Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

an additional farm. And if a farther sur | He, consequently, would not, probably, te plus remained, which was extremely probable, he would advise that it should be formed into a sort of sinking fund, and thus the livings of the clergy might be made to keep pace with the improvement of the landed property, and indeed would be a security for them, whatever might be the fate of agriculture. It was the neglect and poverty which the inferior clergy had endured in France, as he had formerly stated, that in a great measure had occasioned the revolution in that country. A committee of Bishops had been there appointed to examine into that grievance, but instead of turning their attention to the subject for which they had been appointed, they treated the case of the lower classes of the clergy, many of whom had not above 121. a year, with neglect, and only resolved, that the livings of the poorer bishops ought in the first place to be augmented. He was sure that the right reverend bench opposite to him would not have acted thus; and he again assured them that he never had any intention to affirm, that such in a similar situation would have been their conduct. This assurance he had been obliged to give on a former occasion, as he had in that respect been misrepresented by one of the public papers. There was another reason why he wished to call their lordships' attention to this subject. He understood that a bill was about to be introduced into the other House, by which the statute of Mortmain was in some degree to be repealed. He strongly deprecated that measure. The statute of Mortmain, he was convinced, was the best that ever was made in this country. To abolish it would be attended with the most pernicious consequences. He therefore took this opportunity of expressing his strongest opposition to the bill in question. If it was such as he apprehended, it was the most objectionable measure which could well be brought for ward.

Here the Bishop of St. Asaph called the noble lord to order, saying that was an improper time to debate a bill, upon which the House would very gladly hear the noble lord's sentiments when it came before their lordships.

Lord Suffolk proceeded, and confessed that he might be somewhat out of order; but it was now late in the session. He wished to go down to the country to perform what he thought a most important duty, viz. to excite his tenants and neighbours to an exertion of that spirit, without which the attacks of our enemies could hardly be resisted, and the country would be in the greatest danger.

in town when the bill in question reached that House; and it was upon that account he wished to state his sentiments on the subject. He would now, however, proceed to another point in the bill before them. He certainly was averse to clergyman degrading himself to the rank of a mere farmer. He did not wish to enter upon that point, particularly as, he confessed, he was not fu ly master of the subject. His lordship then adverted at considerable length to the subject of tythes, and strongly reprobated the practice of paying tythes in kind. It was certainly not a thing required by the Christian religion. It was a Mosaic institution, and not, he apprehended, a Testament one. This might in the end turn out of the most pernicious consequence. What would the effect be of having so much property totally in the power of the Crown? What had been the effects of it in Roman Catholic times? These effects he might be told were not now likely to be produced. He did not know, however, and it was difficult to say, what might happen. It was, besides, of a most. pernicious tendency to agriculture. His lordship then informed the House of a fact, which he had from his own steward. He himself being a considerable lay proprietor, had sent his steward to let those lands which paid tythes in kind, and asked him what he had received for them? "A guinea an acre" was the answer. "A guinea an acre?" "Yes! the lands are good and the crops abundant!" He asked no more questions, as this completely satisfied him. A friend of his in Herefordshire, who was possessed of considerable property there, upon inquiry, told him, that he let 300l. a year's worth of such lands at 11. per acre, and even of this, after the payment of his tythes, very little remained with him. This country ought to consider that France was now become an agricultural country; and under that military despotism, the farmers had enjoyed a considerable degree of protection. Some friends of his who had seen that country lately, had assured him, from observation, that the state of agriculture there was very respectable. This country had been stated, and perhaps truly, the most improv ed in its agriculture of any state in Europe. Unless encouragement was given to this most important branch of economy, France might in that respect acquire the superiority; and then not all our commerce could save us. Commerce ought to have agriculture for its basis. Whenever the contest wag between an agricultural and commercial country, the commercial would most certain

ly be beaten. His lordship then adverted to the state of Ireland in this respect. He recommended that instant measures ought to be taken to redress the grievances in that quarter. This was of the utmost importance in a period like the present. The country would otherwise be in the utmost danger. He concluded by requesting that their lordships would take these points into their consideration; and repeated, that unless a proper attention were paid to them, the country would be in the utmost danger.

