The Sun. — London, England, 1801-05-21 00:00:00

F T- • • . • • Ur. Gitilt said, f he codeeivett he wAs in Order , . . but to prevent all difficulty, he would after the present Motion was disposed of, submit a Motion to the House. The SOLICITOR GENERAL said a few words upon the point .of Order. Mr. GRAY continued. •He said, it was his in ' tendon to move, that the Resolution of Thanks should be taken into consideration , to-morrow. It must appear a very strange circumstance to every body who read the Gazette of last night, that Ad miral PARKER , who received the Thanks of that House, was, in the distribution of Honours, passed over unnoticed, after having been recalled. The Right Hon. Gentleman was of opinion, that ate ho. hour and interest of Admiral PARKER would have been better consulted if another course had been adopted, at least at present. He differed in 'opinion f r om the Honourable Gentleman, and thought that his Honourable Friend had aled advantageously for the interest of Admiral PARKER, in bringing for ward this Motion, because it was a subject that most undoubtedly called for explanation. But that was not the only ground upon which his Honourable Friend brought forward this Motion, he brought forward the Motion because he conceived the cha- . racer of the House was concerned, because it might appear under the present circumstances, without ex. planation, that they had voted Thanks to persons who did not deserve them. The Right Hon: Gen. tleman stated, that Admiral PARKER was thanked for a different Service from the other Admirals,_ but Admiral PARKER Made th e d i sp osition of the Fleet, and though he was not engaged in the Aaion, yet be retained the Command of the part that was, en gaged, and directed it by his Signals, arid I ask the Right Hon. Gentleman — Mr. HARCOURT moved that the Gallery be cleared. ,Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, but we understood that Mr. GREY'S Motion was nega. tived without a division. When Strangers were admitted, we found The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER wa s stating, that . he was of opinion, the subjeti of the Report of the Secret Committee, should be - brought forward o n Wednesday next. . Mr. GREY wished to know the general nature of . the Proceeding, which was intended to be brought forward on the ground of that Report. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, the Report itself pointed cut some things which he apprehended would meet the approbation of the House. There were two points to be brought forward. The renewal of the Measure which was lately agreed on by Parliament,. with regard to Military Law in Ireland, and the Lidcmnity of those who were concerned in a certain manner with reference 'to the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus A&. He then moved, " That the. Order of the Day for taking into consideration the Report of the Secret Committee, be now read," which it was, an d t he Order was discharged, and the Report- was or d ere d to be taken into consideration on Wednes day neer xt- ' A pso n from the Stamp Office produced certain Accounts of Duties, which were referred to the Con,trittee of Ways and Means. M r . JoNrs gave notice,. that to-Morrow se'n sight he should bring for ward a Motion reveet ing EgYPt. • The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved the Order of the Day for the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House to consider further of Ways and Means.; which being 'read, he moved, " That the Sr tAicsit 'do now leave the Chair." The House accordingly, , went into a Corn. tittee of the whole House, -Mr. Bst4Goa in the Chair. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER....— " it will be tecolleaed, Sir, by the Committee, that the Right Hon. Gentleman who proposed to the House the Ways and Means of the year, for raising the Supply, proposed among other things, a Duty on printed goods ; likewise on Pepper for home-consumption, and Pepper for exportation. It was afterwards thought adviseable that the Duty on Pepper exported, should be abandoned - on the strong representation of persons best qualified to form opinions as to the•effekt of persevering in the Duty. sir, a representation was made to me on 'his sUb jea, which I stated some time ago to the douse to have made a strong impression on my mind, and I propose to abandon the Tax, from a thorough con vidion, on my part, the House would aft unwisely to pursue that Measure. It is therefore my duty to .propose Taxes -to supply the deficiency, which will be thus occasioned. The Duty on printed Goods is taken at 1.4.0,0ool.: those on Pepper at 9 z,0001.--:making together the sum Of 232,0001. — it is for the purpose of providing for chat sum of deficiency that I am now about to propose,Taxes. PROBATES OF WILLS. _ _ a The first Tax I shall propose, , is that of an Additional Stamp Duty on Probates of Wills, Or Letters of Administration on property lett by legacy or otherwise, where the value amounts to snore than 6001. and rising grdually from 'that amo unt up to too,oool.