their love of power and emolument is so predominant over their adherence to principle, that they would be likely to take up and continue the system which they are now attacking? To the Lords Spencer and Grenville and Mr. Windham power and emolument were directly tendered last spring; at which time, it will be remembered, that it was intimated, that none of the party of Mr. Fox were declared to be excluded, while he himself might have had a " "carte blanche" as diplomatist general to the Continent. Not above five months ago, we heard the ministerial journals declare, that Lord Moira, Mr. Erskine, and Mr. Sheridan had been invited to join Mr. Pitt; and, that they might have joined him, and almost upon any terms they might choose to dictate, is very well known. Where, then, are we to look for that avidity for power and emolument, which the par

tisans of THE FAMILY would now make us believe exists to such a degree as to induce the Opposition to follow the example of the Pitt administration? But, supposing, that, contrary to every reason upon which our judgment, in this case, ought to be formed; supposing, merely for argument's sake, that the Opposition are availing themselves of the discoveries now made, in order to supplant their opponents, without any intention of altering the system, supposing them to be so detestably base, as to imitate the bad examples they may have seen, and to patronize reform in words, the more successfully, extensively, and securely to carry on corrup tion in deeds; supposing them to be thus wicked, will any ore suppose them to be so blind, so totally ignorant of the present state of things, as not to perceive that such a design would be utterly impracticable, and that an attempt to put it in practice would be followed by swift ruin to themselves and destruction to the government? Can any man, who reflects, who views the nation's finances, its burdens and its wants, for a moment believe it possible, that the men who now stand at the bead of the Opposition, could hope first to crush the hydra of corruption, and then to re-animate that hydra? The idea argues the wretched imbecillity of the mind in which it has been conceived. Mr. George Glenny, in his evidence (See Appendix to 11th Report) tells the Commissioners, that his name was put into the government bills the better to disguise the transaction from the eyes of the public! The eyes of that public are now open no disguise will any longer hide the foul objects from their view; they are fully sensible of all their wrongs, and, as

will naturally happen in such cases, their imaginations may outstretch the fact. They have been told, and I dare say with truth, by a late Lord of the Admiralty, from his place in parliament, that were it not for the abuse of office, one third part of the present naval expenses might be saved; the more than Peruvian mines of Lord Melville and Mr. Trotter have been bared to their astonished sight: and, after all his, is there any one weak enough to imagine, that they will rest satisfied with any thing short of a general and radical reform of abuses? Is there any one weak enough to imagine, that, without such a reform, they will ever again have confidence in the government; and, that they will cheerfully make those great pecuniary and personal sacrifices, which the dangers of the times will compel that government to demand? That the desire of the people may not be pushed to extremes, is more than any one can positively say; but, be the consequences, then, upon the heads of the peculators, and upon those of the persons by whom peculation has been con nived at and supported. At any rate, the public spirit is rouzed, and, to prevent its taking an evil, it must be given a good direction; to prevent it from aiming at innovation, at the subversion of the constitu tion, it must find in that constitution the effectual means of redress. It is in vain to attempt to stifle it; and, therefore, the hints of the ministerial papers, that in future discus "sions of this sort, Mr. Wilberforce and "other well meaning gentlemen will be more cautious how they aid the views of Opposition, the House of Commons now having gone far enough to convince the "world of the independence of its mem "bers:" these hints are perfectly useless, Mr. Wilberforce and several other gentlemen, who usually vote with the ministers, did their duty on the memorable 8th inst.; but, they did no more than their duty; they performed no act of supererogation; laid in no fund of atonement for the future. as to aiding the views of Opposition," those views, being what they are, aiming as they do, at the extirpation of a corrupt system of rule, and at a consequent re exaltation of the mind and the character of the nation, stand in no need of solicited aid: such a cause goes not a-begging for sup porters. Upon this score it is impossible not to regret, with Mr. Fox, that the mi nisters seem not disposed to let the mo narchical branch of the constitution participate in the gratitude of the people. "What!" said he, "is there no part of

And,

"this great work to belong to the execu "tive government! The public have "received our labour with the purest "gratitude; and is His Majesty to have no opportunity of manifesting his paternal "interests on the subject? In what a situ"ation do we leave our Sovereign! The "people applaud us in the warmest terms.

