BILL RELATIVE TO THE SALE OF FISH, &c.
The inhabitants of Westminster had long laboured under the want of a fish-market, and complained that the price of this species of provision was kept up at an exorbitant rate by the fraudulent combination of a few dealers, who engrossed the whole market at Billingsgate, and destroyed great quantities of fish, in order to enhance the value of those that remained. An act of parliament had passed, in the twenty-second year of his present majesty’s reign, for establishing a free market for the sale of fish in Westminster; and, seven years after that period, it was found necessary to procure a second, for explaining and amending the first. but neither effectually answered the purposes of the legislature. In the month of January, of the present session, the house took into consideration a petition of the several fishermen trading to Billingsgate market, representing the hardships to which they were exposed by the said acts; particularly forfeitures of vessels and cargoes, incurred by the negligence of servants who had omitted to make the particular entries which the two acts prescribed. This petition being examined by a committee, and the report being made, leave was given to bring in a new bill, which should contain effectual provision for the better supplying the cities of London and Westminster with fish, and for preventing the abuses of the fishmongers. It was intituled, “A bill to repeal so much of an act passed in the twenty-ninth of George II. concerning a free market for fish at Westminster, as requires fishermen to enter their fishing vessels at the office of the searcher of the customs at Gravesend, and to regulate the sale of fish at the first hand in the fish-markets of London and Westminster; and to prevent salesmen of fish buying fish to sell again on their own account; and to allow bret and turbot, brill and pearl, although under the respective dimensions mentioned in a former act, to be imported and sold; and to punish persons who shall take or sell any spawn, brood, or fry of fish, unsizeable fish, or fish out of season, or smelts under the size of five inches, and for other purposes.” Though this, and the former bill relating to the streets and houses of London, are instances that evince the care and attention of the legislature, even to minute particulars of the internal economy of the kingdom, we can hardly consider them as objects of such dignity and importance as to demand the deliberations of the parliament, but think they naturally fall within the cognizance of the municipal magistracy. After all, perhaps, the most effectual method for supplying Westminster with plenty of fish at reasonable rates, would be to execute with rigour the laws already enacted against forestalling and regrating, an expedient that would soon dissolve all monopolies and combinations among the traders; to increase the number of markets in London and Westminster, and to establish two general markets at the Nore, one on each side of the river, where the fishing vessels might unload their cargoes, and return to sea without delay. A number of light boats might be employed to convey fresh fish from these marts to London and Westminster, where all the different fish-markets might be plentifully supplied at a reasonable expense; for it cannot be supposed that, while the fresh fish are brought up the river in the fishing smacks themselves, which can hardly save the tides, to Billingsgate, they will ever dream of carrying their cargoes above bridge, or that the price of fish can be considerably lowered, while the fishing vessels lose so much time in running up to Gravesend or Billingsgate.
