Mr. Pole Carew denied that the object of the measure was to raise the prices of corn. It appeared to him, on the contrary, to tend to their stability, according to the best possible standard which could be furnished from the experience the House had both of the corn laws, of the corn trade, and the difficulties of obtaining foreign supplies of grain.

of a bounty. But the discussion of that ́night convinced him that these principles were merely thrown out by way of conciliation, and that the main object of the measure was to prevent importation from foreign countries, except when prices should rise to the enormous sums stated in the Report. At present, he contended, the price of corn was high beyond example, and was such as to afford a fair profit both to landlord and tenant. Supposing the measure of his hon. friend, the worthy baronet, to be adopted, then would the increase in the price of grain go on, depending not on the value but on the depreciation of the commodity. The poor lists of the different parishes in the country, he contended, were loaded with persons perfectly able to exist by their labour, were it not for the high artificial price of commodities. It was only by those artificial prices that the poor were prevented from living without being burdensome on the community.

Sir Henry Parnell having replied to the several objections, the House divided. For the Motion 136 Against it Majority

32 -104

The House then resolved itself into the Committee.

MR. PALMER'S PER-CENTAGE BILL.] On the order of the day for going into a Committee on this Bill,

Mr. Rose expressed his objection to the measure, and quoted the evidence of Mr. Pitt and lord Camden to justify the objection. For from this evidence it appeared, that Mr. Palmer's claim to reward was to rest not merely upon the invention he suggested, for the improvement of communication by the post, but upon the performance of certain duties, as comptroller ge

Mr. W. Fitzgerald supported the motion, denying that the object of it was, or could be, to raise the prices of corn. He wished to see the country put above the necessity of foreign assistance in so important an article as that of grain. If, in accomplish-neral to the Post-office. These duties, he ing this object, the prices should increase, which he thought they would not do, then should they have the satisfaction of knowing that the high prices were given to their own subjects, and not to foreigners. He voted for the committee, therefore, not on the principles imputed to those who should be of that mind by the noble lord on the other side, but from a conviction that in going into such committee the House would best consult the interests of the United Kingdom.

Mr. Lascelles thought, that before the House proceeded to the consideration of the subject, it ought to be made more intelligible to the country at large, and he therefore wished that some explanatory resolution should be previously agreed to. It should also be satisfactorily made out, that the measure was not directed to the exclusive benefit of the agriculture of Ireland, or to that of England, but to the general advantage of the empire.

maintained, Mr. Palmer had violated, and, to prove that violation, the right hon. gentleman read an extract from the letter of Mr. Palmer to his deputy Mr. Bonnor, in which Mr. Palmer, after stating to the latter, that the charges of a Mr. Wilson were quite scandalous, still urges him to procure payment of Wilson's account from lord Walsingham. The right hon. gentleman read another extract of a letter from Mr. Palmer, officially recommending a plan of delay in the delivery of letters in London. From these letters he argued that Mr. Palmer had violated his contract with Mr. Pitt, and forfeited his title to the remuneration which he now sought.

Colonel Palmer referred to the evidence taken before the former committee upon his father's claim, and also to the deci sions of the House respecting it, to shew that nothing fraudulent or dishonourable had ever been attributed or attributable to the claimant. The letters quoted by the Mr. Gooch was of opinion, that this was right hon. gentleman he did not mean to not the time for the House to enter into defend; but he contended that they bethe consideration of the measure, nor could trayed no dishonourable purpose, as would he perceive the peculiar object intended appear upon the reading the whole of by the motion. By entertaining it, much them. Mr. Palmer had, in fact, been dissatisfaction, without the chance of any much embarrassed in the execution of his essential benefit, might be caused through-plan, by the hostility of the postmastersout the country.

it imported an application for a comparatively small reward for actual services rendered to the public, both in accommodation and revenue, the honourable officer apologized for having so long trespassed upon the time of the House.

Mr. Holford objected to the principle of the Bill as it went to call upon the House, with the misconduct of Mr. Palmer before it, to vote that he had performed his contract.

Mr. Browne said, he had ever considered, that in a case like the present, where great services were acknowledged to be rendered to the public, by the talent, the invention and the industry of an individual, it was ill suited to the liberality, nay ill suited to the justice of parliament, to look with scrutinizing eyes for loop-holes or technical objections whereby to evade the full measure of advantage, in the assurance of which the individual had been led to employ himself in the public service. This principle had governed bis mind in all his former votes upon this sub

general, and particularly lord Walsingham. To prove this hostility, the hon. officer read marginal notes, made by the noble lord, upon the Report of the Commissioners who some years since investigated and reported in favour of Mr. Palmer's claim. As to the evidence alluded to by the right hon. gentleman, it seemed to him rather extraordinary that in the testimony of Mr. Long, that right hon. gentleman so very minutely detailed, in 1813, those points which he never noticed, or perhaps did not recollect, when delivering his evidence upon the same subject in 1807. One objection to this claim had been applied to its amount; but he appealed to the common candour of the House, whether that amount which arose out of the time the claim had been postponed, could be consistently urged against the justice of the claim itself. Had that claim been acceded to in due time, the amount would not, of course, have so accumulated. Five years had, he said, now elapsed since he entered that House, and at that period he declared that he had scarcelyject: and the more he considered the the honour of being acquainted with any member of it; yet when he brought this question under its consideration, a majority of nearly two to one decided in favour of Mr. Palmer's claim, although that claim was opposed by the eloquence of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other distinguished persons. To what then could such a majority, under such circumstances, be attributed, but to the intrinsic justice of the claim itself? It had been, he under-sonal feeling and kindness, but he could stood, insinuated that the pressure of this claim was disrespectful to the memory of Mr. Pitt, but the disrespect to that memory was, he was persuaded, evinced rather by the opponents than by the advocates of the claim. For he would ask those advocates whether Mr. Pitt would have pursued the course which they had followed-whether he would have resisted the vote of that House-whether, after that House had ordered a trial by a jury in this case, Mr. Pitt would have directed the crown lawyers to defeat the vote by mere technical objections: whether after that House had addressed the crown to discharge Mr. Palmer's claim, Mr. Pitt would have advised the rejection of that address? an address of the same nature, as that which had produced the payment of Mr. Pitt's own debts. After illustrating the character of Mr. Palmer's claim, which bore a marked difference from perhaps any other claim upon the public, because

