Mr. Chancellor Pitt defired to fuggeft it to the honour- Mr. Chanable Baronet, who was to bring forward the charge on the cellor Pitt. fubject of contracts, as it was a charge of a very extenfive nature, to allow gentlemen a few days more to make themfelves masters of it. He declared for one, that he had not had time to examine the fubject fully. Erskine. Sir James Erskine readily confented, and the order for this Sir James day was difcharged, and a new order made for this day fe'nnight. On the Chancellor of the Exchequer's moving that a bill be brought in purfuant to the refolutions relative to the French treaty and confolidated duties, Sir Grey Cooper obferved, that in the debate on the addrefs Sir Grey to the Crown on the commercial treaty, he gave his opinion, Cooper. which he was now more and more confirmed in, that the firft, if not the fole object and purpose of that address, was to pledge and bind, by the force of the words in which it was expreffed, that House, to the entire approbation of the whole treaty, and to attempt to prevent and preclude any farther difcuffion of the principle on which it was founded, or any ulterior queftion on the detail of the tariff, and the other articles, to which the King, by his prerogative alone, could not give validity and effect; but whatever attempts might be made to bend the forms of parliamentary proceedings, to serve the purposes of a favourite measure, or a parti- cular occafion, or to furprise that Houfe into an approbation of a fudden project, he was perfuaded that no addrefs, contrivance, or management, could prevail fo far as to alter the fettled rules and orders, which, by long and uniform practice of Parliament, was in fuch cafes the law of the land, and which the House was, in its legiflative capacity, bound to observe, and to adhere to in all its proceedings, and particularly in the paffing of the bills. If this were fo, what-ever might be the view of those who propofed and fupported the addrefs, he contended, that it was ftill competent for every member, in every itage of the proceeding, before the bill for carrying the treaty into execution, fhould have paffed the House, to ftate any doubts, or to offer any objections which he might continue to have to the whole or any part of the treaty, or which he might have discovered fince the addrefs was voted. But another impediment was about to be thrown in the way of the free difcuffion of this great and most important measure. The refolutions which were voted in the Committee of the whole Houfe, appointed to confider of the treaty, had fince been referred to the Committee for preparing the refolutions for the bafis of the bill, for fimplifying and confolidating the duties of customs and excife. He felt it impoffible to avoid condemning the ma nœuvre nœuvre of endeavouring to fwallow up the few refolutions refpecting the commercial treaty, in the multiplied confideration of 3700 refolutions, which would be produced by the plan for confolidating the customs. The former were as drops of water in the great ocean of the latter; and it might be faid of them, in the language of the poet, "Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.” Notwithstanding that, the right honourable gentleman had given them a feparate schedule, as a fort of plank to float upon. This feparate fchedule inclined him to hope that the tariff duties would have been brought before the House in a separate bill; but he was forry to find, by the motion of the right honourable gentleman, that this was not his intention. It feemed to him, that, the continuing to keep the refolutions for carrying the French treaty into execution, blended, incorporated, and confounded in the fame bill, with the vaft multitude which formed the confolidation bill, was an unfair and unparliamentary restraint on the freedom of voting. If it had not happened, by a fingular and whimsical concurrence of circumftances, that in the fame feffion, and almoft at the fame time, when this great innovation in the commerce of the kingdom was proposed to Parliament, the bill, which had been long in contemplation, had not been brought forward for fimplifying the collection, and confolidating the duties of cuftoms, and as a basis and ground work, for which it became neceffary to reconfider, recast, and revote the whole mass of duties, and to ascertain what integral fum fhould be demanded hereafter on each fpecific article imported, exported, or carried coaft wife, if it had not been for this fortuitous circumftance, there muft neceffarily have been a feparate and diftinct bill moved for rendering effectual the tariff of the French treaty, and whatever other articles wanted the aid of Parliament to give them energy and effect. Advantage had been taken of this event (and, as it appeared to him, an unfair and unparliamentary advantage) to keep the treaty as much as poffible out of the fight and out of the mind of the Houfe. The subject matter of opening a commercial intercourfe with France on certain reciprocal ftipulations, had no relation to, or connection with, the matter of the confolidating bill, except in one point, and in fo far as it refpected the fettlement of the duties, which every article of commerce was to pay in future. That being done and adjusted, the fubjects were perfectly different and unconnected; what had the policy or principle of a commercial treaty with France to do with a plan calculated for the ease of the merchants, in making their entries, and paying their duties? He was aware that it had been but too too much practised in that house, to put together, in the fame bill, propofitions and claufes which had no immediate relation to each other; he had always thought that bills, which were called hodge-podge bills, were contrary to the fpirit of parliamentary order, and ought to be avoided as much as poffible. But in thofe cafes, the propofitions taken feparately were feldom liable to any objection in either Houfe; yet, to do this in cafes where it was known that one of the component parts of the bill would be opposed in the progrefs, and that many members in that Houfe as well as the other, might wish to vote for the rejection of the French treaty, though not in any respect to oppose, much lefs to reject the confolidation bill; it was in effect to prevent, as well that House as the Houfe of Lords, from exercifing the privilege which they both had, as branches of the Legiflature, to give their diffent to a propofition, of which they disapproved, which they could not freely do, if