the noble illustration of his argument, which chance had prefented to his eye, he hoped would convince their Lordships. that it was fubftantial and folid.

Having raifed a general fmile by this en paffant illuftration in allufion to Lord Guildford, one circumftance that induced him to rife, he said, was, in order to refcue Cardinal Du Bois from a charge of brutality, that neither belonged to his character, nor with which, indeed, he had any fort of concern. The Noble Lord who had related the story, had accidentally forgotten not only the ground of the converfation that he had stated, but the perfons concerned in it. The real fact was this:-A gross and scandalous libeller was brought before Monfieur d'Argenfon, a magiftrate of police, to anfwer for a most in famous and indecent publication, the name of which, his Lordship faid, he well recollected; but it was too offenfive and fcandalous to be mentioned. The author, when quef tioned by the magiftrate as to what excufe he had to offer for having written fuch an unwarrantable libel, answered, Helas, Monfeigneur, il faut que je vive; when Monfieur d'Argenfon anfwered wittily, but to fuch a man juftly, Monfieur, je n'en vois pas la neceffité.

His Noble Friend, the Secretary of State, had well faid, he fhould have liked the Bill better if it had been sent from the Commons without any exemption. So, he confeffed, fhould he have done himself. He faw no neceility for a clergyman's wearing hair-powder more than an half-pay officer; it certainly, as the Noble Lord who moved the claufe had obferved, would not add to his eloquence in delivery from the pulpit, nor lend an energy to the style of his difcourfe, when compofing it in his clofet. Had the Bill come before their Lordships without a clause of exemption, its principle would have stood one and inviolate, fupported by its own grounds; and the Bill would have been perfectly unexceptionable. His Lordfhip faid, with regard to the popularity of the tax he had not the fmallest doubt, and he had as little doubt that it would prove .pro ductive. The circumftance fo. ingeniously called into his ard gument by a Noble Earl, that a poor kitchen-wench might, out of fport, on a Christmas evening, fnatch up a dredging box and throw flour into her hair, and thence from that fingle act of holiday frolic, incur the penalty, and be pursued, for it, till it ended in imprisonment for life, was rather, in his mind, calculated to excite a fmile than any ferious appre henfion. No perfon informed against on such grounds would ever be convicted, or have the penalty levied against them,: much lefs be fent to jail for life, for want of the power of pay ing it. The Noble Earl appeared to have reflected on every VOL. III. poflible

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poffible ground of objection, and had therefore mentioned ftudents of the learned profeflions; but furely the younger fons of noble families, whofe brothers enjoyed fpendid incomes, might with as much reafon be quoted, as they would feel it equally; but still he faw no reason why gentlemen of that clafs might not ftudy as well at the univerfity without powder as with it. Students of the learned profeffions certainly could not mix with fociety without making an appearance fuited to the cuftom of the times, and it was the general interest of all men that ftudents fhould keep good company, that they fhould meet with encouragement, and be well received everywhere. And yet, confidering them as the strongest case of the two, he faw no reafon why they should not feel the preffure of the times in common with the rest of his Majesty's subjects. His Lordship added fome further arguments of a general nature in fupport of the Bill as it stood.

Lord Mulgrave faid a few words in explanation.

Lord Auckland said, that if the Bill had come from the other House with a claufe to exempt half-pay officers in the manner now propofed, he could cheerfully have acquiefced in it, as he had done with respect to the exemption of certain claffes of churchmen. In faying this, he was actuated by the fentiment which had fo ftrongly fhewn itfelf in the prefent debate, and by feelings of regard for a refpectable class of individuals. The cool and unbiaffed dictates of his judgment were adverse to the whole chapter of exemptions in the fyftem of taxation. Every exemption was a deviation from principle, which led to a farther deviation. "Deme unum atque etiam unum."-Remove one extreme cafe of hardship, and another would always be found behind it. Even in the prefent cafe the exemption of the inferior clergy had been ufed as an argument for the exemption of the half-pay officers.

If he had thought it right to propofe alterations in the Bill, there were others which he could have wished to introduce. For example, it was his opinion that the tax was too high: He had no doubt that it would be very productive ; but perhaps as a measure of finance, it would eventually have been more productive, and certainly more fatisfactory, if it had been put at ten fhillings per head instead of twenty-one. This however was a mere perfonal conjecture, which he was not inclined to fet up against the judgment and decifion of the other Houfe of Parliament. The conftitution had alligned; to that Houfe the originating of taxes-In times like the prefent it was an arduous and painful duty, and their Lordships would not add to its difficulties, or interrupt the public fupplies, unless the cafe were more urgent than what had that

day

day been stated. A Noble Earl (Lord Guildford) had juftly faid, that an amendment of a tax Bill, by their Lordships, could only be confidered as a rejection of the Bill with an affignment of reafons. His fenfe of the prefent crifis would not allow him to reject the Bill in queftion; more efpecially when it was notorious that the reafons to be affigned had already been difcuffed in the other Houfe, and had been deemed inadmiffible.

