ON A MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE CONDUCT OF AFFAIRS AT HOME AND
ABROAD, DURING THE LAST TWENTY YEARS.
Lord LIMERICK rose, and spoke in the following manner:--Sir, as I am
about to offer to the house a motion of the highest importance to the
honour and happiness of our country, to the preservation of our
privileges, and the continuance of our constitution, I make no doubt of
a candid attention from this assembly, and hope for such a determination
as shall be the result not of external influence, but of real
conviction.
I cannot but congratulate myself and all lovers of their country, that
we are arrived at a time, in which such hopes may be rationally
indulged, that we shall soon see the triumph of liberty, and the
renovation of senatorial freedom. It is not without the highest
satisfaction, that I find my life protracted to that happy day, in which
the yoke of dependence has been shaken off, and the shackles of
oppression have been broken; in which truth and justice have once more
raised up their heads, and obtained that regard which had so long been
paid to splendid wickedness and successful rapine.
The time is now past, in which it was meritorious to harden the heart
against pity, and the forehead against shame; to plunder the people by
needless taxes, and insult them by displaying their spoils before their
eyes, in luxurious riot, and boundless magnificence; when the certain
method of obtaining what the greatest part, even of good men, cannot but
sometimes wish to acquire, interest, affluence, and honour, was an
implicit resignation to authority, a desertion of all principles,
defiance of all censure, and an open declaration against any other
motives of action, than the sole pleasure of an arbitrary minister.
It is now, sir, no longer considered as an instance of disaffection to
the government, to represent the miseries and declare the opinions of
the people; to propose their interest as the great basis of government,
the general end of society, and the parent of law. It is now no longer
criminal to affirm, that they have a right to complain when they are, in
their own opinion, injured, and to be heard when they complain. It may
now be with safety asserted, that those who swell with the pride of
office, and glitter with the magnificence of a court, however they may
display their affluence, or boast their titles; with whatever contempt
they may have learned of late to look upon their fellow-subjects, who
have no possessions but what they have obtained by their industry, nor
any honours but what are voluntarily paid to their understanding and
their virtue; with whatever authority they may dictate to their
dependants, or whatever reverence they may exact from a long
subordination of hirelings, are, amidst all their pomp and influence,
only the servants of the people, intrusted by them with the
administration of their affairs, and accountable to them for the abuse
of trust.
That trusts of the highest importance have been long abused, that the
servants of the people, having long thought themselves out of the reach
of justice, and above examination, have very ill discharged the offices
in which they have been engaged, that the publick advantage has been
wholly disregarded, that treaties have been concluded without any regard
to the interest of Britain, and that our foreign and domestick affairs
have been managed with equal ignorance, negligence, or wickedness, the
present state of Europe, and the calamities of this country, will
sufficiently inform us.
If we survey the condition of foreign nations, we shall find, that the
power and dominions of the family of Bourbon, a family which has never
had any other designs than the extirpation of true religion, and the
universal slavery of mankind, have been daily increased. We shall find
that they have increased by the declension of the house of Austria,
which treaties and our interest engage us to support.
But had their acquisitions been made only by the force of arms, had they
grown stronger only by victories, and more wealthy only by plunder, our
ministers might, with some appearance of reason, have imputed their
success to accident, and informed us, that we gained, in the mean time,
a sufficient counterbalance to those advantages, by an uninterrupted
commerce, and by the felicity of peace; peace, which, in every nation,
has been found to produce affluence, and of which the wisest men have
thought that it could scarcely be too dearly purchased.
But peace has, in this nation, by the wonderful artifices of our
ministers, been the parent of poverty and misery; we have been so far
from finding our commerce extended by it, that we have enjoyed it only
by a contemptible patience of the most open depredations, by a long
connivance at piracy, and by a continued submission to insults, which no
other nation would have borne.
We have been so far from seeing any part of our taxes remitted, that we
have been loaded with more rigorous exactions to support the expenses of
peace, than were found necessary to defray the charges of a war against
those, whose opulence and power had incited them to aspire to the
dominion of the world.
How these taxes have been employed, and why our trade has been
neglected, why our allies have been betrayed, and why the ancient
enemies of our country have been suffered to grow powerful by our
connivances, it is now time to examine; and therefore I move, that a
committee be appointed to inquire into the conduct of affairs at home
and abroad during the last twenty years.
Sir John ST. AUBIN then spoke as follows:--Sir, I rise up to second this
motion; and, as the noble lord has opened it in so full and proper a
manner, and as I do not doubt but that other gentlemen are ready to
support it, more practised in speaking, of greater abilities and
authority than myself, I am the less anxious about the injury it may
receive from the part I bear in it. I think the proposition is so
evident, that it wants no enforcement; it comes to you from the voice of
the nation, which, thank God, has at last found admittance within these
walls.
Innocence is of so delicate a nature, that it cannot bear suspicion, and
therefore will desire inquiry; because it will always be justified by
it. Guilt, from its own consciousness, will use subterfuges, and fly to
concealment; and the more righteous and authoritative the inquiry, the
more it will be avoided; because the greater will be the dread of
punishment.
In private life, I am contented with men's virtues only, without seeking
for opportunities of blame. In a publick character, when national
grievances cry aloud for inquiry and justice, it is our duty to pursue
all the footsteps of guilt; and the loud, the pathetick appeal of my
constituents, is more forcibly persuasive than any motive of private
tenderness. This appeal is not the clamour of faction, artfully raised
to disturb the operation of government, violent for a while, and soon to
be appeased. It is the complaint of long and patient sufferings, a
complaint not to be silenced; and which all endeavours to suppress it,
would only make more importunate and clamorous. It is the solemn appeal
of the whole people, of the united body of our constituents, in this
time of national calamity, earnestly beseeching you, in a legal
parliamentary way, to redress their grievances, to revive your ancient
right of inquiry, to explore the most remote and hidden sources of
iniquity, to detect the bold authors of their distress, that they may be
made examples of national justice.
It is to you they appeal, the true, the genuine representatives of the
people. Not like former parliaments, an instrument of state, the
property of a minister, purchased by the missionaries of corruption, who
have been dispersed through the kingdom, and furnished with the publick
money to invade all natural interest, by poisoning the morals of the
people. Upon this rotten foundation has been erected a towering fabrick
of corruption: a most dangerous conspiracy has been carried on against
the very essence of our constitution, a formidable system of ministerial
power has been formed, fallaciously assuming, under constitutional
appearances, the name of legal government.
In this system we have seen the several offices of administration meanly
resolving themselves under the direction and control of one man: while
this scheme was pursued, the nation has been ingloriously patient of
foreign indignities; our trade has been most shamefully neglected, or
basely betrayed; a war with an impotent enemy, most amply provided for,
unsuccessfully carried on; the faith of treaties broke; our natural
allies deserted, and weakened even by that power, which we now dread for
want of their assistance.
It is not the bare removal from office that will satisfy the nation,
especially if such removal is dignified with the highest marks of royal
favour. This only gives mankind a reasonable fear that his majesty has
rather condescended to the importunities, than adopted the opinion of
his people. It is, indeed, a most gracious condescension, a very high
instance of his majesty's just intentions to remove any of his servants
upon national suspicion; but it will give his majesty a most
unfavourable opinion of his people, if he is not satisfied that this
suspicion was just. It is the unfortunate situation of arbitrary kings,
that they know the sentiments of their people only from whisperers in
their closet. Our monarchy has securer establishments. Our sovereign is
always sure of knowing the true sense of his people, because he may see
it through the proper, the constitutional medium: but then this medium
must be pure, it must transmit every object in its real form and its
natural colours. This is all that is now contended for. You are called
to the exercise of your just right of inquiry, that his majesty may see
what reason there is for this general inquietude.
