Anno 9. Geo. H. 1736. From what I have faid, Sir, I think it is evident, that altho' the Civil Lift were to fuffer by diminishing the Confumption of Spirituous Liquors, we are not obliged to make good the Lofs: But as the Blank in the Claufe now before us must be fill'd up with fome one Sum or another, I fhall now confider what has been said with refpect to the Method of calculating the Sum, with which that Blank is to be filled up; and as upon the prefent Occafion the Establishment of the Civil Lift has been reprefented to us as a Grant from the Parliament to the Crown, which ought not to be touched or in the leaft diminished, even for the Safety and Preservation of the People, I must take Notice of one Rule obferved by all Courts of Equity in the World, and that is, to explain the doubtful Meaning of a Grant, by that which may be prefumed to have been the Meaning of the Grantor at the Time the Grant was made. Suppole then, Sir, we had had at that Time a Prophet amongit us, and that Prophet had informed the Parliament, that in a few Years after, the Duties on Spirituous Liquors would increase confiderably, and that our People would begin to drink fo exceffively of fuch Liquors, that for the Prefervation of the People it would become neceflary to put a Stop to that Excess: Suppose, that upon fuch Information a Queftion had arisen in that Parliament, for obliging any future Parliament that might find it neceffary to put a Stop to that Excefs, to make good to the Civil Lift its Share in thofe Duties according to the Value it should arife to by that Excefs, and according to a Computation to be made at the very Time when that Excess was to be at its highest Pitch. Can we imagine that fuch a Question would have met with any Reception in that Parliament, or in any Parliament? And if we cannot fuppose it would, can we prefume, that that Parliament meant or intended to give his Majesty fuch an indelible Right to the Increase, that might happen by the Extravagance of the People in any of those Duties then appropriated to the Civil Lift, that it fhould not be in the Power of any future Parliament to put a Stop to the Extravagance of the People, without making good to his Majefty's Civil Lift the Increase that had arifen by that Extravagance? To illuftrate this Matter ftill a little more clearly, fuppofe, Sir, that Parliament which established the Civil Lia had laid a Duty upon Laudanum, and had appropriated that Duty to the Civil Lift: Suppose that in a few Years after, the Ufe of Laudanum fhould have become more general and more exceffive in this Nation than ever it was in Turkey, infomuch that Multitudes of our People fhould have been every Day found in the Streets murdered by the exceffive Use of that Poyfon; and that by this general and exceffive Confumption 1736. onfumption thé Duties upon it should have occafioned a Anno 9. Geo. II. aft Increase in his Majefty's Civil Lift Revenue, will any entleman pretend, that the Parliament could not make y Regulation for preventing the Abuse of that Poyfon, thout making good to his Majefty the Increase in the vil Lift Revenue, that had been occafioned by that Abuse? not this the very Cafe with respect to Spirituous Liquors ? herefore I am surprised to hear it faid, that we cannot put Stop to, or prevent the Abuse of fuch Liquors, without aking good to his Majefty the Increafe in the Civil Lift evenue that has been occafioned by that very Abuse? Thus, Sir, I think I have fully fhewn what could not the Meaning or Intention of the Parliament, when they inted to his Majefty the whole Produce of thofe Duties y appropriated to the Civil Lift; but now let us inquire a le what may be prefumed to have been their Intention : r my own Part, I believe the only Meaning or Intention y had, was a good-natured one, to give his Majefty's nisters a little more Latitude in the Difpofal of the Civil t Revenue, and to prevent their being put to the Trouble laying the Accounts of that Revenue yearly before Parnent. But fuppofe they meant to grant his Majesty a ht to the whole Produce of thofe Duties, as it then flood ording to the Calculations they had made, which is the noft that can be fuppofed they meant ; upon this Suppoon, in order to know what his Majefty has a Right to by Grant, we must examine into the Calculations they may been supposed to have made for afcertaining, or at least fing at, the Value of what they were about to grant. In Cafe we are told, that as they were confidering what cies would be fufficient to raise a future Revenue, they d have under their Confideration only a future Produce. n