honourable gentleman connected with our commerce. He asks whether his majesty's government have any security for the co-operation of Sweden in their commercial arrangements. Sir, I have no doubt that at this mement a treaty has been signed at Stockholm, not of indulgent, but of hearty co-operation in those arrange..ments. As soon as the Swedish government were told what was expected from them by this country, without waiting for the formalities of a treaty, they entered cordially into our views; but, sir, it was thought advisable - that a regular treaty should be concluded, and I repeat that I have no doubt that cre this it has been signed. America, sir, is the next subject of the honourable gentleman' speech which I shall notice. Of nearly all that bas passed between the two countries,, the house and the public have been put in possession by the publications of the American government. I presume that the honourable gentleman does not intend to blame his majesty's ministers for not having made similar communications to parliament; for if he had thought such communications necessary, be would doubtless have moved for them. Without censuring their production by the American government, his majesty's ministers have felt that the transaction being pending, any appeal from government to parliament would look as if it were concluded. I shall only state, that in the whole conduct of the British government, with respect to the affair of the Chesapeak, we bave endeavoured to keep in view the principle upon which we set out; namely, to make ample reparation for that which was a decidedly wrong ac; but to make that reparation under a firm determination not to surrender a right which the great majority of the country has ever considered as essential to its dearest in erests. Sir, I may boldly appeal to the country to determine whether, from the correspondence on the table of the house, any such disposition on the part of his majesty's ministers has appeared through the whole transaction. That the rupture of the negociation on this subject was not attended with any hostile feeling on either side is an incontrovertible truth. The reparation was not accepted by America, hecause America would not fulfil the condition on which alone it was tendered; namely, the revocation of that proclamation by which British ships were not allowed to enter the harbours of America, while those of the enemy

569 visited them at pleasure.. But, sir, the manner in which the British reparation was tendered to America by a special mission, was, to all the feelings of nice honour, an effective reparation, although not accepted; and so, in fact, we have every reason to believe that it was considered by the American government. With respect, sir, to the embargo, and to the probable effects of the orders of council in producing its abandonment, the honourable gentleman has misstated my right honourable friend's propositions. The honourable gentleman declares my right honourable friend to have predicted that the orders of council would do away the embargo, whereas my ho nourable friend only argued, in opposition to the honourable gentlemen on the other side, that the orders of council did not produce the embargo; that they were not substantively known in America when the embargo took place; and that they were not included in the complaint made by the American government to congress, on which complaint the embargo was founded. Nor, sir, do I think that the orders of council themselves could have produced any irritation in America. If I were not disposed on this occasion to avoid making any observations that might be suspected of a party feeling, I would say, that I do think irritation in America may have been produced by the echo of the discussions in this house (Hear!), Sir, since the return of Mr. Rose, no communication has been made by the American government, in the form of complaint, or remonstrance, or irritation, or of any description whatever; I mention this particularly, because it is notorious that there have been several arrivals from America, supposed to be of great importance, and that several special messengers have reached this country from thence, after having touched at France. But, sir, if the honourable gentleman in the execution of his public duty had thought fit to move for any communications that had been made by the American government since the departure of Mr. Rose, my answer must have been, not that his majesty's government were disinclined to make them, but that absolutely there were none to make. If it be asked why, I am unable satisfactorily to reply. I can only conjecture that America has entered into negotiations with France which are expected to lead to some result, and that the communications of America to this country are to be contingent on that result. This, sir, is conjec VOL. III.-1808.

4 D

ture alone, but it is founded on the extraordinary circum stance of so many arrivals without any communication. It cannot be expected of me, that I should state prospectively what are the views of his majesty's government on this subject. The principle by which they have hither. to been guided, they will continue invariably to contem. plate. They attach as much value to the restoration, and to the continuance of cordiality, and perfect good understanding with America, as any man can do; they are ready to purchase that advantage by every justifiable conciliation; they have proved that readiness by the act of the present session, in which the trade of America has been placed on the most favourable footing; but, sir, they are not ready to purchase that advantage, great as they acknowledge it, at the price of the surrender of those rights on which the naval power and preponderance of Great Britain is immutably fixed. The honourable gentleman has alluded, with sufficient delicacy, to some unpleasant circumstances which the present stagnation of commerce has produced in a part of this country; but, sir, în making this allusion, he has offered to the executive go vernment a piece of advice, which, I trus', is unnecessary. He has recommended to us, sir, in any measures which the excesses of the misguided may compel us to take, to discriminate between the objects of mercy and those of justice; and not to apply to innocence, goaded by want to imprudence, the punishment which belongs only to indefensible guilt. Sir, I trust it was perfectly unnecessary for the honourable gentleman to lay down this principle for the guidance of his majesty's government. And, sir, if among those who, by the real pressure of the times, are incited to tumult, men should be found who, without themselves experiencing any inconvenience, avail themselves of the irritation of others to forward views of a very different nature, then, sir, I trust, that to such men the bonourable gentleman would not wish his principle of lenity to apply. I state this, only because I think that the recommendation of the honourable gentleman is rather too much of a sweeping description, and that it implies a proposition which I do not choose at this moment either to contradict or to adopt; namely, that one cause alone, the pressure of the tinies, is enough to produce the evils to which he has alluded, and that no other can exist in aid of it. The honourable gentleman inquires

