1807.] ( 
STATE OF PUBLIC 
279:\%) 
AFFAIRS IN MARCH. 
Contuining official and authentic Documents. 
ET 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
ie our laft we announced the adoption 
and progrefs of a feries of great pub- 
lic meafures, which had been undertaken 
by the patriotic and enlightened Admi- 
niftration which has directed the affairs 
of this country, fince the death of Mr. 
Pit; but this month we have to perform 
the afflicting talk of recording the termi- 
nation of that adminiftration, by a fudden 
exercife of the royal prerogative. 
Future hiftorians may have to record 
the calamities which may refult to this 
country and to Europe, from fo unfore- 
feen a fluétuation in our national coun- 
cils, and from our being deprived, at fuch 
a crifis, of that union of experience, 
talents, and integrity, which ferved as the 
bafis of unanimity and public .confi- 
dence, and which, during the latt fifteen 
months, rendered this country happy at. 
home, and great and refpeétable abroad. 
Future hiftorians will alfo be able to 
develope the real caufes of thefe changes ; 
for the prefent, we muft be content with 
the explanations formaliy ‘made in Par- 
fiament by Lords GrenvitiE and How- 
iCk, nearly in the following terms: 
Lord GRENVILLE (in the Houfe of Lords, 
March 26, 1807)—My Lords, Ido not rife to 
objeét to the motion of adjournment, but to 
tate, what your Lordfhips are aware it is per- 
feétly regular for me to do, circumftances 
connected with the prefent ftate of public af- 
fairs. I with to ftate plainly thofe circum- 
ftances which have led to the prefent fitua- 
tion of public affairs, and to the change in his 
Majefty’s government ; and I am the more 
anxious to do this in order to obviate thofe 
mifreprefentations which have gone abroad 
relative to the conduct of my colleagues and 
myfelf, and that to your Lordfliips, and 
through you to the public and the country, 
my conduét and chara¢ter may be juitified 
from thofe afperfions which have been thrown 
upon them. Inthe year 1801, when the 
Adminiftration, at the head of which was the 
late Mr. Pitt, refigned their offices, it was not 
thought expedient, from circumftances which 
then exifted, to ftate in any public manner 
the caufes of that refignation. ‘The .confe- 
quence was, that much mifreprefentauion 
took place with refpeét to the circumftances 
which led to that refignation; but as I never 
repented my concurrence in the refolution to 
which I have adverted, fo [have never re- 
gretted the confequences to which it gave 
birth. But, my Lords, from the nature of 
the circumfances which have led to the re- 
cent change in his Majefty’s government, and 
from the nature of the milreprefentations 
which have been direéted again? thofe from 
whom his Majefty’s confidence has been with- 
drawn, I feel it incumbent upon me to ftate 
clearly and diftin@tly the circumftances which 
aétually took place. And I will aflk Noble 
Lords on the other fide, to pofnt out any pe- 
riod of our hiftory in which, as in the prefent 
cafe, the minutes of the advice given to his 
Majefty by his confidential fervants has ever 
been, not merely publithed, but publifhed in a 
garbled and partial manner. My Lords, gar- 
bled and partial ftatements of that advice fo 
given to his Majefty by his confidential fer- 
vants have been publifhed in the public newf- 
papers—-it is of this I complain, and I trutt 
your Lordfhips will think I complain witha 
reafon and juftice. Had thofe who, of courfe, 
on fucceeding to adminiftration, came into 
poffeffion of the minutes ofadvice given by the 
late Minifters, conceived that that advice was 
improperly given, there were two modes in 
which they might have a¢ted—they might 
either have moved for the names of thefe who 
had given his Majefty bad advice, together 
with the advice itfelf, which ought conftitu- 
tionally to be given in writing, or being in 
pofleffion of that advice, they might have 
made a motion againft the authors of it. In- 
ftead, however, of either of thefe modes being 
adopted, garbled and partial ftatements, as I 
have already obferved, have been publithed 
in the public newtpapers, and the conduét of 
his Majefty’s late fervants has thus been 
grofsly mifreprefented. Under thefe circum- 
ftances, I felt it to be due to my own charac- 
ter, to petition my Sovereign for permifion ¢a 
make ufe of the advice a€tually given, and 
the communications which aétually took 
place,for the purpofe of publicly juftifying my 
conduét and proving the falfehoods of thofe 
calumnies which have been circulated again 
my late colleagues and Pee His Majetty, 
with that kindnefs and benignity which has 
invariably characterifed his conduét, was gra- 
cioufly pleafed to grant my requeft, and thus 
Tam authorifed to ftate to your Lordfhips the 
circumftances which really took place, and 
which eventually led to the prefent fituation 
of affairs. My Lords, in the year 1804, it 
was the opinion of that illuftrious fatefman, 
Mr Pitt,.in which opinion I completely con- 
curred, that large further conceflions fhould 
be made to the Catholics of Ireland, ~ It was 
then thought expedient that a meafure far 
that purpofe fhould te propofed to Parliament. 
That propofed meafure not meeting with his 
Majefty’s approbation, the confequence was 
the refignation of the then Minitters. The 
refult was different in tne prefent cafe, for 
reafons which [I fhall prefently fate. IT at 
that period thought it my duty to refign, and 
chearfully facrificed all thofe perfonal confi- 
derations which may be fup pole d to attach to 
the 
