DEBATE ON ADDRESSING HIS MAJESTY FOR REMOVING SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

The opposition which for a long time had been made in the commons, to

the measures of the administration, was on this day pushed to a crisis,

and produced a motion in both houses. In the house of lords it

occasioned the following debate:

Lord CARTERET began in this manner:--My lords, as the motion which I am

about to make is of the highest importance, and of the most extensive

consequences; as it cannot but meet with all the opposition which the

prejudices of some, and the interest of others, can raise against it; as

it must have the whole force of ministerial influence to encounter,

without any assistance but from justice and reason; I hope to be excused

by your lordships for spending some time in endeavouring to show, that

it wants no other support, that it is not founded upon doubtful

suspicions, but upon uncontestable facts; that it is not dictated by

private interest, but by the sincerest regard to publick happiness; not

abetted by the personal malevolence of particular men, but enforced by

the voice of the people; a voice which ought always to be attended to,

and, generally, to be obeyed.

To endeavour, my lords, to remove from places of publick trust all those

who appear to want either the virtues or abilities necessary for

executing their offices, is the interest of every member of a community.

And it is not only the interest but the duty of all those who are,

either by the choice of the people, or by the right of birth, invested

with the power of inspecting publick affairs, and intrusted with the

general happiness of their country. That, therefore, every motive

combines to make it the duty, and every argument concurs to prove it the

privilege of your lordships, is too evident to be doubted.

How often this privilege has been exerted by this house, and how often

it has rescued our country from oppression, insolence, and rapine; how

often our constitution has been reanimated, and impending ruin been

averted by it, a superficial acquaintance with history may inform us.

And we are now called upon by the universal cry of the nation, and urged

by the perplexed and uncertain state of our foreign affairs, and

declension of our wealth, and attacks upon our liberties at home, to

recollect these precedents of magnanimity and justice, and to make

another effort for the relief of our country.

This house, my lords, has proceeded against ministers, whose conduct

they disapproved, by methods of greater or less severity, according to

the necessity of affairs, or the supposed malignity of the crimes

alleged against them; and, therefore, have sometimes thought it

necessary to deter posterity from imitating them by rigorous censures,

and exemplary punishments, and sometimes have thought it sufficient to

set the nation free from its distresses, without inflicting any

penalties on those by whose misconduct they imagined them produced.

What were the more violent and vindictive methods of proceeding, it is

not necessary, with regard to this motion, to examine; since I shall

only propose, that we should, in imitation of our predecessors, in cases

of this nature, humbly address his majesty to remove the minister from

his presence and councils.

Nothing, my lords, can be more moderate or tender than such an address,

by which no punishment is inflicted, nor any forfeiture exacted. The

minister, if he be innocent, if his misconduct be only the consequence

of his ignorance or incapacity, may lay down in peace an office for

which nature has not designed him, enjoy the vast profits of long

employment in tranquillity, and escape the resentment of an unhappy

people; who, when irritated to the highest degree, by a continuation of

the same miscarriages, may, perhaps, in the heat of a more malevolent

prosecution, not sufficiently distinguish between inability and guilt.

Those, therefore, among your lordships, that think him honest but

mistaken, must willingly agree to a motion like this, as the best

expedient to appease the people without the ruin of the minister. For

surely no man who has read the history, or is acquainted with the temper

of this nation, can expect that the people will always bear to see

honours, favours, and preferments, distributed by the direction of one

universally suspected of corruption, and arbitrary measures; or will

look only with silent envy upon the affluence of those whom they believe

to be made great by fraud and plunder, swelled to insolence by the

prosperity of guilt, and advanced to wealth and luxury by publick

miseries.

Such of your lordships who join with the people in ascribing our present

unhappy state not to the errours, but to the crimes of the minister, and

who, therefore, think a bare removal not sufficient to satisfy the

demands of justice, must, doubtless, give their consent to the motion,

for the sake of obtaining proper evidence of his wickedness, which

cannot be expected while he stands exalted in prosperity, and

distributes the riches of the nation, and the gifts of his sovereign at

his own choice; while he is in possession of every motive that can

influence the mind, enforce secrecy, and confirm fidelity; while he can

bribe the avaricious, and intimidate the fearful; while he can increase

the gratification of luxury, and enlarge the prospects of ambition. For,

my lords, if it be considered from whom this evidence must be drawn, it

will soon appear that no very important discoveries can be made, but by

those whom he has intrusted with his secrets, men whose disregard of

virtue recommended them to his favour, and who, as they are moved only

by interest, will continue faithful while they can hope for recompense;

but may, perhaps, be willing to buy their own security by sacrificing

their master, when they shall see no farther prospect of advantage from

serving him, or any other method of escaping punishment.

But, my lords, all must allow this motion to be reasonable, whatever

they think of the minister's conduct, who are of opinion that a free

people have a right of complaining when they feel oppression, and of

addressing the crown to remove a minister that has incurred their

universal detestation. That such is the condition of the present

minister, I believe, will scarcely be denied, or may be discovered by

those who find themselves inclined to doubt it, by asking any man whom

they shall accidentally meet, what are his sentiments on the situation

of national affairs, and of the hands by which they are administered.

What answer he will receive is well known to most of your lordships. Let

him not be satisfied with a single suffrage, let him repeat the question

to ten thousand persons, different in their ages, their conditions, and

religious opinions, in every thing that produces contrariety of

dispositions and affections, he will yet find them unanimous in

complaining of publick misconduct, and in censuring one gentleman as the

author of it.

Let us not imagine, my lords, that these accusations and murmurs are

confined to the lowest class of the people, to men whose constant

attention to more immediate distresses, hinder them from making

excursions beyond their own employments. For though, perhaps, it might

be made evident from the accounts of past times, that no general

dissatisfaction, even among men of this rank, was ever groundless;

though it might be urged that those who see little can only clamour,

because they feel themselves oppressed; and though it might not

unseasonably be hinted that they are at least formidable for their

numbers, and have, sometimes, executed that justice which they had not

interest to procure, and trampled upon that insolence that has dared to

defy them; yet I shall not insist upon such motives, because it is

notorious that discontent is epidemical in all ranks, and that condition

and observation are far from appeasing it.

Whether the discontent, thus general, is groundless, whether it is

raised only by the false insinuations of the disappointed, and the

wicked arts of the envious, whether it is, in exception to all the

maxims of government, the first dislike of an administration that ever

overspread a nation without just reasons, deserves to be inquired into.

In this inquiry, my lords, it will be necessary to consider not only the

state of domestick affairs, increase or diminution of our debts, the

security or violation of our liberties, the freedom or dependence of our

senates, and the prosperity or declension of our trade, but to examine

the state of this nation, with regard to foreign powers; to inquire,

whether we are equally feared and equally trusted now as in former

administrations; whether our alliances have contributed to secure us

from our inveterate and habitual enemies, or to expose us to them;

whether the balance of Europe be still in our hands; and whether, during

this long interval of peace, our power has increased in the same

proportion with that of our neighbours. France, my lords, is the

constant and hereditary enemy of Britons, so much divided from her in

religion, government, and interest, that they cannot both be prosperous

together; as the influence of one rises, that of the other must, by

consequence, decline. Alliances may form a temporal show of friendship,

but it cannot continue; for their situation produces a natural

rivalship, which every accidental circumstance has contributed to

increase. Long wars, for many reigns after the conquest, established a

radical and insuperable hatred between us, nor did those wars cease till

the reformation produced new occasions of jealousy and aversion. France

was, by these reasons, obliged for many ages to employ all her influence

and policy in strengthening herself against us, by treaties and

alliances; and in our times, has given us a new reason for jealousy by

extending her commerce, and improving her manufactures.

It has been, therefore, my lords, the settled principle of every wise

administration, of every Briton, whose opinions were not regulated by

some other motives than those of reason, to attend, with the highest

degree of vigilance, to all the designs of the French, and oppose, with

incessant diligence, every attempt to increase their force, or extend

their influence, and to check their conquests, obstruct their alliances,

and forestal their trade.