The Lord Chancellor rose, and briefly adverted to what had fallen from the last speaker with respect to tythes. The other part was totally out of order. He did not wish to enter into the subject at any length. His lordship (Suffolk) was a lay-proprietor. He would inform him, that upon the principles which he had stated, if put in practice, he could not long call his estate his

own.

Lord Suffolk explained.

Lord Limerick said, that he did not mean to enter upon the discussion started by the noble lord. But as Ireland had been mentioned, he would put it to the noble lord's good sense, whether it was proper at a time like the present, to send abroad with the sanction of his authority, which justly stood high, sentiments putting the Irish in mind, that they had grievances to complain of, when it was too late in the session, just now to have these grievances redressed. lordship might do a good deal of injury by stirring up commotions among a people, certainly of rather a turbulent disposition.

His

The Bishop of St. Asaph only rose to say, that the payment of tythes in kind could not be injurious to agriculture, as it would be the same thing, as far as respected the cultivation of land, whether the proprietor was a layman or a clergyman. This was proved by the flourishing state of those lands that paid tythes in kind. One half of these tythes was, besides, in all cases, in the hands of a lay proprietor, and two-thirds of the other half, when lands were let out on lease, belonged to the lessee.

The bill was then read a third time and passed.

HOUSE OF COMMONS. Wednesday, July 6.

MINUTES.]-The Marchioness of Downshire's Trust Estate Bill was read a second time and teferred to a private Committee.Foote's Divorce Bill was passed, and ordered to the Lords.-The Bill for carrying into

effect the purposes of Queen Anne's bounty act, was read a second time, and committed for next day.The Attorney General moved, for leave to bring in a bill for the protection of black game in the New Forest, in the county of Southampton, by postponing the commencement of shooting from the 1st of August to the 1st of September, and other regulations.-Leave given. Mr. Tierney presented a petition from the debtors confined in the Fleet Prison, praying relief. Ordered to be laid upon the table.— The Attorney General brought up the New Forest game bill-read a first time; ordered to be read a second time the next day. Mr. Alexander reported the resolutions agreed to in the Committee of Supply, empowering the Lord Lieutenant to increase the bounty for raising the additional military force in Ireland; and also the resolution, that it be an instruction to the Committee on the Irish army defence bill, to make provision for said resolutions in said bill.William Pulteney obtained leave to bring in a bill for erecting a beacon upon the Bell Rock, upon the North-East coast of Scotland.

--Sir

[MALT DUTIES.]-Col. Hutchinson said, he had lately made some objections to the malt duties, with respect to their operation upon the Irish manufacture. The answer he had received was, that though the advantage was now in favour of the English distiller, the Irish distiller would have a corresponding advantage at the end of the war. There were two gentlemen in town who represent the Irish distilleries, and they were of opinion that the answer was not satisfactory, as the advantage was contingent, whereas the loss was present and certain. It was therefore his intention to move for a return of the stock here on hand, with a view to make it the foundation of some measure for the compensation of the Irish distiller at a future day. In taking this course, his conduct was directed by his judgment. He neither canvassed the approbation, nor deprecated the censure of any man. The hon. member concluded with moving, "That there be laid before the House an account of the quantity of the stock in hand of homemade spirits of English gross distillers upon the 14th of June."

Mr. Vansittart said, the motion, if carried, would not answer the object, as there was a large quantity in the hands of dealers as well as of distillers.

Sir Lawrence Parsons was convinced that the present mode did not interfere with the articles of union. The Irish distiller was

only placed in the situation of an English distiller, who happens to have no stock on hand. The only mode of carrying the act into effect would be letting the countervailing duty take effect upon the same day as the internal duty. He did not think there was any foundation for the opinion entertained by the hon. Colonel.