ACT FOR ASCERTAINING the QUALIFICATIONS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
The annual committee being appointed to inquire what laws were expired or near expiring, agreed to certain resolutions; upon which a bill was prepared, and obtained the royal assent, importing a continuation of several laws, namely, the several clauses mentioned of the acts in the fifth and eighth of George I. against the clandestine running of uncustomed goods, except the clauses relating to quarantine; the act passed in the third of George II. relating to the carrying rice from Carolina; the act of the seventh of the same reign, re-fating to cochineal and indigo; and that of the twelfth of George II. so far as it related to the importation of printed books. There was also a law enacted, to continue to the twenty-ninth day of September in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven, an act passed in the twelfth year of queen Anne, for encouraging the making of sail-cloth, by a duty of one penny per ell laid upon all foreign-made sails and sail-cloth imported; and a bounty in the same proportion granted upon all home-made sail-cloth and canvass fit for or made into sails, and exported; another act was passed, for continuing certain laws relating to the additional number of one hundred hackney coaches and chairs, which law was rendered perpetual. The next law we shall mention was intended to be one of the most important that ever fell under the cognizance of the legislature: it was a law that affected the freedom, dignity, and independency of parliaments. By an act, passed in the ninth year of the reign of queen Anne, it was provided that no person should be chosen a member of parliament who did not possess in England or Wales an estate, freehold or copyhold, for life, according to the following qualifications: for every knight of a shire six hundred pounds per annum, over and above what will satisfy all incumbrances; and three hundred pounds per annum, for every citizen, burgess, and baron of the cinque ports. It was also decreed, that the return of any person not thus qualified should be void; and that every candidate should, at the reasonable request of any other candidate at the time of election, or of two or more persons who had a right to vote, take an oath prescribed to establish his qualifications. This restraint was by no means effectual. So many oaths of different kinds had been prescribed since the revolution, that they began to lose the effect they were intended to have on the minds of men; and, in particular, political perjury grew so common, that it was no longer considered as a crime. Subterfuges were discovered, by means of which this law relating to the qualification of candidates was effectually eluded. Those who were not actually possessed of such estates, procured temporary conveyances from their friends and patrons, on condition of their being restored and cancelled after the election. By this scandalous fraud the intention of the legislature was frustrated, the dignity of parliament prostituted, the example of perjury and corruption extended, and the vengeance of heaven set at defiance. Through this infamous channel the ministry had it in their power to thrust into parliament a set of venal beggars, who, as they depended upon their bounty, would always be obsequious to their will, and vote according to direction, without the least regard to the dictates of conscience, or to the advantage of their country. The mischiefs attending such a vile collusion, and in particular the undue influence which the crown must have acquired from the practice, were either felt or apprehended by some honest patriots, who after divers unsuccessful efforts, at length presented to the house a bill, importing that every person who shall be elected a member of the house of commons, should, before he presumed to take his seat, deliver to the clerk of the house, at the table, while the commons were sitting, and the speaker in the chair, a paper, or schedule, signed by himself, containing a rental or particular of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, whereby he makes out his qualification, specifying the nature of his estate, whether messuage, land, rent, tithe, or what else; and if such estate consists of messuages, lands, or tithes, then specifying in whose occupation they are; and if in rent, then specifying the names of the owners or possessors of the lands and tenements out of which such rent is issuing, and also specifying the parish, township, or precinct and county, in which the said estate lies, and the value thereof; and every such person shall, at the same time, also take and subscribe the following oath, to be fairly written at the bottom of the paper or schedule: “I, A. B. do swear that the above is a true rental; and that I truly, and bona fide, have such an estate in law or equity, to and for my own use and benefit, of and in the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, above described, over and above what will satisfy and clear all incumbrances that may affect the same; and that such estate hath not been granted or made over to me fraudulently, on purpose to qualify me to be a member of this house. So help me God!” It was provided that the said paper or schedule, with the oath aforesaid, should be carefully kept by the clerk, to be inspected by the members of the house of commons, without fee or reward: that if any person elected to serve in any future parliament, should presume to sit or vote as a member of the house of commons before he had delivered in such a paper or schedule, and taken the oath aforesaid, or should not be qualified according to the true intent or meaning of this act, his election should be void; and every person so sitting and voting should forfeit a certain sum to be recovered, by such persons as should sue for the same by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, whereon no essoign, privilege, protection, or wager of law should be allowed, and only one imparlance: that if any person should have delivered in, and sworn to his qualification as aforesaid, and taken his seat in the house of commons, yet at any time after should, during the continuance of