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that, to use the words of the noble lord opposite, there was a great degree of ignorant impatience for relief from taxation [a laugh, and cries of hear, hear]; but it was proper that the petitioners should be beard for themselves,

This was assented to, and the whole of the 26 petitions were read. When the clerk had got nearly half through them;

ought to know something of their contents: but he nevertheless maintained the accuracy of his original statement, that twenty out of the twenty-six petitions contained prayers against the property tax; in some of them that prayer was mixed up with other matters, but twenty contained such prayer, or he had lost his hearing.

Sir T. Acland again rose and persevered in speaking, although there were cries of spoke, spoke!"

Mr. Cartwright rose, and put it to the right hon. gentleman opposite, whether it" was necessary that the time of the House should be occupied at such length, particularly when, as far as respected any information which the House might derive from hearing so many petitions of nearly the same tenor, it was quite useless?

Mr. Tierney replied, that he had wished them to be read for the express purpose of calling the attention of the House to them. It was the least thing the House could do to listen to the prayers of the people; but if gentlemen chose to pay no attention at all to the reading of the petitions he could not help it.

When the petitions had been read, Mr. Ponsonby observed, that possibly the hon. members opposite might now know something of the contents of the petitions, for their better information he would state that twenty out of the twenty-six were against the property-tax, the rest complaining generally of distress and heavy tax

ation.

Sir T. Acland, in reply to the right hon. gentleman's remark, felt himself called upon to state, that all the petitions were put into his hands that afternoon, and that notwithstanding the shortness of the time, he had read them over as carefully as he could. The impression on his mind was, that they did not generally pray for the unqualified repeal of the income tax, in the fair sense of the word; otherwise why did many of them call for its modification? The right hon. gentleman would allow that a considerable noise prevailed in the House during the time of their being read, which might have prevented him from accurately hearing their purport; but if the right hon. gentleman took the trouble to read them over as he (Sir T. A.) had done, he would find that they were not generally against the income tax,-probably not above half of them.

Mr. Ponsonby would not pretend to put the accuracy of his ears in competition with the accuracy of the hon. baronet's eyes, the hon. baronet having stated that he had read the petitions, and therefore

The Speaker stated that there was no question before the House.

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Mr. Tierney added, that the hon. baronet could not be allowed to persevere, as there really was no question before the House; but as there was a dispute about the meaning of these petitions, perhaps the better way would be to read them over again (a laugh).

Lord Folkestone could not but express his astonishment at the way in which petitions on this most important question had been brought before the House, especially where one member happened to have a considerable number to present. This was the first time that he had seen twenty or six and twenty petitions introduced, as they had been that night, and on a question of such importance that was agitating the country from one end to the other, To him such a manner was extremely unsatisfactory. If any member chose to adopt such course towards his constituents, that was his business; but he should be sorry to see the day arrive when the peti tions of the people of England were to be regularly received in such way. If petitions by the score and hundred were to be smuggled into the House in such manner, what probability was there of their having a fair chance of effecting their object? According to such system, when one or two petitions were presented, they must be read; but when they poured in by twenties and hundreds, a proof of how much more importance they were, then they were to be smuggled into the House without being read at all. According to such practice, neither the House, the public, nor the petitioners, would know what became of the petitions. There was another practice of modern date, of which he must also complain, namely, that of only printing in their votes the names and prayers of such petitions as were presented, instead of the leading features of each petition. In future he hoped this practice would be amended, and particularly that all members would refrain from presenting

petitions in the mass; he trusted that they would separately notice and present them. Mr. Baring presented a petition from Taunton, against the property-tax. At the same time he expressed the hope that members, who might have petitions to present, would impartially notice their contents, and not give to such cortents the colouring of their own impressions.

Mr. Robinson supposed that the latter remark was levelled against his hon. friend, upon whose petitions so much had been already said. He must observe, and the House would probably entertain the same opinion, that the assertion, that the hon. baronet had given to his petitions the colouring of his own feelings, was altogether unjustified by the contents of the petitions theinselves, which, when read, were found completely to bear out the remarks made on offering them to the House. He had listened during the reading of the petitions with the greatest attention, and would maintain that a statement more correct in all particulars had never been given in the House than that which had fallen from the hon. baronet.

Mr. Baring censured the mode in which the hon. baronet had endeavoured to dismiss twenty-six petitions of such importance; certain it was, that if the hon. baronet had felt upon the subject of the property-tax as strongly as those who made him their organ, his conduct would have been very different. It was singular also that the petition which the hon. baronet had been most anxious should be read, said little or nothing upon the theme of the abolition of the property-tax, which had filled nearly all the others.

