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without having recourse to the increased price of the necessaries of life; it had been employed in corrupting both houses; it had been spent in private, as well as public pensions; in single bribes, in temporary gratuities. The Civil List revenue had been drained by as many different means as want suggested, or as corruption was capable of devising. Pensions during pleasure were granted, the most sure and certain means of keeping members to their duty, by having the terrors of its being withdrawn continually suspended over their heads, as soon as ever they dared to think for themselves.

Here a great confusion arose, some calling to order; some to take down his words; others, hear him, hear him! as soon as this had subsided a little, Mr. Marsham desired that the hon. gentleman might name the members of that House who enjoyed pensions during pleasure, as there was a statute in being, which created a disability from any person sitting there who enjoyed a pension during pleasure. Several members on the Treasury bench, and in that part of the House, desired that the words might be taken down by the clerk. Others insisted, that such a mode of proceeding was not parliamentary, for the hon. gentleman was at liberty to retract his words, if any passionate expression had fallen from him in the warmth of debate; or explain them, agreeably to the sense he meant they should convey. This argument was replied to by a general cry, loudly vociferated from the same quarter whence the noise and confusion from the beginning originated," repeat them, repeat them: he will surely not refuse to repeat his words.”

Mr. Burke endeavoured to still the uproar, by jocularly observing, that the words "influence the members" and "increase the influence of the crown," were the current and fashionable expressions used in the former debate, as well as the preBent, which substantially imported the same with the words which had now given such high offence. For his part, he could see little difference, if any, between influence and corrupt influence; and corrupt influence and downright plain corruption. He confessed, however, that the sound of the latter was coarse and impolite, when compared with the former. On this ground, therefore, the whole matter might be explained to the entire satisfaction of all parties; those who liked, and those who disliked the word 'corruption: for though

it should be given up by one side, the sense would be still retained, and it would completely satisfy such as disapprove of it, that it was to be discarded for ever out of the parliamentary vocabulary. The hon. gentleman was a citizen, and had not attained to that height of polite phraseology, for which such as happily reside at the other end of the town are so justly distinguished; for which reason, what a courtier or an inhabitant of the west end of the town called influence, the worthy alderman, according to his gross mode of expression, very improperly called corrup

tion.

Mr. T. Townshend said, that Mr. Sawbridge had a right to explain his words, and he was sure he would, if the House thought proper to insist on an explanation.

Mr. Sawbridge was much obliged to his friends, for the readiness they had manifested in endeavouring to prevent the displeasure of the House from falling on him; and to those who had manifested their zeal on the other side. The former he begged to acquaint, that he never meant to retract his words, or explain away their meaning; and to the latter he would now give the opportunity they seemed so anxiously to desire; he would repeat what he said at the onset. "I say, there are several members who have pensions during pleasure." These were my words. I repeat them, and I desire, if those zealous gentlemen, who were so vociferous a few minutes since, think proper, that they may take them down. There are members of the other House who have pensions during pleasure. Without, therefore, retracting or explaining my words, I again assert, that there are members who enjoy pensions during pleasure. He then directed his attention to lord North, whom he charged in the roundest manner with squandering the national treasure, in some instances, to the very worst purposes: some of the very debt which the noble lord applied to parliament to pay off, was squandered away in hiring spies and informers, to ruin and distress innocent men; men in every light as loyal to the King, and as faithful to their country, as their persecutors would persuade the world to believe they themselves were. He then mentioned the affair of Dignam*, and charged administration with

* David Brown Dignam had been recently sentenced to hard labour upon the river Thames, for obtaining money under fraudulent pretences. Before his trial, he pretended to discover to the

the most nefarious designs, in hiring a pro- | was not suborned, but offered his informafligate ruffian to impeach him, and several tion voluntarily; he therefore could not other members of both Houses, of an in- otherwise account for the alderman's astention of carrying into execution the sertions but by supposing, that as Dignam most cruel and bloody purposes. had asserted falsities of the alderman, he, in return, was resolved to retaliate on administration. An hon. gentleman (Mr. Burke) had employed a great deal of wit and ingenuity in reconciling the alderman's intentions and expressions, and the currency of certain words, at the different ends of the town; and with his usual philological perspicuity shewed the general acceptation of the words influence, corrupt influence, and corruption; and supposed that his city friend, as a citizen, had chosen the gross word corruption, as most agreeable to city manners. The noble lord answered a great many questions put to him from several parts of the House, relative to the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, Cofferer, Master of the Horse, Pensions, Annuities, Ambassadors, and Secret Service. He asked the gentlemen in opposition, if what they desired was a minute account, vouched by the petty tradesmen's bills, the grocer, butcher, baker, &c. &c. If those were the accounts they sought, they were not, it was true, to be had, because they were unnecessary; but if they wanted a faithful and full account of the expenditure, it lay on the table for their perusal; and must, he was certain, afford ample satisfaction to every person who did not come to that House predetermined to find fault.

