keep up a kind of irregular attack upon the enemy-to fire from behind hedges or walls-from out of houses, &c. Now mark the station the hon. colonel would assign the illustrious personage I have mentioned-he would send his royal highness to take his place behind a tree, to watch and direct flying shooters, to conduct a mode of warfare that would resemble something like bear-hunting. This is a part which I hope will never be assigned to the Prince of Wales; that we shall not call on him to stand behind a tree, or throw himself into a ditch when the enemy approaches. An hon. friend of mine has stated, in the course of his objections to the motion before the house, that while the volunteers were drilling, they were laughed at by idle, worthless spectators. This appears to me to be a very strong reason in favour of this motion; for if the volunteers are laughed at by the profligate, let them have this honourable mark of your approbation to gratify their pride-to raise them above such sneers. The late secretary at war has maintained in the course of this debate, and on other occasions, that our situation was by no means so dangerous at any period of the late war, as it is at present. To this assertion the noble secretary of state has so ably answered, that I think it unnecessary to say much, but I insist that the perils of the country in the year 1798, were much superior to those by which we are now menaced; for at that time Ireland was actually invaded; a formidable insurrection prevailed; and had the whole of the French force which was sent to Ireland been able to effect a landing, or rather, perhaps, were it not for the treachery of Hoche, that country would have been subdued. Then I contend that Ireland was saved by an accident; and if the 40,000 men which were permitted to go to Egypt had bent their course to Ireland, what, I would ask, could have been the fate of that country? In such a state of things, I maintain that ministers are justified in charging the right hon. gentleman with neglecting to resort to such measures of vigour as he ought to have employed, and such as have been on the present occasion adopted. The right hon. gentleman will not deny that he felt the extremity of panic at the state of the nation in 1798, insomuch that he was heard to complain of the apathy of his colleagues; that they were not forward to adopt measures sufficiently suited to the crisis. They were, to be sure, persuaded to propose a bill, which was passed, in the preamble

of which the alarming state of the country was acknowledged, and several military preparations prescribed, which, however, were never executed, nor was the act, in any of its provisions, acted upon; but yet it was remarkable, that though clumsy and ineffectual, it contained the same principle and nearly the same clauses, which the right hon. gentleman has objected to in the act for raising the mass of the people. Why did the right hon. gentleman approve of a proposition then, which he abuses now. There are indeed many other measures of the late ministry which the right hon. gentleman professes to condemn. He has said, among others, that the provisional cavalry was a foolish measure -how then can he account for the support he gave it as a minister? I do appeal to him, or any other man who has a spark of frankness, whether such conduct is excusable! that of a right hon. gentleman, who lays claim to a character for candour, sincerity, openness, and independence of mind, who continued in this house to plead for proceedings, of which, as a cabinet minister, he strongly disapproved, was certainly not quite consistent. The hon. colonel says, that Austria was not sincerely desirous to preserve the peace of Campo Formio. I remember when we stated the same thing in this house we were opposed by the late secretary at war and his friends, and the fact was positively denied. The ex-secretary at war considered the assertion mere nonsense-indeed, that right hon. gentleman, whether in or out of office, has always been in the habit of treating the assertions or arguments of his adversaries with an appearance of indifference, if not contempt, that was not becoming in any man. No doubt, if great talents would justify a man in looking down upon the arguments of his adversary, the hon. gentleman was fully qualified to do so; but no degree or description of talents could excuse such conduct. The argument of every man is, if at all attended to, entitled to respectful attention. With regard to the conduct of the right hon.. gentleman, since he became an ex-minister, I do contend, that its uniform tenor has been to invite and encourage the enemy, and to depress and discourage our own people. He has invited the enemy to provoke the war, by the description he always gave of the character of ministers-and since the war he has invited an attack upon our country, by the statements he has made of the situation of the public mind, the disorganized state of our army, and the awkward manner in

which our defensive force was to be constructed. By this kind of invitation he has brought Buonaparte into a scrape, and he certainly is in a much worse scrape than this country; all his misfortunes may be attributed to the reliance he placed on the words of the right hon. gentleman, when he reported the ministers to be a set of shabby, pusillanimous, incapable fellows, who knew nothing, who would bear anything, who would submit to any injury, or endure any insult. In short, that the peace of Amiens was a curse, and that, bad as the ministers were, this treaty had rendered the people still worse. He always stated that ministers were only anxious for the safe tenure of their places, and that as there was nothing high-minded about them, they would make any sacrifice to that object. What was the natural tendency of such language? What impression was it likely to make on the mind of Buonaparte? If he were told that it was always rant, the mere heated declamation of a discontented ex-minister, he would, no doubt, answer "No-impossible! Mr. Wyndham is a discreet statesman, and he knows the character of the English government, and of the English people, well; no man better." But Buonaparte was deceived, and was suffering much regret for his confidence in the right hon. gentleman. He knows now that ministers are not quite so passive or so timid as the right hon. gentleman would lead him to imagine; that they would go to war sooner than sacrifice the honour and interests of the country. There is a character in our great bard, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, to whom, though I cannot entirely compare the first consul, I have no doubt, that if he were to declare his sentiments on his present situation, he would say, in the language of the old knight,-"If I thought he'd been so valiant, I'd be damned ere I had challenged him.”

