SUPPLEMENT.

ON THE

DEBATES AND RESOLUTIONS

OF THE

WHIG CLUB,

ON THE SIXTH OF JUNE, 1797.

IN the meeting of the Whig Club on June 6th, there appeared some strong symptoms of a difference of opinion it was then moved and carried, that the Members of the Club should solemnly pledge themselves to exert all lawful means to obtain for the People a full, fair, and free Representation in Parliament; that is, an alteration in the Constitution of the Commons House.

It is evident that a Legislature may retain all its constituent parts, and the Government still be mixed, although the proportion of effective power lodged in any one of the branches be increased in any proportion. Thus, in a Constitution like our own, the power of the Crown, the Lords, or the Commons, may be so increased as

to

to render it in effect, although not in name, an abso→ lute Monarchy, an Aristocracy, or a Democracy; and to the first of these states it was reduced under the TUDORS; to the second in the reign of HENRY the Sixth; and to the last under some part of that of CHARLES the First. And with respect to the Constitution, as recognized by the Bill of Rights, any one of these changes would be an effective Counter Revolution (1). But Mr. Fox declared at that meeting, that the measure of the change must be such, as to bring about" a fundamental change in the plan of adininis"tration(2)."

Such is the spirit, and such would be the consequences of carrying this Resolution into effect. It is the fourth in a string of five: it seems directly repugnant to the conclusion of the first, by which the Club pledges itself" to resist by all lawful means every depar-, "ture from the Constitution, which at that glorious "æra was so manfully asserted (3);" words binding them to the defence of that individual Constitution without alteration, one great integral part of which was an English House of Commons, elected by the same political bodies who are now Electors, and no other.

This was the true principle of the Whig Club at its institution: accordingly, when the plan of what is called the Reform, was first taken up by Mr. GREY, many

(1) The object of the Revolution was to perpetuate the existence of legal proportion of power of all the parts of the Constitution of Government. SACHEVERELL'S Trial.-(2) Morning Chronicle, June 7, 1797.(3) Morning Chronicle, June 8, 1797.

who

who favoured it, judged it proper to secede from the Whig Club, and to form a new Society apart from it, under the title of the Friends of the People.

This measure, which would have been rejected by the Club six years ago, was brought in by surprize: no notice was given of it by Advertisement, and the design was even unknown to many (1); and on this account one of its most distinguished Members proposed the Declaration to be put off. This is the first time that the Club has given any opinion as a body on the subject; and there is little doubt to be entertained, that many of its Members are highly dissatisfied with it. There are those among them, who in this general ferment have serious apprehensions of the effect of that revolutionary policy of the Leaders, reprobated even by BRISSOT himself, who thus by their "own proper authority "constitute their Clubs into Political Bodies (2)."

Although we find no apprehensions of this nature, or of Secessions in consequence of it, expressed in Mr. Fox's Speech, we see the effects of it: with much address, and not seeming to look that way, he shapes out an opportunity to take strong preventive measures against this hazard; covered by seeming to serve, and, effectively in some measure, serving other purposes.

Mr. Fox on that day assumed to himself that he has remained fixed to his principles, and in consequence of

(1) See Debate, Morning Chronicle.-(2) Constituer ainsi, de sa propre autorité ces Societés en Corps Politiques. A ses Commettans, Londres,

1794.

T

that

that, considered his Party as suffering by Secessions before; and he lamented " the total division that had been "made among those persons who in former times had "distinguished themselves in opposition to the influ"ence of the Crown (1)." And then, to give no obscure intimation of what a second set of Seceders may have to expect, from calumny rendered more hot and acrid from its term of duration, under his powerful guidance and direction, with feigned or real indignation he says, that even "the confidence of mankind has "been shaken by examples of Apostacy which were "unexpected (2)." Both the policy and the matter of these declarations appear to deserve considerable notice.

To describe the political use to be made of calumnies, especially when the mind of the public is in a state of fermentation, no objection can be made to sound republican authority: that of Mr. BRISSOT will serve us here again" there is very little liberty of "opinion, where the fear of calumny reigns:"-" very "few men can brave the daily martyrdom of unjust re"proaches." He even couples this with the perpetual fear of assassination, and says, that combined they formed" the two edged sword of the Anarchists; by "which they found the means to subdue the Landed "Aristocrats, who feared a natural, and the men of "pretended independence, who feared a moral assassina"tion." To describe the management and effects of this machine of terror, the fear of calumny employed as part of a system, Mr. BRISSOT returns in several

(1) Morning Chronicle, June 7, 1797.-(2) Ibid.

places.

places. It is only to be added, that he describes very well the secondary use Mr. Fox might intend the change to serve, which he and his friends may be willing to say was his sole object; and to which the proper answer will be a smile. Speaking of a certain Club, he (Mr. BRISSOT) informs us, in this manu"factory of calumnies every thing is daily disorganized: "the Administration, the Police, and the Army (1).”

So much on the compound motive of the charge; now to consider the charge itself. If the nullity of it be shewn, if it be shewn that he advances it with a political indiscretion, fatal but familiar to himself, although it holds out a promise of future denunciations against those whom, it is to be hoped, the formal adoption of the new principle in the Club, militating against the letter of the old one, and the dangers of the present crisis, may incline to secede and strengthen Government, they will hold it but as what it is, a thing of nought: its effects will have no weight in determining their conduct, nor will they apprehend much from his future fulminations.

To do this, the charge of Apestacy must be examined: it is founded on the different sentiments lately held by Mr. Fox and some distinguished persons with whom' he formerly acted, on the subject of the French Revolution.

The true and legal Constitution of France, has always for many centuries been a limited Monarchy; or the Government of Three Estates under a King; but