eig ^ lon 
faid, he would afk the right honourable gentleman where 
be looked for the la ft ? And, as to his not underftanding 
what anfwer minifters could advife his majefty to return 
to fuch an addrefs,—did he fuppofe that his majefty would 
hefitate to deliver any papers he might have in his pof- 
ftffion, of the nature required, for the purpofe of fubmit- 
ting them to the houfe of commons ? 
Sir S. Romilly obferved, that, if a witnefs were aiked, in 
a court of juftice, whether he wrote a certain paper, and 
declined to anfwer, the judge would direct the jury to 
cor.fider that paper as in exiltence. 'But, if there fhould 
be no fuch paper in exiltence, that was a ftill itronger rea- 
fon for agreeing to the motion ; for then all doubts would 
be fatisfadorily cleared up, and the characters of the dif- 
tinguifhed officers, fuppofed to be afperfed, ftand as high 
as ever.—Sir J. Anftruther contended, that any paper re¬ 
lative to an expedition, which led to the wafte of millions, 
and the death of thoufands, could not be confidered in 
any other light than as an official paper.—Mr. Batluirft 
likewife faid, that it was not the place where a paper was 
found, but the nature of the paper, that made it official. 
It had been faid, that thofe who fupported the motion 
were begging the queftion. That he denied. They were 
juftifiable in affirming the exiltence of any papers called 
for; juftifiable in calling for them, in order to afcertain 
whether they did, or did not, exift. But, he would alk, 
was there a man in the houfe who doubted the exiltence 
of the paper ? Did the Chancellor of the Exchequer con¬ 
tend that there was no fuch paper? The fame queftion 
was put by almoft every one who fpoke on the fame fide. 
Mr. Canning faid, that, as foon as lord Chatham ac¬ 
cepted the command of the late expedition, he became as 
relponfible for his conduct as any other officer in the army, 
or as any man in the ranks. He had no right to cut 
out for himfelf a royal road to an audience of his ma¬ 
jefty. He was, no doubt, refponfible to the king, but 
only through the regular and ordinary channel. As one 
of the cabinet, he was refponfible, equally with the reft of 
bis colleagues in office, for the vvifdom or policy of the 
expedition, to the country and to parliament; but, as 
commander of the expedition, he was refponfible to the 
king, through his fecretary of. ftate. If the other paper, 
which had been read, had taken the courfe of going 
through the medium of the fecretary of ftate into the king’s 
band, he fliould moft certainly have thought that the pa¬ 
pers now moved for did not exift. But when he confi¬ 
dered, that the narrative on the table had firft got into 
the king’s hand, and was then made official; and that the 
fame advifer had, perhaps, thought it proper not to make 
the other papers, if they did exift, official; his conviction 
was pretty ftrong, that they were not fuch as ought to 
have been made official. He did not, however, think that 
thofe papers could properly be withheld on the ground 
of their not being official. 
Upon a divifion of the houfe, the numbers were—for 
the motion, 178 ; againft it, 171.—On the 26th of Febru¬ 
ary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer reported to the houfe, 
that his majefty had been waited upon with their addrefs 
of Friday ln.lt, to which he had been gracioully pleafed to 
diredt the following anfwer to be given: “The earl of 
Chatham having requefted his majefty to permit him to 
prefent his report to his majefty, and having alfo requefted 
that his majefty would not communicate it for the pre¬ 
fent, his majefty received it on the 15th of January laft, and 
kept it till the 10th of this month, when, in confequence 
of a with expreffed by the earl of Chatham, on the 7th of 
this month, to make fome alterations in it, his majefty re¬ 
turned it to the earl of Chatham. The report, as altered, 
was again tendered to his majefty by the earl of Chatham, 
on the 14th of this month, when his majefty directed it to 
be delivered to his fecretary of ftate ; and his majefty has 
not kept any copy or minute of this report, as delivered 
at either of thefe times ; nor has he had, at any time, any 
ether report, memorandum, narrative, or paper, fubmitted 
DON. 
to him by the earl of Chatham, relating to the late expe¬ 
dition to the Scheldt.” 
