without time for inquiry-or for collecting the opinions of those who were the most able to judge of the expediency of the measure. Ought not the right honourable gentleman to be thankful to the House for not yielding to his rash proposals? For what must have been the consequences to this country if the propositions had passed in the undigested shape in which the right honourable gentleman brought them into parliament, and pressed them on its acceptance? All the dangers would have been incurred which the right honourable gentleman himself afterwards so forcibly enumerated. Fortunate for the country was the wise caution of the House in that instance-fortunate for the right honourable gentleman himself-fortunate, indeed, had been his failing in this as well as in other pursuits, when he has been rescued by the wisdom of the House from the dangers of his own rashness! Never had the good fortune of the right honourable gentleman been more apparent than when he had been unwillingly brought to delay the discussion of his hasty projects; and when the good sense and sober judgment of the House had snatched him from the impending ruin of his sanguine measures. It was not only in the instance of the Irish propositions that he had been thus fortunately checked. He had also brought in a plan for a commercial treaty with America, and that would admit of no possible delay. The House however, had taught him the rashness of the proceeding; and that bill he never brought again into the House. On that subject he had been made completely to change his mind, in consequence of the lights which he received by prudent delay. The House would please to consider the size of the object which they were thus required without the necessary information being granted, and without even providing for a full attendance of members, by a call of the House, decidedly to investigate. They were to consider its influence on all that was great in the features of their general commerce in the principles under which, whether right or wrong, that commerce had flourished—and in its power over their connections with other states, and particularly Portugal. He must still urge how greatly he felt himself alarmed at the state of our connection with that power. He was not convinced that it would be wise for England to enter into a commercial connection with France, unless it was clearly demonstrated that such a connection was in no wise to affect our valuable connection with Portugal. What was the alternative of this treaty? If there was to be no sacrifice of the revenue arising from wine, there was to be a sacrifice of the Methuen treaty. If the Methuen treaty was not to be sacrificed, then there was to be a sacrifice of revenue in the article of wines only, to the He surely amount of between 150 and 200,000l. a year. should not, in spite of this immense loss, hesitate a moment, if the necessity of the alternative was apparent, which side to take; for the Methuen treaty had justly been considered as the commercial idol of England. There were extravagant rumours out of doors, if they were to listen to all the extravagant rumours circulated concerning the Portugal trade that it had fallen off, and that it was no longer to be viewed in the same light as formerly. But to these rumours he could give no ear; and the House ought certainly to know the precise state of the trade. They were, on the contrary, called upon to act in the dark. The question, as far as the relation of Portugal to England went, bore three faces-They were, first, to consider the French treaty either under the idea that the duties on Portugal wines were to be lowered; or, second, that the Methuen treaty was to be sacrificed; or, third, that there was a negotiation pending. In which of these faces was he to consider the Portugal trade while discussing the French treaty? It surely ought to be clearly and fully explained to the House, before they were called upon to come to this decision. Another circumstance most forcibly demanded consideration. A convention had been exchanged, and at length ratified and this convention was so little of a piece with the treaty, nay, was in some respects so totally dissimilar, that one might have conceived it as possible to decide on the merits of the Irish propositions in their last shape, from having read those which the right honourable gentleman first brought in, as to form a clear and conclusive judgment of the convention from having read the treaty. The convention which gentlemen had only received that day, contained adjustments of duties, and an arrangement of different articles of hardware, which were all so huddled together in the treaty, that the most enlightened of the manufacturers and traders would be puzzled to decide at once on its precise merits. A fortnight only was desired. Surely the right honourable gentleman could not be serious in objecting to a period so short. What did he fear, or what could he possibly have to fear from the delay? He had insinuated that the great body of the people were anxious for the completion of the treaty. If the majority of the people were for the treaty, surely he had nothing to apprehend from delay. If their approbation of it was well-founded, deliberation would only fix them in their opinions more thoroughly; but if he suspected that they were loud in their praise more from the novelty of the object than from their conviction of its merits; that they had, like himself, taken it up hastily, and attracted by the glitter of a French connec tion, or tempted by the view of immediate profit, had not taken time to sit down and thoroughly weigh the merits of the case; then, indeed, the conduct of the right honourable gentleman as a temporiser might be right. He snatched at the seasonable moment to catch the transitory breath of their praise; and seized on their delusion to betray them into his toil. But he could not think so poorly of the right honourable gentleman. He surely could not be content with a triumph so obtained. A triumph of this kind he might have had, in the fullest measure of national delirium, if he had pushed the nation to a question on the treaty eight days after its publication. There were a sort of people to whom, in every instance, novelty was attraction. If a measure had the merit of being new and glittering, they were soothed by its appearance, and for a time became subject to its fascination. But this was a sort of magic easily broken. It endured no longer than the novelty itself, and a rational estimate proceeding from cool inquiry followed the momentary intoxication of the senses. Surely the right honourable gentleman could find no true enjoyment in any other than the triumph which should proceed from the concurring voice of the country, seriously and