"It will not avail them to plead, in apology, the recommendation of higher influence. As the Ministers of a free Country, it is their duty to correct the misrepresentations to which Princes are exposed, and to inculcate the value of public opinion. A nation characterized by rectitude of sentiment and integrity of conduct, requires its public officers to be exempt, not only from the censure of the law, but even from suspicion. Adulation, or pretended purity, may deceive an individual, but they will not deceive a people. Of the talents of its servants, the public is not, perhaps, the fittest judge; but it will seldom err in the broad distinction between honour and immorality. That to remove from offices of trust whoever shall have forfeited the public confidence, is necessary for the popu larity of Government, will be readily acknowledged. It is a kindred maxim with the wise saying, that a King of England, to be powerful oi happy, must reign in the hearts of his people.'"

If the cause of this appointment had been known to the author, his censures would probably have been more pointed and severe. He next condemns the refusal of a Vote of Thanks for the Capture of the Cape, when such a vote was granted to the captors of Tobago, Demerara, and Surinam. If this were the case, which we do not recollect, it certainly leaves the refusal, in the present instance, without an excuse, and justifies the following comment on it.

"The injustice of the measure is aggravated by its inconsistency.--The tribute of national gratitude is withheld from our brave defenders by Ministers, who profess the most anxious solicitude in their behalf. Sir Home Popham is not, indeed, attached to Lord St. Vincent,"-aye, there's the rub!" but may he not justly claim the patronage of an Administration, which pretends to make no distinction of parties, but to unite the talents, and reward the merits of all ?"

If we wanted any additional proof to convince us that Lord St. Vincent is the efficient First Lord of the Admiralty, this fact would supply it; for his Lordship's temper is known to be not the most forgiving or conciliatory, and his aversion from thanks, except he be the subject of them, was displayed, in a signal instance, in his dispatches on that memorable occasion, which procurel him the darling object of his heart-a title. But if party prejudices are to be suffered to deprive our naval and military officers of the just and usual rewards of their services, the country is in a dreadrul situation indeed, and the sooner a peace (all ruinous as it must be) is concluded, the better. It is the duty, and the interest of every man in the kingdom, most strenuously to resist the introduction of politics and party, into the naval or military service, and into the administration of justice.

The selection of unfit persons for different offices, is the next charge adduced against the Ministers; and the recent attempt to force Lord Lauderdale on the Court of Directors, as Governor General of India, is adduced, as one glaring instance of such selection. Having stated what qualities are necessary for such an office, the author asks: "But which of these qualities is found in Lord Lauderdale? For his

moderation

moderation let us look back to his public conduct when in Parliament, where, by the violence of his declamations, he obtained distinction even among the most violent. For the discretion that guides his ambition, let us appeal to the Citizens of London, who saw him come down to the Common Hall, and condescend to solicit the Livery as a candidate for the office of Sheriff. For his sense of the indispensable necessity of pub. lic economy, we have not to refer to speeches which may have been illreported, or to actions which may have been misconstrued. We have his opinions on this important subject, fully stated and eagerly enforced in the work which he has lately given to the world on Public Wealth. We there find that private wealth is public poverty, and private poverty, public wealth; that economy is the certain way to beggar a nation, and prodigality an infallible method of raising it to opulence; that to pay off a national debt is, in every point of view, a most ruinous and im poverishing measure; and that the heaviest taxation serves only to circu. late the wealth of a country!!! Such are the avowed tenets of the man who has been selected for the Government of India. In looking around for the merits which have entitled him to this distinction, we find that he has been a constant and violent adherent to the old Opposition; that he lost his seat in Parliament in consequence; that he was considered a martyr to their cause, and that in the day of prosperity it was deemed just to bestow a signal reward on his attachment. By being made, however, a British Peer, he has already obtained an ample indenmity for his late exclusion. To appoint him Governor General of India, in order to avenge him of Lord Melville, would be a monstrous retaliation *.

The concluding observations relate principally to Mr. Fox, and to the part he has taken with respect to the Property Tax, and to the measures for the Defence of the Country, all of which, in the estimation of our author, betray the greatest incapacity, and the most consummate want of knowledge.

"I might add, that the Property Tax, formerly the most obnoxious

"It deserves observation, that the reputed author, or assistant author of the Inquiry into the State of the Nation,' was also the writer of a severe exposure of Lord Lauderdale's work on Public Wealth. This criticism appeared in the Edinburgh Review for July 1804, and so much irritated his Lordship, as to draw from him an indignant and very angry reply. The critic answered in a pamphlet, in which he drew a parallel betwen his Lordship and Dennis, and exposed to public ridicule both the noble author and his opinions.

