rose and said, that he hoped the proposition he had to submit, would meet the unanimous concurrence of the committee. He then moved the following resolution; "That an annuity of 1200l. be granted from the consolidated fund of Ireland, to the widow of the late Lord Kilwarden, Chief Justice of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench in Ireland, to be held by her during her life; and that after her death, the same to be settled in the following manner: viz. 800l. a year to the son, bearing the title of Lord Kilwarden, and 400l. a year to each of the two daughters of the late Lord Kilwarden, and that this said annuity do commence from the 23d of July, 1803." The resolution was agreed to, and the report ordered to be received to-morrow.

rose, to call the attention of the house to a subject of considerable importance. He had before him a petition presented to the house some time since from a vast number of the journeymen calico printers, complaining of various grievances. This petition had been referred to the consideration of a committee, with orders to report their opinion thereon. The result was such as he was aware had not unfrequently occurred, but which, in his mind, and that of many of the best informed men in that house, namely, that the committee, after some examination of the case, thought proper to adjourn sine die, and thus evaded bringing up any report whatever. This was a sort of proceeding which ought at all times to alarm the jealousy of the house, for most unquestionably no committee could have the right of finally deciding upon any case thus referred to them for investigation. Their province was merely to lay before the house a brief of the case, and the evidence, with their opinion annexed, but it did not belong to them to assume to be the ultimate judge. The adjournment in the instance he alluded to was, he observed, the more to be regretted, as the petitioners, whose means were very small (the wages of not one of whom exceeded 30s. a week) had expended above 1000l. in consequence of their application to parliament, and had also exhausted a good deal of time. They had brought up a number of witnesses from the remotest parts of G. Britain, some of whom had been examined before the committee.—The hon. member added, that several of these poor journeymen had been, both during the last and the present session, attending upon the house in search of redress. Their case was one which he felt to be extremely hard. He begged it, however, to be understood, that he meant no reflection upon the gent. who composed the committee. They, he had no doubt, thought themselves right in withholding the discussion of this subject from the house; but in this he differed with them most decidedly. Upon the nature of the dispute between the petitioners and their employers, he would not at present pronounce an opinion. He entertained a sanguine hope that it would, during the recess, be amicably adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties. He knew that such an adjustment was very practicable. If, however, it should not take place, and that his expectations should be disappointed, he pledged himself to bring the subject before the house in the shape of a motion for leave to bring in a bill to redress the grievances complained of by the petitioners.

said, that he was one of the committee alluded to by the hon. gent. and that in his opinion, and that of his colleagues the petitioners had not made out a case to sustain the allegations contained in their petition. They, therefore, adjourned for 3 months, meaning to bring up no report. The hon. member might, however, if be wished, have the minutes of the evidence laid before the house.

, as one of the committee, corroborated the sentiments of the last speaker, and deprecated the claims of the petitioners.

asked those hon. gent. why, if the petitioners had made no case, the committee to which they belonged did not report that to the house, and upon what ground that committee could assume to decide the question? The hon. member deprecated any discussion upon the merits of the petition alluded to, without having the report of the committee before the house. He had abstained from any opinion upon the subject, and he did think, that it would have been more becoming in the hon. gent. to have abstained from it also; all he now asked for the poor petitioners, in whose behalf he addressed the house, was this, that their case might not be prematurely gone into, and that the report of the committee might be brought up. This, he hoped, would not be deemed unreasonable on their part. They were opposed in this case by a number of very wealthy men, who derived that wealth from their labour, and many of those wealthy men were in town during the sittings of the committee, and regularly attended it. He hoped, however, that such an opposition, or its influence, would not preclude the petitioners from experiencing the liberality and justice of that house.—Mr. Dent rose, but the Speaker stating that there was no question before the house, the conversation dropped.

afterwards moved, that the minutes of the evidence taken before the committee on the petition of the journeymen calico printers should be laid before the house. Ordered.

