to be difcuffed, it would be no cafy task to refcue the empire from its prefent calamitous condition, and could only he effected by a union of abilities, and a v gorous exertion of them. An Hon. A Gent. early in the debate had faid, that the delay in the arrangement of Miniters had its origin in a difference of opinion between the heads of the coalition. He did not believe any fuch thing; and, were he at liberty to flate every particu lar, the Houfe would agree with him, that it was owing to quite another caule -to that fecret influence which had long flood between the King and his people, and which, for what has been called by fome gentlemen a misifterial interregnum, has governed the kingdom with an open and bare-faced way. [Here Mr. B any man withed to fee who it was that for five weeks paft had governed the kingdom, let hini go to the other Houfe, and there he would fee the great advitr in his true character, fullen, morofe, and full of doubts and ambiguity, the leading features of the prefent times. With regard to the cordut 'of the leaders of the opposition on the prefent occafion, the more it was known the more it would be approved. He heartily recommended the addrefs moved for, and hoped the Houfe would be unanimous in carrying or his Majefty's private opinions ;, they were only known to himfelf. His Majefty, it was well known, could never act wrong but from ill advice. It would therefore be proper to fiate from whom that ill advice came. The nation had been now near five weeks in a flate which, perhaps, it had never before experienced. The Hon. Gent. [meaning Mr. Hill, who had read an amendment the Friday before, which he had intended to make this cay, but had declined it to I avoid, as he faid, confufion, undoubtedly judged right; for fuch would have been its effect. The amendment was part of a motion, which he [Mr. Fox] had formerly bad the honour to make, but which had not met with the fan&ion of that Houfe. Had it been moved, he fhould have propofed a counter amend-F. looked full at Mr. J-k-ton.] If ment upon it; the one would have gone to the exclufion of the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, the other to the exclufion of the noble Earl at the head of the treafury; and if both par.ics should have been excluded, there would then have remained only one party unimpeached,D which how refpe&table foever the Rockingham party may be, they were not fufficient to ftand alone. The noble Earl, who feconded the motion, had treated it too feriously when he fuppofed it an in croachment on the prerogative of the Crown. The Houfe had certainly no right to infringe on the prerogative of the Crown; but when any unconftitutional meafure had been taken, the Houle had certainly a right to enquire who adviled it. Had a fingle hint been given to thofe with whom he acted, that the degree of confidence neceliary to carry on the meafures of government would have been placed in them, every thing would then have been easily adjutted; the fituation of the country required a coalition of parties; and, in order to obtain fo great an object, he was ready to thake hands even with thofe who were opposite to him, as well as with the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, and out of the three parties to form fuch an Adminiftration G as the country might look up to. In order to effect this, it would neither be wife nor prudent to point out former errors, but to lay afide the recollection of the paft, for the fake of being able to do well for the future. It was true there might be men ready enough to accept of power; but with a table full of great and important bufinefs, with a loan to be made immediately, with many other queftions of infinite magnitude preiling it to the throne. E Gov. Johnfone agreed with the laft fpeaker, that it was unparlamentary to ufe the name of Majelly in debate; but, if fuch delicacy was due to the perfon of royalty, he thought fome refpect was due alfo to perfons of great weight and ability in the flate, whofe characters were not to be detained by trong charges Fdarkly thrown out, niere alleation fupported by proof. If he conceived the Rt. Hon. Gent, rightly in what he had infinua ed refpecting a noble Lord [a Member of the other Houfe], he alluded to a learned Lord [Ld Thuilow ], once the Rt. Hon. Gentleman's friend, on whom he had heard him pronounce the higheft eulogiums, and whole thining talents, firmuels of mind, and, above all, his incorruptible integrity, entitled him to be confidered as one of the great pillars of the ftate, and therefore dark imputations against fuch a character ought to have no weight. His maxim, the Governor faid, had ever been, to name the perfon liable to accufation, and to fupport the change with proof. In judtice, that maxim ought to be adhered to in the prefent inflance. The Governor THE [935 Gentleman's Magazine; For AUGUST, 1783. BEING THE SECOND NUMBER OF THE SECOND PART OF VOL. LIII. LEGEND OF SAINT CECILIA. (FROM SIR JOHN HAWKINS.) AINT CECILLA, among Chriftians, is efteemed the patronefs of mulle; for the reafens whereof we must refer to her hiftory, as delivered by the notaries of the Roman church, and from them tranferibed into the Gol den Legend, and other books of the like kind. The ftory fays, that the was a Roman lady, born of noble parents, about the year 225. That, notwithftanding the had been converted to Chriftianity, her parents married her to a young Roman nobleman, named Va. lerianus, a pagan, who, going to bed to her on the wedding-night, as the cuffom