CHAPTER XVI.

_Domestic Occurrences in Great Britain..... Trials of Dr.

Hensey and Shebbeare..... Institution of the Magdalen

Asylum..... Society for the encouragement of Arts.....

Session opened..... New Treaty with the King of Prussia.....

Supplies granted..... The King’s Message to the Commons.....

Bill relating to ihe Distillery, and the Exportation of

Corn..... Petition from the Justices of Norfolk---Bill for

the Importation of salted Beef from Treland continued.....

Regulations with respect to Privateers..... New Militia

Laws..... Act for the Relief of Debtors revived..... Bills

for the Importation of Irish Beef and Tallow..... Act

relative to Milford-Haven..... Bill relative to the Duty on

Pensions..... Act relative to the Duty on Plate..... Cambric

Act..... Unsuccessful Bills..... Case of the Insolvent

Debtors..... Case of Cant. Walker..... Remarks on the

Bankrupt Laws..... Inquiry into the State of the Poor.....

Regulations of Weights and Measures..... Resolutions

concerning the Foundling Hospital..... Messages from the

King to the Parliament..... Session closed.....

Preparations for War..... Death of the Princess of Orange

and Princess Elizabeth Caroline..... Examples made of

Pirates..... Accounts of some remarkable Murders..... Murder

of Daniel Clarke..... Majority of the Prince of Wales.....

Resolutions concerning a new Bridge at Blackfriars..... Pire

in Cornhill..... Method contrived to find out the

Longitude..... Installation at Oxford..... Deplorable

Incident at Sea..... Captures made by separate Cruisers.....

Captain Hood takes the Bellona..... and Captain Barrington

the Count do St. Florentin..... Captain Falkner takes a

French East Indiaman..... Prize taken in the West

Indies..... Engagement between the Hercules and the

Florissant..... Havre-de-Grace bombarded by Admiral

Rodney..... Admiral Boscawen defeats M. de la Clue.....

Preparations made by the French for invading England.....

Account of Thurot..... French Fleet sails from Brest.....

Admiral Hawke defeats M. de Conflans..... Proceedings of the

Irish Parliament..... Loyalty of the Irish-Catholics.....

Dangerous Insurrection in Dublin..... Alarm of a Descent in

Scotland_

While the operations of the war were prosecuted through the four

quarters of the globe, the island of Great Britain, which may be termed

the centre that gave motion to this vast machine, enjoyed all the

tranquillity of the most profound peace, and saw nothing of war but the

preparations and trophies, which served only to animate the nation to

a desire of further conquest; for the dejection occasioned by the

misfortune at St. Cas soon vanished before the prospect of victory and

success. Considering the agitation naturally produced among the common

people, by the practice of pressing men into the service of the navy,

which, in the beginning of the year, had been carried on with unusual

violence, the levy of so many new corps of soldiers, and the endeavours

used in forming the national militia, very few disturbances happened

to interrupt the internal repose of the nation. From private acts

of malice, fraud, violence, and rapine, no community whatsoever is

exempted. In the month of April, the temporary wooden bridge over the

Thames, built for the conveniency of carriages and passengers, while the

workmen should be employed in widening and repairing London bridge, was

maliciously set on fire in the night, and continued burning till noon

next day, when the ruins of it fell into the river. The destruction of

this conveniency proved very detrimental to the commerce of the city,

notwithstanding the vigilancy and discretion of the magistrates, in

applying remedies for this misfortune. A promise of the king’s pardon

was offered in a public advertisement, by the secretary of state, and

a reward of two hundred pounds by the city of London, to any person who

should discover the perpetrator of such wicked outrage; but nevertheless

he escaped detection. No individual, nor any society of men, could have

the least interest in the execution of such a scheme, except the body

of London watermen; but as no discovery was made to the prejudice of any

person belonging to that society, the deed was imputed to the malice of

some secret enemy to the public. Even after a new temporary bridge

was erected, another attempt was made (in all probability by the same

incendiary) to reduce the whole to ashes, but happily miscarried, and a

guard was appointed to prevent any such atrocious efforts in the sequel.

Dangerous tumults were raised in and about Manchester, by a prodigious

number of manufacturers who had left off working, and entered into a

combination to raise, by force, the price of their labour. They had

formed a regular plan, and collected large sums for the maintenance of

the poorer sort, while they refused to work for their families. They

insulted and abused all those who would not join in this defection,

dispersed incendiary letters; and denounced terrible threats against all

such as should presume to oppose their proceedings. But these menaces

had no effect upon the magistrates and justices, who did their duty with

such discretion and courage, that the ringleaders being singled out and

punished by law, the rest were soon reduced to order.

TRIALS OF DRS. HENSEY AND SHEBBEARE

In the month of June, Florence Hensey, an obscure physician, and native

of Ireland, who had been apprehended for treasonable practices, was

tried in the court of king’s-bench, on an indictment for high treason.

In the course of the trial it appeared that he had been employed as

a spy for the French ministry; to which, in consideration of a paltry

pension, he sent intelligence of every material occurrence in Great

Britain. The correspondence was managed by his brother, a Jesuit, who

acted as chaplain and secretary to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague.

The British resident at that court having learned from the Spanish

minister some secrets relating to England, even before they were

communicated to him from the English ministry, was induced to set

on foot an inquiry touching the source of this information, and soon

received an assurance, that the secretary of the Spanish ambassador had

a brother, a physician in London. The suspicion naturally arising from

this circumstance being imparted to the ministry of England, Hensey was

narrowly watched, and twenty-nine of his letters were intercepted. From

the contents of these he was convicted of having given the French court

the first notice of the expedition to North America, the capture of

the two ships, the Alcide and Lys, the sailing and destination of every

squadron and armament, and the difficulties that occurred in raising

money for the service of the public. He had even informed them, that the

secret expedition of the foregoing year was intended against Eochefort,

and advised a descent upon Great Britain, at a certain time and

place, as the most effectual method of distressing the government, and

affecting the public credit. After a long trial he was found guilty of

treason, and received the sentence of death usually pronounced on such

occasions; but whether he earned forgiveness by some material discovery,

or the minister found him so insensible and insignificant that he was

ashamed to take his life, he escaped execution, and was pardoned, on

condition of going into perpetual exile. The severity of the government

was much about the same period exercised on Dr. Shebbeare, a public

writer, who, in a series of printed letters to the people of England,

had animadverted on the conduct of the ministry in the most acrimonious

terms, stigmatized some great names with all the virulence of censure,

and even assaulted the throne itself with oblique insinuation and

ironical satire. The ministry, incensed at the boldness, and still more

enraged at the success of this author, whose writings were bought

with avidity by the public, determined to punish him severely for

his arrogance and abuse, and he was apprehended by a warrant from

the secretary’s office. His sixth letter to the people of England was

pitched upon as the foundation of a prosecution. After a short trial

in the court of king’s bench, he was found guilty of having written the

sixth letter to the people of England, adjudged a libellous pamphlet,

sentenced to stand in the pillory, to pay a small fine, to be imprisoned

three years, and give security for his future good behaviour; so that,

in effect, this good man suffered more for having given vent to the

unguarded effusions of mistaken zeal, couched in the language of passion

and scurrility, than was inflicted upon Hensey, a convicted traitor, who

had acted as spy for France, and betrayed his own country for hire.

INSTITUTION OF THE MAGDALEN AND OTHER ASYLUMS.

Amidst a variety of crimes and disorders, arising from impetuosity of

temper, unreined passions, luxury, extravagance, and an almost total

want of police and subordination, the virtues of benevolence are always

springing up to an extraordinary growth in the British soil; and here

charities are often established by the humanity of individuals, which

in any other country would be honoured as national institutions: witness

the great number of hospitals and infirmaries in London and Westminster,

erected and maintained by voluntary contributions, or raised by the

princely donations of private founders. In the course of this year the

public began to enjoy the benefit of several admirable institutions.

Mr. Henry Baine, a private gentleman of Middlesex, had, in his lifetime,

built and endowed an hospital for the maintenance of forty poor maidens.