Upon this reply of his majefty, Mr. Whitbread, on the 
ad of March, grounded a motion of cenfure on the earl 
of Chatham to the following effect ; 1. That it appears to 
this houfe, that John earl of Chatham, having requefted 
his majefty to permit him to prefent his report to his ma- 
jelty, and having alfo requefted that his majefty would 
not communicate it for the prefent, did, on the 15th of 
January laft, privately tranfmit to his majefty a paper, 
bearing date the 15th of Oftober preceding, and purport¬ 
ing to be a narrative of his proceedings as commander-in- 
chief of his majefty’s land-forces in the late expedition to 
the Scheldt; and that lie withheld all knowledge thereof, 
both from his majefty’s minifters, and the admiral com¬ 
manding in the faid expedition, whole conduit is mate¬ 
rially implicated in the faid narrative ; that the fame was, 
on the 10th of February laft, returned to him by his ma¬ 
jefty’s command, in confequence of his own requeft; and 
that, on the 14th of February, he again tendered the faid 
narrative to his majefty, theJamt having been altered , by the 
fupprejjion of a paragraph, containing matter of opinion, the 
JubJlance of which this houfe, by the examination of the faid earl 
of Chatham, has not been able to afcertain. a. That the earl 
of Chatham, by private communication to his majefty, ac¬ 
companied by a defire of fecrecy, did unconftitutionally 
abufe the privilege of accefs to his fovereign, and thereby 
afford an example moft pernicious in its tendency to his 
majefty’s fervice, and to the general fervice of the ftate.” 
The friends of lord Chatham thought fit to try their 
ftrength by moving the previous queftion upon thefe re- 
folutions; but it w’as negatived by aai votes againft 188. 
The confequence was, that his lordftiip refigned his office 
of inafter-general of the ordnance. 
Although thefe debates may have been interefting at a 
moment when the metropolis and the nation were con¬ 
ceiving hopes of opening a branch of commerce with the 
continent through the Scheldt, yet, as the whole came to 
nothing, we need only to ftate, that, at length, the minif¬ 
ters obtained a majority of votes, approving of the policy 
of the expedition, and of the retention of the ifland of 
Walcheren. 
Arifing from, and connected with, the preceding en¬ 
quiry, we have to notice another fubjeit, and one indeed 
of peculiar moment, as it refers to the privileges of the 
houfe of commons as exercifed againft the liberty of the 
fubjeit, whether members of that houfe or not.—After 
the houfe of commons had determined to proceed in an 
inquiry into the expedition to the Scheldt, Mr. Yorke 
(February the ift) gave notice, that, when the inquiry 
fhould be gone into, he would proceed to enforce the 
ftanding order of the houfe for the exclufion of ftrangers. 
The houfe having refolved itfelf into a committee on the 
expedition to the Scheldt next day, Mr. Yorke, accord¬ 
ing to his notice, moved the ftanding order for the exclu¬ 
fion of ftrangers, which was of courfe enforced ; and the 
gallery continued fhut during the whole of the inquiry. 
Mr. Sheridan (Feb. 6.) begged leave to afk what was 
the fanftity of this fuppofed ftanding order? In the firft: 
place, he contended, that it was no ftanding order at all. 
It was paffed at the opening of the ieffion upon quefion. It 
might have been rejected when propofed ; and of courfe 
was liable to revition and repeal on any fubfequent occa- 
fion. It was a miltaken idea to l'uppofe that that order 
empowered any member to call upon ftrangers to with¬ 
draw'. The order, which Mr. Sheridan read, faid, “That 
any ltranger appearing in the houfe fhall be taken into 
cuftody by the ferjeant.” The power and authority then 
relied with the ferjeant at arms. And how was he to en¬ 
force it ? If, in proceeding to obey the order, the fer¬ 
jeant fhould find two or three hundred perlons collected 
in the gallery, it would be impoffible for him to take them 
all into cuftody ; and therefore he mult (hut them up in 
the gallery wliilit lie went to collect liis poJJ'c comitatus. In 
the 