Mr. Wilberforce, although not unprepared to agree with what had fallen from a noble lord, as to the propriety of printing the petitions more fully in their votes, could not but remark that he had very recently observed the practice pursued by an hon. baronet in presenting twenty-six petitions, pursued a short time since by one of their oldest members, who had many petitions to present, he presenting the whole of them at the same time.

Mr. Baring said, that he had been induced to remark on the way in which the petitions had been presented by the hon. baronet, in consequence of observing the decided attempt of his Majesty's ministers to bring forward the subject to which those petitions referred, before the sentiments of the country at large could be expressed upon it. Under such circumstances, it was natural to view with jea

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Mr. Goulburn presented to the House, pursuant to their orders, an account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the island of St. Lucia, with the salaries and emoluments of the same; and also of all offices in the said colony filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.-An account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the island of Tobago, with the salaries and emoluments of the same; and also of all offices in the said colony filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.-An account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the colony of Demerara and Essequibo, with the salaries and emoluments of the same; and also of all offices in the said colony filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.-An account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the colony of Berbice, with the salaries and emoluments of the same; and also of all offices in the said colony filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.-An account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the Isle of France, with the salaries and emoluments of the same; and also of all offices in the said colony filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.-An account of all offices, civil and military, under the Crown, in the island of Malta, with the salaries and emoluments of the same.-An account of all offices in the islands of Malta and Gozo filled by appointment from any authority other than the Crown.

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ABSTRACT OF THE Army Estimates FOR THE YEAR 1816.] The following is an Abstract of the Estimates of the Army Services for the Year 1816, which was presented to the House on the 19th instant, by lord viscount Palmerston, secretary at war:

ABSTRACT of the ESTIMATES of ARMY SERVICES, for the Year 1816.

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ARMY ESTIMATES.] The Chancellor | must bid farewell to that freedom which of the Exchequer having moved the order they had so long and so anxiously preof the day for the House to resolve itself served. Among the many reasons that into a committee of the whole House, to had been urged for the enormous peace consider further of the Supply to be establishment, the most absurd appeared granted to his Majesty, and the same being to him to be the assertion, that it was read, he next moved, "That the several necessary for our own security, in order Estimates relating to Army Services, to avoid the speedy renewal of hostilities. which were presented to the House upon The House could not fail to recollect that, Monday last by lord viscount Palmerston, for the last twelve years, ministers had and upon Thursday last by Mr. Pecl, be been soothing the impatient country by referred to the said committee. The latter stating, that the war was continued to question having been put, prevent the necessity of an armed peace, and yet now they ventured to tell the people, that, after all their sacrifices, they had gained nothing; for still an armed peace was all that had been acquired. Thus then the case stood-we had undertaken a war to procure peace and a diminution of taxation, and we had concluded a war only to perpetuate the burthens for which war had been the only excuse. the peace of Amiens it would not be forgotten that the power of France was infinitely more dangerous than at present. Switzerland bowed to her yoke, and Italy acknowledged her sovereignty; yet the chancellor of the exchequer of that day, when the danger was more imminent, had proposed a much more economical establishment, as fully adequate for our protection. The noble lord on the opposite side might endeavour to show that we were now in equal peril from our neighbours; but, supposing the assertion true, what did it prove, but that, under his administration, all the valuable lives destroyed, and all the immense treasures lavished in the continuance of the war, had been wasted? Honour might have been gained by our armies, but shame had been brought upon the House, and calamity upon the country. From the close of the American war to the opening of that of the French revolution, the peace establishment of this nation had been too much extended, and the admitted consequence had been, that our resources having been exhausted, a sanguinary contest was prolonged by the deficiency of means to bring it to an early termination; and while adverting to the instruction history would afford, he could not avoid noticing a speech of his present majesty, soon after he ascended the throne, at the termination of a war, in which he said that his first and most ardent wish, the attainment of peace, had been accomplished; his second, the alleviation of the burthens of his subjects, yet remained to be fulfilled;

