The Statesman. — London, England, 1812-04-18 00:00:00

TIIE STA'I / late onliarpilybeen pursued. The lion. Gentleman , proroodcd to cominertt on the evils which had been brought on this country by the stoppage of the trade - with America, and on the failure of our Orders in MISCELLANEOUS. The London zed Middlesex Penitentiary Howes Bill, and the Counc il : l which had ended in our granting licences to Coffee Duty Regulation Bill, were read a second time,and ea.. permit thA, importation o nearly all the manufsctores milted for Monday. of the enemy, which it was Our interest to prohibit. The further consideration of Blachford's Divorce Bill beige( ~... resumed, Counsel and Witnesses were called to the Bar; Ste nardly an ything was exclud e d but wine and brand y , farther evideuee WAS adduced as to the fart of the adultery: a and the only restriction on the importation of their part of this was a letter from Mrs. B. to her husband, which in. commodities ITU, that 51. per ton in British mania. eluded a confession of the fact. Upon the whole, the evidence • was such as, in the ?pinion or factures was to be exported in return for th e im O o t The LORD CHANCELLOR. should induce their Lordships In many instances,•howeveri for 51. exported - , . to give a second reading to the Bill, titougsa the simple confes- ... h , h., imp orted . To palliate that conduct which had sion of the woman, uncorreboratetby other evidetW, would he Du n -- tar from sufficient. The Bill was then read a second :ime, and lea to these evils, it was now proposed to throw open committed fist Monday. a part of the trade to India. This, however, gave The Duke of BLAUFORT presented *Petition from the . Merchants, Traders. and Ship-owners of the City of Bristol, , bun. but little consolation, as he f e ared its e ff e c t against the renewal of the East India Company 's Charter. ills' would be to endanger our Empire there, and to raid Grace also presented a Petition from the Bristol Wet Docks' Company, to the same egret. These documents were ordered those who endeavoured to avail th e mselves of the to Ile on the table. , change. • Lord Viscount SIDMOUTH (Lord Precident) presented a 1 Mr. BOSE thought this subject would be better Petition from the Corporation of Dublin, against O. Claims of • theirish Catholics, which being read, his Lordship moved, that i discussed when the papers which were ordered to be the Petition do lie on the table. produced were before them. The Honourable Gent. Earl STAN HOPE said, be would not oppose the motion, be- had said , that, by our licences we let itt those coma came bethought such a Petition.shotild lie on the table. The proceeding was ordered accordingly. , modities of France which it was most our interest to Lord REDESD ALE moved, that the order for their Lord-' prohibit. Now he would observe, that en hiwns ships to go into a Committee on the Insolvent Debtors' Relief w hi c h Bill, on bloaday next, be discharged, and a similar order made were permitted to be imported, there was a rise s Maeday se'nnight, which proceedings accordingly took ; duty of GO per cent.; and this, he thought, w a s so me place. I protection. With respect to laces, ice. he would ob- The remaining Bills upon the table being forwarded in their I reepectivestages, their Lordships adjourned till Monday. I serve, that on their importation no duties were im ' posed by the last Administration, as it was felt that they would have little or no effect, and in this feel ing their successors had participated. That some of out manufacturil - towns had suffered to a *milder.. DIP&RIAL PARLI.4MEN7'. ROUSE OF LOMA, Mart U. • lIOUSE OF COMMONS. On the Motion of Mr. HUME, a Return of the number of Cadets sent out to the establishments of the East India Como- iy of fleagal, Madras, sad Bombay, were iodised to be laid be fore *House. CATHOLIC BM kNCIPATION. • Mr. WHITBREAD presented a Petition, signed by between 8 and 9000 persons, Christians of va rious denominations, praying that the most perfect liberty .of conscience might be granted to all classes of his Majesty's subjects. lie -had had the honour of haying this petition put into his hands by a Gen tleman most distinguished for his virtue, and who, after many years spent in the same way, now at the Close of life (though nevertheless healthy) was still active in the cause of his fellow-creatures, and still anxious to employ the remainder of his days in spreading 64 peace on earth and good-will towards men." After saying thus much, he need hardly de signate