fhould be specified in a schedule to the act, and to return their answers to the clerk of the parliament, for the infpection of both houfes of parliament. From fuch materials, it will be eafy (following the precedent of 1787) to form an abftract, exhibiting the refult of the whole. This abftract may, of courfe, fhew not only the total number of inhabitants in the whole and every part of the kingdom, but may alfo thew the proportion borne by the agricultural clafs to the other claffes of his majefty's fubjects; and by fhewing the increafe or diminution of baptifms, burials, and marriages, from the latter of which, I mean the marriages, of which the regifters are much more comprehenfive, complete, and important, we fhall have a correct knowledge of what concerns our increafing or decreafing demands for fubfiftence. And although we may find that an increafed population adds to our ftrength in war, it is evident that it requires a vigilant attention to the means of fupporting it.

Sir, let me afk, if parliament had thought fit in antecedent times to adopt this course, and if fuch a refult as I have defcribed were now before us, fhould we not think fuch knowledge moft valuable in difcuffing our plans of prefent and future policy for the fubfiftence of the people? And unlefs we ourselves infti tute fuch an inquiry at prefent, we fhall not only forego it for our own lofs, but we fhall alfo deprive those who are to come after us of the affiftance which they might derive from the pofitive knowledge of our ftate, and ftill more from a fubfequent repetition of the fame meafures, and a view of their comparative refult.

Entertaining thefe fentiments upon this important fubject, I have thought it my duty, fir, to bring the matter fully and diftinctly before the houfe; and I fhail therefore move for leave to bring in a bill for afcertaining the population of Great Britain.""This motion, feconded by Mr. Wilberforce, being agreed to, the bill was brought into the houfe on the day after, and, throngh the ufual ftages, carried into a law.

To the urgent bufinefs of providing a fupply of food for the nation, a helping hand was lent by the directors of the Eaft India company; who, with the concurrence and ap probation of his majefty's minifters, on the 28th of Auguft, 1800, fent directions to their governments in India to afford every encouragement to individuals to fend rice and other grain to England, engaging that the fhips fo employed fhould be allowed to carry out return-cargoes, as had been allowed formerly to country fhips; and, on the 30th of September, in order to encourage as large an importation as poffible, before the next harveft fhould be got in, they fent further directions to India, authorizing fuch fhips as brought three-fourths of their tonnage in rice, to bring alfo fuch other goods as are ufually imported into this country, with an indemnification, in cafe rice fhould be under certain prices here on their arrival. And they afterwards offered to grant licences to any ships, to be sent from this country to the Eaft Indies, for the purpose of bringing home rice, on very liberal conditions, but under the exprefs ftipulation, that the fhips fhould be cleared out from the cuftom-house before the 1ft of December, 1800, or from any port in

the

the East Indies before the 1ft of September, 1801.

But, of all the modes of relief afforded to the poor, or rather the ordinary clafs of the people, that which was adopted by the directors of the bank of England, in their conduct towards their fervants, is entitled to the highest praife, and furnishes an example every way worthy of imitation. They made a very liberal addition to the falaries of their numerous clerks and other fervants. In miniftering to the wants. of the people, in the way of donation or charity, there is fomething humiliating to felf-esteem, and fomething, too, that has no indirect tendency to relax induftry, and weaken

a confidence and pride in felf-exertion. The step taken by the bank was not liable to either imputation. It may be remarked, at the same time, that the conduct of the bank was no more than juftice. For, if, by their enormous iffue of paper money, they leffen the value of the old guinea, it was fit that they fhould, in fome meafure, make up to their fervants that disadvantage.

Having thus given some account of the proceedings of parliament refpecting the fcarcity, we proceed to thofe relating to the other great topic comprehended in his majesty's fpeech; the important queftion of peace or war.

CHAP.

N the 13th of November, 1800, between his majefty's minifters and the French government, refpecting overtures towards opening a nego tiation for peace, were prefented to the houfe of lords by the fecre tary, lord Grenville, and to the houfe of commons by Mr. fecretary Dundas. On the 18th, as no motion had been made by minifters for taking that correfpondence into confideration,

Mr. T. Jones begged the attention of the houfe to the fubject of the evacuation of Egypt; a fubject to which he had already called that attention laft feflion, and which had now become, by the incapacity of his majefty's minifters, the bone of contention between England and France, and the ftumbling-block of peace. From the correfpondence on the table, it was evident that

thofe counfels which opposed the

ing army, prefented a very serious obftacle to the conclufion, and even to the negotiation of a peace. Of the two points most infifted on by France, and which operated as impediments to peace, one was the demand of fending fuccours to Egypt; and it remained for the houfe to inquire, why that difficulty had not been precluded, by accepting the terms of the convention agreed on, by general Kleber and the grand vizier, and guarantied by the fanction of a general officer. Mr. Jones, after fix motions that he had made on the 23d of July, laft feflion, on the fubject of the evacuation of Egypt, were read by the clerk, faid, that the object of his metion this day would be, the production of a letter, on the fubject of which almoft the whole

of

the reasoning of the honourable gentleman was exceedingly fhort. The motion appeared to be altogether unnecellary. He was not aware of any good end that could be anfweed, nor of any blame that could be fixed on minifters, in confequence of a French general being referred to a letter, which, evidenly, on the face of the tranfactio, must have been written befor government was acquainted win the convention alluded to having been figned by any British offier. The letter therefore could no ftate any new fact: nor had M. Jones offered any thing in adition to what he had urged unfucessfully in the laft fellion of paliament. As foon as it was kown in England, that the French geeral had the faith of a British offer pledged to him, and was dibofed to act upon it, inftructions wre fent out to have the convention excuted, though the officer in qeftion had, in fact, no authority to fign it. The contents of lord Kith's letter were far from being a cret. It was printed, quoted, an univerfally known in July laft, wen Mr. Jones brought forward a qeftion on the fame fubject, which th houfe thought proper to negatie. The next thing for the house toconfider, was, in what manner th prefent fubject was connected wth the late correfpondence between France and this country relave to an armiftice. By the obferations accompanying the motion, itas fhewn, that, in making the ppofal, the French government mant to derive great advantage frm the reliet it might be enabid to fend both to Malta and Eypt; a relief which it could not hoe for, while our fleets and ar

mies purfued their operations against them: and thus, it was evident that France fet great value on reinforcing those places, which we had an equal intereft in preventing them from doing. As we had, fince the convention of El-Arish, taken Malta from the enemy, we were, in a degree proportionate to the importance of that ifland, mafters of preventing them from fending any reinforcements to Egypt, the maritime places of which were, befides, blocked by our fleets. So far then it was plain, that, in refpect to Egypt, France was not on higher ground, now that we were in poffeffion of Malta, than it was at the time when general Kleber first entered into the capitulation. And he could not conceive what it was that gentlemen thought they could complain of. When parliament confidered the conduct of his majefty's minifters, in refufing to acquiefce in a convention which they did not know to have had the fanc tion of a British officer, it fhould difcufs that conduct with a reference to what was the state of Kleber's army at the time; with a reference to the condition of the war in Italy at the beginning of the campaign, when it was extremely doubtful whether the iffue might be favourable to one fide or the other; and moft of all in this doubtful ftate of the termination of the conteft, with a reference to the effect which fuch a reinforcement as that of the army' of Egypt might be likely, under all the circumftances, to have on the war on the continent.

Mr. Grey, in anfwer to thefe pofitions, refpecting the pofition of Kleber's army, the ftate of the belligerent armies in Italy, and the exifting circumftances of the war,