Col Hutchinson then withdrew his motion, and proposed another to the same effect, only subsiruting th Jnly for 5th June.

Mr. Vansittart said, the same objections applied to this as to the former motion.

Col. Hutchinson withdrew it, and moved, - That an account be laid before the House of the probable amount of homemade spirits permitted for home distillers, from the 14th June to the 5th July." Agreed to.

[MILITIA SURGEONS.] On the report of the resolutions relating to the pay and cloathing of the militia being brought up,

Sir W. Elford sad, he had been in hopes, that some provision would have been made for the surgeons of the militia. It was certainly right that the regiments of militia, consid ring the sort of service they were most likely to undergo, should have the same assistance from regular bred professional persons as the regulars; but, at present, the encouragement in the former department was such, as to offer no temptation, except to raw and inexperienced young men, who might be under some difficulty to find any other mode of employment. By the regulations now in being, militia surgeons, in time of peace, must have been thirty years in the service, before they could be entitled to the small provision of 3s. per day, which the House must be sensible was extremely inadequate to the expectations, and just pretensions, of experienced professional men; and from some calculations he had seen, it would appear, that should the present war continue for even five years longer, there were but a very few surgeons of militia, who could be entitled to the scanty provisions made by the act of parliament. He was not, he said, provided with any motion on this subject, but threw out these few observations for the consideration of his Majesty's ministers.—No answer was made, and the resolutions having been agreed to, the bill was ordered to be read a third time the next day.

[ARMY OF RESERVE.-The order of the day being read for the second reading of the Irish additional force bill.

General Gascoyne rose, he said, with very great reluctance, to trespass once more upon

the indulgence of the House, by a few observations upon a subject which had already been so fully discussed on a former night, namely, the situation in which these coun tries stand, with respect to the danger of the threatened invasion, and the means of our defence. On this subject a very considerable impression had been made upon the minds of many gent. in that House, and had very serious effects without doors upon the funds, and the monied and commercial interests of the country; nor was it matter of surprise, as arguments of such desponding tendency had fallen from such high authority, as that of a right hon. gent. near him (Mr. Windham), and that of an hon, colonel near him, of high military experience, and well known to the powers of Europe, and also from several other gent. of high military experience. His purpose for rising that day, was to do away those impressions, for which he really felt no serious grounds, notwithstanding all the menaces of the ene my, and his display of preparations to invade this country. It must be in the recollection of every gent, who heard him, that in 1798, the menaces of French invasion were to the full as loud, and talked of with as much alarm as at the present moment; that a French army was assembled upon the opposite coasts, avowedly for the purpose, and assuming to itself the pompous and daring appellation of "The Army of England;" but it must be also recollected, that in the course of a few months, this army was withdrawn, and the next thing heard of it was from the shores of Africa, on its way to Egypt, where it was finally destroyed, or taken by the real Army of England, whose name it had audaciously usurped. Was it not therefore to the full as likely, that the army now assembled upon the opposite coasts, though avowedly designed for the invasion of this country, was really intended for some other design; probably for the recapture of Egypt, which Buona parté had avowed to be his favourite object, and one of which he never would lose sight; or, possibly, for an attack against our posses sions in the East or West Indies? If, therefore, we continue to retain the whole of our force, to stand upon a mere defensive system at home, without any attempt to attack the enemy in his vulnerable points, or preparing to meet his designs in other quarters, our finances would be exhausted, in endeavouring to support so tardy and inactive a system. An hon. gent. formerly a member of that House, but now no more, had often express ed his surprise at the novelties produced by the French revolution in the course of the war; but what would he have said at this