By his will he bequeathed a certain sum of money to accumulate at

interest, under the management of trustees, until the yearly produce

should amount to two hundred and ten pounds, to be given in marriage

portions to two of the maidens educated in his hospital, at the age of

twenty-two, who should be the best recommended for piety and industry by

the masters or mistresses whom they had served. In the month of March,

the sum destined for this laudable purpose was completed: when the

trustees, by public advertisement, summoned the maidens educated in the

hospital to appear on a certain day, with proper certificates of their

behaviour and circumstances, that six of the most deserving might be

selected to draw lots for the prize of one hundred pounds, to be paid

as her marriage portion, provided she married a man of an unblemished

character, a member of the church of England, residing within certain

specified parishes, and approved by the trustees. Accordingly, on the

first of May the candidates appeared, and the prize being gained by one

young woman, in presence of a numerous assembly of all ranks, attracted

by curiosity, the other five maidens, with a sixth, added in lieu of her

who had been successsful, were marked for a second chance on the same

day of the following year, when a second prize of the same value would

be presented: thus a new candidate will be added every year, that

every maiden who has been educated in this hospital, and preserved her

character without reproach, may have a chance for the noble donation,

which is also accompanied with the sum of five pounds to defray the

expense of the wedding entertainment. One scarce knows whether most

to admire the plan, or commend the humanity of this excellent

institution.--Of equal and perhaps superior merit was another charitable

establishment, which also took effect about this period. A small number

of humane individuals, chiefly citizens of London, deeply affected with

the situation of common prostitutes, who are certainly the most forlorn

of all human creatures, formed a generous resolution in their favour,

such as even the best men of the kingdom had never before the courage to

avow. They considered that many of these unhappy creatures, so wretched

in themselves, and so productive of mischief to society, had been

seduced to vice in their tender years by the perfidious artifice of the

other sex, or the violence of unruly passion, before they had acquired

experience to guard against the one, or foresight to perceive the

fatal consequences of the other; that the jewel, reputation, being thus

irretrievably lost, perhaps in one unguarded moment, they were covered

with shame and disgrace, abandoned by their families, excluded from all

pity, regard, and assistance; that, stung by self-conviction, insulted

with reproach, denied the privilege of penitence and contrition, cut off

from all hope, impelled by indigence, and maddened by despair, they had

plunged into a life of infamy, in which they were exposed to deplorable

vicissitudes of misery, and the most excruciating pangs of reflection

that any human being could sustain; that whatever remorse they might

feel, howsoever they might detest their own vice, or long for an

opportunity of amendment, they were entirely destitute of all means of

reformation. They were not only deprived of all possibility of profiting

by those precious moments of repentance, and becoming again useful

members of society; but, in order to earn a miserable subsistence,

were obliged to persevere in the paths of prostitution, and act as

the instruments of heaven’s vengeance in propagating distemper and

profligacy, in ruining the bodies and debauching the minds of

their fellow-creatures. Moved to sympathy and compassion by these

considerations, this virtuous band of associates determined to provide

a comfortable asylum for female penitents, to which they might fly for

shelter from the receptacles of vice, the miseries of life, and the

scorn of mankind; where they might indulge the salutary sentiments of

remorse, make their peace with heaven, accustom themselves to industry

and temperance, and be profitably reunited to society, from which they

had been so unhappily dissevered. The plan of this excellent institution

being formed, was put in execution by means of voluntary subscription,

and the house opened in Goodman ‘s-fields, under the name of the

Magdalen-hospital, in the month of August, when fifty petitions were

presented by penitent prostitutes, soliciting admittance. Another asylum

was also opened by the hand of private charity, on the Surrey-side of

Westminster-bridge, for the reception and education of female orphans,

and children abandoned by their parents.

SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS.

Nor was encouragement refused to those who distinguished themselves by

extraordinary talents in any branch of the liberal and useful arts and

sciences, though no Maecenas appeared among the ministers, and not

the least ray of patronage glimmered from the throne. The protection,

countenance, and gratification secured in other countries by the

institution of academies, and the liberalities of princes, the ingenious

in England derived from the generosity of a public, endued with taste

and sensibility, eager for improvement, and proud of patronising

extraordinary merit. Several years had already elapsed since a society

of private persons was instituted at London, for the encouragement

of arts, manufactures, and commerce. It consisted of a president,

vice-president, secretary, register, collector, and other officers,

elected from a very considerable number of members, who pay a certain

yearly contribution for the purposes of the institution. In the course

of every year they held eight general meetings in a large assembly-room,

built and furnished at the common expense; besides the ordinary meetings

of the society, held every week, from the second Wednesday in November

to the last Wednesday in May; and in the intermediate time, on the first

and third Wednesday of every month. At these ordinary meetings, provided

the number then present exceeded ten, the members had a right to proceed

on business, and power to appoint such committees as they should

think necessary. The money contributed by this association, after the

necessary expense of the society had been deducted, was expended in

premiums for planting and husbandry; for discoveries and improvements

in chemistry, dying, and mineralogy; for promoting the ingenious arts of

drawing, engraving, casting, painting, statuary, and sculpture; for the

improvement of manufactures and machines, in the various articles

of hats, crapes, druggets, mills, marbled-paper, ship-blocks,

spinning-wheels, toys, yarn, knitting, and weaving. They likewise

allotted sums for the advantage of the British colonies in America,

and bestowed premiums on those settlers who should excel in curing

cochineal, planting logwood-trees, cultivating olive-trees, producing

myrtle-wax, making potash, preserving raisins, curing saffiour, making

silk and wines, importing sturgeon, preparing isinglass, planting

hemp and cinnamon, extracting opium and the gum of the persimon-tree,

collecting stones of the mango, which should be found to vegetate in the

West Indies; raising silk-grass, and laying out provincial gardens. They

moreover allowed a gold medal in honour of him who should compose the

best treatise on the arts of peace, containing an historical account of

the progressive improvements of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce

in the kingdom of England, with the effects of those improvements on the

morals and manners of the people, and pointing out the most proper means

for their future advancement. In a word, the society is so numerous,

the contributions so considerable, the plan so judiciously laid, and

executed with such discretion and spirit, as to promise much more

effectual and extensive advantage to the public than ever accrued from

all the boasted academies of Christendom. The artists of London had long

maintained a private academy for improvement in the art of drawing from

living figures; but in order to extend this advantage, which was not

attained without difficulty and expense, the duke of Richmond, a young

nobleman of the most amiable character, provided a large apartment

at Whitehall, for the use of those who studied the arts of painting,

sculpture, and engraving; and furnished it with a collection of original

plaster casts from the best antique statues and busts at Rome and

Florence. Here any learner had liberty to draw, or make models, under

the eye and instructions of two eminent artists and twice a year the

munificent founder bestowed premiums of silver medals on the four pupils

who excelled the rest in drawing from a certain figure, and making the

best model of it in basso-relievo. [479] _[See note 3 R, at the end of

this Vol.]_

On the twenty-third day of November both houses of parliament met at

Westminster, when his majesty being indisposed, the session was opened

by commission, and the lord-keeper harangued them to this effect. He

told them, his majesty had directed the lords of the commission to

assure his parliament that he always received the highest satisfaction

in being able to lay before them any event that might promote the honour

and interests of his kingdoms; that in consequence of their advice, and

enabled by the assistance which they unanimously gave, his majesty had

exerted his endeavours to carry on the war in the most vigorous manner,

in order to attain that desirable end, always to be wished, a safe and

honourable peace:* that it had pleased the Divine Providence to bless

his measures and arms with success in several parts, and to make the

enemies of the nation feel, that the strength of Great Britain is not to

be provoked with impunity: that the conquest of the strong fortress of

Louisbourg, with the islands of Cape-Breton and St. John; the demolition

of Frontenac, of the highest importance to his operations in America,

and the reduction of Senegal, could not fail to bring great distress on

the French commerce and colonies, and, in proportion, to procure great

advantages to those of Great Britain.

* In the month of August, the king, in quality of elector of

Hanover, having occasion for two hundred thousand pounds, a

loan by subscription for that sum was opened at the bank,

and filled immediately by seven or eight money-dealers of

London.

He observed, that France had also been made sensible, that whilst

her forces are sent forth to invade and ravage the dominions of her

neighbours, her own coasts are not inaccessible to his majesty’s fleets

and armies--a truth which she had experienced in the demolition of the

works at Cherbourg, erected at a great expense, with a particular view

to annoy England, as well as in the loss of a great number of ships and

vessels; but no treatment, however injurious to his majesty, could tempt

him to make retaliation on the innocent subjects of that crown. He told

them, that in Germany his majesty’s good brother the king of Prussia,

and prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, had found full employment for

the enemies of France and her confederates, from which the English

operations, both by sea and in America, had derived the most evident

advantage: their successes owing, under God, to their able conduct, and

the bravery of his majesty’s troops, and those of his allies, having

been signal and glorious. The king, moreover, commanded them to declare,

that the common cause of liberty and independency was still making noble

and glorious efforts against the unnatural union formed to oppress it:

that the commerce of his subjects, the source of national riches, had,

by the vigilant protection received from his majesty’s fleet, flourished

in a manner not to be paralleled during such troubles. In this state of

things, he said, the king in his wisdom thought it unnecessary to

use many words to persuade them to bear up against all difficulties,

effectually to stand by and defend his majesty, vigorously to support

the king of Prussia and the rest of his majesty’s allies, and to exert

themselves to reduce their enemies to equitable terms of accommodation.

He observed to the house of commons, that the uncommon extent of this

war, in different parts, occasioned it to be uncommonly expensive: that

the king had ordered them to declare to the commons, that he sincerely

lamented, and deeply felt, for the burdens of his people: that the

several estimates were ordered to be laid before them: and that he

desired only such supplies as should be requisite to push the war with

advantage, and be adequate to the necessary services. In the last place,

he assured them the king took so much satisfaction in that good harmony

which subsisted among his faithful subjects, that it was more proper for

him now to thank them for it, than to repeat his exhortation to it:

that this union, necessary at all times, was more especially so in such

critical conjunctures; and his majesty doubted not but the good effects

the nation had found from it would be the strongest motives to them

to pursue it.--The reader will, no doubt, be surprised to find this

harangue abound with harshness of period and inelegancy of expression;

he will wonder that, in particularizing the successes of the year in

America, no mention is made of the reduction of fort Du Quesne on the

river Ohio; a place of great importance, both from its strength and

situation, the erection of which had been one great motive to the war

between the two nations; but he will be still more surprised to hear

it declared from the throne, that the operations, both by sea and in

America, had derived the most evident advantage from the war in Germany.