This motion is of a general nature; whom it may more particularly
affect, I shall not determine. But there is a great person, lately at
the head of the administration, who stands foremost, the principal
object of national suspicion. He surely will not decline this inquiry,
it is his own proposition; he has frequently, in the name of the whole
administration, thrown down his gauntlet here; has desired your
inquiries, and has rested his fate on your justice. The nation accepts
the challenge, they join issue with him, they are now desirous to bring
this great cause in judgment before you.
It must be imputed to the long intermission of this right of inquiry,
that the people have now this cause of complaint; had the administration
of this great person been submitted to the constitutional controls, had
his conduct undergone strict and frequent inquiries, he had parts and
abilities to have done great honour and service to this country. But the
will, uncontrouled, for ever must and will produce security and
wantonness; nor can moderation and despotick power subsist long
together.
In vain do we admire the outlines of our constitution, in vain do we
boast of those wise and salutary restraints, which our ancestors, at the
expense of their blood and treasure, have wisely imposed upon monarchy
itself, if it is to be a constitution in theory only, if this evasive
doctrine is to be admitted, that a fellow-subject of our own, perhaps of
the lowest rank among us, may be delegated by the crown to exercise the
administration of government, with absolute, uncontroulable dominion
over us; which must be the case, if ministerial conduct is not liable to
parliamentary inquiries.
If I did not think this motion agreeable to the rules and proceedings of
the senate; if I thought it was meant to introduce any procedure which
was not strictly consonant to the laws and constitution of my country, I
do most solemnly protest I would be against, it. But as I apprehend it
to arise from the nature and spirit of our constitution, as it will
defend the innocent, and can be detrimental only to the guilty, I do
most heartily second the motion.
The hon. Henry PELHAM opposed the motion to the following effect:--Sir,
if it was not daily to be observed, how much the minds of the wisest and
most moderate men are elated with success, and how often those, who have
been able to surmount the strongest obstacles with unwearied diligence,
and to preserve their fortitude unshaken amidst hourly disappointments,
have been betrayed by slight advantages into indecent exultations,
unreasonable confidence, and chimerical hopes; had I not long remarked
the infatuation of prosperity, and the pride of triumph, I should not
have heard the motion which has been now made without, astonishment.
It has been long the business or the amusement of the gentlemen, who,
having for some time conferred upon themselves the venerable titles of
patriots, advocates for the people, and defenders of the constitution,
have at length persuaded part of the nation to dignify them with the
same appellation, to display in the most pathetick language, and
aggravate with the most hyperbolical exaggerations, the wantonness with
which the late ministry exercised their power, the exorbitance of their
demands, and the violence of their measures. They have indulged their
imaginations, which have always been sufficiently fruitful in satire and
invective, by representing them as men in whom all regard to decency or
reputation was extinguished, men who no longer submitted to wear the
mask of hypocrisy, or thought the esteem of mankind worth their care;
who had ceased to profess any regard to the welfare of their country, or
any desire of advancing the publick happiness; and who no longer desired
any other effects of their power, than the security of themselves and
the conquest of their opponents.
Such, sir, has been the character of the ministry, which, by the
incessant endeavours of these disinterested patriots, has been carried
to the remotest corners of the empire, and disseminated through all the
degrees of the people. Every man, whom they could enlist among their
pupils, whom they could persuade to see with their eyes, rather than his
own, and who was not so stubborn as to require proofs of their
assertions, and reasons of their conduct; every man who, having no
sentiments of his own, hoped to become important by echoing those of his
instructors, was taught to think and to say, that the court was filled
with open corruption; that the greatest and the wisest men of the
kingdom set themselves publickly to sale, and held an open traffick for
votes and places; that whoever engaged in the party of the minister,
declared himself ready to support his cause against truth, and reason,
and conviction, and was no longer under the restraint of shame or
virtue.
These assertions, hardy as they were, they endeavoured to support by
instances of measures, which they described as having no other tendency,
than to advance the court to absolute authority, to enslave the nation,
or to betray it: and more happily would they have propagated their
system, and much sooner would they have obtained a general declaration
of the people in their favour, had they been able to have produced a
motion like this.
Should the influence of these men increase, should they grow secure in
the possession of their power, by any new methods of deluding the
people, what wonderful expedients, what unheard-of methods of government
may not be expected from them? What degrees of violence may they not be
supposed to practise, who have flushed their new authority by a motion
which was never projected since the first existence of our government,
or offered by the most arbitrary minister in all the confidence of an
established majority.
It may, perhaps, be imagined by many of those who are unacquainted with
senatorial affairs, as many of the members of this house may without any
reproach be supposed to be, that I have made use of those arts against
the patriots which they have so long practised against the court; that I
have exaggerated the enormity of the motion by unjust comparisons, or
rhetorical flights; and that there will be neither danger nor
inconvenience in complying with it to any but those who have betrayed
their trust, or neglected their duty.
I doubt not, but many of those with whom this motion has been concerted,
have approved it without seeing all its consequences; and have been
betrayed into that approbation by a laudable zeal for their country, and
an honest indignation against corruption and treachery, by a virtuous
desire of detecting wickedness, and of securing our constitution from
any future dangers or attacks.
For the sake, therefore, of these gentlemen, whom I cannot but suppose
willing to follow the dictates of their own consciences, and to act upon
just motives, I shall endeavour to lay open the nature of this
extraordinary motion, and doubt not but that when they find it, as it
will unquestionably appear, unreasonable in itself, and dangerous to
posterity, they will change their opinion for the same reasons as they
embraced it, and prefer the happiness of their country to the prosperity
of their party.
Against an inquiry into the conduct of all foreign and domestick affairs
for _twenty_ years past, it is no weak argument that it is without
precedent; that neither the zeal of patriotism, nor the rage of faction,
ever produced such a motion in any former age. It cannot be doubted by
those who have read our histories, that formerly our country has
produced men equally desirous of detecting wickedness, and securing
liberty, with those who are now congratulating their constituents on the
success of their labours; and that faction has swelled in former times
to a height, at which it may reasonably be hoped it will never arrive
again, is too evident to be controverted.
What then can we suppose was the reason, that neither indignation, nor
integrity, nor resentment, ever before directed a motion like this? Was
it not, because it neither will serve the purposes of honesty, nor
wickedness; that it would have defeated the designs of good, and
betrayed those of bad men; that it would have given patriotism an
appearance of faction, rather than have vested faction with the disguise
of patriotism.
It cannot be supposed, that the sagacity of these gentlemen, however
great, has enabled them to discover a method of proceeding which escaped
the penetration of our ancestors, so long celebrated for the strength of
their understanding, and the extent of their knowledge. For it is
evident, that without any uncommon effort of the intellectual faculties,
he that proposes an inquiry for a year past, might have made the same
proposal with regard to a longer time; and it is therefore probable,
that the limitation of the term is the effect of his knowledge, rather
than of his ignorance.
And, indeed, the absurdity of an universal inquiry for twenty years past
is such, that no man, whose station has given him opportunities of being
acquainted with publick business, could have proposed it, had he not
been misled by the vehemence of resentment, or biassed by the secret
operation of some motives different from publick good; for it is no less
than a proposal for an attempt impossible to be executed, and of which
the execution, if it could be effected would be detrimental to the
publick.
