ven's choiceft inheritance-his fanity of understanding-let us expofe their ignorance, or chastise their depravity by effectual interference. All I wish is to procure redress for an undeferving fufferer, as I deem him, or to gain fome conviction of the juftice of his fufferings; and that this, Sir, is not an eafy matter, or a matter attainable through any regular official channel, I hope to make fully evident; nor indeed do I know of any channel but that of the inquifitorial authority of this House, by which the relief I feck, which Gentlemen will allow muft neceffarily be prompt, if we would have it efficacious, can poflibly be obtained.

"The perfon in queftion, is a fufpected traitor in the power of the Secretary of State-as a lunatic he is immedi ately under the care of the Lord Chancellor. If I apply to Chancery, I muft naturally expect to be told, he is a State prifoner under warrant from Government for treasonable practices. If I refer to the Secretary of State's office, I fhall have the fame answer as that which was given to another friend of his: That he is not properly understood in that department but as a lunatic, is to be fent to fome hofpital, where, perhaps, by leave of the governor, I may be permitted to fee him. Between thofe two Noble Perfonages, while I am bandied about like à fhuttlecock, Mr. Brothers may be transferred to a third or a fourth department; whither all my industry may be exerted in vain to trace him. All I require, therefore, is to difcover with precision, whether this Mr. Brothers be a traitor or be a lunatic. He may poffibly be neither, but it is morally certain he cannot be both. I neither with to palliate any crimes he may have committed, nor to fereen him from any merited punishment of the law.

"A few words more, Sir, and I have done. I have caused to be delivered at the door a printed paper, written, I confefs, partly on another fubject of perfonal controverfy, though bearing immediately alfo on my prefent motion. I moft fincerely apologize for its intrufion, and I hope I fhall be forgiven when I mention that it is done precisely for the purpose of taking fhame to myfelf in having there inferted a propofition which is not warranted by fact. As far as that affertion goes, I can fay nothing in my own defence. I admit it to be falfe, and atk pardon for its infertion. I have there faid, that "the verdict of lunacy was brought in at the very meeting before ever the perfon to be decided on was examined at all,” and I now know that his examination was previous to the verdict. They had only made up their minds to it before they faw him. I eat my words.

"Now

"Now with refpect to the documents which I move for; they cannot, I think, betray any fecrets of state, for if there exifted a plot of which Government wished to explore the different ramifications, before they promulgate their information, I think the verdict of lunacy is effectually done away. A confpiracy headed by a madman can be no very tremendous object, nor do I think his accomplices could have fo long lain hid when their chief was in confinement; and if this fuppofed confpiracy lay in his books, why, after the open warning I gave three weeks ago, has no ftep, been taken to impede their circulation?

"The examination before the Privy Council, I am pretty well affured, may be published without any danger; all was politenefs, candour, and good fenfe in that quarter; and though curiofity might be gratified by the publication, no new article would from thence be added to the catalogue of treafon.

"Of the verdict of infanity I have little to fay; the jurymen themselves are not very confiftent in their accounts of it, which may a little palliate the error I have acknowledged; but if their proceedings are granted to my motion, opinion will then have fomething folid to reft on.

"I now conclude-moft earnestly entreating Gentlemen to confider themfelves as reprefentatives of the whole British nation, to be meritorioufly employed in redreffing, where it may be poffible, the accidental oppreffions of any one British individual, however obfcure-and I hope that a man who has creditably ferved his King and country, in the royal navy, the pride and the bulwark of the empire, will never appeal in vain to a British Houfe of Commons.

"I therefore move, Sir, that a copy of the Warrant of the Secretary of State, for the apprehending of Richard Brothers, be laid before this Houfe, together with a copy of the information on which this motion was grounded."

Mr. Halhed having given in his motion,

The Speaker afked, "Who feconds this motion ?" There being no anfwer, he faid, that as it was not feconded, the motion could not be put from the Chair.

MOTION FOR PEACE.

Mr. Wilberforce faid, that as an Hon. Member had alluded to him as to his intention of bringing forward a motion in conformity to his notice, he could fay he had made up his mind on that fubject. The object he had in view was to facilitate the obtaining of peace. When he fhould move it, he could not precifely tell. He thought it would be better

H 2

near

near the end of the feffion than at prefent-" When, when?" was whispered through the Houfe. To which Mr. Wilberforce anfwered, " perhaps this day fortnight."

Mr. Efte moved, that the Order of the Day on the Bill for preventing the vexatious removal of poor perfons be difcharged. Ordered. He then moved, that the Bill be com mitted on Monday.-Ordered.

He next gave notice that he fhould move to difcharge the order for hearing counsel on that day.

The Speaker gave notice that he fhould take the chair at 11 on Thursday morning, to be ready to proceed on the trial of Mr. Haftings.

Adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

THURSDAY, April 23.

HAIR-POWDER BILL.

