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pire to a seat here, upon independent, constitutional principles: but who those principles can stand his ground, if such an attack be endured at those hands, which may distribute honorary and pecuniary gratuities, together with places and pensions, without controul, and without account? I have now only to add, before I move summonses for the evidence in proof, that I had not even the least distant hint or surmise of any negociation of this nature, in which lord North was a party, when I moved a standing resolution now on your Journals; to which the noble lord assented at the time, and which seems so aptly to fit his present case: that resolution occurred to me as proper, upon considering the petition from Middlesex, for securing the independence of parliament.

removed from the spot by a close attendance on my duty here. One seat was, it seems, agreed for on a dissolution, in exchange for a weighty purse of gold; but, to seduce a worthy set of people from their rivetted predilection in my behalf, (and which it can be made apparent still subsists there) almost to a man; and above all, to over-rule every tye of probity and good faith in the breast of a person of Mr. Medlycott's rank and description, was not very easy to compass: yet was this the avowed paramount object of the noble lord in the blue ribbon from the beginning of the treaty; and it was fully expressed by his lordship's agents and attornies; "At any cost Mr. Luttrell must be removed. Lord North is determined to pursue him to any borough for which he may offer himself a candidate." The noble lord acted but fairly to consider me an irreclaimable enemy to him in his political station; and he did me an honour, of which I feel proud, when, amidst a great and formidable minority of above 200, he thought it worth while to hunt down so inconsiderable an opponent as myself, at the expence, too, of such pains-such malignity and base corruption, though probably there are many others marked out for the same pursuit; -it required the lure of a first minister's dignified situation and power, joined with the immediate practical influence of the dispenser of secret-service-money (I allude to a secretary of the Treasury) to enthral this poor over-matched country gentleman, Mr. Medlycott. He was, it seems, beset with a miscellaneous crew of evil spirits, such as you may have seen painted in a Temptation of St. Anthony, but wanted the preternatural aid of the like divine grace; therefore, at the end of a six months siege, he surrendered to the noble lord, not, I believe, without condition munificent, in the extreme, such as became the minister of a rich and generous nation to bestow for such salutary state purposes. I speak feelingly, I hope not too warmly, on this matter. A consideration of my public duty has caused this open mode of meeting the injury, perhaps not the most adviseable to frustrate the hostile views of the noble lord on the day of election. If the suffering of a private person were not totally absorbed in the insult to parliament and to the country at large, I might dwell further on this signal act of oppression. It is, surely, no illaudable ambition to as[VOL. XXI.]

Lord North said, he was perfectly astonished when the hon. gentleman began to inform the House, that he had a charge to make against him for undue practices with the borough of Milborne Port. The hon. gentleman had not stated any one specific fact, which was capable of an answer; it was impossible, therefore, for him to say more at present than that he cared not how soon, nor how fully the charge was gone into, conscious of his own innocence, and perfectly satisfied, that whenever the day of enquiry came, it would be manifested to the whole House. The hon. gentleman had accused him of cruelly persecuting him, and that it had been declared he was determined to follow him to any borough for which he might offer himself a candidate," he did assure the hon. gentleman he never had the most distant intention of persecuting him, much less of preventing his having a seat in that House; whether he had or had not, would be the very last object of his consideration; and as to the words imputed to him, they certainly never were spoken either by him or by his authority; least of all should he have thought of interfering with the hon. gentleman's return for Milborne Port, to an exclusive election for which place he did not doubt he was fully entitled by having a large house, and a large estate in the neighbourhood; by old connections, long acquaintance, great intimacy, and great regard! After pursuing this irony for some time, his lordship seriously said, he wished the motion to be carried; that he was ready to meet the enquiry, being perfectly convinced, he could prove his innocence with

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out the least preparation, though he was sure all the preparation the hon. gentleman could desire, would not enable him to support his charge.

The motion for the attendance of the witnesses was agreed to.

On the 16th and 17th of March, the House took the complaint into consideration and several witnesses were examined. Mr. Luttrell concluded his evidence with reading the following declaration, dated in November last, written and signed by Mr. Medlycott; "Unprepared as I was, without even a promise of support from you. In this critical situation an offer was afterwards made to me of an assignment of Mr. W's -'s borough-property, on condition of my supporting a double recommendation of their's. To this proposal, my necessity and not my will consented." Mr. Luttrell concluded with saying, that he had proved, he hoped to the demonstration of the House, that a person, acting as the agent of lord North, had been guilty of corrupt practices in the borough of Milborne Port; a circumstance, which if it was not done with the noble lord's privity and consent, he would thank him for making public, that the same gentleman might not go with such pretences to the different boroughs of this country. In all the west of England he was distinguished by the appellation of lord North's Lloyd. He had been guilty of similar abuses at Ilchester, and several other boroughs. He was tenant to lord North; recruiting officer; lived with him in habits of intimacy, and had been his generally acknowledged agent.