—There is a duty already tip to boot• and from thence upon a 'scale of gradation up to to,oool. and then up to 60,0001. but the progressive gradation stops at to,oool. .r h ere he recited the scale of the proposed d ut y,)—and then proceeded to • say, " I pro pose to make an augmentation on almost all these duties exceptin g , the sMaller sums. Upon all. bequests, S,:c. up to io,oool. upon a certain scale of gradation up to I 00,0001. for it does not appear equitable to me that the larger bequests should pay a smaller proportion, with reference to their own amourrt, than the,smaller.--L-It does not seem to me reasonable that the scale of gradation should stop at ro,000l.; I shall therefore propose to pursue the ascending series up to too,oool. ; and by way of Stamp on the Probates of Wills and Letters of Ad ministration in this manner, but I shall propose no new duty where the property does not amount to Cool. From 6001. to i 0 0 ,31. I propose a Duty of 31. which • • I calculate will produce - - - 4. 5 , 479 Frouvtooot. to 20901. col. which will produce Nal° From 20001. tO3GOOI. 201. which will produce s 15,260 fra m.soool.-to-Ps t oool-301. which will e rodoce 1 .4,37° From . teynal. to 15,0001. 5 0 1. which will produce g,OOO the produce of which I am titiahit to state, be- Cause we have no'experience on the scale of grada tion above to,Oool.; but I propose to proceed upon the same principle, up to the value of i 00,0001.— file produce of the whole of this progressive scale, is computed at x24,4spob but I shall only take cre dit for 120,0a0h LEEDS. The next Duty I shall propose is, that of an Ad. ditional Stamp on all Deeds, 'of zs. where 3s. have been laid on in the last At of Parliament in that behalf ; this I estimate, will produce 62,0c01. ALE LICENCES. The next Duty is that of half a guinea additional Stamp on every Licence to sell Ale. Upon this sub jea there has not been any additional• duty imposed since the year 1774. The number of Licences arc 60,000 ; the produce of this Duty I estimate at 32,0001. CARDS AND DICE. The next Duty I shall propose is that of an addi: tional Stamp of 6d. on every Pack of Cards, and zs. 6d. on every Pair of Dice, which I understand will yield considerably more than the Sum at 'which I estimate it. I am informed by those who arc concerned in making these articles, that great frauds are pradisedon the allowance made for exportation. They are reimported without the payment of any duty, and the fraud is stated to be little less than zo,oool. I shall take credit for only half that sum, and therefore, with the additional Duty to be im_ posed, and the measures to be devised to prevent fraud, I shall estimate the whole produce at 20,0031. These, Sir, arc all the (faxes that I shall have at present to propose, and the Committee will ob serve that they stand as follow : Taxes to be relinquished, ; 2 , Taxes proposed in lien of them, Additional Tax on Probates of Wills where the Property left amounts to 6001. or upwards, in creasing gradually as far a property of 100,eool. J. zzo,ooa Additional Duty on Deals of as. in addition to 3s. imposed in the present Sessions, Additional Duty on Ale Licences of tos. 6d. Sixpence per pack addition on Cards, and as. 6d. per pair on Dice, with some regulations to pre vent,the evasion of those Duties, 62,0070 32,000 20,000 k• 234,000 I am sure the Committee will be aware of the difficulty of proposing Taxes which will produce no inconvenience. I can unaffectedly say, but I will not dwell on that subjed, I sincerely lament the necessity of laying fresh ,Burthens on the Public ; but I hope the Committee will be of opinion that I have endeavoured to bring forward such as will be as little onerous as possible. i his not my intention at present to propose all the remainder of the Ways and Means of the year for raising the Supply, in the place of other Duties abandoned ;they shall be' proposed hereafter.—He then Moved'the first Re. solution respeCting the additional duty on Personal Property, which passed - without opposition—as did all the others, except that of the duty on Ale Li cences. When that Resolution was put, Sir ROBERT BUXTON said, he did not rise to, make any • obje&ion to this Tax, because he was perfealy convinced that Taxes are necessary at this moment. He only submitted whether this Tax would be produaive ? He knew• that the last Tax which was imposed on Ale-houses, put down some of the small ones.; the consequence of which was, that a number of houses sold ale without any Li cence. It was extremely difficult to get at these houses. He wished that some fraudulent means might not be devised to lessen the intended produce of this Tax ; he did not oppose it ; he only wished the Tax might be made as produCtive as possible. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, he trusted the Magistrates would have both power and inclination to prevent the abuse alluded to by the Hon. Baronet from being considerable. He thought, it right to anticipate one objeftion which might perhaps be made to this Duty, that of its be, ing hard, upon the Keepers of ,Public.houses.