pity and indignation which it excited, and the weakness which their miferable incapability of conducting it caufed and revealed, not only increafing the general difpofition of ill-will, but giving the fullest and most unhoped for effect to the combination. It had often, as they faid, been urged by the fupporters of miniftry, that it was vain and fuperfluous to enquire by what means the difficulties of our fituation had arifen, the only matter of confideration or enquiry being, by what means we should extricate ourfelves? Events have fufficiently confuted that reafoning. For if we had investigated the caufes, and punished the authors of the American war, they would not have been able to involve us fucceffively in those with France and Spain. If we had thus enquired, we fhould have avoided the war with Holland. While it is poffible to add one more to the number of our enemies, until all reafon for exertion is fuperfeded by utter defpair, the reafons for enquiry will continue in full force. The first step towards advancing our affairs, is to prevent them from declining. As this cannot be effected without inveftigating and removing the caufe of the progreffive declension of our profperity, the retrospect now recommended, fo far from impeding, is effential to the efficacy of all our future exertions. The minifter warmly refented, and indeed much more fo than he had done upon former occafions, the charge of a change of political fyftem, of abandoning contirental connections, and of our being therefore abandoned by all our allies. He faid, no man could be a warmer enthusiast in respect to the Whig principles and fyftem of King William's reign, than he was himfelf: no man could with more eagerly for continental alliances, upon the fame principles, and in pursuit of the fame fyftem, which then prevailed or was adopted. The Whig system of that reign was the direct line of conduct now pursued. The object of all that king's wars, and indeed of his life, was to check the power of the Houfe of Bourbon, and to preferve the balance of power in Europe. What are we fighting for at this moment?— the very fame object. But it is. faid that we have no allies; does that prove that we do not pursue the fyftem of King William's reign? If we have no allies, it only proves that we have not all the advantages of that fyftem: advantages that are incidental, that depend on time, on circumftances, on that infinite variety of events, which deftroy all poffibility of perfect parallel in hiftory. The policy of Europe, he said, had unfortunately changed of late years; and Holland, though her ruin muft inevitably follow that of Great Britain, if the House of Bourbon fucceeded, rejects the old policy and adopts the new one; fhe is no longer the friend and the ally of Great Britain, but has joined France, and broke her faith with this country. Great Britain had uniformly adhered to her old fyftem, and complied with the conditions of her treaties, whenever her allies were attacked, and claimed her affistance. Unfortunately for Great Britain, the other powers of Europe had not acted acted with equal fidelity. He declared he was firmly perfuaded, that, had the Duke of Marlborough, had King William's and Queen Anne's Whig minifters, been now alive, and at the head of affairs, our national fituation would have been exactly the same that it is at this moment. He justified the memorial of 1777 (to which the prefent rupture was attributed by the fpeakers on the other fide) by the circumftances which produced it, and by the state of public affairs at the time. He denied that the war with Holland had been made or fought for by the minifters; on the contrary, nothing could have been more adverse to their inclinations. The Dutch had provoked the war. He trusted he had proved that they had taken a decided part against this country, and had thrown themfelves into the hands of France. Under thefe circumftances, and when it was evident, from the answer of the ftates-general to Sir Jofeph Yorke, that they only meant to gain time and trifle with Great Britain, it would have been madness to have loft a moment, or to have paufed upon the bufinefs; the time was arrived when our interefts and our honour were equally at ftake, and indecifion would have been no lefs ruinous than fhameful. So far was he from meaning to depart from that line of found policy, which for fo many years had cemented an union between this country and Holland, that after all that happened, if he faw France turn her arms against Holland, and attempt to deftroy the liberty of the United States, he fhould fill confider it as a British caufe, and act as if the treaty of Westminfter had never been violated. On the other fide it was replied, that the application to Holland for furnishing the fuccours ftipulated by treaties, was, in the prefent ftate of things, exceeding ly improper, ill-judged, and impolitic. That the ftates-general, in not complying with the requifition, had not only acted wifely, under the