228 Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. rattling in the theatric fky on another occafion, exclaimed in rage, "By Heavens, "that's my Thunder!" Mr. Dundas thanked the hon. gentleman for his wit, but begged the next time he meant to play it off at his expence, he would give him a week's no Mr. Pitt rofe, he faid, to fecond the motion, and to acquaint the House with what the Board of General Officers had done, who had been appointed to enquire into the ftate of the fortifications at Portsmouth and Plymouth; and who had made an estimate of the expences of neceffary reparations, amounting to the fum of 300,000l. But as 50,000l. had been voted on a former occafion, and remained in the Exchequer unemployed, he thought the fum to be voted for that fervice might be restricted to 250,000l. He said, that as that Board had been judged fully competent, the expediency or inexpediency of the fortifications had been left to them; and they had been unanimous in their opinion, that fortifications, added to the navy,were the only fecurity from the attacks of an encmy; and that the fyftem fuggefted by the Mafter General of the Ordnance was chiefly to be preferred. He faid, there were fome remarks contained in the report, that would be very improper to be publicly known; he fhould therefore refer what farther he had to fay on the fubject till the bufinefs thould come properly before the Committee of Supply. General Burgoyne owned, it was a matter of great delicacy to fpeak of the Report with equal referve and perfpicuity, fo as to conceal what was improper particularly to be known, and to ftate to the Houfe juft fo much as to enable them to judge of the fums requifite for carrying the propofed plans into execution; which, perhaps, fome gentlemen might deem the more indifpenfable, as it was by no means clear that the report of the board carried the matter to the extent the Rt. Hon. Gent. had flated. Mr. Courtenay infifted, that the report ought to be laid before the Houfe; for aught he knew, fome of their most im portant refolutions might be carried by a fingle vote, and that vote the master of the ordnance's. He therefore moved, that the Report might be laid upon the table. Mr. Luttrell rofe in fome heat, to controvert fo unjuft an infinuation. He affured the hon. gentleman, that the majorities of that board were more than one, two, or three; nay, more than 20. This caufed much altercation, and was not got rid off but by moving the order of the day. The Houfe went into a Committee of Supply; Mr. Gilbert in the chair. Mr. Brett moved the following Refolutions, which paffed nem. con. That 18,000 feamen, including marines, be employed for sea service for the year 1786. That 41. per man, per month, be allowed for maintaining them, including the ordnance for fea fervice. The Houfe adjourned till Monday 13. Mr. Pye brought in his Militia Bill, which was read the first time, and ordered to be printed. Mr. Jenkinfon gave notice, that he meant on Friday to move for the exports and imports of a branch of commerce material to the British revenue. Mr. Burke wished the hon. gentleman had chofen any other vacant day for his motion, as he had in contemplation to move an enquiry, the moft ferious and folemn that ever came before any human Judicature; an enquiry that nearly concerned the honour of parliament, the faith of the nation, and the effential, the eternal interefts of humanity. Mr. Jenkinson was unwilling to relinquifh his priority; and Mr. Burke was equally in earnest to fecure the day. Mr. Pitt faid, it might fo happen, that both the hon. gentlemen might have time to make their motions on Friday. He wished, however, that the hon. gent. [Mr. Burke] would be a little more explicit as to the object of a motion, thus folemnly and emphatically introduced to the houfe, that gentlemen might come properly prepared to meet it. Mr. Burke faid, the gentlemen on the fide of the Houfe where he fat, had been called upon repeatedly, to bring forward their charges against a gentleman juft returned from India. Those charges, he Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. 229 he faid, fo far as they went, would certainly criminate; but his direct object was to fubftantiate facts, not to apply them. It was therefore an enquiry to which gentlemen ought to come prepared with perfect equality of mind. Major Scott obferved, that the moft ferious accufations had, indeed, been long threatened; he hoped the time was now come when thofe threatenings were to be brought forward. Mr. Vyner role, and moved a call of the House. He urged, as a reason, the great fums which gentlemen were already apprized would be required for ordnance estimates; a meafure which he thought of the utmost importance to this country. Mr. Pitt thought a call of the House could not be juftified without a more fubftantial reason than that given by the hon. member who moved it. The money for the fortifications, he faid, had in fact been voted two feffions ago; and gentlemen had differed only as to the propriety of the application, which had now been fettled by a board of general officers, every way competent to determine with precision on their erection. Mr. Fox, on the contrary, was of opinion, that, if ever there was a queftion that demanded the attendance of the members, it was that relative to the fortifications. He begged that gentlemen might confider, when fuch a fyftem, as was now propofed, was once begun, where it would end, and to what it would lead. It was the commencement of a plan, which would involve pofterity in an endlefs expence. Confidering it in that view, it was the duty of the Houfe to call together all its members. Mr. Pitt perfifted in his former opinion; the queftion was put, and the House divided; Ayes 54. 