French monarch is not the less to be dreaded on account

of economy.

The noble lord, with much exultation, very ill-placed, I think, has told us the national honour does not consist in being the busy meddlers in every European quarrel; and in terms which wanted no explanation, severely condemned the whole system of British politics from the Revolution. He has his system, we well know, though not the author of it; but he and his friends would have been more consistent, had the least opposition ever once been heard from them to continental measures, when in their meridian. But the system is that of blindness and infatuation, held forth as an excuse for that conduct which saw Corsica seized in one part of Europe, and Poland dismembered in another, with the most torpid indifference; when, by having a little of that busy spirit of intermeddling, both might have been prevented by mere force of negociation, had the powers of Europe any respectable idea of this country, once the refuge and protectress of distressed nations. But the time will come, when the new system will be seen in all its impotence and folly; and when the balance of power is destroyed, it will be found of what infinite consequence its preservation would have been.

The noble lord has apologized for the greatness of our military establishment, by telling us that our enemies may begin with us in the next war with as little ceremony as we began with them; but herein he speaks against reason and experience. A great establishment may impoverish, but cannot preserve you; it is impossible for you to have one sufficient for that; if you are secure of peace, it will be too great; if you are in real danger of war, it will ever be too small and insufficient in the hour of want it is also useless, for a nation can never be surprised: it is talking absurdly to suppose it; a minister who finds himself unexpectedly in a war would deserve to be hanged for a blockhead. Watch the merchants, who read the political hemisphere admirably, and whose motions will always tell you where they apprehend a storm. It is im

hat province, except taxation, which council should be apointed by the crown, the office to be held during pleasure; and his majesty's Canadian Roman Catholic subjects were entitled to a place in it: to establish the French laws, and a trial without jury, in civil cases, and the English laws, with a trial by jury, in criminal; and to secure to the Roman Catholic clergy, except the regulars, the legal enjoyment of their estates, and of their tythes from all who are of their own religion. The bill received in the course of its progress through the Commons many amendments, so as to change it very greatly from the state in which it came down from the Lords; but the groundwork remained the same. On the 10th of June, Sir Charles Whitworth having reported the bill, with the amendments that had been made, Mr. Mackworth moved, that a clause should be added to the bill," That in all trials relating to property and civil rights, where the value shall exceed a certain sum, either of the contending parties may demand a trial by jury, constituted according to the laws of England, and that the issue between the parties shall be determined by the verdict of such jury, and not otherwise." He recommended the clause as a security for the English in Quebec against the French laws. After the clause had been opposed by Lord North, Mr. Attorney General Thurlow, and Mr. Solicitor General Wedderburn; and supported by Mr. Serjeant Glynn and Mr. Dunning,

Mr. BURKE, in a long speech, the first part of which was a keen pointed vein of humour against the ministerial members, who just then came into the House in great numbers, said, he should not then have risen, only he thought he now seized a happy moment when he should carry his point, for the House had filled, all of a sudden, with members who had not heard any thing that had been said against the bill, no not even from its being first agitated in the House; that they had now come with good English dinners in their bellies, which would, he trusted, make them good-humoured, and by being thus full of English meat, they would undoubtedly be for English laws, that could secure to them that meat; that he should have been afraid to attack such a body of power and wisdom as the other side of the House contained, had he not fortunately

jury, in order to protect their property from the arbitrary proceedings of the noblesse, who, in all countries, always wished to have the poor under their controul; that as to the English laws not being esteemed by the French, he could produce mountains of books, written by Frenchmen, on the justness and excellency of our laws, where they approved of the trial by jury as one of the greatest excellencies our constitution produced; that the noble lord had invited him and others to come and offer their opinions, setting forth, that the bill was imperfect, and he wished to alter it, yet he had not attended to what had been offered; that, in the committee, when he meant to propose a clause, the noble lord told him he might do it with propriety on the report, and that there would be no other obstacle in his way, than that he would oppose it. He said he was greatly obliged to the noble lord for his candour, for it had spared him much trouble, having intended to offer several clauses, which he should, with great justice, be called obstinate, were he now to attempt, when he knew there was such a glorious triumvirate of power and wisdom formed against him; that he sincerely believed the French were in awe of us, yet he could not help thinking, that they must be astonished that a people who had such powerful arms should have such weak heads. He strongly recommended the state of the merchants as an object of the noble lord's attention, setting forth, that their property was always in a fluctuating state, and that they ran great risks of losing their whole fortune, in order to benefit government as well as themselves.

On the the question being put, the clause was negatived by 83 against 40. After which the bill was passed.