night, the question for commitment being put, was carried upon a divifion, by a majority of 78, including 30 proxies, to 19, including feven proxies.

In this ftate of the bill, a protest of uncommon length, and ftill greater energy, was entered against it, in which feveral of its parts underwent the fevereft fcrutiny, and the feafon of carrying a bill through, fo unprecedented in its nature, and important in its confequences, at a time when, they fay, most of the independent members of both houfes were called away by their domeftic affairs, and when few but thofe in the immediate pay of the court, and attend. ing on their employments, remained in town, was particularly condemned.

In three days after, upon going into a committee on the bill, the Duke of Manchefter moved for deferring the commitment till after the holidays. He founded his motion, befides the importance and novelty of the bill, upon the reports which were then arrived of our loffes in Canada. The motion was fupported by the Marquis of Rockingham, upon the farther ground, of the alarm which the bill had excited among the trading and commercial part of the nation. The motion paffed in the negative without a divifion.

The noble Duke then offered to prefent a petition from the merchants of Bristol, ftating the ruinous confequences of the bill, to themselves in particular, as well as to the mercantile intereft in general. But as the order of the day had been already moved for, it was faid, that the petition could

not now be received. Some clauses in favour of the British traders, and of the Weft India Iflands, were, however, proposed by the Lords in adminiftration, and received by the committee, which, it was fuppofed, would in fome degree re medy the grievances ftated in the petition.

zoth.

On the third reading of the bill, an amendment, in favour of the merchants, to one of the claufes, was propofed by the Marquis of Rockingham, intending to prolong the commencement of the operation of the bill, from the 1ft of January to the 1ft of March, and thereby to preserve from confifcation the property of thofe merchants, who, under the faith of parliament in the two reftrictive laws, had loaded veffels with lumber in North America for the Weft-India iflands. This was oppofed on two grounds; first, that it was contrary to established practice, to oppofe any particular clause in a bill at the third reading, the objection must go to the whole, and not to any particular part; and fecondly, that the delay required in the operation, would overthrow the principle of the bill, and render it totally inefficacious. The motion was loft without a di. vifion, and the bill paffed of course.

The bill being returned on the next day to the Commons, the amendments were agreed to, after an ineffectual attempt to defer the confideration of them for fix months. Thus was a recess at length obtained, after pufhing forward a multiplicity of matter and bufinefs, fcarcely ever known be fore Christmas.

CHA

THE

HE rapidity with which a continued fucceffion of bufinefs was carried through, and the earneftness with which matters of great concern were agitated before the recess of parliament, occafioned our paffing over a petition from the affembly of Nova Scotia, which was prefented to each houfe at the opening of the feffion. It was fent from that affembly in confequence of Lord North's conciliatory propofition; and was intended, by thofe who promoted it in that colony, as a pattern and precedent for the reft. It was a feparate propofal, and in that light coincided with the general policy, which dictated the conciliatory propofition. It seemed to propofe fome revenue originating in the colonies, and to be enacted by parliament; and though the probable amount would be inconfiderable, yet the establishment of the doctrine being at that time of more confideration than the amount of the revenue immediately to be obtained, the petition was more favourably received by adminiftration; and on the very first day of

the feffion, when the Speaker laid it before the House of Commons, a fhort day was appointed for taking it into confideration, though not without some animadverfion on the part of oppofition, who treated the whole as one of thofe mean contrivances, by which ministry, as they faid, were in the practice of mocking the credulity and implicit confidence of parliament; and they predicted that it would come to the end which was to be expected from its futility, and the impracticable nature of the scheme which it was intended to execute,

The mode of granting a revenue propofed by this affembly, was the payment of fome specific duty per cent. upon the importation of all foreign commodities, bay falt only excepted, by which means the amount of the revenue would at all times bear a due relation and proportion to the opulence and confumption of the province. It was intended, that the rate of this duty fhould in the first inftance be fixed by parliament, and afterwards be perpetual and unchangeable, excepting only, that at certain stated

times

times it was to undergo fuch regulation as would preferve the comparative value of money and commodities in its original state.

When the propofition came to be debated in the committee, the objections which had been only hinted the first day, were more largely and strongly enforced. Against thofe the minifters contended, that the faith of the house and nation obliged them to give effect to a plan laid before them in confequence of their own refolution, to which the offer was fubftantially agreeable. That the fmallnefs of the revenue offered could be no objection; that if it was a poor provifion, it came from a poor province; but it would grow with the circumftances of the country; and under this plan we fhould find an advantage from the profperity of our colonies very different from our former experience, when we found only an increafe of infolence, and not of fupport and fupply, from their increase of ftrength. That the fidelity of parliament to its engagements, and the moderation of its demands, would engage the other colonies to fubmiffion, and would difabufe them with regard to the violent prejudices inftilled into them by their factious leaders. That more favourable times and good management would improve this modelate beginning into a beneficial

revenue.

On the other hand, the minority treated it with the greatest fcorn. They faid it was a thing not fit to be feriously debated. That if the minifters had bound the public faith to this abfurd and ridiculous project, it was a great aggravation of their offence fo to

trifle with the national honour: That the old revenue which they 'were to give up, every part of which (except the tea tax) had been quietly paid in all the colonies, was of more value than the new duties which were propofed to be granted; and this was the fort of relief to the public burthens fought by our war, and by the conciliatory propofition which was framed to end it. They faid, that the principle of the tea tax continued to haunt them in every thing they did; for as that tax drew back a duty which ought to be paid here, in order to impose a fmaller duty in America, this was exactly of the fame nature, but of a much wider, and of a more mifchievous extent, as it laid eight per cent. not on one article, but on all the certificate goods fent from England, from which, to facilitate the trade to the colonies, we had drawn back all the duties payable at home. Thefe, and very many other objections, drew the debates into length in the committee; but the ministry, though evidently embarraffed, were refolved to carry refolutions con. formable to the petition.