100. Majority against the motion 46. Mr. Fox made his Election for Weftminster; and the borough of Kirkwall in Scotland was declared vacant. Mr. Baftard rofe, and moved for leave to bring in a bill for preventing vexatious fuits in the Ecclefiaftical Courts, and for the more eafy recovery of fmall tithes. His firft object, he faid, was to prevent fuits for defamation carried on folely for the purpofes of malice and revenge; his fecond, to affix a period of limitation. He had known, he faid, a man tried for fornication with his own wife previous to their marriage, when that wife had been dead not lefs than fix years. It was also his intention to transfer fuits for the recovery of small tythes from the Courts of Exchequer and Chancery to a fummary procefs before the Juftices of Peace at the. Quarter Seffion. Leave was granted. Lord Mahon rofe, to complain of the unfair treatment he had met with by the rejection of his Bill in the other House, for regulating County Elections. It was, he faid, no very pleafing circumftance, when a gentleman, after much pains with a bill, and when he had thought his task over, and he had obtained the fuffrage of that House, to find it rejected in another; himself abused, and his fervices neglected. A re-hearing he thought would be his beft vindication, and he would therefore move for leave to introduce his former bill for regulating county elections, preventing litigious delays, and other purposes therein mentioned."-Leave was granted. Wednesday 15. The House, after private bufiness was over, proceeded to ballot for a committee to appoint commiffioners, from different lifts delivered in at the table, for execu ting certain powers of the E. India Judicature Bill. A like committee had been chofen the fame day for the like purpose in the House of Peers. Thursday 16. Sir R. Smith role, and gave notice that the Bill, for reftraining the exportation of hay was juft expiring; and as that article was ftill at an exorbitant price abroad; and the fupply at home being fcanty, and depending in a great measure on the mildnefs of the feafon; he fhould therefore move for leave to bring in a new bill, to be read a first and fecond time immediately, fo as to be paffed a third time to-morrow. Mr. Drake feconded the motion: he fhould be forry, he faid, to do any act that might be thought unfriendly to neighbours, or to prevent the landed intereft from availing themselves of any juffiable advantage that might present itfelf; but the quantity of hay in the country was at prefent fo fmall, and the feafon fo critical, that he could not prevail on his feelings to fuffer a general diftrefs to take place at home, for the fake of relieving the wants of foreign nations, or increafing at home the riches of a few individuals. Lord Surrey thought fuch a restriction unnecellary. Should the feafon alter, the price 230 Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Session of Parliament. price at home would preclude the poffibility of exporting hay abroad and fhould it continue mild, there was enough for home confumption, and for contributing in fome meafure to the wants of our neighbours, which even common humanity required. Other members fpoke on the occafion; but the fenfe of the Houfe appeared ftrongly for prohibition. Mr. Sheridan rofe to exprefs his deteftation of the India Bill in all its parts, and particularly his abhorrence of the partial conduct that had been manifeft, on the appointment, the day before, of the gentlemen who were to form the fupreme Court of Controul under the Bill in queftion; a bill which affected to be a guard against all undue influence; yet, in the very firft inftance, a manifeft influence was apparent; for out of 200 members, from among whom those who were to be the Grand Inquifitors were to be chofen, at leaft 140 of them had Jetters written by the Clerks of the Treafury, delivered into their hands by Pearfon, the door-keeper, as they entered the Houfe. Was not this like packing a jury? He did not, he faid, prefs forward this complaint as downright perfonal interference; but the more diftant the danger feemed to be, the more baneful it was likely to prove in its confequences. If the Rt. Hon. Gent. wished to ftand clear in the opinion of that Houfe, or the public, he could have no objection to a motion he [Mr. S.] was then about to make, which was. "That Jofeph Pearfon, the door-keeper of this Houfe, be called in, and examined thereto." Mr. Francis feconded the motion, and contended, that this conduct of the door. keeper, if it was done by order of the Treafury Board, was a down-right breach of privilege. What, he faid, would our Countrymen in India, already irritated against the principles of the bill, think, when they found that every evil attending it was to be heightened by a conviction that the operation of it was thrown into the hands of a body of men, partially felected, under an unconftitutional influence? For fuch, he averred, it would be found. Mr. Pitt was going to rife, but was prevented by. Sir Jofeph Marubey, who ftrongly oppofed the motion, as trifling and calculated only for delay. What other motive could the door-keeper have for delivering the lifts, but to fave members the 4 trouble of making them out for themfelves? Mr. Pitt faid, the motion was an infult to the Houfe. He recapitulated the charge: 1ft, It was faid to be an influence by the delivery of papers. Admitting the lifts to be delivered to Pearfon by fome Clerks of the Treafury, where was the crime? 