The marquis of Sligo said, it was, impossible to add such a clause as this, to a bill for restricting payments in specie; as the bank of Ireland could not get those bank of England notes, without paying guineas for them; such a clause would militate against the whole principle of the bill. As to the rate of exchange, it perhaps carried with it its own remedy. The exchange operated, as a tax upon imports, and a bounty upon exports, He admitted the very unfavour, able circumstances in which Ireland now stood; but he hoped, that better prospects would soon appear.

The earl of Limerick also, disapproved of the clause, which, after a few explanations between lords King and Limerick, was negatived, without a division.

In the house of commons, on the same day, the house resolved itself into a committee, on the clergy bill; and there arose considerable discussion on that clause, which allowed the rector three months leave of absence, in the year: the attorney general thinking this indulgence too long.

The chancellor of the exchequer, on the other hand, said, that was not more than was allowed in every public office or collegiate establishment, for necessary recreation and relaxation. When the statute of Henry VIII, was first passsed,

from the then state of society, there was a more absolute necessity for the constant residence of the clergy, than there is now. The clause was afterwards agreed to, upon a division, and the committee adjourned.

The earl of Moira, on the next day, in moving the committal of the insolvent debtors' bill, in the house of lords, made several preliminary observations, on the situa tion of debtor and creditor; he wished a distinction could be made, between honest and fraudu lent debtors; and that the latter should be punished as swindlers. He considered all those who contracted debts, without a prospect of repaying them, or who, after contracting debts, deprived themselves, by their extravagance, of the means of paying them, as fraudulent debtors. It was only the fair and honest debtors, whom he would wish to relieve. He then stated, that a benevolent institution, in this metropolis, had, in the course of last year, discharged 1125 persons, who were confined for debts not exceeding, on an average 21. 7s. 2d. per head; and those poor prisoners had depending on them, 500 wives, and 1400 children! On the feelings and justice of their creditors, he thought all comment superfluous.

"

Lord Ellenborough said, that even that circumstance was only an alloy of evil, attached to a much greater good. The number of 1100 so imprisoned, for small debts, bore no proportion to the multitudes of those who were relieved by credit; and if credit was to be taken away, he would expect to see 100 lings as many people, absolutely starving. He was, in general, no friend to

those

those kind of bills. Many fraudulently entered the prisons, to take the benefit of them.

The lord chancellor, having expressed an opinion similar to that of lord Ellenborough, lord Moira, after a short reply, consented to withdraw the bill for the present session.

The agitation of the public mind at the period to which we have brought down the proceedings of parliament, was great beyond all precedent. The information which might lead to a proper estimate of its real situation, had been constantly denied by ministers to the country; and the indecision and want of firmness which they had shewn on every trying occasion, left little room to hope for an honorable termination of the pending dis cussions with France. The character of our adversary, at once rapacious and subtile, was contrasted with the timid and wavering policy adopted by the British councils, and the most unfavorable conclusions were thence deduced. No circumstance had tended so much to deprive Mr. Addington of that public confidence and esteem, so essential to the very existence of a minister, as his retreat (to say the least of it, not a very honourable one,) from his confident assertion delivered in parliament on the 2d of December of the last year, namely, "that in "case of emergency, fifty sail of the line could be prepared for sea "within one month; and even a larger number, were there an exi"gency sufficiently pressing." When that exigency did occur; two months after the king's message had

declared the necessity of arming in consequence of the preparations on the coasts of France and Holland; and, that alarm of invasion was universally excited; on being urged in the house of commons, on the state of our naval preparati ons, on the 4th of May; he was obliged to own, we had but thirtytwo ships of the line in commission, (not fit for sea) and, that when he had asserted that we could equip fifty ships ready for sea, he only meant rigged and fitted out, but not manned and ready for ser vice!!! What the real situation of the navy was at the moment here alluded to, it will be the subject of another portion of our history tó state; suffice it, that it was such as to open the eyes of all ranks of peo ple to its gross mal-administration.

Nor did the very strange declara tion of one of the lords of the admi ralty, in parliament, on the same occasion, tend to lessen the inquie tude of the people, respecting the critical situation of the country. Our warlike preparations both na val and military, and the embody. ing of the militia force, had origina ted, as were stated in the usual official communications to the legis lation, on the grounds of the “preparations going on in the ports of France and Holland, and for the repelling a contemplated invasion on the part of France." Much indeed then, were parliament and the country surprized, in the course of the debate, on Sir Henry Mildmay's motion for naval enquiry, to hear from a person whose ministerial functions gave him the most accurate means of information,

that

to detail with minuteness, the commercial inconveniences which were the consequences of this impudent fraud; we have here given it insertion, solely as a criterion, by which the bent of the wishes and hopes of the people may be decided upon; how averse they were from war; and as a proof into what complete security the nation had

been lulled by the assurances of ministers, that peace could be maintained on the basis of the treaty of Amiens alone, when it fell so easily and completely into the shallow snare of some interested adventurer, whose contrivance had flattered them into a belief, that it was yet attainable!

CHAP.