Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. with him, and he could not bear the idea of parting from them; and profeffional men knew, that reciprocal regard bstween the commander and men was of fingular advantage to the fervice. Mr. Drake obferved, that the fum [800,000l.] which was now about to be voted for the extraordinaries of the navy, plainly indicated the attachment of this country to that fervice in preference to any other. And as he had full confidence that the Lords of the Admiralty would pay due attention to it, he was against any enquiry. Capt. Macbride rofe again in fupport of his former argument. That House, he faid, did not appear to him fo improper a place for obfervations on the ftate of our navy as fome gentlemen, had hinted. He then recommended a trial of wooden fheathing whilft in port, with a reserve of copper to be used in cafes of emergency. Capt. Berkeley thought the general depth of our harbours an obftacle to our having a great number of large veffels; in this the French had an advantage over us; the harbour of Breft, was capacious, and deep enough for many farge fhips to anchor in with fecurity. We fhould offer premiums, after the example of the French, for plans of veffels which would draw lefs water than thofe we have now; and thus, availing ourselves of the efforts of all the ingenious men in the kingdom, remove our natural difadvantages, and render our harbours capable of receiving fhips of fuperior force to thote we have at prefent. To this the Surveyor of the Navy neither could nor ought to object.. Capt. Sloper clofed the converfation on this interefting fubject. Though no naval man, he would recommend the making of an experiment on a few fhips, to determine, thip againft hip, whether copper-fheathing was injurious or ferviceable; this, in his opinion, being the best mode of fairly determining the matter. The question being now called for, was put, and agreed to; and, the Speaker having taken the chair, Mr. Gilbert made his report. Mr. Holdfworth moved, that an account of the fums. arifing from the fale of old flores of the navy, as well as the , application of them, be laid before the Houte. Ordered accordingly. Adjourned. Thursday, March 2. 491 Sir Geo. Horward prefented a petition from the officers, feamen, marines, and foldiers, actually prefent at the capture of St. Eustatius. It ftated, that much of the money refulting from that capture was still in the hands of agents [who had not brought to account the produce of the ftores found in that ifland]. The petitioners, therefore, prayed for the interference of the Houfe in their behalf. The Mafier of the Rolls, and Mr. Rofe, fpoke each a few words; and the petition was referred to the difcuffion of a felect committee of the House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved, that, as the time limited for.. receiving private petitions expired: this: day, leave may be given for extending it to the 8th inftant. Agreed to. Sir Grey Cooper moved for feveral papers relating to the commerce of the kingdom; and that the imports and exports of particular commodities for a limited time, be laid before the House. Ordered. Mr. Gilbert having brought up the report of the Committee of Supply on. the effimates of the navy; Sir John Jarvis faid, he was of opinion that the manner of making up the navy cftimates was exceedingly faulty. He gave a technical defcription of what is called tofing a fhip. It was boring or piercing her, in order to fee whether he was found or corroded; the parts that were found fubftantial were marked with an S; thofe not fo, with an R. It often happened, from this mode of examination, that found fhips were condemned, while thofe of a contrary defcription were ordered to be repaired. He produced an inftance of each, which came within his own knowledge. He coincided with Capt. Macbride refpecting copper-fheathing. The French, he faid, had difcovered this fact, and immediately upon laying up their fhips. tripped off the copper. Thefe circumftances he thought it his duty to lay before the Houfe, and he would readily lend his affiftance to reform abufes of fuch magnitude.. Capt. Macbride was happy that his opinion was fanctioned by the authority of his hon. friend. He was feriously concerned for the prefent fituation of the British navy, and hoped that the money voted by that Houle for its fupport would be better applied than it had beea 492 Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. been for many years paft. In corroboration of what Sir John Jarvis had advanced refpecting