The Houfe having refolved itself into a Committee on the Bill enacting that every perfon who wears hair-powder, fhall take out a certificate, the Duke of Norfolk defired that the claufe, fubjecting mafters of families to a penalty, on conviction of having failed to give in a correct lift of their fervants wearing powder, and of having knowingly fuffered a fervant to wear powder, whofe name was not in the lift he had given in, might be read. The claufe having been read at length,

The Duke rofe, and objected to the claufe, not only on the ground of its being oppreffive and fevere in its tendency, but as being fo to no purpose whatever. His Grace faid, he had ever understood it to be an invariable principle in all Tax Bills, that any claufe impofing a penalty, fhould neceffarily con duce to promote and fecure the object of the Bill. The claufe impofing a penalty of 201. on mafters of families, which had been juft read, his Grace contended, was unjust and oppreffive in the extreme, and that without any reafon, as it did not tend in the smallest degree whatever to further the object of the Act. It obliged a mafter to turn informer against his own fervants, exposed him to the difgrace of being proved guilty of what no Gentleman would be guilty, viz. of having figned his name to a falfehood, or rendered him liable to a heavy expence. He put the fuppofed cafe, that a master of a family fhould once accidentally meet a fervant powdered, whom he neither knew nor wifhed fhould wear powder, and having forgot the circumftance, fhould omit to infert the name of that fervant in the

lift he gave in, fuppofe that a third perfon happened to stand by when the fervant wearing powder as above defcribed was feen by the mafter, and fhould be brought to prove, that after having given in his lift, his lift was defective in refpect to the omiffion of the name of the fervant in queftion; in that cafe the master must either turn informer against the fervant, or pay the penalty. His Lordfhip faid, no man was more ready to confefs his approbation of the principle of the Bill, than he was; he thought the tax a wife one, and likely to be efficient, but he saw no reason why it should be thus arranged in the mode of collecting it. Few masters of families knew, or were likely to know if all of their fervants wore powder. He did not mean to be ludicrous, and therefore he would not talk of female fervants, because he saw what whimsical ideas might be imagined to be alluded to, whereas he meant to treat the subject feriously and gravely, to call their Lordships attention to a real grievance and act of injuftice, for fuch the clause would unavoidably prove in its operation, if it were fuffered to ftand. His Grace added further obfervations, and at length concluded with moving that the claufe be rejected.

The Lord Chancellor faid, he felt very differently upon the fubject from the Noble Duke. The tax was not only in itself a good one, but he had pretty good reason to believe it was in the confideration of all men a favourite, and particularly fo with those who were to pay it, viz. the fervants themselves. It was not only to be praised as a tax on vanity folely, but as a tax likely to prove extremely efficient and productive. So far therefore from there being any propriety in their Lordships interpofing to impede the Bill in its progrefs through the Houfe, after it had paffed the House of Commons, he thought it in the highest degree unbecoming, being perfuaded that it would be a moft unjust ftigma on their Lordships, if any fuch imputation could be brought against them. The impreffion that it must neceffarily make upon the public mind, to find that their Lordships, of all defcriptions of men, were those alone who chose to throw an obstacle in the way of a tax, popular in the extreme, as he verily believed this tax to be, fo far from being favourable, must be unpleafant and highly injurious. The largest defcription of the immediate objects of the Bill, the fervants in families of perfons of rank, who chose to be waited on by fervants well dreffed, he had no doubt were glad that fome means had been reforted to in order to diftinguish and mark their fuperiority over fervants of a different descrip tion. His Lordship begged leave pofitively to deny that the claufe would operate in the manner in which the Noble Duke had conceived it likely to operate, The master of a fa

mily was not rendered liable to a penalty of 201. unless he was himself wilfully neglectful of complying with the conditions of the ftatute. He was only called upon to give in a lift of fuch of his fervants as he knew to be liable, nor could he be convicted unless it were proved that he knoqvingly gave in a falfe lift. Every mafter of a family was prefumed to know what the ftyle of drefs of his fervants was; in the line of life fubordinate to that filled by their Lordships, where a man had apprentices, it was his duty that his apprentices were clean on a Sunday, and decently dreffed; if they wore powder against his will, he could refort to a remedy; if he chofe they fhould wear powder, it could be no hardship upon him, as he could not complain of hardfhip or oppreflion if he were called upon to pay the amount of the tax for each of his apprentices who with his confent wore powder. His Lordship faid, fome confideration was due to the time stated in the Bill for the commencement of its operation. It was clearly a money Bill, and the poffible effect of any alteration in it by their Lordships was well known. He did not mean to give rise to a difcuffion on that point, as it might lead to length, and was not at all neceffary to the fubject matter of debate. Their Lordfhips had undoubt edly a right to make any alteration they thought proper in each individual Bill that came before them, but he confeffed he fhould be forry to fee fuch an Act loft, and moft particularly to fee it loft by any interpofition of their Lordships, whofe oppofition to the measure would, as it ftruck him, appear most ungracious, and repugnant to the people. In short, he faw no occafion for rejecting the claufe, and in fact, the Bill would in his mind be moft materially defective, if the claufe were thrown out.

The Duke of Leeds faid, there appeared to him to be a part of the operation of the Bill, which required explanation. Suppofing that a fervant, who wore powder, and for whom his mafter had paid for a certificate, fhould leave his service foon afterwards, and another fervant is taken in his place; is the mafter to pay for another certificate, and thus pay the tax twice?

The Earl of Guildford faid, he could not help differing from his Noble and Learned Friend, and rifing to fupport the Noble Duke's argument. He confidered the Bill as likely to prove extremely oppreflive and highly injurious to mafters of families, who would be fubjected to the payment of a heavy penalty, in many inftances where they could not poffibly avoid incurring it. So far from thinking with the Noble and Learned Lord that every matter of a family must neceffarily know whether all or which of his fervants wore powder, he must contend that the very reverfe was the state of the cafe. Masters

of