The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-04-06 00:00:00

but his duty to his country was above all other co
siderations. lie was aware of the evils of war
;„.
this
he had hoped would be a vigorous one and soon de.
cided. lie calculated that there were 5 or 6000
rep.
tar troops at Quebec, and about 2000 -*ore sem.
tered all over Canada ; and about 20,1900 ill-disci.
plined and ill-armed- militia. The troops at Quebec
cannot leave there, and thus expose Quebec,
Take 15,000 militia from the northern states, and
5 or 60;9 regular troops, and you may easily over.
run Upper Canada; starting im season, i. e. before,
on account of the ice in-the St. I,3.wrence, the Bluish
can send any reinforcements. Theo let our army bis
joined by more, and lay siege to Quebep. After
taking Quebec, proceed to Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, *hick will soon full into our hands.
New York alone, if invited or suffered, .enild hut
taken Quebec while we have bees talking aliout it.
Mr. P. here went into a long argament to skew
that Congress has a right to march the militia out of
the Union.

No reply was made to the arguments of Mr. Por.
ter, and the yeas and nays were immediately tA,,,
on the passage of the Resolution.—Yeas 49, Nay;
58. So it died at his birth.

The House proceeded to consider the Bill for arm.
ing the whole body of the militia.
Mr. 11..ieurrs moved to postpone the Bill hide&
n;tely. Motion lost by ayes and nays. .kes 35,
N u 3.

The ayes and noes were called on an amendment
by Mr. Hall, which was lost: .
Mr. Batwing spoke against some of the details
of the B/11, particularly the excess of fine and pu.
nishraerit, far exceeding any inflicted by the States
for breaches of law of the same nature.
Mr. Prratm contended that Congress had no
power to inflict punishment or exact fines from the
militia of the several States, except when in the set.
vice of the United States, to repel invasion, sup.
press insurrection, or enforce the laws. Mr. P.
objected to the imposition of an oath on every clp.
taro of a vessel, that he has. no arms of the Uni d
Stators on board. He thought it a curious provision
fora Militia Bill. The Bill says, every one arrir.
ing at the age of 18, shall have a stand of arms;
but the Bill does not appropriate enough • 50.000
will arrive at that age every year, and only four hal,.
'fired thousand dollars are appropriated. How will
you distribute ? Draw lots for what there are ? The
guns indeed cannot be manufactured. All them
manufactories in the Union make but about 25,000;
and these are already under contracts to make guns
for other uses. He thought, too, it Would be pm.
dent to consider the policy of aypropriating 400,000
dollars a-year, or, nearer, all expence considered,
900,000. It was to be paid out of any monies in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated. He feared
there was no such money there. It must be borrowed.
At what per cent. ? Already we must, if we ran,
borrow 13,135,000 D. for the year 1812 ; and seve-
ral millions more next year, and still more the next.
Mr. Ham. tendered Mr. Pitkin the homage of his
most sincere thanks for his lesson on eco”onsy ; but
wished the Gentleman had given it several weeks
ago.
Mr. MACON spoke in favour of the Bill.
Mr. MiLstea spoke some time against it. He ob-
jected much to multiplying oaths, tlFpecbtly to sea-
captains, who already, many of them, consiclored
oaths as mere matters of form, and never minded to
what they made oath. The section of the Bill also
obliges him to swear beforehand that he will not take
arms on board. As well might you compel every ci-
tizen to swear he will not violate the laws of Con-
gress. Mr. M. moved to strike out the 4th section;
but the House adjourned without deciding.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FRIDAY, Fn. 21.

Some trifling business was' transacted, when the
Bill' for arming the militia was taken up, discussed,
and passed, 67 to 51.
The House adjourned to Monday.
[The story of the departure of the Essex is un•
founded.—A majority cannot be found for adjouru•
iug for two months.]

CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FRIDAY, F.
The resolutions for taxes, &c. were considered.
The fourth resolutiou, duty on salt, before the
House.
Mr. STANFORD spoke against the resolution, and
offered an amendment—imposing a tax of ten cents
per bushel on domestic manufactured salt.
if the resolution should be adopted, Mr. WRIGHT
hoped the amendment would also. Domestic salt
he considered as proper a subject of taxation as
whiskey. Whiskey is made of grain, which is pro-
duced by great labour, but salt comes from the spon-
taneous gift of nature, the materials cost nothing.
lie would rather lay a direct tax, that the taxes
should be paid according to property—than lay any
of these internal taxes. They have destroyed one
administration, and may another.
Mr. King spoke against Stanford's amendment.—
Mr. Stow said he should vote for none of these taxe4
till there was an absolute necessity for them. Mr.
Macon was in favour of the amendment, if the Re-
solution past—to that he should ever be opposed.—
Mr. Porter was In favour of the Resolution and
against the Amendment.—Mr. Calhoun told them
that taxes could be laid only by a spirit of concilia-
tion : if Gentlemen opposed each other, in different
Sections of the Union, on account of their supposed
inequality, none would be laid.. Mr. Grundy asked,
who paid the Tonuage Duties ? a few owners of ves-
sels : yet the Gentletneu who oppose the Sal
idgtTax
made no objection on that account. Mr. fiery
said lie perceived that some of the warmest advocates
of war were the coljle4t supporters of taxes, if they
affected their Constituents.
After two or three hours debate and recrimina-
tion the ayes and noes were taken on the amend-
went.—Ayes 22, Noes 96.
They were then taken on the Resolution—Ayes
57, Noes 60: thus the most & subject of taxation
was thrown aside.
The whiskt7 tax came next. Mr. SETBERT sa;cl
he tould not sit still after the vote just given. The
expected war was in support of honour, independ-
ence, and agriculture, not merely commerce; it i::
not to be supported entirely or, tpostly by the At lao-
tic and Commercial part of tie cpontry. The vete
just past would explain his reasons for saying t 3