For this great end it has been our constant endeavour to support the

Austrian family, whose large dominions and numerous forces make a

counterbalance on the continent to the power of France. For this end we

entered into a long war, of which we still languish under the

consequences, squandered the lives of our countrymen, and mortgaged the

possessions of our posterity. For failing in the prosecution of this

purpose, for leaving France too formidable, and neglecting the interests

of the emperour, was the treaty of Utrecht censured, and the authors of

it prosecuted by the present minister; but how much he has improved the

errours of his predecessors to his own advantage, how diligent he has

been to rectify the miscarriages of their conduct, and supply the

defect, I shall endeavour to explain.

It is well known, my lords, that during the regency of the duke of

Orleans, we had nothing to apprehend from French machinations; his

interest, a tie which that nation is seldom found to break, held him

steady to his engagements with us; nor is it less known how much he

distrusted Spain, and how little, by consequence, he favoured her. We

had, at that time, no necessity of anxiously attending to every whisper

of the French court, which was sufficiently engaged in regulating their

domestick affairs, and repairing the ruins of a destructive war; but, my

lords, we ought to observe, that it had been happy for us had our

minister laboured with equal address at the same employment.

After the death of this duke, the affairs of France were restored to

their former situation, her old schemes were revived, her ancient

alliances cultivated, and her general interest pursued. Spain was again

considered as the power which had the same views with her, and which

could never rival, but might always assist her.

This alliance, my lords, was intended to have been unalterably confirmed

by a marriage, but as no human policy can form measures certain of

success, an irreconcilable hatred was nearly produced by the measure

intended to confirm a settled and indissoluble friendship. The infanta

was sent back after her arrival in France, an affront which no nation

would soon have forgot, but which the general character and habitual

sentiments of the Spaniards inclined them to resent beyond any other

people. To any one acquainted with their character in this respect, it

will readily appear, that no other insult or injury could so sensibly

affect them, or excite so eager a desire of revenge, This, my lords, the

sagacity of our minister should have discovered, this opportunity should

have been improved with the utmost care, by which Spain and France might

possibly have been disunited for ages, and Britain have gained such

advantages as would have made her the sole arbitress of Europe.

The Spaniards were not deficient on their side, nor did they neglect to

court our friendship, but gave us the highest proof of their confidence

by offering us the sole mediation of their differences with the emperour

of Germany: but at this time it was, that the gentleman whose conduct I

am examining, obtained the chief influence in our councils, and by his

peculiar penetration discovered, that nothing was to be done which might

give the least offence to the French. We, therefore, refused to mediate,

unless French ministers might be associated with ours, which the

Spaniards had too much spirit to consent to.

Thus, my lords, was neglected the first opportunity of forming against

the French an alliance by which they might have been awed in all their

designs, and by which the peace of Europe might have been long

preserved.

The Spaniards, finding that we would not undertake to reconcile their

differences with the emperour of Germany, and continuing their

abhorrence of French mediators, concluded, without the intervention of

any other power, a treaty both of peace and alliance with his imperial

majesty.

This, my lords, was the famous treaty of Vienna, the source of so many

projects and expedients, of so much terrour and solicitude, of such

immense expenses, and perplexed negotiations. This treaty, a paper

innocent and well-meaning, which related only to the contracting

parties, kept, for some time, this nation in alarms, in apprehensions of

conspiracies, and expectations of invasions.

To this treaty, had we singly regarded our own affairs, without applying

to France for instructions, we ought to have acceded, by which we should

have divided the interest of the house of Bourbon, broken the

combination of these pontifical powers, and, by improving one lucky

incident, obtained what our arms and our politicks had never, hitherto,

been able to accomplish.

But the French, sensible of their danger, and well acquainted with our

minister, contrived an expedient which, indeed, would not often have

succeeded, but which was so well adapted to the intellects of this

gentleman, that it extricated them from all their difficulties.

They told us, my lords, and, what is yet more wonderful, they prevailed

upon us to believe, that in this dreadful treaty of Vienna, it was

stipulated between the German emperour and Spain, that they should

employ their joint forces against Britain, that they should exalt the

pretender to the throne, take immediate possession of Gibraltar, and,

without mercy, debar us for ever from our trade both in Spain and in the

Western Indies. This his late majesty was advised to assert in his

speech from the throne, which I desire may be read.

Of which the following clauses were read:

"My lords and gentlemen,

"The distressed condition of some of our religious brethren abroad, and

the negotiations and engagements entered into by some foreign powers,

which seem to have laid the foundation of new troubles and disturbances

in Europe, and to threaten my subjects with the loss of several of the

most advantageous branches of their trade, obliged me, without any loss

of time, to concert with other powers such measures as might give a

check to the ambitious views of those who are endeavouring to render

themselves formidable, and put a stop to the farther progress of such

dangerous designs. For these ends I have entered into a defensive

alliance with the French king, and the king of Prussia, to which several

other powers, and particularly the Dutch, have been invited to accede,

and I have not the least reason to doubt of their concurrence. This

treaty shall, in a short time, be laid before you.

"By these means, and by your support and assistance, I trust in God, I

shall be able not only to secure to my own subjects the enjoyment of

many valuable rights and privileges, long since acquired for them by the

most solemn treaties, but effectually to preserve the peace and balance

of Europe, the only view and end of all my endeavours.

"It is not to be doubted, but the enemies to my government will conceive

hopes, that some favourable opportunity for renewing their attempts may

offer, from the prospect of new troubles and commotions: they are

already very busy by their instruments and emissaries in those courts

whose measures seem most to favour their purposes, in soliciting and

promoting the cause of the pretender; but I persuade myself,

notwithstanding the countenance and encouragement they may have

received, or flatter themselves with, the provision you shall make for

the safety and defence of the empire, will effectually secure me from

any attempts from abroad, and render all such projects vain and

abortive.

"When the world shall see that you will not suffer the British crown and

nation to be menaced and insulted, those who most envy the present

happiness and tranquillity of this empire, and are endeavouring to make

us subservient to their ambition, will consider their own interest and

circumstances before they make any attempt upon so brave a people,

strengthened and supported by prudent and powerful alliances, and though

desirous to preserve the peace, able and ready to defend themselves

against the efforts of all aggressors. Such resolutions and such

measures, timely taken, I am satisfied, are the most effectual means of

preventing a war, and continuing to us the blessings of peace and

prosperity."

Who would not have been terrified, my lords, at a treaty like this? Our

religion was to be destroyed, our government subverted, and our trade

reduced to nothing. What could a ministry, thus intimidated, do, but

resign themselves implicitly to the direction of a kind neighbour, that

promised to shelter them from the storm?

There have been ministers, my lords, in former times, who, upon hearing

such a representation, would have considered, that Britain was an

island, that the pretender could not be forced upon us without an army,

and that an army could not be transported without ships, that the

emperour of Germany had neither navies nor ports, that Gibraltar might

be easily supplied with every thing requisite for its defence, and that

any attempt made by Spain to injure our trade, might easily be punished

by intercepting their Plate fleets.

They would then have considered whether attempts so improbable, and

stipulations so absurd and ridiculous, ought to be credited upon the

information of an ambassadour's secretary, who, as he proposed to reveal

his master's secrets for a bribe, might as probably take another reward

for imposing upon those whom he pretended to inform. Those, therefore,

who advised his majesty to assert to the senate what they knew from no

better authority, those whose daring insolence could make their

sovereign instrumental in alarming the people with false terrours, and

oppressing them with unnecessary burdens, well deserve to feel a

senatorial censure.

But our ministers, my lords, were too much frighted to make such

reflections: they imagined that destruction was hanging over us, and, in

a dread of arbitrary government, oppression, and persecution, concluded

at Hanover a treaty with the French.

Thus the French gained our confidence, and raised in us a distrust of

both the powers with whom it was our interest to be united: but the

alliance of the emperour of Germany with Spain made them still uneasy;

and, therefore, they determined, once more, to make our credulity

instrumental in procuring a reconciliation between them and the

Spaniards.

