ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION. * November 25. THIS day the king opened the session with the following Speech from the throne : "My lords and gentlemen; I meet you in parliament at a time when we are called upon by every principle of duty, and every considertion of interest, to exert our united efforts in the support and defence of our country, attacked by an unjust and unprovoked war, and contending with one of the most dangerous confederacies that ever was formed against the crown and people of Great Britain. The designs and attempts of our enemies to invade this kingdom, have, by the blessing of Providence, been hitherto frustrated and disappointed. They still menace us with great armaments and preparations; but we are, I trust, on our part, well prepared to meet every attack, and to repel every insult. I know the character of my brave people : the menaces of their enemies, and the approach of danger, have no other effect on their minds, but to animate their courage, and to call forth that national spirit, which has so often checked, and defeated, the projects of ambition and injustice, and enabled the British fleets and armies to protect their own country, to vindicate their own rights, and at the same to uphold, and preserve, the liberties of Europe, from the restless and encroaching power of the house of Bourbon. In the midst of - * A few days previous to the meeting of parliament, Earl Gower, lord president of the council, resigned that high office, and was succeeded by Earl Bathurst. Lord Weymouth likewise resigned his office of secretary of state for the southern department, and was succeeded by the Earl of Hillsborough. Lord Stormont, late ambassador at Paris, was appointed to the northern department; the business of which had been conducted by Lord Weymouth, since the death of the Earl of Suffolk. And the old place of first lord of trade and plantations, which had been absorbed and included in the new office of secretary of state for the my care and solicitude for the safety and welfare of this country, I have not been inattentive to the state of my loyal and faithful kingdom of Ireland. I have, in consequence of your addresses, presented to me in the last session, ordered such papers to be collected and laid before you, as may assist your deliberations on this important business; and I recommend it to you to consider what further benefits and advantages may be extended to that kingdom, by such regulations, and such methods, as may most effectually promote the common strength, wealth, and interests of all my dominions. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons; the proper estimate shall, in due time, be laid before you. I see, with extreme concern, that the necessary establishments of my naval and military forces, and the various services and operations of the ensuing year, must inevitably be attended with great and heavy expences; but I rely on your wisdom and public spirit, for such supplies as the circumstances and exigencies of our affairs shall be found to require. "My lords and gentlemen; I have great satisfaction in renewing the assurances of my entire approbation of the good conduct and discipline of the militia, and of their steady perseverance in their duty; and I return my cordial thanks to all ranks of my loyal subjects who have stood forth in this arduous conjuncture, and, by their zeal, their influence, and their personal service, have given confidence as well as strength to the national defence. Trusting in the Divine Providence, and in the justice of my cause, I am firmly resolved to prosecute the war with vigour, and to make every exertion in order to compel our enemies to listen to equitable terms of peace and accommodation." An address in approbation of the speech being moved by Lord Lewisham, and seconded by Lord Parker, the following amendment was moved by Lord John Cavendish: viz. "To beseech his majesty to reflect upon the extent of territory, the power, the opulence, the reputation abroad, and the concord at home, which distinguished the opening of his majesty's reign, and marked it as the most splendid and happy period in the history of this nation: and, when he shall have turned his eyes on the endangered, impoverished, distracted, and even dismembered state of the whole: after all the grants of successive parliaments, liberal to profusion, and trusting to the very utmost extent of rational confidence, his majesty will expect to receive the honest opinion of a faithful and affectionate parliament, who should think they betrayed his majesty, and those they represent, if they did not distinctly state to his majesty, in words, what the world has seen in most calamitous and disgraceful effects; that if any thing can prevent the consummation of public ruin, it can only be new councils and new counsellors, without further loss of time, a real change, from a sincere conviction of past errors, and not a mere palliation, which must prove fruitless." The amendment was supported by Mr. Hartley, Mr. James Grenville, Mr. Thomas Townshend, Admiral Keppel, Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Temple Luttrell; and opposed by Mr. William Adam, Lord North, Mr. Jenkinson, the Attorney General, and Mr. Dundas, the Lord Advocate of Scotland. Mr. BURKE rose to speak, but finding a great difficulty in making himselt