illustrate the spirit of the fourth proposition, Mr. Pitt referred to the negotiations of states independent and unconnected with each other; and asserted, that provisions exactly similar to that in question were frequently adopted on such occasions. He instanced in the late treaty with France, in which that kingdom bound herself to publish certain edicts, as soon as other acts stipulated on her part were performed by this country; and he defied opposition to produce a single collection of treaties, in which there was not, in almost every page, a contract of a similar ten dency.

Mr. Fox.

IF Mr. Pitt employed invective on this occasion, Mr. Fox was roused in his reply to a language, perhaps more pointed, and scarcely less severe. In the personal and political character of the chancellor of the exchequer, there were many qualities and habits which had often surprised him, and which he believed confounded the speculations of every man who had ever much considered or analized his disposition. But his conduct on that night had reduced all that was unaccountable, incoherent, and contradictory in his character in times past, to a mere nothing. He shone out in a new light, surpassing even himself, and leaving his hearers wrapped in amazement, uncertain whether most to wonder at the extraordinary speech they had heard, or the frontless confidence with which that speech had been delivered. Such a farrago of idle and arrogant de

clamation, uttered in any other place, or by any other person on the subject in question, would naturally have filled the hearers with astonishment; but spoken by that gentleman, within those walls, in the presence of men who were witnesses of all the proceedings of the business, it was an act of boldness, a species of parliamentary hardihood, not to be accounted for upon any known and received rules of common sense or common

reason.

Mr. Fox remarked upon the vast disparity in the tone of temper, and the style of expression, exhibited by Mr. Pitt upon this occasion, from those which he had employed upon the first introduction of the twenty propositions. In that debate he had observed, that the ampullæ and the sesquipedalia verba, his magnificent terms, his verbose periods and bombastic sentiments, were for once relinquished in exchange for a language and manners better accommodated to his disastrous condition. Then they saw that preposterous ambition, that gaudy pride and vaulting vanity, which glared beyond all the other features of Mr. Pitt, and which prompted him to look down with contempt upon his political coadjutors, melt away. Then they saw him descend to a curious and most affecting sympathy with the other supporters of the system, as well as into something like a modest and civil demeanour towards those who opposed it. But the change was transient and temporary. Mr. Pitt had relapsed into his favourite and darling habits. Nerved with new rancour, and impelled with fresh vehemence, he rushed blindly forward. Mr. Fox, however, in

ferred, from this conduct, that he was reduced to the last extremity. Finding it impossible to say one word in favour of his deformed and miserable system, he was obliged to throw out a series of invectives, and by exhibiting a list of chargescharges, which, at the moment he gave them utterance, he knew to be absolutely and entirely destitute of every vestige of truth, to engage the attention and divert the notice of the house from his own wretched and contemptible schemes.

Mr. Fox took notice of Mr. Pitt's having reflected on Mr Sheridan for the length of his declamation. Such a charge came with peculiar ill grace from that gentleman, who, like himself, was under the necessity of troubling the house much oftener, and for a much longer time than might be agreeable. Grateful for the indulgence with which they were favoured, and thankful for the patience and politeness with which they were honoured, they should certainly be the last to condemn that, in which themselves were the greatest transgressors. Mr. Fox added, that if an almost uniform deviation from the immediate subject in discussion; if abandoning fair argument for illiberal declamation; if frequently quitting sound sense for indecent sarcasms, and preferring to rouse the passions and to inflame the prejudices of his auditory to convincing their understandings and informing their judgments, tended to diminish the title of any member of that house to a more than common portion of its temper and endurance, he did not know any man who would have so illfounded a claim upon such favours as Mr. Pitt himself.

The charge of shifting their ground and playing a double game, which Mr. Pitt had made upon the opposition, Mr. Fox considered as particularly unguarded and unfortunate. He-he to talk of their shifting their ground! he, who had shifted his ground till in truth he had no ground to stand upon! he, who had assumed so many shapes, colours, and characters, in the progress of this extraordinary undertaking! he, who had proclaimed determinations only to recede from them, and asserted principles only to renounce them! he, whose whole conduct, from the first moment the system had been proposed, was one continued chain of tricks, quibbles, subterfuges, and tergiversations, uniform alone in contradiction and inconsistencies! he, who had played a double game with England, and a double game with Ireland, and juggled both nations by a train of unparalleled subtlety! Let the house reflect upon these circumstances, and then let them judge whether a grosser piece of insanity was ever heard of, than that the author of all this miserable foolery, should charge others with tergiversation and duplicity.

But it was not in retorting these silly charges that they rested their defence upon these points. It were indeed a hardship and injustice, that, because they combated the defects of a new scheme, they should be liable to the charge of shifting their ground against an old one no longer the object of discussion. Mr. Fox added, that if it was true that ingratitude was the worst of sins, he could see no other light in which Mr. Pitt appeared, but that of the worst of sinners. What a pernicious scheme would this have been, un

purged by their amendments! and now what a return did he make them? But there were proud and sullen souls in the world, enveloped in a fastidious admiration of themselves, and an austere and haughty contempt for the rest of the world; upon whom obligation had only the effect of enmity, and whose hatred was best secured by redeeming them from danger and dishonour.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN, ON THE BILL TO LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF PENSIONS. 1786.

I OBJECT to adjourning this bill to the first of August, because I perceive, in the present disposition of the house, that a proper decision will be made upon it this night. We have set out upon our inquiry in a manner" so honourable, and so consistent, that we have reason to expect the happiest success, which I would not wish to see baffled by delay.

We began with giving the full affirmative of this house, that no grievance exists at all; we considered a simple matter of fact, and adjourned our opinion, or rather we gave sentence on the conclusion, after having adjourned the premises. But I do begin to see a great deal of argument in what the learned baronet has said*, and I beg gentlemen will acquit me of apostasy, if I offer some reasons why the bill should not be admitted to a second reading.

Sir Boyle Roche, who opposed the bill, said, he would not stop the fountain of royal favour, but let it flow freely, sponta neously and abundantly, as Holywell in Wales, that turns so many mills.