suade himself to act in the same spirit towards America? I know he will tell me that this act has no direct reference to America, that America is no party to it. But however that may be, it is no less true, that considerable advantages are afforded by it to America, and that by this measure you may embarrass yourselves in the consideration of any treaty, you may have to enter into with that country. Suppose you should hereafter wish to repeal this bill at a time when America might be again, as she is now, in a state of ferment with regard to this country, would not they think the repeal of a law so beneficial to their commerce a measure so injurious, that the continuance of it may perhaps be made. the price at which the friendship of America is to be purchased and they will not be without arguments, to sustain their claim: "Was not the law necessary to your own convenience, they may say, and founded on the experience of thirteen or fourteen years before it was adopted? Did you, not upon deliberation adopt it as a measure of state policy?. Did not we receive it as a measure of conciliation? Why, when the same reasons are still in force, should it be discontinued, unless as an indication of hostility to us?" Such. may be at some future and perhaps no distant time the language of America. Do I therefore say that all concession, is in its nature necessarily bad? No, I do not; but I do say,. that concession may be good or bad according to the cir camstances of the time in which it is made; and I do further say, that a worse moment for this country to make any concession to America could not be chosen. What greater sacrifices could any country, friend or foe, expect from you. than this which you are now about to make to America? Has France, has even France with all the extravagance of her pretensions, ever been bold enough to ask you to suspend your navigation laws? I do not say that America asks you to do so; but I do say, that in the situation in which you stand you ought to take care to be above even the suspicion of an undue compliance. This measure, on the face, of it, carries the appearance of a concession at a moment wherein it is your duty to stand upon your rights; it is at least liable to this construction, and if you pass it at the present moment it will be so thought of in America. Once again, where is the necessity for this measure? Cannot our West India plantations be supplied with every thing they want without it? Will they not be supplied exactly in the same manner whether this bill passes or not? If there is no VOL. III. 1805-6. necessity

I h

necessity for it, think of the danger there is in passing this bill into a law, not only on account of the injury you sustain by the suspension of your navigation laws, while that suspension continues, but also because you will by such a suspension as this bill provides, make it difficult, if not impossible, to revert to your former system. It is not denied that it is an evil to suspend the navigation laws; but the evil is in some degree unavoidable. Be it so; but why aggravate what you cannot altogether avoid? Why make that suspension permanent which when temporary and cccasional has fully answered every purpose? You say, you are only doing what has been already done for many years, that you only mean to do the same thing in a different manner. You may mean what you will; but certainly the effect of your bill will be to suspend permanently laws which have hitherto only been suspended temporarily, to take responsibility from those who acted from knowledge of the necessity of each particular case, and rendered an annual account of each act of discretion, and to place it in the hands of others who already have shewn us what an extravagant use they mean to make, and how little account they propose to render of it, who have already anticipated for the whole of the war the existence of a necessity, which has hitherto been ascertained annually, and never acted upon until ascertained.

And you do this at a time and under circumstances which induce inevitably the suspicion that while you are thus sacrificing the leading principles of your navigation system, as well as the interests of that class of men, by encouraging whom you would encourage the maritime power of the country, you are making this sacrifice to a foreign power at present no way favourably disposed to you, and in whom the appearance of concession is likely to beget an increased. spirit of encroachment: and all this you are doing rashly and precipitately, shutting your eyes against the facts which are offered to be proved to you, and relegating the evidence of those best capable of giving you information, to a period when it can neither be received with the same confidence, nor listened to with the same effect, when the mischief will have been incurred, and when the means of remedying it will be incalculably diminished.

This is the way in which you are passing this most unnecessary and mischievous bill; these are the pretexís on which you endeavour to recommend it to this House; these

are

are the dangers to which it will expose you; these are the evils which it will produce. I think it likely to be fatal to the best interests of the country, and therefore I shall give it my decided opposition.

Dr. Laurence observed that the gentlemen who said any thing against this bill, seemed to found their opinions en, tirely on a fallacy; they spoke as if they considered that a system, which in fact was nothing more than a provisional regalation for the benefit of our shipping, and for the occasional supply of our colonies. These gentlemen, however, who were so extremely tender about the navigation laws, and who were so constantly in the habit of extolling the great virtues of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) who is now no more, did not seem to recollect any thing about the Dutch property act that was passed during the administration of that gentleman. When it was appre hended that Holland was about to be annexed to France, at first an order in council was passed, permitting the landing of Dutch property in this country from neutral vessels. This practice was afterwards by a positive law extended, and was in that extended state continued for upwards of four years, to the total ruin of our navigation laws. Let those gentlemen then triumph in their long experience in that administration; but let them not at the same time affect a tenderness about our navigation laws.

