peror manifefted a favourable difpofi tion, would it have been wife to ful pend the negociations with him, at the risk of their being broken off, Σ was a peremptory refufal. They then faid, "You must take the confequence, we wash our hands of the bufinefs." If our allies were attacked, we had then indeed a right to inter-in order to wait for the concurrence fere; but we had no alliance with of Ruffia? Pending our difpute Turkey, and were only called on to with Spain, we were neither fo gratify the pride of our own mini- free to act as now, nor was the ne iters, and fecond the ill-judged po- ceffity then fo urgent. But why,. licy of Pruffia. How far minifters it was afked, did we difmifs our were pledged to fupport that policy armament after that difpute was he knew not, but he knew the concluded? We had not difmiffed country was not bound to fupport it., our armament, for we had kept up Mr. Pitt in reply obferved, that as a confiderable addition of force; Mr. Fox had admitted, that to in- but as the feafon of the year made terfere occafionally in the politics of it impoffible to act for several months, the continent made a part of that we had not kept up a force of fifty defenfive fyftem which he had always fhips of the line, because it would thought it right to fupport, the have been to no purpose, and the prefent queftion was fimply, "whe- expence would have exceeded that ther the prefent was an occafion on of the prefent armament.. which we ought to interfere?" Now if it were true that Pruffia, by the aggrandifement of Ruffia, muft be endangered, and confequently our defenfive fyftem impaired, then the circumftances actually called for our interference. It had been infinuated that minifters were bound by engagements to Pruffia, with which the country had nothing to do. He begged leave to affure the houfe that the infinuation was unfounded, and that minifters were bound by no engagements to Pruffia but fuch as had received the fanction of parliament. Admitting, for the fake of argument, what he would not admit in fact, that we ought to have interpofed fooner on the prefent occafion, that was no reafon againft interpofing now. But had the neceffity been fo preffing at any former period, or were fuch confequences to be apprehended without a fpeedy interference? It was next faid, that we had loft the opportunity of bringing Ruffia to terms, when the emperor was prevailed on to treat-But when the em Mr. Pitt obferved, that the pre-i dominance of Ruffia would proba bly effect an alteration in the ftate of Europe in other refpects difadvantageous to this country, with refpect to Poland in particular. We had a commercial intereft in culti vating a trade with Poland, and preventing Ruffia from obtaining fuch a decided command of the articles we wanted, as to give or with-... hold them at her pleafure. he Mr. Burke faid, that as it might, i be the last time that he should have an opportunity of delivering his fen... timents on a fimilar question could not refrain from offering a few remarks to the houfe. He faid, it... was extremely novel, and contrary to... all the politics with which he was acquainted, to bring the Turkish... empire into the confideration of the balance of power in Europe. The queftion, he faid, was not, whether the emprefs of Ruffia fhould or fhould not difmember Turkey? it was fimply, whether the should pof fefs Oczakow or not? When the emprefs had made thofe facrifices, which the feemed willing to make, fhe had given up more than any other victorious prince would have done in her fituation. To carry to this length the Pruffian alliance, he, contended, was in fact establishing an anti-crufade; it was offending the emprefs without an adequate caufe, who might at fome future period direct her vengeance against us, when another armament might be required to avert the effects of her refentment. The question was carried in favour of the addrefs by 228 votes againft 135. The attention of the houfe was again called to this important fubject on the 12th of April by M4 Grey, who faid that he had intended to introduce a motion for a committee on the ftate of the nation but having been given to understand from high authority, that an objec-, tion would be taken against fuch a committee, he was induced to wave that object, and to come before the houfe directly with certain propofitions." He faid there were certain principles upon which mankind were generally agreed: among thefe might be reckoned the juft caufes for going to war; and of this na ture also were thofe maxims of policy which ought to govern, this of thefe cafes applied to the prefent. inftance. The Pruffian treaty enga ged us no further than that, if that country fhould be attacked, we were bound to furnish them with a certain number of troops, or a certain fum of money. Suppofe, at the time. when the Pruffian treaty was laid before the houfe, that it had been a condition in it, that whenever Raf fia fhould poffefs herfelf of Oczakow, Great Britain fhould go to war with Ruffia, would any man in that houfe have affented to it? Perhaps, he would be told, that he had admit ted that a country was bound, for its own fafety, to guard against the dangerous aggrandifement of any one power. This was certainly true; but he must be understood to fuppofe that that aggrandifement was aim ed at by unjust and violent means; and that the danger accruing from it was not remote, but near and imminent to this country. He confidered the balance of power in Europe as an object of great concern; and if they could fhew him that it was in the leaft danger, he fhould certainly give his vote to refcue it from that danger. But who would