forward the tranfaction, was to give way to indifcretion. For obftruction had been thrown induftrioufly into their way. Nor indeed could it escape obfervation, that the last administration ought themselves to have acted in the matter. He entreated that no party divifion, and no political faction fhould in the prefent cafe interrupt the unanimity which ought to prevail among them. Both fides of the houfe fhould cordially concur in the manifeftation to his majesty and the prince of Wales of the affection they bore to them, and of the zeal they felt in promoting their cafe, happinefs and comfort.

The queftion upon being put, was carried unanimoufly. In the houfe of Peers, a meffage from the king fimilar to that to the commons, on the fubject of the establishment of the prince of Wales, was prefented by the duke of Portland. In this bufines the two houfes concurred; and there was no diffenting voice to the defire of affifting his majesty in fulfilling his purpofe of creating a separate household for the prince.

It was now propofed by lord John Cavendish, that new regulations fhould be introduced into the exchequer, and he brought in a bill for that purpose. It had appeared from the reports of the commiffioners of accounts, that the abolition of certain places in that office would be a wife regulation. Thefe places had grown to be useless; and were yet a fource of great expence to the public. He accounted the chamberlain and ufher of the exchequer to be two of the offices which ought to be abolished; but it was not his meaning to difpoffefs the prefent poffeffors. With regard to other offices which it might be proper to to retain, it was a wild impropriety that their emoluments fhould increase in proportion to the diftrels and difficulties 5

of the country. This was an evil which called loudly for a redress. Places of this defcription ought to be reduced to a fixed and limited standard. With regard to finecures of enormous fize, they ought not to be fuffered to remain; and individuals ought not to riot in inordinate wealth to the prejudice of the public.

The peace emoluments of the auditor of the Exchequer were upwards of 7000l. a year. It was propofed to reduce them to 4000l. Nor was this an incompetent income to reward an able minifter of the crown. A falary of 1000l. was intended for the deputy auditor. The profits of the clerk of the pells during peace were 3300l. a year. Thefe might be reduced to 3000l. Of the tellers of the exchequer the peace emoluments are upwards of 2500l. but in war they are infinitely greater. He was therefore inclined to ftate their falary at 27001. making a small fuperaddition to their peace income as a compenfation for taking away the enormous amount of their profits during a war. their deputies he would ftate the falaries at 1000l. a year. Other, and fimilar regulations were also neceffary. He farther obferved, that if there fhould be any lofs upon carrying the bill into effect, his intention was to charge one third of it to the civil lift, and two-thirds of it to the public. But if there fhould be a profit which was infinitely more probable, he thought it right to divide it in the fame proportion.

Of

Mr. Pulteney declared, that he could difcover no good reafon for al lowing the tellers more than the amount of their peace emoluments, Their places were nearly abfolute finecures; and it was to be confidered, that they had the appointment of their own clerks or deputies. Bar

gains

gains might therefore be ftruck between the principals and the deputies; and the public be expofed to charges that were unneceffary. The allowing a thousand a year to the deputies feemed to him a ruinous prostitution of the public money; and it was his firm opinion that 400l. was a fufficient falary for them. Nor did he perceive any propriety in dividing the favings after the method fuggefted by lord John Cavendish. Why was the civil lift to fhare with the public in the participation? Eight or nine hundred thousand pounds a year were given to the crown by way of the civil lift; and it was underflood by implication that the officers of the exchequer, and various others, were to be provided for out of it. This was the condition of the grant. Now if any confiderable fum was to be acquired by a reform of the exchequer, the public ought to enjoy the whole benefit. The civil lift had no pretext whatever to have any fhare or proportion of it.

Mr. Pitt concurred with Mr. Pulteney, and confidered the kindnefs of lord John Cavendish to the tellers, and their deputies, as the moft extravagant expenditure of the public treasure. If reforms were to be made, they ought to be proceeded upon with fome degree of rigour. All ideas of profufion were out of the question.

Mr. Fox defended the principle and intention of the bill. If it had been brought in for the purpofe of effecting that kind of reform which had œconomy merely in view, he would certainly in many particulars have oppofed it. But that was not its leading object. Its chief reference was to thofe offices of which the holders received an augmentation of emolument in proportion as the expences of the country increaf

ed.

It was the defire of the noble perfon who hed propofed it, that the fervants of the public fhould not be enriched by the aggravation of the national burdens and distress.

