marking, that the motion was founded on no principle of policy or of necessity; since, if it were intended for a censure on ministers, it was unjust: if for a control, nugatory, Its tendency was to impair the power of prosecuting the war with vigour, and to diminish the chance of negotiating peace with dignity; it contradicted the policy of our ancestors, and degraded us in the eyes of the world; it must carry dismay throughout Europe, and, above all, administer hope, power, and consolation to France.

Mr. Jekyll said, that he expected a motion proposed in so plain a manner would at least have been attended with one advantage, would have procured us the satisfaction of hearing what was the precise object of the war. But the gentleman who spoke last had left us as much in the dark in this respect as ever. From some parts of his argument, we might imagine we were to avenge the atrocities of the French; from others, that we were to fight for the deliverance of Europe. But, after all, the point was left totally unde, termined. Our attention was particularly directed to the victory of the Nile, and the enthusiasm it in spired, and the spirit it created. But what was the real source of this enthusiasm and this spirit? He would tell them: the joy which it occasioned was combined with the hope of peace between this country and France. Now we were informed, that not peace, but war, was the great result; and called upon to rejoice, not in its pacific effects, but its tendency to increase warlike

exertions.

But if the moment of triumph was not the moment to negotiate, in what state of our affairs could we turn our thoughts to this object

with propriety? This country again was to be embarked upon the ocean of continental politics; we were again to enter the lists, without knowing the purposes for which we are engaged, or the extent to which we might be involved.

"It belongs to British generosity to attempt the deliverance of Europe, to revenge the wrongs of other nations, and punish the pertidy of France!" And yet these allies of France are hollow, and ready to desert her. This, if it proved any thing, proved too much: Spain was dissatisfied, and Holland weary of her oppressor. But what had

been our fortune with our allies? Had we misused, plundered, or insulted them? They had left us, as France had been left. Those treated with generosity by us, were as little to be relied on as those who had been the victims of the injustice of the directory. Experience had distinctly taught us what we were to expect in future: Prussia, after receiving one million two hundred thousand pounds for several years, deserted us; the Emperor, after many loans and advances, had abandoned the common cause; so had the king of Sardinia, after having accepted two hundred thousand pounds. Would any wise statesman place dependence again on the fidelity of such allies?

Of the Ottoman Porte he did not wish to say any thing offensive; but surely the Turks were the most inert, ignorant, and sluggish people now existing. Had they not been baffled and defeated by one of their own rebel pachas? Could they be expected to make an efficient attack upon the power of France? They might, indeed, make an appearance with a flourishing manifesto, drawn up in the spirit of more learned ca

binets,

binets, and be mighty liberal with their presents of pelices and aigrettes; but what part could they perform in the deliverance of Europe?

put in requisition, Spies, under the name of surveyors, were to be employed in collecting the revenue. Men were obliged to discover their circumstances, or be taxed by an arbitrary assessment. No one could feel more sensibly than himself the splendour of lord Nelson's victory; but whilst this blush of triumph sat upon the face of the country, there was a disease upon its vitals, which excited real alarm-the state of our finances !.

To avoid continental conncctions, had been recommended by the most eminent of our writers; because they always tended to impoverish our own country: and when we were told in the present case, that those powers on whom the tyranny of France had fallen were so exhausted that they had not resources left to enable them to cast off her yoke, what an unlimited demand for pccuniary aid must be made up by England!

That these plans, so big with event, would probably be accompanied with a subsidy, had met with no reply. Could so important a consideration have escaped the sagacity of Mr. Canning? During the former coalition, when we were called to sanction subsidies to Prussia and Austria, we were told that it was impossible for these powers to go on without pecuniary aid from this country. What, then, were we to expect should they be roused into action? Was it likely that they would be stimolated by any motive so strong as the wealth of England? He hoped we should bear that night, whether we were again to be called upon to produce it. Continental connection had been hitherto the forerunner of foreign subsidy; and there was too much reason to fear it would again be so. It was a serious concern, and we ought to remember the remonstrances and statements of the bank directors, when the bank stopped payment. They, then demonstrated to the minister the ruinous consequences of such remittances. If loans were to be granted, our specie must be sent abroad again, and this was no trifling evil. We had already experienced the danger it occasioned. The clamours which the stoppage of the bank produced had subsided; but, if a similar event should occur, it was not easy to say what mischief would follow. Things which for merly would have surprised us indeed, in the present time were scarcely regarded but as a nine days wonder. We had seen new schemes of finance, we had seen the landtax sold, we now saw the tenth of every man's property about to be