An assertion the more extraordinary, as the British ministry, in their

answer to the Parallel, which we have already mentioned, had expressly

affirmed, that “none but such as are unacquainted with the maritime

force of England can believe, that without a diversion on the continent,

to employ part of the enemy’s force, she is not in a condition to hope

for success and maintain her superiority at sea. That they must be very

ignorant indeed, who imagine that the forces of England are not able to

resist those of France unless the latter be hindered from turning all

her efforts to the sea.” It is very remarkable that the British ministry

should declare that the war in Germany was favourable to the English

operations by sea and in America, and almost in the same breath accuse

the French king of having fomented that war. Let us suppose that France

had no war to maintain in Europe; and ask in what manner she, in that

case, would have opposed the progress of the British arms by sea and in

America? Her navy was reduced to such a condition that it durst not quit

her harbours; her merchant ships were all taken, her mariners confined

in England, and the sea was covered with British cruisers: in these

circumstances, what expedients could she have contrived for sending

supplies and reinforcements to America, or for opposing the naval

armaments of Great Britain in any other part of the world?--None.

Without ships and mariners, her troops, ammunition, and stores were,

in this respect, as useless as money to a man shipwrecked on a desolate

island. But granting that the war in Germany had, in some measure,

diverted the attention of the French ministry from the prosecution of

their operations in America, (and this is granting more than ought to

be allowed,) the question is not, Whether the hostilities upon the

continent of Europe prevented France from sending a greater number of

troops to Canada; but whether the war in Germany was either necessary or

expedient for distressing the French more effectually in other parts of

the world? Surely every intelligent man of candour must answer in the

negative. The expense incurred by England for subsidies and armies in

the empire exceeded three millions sterling annually; and this enormous

expense, without being able to protect Hanover, only served to keep the

war alive in different parts of Germany. Had one half of this sum

been employed in augmenting and extending the naval armaments of Great

Britain, and in reinforcing her troops in America and the West Indies,

France would have been, at this day, deprived of all her sugar colonies,

as well as of her settlements on the continent of America; and being

absolutely cut off from these sources of wealth, would have found it

impracticable either to gratify her subsidiaries, or to maintain such

formidable armies to annoy her neighbours. These are truths, which will

appear to the conviction of the public, when the illusive spells of

unsubstantial victory are dissolved, and time shall have dispersed

the thick mists of prejudice which now seem to darken and perplex the

understanding of the people.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

NEW TREATY WITH THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

The conduct of the administration was so agreeable to both houses of

parliament, that in their address to the throne they expressed their

unshaken zeal and loyalty to his majesty’s person, congratulated him on

the success of his arms, and promised to support his measures and allies

with steadiness and alacrity. *

* That the charge of disaffection to the king’s person,

which was so loudly trumpeted by former ministers and their

adherents against those who had honesty and courage to

oppose the measures of a weak and corrupt administration,

was entirely false and without foundation, appeared at this

juncture, when in the midst of a cruel, oppressive, and

continental war, maintained by the blood and treasure of

Great Britain, all opposition ceased in both houses of

parliament. The addresses of thanks to his majesty, which

are always dictated by the immediate servants of the crown,

were unanimously adopted in both houses, and not only

couched in terms of applause, but even inflated with

expressions of rapture and admiration. They declared

themselves sensible, that the operations of Great Britain,

both by sea and in America, had received the most evident

and important advantages from the maintenance of the war in

Germany, and seemed eager to espouse any measure that might

gratify the inclination of the sovereign.

It was probably in consequence of this assurance that a new treaty

between Great Britain and Prussia was concluded at London on the seventh

day of December, importing, That as the burdensome war in which the

king of Prussia is engaged, lays him under the necessity of making fresh

efforts to defend himself against the multitude of enemies who attack

his dominions, he is obliged to take new measures with the king of

England, for their reciprocal defence and safety; and his Britannic

majesty hath at the same time signified his earnest desire to strengthen

the friendship subsisting between the two courts; and, in consequence

thereof, to conclude a formal convention, for granting to his Prussian

majesty speedy and powerful assistance, their majesties have nominated

and authorized their ministers to concert and settle the following

articles:--All formal treaties between the two crowns, particularly that

signed at Westminster on the sixteenth day of January in the year

1756, and the convention of the eleventh of April in the year 1758, are

confirmed by the present convention of the eleventh of April in the year

1758, in their whole tenor, as if they were herein inserted word for

word. The king of Great Britain shall cause to be paid at London, to

such person or persons as shall be authorized by the king of Prussia for

that end, the sum of four millions of rix-dollars, making six hundred

and seventy thousand pounds sterling, at one payment, immediately on the

exchange of the ratification, if the king of Prussia should so require.

His Prussian majesty shall employ the said sum in supporting and

augmenting his forces, which shall act in such manner as shall be of the

greatest service to the common cause, and contribute most to the mutual

defence and safety of their said majesties. The king of Great Britain,

both as king and elector, and the king of Prussia, reciprocally bind

themselves not to conclude with the powers that have taken part in the

present war, any treaty of peace, truce, or other such like convention,

but by common advice and consent, each expressly including therein the

other. The ratification of the present convention shall be exchanged

within six weeks, or sooner, if possible. In effect, this treaty was no

other than a renewal of the subsidy from year to year, because it was

not thought proper to stipulate in the first subsidiary convention an

annual supply of such importance until the war should be terminated,

lest the people of England should be alarmed at the prospect of such

successive burdens, and the complaisance of the commons be in some

future session exhausted. On the whole, this was perhaps the most

extraordinary treaty that ever was concluded; for it contains no

specification of articles, except the payment of the subsidy; every

other article was left to the interpretation of his Prussian majesty.

{1759}

SUPPLIES GRANTED.

The parliament, having performed the ceremony of addresses to the

throne, immediately proceeded to the great work of the supply. The two

committees in the house of commons were immediately established, and

continued by adjournments to the month of May, by the twenty-third day

of which all their resolutions were taken. They voted sixty thousand

men, including fourteen thousand eight hundred and forty-five marines,

for the service of the ensuing year; and for the operations by land,

a body of troops amounting to fifty-two thousand five hundred and

fifty-three effective men, besides the auxiliaries of Hanover, Hesse,

Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha, and Buckebourg, to the number of fifty thousand,

and five battalions on the Irish establishment in actual service in

America and Africa. For the maintenance of the sixty thousand men

employed in the sea-service, they granted three millions one hundred and

twenty thousand pounds; for the land-forces, one million two hundred and

fifty-six thousand one hundred and thirty pounds, fifteen shillings

and two-pence; for the charge of the additional five battalions, forty

thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, thirteen shillings and

nine-pence; for the pay of the general and staff-officers, and hospitals

of the land-forces, fifty-two thousand four hundred and eighty-four

pounds one shilling and eight-pence; for maintaining the garrisons

in the Plantations, Gibraltar, Nova-Scotia, Newfoundland, Providence,

Cape-Breton, and Senegal, the sum of seven hundred and forty-two

thousand five hundred and thirty-one pounds, five shillings and

seven-pence; for the charge of ordnance for land-service, two hundred

and twenty thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine pounds, eleven

shillings and nine-pence; for extraordinary service performed by the

same office, and not provided for by parliament in the course of the

preceding year, three hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred

and eighty-seven pounds, thirteen shillings and three-ponce; for the

ordinary of the navy, including half-pay to sea-officers, two hundred

and thirty-eight thousand four hundred and ninety-one pounds, nine

shillings and eight-pence; towards the support of Greenwich-hospital,

and for the out-pensioners of Chelsea-college, the sum of thirty-six

thousand pounds. They allotted for one year’s expense, incurred by the

foreign troops in the pay of Great Britain, one million two hundred

thirty-eight thousand one hundred and seventy-seven pounds, nineteen

shillings and ten-pence, over and above sixty thousand pounds for

enabling his majesty to fulfil his engagements with the landgrave of

Hesse-Cassel, pursuant to the separate article of a new treaty concluded

between them in the month of January of this current year, stipulating,

that this sum should be paid to his serene highness in order to

facilitate the means by which he might again fix his residence in his

own dominions, and by his presence give fresh courage to his faithful

subjects. Eighty thousand pounds were granted for enabling his majesty

to discharge the like sum raised in pursuance of an act passed in the

preceding session, and charged upon the first aids or supplies to be

granted in this session of parliament. The sum of two hundred thousand

pounds was voted towards the building and repairing ships of war for the

ensuing year. Fifteen thousand pounds were allowed for improving London

bridge; and forty thousand on account, for the Foundling-hospital. For

the charge of transports to be employed in the course of the year they

assigned six hundred sixty seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-one

