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which had directed this brilliant conquest. His lordship then briefly touched upon the American dispute, and the affair of the Chesapeake; concluding his speech with a regret, that America should, by evincing a most undue partiality to France, have thrown obstacles in the way of pacification; and hop ing that she would speedily open her eyes to the superior benefits of British friendship and connection.

Lord Grenville said, it would have been most satisfactory to his feelings, if the matter of the speech and address had been such as to have prevented all difference of opinion on the subject: but he was not surprised that this was not the case. He did not mean, however, to suggest an amendment to this address, but would content himself with protesting in the strongest terms against being included in any expressions implying approbation of the past, or a pledge of perseverance in the same system which had of late been acted upon; convinced as he was, that it was only by a total, radical abandonment of that system, that there existed any hope of safety for the country. There were many topics of the highest importance lightly passed over in the speech and address, but which would force themselves upon their attention at no distant period. They might endeavour to shut their eyes, but in spite of their efforts these things would be seen: they might strive to shut their ears, but these things would be heard. He wished it to be fully understood that he retained all his objections to the system upon which the ministers had acted. He still objected to the lavish profusion with which our resources had been squandered, when they should have been husbanded for a protracted war, of

which no one could see the end. He still retained all his objections, and in their utmost force, to that policy which had inflicted a blow upon the enemy, which had recoiled with greater execution upon our own commerce and manufactures. He still retained his decided objections to that system which united the bank and the government, and enabled the former to issue base coin and depreciated paper;-a system, of which the bank alone reaped the profit; while the guilt and dishonour fell on the government, and the loss on the public. But, above all (his lordship continued) "I still retain with tenfold force all my opinions respecting the system which the ministers have been pursuing with respect to Ireland, upon which I cannot trust myself at present to utter a single sentence. Your lordships will observe the manner in which this momentous subject has been passed over in the speech and address. No ample view is attempted to be given there of the state of that country; nothing is said about the discontents of the people: but the situation of the revenue, comparatively a pitiful consideration, is alone introduced. To that single object, and to none else, is our attention directed. But these ministers might have known, that the way even to make the revenue of a country flourish, since that is the only object of their consideration, is by increasing its industry-by communicating equal rights-and giving satisfaction to public opinion. I have said more on the subject than I intended; but I must further observe, that in the present session, it must be decided, what is to be the relation between Great Britain and Ireland. The matter will bear no more procrastination

delusion

delusion will no longer avail the affair is come to a point, and the majority of the people of IreLand must be admitted to an equal share of your privileges, or no longer be considered as enjoying the advantages of British subjects."

The earl of Liverpool would not now enter into any detail; the noble baron opposite (Grenville) having confined himself to a general protest against the system upon which the ministers had acted. On that subject, the noble baron said, that he still maintained every opinion which he had before held; not only such as experience might have proved to be true, but all those which, as he (lord L.) contended, experience had proved to be utterly unfounded. He should be happy to meet his lordship on that subject another time: but he must at present observe, that the safety of this country and the hopes of Europe depended, in a great measure, on the system which the government had adopted. He knew not what system others might advise; but he was prepared to maintain, that the continuance of the system pursued by ministers was essential to the safety of the country, and on that ground he and his colleagues were willing to stand or fall.

Earl Grey entirely approved of the policy pursued by his noble friend, in confining himself, on the present occasion, to the delitering his protest against any expression of his opinions being understood upon points in which it was impossible for him to concur; thinking also, that most of the topics were of such importance as to require a separate and particular discussion. Concurring generally in the address which was proposed, be could not refrain from joining