They say, the House of Commons have "taken up our case against the whole host "of contractors and peculators. And, shall not our beneficent Sovereign be suffered "to express the warm interest he always "takes in every measure for alleviating the "burdens and improving the condition of "his people!" This is, indeed, a serious evil; that His Majesty should, at a moment like the present, be surrounded by servants, who cannot even be expected to advise him to adopt such measures and to use such language as would tend to increase, if possible, his people's attachment and devotion to his royal person and family. While re flections like these present themselves, how little, how beggarly, how base must be the mind, where motives of party, of place, and of emolument, are suffered to intrude! Those who receive the wages of corruption may cry party as long as they please: the unanimous voice of the nation denies the assertion. From one end of the kingdom "to the other," said Mr. Fox," the peo "ple rejoice in the hope, that a better system "is about to be adopted, and we must not "let their just expectation be disappoint"ed." I trust it will not; I trust, that no one is weak enough to have in contemplation a mere change of men; to look upon that as a cure for our evils. I trust, that the cause of these evils will be probed to the bottom; that praise, or censure, will be given to whom praise. or censure, is due; and that, at any rate, Mr. Pitt will not have a second time to reproach Mr. Fox with having relinquished an inquiry that he had promised to institute. The system it is; it is the Pitt system, and the reader will do me the justice to remember, that, with me, it has always been, the Pitt system, and not the man, with which I was at war.

The system of upstarts; of low-bred, low-minded sycophants usurping the stations destined by nafare, by reason, by the Contitation, and by the interests of the people, to men of high birth, eininent talents, or great national services; the system by which the ancient Aristocracy and the Church have been undermined; by which the ancient gentry of the kingdom have been almost extinguished, their means of support having been transfer

red, by the hand of the taxgatherer, to contractors, jobbers and Jews; the system by which but too many of the higher orders have been rendered the servile dependants of the minister of the day, and by which the lower, their generous spirit first broken down, have been moulded into a mass of parish fed paupers. Unless it be the intention, the solemn resolution, to change this system, let no one talk to me of a change of ministry; for, until this system be destroyed; until this race of upstarts shall be supplanted by men of birth and talents; until this abject servility, this willing pauperism, shall give place to that independence of spirit which was once the characteristic of Englishmen ; until this filthy tribe of jobbers, brokers and peculators shall be swept from the councils of the nation and the society of her statesmen; until this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this principle of ruling by the base passions shall be changed for a principle exactly the reverse; until this shall be, there is no change of men, that can, for a single hour, retard the mighty mischiefs that we dread.

POSTSCRIPT.- --In explanation of an allusion above made to Mr. Pitt's having once reproached Mr. Fox with having relinquished an inquiry, that he had promised to iusti tute, it is proper, upon the present occasion, to state a fact that is not generally known. It will be remembered, that Mr. Pitt having, a few weeks ago, been asked by Mr. Fox, whether he meant, now that he was in place, to prosecute that inquiry, for which be moved last year, relative to the conduct of Lord St. Vincent, Mr. Pitt said he did not mean it, and concluded with observing, that he should have supposed Mr. Fox to be the last person in the world to blame a minister for not prosecuting a promised inquiry into the conduct of his predecessor. The House and the public clearly perceived, that allo sion was here made to Mr. Fox's having relinquished. after he came into office, the long threatened inquiry as to the administration of Lord North. Mr. Fox reminded Mr. Pitt that the allusion applied more forcibly to his (Mr. Pitt's) own conduct, at the epoch referred to, than to that of any other person. But this remark of Mr. Fox was not clearly understood by the public, and, probably, not by many members of the House. I will, therefore, state the fact; and, if any Pittite will send a contradiction, signed with his own name, I will insert it in the next sheet of the Register.-The fact, then, is briefly this: that, when the Rockingham administration began its ope