To effect this, they kindly gave us intelligence, that when the

Spaniards should receive their treasures from the Western Indies, they

designed to employ it in favour of the pretender, and that, therefore,

it was necessary to intercept it. This advice was thankfully listened

to, a fleet was fitted out, and thousands were sacrificed without any

advantage; for the French not only forbore to assist us in the

expedition, but forbade us to seize the treasure when we had found it.

The Spaniards, apprehending themselves attacked, omitted no opportunity

of showing their resentment; they seized our ships, and laid siege to

Gibraltar, while our new allies looked quietly on, and expected the

event of their own scheme, which was far from being defeated by our

policy; for the Spaniards, finding the return of their American revenues

insuperably obstructed, and knowing that the emperour of Germany, that

emperour who was to invade Britain, had not any power even to assist

them, were obliged to have recourse to the nation which they then hated,

and to forgive the past affront, that they might obtain their good

offices in this exigence.

But, my lords, it was not sufficient for the designs of the French, that

they had recovered their ancient allies the Spaniards, unless they could

disunite them from the emperour of Germany: this it was, likewise, our

interest to prevent, and yet this, likewise, we enabled them to effect;

for they prevailed upon us to promise, in our stipulations with the

Spaniards, what they had not the least claim to demand, that Spain,

instead of neutral troops, should be introduced into Italy, to secure

certain successions there to a son of the queen of Spain.

With what reluctance the emperour of Germany would consent to see troops

placed in the provinces bordering upon his dominions, which would

certainly, on the first occasion, be employed to invade them, it was

easy to foresee, and with what degree of good-will he would regard those

by whom they were introduced; yet, my lords, such was the influence of

France, and so ardent our desire of diverting Spain from setting the

pretender upon the throne of Britain, that we complied at all events,

without any prospect or promise of advantage.

Thus were the Spaniards, by being persuaded to make this demand, and we,

by granting it, brought equally to ill terms with the emperour of

Germany; and France was, by procuring such agreeable conditions to the

Spaniards, again considered as their most useful ally.

That nation, my lords, is in a very unhappy state, which is reduced to

admit such terms as mediators are pleased to prescribe. We durst not

refuse the introduction of Spanish troops, nor durst we introduce them

without the emperour of Germany's consent, which, however, he granted at

an easy rate, for he demanded only that we should become guarantees of

the Pragmatick sanction. This we gladly agreed to, and thought ourselves

so happy in purchasing, so cheaply, an opportunity of ingratiating

ourselves with Spain, that we desired no other recompense.

This treaty with the emperour of Germany, was, however, by no means

improper, nor could we, after the errours which had been committed, do

any thing more effectual to preserve the balance of Europe, and

reestablish our credit.

But, my lords, this only treaty, which it was for our interest to make,

seems to have been made without any intention of observing it; for about

this time all the northern powers were alarmed by the approaching

election of Poland, and every nation that had any thing either to hope

or fear from the event of it, endeavoured to influence it.

How this election was determined, my lords, and by what means, it is

unnecessary to relate; but it may not be improper to remark, that

whatever cause we may have to congratulate ourselves upon the choice, it

does not appear that we had any part in promoting it. Nay, as it is not

common for ministers to keep the best part of their conduct secret,

there is reason for suspecting that they were not altogether without

foundation reported to have favoured France.

The emperour of Germany, sensible of his own interest, promoted the

election with vigour and resolution, proportioned to the greatness of

the danger that might have arisen from neglecting it. By this conduct he

drew upon himself the resentment of the French, who had now a pretence

for taking measures which might effectually reunite them to Spain, and,

as the event showed, alienate us from the emperour, and, therefore, in

vindication of the claim of Stanislaus, declared war upon Germany, in

conjunction with Spain.

Now, my lords, the emperour learned to set the true value upon his

alliance with Britain, and all Europe had an opportunity of remarking

our spirit, our power, and our vigilance. The troops which we prevailed

upon his imperial majesty to admit into Italy, were now drawn out of the

garrisons against him, his dominions were attacked on each side, by

formidable enemies, and his British allies looked with tranquillity and

unconcern upon the difficulties into which they had betrayed him. The

liberties of Europe were endangered by a new combination of the houses

of Bourbon; and Britain, the great protectress of the rights of mankind,

the great arbitress of the balance of power, either neglected or feared

to interpose.

Of the event of the war, my lords, I need only observe, that it added

new strength to France, and contributed to such an union between her and

Spain, as the most artful politician cannot hope to dissolve.

Thus, my lords, whether by negligence, ignorance, cowardice, or

treachery, it is not easy to determine, we were made the instruments of

the French policy. Thus was that power enabled by our assistance to

retrieve all that she had lost by the ill success of her arms, and by

her indecent and contemptuous treatment of Spain. Thus was the German

emperour dispirited and weakened; thus were we deprived at once of our

allies and our reputation.

Our loss of reputation, the greatest loss that bad measures can bring

upon a nation, is made evident beyond controversy, by the insolence with

which the Spaniards have treated us while we were flattering, enriching,

and supporting them. While we were fitting out squadrons to convey their

princes to Italy, and increasing their dominions at our own expense,

they seem to have considered our good offices, not as the benefits of

friends, but the drudgery of slaves, and, therefore, could scarcely

refrain from insults while they employed us, at least when they no

longer wanted our immediate assistance. They renewed their contempt and

cruelty, their robberies and oppressions; they prescribed laws to our

navigation, and laid claim to our colonies.

To these ravages and injuries what did we oppose? What but humble

intreaties, pacifick negotiations, and idle remonstrances? Instead of

asserting our just claims, and incontestable possessions, instead of

preventing war by threatening it, and securing ourselves from a second

injury by punishing the first, we amused ourselves with inquiries,

demands, representations, and disputes, till we became the jest of that

nation which it was in our power to distress, by intercepting their

treasure, and to reduce to terms almost without bloodshed.

Thus, my lords, did we proceed, new questions ever arose, and the

controversy became more intricate; commissaries were despatched to

Spain, who returned without obtaining either restitution or security,

and in the mean time no opportunity was neglected of plundering our

merchants, and insulting our flag: accounts of new confiscations and of

new cruelties daily arrived, the nation was enraged, and the senate

itself alarmed, and our ministers, at length awakened from their

tranquillity, sent orders to the envoy at the Spanish court to expedite

an accommodation; these directions were immediately obeyed, and produced

the celebrated convention.

What was given up, or what was endangered by this detestable treaty,

your lordships have often had occasion to observe, and the consequences

of it were so obvious, that the nation was astonished. Every man saw

that we were either treacherously betrayed by our own ministry, or that

the ministers were almost the only men in the kingdom utterly

unacquainted with our claims, our injuries, and our danger.

A war could now no longer be avoided, it was not in the power of the

ministry any longer to refuse to send out our fleets, and make an

appearance of hostile measures; but they had still some expedients

remaining to shelter the Spaniards from our resentment, and to make

their country yet more contemptible: they could contrive such orders for

their admirals as should prevent them from destroying their enemies with

too little mercy; and if any one was suspected of intentions less

pacifick, there were methods of equipping his fleet in such a manner as

would effectually frustrate his schemes of revenge, reprisals, and

destruction.

These, my lords, are not the murmurs of the disappointed, nor the

insinuations of the factious; it is well known to our countrymen and to

our enemies, how ill admiral Vernon was furnished with naval and

military stores, and how little his importunate demands of a supply were

regarded. What opportunities were lost, and what advantages neglected,

may be conjectured from the success of his inconsiderable force. A very

little reflection on the situation and state of those countries will

easily satisfy your lordships, how far a small body of land-forces might

have penetrated, what treasures they might have gained, and what

consternation they might have spread over the whole Spanish America.

That our squadrons in the Mediterranean have been, at least, useless,

that they have sailed from point to point, and from one coast to

another, only to display the bulk of our ships, and to show the opulence

of our nation, can require no proof: I wish, my lords, there was less

reason for suspecting that they acted in concert with our enemies, that

they retired from before their ports only to give them an opportunity of

escaping, and that they, in reality, connived at some attempts which

they were, in appearance, sent to prevent.

