Mr. Adam. countries, to procure a reconciliation between Great Britain and America; that though from the fatal consequences of the war, the mode of obtaining it might be difficult, a change from the horrors of war to measures of peace, might be productive of union; and prayed his Majefty to take fuch fteps as might promote fo defirable an end. Mr. Adam rofe, and prevented the fpeaker from leaving the chair, by introducing a matter which he declared very much called for the attention of the Houfe. He then faid, he wifhed to mention fomething relative to the internal fituation of this country, and that he could not chufe a properer time, than when the Houfe was to proceed upon a vote, the confequence of which was, to enable the nation to fupport itself againft its enemies. That in the present internal distracted fituation of this country, he could hardly tell what force would be fufficient without the unanimity, which the hon. gentleman [Mr. Hartley] talked of, whom he thanked for having given him an opportunity of expreffing himfelf relative to a matter which very much interested him. He meant to allude to the committees of affociation, which had spread fuch baneful effects over this country, and which had given fo much encouragement to its enemies. Before he proceeded to the particular fubject, to which he meant to call the attention of the Houfe, he ftated that the American Congrefs in their publications to encourage the people to perfift in rebellion, had held out the distracted ftate of this country to them, by means of the committees of affociation, as one of the principal inducements to the Americans to perfevere in their exertions; but he added, that thofe affemblies had not confined themselves merely to public tranfactions, nor was the encouragement of our enemies the only thing that they had done, to disturb the peace, and prevent the unanimity of this country. They had in the moft unjustifiable and unprecedented manner bafely attempted to ruin the characters of every individual who opposed their views. He then stated to the House, that he had in his hand the moft fingular publication that ever had appeared in any country, though it had a precedent in very remote antiquity;what he particularly alluded to, was a publication he had met with in the newspaper of that morning. Having faid this, he read the Refolves of the Weftminfter committee of the 10th inftant. He stated to the Houfe, that though he read it from a daily newspaper, he meant no reflection on the printer of that paper, paper, nor had he any intention of moving a cenfure on his conduct; the printer was a man who had the virtue in the present times to avoid all party partiality, and who seemed to be actuated, merely by a zeal to promote the good of his country. Having read the refolutions, and particulary called the attention of the Houfe to the laft of them, he congratulated, in an ironical ftrain, the hon. gentleman to whom they were addressed, upon the appointment of his body and life guards for the protection of his perfon. He compared him to the Athenian Pififtratus, who in former times, had a guard appointed by the people of Athens for the fecurity and protection of his perfon, by the means of which, he overturned the liberty of his country. Continuing in this ftrain of irony, he hailed the gentleman "King of Westminster," and after enlarging upon the fubject, and heightening the parallel confiderably, he concluded, with faying, he did not know whether to congratulate the honourable gentleman, or to condole with his country the most. That the fituation of this country was miferable indeed, when there was allowed to exift in it a dangerous and wicked combination of men, who, while they impudently attacked every peer or member of parliament who ventured to make any obfervations on their conduct, fet themselves up as beings exclufively protected from any animadverfion. A combination which had bafely and infamously attempted to run down his character as an individual, by attributing to him motives for his conduct upon a certain occafion which nothing but the depraved and infamous minds of the authors of that publication could have invented, or have fuppofed any perfon capable of. He spoke of the tranfaction which had last year un fortunately taken place between the honourable gentleman and himself, as a matter the bare recollection of which gave him the moft poignant compunction, as a fituation which he of all men living had the utmoft unwillingness to be in at any time, and into which nothing but the ftrong and irresistible impulfe of injured honour could ever drag a man of real principle and of real fenfibility. He regretted he did not know how far to form an opinion as to the legality or illegality, of fuch meetings as committees of affociation. He faid, a club at White's, Brookes's, or at Atwood's, was prefectly legal, till thofe clubs had done fome illegal act, and if they attempted any attack upon the character of an individual, would become as unfit affemblies for gentlemen M 2 Mr. Fox. gentlemen to affociate in, and be as contemptible as that af fembly, which had fo unjustly calumniated his character. That he had been long attacked by anonymous abuse in newfpapers, which he had formerly taken notice of in that Houfe; that he did not know at that time to what quarter that abuse was to be traced; he now knew that he was to attribute it to the members of the Westminster committee. And when he faw in the newspapers that Mr. Adam feconded a motion for a new writ for Coventry from fcandalous and improper motives, he was juftified in faying, that that and fuch like paragraphs, came from the fame quarter. That the publication he animadverted upon, not only calumniated him, but gave the honourable gentleman, to whom it was addreffed, an exclufive privilege by an unreferved grant of exclufive protection, to launch forth, if he was capable of availing himself of it, into every fpecies of perfonality and abufe. That time would fhew from that gentleman's future conduct, how far he was capable of availing himfelf of it. Mr. Adam then faid, that he was going to touch upon a fubject, by mentioning his own character, in which he might poffibly incur the imputation of vanity; but that when a perfon's character was bafely. and falfely traduced, not to mention it was to act with timidity; that few men knew the nature of his life, which