rations, the intention of Mr. Fox, as well as of many other members of that cabinet, was to institute a vigorous inquiry into the conduct of those, to whom the late unhappy events were certainly, in some measure, to be attributed; but, this inten tion they have relinquished partly, perhaps, because they had discovered no evidences of legal guilt or of moral turpitude; bu', certainly, one cause of the relinquishment (which was, after all, against Mr. Fox's opinion), was, that the intended inquiry was strongly objected to, and most strenuously deprecated by Mr. Pitt; that very Mr. Pitt, who is now reproaching Mr. Fox with the not having prosecuted that inquiry!-Subsequent events explained this opposition to inquiry, on the part of Mr. Pitt. He would take no office under Rockingham; but, as it will be remembered, he came in as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne, having, in the mean-time formed that dear and fortunate connexion with Mr. Dundas, which has lasted to the present hour; and here was the real cause of his deprecating an inquiry into the conduct of the administration of Lord North.--Now, as I have already said, if any Pittite can contradict this, and will send the contradition with the name of some real person, I will lose not a moment in communicating it to the public. These are facts that should be well and universally known: the time is come when the people ought to know to the bottom the public character of every man, who puts forward his pretensions to political power; the system of deception can no longer prevail; power must be held by the confidence and the virtue of the people, or this country must become an easy conquest to its foe.

MR. CANNING.

SIR,In the reports of the debate on the resolutions respecting the conduct of Lord Melville and his coadjutor, the news papers represented that Mr. Canning very bitterly reproached the friends and kindred of Lord St. Vincent and Lord Grey, with ingratitude, for not supporting the noble delinquent, whose offences were the subject of discussion," who had in (what he falsely called) a hard fought battle strenuously supported" those brave and successful commanders; and that he styled the conduct of their kindred and friends, a sacrifice of the sacred ties of gratitude and friendship, to the inferior obligations of the cold obscurity of political justice, binding it with the odious

distinction of Spartan virtue, from which in the exuberance of his eloquence, the energy of his patriotis, and the fervour of his piety, he implored of Heaven to protect this land. Now, Sir, when Lord Melville vindi cated the conduct of Lords St. Vincent and Grey, either be thought the innocent, or he did not. If he thought them innocent, his standing forth in their defence was most strictly his bounden dety, as a leading member of the House of Commons, and the war secretary by whom they had been emplo.ed; and, cous: quently, his conduct could not give him the slightest claim of any kind on the friends of those noble lords. If, indeed, when he asserted their innocence, he really. believed them to be guilty, I will allow, that Mr. Canning as his organ might have exclaimed to the gentlemen, whom he so unjustly vilified, when charges were alleged against your friends, which they positively and steadily and uniformly denied, and of which no evidence was given, Lord Melville sacrificed his conscience, and violated his duty as an honest man, a member of parliament, and a minister of state, by voting hat your friends were innocent, though he believed them to be guilty; now, therefore, you are bound to sacrifice your consciences, and violate your duty, by screening him from punishment, from censure, for ofences, satisfactorily proved against him, and admitted by himself." Truly, Mr. Cobbett, the virtue, recommended by this enlightened moralist, comes not from Sparta, nor does it lead to heroism. I will tell this steady clas sical yung gentleman, whence it comes, and whither it tends. It comes from night cellars and jails, from Newgate and the Old Bailey, and it tends to the subversion of the government. It is the virtue of thieves, of burglars, and of murderers, conspiring by mutual fa'se witness to shield each others crimes, from the arm of vindictive justice. And if it were avowed and practised in the House of Commons, it must be of necessity, and it would deservedly, subject that body, to the violence of revolutionary correction; for it would hold up the members to the contempt, the detestation, the execration of mankind, as a junto of mutually protecting peculators; first plundering those, whom they are especially commissioned to protect, and then, by a second violation of their duty, screening themselves and their accomplices from the just punishment of their of fences.I cannot quit the subject of the debate in question, without adverting to the stress, which was laid on the allegation,

