ciety, diftinguished itfelf, by the refolute fpeeches of its principal members, at the feveral meetings that took place in the courfe of the year, That which was held near Copenhagen-house, in the neighbourhood of Iflington, was the most remarkable. The numbers that attended, either through zeal in the cause, or through curiofity, were computed at about fifty thousand. Some very daring addrefles were made to the multitude: the conduct of minifters was arraigned in the most unqualified language, and a remonftrance to the king, on the neceffity of peace, and of a reform in parliament, was univerfally agreed on. The proceedings, in thefe affemblies, were highly offenfive to miniftry. As they confifted of individuals void of all hopes of rifing by intereft or favour; and who, to a man, were inimical to the measures of government, they condemned them with a freedom of speech that knew no bounds. Often times too, those meetings were attended by perfons of parts, who feized thofe opportunities of venting their difcontent at the fyftem of the times, and of reprefenting adminiftration in the fouleft colours, and imputing to them the most flagitious defigns. Nor were there wanting, among the members of thofe focieties, though almost entirely compofed of the commoneft claffes, individuals, who, though deficient in education, had received talents from nature, which frequently fhone through coarse and vulgar language. The avowed aim of the divers inftitutions of this nature was to oppofe government, and to bring about the two great objects, at this time, in general contemplation; a peace with France, and a reform in parliament. These two objects being incompatible with the views of miniftry, the point at iffue between these, and the various affociations that were increasing in every part of the kingdom, was clearly this, that either the latter would overturn administration, or that adminiftration would overturn them. Prompted by this confideration, the principal heads of government had, it was rumoured, come to a determination, to take the first plaufible opportunity of putting an end to the meetings of thefe focieties, which they reprefented as wholly made up of the lowest populace, ready to imbibe every notion offered to them by evil-defigning men, and to break out into the moft dangerous exceffes of fedition. Under the pretext of inftructing them in their rights, the difaffected availed themfelves of their ignorance, to mifreprefent the conduct of government, and to excite them to hold it in hatred and contempt; but a circumftance, ftill more alarming, was, that among thofe who took fuch pains to inflame the paffions of the multitude, there were emiffaries from France, who, though natives of Great Britrin, or Ireland, had thrown off all attachment to their country, and were become its most violent and rancorous enemies. The danger accruing from fuch characters was obvious; the difficulty of detecting individuals connected with our foes, enabled them to affume the appearance of patriotifm, and to delude, with facility, the majority of their hearers, into a perfuafion that they fpoke and acted from principle, and had no other intention, than to expofe abuses, and to induce the people, at large, to affert their rights. Such was the defcription, given by the adherents to government, of the the numerous assemblies, and affociations, that had been inftituted in opposition to its measures. It was not on the other hand denied, that the outrages, ftill adopted in most of the popular meetings, was an object that called for fuppreffion. The warmeft friends to the principles inculcated by them, did not deny the impropriety of attacking the ruling powers with fuch acrimony of fpeech, and prognofticated, that, through want of moderation in their invectives, thefe meetings expofed themselves to certain diffolution, as the powerful adverfaries they were continually provoking, would certainly labour to filence them, and probably find the means of doing it. To the agitation occafioned by political difputes, another was, at inis period, fuperadded of a ftill more dangerous confequence. A fcarcity prevailed throughout the kingdom, and was woefully felt by the poorer fort, feveral of whom perithed for want. The means of procuring fuftenance were narrowed from various caufes; but the difcontented attributed this evil to the war; and the fufferers, through defect of employment, were ready enough to believe thofe who reprefented all the calamities that afflicted the nation, as proceeding chiefly, if not folely, from that caufe. This prepared them for the commiffion of thofe excelles, to which men are fo prone, when they find themfelves aggrieved, and imagine they are punishing the authors of their grievabces. The state of the nation, from these various circumstances, appeared fo critical, that it was judged neceflary to call parliament together at an earlier period than ufual. It met, accordingly, on the twenty-ninth of October, a day that will be long remembered, on account of the events that attended it, and of the confe quences that followed them, and of which they were the immediate caufe. A report had been spread, that an immenfe multitude, of difcontented people, had agreed to take this opportunity of manifefting their fentiments to the king in perfon. This, of courfe, excited the curiofity of the public, and the park was crowded in a manner unprecedented fince the king's acceflion to the throne. In his