"Mr. Fox, the zealous patron of his Lordship, has doubtless read his book and approved its principles. In the overflow of admiration he may have declared it, like Mr. Francis's speech, unanswerable. If official avocations will allow, I should beg leave to direct his attention to the Review I have mentioned. A perusal of it will probably alter his senti ments of his Lordship's work, and induce him to qualify the warmth of former approbation, by declaring that in calling it unanswerable, he meant of course it was so, unless some one should be able to answer it.”

to

to the present Administration of all Mr. Pitt's financial measures, and the object of their most clamorous resistance, has been not only continued, but almost doubled by them in a single stage. The measures on which I have animadverted, and others of a similar nature, have already very much impaired the popularity of the new Ministry. Mr. Fox, so long the strenuous champion of popular rights, the jealous observer of Ministers, has become in office an accommodating colleague, a pliant imitator of his predecessors. The adoption of those principles which it has been the object of his life to urge with vehemence, he now good naturedly adjourns to a future period. He accounted them formerly of sufficient magnitude to hazard the division of the country. Such is now his addi tional stock of prudence, that he will not for their sake divide even the Cabinet. To the majority of his own party, who believed that all he said was sincere, and all that he proposed practicable; who, on his coming into office, were big with the expectation of that radical change. which he had declared to be our only remaining chance of salvation, the disappointment has been inexpressible. His consequent loss of popularity has been incalculable. With the opposite party his conduct in office has had a tendency to tranquillize fear without procuring esteem. Those keen partisans of the late Ministry, who from his constant and violent opposi. tion, considered him devoid of all principle, are pleased, without a mi. nute scrutiny of his motives, to find him pursue that course which raises a lasting monument to Mr. Pitt's fame, while it affixes the seal of condemnation to himself. Those calmer minds, who explained the inveteracy of his opposition by the warmth of his temperament, and who considered his speeches in general to be the effusions of the moment, have experien ced no surprise from his late conduct. They had always deemed him a man of more imagination than judgment. His talents they knew were great, but inadequately cultivated. They had no sanguine expectations from his coming into office; but they had some dread of danger from the practical execution of former declarations. Of this dread they now be gin to be relieved, and they consider it infinitely better for the Country that a party should be inconsistent, than that the public safety should be compromised. The contrast, therefore, between the present and former conduct of the Old Opposition affords them matter of security: but this security, however satisfactory in itself, is unmixed with any approving sentiment towards the quarter from whence it is derived. From Mr. Fox, the adoption of Mr. Pitt's measures proceeds with the worst grace, since it implies the dereliction of those principles for which he has so long and so violently contended. He must be impressed with a conviction either of the wisdom of Mr. Pitt's plans, or of the reverse. In the former case, he has made a very sudden discovery that he has himself been mistaken throughout; that the objects of his hostility to Ministers, and of his promises during so many years to the Country, have been fallacious, and his long course of opposition captious, wanton, and 'criminal; or if he still retain his former sentiments, it will be difficult to explain his conduct in other terms than those the Morning Chronicle lately applied to the Governor, ad interim, of India, when desirous to make him give way for Lord Lauderdale; namely, by commending his personal policy and dence, at the expence of some other qualifications which alone can entitle any man to esteem in private life, or to the confidence of the public.' " Of

6

"Of the motives, indeed, which have induced such a change, differ ent opinions will be entertained. Conversion by argument in so short a time, will hardly be alleged at the mature age of sixty. Some persons, and among these, many of the most zealous of his former friends, will explain his conduct as originating in the vulgar feeling already alluded to-the desire of keeping in place. Others, with more courtesy, and we hope with more truth, however perplexed to reconcile his past and present conduct, stoutly reject this idea as unworthy of so distinguished a statesman. "Of the talents of the present Ministry a more decided opinion may be given. A most liberal portion of praise has been assigned them by their adherents. The writer of the pamphlet now under review, after extolling them in terms of the most fulsome adulation, adds, No compromise of principles, no paltry half-measures, no incongruous mixture of big words and little doings, will bear them out in redeeming their pledge to save the country. Were not the author evidently devoted to the cause of Ministers, it would be natural to consider him a mauvaise plaisant, amusing the public at their expence. They have been a considerable time in office, and what have they done? Have they performed any thing commensurate with the lavish encomiums of their friends, or the public expectations? Had Mr. Pitt proceeded in that course of injustice, inconsistency, and error, which has characterized so many of their measures, how loudly would they have exposed his conduct to public reprobation! If the author of the Inquiry is desirous to give a faithful description of their conduct since they came into office, let me recommend to him to reverse exactly the sentence I have quoted. He will neither impair its fluency, nor will he be distant from the truth."

