MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament met on the 23rd of January. During the preceding year Fredrick the Great passed off the stage of life, having previously involved the French and English governments in disagreements, concerning the troubles which still existed in the Netherlands. No mention was made of these disagreements and troubles in the king’s speech; but his majesty dwelt much upon the treaty of navigation and commerce which, as before related, had been concluded with the French monarch. Against this treaty and its negociator, Mr. Eden, who had quitted their ranks, and now supported Pitt, the Whig opposition had a rooted aversion; and in the debate upon the address, Fox, whose professions of friendship towards the French were proverbial, not only censured the arrangements, but sounded the old trumpet of war and national hatred. He denounced Louis XVI. as a dangerous monarch; dwelt on the ambitious designs and encroaching spirit of France; blamed ministers for laying aside all jealousy of that power; and asserted that the court of Versailles was at that very moment labouring to counteract Pitt’s diplomatists. But though Fox censured the French treaty, which formed the leading topic of the king’s speech, he voted for the address, a circumstance for which he received a little banter from the lips of the minister. Pitt remarked:—“I am happy that, notwithstanding the vehemence with which the right honourable gentleman has argued against the address, he is ready to vote for it. I hope he will continue the same line of conduct throughout the session; for, if he makes a practice of voting in direct opposition to his own speeches and arguments, we may look for a greater degree of unanimity than could otherwise be expected.”