were however given up for the prefent, in compliance with the fenfe of the houfe of commons.

Several measures, founded upon the fame bafis of monopoly and na tional preference, were brought forward about this time by Mr. Jenkinfon. The acts of parliament by which bounties were given to the fisheries of Newfoundland, to the Greenland whale fifhery, and to the whale fisheries of the South Sea would fhortly expire, and it was intended to perpetuate and to vary thefe me fures. In moving for the bill for increafing the fishery of Newfoundland, Mr. Jenkinson explained to the houfe the principle upon which that fishery ought to be conducted. It was effential to preferve it entirely a British fish ery; and this could only be done by confining it to British fhips, navigated from Great Britain, and by preventing any stationary fettle ment from being made on the ifland of Newfoundland. The obvious confequence of fuch a fettlement would be, as it happened in New England, that the colony would take the fisheries into its own hands, and they would be ultimately and perpetually loft to this country. He fuggefted various provifions to remedy this inconvenience, and particularly that the ftages, flakes, and curing houfes on the ifland, fhould be no longer the property of thofe who might have erected them, than while they employed them in the bufinefs of the fishery, and that, if left, they should become liable to be occupied by those who arrived firft at the time of the enfuing feafon.

The fubject of the Greenland fifhery excited a higher degree of conteft and debate. The idea of the minifterial party, as it was ftat ed by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Jenkin fon, was to reduce the bounty from

forty fhillings, which was at prefent given, to thirty fhillings. They ftated, that the fum, which this country had paid in bounties for the Greenland fishery amount to 1,265,4611., that in the last year we had paid 94,8581., and that by means of the confequent reduction of the price of the fifth, the public at prefent paid fixty per cent upon every cargo. In the Greenland fishery there were employed fix thoufand fe men; and the e feamen coft government at prefent 131.10s. per man per annum, though we were never able to obtain more than five hundred of that number to ferve on board our fhips of war. The vaft encouragement given to the trade had occafioned fuch a glut to the market, that it was found neceffary to export confiderable quantities; and thus we paid a large fhare of the purchase-money for foreign nations as well as for our own people, people, befides fupplying them with the materials of feveral important manufactures. The old bounty was pleaded for with much earneftnefs as eflential to the existence of the fishery, by Mr. Dempfier, Mr. Huffey, lord Penrhyn, Mr. Ilay Campt el, Mr. alderman Watfon, and Mr. alderinan Hamet.

Mr. Beaufoy, who had last year, in confequence of the reports of the committee for enquiring into the Bitih fifheries, brought in a bil! for the encouragement of the herring fifhery, now fubmitted to par liament a bill that was intended to extend our concern in the turbot fifhery. This bill was not calculated, like that of the last feffion, te remove improper and impolitic reftrictions, but to hold out exclufive encouragements. Mr. Beaufoy drew an animated picture of the progrefs the English nation had made in fimilar attempts. The

feamen

with indignation the infulting idea of Dutch fuperiority; and, confident from experience, were impatient for the trial. In the herring fifhery our veffels outnumbered the veffels of Holland more than in the proportion of two to one. In the cod fifhery the English had no rivals. In the fifhery for whales, whether in the feas of the arctic circle, or on the confines of the fouthern pole, competition was nearly at an end. Had then their efforts fucceeded in every other enterprize, and were they unequal to this? Had they obtained a decided fuperiority in com petitions infinitely arduous, and would they be baffled in this the cafieft of all? The bill of Mr. Beaufoy experienced a pertinacious oppofition on the part of Mr. Rolle, and its author at length confented to withdraw it for the prefent feffion.

In the clofe of the feffion a bill was introduced by Mr. Macdonald the folicitor-general, to incorporate a certain number of perfons, a mong whom the members of the committee to enquire into the Britifh fifheries, were the most confpicuous, who had entered into a voluntary fubfcription, which already amounted to feven thoufand pounds, for the purpose of building fifhing towns and villages on the coafs of Scotland. The object of this affociation appears to have been liberal and difinterested; and it was indebted for its formation to the accurate investigations of Mr. Knox, to the patriotic fpirit of Mr. Dempfter, and to the industry and activity of Mr. Beaufoy.