his noble friend; he should feel un happy if he departed from that house without declaring, that he retained all the opinions he had before held, on subjects of great magnitude; opinions confirmed by experience and the evidence of facts -opinions which he should be ready to maintain and defend on future opportunities of discussing them. He thought the house bound immediately to take into their consideration the treatment of the people of Ireland, not only with a view to what had already passed, but with a prospective view, for the adoption of such timely and just measures as might avert the ruin of the country. Government, however, he must re peat, appeared, for any thing he had heard to the contrary, to be resolved on pursuing a system which would risk the destruction of the public safety. He was happy to learn that a proposition on this subject would speedily be brought before their lordships, which would bring all its important relations un der review. With these observations, he could be content to reserve himself for future opportunities, but for one singular assertion of the noble lord, that he trusted that the house, and the public, would concur in supporting the government of the regent, in pursuance of the sentiments contained in the address. Was it to be conceived that; in opposing measures of administration which he thought were fraught with danger and ruin, he was withholding that support which was necessary to the prince regent in his conduct of the government of this kingdom? No! Be the ministers who they might, he would give them his support in what was just and necessary for the conduct of the government; but,

if impolitic, unjust, and ruiñous measures were proposed or acted upon, his duty to that house, to the public, and to the prince regent himself, would certainly induce him to raise his voice as loudly as he could against them. He said this more especially, because it was not possible for him, though he did not oppose the present address, to recede from the opinions which he had previously delivered on many subjects of the greatest and most essential interest to the

nation.

The duke of Norfolk made a few observations on some parts of the speech; after which the address was agreed to, nem. diss.

Lord Holland wished to take the earliest opportunity of putting a question to a noble marquis (Wellesley) respecting a transaction which he considered as of the utmost importance, and as one which, if not speedily brought to some is sue, might, in all probability, lead to the most calamitous results. What he had in view was, the proposed mediation of the British government between the Spanish colonies and the mother country. More than a year and a half had elapsed since the Caraccas showed a disposition, indeed a determination, to throw off their allegiance to the Spanish government, and that determination had since been carried into execution. Other parts of the Spanish possessions had imitated the example, which had given rise to such sanguinary strife, and such a sacrifice of human lives on both sides, that there was no calculating the mass of miseries which any delay of the proposed mediation might produce. It was true that a commission had been appointed to carry that mediation into effect; but it did not seem to make any progress, or even to prepare

and proceed to the arrangement of the business upon which it was supposed they were to be employed. He did not pretend to be very minutely or very correctly informed on the subject. But he had acquiesced in the views which the noble marquis seemed to have taken on the subject: and he did expect that certain steps would have been taken without delay, correspondent to the nature of those views. Had these steps been taken, or when were they likely to be taken? was the question which he had now risen to put to the noble marquis.

The marquis of Wellesley, in reply to the noble lord, observed, that every step indicated by the view of the subject which the noble lord did him the honour to approve, had been duly taken; and that if the matter did not proceed with that celerity which might be wished, the delay was owing to those endless obstructions which inveterate prejudices, narrow notions, conflicting interests, and the selfish spirit of monopoly, never failed to throw in the way of the accomplishment of such an object. As soon as could be, the commission was appointed, and preparations made for its departure. The charge of delay was not imputable to the British government; they were all to a man anxious to proceed in this delicate business with all possible dispatch.

In the house of commons it was intended that lord Jocelyn should move the address, and that captain Vyse should second the same; but the moment that the peaker had, according to the usual forms, read the speech,

Sir F. Burdett rose, and was proceeding to address the chair, when some members named lord Jocelyn; but

The

The speaker said, that the honourable baronet was in possession of the ear of the house, and was entitled to speak first.

Sir Francis Burdett proceeded. Under the present circumstances of the country, he felt himself called upon to take the earliest opportunity of drawing the attention of the house to such an address to the prince regent as would entitle them to the approbation of their country. The circumstances of the times called for the truth; and he should boldly lay before the house those grievances, the redress of which was, in his opinion, of vital importance to the country. He was the less willing to omit this opportunity of addressing the regent, as his magnanimous character differed so widely from those princes of whom we read in history, that their delight was in mischief and despotism. He agreed with the speech which had been read, in all those encomiums which had been most deservedly bestowed on the valour of our arms. He heard of our vic. tories with satisfaction, though not with surprise: they proved, that at least the English courage had not degenerated, though there appeared nothing characteristic of that love of freedom which so proudly distinguished our ancestors. In tracing the calamities of the country, he must revert to a very remote period. Not only were the last eighteen years more calamitous than the preceding, but the transactions of the whole present reign, including more than a long half century, were such as must convince the most thoughtless, that the system must have been radically bad which had been productive of such lamentable effects. The causes of these events were not difficult to discover. They were to be found

