He then drew a picture of the consti- | after the death of Charles 12, as well as tution of this country, and was warm upon her resignation of the throne in favour in its eulogium. He declared it to be of her consort, Frederick, landgrave of more perfect than the constitution of Hesse Cassel, up to the year 1772, when Rome, of Athens, or of Sparta; in short, the revolution took place. During all than that of any republic either of anti- that period, the strong features of Sweden quity or of modern Europe; its perfection were faction, venality, vilification, and he said, lay in the nice preponderance be- poverty; loss of glory, strength, and retween its three branches, in that wonder- spect. The navy reduced to seven ships, fully correct equipoise which balanced the the people enervated and spiritless, the power of the three distinct but relative government without system or public states of King, Lords, and Commons; nor glory; till at length the nation was sunk need there be a greater proof of its ex- into contempt, despised by every other cellence and its perfection, than the admi- European power, and the Swedes almost ration, the esteem, and the applause with annihilated as a people. All these calawhich it had been spoken of by the wisest mities, and all this disgrace had been enmen of all countries. In times previous tailed on Sweden, in consequence of the to the æra of 1688, when the glorious Re- people, in the year 1718, having, when volution was effected, prerogative was the they felt sore from the oppression and weapon of the crown. The liberties of rigour of the reign of Charles 12, madly the people were not then accurately de- precipitated into the opposite extreme, fined, and the people were from that very and robbed the crown of all its natural, circumstance liable to many inroads and just, and constitutional influence. After much oppression, which were exercised stating this pretty fully, he took notice of by that powerful engine, prerogative, Mr. Burke's declaration in his speech of under various pretences. But in 1688, the 15th inst. "That France had made a prerogative was abrogated, and liberty reform, that Louis 16 had done it: why, defined. At that fortunate period of our then, should not we imitate so bright an history, when the Star Chamber, the example?" Few reasonings on French Court of Wards, and all the execrable conduct, Mr. Wraxall said, could ever tyranny introduced and practised by the apply to England; France was a despotic, House of Stuart was abolished, and in its this a free country. British kings could stead the Bill of Rights and Magna Charta not imitate arbitrary princes. In England established, the king stood, as it were, the throne is built on liberty. In France chained to the pillar of liberty. It was it rests on the necks of 200,000 soldiers. the great support of his reign, the sublime It is upheld by farmers general, by opfabric which he engaged to erect; and pression, by a servile parliament, banished who so proper to be the architect, as a at will, as the last parliament was, to prince who had been at the head of a free Angouleme and Pontoise, and by military republic, and had been called from thence, rigour and armed authority. But Mr. and invited to fill the throne of a yet freer Burke had said, that "Louis 14 and people? But still virtually and tacitly a Louis 15 had never made such a reform. barrier was wisely left to the crown. That It was left for M. Necker, a single unconbarrier was influence! William the 3rd, nected alien, to achieve so glorious a prothe avowed opposer of tyranny, the guar- ject, and to do his royal master so much dian of the liberties of his people, and the service, accompanied with so much hoadvocate for the general freedom of Eu- nour." He denied the whole of the asrope, was as jealous as any prince of his sertion. Retrenchments of the kind were influence. Why? Because he saw that if by no means novelties in France. In influence was lost, the crown would be 1689, in the reign of Louis 14, when M. degraded, and the nation must soon be Le Pelletier was at the head of the finance, degraded likewise. three millions of livres were raised by melting down the king's plate, and three millions more from that of his nobles. Such a reform was surely a very rigorous one, and it was the more extraordinary, as it was made in the beginning of a prosperous war. Again, in 1706, when Chamillard managed the finances of France, another reform took place; and again, a

In order to shew that this would have been the consequence, Mr. Wraxall adverted to the history of Sweden, citing the fate of that country as an example correctly in point. He gave an account He gave an account of Sweden, as it stood at the time the constitution of it was changed in the year 1718, when it was governed by Ulrica,

third, in 1708, when Demarets was finan- | seriously, felt himself justified in dreading cier. In the reign of Louis 15, cardinal a civil war, a calamity that would have Fleury's strict œconomy, and a long peace, completed our misfortunes! He concluded made a reform not so requisite in the war of 1741. But in 1761 and 1762, a thorough reform, as was well known, took place.

with saying, that those who love the English people, and their liberties, must assemble round the throne. They must defend it from all attacks, as well as from the innovating projects of dangerous but well meaning theorists, as from the open assaults of its avowed enemies, otherwise the constitution itself would fall, for the stability of the throne, and the security of the people were inseparable; weaken the one, the other must necessarily be injured; for which reason he should oppose the present Bill.