Sir John Newport rose, merely to state the effect that the proposed regulation had produced in Ireland. The persons concerned in the provision trade, instead of supposing themselves at all injured by this bill, considered that it would promote the export of provisions from that country, They considered that it would be much safer to embark in the trade of supplying the West Indies with provisions, when the discretion was in the privy-council, than formerly when it was vested in the governors of the islands. At the same time they had now sufficient notice, that if they were not able to supply the markets, the ports would be open to the American vessels. He felt a considerable degree of surprise at finding that this bill was opposed by the shipowners, as it appeared to him that it was much more to their advantage, that the discretion which must rest somewhere, should remain with the privy-council, than that it should be given to the governors of the islands, who sometimes might be supposed to act capriciously, and from the influence of the planters. In letting this discre ion remain with

Hh2

the

[LORDS, the privy-council, the decision was brought to their own door. As to the provision trade, when the letter had been so much dwelt upon, the gentlemen on the other side should also have considered the bounties that were given on exportation from our colonies, and the pains that were taken to give this country and its colonies every advantage in supplying the West India market. He could declare most positively, and he could bring documents to prove it, that when the persons concerned in the provision trade in Ireland had been applied to upon this subject, their answer was, that they would embark in the trade with much greater confidence and spirit, when they knew that it would be governed by a fixed rule, laid down by the privy-council, than they would have done when the discretion remained entirely with the governors of the islands, and when they were not sure but that on the arrival of their provisions some arbitrary and capricious order might, by giving an advantage to the Americans, prevent the sale of them. He concluded by declaring, that this measure had given more satisfaction to the Irish merchants concerned in the provision trade, than all the measures which the boasted experience of the gentlemen on the other side of the House could in twenty years enable them to suggest.

The House then divided,

Against the amendment,

For it,

Majority,

112

54

58

The bill was afterwards read a second time, and ordered

to be committed on Friday.

The other orders of the House were then disposed of.
Adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18..

Lord Granard took the oaths and his seat.

Mr. Alexander and several other members of the House of Commons brought up the West India anditors' bill, and several private bills, which were read a first time.

The Chelsea allowance bill was read a third time and passed, and a message sent to the House of Commons to acquaint them therewith.

Strangers

Strangers were for some time excluded, while the House discussed some matter of privilege.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN SCOTLAND.

Lord Grenville moved that the House should resolve itself into a committee to consider the administration of civil justice in Scotland.

The House having resolved itself into a committee,

Lord Grenville said no man could more deeply feel the importance and difficulty of any subject than he did that upon which he now rose to address their lordships. Feeling, however, as he did, all the difficulty of the subject, he felt it at the same time to be his duty, after fully and maturely considering it, to submit certain propositions to their lordships, the objects of which were to remove evils and inconveniences which had arisen to a great height, and which loudly demanded a remedy. His attention had been called to the number of appeals in that House, particularly from Scotland, which had increased to such an extent, that their accumulation, and the consequent great delay in their decision, became a most serious evil to suitors in that high court, and was disreputable to its jurisdiction. In considering this subject, his attention was naturally turned to the court of session in Scotland, from whence so many of these appeals came, and there he found also that the business had accumulated to an extent which produced the most material evils to the suitors, from the unavoida ble delay which occurred in deciding causes. It would be a superfluous waste of their lordships' time to enter into a history of the court of session; it would be sufficient to observe, that, by the act of union, it was declared to be the court for deciding causes in Scotland, and from which an appeal only lay to the House of Lords. It was evident, therefore, that no other court could be established for this purpose, without a breach of the act of union. There were, however, means of altering the frame and constitu tion of this court, by which, as he conceived, civil justice might be better and more speedily administered. The court at present consisted of fifteen judges. He did not mean, and he trusted he should not be understood to mean, to throw the slightest reflection upon any of the learned judges of that court; but it was his opinion, and it was the opinion of many persons of great experience and knowledge of the laws, that speaking generally justice was bet

ter