fence; and therefore a great stress had been laid on the increafed dividend in 1784: but if the increase had not refted on the folid ground of increasing profperity, it would, in the end, have only depreffed in ftead of raising the ftock. As to the increase of the exports and imports having not occafioned a proportionate increase of revenue, the net produce of our revenue was no criterion of the extent of our foreign trade: but it was an important fact, that, in 1783, the value of British manufactures exported was. 10,409,000l. and in 1795, it had rifen to 16,326,000l. The ftatement of the noble earl made the importation of cotton wool for the ufe of our manufactures to be four times as great as in the first years of the peace. As a general proof of his ftatement of the finances being exact, lord Auckland obferved that it was in the recollection of the houfe, that the annual amount of the perma nent taxes, on a three years' average, to the 5th of June, 1796, accord ing to the papers before parliament, had been 13,729,000l. and with the addition of one-fixth of a 53d week, which was 31,000l. amounted to 13,761,000l. Deducting for the taxes impofed from 1784 to 1792, and for other changes and improvements in the revenue during that period, 1,400,000l. the remainder was 12,561,000l. With refpect to the navy debt being given from May and not from December, it was the exprefs purpofe of the comparative view to exhibit our actual fituation, and to fhew our refources fuch as enabled us, in this advanced period of the war, to provide for 8,000,000l. of navy debt, and to reduce it as low as in a time of peace. In the fame manner the bank 1796. debt had been stated at 6,000,000!. and not at 11,000,000l. because provifion had lately been made by parliament for funding 5,000,000l. of what was then due. It would, his lordship contended, be strange to fay that the produce of the finking fund was not difpofable by parliament. Leaving this, however, it would be found on infpection that the statement had afferted that the annual million, fet apart in 1786, was to be inviolably ap plied to the reduction of the debt till the accumulation fball amount to 4,000,000l. a year, when there will revert to the difpofal of parliament, taxes equal to whatever part of the national debt may be repurchafed by the application of 4,000,000l. a year. Refpecting the peace eftablishment, his lordfip faid, the statement would prove that he had obferved it might eventually exceed the fuppofed amount: but that the return of peace is likely to increase the revenue, and at any rate, that the computation of a furplus revenue of 3,400,000l. would give near 1,000,000l. a year. In the details of the peace eftablifhment which the houfe had just heard, fums were included, to the amount of feveral millions, which did not come within any defcription of a regular peace establishment. The data on which the calculation for the 3,400,000l.had been doubted by the noble earl, to think that the revenue ought to be eftimated, not on an average of years, but from the third year of a war, was a fufficient refutation of its validity. Taking the taxes to an. fwer the charge created by the war, according to their eftimate, which was 4,500,000l. of that fum about 750,000l. was applicable for redeeming the principal, and formed M what what might be called the fecond finking fund. The annual profit of the lottery, and the payment from the Eaft - India company, Net produce of permanent taxes to were alfo included. Subject to thefa explanations, the statement in queftion had been formed as follows. Jan. 5, 1794, Jan. 5, 1795, Jan. 5, 1796, £13,941,000 13,802,000 13,455,000 £41,198,000 In ftating the last year's account, an addition had been made beyond the amount, which appeared in the accounts laid before parliament, of about 300,000l. for bounties to feamen, for the fifty-third week; for the produce of repealed taxes; and for feme fmaller particulars. The average of the fum above stated will be about The land and malt Annual profit by lottery Eaft-India payment Accumulated profit of the first finking fund Deducting from the above, 15,000,000l. as a fuppofed peace expenditure, there would remain a higher fum than had been given in the statement of the 2d of May, of which, as has been already explained, above 2,800,000l. was confidered as applicable to the difcharge of the debt. Had the account been taken, as it might, on a peace average, the amount would have been 450,000l. higher. His lordhip ended by ftating that every exifting account of our revenue and refources, the flourishing state of our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and every apparent evidence of internal profperity, gave a confolatory and cheerful picture of the fituation and proIpects of the British empire. The earl of Moira entered into feveral calculations, which fup. ported the statements of the earl £.13,730,000 2,558,000 of Lauderdale; and observed, that if he was accurate, the expences of the country certainly exceeded the revenue. It was not, his lord. fhip faid, his intention to present a gloomy picture of our resources: he knew them to be folid and fubftantial; but every thing depended upon economy and prudent management. Lord Hawkesbury objected to taking the laft year into a comparifon with the others, on account of feveral circumftances which operated to diminish the annual production of the permanent revenue; fuch as the diftillers and the malt brewers ceafing to work, from the high price of grain, and the diftrefs of the poorer fort of the community from the fame caufe. To these the drawback upon fugars might be added: and of all the new taxes of 1794 and 1795, few except the tax upod pon wine were immediately productive. The amount of the taxes and the estimate were, he stated, In the first year nearly equal; in the fecond, the produce exceeded the eЯimate; and what they might prove in the prefent, could not be afcertained. What would be the peace establishment at the end of the war, muft entirely depend on the fecurity and permanency of the treaty; but whatever it was, the finking fund would ftill continue to be paid, together with the intereft of 3,500,000l. at four per cent. His lordship drew a very flattering picture of the revenue and refources of the country; that one per cent. lefs was paid for intereft than in former wars; that in 1792 only twenty-nine navigation bills were paffed, and laft year there were forty-feven; but one hundred and nine inclosure bills in 1792, and haft year two hundred and feventeen. Our commerce had gone to an unparalleled extent, and, though deftroyed with Holland, had increafed with Germany, and last year amounted to fix millions. to be brought against it. On putting the previous queftion, which had, been moved by lord Hawkesbury, it was carried without a division. The fubject of the game laws, which underwent confiderable investigation in both the houses of parliament, was introduced to the notice of the house of commons, February 16, by Mr. Coke of Norfolk, who moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the game act. The principal object of this bill was to defer the commencement of the feafon for fhooting partridges till the 14th of September, in order to prevent injury to the farmers; which was carried. Mr. Curwen brought forward a motion for the total repeal of all the game laws; upon which the fubject was warm. ly agitated in the houfe of commons, and the motion thrown out by a confiderable majority. Little worthy of remark occurred, however, in the debate, excepting the extraordinary and truly Jacobinical obfervation of the chancellor of the exchequer, that "property was the creature of law." The refolutions and statements of the earl of Lauderdale were approved and enforced by the marquis of Latifdowne, and oppofed by lord Grenville. Lord Lauderdale, in reply, commented upon the statements which had been made of the revenue and expenditure, which had materially differed in the conclufion. He contended, that the expenditure of the last year of the war, from the papers on the table, was much greater than minifters allowed, in the navy, army, and extraordinary estimates; and particularly confidered the arrears and extraordinaries of the ordnance as a novelty; as the noble duke who lately prefided there had left his office without any extraordinaries On the 18th of February, Mr. Wilberforce again moved for the abolition of the flave trade, and prefaced the motion by a fpeech of great length, and replete with every argument calculated to support the humane measure he propofed. He obferved that the ift of January 1796 was the period allotted by the houfe for the abolition of this infamous traffic; - that this time had however elapfed, and this deteftable bufinefs proceeded with undiminifhed fpirit. Independent of juftice and humanity, it was, he' obferved, further incumbent upon the legislature to terminate the trade, on account or the prefervation of our Weft-India inands. Had the abolition-act paffed fooner, M 2 the the enemy, he faid, would never have obtained fuch firm hold in Guadaloupe, Grenada, and St. Vincent's. The motion was oppofed by general Tarleton, Sir W.Younge, Mr. Dundas, and a very confider able number of gentlemen. It was ably fupported by the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Smith, Mr. ferjeant Adair, &c. and in a very animated and eloquent fpeech by Mr. Fox. In all its various flages, the meafure called forth the whole of the talents of the houfe, either in attack or defence; but, the arguments adduced have been, fo frequently before the public, during the repeated difcuffions up-, on this fubject, as to render any further detail of them unneceffary. The real friends to humanity will learn with concern, that the narrow views of intereft and policy prevailed over every confideration of religion and juftice. On the confideration of the reports, general Tarleton moved to poftpone confidering the flave-trade abolition bill for four months; and the bill was loft by a majority of four. On reading the flave-carrying bill, Mr. Wilberforce attempted to introduce a regulation of flaves in proportion to the tonnage; but, upon a divifion being called for, and the house being at