bouring coast belonging to the Emperor; because, the fact was evident that, in the case of this country being engaged in a war against a powerful confederacy (upon the supposition of which alone the present scheme was recommended and justified) every motive of prudence must compel us to direct an attention as vigorous and vigilant to the eastern as to the southern coast of this country. It was not possible for the house to remain at a loss to discover various places which, with Chatham and Sheerness (where most extensive lines had actually been begun under the auspices of the noble Duke) must necessarily be provided for in the new system of protection; and for his own part, indeed, he could wish, that any person would compute the stationary defence necessary for such places, in addition to the twenty-two thousand men demanded for Portsmouth and Plymouth; and allow likewise for any moving force in the country, and then decide what chance there was that this prolific system would terminate in a reduction of the standing army!

Concerning the probability of our being able to furnish men for the constant maintenance of these garrisons, he felt it requisite to observe, that the argument had been, not a reference to our present peace establishment, but to the extent of the service during the most extravagant periods of the last war; which, in other words, was to hold out a notion that we might speedily again look to a time when we should become able to expend, for the purpose of war, fifteen millions of money in the course of a single year!-at the very moment when the right honorable gentleman was holding out the reduction of our debt by a few hundred thousand pounds, as the triumph of his administration, and the cornerstone of that pillar upon which his fame was to become emblazoned! But, even supposing this to be possible, and considering the reference to our establishment in the last war as just, the right honorable gentleman had taken an unfair advantage of the ar

gument; for when he stated the numerous armies which we had upon the continent of America, as resources from which we were in future to garrison these forts, and increase our home defence, he ought also to have taken into his account the enormous floating establishment attendant upon those armies; and which, being converted into an efficient naval defence at home, would make both his fortifications and his garrisons unnecessary.

To the attack which the right honorable gentle man (Mr. Pitt) had chosen to make upon the late administration, he should beg leave to answer that, in whatever point of view he was that day to regard the right honorable gentleman, whether as that glorious orb which an honorable gentleman (Mr. Luttrell) had described him to be, whose influence and power was more than to compensate to the nation for the loss of an hemisphere; or whether his lustre was calculated rather to dazzle and surprise, than to cherish and invigorate; whether he merited the less complimentary language of his right honorable friend (Colonel Barrè) who observed, that his conscience had been surprised in this business; or whether he had capitulated upon regular approaches; whether he had been successful in repelling the insinuation of another gentleman, that he was not in earnest in this cause, by the vehemence of his manner, or had confirmed it by the weakness of his argument; whether the right honorable gentleman most deserved the praises or reproaches which he had received, he would not embarrass himself by pretending to determine; but only observe, that one part of his conduct had most astonishingly escaped the panegyric of his friends-he meant the spirit and enterprise with which, taking his hint probably from the subject in debate, he had endeavoured to carry the war into the enemy's country, and pursue measures of offence and attack; whilst every pass at home was left unfortified and defenceless.

For what was the ground of this strenuous charge? The late administration (as the right honorable gentleman asserted) had submitted part of this very plan to the judgment of parliament, but at the desire of the house, withdrew that part for reconsideration; and now, if, upon reconsideration, they had in any respect altered their opinion, it was the grossest inconsistency of conduct, and dereliction of principle! --an extraordinary charge, and particularly so from the gentleman by whom it was urged! He had reconsidered many subjects, without aspiring to the merit of an obstinate adherence to his first opinion. He had reconsidered his American intercourse bill, and had publicly avowed, that he had parted with every idea which he once entertained upon that subject. He had reconsidered his India bill, and before it was engrossed, had scarcely suffered one word to remain which belonged to it when it was brought in. He had reconsidered his Irish resolutions, in every part, provision, and principle; and, having first offered them as a bounty to Ireland, he had reconsidered the boon, and annexed a price to it, and then reconsidered his own reconsideration, and abandoned his own indispensable condition! And yet this minister, whose whole government had been one continued series of rash proposition, and ungraceful concession, held it out as a palpable enormity in others, that reconsideration should have produced alteration of sentiment, and that too upon a subject where the first opinion must have been taken upon credit, and the second was called for upon minute information, and authentic inquiry. In the same excellent spirit of reconsideration, many honorable gentlemen round the minister, who had formerly given a decided opinion against the fortifications, were now solicitous to argue in their favour. As an effectual defence of the conduct of the late administration, he could prove, by referring to the estimates and journals of 1783, that they had not the least occasion to resort to the justification of

having changed their minds in consequence of better information; for the fact was, that they never had, even in the slightest degree, committed themselves either in opinion or approbation of the present plan.

Concerning the history of the rise and progress of fortifications in this island, upon which the right honorable gentleman had laid so much stress; as if he had proved, that what was not new, must be constitutional, and that the point which had been often tried, must be fit to be carried into execution; he should maintain, that every word urged on this subject made against the cause which it was brought to support; for experience, even by their own statement, convinced us of nothing but that the nation had invariably been deluded and defrauded upon this unprincipled plea of fortifications; that much had been done and undone, many schemes and many projects tried; many millions spent, and the object avowedly as distant as ever! So that repeated proofs of past deception were all which they urged as arguments for present confidence; and it was modestly expected, they would believe, that because a point had been always unsuccessfully attempted, it was now at last certain of being wisely accomplished.

The right honorable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) had chosen eagerly to dwell upon a pretended charge of inconsistency which he advanced against an honorable naval officer (Captain Macbride) and which, although the latter had omitted to reply to it, had no other foundation than the right honorable gentleman having thought proper to confound the opinion of the land officers with that of the sea officers. With respect to the report itself, he was ready to admit, that those who had entrenched themselves in constitutional objections only, refusing to be bound by the advice and authority of any board of general officers or engineers whatsoever upon such a subject, had taken strong and respectable ground; and that

those also, who had argued the subject more with a reference to the state of the revenue of the country, and had seemed to consider the measure as adviseable, or otherwise, according as it should prove consistent with the necessary principles of œconomy, were undoubtedly intitled to every attention. For his own part, however, he did not go to the extreme of the reasoning used on either of these topics -every hour produced instances where practices highly dangerous by their precedent, and evidently infringing on the established rights of the subject, were resorted to, unavoidably perhaps, for the purpose of retrieving and maintaining that public credit, without which the affairs of this country were completely desperate. The right honorable gentleman had pledged himself not to press this business, unless he could make it appear to be a measure not less essential to national safety than to the preservation of national credit. Upon this line of argument, the dangers to be apprehended to the constitution, which were stated as eventual and remote, must, of course, give way, and the point of oeconomy was wholly out of the question.

The right honorable gentleman had also contended, that the decision of a board specially appointed for this inquiry, and consisting of persons eminently qualified for the judgment expected from them, was the best authority which the country could obtain on the subject; and afforded a surer guide for the opinion and conduct of that house, than either the arguments or the information of its individual members could supply. To this he had already assented, and now repeated his assent; nor did he hesitate to renew the pledge in which the right honorable gentleman had appeared so anxious to fix him, that he, for his own part, mindful of the terms upon which the question was suspended at the close of the last session would rest contented to abide by the decision of a board so described, and to withdraw his objections to the plan,