that the real addition to your debt will at the end of the pre fent year be 180 millions, I fhould not go beyond the point; and that the annual expenditure of the country cannot be lefs thaa 28, but I will fay 26 millions (for I would not provoke difcufion in any thing that is incidental to the main defign I have in calling the attention of the Houfe to what I fubmit); but taking things on the moft moderate fcale, I do not believe that the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself, fanguine as he is, thinks that the affairs of this country can be winded up for a peace establishment without great difficulty. Only think for a moment upon the measure before you already, by which a tenth of every man's income is to be taken under one head, independent of all other imposts, to fupport the state, and that this fubjects every man to the inconvenience of having his accounts examined; and under thefe circumstances think whether it is not worth your while to look a little farther on before you embark and go forward. I have formerly taken the liberty of ftating that the great transfer of property in this country must be attended with effects highly detrimental to the English character; that in time you will have a beggared gentry and overgrown merchants as two claffes in your fociety. We are called an armed nation :-I feel as much pride as an Englishman ought to feel at the readiness with which my countrymen fhew their attachment to their country by qualifying themselves for defending it by arms; but this is not a condition of things which can continue long in this country; befides, I am apprehensive that it must inevitably increase the influence of the crown, which is a great evil in its very nature. This must be evident to any one who looks at the collection of our revenue; add to this the effect of having under military difcipline, fo many who are wanted in the civil affairs of life. Remember, alfo, that the law has now filenced every man in the country every where except in this houfe; that the Habeas Corpus Act is fufpended, and that no man can fay he is free.When all these things are put together, I would afk, am I speaking like a man of integrity or not when I fay that the conftitution of England cannot weather fuch a storm as this much longer than the pockets of the people can hold out against all the claims that are made upon them?

As to other parts of the empire-Ireland, for instance, I fhall fay but little; but I understand, that, notwithstanding all the efforts to curb and reprefs rebellion there, further exertions are ftill wanted for that purpofe. I am here merely

hinting

hinting at things-I am not to be charged with arguing these points; that I avoid for reafons at which the Houfe may cafily guefs. If we look at our establishments in the east, we shall fee very large expences. With refpect to the fituation of the enemy, they have now, if not the firft, certainly the most fuccefsful General in Europe; he is now at the head of a large army in Egypt, where he has been many months without having, as I urderftand, experienced any very material check, although, as I have faid already, he has been there feveral months-I believe five or fix months. Should he come back again to France, and fhould he turn his mind against this country, I hope we fhould be able to meet him; but it would be a very ferious thing. Then look at the Weft indies-and here the first thing that prefents itself to my mind is the evacuation of St. Domingo. I do not mean the leaft reproach on the gallant officer who conducted that evacuation: on the contrary, I am happy in the opportunity here prefented to me to bear public teftimony of the great value of his military fervices; and I hope for an opportunity of doing fo in private; but, for reafons that do not call in question the conduct of that able officer, the evacuation of St. Domingo is an alarming thing to thofe who have any esteem for our Weft India poffeffions. Here was a power to be raised, that coft, as I understand, ten millions of British money, and ten thousand British fubjects! From this frightful expenditure of blood and money, what was the refult? 50 thousand blacks ftarted up in arms: thus, within a few hours fail of our Weft India colonies, there is a force of no lefs than 50 thousand black men difciplined and trained to arms, and inflamed with enthufiaftic notions, concerning li berty. I have no defire to fay more on this fubject than is neceffary to make the thing intelligible. If I had the eloquence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, I could make this matter appear moft horribly to the Houfe; even without fuch powers, I could make this Houfe very uneafy at this fubject; but I have no fuch thing in view: my object is aufwered, if I imprefs on your mind, Sir, that from the relative fituation of the British empire, we have enough to do for ourselves, without embarking in any indeterminate fcheme for the deliverance of Europe. We have been concerned now for fix years, in what is called the common caufe, for no determinate object that I ever could fee. It is time for us now to have fome feparate care of ourfelves, by which I do not mean any pufillanimous or daftardly defertion of the conVOL. I. 1789.

Y

teft;

teft; but that whenever France fhall, by force or arms, or otherwife, become moderate and rational in her public views, we may be in a fituation to meet her on the scale of prudence and difcretion. Feeling, as I do, for the glory of England, as a man, as a member of Parliament, I could not take no tice of the expreflion in the fpecch from the Throne, relating to our own energy and virtue, without wifhing that fuch energy and virtue thould be employed in our own behalf, and not to be made in any degree dependent on the energy and virtue of others. I fay, let England purfue the fame conduct as the did last year, and the will purfue her intereft, and, perhaps, may bring about tranquillity; but if we go on with loofe and indefinite notions of the deliverance of Europe,. fuch will be the certain charge of it, that I have no difficulty in faying, that the effect will be a load and a weight which no refources you have, or ever can have, will enable you to bear. The refources of this country are, thank God, very great; but perhaps much of that arifes out of, and is attributable to the general convulfed ftate of Europe; if fo, we ought to be the more careful of our means. People may praise the refources of this country as much as they pleafe, but we muft not disguise from ourfelves our real fituation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has, too much candour and fincerity to deny that he must have great difficulties in winding up the accounts of this country. I thall give no further opinion upon this point. When the energy of this country rifes to its height, I hope it will not be employed in any vifionary projects, but will be directed to a clearly defined point for the intereft of Great Britain. I have now to thank the Houfe for its kind attention. I have, perhaps, trefpafled further than I thould have done, but the Houfe will feel fome advantage from its indulgence to me; for unless fomething fhould be faid to-night, of which at prefent I have no conception, I fhall not avail myfelf of the customary privilege of fpeaking again. I thought it was my duty to fay thus much. If the French could be driven within their ancient limits, no man would more heartily rejoice than I fhould; but if any calamity fhould follow the fteps that are to be pursued on behalf of this country, it is a confolation to me, that I have lifted up my voice, feeble as it is, with the beft endeavours to promote the real interefts of my country. He then moved as above stated.

