that was and continues to be my observation; and I am not afraid to trust the justice and propriety of. it to the good sense, the dignity, and the memory of the house.

If the right honourable gentleman retains his own opinions, and if the house likewise retains its own, is it not evident that he came into office without the most distant prospect of serving the public? Is it not evident that he has brought on a struggle between executive and legislative authority, at a time when they are pointing, with equal vigour, unity and effect, to the common interests of the nation? Is it not palpable, that instead of giving stability, dignity and authority to the government of this country, at a time when its affairs are falling into ruin in every part of the world, from the want of them, he has crippled and enervated all its operations, stirred dangerous questions between the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the people, and wasted the important hours of deliberation in this house, in bring ing things back to the very condition they were in ori-· ginally, when he stepped forth to disturb them? Can the right honourable gentleman, or any body for him, explain to the house, why the crown, by its answer to our address, should promise not to disturb our proceeds ings, yet should at the same moment change the whole executive authority of government, and place it in the hands of persons adverse to every principle, they had pledged themselves to adopt, on the very measure they were desired to proceed upon? Is it not plain to the meanest understanding, that it struck a palsy into every member of executive power, which could not and ought not to have any energy or strength, when deprived of that vital spirit of popular government, which could only circulate life and heat through the medium of the people's representatives in this house?

་ ༢.

I trust that whenever the crown of England removes its ministers, enjoying the full confidence of the com mons, and chooses so strange and inauspicious an hour for that removal, as when, upheld by that confidence, they were planning great and necessary systems of government; and when it not only chose that season for removing them, but put into their, room persons whose principles on the same objects the people's representatives had recently rejected and condemned; I hop

whatever may be our differences on other subjects, that we shall be unanimous in considering that moment as à great and alarming crisis, in which the freedom of the government is to be decided on for ever: and that though we should proceed -like prudent and virtuous men, with foresight and moderation, taking care not to touch any of the forms of the governmeut, yet that we should convince the crown by our conduct, that the wisest and ablest individual who shall ever venture to stand upon secret influence, against the confidence of this house, will find that his abilities, whatever they may be, or whatever they may be fancied, instead of being a sup port and protection to him, will only be like the con vulsions of a strong man in the agonies of disease, which exhaust the vital spirits faster than the fainter struggles of weakness, and bring on death the sooner.

Such, in a few hours, I trust, will be the fate of the right honourable gentleman at the head of the present government indeed, he never compared, in his own mind, his first appearances in this house, when, under the banners of a right honourable gentleman, he supported the genuine cause of liberty, with his present melancholy ridiculous situation in it, than he was drawn into an involuntary parody of the scene of Hamlet and his mother in the closet.

Look here upon this picture, and on this;
See what a grace was seated in this youth;
His father's fire:-the soul of Pitt himself,
A tongue like his to soften or command;
A station like the genius of England,,
New lighted on this top of freedom's hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give his country carnest of a patriot.
Look ye now what follows:

Dark, secret influence, like a mildew'd ́ear,
Blasting this public virtue. Has he eyes?
Could he this bright assembly leave to please,
To batten on that bench!!!

The right honourable gentleman may profit the less from these observations, from believing that I seek them,

and that I have a pleasure in making them if he thinks so, I can assure him, upon my honour, that he is mistaken; so very much mistaken, that the inconveniences which the country suffers at this moment, from the want of a settled government, are greatly heightened to my feelings, from the reflection that they are increased by his unguided ambition. Our fathers were friends; and I was taught, from my infancy, to reverence the name of PITT ;—an original partiality, which, instead of being diminished, was strongly confirmed by an acquaintance with the right honourable gentleman himself, which I was cultivating with pleasure, when he was taken from his profession into a different scenę. Let him not think that I am the less his friend, or the mean envier of his talents, because they have been too much the topic of panegyric here already, and both I and the public are now reaping the bitter fruits of these intemperate praises. It is good," said Jeremiah, "for a man to bear the yoke in his youth;" and if the right honourable gentleman had attended to this maxim, he would not, at so early a period, have declared against a subordinate situation; but would have lent the aid of his faculties, to carry on the affairs of this country, which wanted nothing but stability to render them glorious, instead of setting up at once for himself to be the first; because he had too hastily declared against being subordinate, and doing it under circumstances, which could not but for a time at least (the spirit of the house would take care it should not be long) disturb and distract all the operations of government, and disappoint the most solid interests of the public.

