stances that he could conceive, could ever redound to the public benefit. —Ne salus ipsa huic saluti esse potest :' God and man could not save his expences.

Mr. Burke adverted, with inimitable pleasantry, to what had fallen from Lord North in the debate last night, concerning the poverty of the House of Commons. Says the noble lord, this House cannot have such a proportion of the loan as is pretended; for this is a poor House. This the noble lord had advanced, not without wit and humour, of which Mr. Burke allowed him to be a great master. It was a very heavy charge against the honourable gentlemen; for poverty at present was the greatest dishonour, and wealth the only thing to make a man well received in all companies. But Mr. Burke recalled to the noble lord's recollection, a contrary position of his, namely, that the House of Commons was a most respectable assembly; respectable, he meant, for their independent fortunes and riches. What! was such an assembly to be corrupted? This was the strain of the noble lord's eloquence on some occasions; but on others he found it convenient to argue their incorruptibility from their poverty, as he did at present. They have nothing to give away, therefore they cannot be corrupted; and thus by the double operation of poverty and wealth, the English House of Commons is not only the most uncorrupt, but the most incorruptible assembly that ever was in the world. The rich are so full of pure water, that there is not room for a drop of foul; and the poor are like a sieve, which can hold nothing, but every thing liquid passes through it. Hence an incorruptibility might be inferred on both sides of the House from the most opposite causes; incorruptibility from poverty; incorruptibility from opulence! He wished, that instead of members coming in poor to the House, and going out rich, they might come in rich and go out poor. He was persuaded the noble lord thought erroneously of the House, for it was not justly chargeable with poverty; in his opinion too little so by a great deal. He would be happy that a seat in par liament afforded no opportunity of growing rich, and that

members came there rather to live with frugality upon their own fortunes than to acquire new ones. He was sorry that opulence was to be acquired by getting into parliament — but so it was, that members were like the tenuis vulpecula, or the weazel, which being slender, crept into the cupboard; but eat so much there, that it could not get out: so with members of parliament, they came in sleek and slender, and afterwards, being gorged with places, pensions, and douceurs, got such enormous bellies, that they were scarcely able to get out again. To adopt another comparison, members came there as into a hencoop, where they fed heartily at the expence of freedom. He wished the House of Commons were a kind of ergastulum, to work off those fat, large bellies, that were contracted by the douceurs therein acquired. He spoke metaphorically; he meant, that he wished members might spend, instead of acquiring fortunes in the public service. His stroking his ́own belly, and his situation opposite to Lord North, “with fair round belly with good capon lined," raised a very hearty laugh, in which Lord North himself joined.

Having reasoned against the bargain in question, Mr. Burke said he was sorry to find by a comparison with the conduct of M. Neckar, how bad an economist the noble lord was for the public. His lordship had added by the late loan twenty-one millions to the capital debt of the na tion. M. Neckar had added only five millions by his late loan to the debt of France. The English financier was obliged to raise new taxes to pay the interest of this immense sum; the financier of France did no such thing; he was enabled by savings to pay the interest of his loan, without any taxes. The noble lord loaded his country with the interest in perpetuity. M. Neckar paid only for a term of years, determinable on lives: the English interest lasted for ever; and that of France must daily decrease: not a year could pass over, that many creditors of the French crown would not die, and bequeath as many legacies to their country as she saved by the stop that their deaths put to the payment of their annuities. The French financier bor