deliberately pronounced in favour of the treaty which he had negociated. He must revolt from a triumph obtained over delusion and error. And while he thus earnestly requested time, he must again recall the memorable circumstance of the Irish propositions. What was the case there? When the right honourable gentleman was intreated to allow time for inquiry, and for collecting the sense of the people, he triumphantly pointed to the table, and inquired what petitions there were on it. What was the consequence of this? The manufacturing bodies in every part of the country, gave the right honourable gentleman petitions in sufficient number-they gave him the most convincing proof, not only that he was opposed by the whole body of the people, but that he was wrong in every article of his scheme. From these gentlemen the House had also gained a complete treatise on manufacture and commerce a treatise which, though given in the case of the Irish treaty, was equally applicable to the French treaty, and would for ever be referred to and respected in every case of commercial discussion. - He should now beg leave to caution the House against entering rashly into the first discussion, because their first opinion delivered on the treaty was so material. It was not with this as with the Irish treaty-they had no parliament, jealous of the constitution, like themselves, to revise what they might do. He had been said to have delivered very free opinions about French perfidy, and perhaps he might not think that nation the most faithful in their political contracts of any people in Europe; but he never had said that they were so treacherous that they were so unobservant of their public faith, that if the British parliament were to insert some small passage into the treaty different from the present letter of it, they would reject the whole. The Irish did this: a clause inserted at the conclusion of the inquiry had the good luck to arouse the jealousy of the parliament of Ireland, and they, much to the satisfaction of every thinking man, rejected the whole scheme; but, in this instance, we had no such good fortune to expect, and therefore parliament should be more cautious how they suffered a thing to pass, which, once out of their hands, was not likely to meet its doom elsewhere. Such sentiments as he had now expressed, would, he was convinced, entirely bear him out in voting for the amendment; and the more particularly, as the consequence of its passing would be a full House, and its natural result, a close investigation of a subject, than which few, if any, were superior in importance. The House divided on the amendment, which was negatived by 213 against 89. The motion for a call of the House was afterwards put, and rejected without a division. February 9. Mr. Fox observed, that it gave him pleasure to assure the House, that he should trespass but a short time upon their patience, as the documents for which he meant to move, went merely to the situation of our present, and the probable state of our future trade with Portugal; which though an object essentially necessary to be known in that House, previous to their coming to any decision upon the Commercial Treaty with France, yet, as far as it opened a field for argument, could only be considered in one of these two points of view, viz. whether before we had entered into a commercial treaty with a new customer, we had taken care to secure our connection with an old and valuable one; or in case of not having done so, whether having made a treaty with France we were likely to keep our connection with Portugal, our old customer, if the treaty was to be commercially considered; our old ally, if the treaty was to be considered politically; or solely trusted to putting ourselves exclusively into the hands of France, both as a customer, and-not an ally, for that she certainly could not be called, but as a new political friend. These were the heads under which every argument upon the subject must range; and the better to make himself under stood by the House, he would point out the three periods of time, at which the treaty with Portugal could alone have been made, but at each of which periods undoubtedly, there was a material difference in point of ease and advantage. The first of these periods was, that of all others, most desirable, because it must have been free from every imputation, either on the score of impolicy or suspicion of any kind whatever; the last of the three periods was certainly open to a proportion of suspicion, but he really thought, that though some suspicion might at first attach to it, in a very short time that might be done away: but there was between these two periods, an intermediate period of a very doubtful and suspicious nature indeed, and that of all others was the most objectionable. The period most advantageous of the three, obviously was, that prior to the conclusion of a treaty with France. Had a treaty with Portugal been secured and settled at that moment, it would have manifested a fairness and a decency on our part to an old ally; and it would have exhibited a good example of the dignity of this country, by shewing, that before we enter into new treaties, or sought for new friends, we took care to secure the continuance of our old connections. At that time, therefore, in his mind, the treaty with the court of Lisbon ought to have been adjusted, because he never could be brought to admit, that our commercial connection with Portugal ought to be blended with, or make any part of the measure of a commercial treaty with France, though the converse of the proposition might we true, and indeed was so. The next best period for making a treaty with the court of Lisbon, was subsequent to the parliamentary sanction and finally carrying into effect the commercial treaty with France, and after the reduction of Portugal wines, according to the reserve made in the 7th article of the French treaty. That period, as he had before said, was certainly not so free from objection as the former one, but most objectionable was the intermediate period, namely, that between the signing the French treaty, and the parliament of Great Britain giving it their sanction, and engaging to carry it into execution. In order to illustrate this assertion, and explain more fully what he meant, Mr. Fox went into a good deal of argument to prove, that if Portugal should, through any perverseness, or ill-judged obstinacy (which Heaven forbid should be the case!) refuse to continue the same connection with us that had subsisted between the two countries under the Methuen treaty, ever since the year 1703, France would, in that case, derive a great additional advantage from us, for which we neither should have an equivalent, nor could claim one. |