into a Committee, he should explain his motives on that ground.

The House then refolved into a Committee.

"Lord Hawkesbury rofe and faid, that though he felt as ftrongly as any man, decided reluctance to bringing forward any measure tending to impofe unneceffary burthens upon the country, and more efpecially at a crifis fuch as the prefent, yet he trusted that when the Committee fhould have heard his explanation of the measure he had to propose that night, they would not only acquit him of the charge of bringing forward an unjuft or unneceffary propofition, but that they would admit the propofal he was about to have the honour of fubmitting for their confideration, was one which had not only the ftrongeft claims upon the generofity, the liberality, and wife policy of this country, but founded in a principle of that juftice; one which he would not, though he might with propriety, reft upon the recommendation expreffed in his Majelty's meffage, but which he would explain more at large, to fhew the justice of the claim he was about to urge. The obligations this country owed to the Houfe of Orange, he faid, were greater than ever were due by any country to any great family at the head of a national government. To prove this, he would call to the recollection of the Houfe, the uniform conduct of the Houfe of Orange, on all occafions, to this country, from the period we owed to an illuftrious Prince of that Houfe the prefervation of our conftitution and our liberties, to the prefent moment. Upon every occafion the fleady attachment of that illuftrious Houfe was ftrongly and uniformly marked towards this country, and increafed in proportion to the preponderance it obtained in the county of its fovereignty; the connection of which, with Great-Britain it had uniform. ly laboured to fortify. Thefe were confiderations which he was fure could not fail of having great weight with the House. But with refpect to the foreign transactions on which that Houfe had been committed in common with this country, and in which it had facrificed its dearest interefts, its power and poffeffion, to Briith attachment, its claims upon the generofity of this country must undoubtedly be felt with ftill greater force. He would not fay, merely on a ground of compaffion, however forcible might be the appeal to British generofity on that score, but upon much higher claims, thofe of juftice and liberality.

4Q2

liberality. It was a fact too well known to require recapitulation now, that the illuftrious Prince at the head of the House of Orange had, in the ftrength of his attachment to Great-Britain, loft every thing which belonged to him, whether as 'fovereignty, rank, power, or private property, in the late conteft. In the negotiation of the treaty of Amiens, it was ftipulated that fome compenfation fhould be made him, in confideration of which he had agreed to furrender all claims to the fovereignty and other rights in the United Provinces. How far thefe compenfations were adequate to the furrenders he confented to make, was not now to be confidered; nor was it a matter eafy to calculate. But whatever was the compenfation ftipulated, it had not been fulfilled according to that ftipulation; and the only part of the agreement which had been performed, was now again violated by the recent aggreffion of France; and having thus loft every thing for its attachment to England, it became the juft right of the Houfe of Orange to claim, and the duty of his Majefty's Ministers to propose some plan of compenfation, by which to alleviate the diftreffes to which that illuftrious Houfe had been reduced, until events fhould give fome turn to its fortunes. His Majefty, impressed by thefe confiderations, certainly felt it both his duty and earneft defire to recommend the fubject to the confideration of his Parliament, in the hope that fome compenfation would be thought juft for the Houfe of Orange; and upon this ground it was, that his Majefty fent his royal meffage to the Houfe. The Houfe muft recollect, that in the courfe of the war, very eminent fervices were rendered to this country by the Prince of Orange, and that a very confiderable Dutch fleet was furrendered to England in his name. In the fubfequent negotiation with the Batavian Government, for compenfation to the Prince of Orange, it was ftipulated on their part, that if the Dutch fleet, furrendered to England in his name, was given back, they would make ample provifion for him. His Majefty's Ministers, however, could not deem it politic to enter into any ftipu lation of this fort, but as it ftood in the way of compenfation to the House of Orange for the loffes they had fuf tained, their claims were the ftronger upon the juftice and. generofity of this country. Confidering therefore all these points, and the power and poffeffions the family were compelled to abandon for their fervices and attachment to this country, he trusted the Houfe would feel the force of its.

claims upon the juftice and generofity of the British nation. The 'modes which he fhould, with the leave of the Committee, propofe, were two-namely, either to vote a given. fum as a complete and final indemnity in confideration of all their loffes, or elfe a fmall fum promptly, and another by way of annuity. He fhould himself prefer the latter, as the more eligible mode; and therefore propose it first, namely, a fum of 60,000l. in money, and an annuity of 16,000l. per annum. By this latter fum he wifhed it to be understood that all the penfions to minor branches of the family for their fervices and attachment to this country, were to be covered; and he concluded by a motion to that effect.

