Summary of Proceedings in the present Seffion of Parlirment.

The Speaker put the queftion, and the bill was ordered, and Mr. Marsham and Mr. Pye to form it and bring it in. Wednesday, Feb. 1.

A great deal of private and public bufinefs, but no debate.

The Newfoundland bill was read a fecond time, and committed.

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Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Selfson of Parliament.

papers should have been ready. But if the prefent were an interval of expectation, fhould it be a time of idlenels too? Could not the plan of the militia, on which they had just been converfing, have been brought into difcuffion? Could not the reform of the police, fo much the reproach of our country, have been brought forward? The neceffity of it had been enforced and rendered notorious to all foreign nations, by a late daring robbery, which has no precedent in any country; a perfon taken from his houfe (alluding to Mackay, vol. LV. p. 1002), and mott daringly bound, and plundered of his property at mid-day. His Lordfhip attributed the delay complained of to there being but one oftenfible minifter is that Houfe, who, whatever his abilities might be, muft certainly be unequal to fo much bulinefs.

No reply was made, and the House adjourned.

Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Mr. Francis moved for papers preparatory to his promifed motion respecting the affairs of India; which were agreed to.

Mr. Bafard wifhed to be informed by any perfon in the confidence of admi-, niftration, whether the late act relative to the transportation of convicts to the coaft of Africa, was, or was not, to be carried into execution?

Mr. Pitt replied, that the queftion was under confideration; and, as it was a question which required great deliberation, it must be proceetied in with

caution.

Mr. Mainwaring knew not what might be under confideration to elude the force of the act; but, whatever it might be, he hoped it would not be fuch as to defeat the removal of thofe convicts who were the objects of it, out of the kingdom.

Mr. Pitt faid, that a variety of apinions had hitherto prevented the fentence of tranfportation from taking effect; but if it fhould happen that the mode prefcribed by the act should not be thought literally practicable, his Majefty's tervants woukiery foon, fubftitute another mode of punishment in its ftead.

Mr. Mainwaring faid, that fuch a prefumption had got abroad, and had Crouded the metropolis with a banditti that had come from all parts of the country, in high expectation that fome mitigation was intended to be made in their favour.

Mr. Pitt rofe again, to acquaint the

House with the intention of government
to establish a fund, to be applied folely
and facredly towards the difcharge of the
national debt: but in this bufiness he
thought two enquiries fhould previously
be made; the firft, to afcertain the a-
mount of the furplus; the other, the
moft fecure mode of applying it to the
intended purpose. Of thefe, he thought
the first the most effential; he had, there-
fore, ordered an exact account to be
made out, of the national expenditure,
and of the national refources: thefe to
be laid before a felect committee, to be
fuily investigated; and the Houfe, being
in full potfetion of their report of the
exact balance, may proceed to the appli-
cation. This, he faid, would inevitably
occafion fome delay, which, he pre-
fumed, the Houfe would readily excufe
for the fake of just information. These
hints he had thrown out, he faid, for the
fake of apprifing the Houfe with what
Government intended.
Adjourned.

Wednesday, February 8.

The order of the day being read for going into the committee on the army eftimates,

Mr. Sheridan objected to proceeding on the bufinefs, on two accounts; one, becaufe the papers relative thereto had not been upon the table the ufual time: the other, because the Secretary, at War was not yet in his place.

Mr. Rofe was furprized that the Hon. Gent. fhould think of delaying the public bufinefs on fo frivolous a pretence. The papers, he faid, had been upon the table full five days, in which time the Houfe had time fufficient to make themfelves mafters of their contents. While he was yet speaking,

Sir George Yonge, Secretary at War, came into the Houfe, and moved the order of the day; which being read, he then moved, that the Speaker do leave the chair, for the Houfe to refolve itself into a committee on the army eftimates."

