that there must be confiderable alterations after peace? Is there any one who doubts that fome part of our profperity arifes out of the convulfed ftate of Europe? Above all, is there any man who loves the Conftitution, that does not feel the danger in which it must be involved from the total transfer of the property of the country? Loving the Constitution as I do, I feel, and deeply feel, the ravages which this enormous expenditure is making upon it. I fee the middle ranks giving up many of their comforts; I see the upper ranks likely to be borne down by new men. If ever there was a meafure which went to the transfer of property, it is this Tax upon Income. The monied man lends his money at the rate of 56 or 57 per cent. The right honourable gentleman, under the alluring name of raising the fupplies within the year, fwells the profits of all who are engaged in the ftocks. The fudden rife does not arife from the profperity of the country, or from the influx of wealth, but from the labours of the tax-gatherer. When peace comes, if the tenth of our incomes goes to the finking fund, it will be extravagantly to enrich all thofe who have lent their money. There is, befides, nothing fo injurious to the profperity of the four millions and a half fund as this Tax upon Income. A circumftance has occurred lately, which will illuftrate what I have faid. We have had a propofition made for increafing the Judges' fal ries. They are increased, not from any particular merit, because, though I am inclined to give them every credit, and though I think as highly of them as poflible, they would themfelves, I am fure, be difpleafed with me, if I were to fay that they had more merit than their predeceffors. But circumftances render it neceflary that they should be enabled to maintain their rank in fociety. Does the right honourable gentleman mean to fay that the country has no intereft in enabling the officers, or the Members of the Church, or the Magiftrates, to main their station in fociety? We now know, from the circumstance of a Judge who has 2,000l. a year wanting 500l. a year additional, what a gentleman of 2,000l. a year wants. God knows the gentlemen of the country are its beft fupport. But this expenditure makes men change all their former habits, or drives them to feek for an equivalent, where they never dreamt of fecking one. In the prefent Parliament, we know that no feats are purchased, and no boroughs fold; but in former Parliaments we know that it has been fo, and that it may be in future. But I put it to gentlemen, what will be the defeription of Parliaments which a few years more may fend? If gentlemen thould be driven to expofe their property to fale, who will be the buyers but the monicd men? If a gentleman fells the fee fimple of fome property, who will the monied man return but

the monied man? Sir, if you prefide here in future Parliaments, you will fee great changes. There is nothing more respectable than the English merchant, but I fhould be forry to fee all here of that defcription. The operations of the right honourable gentleman tend to raise men fuddenly. Where there are popular reprefentations, fome good may be done; but in close boroughs, which were formerly, though not in this Parliament, as I have before faid, fold, the purchasers will all be from the city of London. Sir, I fhall conclude with moving my refolutions. I hope the House will give me credit for having stated them as accurately as I could; I know of no difference of opinion that can be entertained, except upon the two last."

Mr. Tierney's motion on the first refolution (which was feconded by Mr. M. A. Taylor) being put,

Mr. Chancellor PITT faid, that as the honourable gentleman had brought forward his refolutions with a view of drawing the public attention to the financial state of the country, and in order to have his opinions recorded upon the journals, he wished that the subject should undergo the fulleft difcuffion. He thought that the fairest mode then would be, to print the refolutions, as had been done on former occafions, and then appoint a future day for taking them into confideration. The honourable gentleman feemed willing to indulge in the gloomiest profpect in which our affairs could be prefented, and this he had particularly discovered in the latter part of his fpeech. He himself entertained very different opinions on this point, and he had, at great length, on a former occafion, demonftrated the grounds of confidence in our profperity and refources. Since, however, the honourable gentleman had taken up the subject in this manner, he wifhed it to be fully confidered; and he had no doubt that he fhould be able to fhew, that far from having reafon to contemplate our fituation in a melancholy point of view, our refources were adequate to fupport any effort, however lengthened, which we might be called upon to exert; and the reasons of his conclufions he likewife was defirous fpecifically to record. He therefore moved, that the refolutions fhould be printed, and taken into confideration the firft open day next week.

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Mr. TIERNEY faid, he rofe to fecond the motion with the utmost fatisfaction; but, he hoped, that the refolutions which might be moved by the right honourable gentleman fhould be likewise printed previous to the difcuffion. He could not help noticing what the right honourable gentleman had said of his having expreffed fuch gloomy apprehenfions. He had trusted, indeed, that he had guarded against any fuch contruction; he had faid that he should

be most unwilling to damp the ardour of the country; he had only attempted to fhew that the mode in which we carried on the conteft ought to create apprehenfions in the minds of gentlemen. He meant diftinctly to state, that his great object was to bring this queftion fairly before the Houfe-Ought we to go on one month for the purpose of overturning the Government of France? Whatever was neceffary for the honour of this country, he should be as eager to adopt as any gentleman in the House.

The refolutions were then ordered to be printed, and taken into confideration to-morrow fe'nnight.

Friday, June 21.

Mr. Chancellor PITT acquainted the Houfe, that he had a Meffage from His Majefty to this House, figned by His Majesty; and he presented the fame to the Houfe; and it was read by Mr. Speaker, and is as followeth, viz.

GEORGE R.

His Majefty recommends it to the House of Commons to confider of enabling His Majefty to make remittances, from time to time, to be applied to his fervice in Ireland, in fuch manner as shall be approved by the Parliament of that kingdom, to an amount not exceeding three millions, on provifion being made by the Parliament of Ireland for defraying the intereft and charges of a Loan to that amount.