An affair occurred towards the clofe of the feffion in the house of lords, which was a subject of much

the nation in general. A bill having been introduced into par1 lament relative to the prize-money that had been obtained at the capture of St. Eustatius, lord Ro ney embraced this opportunity of fuggefling a fact to the house, which he conceived to be intitled to their ferious attention. At the time that he took poffeffion of the ifland in queftion, he appears to have conceived the highest indignation against the conduct that had been held by fome of its leading inhabitants; and he was induced by his zeal in behalf of the government of Great Britain, to proceed against them in an exemplary manner. At the fame time he had tranfmitted the papers of those merchants as documents of treason, to be lodged in the office of the fecretary of state, which he had confidered as a place of facred depofit and undoubted fafety, and from which he had intended to produce them whenever vouchers of this fort might be found to be neceffary. Having called for them however in juftification of his conduct before the court of appeal from the high court of admiralty, he had learned to his utter astonishment, that the books and papers had been carried away, and were no where to be found. Mr. Knox, who had been under-fecretary in the office of lord George Germaine, was called as a witnefs to the bar of the houfe of lords, and from his evidence it appeared, that the papers had been fafely lodged in the custody of government, and that early in the year 1782, foon after the ap pointment of the marquis of Lanfdown to the office of fecretary of flate, the criminals, who had hitherto been detained, were enlarg

THE

HE affairs of the East India company conflituted one of thofe objects, which engroffed no inconfiderable attention in the courfe of the prefent feffion. To fettle thefe affairs had been one of the earliest objects of Mr. Pitt's admihiftration; and accordingly fuch meafures, as he had conceived ade: quate to the purpose, had been in troduced by him in the year 1784; and had received the fanction of the prefent parliament in its first feffion. In the feffion of 1785, nothing had been brought forward by minifters upon this fubject; and in the debate upon the addrefs in answer to the fpeech from the throne, in the commencement of this third feffion, it had been infifted upon by Mr. Fox, as a topic of blame against administration, that no notice of any kind was taken in that fpeech of the affairs of India. Mr. Fox fpoke of the fpirit of difcontent, which had pervaded that part of our dominions. He afked, whether, after what had happened, the minifter would fill venture to talk of his India bill in a tone of triumph? He represented the fate of our fi nances in that part of the world 2s in a high degree unpromifing, and faid, that upon infpection he believed they would now find, when compared with the predictions of the court of directors on the fubject, not merely errors of fractions, but errors of millions. He repro1786:

bated the conduct that had been held by administration towards lord Macartney. Lord Macartney had acted, during the whole term of his refidence in India, upon the most upright principles, and had come home with hands perfectly unfullied. From a conviction of the neceffity of the measure, he had taken the collection and management of the revenues of the Carnatic out of the hands, not of the nabob, but of his agents and ufurers, who plundered the natives, and robbed their principal, and had vefted both in the hands of the company. This meafure had been overthrown by the orders of the board of control. The fatal effects of their order had fpread alarm and terror through the Carnatic, and impreffed the council of Madras with fo ftrong an idea of its impropriety, that lord Macartney went himself to Calcutta, to remonftrare with Mr. Haftings, and to deprecate the confequences. Let the houfe guefs the furprife of this nobleman, when he found Mr. Haftings departed for Europe, and a commiffion appointing him governor general, a fituation which it was impoffible for him to accept, while the order to restore the collection and management of the Carnatic revenues continued in force. How abfurd was it to remove the governor-general, who recommended the meafure, and ap point lord Macartney to the poft of I governors

governor-general, with orders to do what he had reprobated, as equally injurious to the intereft of the nabob, and the intereft of the company.

vious.

Mr. Pitt replied to thefe obfervations, that, with refpect to the fituation of India not being mentioned in the fpeech, Mr. Fox might as well have complained of a fimilar omiffion concerning any other of the foreign poffeffions of the empire. The reason was perfectly obSo many errors and mifcarriages had formerly arifen out of the government of that country, that the king had, for many feffions, been induced to call upon parliament to adopt fome mode of effectual regulation. Parliament had at laft, taken up the bufinefs and applied a remedy; and therefore the neceffity for the crown to remind them of it no longer existed. Mr. Pitt defended the measures, that had been adopted for the detection and punishment of delinquencies in India, and declared, that he could never have been fo abfurd as to imagine that a bill, which was in reality a bill of restraint, could be received with any fanguine marks of approbation and gratitude by thofe upon whom its reftrictions were to operate. He would not for the prefent attempt an exact state of the furplus of the revenues of the East Indies; but he would only fay, that he expected and believed, that that furplus would appear, and that the most falutary regulations and retrenchments had been introduced. His warmeft wishes would indeed be gratified, and the most fanguine dreams of the profperity of Great Britain would prove more than realized, if it could be found, that our refources for diminishing our debt bore any comparison to thofe of the East In

