three children the iffue of the marriage living, viz. one fon and two daughters,

The facts refpecting the adultery of Mrs. Ricketts with Cha. Wm. Taylor, Elq,, were proved to have taken place in the month of May, 1797, and at fubfequent periods, principally by the evidence of one Crook, a taylor who refided oppofite to the houfe of Mr. Taylor in Margaret ftreet, Cavendish square, and by the waiting woman of Mrs. Ricketts, who depofed, that her mistress had acknowledged to her the adulterous intercourfe which fubfifted between her and Mr. Taylor. Several letters which paffed between Mrs. Ricketts and Mr. Taylor, in which the nature of their connection was repeatedly alluded to, were alfo read in evidence. It appeared further, that Mr. Ricketts brought an action against Mr. Taylor in the Court of King's Bench, in Mi-chaelmas term, 1797, and obtained therein a verdict in his favour, and an award of damages in the fum of 5000l.

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A final fentence of divorce a menfa et thoro was also obtained by Mr. Ricketts in the Confiftory Court of London. After the evidence had been gone through, the question was put for the appearance of the petitioner at the bar, agreeably to the late regulations of the Houfe, when their Lordhips refolved in the negative.

The bill was then read a fecond time, and ordered to be committed on Monday next.After which their Lordships adjourned to that day,, ..

MHOUSE OF COMMONS.

FRIDAY, DEC. 28,

The bill for fufpending the Habeas Corpus A&t, aud the bill for exempting certain perfons ferving in the volunteer corps from being ballotted in the militia; were read a third time, and paffed... Lan &

INCOME BILL.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the order of the day for the Houfe to take into further confideration the re port on the Income Bill. tion

Mr. Dent faid, he could not help obferving that the House was much too thin to proceed on fuch important business as this. If the attendance of members could not be enforced otherwife than by a call, he thought the call ought to take place. It was a very improper thing for fuch a measure as

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this to be neglected by the members of that Houfe. Here was a bill for raising ten millions of money on the people of this country, and fcarcely fifty members of the House of Commons prefent at the difcuffion of it. This, he took leave to fay, was difgraceful on the part of those members who did not attend.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, there was no doubt but that this bill was very important, and he allowed it was for raising ten millions of money; but he did not fee why the members fhould be particularly rebuked for their abfence on this particular ftage of the proceeding, wheh it was well known that a pretty full attendance had been given to it in the difcuffion of the principle, and in the courfe of the detail. As to the idea of a call, it would certainly force members to walk into the Houfe, but it could not prevent them from walking out again.

Mr. Dent faid, he thought a call would have fome effect in point of attendance.

The order of the day being read, the House proceeded on the amendments made in the committee on the bill, fome of which were agreed to, and others rejected, &c.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer then obferved, that he had a number of claufes to propofe, which he wished to have difcuffed in a committee; and therefore he propofed to have the bill recommitted in refpect to thefe claufes only, and for the purpose of receiving feveral amendments to the bill. He moved to that effect.

Mr. W. Smith afked, whether this differed in fubftance from a recommitment of this bill?

The Speaker faid, it would have this difference: the committee would be confined to claufes which fhould hereafter, be offered, and to amendments in the body of the bill; whereas a recommitment of the bill generally, would annul all the proceedings of the Houfe in agreeing to or rejecting any of the amendments of the former committee. This was not a novel proceeding, it had been heretofore adopted in the Houfe.

The motion being put, the Houfe refolved itself into a committee of the whole Houfe to confider of claufes to be offered, &c.

Several new claufes were propofed and agreed to, after a good deal of converfation.

The House being refumed, the report was ordered to be received the next day.-Adjourned.

HOUSE

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

SATURDAY, DEC. 29.

The report of the committee on the Herring Fishery was brought up, and ordered to be taken into confideration on Monday.

The bill for establishing a Court of Judicature in Newfoundland and the Iflands adjacent, went through a committee of the whole Houfe, and the report was ordered to be received on Monday.