G. R.

Mr. Chancellor PITT moved, that His Majefty's gracious Meffage be referred to a Committee of Supply.-Ordered.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt moved the order of the day on the duty on falt in Scotland; which being read, the House refolved itself into a Committee of the whole House.

Mr. Chancellor Pitt obferved, that the duties lately impofed upon falt in Scotland, had been found to be fuch as to be attended with very serious inconvenience to that part of the kingdom. It might be neceffary, perhaps, hereafter to regulate the whole of the duty on falt, as it referred to different parts of this kingdom; but at prefent, he should only propose a diminution of the duty in Scotland upon that article, and to reduce it to four fhillings per bufhel. He therefore moved, That the prefent duty and drawback on falt in Scotland, do ceafe and determine

That on every bufhel of falt in the falt-works in Scotland, there be imposed a duty of four fhillings, and fo in proportion for any greater or lefs quantity

That on every bufhel of Scotch falt imported into England or Wales, there be imposed a duty of fix fhillings, and fo in proportion on any greater or less quantity—

That on every bufhel of Scotch falt that fhall be exported beyond feas, &c there be allowed a drawback of four fhillingsThat on every bufhel of falt in Scotland employed in manufacture, there be allowed a drawback.

All these refolutions were paffed.

Mr. M. A. TAYLOR rofe to make his promised motion relative to the Nabob of Oude. He began by ftating, that he was well aware of the general difinclination of the House to enter into any difcuffion upon Indian affairs: this arofe from a variety of caufes; in the first place, the length to which thofe inquiries had led a few years back, and the afperity with which they had been conducted, as well as the different perfonal interefts and animofities which feemed to prevail in that quarter, had fixed in men's minds moft unfortunately an averfion to that fubject. He could, however, affure the Houfe, that the queftion which he was to bring before them refted in a very narrow compafs indeed; that it was one that stood upon the plain principles of moral justice, fettered with no local politics, nor encumbered with doubts as to Eaftern cuftoms. He would alfo fatisfy gentlemen, that from him, at leaft, they would hear no language that could be conftrued into harfhness or malevolence; he would ftate the cafe in as ftrong language as he thought the tranfaction merited, but he should avoid afperity to individuals. He alfo hoped the Houfe would give him credit when he faid, that to the parties concerned in this revolution he could not entertain a particle of ill will; he had no private interefts to serve in that part of the world, any more than in this; he had no connections he wished to provide for, or on whofe disappointment, in their views of promotion, he could entertain a disgustTo fpeak the truth, he had no acquaintance or friend who could fway him in this bufinefs: his object was, to vindicate the opinion he always held with refpect to the Government of India, that the public faith ought strictly to be kept with the native powers in India, and that they should not wantonly be fet up or pulled down at the pleafure of the Company's fervants. Thefe were the fentiments, too, avowed by the right honourable gentleman who prefided at the Board of Control, recognized by him and the House on the debate upon the India bill, and at all times when the Government of India was the fubject of difcuffion. What he now complained of was, a departure from that principle in the moft flagrant manner, and for which he could find no excufe or juftification: had his

mind not been impreffed with this, he fhould have followed the courfe which many other Members of the Houfe did, namely, leave the general management and control over India in the hands where Parliament had placed it. He begged to be understood, that the right honourable and learned gentleman was the object of his attack in this motion, and in any fubfequent proceedings under it. With the Government of Bengal, or with Lord Teignmouth, he had no concern-the Board of Control was refponsible to this House and the Country: if the Governor General in India had acted wrong, it refted with the Board of Control to put the matter into a course of trial before the Tribunal lately established for that purpose: if the Governor General had done right, the right ho nourable gentleman would of courfe avow and defend the measure. After dwelling fome time on the refponfibility of the Board of Control, he faid he would fhortly ftate the nature of the tranfaction that took place in the province of Oude, and the revolution confequent upon it: the Houfe could not expect that the detail would be ftrictly accurate, as he had not the full means of information, but it was to obtain information that he made the motion for papers. Of all the provinces not immediately but indirectly dependent on the Government of Bengal, the moft confiderable in wealth, extent, and population, was the province of Oude: he entered into the nature of its connexion with us, and fhewed the reafons why the Councils of the reigning Nabobs of that territory fhould be swayed a good deal by our Government: he gave a character of Sujah Dowlah and Afoph ul Dowlah, and deferibed the riches and treasures which he understood were collected by them; he stated Afoph ul Dowlah to have died at Lucknow on the 22d of September, 1797; that Vizier Ali Khan, who had been declared by himself while alive as his fon and fucceffor, fucceeded to the Mufnud, though not immediately as his Inveftiture waited the approbation of the Bengal Government; when that arrived, he was placed on the Throne with the confent of Mr. Lumfden, the refident. He must here obferve, that doubts had often been started as to the legitimacy of Vizier Ali; but he would afk, whether, even in this country before an English Jury, Vizier Ali could have been set aside as a spurious offspring after all the declarations of the father as to his legitimacy, and the agreement of all perfons, that he was fo confidered both in the Seraglio and in the Country? But he should not go into this at prefent; for if the inquiry proceeded, he should have little difficulty of fatisfying the House, that no Governor General ought to have displaced Vizier Ali on that ground, without, receiving positive inw ftructions from home authorizing him fo to do. The Governor VOL. IX.