the person of whom he had spoken • it was s almost unnecessary to say it was the Rev. Mr. Wyvill. The Petition was then brought up, read, and or dered to be laid on the table. Mr. WHITBREAD then presented similar Peti tions from many places irt England, from Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Exeter, Halifax, Nottingham, Bristol, Hull, and Berwick, which were read, and ordered to lie on the table. Mr. WHITBREAD said heshould have thought it necessary to submit some proposition to the House on the subject matter of these petitions, but for the pe culiar circumstances Of the present time, which in clined him to wait the issue of the motion of his lion. Friend. At present he was content to refer these tb the Committee on the Catholic Petitions.— Be, however, gave notice that it was his intention, unless the Court of King's Bench, on a case pending respecting the new construction which had lately been put on the Toleration Act, determined that to be the legal construction which had been the liberal one, he would on Wednesday, the 49th April, submit a motion to the House the object of which would be able extent, he y had no doubt ; but whetber s iko had so suffered in consequence of tie Orders' life : Council, was a very different question. Sir C. MORDAUNT offered a few observations on the presetit state of Birmingham, as when such hard words as ruin awl starvation were used, he thought they ought not to go unanswered. The town was not in that deplorable state in which it had been supposed to be. As a proof of this, he coald state, that the recruiting service in that neighbour hood had been very slack. He .did not say it tad not suffered ; he admitted that the people of Bir mingham had endured a great deal, and with great, patience, but hitherto a want of employment had sot been very severely felt by the industrious, though it was feared it soon would be, as the stock iu hand was so great, that work would not long be found un less that stock was got off. If, however, much was felt here, much also was felt on the other side of the Atlantic. An American could not shave himself, nor catch his mice, for want of our commodities.— He concluded, observing, that if it were shown to the people of Birmingham that the present system ought to be persevered in, they would quietly go to their gardens and dig potatoes. Mr. BARING explained. Mr. WHITBREAD said, the House was boued to believe the lion. Member who presented the Pe. tition ; but surely they were bound to believe thip Petitioners also, who were the best judges of their own distresses, and who stated that, but for the et. ertions of the master manufacturers, and their kind attention to the situation of their workmen, they must have perished. The journeymen in Birm ham, indeed, had not been out of work, but why had they not? Namely, because their masters, unlike the generality of persons so circumstanced, had con tinued them in employment, even while they had no vent for their manufactures; and had expended their •iitals ;• ' , :tain; them, and ;- warding off from to make the liberal, the legal construction. Mr. LYTTLETON presented a Petition from Dudley against the East India Monopoly. Ordered to lie on the table. BUT VIM CHARTER; capitals in maintaining them, .in _ them those calamities\felt in other districts, and in preserving them from the commission of those dread ful acts, of which, unfortunately, at the present mo ment, every newspaper furnished us with fresh and - mela details. In such • circumstanr Mr. CREtVEY; as he was not present on a former evening, when the Right Hon. Gentleman had been said to state it to be h 4 intention to bring forward his proposition on the hbject of the renewal of the Fist India Charter, in the week after next, wished to ask if such was his intention. He then observed, that there were a variety of documents on this subject, which it was desirable the House should peruse before they went into the discussion, which had not yet been pat into their hands. The pro ceedings of 1793, on the subject, and a very volu minous Report, which had been printed, were neces sary to be considered, before they decided upon the nen. agreement. He wished to know what *as the intention of the Right Hon. Gentleman, as a know ledr of it w of - LII it Irtar tt the it more melanci ty ,aiis. _ the Rouse was peculiarly called on to do all that in them lay, to ward off impending ruin from persons. of this meritorious description ; and to do what Gentlemen on the same side of the House with him (Mr. W.) had