loan. Part of this sum, to the amount | nor even his desire of entering into them specified in the account of Ways and at all, till the accounts were fairly before Means, he proposed to borrow from the the House, and every one apprized of commissioners appointed for paying the the state of the revenue of the country. national debt, who were empowered, by According to the present price of stocks, the act of parliament under which they and recent events were not likely to dimiobtained their authority, to negociate nish their value, he would lay before the such a loan. The residue he proposed to committee a general statement of the raise by individual loans. The particular whole subject, in one connected point of terms of such loans he had not specified, view. Such were the large and ample provisions | good fortune. Experience had taught, with which he could supply the exigencies that commerce could flourish during war, of the country in her present emergency. In the detail into which he had entered, he trusted the committee would do him the justice to acknowledge he had shrunk from no dificulty, he had diminished no inconvenience. He had stated the contingent expenses of the war at a very high average; and had used the same latitude in calculating the amount of the unfunded debt. In a state of warfare, however well founded and ardent our expectations of success might be, to pretend to exemption from misfortune would be arrogance, and not to guard against its influence would be folly. Some considerations must, however, suggest themselves to the committee, which must give much consolation even in the most trying circumstances. He had grounded his opinion on an estimate of four years; and in forming that opinion, he had purposely avoided stating a surplus sum of 900,000l. which had arisen during that period; nor did he now mean to state it as a resource, but merely to show we were in that state of preparation for sinister events which was the most certain presage of by its great increase during the last years of the war before last; and if the same thing happened in the present instance, no additional burthen would be imposed on the people. He did not now wish to draw a flattering or delusive picture; and, pleasing as the prospect was, he had not offered a single word upon the subject, at the discussion of any question which arose previous to the rupture with France. Without any information on this head, he had rejoiced in seeing the House, and, through that organ, the nation at large, expressing their willingness to run every risk in support of the cause in which we were engaged. He was convinced there was no occasion to call in aid of our spirit any particular circumstance, for in a cause wherein every thing that was dear to us was at stake, we should chearfully give up part for the purpose of securing the quiet possession of the remainder. This was the reason why he left the question to the unbiassed good sense of that House, and the people of this country; and he had the satisfaction to feel that there was one general sentiment and con viction upon the subject. He believed it would be easily conceived that he, for one, who had placed his chief glory in promoting the commercial prosperity of the country, increasing the revenue, and gradually discharging the principal of the national debt, would never have countenanced the idea of a war, which would so counteract these views, if he was not tho. roughly convinced that war was not only unavoidable, but under the circumstances of the case, absolutely necessary to the existence of Great Britain and Europe. In every point of view the justice of the war on the part of this country was evident. It had been often said by a right hon. gentleman (Mr. Fox) that the only, or almost the only ground on which war ought to be undertaken was, to vindicate national honour. On that ground the present war was to be justified; for the malignant enemy with whom we were contending, had wounded it in the tenderest point. France had repaid our scrupulous neutrality with insult and outrage; she had presumed to interfere in the internal concerns of England; she had threatened to pull down our darling constitution under which we had so long flourished and been happy, and to force upon us her own principles of anarchy and confusion: she had levelled her shafts even against the sacred person of our king, who was the object of our love, our gratitude, and our veneration: she had endeavoured to separate the parliament from the nation, and raise the people against their representatives and legislators: she had dared to receive from this country ambassadors of treason and sedition; and had left nothing undone to overthrow the whole government of Great Britain. England had more than once waged war to maintain the succession to the crown in the line on which it had been entailed by act of parliament. France would now set aside not merely this prince or that family, but cut off the succession wholly, and destroy not only the monarch, but the monarchy itself. England had waged war to resist a pretender to her crown, who however hostile he might be in his heart to the liberty of this country, certainly never professed an intention to alter any of the established forms of our government; but France aimed her blows not at this or at that part of the constitution, but at the whole of the venerable fabric, which it was her earnest wish to level with the dust. Whatever may have | been the opinions of some upon former wars, on