Of the produce on the duty of paper, for the same time:

Of the nett produce of the duty on glass, from the 15th of April, to October

10, 1794:

Of the nett produce on slates, stones, and marble, from July 5, to October 10, 1794:

Of the nett produce of the duties on distilleries, and on licences granted to distillers in Scotland, from the 5th of April, to the 10th of October, 1794, made perpetual last session :

An account of the total produce of duties of customs, excise, stamps, and incidents for one year:

Accounts of the total nett produce of the duties of customs, excise and stamps in England and Scotland, in the four quarters, ending 10th October, 1794:

And an account of the total produce paid into the Exchequer, under the head of incidents, in the four quarters, ending the 10th of October, 1794;

The titles of all which were read, and ordered to be laid on the table.

5. Mr. Jekyll moved for papers relative to the Prussian subsidy. He thought no time fitter than the present, to inquire what installments were paid.

Mr. Pitt had no objection to satisfy the Honourable Gentleman. The last in stallment was in the month of September last, and the sum given to his Prussian majesty altogether was 1,200,000l.

Mr. Sheridan made some observations on the London Militia Bill, which he very much condemned.

Mr. Alderman Curtis said, that the citizens of London were perfectly satisfied with the late bill.

Mr. Alderman Anderson was of the same opinion. He thought no charter or privilege infringed by it; and that it would be productive of great blessings to the city.

Mr. Alderman Le Mesurier defended the bill.

Mr. Jekyll wished to know from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what number of troops had been supplied by the king of Prussia: and made a motion to that purpose, together with the motion for papers on the treaty.

Mr. Pitt said, there was no official account of the number.

Mr. For said, it was hardly possible to be ignorant of the services performed for the sums given; and it was the duty of the House of Commons to make the enquiry.

Mr. Pitt said, no official return could as yet be given, and moved as an amendment, to leave out of the motion this last part which related to the troops, en which, after some debate, the House divided, when there appeared for it 110, against it 33.

Mr. Sheridan then rose to make a motion. The ground, he said, upon which the late bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus act was obtained, was that of a traiterous and detestable conspiracy having been said to exist in the country. But this conspiracy, he contended, did not now exist, because the verdicts of the juries who tried the persons for High Treason, had entirely negatived every idea of a conspiracy.

He was ready to admit that there were libellous and violent writings brought forward on the trials in evidence, and that many persons were proved to be very disaffected to government; but he denied, that any of these things justified the late bill.

Mr. Sheridan then went over all the several steps taken by ministers since May 1792, in order to stop seditious practices, and contended that the whole was a scheme to create an alarm in the country.

He reprobated the system of spies and informers, who went about to encourage and stimulate that sedition which they were to make a report of; and a minister who encouraged them, must have no knowledge of the country except from them. He did not deny, but that there were many disaffected persons in the country; but were the remedies practised likely to check them? Having spoken a considerable time in a splendid strain of eloquence, he concluded with

moving, "That leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal the late act for sus"pending the Habeas Corpus act."

A long debate then took place, in which several Members spoke on each side the question, and which lasted til! three o'clock in the morning, when the House divided, for the motion 41, against 185.

7. In a Committee of Supply, voted 100,000 seamen, including 15,000 marines, for the service of the year 1795, at the rate of 41. per man per month. In a Committee of Ways and Means, voted 4s. in the pound for Land-tax® for the year 1795; also a continuation of the Malt duties.

Mr. Lambton moved for a return of all the foreign troops in British pay, and a return of those men who had been killed or died, among the troops furnished to this country by the Elector of Hanover, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the Margrave of Baden, and the Landgrave of Darmstadt. He thought this motion necessary, because he had been informed that this country gave 30l. for every man belonging to these powers, who was either killed or had died; and that a number had already been killed, the expence of which amounted to 160,000l. Mr. Pitt said, he had no objection to grant the papers moved for. With respect to 30l. being given for every man killed, the Honourable Gentleman was misinformed. and he was equally wrong in the sum which he had calculated. The motion was carried unanimously.

Colonel Maitland moved for a return of the killed, wounded, and missing, of the British army, during the last campaign. The motion was carried.

Mr. Jekyll moved, that there be laid before the House, the account of the Prussian troops employed in pursuance of the late treaty, as far as that information could be obtained, which was negatived.

Mr. Sheridan condemned in the strongest terms the conduct of ministers in not giving such information or correspondence as they were in possession of.

The House then resolved itself into a Committee of Supply; and the question being put, that there be granted to his Majesty 100,000 seamen, including 15,000 marines, for the service of the year 1795, Mr. Robinson rose, and complained of the imperfect state of the navy. Our ships did not sail so fast as those of the enemy; and there was an inequality in their sailing, which caused officers to be brought to courts martial, whose ships happened to be slower in coming up than others.