different times counted out, the number of members were found inadequate to compofe a houfe; and the motion was confequently thrown out. During this feflion a bill was brought into the houfe for rendering permanent the Westminster police eftablifhment; which, after much difcuffion, was negatived; and an amendment, moved by the chancellor of the exchequer, to continue it for five years, was adopted. Mr. ferjeant Adair prefented to the houfe a petition from the quakers, and moved for leave to bring in a bill for their relief, as to the imprisonment of their perfons for tythes, and for making their folemn affirmation evidence in criminal as well as in civil cafes. The bill was ably fupported by Mr. Adair, by Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Francis, Mr. Martin, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Lechmere, and Mr. Wigley, and paffed the houfe of commons, but was thrown out by the lords. A bill for the relief of curates met with confiderable oppofition in the houfe of commons, from its being confidered as a money bill, which had originated in the upper houfe. This objection was, however, removed, by recurring to a variety of cafes, in which the lords exercifed the right of introducing claufes for payment of money; and the prefent bill certainly did not attempt to levy any new impoft, but merely enacted a new diftribution of fums already applied by parliament to particular purpofes. The bill therefore pafTed. The earl of Moira, in the courfe of the feffions, brought in a bill for mitigating the rigours experienced by debtors; which was. ftrongly oppofed by the law lords, and thrown out. On the 2d of May, colonel Cawthorne entered into a very elaborate defence of his conduct, relative to the charges advanced againft him by a late courtmartial. It was then moved by general Smith, that, being found guilty of feveral of the charges, he fhould be expelled the house; which was feconded by Mr. Pierpeint, jun. Mr. Wigley wifhed the houfe to paufe, and entered into a very able vindication of colonel Cawthorne; who was, however, at length, formally expelled. On the 19th of May the feffion was clofed, as ufual, by a fpeech from from the throne, which the reader will find in our Public Papers *; and on the following day the parliament was diffolved by proclamation. contract for the fervices of their dependants with the precision of a Heffian envoy, or a Swifs commandant. Hence the violence, the precipitation of their measures, Thus terminated a parliament, more analogous to the rafh counconcerning whofe condu&t a more fels of a defpotic ftate, than to the impartial and a more unanimous temperate determinations, the gra verdict may be expected from dual and tardy compliances of a pofterity, than from the prefent deliberating popular affembly. It age. If we look to the advantages would ill become us (who, as priwhich, in the courfe of their poli- vate men, can have little communitical existence, they conferred on cation with the individuals who their conftituents, if we inquire compofed this auguft body, and by what new and beneficial laws confequently are lefs acquainted they improved the fyftem of British with their private fentiments) to jurifprudence, or ameliorated the infinuate, with Mr. Burke, that condition of their fellow-fubjects, their votes were fometimes at vawe must confine our applaufes to riance with their opinions. We two objects the bill introduced are rather difpofed to conclude by Mr. Fox, which irrevocably that the majority of them had revefted in a jury the whole queftion ally no opinion of their own, but on trials for libel; and the decifion modeftly affigned the direction of in the fame feffion (1792) for the their faculties to other men: and abolition of the deteftable flave- the appellation with which they trade in 1796; a decifion, which were ftigmatized, of a confiding they afterwards wanted the virtue parliament, will perhaps defcend to enforce. Perhaps no feature in to pofterity as the characteristic dethe character of this parliament fcription of this particular body of was fo marked and prominent as reprefentatives. If, however, we its devotion to party; perhaps the fhould be difpofed to acquit them fpirit of independence † was never of intentional misconduct and of fo little confpicuous in the con- actual corruption, we fhall at least duct of any public body. From have long to lament their unfortuits firft affembling, the individual nate miftakes. In the fort fpace members were ranked and arranged of four years, they nearly doubled under their respective leaders, with the national burthens, which were an order and difcipline almost as already enormous, and left their regular as in a military establish- fucceffors involved in a conteft, the ment; and, when a certain numiffue of which it is impoffible clearber of thofe leaders negotiated ly to forefee, but which cannot, on with the minifter for a change of the whole, be fortunate or happy. principles, they were enabled to * Page (89). We mean by independence the fpirit of judging and acting individually for themfelves, independent of party views. |