were juftly, by judge Blackftone, ing ever known in this country, was tryled inland fortrelles, and were twenty-two millions five hundred undeniably intended to separate the and eighty-five thousand pounds; military from the civil claffes, and and the fame average for the laft to keep the latter in awe by means three years of war was twenty-four of the former. They had been millions four hundred and fifty-three erected too without confulting par- thoufand. The advantage in the liament, and had coft, fince the year borrowing of money, at prefent, was 1790, eleven hundred thoufand ene and a half per cent. greater than pounds, and more was now de- during the American war. At the manded for their completion. Mi-clofe of the war in 1748 the national nifterial demands of loans from the debt was eighty millions, in 1762 bank were also become, of late, one hundred and forty: but had the enormous, and intirely repugnant prefent fyftem, of appropriating a to the primitive motives of its in- million annually to the extinction ftitution, which were to aflift the of that debt, been fortunately adoptmercantile tranfactions of the king- ed at the firft of thefe periods, that dom, and to maintain its commer- heavy load would now have been cial credit: but it had, in many totally thrown off the nation. The refpects, degenerated into an engine expenditure of this war was, doubtof ftate: it was now near twelve lefs, immenfe; but the exertions, millions in advance to government. to which it was applied, were of no Mr. Grey entered into other par- lefs magnitude. Never was the ticulars, to fhew the irregularity pre- energy of this country fo aftonishvailing in the financial departments. ingly difplayed, nor its refources fo He concluded by affirming, in con- wonderfully proved our fleets and fequence of farther details, that the armies were in a far fuperior connational revenue fell fhort of the dition, both as to numbers and peace-establishment by two millions equipment, to thofe maintained in and a half, the latter being twenty- the American war. It was unfair two millions, the former only nine- to complain of increafing expences. teen millions five hundred thoufand The augmentation of price in all pounds. Thus we should be loaded the articles of life and focial interwith farther taxes to fupply that courfe, added, of confequence, the deficiency, even were a peace to en- fame proportion of increafe in mifue. On these premifes, he moved litary expences; nor ought the fubthat the house fhould refolve itfelf fidies to our allies to be reputed into a committee, to inquire into extravagant, confidering their utility the ftate of the nation. to the common caufe, by enabling 'thefe to act much more effectually againft the foe, than if they were left to their fole exertions. The preffures of the enemy thewed how wifely the treatures of this country had been employed in ftrengthening the power of his continental adverfaries, while our fucceites at fea had reduced him to the lowelt The pofitions of Mr. Grey were controverted by Mr. Jenkinson, who maintained, that the commercial fituation of Great Britain, notwithftanding the weight of fo great a war, was more profperous than at any antecedent periods. The average of exports, during the three laff years of peace, the most flourish ftate of debility he had ever experienced on that element: it was, therefore, neither just nor prudent to reprefent this country as diftreffed, and its minifters as unworthy of confidence, and incapable of discharging their duty. They had fewn themselves adequate to the various talks impofed on them by the arduous contingencies of the war, and had not merited the afperfions fo repeatedly caft upon them. There had been a time when far greater ftretches of minifterial power were beheld without complaint. In the reigns of George I. and II. fuch was the implicit truft of the times in their integrity, that millions had pafled through their hands for fecret fervices, of which an explanation was not required. Hence it appears, that, the vigilance of parliament in former days, however exalted above that of the prefent, was, in truth, not to be compared with that anxious and groundlefs jealoufy with which the opponents to miniftry watched over all its proceedings, in order to discover how they could render them fufpicious to the public. On thefe grounds, he confidered the motion as illfounded, and deferving no fupport from those who viewed the conduct of minifters impartially, and with a determination to liften without prejudice to what they allege in their defence, as well as to the imputations and furmifes laid to their charge. Mr. Curwen, Mr. Robinfon, and Mr. Martin, fupported the motion; Mr. Steele oppofed it, and ftated the extraordinaries to be much lower than reprefented by Mr. Grey. The expence of the barracks had not, he affirmed, exceeded fix hundred and ten thousand pounds, and one hundred and fifty thousand would fuffice to complete them: but Mr. Grey infifted on the accuracy of his own flatements, and particularly reprobated the mifapplication of the money appropriated by parliament to fpecific purpofes; a practice, he oblerved, fo unconftitutional, that it had been condemned, in terms of the greatest feverity, even fo long ago as the reign of queen Anne, on fo flight an occafion as the applying of fix thoufand pounds to the ufe of the army, inftead of the navy, for which it had been intended. His motion, however, was negatived by another for the order of the day, which was carried by two hundred and feven votes, against forty-five. The plans formed by miniftry were fo extenfive, and the determination, to carry them into the fpecdieft execution, founded upon fo fanguine a hope of fuccefs, that the fupplies already granted not appearing fuflicient, parliament was again reforted to for the raifing an additional fupply, and the fanction of another loan. A circumftance fo new and extraordinary excited