Were our nation, sir, like some of the inland kingdoms of the continent,
or the barbarous empire of Japan, without commerce, without alliances,
without taxes, and without competition with other nations; did we depend
only on the product of our own soil to support us, and the strength of
our own arms to defend us, without any intercourse with distant empire,
or any solicitude about foreign affairs, were the same measures
uniformly pursued, the government supported by the same revenues, and
administered with the same views, it might not be impracticable to
examine the conduct of affairs, both foreign and domestick, for twenty
years; because every year would afford only a transcript of the accounts
of the last.
But how different is the state of Britain, a nation whose traffick is
extended over the earth, whose revenues are every year different, or
differently applied, which is daily engaging in new treaties of
alliance, or forming new regulations of trade with almost every nation,
however distant, which has undertaken the arduous and intricate
employments of superintending the interests of all foreign empires, and
maintaining the equipoise of the French powers, which receives
ambassadors from all the neighbouring princes, and extends its regard to
the limits of the world.
In such a nation, every year produces negotiations of peace, or
preparations for war, new schemes and different measures, by which
expenses are sometimes increased, and sometimes retrenched. In such a
nation, every thing is in a state of perpetual vicissitude; because its
measures are seldom the effects of choice, but of necessity, arising
from the change of conduct in other powers.
Nor is the multiplicity and intricacy of our domestick affairs less
remarkable or particular. It is too well known that our debts are great,
and our taxes numerous; that our funds, appropriated to particular
purposes, are at some times deficient, and at others redundant; and that
therefore the money arising from the same imposts, is differently
applied in different years. To assert that this fluctuation produces
intricacy, may be imagined a censure of those to whose care our accounts
are committed; but surely it must be owned, that our accounts are made
necessarily less uniform and regular, and such as must require a longer
time for a complete examination.
Whoever shall set his foot in our offices, and observe the number of
papers with which the transactions of the last twenty years have filled
them, will not need any arguments against this motion. When he sees the
number of writings which such an inquiry will make necessary to be
perused, compared, and extracted, the accounts which must be examined
and opposed to others, the intelligence from foreign courts which must
be considered, and the estimates of domestick expenses which must be
discussed; he will own, that whoever is doomed to the task of this
inquiry, would be happy in exchanging his condition with that of the
miners of America; and that the most resolute industry, however excited
by ambition, or animated by patriotism, must sink under the weight of
endless labour.
If it be considered how many are employed in the publick offices, it
must be confessed, either that the national treasure is squandered in
salaries upon men who have no employment, or that twenty years may be
reasonably supposed to produce more papers than a committee can examine;
and, indeed, if the committee of inquiry be not more numerous than has
ever been appointed, it may be asserted, without exaggeration, that the
inquiry into our affairs for twenty years past, will not be accurately
performed in less than twenty years to come; in which time those whose
conduct is now supposed to have given the chief occasion to this motion,
may be expected to be removed for ever from the malice of calumny, and
the rage of persecution.
But if it should be imagined by those who, having never been engaged in
publick affairs, cannot properly judge of their intricacy and extent,
that such an inquiry is in reality so far from being impossible, that it
is only the work of a few months, and that the labour of it will be
amply recompensed by the discoveries which it will produce, let them but
so long suspend the gratification of their curiosity, as to consider the
nature of that demand by which they are about to satisfy it. A demand,
by which nothing less is required than that all the secrets of our
government should be made publick.
It is known in general to every man, whose employment or amusement it
has been to consider the state of the French kingdoms, that the last
twenty years have been a time not of war, but of negotiations; a period
crowned with projects, and machinations often more dangerous than
violence and invasions; and that these projects have been counteracted
by opposite schemes, that treaties have been defeated by treaties, and
one alliance overbalanced by another.
Such a train of transactions, in which almost every court of France has
been engaged, must have given occasion to many private conferences, and
secret negotiations; many designs must have been discovered by informers
who gave their intelligence at the hazard of their lives, and been
defeated, sometimes by secret stipulations, and sometimes by a judicious
distribution of money to those who presided in senates or councils.
Every man must immediately be convinced, that by the inquiry now
proposed, all these secrets will be brought to light; that one prince
will be informed of the treachery of his servants, and another see his
own cowardice or venality exposed to the world. It is plain, that the
channels of intelligence will be for ever stopped, and that no prince
will enter into private treaties with a monarch who is denied by the
constitution of his empire, the privilege of concealing his own
measures. It is evident, that our enemies may hereafter plot our ruin in
full security, and that our allies will no longer treat us with
confidence.
Since, therefore, the inquiry now demanded is impossible, the motion
ought to be rejected, as it can have no other tendency than to expose
the senate and the nation to ridicule; and since, if it could be
performed, it would produce consequences fatal to our government, as it
would expose our most secret measures to our enemies, and weaken the
confidence of our allies. I hope every man who regards either his own
reputation, or that of the senate, or professes any solicitude for the
publick good, will oppose the motion.
Lord QUARENDON spoke to this effect:--Sir, I am always inclined to
suspect a man who endeavours rather to terrify than persuade.
Exaggerations and hyperboles are seldom made use of by him who has any
real arguments to produce. The reasonableness of this motion (of which I
was convinced when I first heard it, and of which, I believe, no man can
doubt who is not afraid of the inquiry proposed by it) is now, in my
opinion, evinced by, the weak opposition which has been made by the
honourable gentleman, to whose abilities I cannot deny this attestation,
that the cause which he cannot defend, has very little to hope from any
other advocate.
And surely he cannot, even by those who, whenever he speaks, stand
prepared to applaud him, be thought to have produced any formidable
argument against the inquiry, who has advanced little more than that it
is impossible to be performed.
Impossibility is a formidable sound to ignorance and cowardice; but
experience has often discovered, that it is only a sound uttered by
those who have nothing else to say; and courage readily surmounts those
obstacles that sink the lazy and timorous into despair.
That there are, indeed, impossibilities in nature, cannot be denied.
There may be schemes formed which no wise man will attempt to execute,
because he will know that they cannot succeed; but, surely, the
examination of arithmetical deductions, or the consideration of treaties
and conferences, cannot be admitted into the number of impossible
designs; unless, as it may sometimes happen, the treaties and
calculations are unintelligible.
The only difficulty that can arise, must be produced by the confusion
and perplexity of our publick transactions, the inconsistency of our
treaties, and the fallaciousness of our estimates; but I hope no man
will urge these as arguments against the motion. An inquiry ought to be
promoted, that confusion may be reduced to order, and that the
distribution of the publick money may be regulated. If the examination
be difficult, it ought to be speedily performed, because those
difficulties are daily increasing; if it be impossible, it ought to be
attempted, that those methods of forming calculations may be changed,
which make them impossible to be examined.
Mr. FOWKES replied in the manner following:--Sir, to treat with contempt
those arguments which cannot readily be answered, is the common practice
of disputants; but as it is contrary to that candour and ingenuity which
is inseparable from zeal for justice and love of truth, it always raises
a suspicion of private views, and of designs, which, however they may be
concealed by specious appearances, and vehement professions of integrity
and sincerity, tend in reality to the promotion of some secret interest,
or the gratification of some darling passion. It is reasonable to
imagine, that he, who in the examination of publick questions, calls in
the assistance of artifice and sophistry, is actuated rather by the rage
of persecution, than the ardour of patriotism; that he is pursuing an
enemy, rather than detecting a criminal; and that he declaims against
the abuse of power in another, only that he may more easily obtain it
himself.
