Star.
London, England, 1812-03-04 00:00:00

we will relieve yon ;" • this was. 0 system of Walla t
to whicn he could not subscribe. The Orders in Court- I
col were perfect so. far as they tended to reduce' the
power .of the enemy, but he could not agree to the
doctrine, that they were to be enforced for the purr
pose a reducing the enemy to distress with a view to
his relief ; with this view of the subject he would not
be suspected of bringing these Orders into disrespect.
Wield regard to the license trade, that was a subject
upon which hehad butlittle information or knowledge.
'The fault he imputed to this system was, first, from ri
if.S:leadency to produce convulsions in the course of
trade, which were injurious to commercial interests
generally ; next, as they were occasionally granted or
withheld, there was no uniform principle upon which
men could square their speculation ; but that they
were the source of consider,ble losses, he admitted,
was not to be attributed to Government; because
when so many thousands were granted, and so many
refused, such losses must be the ultimate consequence.
But an instance had been lately communicated to
him, where an application was made for one of those
licences, and refused. A second application was
made on a subsequent day, through the medium of a
friend, and again refused; and upon the fourth day,
the party seeking the license got another friend to ap-
ply, anti at last he succeeded. Did he blame the
Board of Trade ror this ? Certainly not. It was no•
torious, that at one time importations were permitted,
and at another time refused ; but what he found
fault with was, how was the regular merchant to
calculate ? He could not take the general course of
trade as the grounds of his conduct. But as this
system was necessarily subject to fluctuation, these
evils must still exist ; that, however, in his mind was
no reason why they should not go into the inquiry,
and try whether these evils could not be avoided.—
But it had been said that these licences were refused,
except under certain circumstances; that, however,
was no instance to establish their necessity, and cer-
tainly could not be a reason against going into an
inquiry, This might arise, perhaps, from one cleri-
cal error among ten thousand; but if he was in the
situation of administering that part of the Govern-
ment, he should be most anxious for inquiry, in or-
der to avoid such errors in future; but if it arose from
an error inherent in the system itself, then, indeed, it
was high time to look for a change. If this, therefore,
was a state of things fit to go on with, let the House
first establish the necessity; but, a priori, if he had
any doubtc, and great doubts he admitted he had,

these doubts shouldfirst be removed, and this was a

still further reason for inquiry. With respect to the
Orders he would press them as much as possible,
and if pressed they might lead to the adoption of that
system which was most.des:rable ; but he would press
them with this view only, to open the market for our
own commodities to the total exclusion of neutrals.
Was it not therefore necessary to inquire into what
ehaanels that trade might best run ? He would es-1
tablish a principle of the strictest reciprocity with the
beliterents ; he would not be subject to their cap ice,
bu: he would support our own trade. Had an tin-
mitigated blockade been applied to Russia (a-td in
this respect he took much blame to himself) ?" If, he
continued, from 1809 ap unmitigated blockade had
been appl ed to Russia, he had little doubt, nay, it
almost amounted to a certainty, that such a blockade
would have brought that Power into terms ; and in-
stead of giving relief, the system pf blockade should
be carried to the remotest extent. With respect to
Our relations with America, it was proper to lay
Om aside. If they were brought forward with a
view to our own policy, he should be the first to sup-
port the proposition ; but if any mast was ready to
relinquish our claims to support our own system,
avith a view to concession towards America, at the

expence of that system, he could only say ha was not
that man. He was not the man who would restrain
from retaliating measures towards the enemy, in the
fear of, offending a Neutral Power • he'would not
remove it ‘ine jot the sooner ;he would not be mean
enough to lodi into our internal situation, in order to
get ri.l of an external difficulty ; but if, in the course
of inquiry, we could incidentally ameliorate our
system with relation to America, it might be most
beneficial to go into that inquiry. Upon all these
grounds, therefere, he for one was most unwilling to
dismiss the present question without giving it a due
share of consideration.
Mr. MA RRYATT thought that the system of li-
censes should only be resorted to in cases of absoltre
necessity ; but the sytem of mutual licenses, with a
view to fair reciprocity, he consiclei ed a system highly
beneficial, in which no fraud or deception was neces.
iary on either side. He must, however. observe,
that during the last two years. while the Right Hon.
Gentleman who spoke last was in Office, uo less thhit
five thousand lictnies were granted in the previous
year, and one thousand five hundred in the second ;
and yet that Right Hon: Gentleman affected now to
• know nothing of this system.— (Loud cries of Hour,
Bear.')—He 'dtfended the Orders in Council, as ori-
gin tly established, as perfectly justifiable ; and had
they b:en strictly adhered to, he had no doubt they
would ultimately have effected the purposes for
which they were propounded ; but he regretted that,
any amelioration of those Orders had taken place, as
it bad the effect of enhancing the Colonies of our
allies, while it reduced our own ; and as an elucida-
tion of this, he instanced the case of the Island of
Cuba, from whence alone, during the last two years,
since the relaxation of our Orders in Council, no less

than twenty-two thousand hogsheads of sugar alone
were eitiorted in the first, and fifteen thousand in the
second year, while at the beginning of the war the
• export of that commodity amounted 'only to seventy
thousand hogsheads. He hoped, therefore, that his
Majesty's Ministers would revert to and adhere to
the system of retaliation as originally ad-ipted, and
any motion which had this fur its object he would
most cordially agree to, but seeing no beneficial con-
sequences likely to result from the present proposition,
.he should therefore oppose it.
Mr. GEORGE JOHNSTONE spoke in favorr
Of the Orders in Council,• and concluded with ex-
pressing his determination to accede to the proposi-
tion made by the opposite side of the House, which
was to inquire into the present state of the commerce
of this country. • Though he shoild give his iiY.a in
favour of the motion, he could not lose) the opportu-
nity of expressing that be had the fullest confidence it
the present Prime Minster. •

Sir CHA RLES PRICE opposed the motion.
Mr. WILBERFORCE deemed the question befort
the House of very great importance, loth in a moral

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