260] ANNUAL REGISTER, i79% 
Upon this statement, and upon this 
unanswerable argument, the right 
honourable gentleman acted in the 
year 1782. When he proposed a 
parliamentary reform, he did it ex- 
pressly on the ground of the ex- 
perience of 1780, and he made an 
explicit declaration, that we had no 
other security by which to guard 
ourselves against the return of the 
same evils. He repeated this warn- 
ing in 1783 andin 1785. It was 
the leading principle of his conduct. 
*«* Without a reform, said he, the 
nation cannot be safe: this war 
may be put an end to, but what 
will protect you against another ? 
As certainly as the spirit, which en- 
gendered the present war, actuates 
the secret councils of the crown, 
will you, under the influence of a 
defective reprezentation, be involved 
again in new wars, and in similar 
calamities.” 
This was his argument in 1782, 
this was his prophecy; and the 
right honourable gentleman was a 
true prophet. Precisely as he pro- 
nounced it, the event happened ; 
another war took place, and I am 
sure it will not be considered as an 
agyrayation of its character, that it 
is at least equal in disaster to the 
war of which the right honourable 
gentleman complained, ‘* The de- 
fect of representation, he said, is 
the national disease ; and, unless you 
apply directly a remedy to that dis- 
ease, you must inevitably take the 
consequences with which it is preg- 
nant.” With such an authority, 
cay any man deny that I reason 
right? Did not the right honourable 
gentleman demonstrate his case? 
Good God ! what a fate is that of 
the right honourable gentleman, and 
n what a state of whimsical con- 
tradiction does he stand! During 
the whole course of his administra- 
tion, and particularly during the 
course of the present war, every 
prediction that he has made, every 
hope that he has held out, every 
prophecy that he has hazarded, has 
failed ; he has disappointed the ex- 
pectations that he ‘has raised ; and 
every promise that he has given has 
proved to be a fallacy and aphan- 
tom. Yet, for these very declara- 
tions, and notwithstanding these 
failures, we have called him a wise 
minister. We have given him our 
confidence on account Of his pre- 
dictions, and have continued it upon 
their failure. Though nooneevent _ 
which he foretold has been verified, 
we have continued to behold bim 
as the oracle of wisdom ! But in the 
only instance in which what he really 
predicted, as if by divine inspira- 
tion, has come to pass, in that we 
have treated him with stubborn 
incredulity! In 1765, he pronoun- 
ced the awful prophecy, ‘* without 
a parliamentary reform the nation 
will be plunged into’ new wars ; 
without'a parliamentary reform you 
cannot be safe against bad'ministers ; 
nor can even good ministers be of 
use to you.”’ Such was his pre- 
diction! and it bas come upon us, 
It would seem as if the whole. life 
of the right honourable gentleman, 
from that period, had been destined 
by Providence for the illustration of 
his warning.’ It I were disposed to 
considér him as ‘a real enthusiast, 
and a bigot in divination, we might 
be apt to think that he had himself 
taken measures for the verification 
of his prophecy.’ He might now 
exclaim to us, with the proud ter- 
vour of success, ‘* you see the con- 
sequence of not listening, to’ the 
oracle! I told you what would bap- 
pen; itis true that your destruction 
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