PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1795.

"ADE's Mill Roads Bill was read a third time and paffed.

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Lord Hood prefented a petition from the inhabitants and householders of St. Clement Danes, which his lordship stated to be numerously and refpectably figned, praying the Houfe to take measures for the better fecurity of his Majefty's perfon and government, and the prevention of feditious meetings. His Lordship alfo prefented another petition, in favour of the Bills, from the inhabitants and householders of Westminster at large.

Mr. Samuel Smith prefented a petition from the inhabitants of Leicester in favour of the Bills.

Mr. Grey prefented a petition from the borough of Newport, in the county of Cornwall, against the Bills. Allo another to the fame effect from Launcefton, in the county of Cornwall. The petitions were both ordered to lie on the table.

GRAIN.

Mr. Hobart attended with the Report of the Committee upon the Bill for prohibiting the diftillation of spirits from wheat and other articles of grain.

Mr. Rofe moved that the Bill be re-committed for the insertion of a claufe to prohibit the diftillation of fpirits from molaffes produced in England, or imported from the colonies, and that instructions be given to the Committee for the fame, as, upon enquiry, molaffes had been found to be an article of great confumption at this time among the poor, particularly in and about the metropolis. He faid that the claufe was on that account deemed to be expedient.

Mr. Hufey declared, he was glad that minifters had taken that article into their confideration, and he hoped they would VOL. II. 1795.

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not fuffer the Bill to fleep, but pafs it as foon as poffible into a law.

SCOTCH CAVALRY.

General Fitzpatrick called the attention of the Houfe to the manner in which the Aberdeenshire Cavalry had been drafted and disbanded. It muft, he faid, appear to any person who understood military regulations, that they ought to be dif banded in their own country, and as near their own homes as poffible. Whoever would read the letter of fervice, might fee, that though this might not be expreffed, it was really the ftipulation made when they enlifted. He would, therefore, make the following motion: "That there be laid before the Houfe a copy of the correspondence between Colonel Hay and the Secretary at War, or any other of his Majefty's minifters, refpecting the difbanding or drafting the 19th, or Aberdeenshire Cavalry.

General Macleod feconded the motion, because he underftood that the conditions upon which the 109th, or Aberdeenfhire regiment, was raifed, were, that the men, when they were difbanded, fhould be disbanded in their own country, or near their own houfes; whereas they were drafted and difperf ed to other regiments, which made it impoffible for them all to be difbanded in their own country, or near their own homes, and confequently there appeared to be a breach of faith upon the part of government.

Mr. Allardyce faid, no complaints had been made from Aberdeen, which called up General Macleod to explain. The motion was agreed to.

LIBEL ON THE HOUSE.

The order of the day, for refuming the debate on the Pamphlet complained of, as containing a falfe, fcandalous, and malicious libel upon the Houfe of Commons, having been read,

Mr. Sheridan faid, he hoped he fhould have the indulgence of the Houfe while he entered into a comment on the expreffions and principle of the book in queftion at large. He had not, on a former night, troubled the Houfe with any long comment upon it, becaufe he thought it his duty to read it firft. In the intermediate time, he had read it over with due deliberation: and if he had found it to have only contained a folitary paffage, if he had found the paffage itfelf contradicted by the rest of the context, or, if it had not plainly appeared to him that it was the general with of the author to libel the conflitution of the country, he would not have risen to prefs the amendment which he would make to the motion he fubmitted to the House on a former night, and then read as the

order

order of the day. He had confidered the whole of the pamphlet, and the whole of it manifefted the fame deliberate malignity againit the liberty of the conftitution, and the fame deliberate malignity of fortifying the crown, with extraordinary powers. He hoped other gentleman, who had likewife read it with the fame attention, would fee the publication in the light he did: and if they did, he was fure they would not think that they performed their duty, if they did not ihew their marked reprobation of fuch doctrine, and endeavour to bring the libeller to juftice. He faid, he was furprised that ne did not fee a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Windham) in his place, becaufe by the manner in which he had delivered his fentiments upon a former evening, he was in fome degree implicated at this moment Mr. Windham entered.) Mr. Sheridan declared he was happy to fce his furprife removed by the attendance of the right honourable gentleman, and hoped that he had read the book and recanted his opinions; for, if he came to fupport fo grofs and palpable a libel again upon the legislative government, he fhould frankly confefs that he was not happy to fee him, but, on the contrary, very forry. He regretted that another right bonourable gentleman (the Matter of the Rolls) was abfent, because he had moved the adjournment to meditate upon the pamphlet before he delivered his opinion.

The publication had been afcribed to a man whofe intimate connection with the government was well known; to a man to whom it had been faid by one gentleman (the Secretary at War) the national gratitude could not be too much directed; to a man who had been the chairman of that political affociation, which had incited and encouraged affociations throughout the country, and which had an intimate connexion and correfpondence with thofe affociations. To that perion the pamphlet had been afcribed: but it had been reported to niz, fince he came into the Houfe, that the affertion of Mr. Revest being the author of the pamphlet was to be folemnly ditavowed. He was glad of it. Mr. Reeves he had formerly known, when he was a member of that Whig Club which was to much reprobated in this pamphlet.

The prominent doctrines maintained in the pamphlet were, 1. That liberty flowed from the King alone 2. That all fecurity of law and government was der ved from the k power. 3. That the revolution, in 1688, was a f au. farce; and that all the people got by it was a P.. King. 4. That the Diffenters were enemies and ought to be exterminated. 5. That the war potors, and had always been either in the pay of B 2

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or in league with democrats. 6. That a conftitutional lawyer was either a knave or a fool. 7. That the verdict of a jury was not a final decifion, and was entitled to little or no weight. 8. That the Lords and Commons might be lopped off without injury to the conftitution. Thefe doctrines were elaborately argued through the whole of the pamphlet.

Of the King it was allerted, that "he makes and executes the laws." In the next page of the pamphlet it was faid, that accordingly the King can enact no laws without the advice and confent, not only of the Lords fpiritual and temporal, who are in fome fort counfellors of his own chufing, but also of the Commons in Parliament affembled." The Lords would, he believed, feel but little obligation to the man who confidered them merely as Counfellors of the King's own chufing.

The author through feveral paffages entered into a history of the reformation, and feemed to confider it as the fource of French principles; and afferted that the Prefbyterians, Quakers, &c. were the propagaters and promoters of thefe principles.

The author flated, that " Prefbyterians, Independents, Commonwealth's Men, Fifth Monarchy Men, Anabaptifts, Quakers, and other fecis and divifions too irkfome to be named, all of them, more or lefs, difciples of the fame school, where the Sovereignty of the people,, and the killing of Kings was firft brought into fyftem and fanctioned by the dictates of the gofpel." Through three whole pages he reprefented the Diffenters to be a race not fit to exift, and as worthy of being exterminated as the Charibs of St. Vincent's, and the Marcons of Jamaica. The authors of the Reformation were confidered, by him, as Jacobins, and Major Cartwright was compared to Calvin and Beza.

Of the revolution, the author expreffed himself in these words, "The abdication of King James the fecond, and the tranfactions that enfued upon the vacancy thereby made in the throne, compofe a very important and curious paffage in the hiftory of our government and laws. It has been vulgarly called, The Revolution; upon what authority I know not; it was not so named by Parliament, nor is it a term known to our laws. This term had certainly no better origin than the converfation and pamphlets of the time, where words are ufed, in a popular and hiftorical fenfe, without any regard or thought of technical propriety." To controvert the affertion of fo ignorant a man, would be to infult the understanding of the House.

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