262). ANNUAL? REGISTER, 1797 
granted) to- the seldiers: but, that 
which appeared. to his.grece to be 
the, greatest subjegt of alarm, was, 
the. critical state, of lreland;, in, 
which. kingdom, if) a jtemperate re- 
form. in parliament did; not take 
places, anda full‘emancipation. of 
the; ¢atholies,, witha. total) change 
of the. men, who. now. condycted 
affairsin--that conntry,.we should 
soon see, it. added to the st of re- 
publics;; which, our fatal: measures 
had. so largely, contributed, to erect 
all over Europe.: ;with this, conse- 
gnence, . that, if. a revolution, took 
place; in Ireland, it would evidently 
produce. a revolution, in, Great Byi- 
tam, 
noble duke in every sentiment, ex- 
cept in the sincerity which: he :pro-; 
fessed. One| passage. in the pro- 
posed motion, he; thought, might 
produce; the, most, pernicious con- 
sequences; namely, that in. which 
it was. styled an oppressed country. 
What, would the Irish say, if this 
address should be voted, and the 
sentiments of that house, that it was 
so, declared to all the world? . 
_ The earl: of Guildford beseeched 
their, lordships to weigh well ..the 
side on which they gave their ap- 
probation. this evening. It was an 
important crisis, big with the fate 
of empires. . The. earl, of Suftolk, 
too, supported. the motion, as. a 
step towards the ,salyation of the 
country. tin sel? 
The marquis of Lansdowne said, 
that he had'come ,to the house, on 
that day, .prepossessed with an idea, 
that some notice would be given by 
Mipisters, that. a negociation. had 
commenced between, this, country 
and. France, though, he, confessed, 
-he hadnoiground forthe supposition 
butjpubli¢ report, He -was utterly 
Lord Romney differed from the. 
at a.Joss, to devise what could retard 
such overtures. ; ‘We had.nolonger 
the opening of the Scheldt to resist; 
the fate of the low: countries, was, 
decided =, deserted by our.allies, we. 
had only to consider our own intey 
rest, The cause of the silence ofthe. 
ministers was, therefore, to.him, in- 
explicable... He trusted they shad- 
not the madness to) make Austria, 
renew, the contest. He expected, 
to have heard that, the bank of 
Vienna, on, the return. of, peace, 
would have resumed its paymeuts 5 
and, that: not, only the, interest, of 
the money we, had lent to the em- 
peror would bave been punctually., 
paid, but that “the: capital would 
have been. gradually liquidated. 
Not one word had the noble secre- 
tary uttered uson this point. He 
even smiled..at the idea of having 
cheated the country out of six mil- - 
lions, of. money. And it-deserved 
to be so cheated; whilst it submitted) 
to be. taxed:in light and air, with~ 
out one remonstrance. He recom- 
mended it to ministers,, to, declare 
their readiness to negociate ; which, 
if it served no other purpose, would 
at least solve a. problem, never yet 
solved: what, had , been, the, real 
object, of the war?, He declared, 
on the best, authority, that Ireland 
was in a state of imminent danger. 
Lord Grewyille was satisfied, that 
the melancholy tone of distress im- 
puted to, the country began and 
ended with-the lords who supported 
the motion, It seemed to, be.a 
thing assumed by those. who sup 
ported the motion, that the removal 
of ministers, would be, grateful .te 
the public mind. , But, would it be 
it they, themselves were ‘to occupy 
their places? . Was it not apparent, 
that; the measures of his. majesty’s 
ministers 
~ 