been daily urging the Right Honourable Gentleman to agree to, namely, to appoint a Committee for the purpose of enquiring the causes assigned in these petitions be or be not thy' true causes of the present distress of the manufactnr. ing districts of the country ; or if it be for the general good of the Empire that these districts should be ea. crificed. He begged of the House to recollect the march of the Chancellor of the Exchequer this year, compared with what it had been last year. Last year, when a calamitous case was stated, though by , no WAS no mai Impoi nee presein moment, when all the out-ports had sent Delegates to Lon:len, who were anxious to ascertain whether it was his iatention then to commit it to Parliament or not. means to be compared with the present, he himself moved for a Committee, even though them was, no hope of pointing out a remedy, or of affording any relief. This year he refused all enquiry whitevert The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER haring already stated his intention of bringing the subject before Parliai tt in the week after if when it was asked too, as the only means of allaying those feelings of discontent which existed in the very heart of the coun t ry. When the Right _obtSlifed Oit. menu in .4e wee. next, he had had any reason to alter his intentlOn, should have thooght it his duty to state that fact to the House. At present he had no such statement to make, and it was his intention and his hope, not only to bring it forward, bat to pass the measure it might be thought proper to propose in the course of the present Session, through both Homes of Parlia ment. He knew that there were delegates from the out-ports in London (some of whom be had seen), and he knew that it would be a disappointment to them, if he should be disappointed in his present in tention. It was, however, impossible to pledge himself to bring forward a measure of this descrip tion precisely at the time which he had mentioned.-- He could only say that he still hoped that it would be in his - - to bring it-forward early in the weeit 'Houourabl• Gentleman, smite time ago, ob. the concurrence of " the House to an issue of Exchequer Bills for the relief of our manu facturers, &c. it was agreed that It should be paid back in instalments. One of those instalments was already due, and had been paid. A second in stalment became due to-morrow. Now, he asked the Right Honourable Gentleman, if he had not been inform4l that such was the state of the persons to whom the advances had been made that they could not pay this second instalment? And that if de manded, Birinitigham must be nearly ruined ?—tb' so, ansi if the master manufacturers are so reduced byl the sacrifices made by them to keep the workmen in existence, that on the very day before this instalment becomes due, they are not in a situation to pay it. ___ power after next. ORDERS 1 V couNctt.. Mr. WILBERFORCE presented two Petitions from Ilallamskire and Si ' in Yorkshire, against . did it not become him (Mr. Whitbread) to *sic of the Right Honourable Gentleman, when .tOse manufacturers state the Orders in Council to Jse the caust of their ittability to pay this instal- ,heilield,. uation. . .. __ the Orders •le 'Council.—Ordered to he on the ntept, to go into a Committee on the Orders in.! persons `taken horn the plough, bui men who having table. i Council, for the purpose of seeing if these Ors'i served long apprenticeships to their business, exer- Sir C. MORDAUNT presented a Petition from • de rs i i , Council, were the cause of such calamiti..." Qf eis3d it as an art in-Which skill and ingenuity, more Birmingham against the Orders in Council. ! not ? The Honourede Baronet he thought had been ! than strength, were required. - 60 this aceontit their Mr. BAKING felt it to be impossible, 'when such Aithgr toe free with Am er i ca , L e t i t be recollected ' masters had been cohered to coDtihue them in employ- - Petitions were- presented from our most populous that now A me rica did no r, as r o i mer l y , requ i re na il s ; ren t, • though at wages barely sus Cient to keep life manufactusiag towns, to refrain from calling t he at- from as. He r man u f ac t ures wou ld every d ay be im- ' togethee. 