the poffeffion of 500l. capital ftock. It excludes all title to fuperior influence from fuperior property. The feveral laws to prevent the splitting of ftock are all in affirmance of this principle, and made to fecure this voter. But by a fyftem of contradiction, that, except in this bill, has no example, the very grievance of fplitting of stock by which the proprietor under 1000l. has been injured, is affigned as the fole ground for depriving him of his franchife. This lower proprie tor could not poffibly have been guilty of this offence, and yet he is punished; and the large ftockholder, who alone could be guilty of the splitting, is indulged with new privileges, in contradiction to the fpirit of that charter, which he is fuppofed to have violated.

8thly, Because the great principle upon which the bill has been supported will, not only in this, but in all cafes, juftify every infringement of the public faith, and render parliamentary fanction the worst of all fecurities. We never can admit that a mere fpeculation of political improvement can juftify parliament in taking away rights, which it exprefly covenanted to preferve, especially when it has received a valuable confideration for the franchises fo ftipulated. Nor are grants of parliament under thefe circumftances to be confidered as gratuitous, refumable merely at the pleasure of the giver; but matters of binding contra&, forfeitable only on fuch delinquency or neceflity as is implied in the nature of every other bargain. With fuch matters before us that require the beft, we are denied all manner of information. A bill, the objec of which has taken the commons near eight months to confider, is precipitated through this houfe in little more than eight days, without any attention to parliamentary usage or decorum, as if the lords were the lowest of minifterial tools, who are not to be indulged

ven with an appearance of difcuffion, concerning the mandates they receive.

In this fituation we feel the honour of the peerage tarnished, and this dignity degraded. If the provifions and precedent of this bill fhould render the public faith of Great Britain of no eftimation, the franchises, rights and properties of Englishmen precarious, and the peerage diftinguishable only by a more than common measure of indolence and fervility; if the boundlefs fund of corruption furnished by this bill to the fervants of the crown, fhould efface every idea of honour, public fpirit, and independence from every rank of people, after struggling vainly against these evils, we have nothing left but the fatisfaction of recording our names to posterity, as those who refifted the whole of this iniquitious fyftem, and as men who had no fhare in betraying to blind prejudices or forded interest every thing that has hitherto been held facred in this country

From all which it appears plain, that the miniftry were aiming more at a defpotical power, than feeking the real good of the Eaft-India company. There is no matter of doubt but the company's fervants had been guilty of many acts of oppreffion, injuftice and tyranny, and deferved a very exemplary punishment, but it does not appear that the parliament were fo zealons

in pursuing justice, as they were eager in grasping at the emoluments which tended to ftrengthen the power and dominion of the crown. It does not appear that the principal agents of iniquity in India, have, by the authority of parliament, been yet brought to justice, or that the company have been much advantaged by the interference of government. The minifterial proceedings in parliament on this occafion, feem to have had the fame fprings with those that have for fome years been carried on with regard to the colonists in America. The managers have always pretended that they meant the peace, happinefs, and profperity of the colonists, but when their defigns were fairly divulged, their own dominion and emolument have fairly appeared to have been the fprings of their actions. A circumstance which naturally falls in the way of the hiftory of this year, confirms the above obfervations.

The inhabitants of the island of St. Vincent, which are called Carribs, who have been, time immemorial, in poffeffion of that ifland, and have justly claimed the property of the foil, were offended at the English furveyors who were fent from England to furvey their poffeffions. Their oppofition to this arbitrary act of the English government, was foon determined to be rebellion, and meafures immediately pursued to chaftife thefe infidel rebels. By taking a fhort view of the hiftory of this people, and the behaviour of the English government towards them, we will find fome of the true fprings of our modern war with our colonifts, and dependants upon the fupreme legislature.

Hiftorians inform us that the Carribs are of two forts, different in their colour as well as in their extract and originial. They are diflinguifhed by the epi-. thets of black and yellow Caribs; the latter being the defcendants of the original natives, and the others negrocs

negroes brought from Africa aboard an English ship, which was caft away upon the coast of St. Vincent, about an hundred years ago. The negroes having recovered their liberty by this accident, were kindly received by the natives, and fettled among them. It is faid, that having women of their own, they fill continued a distinct people, and foon became numerous. The two forts of people were not more different in their colour, than in their temper and difpofition; the Americans being timid and inoffenfive, the Africans hardy, defigning, and intrepid. With thefe qualifications, together with the acceffion of the negroes which run away from the neighbouring iflands, they foon became fuperior in number and power to the natives, who melted away infenfibly as the strangers increased. History does not inform us of any hoftilities that these strangers committed upon the natives, and it would rather feem that by intermingling with the original inhabitants, the character of the people had changed from that of the weaker to the ftronger. In this fituation the Carribs continued for fome time, until the French, from the neighbouring iflands, by their addrefs, infinuated themfelves among them, and purchased the best of their foil for brandy and other French trinkets, which fuited the taste of the Carribs. By the addrefs and cunning peculiar to that nation, they got poffeffion of the most fruitful vallies, that interfect the mountains on the leeward fide of the island, and brought them into a ftate of cultivation.

The French and natives lived upon good terms for fome time, and the latter embraced the language and religion of the former; yet the neighbourhood of villages and cultivation, was but ill fuited to the convenience and genius of a people that fubfifted

upon

upon hunting and fishing. There is fomething in nature which infpires men with a defire of liberty and independence, which, though they naturally love fociety, yet they fhun crowds, and love a certain retirement, ftill defiring to live free and unrestrained in their actions, without obfervation or interference of others. The Carribs at last totally abandoned their old poffeffions, and retired to the windward and level fide of the island. The French, it is faid, once attempted to enflave these people, and that the Carribs defended their liberties fo refolutely, that the French were glad to renounce their defign, and were obliged to acknowledge them as a free and independent people.

The French and Carribs continued to live in friendly intercourfe and correfpondence, and the Carribs retained a power in their own hands of executing juftice upon those who did them any real injuries; and it does not appear that ever the French had reafon to complain of thofe natives, for any acts of rigour or injustice in their revenging injuries or affronts. The French king always treated the natives as proprietors of the island, and thewed them respect and regard upon every occafion. But what is fomewhat extraordinary, upon the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the French king ceded the island of St Vincent to England, without fo much as taking notice of the Carribs. This was giving up what he had always acknowledged was not his own, and the government of Great Britain accepted what they well knew did not belong of right to the king of France. It is no wonder that all nations who have any knowledge of the two empires of France and Britain, fhould hate both them and the Christian religion which they profefs, when they commit, under the cloak of that religion, fuch manifest acts of injuftice. We fcarcely find greater violations Y y

of