he would have found, that the, objection fo advanced did not apply to the landed intereft, and that commercial property was as completely guarded from any dangers likely to refult from a disclosure, as the nature of the cafe could poffibly admit of. It should alfo be remembered, that the bill had not been hurried through in the way inputed to it, but had undergone the moft ferious and minute inveftigation. He would undertake to fay, that the previous investigation had been for ftrict, as to render it at prefent unneceflary to go into a detail of thofe objections which had been fully refuted in the other Houfe. With refpect to the probability which had been urged of the meafure affecting the funds, he would afk, if it were likely to do fo, why that effect had not been already produced? The noble Lord had declared, that he was averfe to abstract propofitions on political fubjects, yet, after making that declaration, he made no difficulty of reading extracts from a work of the very nature he condemned. Lord Darnley concluded with obferving, that the prefent measure was one which their Lordships were called upon by the most powerful motives to fanction, as, exclufively of the great and falutary principle on which it proceeded, it was alfo calculated in every point of view to defeat the defigns, and ruin the power of the enemy. It was now in the hands of the House and the public, and both were agreed that no other could fo effectually anfwer the great object for which it was intended. Such was the light in which he faw it, and he would not waste more of their Lordships' time than while he faid that it fhould have his cordial fupport.

Lord Holland rofe to explain. He faid, he was perfectly fenfible that any difcuffion he was able to promote would be wholly without effect: his duty, however, called upon him to ftate the objections he had urged against the measure. With regard to the obfervations he had made on the work of a noble Lord (Lord Auckland), he could affure that noble Lord that he by no means quoted the buck with an intention to throw any flur upon its author, but, on the contrary, to strengthen his argument by what he conceived to be a weighty and refpectable authority. He could not, however refrain from animadverting upon the manner in which his arguments against the bill had been treated:inftead of urging any found arguments in reply to them, he was only told that his oppofition was a folitary one, and that the general fenfe of the Houfe was against him; he had, moreover, on a former day been given to understand by the noble Secretary of State VOL. 1. 1799. that

I.

30

that no ambition was felt to convince him, or to conciliate his approbation of the measure. This furely was rather a strange way of treating a member of that Houfe, who was placed in it by the conftitution in order to deliver his opinion upon every topic according to his confcience and the beft of his judgment. Had he made ufe of fuch unparliamentary language, he, no doubt, would have been accufed of libelling the character and dignity of the Houfe. The noble Lord (Lord Auckland) had alfo been pleafed to exprefs a hope that age and experience might teach him to alter his opinions, as the noble Lord himfelf had done. He would not fay that he felt difpofed to imitate the example of the noble Lord in that refpect, who had fo egregioufly changed his opinions both of men and measures; but, whenever he was induced to alter his political fentiments, he trufted the change would be the refult of fair investigation and unbiaffed judgment, and that it fhould be the work of his reafon as far as it could guide him, not the fuggeftion of intereft or prejudiced partiality. It might be natural for the noble Lord to have made fome change in his opinions on a fubject like the present after the Japfe of twenty years, nor could a fair conftruction of the words he quoted vindicate him from the imputation of that charge. The words of the book were not confined to voluntary contributions. They alfo admitted the impropriety of a difclosure of private circumftances, and likewife the hardfhips to which a measure like the prefent would expofe the landholder. The noble Lord was loud in the praife of the fpirit and enthufiafin of the country manifefted in the voluntary contributions and the payment of the triple affeffiment of laft year, yet unfortunately this panegyric is broadly denied by the bill now before the Houfe, the preamble of which tells the world, that the reafon for introducing it was the fhameful evafions practifed last year. The noble Lord had alfo brought forward obfervations not very clofely connected with the fubject under debate. He talked of the French revolution (for into what debate is not that fubject continually intruded) and there the noble Lord obferved upon fome expreffions which were made ufe of in another place, where the French revolution was flyled "a glorious fabric of wisdom and integrity." He did not take up this with a view of blaming or defending it: he was feldom tempted to defend a man who. was fo much better able to defend himself. His intention only was to fay, that if f.om a well intended measure evil confequences might afterwards arife, this could not be fairly

imputed

imputed as a fault to the framers of the measure. Would it be just to impute to the manly oppofition of Hampden on fhip money, the fatal catastrophe that afterwards enfued? If the Admiralty embarked in fome great expedition, which afterwards terminated in fome great calamity, would it be fair to impute the failure to the noble Lord, who fo ably fuperintends that department, and about the integrity of whofe intentions no man could entertain a doubt ?—where there was no evil intention, there could be no fault; and he would not hesitate to say, that had he been a Frenchman, he should have felt it the pride of his life to have been concerned in that great event the revolution in France; but, though he felt that fuch would have been his ambition in fuch a fituation of his country as that of France then was, he was far from thinking fhat there could be any justice in making him answerable for the confequences that have enfued. He would afk, was the policy of the Quiberon expedition to be eftimated by the iffue of it? Would their Lordships now contend, that his Majefty's minifters, whom they have fo generally fupported, fhould be made refponsible for all the difaftrous confequences of the war into which they had unfortunately plunged the nation? Surely not; and ill and inaufpicioufly as the war has actually been profecuted, God forbid that he should say, that minifters fhould be responsible for all its concomitant calamities. Indeed, the firft avowed object of the war was to refift the unprovoked aggreffion of the French, and to fruftrate their schemes of aggrandifement; would minifters have perfifted in embarking in it, were they told all that has fince enfued from it; had they been told that France would be in poffeffion of all Italy; that he would exert a commanding influence over Spain; that he would invade Holland, and make herself mafter of all its refources: but efpecially had they been told, that England fhould be obliged to fend minifters to negociate with thofe very men, whofe hands were ftill reeking with the blood of their fovereign, whole life we were fo anxious to fave, or that we fhould be now expreffing an anxiety for the only man in the Directory, who had a hand in that atrocious deed? For his part he was, and he trusted he should ever be, a fincere and firm friend of liberty, and as fuch, he must feel with keener regret, and deeper horror at the crimes and atrocities that might be committed in her name, than those who never were confcious of any fervour in her caufe. Under fuch impreffions, it could not, therefore, be fuppofed, that he was inclined to extenuate, much lefs,

