commence, should be filled up with the words, "1st of January next."

Mr. BURKE stated one particular saving that would accrue to the public by the regulations of this bill. The paymaster of the forces might, in his capacity of treasurer of Chelsea-hospital, be deemed virtually a colonel, in one respect at least, for he enjoyed the profits arising from the contract for clothing the pensioners belonging to that hospital. His predecessor had enjoyed a profit of 700l. arising from this contract; and yet, to do his predecessor justice, he had not made a bad bargain for the public: but since he (Mr. Burke) had come into the office, he had made a new contract, upon much harder terms for the contractor; but as the contractor was not a member of parliament, but the person who was himself to furnish the clothing, he was able to live by the contract, and yet the public would gain бool. more upon it than Mr. Rigby had gained; so that in fact, both sums added together, there would be a saving upon the contract of 1,300l., which saving, instead of appropriating to his own use, he would bring forward for the use of the public, to make part of the ways and means towards raising the supply.

The committee went through the bill, which passed the Commons on the 2d of July.

DEATH OF THE MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM CHANGE OF MINISTRY.

July 9.

WHILST parliament was successfully engaged in prosecuting the most effectual measures for the security of its own independence, for healing the breaches of the constitution, and

relieving the burthens of the people, a heavy calamity was approaching, which again darkened the prospect that had so happily opened to the nation. This was the loss of the Marquis of Rockingham; whose health had been for some time gradually declining, and at length sunk under the increasing weight of public cares and business. The first step taken by the court after his death, which happened on the 1st of July, was the appointment of the Earl of Shelburne to be his successor in the treasury. Lord John Cavendish and Mr. Fox soon afterwards resigned their offices, and were followed by the Duke of Portland; by Mr. Montagu and Lord Althorpe, from the board of treasury; by Lord Duncannon and Mr. J. Townshend from the admiralty; by Mr. Burke, and by Mr. Lee the solicitor-general. Mr. William Pitt was made chancellor of the exchequer; Mr. T. Townshend and Lord Grantham, secretaries of state; Mr. Pepper Arden succeeded Mr. Lee; the lord advocate of Scotland succeeded Mr. Barré, who was removed to the payoffice; and Earl Temple was appointed to the lord-lieutenantcy of Ireland. The secession of such a weight of talents and integrity from the service of government, could not be regarded with indifference. The motives which were supposed to have actuated them, were variously represented; and some insinuations being thrown out, highly injurious to the public character of the persons cencerned, the first opportunity was taken of bringing the subject to an open discussion in the House of Commons. Accordingly, on the 9th of July, a debate having arisen on a motion made by Mr. Coke, relative to the pension of 3000l. a-year granted to Colonel Barré, the divisions that had prevailed amongst his majesty's servants were strongly retorted on those who had formed the last, by Mr. Bamber Gascoyne, a member of the old administration; and this discord was alleged to be the more culpable at present, on account of the very critical and alarming situation of affairs. Upon this occasion, Mr. Fox entered into a most able justification of the part he had taken. After he had been replied to by General Conway,

Mr. BURKE rose, and supported Mr. Fox. On his rising there was an uncommon confusion at the bar. He directed his eye to that quarter, and with considerable emotion said, he was peculiarly circumstanced from the delicacy which he entertained for one part of the House, while he felt

nothing but the most sovereign contempt for the other. This to him appeared an hour, though a late one, of the greatest consequence. He was called on by a variety of circumstances to vindicate his character and principies to the public. Those who, by the present unaccountable tmait, seemed dissatisfied with his private character, knew where to find him. But he was not to be intimidated by these little unmanly and dirty artifices, from coming forward and accounting, with much simplicity and truth, for his short stewardship, to that public, whose servant he had ever been. About the question relating to the pension meant for an honourable gentleman, he had but little to say. With respect to this particular pensicner, he knew that the noble marquis thought himself bound for it, as he had, in the year 1766, left out the honourable colonel by mistake, from a list of promotions. Among all the encomiums made on the character of the noble marquis lately deceased, this was one, that he left his dearest and best friends with the simple reward of his own invaluable intimacy. This singular test of their sincerity he asked while alive, and it was a tax he left on their regard for his memory when dead. He, for his own part, had not been without his share of the one, and he would soon convince the world, he was not unequal to the other. Well might he be excused for mingling his tears with those of all descriptions and ranks of men, for the irreparable loss of this most excellent and most virtuous character!

