Mr. Waithman expressed his surprise at the unusual hurry manifested on this occasion. It had hardly been his intention to have troubled the court at all; unquestionably he did not mean to have done so at the early hour at which he, now addressed them, being anxious to have heard some arguments in support of the proposition now made to the court. No arguments, however, had been submitted in support of it, and though he knew that in opposing such a motion he should not only be liable to misrepresentation, but should be certain to encounter it, he must discharge his duty by declaring the reasons which prevented him from concurring in the present motion. He could not forbear from seeing that it was meant as a mere trick and deception as a manœuvre to cover the errors of administration, and the losses which the country had lately encountered. This indeed, was the only rational ground he could figure for submitting such a proposition. If he submitted to the court his reasons of dissent from the Jubilee proposed, it was not from any disinclination to do honour to his Sovereign, but because he was dragged forward by the hon. baronet, in consequence of the way in which he had introduced the business, and which rendered it impossible for him (Mr. Waithman), feeling as he always did on such subjects, to be silent. He had 'marked the contest between the worthy baronet and the hon. gentlemon on the floor (Mr. S. Dixon), for the honour of bringing forward the present proposition, and for the character for loyalty thence resulting. He had no doubt they were the two most loyal men in the coun try; but though he had often observed how lamely the hon. gentleman had supported any measure which he thought proper to intrude on the court, he really thought it would have been better for the worthy alderman to have yielded to him on the present occasion, for, lame as that hon. gentleman had often been, he (Mr. Waithman) though it impossible for him to have been so lame as the worthy alderman had been. The worthy alderman had told the court in what state these countries were at the time his present Majesty ascended the throne, but he had omitted to favour them with view of their present situation. He would therefore permit him (Mr. Waith man) to supply this deficiency. He was ondent that he possessed more loyalty

than either the worthy baronet, or the hon. gentleman opposite; but he was also satisfied that the best way to shew it, was to point out to his Majesty how he might with greater certainty preserve, or rather return to those principles by which he and his family were seated on the throne. When the country was brought to such a situation that no man could contemplate it without dread and dismay, was it not the greatest proof we could adduce of love and loyalty, to approach the throne, and point out the councillors by whom it had been brought into such a situation? He should take a cursory view of the reign of his Majesty, for the purpose of trying, whether it really afforded those grounds for joy and gratulation which the worthy alderman would have us suppose. In his Majesty's speech to parliament on his accession, he took a view of America, the East Indies and the continent of Europe, and congratulated us on our situa tion in respect to each, while, at the same time, perfect union and harmony prevailed at home.-Then Earl Chatham was at the helm of public affairs; and then, at the end of a most expensive war, our expenditure was only seven millions, one million of which went to constitute a sinking fund; yet we had now to contrast with this an expenditure of se venty millions.-The debt, even as it existed at the accession of his Majesty, was esteemed by Blackstone to be so enormous, that he esteemed the continuance of it as almost inconsistent with a free constituti on; what,however, would he have thought had he lived to see it increased to a tenfold degree, subject to a corresponding number of revenue officers, tax gatherers, collectors, spies, and informers with which we are now infested After his Majesty's accession to the throne only a single Sunday was suffered to intervene, when the Earl of Bute was sworn into the privy council. Earl Chatham was then dismissed, and Bute became the great adviser and ruler in all things. Here began that secret influence, against which the great Lord Chatham so loudly complained, when he said, "There was something behind the throne greater than the throne, and hostile to the liberties of the country." That great man could no longer keep his place in the administration, and the government fell to the hands of Lord Bute, and the celebrated. Charles Jenkinson, (the late Lord Liverpool), who were the original anthors and I i

contrivers of all those wicked measures which have disgraced the present reign.

The worthy alderman had talked of an act of grace and favour by his Ma-, jesty, in rendering the judges independent of the crown, by making their appointments for life. He understood that the King could do no wrong, therefore, it followed, that any proper acts were not to be esteemed as matters of grace from his Majesty. We did not depend on the private virtues of the Sovereign for the preservation of our liberties; and, if the instance alluded to were to be regarded as a special act of royal grace, the portion of good to be produced by it might be collected from what soon after occurred, when that court found itself called on to address his Majesty, in the year 1770, to state that their applications for redress of sufferings yet remained unanswered; and that the only judge removeable by his Majesty had been dismissed for defending the constitution, and the rights of the people in pur liament. The judge he alluded to, was the great Lord Camden, to whom, on the occasion, that court presented the freedom of the corporation in a gold box. There was another point to which the worthy alderman referred; though, whether to approve or disapprove of it he did not know.-That general warrants had been rendered illegal by his present Majesty. Did the worthy baronet really mean to make this an act of his Majesty. That his ministers did issue them was a fact; that they were used with a view of crushing an individual, who whatever his character, was of little consequence, had the merit of opposing them and doing them away. In crushing this individual, ministers also crushed the liberties of the country. He brought his action, and under the sanction of the same Earl Camden, then Chief Justice Pratt, and of a jury, general warrants were declared illegal. The worthy alderman, surely, was not incapable of distinguish ing between the act of the jury, and of the King. The hon. gentleman proceeded to read extracts from different addresses of the common council to the King. In one address, dated in the year 1769, they state that after having insulted and defeated the law, the parliament had now completed it by wresting from the people their last right-the right of election; and that the people had now no resource left but in his Majesty. Every thing, they also state, is

