mer, le contended, made the revenue provided by a Parliament ave oncerty; me other made the Crown private property. Mr. Fx ♬ mis subject, after having supported the opinion of M Bace at us ascai energetic eloquence, exclaimed, Good God! zure - Jean iseeg? How have I been lost to myself? To what little my education, my knowledge, and my experience, been aratet, I am a dodrine established in this house, that the King is my mounded in his Civil List. Do men know what they are

ng when they hold such language? Are they so blind as really änger in it? Are they so ignorant, or so totally lost to the TÍICA, as to maintain a doctrine which tends to the dissonun of the compact between the King and the people? Does not Ieters sature of the trust delegated to the Sovereign render hist starts harjad the inspection of Parliament? Has not such ingrind best. De form practice of Parliament? How fared it with juns de Secund? Was not that unhappy King, who preferred a erotinal person rom the Crown of France to the government of a great empire according its laws and constitution, deprived of his erence by Farlane it? The divisions on some of the clauses a mas clebrated bill inspired Opposition with expectation that their Mars Jorast would be at last crowned with success.

AAA ma time some remarks of the Earl of Shelburne on the appatrem all bir. Flierton to the command of a regiment being by ko germanan considered as a personal reflection on him, he insisted Sonatan maia Zuel ensued. One of the Ministers the same, ang sol, ae raged what had happened that morning, and what llar sort, would keep gentlemen within RSK Rest teach them better manners. Mr. Fox, 1. use and his recent duel to be implicated, observed, Î ̧u Mun. Geatleman very frequently speaks in a loose

sy, he may have, perhaps, no particular meaning; Arts a pen to point to me, I cannot pass them unAt myself, what has happened to me, has not # 2lc28 à zowledge; nor shall it ever restrain me within es can those I have chalked out to myself. With du me sedie Erl, who was concerned in the affair of this paint beleve it will teach him better manners, and for cam, that I am sure my noble friend has not gone beyond ‚· What he said. As a proof of which I am determined, when the new ur.& come under consideration, I will then object egint to which my noble friend has obje&ted;

and that on the very same ground which he has taken, viz. because the person appointed to the command of it does not appear to me to be a fit person to hold the command.'

Mr. Fox displayed his eloquence with great force in a motion for a notice to the East India Company, that the debt of the Government to the Company, that is, the capital of the India Stock, should be fully paid on the 5th of April, 1783. He asked the Minister, Is he not content with having lost America, or is he determined, before he quits his present situation, to reduce the British empire to the confines of this island? Can he point out a single good which his motion is capable of producing? Is he blind and insensible to the evil and danger with which it is fraught? Why issue an impotent threat, which he neither intends nor is capable of carrying into execution? It is ridiculous, it is dangerous to threaten, when men dare not perform what they threaten. Does he wish to behold the scenes of anarchy, confusion, distress, and ruin, which his idle threat may probably produce in the Company's affairs and possessions in India? Does he think this house will at this time of day, under the immediate pressure and bitter experience of past rashness and misconduct, wantonly hazard the ample revenues, the resources of power and wealth, which this country derives from the trade and commerce of the East India Company? Supposing even that the noble Lord is capable of carrying his threat into execution, and really intends it, is he ignorant of the heavy loss which the nation must sustain, in the mere article of paying off the capital in the present state of the funds? Does he not know, that although the 4,200.000l. carried only three per cent. yet that he must pay it at par; and that the three per cents, being down at sixty in the market, the public must necessarily lose a clear forty per cent. on every hundred pounds they paid off? If a new Company is the object of his speculation, does he not know that the trade must then be open; that he is disabled by law from rendering it exclusive; and that the present Company will still retain their possessions, strong-holds, and so many other of their present superior powers and advantages in the country, as must speedily ruin the new adventurers, if any can be found mad enough' to become such ?*

A new law was proposed this session for excluding contractors from Parliament, and very ably supported by Burke, Fox, and Dunning, and passed the House of Commons. During the discussion of Burke's bi. Mr. Dunning, after enlarging very much on the influence of the Crown, and endeavouring to shew that it was attended with must

pernicious effects, moved the famous resolution, that the influence of the Crown bus increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.' This resolution was supported by Fox, Burke, and the whole force of Opposition, with such effect, that, to the surprise and alarm of Administration, and probably to the astonishment of the mover himself, it was carried by a majority of 233 to 215, and on it several other resolutions were grounded. Although this majority was of no long duration on the side of Opposition, it afforded them well-grounded hopes that their warfare against the Minister would be at last succes. ful. The country gentlemen had been so moved by the state of public affairs as described by Dunning, box, and Burke, that they were staggered in their opinion of Lord North; and though, after a short dereliction, they again returned to him, it was probable that the increasing burdens from the war, joined to the forcible eloquence of the Opposition leaders, would induce them entirely to abandon Administration, as afterwards took place.