forry, Sir, to hear fuch a Manner of arguing in a ter of fuch Confequence: For the raifing of a future enue, to be fure a future Produce must be applied, but n People are confidering and calculating what the Amount hat future Produce may be, and whether it will be fufnt to raise such a future Revenue, furely their Calculas must be founded upon their Experience of what is past, pon their Knowledge of what is then prefent: If it is w Duty, they found their Calculations on what is then ofed to be the Quantity or the Value of the Goods, e liable to that new Duty; and if it is an old Duty, always confider the Produce of that Duty for fuch a ber of Years paft, and from thence calculate what it produce in Time to come; therefore we cannot fuppofe the Parliament which established the Civil Lift, granted, tended to grant, any more than a Share of the Produce of 1736. Anno 9. Geo. 11. of the Duties upon Spirituous Liquors, at a Medium calculated for feven or eight Years before his Majesty's Acceffion; and for this Reason, fuppofing that we are obliged to make that Grant good to his Majefty, which I am far from thinking, the Sum we are now to give to the Civil Lift for making that Grant good, ought to be taken from a Medium calculated for feven or eight Years before his Majesty's Acceffion, and not from a Medium fince his Majefty's Acceffion, which has been greatly increased by the very Abuse we are now about to rectify. It has likewife been faid, Sir, that it feems a little odd, for Gentlemen to propofe putting a Value upon the Lofs his Majefty may fuftain by taking from him a Revenue which he has enjoyed, by computing the Produce of a Revenue he never enjoyed. Surely every Gentleman must fee the Fallacy of this Argument: We do not defire to take any Revenue from his Majefty, and therefore we are not to compute the Lofs he may fuftain by the taking of any Revenue from him; but if any Revenue be taken from him, the Parliament we fay is obliged to make it good only according to that Value which was put upon it by the Parliament that granted it, and not according to the increased Value it may fince have arisen to, by an Abuse which ought, long before this Time, to have been effectually prevented. With Refpect, Sir, to the great Increase of Foreign Brandies and Spirits, that happened in the Year 1733, by the great Importation of French Brandies under the Name of Flemish, I fhall readily grant that they were not imported for immediate Confumption, but in order to remain, and be kept here as a Stock in Hand; nay, I must go farther, I muft fuppofe, that all or most of them ftill remain here as a Stock in Hand; I cannot fuppofe that any great Quantity of them has yet been confumed, because the Duties upon Foreign Brandies have been as high in the Year 1734, and 1735, as they were in any two Years before 1733. And the Reason of this may be eafily affigned; for as the Merchants at Dunkirk were obliged to make their Importations in 1733, in a great Hurry, they had not Time to fend to Nantz and other Places of France for old Brandies, therefore they run in upon us all the new Brandies they had in their Cellars at Dunkirk; but as these new Brandies could not be fit to be drank in the Year 1734, or 1735, our Confumption for the two Years was fupplied by new Importations of old Brandies from France: From whence we muft reckon, that the great Importation in the Year 1733 has no ways leffened the Duties upon Foreign Brandies or Spirits for thefe laft two Years, but may very probably do fo for two or three Years to come; and therefore we muft grant, that to include the Increase of thofe Duties in the Year 1733 in our prefent Computation, is reckoning all the Advantage, which happened by that cafual Importation, to the Account of the Civil Lift, in order to bring a double Lofs upon the Sinking Fund; for that facred Fund is to be charged with near 4000 l. a Year, during his Majefty's Life, more than it would have been charged with, if no fuch extraordinary Importation had ever happened; and by that extraordinary Importation, and the Decrease in the Duties. on Foreign Brandies, which must thereby be occafioned for several Years to come, that Fund to which those Duties are now to be appropriated must lose a very confiderable Sum.' Then the Question being put for filling up the Blank with the Sum of 43,000 l. it was upon a Divifion carried in the Negative, by 211 to 109; and then the Question being put for filling up the Blank with the Sum of 70,000 l. it was carred in the Affirmative without a Divifion. April 12. The Counsel for and against the Quaker's Bill