The BRITISH PROLOGUE to the ELDERS, a Farce I've lately performed at Covent Garden Theatre. Written by the AUTHOR, MUSE. confidered your Farce (well) and am fure it won't do ; 'Tis deficient in tafte and in fentiment too. You may write, friend, no matter, dull profe or dull rhimes, But to write with fuccefs you must write to the times; refined, And the times are fo moral, fo nice, fo So correctly difpofed, fo devoutly inclined, That Congreve and Farquhar, who wrote long ago, Gain'd applaufe by fuch thoughts as might now be thought low. Sweet is the comic, fentimental ftrain- Accept, Dear Mifs, these twenty thoufand pounds. Your Lordship's goodness is of fuch a fize, That my warm heart is melting at my eyes.' These fweet, tender touches the houses will adore, Pit and Boxes will clap, and the Gal leries roar Bravo, braviffimo-encore-encoreThus do Authors give proofs of political dealings, For you can't damn the Piece when they've melted your feelings. You must go to the Mufe, friend,, and tell how the cafe is, Drop down on both knees and petition for flow- graces; For the fine filver period, the mufical The tragical humour-the comical woe; To the audience. For From fea to fea, from east to west, The bloody flag display! They ftrike, my boys!-Huzza! As the Lion of Britain is rous'd from his trance, Take care, Dons of Spain, and ye Monfieurs of France! From the north to the fouth let your thunders be hurl'd. And vengeance fhall punish the foes of the world. From fea to fea, &c. We'll give the rafh Spaniard, I warrant, his due; They must pay all our cofts with the wealth of Peru : Ship to fhip, hand to hand, boys! let's ftick to the ftuff; Nor give up the fight, till they cry— They've enough! From fea to fea, &c. When Bourbon fubmits, and implores us to peace, How weak are Thrones, how frail is Then hate and hoftility quickly may cease: ftrength, Or royalty, whereon we truft! When fate has fix'd our deftin'd length Of days, fhe whelms us in the dult. Grandeur aloft the arch may raise, But Virtue 'tis thy act alone To give to facred duft the praife. And with fair lines infcribe the ftone. Two letters and an humble turf Are all I wish, are all I crave, Thefe will fuffice, and thefe enough, To deck my head and point my grave, H. LEMOINE, An Englishman fpares when the enemy's down; When the flag is once ftruck, fhall our mercy be fhewn. From fea to fea, &c. Till then, bloody war muft continue to Nature furnish'd the head, and the charms And Ladies delighted in combing the Hair. DEBATES in the prefent Seffion of Parliament, continued from Page 211, of our laft. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Monday, April 24. The order of the day being read, Mr. Dunning got up to make that motion, which, but for the Speaker's indifpofition, he would have made on Friday se'nnight. He began by disclaiming as abfurd the pofition that every Gentleman who had voted in the majority of 233 on the 6th of April, was bound by that vote to concur in every meafure that might be afterwards propofed in confequence of it. No Gentleman in that House was accountable to him, or to any other Member, for the vote he fhould give; but every Gentleman' was accountable to his conftituents, his country, and himself; he ought therefore not to give a vote that he could not reconcile to his confcience and his honour. It had been faid on the other fide of the Houfe, that the majority of 233 were bound together but by a rope of fand ;' he hoped that the divifion on the motion, with which he intended to close his fpeech, would prove the affertion to be void of truth. The measure he had then immediately in view was to prevent a diffolution or prorogation of Parliament, till fuch teps fhould be taken as might fatisfy the demands of the people. He knew it might be objected to him, that fummer was an improper time for Parliament to fit; and that if it fhould be required that the Parliament fhould fit beyond its ufual time, the bufinefs of the nation would not be a jot the better attended to, as both bufinefs and pleafure would call away the greateft part of the Members, and leave the benches empty. : For his part, he did not care how empty the LI the the influence, and correct the grievances complained of in the petitions of the people. Mr. T. Pitt feconded the motion, and infitted that by the refolution of the 6th of April the Houfe had pledged itself to the people to do fomething to leffen the influence of which they complained, and it could not now ftop fhort, without a violation of their faith and honour. Lord Nugent, after a variety