The Sun.
London, England, 1806-06-25 00:00:00

LINEN DRAWBACK BILL.

Mr. FOSTE* moved the Order of the Day, for
taking into consideration the Report upon this Bill.
kil'4;l7,lliT said, that this was a subje&
which materially concerned Ireland, because she had
,suffered from a mistake which had crept into the A&
which INid passed last year, granting a drawback up-
on the exportation of certain linens. . The objeet'of
this Bill was to corre& this error and the only ob-
jeEtion he had to this Bill was the date, which had
.been inserted in the Committee; he understood that
in. order. to alter that datb, it would be necessary to
re-commit the Bill; he should therefore nOwmove,
that the Bill be re-committed. •

Atr.',/):71/KS0N said, that in stating the ground
of complaint which Ireland had upon this subject, it
Would. not be necessary for him to occupy much of.
the time of the' House, because they were obvious
to every one, and hcd been fairly acknowledged. It
had been stated, and it could
,not be too often stated,
_that the error which it was now,:proposed to reCtify
arose entirely from mistake: even tho Se. Gentle Men
'ilio nOmr objejted the corroEtioA the.error, ad-
mitted that it arose from mistake but they wished
to do that which lie had never seen. done in any Par-
liament' in which
:he ever sat, viz., to legalize and
sandion • the mistake which they acknowledged had
"crept into the Ad of Parliament"; for it would in
effed !be sanctioning the mistake, if the time when
the drawback was to cease was protraCted until. the
'?sth. March next. The fads of the case he under-
stuo to be simply these ; that it was thought pro-
per last year to grant a drawback upon the exporta-
tion of certain foreign coloured linen, and a Bill
was brqught in for that purpose, and a schedule was
ordered to be drawn up, enumerating. the different
kinds of linen upon which the drawback was to be.
allowed, leaving out plain linen ; but either by
fraud or accident, plain linen was inserted, and be-
came entitledto the draWback, to the great injury of
Ireland, because it was, itila6t, giving a bounty upon
the exportation of foreign plain linen. When. he
_Used the expression fraud, he beggitl, however, not
"to be Understood as throwing any .imputation upon
The person Who drew up the schedule, of whom he
'had no knowledge; but if such a mistake had crept'
into an AO. of Parliament when Ireland was blessed
'With a resident Parliament, he would ask2ny Mem-
her,' whether' he did not think. that.one of the first
iniA;sures of . the next Session would be to correct
that mistake, or if no Member of Parliament had
taken up' the sullied, would not the . Trade of
Ireland have
_appeared at the Bar, and demand. .
'ed redress?.. 'He asked no preference for - Ire-
land: When Ireland , made common cause with
this Country, she could.not.exped that in the.event
of any .competition of interests bet Ween., the two
-co,.lntri6s, that she was to have the preference;
Ireland did not eXpe4 that the weaker Contrading
'f'artY*'as-to have the Advantage' 'over the stronger.
Ireland did not exped,a preference; but from the
present.Adtninistration, whose principles were very
.generally approved of in that Country, she expected
:liberality and justice. On this occasion she asked
ne more than justice.. Was it more than justice
to give nosy to. 'lreland that which Parliament
meant to have given to her last year,. and actually
would have given tq 'her if it had 'not been for
this -inistakel Ireland_ did not askfor any remu-
neration' for the losS she had, sustained by this
mistake, she only wanted to be placed in the
situation} in I.vhich,Oe would have been if this mis-
take 'had not happened. Ireland consented to give
up•the advantage which she ought to have had, to
the tnercatitile-- interest of this 'Country, ;who had
aaed upon•the.faith of this A& of Parliament, and
Nvhlcs,-it was Contended, ought not to suffer because
there was a• mistake in the Ad. 'fie was far. from
:iivishing that ihey'sheuld'suffer ;, he Only asked that
mistake, from
_which Ireland.' had - Suffered •
a(*) much; should not be -continiied next SesSion.—
Let Ireland be_placed the situation Parliament
intended .to place her 'last year,. and if the queskien
of the DrawbaCk was to be discussed again, let not
the anus pfool7l4i be thrown Oen kelancl: i let her
tiot -41e'Defopdant, in the;Cause.—.
tyPn thes,...l'grounds' he should vote fin- the fecom.,
initril-ent ct Be •• .

