474 
The Duke of GRa¥FTON, in a moft 
pathetic and eloguent fpeech, implored 
their lordihips to confider the fituation of 
the country ; enforced the Duke of Bed- 
ford’s arguments, and concluded by fay- 
ing, that after having claimed the privi- 
leges of ftating his reafons to his fove- 
reign, he fhould withdraw from public 
affairs. ; 
The Ear of GurtpForpn fupported 
the motion, as did the Marquis of 
LANSDOWNE, in as able a fpeech as 
was ever made in that houfe. Lorp 
AUCKLAND oppofed it; when the houfe 
divided, there appeared, contents (includ- 
ing proxies) for the aadrefs 14, non-con-- 
tents 91. 
For fome time previous to thefe de- 
bates, it has been faid that a change,of 
adminiftration wes in agitation; Mr. 
Pitt, it is rumoured, chagrined, and hum- 
bled, by the total difappointment of all 
his moft fanguine expectations ; and feei- 
ing his own. incompetence to the fitua- 
tion in which he finds the nation involv- 
€d, has at length, {erioufly meditated on 
2 retreat from office, provided he could 
effect it on fis oxwn terms. Application, 
therefore, we have underftood, was made 
to a certain great and brilliant orator, by 
fome members of the houfe (whether 
with or without the concurrence of the 
minifter,.we cannot pretend to deter- 
mine) for the formation of a new minif- 
try, upon popular principles. The ar- 
rangement, however, was to have been 
to the exclufion af a great ftatefman, 
to whom the country bas ever looked up, 
becaufe it wes infinuated. that prejudices 
exifted againft him in a certain quarter, 
which could not for the prefent be re- 
moved, Sir WILLIAM PULTENEY was 
nentioned as the probable Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, and two of the prefent 
tninifters were to remain in, who were 
fuppofed to be the Lord Chancellor and 
Mr. Duypas. The Esrl of Morra, 
Lord Tuyrtow, and three or four of 
the leading members of Mr. Fox's party, 
were, with them, to have conftituted the 
‘eabinet’; and peace and a parliamentary 
reforra were to have been the immediate 
meafures’ ftipulated for. Whether the 
negociating parties, however, had any 
proper authority or net, we cannnot de- 
termine.—But we have underftood, tha 
thouzh the .great ftatefman to whom we 
have alluded, declared, with his ufual 
magnanimity, that no perional conficere- 
tion fhould ever -Jead him, to withitand 
or oppofe any meafure that might be fup- 
pofed for she good of his country, fill 
State of Public Apairs —Ireland.....France. 
the fentiments of his friends were unani<« 
- 
[June, 
moufly againft the propofal; they re-— 
membered the fnare that had been laid 
for Lord CyatHam; and they deter- 
mined that to accede to fuch a propofel 
would be to abandon for the emoluments 
of office, the principles and the caufe to 
which they had already facrificed fo 
much.—That the country cou!d not be 
faved without an entire change of fyf- 
tem and of men—that to unite with any 
of the prefent minifters would be dif- 
graceful and pernicious; and that an ad- 
miniftration, in which the country could 
place the fulleft confidence, was effentiat 
at this crifis. The negociation, there- 
r 
fore, it is {carcely neceflary to add, proved 
abortive. 
ieee JRELAND. 
The terror which the late condué& of 
adminiftration in Ireland has infufed in- 
to the people, may be miftaken for re- 
turning tranquillity. Terror may for a 
moment induce a people to fubmit, but a 
fenfe of injury will aét as a continual 
fiimulus for them to feize the firft op- 
portunity of fhowing their refentment 
againft the meafures that have been taken 
to over-awe their independence. The 
diurnal prints of the fifter kingdom, not 
dreading the law, but the “ vigour be- 
yond the law,” appear to have found it 
neceffary, lately, to fupprefs their ufual 
freedom of communication, left they 
fhould be the viétims of what, in moderna 
language, have been termed, “ ftrong 
meéatures.” Though fuch meafures of 
government, may have rendered the dif- 
affeéted in Ireland paffive for the prefent, 
affairs, both public and private, political 
and commercial, wear an unpleafant af- 
pect ; party is- in the extreme—opinion 
has degenerated into animofity, and the 
yeomanry, who were confidered as the 
prefervers of order, are weakened by the 
violence of fome refolutions which the 
moderate difapprove. Four or five of 
the militia have been fhot, for certam 
breaches of the articles of war. Dublin 
is faid to be crowded with the poor and 
the dittreffed, and twenty thoufand fel 
low creatures, chiefly unemployed manu- 
facture'rs and their families, are literally 
ftarving. A 
FRANCE. 
In the Council of Five Hundred, the 
Prefident LaMARQUE, on the 2oth of 
May, obferved, that he regarded the pe- 
riod of the renewal of the Supreme Au- 
thorities as.that of the completion af 
the French Conftitutional Aét, of which 
it reguiated the movements—-as the ae 
r10 
