to acknowledge, was more necessary to Portugal than it was to England, considered in a political point of view. She allowed us great commercial advantages in return for protection. Such was the condition, and such the politics of the European potentates, that the weaker states must court the alliance of the more powerful. Now, was it not highly probable, that our conduct might induce the Portuguese to reflect, that they were near neighbours to Spain, and that they were no longer natural enemies; that nature intended them to supply each other's wants, and to exchange commodities for their reciprocal benefit? This, at least, might as well be said of Portugal and Spain, as of France and England; and might induce Portugal blindly to throw herself into the arms of Spain, and to add her balance to the already preponderating weight of the House of Bourbon. Thus should we not only lose the benefits we might derive from an alliance with Portugal, but have her in the scale against us. Nothing could more tend to exasperate, and move her to act in this manner, than the present conduct of ministers. The pride and dignity of Portugal, as an independent kingdom, had been wounded by them. No person in this House was more an advocate for acting with vigour towards foreign states than he was; but he confessed that he thought this rigid tone might be assumed with more honour and justice towards other states than towards Portugal. Not long ago we were blamed by all Europe for our insolence; and he was sorry to find, that we should not be acquitted of the exercise of that vice. If we thought proper to retain our style of haughtiness, it ought to be towards our old rivals and equals in power, and not a subordinate, and, in respect to us, a very defenceless people. That was far from being the conduct that a brave and a generous nation ought to adopt.

Mr. Fox contended strenuously, that if the House did not instruct the committee to come to an immediate resolution, that the duties on the wines of Portugal should be lowered one third, they, in fact, broke the Methuen treaty, or at least departed from its spirit and meaning; intimated to Portugal a ground of doubt as to their intention of not ultimately complying with the Methuen treaty, and, in fact, for the moment paid France a compliment at the expence of Por tugal, by holding it out to all the world, that during the course of their proceedings France was preferred, and her interests first attended to. Suppose, said Mr. Fox, that the Queen of Portugal were to publish an edict, prohibiting the importation of our woollens into her dominions, would this country think that a handsome thing towards them, or that it dignified their ground for renewing a negotiation? In like

manner let them feel for Portugal; if the Methuen treaty was not recognized without delay, it was virtually broken," because the duties on the wines of Portugal, as far as the ultimate intention of the legislature was to be collected from a resolution of the House of Commons, appeared to stand on the same footing as the duties on the wines of France; and if they actually were left to stand on that footing, every gentleman knew it would be a direct violation of the Methuen treaty. Great, indeed, was the difference between recognizing the condition of the Methuen treaty primarily and secondarily, or in other words, by a resolution antecedent to the sending the bill to be brought in upon the resolutions come to in the committee, up to the House of Lords, or by a resolution afterwards. But what he contended was the strongest argument to induce the House to act in the manner he had advised, was their not having before them in due parliamentary form, any grounds whatever to lead them to suspend an act expressive of readiness on their part to manifest their desire to comply with the Methuen treaty. They had, indeed, heard of negociations pending with Portugal, and they had heard of grievances complained of, but they knew not the grievances, nor the situation and circumstances of the pending negociations. They knew not that the complaints of grievances were even justly founded, and therefore as a House of Parliament they had no grounds whatever to induce them to act otherwise than as if no negociation whatever was pending, nor any complaints of grievances existing. Mr. Fox pressed this as the great foundation of his argument, and as the basis of his motion, and after a variety of other points, recapitulated what he had set out with, namely, a statement of the two points of view in which the Methuen treaty had been considered as binding on Portugal, and optional with regard to us; or, as binding equally on Portugal and Great Britain. He concluded with moving, "That it be an instruction to the said committee, that they do, in the first place, proceed to consider of reducing the duties upon wines directly imported from Portugal into Great Britain, so that such wines may pay no higher duties than twothirds of the duties to be imposed upon wines imported directly from France."

The motion was supported with great ability by Sir Grey Cooper, and opposed by Mr. Pitt, as interfering by a premature resolution in a matter delegated by the constitution to the execu. tive government. With respect to what had been said of the House having no parliamentary knowledge of a pending negocia tion, he asserted that a declaration delivered by him in his place,

and as a minister, that such a negociation was pending, was entitled to be considered as formal parliamentary information. He concluded with repeating his declaration, that he had every reason to expect the negotiation would prove successful; if, however, it should not succeed, he would lay before the House, for their judgments, the grounds upon which it had failed.

Mr. Fox said, he would not take the sense of the House, as the right honourable gentleman had put the matter upon such an issue. He said the right honourable gentleman had rested on an assertion, but no argument. The right honourable gentleman, the House would remember, was responsible, not for the success of the measure, as that no man could answer for, but for any unfortunate turn the treaty might take in consequence of the mode of negotiation, the right honourable gentleman, as a minister, had thought proper to choose. Mr. Fox defended his motion, and denied that it would have embarrassed government; on the contrary, he contended it would have been a good ground for government to have acted upon. He by no means consented to admit that his motion was an active measure in favour of Portugal, and beyond what she had a just right to. He contended it was exactly the reverse, and to prove the argument, he again put the case, that if the Queen of Portugal should have issued an edict prohibiting the export of our woollens, he should have thought she had acted unfairly by us. His motion, he insisted upon it, was an act of bare justice to Portugal.

The motion was negatived without a division. The House then went into the committee, in which the remaining resolutions were carried. On the 19th they were reported to the House, and finally agreed to, upon a division, by a great majority.