Lord North denied that administration had at all been instrumental in encouraging Dignam. He affirmed, that no money had been given to him; and that what was done by the secretaries of state was an act of office duty, which if they had neglected would have justly made them liable to the most severe censure. Every servant of the crown is, from his situation, bound to listen, though not to believe. Not to do the first, would be treachery; to be operated on by the last, on improbable or insufficient grounds, would be preposterous and absurd. What, then, was the conduct of administration? They steered clear of both objections. They did not reject without enquiry, nor did they credit what in itself appeared to them highly improbable. They examined Dignam closely; they endeavoured to sift him to the bottom. They heard with astonishment his narrative; and perceived that it bore throughout the strongest marks of plausibility, if not authenticity. They nevertheless acted with prudence, and resorted to every precaution which wisdom could suggest in so critical a situation. They sought for collateral proofs of the truth of what he asserted in regard of others, as well as testimonies of what degree of credibility he was entitled to. They ordered him to be watched; his haunts were thereby discovered; and what appeared from the beginning suspicious, proved soon true; he was found out to be a villain, a liar, and an impostor; and as such was dismissed, and abandoned to his fate. He could not help observing how bitterly the worthy alderman complained of the injustice Dignam had done him, by inventing such gross falsities; and yet the worthy alderman, at the very instant he is stating his complaint, is himself guilty of a fault of a similar nature; he charges him, and the rest of administration, with giving Dignam money. He assured the worthy alderman, that Dignam had no money; and that he

Secretary of State, a plot, which he said was formed by several noblemen and gentlemen to assassinate the King. He pretended that Mr. Sawbridge was one. The tale was at first listened to, but in a very short time the whole was found to be an infamous falshood, entirely of his own invention. See Gentleman's Magazine, vol, 47, p. 191.

Mr. Fox said, there was a very material difference between producing vouchers for each article, or even small sums paid to petty tradesmen, and not producing a single authority or document which was sufficient to satisfy the House, that the gross ams charged were faithfully expended under the heads in which they were charged; and he defied his lordship, with all his wit and ingenuity, to shew by any true criterion of distinction the least shadow of difference between an account thus unvouched and no account. begged the attention of the House to this single illustration of the subject of debate; what substantial difference did it make, whether the 618,000l. was written off in a single line, twenty, or five hundred, when the several sums set opposite the respective items came totally unaccompanied by vouchers? He next drew a comparison between the present administration, and that of the late duke of Newcastle; and so pushed it back to the commencement of the late

He

reign, which he contended was the most great and glorious this nation ever beheld. It was a reign of principle throughout; the sovereign was honest, steady, and sincere. His ministers sought his personal satisfaction and domestic quiet; and maintained the honour and dignity of the nation. Even the different parties who caballed for power, were open in their professions, faithful to the doctrines they professed, and to the persons with whom they associated. What was now the case? Corruption and patronage had overspread the land. The King's name was frequently prostituted by his ministers, to purposes which he was certain the sovereign was too good a man, and too great a King, ever to have sanctioned, if he had previously discovered the concealed but plausible motives whence they originated. Ministers disdained to pursue such appearances. Majorities were found to support the worst measures with as much alacrity as the best. The influence of the crown derived additional strength from its power over the treasury, and majorities were now called upon to make good the very rapine and plunder they had long since shared; and to create a fund in future for the same purposes. To finish the comparison, and bring the two reigns into a complete counterview, all principle, as well in politics, as morals, had been, since the commencement of the present reign, entirely exploded. That very formidable phalanx which now lines the treasury bench, have thrown aside their opinions the day they accepted of their appointments. Corruption sweeps every thing before it. Its power or influence, or whatever else it may be called, is almost irresistible. It is now got to its zenith. Sir Robert Walpole, it was said, was the father of corruption; the present minister is his equal, if not in abilities, at least in his art of managing parliaments. He has improved on the founder of this corrupt system; he has carried it to infinitely a greater extent. But then, he has had the address to lose half the empire, as one of the first happy consequences of his experimental improvements.