Sir James Murray Pulteney said, that after the able speech of Mr. Canning he should not detain the house with many remarks; but there was one point which seemed to have escaped him. He alluded to our successes the last year, during which period we could not be said to be quite destitute of allies. The situation of the continent obiged France to make great preparations both on the Rhine and in Italy, which might be considered in some measure as equal to a campaign. This circumstance operated greatly in favour of this country. If France had seen all the continent at her feet, and expended the sums she had spent in military preparations by land upon her marine, it would have been more difficult and dangerous to have detached so large a division of our navy to the Mediterranean, by which lord Nelson's victory was obtained.

obtained. With respect to the deliverance of Europe, he understood it not as a philanthropist merely, but as it was connected with our safety, and to be considered as a British case.

Mr. Dickinson, jun. differed from any who might think that the motion was an encroachment on the king's prerogative; and considered the house of commons as a place where they could converse with his majesty and his ministers.

conse

The motion would be attended with many mischievous quences; and none of the least was, that to those abroad who were not acquainted with the nature of our constitution, it might appear a proof of a different interest between the king and the parliament, and that his majesty was not free to regulate all matters of peace and war; a supposition perfectly unfounded. It would likewise damp the spirit of Europe, and remove the apprehensions of the enemy being assailed by a new coalition. The situation of France was widely different also: their trade and commerce were destroyed, their navy annihilated, their resources nearly exhausted; they had no longer the estates of the nobles and the clergy, no longer the confiscated property of those they had murdered! In every point of view, the chance of checking their power was now more favourable than ever; and on these grounds he disapproved the motion-which was negatived without a division.

The discussion of the bill for the suspension of the habeas corpus act shortly succeeded this debate. The bill for continuing the suspension was introduced by the chancellor of the exchequer on the 20th of December; and on the following day, on the second reading, Mr. Tierney observed, that if no reason

was assigned for this procedure, he should with-hold his assent.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied, that the grounds on which the suspension had been last voted were fresh in the recollection of the house; and as none of them had been removed or altered, he judged it unnecessary to assign any new reason for the measure If, however, the house demanded it, the ministers were amply prepared for that purpose.

Mr. Courtenay opened his speech with enumerating the benefits of the habeas corpus act. Every person was convinced of its utility, every writer had pronounced its panegyric: it was a statute on which the personal liberty of every Englishman depended, an act which had made every individual in this country paramount in security to that of any other subject in the world. It had been well described by Ferguson in his Treatise on Civil Society, who observed, "That it forced the executive power to release each prisoner, unless it brought him forward to a trial within due session, and opened the doors of a prison to every man who was not lawfully confined for some specified crime: but it required the strength of the political, of the turbulent and refractory spirit of the people to support it."

That spirit was now no more, or the minister would never have brought forward a measure to deprive them thus of their security for freedom.

There were at this moment above

terms had passed since most of them had been apprehended. Had there been any insurrections in this country since? So far otherwise, that we could not refer to any period in our history since the revolution in which there had been less disaffection than at the present.

The people confined under the authority of this suspension had been treated with unprecedented rigour and inhumanity. Desirous of obtaining some information upon the subject, he had procured an order to see one of the prisons in which persons were confined on the reports of spies and informers. Though he found some of the hardships said to have been endured were exaggerated; the worst of eriminals had never been so treated in this country as in the present instance. The prisoners were locked up in cells, without fire, without candle; they had only a truckle bed; and the only means afforded for the admission of light let in also the cold and rain: they had no society whatever in this situation they remained the whole of their time, excepting for an hour each day. He mentioned these particulars as much with a view to inform the ministers as the house; for he did not believe they were acquainted with them, or, if they had been, that they would have permitted these severities.

