Mr. Fitt had endeavoured by argument, by intreaty, and by deprecation, to reftrain his rafhnels, but without effect.

Mr. Burke expreffed himself with fome far afm refpecting the views of the minister in the prefent meafare. The treaty was not to be regarded fimply as a commercial treaty. In that view perhaps his opinion did not greatly differ from that of the manufacturers as to its immediate operation. But the treaty was clofely connected with the p⚫ litical interefts of the country, and mut deeply affect them. Mr. Pitt, with that narrownef, which led men of limited minds to look at great objects in a conaned point of view, talked of the tranfaction, as if it were the affair of two little counting-houses, and not of two great countries. He feemed to confider it as a contention between the fign of the Fleur-de-lis, and the fign of the Red-lion, which houfe fhould obtain the best cuftom. Such men, when in power, converted large cities into fmall villages, while thofe of a more noble and liberal way of thinking acted on a better scale, and changed fmall villages into great cities. Mr. Wilberforce lamented over the fpeech of Mr. Burke. He had heard him in his better days. His eloquence had then arrefted his attention, and his powers of imagination had charmed him. But he was now forry to find his faculties fo far diverted from the profecution of thofe great objects, which they were naturally formed to embrace. Mr. Pitt expoftulated with the laft fpeaker on the unneceffary pains he had taken, to obviate the mode of animadverfion, chofen by Mr. Barke. In abuse and perfonality to contend with fuch an opponent, was very far beyond his powers,

and much more beyond his wishes. When he met with a man, whose conduct had produced an unfortumate change in his character, and whofe ill temper and fpleen were proportioned to the difappointments he experienced, and the odium which furrounded him, however fuch a man might be inclined, by abufe and malevolence to reduce other characters to a level with the wretchedness of his own, though his fituation might have a clam upon his compaffion, that fentiment muft naturally be blended with a portion of difguft. Mr. Burke replied, that the contempt, of which Mr. Pitt had made him a prefent, was not entitled to much of his gratitude, as it was an arti cle in which he fo copioutly abounded. But, as the flock of his compaffion was undoubtedly small, any donation from a fund fo trifling, and of which there was fo little to fpare, as it had the greater merit, would be the more thankfully received. The houfe divided upon the motion of Mr. Pitt, ayes 213, noes 89.

On the Friday following it was moved by Mr. Fox, that there fhould be laid before the house copies or extracts, of the inftructions that had been given to his majesty's minifters in Portugal fince the first of May 1782, refpecting the com. plaints of the British merchants, and of the anfwers of the court of Portugal to the the reprefentations which had been made. It was in his opinion neceffary, that we should confider, previously to our coming to any decifion upon the commercial treaty, whether we had taken care to fecure our connection with an old and valuable customer; or, in cafe we had not, whether the advantage would be equivalent, that we should acquire by putting

Our

ourfelves exclufively into the hands of France, both as a customer, and -not an ally, for that the certainly could not be called,-but as a new political friend. Mr. Fox obferved, that the difficulty, which had been created by the court of Lisbon refpecting Irish woollens, was narrow and impolitic; and that on our part we ought to act with the liberality we demanded, and rather grant to Portugal more than the could claim by treaty than lefs. He added, that, if the treaty with France were fanctioned without our first knowing what was to be done with Portugal, we might eventually give France an advantage, for which we had not the profpect of an equivalent. If Portugal, through finitter influence, or her own perverfeness, should refufe to form any treaty with us, in that cafe we certainly fhould not lower the duty on Portugal wines. Thus France would be in the condition of a perfon purchasing an estate with a mine upon it, without having paid for the mine. Mr. Fox mentioned, as another inconvenience, that the treaty was calculated to prevent us from lowering the duty upon Spanifh wines; but this Mr. Pitt declared not to be the true conftrucof the article. Sir Grey Cooper, who feconded the motion, placed the advantages of the Methuen treaty in the frongeft light, and obferved that the balance of the Portugal trade was now ftated to be more than 500,000l. per annum in our favour, and that fince the treaty this nation had received between forty and fifty millions on the balance in this branch of our commerce. Mr. Beaufoy afferted, that the first question, that arofe upón the face of the treaty, was not, fhall we establish a new and untried commerce with France ? but, fhall 1787.

the commerce, that already exists between the two kingdoms, give employment to the veffels of the fimuggler, or to those of the fair and refpectable merchant? Shall the trade be carried on inconveni ently and circuitoufly by the way of Auftrian Flanders and of Dun kirk, or fhall it be carried on with every commercial advantage directly to the ports of France? Shall the manufactures of this country be objects of confifcation or protection to the French laws? Mr. Pitt replied to the arguments of Mr. Fox. He faid, that, in difcuffing the French treaty, we were only to confider the provifions ac tually contained in it, and the advantages provided by it in favour of each country. Were we to fufpend every treaty of commerce, till, we fhould be able to ascertain the poffible effect of every future arrangement with other countries, fuch treaties could never be concluded. Befide, it was not to be fuppofed, that we fhould act fo as to throw any confiderable advantage into the scale of France, without a fresh stipulation for fome adequate equivalent for ourfelves. The motion was rejected with out a divifion.

