THE COMMONS PRESENT ADDRESSES TO THE KING AND QUEEN.

The commons having voted an address of thanks, and another, praying that his majesty’s foreign alliances should be laid before them, determined on a bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason. They passed a vote of thanks to admiral Russel, his officers and seamen, for the victory they had obtained, and then proceeded to an inquiry, Why that victory had not been pursued? why the descent had not been made? and why the trade had not been better protected from the enemy’s cruisers? The admiral having justified his own conduct, they commanded the lords of the admiralty to produce copies of all the letters and orders which had been sent to the admiral; they ordered Russel to lay before them his answers; and the commissioners of the transports, victuallers, and office of ordnance, to deliver in an account of their proceedings. They then presented addresses to the king and queen, acknowledging the favour of God in restoring him to his people; congratulating him upon his deliverance from the snares of his open and secret enemies; and assuring him they would, according to his majesty’s desire in his most gracious speech, be always ready to advise and assist him in the support of his government. The queen was thanked for her gracious and prudent administration during his majesty’s absence; they congratulated her on their signal deliverance from a bold and cruel design formed for their destruction, as well as on the glorious victory which her fleet had gained; and they assured her that the grateful sense they had of their happiness under her government, should always be manifested in constant returns of duty and obedience.

After this formal compliment, the house, instead of proceeding to the supplies, insisted upon perusing the treaties, public accounts, and estimates, that they might be in a condition to advise as well as to assist his majesty. Being indulged with those papers, they passed a previous vote that a supply should be given; then they began to concert their articles of advice. Some of the members loudly complained of partiality to foreign generals, and particularly reflected upon the insolence of count Solmes, and his misconduct at Steenkirk. After some warm altercation, the house resolved one article of their advice should be, that his majesty would be pleased to fill up the vacancies that should happen among the general officers, with such only as were natives of his dominions, and that the commander-in-chief of the English should be an Englishman. Their next resolution implied, that many of the great affairs of the government having been for some time past unsuccessfully managed, the house should advise his majesty to prevent such mischiefs for the future, by employing men of knowledge, ability, and integrity. Individual members inveighed bitterly against cabinet councils, as a novelty in the British system of government by which the privy-council was jostled out of its province. They complained that all the grievances of the nation proceeded from the vicious principles of the ministry: they observed, that he who opposed the establishment could not be expected to support it with zeal. The earl of Nottingham was mentioned by name, and the house resolved that his majesty should be advised to employ in his councils such persons only whose principles obliged them to support his rights against the late king, and all other pretenders. Marlborough’s interest still predominated among the commons. His friend Russel acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the house, and shifted the blame of the miscarriage upon his enemy the earl of Nottingham, by declaring that twenty days elapsed between his first letter to that nobleman and his lordship’s answer. The earl’s friends, of whom there was a great number in the house, espoused his cause with great vigour, and even recriminated upon Russel; so that a very violent debate ensued. Both parties agreed that there had been mismanagement in the scheme of a descent. It was moved, that one cause of the miscarriage was the want of giving timely and necessary orders, by those to whom the management of the affair was committed. The house divided, and it was carried in the affirmative by one voice only. At the next sitting of the committee, sir Richard Temple proposed they should consider how to pay the forces abroad, by means of English manufactures, without ex porting money. They resolved that the house should be moved to appoint a committee to take this expedient into consideration. Sir Francis Wilmington was immediately called upon to leave the chair, and the speaker resumed his place. All that had been done was now void, as no report had been made; and the committee was dissolved. The house however revived it, and appointed a day for its sitting; but before it could resume its deliberations, admiral Russel moved for its being adjourned, and all its purposes were defeated.

The court agents had by this time interposed, and secured a majority by the infamous arts of corruption. The commons no longer insisted upon their points of advice. Their whole attention was now centered in the article of assistance. They granted about two millions for the maintenance of three-and-thirty thousand seamen, the building of some additional ships of war, and the finishing of Plymouth dock; and seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds to supply the deficiency of the quarterly poll. The estimates of the land-service were not discussed without tedious debates and warm disputes. The ministry demanded fifty-four thousand men, twenty thousand of whom should be kept at home for the defence of the nation, while the rest should serve abroad in the allied army. Many members declared their aversion to a foreign war, in which the nation had no immediate concern and so little prospect of success. Others agreed that the allies should be assisted on the continent with a proportion of British forces; but that the nation should act as an auxiliary, not as a principal, and pay no more than what the people would cheerfully contribute to the general expense. These reflections, however, produced no other effect than that of prolonging the debate. Ministerial influence had surmounted all opposition. The house voted the number of men demanded. Such was their servile complaisance, that when they examined the treaties by which the English and Dutch contracted equally with the German princes, and found that, notwithstanding these treaties, Britain bore two-thirds of the expense, they overlooked this flagrant instance of partiality, and enabled the king to pay the proportion. Nay, their maxims were so much altered, that, instead of prosecuting their resentment against foreign generals, they assented to a motion that the prince of Wirtemberg, the major-generals Tetteau and La Forest, who commanded the Danish troops in the pay of the states-general, should be indulged with such an addition to their appointments as would make up the difference between the pay of England and that of Holland. Finally, they voted above two millions for the subsistence of the land forces, and for defraying extraordinary expenses attending the war upon the continent, including subsidies to the electors of Saxony and Hanover.