obtruded upon the discernment and good sense of a house of parliament. Nothing but the gross texture of the imposition attempted to be put upon it could have induced him to rise, because the question was not that properly before the house: but if not proper or fur ther notice should be taken, or explanation given, he meant to make this monstrous doctrine the separate subject of some future day; and pledged himself to prove, that the admiralty board had the discretional power he now contended for, and which in the course of the debate, had been so ably urged by several gentlemen on that -side of the house.

SIR CHARLES BUNBURY.

On bringing up the Report of the Recruiting Bill, Rose and said, he took the liberty of then addressing the house, and he was the rather assured of the indulgence and patience of gentlemen, because he so very rarely called upon them to exercise either the one or the other. His sentiments, he protested, arose from no factious view, no wish to oppose government, no desire to gratify party, they were the sincere sentiments of his heart, the offspring of his feelings, unprompted, untutored, and uncommunicated. Such as they were he submitted them to the judgment of the house.

He did not by any means approve of the principle of the present bill, which was confessedly calculated to recruit our armies for the purpose of carrying on a ruinous offensive war in America; a war which, in his opinion, ought for every reason of policy and humanity to be abandoned. If we wished to retrieve ourselves from our desperate situation, and to avoid impending ruin, the

only means of effecting so desirable an end consisted, not in recruiting our armies, but in recruiting our councils. Enlist new ministers, and pursue new measures. Not that he meant to have it understood that he was one of the general herd of complainers, or that he considered our past misfortunes as an incontrovertible proof of the want of wisdom in administration. He had no such idea; on the contrary, he knew that several of those who were employed in the first offices of government were men of sound judgment, unimpeachable integrity, and extensive talents; but when he considered the tremendous state of national affairs, he thought that all the men of abilities, let them be of what party they would, should be called upon for their advice and assistance. He therefore wished most anxiously that gentleman would forego their animosities, their prejudices, and their passions; that a coalition of parties might take place and unanimity of sentiment might once more pre

vail.

From unanimity, and the exertion of a general zeal to save the kingdom, he said, he alone expected that immediate ruin could be avoided. He had little skill as an artist; but there were great and masterly painters on both sides the chair; the picture of the country, which had been more than once drawn by the Salvator Rosas of the opposite side of the house, was a capital exhibition; it was grand and sublime, but dreadful and alarming. The honourable gentleman who proposed the bill was a more flattering artist, and had given a very different view indeed of the same country. If the likeness was not so striking, if his outline was not so true and accurate as that of the gentleman of the opposite school, he had amply compensated for this trifling defect, by a richness of colouring, a brilliancy of sky, a glow of tints, which would have done honour to a Claude Lorrain. He was no painter, but something like his brother, though with inferior powers of pencil; any thing therefore that he should attempt to delineate, Mr. H. Bunbury.

would be found to be a mere sketch, a rough outline, a rude daubing.* To drop all metaphor, he was far, as he had before said, from thinking all the present ministry wanting in capacity. The noble lord in the blue ribbon was possessed of a sound understanding, an ho nest mind, and most respectable abilities. The learned gentleman who had lately left that house in consequence of his promotion to a high office, he had often listened to with pleasure. His manly sense, quick discernment, profound sagacity, and great professional knowledge, his love of justice, and his firmness of mind, qualified him in the fullest manner to be the adviser of his king, in a moment of so much danger, and in which the counsel of wise and upright men was so essentally necessary as at present. When he considered the gentlemen on the opposite side of the house, he saw among them men of the first abilities, and men whose talents might at this crisis be exercised equally to their own honour and the service of the state. (Sir Charles then spoke of the talents of three gentlemen of the opposition, Mr. Burke, Mr. Dunning, and Mr. Fox, in terms of the highest panegyric.)

The fruitful imagination of the first, his brilliancy of thought, powerful eloquence, strict integrity of conduct, and refined delicacy of sentiment, he said, pointed him out as a fit person to be employed in government. With regard to the second, his great knowledge of both professional and political affairs, his keen and penetrating perception, his sound understanding, his unsullied honour, and wise decisions upon every point he spoke to, rendered him essentially qualified to assist in restoring the lost dignity of Great Britain; and as almost every man in that house, as well as almost every man without doors, when he thought either his person, his property, or his fame in danger, ran eagerly to him, and solicited his assistance and protection, he

Sir Charles pursued his metaphorical allusion to painting for a considerable time.

VOL. II.

25*

saw no reason why this country should not have the bene. fit of his great abilities, as well as individuals. (Of the third gentleman he spoke in the following words ;)

There is another ornament of his country, a gentleman with whom I have the honour and happiness to live in the most familiar habits, of whose extraordinary talents you are daily witnesses, but whose real character, (disfigured by calumny, and those shameful and unfounded aspersions which flow daily from an unrestrained and licentious press,) is yet unknown to you. Permit me, impelled by the partiality of friendship, and still more by a zeal for truth, to shew to you, and through you to his country, this valuable man in his proper colours, that you may know to whom to look for assistance in this hour of peril and calamity. To dwell on the shrewd ness of his understanding, on the liberality of his exalt ed mind, on his rapid and unerring judgment, on his convincing and overpowering oratory, were to mispend your time. Of his talents you are daily witnesses,: you are unanimous admirers. But believe me, gentlemen, he merits not your admiration only; he is deserving of your respect of your most affectionate regard: he resembles not those splendid pebbles which ingenious industry renders glittering at a distance, but whose lustre fades as you approach them; like the genuine diamond, he is more brilliant on a closer inspection; his amiable qualities are as captivating, and uncommon as his intellectual ones; those of his heart as superior to those of his head. Unlike the generality of mankind, his excellence is more apparent to those who see him in his unguarded moments; and, in defiance of the levelling maxim of Rochefoucault, he is a hero, even to his valet de chambre.

Having carried his eulogium on these three gentlemen very far, sir Charles recurred to his original position, that our army was sufficiently numerous, if wisely directed, to defend our present possessions. That if it was deemed advisable to increase it, in the exhausted

state of the finances, in his opinion, the first object was our navy, on the power and superiority of which the existence of this country depended. Sailors were more wanted than soldiers; good counsellors more than even sailors; we needed not able-bodied recruits, but ableminded ministers, who, by properly employing and directing the forces of England, would render the burthensome increase of them unnecessary.

On that ground he objected strongly to the principle of the bill, which held out unheard-of rewards and immu nities, to entice the labourer from the plough, and the manufacturer from the loom, to increase an army, the enormous expence of which we at present groaned under.

LORD NORTH.

The following Speech is a most masterly defence of himself. It is a model in its kind.

On the State of the Nation.

AM much indebted to my learned friend, the attorneygeneral, near me, for the very favourable sentiments he has this day expressed of my public services; much more, I fear, than I have any pretensions to. On that subject he has, perhaps, spoke with the partiality of a friend; on others, he has, I presume, given his opinion without any such bias. But how much soever I may be obliged to the learned gentleman, I cannot help rising on the present occasion, earnestly wishing to vindicate my character against the general and specific accusation made by the honourable gentleman over the way, (Mr. Fox) and likewise to assure that honourable gentleman, that my present situation, sentiments, and intentions, will not permit me to accept those friendly dispositions which he has been so kind as to mix with the general charges. I allude to the admonitions he has given to