HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



91 



former bill ; but it would require 

 great ingciiuity to give a siitisfactory 

 reason why these should coalesce, 

 who had pointedly dift'ercd upon 

 every topic, and upon every prin- 

 ciple, which had come under their 

 consideration, since their political 



^ existence. 



Karl Spencer said, that when this 

 bill was proposed to the house, he 

 stated his reasons for thinkin;^ that 

 instead of assisting, it would be in- 

 jurious to the service, and as all 

 those reasons since proved to be too 

 true, he must now cordially concur 

 in the motion lor its repeal. As a 

 bill for raising men, it had totally 

 failed, which no man in the kingdom 

 had a better opportunity of know- 

 ing, than the right honourable gen- 

 tleman (Mr. Pitt), v,ho vvas the 

 father of it, in the district over 

 M'hich he presided ; and as a bill 

 for raising money, it M'as in the 

 highest degree to be reprobated, as 

 partial, unequal, and falling with ah 

 unexampled degree of weight and 

 severity on the landed proprietors 

 of the country. lie was anxious to 

 know how the new coalition would 



' conform themselves on this occasion, 

 aad why some nobJe lords, who so 

 strenuously opposed this last year, 

 had since changed their opinion of 

 it. For his own part, however he 

 might have differed with others, for 

 any length of time, on one or more 

 of the tirst and most important po- 

 litical questions, he felt himself jus- 

 tified, and even acting with the 

 highest degree of consistency, if he 

 cordially coincided and acted with 

 them on a question, or questions, in 

 which they ail formed the same 

 unanimous and decided opinion. 

 It would be ridiculous to suppose 

 that, because men had acted on con- 

 trary opinioaS; they should never 



agree nor act together, when they 

 happened to think exactly alike. 

 Every parliamentary character was 

 bound to co-operate with those, 

 who, in his mind, were most for- 

 ward in promoting the interests of 

 his country, and should always act 

 upon that principle; but when hft 

 should be found to abandon mea- 

 sures which he had once supported, 

 and to join with those who differed 

 with him on those very measures, 

 then he should be contented to be 

 charged with inconsistency, or be 

 said to have formed a coalition, or 

 any otiier term which might be 

 chosen to designate a dereliction of 

 principle. 



Lord Sidmouth rose, not, he said, 

 to gratify the curiosity of the no- 

 ble lord, but to discharge his pub- 

 lic duty. If he had abandoned his 

 opinions, on any public measure, 

 the anticipated charge of the noble 

 earl might apply ; but as he had 

 ever regulated his public conduct by 

 the dictates of his conscience, he 

 owed it to the approving sense of 

 conscious integrity, to explain his 

 sentiments with regard to the pre- 

 sent measure. While sitting in. 

 another house, he was not unused 

 to the charges of incapacity, ineffi- 

 cacy, and other illiberal epithets of 

 the same nature, which had been 

 applied with more profusion than 

 decency, to him and the measures 

 he proposed. Such as his talents 

 were, they were always applied ho- 

 nestly and assiduously for the pros- 

 perity and security of his country, 

 and to any charge of his neglecting 

 to provide for the security of the 

 state, he would reply by referring 

 to monumental records of his hav- 

 ing, within six months after the 

 commencement of the war, placed 

 800,000 men in arms, and in a pro- 



gressivs 



