pofition. If he was fo happy as to be honoured with an election, his returning to the chair would appear ftrange to the public; it would be asked, why a man, confeffedly too infirm for the office would undertake it? and fome perfons. perhaps would be ill-natured enough to say, that he was ready to receive the emoluments, though not equal to the discharge of the duties of the place. Under thefe circumftances he must repeat, that it was his determination to decline all thoughts of it, and to affure the Houfe, that though he had fat in the chair for nearly two Parliaments, and though his health was very greatly impaired, in confequence of the fatigue of public bufinefs, his fortune was not bettered. He was happy in feeing fo many members of the late Parliament prefent, and took that opportunity of returning his moft grateful thanks/ for all their goodnefs to him, the impreffion of which was his chief happiness, and could never be erafed from his mind. He begged leave alfo to thank the noble Lord who made the motion for the election of a new speaker, and his honourable friend (if he would allow him to call him fo) who feconded it, for the many handfome things they had faid of him; but he fhould be an ideot indeed, if he could poffibly imagine he merited fuch compliments, or that his ftate of health, of which none of the King's minifters had ever received the fmalleft intimation from him, was the real cause of their moving for a new fpeaker, without faying a word upon the subject previously to him. Every man, he was fure, who had the leaft pertenfions to understanding, went before, him in feeling that a confideration of his ftate of health was not the true motive for the present measure. In the course of the laft feffion, when his ill health obliged him to put a temporary ftop to the public bufinefs, he had, contrary to the advice of his phyficians, and at the peril of his life, come down to that House in order to dispatch the affairs then under confideration. He had, when almoft overwhelmed with infirmity, ftruggled hard to forward the bufinefs of Parliament, and he had done fo at the particular inftance of thofe, who now moved to have another gentleman appointed fpeaker. This, he faid, was usage he did not expect, and he thought he had a right to other and very different treatment. regard to the gentleman who was the object of the noble Lord's motion, no man thought more highly of his integrity and his abilities than he did; he fincerely hoped neither the abilities of the honourable gentleman, nor his qualifications to fill the chair, might be mentioned in comparison with fuch. abilities and fuch qualifications as nature had bestowed upon VOL. XVIII C With him, him, becaufe, if they were, he was confident he fhould be a confiderable fufferer. He aproved of that gentleman fully, but as the Houfe must be before-hand with him in feeing through the fallacy of the reasons ftated by the noble Lord, as the grounds of the motion, and as it was an infult to the understanding of every gentleman prefent, to pretend, that an anxiety for his health was the real caufe for moving that another speaker might be chofen, he called upon the noble Lord and upon his honourable friend to tell him, why he was thus difgracefully difmiffed? If his conduct in the chair had been objectionable, 'if it had been criminal, let the criminality be fully known, and let exemplary punishment follow, if there could be any punishment more severe than public difgrace. He should be content, when the fact was undifguifedly acknowleged, and his offence publicly urged; and he could not but think he had a claim upon the noble Lord and his honourable friend for this explanation; an explanation which he preffed for the more earnestly, becaufe he did affure the Houfe, upon his honour, that though he had been in town three days, he had never been asked whether his health would enable him to continue in the chair (fhould the Houfe approve of his continuing there) nor had he been applied to, either directly or indirectly, on the fubject of chufing a new speaker. Mr. Fox ftrongly arraigned the minifters for having made it a fyftem, during their continuance in office, to difgrace every dignified character in the kingdom, and especially to infult and vilify those men whose conduct the House of commons approved. He gave as inftances the treatment of his honourable relation [Admiral Keppel] and the treatment of the late fpeaker. He paid Sir Fletcher Norton the higheft compliments, and faid, the real and the pretended caufe. for removing him from the chair, reminded him of a former debate in the laft Parliament, when a noble Lord had mentioned, that the German states, in their treaties and public acts, always made a distinction between the ratio fuaforia and the ratio juftifica. In the prefent cafe, the ratio fuaforia was an obvious fallacy, and the ratio justifica the worst that could poffibly be urged. The noble Lord who made the motion had filled his fpeech with empty compliments on Sir Fletcher Norton, and after afferting that he was the ableft man the Houfe could choose to fit in the chair, had concluded his addrefs with moving, that another gentleman might be elected to fill it; and the honourable gentleman who feconded the motion, motion, had recommended it to the gentleman moved for, as Sir Fletcher Norton's fucceffor, to copy the example of Sir Fletcher Norton, telling him in the most plain, pofitive, and direct terms, that his only chance of making a good fpeaker, refted on his implicitly following the model of Sir Fletcher Norton. "Good God! (faid Mr. Fox) what pitiful shifts, what fhallow arguments are the prefent ministry redu ced to, when they come down to the House of Commons, and tell us that our late fpeaker is the ableft man in the world, the fitteft to fill the chair, and in the fame breath, beg us to choose another gentleman, speaker! And why? Not because it is pretended that Mr. Cornwall is fuperior in ability to Sir Fletcher Norton, it is not even faid that he is equal, but