He was gone, he said, to that tribunal, where we all must go and render an account of our transactions; and he trusted, that no soul ever went with a greater certainty of its actions being approved. On the late change of ministry, the people, he said, looked up to the Marquis of Rockingham as the only person to be at the head of affairs, as the clearness of his head, and the purity of his heart, made him universally beloved. It was to him that the public looked for every thing: they knew government was safe in his hands, as he would not lend his name to any thing that was detrimental to his country. But as fate had

so ordained it, as to take that great and virtuous statesman from us, the first step his majesty's ministers should have done, was to seek out some person the most like him in sentiment and integrity; but, unfortunately for the country, it had turned out just the reverse; they had pitched on a man, of all others the most unlike to him. It was proposed, he said, to have appointed the Duke of Portland in the room of the noble marquis, as he was a person whose abilities and integrity had gained him the love of the people here, and the esteem and veneration of the people of Ireland. He was the person whose great talents and connections would have given weight to his majesty's councils, and been a means of bringing about that object so much wished for, a general, lasting, and honourable peace; but from the turn things had taken, he was fearful that all the good that had been effected by displacing the late ministry, who so nigh wrought the ruin of their country, would be frustrated; and if it should cause a twenty years' siege, as his right honourable friend had talked of, to displace these men, he was of opinion that few persons would have courage to undertake it. The noble marquis, he said, had uniformly, through life, entertained one opinion; but that was not the case with the noble earl that was to succeed him. He was a man that he could by no means confide in, and he called heaven and earth to witness, so help him God! that he verily believed the present ministry would be fifty times worse than that of the noble lord, who lately had been reprobated and removed.

He begged leave to make a few remarks upon what he could not help considering as very extraordinary doctrine, which a right honourable general had been pleased to lay down under the idea of candour: and I hope, said Mr. Burke, they will not be considered to be impertinent, as it seems to glance at impropriety, or (if the House pleases) a want of candour in me and in my friends. Candour, if I understand the true meaning of the word, is an impartial view of whatever the mind contemplates: let us apply this definition to the right honourable general's apology for his

conduct. He tells you, that he has seen nothing improper in the demeanour of Lord Shelburne under the Rockingham administration; he will therefore try him as a premier. Is this an impartial view? No, no surely it is not. Το be candid, we must take to mind the whole of that nobleman's politics ever since he has affected to be a statesman. In the late premiership he was controuled. In former administrations, when he could indulge his opinions, he did indulge them; and now that he is minister, he will give scope to them with a vengeance!

He trusted some credit would be given him on the present occasion. His domestic sensibility had never been doubted. He had a pretty large family, and but little fortune. He liked his present office. The house, and all its appendages, to a man of his taste, could not be disagreeable. All this he relinquished not, the House might well conceive, without regret; for the welfare of his family was very dear to him. No man could conceive him capable, in such circumstances as his certainly were, of sacrificing all this and 4,000l. per annum for nothing. No; he did it all for that country and that public whose property he was, and to whom he was always ready to surrender whatever he most valued in life. He had been long surfeited with opposition. Those who were familiar with his habits of living, with his manners and temper, would not call him petulant or factious. What, then, could induce him to leave an administration, to the formation of which his humble endeavours had somewhat contributed? Nothing, he protested, but the sincerest regard for a public, in the service of which he wished to live and die. He was not satisfied, because his heart would not let him confide where his duty and situation made it necessary that he should. The right honourable general's feelings were in this respect exceedingly convenient. He took every man by his looks; this might be very good-natured, but it was not very wise. He had read when young, of a wolf which was mistook by a simple shepherdess, because dressed like her grand-mother, for one quite as gentle and tame as she was. But the first op