Mr. Martin.

others: he fhould not, therefore, include them in the motion he proposed to introduce; but, at all events, their claims were not very important, amounting only to 33,000l. It was not, he faid, his idea that the whole of these claims fhould now be discharged; and in what he proposed should be done, he intended to have a view to the probability of fome of the fufferers receiving that amends in another place, to which they were entitled on the grounds of public faith and national confidence. He fhould for the prefent propofe that the fum of 150,000l. fhould be granted for the purpose of paying fo much on account to the American Loyalifts, by way of affording them a temporary relief. This fum to be apportioned to the feveral claffes, according to the rate of forty per cent. on the allowed claims of the two first classes, and of thirty per cent. on those of the others. He faid he was the more happy in thus fuggefting an act of benevolence and juftice, becaufe it could be effected without any direct burden on the people. How this fum was to be raised was not at prefent fo immediately his duty to explain until the Committee of Ways and Means fhould fit; for the prefent, therefore, he fhould only mention, that the plan for railing that fum was by a lottery, which, from the propofals he had received, he had reafon to calculate would produce the fum of 150,000l. He therefore moved,

That the fum of 150,000l. be granted to His Majesty "for the prefent relief and on account of fuch perfons who «have fuffered in their rights and properties, and have given "fatisfactory proof of the loffes they have incurred to the "Commiffioners appointed for that purpose."

The refolution was voted.

Tuesday, June 21.

On the report being brought up, which voted 150,000k to the Loyalifts,

Mr. Martin faid, that though he had not the honour of being much acquainted with either of the refpectable gentlemen who had undertaken to examine the claims of those perfons called American Loyalifts, yet, from the general good character he had heard of them, he had no doubt of their be ing worthy of any truft that could properly be repofed in them; but that he thought that in matters where the interefts of the community were deeply concerned, that the reprefentatives of the People fhould, as far as is poffible, fee into

every thing with their own eyes. He trufted he was totally free from any spirit of cruelty or revenge; but that he could not but make a difference in his own mind between two defcriptions of Loyalifts, namely, fuch as fhould appear to have acted upon principle, however he might differ from that principle, or fuch who had facrificed their opinions to a narrow felf intereft, and always ftuck to that fide which they thought at the time moft likely to prevail. That it appeared to him that the weight of numerous, inconvenient, and complicated taxes fhould make the Houfe of Commons. more careful how they lay fresh burdens on the People, and that a fuller inquiry into the history and present circumftances of the Loyalifts feemed the more proper, as it would probably be found that the fatal American war was continued to that pernicious length by their encouragement and inftigation. He could not but think that the promoters and obftinate adherents to that war, if they had the decency of repentance for the mifchiefs they had occafioned, fhould ftand forth and offer to contribute largely upon this occafion; that the noble Lord, the great champion of that war, the gentleman who was ready to pay thirteen fhillings in the pound for carrying it on, the Miniffer who rejected Mr. Penn's petition, alfo feveral diftinguifhed friends of the prefent Minifter, and the various defcriptions of perfons who had enriched themfelves while the poor were ftarving, fhould make fome amends to the Public by eafing their burden of indemnifying thofe of the Loyalifts who should appear to have really acted upon principle. The noble Lord, it was true, had frequently, with a triumphant air of undaunted courage, called loudly for inquiry; but the noble Lord ought not to affume much merit for fuch challenge. Mr. Martin faid, it appeared to him to favour little more of courage than infulting a man whom it was known would not fight, for that this country had in great meafure loft its breed of noble bloods, and was funk in indolence, felfifhnefs, and indifference to the public welfare, That the man who for many years they had moft trufted to, had joined in clofeft bands of political friendship with the perfon he had taught the nation to execrate; and though he fays in his defence that they differed only refpecting that trifling business of the American war, the right honourable gentleman contradicts himself completely by differing in the highest degree from the noble Lord on another little, trifling, uninterefting fubject, namely, the reform

Mr. Chan

reform of Parliament; but ftill thefe bonds are to be indiffoluble, and this amiable connection to laft eternally.

Mr. Martin faid, that upon this occafion he could not but lament the feeming injuftice of the Public in the violent rage manifefted against the prefent Minifter on account of an injudicious tax, when at the fame time they feemed completely to forget the enormous grievances of the American war, and the never-to-be-forgotten infult on the Public, in the coalition of the two men who had fo violently and fo conftantly oppofed each other during the course it.

Mr. Martin faid, that in regard to a lottery, he should be very forry if it fhould be neceffary; for that it was always attended with infinite prejudice to the morals of the people, and greatly promoted the pernicious and deftructive practice of gambling. That deeply impreffed with the ideas which he had, he feared, but very imperfectly endeavoured to communicate to the Houfe, he fhould humbly move,

"That a correct lift of the names of thofe perfons who "have delivered in their claims to the Commiffioners for fettling the claims of the American Loyalifts, be laid be"fore this Houfe fo foon as it can be made out, together "with the amount of each original demand; and likewife, "what has been allowed by the Commiffioners to cach "claimant."