'They could not disband theiraverkincu, 1 tention of the House to the - subject. These, it wee proving; an irwe,nowpersisted in ourselves shutting': though it now appeared they must shortly do so ; and 1 to be A/erred, did not come from persons who were her ports againsfus, they might in all probability, in ; let it he recollected, that the moment such men were! sion. if Ministers virtuous and able were got to many other articles of iron manufacture, continue once distended, they were distmoded for ever, and influediliod by a desire to obstruct tbo measures of shut against us for ever: If sugh•clisorders ai now that.outaufacture cggld go longor . . Government ; bat from persons who had not come preyeilel in Enoland NO been heard-ark Ireland, . this.country? Why miglit neftlee ittC 4 uncii 1 forward till their Own ruin and the !marring state of. that co un try W ou ld be sa id t o be in a data of iasur..' go before a !select • ativelt 0 Vitt qtteStion %carried on in des , those under them forced them to come to that House, reerim, ; And oimiot ti4cagops of this ferment ipot tal relating to the Air .C e7Z W it e fittiteetsi le whith eq . mid state the fond regatta of the system Which bad of be fully enquired into f; . . 'dance was gone into as to . the evils that 7,94 arise rIAN. 3i• C. MORDAUNT misfired ; and said, when a illation was madefur ri Committee, it should hare his support. The C II A NC EL LO R of the EXCHEQUER 'said, he did not rise to eater into.any ganPraldisCus eion on the Orders in Comic-II ; but . after what had passed, he felt himself called upon to make a few obsecvations. The lion. Gentleman had stated, that the Petitions came from persons who had an oppor rttnity of forting their opinions by esveriment, upon Ithe evils resulting from the Orders iu Council ; now (hit he apprehended they could not, for the point upon which he and the lion. Gentleman were at issue at the present moment was, whether those evils proceeded from the Orders in Council, or from other causes? It was true three persons were. competent to state the pressu:e which was felt in trade, but he I knew not hoar they could decide• whether that pres sure would have been greater or less if the Orders in ! Council had never existed.—Ulcar, hear.9—Whe- Aber in fact the Berlin and Milan Decrees would have produced the mischief without them. lie would say that not only our difficulties had not increased since the adoption of those Orders, but that the whole trade of the coustry was in a better state. lie was ! surprised to' find the Hon. Gent.'s knowledge of trade so far overb)rne by his zeal against the mea. ' cures of Government, as to say, the Orders in Council were to prevent neutrals from trading with the enemy. lie would maintain that the end was to open ail trade even to Frauae itself, if France would trade with - Great Entail'. France had prohibited trade with Great and Great -Britain prohi preml from a war with A me ri ca ? as a y which, iu a matte r o f suc h i mportance as the preat am the House was call e d on to f ollow. He (Mr. B.) remedy would tell the Ri g ht li on . G entleman a for the evils which now existed :—repeal the Orders iu Council, as far as regarded America; and if that did not satisfy her, it would at least satisfy the pao. ple of this country, that every thing had been done consistently with the safety of the realms. Theo the House would be met by the affeetions of the coup. try, not by such symptoms of discotitent as hadlately burst forth. He conjured the Right lionouraLls Gentleman not to refuse enquiry to a petit;oi.in g na tion, when they came to the House with cries and groans. He warned him that he would not be suf. fered—the nation would not allow him to go to war with America, more than they would seii;:r Al:. Pitt to do so. The Honourable Gentlerr i ,,,, s • not wish to take th:s w a: ling, hut he was bold ni :oug h to predict, that malty mouths would not pass before he was convinced of the truth of it. Lord CASTLEREAGH argued in favour of the Orders in Council, and denied that the repeal of them would satisfy America. Mr. STANLEY (we believe) thought that the present alarming distresses called for much more from Parliament than the mere ordinary form of moving that the Petition do lie on the table. He gave notice that a Learned Friend of his, viould at a future day, bring before the House a motion, on the subject of licences. • - Lord BffiNING WHITBREAD mu. to lit4ceplai ited. ' . Bri *p, ..__ bleed all trade to . e riylce," but what should go through Great Arita n. the result was a pres sure upon franc?, such as compelled her to open her ports to the trade of this country.