200

day, had he lived to have seen such an extraordinary novelty as this country, possessed as she was of such a formidable navy, flushed with victories, and so ably manned and appointed for our defence; wi h a disciplined army of 20,000 troops of the line within our country, besides 70.000 militia, well armed and disciplined, and so numerous a body of volunteers, also well disciplined, exclusive of the 50.000 men to be raised under those bills, alarmed at the menaces of an invasion from an enemy who has no navy she dare send to sea without a mortal certainty of finding their way into British ports, instead of ever returning to France? For his own part, he thought the apprehension of invasion from such an enemy almost ridiculous; and that instead of standing upon the defensive, we ought to fill up the regiments of the line with the men to be raised, to the number of 1200 or 1300 men to a regiment, as at once the best mode of accelerating their discipline, and of being prepared to strike an effectual blow, whenever and wherever opportunity should offer. Much had been said of the disadvantages attendant on imperfect discipline; he was ready to admit the importance of good discipline, but he by no means thought it so difficult to be acquired, to fit troops for action. He remembered in the last war three regiments brigaded for continental service, who, the very day after they were joined by a body of 450 recruits in their coloured clothes, marched to attack Pichegru; and those brave fellow, fought with as much steadiness and gallantry as any men in their corps. Considering the powerful manner in which our navy was manned; considering that the garrisons of Gibraltar and Malta had a considerable number of troops more than they required, he was confident that a body of 50,000 men could, with great propriety, be spared for offensive operations, and they ought to be kept ready embarked, to seize on the first opportunity for a masterly blow, instead of contining the country to a ruinous and inactive system of defensive war, which would absorb our resources to no manner of effect. With respect to the menace of French invasion, there was nothing new in the project towards this country, though there was certainly something extremely new in the mode now proposed for carrying it on. Under the Kings of the House of Bourbon, it had been frequently threatened: it had been menaced in all their wars with England. But even in the zenith of their power, and when they possessed powerful fleets, they never durst venture; much less did they succeed in carrying their menaces into effect. Even in the reign of Louis XIV. when they

might have looked for the aid of a strong party in this country (the adherents of the abdicated House of the Stuarts), a force was prepared on the coast of France, more than once, for the purpose of invading this country, and at one time they would have carried this purpose into effect, had it not been for the signal victory obtained by the gallant Admiral Russel. But if in the proudest days of the French navy such a project was impracticable, where was the probability that it could succeed when France has no navy that we should not take or destroy, so soon as they dare venture to sea? Nothing could excuse the unfounded apprehensions that had operated to alarm aid di-may any portion of the community; but having familiarized themselves with imag nary terrors, they had not the fortitude to discard them on reA

H ction. But to suppose that a project impracticable when France had a powerful navy, would now be attempted with success, in open boats, was too ridiculous a ground of alarm. What would our ancestors say of such apprehensions? or would they have supposed their posterity would in the proud est era of their naval strength, have indulged such silly fears? He desired to ask any mili tary man, if a broad river, instead of a sea, divided the countries, and that the enemy were to attempt crossing i: in the face of an army possessed of every strong hold upon the whole opposite line, while he was obliged to leave behind him all his cavalry and artiuery, what would be his chance of success and such must be the situation of the French army attempting an expedition in open boats. Was it probable that the ambition of Buonaparte would prompt him to such an attempt upon this country, where he would meet an enemy in every tree-for wherever there was a tree, he would be sure to find an Englishman behind it (a laugh.)-But suppo sing them to have boats enough for such an expedition, how could they assemble on their coasts in a collective fleet, while our frigates were constantly looking even into the recesses of their harbours, and prepared to destroy their force wherever it was collecting? And even if this were not the case, their voyage, to reach our shores, must have the concurrence of singularly favourable circumstances. They must have an unruffled sea, a fair wind, a dark night succeeded by a fog next day, and our frigates must have abandoned their stations and returned into harbour, to suffer such an expedition to approach our shores unmolested. It was, however, ridiculous to suppose any open boat would venture on such an attempt, while our frigates were able to keep the sea; so

