honourable friend of his (Mr. Burke) with a recantation of principles and doctrines which he had never avowed, but which had been avowed by another right honourable friend of his (Mr. Fox), concluded with declaring, that when the bill came to be read a first time, he would move to give his negative to the motion, on purpose to have the doctrines of the right honourable gentleman fairly and fully discussed.

Mr. Pitt replied.

Mr. Sheridan answered, if the right honourable gentleman persisted in denying that any member was not free to give his vote against a bill, after voting for an address of the nature of that then in question: he certainly would say no to the first reading of the bill, for the purpose of bringing the question fairly under discussion.

The house divided on Mr. Sheridan's motion of adjournment; ayes 160; noes 236. The main question was then put and carried.

MARCH 7.

COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH FRANCE.

That it is necessary

Mr. Fox, after a speech of considerable length, moved, to declare, that no address from this house to the throne can, in any degree, bind or pledge this house, in its legislative capacity, or bar the subject's right of petitioning this house, upon any bill depending in parliament, although such bill be founded upon, and conformable to, such an address, previously agreed to by the house."-Mr. Pitt observed, as he could not admit the necessity of the motion, he would move, in order to negative the whole, to prefix the following words, by way of amendment, viz. “That it is now necessary to declare," &c.

MR. SHERIDAN begged leave to call to the recollection of the right honourable gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) that he had, on a former occasion, charged him (Mr. Pitt) with having not only brought in a bill differing in a vital part of the system, in the permanency of it, from the resolutions grounded on the Irish propositions; but had asserted, that the secretary in Ireland had also brought in a bill there, differing as much from the English bill; and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland had laid great stress in his argument, on the circumstances that the Irish bill did so essentially differ from the bill sent over from England. The right honourable gentleman had formerly said, he no longer should consider himself as useful to his country, if he could not carry the measure respecting Ireland through. Mr. Sheridan ridiculed some words

which, he declared, he had taken down, as the reason assigned by the right honourable gentleman in justification of the address, viz., that such a visionary and abominable style of argument had been taken by opposition against the commercial treaty, that it became necessary, as soon as possible, to carry the resolutions up to the throne with an address, in order to convince the people that parliament was not swayed by such sort of argument. The considerable majority the treaty had been carried by, might (Mr. Sheridan said) sufficiently have operated to show, that however forcible the arguments of his right honourable friend had intrinsically been, they had not been allowed to have much weight within those walls. Since, however, so new a reason to justify an address had been stated, he would advise the right honourable gentleman, another time, not to rest the justification of his address upon a casual intimation in the course of his speech, but to confess the fact, and to declare it in expressive words in the preamble of the address itself. He should not, therefore, wonder to see very shortly an address beginning thus: "Whereas the right honourable Charles James Fox has used certain abominable arguments, of a nature tending to convince the public of the fallacy of the measures now pursuing," &c. &c. &c. Mr. Sheridan now begged leave to notice what the right honourable gentleman had said of minorities; and declared that the right honourable gentleman had been in the only situation in a minority that could make a man's voting in a minority contemptible, viz., the holding his office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and, nevertheless, voting in a minority. Such a situation was not only contemptible, but unconstitutional; besides it proved that, great even as his respect for majorities, and ardent as his love for them was, his love of office was greater; since the fact established, beyond all possibility of contradiction, that possession of office was the first of all objects. Mr. Sheridan at length returned to the immediate question, which he particularly pressed upon the house, instancing the general mode of proceeding all through the business; and in particular the blending the two subjects-the resolutions respecting the French treaty, and the resolutions relative to the consolidation of duties in one bill, as unanswerable proofs that it was right to come to some general resolution, in order to guard the constitution against dangerous and (as his right honourable friend had as

serted) unnecessary innovation; for the address could not forward the carrying the treaty into effect a single day, because it could neither open our ports to French ships, lower the duties, or in any degree whatsoever smooth the way to the opening of a commercial intercourse. Such a resolution could not, in the first instance, be denied to be true; and if that were universally admitted, could any one time be assigned as a more fit moment for putting it upon their journals, than that moment immediately after their having voted an unconstitutional address to the crown; and after the contradictory conduct of the right honourable gentleman, who had, in the early progress of the business, argued as if it were right to pledge the house; and had asked what reason could be assigned, why it should not be pledged, after having so far considered the resolutions, and approved of them? But finding that such doctrines shackled his favourite majority, and that it was likely to diminish, he had in a late debate changed his note; and at an advanced time of the night, in a most equivocal speech, argued that the address only pledged those who were prepared to be pledged; but that it did not pledge gentlemen who did not choose to admit they were pledged. This sort of double-edged speech ought to be fixed to some certain standard; and the resolution that his right honourable friend had moved, Mr. Sheridan said, would have that effect.