moved, that the order of the day be now read for the second reading of the prize agency bill. The order being read, the hon. gent. rose, and expressed his regret, that from the proceeding upon this bill having been postponed so frequently from day to day, and from the many important objects for consideration which it involved, and the very advanced period of the session, it was almost impracticable now to carry it into adoption. He had, however, the strong assurance that it was in the contemplation of his Majesty's present ministers to bring forward early in the next session, another bill, having similar objects in view; for the present, therefore, he should move that this bill be read the 2d time this day 3 months.

expressed extreme regret that the hon. member should withdraw the bill, even late as it was in the session, when he reflected how very enormous and oppressive the grievances were which that bill was calculated to remedy, and how loudly and urgently they called for parliamentary interference; and he thought, that whatever were the defects of the present bill, they might be easily remedied in a committee, rather than postpone till next session a measure so indispensably necessary to check a series of the most flagitious fraud and oppression, upon a gallant and meritorious set of men, the officers and seamen of our navy. He had in his hand documents to shew, that some of the most flagitious instances of such fraud and oppression practised by the prize courts and prize agents in the West Indies, as were scarcely credible without the clearest testimony. The document was sent to him from the West Indies by a gallant young friend now no more, the son of a worthy member of this house, Admiral Davers; and this account states, that upon the proceedings for the condemnation of 31 prizes, the produce of which was but 163,000l. the Charges in the prize court amounted to 51,000l.; and beside this, the charges for agency amounted to 50,000l. more. His gallant young friend, Captain Davers, who wrote this account but a few hours before he expired, stated further, that he had been for a series of 8 years endeavouring to obtain justice and the payment of the prize money due to himself and his gallant ship's companies, but in vain. Was this, he would ask, to be tolerated towards that loyal and gallant class of men who composed the British navy; and whose bravery and endurance of every danger and hardship were so cheerfully and indefatigably exerted in the cause of the country? or was it a case that should admit of delay, or be preceded by any other object for parliamentary consideration? It was a question of public justice, and not of party, and therefore he saw the less pretence for postponing the adoption of the measure, and must sincerely regret it. The hon. bart. stated also another instance, where a frigate off Ireland had taken 12 fishing vessels belonging to the enemy, valued at 1200l. in recovering which, expenses had been incurred to the amount of 570l. which was more than one half of the original sum. The complaints, he said, on this subject had not been taken up lightly, and therefore deserved a serious hearing. If the Chancellor of the Exchequer had any serious intention of bringing in a bill of the same nature early next session, he had no objection that this bill should be now dropped. But unless something equally efficient should be substituted in its place, he would consider it his duty to oppose any delay.

assured the house, that a measure of a similar tendency would be submitted early next session. A bill, he said, when wrong in its outset, was not so easily corrected afterwards. The bill which was afterwards to be brought forward, would be found better adapted to remedy the evils complained of.

disliked the present bill, because it was formed upon the illiberal and unjust principle of supposing all mankind thieves and robbers, and guarding against them as such. He would not deny, that in almost every class of society, individuals might be found, whose conduct and principles were disgraceful to the rank they filled; this might be the case with respect to the prize agents, and even with respect to commissioners of the Admiralty; but was it therefore to be contended, that all were equally bad, and equally obnoxious to suspicion and severity? Another principle for which he disliked the bill was, that it went directly to take away from four-fifths of the classes of men on board ships of war, the right of appointing their own agents, and this for a reason that was pretty obvious.

observed, that every measure of regulation supposed abuse, and that abuses were supposed to exist was notorious. When the hon. gent. brought in the bill, he had been convinced of its propriety by his arguments; but he confessed that the arguments he had now used for its delay had not produced the same conviction on his mind.

explained his reason to have been a distinct assurance on the part of his Majesty's ministers, that a measure would be brought forward next session to meet the same object.