2d, It was faid to be packing a lift as packing a jury! Was ever any thing more ridiculous? If the Hon. Mover was really in carneft for the honour of the Houfe, he would not have degraded its confequence by fo frivolous a motion. And if he was fo much affected with the grievances of his countrymen in India as he pretended, he would not with another hon. member have skulked * from his duty on the day of Election, and came the next day to complain to the House of a breach of privilege. Mr. Sheridan, in reply, faid, he did not think it confiftent with his honour to ftay and give his ballot, when he had from principle oppofed the Bill. Mr. Fox fupported the motion with fome heat. On a former occafion, when he had given into the Houfe the names of fome of the moft refpectable men in the kingdom to be inferted in his Indiabill, it was then faid that he dictated to Parliament. But, had he fent a lift of names to Pearfon, what would that have been deemed? The Rt. Hon. Gent, afked where was the crime? Surely it is a matter of juft cenfure. The powers of the fupreme controul, if conflituted in the most impartial manner, were bad enough, and needed no minifterial aid to make them worfe. He fupported the motion. And the queftion being put for Pearson to be called in, the Houfe divided, Ayes 38, Noes 1 138. Mr. Sheridan, previous to a motion he was about to make, obferved that the Rt. Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when, by his Majefty's command, he laid the eftimate of the propofed new fortifications before the Houfe, was expected to have explained the nature of the enquiry, the motives for inftituting a new board of general officers, the powers with which the board were entrusted, and the manner in which they had proceeded; and the rather, as in the courle of a former debate, it had been faid, there were points on which the en *This alludes to Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheri dan haftily quitting the Houfe just before the ballot began. quiry Summary of Proceedings in the quiry turned, which were of a nature too delicate to be then fubmitted to public difcuffion; an affertion which had fince been contradicted by an honourable member of that board, and a member of this Houfe [Gen. Burgoyne]. He therefore pledged himself, that, whenever it fhould be fairly made appear by the report of the board of land and fea officers, that the fyftem of defence, recommended to be adopted, was abfolutely neceffary; he for one would withdraw his oppofition to the estimates. To be affured of this neceffity, was a duty which the Houfe owed the public; for while the Hon. Chanc. of the Exchequer, on account of the ftate of the finances, hefitated to allow 20,000l. to render the militia an effective body of defence, furely it became Parliament to look with a jealous eye on a plan that was to abforb fo large a portion of the public revenue as 700,000 *. He then entered into a full investigation of the question; and concluded with moving, "That an humble addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, that he would be graciously pleafed to order to be laid before this Houfe the names and appointments of the board of land and fea officers, ftated in the copy of an eftimate laid before this Houfe, by his Majefty's command, to have been appointed under his Majefty's royal authority, to inveftigate and report to his Majefty, on the proper fyftem of defence, and on the expediency and efficacy of the propofed plans for the better fecuring his Majefty's dockyards at Port(mouth and Plymouth, and the direction given to them, with as much of the report of the faid board as may be confiftent with the public fafety." Mr. Pitt clofed with the Hon. Gent, as the doubts which he previously entertained were done away; and he could now pledge himfelf, that the extracts, which thould be fubmitted, would irre fragably demonftrate the abfolute neceffity of the measure for the fafety of the marine, on which our very exiftence, as a maritime nation, depended. He then adverted to the manner in which the Board of Enquiry was conftituted, which was by a letter from Lord Sydney, by his Majefty's command, to the Duke of Richmond, dated April 8, 1781; and a fubfequent circular letter from Lord Though no more than 250,000l. was demanded for the prefem year, yet it appeared by the estimates, that 700,000l. and more would be wanted. prefent Seffion of Parliament. 