our ally, and had even determined to give the necessary assistance, the publicity of the measure would have defeated the object. So that, whether we had or had not been reduced to the alternative of refusing assistance altogether, the event must have produced collateral mischiefs. I may therefore, I think, ask, Ought you to yield to the pressure of temporary dif

House. But it was undertaken in a way, and upon an emergency, which warranted the measure. Even the measure was warranted by the former opinions of my adversaries; but especially by the then and present opinion of monied men. I shall perhaps be asked, what is the difference between a loan in the manner that loan was transacted, and a loan granted in the old and popular way? What the difficulty, and abandon your ally at a moference between a direct and avowed dis- ment when such a step may be decisive of bursement of the public money, and an his fate? Ought you, on the other hand, indirect and concealed disbursement? completely to pledge yourselves to grant The former I shall, perhaps, be told, must a pecuniary assistance which, in the first have decreased the pecuniary resources of instance, may be attended with considerable the country equally with the latter; and inconvenience, and the influence of which, have lessened, though in a secret manner, on the future course of events, you are the general means of commercial security. unable to ascertain? Pledges, of aid, and But to this I cannot concede, because the of instant aid, his majesty's servants had reverse has been the fact. The fact has certainly seen good reason to give to the been, that by remitting money to the Emperor. These pledges had been given Emperor in that season of difficulty, of long before the meeting of parliament, doubt, and danger, his majesty's ministers and might justly be considered as very have rendered less doubtful the prospects eminently conducive to every measure of a safe and honourable peace. Had and every success which has been since ministers, on that occasion, after being adopted and experienced. It is, I know, convinced themselves of the necessity one among the grounds on which the and justice of such assistance, and during right hon. gentleman has brought his acthe recess of parliament, and delayed cusation, that a part of the money was the adoption of the conduct they have sent previously to the meeting of parliapursued, instead of affording to the Em-ment, and another ground, that money peror, the enemy, and Europe, a proof has been been sent since its meeting. I of superior wisdom and superior resources own, the advance to the Emperor consists it would be a proof of the want of both, of sums sent since the meeting of the by giving the money publicly. By dis- present parliament; but I do contend, cussing the subject in parliament at the that the pledges of these sums were the earliest period, if such a discussion could means by which the house of Austria enbe entered into, not only public credit dured adversity, and retrieved its prospewould have been injured, but you would rity. Had the Emperor, in July and have told the enemy that your difficulties August last, had no assurance of your obliged you to stint the acknowledged assistance, I will not say we should have wants of your allies. To those who been at this moment a ruined people, but thought worse of our resources than II will say, that the pecuniary security of did, to the public mind in general, such a England, and the territorial security of measure, in such a crisis, would, I know, Austria, had been diminished, if not uthave been a cause not of rejoicing, but of terly destroyed. sorrow; not a source of pleasure, but of pain. Every man who wished well to his country, every man sincerely attached to the principles of the constitution, instead of approving of that assistance being afforded originally as a loan, would have said, No, do not commit yourself to your ally, so as to make your necessities a test of his. If, instead of endeavouring to poise and remove the difficulty as I have done, this House had so passed a public loan, such must have been the consequence. I am certain, that had parliament been acquainted with the danger of

On a former night, an hon. friend of mine used as an argument, the effect which he thought a public discussion of the measure would have to depreciate the credit of the country; and I own I have not yet heard any thing that could induce me to think differently on that subject. The effect of a knowledge of the pecuniary distresses of the Emperor, joined to the difficulty which a prompt supply would have produced, could not fail to bear with peculiarly embarrassing weight on the course of exchange. Whereas the transmission of the sum of 1,200,000!.,

tions of all similar treaties in favour of similar conduct. As to the transaction itself, no separation could fairly be made of the necessity which gave existence to the measure, and the motives which influenced its adoption. Even supposing the judgment of parliament could have been taken, the state of Germany was such as could not have left gentlemen one moment to their doubts whether or no it was proper to assist the Emperor. What ministers have done in pursuance of their pledge was, however, done in a great measure before parliament could have been assembled to consider its expediency. Of the nature and effect of the services performed by the Emperor, gentlemen may very readily judge. They have them recorded in the annals of very recent periods, annals the most brilliant, per

in different sums, and at different periods, tended greatly to relieve the Emperor, and preserve the credit of this country from that depression which the same sum, granted at once, and in the form of a public Ioan, would have occasioned. I need not, therefore, have enumerated the particular dates of those bills. Our assurance to Austria was not confined to the meeting of parliament, not subjected to the delays of several months of recess, but it was given with reference to every situasion of difficulty or danger in which the arms of the Emperor might be placed by their resistance to the arms of France. When the Austrian troops were retreating frem their severe and glorious combat with the French republicans, they surely merited every assistance this country could afford them; but when, in the career of a brilliant series of the most splendid vic-haps, in the history of the world. Thus, tories, those gallant men were urged by their emulation of the intrepidity of their invincible officers to acts of unparalleled prowess, his majesty's servants found themselves called upon, most particularly called upon, to aid and promote their views, to soften their calamities, and to afford them means of securing their important conquests. On the conviction of the propriety of these sentiments, and of such conduct, it was, that the king's ministers had acted. Of the number of those who had been guided by these sentiments, I, Sir, certainly was one, not the least active to provide, nor, I trust, the least vigilant to manage prudently, that pecuniary stimulus which, during the recess, and at other periods, was given to the arms of the empire. Our conduct, therefore, Sir, does not respect the months of October, of November, nor December, in particular, but it had a clear and unerring relation to every crisis and circumstance, to every moment of danger. In truth, the acts themselves were acts performed distinctly in compliance with solemn engagements; they were acts in execution of pledges which had been previously given. Acting during the recess from the conviction that these pledges were given by the letter and the spirit of the existing treaties, acting after the parliament was met, under the sanction of these treaties, with no intention then, and surely none now, of setting up their own judgments as the standard of, or superior to, the judgment of the House of Commons, ministers, I think, may be permitted to avail themselves of the excep

