The Sun.
London, England, 1812-04-08 00:00:00

EAST INDIA COMPANY,

An Honourable Member (Mr. MILLs, we believe)
applied for leave .)t the Howie to presrnt a Poilion
front t .e East India Company, praying a renewal of
their Chart: r..

The SPEAKER inquired shy the Petition, being a'
prLvate one, had ,ot ples:nted before ?, •
_ _

The Hon. Member entered into an explanation of
the•cadies in which the del iy • had originated, He,
however, did not speak in a tone sufficiently aodible
to be distinctly heard iu the gallery,

Lord A. HAMILTON look this ealliest opportunity
of noticing /had. passed at the Court of three-
tors and Proprietors of the East India-Company,
where it appeared to have been .sated, , that the.
Right Hon. Gentleman had pledged him.•elf en-
deavour to procure for the Company the Fxclusi%e
trade to China, as also to procure them the mon/y
they -might have Occasion-for in the next two years,
t least he had pledged hiMself to recomme,d such
a grant to Parliament. He had given (as it was
stated) a faither pledge relating to the contrdul of
the army, and be had given one or two others as
preliminaries to bringing the business before Parlia-,
ment. He mentioned these on this' occasion, that
if such pledges had not been given by the Right Hon.;
Gentleman, he might have an opportunity of con:
tradicting them at once. If it was tiue that he had
given such, he (Loid A.-Hamilton) thought he had
evinced but little respect for Parliament.

,
T!‘e CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUEROUgHt
that nothing that bad passed at the East India Ho-rse,
or between himself and the Directors could at all
fetter the proceedings of Parliament. He had
thought it his duty, before he brought a subjeti of
such importance before that ['Luse, to form his own
opinion on it, and prepara'ory to submitting a mea-
sure to Parliament, same correspondence with the
Dirc..etors of the East India Company tr..td to him ap-
neared necessary. Eefore a Bill was br. ught in on the
subject, he had thought it proper to communicate to
them what was the bearing of his mind on certain
propositions involved in the question. That he had
done so he thought was no mark of disrespect to the
House, and no breach of his public duty. With re-
sped to any particular opinion that he might have
expressed, if it should appear that he bad taken an
erroneous view of the subjed, the sant:lkon of the
House could be withheld, and the proposition-; he
might submit to,them, it would be for them to re-
ject ; but at preSent he did not conceive:rhe had a
right to be called upon by the Millie Lord, or by the
House, to slate \vim 'those opinions were, or at all
to discuss the subject, when they could not go on
with the discussion, so as to make it lead to any
practical result. He hoped the House would not
call for his opinion on this subject, and that the
Noble Lord would think it no disrespect to him that
at present he declined• to reply to the question he
had put. He would now only state that he had
taken a most erroneous view of the subjed, if it was
a breach of duty on h 4 part to communicate with
the Directors of the East India Company, or if it
was disrespectful to Parliament to endeavour to form.
all opinion himsulf •on the merits of the question,•
bet Ore he brought it under their consideration. •
Lord A. HAMILTON observed, the Right Hon.
Gentleman' had not answered -the quevion he ba.l
put to him.

General GAstoroprz vt,ished to" call the attention
of the House to one point. He understood it was
intended to open the trade in some measure, but he
thought it would:be very unjust to the ontports and
to Ireland, that all ships returning from India should
be made to discharge their cargoes into the port of
Lot-icier), as it should seem was proposed, in the
correspondence between the Board o 1 Controul and
the Directors of the 'East India Company. Hu
would bring this question seriously before the Hou-o
to-morrow, and would move for papers on the sub-
jea as soon as the present busin6s was disposed
of.

Mr. HOWARD inquired how it was that nothing
appeared to hive been dune on this subjeot horn
1809 to December 181 i ?

Mr.WALLAcc could not give an official answer to
the question of the_ last speaker. He, hOwever;pro-
ceeded io explain. that which had been noticed, and
was understood to say, that though he did not know
that any official correspondence had taken place
within the period alluded to, yet there had been
communications .and discussions on the subject.--
Some delay had occurred in consequence of hs-ne-
ing thought desirable to wait for the Report of the
Committee on the ftnances of the East India Corn
pang. With msret to what had.been said by the
Noble Lord of V.:. cnnc:.ssionsiwhich .had been
made'by his Right Hon. Friend, he thought they
were answered by those very proceedings on the
Report on which he had founded his statement, as
it fletd there been stated that all was conceded on the
part of die Company, while notlvng s secured
in return. TII:! pipers for which the Hop. Gene.
intto.ded to move, were papers to rbe-produ, tit ti
of which he! did not know thatany objeeiin would
bet made, but he• thought the motion at present
might be premature.
Afier, a few 1w her nbgervations from General
Gascolgne, General Tarieton, Mr. Astelt, Lord.A.
Hamilton, and Nr. Wellace, the Pet ton .wc.s

brought up and read, and ordered to lic on the
t ble.