Mr. Courtenay said, he had talked with many of the prisoners, and amongst the rest with col. Despard, a gentleman who had been for several years employed in the service of this country. He had been long confined in a cell, without fire, candle, or companion; and though he was now removed to a better place in the prison, even his wife was never permitted to see or speak to him but through an iron grate for a few minutes.

His next visit was to the cells where other persons were confined under the authority of this act: all the places were damp, and dismal, nor was it possible to exclude the wet without excluding the light and fresh air. He appealed to the house, whether such rigour ought ever to be practised. He had inquired of lawyers whether they had ever heard of it, and they had said No, not even in the case of any felon: yet so these men were treated in this prison, which (for what reason be knew not) had been called the Bastile. This appellation was so generally known, that, on taking a hackney coach, and inquiring if the coachman knew where it was, he said, Yes, very well, and took him to the prison in Cold-bath Fields. This showed the feelings of the public as to the place. But he could not help observing, that when the Bastile stood under the regular government of France, prisoners were better treated than in this.

The direction of this prison was under the chief management of a clergyman of the church of England, a minister, of the gospel of Christ! a loyal subject, and a good friend to government; for he had pronounced a high panegyric on the sedition bills! Perhaps the rigour of this divine arose from his principles of piety, and of benevolence to the prisoners; perhaps he thought that the more they were punished in this world, the better chance they had in the next!

Mr. Courteney solemnly affirmed, that the account he had given of this place, and the treatment of the prisoners, was true: nor had he stated all which he discovered in the course of his visit. He found there a man confined for selling a book, entitled, "The Daties of Citizenship;" his name was Smith: he was used like a felon; and whe

ther

ther this was right, whether it was consonant to the spirit of the law of England, he wished the house to determine. Was it the intention of the ministers that persons should be detained under the authority of such an act, in a situation injurious to their health, and destructive to their lives-with crimes unproved, and accusers unknown?

There was another instance of the severity of this prison: a prostitute was confined in it, and she was afflicted with an illness incident to her mode of life: she was kept in one of the damp cells he had described. There was also a boy of about nine years of age, for offending his master, who was subjected to the same rigour. The house ought not to rest on these accounts from him, or from any individual, but appoint a committee, and order an inspection into them.

Mr. Secretary Dundas observed, that the question was, whether this bill should now be read a second time or not? The honourable gentleman who had just spoken had stated a number of facts; whether faithfully or not, they certainly had no earthly connexion with this bill. They related merely to the bad conduct of a gaol, and might as well be said to aim at gaols in general throughout the kingdom, but had nothing to do with the power which the legislature had given to the executive government of this country, and the continuance of which was the object of the bill. The management of gaols was under the care of sheriffs and magistrates; and if the honourable gentleman was induced by humanity to pity the condition of all prisoners, or from sympathy to deplore the sufferings of the seditious, his course was, to have gone to some, magistrate with his complaint. If

he imagined, indeed, that the case was so desperate that no remedy could be effectual but a general motion upon the subject in that house, there was nothing to prevent him from bringing it forward. If he had any thing to urge against government on account of the separate confinement of any prisoners, or on any other account, let the accusation be made public, and then some of the ministers might answer it; but it surely was not reason enough to throw out the bill, because some of the people had been ill treated. As to the facetious anecdote of the coachman, who might have learnt from the gentlemen whom he carried to call this prison a Bastile, he doubted not but a shilling would satisfy any coachman that any prison ought to be called so, if the gentleman who gave it him was pleased to give it that name; but none of these reasons seemed to him strong enough to weigh with the house to withhold the power which the executive government had received from the wise legislature.

To prove that this measure ought not now to be continued, it should be proved that no treasonable spirit had ever existed. Was this the fact at Maidstone? It was not, however, on the guilt of one or two individuals that the act was founded, but on a combination of persons at home acting in concert for the destruction of the state, whose views extended also to a league with our enemies abroad. This indeed was now become a forlorn hope, the eyes of the English being opened at last; but some of evil intentions yet re mained, and on the conviction of it he supported the motion.

Mr. Tierney said, he was under the necessity of delivering his sentiments, as he was about to withstand á measure which he had as

sented