Mr. Canning rofe, and spoke in reply to Mr. Tierney.-If, Sir, faid he, I may judge of the impreffion which the

fpeech,

fpeech juft delivered by the hon. Gentleman is likely to make upon the Houfe, from the unufual degree of filence and attention with which it has been liftened to, l'fhould perhaps be fearful of incurring the reproach of prefumption for taking from abler hands the answer it fhould meet with, and for attempting to undertake a task to which I am confcious that my feeble talents may prove inadequate. The hon.. Gentleman has indeed purfined, with extraordinary force and ability, a very extraordinary line of argument: but if I may venture to exprefs an opinion upon the manner and matter of his fpeech, I do not hesitate to fay, that it had but very little weight with me to countenance the motion with which it concluded; a motion of which I think, it should have rather gone to establish and recommend the propriety, than to, anticipate and refute the objections that were likely to be. raised against it; or to the propriety of the motion, which the hon. Gentleman feems to have affumed. I fhall have abundant opportunities to obferve and animadvert in the courfe of what I have to offer; and as to the objections. which he has found it convenient to obviate, I most certainly did intend to urge them; and I will now endeavour to fol low him, as nearly as I poffibly can, through the fame order in which he thought proper to anticipate them."

The first and moft material objection, then, which the hon. Gentleman has obviated, is, that the prefent motion might feem to interfere with his Majefty's royal prerogative of making peace or war, and embarrafs and obftruct the meafures which his Majefly's advifers might deent it expedient to adopt. But fuch an interference, the hon. Gentleman infinuates, is neither unprecedented or extraordinary ; that it is not unprecedented I am not difpofed to deny the few precedents, however, that may be brought in fupport of it, are far from being of an aufpicious nature: on the con-, trary, there feems ever to have hung over fuch interference a kind of fatality, that fhould diffuade us from again affenting to it, efpecially when it attempts to dictate the terms, to prefcribe the mode, or to point out the opportunities of a pacific negociation. There have been two attempts of this fort, which it may not be impertinent to exemplify. The first was in the year 1707. A vote was at that time paffed which aimed at interfering with, and influencing the peace that was then about to be concluded. I will not fay that it had any fuch effect, or that it influenced in the leaft degree the terms of that peace; but I may fay with perfect truth, that

Y 2

the attempt was then, and has fince been confidered as a mere effufion of party spleen. The other vote I meant to allude to, is of a more recent date, and still green in the remembrance of many Gentlemen prefent, who took an active part in the debates of thofe days. As to the propriety of it, I will not now hazard an opinion; but if we look to the peace that followed, I may fafely fay, that fuch interference. at fuch a time was exceedingly unfortunate, and should justly be reprobated as the moft frantic effort of party violence, and party animofity. It is by no means my present .with, or object, to blame that peace; I merely wish to point my cenfure against the exercife of any fuch privilege as may be productive of much evil, without tending to fecure any advantage. Neceffity indeed might plead fome excufe for urging the exercife of this privilege; but no ground whatever has been adduced by the hon. Gentleman to fubstantiate the nature of this neceflity: not a word has he advanced to fhew that there exifts the fmalleft neceffity for fuch an interference. If there exifted any fuch neceffity, it would undoubtedly arife either from an obvious and favourable opening having prefented itself for entering into a negotiation, or from the appearance of fomething in the conduct and fentiments of his Majefty's minifters, which might betray, or evince on their part, a difinclination or abhorrence at all modes of pacification. On fuch gronds it might perhaps be proper to make a motion tending in fome degree to this object, and from fuch appearances on the part of minifters to prefs the interference of the Houfe. Indeed, when the hon. Gentleman fpoke of the negociation at Lifle, and of the difficulties that clogged its progrefs, and finally defeated its object, he evidently appeared to labour under a puzzled remembrance, a confufed recollection of what past on that occafion; nor could I have imagined that he was speaking of the events of that time, had he not alluded to a manifefto which appeared not long after. He feemed to confound the allies of Great Britain with the allies of France, and to attribute to the former, what was occafioned by the latter, and by the conduct of France, and the claims urged by her on that occafion. How the hon. Gentleman could have lapfed into fuch a miftake, I really find it difficult to conceive-perhaps it is from his not having confulted with any of his friends; for he has told the Houfe, that in bringing forward the prefent motion, he has aed in no concert with any party, but merely from the fuggeftion of his own mind, and as an individual.