corn to grind, and having no money, that the miller be permitted to take a reasonable charge in kind." Mr Ryder moved, that leave be given to bring in a bill on these fundry refolutions.-Or a ftatute of Henry VII. and to inflict a Mr Fox, Mr Grey, &c. spoke for the motion. Mr Jenkinson, faid, that he was perfectly fenfible that there were many objections to the game laws, but would not wish to invade any fyftem unless a practicable remedy had been pointed out: he would not therefore even vote for a committee to examine into them; but would move, as an amendment to the motion, viz. "That this House do now adjourn." Mr Curwen proposed, that should the queftion of adjournment be negatived, he would come into the propofition of the gentleman who oppofed his motion, viz. to agree to a committee to inquire into the ftate of the game laws. A divifion took place. Against the Amendment, 50 27 Majority, -23. A refolution was then come to, by general agreement, that the Houfe fhould, in a committee of the whole, take thefe laws into confideration. 8. Mr Ryder brought up the report of the felect committee on the high price of corn. The refolutions were read, which were as follow, viz. "That it appears to this Committee, that every milfer fhould be provided with weights and fcales, that those weights be liable to be infpected, and feized in cafe of deficiency: That millers be obliged to return the fame weight brought, unless what is. wafted in the act of grinding: That no miller do take toll in kind, unlefs at fuch mills as are authorised by law That every miller have fixed up in his mill a table of rates, expreffive of the different prices of grinding: That magiftrates be authorised to punish delinquents: That where any perfo brings STATE OF THE NATION. 10. Mr Grey, in confequence of previous. notice, rose to make his motion on the prefent State of the Nation. His hon. friend (Mr Fox) had laft year brought forward a motion fimilar to this which he was about to submit to the Houfe; but fince that period dangers had been confiderably multiplied. When he made that motion, he had done that which he was well qualified to do; he had taken a general view of the whole system of the war, of our alliances, &c. and went into a large and extenfive view of the State of the Nation at that period, and concluded by moving for a committee to inquire into the State of the Nation. In what he had to say this night, he would be fatisfied to recall to their recollection the arguments used on that occafion; if then, at the result of thefe, a committee fhould be granted, which it was his intention to move for, he would go into an examination of the war, but more particularly of all other parts of it into that which related to the expedition to the Weft Indies, which an hon. friend of his (Mr Sheridan) had promised to bring publicly before the Houfe; he would alfo examine into the expenditure of the public money, which, as reprefentatives of the people, and guardians of the public money, they were at all times bound to watch over with a careful and jealous eye. Whatever various opinions pervaded their breasts with respect to the origin of the war, yet they ought all to agree in this, that whether there was war, or whether there was peace, we should be particularly careful that our finances were in the beft ftate poffible. He would now, he faid, proceed more immediately to the object of his motion. At the end of three years of the prefent war, which had been already carried on for four, it would be found, that there had been added feventy-feven millions of capital to the national debt, not speaking of the unfunded debts, and for the intereft of this, there should be found taxes to the amount of 2,600,000l. If, in point of extent, we compared this war with the American war, could it be faid they bore any any refemblance? in that we had the have we made fuch great acquifitions principal powers in Europe to contend with, in conjunction with the revolted colonies; but in this the majority of the powers of Europe were our allies, against what the hon. gentlemen oppofite were pleased to call a distracted and debilitated nation: And, in point of expence, there was no comparifon; in three years of this war we had added 77 millions capital to the national debt, and in fix years of the American war only 56 millions. In the year 1782, a committee had been appointed to examine into the State of the Nation, of which Lord Camelford was chairman, and the right hon. gentleman oppofite had been a member of that committee, and had examined very minutely into the expences of the war. Mr Grey took an extenfive view of the war of the Revolution of 1688, the war of the fucceffion, and of all wars down to the prefent; and thence drew a conclufion, that no former war, the most expenfive, could be compared with the prefent in point of expences. He concluded a speech of confiderable length, by moving for "a Committee to inquire into the State of the Nation." Mr Jenkinson rose to answer the arguments of the hon. gentleman who had juft fat down. The hon. gentleman went into an ingenious calculation to fhew, that our expences, confidering the rife in all articles, were comparatively lefs than in the American war, and that the French had expended more than us and all our allies, as they had expended their capital, and we only an interest. Mr Jenkinfon next vindicated the manner in