The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1808-05-20 00:00:00

l as t spoken. that it rrottla he proper in such cases to appoint a Committee to say what ought or what ought not to be p,..nted, as it would be con ferring upon a Cutnmittee a more extensive power than any Committee should possess. Ile uould rather, Fleas be conteutplated the consequences that might in some cases arise from running such a risk, that the country wree put to the expense of 10,00eA. in printing such documents. • liAre the subject dropped for the present ; and or, the motion of Mr. De spas, the several papers presented on Monday I e,t, relative to East India lOWA. were ordered In be 'referred to the Com mittee upon that subject. Upon the motion of the same Right Hon. Gentleman. there was ordered to he produced an Account of the Revenues of Prince of 11'ides's island, for the years luo4, 5, and 6, and un Esti mate of the Charges for 1307 and S. These were soon afterwards produced by Mr. ()wen, from the India House, and laid on the table. NAVAL CHAPLAINS. Mr. ROBELLT WARD, pursuant to his notice, snode his promised motion on this subject.—He prefaced it, by enlarging tiro the necessity of en •:ouraging the of the Royal Navy, and stated the inv extant of a parish, named Si monbargh, .iii Northumberland, belonging to Greenwich Hospital, which was only occupied by nue Incumbent, although it might afford livings for several. Dr. Scott was the present Incumbent, a very aged man, aLd the object of this motion was to ropose a bill, to elL•ct a surve y ofe wole pans,. in the first instance. In the next p lace , to prevent tLe presentation of that living. upon the deceit.: of said Clergyman, so that the parish then be apportioned into several divisions, and the revenues granted to various Chaplains, who had been employed in the Royal Navy. He shout.' env:lode wish. moving for leave to tiring in a bill. to enable the Commissioners and Governors of Greenwich Hospital to appoint persons to survey the parish of Simonbargh, belonging to said Holii tal, for the purpose of dividing the Rectory thereof into several divisions, upon the death of the present Incumbent. . Sir CUAILEII POLE seconded the motion, - ai.d it was accordingly agreed to. .GRAND JURIES. Mr. Been Aln moved fur leave to bring in a Bill to enable Grand Juries in Ireland to sell or ex change lands belonging to court-houses or gaols.— Ordered. LOCAL MILITIA Mr. WARDELL rose. in the ali,enee of his lion. Friend, the Member for Gleuce►tershire, to put a question to the Right Hoe. Gentlemen opposite, as to whether it was their intel.tion to pursue the same system in clothing the Local Militia os was followed in clothing the army' t The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in the ohmic, of Lord Castlereag'.l, answered, he was not an well iequainted with these military arrange ments as to inform the Hon. Gentleman urou that subject. Mr..Wastert.t. then moved for the rroduetion of a Letter from th?. Lords Cnmmissioneia of the Treasury, dated Januaiy, ttoß, co:Lit-etc/1 with the suliect of clothing the arrity.-o.dereds. JOURNIT3IEN COTTON 311.INCFACTVREItc Mr. ROSE moved for leave to bring ia a ihil fir limiting the excesaire depreasion of .the wages of journeymen cotton-ma . iittivinrers. This he pro posed in conwiprenee of certain petitions that had been presented fiota 11:nie journeyinea. Mr. PATTISON ilitired if it wiet meant to he general, or limited to,-ertain counties? Mr. Nos , amircreil, that it was meant is he li mited to puticular manufacturers, who hid pre- seated pent , nei. Mr. U. vir • GIDDY disapproved of the measure. to it wont-( rather be prrjudic;al to the Petitioners theiusehrs, as we:l to their Masters, than produc tive of any ildv.into .4 lie thought that the wages, in inany of being too low, hid been too high. The prim iple of thing a dais/imam would be exceedingly ruinous; and no consideratiou what ever would ever indliee him to at-guitar.. in such a measure ; and therefote he should take the scroe of the House upon the propriety' of encouraging it, in this early state. Mr. tioas.En expreqseil a hope the Hon. Gen ttenian would foi-lkear taking the rrise of the Floufte at this period. Ile thought the Right lion. Gen tlenmoppo,ite wit* justified in bringing forward such a bill, iii cole.equenee of the report of the Conruittee illicit' the petit:ons that haat been pre sented. It was no doubt true, that these journey man must have suffered