The illness of the Speaker of the House of Commons caused a recess, which, though not long, enabled Ministry to bring back some of the late deserters; and when the house met again, it was found that Administration had regained their majority. A motion of Mr. Dunning's, following up that which was carried concerning the influence of the Crown, had been postponed on account of the illness

the Speaker. The motion was for an address to his Majesty, requesting that he would not dissolve the Parliament, nor prorogue the present session, until proper measures should be taken by that house to diminish the influence of the Crown, and to correct the other eyils complained of in the petitions of the people. On the meeting of the house after the Speaker's recovery, the question for Mr. Dunning's motion was debated and put, and lost by a majority of 254 to 203.. Mr. Fox opened on the deserters who had returned to Ministry in one of the most poignant and severe philippics that perhaps was ever spoken in the House of Commons. I declare (said he) the vote of this night to be scandalous, disgraceful, and treacherous! I do not apply these charges to the 215 gentlemen who did, along with the Minister, oppose the resolutions of the 6th of April. These gentles men acted an open, a consistent, and a manly part, in their opposing the address proposed on the present day. They differed from me, I am sorry for it; but I cannot blame them, because they differerk f om me upon principle. But who can contemplate without a mixture of the greatest surprise and indignation the conduct of another. Octou er.]

set of men in this house? Those who have resolved that the influence of the Crown was increased and ought to be diminished; that the grievances of the people ought to be redressed; who pledged themselves to this house, to the nation, to their constituents, to each other, and to themselves, that it was their duty to redress the grievances complained of; and who have now shamefully fled from that solemn engagement! It is shameful, it is base, it is unmanly, it is treacherous! The gentlemen I mean surround me; they sit at my side of the house; I am sorry for it. They are those who voted with me on the 6th of April, and who voted with the Minister this night. No man holds in greater contempt those who are at the devotion of the Minister than I do myself; they are slaves of the worst kind, because they sell themselves; yet, base as the tenure of their places is, they have one virtue to pride themselves on-their fidelity, consistency, and gratitude, are subjects of commendation. To all their other demerits, they have not added the absurdity and treachery of one day resolving an opinion to be true, and the next declaring it to be a falsehood. They have not taken in their patron, their friends, or their country, with false hopes and delusive promises. Whatever their motives or sentiments may be, they have adhered to them; and so far as that goes, their conduct is entitled to my approbation.'

While these and various other matters were agitated with much heat, an affair totally separate was carried on for a long time with little notice, but, when mature, for a time bore down all plans both of Ministry and of Opposition, and made the parties in the houses combine for their mutual safety, and for preserving Parliament and every part of government, all public and private property, from being involved in destruction. Lord North, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox, and the adherents of both, spoke on the same side in defence of toleration, and were unanimous in resolving to oppose so daring attempts to overawe the legislature. Into the detail of the riots in 1780, being so thoroughly known, and besides not particularly relating to the life of Mr. Fox, we shall not enter. The riot threw a general damp on all endeavours whatever for procuring change by petitions, however different the reform might be from the professed object of the petitions which produced those outrages. Popular fury for the time appeared the greatest of all possible evils; and Administration acquired no small degree of power from a tumult which threatened the suppression of all government. The session, which had been so

important, and had so often and powerfully called forth the talents of Mr. Fox, soon after closed; and the Parliament, which first witnessed his arrival at that high eminence to which before he had only been rising, was two months after dissolved.

Charles James, Fox, now in the union of genius with intrepid boldness and talents for the conduct of affairs, was looked on as the first man in the house. * His dissipation was by many imputed to the want of serious employment sufficiently momentous to occupy his capacious mind. It was said, that if engaged in the administration of government he would leave off those practices which shaded the brilliancies of his character. To him the eyes and attention of all dissatisfied with the plans and conduct of Administration, and discontented with the great burthens which they produced, were turned. They trusted that the same energy of understanding and disposition which had so often and clearly manifested themselves in shewing wherein Administration had been wrong, would inspire and direct him into the performance of what was right.

A powerful party in the City of Westminster was anxious to have so eminent a personage for their representative. The candidates were, Sir George Brydges Rodney, Mr. Fox, and Lord Lincoln, After a very warm contest the two former were returned... Mr. Fox was chaired by his friends, and carried in triumph through different streets to Portland and Devonshire houses, and thence returned to his committee-room.

*4 * ]

Parliament met in November. Discussions between this country and Holland were the important objects which first occupied the attention of the new Parliament. From the commencement of the American war Holland had leaned to the Colonies, and had supplied them with stores. After France and Spain had become hostile to Britain, she had also supplied those nations with warlike, stores, contrary to the general principles of neutrality and particular treaties subsisting between her and Britain. Various remonstrances on this subject had been made to the Dutch, which were disregarded,, The Ministry, therefore, resolved to imitate the example of the illustrious Pitt during the former war, gave orders for the seizure of ships laden with contraband goods. This order was rigorously executed; the Dutch ships were searched, and contraband articles taken from them; the full value being paid to their owners. The Dutch, very unrea

The reader, from what we have before observed, will see that we mean the first person for a statesman, not as a legislator or sage,