The resolutions were then agreed to unanimously. On a review of these two very important and highly interesting debates, it will have been seen that the note of preparation was swelled to a still higher pitch; and that, in calling for a vote for 129,000 men for the service of the year, independently of the great naval force already granted, (however ministers might conceal the real causes of alarm) a renewal of hostilities was, even by them, supposed not very distant. But the effect of this vote, on the public mind, was by no means dubious. The alarm which was given by the speech from the throne was now universal, and received abundant confirmation from those measures of Parliament which had, since that period, taken place. The public funds experienced immediate depression, and the minds of all were aroused to a sense of danger, and that too immediate; the more surprizing to a people, who but a month before, were wrapped round in universal confidence and security. Yet, to the astonishment of the whole country, could not the minister, nor his colleagues in office, be prevailed upon to assign satisfactory and sufficient reasons for those great demands, unprecedented in time of peace, on the public resources. In vain was it urged, that it was unconstitutional and unparliamentary, to press a vote for such an enormous increase of the military establishments of the country, without any information to guide them in the propriety of passing it. In vain was explicitness demanded, as the best means of rousing the public spirit, and even, as the best mode of answering the ends, proposed by the ministers themselves, in the augmentation. In vain was it pleaded, that if intended for war, the numbers voted were too few, if for peace too many. Government still maintained a sullen and unaccountable reserve, and they entrenched themselves in the position that this force was meant solely to repel hostility and aggression; to defend our own empire against all encroachments; and to enable us to look with vigilance, to the state of the continent. To this vague and indeterminate explanation, if it could be called explanation, did they confine themselves; nor could the splendid eloquence, the convincing reasoning, nor the bitter taunts of their adversaries, procure any more specious or more solid reply. Support however, was given by all parts of the house, to administration, with but a few, and those individual exceptions. individual exceptions. The friends. of the late minister, (who however did not himself come forward) and the "new opposition," supported the estimates, as manifesting some small degree of energy, in what they termed a feeble and spiritless government;-and the partizans of Mr. Fox did not oppose them, although they shewed evident symptoms of dislike, at the slightest appearance of a renewal of hostilities with France. An exception however must be made, with respect to Mr. Sheridan. Ilis sentiments, as delivered in his speech on the night of the 8th of December, when the secretary at war moved the peace establishments of the year; and which was replete with sound reasoning, argument, and wit; was decidedly in unison with. the e sentiments of the government, whom he professed to vote with, on that occasion, with the greatest cordiality and cheerfulness. In a Doble burst of eloquence, he painted to the life, the atrocious conduct of Bonaparte, with respect to Switzerland; which of itself, he said, if Lone other existed, was almost a legitimate cause of war; and urged from a review of his systems, his politics, and his power, the neces sity of resistance, "prompt, resolute, determined resistance, to the first aggression on his part, be the consequences what they might." These sentiments were received by the house and the public, with the warmest applause; and were the more attended to, as coming from one, whose personal attachment to the leader of those, who supported the pacific system, could not be doubted.* A portion of this speech however, produced an effect very different, we believe, from the intentions of the ingenious and able character who delivered it.—It was cant to be, as indeed it was, a ministerial speech, and supported the measures of administration with energy and effect. But in the playfulness of that wit and fancy, which distinguish Mr. Sheridan's oratorical effusions, he fastened a degree of personal radicale on the premier, the effects of which long remained, after his more serious riments were forgotten; and was of far greater detriment, eventually, to his politicai existence, than the assistance he this night afforded him was of advantage. Some sapposed resemblance in the deportment of Mr. Addington, to that. which common consent has usually attached exclusively to the professors of medicine, coinciding with the circumstance, of his being the son of the highly respected and cminent physician of the same name; had procured him, partially, the familiar appellation of "the Doctor." Mr. Sheridan, in the course of his celebrated speech on this evening, But contented, (under pretence of giving their adversaries' sentiments,) with holding ■ ministers to view, as the "lees of a bottle of Tokay, on which white wine had been pared to make it pass for genuine ;"-one as a" mere goose quill," another as "a stick of sealing wax, which, as soon as the drudgery of signing the peace was over, were to be considered as functi officiis, and thrown aside-allusions which were quickly caught, and kept the house in continued laughter took occasion, in stating the personal dislike of some gentlemen to Mr. Addington, to quote Martial's epigram, Nou amo te, Sabide, nec possum dicere quare, Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te. Of which he said the English parody would be more applicable to the parties- The particular emphasis which he laid on the word doctor, and his subsequent repeEtion of it, occasioned it to be instantly applied; and thenceforward the minister was generally distinguished by the apellation of THE DOCTOR. The public prints in the interest of his opponents, re-echoed the title, and twisted and tortured it into every species of allusion, that wit and humour could bring to bear upon the man and his measures, and held them up to that ridicule which is always fatal and destructive to public character and confidence. Let it not be considered, that we have given in this note, too much consequence and importance to a nick name. It has been remarked by one of the most acute and philosophic of the French historians, that the epithets which were affixed to the descendants ot Charlemagne, such as the bald,' the stammerer,' the fat,' and 'the simple,' were suited to the contempt in which they were held by their subjects: and were the mezus, by which their enemies prepared those subjects for the destruction of the Carvingian race, and the admission of a more vigorous dynasty! CHAP. CHAP. IV. Preliminary Observations.