Cobbett's Political Register

were fractions of a penny, the fraction would be rejected, and the duty brought to the next integer either above or below. In the former case, the revenue would be increased a little; and, in the latter case, it would be diminished a little. In some cases, certain duties imposed by 42 Geo. III. cap. 117, of 3 per cent. on imports, and 1 or per cent. on exports, would be extended by this schedule to East-India goods. The drawbacks now allowed on the export of foreign articles to foreign countries were those under the acts of the 40th and 41st Geo. III. the duties under the 424 Geo. III. cap. 117, not now drawn back, were by the schedule as voted, drawn back. He had but one more remark to trouble the House with; by the 40th Geo. III. passed in the last session of the Irish Parliament, the duties were laid upon most articles ad valorem, and the additional duty imposed by the 42d Geo. III. cap. 117, was a rated duty, or the reverse, which of course caused considerable trouble to the merchants, for whose accommodation, and in order to facilitate business, it would now be proposed, that the duties under these acts should be reduced to one and the same denomination, viz. either a rated duty or an ad valorem duty, according to the nature of the article. The schedule, which he should propose after the recess, would almost in every instance be the same as that of last session, yet he wished to be distinctly understood, that it might vary from it; because, where alterations were suggested, either by the merchants themselves or by others, the good sense of which was apparent, they would undoubtedly be attended to. In the course of the last session of Parliament, he had given notice that he should prepare, for the consideration of Parliament, a measure in the shape of a property tax for Ireland; he did not mean at present to make any observation upon that subject, except to say that he should endeavour to prepare a measure of that sort, and to submit it to Parliament soon after the recess. He had only further to add, that he should propose that the duties should be permanent, in order to meet the permanent charges of Ireland, and not annual, as they had been up to the present time.

[VOLUNTEER EXEMPTION BILL.]-A message from the Lords, informed the House, their lordships had agreed to the Volunteer Exemption Amendment Bill, with several amendments, to which they desired the concurrence of the House.-Mr. Secretary Yorke moved, that the amendments be now read.The first amendment being accordingly read, VOL IV.

Mr. Secretary Yorke said, that on the read ́ing of the bill and the amendment, it would strike any one that this amendment was necessary; for the bill, as it went from the House up to the other House of Parliament,' exempted persons accepted and enrolled as volunteers from serving in the militia, but had no provision on being ballotted to serve in the militia before they became volunteers, and this amendment was therefore necessary, in order that persons who had been ballotted for the militia, should be obliged to do so, if they should happen to quit their volunteer corps; that they should claim no exemption, on account of having been volunteers, but that such exemptions should continue only while they remained volunteers, for which reason he trusted the House would have no objection to the amendment.

The Speaker observed, upon the point of order, that the usual course was to read all the amendments over once, before any discussion took place upon them, and that the season for observation was, regularly speaking, on the question of second reading, or of agreeing to the amendments. This was the more necessary to be observed, because by it the House could see the bearing of the amendments altogether, before it entertained any discussion upon them.-The amendments were then read; they were all verbal except the first, of which the substance is already stated. On the question for the second reading,

Mr. Windham took an objection to the House, at present, in this matter. He said. it was usual to adjourn the consideration of all amendments made by the Lords, in any bill sent to them from that House, in order to give the members time to understand it. He did not profess to understand this amendment, thus brought down and read upon the sudden. He saw no harm in postponing the consideration of it for twenty-four hours. He said, that an idea had gone abroad, whether true or not, he did not pretend to say, that the amendments made by the Lords in this bill, were such as the House had not been accustomed to receive and acquiesce in. He dared to say, that was not likely to be the case upon such an occasion as this, but that was a point, however well assured, it was impossible for the House to know; for which reason, he thought this subject ought to stand over until to-morrow: this he pressed the more particularly, as many gentlemen had gone away under an idea that this bill would not have been brought from the House of Lords to-night; and that if these amendments were now agreed to, these gen* LII

tlemen would be deprived of the opportunity of delivering their sentiments upon them.

