nion? Let me rather again remind those | to dwell upon, with the refreshing sight who, thinking as ill of the Treaty as I do, of this comparative happiness, and was are yet so far influenced by their par- eagerly looking forward to the further tiality to ministers, that they will either progress of this great good, and was exobserve a criminal silence, or give their pecting, from still greater improvements sanction to it by their votes, that they are, in the moral existence of those to whom indeed, acting from the worst of party mo- he had already been so great a benefactor, tives; and let me caution all such persons the best consolations of his declining age; how, at any future time, they receive what a prospect of the future has the noble favours at the hands of ministers, lest their lord opened to him!-The sudden revival consciences should tell them, that such of this horrid traffic, upon the largest favours have been obtained at the expence scale, and in its most ferocious spirit; all of the happiness and blood of Africa. his exertions, and his anxieties, and his sacrifices of time, and health, and fortune, endured in vain; a renewal of the plunder, and carnage, and devastation, which used to lay waste the shores of Africa; new fleets sailing across the Atlantic, freighted with human misery in every form and every degree; new markets opened, in which rational beings, like beasts of the field, are to be again exposed to public sale; the revival of a more severe and a more cruel species of bondage, more exhausting toils, a lower species of degradation, augmented tortures; an aggravation of all the anguish of body and mind, which wastes and consumes so large a portion of our fellow-men; and the sickening certainty, that all these complicated evils tend to confirm, and perpetuate, and aggravate each other, and that they forebode scenes more dreadful even than those which they exhibit! My hon. friend (Mr. Wilberforce) indeed, who practises every Christian virtue, has expressed, in strong terms, his disappointment and regret at this Treaty; but yet he has the exemplary forbearance, while he deeply deplores, not to censure the conduct of the negociator. A most remarkable instance of Christian charity it unquestionably is, for there is no individual in his Majesty's dominions, who, if in consideration of such a superior importance, we could be allowed to mix any thing which merely affected ourselves, has more reason to complain than my hon. friend. There is no man living whom it can have robbed of a larger portion of happiness. After devoting the best part of his virtuous life to this great object; when by long-continued and unwearied exertions, after repeated disappointments, and by a perseverance without example, he had, at last, at a mature period of his life, accomplished the object to which he had devoted all the faculties of his mind; when he was beginning to reap the full rewards of his long labours,-rewards the most congenial to his heart, and the best adapted to services such as his,-the satisfaction of seeing the progress of the good of which he had been, in so great a degree, the author; while he was every year receiving from Africa and from the West Indies, the tidings of the improved condition of his fellow-creatures; while he saw in Africa the dawnings of civilization, the calm and the tranquillity which reigned in their contented villages, the instruction which was afforded to their youths, and the comforts which the light of true religion was every day diffusing among the natives; and, on the other hand, in the West Indies, the mitigation of the labours and sufferings of the negroes, and law extending its protection to these unhappy outcasts of society; while he was cheering his mind, long depressed by the miseries which he had been compelled, for so many years, Such are the melancholy prospects which this Treaty affords to those who had been earnest in procuring the abolition, and who were pleasing themselves with the reflection of the great benefits which they had obtained for mankind, or, in other words, to the great majority of the British nation. With these prospects before us, I cannot applaud the Treaty. I am desirous with my hon. friend, to have all the information that can throw light upon the negociation; but if that information is with-held, and I am compelled to decide with no other lights than I at present possess, I must say, that the Treaty appears to me, as far as it respects the Slave Trade, to be repugnant to justice and humanity, disgraceful to the British name, and offensive in the sight of God. Mr. Stephen rose in a state of great agitation, and after remarking that it was impossible for him not to feel that the eye of the hon. and learned gentleman glanced at him when he talked of members who chose to be criminally silent; asked, what right the hon. and learned gentleman had to impute to him so uncharitable a charge? He had last night on two several occasions offered himself to the attention of the Speaker, but was not fortunate enough to catch his eye, till a period of the evening when he was too much exhausted to do justice to his feelings. So far from not intending to speak upon the present occasion, he had been listening with satisfaction to the eloquent speech of the hon. and learned gentleman, till the cruel and unjust attack was made upon himself, with the view of being able to distinguish the little of that speech of which he did not approve, from the great proportion of it in which he so highly concurred, and in conjunction with the House admired. If the hon. and learned gentleman was sincere in the sentiments of benevolence he had uttered that night, he would take himself to task on his pillow, for the injustice of which he had been guilty, in imputing to others so serious a charge. It was too much to