from some gentlemen most earnest in support of the motion. Among other expressions he had heard that of Saviour. With respect to this, he must say that he retained all his former opinions; or, if any change had taken place in them, it was in consequence of the situation of the country in the years 1803 and 1804, which rendered it essential to the public interest and public safety, that the differences of former times, and the animosities they had given rise to, should be buried in oblivion. When the right honourable gentleman, now no more, proposed that he should have a large share in the administration, it would have been in the highest degree indelicate in him to agitate these questions. Mr. Pitt felt the same kind of delicacy. He had borne ample testimony of his wish to bury these differences in oblivion. He hoped the house would do him the justice to think, that as he was unwilling to touch upon these topics while Mr. Pitt was living, he was doubly unwilling to touch on them, at least so much as related to Mr. Pitt personally, now that he was no more. He was not now going to touch upon them, nor would he ever; but he begged to be understood not to be influenced by any regard to himself, when he resolved to abstain so religiously from these topics. He knew not whether Mr. Pitt thought in the same way of him, but he always thought with respect to Mr. Pitt, that he should form a distinguished part of any administration framed with a view to the advantage of the country, and on this ground he wished discord to cease. He had not had a distinct opportunity of showing his sense of that wish; Mr. Pitt had, and he had expressed it distinctly.

If these old causes of dissension were revived, it would be impossible to come to an unanimous vote. He did think that one of the objections made by his honourable friend (Mr. W. Smith) was overstrained. To speak of Mr. Pitt as disinterested in not touching the public money, was certainly an insult; but to abstain from making many advantages from his office which he fairly might;-to have been in office twenty years, and in that time to have had no place of profit but the cinque ports; was disinterestedness of the most eminent nature. It was a disinterestedness not to be paralleled in any minister within his memory-he believed not in any since the accession of the house of Brunswick. This it was that he wished to reward. He had no fear that the example would have any pernicious effect.

Mr. Canning hoped that, in the little he had to say on this subject, he should not deviate from the candour and moderation so laudably professed on the other side, but used, at the same time, as a veil to throw over one or two propositions in which he did not agree. Some of the gentlemen were willing to allow parliament to discharge the debts of his late friend as a matter of generosity towards an old public servant. He wished it to be known, however, that the friends of that illustrious person would not be satisfied to receive the vote as an eleemosynary grant to posthumous necessities ;-not as a boon of pity or compassion;-— but as a public debt to a highly meritorious public servant. did not from the beginning expect an unanimous vote; he would not purchase unanimity by conceding

He

a tittle

a tittle of the services of that illustrious man. He appealed to the house, Whether it was not on the other side that the topics of dissension were started? Objections were made to the form of the former motion. The fault he found with it was, that it was cold, and inadequate to the feelings of those who supported it. When the friends of this great man consented to neutralize the expressions of their feelings, for the purpose of removing the grounds of opposition to the motion; when they resolved, instead of dipping the pen into the heart, to look into the statute-book for a precedent; when they had lowered and diluted every glowing feeling; when they had restrained and chastised the warmth of their affections, in order to constitute unanimity;-the result had added to the many proofs he had seen in the course of his political life, that nothing was to be gained by compromise. Now the honourable gentlemen canvassed particular acts, and thus agitated topics, which were omitted to avoid creating discussion. [Here Mr. Canning was called to order by Mr. Wynne, for reverting to former debates.] He said he had no desire to go further back than to show that the agitation of the objects of dissension originated on the other, side. It was expected that this question would have been generally supported; that all political differences would have ceased, and that all animosities would have been buried. That brilliant luminary that was before us, whether its dawn was clouded, or its meri

dian splendour obscured, had held a glorious course for the country, and worthy to call forth its admiration and gratitude. He protested against the mode in which the honourable gentlemen gave their support to the motion, and wished to restore to them the benefit of that consistency which they laboured so much to reconcile with the support they gave. He gave credit to him who refused his consent because he did not see merit, but he could not see the ground on which those opposite followed a distinct course. If the sum were given as an eleemosynary grant, without any distinction of merit or demerit, he disdained it. Those who did not vote for it on the ground of Mr. Pitt's merits, had better oppose it openly. It was only as a tribute to great merits that he would receive it; and if any one supported it on any other ground than as a testimony and a reward for those merits, he wished him to withdraw his support, and preserve his consistency by opposing it.

After a few words from Mr. Fox, by way of explanation, the motion was agreed to.

Mr. Fox, when this business was disposed of, gave notice of a motion which he should make on the next day, "For leave to bring in a bill to remove certain doubts of the propriety of a lord comissioner of the treasury holding at the same time the office of auditor of the exchequer." The discussion of this motion we shall refer to a succeeding chapter.

1806.

Ꭰ

CHAP

TH

HE treaties which were laid before parliament, explaining the original plans of the combined powers, concerning which the late administration thought proper to make some observations before they resigned, will be found in another part of the volume. It will be sufficient, therefore, to observe here, that by these treaties the high contracting powers pledged themselves not to make peace with the common enemy, but with the consent of all the powers engaged in the league; whereas Austria, as we have seen, was under the necessity of accepting a peace dictated by the conqueror. It was agreed that Hanover should be evacuated; and that the independence of the republics of Holland and Switzerland should be established. These, and many other projects equally important, the allied powers had promised to effect; and it was left to Lord Mulgrave to announce of ficially the complete failure of them all, as will be seen in the subsequent pages. We have also given in this chapter a pretty full account of the discussions in parliament on certain very interesting constitutional questions, as the title will show. To some of our readers, it may be thought that we have, in this in

stance, occupied too much space : the decisions of parliament have, however, both in the case of lord Grenville and in that of lord Ellenborough, been liable to strong objections, and have sanctioned regulations that will hereafter be re. ferred to as precedents for future ministers, and on that account it was deemed right to state the arguments for and against these proceedings at large.