which the public money had been expended. We had now more men in action, and more fhips employed, than during any period of the American war. Then we had 314 fhips, now we have 368, and many of those of a larger fize than any then in our navy. Nor were the fubfidies which we have paid to foreign powers unproductive of their good effect. They produced a powerful diverfion in our favour, and divided the force of the enemy, and called off their attention from their naval exertions. He next juftified the war, and fhewed it to be profecuted for national objects-not for the fake of impofing any particular form of government on the French nation. Their navy had never suffered more than guring the prefent war; never before from them; never was more skill and courage difplayed by our countrymen. To this fhould be added, our fucceffes in other quarters-the capture of the Cape of Good Hope, and many other of the Dutch fettlements, and the acquifition of the kingdom of Corfica. In fhort, we have been fuccefsful in every attempt, but where Providence and Nature feemed to fide again't us. The country is therefore very far from being in that degenerated state in which it has been exhibited by fome gentlemen (Mr Grey and Mr Fox); on the contrary, we have ruined the French navy, while we have confiderably ftrengthened our own. We have borrowed money at I per cent. lefs than any that has been raifed during other wars. Our unfunded debt is also less, and provifions made in the Ways and Means of the year to diminish it fill more. He could alfo congratulate the country on enjoying a greater flare of political liberty than it ever before enjoyed; and on all his affertions, he withed the Houfe to decide from the nature of the arguments adduced, not from the bias of any political predeliction. All the confidence he claimed for minifters was a conftitutional confidence, and to this he thought them highly entitled. He would therefore vote againft the prefent motion. After feveral others had spoken on the question, Mr Grey made a reply to the arguments urged against his motion. When the Houfe divided, there were - Against the motion. For it Majority 207 45 162. II. Mr Joddrel rofe, in conféquence of the notice given, to move the House for leave to bring in a bill for the better prevention of highway robberies and burglaries. A bill of this nature was, he said, so neceffary, that it must be obvious to every honourable gentleman in that Houfe, as well as out of it. There were, on an average, 200 perfons hung annually, and of thefe between 70 and 100 for highway robbery and burglary, and this would furnish, legally, the furgeons with fubjects of diffection. Mr Joddrel concluded, by moving for leave to bring in a bill, authoriting the bodies of highwaymen and houfcbreakers to be anatomized. The Attorney-General and others oppofed it, as a measure of a very objec tionable tionable nature. The motion was therefore negatived without a divifion. SLAVE ABOLITION BILL. Mr Wilberforce moved, that the order of the day for taking the report on the flave bill into further confideration be read. Sir W. Young faid, it was impoffible for him to let it pafs without thewing his direct difapprobation of it in every ftage, particularly when he saw the manner in which it was carried into effect. It was a bill, he faid, in every claufe of which there appeared tyranny and oppreffion. However gentlemen might imile at what he faid, he was otherwife affected, and must feel differently while his property was at ftake; and under this confideration he begged leave once more to call the attention of the Houfe to this fubject. Together with the other evil effects of this bill, there was not one gentleman of property in the Weft In dies, who would not be fubject, by one of thefe claufes, to felony, and liable to tranfportation, and would tend ultimately to ruin every man of fortune in thofe iflands. Ile prayed, that the Houfe would more maturely weigh the pernicious tendency of the bill before it went farther, and argue it in that cool manner fuitable to fuch an occafion. General Smith spoke against the bill. Mr Dundas faid, that though the gentlemen who fupported the bill might think there was all eloquence, all argument, and all policy on one fide, yet if thofe on the other fhould ftate their o, pinions with humility, he would recommend it to them to listen to it with temperance and forbearance. Though this nation would abolish the flave trade, it would be of little ufe while the neigh bouring nations chofe to continue it. It might be right to remove pollution from this land, but when other nations took up what it abandoned, the purposes of humanity would not be anfwered by our good intentions. He now proceeded to ftate at length the great advantages refulting to this country in revenue and commerce from the Weft Indies; the impoffibility of guarding the coafts, againft fmuggling flaves into the islands, when 28 fhips of war could not at prefent guard thofe coafts; and conclud ed a fpeech of near two hours and a half, by faying, that under all these various grounds, he felt it his duty to remonstrate strongly against the queftion. Mr Fox, befides rejoicing, for the fame reafon as others, that the right hon. gentlemen had been able to come down to the Houfe, was glad to know that they had now heard the utmost which could be faid against the bill, and had obtained at the fame