heard in the distant parts of the House, on account of a violent cold and hoarseness, he sat down once or twice, and would have declined speaking, had he not been pressingly solicited by the unanimous sense of the House to proceed. He first observed, on the speech of the learned gentleman who spoke last, that if he meant any thing by the distinction which he had taken between the two propositions, or by the reasons which he had assigned for adopting the one and rejecting the other, his meaning must amount to this: There are two propositions before me; one of them means nothing, the other means something; that which means something I will reject, and I will vote only for that which means nothing. To prove the truth of this deduction, from the learned gentleman's premises and conclusions, and the fair interpretation of the argument which he endeavoured to maintain, the learned gentleman himself, said Mr. Burke, shall be the author of his own conviction. Hear his words:"Here is a proposition, in which both sides of the House agree." Now, it is mathematically demonstrable, that the two parties diametrically opposite, as the learned gentleman himself shrewdly observed, can never agree upon the terms of a proposition, applicable and tween them, which means any thing. It was, therefore, fair for him to conclude, that the proposition which met so hearty an approbation from the learned gentleman had no meaning at all, and was in fact a purum nihil. The reasons assigned by him for rejecting the amendment, were no less extraordinary than his motives for adopting the address. The learned gentleman voted for one, because it had no meaning in it; and against the other, because he was totally ignorant of what it meant. After the very unreserved avowal which the learned gentleman had made relative to the measures of administration, and which unbounded ignorance was the only apology he had to offer for not voting for the amendment, it must certainly be admitted by every man, who had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing his extraordinary mode of ministerial defence, that he was well qualified and a most able defender of such an administration. It was certainly an unquestionable proof of his courage, that he ventured to appear in the House, when an endangered ministry, encompassed with so many perils, with such unanswerable arguments as those of total ignorance, and on that dreadful and perilous day too, the first day of the session, which he had sagaciously remarked, though he could not pretend to say whence he drew his information, was likely to prove so fatal to the minister. Such an advocate was worthy of such a cause, and afforded a very striking instance of the blind leading the blind! Ignorance, instead of a proper ground of defence, was the crime of administration, and its still, if possible, more ignorant defenders and retainers. The House was then debating upon the propriety of demanding from the throne, as a matter of necessity, the removal of ministers, of his majesty's counsellors; he therefore desired to know whether disability could furnish a better ground than the noble lord in the blue ribbon himself had unwarily afforded, when, after the long notice the noble lord had received from that House, and the alarming motives which he had for an enquiry into the state and condition of Ireland, and for considering of a proper and adequate relief for those wants, the noble lord came into the House that morning, and in the course of the evening, openly confessed that he was equally ignorant of the disorder and the cure. Could there be a better reason urged by the most inveterate enemy, for the dismission of a minister, than such a confession? a confession, indeed, which required no comment, and carried conviction on the very face of it. Could the House, after such a confession, hesitate a moment to vote an address for his immediate removal. His honourable friend (Mr. Fox) had expressed himself so copiously and so much to the purpose, upon the misconduct of ministry in every respect *, and in every department of government, and he was so little able, from his hoarseness, to enter diffusively into a consideration or review of the same subjects, that he would postpone many observations to another day; but he could not avoid repeating after his honourable friend, that however the noble lord at the head of the treasury might pretend to disunite the business of the American war, from the present state of Ireland, and the temper and disposition of the people there, the noble lord would find the mad, cruel, and accursed American war, written in the most legible characters, in every single cause, circumstance, and step which had contributed to call forth the spirit, the resentments, and resolution of the Irish nation, whether already in actual existence, or in embryo, ready to burst forth with tenfold mischief, or in a storm strike this nation, and shake it to its deepest foundations. The affairs of that country were indeed arrived at a very critical period; the situation was tremendous, so far as it might in its consequences, immediate or remote, affect the seat of empire. So far were the Irish from expecting any adequate relief from the minister, that they imputed, and in his opinion very justly imputed, a considerable share of their present calamities to his misconduct. It was |