Honourable Gentlemen to dwell upon his speeches in that House against an innovation which had distracted Europe, and which, unless it could be fpeedily repreffed, might yet diforganize the whole civilized world. He was not afhamed of owning that from his heart he hated Jacobinism, because from his heart he believed the adherents to it fought not the honourable poft of confervators of the general tranquillity, but an empire over the fortunes, and the controul of the liberties of mankind. The Honourable Gentleman might therefore, as much as he pleafed, dwell with idle pleafantry on the popular effect of his fpeeches, but he could not poffibly gratify his feeling more than always to class him among the most determined enemies of the fyftem of the Jacobins. The Honourable Gentleman had fet out with professions of refpect and regard for the Royal Family, and charged him as the cause of cafting an odium upon it by the introduction of the prefent measure; but a fair and impartial view of the fubject would fhew that the Honourable Gentleman himself was, by his mis-ftatement, the cause of that odium which he had placed to his account, while he endeavoured to excite it. As proof of fuch mifrepresentation, he would beg leave to refer to the statement which he had that night made to the Committee. The Committee would recollect that he had in the courfe of the evening ftated, that in 1786 an estimate had been fubmitted to Parliament of the appropriation and expenditure of the Civil Lift under eight different heads. The whole amount of the revenue of that inftitution then was nine hundred thousand pounds, which in the ftate of that period did not appear too much. The whole expenditure for the ufe of the Royal Family at that time was fomewhat more than two hundred thousand pounds and at this moment the expenditure in that branch is no more. If in times of perfect tranquillity, when every thing was proportionably cheap, Parliament did not think the remainder more than fufficient to support the conftitutional dignity of the crown; in our own day, a period of general agitation when every neceffary of life muft have risen in price with the increafed confumption of the crifis, furely it was not too much to leave untouched what was fo effentially neceffary to fupport the fplendour of the crown, which all but open or difguifed Jacobins would acknowledge to be connected with the happiness of the people, because it was neceffary to the existence of one of the effential branches of the Conftitution. It was also connected with the adminiftration of juftice, which did not more add to the fecurity of

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the crown than of individuals. The Honourable Gentleman agreed that the Royal Perfons alluded to in the Meffage were entitled to the fums propofed to be voted to them, but that he could not confent to their being provided for by the public. Now he had taken the liberty on a former day of ftating, that if any man could look fairly at the accounts on the table, under all the circumstances of advance of price of every marketable commodity, it would moft clearly appear that the Civil Lift cannot bear a single fhilling to be added to it, and not a fhilling of retrenchment. Such was then the statement, and the conclufion he had drawn from it. It was a queftion which he thought might have at least been candidly treated; yet how did the Honourable Gentleman proceed? Why, by fuppofing that he (Mr. Pitt) had faid that the inability of the Civil Lift to provide for the Princes was occafioned by the preffure of taxes. But he had not alluded to taxes. It was invidious to bring forward this question in this way. The Honourable Gentleman knew that he did not fay fo, and the remark was introduced for the purpose of bringing in that observation respecting the exemption of the Royal Family from taxes, an obfervation calculated to excite that odium which the Honourable Gentleman affected to apprehend. What he had ftated was, that the expences of the Household had increased with the increase on the articles of domeftic confumption. This would be denied by no one. Yet the Honourable Gentleman who appeared always active to glean from every quarter materials for cenfure and obloquy, had not in the turbulence of his zeal for the public interest, glanced at those obvious fources of increased expenditure. Had the Honourable Gentleman been but a little more attentive to his fpeech in the opening, and lefs industrious to pervert facts, he would have recollected that he ftated the heads of expenditure on the Civil Lift to be eight. In four of which there had taken place. no alteration fince the fubject was laft before Parliament; three of them, confifting of the expences of Foreign Minifters, the increafed expences of the Office of Secretary of State, and the Bill for the expences paid out of the Lord Chamberlain and Treafurer's Office. If all thefe were fairly confidered, he was perfuaded there would not be more than one diffentient voice in the Committee-the voice of the Honourable Gentleman. But what was the affertion of the Honourable Gentleman-that the prefent fum was afked to increase the influence of the crown. He has faid, that it is alfo wished to make an exclufive eftablishment for the Royal Family,

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Family, yet the expence of that which was at all connected with the Royal Family had experienced no increase, while departments wholly diftinct from the houshold had been attended with all the increased expences. He was not however furprised at the allegation, for in the absence of every means of traducing Minifters and leffening in the eftimation of the people, if that were poffible, the worth and value of the Executive Government, the Honourable Gentleman had fufficient fertility of invention to create fictions, and animate into monflers the mere fpectres of his. gloomy mind. There indeed was no other ground of objection, but the furmife of this being an attempt to increase the influence of the Crown; a furmife that could not furvive for one moment a patient and candid examination of the items which formed his statement.