On the motion of Gen. GASCOJGNE, Copi s of
Correspondence which had taken place bete/reit
the Board of Conti-out aed the Direders of the East
m
India Cepany, re-peeling the renewal of their
* present Charter, were ordered to be laid before the
House ; but with as trudarstsnding, that any-paper.
which ha' not been published, of the pro-priety of
producing which,- a doubt might be entertained,
' should be exempted from the order. He also gave
notice, that he would to-morrow call the attention
of the House to the subjea.
Sir T. TURTON postponed his motion respeaing
the property tax. The nature of his motion had
b.esi misunderstood. The sole object of it was to
inquire if it were not at present unequal in its ope-
rations, and if it could not be so modified and al-
tered as to be less objeaionable ? The Hon. Baro-
net then moved fin accounts of the amount SOf the
Property Tax raised in the years ending April sth,
1810, 1811, and 1812 ; as alto Accounts of the out-
standing Exchequer Bills discharged in the year
ending Feb. 1, 1812 ; of the Exemptions to Foreign-
ers, and of Navy Bills discharged.-Agreed to.
Sir Jotter NEWPORT' rose to correa a statement
which be bad made before the recess, respeaing the
prices of provisions in Ireland. He had reason to
believe that the inferrnatton which had been com-
municated to him was not correa, and he believed
that the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite to him,
(Mr. W. Pole) was now convinced
..that he was
also deatived by the reports from Ireland. It was
not true, as had been stated, that the Distiller; bad
laid in all their stock of corn, for they were still con-
tinuing to go into the market, and to buy up all the
grain they could. He concluded with moving, that
there be kid bef ere the House an account of nil the
gain, malt, meet, and flour, exported from Ireland,
trorn the Ist Jainrar y, 1802, to the latest tieriod to
which the same could be made our.
Mr. W. POLE s.id, there could not he any objec-
tion. to the motion of the Right Hoe. Baronet, but
be was inclined to' think a great parr of the informa-
tion called for was already before the House, in con-
sequence of a to mer motion. With regard to what
the 'Right Hon. Barchiet had stated respecting the
inaacuracy of the returns from Ireland, he begged
to state, that lie had reason to believe that iu some
instances'the returns were certainly fallacious. The
Irish Government, however, was taking every means
in its power to obtain the most accurate informa-
tion or this most important subject. It was true
that the Dublin Distillets had continued to go into
the arket to purchase grain, the return therefore
stating that they had laid in their stock was not
clelte eorrea. The Light. Hon. B rronet would, he
was sure, give the Government of Ireland ciedit for
adopting every means to obtain the oiliest and most
authentic inforrna:ion ; and, from all the, accounts
that reached him (Mr. Pole), he was not prepared to
say that he liars at all altered the opinion be had
expressed upon this subject when it was last men-
tioned in the House. His opinion was now, a; it
s was then, that there was no aelual scarcity of grain
in Ireland. There certainly did exist in 6oh)e places
an apprehension of the kind, arising from the high
prices of grain, which were the consequence of
the great export both of grain and spirits.-
The increase of the prices had been so fon-
siderable, that be felt it necessary that some
sep should be taken to satisfy the people of. Ire-
land, that.every attention was paid to their interests.
It would not perhaps be proper, at present, to stop
the Distilleries; but there could be no objection, in his
opinion, to stopping the export of spirits from Ire-
land to foreign parts, and he now gave notice, that
be should to-morrow 'nave the House to resolve it-
self into a Committee, to consider of the export of
spirits-from Ireland. He also wished .to give no-
tice, that he should to-morrow propose, in the Com-
mittee of Ways and Means, an additional duty upon
Irish spirits. He hoped that the adoption.of these_
two measures would, at least, have the effea of
preventing the increase of she prices if they did not
lower them. The Government of Ireland was, as
be had already stated, taking every means to ascer-
tain the Meal state of Ireland with respeat to itssup-
ply of grain, and ifit should appear necessary,a propirti-
lion might be made for stopping the distilleries, or for
taking any other step that might appear to be pro-
per. At present, he did not think it would be ex-
pedient to stop the export of grain to our armies ;
that was a measure that could not be adored in
Ireland, unless it were adopted in .England ; it
would be better to begin by stopping the expOrt of
spirits. Before he sat down, it might be proper to
state the real prices of ciitTarent articles of provisioni
in diffeient parts of Ireland. He should state them,
from the Commissary General's returns, which were
made with uncommon accuracy. He should state
the prices at the principal tow ns of the four districts
into which Ireland watt divided, on the 24th of Ja-
nuary and rat!) of March, and. the House would
judge whether they had increased to such an alarm-
ing degree. • In the Northern District at Strabane,
potatoes were, on the 24th of January, 7d. per
atone, and on the 28th of March, Bd. per stone ;
bread, at the former period, 4ed. per pound,
at tire latter 41d.; Oatmeal, 255. per cwt. and 28s.
At Dungannon,-Potatoes, 7'sd. at the former
period, and t td. at the latter; Bread, 4id. at:4 43d.;
Oatmeal, 255. Bd. and 304,-Etthiskillen, Potatoes
at the former period aLI., and. at the latter 8d..;
Bread, 31d. and 31d. ; Oatmeal, 225. and 28s. 6d.
In the Western IJistria, at Tuarr-Potatoes at the
former period were 5d., at the latter 7d. ; Bread
continued at the same price, viz. 3d.; Oatmeal,
Ids. and 20s. Loughrea, Potatoes 4ed. and 60.;
Bread, 3d. and 3W.; Oatmeal, Ina. and 2 is. 6d.
Longford, Potatoes 4d. and bid. ; Bread continued
at tire same price, viz. 4d. ; Oar meal, 20s. and 245.
Athlone,- Potatoes 41d. arid 60. ; Bread, 3d and
3ad.; Oatmeal 17s. 6d. and 245. In the Centre
Distria, Birr-Potatoes at the former period 4d.,
at the latter 5d.; Bread aid. and 31d; Oatmeal
)Ss. and .114 s. Tulla'more-Potatoes sd. and 60.
Bre-ad 4d. 'and 41d. ; Oatmeal Ina. 4d. and 255.
6 P. Carlow-Potatoes 4d. and 71d.; Bread
aid. 3ld. Oatmeal 2 ts. and 255. Clonmel-Po-
'aloes sd. and 7d. Bread 3(1. and 3}cl. Oatmeal 189.
and 259.-In the Sciuthern District :-Limerick-
Potatoes, at the former period 30. at the latter sd.
Bread 3d. and 4d. Oatmeal 188. and 245. Mallow
-e-Potatoes 41d, and 6d. Bread 31d. and 3ad. Oat-
meal 239 6(1. and 279. Fermoy-Potatoes 7d. and
431. Bread
,continued the same price, viz. 3,3. Oat-

