ing to the new fyftem. He wifhed, that fome perfon would undertake to compute the stationary defence neceffary for fuch places, in addition to the twenty two thousand men demanded for Portsmouth and Plymouth; to allow for any moving force in the county; and then to decide upon the chance, that this prolific fyftem would terminate in a reduction of the standing army.

With refpect to the probability of our being able to furnish men for the conftant maintenance of thefe garrifons, he felt it requifite to obferve, that the argument had been not a reference to our prefent peace establishment, but to the extent of the fervice during the most extravagant periods of the last war. This was in other words to hold out a notion, that we might speedily again look to a time, when we fhould become able for the purpose of war to expend, fifteen millions of money in the courfe of a single year. Was it: recollected, that at this very moment Mr. Pitt was holding out the reduction of a few hundred pounds of debt as the triumph of his administration, and the corner stone of that pillar upon which his fame was to be embla zoned? He had reafoned however in a fallacious manner from his own premifes; for, when he stated the numerous armies which we had had upon the continent of America, as refources for the increase of our home defence, he ought to have taken into his account the enormous floating establishment, which attended those armies, and which, being converted into an efficient naval defence at home, would make both his fortifications and his garrifons unneceffary.

Mr. Sheridan remarked upon the great firefs which Mr. Pitt had laid

proofs of past deception were the arguments which were urged for prefent confidence; and it was modeftly expected that they would believe, because a point had been conftantly attempted without fuccefs, that it was now certain of be ing wifely accomplished.

Mr. Pitt had thrown out a cenfure upon the coalition administration, as having fupported the meafure when in office, which they now endeavoured to defeat when in oppofition. Mr. Sheridan faid, that whether the minifter, as he had been defcribed by Mr. Luttrel, were that glorious orb whofe influence was to compenfate to the nation for the lofs of a hemifphere, or whe ther his luftre were more glittering than fubftantial; whether he merited the lefs complimentary language of colonel Barré, who had reprefented his confcience as having been furprised in this bufinefs, or whether he had capitulated upon regular approaches; whether he had been, fuccessful in repelling the infinuation of Mr. Walwyn, that he was? not in earnest in the cause, by the vehemence of his manner, or hadi confirmed it by the weakness of his argument; thefe questions he would not embarrass himself to determine,

He

He would only obferve, that one part of his conduct had most afto nishingly escaped the panegyric of his friends; he meant the fpirit and enterprize, with which, taking his hint probably from the fubject in debate, he had endeavoured to carry the war into the enemies country, and purfue measures of offence and attack, while every pafs at home was left unfortified and defenceless.

For what was the ground of this ftrenuous charge? The late administration it should feem had fubmitted a part of this very plan to the judgment of parliament, but at the defire of the houfe had withdrawn it for confideration. Now then, if, upon reconfideration, they had in any refpect altered their opinion, it was the groffeft inconfiftency of conduct and dereliction of principle. This was an extraordinary charge, and particularly from the perfon by whom it was urged. He had reconfidered many fubjects without afpiring to the merit of an obftinate adherence to his firft opinion. He had reconfidered his American intercourfe bill, and had publicly avowed his difapprobation of every idea which he once entertained upon the fubject. He had reconfidered his India bill, and, before it was engroffed, had scarcely fuffered one word to remain, of which it was originally compofed. He had reconfidered his Irifh refolutions in every part, provifion and principle. Having firit offered them to Ireland as a bounty, he had reconfidered the boon, and annexed a price to it; and then reconfidered his own reconfideration, and abandoned the conditions which he had at first reprefented as indifpenfible. In a word, his whole government had been one continued series of rafh propofition, and un

graceful conceffion. With respect to the perfons with whom Mr. Sheridan acted, they had no occafion to refort to the juftification of having changed their minds, for they had never, even in the flightest degree, committed themselves in any opinion or approbation of the prefent plan.