—[Hear, hear!] He would state, that that very system of lisences which was represented to be a departure from the Orders in Council, was a proof of their efficacy and' edict. He agreed that when the question of licences was before the Hour,e, this matter would be better discussed. As to the importation of wine and bran dy, they were obliged to take a considerable quan. 1 tity of sugar and coffee in return, and with regard i to laces, muslin., and other articles of the kind, they would be brought in illegally, if there was no allowance granted. He was surprised that so much misinformation should exist with respect to the out. rages perpetrated in different parts of the country, that they should be ascribed to the Orders in Coun- eil, to starvation, and such causes. But was it owing to starvation that the mills were broken down ? , Was such conduct to be defended, excused, and pal. ' Hated ?—As to the town from which this Petition was presented, they bad heard the statement of the Honourable Baronet, who had told them, that, at the present moment, the want of employment was not severely felt. The Honourable Gentleman had recommended that the subject should be . referred to a Committee, but the House - should recollect that this was a cafe involving a great political question, which it was not the practice of Parliament to dele gate to any circumscribed Committee, but to deter mine in a Committee of the whole House. A de tailed examination of evidence did not appear to him to suit a subject of that kind. lie knew_ what as 1 effect the shutting of the American market must have; but would the Hon. Gen. state whether they would repeal the Orders in Council, and what they ex pected from such a step? There was one time when Gentlemen thought that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were done away, but that time was passed, no man Mr. LYTTLETON bore testimony to the severe distresses-now -experienced by the manufacturers of Birmingham. General TARLETON spoke also to the distresses occasioned in Liverpool, by the operation of the Or. ders in Council. Mr. MARRYATT could not see what relief would result, from the rescinding of the Orders lt► Council, to the distressed manufacturers. The Pa. tition was then ordered to he on the table. SINECLIRES BILL. The Sinecure Of►ces Bill, after a short conversa. tion between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. Baukes, as to the day on which the Bill was to be committed, was read a second time, and commit. ted for this day (Friday) se'nnight. ANNUITY TO THE PRINCESSES. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER having moved the Order of the Day for the third reading of the Princesses Annuity Bill, , Mr. TIERNEY rose for the purpose of making a few observations which occurred to him upon this Bill. Ha had giwen it every possible attention, and although he felt great reluctance in opposing any act of liberality in which the branches of the Royal Flunily were. concerned, yet he found himself im periously called upon to resist the further progress of this wasere as it was at present proposed. Ile particularly objected to that' part of the Bill which clamed that• the annuity to the Princesses should be considered to have commend on the 18th of Februery last past. The Bat proposed to alter and ameesed the 39th of the Kingi enabling his Majos , tpto • make provision for hisOl*gi►ters on his de• lthe *to the extent of 30,000 f.. per , annum, which sum it was now proposed to,increate,to 36,0001, To this increase of 6,0001. he had not the slightest objection, but he certainly could not comprehend the necessity or policy of making that provision at the present period. He had been told that the ground - . - who knew any thing of the subject would sly so now. It was notified by Franc:" herself that they should continue to operate; that they should be con sidered as the fundamental law of the Continent un til we abandoned our system of blockade. There foi such a measure , was the state of the King, and the time of life to which the Priucesses had arrived. This was a reason which did not satisfy him, and he must believe that there was some other cause kept back, which was veiled in mystery, and which was no man in that House who lamented the dis tresses that were felt more than he did, but would any man say he was prepared to give up our maritime rights by which Great Britain had risen to power and consequence? When this declaration on the part of France, with respect to the continuance of his De crees, was known in America, he was not without a hope that America would not charge upon this coun try an unnecessary strictness in the measures to which she had resorted. But