XXII. 1786. of Rich the king declared to the house of commons his BOOK earnest wish to enforce oeconomy in every department; recommended to them the maintenance of our naval strength on the most respectable footing; and above all the establishment of a FIXED PLAN for the reduction of the NATIONAL DEBT, Nothing remarkable passed until about the middle of February, when the estimate of the ordnance was brought up in the Committee of Supply. Upon Fortification project this occasion Mr. Pitt called the attention of the of the duke house to the plan laid before them in the course of mond. the last session, under the sanction of the duke of Richmond, master-general of the ordnance, for FORTIFYING the DOCK-YARDS of the kingdom; the propriety of which it was then agreed to refer to a board of land and sea officers, whose report Mr. Pitt stated to be in the highest degree favorable to the plan of fortification submitted to their decision; but the report itself he declined, as a matter of too serious and delicate a nature, to lay before the house. The discontent and surprise manifested when the question was last year under discussion now rose into great warmth of indignation and resentment. "If the report or the essentials it contained were not to be in some mode subject to the inspection of the house, they were, it was affirmed, in exactly the same situation in which they had stood before the Board was appointed. They must XXII. 1786. BOOK decide, not upon their own judgments, but in deference to the authority of others. But the house of commons were not justified in voting away the money of their constituents upon the grounds of passive complaisance and courtly submission. The expence attending this novel system would be enormous, and it was their duty before they adopted it to be fully convinced of its necessity." General Burgoyne, who was one of the Board, controverted the assertion of Mr. Pitt as to the entire approbation expressed by them of the system in question. "It was well known (he said) that cases hypothetically put admitted only of a direct answer given under the admission of the hypothesis. It remained to be ascertained, whether the case thus hypothetically put was sufficiently within the limits of probability to deserve attention. Several of the cases on which the Board were called upon to decide were mere postulata, and hypothetically as extravagant as if it were asked, Suppose by some convulsion of nature the Straits of Dover should vanish out of existence, and the coasts of England and France were to unite, would it not be expedient to fortify the isthmus between the two countries?" Mr. Pitt, waving the farther discussion of the question for the present, declared his determination to bring the business in the most specific and solemn manner before the house. He accordingly XXIL 1786. after a short delay moved a resolution, "That it BOOK appeared to the house, that to provide effectually for securing the dock-yards of Portsmouth and Plymouth by a permanent system of fortification was an essential object for the safety of the state, &c. &c." A violent debate arose, in the course of which no member distinguished himself so eminently as Mr. Sheridan, a gentleman who had been for some time gradually rising to a very elevated height of parliamentary reputation; and previous to his introduction into the house of commons the public had long known and admired the brilliant talents of this second Congreve in dramatic literature. Mr. Sheridan stated for. cibly the danger to which the constitution would be exposed in consequence of this vast addition to the military power of the crown. “These strong military holds, maintained by numerous and disciplined garrisons, would afford tenfold the means of curbing and subduing the country as would arise from doubling the present army establishment. Could any one, (he exclaimed) possibly imagine that the system now recommended was to end with Portsmouth and Plymouth, and that the reasonings of the minister would not apply to other parts of the kingdom? No-we were to figure to ourselves the same board of officers, acting under the same instructions, and deliberating with the same DATA, going BOOK a circuit round the coasts of the kingdom. He XXII. 1786. wished to see the estimate for the stationary defence of such places as Chatham, Sheerness, &c. in addition to the two-and-twenty thousand men demanded for Portsmouth and Plymouth. Mr. Sheridan professed, nevertheless, his readiness to abide by the decision of the board of officers, if it could be fairly shewn that, upon a full and unfettered investigation of the subject, they had reported it as their clear and unqualified opinion that the plan proposed by the duke of Richmond was such as it became the wisdom of parliament to adopt. But if the professional abilities of the duke of Richmond were ill-employed in the fabrication of so wild a project, it must be acknowledged they conspicuously appeared in the planning and constructing the report in question. There were certain detached data, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a distance from the main object in debate. Strong provisions covered the flanks of his assertions. His very queries were in casemates. No impression, therefore, was to be made on this fortress of sophistry by desultory observations; and it was necessary to assail it by regular approaches. Much ingenuity likewise had been shewn in extracting such parts of the report as were deemed most favourable to the proposed system. The minutes which contained the opinion of the naval officers in condemnation of the plan were wholly XXII. 1786. omitted, because they were mixed with matter of BOOK such dangerous import that no chemical process known in the ordnance elaboratory could possibly separate them; while on the contrary every approving opinion, like a light oily fluid, floated at the top, and was capable of being presented to the house pure and untinged by a single particle of the argument and information upon which it was founded." The minister upon this occasion found himself very generally deserted by the country gentlemen or independent interest in the house; and the division was rendered memorable by an exact equa lity of numbers, both the ayes and the noes amounting to 169. The speaker being of course compelled to give his casting vote, acquired much credit and applause by adding his negative to those who had voted for the rejection of this chimerical, absurd, and extravagant system. It is very remarkable that the minister, notwithstanding this defeat, had the temerity, after an interval of a few weeks, to bring forward the question once more in a new form, by moving, That an estimate of the expence of such part of the plan of fortification recommended in the late report, as might appear most necessary to be carried into immediate execution, be referred to a committee of supply"-the probable expence of which was estimated at only 400,000l.! This was |