way to the houfe of lords, which lay through the park, his coach was furrounded, on every fide, by perfons of all defcriptions, demanding peace, and the difmillion of Mr. Pitt. Some voices were even heard exclaiming no king, and ftones were thrown at the ftate-coach as it drew near to the Horfe-guards. In paffing through Palace-yard, one of the windows was broken, it was faid, by a bullet, discharged from an air-gun. Thefe outrages were repeated on the king's return from the houfe, and he narrowly escaped the fury of the populace, in his way back from St. James's Palace to Buckingham Houfe. All reafonable people were deeply affected at this treatment of the king. They were duly fenfible that it would produce effects highly dif agreeable to the public, and, instead of anfwering the purposes propofed, by thofe who were fo mifled as to approve of it, that, on the contrary, it would tend to ftrengthen the hands of minifters, by enabling them to bring forward fuch reftrictive meafures, as would confiderably abridge the freedom of fpeech and action, hitherto enjoyed by the people at large. The The fpeech from the throne, was, in the mean time, allowed to be as well appropriated to the circumftances of the time, as any that had been delivered fince the commencement of the war. It mentioned the disappointment, of the French in their attempts in Germany, and the internal difficulties under which they continued to labour. Their prefent fituation afforded a well-founded prefumption, that they would liften to equitable and moderate terms of peace. In order to obtain fuch terms, it would be neceffary to fhew that Great Britain was able to maintain the conteft, till fuch a peace enfued, as accorded with its dignity and intereft. The other particulars of the fpeech referred to the preparations for a vigorous continuance of the war, the treaties concluded with foreign powers, the profperous ftate of commerce, and the means of providing against the prefent fcarcity. Mr. Sheridan was extremely fevere in the reply which he made on this occafion. Among other invectives, he reproached ministers for their unskilful management in the Weft Indies, where the force employed was totally inadequate to the objects propofed, and numbers of the men had been loft through negligence, and want of medical affiftance, in that unwholesome climate. He accufed minifters of defigning to restore defpotifm in France. He called upon them to act as Spain and Pruffia had done, by treating with those perfons whom the republican armies looked upon as entitled to their obedience. He advifed minifters to beware of a connection with the house of Bourbon. It was through fuch connections that the Stuart's had been expelled. The Bourbons had invariably proved the enemies to Great Britain; and this enmity would revive, were they to be re-established on the throne of France. The rash, and fruitlefs, attempts to restore that family ought, therefore, to be totally relinquifhed, and government fhould declare itfelf willing to treat with the French republic. He was replied to by Mr. Jenkin fon, with the many arguments, fo frequently repeated, in juftification of minifterial meafures. He added, that the retention of the United Pro Lord Dalkeith moved the addrefs, and was feconded by Mr. Stuart: the latter gentleman dwelt chiefly on the exhaufted fituation of France, and the oppreffive methods it was reduced to adopt for the raifing of fupplies. The fituation of this country was the reverfe: whatever money was demanded was inftantly found, without oppreffing the fubject; the confidence of monied men in government keepingvinces, by the French, rendered all pace with all its exigencies. Much treating with them inadmiffible. It had been faid of the conqueft of was neceflary, therefore, to comHolland by the French, but they pel them to abandon this new conwere obviously indebted much more queft, or to make fuch acquifito fortunate cafualties, than to their tions as might counter-balance it, own prowefs, and could place little and induce them to give up the reliance on the attachment of the poffeflion of that country. Had natives, who were now convinced the members of the coalition acted of their imprudence, in trufting to with fidelity to the caufe they had the friendship of the French. efpoufed, the French would, by this time, have been forced to abadon their lofty pretenfions. In anfwer to this, the profpect of affairs was reprefented, by general Tarleton, as very difadvantageous. The numerous army, with which the French had lately obliged the king of Spain to come into their own terms, would now be employed in the invafion of Italy, while our efforts against the French pofleffions, in the Weft Indies, would probably Be fruftrated, as they had been on the coaft of France, through mifconduct on our fide, and the difficulty of the very attempt itself. it was vain to repeat exertions that had been fo fucceffively foiled. Minifters were no longer deferving of confidence; their evident incapacity required their immediate difmifion, and the trial of new men, as well as of new measures. He was followed by Mr. Fox, who inveighed, with great animation, against the affertions made by miniftry, as fallacious and delufive. Inftead of the flattering defcription they had given of the fituation of this country, the fact was, that one hundred millions had been added to the national debt, and four millions a year to the ftanding taxes. In lieu of reducing