was private and retired, but that he could boaft a ftrict and regular fyftem of domeftic ceconomy, which enabled him to live wholly independent, upon the fortune which had fallen to his fhare. That the principal happiness and ambition of his life was to difcharge the private duties of a private fituation with honour and integrity, to be a good fon, a good hufband, a good father, and a faithful friend. That he could not brag of a long line of ancestry, whofe vices were to degrade, or whofe virtues were to adorn the page of the hiftorian. But that circumftance made him more proud and more anxious to maintain his character unfpotted and unimpeached, and to repel every attack that was made upon it from whatever quarter. He concluded with faying, that he looked upon every person who adopted the resolutions of that committee as bafe and infamous calumniators of his character, and unworthy the protection of a civilized country. Mr. Fox rofe to reply, and began with declaring, that as to any expreffions perfonal to him, which had fallen from. the honourable gentleman, who felt himself fore at the paper which he had read to the Houfe, he should not take the leaft notice of them, but in regard to the advertitement itself, he did affure the honourable gentleman and the House, upon his honour, that he was not prefent at the drawing it up, and that it was published without either his confent or knowledge. Had he been at the committee when it was drawn up, he fhould undoubtedly have ufed all the perfuafion that he was mafter of, to have prevented the committee from coming to or publishing any fuch refolution; becaufe though the refolution was evidently founded in zeal and affection to him, it was, in his opinion, an imprudent refolution, and this he could appeal to his honourable friend below him [Mr. Fitzpatrick to vouch for having been the opinion he declared when he firft faw it. He faid, he had imagined fome perfons would be induced to put the fame conftruction on it, which the honourable gentleman had now put upon it. With regard to the ridicule the honourable gentleman had thought proper to throw upon the committee, and upon him, that was a matter of perfect indifference to him, and the more fo, because the gentlemen who formed that committee, were great and refpectable characters, men who, he doubted not, had well weighed every word used in the refolution, confidered its import fully, and who were prepared to justify the advertisement and the refolution with their honours and their reputation. And after all-what was the resolution complained of with fo much warmth by the honourable gentleman? a form of words evidently flowing from the good opinion and the affection the Weftminster committee entertained of him, but, which ferioufly and duly confidered, conveyed no perfonal charge against any man, nor did they warrant any man's taking them up angrily or refentfully. Befides, in what way was the Houfe to treat a matter introduced in the very extraordinary manner in which the honourable gentleman had thought proper to introduce the advertisement to which he was then fpeaking,-without making it the fubject of any motion whatfoever. If the honourable gentleman really thought himself warranted to treat the refolutions of the Weftminfter committee feriously, why did he not complain of the paper to the Houfe as a breach of privilege? If the honourable gentleman thought proper to adopt that mode of proceeding, he was ready to meet it on that ground, and to defend the refolution. If the honourable gentleman chofe to make it the fubject of another fort of procefs elsewhere, and to charge it as a libel, he would find that the Westminster committee were ready to take it up when fo charged, and to defend the legality of their proceed ings. The honourable gentleman had chofen to laugh at him, and to turn him into ridicule, under the character of Pififtratus-in what, he begged to know, had he ever fhewn a defire to obtain illegal honours? In what had he attempted to fet himself above the laws of his country, or to aim at receiving any other honours, than fuch honours as he was perfectly competent to receive? The honourable gentleman, after flourishing a great deal about his body-guard, and other matters of that fort, had talked of the Weftminster committee's proceeding by and by to conftitute him king of Weftminfter The Weftminfter committee, he would tell the honourable gentleman, as well as the whole body of inhabitants of that moft refpectable city, wifhed for no other king, than the king now upon the throne; they loved that king, and they revered the conftitution, by which he reigned, and it was out of a foolish partiality to him, and because they rafhly, perhaps, thought him the beft qualified to fupport that king and that conftitution, to maintain the glory of the one, and preferve the other in fafety, that they had chofen him their reprefentative in Parliament, in the nobleft and moft fpirited manner, in direct defiance of the avowed and unrefervedly exercifed influence of the crown. It was, perhaps, from a weak, and an ill-founded partiality of opinion in favour of his abilities, that the electors of the city of Weftminster had done him that honour; all that he could do in return was to declare that his conduct should be an example of moft fincere and perfect gratitude. It could not however furely be warrantably advanced, that from this circumftance he was imitating Pififtratus, or that he was endeavouring to obtain illegal honours! The electors of Weftminfter thought well of his efforts in that Houfe, and this naturally fhewed itself in acts of affection and regard to him. Loft almoft as the public caufe feemed to be, they were glad to find the reprefentative for Weftminster among the number of those true friends to liberty, who beft ferved their country, and who were ftill determined to ftand in the breach to refift the torrent of corruption and increafing influence, which threatened to bear down the conftitution, and to deftroy it. In order to do this, he, and those with whom he acted, had facrificed their interefts, they had facrificed their ambition, they had facrificed all views of greatness and emolument, they had facrificed every thing that could, gratify the mind of man, or fall within the wifh of human pride, or human vanity. Let not gentlemen on the other fide, on almost every one of whom |