pounds nineteen shillings and seven-pence: for maintaining the colonies

of Nova-Scotia and Georgia they bestowed twenty-five thousand two

hundred and thirty-eight pounds thirteen shillings and five-pence. To

replace sums taken from the sinking fund, thirty-three thousand two

hundred and fifty-two pounds eighteen shillings and ten-pence halfpenny;

for maintaining the British forts and settlements en the coast of

Africa, ten thousand pounds, and for paying off the mortgage on an

estate devised for the endowment of a professorship in the university of

Cambridge, the sum of twelve hundred and eighty pounds. For the expence

of the militia they voted ninety thousand pounds: for extraordinary

expenses relating to the land-forces, incurred in the course of

last year, and unprovided for by parliament, the sum of four hundred

fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-five pounds ten shillings

and five-pence three farthings. For the purchase of certain lands

and hereditaments, in order to secure the king’s docks at Portsmouth,

Chatham, and Plymouth, they granted thirty-six thousand nine hundred

and sixty-six pounds two shillings and ten-pence. They voted two hundred

thousand pounds for enabling his majesty to give proper compensation

to the respective provinces in North-America, for the expenses that had

been incurred in levying and maintaining troops for the service of the

public. They granted twenty thousand pounds to the East-India company,

towards enabling them to defray the expense of a military force in

their settlements: and the same sum was granted for carrying on the

fortification to secure the harbour of Milford. To make good several

sums issued by his majesty, for indemnifying the inn-holders and

victuallers of Hampshire for the expenses they had incurred in

quartering the Hessian auxiliaries in England; for an addition to the

salaries of judges, and other less considerable purposes, they allowed

the sum of twenty-six thousand one hundred and seventy-eight pounds

sixteen shillings and six-pence. Finally, they voted one million, upon

account, for enabling the king to defray any extraordinary expense of

the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the current

year; and to take all such measures as might be necessary to disappoint

or defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of

affairs should require. The sum of all the grants voted by the committee

of supply, amounted to twelve millions seven hundred sixty-one thousand

three hundred and ten pounds nineteen shillings and five-pence.

KING’S MESSAGE TO THE COMMONS.

The commons were still employed in deliberations on ways and means on

the twenty-second day of May, when Mr. secretary Pitt communicated to

them a message from the king, couched in these terms: “His majesty,

relying on the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful commons,

and considering that, in this critical conjuncture, emergencies may

arise, which may be of the utmost importance, and be attended with the

most pernicious consequences, if proper means should not immediately

be applied to prevent or defeat them, is desirous that this house will

enable him to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war, incurred, or

to be incurred, for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred

and fifty-nine, and to take all such measures as may be necessary to

disappoint or defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies, and

as the exigencies of affairs may require.” This message being read, a

motion was made, and agreed to _nem. con._ that it should be referred to

the committee, who forthwith formed upon it the resolution, whereby

one million was granted, to be raised by loans or exchequer bills,

chargeable on the first aids that should be given in the next session.

This produced a bill enabling his majesty to raise the sum of one

million, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned, comprehending a

clause, allowing the Bank of England to advance on the credit of the

loan therein mentioned any sum not exceeding a million, notwithstanding

the act of the fifth and sixth year in the reign of William and Mary, by

which the bank was established.

BILLS RELATING TO THE DISTILLERY, &c.

The bills relating solely to the supply being discussed and expedited,

the house proceeded, as usual, to an act other laws for the advantage of

the community. Petitions having been presented by the cities of Bristol

and New-Sarum, alleging, that since the laws prohibiting the making of

low wines and spirits from grain, meal, and flour, had been in force, the

commonalty appeared more sober, healthy, and industrious: representing

the ill consequences which they apprehended would attend the repeal of

these laws, and therefore praying their continuance. A committee of

the whole house resolved that the prohibition to export corn should be

continued to the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year one thousand

seven hundred and fifty nine; subject nevertheless to such provisions

for shortening the said term of its continuance as should therefore be

made by an act of that session, or by his majesty with the advice of

his privy-council during the recess of parliament; that the act for

discontinuing the duties upon corn and flour imported, or brought in as

prize, was not proper to be further continued; and that the prohibition

to make low wines or spirits from any sort of grain, meal, or flour,

should be continued to the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year

one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine. Before the bill was formed

on these resolutions, petitions arrived from Liverpool and Bath, to the

same purport as those of Bristol and Sarum: while on the other hand, a

remonstrance was presented by a great number of the malt-distillers of

the city and suburbs of London, alleging, that it having been deemed

expedient to prohibit the distilling of spirits from any sort of

grain, to the twenty-fourth day of December then instant, some of the

petitioners had entirely ceased to carry on the business of distilling,

while others, merely with a view to preserve their customers, the

compound distillers, and employ some of their servants, horses, and

utensils, had submitted to carry on the distillation of spirits from

molasses and sugars under great disadvantages, in full hope that the

restraint would cease at the expiration of the limited time, or at least

when the necessity which occasioned that restraint should be removed;

that it was with great concern they observed a bill would be brought in

for protracting the said prohibition, at a time when the price of all

manner of grain, and particularly of wheat and barley, was considerably

reduced, and, as they humbly conceived, at a reasonable medium.

They expatiated on the great loss they, as well as many traders and

artificers dependent upon them, must sustain in case the said bill

should be passed into a law. They prayed the house to take these

circumstances into consideration, and either permit them to carry on the

distillation from wheat, malt, and other grain, under such restrictions

as should be judged necessary; or to grant them such other relief, in

respect of their several losses and incumbrances, as to the house shall

seem reasonable and expedient. This petition, though strenuously urged

by a powerful and clamorous body without doors, did not meet great

encouragement within. It was ordered to lie upon the table, and an

instruction was given to the committee, empowering them to receive a

clause or clauses to allow the transportation of certain quantities of

meal, flour, bread, and biscuit, to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey,

for the sole use of the inhabitants; and another to prohibit the making

of low wines and spirits from bran. Much more attention was paid to a

petition of several farmers in the county of Norfolk, representing,

that their farms consisted chiefly of arable land, which produced much

greater quantities of corn than could be consumed within that county;

that in the last harvest there was a great and plentiful crop of all

sorts of grain, the greatest part of which had by unfavourable weather

been rendered unfit for sale at London, or other markets for home

consumption; that large quantities of malt were then lying at London,

arising chiefly from the crops of barley growing in the year one

thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, the sale of which was stagnated;

that the petitioners being informed the house had ordered in a bill to

continue the prohibition of corn exported, they begged leave to observe,

that, should it pass into a law, it would be extremely prejudicial to

all, and ruin many farmers of that county, as they had offered their

corn for sale at divers ports and markets of the said county: but the

merchants refused to buy it at any price, alleging, its being unfit for

the London market, the great quantity of corn with which that market was

already overstocked, and their not being allowed either to export it

or make it into malt for exportation. They therefore prayed this

prohibition might be removed, or they the petitioners indulged with some

other kind of relief. Although this remonstrance was duly considered,

the bill passed with the amendments because of the proviso, by which his

majesty in council was empowered to shorten the date of the prohibition

with respect to the exportation of corn during the recess of parliament;

but the temporary restraint laid upon distillation was made absolute,

without any such condition, to the no small disappointment and

mortification of the distillers, who had spared no pains and expense

by private solicitation, and strenuous dispute in the public papers, to

recommend their cause to the favour of the community. They urged that

malt-spirits, when used in moderation, far from being prejudicial to the

health of individuals, were in many damp and marshy parts of the kingdom

absolutely necessary for preserving the field labourers from agues and

other distempers produced by the cold and moisture of the climate; that

if they were debarred the use of malt-spirits, they would have recourse

to French brandy, with which, as they generally reside near the

sea-coast, the smugglers would provide them almost as cheap as the

malt-spirits could be afforded: thus the increased consumption of French

spirit would drain the nation of ready money to a considerable amount,

and prejudice the king’s revenue in the same proportion. They observed,

that many distillers had already quitted that branch of trade and

disposed of their materials; that all of them would probably take

the same resolutions should the bill pass into a law, as no man could

foresee when the prohibition would cease, should it be continued at

a time when all sorts of grain abounded in such plenty, that the very

waste of materials by disuse, over and above the lying out of the money,

would be of great prejudice to the proprietor: thus the business of

distilling, by which so many families were supported, would be banished

from the kingdom entirely; especially, as the expense of establishing

a large distillery was so great, that no man would choose to employ

his money for this purpose, judging from experience that some future

accidental scarcity of corn might induce the legislature to interpose a

ruinous delay in this branch of business. They affirmed, that from the

excessive use of malt-spirits no good argument could be drawn against

this branch of traffic, no more than against any other conveniency of

life; that the excessive use of common beer and ale was prejudicial

to the health and morals of the people, yet no person ever thought of

putting an end to the practice of brewing, in order to prevent the abuse

of brewed liquors. They urged that in all parts of Great Britain there

are some parcels of land that produce nothing to advantage but a coarse

kind of barley called big, which, though neither fit for brewing nor for

baking, may nevertheless be used in the distillery, and is accordingly

purchased by those concerned in this branch at such an encouraging

price, as enables many farmers to pay a higher rent to their landlords

than they could otherwise afford; that there are every year some parcels

of all sorts of grain so damaged by unseasonable weather, or other

accidents, as to be rendered altogether unfit for bread or brewery,

and would prove a very great misfortune to the farmer, if there was no

distillery, for the use of which he could sell his damaged commodity.

