Friday, November 19, 1813.

Mr. Calcraft presented a Petition of several apothecaries, surgeon apothecaries, practitioners in midwifery, in England and Wales; setting forth,

"That apothecaries, surgeon apothecaries, and practitioners in midwifery, from the great majority of the medical practitioners of England and Wales, and are very generally intrusted with the medical and surgical care of the population of this kingdom; and that none of the above branches of the medical profession can be practised, with benefit or even safety to the community, unless the practitioners have acquired a competent professional knowledge by some regular medical education; and that there is no existing law to prevent persons, without any proper medical education, from practising in all or any of the above branches; and a great number of persons, therefore, in every part of the kingdom, assume the character, and exercise the functions of the apothecary, surgeon apothecary, and practitioner in midwifery, who are wholly ignorant, and utterly incompetent to the performance of the duties of the profession; whereby the health of the community is endangered, and the general character of the profession disgraced and brought into disrepute; and that it is essential to the preservation of the character of the profession, and to the interest of the community at large, that provision should be made for remedying the above evils; and praying that leave may be given to bring in a Bill for the same."

Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to a committee, with power to send for persons, papers, and records.

Mr. Rose presented a Petition of several printers of London; setting forth,

"That the capital employed in the business of printing in London has, within a few years, been greatly extended, and has led to a proportionate increase in the revenue arising from this important branch of trade; and that the industry and skill of persons engaged in it have led to a very considerable improvement in the art, and gradually advanced it to a degree of excellence which it never at any former period attained; and that the petitioners humbly submit, that it is of the highest consequence in a national view, both as it relates to the prosperity of this interesting department of business, and as it concerns the public revenues of the country, that the persons engaged in it should not experience those discouragements to which they are at present subject, arising from the undue exercise and application of privilege conferred by the legislature for different and very laudable purposes; and the petitioners humbly represent to the House, that, by the statute of the 43d of his present Majesty, chapter 69, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and also the Universities of Scotland, are exempted from the payment of any duty upon paper used within their precincts in printing books in the Latin, Greek, Oriental, or Northern languages; that this exemption, it is humbly submitted, was intended to operate as an encouragement to literature in those establishments, and was not meant to be made use of for the purposes of trade, to the injury of the rest of his Majesty's subjects; that it has accordingly always been considered in this light by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; those ancient and venerable institutions have never suffered their presses to be degraded by employing them for pecuniary emolument; but, in the valuable publications which they have given to the world, have been governed solely by a view to the advancement of literature, and the maintenance of their own reputation and character; and that a different practice, however, has recently prevailed in the universities of Scotland, particularly at Glasgow, and which, if continued, must not only put an end to a most important branch of printing in England, but prove highly injurious to his Majesty's revenue; and that circular letters have been addressed by the printer of that University to different booksellers in London, proposing to print for them, in the way of trade, any of the Greek or Roman classics, and offering, as an inducement or bounty, to allow them the drawback upon paper; that this plan has already been acted upon to a considerable extent; and it must be obvious, that if, in addition to the advantages which the Scotch printer derives from the comparative cheapness of labour in that part of the island, he is to be permitted to make use of the drawback for the purposes of trade, and to carry it to market, in order to purchase employment; if this abuse of the exemption, which was granted by the legislature for a very different purpose, is to continue, not only the printing of all works in the Greek and Latin languages must, within a short period, be transferred to that country, but the revenue arising from the paper employed in such publications, amounting to a very considerable sum, be entirely lost to the government; the petitioners beg leave, further, most humbly to suggest to the House, that, besides the loss to the revenue, and the severe injury to the English printer, to which they have adverted, the monopoly of this important branch of the art, which must necessarily result from the continuance of the above system cannot fail to produce consequences extremely unfavourable to the cause of literature in this part of the island; and the petitioners also feel in their duty to represent to the House that the measure of which they complain has led to another most serious abuse; by the same statute (the 43rd of his Majesty), a drawback of a part of the duty upon paper is allowed upon the exportation of printed books; and it has already, in some instances, happened, and the same will of necessity frequently occur, that, upon the exportation of books printed in the manner above mentioned, and upon which an allowance of the duty was, in the first instance, made, a second drawback has been obtained; the consequence, therefore, of the continuance of the practice of which the petitioners complain, will be, that his Majesty's government will not only lose the whole duty upon the paper employed in printing works of the above description, but will be called upon to pay a considerable sum out of the Treasury to the exporters of such publications; it is humbly submitted, therefore, to the House, that, as well for the sake of his Majesty's revenue, as on account of the injury which the petitioners and the cause of literature in this part of the island must sustain if the abuse of the university privilege, and of the liberality of parliament, should continue, some check ought to be imposed upon this practice by the authority either of the legislature or of the government; and that this is not the first attempt that has been made in Scotland to extend, to the disadvantage of others, the privileges with respect to printing vested in particular individuals in that country; for it may be in the recollection of the House, that, about the year 1800, the persons, filling the office of King's printer in Scotland, and who had the right of printing the Holy Bible and New Testament in that country, attempted to introduce copies of those books into England, to the injury of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; they were however at length restrained by a decree of the court of Chancery, which was afterwards affirmed upon appeal to the House of Peers; that the petitioners beg leave humbly, to suggest, from analogy to the principle of the above mentioned decision, that the exemption from the duties upon paper, granted by the legislature to the universities of Scotland with a view to the encouragement of literature, whatever operation it may be permitted to have in that part of the United Kingdom, ought not to be allowed to be thus perverted from its original object, and applied to the purposes of trade, to the ruin of an important branch of printing in England, and to the serious injury of the revenue; and praying the House to take their case into their favourable consideration, and to adopt such regulations as will prevent in future the irregularities before mentioned, and relieve the petitioners from the injury they sustain from the practice of them."

Ordered, That the said Petition do lie upon the table.

The House went into a Committee of Supply.

Lord Castlereagh then brought in it Bill to give effect to certain engagements of the king of Great Britain with the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia. It was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time on Monday.