Mr. Burke entered into a detail of the Civil List expenditure; compared it with that of every reign since the Revolution, particularly the late reign; and proved from a variety of documents, that the Civil List revenue, as it now stood, if properly managed, was amply sufficient to maintain the royal household in dignity, splendour, and affluence; and all the ex

pences of the civil government, upon the most generous and liberal scale: from which he drew this natural deduction, that the excess of expenditure arose from a want of economy; or was employed to carry into execution a system of bribery and corruption, which had become for several years past the great engine of government in this country.

Mr. Rigby attacked opposition very violently. He said, no accounts were ever given, nor ought to be now given. That he was astonished how the noble lord could waste his time in answering all the trifling questions which had been put to him. For his part, were he in the noble lord's situation, he would make it a rule never to answer a question put by an individual member in his place. The minister had no occasion to waste his time so idly, and to so little purpose. If, on the other hand, the House, or the majority of it, as binding the minority, asked questions, or demanded explanations, then, indeed, it was incumbent on the minister to give such answers as were not inconsistent with his duty to his sovereign, and a faithful discharge of the particular office which he filled. He then turned his attention towards governor Johnstone, who, he said, had called for explanations, which he had no right to do. He allowed it might be the custom of that worthy venerable assembly, the parliament of Leadenhallstreet; but he trusted he should never see the day that it would be endured as a rule in that House. Their conduct respecting their own affairs, did not encourage the world to emulate the politics of Leadenhall-street. The Company would have long since been totally ruined had it not been for the interference of parliament; they became bankrupt, and were on the verge of destruction, if they had not been snatched from it by the legislature. Now that they had got a little the better of their difficulties they began to relapse, and would once more call for the aid of parlia ment; but he hoped parliament would no more permit themselves to be imposed upon, nor longer trust the management of the affairs of the East to a set of men who had neither the abilities to govern well, nor the honesty to execute with fidelity.

Governor Johnstone replied warmly to the hon. member, and charged several passages in his speech with being no less destitute of truth and argument, than they were manifestly scurrilous and indecent. In reply to the charge of mismanagement

[158 against the East-India Directors, and the present debt, as well as for the enlarging, Company at large, he insisted that the of the King's income, I should be glad to hon. gentleman was much mistaken. The give the reasons on which I found my conEast-India Company's affairs were maduct. When the Message came to the naged at least as well before as since go- House in 1769, and a motion was made vernment, not parliament, interfered; the thereupon to vote the sum said to be in latter being only an engine employed by arrear, without one article of account, the former to create a new source of pa- gentlemen of the highest authority with tronage, and increase the influence of the me called for the accounts, and asserted, The Company, before parliament that as the 800,000l. per annum, which meddled with their affairs, acquired a great had been granted at the beginning of the empire; it was well if the policy and wis- reign, was, to their certain knowledge, not dom that had been this night so highly ex- only adequate, but amply so, it was imtolled, would not, as it had commenced in possible such arrears could have been ininjustice and oppression, be consequential curred, if there had not been some strange of great mischief, and end in a total loss mismanagement, or some very reprehensiof that part of the British empire. But ble misapplications, which must appear if supposing that the mode of proceeding in the accounts were laid before us: the acLeadenhall-street was precisely what the counts, however, were refused, and the hon. gentleman would represent it; sup- question for the motion was put; I thereposing it was all disorder in Leadenhall- upon voted against it. The year after this, street, and corruption there and elsewhere, the accounts were laid before parliament, he should have thought the hon. gentle- and though they were referred to a commitman would be the last in that House to tee, no observations arose upon them, nor have mentioned it. It was neither more was any motion made in reprehension of ' nor less than criminating himself, not only them. I from that moment, therefore, conindividually, but as the head and oracle of sidered the expences as irreprehensible and a party. He had the sagacity to discover unavoidable. Upon the present application, the sentiments of a majority, in Leaden- the accounts are laid before us, and are hall-street as well as in Westminster. He now upon the table; they are in form and had always the prudence, he believed, to substance, article for article, similar to vote in a majority. He had seen him attend those laid before the House in 1770. regularly in Leadenhall-street at all the Those were not censured. I must on the courts and ballots, to vote with his long same ground think the expences contained train of dependents, clerks, and partizans; in these accounts unavoidable; I can, so that if the East-India Company had mis- therefore, find in my own reasoning, no managed their affairs, the hon. gentleman ground of objection, and as I have heard should have been charitable and tender no other reason from the debate, I shall mouthed, when he recollected, that he him- give my vote for the payment of them. self was one of the prime instruments in The expence of the late king's funeral; causing those miscarriages he now so loudly the coronation and marriage of his present lamented, and unfairly attributed to others. Majesty; the marriage of his sister, as well The governor replied likewise to many of as various extraordinary expences always. the explanations given by the noble lord incurred at the accession, were stated as on the Treasury-bench; and in particular reasons for the exceeding of the King's exto two articles; the secret service, and the pences in that period. No such extraordiprivy purse. The former he observed nary expences have arisen or been incurred amounted to 600,000l. and the latter to in the late period; yet it appears, that it has 300,000l. which was, he contended, enor- not been possible to confine the expences mous, and unprecedented in any former within the income. I have not heard account during a like period. any specific charge of reprehension "made against the expences as they stand in the accounts before us; I must, therefore, suppose them irreprehensible and unavoidably incurred, and that, therefore, the present income is not sufficient and equal to the present ordinary expences of the crown.

