from the fault of their ancestors, and not their own, convey the fmallest degree of reproach. Poverty was no difgrace, where it was not brought on by perfonal vice or folly. As little did the people wish to fupprefs fuch liberality, or to retrench the means of it, when properly and honourably applied, in the crown. Ireland af forded a living proof within their knowledge, that fuch notions of fuppofed delicacy were entirely ideal and unfounded. The holders of penfions in that country were to the full as proud and as delicate, as thofe under the fame circumstances in this. Yet the penfion lift in that kingdom was every fecond year laid before parliament, and published in all their news-papers, without its producing any degree of that difgrace and uneafinefs to individuals, and without opening any of thofe fources of detraction and malevolence, of which the minifter now pretends to be fo apprehenfive. Not a fingle lord or lady, however antient their families, or however proud of their rank, whether English or Irish, was ever yet known to throw up or to refufe a penfion, upon the account of that publication.

The noble lord, they faid, had endeavoured, with his ufual art, but with uncommon induftry, to render, by the ministerial juggle of his calculations, and by fhewing it through the wrong end of the perspective, the object of the motion fo apparently diminutive, as to be unworthy the attention of the people, and the confideration of parliament, But even taking it, they faid, upon his own word, and fuppofing for a moment his reprefentation to be as fair, as it was

directly calculated to impofe and milead, although it would be acknowledged, that forty or fifty thousand pounds a year was not fimply, and immediately in itself, an object of great national attention, yet, as every thing great must be done by detail to become fo, it was ridiculous to contend, that fuch, and leffer fums, were not fit objects to be attended to, and included, in any scheme which took in a reform of the national expenditure.

But money, they faid, was only a fecondary confideration, whether with the petitioners, or with themselves. The firft and great object of both, was the deftruction of that undue and corrupt influence, which was the fatal fource of all our evils, calamities, dangers, and of the greater part of that ruinous expence, under which the nation was finking. If by cutting off forty or fifty thousand pounds a year from the means of that corruption, forty or fifty voters could be cut off from that im, penetrable parliamentary phalanx, on whom no reason, argument, or affection for their country, was ever capable of making an impreffion, nor of deterring from an adherence to the minifter of the day, whoever he may be, and in whatever predicament he might ftand, it would be gaining an object of no fmall importance; and prove, in its effect, the faving of infinitely greater fums. Had fuch favings taken place in time, America would ftill have been a part of our ftrength and glory.

They treated farcaftically the liberality and candour, with which, they faid, the noble minifter had fo generously offered to gratify parliament

parliament with an account of thofe penfions, which were regularly paid at the public offices of the exchequer; a degree of information which every man in the kingdom, whether native or foreigner, might, by a proper application, obtain to as full an extent, as it was poffeffed by the noble lord himself. But it happened unluckily that this liberality was thrown away, as the offer did not at all reach to the objects intended by the people, or propofed by the of the prefent motion. Their enquiries were directed to penfions of another nature than those that were paid at public offices. They were directed to temporary penfions; to penfions during pleafure; to penfions for the purpose of parliamentary corruption. So unqualified were the charges upon this ground, that a gentleman declared as a fact, founded upon authority, he said, which he could not doubt, that the minifter, at the clofe of every feffion, had a fettlement of fuch penfions to make; that a private lift of names, with the feveral fums apportioned to their respective fervices or merits, was then produced; and that as foon as the money was paid, the paper was immediately burnt, and no memorial of the tranfaction preferved.

This occafioned a call on the oppofition from one of the law officers, to come forward with their proofs, to name and point out the delinquents; but not to throw about charges of fuch a nature at random, if they were not able to fupport and establish them. To this it was replied, that the learned gentleman well knew, that they could not poffibly poffefs the fpecies of evidence, which the rules of that house rendered neceffary, in order

to fix fuch fpecific charges. The great object of the motion was to obtain that very evidence which is now demanded. This the minifter abfolutely refufes to grant ; and at the very inftant that they fee he withholds the means, his advocates boldly challenge us to bring forward our proofs.

