many effential confiderations feemed to be omitted. He had always thought that it would be a moft imperfect system to attempt.a forcible extirpation of fmuggling, without leffening the temptation at the fame time; the clandeftine trade in teas was the great fupport of this evil, which now feemed to be deftroying the very vitals of the revenue; and it as at the fame time a fupport to the foreign companies, in their competition with our Eaft-India Company. For this reason, the late Committee on the fubject in queftion had given a particular attention to the reduction of the tea duties. That Committee had combined fuch a reduction, with the hope of thereby alfo opening extenfive means of honeft employment to an able and active fet of men, who, though now engaged in fmuggling, would be an useful acceffion to increased fleets of Eaft-India fhips, if the China trade could be increased. He hoped alfo, that the intended measure would be accompanied with a general indemnity and complete pardon for all paft offences committed by the fmugglers. He would only add farther, that the whole would be incomplete, unless a full explanation could be obtained with Ireland: the report in question ftated repeatedly and earnestly, that fuch an explanation was neceffary. He had taken occafion, during the three laft feffions, to repeat an earnest hope of a full difcuffion between the two kingdoms, and final fettlement of all the important questions relative to their respective revenues and commerce. Mr. Chancellor Pitt faid, that he hoped gentlemen, in Mr. Chantheir readiness to give counfel, would not fuggeft difficul- cellor Pitt, ties. As to the reduction of the tea, duties, he certainly had alluded to it when he originally opened the prefent measures; and a reduction of this and other duties had long ago been recommended by a noble friend near him. (Lord Mahon.) He was now happy to foresee that such an idea was likely to find more advocates from the labours of the right honourable gentleman and of the late Committee. Sir Edward Aftley faid, that when a reduction of duties Sir Edward had originally, fome years ago, been mentioned by the no- Aitley. ble Lord, it had been scouted by the noble Lord in the blue ribband and his friends. Mr. Dempfter faid, that he thanked the Chancellor of the Mr. Demp. Exchequer on bringing forward this bufinefs with all due ex- fter. pedition; but he concurred with his right honourable friend in a wish to see some plan of good understanding on revenue and commerce with Ireland. All accounts fhewed that VOL. XV. Gg kingdom 4 kingdom to be dilatisfied; he fincerely wished that parliamentary commiffioners could be named in the course even of the prefent feflion. A petition of the proprietors of landed eftates in His Majefty's fugar colonies, and of the merchants of London trading thereto, and other perfons interefted therein, whofe names are thereunto fubfcribed, on behalf of themfelves and others, was prefented to the Houfe, and read; fetting forth, that the petitioners, or their ancestors, have invefted their fortunes in the fettlement, cultivation, and commerce of the faid colonies, to the extent, upon the most moderate computation, of more than 50,000,000l. fterling, whereby the faid colonies, and the commerce thereon dependent, have become the most confiderable fource of navigation and national wealth which Great Britain poffeffes out of the limits of the mother country; and that, whilst the faid colonies, as well directly as through the medium of other dependent branches of trade, afford a market for British manufactures to a very great amount, and conftant employment for more than 100,000 tons of fhipping, in the direct intercourfe between Great Britain and the faid colonies, the clear income of the eftates in the faid colonies, after defraying the expences of those who are neceffarily refident there, is almoft entirely spent in the mother country; wherefore the petitioners conceive, that no part of the national property can be more beneficially employed for the Public than theirs, nor any interefts better entitled to the protection of the Legiflature; and that the difafters and expences of the late war, coinciding with many natural calamities, and with the effect of the heavy increafe of duties impofed upon the ftaple articles of their produce, have reduced the petitioners to great diftrefs and difficulty, and endanger their ability, without relief from Parliament, to carry on the cultivation of the faid iflands, which failing, the navigation, and all the other fubordinate interests and advantages dependent on the cultivation, must fail with it; and that the faid fugar colonies cannot produce any quantity of provifions at all adequate to their wants, without mifapplying thereto that culture which the public good requires to be appropriated to thofe articles of commerce which that climate alone produces; and that Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands do not afford any fupply of lumber whatever; and that the faid fugar colonies never have been, and, to the perfect conviction of the petitioners, never can be, fupplied, fo as fteadily to fupport the culture thereof with lumber and provifions from any other countries but those which form the United States of America, feeing that the gulph and river of St. Lawrence are froze up half the year, and that the open half includes the hurricane months in the Weft Indies; and that the want of inhabitants, and the rigour of the climate, as well in Nova Scotia as in Canada, fruftrate all juft expectation of those colonies becoming fpeedily, if ever, 'productive, to any confiderable degree, of thofe articles of which the Weft Indies ftand in need; and that the faid fugar colonies never have paid, and, to the perfect conviction of the petitioners, never can pay, for fuch lumber and provifions, but by that part of their produce which, being fuperfluous to Great Britain, has never found a market therein, confifting chiefly