this (said Mr. Pitt) I believe there is but one general feeling. We were speaking the language of our hearts, when we said it was different in its nature from every other we ever heard of—a war in which our fortunes, our liberties, our lives, the security of Europe, the cause of justice, humanity, religion, and the safety of the world, were deeply interested. Thus feeling, he should be ashamed to say he believed there was a man among us who would not use his utmost efforts in such a cause. He could have wished to have made some contrast between our situation at this moment and that of the power with which we were engaged. It was a contrast of which he did not wish to speak much at length, but he believed he might say there was not one man in that House who entertained a doubt of the advantage we had on the contemplation of that contrast, as applied to internal government and sources of revenue. If we were ever justified in going to war for the preservation of the general balance of power in Europe, when could we be more loudly called upon to do so than at a time when nothing but our interposition could save it from subversion? We had frequently conceived ourselves bound to support the Protestant religion; but the present was no contest in the defence of the dogmas of a Luther or a Calvin it was the struggle of every form of devotion, and every system of piety, against those whose principle was infidelity, and whose code was persecution. He had known us to be engaged in a war upon a contest for succession to the throne, but now we were not engaged in a question which family should reign upon the throne but whether we should have a throne at all-not whether we were right or wrong in declaring a change in the succession of our monarchy, but whether we should have a monarch-not whether any particular act of parliament was right or wrong, but whether we should have any legislature to enact it. We were engaged with a set of men who were at war with the whole world, and every thing that was valuable in it--who had sworn hostility to the whole fabric of our constitution. All circumstances concurred to make it our duty cheerfully to proceed, and to convince our enemies that we are not to be discouraged from our enterprise by its magnitude-that we were engaged in a cause, our exertions for the sake of which should terminate only with our lives. Upon that ground it was that he should hope for the concurrence of that House, and the support of the country.-Mr. Pitt then moved his first resolution. Mr. Sheridan said, that whatever difference of opinion there had been respecting the necessity of the war, yet the country being actually engaged in it, the right hon. gentleman had done but justice to the House in assuming that his propositions that day would meet with their unanimous assent. The right hon. gentleman had, however, called on the House to watch the whole of the business with vigilance, and even with jealousy. The call was not necessary to him (Mr. S.), for he had uniformly acted on that principle upon all revenue questions, and without apologizing for an essential act of duty, he would always continue to do so. Under this impulse, although he gave the minister credit for the fairness of some of his statements, yet he must frankly say that he had felt the jealousy recommended much awakened by the very extraordinary appeal to the passions of the House; with which the right hon. gentleman had concluded his speech. There was little novelty in it, except the novelty of introducing in a day devoted to figures, all the arts of declamation. He had suddenly laid down his pencil and slate, as it were, and grasping his truncheon, had finished with an harangue more calculated for the general of an army going to storm a French redoubt, than a minister of finance discussing accounts in the sober hour of calculation with the stewards and attornies of a burthened and patient people. Whenever he saw exertion and eloquence so misplaced, he always suspected there was some weakness to cover in the subject itself. He was the more led into the apprehension by some very alarming hints the right hon. gentleman had dropped respecting new connexions still to be formed. It seemed the expensive corps of 12,000 Hanoverians were not the only foreign troops we were to pay : new subsidies to foreign mercenaries were announced, and in a manner that seemed to avow that government was adopting the general principles and views of the Austrian and Prussian confederacy, which he had hitherto flattered himself had not been the case, whatever had been the wishes and arguments of some individuals in that House. He had been in hopes that the war was undertaken on the gene ral ground of opposing the dangerous increase of the French power, and on the principle of never permitting this country for a moment to hold its independence at the mercy of any other power on earth; but he was sorry to observe symptoms of adopting the contrary line now first appearing in the words and conduct of the minister. He hoped he was mistaken; for whatever was said of the popularity of the war, he was confident that it was not intended by the nation to be that bellum internecinum, that crusade for the extirpation of opinions, and of forms of foreign governments, which some had rashly recommended. He agreed that Mr. Pitt had not overloaded our average income; but he gave the most decided contradiction to his statement, that if peace had continued, or whenever peace should be restored, there