He remarked upon the indecenoy as well as the impolicy of granting to France what we had refufed to Ireland, and of giving to a rival and a natural enemy what we had withheld from our friends and fellow fubjects. With refpect to all the temporary advantages, fome of which he believed might reafonably be expected from the treaty, they were to him additional reafons for rejecting it. Every offer of fervice from France, he regarded with fufpicion -timeo Danaos & dona ferentes- Capt. Macbride condemned the treaty as highly detrimental, in many particulars, to our marine. The goods deemed contraband in the 22d article were, he faid, fuch as. might be effentialin a country whole army was its first object, but had fcarce any reference to the prefervation of a navy. The 34th article he conceived gave fuch advantages, to privateers as would enable them to get feamen much fooner than the king's thips; and he reminded the house, that France, by the regifter of her feamen, had an evident fuperiority in point of expedition in filling her fhips' complements; and he therefore warned them againft throwing any additional difficulty in the way of manning our navy. Lastly, he conceived, that the treaty in its. general tendency went to increafe the ftrength of the French navy, by throwing a greater proportion of the carrying trade into her hands. Mr. Burke alfo took this opportunity of delivering his opinion of the treaty. He took notice of the narrow and confined views upon which it was formed, and had been. defended. It had been talked of as if it were an affair of two little counting-houses, and not of two great empires. It feemed to be confidered by its fupporters as a contention between the fign of the Fleurde-lis and the fign of the Red-Lion, which houfe fhould obtain the best cuftom. Such politicians, he faid, when in power, converted large cities into fmall villages; while thofe of more enlarged and liberal minds acted upon another fcale, and changed fmall villages into great cities. It was alfo curious, he faid, to remark, how, with our policy, we had changed our language. Whilit our tongues were let loofe in the fouleft afperity against other states; Ireland was a weak, an infatuated ifland; Portugal an unnatural, a. bafe, a worthlefs, an ungrateful na tion-nothing had been heard for fome time paft but panegyricks upon the French. And what were the topics we had chofen for our panegyrics? Did we commend the French gallantry, their valour, their. ingenuity, their opulence, their wit? -No: it was their fincerity, their. moderation, their truth, their kindnefs and good-will to this nation,. that we were fo extremely taken. with. Mr. Burke then entered into a minute examination of the future and ultimate tendency of the meafure; and from a full and judicious comparifon of the relative circumftances and fituations of the two countries, of which both fides of the houfe joined in applaate, he inferred that we riqued much by it, and could gaia bit little. He feemed to agree with the oppofite fide of the houfe, that there was no no immediate danger to be apprehended from a free commerce with France, either to our trade or manufactures. He conceived that our manufacturers, in point of ingenuity, industry, and fkill, had fo far got the ftart of our neighbours, that they could not, for a confiderable time at leaft, rival us in our commodities. But it was the fuperiority we poffeffed in capital which enabled us, he faid, to fet all their efforts to cope with us at defiance; a capital formed and fupported by that general partnership between the landed property, the monied property, and the commercial property of the nation, which, from the peculiar nature of our establishments, exifted in this country. The powers of this capital were irrefiftible in trade; it enticed. the ftrong, it controlled the weak; it over-awed, it domineered, it even tyrannized, in all the markets of the world. This capital the treaty had a direct tendency to open gradually to France. The moment the prohibitions upon her trade were taken off, fhe would begin to infinuate herself into the partnership, and in the end come in for a fhare in the capital; and the was content to fubmit to any temporary lofs in trade, which might arife from the fuperiority of our manufactures, for the fake of greater and more permanent future advantages. The fame provident policy, he remarked, appeared to direct her conduct towards America, which it was evident could make no return at prefent for the bounties and free ports fo liberally granted her; and was even unable to pay the debts fhe had contracted with the French government and merchants. When to thefe proofs of this evident line of policy were added many other eircumftances which he enumerated, fuch as her negociations with Portugal, her unceasing attention to her navy, the ftupendous works fhe was erecting at Cherbourg, and others of a like nature, by which the appeared as it were ftretching her arins all round to grafp and flifle us, he faid he conceived the ftrange and unnatural defire that had all at once poffeffed us of running into her embraces, to be nothing leis than infatuation. The treaty was ably fupported by Mr. Grenville, Mr. Pulteney, Lord Mornington, and others, upon the grounds which have already been ftated; but at a late hour an objec tion to the