that, mad as the present ruler of France may be, and desperate and insatiable as his ambi tion evidently is, he cannot be supposed mad enough to proceed upon a project, where himself has acknowledged the risk of destruction to be as one hundred to one against him; and while we can look with such confidence to so powerful and gallant an army and navy, we may laugh at his me naces. It has been said, that we might be approached by three divisions. He did not profess to be a calculator, but if it was one hundred to one that one expedition could not succeed, it was three hundred to one that three could not succeed (a laugh). And he wished to ask any naval officer, if there was the slightest probability of such a concurrence of circumstances-now even that the equinoctial gales (a laugh) were approaching -for such an expedition to approach our shores, without meeting destruction? Beside, as he before remarked, without cavalry (which he never heard it was intended they should bring) and artillery, on which they so much relied, and which they must leave behind, their attempt must be unsuccessful, even if they were permitted to land: so that the attempt must be the very acme of folly, rashness, and frenzy. Much, however, as he ridiculed the menace, he by no means wished to throw the country off its guard, or to slackca its exertions for security. He wished that a most formidable force might be constantly kept up, and one ready embarked, prepared to strike a blow, which would encourage the enslaved and outraged powers of Europe to rouse from their humiliation and debasement, and throw off the French yoke; and he doubted not, that the oppressed and insulted people of Swisserland, Batavia, and Italy, the moment they should see any chance of success, would be up to a man, for the purpose of regaining their liberty and independence. If there ever was a period during the late war, at which there was real cause to apprehend the successful invasion of these islands, it was at the period of the rebellion in Ireland, which would never have occurred, but for French promises of ample succours to the disaffected. But the deluded people of that country had experience enough of Gallic faith, and its consequences, to trust them again. Nor could he think it possible, after all that was so notorious of the enslavement of the countries of Europe where the perfidious French found footing, that the deluded people of Ireland could be at this day so besotted, as to be desirous of exchanging the invaluable blessings of a British constitution, to become the slaves of France, who, instead of friends at this day, would meet in

Ireland a whole nation of the most decided enemies. He could not call to mind any instance furnished by history, of a formidable invasion, which was not marked under the pretext of redressing some wrong, or restoring some monarch or family, which might be said to have a title to the throne. There were no pretensions of that kind to be set up now, and the enemy would now find in all directions, only swarms of people ready and willing to meet them in the field. It had been said, that the object of the enemy, after landing, would be to push for the capital; but the example of history would shew, that it was always the policy of invaders to avoid the capital of a country. That was the policy of William the Conqueror, and the brave host under his command, though he set up some pretensions to the crown, which was recognized by many. After the battle of Hastings, instead of proceeding imme diately to London, he took up his post and erected his citadel within nine miles of the coast of Essex, in a position which enabled him to awe the metropolis. But supposing it practicable for an enemy even to gain possession of the metropolis of England, he would not despair, as there would still remain a great deal more to fight for. He then apologized to the House for detaining it at such length, and declared his main object to be, that of doing away erroneous impressions, and to express his opinion, that the attempts at invasion would prove to be impracticable. Though some despondency had been excited by the declarations made within these walls on the subject, yet he was glad the spirit of the country was roused. He thanked his right hon. friend near him (Mr. Windham) for having roused that spirit; and he thanked his Majesty's ministers for the vigour they had manifested in disposing the resources, and arraying the strength of the country; and convinced he was, that beside the force of the country already in arms, the moment that real danger should approach our shores, or a foreign foe set foot upon this island, there was not a man within or with out those walls, that would not fly to arms, scorning to avail himself of any plea of exemption from the defence of his country.

General Loftus said, upon the fullest con sideration, he saw no cause for alarm; for though certainly the enemy had many able generals, and veteran troops used to service in open countries, yet should they be able to land a force in this inclosed country, the whole nature of military operations would be changed; as every lane, ditch, hedge, and wall would present a strong post for their annoyance and destruction. Suppose even

« AnteriorContinuar »