— It should be recolletied, that they had lately re ceived a considerable increase of allowance. on Sol diers being quartered on them : and in a great measure they were relieved from the burthen of re ceivink Soldiers at all. Ili!. ROSE said, he should be sorry that an idea should prevail, that if any houses sold ale or other liquor without a licence, it was owing to the re missness of Magistrates, because they could prevent that abuse. .He knew the contrary from experience. Magistrates had never yet been able to prevent this abusive praCtice -of fraud upon the Revenue,, of sell ing ale and spirits also without licence. Nor would this pradice be ever wholly put down, while the charader of an Informer was held so odious as it was in this Country. You might put one house down that became well known o sell ale and other liquors without, but two obscure byes would rise up in its stead. By this pradiee much inconvenience and detriment to the Public arose ; the Revenue was defrauded in two ways, and the morals of the People injured in some degree. First of all, the selling these articles without a licence was a fraud on the Reve nue ;—secondly, the person who did this constantly dealt in smuggled goods, and did so of necessity, because if he paid the duties on these articles, that of itself would lead to discover him to be a dealer in them, and therefore he must take out hii licence. Lastly, houses of this - kind were the haunts of the very worst Members of the Commimity. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER ad mitted, that to a given extent there was force in these observations, but he hoped the evil alluded to would not be very great. Deferred the other Orders of the Day ; and at Half-past Seven adjourned until To-morrow. I'R ICE - 0 F STOCKS, VLSI ADAY. India Stock Ditto Binds s. dis. ' Exchequer Bills dill. New ditto Ss. dis. Lottery Tic!. v. 4 , Oinniutn 9 Si !Allier. 3 per Cent. SBil Ditto Ann. it 5.46 Dank for Account . India for May Cull. t . t.4 May 641 Bank Stock Navy 5 per Cent. 9614 5 per Cent. 1797, 94 3ii Irish 5 per Cent. 4 per Cent. Con. 7361 3 pertenc•Red. 590 per Cent. Con. Ditto Scrip • nanki•Ong.Anil. ISI 13 Diltu Stioft Aim. 5 i-151 Ditto Scrip SECOIII3 REPOR74 COMMItTEE ECRc.Cl'*i of Elik Hy ;2SE OF COMMONS: . COSIitITTEL of SECRECY; to whom the several Papers, which were presented (sealed up) to the House, by Mr. CtiAncELLoa of the EXCHIqUER, upon the tat and'id Days of Apr tl last, by+lts MA JESTY'S Command, were referred ; and who. wore di rected to examine the MatterS thereof, and report the same, as they shall appear to thent, tollte kloue : Have proceeded further in, their examination of tha Parat, referred to them, and in the investiga t;on and consideration of other and more recent means of information, which have - been furnished . since the period of their First Report. Part of iliese . arising from the oral testimony of, persons well ac, quainted with the state of Ireland, and particularly with the execution of the powers confided in the Lord Lieutenant - by' the several aas for the suppres sion of the Rebellion in that part of the United Kingdom, and who,but lately arrived in England, it would have been impossible for your CoMmittee tq avail themselves or it, if they had not delayed longer th.ikt- would otherwise, hive been necessary, the gepott _which they now submit to the conside ration of the. House. • The Information which, through various chan nels, has reached your Committtee, has deVeloped the views and condud of the disaffeded.in all parts of the . United Kingdom, as well .as on the Conti nent, since the period' when the Report was made from,the Committee of SeereCy in 1799. Most of the sources of intelligence, both on that occasion and the present, are obviously of a nature which, from every consideration of good faith, humanity, and policy, it would be highly improper to particu larize to 'the House : Your Committee have not however negle&ed to exa'm'ine into the degree of credit to +/1 - 11c11 each of them was fairly entitled : they have enquired into the general consistency of the accounts themselves ; the confirmation received from collateral sources, from the precise coinci dence of material,fads with the information' and no tice which had been previously given ; from exist ing and unquestionable documents, corresponding with antecedent verbal accounts ; and from the con fessions of the aaors themselves ; and have seen how far all these have been combined through a pe riod of several years in the communication of any individual. This examination has impressed them with full confidence in . the accuracy of the informa tion received,; and what is now submitted to the House, is the result of the unanimous opinion of your Commitlee as to the truth of the fads" them selves, as well as the consequences which have been deduced from them. It was not to be expeaed, that persons who had deeply imbibed•the principles of the French Revo lution ; who were inflamed with' the most sangui nary animosity against all the. existing establish