Mr. Sheridan rofe to oppofe the motion on the ground of informality. It had hitherto been the invariable practice of the Houfe to confider the navy eftimates previous to those of the army; and it was now the more neceflary, as it was understood that there was this year to be an additional demand for the fervice. He likewile obferved, that the estimates had been on the table but five days, whereas the antient usage had been seven at least,

Sir George Yonge in reply faid, he did

not

Summary of Proceedings in the present Seffion of Parliament.

not expect his motion to have been oppofed on the grounds which had been urged. He was not an enemy to old forms; but did not hold them fo effential as to break in upon neceffary bufinefs of the ftate. The eftimates, he infifted, had been before the Houfe a week, and there was no reafon to fufpect that he intended to take the Houfe by furprise.

Capt. Minchin rofe to oppofe the motion on the ground of confiftency as well as informality. He could not in his confcience vote for the army establishment, while the militia, the natural and conftitutional defence of the kingdom, ftood in ful pence. if the bill which was propofed to the He had hoped, House had been adopted, that the militia might have been placed upon such a footing as to have enabled Government to have made a confiderable retrenchment in the army estimates, inftead of adding to the enormous expence. To think of faving about 20,cool. a year in not training the militia, was, in his opinion, the most wanton extravagance, under the pretence of economy, that ever was adopted by a British minifter.

Mr. Steele role in defence of the minifter, who, he faid, had been entirely mifunderstood by the friends of the intended militia bill. His hon. friend [Mr. Pitt] had been treated as an enemy to that bill; whereas he had profeffed himself the direct contrary. All he had faid inimical on the fubject was, that he could not pledge himfelf to give it his full fupport all he should fee the bill brought forward, and heard it difcuffed.

Mr. Sheridan 10le again, and expreffed his fatisfaction that fo many refpectable characters had devoted their attention to that important part of our nati onal defence, and hoped his honourable friend would take the member at his word, and proceed in bringing it to an iffue. The Right Hon. Gent. with a verfatility peculiar to himself, had declared, that he was to be confidered in the Dufinefs only as a fimple individual; and he hoped he would not affume any other character till it was finished. He, however, for one, could not place much faith in the Right Hon. Gentleman's profeflions. He was fometimes the miafter, and fometimes the fimple individual, juft as beft fuited the prefent moment. In the reform of the reprefentation of the people, he was the fimple indvidual; in the Weftminster fcrutiny, le was the fimple individual; but in the GENT. MAG. February, 1786.

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169

nifter of the crown; nay, the reprefenIrish commercial fyftem, he was the mitative of the reprefentatives of the people preffed his hon. friend [Mr. Martham] of Great Britain. Mr. Sheridan again to bring the mealure to the teft, to see if bold enough to fet his face againft its any minifter of this country would be conftitutional defence.

prefent deviation from order an inlet was Lord North contended, that by the opened, which may give admiflion to abuses of the most dangerous tendency. It was no argument to fay, it was not meant at prefent to furprize the House; it was evident from its crouded appearance that it was not. Few precedents of a pernicious tendency had ever been they were perfectly harmlefs and unimintroduced but on occafions where portant; but the ufage was impaired, and a ground of argument given to thofe purposes. who withed to wreft them to the worst of

that appeared between the arguments Mr. Pitt remarked the contradiction which now were employed, and thote that fide of the Houfe. Various comwhich had been recently expreffed from plaints had been made, as if the public for fome days at an early hour; but he bufinefs had been retarded by their rifing thought it was not a little furprifing that thole who had been molt clamorous alubject of importance that came before gainit delay, fhould, on the very first them, apply themfelves with fingular earneftnets to the business of procraftinader the imprellion of their former fentition. It might have been imagined, unments, and on the view of a Houfe the fulleft that had been fince the commence. procrastinate were occafiored by fome ment of the feffion, that the exertions to caufe of uncommon importance; yet, on called forth by a fcrupulous attention to nearer confideration, it appears to be a form very trifling in itfelf; and, what peared to have been frictly and attenwas yet more curious, this form had aptively obferved. employed their eloquence in pointing out The gentlemen had the ill confequences of thefe eftimates being paffed after an infpection of less than a week; yet, when the matter came to be difcuffed, it appeared that they had But granting, for nftance, that the torm actually lain on the table feven days. olation had been committed; why did not was of importance, and that the vi its fupporters object at the time when

