to have come forward, and proposed a reduction in the civil list, and thereby given the people the consolation of knowing, that their sovereign participated in the suf ferings of the empire, and presented an honourable example of retrenchment in an hour of general difficulty. They ought to have consulted the glory of their royal master, and seated him in the hearts of his people, by abating from magnificence what was due to necessity. Instead of waiting for the slow request of a burthened people, they should have courted popularity by a voluntary surrender of useless revenue. Far more agreeable would it have been to that house to accede, than to propose; much more pleasing to have observed the free exercise of royal bounty, than to make the appeal, and point out what was right, or what was necessary. But if the ministry failed to do this; if they interfered between the benignity of the sovereign and the distresses of his people, and stopped the tide of royal sympathy, was that a reason why the house of commons, his majesty's public counsellors, should desist from a measure so congenial to the paternal feelings of the sovereign, so applicable to the wants and distresses of the people? The natural beneficence of the royal heart would be gratified by the seasonable remittance; and it was surely no reason, that because the ministry failed to do their duty, the house should cease to attend to theirs. It had been agreed on all hands, that the burthens under which the people groaned, burthens that were more likely to be increased than diminished, were of a degree of pressure that was scarcely tolerable; and that every man, who pointed out a practical mode of relief, would deserve well of his country. The bill now before the house met this idea completely; its effect would be salutary; its operation easy. What was it that it aimed at ? Not the taking from the crown any one necessary part of its expence; not the abridgment of what was useful, or what was honourable; not the smallest degradation of its glory; but a mere cur VOL. II.

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tailment of useless pageantry, of empty shew, and idle pomp. It was undoubtedly an unpleasant thing for that house to take any step, that tended to lessen the income of his majesty. Attached to the person of the sovereign by principles of the truest loyalty, and the purest affection they could not, with sensations of comfort and ease, proceed with a bill of such a nature as that which was now before the house. But then it should be remembered that their constituents were paying enormous taxes, that the national distresses was generally felt, and that the extreme necessity of the times called upon the crown to take its share in the public misfortunes, and to contribute something at least towards the public expence. He had ever considered it to be the duty of a member of parliament, to watch over and guard the liberties of the people with a jealous and an unabating attention and assiduity; but the first of all the duties of a member of that house, was the duty of watching over and guarding the property of his constituents. Would they then shew themselves worthy of the confidence of the people, if they readily acceded to every new impost that was proposed by the minister, without taking one step at least to convince them, that at the same time that they thought themselves bound to consent to farther additions to the national burthens, they took especial care, that the crown should participate in the expences of the war, and that the royal income should suffer in some proportion to the diminution of income daily experienced by his majesty's subjects. Exclusively of the general claim upon the house, to adopt the bill on the ground of justice to their constituents, the petitions that had been presented last year, pointed the measure out

* This is that kind of eloquence which any one may get out of a dictionary. Under the word pageantry he will find pomp, parade, empty shew; under the word useless, vain, idle, unnecessary, wanton, &c. the reader will, I believe, find this the clue to nearly all the eloquence of this celebrated speaker.

as immediately agreeable to the sentiments of the people; and surely no man would be hardy enough to assert, that when the people petitioned parliament in a peaceable and constitutional manner, it became that house to disregard their prayers. One great object of all the petitions which had been presented, was, a recommendation of economy in the public expenditure; and one great object of the present bill was, to carry into effect the wishes of the people, by introducing a substantial system of economy. Besides the benefits which would result from the bill in this respect, it had another object still more important, and that was, the reduction of the influence of the crown; an influence, which was the more to be dreaded, because more secret in its attacks, and more concealed in its operations, than the power of prerogative.

Mr. Pitt then adverted to the objection that had been made to the bill, that the saving proposed by it was a matter of trifling consideration, when measured by the necessities, or the expences of the time. It proposed to bring no more than 200,000l. a year into the public coffers, and that sum was insignificant, in the public account, when compared with the millions we spend. This was surely the most singular and unaccountable species of reasoning that ever was attempted in any assembly. The calamities of the crisis were too great to be benefited by economy; our expences were so enormous, that it was ridiculous to attend to little matters of account. We have spent so many millions, that thousands are beneath our consideration. We were obliged to spend so much, that it was foolish to think of saving any. By such strange language as this, had the excellent bill now before the house been opposed. But it had also been said that the king's civil list was an irresumeable parliamentary grant, and it had even been compared to a private freehold. The weakness of such arguments was their best refutation. It was true, that parliament had made the grant of the civil list revenue

But for what purposes

specially for his majesty's life. was this? Was it merely for his majesty's private use? No man, he was confident, would venture to assert any such thing. The civil list revenue was granted to his majesty as the executive part of the state, to support the government, to pay the judges, to pay the other great officers, and to maintain the grandeur, the dignity, and the lustre of the crown, in which every one of his subjects had an interest. His majesty, in fact, was the trustee of the public, subject to parliamentary supervision; and though tutelage was a harsh term, surely no man would say, that it was any degradation to a British prince to be under the guardianship of a British parliamant.* The parliament had made the grant, and undoubtedly had a right to resume it, when the necessity of affairs rendered such a resumption so necessary as it was at present. It would be an unpleasant task to investigate the great difference that there was between the wealth of the empire when that revenue was granted and the wealth at the present time. It would serve, however, to shew, that the sum of revenue which was necessary to the support of the common dignity of crown and people at that time, ought now to be reduced, as the public necessities had increased. The people who granted that revenue, under the circumstances of the occasion, were justified in resuming a part of it, under the pressing demand of an altered situation. Upon the whole he entirely approved of the present bill; he felt himself, as a citizen of this country, and a member of that house, highly indebted to the author of it; and as he considered it as essential to the being and the independence of his country, he would give it the most determined support.

What is all this about?

MR. SHERIDAN.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, one of the most brilliant speakers that ever appeared in the house of commons, was born in 1750. He was known to the public before he came into parliament, as having written the best comedies of the age. He was returned member for Stafford in 1780, which place he continued to represent till the last election, in 1806, when he succeeded Fox as member for Westminster. On Fox's accession to office in the beginning of the same year, he was appointed treasurer of the navy. The following is his first speech in the house. He has said more witty things than ever were said by any one man in the house of commons: but at present one may say of him, "The wine of life is drunk and but the lees remain."

On employing the Military in the Suppression of Riots.

He remarked, that the police of every country was an object of importance. In a despotic country, where the laws were regulated by the will of the sovereign, the purpose of the police was to give comfort and security to the subject, and, perhaps, to furnish secret information to the rulers. But in a constitution of liberty, like that of England, it was the duty and the object of the people to prefer the essentials of freedom to the comforts of ease; and they were not to purchase internal protection at the expence of slavery. It was not a dead and slavish quiet; it was not a passive calm and submission that were the ultimate objects of police in such a state; but as much good order as was consistent with the active, busy, and bustling genius of liberty. They were not to be awed into submission by a military force, dependent on the will of one man, to whom they delegated their power; nor to constitute a police, which