Bread 33d. and 40, Oatmeal c-k. and 2gt—ln
Doblin-7-Potatoes were -12. d. per atone. He men-
tioned this detail of prices to sliew that Govern-
ment had taken great pains to obtrin information-
up-on the subject. He wished just\ to mention, be-
tore he sat down, that the assizes in Irt.land 'ere
now over, and- no notice had been taken of any
apprehension of a scarcity by any of the Grand Ju-
ries; except those of T!pperary and Kildare.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT,said, he had heard from the
most respectable quarters, that the Distillers had
greatly exaggerated their returns, for the purpose of
making it' appear ro Government that their stock
was itt, when that was not the-Case. It was to be
hoped they would be charged for the stock on hand
as returned, and that, the evil would be met without
delay.
Mr. SHAW (of Dublin) said, that the alarming
price of pro% isions in Dublin- had excited a strong
sensation, insomuch, as to induce Ate magistrates to
make representations on
,the subjea to the Lord
Lieutenant, with the view to the. adoption of some
measore of relief. He agreed that the stopping of
the distilleries now would be unjust; but thought
thrat• they might be prevented commencing again, as
.usual, in September, and obliged' to suspend their
work until January following. Such a measure
would, in his opinion, be sufficient to relieve the
pppfellC:iSioll of scarcity,.
. .