The Honourable Gentleman fays, that because the hereditary lands were only a fair equivalent for the annuity voted to the Civil Lift, it ftill is a fair exchange after a lapfe of forty years. It could not be denied, that as a mere bargain it continues unaffected by the change in the ftate of property and the value of land; but who would be hardy enough to fay, that if the revenues of the Civil Lift are for ever to continue ftationary, the Crown has not been very greatly a lofer by the exchange? Will it be fuppofed, that under the circumftances which extended the power of the country, its wealth was not increased? And would Gentlemen now fay, that while individuals have experienced an increase of wealth more than fufficient to meet the increafed expence in every branch of domeftic economy, the Crown, which is the protector of property, the pride, the ornament, the boaft and the glory of Great Britain, is not to receive in proportion the benefit of the growing wealth of the country? Is not to have imparted to it any of those great benefits which the community derives from our growing commerce, our flourishing manufactures, our unexampled profperity? Would it be faid, that whilft the landed gentleman, the merchant, the tradefman, and the mechanic, each in his clafs enjoyed the increased comforts accruing to him from increafed wealth, the Crown, which was the guarantee to them all of peace at home, and honour and distinction abroad, is fent back from Parliament to fet about reducing its strength, eclipfing its fplendor-to seek in a retrenchment that is impracticable, the means of providing for two of the fons of that auguft perfonage, in whole virtues the good fee the measure of chriftian perfec

tion, who is the idol of his family, and the cherifhed benefactor of his people? but whoever in that House or out of it were the friends of the Jacobins, he was certain it would be eafily perceived that to refufe to fupport the Crown in its conftitutional vigor and fplendor, was not a very anti-jacobin doctrine. If after a war of peculiar difafter, not as at prefent, when every thing which is brought forward for the dignity of monarchy adds to the fecurity of civilized nations, inasmuch as it tends to check the progress of innovation and Jacobinism-a period when we could better feel the influence of that wife and virtuous, that beneficent and kind Sovereign who wears the Crown-If during the American war the people chearfully, and as they ought, came forward to fupport the Crown, how much more natural at this moment, after enjoying the tranfcendant bleffings of a reign of near forty years! But even at that period it was found neceffary to increase the revenue of the Civil Lift to nine hundred thoufand pounds. He had already stated that in all the places of influence there had been a diminution of expence; the only two in which he had stated an encreafe, exclufive of the household, were, the one with refpect to the expences of ambaffadors, and the other extended to the law charges, and the maintenance of the police, comprifing in the whole the domeftic and foreign œconomy of the country. These had nothing to do with influence, So far then for that part of the fubject. Now, what was the argument of the Honourable Gentle man? He had faid that he was willing to vote that twentyfour thousand pounds a year fhould be affigned upon the Civil Lift, and if any farther demand were to come before Parliament for articles which it was admitted could with propriety come only under that head, was ready to allow them. If fuch was the cafe the difpute was only about terms; it was only changing the articles for which the Civil Lift was made anfwerable. Had this been done, however, the Honourable Gentleman would then have told us, why thus change the mode of providing for articles which had always been confidered as moft properly quar tered on the Civil Lift, why not come forward openly and fubmit to Parliament that provision which under à different name you impofe upon it? Such would have been the Honourable Gentleman's objections had another course been purfued. Certainly he was not afraid to come forward openly, as he now did, with a propofition which he confidered to be connected with the fplendour and dignity of 6 $2

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the Crown; and certainly it was much better to do it without proceeding in any circuitous courfe, which would not in fact tend in any degree to alter the nature of the burden which the public would have to bear.-But what was the reafon of the Honourable Gentleman's oppofition? Why, that the crown lands had been exchanged for a grant to the Civil Lift by Parliament, at a time when their produce was such as to defray all the expences of that establishment. Now fhould even the crown lands have proved inadequate to bear the neceffary expence of the inftitution, it would be no rule by which not to give any aid to the Sovereign. But the objection of the Honourable Gentleman was easily anfwered. The hereditary crown lands, after a period of forty years of unufual profperity and glory, during which every refource of the country had increased beyond all proportion, yielded a revenue much more than adequate to the expences of the Crown. He could not fay what had been the average revenue of the last three or four years, but from an account which he held in his hand, he found it to be one million three hundred and ninety-eight thousand pounds, in the year 1791; fo that if the Crown were at this moment in poffeffion of its hereditary domains, instead of being unable to bear at this day an increase of twenty-four thousand pounds per annum, it would be poffessed of a furplus revenue of fix hundred thousand pounds, over and above the revenue voted to it by Parliament at the period of the exchange. Being in poffeflion of a fmaller revenue, however, and that under the fanction and controul of Parliament, was the application now made from the Crown deferving of the treatment it had experienced to night? The Honourable Gentleman had gone into fome particulars, but he had not faid one word about the amount of the bills for the maintenance cf the houfehold, the increase in which arofe only from the general increase in the price of the articles confumed. Thus much he had fhewn the fallacy of the Honourable Gentleman's arguments. Far from meeting the queftion fairly, he had not faid one word in anfwer to his statement, except by a perverfion of the operation of taxes. With regard to what the Honourable Gentleman faid of the expences of the Foreign Department, the Honourable Gentleman appeared to have taken it for granted that the expences of the meffengers might be greatly diminished. This argument divided itfelf into two parts. The first was, the ftrange obfervation of the Honourable Gentleman that fince the inftitution of Mail Coaches the conveyance