in that detestation of the principles of liberty which had been equally the origin of the present unfortu nate war, and of that with America. He should consider the present speech as peculiarly the speech of ministers, as it talked of prolonging the struggle; and proceeded entirely upon those principles upon which the war had been begun, and which were so notoriously repugnant to the mind of him whose address it purported to be. It held out hopes, which no man in his senses could entertain, of the final success of our arms in that peninsula. There was no chance of our succeeding in driving the French out of Spain. Our laurels were great, but barren; and our victories were in their effects mere defeats. It was true that general Hill had gallantly surprised a small division of the enemy: still the French were making regular and rapid strides toward the subjugation of the country: while for our triumphs we had nothing to show. The cause of this failure was the radically vicious principle of supporting despotism in this instance, as we did all over the world,—the attempt to support desperate, falling, and not to be supported states, instead of the good old British reason of maintaining the cause of freedom. To this it would be said, Do the French proclaim liberty? No; but they endeavoured to conciliate the minds of the people by such concessions as may please them; while it was a serious fact, that the inquisition remained in existence in those parts only of the country of which the English had possession. But there was a curious contrast to which he must call the attention of that house. We were fighting strenuously to maintain the catholic religion in that country, of

Our

our Spanish allies; though, at the same time, those whom he should conceive to be our more valuable allies at home-the Irish-a generous, brave, and a long-suffering people were, for a trifling condition, withholden from their best and dearest rights. This exclusion of our most natural allies, he could not but consider as an act of gross treachery. The honourable baronet then called the attention of the house to the shackles imposed on the prince regent-restrictions, than which nothing more insulting could be conceived, as they supposed that the son was capable of using his power contrary to the interests of his father but, happily for the country, these restrictions would soon expire; an event to which they would look with anxiety, as the prince had, by many gratuitous professions, long pledged himself to those enlarged principles, and that liberal system of policy, which had raised the nation to the lofty pinnacle of happiness and glory on which it stood at the close of the reign of George the Second. He had the greater hopes and confidence in the prince, because he had felt the power which was so much complained of. Able writers had, indeed, written in praise of different forms of government, the absolute, the democratical, and the mixed; but none had been found hardy enough, in the worst of times, to be the advocates of oligarchy; and our present oligarchy was one of the worst species-not of a few of the best men, and of the greatest interest in the state, but an oligarchy of rotten boroughs a sort of men known in the history of no other country except our own. The consequences of this destructive system were, that abroad, the monarchs, our allies, were either

chased from their crowns, or, after an immense exhaustion of blood and treasure, held their sovereignties at the will of Bonaparte, or depended for support on a scanty and eleemosynary pittance-such was their fate. Look at the continent-there was the book in which all might read. If the house turned its eyes from the continent, and from abroad, and looked to the internal state of the country, there was nothing consolatory to rest upon. There existed a system of taxation, the deprivations of which prevented the strictest industry from procuring a livelihood, and generated a pauperism throughout the land-a pauperism aggravated by pillage. Besides, the whole land was in a state of terror. Military possession was taken of the country; dépôts, and barracks, and fortifications, were formed; and mercenary Germans and foreigners were scattered over the kingdom, as if England could not defend itself, and must have recourse to Germans, who had not been able to defend themselves. Another griev ance to which he would call their attention, was the system of military discipline which oppressed the country, and which subjected every soldier for the most trifling misconduct to be corporally punished at the miserable caprice of almost every officer. He was glad to men tion this so early in the session; for the reform of it would, doubtless, form a very important part of its business. There was some justice, in its now coming home, as it were, to the backs of our countrymen; for, now, by the local militia sy stem, almost every man in England, every father of a family, was subject to this punishment; so that he had no hesitation in repeating what he had said before in this house,

that

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