Mr. Sheridan recurred to the pledge he had made in an earlier itage of the bufinefs, and again afferted, that he would reft contented to abide by the decifion of the board of officers, if it could be fairly fhown, that, upon a full inveftigation of the whole of the fubject propofed last year in parliament to be fubmitted to their enquiry, and being left to their own free and unfettered judgment in forming the decifion, they had reported as their decided and unqualified opinion, that the plan propofed by the duke of Richmond, was a meafure which it became the wifdom and prudence of parliament to adopt. He could not however refufe to allow himself in a few preliminary obfervations refpecting the conftruction of the board. Powerful, perhaps unanfwerable objections, had been made to the appointment of the duke of Richmond to the office of prefident. Particular circumflances had been alluded to in the duke's perfonal character, and he was defcribed as a man who had never been known to give up a point. Whether this were the cafe, or whether there were fome principles of public profeflion, to which he had not very rigorously adhered, Mr. Sheridan would not undertake to decide, as he might be fufpected of fpeaking from party prejudices. There was however one characteristic of the mind of the duke, which he thought might fairly be mentioned, as it had publicly been brought forward

by

by high authority in that houfe. If he were to reprefent the mattergeneral, as of a temper cager to extravagance and vehement in the extreme, if he were to defcribe him as a perfon, who, having taken up a juft principle, was capable of defeating all its falutary effects by connecting it with the most flighty and preposterous conclufions, Mr. Pitt would become the authority for his affertion. The houfe could not fail to recollect the manner, in which, during a former feflion, he had difcuffed the duke's principles of a parliamentary reform, and the terms of indignant ridicule, with which he had cautioned them againit the fchemes of fo vifionary a projector. If therefore Mr. Sheridan were arraigned for examining any plan of the duke of Richmond with a peculiar degree of jealoufy, he fhould leave his juftification in the abler hands of the minifter.

The duke however deferved the warmest panegyrics for the ftriking proofs he had given of his genius as an engineer, in the planning and conftructing the report in queftion. The profeffional ability of the mafter-general fhone as confpicuoufly there, as it could do upon our coafts. He had made it an argument of pofts, and had conducted his reafoning upon principles of trigonometry as well as logic. There were certain detached data, like advanced works, to keep the enemy at a distance from the main object in de bate. Strong provifions covered the flanks of his affertions; his very queries were in cafements; no impreffion therefore was to be made upon this fortrefs of fophiftry by defultory obfervations, and it was neceffary to affail it by regular approaches. It was fortunate however, that, notwithstanding all the fkill that had been employed, the duke's 2796.

mode of defence upon paper was open to the fame objection, which had been urged against his other fortifications; and that, if his adver fary got poffeffion of one of his pofts, it might be turned against him, and employed as the means of fubduing his whole line of argu ment.

The points, which Mr. Sheridan conceived might be diftinctly eftablifhed from the document before the houfe, were, first, that not one word, hint, or fuggeftion on the part of the naval officers, tending to give any approbation, either di rectly or by implication, to the fcheme of fortification, was to be found in that paper; but that on the contrary, the minutes which had been withheld contained their condemnation of the plan. He did not expect to hear it urged, that the refult of thofe minutes could not be communicated, becaufe they were mixed with dangerous matters of intelligence. A fufficient degree of ingenuity had been flown, in extracting from the report whatever might be thought favourable to the propofed fyftem. It would be indeed extraordinary, if, wherever the judgment was unfavourable, it thould have been fo blended and complicated with matter of detail and dangerous difcuffion, that no chemical procefs in the ordnance elaboratory could poffibly feparate them; while on the contrary every approving opinion, like a light, fubtle, oily fluid, floated at the top at once, and the clumficit clerk was capable of prefenting it to the houfe, pure and untinged by a fingle particic of the argument or information upon which it was founded.

In the fecond place Mr. Sheridan maintained, that the opinion, given by the land officers in favour

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of the plan, was hypothetical and conditional; and that they had unanimoufly and in ariably through the whole bufinefs refuted to lend their authority to the data or fuppofitions, upon which that opinion was to be maintained. Lastly, he conceived himself to be unanswerably justified in concluding, that the data themfelves were founded upon the fuppofition of events, fo improbable and defperate, as to carry with them not only the imminent danger of Portsmouth and Plymouth, but of the actual conqueft of the ifland. They fuppofed the British fleet to be abfent for the space of three months, an army of thirty or forty thousand men to be ready on the enemy's coat to invade this country, and no force in Great Britain, to be capable of being collected in lefs than two months, to oppofe them. The utility of the fortifications in this cafe, depended upon the enemies directing their attack only against Portsmouth and Plymouth, and affailing thefe places in the very point where we were prepared to meet them. Taking this for granted, the defence was ftated in the report to be calculated only against the force, and for the time expreffed in the data, fo that it was neceffary that our fleet fhould defeat the fuperior fleet of the enemy, and return in fafety, other wife it would obviously be in the power of the enemy to recruit his army, and to prolong the period of the attack. Thus we fhould have prepared a frong hold for our foe, which under the circumstances that were fuppofed he would be enabled permanently to retain.