He was no friend to the influence of the crown; but he knew that the government of a great kingdom could not proceed either with dignity or advantage, unless it had honourable fituations to bestow upon its officers, in order to provide for their families, and to reward eminent and diftinguished fervices. Of this fort properly were the offices of the exchequer. Now of thefe, it was obvious that the emoluments ought not to be either inordinately great, or contemptibly little. the firft cafe the public was oppreffed; in the fecond a difregard was profeffed of high merit and illuftrious fervice. To pare thefe places too closely, would be to render them unworthy the acceptance of diftinguifhed and fuperior characters. There was no provifion in putting the tellers at 2,700l. And with regard to a thousand pounds as the falary of the deputies, it was by no means extravagant. The fituations of the deputies were refponfible ones they were underftood to be gentlemen, and perfons of education and a liberal turn of mind. That the giving a thousand pounds to a deputy was in fact a grant to the principal who appointed him, was an idea the moft illiberal and narrow. If it were poffible that the tellers could be fo bafe and fordid as to make fo vile a traffic as that alluded to, it was impoffible for the legiflature to guard against their turpitude. This way of reafoning allo went too far. For if it were admitted in its full extent, there was no official deputy in the kingdom, whofe principal was not expofed to the dirtieft of all imputations. Even

the

the fecretaries of ftate might be fufpected. It was indecent to give any credit to bargains of this kind; and he believed that no perfons could be named who had been guilty of them. To be alarmed, therefore, upon their account, was to tremble at a fhadow. As to the offices of the exchequer, if it was contended that the difpofal of them gave an influence to the crown; it was obfervable, that it was exactly that influence which of all others was the leaft dangerous. For the individuals promoted in that office were made independent of the crown, as they could not be hurt by it. Their fituations were for life; and in a free country it was neceflary and ufeful, in a variety of inftances, that men fhould be out of the power of the crown.

It was the fenfe of the houfe that the objections hitherto made to the bill were improper; and after their difcuffion, Mr. Rigby being anxious to protect the promife of a tellerfhip which had been given to lord Thurlow, rofe up to propofe a claufe ith that view. He reminded the houfe that lord Thurlow, when he quitted the profeffion and accepted the office of lord chancellor, obtained from his majefty the promife of a tellership in the exchequer. This promife had been made in the year 1778; and he trusted that lord Thurlow had a title to expect a reverfion of a tellerfhip fully and beneficially. He read accordingly a provifo, exempting lord Thurlow. from the power of the bill.

Lord North allowed that it was true, that when lord Thurlow was made chancellor, he had been offered a tellership in the exchequer; but obferved that his lordship did not then think proper to accept it. The place had afterwards been repeatedly held out to him; and he had re.

peatedly declined it. His reasons for this conduct were not given; and perhaps it would have been bet ter if he had definitively accepted the offer. The promife, however, having been deliberately made, he was by no means difpofed to put his negative against the provifo which had been fuggested.

Mr. Fox affirmed, that the queftion under deliberation was purely perfonal, and therefore difagreeable. It became him, notwithstanding, to fpeak to it. To him it appeared not inexplicable that lord Thurlow fhould refufe to accept the promife of the tellership. When the offer was made, one reverfion was actually granted; and a fecond reverfion was not only unufual and tedious in the expectation, but a better object might fall. But if at that time there was prudence in refufing the promife, there was now a change in the fituation of affairs; and prudence called loudly for the acceptance of the promise. Circumftances were indeed effentially altered. One of the poffeffors was dead, and another very infirm. This opened the mystery; and it could not be conceived to be ftrange that the noble lord fhould grow more willing to accept a tellership in proportion to the near approach of the object.

The principle of the provifo was a felfish one. It went to fecure an emolument to lord Thurlow. For this emolument, however, there could be urged no grant of reversion. If the houfe accordingly were to ferve lord Thurlow, they must go out of their way to do it. He spoke from no motive of refentment. He knew that the noble and learned lord had made what were confidered as fevere reflexions against him. But reflexions which had no better foundation than party anger, envy, or prejudice, could not four his mind.

The

The noble lord had been pleased to fay, that when the crown was robbed of its influence and power, none but defperate and needy adventurers would accept of office. The fpeech was paffionate and unmeaning. For if the crown had neither power nor influence, it was not probable that its favour could be an object of purfuit to the defperate or the needy. For in that cafe it could neither hold out protection or riches to them. He wifhed not, however, to reprefs the defire of the noble lord after affluence. Pretenfions to difintereftedness were often boasted of, and of ten affected. It might be right that his lordship fhould partake of the wealth, which he feemed to confider as fo effential a qualification for office.

