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ciple that feemed to have been laid down by the Noble Lord who introduced the claufe on the one part, and admitted by the Right Rev. Prelate on the other, as a fit principle to be adopted in Parliamentary proceeding, viz. that one fet of men in Parliament fhould agree to fupport another, provided that other fet of men would in their turn fupport them with a view to exemptions from the operation of a tax. Something like this he thought he faw fymptoms of that day, and therefore it became neceffary for him to caution their Lordships againft fuch combinations, becaufe, if they were to be encouraged, it would in the end become abfolutely neceffary for all men to become members of the one or other of the two profeffions, in order to be entitled to exemption from taxes. Having laughably condemned the appeal Lord Mulgrave had made to the Bench of Bifhops, his Lordfhip faid, for his own part, he could not think that the claufe contended for was neceffary, because there was no moral neceflity for an officer on half-pay to wear powder in his hair; and fo far from thinking that it ought to be admitted becaufe an exemption in favour of clergymen, whofe income did not amount to 100l. a year had been accepted by the other Houfe, he really should have liked the Bill better, if it had not contained any exemption whatever. His Lordship fpoke of the neceffity that must be evident to every Noble Lord, that the Bill fhould pafs with as little delay as poffible; and he again reminded the Houfe of the danger it might lead to, if they made any alteration

in it.

The Duke of Richmond faid, as the Noble Lord had appealed to every profeffional man in the Houfe, he felt himself in fome degree called upon to give his fentiments; and first, he must fay that he did not think it by any means proper for Noble Lords to argue profefiionally in that Houfe; they were to take up matters on general grounds, as Lords of Parliament. With regard to the tax, the Duke faid, he confidered it as one of the beft that ever was invented, and he verily believed that it would be extremely productive, becaufe he did not think with the Noble Lord (Lord Romney) that it would prevent people from wearing powder; on, the contrary, he believed it would make no difference whatever, becaufe powder was not merely an ornament and a decoration, but in fome fort a neceffary, as it conduced to cleanliness. With regard to the propofed claufe, he declared it appeared to him too general. Among the half-pay officers, there were certainly many very meritorious and deferving men, but there were no lefs certainly others of a different defcription. If the claufe were likely to fucççed, he wished it to be new-modelled, in order that the de

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ferving officer on half-pay might be distinguished from the undeferving. It was well known, when a war was nearly at an end, his Grace faid, that men who, fo far from being officers, were not entitled to be confidered as gentlemen; many of them had been waiters at taverns, and perfons, who having one way or another got money enough in low stations to enable themselves to purchase enfigncies merely for the fake of the half-pay, bought fubaltern commiffions. Whenever peace was known to be likely to take place, this practice obtained; it had done fo, particularly just before the end of the last war. He wished therefore that the claufe fhould contain fome reftrictions, fo as to confine the exemption to those who really deserved the strong arguments which the Noble Lord had with to much energy and feeling advanced in their favour. One mode of difcrimination ftruck him as eafy and practicable, viz. that the exemption, if agreed to, fhould extend to no halfpay fubalterns, but those who had tendered their services to the War-office within a given time, the last twelve months, for inftance. His Grace enlarged on this idea, and declared himfelf difpofed to fupport the claufe, if modelled in conformity to it.

Lord Mulgrave fpoke with great eloquence in reply, and -began with noticing that part of the Duke's fpeech, in which his Grace cenfured any Noble Lord's fpeaking profeffionally. His Lordship faid, he hoped he never fhould forget that profeffion, in which he had the honour to be bred, nor let flip the opportunity of speaking profeffionally, whenever a fit occafion offered, for fhewing the fincere regard he felt for those, whose merit he knew, whofe fervices he had witneffed, and whofe claims to confideration on every occafion he fhould ever hold it his duty to support and maintain. Not fpeak profeffionally, not argue from profeffional feelings!-he knew not that thing on earth that could induce him to part with those feelings, or forego acting upon their impulfe. In the discharge of his duty as a Lord of Parliament, he trusted that he ever should conduct himself unexceptionably; but gratefully as he felt the honour conferred on him by his Majesty, which entitled him to a feat in that Houfe, he would fooner give up his fituation as a Lord in Parliament than abandon his feelings for those whose fervices he had feen, and for whofe interefts he felt it his duty to be alive at every point. His Lordship painted in glowing colours the honest triumph felt by fubaltern officers after a victory, though they themfelves had bled, and fometimes been feverely wounded in their laudably zealous efforts to affift in obtaining it. The honour they felt they had done themselves on fuch occafions fuperfeded every feeling of perfonal inconvenience, and fwelled their hearts fo high, that they looked

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down

down even on their Lordships not with invidious or infolent contempt, but with a fort of confcious fuperiority; and ought fuch men, he would ask their Lordships, to have their innocent vanity hurt, and their pride unneceffarily humbled and mortified? Having moft warmly pleaded the caufe of the half-pay officers, Lord Mulgrave faid, with regard to what the Noble Duke had obferved, if fuch abufes had crept into the fervice, those who were at the head of the army at the time deferved fevere cenfure for their negligence and inattention; but the cenfure ought to rest with them, and not operate to the disadvantage of a worthy fet of men, who, generally confidered, were men of a moft meritorious defcription. But his Lordfhip faid, many officers on the half-pay lift were difabled by their wounds, and rendered incapable of future fervice; they therefore could not have tendered, or be expected to tender their fervices to the War-office, as the Noble Duke had fuggefted; and he could not help thinking that the Noble Duke was miftaken as to the fact of waiters at taverns, &c. purchasing enfigncies for the fake of half-pay, becaufe furely it was not very likely, that men who knew the value of their money would give 400l. to buy such a paltry life income as 341. a year. His Lordship ridiculed the arguments of thofe Noble Lords, who had maintained that there was no moral neceffity for half. pay officers to wear hair-powder, and fhewed that the argument of moral neceffity might be pushed to a moft abfurd extent, and applied to almoft every rank and description of men. He declared, he wished exceedingly to obtain the Noble Duke's fupport, and would agree to any modification of his claufe to render it palatable, nay, he would readily forego it altogether, if his Majesty's minifters would fay that any thing fhould be done for half-pay officers by the medium of a distinct Bill; but he hoped fomething would be done in their behalf, and that after all their fervices they would not in effect receive the fame answer that he recollected to have been given by the Cardinal Du Bois to a poor Abbé, who having written a book brought it to the Cardinal for his protection, when the Cardinal fternly afked him, why he employed his time in that manner. The Abbé replied with great humility, Helas! Monfeigneur, il faut que je vive; on which the Cardinal without moving a muscle faid, Monfieur, je n'en vois pas la neceffité—a sentiment which he flattered himself their Lordships would not adopt on the prefent occafion.