impute to a man who had some small claims to good will on this very account, the charge of bartering the blood of Africa for the sake of detestable lucre. He then proceeded to shew how zealous he had uniformly been, both in the West Indies and in this country in support of the abolition. He expressed his disapprobation of the Article in the Treaty; but at the same time, as the noble lord pledged himself that the production of the papers called for, instead of serving the cause of the abolition, would injure it at the Congress, he was willing to take the pledge of the noble lord in this respect, thinking that he thereby best consulted the attainment of the grand object, and satisfied that ministers were equally responsible for any omission or violation of their duty, after the Congress had taken place, as they were now. He had read every publication on the recent horrible proceedings in St. Domingo, and he had obtained information on the subject in every possible way, and he was petrified with horror at the facts which he bad learnt. At Cape Françoise they were in the habit of desecrating Sunday by hunt ing buman beings in a ring with blood hounds, until they were torn to pieces; and of carrying others out to sea, and drowning them by wholesale. The fact that the ex nobles of France had great possessions in St. Domingo, and that M. Mahonet had been appointed the French colonial minister, accounted to him in a great measure for the difficulties under | which the noble lord had laboured to obtain his object. The noble lord had however pledged himself, he believed most sincerely, to exert every effort in this cause at the approaching Congress. If the noble lord failed to redeem this pledge, might God not spare him if he spared the noble lord or his colleagues. Thinking, however, that the motion would be injurious instead of beneficial to the object in view, he must vote against it. Sir S. Romilly, in explanation, expressed his regret that the hon. and learned gentlemen had taken the observations which he had made as personally directed against him, and assured the hon. and learned gentleman that he meant no attack upon him, but merely directed his argument to him in common with others who were in the same situation. Mr. Stephen declared himself satisfied with this explanation. Mr. F. Douglas and Mr. Barham supported the motion. Mr. Bankes denied that any practical benefit would result from the motion if it were acceded to. Although he was at an utter loss to conceive how a British minister could have placed himself in the situation in which the noble lord said he had found himself placed, yet, after the warning of the noble lord, given on his responsibility as minister, that much detriment to the cause would arise from the production of the papers moved for, he could not consent to the motion. Mr. Ponsonby expressed his surprise that the hon. gentlemen who last spoke should be disposed to yield implicit credit to the noble lord's statement, that to agree to his learned friend's motion would be to injure and not to serve the cause of the abolition, after having said that his imagination was at a loss to conceive how a British minister could place himself in such a situation as that in which the noble lord confessed he had been placed. He allowed that the noble lord had misjudged in the one case, and yet he was willing to take the noble lord's opinion as imperative in the other. On the noble lord's own principles, what chance was there of success in any further negociation with France? The noble lord asserted, that we had no right to insist on the French being more moral than they were; and, on the other hand, that we had no right to threaten the French with a continuation of the war unless they consented to the abolition. Then, he should be glad to know, in what quarter we were to look for favourable circumstances in the approaching Congress? Was it from the good disposition of the allied powers? If the noble lord had not availed himself of that good disposition in the efforts which he had already made, he was deeply culpable; if he had availed himself of them, it was evident that they had not much weight. In what he was about to say, he by no means intended to disclaim being a party man. On the contrary, he thought it an honour to be so considered. He should never think well of the condition of any country in which there were not avowed associations of public men, friendly to public liberty. But that the present motion was made in what was usually termed the spirit of party, he would utterly deny. The noble lord and his colleagues had less reason to complain of party than any administration in the history of this country. During the whole of the late negociations, they had not experienced a single act of opposition; and their political enemies appeared as arduous to strengthen the hands of government, as were their most arduous supporters. Mr. W. Smith said, that though his opinion with regard to the Treaty, so far as the article respecting the Slave Trade was concerned, remained exactly the same as he had expressed it on a former evening, yet he felt it to be imperiously his duty, to vote against the motion of his learned friend. Mr. Horner briefly replied. His object in making the motion, was to obtain papers, which might enable him to form his judgment respecting the conduct of the noble lord, as to whether that conduct was deserving of censure or approbation. He disclaimed the idea of bringing it for ward in the first instance, as a direct censure upon the noble lord. If, however, the noble lord chose to refuse that evidence which might qualify him (Mr. Horner), to determine upon his conduct in framing that Treaty, and if he must deliver his opinion upon it from the impression now on his mind, he, in the absence of all other means of determining, should