declared, that he felt it to be an imperious duty upon him to call the attention of the house for a few minutes to the principle upon which the bill was framed, to the manner in which it was brought forward, and to other circumstances connected with that measure. The bare running over of the clauses in the committee could not possibly attract that serious attention which such an important measure required. He trusted that it would not be looked upon with indifference by the house, but that it would meet with such ample discussion as every constitutional question of such magnitude deserved. To look at the principles maintained by our ancestors, and for which they shed their blood, it will not for a moment be supposed that a British senate can silently, or almost without investigation, authorize a body of 10,000 foreign troops to be received into their country. The manner in which these troops were introduced, was particularly deserving of the attention of the house. Many of these troops were already enlisted and regimented by order of the King, for the better defence and greater security of the country. If there existed any necessity for the adoption of such a measure, he had not the least objection to a bill of indemnity being passed for what has already taken place. The introduction of these foreign troops, however, has not been attended with such parliamentary forms and notices as would have attracted the attention of the legislature more generally to the measure. It does not appear that it was resolved on originally by the privy council. The bill says, that his Majesty has thought fit to employ such a description of troops; but it is not expressed in the usual form "by and with the advice and consent of his privy council." There not being any such authority vested in the crown by the constitution of this country, and he being well convinced that it was not either the interest or the wish of his Majesty to do any thing which might be taken as a precedent hereafter, and which might, perhaps, on a future occasion, in the hands of wicked ministers, be dangerous to the liberties of the people. It then became the duty of the house, in his opinion, to inquire who it was that advised the adoption of such a measure, in so extraordinary a manner. The regular parliamentary and constitutional mode of acting, he thought, would have been for a message to have been brought to that house from the crown upon the subject, and notice to be then given, or a day fixed for the consideration of such message. This opinion might, perhaps, be erroneous; but certainly some notice ought to have been given of such an intention by some of his Majesty's ministers. That would have attracted the attention of the house, and there would, most probably, have been some regular discussion on the propriety of such a measure. It is not sufficient to say that an estimate has been already given in; that provides for only 5250 men, the bill allows 10,000. These men may also be of the Roman Catholic religion. He had no jealousy about religious opinions; on the contrary, he declared that any religion with which we are acquainted will, by its tenets, make any man who is sincere in the faith, be a better member of society in consequence of his entertaining such principles. This sincerity, however, is not always to be met with, and it might perhaps be dangerous to the liberties of a free people to admit a great body of men of a different persuasion from themselves into their country, when they would have the power of persecuting others. No doubt it might be advanced in argument, that we had a sufficient force to cope with them at any point to which they might be directed; but why employ these foreign Roman Catholics when we had such a number of other Roman Catholics, natives of this country, who were willing to employ their fortunes, and hazard their lives in its defence? When the services of these noblemen and gentlemen are positively refused to be accepted of, why should we have recourse to the employment of foreigners of the same persuasion? Why not send these troops to India for the defence of our possessions there? Why should we not wish to keep our own regular troops at home in preference to the disgraceful idea of employing foreign troops for our home defence? He understood that some of our troops were either already gone, or were now under orders for embarkation to the East; and he appealed to the honourable, to the spirited and patriotic feeling of any gent. present, if he did not think that it was better to trust the defence of England to the hands of Englishmen alone?

said, that as to the hon. gent's first objection, the estimates, they had been brought forward 6 months ago by his right hon. friend, the then Sec. at War, and the reason why they were not mentioned particularly, was, that such mention would totally have defeated the purpose, for the men, had it been known, would have been prevented from leaving Hanover. As to the 2d objection, religion; it was to be recollected, these were foreign troops, and if you mean to have foreign officers, you must take them of such religious persuasions as they may have been educated in. The hon. gent. would prefer, it seemed, the sending these foreign troops to India; but they were only enlisted during the war; and if peace should speedily arrive, the idea would not be quite so pleasing, that, after the expence of sending them out to India, they might almost immediately insist on being dismissed and sent home again; a circumstance which must be detrimental to our army in India. He hoped, therefore, that as this was only a measure of providing for a certain number of brave men who were subjects of the same sovereign, who had been forced to leave their own country, and who were desirous to fight in defence of this against the atrocious tyranny which overspread theirs; he hoped the hon. gent. would withdraw his objection, and that the bill might proceed in its course.