the repairing of fhips, he begged leave to mention the cafe of the Afia. This fhip, on its return from India, was repaired at a very heavy expence; after which it made only one trip to Gibraltar, and is now to undergo another repair, the expence of which, according to the estimate, will amount to 18,000l. Surely, faid he, this is bad policy, to fpeak of it in the mildest terms, and calls aloud for the interpofition of the legislature. Mr. Brett faid, it was no uncommon thing, after a fhip had been tafted or bored in feveral places, to find her, upon being stripped, in a worse condition than had been fuppofed. As to the particular inftances alluded to, he was utterly unacquainted with them, and therefore could fay nothing of them; but he would by no means adopt the idea of the laft hon. fpeaker, refpccting 60 and 64 gun fhips; being decidedly of opinion with another hon. member, that the depth of water in our harbours was an invincible bar to the turning of our attention entirely to the building of large fhips. As to the affertion, that we were not a match for the enemy last war, he would only obferve, that we had taken feveral of their frips before they had taken one from us; a circumftance that did not manifeft fo great an inferiority on our fart as had been infifted on. Capt. Macbride faid, he never wished to throw away all our, finaller fhips of the ne; his defire was to break up thofe only of bad character, and conftru&t others on a larger fcale. With regard to the depth of water in our ports, the objection was evidently futile did we not dock the largeft of the enemy's hips in our docks, and bring them into our harbours? There was then no reafon for repairing old and unferviceable hips, inftead of building Lew ones on an improved plan. Mr. Hafey oblerved, that, at the moment the Houfe was going to vore away fourteen or fifteen hundred thoufand pounds of the people's money, gallant officers had pointed out ftrong Intrances of flagrant abufes; and yet, in a former debate, it had been faid, that the Admiralty would be jealous of parliament's investigating fuch matters. This was a doctrine he would not admit, and he hoped the brave officer would penevare in his enquiry, A very recent occafion had proved, that there were many gentlemen of the reprefentative body to whom the welfare of their country was not indifferent. Let, the Houfe expend what fums they will upon the navy, but let them be expended in a manner that really tends to ftrengthen that great national defence. Capt. Macbride faid, there was at prefent no enquiry; and, from what had dropped, he hoped there would be no neceflity for one; but if there should, he pledged himself that he would not fhrink from his duty. Commodore Bowyer juft obferved, that none of the inftances of abuse, which had been pointed out, fell within his knowledge. The refolutions were then put by the Speaker, and carried. The Houfe refolving itfelf into a committee, Mr. Taylor in the chair, for receiving the report concerning the fisheries; Mr. Beaufoy rofe to ftate the outlines of the plan which the committee judged moft likely to answer the wishes of the public on that fubject, He was happy to obferve, that this fyftem was infeparably connected with the profperity of the navy, an object which he knew every Englishman had moft fincerely at heart. The first principle of what he had to propofe was, that the turbot fishery fhould be transferred from the Dutch to our own countrymen. This he wished to effect by taxing foreigners, or laying fuch a duty on their importation of fish into this country as would amount nearly to a prohibition. He endeavoured, by a variety of flatements, to prove the fuperior induftry of our countrymen. He inftanced in the. Greenland hithery. A few years fince, the Dutch had 150' fail in thofe teas, and, by our attention to the fame ob.. jet, that fleet had been reduced to 60.. The fame obfervation, he faid, was equally true, applied to our compara tive fuccefs in this great national ad venture in every other place. In the fouthern, as well as the northern feas, we excelled them, and, he trufted, would continue to excel them wheteever we had room for emulation, and whenever government would hold out a fufficient encouragement to individuals to undertake a fcheme of fo much risk and enterprize. On this account it would undoubredly be neceffary to give bounties to our countrymen, that they. night be induced to venture faidy, and bring the matter to illue. He propofed that Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. 