The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-04-29 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Mr. Ron moved, that a Committee be appointed to elhip4ilt.
into the State of Mad-houses in England. —Ordered, • 0
The SPCA K reminded the noose, that ilesdlay Wit
would be the last day of receiving reports on Private SIM:
lied
informed them, that he would take the Chair at half-past three
o'clock on that account. .1

COMMITTEE. OF WAYS AND MEANS.
Mr. W. FITZGERALD moved the Order of the
Day for going into* Committee of Ways and Means.
Mr. WHITBREAD wished to know from the
Right Hon. Gentleman, whether, in point of coon•
tesy, he would not consent to ware fur the present
the Committee of Ways and Means, to give him an
opportunity of bringing forward the very important
motion of which he had given notice?

Mr. W. FITZGI:IA-LO said, he should be very
ready to give the Hon. Gentleman every accommo.
dation in his 9ower, and would therefore bevel no
objection, in case the business he meant to bring fors,
ward should continue beyond the time when the Hon.
Member wished .o bring forward his motion, to move
that the Chairman do report progress.
WHITBREAD then begged leave to ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he would ex-
tend the same courtesy to him respecting the Com-
mittee on the Property Tax ?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
airwered, that it was understood the ether night,
and fixed, cm the Property Tax should go through
the Committee this night, and be read a third time
on Monday, on which night, being the Call of the
House, the genera; discussion on the Bill was agreed
to take place. According to the arrangement for
carrying on the public business, this was a day fp
*Vet the orders preceded thin'otiCeti, ad as such (we
understood) lie objected to comply with the lion.
Gentleman's request.
Mr. WHITBREAD said, that arrangement, it
was true, had for some few Sessions past taken place,
but he was never a party to it ; on the contrary, he
had always expressed his disapprobation of it. His
motion ass unquestionably of the highest import-
ance to the country, and ought to be discussed when
the most attentive and serious consideration was
likely to be given to it. Every one knew the nature
of the Property Tax, and it might easily be proceed-
ed on after the discussion of his motion was closed.
He, for one, was willing to agree that it should be
proceeded on after his motion, and he thought no
one would object to it. It remained, therefore, for
the Right Hon. Gentleman to consider what course
he meant to take, and to make his determination ;
for his own part, he had considered, and was deter-
mined how to act.

The House then went into the Committee of Ways
■nd Means.

Mr. FITZGERALD then said, that he was per-
fectly aware, that in the present ao ful crisis of affairs,
it would be necessary that very strenuous and active
exertions should be made by Ireland in aid of the
heavy taxation under which this country laboured at
the present moment : therefore, when be had a few
nights past opposed the motion of the lion. Gentle-
man ou the floor (Mr. Bankes) for the extension of
the Property Tax to Ireland, it was not from any
wish to prevent Ireland from contributing ai far as
u as in her power to assist the publicburdens of Eng-
land, bat merely to imposts such taxes as were better
adapted to the circumstances and situation of Ire-
land than the extension of the Property Tax could
possibly be. Ile would, therefore, briefly state to
the Committee the taxes he purposed to substitute.—
He intended to propose to equalize the Assessed
Taxes in Ireland in the same way they were now
paid in England. He anticipated an objection that
such equalization would fall heavy on the resident
gentry of Leland ; but it was impossible to impose
taxes without inconveniences arising to some classes
of persons more than to others, and this he thought
would fall where it would not be so severely felt as
a tax which would affect the lower orders of the
community. His next tax was a duty on Malt cor-
responding with the duty here. The objection to
this would be that it would raise the price of beer;
but that would not be more than a half-penny a
pot. Ile then moved his first Resolution, which was
that a duty on houses, &c. should cease.
Sir J. NEWPORT said he did not mean to object
to the taxes proposed, but he felt it his duty to ex-
press his doubts as to their productiieness. Every
augmentation of the Assessed Taxes would fall heavy
nn the resident gentry, and might cause them to ab-
sent themselves ; in such case, the seeming addition
to the taxes might ultimately prove a diminution, as
was the case in the duty on wines. As to thetas on
Malt, the encouragement of the breweries intead of
the distilleries ought to be a primary consideration
with that house, as deeply affecting the morals as
well as the physical powers of the Irish people.

The Resolutions were then read and agreed to.
WAR WITII FRANCK.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose
'to move the Order of the Day for the Committee on
the Property Tar, when
• Mr. IVIIITRIeEAD put in his claim for the pre-
cedence of the motion of o Web he had even notice.
PrilPhsts to Mr. Permit's Resolutions, which were
now cohtlooed from year to year, notices had had
the precedence of orders, which had alwaysgiven way
to motions of whichy by the courisey of the House,
notices had been given. If he tad caught the eye of
the Speaker first, he should have, therefore, had a
right to the precedence of his motion, and he was
now content to accept it from the Right Hou. Gent.
as a courtesy.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. was
Unwilling the Bill should not pass through a stage to-
night, but if that could be done after the Honou-
rable Gentleman's motion, he was willing to give way,
to the anxiety of the House to hear any motion upon
the important subject of which the Hon. Gentleman
had given notice.

