tion? Was it that it would be inconfiftent with the political interefts of this kingdom? No; for (Mr. Grey added) he would take upon him to affert, that no connection which could be devised would be fo eligible for this kingdom, or fo confiftent with the views of true political wifdom. Was it then that America was averfe to any treaty with Great Bri tain? Mr. Grey hoped that he fhould not be hereafter quoted as having faid that he had a commercial treaty with America in his pocket, when he declared that, fo far from that being the cafe, he had the best reafons for believing that America was both willing and eager to enter into negociation with us on fair and equitable terms. But it might be proper to examine a little nearer the conduct of France on this occafion. Mr. Eden was fent over to Paris to negociate a treaty of navigation and commerce. Pending that negociation, a proclamation was iffued from hence excluding American fhips from British ports. Did France take advantage of this ftep which tended to feparate and alienate ftill farther from us the minds of the Americans to court them at that time into his ports? No; that perhaps would have opened too foon the eyes of this nation, and perhaps impeded the conclufion of this treaty to which her most ardent wishes had ever been directed. She waited therefore till Ministers were fo far pledged, that they had it no longer in their power to recede, till they were completely hampered in this negociation; fhe then of fered these fair ones, meaning thereby to fecure to herself a great commercial mine, and raise (he must once more repeat it) her navy on the ruin of that of Great Britain. Here then was a glorious inftance of the pacific difpofition of the Court of France; fhe negociates with us a treaty, a tempt ing treaty (as it had been called) by which fhe cuts us off from the reft of Europe, and precludes the poffibility of our fortifying ourselves by any new alliances, while fhe obtains an abfolute ratification and acknowledgement of the Family Compact, fecures herfelf at the head of a formidable confederacy, avowedly hoftile to our intereft, and lays the foundation of a future trade in an exclufive trade with America, which under fuch advantages muft inevitably become fuperior to ours. Mr. Grey added, that he trufted gentlemen would fee this in the light he did, and that we fhould no longer be fo blind to every thing which we had read, to every thing which we had feen, to every thing that we had felt of French perfidy; to all which experience, derived from the hiftory of paft times, taught us; to all which our fufferings at this moment proved, or to the authentic evidence of the paper which he had now produced, as to imagine that the French could have any other object in view than this only one to which their constant and invariable policy had always been been directed, the aggrandizement of their own country on the humiliation of this. The end of France had ever been the fame; it was only at this moment that she adopted the plan of a more enlightened policy, to fecure that object to which her former efforts had been incompetent. It was not that this ambition had changed its nature, and when on the point of being completely gratified, had at once exchanged its former qualities for principles of forbearance and moderation. It was not that France, convinced of the injuftice of her former conduct, was willing to make an atonement to this country, by granting us a fair partition of mutual advantages, in order to establish an equal and permanent fyftem of peace. It was, that she had at length difcovered that policy is preferable to force; that Court enmity, under the mask of fair profeffions, is more fure in its effects than open violence; and that, by negociation and intrigue, a fairer and fafer road is opened to the accomplishment of her main object, than by the vigour of her arms or her prowess in war. It was upon this principle that France had now changed her measures, but not loft fight of that which fhe had fo long laboured to attain; and it was now her policy to separate, to divide, to infulate us from the rest of Europe; to render England not more completely an island in her local than in her political fituation; to form an impaffable gulph between us and America, with whom, upon every principle of mutual intereft, we ought to be connected; and having thus disjoined and detached us from those powers with whom we ought naturally to feek for alliances, to wait till we fhall be completely fhackled in the fetters of this treaty, when he may purfue, uncontrolled, thofe schemes of power which have fo often proved fatal to the repofe of Europe, and which but for the efficient interference of her now debilitated rival, had gone well nigh to establish a fyftem of univerfal dominion. Mr. Grey now begged pardon of the House for having thus long trefpaffed on their indulgence, particularly as he had detained them from hearing the ftill more forcible arguments which might be expected from perfons of much greater ability and experience than himself. He could not, however, fit down without begging that his conduct on this occafion might not fuffer any mifconftruction. He hoped that he should not be fuppofed to oppose this address from any want of perfonal attachment, or refpect for His Majefty; as he should always be one of the first and most eager to approach the throne with fentiments of true loyalty and veneration. He confidered this addrefs, however, as in cluding a final approbation of this treaty, to which alone his oppofition was intended, as he really in his heart believed Mr. Haw it to be the moft pernicious measure that ever was proposed to this House. The right honourable gentleman oppofite to him would not, he hoped, imagine that he acted from any perfonal prejudice against him, or any party view whatever. He verily believed that the good of the country was what he had moft at heart, and however we might differ in our opinion of what measures were moft calculated to promote it, he trusted that he would render him the fame juftice, in believing that his conduct upon this occafion had not been, influenced by any finister motive. Mr. Hawkins Browne declared that it was evident from the kins Browne filence of the manufacturers, that they approved the treaty, an approbation in which he, for his own part, most heartily concurred. Indeed, the letter read by the honourable gentleman who moved the addrefs, and what had been urged by the honourable gentleman who feconded it, were incontrovertible teftimonies that the fact was as he had ftated. Nay, he had it in his own power to corroborate and confirm the fact. He had the honour to reprefent a manufacturing town, and lived in a county where many of the great iron works were carried on. With those manufacturers he had conversed on the fubject, and learnt from them that they were fincerely pleased with the treaty, and that they regarded it as a fingular benefit to the trade