493. that the bounty, fhould be rather on the fh than the veffels, and would with to limit it to 40col. per ann. for the three first years 3000l. for the fourth; and 2000l for the fifth, when he would have it ceafe, as the fibers would then have increafed in ftrength. On the Dutch bottoms a tax of 10s. per ton would be proper. The bounties to this fathery would not exceed 41 10s. per man, whereas the feamen employed in the Greenland fishery coft the State at leaft 131. ros. each It was a ferious confideration, that 94.000l. had been paid on the latter fishery in one year. As the veffels could make fix voyages yearly, he would propofe three different premiums, viz. 50l. for the greatest quantity; 401. for the next greateft; and gal. for the next. He likewife propofed a bounty upon the fish by tale, viz. 30s. per fcore above two score; 20s. per feore above one score; and after the rate of ros. par-fcore on all under. He then moved his feveral refolutions. Mr. Haffey wished, as the fubject was perfectly new, and the committee ought to proceed with caution, that the chairman might now report progrefs, and alk leave to fit again. Mr. Beaufoy did not think the matter. new. The reports of the committee. had been long enough upon the table for gentlemen to have perufed them. ed againft the fhop-tax,, Mr. Taylor in the chair. Sir Watkin Lewes rofe, he faid, for' the purpose of moving a repeal of this tax. It was a duty he owed the public, and which he was proud to perform. He endeavoured to prove that it was at once unproductive, partial, and oppref five; and then moved, that it be repealed. Ald. Sawbridge feconded the motion; and obferved, that when this tax was first propofed, the Right Hon. Gent. faid it would fall upon the confumer; at the fame time, in fome degree, pledging himself to the Houfe and the public, that on this principle the tax was found ed. But it was now proved beyond contradition, that his idea was not founded, in truth. He had hopes, therefore, that the Right Hon. Gent. from conviction. of its being eminently partial, unjust, and inhuman, would meet the wishes of the people, and relinquish this diabolical tax. Some members of the committee laughing, the Hon. Alderman said, it was impoffible to reprobate fo wicked a measure in language too ftrong, Mr. Amyaut had confulted his confti tuents, he faid, and found them unanimous in their oppofition to the tax. They had, however, pointed out a mode of accommodating the matter, which he hoped the minifter would attend to it was, that a bill might be brought into parliament for allowing hop-keeper to charge, intereft on their book debts. This, he faid, would reconcile many to the tax, which otherwife would be found infupportable. Alderman Newnham Tpoke ftrongly against the tax, which he had always confidered as hostile to trade, and as grofsly partial and oppreffive.. Ald. Watfon did not rife to oppofe the principle, but to exprefs his furprize that any comparifon fhould be made between the Greenland and the turbot fifh eries. The proportion, he faid, was that of a herring to a whale. In the Northern feas our feamen acquired that hardihood which gave them fo decided a fuperiority over thofe of other nations. We had formerly received both oil and whalebone from the Dutch; we now exported confiderable quantities of both. As an advocate for the naval intereft of Great Britain, he had, lately voted for Sir Edw. Afiley faw nothing fo heinthe fortifications; and, from the fame oully reprehenfible in the tax as had been mosive, he would join in the plan for ftated, and would not vote for its repeal, the extenfion of our fisheries; convinced as he thought the clamour railed against that, under the foftering care of Govern- it owing to a factious combination of ment, they would become a fertile nur-fbopkeepers. He would not, however, fety for failors. oppofe a modification of it. Several other gentlemen fpoke briefy on the fubject; after which Mr. Beau foy's motions were feverally pat and carried. The Houfe refolved itfelf into a committee for taking into confideration the feveral petitions which had been prefent GENT. MAG. June, 1786, Ald. Hammet knew not how to fpeak, the subject agitated him fo much. It was, in every view of it, pregnant with abfurdity, cruelty, and injuftice. Mr. Pouys did not entirely approve of the tax in its prefent form. He thought, by a few trifling modifications the Arongeft objections to it would difappear. It was no argument with him that it was unpopular. The receipt-tax was unpopular, and yet no tax ever equalled 494 Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. equalled it as a productive tax, eafily collected, Mr. Francis oppofed it as inequitable in every point of view. If it fell upon the fhop-keeper, it was oppreffive if on the confumer, it was deceptive; for it extorted from the public 50 times more than it produced to government. He appealed to the humanity of the Houfe, and infifted that many of the lower claffes of fhop-keepers were but barely able to exift. Mr. Drake, jun. from its partiality, thought it ought to be repealed. Mr. Stanhope thought the rent of the houfe no criterion to levy the tax by. Many other gentlemen fpoke against it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer then rofe. He had liftened, he faid, with great attention to all that had been faid. The queftion was of great importance, but its merits lay in a narrow compass. The evidence that had been given naturally divided itself into two parts. One tended to prove that the tax could not be levied on the confumer; the other, that it fell particularly heavy on a certain clafs of thop-keepers. Of the firft he was by no means convinced; but humanity in fome meafure pleaded for the relief of the neceffitous. He therefore would propofe exempting all fuch fhop keepers from the operation of the tax as were excufed from the payment of parish rates, and modifving the quantum of the fum to be paid by thofe fhop-keepers who rented houfes from 251. a year downwards, not included in the above defcription; but could by no means re linquish the tax. ; Mr. Fox contended ftrongly for the total repeal, as did moft of the able fpeakers; but, when the Houfe came to dvide, the numbers for the repeal were only 96'; the numbers against the repeal, 173. March 3. Mr. Burke refumed this day the proceedings preparatory to an impeachment of Mr. Haftings; but this being a bufinefs of a complicated nature, involving partly the concerns of a private individual, and partly the tranfactions of a foreign flate, for a long féries of years back, our limits will not admit of every minute debate:' we must therefore decline entering into particulars for the picfent, and at the conclufion give our readers a brief detail of the whole proceedings, with the refult. March 61 Leave had previously been given for bringing in a bill for building a bridge over the Menai; a converfation therefore took place, in which, on the fecond reading, Mr. Parry moved, that it be deferred to that day month, alledging, that, from the fafety of the prefent paffage, fuch a ftructure would be quite unneceffary, and would be very hurtful to his conftituents, the people of Caernarvonshire. Mr. Drake contended, that by deferring the fecond reading for a month the Houfe might be the caufe of a fecond catastrophe fimilar to that of laft Decem ber (fee p. 80), where 60 perfons were drowned in that paflage which is reprefented as perfectly fafe. Mr. Minchin obferved, that the accident happened 12 miles from the ferry alluded to. A compromife took place; and the fecond reading was put off for a fortnight. The Houfe then refolved itself into a committee on a petition against the shop tax. Mr. Pitt moved fome refolutions, by way of modification, which were agreed to. The Ordnance eflimates were then brought forward; and Captain James Luttrell moved, that 250,0961. be granted for ordnance fervice for the year 1786. This, he faid, was an eftimate unconnected with any fyftem of fortifications, and one that must give the Houfe much fatisfaction, when they are told, that no debt whatsoever had been incurred this year in the Ordnance department." Mr. Holdsworth did not rife, he faid, to oppose the estimates, but only to remark, that they were defective, as not including the 50,000l. remaining in the Exchequer (fee p. 553), and which could not be applied without a vote of the House. Mr. Pitt owned the mistake, and was glad of the opportunity to say a few words on the fubject. Though the Houfe had lately rejected a system of fortifications proposed to them by the executive government, he would not, he faid, be deterred from preffing upon them another, and it was but fair to apprize the committee, that, if they voted the fums that would be required for the repair of the fortifications of Portsmouth, they were not to ftop there, as further demands would afterwards be made for other works. He named the points on which new works were intended to be crected, and wifhed the gentlemen'con veifact f Summary of Proceedings in the prefent Seffion of Parliament. 