Lord North defended himself against the charge by saying that no part of it had been proved. Instead of having adduced evidence to prove that either he or his agents had been guilty of the corrupt practices, the hon. gentleman had concluded this accusation with saying barely, that persons pretending to be his agents had committed them. Mr. Lloyd was never his agent. True, he was his tenant, and he paid him a valuable consideration for the lands which he farmed. He had raised some recruits for one of his sons, but he had done this not from any lucrative motives, but from friendship. True, he had visited Mr. Lloyd, because he was accustomed in the summer time to go into the country to settle his accounts and arrange his affairs, and Mr. Lloyd rented his house which was in the midst of his

tenants. But all this did not amount to an agency; he had given Mr. Lloyd no commission to purchase any interest in Milborne Port, and he was totally innocent of the charge. His lordship then withdrew.

Mr. Luttrell moved, "That it appears to this House, that there have been divers undue and corrupt practices respecting the election of members to serve in parliament for the borough of Milborne Port, in the county of Somerset, at the approaching general election."

The Solicitor General moved, as an amendment to this, the following words to be added, "committed by the right hon. lord North, first lord commissioner of his Majesty's treasury, or others acting as his agents in this transaction." This amendment he said he moved, because the other did not either acquit or condemn the object of the charge.

The House were generally of opinion that the amendment ought to be admitted, and that though there was not legal proof of lord North's guilt, yet it was apparent that there had been undue and corrupt practices committed in the borough.

Mr. Fox hoped the House would not in their decision on this question forget the justice that was due to the borough. It was a crime infinitely greater in gentlemen to commit such shameful transactions, than for boroughs, oppressed with poverty, like Shoreham, to make bribery the means of their existence. He hoped the House would take it up, and proceed upon it in a proper manner.

The question, with the Amendment, was negatived.

Col. Holroyd moved, "That the said charge brought against the right hon. lord North is ill founded and injurious."

Mr. Fox said, if nothing further was intended, he thought the motion a very immaterial one: it meant nothing; but if it was to be followed by any motion of censure against the hon. gentleman who brought the charge, he should oppose it, to the utmost; apprehending, however, that there was some motion of that kind in reserve, he would move the previous question. He thought the friends of the motion extremely inconsistent, if that was their design; for he very well remembered, when he had upon former occasions, mentioned the judgment of the court martial upon admiral Keppel, that the charges brought against him were malicious and ill founded; the other side of the House,

and the noble lord himself (lord North) said, such judgment was ridiculous; sir Hugh Palliser was not before the court; they were not pronouncing sentence upon him; and therefore the court martial had nothing to do with him. From this, Mr. Fox drew a strong argument, that the friends of the motion, to be consistent with themselves, could not offer any subsequent motion.

Mr. Dundas replied, that the charge brought against the noble lord, not being fully proved, the motion was proper. If it had been brought home to the noble lord, every committee in England would have taken it up; it would have been matter for a particular resolution in each; it would have been adduced as a proof of the influence of the crown.

Mr. T. Townshend observed, that though the charge was not brought home to the noble lord, yet every body must be satisfied that there was an attempt made by somebody, and it was a well known fact, which he appealed to every gentleman for the truth of, that persons in a private room would say many things which they would be afraid to repeat at the bar of the House; that there was a freedom in one place, and an awe and dread in the other; that any gentleman might be induced to believe himself, what he could not afterwards fully satisfy another of, the evidence not keeping the same emphasis, nor the

same terms.

Mr. Byng thought, that the best mode of vindicating the noble lord, was for his lordship to bring actions against the persons who had assumed the character of his agents in this business; for such they certainly seemed; the treasury, or his lordship, and sometimes both, were constantly spoken of in every stage and part of it: and if his lordship did not vindicate his character by punishing such delinquents, the public would judge for themselves.

The motion was agreed to without a division.

Lord North, who was sometimes in the Speaker's chamber, and sometimes in the gallery, came into the House, and thanked them for having acquitted him; and then said, that as the East India Company had made him no offers, he would on the 21st, move that the Speaker of the House should intimate to the chairman of the Company, that the debt would be paid off.

