The Spea ker.

Mr. Burke.

unless I fee the alterations you have been fpeaking of." On this, he produced the bill to the Speaker, who, having been convinced by his own eyes that the alterations had actually been made, faid, he hoped Mr. Eftwick would not think that he connived at this bufinefs, or had been in any degree an accomplice in it. Mr. Eftwick complained to the House of thefe alterations, which he afcribed to Mr. Burke; and he observed, that if an individual member of Parliament could thus alter the records of Parliament, there was no fecurity for the lives and fortunes of the subjects; and in order that perfons fhould be deterred from doing the like in future, he infifted that the claufes which had been expunged should be restored.

The Speaker then got up, and explained the affair in a manner different in many refpects from that in which Mr. Eftwick had defcribed it; and the tranfaction turned out to be this: that the alterations complained of had not been made in private, but before the House, before the Speaker, who had put the queftion on every one of them; but as he underftood that the parties concerned were all agreed, and that no oppofition was to be given, he had put the question in a low voice, merely loud enough to be heard by the parties themfelves, who were at the time round the chair, attending towhat was going forward; in a word, the queftion had been put juft in the fame manner, as in all cafes, where the parties were perfectly agreed.

Mr. Burke faid, the fact was juft as it had been ftated from the Chair; the alterations were made in the House by the Speaker, in the chair, in confequence of motions made by him [Mr. Burke] for that purpose: nothing could have been farther from his intention than to take the House by furprise; but this unquestionably could not be imputed to him, for he had given notice to feveral honourable members, though it was not as early a notice as he could have wished, because the fervice preffed exceedingly for the paffing of the bill; and he had learned from the moft refpectable army agents, that the claufes which had been added in the Committee would, in their fhape, have been highly prejudicial to the service: having therefore had a late notice himself, it was out of his power to give an early intimation of it to others; but ftill it was fufficiently early to take away from all a handle for charging him fairly with having taken the Houfe by furprise on the report. The alterations were not productive of the smalleft good to himself, but they were of the highest concern to the

public,

public, and had been made on grounds of neceffity, One of the claufes incapacitated for ever froin ferving in any place or office under the Crown, any clerk in the Pay Office who fhould take any fees; he thought this too grievous a punishment, and had moved an alteration, by which the incapacity was limited to three years, a time fufficiently long, in his opinion, for the duration of fuch a heavy incapacity; but if gentlemen were advocates for the eternity of the punishment, he would give way to them, protefting however against the cruelty of the measure. This brought to his recollection a circumftance that happened fome years ago at Neuchatel: a divine of that city, thinking that even the juftice of the Almighty ought to have fome bounds, and that therefore the pains of the damned could not be eternal, preached up a doctrine, which held out a hope that even the damned fhould not be eternally damned: this greatly fcandalised his auditors; he ftill adhered to his doctrine, which at laft caufed a great tumult: the Commandant having reported to the prefent King of Pruffia, who is fovereign of Neuchatel, the particulars of the tumult, and the caufe that had produced it, his Majefty, willing to prevent the like in future, writ the following laconic order to the Commandant: "Que Meffieurs de Neuchatel foient damnés eternellement!" This decree, which left the people of Neuchatel to be damned in their own way, restored peace to the city; and he had no objection to follow the example of the King of Pruffia, and reftore peace, by letting the poor clerks be eternally incapacitated.

Sir George Yonge ftated the transaction as it struck him; Sir George but did not agree with Mr. Burke in every particular of Yunge. the fact.

Mr. Fox defended Mr. Burke, and handled very feverely Mr. Fox. thofe who blamed him: he faid that if his honourable friend was to blame in any thing, it was in fuppofing that he could have met with the leaft degree of candour from certain per fons; and for having imagined that what appeared light and trivial to him, would appear light and trivial to them: he ought to have recollected, and acted up to the philofophic obfervation of an English poet,

"Little things feem great to little men."

Mr. Pitt faid, that the expunged claufes ought to be re- Mr. Pitt, ftored, in order that the confequences that might arife from fuch a mode of expunging might be prevented: when re

VOL. X.

ftored,

Ld. North.

Mr. Wil berforce.

ftored, the Houfe night order the bill to be re-committed; and then gentlemen would have an opportunity to debate on the propriety of expunging them again, if thofe which now ftood in their place fhould be thought better; but at all events, the dignity of the Houfe required that the expunged claufes fhould be reftored. He then attacked the coalition, and warned Minifters how they attempted to make a bad use of their ill-gotten power,

Lord North repeated the words "ill-gotten power," and admitted that if a power, acquired in confequence of a vote of that House, condemning the late Ministry for having made a bad peace, was ill gotten, he was poffeffed of ill-gotten power; but if fuch a power was conftitutionally obtained, as it moft certainly was, then he muft exprefs his furprife that fuch an expreffion could have dropped from the honourable gentleman's lips. It was a little furprifing alfo, that the honourable gentleman had not fo much as attempted to prove which would be moft beneficial to the public, the alteration made by his right honourable friend, [Mr. Burke] or the restoration of the expunged claufes; this was a queftion which he had wifely declined to difcufs; but he muft ftate this to the Houfe, that his right honourable friend had, by his alteration, made fenfe of nonfenfe; and rendered that practicable, which the expunged claufes would have rendered abfolutely impracticable. As to the ufe which Minifters would make of their power, he hoped it would not discredit them; they had two great objects to purfue; one was to do many things which their predeceffors had promised to do, but which they had left undone; and the other, to prevent thofe mifchiefs which it was not affectation to apprchend from what the late Minifters had done. As to questions of reform in general, he would wait for the decifion of time upon their utility, before he would deliver an opinion on that head; there were various opinions among the reformers on both fides; one fet were for one kind of a reform, which the other oppofed as mifchievous: for his part, he would be Gilent on the fubject for the prefent, as he was ready to fay, Non noftrum inter vos tantas componere lites.

