her fentiments? Was it not more reasonable to fuppofe, that her end was the fame, though the means The meant to pursue were different? that instead of force, which the found would not avail, the intended to employ ftratagem to put us off our guard, to lull us into fecurity, to prevent our cultivating other alliances, to leffen the dependence of foreign ftates upon us, to turn all our views to commercial profits, to entangle our capital in that country, and to make it the private intereft of individuals in this rather to acquiefce in any future project of ambition fhe might engage in, than come to a rupture with her? Thefe he was convinced were the defigns of France in feeking to establish a commercial intercourfe with us. Having urged these and other topics of the fame tendency with great energy and animation, Mr. Fox proceeded to confider the treaty in a commercial point of view. He first adverted in general to the prefumption drawn from the filence of the trading part of the nation refpecting it. The fame prefumption, he faid, had been exactly drawn from the fame circumftance in the cafe of the Irish propofitions, and yet they all recollected how the boafting of the minifter had turned out upon that occafion. But, in the prefent cafe, a petition had been prefented from the chamber of commerce, figned by fome of the most confiderable and the most respectable manufacturers of this country. Would any one, he asked, affert, that he understood the interests of the cotton manufacture better than Mr. Walker of Manchester, or the interefts of the woollen, better than the houfe of Milnes in Wakefield; and when perfons fo deeply concerned in the business expreffed their doubts upon the tendency of the treaty, it furely afforded fufficient ground at least for further deliberation and enquiry. Mr. Fox then defended the objections made by the chamber of commerce against the answers of Mr. Pitt, and contended that at leaft there was fuch ftrong ground for their doubts and apprehenfions, as to make it little fhort of madness to proceed without farther inveftigation. Mr. Fox proceeded in the laft place to confider the treaty as it might affect the revenues of this country. It had been admitted, he faid, that it would occafion an annual defalcation to the amount of 200,000l. and upwards. This lofs Mr. Pitt had contended would in part be compenfated by the decreafe of the contraband trade, in confequence of the reduction of the duties. But the fallacy of this expectation, Mr. Fox faid, was manifeft from his own principles. had declared, when the commutation act was under difcuffion, that 40 per cent. was a fufficient inducement for fmuggling. Now the first price of brandy was not more than 2s. per gallon; the reduced duty was about 7s. 6d.; fo that there remained a premium for the fmuggler of about 400 per cent. ten times more than what had been efteemed fufficient to encourage a contraband trade. He Another article of compenfation mentioned was cambric. That this would produce a confiderable revenue he was ready to grant; but the fame advantage might have been gained to this country with out out the intervention of the treaty, by merely legalizing its importa tion. An increase of the excife revenues, to arife out of the increafe of our manufactures, had alfo been infifted upon; but as he had before expreffed his doubts refpecting the probability of that increase, or at leaft of its amounting to any thing confiderable; he must alfo put the other contingency out of the prefent question. Upon the whole Mr. Fox inferred, that the revenue of this country would fuffer a very ferious and uncompenfated lofs; and concluded with moving, "That the "chairman leave the chair, report a progress, and afk leave to fit again." Mr. Francis followed Mr. Fox, and concurred in opinion with him upon the mischievous political tendency of the meafure under their confideration. He went even farther he dreaded the effects of an intimate political connection with France upon the character of the British nation. The first step towards enflaving a free people was to endeavour to corrupt them; and he was convinced that a freer in tercourfe with France would produce that effect. There were other reflections, he faid, which belonged to the fubject, too obvious to require explanation, and too delicate to be expreffed. There might be too ftrict an union between the two crowns through the medium of an union between the two nations; and that union might be fatal to the liberty of Great Britain. He reminded Mr. Pitt of the oppofite opinions of the late lord Chatham, and lamented that the VOL. XXIX, pomp of modern eloquence fhould be employed to derogate from the merits of his adminiftration. The polemical laurels of the father muft yield, he said, to the pacific myrtles which fhadow the forehead of the fon. The firft and most prominent feature in the political character of lord Chatham was antigallican. His glory was founded on the refiftance he made to the united power of the houfe of Bourbon. The prefent minifter had taken the oppofite road to fame; and