XVII. 1777. was enabled, at it's pleasure, to commit any per- BOOK son resident in any part of the British dominions to custody, without bail or main-prize, under his majesty's sign manual, in any place of confinement situate in Great Britain or ELSEWHERE. For though the act of treason, according to the proposed bill, must be committed in America, the crown lawyers and the king's friends maintained, and cases were quoted to prove, that such treasonable act might be perpetrated by persons who had never been out of the kingdom, if it's operation could be subsequently shewn to extend to America. Thus was the HabeasCorpus Act, that great bulwark of British liberty, completely annihilated by a vile and infamous construction of law, which left it in the power of the crown to apprehend on the slightest suspicion, or pretence of suspicion, any individual against whom the vengeance of the court was meant to be directed; and to convey them beyond the seas to any of the garrisons in Africa or the Indies, far from all hope or possibility of relief. The alarm occasioned by this bill brought back the members of the opposition to the house, and a most resolute, vigorous, and animated resistance was made to it in every stage of its progress. At length the minister, who really appears not to have been thoroughly apprised of the nature of the bill, and of the dreadful ex XVII. 1777. BOOK tent of the powers vested by it in the crown, frankly and explicitly disavowed as to himself alk design of extending the operation of the bill beyond its open and avowed objects. He said, "that the bill was intended for America, and not for England; that, as he would ask for no power that was not wanted, so he would scorn to receive it by any covert means; and that, far from wishing to establish any unconstitutional precedent, he neither sought nor wished any powers to be vested in the crown or its ministers which were capable of being employed to bad or oppressive purposes." He therefore agreed to receive the amendments proposed; the principal of which were in substance: 1. That the clause empowering his majesty to confine such persons as might be apprehended under this act in any part of his dominions, should be modified by the insertion of the words, "within the realm;" and 2dly, That an additional clause or proviso be inserted, "that nothing in this act shall be constru ed to extend to persons resident in Great Britain." These concessions gave extreme offence to the leaders of the high prerogative party, who had zealously defended the bill in its original state, and who now exclaimed, "that they were deserted by the minister in a manner which seemed calculated to disgrace the whole measure, to confirm all the charges and surmises of their ad versaries, and to fix all the odium upon them." And it was indeed sufficiently evident, from the whole conduct of the business, that the minister, on this as on other occasions, was not admitted into the inmost recesses of the royal cabinet. On the 9th of April, 1777, a message was delivered by the minister from the king, in which his majesty expressed his concern in acquainting the house with the difficulties he labored under from the debts incurred by expences of the civil government, amounting on the 5th of January preceding to upwards of 600,000l. And the house on this message resolving itself into a committee of supply, the minister moved, “That the sum of 618,000l. be granted, to enable his majesty to discharge the debts of the civil government; and that the sum of 100,000l. per annum, over and above the sum of 800,000l. be granted as a farther provision for the same." This gave rise to a vehement debate. It was affirmed to be a measure of the grossest impropriety and indecency to bring forward such a demand in such a season of national distress and calamity; when burdens are accumulated upon burdens, to tell a people already sinking under their load, that the grandeur of the crown is not sufficiently supported, and that an increase of taxes is necessary in order to increase its splendor! But even this plea, however inade BOOK XVII. 1777. XVIL 1777. BOOK quate to the justification of ministers, was far remote from the truth. It was notorious that the debt had been incurred in carrying on and supporting a system of corruption; in obtaining that baneful and unbounded influence which had swept every thing before it; which had brought the nation to the brink of destruction, and had deprived us in a very great measure of all the benefits derived from a limited government. The harsh and stern voice of prerogative was indeed no longer heard; but the danger was much greater from the silent progress of a malady, which, though slower, was far more certain. They said, that the debts of the crown had been not many years since discharged without account, to the amount of more than half a million. What is the consequence? Another and larger demand is made, and a vast annual increase asked, without even the wretched security of ministerial promise, that new debts will not be contracted, and new augmentations demanded. They observed, that on a comparison of the expenditure of the last eight years with a similar period terminating the reign of the late king, the excess of the article of pensions would be found to amount to 213,000l. and that the increase in the article of secret service was yet more enormous. In two lines only, the sums of 171,000l. and 114,000l. were charged for secret XVII. 1777. services, issued under the direction of the fecre- BOOK taries of the Treasury. That money should be entrusted to the secretaries of state, for the purpose of procuring foreign intelligence, must doubtless be acknowledged necessary; but that the subordinate officers of the Treasury, who can have no public connection beyond their own office, should be the avowed irresponsible agents for the unlimited disposal of the public money, was indeed alarming, and left no room for doubt as to its design or application. Above half a million was stated under the head of the Board of Works, though no one could conjecture in what palace, park, garden, or royal work of any kind, the money had been expended; nor were any vouchers produced by which the house could form a judgment of the propriety of any branch of the expenditure. It appeared only upon the whole, that under every head the expence was infinitely increased, while the external splendor of royalty was in the same proportion diminished. The accounts laid upon the table stated the annual allowance for the privy purse to be raised from 48,000l. in the late reign to 60,000l.; and, what was much more extraordinary, it appeared that the queen's privy purse was fixed at 50,000l. although queen Anne, reigning as sovereign in her own right, had contented herself with an allowance of 20,000l.—even out of this moderate |