the enemy within his former bounds, he was mafter of all the Auftrian territories on the weft of the Rhine; nor was there any well-grounded hope of our recovering them. He was preparing to invade Italy with a great and victorious army. The fcarcity that afflicted the kingdom had been foretold; but minifters difdained to liften to the warning, though enforced from the most refpectable quarter. The propriety of perfifting in the war was argued from the diftrefs to which France was reduced by the depreciation of its paper currency: but was this an argument proper to be adduced by men acquainted with the tranfactions of the American war, and who must be confcious of the futility of pecuniary calculations, when people were de termined to fuffer every hardship that human nature could bear, and to try every expedient that neceffity could fuggeft, rather than admit the idea of fubmiffion? It was time to abandon fo hopeless a caufe as that of the royal family of France. The opinions of fo mighty a nation were not to be fubdued by force of arms. When preffed to liften to pacific language, minifters alleged the incapacity of the French government to maintain the ufual relations of harmony between different ftates: but had fuch objections held good in the caufe of Spain, Pruffia, and even the king of Great Britain himself, in the quality of elector of Hanover. Had not this far-fetched and abfurd obftacle vanifhed before the reasonablenefs of putting an end to the calamitics of war? It was ridiculous to infift upon danger from treating with the French, because they had fubverted their former, and adopted a new conftitution: the permanence of a treaty depending on its equitablenefs, and correfpondence, with the reciprocal interests of the contracting parties. It was become nugatory to talk of our allies: we had, indeed, mercenaries in our pay, whom we could only retain by exceffive bribes, and who were, every moment, hesitating, whether to accept of them, or of the terms proffered by our encmies, to detach them from this country. Adverting to the fcarcity fo heavily complained of, Mr. Fox obferved, that war, and its fatal con comitants, comitants, tended, undeniably, to impede cultivation, and to defolate the countries where it was waged: the moft fertile parts of Europe having lately been the continual fcenes of this deftructive war, the productions of the earth had been neceffarily diminished, and it was unrealonable to deny that the war was, in a very confiderable degree, the caufe of a deficiency in the necellaries of life. He concluded by moving, that fuch conditions of peace fhould be offered, to the French, as would confift with the fafety and dignity of Great Britain. The ideas of peace and fecurity, were, in anfwer to Mr. Fox, reprefented by Mr. Pitt, as incompatible with the fituation of this country refpecting France. Every motive militated for a perfeverance in the conteft. The enemy felt his increafing debility, and, notwithftanding his fucceffes in the field, betrayed a confcioufnefs that his ftrength was materially diminished. Hence it was that he had latterly fhewn a difpofition to peace. But the intereft of this country required a deliberate confideration of the state of France, in order to judge of the expediency of entering into negociations at the prefent moment. Such was the fall of the French paper in circulation, that it was now funk to one and a half for every hundred of nominal value. Seven hundred and twenty millions fterling had been fabricated and made current, and this enormous quantity was ftill on the increafe. Was it credible that a nation, reduced to fuch ftraits, would be able to make head against the formidable enemies that were preparing to aflail it with redoubled vigour, and whofe fituation was fo much more advantageous in point of pecuniary refources? However fuccefsful on their frontiers, through military efforts, and the chances of war, the fyftem of the French was fo radically beinous, that it could not laft. Were the European powers to reunite against them, they could no longer ftand their ground. The interior parts of that large kingdom were in a itate of the utmost wretchednefs. Trade and commerce were annihilated, and industry found no occupation. Hence proceeded the facility with which the French recruited their armies, and the defperate Spirit, that animated men, who could procure no foftenance but at the point of their fwords. But energies of this kind were not in their nature durable, and would certainly terminate in a fhort lapfe of time. So great was the difficulty of procuring fpecie for the moit urgent demands, that necellary articles, in kind, were given in payment, and people were glad to accept of any thing that bore the femblance of pay. Would it not, therefore, be the height of in:prudence, after reducing them to fuch a fituation, to pafs by fo favourable an opportunity of reducing them ftill lower, and of fecuring, to ourfelves, the advantages refulting from their evident and undeniable depreffion? After adducing farther arguments, in vindication of his conduct, a divifion took place, when two bundred and forty voted for the addrefs. and fifty-nine for the amendment, moved by Mr. Fox. On the next day, which was the thirtieth of October, the addrefs was moved, in the house of lords, by lord Mountedgecomb, who fupported it with much the fame reafonings that had been used in the houfe of commens. He was feconded by lord Wallingham, |