memory of those patriots, in the days of Charles II., who touched the
gold of Louis XIV.

CHAPTER XVI.

{GEORGE III. 1787-1789}

Meeting of Parliament..... Debate on the Treaty of Commerce
between England and France..... Pitt's Plan of Financial
Reform..... Motion for the Repeal of the Corporation and
Test Acts..... Affairs of the Prince of Wales..... Motion
for Inquiry into the Abuses of the Post-Office.....
Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament
Prorogued..... Continental Affairs..... Meeting of
Parliament..... Dispute between Government and the East
India Company..... Pitt's Financial Measures--Additions
made to the Bill for trying Controverted Elections.....
Claims of the American Royalists, &c..... The Slave-Trade
Question..... Charge against Sir Elijah Impey.....
Impeachment of Warren Hastings..... Parliament
Prorogued..... Continental Alliances..... Derangement of His
Majesty..... Meeting of Parliament..... Debates on the
regency

{A.D. 1787}

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, notwiths