and, if successful in that object, to follow it up at least with a resolution of the strongest censure.

He then moved, "That an ac

Mr. Sheridan's motion was put and carried. count be laid before the house of the number of men withdrawn from that service, in order to form an expedition to the coast of France, under Lord Moira;” which, after an amendment confining it to certain dates and specifications, was agreed to. The next motion, "An account of the number of men, who, after the conquest of Martinique, St. Lucie, and Guadaloupe, were detached to St. Domingo, by Sir Charles Grey, in obedience to orders from home," was put and carried. The fourth motion, "That the different applications made by the several commandersin-chief for reinforcements, since the appointment of Sir R. Abercrombie, be laid before this house, or such other parts of the same as can with safety be communicated," was withdrawn, on the undertaking of Mr. Dundas to give all the information in his power upon that head. The fifth, "That returns be laid before the house of the several reinforcements which actually arrived in the West Indies during that period, specifying the distribution of the force, and the dates when they arrived," being amended, by confining it to dates, &c., was agreed to.

Mr. Sheridan then moved for an account of the appointment of Sir John Borlase Warren to the expedition to Quiberon, and also that of General Doyle, together with an account of the regiments serving under him. Mr. Sheridan observed that the right hon. gentleman, in the course of his speech to-night, never made an allusion to the expedition to Quiberon; he was very wise to avoid it. He (Mr. Sheridan) also omitted that expedition in his speech, which, in him, was a foolish omission. This expedition certainly, to a great degree, impeded the West India expedition, and some account of it was therefore proper to be laid before the house, when the West India expedition was to be discussed.

Mr. Pitt objected to this motion; and after some observations by Mr. Sheridan, it was put and negatived.

Mr. Sheridan then moved,

"That there be laid before the house extracts of all letters from Admiral Christian and General Abercrombie, from the date of their appointment, respecting the delay of the sailing of the expedition." This was also put and negatived. Mr. Sheridan then moved,

"That there be laid before the house a return of the number of ships foundered or missing, and the number of men lost or missing, belonging to the expedition under General Abercrombie."

Mr. Dundas said, that the ships missing were four in number, but it was impossible to know how many, or whether any of them were foundered, or whether they were captured. If the hon. gentleman wished to have the names of the ships which did not arrive at Barbadoes, a list of these might be made out, but other information could not be given to him. The question was then put and negatived.

Mr. Sheridan wished to know whether the right hon. gentleman meant to state, that the expedition to Quiberon composed part of the expedition to the West Indies; whether the force sent to the West Indies in the aggregate, as ministers contended, or as he contended, should have been sent in detachments? Was Lord Moira to go to the West Indies? He should, in order to explain this, move,

"That there be laid before the house a return of the general and staff officers belonging to the regiments in England, serving under Lord Moira, in the years 1794 and 1795."

Mr. Dundas promised to give the substance of this information in another form. The motion was withdrawn.

Mr. Sheridan then moved,

"That there be laid before the house a copy of the instructions given to Sir John Borlase Warren, relative to the expedition to Quiberon in June and July, 1795."

Mr. Pitt opposed it on the general ground which he had stated already, that the expedition to Quiberon had no connexion with that to the West Indies, and that they should be considered in separate discussions.

Mr. Sheridan maintained that they were connected, for that the troops which were sent to Quiberon and Isle Dieu, ought to have been sent to the West Indies, and the blame rested with ministers that these troops were not sent to the West Indies.

Mr. Sheridan then moved,

"That there be laid before the house an account of the number of men who died on board transports at Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, or in ports of Great Britain or Ireland, destined for the West Indies, in the years 1794 and 1795."

Mr. Pitt opposed this motion. The account could not be given accurately; besides, if it could, it would only afford a melancholy picture, the examination of which could produce no good.

General Smith thought this answer a very extraordinary one, and supported

the motion.

Mr. Fox enforced the propriety of ministers assigning better reasons for refusing information to the house than they had done in the discussion of this business. The motion was put and negatived.

Mr. Sheridan next moved for

"Copies or extracts of letters or memorials on this subject from the officers commanding the troops on board the said transports, from the mayor of Plymouth, or from Lord George Lenox, governor of Plymouth garrison. The motion was then put and negatived.

The remainder of Mr. Sheridan's motions were all agreed to, excepting that

for laying before the house the correspondence of the ordnance and transport board, which, after a conversation in which Mr. Grey, Mr. Sheridan, the Secretary at War, Mr. Fox, General Smith, and Mr. M. Robinson took a part, was negatived.

Mr. Dundas then moved for a long list of letters of different dates, 1794 and 1795, from Sir Charles Grey, Sir John Jarvis, General Williamson, and other naval and military commanders in the West Indies. Ordered.

APRIL 29.

BILL FOR ABOLISHING EXISTING GAME LAWS.

Mr. Curwen moved the second reading. Captain Berkeley moved, "That it be read a second time this day three months."