case, both upon the former testimony and that which had been recently taken, the more he was satisfied that any attempt to connect Mr. Palmer's per-centage with official duties, or with any thing else but the success of the plan, was both illiberal and unjust. He knew it had been presumptuously insinuated that the opinion of the House, as before expressed, had been owing to the influence of per

assure the House, that he had voted in favour of this claim before he had the honour of a personal acquaintance with the gallant officer whose feelings were so much interested on the present occasion, and the only effect of his present intimacy with his hon. friend had been to stimulate him to express that approbation, which otherwise he should have been content to express by his vote. The case was not to be considered on the construction of the appointment of Mr. Palmer, but it was considered on the circumstances of the case on which that appointment was founded, and it is most clear, that the basis of the contract was a per centage of 2 per cent. on the increased revenue. For that per centage Mr. Palmer undertook to commence and to carry into effect his plan. As he proceeded upon it, and as it promised success, Mr. Pitt says himself that he thought that to connect Mr. Palmer with the office by official appoint

He (Mr. Long) had advised Mr. Pitt to give him 3,000l. a year; and Mr. Palmer had communicated with him repeatedly upon that allowance, but in all his communications he never mentioned his claim of right. He would tell the House why Mr. Pitt turned his reward into salary, and into per centage. It was that Mr. Palmer might have something certain, in case the revenue of the Post-office should keep below that sum at which Mr. Palmer's per centage was to commence.

ment, would still further benefit the revenue, and therefore gave him official situation both as a reward for his services and a stimulus to future exertion. He developed the plan-he put it in motion for the per centage. Whatever took place grew from this bottom-the public have been in possession of the plan, they have reaped the benefit of it, in the celerity, the security, and general character of the Post-office, the revenue has increased above a million per annum, and it is unfit to deny to Mr. Palmer his personal Mr. Serjeant Best supported the motion, advantage from a plan from which so and related the manner in which Mr. Palmuch public advantage has accrued. Mr. mer's case had been prevented from Freeling's testimony ascribes to Mr. Pal- coming before a jury, as alluded to by mer the whole merit of the Post-office ar- colonel Palmer. He thought the claim a rangement. Such a testimony from such a just one, and that parliament would only public officer, in whose praise one univer- consult its own honour and justice in comsal voice is raised in the country, will serve plying with it. He contended that Mr. to console Mr. Palmer in the midst of all Palmer had taken the 3,000l. a year under the anxieties and injustice he has been the pressure of necessity. He was far, exposed to in the progress of this subject. however, from meaning to defend or jusHe did not defend the letters of Mr. Pal-tify Mr. Palmer's conduct: but Mr. Palmer, but he believed they proceeded frommer's demand had nothing to do with his no other wish but to disengage himself from the controul of the post-masters, and to put himself his own plan into useful effect. He thought the dismissal from office a sufficient mortification for the offence, without so flagrant' a violation of justice, as the withholding from him the pecuniary benefits of his contract.

Mr. Long denied that any tittle of evidence could be produced to shew that Mr. Pitt intended to remunerate Mr. Pal- | mer independently of his official duties. On the contrary the evidence of Mr. Pitt went directly to prove that the percentage was given with a double view," to use his own words, that of rewarding the invention, and as an incentive to Mr. Palmer to persevere in bringing his plan to perfection. There was a declaration also in one of Mr. Palmer's letters, which shewed that he himself considered the per centage as dependent upon official duty: "I could," says he, expose the post-masters most damnably, but three or four thousand a year is not to be trifled with." How could these three or four thousand a-year run the risk of being lost if they arose solely as a reward for producing his plan? Mr. Palmer, however, knew that such was not the case; he knew that his per centage depended upon his performance of certain duties, and it was not till after the increase of the revenue in the Post-office rendered it a desirable and convenient object, that he began to consider his claim as a right. (VOL. XXVI.)

conduct.

Mr. Bankes spoke against the Bill, but the House was so impatient for the question, that the hon. member was interrupted by incessant coughing. He concluded by observing, that, as a matter of liberality, parliament might grant a sum; but there certainly existed no right.

Mr. Wortley spoke against the motion, but said, that in a future stage of the Bill, he should move to insert a sum, less than what was now claimed, as a compensation to Mr. Palmer.

The House then divided-For the motion, 76, Against it 28, Majority 48.

The Bill then went through a committee, and an amendment proposed by Mr. Bankes was negatived.

TREATY WITH SWEDEN.] Mr. Ponsonby rose, pursuant to the notice he had given, to move an Address to the Prince Regent, praying his Royal Highness to lay before the House any communications that had taken place between this country and Denmark. In the treaty lately concluded with Sweden, its object was set forth to be the defence of the independence of the North, and one of the stipulations it contained went to guarantee to Sweden a large portion of the kingdom of Denmark -the country of Norway. Ministers, it appeared, from an instrument, published by the French government, had proposed, to Denmark the cession of Norway to (2 X

The object of the emperor of Russia and the king of Sweden, in forming anjesty the king of Sweden engages to transalliance, is stated to be for the purpose of securing reciprocally their states and possessions against the common enemy.