been forced on the people had been inva- | riably ruined, and whatever evils might befal this country in a like attempt, their obstinacy against every kind of remonstration deserve it in some measure.

The Earl of Westmorland spoke in support of the Bill.

Lord Grenville opposed the Bill. He compared the present proceedings of government to those of the French with respect to the assignats. The noble lord dwelt at length on the evils which the people experienced by the depreciation of paper, which depreciation he attributed to an over issue on the part of the Bank.

The Earl of Liverpool contended that the existing circumstances of the country were to be ascribed to natural and simple causes, namely, the great foreign expenditure, and the considerable increase in the importation of grain. The argument of the noble baron who preceded him, was directed rather against the original measure of the suspension of cash payments, than against the present Bill, the object of which was to prevent the occurrence of injustice and oppression. Adverting to the supposition that there were two prices in the market, a cash price and a paper price, he denied the fact. On this point he was ready to meet the noble lords, guarding himself at the same time from the inference of maintaining that there might not have been a solitary instance or two of the existence of two prices. All he contended for was, that it was not a general practice.

The Bill was then read a second time, and ordered to be committed on Friday.

The Earl of Lauderdale gave notice, that before the House went into the committee on Friday, he would move an enquiry into the nature of the connection of the bank of England with government.

MR. HENRY'S SECRET MISSION.] Lord Holland, adverting to the conversation which had taken place early in the evening, observed, that he had since read the documents to which he had then alluded. If they were accurate as published, he must consider them as affording a most proper ground for parliamentary enquiry. If it should appear that Mr. Henry had been authorised to stir up the inhabitants of the Eastern States to rebellion and separation from the Western, such an act, on the part of one friendly power to another, could not be too severely censured or

stigmatised. And whatever might be the sentiments of the noble earl, he was persuaded that he should have the concurrence in this opinion of the noble viscount who had lately acceded to his Majesty's government, and who had, at the commencement of the present unfortunate war, reprobated what he conceived to have been a similar attempt, as instanced in the case of the French consul at Dublin. He did not wish to take the business out of the hands of the noble Earl if he chose to bring it forward, but he was desirous to know, whether it was the noble earl's intention himself to lay on the table the documents alluded to ?

The Earl of Liverpool replied, that he did not think it necessary to say any more at present, than that when the affair came to be enquired into, it would be found not to bear the construction set upon it by the noble lord.

Lord Holland, observing that the noble earl had refrained from answering his question, gave notice, that on Friday he would move for the production of the documents.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Tuesday, April 28.

PETITION FROM THE DYERS IN FAVOUR OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER.] A Petition of the Dyers of the honourable united East India Company, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners have viewed with the liveliest apprehension the Petitions from the various outports to the House, for laying open the trade to India; and that it is by a strict attention to regulations which ensure the superior execution of the different operations in the India Company's exports, that the confidence with which they are received by the consumers has been established, a confidence so complete that a bale of goods marked V. B. I. C. passes in the India market as current as a Bank note does here; and that, by these regulations, the petitioners are obliged to have been a certain length of time in the business before they can be appointed Dyers to the India Company: that, with most of them, it is the only business in which themselves, and their fathers before them, are and have been engaged, and by which they procure subsistence for their families, and those of other trades immediately dependent on them, together giving employment to some

they would claim the attention of the House, and which, they are persuaded, will be found to prevail in the case of a great majority in every part of the united empire; and that the petitioners, residing in a town and district, than which none in their county ranks higher in manufacturing importance, and but one in population, possess the means of accurately observing the effects of protracted war and restricted commerce; in illustration of these effects, they would subinit to the attentive consideration of the House the high price of all the necessaries of life, the multitudes of the labouring classes of the community thrown out of employment, the consequent difficulty, if not impossibility, of their obtaining honestly, and without parochial aid, the means of subsistence, and the too well founded anticipation of consequences, which (by adding to physical moral evils) must prove still more calamitous both to the individual sufferers, and to the country at large; in thus adverting to the peculiar distresses of one particular class, the petitioners would by no means have it inferred that they are the only sufferers; it must be obvious to the House that the unprecedented number of failures and bankruptcies in the higher departments of commercial society, and in all its descending gradations, are immediately owing to the same causes, which in their ultimate but severest operation affect the labourer and mechanic, war (and especially when conducted on the principles of that in which we are at present involved) being more injurious to a commercial nation like our own, than to one which possesses within itself greater physical resources; and the petitioners pray, that the House will do all that in them lies for the attainment of an honourable peace; but if this great and truly desirable object proves at present unattain able, the petitioners will still feel an anxious solicitude (a solicitude which has increased with each succeeding day's experience) that the House should give due attention to the importance of public economy, and to the removal of all obstacles in the way of commercial intercourse with neutral na

grievance, the East India monopoly, but to resolve that, on the principles of a liberal economy, the advantages of that trade shall be enjoyed by the nation at large, without exclusion or limitation; lastly, before the evils, which now press so severely on the various classes of the community, are extended and multiplied in a degree, from the contemplation of which in its various aspects the mind revolts, the petitioners beseech of the House to investigate the causes, to ascertain effectual means of counteraction, and, from motives of humanity, of policy, of patriotism, and of justice, to administer the appropriate remedies."

Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITION FROM ESSEX RESPECTING REFORM.] Mr. Westerne presented a Petition from the freeholders and inhabi. tant householders of the county of Essex, setting forth,

"That the petitioners, impelled by a strong sense of the duty they owe to themselves and to their country, at this eventful and unprecedented conjuncture of public affairs, avail themselves of their right of petitioning the House, in order to lay before them their sentiments on the present very imperfect and inadequate representation of the people in parliament under the existing forms of election; and that the petitioners conceive, that one excellent part of the constitution consists in the representative system, by which the people are allowed' a due share in the government; but, after they have seen it distinctly stated, in a Petition presented to the House, on the 6th day of May, in the year 1793, and evidence tendered in proof of the facts, that three hundred and seven of the members, for England and Wales only, are not sent to parliament by the suffrages of the people, that they are, on the contrary, returned by one hundred and fifty-four Peers and Commoners; and when they find that these allegations stand at this day on the Journals of Parliament uncontradicted, they cannot but conclude that the House has lamentably departed from its original and constitutional cha

degree from the European and American markets; the necessity is sufficiently obvious of widening every remaining channel for the free employment of the commercial capital of the empire; the petitioners therefore most earnestly intreat the House not to allow of any prolongation to the present term of that great national (VOL, XXII.)

the Commons of these realms;" and that to this alarming defect the petitioners ascribe the far greater part of their national calamities, therefore it is they would bring to the recollection of the House the blood that has been wasted in wars, which to say the least, wiser councils might have avoided; therefore they would remind the (4A)

a

House of the vast and fearful magnitude of the public expenditure, and of the accumulated increase of debt and taxation; and that to the same source they ascribe the decisions of the House, on various occasions, in manifest opposition to the declared sense of the country, and to its most essential interests, as well as in direct contradiction to their own recorded opimions; above all, the petitioners attribute to this unhappy cause the unwillingness hitherto shewn in parliament to enquire into and correct the corruptions and abuses which prevail, too notoriously for denial, in the procuring of seats in the House, and which tend, by diminishing its virtue, to destroy the confidence of the people in the Commons' House of Parliament; and that for these, as well as for many other powerful reasons that might be derived from existing circumstances, which the petitioners forbear to mention, lest they should too much mix their present feelings with discussion on the vital principles of the liberties of England, they beseech the House, that the Septennial Act, which, under a plea of public danger, was, in contempt of national right, passed by House of Commons chosen only for three years, be forthwith repealed; and that, in addition to the land-owners, and in lieu of returns to parliament, in the name of depopulated or close or venal boroughs, the householders of Great Britain and Ireland, directly paying a certain assessinent to the state, may, with the exception of the peers of the realm, have a vote in the election of members of the House, and under such regulations of the poll, as would prevent the ruinous expence of contested elections, but too often the result, as they are now conducted, a precaution, they will add, not more necessary towards the independence and integrity of parliament, than it is for the preservation of public morals; and that an efficient and con. stitutional Reform in the powers of election to the House, they are fully persuaded would afford a safe certain and speedy remedy for the numerous grievances under which the petitioners labour; and they are, moreover, persuaded, that it is the only efficient remedy to be found for them, because it is only by such Reform, and with the term of the representative trust considerably shortened, that the House can restore that identity of interest between the members of the House of Commons and the people at large, without which the petitioners have no rational as

surance that they shall enjoy the blessings of free and equal government under the safeguard of the English constitution; and that the disastrous times in which we live demand this open avowal of the thoughts and wishes of the petitioners, on a measure again and again brought before the House, and in the language in which they have conveyed them, they intreat the House to believe they intend the House no disrespect, though the petitioners frankly confess they are unacquainted with words too strong to express what they feel on a topic so intimately connected with their dearest rights and most valuable interests; and that in conclusion, they earnestly pray the House to undertake a constitutional Reform before it be too late, according to the provisions they have presumed to point out, or in such other mode, as to their wisdom shall seem more effectual, to the accomplishment of the important object which the petitioners have in view, so shall the affections of the people be conciliated, the House retrieve its due weight and influence on the public mind, the internal peace and independence of the country be secured, stability given to the throne, and our liberties, our best inheritance, be perpetuated."