said, that there was no doubt whatever on the part of his Majesty's govt. that very flagitious frauds and grievances had existed in the West Indies, as stated by the hon. Admiral; but it was not to be concluded that, because the present bill was withdrawn, for the motives assigned by the hon. gent. in order to the introduction of another bill for similar purposes early in the next session, that govt. had taken no steps to check the mischiefs complained of the now truth was, that govt. had taken the musty effectual means in its power, by lessening the number of prize courts, limiting the fees payable in prize courts, obliging the agents to pay into the offices of govt. the net proceeds of the prizes sold by them; and thus taking out of their hands the temptation to protract proceedings which a possession of the money was apt to create. Of the result of those measures he hoped there would be speedy and satisfactory accounts; and with respect to the circumstance of the 12 fishing boats, stated by the hon. Admiral, it did happen, that a copy of that very document was some days since laid before the principal judge of the Admiralty Court for his consideration; and that learned judge, and not parliament, in the first instance, was the proper source whither to resort for redress, which, he was confident, that learned judge would be ready to grant, if just; but which, if he refused, there would then be time enough to appall to parliamentary authority. He himself could, however, tell the hon. admiral, that the only fee charged in that court on condemnation of those boats, was 6 guineas each, and that the remainder of the expenses were incurred at out-ports, and by expense of prize keepers, as well as by separate proceedings by different owners, which could not occur if those vessels had been one capture, and not different ones, at different times and places, under which circumstances the expenses incurred were as great as if they had been 12 Indiamen.

stated, that similar complaints existed with respect to prizes captured in the East Indies; remonstrances upon which subject he knew had been long since submitted to govt.; he wished therefore to ask, whether any instructions had been sent out on the subject?

said, that from the complete annihilation of the enemy's commerce in the Indian seas, there could be little apprehension of inconvenience arising to our ships from any captures to be made there. This answer, however, he admitted, was nothing to the purpose; but he could assure the hon. member, that the India Company had the matter in contemplation, and though no instructions were yet sent out, they would speedily be forwarded.—After a few words from Mr. Dent, the motion was put and agreed to.

rose and said, that he could not give a silent vote on this subject, as this would, in all probability, be the last opportunity he should ever have of delivering his sentiments on the subject. He should, however, avoid going into particulars, and confine himself to the general principle. It was not on the coast of Africa, but throughout the whole of the continent, that slavery existed; consequently it could not have arisen from the trade that was now proposed to be abolished. Abstract principles could not be narrowed to individual cases, they must extend to all; and it would be unjust in attending to the rights of one party, to violate the rights of another. If this bill were to pass, the trade would be carried on by other nations, and the miserable slaves would therefore be again exposed to all the miseries from which the wise and humane regulations under which the trade had been conducted by British merchants had relieved them. The hon. bart. argued, that the consequences of the measure would be the depopulation and desolation of West India estates. He endeavoured to prove, by referring to the various insurrections that had taken place within his own knowledge, that the newly imported negroes had not been the original movers, but that they had been instigated by the old domestic and confidential slaves. The hon. bart. concluded by stating, that the operation of the bill would cause a depreciation of West India property to the amount of millions beyond all compensation.

animadverted on the desperate resource to which the adversaries of the bill were now driven, in supposing that they could push its advocates to an extreme conclusion from the principle upon which they rested their arguments. Those gent. argued, that the abolition of this odious traffic must necessarily lead to a proposition for emancipating the slaves in the colonies, but this by no means followed, for although the one was quite within the reach of our power to accomplish, the other might be found neither safe, prudent, nor practicable. Much had been said as to the propriety of consulting the legislatures of the different islands, as to the means of ameliorating the condition of the negroes, and the advantage likely to be derived from their co-operation; but as a specimen of what degree of hope could be entertained on that head, and the dispositions of these assemblies towards humanity and justice, the hon. member took occasion to read the following extract of a letter from Lord Seaforth to Lord Hobart, dated Barbradoes, March 18, 1802.—"Your lordship will observe, in the last day's proceedings of the assembly, that the majority of the house had taken considerable offence at a message of mine, recommending an act to be passed to make the murder of a slave felony. (At present, the fine for that crime is only 15l. currency, or 11l. 4s. sterling.) The treasurer proposed, and the Attorney General seconded a motion, to take the message into consideration. The question was put and carried in the negative. The message sent to the assembly was founded on orders and instructions from his Majesty, communicated by the sec. of state, and originally derived from addresses or resolutions of the House of Commons. The assembly refused even to take it into consideration. No answer to it appears to have been sent, but one of the members proposed, that a moderate and respectful answer might be prepared, but calculated to repel insult, and to evince that the house understood its interests, and asserted its rights."—The hon. member appealed to the candour of the house, whether any assistance in a benevolent work could be looked for from such men?