whatever the effect in America might be, this country ought to know that those Decrees were in full force now, and were to continue so until Great Britain should yield up these privileges upon which her prosperity was so strongly founded. The lion. Gentleman had asked him on could not meet the eye. If it was necessary to give the Princesses a sum of money, he thought it but fair that the House should have an opportunity of exercising its generosity ; but this was certainly not a time to vote a permanent annuity of 36,0001. per annum. The Right Hon. Gentleman (the Chan cellor of the Exchever, had not stated that it was their intention to keep a separate establishment. He could not risk such an explanation—and even if he had declared such a plan to their Royal Highnesies, it was not probable they *cold have adopted it, considering the state of their Royal Mother, with whom they had hitherto lived, and . whom they would feel very little dis position to desert, at a period when her domes tic . already 40001. the subject of the Commercial . Bills, whether he knew that the next instalinent would not be paid ? It had been stated to him that many of those who were bound to pay the instalment, would be distressed by -11ficien' affliction was so great. 'They had already a-year each, and a provision on the Establishment at Windsor ; it could, therefore, hardly be imagined that any necessity now existed for their setting up as establishment of 12,0001. per annum.-11Parl hear, . being obliged to do so ; that many were not 81E_ mt ly relieved by commoNrcial bills, but did not believe they would Not answered by. tl;ea.ene,rality of.tbose Ii Orders in Com( hear n—And if flies did;wisat would become of the saviv's tile Citilliet which by timio removal from sad -ought to be ...nal got be _ , -*ll ll 4ll4.gteine whe were hound to pay. if the ci I were Windsor must necessarily ensue, -_ repealed, before the Berlin , and Milan Decrees, the carried , some way or other, to the public iccount.— consequence would be; that France would have her . If it. was necessary to make this provisioN for the neutral trade open •with America, while we were de- Princesses, it certainly became necessary to place their nied the trade of the 'Continent of Europe. Unless Royal Brothers upon an independent footing, who the House was prepared to say that this would be • were solely dependant on the Prince Begent. The judicious, the present did not seem to him to be a Bon. Gentleman then alluded to the number of Lords pried in which it was possible to do away the Orders • of the Bed-Chamber, Grooms'of the Stole, Equerries, in ./jouncil. &c. employed as attendants on his Majesty, all of Mr. BROUGIIANI strongly urged the necessity whom were in a great measure useless; whose income of going into a detailed enquiry into the fact, whe- jhe thought might - be better applied to make proi• flier the Orders in Council were or were not the cause , sion for the. Princesses than to burthen the people, of the present calamitous situation of the manufac- at a period so pregnant with Inisfortune, with so taring districts of this country. What did the Right I enormous a charge as 36,0001. per annum. He then Hon. Gentleman (Perceval) however, propose in- adverted to the neglec t with which her Royal High' stead of enquiry ! Wit' to give these starving ma- iness the Princess of Wales had been treated ; her Alec', and the Right lion. • -7 , - nufattufirs it'debate! Phis wit snot, however, what the country asked, nor what it might be satisfied with._ tAa toairmiugham, it stood in a very peculiar sit! The workmen there'employed, were not fate had, bowever, been sea. ~ Gentleman, who had been her friend and eliampion, had completely abandoned "her. Another pew" who swiped toile treated with almost equal neglect, Highness the Princess Charlotte. !Ile was her Royst, Jighness had now arrived at an ago when she should be se and known hy that people she was hereafter to govern; and if provision was to be made ler any branch of the Royal Family, she was surely, la point of oak and importance, mo st entitled to con ilideratioa. [Hear, hear? ] The Hon. Gentlem an an concluded by declaring his intent ion to move, al amendment to the Bill, that the words " I fith Fe brualla last" shoulibe omitted, and the words "at his Majesty's demise," inscribed. The CHANCELLOR of the ExcurQuErt, in a short speech, replied to port of the objections of .the last speaker, and to part only, because he con ceived that no inconsiderable portion of tbe AV- ' Or