There are some miscarriages in war, my lords, which every reasonable man

imputes to chance, or to causes of which the influence could not be

foreseen; there are others that may justly be termed the consequences of

misconduct, but of misconduct involuntary and pardonable, of a

disregard, perhaps, of some circumstances of an affair produced by too

close an attention to others. But there are miscarriages, too, for which

candour itself can find no excuses, and of which no other causes can be

assigned than cowardice or treachery. From the suspicion of one, the

past actions of the admiral who commands our fleet in those seas will

secure him, but I know not whether there are now any that will attempt

to clear the minister's character from the imputation of the other.

All the insolence of the Spaniards, a nation by no means formidable, is

the consequence of the reunion of the houses of Bourbon; a reunion which

could not easily have been accomplished, but by the instrumental

offices of our ministry, whom, therefore, the nation has a right to

charge with the diminution of its honour, and the decay of its trade.

Nor has our trade, my lords, been only contracted and obstructed by the

piracies of Spain, but has been suffered to languish and decline at

home, either by criminal negligence, or by their complaisance for

France, which has given rise to our other calamities. The state of our

woollen manufactures is well known, and those whose indolence or love of

pleasure keeps them strangers to the other misfortunes of their country,

must yet have been acquainted with this, by the daily accounts of riots

and insurrections, raised by those who, having been employed in that

manufacture, can provide for their families by no other business, and

are made desperate by the want of bread.

We are told, my lords, by all parties, and told with truth, that our

manufactures decline, because the French have engrossed most of the

foreign markets; and it is not denied even by those whose interest it

might be to' deny it, that the cloth which they ruin us by vending, is

made of our own wool, which they are suffered to procure either by the

folly of an unskilful, or the connivance of a treacherous

administration.

If our own manufactures, my lords, had been carefully promoted, if the

whole influence of our government had been made to cooperate with the

industry of our traders, there had always been such a demand for our

wool, that they could not have afforded to purchase it at a price

equivalent to the danger of exporting it: and if any means were now

steadily practised to prevent the exportation, our trade must

consequently revive, because cloth is one of the necessaries of life

which other nations must have from Britain, when France can no longer

supply them.

But, my lords, notwithstanding the decay of trade, our expenses have

never been contracted; we have squandered millions in idle preparations,

and ostentatious folly; we have equipped fleets which never left the

harbour, and raised armies which were never to behold any other enemy

than the honest traders and husbandmen that support them. We have,

indeed, heard many reasons alleged for oppressing the empire with

standing troops, which can have little effect upon those who have no

interest to promote by admitting them: sometimes we are in danger of

invasions, though it is not easy to imagine for what purpose any prince

should invade a nation, which he may plunder at pleasure, without the

least apprehension of resentment, and which will resign any of its

rights whenever they shall be demanded: sometimes, as we have already

heard, the pretender is to be set upon the throne by a sudden descent of

armies from the clouds; and sometimes the licentiousness and

disobedience of the common people requires the restraint of a standing

army.

That the people are, to the last degree, exasperated and inflamed, I am

far from intending to deny, but surely they have yet been guilty of no

outrage so enormous as to justify so severe a punishment; they have

generally confined themselves to harmless complaints, or, at least, to

executions in effigy. The people, my lords, are enraged because they are

impoverished, and, to prevent the consequences of their anger, their

poverty is increased by new burdens, and aggravated by the sight of an

useless, despicable herd, supported by their industry, for no other

purpose than to insult them.

By these useless armaments and military farces, our taxes, my lords,

have been continued without diminishing our debts, and the nation seems

condemned to languish for ever under its present miseries, which, by

furnishing employment to a boundless number of commissioners, officers,

and slaves, to the court, under a thousand denominations, by diffusing

dependence over the whole country, and enlarging the influence of the

crown, are too evidently of use to the minister for us to entertain any

hopes of his intention to relieve us.

Let it not be boasted that nine millions are paid, when a new debt of

seven millions appears to be contracted; nothing is more easy than to

clear debts by borrowing, or to borrow when a nation is mortgaged for

the payment.

But the weight of the present taxes, my lords, though heavier than was

perhaps ever supported by any nation for so long a time, taxes greater

than ever were paid, to purchase neither conquests nor honours, neither

to prevent invasions from abroad, nor to quell rebellions at home, is

not the most flagrant charge of this wonderful administration, which,

not contented with most exorbitant exactions, contrives to make them yet

more oppressive by tyrannical methods of collection. With what reason

the author of the excise scheme dreads the resentment of the nation is

sufficiently obvious; but surely, in a virtuous and benevolent mind, the

first sentiments that would have arisen on that occasion, would not have

been motions of anger, but of gratitude. A whole nation was condemned to

slavery, their remonstrances were neglected, their petitions ridiculed,

and their detestation of tyranny treated as disaffection to the

established government; and yet the author of this horrid scheme riots

in affluence, and triumphs in authority, and without fear, as without

shame, lifts up his head with confidence and security.

How much, my lords, is the forbearance of that people to be admired,

whom such attacks as these have not provoked to transgress the bounds of

their obedience, who have continued patiently to hope for legal methods

of redress, at a time when they saw themselves threatened with legal

slavery, when they saw the legislative power established only for their

protection, influenced by all possible methods of corruption to betray

them to the mercy of the ministry?

For, that corruption has found its way into one of the houses of the

legislature, is universally believed, and, without scruple, maintained

by every man in the nation, who is not evidently restrained from

speaking as he thinks; and that any man can even be of a different

opinion, that any man can even affirm that he thinks otherwise, would

be, in any other age, the subject of astonishment. That an immense

revenue is divided among the members of the other house, by known

salaries and publick employments, is apparent; that large sums are

privately scattered on pressing exigencies, that some late transactions

of the ministry were not confirmed but at a high price, the present

condition of the civil list, a civil list vastly superiour to all the

known expenses of the crown, makes highly probable. That the commons

themselves suspect the determinations of their assembly to be influenced

by some other motives than justice and truth, is evident from the bill

this day sent hither for our concurrence; and, surely, no aggravation

can be added to the crimes of that man who has patronised our enemies,

and given up our navigation, sunk his country into contempt abroad, and

into poverty at home, plundered the people, and corrupted the

legislature.

But, my lords, the minister has not only contributed, by his wickedness

or his ignorance, to the present calamities, but has applied all his art

and all his interest to remove from posts of honour and trust, to banish

from the court, and to exclude from the legislature all those whose

counsels might contribute to restore the publick affairs, without any

regard to the popularity of their characters, the usefulness of their

talents, or the importance of their past services to the crown. Had any

of these considerations prevailed, we had not seen the greatest general

in Britain dispossessed of all his preferments, dispossessed at a time

when we are at war with one nation, and in expectation of being attacked

by another far more powerful, which will, doubtless, be encouraged, by

his removal, to more daring contempt, and more vigorous measures.

What were the motives of this procedure it is easy to discover. As his

open defence of the present royal family in the late rebellion, exempts

him from the imputation of being disaffected to the crown, the only

crime with which he can be charged is disaffection to the minister.

Perhaps, my lords, the minister may have determined to have no need of

generals in his transactions with foreign powers; but in proportion as

he relies less upon the sword, he must depend more upon the arts of

peaceable negotiation, and, surely, there has been another person

dismissed from his employments, whose counsels it had been no reproach

to have asked, and to have followed.

The nature of my motion, my lords, makes it not necessary to produce

evidence of these facts, it is sufficient that any minister is

universally suspected; for when did an innocent man, supported by power,

and furnished with every advantage that could contribute to exalt or

preserve his character, incur the general hatred of the people? But if

it could ever happen by a combination of unlucky accidents, what could

be more for the happiness of himself, his master, and the nation, than

that he should retire and enjoy the consciousness of his own virtue.

His own interest, in such a retirement, I have already considered, and

that both of the prince and the people is no less apparent: while a

hated minister is employed, the king will always be distrusted by the

nation, and, surely, nothing can so much obstruct the publick happiness,

as a want of confidence in those who are intrusted with its

preservation.