time, a new authority for pursuing the object of it, by that hon. gentleman's confeffion of the injuftice and inhumanity of the flave trade. - He had argued, that the provifions of the bill would be impracticable; if they were to be fo from the difpleafure of the planters, the provifions offered in their ftead by him would be equally impracticable; for every fort of reform was refifted by them; and had it not been pretended, that they disliked this less than the other. As to the fear which had been held out, that the Weft India iflands would aim at afferting their independence, he could neither admit the probability, nor eftimate the confequences of a feparation : he would not permit himself to speculate upon them; but if that were true, which he knew to be merely impoffible, and that the continuance of the flave trade could alone prevent the feparation, he had no difficulty in saying, that the rights of humanity must be afferted, whatever might be the political confequences. There was a queftion as to our right of legiflating for the Weft Indies: what right had we to legiflate for Africa? what right to legiflate against Africa? and, while we were retiring to the comforts of our homes and of fociety, to authorise the taking of wretches by force from their families, to be removed in floating dungeons to a foreign country? It had been propofed to confine the trade to perfons under twenty years of age. What would be thought of a British loufe of Commons, if, after having af certained that guilt and inhumanity were on one fide of the queftion, and helpless infancy on the other, they should authorise that guilt to prey upon that innocence? Was it not of confequence to a government to be moral in its laws, and refpectable in its motives? And could that country be refpected, in which the rights of juftice and humanity were firft admitted, and then declared. to be facrificed to a fuppofed policy? Mr Fox would not prefume fuch an event. The Chancellor of the Exchequer apprehended more from the difcuffion than from from the bill; for what would the ceafing to import new cargoes of Africans be, but the ceafing to encrease that danger, which was fo much felt, that it was dreaded to be talked of? The plan of Mr Burke, of whom he defired to fpeak with refpect and admiration, was much more likely than this, by its attempts at internal regulation, to agitate the minds of the Africans in the islands, with whom the present bill did not at all interfere; and as to improvement in the difpofition of the Weft India Planters, that was little to be expected, for their own petition contradicted the refolution of the House and the preamble of the bill, by denying the injuftice and inhumanity of the trade. To decree such a princlple, they affirmed, would lead to dangerous confequences. Would any gentleman in that House, if he could have been asked a century back, whether he would authorize the commencement of the flave trade, for the fake of poffefling sugar iflands, have confented to the inftitution of fuch a fyftem? Certainly not. Yet the principle of introducing, as well as continuing the fyftem, was adopted by the planters, who stated, that they had yet a million of acres to cultivate, and who, therefore, did exactly the same thing as if they had propofed the occupation of new colonies to be maintained by a new flave trade.No man could pretend to fee any fubftantial difference between the propofitions. The right of abolition was, he believed, without question; the power of effecting it without the affiftance of the planters was denied; but if their confent was to be waited for, the trade might continue for ever. General Tarleton, adverting to the statements contained in the petitions which he had the honour to present from the corporation and merchants of Liverpool, that the extenfive docks, &c. conftructed in that port, for the accommodation of the shipping employed in the flave trade, would be rendered ufelefs, and the immenfe capitals embarked in it ruined, moved an amendment," that the report be taken into further confideration this day four months." A divifion took place on the amendment, and to the astonishment of every perfon, there appeared, For the amendment 74 Against it 70 The bill was confequently loft by a majority of four. 16. General Macleod rofe in confequence of the notice he had given relative to the war with the Maroons. The queftion which he would now fubmit to the House, and the motion which he would ground on it, were, he faid, of. such importance, that they would involve not only the honour of the country, but also the interefts of humanitybut before he entered on the detail of the question, begged leave to exculpate himself from certain charges of malice and hypocrify, which, both in public prints and private converfation, had been thrown out againft him. He read a paffage from the newspaper, which he granted was not the most authentic intelligence, but in corroboration of this, he had also received a private letter, in which it had also been ftated, that 200 blood hounds had been fent for from the ifland of Cuba, and 20 chaffeurs, to hunt down the Maroons. This letter did not, he faid, come from any one inimical to Government, but from one that wished for the extirpation of the Maroons, even by blood hounds, and who wished alfo that the hon. gentleman alluded to in that letter (Mr Wilberforce) was present, that he