Governor Pownall rose next, but the House grew clamorous for the question. If the House will indulge me, he said, with their patience, I will not detain them five minutes. As on the late application to parliament for payment of the King's debts, in 1769, I voted against the paying of them without account; and as I shall now give my vote for the payment of the

The first Resolution was then agreed to. The second Resolution being read,

Sir James Lowther moved an amendment, by inserting the words, "and for the different branches of the royal family," immediately after the words, " for the better support of his Majesty's household." He stated the situation of the two royal dukes; the one banished, and exhibiting to the world a neglected, distressed prince of England; drawing pity and compassion from foreigners, rather than respect and attention due to the rank he must ever hold, however persecuted, that of being brother to the king of Great Britain. The other prince had travelled under similar disadvantages, and was now reduced to a state of economy, becoming, indeed, his necessity and small income, but very ill suited to the rank he holds in this country, and to the respect he merits for a virtuous and exemplary conduct. Sir James expressed the warmest affection and attachment to his sovereign,' and wished only to put it in his Majesty's power to accomplish those gracious acts towards his royal brothers, which would reflect the highest honour to his Majesty and this country; that ministers had stated the increased price of every necessary of life, as a reason for the debt contracted by the houshold; that, therefore, if the dearness of the times was sensibly felt with his Majesty's income, how much more so must it be, even to a degree of distress, in the small and insufficient incomes of the two royal dukes; that if ministers mean to appropriate the enormous sums now granted, for the real splendor and dignity of the crown, and not for secret services, they must allow, that his Majesty is now in a situation to make better provision for his royal brothers; that he made no doubt but it was his Majesty's gracious intentions so to do, whenever it should be in his power; and that ministers dare not deprive him of the means, if we inserted the words proposed, as it would point out, that the sense of the House coincided with that of his Majesty and the people of England, namely, the necessity of making some further provision for the royal dukes; that in all countries except this, it appeared that the people, who loved their princes, never suffered them to be distressed, and could much less endure the painful idea of their being forced into banishment from the wretched state of their finances, and suffering in their health from inquietude of mind: that he did not mean to specify any particular sum; that might be left to

| his Majesty's generosity: but that he was strongly impressed with the insufficiency of the present allowance of 20,000l. a year; a sum which in these times he found occasion to spend out of his own estates, without a single article of ostentation or superfluity: how pitiful a sum, therefore, when given for the support of the king's own brothers! That he was well inclined to pay his Majesty's debts, but not the debts of his ministers; that he would willingly contribute his share, when taxed for the purposes of adding to the happiness and real honour of his Majesty: but that it was the article of unaccounted hundreds of thousands in concealed expenditure, that alone kept his sovereign poor, his family shamefully distressed and exposed, and which endangered the constitutional freedom of the subject, by an undue influence over their representatives.

The Amendment was seconded by sir E. Astley: but upon lord North's and the Speaker's representing, that an Amendment moved to a report was unparliamentary, it was agreed to refer the consideration to a future day.

The House then divided on the second Resolution.

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Debate in the Lords on the Arrears of the Civil List.] April 16. The order of the day being read, for taking into consideration his Majesty's Message of the 9th instant,

The Earl of Derby, after expatiating on the many and singular virtues of his Majesty, his economy, frugality, sobriety, wisdom; his love of constitutional liberty, and of his country; his affection for his people; the high obligations they owed to so just, wise, merciful, and magnanimous a prince; stated the grounds of his motion, which, he ventured to predict, would be received with that degree of duty, reverence, gratitude and respect, to which the august personage, who was to be the subject of it, was so eminently entitled. His Majesty was no less conspicuous for his political than his private virtues. He was deserving of every grateful distinction, which his personal situation demanded, and which it was in the power of that

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