That common fame is, in this case, sufficient, will not be questioned,

when it is considered that common fame is never without a foundation in

facts, that it may spread disquiet and suspicion over all the kingdom,

and that the satisfaction of millions is very cheaply purchased by the

degradation of one man, who was exalted only for their benefit.

The objection, that there is no sole minister, will create no greater

difficulty; if there be many concerned in these transactions,

_respondeat superior:_ but it is too apparent that there is, in reality,

one whose influence is greater than that of any other private man, and

who is arrived at a height not consistent with the nature of the British

government; it is uncontested that there is one man to whom the people

impute their miseries, and by whose removal they will be appeased.

The affairs of Europe, my lords, will probably be so much embarrassed,

and the struggles between the different designs of its princes be so

violent, that they will demand all our attention, and employ all our

address, and it will be to the highest degree dangerous to be distracted

at the same time with apprehensions of domestick troubles; yet, such is

the present unhappy state of this nation, and such is the general

discontent of the people, that tranquillity, adherence to the

government, and submission to the laws, cannot reasonably be hoped,

unless the motion I shall now take leave to make your lordships, be

complied with: and I move, "That an humble address be presented to his

majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech his majesty, that he will be

most graciously pleased to remove the right honourable sir Robert

WALPOLE, knight of the most noble order of the blue riband, first

commissioner of his majesty's treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer,

and one of his majesty's most honourable privy council, from his

majesty's presence and councils for ever."

He was seconded by lord ABINGDON in the following manner:--My lords, the

copiousness and perspicuity with which the noble lord has laid down the

reasons of his motion, make it neither easy nor necessary to enlarge

upon them. I shall, therefore, only offer to your lordships a few

thoughts upon the authority of common fame, as the evidence upon which

the motion is in part founded.

That all the miscarriages of our late measures are by common fame

imputed to one man, I suppose, will not be denied; nor can it, in my

opinion, be reasonably required, that in the present circumstances of

things any other proof should be brought against him.

Common fame, my lords, is admitted in courts of law as a kind of

auxiliary or supplemental evidence, and is allowed to corroborate the

cause which it appears to favour. The general regard which every wise

man has for his character, is a proof that in the estimation of all

mankind, the testimony of common fame is of too great importance to be

disregarded.

If we consider the nature of popular opinions on publick affairs, it

will be difficult to imagine by what means a persuasion not founded on

truth should universally take possession of a people; it will be yet

more difficult to believe that it should preserve its empire, and that

in opposition to every art that can be made use of to undeceive them,

they should pertinaciously adhere to an errour not imbibed in their

education, nor connected with their interest. And how has any man been

originally prejudiced against the present minister? Or what passion or

interest can any man gratify, by imagining or declaring his country on

the verge of ruin? The multitude, my lords, censure and praise without

dissimulation, nor were ever accused of disguising their sentiments;

their voice is, at least, the voice of honesty, and has been termed the

voice of heaven, by that party of which those affect to be thought whom

it now condemns.

Let it not be urged, that the people are easily deceived, that they

think and speak merely by caprice, and applaud or condemn without any

calm inquiry or settled determination; these censures are applicable

only to sudden tumults, and gusts of zeal excited by fallacious

appearances, or by the alarms of a false report industriously

disseminated, but have no relation to opinions gradually propagated, and

slowly received.

If the credulity of the people exposes them to so easy an admission of

every report, why have the writers for the minister found so little

credit? Why have all the loud declamations, and the laboured arguments,

the artful insinuations, and positive assertions, which have been for

many years circulated round the nation, at the expense of the

government, produced no effect upon the people, nor convinced any man,

who was not apparently bribed, to resign his private opinion to that of

his patrons? Whence comes it, my lords, that falsehood is more

successful than truth, and that the nation is inclined to complain

rather than to triumph? It is well known that the people have been

charged in all former ages, with being too much dazzled by the glitter

of fortune, and the splendour of success, and bestowing their applauses

not according to the degrees of merit, but prosperity. The minister, my

lords, has defeated his opponents in almost all their attempts; his

friends have sounded victory every session, and yet the people declare

against him; his adversaries have retired into the country with all the

vexation of disappointment, and have been rewarded for their

unsuccessful efforts with general acclamations. What is it, my lords,

but the power of truth, that can preserve the vanquished from ridicule,

and influence the nation to believe them the only patrons of their

commerce and liberty, in opposition to all the writers and voters for

the ministry?

If we consult history, my lords, how seldom do we find an innocent

minister overwhelmed with infamy? Innocent men have sometimes been

destroyed by the hasty fury, but scarcely ever by the settled hatred of

the populace. Even that fury has generally been kindled by real

grievances, though imputed to those who had no share in producing them;

but when the tempest of their first rage has subsided, they have seldom

refused to hear truth, and to distinguish the patriot from the

oppressor.

But though it should be acknowledged, my lords, that the people have

been blinded by false representations, and that some causes yet

undiscovered, some influence which never has been known to operate in

any state before, hinder them from beholding their own felicity; yet, as

publick happiness is the end of government, and no man can be happy that

thinks himself miserable, it is, in my opinion, necessary to the honour

of his majesty, and to the tranquillity of the nation, that your

lordships should agree to the present motion.

The duke of NEWCASTLE answered to this effect:--My lords, it is not

without wonder that I hear a motion so uncommon and important, a motion

which may be reasonably supposed to have been long premeditated, and of

which such affecting expectations have been raised, so weakly supported

by evidence. I cannot think that any other attestation is needful for

the vindication of the right honourable gentleman, whose conduct is this

day to be examined, than the declaration of the noble lord, that there

appears no positive evidence against him.

The pretence that no evidence can be expected while he continues in his

present station, is too openly fallacious to impose upon your lordships;

for why should his influence be greater, and his power less resistible

than that of other ministers, who are well known to have found accusers

in the height of their authority, and to have been dragged to punishment

almost from behind the throne?

It is sufficiently known, that during the continuance of this

administration, many have been dismissed from their employments, who

appear not altogether unaffected with the loss, and from whose

resentment a discovery of wicked measures might be reasonably expected,

as their acquaintance with the secrets of the government must have given

opportunities of detecting them. If, therefore, no particular crimes are

charged upon him, if his enemies confine themselves to obscure surmises,

and general declamations, we may reasonably conclude, that his behaviour

has been at least blameless. For what can be a higher encomium than the

silence of those who have made it the business of years to discover

something that might be alleged against him on the day of trial.

I suppose that no man can question the penetration of those noble lords

who have opened this debate, and I, my lords, shall be very far from

insinuating that cowardice suppresses any of their sentiments. As the

highest reproach that can be thrown upon any man, is to suggest that he

speaks what he does not think; the next degree of meanness would be to

think what he dares not speak, when the publick voice of his country

calls upon him.

When, therefore, popular reports are alleged as the foundation of the

address, it is probable that it is not founded, in reality, upon known

crimes or attested facts, and if the sudden blasts of fame may be

esteemed equivalent to attested accusations, what degree of virtue can

confer security?

That the clamour is so loud and so general as it is represented, I can

discover no necessity of admitting; but, however the populace may have

been exasperated against him, we are surely not to be influenced by

their complaints, without inquiring into the cause of them, and

informing ourselves whether they proceed from real hardships,

unnecessary severities, and calamities too heavy to be borne, or from

caprice, and inconstancy, idle rumours, and artful representations.

I very readily allow, my lords, that nothing has been left unattempted

that might fill the people with suspicion and discontent. That

inevitable calamities have been imputed to misconduct, or to treachery,

and even the inconstancy of the winds and severity of the weather

charged upon the right honourable gentleman, the daily libels that are

in every man's hand, are a standing evidence; and though I should grant

that the people never complain without cause, and that their burdens are

always heavy before they endeavour to shake them off, yet it will by no

means follow, that they do not sometimes mistake the cause of their

miseries, and impute their burdens to the cruelty of those whose utmost

application is employed to lighten them.