is, fays the book, was given to underftand by his fpoufe that the was nightly viited by an angel, and that he mutt for bear to approach her, otherwife the angel would deftroy him. Valerianus, fomewhat troubled at thefe words, de fired he might fee his rival the angel, but his fpoufe told him that was impof fible, unless he would be baptized, and become a Chrißian, which he contented to: after which, returning to his wife, he found her in her clotet at prayer; and by her fide, in the fhape of a beau tiful young man, the angel cloathed with brightnefs. After fome conver fation with the angel, Valerianus told him that he had a brother, named Tiburtius, whom he greatly wished to fee a partaker of the grace which he himfelf had received: the angel told him, that his defire was granted, and that fhortly they fhould both be crowned with martyrdom. Upon this the angel vanifhed, but foon after fhewed himself as good as his word: Tiburtius was converted, and both he and his brother Valerianus were beheaded. Cecilia was offered her life upon condition that she would facrifice to the deities of the Romans, but the refufed; upon which the was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and fcalded to death: though others fay he was ftifled in a dry bath, i. e. an incloture from whence the air was excluded, having a flow fire underneath it; which kind of death was fometimes inflicted among the Roma: $ upon women of quality who were criminals. See the fecond Nonne's Tale in Chaucer, the Golden Legend, print ed by Caxton, and the Lives of Saints by Peter Riadeneyra, prieft of the Society of Jefus. Printed at St. Omer's in 1699. Upon the spot where her houfe ftood, is a church, faid to have been built by Pope Vitan I, who administered baps tifm to her husband and his brother: it is the church of St. Cecilia in Traftevere. Within is a moft curious paint of the faint, as aifo a moft fiately monument, with a cumbent flatue of her, with her face downwards, of which the annexed plate gives a faithful reprefentation. St. Cecilia is ufually painted playing either on the cigan or on the harp, finging, as Chaucer relates, thus: And whiles that the orga is made melodie, To GoD alone thus in her herte fong the, O Lorde my foul and cke my body gie Unwemmed left I confounded be." Befides this account there is a tradition of St. Cecilia, that the excelled in mufic, and that the angel, who was thus enamoured of her, was drawn do wn from the celeftial mansions by the charms of 644 Summary of Proceedings in the third Seffion of the prefent Parliament. highly approved of a coalition; and Mr. Fox, in explanation, faid, he fill pofitions he denied, and referred to the year 1757, when there was no first Lord feflion of the Juices of the Court of of the Treafury, no Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the feals were in pofKing's Bench, Yet the nation was not ruined. Upon the whole, he thought the A motion improper. Mr. Macdonald wished to hear what could be faid in fupport of a motion Bthe royal prerogative, but certainly conwhich not only had a tendency to narrow tained a very fevere cenfure on fomebody. pofe the principles of the motion were The reafons that warranted him to op founded in facts. A coalition had lately been formed, of fuch a nature as aftonithed the world, it was a coalition of fech Coppofite principles, of fuch contrary enemics, that the public wondered at it opinions, and of fuch avowed political fome few approved it; many thought it in a body, individually they differed; Gov. Jabufione al uded only, he faid, fell from a rt. hon. Gent. refpecting a to the public profeffions of friendship, high Law Lord, if there was any imimproper, and all detejled it--As to what which the Hon. Gent. had made when proper conduct, any fecret influence D he mentioned the learned Lord alluded from that quarter, why not bring the to, as the only perfon in Ld North's charge openly forward? But thus to atAdministration that was fit to be retained. Mr. Jenkinfon, in reply to what had been faid by Mr. Fox of the pernicious honeft countryman to the New Minifter on efits of fecret influence and private in- Ethat occafion. Perhaps it may not be improper here to introduce part of an Addrefs from a plain telligence, difclaimed in the most folemn manner all knowledge of any Juch influ"Were you, Sir, faid he, ence, and declared that though he had to travel into every county in England, and been frequently honoured with his Mato collect 5co people out of each county, all jelly's commands to attend him in his of the mot knowing, the honefteft and most clofet, it had always been on official ders, however various and difcordant their difpaffionate fort, whigs, tories, men of the fir duimation, and men of the lower orbufinefs, and he appealed to Ld North for the truth of what he had advanced. most certainly find them all agree in one geopinions might be in other matters, you will He was ready to fland the teft of enquiry, neral fentiment, That our poor nation is in and thould rejoice when the Houfe thould enter upon it. And as to the learned a mot finking and declining flate, and that Lord fo often alluded to, he declared he we have now loft all that iplendour, weight, had flood wholly neuter for the last ten and dignity, in Europe which we formerly days, and that the arrangement refted maintained; and that, without a thorough folely with a noble Duke and his friends.policy, we meft, in a very thort period beand immediate change in our whole and enHe wished, at the fame time, that