Monday, May 17, 1813.

The Speaker acquainted the House, that he had received from the right hon. Gilbert lord Minto the following Letter, in return to the Thanks of this House, signified to him, in obedience to their commands of the 10th day of January 1812.

"Sir; Fort William, 30th July 1812.

"I have had the honour of receiving your letter of the 14th of January, communicating to me the Thanks of the House of Commons upon the occasion of the reduction of the islands of the Mauritius and Bourbon, and of the island of Java, as conveyed in the Resolution of the House of the 10th of January 1812.

"I should endeavour in vain to express, in adequate terms, my profound and grateful sense of the gracious and indulgent view taken by the House of the share which, in the situation I have the honour to fill, the course of public events afforded me the opportunity, or, I should rather say, rendered it a positive duty of my office to assume in those transactions.

"If I had neglected to improve the favourable occasions thus presented to me of accomplishing objects which appeared to myself, which by the declared sentiments and by the measures of his Majesty's ministers, I know to be esteemed by them, and which are now finally declared, by the authority of the House of Commons, to be important to the public interests, I should have incurred the just displeasure of the House, and should have merited the disgraceful reproach of shrinking from the hazards of personal responsibility, by a sacrifice of the public good.

"That the performance of duties, which it would have been deeply culpable to omit, should have been deemed worthy of the highest and most gratifying recompence which the world affords, I can ascribe only to the liberality with which the House, in its wisdom, seeks to stimulate exertion, by adding to the sense and obligation of duty, the animating hope of public approbation.

"These important services have been achieved, in truth, by ability, prudence, and enterprize in the commanders, and by bravery and discipline in the troops, which have never been surpassed. In the splendid and immortal actions which have signalized these conquests, and in the glory which justly crowns victorious valour and conduct, I have never sought any other participation than the privilege which my office afforded, of bearing to them a true, cordial, and zealous testimony.

"My own duties were indeed directed to the same object, but were of a nature wholly distinct; nor did I omit, for a moment, any means in my power to prevent the possibility of their being confounded in the public eye. I shall never reflect, without gratification and pride, on the genuine uninterrupted cordiality, and on the sound sincere spirit of co-operation which prevailed, from the first hour to the last, between the military authority and my own; but the utmost indulgence of those sentiments did not require that I should relax for a moment in the studied manifestation uniformly and anxiously displayed of the broad and sufficiently obvious distinction between the respective functions of the two.

"Yet, far as I am from preferring what would appear to myself at once a groundless and dishonourable, as it would certainly and justly prove a fruitless, claim to the slightest share in the military fame of these events, I will nevertheless rely so far on the goodness of the House as to avow that even the inestimable honour which I am now acknowledging is much enhanced, in my estimation, by enabling my name to descend to posterity in connection, a connection established by the proceedings of the House itself, with the illustrious conquerors of the French islands and of Java.

"I entreat you to lay my humble and grateful thanks before the House, for the high and eminent distinction it has been pleased to confer upon me.

"You will permit me, I hope, at the same time, to assure you, Sir, personally, of the lively sense I entertain of the gratifying and obliging terms in which you have done me the honour of communicating to me the Resolution of the House. I have the honour to be, &c. MINTO."

"To the right hon. Charles Abbot."