Mr. Secretary Yorke said, that if he thought there was any amendment which required much consideration, he should wish it to be deferred, to give every gentleman who wished it, an opportunity of delivering his sentiments upon it, but there really was nothing of that kind. It certainly was not difficult to understand the first amendment, as he had already stated it; and, as to all the rest, they were merely verbal. With regard to the idea of the amendments being material, and of its having so gone forth to the public, that was one of the inconveniences which resulted from permitting the publication of the proceedings of Parliament; under which, some persons had the audacity, in direct defiance of the standing orders of the House, not only to misrepresent the proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament, but sometimes actually to invent matter, which created great confusion in the public mind. A clause was proposed by a noble lord in the other House of Parliament, by way of amendment to the bill, which amendment was now before the House, and which went only to make up for an oversight of the House of Commons, by which it was provided, that if any volunteer should quit his corps, he should no longer be allowed to avail himself of the exemptions to which volunteers were entitled; that was all- a thing too plain for discussion.

Mr. Calcraft professed to have no wish to procrastinate this business, but he could not help thinking it was quite necessary that this amendment should be inquired into, which could not be done unless it was postponed until to-morrow at least. He was satisfied that a much more respectable attendance, in point of numbers, would have taken place. in the House if it had been thought that these amendments were to have been proposed to be agreed to to-night. He knew of no reason why the House might not take this matter into consideration to-morrow. He was quite sure none had been alleged.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that all those gentlemen who had heard the amendment and attended to the bill, who thought that it only went to supply the defect of that bill as it went from that House, would agree to the amendment.

But if any

gentlemen in the House would have the goodness to attend to the amendment while it was read from the chair, and then would declare, as a member of that House, that he did not understand the amendment perfectly, not only would it be matter of jus

tice to allow further time to consider it, and therefore he should not oppose it, but he should himself move for further time for that purpose.

Lord Folkestone obsersed, that several gent lemen who, he believed, intended to be present at the discussion of these amend ments, had gone away under an impression that these amendments were not to be pro posed to be agreed to until to-morrow. Hi lordship said, he understood it to be the ge neral practice of that House not to tak amendments made by the lords into consi deration until the next day after they were brought down.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer desirel the Speaker to read, first the bill as it went up to the House of Lords, and then the amendment made by their lordships, which being done.

The Speaker took leave to observe, that although sometimes amendments made by the lords were taken into consideration on a subsequent day, yet it was extremely fre quent for the House to agree to amendments made by the lords on the same day they were brought down. One of the amend ments had been already explained: as to the rest, they were merely verbal. It was for the House to say whether it would consider them now, or defer them to a future day.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that the substantial amendment now before the House was only to carry into effect the manifest intention of the House, but which intention had been imperfectly expressed. Here he went over the clause again, and observed, that the bill as it originally stood, only affected volunteers who should be ballotted, &c. but did not provide for the case of those who might have been balotted and exempted on account of being volunteers, but who ought not to have such exemptions longer than they should serve as volunteers.

Mr. Windbam said, that the importance of the subject was unquestionable. The propriety of adjourning the discussion of it was to him obvious. He professed himself incapable of understanding this amendment on the sudden, at least of being sure he understood it. Gentlemen had gone away under the idea that it was not to be discussed to-night, and he thought it was little more than matter of course to defer it until to-morrow. He was really ignorant of the possible effect of certain words being intro. duced into a bill like this, and his igno rance strengthened his argument in this case, for it was impossible without time to remove

There was no necessity of thus going ckwards and forwards in a hurry with Is; and therefore on these grounds, with ery reason for the adjournment, and ne against it, he should think the House ould not prooceed on this matter now. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that the word substantial amendment, he did t mean that which the right hon gent. ho spoke last, might suppose; be meint it ly by way of distinction from those amend ents which were merely verbal.

Mr. Giles said, he considered the bill as w amended by the lords, to be precisely hat the House intended it to be when ey passed it, but from an oversight had nitted to express with precision, for which ason he supported the amendment, and w no reason for delaying the consideration fit.

