STATE PAPERS. 
by any previous interference of par- 
liament, even the authors and pub- 
lishers of those writings that have at 
last awakened the attention of mi- 
nisters, are entitled ; and a sense of 
decorum should have restrained 
them from lessening the dignity, and 
committing the honour of parlia- 
ment, by making it, indirectly in- 
deed, but to the common sense of 
mankind obviously, a party in pub- 
lic prosecutions, which parliament 
is thus made to sanction and direct, 
and on which this house, in the 
highest and last resort, may have to 
sit in the impartial and uninterested 
but awful character of judges. 
Because, inthis measure, by which 
ministers in effect confess and re- 
cord their past inattention to the . 
dangers which they now deprecate, 
and. their. present inability to dis- _ 
charge the ordinary duties of their 
station, without the. extraordinary 
aid of parliament, the public cannot, 
fail.to. perceive that weakness and, 
inefficiency in his Majesty’s coun- 
cilsy which are more hurtful to .the 
true interests, and more derogatory 
from the just authority of govern- 
ment than any imaginary progress 
which, with great injustice to a loy- 
al|people, ministers attribute to the 
principles asserted in the writings of, 
which they complain, 
Because, when I consider how | 
long the ministers have viewed 
with unconcern the circulation of 
those opinions, at the consequence 
of which they now affect to be: 
alarmed; and when I recollect that 
of all those societiesfor the purpose 
of obtaining a reform in the repre- 
sentation of the people, and men- 
tioned in the debate, one only is of 
recent origin, I have but too much 
reason to believe that, under what- 
ever form they have disguised their 
163°" 
design, the real object of ministers 
has been to subject to suspicion and 
distrust the principles, misrepresent 
the views, and caluminate the in- 
tentions of that association of re- 
spectable persons lately formed, for 
purposes the most virtuous and con- 
stitutional, upon principles the most 
pure and disinterested, to be pur- 
sued by means the most legal and 
peaceful; wielding no weapons but 
those of truth and reason; using 
no efforts but those of argument, 
unsupported by party; appealing 
only to the sense and judgment of 
a public deeply, interested in the 
objects. of their pursuit, and not 
presuming to demand any personal 
credit but what may be derived 
form their steadiness, consistency, 
and integrity. This society appears 
to be the only one which has excit- 
‘ed the jealousy of those ministers 
from whom justice has extorted an _ 
admission in debate, that nothing ~ 
offensive, or even improper, has, 
proceeded from it; of those minis- 
ters, some of whom have themselves 
engaged, but to a much greater ex- 
tent, and upon much broader prin- 
ciples, in the prosecution of the 
same ‘general objects, the attain-— 
ment of which they declared not,’ 
only indispensable, but alone capa-, 
ble of preserving the liberties of the © 
people, and perpetuating the bless- 
ings of the constitution; but which 
objects, with the peaceful possession 
of power and emolument, they have 
long, neglected and lost sight of, and 
now at last, in the face of the pub- 
lic, in defiance of the most solemn 
engagements, unblushingly aban- 
don. — Such are the ministers who 
hayepresumed to use the royalname 
and authority to a proclamation by 
which, insinuating the existence of 
dangers, of which even some of their 
L2 most 
