Lord Folkestone defired to be informed, why the account. of the net produce of the permanent taxes, impofed fince the year 1793, ufually laid before the Houfe on the 25th of March, had not yet been prefented. On inquiry, he found that the delay had originated in fome difficulties arifing out of the confolidation act of laft feffion. As the day had been fixed for bringing forward the budget it would be material to have that account, and an account of the produce of all the permanent taxes, on the table, as well as the account of the amount of the war taxes, up to the 5th of April.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer affured the noble Lord that the firft account fhould be laid on the table in the course of the week, and that some of the others were already before the Houfe, and the reft fhould be produced with the greatest expedition.

Mr. Secretary Yorke brought up the militia officers completion bill, which, after a few obfervations from Lord Folkeftone, Sir John Wrottefley, and Mr. Secretary Yorke, was read a first time, and ordered for a fecond reading the next day.

Mr. Dent put off his motion relative to the loyalty loan till Tuesday fe'nnight, when he propofed to move for a Committee of the whole Houfe on that subject, and to refer the loyalty loan act to that Committee.

The fecond reading of the army of reserve suspension bill was put off from the next day to Wednesday.

ALLEGED CORRESPONDENCE OF MR. DRAKE.

Lord Morpeth, before the remaining business of the day was entered upon, hoped that he might be indulged in faying a few words upon á fubject, which in his opinion deeply involved the honour and the feelings of the country. Every gentleman who heard him must be acquainted with the tranfactions that have recently occurred at Paris, with the numerous arrefts, and the different acts of outrage, violence, and cruelty, that have there been perpetrated: they must alfo have remarked, that the charges upon which many of thofe unfortunate perfons have been arrested, are confidera bly heightened and aggravated by the affertion of the French Government, that these imputed crimes were undertaken not only with the knowledge and privity, but by the inftigation of the English Government. As long as these charges were confined to the pages of the Moniteur, and exhibited only the rancour and malevolence of the Confular Government, it might have been deemed prudent and wife to have

paffed

paffed them over with filent fcorn and merited contempt; but the cafe was widely different at prefent: a correfpondence has been publifhed, purporting to be letters from the English Minifler refident at Munich to a Frenchman now at Paris. These letters have been submitted to the different Minifters of the different ftates of Europe. The replies of thefe Ministers have alfo been published, and must have attracted very general attention. It appears, that with the exception of the Ruffian Minifter, they have not fcrupled to prejudge our caufe, and in recording their opinions they have not hesitated, upon unauthenticated facts, upon unfubftantiated charges, upon unproved, and, he trufted, unprove able allegations, to impute guilt, and prefume criminality. He would not dwell upon thefe records of injustice, these monuments of the fervility and degradation of Europe: he wifhed he could fay of Europe alone; there was another country where he might expect to have found more freedom of opinion, more liberality of fentiment, more fenfe of the acknowledged and generally received principles of juftice. To charges, however, fo adduced, and fupported upon fuch authority, he thought that it was incumbent upon his Majefty's Minifters to give a diftinct, a fatisfactory, and convincing reply: he thought that he was juftified in calling upon Minifters in juftice to themfelves, in juftice to the gentleman whofe character had been fo vilified and traduced, but above all, in juftice to their injured and infuited country, to repel thefe odious imputations, and difavow the conftruction that had been, he trufted, fo infidioufly and falfely placed upon the proceedings of Mr. Drake. He thought that he was juftified in calling upon them to declare to the country, to Europe, and the world, not merely that they had not planned the ambush of the confpirator, that they bad not pointed the dagger of the affaffin, but that in profecution of open, manly, and legitimate war, they had not embarked in any enterprizes, they had not given any inftructions, or authorized any proceedings at all inconfiftent or incompatible with the practice and ufages of civilized

nations.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer-Mr. Speaker, I rife to exprefs my unfeigned obligations to the noble Lord, for affording to his Majefty's Minifters an opportunity of repelling the fouleft and most infamous charge that has ever proceeded from a Government claiming to be confidered as part of the civilized world; a charge the moft unfounded and diabolical, urged by a Government the most fanguinary and tyrannical, for the fole purpose, I implicitly believe, of

giving

giving a colour to the commiffion of crimes the moft heinous and atrocious that have ever difgraced and blackened -human nature. As to the imputation which the author and perpetrators of that foul crime have attempted to throw on his Majefty's Government, it is almoft beneath their dignity to condefcend to refute it; but I think it my duty to ftate to this Houfe, and to the civilized world, that no authority has been given, that no inftructions have been tranf "mitted to the English Minister at the Court of Munich, to engage in or undertake any thing, that was not ftricly confiftent with the moft fcrupulous obfervance of the rights of nations, and what, perhaps, is paramount to them, the du- ties of humanity. After having faid thus much, I hope it will not be expected from me, that I fhould fay any thing more in reply to that moft falfe, fcandalous, and malignant imputation. As to the correfpondence to which the noble Lord has alluded, it is impoffible for me to enter upon that fubject, until fome communication fhall have been received from the honourable person who has been fo infamously at. tacked in it; a gentleman for whose character I think as highly, and am certainly as folicitous, as the noble Lord, or any one in the kingdom, can be. I have perfect confidence, that the more the particulars of his conduct are inquired into, the more apparent will be the propriety of it, and the vilenefs and falfehood of that (as I have the best grounds to fuppofe) moft impudent and infamous fabrication. As foon as his Majefty's Government fhall have received the communications they expect from Mr. Drake, the noble Lord may be affured they will not fail to adopt the most effectual measures for afferting and maintaining the honour of the country. I muft again exprefs my obligations to the noble Lord, for affording me an opportunity · of difpelling the anxiety of the country upon a fubject, the honour of its reprefentative, for which they entertain that Jaudable jealoufy that befits a great and high-minded

nation.