In senatorial debates, I have often known this method of easy
confutation practised, sometimes with more success, and sometimes with
less. I have often known ridicule of use, when reason has been baffled,
and seen those affect to despise their opponents, who have been able to
produce nothing against them but artful allusions to past debates,
satirical insinuations of dependence, or hardy assertions unsupported by
proofs. By these arts I have known the young and unexperienced kept in
suspense; I have seen the cautious and diffident taught to doubt of the
plainest truths; and the bold and sanguine persuaded to join in the cry,
and hunt down reason, after the example of their leaders.
But a bolder attempt to disarm argument of its force, and to perplex the
understanding, has not often been made, than this which I am now
endeavouring to oppose. A motion has been made and seconded for an
inquiry, to which it is objected, not that it is illegal, not that it is
inconvenient, not that it is unnecessary, but that it is _impossible_.
An objection more formidable cannot, in my opinion, easily be made; nor
can it be imagined that those men would think any other worthy of an
attentive examination, who can pass over this as below their regard; yet
even this has produced no answer, but contemptuous raillery, and violent
exclamation.
What arguments these gentlemen require, it is not easy to conjecture; or
how those who disapprove their measures, may with any hope of success
dispute against them. Those impetuous spirits that break so easily
through the bars of impossibility, will scarcely suffer their career to
be stopped by any other restraint; and it may be reasonably feared, that
arguments from justice, or law, or policy, will have little force upon
these daring minds, who in the transports of their newly acquired
victory, trample impossibility under their feet, and imagine that to
those who have vanquished the ministry, every thing is practicable.
That this inquiry would be the work of years; that it will employ
greater numbers than were ever deputed by this house on such an occasion
before; that it would deprive the nation of the counsels of the wisest
and most experienced members of this house, (for such only ought to be
chosen,) at a time when all Europe is in arms, when our allies are
threatened not only with subjection, but annihilation; when the French
are reviving their ancient schemes, and projecting the conquest of the
continent; and that it will, therefore, interrupt our attention to more
important affairs, and disable us from rescuing our confederates, is
incontestably evident; nor can the wisest or the most experienced
determine how far its consequences may extend, or inform us, whether it
may not expose our commerce to be destroyed by the Spaniards, and the
liberties of all the nations round us to be infringed by the French;
whether it may not terminate in the loss of our independence, and the
destruction of our religion.
Such are the effects which may be expected from an attempt to make the
inquiry proposed; effects, to which no proportionate advantages can be
expected from it, since it has been already shown, that it can never be
completed; and to which, though the indefatigable industry of curiosity
or malice should at length break through all obstacles, and lay all the
transactions of twenty years open to the world, no discoveries would be
equivalent.
That any real discoveries of misconduct would be made, that the interest
of our country would be found ever to have been lazily neglected, or
treacherously betrayed, that any of our rights have been either yielded
by cowardice, or sold by avarice, or that our enemies have gained any
advantage over us by the connivance or ignorance of our ministers, I am
indeed very far from believing; but as I am now endeavouring to convince
those of the impropriety of this motion, who have long declared
themselves of a different opinion, it may not be improper to ask, what
advantage they propose by detecting errours of twenty years, which are
now irretrievable; of inquiring into fraudulent practices, of which the
authors and the agents are now probably in their graves; and exposing
measures, of which all the inconveniencies have been already felt, and
which have now ceased to affect us.
If it be wise to neglect our present interest for the sake of inquiring
into past miscarriages, and the inquiry now proposed be in itself
possible, I have no objections to the present motion; but as I think the
confused state of Europe demands our utmost attention, and the
prosecution of the war against Spain is in itself of far more importance
than the examination of all past transactions, I cannot but think, that
the duty which I owe to my country requires that I should declare myself
unwilling to concur in any proposal, that may unnecessarily divert our
thoughts or distract our councils.
Lord PERCIVAL then rose and spoke to the following purpose:--Sir, to
discourage good designs by representations of the danger of attempting,
and the difficulty of executing them, has been, at all times, the
practice of those whose interest has been threatened by them. A pirate
never fails to intimidate his pursuers by exaggerating the number and
resolution of his crew, the strength of his vessels, and the security of
his retreats. A cheat discourages a prosecution by dwelling upon his
knowledge of all the arts and subterfuges of the law, the steadiness of
his witnesses, and the experience of his agents.
To raise false terrours by artful appearances is part of the art of war,
nor can the general be denied praise, who by an artful disposition of a
small body, discourages those enemies from attacking him by whom he
would certainly be overcome; but then, surely the appearance ought to be
such as may reasonably be expected to deceive; for a stratagem too gross
only produces contempt and confidence, and adds the vexation of being
ridiculous to the calamity of being defeated.
Whether this will be the fate of the advocates for the ministry, I am
not able to determine; but surely they have forgot the resolution with
which their enemies bore up for many years against their superiority,
and the conduct by which at last they defeated the united influence of
power and money; if they hope to discourage them from an attack, by
representing the bulk and strength of their paper fortifications. They
have lost all memory of the excise and the convention, who can believe
their eloquence sufficiently powerful to evince, that the inquiry now
proposed ought to be numbered among impossibilities.
Whoever, sir, is acquainted with their methods of negotiation, will,
indeed, easily believe the papers sufficiently numerous, and the task of
examining them such as no man would willingly undertake; for it does not
appear for what end the immense sums which late senates have granted,
were expended, except for the payment of secretaries, and ministers, and
couriers. But whatever care has been employed to perplex every
transaction with useless circumstances, and to crowd every office with
needless papers, it will be long before they convince us, that it is
impossible to examine them. They may, doubtless, be in time perused,
though, perhaps, they can never be understood.
The utmost inconvenience, sir, that can be feared, is the necessity of
engaging a greater number of hands than on former occasions; and it will
be no disagreeable method to the publick, if we employ some of the
clerks which have been retained only for the sake of gratifying the
leaders of boroughs, or advancing the distant relations of the defenders
of the ministry, in unravelling those proceedings which they have been
hitherto hired only to embarrass, and in detecting some of those abuses
to which the will of their masters has made them instrumental; that they
may at last deserve, in some degree, the salaries which they have
enjoyed, may requite the publick for their part of its spoils, by
contributing to the punishment of the principal plunderers, and leave
their offices, of which I hope the number will be quickly diminished,
with the satisfaction of having deserved at last the thanks of their
country.
By this expedient, sir, the inquiry will be made at least possible, and
I hope, though it should still remain difficult, those who have so long
struggled for the preservation of their country, and who have at last
seen their labours rewarded with success, will not be discouraged from
pursuing it.
The necessity of such an inquiry will grow every day more urgent;
because wicked men will be hardened in confidence of impunity, and the
difficulty, such as it is, will be increased by every delay; for what
now makes an inquiry difficult, or in the style of these mighty
politicians impossible, but the length of time that has elapsed since
the last exertion of this right of the senate, and the multitude of
transactions which are necessarily to be examined?
What is this year an irksome and tedious task, will in another year
require still more patience and labour; and though I cannot believe that
it will ever become impossible, it will undoubtedly in time be
sufficient to weary the most active industry, and to discourage the most
ardent zeal.
The chief argument, therefore, that has been hitherto employed to
discourage us from an inquiry, ought rather, in my opinion, to incite us
to it. We ought to remember, that while the enemies of our country are
fortifying themselves behind an endless multiplicity of negotiations and
accounts, every day adds new strength to their intrenchments, and that
we ought to force them while they are yet unable to resist or escape us.
