In the course of this session a bill was passed for the relief of the Roman Catholics of Scotland from certain penalties and disabilities imposed upon them by acts which incapacitated them from holding or transmitting landed property. Towards the close of the session, at the suggestion of Sir John Sinclair, a board of agriculture was established, and £3000 per annum were voted for the encouragement of that science.
TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS.
The trial of Warren Hastings was resumed on the 15th of February, and during the session the court sat twenty-two days, in which time the counsel for the prisoner completed the defence set up by them on the last three articles; namely, those relating to the Begums, to presents, and to contracts. After this Hastings addressed the court, praying that their lordships would order the trial to continue to its final conclusion, but all further proceedings were adjourned till the next session.
DISCUSSION ON A MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL.
During this session some violent debates took place on a memorial presented to the States-general, by the British and imperial ministers at the Hague, on the 5th of April. In this memorial their high mightinesses were called upon to prevent any of the French regicides from finding an asylum in their states in Europe, or in any of their colonies. The language which was used was very strong; and Earl Stanhope moved that the British envoy, Lord Auckland, should not only be recalled, but impeached for putting his signature to such a paper. In the commons, also, Sheridan moved an address to his majesty, expressive of the displeasure of the house at the said memorial; and stating that the minister who presented it had departed from the principles on which the house had concurred in the measures for the support of the war. In the course of his speech, Sheridan held up to detestation the conduct of the Empress of Russia, the Emperor of Germany, and the King of Prussia, in the new partition of Poland, which they had just completed. Sheridan said, that no robbery committed by the most desperate of the French, and no crimes that had been perpetrated in France, exceeded in infamy the injustice and tyranny of those sovereigns. Sheridan’s motion was negatived by two hundred and eleven, against thirty-six. In the upper house Lord Grenville made a motion for approving the conduct of Lord Auckland, which was carried without a division.
FOX’S MOTION FOR PEACE.
Burke remarks:—“After it had been generally supposed that all public business was over for the session, and that Mr. Fox had exhausted all the modes of pressing his French scheme, he thought proper to take a step beyond every expectation, and which demonstrated his wonderful eagerness and perseverance in his cause, as well as the nature and true character of the cause itself.” This step was taken by Mr. Fox immediately after giving his assent to the grant of supply, voted to him by Mr Sergeant Adair and a committee of gentlemen, who assumed to themselves to act in the name of the public. In the instrument of his acceptance of this grant, Mr. Fox took occasion to assure them that he would always persevere in the same conduct which had procured to him so honourable a mark of the public approbation. He was as good as his word. On Monday, the 17th of June, Fox, in accordance with his resolution, moved an address to the throne, importing that, having obtained the only avowed object of the war—the evacuation of Holland by the French—peace ought to be concluded. In support of his motion Fox declaimed, in an impassioned manner, against the partitioners of Poland, and against all the powers in alliance with England. In the debate on this motion, Windham observed, that it was an avowed purpose of the war to endeavour to bring about the establishment of a government in France with which we could safely treat; and that, therefore, the war must be prosecuted till we could make peace with safety. Burke said that the motion involved this serious question—whether we should make war with all Europe in order to make peace with France. He continued:—“And with whom can we now treat in France? M. Lebrun, with whom we were so lately called on to treat, is in gaol. Clavière, another minister, is nowhere to be found. Or shall we treat with M. Egalité, who is now in the dungeons of Marseilles? And what are the principles upon which this negociation is to be carried on? Brissot himself has told us what the French think on this subject. In the report of a committee, upon the subject of a treaty with Geneva, he has affirmed that treaties are useless and cannot bind the people, who are to be united by principles alone, and that, therefore, to make treaties with any other sovereign power, is disgraceful to a free people.” Pitt added to the string of questions which Burke had put, by asking Fox, whether he would enter into negociations with Marat; that monster and his party being now lords of the ascendant, and the arbiters and rulers of France. He added,—“But it is not merely to the character of Marat, with whom we would now have to treat, that I object; it is not to the horror of those crimes which have stained their legislators—crimes in every stage rising above another in enormity—but I object to the consequences of that character, and to the effect of those crimes. They are such as to render a negociation useless, and must entirely deprive of stability any peace which could be concluded in such circumstances. Where is our security for the performance of a treaty, where we have neither the good faith of a nation, nor the responsibility of a monarch? The moment that the mob of Parrs comes under the influence of a new leader, mature deliberations are reversed, the most solemn engagements are retracted, or free will is altogether controlled by force. In every one of their stages of repeated revolutions, we have said, ‘Now we have seen the worst, the measure of iniquity is complete, we shall no longer be shocked by added crimes and increasing enormities.’ The next mail gave us reason to reproach ourselves with our credulity, and by presenting us with fresh crimes, and enormities still more dreadful, excited impressions of new astonishment and accumulated horror. All the crimes which disgrace history have occured in one country, in a space so short, and with circumstances so aggravated, as to outrun thought and exceed imagination.” Fox replied; but his motion was lost by one hundred and eighty-seven against forty-seven.