As to the hon. gentleman's reasons for dreading France, he differed from him extremely. The hon. gentleman had declared, that he feared her on account of her reform, and on no other account. He felt a very different motive for fearing France at present. It was not on account of her powerful fleets and her great alliances. No. Neither was it on account of her reform. That could do but very little indeed. He feared her because she could devote all her finances to her navy; because she had no land war; because we have no continental ally, and because the frontier of France was secure and peaceable. There was the deep evil, the source, and the only source of real danger to this country! While the frontier of France was undisturbed, and the Rhine flowed quietly within its banks, we had every reason to be alarmed, because while matters remained in that state, France could support her navy, she could recruit it rapidly, and could add daily to its number, its strength, and its service. He was ready to subscribe to Mr. Burke's arguments relative to the two boards, and the ridiculous establishments of the duchy of Lancaster and the duchy of Cornwall, the palatinate of Chester, and the principality of Durham; he was ready also to allow, that all he had said on those topics was equally just and beautiful, but he could not agree with him that they ought to be abolished, and the reason was, because he was not for destroy.juring the tree itself. It gave stability to ing the influence of the crown.

Lord Maitland* rose for the first time, and entered fully into the question, on the ground on which it had been taken up by the other gentlemen who had gone before him. He combated the arguments that had been urged with great ability and force of reasoning. The hon. gentleman who had been the author of the Bill, was perhaps the only man in this country whose powers were equal to so systematic and generous a reform. He had connected liberality with interest. He had made it policy to be generous. It was no little, narrow, wretched scheme of retrenchment, breaking in upon the dignity of the crown, or the respect of the nation; but a great and beautiful arrangement of office, calculated to ornament, instead of stripping the court. It destroyed the underwood of grandeur, the bushes under which the serpent of influence lurked, and from which, unseen, it stung and tainted the dignity of the constitution. It chased away the contaminating excrescences, and by this means it fructified, instead of in

power, by relieving it from the burthens by He here pointed out the great danger of which it was oppressed. It was calculated popular inroad and democratic violence. to strip off the poisonous shirt with which He spoke of the insurrections of last sum- this Hercules of the constitution was inmer, which he described as horrible atro-vested, and in which he laboured in all cities, at the recollection of which every true friend to liberty, and every true friend to good government must shudder. He ascribed those mischiefs to a species of republican phrenzy, and touched on the danger of associations, which, though set on foot by the best lovers of their country, sometimes led to events not only totally foreign to the intentions of those who instituted such associations, but which they could not but detest and lament. In the course of the last summer, he said, every man that thought upon the subject

the agonies of death. Economy was the remedy to which we must refer. It was the sovereign specific, by which we might yet avert the consequences of consumptive decline. Those who objected to the present Bill, in fact, declared that œconomy was not necessary or not proper, and that corrupt influence ought to be maintained. It was an idle and an absurd quibble to dispute the existence of undue influence;

*The present earl of Lauderdale. (A. Da 1814.)

the last man in that House to adopt, or to approve of a measure, in which violent hands were to be laid on the revenue of the sovereign. Attached to the family upon the throne, as they all were, by the fervent bonds of loyalty and interest, it would be the last thing which that House would attempt, to diminish the glory, or to abridge the pleasures of the sovereign. This did neither, but added to both; it was not more calculated to introduceœconomy, than to ascertain respect; and not more calculated to take from corrupt influence, than to add to honourable power. Such were his sentiments, because he considered the true and solid power of the crown to be seated in the glory and in the virtues of the sovereign. If the sovereign possessed the confidence and the love of his people, if he and they were bound together by the bonds of sympathetic regard and affection, then the crown would be more splendid, and possess more lustre than it could possibly derive from pageantry and parade.

it was manifest, and like any simple pro- has enormously increased. His lordship blem of Euclid, could not derive more illustrated this position much at large, by perspicuity from explanation than it pos- supposing himself a novice in the service sessed from name. The Journals of the of state affairs, and requiring of some aged House had declared the existence of in- friend the solution of many political fluence, and in their subsequent conduct paradoxes, all of which the existence of the House had proved the fact. On that court influence, he shewed, could only exmemorable night, the 6th of April, a gleam plain. In that train of reasoning, he inof returning virtue shot through the troduced a detail of circumstances and House. Truth made its transient appear- events, which all combined to prove the ance, and pressed conviction on the minds extent of the power which the minister | of men, not incident to conviction. For had acquired in parliament by the means once they yielded to the impression-the of that efficacious instrument. The noble touchstone was applied to the heart, and lord considered this Bill as the foundation from their mouths came honesty and truth stone of reformation. Its provisions were -but that influence which they acknow-wholesome and salutary: nay, he consiledged to exist, rose from its temporary de-dered them as palatable. He would be pression with accumulated strength. It rose to justify the declarations of the 6th of April, but it held them forth as a matter of mockery and insult, a vox et præterea nihil: as if it found a triumph in the acknowledgment of its existence, and in the insolence of wickedness and power, presumed to say to the people, It is true, influence has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished; but I am grown sturdy; I have taken possession of the last bulwark of the constitution, the Commons House of Parliament; and I am superior to the feeble rage and the impotent attacks of virtue. After this plain proof, would it be denied that influence existed? If the House had not virtue enough to rescue themselves from the imputation of returning to dependence, it became them at least to acknowledge the servitude and the slavery in which they were held. The noble lord traced the course of our calamities up to the fountain head-the mad and ruinous American war. It was that which had exhausted our resources, and it was that which had made Sir Horace Mann said, that he had last the increase of influence so necessary. It year opposed parts of the Bill, which aphad become the infamous task of ministers peared to him at that time to be highly to bribe men whom they could not per- objectionable, but he had always apsuade. They had been obliged, when de- proved of the principle. The regulalusion had evaporated, and all the archi- tions proposed in the King's household, tecture of chimeras was demolished, to re- particularly that of supplying his table by sort to the insinuating powers of corrup- contract, was a species of œconomy tion: and those men who had acted with- to which he would never consent, beout system in the operations of govern- causé he considered it as a degradation ment, had been both ingenious and suc- of the royalty of England. He could cessful in the management of parliament. never agree to set the King down to Such now was the state of corruption, an ordinary : but those objectionable that no man could live and think in this points having been given up, he undoubtcountry, without irrefragable proofs press-edly should vote for the second reading, ing on his feelings every moment, to convince him, however incredulous, of this truth, that the influence of the crown

