million and a half before the sum already expended and due can be provided. Thus, twenty-six millions must be raised, though peace was immediately to take place. When it is considered, however, what any new peace establishment must be; when the system which is pursued in this country is taken into view; when the manner in which Ireland is not governed, but ground down and oppressed; when the hollow and deceitful nature of any peace with the right hon. gentleman is recollected, no man can think that two millions more, making twenty-eight millions, would be an extravagant computation as the amount of the permanent peace establishment. This is a tremendous and awful consideration; but, if the country is to be saved, we must look our situation in the face, and make provision for the utmost extent of our difficulties.

While the bank continues in its present state of dependence on the minister, it is impossible to hope, however, that public credit can be restored, and the funds raised. Last year, much was said in the newspapers about the connection between the right hon. gentleman and the bank. It was said, that the banns had been forbid. The conduct of the chancellor of the exchequer showed, that he cultivated the connection on account of the lady's dowry, not for the comfort of her society. At first, the affair seemed to present the appearance of a penitent seduction, but now it has degenerated into a contented prohibition. The country wished to forgive the indiscretion, on the hopes of amendment. What has produced the infatuation it is not easy to conjecture, unless the right hon. gentleman had given the old lady love-powder. The hey-day of the blood was over, but the rankness of passion has not subsided. The dear deceiver is taken into favour, and the ruin he has occasioned is forgotten.

Upon the examination into the affairs of the bank, the standing committee of correspondence between the bank and the ministers pronounce, that there are sufficient means to pay all the private debts of the bank-but the minister interposes. The bank is placed in the situation of a person who can pay and will not. Of all situations, none could be more injurious to credit than this. When it is known that men are willing to pay, credit stretches a great way in favour of their ability; but when a person is understood to be able to pay, and will not, the confidence on which credit must be founded is overthrown.

The manner in which the last report of the bank committee is drawn up, is likewise very curious. It is found there is enough of fund to pay the private creditors of the bank; but the chancellor of the exchequer, says "No!" and claps his lock and key on their coffers. Without meaning any quibble on the name of the honourable chairman of the committee, the conduct of the right hon. gentleman irresistibly reminds me of an old proverb. The report of the committee is very favourable, but still the bank must be kept under confinement. "Brag is a good dog," says the chancellor of the exchequer, "but Holdfast is a better," and the bank must be kept under the tutorage of the minister, till he finds it convenient for himself to set the directors at liberty. The advances made by the bank to government occasioned the first stoppage, and now three millions are again to be advanced without any security whatever. If the directors do not insist on some security for their repayment, they will be guilty of a gross breach of duty, and the most culpable neglect of the interest of their constituents. It seems that the bank is to be the new Temple of Janus-ever shut in time of war. While war continues we must be contented to view the meagre paper profile; nor will we be permitted to contemplate the golden bust till the return of peace. The French directory are thus to have the keys of the bank, which cannot be opened till they grant permission.

The right hon. gentleman says, "that the French aim their attacks against the credit of this country," and it is necessary to guard against their designs. The expression of the report is whimsical enough: it states, that the enemy design to attack us by means of our credit." "No," says the chancellor of the exchequer, "I have taken care to take that weapon out of your hands; a dangerous weapon like this I certainly will not leave you to employ." It is said by some, that the conduct of those who oppose the minister encourages the French; while, on the contrary, the whole system of his administration tends to encourage their designs He has taught them to believe that he governs the lower classes only by coercion, and the upper ranks by corruption. More is done by the language held by some gentlemen in this house, that it is necessary to confine the soldiers in barracks, to make them deaf if the people cannot be made dumb, than by any conduct which can be imputed to the

