HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
excited much alarm and conjecture 
among all its neighbours. 
The royal speech, from the in- 
ternal tranquillity of the realm, 
contained little more than what 
related to foreign transactions. The 
subjects of it were, the marriage of 
the Duke of York to the daughter 
of the King of Prussia; the treaty 
of peace concluded, through the 
mediation of Great Britain and its 
allies, between the Emperor and 
the Turks; and the preliminaries 
settled between these latter and 
the Empress of Russia,; the con- 
tinuation of the war in India; the 
assurances of friendship and good- 
will on the part of the European 
powers, and the prospect thence 
arising of a stability of domestic 
peace and prosperity, and of a di- 
‘minution of the public expence, 
and particularly of a reduction in 
the army and navy. 
On moving the usual address, the 
terms of it occasioned a long and 
spirited contest; wherein Mr, Gray 
bore the principal part. He se- 
verely animadverted on the con- 
duct of ministry, relative to their 
interference in the war between 
Russia and Turkey. He censured, 
with no less severity, the ministe- 
rial representation of a speedy and 
successful issue of the hostilities in 
India, which, he asserted, were as 
far from. promising a happy termi- 
nation as in the preceding cam- 
paign. He complained that the 
indemnifications held out to the 
British merchants by the late con- 
vention with Spain, had not been 
obtained; and that no decision had 
yet taken place on that subject. 
The several particulars in Mr. 
Gray’s speech were answered by 
Mr, Dundas, with his customary 
acuteness ; and Indian affairs were 
[127 
placed in such a favourable point 
of view, as to justify the represen- 
tation that the war was drawing toa 
prosperous termination. 
The animadversions of Mr. Fox, 
in the discourse he made on this 
day, were chiefly pointed at the in- 
terference of administration be- 
tween the Turks and Russians. He 
accused ministers of having acted 
neither with honour nor efficaey. 
The very interference itself met 
with his heaviest disapprobation. It 
was, he said, unnecessary and dan- 
gerous to excite the resentments of 
the court of Petersburgh; which, 
lying under no controul, and guid- 
ing, instead of being guided, by the 
opinion of the public, might have 
rushed with temerity into war, 
against its real’ interest. Such an 
event, however it might have prov- 
ed detrimental to that power, must 
also have. been highly pernicious to 
Britain. It was happy, therefore, 
that the minority in parliament 
resisted such a measure on the part 
of the ministry, and that the voice 
of the nation spoke so loudly against 
lene 
He took remarkable notice that. 
the constitution of Great Britain 
had been of Jate extolled in such.a 
manner as. conveyed indirect cen- 
sure on himself and his friends, as 
not sufficiently convinced of its 
freedom from all defects. and im- 
perfections, and as it argued dis- 
loyalty to wish for a reformation of 
abuses, But herein he was not in 
the ieast desirous of imitating those 
who had overturned a constitution 
so radically bad as that of France, 
and who had justly run all hazards 
to destroy it. The constitution of 
Great Britain was, on the contrary, 
fundamentally good, and merited 
therefore the efforts of all honest 
and 