whether we judge of the services of Austria in whole, or only in part, I think gentlemen must concede to me that the services of the last three months have been at least such as merit our particular approbation. On this part of the subject I have, therefore, at present, scarcely any thing more to remark. I have, in the best manner I am able, stated to the House the circumstance of that situation which rendered it impossible for Austria to continue her warlike operations without assistance from this country. I have likewise endeavoured to render my own conceptions of the act of sending money to an ally without the previous consent of parliament. In addition to these, I have submitted to the House those principles, in the practical exertion of which I pursued that line of conduct now so much the subject of the animadversions of the right hon. gentleman.

With this species of defence, I might in some measure rest satisfied; but I should still be wanting in duty to myself, did I not, before I sat down this night, desire the House to keep in memory the principles I have thus stated, as being those on which I acted; if I did not desire the House to compare these principles with my conduct. As to the question of extraordinaries, I have heard the idea suggested, and something like an argument attempted to be deduced from it, that if its spirit be adhered to, no part of a vote of credit can be employed to pay foreign troops. I have heard too, that of such an application of the public money so voted, our annals scarcely afford

any, and if any, not apposite precedents. which ingenuity could suggest; every veSir, I think I can instance a number of hicle of public communication rendered a precedents of this kind; I can instance to vehicle of asperity and censure on the this House, and for the information of conduct of ministers. It became the the right hon. gentleman, that votes of subject of a solemn discussion-a discuscredit were appropriated by our ancestors sion, apparently not less vehement than to the payment of foreign troops. In the it was laboured and profuse. But how, reign immediately before the Revolution, Sir, did the ministers of that day retire this very thing had been done by the from the combat? Did they retire overcrown; but, Sir, in periods subsequent whelmed with the virulence and abuse, to the Revolution, in periods not the least the censure of the discerning and temfavoured in our annals, in the reign of perate members of that parliament? Or king William, during the year 1701, ac- were those their actions distinguished by companied by circumstances of a singu- the approbation of the Commons of Great larly important and curious nature, the Britain? Sir, the minister of that day parliament voted an extra sum for the had the satisfaction to see the attack of payment of foreign forces. This sum was his adversaries repelled, and their expres voted not regularly as a vote of credit, but sions of censure changed to approbation. it succeeded the granting of a vote of credit, That minister, Sir, heard his conduct and was a measure which, although it occa- applauded, and the Journals of this House sioned some trifling opposition, was carried were made to bear record that the sense of unanimously. In the reign of queen Anne, its members was, that the sums advanced in the years 1704 and 1705, both subsi- to the Emperor on that occasion had been dies and grants had been employed in pay-productive not only of the preservation ing foreign forces. This, too, was done of the empire, but had also supported and without the authority of parliament. In maintained the interests of Europe. In 1706, a transaction more directly charac. the year 1718, in the beginning of the teristic of this, for which the ministers of reign of George 1st, an instance of the the present day are censured, was pub- application of the public money occurred, licly avowed, and as publicly discussed; which, though not so analogous as the yet, it seems the right hon. gentleman had last, I think it right to mention. A mesoverlooked it. There is to be met with in sage had been received from his majesty, the annals of the parliament of that day, soliciting the aid of the Commons to make an account of three different sums, each such an augmentation of the actual forces considered, by the opposition of that of the country as might be deemed neday, as, violations of the constitution-a cessary to place it in a respectable state remittance to the duke of Savoy, to the of defence; and that because there had Emperor, and to Spain. A sum too had been an appearance of an invasion- At been paid in the same manner to the land- this time his majesty takes Dutch troops grave of Hesse, for a corps of his troops into his pay, and the money voted to raise then in the pay of England. All these and maintain native troops is disbursed sums were not voted regularly after the for the use of a foreign corps. It is true specific propositions, submitted for that this body of Dutch troops were landed in purpose to the House, but were remitted England, and their services confined to to those sovereigns without the previous it; but not even these affected much the consent of parliament. Not even esti- application of the fact as a precedent. mates of the services for which the sums However, Sir, in the year 1734, a period had been paid, were laid before the nearer our own times, a general vote of House till six weeks after its meeting. credit was granted. That vote of credit The sum sent to the Emperor was pecu- was applied on such occasions, and for liarly distinguished-it had been trans- such purposes, as might, at any time durmitted, not at the close, not during the ing its existence, arise out of the exigenrecess of that session in which it was first cies of the time. On the 18th of Februannounced to parliament, but before the ary of the subsequent year, a vote of end of the preceding session. These credit was also granted, and a treaty conproceedings did certainly attract notice. cluded with Denmark. And Sir, if I The House of Commons and the public have not totally misconceived the pashad been addressed on the unconstitu- sage of our parliamentary history where tionality of the measure; then, as now, there had been employed every effort

*See Vol. 6, p. 551.