univerfal aftonishment: two budgets and two loans in the fame feflion, to ufe the common phrafe, were a novelty, in the political fyftem of this country, of an alarming nature, and which the maxims of good economy did not appear to warrant in the difficult pofition in which it now flood. Mr. Pitt was duly fenfible of the repugnance to fo unprecedented a mealure. After apologifing for the neceffity that compelled him to adopt it, and expreffing his confidence that the refources of the country would render it much lighter on trial than it feemed in the apprehenfion of many, he proceeded to to inform the house, that it was, in vided for, amounted to two milfome refpects, rather a fubftitution lions and a half, and the annual of other taxes to thofe that had charge of intereft for the fums to be been relinquished, for the eafe of levied, in order to provide for thofe the public, than the impofition of fervices, and for the funding of new ones: he also ftated, that fer- the unfunded debt, arofe to five vices unprovided for, and of which hundred and feventy-fix thoufand the propriety was evident, would pounds. The loan, which was to demand the means of performance. furnifh the means of carrying the Having withdrawn the tax on print- above scheme into execution, would ed linens and callicoes, calulated amount to feven millions and a half, to produce one hundred and thirty- at the moderate profit of three five thousand pounds, he would now pounds fix fhillings and three pence propofe to replace that deficiency by per cent. to the lenders. This, he a tax upon dogs, computed at one obferved, was an incontrovertible hundred thousand pounds, and by proof of the flourishing fituation of another on hats, eftimated at forty this country, of its furprifing rethoufand. To thefe two taxes he fources, and of the confidence rewould now add one, of twenty pofed in the miniftry by people of pounds a ton upon wine, which property. It ought to filence the would yield fix hundred thoufand mifreprefentations of those who pounds, with very little addition of took fuch pains to state this country expence to the confumers of this as reduced to distress, and who had article. 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 embarraflments, from which nothing but a peace could poffibly extricate them. The scarcity of money was, at the fame time, he noticed, an object of eflential 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 also 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 unproVOL. XXXVIII. Mr. Grey replied with great fervour to Mr. Pitt. He charged him with coming to the house no lefs than three times in fourteen months, with three different budgets, as if he well knew that he had only to afk, in order to obtain: but the fact was, that the minifter's addrefs to the house, 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 circumftances, 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 said, 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 afferting, that if a fair investigation was made, by a committee of inquiry, it would ap. pear 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 eflential 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 defcribed, 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 no ticed, 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 fubfiftence. 1 Other members spoke on each fide of the queftion, On putting the refolutions moved by the minifter in favour of the new loan, and additional taxes, they were carried without a divifion of the houfe. The mortality that had fo fatally prevailed among the British troops in the Weft Indies, and the inadequatenefs 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 ftrictures on the conduct of miniftry, moved for a return of the men carried off by difcafe 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 stockings. Had not difeafes 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 con‐ fequénce of which only feven or eight furvived. With fuch motives for an inquiry how could it be declined? Herequired it, together with an account of the force employed under lord Moira in 1794 and 1795, and which ought to have been dif 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. Sach information would fhew what a drain thete expeditions had proved from the population of the British ifands, and how much they tended to weaken them. Accounts ought, by the fame reason, to be laid before the houfe, of the numbers carried off in the ports of Southampton, Portmouth, and Plymouth, were it only to make known the iniquitous neglect of those who could leave troops confined feven months on board, expofed to the infallible effects of fuch a clofe imprifonment, notwithstanding the remonstrances made to government. He moved, at the fame time, for the production of other documents of the fame nature, by which he pledged himfelf to prove the uifconduct 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 tranf mitted without delay, on the first 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 fpoken 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 earneftly defirous to give every elucidation refpecting the bufinefs with which he had been entrufted. 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, respecting 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 hap pened there, and exerted himself to fhew that the difafters and difappointments, that had befallen us, arose from accidents that were wholly un-. avoidable: the conduct of our commanders had been judicious, and that of miniftry irreproachable, This apology did not prove fatisfactory to the oppofition. The im putation of having neglected the troops, in the Weft Indies, was reafferted, 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 unfeafonable, and interfering with the others. The troops deftined for the Weft-India expedition were alfo defcribed as unworthy the name of foldiers: they con[F2] Ained |