divifion, after a long-protracted debate, the bill was re jected by a majority of 248 to 174 voices.

In confequence of the very able reports prefented from time to time by the commiffioners of accounts appointed by act of parliament, Mr. Pitt in the course of the present feffion brought in three feveral bills, for the better auditing and examining the public accounts, and for the regulation and reform of the public offices, which paffed both houfes with much applause, and no material oppofition. The balances of the navy and ordnance offices were by thefe bills ordered, as thofe of the paymaster of the forces by a former regulation, to be paid into the bank. The antient mode of proceeding by the auditors of the imprest was abolished as wholly frivolous and nugatory, though the perquifites of the auditors were estimated at no lefs than 34,000l. annually in times of peace, and during the war they had rifen to a height incredibly enormous. new and efficient commiffion of examination and control was instituted; many of the inferior departments of office, or heads of fervice, were confolidated; and the whole now affumed the appearance of a regular and rational fyftem.

The remaining part of the floating arrear of debt, confifting of navy bills and ordnance debentures, was now funded on five per cent. ftock; and the interest, amounting to above four hundred thousand pounds per annum, was provided by fresh taxes; one of which, a tax on ré-tail shops calculated at one hundred and twenty thousand pounds per annum, proved fingularly obnoxious. It was faid to be, under a new denomination, neither more nor lefs than a partial house tax; and the whole body of retail traders were univerfally agreed, that it was utterly impraćticable, for obvious reasons, to indemnify themselves by raifing the price of their different commodities upon the confumer. By way of recompenfe or douceur to the shopkeeper, Mr. Pitt propofed, by a deed of unprecedented

oppreffion,

oppreffion, proceeding certainly from prejudice or inattention rather than any fixed malignity of defign, to revoke and take away the licence from all hawkers and pedlars, whom he styled "a peft to the community, and a nursery and medium for the prefervation of illicit trade." That this class of traders were engaged in, and derived their chief fupport from illicit practices, was a very heavy and ferious charge, and ought to have been clearly proved at the bar of the house, in order to have justified a measure of fuch unexampled feverity, and of a nature so highly penal. Far from being the pests of fociety, an impartial and difinterested person can discern in these itinerant traders, only an induftrious class of men, who purfue an occupation perfectly innocent in itself, and highly useful to the inhabitants of fmall towns and villages, who would otherwise find it difficult to procure the various articles of merchandize with which they are thus occafionally fupplied. Upon what principle of equity or justice any government could exercise the power of preventing these people from enjoying the fruits of their honeft labor, and of devoting them to remedilefs ruin, it is furely difficult, or rather impoffible, to discover.

Mr. Fox, ftruck with the inhumanity and utter indefenfibility of the proposed regulation, generously and powerfully pleaded, in conjunction with Mr. Dempfter, Mr. Courtney and other gentlemen, though with very incomplete fuccefs, in behalf of this friendlefs and unprotected defcription of men. In the refult, the prohibition was changed to a heavy duty, which combined with other fevere restrictions would, it was hoped, effect the fame ultimate purpose. "Had we been informed," fays a very intelligent and truly philanthropic writer (lord Gardenstone,) fpeaking of this prohibitory regulation," that ́ Nadir Sha, or any other oriental defpot, had invented a tax for the purpose of exterminating the object of it, we hould naturally have exclaimed, that this was the extreVOL. II.

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mity of oppreffion." The principle of this bill was in the course of the debate truly affirmed by Mr. Dempfter to be no lefs iniquitous than that of the expulfion of the morif coes from Spain, or of the huguenots from France.

But the fubject which chiefly engaged the attention of parliament during the prefent feffion was the projected plan of commercial intercourfe with Ireland. In the opening of this important bufinefs, Mr. Pitt made fome excellent obfervations on "the fpecies of policy which had been long exercised by the English government in regard to Ireland, the object of which was, to debar her from the enjoyment and ufe of her own refources, and to make her completely fubfervient to the intereft and opulence of this country. Some relaxation of this fyftem had taken place indeed at an early period of the prefent century;more had been done in the reign of king George II. but it was not till within a very few years that the fyftem had been completely reverfed. Still however the future intercourfe between the two kingdoms remained for legislative wisdom to arrange; and the PROPOSITIONS moved by Mr. Orde in the Irish parliament, and ratified by that affembly, held out, he faid, a fyftem liberal, beneficial, and permanent.

If

These famous propofitions, eleven in number, were in purport and fubftance, and divefied of their technical form, as follows:

I. That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is highly important to the general intereft of the British empire, that the trade between Great Britain and Ireland be encouraged and extended as much as poffible, and for that purpose, that the intercourfe and commerce be finally fettled and regulated on permanent and equitable principles for the mutual benefit of both countries.