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to paliate or juftify thefe atrocities. But he could not help remarking, that the only object of the war that seemed to be accomplished, (for he could not doubt but that fuch an object had been in view) was the rendering the name of liberty odious to the world, in which France has but too ably confpired, as we unfortunately fee from the pernicious and abominable confequences that have flowed from fome of her fyftems. But great and thocking as moft undoubtedly is the guilt of the French, yet the effect of the war has as yet been the direct contrary of its avowed object; it has extended the dominions and contributed to the aggrandi fement of the enemy. --He would not have been induced to fay much on this fubject, had he not obferved with what triumph the crimes of France and the deplorable effects of jacobinism are every moment introduced, even to prove the propriety and neceflity of a tax bill. The noble Lord has alfo thought proper to enter into a comparison of this country with France. This was indeed a theme in which he might exultingly indulge. The fleets of France had difappeared. France could no longer be regarded as a naval power. Her inhabitants could now only ftand on their fhores, and vent the impotence of their rage in calling us hard names, though not harder perhaps than had been called here in the Houfe of Lords, where fome perfons might be characterized as being as abject in difgrace, as they were loud and arrogant in profperity. The noble Lord was alfo pleafed to tell him that he could find no inaccuracies in the bill. This was not the cafe, on the contrary, he could fhew it to be exceedingly inaccurate, which he then did by referring to claufe 42, and he faid he could advert to a variety of claufes equally erroneous. The claufe which enacted that thofe who ftated their income at the average of three years fhould be allowed no abatement for any fubfequent defalcation, he thought peculiarly oppreffive and unjuft. Much greater deductions alio ought to be allowed to farmers than those which were now given. He perfectly agreed with the noble Lord, that it would be unjuft to tax any clafs of men merely because they were rich; but adopting the fame principle upon which all income below 6ol. was exempted from the tax, and an afcending ratio admitted from that to 2001. he thought it might be carried to a ftill higher amount. He was told befides, that the prefent measure was particularly calculated to raife the funds. But if the ufual mode of railing money by loan was to be abandoned, where was the neceflity of keeping up the funds? For his part he principally main

tained

tained that the tax by being continued for any length of time would produce the worst confequences, and that it would be impoflible for the people to bear it. He felt it therefore his duty to continue his oppofition to a measure, which he was confident must be finally productive of fuch melancholly effects.

Lord Grenville faid, that though he was fully fatisfied that every thing that had the fhadow of an argument against the bill had been completely refuted by his noble Friend (Lord Auckland) yet he could not help rifing to remind the noble Lord who had just been reading leffons of propriety to the Houfe, that he fhould not be himself fo frequently the first to infringe thofe very rules which he was now fo anxious to enforce. Whenever that noble Lord (Lord Holland) spoke upon any subject, he scarcely ever failed claiming a right to answer, and that not in a few words, by way of explanation, but in another long, regular and detailed fpeech. This was a mode of proceeding which irrefiftibly called for fome animadverfion, and the manner in which the noble Lord had alluded to him was furely an unjustifiable breach of order. It was not, however, ufual with him over rigorously to urge the orders of the Houfe, efpecially from any felfifh motives, but he owed it to the House, and the Houfe itself was bound to fee its long established rights and rules duly refpected-well remembering moribus antiquis flat Roma. To this it behoved their Lordthips' jealoufy to attend, and not to fuffer any noble Lord to break through the order of debate, and violate the rules of the House from a principle of convenience to any individual, for if that noble Lord fhould affume it as a right to repeat anew the whole of his arguments, would it not be the duty of the Houfe to refift it, and prevent the worst of all dialoguesorational dialogues; for, if one noble Lord be indulged in this repetition, furely it is but fair to extend to others the fame privilege, whofe duty it might be not to permit fuch obfervations or arguments to pafs by unobferved or unrefuted. Words faid to have been ufed elsewhere in praise of the French revolution, or, as it is called, the French conftitution, had been introduced this night into the debate; it was extolled as the nobleft fabric of wisdom and integrity; and the noble Lord did not ftick at faying that, if he had then lived in France, it would have been his pride and boast to have been one of those who contributed to the establishment of that glorious fabric. And here he would not hesitate to say,

nay,