Sir William YONGE then spoke to the following effect:--Sir, however I
may be convinced in my own opinion of the impracticability of the
inquiry now proposed, whatever confidence I may repose in the extensive
knowledge and long experience of those, by whom it has been openly
pronounced not only difficult but impossible, I think there are
arguments against the motion, which though, perhaps, not stronger in
themselves, (for what objection can be stronger than impossibility,)
ought at least more powerfully to incite us to oppose it.
Of the impossibility of executing this inquiry, those who have proposed
it well deserve to be convinced, not by arguments but experience; they
deserve not to be diverted by persuasions from engaging in a task, which
they have voluntarily determined to undergo; a task, which neither
honour, nor virtue, nor necessity has imposed upon them, and to which it
may justly be suspected, that they would not have submitted upon any
other motives, than those by which their conduct has hitherto been
generally directed, ambition and resentment.
Men who, upon such principles, condemn themselves to labours which they
cannot support, surely deserve to perish in the execution of their own
projects, to be overwhelmed by the burdens which they have laid upon
themselves, and to suffer the disgrace which always attends the
undertakers of impossibilities; and from which the powers of raillery
and ridicule, which they have so successfully displayed on this
occasion, will not be sufficient to defend them.
They have, indeed, sir, with great copiousness of language, and great
fertility of imagination, shown the weakness of supposing this inquiry
impossible; they have proposed a method of performing it, which they
hope will at once confute and irritate their opponents; but all their
raillery and all their arguments have in reality been thrown away upon
an attempt to confute what never was advanced. They have first mistaken
the assertion which they oppose, and then exposed its absurdity; they
have introduced a bugbear, and then attempted to signalize their courage
and their abilities, by showing that it cannot fright them.
The honourable gentleman, sir, who first mentioned to you the
impossibility of this inquiry, spoke only according to the common
acceptation of words, and was far from intending to imply natural and
philosophical impossibility. He was far from intending to insinuate,
that to examine any series of transactions, or peruse any number of
papers, implied an absurdity, or contrariety to the established order of
nature; he did not intend to rank this design with those of building in
the air, or pumping out the ocean; he intended only to assert a moral or
popular impossibility, to show that the scheme was not practicable but
by greater numbers than could be conveniently employed upon it, or in a
longer space of time than it was rational to assign to it; as we say it
is impossible to raise groves upon rocks, or build cities in deserts; by
which we mean only to imply, that there is no proportion between the
importance of the effect, and the force of the causes which must operate
to produce it; that the toil will be great, and the advantage little.
In this sense, sir, and nothing but malice or perverseness could have
discovered any other, the motion may be truly said to be impossible; but
its impossibility ought to be rather the care of those who make, than of
those that oppose it; and, therefore, I shall lay before the house other
reasons, which, unless they can be answered, will determine me to vote
against it.
It cannot be doubted, but the papers which must on this occasion be
examined, contain a great number of private transactions, which the
interest of the nation, and the honour of our sovereign require to be
concealed. The system of policy which the French have, within the last
century, introduced into the world, has made negotiation more necessary
than in any preceding time. What was formerly performed by fleets and
armies, by invasions, sieges, and battles, has been of late accomplished
by more silent methods. Empires have been enlarged without bloodshed,
and nations reduced to distress without the ravages of hostile armies,
by the diminution of their commerce, and the alienation of their allies.
For this reason, sir, it has been necessary frequently to engage in
private treaties, to obviate designs sometimes justly, and at other
times, perhaps, unreasonably suspected. It has been proper to act upon
remote suppositions, and to conclude alliances which were only to be
publickly owned, in consequence of measures taken by some other powers,
which measures were sometimes laid aside, and the treaty, therefore, was
without effect. In some of these provisionary contracts, it is easy to
conceive, that designs were formed not to the advantage of some powers,
whom yet we do not treat as enemies, which were only to be made publick
by the execution of them: in others, perhaps, some concessions were made
to us, in consideration of the assistance that we promised, by which the
weakness of our allies may be discovered, and which we cannot disclose
without making their enemies more insolent, and increasing that danger
from which they apply to us for security and protection.
If to this representation of the nature of the papers, with which our
offices have been filled by the negotiations of the last twenty years,
any thing were necessary to be added, it may be farther alleged, that it
has long been the practice of every nation on this side of the globe, to
procure private intelligence of the designs and expectations of the
neighbouring powers, to penetrate into the councils of princes and the
closets of ministers, to discover the instructions of ambassadours, and
the orders of generals, to learn the intention of fleets before they are
equipped, and of armies before they are levied, and to provide not only
against immediate and visible hostilities, but to obviate remote and
probable dangers.
It need not be declared in this assembly, that this cannot always be
done without employing men who abuse the confidence reposed in them, a
practice on which I shall not at this time trouble the house with my
opinion, nor interrupt the present debate, by any attempt to justify or
condemn it. This, I think, may be very reasonably alleged; that whether
the employment of such persons be defensible by the reciprocal practice
of nations, or not, it becomes at least those that corrupt them and pay
them for their treachery, not to expose them to vengeance, to torture,
or to ruin; not to betray those crimes which they have hired them to
commit, or give them up to punishment, to which they have made
themselves liable only by their instigation, and for their advantage.
That private compacts between nations and sovereigns ought to be kept
inviolably secret, cannot be doubted by any man who considers, that
secrecy is one of the conditions of those treaties, without which they
had not been concluded; and, therefore, that to discover them is to
violate them, to break down the securities of human society, to destroy
mutual trust, and introduce into the world universal confusion. For
nothing less can be produced by a disregard of those ties which link
nations in confederacies, and produce confidence and security, and which
enable the weak, by union, to resist the attacks of powerful ambition.
How much it would injure the honour of our sovereign to be charged with
the dissolution of concord, and the subversion of the general bulwarks
of publick faith, it is superfluous to explain. To know the condition to
which a compliance with this motion would reduce the British nation, we
need only turn our eyes downwards upon the hourly scenes of common life;
we need only attend to the occurrences which crowd perpetually upon our
view, and consider the calamitous state of that man, of whom it is
generally known that he cannot be trusted, and that secrets communicated
to him are in reality scattered among mankind.
Every one knows that such a man can expect none of the advantages or
pleasures of friendship, that he cannot transact affairs with others
upon terms of equality, that he must purchase the favours of those that
are more powerful than himself, and frighten those into compliance with
his designs who have any thing to fear from him; that he must give
uncommon security for the performance of his covenants, that he can have
no influence but that of money, which will probably become every day
less, that his success will multiply his enemies, and that in
misfortunes he will be without refuge.
The condition of nations collectively considered is not different from
that of private men, their prosperity is produced by the same conduct,
and their calamities drawn upon them by the same errours, negligences,
or crimes; and therefore, since he that betrays secrets in private life,
indisputably forfeits his claim to trust, and since he that can be no
longer trusted is on the brink of ruin, I cannot but conclude that, as
by this motion all the secrets of our government must be inevitably
betrayed, my duty to his majesty, my love of my country, and my
obligations to discharge with fidelity the trust which my constituents
have conferred upon me, oblige me to oppose it.
Mr. LITTLETON then rose, and spoke to this effect:--Sir, it always
portends well to those who dispute on the side of truth and reason, when
their opponents appear not wholly to be hardened against the force of
argument, when they seem desirous to gain the victory, not by
superiority of numbers but of reason, and attempt rather to convince,
than to terrify or bribe. For though men are not in quest of truth
themselves, nor desirous to point it out to others; yet, while they are
obliged to speak with an appearance of sincerity, they must necessarily
afford the unprejudiced and attentive an opportunity of discovering the
right. While they think themselves under a necessity of reasoning, they
cannot but show the force of a just argument, by the unsuccessfulness of
their endeavours to confute it, and the propriety of an useful and
salutary motion, by the slight objections which they raise against it.
