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The report of the Committee appointed to prepare efti mates relative to the Irish militia was brought up, and ordered to lie on the table.

Lord Ellenborough's bill, for preventing malicious fhooting, stabbing, poisoning, &c. which was palled by the Lords, was read a first, and ordered to be read a fecond time on Monday following.

The Committee on the medicine duty bill was put off till Tuesday following.

CONSOLIDATION OF THE CUSTOMS.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer obferved, that as fome Gentlemen intended to offer objections against the bill for the confolidation of the cuftoms, and withed to have fome further time to confider the fame, he would move to postpone the Committee on that bill until next day. With refpect to that plan, he could only fay, from every observation he was able to make, and from every confidera ion he could give the fabjea, that it was one which he was bound to adhere to. He hoped, however, that thofe Gentlemen who difapproved of the plan, would find fuch modifications introduced into it, as would completely obviate their objecrions; and for that reafon, he would move to postpone it until next day. Ordered.

General Gafcoyne gave notice, that before the House refolved itself into a Committee the next day, he would move, that it be an inftruation to the Committee, to provide that the tonnage du y be extended to Ireland, the fame as to Engfand; and alfo to make provifion, that no greater duty be fevied on goods imported into the out-ports of Great Britain, than was levied on the fame goods when imported into the port of London.

Mr. Dent faid, he rose to ask a question of Minifters, which he hoped it would not be confidered improper in him to put. He wifhed to be informed, whether they were in poffeffion of any official information relative to the entrance of the French troops into the territories of Hanover? No anfwer was given to this queftion.

SEAMEN IN THE MILITIA.

The Secretary at War faid, that a great many men of the profeffion of feamen were now ferving as privates in militia regiments and as it was much better they fhould be employed in the navy where their fervices were more wanted, than carrying firelocks, he meant to bring forward a measure, by which they should be transferred from the one fervice into

that

that which they were beft capable of performing.

As

these, however, had already entered into the militia, and taken the oaths, it was intended that the transfer thould be nothing else than voluntary on their parts; and that they should go into the navy only by their own confent. There would be fome difference between the bill now meant to be introduced, and a fimilar one paffed during the late war. The prefent bill would not admit the transfer of any but thofe who were profeffional feamen; and before they brained their difcharge, they thould be examined by a naval officer, in order to have it afcertained, whether they were of that defcription or not. The bill fhould alfo provide, that the fubftitute, who entered the militia in the room of the feaman fo transferred, fhould ferve out the whole time other fubftitutes ferved. He then moved, that leave be given to bring in a bill, for transferring to the royal navy fuch feamen as were now ferving in the militis of Great Britain. Leave was given.

Mr. Harvey obferved, that during the last war, many perfons took bounties to go into the militia, and afterwards got the bounty for going into the army. He would therefore afk the right hon. Gentleman, whether feamen might not now do the very fame thing?

The Secretary at War replied, that there was a bill now in the House of Lords, to which he expected the royal affent would be given in a day or two; and by that bill it was enacted, that no feaman thould be allowed to be inrolled in the militia; that every man inrolled fhould take an oath that he was not a feaman; and that if he was, his inrolment must be null and void. Had fuch a provifion been inade before the embodying of the militia, there would be no occafion for the bill he then moved for; and which only related to those seamen that had already entered the militia. But fuch a thing was not to be done in future.

Mr. Harvey thought there thould be fome mark to let the House know what a feaman was.

The Secretary at Wur faid, he conceived a feaman to be a man who was bred up to the fea, or who got his livelihood at fea.

The Secretary at War then brought up the bill, which was read a first time, ordered to be printed, and read a fecond time on Monday following.-Adjourned.

VOL. IV. 1802-3.

HOUSE

HOUSE OF LORD S.

FRIDAY JUNE 10.

FOOTE'S DIVORCE BILL.

The further hearing of evidence previous to the fecond reading of this bill being refumed, Mr. Garrow called twa witheffs to prove the identity of Mrs. Foote, and that Mr. Jones and the flept in the fame room at Dieppe. After which evidence was about to be adduced to shew that Mrs. Foote had availed herself of the privilege given her by her husband, when he went to India, to draw upon his banker for fuck fum or foms as the might fland in need of for her maintenance, and had by that nuans obtained a very confiderable fum, which, it was believed, the had placed in her para

mour's hands.

The Lord Chancellor objected to receiving this evidence, as altogether unnecessary.

Mr. Garrow faid, he had himself been uniformly of opinion that the evidence was not material, excepting in one fenfe only, viz. to fhew, that if a claim for a provifion for Mrs, Foote was fet up, the proving that she had taken fo unfair and fraudulent an advantage of her husband's liberality and confidence, ought to operate as a bar to it.

The bill was read a fecond time, and ordered to be committed for the next day.

CLEFGY FARMING AND RESIDENCE BILL.