France, the object of every hoftile principle in the policy of lord Chatham, was the gens amiciffima of the fon. With refpect to its commercial effects, he was alfo of opinion, that the confumption of British manufactures in France would not be fo great as was expected; and that our fuperiority, in the articles of cotton and woollen efpecially, was in its nature tranfitory, and from many circumftances very precarious. With refpect to the revenue, he obferved, that there was fomething very extraordinary in the conduct of the chancellor of the exchequer. He had declared the finances of the country to be in fo flourishing a condition, as to afford an unqucftionable furplus of a million and upwards annually. From what caufe could a fact so full of confolation and encouragement to this country arife, but from that longestablished, wife, and fuccessful fyftem of commerce, which the prefent treaty with France was intended to fubvert? Mr. Francis concluded with remarking, that there was a fourth point of view in which the treaty had not yet been confidered; and that was, from the effect it might have upon our navy. One certain [F] effect, effect, and indeed an avowed prin- pied by Mr. Pitt; and the question ciple of the treaty was, to fubftitute a near commercial market in the place of a remote one. Now what was the immediate operation of fuch a fubftitution? A commercial intercourfe with France would be car ried on by fhort trips, and by feamen, perhaps even by landmen, who neither wanted much experieace, nor could poffibly gain any in fuch a navigation. The whole of it would be performed by fkippers, fmugglers, and packet-boats, and just as easily by the French as the English. Feb. 15th. being at length called for, Mr. The houfe being accordingly refolved into a committee, Mr. Pitt read, without any preface, his fecond refolution, "That the wines "of France be imported into this "the prefent duties paid on the " importation of Portugal wines." He Mr. Powys was of opinion, that the treaty was not fafe in its policy, and that it put the commercial interefts of this country unneceffarily to hazard. He conceived the glais manufactory might be utterly ruin-country upon as low duties as ed; and he greatly doubted whether in the end the cotton trade would not be injured confiderably. Mr. Baring, the member for Exeter, and himself a perfon of great commercial dealings, thought the treaty, as far as his confideration of it had gone, had both its advantages and difadvantages; but upon the whole, commercially confidered, his opinion went in its favour. He expreffed, however, great anxiety upon the fubject of the treaty with Portugal: he did not think our trade fo neceffary to that country as was imagined; the might fupply herself with woollens and fifh from France; and as to her wines, it was the opinion of many people in that country,, that he would profit by rooting up all her vineyards, and growing wheat, of which the is now obliged to import a very great quantity. The treaty was defended by Mr. Grenville upon the ground occi 3 Mr. Flood, in a long and eloquent fpeech, took this occafion of delivering his opinion upon the general merits of the treaty. concurred with Mr. Fox in confidering Great Britain and France as natural rivals. They have been rivals, he faid, for more than a century, and they must continue rivals, unless France on the one hand had completely changed the principles of her conduct, and unlefs Great Britain had abandoned her character and condition as the guardian of the balance of power, and of the liberties of Europe, on the other. It has often been the aim of France to connect herfelf with this country by a commercial treaty; and it has ever been the uniform determination of this country to refufe to enter into any fuch connection. It followed then, as a neceffary confequence, that if the former former conduct of Great Britain had been wife and prudent, its prefent conduct was weak and impolitic. He then confidered the treaty in a commercial point of view, and particularly the firefs that had been laid upon the idea, that Great Britain was a country of manufactures, France a country of produce, The pofition, he contended, was incorrect; the fact being, that France at this time was one of the greatest manufacturing countries in the world; and it was notorioufly a country every way our fuperior in refpect to the natural produce of the foil. He obferved, that it had been maintained that the filence of our manufacturers was a strong proof of their acquiefcence, and of their being perfectly fatisfied with the treaty. He denied the inference, and he alfo denied the fact upon which it was founded, namely, that the manufacturers had four months to confider the treaty, to examine its bearings, and to form a judgment on its probable effects. The treaty, he faid, was not completely before the public till the convention came, and was printed. From that time it had been open to confideration only fourteen days, previous to its being brought forward in the houfe; and when the day came for his majesty's minifters to