ri 'Lord :1--LE2.17.R.17 T 2 ca thai the lion. Gen-
~„: 4,

Id, 44. .sp

tleman who had just sat down had argued the que-
stion very fairlj; he had stated, that the ones pro-
, bandi. ought-not to be thrown: upqn Ireland ; cer
tainly it ought not; but it was necessary to take:care
that ,the persons who had been misled by, this, mis-
take in the A& of Parliament should be proteeted.
It was not contended that there was any thing like
fraud in this case ; it. was avowedly, a mistake ; but
one from which there were two descriptions of suf-
ferers ; first, the Manufadurers of Ireland ; and,
secondly, (when the mistake was corrected) thOse
persons in this Country who had embarked their capi-
tal upon the faith of the Aa of Parliament. All
. that was now propOsed was, to give them sufficient
time to withdraw that capital. It certainly had been
contended, that Ireland did not suffer any inconve-
nience from this measure,- but Parliament would re-
quire the most full' and satisfaddry evidence upon
that subjeCt before it altered the opinion which it
had formed, and which if meant when carried
into effe& last year. The Honourable Gentleman
had appealed to the House, on the part of Ireland,
for impartial justice : he was sure there was not a
Member in that House who wished to a& otherwise
towards Ireland; for himself be Must gay, that the
feelings he possessed, and the connexions be. had
with Ireland, could not suffer him to be indifferent
to its interests ; and, he believed, the general feel-
ing of the House was to deal with fairness, according
to the relative situation of the two parties.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT said, that the question
between. his Noble Friend and lay within a
very narrow compass, viz. whether • he blank in the
Bill should have been filled up with the 25th De-
cember or the 25th March. It appeared to him,
• that for the purpose of enabling persons to with-
draw their capital from this trade, and to prote&
them from suffering by the mistake in the Ad of
Parliament, the 25th of December would do just as
well as the 25th of March, and that it did hold out
to them the chance of embarking in the trade for
another year, which was the great objedion he had
to the latter date. He thought prolonging the pe-
riod until the 25th March could only tend to hold
out delusive hopes to the Importers of German Li-
. nen, because it would lead them to suppose that ano-
ther discussion was to take place upon this ques-
. tion. next .Session. ,As this mistake had, .Occurred,
all that Parliament was now bound to do was; to
take care that the persons who had embarked their
property upon the faith of the A& of Parliament,
should not suffer by the mistake, and that that be
effeatually done by,allowing them till Dec. .25th to
withdraw, their capital from this trade. It. bad been.
contended that Ireland did not suffer by this mistake;
let them who maintained that proposition come and
make out their case, but let them-come precisely in
the same situation as if this error had not been com-
mitted. Parliament gave them till the 25th of
,Marcb next to withdraw themselves from this-trade,
which was so, much longer than was necessary, it
would be giving them-a hope that it was intended to
discuss. the question again next Session. He trusted
the House would, not, while it acknowledged the
mistake, and waS proposing to -rectify it, at the same
time invite the persons who drew a benefit from it
to continue to ad upon that mistake, by putting off
the time when it was to be corrected to so distant
a period. :He should therefore'vote for the re-com-
mitment .of the Bill, in order to substitute the 25th
December for the 2.5 th March.

Mr. FOSTER said, that after what' had fallen
from the Hon. Members who had ,preceded hm;
it would- not be necessary for him to trespass long
upon the time of the Hou,se. The 'fads of the case
were shortly these : there -was a duty of eighteen
shillings upon foreign linen ; by the Mt of last year
there was a • drawback of sixteen shillings allowed
upon- exportation of foreign linen : this drawback
was only intended to extend to coloured linen ; but
by a mistake, plain linen had also been inserted
in the SchedUle, and it was to reCtify that mis-
take that the present Bill was brOught. in.
"That
this mistake was extremely injurious to Ireland
could not be doubted ; because, in fail, it.operoted
as a bounty of two-pence a. yard upon- the ex-
portation of foreign linen, and no bounty was
given upon the exportation of Irish linen; to enable
it to meet the foreign linen. He was not now
arguing for Ireland alone, England and Scotian&
were also concerned; because the linen trade of one
of them could not be injured without the trade of
the others being affeeted: He by no means wished
that any person should suffer in consequence of this
mistake, and therefore he had proposed that the per-
sons who had, embarked in this trade in consequence
of this mistake • should be Allowed till the 25th
of December to withdraw themselves from it.—
That period would have
.been amply sufficient
for that purpose ; but they wished to .prolongit in
hopes that the subject would be revived nexfSession.
The English Merchant would not sustain any injury
by fixing on the 25th December instead of the 25th
"March, because he. would not have any opportunity
of sending out any linen either to the West Indies
or to the-Baltic between those two periods ; the
wish, therefore, to prolong •the period could only
arise from the motive he had alluded to. There was
one point relative to this trade which he wished to
explain, because Gentlemen in general might not be
acquainted with it, and that was, that during the
Reign of King William, Ireland was called upon to
give up her woollen trade, which was then not in-
considerable ; the Parliament of Ireland acquiesced';
and, in return for this sacrifice, the Parliament ,
of England bargained to encourage in every pos-
sible way the linen trade oof Ireland. This bar-
gain agreed upon' between the two Parliaments,
I.,Vas- ratified •by the King. At the time of the
Union one of the Contra&ing Parties, viz.' the Par-
liament of Ireland, was merged in the United Par--
liament, and therefore it was now incumbent upon
the United Parliament to: consider itself not as a
contrasting party, but as the guardian of the con-
traet.