—Committee of the House of Commons on the Supply and Ways and Means.-General Statement of the Finance, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.-Four Millions granted from the Excess of the consolidated Fund, towards the Supply.-Petitions from the Shipowners, against the Tonnage Duty-Ordered to lie on the Tuble.-Bill for appointing Naval Commissioners, for the Purpose of Enquiry into Naval Abuses-Debate thereon.--Further Debate on the second Reading. --And, on the third Reading-carried.-Debate in the Lords on the Malt Duty Bill.-Speeches of Earl Spencer-Lord Pelham-Earl of Carlisle-Lords Limerick-Grenville-The Lord Chancellor.-Read a first Time.-Debate on the second Reading.-Speeches of Earls Spencer -Suffolk-The Lord Chancellor-Earl of Carlisle-Darnley-Lord Hobart-The Duke of Norfolk- Lords Grenville-Pelham-and Minto. -Bill committed and passed.-Naval Commission Bill passed in the Lords.-Observations.-Christmas Recess. THE unexampled demand in time of peace, of supplies for an immense augmentation, both in the marine and military departments; made it more than ordinarily necessary for ministers to come forward, with a comprehensive, and, if possible, satisfactory statement, not only of the supply for the year, and the ways and means of providing for it; but also a general review of the whole financial system; accordingly, the day after the preceding debate, December the 10th, the chancellor of the exchequer moved the order of the day, for the house to resolve itself into a committee, for those purposes; which being read and agreed to, he moved that the amount of the produce of the permanent taxes for 1802, be referred to the said committee; which being ordered, the house resolving itself into a committee of the whole house, then entered into a statement of the supply for the year, and the mode by which he intended to raise it. He first observed that he was induced to bring forward the motion, of which he had given notice, for granting to his majesty a sum on the growing produce of the consolidated fund, at a season of the year earlier than usual, by the very satisfactory circumstance of the extraordinary produce of the revenue, during the last half year. It would be recollected that four millions and a half had been voted on the credit of the consolidated fund for one year to the 5th of April next; of that sum no less than 3,800,0001. had been realized on the 10th of October last; and there was little doubt, that on the conclusion of the the ensuing quarter on the 5th of January, the surplus of the consolidated fund would exceed the £700,000 necessary to complete the sum which had been voted. The committee therefore would be aware, that unless a power were give en to his majesty's government to apply such further surplus as might accrue to the public service, a considerable sum might remain dead and useless in the exchequer : while money must be raised by other means to defray the necessary expenses. He then shortly recapitulated the principal measures of finance in the year 1802; and observed, that the unfunded debt in exchequer bills and navy debt, which in Nov. 1801, had amounted to upwards of £37,300,000, had been reduced to about 19 millions, making a reduction of nearly 18 mil lions, which in the course of the year had been either funded or paid off. Of the remaining sum of 19 millions, three millions which had been advanced by the bank as a consideration for the renewal of their charter, bore no interest, and was not payable till 1806, and £900,000 were charged on the annual taxes of the present year, the arrears of which would be sufficient to discharge them, Deducting these sums, and £4,500,000 of na vy debt, the remaining exchequer bills scarcely exceeded 11 millions, That in order to effect this reduction, to provide for the present sorvices of the year on that extensive scale which the circumstances of the state had required, and to relieve the country from the pressure of the income tax, it had been necessary to make provision for 97 Vol. XLV, millions of funded debt; of which 11 millions arose from the funding of exchequer bills, 57 millions from the stock charged upon the income tax, and about 30 millions from the loan of the present year. That the charge accruing from so large an addition to the funded debt amounted to above €3,100,000, for which taxes were provided, which were estimated at four millions, but which in the first quarter in which they had become productive, had brought into the exchequer about £900,000, although scarcely any thing had been received on the ad ditional assessed taxes, which were estimated at one million. Adding, therefore, one-fourth of this sum to that which had been realized, it would appear that the produce of the taxes of 1802, in the quarter ending the 10th of Oct, in that year, might be estimated at no less than £1,170,000. He had the satisfaction to state, that so far as a judgment could yet be formed, the services of the year would be defrayed by the grants of parliament, with the single exception of the extraordinaries of the army, Gentlemen would recollect that he had expressed his apprehensions in the spring that a considerable excess would arise on that service, and a large addition of expense had undoubtedly been occasioned by the detention of our troops upon foreign stations longer than had been expected. He had reason to believe that the excess beyond the sum of £1,600,000 provided by parlia ment, would exceed one million; but he had the consolation of being able to state to the committee, that the total expense of the extraordi E naries Ditto Ireland Miscellaneous-England} Irish permanent grants 363,339 He next proceeded to consider the supplies of the year as distinguished between permanent services and such as were only occasional. Under the former head, he observed, might be included the navy, the army (except that sum which might be voted to make good the excess of the extraordinaries of the present year, which he estimated at one million,) the ordnance, the miscellaneous services of Great Britain and Ireland, and the interest on exchequer bills, although on all those services it was possible that reductions might hereafter take place. The total amount of those charges was about 16 millions, of which the British proportion would somewhat exceed £14,100,000. In the latter class might be placed the corn bounties, the excess of the army extraordinaries of 1802, the repayment of exchequer bills, and of the advances |