They asserted, that malt-spirits were absolutely necessary for

prosecuting some branches of foreign commerce, particularly the trade

to the coast of Africa, for which traffic no assortment could be made

up without a large quantity of geneva, of which the natives are so fond,

that they will not traffic with any merchant who has not a considerable

quantity, not only for sale, but also for presents to their chiefs

and rulers; that the merchants of Great Britain must either have this

commodity of their own produce, or import it at a great national expense

from Holland; that the charge of this importation, together with the

duties payable upon it, some part of which is not to be drawn back on

exportation, will render it impossible for the traders to sell it so

cheap on the coast of Africa as it might be sold by the Dutch, who are

the great rivals of Great Britain in this branch of commerce. To these

arguments, all of which were plausible, and some of them unanswerable,

it was replied, that malt-spirits might be considered as a fatal and

bewitching poison which had actually debauched the minds, and enervated

the bodies, of the common people to a very deplorable degree; that,

without entering further into a comparison between the use and abuse

of the two liquors, beer and geneva, it would be sufficient to observe,

that the use of beer and ale had produced none of those dreadful

effects which were the consequences of drinking geneva; and since the

prohibition of the distilling of malt-spirits had taken place, the

common people were become apparently more sober, decent, healthy, and

industrious: a circumstance sufficient to induce the legislature

not only to intermit, but even totally to abolish the practice of

distillation, which has ever been productive of such intoxication, riot,

disorder, and distemper, among the lower class of the people, as might

be deemed the greatest evils incident to a well-regulated commonwealth.

Their assertion with respect to the coarse kind of barley, called big,

was contradicted as a deviation from truth, inasmuch as it was used in

making malt, as well as in making bread: and with respect to damaged

corn, those who understood the nature of grain affirmed, that it was

spoiled to such a degree as to be altogether unfit for either of these

purposes, the distillers would not purchase it at such a price as would

indemnify the farmer for the charge of threshing and carriage; for the

distillers are very sensible, that their great profit is derived

from their distilling the malt made from the best barley, so that the

increase of the produce far exceeded in proportion the advance of

the price. It was not, however, an easy matter to prove that the

distillation of malt-spirits was not necessary to an advantageous

prosecution of the commerce on the coast of Guinea, as well as among the

Indians in some parts of North America. Certain it is, that, in these

branches of traffic, the want of geneva may be supplied by spirits

distilled from sugars and molasses. After all, it must be owned, that

the good and salutary effects of the prohibition were visible in every

part of the kingdom, and no evil consequence ensued, except a diminution

of the revenue in this article: a consideration which, at all times,

ought to be sacrificed to the health and morals of the people: nor will

this consideration be found of any great weight, when we reflect that

the less the malt-spirit is drunk, the greater quantity of beer and

ale will be consumed, and the produce of the duties and excise upon the

brewery be augmented accordingly.

In the meantime, all sorts of grain continuing to fall in price, and

great plenty appearing in every part of the kingdom, the justices of

the peace, and of the grand juries, assembled at the general quarter

sessions of the peace held for the county of Norfolk, composed and

presented to the house of commons, in the beginning of February, a

petition, representing, that the weather proving unfavourable in

the harvest, great part of the barley raised in that county was much

damaged, and rendered unfit for any other use than that of being

made into malt for exportation; that unless it should be speedily

manufactured for that purpose, it would be entirely spoiled, and perish

in the hands of the growers; a loss that must be very sensibly felt by

the land owners: they, therefore, entreated that leave might be given

for the exportation of malt; and that they might be favoured with such

further relief, as to the house should seem just and reasonable. In

consequence of this petition, the house resolved itself into a committee

to deliberate upon the subject; and as it appeared, upon examination,

that the price of grain was reduced very low, and great abundance

diffused through the kingdom, they resolved, that the continuance of

that part of the act, prohibiting the exportation of grain, ought to be

abridged and shortened, and the exportation of these commodities allowed

under proper regulations, with respect to the time of such exportation

and the allowance of bounties thereupon. A bill being founded on these

resolutions, was discussed, and underwent several amendments: at length

it was sent with a new title to the lords, who passed it without further

alteration, and then it obtained the royal sanction. While this affair

was under the deliberation of the committee, the commons unanimously

issued an order for leave to bring in a bill to continue, for a limited

time, the act of last session, permitting the importation of salted beef

from Ireland into Great Britain, with an instruction to receive a clause

extending this permission to all sorts of salted pork, or hog-meat, as

the officers of the customhouse had refused to admit hams from Ireland

to an entry. The bill likewise received another considerable alteration,

importing, That, instead of the duty of ona shilling and three-pence,

charged by the former act on every hundred weight of salted beef or pork

imported from Ireland, which was found not adequate to the duty payable

for such a quantity of salt as is requisite to be used in curing and

salting thereof; and to prevent as well the expense to the revenue, as

the detriment and loss which would accrue to the owner and importer from

opening the casks in which the provision is generally deposited,

with the pickle or brine proper for preserving the same, in order to

ascertain the net weight of the provision liable to the said duties: for

these reasons it was enacted, That from and after the twenty-fourth

day of last December, and during the continuance of this act, a duty of

three shillings and four-pence should be paid upon importation for every

barrel or cask of salted beef or pork containing thirty-two gallons;

and one shilling and three-pence for every hundred weight of salted beef

called dried beef, dried neats-tongues, or dried hog-meat, and so in

proportion for any greater or lesser quantity.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

REGULATIONS with RESPECT to PRIVATEERS.

Repeated complaints having been made to the government by neutral

nations, especially the Dutch, that their ships had been plundered,

and their crews maltreated by some of the English privateers, the

legislature resolved to provide effectually against any such outrageous

practices for the future: and with this view the commons ordered a bill

to be brought in for amending and explaining an act of the twenty-ninth

year of his late majesty’s reign, intituled, “An act for the

encouragement of seamen, and more speedy and effectual manning of

his majesty’s navy.” While the committee was employed in perusing

commissions and papers relating to private ships of war, that they

might be fully acquainted with the nature of the subject, a considerable

number of merchants and others, inhabiting the islands of Guernsey

and Jersey, presented a petition to the house, alleging, that the

inhabitants of those islands which lie in the British channel within

sight of the French coast, had now, as well as in former wars, embarked

their fortunes in equipping small privateers, which used to run in close

with the French shore, and being disguised like fishing boats, had not

only taken a considerable number of prizes, to the great annoyance of

the enemy, but also obtained material intelligence of their designs on

many important occasions; that these services could not be performed by

large vessels, which durst not approach so near the coast, and indeed

could not appear without giving the alarm, which was communicated from

place to place by appointed signals. Being informed that a bill was

depending, in order to prohibit privateers of small burden, they

declared that such a law, if extended to privateers equipped in those

islands, would ruin such as had invested their fortunes in small

privateers, and not only deprive the kingdom of the before-mentioned

advantages, but expose Great Britain to infinite prejudice from the

small armed vessels of France, which the enemy, in that case, could pour

abroad over the whole channel to the great annoyance of navigation and

commerce. They prayed, therefore, that such privateers as belonged to

the islands of Guernsey and Jersey might be wholly excepted from the

penalties contained in the bill, or that they, the petitioners, might

be heard by their counsel, and be indulged with such relief as the

house should judge expedient. This representation being referred to the

consideration of the committee, produced divers amendments to the

hill, which at length obtained the royal assent, and contained these

regulations: That, after the first day of January in the present year,

no commission should be granted to a privateer in Europe under the

burden of one hundred tons, the force of ten carriage guns, being

three-pounders or above, with forty men at the least, unless the lords

of the admiralty, or persons authorized by them, should think fit to

grant the same to any ship of inferior force or burden, the owners

thereof giving such bail or security as should be prescribed: that the

lords of the admiralty might at any time revoke, by an order in

writing under their hands, any commission granted to a privateer; this

revocation being subject to an appeal to his majesty in council, whose

determination should be final: that, previous to the granting any

commission, the persons proposing to be bound, and give security, should

severally make oath of their being respectively worth more money than

the sum for which they were then to be bound, over and above the payment

of all their just debts: that persons applying for such commissions

should make application in writing, and therein set forth a particular

and exact description of the vessel, specifying the burden, and the

number and nature of the guns on board, to what place belonging, as well

as the name or names of the principal owner or owners, and the number

of men: these particulars to be inserted in the commission; and every

commander to produce such commission to the custom-house officer who

should examine the vessel, and, finding her answer the description,

give a certificate thereof gratis, to be deemed a necessary clearance,

without which the commander should not depart: that if, after the first

day of July, any captain of a privateer should agree for the ransom of

any neutral vessel, or the cargo, or any part thereof, after it should

have been taken as prize, and in pursuance of such agreement should

actually discharge such prize, he should be deemed guilty of piracy; but

that with respect to contraband merchandise, he might take it on board

his own ship, with the consent of the commander of the neutral vessel,

and then set her at liberty; and that no person should purloin or

embezzle the said merchandise before condemnation: that no judge, or

other person belonging to any court of admiralty, should be concerned in

any privateer: that owners of vessels, not being under fifty, or above

one hundred tons, whose commissions are declared void, should be

indemnified for their loss by the public: that a court of oyer and

terminer, and gaol delivery, for the trial of offences committed within

the jurisdiction of the admiralty, should be held twice a-year in the

Old Bailey at London, or in such other place within England as the board

of admiralty should appoint: that the judge of any court of admiralty,

after an appeal interposed, as well as before, should, at the request of

the captor or claimant, issue an order for appraising the capture, when

the parties do not agree upon the value, and an inventory to be taken;

