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chooses to reserve himself, and speak after every one, that no means may be given to reply to his defence to expose its fallacy if fallacious-or to detect its misrepresentations, if he shall choose to misrepresent what may be said. If the right honourable gentleman is truly desirous of meeting the charges against him,. and he has confidence in his ability to vindicate his conduct, why not pursue the course which would be manly and open? Why not go into a committee, as was offered him by the honourable gentleman who made the motion, in which the forms of this house would have permitted members on each side to answer whatever was advanced by the other, and the subject would have received the most ample discus, sion? Instead of this honourable course, he is determined to take all advantages. He screens himself by a stratagem which no defendant in any process in this country could enjoy; since no man put upon his defence in any court of justice could so contrive as not only to prevent all reply to his defence, but all refutation of what he may assert, and all explanation of what he may misrepresent. Such are the advantages which the right honourable gentleman is determined to seize in this moment of his trial; and to confess the truth, never did man stand so much in need of every advantage! never was there an occasion in which a minister was exhibited to this house in circumstances so ungracious, as those under which he at present appears. Last session of parliament we had no fewer than four debates upon the question of the armament, in which the right honourable gentleman involved this country, without condescending to explain the object which he had in view. The minority of this house stood forth against the monstrous measure of involving the country, without unfolding the reason. The minister proudly and obstinately refused, and called on the majority to support him. We gave our opinion at large on the subject, and with effect, as it turned out, on the publick

* Mr. Whitbread.

mind. On that of the right honourable gentleman, however, we were not successful; for what was his conduct? He replied to us, "I hear what you say-I could answer all your charges, but I know my duty to my king too well to submit at this moment to expose the secrets of the state, and to lay the reasons before you of the measure on which I demand your confidence. I choose rather to lie for a time under all the imputations which you may heap upon me, trusting to the explanations which will come at last." Such was explicitly his language. However I might differ from the right honourable gentleman in opinion, I felt for his situation. There was in this excuse some shadow of reason by which it might be possible to defend him, when the whole of his conduct came to be investigated. I thought it hard to goad him, when, perhaps, he considered it as unsafe to expose what he was doing. But when the conclusion of the negotiation had loosed him from his fetters, when he had cast off the trammels that bound him, I thought that, like the horse described by Homer, (if I remembered I would quote the lines) exulting in the fresh pastures after he had freed himself from the bridle, the right honourable gentleman would have been eager to meet us with every sort of explanation and satisfaction. I thought that, restrained by no delicacy, and panting only for the moment that was to restore him to the means of developing, and of expatiating upon, every part of his conduct that was mysterious; of clearing up that which had been reprobated, of repelling on the heads of his adversaries those very accusations with which they had loaded him the right honourable gentleman would have had but one wish, that of coming forward in a bold and manly manner, and endeavouring to make his cause good against us, in the face of the world. Has he done so? has he ever given us the means of inquiring fully and fairly into his conduct? No such thing. He lays before us a set of papers, sufficient, indeed, as I shall contend, to found a strong criminal charge of misconduct against him, but evidently mutilated, garbled, and imperfect, with a view

of precluding that full inquiry which his conduct demands, and which we had every reason to expect he would not have shrunk from on this day. We call for more. They are denied us. Why? "Because," say the gentlemen on the other side, "unless the papers now before you show there is ground for accusation, and unless you agree to accuse, it is not safe or proper to grant you more." But is this a defence for the right honourable gentleman? Do these papers exculpate him? Directly the reverse. Prima facie they condemn him. They afford us, in the first instance, the proof of disappointment. They show us that we have not obtained what we aimed to obtain, and they give us no justification of the right honourable gentleman for that disappointment. I have heard much ingenuity displayed, to maintain that there was no guilt. But what is the fallacy of this argument? When we called for papers during the Spanish negotiation, we were answered, "the negotiation was pending, and it was unsafe to grant them." Very well. But when it was over, and the same reasons for withholding them could not be said to exist, we were told, "Look to the result.-The nation is satisfied with what we have got, and you must lay a ground of criminality before we can admit your principle of calling for papers." Thus we were precluded from all inquiry into that business; but now the right honourable gentleman, conscious that the country feels somewhat differently, admits the ground of criminality to have been laid by producing those documents on your table, imperfect as they are. It is from his own confession, therefore, that I am to pronounce him guilty, until he proves himself not to be so; and it is enough for me to contend, that the papers now before us afford him prima facie no justification; but, on the contrary, afford strong proof of his guilt, inasmuch as they evince a complete failure in the object he armed to extort. Sir, the right honourable gentleman is sensible how much these circumstances render it necessary for him to take every possible advantage his situation can give him. Instead, there