undertake to prove that the poffeffion of the town of Oczakow was fuch a circumftance as could mate which respect to its connec- rially affect the intereft of this tions with war originated in balance of power in Europe? tions with foreign powers. The only juft canfe of the principle of felf-defence; the therefore, where a war was juft, kiight be reduced to three heads, it, when it was undertaken to redeem a right forcibly withholden, pa to to which we had an undoubted claim; 2d, in providing for future fafety; and the last, a 'right of repelling an unjuft attack, under which might be included a cafe when an allvilad been unjustly attacked. He proceeded to fhew that not one 1797, country, and would endanger the Mr. Grey next ftated the reasons why the poffeffion of that fortrefs was an object of importance to the emprefs of Ruffia, though it could be none to any other European power. The country between the Bog and the Niefter was known by the name of defert plains, and therefore of no value. But although the country was barren, it afforded fhelter to fome hordes of Tartars who plundered the dominions of the N emprefs, 1 be constituted in the ufual manner, and the members of the council to be members for life; referving power to his majefty to annex to certain honours an hereditary right of fitting in the council. All laws and ordinances of the province were to remain in force till altered by the new legislature. The habeas corpus act was already law by an ordinance of the province, and was to be continued as a fundamental principle of the conftitution. It was further meant to make a provifion for a proteftant clergy in both divifions, by an allotment of lands in proportion to thofe already granted and as in one of them the majority of the inhabitants would be catholics, it was meant to provide, that it fhould not be lawful for his majefty to affcut to future grants for this purpofe without, firft fubmitting them to the confideration of the British parliament, The te nures were to be fettled in Lower Canada by the local legiflature; in Upper Canada, the fettlers being chiefly British, the tenures were to be foccage tenures To prevent any fuch difpute as that which feparated the thirteen tates from the mother country, it was provided that the British parliament Thould impofe, no taxes, but fuch as might be necessary for the regulation of trade and, commerces and to guard against the abufe of this power, fuch taxes were to be levied and difpofed. of by the legillature of each divifion, In its progrefs through the hole the bill was warmly oppofed by Mr. Fox, Mr. Huffey, lord Sheffield, and fome other gentlemen. They objected in the first place to the divifion of the province. It had been urged, Mr. Fox faid, that by fuch means we could feparate the English and the French inhabitants; but, was this to be delired? Was **། it agreeable to general and political expediency The most defirable circumftance was, that the French and English inhabitants of Canada fhould coalefce into one body, and that the different diftinctions of people might be extinguifhed for ever. If this had been the object in view, the English laws might foon have prevailed univerfally throughout Canada-not from force, but from choice, and conviction of their fuperiority. The propofed reprefentation was alto a frong ground of objection. The great object (it was obferved by the fame great ftatefman) of all popular affemblies was, that the people thould be fully and fairly reprelented; and that the reprefentative body fhould have all the virtues and the vices incident to fuch affemblies: but when the affembly of one province was to contit of only fixteen, and the other of thirty thirty perfous, they deluded the people by a mockery of reprefentation; they feemed to give them a free conftitution, when in fact they withheld it: and it was on the whole fo great a fallacy, that he hoped it never would be faid that we gave Canada' even a ketch of the British conftitution. Such an affembly might be a wife affembly, a virtuous affembly, an enterprifin aflembly, but it never could be called a popular affembly. The period of Auction was confidered by the oppofition as equally inconfiftent with freedom. In England, it was acknowledged, we had a feptennial bill, but the goodness of it had been doubted even by many of thofe who took the lead in the prefent bill. One Fearon alligned for the propriety of fiich a Bill was, that general elections in this colinthy were attended with great and innumerable inconveniences; but in a coun . 1 country fo differently circumftanced as Canada, why not make the elections anaual, or triennial at molt? A fep tennial bill indeed was peculiarly ill calculated for that country, where many of the molt refpectable perfons might be perfons in trade, and, if chofen reprefentatives for feyen years, might not be in a fituation to attend during the whole of that period; though they might be able to give their attendance for one or even three years, without danger or inconvenience to their commercial concerns, and thus, by a feptennial bill, the country of Canada might be deprived of more than half of the few reprefentatives which were allowed it by the prefent arrange. ment. The legislative councils were con fidered as peculiarly liable to, objec tion. In the first place, they were unlimited as to numbers by any thing but the will of the government, Inftead of being, as in fome of the Weft India colonies, hereditary councils, or councils chofen by elec. tors, they were compounded of both. As to the points of hereditary honours and hereditary powers, Mr. Fox oblerved, to say that they were good, or they