they muft, by the fame vote, reject a meafure which they all confidered to be of the highest public advantage. Under the circumftances of the cafe, both Houfes of Parliament ftood nearly in the fame predicament. That Houfe could not, it was admitted, alter or amend any part of the tariff, except for the purpose of rejecting the treaty, and therefore the reftraint even in the cafe of that bill, which was certainly a money bill, was equal in both Houfes, and all the objections to a talk applied in a great degree to the present mode of proceeding. Upon this ground, he thought himself justified in moving an amendment to the right honourable gentleman's motion, by inferting after "a bill," the words "or “bills." Mr. Rofe contended that it would be infinitely more con- Mr. Rofe venient for the whole to go in one bill, than to divide the refolutions refpecting the French treaty, and put them into diftinct bills. Gentlemen would recollect, that as the laws now ftood, the duties on the import of French goods, &c. were confiderably higher than the duties on the import of the goods of other countries. Unless therefore the whole was put into one bill, there muft neceffarily be two new books of rates made out, and one printed to each bill, a circumstance which could not but be productive of the greatest inconvenience to the merchants, and to every perfon concerned in importation. On the other hand, the uniting the two fubjects in one bill would not, as had been fuggefted, preclude the freedom of debate, fince every man would have full liberty to object, even by taking the fenfe of the House, to any one refolution whatsoever. Mr. Huffey obferving that there fhould be two bills, added, Mr. Hufthat unless very folid grounds of inconvenience to the mer- fey. chants Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Martin. Mr. Fox. chants could be stated, he saw no reason why the bills should tleman had faid, that if there were, then two books of rates Mr. Sheridan remarked, that there was no reason why there fhould not be two bills, but it was a mere pretence, The real caufe of blending the two fubjects was in order to preclude objections to the refolutions relative to the French treaty. With regard to the argument of difficulty and inconvenience, which would arife, if there were two bills, he denied that it had been made out. The only argument advanced had been, that, in fuch a cafe, there must be two different books of rates. What difficulty would that occafion? The book of rátes was already made out, and confequently there would only be the trouble of making out a frefh copy. Mr. Martin obferved that, having given his vote in favour of the treaty, he meant to fupport it, because he really believed it likely to be attended with beneficial confequences; but he thought there was fo much weight in what had fallen from the honourable gentleman oppofite to him, that unless fome more fubftantial proof of the inconvenience which would arise from having two bills inftead of one could be given, he must vote for the amendment. The question was put, that the word bill stand part of the queftion, when the Houfe divided, Ayes, 137; Noes, 64. Mr. Fox now rofe, and faid that he felt it highly requifite to folicit the indulgent attention of the House to some remarks which he must beg leave to make concerning a recent occurrence, in which, at leaft in his conception, were most effentially involved the established rights of Parliament, and the firft interefts of the nation. The matter to which he alluded was the addrefs which that Houfe had thought proper to vote on the commercial treaty. The time at which this addrefs was moved and paffed tended to fubvert the forms of Par Parliament, and, in fubverting the forms of Parliament, it tended to deftroy the legiflative authority, the fpirit of the conftitution, and, confequently, the deareft privileges of the nation. On the prefervation of the forms of Parliament the fecurity of the laws depended. No part of the conftitution was more jealously or tenaciously preferved than the forms by which all laws were enacted. If the forms were dispensed with, the conftitution of the Legislature must be annihilated; and he thought that the forms were destroyed, by the address being paffed on a fubject before that fubject was determined. For this addrefs, paffing after eertain refolutions had paffed, previous to the bill being brought in, the House were precluded from exercifing their right of decifion on the fubject; the words of the addrefs containing not only an approbation, but a pledge, of using the earliest and every poffible means of carrying the treaty into effect, he thought the intention was to preclude Parliament from the exercise of their opinions, with which they were invested by the conftitution and their conftituents. With refpect to the fyftem of this parliamentary form, as to its efficient political principle, he fhould obferve, that the modes of pasfing bills, both in this and the other Houfe, were certainly very deliberate. They might indeed, in the opinion of fome gentlemen, be confidered as, tedious; but thofe gentlemen who entertained fuch fentiments proved themselves to be exceedingly rash and inexperienced. He did not mean to fay what were the forms of the Houfe; he had never ftudied them. He was therefore not fo well acquainted with them as with the forms of the Houfe of Commons. In the latter, the form of paffing a bill of such importance as the present, there were feveral ftages. It was firft committed, which was the first stage; it was then reported, this was the fecond; the report was read a fecond time, which was the third; leave was then asked to bring in a bill to carry the refolutions into effect, which was the fourth; it was then brought in, which was the fifth; it was afterwards read a firft, fecond, and third time, which made eight; and the paffing made nine ftages, in which a bill must pass before it left that House. The reafon of these different stages was in order to give Parliament an opportunity of fo many different times for confidering its tendency, before they finally gave their concurrence to its paffing. It might pass the Committee; report, firft, fecond, and third reading, and yet be rejected, by Parliament difcovering fome improprieties which they had not, before observed. This law was therefore exceedingly wife; for nothing required more deliberation than laws which fhould be enacted for the welfare, protection, and government of the people; and therefore it VOL. XXI. 3 E became |