XXIII. 1787. BOOK much energy, and at the same time so much practical wisdom, that lesser objections were absorbed and lost in the general merit of the transaction. To the grand proposition-" that it is contrary to the rights of nations, and a violation of the fundamental principles of political justice, for one nation forcibly to interfere in the internal concerns of another"-it must suffice to reply, that however incontrovertible this maxim may be deemed as a general truth, an interference attended with consequences thus eminently beneficial to both parties-Holland being undoubtedly preserv ed by this coercive interposition from a civil warmust be allowed, like other necessary exceptions from general rules, to deserve not pardon merely, but praise. The addresses in answer to the speech were voted with great unanimity in both houses; and the minister received from the leaders of opposi 'tion, no less than his own partisans, the most liberal commendations for his spirited and judicious conduct. The subsidy to Hesse, by which twelve thousand men were at a vast expence retained for a term of years in the service of Britain, passed without a dissentient vote; and in a short time Alliance treaties of amity and alliance were concluded beEngland, tween the courts of London, Berlin, and the Hague, Holland. by which the two former guaranteed the stadtholderate in perpetuity to the serene house of Orange, between Prussia,and XXIII. 1788. as an essential part of the constitution of the BOOK United Provinces. By the treaty between the kings of Great Britain and Prussia, each of the high contracting powers engages, in case of attack, to furnish the other with a succour of sixteen thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, or an equivalent in money, within the term of two months from the date of the requisition. Thus was Britain once again fatally intangled in the intricate and inextricable toils of continental engage ments. The army establishment, which had been reduced from seventy to sixty-four regiments at the termination of the war, was now, at the motion of the minister, raised to the customary complement, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of Mr. Fox, under whose administration the reduction had taken place, and who justly boasted that he was the first minister since the Revolution who had been accused of establishing too small a standing army in time of peace. naval pro A very great naval promotion had also taken Unpopular place, in the contemplation of a war with France; motion. in which it was remarkable that sixteen captains had been selected for flags, while a much greater number of officers, several of whom were men of the most distinguished gallantry and merit, had been unaccountably passed over in silence and neglect. In consequence of this injurious partiality XXIII. 1788. BOOK a motion was made in the house of commons, "that the house should resolve itself into a committee to enquire into the conduct of the admiralty in the business of the late promotion." This motion was destined to encounter the vehement opposition of Mr. Pitt, who declared, "that if this resolution passed, the next thing he presumed would be to resolve that the members of that house were better judges of naval concerns than professional men at the head of the marine department." To this Mr. Fox justly replied, that this argument, if admitted in its full extent, would effect the total annihilation of the constitutional powers of parliamentary control. If a complaint were lodged against the conduct of a judge, it might be said, "What do you know of the law? Leave it to the courts below: and thus of every other department in army, church, and state." Upon a divison, the motion was negatived in a house of near three hundred members, by a majority of seventeen voices only. And the first lord of the admiralty, lord Howe, became upon this occasion the subject of very severe and general censure. His lordship Resigna tion of lord the earl of Howe of soon afterwards resigned his office, and was sucMansfield. ceeded by the earl of Chatham. Nearly at the same time the earl of Mansfield resigned the chiefjusticeship of England, which he had held with high and undiminished reputation for the long period of thirty-two years. The vacancy thus made was supplied by the attorney.general, sir BOOK Lloyd Kenyon, created lord Kenyon. XXIII. 1788. Perpetual disputes having arisen, as had been India declaforeseen and foretold, between the two Boards of ratory act. Direction and Control, established by Mr. Pitt's India Regulation Bill, the minister thought proper in the course of the session to bring in his famous DECLARATORY ACT, by which various new and important powers were conferred on the Board of Control, under pretext of explaining and determining the sense of the former bill. This measure met with a most animated and formidable opposition. Colonel Barré protested that he had from the first discerned the traces of a system of Indian patronage, of which he believed the bill under discussion to be a great advance to the final completion; and if it should be suffered to pass, a fatal stab would be given to the constitution." Mr. Sheridan called upon the house to compare the power of Mr. Fox's commissioners with those which were now asserted to belong to the Board of Control. Lord Fitzwilliam could not send out a dispatch; he could neither declare war, nor make peace, in India; he could neither collect the revenues of the Company, nor apply them to the purposes he should think proper, without having first the pleasure of the king signified to him through the medium of the secretary of state. The Board of Control could do all this. The minister XXIII. BOOK had now violated that compact with the Company on which he originally and professedly stood.How then could he escape the ignominy of deliberately breaking his most solemn engagements? 1788. Mr. Burke desired to be informed by administration, "whether, when they brought in the act of 1784, and complained that Mr. Fox's bill took too much, they had honestly stated that all they ineant to take was the military power, the political direction, the management of the revenue, and as much as they could get of the commerce? The question then to have put to the house would have been, in whose hands they were willing this power should be intrusted-in the hands of seven of the most respectable men in the kingdom, of parliamentary appointment, or with the shreds and remnants of office? The public had been at that time infatuated, hurried on to madness. The mob of 1784 had destroyed the house of commons, and in so doing they had destroyed the palladium of their privileges; but he now indulged the hope of seeing the house rise like a phoenix regenerated from its ashes." The question of commitment was carried by a majority of fifty-seven voices only, and, on being carried into the house of lords, it experienced a second opposition scarcely less violent than the first. It passed at length, accompanied with a protest signed by sixteen peers, in which the Declaratory Bill was reprobated as |