dia company. Mr. Pitt repelled the fuppofed inconfiftency of government in their conduct towards lord Macartney, and obferved, that that nobleman was perfectly eligible to the prefidency of Bengal, to the department of which the direction of the revenues of the Carnatic by no means particularly referred. He did not fall below Mr. Fox in his eulogium upon the character of lord Macartney, and inftanced in his voluntary compliance with the claufe, which called upon all perfons returning from the company's fervice, to account upon oath for their acquifitions; though the operation of that claufe had not yet commenced. This action was in itself fo noble and difinterested, that, had Mr. Pitt even difapproved of his general conduct in his government, it would alone have been fufficient to atone for all former mifcarriages, and to have entitled him to the highest glory, and most diftinguifhed applaufe.

Mr. Francis endeavoured to demonftrate the fallacy of which Mr. Pitt was guilty, in the reprefentation that he had made of the flourifhing condition of the company's finances. At Bombay they had no revenue at all proportioned to their current expences, and the funded debt then amounted to 3,000,000l., which bore an intereft of 91. per cent., and was continually increafing by half yearly converfions of the intereft into capital. Of the pecuniary fituation of Madras, Mr. Francis could not speak with fo much precifion; but he conceived, that fome idea might be formed upon the fubject from a part of Mr. Macpherson's letter to the court of directors, of the thirtieth of July 1785; in which he remarked, "In the Carnatic your late orders have been carried into

fome effect; the general ruin which that country has undergone from the devastation of war, will keep your affairs in that quarter a long time in diftrefs." It was well known, that the revenues of Bengal were the means, upon which the other prefidencies were obliged to lean for fupport, and conftituted the only fource from which the Eaft India company expected to relieve her embarrassments. Upon this fubject Mr. Francis reminded the house of the statement he had made in the preceding feffion, when he convicted the directors of an error of more than 3,000,000l. in their account of the revenues of one year. He animadverted upon the retrenchments of which Mr. Pitt had boafted, and again illuftrated these from ancther part of the letter of Mr. Macpherfon." The great and most important work of a reform in the expences of this government, which was refolved upon, and in fome degree begun, before the departure of Mr. Haftings, has been carried through under every influence that I could exert, and every effort of the abilities of the prefent administration. I muft at the fame time regret, that the progrefs made in this falutary measure is not equal to my wishes, and has not in any very alleviating degree relieved your diftreffes." In relation to the fame fubject Mr. Francis moved for, and obtained, on the feventh of February, certain papers calculated to illuftrate the revenues of India.

The ballot for the members, who were to compofe the court of judicature for the trial of Eaft Indian delinquents, which, in purfuance of the regulating act of 1784, was to take place within thirty days after the meeting of parliament, was made in both houfes on the fifteenth of February. At the time of this

ballot, lifts of the names of perfons to be ballotted for, of the nature of thofe ufually denominated trea fury lifts, and which are conceived to originate with administration, were delivered by the door-keeper to the house of commons. This mode of proceeding was treated in terms of the fevereft reprobation by Mr. Sheridan. He alluded to the idea, which had been fuggefted by administration, when the bill had been under difcuffion, that the court of judicature fhould be chpfen with perfect impartiality, and without the employment of any ministerial influence. On the con trary, government appeared defirous to realize the predictions of op pofition, and to fhow how ftrongly the new mode of trial was contraft ed with the conftitutional and liberal mode of trial by jury. Mr. Sheridan added, that, if Mr. Pitt would dare to rife and avow, that the lifts were prepared by his order, and delivered by his authority, he would pledge himself to move upon him the feverett cenfure of that houfe. In order to bring home a charge, which he conceived to be in fo flagrant a degree indecent and fcandalous, he concluded with a motion, which was feconded by Mr. Francis, that Mr. Pearfon the doorkeeper be now called in and examined. The proceeding, which was complained of by Mr. Sheridan, was defended by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Martin, as a matter per fectly innocent and harmlefs, and they reprefented it as an infult to the house of commons to fuppofe, that the delivery of fuch lifts could have the fmalleft influence in inducing any of its members to adopt the names it contained. The motion was rejected upon a divifion, ayes, 38, noes, 138.

On the feventh of March a moI 2 tion