indictment it was managed, that this punishment for coining was not inficted above twice in a century. In the cafes of petty treafon, fuch as a wife's murder.ng her husband, and others of a very atrocious nature, lord Loughborough thought that the law was better as it stood at prefent.

But the matter, upon which he moft frongly infifted, was that the bill, which was undoubtedly of the firft magnitude and materially affected the criminal juftice of the country, had been brought forward without the judges being in the fmallest degree confulted with regard to the wifdom or utility of its provifions. The judges were the defcription of men most likely to difcover any defect in the execution of our criminal laws, and their opinion had accordingly been taken in the first inftance in all preceding times. He oblerved that the bill was drawn in a moft loofe and inaccurate manner, and fufficiently proved that the author was very little acquainted with his fubject. He dwelt upon the impropriety of men not converfant with law turning projectors in refpect to it, and in their moment of vivacity coming forward with raw, jejune, il advifed, and impracticable fchemes. Lod Sydney followed lord Lough borough. He paid many compliments to the worth and humanity of Mr. Wilberforce, but admitted the juftice of the objections that had been made, and the bill was rejected without a divifion.

A motion was made in the houfe of commons by Mr. Powys on the twenty-eighth of April, and feconded by Mr. Dempster, for leave to bring in a bill to explain and amend the act of 1774, commonly called the Quebec act. Mr. Powys desired, that the petition from feveral thoufand

of the inhabitants of Quebec, which had been prefented to the house in 1-84, might be read. He expreffed his regret, that the business upon which he was to enter, had not been taken up by fome of the minifters of the fovereign. He defcribed to the house the principal provifions of the bill he wifhed to introduce. At prefent the province was governed by a council, which acted upon all occafions in the character of its legiflature. He intended to enact, that the members of this council fhould not be liable to be difiniffed at the will of the governor. He would caufe the judges to be continued in their offices during good behaviour. He would give to the Briifh fubjects in Quebec an optional right to the trial by jury. He would deprive the governor of the power of imprisoning any of the inhabitants, except in confequence of a legal trial, and for a limited time. In a word he wished to place the government of the province, which was at prefent fluctuat ing and defpotic, upon the bafis of known and definite law. Mr. Powys alluded to the circumstance of fir Guy Carleton s having been lately appointed to the government. Ee conceived that as an officer and a man, general Carleton had done him elf the highest credit; but, if he might be permitted to fay it, he could not confider that officer as the bett and most able adviser of the house in its legislative capacity. He thought the opportunity of his appointment fhould be feized, as the era of happinets and liberty to the province of Canada, and that fir Guy Carleton fhould be fixed upon to be made the meflenger of the glad tidings.

Mr. Pitt declared his opinion, that generally fpeaking, the privileges of the British conftitution

ought

ught to be diffused as widely as the dominions of the empire. He had feen feveral petitions from the province of Quebec, and among them many counter-petitions, entirely hoftile to that which was brought to the recollection of the houfe by Mr. Powys. It was a certain fact, that the principal part of the inhabitants of Canada were averfe to any change in the prefent fyftem of their government; and furely even the bleffings of liberty ought not to be forced upon a people contrary to their inclinations. He defired however to be understood, as not declaring against the introduction of a new confitution into Quebec; but, as there were great differences of opinion upon the fubject, he could not confent to adopt any half-concerted and immature measures for a general reformation. As fir Guy Carleton was going out to Canada, he had thought it proper to wait, till enquiries could be made, and information received from him. The attorney-general declared himself an advocate for fiberty; but he thought it would be highly improper to proceed rafhly in this bufinefs. With regard to the independency of the judges, as a profeffional man he muft certainly wish to fee it every where introduced; but there were feveral difficulties that attended it, and by no colony of Great Britain had it ever been adopted

In re pect to trial by jury, in civil cafes the kingdom of Scotland enjoyed no fuch privilege, and it was greatly limited in England. For peers could, in many cafes, be tried by commoners, and commoners by impeachment. Mr. Young, lately elected for Saint Mawes, followed the ministers on the fame fide, and obferved to Mr. Powys, that, if he would give himself the trouble to

trace the links in the chain, he would find that civil liberty and civil happinefs were not always intimate acquaintance.

Mr. Courtenay fpoke in favour of the bill. He obferved, that fir Guy Carleton was the reputed author of the act it was defigned to repeal; and that therefore there was fomething exquifitely abfurd, in the idea of confulting him refpecting the proceedings that thould be adopted upon the fubject. He afferted, that the former government of that officer had by no means been fuch as to encourage an application to him in the prefent inftance, and he mentioned the arbitrary removal of Mr. Livius the chief justice of the province, a conduct, which had been cenfured by the late board of trade, and by the prefent committee of council for trade and plantations. Mr. Fox was a warm fupporter of the motion of Mr. Powys, and was willing to go farther in the alteration of the act of 1774, than his friend had propofed. He would confent to give the people of Canada a houfe of ailembly, and, if we had twenty colonies, he would yield to every one of them the fame privi lege. In the inftitution of fuch an affembly, he fhould be for having it coulift of men chofen by the people, without restriction as to who were of the Roman catholic religion, and who were of the proteftant, or indeed of any religion whatfoever. Mr. Fox afferted, that it had been proved in evidence at the bar of that houfe in the year 1774, that more than threefourths of the inhabitants of Canada ardently panted for the bleffings of being governed by British laws. The province of Canada had been in our hands three and twenty years, and it was extraordinary indeed, if we were yet ignorant what

fyllem

fyftem was bet adapted for their government. He obferved, that he Thould be glad to know what fort of language thofe petitioners held, who prayed not to have the bleffings of a trial by jury, of the habeas corpus act, of independent judges and a free government? For him felf he was fo firmly perfuaded of the inestimable benefit of fuch a government, that he would give it, even if the majority of any colony were fo blind to their own intereft as to refuse to accept it, animated with the most certain expectation that the time would foon come, when he should receive their most grateful thanks. The houfe divided on Mr.Powys's motion, ayes 21,

noes 68.