such parliament, sell, dispose of, alien, or any otherwise incumber the estate, or any part thereof comprised in the schedule, so as to lessen or reduce the same under the value of the qualification by law directed, every such person, under a certain penalty, must deliver in a new or further qualification, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, and swear to the same, in manner before directed, before he shall again presume to sit or vote as a member of the house of commons; that in case any action, suit, or information should be brought, in pursuance of this act, against any member of the house of commons, the clerk of the house, shall, upon demand, forthwith deliver a true and attested copy of the paper or schedule so delivered in to him as aforesaid by such member to the plaintiff or prosecutor, or his attorney or agent, on paying a certain sum for the same; which, being proved a true copy, shall be admitted to be given in evidence upon the trial of any issue in any such action. Provided always, that nothing contained in this act shall extend to the eldest son or heir apparent of any peer or lord of parliament, or of any person qualified to serve as knight of the shire, or to the members for either of the universities in that part of Great Britain called England, or to the members of that part of Great Britain called Scotland. Such was the substance of the bill, as originally presented to the house of commons; but it was altered in such a manner as we are afraid will fail in answering the salutary purposes for which it was intended by those who brought it into the house. Notwithstanding the provisions made in the act as it now stands, any minister or patron may still introduce his pensioners, clerks, and creatures into the house, by means of the old method of temporary conveyance, though the farce must now be kept up till the member shall have delivered in his schedule, taken his oath, and his seat in parliament; then he may deliver up the conveyance, or execute a re-conveyance, without running any risk of losing his seat, or of being punished for his fraud and perjury. The extensive influence of the crown, the general corruptibility of individuals, and the obstacles so industriously thrown in the way of every scheme contrived to vindicate the independency of parliaments, must have produced very mortifying reflections in the breast of every Briton warmed with the genuine love of his country. He must have perceived that all the bulwarks of the constitution were little better than buttresses of ice, which would infallibly thaw before the heat of ministerial influence, when artfully concentrated; that either a minister’s professions of patriotism were insincere; or his credit insufficient to effect any essential alteration in the unpopular measures of government; and that, after all, the liberties of the nation could never be so firmly established, as by the power, generosity, and virtue of a patriot king. This inference could not fail to awake the remembrance of that amiable prince, whom fate untimely snatched from the eager hopes and warm affection of a whole nation, before, he had it in his power to manifest and establish his favourite maxim, “That a monarch’s glory was inseparably connected with the happiness of his people.” [538] [See note 4 I, at the end of this Vol.]
1760
ACT FOR CONSOLIDATING ANNUITIES GRANTED IN 1759.
On the first day of February, a motion was made, and leave given, to bring in a bill for enabling his majesty to make leases and copies of offices, lands, and hereditaments, parcel of his duchy of Cornwall, or annexed to the same; accordingly it passed through both houses without opposition; and enacted that all leases and grants made, or to be made, by his majesty, within seven years next ensuing, in or annexed to the said duchy, under the limitations therein mentioned, should be good and effectual in law against his majesty, his heirs, and successors, and against all other persons that should hereafter inherit the said duchy, either by an act of parliament, or any limitation whatsoever. This act appears the more extraordinary as the prince of Wales, who has a sort of right by prescription to the duchy of Cornwall, was then of age, and might have been put in possession of it by the passing of a patent. The house having perused an account of the produce of the fund established for paying annuities granted in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, with the charge on that fund on the fifth day of January in the succeeding year, it appeared that there had been a considerable deficiency in the said fund on the fifth day of July preceding, and this had been made good out of the sinking fund, by a resolution of the seventh of February, already particularized. They therefore instructed the committee of ways and means to consider so much of the annuity and lottery act passed in the preceding session as related to the three per centum annuities, amounting to the sum of seven millions five hundred and ninety thousand pounds, granted in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine; and also to consider so much of the said act as related to the subsidy of poundage upon certain goods and merchandise to be imported into this kingdom, and the additional inland duty on coffee and chocolate. The committee having taken these points into deliberation, agreed to the two resolutions we have already mentioned with respect to the consolidation; and a bill was brought in for adding those annuities granted in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, to the joint stock of throe per centum annuities consolidated by the acts of the twenty-fifth, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirty-second years of his majesty’s reign, and for several duties therein mentioned, to the sinking fund. The committee was afterwards empowered to receive a clause for cancelling such lottery tickets as were made forth in pursuance of an act passed in the thirtieth year of his majesty’s reign, and were not then disposed of: a clause for this purpose was accordingly added to the bill, which passed through both houses without opposition, and received the royal assent at the end of the session.