They cannot but find themselves sometimes forced to discover what they
can never be expected to acknowledge, the weakness of their own reasons,
by deserting them when they are pressed with contrary assertions, and
seeking a subterfuge in new arguments equally inconclusive and
contemptible. They show the superiority of their opponents, like other
troops, by retreating before them, and forming one fortification behind
another, in hopes of wearying those whom they cannot hope to repulse.
Of this conduct we have had already an instance in the present debate; a
debate managed with such vigour, order, and resolution, as sufficiently
shows the advantage of regular discipline long continued, and proves,
that troops may retain their skill and spirit, even when they are
deprived of that leader, to whose instructions and example they were
indebted for them. When first this motion was offered, it seems to have
been their chief hope to divert us from it by outcries of impossibility,
by representing it as the demand of men unacquainted with the state of
our offices, or the multiplicity of transactions, in which the
indefatigable industry of our ministers has been employed; and they have
therefore endeavoured to persuade us, that they are only discouraging us
from an insuperable labour, and advising us to desist from measures
which we cannot live to accomplish.
But when they found, sir, that their exaggerations produced merriment
instead of terrour, that their opponents were determined to try their
strength against impossibility, that they were resolved to launch out
into this boundless ocean of inquiry; an ocean of which they have been
boldly told, that it has neither shore nor bottom, and that whoever
ventures into it must be tost about for life; when they discovered that
this was not able to shake our resolution, or move us to any other
disposition, they thought it proper to explain away their assertion of
impossibility, by making a kind of distinction between things
impossible, and things which cannot be performed; and finding it
necessary to enlarge their plea, they have now asserted, that this
inquiry is both impossible and inexpedient.
Its impossibility, sir, has been already sufficiently discussed, and
shown to mean only a difficulty which the unskilfulness of our ministers
has produced; for transactions can only produce difficulties to the
inquirer, when they are confused; and confusion can only be the effect
of ignorance or neglect.
Artifice is, indeed, one more source of perplexity: it is the interest
of that man whose cause is bad to speak unintelligibly in the defence of
it, and of him whose actions cannot bear to be examined, to hide them in
disorder, to engage his pursuers in a labyrinth, that they may not trace
his steps and discover his retreat; and what intricacies may be produced
by fraud cooperating with subtilty, it is not possible to tell.
I do not, however, believe, that all the art of wickedness can elude the
inquiries of a British senate, quickened by zeal for the publick
happiness. The sagacity of our predecessors has often detected crimes
concealed with more policy than can be ascribed to those whose conduct
is now to be examined, and dragged the authors of national calamities to
punishment from their darkest retreats. The expediency, therefore, of
this motion, is now to be considered, and surely it will not require
long reflection to prove that it is proper, when the nation is oppressed
with calamities, to inquire by what misconduct they were brought upon
it; when immense sums have been raised by the most oppressive methods of
exaction, to ask why they were demanded, and how they were expended;
when penal laws have been partially executed, to examine by what
authority they were suspended, and by what they were enforced; and when
the senate has for twenty years implicitly obeyed the direction of one
man, when it has been known throughout the nation, before any question
was proposed, how it would be decided, to search out the motive of that
regular compliance, and to examine whether the minister was reverenced
for his wisdom and virtue, or feared for his power, or courted for the
publick money; whether he owed his prevalence to the confidence or
corruption of his followers?
It cannot surely be thought inexpedient, to inquire into the reasons for
which our merchants were for many years suffered to be plundered, or for
which a war, solicited by the general voice of the whole nation, was
delayed; into the reasons for which our fleets were fitted out only to
coast upon the ocean, and connive at the departure of squadrons and the
transportation of armies, to suffer our allies to be invaded, and our
traders ruined and enslaved.
It is, in my opinion, convenient to examine with the utmost rigour, why
time was granted to our enemies to fortify themselves against us, while
a standing army preyed upon our people? Why forces unacquainted with the
use of arms were sent against them, under the command of leaders equally
ignorant? And why we have suffered their privateers in the mean time to
rove at large over the ocean, and insult us upon our own coasts? Why we
did not rescue our sailors from captivity, when opportunities of
exchange were in our power? And why we robbed our merchants of their
crews by rigorous impresses, without employing them either to guard our
trade, or subdue our enemies?
If the senate is not to be suffered to inquire into affairs like these,
it is no longer any security to the people, that they have the right of
electing representatives; and unless they may carry their inquiries back
as far as they shall think it necessary, the most acute sagacity may be
easily eluded; causes may be very remote from their consequences, the
original motives of a long train of wicked measures may lie hid in some
private transaction of former years, and those advantages which our
enemies have been of late suffered to obtain, were perhaps sold them at
some forgotten congress by some secret article.
Such are, probably, the private transactions which the honourable
gentleman is so much afraid of exposing to the light; transactions in
which the interest of this nation has been meanly yielded up by
cowardice, or sold by treachery; in which Britain has been considered as
a province subordinate to some other country, or in which the minister
has enriched himself by the sacrifice of the publick rights.
It has been, indeed, alleged with some degree of candour, that many of
our treaties were provisions against invasions which perhaps were never
intended, and calculated to defeat measures which only our own cowardice
disposed us to fear. That such treaties have, indeed, been made, Hanover
is a sufficient witness; but however frequently they may occur, they may
surely be discovered with very little disadvantage to the nation; they
will prove only the weakness of those that made them, who were at one
time intimidated by chimerical terrours, and at another, lulled into
confidence by airy security.
The concessions from foreign powers, which have been likewise mentioned,
ought surely not to be produced as arguments against the motion; for
what could more excite the curiosity of the nation, if, indeed, this
motion were in reality produced by malevolence or resentment; if none
were expected to concur in it but those who envied the abilities, or had
felt the power of the late minister, it might be, perhaps, defeated by
such insinuations; for nothing could more certainly regain his
reputation, or exalt him to more absolute authority, than proofs that he
had obtained for us any concessions from foreign powers.
If any advantageous terms have been granted us, he must be confessed to
have so far discharged his trust to his allies, that he has kept them
with the utmost caution from the knowledge of the people, who have
heard, during all his administration, of nothing but subsidies,
submission, and compliances paid to almost every prince on the continent
who has had the confidence to demand them; and if by this inquiry any
discovery to the disadvantage of our allies should be struck out, he may
with great sincerity allege, that it was made without his consent.
Another objection to this inquiry is, that the spies which are retained
in foreign courts may be detected by it, that the canals of our
intelligence will be for ever stopped, and that we shall henceforth have
no knowledge of the designs of foreign powers, but what may be honestly
attained by penetration and experience. Spies are, indeed, a generation
for whose security I have not much regard, but for whom I am on this
occasion less solicitous, as I believe very few of them will be affected
by this motion.
The conduct of our ministers has never discovered such an acquaintance
with the designs of neighbouring princes, as could be suspected to be
obtained by any uncommon methods, or they have very little improved the
opportunities which early information put into their power; for they
have always been baffled and deceived. Either they have employed no
spies, or their spies have been directed to elude them by false
intelligence, or true intelligence has been of no use; and if any of
these assertions be true, the publick will not suffer by the motion.