, jun. thought, that infinite mischiefs would result from an attempt to legislate at this distance for a tropical climate, and people whose manners we were so little acquainted with. He stated, that Lord Balcarras was ready to prove at the bar, that the negroes did not distinguish between the abolition of the slave trade and their immediate emancipation. At the present time, there were 7000 French prisoners on the island, besides a great number in prison ships, many of whom used every exertion, and found opportunities to foment discontents in the minds of the negroes. He also thought it right to state, that there were a number of Moravian missionaries in the island, many of whom endeavoured to impress most forcibly this principle of the Scriptures, that all men were alike God's creatures, and that the last should be first, and the first last. In the island of Jamaica there were but 8000 European troops, and 10,000 militia, of which only one-eighth was white. In such a state of military force, with the example of St. Domingo so near, it was most dangerous to agitate the minds of the negroes. The principle of good intentions might be pleaded in excuse of those who were so active in promoting a measure likely to produce so much mischief; but good intentions were given as the ground of all the Roman Catholic persecutions; the bigots meant to save the souls of those they burnt, and to prevent their descendants from being parties.

spoke in vindication of the missionaries. Not fewer than 10,000 negroes had been converted in the island of Antigua, and their tempers and dispositions had been thereby rendered so much better, that they were entitled to an increased value of 10l. It was not a fact, that the planters in Jamaica wished to supply the places of negroes who died in their service by importation, rather than by encouraging the population. He stated the claim for compensation which would be made by those who might become sufferers by the abolition. Where persons had purchased lands from the crown, and had been induced to pay a high price for them, it was surely reasonable that they should be compensated. The hon. gent. then proceeded to state several cases where it consisted with his knowledge that persons would be totally ruined. He had voted for the bill in its former stages, but he now thought, that unless some clause was introduced into it relative to indemnification, it would be prudent in him to retract. He thought, that many claims could be made out, which would not be difficult to settle. If all persons were permitted to surrender to the crown such lands as they had not means to cultivate, the whole cases might be met, and at the same time not a great proportion of lands so abandoned. Such lands might remain in the hands of the crown, and re-sold gradually as the population increased. He would therefore earnestly request, that a clause should be introduced, recognizing the principles of compensation, so that some other bill might be afterwards proposed to settle all existing claims.

said, he had uniformly admitted, that if the house should come to the resolution of abolishing the trade, he would be extremely anxious to afford every degree of compensation in all cases where a fair and proper claim could be made out. If it had been practicable for him to have laid his Majesty's recommendation on that subject before the house, nothing would have prevented him from doing so. He, however, thought it at present most expedient to discourage the introduction of a general, vague, and unlimited clause of compensation. He would resist the proposition, that all persons who had ever been engaged in the slave trade, were to be indemnified, according to their own vague calculations of how much their wealth might be supposed to be injured. He was happy to hear it said by an hon. gent. opposite, that the abolition could be effected without the danger of ruining individuals, and that, were proper measures to be adopted, compensation would not become very burdensome to the state. The magnitude of the compensation would never deter him from doing every thing in his power to accomplish the desirable end. Persons who have bargained for their property with the public, and who have not yet paid for it, would, he thought, be entitled either to restore their lands, or get compensation. If there should be found any grants of great antiquity, and where no steps had been taken to procure a settlement of those grants, it would, perhaps, be a just act of forbearance on the part of the crown to withhold compensation. The plan, however, would necessarily require some fair mode of valuation to be adopted, and to recognize, generally, the principle of it in the bill, would be to put the matter out of the hands of parliament without a proper investigation, which might be attended with dangerous consequences.