might be hunted by them. Having entered into a defcription of these ferocious animals given by Don Lafcafas, and the manner of feeding them on human flesh, he concluding by moving, "That an humble address be fent to his Majefty, that he would be graciously pleased to give directions for producing the papers refpecting the mode of carrying on the war against the Maroons. Mr Dundas faid, that the hon. gentleman took it for granted that the war was begun by injuftice on our part; he did not fuppofe that it was from injuf tice or oppreffion on the part of the planters, but from some connection with St Domingo that the Maroons had commenced hoftilities. The planters lived, he faid, at the bottoms of the hills, and the Maroons at the tops, from whence they defcended, and committed the ravages fhocking to relate. He concluded by faying, that he did not think there was fufficient grounds for fuch a motion. Several members fpoke on both fides, and in the end General Macleod withdrew his motion, preserving ftill to himfelf the privilege of bringing it forward, fhould he think proper. HOUSE HOUSE OF LORDS. March 4. Lord Lauderdale rofe to make his promised motion on the subject of the penfion granted to Mr Burke, and made payable out of the four and a half per cent. duties. A recent publication*, and perfonal confiderations, his Lordfhip obierved, might probably roufe the curiofity of the public, and of their Lordfhips, to hear him canvafs the merit of this public character. From this, however, he was refolved, according to his original determination, carefully to abftain. From this refolution no ability, however diftinguished, no genius, however brilliant, could feduce him. That talents fo tranfcendent fhould be employed in fuch a manner, he might lament. He might admire the genius, and drop a tear over its fallen and degraded application; but on the prefent occafion, he should confine himself folely to the question of the application of the fund. He then went into a hiftory of the four and a half per cent. duties. They were granted for the repair of forts, &c. in the Leeward Islands, and his Lordship infifted, that they could not be otherwise appropriated; he therefore moved, "That his Majefty be addreffed not to apply them to any purpofe but their original object." upon a divifion, there appeared for it, 24. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Grenville being gone to Bath) came down to move for the papers in the lift given him by the Marquis of Lansdowne, which were ordered. The Royal Affent was given to the New Game Act, Warwick Canal, and other Bills; and the House adjourned to the 6th of April. Lord Grenville faid, he felt himself peculiarly happy, that the motion of the Noble Lord appeared to fteer clear of of the perfonal reference which it had been apprehended would occur in his difcuffion of the question before the Houfe. It relieved him from the task of juftifying a benevolence of the Crown, from which he and every one of his Majesty's minifters derived a portion of honour, as the advisers of a measure fo becoming the dignity of the Sovereign, and the honour of the country. Having premised this, his Lordfhip contended, that the four and a half per cent. duties were, and ever had been, at the difpo-, fal of the Crown, for any part of the public fervice. In this he was borne out by the opinions of the firft lawyers-by thofe of Lords Camden, Hardwicke, and Mansfield; and it had never been made a matter of queftion and doubt till now. He therefore oppofed the motion; and * Mr Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord on fome former motions and obfervations on this fubject in the House of Lords, by the Noble Mover and the Duke of Bedford. IRISH PARLIAMENT.. HOUSE OF COMMONS. March 22. The Houfe in a committee on the Fishery Bill. Mr Vandeleur faid, he rofe to make. obfervations on the ftate of our fisheries, and to propofe an amendment to that fyftem of laws, whofe operation has not had that fuccefs which every man ought to with. The fisheries have always been encouraged by large bounties, that the State might thereby fecure a large body of feamen, in times of public difficulty. This bounty was given, not to encourage fervices the State required. England the veffels, but that body of men whose early adopted this fyftem: In 25th Geo. II. a bounty was given of 30s. a ton, this being found ineffectual, the bounty was increafed to 50s. A company was establifhed with the exceffive capital of 400,000l. and a further bounty of 3 per cent. on their expenditure: this scheme, as might have been expected, failed; for you always find thofe fpeculative companies, compofed of men ignorant and inattentive to the business in which they embark, wafte their stock in idle schemes. A fimilar company, with a capital of 40,000l. is established by the prefent bill: I apprehend it will have a fimilar effect; and the only good I can expect from it is, what Sir James Stewart fays, arofe from a very great company established in Holland, that, on its failure, the veffels, nets, and ftores, came into the hands of private adventurers, and thence arofe the great fishery of Holland. This high bounty failed of its effect of extendfary to alter the fyftem. The ableft poing the fishery, and it was found neceflitical writer that England boafts, (Dr Smith,) fhewed that each barrrel of herrings coût the nation L. 1:1:5d.; that the |