The comparison drawn by the minifter between the civil lift revenues, and the rents of a private eftate, was not at all allowed to hold. Various parts of that vast establishment, the oppofition faid, were applied to great national purpofes; to thofe of public dignity and utility, as well as to the fupport and fplendor of the crown. Parliament had a right, and was in the practice, of enquiring and feeing into the appropriation of that money. If it were otherwife, and that great revenue to be confidered merely as perfonal property, the whole of it might be drawn off from its original purpofes, and applied to thofe of the moft dangerous nature. The pofition was therefore to be totally exploded, as equally fallacious and dangerous.

It was not a little remarkable, that almoft the whole weight of this very long debate lay upon the minifter; who, excepting the affiftance of fome of the crown lawyers, was left alone to endure the heat and brunt of the day. He was of course fo exceedingly hard pufhed, that he was frequently forced to fhift or abandon his ground; whilft every change of pofition afforded fome new opening for the severities of his antagonifts. In thefe circumftances, which were aggravated by the na. ture of the conteft, and the appa. doubtfulness of the iffue, it [H] 4

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is not to be wondered at, if he could not perfectly preferve his equanimity of temper; and if he could not even entirely refrain from fhewing fome appearances of vexation and peevishness.

The queftion being at length put, at half an hour after one o'clock in the morning, the minister's amendments were carried, and but juft carried, upon a divifion, by a majority of two only; the numbers being 188 to 186.

Sir George Saville then declared, that as the motion, in its prefent ftate, was totally changed from that which he had propofed, and was rendered utterly incapable of obtaining that information for the people, which it was both his wifh and his duty to lay before them, he should therefore give the matter entirely up, and fhould no longer give himself or his friends any trouble, by fruitlessly oppofing minifters in any point which they were determined to carry.

This was, however, an extraordinary divifion. But the lofs of the queftion was the more vexatious to the oppofition, as they conceived they had ftrength in town fully fufficient to have carried it; and even attributed the disappointment to the accidental abfence of fome particular friends. On for mer occafions this would have been matter of triumph; but they were grown more difficult fince their late increase of ftrength; and complained bitterly, that vo lunteer troops can never be brought to pay that strict attention to duty, which is practifed by trained and difciplined bands, who have been long habituated to the punctual obfervance of a regular command.

The popular prints, however,

triumphed, not only in the clofe nefs of the divifion, but in an affertion which they repeatedly echoed, that not a fingle English gentleman, however he might af terwards vote, had opened his lips on the fide of the minifter, in the course of fo long a debate. It was made no lefs a matter of exul tation, that of the knights of the fhire, or reprefentatives of English and Welsh counties, who were then prefent, only eleven supported the minifter by their votes; while no less then fifty-feven voted for Sir George Saville's original motion. Such, and fo powerful, was the effect of that spirit which was now prevalent.

It was on the fame day of Sir George Saville's motion, that the Marquis of Rockingham brought the Jamaica bufinefs forward in the Houfe of Lords; where he prefented a petition fimilar to that, and fubfcribed by the fame names, which we have already feen a fubject of animadverfion in the House of Commons. He went over the whole ground of complaint, and, in a speech of a confiderable length, fupported and enforced the feveral matters of charge, in a manner which fhewed a very full knowledge of his fubject; in doing which, he endeavoured particularly to establish the following points: The great importance and ineftimable value of the island

The fatal confequences, with refpect to all our remaining American and Weft Indian poffeffions, which must be the immediate and inevitable refult, of its becoming the property of the enemy, but more especially of France-The criminal conduct of minifters in neglecting all proper and rational provifion,

provifion, for the fecurity and protection of so ineftimable a poffeffion- And, the actual and imminent internal and external dan gers, to which the island has at feveral different times been fubjected, through that neglect.

On the laft ground, he particularly infifted, and endeavoured to demonftrate, as well by a letter from Governor Dalling, as by other authorities, that icarcely a hope could have been formed of faving the island, if D'Eftaing had bent his force thither, at the time that, fo fortunately to this country, he directed his courfe to Georgia. So that the prefervation of one of the most valuable appendages to the crown of Great Britain, refted upon the error, blindness, or folly of the enemy. He farther urged, that this conduct could not even be fo far palliated, as to attribute it to mere negligence or forgetfulnefs; fuppoling that either could be admitted as any palliation. For that fo early as the year 1773, and repeatedly fince, minifters had been warned, by petitions and applications from the island, of the dangers, both within and from without, to which it was expofed; and of which no other notice was taken in the first instance, than the drawing away, for the unhappy purpoles of the American war, one half of the very weak military force, (amounting to 300 men) which had been before affigned for its defence. Nor had any thing effectual been fince done.