addrefs,of another nature, was started by Mr. Welbore Ellis. He contended that the motion for an address in the prefent ftage of the bufinefs was premature, unprecedented, and unparliamentary, tending to deprive the houfe of its powers of deliberation, and to pledge them to pafs bills for carrying the provifions of the treaty into effect. The proceedings of parliament upon the treaty of Utrecht were referred to as a cafe in point, and as an useful leffon to the house against haftinefs and precipitation. That treaty was laid before the house by a meffage from the queen. A committee of the whole house was appointed to take the 8th and 9th articles into confideration. After a long debate in that committee, on the queftion, that the house be moved for leave to bring in a bill to make effectual the 8th and 9th articles of the treaty of commerce, the queftion was carried by a very. large majority, greater than on any vote on the prefent treaty. The bill' was brought in, and read a first time, at the diftance of a fort night from the vote in the first committee. There was an interval of a week between the first and fecond reading of the bill. Petitions now came in from all quarters; and the committee on the bill fat for many days to hear the petitioners by their counfel against the treaty. The report from this committee was received and agreed to. But on the queftion, that the bill with amendments be engroffed, it was carried in the negative by a majority of nine. No addrefs was prefented to the queen till after the rejection of the bill. This proved the importance of a regular compliance with the forms of the houfe, and a due exercife of their deliberative powers. A large majority had thus been, by mere dint of debate and difcuffion, converted into a minority, and one of the worst, and most hoftile treaties to the British conftitution that ever was heard of, was put an end to and annihilated. The reafon that the minifter did not proceed in the fame way now was obvious. Aware of the event of 1713, he was determined to proceed in another manner; and in order to enfure the fuccefs of his treaty, inftead of rifking the chance of deliberation, he had profited by the fate of the treaty of Utrecht, and had caufed an addrefs to be moved, to tie up the hands of the houfe, and preclude all debate and all danger of future oppofition. In answer to thefe objections, the chancellor of the exchequer infifted upon the addrefs on the Irish propofitions, but two years before, as a precedent in point, in favour of the mode of proceeding he had adopted. As to the merits of the objection itfelf, he obferved that the delibe rative function of the house in the prefent cafe was confined to one general point, whether they thould carry into effect the treaty at large; it left the difcuflion of the mode of doing it perfectly open and free. Such gentlemen as felt themselves prepared to decide in favour of the treaty, were certainly bound to vote for the addrefs, as there could be nothing improper in any perfon's undertaking to do at a future period that, which, if circumftances were ripe, he thould be willing at prefent to do. The debate continued till near three in the morning, when the previous queftion, which was moved by Mr. Ellis, being put, the same was carried in the affirmative, by 236 to 160, and the address was afterwards agreed to without a divifion. Feb. 23d. On the 23d the addrefs was communicated, at a conference, to the lords, and their concurrence requefied; and the first day of March was appointed by them for taking the fubje& into their confideration. Whilft the commons were engaged in the difcuflion of the commercial treaty, the attention of the houfe of lords was called, by the viscount Stormont, to a question in which the conftitution of that branch of the legislature, together with the rights of the Scottish peerage, were effentially concerned. It arofe out of a circumftance, already mentioned, that took place during the late prorogation of parliament the creation of two of the fixteen peers of Scotland to be peers of Great Britain; and it was fimply this, whether or not, after fuch creation, they could continue to fit as reprefentatives of the peerage of Scotland? The The act of union was filent upon the fubject; the only precedent that exifted, that of the duke of Athol, upon whom, in 1736, being then one of the fixteen peers, the English barony of Strange devolved by inheritance, was for the affirmative; and it was well known that the lord chancellor's opinion was in favour of the fame fide of the question. On the other hand, the negative appeared to lord Stormont fo ftrongly fupported by every principle of equity, analogy, and fair conftruction, as to induce him to bring the queftion, in the face of all thofe difficulties, to a public decifion. Accordingly, on the 15th of February, the lords having been pre vioufly fummoned, the houfe refolved itfelf into a committee of privileges, for the purpofe of taking it into their confideration. The motion made by lord Stormont was as follows: "That it is the opinion of this "committee, that the earl of Aber"corn, who was chofen to be of "the number of the fixteen peers, "who by the treaty of union are "to reprefent the peerage of Scot"land in parliament, having been "created vifcount Hamilton by "letters patent