This was at last agreed to, upon the question that
the House should at its rising adjourn to Monday,
Which was also agreed to.
," The other Orders of the Day were then postponed
to Monday.
pr.WHITBREAD then proceeded with his notice.
—n was not only a question of the greatest import-
skim in itself, bet it was important that it should be
*.e it forward at this time. It would not be ne-
cessary to detain the House upon it, for the question
lay in the smallest possible compass, and it would be
for the house to decide whether they would embark
the country in a war, of which the duration
could not be foreseen, upon the narrow priaci-
pte whir+ had been avowed as the cause of it, and
open which it would be for the, House to determine
Whether they would consent toted, or whether they
would Abt take tba opportunity of the documents
wile'', to the discredit of our negoriators, bad been

.ot every Iv.- souse understand from
the Noble Lord in the Blue Ribbatid, who spoke
upon the amendment which he had the honour of
moving, that an alternative was still left to us, and
that the die was not cast ; and that the Council of
the nation were still deliberating whether they should
avail themselves of the abstract right of the Allies to
make war, or whether it would not be more ex-
pedient to confine ourselve to repelling any hostile
attack either upon this country or that of those Al-
lies? If any thing was to be collected from the No-
ble Lord's speech, it was that ; and he put it to
many Members of the House, whether, in voting es
they did against his amendment, they did it not upon
an express understanding that such amendment was
unnecessary—that the Ministers had plighted their
faith that war was not then decided upon in their
minds as the line of policy they should adopt as ne-
cessary for our safety ? The whimsical description
which the Noble Lord chose to give of the amend-
unmet was, that it was a truism ; it was, however,
no abstract proposition, but a request to the Prince.
Regent, praying that such measures might be taken
as would be consistent with the honour of the coup.
try, and its faith to our Allies, to secure us peace in
preference to war. If the Noble Lord meant any
thing by this, it was that it was unnecessary to re-
solve such an Address, for the Ministers would of
course advise it. What, then, was the Surprise of
the House, when they found that at the very mo-
ment when Ministers were deluding them with these
hopes, and holding out an alternative ■s in their
power, that the Noble Lord and his Colleagues had
decided upon taking the line of aggressive war, and
that it did not depend upon them whether we were
to have war or peace, but on the Allies, to whom
specific propositions had be;:n made, upon their
answer to which no alternative remained. If it had
not been for a publication in the Vienna Gazette (one
of those illicit and premature publications whose dis-
closures had destroyed the fame of the Noble Lord
in the Blue Ribband, but had been of great benefit
to this country), he might still go on endeavouring
to avert the present motion, when his line of conduct
was decided even before he uttered the words upon
which the false expectations of Members were found.
ed. The Treaty of Vienna was signed on the 25th
of March at Vienna, was received by Ministers, and
not brought down to the Houses and deliberated be-
fore the Address was moved on the 7th. On the Bth an
answer was returned to Vienna, by which our Go-
vernment was precluded from further deliberation.—
In the course of the debate upon the Declaration of
the 13th of March, which was unhappily signed by
the Duke of Wellington (a measure for which it was
impossible he could have had no authority), great
pains were taken by the Noble Lord to thrr
air of discredit on the document, which was all

ed to be explained away by glosses which wei
tircly inadmissible; for nothing could be more
than the Declaration, the whole of it tending
_ _

particular point, and it was said by the Noble
to bare been taken in a state of circumstances

