From different parts of the house, I have listened to observations, not only applied personally to myself, but to those with whom I have been so recently connected. As to my sufficiency, or to the sufficiency of those in office with me, it is not necessary to say a great deal upon that subject; but I am surprised at the language that has fallen from a noble lord.* I think it a little singular that my acting in concert with a part of the late administration should be made a bar to the confidence of him and his friends. Does my noble relative think, that, on this account, I have justly forfeited the confidence of him and of his friends? I do remember the time when, in the moment of his bitterest opposition to the honourable gentleman,† the noble lord and his friends were so partial to me, that they declared that my admission to a share of the executive power would, in a considerable degree, remove their apprehensions of the public danger. I hope that since that time I have not, by concurring very frequently and acting very cordially with my noble relative and his friends, forfeited the good opinion they were then so partial as to express of me. I confess my surprise too, that, after such public declarations concerning me, they so soon find themselves compelled to withhold their services from the public, on account of the exclusion of an honourable gentlemant with whom they have been so little accustomed to think or act in unison.

Much has been said of the inefficiency of the members of the present cabinet. But is it to be asserted that the present ministers are unequal to the duties of the stations they fill ? With respect to the members of the present ministry, and who were members of the last, being liable to the charge of inconsistency, I cannot see that there is the least foundation for it. The present bill is better than that which it supersedes, and aiming at the same end by juster means, is fairly entitled to the support of those who supported the former bill. It is said, however, though not quite correctly, that the members of the last administration are a majority of the present. But what, if it were so, would be the inference? There is no reason why those who sat † Mr. Fox.

* Lord Temple.

in a former cabinet should not sit in this. I hope the present cabinet is not one in which there will always be a necessity of counting noses, and of coming to a vote upon every measure. When differences of opinion exist, there is room for mutual concession and accommodation where men agree in a general object. If this were not the case, how could any administration go on ? far more an administration formed on the broad basis which some gentlemen consider so desirable? Were I to take the broad hint which has been given me, and had that sort of administration been formed, the failure of which is represented as having struck such despair throughout the country, how could any measure have been carried in the cabinet among men, who have had long and important differences, unless mutual accommodation and concession had taken place? It is said, however, that there has not been a sufficient change in the ministry. But, surely, the right honourable gentleman* below me at least must be satisfied that the change is sufficient, and that the present is really a new admi nistration.—And, notwithstanding all that has been said of it, I hold it to be substantial enough to answer the purposes for which it was formed.

Many objections have been urged against it by the honourable gentleman who spoke last, who has indulged himself in that vein of pleasantry and humour, for which he has most deservedly acquired so much celebrity, in comparing some of the members of the present administration with those whom they have succeeded in office, and has indulged himself particularly in contrasting Lord Melville with the Earl of St. Vincent. I should unquestionably think myself extremely wrong, were I to say that Lord Melville was as good a sailor, or understood how to work or fight a ship of war as well as Earl St. Vincent; but yet I can have no hesitation to say, that, in my opinion, there is every reason to suppose that Lord Melville will make a better first lord of the admiralty; for experience has often forcibly shewn us, that it is by no means necessary that a first lord of the. admiralty should be a naval cha

* Mr. Addington.

racter. And, though it may not be fit to speak of myself, it surely will not be considered that it is no change, that the office of first lord of the treasury, reckoned that which has a leading influence in the executive government, is now held by me. Few will doubt that a very real change has taken place. With respect to any differences of opinion which I may have had with the late administration, it will not be pretended that they were of such a naturę as to prevent us from acting in the most cordial and satisfactory manner upon general affairs. For those, my right honourable and noble friends, I have uniformly entertained the utmost private friendship and esteem. With them I have thought and acted almost without interruption on every public question since our acquaintance commenced. Neither is there the slightest ground to imagine that another noble friend of mine, whom I have always esteemed and loved, is degraded by taking the home instead of the foreign department; though I confess there were some parts of the foreign system which I did not approve, and of which it is not now necessary to say more. Those who know the fact, know how far that change was from any motive that could infer degradation. Indeed, Sir, I cannot see with what view such a thing could be mentioned, unless it were for the purpose of sowing jealousies and dissensions among his Majesty's present ministers, and, as such, it deserves my severest animadversion.

