Earl of
Surrey.

The Lord Mayor.

of the queftion. Every gentleman muft fee the propriety of it. Fut as to most of the other penfions that had been mentioned, he thought them extremely wrong. Good God! give away penfions of 2000l. a year, when we are not certain that we could pay a penny in the pound to the honeft national creditor! We ought to be just before we were generous. Let gentlemen look at the report to which he had alluded. They would there fee that the finking fund, which at the beginning of the war amounted to three millions and upwards, had been wafted during the adminiftration of the noble Lord in the blue ribband, in order to make good the deficiencies of the noble Lord's unproductive taxes, and was now reduced to a few hundred thousand pounds. That report ought, Mr. Huffey faid, to be taken into confideration, and if nobody elfe would move it, he would. Mr. Huffey declared, he had endeavoured to fupprefs his feelings; but hearing what he had heard the day before, and knowing the reduced flate of the country, he could not with any patience hear of penfions being multiplied in a manner fo fhamefully prodigal.

On the Speaker's proceeding to put the queftion for the order of the day, the Earl of Surrey rofe again, and renewed his former addrefs to the Houfe, on the very great and fuperior importance of the American trade bill. His Lordfhip faid, that bill had been put off already once or twice, that the commercial interefts of the country were deeply involved in it, and that a fubject of fo material and interefting a nature could not be too early proceeded upon. He fubmitted it therefore to the Houfe, whether it would not be better to take that bill into their confideration previous to the ordnance eftimates, the poftponement of which for a day or two could not be attended with any ill confequences.

The Lord Mayor rofe to inforce what had fallen from the noble Lord; the trade of this country, he faid, was, in a great measure at a ftand; a moment's time ought not to be loft to give it motion. His Lordship faid, the neccffity of the cafe preffed fo much, that he had hoped fome means would have been found before now to have applied a remedy; and the unfettled ftate of government was not a fufficient reafon for not proceeding in this moft important bufinefs. He had been told, that his Majefty had a difcretionary power to fufpend or repeal laws, that ftood in the way of a free exportation of the goods of this country to America; he knew not whether he had been rightly inforined, but if there was not a fufficient power, and the prefent bill should

be thought unfit to pafs, he hoped fome means would be found to give his Majefty full authority to open the trade. His Lordship very forcibly ftated that it was not only a great prefent inconvenience to trade, that matters fhould ftand as they did, but that very ferious and alarming confequences were to be dreaded if the trade was not almoft iminediately opened to America; other nations would deprive us of a commerce that promifed to be extremely beneficial, and by carrying their goods to the American market before we could get out of our ports with ours, would throw the trade into a new channel, from which it might not afterwards be an ealy matter to divert it, and turn its courte again to Great Britain. Thefe confiderations, his Lordship faid, were of the firft importance; for if the country did not take care of its commercial interefts, the finances of it would be still worfe than the honourable gentleman, who had lately spoken, feemed to fear.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt admitted that no confideration could Mr. Pitt. come before the Houfe, that from its nature and confequence called more loudly for the immediate attention of the legiflature, than the American trade bill. He had therefore, he faid, no objection to letting the ordnance eftimates wait, till the American trade bill had paffed the comnittee; but at the fame time he wished to have it underftood, if the confideration of that bill fhould be over in any reasonable time, that the Houfe was to refolve itfelf into a committee of fupply on the ordnance estimates immediately, It was at length agreed to postpone the first order of the day, for going into a committee of fupply, on the ordnance eftimates, in order to go into a committee on the American intercourie bill; for which purpofc a motion was made, "that the Speaker do leave the chair," which having been feconded,

Mr. Eden rofe to state the objections that occurred to him Mr. Eden. on the fubject of the bill. He declared it to be, in his opinion, of the greatest importance of any that he had ever feen in parliament, and confequently the most deferving of mature and ferious deliberation. This bill would introduce a total revolution in our commercial fyftem, which he was afraid would fhake it to its very bafis, and endanger the whole pile. He faid, that he had been the caufe of the propofed bill being deferred on a former day, and as every fubfequent enquiry and reflection had tended to augment his alarms, he fhould once more object to going into the committee;