then exact security for the full value, and cause the capture to be

delivered to the person giving such security; but, should objection be

made to the taking such security, the judge should, at the request of

either party, order such merchandise to be entered, landed, and sold at

public auction, and the produce to be deposited at the bank, or in some

public securities: and in case of security being given, the judge should

grant a pass in favour of the capture. Finally, the force of this act

was limited to the duration of the then war with France only. This

regulation very clearly demonstrated, that whatever violences might have

been committed on the ships of neutral nations, they were by no means

countenanced by the legislature, or the body of the people.

NEW MILITIA LAWS.

Every circumstance relating to the reformation of the marine, must be

an important object to a nation whose wealth and power depend upon

navigation and commerce; but a consideration of equal weight was the

establishment of the militia, which, notwithstanding the repeated

endeavours of the parliament, was found still incomplete, and in want

of further assistance from the legislature. His majesty having, by

the chancellor of the exchequer, recommended to the house the making

suitable provision for defraying the charges of the militia during

the current year, the accounts of the expense already incurred by this

establishment were referred to the committee of supply, who, after

having duly perused them, resolved, that ninety thousand pounds should

be granted on account, towards defraying the charges of pay and clothing

for the militia, from the last day of the last year, to the twenty-fifth

day of March in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, and for

repaying a sum advanced by the king for this service. Leave was given

to bring in one bill pursuant to this resolution, and another to enforce

the execution of the laws relating to the militia, remove certain

difficulties, and prevent the incenveniencies by which it might be

attended. So intent were the majority on both sides upon this national

measure, that they not only carried both bills to the throne, where they

received the royal assent, but they presented an address to the king,

desiring that his majesty would give directions to his lieutenants

of the several counties, ridings, and places in England, to use their

utmost diligence and attention for carrying into execution the several

acts of parliament relating to the militia. By this time all the

individuals that constituted the representatives of the people, except

such as actually served in the army, were become very well disposed

towards this institution. Those who really wished well to their country

had always exerted themselves in its favour; and it was now likewise

espoused by those who foresaw that the establishment of a national

militia would enable the administration to send the greater number of

regular troops to fight the battles of Germany. Yet how zealous

soever the legislature might be in promoting this institution, and

notwithstanding the success with which many patriots exerted their

endeavours through different parts of the kingdom, in raising and

disciplining the militia, it was found not only difficult, but almost

impracticable, to execute the intention of the parliament in some

particular counties, where the gentlemen were indolent and enervated,

or in those places where they looked upon their commander with contempt.

Even Middlesex itself, where the king resides, was one of the last

counties in which the militia could be arrayed. In allusion to this

backwardness, the preamble or first clause in one of the present acts

imported, that certain counties, ridings, and places in England had made

some progress in establishing the militia, without completing the same,

and that, in certain other counties, little progress had been made

therein, his majesty’s lieutenants and the deputy-lieutenants, and

all others within such counties or districts, were therefore strictly

required speedily and diligently to put these acts in execution. The

truth is, some of these unwarlike commanders failed through ignorance

and inactivity; others gave, or offered commissions to such people

as threw a ridicule and contempt upon the whole establishment, and

consequently hindered many gentlemen of worth, spirit, and capacity,

from engaging in the service. The mutiny-bill, and that for the

regulation of the marine-forces while on shore, passed through the usual

forms, as annual measures, without any dispute or alteration. [485]

_[See note 3 S, at the end of this Vol.]_

ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF DEBTORS REVIVED.

A committee having been appointed to inquire what laws were expired,

or near expiring, and to report their opinion to the house touching

the revival or continuation of these laws, they agreed to several

resolutions; in consequence of which the following bills were brought

in, and enacted into laws; namely, an act for regulating the lastage and

ballastage of the river Thames; an act for continuing the law relating

to the punishment of persons going armed or disguised; an act

for continuing several laws near expiring; an act concerning the

admeasurement of coals; an act for the relief of debtors, with respect

to the imprisonment of their persons. This last was almost totally

metamorphosed by alterations, amendments, and additions, among which

the most remarkable were these: that where more creditors than one shall

charge any prisoner in execution, and desired to have him detained in

prison, they shall only respectively pay him each such weekly sum, not

exceeding one shilling and sixpence per week, as the court, at the time

of his being remanded, shall direct; that if any prisoner, described by

the act, shall remain in prison three months after being committed, any

creditor may compel him to give into court, upon oath, an account of

his real and personal estate, to be disposed of for the benefit of his

creditors, they consenting to his being discharged. Why the humanity

of this law was confined to those prisoners only who are not charged in

execution with any debt exceeding one hundred pounds, cannot easily be

conceived. A man who, through unavoidable misfortunes, hath sunk from

affluence to misery and indigence, is generally a greater object of

compassion than he who never knew the delicacies of life, nor ever

enjoyed credit sufficient to contract debts to any considerable amount;

yet the latter is by this law entitled to his discharge, or at least to

a maintenance in prison; while the former is left to starve in gaol, or

undergo perpetual imprisonment amidst all the horrors of misery, if he

owes above one hundred pounds to a revengeful and unrelenting creditor.

Wherefore, in a country, the people of which justly pique themselves

upon charity and benevolence, an unhappy fellow-citizen, reduced to a

state of bankruptcy by unforeseen losses in trade, should be subjected

to a punishment, which of all others must be the most grievous to a

freeborn Briton, namely, the entire loss of liberty; a punishment which

the most flagrant crime can hardly deserve in a nation that disclaims

the torture; for, doubtless, perpetual imprisonment must be a torture

infinitely more severe than death, because protracted through a series

of years spent in misery and despair, without one glimmering ray of

hope, without the most distant prospect of deliverance? Wherefore the

legislature should extend its humanity to those only who are the

least sensible of the benefit, because the most able to struggle under

misfortune? and wherefore many valuable individuals should, for no

guilt of their own, be not only ruined to themselves, but lost to the

community? are questions which we cannot resolve to the satisfaction of

the reader. Of all imprisoned debtors, those who are confined for large

sums may be deemed the most wretched and forlorn, because they

have generally fallen from a sphere of life where they had little

acquaintance with necessity, and were altogether ignorant of the arts

by which the severities of indigence are alleviated. On the other hand,

those of the lower class of mankind, whose debts are small in proportion

to the narrowness of their former credit, have not the same delicate

feelings of calamity: they are inured to hardship, and accustomed to

the labour of their hands, by which, even in a prison, they can earn

a subsistence: their reverse of fortune is not so great, nor the

transition so affecting: their sensations are not delicate; nor are

they, like their betters in misfortune, cut off from hope, which is the

wretch’s last comfort. It is the man of sentiment and sensibility, who,

in this situation, is overwhelmed with a complication of misery and

ineffable distress: the mortification of his pride, his ambition

blasted, his family undone, himself deprived of liberty, reduced from

opulence to extreme want, from the elegancies of life to the most

squalid and frightful scenes of poverty and affliction; divested of

comfort, destitute of hope, and doomed to linger out a wretched being in

the midst of insult, violence, riot, and uproar; these are reflections

so replete with horror, as to render him, in all respects, the most

miserable object on the face of the earth. He, alas! though possessed

of talents that might have essentially served and even adorned society,

while thus restrained in prison, and affected in mind, can exert no

faculty, nor stoop to any condescension, by which the horrors of his

fate might be assuaged: he scorns to execute the lowest offices of

menial services, particularly in attending those who are the objects of

contempt or abhorrence; he is incapable of exercising any mechanic art,

which might afford a happy though a scanty independence: shrunk

within his dismal cell, surrounded by haggard poverty, and her gaunt

attendants, hollow-eyed famine, shivering cold, and wan disease, he

wildly casts his eyes around; he sees the tender partner of his heart

weeping in silent woe; he hears his helpless babes clamorous for

sustenance; he feels himself the importunate cravings of human nature,

which he cannot satisfy; and groans with all the complicated pangs of

internal anguish, horror, and despair. These are not the fictions of

idle fancy, but real pictures, drawn from nature, of which almost every

prison in England will afford but too many originals.

BILLS FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH BEEF AND TALLOW.

