Mr. Giles observed, that when the memorial had been laid before the first lord of the admiralty, in answer to the first report, it was considered by him so offensive, that he said if it were laid before the house, he should look upon it as a personal insult. The Chancellor of the Exchequer-Then if he said that he would have looked upon the production of the memorial in answer to the first report as a personal insult, that was a reason why the commissioners of the navy should not consult him on the subject of the memorial in answer to the third report. Sir C. M. Pole thought it necessary to guard the house and the public against the effect of receiving a memorial which was but the assertion of persons against whom serious charges existed, for a neglect of their duty. He did not mean to object to the motion, but the papers moved for contained only the assertions of the commissioners of the navy, and not on oath. The commissioners of inquiry had discharged their duty with zeal and fidelity, in the arduous task that had been intrusted to them, and under peculiar difficulties. From the calumnies that were thrown out against them in the house, and perhaps out of it, it was impossible for them to carry on the business for which they had been appointed. They had discharged their duty under the bill till within a few hours, in the investigation of truth, and he took the opportunity of saying, that it was impossible for them to go on. He hoped the house would find, before next session of parliament, persons more capable of doing the business: he was sure they could not find any that would do it with more zeal. The Secretary at War wished to know who ever doubted the zeal of the hon. gentleman? The question now was, whether, when serious charges were preferred against the commissioners of the navy, they should be allowed to give in their answer to such charges? Sir Andrew Hamond would not object to the motion, provided the memorial was not to be considered as an answer to the report, being only assertions, without the sanction of an oath. The Attorney General thought the memorial could not be considered in any other light than as an answer to the report. The house could not know on what grounds the commissioners of naval inquiry could not, as stated by the hon. baronet, proceed with the business of their inquiry. It was competent to any hon. member to move that any of the reports be taken into consideration. VOL. III. 1805. 4 H Mr. Mr. Johnstone and Mr. Canning made a few observations, when the motion was agreed to. EARL ST. VINCENT. Mr. Kinnaird, in the absence of an hon. admiral, moved, that there be laid before the house an account shewing the number of shipwrights and apprentices employed in his majes ty's dock yards, on the 17th of May, 1804, together with several other papers, with a view to the discussion on Mr. Jeffery's motion; which were severally ordered. FINANCIAL PROPOSITIONS. Mr. Johnstone moved the order of the day for resuming the debate on the resolutions of finance. Mr. Johnstone then moved one of his resolutions, after a brief statement, that the right hon. gentleman opposite agreed in most of his resolutions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had no objection to agree to many of the hon. gentleman's resolutions in precisely the same words, and others of them he proposed to alter the form of. The resolutions were then severally put, and such of the original ones as were to be altered, were got rid of by the previous question, and those proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer agreed to in their stead. Adjourned. HOUSE OF LORDS. FRIDAY, JULY 12. As soon as the lords authorized by his majesty's commission to give the royal assent to certain bills, and to prorogue the parliament, had, in full robes, taken their seats, the deputy gentleman usher of the black rod was dispatched to desire the attendance of the commons. Upon the commons appearing at the bar, with the Speaker at their head, the commission was read, and the royal assent was given to Trotter's indemnity bill, the Athol annuity bill, the smuggling prevention bill, the members' privilege bill, and several other public and private bills. After which the Lord Chancellor read the following speech : "My Lords and Gentlemen, "We have it in command from his majesty to express the satisfaction with which he has observed the proofs you have given in the course of the present session, of your constant regard for the honour of his crown, and the interests of his dominions; and particularly the measures which you have adopted for strengthening his majesty's hands at this important conjuncture, by the augmentation of the disposable military. 7. force of the kingdom. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "His majesty has directed us particularly to thank you in his majesty's name for the zeal and liberality with which you have granted the large supplies which the necessity of the public has required. "My Lords and Gentlemen, "His majesty has not yet been enabled to communicate to you the result of the negotiations in which he is engaged with powers on the continent; but you may rest assured that no step will be omitted on his majesty's part, for promoting such a concert as may afford the best prospect of restoring general and permanent tranquillity; or may, if necessary, furnish the means of repelling with vigour the continued encroachments on the part of the French government, which threaten every day more and more the liberty and independence of all the nations of Europe." Then a commission for proroguing the parliament was read; after which the Lord Chancellor said, "My Lords and Gentlemen, "By virtue of his majesty's commission under the great seal, to us and other lords directed, and now read, we do, in his majesty's name, and in obedience to his commands, prorogue this parliament to Thursday, the twenty-second day of August next, to be then here holden; and this parliament is accordingly prorogued to Thursday the twenty-second day of August next." The commissioners were, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and Lords Camden and Hawkesbury. HOUSE OF COMMONS. FRIDAY, JULY 12. NAVY BOARD. Mr. Wm. Dickinson appeared at the bar, and presented, pursuant to order, a copy of the letter from the commissioners of the navy to the lords of the admiralty, enclosing a memorial from the commissioners of the navy on the subject of the third report from the commissioners of naval inquiry. On the motion that this letter, &c. should be laid on the table, Mr. Kinnaird rose and expressed his surprise that a document of this nature should have been brought before the house at this very late period of the session, and his regret that he should, from a sense of duty, feel himself obliged to interrupt the tranquillity of the house by opposing the present motion. It was in his mind, and he believed in that of every dispassionate man, a matter of astonishment, that this paper should have been brought forward that day, in precisely the same objectionable form which urged gentlemen to resist the order for its production the preceding day. After the observation which the house had heard from the chair, the circumstance was peculiarly remarkable. But the hon. gentleman who made the motion, seemed to imagine that his ingenuity had contrived to evade the objections of the chair; that hon. gentleman probably fancied that by enclosing the memorial of the navy board in a letter to the lords of the admiralty, every difficulty as to form was obviated. He, however, conceived that the hon. gentleman was mistaken, and that mistake, as it related to the proper form of presenting papers to that house, which was a consideration by no means unimportant, was in his judgment fatal to this motion. It was insulting to the house to attempt to press the introduction of a paper in this shape, and the attempt itself was, under such circumstances, a most unworthy expedient. What! to make the admiralty the channel of communication with that house; to make a correspondence with the one the mode of addressing the other. The thing was not to be allowed, and he trusted the same objections to such a course which the house had heard the preceding day from the chair, would be again pressed that day. The mode of procedure resorted to on this occasion, the hon. gentleman was clearly of opinion, betrayed a fear of inquiry on the part of the navy board. He He sincerely believed that it would go forth to the country that such a fear was entertained, that the navy board, far from being anxious for inquiry into their conduct, sought the shelter of official authority, and were forward to avail themselves of expedients. Independently of the reasons offered the preceding day against the production of these papers, the hon. gentleman observed, that an argument sufficiently strong to justify opposition had since occurred. The house had heard a declaration from one of the respectable commissioners of naval inquiry, (Sir C. Pole) which served to shew how much the calumny of office was employed to depreciate that highly meritorious commission. To refute, to expose the injustice of such calumny, nothing but inquiry was necessary with respect to the naval commissioners, and he challenged the hon. baronet (Sir A. S. Hamond) to enter upon it, not in any irregular clandestine manner-not under the patronage of office, but in the face of day, and before a committee of that house. Before such a committee, before any fair tribunal, the commissioners of naval inquiry were ready to submit their conduct to the fullest and closest investigation. They wished for inquiry, in order to guard against misrepresentation; in order to provide against the impression which the insinuations of gentlemen on the treasury bench were calculated to produce. The nature, indeed, of such insinuations was such, that, combined with impediments thrown in the way of the naval com. missioners, and the obloquy to which they were subjected through the activity of official slander, it peculiarly behoved the house to take care that no document should go abroad, such, probably, as that to which the motion referred, which might in any degree tend to give the warrant or authority of its name to any censure upon the naval commissioners. such censure were pronounced, if the prejudices of those who had such ample means of inforcing their slanders were supported by the authority of that house, there was but too much reason to apprehend that, before next sessions, the country might be deprived of the services of those eminently deserving men, who never could be deprived of the gratitude of their countrymen, and who possessed, he was fully satisfied, the approbation of a decided majority of that house, and the confidence of all the intelligent impartial men in the country. This consideration would, he trusted, in addition to the consciousness of their own rectitude, induce the gentlemen who composed the naval commission to look down with scorn on their calumniators, and, spurning the efforts used to impede If |