As it had been a principal object of the measures of the prefent fef fion, to extend and fecure to Great Britain the bleffings of peace, the melioration of her revenues, and the improvement of her commerce, the measures of a mifcellaneous nature, that it remains for us to relate, and which were not equally productive of oppofition and debate, were intended to promote thefe great objects, and particularly to give ftrength and permanence to our commerce. The first of them confifted in a bill, which was brought forward by Mr. Charles Jenkinfon, for the farther increase and encouragement of our fhipping and navigation. The object of this bill was, more fully to enforce the preceding acts of navigation, and to prevent the frauds by which they were fuppofed to have been evaded. It is well known, that the navigation laws of Great Britain are in direct oppofition to the abstract and philofophical ideas that have been entertained in behalf of free trade; and it is not lefs notorious, that

they are an object of extreme attachment, and a fource of high popularity among the majority of the fubjects of the British realms. Mr. Jenkinson's bill was intended to enact, that in future no fhips fhould be deemed British built, that were not actually built in Great Britain, or her dominions; it extended and regulated the mode of regifter upon that fubject, and it raifed to a higher amount what was called the aliens duty, extending it to the Americans, who were no longer entitled to an exemption from it. The bill experienced a favourable reception, and an amendment to it, that was propofed by fir Grey Cooper, was calculated not to diminish but to enforce its operation. He expatiated on the impolicy of which we had formerly been guilty, in the encouragement we had yielded to the art of fhipbuilding in the American colonics; and he quoted fir Jofiah Child, to fhow that that writer had predicted the revolt of the colonies as the refult of this policy. At the very moment when it had been declared by the perfon who had borne the greatest refpect and authority in that houfe (lord Chatham) that the colonies fhould not be permitted to manufacture the nail of a horfe-fhoe, they were fabricating with the connivance and applause. of Great Britain, a manufacture, : which was of all others, the most injurious and detrimental to the com mercial and naval interefts of the kingdom. Sir Grey Cooper ex-, prefled his apprehenfions that American built hips fhould be smug. gled upon us through the intervention of our colonists of Nova Scotia, and he propofed feveral fchemes to encounter this evih The fuggeftions of fir Grey Cooper

were

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

Several measures, founded upon the fame bafis of monopoly and national preference, were brought forward about this time by Mr. Jenkinson. 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 fifhery ought to be conducted. It was effential to preferve it entirely a British fishery; and this could only be done by confining it to British fhips, vigated from Great Britain, and by preventing any ftationary fettlement 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 stages, flakes, and curing houfes on the island, should 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 fit at the time of the ensuing season.

The fubject of the Greenland fishery excited a higher degree of conteft and debate. The idea of the ministerial party, as it was ftated by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Jenkinfon, was to reduce the bounty from

forty fhillings, which was at present 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 fifh, the public at prefent paid fixty per cent upon every cargo. In the Greenland fishery there were employed fix thoufand feamen; and thefe 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 glot 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, befides fupplying them with the materials of feveral important manufactures. The old bounty was pleaded for with much earnestnefs as effential to the exiltence of the fishery, by Mr. Demps fter, Mr. Huffey, lord Penrhyn, Mr. Ilay Campbel, Mr. alderman Watfon, and Mr. alderman Hamet.

Mr. Beaufoy, who had last year, in confequence of the reports of the committee for enquiring into the British fisheries, brought in a bill for the encouragement of the herring fishery, now fubmitted to parliament a bill that was intended to extend our concern in the turbot fishery. This bill was not calcu lated, like that of the last feffion, to 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

6

feamen

feamen of Great Britain rejected with indignation the infulting idea of Dutch fuperiority; and, confident from experience, were impatient for the trial. In the herring fishery our veffels outnumbered the vefiels of Holland more than in the proportion of two to one. In the cod fishery the English had no rivals. In the fiflery 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 competitions infinitely arduous, and would they be baffled in this the eafieft 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 close of the feffion a bill was introduced by Mr. Macdonald the folicitor-general, to incorporate a certain number of perfons, among whom the members of the committee to enquire into the British fisheries, were the most confpicuous, who had entered into a voluntary fubfcription, which already amounted to feven thousand pounds, for the purpose of building fifling towns and villages on the coafts of Scotland. The object of this affociation appears to have been liberal and difinterened; and it was indebted for its formation to the accurate investigations of Mr. Knox, to the patriotic fpirit of Mr. Dempfler, and to the industry and activity of Mr. Beaufoy.

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

fpeculation and conjecture among the nation in general. A bill having been introduced into parliament relative to the prize-money that had been obtained at the capture of St. Eustatius, lord Rodney embraced this opportunity of fuggelling a fact to the houfe, 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 indig nation 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 treafon, 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 necessary. Having called for them however in juflification of his conduct before the court of appeal from the high court of admiralty, he had learned to his utter aftonifhment, 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 appointment of the marquis of Lanfdown to the office of fecretary of ftate, the criminals, who had hi therto been detained, were enlarg,

ed,