The National Register.
London, England, 1808-02-28 00:00:00

T 111111511% V, FEB. 423.

The Unc'aimed Dividends Bill, and Bank Three Million
Lo in Bill, went through a Committee.
L ,rd :Mt VIM rose to move the be coot' reading of the Brazil
T, ade Bill. The only object of the measure was to make such an
alteration in the general Navigation Laws as to admit the pro-
ce of the Brazils, when imported in,l'ortuguese .hips, on the
sa,ne footing, as if imported in British vessels; or, in other
words, to place the Colony, under the present circumstances,
in the same relation towards us as tile Mother Conntry.
Lorin .1 chi. 4ND el I not mean to oppose the measure under
the present c rcunktanccs, but the subject w oul&require the
oust sci bilk; investigation whene%er it came to be Considered
with a iew to a permanent arrangement. The imports from the
Brazils must enter most materially into competition w ith those
from our own colonies. The Brazils furnished for exportation
yeaily, about 73,000 hogsheads of sugar, and 2.1,000,00011 n. of
cotton. The produce of all our colonies was, of the former ar-
tkle, 280,000 hogsheads, of the latter 16,000,000 lbs. It.
therefore, struck him as a policy extremely questionable, to
give facility and encouragement to the importation of foreign
(arks aid produce to such an extent, at a period when we had a
dead surplus of 89,000 hogsheads of sugar, and immense quamti-
tis!) of utht r commodities lying in the West India Dock Ware-

FEB. 28.

houses. Ile did not thick the evil would be removed Is) the
permission to distil from sugar ; for, if the dsstillerics were
confined to that article alone, the demand would not exceed
12,000 hogsheads.
I.OIID iI.IWKEIBITRY stated the purpose of the Bill to be nn
more than that of placing the colony, which had now become
the seat of the Portuguese Government, in the same situation
with the mother country.—The Bill was read a second time(
LORD LA VDERD,II.F. moved that the paper containing infor-
mation relative to the more rigorous execution of the French
Decree of the 21st of November, should he printed.
toity 11.45t-ticsarai tlkonght that every purpose for which
the paper had been required, would be ans.wered by its bring
laid on the table ; and by not giving it further publicity, the in-
convenience of deterring commercial men from communicating
intelligence to Government might be avoided.
The 'notion was put and negatived; as seas also a motion by
Lord Lauderdale, for a Copy of a Report on an officer of the
French Custom-house at Antwerp, relative to the execution of
the Decree of the 21st of November.—This was the suppressed
document to which his Lordship previously referred.
On the suggestion of Lord Auckland, the third reading of the
American Intercourse Bill was postponed to Tuesday next.
Lord (7arlisle directed their Lordships' attention to the Order
in Council of the 'sth of November, as bearin, upon the Art,
7th of the King, respecting the trade to and from the Isle of
Man. By the Art, teas, wine, &e. could not he exported from
that islatid hut to Great Britain t whereas the Orders in Conn-
eil permitted the free exportation of all articles legally im-
ported. 114 Lordship contended, that this was an assumption
If a dispensing power, and urged Ministers to apply for an
Act of Indemnity ; conceiving that the breach of the law corn-
nitted was the result of inadvertency. lie concluded with pro-
posing a Resolution, declaring the regulation referred to a ma-
nifest breach of the law. _ _ _

Time LORD eIIINCELLOR contended, that the words of the
Order did not carry the meaning annexed to them by the Noble
Lord, and therefore that no violation of law had taken place.
l'hey bore reference not to the 7th of the King, hut to the
Order in Council of the I Ith of November.—The motion was
negatived without a diyi,ion.
In answer to repeated questions from Lords Auckland and
Lauderdale, Lord Bathurst stated, that under the Orders its
Council the Americans could not export enemy's colonial pro-
duce direct from America to Sweden.
Several alterations were then made in the order of discussion
of the different notices of motions before the 140u.e. Amongst
these the second reading of the Debtor and Creditor Bill was
postpomal to Friday fortnight.—Adjourned.