Lord John Russell said, that he came down to the House with the intention of opposing the motion; but if he had not previously made up his mind, the petitions that day laid upon the table, would have rendered it an imperious duty on his part to give a decided opposition to any proceeding which should warrant even the consideration of the enormous estimates of which the House had already heard too much. Those petitions proved beyond contradiction, that the people were with haste congregating in all parts of the country, in order to compel ministers to listen to their sighs under their afflictions, and to their groans under the burthens that were laid upon them; burthens heavier than in any previous time of peace; heavier even than in many former wars in which we had been engaged. Ministers, on the contrary, were endeavouring to shut their ears against the cries of the people, and were running a most unbecoming race, in order to impose the grievous weight before the nation could have time to express its resolution not to sustain it. The bare proposal that a standing army of 150,000 men should be supported, must alarm every friend to his country and its constitution; not that he was impressed with any fear so ridiculous, as that a standing army unaided could ever effectuate what had been accomplished in some of the states of the continent; but the greatest danger was to be found in the influence of the Crown, which, by daily increase, threatened to erase even the vestiges that departing liberty had left behind her. How much that influence would be augmented by a great standing army, required no illustration. A time might arrive, and that not far distant, when the House of Commons, for its own security, as well as for the security of the Crown, would find it necessary to keep up an immense regular force; when that event occurred, the people

the mixing up of soldiery with the private and civil affairs of a country; the constitutional authorities were thus superseded, and slavery engrafted on the very stock of the nation. For these reasons, he

should strenuously resist the estimates about to be proposed; and, should he have the good fortune to succeed, he would afterwards propose an address to the crown, praying that more economical propositions should be made to the House, that the people might find that parliament was not deaf to their loud complaints, and that if measures of late years pursued had prevented complete retrenchment, yet that at least an anxiety prevailed to alleviate their burthens.

Mr. Frankland Lewis expressed his anxiety to embrace every opportunity of mitigating-he would not say of resisting the estimates proposed by his majesty's government. In spite of the strong feeling which he entertained of his inadequacy to address the House, he was sus→ tained by his stronger sense of the duty imposed on every honourable member to exercise, and to declare sincerely and independently his own judgment on this, which of all the important questions which had been agitated in parliament during the three short years that he had had the honour of a seat there, appeared to him to be of infinitely the greatest magnitude. Whenever the proposition of a large standing army had been made in that House, it had been resisted on a principle wholly unconnected with any party feeling

but still it was necessary to maintain a respectable navy, the true bulwark of the island. The language of the minister in our own day was far different; it held out, indeed, a vain promise of retrenchment, while Great Britain was converted from a naval into a military nation, and, instead of continuing a mighty island, she was to be changed into a petty continental state. The history of the country showed, that the invariable object on the arrival of peace was, to reduce the military establishment as low as possible. Even at the peace of Ryswick, when it was said that the Bourbons meditated an attack upon the independence of England, that the succession was to be disturbed, and that she was again to be placed at the mercy of the House of Stuart; even then, the parliament would not agree to the proposal of a standing army, holding it to be of paramount importance to reduce it as low as possible, and to trust the defence of our liberties to the operation of the constitution, rather than to confide it to those who had an interest in its overthrow. This brought him to the question of the propriety of maintaining in France a British force to repress revolutionary movements. Whether even that were a fit object, might be a matter of doubt; but who could avoid perceiving to what a purpose this army might be applied? It might happen that evil counsellors should persuade a king of France to trample on his subjects, and British soldiers might be engaged as the instruments of detested tyranny. Already in Spain the prediction it had been resisted by a body of men had been nearly verified. Sir William acting independently of any administraBlackstone had held, that the army only tion-he meant the country gentlemen of existed for the protection of the people; England; who had invariably united in and after having been employed success- their hostility to a measure of that nature. fully in France in quelling the rising ener- As for his own motives on this particular gies of a great people, our soldiers on occasion, he could solemnly assure the their return would be well qualified to act House, that he was wholly uninfluenced the same disgusting scenes in England- by any personal feeling towards any indiperhaps an improvement upon the emis-vidual whatever. In comparison with such saries of Fouché under the régime of Buonaparte. With regard to the mode in which they were to be supported, no friend of his country could fail to wish that they should be paid under the control of parliament, and that the money now intended to be devoted to them might be placed in the British treasury. To the 25,000 destined for Ireland, he objected with equal firmness; if they were indeed required, his regret would be augmented, and here was a real danger to be apprehended; for nothing could be more objectionable than

a question as that before them, he cared not who was in or who was out of power; but he called on the country at large to think and to act for themselves-to look at the extent of the means they possessed, and at the extent of the danger to be apprehended, and to decide on the establishment that was advisable with reference to both those considerations. Without desiring the House to go far back to prece dents, without referring them to the sterner periods of British history, he thought it might do no harm to remind

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