Many caufes concurred to leffen the effect of this petition from Nova Scotia. That province had coft government immenfe fums of money, without its growth or va lue in any degree correfponding with the expence. It was ftill on equal to the fupport of its own civil government, the expence of which was annually granted by parliament; fo that the offer of a revenue in fuch circumstances, however laudable the motives and intention, carried in fome degree a ludicrous appearance. As it was

alle

alfo under the inBuense of a military power, its acts could not be fuppofed to carry any great weight as an example, with thofe Dolonies who abhorred fuch an appearance, and whofe prefent tropbles arofe from a defence of their civil immunities and conflitation.

The petition befides contained a long catalogue of grievances, the redrels of which was as earnefily preffed, though in more fupplicant language, as a fimilar redrefs had been by the other provinces, and feemed in fome degree to be confidered as conditional and neceffary, towards the establishment of a permanent connexion, and for retaing the affection and obedience of the people. The affembly alfo preffed most earneftly, that when at any time future exigencies fhould require further fupplies, the requifition fhould be made in the ufual manner formerly practifed, whereby they might have an opportunity of fhewing their duty and attachment, their fenfe of the cause for which it was made, and by that means, and that only, of rendering the fovereign acquainted with the true fenfe of his people in that diftant part of his dominions. So that upon the whole, excepting the profeffion of fubmiffion to the fupreme legislature, which had only of late been a queftion any where, and the propofal of a duty, which feemed little more than a commercial regulation, this petition did not contain any thing effentially different from the former applications of other colonies.

Nov.23d. following purpose were Refolutions to the however propofed by the minifter, and paffed in a committee, as foundations for an intended bill; viz.

That the propofal of a poundage duty, ad valorem, upon all com- . modities imported (bay falt excepted) not being the produce of the British dominions in Europe or America, to be difpofed of by parliament, fhould be accepted, and the duty fixed at 81. per cent. upon all fuch commodities. That as foon as the neceffary acts for . that purpose were paffed by the affembly of Nova Scotia, and had received the royal approbation, all. other taxes and duties in that province fhould ceafe and be difcontinued, and no others laid on, while thofe acts continued in force, excepting only fuch duties as were found neceffary for the regulation of commerce, the nett produce of which were to be carried to the account of the province. And to admit an importation into that province of wines, oranges, lemons, currants, and raifins, directly from the place of their growth and produce.

This relaxation of the Act of Navigation, though not very confiderable, was intended to fhew the favourable difpofition of parliament towards this province, which had fet fo laudable an example of obedience; and feemed to hold out to the colonies in general an enlargement of commerce, as a compensation for their acceding to the conciliatory refolution. Indeed much attention was paid to this petition, as forming a model for future taxation, and proving, what had been denied, that the fyftem of the conciliato y propofition was not impracticable. Serious hopes were entertained of its effect until it had paffed the committee. But it feemed as if the pacific fyftem, in which this

was

was confidered as a leading part, was about that time laid afide. Whatever the caufe might have been, to the furprize of many, the whole matter was fuffered to die away; no bill was brought in, and the petition was heard no more of after the holidays.

The first public matter of any confequence that was brought forward after the recefs, related to a late measure of government in Ire land. To explain this matter, it will be neceffary to take notice, that the Lord Lieutenant of that kingdom had, in the prefent feffion of parliament there, fent a written meffage to the Houfe of Commons, containing a requifi. tion in the King's name, of 4000 additional troops from that kingdom for the American fervice, and a promife under the fame authority, that they should not continue a charge upon that establishment during their abfence, with a propofal, that, for the fecurity and protection of that kingdom, it was his Majefty's intention, if desired by them, to replace thofe forces with an equal number of foreign proteftant troops; and a further promife, that the charge of thofe troops fhould be also defrayed without any expence to that country.

We fhall juft obferve, that the Commons of Ireland granted the 40c0 troops which were demanded; but that, notwithstanding the naked and defenceless ftate in which that kingdom was left expofed, and the irrefiftible force with which administration carried all other queftions through that affembly, the measure of accepting the foreign troops was, however, deemed fo dangerous, and was fo gene

rally odious, as, after great debates, and the most vigorous exertions in its fupport, to be rejected by a confiderable majority. And that to remedy the weakness occafioned by the prefent, as well as former, great and continual drain of their ftanding forces, an attempt was made, by those who are called the patriotic party in that country, to embody the militia; a meafure much more disagreeable to government, than even the rejection of the Heffian or Hanoverian forces, and which was accordingly counteracted with effect.

It is fufficiently obvious, that the engagement for the difpofal of the public money, included in the foregoing meffage, without the confent or knowledge of the Britifh Houfe of Commons, was what rendered this subject a matter of difcuffion in that body. Feb. 15th, Mr. Thomas Townfhend introduced it as a 1776. breach of privilege, and ftated his complaint in the following words: "That the Earl of Harcourt, Lord Lieutenant General, and Ge neral Governor of Ireland, did, on the 23d day of November laft, in breach of the privilege, and in derogation of the honour and authority of this Houfe, fend a written meffage to the House of Commons of the parliament of Ireland, figned with his own hand, to the following effect:"-Having then recited the meffage, he moved, that a committee be appointed to enquire into the matter of the faid complaint, and to report the fame, as it fhall appear to them, to the Houfe.

This gentleman fupported his motion with great ability, and was equally well feconded by his friends.

They