would be a ba lance, after paying the peace establishment and the surplus million, of nearly 900,000l.; this was proved by facts and figures to be a gross fallacy. The total income of the year would be something short of seventeen millions. This, said the right hon. gentleman, is 900,000, more than is necessary for a peace establishment, and therefore we may reckon on 900, 000l. whenever peace shall arrive. What a mode of arguing! Ten years had passed since the American war, and never had this year of peace establishment arrived! Not one single year in which our expenditure had been less than seventeen millions! Were we ever likely to see it less? Were rigorous reduction in all our military services likely to be the characteristic of a future peace? And when that peace was obtained, was another ten-years interval to take place before the establishments were to be affected by it? To hold out such hopes was trifling with the country. The improbability of our revenue continuing at its present standard, was also a matter of serious consideration. The more general the war, the more would all foreign merchants be disturbed, and commercial capitals be withheld from their objects; and there was no town in Europe where this would not interfere with the trade and manufactures, and consequently the public revenues of Great Britain. Among the ways and means, he objected to nothing but the sum supposed to be forthcoming from the East India company. This sum ought not even to have been mentioned, as it depended entirely on the renewal of the charter. That important question ought to have been permitted to come to the consideration of parliament, without any previous opinion having been in a bye manner obtained upon it, much less without government and that House seeming to have already accepted the premium which was to be the price of the charter. Mr. Sheridan concluded with a strong recommendation to the House, before they laid a new burthen of a single shilling on the people, to enable themselves, by a rigorous scrutiny into all useless places, and reversionary sinecures, to look their constituents in the face, and assure them, that before they applied to their pockets, they had abolished all unnecessary expenses and unmerited stipends. By doing this they would not only bring to the public service large sums, wrung from the industry and labour of the community, but they would destroy the baits of corruption, and teach the government to look to its merits for its support. Mr. Drake highly approved both of the general conduct of the chancellor of the exchequer, and of the manner in which he had brought forward the important business of that day. It had been well said, that Englishmen must be angry to fight well; and angry he was sure every brave and generous Englishman must now be. He was concerned that any thing should be urged to blacken the prosperity of the country; the reverse of what had been stated by Mr. Sheridan, was bona fide the fact. The war he pronounced a magnanimous war, and English soldiers, when they had a magnanimous cause for anger, would fight, and he would indeed be a strange general that would use such language as the most hon. chancellor of the exchequer, when going to storm a redoubt. As to generals making speeches, the true spirit of a man going to battle ought to be to fight." The conduct of his brave countrymen on the present occasion had afforded him the highest satisfaction, and he greatly applauded the subscription set on foot for the relief of the families of such heroes as should fall in the service of their country. He had the greatest expectation from the duke of York, and the brave Englishmen under his command. He had Salled in the Syren frigate. He w uld not make such a speech as the chancellor of the exchequer, but would say "fight, fight, my merry-men all,” and he had no doubt but that they would obey his commands. In so good a cause, he trusted to the protection and favour of Providence, and that the just and necessary war in which we were engaged would lead to an honourable and blessed peace. Mr. Fox said, he had come down to the House not without anxiety, but it had afforded him the most sincere pleasure to learn from the chancellor of the exchequer, that he meant to go on a large scale, in providing for the vigorous prosecution of the war in which this country was actually engaged; and he also approved of reducing the unfunded debt; but it was surely rather singular that while the right hon. gentleman was proposing to pay off 1,500,000l. of exchequer bills, he was at the same time to issue exchequer bills to that amount on a vote of credit. He most sincerely wished that the right hon. gentleman, instead of speculating as he had done, had deigned to follow the advice which he had given in the last session, as to paying off the 4 per cents. Had he done so, and paid off the 4 per cents. when at 95, a permanent resource of no less than 240,000l. would have been gained to the public. Mr. Fox expressed his surprise and alarm at that part of the right hon. gentleman's speech, where he spoke of our entering into numerous alliances with foreign powers, besides those in which we were now engaged. He anxiously wished to be informed what alliances were meant, as he dreaded much our being led into dangerous and improper engagements for the prosecution of the most unjustifiable purposes. It must surely appear rather singular to bring forward, as a new and unforeseen resource, that which might arise from a continuation