quer, but the right honourable gentleman oppofite to him, (Mr. W. Grenville) had talked in the manner he had mentioned; and he inftanced the preceding feffion as one of the times when the latter right honourable gentleman had fo argued.

Mr. W. Grenville remarked, that he did not doubt but Mr. W. Grenville. that the honourable gentleman would be very glad, not only to involve his right honourable friend's relation, but every gentleman who fat on the bench with him, in the fame imputation; but he must beg leave to copy the example of his right honourable friend, and flatly deny that he had, either on that occafion alluded to, in the courfe of the laft feffion, or on any former occafion, ufed words at all like thofe which the honourable gentleman had put into his mouth.

fter.

Mr. Dempster faid, that any gentleman would find the Mr. Dempprecife words in queftion in the Report of the Committee, of which he had the honour to be a member laft feffion. They were words much used at the time, and almost in every body's mouth who talked about fimuggling. Mr. Dempfter faid, he himfelf had put the words into the Report, as he thought they were words likely to attract attention, and good words in a Report.

Sir Edward Aftley spoke of the neceffity for putting an Sir E. Asftend to fmuggling, and providing fome new mode of liveli- ley. hood for the perfons engaged in that fort of illicit traffic. He informed the Committee that a colony of fmugglers lived close by him, and he gave an account of the refult of fome converfations he had with them on the subject of their practice.

ftonc.

Sir James Johnfione alfo faid, that he had fome neigh- Sir J. Johnbours of the fame kind; that they came one night when he was ill in bed, and took away two of his horfes, but that he got them back again in the morning. Lord Penrhyn entering juft at this time, rofe and entered Lord Peninto a difcuffion of the different rates of duties on brandies and rum, but was interrupted by

rhyn

Mr. Chancellor Pitt, who informed the noble Lord of Mr. Chanwhat had paffed in his abfence, and ftated to him, that he cellor Pitt. meant on an early day to bring the duties on rum and other fpirits under difcuffion, when his Lordship would have an opportunity of fpeaking fully to a subject that was not then properly before the Committee.

The refolution refpecting the duty of 30 per cent. upon the export of beer occafioned fome converfation between Sir Matthew White Ridley, Mr. Chancellor Pitt, Mr.Whitbread, and other gentlemen.

Sir Matthew feared the refolution would give the French beer an advantage over the English. VOL. XXI,

Kk

Mr.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt affigned his reafons why it would

not.

Mr. Whitbread informed the Houfe, that the treaty refpecting the article of beer was in favour of England; for the fixth article fays, beer,fhall pay in each country 30 per cent. ad valorem, and that the prefent exifting duties in each country fhall be added to the 30 per cent. which were very high in England; and he had been informed Mr. Eden faid were very low in France; fo much fo, that it was propofed to Mr. Eden to take no account of them on either part, yet that he thought could not be complied with, as all malt exported from England is duty free, and in fome cafes obtains a bounty alfo, and this brought us nearer to an equality; yet upon the whole he thought the terms in our favour, and we might be content. He farther obferved, that as the internal duties in France were not particularly known, which he wished they had been, yet that difficulty was in a great measure removed by the claufe declaring that each country fhall be governed by the very fame duties which exift at the time when the treaty com

mences.

Sir Benjamin Hammet declared, that he had fomething to fay which he hoped would be well received: what he meant was, a fcheme which he defigned to propofe at a fit opportunity, which, without making it neceffary to lay a fingle tax on the subject, would raise half a million of money. He did not doubt but that he fhould have the affiftance of the Scotch members. He mentioned the practice of paying 2s. 6d. per bufhel bounty money on the export of British malt; that, he faid, was a moft egregious impofition on the fubject, and opened a door to the moft fcandalous fraud and abufe.

At length the beer refolution was put and agreed to.

The refolution relative to the import duty of 12 per cent. on cottons was no fooner read, than Mr. Fox rofe, and expreffed his doubt, whether the cotton manufactory would not be moft materially injured. He refted his apprehenfions on the uniform information of every manufacturer whom he had confulted; on the evidence of those very respectable characters, Meffrs. Walker and Richardfon, at the time when the Irish propofitions were in agitation, and upon the unanswerable argument of a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Flood) grounded on that evidence; arguments which every man in the House must have been happy to have

heard.

Sir Gry Cooper obferved, that the circumftance of France having lately laid an additional duty on cotton wool was an ill omen of her cordial amity and profeffed friendship to

wards

wards Great Britain: it was not the most favourable fymptom of fincerity, nor the ftrongest proof of her profeffions of good-will towards us that France could have given. She had now raised the duty 5d. per pound on her cotton wool; fhe might hereafter raife it to 10d. per pound, and fo increase it till it amounted to a prohibition.

re

Mr. W. Grenville contended, that the kingdom of France Mr. W. was not a manufacturing country, which he had been Grenville. prefented; and that fuch was our avowed fuperiority in refpect to the ingenuity and industry of our manufacturers, that he had no fort of doubt, but that as foon as our manufacture found its way to the French market, the manufacture of France would fank before it. Mr. Grenville mentioned the short duration of the treaty, declaring, that without any other arguinent, and there were many at hand to fupport it, this alone was fufficient to fhew that there was no danger of our manufacturers emigrating to France and fettling there. He alfo contended against the manufacturers' fears as to the danger of there occurring a deficiency of fupply of cotton wool; in fpite of all the reftrictions laid upon the export of that raw material, it had hitherto found its way to our market in a fufficient quantity, and when the treaty was ratified, and the import legalized, it could not fail to flow in much greater quantities than

ever.