Mr. MAGENS said, he did not think.:-.thattbe
extension of the drawback 'to plain linen arosekfrom
mistake ; but whether it did or
.not, he contended
that it was by no 'means -injurious to Ireland ; he,
:therefore; opposed the recommitment of the Bill.
Mr.'l7o§E said, that this subjeet was very. ma-
turely discussed by a CoAmittee of' the ,Board of
Trak • the majority of 'the Committee ente fained
a different opinion from :him, and the Bill of last
year was-ordered to, be hrought in.'. The tnis;:ake
Which had hen alluded td`certainly did fiud its Way
into the Schedule ; and thbugh 'he still reta4r&illis'
opi4ion that tierb would
.be'a greater expori`ollliP„n.

if the Drawback remained' as it uo,w was, yet a 3
there had undoubtedly been a rnistake, irought to be
corre&ed. . -
After a few words from Mt. ALEXAND=R the
House divided on the amended Motion for re-com-
witting the All when the numbers were--T-For it
30—Against it 40—Majority 10.
The Report was then ordered to be taken into
further consideration to-morrow.
GLOBE INSURANCE INCORPORATION BILL.
Sir T. METCALFE moved the Order of the Day for
the second reading of,the Bill for incorpOrating the
Globe Insurance Company. ' .
Lord CASTLEREAGH put it to the Gentlemen
on the other side of the House, whether, as this Bill

was likely to give rise to some diseUssion, it would

not be More Ciesirable to put it off to sprne future
day, to make Way for the discussion of a more im-
portant measuro (the Defence Bill), which was
fixed for this day ; or if the Bill was tq go on, that
there should be an understanding in the House that
the other discussion should npt be brought on at a
late hour.

• Lord HZl4'lO7 P4T7'Y did not think the -discus-
sion of this measure could occupy much. time. It
was not for him to anticipate what may be the plea-
sure ,of the House with respeet to calling. in the
Counsel, but he had no difficulty in saying, that if
the discussion should be protratted to any , length,
there would be no objedion to put *Atha other dis-
cussion to a more convenient time.

On the question being put, that the Bill be now
read a second time,
Sir JOHN ANDERSON moved an amendment, that
the Bill be read a second time this day Ihree months,
in which he was supported by Sir WILLIAM Cult-
TrS, Mr. GRENFELL, and Sir CHARLES PRICE, On
-the ground that the Bill would be an infringement
upon the rights of theLonclon and Royal Exchange
Insurance Compatiies.
Mr. Alderman COHSE, Lord HENRY PETTY, Mr.
PAULL; and Mr. ALEXANDER, supported the second
reading, on the ground that a competition was fa-
vourable to the public; that the trade and shipping
of. the Country had been vastly increased since the
Chatters had been granted to the Companies alluded
to ; and that other Corporations were necessary to,
meet the accutriulation of business, and this Com'.
pany proposed to contribute 100,0001. to the public,
and to invest a capital of 1,00.0,000 L. in the public
funds, and without requiring any exclusive privileges.
Mr. Paull too, stated, that above seven millions an-
nually were insured -in - India for want of Corpora-
tions in England for effetiing insurance, more confi-
dence being placed in Companies than in individual
or private insurers.

Mr. PERCIVAL,, Mr. SHAW LE FEVRE, and Mr.
WM. Smipi, were of opinion that counsel should
be heard on the Bill, and the matter of the Petitions
against it, before the House should come to any de-
cision. A division then took place. For the Amend-
&tient 20—Against it 74--• Majority 54.
On the Motion that Counsel should be called in,
another division took place :-r-For calling in Coun-
sel, 39—Against it, 62.
The Bill was of course read a Second time, and
ordered to be committed.

.On the Motion of Sir ARTHUR .WELLESLRY it
Was Ordered, that the. minutes. of the evidence on
the Oude Charge against Lord Wellesley be printed.
On- the Motion. Of Mr. PA ULL it was ordered, that
there be laid before the House a Copy of a Letter
of the Marquis Wellesley to the Nabob Vizier,
dated 27th SeFtember, 1803, relative to. Mr. NULL. _

On the Motion of Mr. W. SMITH the Slave Ship-
ping Bill went through a cofmnittee. The opera-
tion 'of the A& was limited to two years from the
close of the present Session of Parliament, and a pe-
nalty of '5Ol. imposed'on the importation of every
Slave imported in contravention of it. The Report'
was ordered to be received ,to-morrow..