circumstances of the time, but had done us, in fpite of ourselves, a very great fervice. For what, faid they, would have been the immediate confequence, if they had furnished the zo fhips of war, and the 6000 troops, which they were bound to by the treaty of Weftminster? Why, that Holland would have been immediately invaded, and probably overrun, by a powerful French army; that the muft then not only have withdrawn her own fuccours, but muft have demanded from us a much greater force, which we were bound by the fame treaty to furnish for her defence. But that would not have been all; for as our fate would have been involved in the prefervation of Holland, we muft, overborne as we already were, have encountered the whole force of France, in a land war, upon her own borders. Had we a fingle ally that would have fupported us in the unequal contest ? At a time too, when our armies were difperfed all over the globe, and either wafted in the American war, or perithing under the rigours of a tropical fun. Every body knows what the ftate of Holland is in the prefent day, with refpect to her own military force. The oppofition in general reprobated the war with Holland, as baing in the highest degree, in our prefent fituation, imprudent, impolitic, and dangerous; others went farther, and confidered it no lefs unjust than impolitic; and a few only ftood upon the defect of information on which to found any decided opinion, and therefore objected to their binding themfelves by the propofed addrefs, until matters were more clearly explained and understood. It was probably in order to unite thefe opinions, that the amendment moved by Lord John Cavendish, propofed only, that the regret expiled by the house for the unavoidable necefity of hoftilities, should be applied fimply to the war with Holland, by the omition of the four laft words, and the fubítitution of the word rupture, in their ftead. He at the fame time gave notice, that if this was agreed to, he fhould follow it up with another amendment, the purport of which was to be, that the houfe would take the papers before them into confideration, and if it fhould appear that the war with Holland was unavoidably neceffary, they would ufe their utmost efforts to fupport it with effect. The amendment was rejected, upon a divifion, by a majority of 180 to 101. Lord Mahon then moved another amendment, correfponding in fubftance and effect with that intended by Lord John Cavendish, in cafe the firft had been carried. This being rejected without a divifion, the minifter's address paffed in its original form. The meffage from the throne, with the Dutch papers, were on the fame day, prefented to the lords, and the addrefs moved for, by Lord Stormont; where the fubject brought out no leis debatethan in the house of commons. The Duke of Richmond, after complaining of the deficiency of the information which was laid before them, and receiving no anfwer from the noble fecretary, whether any more papers were intended for their infpection? then moved for another addrefs, which went at leaft to operate as a previous queftion in poftponing the former, and the tendency of which was,---that copies of the treaties lately fubfifting between both nations, of the correípondence between his majetty's minifters and his late ambailador at the Hague, and of all memorials, remontirances, requifitions, anfwers, or other papers, which had been prefented to, or received from, the fiatesgeneral of the United Provinces, fince the commencement of hostilities with the North American colonies, fo far as they relate to a rupture, or to any mifunderstanding between Great Britain and Holland, fhould be forthwith laid before that hoafe. The debate was continued to an unufually late hour, being incumbered by a question of order, which was much laboured by the chancellor and fome of the court lords, whether any other matter could properly be brought forward or difcuffed, whilft a meffage from the throne was under confideration, and until the anfwer to it was returned? Other parts of the debate were fufficiently interefting, and abounded with political obfervation and knowledge. The conduct of the Dutch was much more feverely treated by the minifters here than in the other house; and and their own was treated with ftill lefs mercy by the oppofition. Nor did the house itself escape better. Several of the lords declared, that nothing lefs than the prefent extraordinary occafion could have brought them there; and that from a full fenfe and long experience of that irrefiftible corrupt influence, which rendered every attempt to discharge their parliamentary duty totally ufelefs, they were determined in future to abftain entirely from coming to the houfe. Upon a divifion, after one o' clock in the morning, the Duke of Richmond's motion was rejected, by the very great, though not, of late years, very unufual, majority, of 84, including 16 proxies, to 19 lords, without any proxy, who fupported the motion. Two protefts were entered; the