of obfervations on Mr. Dunning's motion, declared that he should oppofe it, for two reafons: Firit, because it was impoffible to judge how long Gentlemen might make the Parliament fit, if they should carry their motion. And fecondly, because the measures that might be proposed, and for the paffing of which the Parliament was to be kept fitting, did not depend folely upon the Houfe of Commons, as another branch of the Legislature must debate every matter, before it could pafs into a law. The diftractions among the people were certainly alarming; by ftanding on American grounds the prefent Oppofition had certainly, till very lately, been very unpopular: he recommended, therefore, moderation to them in their profperity; for if the prefent war and rage for reformation fhould continue much longer, we should have a bankrupt Treasury, a difcontented people, and an impaired conftitution. Mr. Fox declared, that ever fince he had fat in Parliament, it had been his fate to have been present when the most important, the most difficult questions had been agitated; but upon all of them, except the prefent, he had been perfectly easy; but this was of fuch magnitude, that if it was not carried, he trembled for the fate of the country. He afked, if there could be any doubt of the plan intended to be pursued to fatisfy the people? and then defired the refolutions of the 6th inftant might be read by the Clerk; which being done, he proceeded by faying, that the House was bound to abide by its own folemn refolutions, and not to fuffer themfelves to be prorogued or diffolved till they had acquit ted themfelves of their promise to the peopie: the addrefs would prevent it; for no Minitter would dare to advise his Majesty not to comply with their addrefs. The Lord Advocate, General Conway, Lord George Germaine, Colonel Barre, Lord Ongley, and others took part in the debate, which was clofed by a divifion, when there appeared, Ayes Noes 203, 254 Friday, April 28. The order of the day was read for going into a Committee on Mr. Burke's Civil Establishment bill, Mr Elwes in the chair. Mr. Burke then moved for the abolition of the offices of Mafter of the great wardrobe, Master of the robes, the jewel-office, &c Mr. Gilbert faid, that having had the honour of being Comptroller of the Wardrobe for 17 years, he was well acquainted with the nature of that office. On his ape pointment, he had taken great care to make himself perfect mafter of every thing concerning it, by which means he had been enabled to make a reduction of 500l. a year in it. The duties of the Wardrobe were very extenfive, perhaps more fo than the honourable Gentleman imagined. The clothing of the Yeomen of the Guards, Warders of the Tower, King's Trumpe ters, furnishing the Royal Palaces, both Houfes of Parliament, Royal Robes, clothing of the Royal Children, the Royal Funerals, Coronations, &c. were all within the department of the Keeper of the Wardrobe; and confequently required a great deal of attention from the Officers in his office. Lord Nugent repeated a diflike to the mode of proceeding by Act of Parliament, inftead of addrefs, in matters relating to the economy of the King's Household. Mr. Burke replied to both Speakers in a ftrain of the livelieft wit, and did not forget to pun upon the ministerial mode of furnifhing both Houles of Parliament with Members. He treated the whole fubject in a jocular way, and called himself for the question, that he might foon learn the fate of his bill, and get through all the claufes of it that day if poffible. After fome converfation, the Committee divided, when the claufe for abolishing the matter of the wardrobe, robes, jewels, &c. was thrown out by a great majority. For the claufe 162-Against it 210. The Committee next proceeded to the confideration of the Board of Works, when on a divifion there appeared For the claufe 188-Against it 203. Monday, May 1. After a variety of business had been got through, the order of the day was read for going into a Committee of the whole House on Lord North's bill for appointing Commiffioners to infpect and state the public ac counts. Lord North opened the business of the Committee by explaining the reafons which induced him to prefer Gentlemen to be Commiffioners who are not Mem 1 .Members of Parliament. He took notice of the fuggeftions thrown out where fuch a bill had first been mentioned by an ho nourable Member (Colonel Barre), which were, that if Members were appointed Commiffioners, the appointment would be carried by Ministerial majorities, and the end of appointing a