231 Sydney to the other land and fea officers, who conftituted the Board, dated April 13, 1785. Such part of the inftructions, as were fit to be made public, he said, he fhould lay on the table; and when the opinions of thefe experienced officers were fubmitted to the Houfe, he had not the leaft doubt but that the Hon. Member would feel full conviction of the propriety of the measure; and of this he had fo fully made up his mind, that he had prepared a motion that differed fo very little in fubftance from that moved by the Hon. Gent. that it was very immaterial to him which adopted. He then read his motion, "that an humble addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, that he would be graciously pleafed to give directions, that there be laid before this Houfe a copy of a letter from Lord Sydney, dated April 13, 1785, with fuch extracts from the inftructions and report of the Board of General Officers as fhall be confiftent with the public fafety." was Gen. Burgoyne faid, fuch documents were certainly neceffary to be laid before Parliament as would warrant the reprefentatives of the people to borrow fo large a fum of money as was now demanded. It had been afferted, that the Board had been unanimous in the report of the Eftimates; but it was on certain poftulata that their unanimity de pended. The noble Duke who prefided over the Board, in the military art and in fcience, was fuperior to molt men of his profeffion. He was compleatly ingenious in forming a principle, from which might be deduced a feries of confequences to a very great extent; and thefe flowed fo naturally from the first principle, that, if that was once admitted, all the reft muft of courfe be given alfo; whilft, at the fame time, the mind refufed its affent, and reafon revolted at it. Thus, for inftance, if some violent fhock of nature thould tear up the rocks from the foundation, and make chafms in the earth; or if, by chance, a concuffion of nature fhould block up the Streights be tween Dover and Calais; would it not be natural to propofe, if it were poffible, to erect a fortification between the two continents, as a protection against the encroachments of an enemy? To this the reply must be fimple in the affirmative, though the mind held that in the light of an improbability, which it could barely fuppofe might poffibly happen. This mode of defence is novel, and the novelty of our fituation is an apology for arguing 232 Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. Mr. Pitt wondered at the conduct of the hon. general, who had subscribed a report of the first confequence, and, at the fame time, kept in referve objections which he only started now in oppofition to his former attefted opinion. Why did he not diffent, when those refined logical deductions he alludes to were in agitation? He could not imagine that fo many eminent characters, as acted with the Noble Prefident [D. of Richmond], whose military talents he fo highly efteemed, would not have paffed over fuch management without doing that duty to their country, and juftice to their own understandings, which must arife out of the nature of what occurred to them. As to the noble Duke's conduct, who prefided at the Board, he trufted, it would prove itself worthy to be held in a more ferious light when beheld in a nearer view. Mr. Fox did not wonder at the perfuafive reafoning of the Noble Duke, who was able often to convey conviction without the leaft argument. And as to the logical deductions which the Rt. hon. gentleman oppofite to him [Mr. Pitt] could not fubfcribe to, he fhould recollect that he was bred to a profeffion, which, by establishing a number of hypothefefes that had no existence in truth, but from a feeming probability in their connection, concluded in establishing a fact by their evidence, to which the judgement refufed its affent. Capt. Bower faid, that a number of circumftances occurred to him that he thought by no means proper to divulge to an enemy; nor fhould they ever learn from him the vulnerable parts of our coafts, if any fuch exifted. Capt. M'Bride obferved, that none fuch came within his department; nor did it matter if all Europe were ac quainted with the fortifications in quef tion, fo long as our fleets were kept upon a refpectable footing. Mr. Pitt's motion, on Mr. Sheridan's being withdrawn, was agreed to; and Mr. Courtenay immediately moved, That an humble addrefs be prefented to his Majefty, that there be laid before the Houfe an eftimate of the expences of the engineers, &c. in pursuance of thofe orders and reports, &c. The fame was refolved in the affirmative. Friday, Feb. 17. In a committee of fupply, the malttax and land-tax bills were feverally read. The bill for preventing the exportation of hay, for a limited time, was read a third time. Ld Surrey renewed his oppofition; he wished to know the causes that rendered the bill a matter of expediency. Sir Robert Smyth anfwered, that the price of hay was now, in most parts of the kingdom, 41. 15s. and 51. the ton; and in Devonshire even at 71. yet, as it was fo high as 91. in France, a renewal of the bill was abfolutely neceffary. Sir Jofeph Mawbey, in the committee, wished that the bill might continue in force only three months, when the House would have an opportunity of judging of the future crop. Sir Robert Smyth replied, that, under the circumftances of the largest crop, there could be no danger from extending the bill to a twelvemonth, as there was a difpenfing power lodged in the Crown, which would interfere and remedy any inconvenience that might arife in the interval. Mr. Vyner coincided with the hon. Baronet. After which the blanks were filled with twelve months, and the bill reported; read a third time, and ordered to the Lords. Ld Mahon gave notice, that on Monday he would move for the fecond reading of his bill for regulating county elections. The papers on the subject of fortification, being brought up, and read; Mr. Pitt moved, that they may be printed, with an exclufion of certain efti mates, the publication of which, as they contained the precife dimenfions of the new intended erections, may be attended with fome injurious confequences. Mr. Courtenay, who moved for those estimates, having agreed; it was ordered accordingly. To be continued. |