Mr. Fox concluded by moving an address of thanks to his majesty, which was agreed to nem, con,

ON

SLAVE IMPORTATION BILL.

May 1.

N the 31st of March, the Attorney-general, Sir Arthur Piggott, obtained leave to bring in a bill "To carry into effect his majesty's proclamation of the 15th of August 1804, for preventing the importation of African negroes by British subjects or British shipping into the colonies conquered by or ceded to us in the course of the war." Upon the third reading of the bill, on the 1st of May,

Mr. Secretary Fox said, that as to this bill having an ope ration gradually to abolish the slave trade, as some gentlemen seemed to apprehend, he owned he could not flatter himself in the hope that it would produce such a consequence; and if he thought it would have such a tendency, instead of that being with him an argument against the bill, it was one which would render him ten times more enamoured of it; but so far from such a consequence, he thought it would only operate some few years hence, to furnish a new argument, added to the old ones, of those who opposed that abolition, but on which certainly he never placed any very strong reliance. They had predicted in the same manner of the slave carrying trade, and of every other regulation calculated to palliate the enormous abuses of that trade. They had said, "Oh! if you pass this bill, there will be no need to say any more about abolishing the slave trade, as in a very few years you will have no such trade to abolish ;" and yet afterwards, when the gradual abolition came to be proposed, the same persons argued, "Why abolish? You have already established such wholesome restrictions upon the trade as to obviate its evils, and make it tend of itself to a gradual abolition." Such might probably, in a year or two hence, be the argument applied in respect of this bill, which was now spoken of as a measure destrustive of the trade of this country. Having, however, no such apprehension, such arguments had no influence upon his mind. With respect to the total abolition of the slave trade itself, whatever gentlemen might think of the consistency of those ministers in office, who had voted

for it out of office, he would not take upon himself to answer for the opinions of all his majesty's ministers: he could answer for himself, and several of those with whom he had the honour to act, and some of whom held the highest and most dignified stations in the other House of Parliament, as well as in this, that neither he nor they had ever changed the sentiments they had so repeatedly avowed upon it. They still felt it as one involving the dearest interests of humanity, and as one which, however unfortunate this administration might be in other respects, should they be successful in effecting it, would entail more true glory upon their administration, and more honour upon their country, than any other transaction in which they could be engaged. After all that had been said upon this subject, it would be felt that the measure would most properly be brought forward by the honourable member opposite to him, (Mr. Wilberforce,) whose laudable exertions in that case redounded so much and so justly to his own praise. Whether he should think proper to bring it forward this session or the next, (the sooner the better,) he could assure him of his most cordial support, and that of those friends who, out of office, had voted with him for the abolition of that abominable traffic.

PROPERTY TAX.

May 15.

IN the committee on the property duty bill,

Mr. Secretary Fox said he wished to state in a few words his ideas respecting the principle of the property tax. The general principle of it seemed to be, that all persons having property, of whatever kind, were bound to contribute. The exception from this principle was, that those were to be exempted from its operation, who could not contribute to the tax without depriving themselves of the necessaries of life, and thus becoming the proper objects of charity. In many cases, it would be impossible to take any thing from the produce of labour, since it might be barely sufficient to procure subsistence. Hence the propriety of those exemptions that were proposed in certain cases. Annuitants, also, below a certain sum were to be exempted, because they could not be said

to be possessed of real property. But this would not apply to income derived from monies in the funds, or from landed property. Suppose a man to be possessed of 6 or 700l., from which he derived an income of 30l. a year, by subjecting him to the present tax, you could not be said to deprive him of the necessaries of life, or make him an object of charity; for what title could such a man set up to your charitable assistance, who was possessed of a capital of 6 or 700l.? He therefore was not entitled to be exempted from the general principle; and this would apply equally to the possession of landed and of funded property. According to the extent of a man's income in many different situations, he might have it in his power to make such alterations in his expenditure as that the tax would not entirely crush him: he might be able in some measure to relieve himself: if he lived on the first floor, for instance, he might remove to the second, and so lessen his expences; if he was on the second already, he might mount to the attic story; but, where a man was already found to be in the cellar, where could he be sent to, what resource could he have?