Mr. Henniker Major moved for leave to bring in a Bill, giving a difcretionary power to courts to grant cofts to profecutors in cafes of misdemeanor.-Granted.

Mr. Powys moved for leave to bring in a Bill to remedy deficient weights and falfe balances.-Granted. The Bill was brought in, and read a first time.

The Speaker ftated that he had been at the House of Lords, where the Royal Affent had been given, by commiffion, to feveral public and private Bills.

The Franking Bill was paffed.

Mr. Barham gave notice of his intention to make a motion, on Monday, for papers relative to the conduct of the commanders, Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles Grey, towards the French in the Weft India islands, after they had fubmitted themselves to the British troops. He should also move for the inftructions given to thofe commanders, for the proclamations which they had iffued, and for the memorials which had paffed between them and their officers, and between them and minifters. He fhould move for these papers with a view to a subsequent motion, that the Houfe fhould enter into an inquiry with refpect to the tranfactions to which they related, an inquiry which, in the prefent moment, became peculiarly important.

Mr. Grey expreffed his fatisfaction at the notice which had been given to the Houfe. He would only repeat what he had faid, that nothing could be more agreeable to the perfons,

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whofe

whofe conduct had been unjustly attacked, than the inquiry which was now propofed. He had no objection to the production of the papers; on the contrary, he thanked the Hon. Gentleman for having moved to bring them forward. fhould himself have occafion to move for other papers, and likewife that witneffes might be called upon in the courfe of the inquiry. He wished that the notice had been given at an earlier period, when all the documents, which were now required, were equally in existence. Some of the officers, whofe teftimony was material, were at prefent on the point of leaving the country; but he trusted that the delay, which would be neceffary for the vindication of the commanders under whom they had ferved, would not be found incompatible with the public fervice.

The Bill for granting relief to the Poor at their own houses, after fome remarks, was appointed to go into a Committee on Monday following.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

WEDNESDAY, April 29.

General Macleod gave notice, that he would the next day move for a return of the British forces, including the fencibles.

On the question being put, that the Bill to prevent the ftealing of Dead Bodies be read a fecond time,

Mr. Mainwaring moved, that the Houfe be counted, when there being only twenty-three Members prefent, the Houfe adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

THURSDAY, April 30.

The Royal affent was given by commiffion to the Hairpowder Bill, and to feveral private Bills.

The Earl of Moira adverted to the happy event of the nuptials of his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales, and to the general hopes which infolvent debtors had cherished in confequence of it. His profeffional avocations had lately prevented him from attending his duty in the Houfe, and from fubmitting to their Lordships his ideas of the propriety of adopting some permanent regulation of the law with regard to infolvent debtors. He wifhed that the fulleft inveftigation fhould be

had,

had, and the most clear difcrimination between the cafes of the fraudulent and the unfortunate. He wished also that no unneceffary delay fhould take place in the investigation of this preffing and important fubject. Long ago their Lordfhips had put fome questions upon this matter to the Judges, and he knew not the reason why these learned ministers of justice had not come to a determination. He would not at prefent attempt to introduce any Bill relative to insolvent debtors, because he fhould feel it his duty, whenever he did fo, to attend fuch Bill in every stage, and that his profeffional avocations would not now permit; therefore he would only for the present offer a petition, which he held in his hand, to be read.

The petition was accordingly read. It was figned by a confiderable number of perfons who had the misfortune to fuffer imprisonment for debt; expreffing their joy at the happy event of the nuptials of his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales; ftating generally the hardships which they fuffer, and expreffing a hope that they might be permitted to enjoy the bleffings of liberty; imploring the kind and generous interference of their Lordships, and praying fuch relief, as to their Lordships might feem meet.

Lord Viscount Sidney called their Lordships attention to a circumftance which related to himself. He had lately difcovered that a great abuse had been practifed on the liberty of franking newspapers. Many newfpapers had been fent in his name without his direction. He had never granted that privilege to above two or three, and he understood that fifty had been fent in his name to different parts of the kingdom. He did not defire that newspapers fhould not be circulated, and if it was meant for purposes of revenue, let them be fent free to any Member; but while the matter ftood as it did, he thought it should be put on fome clear footing. He had made inquiry upon this fubject at the Poft-office, but he there learnt that he could have no redress, that some of the editors had got a stamp of his name, and fent as many papers as they thought proper under its fanction, without any authority from him. He understood that the fame freedom had been taken with the names of other Noble Lords, and of many Members of the other Houfe of Parliament, and that a great number of newspapers had been fent under cover to different parts of the kingdom; nay, laft year, a gentleman in the county in which he lived, received a packet of the moft libellous and feditious papers he ever read, under the cover of a Secretary to the Treafury. He hoped fome method would be adopted to prevent fuch glaring abufes of the privi

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