opposers of ministers. By showing that the minister can get no support unpurchased, the enemy are led to think that there is no public spirit in the country-that nothing can be done but by jobs, and titles, and pensions. What can they think of those who come forward under the pretence of public spirit, when they see that every man obtains his own private job as the reward of his ministerial devotion? They saw that disgrace after disgrace never diminished his power; that every successive attack on liberty was defended and supported by compliant majorities; that every new failure served only to rivet the attachment of his servile adherents. When they see the nation endure these things, can they conceive that it will be found to contain much public spirit to resist a foreign enemy? Beyond question great sacrifices must be made, whoever is minister; and, if the enemy persevere in their designs, resistance to invasion must be encouraged at every hazard. We must give up the idea, however, of doing this, and continuing in a state of luxury. Should it be necessary, we must show that we are ready to strip to the skin to maintain our independence and our liberties, in the same manner as they were compelled to struggle for their freedom. It is mere cant and delusion, to talk any longer of giving up a part to preserve the whole-that we must leave both our liberty and property unmortgaged to posterity. If I am called upon to pay a shilling to preserve a pound, this is intelligible; but if I am called upon twenty times successively for my shilling, it is ridiculous to tell me of giving up a part for the preservation of the whole. This will not do: and as a worthy baronet (Sir W. Pulteney) said on another occasion, " if it is so often repeated, it comes to be no joke." This kind of paradoxical insult cannot long be endured. It will not do to tell us, that sending millions of money to Germany, for the defence of this country, is true economy; that to lop off the most valuable of our liberties, is to preserve the constitution; that not to pay its lawful creditors, is to support the credit of the bank; and to introduce a universal disclosure of income, is to protect property. This is the last stage of such delusion. The tricks have been too often repeated to elude the most inattentive observation. While the affairs of this country continue in the same hands, they cannot be administered wisely or well. The country cannot have confidence in a

, always unsuccessful, now hopeless; and the dismissal of

ministers must be the preliminary step to any vigour of system, any prospect of peace.

The house divided on the question for the third reading; ayes 196; noes 71.

PUBLICATION IN OTHER RESPECTS.

The attorney-general moved for leave to bring in this bill.

MR. SHERIDAN declared he would object to any kind of measure introduced by the learned gentleman, concerning what he terms restricting the license, and limiting within bounds, the press. Every allowance to which the hon. gentleman was entitled, upon the principle of candour, should be allowed him ; but, in the instance before him, he had reason to suspect that very great latitude in that particular virtue could not be attributed to him. He was free to say, that in the bill, and in its tendency, lay concealed a design of destroying the liberty of the press altogether. This he considered but merely the preface to that which, probably, at no very distant period, was intended, namely, a general crush of every publication not exactly according with the party in power. He perceived that its purport had in view, not only all newspapers, but every other kind of periodical production that was published in the kingdom. He trusted it would have no consideration for party productions, but would comprehend every species, including even that recent publication called The Anti-Jacobin; a print that abounded with as much libellous matter as any he had heard of, and that too without a stamp. But he feared that, whatever species of publication this bill might include in its spirit, or even in its letter, an attorneygeneral would scarcely ever be found ready and desirous of prosecuting, for any slander which might issue from any print published, for the purpose of abusing those in opposition. His own experience furnished him with numberless documents to that effect. Did the hon. and learned gentleman, among all the libels that he saw and knew were ushered into the world against him and his friends, charging them with every political crime that ingenuity could devise, and every private error that depravity could

invent, to render men odious, or make them contemptible-did that learned gentleman, he would ask, ever make any effort even to threaten the delinquents for such misconduct with a legal prosecution? Certainly not. It was certain, however, that he was not a friend to prosecution. He was of opinion that the press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate with the freedom of the people and the wellbeing of a virtuous state; on that account, he thought that even an hundred libels had better be ushered into the world than one prosecution be instituted which might endanger the liberty of the press of this country. He remarked, that the hon. and learned gentleman who submitted this bill, stated a case in the course of his observations, insinuating that the produce to proprietors of newspapers, for scandal not published, was as profitable in the degree, and as great, as that which they obtained from scandal they disseminated. If that be the case,he would be glad to be informed what the proprietors of treasury newspapers received, for the abuse so abundantly lavished on opposition, and for that which they withheld from appearing against their own patrons? and whether, as all proprietors were to be punished alike, they were to be considered as proprietors, since the papers existed at their expense? He might readily answer both questions himself, were not the redundancy of the reply sufficiently obvious, from the consciousness that obtained on the other side of the house. Upon the whole, it was his determination, in whatever light he considered the intentions of the hon. gentleman who was about to introduce the bill, to oppose it; at present he considered it a dangerous innovation, as well upon the liberty of the individual, as on the liberty of the English

press.

Mr. Pitt said, "He had read the paper alluded to, and observed how much satisfaction it afforded him. It certainly was stamped."

Mr. Sheridan replied, that the qualification that entitled it to the approbation of the right hon. gentleman, did not exactly correspond with what he should consider as recommending it. For his part, he made it a rule to read a paper and approve of it for its wit, not for its stamp.

Mr. Pitt defended the several clauses of the bill, &c.

Mr. Sheridan rose again.-He began by noticing the two speeches, or rather the explanation, and the subsequent speech