On the question being put that the Houfe do refolve itfelf into a Committee of the whole Houfe upon this bill,"

The Bishop of St. Asaph rose to make fome obfervations, He had given notice, he faid, of his intention to oppose the fabric of the bill, but the proper time for carrying that intention into effect, he conceived, would be when the feveral claufes thould come to be difcuffed in the Committee. He fhould therefore at prefent confine himself to the principle, upon which alone he could obferve confiftently with the rules and practice of the Houfe. The principle of the bill, as he understood it, embraced two points: first, to enforce the refidence of the clergy; and fecondly, to preferve them pure and separate in a proper state of ecclefiaftical difcipline, uncontaminated by fordid occupations and purfuits. Refi dence he confidered of firft rate importance, and effentially neceffary to the welfare of the church. Without it, it was impoffible for any clergyman to difcharge the duty which he owes his flock. The public performance of that duty, fuch

as

as attendance at church on Sunday, conftituted but a very Imall part of it.

The parish priest should live among his flock, he fhould watch over them, and be an example conftantly before their eyes of rectitude, enforcing the precepts of virtue, which it is his duty to inculcate. He fhould attend the bed of the fick and the dying, and adminifter to them those comforts which alone they are capable at fuch a moment of receiving, thofe comforts which are administered to them through the facraments of the church. The mere enumeration of these duties was furely fufficient to thew that refidence is effential to their performance. Refidence, at the time of the Reformarion, was a mere matter of ecclefiaftical discipline, and the civil power never interfered with it. It was objected to the prefent bill, that it takes the power of inforcing refidence out of the hands of the civil authority, and places it under ecclefiaftical jurifdiction. For his part, he was not anxious to take the queftion cut of the hands of judges and juries. On the contrary, were a propofition made to repeal the Act of Henry VIII. by which juries have that power, he would oppofe it upon that very ground, unless it provided fome regulation that might prove an adequate fubilitute in that particular point. The ftature of Henry VIII. with all its vices on its head, had done more good than harm. He admitted, however, that it was certainly defec tive, in as much as it inflicted equal penalties upon unequal degrees of delinquency, and alfo upon unequal means, the forfeiture not being proportioned to the amount of the living. It was alfo defective in not leaving a difcretionary power to judges to reduce the penalty, in cafes where the letter of the law could not be inforced without peculiar rigour and hardthip.

The prefent bill remedied that defect, as it has provided a fcale of penalties proportioned to the means of the party, and the different degrees of delinquency, With regard to ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, the old act goes the length of depriving the contumacious clergyman of his benefices. From delay, expence, and a variety of other circumstances, it was impoffible, however, to carry the act into execution, and therefore, it was no more than a dead letter. In fome old diocefes, fuch as Winchester, the proceedings of the ecclefiaftical court were correct, and juftice was administered as well as in Westminster-hall. That, however, was not the cafe in the provincial courts. He remembered giving, when

Q 2

bishop

bishop of St. David's, a living of 7001. a year, the best in his diocefe, to a clergyman who promised to refide; the clergyman had, however, a living in Glamorganshire, and did not change his place of refidence; of this he complained, but at length confented to admit of fix months refidence, which the clergyman promifed. Even this promise, however, was not kept, and he proceeded to enforce the act to compel refidence, or deprive him of the benefice, but, by the connivance of his own court, the party flipped through his fingers, and remains to this very day in poffeffion of the living, without having refided upon it. This cafe fhews the infufficiency of the provincial courts in this particular. It became, therefore, neceffary, that a power should be placed in the hands of the bishops; and as this was done by the prefent bill, that part of it also had his approbation. With regard to the other part of the act of Henry VIII. which reftrains the clergy from having any thing to do with the low purfuits of the world, he thould beg leave to make a few obfervations.

When he fpoke of the clergy being nothing but clergy, he did not mean to be an advocate for that puritanical cant that would entirely cut them off from all commerce with the world. To advife his flock required a knowledge of the world. The duty of a clergyman could not be adequately performed by any, but by a man of knowledge and information. To expound the Bible he should be acquainted with every science. The clergyman, therefore, could not be confidered as mifpending his time, who was ftudying a mathematical propofition, or calculating the proportions of a piece of architecture. No, the clergyman thould be restrained only from thofe things that degrade him. He fhould not be engaged in fordid purfuits. Agriculture, he admitted, was of old faid to be the bufinefs of heroes and the g ds. It did honour to Ceres and Triptolemus. It was a business worthy of men in the most exalted ftations; but when a clergyman engaged in agriculture, he did not, like their Lordships, engage in it for amusement, or from public fpirit, but from fordid views. Now this was what he condemned. He could by no means allow of the profeffion of a farmer as compatible with the grave dignity of the clerical character: it muft lead the farming clergyman to affociate with the labourer in the field, to wield the fickle and feythe, to carry his famples to market, and to chaffer and drive bargains about his commodities, incompatible with his charac

ter,

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