declared his readiness to make any exertion, or submit to almost any sacrifice for the defence of the country; but he could not consider the present measure either wise or politic. Foreigners might be very successfully employed abroad for the assistance of our own troops, in curbing the insolence of the enemy. But he never could agree in the opinion that they would be equally serviceable at home. He was well convinced that a handful of natives would, in the day of battle, if ever it should arrive, prove more effective in the defence of these islands, than thousands of any foreign force.—After a few words from Col. Calcraft, the Speaker left the chair, the house, in a committee, went through the bill, and the report was ordered to be received tomorrow.

brought up the report of the committee of supply relative to the civil list. On the question for the 2d reading of the resolutions,

rose to oppose it. He said, the public were, in his opinion, highly indebted to the hon. gent. (Mr. Addington) for having laid the papers before the house, relative to this subject. There were many parts of these accounts which he could not at all approve, but as to some of them, the house was in such a dilemma that they could not refuse their assent. It seemed the judges of the land and foreign ministers were in arrear, and though he could not refuse his assent to such things being provided for, the house, he thought, should take some precautionary measure that such an application might not occur again. He could by no means agree, in the inferences drawn from the arguments used with respect to the hereditary revenues which were always brought forward to insinuate that the public was only paying a debt, when it was called on for such large sums. On the contrary, he thought his Majesty had been fully compensated for the hereditary revenues. With respect to the article of pensions, he should have no objection to the 82,000l. a-year, if that was all; but there were others, which amount to 200,000l. and that, he thought, was fully sufficient for pensions given as private remunerations; all the great public pensions being provided out of the consolidated fund. He observed, that in class 7, there had been a saving of 20,000l. and, in another part, there was another saving of 180,000l. which, he thought, with due economy, the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, possessed of such talents as his were, might have made to answer any of the present exigencies, without coming to parliament for this very extraordinary addition to the civil list revenue. He was ready to agree that a larger and more liberal provision should be made for those who were employed in diplomatic missions. Indeed the education of such persons should be wholly directed to qualify them for such appointments. Those who were sent to represent his Majesty and the dignity of the country, should be men of talent and of character, and not persons who were sent abroad merely because they could not live at home.—He had also to complain, that a measure of such magnitude and importance should be brought on at so late a period of the session; the more urgent demands might in the interim be paid; but, in his opinion, the more mature and final consideration of the measure should be deferred till the beginning of next session.

contended, that all the sums were most accurately accounted for, and that the deficit could not be made good by the savings, which by no means amounted to what the hon. gent. seemed to expect. Neither should it be complained that the measure was brought forward at a late period of the session. The articles had already been under the consideration of two committees, and the report had been on the table for near 3 months.

said, the fact was shortly this, the house was going now to add 60,000l. a year to the civil list, more than what was fixed as the expenditure 18 years ago. When it was recollected how great a change had taken place in the circumstances of the times, and in the price of every article of life, this addition appeared to him to be necessary, otherwise debts must accumulate, and the application for similar aids must be continually repeated.

said, the hon. gent. (Mr. Johnstone) had complained of want of notice; he begged the house to recollect, that he gave notice of his intention to bring the business forward on the 7th of May, and the circumstances which prevented it were too well known for him to trouble the house with them at that moment.

said, it was altogether unnecessary for him to shew that it was impossible for him to bring this measure forward sooner. That must be obvious to every one. He should, however, have been highly in excusable if he had not brought it forward during the present session. He insisted that, notwithstanding all that had been said with regard to the sum, nothing can or ought to be Considered as an addition to the civil list, but the 60,000l.—The resolutions were then read and agreed to, and bills ordered to be brought in thereon. It was ordered that it be an instruction to the gent. appointed to bring in the bill, on the 2d resolution, to provide for laying an account of the state of the civil list, under certain circumstances, before parliament.

