On the 18th of April, the evidence on the slave-trade being closed, Mr. Wilberforce moved “for a bill to prevent the further importation of African negroes into the British colonies.” He introduced this motion with a copious and convincing display of arguments in its favour, grounded on the principles of justice, humanity, and Christianity, but though it was supported by Pitt and Fox, self-interest prevailed: the motion was negatived by one hundred and sixty-three against eighty-eight. The advocates of humanity, however, completed at this time the establishment of the Sierra Leone Company, by which they proposed to introduce free labour and Christianity into Africa. A bill was brought in for this purpose by the excellent Henry Thornton, and it passed through both houses without opposition.
CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, ETC.
During this session Mr. Mitford moved for a committee of the whole house, to enable him to bring in “a bill to relieve, upon conditions, and under restrictions, persons called Protestant Catholic Dissenters, from certain penalties, to which Papists are by law subject.” A reform in the penal statutes was at this time peculiarly called for, since a large body of Catholic Dissenters had recently formally protested against the temporal power of the pope, and his right to excommunicate princes, or to absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance; and had likewise disavowed the lawfulness of breaking faith with heretics, and the power claimed by their priests, of exempting men from moral obligations. The principles of the bill were generally approved, and it passed both houses without opposition: the bishops themselves expressing sentiments in its favour. Encouraged by this liberality of parliament, the church of Scotland transmitted from the general assembly a petition praying for the relief of the Test Act, as far as it applied to that country; and subsequently Sir Gilbert Elliot made a motion on the subject, but it was rejected by a large majority.
BILL TO AMEND THE LAW ON LIBELS.
On the 20th of May, Fox brought in a bill for empowering juries to try the question of law as well as fact, in prosecutions for libel. This subject was debated as a constitutional right, and not as a party question, and having obtained the support of Pitt, it passed the commons with very little opposition. In the lords, however, it was objected to as an innovation on the laws of the kingdom, and though warmly supported by Lords Camden, Grenville, and Loughborough, the motion for the second reading was negatived.
FINANCIAL MEASURES.
Previous to the introduction of his financial measures, Pitt proposed the appointment of a committee to inquire what had been the amount of the income and expenditure during the last five years, and what they might be expected to be in future; and also what alterations had occurred in the amount of the national debt since the 5th of January, 1786. This committee made its report on the 10th of May, when it appeared that the annual income had been £16,030,285, and the expenditure, including £1,000,000 for liquidating the national debt, £15,909,178, thereby leaving an excess of the income over the expenditure to the amount of £61,107. In his account of the state of finances on the 18th of May, Pitt referred to this report as a proof of their flourishing condition. Sheridan, however, still questioned the correctness of the figures; and on the 3rd of June he moved forty resolutions, calculated to discredit the management of the finances, and to show that he could have taken—spendthrift as he was—better care of the public money. These resolutions were all rejected; and ministers brought forward sixteen counter resolutions, which went to prove that the finances had never been so well managed before, and that there was every prospect, not only of keeping the expenditure within the limits of the income, but of reducing the national debt. This was visionary; but, at all events, Pitt was enabled to provide for the services of the year without a loan or any additional taxes. On a subsequent day, Dundas laid a flattering account of the finances in India before the commons; the revenues there, he stated, amounted to £7,000,000, and after defraying all expenses, there was left a clear surplus of nearly £1,500,000. His statement was questioned by Paul Benfield who had recently returned from India, and who asserted that he could prove it to be erroneous, but for the late period of the session.