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 secre- 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 moderatę BOOK sum, as the duchess of Marlborough informs us, XVIL 1777. " saving money; for, though very charitable, she was never expensive, made no foolish buildings, nor bought one jewel in the whole course of her reign." Such nevertheless was the unlimited complaisance of parliament, that the demands of the minister were granted almost without the formality of a division*. The opposition in the house of lords was equally unavailing. The bill was, however, accompanied with a strong protest; but the most remarkable circumstance attending it was the speech made by the speaker of the house of commons to his Majesty, on presenting it a few days afterwards for the royal assent. "In a time, SIRE," said he, " of public distress, full of difficulty and danger, their constituents laboring under burdens almost too heavy to be borne, your faithful commons, postponing all other business, have not only granted to your majesty a large present supply, but also a very great additional revenue, great beyond example, great * " When we see, says a humorous writer, " the print of GARAGANTUA, that has a mouth as large as an oven, and swallows at one meal twelve hundred pounds of bread, twenty oxen, a hundred sheep, six hundred fowls, fifteen hundred hares, two thousand quails, a thousand barrels of wine, six thousand peaches, &c. &c. &c. who does not say: THAT is the mouth of a KING?" XVII. 1777. beyond your majesty's highest expence; but all BOOK this, SIRE, they have done in the well-grounded confidence, that you will apply wisely what they have granted liberally." The countenance of the king plainly indicated how little acceptable was this unexpected liberty. On the return of the speaker and the attendant members, the thanks of the house were nevertheless immediately voted him; yet not without exciting the secret and acrimonious resentment of the king's friends, or prerogative party; one of whom, Mr. Rigby, took occasion in a subsequent debate to arraign the conduct of the speaker with unusual vehemence, as conveying little less than an insult on the king, and as equally misrepresenting the sense of parliament and the state of the nation. The sentiments delivered at the bar of the other house, he said, were not those of the house of commons; he for one totally disclaimed them; and he had no doubt but the majority of the house thought with him. The speaker appealed to the vote of thanks which had been passed, as a proof that he had not been guilty of the misrepresentation imputed to him: and the minister, uneasy at the altercation, intimated his wish that the subject might not be farther discussed. But Mr. Fox, immediately rising, declared, "that a serious and direct charge having been brought, the question was now at issue. Either the speaker BOOK had misrepresented the sense of the house, or AVIL 1777. he had not. He should therefore, in order to bring this question to a proper and final decision, move, That the speaker of the house, in his speech to his majesty at the bar of the house of peers, did express with just and proper energy the sentiments of this house." The speaker himself declared, "that he would sit no longer in that chair than he was supported in the free exercise of his duty. He had discharged what he conceived to be his duty, intending only to express the sense of the house; and from the vote of approbation with which he had been honored, he had reason to believe he was not chargeable with any misrepresentation." The ministers now found themselves involved in a most unpleasant dilemma, and in pressing terms recommended the withdrawment of the motion. This being positively refused, Mr. Rigby moved for the house to adjourn. But the house appearing evidently sensible of the degradation which its dignity must sustain from any affront offered to the chair, he at length thought fit in some degree to concede; and professed, "that he meant no reflection upon the character of the speaker, but that what he had said was the mere expression of his private opinion, and the result of that freedom of speech which was the right and privilege of every member of that house, without respect of |