Imatges de pàgina
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It was difficult in any negociation to afcertain, where the negociators had been deficient, and how far more might have been obtained. He was however free to confefs, that he felt fomething of this fort. There were articles in favour of France, to which he could find no reciprocal conceffions in favour of England. This was the neceffary refult of the nature of the French commodities, which were the indefeafible produce of her climate and foil. It was ridiculous to talk of the fuperiority of our manufactures, as fufficient to countervail thefe reciprocal articles. Nothing could be more precarious, than an eftimate built upon that ground. Our boafted cottons were the growth of a day; we faw manufactures rife upalmost inftantaneously. But the advantage in the produce of France was pofitive and eternal; as long as the earth endured, it would remain to her. He was the more inclined to believe that we could have gained fomething in exchange, as it was well known how impatient France had been for the treaty. What had occurred to his mind was to have gained fome advantage in point of navigation, and to have faid fomething of this fort to France in proportion as we give you land, you must give us fea. And this led him to his fecond objection; which was, that we had conceded the neutral code. He was perfectly aftonifhed at feeing fuch an article, and he knew not how it could come into the imagination of perfons, who had the least acquaintance with the law of nations, or the tranfactions of the last five years. It had been pofitively refuted to Ruffia, even in a moment when we were under the neceffity of doing, what he hoped we fhould never be reduced to do

again, of courting her alliance. He confidered the putting an end to the Dutch pretenfions in regard to it, as one of the most material points, that had been gained in the late treaty of peace. It was not for him to enter into the subject; but he flattered himself, the more the preliminaries were examined, the more it would appear, that this and other omiffions were more important than many ftipulations might have been. He fhould rather have expected, that France and England might have joined to extinguifh this novel doctrine, brought forward in Europe by the northern courts. It was fufficiently notorious, that it was not the intereft of either countries, to fuffer new marines to flart up and grow powerful. The marquis farther objected, that nothing had been stipulated upon the fubject of India, and alluded to a treaty which he had heard of, by which the privileges of the East India company were completely facrificed to the French, and which had been unaccountably rejected in Paris from the influence of intrigue and private intereft. He obferved as to Cherbourg, that he thought reprefentations ought to have been made in regard to the works going on there; and that it might have been done in fafe, prudent and politic language. In the courfe of his own experience, where he had found one reprefentation fucceed on the ground of right, he had found many fucceed on the ground of good fenfe and common interest. He alfo remarked on the injudicious manner in which the articles had been drawn up; and declared, that the feventh in particular was a mere chaos of words, without the poffibility of drawing any meaning from it; and, least of all, a meaning

favourable to this country. Lord Lanfdown concluded with recuring to the fituation of Ireland. It was inconceivable, that we fhould leave that people more connected in freedom of trade and facility of intercourse with France, than with Great Britain. It was idle to talk of the Irish propofitions having been made and rejected, and that therefore nothing was to be done. If a minister for inftance, were to tell the public and the parliament of Great Britain, that they did not know their own intereft, and muft abide by the confequence, he must be looked upon as infatuated. The conduct of the English manufacturers in the cafe of the French treaty muft crush all their former objections to the fyftem of the Irish propofitions. The prefent therefore was the moment for minifters to revive the idea of a beneficial connection. He did not mean the vague, ill natured and inadequate fyltem that had been offered; but a plain, fimple, good humoured fcheme of reciprocal intercourfe, unmixed with any principle of politics, and particularly with that, to which the fenfe of Ireland was fo totally averfe, the obliging her of neceffity to adopt all the future acts of trade of the British parlia

ment.

The marquis laid no ftrefs upon the objections that had been started refpecting the danger of our fluctuating capital in the event of a war, and upon the subject of the hovering acts. The French were not a nation of Algerines and favages, and he hoped to fee the day, when our prefent anxious precautions against fmuggling would be annihilated by the growing freedom of our trade. It had been farther faid, that we should rue the confequences of the prefent mea

fure; that France would flourish, and we fhould fuffer by the treaty. He would venture to prophefy, that, if this country declined, prejudice might afcribe it to this caufe, but it would in reality originate in fomething very different. If we continued under a perpetual fluctu. ation of adminiftrations, and France adhered to one fyftem; if we went on in the rottennefs of corruption, and fhe exerted herself, as it was reported he was about to do, in rooting it up; if the adopted great measures, and we pursued little ones, there was no doubt which country muft flourish, and which would decline. But he was not afraid to fay, knowing the natural liberality of English minds, that it was the duty of every man and every citizen to rejoice in the prof perity even of a foreign country, when it was produced by fair and honourable means. If a man had the misiortune to find that he could not govern his own family, he must be bafe indeed, if he repined at feeing a neighbouring family virtuous, well ordered and happy. Upon the whole the marquis felt himself inclined to a warm fupport of the treaty, perfuaded that the principle carried tranfcendent benefit with it, whatever opinion he might have as to fome of its parti cular clauses.