We shall now proceed with lord Mulgrave's observations, in the house of Lords, February 4th, on the supplements to the treaties, which, the noble lord said, were illustrative of the spirit and the objects with and for which the treaties themselves had been negotiated and concluded. The substance of these treaties he noticed, with some observations on the situation of Austria previously to her determination to have recourse to arms. He maintained, that after the encroachments made by the French government in Italy there was other alternative but war; which' being resolved on, the emperor

no

Germany was countenanced and supported by Russia and this country. The spirit, zeal, and activity, said his lordship, with which the resolution was carried

into effect, claimed the praise of the most indifferent, though the catastrophe with which such exertions were terminated must excite the regret of every feeling mind. No nation had more reason to regret it than England; yet to the ministers of this country no blame or censure whatever was imputable. Every thing that wisdom could suggest, that comprehension could embrace, that foresight could provide for, or prudence regulate, had been prepared and collected by this country in conjunction with the powers that had espoused the same cause. It was not mere paper statements of the great force to be employed for the attainment of that end; but before the 1st of October, the day on which the first instalment was made, a substantial and accurate account was given of the real and efficient force which was then in the field, and which amounted in Austrians to 314,000 men, and Russians to 180,000: the latter had arrived at their appointed stations at least two days previously to the time stipulated; and from their position and readiness to act the happiest expectations might have been indulged. No calculations could have supposed that the enemy would have been in readiness to commence hostile operations before the whole force had arrived at its due destination; nor could the enemy, in effect, have had an opportunity of trying their fortune or their strength, if the plans adopted and agreed upon by the other coniesced powers had been minutely adhered to. From an attentive perusal of the documents, which he should now submit to their lordships, it would, he said, be abun dantly manifest, that it was from no deficiency of wisdom, of fore

sight, and of circumspection in the plan of operations, that it had failed, but from a strange and unfortunate deviation from the system which had been generally proposed and mutually agreed upon. With the misfortunes that have followed that deviation every one was acquainted. They were great and disastrous to an extent beyond the surmise of human sagacity, and they have led to consequences equally distressful and humiliating. But the conduct of Austria, and of her unfortunate sovereignunder such circumstances, said his lordship, are not to be lightly considered. The dilemma to which he was reduced was trying in the extreme; and the minds of Englishmen would withhold any opinion which did not rest as fairly upon the spirit and the determination evinced by the emperor, and by the dangers and sacrifices he has exposed himself to, as upon the calamitous issue in which were exhausted so many efforts and so many lives. In bringing forward these additional documents, it was the object of the noble lord to ground upon them a confirmation, that nothing of tha calamities and disasters that had befallen the South of Europe was imputable to the councils of this country. There were more withheld that would place the assertion in a clearer and more convincing point of view, and they were withheld solely from motives of delicacy and consideration for the situation of other powers. All the documents to which he alluded would soon be placed in other hands; and it would be with the judgment and good sense of his successors to make public more of them, or to approve the motives that on his part had suspended their publica

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tion. After avowing the rectitude of his own conduct, and paying the highest compliments to the talents of Mr. Pitt, whose influence per vaded and directed all those transactions, Lord Mulgrave concluded with moving "That the several documents, which he held in his hands, be laid on the table, in fuller illustration and proof of every thing he had advanced, and as furnishing proper grounds for the discussion of that great question which might hereafter be brought before their lordships."

In the house of commons, Mr. Fox moved for leave to bring in a bill to enable a person holding the office of auditor of the exchequer to hold also the office of a commissioner of the treasury. The object of this bill was to legalize the holding these two appointments, by enabling the auditor to appoint deputy for discharging the duties of that office. He had stated before, when he gave notice of this motion, that he entertained no doubt himself on the subject; yet, as others might, it was the wish of the noble lord concerned, that nothing should be withheld from the house connected with the transaction in question. As the idea had gone abroad that the auditor of the exchequer was a check upon the lords of the treasury, he should advert to that circumstance. The fact was, that he was no check upon them, and it was absurd to suppose that any officer whose appointment was in the gift of the fords of the treasury could be any check upon them. He hoped, therefore, that no difficulty would be felt in complying with this measure. Nobody, Mr. Fox, thought, would be of opinion that the office should be given up by the noble loid which it was intended he should

fill, and on that account he trusted that no objection would be felt to the bill. In the reign of George I., lord Halifax gave the auditorship nominally to his brother, while he virtually continued in the enjoy ment of it himself. The noble lord might, in the present instance, act upon that precedent, but he was better pleased that the trans. action should wholly rest on legis lative grounds. He therefore should beg leave to bring in the bill. On the motion being put,

Mr. Rose said he was of opinion that no doubt could be entertained on the subject, and he was certain that he could convince the house that the two offices were incompa tible. By the act of King William, which regulated the course of the exchequer, the office of auditor was rendered a distinct office, and the two had not been held since by any person. This act directed, that no money should be issued from the exchequer without the order of the auditor, signed by the clerk of the pells. As to the circumstance of the appointment of the auditor by the commissioners, and his be ing, therefore, no check upon them, he had only to observe, that an or der from the commissioners for the issue of money from the exchequer would be null and void without the signature of the auditor. The course of the exchequer he took to be this-When the house voted a certain sum of money for a certain service, suppose a million; if the commissioners issued an order for more than that million, the auditor, to whom the votes of that house were sent, would not sign it, and would therefore be an efficient check upon the commissioners of the treasury. Instances of this kind he had himself known. There was another provision in the act, which

was,