empire, against pirates, or persons suspected of treason. Your generals on the other side of the Atlantic have established a public cartel, such as is agreed to, with an alien enemy, for the exchange of prisoners. It is no general light surmise or loose assertion; we find your commanders actually pressing Mr. Washington to a faithful performance of this cartel: we are informed of a correspondence between a Mr. Hutchinson, Lord Cornwallis, Mr. Washington, and others, in which the true spirit of the cartel is controverted; but not its existence, nor a professed unwillingness on either side, to comply with it. What do we behold on the other? I do not wish to state facts from general reports; if I am wrong, I trust the learned gentleman will set me right. Why, a direct contrary conduct in Europe; Lord Stormont, his majesty's minister at the. French court, giving a very lofty answer to the American delegates residing there. He tells them, when they propose a similar cartel to that settled in America, in Europe, and an exchange of prisoners in consequence of it, "I never treat with rebels, unless to receive submission." I do not find fault with this answer; it was becoming the representative of a great nation; but I mention it only to shew the inconsistency of administration; or at least their divided opinions and conduct upon the same subject.. Is rebellion in Europe different in its nature from what it is in America? Are our subjects in America, taken with arms in their hands, the last stage of resistance to the civil power, to be treated as fair, open, alien enemies? and is the mere suspicion of the same crime in Europe to be treated with all the rigour due to acts of the most deliberate and inveterate treason? I suspect this Bill is only to save appearances. Has any man been brought to judgment? Has any man been convicted or discharged? I have heard of none. The conduct of administration is, in my opinion, preposterous and absurd. The bill is unnecessary. It creates a power to confine people, who in the end, must come in under the faith of a cartel. Either, therefore, let the bill expire, or

preserve something like uniformity of conduct, by dissolving the cartel.

Leave was given to bring in the bil.

November 27.

THIS revival of an act which they had originally deemed so obnoxious, renewed the activity of some of the members of the opposition, who contended, that it was first necessary to know what effect the former bill had produced, before they consented to a renewal of its powers. Upon this ground, Mr. Baker moved, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, praying him to order a correct return and full description of all the prisoners, with an account of the prisons in which they are confined, in America as well as Great Britain, together with copies of their several commitments, and the bail, &c. offered for their enlargement, and all other proceedings of his majesty's privy council, in consequence of the power vested in them by the late bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, to be laid before this House." Sir Grey Cooper insisted, that such an enquiry was unnecessary, and indeed nugatory, for it was impossible for administration to force the bill into operation, if the parties, who might think themselves aggrieved in the first instance, declined to avail themselves of that mode of redress which the bill held out. Mr. Welbore Ellis took occasion to say, that the motive from which he acted when he gave his assent last session to suspending the act, was not so much to punish as to prevent rebellion; few persons, he confessed, had been taken into custody in consequence of it; but then it must be attributed to the terrors of imprisonment, and the other consequences that might ensue; and if few persons had been confined, it was a proof that few crimes, against which the act was levelled, had been committed. Hence he inferred, that the suspension had awed many disaffected subjects into obedience and fidelity, and shut the door against domestic rebellion; that as it had prevented the commission of numberless rebellious acts, so it must continue to operate in the same manner, and prevent in future, equally as well as in the past; that therefore he could

not but justify the measure of still keeping the bill in being, that the same happy effects might not cease to be felt.

Mr. BURKE was warmed at the idea of suspending the Habeas Corpus, merely that rebellions might be prevented. The same argument, he said, might hold good to eternity, and occasion the suspension of that important act to the end of time. The fence of liberty might be cut down, and Britons be deprived of their most valuable privileges, if this mode of reasoning should be approved of by the House. The same cause that obliged the act to be passed this session, might produce a similar effect the next one, and thus defeat the purpose of the most valuable law we had. He implored, he entreated the House, if there was still one spark of genuine patriotism to be found in it, that they would now stand forth the guardians of their country's rights, assert their liberties, and crush the infamous bill that was to be the instrument of their slavery, in the first instance.