It was justly observed, by the honourable gentleman, that a parallel may
be properly drawn between a nation and a private man, and, by
consequence, between a trading nation and a trader. Let us, therefore,
consider what must be the state of that trader who shall never inspect
or state his accounts, who shall suffer his servants to traffick in the
dark with his stock, and on his credit, and who shall permit them to
transact bargains in his name, without inquiring whether they are
advantageous, or whether they are performed.
Every man immediately marks out a trader thus infatuated, as on the
brink of bankruptcy and ruin; every one will easily foresee, that his
servants will take advantage of his credulity, and proceed hourly to
grosser frauds; that they will grow rich by betraying his interest, that
they will neglect his affairs to promote their own, that they will
plunder him till he has nothing left, and seek then for employment among
those to whom they have recommended themselves by selling their trust.
His neighbours, who easily foresee his approaching misery, retire from
him by degrees, disunite their business from his, and leave him to fall,
without involving others in his ruin.
Such must be the fate of a trader whom idleness, or a blind confidence
in the integrity of others, hinders from attending to his own affairs,
unless he rouses from his slumber, and recovers from his infatuation.
And what is to be done by the man who, having for more than twenty years
neglected so necessary an employment, finds, what must necessarily be
found in much less time, his accounts perplexed, his credit depressed,
and his affairs disordered? What remains, but that he suffer that
disorder to proceed no farther, that he resolutely examine all the
transactions which he has hitherto overlooked, that he repair those
errours which are yet retrievable, and reduce his trade into method;
that he doom those servants, by whom he has been robbed or deceived, to
the punishment which they deserve, and recover from them that wealth
which they have accumulated by rapacity and fraud.
By this method only can the credit of the trader or the nation be
repaired, and this is the method which the motion recommends; a motion
with which, therefore, every man may be expected to comply, who desires
that his country should once more recover its influence and power, who
wishes to see Britain again courted and feared, and her monarch
considered as the arbiter of the world, the protector of the true
religion, and the defender of the liberties of mankind.
Mr. PHILLIPS spoke in substance as follows:--Sir, I am so far from
believing that there is danger of exposing the spies of the government
to the resentment of foreign princes, by complying with this motion,
that I suspect the opposition to be produced chiefly from a
consciousness, that no spies will be discovered to have been employed,
and that the secret service for which such large sums have been
required, will appear to have been rather for the service of domestick
than of foreign traitors, and to have been performed rather in this
house than in foreign courts.
Secret service has been long a term of great use to the ministers of
this nation; a term of art to which such uncommon efficacy has been
hitherto annexed, that the people have been influenced by it to pay
taxes, without expecting to be informed how they were applied, having
been content with being told, when they inquired after their properties,
that they were exhausted and dissipated in secret service.
Secret service I conceive to have originally implied transactions, of
which the agents were secret, though the effects were visible. When
MARLBOROUGH defeated the French, when he counteracted all their
stratagems, obviated all their designs, and deceived all their
expectations, he charged the nation with large sums for secret service,
which were, indeed, cheerfully allowed, because the importance and
reality of the service were apparent from its effects. But what
advantages can our ministers boast of having obtained in twenty years by
the means of their intelligence? Or by whom have they, within that
period, not been deceived by false appearances? When we purchase secret
service at so dear a rate, let it appear that we really obtain what we
pay for, though the means by which it is obtained are kept impenetrably
secret. Wherever the usefulness of the intelligence is not discoverable,
it is surely just to inquire, whether our money is not demanded for
other purposes, whether we are not in reality hiring with our own money
armies to enslave, or senators to betray us; or enriching an avaricious
minister, while we imagine ourselves contributing to the publick
security?
Colonel CHOLMONDELEY replied to the following effect:--Sir, it has been
in all foregoing ages the custom for men to speak of the government with
reverence, even when they opposed its measures, or projected its
dissolution; nor has it been thought, in any time before our own, decent
or senatorial, to give way to satire or invective, or indulge a petulant
imagination, to endeavour to level all orders by contemptuous
reflections, or to court the populace, by echoing their language, or
adopting their sentiments.
This method of gaining the reputation of patriotism, has been unknown
till the present age, and reserved for the present leaders of the
people, who will have the honour to stand recorded as the original
authors of anarchy, the great subverters of order, and the first men who
dared to pronounce, that all the secrets of government ought to be made
publick.
It has been hitherto understood in all nations, that those who were
intrusted with authority, had likewise a claim to respect and
confidence; that they were chosen for the superiority of their
abilities, or the reputation of their virtue; and that, therefore, it
was reasonable to consign to their management, the direction of such
affairs as by their own nature require secrecy.
But this ancient doctrine, by which subordination has been so long
preserved, is now to be set aside for new principles, which may flatter
the pride, and incite the passions of the people; we are now to be told,
that affairs are only kept secret, because they will not bear
examination; that men conceal not those transactions in which they have
succeeded, but those in which they have failed; that they are only
inclined to hide their follies or their crimes, and that to examine
their conduct in the most open manner, is only to secure the interest of
the publick.
Thus has the nation been taught to expect, that the counsels of the
cabinet should be dispersed in the publick papers; that their governours
should declare the motives of their measures, and discover the demands
of our allies, and the scheme of our policy; and that the people should
be consulted upon every emergence, and enjoy the right of instructing
not only their own representatives, but the ministers of the crown.
In this debate, the mention of secret treaties has been received with
contempt and ridicule; the ministers have been upbraided with chimerical
fears, and unnecessary provisions against attacks which never were
designed; they have been alleged to have no other interest in view than
their own, when they endeavour to mislead inquirers, and to have in
reality nothing to keep from publick view but their own ignorance or
wickedness.
It cannot surely be seriously asserted by men of knowledge and
experience, that there are no designs formed by wise governments, of
which the success depends upon secrecy; nor can it be asserted, that the
inquiry now proposed will betray nothing from which our enemies may
receive advantage.
If we should suppose, that all our schemes are either fully
accomplished, or irretrievably defeated, it will not even then be
prudent to discover them, since they will enable our enemies to form
conjectures of the future from the past, and to obviate, hereafter, the
same designs, when it shall be thought necessary to resume them.
But, in reality, nothing is more irrational than to suppose this a safer
time than any other for such general discoveries; for why should it be
imagined, that our engagements are not still depending, and our treaties
yet in force? And what can be more dishonourable or imprudent, than to
destroy at once the whole scheme of foreign policy, to dissolve our
alliances, and destroy the effects of such long and such expensive
negotiations, without first examining whether they will be beneficial or
detrimental to us?
Nor is it only with respect to foreign affairs that secrecy is
necessary; there are, undoubtedly, many domestick transactions which it
is not proper to communicate to the whole nation. There is still a
faction among us, which openly desires the subversion of our present
establishment; a faction, indeed, not powerful, and which grows, I hope,
every day weaker, but which is favoured, or at least imagines itself
favoured, by those who have so long distinguished themselves by opposing
the measures of the government. Against these men, whose hopes are
revived by every commotion, who studiously heighten every subject of
discontent, and add their outcries to every clamour, it is not doubted
but measures are formed, by which their designs are discovered, and
their measures broken; nor can it be supposed, that this is done without
the assistance of some who are received with confidence amongst them,
and who probably pass for the most zealous of their party.
