tinuance of ministers in office impossible, unless that interference is justified by extraordinary exigency of affairs. Not disputing the right of the house, I contend that the right is to be governed by a sound discretion and by the public interest. We must look to considerations of public expediency and of public safety. There are some questions in the discussion of which gentlemen must feel more than they can well express, and this, with regard to the interference of parliament for removing ministers, is one of them. Admitting even that there were considerable grounds of dissatisfaction at the conduct of ministers, would it tend to promote those exertions, to encourage those sacrifices, which the difficulty and danger of our situation require? Would our means of sustaining the struggle in which we are engaged, and of calling forth those resources necessary for our defence, be improved by cutting short the date of administration, and unsettling the whole system of government? To displace one administration, and to introduce a new one, is not the work of a day. With all the functions of executive power suspended; with the regular means of communication between parliament and the throne interrupted; weeks, nay months, wasted in doubt, uncertainty, and inaction, how could the public safety consent to a state of things so violent and unnatural, as would result from parliament rendering one administration incapable of exercising any public functions, without any other efficient government being obtained in its stead? I will venture to hint also, that after such a step any administration that should succeed, be it what it might, and what it would be must still depend upon the crown, would feel itself placed in a most delicate situation. To put the matter as conscientiously and delicately as possible, would any set of men feel their introduction to power in these circumstances to be such as to enable them to discharge, in a manner satisfactory to themselves, the duties which so eventful a period must impose? These are considerations for the crown and the public, and they outweigh all those which present themselves, on a partial view of the advantages which could be hoped from a prosecution of that censure and dissolution of administration, to which the propositions tend.

I am aware that the right honourable gentleman* on the floor, and my friends on the same bench with him, must feel their situation irksome under the weight of a question so important, in which they are personally involved, remaining undecided. Nevertheless, when other sacrifices are demanded for the public interest, personal feelings must be overlooked. Those who with me have not made up their minds to the extent of censuring ministers by the adoption of the propositions, or of approving their conduct by agreeing to a direct negative, must pursue some middle course. They cannot do that which must imply approbation, when they do not find from the case made out that approbation has been deserved; neither can they vote severe cen-, sure, leading to an address for removal, when they do not consider the charges made as completely sustained.

Having stated the opposite lines of conduct which present themselves in deciding upon the propositions, I do not intend to enter into any detailed discussion of the papers. I wish, if good cannot be obtained by continuing to discuss them comparable to the evil of interrupting the course of our parliamentary duty, to suspend them altogether. Since things more urgent and more important demand our care, let us make good the parliamentary pledge we have given. I shall behold with much greater satisfaction as first proofs of our determination to support his Majesty with our lives and fortunes, you, Sir, presenting a strong bill of supply providing resources, not merely for every demand of public service, but adequate to every scale of exertion; a measure that will display and call forth the means of sustaining the struggle, not merely for one year, but till we shall have brought it to a successful issue; some measures by which we shall be enabled to complete our army, and to call into action the national strength, and give activity to all the military skill, discipline, and experience we possess. I do not know if gentlemen feel as I do upon this occasion, or if I have been successful in making my feelings understood. Impressed as I am with those feelings, and unprepared for the decisive vote which is offered in the direct negative or

*The Chancellor of the Exchequer.

nce bill was this day read a third time. On the question pass," and after Colonel Crawford and the Secretary at eir sentiments upon it,

cention, Mr. Speaker, to trouble the house at length, but I cannot avoid submitting a few a what fell from the honourable officer, and onourable friendt. Much, Sir, of what has llant officer is entitled to great attention, and approbation; but I must observe, that these not now for the first time introduced. With means of national defence, such as a selection g posts, an examination of the most effectual n to resist the progress of an enemy if he had 1 these points, though perhaps much may e, yet certainly government is not without of information upon this subject, which has btained, and which I hope is every day inpossible but that considerations of this kind ed to government formerly; for though the I was never so imminent or so pressing in the present; though the enemy had not then so ty of fixing his attention to this one object, destruction of this country, without being disThe Secretary at War.

wford.

turbed by the danger of continental attack; though the scale of action which was found necessary at that period can be no criterion of the degree of preparation which is now necessary; yet even then it could not be supposed that his Majesty's ministers, in their general superintendence of the defensive means of the country, which was all that belonged to the civil servants of the crown, or that the illustrious personage who fortunately for the country then presided and now presides over the military depart ment, that the variety of very able generals who had commands in the different districts of the kingdom, did not turn their most serious, attention to a subject of such infinite importance as that of securing the kingdom against the possibility of foreign invasion, and to adopt such means as, with the force the country then possessed, would secure the defeat of any enterprise which might be attempted. There is hardly one military district in the kingdom, of which the government have not at this moment in its possession ample memorials, prepared a considerable time before the termination of the late war, under the auspices of the illustrious commander-in-chief of his Majesty's land-forces, containing a minute statement of the various points of resistance which are to be found on the coasts, and also all the intermediate points of military defence between the different coasts and the capital. Ministers, I know, have now in their possession similar reports with regard to those counties which contain the great naval arsenals of the kingdom. They have also memorials upon the very subject alluded to by the honourable gentleman*, that of protecting the mouths of our harbours, and particularly that of the mouth of the Humber; and, what I think of more importance still, though more remote, I mean the defence of Newcastle, which, from its connexion with the wants of the capital, is obviously of such importance that it cannot be necessary to enlarge upon it.

It is hardly necessary, Sir, to recall to the recollection of the house, the names of the gallant officers who had the commands of the different districts in the last war; but if I do state them, it

* Colonel Crawford.

must be immediately seen that in such hands it was utterly impossible that the best means of providing for the national security should not have been maturely discussed and arranged. It will be recollected, that in the course of the last war we had the advantage of the talents of Sir Charles Grey, who commanded in the north. In the southern districts we had the advantage, at one period of the war at least, of all the suggestions of the Duke of Richmond; of whom, whatever differences of opinion may be entertained on some points, yet, with respect to the accuracy of his researches, the length of his experience, and to the extensiveness of his knowledge, there can be no difference of opinion. Besides these officers, we had General Dundas, who, from his situation, had the means of extending his views over all the districts. During a period of the war also, the Marquis Cornwallis had the command, besides many other very able officers, whom it is not now necessary to enumerate. Having the benefit of such assistance and distinguished military talents, it is impossible to suppose that we had not at that time a great mass of military information, and which must furnish ample and abundant foundation for the officers now employed to work upon: when we have all these means of information, I cannot suppose but that we must have also the means of bringing forward whatever may be considered as necessary to improve the defence of the country. I have already admitted, that although much has been done, still much material improvement may be ingrafted upon these plans which have been already procured. I hope and trust they will experience. new improvements from day to day; that they will receive new forms and consistency; that ministers will not stop short until they have arranged a scheme of national safety that shall for ever set to rest the vaunts and threats of a foe whose ambition knows no limits, and whose spirit of insolence and aggression knows no end. There are many changes that may be made, there are many improvements that may be adopted at a proper period, but there are many of them such as I should not think it prudent to attempt, in the course of this contest, and at a time so pregnant with danger.