Mr. Welbore Ellis expressed himself surprised that the honourable member should fly into such extremes, and draw inferences which he did not think the premises could justify; truth and virtue, he said, were generally to be found in the midway, between the two extremes; and no political or metaphysical proposition could be advanced, which, if pursued to the utmost limits that refined reasoning could stretch it to, would not terminate in an absurdity. He never meant that a continual suspension should be grounded upon this temporary one; nor could he see the least danger that such a measure would ever originate from it.

Mr. BURKE again rose up, and confessed that truth was not to be found in the extremes; that he did not want to drive the honourable member to the argumentum ad absurdum in any metaphysical question; but in this political one he would wish to pursue him to the utmost verge of reasoning, till he should give up a measure pregnant with ruin. The land-tax, he observed, was introduced as a temporary

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revenue, and by that means granted by the House: the army was at first voted for one year only: but now your army, said he, is a standing army; your land-tax is a standing revenue to maintain this standing army; and this suspension may become a standing suspension, and consequently the eternal suspension and destruction of the Habeas Corpus.

Mr. Baker's motion was agreed to; and the bill for the further suspension of the Habeas Corpus was read a second time.

MR. FOX'S MOTION FOR AN INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION.

December 2.

MR.FOX moved, "That this House will, upon Monday, the 2d of February next, resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to consider of the state of the nation." The motion being agreed to, Mr. Fox rose again, and moved, amongst a variety of other papers, for " Copies of all such papers as relate to any steps taken for the fulfilling of that clause of an act, passed in the 16th year of his present majesty, intituled An act to prohibit all trade and intercourse with the • colonies of New Hampshire, Massachuset's Bay, Rhode Island, • Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, during the continuance of the present rebellion within the said colonies respectively; for repealing an act made in the 14th year of the reign of his present majesty, to discontinue the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandize at the town. and within the harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachu'set's Bay; and also two acts made in the last session of parliament, for restraining the trade and commerce of the colonies in the said acts respectively mentioned; and to enable any person or persons, appointed and authorized by his majesty to grant pardons, to issue proclamations in the cases, and for the purposes therein mentioned;' by which, persons, appointed and authorised by his majesty, are empowered, under certain

conditions, to declare any colony or province, colonies or 'provinces, or any county, town, port, district, or place, in any

colony or province, to be at the peace of his majesty ;' and also that his majesty would be pleased to direct that a return of such colony or province, colonies or provinces, county, town, port, district, or place, in any colony or province, as has or have been declared to be at the king's peace, pursuant to the powers of the said act, be laid before this House." This motion was opposed strongly by Lord North, upon the ground that the producing and exposing of any papers relating to a negociation during its existence, would be a proceeding not only contrary to all established forms and practice, but totally subversive of the business in hand, and probably attended with the greatest prejudice to the cause in general. He declared himself ready and willing to grant every reasonable information in his power; but he also declared, that he neither could nor would consent to make discoveries, which would not be less inconsistent with all sound wisdom and true policy, than prejudicial to government, and contrary to the real interests of this country.

Mr BURKE observed, that he never knew the noble lord to behave with so much candour and generosity. He had agreed to every tittle of his honourable friend's request; he had published a bond wherein he granted all; but at the end was inserted a little defeasance, with a power of revocation, by which he preserved himself from the execution of every grant he had made. His conduct reminded him of a certain governor, who, when he arrived at his place of appointment, sat down to a table covered with every dainty and delicacy that art, nature, and a provident steward could furnish; but a pigmy physician, who watched over the health of the governor, excepted to one dish because it was disagreeable; to another, because it was hard of digestion; to a third, because it was unhealthy; and in this progressive mode robbed the governor of every dish on the table, and left him without a dinner. He exposed the folly of the idea that we must not negociate with the Americans until they had renounced their claim of independence. Are they not, he observed, in possession?