་་

Mr. Wilberforce followed the grounds of Mr. Pitt's argument, and contended, that no individual member had a right to make any alteration in a bill, without the full and public confent of the House. Mr. Wilberforce alluded to the Coalition, and was extremely fevere on Minifters for prelu

ming to term that a perfonal queftion, which was, he faid, in every sense of the words, a national one.

Mr. Adam fpoke ftrongly in favour of Government; but Mr. Adam. declared he had but lately come into the House. Mr. Adam retorted on Mr. Wilberforce for what he had faid refpecting the coalition, and faid, the fide on which the honourable gentleman fat exhibited a coalition as well as the other. A coalition to the full as extraordinary; a coalition between the learned Lord and the right honourable gentleman, late his Majefty's Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This called up the Lord Advocate, who praised Mr. Pitt in The Lord terms of the ftrongeft panegyric. He called the honourable Advocate. gentleman the firft political character of the age, and declared, he did not expect the public intereft would profper till that gentleman was again in fome diftinguished office in Adminiftration.

Mr. Fox, in reply, defcribed the Lord Advocate as a po- Mr. Fox. litical weathercock, ready to veer with every breath that pointed to felf-intereft.

Mr. Hill faid, he would freely own, that when he had Mr. Hill. firft the honour of a feat in that Houfe, he was weak enoughto fuppofe, that he fhould fee every Member voting according to the dictates of his confcience, and influenced by truth and argument, rather than by party and connection; but experience had taught him more wifdom. The honourable gentleman who spoke a fhort time before, (viz. Mr. Adam) had acknowledged that he had only heard a fimall part of the debate; he, for his part, had been attentive to the whole of it, but thought there was no reafon to have heard much to guide his judgment on the matter before the Houfe; for the queftion was not, he conceived, (as the honourable gentleman had juft ftated) which was the beft claufe, but whe ther a private member of Parliament had a right, by his own authority, to alter, change, and mutilate an act of that Houfe; and if a liberty of that fort might once be allowed, there must be an end not only of the dignity of Parliament, but even of Parliament itself. The noble Lord in the blue ribband had on a late occafion-fpoken much against innovations, but if he could defend the innovations of one member, altering the decifions of the Houfe of Commons, there was nothing he would not give his fupport to. He obferved, that much had been said during the debate, relative to the coalition. He could fay very little on the fabject, for he had nearly learned Horace's maxim, nil admirari; but, faid

Mr.

Mr. Eft wick.

Mr. Hill, if we take our English Poet's tranflation of these words,

Not to admire is all the art I know,

To make men happy, and to keep them fo,

there would hardly be an happy perfon to be found, as he fuppofed there was not an individual who was not furprized to fee those who lately durft not trust themselves in a room together, now cordially embracing each other. The House might fuppofe that he meant the right honourable Secretary for the Whig department, and the right honourable Secretary for the Tory department. He would not deny but he did, and begged to affure the loving pair, that if they agreed for a twelvemonth they fhould have his hearty vote for the flitch of bacon. He faid, neceffity was the argument generally pleaded in favour of the coalition, and he firmly believed there was much truth couched under that fingle word.

Mr. Eftwick moved for leave to bring up the first of the expunged claufes, which having been granted, the clause was read a first time; but on the queftion for the second. reading of it, the Houfe divided: Noes 103, Ayes 75, Majority 28.

The bill was afterwards read a third time, and paffed.

June 5.

Sir Charles Sir Charles Bampfylde faid, he had a petition in his hand, Bampfylde. figned by a very numerous and refpectable lift of persons, praying that the tax on receipts might not pafs into a law; and ftating, that if it did, its operation would be an effential injury to them in particular, and to trade in general. Sir Charles wifhed to be permitted to bring it up.

The

The Speaker called the attention of the Houfe to the fubSpeaker ject, and reminded them, that it was an established rule not> to receive any petition against a tax. The neceffity upon, which this rule was grounded, Mr. Speaker faid, was fo obvious, that it was unneceffary to enlarge upon it. He could only fay, that he moft earnestly advised the Houfe either to abolifh the rule altogether, or abide by it ftrictly. To depart from it in any one given cafe, would lead to much future inconvenience.

Sie Jofeph
Mawbey.

The

speaker.

Sir Jofeph Mawbey was anxious to have the petition prefented and read, and faid, he believed there was no exprefs order to the contrary on their journals.

The Speaker in reply, agreed, that there was not any tanding order upon the fubject, on the journals, but the

Houfe