becaufe, if he copies Sir Fletcher Norton's. conduct, he may poffibly discharge the duties of the chair with fatisfaction to the Houfe, and credit to himself! Would any other fet of men in this or any other kingdom, grasp at a copy, merely because it may prove a tolerable one, when they can have the original? Sir Fletcher Norton, from any thing he has faid this day, does not appear unqualified to take the chair; he is in good health now; and when, unhappily for his family and the public, he feels a relapse, it will then be sufficiently early to talk of a fucceffor. Certainly to appoint one at this period, and under these circumftances, is not without a precedent, but it is extremely unufual, and therefore becomes fingular. What will people without doors think? What will the world fay? Will they not take this measure as an ill omen, as a bad beginning of the new parliament? Will they not fee, that all the noble Lord in the blue ribbon faid last year, on the fubject of the late speaker's health, all his pathos, all his expreffions of tendernefs, which every body at that time, the greatest part of the Houfe however, fincerely fympathized in, were nothing but empty words, compliments without meaning and profeffions without foundation! Will they not fay, that the true caufe of fuch unparallelled ill treatment, is that fpeech alluded to by my honourable friend? a fpeech which did Sir Fletcher Norton the highest honour, and which was a noble and manly proof of his true regard for his country, and his feeling for her diftreffes. I defire, if I am in order, that the Clerk may read the thanks of the Houfe to the fpeaker, which were almost unanimously refolved on that occafion, and they will fee the baseness of this attempt to difgrace a man whom the Houfe has honoured. Let them add to the impreffion, the prefent conduct of minifters. Sir Fletcher Norton feels himself infulted; he com Mr. Hat fell. Mr. Byng Mr. Cornwall. plains of the infult, and he demands, honestly demands to Mr. Hatfell then read from the Journals the entry of the Mr. Byng in a fhort fpeech condemned the motion made. by the noble Lord as an infult to the late speaker, and complained of the laft parliament's having been diffolved but two days after Sir Fletcher Norton fet out for Yorkshire, without the least previous intimation being given to him of any fuch defign; though he was the reprefentative of a borough fo near town as Guildford. He alfo mentioned the rudeness of the Minister's telling all his friends who attended at the place called the Cockpit, of the intention of moving, that Mr. Cornwall might be elected fpeaker, without giving the smalleft intimation of fuch an intention to Sir Fletcher Norton. Mr. Cornwall faid, that if the Houfe thought proper to elect him to the chair, he fhould exert his endeavours to give them fatisfaction; but that he could not bring himself to think it would be in his power to come near the partial expectations of the noble Lord who made the motion, the honourable gentleman who seconded it, or his learned friends. He concluded with obferving, that with regard to the fubject under difcuffion, it would be improper for him to fay a fyllable upon it; he fhould therefore fit down, fubmitting the whole business to the wifdom and judgment of the House. After a momentary pause, Sir Fletcher Sir Fletcher rofe again, and declared, if any thing could induce him to accept the chair again he begged pardon Norton. for for the expreffion to afpire to it, it would be the contempt with which he was treated. He thought he had a right to an explanation from the noble Lord who made the motion, or from the honourable gentleman who feconded it. If it was his conduct laft feffion that had rendered him obnoxious, let, them fay fo, and he should be content. He never would fpeak in that House but as he thought; and as he was confcious that every man must abide by the confequences of his conduct, he cared not what iffue followed his conduct, but he furely had a right to complain of such usage, and if neither the noble Lord nor the honourable gentleman would favour him with the explanation he called for, he should leave the whole to the judgment of the Houfe, who, he was fure, would put a true conftruction upon the treatment he had received, and the filence of minifters refpecting it.' Mr. Ellis declared, that he conceived every member had an Mr. Ellis, undoubted right to vote for a new speaker as he thought proper; that he had no intention either to infult or difgrace Sir Fletcher Norton, of whom he had before spoken his fincere opinion, but that the public good was the great director of his vote, and he did not think, after the alarming ftate of the late speaker's health laft feffion, that it was either respectful to him, or confiftent with the public good, to put him again in the chair; but that it was better to choose a fpeaker of fresher health, and who, from his time of life, had more vigour, and was better able to encounter and sustain the fatigues of the office. Lord Mahon faid, poffibly it might be fuppofed that no Ld. Maken. person who had not been a member of the laft Parliament, was qualified to fpeak to the queftion; but though he was newly come within thofe walls, he could not confent to give a filent vote on the prefent occafion. His duty to his country and his own feelings forbade it. His Lordship then made an energetic eulogium on the virtues and the integrity of Sir Fletcher Norton, advising the noble Lord who made the motion, to leave the late speaker's health to the late speaker's own care, and declaring that he would oppose the motion, if there were no other reafon for his doing fo, merely because it was made by a member of administration; that administration, whofe baleful measures had loaded their country with difgrace and diftrefs, had abridged the inheri tance of the Prince of Wales, and intailed ruin on the houfe of Hanover! Before his Lordship fat down, he menaced the treasury bench with a threat to oppofe every meafure they fuggefted. Mr. |