stated, that the increase of the negroes was encouraged by the masters, but was impeded by causes existing among the negroes, one of which was, that when pregnant females were exempted from labour by their masters, they carried heavy burdens for their own benefit: another cause was the unrestrained intercourse between the sexes. The affair alluded to in Barbadoes arose from a disagreement between the assembly and the govt. and an unwillingness in the assembly to allow themselves to be dictated to. The emancipation had destroyed St. Domingo. The principle of compensation was just and necessary. There would be a great falling off, particularly in the estates lately settled.

said, that great good had been derived from the various discussions of the question, because the situation of the slaves had been considerably improved by the enquiries which had thereby been made into their actual situation. He was sorry to hear that the measure which had been suggested by one of his Majesty's ministers to the assembly of Barbadoes, had been so rejected as was stated by an hon. gent. opposite, because he saw no reason why the murder of a slave should not be punished with death in a similar manner as the murder of any other individual. He was afraid that the negroes in the West Indies would not discover the difference betwixt emancipation and abolition. Those who suffered by such measures would, no doubt, be entitled to ample indemnification, for we had no right whatever to be humane at the expense of others. He conceived that any proprietor of lands in the West Indies, who was at all affected by this bill, had a right to that indemnification, and that it ought not to be confined to those alone who had recently purchased the lands of the crown. Immediately after the restoration, Charles II. granted a charter to the African company, allowing them to send so the West Indies a certain number of negroes every year, and it was in consequence of that charter, that a colony was planted in Barbadoes. Various acts were soon after passed, recognizing the trade, which was acknowledged to be very advantageous. These had been ever since continued, and were indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the colonies in the West Indies. Under the faith, therefore of these laws, plantations had been settled, and lands had been purchased during a whole century, and it would be the height of injustice to deprive those persons of their property. However important the objection of the want of necessary provisions as to indemnification, might be, he had still others to urge which would lead him to oppose it. The natural expectation of the negroes would be, that their situation was to be ameliorated, and not be made worse, which would lead them to assimilate abolition to emancipation. He, indeed, believed, that the planters had used the slaves better of late, and that the reports as to cruelties, were perfectly unfounded. He was desired by a noble lord (Balcarras) to state, that it consisted with his knowledge, that the negroes in Jamaica were extremely alive as to what was going forward, and that they made no, alteration in the meaning of the words abolition and emancipation. He feared, that if 3 or 400 negroes were to fly from their masters and get into the woods, the whole military force of the island would not be able to subdue them. It was therefore necessary the house should be cautious in what they did in that respect, for he believed, in his conscience, that if the act should now pass, there would not, in the space of 3 years, be a white person left alive in any of the islands. The bill, he said, went to effect an immediate abolition. He wished to know what was expected by the supporters of it, to become of the great numbers of negroes that would be on the coast, waiting to supply the next ships that were expected out for the purpose of carrying on the trade as usual. Many of these slaves were brought by the dealers from a great distance in the interior parts of Africa. Did the hon. gent. who supported this bill suppose that the slave dealers or merchants in that country would march these poor creatures back to the different places where they were born, or had been brought, and deliver them again to their parents or relatives? If that was not the case, he feared they would be murdered, as the easiest way of getting rid of them, when there was no longer any market or means of disposing of them. But it had been said, we had a colony there. He had read the account of Capt. Holloway, who had been sent out for the purpose of acquiring all the information he could on the subject; and from this account it appeared, that the only convert made by the Sierra Leona company, was a man called Dally Morda, and he lived under the guns of the fort, and was a slave merchant; so that the company sent out to civilize the people, have furnished slave merchants for their own servants. The civil expenses of the colony were 10,000l. a year, and the military 4000l. and the whole of the rest of the settlements together on that coast, were only 13,000l. annually.

