assuming all the items in their stock by computation, to be valid: but admitting this fallacious statement, were they not still without the capital for trade, or the means of raising one? If, however, the committee adopted his (the alder man's) deduction, this deficit would be found nearer fourteen millions six hundred thousand pounds. But the relief which the noble lord himself had suggested, sufficiently proved what his own real opinion was of the company's situation."We are in no danger of becoming burthensome to the state, or of calling for any fresh trading capital; only,' says the noble lord, allow us to raise four or five millions by the sale of fresh created stock, and lend us seventeen millions more, to be raised on parliamentary security, for our corporate use and benefit!" Sweet, indeed, and large must be the dose of nepenthe, copious the opium draught, that could any longer lull the House and the country into such dangerous security. Better far would it be, said the alderman, to go first into the committee, which the noble lord now recommended. For himself, he was persuaded that the extent of the disease was not yet discovered, and therefore no adequate remedy could be applied till a fresh report was made to the House upon a full investigation of all the branches of the India system; a firm conviction upon his mind of the magnitude of those embarrassments, and of the extreme difficulty of finding a remedy, and not any of the personal or party motives, which had again been ascribed to himself; not any resentment for disappointed ambition, nor envy at the company's power and influence, but a just sense of his d'u y, as a representative of the Commons of England, and as one of the magistrates of the first commercial cities in the universe--the greatest that modern or ancient times beheld; these were the stimuli which had prompted him to enter thus largely into the wide detail of the company's affairs, and which would con inue to support him in the further prosecution of this subject next session, of which he had given notice in the House.

Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Hudlestone, and Dr. Laurence, explained.

After much farther discussion, in which Mr. Whitshed Keene, Mr. Johnstone, Mr. Grant, and Lord Morpeth participated,

Mr. Alderman Prinsep concluded the debat, by observing, that if the expressions he had used, of which such heavy complaints had just been made by the ex-chair

4Z2

man,

man, were felt to be either disrespectful by the great body whose affairs were now again under their annual investigation, (and even then they could not justify the use of invective where refutation was felt to be impossible), offensive to the official feelings of directors, or stronger than the occasion called for; he trusted that in the one case, allowance would be made for some degree of provocation he had met with at the beginning of the debate, in a fresh attempt to preclude him from expressing his sentiments at all in the committee: and in the other case, that the committee would think with him, that feeling, as he did, the importance of the facts, and of his conclusions from them, it became both his right and his duty to enforce conviction by the strongest language that the subject suggested to his mind.

The resolutions were then agreed to.

The House having been resumed, the report was ordered to be received on Monday.

A message from the Lords declared their assent to the linen drawback, the Bell Rock light-house, the London port, and the masters in chancery bills without any amendment, and also their Lordships' assent to the Philanthropic Society, and bankrupt regulation bills, with several amendments, to which they desired the concurrence of this House.

Accounts of the salaries of several public officers were presented at the bar.-Ordered to be printed, and to lie on the table. Adjourned till Monday.

HOUSE OF LORDS..

SATURDAY, JULY 19.

The customs regulation bill, the consolidated fand bill, the charitable institutions bill, the Dublin harbour bill, and the oak bark bill, were read a second time, and committed for Monday.

The royal family annuities bill, the militia officers pay bill, Earl Nelson's annuity bill, the Irish postage bill, the lottery bill, and the London additional force repeal bill, passed through committees, and were reported.

A short conversation took place relative to the Scots forfited estates bills, between the Earl of Lauderdale, the Fayl of Moirs, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Walsingham, and the Duke of Cumberland, in consequence of the House

of Commons not having sent up the report respecting the. forfeited estates in Scotland, which had been requested by a message from the Lords. It was at length agreed to defer the further consideration of the subject till Monday, when the standing orders Nos. 26 and 155 are to be taken into consideration, with the view of suspending them, in or- ' der to forward several bills two stages on that day. Adjourned till Monday.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

MONDAY, JULY 21.

The royal assent was given by commission to the sugar bill, the silk bounty bill, the Irish revenues bill, the American intercourse bill, the Irish militia service bill, the yolunteer officers rank bill, the slave ship restriction bill, the Chancery clerks bill, the masts bill, the raisins bill, the London quay bill, the port of London bill, the Bell Rock light-house bill, the insolvent debtors bill, and seve Tal other public and private bills, to the amount of ninety-eight.

The commissioners were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Walsingham, and Lord Eldon.

