Hussey, Mr. Dempster, and Sir Grey Cooper; and supported by the secretary at war, Mr. Jenkinson, Mr. BURKE rose and made a most animated and eloquent speech against the motion. He observed, that all that had been said in support of it was merely the same ground of argument taken up by the noble lord at first, with some little amplification. He should therefore, in replying to the noble lord, reply to what other gentlemen had said. The chief of the noble lord's argument against the proposition of the Company was this: he would not accede to it, because the Company did not admit that the public had a claim upon them; so that the argument cut double, like a two-edged sword; for it must either be solved thus, "If you admit the claim of the public, I call upon you in behalf of your creditors to pay their just dues;" or thus, "If you do not admit the claim, why then I will take that by force which you deny that I ought to receive as a right." Most admirable reasoning! The noble lord will neither beg, borrow, nor receive, as a due; but he will have it nevertheless, and seize upon that by rapine and plunder to which he has no title, and cannot justify his receiving in any way. If the Company should say to the minister in direct terms, "Sir, you have no right to this 600,000l. you attempt to exact from us;" then, to be sure, the noble lord would come down to parliament, and pronounce them the most impudent violators of old agreements that ever were heard of; but if they do not express themselves in this manner, if they say nothing upon the subject, as in the actual instance at present, why then how does the minister conduct himself? He says, notwithstanding these men are silent, I very well understand their intention, and am sure, notwithstanding their taciturnity, they mean to contend that the public have no right to the şum claimed; and therefore, being certain that this is the case, I will make sure of the money and seize it by mainforce. So that whether the poor proprietors speak or not, it makes no matter, the effect is the same, with this little difference only, that in the one instance they might deserve the treatment they received; in the other it was replete with unprovoked cruelty and injustice. He said, it was a continuation of the mode of reasoning that had prevailed in the last parliament, and had rendered it odious and infamous. The minister had talked in the same style again and again, and the consequence was, our present miserable and degraded situation. It was his old parliamentary language, and had ruined his country. The secretary at war's doctrine was, he said, a counter part of the same reasoning. He termed the regulations, established by the act of 1774, a design to obtain money under a pretence of establishing a political reform; and now, he said, the noble lord wanted to take away their trade, as he had formerly taken away their patronage and their purse. Eundem negotiatorem, eundem dominum! He had better carry away all the business of Leadenhall-street at once, and transact it at the board of treasury. His reasoning, to justify the violence and the force he was practising, Mr. Burke pronounced shamefully pitiful. The reasoning of the lion in the fable was less censurable-"This I seize," says the lion, "because I have got teeth; this, because I wear a mane on my neck; this, because I have claws; and this last morsel, not because I have either truth, reason, or justice to support me and justify my taking it, but because I am a lion." With regard to what the noble lord had said about the possibility, if the propositions were acceded to, of 600,000l. worth of bills coming upon the exchequer, just when the king's fleets and armies were to be paid, it was, he said, neither more nor less than an explicit confession that the noble lord had squandered every shilling of the immense supplies that had been voted for the service of the year, and that he was obliged to practise extortion, and force 600,000l. from the East India company, in order to enable himself to pay the king's fleets and armies. The House had expressed great satisfaction at a part of the noble lord's speech. Mr. Burke said it was the shouts of majorities at the appeals to the passions artfully made by the noble lord, that had ever been constant fore-runners of some great national evil. No one step of the minister that led to disgrace, defeat, and ruin, but had been preceded by shouts and applause within those walls. In reply to the praise bestowed on the secret committees, that sat on India affairs in 1772, he said, their reports were the cursed Pandora's box, whence sprung out that dreadful calamity, the American war. To those reports were the worst of evils ascribable that had befallen this country for many, many years. He said the present motion was the daring effort of a minister determined on rapine and plunder, without regard to truth, honour, or justice; a violent and shameless attempt to rob the Company, in order to pursue the purposes of the most lavish waste and the most profligate corruption. The noble lord might truly be said to be alieni appetens, sui profusus. He conjured the committee not to join the noble lord and his adherents, saying, "Let us not deduce European supplies from Asiatic rapacity. Let us shew ourselves awake to the calls of reason and alive to the impulse of equity !" Mr. Burke concluded with saying, that he was sure, notwithstanding his endeavours, and those of every friend to justice, to prevent the motion from being agreed to, that such would be its fate, yet in discharge of his duty he would move an amendment. He therefore moved, that the following words be added to the motion: "No grounds having been laid before the committee, on which the right of the public to a participation of the territorial revenue of the Company are founded; or, if they have such right, no grounds to shew that they have a right to this particular proportion of the profits." The committee divided on the amendment: Yeas 52: Noes 151. The original motion was then agreed to. LORD NORTH'S COMMISSION FOR EXAMINING THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS. May 10. THE HE order of the day being read, for the House to resolve itself into a committee for the purpose of taking the reports made by the commissioners appointed to examine, take, and state the Public Accounts of the kingdom, into consideration, the four reports made by those commissioners were referred to the said committee. After which, Lord North entered into an investigation of the subject, and concluded his speech with reading the three motions which he had to make. The first was for leave to bring in a bill to prevent delays in the payment of the money received by the receivers of the land tax, and for the better securing the same. The second was, for leave to bring in a bill to give security and indemnity to certain accountants on the payment of the balances in their hands into the exchequer. And the third, for leave to bring in a bill to continue and enlarge the provisions of an act made in the last session, for appointing a commission to examine the public accounts, and make their report to that House. The noble lord having moved the first of these propositions, Mr. BURKE rose, and in a speech of the most poignant ridicule, charged the noble lord with having on that day given at once the most explicit evidence of his activity and negligence, of his capacity and his incapacity. He had shewn that, as the first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, he had been negligent or incapable of his duty, and at the same time he had shewn by his speech of that day, that he had both the industry and the talents to comprehend what his duty was. He had been negligent or incapable in the execution - he was active and able in the conception, of his trust. The whole of the copious detail which he had given was clear, methodical, and accurate; so perfectly clear, that a pin might be seen at the bottom of it. He had shewn manifest knowledge of the regulations that were necessary, which must have required industry and exertion to acquire; and he had proved, at the same time, that, knowing the irregularities of his "A trifling song you shall hear, All trifling people draw near, And I shall be nobly attended." This was, in fact, the harangue which the noble lord had made in that House: for first, no advantage whatever was to be derived from any new regulation in the receipt of the land-tax. This was already collected as cheaply and as profitably as it could be. The consolidation of office was confessed to be a most advantageous object, and to be devoutly desired, and yet, in the wide range, system, and machine of government, no offices but the hackney-coach and hawkers and pedlars could be consolidated, and by this great and glorious reform the nation was to save the immense sum of three hundred pounds a year! This was all the consolidation that could take place, and even this was doubtful. In no other part of the receipt of the public revenue were there any advantages to be derived. Nothing could be got from the post-office, nothing from the stampoffice, nothing from the various offices! But to go to the treasuries this important commission had discovered sums in the hands of different accountants, which might be paid into the exchequer, on granting them an indemnity Good God! was it necessary to conjure up a commission of accounts to tell us this? Could not the first lord of |