MR. SHERIDAN agreed with his hon. friend. He was always an enemy to the existing game laws, because he was an enemy to injustice and oppression. He thought it an odd idea of the right of property, to say property was the creature of the law; but if it was so, the law ought to follow up its own principle, and protect it. Was it criminal for a man to destroy the animals which destroyed his property? Yet that was the principle of the existing law. Persons have been transported for invading that property, which it was lawful for animals to destroy, that they might afford sport to a few qualified people; and in this manner has property for a long time been the sport of law. If every man was permitted to share in the amusement on his own estate, he would be desirous to preserve the game upon it for the sake of that amusement, and not be anxious to annihilate it, as he does now, from a just indignation. And he was apprehensive, that if game were saleable also, instead of having the country paled round with gibbets, as it now is, it would contribute greatly to reduce the penal code; for, by the act of George I. many persons had suffered imprisonment for life, for partaking of that pleasure which the law decreed exclusively to others; but which no principle of right, humanity, or justice could defend. Though he saw no chance that the bill would ultimately be successful, yet he wished exceedingly that it might be committed, and the objectionable parts more particularly pointed at. At all events, he hoped that the act of George I. might be repealed, for nothing could more disgrace our laws.

The house divided on Captain Berkeley's motion-ayes 65; noes 17: majority against the bill 48.

MAY 9.

SUPPLY.-FOREIGN CORN.

Upon the resolution being moved for granting the sum of £438,035, for defraying the expense of foreign corps, raised for the service of Great Britain,

MR. SHERIDAN said, he should object, in the most positive terms, to this country's continuing to employ a set of men, who, it was apparent, were men that could not in any manner, or in any place, be depended on, and whom it was impossible, without betraying the interests of this country, to send either on an expedition to the West Indies, or any other place where the troops might be necessary. He did not perfectly understand what might be the destination of the troops that were the objects of this expense, nor how many regiments of them at present existed; neither did he know where they were at present; but this he knew, that the employment of emigrants against their countrymen, had been attended with fatal consequences to this country, and had been productive only of that expense and disgrace which, he was well assured, the continuance of such an absurd system would but tend to increase and aggravate.

The secretary at war answered.

Mr. Sheridan replied to what had fallen from the right hon. secretary at war, concerning the failure of the Quiberon expedition being classed among the unforeseen calamities of civil war. If ministers will employ men who are unworthy of trust and confidence, who have proved themselves so on every occasion where they have been trusted, what can be expected but defeat, ruin, and disgrace? As to the Quiberon affair, he had always thought it, and should ever think it, one of the worst planned, most inhumanly mismanaged expeditions, that ever disgraced the annals of this or any other country.

The resolution was agreed to.

REAL SUCCESSION TAX BILL.

Mr. Pitt moved, "That the order of the day for the further consideration of the report of this bill should be read, and the report now taken into consideration." Mr. Crewe objected to the tax, and moved, "That the report be taken into consideration this day three months."

Mr. Sheridan said, he could not give a silent vote on the question. He would not follow the learned gentleman (the attorneygeneral) through the long detail of the difference between the

English and Scotch laws. What had fallen from the gentlemen on both sides of the house, many of whom could not possibly be actuated by party motives, would, he trusted, induce the right hon. gentleman to grant the delay, which, he perceived, in a certain degree was wrung from him, in consequence of the arguments which he had heard this night. The attorney-general had made some general observations on taxes, and asserted that, in his mind, the present tax was less objectionable than any he remembered to have been lately imposed. But the present, Mr. Sheridan was convinced, was the most execrable measure of finance that ever came before parliament; and if he excepted the legacy bill, it was merely because it had been sanctioned by an act of the legislature. He did not scruple to say, that both with respect to the Scotch and English laws, the present bill was utterly impracticable! and if time were allowed, even till Thursday, any gentleman who examined it with a keen eye, would see that it abounded with the grossest errors and inconsistencies. He was against any tax that shifted the burden to posterity; for he thought that those who submitted to measures which necessarily produced taxation, should themselves feel the burden, as it might operate to prevent them from supporting the present irrational system of warfare. He had used this language on a former occasion, and he would use it again, though it might be perverted as heretofore, without doors, by those who made him say, that he wished that the people were heavily burthened with taxes. The present measure was defended on the grounds, that it was a tax to support a war calculated to put a stop to the progress of Jacobin principles, and to prevent the poor from robbing the rich. Was the measure desirable on the grounds, that his Majesty's ministers were justifiable in robbing the rich in preference to the poor? Such an argument reminded him of the shepherd in the farce, who said he had a mode of curing the sheep of the rot; but when asked how? he replied, by cutting

their throats.

The house divided—for the consideration of the report now 81; against it 52.

MAY 10.

WINE DUTY.

MR. SHERIDAN said, that notwithstanding the notice he had given of his intention to move for a clause to render the stock of