228 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



produced more disastrotis effecls, 

 had not a minority, incoDsiderable 

 at fiist, and loaded \vith all mnnner 

 of reproaches and obloquy, inflixi- 

 bly persisltd in opposing- the minis- 

 terial phrenzy of the day, and 

 by patience and perteverance ef- 

 fected a total revolution of senti- 

 ments in Parliament. The mo- 

 tiou'i now laid before the Hoiue, did 

 not affect tlie dignity of the crown 

 nor the interest of the nation : it 

 vould.on the contrary, prt)vehighly 

 beneficial, by saving thousands of 

 lives that otherwise must be lost 

 in this destructive contest, as otheis 

 bad, which might have been 

 spared, if wiser councils had been 

 followed by the heads of this 

 country; and of that pernicious 

 coalition which had done and was 

 still likely to occasion many evils. 

 Unhappily for the people of this 

 country, their calamitie'^ seemed to 

 proceed in a considerable degree 

 from the change of disposition ef- 

 fected through great artifice by the 

 friends of arbitrary power. Whe- 

 ther through interested motives, or 

 an absurd notion that fi-eedom led 

 to licentiousness and confusion, 

 they had for some years past la- 

 boured with indefatigable zeal to 

 persuade people that opposition to 

 ministers proceeded from personal 

 disappointment and disaffection, 

 and that want of confidence in go» 

 vernment denoted an unfaithful 

 and disloyal subject. Tenets of 

 this sort hnd made an alarm- 

 ing progress'; and those who 

 opposed them were represented 

 as factious, and nvovcrs of se- 

 dition. 'Hence the bauds of mi- 

 nisters had been strengthened to 

 .«n un,ci;nstitational degree. Relying 

 on theb: sc and blind gubmisS'on of 

 the public, thtv had pursuod of 

 late such measures as evinced how 



little they were concerned for the 

 welfare of the community, pro- 

 vided they could bring that system 

 to bear, which they fondly in a- 

 glned, would insure to them a per- 

 petuity of p<jwtr, by rendering 

 governn ent alboliitc: forgetful of 

 the mean dependence to which 

 they would be reduced them^elves, 

 were once the executive branch of 

 the constitution to be raised above 

 all controul. The time however 

 would probably ariive, wlun the 

 nation would exercise the liberty 

 of judging for itsclh; in which case 

 the propagators of those slavish 

 principles, and those who have 

 availed themselves of the tempo- 

 rary delusion they had wrought, to 

 plunge this country intodilliculties, 

 would be called to a severe ac- 

 count. However excellent the 

 British constitution might appear 

 in theory, the flaws in its practice 

 were obvious to all nitn who did 

 not studiously strive to conceal or 

 to palliate them for sinister pur- 

 poses. It was the duty of the le- 

 gislature to investigate the causes 

 of those enormous abuses of which 

 all parties were, in their turn, so 

 ready to complain when out of 

 place. Ministers in the mean time 

 could not be supposed so deficient 

 in abilities, as not to be sers^blc 

 of the highly periloi.s situation in 

 which they had involved this coun- 

 try. Nothing short of manifest 

 ard undeniable necessity could jus- 

 tify them ; but this was far from 

 being the case. Numbeis of the 

 most judicious and well informed 

 were of a contrary opinion to rru- 

 nistiy. There could be no cer- 

 tai; tv where opinions were so dif- 

 ferent, especially when ministers 

 differed themselves in the most es 

 sential points, and spoke at a short i 

 interval of time a language wholly | 



opposite 1 



