ford don't mean to insinuate that I had any concern in that publication. The honourable gentleman concluded with expressing his conviction, that the noble lord would state nothing which was not literally consistent with the truth. General Graham supported the motion. He had for many years acted with Mr. Pitt, and generally of course with the gentlemen on the other side, particularly during the last Parliament, when such proceedings had taken place against a noble viscount, to whom he had the honour to be related, as were by their violence and injustice a disgrace to the journals of that House. He regretted sincerely the dismissal of the late administration; and particularly as they were succeeded by men who from their conduct in abandoning the government on the death of Mr. Pitt, from acknowledged incapacity to conduct it, left that on record which furnished an evidence of their present presumption. The question being loudly called for, the numbers were: For the motion Against it Majority against the new ministers 208 115 93 The address was ordered to be presented to his majesty by such members of the House as are of his majesty's privy council. Upon our return to the gallery, after the division, we found Mr. Dent on his legs, proposing a motion, that John Alcock had been guilty of a gross breach of the privileges of that House, in serving what purported to be summonses from the Speaker, on certain witnesses, to attend the Lancaster committee. The motion being made, Mr. Tierney bore testimony to the character of Mr. Alcock; and declared, that he was not intentionally guilty of any offence. After some conversation between Mr. M. A. Taylor, Mr. S. Bourne, Mr. G. Wynne, and Mr. Dent, the learned gentleman yielded to the general wish to act leniently towards Mr. Alcock, who was brought in custody to the bar, reprimanded by the Speaker, and ordered to be discharged at the rising of the House, upon paying his fees. Mr. Sheridan brought in a bill for the relief of the jour -neymen neymen calico printers, which was read a first time, ordered to be read a second time the next day fortnight, and to be printed. Up Jpon the motion of Mr. Horner, the minutes of the evidence taken before a committee in the session of 1804, upon this subject, was ordered to be reprinted. And the same order was made, upon the motion of Mr. Sheridan, with regard to the report of a committee in the sessions of 1806, upon the before-mentioned minutes. Adjourned, HOUSE OF LORDS. THURSDAY, MARCH 26. The royal family annuities bill, was read a second time, the commitment negatived, and the bill ordered to be read a third time on the first day after the recess. The coffee warehousing bill was read a second time, and committed for the first day after the recess. Lord Walsingham reported the Scots judicature bill, which was ordered to be recommitted on the second day after the recess, COMMERCE. མ། Lord Auckland called the attention of the House to a practice, which, from a sense of duty, he had so often pursued, in bringing forward, for the information of Parliament, such annual accounts as were connected with any office that he had happened to fill. He was more especially induced to this, as he had resigned a few days ago the presidency of the committee of council for trade, an office of great importance and responsibility, which no prudent men would undertake or hold, unless he felt that he could have the confidence and co-operation of a strong and enlightened government. He was proud to believe that he had possessed the unreserved confidence of a government entitled to those epithets. The efficient offices of that government had been filled by individuals of eminent talents, well suited to their respective departments. They had been aided in their councils by colleagues equally distinguished. They had stood high in the opinion of Parliament, and in the esteem and respect of foreign countrics. In closing this description he felt a want of language to express what was due to the character of his honourable friend (Lord Grenville); to the integrity, wisdom, and energy energy, of his mind; to his indefatigable zeal in the discharge of his public duties; to his solicitude for the interests, security, and prosperity of the empire. It was fair to attribute to such an administration some part of the wonderful increase which had taken place in our manufactures, commerce, and navigation, in the course of the last for which he would now move would year. The papers exhibit proofs of that increase far beyond all expectation and example. The comparative account of imports would shew that the total value, exclusive of prize goods, and of the India and China trade, had been, For the year 1804 For the year 1806 £22,016,000 23,130,000 24,358,000 Their lordships would be aware that a large proportion of those imports consists of materials of manufacture, such as flax, hemp, hides, iron, wood, yarn, dying goods, wool, and cotton; or of necessary consumption, such as, wine, spirits, oils, fish, fruit, and grain. The comparative value of British produce and manufacture exported from Great Britain for the same period, had been, For the year ending 5th of Jan. 1805 £23,935,000 25,004,000 27,403,000. And here it might be material to remark, that a similar account for the year 1794 had amounted only to 16,725,000l. He would not enter into the details, but would only observe that in the last year, ending the 5th of January 1807, there had been a great increase in the export of cottons, hardware, and