that the country had been no loser by the misconduct of Lord Melville and Trotter. Now, Sir, it this allegation were true, it would be nothing to the purpose If it were proved, that my servant had been in the habit of pawning my ple, in order to raise money for lottery insurance, it would be no excuse for him, that he had always chanced to be lucky enough to be able to redeem it But in the CE cond place the allegation is false. The country has lost by the misconduct of those people. It appears that upwards of 134,605 0001, was cessarily transferred from the coffers of the state to Thotter's credit at his banker's. The unnecessary transfer of every 1001. of this occasioned a correspondent unnecessary issue of an Exchequer-bill, bearing a dai'y interest, and incurring the charge of a commis sion both of which were losses to government, not to mention the undue depreciation of those bills, the consequence of an enlarged emission. -LYCURGUS, April 17,

1805.

unne

It is not my custom to give notices to CORRESPONDENTS, but. I have, from the length of the articles grown out of the TANTH REPORT, been compelled so long to defer the insertion of a very valuable letter upon the subject of the Catholic Petition, that I think myself called on to a sure the writer, that it shall have a place as soon as prssible. —— Upon the subject of the F1 NANCE ACCOUNTS, annually laid before Parliament, I perfectly agree with a Correspondent, whose very excellent letter will be found towards the close of the next sheet, p. 635. I have long entertained the opinion which he expresses; and I shall be very glad to be favoured with his further remarks upon the sucject.

*The number of the Register which will be published on the 4th of May, will be printed with a new type. The bad printing that bas, of late, teen but too obvious in this work, is, in great part, to be ascribed to the unfortunate misunderstanding between masters and journeymen.

tt On Monday, the 6th of May, will be completed and ready for delivery, Vol. III. of the PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES, the Ap pendix to which will contain the whole of the first TEN REPORTS of the Commission1ors of Naval Inquiry.

ELEVENTH REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF NAVAL INQUIRY.

Having understood that, during the late war, bills to a very considerable amount had been issued by the Navy Board, for the purpose of raising money; and this transaction appearing to us irregular, we deemed it a fit object for our inquiry. We at the same time made an investigation, in some degree connected with the subject, into a practice which had prevailed with the Navy and Transport Boards, of making the bills issued by them at ninety days date, payable on the 89th day from the date of the bills, although interest for ninety days was allowed to the parties.In the course of our inquiries on these subjects, we discovered that sums had been advanced by the Navy Board, by way of imprest, in pursuance of directions from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, for the performance of secret naval services.-The present report we shall confine to the consideration of these matters, in the order in which they have been mentioned.

ISSUE OF NAYY BILLS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RAISING MONEY.

Previously to the adoption of this measure, (Appendix, No. 1) the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury directed the Navy Board to cause it to be notified to the persons having ninety-day navy bills then due, (App. No. 2.) and wishing to have a renewal of

66.

the same instead of receiving the amount "in cash, that they might be accommodated "with new bills bearing the same interest," which accommodation was directed to be contioned till further notice; but this mode not fully answering the purpose intended, (App. No. 1.) the expedient of raising money by the is ue of navy bills was resorted to.This transaction appears to have arisen from a conversation between the Comptroller of the Navy and Mr. George Glenny, a merchant having large concerns with the victualling department, upon the difficulties which were occasionally experienced by delays in the issues of money from the Exchequer for the service of the navy. In that conver sation Mr. Glenny communicated the manner in which he had procured money on the victualling bills, made out to him in pay

* The address and general title of this Report is the same as those which will be found to the Tenth Report, for which see p. 449.-Note of the Editor.