and he thought the House were most dutifully complying with the words of his Majesty from the throne, on the opening

of the session, in proceeding to pass a Bill like that before them. His Majesty had expressly desired to know the wishes of his people; and in the speech immediately subsequent to the late disgraceful outrages, had declared, that he wished to make the happiness and the welfare of the people his own. What could more forcibly convey to the royal mind the sentiments of the people, than the Commons of England agreeing to pass a Bill, the avowed objects of which were public reform and public œconomy? He was astonished at having heard the resolution of the 6th of April treated with so little respect, and hoped no man would presume to abrogate a resolution of the House, though agreed to by a former parliament. He congratulated the House on the burst of abilities, that had given lustre to the debate, and had done the young members on both sides so much honour.

vourite species of reformation. He remarked, that by the nature of our mixed government, the disposal of all places of trust and profit are vested in the crown; this liberal and constitutional prerogative, in the opinion of the ablest writers, was productive of many beneficial effects. In the first place, it had an obvious tendency to soothe, and allay those restless and irritating passions, which the invidious power and splendour of monarchy were very apt to excite in some men of a certain temperature, especially if, from some cause or other, they had been chilled by remaining too long in the shade, deprived of that genial and exhilarating warmth which court sunshine is usually supposed to bestow. Yet these perturbed spirits had their use; ever restless and uneasy in themselves, they watched with jealous and aching eyes, every motion of the state machine; often, indeed, they might obstruct and retard its motions, yet at other times, they prevented its descending too rapidly on the wheel of prerogative, and checked it by the drag chain of opposition.

par

Mr. Courtenay said, he rose with the utmost diffidence, lest he should be deemed presumptuous in attempting to controvert principles and combat arguments specious and popular in themselves, and ren- The distinction and opposition of dered highly so by that brilliant and cap- ties, springing from the very nature of our tivating eloquence, which peculiarly dis- free constitution, derived their full force: tinguished the hon. gentleman on his and complexion from the glorious Revomoving for leave to bring in the present lution, when liberty was more firmly estaBill, and which must still vibrate on the blished, and prerogative more accurately ears of the House. No man entertained defined. He said, it was a Revolution a higher respect for him than he did. principle, and he liked it the better for The hon. gentleman merited it; for who being so, especially, as to this very prinwas there gifted with such superior talents, ciple we were indebted for that constant. who bore his faculties so meekly? Whose generation of patriots which every admicandour and ingenuousness were more nistration necessarily begets; they shine conspicuous? Who arranged his matter and twinkle a while in their orbits (like with so much judgment, and who illumined other constellations) whilst they preserve it with so much fancy? It would argue their due distance from our political sun; want of taste in those who differed most but when they approach too near, they from the hon. gentleman in the fleeting become invisible, no longer attract the politics of the day, not to set a just esti- gaze of popular admiration, but are lost in mation on his singular and shining abi- the majesty of his beams. The effects lities. Posterity would do them justice, naturally resulting from the genius and and admire the man who had infused a nature of the British constitution, as opespirit of Attic elegance into British oratory, rating on the human passions, are adand whose classical compositions would mirably and justly described in the followbe read with delight by the scholar, the ing passage by the celebrated Montes-.. philosopher and the statesman. quieu: "As those, who, with the greatest: The present Bill held out a very flatter-warmth oppose the executive power, dare ing and popular idea-œconomy, great savings to the public, and a consequent diminution of the dangerous influence of the crown; but the sum proposed to be saved was but trifling, considered as a great national object; consequently, a diminution of the influence of the crown must be the true and secret motive for this fa

not avow the self-interested motives of their opposition, so much the more do they increase the terrors of the people, who can never be certain whether they are in danger or not. And as the executive power, by disposing of all employments, may give great hopes and no fears, every man who entertains any favour from