The debate upon the commercial treaty was productive of an altercation between the marquis of Lanfdown and the duke of Richmond, of a nature, which, as it tends to illuftrate character, we thall ever confider as one of the most interefting topics of political hiftory. In the courfe of the debate. the duke obferved, in reply to one of lord Lanfdown's animadverfions, that we had nothing to do with the French erections at Cherbourg, and

that

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that with the fame propriety they might come and fay to us, you fhall not fortify your dockyards of Portsmouth and Plymouth. This argument was retorted by the marquis, who obferved, that we certainly had not more, perhaps not fo much concern with the erections at Cherbourg, as they had with our fortifications; fince, if ours were carried into execution, the French would, on the event of an invafion, take poffeffion of our for treffes as advantageous pofts. The duke, who probably had been irritated by the part, which had been taken by the friends of lord Lanf down in the house of commons. upon the fubject of the fortifications, caught at this infinuation. He obferved, that, if we might infer the marquis's fentiments from the voice of certain perfons in another place, he had changed his opinion in regard to the fortifications, as much as it appeared he had done on the fubject of the Irish propofitions. In the mean time the duke had no hefitation in declaring, that the plan for the fortifying of Portf mouth and Plymouth had been fubmitted to lord Lanfdown, when he had been at the head of the adminiftration of this country, and that he had fignified his direct approbation.

In the fequel of the altercation it appeared, that the marquis was now ready to avow his exprefs difapprobation of the plan of fortifications, and the queftion, whether or no he ever profeffed to approve them, remained to be decided from two letters, the one written by the duke of Richmond confeffedly fubfequent to the period in which the fuppofed approbation had been given, and requefting the thoughts of the marquis upon various fubjects relating to the department of

the ordnance, and among others upon the new system of fortifications. The other letter was a declaration by Mr. Pitt, who had been prefent at the difputed converfation, made at the request of the duke of Richmond; the fubject of which was, "that his memory at the distance of four years did not enable him to fay, that lord Lanfdown did pofitively give a full and direct approbation of the plans, but that the impreffion made upon his mind at the time was, and had continued fo on every reflection fince, that he did fignify his approbation."

Upon thefe circumftances lord Lanfdown obferved, that his fituation at the period in question, when he was fettling the important meafure of the preliminaries of peace, had been attended with great difficulties. He perhaps had reason to fear under all the circumstances of that time, that the duke of Richmond might change his mind; and he must neceffarily have dreaded the change of one out of the seven members of the cabinet. Thus critically fituated, when the duke opened his plan, there might per haps be a degree of addrefs on his part in what had paffed on the fubject. It was natural; it might have been neceffary; but he fo lemnly declared that he never directly approved, and he challenged the duke to produce a ferap of a pen from him on the fubject. He admitted that the fuppreffion of doubts would be unpardonable, if that fuppreffion went fo far as to delude a colleague to hazard his plan before parliament, where he was to be abandoned and expofed. This declaration however the mar quis was afterwards obliged to qualify, as it appeared, that a fum of money for the fortifications had ac

tually

tually been included in the ordnance estimates of 1783. If it were urged, that there was blame due to him upon that fcore, as a minister, he was free to say there was great blame. But that was another question; and he protested he could not tell why he had fuffered the plan to be propofed. With refpect to the charge of infincerity, which the duke had thought proper to advance against him, he believed it was totally incapable of was fupport. Opennefs was his characteriftic; and it was folely from the conficeration of the unguardedness of his temper, that by the advice of his friends he had fecluded himfelf from the world.

