Influence of the Dutchess of Devonshire. Meeting of Parliament.

for condition, one of our lovely countrywomen, who demonstrate that, in celebrating Venus or a Helen, poets do not exceed nature and experience, warmly interested herself in the election of Mr. Fox, with a success far beyond the hopes of the favoured candidate. Animated by personal friendship, and inspired with an ardent zeal for what she conceived to be a public benefit, this exalted woman undertook a personal canvass in favour of the losing candidate, and was not to be deterred by any inconveniences of the pursuit, or by the strictures of the opposite party, upon active efforts which were so efficacious towards the attainment of the object. Many voters, indeed, though far from approving Mr. Fox's political principles and conduct, could not withstand the fascinating eloquence of so impressive an advocate; they might have resisted the utmost efforts of the brilliant genius of an Erskine or a Sheridan, but could not withstand the brilliant eyes of the dutchess: these two great masters of the pathetic might have in vain attempted to canvass for their brother orator; persuasion sat on the lips and dimpled in the smiles of the beautiful Devonshire pleading for her brother whig. Persons too callous to yield to the application of beauty, were not without other avenues to their hearts, to which the fair friend of Mr. Fox did not fail to apply with effect. The candidate himself, extremely well qualified for co-operating with the efforts of his friends, was better known to the lower and more numerous classes of Westminster electors, than any other eminent person existing. He was naturally open, frank, unassuming, and popular in his manners, politically attended all the public meetings, and associated under the appearance of most intimate familiarity with tavern-keepers, mechanics, and tradesmen, and was, by a great number belonging to these classes, regarded with the warmest affection. He was, besides, connected with many of the principal inhabitants, whose personal exertions and influence were strenuously employed in his favour. After a contest of forty days, Mr. Fox was two hundred and thirty-five superior; but a scrutiny being demanded by Sir Cecil Wray, and granted by the high bailiff, a return was not made. The orator, however, having been chosen by Scottish boroughs, had a voice in parliament.*

The 16th of May was the day fixed for the meeting of the new parliament, in which Mr. Pitt, not twenty-five years of age, may be properly said to have commenced the chief executorial direction of British affairs. The probable conduct of a man in an office depends upon his talents, dispositions, and habits, combined with the state of affairs relative to his

The writer was one day present at this celebrated election, and being recently come to London, was forcibly struck with the free and easy terms in which some of the lower adherents of Mr. Fox, especially a party of butchers, accosted a personage of his transcendent superiority. It was not with the veneration due to so extraordinary talents from any rank, that those persons of the very humblest addressed Charles James Fox: it was in the endearing terms of fond comrades, on a footing of perfect equality. "Charles, my sweet boy; God bless your black face! do not be afraid, my lad, we are your friends!" The writer recollects, the same day, to have heard a very open avowal of corruption. Being in a bookseller's shop in Covent Garden, a woman, who it seems was a neighbour, coming in, was asked by the master of the house, if her husband had polled? No, she an swered; we are told, votes will bear a higher price next week! The circumstances of this election, in a city wherein votes are so general, and of another in the same place four years after, are by no means favourable to the doctrine of certain political reformists, that universal suffrage would promote respectability and independence of elections.

And commencement of Mr. Pitt's administration.

employment, and his own clear and full comprehension of its nature, objects, means, and duties. If a minister takes an exact and complete survey of the actual condition of a nation, and rises to general views of the chief constituents of national prosperity, bestowing application and perseverance either in the removal of evil or promotion of good, he must produce much greater benefit to the state, than he who regards and pursues only a part.

The chief constituents of national prosperity are, first, the means of subsistence, through agriculture, mines, fisheries, manufactures, and commerce: secondly, defence in military and naval strength, for securing those advantages; comprehending also, connexions with foreign countries, when conducive either to benefit or security; thirdly, the preservation and improvement of that physical and moral character, which is best fitted for retaining and promoting the advantages; this head requires the encouragement of useful and liberal arts, and in every civilized and enlightened country the promotion of science and literature; fourthly, the gratification of prevalent habits of comfort and enjoyments, as far as depends upon government, unless restriction be necessary for the public good, and the liberty of the subject, without which, to generous and independent spirits, no other blessing of life can afford perfect enjoyment; fifthly, subsidiary to the rest, is provision for the continuance of these, as far as human foresight can extend.* A statesman of consummate wisdom may bestow a greater or less proportion of attention on one or another of these constituents, according to circumstances; but such a minister will have them all in his view. The peculiar situation of Britain, exhausted by the enormous expenses of her late ruinous war, and loaded with an immense public debt, rendered the promotion of trade and improvement of finance the most immediately urgent objects of legislative and ministerial consideration. Besides, at this time, the study of political economy occupied the greater number of scholars, moral and political philosophers, and almost every able and informed senator and statesman. Such disquisitions, originating in French ingenuity, had been corrected, enlarged, and digested into a grand system, by British experience, knowledge, and deduction. Adam Smith was the framer of commercial science and the consequent inculcations; and his estimable work, indeed, was become the text book of political economists in the closet, the cabinet, and senate. A very eminent writer often gives a tone and fashion to the subjects which he treats, that procures them an attention, perhaps greater than may be justified by their comparative value among the various pursuits of life and constituents of happiness. Dwelling on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, both theorists and politicians, by too exclusive attention to that one subject, have frequently been led into an imagination that the supreme constituent of national good was opulence; an idea totally inconsistent with a knowledge of human powers and enjoyments, the experience of happiness, and the history of nations.† This very high estimation of wealth, as the supreme