ments of Church and State; that such of them, par ticularly of the lower. orders of society, whose hopes were instigated by the prosped of the plUnder of.the rich; and tbe'partition of the landed property of the ' countrY, and who had been taught to ,abjure all. the. restraints which ,divine or human laws have - im posed on the passicins of men ; should be indocea, ' by any change of circumstances, or legal coercion, suddenly to abandon those principles, and to return to the duties of loyal and peaceable subjeds : It ac cordingly appears manifest, that,' though the exer tions of the disafFeded $n this country, were. sup pressed by the'vigilance of Government, aeling, un der the powers entrusted to them by Parliamcst, and by the fear of detediort and immediate appre hension, yet their disposition'remained unaltered ; that 'from the month of May 1799, notwithstand ing the detention of several of the most aaive Mem bers of the late Corresponding Society, others have continued occasionally to meet, without any form of regular association, and studiously avoiding any constant place of assemoling,_or written memorial of their transadions.—A principal objea at first was the colleftion of money for the relief of the persons confined under charge's of treasonable and seditious . praftices, with whom they seem constantly to have preserved their former conneaion.—On the sth of NoveMber 1799, when they began to derive fresh encouragement from the unfavourable events on the. Continent, .and the Evacuation of Holland by the British Troops, a party of, them assembled to ale., brate the Anniversary of Hardy's acquittal, on which occasion they appear first to. have ventured. on a more open avowal' of their opinions, and to have indulged in the most treasooal4le and seditious r toasts and songs. 'As yet,. however, the mischief went no farther ; and indeed during all this period, till late in the last year, they seem to have despair ed of any immediate success in . their projeds, for ii which • some of them supposed no favourable op. portunity would occur till the restoration of ; Peace should,. as they hoped, have .at once removed the ' legal restraints which now impeded their operatio, and brought home suchean addition of unemploy!d hands as would increase .the existing scarcity., and add to the prevailing discontents.—They felt them selves, and lamented, the effect of the powers en,. Trusted to Government by the Aft for suspending the Habeas Corpds.Aa . : their former Leaders were dispersed and secluded,, and they apprehended for themselves a . similar fate. Particular events, how.. ever, of the nature before alluded to, had at different times given some encouragement to their views, and; 'diminished their apprehensions: The successes of the enemy in the last Campaign, the disappointments of our Allies, still more Of any eriterprize in which . this Country was more particularly concerned, or any danger which threatened the life Or health of their-Sovereign, were,* they occurred, a constant source of satisfalion, and of renewed hope and ex.. peaation. - The health of the Chief Consul of France, the success of his arms, when opposed to those of their Country ; the progress of the rupture with the Northern Powers, as a means of impoverishing our Merchants, and creating distress and 'disc'on tent among the manufaflurers, were among the first wishes that marked the complexion sof their convivial meetings, or expressed the malignity ofgtheir pri vate reflellions. The dearth of provisions early in the last year, opened • new field for similar speculations, . and the murit of it after the last tiaiVezt, incrc..lsc:l the inducts eats and the h6pti tonv.erting it to thcii views ; :of this, . well' 2ti of .tither public tab:times; thc7 were dispoied, avail titeniselves iri .a wty th,tt marks sufficiently the character o those principlei whidi lead , the kevoluticuary Enthusiast over- look; or Make him seek to angnient the Miseries; .however extended; of . individuals; in the hope of, deriving froth them the nie.int of subveieni ekist ing establishnients: They of indeed openlr much keling for the sufferings of the people; aid fomented their com;laititS agaiiiSt the snppo,ed au: thots of them; bait in 'private they -e4lreiscd their satisfaaion at the.eontinuance Of the. distreSs; and were only apprehemi've that the emse of the com plaint rn , .!