were called in, and the Bill being then read a fecond Time, and the several Petitions against it being also read, the Counsel for the Petitioners of the Province of Canterbury were heard; in Answer to whom the Counsel for the Bill were heard; and then the Counsel for the Petitioners of the Province of York were heard by way of Reply: After which the Counsel-being withdrawn, Mr Speaker opened the Bill to the House ; then a Motion being made, that the 14th Section of an Act made in the 22d and 23d of King Charles II. intitled, An Act for the better Settlement of the Maintenance of Parfons, Vicars, and Curates in the Parishes of the City of London, burnt by the dreadful Fire there, might be read, the same was read accordingly. By a Claufe in the Bill, even as it then stood, it was proposed to be enacted thus, • That if the annual Value of fuch Tythes, Oblations, and other Ecclefiaftical Dues, Rights, Payments, or Church Rates before-mentioned, doth not, nor fhall not exceed the Sum of in fuch Cafe no Quaker or Quakers shall be fued or profecuted, for or on Account of the fame, in any other Manner, than as before directed, or in any other Court; neither shall any fuch Tythes, Oblations, or other Ecclefiaftical Dues, Rights, Payments, or Church Rates, not exceeding the faid yearly Value of be rèco verable against Quakers in any other Court whatsoever, nor in any other Manner, than as by this Act is directed, unless the Title of fuch Tythes be in Question.' This Claufe, in all the Petitions prefented by the Clergy against e Bill, was called, An Excluding them from the Benefit of the Laws then in being for the Recovery of Tythes VOL. IV. B b and In a Committee of the whole Houfe for making good that may happen in the Bill relating to 70,000!. is Voted, the Deficiencies, the Civil Lift, by Spirituous Liquors. Counfel heard for and against the 1736. Which is commit. ted. Debate upon the folution of the Com the above Sum of 70,000 1. and other Daes, and thereby putting the Clergy of the Established Church upon a worfe Foot than the rest of his Majesty's Subjects; therefore the faid Section was read; to fhew, That the affigning of a proper Method for the Recovery of any Right, and excluding the Perfons intitled, from any other Remedy, was not a putting of fuch Perfons upon a worfe Foot than the reft of his Majefty's Subjects, nor was it without Precedent; for by the aforefaid Act of King Charles II. all Suits for the recovering of Church-Rates or Affeffments, within the City of London, are to be brought before the Lord Mayor, or upon his Neglect to execute the Powers thereby granted, before the Lord Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, or two Barons of the Exchequer; and, by the faid 14th Section, it is enacted, That no Court or Judge fhall hold Plea of Money due by Virtue of that Act, other than the Perfons thereby authorized;' and yet the Clergy of London never had complained, nor could complain, that they were excluded from the Benefit of the Laws of their Country, or that they were put upon a worse Foot than the reft of his Majefty's Subjects." After reading the above Section, a Motion being made for committing the Bill; and the Question being put, it was carried in the Affirmative, by 221 to 84; after which it was refolved that the Bill be committed to a Committee of the whole Houfe. April 14. The Amendments made by the Committee to Report of the Re- the Bill relating to Spirituous Liquors were reported to the mittee for granting House, and read a first Time, after which most of them were agreed to by the House, without any Debate; but upon Reading the Claufe for giving 70,000l. to the Civil Lift, a Propofition was made for altering that Claufe, and for fettling it in fuch a Manner, that if the whole Hereditary and Temporary Excife fhould, in any one Year after that Time, fall fhort of what it had produced upon a Medium to be computed from his Majefty's Acceffion to that Time, that Deficiency fhould be made good by the very next Seffion of Parliament. Arguments againft that Refolution. This occafioned a fresh Debate, in which the Arguments for the above Propofition, and against that Claufe, were as follows, viz. Sir, By the Claufe as it ftands at prefent, we are to make a new Grant to the Civil Lift of 70,000l. a Year during his Majefty's Life: Now there can be but two Reafons for our making this new Grant: It must be either, because we fuppofe that the prefent Amount of the Civil Lift Revenue will be diminished in a Sum equal to 70,000l. a Year, by the Regulation we are about to make; or it must be becaufe we |