Mr. Fullarton's Complaint of the Earl of Shelburne.] March 20. Mr. Fullarton

rose and said, his character and his conduct in offering to raise a regiment had been reflected upon in the other House of Parliament by a noble earl; a matter which had given him great uneasiness, and the more, because he was puzzled how to act, in order to wipe out the imputation. He rose therefore to explain the motives of his conduct, and he trusted the House would hear him patiently, as he felt his honour wounded, and had ardently wished for an opportunity of removing the bad impression of his conduct, which the place where the reflections he alluded to were thrown out, might serve to give rise to. The reflections, were, as he understood, extremely gross; the noble earl terming him a clerk, and in the most contemptuous manner remarking, that a clerk ought not to be trusted with a regiment, adding to that remark, other insinuations, as false as they were illiberal. He said, the noble earl might think to screen himself under his peerage, but if he could forego the language and manners proper to his rank and the House in which he had attacked him, the noble earl stood in another character, which made such an attack highly unwarrantable, and that was, the character of an officer holding high professional rank. Little as he yet knew of the military profession, Mr. Fullarton said, he believed, he might venture to assert, that if the noble lord was brought to a court martial for his words concerning him, he would fall under the article of ungentlemanlike behaviour.

With regard to his offer to raise a regi ment in times of public difficulty like the present, when his country was at war with nearly half the world, he had thought his offering to assist by raising a regiment, was by no means such conduct as was likely to draw on him a public censure, more especially a censure from peers in parliament; and he was sure that House, if they knew the service for which his regiment was destined, would not think he merited the unhandsome attack that had been made on him. He went on thus; I know it is irregular to take notice here of what passed elsewhere; but it is the privilege of those who are aspersed, to wipe out the imputation. It is the object of my life to deserve the approbation of this House and of my country. It is the duty of this House to know, that those men who sit here, and who are raised to the command of regiments, in times like the present, are not such men as I have

been described. I was named while very young, by the King, secretary to the embassy at Paris-an appointment so honourable, with regard to business, emolument, and situation, that I did not expect it would have procured me the title of clerk, especially from a noble duke (of Richmond) whose brother held the same office; and from a noble earl, who, as well as that duke, having been at the head of the diplomatic affairs of this country, as secretary of state, must have known the falsehood of his own assertion. That noble earl-I mean the earl of Shelburne

Mr. Fox called to order, and said, he could not sit still and hear gentlemen proceed in so unparliamentary a manner, to state what was said in another House, and to mention peers by name; it was contrary to every rule in parliament, and ought not to be endured. He spoke of the impossibility of the House knowing whether the words alluded to were really spoken, as the hon. gentleman had been informed they had, and argued the impropriety of considering what was said in debate as a private and personal attack. He begged once for all to declare, that if such a custom prevailed, the freedom of debate must cease; and contended, that the most essential of all the rights of parliament would be lost, if gentlemen were to suppose, that when their names and public conduct were mentioned, a personal af. front was intended. He declared his regard for the noble lord alluded to, and hoped he should stand excused for having laid down a doctrine, which he was confident ought implicitly to be adopted.

Mr. Rigby declared, he subscribed most fully to the doctrine; but he was exceedingly astonished to hear it from the hon. gentleman's mouth, because no one member, he said, had so frequently been guilty of that violation as the hon. gentleman. He then explained what the custom of parliament was, ever since he had known parliament, and wished it was more strictly adhered to, because it would not only preserve the freedom of debate, but preserve regularity, and prevent ill humour.

Lord North said, that it was certainly wrong, to mention in that House or the other, the name of any member elsewhere. There were some occasions, however, which would justify it, and he thought the case of the hon. gentleman one. His lordship paid Mr. Fullarton great compliments, and declared he had done himself great honour, even though he had taken the

wrong opportunity to clear himself. He recommended the hon. gentleman to treat all personal attacks with indifference and contempt. Noble lords in another place were very apt to be personal, and they very often made free with him. Among other names, one of them had lately called him "a thing." The appellation, however contemptibly meant, was certainly truly applied; he was a thing. But the noble lord who had applied it to him had put an addition to it. He had said, he was "a thing called a minister." A moment's consideration, said his lordship, convinced me that this ought not to be considered as an affront, because a moment's consideration reminded me that the noble lord, who had dubbed me "a thing called a minister," would not have the smallest objection to become that very "thing" himself.

Mr. Fullarton said, he should not have mentioned the noble earl by name, but that the noble earl had attacked him by name, and with all the aristocratical insolence which marked his character. The noble earl had asserted "that he and his regiment would be as ready to draw their swords against the liberties of their country as against its foes," and he would leave the House to judge whether he ought to feel himself hurt or not.