Mr. Huffey confidered the promife to lord Thurlow as a bargain between the crown and his lordihip. Upon whatever ground the matter could be put, it was impoffible to conceive that the engagement could be difannulled. The proceedings of the commons ought not to be governed by narrow but by liberal views. They were to look to equity rather than to the rigid letter of the

law.

The provifo of Mr. Rigby, upon being moved, was carried without a divfion. But while Mr. Rigby was thus fuccefsful in a committee

July 7. upon the bill; yet upon the

whether he could call his noble friend's pretenfion to be exempted from the operation of the bill, a promife or a bargain. But from the fenfe of the committee, he hoped that the foundation upon which he fpoke for lord Thurlow would be allowed to be folid, and would receive the protection of parliament.

report of the committee to the house, his efforts for lord Thurlow were lefs fortunate. To give the greater ftrength to his provifo, he expreffed it in new language, and he rested it on the foundation that in the patent for lord Thurlow's penfion, his majefty had been pleafed to promife the place of a tellerhip of the Exchequer to him when be accepted the office of chancellor of Great Britain. He did not know

Mr. Fox affirmed that the cafe was obvious, and could not well be mifunderstood. In the two views in which it prefented itself, it would lead to different lines of conduct. A promife was one thing, and a bargain another. To the provifo there furly could be no objection, if the fact was that lord Thurlow had actually bargained for a tellership of the Exchequer. It had long been boafted of extravagantly by the friends of the learned lord that he had accepted the feals unconditionally. The proudest eulogies of his difintereftedness had been heard; yet his panegyrifts were now inclined to avow, that he had made a bargain for a tellerfhip when he renounced his profeffion to take the feals. It was impoffible that these things could be true; and as he detefted impoftors of every kind, he was anxious to arrive at the fact. He therefore called on the friends of the noble lord to ftand forward and avow it.

Mr. Pitt declared that the queftion had now affumed a new shape; and that there was in it fomething far more interefting than whether lord Thurlow fhould get the tellership and its emoluments. The perfonal honour of lord Thurlow was concealed. His character was no ob ject of fport; and it became a noble lord to ftate with precision the complexion of the tranfaction.

Lord North understanding himfelf to be called upon, afferted roundly, that it confifted not with

his knowledge, that any bargain for the teller hip had been made with lord Thurlow. He protefted, notwithstanding, that if any bar gain had been made there could have been no dishonour in it. Profeffional men leaving lucrative fituations for percarious grandeur, had a title to compenfations. Bargains of the kind alluded to had nothing difgarceful in them. They had been made by lord Hardwicke, lord Northington, and lord Camden. No fuch tranfaction, however, had been concluded by lord Thurlow. His majefty had offered the tellerfhip to the noble lord, and he had

declined it. In the prefent cafe there was a promife and not a bargain. He would give however, his voice for the provifo, as there might, perhaps, be a want of liberality in diftinctions of this nature.

The fentiments of the house were different from thofe of lord North; and the provifo was loft by a majo rity of 57 against 48. After fome farther debate, the bill for establishing certain regulations in the Exchequer was agreed to and ordered to be ingroffed. In the house of lords it was received, and passed without an amendment.

A

Petition had been prefented to the commons from perfons concerned in the linen and cotton manufactures, in which they entreated a drawback upon foap and other articles employed by them; and the house taking the fubject into confideration, Mr. Stanley urged the neceffity of howing favour to the petitioners. He enlarged on the great importance of the linen and cotton manufactures, and explained the propriety of allowing drawbacks on foap, ftarch, brimftone, vitriol, and other articles confumed in the preparation of the raw materials of flax and cotton. From these manufactures a valuable fource of revenue had arifen to go vernment. It was therefore proper to encourage them; and this was the more expedient as they were in fome hazard or danger from the rivalry of foreign artificers in Hol

land, Germany, France and Switzerland. A committee accordingly deliberating upon the fubject of thefe manufactures, approved of the following refolutions, which were reported to the houfe by fir Henry Houghton.

"That in the prefent ftate of the commerce of Great Britain, the prefervation of the cotton and the linen manufactures is an object of the utmost importance, and deferves the ferious and immediate confideration of the house.

"That a drawback be allowed out of the duties now payable on foap at the rate of three farthings for every pound weight of hard foap that hall be ufed and confumed in preparing and finishing all manufactures from flax and cotton for fale, cept linen whitened in the piece for fale, under certain regulations and restrictions.

ex

"That