Che

170 Summary of Proceedings in the present Seffion of Parliament.

the notice was given by the Secretary at War of the intended infraction? To the charges, he faid, however feverely urged against him, on the fubject of the militia, as they were founded in mifreprefentation, he should give but a fhort reply. He would always avow himself the friend, he might fay the hereditary friend of that establishment [alluding, no doubt, to his father's being the first minifter who called forth the militia effectively], but he was not, therefore, obliged to enter rafhly into its fupport in all its circumftances, and without due confideration. He fhould difregard those imputations, by whomever and in whatever manner they were affixed, which charged him with defigns tending to its fubverfion, merely because he had dared to referve an opinion on a weighty and important circumftance relating to it. If any blame were due, it certainly belonged to thofe who, on fo flight a pretext, had withdrawn a code of useful and falutary regulations, which had been prefaced by fo many encomiums, and which they stood pledged to the public to produce.

Mr. Marham rofe to vindicate himfelf from the laft charge. He ftated, that a bill had been actually drawn up by two gentlemen, members of that Houfe. The produce of their labours he had prefented to the Right Hon. Gent. and it was now in his poffeffion. Its framers had refigned it in difguft, on finding that the leading feature of the bufinefs had met with an implied rejection. Mr. Pitt explained. The difapproba tion which he had expreffed, he faid, belonged exclufively to the Hon. Gent. who had laft fpoken, and not in any degree to thofe gentlemen whofe labours he had brought forward. Thofe gentlemen were certainly entitled to his private thanks, and to the public gratitude.

Lord North rose to enforce and explain his former arguments. The ufage, he faid, did not require a week, but eight days; and therefore, after all that had been faid, the innovation was ftill appa.. rent. To the question, Why not object fooner? That, he faid, might be a very good plea for the Right Hon. Gentleman, but nothing against the rule.

Mr. Fox mentioned it as a novel and unprecedented circumftance that the ar

my

eftimates fhould be paffed before thofe of the navy. It had been always the mode to confider firft of the latter, and to proportion the reduction of one to the neceflities of the other. But what was

moft peculiarly ftriking, the only year in which his Majefty had brought forward that business, was to be diftinguished by a measure thus iraufpicious to it. Having faid this, he adverted to the business of the militia. It was idle, he said, and evafive, to affert that no opinion had yet been formed on a fubject of fo much importance as the calling forth of the militia. As an individual he might, perhaps, have made fuch a declaration with propriety; but the minifter might as well have faid, that he was totally unprepared on the fubject of the army eftimates, until he was informed of the proper mode to be purfued by the difcuffion of them in that House.

Mr. Rofe, who had been fome time employed in the refearch, called the attention of the Houfe to a precedent in the Journals, which was perfectly in point. It was taken from a period when the Noble Lord [North] was chancellor of the exchequer; and stated, that in 1774 the army eflimates had been brought in Dec. 12, and actually voted on the 16th of the fame month.

Lord North faid, that as that was the commencement of the American troubles, the violation of form was justified by the urgency of the cafe.

Mr. Grenville attacked Lord North on this declaration. He thought it was fingular, that, in an awful crifis, a business hould have been precipitated, which was the fource of all the calamities we have fince experienced, whilft at prefent, in a year of peace, an objection should be made to a fimilar proceeding.

Lord North replied, that the year 1774 was alfo a year of peace, though circumftances required this bufinefs to be transacted before the Christmas recefs. No fuch plea was at prefent pretended. With refpect to the American war, the Hon. Gent. might there mount his cheval de battaille, as he had often done before. This was not the feafon of defence.

Mr. Courtenay entered at large into the impropriety of voting the Army Eftimates before thofe of the Navy. He was proceeding to treat in his ufual strain of ridicule what Mr. Grenville had faid on the American war, when he was called to order by that gentleman, who defied that he might not be permitted to torture his arguments.-Mr. Courtenay faid, he had no fuch intention. The Hon. Gent. was the only fimple individual in the Houfe who had ufed no arguments, and, for his part, he did not think it poffible to torture that which had no existence.