other appeared to have defigned, all the confequences of refufing fo falutary a measure would be imputed to them, and those refolutions would ftand upon the journals, as public monuments of exculpation to their predeceffors, and of difgrace to them.

He entertained a confidence, he faid, of meeting men in the new parliament, who would confider it as their duty to go hand in hand with him, in carrying into execution the wishes of the people; or rather those commands which had been delivered in thunder and lightning, and of which they expected in the fucceeding tranquillity a faithful and happy execution. The wifdom and power of the prefent parliament were the foundations on which the public confidence refted. The people would not for a moment believe that parliament wanted integrity to adopt, what its wifdom fuggefted, and its power could execute. They would not give harbour to fuch a fuggeftion, until they could reafon from experience. It was the bufinefs of parliament to juftify the nation. And nothing could be more conducive to their own, as well as to the national intereft, than that it should be seen, that a free and generous confidence had more power to fecure the fidelity of parliament from the beginning, than complaint, clamour, and violence had in recovering it after it was corrupted.

When enemy fucceeded to enemy, and the guilty rafhnefs of minifters leagued with contending ftates against us, our independence, it had been faid, was to be maintained by the Spirit of the people. Abandoned by our allies, and left

by Europe to our fate; in every fituation, in every emergency, and in every danger, we were to find confolation and refource, refuge or conqueft, in the spirit of the people. But the effect of fpirit, and the fpirit itself, muft depend upon ftrength. Strength, and the juices which feed it, the wealth of the country, ought to be carefully nourished and hufbanded, with care, with tenderness, and with folicitude, not weakened and exhaufted by diffipation and profufion. The method, he faid, by which the spirit can be kept alive in the breasts of men, is by the participation of thofe to whom they look up for example. Let the government participate in the fufferings of the people! Let the king thew his fubjects an example of retrenchment and economy, and the people will chearfully fubmit to every difficulty and labour.

He fuppofed the commons in the imaginary fituation of being the mere creatures of the crown; of their being conftituted, fed by, and totally dependent on the court; and in that state, he afferted, and reafoned to demonftrate, that it would be their duty, and ought to be their inclination, to advife the fovereign to œconomy and retrenchment. By the plan which had been prepared, they would be able to give the king that which kings in general great¬ ly defired power; for economy was power; it was wealth and refource; it was men and arms; it was all that ambition could either covet or exert to accomplish its ends. Were he then himself the creature of a defpotic prince, he fhould, as his counsellor, advise [*M] 3

him

him, in a time of trial and difficulty, to take from his civil expence, that he might add to his military establishment; to take from fhew, that he might add to fubftance; to make his people happy, that he might make them vigorous; to make his war a war of exertion, that his peace might be honourable and fecure.'

After placing the fubject in every advantageous point of view, and adapting arguments to every fituation, he informed the houfe that he laid before them the fame plan, which had engaged fo much of the time and attention of the laft parliament to fo little purpofe. He had made no alterations in it; and he requested the houfe, and laid it before them in a hope and confidence, that if they meant to give it countenance and attention, they would do fo with fairness and candour, and not with infidious respect in its outfet, tempt it to a death of flow and lingering torture. He called upon the noble lord in the blue ribbon, who was to be the arbiter of its fate, and begged that, if he meant ultimately to give it a death-ftroke, he would fave himself and the houfe much fatigue, and the nation much anxiety and difappointment, by ftrangling it in its birth. Let them try the matter on that day, if it was to be tried. He called upon him to do this, and to be, at least for one day, a decifive minifter.

Mr. Burke then moved, "That leave be given to bring in a bill for the better regulation of his majefty's civil eftablishments, and of certain public offices; for the limitation of penfions, and the fuppreflion of fundry ufelefs, ex

penfive, and inconvenient places; and for applying the moneys faved thereby to the public fervice."

The motion was feconded by Mr. Duncombe, who paid high compliments to the mover, not only on account of the bill, but of the very great ability with which he had formerly flated his comprehenfive plan to the house, and the firmnefs and perfeverance with which he now had combated every obftacle to the principle of the meafure.

The minifter, in answer to the call made upon him, faid he would very candidly declare, that his opinion on the fubject had not at all varied from that which he had entertained on it in the preceding year, and that though he did not difapprove of the plan in toto, yet the parts which appeared to him proper to be adopted, bore fo fmall a proportion to the whole of that very comprehensive scheme, that he fhould be obliged to oppofe it in fome future ftage of the bill; he did not think it would be decent or candid for him, upon his own private opinion, to fet his face againit the bill in its first ftage, by oppofing its introduction; efpecially as there were many new members in the house, who, though they might have a general knowledge of the fubject, could not be fo fully informed upon it as was neceflary to their coming to an abfolute decifion; he would therefore referve himself until the bill was printed, and the members were in poffeffion of the neceffary information, when he fhould think it his duty to ftate fuch obfervations and objections as might occur to him, to the house.