Mr. Calcraft adhered to his former opiion upon this subject, on account of gentmen having left the House under an idea at the subject was not to be discussed toight. As to the amendment being only what the House intended to have expressed, e did not think it much to the credit f the House, to have sent into the other House a bill which did not express what was meant by its authors an additional eason for not being so hasty a second time. He alleged that the House would have done more wisely by printing the bill, and giving more time for its discussion than it had done. The lords had ordered it to be printed, and wisely so, for such measures should have as ample a discussion as possible. In one word, unless some better reason than any he had yet heard, was given for agreeing to these amendments to-night, he should think it his duty to object to that course.

His lordship was of opinion, that before their lordships came to a decision, some time should be allowed for making up their minds on so important a case to the parties concerned. Their lordships being to adjourn for the recess this night, he should move that the further proceedings be adjourned to the second day of the meeting of Parliament after the recess. Ordered.—Mr. Mitford presented an account of the expense of the northern lights, the southern whale fishery, and some other accounts, which were laid on the table. A message was sent to the honourable House of Commons by Sir Francis Molyneux, gentleman usher of the Black Rod, acquainting them, that the lords, authorised by virtue of his Majesty's commission for declaring his royal assent to several acts agreed upon by both Houses, desired the immediate attendance of the honourable House in the House of Peers to hear the commission read; and the Commons being come thither, the said commission, empowering the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord High Chancellor of GreatBritain, and several other lords therein named, to declare and notify the royal assent to the said acts, was read accordingly; and the royal assent given to, An act to explain and amend two acts passed in the forty-second and forty-third years of the reign of his present Majesty, relating to volunteers and yeomanry corps in Great Britain and also one private act. -The House then adjourned to Friday the 3d day of February, 1804.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Tuesday, Dec. 20.

[MINUTES.]-A message from the lords required the attendance of the Speaker at the bar of that House, where the royal assent was given by commission to the voJunteer exemption act.-Mr. Mitford presented an abstract of the account of the commissioners of northern light houses; also an account of the number of ships from Scotland engaged in the whale fishery. Ordered to lie on the table.-On the motion of Mr. Sergeant, a new writ was ordered to be issued for the election of a burgess for the borough of Dorchester in the room of the hon. Cropley Ashley, who has accepted the office of clerk of the deliveries in his Majesty's ordnance.Mr. Sheridan presented a petition from certain electors of the borough of Liskeard, in Cornwall, complaning of the decision of the Committee appointed to try the ments of the last elecท LI12

tion for that borough. The petition stated the right of voting vested in all the inhabitants of Liskeard paying scot and lot, although the Committee determined that it belonged solely to the mayor and burgesses, and accordingly decided that the honourable John and William Elliots, the sitting members, were duly elected; but in the opinion and judgment of petitioners, as 1 homas Sheridan and William Ogilvie, Esqrs. had the majority of scot and lot voters, the said decision of the Committee was contrary to the law and usage of Liskeard. They, there

fore, prayed permission to oppose the resolu tions of the said Committee.-Another petition of o similar nature was presented by Mr. Sheridan, from a Mr. Child, of Liskeard. Both petitions were ordered to be taken into consideration on Tuesday the 10h of April next.-Ordered, that the account presented by Mr. Vansittart on the 14th instant, relative to bounties given on fish brought to the London market, should be printed. On the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer the House adjourned to Wednesday the 1st of February 1804.

An Account of the NET PRODUCE of all the PERMANENT TAXES in the Years and Quarters ending the 10th day of October, 1802 and 1803, respectively.

Incidental Duties Duties raised in 1803, by means of a Consolidation of the Customs, by the Act of the 43d Geo. III. Sugar, Malt, Tobacco, An

3,619,647 о о 760,444 0 702,422 18

Oct. 10, 1803. 1,474,957 994 3,813,079 0 O 816,747 I 797,008 18 5

1,773,899 16 3 1,283,428 17 34 3,509,095 14 64 3,995,407 4 9

An Account of the Amount of the NOTES of the BANK OF IRELAND, in Circulation (including BANK POST BILLS payable after Seven Days Sight) on the 1st January, April. August, and October, 1803, respectively; distinguishing the Amount of the several Descriptions of Notes below the Value of FIVE POUNDS.