ment under his contracts, through the agency of Messrs Goldsmids. This produced an interview the next day between the Comptroller of the Navy, Messrs. Goldsmids, and Mr. Glenny, and the plan of drawing navy bills for the purpose of raising money was thereupon concerted. The first set of these bills for 100 0001. was drawn on the 23d of Oct: 1800, (App. No. 1.) payable to Mr. Cornwall Smalley; but he disapproving of his name being made use of, these bills were destroyed, and others for the same amount were made out in the name of Mr. George Glenny. (App. No. 3.) It was afterwards thought right to make such bills payable to Messrs. Donaldson and Glenny, the firm of the house to which Mr. Glenny belonged.- -The total amount of these bills, issued between the 24th of Oct. 1800 and the 5th of May, 1802, (App. No. 4.) when the practice of drawing such bills was discontinued, was 4.300 0001, besides nine, ty days interest, which was added to give them the semblance of regular bills.-There was, however, this essential difference between them; the regular bills stated the particular kind of stores, or services, for which they were given in payment; these bills expressed only, that they were for "sundry naval services." (App. No. 5.)--Not being aware of any power in the Navy Board to draw bills of this description for the purpose above-mentioned, we sought information from the Comptroller of the Navy on the subject, (App. No. 1) but he declined to answer the question pot to him, under that clause of the act of parliament by which we are appointed, which provides, that no person shall be obliged to answer any ques tion which may tend to criminate him, or expose him to pains or penalties; referring us for the authority under which he and the Navy Board had acted to his Majesty's order in council in June, 1796, for regulating the duties of the several members of the Navy Board, and to the patent by which they are appointed. From these documents no such authority is derived, nor do we conceive the Navy Board can, without the express authority of Parliament, issue bills to raise mo ney to be applied to the service of the navy, or any other service. -It is not meant by the

observations which our duty requires us to make on this transaction, to intimate, that it was undertaken with any indirect view, or to charge any abuse in the execution of the plan, after it was resolved upon; it is the measure itself which we have to notice.It is proper likewise to state, that these bills were issued under the directions of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, signified at

the time of each issue by letters from their secretary to the Navy Board, which were inclosed confidentially to the Comptroller, and the produce of the bills was paid to the Treasurer of the Navy; the letters entered in the Appendix shew how this business was con ducted. (App. Nos. 6, 7,, and 8.)--We inquired whether the difficulties in obtaining money for the service of the navy, stated to have existed in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802, arose from any unusual deficiencies in the navy estimates for those years; the Comptroller could not speak to the estimates, (App. No. 1 ) but informed us, that the difficulties which led to the adoption of this plan were owing sometimes to a deficiency of money in the Treasury, and sometimes to the naval supplies being exhausted, which he believed to have been the case in Oct. 1800. The Paymaster of the Navy stated (App. No 9.) the general occurrence of official difficulties in applications for money, and that such difficulties might have occurred at the period when these bills were issued; although he did not recollect any correspon dence of the Treasurer of the Navy with the Treasury or Navy Board, which led or related to the issue of these bills.--It was certainly proper that the public credit should be supported, but we cannot admit that this measure was indispensably necessary for that purpose; nor can we allow the validity of the reason given for it by the Comptroller, (App. No. Ï.) namely, that no funds were exclusively set apart for the payment of ninety day bills, the amount being uncertain; it is in the nature of the thing that an estimate should be uncertain. All the sup plies for the navy are annually voted by parliament on estimate, and the amount paid by ninety day bills, forming no inconsiderable part of the navy expenditure, must of course be included in the general provision for navy services.--We were led by the examination (App. Nos. 1, and 5.) of the comptroller and chief clerk in the office for bills and accounts, to imagine that the advantage which might accrue by the interest on the bills, from the time of their date to the time of their being negotiated, was to be the remuneration to the brokers for their trouble; (App. No. 10.) but by an account afterwards laid before us. we found, that they had made the usual charge of one-eighth per cent. commission, and had given credit to government for the interest on the days elapsed before the bills were negotiated. The amount of Messrs Goldsmid's commission on the negotiation of these bills was 5,375 1. -On examining Messrs. Goldsmid's account, it appeared in the first entry, that