wifdom of it,---that the genius of every adminiftration fhould resemble the genius of their peculiar conftitution. Ours is of a popular nature, and our miniftry fhould be formed upon popular confiderations. The hoafted liberties of our fyftem are otherwise a mere cheat, and the leaft confideration of the probable effects upon public men of the contrary principle, is of itself fufficient to fhew its monftrous fallacy. The love of fame is a powerful tie upon great minds, and popular favour fhould always be the firft recommendation to office, because it is a good pledge for honest, and the ftrongeft impulfe to active conduct. Render popular regard of no value, and you diveft ambition of its nobleft incitements, and depress that generous eagernefs for honourable popularity, from which fociety has derived fo many civil bleffings. The unconditional exertion of this prerogative, or, in other words, the principle of private favour, not only militates against the genius of the English conftitution, but runs counter to common fenfe, Millions of inftances there have been, where the perfonal attachment of the prince has fallen upon the greatest knaves and blockheads he could find. If a King of England should compofe a miniftry of the most noted villains and ideots in the country, will the reader tell me it were doing no wrong? Would it be a defence of fuch an act, that the minifters had the king's confidence, and that they were punifbable if they did ill? It is equally cruel and abfurd to prefer a bad to a good, an unfit to a fit man, upon this odious fecurity; and to difpenfe dignities as a lure to deftruction is furely abominable. No man difputes that the creation of nobles is in the King's prerogative.---I fhould be glad to know from Lord Camelford, whether it would be doing no wrong, if the King called up to the peerage every other apoftate and fycophant in the nation. Would not the noble Lord's jealoufy against so many rivals to his Majefty's private favour, give him a difguft of his new dignity, and a difrelifh of his new principles? GOVERNMENT IS DES

TINED FOR THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE.

This golden fentiment is impressed in every line of the English conftitution. Agreeable to its fpirit, the firft magiftrate is vefted with powers extravagant at firft view, but wife and neceffary upon this confideration, which is the true and

legal intent of it, that they are given him to be exercifed, not for his private humour or perfonal indulgence, but for the good of his people, and if it should ever happen, that a monarch of this country, againft the known with of the people, against the declared sense of their reprefentatives clearly and legally collected, fhould appoint a miniftry; the one part compofed of men diftinguished for every fpecies of political infamy, the other half of perfons of acknowledged incapacity, and utterly ignorant of public bufinefs, to the entire and ftudied exclufion of the greatest experience, ability, and intęgrity in the country, I have not the leaft fcruple in afferting, that it would be an act of power againft law, that the Prince would violate the truft confided to him, and that in fo far he would ceafe to be a constitutional King of England.

I fhall now fay a few words upon the late tranfaction. The court faction, or, for form I will fay, his Majefty in his gracious wisdom, has been pleafed to appoint a ministry, against whom the feelings of this country are amixture of deteftation and ridicule, Deteftation of the older part (who have been active inftruments in almoft every iniquitous measure of the prefent reign) and ridicule of the younger, whofe ignorance and inability are themes of fatire to every man who speaks his mind fairly and feelingly. It is the misfortune of this country to have been often governed by weak prepofterous councils; but fo deplorable fo defpicable a ministry as the prefent, certainly never before attempted its administration. I defy even the most zealous of their advocates to read the arrangement of the cabinet, and their appointments to foreign courts, without a fneer or a blufh. But to the body of the people of England it is indeed a fore fubject of grief and indignation, to the rest of Europe an object of farcafm and contempt.

As things are not yet mature for an entire demolition of all the barriers of the conftitution, it is not proclaimed that the cabal intend this miniftry hall fubfift against the opinion of the House of Commons, although formed in direct oppofition to it. And as their hopes of fupport fpring from either of two efforts,

either of procuring a majority of the prefent Parliament by fome means, or in the probable acceffion of strength by D2

dif

diffolving it and calling a new one, I will take a fhort review of both grounds.

FIRST, WITH REGARD TO THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT. A majority of the Houfe of Commons, a majority I will affert (and challenge any man to falfify the affertion) as pure, erect, and honeft as ever concurred in a public measure, have agreed in feveral refolutions pointing their specific cenfure upon his Majefty's advisers, and for the very purpofe of fhewing him, that a minifty, conftituted like the prefent, Should not have their fupport. I am not afraid of the defection of that majority. It would be their indelible difgrace, and if it were poffible for the most honorable man amongst them to feel inclined to fupport the new adminiftration, a fenfe of his character would prohibit his desertion, as all mankind would fufpect his motives. That a few faithlefs, ftraggling, fordid beings, who perhaps have ranged themfelves upon the oppofite fide of the Houfe, as the moft marketable part of the fair, to make the better bargains, may be gained over, is most certain. With fuch men, I doubt not, fuccefs may attend the efforts of that wretch, that abridgment of all that is bafe and ungrateful in humanity, a late officer of the Treasury, from whofe endeavours to bribe the commons, the cabal expect the magic effect of Lord Temple's talifmanic whifper to the Peers. The body of the Houfe, I am, however, fatisfied, is incapable of a direct furrender of their own reputation, and the rights of the public. But let us fee how it ftands with the court faction, I mean with the miniftry. As the exterior of religion is supported by pious frauds, the exterior of government is fupported by pious fictions. There are undoubted truths, the promulgation of which is fatal to the former, and infamous to the latter. I am not fqueamish enough to fay, that no portion of undue influence ever operates in fupport of administrations, but this I affirm, that the condition of his Majefty's new miniftry is an epoch in civil corruption, and that of all the vile and profligate governments whofe hiftory ftains our annals, the prefent adminiftration ftand fingle and unmatched, when in their very outfet they are obliged to proclaim to all the world, that the only means by which they can expect the fupport of the prefent Commons confift in bribing their probity, at a time that every fhil