bring on the difcuffion, on that day a petition was prefented from the manufacturers. Mr. Flood faid, that he had a right to affume, that if the manufacturers could be brought to the bar and examined, they would give their opinion against the treaty; and if he was asked, what induced him to entertain such a belief? he would anfwer, the evidence the manu facturers had already delivered on oath. If he was afked, where that evidence had been depofed? he would fay, when the treaty with Ireland was under difcuffion. If the manufacturers were brought to the bar, and upon being interrogated, faid they approved of the treaty with France, he would aik them, why they had been afraid of Ireland, and were not afraid of France? Was it that France was a manufacturing country, and that Ireland was not? Was it that France had four times the credit of Ire land. eight times the population, and forty times the capital? He purfucd the comparifon further, and fhewed that France had every circumftance in her favour as a powerful rival and competitor in commerce with Great Britain, whilft Ireland had every thing against her, After putting this very pointedly, he proceeded to fhew, that true policy would have chofen a commercial connection with Ireland, in preference to a commercial connection with France. The latter, being, as he had defcribed her to be, a great manufacturing country, as well as a country eminent for its fuperiority in refpect to its na tural produce, was able to fupply its own wants; whereas Ireland was not able to fupply herself, but muft be fupplied from Great Britain. He contended, that a country that wanted much, not a country that wanted little, was that alone which was likely to prove ufeful to Qreat Britain in a commercial connection. It was, he faid, to be lamented, that the treaty with Portugal had not been fettled before we treated with France, who, instead of being [F] a the the first, ought to have been the laft power with whom we negociated. He argued very forcibly to prove this, and fhewed, that Portugal was put into an unsafe fituation with regard to us, by having been left as the was. The treaty with France put it out of our power to prove as useful to her as we had hitherto been. The reafon of 'her connection with us was the character and station we had filled, of guardian of the liberties of Europe, and a protection against the inordinate ambition of France. That ftation we no longer filled, and confequently we could no longer prove that useful friend we had hitherto been to her. He mentioned the trade which France was endeavouring to carry on with America;-America, he faid, wanted long credit, and France could not give it her; but now fhe would take credit from the English merchants, and lend it to that country. Mr. Wilberforce rofe in answer to Mr. Flood. He faid, that the right honourable member's fpeech abounded with falfe reafoning, and unwarrantable conclufions. He had afferted that the manufacturers difliked the treaty: of his own knowledge he could take upon him to affert the reverse was the fact. He had feen a great number of the manufacturers of different defcriptions, he had converfed with them upon the fubject, and they all highly approved of the treaty. He next addreffed himself to Mr. Fox, and faid, he heartily wifhed he would come down to that houfe coolly and difpaffionately; that he would fometimes forget that he was a politician, and confider matters under difcuffion with a greater degree of attention to their particular merits. He afked, to what end it was to tell a poor cottager, groaning under a load of taxes and fitting with scarcely a fnuff of candle to light him, while he was poring over a newfpaper, containing a violent speech of the right honourable gentleman, fo put together that the fenfe of it could fcarcely be made out, that he was a balancer of the power of Europe, and a protector of its liberties! Was that, faid Mr. Wilberforce, a proper language to be told to fuch a man? Was it likely to ftimulate him to better exertions or induftry? He declared he had been run away with frequently by the oratory of the right honourable gentleman, and obliged to appeal to his reafon and his principles to prevent being declaimed out of his understanding. Laftly, Mr. Wilberforce addreffed himfelf to Mr. Powys, as a country gentleman, and preffed it home to members of that defeription, whether the way to get rid of a four fhillings in the pound land-tax was by holding the balance of Europe, or by extending our commerce, and encreafing the fale of our manufactures. Mr. Fox rofe to condemn the low and defponding arguments urged by the laft fpeaker. He wished to know if that was the language meant to be maintained; he withed some perfons in authority would ftand up and fay fo, becaufe he could then meet it fairly. Would the right honourable gentleman oppofite to him declare, that we were no longer in a fituation to hold the balance of power in Europe, and to be looked up to as the protector of its liberties? He fhould be glad to come at that point. As to the affertion, that a poor |