Mr. Fox contended, that if the right honourable gentle- Mr. Fox. tleman had a right to argue upon the quantity of cotton wool obtained in a contraband way, the fame argument must be allowed to apply to the whole of the treaty, which he fhould then have a right to defend on the ground of the fact, that fo much of her manufactures had hitherto found their way into France in a contraband way, that he might infer that the treaty was altogether unneceffary.

ville.

Mr. Grenville urged additional arguments to prove, that Mr. Grens there was not the smallest reason to dread an infufficiency of fupply of cotton wool, and contended that he could instance a variety of fair, legal channels through which we had the moft reasonable and well-grounded expectations of being very amply furnished with as much of the raw material as our cotton manufacturers could ftand in need of.

Mr. Alderman Watfon pointed out where, in his opinion, Mr. Ald. a large fupply of cotton wool might now be had, and alfo watfon. affigned his reafons for declaring, that there was every ground to imagine that we fhould very fhortly be fupplied from our own West India iflands.

Sir Harry Hoghton faid, that he had refrained from deli- Sir Hen vering his fentiments on the treaty with France from a con- og fcioufnefs how unequal he was to the important fubject, and

Kk 2

therefore

Mr. Sheridan.

Mr. Chan

cellor

therefore preferred being filent, and endeavoured to gain light and information from others, in order rather to form his opinion than to prefume to offer his fentiments; that he had received great information from both fides of the Houfe. It was periculofe plenum opus alea, and embraced a variety of interefts; but he thought the probable advantage juftified the experiment, which was only for twelve years, and if any evils arofe, which no human prudence and forefight could anticipate, he did not doubt but the wifdom of the Legiflature would be able to correct aud remove them. That as far as the opinion of manufacturers was of any weight, he obferved that he lived in the midft of them in Lancashire, and during his refidence in the country in the fummer, he endeavoured to learn their fentiments on the measure, and he could aver that the leading manufacturers thought the treaty would be very advantageous to the cotton manufactory. He defired the Committee would not think he meant to throw any reflection upon Mr. Walker, who was a man of good understanding and veracity, and a very refpectable character; and when he faid that perfons equally refpectable declared fentiments in favour of the treaty, he added, that in saying fo, he meant a compliment to their characters. He faid, he was forry he did not fee his worthy colleague, who, if he had been prefent, would have borne his teftimony to the re1pectable characters of Meffrs. Watfon and Myers, with whom he had converfed upon the fubject, and who, at his requeft, fent him their copy of the treaty of navigation and commerce with fome marginal notes, that the objections therein were removed by the articles in the convention. He mentioned a fhort vifit he paid to Mr. Ford in the neighbourhood of Manchester, whofe character, knowledge of bufinefs, and large property, gave great weight to his opinion. From him he learnt that the fentiments of the great traders of Manchester and its neighbourhood were in favour of the treaty.

The refolution was agreed to.

Mr. Sheridan afked what refolution the Chancellor of the Exchequer meant to move respecting the water guard of our coafts, as he conceived that the hovering act was given up by the treaty.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt anfwered, that he had no refolution Pitt. to move on that subject, as there was not a word in the treaty which in any fort whatsoever made it neceffary to alter the exifting laws, for the fecurity of our coafts, either from the approach of finuggling veffels or otherwife, nor was any the fmalleft alteration intended.

The refolution refpecting cabinet ware and turnery was

agreed

agreed to, as were all the rest of the articles of the tariff.

The Houfe adjourned.

Monday, 19th February.

Mr. Hamilton begged leave to inform the Houfe, that he Mr. Hamil. had spoken to the honourable gentleman who meant to bring ton. forward the next charge against Mr. Haftings, and he had confented that the charge and the examination of the witneffes fhould not come on upon the fame day; he therefore rofe to discharge the order for the charge, which stood in the book for the immediately enfuing day.

Mr. Burke and Mr. Pelham entering the House just as Mr. Hamilton fat down, the latter repeated what he had faid, adding, that in all matters of a judicial nature, it was highly neceffary that there fhould be time allowed for confidering the evidence, and weighing its tendency between the time of its delivery and the period of pronouncing decidedly upon its na

ture.

Mr. Burke flattered himself that the Houfe were too can- Mr. Burke, did and impartial not fully to acknowledge, that, from the firft commencement of the proceedings to that hour, he had, on every occafion, moft readily acquiefced in every propofition for the accommodation of gentlemen on either fide. He would act with confiftency, and fubmit to the charge's being brought on another day, and to the immediate examination of Mr. Middleton and Sir Elijah Impey; but when it had been originally propofed that the examination and the charge fhould ftand for the fame day, it was from an idea that it was neceffary to afk the witneffes very few queftions only, touching the affairs of Farruckabad, and that of courfe the examination would occupy but a short time. Mr. Burke faid, that as the charge was to be put off, he would take the opportunity of moving to have the remainder of the Farruckabad papers printed. He explained, that they were fo fhort, that the whole might be printed on one fheet of paper, and confequently be delivered in time against the day of going into the charge. He had something of importance to fuggeft to the House in refpect to the fteps which appeared neceffary to be taken in regard to the impeachment of Mr. Haftings, but he would not proceed to ftate his object till a right honourable gentleman should be prefent in his place.

Mr. Burke then moved, "That fuch part of the corre"fpondence relative to Farruckabad as have not already been "printed, be printed for the use of the House." The fame was agreed to.