twig fereraly. However strongly he might feel that there was no good to be dirrived from thin tall, yet he thought it would be proper to allow it to proceed further, m order that, ,nine other remedy might be sug g.!...teil that hue more effectual. . _ . Lord ,711L7-IN thought that this bill *mild he calcniated to destroy our manufactories, a:0 there tor., he could not agree to the proposal. that thp 11111. (*.cuticula:), who had first opposed it, shoal.' ulthdraw his op,w.sitiou, cren iu the first Pfagt of it. Il! C./Sid (wily contemplate the hardships 4 , )ur:l-2, :Lion suffered, in having. Fuel, small w azPs, 1 , 1! not think that the measure now I.u -posrl could ad'ord them ally relief. lusteuct of farctug the taattufacturers to give their journe mr•li more wage., it would be the Intans of 1 , 1111.• p-Ilin; them to dismiss them altogether. IT nori thest, grounds Its should resist this measure in its very outset. _ _ Sir RuSCRT PZELIS diaapproeM very much of the principle of the bill projaried. Ile tholiAlit that the manufacturers did not require any Parlia mentary protection, and the cotton trade had flourished as much as any other manufacture in the kingdom. lie had no doubt that the ilie.tr•-is of these journeymen was very ievere : but at the same time he believed that the ma-ters tmtrered more than the men. The comequence of furli a measure would be, that the iria,tcrs a otil:1 have to coma to beg the protection of tiae House. Ili. saw no prospect of such a mesisurk affonling relief, awl therefore it would be but cornpnv.ion to the mcn not to allow it to proceed further. Nlaay of the-e peopl , had been kept employed by mea.ei of tie.: small takes allowed them ; but a!iat would be the con sequence of any measure teaditig to eml.arrass the manufacturer? The malt would he, that the in ferior hands would he dismissed, and tl.rowu as burdens Upoli the parisliLs. Me Rose, in explanation, obeerved, that the meinimun which he had proposed referred to the quantity of work dour, and not to the time mesa pied in doiug it. It wits a fact, perhaps not sidvert iol to, that nu men employed us a journeyman in the cotton trade earned above two-thirds of the wages of a coinuion daily labourer. Mr. TIMM EY said a few worts, disapproving of the measure. ' The Cuesecf.t.oft of the Emmet: wee thought that this was a question of considerable importauce, and one which it Wes proper to bring into discus sion, in order to .hew no iudisposition to listen to the coinpLuuts of thut very numerous elute of peo ple. Ile however coucurred with those who had expressed their opposition to the plat] proposed, as he could not think any legislative measure could be attended with beneficial consequences. There would be a tweessity to establish the Mini:MlN ex tremely low, if it was intended not to do harm to the masters, and by this course it would be proba bly so low as not to afford the journeymen relief.— To fix it at a high rate would be to deprive them of iiniploptient altogether. Mr. W 'Lusa SMITH agreed entirely hi the opinion of the Chaneellor of the Exchequer, and hoped that the Hight Honourable Gentlesuaii (Mr. Rose) would not persevere in hit motion. Mr. Hose then intimated' his intention not to press the subject, as it appeared not to meet the approbetion of the House, or likely to be attended with beneficial consequences. Mr. 4:LLXArDee. &sat N 0 Sittribilted the failure of the trade in question to the Orders in Council. After a few words from Mr. Rose and Mr. HENRY Ilasscebees, the motion was negatived without a division. The Stamp Duty Bill was read a first time, and ordered to be mail a second time to-morrow. The Pilot Bill was ordered to be referred In a Committee on Muuday next, on the suggestion of Gen. Gascua a E. DISTILLING FROM SUGAR. Lord BINNING rose, and stated, that in (NNW (pence of his being placed in the situation of Chairman of the Committee which hail recom mended to that House certain regulations with respect to the substitution of sugar for corn, in distilleries, he fait it his duty to state to the House the arguments which had operated on him and 1113 colleagues in the Committee, in drawing up the report submitted to the House. He bad the honour to till the chair of the Committee ap pointed to extend relief to the West India traders ; and though he conceived the legislature should ettood their bounty peculiarly to the colonies, he should not argue, from the representations of the co lotaiets, but rather