and commerce of the kingdom. Indeed, it appeared to him rather extraordinary to ftate it otherwife, fince the firft and obvious confequence was, that we should have twenty-four millions of new cuftomers; a circumftance which could not but tend greatly to increase the confumption of our manufactures, and to add to their demand; confequently to increase the calls upon the labour and industry of our manufacturers, and those employed in the various departments of their manufactories. The extraordinary increase of the fale of British manufactures could not fail to be productive of another confequence of infinite importance to this country, after, her refources had been so much drained by the late unfortunate war: the confequence he alluded to was, a large increase of revenue. Again, a third material benefit would arife-a great stop would be put to smuggling and the illicit practices carried on between this kingdom and that of France. With regard to the letter, which the honourable gentleman who had spoken laft, and spoken fo ably, had produced, he did not fee but that it told as much one way as it did the other. It proved the pacific difpofition of France, and the wifdom of her conduct in extending her commerce. Mr. Robert Mr. Robert Thornton begged leave to trespass upon the atThornton. tention and indulgence of the House, while he ftated his reafons for approving of the treaty. The political and the commercial commercial parts of the treaty hung upon each other, and ought to be confidered as blended and involved. What could it be which made gentlemen fuppofe, that, after the treaty was fully executed, the national jealoufy would be lefs awake, and more off its ground, than before? Did they dread any opiates infufed in, the wines of France, or were they afraid that their intoxicating quality would remove the power of providing for national fecurity? For his part, he faw no reason to fear imaginary danger; nor could he reconcile himself to the opinions of those who were anxious to deliver us over to everlasting enmity with France. Mr. Thornton commented on fome of the fpeeches of Mr. Fox, and denied affent to all that gentleman's propofitions. He maintained that it was wife for this country to enter into a commercial treaty with France, and ftated his reasons, declaring that he was corroborated and confirmed in his opinion by one of the best writers of the age, Dr. Adam Smith on the Wealth of Nations. That author had written three or four excellent pages upon the fubject, which any gentleman might easily find by turning to the index. Mr. Thornton differed from Mr. Grey in feveral particulars, and especially in respect to our marine and our navigation, declaring that the fouth and fouth-east coasts of Great Britain, and the north-west coaft of France, were fo conveniently fituated, that almost as many returns could be made in a year, as by an inland trade, and exclufive of that immediate to and fro fail, we should retain all our circuitous trade to the rest of the globe. Captain Macbride obferved, that whilft he expreffed his Capt. Macy dilike to the treaty, he must acknowledge that he refted his bride. averfion upon grounds diffimilar from thofe taken by most other gentlemen who difapproved of it. He would neither interfere with its commercial nor its political relations. What made him object against it was, that it more refembled a treaty concluded between France and the King of Pruffia than a commercial treaty with France; and, as to a treaty of navigation, it had no pretenfions to the title. The twenty-fecond article was one of those to which he most objected. The articles defcribed in it as contraband, fuch as arms, cannon, &c. &c. appeared to be on the whole rather fit for a place in a treaty where the prefervation of an army, than the care of a navy, ought to be the predominant characteristic. The thirty-fourth article was particularly injudicious. Having made this remark, he went into a profeffional detail, to fhew what the practice had been, which formerly obtained in the refpect to which the article reached, and contended that as the article ftood, it would operate prejudicially in time of war with regard to the manning of Mr. Wel borellis. King's fhips. Few men, he believed, understood that part of the profeffion better than he did, and he knew perfectly well that a privateer would, by the 34th article, be enabled to get his men fooner than the Captain of a man of war. Glaringly reprehenfible was the folly of throwing any additional difficulty in the way of manning our navy. France, by the register of her feamen, had an evident fuperiority in point of quickness of filling her fhips complements. France was at this time intent on taking care of her marine, and making preparations against a future war. Some of the most judicious regulations, that the wit of man ever devised, had been lately adopted in France for that purpose; and not the leaft of her good plans in this refpect was that of her fending out fhips on cruifes, merely to exercife the old officers, and train up young ones. In our fervice no fuch practice prevailed; on the contrary, the old officers were driven from the service in difguft, and young ones were not invited to enter into it. There never was a greater occafion for an inquiry to be inftituted into the ftate of the navy than at prefent; and this conviction was fo ftrongly impreffed upon his mind, that he had refolved to embrace the earliest proper opportunity of moving for the institution of an inquiry of this nature. Mr. Welbore Ellis faid, that, by the forms of the Houfe, they were in all matters which concerred trade and commerce obliged to go first into a Committee of the whole Houfe, and there move certain refolutions to be afterwards reported to the House; and, when the Houfe had agreed to them, a motion was ufually made to bring in one or more bills, as the nature and circumftances of the cafe might require. When the bill or bills had passed their usual stages, and had been read a third time, the bufinefs was over, as far as regarded that Houfe. On the present occafion they had only got the length of reporting the refolutions, and the Houfe having agreed to thofe refolutions, an addrefs had been moved to His Majefty. No honourable gentleman approved more of going up to the throne with addreffes, expreffive of loyalty and duty, than he did; but he could not therefore agree, that it was any ways becoming or confiftent with the forms of the Houfe to go up with a premature addrefs, while the bufinefs it went on was not ripe for fuch a procedure. The addrefs which had been moved was final and conclufive. If voted, it pledged every honourable gentleman to fupport fuch bill or bills as it might be thought proper to bring in, grounded upon the refolutions of the Committee, out of which they had fo lately come. In thofe circumstances, therefore, it would be a direct violation of parliamentary form to vote the addrefs, and as the ad drefs |