binding on the state of circumstances of the

April. The Treaty retired the D..elaratien referred to ,
it, called all its horrors into %cavity, ind the Declare.
Lion formed the basis of the agterm •nt among the (tease
federated Powers. It was now, therefore, for the
Noble Lord to reconcile his words eitlethese facts. He
knew by the Treaty of Vienna, of the 25th of March,
that the Declaration of the 13th formed the basis of
that proceeding; he knew that Millitters advised the
Prince Regent to ratify the Treaty, referring to the
Declaration; and he knew that there would lef no
alternative left if the Allies abided by it, and ee-
lcepted the amount of our subsidy, the limits of
! which Lord Claticarty had power to enlarge, by
signing subsidiary engagements, to what Went Mi.
sisters declared it to he unconstitutional to divulge.
Thus was the question shortly under• the considera-
tion of the House, and he should move that en hum-
ble Address be presented to the Prince Regent, pray.
ing him to take such measurer as mould be neva:NKr
to prevent the cowry from being involved its war.
upon the ground of the Executive Authority in
France being invested in any particular perea.n.
fore the restoration of the Bourbons, that was welt,
known to be the object of many advocates of the
war, but they never dared to avow it. Such an ob.
ject was held to be legitimate by Mr. Pitt ; but it
was never held to be a tenable, one in that instance,
even by those who most ardently wished fur the re-
storation of the Bourbons. • He then adverted to the
Declaration. of the Prince Regent, that the 3d Ar.
tick of the Treaty was not to be understood as bind,
ing his Britannic Majesty to prosecute the war with
a view of imposiot upon France any particular forte.
of government. Ceresialy not : the Prince Regent
had no right to do it ; such a thing was never asked
front Parliament by any government, and this was in
tenderness to Louis XVIII. who was desired to be a
party t, it. The Allies declared, that the restora-
tion of the House of Bourbon was the direct object
of the war. Great Britain said no, and deelaredeo:
for fear of misleading. It was not contending svhe.•
ther the Executive Government of France should be
imperial or royal : but when it came one step far.
ther, it said to France, " True; but we won't in-
terfere with the form of your government, but nee
particular man shall not be your Emperor." If the
question was viewed abstractedly, was there any ca-
suist so subtle, any politician so bewildered, as to
take a distinction that we did not interfere with the
form of a governmeut, we only interfered with the
man whom the nation had elected to the head of it ?
Suppose the case your own : suppose at the time of
our revolution any nation had presumed to say. to os,
66 you shan't have any man of that familxi;" and
yet this was, the very,. purpose fot-Whicis: Mins tent
' were going to commit the country. in a leer, which
there was no ma* who did net, aclushyleket ebat if it
were not successful by a certain time, it mast begiven
up. An anathema against Bonaparte was an ana-
thema against millions of people, and the Declara.
tion of the Allies had disgusted. every independent
man in the nation, and enticed him to feel shame that
the hand of the Duke of Wellington was subscribed
to it. It preached up the doctrine of assassination
in so many words ; it declared. Banal arte to be out
of the pale of civil society, had rendered himself
liable to public vengeance, and had destroyed the
only legal title out which his existence depended.
What was this but saying, for him there is no law,
no protection ; and for you who may chonse to take
his life, you may plunge a sword through his body
ivith impunity, inasmuch as he is the disturber of
the repose of mankind ; and therefore you steed not
fear punishment, but you will entitle yourself to the
general thanks of mankind ? Under this Declaration
would not any man be justified in bringing him to im-
mediate execution, without the form of a trial ? The
present afforded us an instance (for the first time in
the history of the world) of a war against one man ;
for what was Boneparte's power unless supported by
the people of France ? The first• Article of the Treaty
of Vieena pledged the Allies to unite the resources
of their respective %hates against the designs of 80.
naparte, and the whole was written in the spirit of
murder and assassination—of the Declaration of
March 13. It pledged the Allies to the " union of
all their efforts against him, and against all who have
already joined his faction, or should thereafter join
it, in order to force him to desist from his projects,
and to render him unable to disturb in future the
tranquillity of Europe, and the general peace, under
the protection of which the rights, liberty, and in.
dependence of nations had been recently placed and
secured." He called the attention of the Houie to
the egotistical falseness of the latter part of this at.
title. These rights there were persons who still con-
fidently talked of; and there were mighty persons
(the Noble Lord was one of them) who still called
themselves the liberators of Europe: and yet they
were ready to renew war, and again make the whole
Continent a scene of blood, to effect the death of
one man. 'they still talked of their happy arrange.
ments for the deliverance of Europe, when, in con-
sequence of not keeping their own engagements, all
Italy was op in arms, and their whole arrangement
was likely to be broken to pieces before the ear be-
gins. The Treaty referred to the Declatation, moil
that declared the life of Bonaparte to lie at the
mercy of every man, because lie had no longer a le-
gal title to it—there could be neither peace nor war
with him ; and yet we were going to war with
a man with whom vie could mske neither puce
nor treaty : neither, if the French supported

.

,q 1

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disoloied, to pray the Prince Repast to avert tke bor.
of war from thecattilleypkynkkingrimr-Vkand
41444*. WO* 41441101ipp AtMarser Addrfss was
#oted to the Prfitee cosnifillitienct of MI Message,
did not every Member of the House understand from

•ow ail him, could we with them. Supposing Napoleon ••.
ltempt. I were to fall in the very first battle, the ohject of the •,, •
ere en. I war according to the Treaty would be at an end.—
simple , The Bourbons had no hold of the .Fteuch pel ple
v•-• • h
to ones who would not choose them to be restored; butt.
Lord there were doubtless other persons against Isom we
ces not might direct the sae personal hatred, and who, if •
7th of they were io the same situation to call forth t!..eir t.i.
•
Y• ,