woollen goods. He had also seen, with much satisfaction, and their lordships would find, that the prosperity of Scotland had kept pace with that of England. Such had been the effects of British energy, under an enlightened and provident government! Such was the actual predicament of the British empire, which our unprincipled and implacable enemy had vainly hoped to reduce to a bankruptcy, both of finance and of commerce. As to the bankruptcy in finance, his noble friend (Lord Grenville) had shewn, and had proved, to the conviction, and benefit, of his successors in office, and to his countrymen, that new taxes are no longer necessary, even for a prolonged war on the actual state of expendi ture. ture. As to any failure in commerce, the accounts now to be produced would give a splendid exhibition of imports and exports; far beyond what it had ever been in any period of peace or of war. Having said, in the opening of his speech, that he had enjoyed the full confidence of the late ministers, he requested permission to explain that in one great and essential point he had differed from them radically and most decidedly. His noble friend had been apprized in an early stage of the business, that it was his intention to oppose even the very limited measure which had been made the cause, or occasion, of the change of government; but having stated that dissent, he never felt, he never could feel, that alarm and anxiety which others feel, or pretend to feel, for what they call the safety of the church. It had happened to him only two years ago to be the teller on the catholic question, when their lordships divided 178 to 49. He knew too well the consistency and honour of their lordships' minds to have the smallest particle of doubt, that the principles which prevailed in 1805 would equally prevail in 1807. He sincerely lamented the misunderstanding and its consequences, which threatened to place this great empire in a state of divisions, weakness, and distractions, ill suited to the circumstances of the war, and to the tendency and unexampled dangers of the times on which we are thrown. Lord Auckland concluded by moving for several accounts of the official and real imports into and exports from Great Britain, for nine years, ending the 5th January, 1807; and also for comparative accounts of British shipping for the same period. The Earl of Westmoreland congratulated the House on the statements made by the noble lord, particularly after it had been stated by noble lords on the other side, that they had succeeded to a ruined country and dilapidated resources. CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION. Lord Hawkesbury moved, that the House do adjourn till Wednesday se'nnight. Lord Grenville. My Lords, I do not rise to object to the motion of adjournment, but to state, what your lordlordships are aware it is perfectly regular for me to do, circumstances connected with the present state of public affairs. I wish to state plainly those circumstances which have led to the present situation of public affairs, and to the change in his majesty's government; and I am the more anxious to do this in order to obviate those misrepresentations which had gone abroad relative to the conduct of my colleagues and myself, and that to your lordships, and through you to the public and the country, my conduct and character may be justified from those aspersions which have been thrown upon them. In the year 1801, when the administration, at the head of which was the late Mr. Pitt, resigned their offices, it was not thought expedient, from circumstances which then existed, to state in any public manner the causes of that resignation. The consequence was, that much misrepresentation took place with respect to the circumstances which led to that resig nation; but as I never repented my concurrence in the resolution to which I have adverted, so I have never regretted the consequences to which it gave birth. But, my lords, from the nature of the circumstances which have led to the recent change in his majesty's government, and from the nature of the misrepresentations which have been directed against those from whom his Majesty's confidence had been withdrawn, I feel it incumbent upon me to state clearly and distinctly the circumstances which actually took place. And I will ask noble lords on the other side to point out any period of our history in which, as in the present case, the minutes of the advice given to his majesty by his confidential servants has ever been, not merely published, but published in a garbled and partial manner. My lords, garbled and partial statements of that advice so given to his majesty by his confidential servants have been published in the public newspapers: it is of this I com plain, and I trust your lordships will think I complain. with reason and justice. Had those who, of course, on succeeding to administration, came into possession of the minutes of advice given by the late ministers, conceived that the advice were improperly given, there were two modes in which they might have acted; they might either have moved for the names of those who had given his majesty bad advice, together with the advice itself, which ought constitutionally to be given in writing, or being in possession of that advice, they might have made a motion against the authors of it. Instead, however, of either of these modes being adopted, garbled and partial statements, as I have already observed, have been published in the VOL. II. 1806-7. 31 public |