Mr. Sheridan took notice of the infinuation of Mr. Baflard, in the claim he had advanced to an unbiaffed and independent mode of conduct. For himfelf, he was happy

that the bufinefs had worn fo little the appearance of party. He had proved himfelf ready and anxious, as the perfons alluded to well knew, to re fign the bulinefs into the hands of the refpectable gentleman who had fo ably brought it forward. Mr. Bastard had been wifhed to take the lead, because that appeared to be one of the most effectual means of warding off an injury from the country; otherwife, to be enlisting under leaders for the day, and courting the temporary affiftance of any defcription of perfons in that house, would, in his opinion, prove a conduct equally undignified and impolitic. He was confident however, that the country gentlemen were too liberal to fet a lefs value uponthe fupport of his friends, because it was unaccompanied by adulation, and an endeavour to canvas for their future connection. "Let us," added Mr. Sheridan, “upon this night be firmly embodied in a cause we equally approve: let us do this great fervice to our country, then feparate and feek oppofing camps. Let them return with the double triumph, if they will, of having conferred an important benefit on their conftituents and the nation, and a real obligation on the government. Let them have the credit with the public of having defeated the minifter's meafure, and with his friends of having refcued him from perilous fituation. Leave

only the filent fatisfaction, that, without envying the reputation of thofe whom we were contented to follow, without being piqued by infinuations against our motives, and without debating whether the minifter might not be ferved by our fuccefs, we gave an earneft and zealous affiftance in defeating a meafure, which, under the fpecious pretence of fecuring our coafts,

ftrikes

Arikes at the root of our great national defence, and at the heart of the conflitution itself."

The decifion of this important question was fcarcely lefs memorable, than the measure itself, upon the execution of which the house of commons was now to decide. The numbers upon the divifion were equal; both the ayes and the noes amounting to 169. In this conjuncture it of courfe belonged to the fpeaker to deliver his cafting voice; and he acquired much applaufe from the country gentlemen, and from the enemies of the mea fure in general, by declaring for the rejection of the fyftem which had been formed by the duke of Richmond.

In the course of the enfuing week the estimates of the ordnance were moved in the houfe of commons by the furveyor-general, captain James Luttrel. The amount of these estimates was 380,000l., and there was included a fum of 13,000l. for carrying on fome of thofe works which were deemed neceflary in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. Mr. Fox declared himfelf fatisfied with this reduced propofal; but the country gentlemen were not equally complaifant; and Mr. Powys and others fuggefted the impropriety of voting any money for thefe purposes, till a new and definite plan fhould be fubflituted in the room of that which had been rejected. In confequence of this fuggeftion, Mr. Pitt confented for the prefent to withdraw from the estimates the difputed. fum. In the courfe of the debate of this day, as it had become a kind of fafhion to attack the principles and conduct of the mafter-general of the ordnance, Mr. alderman Sawbridge brought forward a charge against him of corrupt influence in

the borough of Queenborrough, and prodigality of the public money for the purposes of an election. This Mr. Sawbridge deemed to be the more criminal in the duke of Richmond, as that nobleman was known to be the determined advocate of the most extenfive principles of li berty, and the pure republicanifm. Captain Luttrel and Mr. Steele replied to the attack of Mr. Sawbridge.

The question of the fortifications was once more revived on the feventeenth of the following May. Upon this occafion it was moved by Mr. Pitt," that an effimate of the expence of such part of the plan of fortifications recommended in the late report as might appear moft neceffary to be carried into immediate execution, be referred to a committee of fupply." The fums which he propofed employing at Portsmouth and Plymouth for the current year, amounted to 6,00cl. exclufively of the fum of 25,00cl. for the purchafe of the land upon which the fortifications were to be erected. The whole money which he stated as neceflary for completing the moderate plan which he now offered to the house, was 400,000l.

The motion of Mr. Pitt was re ceived with the language of fevere cenfure by thofe perfons, by whom the entire fyftem had lately been oppofed. It was faid to be an indecent and unconftitutional en croachment upon the privileges of that houfe, for any part of a plan, upon which they had pronounced their reprobation, to be brought forward again in a direct manner. Mr. Baftard obferved, that the minitter had been treated with moderation when the question was formerly agitated, but the moderation, which the houfe had thought proF 2

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