The question of the amendment was then put and carried; and afterwards the main question, so amended, was put; when the numbers were, ayes 113; noes 118.

MARCH 13.

COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH FRANCE.

Mr. Pitt moved, "That the duty of excise on brandy should be 48. 3d. per gallon; which, with the 9d. already imposed in the customs, would make it ás. per gallon.

MR. SHERIDAN lamented that it was not in his power to entertain the same sanguine hopes of the right honourable gentleman's scheme, which he had been himself ready to declare he entertained; and one reason why he was inclined to put the less confidence in it, was, that he recollected that the right honourable gentleman had, two years since, come down and proposed a reduction of the duty on the home distillery, stating, that he

possessed the same sanguine hopes that it would tend to add considerably to the revenue; and yet the very next year he had found that his expectations failed him; and had been obliged to put the duties on again. It was much to be lamented, that the right honourable gentleman had not been able to get the accounts of the computed quantities of brandies smuggled into this country, upon which he had rested all his arguments in support of the present measure, before the conclusion of the commercial treaty with France. By that treaty Great Britain had stipulated to lower the duty on brandy to 7s. per gallon; whereas the right honourable gentleman now thought himself warranted to lower the duty to 5s. per gallon. Had the accounts therefore of the quantity of smuggled brandy been before obtained, the right honourable gentleman would have had something in hand, as it were, to treat with; and consequently could have treated to more advantage; as France would certainly have given an equivalent for the benefit of having her brandies imported into Great Britain upon so low a duty as 5s. per gallon. The right honourable gentleman had built his expectations of regaining the £200,000 a-year defalcation of the revenue, which the scheme of lowering the duty to 5s. would, in the first instance, occasion, upon a larger quantity of brandy, which would in consequence be legally imported; and, of course, the greater quantity of duty which would be paid; but although he had talked sanguinely about this, he had declared that he would not risk the loss of the £200,000 entirely, but would ensure a share of it, by an addition of charge upon the licenses to be taken out by the retail venders of spirits. To the right honourable gentleman's reasoning, that it would tend to preserve the morals of the lower order of the people, by putting a check upon their practice of dram-drinking, he was very ready to subscribe; as every gentleman must wish such a pernicious practice abolished, if it were possible; but he could not help observing, that the right honourable gentleman's two arguments did not run well together, viz. by lowering the duties on brandy, the quantity legally imported would considerably increase, and thence the revenue would acquire much; and that it was nevertheless at the same time right to make an addition to the charge paid for licenses, in order to check and keep down the consumption. He did not believe that the planters and merchants of the British West India

islands would be at all satisfied with the distinction the right honourable gentleman had declared it was his intention to make, between the duties on French brandy, and on rum, the produce of the British West India islands. The difference of 1s. was by no means enough to enable our rums to stand a competition with the French brandies; and that it was not, he believed the right honourable gentleman would hear from gentlemen more competent to speak on the subject than he could pretend to be. There was one point, however, to which he must expect to receive some answer; and that was, whether the right honourable gentleman meant to make any reduction on the malt distillery of this country? Upon that head the right honourable gentleman had been wholly silent, though it certainly was material; as the great reduction of the duties on brandies must necessarily affect the consumption of home-made malt spirits very considerably. He did hope, therefore, that the right honourable gentleman would give him some answer upon that essential point. He alluded to the language of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, respecting the effect which the commutation act would, in all probability, have on the smuggling of brandy; and, after much reasoning upon it, to prove that the right honourable gentleman's expectations at that time had failed, he concluded with repeating his declaration, that so far from entertaining sanguine hopes of the success of the present measure, as the right honourable gentleman had professed to do, he thought very differently, and did not believe that it would succeed at all.

EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

Mr. Dempster moved, " that copies of all orders sent out by the Directors of the East-India Company, since the year 1784, forbidding the servants in India to correspond with their friends at home relative to the affairs of the East-India Company; together with copies of all notifications of the said orders in India,” be laid before the house. Mr. Dundas having opposed the motion,

MR. SHERIDAN answered, that the contents of the paper proved, that under the idea of enforcing a particular order, particularly confined to the confidential servants, and those in places of special trust, an advantage had been taken by the board of control; and an order had been sent out, under the sanction of which, all the company's servants of every description had been generally interdicted from writing to their private friends at