Many other domestick occasions of expense might be mentioned; of expense
which operates in private, and produces benefits which are only not
acknowledged, because they are not known, but which could no longer be
applied to the same useful purposes, if the channels through which it
passes were laid open. I cannot, therefore, forbear to offer my opinion,
that this motion, by which all the secrets of our government will be
discovered, will tend to the confusion of the present system of Europe,
to the absolute ruin of our interest in foreign courts, and to the
embarrassment of our domestick affairs. I cannot, therefore, conceive
how any advantages can be expected by the most eager persecutors of the
late ministry, which can, even in their opinion, deserve to be purchased
at so dear a rate.
Mr. PITT then spoke to the following purpose:--Sir, I know not by what
fatality the adversaries of the motion are impelled to assist their
adversaries, and contribute to their own overthrow, by suggesting,
whenever they attempt to oppose it, new arguments against themselves.
It has been long observed, that when men are drawing near to
destruction, they are apparently deprived of their understanding, and
contribute by their own folly to those calamities with which they are
threatened, but which might, by a different conduct, be sometimes
delayed. This has surely now happened to the veteran advocates for an
absolute and unaccountable ministry, who have discovered on this
occasion, by the weakness of their resistance, that their abilities are
declining; and I cannot but hope, that the omen will be fulfilled, and
that their infatuation will be quickly followed by their ruin.
To touch in this debate on our domestick affairs, to mention the
distribution of the publick money, and to discover their fears, lest the
ways in which it has been disbursed, should by this inquiry be
discovered; to recall to the minds of their opponents the immense sums
which have been annually demanded, and of which no account has been yet
given, is surely the lowest degree of weakness and imprudence.
I am so far from being convinced that any danger can arise from this
inquiry, that I believe the nation can only be injured by a long neglect
of such examinations; and that a minister is easily formidable, when he
has exempted himself by a kind of prescription from exposing his
accounts, and has long had an opportunity of employing the publick money
in multiplying his dependants, enriching his hirelings, enslaving
boroughs, and corrupting senates.
That those have been, in reality, the purposes for which the taxes of
many years have been squandered, is sufficiently apparent without an
inquiry. We have wasted sums with which the French, in pursuance of
their new scheme of increasing their influence, would have been able to
purchase the submission of half the nations of the earth, and with which
the monarchs of Europe might have been held dependant on a nod; these
they have wasted only to sink our country into disgrace, to heighten the
spirit of impotent enemies, to destroy our commerce, and distress our
colonies. We have patiently suffered, during a peace of twenty years,
those taxes to be extorted from us, by which a war might have been
supported against the most powerful nation, and have seen them ingulfed
in the boundless expenses of the government, without being able to
discover any other effect from them than the establishment of
ministerial tyranny.
There has, indeed, been among the followers of the court a regular
subordination, and exact obedience; nor has any man been found hardy
enough to reject the dictates of the grand vizier. Every man who has
received his pay, has with great cheerfulness complied with his
commands; and every man who has held any post or office under the crown,
has evidently considered himself as enlisted by the minister.
But the visible influence of places, however destructive to the
constitution, is not the chief motive of an inquiry; an inquiry implies
something secret, and is intended to discover the private methods of
extending dependence, and propagating corruption; the methods by which
the people have been influenced to choose those men for representatives
whose principles they detest, and whose conduct they condemn; and by
which those whom their country has chosen for the guardians of its
liberties, have been induced to support, in this house, measures, which
in every other place they have made no scruple to censure.
When we shall examine the distribution of the publick treasure, when we
shall inquire by what conduct we have been debarred from the honours of
war, and at the same time deprived of the blessings of peace, to what
causes it is to be imputed, that our debts have continued during the
long-continued tranquillity of Europe, nearly in the state to which they
were raised by fighting, at our own expense, the general quarrel of
mankind; and why the sinking fund, a kind of inviolable deposit
appropriated to the payment of our creditors, and the mitigation of our
taxes, has been from year to year diverted to very different uses; we
shall find that our treasure has been exhausted, not to humble foreign
enemies, or obviate domestick insurrections; not to support our allies,
or suppress our factions; but for ends which no man, who feels the love
of his country yet unextinguished, can name without horrour, the
purchase of alliances, and the hire of votes, the corruption of the
people, and the exaltation of France.
Such are the discoveries which I am not afraid to declare that I expect
from the inquiry, and therefore, I cannot but think it necessary. If
those to whom the administration of affairs has been for twenty years
committed, have betrayed their trust, if they have invaded the publick
rights with the publick treasure, and made use of the dignities which
their country has conferred upon them, only to enslave it, who will not
confess, that they ought to be delivered up to speedy justice? That they
ought to be set as landmarks to posterity, to warn those who shall
hereafter launch out on the ocean of affluence and power, not to be too
confident of a prosperous gale, but to remember, that there are rocks on
which whoever rushes must inevitably perish? If they are innocent, and
far be it from me to declare them guilty without examination, whom will
this inquiry injure? Or what effects will it produce, but that which
every man appears to desire, the reestablishment of the publick
tranquillity, a firm confidence in the justice and wisdom of the
government, and a general reconciliation of the people to the ministers.
Colonel MORDAUNT spoke then, in substance as follows:--Sir,
notwithstanding the zeal with which the honourable gentleman has urged
the necessity of this inquiry, a zeal of which, I think, it may at least
be said, that it is too vehement and acrimonious to be the mere result
of publick spirit, unmixed with interest or resentment; he has yet been
so far unsuccessful in his reasoning, that he has not produced in me any
conviction, or weakened any of the impressions which the arguments of
those whom he opposes had made upon me.
He has contented himself with recapitulating some of the benefits which
may be hoped for from the inquiry; he has represented in the strongest
terms, the supposed misconduct of the ministry; he has aggravated all
the appearances of wickedness or negligence, and then has inferred the
usefulness of a general inquiry for the punishment of past offences, and
the prevention of the like practices in future times.
That he has discovered great qualifications for invective, and that his
declamation was well calculated to inflame those who have already
determined their opinion, and who are, therefore, only restrained from
such measures as are now recommended by natural caution and sedateness,
I do not deny; but, surely he does not expect to gain proselytes by
assertions without proof, or to produce any alteration of sentiments,
without attempting to answer the arguments which have been offered
against his opinion.
It has been urged with great appearance of reason, that an inquiry, such
as is now proposed, with whatever prospects of vengeance, of justice, or
of advantage, it may flatter us at a distance, will be in reality
detrimental to the publick; because it will discover all the secrets of
our government, lay all our negotiations open to the world, will show
what powers we most fear, or most trust, and furnish our enemies with
means of defeating all our schemes, and counteracting all our measures.
This appears to me, sir, the chief argument against the motion, an
argument of which the force cannot but be discovered by those whose
interest it is to confute it, and of which, therefore, by appearing to
neglect it, they seem to confess that it is unanswerable; and therefore,
since I cannot find the motion justified otherwise than by loud
declarations of its propriety, and violent invectives against the
ministry, I hope that I shall escape at least the censure of the calm
and impartial, though I venture to declare, that I cannot approve it;
and with regard to the clamorous and the turbulent, I have long learned
to despise their menaces, because I have hitherto found them only the
boasts of impotence.
Mr. CORNWALL made answer to the following purport:--Sir, if to obtain
the important approbation of the gentleman that spoke last, it be
necessary only to answer the argument on which he has insisted, and
nothing be necessary to produce an inquiry but his approbation, I shall
not despair that this debate may be concluded according to the wishes of
the nation, that secret wickedness may be detected, and that our
posterity may be secured from any invasion of their liberty, by examples
of the vengeance of an injured people.
[The house divided.--The yeas went forth.--For the question, 242;
against it, 244: so that it passed in the negative, by a majority of
two.]