• This analysis the reader will perceive to be abridged from Gillie's Frederick, which appears to the author to exhibit a much juster and more comprehensive estimate of national advantage, than those, either of writers or counsellors, who should consider mere opulence, either private or public, or the aggregate of both, as the tests of national prosperity.

Compare, for instance, the Greeks and Persians, the Romans and Carthage

Speech of the king, and debates on the address.

excellence of a country, co-operated with the mercantile character, so prevalent in Britain, and many in the various departments of active (especially trading) life considered commerce and finance as the principal objects of executorial conduct. Mr. Pitt, though too enlarged in his views to admit that opinion in the common extent, yet regarding trade, and especially revenue, as most immediately urgent in forming his plans for the first session of the new parliament, directed his mind chiefly to commerce and finance, and these constitute the principal subjects of his majesty's introductory speech to parliament.

The new parliament being met, Mr. Cornwall was chosen speaker, and on the 19th, his majesty opened the session by a speech from the throne; he declared the high satisfaction with which he met his parliament, after having recurred in so important a moment to the sense of his people. He entertained a just and confident reliance, that the assembly was animated with the sentiments of loyalty and attachment to the constitution, which had been so fully manifested in every part of the kingdom. The objects particularly recommended to their attention, were the alarming progress of frauds in the revenue, the framing of such commercial regulations as were immediately necessary, and the providing for the good government of our possessions in the East Indies. Upon this subject parliament would not lose sight of the effect which the measures they adopted might have on our own constitution, and our dearest interests at home. He had no wish but to consult the prosperity of his people, by a constant attention to every object of national concern, by an uniform adherence to the true principles of our free constitution, and by supporting and maintaining in their just balance the rights and privileges of every branch of the legislature. An address conformable to the speech having been moved, a debate arose on the expressions of gratitude to the king, for having dissolved the late parliament; and an amendment was proposed, to leave out such parts of the address as referred to that subject, which was negatived by a great majority. As his majesty's speech implied a censure of the former parliament, and particularly of Mr. Fox's East India bill, Mr. Burke undertook the justification of opposition and the censure of their adversaries, and on the 14th of June, made a motion for an address to the king, representing and vindicating the proceedings of the last parliament, and criminating the present ministers. monstrance* dwelt particularly on the rectitude and expedience of the late East India bill, and on the dreadful consequences likely to ensue from the dissolution. Though both the speech and proposed statement were replete with ingenuity, yet the main arguments being necessarily a repetition of what had been frequently urged before, the motion was ne

The re

nians, the Europeans and Hindoos. The heroes sent by poverty from the north, to the dastardly and enervated defenders of the riches of the south. These in the monuments of Gillies, of Fergusson, and Gibbon, show, how falsely a political reasoner would conclude, who should measure national glory and happiness by national receipts.

Ile said, he intended his motion as an epitaph on his departed friend, the last parliament; that he had on some occasions, written long epitaphs to the memory of those that he honoured and respected; and, on the present occasion he chose to follow the corpse to the sepulchre, and go through the ceremony of saying, "ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," in sure and certain hope, through the merit of the good works of the last parliament, that it would have a glorious and joyful re surrection, and become immortal.

State of Britain. Objects Mr. Pitt proposes to pursue. Bill against smuggling. gatived without a division. Firmly established as the minister, supported by the people through their recently appointed representatives, as well as chosen by the king, Mr. Pitt was called to exercise his talents for performing the duties of so arduous a situation. Although a year and a half had now elapsed since the conclusion of peace, the contentions of party had hitherto prevented the adoption of any effectual measures to recover the country from the miserable state to which it had been reduced by an expensive and ruinous war. Commerce was still stagnant, the national credit depressed, and the funds, after an interval of peace, at the lowest price of war; the public income, unequal to the expenditure even in its full amount, was at present greatly diminished by fraud; and our important concerns in India without any effectual plan of beneficial arrangement; the country, so situated, required the efforts of the minister to raise drooping credit; to revive the funds; to promote the just and beneficial government of India; to improve the income, by suppressing fraudulent deduction, and by positive additions; to stimulate the national industry, enterprise and skill, to the highest improvement of our mercantile capability; and to promote manufactures and commerce, the sources of public and private wealth. Such were the objects to which, partly the circumstances of the country and partly the prevalent opinion of the times, called the attention of Mr. Pitt, who was just commencing an administration long and important; in which the counsels and conduct of the minister, whether wise or unwise, right or wrong, stamp the history of these realms, their dependencies and connexions, for the last sixteen years of the eighteenth century; an æra more awfully momentous, involving greater and more extensive interests of enlightened, energetic, and efficacious MAN, than any century in the annals of human nature.