were not good, as a general propofition, was not ealy to decide; but he faw nothing fo good in them as to warrant their introduction into a country where they were not known, and by fuch means to distinguish Canada froin all the colonies in the Weft Indies. In countries where they made a part of the conflitution, he did not think it wife to deftroy them; but to create them where they did not exift, he confidered as, exceedingly unwife. He could not account for it, unless it was, that Canada having been formerly a French colony, there might be an opportunity of reviving thofe titles of honour, the extinction of which fome gentlemen fo much deplored, and to revive in the Well that fpirit of chivalry, which had fallen into fo much difgrace in a neighbouring country, The provifion for the clergy' was confidered as being too large, par, ticularly in thofe parts where the inhabitants were almost all Roman catholics. The bill was allo excep. tionable fo far as related to the regulation of appeals at law. Suitors were firft to apply to the courts in Canada, thence to appeal to the governor and council, thence to the king in council, and lastly to the houfe of lords. Now if the houfe of lords was a better court than the king in council, why not apply to the houfe of lords at once? The trial by jury, as well as the habeas corpus act, it was urged, ought to have been made integrant parts of the prefent bill, and not left to an ordinance of the province. > The bill was defended by Mr, Pitt on the principle of expediency. He alleged that the reprefentation bore a proportion to the population of the country, as that of the upper province amounted to only 10,000 inhabitants, and of the lower to not more than 100,000. The affemblies undoubtedly ought to extend with the growing population of Canada. A feptennial legiflature appeared the molt convenient; but if found to be otherwife, there was nothing to hinder the legislature of Great Britain from correcting at a future period any part of the prefent bill. Mr. Pitt defended the hereditary part of the legislative council by faying, that an ariftocratical principle being one part of our mixed government, he thought it proper there should be fuch a council as that provided for in the bill. As to the provifion for the clergy, one tenth of the pro duce was evidently a much greater M4 pro. were the principles of his right ho nourable friend, from whom he had learned them. His right honourable friend had faid, with equal energy and emphafis," that he could not draw a bill of indictment against a whole people." Having been taught by him that no revolt of a nation was caufed without provocation, he could not help rejoicing ever fince the French conftitution could boatt the fame foundation with the Bri tifh, the rights of man. Mr. Fox declared that he had faid more than he intended; but if his fentiments could ferve the other fide of the houfe, which had countenanced the difcuffion apparently with a view to get at them, they had taken une ceffary pains. They might be fure of him and his fentiments on every fubject, without forcing any thing like a difference between him and his right honourable friend. Mr. Burke began his reply with reminding the houfe, that he had calmly heard to the end one of the moft diforderly fpeeches ever made in that affembly. He complained that Mr Fox had treated him unfairly; and had made a direct per fonal attack on all he had faid, on all he had written, on every thing that paffed in their public and private intercourfe. He faid, Mr. Fox was no ftranger to his fentiments en the Quebec bill; they had walked down to the houfe together, talking all the way upon the fubject. He afferted again that dangerous doctrines were encouraged in this country. It was become the practice to extol, in the higheft ftrain, the French conftitution; and thofe who difapproved of the anarchy and confufion which prevailed in France, were ftigmatized as the enemies of liberty. He infifted, that, the difcuffion of the Quebec-bill was a proper opportunity to put the country on its guard again, thofe dangerous doctrines; as it afforded an occafion of entering upon a true and minute comparifon of the French contțitution with that of England. He had been accused, he faid, of having provoked, this difcuffion, to give an advantage to the enemies of Mr. Fox a principle which he utterly difclaimed,and never thought that any fair or candid man could have laid to his charge. He could have produced unexceptionable authorities for all, that he fhould have advanced concerning France, had he been permitted. He could have fhewn that the people of that country had gained nothing by the devolution, but that, comparing evil with evil, with refpect to the liberty of the fubject, his happiness, and the prefervation of his property, they were much worse off now than under the old government. He charged Mr. Fox with having treated him not only with harfhnefs, but malignity, after having haraffed him with his light troops in the skirmishes of order, he brought the heavy artillery of his own great abilities to bear upon him. Mr. Burke denied the charge of inconfiftency, and faid his opinions on government had ever been the fame. As he proceeded to treat, in a ludicrous manner, of the difcipline which Mr Fox maintained among his troops in that houfe, he was called to order by Mr. Grey; but refusing to apologize, he proceeded, and urged his majesty's minifters to look with a vigilant eye to the plots to which he had alluded. He adverted to the riots of 1780 had he at that time come forward, and cautioned the houfe to beware of the proteftant affociation, he fuppofed he would |