, 
256] ANNUAL REGISTER, 
are divided, and create a general 
spirit to bear up against the calami« 
ties by which we are surrounded. 
Mr. Pitt observed, that the qties- 
tion was not, whether some altera- 
tion might be attended with advan- 
tage, but whether the degree of 
benefit might be worth the chance 
of the mischief it probably, or pos- 
sibly, might induce. It would not 
be prudent to give an opening to 
poten that aimed at nothing 
ess than the annihilation of the 
constitution. But what he appear- 
ed to have most at heart, as was 
very natural, and what it was the 
principal tendency of his speech 
to refute, was, the alleged incon- 
sistency of those who had formerly 
supported parliamentary reform, in 
opposing it now.—There was no 
inconsistency, he said, in foregoing. 
a present advantage for a future 
benefit, or for the sake of avoiding 
impending evils. Could we believe 
that men, who remained unmoved 
by the dismal example which their 
principles had produced, whose 
pretensions rose or fell with the 
success or the decline of jacobinisin,~ 
in every part of Europe, were ever 
actuated by a similarity of motives 
and of objects with those who pro- 
secuted the cause of reform as a 
practical advantage, and maintained 
it On constitutional views? “ From 
the period, said Mr. Pitt, when the 
new and alarming zra of the French 
revolution broke in upon the world, 
I found that the grounds on which 
the question of reform rested were 
fundamentally altered. _ 1 do not 
believe that the temper of moderate 
reformers will lead them to make 
1797. 
common cause with the irrecofi- 
cileable enemies of the constitu- 
tion.”—As to the specific plan of 
reform, proposed by Mr. Grey, he 
thought it was at once highly exs 
ceptionable in theory, and unsup= 
ported by experience, 
Mr. Sheridan denied that the 
horrors of France weré produced 
by the rights of man. Bloody cala- 
mities there had been, but they did 
not originate in those principles. - 
There was not one individual who 
had been concerned in writing or 
publishing them that was concerned 
in. any of the massacres, Excess 
was the natural consequence of ail 
revolutions; when men shook oft 
their slavery, under the necessity 
of recovering their liberty by force, 
they were naturally intemperate. 
If the question were put to him, 
who were the real authors and 
abettors of the French massacres, 
he would not. hesitate to place 
certain despots in the front of his 
accusation. The minister had de- 
sired the public to look upon refor- 
mation as a latent mode of overturn- 
ing the constitution. He knew not 
why universal . suffrage had heen 
brought into such contempt. He 
remembered Mr, Pitt’s * haying 
signed his name, with the duke ot 
Richmond, at some meetings, in fa- 
vour of reform and annual parlia- 
ments. Mr. Sheridan mentioned 
several circumstances of comfort and 
hope, in his own particular situa« 
tion, which rendered ‘it incredible 
that he should entertain any design 
or wish to throw things into anar- 
chy and confusion.—For this, in 
our opinion, Mr, Sheridan is en=_ 
* We do not consider it to be necessary, as if we. were members of parliament, 
speaking in parliament, to adhere to all the circumlocutions of ‘* right honourable 
gentlemen opposite to each other, &c. &c.” 
titled 