moved the order of the day, for taking into further consideration the report on the corn trade bill; which being read, he moved that the said report be recommitted.

desired to know if it was to be recommitted to a committee above stairs?

said, he meant it to be recommitted directly to a committee of the whole house.

said, he believed every day would bring forth fresh objections; and that after all, the country would be highly dissatisfied with this bill. He was no way desirous the price should be kept so low as at present; but would have the house take care how they made prices too high. If they would bring the prices to 56 or 58s. he would have no objection.

said, that the argument just urged by the hon. gent. would apply in a committee, and no where so well.

said, that as he could not bring himself to agree with the committee on the subject of this bill, he hoped he should be indulged with a few observations before the Speaker should leave the chair. His objection principally went to making any alteration whatever in the prices fixed in 1791. If this objection had been founded on any more abstract theories, he should have his doubts as to the propriety of it; but he had the authority of the committee itself against the measure. He was convinced, he said, that the corn trade required no other encouragement from parliament than the protection of the laws to the capital of those concerned in it. If, under that table of exports and imports, there has been a fair price to the farmer, it would be wrong to alter it, and, therefore, he found himself obliged to oppose the present measure.

observed, that the object of both those who were in favour of the bill, and those who were against it, was the same; and that object was to set the price of corn on a proper and productive footing. Those who were in favour of the bill, wished to prevent that fluctuation of price, which arose in consequence of this country being every year an importing country, instead of being able to export in ordinary years, so as to have but a small deficiency in years of scarcity. He then stated the prices at which corn was prohibited to be exported in the reign of Cha. II. when its price was much the same as the present price whereas corn, like all other things, ought to vary in its export price, according to the variations of money at different periods of time. He concluded by expressing his approbation of the bill.—The house then went into a committee of the whole house, Mr. H. Lascelles in the chair.

, in adverting to the prices, as fixed by the report, observed, that the Irish gent. must of course, wish this bill to pass, because Ireland will be able to send wheat to England, at 48s. when it cannot be sent by foreign countries at less than 63s. which is an advantage of 15s. a quarter and of 2s. 6d. besides, if they send their wheat through us to foreign countries.

said, the advantage of Ireland sending corn to this country, and this country to Ireland, would be equal, by making them apply to each other in preference to sending their money to foreign countries. So far the hon. gent. was right in his observation as to Ireland. He must, however, think the Irish a strange kind of being indeed, to suppose, that when they would have a right to export directly to foreign markets, they should be so much in love with the half crown advantage, he spoke of, as to ship their corn to England, to have it unloaded, and sent through the country, in order to ship it again for a foreign port. He was, however, very glad to acknowledge that the present bill would tend very much to the advantage of Ireland, and he hoped that every member a the house would equally rejoice with himself, in applying parliamentary provisions, that should equally benefit every part of the united empire.—Several amendments were then proposed by Mr. Ryder, Mr. Elliston, and Mr. Banks, after which Mr. Foster moved that the chairman should report progress, and ask leave to sit again. This motion was agreed to; and the house being resumed, the chairman reported accordingly, and obtained leave to sit again to-morrow.

moved, that the house resolve itself into a committee upon this bill.

proposed that it should first be printed as amended, in order that the members might have time to consider it.

thought that such a measure would only tend to produce delay.

said, he was convinced that the hon. gent. had no improper motive, and, as he also thought that the bill required many amendments, the best plan would be for the house first to go into a committee, in which the amendments might be read, and afterwards printed along with the Bill.—On the question being put,

said, he had objections to the bill, which none of the amendments that had been made to it tended to do away. There was a neglect in omitting some provisions as to the supplementary militia; and he disapproved of the manner of levying the penalties by grand juries, which was totally foreign to their original constitution. It was a tax which bore heavily upon the peasantry, and totally freed non-residents from contributing their proportion towards the service of the state.

said, that no alteration could be made on that proposed mode of taxation, without altering the common law of the country. It was avowedly the same plan which had been adopted as to every other taxation throughout the kingdom.—The house went into a committee. The report was brought up, ordered to be taken into further consideration on Thursday next, and the bill to be printed as amended.—Adjourned.