II. That all articles, not the growth or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, fhould be imported into each kingdom from the other, reciprocally, at the fame duties to which they are liable when imported directly from the place of their product; and that all duties originally paid on the importation into either country refpectively, fhall be fully drawn back on exportation to the other.

III. That no prohibition fhould exift in either country against the importation of any article of the other, and that the duty on importation hould be precifely the fame in both countries, except where an addition may be neceflary in confequence of an internal duty on any fuch article of its own confumption.

IV. That where the duties on articles of the product of either country are different on the importation into the other, they should be reduced where

If the queftion fhould be asked, whether, under the accumulation of our heavy taxes, it would be wife to equalize the duties, and to enable a country free from thofe taxes to meet us in their own market and in ours, he would answer, that Ireland, with an independent legiflature, would no longer fubmit to be treated with inferiority. A great and generous effort was to be made by this country, and we were to choose between inevitable alternatives. Our manufactures however were fo decidedly fuperior to theirs, that the immunities propofed would be in fact, and for many years to come, productive of little alteration. It would

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where they are highest to the amount payable in the other; and that all fuch articles fhould be exportable from the kingdom into which they shall be imported as free from duty, as the similar commodities or home manu facture of the fame kingdom.

V. That in all cafes where either kingdom fhall charge articles of its own confumption with an internal duty; the fame articles, when imported from the other, may be charged with a duty adequate to countervail the internal duty.

VI. That no prohibitian or new duty hall hereafter be impofed in either kingdom on the importation of any article the product of the other, except fuch additional duties as may be requifite to countervail the duties on internal confumption.

VII. That no prohibitions or new duties fhall be hereafter imposed on the exportation of any article of native growth, except fuch as either kingdom may think expedient from time to time, upon corn, meal, malt, flour, and bifcuit; and alfo, except where there now exifts any prohibition not reciprocal, or duty not equal; in every fuch case, the prohibition may be made reciprocal, or the duties raised fo as to make them equal.

VIII. That no bounties whatever fhould be payable in either kingdom on the exportation of any article to the other, except fuch as relate to corn, meal, malt, flour, and biscuits, and fuch as are in the nature of drawbacks or compenfation for duties paid; and that no bounty fhould be granted in Ireland on the exportation of any article imported from the British plantations, unless in cafes where a fimilar bounty is payable in Britain; or where fuch bounty is merely in the nature of a drawback or compenfation for duties paid internally, over and above any duties paid thercon in Britain.

IX. That the importation of articles from foreign ftates fhould be regulated in each kingdom, fo as to afford an effectual preference to fimilar articles of the growth and produce of the other.

X. That it is effential to the commercial interefts of Ireland, to prevent as much as poffible an accumulation of national debt; that therefore it is highly expedient that the annual revenue of this kingdom fhall be made equal to its annual expence.

XI. That whatever fum the grofs hereditary revenue of the kingdom, after deducting all drawbacks, repayments, or bounties granted in the nature of drawbacks, fhall produce above the fum of fix hundred and fiftyfix thousand pounds in each year of peace, wherein the annual revenue shall equal the annual expence, and in each year of war, without regard to fuch equality, fhould be appropriated towards the fupport of the naval force of the empire, in fuch manner as the parliament of Ireland fhall direct,

would require time for the acquifition of both capital and fkill; and as these increased, the difference between the price of labor there and in this country would be inceffantly diminishing. After all, there might, he admitted, be fome branches of manufacture in which Ireland might rival and perhaps excel England. But this ought not to give us pain. We must calculate from general and not from partial views. Above all, we should learn not to regard Ireland with an eye of jealoufy. It required little philofophy to reconcile us to a competition which would give us a rich customer instead of a poor one. The prof perity of the fifter kingdom would be a fresh and in exhauftible fource of opulence to us."

These comprehenfive and liberal ideas, fo oppofite to the wisdom and policy of paft ages, were on this great and interefting occafion received by the British houfe of commons with general complacency and approbation, and by the public at large with apparent tranquillity and acquiefcence. The vaftnefs of the plan, and the multiplicity and complexity of the objects which it embraced, feemed to keep the public mind in a kind of fufpense; and for near a month after its first introduction, there were no indications difcernible of ferious or determined oppofition. Mr. Fox, indeed, at the onset of the bufinefs, commenced the attack, by farcastically observing, that by far the greater part of Mr. Pitt's fpeech was little elfe than a reply to that of Mr. Orde in the Irish house of commons. In Ireland, the propofitions had been stated as in the highest degree advantageous to that country; as rendering it the emporium of Europe, and the fource and fupply of the Britif markets. Here the great recommendation of the system was, that the benefits accruing to Ireland were, if not wholly vifionary, at beft trivial and remote ;-that Ireland could not rival England;-that she was poor and feeble, and would very long in all probability remain fo. He muft, however, do Mr. Orde the justice to acknowledge,

that