Common fame is, therefore, my lords, no sufficient ground for such a

censure as this, a censure that condemns a man long versed in high

employments, long honoured with the confidence of his sovereign, and

distinguished by the friendship of the most illustrious persons in the

nation, to infamy and contempt, unheard, and even unaccused; for he

against whom nothing is produced but general charges, supported by the

evidence of common fame, may be justly esteemed to be free from

accusation.

That other evidence will appear against him when he shall be reduced, in

consequence of our agreeing to this motion, to the level with his

fellow-subjects, that all informations are now precluded by the terrours

of resentment, or the expectations of favour, has been insinuated by the

noble lord, who made the motion: whether his insinuation be founded only

upon conjecture, whether it be one of those visions which are raised by

hope in a warm imagination, or upon any private informations

communicated to his lordship, I pretend not to determine; but if we may

judge from the known conduct of the opposition, if we consider their

frequent triumphs before the battle, and their chimerical schemes of

discoveries, or prosecutions and punishments, their constant assurance

of success upon the approach of a new contest, and their daily

predictions of the ruin of the administration, we cannot but suspect

that men so long accustomed to impose upon themselves, and flatter one

another with fallacious hopes, may now, likewise, be dreaming of

intelligence which they never will receive, and amusing themselves with

suspicions which they have no reasonable expectation of seeing

confirmed.

And to confess the truth, my lords, if I may be allowed, in imitation of

these patrons of their country, to indulge my own imagination, and

presume to look forward to the future conduct of those who have exerted

such unwearied industry in their attempts upon the administration, and

so long pursued the right honourable gentleman with inquiries,

examinations, rhetorick, and ridicule, I cannot but find myself inclined

to question whether, after their motion shall have been received in this

house, and their petition granted by his majesty, they will very

solicitously inquire after evidence, or be equally diligent in the

discovery of truth, as in the persecution of the minister.

I am afraid, my lords, that they will be too deeply engaged in the care

of making a dividend of the plunder in just proportions, to find leisure

for pursuit of the enemy, and that the sight of vacant posts, large

salaries, and extensive power, will revive some passions, which the love

of their country has not yet wholly extinguished, and leave in their

attention no room for deep reflections, and intricate inquiries. There

have formerly, my lords, been patriots, who, upon a sudden advancement

to a place of profit, have been immediately lulled into tranquillity,

learned to repose an implicit confidence in the ministers, forgotten to

harangue, threaten, inquire, and protest, and spent the remaining part

of their lives in the harmless amusement of counting their salaries,

perquisites, and gratuities.

How great, my lords, would be the disappointment of the people, that

unhappy people which has been long neglected and oppressed, which so

justly detests the minister, and calls so loudly for vengeance, when

they shall see their defenders remit the vigour of the pursuit, when

once the minister flies before them, and instead of driving him into

exile, contend about his places!

Unhappy then surely, my lords, would the nation be: the administration,

we are told, is already universally abhorred, and its hope is only in

the opposition; but should the zeal of the patriots once grow cold,

should they discover to the publick, that they have been labouring not

for general liberty, but for private advantage; that they were enemies

to power only because it was not in their hands; and disapproved the

measures of the government only because they were not consulted; how

inevitably must the people then sink into despair; how certain must they

then imagine their destruction?

It seems, therefore, my lords, equally prudent and just to reject this

motion, till better proof shall be brought to support it; lest, by

complying with it, we should heighten rather than appease the discontent

of the people; lest we should too soon deprive them of their only

consolation, and expose the patriots to censure, without vindicating the

ministry.

In my opinion, my lords, all who have approved the conduct of the

present ministry, must necessarily join in rejecting the motion, as

cruel and unequitable, and incline to support a just, and continue a

wise administration; and all those whom the restless clamours of the

opposite party have persuaded to regard them as arbitrary, corrupt, and

perfidious, must, if they are true friends to their country, and steady

exacters of justice, resolve to defer their compliance, in order to

bring to light the evidences necessary for a legal conviction, and

severer punishment.

That these evidences will never be found, and that, therefore, no legal

punishment will ever be inflicted, we may reasonably collect from the

injustice of the laboured charge which your lordships have now heard; a

charge drawn up with all the assistance of senatorial and political

knowledge, and displayed with all the power of eloquence, a collection

of every occurrence for many years, of which any circumstance could be

shown in an unfavourable light, and a recapitulation of all the measures

which have miscarried by unforeseen events, or which the populace have

been persuaded to dislike.

In the administration of governments, my lords, many measures reasonable

and just, planned out in pursuance of a very exact knowledge of the

state of things then present, and very probable conjectures concerning

future events, have yet failed to produce the success which was

expected; they have been sometimes defeated by the inconstancy or

dishonesty of those who are equally engaged in them, and sometimes

frustrated by accidents, of which only providence has the disposal. It

will even be allowed, my lords, that the ministry have been sometimes

mistaken in their conjectures, and, perhaps, deceived by their

intelligence, but I will presume to say, it never will be discovered

that they willingly betrayed, or heedlessly neglected their trust, that

they ever oppressed their country with unnecessary burdens, or exposed

it to be insulted by foreign powers. Nor will it, perhaps, be found that

they ever appeared grossly ignorant of the publick interest, or failed

to discover any obvious truth, or foresee any probable contingencies.

But, my lords, I am willing to confess that they cannot judge of events

to come with such unerring and demonstrative knowledge as their

opponents can obtain of them after they have happened; and they are

inclined to pay all necessary deference to the great sagacity of those

wonderful prognosticators, who can so exactly _foresee_ the _past_. They

only hope, my lords, that you will consider how much harder their task

is than that of their enemies; they are obliged to determine very often

upon doubtful intelligence, and an obscure view of the designs and

inclinations of the neighbouring powers; and as their informers may be

either treacherous or mistaken, and the interests of other states are

subject to alterations, they may be sometimes deceived and disappointed.

But their opponents, my lords, are exempt, by their employment, from the

laborious task of searching into futurity, and collecting their

resolutions, from a long comparison of dark hints and minute

circumstances. Their business is not to lead or show the way, but to

follow at a distance, and ridicule the perplexity, and aggravate the

mistakes of their guides. They are only to wait for consequences, which,

if they are prosperous, they misrepresent as not intended, or pass over

in silence, and are glad to hide them from the notice of mankind. But if

any miscarriages arise, their penetration immediately awakes, they see,

at the first glance, the fatal source of all our miseries, they are

astonished at such a concatenation of blunders, and alarmed with the

most distracting apprehensions of the danger of their country.

Accusation of political measures is an easy province; easy, my lords, in

the same proportion as the administration of affairs is difficult; for

where there are difficulties there will be some mistakes; and where

there are mistakes, there will be occasions of triumph, to the factious

and the disappointed. But the justice of your lordships will certainly

distinguish between errours and crimes, and between errours of weakness

and inability, and such as are only discoverable by consequences.

I may add, my lords, that your wisdom will easily find the difference

between the degree of capacity requisite for recollecting the past, and

foreknowing the future; and expect that those whose ambition incites

them to endeavour after a share in the government of their country,

should give better proofs of their qualifications for that high trust,

than mere specimens of their memory, their rhetorick, or their malice.

Even the noble lord, who must be confessed to have shown a very

extensive acquaintance with foreign affairs, and to have very accurately

considered the interests and dispositions of the princes of Europe, has

yet failed in the order of time, and by one errour very much invalidated

his charge of misconduct in foreign affairs.

The treaty of Vienna, my lords, was not produced by the rejection of the

infanta, unless a treaty that was made before it could be the

consequence of it; so that there was no such opportunity thrown into our

hands as the noble lord has been pleased to represent. Spain had

discovered herself our enemy, and our enemy in the highest degree,

before the French provoked her by that insult; and, therefore, how much

soever she might be enraged against France, there was no prospect that

she would favour us, nor could we have courted her alliance without the

lowest degree of meanness and dishonour.

See then, my lords, this atrocious accusation founded upon false dates,

upon a preposterous arrangement of occurrences; behold it vanish into

smoke at the approach of truth, and let this instance convince us how

easy it is to form chimerical blunders, and impute gross follies to the

wisest administration; how easy it is to charge others with mistakes and

how difficult to avoid them.

