A series of financial resolutions was moved by Mr. Vansittart on the 3rd of June. These resolutions stated, that by the removal of certain taxes, the revenue of Great Britain was reduced by £18,000,000; that the interest and charge of the funded and unfunded debt of Ireland exceeded the whole revenue of the country by £1,800,000; that it was necessary to provide, by a loan or other means, for the service of the present year, the sum of £13,000,000, which, deducted from the sinking-fund of £15,000,000, reduced it to £2,000,000; and that for the purpose of raising this sinking-fund to £5,000,000, it was necessary to impose annually the amount of £3,000,000. This sum parliament agreed to raise by a large duty on foreign wools, and by smaller duties on other articles, such as tobacco, tea, coffee, and cocoa-nuts. Two loans of £12,000,000 each were also raised; one of them supplied by monied men, the other derived from the sinking-fund. Out of these sums there was to be a surplus, of which £5,000,000 were to go towards the repayment of the debt due to the Bank, as recommended by parliament previous to the resumption of cash-payments; and £5,597,000 to the reduction of the unfunded debt. “In adopting this course,” the speaker observed to the prince regent at the close of the session, “his majesty’s faithful commons did not conceal from themselves that they were calling upon the nation for a great exertion; but well knowing that honour, character, and independence have at all times been the first and dearest objects of the hearts of Englishmen, we feel assured that there was no difficulty that the country would not encounter, no pressure to which she would not cheerfully submit, in order to maintain pure and unimpaired that which has never yet been shaken or sullied—her public credit and good faith.”
CATHOLIC CLAIMS.
On the 3rd of May, after numerous petitions had been presented both for and against the claims of Roman Catholics, this great question of internal policy was again brought before the commons by the eloquent Grattan. The causes of disqualification, he observed, were of three kinds—the combination of the Catholics, the clanger of a pretender, and the power of the pope. Grattan asserted, that not only had all these causes ceased, but that the consequences annexed to them were no more; and he concluded by moving for a committee of the whole house to take into consideration the laws by which oaths or declarations are required to be taken or made as qualifications for the enjoyment of office, or the exercise of civil functions so far as the Roman Catholics were affected by them. This motion was lost by a majority of only two in a full house; but a corresponding proposition made in the lords by Earl Donoughmore was lost by a majority of one hundred and forty-seven against one hundred and six. Subsequently another effort was made in the lords by Earl Grey; but, as before, without effect. The bill Earl Grey introduced was for abrogating so much of the acts of the 25th and 30th of Charles the Second, as prescribed to all officers, civil and military, and to all members of both houses of parliament, a declaration against the doctrines of transubstantiation, and the invocation of saints. His motion was rejected by a majority of one hundred and forty-two against eighty-two.
FOREIGN ENLISTMENT ACT.
On the 13th of May, in consequence of complaints made by the Spanish ambassador that English officers were aiding the cause of independence in South America, the attorney-general brought in a bill for prohibiting the enlistment of British subjects into foreign service, and the equipment of vessels of war without licence. The first of these objects, he observed, had been in some measure provided for by the statutes of George the Second, by which it was an offence, amounting to felony, to enter the service of any foreign state. If neutrality were to be observed, however, it was important that the penalty should be extended to the act of serving unacknowledged as well as acknowledged powers; and part of his intention therefore was to amend those statutes, by introducing after the words, “king, prince, state, potentate,” the words, “colony or district, which do assume the powers of a government.” It was his wish, he said, to give to this country the right of preventing its subjects from breaking the neutrality towards acknowledged states, and those assuming the power of states; and upon a similar principle, he wished to prevent the fitting out of armed vessels, and also the fitting out or supplying other vessels with warlike stores in any of his majesty’s ports, These propositions met with stem opposition. Sir James Mackintosh warned the house, that, in whatever manner the motion might be worded and its real object concealed, the bill ought to be entitled,—“A bill for preventing British subjects from lending their assistance to the South American cause, or enlisting in the South American service.” The statutes of George the Second, he said, were not to have been laws of a general nature, applying to all times and circumstances; but, on the contrary, “intended merely for the temporary purpose of preventing the formation of Jacobite armies, organized in France and Spain against the peace and tranquillity of England.” He concluded by reprobating the measure as one which was virtually an enactment to repress the liberty of the South Americans, and to enable Spain to reimpose that yoke of tyranny which they were unable to bear, which they had nobly shaken off, and from which, he trusted in God, they would finally and for ever be enabled to extricate themselves. In reply, Lord Castlereagh argued that the proposed bill was necessary to prevent our giving offence to Spain, whom that house was too just and generous to oppress because she was weak, and her fortunes had declined. In the subsequent stages of the bill, ministers avowed that the measure had been suggested by the stipulations of a treaty with Spain in 1814, and by the representations which the ministers of Ferdinand VII. had considered themselves entitled by such stipulations to address to the British government. This admission excited severe remarks on Ferdinand’s character; but the bill was carried—in the commons by one hundred and ninety against one hundred and twenty-nine, and in the lords by one hundred against forty-nine. But though this bill was rigorous in its propositions, it was by no means rigorously enforced.
SLAVE-TRADE, ETC.
During this session Mr. Wilberforce complained in parliament of the reluctance displayed by the two great powers to enter into the arrangements necessary for carrying into effect the total abolition of the slave-trade. It grieved him, he said, to cast this reproach on a high-minded people like the French; and he was still more grieved to find that America was not free from blame; but he still trusted that all nations would unite in their endeavours to civilize the inhabitants of Africa. He concluded by moving an address to the prince regent, to renew his exertions for the attainment of this noble object, which was agreed to unanimously, as was a similar one in the lords, on the motion of Lord Lansdowne.