Numerous as our extracts have already been from this "Answer,” we shall make no apology for quoting the last pages of it.

"The present publication has been currently denominated the Manifesto of the New Ministry. This title is, in one respect, not inapplicable; for an invading enemy could not have scattered a declaration more calculated to depress the spirit of the country. Although professedly an Inquiry into the State of the Nation, it fulfils but a small part of its title; for its researches extend only to those points in our national situation which it suits Mr. Fox's purpose to examine. It endeavours, by every species of misrepresentation, to throw odium upon the late Ministry, and to constitute them the authors of all the disasters of the last campaign. It describes the situation of Europe, and of this Country, as to the last degree calamitous, in order that the nation may feel grateful to the present Ministers, for having consented to undertake the management of affairs at this pretended crisis, and may shut its eyes to the contrast between the splendour of their former promises, and the insignificance of their performance-between the abuse which they used to lavish on their predecessors, and the approbation they now confer by adopting the measures which they formerly reprobated. Delusions of this nature may impose on the credulity of the French, but the British Nation are not to be thus blinded; they will not acknowledge that to be a just report of the state of the nation, in which all mention is studiously avoided of their trade, their finances, and their navy; a trade extensive and flourishing beyond example; a navy, triamphant in every quarter of the globe; finances, in which in the this

teenth

teenth year of war a loan is effected below the legal rate of interest, and our immense expences defrayed, without increasing the national debt one fiftieth of its amount. The country is not in such terror of France as to consent to any peace which does not effectually provide for their honour and security. They will support the East India Company against Mr. Fox in their refusal to intrust the care of our Indian Empire to a Noble. man who has proved himself incapable of acting either wisely of his own accord, or of taking prudent advice from others. They will withhold their confidence from that Ministry which bestows offices of trust and emolument on such men as the Treasurer of the Ordnance and until they see a wiser choice of measures, with a more upright selection of servants, they will refuse to acknowledge the pretensions of the New Ministry (so modestly expressed in the publication which has been examined), to unite the largest portion of talents, experience, rank and integrity, which ever enabled a Government to secure influence with its subjects, and command respect among foreign nations.' The establishment of a Commission for Auditing the Public Accounts, to an amount nominally immense, may be a dexterous expedient for popularity; but the public will not accept it as a real discharge of the pledges so often given to effect that radical change, in which was affirmed to consist our only remaining chance of salvation.'

"An Administration, skilful only in heaping censures on their predecessors, will not now avail us. In that respect, the abilities of the present Ministry have long been undoubted. But the country now demands of them, Either prove to us by your actions that you surpass your pre. decessors, or resign, in unequivocal terms, the pretensions you have made.'

"If a secure and honourable peace can be obtained, there will be no necessity to prepare the public mind by the circulation of pamphlets, the obvious tendency of which is to disseminate depression. Unless the peace be secure and honourable, we shall act wisely to prefer war with all its burdens, to a deceitful truce with a tyrant so arrogant, so perfidious, and so insatiably ambitious as Buonaparte. Before we can intrust with confidence a Negotiation with so artful an adversary to Mr. Fox, he must give very different proofs of wisdom from any he has yet afforded; whether in his former erroneous sentiments of the French Ruler, in his late speeches in Parliament, or in sanctioning a pamphlet which accuses the head of Administration, while it insults the Country-which declares to the British Nation, that it is in vain to look around for any circumstance which may soften the gloomy picture drawn of its affairs, while it is impossible to imagine any addition which may aggravate them.'

"If Mr. Fox proceed in a course of such egregious imprudence; if while he proclains moderation, he shall endeavour to force obnoxious men into the most important stations; if he flatter himself that by scattering abuse on his predecessors, he will blind the Nation to his own errors, or be acquitted by nominal reforms of the pledges he has given the country, the consequence will be a total loss of public confidence, and his present, like his former administration, will be the transient vision of a few months. Let him exemplify the wise, just, and moderate policy he has so long recommended, or he will in vain endeavour to soothe the public indignation

NO, XCVII. VOL. XXIV.

Y

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