I am pretty certain that such is now the feeling of Buonaparte, and he has to thank the right hon. gentleman for reducing him to that dilemma. I hope that ministers will place him in a still worse dilemma; if duly seconded by the people, upon which I confidently rely, I have no doubt that it is in their power to do so. In reply to the observations that have been made on the motion under consideration, on the ground that it is not necessary, I shall only say that it must be useful; that it is dictated by justice and policy, and called for by the irresistible voice of gratitude; that the merit it is intended to distinguish is great

and material to the public safety, and that to record such merit would excite the emulation of the people at large, if a stimulus were necessary, while it would form a monument honourable to our own character, grateful to the pride, and conducive, by the influence of example, to the best interests of posterity. The hon. gentleman concluded with submitting his motion for thanks, &c. Colonel Crauford made a few observations in reply, which were merely explanatory of his speech.

The question was then put upon Mr. Sheridan's motion, and carried nem. con. Mr. Sheridan next moved, "That the speaker do signify to the lords lieutenants of counties, &c. the assent of the house to the above resolution."

Agreed to nem. con.

Mr. Sheridan finally moved, "That a return be made and entered upon the Journals, of the names and number of the volunteer corps, who, from the present moment till the next meeting of parliament, should enrol themselves and be accepted by his Majesty, in order that their patriotic example may be handed down to animate our latest posterity."

Agreed to nem. con.

MARCH 15, 1804.

STATE OF THE NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY.

Mr. Pitt moved for an address to his Majesty, "Praying, that he will be pleased to give orders for laying before the house, an amount of all the ships of the line, fifty-gun ships, frigates, sloops, gun-brigs, and other vessels actually in commission in the years ending the 31st of December, 1793, 1801, and 1803."

MR. SHERIDAN said, it was my intention, sir, to wait until I should hear the opinions of professional men on this subject, but the observations which have been made by the hon. gentleman (Mr. Wilberforce) who has just sat down, urge me to obtrude my. self on your notice thus prematurely, and contrary to my original intention. The hon. gentleman has, in my mind, used observations the most unwarrantable, on parliamentary grounds, I have ever heard in this house. He has stated, that he has never had conversation with any naval officer whose opinion has not been decidedly in contradiction to the system upon which the naval affairs of the country have been for some time back conducted; that is to say, since the gallant admiral who now presides at the

head of the admiralty board, was appointed to that high station; and this information, so obtained, he offers to the house as justification for the censure which the advocates for the motion before the house would attach to the character of the noble lord at the head of the admiralty. The hon. gentleman ventures to tell the house, that upon grounds such as these, there is a sufficient reason for the inquiry, and for granting the papers required; but from whom has the hon. gentleman obtained the intelligence, and heard the sentiments to which he thinks the house ought to attach so much importance? From officers, no doubt, who are ashore and unemployed; from those who have not the best opportunity of judging, and whose judgment, for many reasons, is not entitled to the first attention: but not from such officers as those whom the house had heard this night; not from such as the gallant admiral who preceded the hon. gentleman to whom I am now alluding, and who has attracted my notice by statements which I am inclined to think he has collected from persons such as I have described, from those whose accounts of the condition of the navy naturally receive a colouring from their own situation. Thus the hon. gentleman would persuade us to found our verdict on an occasion so important as that now before us, upon evidence drawn from such sources, upon secondhand assertions, in a word, upon mere hearsay. The hon. gentleman is no doubt a conscientious man, he certainly so considers and describes himself, and we cannot give him any credit at all if we do not believe him to be so; and would appeal to his conscientiousness whether he does think that any court of justiceand this house is now called upon to act in that capacity-would pronounce sentence in any case upon evidence of the nature of that upon which he seems to rely? I say that there is no court that would attend to, much less believe, such assertions. If the hon. gentleman has any charge to urge against the noble lord, against whom the motion before the house appears to be pointed, I say, let the evidence be brought forward; but do not let accusations be insinuated abroad, unsupported by any witnesses whatever, unjustified by any fact, and excused only by a loose statement that such and such officers, whom no one ventures to name, are much in the habit of speaking ill of the conduct of the admiralty and of the character of its principal director. The hon. gentleman, however, has told us, that he entertains a very