The Duke of Richmond rofe to explain, and affured the Noble Lord that he had not advanced an idle story relative to waiters at taverns, and men of a low defcription in life having purchafed enfigncies, towards the conclufion of a war, when it was known that a peace was near at hand; but that he spoke

of

of a well-known fact, and that he believed the purchases were generally for a much fmaller fum than 400l., which was the price generally given for an enfigncy on full pay. His Grace repeated what he had before faid, of the practicability of dif tinguishing the proper objects of exemption among the halfpay officers from thofe who might be confidered as improper ones, by extending the benefit of it only to thofe who had made a tender of their fervices within a twelvemonth to the Waroffice, or those who were actually difabled from further fervice by wounds, lofs of limbs, &c. and he faid, he was well aware that in the lift of half-pay officers many deferving men of the latter defcription were to be found.

The Bishop of Rochefter rofe to justify himself from the poffibility of falling within the fcope of the obfervation of the Noble Secretary of State, who had faid, that if their Lordfhips gave way on the prefent occafion, because a combination might have been formed between Noble Lords of different profeffions, in order to exempt their brethren from the operation of particular taxes, fuch combinations might be carried to an unlimited extent, and have their influence in all tax Bills. His Lordship declared, that he had delivered his own impartial fentiments on the claufe in favour of half-pay officers; and by thofe fentiments he would, fo far from entering into a combination with the Noble Lord, endeavour to fave the half-pay officers from the operation of the tax, becaufe the clergy of a certain defcription had obtained an ex- emption in their favour; he had not even exchanged a word with the Noble Lord on the fubject of his intended claufe, previous to his moving it. He had liftened to his argument, and as it was obvious that the fame principle, which warranted the exemption of the fubaltern clergy (if he might fo defcribe many very deferving gentlemen of his own profef fion) from the operation of the tax, applied with cqual force to the fubaltern half-pay officers; he had fairly avowed his opinion on that point. With regard to what the Noble Duke had ftated of there being perfons on the half-pay lift, who did not deserve favour or confideration from their Lordships; it was to be remembered on that and every occafion, that in every numerous body of men, there were always fome undeferving individuals; but furely the worthy fhould not suffer for the unworthy.

The Lord Chancellor declared, he had been aftonished at the debate from the moment of its commencement, and the more aftonished every moment that it had proceeded, because the majority of the Public clearly approved of the principle of the tax; and that being known to be the fact, it appeared

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extraordinary to him, that Noble Lords fhould attempt to impede the progrefs of the Bill. The arguments that had been urged in the courfe of the debate, though meant, no doubt, to fupport the claufe, a claufe undoubtedly brought forward by the Noble Lord on noble, generous, and humane grounds, rather fell in with the courfe of reafoning purfued by the Noble Earl, who began the debate by a general and fairly avowed oppofition to the principle of the Bill, than applied immediately to the claufe in queftion. That there certainly was no physical neceflity for ornamenting the head with powder, if it was an ornament, was a matter admitted, nor could it be pretended, nor was there even a moral neceffity for it. Why then was it contended for with as much pertinacity and ardour, as if it were not an abfolute luxury, a mere facrifice to perfonal pride and vanity? It had been faid, that wearing powder in the hair marked the diftinction between a gentleman and a person of inferior rank. He peremptorily denied it, and moft efpecially he muft affert, that it was unneceffary to be worn by a fubaltern half-pay officer, becaufe the amount of his income was not a fecret, nor a circumftance known only to himself. As far as regarded his half-pay, his flender income flood expofed publicly, and every man who knew his rank as an officer, knew the amount of his half-pay. It certainly therefore could be no difgrace, no difhonour, no longer to appear with powder in his hair, when the reafon was obvious to an honeft man, of which no honourable mind ought to be ashamed-he could not afford the expence of it. Would any man who had the fmalleft pretenfions to liberality, fhut his doors against a deferving man, because his hair was not powdered? Leaft of all would a general officer, who, from his profeflional knowledge, would beft know why the fubaltern who came to felicit for better bread, as it had been termed, refufe to admit him to his levee on that account? It would be the extremeft injuftice to military men of high rank in the fervice, to fuppofe it poffible that they could act towards men of merit of their own profeflion, but of humbler ftation, in a manner fo difhonourable to themfelves. Could there be a ftronger proof that the going without powder did not diminish the degree of refpect due to an individual, than the appearance which a Noble Earl near him had thought proper to make that day? (Lord Guildford, who being defabille, was unpowdered.) Would any one of their Lordfhips give up an iota of that univerfal regard and efteem which the Noble Earl's eminent talents had not been more inftrumental in acquiring him, than his many amiable virtues, on that account? He was perfuaded they would not, and therefore

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