Capt. Berkeley thought it incumbent on him, as a naval officer, to say something to what had dropped from the Honourable Gentleman. He agreed that some of our ships did not sail so well as others; but our fleet, taken as a body, sailed as well as the French fleet; nor did our ships now sail worse than they formerly had done. A question of this sort ought not to be taken up at this period, when we were engaged in a war. He would confess, that our ships might be better sailers than they are, if men of science were invited to superintend the construction of them; if rewards were held out for the best models; and he believed the models of the French ships were better than ours, but we had better heads and hands, and our ships were made stronger. He believed, if this idea was thrown out, that we should have ships altogether better than those of any other power.

Mr. Robinson replied.

Mr. Franc's did not see any reason why we should not make enquiries in time of war, as well as in time of peace.

Admiral Gardner said, that the Lords of the Admiralty had nothing to do with the construction of ships; that was the business of the Surveyors of the Navy. He differed in opinion with his Honourable Friend, who had said that our ships sailed as well as the French. To his knowledge (for he had seen them), the French ships sailed better than the English, owing to their being constructed differently. Whenever a ship was to be built in France, premiums were offered for the best plan; the several plans were then referred to the Academy of Sciences, and the most perfect always adopted. Ships have been built in this country from the ships captured from the French. He entertained no doubt, but if premiums were held out here for good models, our ships would

be much better. He had the honour to sail in the fleet under the command of Earl Howe, and he never saw a fleet sail better, and he believed, that if the detachment which had gone to convoy the India fleet had been with them, the French fleet would not have ventured to engage at all.

Mr. For said, he had complained last year of the number of captures that had been made; he would say then, that the captures during this war were in a far greater proportion than in any former war, and in a greater degree than the increase of our commerce; although we had but one enemy to contend with. Our Navy should have been increased in proportion as our commerce became greater. In the Mediterranean, it had been thought we had given the deathblow to the Navy of France; but it was now said that there were fifteen sail of the line at Toulon.

It was the business of the executive government to attend to the defence of the country, which consisted in the proper management of our navy. A time of war, he would say, was the best time for entering into that improvement. Were we not every day building new ships? He hoped no time then would be lost in repairing that error, and that the new Admiralty would see proper measures were taken to improve that part of navy architecture.Mr. Fox concluded with a recommendation to withdraw men from the armies, for the purpose of increasing our naval force.

Mr. Dundas thought that great praise was due to the exertions of the Admiralty, which increased the number of men from 16,000 seamen, at which they found them in the beginning of this war, to 90,000, at which they stood at present. While this exertion was made, our commerce was entire, and none of the means were used as practised in former wars, of entering every ship, and seizing all the seamen they could lay hold of.

The efforts of the enemy he confessed to exceed imagination, and to be such as to excite the alarms, but by no means the fears, of the public; for the number of our ships would greatly outstrip expectation, and when manned, were ready for sea on any emergency.

Mr. Sheridan, as a friend to England, lamented the discovery of one fact, corroborated by the gallant Admiral Gardner, that the French ships were swifter sailers than those of Great Britain. He did not think that the number of seamen proposed (100,000) was sufficient, and wished there might be a greater number. Should the present alarming crisis not arouse Administration from its lethargy, let them seriously reflect, that the French may soon command the aid of the fleet of Holland, which will co-operate with them for the annoyance of our coasts, and the destruction of our trade. Let Mr. Dundas and his friends, therefore, seriously reflect, that they ought to provide against this disastrous event. He remembered the observation of Admiral Keppel, that the marine department was not sufficiently attended to; and he hoped that the present Admiralty would profit by that gentleman's experience and wisdom, and bring forward some plan to encourage men to enter into the Marine service upon terms equally agreeable to those adopted for the increase of our seamen.

Mr. Pitt acknowledged the late exertions of the enemy, but maintained that they could continue but for a very short time.

Alderman Curtis did not hesitate to throw a considerable degree of culpability on the Adiniralty, by whose inattention he and other merchants of London had suffered.

Admiral Gardner vindicated the Admiralty from the charge of suffering French cruizers to capture our ships.

Colonel Tarleton censured the Lords of the Admiralty, and charged them with ignorance and supineness. He said, the exertions of the French were unbounded; and feared, from the generous manner in which they treated our prisoners, that many of them would be induced to enter into their service.

Mr. Alderman Anderson said, he considered that the Lords of the Admiralty had made the very best provisions for the protection of our trade; and though Lloyd's list may be filled with various losses of individual merchants, yet it is in consequence of that greedy and impolitic spirit of adventure, which will run for a inarket without waiting or applying for a convoy.

VOL. IV.

