The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that to do what the hon. Gentleman recommended, would be to enable those who were unwilling to contribute to efcape, while it would lay the burden on thofe who in other cafes had evinced a difpofition to contribute to the public exigencies. A confiderable fum might certainly be raised without reforting to the means propofed by the bill; but a fum falling very fhort indeed of what was intended to be raised by the bill, or what was neceffary for the public fervice. The provifions, if adopted, were not stronger than the neceffity of the cafe required, and without them, the evafions which were notoriously practifed hitherto, could never be obviated. There was a material difference between a partial difclosure made to a certain set of felect perfors, and a difclosure made public to the world: feeling of the provisions as he did, he must certainly press their adoption in the committee.

The committee then divided upon the claufe enabling the

commiffioners to call for the disclosure.

For the claufe
Against it

80

4

On the claufe which provides that an appeal fhall be allowed from the decision of the commiffioners to other commiffioners, and that the appeal fhall be allowed to the furveyor, as well as to the perfon charged, a warm debate arose, in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Solicitor General, Mr. Simeon, Mr. Percival, Mr. York, and others, fupported the clause, and confidered it as only a queftion like of civil fuit, and granting a new trial; and Mr. Wigley, Mr. Western, and Sir W. Geary oppofed it, and confidered the allowance of appeal to the furveyor like giving an accufer the power of having a man tried a fecond time for a crime of which he had been acquitted; for although, in ftrictness of language, it was not a crime that a man was accused of when he was charged with having given in a falfe account of his income; yet, as it involved his character as a man of honour or of morality, the charge partook of the nature of a criminal charge.

Mr. Tierney likened the provision to fome of thofe reforted to in France, during "the infamous reign of Robespierre!" He averred that the furveyors were placed in the fituation of the French public accufer; and that the fecond fet of commillioners to whom appeals were to be made, were placed precifely in the fame predicament as Robespierre's committee of revision.

Mr.

Mr. Simeon fpoke in reply-And after a short explanatory converfation the committee divided

59

9-Majority 50

For the Appeal Against it The Houle being refumed, progrefs was reported, and leave was given for the chairman to fit again the next day.

Mr. Long brought up the bill for allowing further time for taking out certificates for the ufe of armorial bearings. Read a first time-ordered to be read a fecond time next

day.

Deferred the other orders of the day.--Adjourned at one o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

THURSDAY, DEC. 20.

The militia voluntary fervice bill received the royal affent by commiffion.

The land tax redemption amended bill was read a fecond time.

The loan bill was alfo read a fecond time, as were the private bills read the preceding day for the first time.

The amendments in the English fmall note bill were reported and agreed to.

The confideration of the regulations of the laft feffion relative to inclosure, drainage, eftate bills, &c. which stood for the next day, was put off to Wednesday the 26th instant.

Ordered, that the Houfe thould receive no reports from the judges upon petititions prefented for private bills after Thurfday the 15th of March, 1799.-Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

THURSDAY, DEC. 20.

Leave was given to bring in a bill to enable his Majefty to grant a licence to a theatre to be established in Rochester. The neutral bottom trade bill was read a third time. Mr. Wilberforce faid, that before the Houfe proceeded to the important business of the day, he wifhed to draw their attention to a fubject in which they were deeply interested. He did not know whether what he was about to ftate would be confidered as a notice of a motion, or would lead to a motion; this would depend upon the manner in which it was received.

Here

Here Mr. Wilberforce was interrupted by the fummons of the black rod to the Houfe of Lords, where the House attended to hear the royal affent given to a variety of bills. After the speaker returned,

Mr. Wilberforce proceeded. The fubject to which he alluded was one, in which not only the character of individual Members, but the character and dignity of the House itself, was deeply concerned. There was a standing order of the Houfe for the exclusion of strangers during the fitting. It was well known, however, that by the indulgence of the Houfe this order was not ftrictly enforced, and for a confiderable time paft it had been the practice to publish in the newspapers and other publications what profeffed to be a report of the proceedings and debates of the Houfe of Commons. It could not efcape obfervation at the fame time, that under colour of thefe reports great mifrepresentations of what was done here often went abroad into the world; mifreprefentations calculated to miflead the public mind and to degrade the character of Parliament. It would well become the Houfe to confider feriously the confequences of this abufe, and the means by which it might be remedied. At a time too when it was known that there were perfons in the country who wifhed to ftrike a blow at the Conftitution and the character of Parliament itfelf, by degrading the character of individual Members, and mifreprefenting the general proceedings of the House, it became matter of ferious importance to correct such an abuse, and to prevent an evil of fuch dangerous tendency. If it were merely the caufe of an individual, if it merely arofe from the mifre prefentations to which he himself might perfonally have been fubject, perhaps he could not with propriety prefs it fo earneftly on the House. This, however, was by no means the view of the cafe which induced him to call the attention of the Houfe to the fubject. With regard to himself, indeed, it seemed to him as if there had been for fome time a studied defign to mifreprefent what he had faid. It was not of his own fituation in this refpect of which he complained. He had been sometimes told in the country that he had both spoken and voted differently in the Houfe from what he had done. He had found, however, that thefe mifreprefentations in his own cafe had proved unfuccefsful, and he trufted that his language and conduct were approved by those whose approbation he valued. It was not merely as it regarded the character of individuals that he complained of the mifrepre