In consequence of some observations that were made in the course of the debate,

Mr. Secretary Fox begged leave to recall the attention of the committee to the line of distinction he had before drawn, and to repeat, that it was by no means the wish of those who brought forward this tax, that it should so far trespass upon the necessaries of life, as to oblige any of the parties from whom it should be exacted to apply for parochial, or even for private relief; and therefore upon this principle, as in the cases of income from labour, the mere annuitant for life in any income from the funds under 50l. was exempted by the bill. But any person who was the fee-simple proprietor of 5 or 600l. in the stocks, which might entitle the holder to an income of 20 or 30l. a year, he could not consider in the light of an object likely to want the necessaries of life, or to be driven to seek for charitable relief, and therefore an annuity so circumstanced came fairly under the operation of a property tax, like freehold property in land. For the class of persons who were struggling with narrow circumstances to preserve appearances, and maintain the respect to which their characters in life justly entitled them, he felt as sincerely as any man; and not merely for those with incomes of 100l. or 200l., but even in many cases with 500l. a year. No man was more sincerely disposed than he was to afford them alleviation. He begged his honourable friend to be assured, that he was not a friend to the tax nor to any of its principles or ope

rations; that he was sensible the objections to it were just and innumerable; but his majesty's present ministers were reluctantly forced to adopt it, under the pressure of existing circumstances, which they had the consolation to reflect they had no share in producing.

THE

LIMITED SERVICE IN THE Army.

May 30.

HE House having resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House on the Mutiny Bill, Mr. Secretary Windham proposed the introduction of limited service into the army, by the insertion of a clause to that effect in the bill. After specifying the age of the recruit, and that he did not belong to the militia, he proposed that it should proceed to declare, "that he engaged to serve his majesty, for years, which he would fill up with the word "seven;" and also for such further period as his majesty should please to direct, not exceeding years, which he proposed to fill up with the word "three," but which should terminate at the expiration of a period of six following months of uninterrupted peace. That if the recruit should happen to be under 18 years of age, so many years should be added to the period of service, as should prevent the term of 7 years from beginning to run till he was actually 18 years of age. That every soldier abroad, at the period of the expiration of his service, should be sent home free from expence, and, on his arrival in Great Britain, should receive the usual allowance of marching-money, to carry him to his particular parish or place. If in Great Britain at the time he was entitled to his discharge, then also that he should be entitled to the allowance of marching money." The introduction of the clause was opposed by Sir James Pulteney, Mr. Yorke, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Perceval; and supported by Colonel Craufurd, General Loftus, and Mr. Fox.

pre

Mr. Secretary Fox said, that before he entered into any discussion of the principles of the measure, he must first answer some interlocutory objections that had been made. As to the complaint of its being hurried forward with such cipitation, just as the mutiny bill was going to expire, he must remind the right honourable gentleman who spoke last, (Mr. Canning) and his friends, that, a few days ago, they had contended that the discussion should be delayed two days longer, as they had wished it not to come on before Monday If he and his friends persisted in fixing it for the present night, and not putting it off, it was merely that parlia

next.

ment should have as much time for the discussion as could be given before the expiration of the mutiny bill. If they had fixed it for Monday, the complaint would have been, why did you not bring it in sooner? why did you not give us more time to discuss it? This was a tolerable sample of the general style of the right honourable gentleman's arguments. If the measure had been introduced in the mutiny bill, it was because such was the constant usage of parliament. The right honourable gentleman next found fault with popular assemblics, and parliament's meddling with the army of the crown. Where was it that he made that objection? In a House where the mutiny bill was annually passed, for the avowed purpose of subjecting the army of the country, in some measure, to parliamentary controul." "But," said the right honourable gentleman, "we spent our time much better when we were in administration; we never interfered with the army of the crown; but we provided a constitutional and a parliamentary army to be a balance to it, and at the same time to assist it with recruits." For his part, he must say, he never heard of a parliamentary army before, except in the year 1641; and as for the distinction which had been made, of royal army and parliamentary army, it was what no writer, no speaker, nor no man at all acquainted with the principles of the constitution, had ever taken notice of. Every army in this country was royal, and every army was also parliamentary. The right honourable gentleman seemed to consider the disposable force as the king's army, and every other description of force as a sort of balance to it. The militia, indeed, from its composition, and the description of its officers, might be, in some degree, considered in that light; but as to the additional force raised by the parish bill, nothing could be more ridiculous than to call them a parliamentary force, which was to be a balance to any other, as they were officered by persons appointed by the crown, and taken from the king's army.

An honourable general, (Sir James Pulteney,) had, on a former night, roundly asserted, that no other nation in Europe had ever adopted the limited service recommended; but that night he was pleased to retract something from his assertion, and only said, that the general practice of European nations was against it. The honourable general had not stated the case fairly, when he represented, that, if old France adopted the system, her armies were the worse for it, and that in the seven years' war they had been every where defeated. The honourable general should not have confined himself to the seven years' war, but should have also taken the war preceding it. In that war he would have found, that though the French lost the battle of Dettingen, they won that