- Mr. PARNELL said,4tie .scarcity, though felt ex-
tremely in some parts, was by no means general,
-provisions being in some places even cheaper than
the Right Honourable Gentleman (Mr. W. Pole)
had stated ; in his county, the potatoes were about
three-pence A. stone. He approved of the system of
free trade in grain;under which the Country had so
greatly prospered, and thought no measure should
be adopted which would interfere with that success.
THE CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
subject was of great importance; the feeding of so
great a branch of the population as the people of
Ireland constituted, must he regaided so b, every
individual, at the same time it must be evident to
the House, that their information at present was
very deficient. There was a scarcity in some parts
of the country, bin the scarcity Was not general;
• and therefore lie thought it would be:desirable, be-
fore, they rook any further, proceedinz, to see
whether by effecting a more general intercourse
between the differentparts of, the country, the
pressure on particular pants might not be re-
moved.t was possible that the drain to this -email-
try ntight in some degree affect the price, particu,
larly in the market of Dublin, but no one, he
thought would recommend a suspension of inter-
course, particularly as the inconvenience was likely
to be of a temp-rary nature. The question was,
whether the whole interest of the Unned Kingdom
was not to beconsidered. As to the measure of
stopping the distilleries, the war to examine the ne-
ceisity of it was, by comparing the proportion be-
tween the stock in habd, and the general quantity
of grain in the country, not the quantity in those
parts where scarcity was known to prevail.
,The
House, he thought,wotild feel no difficulty in adopt-
ing the suggestion of his Right Honourable Friend,
for the exportation of spirits to foreign parts was.
greater than it need be, and therefore the attention of
Government was dire&ed to it. If they mapped
distillation, where the price of grain was high, they
would increase the stimulus to illicit distillation,
and in counties where the, scarcity was not felt, the
praffiee would not meet the discouragement that
could be wi,hed for. These were all cases which
might be overborne by necessity, but they should
wait for further information. Stopping the Dis-
tilleries entitely would not answer the ob-
jeas which Gentlemen had in view ; notice must
be given of such an intention before it could be acted
on, which would defeat the expthations of the pre-
sent relief. He trusted, that upon further informa-
tion, the evil would be found not to exist to such an
extent ; the House would be open to all informa-
tion, and would a6l according to the necessity of the
case.

Sir J.. NEWPORT said it would not be necessary to
give notice to the Distillers in Ireland, as it was
here; for there they were in the hibtt of 'distilling
from the raw corn, which was not the case in &g-
-land.

Mr. W. POLE, in answer to what had fallen from
an Hon. Gentleman •(Mr. Shaw) said that the Irish
Government had not received any information that.
there was likely to be a scarcity in Ireland, on the
contrary, the majority of the statements received led
to a belief that-there was a plenty in the country, and
that it alree intercourse was established between the
different parts 'of Ireland, the., markets would be
amply suppli..d. He wished at the same time to
state that if there appeared any real danger of scar-
city the Government would not hesitate a moment
to stop the distilleries; or take any other step that
might be nectssary. But with the information
at present 'before the House, he did not think that
it could do more a present than adopt the two mea-
sures of which he had given notice.
Mr. SHAW, in explanation, said he hail not stated
there was a general scarcity,' but, on the contrary,
had represented it as merely partial, though felt
strongly in Dubliri.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT'S motion was agreed to.
IQr. W. POLE moved tor a COMMthee of the
whole . House, to-morrow, to take into considera-
tion theexportation of Irish made spirits to foreign
ports.--,Agreed to He then gave notice that he
would move in the Committee of Supply an addi-
tional duty on malt spirits made in Ireland, and in-
troduce some regulations relative to the excise on
tobrixo.

The Accounts of the Imports and Exports of Ire-
land for the last year were presented, and ordered
to lie on the table.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER brought in
the Princesses Annuity Bill-. Read a first time, and
ordered to be read a second time to-morrow.

Mr. W. PoLa moved for various Papers relative to
the Imports and Exports of Ireland, which were
ordered accordingly.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed
of, and the House adjourned till to-morrow.

itiven'-1 Cadiz, I Dublin. Dur —s Malta, 2 jersey,
2 Guernsey, a. W ate:

PRICE ,OF STOCKS.
THIS DAY Ar TwitLvErocLocK.
Ctinsols. - - 6oi I's per Cent. Nitvy oi 4

THE SUN.

SC/LENI QUIS UlCtk ALSUM AUDEAT?