1780. VOTE OF THANKS TO NORTON AND CORNWALLIS. 387 Ministry, by proposing a vote of thanks to Sir Fletcher Norton for his conduct in the chair. It would have been quite competent to the Government to have resisted the motion on the ground of precedent; this being the first occasion on which a new Parliament had been invited to pronounce an opinion on the merits and services of a Speaker who had not presided over its deliberations. This difficulty was urged by several members, and admitted by the mover. But Lord North declined a contest, and the only member of the administration who opposed the motion was Rigby; whose opposition would have been more likely to recommend it than the contrary. The vote was passed by a majority of forty in a thin House. thanks to Lord Another proposal of thanks to Lord Cornwallis, moved likewise by a member unconnected Proposal of with the Government, afforded an oppor- Cornwallis. tunity for the often repeated invectives against the American war. But Lord North, weary of his office, weary of the war, and agreeing with its opponents, was content to rest upon his majority, and said little in defence of a policy of which he was a reluctant advocate. The appointment of Sir Hugh Palliser as Governor of Greenwich Hospital gave rise to a fierce attack on Lord Sandwich, for an improper exercise of patronage, and also to a renewed exhibition of personal animosity between Palliser and Keppel. A remarkable example of the good effect produced by the publication of the debates occurred during this discussion. Fox, with his usual intemperance of language, was censuring the appointment of Palliser, when Lord Nugent called him to order, and spoke of the contempt into which the late Parliament had fallen, in consequence of the violence and personality of its debates. He reminded the House that every thing said within its walls was translated and read by every foreigner, as well as native, who 388 DEBATES ON PALLISER'S APPOINTMENT AS CH. XXV. I have already de could get a common newspaper. scribed the language which was babitually used in party conflict; but, soon after the publication of the debates, an improvement in the tone and temper of discussion became perceptible. The coarseness of the age for a long time tolerated a license of speech which would be revolting to the present generation; but members had already almost ceased to denounce each other as knaves and fools, when they differed in debate. On the re-assembling of Parliament after the Re assembling of Parliament. Dutch. Christmas recess, the papers relative to the breach with Holland were laid on the tables of both Houses; and the usual message from the Crown was brought down to the Commons. The conduct of the Dutch had been so plainly marked by treachery and ill-will, as to leave the Government of this country no alternative. The Opposition, Conduct of the indeed, taunted the Ministry with making enemies and losing allies; but no serious objection could be urged either against the war, or the manifesto by which it was justified. The appointment of Sir Hugh Palliser to be Governor of Greenwich Hospital appeared, however, to Fox and his friends, an event of sufficient importance to justify the proposal of a vote of censure on the advisers of the Crown. The court-martial which had tried Keppel on the prosecution of Palliser, in acquitting the prisoner, had pronounced the charges unfounded and malicious. Upon this finding, Fox founded his motion, that the appointment of Palliser to Greenwich Hospital was a measure totally subversive of the discipline and derogatory to the honour of the navy.' The appointment was certainly one which ought not to have been made; but it does not follow that it was a fit subject for parliamentary censure. The practice of reviewing the nominations to employments under the Crown is one of those salutary 6 1780. GOVERNOR OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL. 389 The checks upon prerogative which guard against its abuse, and prevent the conflict of opposite elements in the constitution. According to modern usage, the censure of the House of Commons upon the exercise of patronage in any particular instance would be followed, as a matter of course, by the resignation of the ministers. It is obvious, therefore, that a practice so anomalous should be resorted to only on very grave occasions; and that the result of a too frequent or indiscriminate criticism on the exercise of its functions by the Executive would be either the virtual transfer of those functions to a body which experience has amply shown to be utterly unfitted for their performance, or that the censure of the House would cease to carry any weight. appointment of Palliser, however objec- Objection to tionable, furnished no sufficient ground Palliser. for the interference of the House of Commons. He had been tried by court-martial for breaches of professional duty, and acquitted: he had been censured by another court-martial charged to inquire, not into his conduct, but into the conduct of his commanding officer, of whom he was the accuser; the censure thus pronounced was neither a finding after due inquiry, nor within the obligations of their oath. An opinion so delivered in the course of any civil or criminal proceeding before the ordinary tribunals would have no legal efficacy. Yet it was the extrajudicial opinion of a court-martial, which conducts its proceedings in an arbitrary manner, and is only recognised by the constitution as an occasional or anomalous tribunal, that the Whigs desired the House of Commons to adopt as absolutely binding and conclusive. The motion was, of course, rejected by the majority which the ministers could still command; but, in this case, the argument and the vote were, by an unusual coincidence in the earlier Parliaments of George the Third, upon the same side. 390 BURKE'S BILL AS TO THE CIVIL LIST. CH. XXV. Object of The most remarkable debate of the session was that which took place on the second reading of Burke's Bill for the regulation of the Civil List. The object of this bill was to give effect to the celebrated resolutions of the 6th of April, 1780, that the influence of the Crown had increased, and ought to be diminished. This bill was resisted by the Government, on the ground that it proposed a violation of the compact by which the Crown exchanged its hereditary revenues for a fixed annuity. This objection might have been entitled to some weight, if the Crown had adhered to its own part of the bargain. But the debts of the Civil List had been twice paid, and a large permanent addition had been made to its revenues, by Parliament, during the present reign. The country had, therefore, a right to propose an arrangement by which the recurrence of such demands might be obviated, even if the whole of the Civil List had been placed at the absolute disposal of the Sovereign. But a large proportion of this fund was charged with the support of the public service; and it was with this portion alone that the bill proposed to deal. The promoters of the measure desired to abate neither the due magnificence of the Court, nor to infringe the faith of Parliament; they only required that the foul stream of patronage which polluted the House of Commons. should not be fed from the resources of the country. Burke complained with truth, that the House, though willing to vote abstract resolutions, shrank from any practical application of the principles they approved. The bill was rejected on the second reading by a majority of forty-three in a full House. This result was, no doubt, produced mainly by the intrigues of the Court; but the injudicious proceedings of the popular party had, to some extent, diminished the supporters of the policy inaugurated by Dunning's resolutions. The meetings of the freeholders in their 1780. PITT'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE DEBATE. 391 Burke's Bill. county halls were authentic expressions of public opinion the language in which they described their grievances and demanded redress, though strong and resolute, was not more strong and resolute than their fathers had used aforetime; but the attempt to organise Corresponding Associations on the American model gave great offence; and many sincere friends of free institutions held aloof from a movement which seemed designed to set up an intermediate body between the people and the House of Commons. The debate on the second reading of the bill was remarkable for the first speech of William Debate on Pitt. The name which he bore, together with the academic reputation which he brought with him into the House of Commons, had raised expectation to the highest pitch; and, probably, no young man ever addressed the House of Commons for the first time under circumstances at once so encouraging and so formidable. The mute attention of an assembly, which, however prone to political error, is always correct in its estimate of oratorical pretension, is a trial which few men of any sensibility encounter without trepidation. Still, it is no very difficult task for a young man of fair abilities to write a tolerable political essay, to get it by rote, and to deliver it, in an agreeable manner, from a back bench of the House of Commons. Every session produces exhibitions of this character, more or less removed from mediocrity. But the first exhibition of Mr. Pitt at once attained to excellence. So far as the speech was prepared, though not free from the antithetical style and balanced periods of a youthful orator, its composition was far above an average; but it rarely happens, that a speaker who addresses the House for the first time ventures to plunge into the debate, and answer the arguments of members who have taken prominent parts in the discussion. The art of debating, which leads to the highest political stations |