true, but not of a necessity like that not only were they able to ful the present, which was permanent fil that engagement, but to supply It was next maintained, that the British ship owners were ready to undertake the carrying trade of the West India islands, and persons were found to pledge themselves, *Sir Francis Baring. Memorial and representation of the assembly of Jamaica, April 20th, 1805. IN postpone postpone the bill to another session, the ship owners had only to state their case to the privy council, who had no authority by the bill to open the West India ports to neutrals, but "when the necessity of the case should appear to his majesty in council to require it." It was next objected to the Americans, that, under pretence of this trade, they smuggled great quantities of East India goods and German linens into the West Indies. But Americans, it was replied, were not the only traders, whose propensities to smuggling nothing but the vigilance of the custom-house could restrain, British ship masters were entitled to as little confidence upon that head as Americans, and there fore if this objection was to be listened to, all intercourse between the West Indies and the United States must be at once prohibited. But, could the West India islands subsist with no other trade, except that which they enjoyed with the mother country and her colonies? Could they derive a sufficient supply of provisions from the United Kingdom, or of lumber from the British colonies in North America? Were they to be reduced to such inadequate sources of supply, in order to favour the sales of the East India company, or prevent the introduction of some German linens ? It was stated by the assembly of Jamaica, that they obtained only one twelfth of their North American supply from British North America; and it may be said without exaggeration, that not one-third of the provisions which the British West India islands annually import, are derived from the mother country and her colonies. * It was argued by a learned judge, that though the bill professed to be founded on necessity, and though that necessity could apply only to the importation of lumber and provisions, yet it gave an unlimited power to the privy council, to authorize the importation of any articles whatever; or, as he is made to express himself in a printed account of his speech, which bears all the internal marks of having been revised by so me one intimately connected with him, this bill, with a force and conciseness beyond all example, strikes out of your statute books, or reduces to a dead letter, It appears from an account of the principal articles of provisions and lumber, imported into his majesty's colonies in the West Indies and on the continent of South America, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, ordered to be printed February 15th, 1808, that, of the total importation of the following articles, the proportions from the United States of America are as follows: Corn, 65-100 parts, or nearly three-fourths. Rice, = 98-100, or nearly the whole. Beef and pork, = 49-100, or nearly one half. 54-100, or more than one half. Pickled fish, =32-100, or nearly one third. 90-100, or nine-tenths. Oak and pine boards, and timber, 97-100. Staves, 96-100, CHAP. V. Slave Trade.-Sir Arthur Pigott's Bill.-Bill for preventing the Increase of the British Slave Trade.-Resolutions against the Slave Trade in both Houses of Parliament.-Act to amend the Laws relating to Bankrupts.-Insolvent Bill.-Bill to prevent ex parte Publications in Criminal Proceedings.-Witness Declaratory Bill.-Reform of the Court of Session of Scotland.-Bill to explain and render more effectual the Treating Act.Stipendiary Curate's Bill.-Motion on Vaccination.-Charges against Earl St. Vincent.-Vote of Thanks to Earl St. Vincent.-Conclusion of the Affair of Judge Fox.-Charges against Marquis Wellesley by Mr. Paull. Motions for Papers.-First Charge against Marquis Wellesley-Second,or Oude Charge-Supplementary Oude Charge Furruckabad Charge.— India Budget, and Debates thereon.-Prorogation of Parliament. part of the conduct of the nistry, whose conduct corresponded Nnew ministers reflected greater with their professions, and whose credit on the sincerity and consistency of their characters than the measures which they adopted, soon after they came into office, in regard to the African slave trade. After the eloquent harangues in which former ministers had indulged against that iniquitous and inhuman traffic, while the trade so reprobated in their speeches continued to thrive and increase under their protection*, and was suffered, without obstruction, to extend to countries, from which an order from them was sufficient at any time to exclude it, the friends of the abolition had at length the consolation of beholding a mi support to this great measure was as earnest and effective, as that of former administrations had been cold and inefficient. Mr. Fox and lord Grenville were animated with an equal zeal in the cause of the abolition, and to their joint efforts it was owing, that greater progress was made during this session towards the attainment of that object, than had been done in the many years since the question came first under the consideration of parliament. The last motion made by Mr. Fox in the house of commons was to propose a resolution, couched in the strongest language, against the African slave *It must be a subject of melancholy reflection to the admirers of Mr. Pitt, to think that after all his speeches in 1790 and 1792, he permitted the British slave trade to increase from an importation of 25,000 to an importation of 57,000 negroes in