here called his right hon. friend to order, as speaking upon a subject of calculation and figures, which did not properly belong to this stage of the discussion.

said, that with every deference to his right hon. friend, he conceived he was strictly in order. He waited, however, for the Speaker's judgment—The Speaker nodded, and Mr. Rose proceeded to state, that if we abolished this trade, it would be taken up by other nations. He had himself seen letters and papers, which chewed that large offers had been made by the Spaniards to the merchants of Liverpool, to furnish them with slaves. Some of these contracts were for 15,000, some for 8000, and other numbers. If the trade is abolished, it will be of great advantage to these traders of Liverpool, for they will then be able to carry for the Spaniards 600 slaves in the same ship, by which, according to our regulations, they could only carry 400. So much for the humanity of the measure! He deplored the question having been agitated; but as it had been so, he must give it as his sentiment that the abolition will be attended with great cruelties and massacres, and with effects similar to what had occurred in St. Domingo.

explained, that the failure of success on the part of the Sierra Leone company was no argument against the establishment. This failure, he said, arose from causes of an accidental nature, and not at all connected with the general principles on which the society was founded. He did sanguinely look forward to the influence of the bill, as laying the surest foundation for civilizing the inhabitants of Africa. Till the abominable trade which the bill went to extinguish was abolished, it was impossible for any exertions, however benevolent, wholly to succeed in accomplishing this most desirable object. He was convinced that it was a measure equally founded on the most enlarged views of policy, humanity, and justice; and, therefore, he hoped that the house would consult at once their duty and their honour by its immediate adoption.

said, he denied that the bill was at all pregnant with the dangers some hon. gent. described; but, on the other hand, argued, that nothing but the immediate prohibition of the importation of fresh negroes, all most prone to insurrection, could give us a chance of retaining in peaceable possession our West India colonies. He exposed the argument drawn from the idea of the trade passing to other countries. There was every reason to expect that, at the expiration of 4 years, it would be absolutely prohibited in America. At all events, he maintained, that the idea of this taking place was no argument against our discontinuing a traffic at once inhuman, impolitic, and grossly unjust.

sincerely believed, that the condition of the blacks would be rendered yet more lamentable by the operation of this bill. He was a warm advocate for the abolition of the slave trade; and had the motion been for the consideration of the most effectual means to abolish it, and not for the bill in its present form, it would have received his cordial support. It was well known that he had given notice of a proposition for this express purpose, but the political changes which immediately followed had prevented its introduction into that house. The negroes would not be able to distinguish between the abolition proposed, and the emancipation for which they ardently panted; and he feared the most alarming and fatal consequences from this measure.

could not avoid being surprised at a direct opposition from the right hon. gent. when, by a strange inconsistency, he professed himself friendly to the general object of the bill. He said, non meus est hic sermo; for the language of the right hon. gent. was considered as inimical to the abolition by those hon. gent. who were most hostile to it, and his speech, in consequence, had attracted from them every exterior mark of approbation. Since the proposal on this important subject had been made, 340,190 victims had been dragged from their native homes to West India bondage; of which 132,000 had been imported into Jamaica. He concluded with a general examination of the few new topics of argument which had been adduced, and trusted the bill to the honour and humanity of the house.

contended, that whatever might be the efforts made to extend the population, that a farther purchase of negroes would be necessary for the cultivation of the plantations, as they were now circumstanced. Even the governor of Jamaica was known to have purchased 400 or more negroes at a time, to recruit his stock.—The house then divided on the third reading of the bill, when the numbers were, Ayes, 69, Noes, 33; Majority, 36. The bill was then read a third time, and the house adjourned.