February 21.

The last debate which this important measure gave rise to, took place this day, upon the motion of Mr. Blackburne, the member for Lancashire, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, assuring his majesty that we have taken into our most serious consideration the provisions contained in the treaty of navigation and commerce, concluded between his majesty and the most christian king; and that we beg leave to approach his majesty with our sincere and grateful acknowledgements for this additional proof of his majesty's constant attention to the welfare and happiness of his subjects.-That we shall proceed with all proper expedition in taking such steps as may be necessary for giving effect to a system so well calculated to promote a beneficial intercourse between Great Britain and France, and to give additional perma

nence to the blessings of peace.-That it is our firm persuasion, that we cannot more effectually consult the general interests of our country, and the glory of his majesty's reign, than by concurring in a measure which tends to the extension of trade, and the encouragement of industry and manufacture, the genial sources of national wealth, and the surest foundation of the prosperity and happiness of his majesty's dominions."

In opposition to the address Mr. Charles Grey*, the representative for Northumberland, made his maiden speech, and astonished the House by another of those wonderful displays of oratorical abilities, which, in the course of a few years, had burst forth, on every side, amongst its younger members. Mr. Grey was acknowledged not to be inferior to any of those who preceded him, in copiousness and elegance of diction, in strength of argument, or in perspicuity of arrangement, and superior to them all in the graces of elocution. He agreed with Mr. Fox in considering the general policy of the measure as by far the most important object it involved; he stated at large the relative situation and political interests of the two nations, and from thence inferred the wisdom of that established system of our policy, in which France had always been regarded with the most suspicious jealousy at least, if not as our natural foe. He confirmed these opinions by a reference to our unvaried experience; and asked upon what grounds it was presumed that she had at once totally abandoned all her ancient political principles, and had no longer any object in view inimical to our interests? He endeavoured to prove, that the present moment was perhaps that, of all others, in which our jealousy ought to be the most awake, and in which we had the least reason for reposing any confidence in her. With this view he read a state paper, which had passed between M. de Calonne, the French minister, and Mr. Jefferson, the plenipotentiary of the United States of America in Paris. It contained a proposition on the part of France -to concede to that country, without stipulation, a great variety of commercial advantages detrimental to her own revenues, in which no other European nation, not even the Spaniards, were indulged. And was it to be supposed that France really expected no equivalent? She doubtless expected it in a monopoly of that trade which we once enjoyed, and which constituted two-thirds of our commercial marine:-she expected it in the augmentation of her own navy, and in the ruin of ours. Whilst she was enticing us by what had been justly called by Mr. Fox a "tempting bait," to conclude a treaty of commerce with her for the supply of her own market, she had been securing customers to take the commodities off her hands; and thus not only to become the carrier, but to trade to an extent she had hitherto been unable to aspire at, upon the capital of this country. Another object which he believed France had in view, was to render us as much politically insulated, as we were insulated in our local situation. One effect which she would look for in this tempting treaty was, to draw us off from seeking alliances with the

*The present Earl Grey.

rest of Europe; it had already, in some degree, produced this ef fect, as was manifest from the coldness which ministers discovered with respect to the Methuen treaty. He earnestly recommended, instead of the present treaty, a more intimate connection with America; such an intercourse would be the most eligible for Great Britain that could be devised, and entirely consistent with her true political interests; and such an intercourse he had the best reasons for believing America was both willing and eager to enter into upon fair and equitable terms. He remarked upon the indecency as well as the impolicy of granting to France what we had refused to Ireland, and of giving to a rival and a natural enemy what we had withheld from our friends and fellow-subjects. With respect to all the temporary advantages, some of which he believed might reason ably be expected from the treaty, they were to him additional reasons for rejecting it. Every offer of service from France, he res garded with suspicion

timeo Danaos & dona ferentes-
-Aut ulla putatis

Dona carere dolis Danaum ?

The address was also opposed by Mr. Burke and Mr. Sheridan, and supported by Mr. W. Grenville, Mr. D. Pulteney, Lord Mornington and others, upon the grounds already stated; but at a late hour an objection to the address was stated by Mr. Welbore Ellis, who contended that the motion for an address in the present stage of the business was premature, unprecedented, and unparlia mentary, tending to deprive the House of its powers of deliberation, and to pledge them to pass bills for carrying the provisions of the treaty into effect. He therefore moved the previous question. Mr. Anstruther defied ministers to produce a single instance from the journals that could in any manner be brought to bear upon so extraordinary a proceeding. Mr. Adam endeavoured to shew, that, by the principles adopted by parliament, and the invariable practice of the House, the address ought to be resisted by all who had any regard for the independence of the House of Commons, or the dignity and honour of the crown. The proceedings of parliament upon the treaty of Utrecht were referred to as a case in point, and as an useful lesson to the House against hastiness and precipitation. That treaty was laid before the House by a message from the queen. A committee of the whole House was appointed to take the 8th and 9th articles into consideration. After a long debate in that committee, on the question that the House be moved for leave to bring in a bill to make effectual the 8th and 9th articles of the treaty of commerce, the question was carried by a very large majority, greater than on any vote on the present treaty. The bill was brought in, and read a first time, at the distance of a fortnight from the vote in the first committee. There was an interval of a week between the first and second reading of the bill. Petitions now came in from all quarters: and the committee on the bill sat for many days to hear the petitioners by their counsel against the treaty. The report from this committee was received and agreed to. But on the question, that the bill with amendments be engrossed, it was carried