from the statemeut of the Commit tee. It would, however, appear from this statement, that whatever might be the opiuion of that House, yet the opinion of that Committee was decidedly this, that the iaterests of Great Britain were inse parably interwoven with the welfare of the Colonies. To support this opinion, he read various parts of the Repo, t of the Cominittee. In the first place, it ap peared, thut this country imported corn yearly to the amount of 770,000 quarters. This was stated by some to be an exaggeration ; but he could as sure the House, that from whatever he could col lect oa the subject, as Chairman of that Committee,. Jae was induced to believe the report wail fair and neonate. The last crop of corn in this country, it would appear from the substance of the report, was totally inadequate to the consumption, though some had the hardihood to state, that it was abun dant. This assertion, however, was a mere chi mera of the moment; for there had been only tolerable crops in the South. and in the Northern counties, which were by far the most numerous and productive, there were not eveivinivldling crops fur the last season. From the evidcuce before the House, it would appear there were not even half crops, for the last year, in the counties of Nor folk, Su:colk, Buckingham, and Hertford. which were the principal corn counties of England. In England and Scotlaad, generally, the report of the Cniamittee wnuid prove, that there was but a very 'mail general crop throughout the country, not by any mesas amounting to an average crop. The cossequenee had been, that our importation for the last year was above 80,000 quarter. larger than for the proceeding )ear. Hence he was induced to believe., tort a legislative measure, for regulating the consumption of corn in distilleries, would be of the utmost importance to the community, particu larly to the labouring class, who felt the pressure of the increase in the price of corn more than others. It would, besides, he a precedent for the I preservation of an equal price with respect to corn in this very populous country. lie lamented, that the cultivation of spring wheat was not generally known throughout the country, which was of the greatest advantage to a nation so deeply engaged in commercial and manufacturing speculations.— This bad occasioned meny deficiencies irl provi nous, and had extruded to those counties whirl' were not so immediately connected with the ma nufacturing. interest. In the North of Scotland there lied lieen serious apprehensions of famine, and the only means to evert it were to concur iu the r. presentetion mole Ijy the Committee. lie was of opinion, that no injury would be sustained by an Act for preventing the use of grain in the dietil leries of the. country. Though he understood a clumge in the "pinion of souse very poi caul Mem bers of that !fosse had taken place sieve yester day, he eas be 1,0 mewls inclined) to reliiiiiiiish the hope that the measure mould ultimately deemed advantageous to the country. Ile stated it was not his intention to interfere with the articles of Union between this cmintry and the two incorporated nations with vs hone it was our duty to continue in the strictest bonds of amity, though he admitted it was the right of Parliament to continue a pro hiliition of the use of corn in distilleries from one session until thirty da3s after the next session of' Parliament. It however bad been the intention of the Committee to recommend the extension of the act to Ireland as well as Scotland; but from the various diffictiltiee which must arise from the col lection of fines and revenue in Ireland, he was dis posed to permit the matter to Lc a subject of die tinet I i•hition. This he particularly felt to be hie duty, as the facilities in the distillation of spi rits, illegally. were much greater there, and attended sit!, less hazard thou in Eiv,,land o. Scotland.