The fpeakers in favour of the treaty were lord Thurlow, lord Hawkesbury, lord Walfingham, lord Townshend, lord Grey de Wilton, lord Hopetoun, and lord Forte fcue. Those who distinguished themselves in oppofition were the duke of Manchester, lord Carlifle, lord Loughborough, lord Fitzwilliam, lord Sandwich, lord Scarborough, and lord Portchefter. The house divided upon the first refolution, contents 81, not contents 35; and upon the report, contents 94, not contents 35. The addrefs was prefented on the eighth of March.

The question refpecting the violation of the forms of parliament was not given up by oppofition, and on the day, previous to that of presenting the addrefs, Mr. Fox moved in the house of commons the refolution, which had been propofed by lord Stormont in the houfe of lords. Befide recapitulating and inforcing the arguments he had already employed, he obferved, that by the addrefs which had been carried, they were reduced to a choice of two very unpleasant

predicaments; the one was to let the treaty pafs, however repugnant its principles might at the time appear. to their fentiments, or however injurious to the interefts of their country; and the other to reject it, and of confequence to fubject themselves to the imputation of having made a precipitate and a faithlefs promife to the fovereign. The latter conduct would certainly be of the two the least injurious, at the fame time that it was fubje& to very great inconveniences, and was a fituation by all means to be avoided. It was derogatory to that facred faith, which ought always to be preserved in promises that were made, or addreffes that were laid at the foot of the throne. Mr. Pitt treated the objections as. cavilling and frivolous; and obferved, that, fo far from retrenching from the privileges of the house, he had in fact added two new and additional stages, the addrefs and the report of the addrefs, to thofe which had been provided by the wisdom of our ancestors. The conduct of administration was defended by Mr. Dundas, Mr. Arden and Mr. Bearcroft, and cenfured by Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Bastard and fir William Molefworth. By the latter of thefe an allufion was made to the cafe of the ordnance eftimates, in which the house had been told that they were pledged to a future meafure by having confented to a paft tranfaction, and the furveyorgeneral of the ordnance had infifted, that, when the matter came out from the difquifition of the board of officers, they were not at liberty to refufe the money. The houfe divided upon Mr. Fox's refolution, ayes 113, noes 188.

On the twenty fixth of March the houfe was moved in a committee to come to certain refolu

tions,

tions, proposed by Mr. Pitt, and the object of which was to reduce, at least pro tempore, and during the pendency of our negociations with Portugal, the duties upon

Portugal, Spanish and Madeira wines, to a proportion one third lower than the new duties upon French wines. The refolutions were adopted.

Confolidation of Cuftoms. tery Bill.

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CHAPTER V.

Farming of the Poft Horfe Tax. LotSpanish Convention

Budget.
Mutiny Bill.

NE of the fubjects, which had been fuggefted to the attention of parliament in the fpeech from the throne, and which had excited confiderable expectation, was the intended confolidation of the customs. Mr. Pitt opened this bufinefs to the houfe of commons on the twenty fixth of February; and we cannot better explain the nature of the measure, than by extracting the language he employed upon this occafion.

It was not neceffary for him to infift upon the great importance of the fubject, or to expati te on the advantages it was intended to produce. When he confidered them, it appeared more difficult to account for the lung delay of this proceeding, than to prove the propriety of now adopting it. The increafing commerce of this country on the one hand, and its accumulated burthens on the other, had fo widely exceeded the expectation of our ancestors, and all the grounds of calculation on which they founded their fyftem of fimance, that the principles they adopted, though fufficiently fuited to the narrow and confined scale of our former exigencies and refources, were no longer applicable. The

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confequences of retaining the old principle under the altered circumtances of the country, had been in feveral points of view highly detrimental to the interefts of the nation. Mr. Pitt entered into the hiftory of our revenues, and stated, that the first inftitution of the fubfifting duties of custom was made by a ftatute in the twelfth year of king Charles the Second, under the names of tonnage and poundage; the first an impofition upon wines measured by the quantity imported, and the fecond a duty ad valorem upon all other articles. The laft was therefore liable to great inaccuracies. It was not calculated according to the real value of the commodities, but by an arbitrary value, perhaps the market price of the article at the time of impofing the duty. The confequence of fuch a mode of taxation frequently was, that in goods of one general defcription the duty was the fame; fo that it either operated as a prohibition upon the coarfer manufactures, or was not at all felt by the more perfect. This principle, when once adopted, was purfued in every fresh subfidy. In fome inftances it had operated, by impofing additional du

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