IRISH MILITIA.

On the order of the day being moved for the third reading of the bill for augmenting the militia of Ireland,

Mr. Calcraft rofe to oppofe the motion. He defended the refolutions of the colonels of militia who had affembled at the Thatched-Houfe, against the cenfure that he underflood they had been expofed to. He thought they were drawn fo clearly and explicitly, that it was not poffible to mifunderstand them. It was ftated in thofe resolutions, that Vor. II. 1803-4. deliberation

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deliberation by armed bodies was dangerous and unconftitutional; that was neither more nor lefs than the law of the land. He condemned the plan of the Secretary of State for the augmentation of the public force as impolitic and impracticable; and he principally objected to it as tending to raife that fpecies of competition in the different ⚫ branches of the recruiting fervice, as would render it impoffible for us ever to acquire a confiderable disposable force.

Sir William Elford oppofed the bill, and principally that part of it which went to provide for the creation of this force by a bounty to be paid out of the exchequers of the united kingdom. He thought a fencible force much preferable to it, inafmuch as it was equally efficient, and was not liable to the conftitutional objections that the bill before the Houfe was fubject to.

Mr. Pitt did not mean to trouble the Houfe at length, but merely to ftate the ground of his opinion, that it was impoffible to pafs the prefent measure into a law. He was not one of thofe who were of opinion, that under all circumftances there were objections against a force in its nature not difpofable. On the contrary; he felt that there might be circumstances in the fituation of a country, and fuch he confidered the circumftances in which this country was placed at the commencement of last year, which would render that defcription of force the most eligible, because in that defcription the greateft poffible number could be obtained in a given time for the defence of the country. As a force for limited fervice afforded the best prospect of numbers, and the greateft facility in the execution, there could be no doubt of the propriety of reforting to it at firft, and the fimilar circumstances might conftitute a fimilar propriety : he did not think, nor did he fuppofe that it would be contended by any gentleman, that fuch a defcription of force was in all circumftances that which ought to be provided for the defence of the country. It would not be denied, that the regular force was that which was most to be. looked to after the exigency of the moment was by the other provided; but though this was his opinion, he did not think it neceffary to enlarge upon it at prefent, because there would be another opportunity for delivering his fentiments on that head with more propriety. He did not, however, conceive the two defcriptions of force incompatible, becaufe the limited force which was folely calculated for defence, might under certain regulations be made fubfer, vient to the increase of the regulars. The principle of the

prefent

}

prefent measure he confidered as lying within a narrow compafs. It was not a queftion between a limited and a general force, but between two defcriptions of limited force. We had two fpecies of forces whofe fervices were limited 3. firft the militia, of which we had long experience; and next the army of referve, which, in the prefent inftance, we had for the first time tried, and which, from its fervices being extended to the united empire, was a better defcription of force than the militia. But independent of the fu periority which the army of referve in this refpect had over the militia, independent of its being officered by regular" officers, independent of the circumftance that the militia, in a great measure, lofes its character when carried to too! great an extent, and independent of the confideration that. the army of referve had been exprefsly intended as a means of recruiting the regulars, he could not conceive any good grounds that, in the prefent fituation of the empire, could be laid for augmenting a force of fo limited a defcription. By the view which he took of the measure before the House, it appeared to him, that an act which had been wifely framed to meet the exigencies of the empire, and to provide for the recruiting of the line, was to be fufpended; that a machine which was in operation was to be put an end to; that plans which had been wifely devifed for procuring that fpecies of force which was under the circumftances of the empire moft defirable, were to be given up, in order that fomething elfe, worfe and more, inefficient, might be, substituted instead of them. They were to adopt a meafure for the augmentation of the more limited force, because this act for raifing the army of referve had not been at once efficient, because it had been found difficult to carry it into full and complete effect in the first instance. Confidering all these circumstances, he was of opinion that the prefent measure, viewed comparatively with that which it was proposed by his Majefty's Minifters to fufpend, was one of the most objectionable that could be conceived. He did not look upon it as in any refpect fo eligible as the measure of which we were at prefent in poffeffion, and it did not appear to him to afford fo good a chance of promoting the progrefs of that defcription of force which on all hands was allowed to be most defirable. On these grounds, therefore, he should vote against the measure, not as against any augmentation of our force, but because we had every reafon to expect a more effectual increase to the best description of our force, by the operation of the meafure which was now proposed to be fufpended. 3 R 2

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