196 ANNUAL REGISTER, 
those kind of bills. Many fraudu- 
lently entered the prisons, to take 
the henefit of them. 
~The lord chancellor, having ex- 
pressed an opinion similar to that 
of lord Ellenborough, lord Moira, 
after a short reply, consented to 
withdraw the bill for the present 
Session. 
The agitation of the public mind 
at the petiod to which we have 
brought down the proceedings of 
parliament, was great beyond all 
precédent. The information which 
might lead to a proper estimate of 
its real situation, had been con- 
stantly denied by ministers to the 
country ; and the indecision and 
want of firmness which they had 
shewn on every trying occasion, left 
little room to hope for an honorable 
termination of the pending dis- 
cussions with France. The charac- 
ter of our adversary, at once rapa- 
cious and subtile, was contrasted 
With the timid and wavering policy 
adopted by the British councils, and 
the most unfavorable conclusions 
were thence deduced. No circum- 
stance had tended so much to de- 
prive Mr. Addington of that public 
confidence and esteem, so essential 
to the very existence of a minister, 
as his retreat (to say the least of it, 
hot a very honourable one,) from 
his confident assertion delivered in 
parliament on the 2d of December 
of the last year, namely, ‘‘ that in 
“* case of emergency, fiftysail of the 
“line could be prepared for sea 
*¢ within one month; and eyena lar- 
“ ger number, were there an exi- 
“gency sufficiently pressing.” When 
that exigency did occur; two 
months after the king’s message had 
1803. 
declared the nécéstify of arming, 
in consequence of the preparation§ 
on the coasts of France and Hol¥ 
land; and, that alarm of invasiofi 
Was universally eXcited; on pe 
urged in the house of commons, 0 
the state of our naval preparati+ 
ons, on the 4th of May; he wag 
obliged to own, we had but thirty- 
two ships of the line in commission, 
(not fit for sea) and, that when hé 
had asserted that we could equip 
fifty ships ready for sea, he only 
meant rigged and fitted out, but 
not manned and ready for ser- 
vice!!! What the real situation of 
the navy was at the moment here 
alluded to, it will be the subject of 
another portion of our history to 
state ; suffice it, that it was such a& 
to open the eyes of all ranks of peo~ 
ple toits gross mal-administration. 
Nor did the very strange declara- 
tion of one of the lords of the admi- 
ralty, in parliament, on the same 
occasion, tend to lessen the inquié- 
tude of the people, respecting the 
critical situation of the country. 
Our warlike preparations both na- 
val and military, and the embody- 
ing of the militia force, had origina- 
ted, a& were stated in the usual 
official communications to the legis- 
lation, on the grounds of the “* pre- 
parations going on in the ports of 
France and Holland, and for the. 
repelling a contemplated invasion 
on the part of France.” Much in- 
deed then, were parliament and the 
country surprized, in the course of 
the debate, on Sir Henry Mild- 
may’s motion for naval enquiry, to 
hear from a person whose ministe- 
rial functions gave him the most 
accurate means of information, 
that 