The first ministerial efforts of Mr. Pitt, were directed to finance. Before he proceeded to new imposts, or new regulation for the advancement of revenue, he attempted to render the present taxes as productive as possible, by preventing the defalcations of fraud. He had bestowed very great pains in collecting information respecting the various subjects, modes, and details of smuggling. The former ministers having also in view the suppression of this unlawful traffic, had in the last session proposed a committee for inquiring into those illicit practices; three reports were delivered, containing very ample materials; and Mr. Eden, chairman of the committee, having employed his usual industry and acuteness in investigating these minute and complicated topics, had moved the following resolution, declaratory of the result, That the illicit practice had greatly increased; the public revenue was annually defrauded to the extent of not less than two millions; and these enormities and national losses merited the early and serious attention of the legislature. Soon after the meeting of the new parliament, the subjects of these reports, and of the laws in being for the prevention of smuggling, were referred to a committee of the whole house. On the second of June, the chancellor of the exchequer moved for leave to bring in a bill for the more effectual prevention of smuggling. The objects of the proposition were, to extend the bounds of the hovering laws, which had limited the distance from shore within which seizures could be made; to prevent ships from carrying arms, without a license from the admiralty; smuggling ships once captured were never to be returned; ships of a certain description adapted to smuggling, were never to be built; and clearances

Commutation Act. Arguments for and against it.

were to be regulated, so as to prevent ships clearing out in ballast, and afterwards going on the smuggling trade. In the progress of the bill, a variety of improvements were suggested; and after considerable discussion, it passed into a law.

Among various articles of illicit trade, the principal commodity was tea. It had appeared before the committee on smuggling, that only five millions five hundred thousand pounds of tea were sold annually by the East India company, whereas the annual consumption of the kingdom was believed to exceed twelve millions; so that the contraband traffic in this article was more than double the legal. The remedy which the minister devised for this evil, was to lower the duty on tea to so small an amount, as to make the profit inadequate to the risk. In this trade, the rate of freight and insurances to the shore was about 25 per cent. and the insurance on the inland carriage about 10 per cent. more; in all, 35 per cent. The duty on tea, as it then stood, was about 50 per cent. so that the smuggler had an advantage over the fair dealer of 15 per cent. As this regulation would cause a deficiency in the revenue of about 600,0001. per annum, he proposed to make good the same by an additional window tax. This tax (he said) would not be felt as an additional burthen, but ought to be considered as a commutation, and would prove favourable to the subject.* But the principal benefit which he expected from this measure, was the absolute ruin of the smuggling trade, which subsisted almost entirely on the profit of their teas. Another benefit would be, the timely and necessary relief it would afford to the East India company. By this regulation they would find a vent for thirteen, instead of five, millions of pounds of tea, and would be enabled to employ twenty more large ships in their service. This was the bill since so well known under the title of the COMMUTATION ACT.

Opposition in both houses denied this tax to be commutative: tea, though a commodity of general use, still was an article of luxury: whereas the admission of light into houses was indispensably necessary; and thus all persons, whether they drank tea or not, were compelled to pay a tax. The gain to the company might be considerable, but must be derived from the people, without any return; the present was a new and positive tax, and not a substitution of one for another. This bill was farther censured, as a measure of finance; tea, it was said, was a most eligible object for taxation, which produced to the revenue near a million sterling annually. If once given up, it could never be recovered, and five times the quantity of tea consumed yearly that had formerly been used, by the new duty would not produce an equal revenue. It was farther contended, that it would not affect the suppression of illicit traffic; the price of tea on the continent was 7 per cent. cheaper than at the company's sales, and 5 per cent. was allowed to the company; these added to the 12 per cent. duty, it was asserted, would be a sufficient compensation for all the risks incurred by the smuggler. Mr. Pitt, combated these objections: he denied that tea was a certain and permanent object of revenue; the present state of finance and public credit did not

A house (he said,) for instance, of nine windows, which would be rated at 10s. 6d., might be supposed to consume seven pounds of tea; the difference between the old duties on which, and the new duty proposed, might at an average amount to 17. 5s. 10d.; so that such a family would gain by the commutation 15s. 4d.