I

Mr. Brandling did not believe that our trade had been sufficiently protected. Mr. D. Scott said, there was ample and sufficient protection afforded to the trade to the East Indies, West Indies, and the coasting trade; and he did believe, nay he would venture to assert, that nine in ten of those vessels which were captured, did not ask for convoy.

Mr. Lambton lamented the losses sustained by the late captures, and said the French fleet was increased to a great amount.

Mr. York, Sir John Sinclair, Sir M. W. Ridley, Mr. Montagu, Mr. Rolle, &c. spoke on the occasion; after which the resolution was agreed to, the House was resumed, and the Report ordered to be received on the morrow.

8. The Reports from the Committees of Supply and Ways and Means were brought up, and the several Resolutions therein were read, agreed to, and Bills ordered accordingly.

13. The Speaker read letters from Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis, in answer to his communicating to them the vote of thanks of the House, and expressive of the deep and lively sense of gratitude they entertained for that high and flattering honour.

Mr. Yorke brought up the estimates of the Navy for the ensuing year.
Mr. Rose presented a number of accounts, &c.

14. An estimate of the charge for maintaining the foreign troops in the British pay for the year 1795, which was laid before the House, is 997,2261. for 365 days. The number is 35,820.

Mr. Garthshore, for Launceston, was introduced and sworn.

Mr. Alderman Curtis said, that a clause introduced the preceding day by the Hon. Gentleman below him (Mr. Rose) for exempting the pensions granted to Naval Officers wounded in his Majesty's service from the Land Tax, would materially injure a part of his constituents, viz. the inhabitants of the Tower district; for these pensions being now assessed in that district, this clause would, of course, increase the rate of the Land Tax in it.

Mr. Rose replied, that by law these pensions ought to be assessed in the district where they are paid, which being at Somerset-house, they of course should be assessed in the Dutchy of Lancaster. Therefore the inhabitants of the Tower district could not in fact be at all affected by the clause he had introduced. But if any proper clause could be introduced next year to relieve that part of the worthy Alderman's constituents, he would not oppose it.

The Bill was then ordered to be read a third time on the morrow. Adjourned 15. The Land Tax and Malt Duty Bills were passed.

Mr. Hussey wished to know if Mr. Pitt intended to bring in the Imperial Loan on a separate motion; as in that case it would undergo a more ample discussion, to which it was undoubtedly entitled: because if that House should consent to guarantee the Loan, it would enable the Emperor to make it on the best terms; for if the Emperor should prove our friend and ally, it would prevent him from being cheated.

Mr. Pitt answered, that at first he thought to couple it with the Budget; but on consideration he conceived that it would be more acceptable to ground it on a separate motion, which could be done by bringing down a message from the King on the subject.

The Attorney-General said, as he saw the attendance was thin, he should only move for leave to bring in a Bill for the continuation of the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act.

Mr. Sheridan hailed the thin attendance as a good omen; it was a proof that gentlemen did not expect the Attorney-General would bring forward any new plots that day.

The Attorney-General said, he had no new ones to bring forward.

Mr. Francis lamented the long and rigorous imprisonment of the persons lately acquitted on charges of high treason.

Mr. Anstruther insisted they were not punished.

Mr. Francis replied: he hoped in God the time would come when some of themselves would know whether such a confinement was or was not punishment. After which the House divided, and the motion being carried, adjourned.

Α

STRICTURES

ON

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

December 20, 1794.

T_Drury-lane Theatre was presented a new Comic Opera, entitled THE
CHEROKEE, of which the following was the Dramatis Personæ :

Colonel Blandford, an English officer, who immediately after his marriage is, by family misfortunes, separated from his wife, is ordered on service to America. After his departure, accumulated distresses oblige his wife, with her infant son, to quit England, and follow him. On their arrival in America, they are seized by the Indians, and carried up the country.

A treaty with the Indians takes place at the very settlement where Blandford has the chief command; and his wife (known there by her Indian name Zilipha) is suffered to accompany the Indian Chief, Patowmac, to the settlement. Malooko, the Chief of the Cherokees, falls in love with Zilipha; and, in order to form a pretence for gaining possession of her, he quarrels with the English, and their ally, Patowmac.

The underplot of the Piece arises from the following circumstances: Average, a merchant of London, brings with him to America his nephew Jack Average, and his daughter Eleanor, who are intended for a matrimonial union; but who, though they really love each other, do not know their own minds. At this period the opera opens. The various incidents which form the plot tend to the mutual discovery of Blandford and Zilipha; the punishment and death of the perfidious Malo oko, and the union of Jack Average and Eleanor.

Mr. Cobb is the avowed author of The Cherokee. It is equal in merit to the best of his pieces. Criticism has nothing to do with any of them. To analyze a modern Opera would be a task of endless utility, its incongruities are so