Ordered to lie upon the table.

LORD STANLEY'S MOTION FOR A CомMITTEE ON THE PETITIONS AGAINST THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL.) Lord Stanley on rising, expressed his regret that it had not fallen to the lot of an abler person than himself to bring the important subject on which he was about to address them before the consideration of the House. It was not his intention, however, to go at any great length into the general question of the policy of the Orders in Council, a subject so lucidly and eloquently treated on a recent occasion by his hon. and learned friend. He should limit himself therefore to that view of those Orders which were connected with the immediate motion which he was about to submit. In the year 1806, the violent measures and decrees of the enemy induced the British government to take such steps as seemed best calculated by a counter operation to inflict upon the French government those commercial injuries with which it had endeavoured to assail us. Whatever might be the policy of the Order then issued, he must deny that the Decrees against which it was directed were constructed upon any novel or unprecedented principles. Simi

lar principles had been adopted in 1739, and 1756. They had been acted on during the American as well as the late wars. Never, however, had they been attended with those consequences which unfortunately now so distinctly depressed the trade and commerce of the country. Never had they been found to produce the practical result of destroying the manufactures, and annihilating the trading prosperity of the empire. So far from their having been followed by any such effects, it was well known that until the present period, those manufactures continued to flourish more and more, and that prosperity progressively to increase. The measures therefore of 1739 and 1756 had been completely impotent in their effect on British commerce; and in his opinion there had been no reason to expect that the Decree of 1806 would have had a mere extensive operation upon it. Had Buonaparté any greater power than his predecessors in the government of France to enforce his hostile schemes against our commerce? Were his fleets so large, or his command over the ocean so entire as to enable him to do what the former rulers of his territories had never succeeded in accomplishing? But admitting his object to be the complete exclusion of commodities of British growth or manufacture, from all the ports of his dominion, what was this but acting on a policy which had been exercised by other continental powers as well as by the British government at various periods? What was it in short but adopting a principle of policy, and enforcing it with more than ordinary vigour, which every state had an inherent right to adopt, as a principle of mere municipal regulation? It remained for others to shew how any such regulations could affect the trade between neutral states and the belligerent, against whose interests they were directed. They had not operated in the present instance to raise the rate of insurance, and the remittances from Europe rose subsequent to their promulgation. What was the case after the system, the childish and impotent system of retaliation was adopted on our part? The face of things was at once changed. -The remittances fell in a short time in the ratio of 100 to 30; America, almost the only neutral nation, was disgusted; her ports were shut against us, all intercourse ceased, and not only the trade which we carried on directly with her, but that which we maintained circuitously

through her means, and which it was beyond the power of the enemy to prohibit, before he was aided in his views by our own injurious and disastrous policy, were sacrificed together. But whether all the evils that were now so deeply felt, ought or ought not to be traced to the operation of the Orders in Council, it was undeniable that there was at present great and general distress, and as a member of parliament, and more particularly as the representative of part of one of the counties affected in a peculiar manner by that distress, he had deemed it his duty to call the attention of the House to the Petitions now lying on the table. The distresses that at present existed no one could deny, whatever difference of opinion there might be with respect to the cause In the Petitions with which their table was crowded, various remedies were suggested. It was thought, by some, that relief could be derived from the reduction or abolition of sinecure places, and the lessening of salaries, which were disproportioned to the services performed; but whatever might be his opinion upon the expediency of such a measure, he thought it would go a very short way towards the effectual relief of the country. Another suggestion was, the non-renewal of the Charter of the East India Company, and the extension of the trade of that country and China to the merchants of the United Kingdom; but even that measure, great an effect as it appeared calculated to produce, could not take place for two years; and the distress of the country was such as could not wait the effect of an operation so distant.- Не, therefore, was willing to hope, that something might be devised more likely to be efficacious. One of the Petitions complained of the insensibility which the petitioners declared a right hon. gentleman (Mr. Rose) had shewn to their sufferings. Whatever might have passed on the occasion alluded to, he was ready to acquit the right hon. gentleman and the government of any decided insensibility to the distresses of the country; but while he abstained from attributing any improper motive to the right hon. gentleman, (which he was sure was far from his mind): he thought, at the same time, that, standing as he did, in the capacity of a confidential adviser of the crown, he should have been a little more cautious in the language he made use of; and he should have recollected, that though what he said might seem to contain nothing extraordinary in