The SPEAKER proceeded to read the addrefs, which being concluded,

Mr. SHERIDAN rofe, and began by ftating, that it was not his intention to have rifen fo early to deliver his opinion; but obferving that not a fingle gentleman evinced a wish to fpeak, he could not prevail upon himself to remain filent. Indeed, he was not furprised at the dumb astonishment with which the Speech had been heard for if ever there was a Speech calculated to excite aftonishment and furprife, it was the prefent. He would venture to fay, that if any person could have previously known the Speech, and had written to any part of England or Scotland, they would not have found a fingle man who would not have been surprised at the first noun fubftantive in the Speech being fatisfaction, or at that fubftantive being used in any other part of the Specch. It was faid to be the mark of a refigned and religious: temper, to be eafily fatisfied. If that were true, there never were Minifters of more meek and primitive piety than the prefent. For what they had then satisfied by he knew not. Had the mover or feconder of the addrefs told the Houfe? Our fituation had, it was afferted, experienced confiderable improvement fince last year; the first improvement was on the fide of Italy, but it was not remembered, that at the period alluded to the Republicans had not penetrated into Italy; the second confifted in a report of a check which the French had experienced on the other fide of the Rhine. He wished it might prove true, but, at prefent, he believed it refted on no better authority than a French newfpaper. The army of the Rhine, however, had not last year croffed the Rhine; and now they were only prevented from advancing to the Danube, and obliged to limit their progrefs to the German fide of the Rhine, where they were likely to fpend the winter. Had any improvement occurred with respect to the fituation of this country with Holland? The Dutch were in perfect alliance with France, and England was at war with Holland. Laft year Pruffia had been an ally of Great Britain; yet though His Pruffian Majefty had departed from the alliance, the reft of the allies would, it was maintained, prove steady to the cause. Spain had been loft to the coalition. in the fituation of the country? Last year feveral islands had been conquered in the Weft Indies. This year the fituation of the country had been improved by the lofs of two, and by the imminent danger in which the rest were involved. Had the fituation of the country at home been improved? Laft year the Minister had treated with fcorn the idea of a fcarcity of grain; yet now, the VOL. LXIII.

C

What had been the fact? Was this an improvement

people were informed in the fpeech from the throne, that there was a profpect of another famine not lefs fevere than the laft, and this was to be confidered as an improvement. He was really furprized, how Ministers could have the front to put fuch words into the mouth of His Majefty, and that they could fuffer the King when he paf.fed through his ftarving and oppreffed, and forry was he to hear, irritated and clamorous people, to come down to the House and exprefs his fatisfaction.

If the profpect of peace was near, fome compenfation would be made for thofe evils; but gentlemen ftill clung, he faid, to their old fyftem. By a reference to the fpeech of the year before.laft, he found that His Majefty faid, "peace could alone be obtained by a fuccessful termination of the conteft." Was the country now, he would ask, in the courfe of a fuccefsful termination of the conteft, or fince that period, have we met with any thing but difgrace and defcat? How different from what is laid down in that fpeech, is the argument of the gentleman who feconded the addrefs: he fays, "the more the French conquer, the more they increg their internal di refs, and from that di refs, are we to look forward to a better order of things." In the fpeech of laft feffion, His Majetty held out fome hopes of peace, which he was afraid could not be drawn from the prefent; he there fays, "that it is impoffible to contemplate the prefent fate of affairs without indulging a hope that they muft produce a government capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other powers." In the prefent fpeech His Majeny only ftates, that "the diffraction and ⚫ anarchy which have fo long prevailed in that country, have led to a crifis, of which it is impoñible as yet to foresee the illue." A very jut caufe of fatisfaction truly; that is as much as to fay, that it is impoffible to fee any benefit that may arife from this crifis; but it is to produce confequences that will be important to the interests of Europe. When thefe confequences are to arrive, and what they are to be, we know not; but they are in fpirita little ftolen from Partridge's almanack, the predictions in which are," that the next year will produce most important events, of which all those who are then alive will be witneffes." In this fpeech then there is not any wellfounded ground for the bope of peace; and we are now exactly in the fame state as when His Majefty delivered his moft gracious Speech of last year, minus the hope of peace. "If," faid Mr. Sheridan, "I were to judge of His Majefty's Speech according to the letter of our conftitution, as coming from the King himself, and not in fact, and according to the fpirit of that conftitution, as the fpeech of the Minifter; I think it contains a rational source of

fatisfaction to His Majefty individually. As Elector of Hanover, he certainly did right to make peace in that capacity; and if he could have the fame feelings and opinions about Great Britain, and confult the fame advifers, it would afford matter of joy to every body. I have often heard," faid Mr. Sheridan, "of a confiderable degree of jealoufy being entertained by the people of Great Britain, when the King has brought into this country his Hanoverian troops; I would therefore humbly propofe, that His Majefty may keep his troops at home, but instead thereof, import fome of his Hanoverian counsellors, and fend his British Minifters to Hanover; and the people of this country fo far from entertaining a jealousy on that occafion, would pour forth a profufion of acknowledgements, and furround his throne with bleffings for the change of his advisers." In another part of his Majefty's Speech, he mentions the co-operations of the juft, benevolent, and pious Emprefs of Ruffia; this, certainly, is a fource of great fatisfaction; fhe has most generously furnished us with a fleet to protect our coaft, to confume English provifions, and to learn British difcipline. With regard to our profpect of important confequences to arife from the crifis in France, these important confequences, it seems, are to be derived out of their diftreffes. Not that they are likely to become better citizens, better Chriftians, more humane or more enlightened, but of their present bad fyftem, we may look to a change, and the establishment of good government from their diftreffes. That good government should rife out of diftrefs, was a kind of hope which he applauded; and he wished the reafoning were extended to England: for furely, if from great diftreffes good government should arife, the people of England were in the high road of having a good government. The next cause of fatisfaction was the prospect of the fucceffes likely to happen in the West Indies. Hitherto there has been no cause of satisfaction in that quarter; and if he was to put his finger on the moft difgraceful of the dark catalogue of defects in the conduct of Minifters during the prefent war, he could not find any more confpicuous than thofe which regard the West Indies. An honourable gentleman had mentioned it to the praife of Minifters, that they did not bind themselves by fpecific declarations, nor had they any particular view. This, indeed, was ftrange praise; but if it was praise, he joined in it, and was ready to confess that he never knew the right honourable gentleman pledged to any one fixed principle. In the commerce of the world, that man was generally, but perhaps mistakenly, reputed worthy of confidence, who ftuck to plain dealing, and who declared his objects, and acted upon them with confiftency and perfeverance.