ling is neceffary to the ordinary expenditure of the country.

THE SECOND GROUND of ministerial hope arifes in the diffolution, and this is, if poffible, a more dangerous and deteftable foundation than the laft. That men fhould confide in the spirit of his Majefty's anfwer, and feel fatisfied that it binds him against this daring meafure, is mere childishness. What is the fpirit of his answer to the views of the cabal? They have traded a thousand times upon the King's perfonal honor; and the reader will judge for himself whether the traffic has been profitable to the royal character. This point I put out of confideration, because I know it will be the laft and leaft attended to in their decifion.

It is allowed that the firft virtue of a House of Commons confifts in independence. Examine the present House of Commons upon this fcale, and you will find that it merits the confidence and gratitude of the public, much more than any other within this century. It voted the termination of the American war, which included the minsters down❤ fal, against all the forces of adminiftration, backed by the fanguine friendship of the crown, and by a decided majority of the Lords. It voted away another miniftry, who tarnished the honor, and facrificed the interefts of this country by an inglorious peace, made for the very purpofe of keeping their offices, backed likwife by the moft cordial fupport of the crown, by all the powers of the cabal, and by a decided majority of the Lords. Annual attempts were made in parliament to erafe the record of the Middlefex election for the full space of fourteen years: in vain, the present House of Commons erased it. It declared, that the influence of the crown had encreased, was encreafing, and ought to be diminifhed, againft all the powers of government. It fuppreffed a variety of useless expenfive offices. It purified election by difqualifying corrupt voters. It excluded contractors from feats in parliament. It accomplished confiderable reforms and retrenchments; and if there are any of you who think the Commons did not go all the lengths you expected in this way, there is a fair and equitable rule by which you fhould measure their conduct, and by which you will find the character I have given them is a juft one. The excellence of all things human is beft decided

by

legislative capacity, as a third indepen dent state, he is not accountable to the other two, any more than they are reciprocally to him or to each other. Thus the fentence of the law, "that the King can do no wrong," is not an old legal adage, founded on obfolete notions of prerogative, but a pofitive maxim of fact, deriving neceffarily from the principles of the conftitution. But for the King to exercife the various executive powers in his own perfon, is not only phyfically impoffible, but muft, ipfo facto, destroy the shadow of a balance between the three eftates. The immediate command of the army, the navy, the unlimited power of creating peers; a power, which exerted in the extent, gives the crown an abfolute control over that Houfe; and above all, the disposal of an immenfe patronage of honors and emoluments, muft, if exercised in the perfon of a magiftrate responsible for none of his actions, have rendered that magiftrate the moft defpotic fovereign in Europe. The expedient adopted was fimple, ob. vious, and adequate. These powers were feparately delegated to perfons appointed by the King, and acting under his authority, but refponfible to the laws and the legislature, and to the appoint ment of whom the confidence of parliament was an indifpenfible requifite, becaufe parliament having it in their power to with-hold the fupplies, would only grant them to fuch men as had their approbation. Thus minifters became public men, refponfible to parliament for their conduct, and looking up to parliament for fupport, and not as in defpotic governments, the mere inftruments of the will of an arbitrary master. Such was the fyftem of adminiftration eftablished at the revolution, and continued without change or diminution, through four fucceffive reigns to the death of the late King; and I will venture to affert, that every reasoning and impartial mar, who will begin by examining the probable efficacy of this fyftem for the prefervation of public liberty and the independence of parliament, and will then trace its operation through the period above-, mentioned, will not hesitate to pronounce it the great palladium of the conftitution. For those who are not dif. pofed to enter upon fuch an inveftigation, fuffice it to obferve, that from the institution of this system in 1688, to the eflential alteration made in it in 1760,

3

the hiftory of the world cannot furnish an inftance of a nation more mildly, more peaceably, more equitably governed; more happy and profperous at home, or more gloriously fuccefsful abroad, than is prefented by the annals of Great Bri tain during the feventy-two years immediately fucceeding this great æra of the conftitution; and that from the hour this fyftem was to be undermined, to make way for that which it is now propofed to ratify and avow, the country has declined with a rapidity which has no example.