rowed at ten per cent. on one life. If the interest and douceurs which the English minister had agreed to pay, were reduced to annuities, it would be equal to fourteen per cent. on one life. M. Neckar, he said further, had ten millions of franks in reserve for the next year, and other resources. How much then was our situation reversed! The noble lord could no longer boast of the superior state of our finances, as he was formerly wont to do. He was ready to agree that the French minister had not the same difficulties to encounter that the noble lord had; but then it must be considered, that the noble lord was not a minister of yesterday, he was not blameless of having assisted in bringing his country into those very difficulties under which it now laboured, and therefore the complaint that there were great difficulties in the way of his making a loan came with a very ill grace from the noble lord or any of his supporters. Happy France in her minister! Unhappy England in her financier! The difference arose from the corruption of parliament. If a poor member of parliament should receive an offer from a subscriber: "agree with the minister in such and such terms for the loan; and you shall have four per cent. on all that I subscribe for;" this would be a temptation that nothing but incorruptibility could resist; and yet, according to the terms of the new loan, a subscriber might make this bargain with a member, and still have above six per cent. for his money. Such offers made to many members might tempt them to agree to terms which otherwise they would have rejected with indignation; and thus it was that such inordinate bargains were made by ministers, because they were sure, that by applying to the interest of the members, they could get a majority in the House to sacrifice the interest of their country.

He was for recommitting the resolutions, in order to reconsider the bargain on principles of economy; but chiefly on a principle of public credit. The publicity of all our national transactions was the principal ground of our na tional credit. When no bargain could be made clap

destinely, but when all was open, and subject to the revision and correction of the public, (interested most certainly to make the best bargain for itself that was possible,) there arose a confidence in our public faith and credit, which must be shaken, if an idea should go abroad, that, however the forms of parliament might be observed, the minister of this country was in fact absolute. It was the bad bargainer alone that could be profuse, when profusion was necessary. Profusion he considered as a symptom of despair; for could it be supposed, where that took place, that money could be borrowed on reasonable terms? When a bottle was turned over, being full, it ran out at first by gouts, and but slowly; but when it was nearly exhausted it flowed rapidly and with a current. The ministry, on the principle of a regard to public credit, ought to study economy, and to shew economy to all the word; that the world might judge thereby of our strength, and form conclusions in our favour; that Sir Joseph Yorke might have it in his power to say at the court of Vienna, "My countrymen are desirous of peace, but both willing and able, if it be necessary, to carry on war;" that the nations seeing this, may be inclined to grant us peace on safe and honourable terms; or at the worst, that there may be a principle in this state of resuscitation, that the luz, as the Hebrews call it, may be safe and sound, which, if it is, there is no doubt of the body being revived. [The luz is a bone in the body, which being sound, as the Jews believe, the body will rise again.]

After these and various other arguments against the terms of the loan, Mr. Burke said he was willing to believe the noble lord might have been constrained by necessity to accept them; but how did this obligation arise? From the imbecility of the administration, which emboldened the subscribers to threaten to withdraw their support, if every demand was not acceded to. On such a supposition he sympathized heartily with the noble lord, but still more with the people, who must pay for the weakness of their ministers. This much he had thought it necessary to say,

in order to justify his vote the night before the first vote he had ever given against a budget. But he thought it his duty to give his negative last night, because he believed that the minister would not have presumed to call upon parliament to sanction so infamous a bargain, if he had not thought that parliament was arrived at that pitch of corruption, that they would accede to any terms, however scandalously injurious to the public. He wished to convince the minister, that at least with respect to himself, he was mistaken.

CAUSES OF THE WAR IN THE CARNATIC.

April 30.

ABOUT this time an account was received of the unfortunate war in the Carnatic, and of the dreadful ravages of Hyder Ally. This intelligence was communicated to the House by Lord North, who this day moved, "That a committee of secrecy be appointed to inquire into the causes of the war which now subsists in the Carnatic, and of the present condition of the British possessions in those parts; and to report the same, with their observations thereon." Sir Thomas Rumbold, who had recently taken his seat in the House, not only agreed in the propriety of the proposed enquiry, but also thought it exceedingly necessary and becoming. The state of our affairs in India were such, he said, as to require the serious investigation of parliament, and there was nothing which he more ardently desired than that the whole of this business should be thoroughly and fairly examined. He desired to meet inquiry and court trial with openness and confidence.

Mr. BURKE urged the propriety of rendering the committee open, instead of secret. The honourable baronet had desired a very proper and fit thing, the opportunity of vindicating his character from charge and aspersion.