fore, of showing himself anxious to come forward, or thinking it his duty to explain why it was inconvenient or impolitick for him to state last year the true grounds on which he had called upon us to arm, what was the object of that armament, and why he had abandoned it, he lays a few papers on the table, and contents himself with an appeal unheard of before."If you have any thing to say against me, speak out, speak all-I will not say a word till you have donelet me hear you one after another-I will have all the advantage of the game-none of you shall come behind me for as soon as you have all thrown forth what you have to say, I will make a speech, which you shall not have an opportunity to contradict, and I will throw myself on my majority, that makes you dumb for ever."-Such is the situation in which we stand, and such is the course which the right honourable gentleman thinks it honourable to pursue!

I cheerfully yield to him the ground he chooses to occupy, and I will proceed, in obedience to the call personally addressed to me, frankly to state the reasons for the vote of censure, in which I shall this night agree. Much argument has been used on topicks, not unfit, indeed, to be mixed with this question, but not necessary; topicks, which undoubtedly may be incidently taken up, but which are not essential to the discussion. In this class I rank what has been said upon the balance of Europe. Whether the insulated policy which disdained all continental connexion whatever, as adopted at the beginning of the present reign-whether the system of extensive foreign connexion, so eagerly insisted on by a young gentleman who spoke yesterday for the first time* or whether, the medium between these two, be our interest, are certainly very proper topicks to be discussed, but as certainly not essential topicks to this question. Of the three, I confidently pronounce the middle line the true political course of this country. I think that, in our situation, every conti

* Mr. Jenkinson, now Lord Hawkesbury.

nental connexion is to be determined by its own merits. I am one of those who hold that a total inattention to foreign connexions might be, as it has proved, very injurious to this country. But if I am driven to choose between the two extremes, between that of standing insulated and aloof from all foreign connexion, and trusting for defence to our own resources, and that system as laid down in the speech of an honourable gentleman, who distinguished himself so much last night, to the extent to which he pressed it, I do not hesitate to declare that my opinion is for the first of those situations. I should prefer even total disunion to that sort of connexion, to preserve which we should be obliged to risk the blood and the resources of the country in every quarrel and every change that ambition or accident might bring about in any part of the continent of Europe. But in the question before us, I deny that I am driven to either of these extremes. The honourable gentleman, who spoke with all the open ingenuousness, as well as the animation of youth, seemed himself to dread the extent to which his own doctrines would lead him. He failed, therefore, to sustain the policy of the system he described, in that part where it can alone apply, namely, to the degree in which it is necessary for us to support a balance of power. Holland, for instance, he states to be our natural ally. Granted. "To preserve Holland, and that she may not fall into the arms of France, we must make an alliance with Prussia." Good. But Prussia may be attacked by Austria. Then we must make an alliance with the Ottoman Porte, that they may fall on Austria. Well, but the Porte may be attacked by Russia. Then we must make an alliance with Sweden, that she may fall on Russia. By the way, I must here remind him, that he totally forgot even to mention Poland, as if that country, now become in some degree able to act for itself, from the change in its constitution, was of no moment, or incapable of influencing in any manner this system of treaties and attacks. His natural ingenuity pointed out to him that in casting up the

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