On the day appointed for taking the treaty into con ideration, a petition was prefented by Mr. alderman Newnham from the chamber of manufactures and commerce of the kingdom of Great Britain, ftat ing their fenfe of the ferious and awful importance of the treaty, and that, after the most careful investigation, they had not been able to form any certain judgment upon the fubject. They therefore de precated the houfes, coming to a decifive vote upon that day; and concluded with an allufion to the providential effects, which were univerfally

D

minds of Englishmen, that, after the empire had been engaged in a competition the most arduous and imminent that ever threatened the nation, after France in particular had exerted every nerve for her depreflion, finding he could not hake her, fhe now opened her arms, and offered a beneficial connection on eafy, liberal, and ad

vantageous terms.

We had agreed by this treaty to take from France on fmall duties the luxuries of her foil, which how ever the refinements of this country had converted into neceffaries. The wines of France with all their high duties, already found their way to our tables; and was it then a ferious injury to admit them on eafier terms? The admiffion of them would not fupplant the wines of Portugal or of Spain, but only a ufelefs and pernicious manufacture in our own country. The import of French wines had lately experienced an enormous increafe, as appeared from the inftances of July and Auguft, the two mot unlikely months of the year. The next ar ticle was brandy; and it was fufficiently evident that the diminution of duty with refpect to it was an eligible meafure. The reduction would have a material effect on the contraband trade, fince the legal importation of brandy was no more than fix hundred thoufand gallons, and the fmuggled by the most rational estimate amounted to four millions. Seeing then that this article had taken fuch complete poffeflion of the tale of the nation, it might be right to procure from it a greater advantage to the state, and to crush the illicit trade by legalizing the market. Similar obfervations fuggefted themselves refpecting the oil and vinegar of

France, which were comparatively objects of trifling confideration.

In no

The next enquiry fhould be to fee if France had any manufactures, peculiar to herself, or in which the fo greatly excelled us, as to give us alarm upon that account. Cam bric, which first fuggefted itfelf, was an article, in which our com. petition with France had ceafed, and there was no injury in granting. an eafy importation to that, which we would have at any rate. other article was there any thing very formidable in the rivalry of France. Glass would not be imported to any amount. In particular kinds of lace indeed they might have the advantage, but none which they would not enjoy inde pendently of the treaty; and the clamours about millinery were vague and unmeaning. When in addition to all thefe benefits, we confidered the richness of the coun try with which we were to trade, its fuperior population of twenty-four millions to eight, and of courfe a proportional confumption, together with its vicinity to us, who could hefitate for a moment to applaud the fyftem, and look forward with ardour and impatience to its peedy ratification? The poffeffion of lo fafe and extenfive a market must improve our commerce, while the duties, transferred from the hands of fmugglers to their proper channel, would benefit our revenue, the two fources of British opulence and British power.

Mr. Pitt proceeded to the confi deration of the feveral objections which had been urged against the measure. The excellence of our manufactures was unrivalled; but it was faid, that the manufacturers trembled for the continuance of this fuperiority. They were alarmed

at the idea of a competition with Ireland; and confequently they must be under greater apprehenfion at the idea of a rivalry with France. Mr. Pitt had always thought, and he ftill continued to think, that the opinions of the manufacturers on this point had been erroneous. They raifed the clamour in respect to Ireland, chiefly, he imagined, becattle they perceived no certain and pofitive advantage in the intercourfe, to balance this precarious and uncertain evil. To the commercial treaty they gave their confent, not from a blind acquiefcence, for they never would be blind to their interest; but, now that they faw fo valuable and manifest an advantage to be reaped, they were willing to hazard the probability of the injury. A fecond objection had been, that the treaty might injuriously affect our commercial treaties with other powers. In anfwer to this he muft pofitively affirm, that there was no thing in it that prevented our fulleft compliance with the conditions of the Methuen treaty. By enlarging our market for wine we neither infringed upon the markets of Portugal nor of Spain. It was not pretended, that the treaty could affect our connection with any o other powers. Farther it had been objected, that no beneficial treaty could be formed between this country and France, because no fuch treaty ever had been formed, and because on the contrary a commercial intercourfe with her had always been injurious to England. This reafoning was completely fallacious. For, in the first place, during a long feries of years we had had no commercial connection with France, and could not therefore form a rational eftimate of its merits: and, fecondly, though it

might be true, that a commercial intercourfe founded on the treaty of Utrecht would have been inju rious, it did not follow that this would prove fo. At that time the manufactures in which we now excelled had hardly existence, but were on the fide of France, instead of being against her. Mr. Pitt felt it difficult to quit this part of his fubject, without again adverting to the effect of the treaty on our revenue, which would prove in the utmost degree favourable, though it would cause an average reduction of fifty per cent. upon every article in our book of rates. On French wines the reduction would be 10,000l. per annum; on Portugal wines, fhould the Methuen treaty be continued, 170,000l. and on brandy a reduction of 20,000 1. The furrender of revenue for great commercial purposes was a policy by no means unknown in the hit tory of Britain, and was in this cafe attended with the moft extraordinary advantages.

Mr. Pitt now adverted to the re port of the general chamber of ma nufactures. They had enquired, what laws must be repealed to make room for the French treaty; and the enumeration which they had made was fingular. They had dif covered, that the aliens duty must be repealed. They had referred to ftatutes of Edward the Fourth, of Richard the Third, and Henry the Eighth, refpecting which he believed that a well founded opinion prevailed in the learned profeffion, that they were in fact no longer in existence. If it were not fo, he was confident that the leaders of oppofition, whose liberal principles he would always acknowlege, would not become advocates for the conti nuance of these odious penal statutes. That a fet of manufacturers.

Should