64] 
state of debility he had ever ex- 
perienced on that element: it was, 
therefore,neither just nor prudent to 
represent this country as distressed, 
and its ministers as unworthy of con- 
fidence, and incapable of discharg- 
ing their duty. They had shewn 
‘themselves adequate to the various 
tasks imposed on them by the ar- 
duous contingencies of the war, 
and had not merited the aspersions 
so repeatedly cast uponthem. There 
had been a time when far greater 
stretches of ministerial power were 
beheld without complaint. In the 
reigns of George I. and II. such 
was the implicit trust of the times 
in their integrity, that millions had 
passed through their hands for secret 
services, of which an explanation 
was not required. Hence it ap- 
pears, that the vigilance of parlia- 
Ment in former days, however ex- 
alted above that of the present, 
was, in truth, not to be compared 
with that anxious and groundless 
jealousy with which the opponents 
to ministry watched over allits pro- 
ceedings, in order to discover how 
they could render them suspicious 
to the public. On these grounds, 
he considered the motion as ill- 
founded, and deserving no support 
from those who viewed the conduct 
of ministers impartially, and with a 
determination to listen without pre- 
judice to what they allege in their 
defence, as well as to the imputa- 
tions and surmises laid to their 
charge. 
Mr. Curwen, Mr. Robinson, and 
Mr, Martin, supported the motion; 
Mr. Steele opposed it, and stated 
the extraordinaries to be much lower 
than represented by Mr, Grey. The 
expence of the barracks had not, 
he affirmed, exceeded six hundred 
and ten thousand pounds, and one 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
hundred and fifty thousand would 
suffice to complete them: but Mr. 
Grey insisted on the accuracy of his 
own statements, and particularly re- 
probated the misapplication of the 
money appropriated by parliament 
to specific purposes; a practice, he 
observed, so unconstitutional, that 
it had been condemned, in terms of 
the greatest severity, even so long 
ago as the reign of queen Anne, on 
so slight an occasion as the applying 
of six thousand pounds to the use 
of the army, instead of the navy, 
for which it had been intended. 
His motion, however, was negatived 
by another for the order of the day, 
which was carried by two hundred 
and seven votes, against forty-five. 
The plans formed by ministry 
were so extensive, and the deter- 
mination, to carry them into the 
speediest execution, founded upon 
so sanguine a hope of success, 
that the supplies already granted 
not appearing sufficient, parliament 
was again resorted to for the raising 
an additional supply, and the sanc- 
tion of another loan. A circum- 
stance so new and extraordinary 
excited universal astonishment: two 
budgets and two loans in the same 
session, to use the common phrase, 
were a novelty, in the political 
system of this country, of an alarm- 
ing nature, and which the maxims 
of good economy did not appear to 
warrant in the difficult position in 
which it now stood. 
Mr. Pitt was duly sensible of the 
repugnance to so unprecedented a 
measure. After apologising for the 
necessity that compelled him to 
adopt it, and expressing his confi- 
dence that the resources of the 
country would renderit much lighter 
on trial than it seemed in the ap- 
prehension of many, he proceeded 
to 