A

In Ministerial honefty different principles were adopted; their conduct was veering with every change of circumftance; in it we beheld a perpetual feries of compromifes and objects, perpetually changing, but never could we perceive a grand, open, or undisguifed plan. Individual Members of Adminiftration had diftin& and favourite plans. One Minifter had the little tinsel bauble of Corfica glittering in his eyes. An honourable Secretary of State, he meant of the war, not of the finecure department, had boafted that the expedition to the Weft Indies was a favourite. This honourable gentleman was no Knight-errant, he was one of those who wifhed to obtain fome valuable acquifition, and had no objection to lay hold of an ifland to fwell the number of our colonies. young man (Mr. Jenkinson), more fanguine in the cause of the emigrants and of Monarchy, propofed to march inftantly to Paris. He wished to ftrike at the heart of the Republic, while the aHies only ftruck at the extremity. He would have faftened on the core, they only nibbled at the rind. Inftead of affailing the Capital, they only braved the dangers of Normoutier and Poitou. It was this policy, which produced the wretched and miferable expedition to Quiberon; which, however deep it may ftrike into the heart of fenfibility, feems by no means to have made a deep impreffion on the minds of Minifters, if it had, they could never have placed "fatisfaction" the fifth word in His Majesty's Speech; it was true, the blood of French emigrants only had flowed, it was not British blood which had been fpilt, but it was British honour that bled at every vein. If all thefe improvements, continued Mr. Sheridan, were not fufficient to give the people of Great Britain fatisfaction, the flattering profpect is held out of great conquefts and indemnification in the West Indies.

That there was a great preparation was true, but the public wifhed to know why the expedition had not failed fix weeks ago; the delay was a great act of criminality in Minifters; how much would that criminality be increafed, when he informed the House that there was every probability that the fleet would not fail for a fortnight or three weeks longer; and at the prefent time, what was there not to be feared for our fituation in these islands, in which there was not at that moment the complement of one full regiment of effective men? There were, indeed, the remains of fix `regiments of infantry, part of a regiment of light dragoons, and fome artillery; but they did not altogether amount to the number of one full regiment. When, amid the gloom that surrounded us, we were to look, as a bright profpect, to our hope of fuccess in the Weft Indies, he confeffed he felt himself dejected and dismayed.

It would require a drain of men to infure fuccefs, which it would be impoffible for this country to fupport. If 15,000 men should be fent against St. Domingo; and with that number we should be able to conquer the French part of that island, how many more would be neceffary to effect the conqueft of the Spanish part, not yet ceded to the French; and fhould we conquer all, what great and increased reinforcements would it be neceffary to fend to a country, when, in addition to the oppofition of an active, vigorous, and fubtle foe, our armies would have to encounter more perils from the elements than from the enemy. The mortality in Grenada was alarming indeed; out of one regiment 14 officers and near 400 men died from April to August last; nor had the fick and wounded in those islands neceffary affiftance. Men were fent into the hofpital of St. Pierre, in Martinique, without medicine or attendance; and those who were fo ill, that to continue in the climate would be certain death (and many of whom had lost a limb. in the fervice of their country), could not procure tranfports to bring them home; 90 or 100 were ftowed, without fufficient accommodation, into the Supply tranfport; nay, in one inftare, in consequence of fome difpute, many of our maimed and fickly countrymen were relanded on one of the iflands, and thus from a criminal and murderous neglect left upon the beach and abandoned to certain death. Could fatisfaction arife to a good mind from the contemplation of fuch mortality? were our hopes to be enlivened by the vain and illufory vifions of conquests in that charnel housethat tomb of British foldiers?-was this the chearing profpect held up to us to behold our countrymen perishing under the fatal difeases of a peftilential climate? Would it not be a matter of more humane fatisfaction to avert these calamities? would it not be better to feize the first opportunity of negociating for peace? " We, on our fide of the Houfe," continued Mr. Sheridan," have told you before, to do as the King of Pruffia has done; find out what Government the French armies obey, under whofe command and control they atchieve fuch brilliant victories, and negociate with them; we have told you to do as Spain has done; we now tell you to do as the Elector of Hanover has done. Mr. Sheridan next adverted to the declaration of Louis XVIII. He had suspicions in his mind, that it was the intention of Minifters to act up to the spirit of this declaration, and to establish, if poffible, the old unqualified fyftem of defpotifm in France. Against fuch an object he must make his ftand, as far as as it could avail. To the fup

port or increase of the naval force for the defence of Great Britain and her commerce, he would willingly give his hearty fupport, but