under the great feal "of Great Britain, doth thereby "cease to fit in the houfe as a re"prefentative of the peerage of "Scotland." In fupport of this motion, he obferved, that the queftion appeared to him to lie in a narrow compafs, and was to be decided upon a few plain obvious principles, which he would endeavour to ftate to the committee. It is provided by the act of union, that the peers of Scotland, who were thought too numerous to be adinit ted tohereditaryfeats in parliaments, fhould be reprefented by fixteen, to be chofen out of their own number. By this act the peerage is made to confift of two diftin&t orders of men, having different rights, and ftanding in very different fituations. The one, together with all the other privileges of peerage, have individually a right to a feat in parliament, whofe authority now extends over the whole united kingdom. The other has the inferior rights of the peerage throughout the whole kingdorn alfo; but is abridged of the most valuable right of all, an hereditary feat in parliament. They are therefore in fact two diftinct orders of men, the one having individually a fhare in the legiflature, the other only a virtual fhare by reprefentation. No liné of diftinction can be more ftrongly drawn. The queftion then, fairly ftated, is this, what, according to the true meaning and intent of the union, is to be the condition of him who paffes from the one order to the other, from the reprefentative to the individual clafs? Why clearly this; he acquires all the rights of an hereditary feat as an individual, and of courfe the rights of reprefentation ccafe, as appertaining exclufively to that condition in which he no longer remains. No one can appcar in perfon, and at the fame time be reprefented by his proxy. The one right being in lieu of the other, they cannot be co-exiftent. The committee, he faid,well knew that the right of reprefentation is fo far from being inherent in peers, that it was ftrenuouíly contended at the union, that it was inconfiftent with and repugnant to the nature of peerage. It certainly is a right incidental incidental to the change of fituation made by that act. From the fituation in which the union placed them, the two noble lords had emerged by the favour of the crown, and were raised to thofe rights, to that condition in the British parliament, which in the parliament of Scotland they before enjoyed. It was upon these principles that the houfe in 1709, in the cafe of the duke of Dover's vote, refolved, "That a peer of Scotland, claiming "to fit in the houfe of peers by "virtue of a patent paffed under "the great feal of Great Britain, "and who now fits in the parlia"ment of Great Britain, has no " right to vote in the election of "the fixteen peers." The determination was as folemn, as deliberate, as any that ftands on the records of parliament. It rejected the vote of a perfon intimately connected with the lord treasurer (Godolphin). The refolution paffed at a time when all that related to the union was freth in every man's memory, and the true meaning and intention of that treaty were generally known. It paffed in the prefence of many of thofe who had been commiffioners on both fides, actors in that great fcene; and the journals fhew that there was not a fingle proteft. It has been conftantly acted under, has stood unqueftioned, unshaken, for near fourscore years. It follows evidently, from this refolution, that as a peer of Scotland, under the circumftances defcribed in it, cannot vote in the election; fo neither can he be elected one of the fixteen. For the act exprefsly directs, that he thall be chofen out of their own number, that is clearly out of the number of thofe who chule; and to this conclufion their uniform practice had been confonant. But another queftion ftill remained behind. For though they could neither vote in the election, nor be elected, yet it may be urged, that having been elected previous to this difqualification, they might retain their feats till the next general election. The act of union provides for no cafes except thofe of death and legal difqualification. That the circumftances upon which the prefent queftion is founded do not amount to a legal difqualification, ftrictly speak ing, cannot be denied; but they may come within the real intent and meaning of the act, which is to be collected from its general principles, applied to the particular cafe. A virtual reprefentation in the British parliament was the compenfation given to the Scottish peers, for the furrender they made of their individual rights in the parliament of Scotland. But the chance of being actually chofen, and of fitting as a reprefentative, is doubtlefs to be confidered as a very inaterial part of this compenfation; and of the chance of enjoying this part of his compenfation every peer is evidently deprived, fo long as another perfon, who has no claim to any thare in it at all, is in poffeflion of it. Again, an hereditary feat, and at temporary feat byelection,are incompatible, for this obvious reafon--the hereditary feat takes away the whole effect of the relation that thould subfift between the reprefentative and thofe who chufe him. This connection is ftronger in fome governments than in others; but it obtains univerfally in all, and is of the very effence of reprefentation. But fuppofe |