— While he t 1.10, argues) the necessity of the measure from the state of this semidry. he could not hut rernark, t!ii re ever existed an imp e rious necessity on the mother country to provide fur the emergen. iousr." cies of floe colcn,ics, awl even-on sores occasions to davrilice it portioti of its convenieute or advantage to their aelf.ire ; and this argunseut,, he observed, own Artfllt4thelltA coustilerably by the 'refection, that the iiitere-n. of 0..: West Indian Colonies was iuwepanibly connected with that of this country, and was to us of the last importance. Hence, lie dhoulil, fivo a coin iction of its propriety, be luelitied to move, " That the Report of•this Com mittee he referred to a Committee of the whole Mr. Comte professed himself the friend of the Wein bidet colonists, by no means averse to their interests, or wedded to the maintenance of the high • price of corn, yet anxnms that it should bear, though nut exee:Al the remunerating price, without which it Oaf impossible the farmer could exist and nunutain his integrity and character. Ile combated the idea that corn had exceeded its regular price amongst the farmers of the great corn countries. The average price of corn in Norfolk had not exceeded forty shillings per quarter, and it was his firm couvictimi, that the present increase in the prier of corn arose from the circumstance of the report being made to that House, on the neces sity of the substitutien of sugar for corn. It was not a lenitive want of supply, but a relative pro portion of value established by mere accident. — Ile thought nu more favourable report for' the agricultural interest could possibly have taken place than that presented to the House. For these last fifteen years, sugar had millivolts , been exported to foreign countries. This appeared on the face of the report. This was certainly a strong argument in favour of the corn supply being suffieieut for the consumption of the country, both in leaking and 'listable , . He opposed the Noble Lour* argument* WI the expediency of compelling distillers to use sugar alone for the ensuing year; , and concluded, that England would, by proper ar raueemeuts, be able to support itself, without any supply front abroad. For these six weeks pest there heel been uo decrease whatever in the price of sugar, notwithstanding the great quantity in the market at present ; and it was remarkable, that from the inausent of the present investigation, the rise in the price of corn might be supposed to have originated, since that rose had been coeval with the examination, prior to which period it had continued at the average price. The re port be objected to, as it made au unfair state ment with respect to the relative situation of Ire land and this country, by not recommending the aline measure in Ireland as in this country, and the futility of the reason alleged was the more stiiking, as urged in the very words of the report. IVhat, was it became, there were five rogues in the king dem of Ireland to one in England, these five should Le left to exercise their fraudulent practices on the public, whilst the less number was prohibited Ile was totally averse to the recommendation of the Committee, and attributed to it the extrava gant rise which had taken place on corn, throughout the kingdom, within these five weeks past. Mr. Alderman CURTIS conceived the enforce ment of the recommendation of the Committee a measure of sound policy, and supported the motion of the Noble Lord. - -,- • Sr Jones LAllteontended, that no legislative ' 1 measure should he founded on this report, as it contained doctrines altogether inconsistent with the agricultural interest of the country. He ad mitted, that for some short time a scarcity of earn had its some counties existed, but this he attributed partly to a deficiency of crops in those particular districts, and partly to a spirit of speculation, origi nating in the report of this Committee, which had been extremely prejudicial, tie* only to the ugri- , cultural interests, but even to the welfare of the nation at large. Its tendency was to raise that famine it professed to fear. Ile represented in Par liament, it was true, a certain district, yet whatever might be the sentiments of that part of the com munity, he felt he had a duty to perform to the hole agricultural population of the nation, and hence he felt an anxiety to expose the fallaciou. rea souing and false statement of the report of the Com mittee now subtler consideration. Though soine of the northern counties of Scotland might have expe rienced a comparative scarcity, yet this was by no means alarming, since it would speedily be seine died, either by bounties or public gmnariel. In filet the report of a Committee of Members of that House, in 10407, had for ever put such a question at rest, as it most clearly proved that no such &Anger could fairly be apprehended. That report stated that the use of sugar would be attended on the contrary a ith very great loss to the community. He was inclined to hope the .revenue would not suffer any material injury bum the prevention of the use of sugar in distilleries, and the country, it was evident, would gain much. He had been, in fact, surprised at the statement of the Committee ; it was unne cessary, dangerous, and without precedent. True, the use of corn in distilling had been prevented iu the year 1757, hut it was almost immediately re moved by Government discovering, by the peti tions presented, that the prohibition was of the ut most disservice tee the community, and extremely dangerous to the lauded interest. The petitioners stated, that the prohibition a as so injerionsto them, that they had found it iinpossibleto attain subli,tenee Ii their labour. Ile trusted that our relatiolei with America n ere ono sueli 3310 Mauee the hope that this country 00011 d MeV)) e its %noted supplies from it, at least it WIIS ii) 11). pre)1110044 11111 Cillgati• would salonl sonie supply, to meet any exi4eitcy which might It was, under the present state of the West Indio colonicA, thew i.sh, he belie% eJ, of every man, to adopt any measure of relief, not in compatible with the hest aii.l certain interests of this country. if any rational plan was submitted to the Legislature for their relief, he n mild give it his warmest support. But he impressed upon the Ilouse the anxious wern that was felt throughout esery branch of the Catted Kingdom on the rec, p tion of the present report, and that no event could he more grateful than the determination of that House not to found any legislative measure upon it. Mr. Cosa - F."l considered, that such a measure as that recommended by the Noble Lord, ought, at least, to have proceeded from come of ill. Ma jesty's Ministers, wham he country might held re sponsible for its erVetts. Ile d:d not know to what to athibute the J. ris. ear: in e l e bi.t.,:cl• of the N o bl e Lord, from the report winch was originally pro duced from that Coinmittee of obi, to he was Chair wait. topec: to irciazti, ti:e rt,,ort wea hos- I tile to the eatension of that prohibition which it reconsisseuslod to be adopted Its this Met of the country ; yet that night the Noble Chairman spoke a shtlerthrialignage. and, 'without the advance ascot of uny:grouud for the alteration, not only al tiered, with respeet to Ireland, one recommendation of the report, but totally contravened its inference, by decl ming his intention to move, iu the Com mittee, that this measure should be totted upon throm. , ,hout the whole of the United Kingdom. The ground also has been shifted, and the probe- . 1 1 hie apprdlemion of u scat city was DOM the great ground for the adoptive of this reetrictima on the distillation of corn. Upon such a • topic he Mt cotivineed that discussion was replete with num..- mos et ids. It encouraged speculations of even , kind, all alike hostile to the general iutereo . s the empire. Ile hake far dilrereast feeling add a niuu on thut point, louse he thought the means of the venial,- had considtrably increased, and were , 1 overly, if not altogether, competent to sapport a very material accession to our population. It was on' question of this kind the ordinary practic6 to raise a hostile cry against the landed interest, and to impute to it motives which he was conscious that body never entertained. Still stets bootie cry was attended with the beneficial effect of extending the agriculture is the growth of corn throughout the kingdom; and the result was, that the country was now able to support. from its own soil, a very great additioaal extent of population. A variety of causes had - cootsibuted to that result ; arnorirt these the improvement iu the breed of cattle, which 'imitate:ell:Lode, formerly applied for the pur poses of pasture,to be now cultivated for the growth of grain. Much had been said oldie failure of the lost harvest, and of the melancholy mospect of an approaching scarcity, and thence was inferred the pronriety of restricting the distillatiou from corn. Although he admitted that in some districts there might have been a failure in this last season. and that a great increase in the price of corn had in these places followed, vet lie knew, as a matter of fact, from the best ansi most diligent inquiry, that such failure was by no means general. In the West of England the crops of the last year were extremely productive, and he was informed. from the best authority; that there was now stored at De vises. and in other towns in that part of the