have no hesitation in saying Guilty. He did not mean to press the matter to a division, as he had sufficiently collected the sense of the House from the turn of the debate. He had done what he conceived to be his duty in bringing the question forward, and should rest satisfied with that consciousness. Lord Castlereagh, in explanation, said, that it was far from his intention to say any thing which could be construed into an attack upon the motives or feelings of the learned gentleman; he had used the word party in no offensive sense; he referred merely to the time that had been suffered to elapse before the present motion was brought forward. Mr. Horner contended, that he had availed himself of the first practicable night. Lord Castlereagh replied, that he might have given notice of his motion, if intended to impute blame, without the necessity of bringing it forward earlier. Mr. Wilberforce observed that his learned friend had certainly postponed his motion at his request, in order to afford him the opportunity of previously bringing forward his own motion respecting the Slave Trade. The question was then put, and negatived without a division. HOUSE OF LORDS. CORN LAWS.] The Earl of Hardwicke presented the following Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the state of the Corn Laws. "That the Committee have met, and have examined several witnesses on the subject matter referred to them, but that, notwithstanding a great number of petitions, to the extent of from 70 to 80, very numerously signed, have been referred to the consideration of the Committee, none of the petitioners have hitherto come forward to support any of the allegations therein contained. That your Committee, anxious to lay before the House as full information as they can obtain upon every branch, and under every view of the important subject referred to their consideration, and apprehensive that the petitioners may have hitherto abstained from supporting the allegations of their petitions, from an opinion that the Committee are not empowered to receive such evidence, the Committee submit to the consideration of the House, the propriety of giving them direct instructions to examine all evidence the petitioners may think fit to offer, in support of the numerous petitions which have been presented to the House, in the course of the present session, on the subject of the corn laws." The noble earl then observed, that as the object of the Committee was to notify the matter of the Report in the most public and authentic manner, he should merely move, "That it be an instruction to the said Committee, to examine all witnesses in support of the allegations of the different petitions presented to the House this session on the subject of the corn laws, who may be brought forward on the part of any of the petitioners. ford to the manufacturers and others an opportunity of proving their own allegations. Earl Stanhope was ready, if the noble earl pleased, to enter more fully into this subject, but he must contend, for what could not be controverted, that the evidence adduced most melancholy proofs of the error of the system recommended by those who proposed these alterations of the corn laws. The motion was agreed to. Earl Stanhope conceived there was a degree of objection to the regularity of the present motion, because it implied that the preceding powers of the committee were defective. At the same time he must observe, that before this committee, enough had already been proved, to shew that the system recommending an alteration in the corn laws, was not calculated to produce the benefit anticipated by its promoters. It was clear from this evidence, as it was to his prior conviction, that the people and the growers of corn must be untaxed, before the remedy desired could be esta-quence to the welfare of the country. He blished in the country. The Earl of Lauderdale could not help noticing, that the noble earl, of all other persons, appeared to him not informed enough of the proceedings before the Committee to make these remarks; for he had only for a few days, and for a short period in each day, attended that committee; whereas, for himself, he could declare, from the first establishment to the present hour, he had attended the whole proceedings of that committee, and he had no hesitation in saying, that the observations now made by the noble earl were a gross misrepresentation of all that had occurred before the Committee, and that there was not the slightest foundation for what the noble earl had stated upon the present occasion. Earl Stanhope would ever maintain the correctness of the remarks which he had already made to the House. Though he had not attended, like the noble earl, to all the proceedings of the Committee, he had attended until he heard that evidence which was satisfactory to his own mind. The evidence which, to his own knowledge, was delivered, confirmed to him, that the system recommended by the noble earl, as an author, would be injurious, and he would never permit that noble earl to say he had misrepresented what he knew of his own knowledge to be true. The Earl of Hardwicke said, the only object of the present motion was, to af PRESERVATION OF SHIP TIMBER.] The Earl of Darnley presented a Petition from an officer in the navy, relating to a subject of the greatest importance. This individual stated a discovery to have been made for the better preparation and preservation of timber, and he trusted the noble viscount opposite would declare the readiness of the Admiralty, on all occasions, to attend to suggestions of such great conse should move that this Petition be read, and that it afterwards lie upon the table; though he was not prepared, at this late period of the session, to give any notice of a motion upon the contents of it, but he hoped the Admiralty