If the present bill should be lost, I shall be sorry for it, because the house and the country will thereby lose a good measure; but the honourable gentlemen opposite will be much mistaken if they think they will thereby be any thing the nearer getting rid of me. It is well known, and has ever been allowed to be one of the first and most established privileges and prerogatives of the crown, that his Majesty has a right to choose and nominate his own ministers; and with that conviction on my mind, I shall not be deterred from bringing forward such measures as may be necessary in aid and support of the present bill, which I have no doubt will meet the approbation of a considerable majority, notwithstanding all the

* Lord Hawkesbury.

opposition it has met with from the honourable gentleman on the opposite side of the house.

SIR Evan Nepean, in consequence of a notice given the preceding day, moved for leave to bring in a bill for the further continuance of the act of last session for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland.

An amendment was then moved by Sir John Newport, to omit the latter part of the motion, for the purpose of inserting these words, "That a committee, consisting of twenty-one members, be formed by ballot, to examine such documents as may be laid before them,and to report to this House their opinion upon these documents, whether the continuance of the suspension of the habeas corpus act be a measure necessary to the tranquillity of Ireland at the present time."

After Mr. Windham had spoken in support of the amendment, contending that no grounds had been made out to justify the House in adopting the measure proposed,

MR. PITT rose:

I should be extremely desirous, Sir, to give way on the present occasion to any gentleman from Ireland, whose knowledge of the subject in question must be valuable, were it not that some observations which fell from the right honourable gentleman* over the way, seem to me necessarily to call for animadversion. At the sentiments which he has now expressed, it is impossible for me not to feel some surprise. The position which he appeared to me to hold, seemed to go to this extent, that in no case whatever could the habeas corpus act be in justice suspended without a previous inquiry. If this was not the position which he meant to maintain in its full extent, then much, very much of what he has said, was unnecessary, because it did not bear upon the present question.— But if it were, why then he must have spoken with a full know

Mr. Windham.

ledge that it has been the practice of parliament to suspend this act without any previous inquiry, and that it was actually suspended in the course of last war with his full consent and appro

bation.

But the right honourable gentleman does not contend that the renewal is not right, but that it ought not to be granted without previous examination. Are there no circumstances, then, in which a contrary practice may not only be necessary but strictly justifiable upon every principle of reason and common sense? It does, Sir, often happen, that a case may be so clear and so notorious, so open to every man's observation, that a public statement of the grounds upon which it is required to adopt strong measures, may be both futile and unnecessary. Such a case is the present; and yet gentlemen come here and tell us, that we require of them to pass an act of this great importance without any reason assigned for it! What, Sir, are the reasons, the strong reasons that exist at this moment? We are engaged in a war with a powerful and active enemy, whose object professedly is to destroy the constitu tion and overturn the liberties of the British empire. His attention is in the first instance directed towards Ireland, where his emissaries are perpetually at work, by means of correspondence and otherwise, to sow disloyalty and sedition. His object is the invasion and destruction of this country, and to attain it his preparations have been carried on with unremitted vigour, and at this moment are not abandoned. Our fleets are now employed in blockading in their harbours the vessels of our enemy, which, if it were not for their care and vigilance, would sail with an army to attempt to carry his threats into instant execution. To assist him in this plan, those who have fled from their own country, perhaps for crimes of different sorts, have been embodied and formed into a kind of regiment. They are the instruments which he employs to prepare the way for the execution of his purposes. They maintain a correspondence with the disaffected in their own country, and employ every means to spread the flame of rebellion over their unfortunate country;-unfortunate for having been the birth-place of persons who seem so little to understand or consult her true and

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