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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 376: MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

Parliament met on the 23rd of January. During the preceding year Fredrick the Great passed off the stage of life, having previously involved the French and English governments in disagreements, concerning the troubles which still existed in the Netherlands. No mention was made of these disagreements and troubles in the king’s speech; but his majesty dwelt much upon the treaty of navigation and commerce which, as before related, had been concluded with the French monarch. Against this treaty and its negociator, Mr. Eden, who had quitted their ranks, and now supported Pitt, the Whig opposition had a rooted aversion; and in the debate upon the address, Fox, whose professions of friendship towards the French were proverbial, not only censured the arrangements, but sounded the old trumpet of war and national hatred. He denounced Louis XVI. as a dangerous monarch; dwelt on the ambitious designs and encroaching spirit of France; blamed ministers for laying aside all jealousy of that power; and asserted that the court of Versailles was at that very moment labouring to counteract Pitt’s diplomatists. But though Fox censured the French treaty, which formed the leading topic of the king’s speech, he voted for the address, a circumstance for which he received a little banter from the lips of the minister. Pitt remarked:—“I am happy that, notwithstanding the vehemence with which the right honourable gentleman has argued against the address, he is ready to vote for it. I hope he will continue the same line of conduct throughout the session; for, if he makes a practice of voting in direct opposition to his own speeches and arguments, we may look for a greater degree of unanimity than could otherwise be expected.”