who was nominated one of the lords of the admiralty, and then succeeded Admiral Coffin as commissioner at Sheerness.

William, the fourth son, like the second brother, has attached himself to military affairs, and is at present a major in the seventeenth regiment of foot, and lieutenant-governor of Chester. There are two other sons, and several daughters, one of the latter of whom is married to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M. P. for Bedford.

The honourable Charles Grey, the eldest son of Lord Grey de Howic, was born in 1764, and by the influence of his family, and the early promise of his own future talents, was returned a member for the county of Northumberland in 1785. He has sat in three successive parliaments, one with Sir Charles Middleton, and two with Colonel Beaumont, as a colleague.

Mr. Grey was too young for a seat in the house of Commons during the American war; but if we are to reason from analogy, notwithstanding the delicate situation in which he would have been placed, there can be little doubt but that he would have depre cated a.contest, in the condemnation of which his political associates, as well as political enemies, have most cordially united. His father, together with Barré and Dunning, was attached to the Marquis of Lansdowne; but he himself appears to have looked up to no patron, although he has pretty uniformly taken the same side in politics, and voted along with Mr. Fox. He is one of that eloquent and intrepid party who maintained that Mr. Pitt had obtained his

first official appointment by singular and unconstitutional means, and he has generally been a strenuous oppositionist during the administration of that minister. The latter gentleman very early discovered an ambition to become a war minister, and his former disputes with Spain, Russia, France, Denmark, &c. fully entitled him to that appellation. In his bloodless contest with the first of these powers, in 1789, his opponents not only condemned his original precipitation, but objected that he had entered into a convention, relative to which he had omitted to lay the necessary documents before the house.

Mr. Grey, in particular, (Monday, Dec. 13, 1790) insisted that in the conduct of the negociation, " circumstances had occurred which required to be explained, as it could certainly never be asserted that the executive power was exempt from such an expla nation, for it would then be a power above controul, and secure from inspection. Upon this principle he had made a motion in the former parliament for the production of papers, and after the process of an expensive armament, and a protracted negociation, such an explanation had become still more necessary. was proper to enquire whether the dispute had been originally occasioned by the ambition and violence of the court of Spain, or the rashness, ignorance, and presumption of our own ministers? It was likewise proper to enquire, whether the negociation might have been conducted with less expence or delay ? Whether peace might have been secured upon better terms; or whether the terms that had been obtained

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might have been procured without the sacrifices which had accompanied them?

"When he reflected on the propriety of these enquiries, he should not have apprehended any opposition to the motion for the evidence by which they were to be elucidated; but what was his surprise, when he had heard it intimated, and that too from the most respectable authority, that a majority of the house would concur in opposing the motion for producing evidence. Yet whatever might be the decision of the house, whatever line of conduct, on the present occasion, their sentiments of propriety might induce them to pursue, he considered it as his own duty to move for the necessary documents, and in this persuasion would proceed to enumerate the grounds upon which he founded his motion." He then observed, that he was fully justified by every instance of former practice: in the convention of 1739 all the papers relative to that transaction had been produced, and a precedent exactly in point was to be found in the affair of Falkland's islands, more recent as to time, and more applicable in respect to circumstances.

"Whatever rank Britain might hold (added he) in the scale of nations, however distinguished by foreign influence, or internal resources, yet the general principle must be allowed, that peace, almost upon any terms, was in the present situation preferable to hostilities. So oppressed were we with the enormous load of debt, and exhausted by the continual imposition of taxes, as to render the continuance of peace

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not only highly desirable but necessary, and the support of the war, if not impossible, at least a very difficult matter. Yet granting this general principle in its full extent, it does by no means follow that the circumstances of our dispute and negociation with Spain ought not to be the subject of enquiry, because peace has been the result; peace has indeed been the result, but upon what terms? Though the convention with Spain had been the best, as it appears to me the worst, that ever was concluded, still I would have deemed it a proper subject of enquiry. But surely a measure by which the weight of our debt, already enormous, has been aggravated, and the number of our taxes incessantly accumulating, and increased, demands some portion of regard before it receives our approbation. And the enquiry becomes more necessary, when there is reason, as in the present instance, to conclude that the dispute was improperly commenced; that the negociation was unnecessarily protracted; and that the convention, from the conduct of the ministry, was at last obtained upon worse terms, and also at a much greater expence, than otherwise it might have been procured."

Mr. Grey, upon this occasion, was seconded by Mr. Pelham, and supported by Mr. Windham, Mr. Jekyll, and Mr. Fox; but his concluding motion for papers was lost by a majority of one hundred and twenty-four, the ayes being one hundred and thirtyfour, and the noes two hundred and fifty-cight.

In the spring of the succeeding year, a new war, and that too with Russia, appeared to be inevitable,

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on which a new opposition on the part of Mr. Grey, since fully sanctioned by the event, immediately ensued. On Tuesday April 12th, 1791, that gentleman rose and observed, "that in the present awful and critical moment (and a more awful and critical one this country never had seen) he felt it to be the duty of all men, to whom the welfare of the state, and the happiness of their fellow-citizens were dear, to do every thing which reason or prudence could suggest, to divert ministers from the pursuit of measures that could not fail to involve the nation in distress, if not ruin; and which, even if carried on with the greatest possible success, could not be productive of any vantage to Great Britain. It was under the impulse of duty that he had resolved to trouble the house on this occasion, and not with any disposition hostile to any man, or set of men; but he confessed that he was hostile to their measures, because he considered them as likely to bring the heaviest calamity upon his country.

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"It should be the maxim of every commercial nation (added he) to appease or soften the animosities of its neighbours. We should not court misfortunes and all the concomitants of war. The mind of the minister was, however, in a state of fermentation, which, if not qualified and corrected by the interposition of parliament, must hurry on the destruction of this country, for he invited the contempt of our rivals, who might, when our arms were unnerved, insult with impunity over our fallen fortunes. He hoped to be able to persuade the house of the truth of all the propositions