of rum,, of which the dominions now forming the United States ufed, in time of peace, to confume a greater quantity than Great Britain and Ireland did, even before the confumption in Great Britain was difcouraged by the heavy duties impofed thereon, to the equal detriment of the revenue and of the interefts of the petitioners; and, this fuperfluous produce, if not confumed in Great Britain, or the dominions of the United States, muft be loft, feeing that the confumption of the additional inhabitants which Canada and Nova Scotia may acquire, can amount but to a mere trifle; thus the value of the fupplies, which this fuperfluous produce ought to pay for, would become a drain of fo much cash from the mother country as muft, in payment for fuch lumber and provifions, be drawn out of what would otherwife reft in Great Britain, of the value of the remaining produce of the fugar colonies fold there, and which would be paid, through the medium of America, to the French, and other foreign. fugar colonies, for fupplies fimilar to that which we fhould thus, in the first inftance, throw away; and that the intercourse naturally arifing out of these mutual wants of His Majefty's fugar colonies and the dominions now forming the United States of America, was, in time of peace, chiefly carried on by American fhipping, of which a large proportion confifted of floops, fchooners, and other fmall veffels, adapted to the cheap conveyance of bulky commodities for a fhort navigation, and not at all fit for, or employed in, the conveyance of fugar from the Weft Indies to Europe, but which took back the returns for their own cargoes in the fuperfluous produce before mentioned; and that, although the direct intercourse with America in American fhips is, by His Majesty's proclamation, freely permitted to the petitioners' fellow fubjects, not only in Great Britain but in Ireland, it is withheld from the petitioners, to whom, of all His Majesty's fubjects, Gg 2 it it is the most effential; and, the said intercourfe ftands reftrained to British-built fhips, by which, if the trade were to be carried on, they muft generally proceed from Great Britain to America in ballaft, at a ruinous expence, and greatly enhance to the confumer the price of thofe commodities which form the foundation of all his culture, and which the petitioners fubmit that every principle of commercial policy coincides in requiring to be conveyed to his hand at the cheapest rate poffible; and that additional duties upon the confumption of the faid fuperfluous produce of His Majesty's fugar colonies in the American dominions, and on British fhips trading thither, have been imposed upon the express ground of Great Britain prohibiting that intercourfe by American veffels, which the French fugar colonies not only admit, but, with true policy, invite,, whereby a preference, most dangerous to our effential interefts, is, given to the foreign fugar colonies in the demand for those commodities which there is no natural obftacle to their supplying as well as we can, although their regulations had hitherto prevented it; and that, under all these circumftances, the petitioners are impelled, by every public as well as private duty, with all humility, but in the most explicit terms, to inform the Houfe, that if, by means of this prohibition, the British sugar colonies are deprived of a market for that part of their produce which is fuperfluous to Great Britain and Ireland, and loaded with the additional expence of procuring lumber and provifions, above ftated, which feems the inevitable confequence of persevering therein, the cultivation of feveral of the faid fugar colonies cannot be carried on at all, nor any of them to advantage;' for which reasons the petitioners are convinced, and fubmit to the House, that, far from being favourable to British navigation, the prohibition in question is big with destruction to one of its principal fources, and, if it fhould be persisted in, His Majefty's fugar colonies muft, in the natural course of things, fink, together with the navigation, revenues, and all the complicated public interefts thereon dependent, in one common ruin with the private fortunes of the petitioners; and therefore praying, that the Houfe will take the premises into confideration, and give fuch relief therein as to them fhall feem meet. Ordered, that the faid petition do lie upon the table. June 21. In the cafe of the writ for Inverness, &c. the matter of the delay being explained to the fatisfaction of the House, the return was admitted. Mr. Mr. Whitbread complained to the Houfe of the practice of Mr. Whitmany perfons in trade, by whom the tax on receipts was bread, wholly evaded, while others, who were willing to obey the laws religiously, paid the duty on receipts. He then held in his hand a paper, which he had received from a friend, that was fubftantially intended for a receipt, though in point of form it might perhaps not be thought one: the form of it was this"Memorandum. So much paid on fuch a day, on Witness, ****" Now, for his "account of Mr. Mr. Hufey thought the honourable member had done his Mr. Hulley. duty in throwing out thefe obfervations to the House: he wifhed at the fame time that fome of the crown lawyers would inform the House whether, in point of law, such a memorandum as the honourable member had stated could be confidered as a receipt within the act. The Attorney General (Mr. Arden) joined in commending The Attorthe honourable member for what he had communicated to the ney General House. As to the memorandum that had been alluded to, and which the honourable member had laid before him, he would take time to confider it; and if he should be of opinion that it was a receipt within the ftatute, he should certainly profecute the perfon who had given it. Here the bufiness rested. The House refolved itself into a Committee, to take into confideration the report from the Committee on Smuggling, Mr. Gilbert in the chair. Mr. |