1 I

procured by money, and by the prostitution of honours and employments. In another address, in the year 1770, to which he had already referred, they state their grievances to be such as they had never been even under Charles I. or the dispensing power of James II. There was a time when men ceased to be representatives, and that time they state to be now arrived. It had been complained of James the Second, that the sittings of parliament were interrupted because they were not subservient to his designs; they had to complain that the sittings of their parliament were not suspended because they were completely subservient. Such was the history of the first ten years of his Majesty's reign, as would be found in the recorded resolutions of the city.

There had for years past been men who wished to monopolize a greater share of loyalty than belonged to them. They had lately made Mr. Chairman, REEVES now they had Mr. BOWLES. Their loyalty, however, was built only on gratitude-it amounted to nothing unless it was paid for-their object was a pension or emolument, no matter of what kind-a place for themselves of their sons or brothers. These men now presume to charge with disloyalty all those who would wish to change the old BUTE SYSTEM, for the principles of the British constitution: but among all those distinguished professors of loyalty, he never knew one that was not ROTTEN AT THE CORE, and who did not manifestly act from selfish motives. It ap peared by a public statement, that a noble Lord, (Lord Castlereagh,) whọ was a most particular friend of the wor thy baionet, Sir William Curtis, did receive by himself, and for his family, no less a sum than 30,000l. per annum from this highly taxed country. And yet, it were asked what had Lord Castlereagh done to deserve it, it could only be answered that his time was employed in endeavouring to corrupt the parliament, and in planning expeditions for the dis grace of the country. It had been calculated, that if the sums which the family of that noble lord received from the public had been laid out at compound interest, it would have exceeded two millions, a sum equal to the expence one of Queen Anne's wars. When the country was called on for a jubilee, it would be right to think what it was that we were to congratulate his Majesty upon.

if

of

Was it for the loss of America, of Hanover, and of all our allies upon the continent; And yet these were the events which marked the history of his Majesty's long reign. He would wish to know whether the gentlemen who formerly considered Hanover and Spain necessary to the salvation of the country, were now of the same opinion. During his Majesty's reign, this country had not only suffered materially in its liberties, but the empire had been dismembered, and America was lost. When we plunged into a mad contest with France, in order to stop the progress of its revolution, every single step we took in the war only served to lay the foundation of greater aggrandizement to France, and to provoke her to extend her conquests. It was the government of this country which erected in France that gigantic power which makes every throne in Europe insecure. Under these circumstances, he thought true loyalty would be best expressed by pointing out to our Sovereign the pernicious system which has brought the country and his throne into such a state of insecurity. Besides the immense expence of the wars (many of which he believed unnecessary) in the present reign, was it not to be recollected, that millions of human lives had been sacrificed in these contests, and the whole issue of all this sacrifice was the aggrandizement of France? As to the millions who have fallen, "nothing can touch them farther;" but when it is considered what an immense sum of misery has been entailed on their surviving relatives, and when all this blood and all this misery is added to the enormous expence and increase of the national debt during the present reign, he must be at a loss to know what subject there was of congratulation. Our military affairs had been entrusted to Lord Castlereagh, who had selected Lord Chatham to command our great expedition. All he would say of Lord Chatham was, that he understood that he was a man who was usually asleep when he ought to be awake: but what was to be said of those who selected such a man, or what was to be said of that party who even in that court, could never bring themselves to think any thing was wrong that was done by the administration? They could always see merit enough to found what they called loyal addresses; but never, for the many years that he had been in public life, did he ever see

dis-,

one of them come down to express approbation at any act of any minister. It was a most extraordinary circumstance, and a proof of the gratitude and political feeling of many of those professors of superior loyalty, that when Mr. Pitt resigned in the plenitude of his power, after having created nearly half the house of peers, and conferred great benefits on numbers of the other house yet when he was in opposition, he could not muster up above 50 supporters. He could not even prevail upon the worthy baronet (Sir Wm. Curtis) to give him a

vote.

