The National Register.
London, England, 1808-01-04 00:00:00

JAN. 4.

Nov. V.-Mr. J. Clay presented a Memorial from sun-
dry inhabitants and traders of the city of Philadelphia,
praying that the Act prohibiting the importation of certain
goods, wares, and merchandize, passed the 18th April, 1806,
may be repealed.
Mr, Clay moved, that the Memorial be referred to the
Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.

Mr. Rowan hoped the Petition would not be referred to
any Committee, He thought it would be beneath the dig-
nity of the House to give it any consideration. Had he been
in Congress at the time the law passed, he would have
voted against it ; but as it had passed, and as we had re-
ceived a fresh insult from Great Britain in the attack on
the Chesapeake, he would not vote for its repeal.
Mr. Crowninshield said, that from the rumours which
were afloat, and the disposition of Great Britain, he enter-
tained no hope that she would do America justice. She
was making great preparations, endeavouring to decoy the
Indians on our frontiers, and was arming her Militia in
Canada and Nova Scotia.

Mr. Randolph said, if the prayers of the petitioners was
improper, would it not be better to expose their errors in
a masterly Report from a Committee, than to slam the
dour in their faces, and affecting all the airs of an Asiatic
Sovereign, refuse to hear them ? We were, he believed, on
the eve of a war with Great Britain; and we were treading
in the very footsteps of the British Ministry on the eve cf
an American War, and on the eve of the French War. The
House, Mr. R. said, had now been in session five weeks;
and, on the eve of a war, they were discussing whether we
should import locks with brass nobs or locks with iron
nobs ; they were sitting there looking at one another, read-
ing newspapers, writing letters, receiving back checks, and
counting their money ; and the nation was precisely in the
same situation as it was when the House first assembled.
If we were to have a war with Great Britain, as he believed
we were, it would become the House at the outset to con-
ciliate those by whom that war was to be carried on ; he
meant by those, the great body of the American people,
and not the rich merchant more than the landholders, but
not less.

After a long debate, the question was then taken for re-
ferring the Petition to a Committee of the whole House,
and it was lost.—ayes 50—Noes 80.
The petition was ordered to lie on the table.

NEW YORK, Dm R.—The visit of General Moreau to
the westward, and the expedition of his travelling., has ex-
cited a variety of conjecture in the political world. A
friend of the General has handed us the following account of
the motives of his journey, which will fully satisfy the
curiosity, and allay the suspicions of those who are always
watching the movements of great characters.

" The General had some time ago, the misfortune of losing
his only son. His Lady has also been under the necessity of
returning to France, in order finally to settle some family con-
cerns. Such painful separation, added to the dreadful loss
which he hid just experienced, have rendered his house so to-
tally disagreeable to him, that in order to divert his griefs, he
has determined to undertake this excursion, and visit the Ohio
and slissis4ippi, as far down as New Orleans. His intention is
only to remain a few dais at the latter place, as he wishes to
be in Charleston next February, and in New York the follow-
ing month.

" The season being so far advanced, made it necessary for
him to travel with some rapidity, and it wa►; only a few das
before he left New York, that he was informed a passage could
be proi ured.

E' This explanation was perhaps unnere.ssary, for no person
of common sense will imagine, tti.et one of the greate,bt