INCOME BIEL

Mr. John Smith brought up the report of the committee of the preceding day for amendments in the body, and for receiving new claufes to the Income Bill. The amendments were all read and agreed to, and a number of new claufes were propofed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and adopted by the Houle,

Mr. Tierney faid, he was defired by a number of Noblemen and Gentlemen of extenfive poffeffions to afk leave of the Houfe to bring up a claufe for allowing them to deduct from their income before it be made chargeable by this bill, the allowance they made to their agents for managing their eftates. He did not mean stewards, but perfons who were neceffarily employed in the management of their eftates. These were not to be confidered as perfons employed out of parade, oftentation, or indolence of the owners of the land, but were perfons abfolutely neceflary for the management of eftates where the poffeflions were extenfive. Suppofing, for inftance, a man of fortune who had one eftate at Berwick and another at Exeter, it would be impoffible for fuch a perfon to aftend to the management of both at once; he was, therefore, under the neceffity of employing an agent. Bankers were allowed to deduct the falaries of clerks under the head of expences of management, and it feemed but reafonable that the. neceflary expences of management of land fhould have the fame allowance.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was decidedly of opinion that the cafes of the banker and the great land owner in the expence of the management of their affairs was not at all parallel; that, generally fpeaking, if a man did not chuse to manage his eftate himself, he was not, upon public prinPetrom any ciples, au object of indulgence, fo as to be excufed from VOL. I. 1798.

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part of the public burthens on that account. He added alfo, that the more extenfive a man's eftates were, the less reafon he had to complain of this or any other impoft.

There being no more claufes offered, the queftion was put, that the bill be engroffed?

Mr. Jones faid that this bill comprehended every defcription of perfons in this country, and as it was a matter of fuch intricacy, and of fo much importance, he hoped time would be allowed between this and the third reading. It ought to have a full, free, and fair confideration after all these claufes were brought in, which, by Monday next, he was fure was quite impoffible.

The Speaker reminded the hon. Member there was no motion for the third reading before the Houfe. The motion. was, That the bill, with the amendments, be engroffed.

That question being put and carried,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer mowed, that this bill be read a third time on Monday next, if then engroffed.

Mr. Jones obferved, that if the right hon. Gentleman faid it must be so, there was an end of it; but he really felt it to be quite impoffible to understand the claufes produced that day, by the time now propofed for the third reading. What would the inconvenience of a few days be, compared to the advantage of a full deliberation upon this fubject. Let the one be but balanced against the other, and it would foon appear what courfe ought to be taken. He would afk, whether a bill, comprehending every defcription of perfons in this country, should be read a third time in a day or two after so many material alterations had been made in it; or, whether it would not be better that every Member in the Houfe fhould have an opportunity of understanding it? And, whether it was poffible for Members to understand a bill in which there. were forty or fifty clauses which none of them had ever read? For that was the cafe in the prefent inftance. He, therefore, intreated the Chancellor of the Exchequer to allow the third reading to be deferred until Wednesday.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that this bill had undergone more ample deliberation and frequent difcuflion than any other measure he ever knew prefented to that House. He saw no reason for any further delay, especially as he had no hope that there would be a fuller attendance on Wednefday than on Monday next.

Mr. Tierney faid, that the new claufes added to the bill were not at present understood by the House it was impoffi-.

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ble they fhould, and he thought that fome allowance ought to be made on that account. The right hon, Gentleman feemed to conceive that the claufes produced that day did not materially alter the provifions of the bill. On the contrary, they did appear to him to be claufes materially altering the provifions of the bill. He agreed with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, there was no better hope for a full attendance on Wednesday than on Monday. He was forry to fay that members of that Houfe neglected their duty in not attending; it was a negligence that was difgraceful to them, and he begged to be understood as making no diftinction in what he was now faying, but that he was applying it to both fides of the Houfe. He had it now in his power to put an end to the further progrefs of this bill for the prefent, for there were not prefent members fufficient to conftitute a Houfe; if he defired that they be counted, an adjournment would be the effect of it but this he would not do, becaufe it would appear to be an invidious thing. This, however, is in the power of any member of the Houfe to do at any time when there were not forty members present. That had frequently been the cafe in the courfe of the difcuffion of the prefent bill; and, to speak plainly at once, he thought it a fcandalous thing that a bill of this importance fhould have been difcuffed when it was fo often in the power of any one member, who probably might not have attended to any thing that had been paffing, to put a stop to the progrefs of the bill; and yet fuch might have been the cafe frequently, and fuch it might be at this moment. He did not think this the right courfe of proceeding upon grave and important measures in that Houfe. He did not indeed. If he did not find himself able to understand the bill as it now flood, after attending in every stage in the moft minute detail, what must be the cafe of all thofe members who had been out of town for the last week at least? How could thofe members who were wavering in fentiments, whether they ought to vote for this meafure, or against it altogether, make up their minds by Monday, fo as to be enabled to give any confcientious vote whatever upon the fubject? He knew there were many wavering upon the question altogether, whether they fhould adopt it as a matter of neceffity to fupport the ftate, or whether they fhould reject it as hoftile to the conftitution. If thefe members, after they had attended the difcuffions of former parts of the bill were wavering in their opinion, what muft they be now, after the introduction of fo many claufes, upon which 3C2

there