of the temporary taxes inposed for defraying the expenses of the Spanish armament. This must have occurred to every body; and the continuing these taxes after the period of their expiration, was, in fact, the same thing as imposing new taxes; though he did not mean to say that it was not better to continue taxes already existing, than to lay on the people any burthen which they had not hitherto borne. The right hon. gentleman had assumed to himself much credit from refraining to say any thing on the flourishing state of our finances, in the discussions with respect to the war. He sincerely wished that a similar conduct had been followed on the present occasion, as it appeared to him not less improper to bring forward any declaration تو or observations as to the nature and objects of the war in a discussion with respect to finance. To do so, besides being improper, he thought perfectly useless; for, if the war was so neccessary as had been represented, involving in it every thing that was dear and valuable to this country, no matter what our situation in point of finance, no object of that kind could have prevented our engaging in it; on the other hand, however prosperous and flourishing the situation of our finances, if the war was not necessary, that surely could be no argument for engaging in it. After the various discussions on the subject of the war that had taken place in that House, it seemed singular that the right hon. gentleman should suppose that he could, by declamation, add any thing to what had been already said: he had said that he had heard of wars for honour, and wars for religion; and had asked, if ever there was a war in which both honour and religion, and every thing dear to a nation, were so deeply implicated? a mode of reasonings pecious enough to impose upon some people. But the answer he would give to it would be this: Can we gain more by the event of war, than might, in all probability, have been obtained by negociation? The relinquishment by the French of their conquests, the explanation or repeal of their offensive decrees, the safety of our allies, all these, he thought, in the situation of this country, might have been procured by negociation. He should be told, however, that supposing this to be so, what security could we have for the performance of these engagements on the part of the French? What better sccurity, he would ask, could we have after the war? Unless, indeed, we were going to war, not for the purpose of forcing France to relinquish Savoy and her other conquests, or of preventing the increase of her power; but for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs of France, and of substituting, in room of the present, a new government, in which we might place greater reliance. This purpose of the war had been approved by some persons: but had been uniformly and explicitly disavowed by the minister, and was so, in the clearest and most express terms, at the time he brought down his majesty's message respecting the war. The language now held, and the declamation they had heard that day, called for a distinct explanation upon this most impor tant point. The right hon. gentleman had asked, why should war diminish the revenue? But, were not flourishing commerce and manufactures the greatest support of the revenue? Did the right hon. gentleman mean to say, that the manufac turers of this country would not be injured by war? Had he had any information of late from Manchester, Paisley, Norwich, and other places, which had induced him to form this opinion? If so, Mr. Fox declared that his information had been directly the reverse: but this would not certainly operate in any degree upon his mind, did he conceive the honour and dearest interests of the country to be implicated in the war to the extent which had been represented. As the subject of war would not probably be again debated, he thought it right to say that he remained of opinion that it might have been avoided; and when the right hon. gentleman talked of the prosperous state of this country last year, he could not but still more condemn the putting that enviable prosperity to risk without negociation.-The right hon. gentleman by his declamation had drawn from him thus much; and he could not conclude without saying a few words on the subject of our East-India affairs. He had not yet given much examination to the papers laid before the House relative to that business, but he had bestowed some consideration on it, and he still wished for a great deal of information. He joined with his hon. friend in being averse to taking at present the 500,000l. stated as a resource arising to this country from the revenues of India. The renewal of the charter of the company was the greatest commercial question that had ever been considered by the legislature of any country. It involved a variety of objects of such magnitude and importance, that, in competition with them even this 500,000l. ought to be considered as nothing. He thought it therefore highly improper that the discussion of such a subject should be cramped or fettered in any shape. True, the right hon. gentleman had said that, by taking this 500,000l. at present into calculation, the House would by no means be pledged to a renewal of the charter; but he had also said that the House would not surely adopt any regulations with respect to India, from which the public would not derive at least an equal profit. If the House was to proceed on this ground, there could be no fair discus |