XXI.

1783.

Act of re

of the au

Great Bri

tain over

One of the first measures of the new ministry BOOK was to expedite the passing of a bill, before pending, for the purpose of preventing any writs of error or appeal from the kingdom of Ireland from nunciation being received by any of his majesty's courts in thority of Great Britain; and of renouncing, in express terms,reland the legislative authority of the British parliament in relation to Ireland. This was a necessary consequence of the general plan of Irish emancipation; for the mere repeal of the Declaratory Act did not, in the view of the common law, make any difference whatever in the relative situation of the two countries.

ments of

India Com

Soon after this, a bill was introduced by sir EmbarrassHenry Fletcher, chairman of the East India Com-the East pany, "for suspending the payments of the Com-pany. pany now due to the Royal Exchequer, and for

from all restraint, and may bid defiance to all opposition." To
the same purpose the celebrated d'Avenant, speaking of the
supposed defection of those from the cause of liberty who had
been looked up to and relied upon as its most zealous defen-
ders, says: ""
Men, finding themselves thus forsaken, would
believe they were bought and sold; they would imagine there
was no such thing as virtue and honesty remaining; they would
think all pretensions to the public good to be nothing but de-
signs of ambitious persons to lift themselves up to high honors
upon the shoulders of the people: and when nations have be-
fore their eyes an armed power, and none in whom they can
put any trust, they seldom fail of submitting to the yoke.”

BOOK enabling them to borrow the sum of three hundred XXI. thousand pounds for their further relief."

1783.

Lord John Cavendish declared this bill to be only a branch of a larger plan; and that it was brought forward separately, in order to answer an exigency which did not admit of delay. His lordship viewed the territorial acquisitions of the Company as a fruitful source of grievance. "It would (he said) have been more for their advantage had they confined themselves to the character of merchants. As these acquisitions, however, had been made, they must be preserved, and it was his opinion that the relief necessary to the Company should be granted."

Lord Fitzwilliam, in the upper house, dwelt on the almost desperate situation of the East India Company, and affirmed, "that, unless it passed, their bankruptcy would be inevitable. The expenditure of their settlements had far exceeded their revenue: bills had been drawn upon them which they 'were unable to answer without a temporary supply, so that the existence of the Company depended upon the success of the bill;" which accordingly passed both houses with little difficulty or opposition.

In the month of April, 1783, the chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward his plan for raising twelve millions by loan. The most re

XXI.

1783.

markable circumstance attending it was, that the BOOK money borrowed was funded at three per cent. at the extravagant rate of one hundred and fifty pounds stock for every hundred pounds sterling; so that an artificial capital of six millions was created beyond and above the sum actually paid into the Exchequer. This absurd and pernicious mode of funding was exposed and reprobated with much ability by Mr. Pitt in the lower house, and the earl of Shelburne in the upper, but with no effect.

The former motion of Mr. Pitt for an inquiry Mr. Pitt's into the state of the representation being negatived, planof par he now brought forward, May 7, a specific plan reform for adding one hundred members to the counties, and abolishing a proportionable number of the burgage-tenure and other small and obnoxious boroughs. This plan, though ably and honorably supported by Mr. Fox, was negatived by a great majority; the numbers on the division being 293 to 149. Mr. Fox declared, "that in his opinion the constitution required renovation; and he regarded it as one of its chief excellencies that it was capable of continual improvements, by involv ing in itself a renovating principle. It might thus be gradually carried to the highest attainable perfection." As there must of course ever be a stronger opposition against any specific plan of reform in the first instance, than to a comprehensive and general motion of inquiry only, the latter is evi

8

XXI.

1783.

BOOK dently the most politic as well as reasonable mode of introducing the question to the notice and discussion of the house; and had it been adopted by Mr. Pitt on this occasion, it could not have so egregiously failed of success. The motion was opposed in a very able speech by lord North, who with an happy allusive pleasantry declared, "that, while some with LEAR demanded an hundred knights, and others with Goneril were satisfied with fifty, he with Regan exclaimed, No, not ONE!" His lordship, in a graver and more argumentative strain, said, "It was not true that the house of commons had not its full and proper weight in the scale of government ;—his political life was a proof that it had. It was parliament that had made him a minister. He came amongst them without connexion. It was to them he was indebted for his rise, and they had pulled him down ;-he had been the creature of their opinion and the victim of their power;-his political career was consequently a proof of their independence;-the voice of the commons was sufficient to remove whatever was displeasing to the sentiments and wishes of the country; and in such a situation to parade about a reformation was idle, unnecessary, inexpedient, and dangerous." This reasoning might perhaps have had some degree of weight, could it be lost to the public recollection, that the noble lord was originally advanced to the premiership by the fiat

XXI,

1783.

of the executive power, and was continued in office, BOOK during the first and last years of his administration at least, by the influence of the same power, in daring contrariety to the clear, unanimous, and decided sense of the nation. His lordship's compulsive resignation at the last proved only that there are limits, beyond which even the complaisance of the representative body does not extend: and the infatuation of the ministers became at length so notorious, that parliament, alarmed at their rashness, and astonished at their folly, happily and critically interposed to save the nation from destruction.

able peti

A bill for regulating the trade of the African RemarkCompany being introduced towards the close of tion of the Quakers, the session, with a clause prohibiting the officers of the company from exporting negroes, that humane, intelligent, and respectable class of citizens known by the appellation of Quakers, convened in their annual assembly in the metropolis, embraced this favorable occasion to petition the house of commons, "That the clause in question might be extended to all persons whatsoever; professing themselves deeply affected with the consideration of the rapine, oppression, and blood, attending this traffic. Under the countenance of the laws of this country," say the petitioners, " many thousands of these our fellow-creatures, entitled to the NATURAL RIGHTS OF MANKIND, are held as personal pro

1.