connivances, it is now time to examine; and therefore I move, that a
committee be appointed to inquire into the conduct of affairs at home
and abroad during the last twenty years.

Sir John ST. AUBIN then spoke as follows:--Sir, I rise up to second this
motion; and, as the noble lord has opened it in so full and proper a
manner, and as I do not doubt but that other gentlemen are ready to
support it, more practised in speaking, of greater abilities and
authority than myself, I am the less anxious about the injury it may
receive from the part I bear in it. I think the proposition is so
evident, that it wants no enforcement; it comes to you from the voice of
the nation, which, thank God, has at last found admittance within these
walls.

Innocence is of so delicate a nature, that it cannot bear suspicion, and
therefore will desire inquiry; because it will always be justified by
it. Guilt, from its own consciousness, will use subterfuges, and fly to
concealment; and the more righteous and authoritative the inquiry, the
more it will be avoided; because the greater will be the dread of
punishment.

In private life, I am contented with men's virtues only, without seeking
for opportunities of blame. In a publick character, when national
grievances cry aloud for inquiry and justice, it is our duty to pursue
all the footsteps of guilt; and the loud, the pathetick appeal of my
constituents, is more forcibly persuasive than any motive of private
tenderness. This appeal is not the clamour of faction, artfully raised
to disturb the operation of government, violent for a while, and soon to
be appeased. It is the complaint of long and patient sufferings, a
complaint not to be silenced; and which all endeavours to suppress it,