He knew how this would be explained. It would be said that Mr. Addington had done something for a brother of Sir William's, and that therefore Sir William must support him. When Mr. Pitt, however, returned to power, then all these loyal men who deserted him when he was in opposition, rallied again under his banners, and wished to have it thought that their politics were the same as his; but although in city feasts they might swallow turtle to his memory, yet it would be recollected, that they were only his friends as long as he was in power, and that they were full as ready to profess their great respect for his successors, as to ask them for places for themselves, their brothers, or their sons. It was said by some peo→ ple, that parliament was of great ser vice, and that the parliamentary inqui ries did great good. He would ask, how did they do good? If, after robbing and plundering for 20 years, such a man as Lord Melville was obliged to resign, what good was there in that, if he could put his family in his places, and preserve, by secret influence, the same power which he had before. Those men were not to be branded with disloyalty, who said that nothing could be expected from the parliament, while it was governed by the borough-monger faction. The decicions of such a body as the parliament of the country ought to be governed by arguiment and justice; and it is saying nothing in the favour of the parliament, to say, that on some occasions it is afraid of provoking popular indignation. He believed in his conscience, that if his Majesty had employed such ministers as the great Lord Chatham, whom he found at the helm at his accession, the country and the world would not have been in its present distressed and alarming situation; and that if even now the old BUTE SYSTEM was

done away with, and ministers of liberal and enlightened views appointed, the country might still recover from the disorders and the dangers in which it had been plunged.

The worthy baronet had proposed a day of Jollification! [No, no! from Sir W.Curtis. Well, then, a day of feasting and rejoicing! He had not stated, however, in what manner this joy was to be expressed! Was it by a general illumination, and forcing people to go to the expence of lighting their houses, who could not afford to pay their assessed taxes. He had no objection to an address of congratulation to his Majesty, stuffed with as much loyalty as possible, but only pointing out that we knew how to perceive the distinction between the beneficient intentions of his Majesty, and the pernicious counsel of his advisers. But if this loyalty must be expressed by swallowing turtle and venison, he thought gentlemen should dine together at their own expence at the London Tavern, or some place of that sort. If it were to be made a public thing, the Lord Mayor, probably, would have great pleasure in inviting the corporation to a feast at the mansion-house. [The Lord Mayor shrugged his shoulders, and there was a pretty general laugh.] It actually appeared to him, that the making a public thing of it in such a time as the present, was like insulting the miseries and the feelings of the people. Mr, Waithman concluded by suggesting an amendment, which he, however, did not press upon the court, of moving an address of congratulation to his Majesty, but at the same time pointing out the mischiefs and dangers which had been brought upon this country by corrupt and wicked advisers.

Mr. Dixon said, the motion before the court did not bear the construction which the worthy member (Mr. Waithman) had put upon it. The motion merely was, that the court would celebrate the ensuing anniversary of his Majesty's accession; and so far from pointing out how this onght to be done, it went on to refer it to a committee of all the aldermen and a commoner from each ward present, to consider of the best means of doing it, and to report those means to the court.

Mr. Jacks thought the mild and amiable virtues of our Sovereign would excite in the city some desire of testifying the love it bore him. He had never unduly exerted his prerogative, as the Tu

dors and Stewarts did, under the names of ship-money, and various other imposts. The constitution was as pure as when he first commenced his reign. He was the patron of the arts and sciences: he had established an academy for the encouragement of the former. All history proved, that it was in the most prosperous times that the arts most flourished; such reigns as Augustus Cæsar, Louis XIV. and George III. It was not only as the patron of the fine arts that the King had distinguished himself; he had equally encouraged astronomy, chemistry, and mathematics, and was himself allowed to be one of the best theoretical farmers that ever existed.

Mr. Mawman urged, that there had been but two instances for 1000 years in which a Monarch had reigned 50 years ¦ and that as there was a precedent for the celebration of the 50th year of a Sove, reign's reign, it would be invidious to pass over the present occasion.

He did consider the

Mr. Waithman. in reply, said, there was no individual, who did not wish to misunderstand him, who could suppose that he meant to reflect upon his Majes ty's conduct. The gentleman opposite (Mr. Dixon) always connected his Ma jesty with his acts. present motion to be intended as a public act to cover the disgraces of ministers. A worthy member (Mr. Dixon) had said, that if we had debts and taxes, we had also a sinking fund of eight millions per annum. Why, this of itself was an evil. Mr. Waithman thought the worthy mem ber was about to disclose a spring or a mine, by which to pay the national debt, and not these eight millions. We were taxed to the rate of seventy millions; and what cousolation was it to be taxed eight millions more to liquidate our debt? Had the people any choice in their representatives? Any member of the court, notwithstanding Mr. Curwen's bill, could obtain a seat in parliament for money. Parliament had, upon every occasion, supported every measure of the administration; and, if the whole country were to go up with addresses, they could not effect restitution. If an idea were wished to be formed of the health of the state, Mr. Waithman directed the eyes of the people to the work-houses. The nation was florid in the face, but sick at heart, or, as Mr. Hume ex pressed it, its head was too big for its body. He had known instances of great mercantile houses, who had been insol