But we are told, my lords, that the dangers of the confederacy at Vienna

were merely imaginary, that no contract was made to the disadvantage of

our dominions, or of our commerce, and that if the weakness of the

Spaniards and Germans had contrived such a scheme, it would soon have

been discovered by them to be an airy dream, a plan impossible to be

reduced to execution.

We have been amused, my lords, on this occasion with great profusion of

mirth and ridicule, and have received the consolation of hearing that

Britain is an island, and that an island is not to be invaded without

ships. We have been informed of the nature of the king's territories,

and of the natural strength of the fortress of Gibraltar; but the noble

lord forgot that though Britain has no dominions on the continent, yet

our sovereign has there a very extensive country, which, though we are

not to make war for the sake of strengthening or enlarging it, we are,

surely, to defend when we have drawn an invasion upon it.

The weakness of the Spaniards, my lords, has been also much enlarged

upon, but the strength of the jacobites at home has been passed over in

silence, though it is apparent how easily the pretender might have

landed here, and with what warmth his cause would have been espoused,

not only by those whose religion avowed and professed makes them the

enemies of the present royal family, but by many whom prospects of

interest, the love of novelty, and rage of disappointment, might have

inclined to a change.

That no such stipulations were made by that treaty, that no injury was

intended to our commerce, nor any invasion proposed in favour of the

pretender, are very bold assertions, and though they could be supported

by all the evidence that negatives admit of, yet will not easily be

believed by your lordships, in opposition to the solemn assurances of

his late majesty. It is evident, from this instance, how much prejudice

prevails over argument; they are ready to condemn the right honourable

gentleman to whom they give the title of sole minister, upon the

suffrage of common fame, yet will not acquit him upon the testimony of

the king himself.

But, my lords, the arguments alleged to prove the improbability of such

a confederacy, are so weak in themselves, that they require no such

illustrious evidence to overbalance them. For upon what are they

founded, but upon the impossibility of executing such designs?

It is well known, my lords, how differently different parties consider

the same cause, the same designs, and the same state of affairs. Every

man is partial in favour of his own equity, strength, and sagacity. Who

can show that the same false opinion of their own power, and of our

intestine divisions, which now prompts the Spaniards to contend with us,

might not then incite them to invade us, or at least to countenance the

attempts of one, whom they are industriously taught to believe the

greatest part of the nation is ready to receive?

That they might have injured our trade is too evident from our present

experience, and that they would have supported the Ostend company, which

they espoused in an open manner, is undeniable. Nor is it in the least

unlikely, that, elated with the certain power of doing much mischief,

and with the imaginary prospects of far greater effects, they might

engage in a confederacy, and farther attempts against us.

I am far from imagining, my lords, that it was in the power of the

Germans and Spaniards united to force the pretender upon us, though we

had stood alone against them; but the impossibility of succeeding in

their design was not then so apparent to them as it is at present to us;

they had many reasons to wish, and therefore would not be long without

some to believe it practicable; and it was not the danger but the insult

that determined his late majesty to enter into an alliance with France.

War, my lords, is always to be avoided, if the possessions and

reputation of a people can be preserved without it; it was, therefore,

more eligible to oblige them to lay aside their scheme while it was yet

only in idea, than to defeat it in its execution. And an alliance with

France effectually restrained the emperour, as our fleets in America

reduced the Spaniards to desire peace.

Why we did not seize the cargo of the galleons, has been often asked,

and as often such answers have been returned as ought to satisfy any

rational examiner. We did not seize them, my lords, because a larger

part belonged to other nations than to the Spaniards, and because the

interests of our trade made it convenient not to exasperate the

Spaniards, so far as to render a reconciliation very difficult.

In the terms of this reconciliation, my lords, it is charged upon the

ministry, that they were guilty of contributing to the power of the

house of Bourbon, by stipulating that Spain, instead of neutral troops,

should be introduced into Italy. That those troops were less agreeable

to the emperour cannot be denied, but it has already been shown how

little reason we had to consult his satisfaction; and with regard to the

advantages gained by the French and Spaniards in the late war, a very

small part of them can be ascribed to six thousand troops.

With as little reason, my lords, is the charge advanced of neglecting to

preserve the balance of Europe, by declining to assist the emperour

against the French; for the intention of the war seems to have been

rather revenge than conquest, and the emperour rather exchanged than

lost his dominions.

That we declined engaging too far in the affairs of the continent,

proceeded, my lords, from a regard to the trade of the nation, which is

not only suspended and interrupted during the time of war, but often

thrown into another channel, out of which it is the business of many

years to recover it.

Nor have the ministry, my lords, deviated from their regard to trade, in

their transactions with Spain, which have been the subject of so much

clamour, and such pathetick declamations; they always knew what the

nation now feels, that the merchants would suffer much more from a war

than from piracies and depredations, which, however, they were far from

submitting to, and for which they constantly made demands of

satisfaction. To these demands they received such answers, as, if they

had been sincere, would have left the nation no room to complain; but

when it was discovered that nothing but verbal satisfaction was to be

expected, the security of our trade, and the honour of our country,

demanded that war should be declared.

The conduct of the war, my lords, has been frequently the subject of

censure; we are told of the inactivity of one fleet, and the imperfect

equipment of another, the escape of our enemies, and the interception of

our trading ships. War, my lords, is confessed to be uncertain, and ill

success is not always the consequence of bad measures: naval wars are by

the nature of the element on which they are to be conducted, more

uncertain than any other; so that, though it cannot but be suspected

that the common people will murmur at any disappointment, call every

misfortune a crime, and think themselves betrayed by the ministry, if

Spain is not reduced in a single summer, it might be reasonably hoped,

that men enlightened by a long familiarity with the accounts of past,

and instructed by personal experience in national transactions, will

produce stronger arguments than want of success, when they charge the

ministry with misconduct in war.

But, my lords, they have not any misfortunes to complain of; nor is the

accusation, that we have been defeated ourselves, but that we have not

enough molested our enemies. Of this, my lords, it is not easy to judge,

at a distance from the scene of action, and without a more accurate

knowledge of a thousand minute circumstances, which may promote or

retard a naval expedition. It is undoubtedly true, my lords, that many

of our merchant ships have been taken by the enemy; but it is not

certain that they do not murmur equally that they have been obstructed

in their commerce, and have been so little able to interrupt ours, since

they have so many advantages from the situation of their coasts. When we

reckon those that are lost, let us not forget to number those that have

escaped. If admiral Vernon's fleet was ill provided with arms and

ammunition, even then, let all censure be suspended till it can be

proved that it was ill furnished by the fault of the ministry.

Nothing is more common, my lords, in all naval wars, than sudden changes

of fortune; for on many occasions an accidental gust of wind, or

unexpected darkness of the weather, may destroy or preserve a fleet from

destruction, or may make the most formidable armaments absolutely

useless; and in the present disposition of some people towards the

ministry, I should not wonder to hear an alteration of wind charged upon

them.

For what objections may they not expect, my lords, when all the

disadvantages which the nation suffers from the enemies of his majesty,

are imputed to them; when daily endeavours are used to make them

suspected of favouring arbitrary power, for maintaining an army which

nothing has made necessary but the struggles of those men whose

principles have no other tendency than to enslave their country. Let not

our domestick animosities be kept alive and fomented by a constant

opposition to every design of the administration, nor our foreign

enemies incited by the observation of our divisions, to treat us with

insolence, interrupt our trade, prescribe bounds to our dominions, and

threaten us with invasions--and the army may safely be disbanded.

For the ministry, my lords, are not conscious of having consulted any

thing but the happiness of the nation, and have, therefore, no

apprehensions of publick resentment, nor want the protection of an armed

force. They desire only the support of the laws, and to them they

willingly appeal from common fame and unequitable charges.

I mention the ministry, my lords, because I am unacquainted with any man

who either claims or possesses the power or title of sole minister. I

own, in my province, no superiour but his majesty, and am willing and

ready to answer any charge which relates to that part of the publick

business which I have had the honour to transact or direct.