JUNE 24.]

STATE OF THE EMPIRE.

whether the operation of the orders of council has produced the full effects expected from it. But he does not state fairly the extent of the expectation. It never was sup posed by his majesty's government, that the orders would throw no impediment in the way of the commerce of the country; we expected that they would impede the commerce of the country, but we imposed this restriction, be cause restriction existed elsewhere, and because we thought that the restriction of the enemy would be more success, fully combated by a defying res riction on our part than, by helpless acquiescence and unresisting supplication; means unworthy of the British nation. I have now, sir, gone through most of the honourable gentleman's observations except those which related to the different committees of this house, to the general course of parliamentary business, and to the laborious attendance of members during the present session. Sir, I shall add but very few minutes to that attendance in expressing my cordial concurrence in the sentiments of the honourable ge tleman; and I am persuaded, my right honourable friend near me (the chan cellor of the exchequer) is by no means disposed to dissent from the honourable gentleman's opinion, that this has been one of the most severe and laborious sessions that were ever known. If the honourable gentleman reflects with complacency on his share of the proceedings of the session, we have also the satisfaction to reflect that we have done our duty in it, and we certainly anticipate its close with a feeling of satisfaction. I will not extend it still further by wasting the time of the house in descanting on the desire which it is rational to suppose that go vernment must feel for the restoration of a peace, I will not say consistent with the honour of the country alone, but a peace by which her future safety and i dependance may be secured. The disposition which has ever existed in the minds of his majesty's ministers on this subject, and which was distinctly declared by us on the motion made by the honourable gentleman at the commencement of the session, remains unchanged. Bu, sir, I think, that under the present circumstances, the honourable gentle, man will scarcely expect us to declare, whether or not we think there is any prospect of an opening for that event, The honourable gentleman may be assured, that we feel as much as he, or any man, can feel, the difficulties in which the country is involved; but we also feel, that she

lias energy and resources enough to contend, so long as it may be necessary to contend, for the maintenance of her power and independance. To say any thing further on this subject, to attempt to predict whether peace is probable or hopeless, would, in my opinion, sir, tend only, in the one case, to relax exertion, in the other, to aggravate evil.

Mr. Whitbread declared that he had asked for no in formation with respect to the probability or the improba bility of peace; he had only called the attention of government to that important subject. The right honourable gentleman opposite (he chancellor of the exchequer), notwithstanding what had been said by the right honour able gentleman who had just spoken, had certainly held out the expectation that the enforcement of the orders of Council would induce America to see her true interest, and that she would in consequence withdraw her embargo. The fact, however, was otherwise. As to what the right honourable gentleman had said of the echo of the debates in that house, having produced an irritation in the American mind, which was subsequently allayed, such a statement was a general reprobation of every pub Jic deliberative assembly. If the members of the house" of commons were not to speak their opinions freely, it were better that the house of commons did not exist. But this was the common topic of all ministers, little considering that the good far outbalanced the evil. In the present instance he did not believe that any evil had been produced. The right honourable gentleman had expressed his satisfaction at the approaching close of the session, and had been very pleasant on the gratification which this circumstance would give to his right honourable and learned colleague. He could assure him that he was not less pleased with the prospect than bimself, and that if he felt any of that complacency in the retrospect which the right honourable gentleman had ascribed to him, it was not so much at what he had actually done, as at the line of conduct he had pursued. There was one topic of nation al importance on which he had not touched, namely, the internal defence of the country. The reason was this. On a recent evening, a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Yorke), in a speech containing some tremendous truths, had called upon a noble lord opposite for an explanation on that subject; and in his own emphatic language had