Mr. Canning rofe, not, he faid, to refift the claims of the illuftrious Houle alluded to, upon the justice and generosity of the Britith nation, for he fully admitted them; but merely to make fome obfervations upon the conduct of his Majesty's Minifters, as with refpect to the compenfations ftipulated for the Stadtholder by the treaty of Amiens, and which they neglected to enforce while they had the means in their hands; and to afk, why thofe Ministers had fo long held back this propofition, which, as had been truly obferved by his noble Friend, (Lord L. Gower) a right hon. Gentleman had intimated his intention to bring forward fo long ago as laft December, but which they never again mentioned until this advanced period, when the House was almost deferted on the eve of a prorogation. Their conduct on this occation he thought rather whimfical, Looking to the treaty of Amiens, he there found a stipulation for ample indemnities to the Stadtholder fully agreed to by the contracting parties: but no fooner was it fettled on the part of this country with France and Holland, that the Stadtholder fhould be fully indemnified, than a new agreement is made between Holland and France, that the former fhall not be called on for any part of the compenfation; and thus the Batavian Government fhifts the burden off its own thoulders, and throws it upon France, who totally refufes to comply. A manoeuvre fo barefaced and fraudulent wis, he believed, unparalleled in the history of civilized nations: But he defired to know, why his Majesty's Minifters did not inlift on the ftipulation being fully performed before they had furrendered the means in their own handsnamely, the Cape of Good Hope, not then given up, and the islands belonging to France; fince France was to be looked

looked to for the performance of the ftipulation. Such a conduct on the part of France and Holland was adding infult to injury and though, had his Majefty's Minifters been capable of felling the fleet of the country to procure an alternative of compenfation for the Stadtholder, they would have deferved to be branded with the fouleft criminality, yet he could not acquit them of the groffeft negligence, and moft reprehenfible omiffion, in not enforcing compenfation in the firft inftance, by the means in their poffeffion, agreeable to the objects of the treaty of Amiens, which was equally binding on both, and by which Minifters would have been justified in making that compenfation to the Houfe of Orange, which the Batavian and the French governments chofe to elude or refufe. The opportunity, however, was now loft; we are again at war with the Batavian Government, and there remained at present no other mode of fetting matters to rights than by an effort. of national generofity to relieve the embarraffiments in which that illuftrious family had been involved; but he never could excuse Ministers for not having fecured indemnity from the means in their hands. How much more grateful would fuch indemnity have been to the feelings of that illuftrious House, rather than being reduced to the neceffity of depending on the eleemofynary ftipend of parliamentary generofity; which, though it reflected honour upon his Majefty, with whom the idea originated, as well as upon the nation which conferred it, yet it could not fail of making unpleasant impreffions upon the feelings of the illuftrious Prince, whofe embarraffinents forced him to accept it, though he had every claim that national justice and liberality could fanction.

Lord Hawkesbury acknowledged that the fecret convention between the French and Batavian Plenipotentiaries, which had been alluded to, was a circumftance of a very extraordinary nature; but yet there was nothing in the thing itself to preclude one of the parties from taking the burthen of compenfation off the fhoulders of the other, but the bad character and general ill conduct of the power which had done fo. What he dwelt on, he faid, was, that by a convention made in the month of June, the Prince of Orange had agreed to renounce all his claims to the Stadtholderate and his hereditary ftates, for an indemnity to be given him in Germany, and having done fo, he had no claim of right to withhold the ceffion of any of our

ftipulated

ftipulated conquefts to fecure to him poffeffions which he had already given up. The prefent propofal was not profelfed to be brought forward as a pofitive claim, but rather as an appeal to the juftice and generofity of this country.

Mr. Canning explained, that he did not impute it as bad faith in the Dutch to have thrown the indemnity from themfelves upon France, but thought it rather extraordinary we fhould have applied to them who had been released, rather than to the party which had undertaken the indemnity. Either the Prince of Orange was fufficiently compenfated, or he was not. If not, he had a right to complain of our Government, even though he did fign the treaty or convention alluded to; for when a great ftate undertook to guarantee a small one, it was bound not to fuffer an inadequate indemnity to be forced upon it, and thrust down its throat, otherwife the guarantee would be of very little, fervice.

Sir F. Burdett faid, that he thought the propofed provifion was one of the molt extraordinary measures, under the prefent circumstances of the country, that ever was fubmitted to the confidera ion of the Houfe; and, in his opinion, the noble Lord had felt a confiderable difficulty in propofing a claim upon the people of England in fuch times, and for fuch a purpose. The noble Lord had refted that, claim of the Prince of Orange upon the juftice and generofity of the country. As tor juftice, wherever it could be eftablished, it was a matter abfolutely neceffary to be attended to by all nations and people; and as for generofity, it was, in his opinion, a moft excellent quality; but he thought it would not be amifs, on the prefent occafion, for Minifters to attend a little to the juftice which they owed the people of this country, in preference to liftening to imaginary claims arifing from other quarters. He thought, that fo far from the Houfe of Orange having claims against this country, Parliament and the people of England might have claims against it, having been called in as auxiliaries only in order to affift the Dutch; for the Prince of Orange was the original caufe of involving this country in the late war. In that point of view, as an advocate for the people of England, he should declare himfelf hoftile to any claim of the nature of that which was now propofed. The Prince of Orange muft have either facrificed the intereft of his country, or he could have no claim upon this. We were just now entered into a war, the real objects of which have become