would anticipate the necessity of making any such motion upon a future occasion. Viscount Melville declared the readiness of the Admiralty to attend to suggestions of this nature. The experiment of the invention, to which the noble earl had alluded, was tried last year, and an accident occurred which rendered the utility of it doubtful; but still, upon any future trial, the Admiralty would not be slow to examine and appreciate the benefit of any discovery calculated to benefit the country. Earl Stanhope was a little surprised at the logic of the noble viscount, who blamed an experiment because an accident had prevented a satisfactory proof of its utility. If the Admiralty employed persons who were the occasion of the accident he had mentioned, the blame would belong to themselves alone; and it would be an admonition to the board, not thus to direct their proceedings, but to take care that they should be guided by men of science. Viscount Melville observed, if the noble earl meant to say that the accident which occurred was to be ascribed to the conduct of the board, that noble earl was under a complete mistake. The experiment was conducted by the person who was appointed (not by the board) to see the invention carried into effect. The observation he still made was, that the Admiralty would carefully attend to any invention or discovery which purported to be advantageous to the state, or the community. Earl Stanhope was persuaded that, on other occasions, the Admiralty proceeded to examine inventions, when it more became them first to enquire, from men of science, whether such proposed inventions were deserving of their attention. The Petition was ordered to lie on the table. SLAVE TRADE.] A number of Petitions against the renewal of the Slave Trade, from different parts of the country, were presented by, the dukes of Gloucester and Norfolk, earls Stanhope, Grey, and Lauderdale, and lord Holland, which were read, and ordered to lie on the table. ships to agree to this Bill: but it was a circumstance to be considered in addition to the great object of public convenience. The performance of the regular drama. was confined to two houses, notwithstanding the great increase of the population. It was matter of public importance, therefore, that there should be another house for the representation of the regular drama, and on that ground he wished the Bill to stand. Any minor objection might be obviated in the committee. The Lord Chancellor did not think that the noble duke had stated sufficient grounds for the second reading of the Bill. Independent of other considerations, it was not even stated that the crown had refused a patent. Lord Holland understood the case to be, that the proprietor had obtained a licence from the Lord Chamberlain, which licence, for what reason he did not know, had been The Marquis of Lansdowne then rose, withdrawn. He had then applied to the for the purpose of giving notice of a mo- crown for a patent which had been either tion relative to the subject of the Petitions refused or with-held. Parliament had which had been laid upon the table. He interfered on a former occasion for the intended to-morrow, on which day the purpose of restriction, and had enacted, House was summoned, to move an Address that all pieces performed must be li to his Royal Highness, praying he would censed by the Lord Chamberlain, This endeavour to accelerate the abolition of Act had been so construed as to enthe Slave Trade, upon the principle which able the Lord Chamberlain to licence had been recommended in the last session the performance of regular plays at other of parliament. He should, however, take places than the regular theatres. He did care, in framing this Address, to avoid not know, however, that this construction every thing which might be supposed to was warranted by any solemn decision on allude to, or censure what was past; and the subject-and he was very doubtful as its object would wholly be directed to to the wisdom of the Act; but certainly future negociation, and for the purpose of no sufficient ground had been laid for this strengthening the hands of his Majesty's sort of parliamentary interference, It had government, in their endeavours to induce been decided, he believed, that the monoother countries to co-operate with them in poly granted by Charles 2, did not bind his the complete abolition of this traffic. He successors; and, unless, under very special was led to believe there would be no ob-circumstances indeed, this was a maiter to jection to the motion he intended, and, therefore, he would submit it to the consideration of the House to-morrow; but, if from any quarter he should be inclined to believe there would be opposition, he should then consider of the expediency of postponing his motion to a future day. PANTHEON THEATRE BILL.] The Duke of Norfolk moved the second reading of the Pantheon Theatre Bill. He stated that this was a large and commodious building, and that the proprietor had been at considerable expence in fitting it up for a theatre. He did not state this as a reason by itself sufficient to call upon their lord( VOL. XXVIII. ) be left to the crown. No doubt their lordships might and would, on a proper case made out, advise the crown, in the exercise of his prerogative; but this did not appear to be a case that called even for that interference. He had no instructions or explanation from those concerned in Drury-lane theatre, as to their views on this subject. But it ought to be remembered that the period which, in the opinion of the laudatores temporis acti, formed the Augustan age of theatrical representa tion, he meant the period when Garrick was manager, was exactly the time when the monopoly was most rigidly enforced. He had heard much said about numerous and small theatres, where the powers of (2 E ) |