A Petition of several persons now carrying on the trade of felmongers in the parish of Saint Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in the county of Surrey, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners observe, by the votes of the House, that a Petition from several masters and journeymen mechanics artificers and handycraftsmen has been presented to the House, and is now pending therein, for leave to bring in a Bill to explain amend and render more effectual the statute passed in the 5th year of queen Elizabeth, intituled, 'An Act containing 'divers orders for artificers labourers ser-'vants of husbandry and apprentices;' and that by the said statute it is, amongst other things, enacted that no person shall set up use or exercise any art mystery or occupation then used within the realm of England and Wales, except that he should have been brought up therein seven years at the least as an apprentice; nor are the said petitioners by such statute permitted to set any person to work except such as should be apprentices thereto for the said term of seven years or have served such an apprenticeship, or be hired by the lease, under the penalty of forty shillings for every month of such employment; and that the trade so carried on by the petitioners consists of the manufacture of raw skins into leather or parchment, and of wool, which require to be put, as soon as purchased in the raw state, under a process of manufacture, for the preventing the heating and damage thereof; and that the journeymen employed by the petitioners have frequently, from their small number, been able to agree together for an advance of wages, and in particular at a time when the petitioners had purchased large quantities of raw skins, the journeymen who had served apprenticeships to the said trade declined to continue in the employ of the petitioners, unless the wages to them paid were considerably advanced, although their wages were then very large; and that many of the petitioners, in order to pre- vent the great loss they would otherwise have sustained, were at that time compelled to advance the wages by them paid, on which the journeymen for some time continued in their employ, but having soon after required a further advance, and the petitioners not complying therewith, they left their employ, which compelled the petitioners to obtain men from other trades, to prevent a total destruction of the raw material, and to enter into contracts with other young men, for short terms of three, four, and five years, to learn the trade; and that many of the young men so bound have, under such contracts, been fully taught and instructed in the said art or trade of a fellmonger, and have become skilful workmen therein, and enabled to support and maintain themselves and families; and that, should such persons be now prevented from following such trade, or the petitioners prevented from following the said trade of a fellmonger, or the setting of persons to work therein, unless such persons should have served an apprenticeship of seven years, it would become a great hardship on the persons so bound for a less term than seven years, a great injury to the petitioners, and to the trade and commerce of this United Kingdom; and that, so far from the said Act of the 5th year of queen Elizabeth now requiring to be rendered more effectual, by subjecting the persons now engaged in such trades to further penalties and restrictions, the petitioners most humbly conceive, and with all due respect submit to the House, that encouragement should be given to all persons who will employ their time, talents or capitals in trade and commerce; and that it would be of advantage to the state if such Act, so far as it prevents such employment, was totally repealed; and praying, that so much of the said Act as subjects or makes liable to penalties any person or persons who should use or exercise any art, mystery or manual occupation, unless he or they have been brought up therein seven years at the least as an apprentice, or the setting to work any person who shall not have served an apprenticeship to such trade for seven years, may be repealed, and that the petitioners may be heard, by themselves, counsel, witnesses or agents, in support of the allegations herein contained, as to the House shall seem meet."

Ordered to be referred to the Committee on the former Petition.

A Petition of the freeholders, commissioners of supply, heritors, and justices of the peace of the county of Dumbarton, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That the experience the petitioners have had of the mode by which the tax on income is levied on tenants and occupiers of land in Scotland, most completely convinces them of the unequal pressure of it on that description of his Majesty's subjects, insomuch that with the most ardent desire to render this tax as productive to the revenue as possible, they feel confident that the enactment, declaring in all cases one-half of the land rent to be profit, is as arbitrary in its principle as it is highly oppressive in its execution; and that the petitioners are impressed with the fullest conviction that the profits arising from tenanted lands in Scotland do not amount, upon the average, to more than one-third part of the rent paid; and that by the statute 46 Geo. 3, c. 65, it is also enacted, that at the end of every seven years of the duration of a lease, the lands occupied shall be re-valued, and the benefits which a farm may have received by the outlay of a tenant's capital thereon, shall subject him to an increased rate of taxation; and this they humbly conceive to be most unjust in its principle and operation, and most highly injurious to the improvement of bad or waste lands, as it is a fact well known to every agriculturist, that although the farmer's capital is expended in the amelioration of his leasehold, the returns have not, in seven years, in any measure indemnified him for his expended capital, so that at this period of his lease he may be said to have sunk his capital without a return, and to have incurred a heavy penalty, under the authority of an act of parliament, for having presumed to raise two blades of grass or corn where only one or none grew before; and that the petitioners are aware of the reasoning which may be used with some appearance of justice for fixing an arbitrary profit on agricultural industry, that the great body of farmers are not, from their education and pursuits, qualified to render such written statements or accounts of their annual gains to commissioners under the Property Tax, as men of other professions are by law required to do, but while this is conceded, the great desideratum is to fix down the arbitrary assessment on the farmer, upon a principle known by the experience of the Act complained of to be more fair than what is now practised; and that the petitioners do most solemnly declare (many of them being commissioners under the Property Tax Act) that it is their firm belief the Scottish occupiers of land will pay to the full their proportion of the tax on income, by their profits being rated at one-third part of the amount of rent paid, and no re-valuation to take place at the expiry of every seven years of the existing leases, until the said leases shall exceed the term of 19 or 21 years; and praying the House to alter so much of the existing statute as charges the tenant or occupier of land in Scotland to the Property Tax with a profit equal to one-half of his annual rent, and which orders a re-valuation of all farms at the expiration of seven years, and to have it enacted that the Scotch farmer's profits shall not be computed at more than one-third of the rents actually paid, and that no re-valuation shall take place until a lease shall have endured for 19 or 21 years.

Ordered to lie upon the table.