from the day after the battle of Lexington, being the 18th of April, 1775, to the date of the late act.

The new ground taken on that fide, in the different debates that arofe during the progrefs of the bill, was, that as the past act had produced no manner of effect, and of courfe could have remedied no evil, it was evidently useless in the first instance, and confequently unneceffary by a renewal in the fecond; that the tampering wantonly with a matter of fo much confequence to the people, as the fufpenfion of any part of a law, the full operation of which was their only fecurity for life and liberty, and that without any plea of ne ceffity, or even room now left for the pretence of utility, was a proceeding of a moft dangerous nature.

With refpect to the operation of the bill on the American prifoners of war, the conduct of adminiftra

tion was faid to be in the highest degree inconfiftent. Our Generals on the other fide of the Atlantic have established a public cartel, fuch as is agreed to with an alien enemy, for the exchange of prifoners with the colonists. In Europe, the conduct is totally reverfed. His Majesty's minifter at the court of France, when a propofal is made to him by the American delegates there, to leffen the miferies of war, on this, as well as the other fide of the Atlantic, by the establishment of a fimilar cartel, anfwers them in lofty terms, that he receives no applications from rebels, excepting they come to implore for mercy. The answer was undoubtedly fpirited, and becoming the reprefentative of a great nation; but where is the confiftency on the fide of the minifters?

On the other fide it was argued, that the fame caufes ftill continued which had rendered the original bill neceffary. That the matter fhould be confidered in a much more favourable light than that in which it was reprefented. The bill was inftituted, not fo much to punifh, as to prevent, rebellion. Nothing could more clearly fhew the excellency of its defign and effect, than the very reafons which were brought to prove its being unneceffary, from the little fcope that had been afforded for its operation. If fcarcely any perfons had fuffered confinement or inconveniency from the powers which it lodged in the crown, it only thewed that thofe crimes had not been committed, to the prevention of which they were directed. That there was no room to doubt, but the terrors held out by the former

bill had awed numbers of difaffected people into obedience and fidelity, and thereby fhut the door against domestic rebellion; that as it had thus, in its paft operation, prevented the commiffion of numberlefs crimes, and the hard but neceffary exercife of justice in their confequent punishments, there was

no reafon to doubt but it would produce the fame happy effects in its future; and that it was the characteristic of good government to provide in the first inftance for the prevention, not the punishment, of crimes.

This avowal of fufpending the liberty of the fubject, and adminiftering terror, like Prior's phyfick, "by way of prevention," rouzed all the fpirit and ability of one of the moft diftinguished leaders of opposition in that houfe. He obferved, that the fame arguments might hold good to eternity, and the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus law be continued upon that ground to the end of time; that if that mode of reafoning fhould prevail in the house, the fence of liberty might be cut down, and Britons be at once deprived of their moft valuable privileges; the fame caufe for which the bill is paffed in this feffion, will hold equally good in the next, and in every other. The land-tax, faid he, was introduced as a temporary revenue, and through that means granted by the Houfe; the army was at first voted for one year only; but now your army is a ftanding army; your land-tax is a standing revenue to maintain this ftanding army; and this fufpenfion may be confidered, like them, as a ftanding measure of government, and thus confequently become an eternal fufpen

fion and destruction of the Habeas Corpus law.

The ministers denied the conclufions drawn by this gentleman to be in any degree fairly deducible from the premises, and totally dife claimed, on their own fide, any defigns inimical to the liberties of the people, or intention of continaing the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus Act any longer than the particular circumftances of the times rendered the measure neceffary, and that its utility continued evident.

Notwithstanding the oppofition, in point of argument, which this bill encountered, it was carried through, without a divifion, until the laft reading, which happened on the 4th of December, when it was paffed by a majority of 116,

to 6o.

On a motion in the Com28th. mittee of Ways and Means, for granting a land tax of four fhillings in the pound, it was obferved, on the fide of oppofition, that in all this difpofal of the public money, not a fingle country gentleman had risen to fpeak of peace, or to complain of the war. That their fupineness, or their acquiefcence, deferved the feyereft reprehenfion. If they were afleep to the diftreffes of their country, they ought to be awakened; if they were ignorant, they ought to be informed; or if they were merely indolent, they should be rouzed. In pursuing this train of obfervation, the gentleman entered into fome detail of the hitherto nearly unparalleled expences of the war, and of the ftill greater, which they were to provide for in the enfuing year. In contrast to thefe effects of the war, he enquired into

the ftate of expectation with which it was attended. Were we to be relieved by conqueft from this burden of taxation? By no means,→→→ there is no conqueft aimed at; our adminiftrators fay, that the drawing of a revenue from the colonies by that means, is not the object of the conteft, and they acknowledge that, if it were, the Americans would not be able to bring any revenue into our exchequer. Thus, faid he, we are irrecoverably ruining ourselves, merely upon a punctilio of honour, only to have it to fay that we exceeded the Americans in obftinacy, and that in an abfurd and unjust contest, commenced and forced into being by ourselves, we nobly perfevered in violence and injuftice, until, at the expence of abfolute deftruction to both parties, we may have the glory of compelling our colonies to acknowledge the wifdom, policy, and equity of our proceedings.

This attack called up two gentlemen, who are more particularly, or avowedly, attached to the court, than others of that party. They entered upon the old queftion of the right of taxation; faid, we were contending for a right, which, if relinquished in the manner that was propofed and wished on the other fide, would terminate in the lofs of America, and the confequent ruin of this country. That a right established, and not exercised, was, in fact, no right. And that, as we were heavily taxed ourfelves, it was but reasonable, that when we had compelled the colonies to return to their duty, they fhould contribute in common with the reft of their fellow fub. jects to the support of that govern

ment,