At length the order of the day was called for, and the Contractors' Bill was read a third time, and passed.

Debate on the Clause in Mr. Burke's Establishment Bill for abolishing the Offices of Treasurer of the Chamber and others.] The order of the day was read, for the House to resolve itself into a committee on Mr. Burke's Establishment Bill. As soon as Mr. Elwes had taken his seat at the table of the Committee,

Sir Fletcher Norton rose and said, he had felt a great weight on his mind ever since Monday last, when he had very imprudently gone into matter totally foreign to the subject under consideration. He sincerely asked pardon of the Committee for this error, of which, and of the extent of it, no man could be more conscious than he was. Had he not received great provocation, he certainly would not have suffered himself to be driven into the irregularity for which he was then apologizing: not that he presumed to think the magnitude of his provocation any excuse; let the provocation be ever so great, he was ready to own, that it would not justify his departure from order; he was merely

stating the cause of his misconduct, from an humble hope, that what would not amount to a justification, might nevertheless have its influence on the candour of the House, and plead in some degree as an excuse. He had been uneasy from the day succeeding that, on which he had been guilty of the irregularity he adverted to, and the present was the first opportunity that had offered, for his asking pardon of the Committee for having suffered himself to be led into a recital of matters, which, however material and interesting to himself, certainly were not fit subjects for discussion in that committee, who had before them an object of the first importance, and which called for all their attention. He begged, however, when he was thus expressing his anxiety to apologize to the Committee for having inadvertently and in a moment of haste and provocation, uttered that, which was exceedingly ill-timed, that no gentleman would suppose he meant to correct or alter the substance of what he had said; he did not retract a syllable; he had stated facts, which well deserved the attention of that House, when properly laid before them. Those facts he would stand or fall by, and it was from his wish to clear himself with that House, and his country, that he rose then. He was not blind to the abuse that had been thrown upon him with such remarkable avidity and industry since Monday last; he saw the newspaper attacks, but he held them in the most sovereign contempt; it was not the force of those attacks, but the fear of being thought ill of by that House, whose good opinion he should ever deem it his highest honour to be blessed with, that induced him to say what he had just spoken. With regard to the matter in question, he repeated to the House, that he had no negociation whatever with the noble lord, relative to himself. He never had treated with him on the subject of places, and he declared on the word of a gentleman and a man of honour, that what he had said on Monday last, proceeded from no disappointment, nor no private motive, as had been most impudently and injuriously imputed to him.

The idea thrown out, that he wished to attain the presidency of the court of Common Pleas from motives of interest was too absurd and ridiculous to deserve an answer. If he had been appointed to that post in the line of his profession, (which post he owned it was his ambition to hold) he must necessarily give up

nearly double the advantage in point of profit, but the matter was altogether unworthy of comment. When he had last the honour of addressing the Committee, he had told them what had been his conduct in the affair, which he then stated to be a foul transaction, and which he still thought so. His conduct, he had the happiness to find, had done some good, for the transaction in question had not been, to that day, completed. He was left therefore without cause of complaint. He would only add, that the matter had terminated to his entire satisfaction, for he had stated the case where he had found the highest sense of honour, and the most fixed integrity; where there was an exact and minute recollection of circumstances, and where he had met with a reception which he should ever remember, with the utmost reverence and gratitude.

Mr. De Grey stated to the House the satisfaction he felt that this matter was again brought under their consideration, for he had suffered the greatest uneasiness at its having been so much misunder stood: and he reminded the House that however conscious the learned judge might be of his own integrity, yet the satisfaction of a virtuous mind was incomplete, if it was not accompanied with the approbation and the confidence of the public. That the House would judge what his own particular feelings must be, if any man could call in question the propriety of the learned judge's conduct, as far as it was founded in an attention to so unworthy an object as the person who was then addressing the House. That a report had been circulated, and had gained credit abroad, that upon the resignation of the chief justice two years ago, a sum of money to the amount of 7,000l. or 8,000l. was to have been paid by lord North out of the public treasury, and was actually deposited in the hands of an eminent banker for the chief justice, in lieu of a reversion to a particular office in the court of Common Pleas, which the chief justice would have had a right of appointing to, if it had fallen whilst he continued at the head of that court. That he, (Mr. De Grey) would take upon himself to assure the House that the whole of this report was false, and was founded in a mistake. That no sum of money was ever offered, demanded, talked of, or even to the best of his knowledge thought of by any body. That if it had been so offered, or so accepted, he should have thought both the