A great part of what I have now offered was, therefore, no otherwise

necessary on the present occasion, than because silence might have

appeared like a consciousness of misconduct, and have afforded a new

subject of airy triumph to the enemies of the administration; for very

few of the transactions which have been so severely censured, fell under

the particular inspection of the right honourable gentleman against whom

the motion is levelled; he was not otherwise concerned in counselling or

in ratifying, than as one of his majesty's privy council; and,

therefore, though they should be defective, I do not see how it is

reasonable or just, that he should be singled out from the rest for

disgrace or punishment.

The motion, therefore, my lords, appears to me neither founded on facts,

nor law, nor reason, nor any better grounds than popular caprice, and

private malevolence.

If it is contrary to law to punish without proof; if it is not agreeable

to reason that one should be censured for the offences of another; if it

is necessary that some crime should be proved before any man can suffer

as a criminal, then, my lords, I am convinced that your lordships will

be unanimous in rejecting the motion.

The duke of ARGYLE spoke next, as follows:--My lords, if we will

obstinately shut our eyes against the light of conviction; if we will

resolutely admit every degree of evidence that contributes to support

the cause which we are inclined to favour, and to reject the plainest

proofs when they are produced against it, to reason and debate is to

little purpose: as no innocence can be safe that has incurred the

displeasure of partial judges, so no criminal that has the happiness of

being favoured by them, can ever be in danger.

That any lord has already determined how to vote on the present

occasion, far be it from me to assert: may it never, my lords, be

suspected that private interest, blind adherence to a party, personal

kindness or malevolence, or any other motive than a sincere and

unmingled regard for the prosperity of our country, influences the

decisions of this assembly; for it is well known, my lords, that

authority is founded on opinion; when once we lose the esteem of the

publick, our votes, while we shall be allowed to give them, will be only

empty sounds, to which no other regard will be paid than a standing army

shall enforce.

The veneration of the people, my lords, will not easily be lost: this

house has a kind of hereditary claim to their confidence and respect;

the great actions of our ancestors are remembered, and contribute to the

reputation of their successours; nor do our countrymen willingly suspect

that they can be betrayed by the descendants of those, by whose bravery

and counsels they have been rescued from destruction.

But esteem must languish, and confidence decline, unless they are

renewed and reanimated by new acts of beneficence; and the higher

expectations the nation may have formed of our penetration to discover

its real advantages, and of our steadiness to pursue them, the more

violent will be its resentment, if it shall appear, on this important

question, that we are either ignorant or timorous, that we are

unconcerned at the miseries of the people, or content ourselves with

pitying what our ancestors never failed to redress.

Let us, therefore, my lords, for our own interest, attend impartially to

the voice of the people; let us hear their complaints with tenderness,

and if, at last, we reject them, let it be evident that they were

impartially heard, and that we only differed from them because we were

not convinced.

Even then, my lords, we shall suffer, for some time, under the suspicion

of crimes, from which I hope we shall always be free; the people will

imagine that we were influenced by those whose interest it appears to

continue their miseries, and, my lords, all the consolation that will be

left us, must arise from the consciousness of having done our duty.

But, my lords, this is to suppose what I believe no history can furnish

an example of; it is to conceive that we may inquire diligently after

the true state of national affairs, and yet not discover it, or not be

able to prove it by such evidence as may satisfy the people.

The people, my lords, however they are misrepresented by those who, from

a long practice of treating them with disregard, have learned to think

and speak of them with contempt, are far from being easily deceived, and

yet farther from being easily deceived into an opinion of their own

unhappiness: we have some instances of general satisfaction, and an

unshaken affection to the government, in times when the publick good has

not been very diligently consulted, but scarcely any of perpetual

murmurs and universal discontent, where there have been plain evidences

of oppression, negligence, or treachery.

Let us not, therefore, my lords, think of the people as of a herd to be

led or driven at pleasure, as wretches whose opinions are founded upon

the authority of seditious scribblers, or upon any other than that of

reason and experience; let us not suffer them to be at once oppressed

and ridiculed, nor encourage, by our example, the wretched advocates for

those whom they consider as their enemies, nor represent them as

imputing to the misconduct of the ministry the late contrariety of the

winds, and severity of the winter.

The people, my lords, if they are mistaken in their charge, are mistaken

with such evidence on their side, as never misled any nation before; not

only their reason but their senses must have betrayed them; and those

marks of certainty that have hitherto established truth, must have

combined in the support of falsehood.

They are persuaded, my lords, too firmly persuaded, to yield up their

opinions to rhetorick, or to votes, or any proof but demonstration, that

there is a _first_, or, to speak in the language of the nation, a _sole_

minister, one that has the possession of his sovereign's confidence, and

the power of excluding others from his presence, one that exalts and

degrades at his pleasure, and distributes, for his own purposes, the

revenues of his master, and the treasure of the nation.

Of this, my lords, can it be maintained that they have no proof? Can

this be termed a chimerical suspicion, which nothing can be produced to

support? How can power appear but by the exercise of it? What can prove

any degree of influence or authority, but universal submission and

acknowledgment? And surely, my lords, a very transient survey of the

court and its dependents, must afford sufficient conviction, that this

man is considered by all that are engaged in the administration, as the

only disposer of honours, favours, and employments.

Attend to any man, my lords, who has lately been preferred, rewarded, or

caressed, you will hear no expressions of gratitude but to that _man_;

no other benefactor is ever heard of, the royal bounty itself is

forgotten and unmentioned, nor is any return of loyalty, fidelity, or

adherence professed, but to the minister; the minister! a term which,

however lately introduced, is now in use in every place in the kingdom,

except this house.

Preferments, my lords, whether civil, ecclesiastical, or military, are

either wholly in his hands, or those who make it the business of their

lives to discover the high road to promotion, are universally deceived,

and are daily offering their adorations to an empty phantom that has

nothing to bestow; for, no sooner is any man infected with avarice or

ambition, no sooner is extravagance reduced to beg new supplies from the

publick, or wickedness obliged to seek for shelter, than this man is

applied to, and honour, conscience, and fortune offered at his feet.

Did either those whose studies and station give them a claim to

advancement in the church, or those whose bravery and long service

entitle them to more honourable posts in the army; did either those who

profess to understand the laws of their own country, or they who declare

themselves versed in the interests and transactions of foreign powers,

apply to any other man for promotion or employment, he might then,

indeed, be called the _chief_, but not properly the _sole_ minister.

But it is well known, my lords; many of us know it too well, that

whatever be the profession or the abilities of any person, there is no

hope of encouragement or reward by any other method than that of

application to this man, that he shall certainly be disappointed who

shall attempt to rise by any other interest, and whoever shall dare to

depend on his honesty, bravery, diligence, or capacity, or to boast any

other merit than that of implicit adherence to his measures, shall

inevitably lie neglected and obscure.

For this reason, my lords, every one whose calmness of temper can enable

him to support the sight, without starts of indignation and sallies of

contempt, may daily see at the levee of this great man, what I am

ashamed to mention, a mixture of men of all ranks and all professions,

of men whose birth and titles ought to exalt them above the meanness of

cringing to a mere child of fortune, men whose studies ought to have

taught them, that true honour is only to be gained by steady virtue, and

that all other arts, all the low applications of flattery and servility

will terminate in contempt, disappointment, and remorse.

This scene, my lords, is daily to be viewed, it is ostentatiously

displayed to the sight of mankind, the minister amuses himself in

publick with the splendour, and number, and dignity of his slaves; and

his slaves with no more shame pay their prostrations to their master in

the face of day, and boast of their resolutions to gratify and support

him. And yet, my lords, it is inquired why the people assert that there

is a _sole_ minister?

Those who deny, my lords, that there is a _sole_ minister to whom the

miscarriages of the government may justly be imputed, may easily

persuade themselves to believe that there have been no miscarriages,

that all the measures were necessary, and well formed, that there is

neither poverty nor oppression felt in the nation, that our compliance

with France was no weakness, and that our dread of the treaty of Vienna

was not chimerical.