firft a ftrong and exceedingly fevere one, figned by nine lords; the other, conceived rather in milder terms, and figned by eight. They both, however, expretfed the ftrongest apprehenfions of the confequences which must enfue, both to our foreign and domeftic affairs, from that difpofition which induced minifters to deay, and the houfes to acquiefce in the denial, of the information neceffary on a matter fo deeply affecting their moft important interefts.. The affair of Sir Hugh Pallifer was in a few days after Feb. 1ft. a fecond time brought forward. Mr. Fox, as introductory, to the bufinefs, procured a copy of the charges exhibited by that officer againft Admiral Keppel, of the fentence of the courtmartial on those charges, of the charge and sentence of Vice-Ad miral Pallifer's court-martial, of the late fpeaker's fpeech on delivering the thanks of the commons to Admiral Keppel, and of the anfwer made by that commander, to be all read by the clerk to the house. He prefaced his motion with a very long fpeech, which feemed to bring within one view all the infinite variety of matter relative to that fubject, and in which he difplayed more than a common fhare of his ufual ability and eloquence. Having difclaimed all perfonal enmity, he held out the following as the principal grounds on which he founded his intended motion-That the court-martial who tried Admiral Keppel were perfectly competent to declare, that Sir Hugh Pallifer had preferred a malicious and illfounded accufation; that the declaration was warranted by a variety of undeniable facts and circumftances; that Sir Hugh Pallifer himself acquiefced in the juftice of the fentence; that the house of commons had acknowledged its truth; and, that the fentence of the fecond court-martial was neither an 'honourable nor an unanimous acquittal. The conclufion drawn from the whole being, that the late promotion of a man under fuch circumftances to a place of honour and emolument, was in the highest degree ruinous to the naval fervice of Great Britain. The motion run in the following terms---" That the appointment of Sir Hugh Pallifer to be Governor of Greenwich Hofpital, after he had been declared guilty of having preferred a malicious and ill-founded accufation against his commanding officer by the fentence E fentence of a court-martial, was a measure totally fubverfive of the difcipline, and derogatory to the honour of the navy." The minifter took up the defence with no lefs art than that which he attributed in the outfet to his antagonist, by requesting the houfe to obferve, that the motion before them was not tending either to criminate or acquit the vice-admiral; but was in reality a leading motion to convict and condemn minifters, of having advifed his majefty to bestow the government in queftion on an unworthy object. That the house were therefore to act in a judicial capacity, and to try himself, and the reft of the king's fervants, upon the point ftated in the motion; for if blame were due, he acknowledged he was liable to a Thare of it, in common with other minifters; he, however, trufted, that he should be able to make it appear that the motion was falfe in fact, that it was unjust, and that no blame was due, for that minifters had done no more than their duty. He then proceeded, with his wonted ability and addrefs in the management of debate, to controvert the feveral pofitions upon which Mr. Fox had founded his motion; going generally, and neceffarily, over in that courfe, the fame grounds which we have heretofore trodden. He at length fummed up the force of his arguments in the following conclufions ---That the part of the fentence of Admiral Keppel's court-martial, which pronounced the accufation malicious and ill-founded, was an extra-judicial opinion; that ViceAdmiral Pallifer had never been tried on any fuch charge; that he had been most honourably acquitted by the court-martial which afterwards tried him; and that he had ferved his king and country with undoubted bravery and honour for five-and-forty years. He then propofed feveral amendments to the motion, until at length, by the affiftance of the folicitor-general, it was, with no fmall difficulty, moulded into the following form---That the appointment of Sir Hugh Pallifer to be Governor of Greenwich Hospital, "who, by the "officers who fat on the court"martial held for the trial of Ad"miral Keppel, and before whom "Sir Hugh Pallifer was not 66 charged with any malice in the "accufation of the faid admiral, " military capacity, with great "ability, bravery, and fidelity," was a meafure totally fubverfive of the difcipline, and derogatory to the honour of the navy. Lord North, before he fat down, propofed a fort of compromife with Mr. Fox, by offering to withdraw his amendment wholly, if the latter would confent to omit those particularly obnoxious words, that the vice-admiral was, by the fentence of a court-martial, declared to have preferred a malicious and ill-founded accufation against his commander |