Committee of Accounts would not be answered. To avoid every fufpicion of this kind, he had thought it most adviseable that the Commiffioners fhould be men of irreproachable characters, of known reputation, and totally independent. In the next place, as the public accounts are of various natures, and belong to different departments in the State, he thought it was proper to appoint men of different defcriptions: with this view he had fought for men of abilities in the army, in the civil line, in the law, and in the mercantile walk. The number of Commiffioners were fixed in the bill to be nine, and he fhould proceed to name them. A converfation now took place, whether the Commiffioners ought to be Members of Parliament, or not, and Lord North referred to the Journals to prove, that in the reign of Charles II, in 1667, Commiffionners were appointed who were not Members of Parliament. Colonel Barre rather difputed that point; there were twenty Commiffioners, he faid, in that commiffion, and he believed fome of them were then in Parliament; but if not, there were other inftances in the Journals of Committees of Accounts, when the Commiffioners were Members and chosen by ballot, a method to which no exceptions could be taken. Some further converfation paffed of little moment, and then Lord North began to name the Commiffioners, and the firit was Thomas Bowlby, Efq; one of the Comptrollers of the Army Accounts, a Gentleman, he said, to whom the Public had been much indebted already for his skill, accuracy, and diligence in fettling the army ac counts. No objection was made to this Gentleman. The next named was General Sir Guy Carleton, which feemed to ftrike the House with aftonishment, and from this moment a warm and long debate enfued, in which Colonel Barre, Mr. Burke, Lord John Cavendish, the Lord Advocate, and others took a part. At half paft one the Houfe divided on the question, whether Sir Guy Carleton ftand one of the Commiffioners? Carried in the affirmative. Ayes 195-Noes 172. The Committee proceeded to another queftion, Whether Mr. Bowlby fhall ifand one of the Commiffioners of Ac counts? On this fubject there enfued a debate, in which the principal Speakers were Mr. Fox, Lord North, and Colonel Barre. Mr. Fox poured forth a torrent of ins vective on Lord North, who, after flating, as a reafon for excluding Members of Parliament from the commiffion, his studioufnefs of impartiality, and the appearance of impartiality, had had, he said, the matchlefs effrontery to place at the top of his lift the names of two perfons fo notoriously in fituations in which human nature could not diveft itself of the power of influence operating on the mind. In the courfe of his speech he affirmed, that we had every reafon to believe that Miniftry would fet us at variance with all Europe." Friday, May 6. After the common business was difpofed of, General Conway rose to introduce his motion for a bill to effect a reconciliation between Great Britain and her Colonies. After a long speech on the ufual topics againit the war, he read the outlines of a bill, which had chiefly in view the repealing of the many acts of Parliament that had been made against America, granting the redrefs of all the grievances complained of, and appointing a commillion for fettling terms upon which a lafting peace might be eftablished between the two countries. He fubmitted the whole to the House, leaving it to their judgment to take from, add to the bill, or make such alterations as they fhould think proper, provided they would but adopt the principle. He then moved for leave to bring it in under the title of A Bill for quieting the difturbances that reign in the British Colonies in America, and for impowering his Majelty to appoint Commiffioners to treat with them for that purpose.' Mr. Eden oppofed the motion for the bill, and thought at this critical period it would do more harm than good. The fate of America was drawn to a crisis; the feemed to be arrived at the monent of recollection, and with her the balance at prefent ftood nearly even between peace and war. To ftart fuch a propofition at prefent as the Hon. General had submitted to the House, might be attended with very dangerous confequences, and confequently it would be the duty of the Houfe to interpofe, and not fuffer it to proceed further. Mr. Cruger faid, he never would oppose any measure that had peace for its object; and yet he was of opinion, that the bill moved for by the Hon. General would be perfectly ufelefs. The independence of America was established beyond our power to |