fenta

fentations; the House itself was concerned. He had often feen that after a speech, in which all the arguments on one fide were ftated, that part of the debate in which every one of these arguments had been refuted, was left out, and the bufinefs fent abroad as if the impreffion of thofe arguments had remained on the Houfe, and that they had not been anfwered. He had often in the country seen fenfible men mifled by fuch reprefentations. The evil defign with which fuch things were done demanded a remedy, and he begged most seriously to recommend it to their attention. The mode of applying the remedy he left to the confideration of the Houfe itself. The fyftem of calumny, falfehood, and mifreprefentation purfued was calculated to affect materially the character and honour of the Houfe. Never was there a period which required their more earnest attention to preferve that character from mifrepresentation than when there exifted a deliberate defign to vilify and to degrade the Houfe of Commons as a body, and to undermine, along with it the whole Conftitution. No man could with more than he did that the proceedings of the House should be fairly stated to the public, for the more they were known the more would the excellence of the Conftitution appear. If, however, it was impoffible to give fuch full and fair publicity to the proceedings of the Houfe, the only alternative that remained was to weigh the inconveniences which now refulted from the practice, and to fay that the proceedings fhould be fairly reported, or not all. He had often balanced the advantages of the proceedings of the Houfe being stated, and the neceffity of excluding ftrangers altogether, to prevent those calumnies and mifreprefentations which took place. He did not intend to move any thing on the fubject this day; he only conjured the Houfe to confider feriously of the evil, and the remedy which it required. The particular occafion which it had induced him now to start a fubject, on which he had often reflected, was, on finding that an Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Tierney) had faid, that the circumftance of there being only 36 Members prefent on Tuesday laft, at four o'clock, was a proof that even the House itself was not well inclined to the measure. A fatisfactory answer was then given to this point, but no notice was taken of the anfwer, while the infinuation went abroad into the world. The fame thing he had obferved last year, when the Affeffed Tax Bill was under confideration. An Hon. Gentleman, lately not in the habit of attending the Houfe much, made

a long

a long speech against the measure, in the middle of which he introduced an infinuation of the fame nature with that which had gone abroad, and it had produced very bad effects, and given a very erroneous impreffion of the fubject to many refpectable perfons. To the infinuation made by the Hon. Gentleman laft night, he fhould now repeat what he had faid laft night. So far from proving that they were difinclined to the measure, their being abfent at four o'clock proved that they wished to go into the confideration of it. When Gentlemen intended to go away early, they came early; when they expected the bulinefs to last long, they either went to take the neceffary refreshment, or to finish what other bufinefs they had for the day, that they might be able to give their attention to the fubject when it came on. He felt it important that the infinuation of the Hon. Gentleman should not be allowed to go abroad, to give the idea that the House itfelf was not favourable to the measure before it. As to the general fubject of which he had spoken, he hoped that the House would turn their ferious attention to it, in order to apply a remedy to an abufe which threatened such confequences.

Nothing followed on this speech.

The Armorial Bearings Duty Bill was read a fecond time. The Bill for granting relief to the Merchants of Grenada and St. Vincents was read pro forma on the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, after which he moved for leave to bring in a bill to extend the period for the payment of the inftalments due by thefe Merchants on the advances. made to them by Government.-Leave being given

The Chancellor of the Exchequer brought up the Bill, which was read a first and second time, and ordered to be committed.

BILL TO SECURE SUSPECTED PERSONS,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved, that the Bill to enable his Majefly to fecure and detain such persons as he fufpected were confpiring against his perfon and government (the Habeas Corpus Sufpenfion Act) be read, which being done, he faid, that the fituation of affairs fo clearly proved the policy and neceffity of continuing that meafure for a further time, that he fhonld not fay a word by way of preface to his motion for leave to bring in a Bill to extend for a limited time the provifions of that Act.

Leave being given,

The