ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH.

November 23, 1803.

ON the motion for the second reading of the address of the House of Commons, in return for His Majesty's speech, delivered on the preceding day, Mr. Windham rose and addressed the chair as follows:

SIR,

I OFFER myself to-day to your notice, not with a view of retracting in any degree the assent which I gave yesterday in a former stage of this address, but simply for the purpose of marking more distinctly the grounds of that assent, and obviating a misconstruction which might be liable to arise upon it. I wished the question to pass unanimously yesterday, for the same reasons which make me wish it to pass unanimously to-day; namely, that nothing may seem to call in question the unanimity of our determination to give to His Majesty unbounded support, and to maintain the cause of the country through every possible trial. I should be sorry that any thing should appear on the face of our debates, which, in the mind even of the most rude observer, could create a doubt upon that subject. But while we are guarding against an error of this sort, let us take care not to incur one of an

opposite tendency; that, namely, which would suppose, that unanimity in support of the country was unanimity in support of the ministers.

There may be some possibly, who think; as there are many, undoubtedly, who wish to have it thought; that the greater the dangers and difficulties of the country are, by whatever causes brought on, the greater must our acquiescence be in the ministry of the time being, and the more complete our forbearance of all that is usually called opposition. And if by opposition is meant a captious and vexatious opposition, an opposition on things of doubtful nature or inferior consequences, an opposition for the purpose of impeding ministers and making the government difficult to them, the opinion is certainly well founded. What it would be hard to justify at any time, must be wholly unjustifiable in circumstances such as those supposed. But if there are persons who think, that of the danger here alledged as a reason for supporting ministers, the ministers themselves form the principal part; that the preparations of the enemy, however menacing, would have little terror, if met with wisdom and ability; that the seat of the evil is here rather than abroad; that it is the weakness of the defence, and not the vigour of the attack that constitutes the danger; that Bona❤ parté and his legions, however terrific, are not half so terrific as the little band which we see before us on the Treasury Bench; if there are persons who hold these opinions, to such persons it would be idle to say, that, for fear of exposing the weakness or Jessening the authority of ministers, they were to stand

quiet spectators of what was passing, and were neither to attempt to prevent the mischief, nor point out the source from which they conceived it to proceed. Such is the situation in which I feel myself to stand. I have no wish, and in one view certainly have no right, to speak with slight or disparagement of the abilities of the Honourable Gentlemen. Individually considered, they are all men of cultivated minds, of liberal education, of good natural endowments, not unread in the history of their country, not unpractised in its business, not unprovided with those talents and acquirements which are necessary for the conducting of business in this House. But if I am to speak of them collectively, as men forming the council which is to guide the affairs of a great empire, which is to rule the world in a crisis like the present, I must say, from whatever causes it arises, that they are weakness itself. I really believe the country will perish in their hands. I believe the Honourable Gentlemen will fairly see us out; that we shall not outlive their administration; that they will prove, as I believe I once before took the liberty of remarking to them, the Angustuli in whose hands the empire will fail. There is an old joke, which we may remember, of Cicero's; who when some person had ceased to be Consul on the same day on which he had been made, observed, that the person in question might tell of a prodigy which few of his predecessors could boast of, for that the sun had never set during his consulate. I wish that sc mething equally prodigious may not be found in the

history of the Honourable Gentlemen, and that it may not be to be said of them hereafter, that their administration lasted as long as the country. It is now

just two years and a few weeks since I felt myself compelled to say to them in this place, and upon something of a similar occasion, namely, the first day of the meeting of Parliament," that they had signed the death-warrant of their country *." The affairs of the country have been in their hands, without interruption, from that day to this. And can we venture to say, that the gloomy forebodings then expressed have made no progress towards their accomplishment, or that the Honourable Gentlemen do not bid fairer to put the finishing stroke to the work which they were then supposed to have begun?

With these impressions, it is childish to talk of forbearing opposition, in cases where opposition would otherwise be proper, for fear of impeding the exertions of the Honourable Gentlemen, or exciting a belief that the country was not safe in their hands. Were I to forbear any opportunities of so doing, I am sure it must be from motives far different from those of regard for the safety of the country.

With respect to the address itself, notwithstanding the care which has been taken, and properly taken, to avoid any occasion of difference, objections to it would

The passage to which Mr. Windham alludes is to be found

in the Speech of the 4th Nov. 1801, on the report of the address to His Majesty occasioned by the preliminaries of Peace.

not be wanting, were this the moment for insisting upon them.In. point of taste, I could have wished, that less even had been said, than has been, of the conquests in the West Indies, and the impression thereby made on the enemy. Wretched, indeed, must be our view of things, if, at a moment like the present, we can amuse ourselves with such objects, and not see, that to the contempt in which the enemy holds them, compared with the immense projects which he is meditating, we owe, in great measure, the faci lity with which they have fallen into our hands. —— Upon the subject of Ireland, I agree entirely in the remarks made yesterday by an Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Fox), that the hope expressed is too sanguine, either for the nature of the thing, or for any confidence to be reposed in the testimony, on which we receive it. I agree with him also, in the fears which I understood him to express, -fears very far from being allayed by what we heard subsequently, that the views entertained respecting Ireland, and seeming in some degree to be indicated in the speech, were far from being of a sort which promised tranquillity or safety to that kingdom. But the part perhaps of the address most objectionable, is that con cluding paragraph, which speaks of the issue of the present contest. The language there held has too much tendency to countenance a notion, than which nothing can be more false and foolish, that by the issue of the present contest is to be understood the issue of the invasion; which once past and decided in our favour, all beyond is to be security and glory. We know how