Among other new measures, a successful attempt was made in favour of

Ireland, by a bill, permitting the free importation of cattle from that

kingdom for a limited time. This, however, was not carried through both

houses without considerable opposition, arising from the particular

interests of certain counties and districts in several parts of Great

Britain, from whence petitions against the bill were transmitted to the

commons. Divers artifices were also used within doors to saddle the bill

with such clauses as might overcharge the scheme, and render it odious

or alarming to the public; but the promoters of it being aware of the

design, conducted it in such a manner as to frustrate all their views,

and convey it safely to the throne, where it was enacted into a law. The

like success attended another effort in behalf of our fellow-subjects

of Ireland. The bill for the importation of Irish cattle was no

sooner ordered to be brought in, than the house proceeded to take into

consideration the duties then payable on the importation of tallow from

the same kingdom; and several witnesses being examined, the committee

agreed to a resolution, that these duties should cease and determine

for a limited time. A bill being formed accordingly, passed through both

houses without opposition, though in the preceding session a bill to

the same purpose had miscarried among the peers: a miscarriage probably

owing to their being unacquainted with the sentiments of his majesty, as

some of the duties upon tallow constituted part of one of the branches

appropriated for the civil list revenue. This objection, however, was

obviated in the case of the present bill, by the king’s message to

the house of commons, signifying his majesty’s consent, as far as

his interest was concerned in the affair. By this new act the free

importation of Irish tallow was permitted for the term of five years.

In the month of February the commons presented an address to his

majesty, requesting that he would give directions for laying before

the house an account of what had been done, since the beginning of

last year, towards securing the harbour of Milford, in pursuance of any

directions from his majesty. These accounts being perused, and the

king having, by the chancellor of the exchequer, exhorted them to make

provision for fortifying the said harbour, a bill was brought in to

explain, amend, and render more effectual, the act of the last session

relating to this subject; and, passing through both houses, received

the royal assent without opposition. By this act several engineers were

added to the commissioners formerly appointed; and it was ordained

that fortifications should be erected at Peter-church-point,

Westlanyon-point, and Neyland-point, as being the most proper and best

situated places for fortifying the interior parts of the harbour. It was

also enacted, that the commissioners should appoint proper secretaries,

clerks, assistants, and other officers, for carrying the two acts into

execution, and that an account of the application of the money should

be laid before parliament, within twenty days of the opening of every

session. What next attracted the attention of the house was an affair

of the utmost importance to the commerce of the kingdom, which equally

affected the interest of the nation, and the character of the natives.

In the latter end of February complaint was made to the house, that,

since the commencement of the war, an infamous traffic had been set

on foot by some merchants of London, of importing French cloths into

several ports of the Levant, on account of British subjects. Five

persons were summoned to attend the house, and the fact was fully

proved, not only by their evidence, but also by some papers submitted

to the house by the Turkey company. A bill was immediately contrived for

putting a stop to this scandalous practice, reciting in the preamble,

that such traffic was not only a manifest discouragement and prejudice

to the woollen manufactures of Great Britain, but also a relief to the

enemy, in consequence of which they were enabled to maintain the war

against these kingdoms.

The next object that employed the attention of the commons, was to

explain and amend a law made in the last session for granting to

his majesty several rates and duties upon offices and pensions. The

directions specified in the former act for levying this imposition

having been found inconvenient in many respects, new regulations were

now established, importing, that those deductions should be paid into

the hands of receivers appointed by the king for that purpose; that all

sums deducted under this act should be accounted for to such receivers,

and the accounts audited and passed by them, and not by the auditors

of the impress, or of the exchequer: that all disputes relating to

the collection of this duty should be finally, and in a summary way,

determined by the barons of the exchequer in England and Scotland

respectively: that the commissioners of the land-tax should fix and

ascertain the sum total or amount of the perquisites of every office and

employment within their respective districts, distinct from the salary

thereunto belonging, to be deducted under the said act, independently

of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the land-tax;

and should rate or assess all offices and employments, the perquisites

whereof should be found to exceed the sum of one hundred pounds per

annum, at one shilling for every twenty thence arising; that the

receivers should transmit to the commissioners in every district where

any office or employment is to be assessed, an account of such officers

and employments, that, upon being certified of the truth of their

amount, they might be rated and assessed accordingly; that in all future

assessments of the land-tax, the said offices and employments should not

be valued at higher rates than those at which they were assessed towards

the land-tax of the thirty-first year of the present reign; that the

word perquisite should be understood to mean such profits of offices and

employments as arise from fees established by custom or authority,

and payable either by the crown or the subjects, in consideration of

business done in the course of executing such offices and employments;

and that a commissioner possessed of any office or employment, might not

interfere in the execution of the said act, except in what might relate

to his own employment. By the four last clauses, several salaries were

exempted from the payment of this duty. The objections made without

doors to this new law, were the accession of pecuniary influence to the

crown by the creation of a new office and officers, whereas this duty

might have been easily collected and received by the commissioners of

the land-tax already appointed, and the inconsistency that appeared

between the fifth and seventh clause: in the former of these the

commissioners of the land-tax were vested with the power of assessing

the perquisites of every office within their respective districts,

independent of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the

land-tax; and by the latter, they are restricted from assessing any

office at a higher rate than that of the thirty-first year of the reign

of George II.

In the beginning of March, petitions were offered to the house by the

merchants of Birmingham in Warwickshire, and Sheffield in Yorkshire,

specifying that the toy trade of these and many other towns consisted

generally of articles in which gold and silver might be said to be

manufactured, though in a small proportion, inasmuch as the sale of

them depended upon slight ornaments of gold and silver: that by a clause

passed in the last session of parliament, obliging every person who

should sell goods or wares in which any gold or silver was manufactured

to take out an annual license of forty shillings, they the petitioners

were laid under great difficulties and disadvantages; that not only the

first seller, but every person through whose hands the goods or wares

passed to the consumer, was required to take out the said license:

they therefore requested that the house should take these hardships

and inequalities into consideration, and indulge them with reasonable

relief. The committee, to which this affair was referred, having

resolved that this imposition was found detrimental to the toy and

cutlery trade of the kingdom, the house agreed to the resolution, and a

bill being prepared, under the title of “An act to amend the act made in

the last session, for repealing the duty granted by an act of the sixth

year of the reign of his late majesty, on silver plate, and for granting

a duty on licenses to be taken out by all persons dealing in gold and

silver plate,” was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. By this new

regulation, small quantities of gold and silver plate were allowed to be

sold without license. Instead of the duty before payable upon licenses,

another was granted, to be taken out by certain dealers in gold and

silver plate, pawnbrokers, and refiners. This affair being discussed,

the house took into consideration the claims of the proprietors of lands

purchased for the better securing of his majesty’s docks, ships, and

stores at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth; and for better fortifying

the town of Portsmouth, and citadel of Plymouth, in pursuance of an act

passed in the last session. We have already specified the sum granted

for this purpose, in consequence of a resolution of the house, upon

which a bill being founded, soon passed into a law without opposition.*

* The next bill which was brought into the house related to

the summons issued by the commissioners of the excise, and

justices of the peace, for the appearance of persons

offending against, or for forfeitures incurred by, the laws

of excise. As some doubts had arisen with respect to the

method of summoning in such cases, this bill, which obtained

the royal assent in due course, enacted, that the summons

left at the houses, or usual place of residence, or with the

wife, child, or menial servants of the person so summoned,

should be held as legal notice, as well as the leaving such

notice at the house, workhouse, warehouse, shop, cellar,

vault, or usual place of residence, of such person, directed

to him by his right or assumed name; and all dealers in

coffee, tea, or chocolate, were subjected to the penalty of

twenty pounds, as often as they should neglect to attend the

commissioners of excise, when summoned in this manner.

In the month of April, a bill was brought in for the more effectual

preventing the fraudulent importation of cambrics; and while it was

under deliberation, several merchants and wholesale drapers of the city

of London presented a petition, representing the grievances to which

they, and many thousand of other traders, would be subjected, should

the bill, as it then stood, be passed into a law. According to their

request, they were heard by their counsel on the merits of this

remonstrance, and some amendments were made to the bill in their

favour. At length it received the royal assent, and became a law to the

following effect: It enacted, that no cambrics, French lawns, or linens

of this kind usually entered under the denomination of cambrics, should

be imported after the first day of next August, but in bales, cases,

or boxes, covered with sackcloth or canvas, containing each one hundred

whole pieces, or two hundred half pieces, on penalty of forfeiting the

whole; that cambrics and French lawns should be imported for exportation

only, lodged in the king’s warehouses, and delivered out under like

security, and restrictions as prohibited East India merchandise, and,

on importation, pay only the half subsidy: that all cambrics and French

lawns in the custody of any persons should be deposited, by the first of

August, in the king’s warehouses, the bonds thereupon be delivered

up, and the drawback on exportation paid; yet the goods should not be

delivered out again but for exportation: that cambrics and French lawns

exposed to sale, or found in the possession of private persons, after

the said day, should be forfeited, and liable to be searched for, and

seized, in like manner as other prohibited and uncustomed goods are; and

the offender should forfeit two hundred pounds over and above all other

penalties and forfeitures inflicted by any former act: that if any doubt

should arise concerning the species or quality of the goods, or the

place where they were manufactured, the proof should lie on the owner:

finally, that the penalty of five pounds inflicted by a former act, and

payable to the informer, on any person that should wear any cambric

or French lawns, should still remain in force, and be recoverable,

on conviction, by oath of one witness, before one justice of the

peace.--The last successful bill which this session produced, was

that relating to the augmentation of the salaries of the judges in his

majesty’s superior courts of justice. A motion having been made for

an instruction to the committee of supply, to consider of the said

augmentation, the chancellor of the exchequer acquainted the house, that

this augmentation was recommended to them by his majesty. Nevertheless,

the motion was opposed, and a warm debate ensued. At length, however,

being carried in the affirmative, the committee agreed to certain

resolutions, on which a bill was founded. While it remained under

discussion, a motion was made for an instruction to the committee, that

they should have power to receive a clause or clauses for restraining

the judges, comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from

receiving any fee, gift, present, or entertainment, from any city, town,

borough, or corporation, or from any sheriff, gaoler, or other officer,

upon their several respective circuits, and from taking any gratuity

from any officer or officers of any of the courts of law. Another motion

was made, for a clause restraining such judges, barons, and justices, as

were comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from interfering,

otherwise than by giving their own votes, in any election of members to

serve in parliament; but both these proposals, being put to the vote,

were carried in the negative. These two motions being over-ruled by the

majority, the bill underwent some amendments; and having passed through

both houses in the ordinary course, was enacted into a law by the royal

sanction. With respect to the import of this act, it is no other

than the establishment of the several stamp-duties, applied to the

augmentation, and the appropriation of their produce in such a manner,

that the crown cannot alter the application of the sums thus granted in

parliament. But on this occasion, no attempt was made in favour of the

independency of the judges, which seems to have been invaded by a late

interpretation of, or rather by a deviation from, the act of settlement;

in which it is expressly ordained, that the commissions of the judge?

should continue in force _quamdiu se bene gesserint_; that their

salaries should be fixed, and none of them remove-able but by an address

of both houses of parliament. It was then, without all doubt, the

intention of the legislature that every judge should enjoy his office

during life, unless convicted, by legal trial, of some misbehaviour, or

unless both houses of parliament should concur in desiring his removal:

but the doctrine now adopted imports, that no commission can continue

in force longer than the life of the king by whom it was granted; that

therefore the commissions of the judges must be renewed by a new king

at his accession, who should have it in his power to employ either those

whom he finds acting as judges at his accession, or confer their offices

on others, with no other restraint than that the condition of new

commissions, should be _quamdiu se bene gesserint_. Thus the office of

a judge is more precarious, and the influence of the crown receives a

considerable reinforcement.

Among the bills that miscarried in the course of the session, we may

number a second attempt to carry into execution the scheme which was

offered last year for the more effectual manning the navy, preventing

desertion, and relieving and encouraging the seamen of Great Britain. A

bill was accordingly brought in, couched in nearly the same terms

which had been rejected in the last session; and it was supported by

a considerable number of members, animated with a true spirit of

patriotism: but to the trading part of the nation it appeared one of

those plausible projects, which, though agreeable in speculation, can

never be reduced into practice, without a concomitancy of greater evils

than those they were intended to remove. While the bill remained under

the consideration of the house, petitions were presented against it by

the merchants of Bristol, Scarborough, Whitby, Ivingston-upon-Hull, and

Lancaster, representing, that by such a law, the trade of the kingdom,

which is the nursery and support of seamen at all times, and that spirit

of equipping private ships of war, which had been of distinguished

service to the nation, would be laid under such difficulties as might

cause a great stagnation in the former, and a total suppression of the

latter; the bill, therefore, would be highly prejudicial to the marine

of the kingdom, and altogether ineffectual for the purposes intended. A

great number of books and papers, relating to trading ships and vessels,

as well as to seamen and other persons protected or pressed into the

navy, and to expenses occasioned by pressing men into the navy, were

examined in a committee of the whole house, and the bill was improved

with many amendments: nay, after it was printed and engrossed, several

clauses were added by way of rider; yet still the experiment seemed

dangerous. The motion for its being past was violently opposed; warm

debates ensued; they were adjourned, and resumed; and the arguments

against the bill appeared at length in such a striking light, that,

when the question was put, the majority declared for the negative. The

regulations which had been made in parliament during the twenty-sixth,

the twenty-eighth, and thirtieth years of the present reign, for

the preservation of the public roads, being attended with some

inconveniencies in certain parts of the kingdom, petitions were

brought from some counties in Wales, as well as from the freeholders

of Hertfordshire, the farmers of Middlesex, and others, enumerating the

difficulties attending the use of broad wheels, in one case, and the

limitation of horses used in drawing carriages with narrow wheels,

in the other. The matter of these remonstrances was considered in a

committee of the whole house, which resolved, that the weight to be

carried by all waggons and carts, travelling on the turnpike roads,

should be limited. On this resolution a bill was framed, for amending

and reducing into one act of parliament the three acts before mentioned

for the preservation of the public highways; but some objections being

started, and a petition interposed by the land-holders of Suffolk and

Norfolk, alleging that the bill, if passed into a law, would render it

impossible to bring fresh provisions from those counties to London, as

the supply depended absolutely upon the quickness of conveyance, the

further consideration of it was postponed to a longer day, and never

resumed in the sequel: so that the attempt miscarried.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

CASE OF THE INSOLVENT DEBTORS.

Of all the subjects, which, in the course of this session, fell under

the cognizance of parliament, there was none that more interested the

humanity, or challenged the redress, of the legislature, than did

the case of the poor insolvent debtors, who languished under all the

miseries of indigence and imprisonment. In the month of February

a petition was offered to the commons in behalf of bankrupts, who

represented, that having scrupulously conformed to the laws made

concerning bankruptcy, by surrendering their all upon oath, for the

benefit of their creditors, they had nevertheless been refused their

certificates, without any probability of relief; that by this cruel

refusal, many bankrupts have been obliged to abscond, while others

were immured in prison, and these unhappy sufferers groaned under

the particular hardship of being excluded from the benefit of laws

occasionally made for the relief of insolvent debtors; that the power

vested in creditors of refusing certificates to their bankrupts, was,

as the petitioners conceived, founded upon a presumption that such power

would be tenderly exercised, and never but in notorious cases; but the

great increase in the number of bankrupts within two years past, and

in the small proportion of those who had been able to obtain their

certificates, seemed to demonstrate that the power had been used for

cruel and unjust purposes, contrary to the intention of the legislature:

that as the greater part of the petitioners, and their fellow-sufferers,

must inevitably and speedily perish, with their distressed families,

unless seasonably relieved by the interposition of parliament, they

implored the compassion of the house, from which they hoped immediate

favour and relief. This petition was accompanied with a printed case,

explaining the nature of the laws relating to bankrupts, and pointing

out their defects in point of policy as well as humanity; but little

regard was seemingly paid to either remonstrance. Other petitions,

however, being presented by insolvent debtors, imprisoned in different

gaols within the kingdom, leave was given to bring in a bill for their

relief, and a committee appointed to examine the laws relating to

bankruptcy.

CASE OF CAPTAIN WALKER.

Among other petitionary remonstrances on this subject, the members were

separately presented with the printed case of captain George Walker,

a prisoner in the gaol of the king’s bench, who had been declared a

bankrupt, and complained, that he had been subjected to some flagrant

acts of injustice and oppression. The case contained such extraordinary

allegations, and the captain’s character was so remarkably fair and

interesting, that the committee, which were empowered to send for

persons, papers, and records, resolved to inquire into the particulars

of his misfortune. A motion was made and agreed to, that the marshal

of the prison should bring the captain before the committee; and the

speaker’s warrant was issued accordingly. The prisoner was produced,

and examined at several sittings, and some of the members expressed

a laudable eagerness to do him justice; but his antagonists were very

powerful, and left no stone unturned to frustrate the purpose of the

inquiry, which was dropped of course at the end of the session. Thus

the unfortunate captain Walker, who had, in the late war, remarkably

distinguished himself at sea by his courage and conduct, repeatedly

signalizing himself against the enemies of his country, was sent back

without redress to the gloomy mansions of a gaol, where he had already

pined for several years, useless to himself, and lost to the community,

while he might have been profitably employed in retrieving his own

fortune, and exerting his talents for the general advantage of the

nation. While this affair was in agitation, the bill for the relief of

insolvent debtors was prepared, printed, and read a second time; but,

when the motion was made for its being committed, a debate arose, and

this was adjourned from time to time till the end of the session. In the

meantime, the committee continued to deliberate upon the laws relating

to bankruptcy; and in the beginning of June reported their resolution to

the house, that, in their opinion, some amendments might be made to the

laws concerning bankruptcy; to the advantage of creditors, and relief of

insolvents. Such was the notice vouchsafed to the cries of many British

subjects, deprived of liberty, and destitute of the common necessaries

of life.

REMARKS ON THE BANKRUPT-LAWS.