After reading the motion, Mr. Martin faid, that if it fhould appear clearly to be the general fenfe of the House, that the paper moved for ought not to be granted, he would not trouble gentlemen with a divifion; but that he fhould wish the motion to ftand on the Journals, that the Public might know, that their reprefentatives had not been wholly inattentive to the fubject, and that fome fubftantial reasons had been given why it would be improper that fuch a paper should not be laid before the House.

After fome farther debate, the report was read a fecond time and agreed to.

The House then refolved itself into a Committee, on the motion of Mr. Pitt, to take into confideration a propofition for making fome alteration in the prefent laws refpecting the collection of the duties on the article of tobacco. Mr. Gilbert having taken the chair,

Mr. Chancellor Pitt informed the Committee, that the cellor Pitt. Smuggling of tobacco had increased to a degree truly alarming to the revenue: the confumption of this article in Great Britain was immenfe; he was fure that he fhould under-rate it if he was to ftate it fo low as twelve millions of pounds

weight every year: the neat duty on this quantity, if it was paid upon the whole, would amount, after every deduction for discount, &c., at is. 3d. and a small fraction per pound, to 750,000l.; but fo fuccessfully had the fmuggling of tobacco been carried on, that the duty did not, on an average of the laft three years, exceed 380,000l. The Committee would therefore, he hoped, agree with him, that this article being fo eligible for taxation, it would be highly expedient to devife fome means for collecting the duty upon the whole of it.

He concluded by moving, "That the Chairman be direc"ted to move the Houfe, for leave to bring in a bill for the "better fecuring the duty on tobacco."

After fome debate the bill was ordered.

The Solicitor General (Mr. Macdonald) moved for leave The Solici to bring in the bill for regulating elections for the city of tor General Westminster.

Mr. Fox animadverted on the conduct of Miniftry with Mr. Fox. refpect to this business, and gave reasons for afferting that it

was not neceffary to make new laws for the regulation of elec

tions in Westminster.

On a divifion the numbers were,

A yes
Noes

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21

Thursday, June 23.

The Solacitor General rofe, and defired the attention The Soliciof the House, while he ftated shortly to them the heads tor General of a bill which he held in his hand, for the better prevention of crimes, and more speedy punishment of perfons found guilty. He trufted that every perfon within and many without the Houfe, must have found the danger there was in walking the public ftreets in the night; fo much fo indeed, that few perfons could walk without fear, or lay down on their beds with fafety: for gangs of fix, eight, ten, or twelve perfons together, made it a practice to knock at perfons doors, and immediately rufh in and rob the Houfe. Now the bill he had to produce, was not to extend the feverity of the prefent laws, but merely to enforce them with more certainty; for it was generally obferved, that feverity did not answer fo well as moderate laws properly adminiftered, and therefore, little or no new law would be introduced, but in fome refpects it would be found neceffary to draw the cord a little tighter than at prefent, and particularly in the vagrant act, VOL. XVIII,

3 X.

by

The Attor. General.

by extending that to objects a little higher than what at prefent was confidered to come within the meaning of that term. He obferved, that the chief reafon of the prefent bad ftate of the police, was owing more to the defect of the executive power, than to the defect of the laws; for the present laws, properly put in practice, would, in a great measure, remedy all the evils complained of; but, by being neglected, the thief went on progreffively, firft, from the pickpocket to the housebreaker, next to the highwayman, then to the murderer, and then to the gallows; and it was a notorious fact, that eighteen out of twenty that were tried, did not exceed eighteen years of age; and most of them, in all probability might have been faved from deftruction, by being stopped in the first inftance. But if afked, Why was the laws fo badly inforced in the cities of London, Westminster, and Southwark? To which he could anfwer, the reafon was plain the magiftrates were employed in parochial bufinefs, and had a multiplicity of other concrens, which prevented them from attending folely to the duties of their office as magiftrates; and few perfons, he feared, could be found to give up the whole of their time without being paid for their trouble. Another reafon there was, that as a great part of the profits of a jultice's clerk lay in fees, it was his bufinefs to foment difputes, for the fake of getting double fees from recommending the parties to make the quarrel up; and many of them were in fee with the perfons who made thieftaking their employment; not for the fake of juftice but of profit, as had been seen at a late trial at the Old Bailey, where two men fwore away the life of a perfon falfely merely for the reward.

Having stated the outlines of the bill, he concluded with moving," For leave to bring in a bill for the better preven

tion of crimes, and the more fpeedy punishment of them "within the cities of London and Weftminiter, the Borough "of Southwark, and certain parts adjacent," which was agreed to.

Monday, June 27.

The Attorney General (Mr. Arden) faid, the palice bill bro ight in by his honourable friend (the Solicitor General) did not go to that extent he wifhed it. He then moved, That be an inftruction to the Committee appointed to prepare and bring in a bill for regulating elections for the city of Westminster, that they prepare claufes to empower returning officers to examine witneffes on oath, and alfo

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