The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1783-07-08 00:00:00, page 1

LONDO N.
HOUSE.of COMMONS, April 23.
American Intercourse BILL.
MR. Secretary Fox having moved that
the order of the day be read for the
Houle's resolving itfelf into a committe on
this bill, it was# read accordingly, and the
Speaker having left the chair, Mr. Sc. An
drew St. John.took his feat at the table.
The committee then proceeded to de
bate the clauses and fill up the blanks,
when
Sir Robert Herries rose, and said, two
matters of objection to the bill as it flood,
ftruk him, which he would take the li
berty of stating. In the firft place, he
conceived it was not the design of the par
ty, who. brought in the bill to place Ame
rican ships on better terms than British
ihips, but that the benefits, advantages,
and accommodations, derived under the
operation of the bill, if it passed into a law,
should be reciprocal. At present, as the
clauses of the bill were worded, he con
ceived American vessels would be allowed
a variety of advantages, which were not
extended to British ships. Another mat
ter that appeared to him to require fame
alteration was this : Suppose a plague
should break out in any of the thirteen
Provinces of America, according to the
wording of the bill, the government of
Great Britain would have no authority to
oblige American ships, coming under such
circumstances, to perform quarantine, or
produce bills of health. Sir Robert said,
he did not mention these matters by way
of opposing the bill, or throwing the least
impediment in its way. The bill he was
convinced, was a measure extremely ne
cessary, and he had a full confidence in its
being the intention and desire of his Ma
jesty's Ministers to pass it in a shape best
adapted to the peculiar circumstances to
which it was to apply, and in the way least
liable to objeffion of any kind; it was e
nough for him therefore, to h^ve fuggehed
what struck him as worthy some attention,
Mr. Secretary Fox said he was afham~d
to repeat what he had been so often obhg
ed to trouble the house with on the fubjea
of the present bill, but as the objection
started came within the scope of the de
claration he had before made, he could not
avoid repeating the fame answer. The
present bill he begged gentlemen to recol
fca, was a mere temporary measure, a
dapted to an occasion that pressed exceed
ingly. viz. The necessity of opening an
immediate intercourse with America. In
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER.
HARTFOR D: Printed BY H U DSO N and GOODWIN, near the Great Budge.
TUESDA Y, July 8, 1783.
doing it, the object of the bill was rather
to remove obstacles than to provide regu
lations, and therefore particular care had
been taken to couch she bill in as general
terms as possible; in short to avoid any
thing like an adverfion to the legal situa
tion of America and Great-Britain, and to
leave it partly to the negociation now
going on and partly to the consideration
of Parliament in their digesting and melio
rating another bill then pending, to fay
what rules the nature of the case rendered
most necessary, and to give those rules and
regulations their due authority. Had the
late Ministry been so good in their adjust
ment of the provisional treaty, as to have
inserted some one article or other that had
a reference to a future treaty of commerce
between America and Great Britain, they
would have not only done their country a
very essential pieceof service, but have saved
the present government and both Honfes
of Parliament an infinite deal of trouble,
and lelieve them from a difficulty which
in every point of view that it could be con
sidered would be found to be of great mag
nitude. Had the late ministry, for in
stance, not only by their treaty agreed that
a cessation of hostilities should take place
in the ftrift and common sense of the
words, viz. by the armies of the two coun
tries no longer continuing to fight, or
make war on each other, but in a more
general acceptation of the term, and a
more excofive sense of it, namely, that
from anq after the ratification of the pro
visional treaty 4bat all forts of boflilities
should cease and that the prohibitary laws
that impeded the commerce for the two
countries should no longer have eff^d on
either fide, in that case undoubtedly there
would have been little or no occasion for
the present bill.' As the last administrati
on however, had not beeri 'kind enough,
in this treaty of peace with America, to
have made the provision necessary to pre
vent the embarrassments the country
now felt, it became the duty of his Ma
jesty's present servants to apply the belt
and most speedy remedy, that the nature
of the case would admit, and as he did not
doubtthatevery gentlemanfaw the necessity
of immediately opening an intercourse with
America, they wouldjoin with him in think
ing, that ifthey were to look to every possible
case that might arise (such as the case of a
plague breaking out in any of the thirteen
Provinces, which though it came within
the scale of possibility, was not very much
within that of probability, ac kaft if the
shortness of the time, for which the pre
sent bill was intended to operate and have
effect, was considered) instead of embrac
ing the objeft of the bill without delay,
they would scarcely ever be able to attain
it. Mr. Fox therefore hoped, if the other
clauses of the bill were thought unobjec
tionable, it would be allowed to pass with-'
out any material alteration.
When Mr. St. Andrew St. John came
to the clause giving a power to his Majes
ty in Council to issue such order or orders
as to their wisdom should seem proper dur
ing the operation of the bill with refpeft
to the mode of entry of American vessels,
as far as regarded a dispensation with the
duties, an allowance of the drawback,
bounties, &c.
Mr. Arden rose, and after declaring that
he was a firm friend to the bill, and par
ticularly lb to the purport of the present
clause, which he had himlelf suggested as
necessary to be introduced into a former
bill, now, for very good reasons, suspend
ed, said, he thought it would be more ad
visable to define exprefsiy, the full extent
of the powers intended to be vested in his
Mjefty in Council, than to leave it to con
je&ure and doubtful conftrudion. Mr.
Arden reasoned very sensibly on this point,
and remarked, that it was undoubtedly
necessary, in the particular case in questi
on, to give very extensive powers to the
crown; but. it appeared to him to be by
far the wif ft way to exp r efs in the bill,
the full extent/of the powers so vested in
the Crown, in order that gentlemen might
not at a future period, fay that when they
voted for the bill, they were not aware that
they gave, and that they never meant to
give powers to such an extent. Mr. Ar
den, after urging the necessities of this in
strong terms, proposed to insert the words
'' Duries drawnbacks or otherwise," in
the clause under consideration.
This occasioned a conversation between
Mr. Secretary Fox, Mr. Eden, Governor
Johnftone, Mr. Anthony Bacon, Mr.
Thornton and Mr. Arden, in which it
was on all hands agreed, that the bill was
indifpenfibly necessary, and Mr. Secretary
Fox having declared his readiness to adopt
any proposition not likely to defeat the aim
of the bill, the amendment was adopted,
proposed and agreed to,
TQe clause stating how long the bill
was to have effeft, was next difeuffed, and
it became a qweftion, what the time of its
operation should be. By some fix weeks,
and by others a month, was proposed as
(No. 963.1