country. more corn than was ever known at any former period. He regretted the distress of the West India colonies; but in the prevent state of the commercial relations of this country, he saw the best advantages likely toarise from venlig; is agriculture a proportion of that capital, which, to consequence of the stagnation of trade, was now ultemployed. Such exertimis would have the effect oraffording fowl for double. the present ponalution. This po sition 11 , 55 illustrated in the county of Norfolk, and in no other county in the kingdom. where, by the investment of en:iital in such pursuits, every se moth acre was applied for the winter food of cottla • hut even taking an average through the whol e kingdom of one acre is fifteen, there would be then a supply sufficient to afford daily a hAf-pound 41f meat for every individual of our population. The Hon. Member concluded by an earnest address to Alteldettoe, trot to vntrer a "tertiperary view of per licy to supersede the real and permanent istetests of the country. Mr. M sitar ATT trusted that the Howe of Com mons, in discussing the propriety of this measure, would net dismiss from it, consideration the ire portant interests of the West India colonies. the had only to refer to the reports not only of the lats Committee, bat of former ones, to prose that the euillerrassed situation of those important branches of the empire called for urgent and particular at tention. The House had to consider, that unless attention was paid to their intermits, inevitable ruin must ensue, not alone to the proprietor* of West India estates, but to that numerous body of subjects in this country, who had, by annuity, mortgages and other securities, considerable claims on West India property. It should also recollect, in what a great extent this description of trade con tributed to the revenues of the empire, and, of course, what an alarming effect must follow from their distress, terminating, as it must, unless re lieved by that House, in absolute destruction. The cessation of our wonted supplies from foreign coun tries had been very truly adverted to ; and it was further to be recollected, that Sweden, which was hitherto an importing country, was DOW from the failure of the la harvests, and from the pressure of political causes, Meech a situation, that distilla tion from grain was there stopped, and it was more than prohable that that faithful and undeviating ally would have to look to this country alone for assistance and stn. ply. When, therefore, it was considered that, from the state of our foreign re lations, no importation. of eon was to be expected, and that, front such a source, this country had been used to receive a supply of 770,000 quartets of corn, surely the hinder( interest could not, with justice, feel jenlous of any proportionate al itfirlilte in favour cf the British colonists. It was proved, from the returns resen ted to that floulo, that, note Allot-ending tnumerous bills of inclosure, still there was no surplus in this trountr3 of uative tore, a circumstance owing in a great measure to the proportionate it clew- of the population. So much had been said inoinist the claims of the colonists, that be felt it 110 ditty to appeal in behalf of men who had suf fered already to a met severe enteot, in conse quence of the general pressure on the empire at lae.re. in the very article of sugar, they had sudered considerably. Its average had hem, for the Lot year, at thirty-four sivilliegs the bits.- tired ; wheo it was the fact, that, wish a fair esti mate of the whole espouses, the t o,t to the culti vator was sisty-three per cwt. Did net such severe loss, leading as it did to irremediatls ruin. imperiously call upon the .uperiatenditig vine of Parliament for relicf?—tleside, were not so, Is claims seconded by ti e excitt interest vs ;in.h tl.e mother country con 4 ltt to feel for the lyres , nate , u of a branch of its cantan-. which consuurctl its ant lions of its manufacture., arfurtled a 'Amber: fir twenty thou.aftel iii its seamen, a, .l Itrottg.::t an at- e 4 6 .; ,0 1 1 of ti‘ e tnillint,a *t ? or Mach ronlgidvitstions, Ole f)nlery cl thl6 elytlntly had ronsirleraht) tr. ckd to at _Val ate the 4!iArt *a is of tiet• t:olotiist: , . in enter to ,4r,port Its tarn)ing trade to tirrat Britato. o the !.ourecti of its nasal greatneiiu, A the enemy's hare L.ce tdke puise-411 {i/ lung I 4 Ile °lilt U gL: WTI thia: that kill( ind c!urict, )11,1t 01 U 1! atc.'• (it:r 1"' •