The further hearing of the appeal" Chamley v. Lord Dunsaney, and others," was pos poned till next session.

In the appeal Rennie z. Tod, and others," the Lord Chancellor moved to reverse the decree of the court of session, which motion was supported by Lord Eldon, and agreed to.

Sir William Scott, and several other members of the House of Commons, brought up the bankrupt laws bill, and some other bills, the amendments made in which by the Lords had been agreed to by the Commons.

The consolidated fund bill, the royal family annuities bill, the Irish postage bill, the lottery bill, the malt excise bill, the London additional force repeal bill, Earl Nelson's annuity bill, and Lord Rodney's annuity bill, were read a third time and passed.

MILITIA.

On the third reading of the militia officers' pay bill, The Earl of Radnor protested against it as a bill that offered an insult and injury to the militia, whilst it was at the same time a breach of faith towards that valuable body

of

of men, it having been clearly declared by Parliament that the pay of the militia officers should be equal to that of the officers of the line. He lamented that every party who came into power seemed inclined to give a blow to the militia. The engagements that had been entered into with the militia had now nearly all been broken; the men had been taken out of the regiments to serve in the line; officers had been appointed without the requisite landed qualifications; now the pay of the officers was to be rendered less than that of the line, and he supposed their rank would next be affected. Ile wished to speak against this measure in the strongest terms which his liberty of speech in Parliament would allow; and viewing it in the light he did, he felt it his duty to move, that the bill be read a second time that day three months."

The Earl of Westmorland also thought the bill a breach of faith towards the militia, and was at a loss to conceive on what grounds it could be supported. On a former occasion, when discussing one of the military measures of his Majesty's ministers, it had been said, do not take a measure singly, but look at the whole plan, and with this licence he would take the liberty of adverting to a bill for regulating the rank of volunteer officers, which, either through his mistake, or the mistake of others, had passed through the House without his having an opportunity of making any remark on it; a bill which he conceived calculated to give offence to the volunteers, without any benefit being likely to be derived from it.

Lord Grenville declared himself a warm friend to the militia, which he considered a very valuable part of our military force, not only as affording a force for the defence of the country in the hour of danger, but also as giving an opportunity to gentlemen of landed property, not choosing to enter into the regular military profession, of evincing their zeal and spirit, and of obtaining that degree of military knowledge which would render them essentially useful in a crisis of public danger. There was not the slightest intention on the part of his Majesty's ministers to give a blow or offer any insult to the militia; nor could he conceive how this bill could be so construed. He denied that there was any breach of faith; all that had formerly been declared by Parliament was, that the officers of the militia should receive the same pay as the of ficers of the line, that is to say, the pay which the latter

then

then received; but it never could be contended, that from thence a principle was to arise, that the pay of the offi cers of the line was never to be augmented, without, at the same time, augmenting, to an equal amount, the pay of the officers of the militia. It should be recollected that the officers of the line made the military profession the business of their lives, and were liable to many duties of service to which militia officers were not; the latter, besides, might pursue other avocations, at the same time continuing the exercise of their duties as military officers. He could not, therefore, conceive in what way the bill could operate as a hardship upon the latter.

Lord Eldon objected that the bill was inconsistent with itself, inasmuch as it merely professed in its title to be a bill for regulating the pay of militia officers in England and Scotland, whilst in the body of the bill there were enactments applying to the yeomanry and volunteers of Ireland.

The Earl of Mou a observed, that a trifling amendment would obviate the inconsistency of which the noble and learned lord complained. He professed himself a warm friend to the militia, and, coinciding completely with the arguments urged by his noble friend (Lord Grenville), he could not conceive in what way the bill could be considered as offering any insult to that valuable part of our military force. He thought the lamentation of the noble earl (Westmorland), that he had missed an opportunity of debating the bill for regulating the rank of volunteer officers, was needless, as every part of the plans of minisfers as embodied in the different measures brought up to that House had been most amply discussed by noble lords on the other side, who had scarcely omitted any oppor tunity of attacking them. With respect to that bill, however, he would observe, that not only no offence was intended to the volunteers, but he was convinced that no offence could be taken by the volunteer officers, as they must feel that, from want of experience in actual service, they were not competen: to take the command of field officers of the line, and of large bodies of troop, in the event of their being actually called out for the defence of the country.

Earl Fitzwilliam likewise defended the bill, on grounds similar to those urged by Lord Grenvilic and the Earl of Moira.

The