thofe G tire fyftem both of foreign and domeftic who charged him with undue influence could on a late traníaction lay their hands on their hearts and clear themfelves as completely from the foul fufpicion as he had it in his power to do. He did not approve of the motion. He co. fidered it as a dangerous precedent, unwarranted by any thing fimilar in the annals of this country. It had been urged by way of argument, that there never had been a time when this kingdom had been fo long without an Adminiftration, and that the prefent minifterial intericgnum would be the ruin of the kingdom. Both these F change of measures. You must go to the tack a high character by innuendo, to make him a political culprit for political purpofes, without evidencing the crime, was a fpecies of parliamentary privilege that ought to be reprobated by every honeft man. He trufted the noble Lord in the blue ribbon would avow whether he conceived the noble Lord alluded to had given a fullen advice, an advice deliberately deftructive to the Crown. This maxim of the new coalition, to run down every man whofe principles were not as pliable and as verfatile as their own, was a doctrine novel in the conftitution of true patriotism, although it was the adopted fyftem of that party who were to fave this country. On a former occafion it was mentioned by a Right Hon. Gent [Mr. Pitt] when this new connubial ftate was forming, that to him it appeared fo ill calculated to enfure the purposes of matrimonial happinefs, that he forbade the banns. Matrimony in politics he conceived to be nearly allied to matrimony in human life; it ought to be founded in affection, fupported by a fimilarity of ideas, and continued as well by mutual fentiment as by recipro-D cal feeling. The coalition alluded to had none of thofe requifites. It might, notwithstanding, act for a moment in true unifon, but the harmony could not laft for any length of time. He wifhed to call back to the remembrance of the ministerial negociators the delay of forming an Adminiftration, and to afk them fer.oufly the occation of it, He appealed to the Hon. Gent. and to the noble Lord in the blue ribbon, if their divifions and difputes were not the true caufe of it? It had been faid, that blame lay fomewhere, and the Right Hon. Gent. [Mr. F.] had fpoken out, and flated where the blame lay. The world would confiderothers from treading in the fame teps; that expofition in a manner as part of the addrefs, and it became neceflary therefore either to retract what had been faid, or to give proofs of the truth of it. He concluded with obferving, that as the address came near to trenching on the prerogative, he should, to avoid difpenfions, and ribbands. The coalition, cullion, move for the order of the day. could receive advice. With regard to what the learned Gentleman had said of the principles of the coalition, they were fuch, he infifted, as every honeft man in the kingdom muft approve. It was founded on principles that went to re concile old animofities, and to form an Adminiftration on a permanent, found and conftitutional foundation. Something had fallen from the learned Gent. that alluded to a venal tribe who had always fupported the noble Ld in the blue ribbon while he had the power of B providing for them, but had deferted him when that power was to be found in another quarter. He wished to know which of the two defcriptions of men were the noble Lord's best friends; they who deferted him when he had nothing Co give, or they who stood by him when they had nothing to expect. He fuppofed the learned Gent. thought the for iner, as he had then acted from convic tion. He took notice, before he fat down, of what Mr. Jenkinson had faid as to the advice he had officially given to his Majefly. He admitted, that as a Privy Counsellor he had a right to offer his advice; but not in fecret. There lay the rub. Another circumftance occurred to him, and that was, the circumftance that happened in 1757. Suppofing, he faid, the fact to be as reprefented, yet it contained no reason why, in this day's emergency, we should copy from paft times, and Eargue on the neceffity of a prefent evil from the existence of a former misfortune. Mr. Fox, in reply, took a comprehenfive view of the coalition, and reprobated in the frongeft terms every infinuation and charge made by the learned gentleman. That fecret influence had retarded the choice of an Adminiftration heH averred; and his reafons for charging that influence to the account of the Chancellor was, because (as there was no oftenfible Minifter) he was the only official man from whom his Majesty Sir Charles Turner was of opinion, that the cause of our prefent misfortune was owing to the lenity fhewn to the authors of them. Had they been im. peached, as it was the duty of this Houfe to have done, it would have deterred but now they faw plainly that delinquency was the high road to preferment; and that if any leading man in the Houle would fell his confequence, he would enfure him a peerage. To commit poli tical crimes was the fure road to titles, To much talked of, to be fure, had aftonifhed the nation, and no perfon more than limfelf. He was forry to fee it, as his worthy friend Charles had materially hurt himself by fuch a coalition. He fpoke handfomely of L.d North in private life; but in public life, in his politics, he had been unfortunate, and ought to have been expelled the Houfe. He difliked the coalition exceedingly. Ld North felt himself fo materially called upon, that he could not with de cency |