two years ending 1798, by the capture of the Dutch, &c. settlements. If he had issued in 1797 the order of council 1805, above 30,000 negroes per annam would have been saved. trade; present wars*; and upon one occasion the legislature had thought proper to declare," that the commerce of the kingdom had been greatly benefited thereby +." But, not only had the provisions of the navigation act been set aside by these acts of parliament, but bills had been passed, repealing by name, as far as the objects went which they embraced, the navigation act itself, as well as the act of William III. which is regarded as the basis and foundation of our colonial system, and vesting in the privy council the same discretionary powers, which were given to it by the American intercourse bill; and yet there were persons found, high in the confidence of government when these bills were passed, of memory so treacherous, or countenance so unblushing, as to assert in the debates on the American intercourse bill, that such extensive powers of regulation over our colonial system and navigation laws had never been conferred at any former period by parliament. The Tortola free port bill was another subject on which the late and present boards of trade were at issue. This was à bill to confer on the port of Road harbour in Tor tola, the same privileges which the late ministry had obtained for the harbour of Nassau in New Providence. The object was in both cases to make the favoured harbour a place of deposit for foreign sugars. But Tortola being a sugar island, it was argued by the late board of trade, that foreign sugar once imported into the island would be afterwards exported as British sugar. It was answered, that no more sugar than the average produce of the Virgin islands was allowed by the bill to be exported, as British sugar, from Tortola. An important step was taken dur ing this session of parliament to bring to a conclusion the dif ferences, which had subsisted for some years between the woollen manufacturers of this kingdom and their employers, by the appointment of a committee to take into consideration the various acts relating to the woollen manufacture, to whom the petitions of the manufacturers were referred, and who were empowered to report from time to time their observations on the subject. *Such as the Dutch property acts, 35 Geo. 3. cap. 15 and 80+36 Geo. S. cap. 76-37 Geo. 3. cap. 12 the act made during peace, 42 Geo. 3. cap. 80-renewed 44 Geo. 5. cap. 30, and continued till eight months after the ratification of a definitive treaty of peace. ↑ Preamble to the ast 42 Geo. 3. cap. 80. The bills alluded to are the Cape of Good Hope, bills, 37 Geo. 3. cap. 21, and 38 Geo. 3. cap. 9-and more particularly the act 43 Geo. 3. cap. 153, which treaches more deeply on the navigation act, and confers greater discretionary powers on the privy council, than the American intercourse bill, and yet was enacted when sir William Grant was master of the rolls, Mr. Percival attorney general, and lords Hawkesbury and Castlereagh secretaries of state. CHAP. CHAP. V. Slave Trade.-Sir Arthur Pigott's Bill.-Bill for preventing the Increase of the British Slave Trade.-Resolutions against the Slave Trade in both Houses of Parliament-Act to amend the Laws relating to Bankrupts.Insolvent Bill.-Bill to prevent ex parte Publications in Criminal Proceedings.-Witness Declaratory Bill-Reform of the Court of Session of Scotland. Bill to explain and render more effectual the Treating Act.Stipendiary Curate's Bill.-Motion on Vaccination-Charges against Earl St. Vincent.-Vote of Thanks to Earl St. Vincent.-Conclusion of the Affair of Judge Fox.-Charges against Marquis Wellesley by Mr. Paull. Motions for Papers.-First Charge against Marquis Wellesley-Second,or Oude Charge-Supplementary Oude Charge-Furruckabad Charge.India Budget, and Debates thereon.-Prorogation of Parliament. No O part of the conduct of the new ministers reflected greater credit on the sincerity and consistency of their characters than the measures which they adopted, soon after they came into office, in regard to the African slave trade. After the eloquent harangues in which former ministers had indulged against that iniquitous and inhuman traffic, while the trade so reprobated in their speeches continued to thrive and increase under their protection*, and was suffered, without obstruction, to extend to countries, from which an order from them was sufficient at any time to exclude it, the friends of the abolition had at length the consolation of beholding a mi - nistry, whose conduct corresponded with their professions, and whose support to this great measure was as earnest and effective, as that of former administrations had been cold and inefficient. Mr. Fox and lord Grenville were animated with an equal zeal in the cause of the abolition,. and to their joint efforts it was owing, that greater progress was made during this session towards the attainment of that object, than had been done in the many years since the question came first under the consideration of parliament. The last motion made by Mr. Fox in the house of commons was to propose a resolution, couched in the strongest language, against the African slave *It must be a subject of melancholy reflection to the admirers of Mr. Pitt, to think that after all his speeches in 1790 and 1792, he permitted the British slave trade to increase from an importation of 25,000 to an importation of 57,000 negroes in two years ending 1798, by the capture of the Dutch, &c. settlements. If he had issued in 1797 the order of council 1805, above 30,000 negroes per annum would have been saved. trade; |