-!;r cease by t return of plenty ; they hoped partienr riy that the !.caucitY would press hard Upon the Sold: , ;:ry, and pre lure discontent andiniubbrcii- _ . nation; arid the better to seive their Cause, thetir did not scruple tohdd Ctit the most i.mtva 4 riantia hopes of success in their er.teniive . plans of me ditated seduetion They disapproved •iiided the dibposition td riot • which appeared in WIC places, on account of the scarcity; in' the Month of September last; as leading to partial and •pre mature insurreflion, not sufficiently connetied with their own more large and Revolutionaty views; but they thought a period somewhat later more fa- vourable to their designs ) which might be better advanced by a different linc Qt condat. Linda; this impression, they promoted t Meeting of a most dangerous nature, to be held at Kennington Com.: mon on the 9th of November, by a public adver. risement, Which was stated to Government at the time to be issued under their direction ; 'this fact has since been confirmed by positive deposition upon oath, and by concurrent to which has been obtained in consequence of some of the late appre.: hensions ; from all which it also appears that seve ral of the persons above referred to attended, and that the state of the weather alone preVented their being present in greater numbers ; other Meetings were concerted in different parts of the Metropolis or its vicinity, with a view to dist rad ti:e'attention of Magistrates, and harass the operations of the Mi. litary. The first of these however failed, in conse- quence of the. information ,previouslay afforded to the Officers of Government, and the presence of Magistrates ; and .the others were prevented by die apprehension or deteEtion, from the reward offerea for the conviaion of the persons concerned in convening the first. Similar plans were still in agitation in the following Month, when a seditious and treasonable handbill, in the form of a Pro clamation, was prepared and circulated by a person lately a leading member of the disaffected Societies, and who your Committee have reason to believe was principally concerned in convening the meeting on Kennington Coinmon, a copy of which is annex ed to this Report. While such were the views, and transa&ions of the disafreded in England, many of the United Irish, who had either been driven froni or volun. , tarily quitted their oiyn Country, and resorted to London, seem to have resunitd their former designs, and to . hav,! .prepared similar means of carrying them into cited. They certainly,boasted of having set on foot the' fabrication of those weapons, here, 'which they had used in the disilstrous Rebellion of their own Country ; and several Pikes, though pro tr.:bly not t:) the number which they were desirous their friend 4 Should believe, appear certainly to have been made in different parts .of the Metropolis and its vicinity, and sheWn.on different occasions iimong parties of the disaffeded ; some of those adually engaged in that Rebellion undertook to teach the use of them ; .and contrails were ;lethally in agita ticui with ManufaduTers, described to)rour COM_ mittee,' for furnishing the members of the British Union with,daggers at a reasonable price. No spe cific place was appointed for the meetings which were held 'between -these different descriptions of persons, but sufficient intimation was ' , constantly given to .thoie concerned, where they might on most occasions meet the associates of their criminal designs. It was not, however, till the commencement of the present year, that a settled or coMbined plan of operations seems to have been carried on by any of the peisons above' referred to. The Aft for pre venting Seditious Meetings appears to have expired before they were generally aware of the circum stance ; but the knowledge of it, as soon as circu lated amongst them, inspired fresh hopes, and pre. pared them for less concealed operations, though for a time they were checked by the apprehension which they expressed from the continuance of the Law suspending the Habeas Corpus IV. : the (error of this preventbd their calling General Meetings as had .been at first 'suggested ; and it was not .till both' should be removed, that they intended to execute the plan which they had concerted for' renewing, in ; a more dangerotts shape, their secret combinations. These points gained, a new Association began to be formed ; the members of which were bound to each other by an Oath, and distinguished by a sign known only to the initiated. - In the forination of this new Society, ten men were, to have the management of the whole bUsi_. ness, under the title of Executives, who alone held Meetings for Jhese purposes ; them communicated,• by means of a SUperintendant, with. ten others in each District, celled Comtunors, each of whom was to have ten men under him, known only, to him self; their duty was to swear in, fresh Members, to transmit a list of their Indies and places of ribode to the ExeCutives, and such'money.as was collened for the use of the Society, to the Tre.asurer. The advantages proposed from this arrangement were— Secrecy, from the small number of the Executives, and Celerity in calling large • Meetings together, through :he intervention of the subordinate gra dation of Members, and thus precluding any disco. very from their associates, by calling them all sud_ dent) , into anion, and having them immediately under the eye of the principal Leaders. A printed Address, tending to Ineite the People to Insurtec tion, was circulated by scam: of these Condittors, whose duty was.presibed in the: sane paper; then with the Oath :tbave.mentioncd, whiAt is.. in. •serted in the Appendix, as aiso another fur a of the Orders given to the Conhaors. (To ic cortinkii.)