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mittee; but he adopted this mode, rather to entitle himself in point of regularity to enter into a general difcuffion of the fubject, than from any ultimate intention to ftop the progrefs of the bill farther than might be necessary to its amend ment; for he fully agreed with the worthy magiftrate of London, that fomething was neceffary to be done with all poffible difpatch. It was a bufinefs the most complicated in its nature, and at the fame time the most extenfive in its confequences, that he ever remembered in Parliament. He rejoiced to fee a rifing difpofition to attend to it, and faw many around him from whom he fhould expect very effectual aid and affiftance. His objections went to different points, affecting every claufe of the bill; but he defired not to be charged with difrefpect, in regard either to the right honourable gentleman who had introduced the bill, or the learned gentlemen who had affifted in framing it. They had framed the bill on a principle which had, in fome degree, been encouraged by the whole Houfe; he had himself been forward in defiring that a commercial intercourse with the late colonies fhould be opened on very liberal terms, ever regretting, however, that it had not been arranged in the Provifional Articles. In this, as in other inftances of public business, it was not eafy to fee the dangers and difficulties of the measure, till it had been detailed in the form now before the Houfe. The very title of the bill called for ferious regard, The words "provifional establishment," muft mean a fyftem to be established, provided that fomething is done; no provifo indeed was stated within the bill, but it was underflood to mean a fimilar fyftem to be adopted in America. He could not recur to invidious remarks on these improbable reciprocities. He had ftated on a former day, that reciprocity in this inftance was nearly impracticable, as well from the provincial conftitutions of the United States, as from their treaties with European powers; he would now endeavour to fhew that the whole plan was utterly improper, even if it were more eafy in its execution, and probable in its success. The first objection to it that truck him then, was on account of Ireland.' In order to explain this point, he must inform gentlemen, that, in the late fettlement of that kingdom, those who were well-wishers to the harmony, friendhip, and connexion of England and Ireland, had introduced a claufe into one of the Irish acts of Parliament, that of Mr. Yelverton, by which the British navigation act was adopted, and made part of the law of Ireland; but ftill with

this provifo," that it fhould ceafe to be binding upon Ireland, whenever it fhould ceafe to be binding upon Great Britain." The confequence that he apprehended from the bill now before the Houfe was this; it completely repealed the navigation act, and therefore, by virtue of the above provifo, it would of courfe be repealed at the fame moment in Ireland, and then Great Britain might bid adieu to any navigation act to bind Ireland in future; the British legifla ture no longer enjoyed any power to legiflate that for kingdom. But it might be faid, that this was not an objection merely to the bill before the Houfe, but to any bill which fhould repeal the navigation act. Here he begged leave to maintain a contrary opinion; it was allowed on all hands, that this bill was only a provifional, a temporary bill; but its effect with respect to Ireland would be perpetual; for Ireland had bound herself to obferve the navigation act, as long as it should make part of the law of England, but no longer; if therefore it was once repealed here, though only for a time, the confequence would be, that Ireland would find. herself freed from it for ever. How then could this be avoided or remedied? He had pointed out the mode three months ago; when he fuggefted the propriety of affembling the Parliament of Ireland, that the legiflatures of both kingdoms might go hand in hand in the regulations that might be thought neceffary; but as matters now ftood, the repeal of the navigation act preceding the meeting of the Irish Parliament, we muft lie at the mercy of that affembly, through the misconduct of our own rulers. But this was not his only objection. The American States lay fo contiguous to our Weft India iflands, and this bill giving the Americans leave to trade with them, there was no fhadow of doubt but they would supply them with provifions from the continent of America, to the utter ruin of the provifion trade of Ireland, which at prefent fupplied the British West Indies; the fisheries of that kingdom would, of course, be ruined. The next thing to be apprehended was, that we fhould totally lose the carrying trade; for as the Americans were to be permitted, under this bill, to bring the Weft India commodities to Europe, fo he feared that the fix hundred ships of this country, which that trade employed at prefent, would become ufelefs, not only to the great decrease of our revenue, but the abfolute deftruction of our navy, arifing from the deftruction of that great nursery for feamen. The fugar refinery of England would allo, he feared,

be

be destroyed by this bill; for as the Americans could carry the raw fugars to their own country, and manufacture them much cheaper than we can here, the confequence would be, that they would be able to underfel us in every market. He was not without his apprehenfions for the lofs of the hat trade; for, as by the Provifional Treaty, they had the fur trade refigned to them, and at their door, fo of course they could manufacture hats at a much cheaper rate than we could, and confequently would monopolize to themselves. the fupply of the West India iflands with that branch of commerce. There was another circumftance perhaps more alarming than all the reft; the Americans on their return from our ports might export our manufacturing tools, and our artificers emigrating at the fame time, we should run the rifque of lofing our manufactures, perhaps the only advantage we as yet poffeffed over the Americans, and feeing them tranfplanted to America. This would be a ftroke that our commerce would fcarcely be able to furvive. In fine, this bill would place the United States on the footing of the moft favoured nation (gens amiciffima), without leaving us fo much as a hope that we fhould obtain any like reciprocal advantages. He then adverted to the three paragraphs that immediately followed the provifion already alluded to, which a right honourable friend of his (Mr. Burke) had compared to making love; he said, that they certainly were a fort of Epiftola Amatoria, and as unmeaning as love-letters generally are. He obferved, that these fame plaufible and wheedling expreffions, which the Houfe had once feen in the Provifional Articles, and again in this provifional bill, were taken from the preamble of the commercial treaty between France and the United States, where they ftood with fome effect and propriety.

The next enacting claufe admitted the fhips as the ships of aliens, and the cargoes as the cargoes of British fubjects: on this it was obfervable that the diftinction was not fo unfavourable as many gentlemen might fuppofe, for though foreign fhips pay a double duty to the light-houses, they are exempted from a fhilling per man per month, and alfo from a tonnage and poundage duty, which is paid by British merchant ships. But the other part of the claufe, which admits all goods the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States was of a more ferious nature, as it purported to give to a people now become a foreign ftate, the trading privileges of British fubjects. How was the King hereafter to