495 verfant in that line fully to explain themfelves on the fubject. Mr. Fox was better pleafed, he faid, with the language of the Right Hon. Gent. now than on the former occafion, when he held a language (probably the effect of difappointment) wafit for any minifter of this country to hold, namely, *that whatever misfortunes thould bc fal the country by the rejection of the fyftem fubmitted to the difcuffion of the Houfe, fhould be attributed to their rejection, and that they should be anfwerable for the confequences." Certainly, he faid, the Right Hon. Gentleman had revifed his former declaration, or he would not have been fo properly guarded this day: for,surely, he could not remain in a fituation to which refponfibility must always be annexed, if he found himself unable to carry measures which - he deemed indispensably neceffary for the fafety of his country. Mr. Pitt did not hesitate to acknowledge his disappointment at the rejection of a measure fo effentially connected with the fafety of the ftate; and defended the declaration he had made by repeating it again in fill ftronger terms: but having failed, he faid, in what he thought the best measure, it was ftill his duty to propofe what he conceived to be the next beft. The works included in the prefent eftimate went only to the reparation of the old fortifications, in which there was a breach, the fame as if made by an ene my in a fuccessful affault; but there were other works, which, though not upon the extenfive plan that had been INDEX rejected, were acknowledged to be neceffary. Mr. Fox difliked the difpofition in any minifter to fhuffle off the refponfibility belonging to his office. If he found himself unable to carry measures which he thought effentially neceffary for the prefervation of his country, he infifted he fhould no longer remain in the adminiftration of that government which he could not preferve from ruin. The Right Hon. Gentleman was certainly right in fuppofing, that thofe who op pofed the former extenfive plan did not mean to oppofe every plan of fortification. He, for one, thought fome parti cular works might be useful in fome particular fituations; and, for what he knew, thofe now propofed might be as proper as any: but he thought the Houfe ought to be made acquainted to what extent they were intended to be carried. Lord Hood warmly efpoufed the Duke of Richmond's plan; and predicted, that whoever thould live ten or twelve years would fee caufe to repent its rejection. Sir Grey Cooper warned the Houfe against committing itself to repairs of fortifications at an unknown, if not an unlimited, expenditure. Mr. Luttrell amended his motion to 300,000l. in order to include the unappropriated 50,000l, remaining in the Exchequer; and the motion, fo amended, paffed without a divifion... Some farther proceedings on Mr. Haftings's profecution concluded the debates (To be continued.) of the day. INDICATORIUS. A Correfpondent, in replying to a Charge, vol. LIII. p. 182, against the Divine Legiflator of Ifrael, for not only permitting, but commanding Human Sacrifices, and adducing, as an irrefragable Proof of the Fact, the Inftance of Jephtha's Daughter, endeavours to explain away the obvious Meaning of the Text," Every devoted Thing is most boly unto the Lord. None devoted, which shall be devoted of Men, fhall be redeemed, but fhall furely be put to Death," by fhewing that Things devoted unto the Lord were the Property of the Priefts, and might be redeemed; but that Men devoted to the Lord fhould not be redeemed, but die in the Service of the Lord. In Proof of this, the Text, 1 Sam. i. 11, where Hanna, praying for a Man Child, vowed a Vow to devote him to the Lord, and accordingly, when Samuel was born, he was dedicated to the Service of the Temple, where he miniftered before the Lord all the Days of his Life. In the fame Senfe God faid to Adam, "In the Day thou eateft thereof thou fhalt furely die;" yet Adam lived many hundred Years after. The chief Difficulty arifing from the Words of Jephtha's Vow, Whatfoever cometh forth of the Doors of my House, to meet me, fball furely be the Lord's, AND I will offer it up for a Burnt Offering, our Correfpondent removes, by fubftituting the Word OR instead of AND-fball furely be the Lord's, OR I will offer it up for a Burnt Offering. As his Daughter was thus devoted to the Lord, and the had confented to it, the Caufe of the Father's Lamentation naturally arose from the Lofs of Heirs, for other Child had he none. And this will account also for her bewailing her Virginity among the Mountains before the took the Vow. We hope Mr. W. will excufe |