His prefent Majefty afcended the throne of his ancestors with advantages unknown to the most fortunate of his predeceffors. As a man his felicity was fuch that nothing was left for the poets of that time to imagine. At his birth

"Nature and Fortune join'd to make him great."

As a Monarch he was the idol of a glorious, profperous, and happy nation. His arms victorious in every quarter of the globe; his administration conducted by one of the honeftest and ablest statefmen that ever exifted, poffeffing the unbounded confidence of the Parliament and the people. When I contemplate this bright picture, and then turn to the dark feene which follows; when I consider what might have been, and what is; how, and for what objects thefe advantages are facrificed; it is dif ficult indeed to preferve the temper which decency requires.

When Lord Bute retired from public view, the principles, on which he came into power, and his creatures remained fixed in the Cabinet; and have more or lefs directed or counteracted all its meafures to the prefent hour. The eftablishment of immediate and perfonal influence has been the leading principle during the whole of the prefent reign; to this every view has been directed; to this every fet of nien have been facrificed in their turn, without hesitation or remorfe, as foon as they would no longer fubmit to be dishonoured by its operation, or had become the execration of the public by acquiefcing in its deftructive meafures. Lord North continued long in office, because he was pledged for the continuance of the American war, which was a favourite Court measure. For the last year he was in that unhappy predicament, which leaves

only

only the choice of evils. He could neither remain in office with credit or felfapprobation, or refign with honour. This was the triumph of fecret influence. It does not come within the compafs of my plan to trace this baleful principle through the long detail of its dark manœuvres for more than twenty years; and it is fully fufficient for my argument, that nobody denies or doubts its exist

ente.

Since the employment of the immediate and perfonal influence of the crown has been more openly avowed, attempts have been made to juftify its principle. The crown lawyers, a defcription of men ever unfriendly to liberty, have of late affected to talk in high terms of the right which the King has to exercife his prerogative. But this word right has two fignifications, which it is very dangerous to confound. In one fenfe a man is faid to have a right to do all that is not forbidden by the laws, however contrary to fenfe and justice: in the other he is faid to have no right to do even what the law allows, if it be contrary to the dictates of reason and morality. On the former interpretation, the most extravagant criminal exceffes may be justified.

What then is the criterion by which we are to diftinguish right from power? In private individuals it is honor and confcience; and in the governors of the people it is the public advantage; every exercife of power, therefore, which has not the public good for its object, however supported by theory, or by whomfoever exercised, is arbitrary and illegiti

mate.

But to return to the more immediate object of this addrefs. I have endeavoured to fhew that the establishment of unmediate and personal influence upon the ruins of public parliamentary refponfible adminiftration has been the great object of the prefent reign; that the latter is a fyftem admirably calculated to fecure the independency of parliament and the rights of the people, without endangering the juft prerogative of the crown; and that the former tends evidently to fubvert the independency of parliament and the liberties of the people by throw ing the whole weight of power into the hands of the King. Now no man will have the effrontery to deny that the laft administration were forced into power by the fole efficacy of parliamentary support, in direct oppofition to fecret influence

which they stood pledged to detect and refift in all its forms. Hence the reluctant delay with which they were at first admitted into office; hence the artful and fuccefsful attempt to break their force by tempting Lord Shelburne with a bait which he had not ftrength of mind to refift; hence the rage and defpair occafioned by the coalition, which once more enabled parliamentary support to take personal influence by storm as it has been emphatically expreffed by the creatures of the latter; and hence the laft defperate exertion of fecret influence over a few Lords of the bedchamber, to throw a bill out of parliament which had been brought in by the King's ministers, and had paffed the Commons three to one; and to remove an administration in the plenitude of parliamentary fupport, to make way for a fet of men who have fworn allegiance to that influence to which they owe their political existence.

Mr. Pitt, you are a very young man, and it is the ordinary characteristic of youth to be open and unfuspecting. You poffeffed a character till now spotlefs, a great hereditary name, and the reputation of knowledge and ability far above your years; and you are followed by a fet of men juft ftepping into the world, of whom, as nothing is known, nothing ill can be spoken. Such a defcription of perfon was perhaps the only inftrument the King could have employed with fuccefs on the prefent occafion. More experience would have preferved you from becoming the dupe of the most hackneyed arts; and with lefs character your name could not have been held out as a fuccefsful lure to the people. But let me befeech you, Sir, in the name of this wretched ruined country to confider well what you do. The eyes of the univerfe are turned towards you, and a fplendid name and high character are furely worth deliberation! I know they are as difficult to fupport as they are rare and valuable; but they may be loft irretrievably by a single act in a fingle inftant. Examine, therefore, by what arts and on what motives your great father was firft difmiffed from office, how his administration was afterwards rendered impotent and abortive, and why the virtuous Lord Rockingham was obliged to refign? Compare the arts then employed, and the objects theu propofed with the prefent circumstances, obferve in what they

differ