Under

Under this unfavourable aufpice, the bill was carried through to a fecond reading; when it was again doomed to experience the weight of that influence which it was intended to reduce, but which for the prefent it was unable to furmount. As no new ground could be taken upon this fubject, we shall not attempt repeating the arguments which were used in the preceding parliament, and which we fully ftated in our laft volume. Feb. 26. On the day appointed for the fecond reading of the bill, it brought out great debate; if it was ftrongly oppofed on the one fide, it was no lefs ably and powerfully fupported on the other; and the divifion not only furprized many, but was more clofe than the minifter himself expected. Mr. Burke wound up the debate, by combating all the arguments that had been brought against his bill, with a degree of ingenuity and ability, which furprized even those who were moft acquainted with them. Mr. William Pitt, fon to the Earl of Chatham, and the young Lord Maitland, were highly diftinguished by their ability and eloquence in fupport of the bill.

The motion for the second reading was, about midnight, overruled upon a divifion, by a majority of 233 to 190. By a fublequent refolution, the bill was put off for fix months.

Of all the acts of the minifter, during fo long a government of public affairs, fcarcely any brought upon him fo much feverity of reprehenfion within doors, or perhaps fo much cenfure without, as the loan of the prefent year. Twelve millions were borrowed,

upon terms fo advantageous to the lenders, that the price of the new ftock rose at market from nine to eleven per cent. above par.

Before this circumftance was, however, known, the loan was, on its own bottom, ftrongly objected to, and both its manner and principle feverely condemned, by Mr. Fox. For on the day March 7. of the minifter's opening the budget, as it is called, when he had neceffarily laid before the house the nature and circumftances of the loan, that gentleman, in a speech of great length, and in which, along with his ufual ability, he difplayed such a fund of financial knowledge, as feemed to excite furprize, endeavoured to establish, by incontrovertible data, and by arguments that appeared no lefs irrefragable, that the bargain was exceedingly difadvantageous to the public, and that the money might have been obtained upon much better terms.

But he farther contended, that the lofs to the public, however great, and however ill able they were to bear it, was comparatively but a fmall part of the evil. For although the loan was liable to the ftrongest objections, both as a queftion of finance and a matter of œconomy, it was ftill much worse, and even highly dangerous, when confidered in a political view. He calculated the profits on the loan, under every probable contingency, at fomething near a million; and that great fum, he faid, was entirely at the difpofal and in the hands of the minifter, to be granted as douceurs to the members of that houfe, whether as compenfations for the expences of their elections, or for whatever other purpose of [*] 4 corrupt

corrupt influence might beft fuit his views. Thus the attempt made by his honourable friend to correct and restrain undue influence, by controuling the civil lift expenditure, would have been of little avail if it had even fucceeded, when a fum equal to that whole revenue was to be annually thrown by a Joan into the hands of a minifter; to be applied to the worst and most dangerous of all purpofes, that of procuring and preferving a conftant majority in the houfe of commons upon every queftion; and thereby affording fupport and efficacy to all the views and defigns of a bad administration, however pernicious or ruinous, and without a poffibility of parliamentary redress to the public.

He particularly objected to the propofed lottery, which was added to the douceurs of the loan, and afforded a benefit of one per cent. to the fubfcribers, This he confidered as the moft pernicious and deftructive of all fpecies of gaming; as immediately affecting the morals, habits, and circumftances of the lower orders of the people; and which, upon every principle of policy, fhould be carefully avoided. He trusted he had clearly convinced the house, that the benefits to the fubfcribers of the prefent loan were fufficiently great without the lottery; and he hoped they would render the greatest fervice in their power to the public, by preventing its inevitable ill confequences. He therefore moved, as an amendment to the minifter's motion for agreeing to the terms of the loan, that the latter claufe, respecting the lottery,

fhould be omitted.

The inotion of amendment on

a queftion of fupply brought out a good deal of debate. The mi nifter acknowledged, that the bargain he had made for the public was a liberal one; but he justified it by ftating the neceffity of the cafe, and by pofitively afferting that the money could not have been obtained upon easier conditions. With refpect to the ideas thrown out, that the loan was a fource of influence, and that half of it was taken in that houfe, they were, he faid, extremely ftrained. The loan was a public loan, very indifcriminately taken; and, as a matter of conjecture (for it could be no more on either fide), it was not reasonable to fuppofe that a large part of it would be taken by members of that house, at the time the terms were propofed. Nor did he believe that it would be fo found in fact. He thould be forry to fee a bankrupt house of commons; but that would be the probable effect, if its members embarked in money tranfactions to fo vaft an amount as twelve millions. As to the intereft which any minifter could be fuppofed to procure by fuch a loan as the prefent, it was a very poor compenfation for the great fatigue and trouble of mind occafioned by fuch a burthen; he had full conviction that no bufinefs could be more difagreeable.

It was the undoubted province of the houfe to confider and judge of the terms of the loan; and it was in their power to accede to them or not. But he requestedgentlemen to confider the ill confequences of their refusing to accede to the propofitions agreed on. The attention paid by monied men to the treasury would be leffened; and if it were ufual for the

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