Such were the principal debates, wach occupied the attention of parament, before the Christmas

recess.

In the slight, but we trust sufficatly accurate and comprehensve sketch, we have given of the subject matter of the public bills, which came before the legislation in this arst period of the domestic Listory of the year; we have dwelt more particularly, on the discussions witch arose from the consideration of the king's speech; and on those which took place on the army and navy estimates; as being, not only highly important in themselves, in a national point of view; but as amply unfolding the opinions of the great leading characters of the day; and the outline of their political associations. We purposely waved, however, any examination of the minister's financial statement: first, because it passed in the house of commons without remark or comment of any kind; and secondly, because an appropriate opportunity will present itself, at a more adranced period of the account of the remaining proceedings of the session of parliament, which comes within the limits of our present volume; and in which we shall exaLine with impartiality, whether this stament, satisfactory and flatterig as it was in its details, deserved that credit and applause, which Mr. Addington solemnly claimed as its nght; or whether it were founded in that fallacious and temporizing system, which had hitherto paralyzed and crippled us in our foreign rela tions; and now threatened to extend its deceptive and deleterious effects over our domestic concerns. But however public opinion might

be held in equilibrium, on those great leading features of the early part of the session; it decidedly manifested itself, as hostile to the last act of it; namely, the introduc→ tion of the bill for navy commissioners; and perhaps no subject of equal importance ever agitated the public mind, or produced more eager or animated debate within the walls of parliament. The introduction of the bill in question, was considered on all hands, as a measure at once nugatory as to the benefits it proposed; oppressive and arbitrary in its mode of operation; invidious with respect to the navy board, whose most material functions it usurped; and as being, as expensive as useless to the nation. While this bill depended in parliament, the reasoning for its being thrown out was supported on various grounds. It was convincingly proved, that there existed no necessity for such a measure; as the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral of England, possessed by their constituted authority, and within themselves, sufficient powers, if they chose to exert them, to correct the abuses complained of; since by authorizing the navy-board (which by patent possessed the right of administering oaths, and of punishing all frauds committed in the naval department) to inquire into the alleged causes of complaint, they might, and must have been effectually removed. force this argument, it was urged, that when in the year 1792, the grossest misconduct occurred in the ordnance department in the West Indies; recourse had not been had to the institution of a new board, in order to detect and punish the

To en

offenders,

from the junior members of his board;) to undertake this investigation himself; and that the infirmities induced by great age, as well as the consequences of a most afflicting infirmity, to which this great officer was subject, rendered him unequal to the task of going through more, than the ministerial and political functions of his high office. He therefore most probably wished for a commission of this sort, as much for the purpose of lightening the burthensome part of his duty; as for that of his own future exculpation, should any inquiry ever occur, respecting his administration of the naval affairs of Great Britain.

Be

the motives however what they might, the means were completely abortive in themselves, and produced no small share of odium to both Mr. Addington and the earl St. Vincent, as statesmen and as individuals, in their consequences.Such were the objections prima facie to the naval commission bill. And here before we dismiss the subject, probably for ever, it may be necessary to consider whether in the result, it appeared that they were well founded, or the contrary. For this purpose we shall anticipate a little in order of time, and from such of their proceedings as occurred within the year, collect all that appears necessary to lay before our readers for that purpose

In the reports of this new commission, generally speaking, there were not to be found any detail of abuses, which had not previously been adverted to by the navy board; and the defaulters or delinquents had either actually been punished, or were undergoing a judicial investigation of their conduct at that

moment, and set on foot for that purpose. Some regulations indeed were recommended, which could and certainly ought to have originated with the admiralty board itself: but even in these, the leading features of their deliberative operations, bore the marks of hurry' and precipitation, and of anxious eagerness to deteriorate, and affix blame on existing establishments. This was more immediately apparent in their report on the charity, known by the name of the Chest of Chatham; as in order to remove that fund to Greenwich, a great degree of unmerited censure was thrown on the officers, in whose administration and custody it was placed: the more unmerited, because it was notorious, that in no one instance of a public institution, have the accounts and property of the nation been conducted and managed with such true economy, as well as such disinterested honesty: and because, had the commissioners called for the necessary documents, and examined those officers themselves; which in the ordinary course of conducting business of such a nature as they were employed upon, was indispensibly requisite, but which most unaccountably was neglected by them; they would have found, and they would have done but a common act of justice in stating it to the public, that the estates belonging to this fund had been augmented considerably in their value, instead of remaining stationary; which is most erroneously affirmed by them in their report on this subject to be the case! It would be wholly unnecessary to dwell longer on these reports: we have endeavoured to shew the spirit in which this commission set out, and

the

the mode in which it operated. In short, on a thorough view of it, in all its points and bearings, there appeared in it nothing new or necessary, save in that part of its proposed functions which alluded to the abuses, and to the regulation, of the prize agency of the navy, over which the admiralty had certainly no previous controul; and of which we shall hereafter take occasion, when the debates on that subject occur, to take more particular notice. But

A

even here it was evident that this subject was fixed upon, more as a popular vehicle, to carry through the objectionable parts of the measure, than from any other motive; as Sir Wm. Scott, who presided in the courts of civil law, where subjects of maritime jurisdiction are decided, had just brought in a bill, which provided for every case which the commissioners of naval inquiry had pointed out as an existing abuse.

J..