On the other fide, the protest (of which we have before taken notice) was brought forward, and read by Lord Onflow as part of his fpeech, in order to fhew, that the petition fhould not be confidered

as the fenfe of the island, bu merely as containing the fentiments of thofe perions by whom it was fubfcribed. He contended, that the proteftors, though not fo numerous, poffeffed property equal, if not fuperior, to the petitioners; from whence he argued that their opinions were of equal weight and importance.

This affertion drew up the Marquis of Rockingham, who having moved that the names of the petitioners fhould be read, obferved, thar he believed most of them were known to their lordships; it was now in the noble lord's power who had read the proteft, to bring the matter to an immediate iffue; he had only to pass the names of the proteftors in counterview before them, and the bufinefs would be fettled; it would be at once feen on which fide the queftions of property and refpectability lay.

The noble lord, however, declined to read the names of the proteftors; but infifted on his general positions, that the petitioners, although many of them were refpe&table, did not poffefs half the property of the ifland; that one-third of the merchants and planters had not figned either the petition or proteft; and it was fairly to be concluded, that those who had not figned the former, did not approve of its contents.

The Marquis rejoined, that the motives for declining to read the names of the proteftors were eafily understood. The noble lord was tender of fome names; and did not wish to bring certain characters forward, which had figured in that tranfaction. After fome obfervations on thefe, and drawing a frong contraft between the ftate of character,

character, property, and refpectability on both fides, he commented, upon what he called rather a ludicrous paffage in the proteft; by which it is held out as a motive for their objecting to a petition for protection to parliament, that it was the intereft of the merchants and planters to ftand well with government.

The first lord of the admiralty acknowledged, that the merchants and planters who figned the petition were, in every inftance, as worthy and as refpectable a body of men, as any in this, or in any other kingdom; but that there was not a fingle fact ftated in the petition, nor alledged in its fupport, which he would not be ready and prepared, one by one, at a proper time, to difprove. This brought out fome altercation between him and the noble marquis; in which, befides a difference of opinion with respect to circumftances of danger and protection, feveral affertions and contradictions took place as to facts and dates. The petition was ordered to lie on the table for the perufal and confideration of the lords; under the avowed intention of the Marquis of Rockingham, to make it the foundation of a future motion, for the protection and fecurity of the island of Jamaica; an intention which the meafures adopted by government, about this time, rendered unneceffary.

On the last day of February, the minifter in the Houfe of Commons moved that the thanks of that houfe fhould be given to Admiral Sir George Rodney, for the late fignal and important fervices he had rendered his king and country. The motion was feconded by

Mr. Thomas Townshend, warmly fupported by the oppofition, and unanimously agreed to by the houfe. A fimilar motion was made on the following day in the Houfe of Lords by the Earl of Sandwich, feconded by the Marquis of Rockingham, and agreed to in the fame manner.

But the oppofition wifhed for fome more fubftantial return, than a mere vote of thanks, for the effential fervices performed by that brave commander; and accordingly warmly contended in both houfes, that while the impreffion of fervice was recent and warm, they fhould proceed a step further and apply for fome mark of royal favour, which, in case of any finifter accident, or future misfortune, might afford to him fome fecurity, against his being again neglected, and his fervices forgotten.

;

This, they faid, was the more neceffary, as that admiral had in the laft war received the thanks of both houses for the important fervices which he then performed; and yet he was afterwards moft fhamefully laid by and neglected, without any provifion being made for him fuitable to his rank and high character; fo that honour was almoft the only harveft which he reaped. It was likewife, they faid, the more neceffary, as it was underflood that he was destined with an inferior force to the protection of our Weft India islands; and that nobody was ignorant, in cafe of misfortune or lofs, with what dexterity the prefent ministers could fhift the blame from themfelves, however culpable, upon the fhoulders of their commander. In such a cafe Sir George Rod

ney