citing any sort of clamour, but were ready to come to the bar of that house and prove, by evidence, that they laboured under a very great oppression and inconvenience. This was the proper mode of proceeding, and it should be considered, that the manufacturers were men of character and respectability, in every sense of the words; when they came to the bar, the house would be able to know who and what they were, and how the facts actually stood.

The motion passed.

Mr. Sheridan rose again to name the day, but begged the honorable member for Hull to declare whether he did not know that the whole of the bill had not been put in force? A material part of the evidence would go to prove that the bill was so impracticable, that parts of it had been obliged to be suspended.

Mr. Thornton answered, that the surveys were made more frequently in the country than in town, (only once in six weeks in the latter, but once every fortnight in the former) and, therefore, the inconvenience of the act would have been felt more severely in the country than in town.

The ensuing Thursday was named for the day of the committee's meeting.

APRIL 16.

EXCISE DUTIES ON TOBACCO.

Mr. Sheridan moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself into a committee on the several petitions, praying for a repeal of the act for excising tobacco; which being complied with,

Mr. SHERIDAN observed, that, in despite of the little consideration to which several honorable members might think the subject of the ensuing debate entitled, he felt himself thoroughly convinced that the great importance of its nature merited the closest attention, and the most serious investigation of the committee; and, therefore, upon such a ground, he should take the liberty to put in his earnest claim to the favour of an unprejudiced and patient hearing,

The matter, indeed, would scarcely admit of being enlivened or dignified by the manner of discussion; yet it was deeply interesting; for, it involved within it points which were exceedingly material to the existence of the constitution itself. He was, however, too well persuaded, that before he could succeed in making some members of the committee view the question in the same light in which it appeared to him, there were some prejudices which it would be necessary for him to endeavour to remove. Of late he had observed that, whenever revenue was mentioned in parliament, it seemed to be understood that every other consideration was to give way to it; and that even constitutional principles were made subordinate to an increase of revenue. This had grown into a kind of prejudice; and a man would run the hazard of being thought an enemy to the credit of the nation, who should venture to oppose a plan, however injurious it might prove to the rights of the subject, if it purported to hold out a prospect of an increase of revenue. Yet still should he presume to oppose that prejudice, at the same time that he professed himself to be among the foremost of those who were anxious to uphold and preserve the public credit. He was aware that the doctrine on which this prejudice was founded had powerful advocates, and was sanctioned by great authorities. Mr. Hastings, among others, had declared himself the champion of it, and lent it the weight and credit of his name; for, he had affirmed it, in a solemn manner, to be his opinion, that "revenue was the end of all government."—But though this position was advanced by so great a statesman, he would not hesitate to say, that it could not be maintained for a moment by any man who had the smallest regard for the happiness of his fellow-creatures. The true end of government was to keep mankind together by securing their happiness, protecting their rights, and insuring to them the possession and enjoyment of liberty and property. Re

venue might be used as part of the means for effecting these desirable purposes, but it would be a perversion of common sense to call it the end of government. These person who could mistake revenue for the end of government, would, and must consider a national debt as absolutely necessary in every state; and would therefore take care to establish what he must always consider as dangerous to liberty; for, a public debt of any magnitude produced of course taxes; the collection of taxes required revenue officers; the appointment of these being in the executive government, would necessarily extend the influence of the crown, and that extension must be at the expense of the rights of the people. He was willing to go great lengths to support the public credit, by increasing the revenue; but he thought that there were some rights which were above all price, and for the want or loss of which no increase of revenue could be a compensation. There was another prejudice, the fatal influence of which had been experienced more than once in the defeat of laudable endeavors made by friends to their country to oppose what they conceived to be injurious to the people's rights. And this prejudice was, that measures proposed by a minister were opposed of course by his political adversaries in parliament, not because the measures were wrong, but because they were his. This prejudice was founded upon an opinion as unjust as it was injurious, and could not, for a moment, stand the ordeal of enquiry. If gentlemen would look back, and review the proceedings of that opposition of which it was his boast to be a member, they would find, that the persons of whom it was composed, had, upon all occasions, manifested a strong desire to concur with the minister in supporting the public credit; and that they never attempted to catch at popularity, by contending that taxation was unnecessary. On the contrary, they had always agreed with him, that in the actual situation of affairs, the burdens of the

people could not be lightened. Whenever, then, they had differed from him, and condemned any of his measures, the difference was not about the end, but the means, and the issue of their opposition, on various occasions, proved that it was founded on reason, and not in hostility to the minister. It was to opposition that the nation was indebted for the defeat of the plan, by which the minister would have placed an excise officer at the mouth of every coalpit in the kingdom; for that must have been the case, if he had not been obliged by opposition to give up the duty which he had proposed to lay upon coals. When one of the most valuable manufactures in the kingdom, the cotton, was endangered by the injudicious excise duty laid upon fustians, and other articles, opposition stepped forward, and by procuring the repeal of that duty, preserved from ruin one of the greatest sources of trade and wealth to the nation. The shop-tax was also opposed; and, after repeated struggles, the minister gave it up; in that case he must be imagined to have given way to conviction, and not to clamour; and consequently he himself, by consenting to the repeal of that tax, admitted that the opposition to it was well founded. In these various instances the committee would see that opposition had not been actuated by factious motives; the success which attended the stand made to those different measures, and the minister's own conduct in giving up his plans, notwithstanding the kind of parental fondness that he was known, in general, to feel for whatever propo sition he had once adopted, proved, beyond contradiction, that the gentlemen in opposition had good reason on their side. The prejudice which he was then combating, was not confined to the house of commons, but pervaded large bodies of manufacturers, whose spirit had been broken down by the oppression of excise laws.

It was the decided opinion of several of the manufacturers of the very article on which he was to

say much before he should sit down, that the act was as oppressive, as absurd, and as impracticable as it had been declared to be by himself and others; and yet they did not dare to join their brethren in opposing it, lest by joining opposition, they should bring upon themselves the indignation of government, and the ill-will of the commissioners of excise. This he could prove by a letter then in his hand, written by Mr. Purvis, of Hull, an eminent manufacturer in the tobacco line, to the committee of tobacconists. A passage from this letter Mr. Sheridan read; and it appeared from it that Mr. Purvis, though he had once thought so ill of the tobacco excise act, that he was on the point of quitting the trade; and though at least two out of the three partners in his house had been on the point of retiring from it, on account of this act, yet he was of opinion that the manufacturers ought to acquiesce, "lest by throwing themselves into the arms of opposition, they should draw upon themselves the illwill of government."-Such was the mode of thinking and acting into which a free-born subject might be driven by the oppressive spirit of the excise laws. Uncommon pains had been taken, in the public prints, to defame all those who had taken any part in endeavouring to procure a repeal of the tobacco act. And no one had been inore distinguished on the occasion than himself. He begged leave to apologize for speaking concerning himself; he at all times disliked egotisms, and more so, on the present occasion, when the attention of the committee was to be taken up with the consideration of important subjects; but, still, as it was the part which he had taken in this business that had drawn upon him the ill will of those who had traduced him; and as they had connected his personal character with the important business in which he was then engaged, he hoped that the committee would suffer him to trespass, for some few minutes, on their patience, whilst