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How very different has been the progress of my honourable friend that sits near me, who was not hatched at once into a minister, by the heat of his own ambition, but who, as it was good, for him to do, in the words of theprophet, bore the yoke in his youth," passed: through the subordinate offices, and matured his talents, in long and laborious oppositions; arriving, by the na tural progress of his powerful mind, to a superiority of political, wisdom and comprehension, which this house had long with delight and satisfaction, acknowledged! To pluck such a man from the councils of his country: in the hour of her distresses, while he enjoyed the full

confidence of the house to give effect to vigorous plans for her interests; and to throw every thing into confusion, by the introduction of other men,' introduced, as it should seem, for no other purpose than to beget that confusion, is an evil that, if we cannot rectify, we may at least have leave to lament.These evils are, however, imputed, by the right honourable gentleman and his col leagues, to another source to the bill for the regula tion of the East Indies, from the mischiefs of which they had stepped forth to save the country, a language most indecent in this house of commons, which thought it their duty to the public to pass it by a majority of above a hundred; but which was, however, to be taken to be destructive and dangerous, notwithstanding that antho rity, because it had been disapproved by a majority of eighteen votes in the lords, some of whom I reverence as conscientious and independent opinions; but the majo rity of which small majority voted upon principles which the forms of the house will not permit me to allude to, farther than to say, that individual noblemen are not always gentlemen.

LXII. Mr. Dundas, (now lord Melville,) on the attainted peers.

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THERE are several persons, useful and deserving members of society, who are unfortunately, at this time, deprived of the happiness and comfort of en joying their hereditary possessions. Those unhappy men have suffered from the active part which their ancestors or themselves have taken in a late alarming reBelliony that had convulsed the empire, and nearly overthrown the present royal family but those feuds and animosities are now entirely done away, and I can with truth and justice affirm, that his present majesty has not in his dominions a more brave and loyal people than those who possess the mountains of the north. They have frequently given the most distinguished and memorable proofs of their prowess, their affection to their country, and their loyalty to the best of sovereigns,

by expending their treasures, and often pouring forth their blood for the defence and glory of Great Britain.

Surely, therefore, that people who have called forth their military skill for the honour of their countrymen, who have often repelled the enemy, who have often added new lustre to our former glorious atchievements, merit at least some small degree of acknowledgement and gratitude from their fellow-subjects. Their cause of former misunderstanding is now no more; and as they have made themselves illustrious in the field, they claim the protection of the British administration in the cabi net. I need hardly mention, that the people I allude to are those hardy sons of Britain who inhabited the moun tains in the highlands of Scotland; a race of men to whom an illustrious statesman, in a former war, has paid the highest tribute of applause for their military prowess.

I am proud to have been the first who called forth those resources from the bleak wilds and mountainous parts of the north, as they have been the means of re storing peace and tranquillity to our dominions when most other resources had been applied to in vain. I, like the illustrious statesman to whom I allude, am not too partial to this or that part of the country, but freely confess, that I am stimulated from motives of justice and humanity, to make a proposition, which has for its ultimate object, the restoration of property to the real proprietors, and giving peace and happiness to some individuals, who merit well of society. The illustrious person to whom I allude, is the late earl of Chatham, a name glorious in the annals of Great Britain, and who has spoken of the hardy sons of the north in terms of the most expressive panegyric. "I am not," said he,

attached to one part of the country more than ano ther. I am above all local prejudices. It is a matter of indifference to me, whether a man was rocked in his cradle, on this or on the other side of the Tweed.-I sought for merit where I could find it;-and, I found it in the mountains of the north.-Those hardy sons answered the emergency of the times, and I have the honour to boast of being the first who called their powers forth into action. They were, in a manner, proscribed and forgotten, till I emancipated them from their bondage, and helped to wipe away the odium which was illiberally