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Great Britain." The other," What preferences are now given to the importation of any article, the growth, produce, or manufacture of Ireland, by any duty or prohibition on the importation, use or sale of the like articles from foreign ports; and how far it may be the interest of Great Britain in future to continue or alter the same?"

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What he meant chiefly to speak to, Mr. Fox said, was, two points that had not been referred to the committee of council, and which, he must own, not a little sur rized him. subject of the two questions that had been referred to the committee, and any information that could be obtained upon it, was certainly extremely desirable, extremely fit to be obtained by the committee of council, and extremely proper to be by them submitted to the consideration of the House; but what had struck him,, and what he believed had struck every man's mind as the primary consideration of all, was the question of the propriety and policy of permitting the produce of Africa and America to be brought into Great Britain through Ireland. On that, in his humble opinion, by far the greater part of the doubts, whether the propositions were such as Great Britain ought to accede to or not, depended. It was, therefore, not only extraordinary but somewhat unaccountable, that the question he had stated, was not referred to the lords of the committee of council. With regard to the questions that had been referred to the lords of the committee of council, and the examination and evidence that they had stated in their report, he did not doubt but they had proceeded with great wisdom and prudence, and that the questions to the manufacturers examined were such as ought to have been put; but he could not help remarking, that the lords of the committee of council themselves expressed a wish that they had had more time to pursue their investigation farther. This therefore confirmed opinions that had been floating in his mind before, of the extreme and pressing necessity for that House to have full and complete information before them, relative to all the probable consequences of the carrying into effect the whole of the propositions, previous to their going the length of the first proposition, which was a general resolution, involving and implicating all the rest.

Mr. Fox expatiated on this argument very amply, and took infinite pains to press it on the minds of the House, as a matter exceedingly important, and as a matter deserving their most serious attention. If the lords of the committee of council, he said, whose judgement was not definitive, and was merely an opinion, neither operative nor binding, found occasion to express a wish, that they had been able to have

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given farther time to their investigation, and to have obtained a greater degree of intelligence and information, how much more necessary was it for that House, who were to act, and not merely to state matters of opinion, to be fully informed, before they proceeded to vote a resolution, to be made the basis of an intercourse with Ireland, that was not meant as a temporary expedient, but as a final and conclusive system? Let gentlemen consider the extremely disagreeable and even melancholy consequences that must ensue, if they precipitately voted the general resolution, and they should afterwards have applications made to them, in objection to the other propositions. In that case, what must Ireland feel, and what would she have to complain of, but a departure from an implied agreement, and a gross breach of national faith?-a circumstance that would be attended with the most fatal consequences to both kingdoms.

He wondered, therefore, that the right honourable gentleman had not thought it necessary, long before that time, to call to the bar of that House some of the best-informed and principal manufacturers of the kingdom, whose interests were likely to be at all affected by the system of intercourse to be arranged with Ireland, in order that the House might learn from them the probable consequence, with regard to the different branches of manufacture they were severally concerned in, that would result from that House proceeding to form a system of intercourse with Ireland, on the propositions that had been voted by the Irish parliament. Such information could not be had too soon, both upon the great consideration of the propriety of permitting the produce of Africa and America to be brought into this kingdom through Ireland, and upon the questions that had been referred to the lords of the committee of council. Indeed, there was an additional, and, in his mind, a very cogent reason, in proof of the necessity of calling witnesses before them on the two latter questions; and that was, that it appeared upon the face of the report of the lords of the committee of council, that the lords had drawn conclusions from the evidence given by the merchants and manufacturers they examined, which the merchants and manufacturers were at this time contradicting at the meetings that were daily holding on the subject of the proposition. The inferences drawn from the examination of the persons examined before the committee of council, and stated in the report, were directly the reverse of the inferences those persons drew themselves, as far as their public conversation and conduct went to prove what their opinions were. Mr. Fox here took occasion to mention the proceedings of the meeting of the West India merchants on Tuesday last, which, he said, were

of a very-different tendency from that the right honourable gentleman had conceived, and stated to the House in the debate on that day. The West India merchants had not at that meeting declared that alarm, and very great alarm, was not entertained by them on account of the propositions; that alarm was undoubtedly still entertained by them; but the matter in discussion, at the meeting last Tuesday, was merely the mode of their proceeding, in order to have such regulations introduced into the bills that should be brought into parliament, as should best tend to secure them and their commerce from the impending danger, which they thought likely to result, were not such regulations introduced. All that the issue of the meeting amounted to was, a resolution not to petition the House in that stage of the business.

Mr. Fox said, there were different orders and descriptions of manufacturers, whose trade would be very materially affected by the intended plan of arrangement, and whom that House ought to have before them, previous to their proceeding to vote their general propositions. One set of men, not ordinarily ranked with manufacturers, though, strictly speaking, they were so, the ship-builders of Great Britain, ought in particular to be called upon and examined as to the consequence to `their manufacture that they were of opinion would follow, in case the propositions were agreed to. By thus pressing for the manufacturers to be called to the bar, he did not mean to have it understood, that the House ought to be guided solely by their opinions; undoubtedly not. The House should act in this, as in every other case, according to its own sense, of the wisdom and policy of the measures to be taken; but he must nevertheless contend, that without having the fullest information before them, it was not possible for the House to judge, what the wisdom and the policy of the plan of intercourse with Ireland, that had been proposed to them, were. It might possibly be said, that calling for such information would occasion delay, and take up a great deal of time. That was, in his mind, no objection to what he had proposed; for let it occasion what delay, or take up what time it would, that time would be well spent by the House making itself thoroughly master of the extent of the subject, before it came to a decisive vote upon it. Let gentlemen recollect, that when they had voted the general resolution, the House was committed to all the remaining resolutions; from which they could not retract without giving Ireland cause to complain of a breach of national faith, and without laying the ground for much future mischief.

He pressed this again and again on the House, and said, he trusted it was the general wish of both sides, and the wish

of every man both here and in Ireland, that the plan should be fully understood by both countries, and that there should not remain the smallest possible chance of future cavil. He asked if gentlemen felt themselves prepared to go the length of voting the first resolution, before they knew more of the consequences likely to result from voting the rest. There was not one of them that did not, day after day, suggest new difficulties to his mind. The fifth proposition for instance, that respecting the countervailing duties, was a proposition extremely prolific of doubt and alarm. He dwelt for some time upon this, and said, the House ought, at least, to have the same opportunity of examining persons who were competent te give them information upon any parts of the subject, as the lords of the committee of council. For their own good, therefore, for the security of administration, for the future repose and quiet of both kingdoms, he hoped the right honourable gentleman would see the propriety of what he had proposed.

In reply to some observations made by Mr. Pitt,

Mr. Fox rose again, and said he really had not seen the report of the committee of council till within the last two days, and therefore he had not an earlier opportunity of saying what he had thought it necessary to say on that day. With regard to his not having moved for persons to be called to the bar, he had purposely avoided it. Let the right honourable gentleman recollect, that he was, as it were, a kind of marked man, and that the right honourable gentleman and himself were involved together in many political opinions, and in various topics, that placed them before the public in a point of view more conspicuous than that in which most other men moved; under such circumstances, it would not have been proper for him to have made any such motion; besides, he chose to save himself from affording room for insinuation, as the right honourable gentleman had shewn himself ready enough to insinuate, even when there could be no grounds for it, that he had brought to the bar persons who had been prompted to give such evidence as should throw most impediments in the way of the proposed system of the intercourse with Ireland. Having said this, Mr. Fox repeated his argument, how necessary it was to call the merchants and manufacturers to the bar, who had been examined before the com→ mittee of privy council; because, as their declarations at their meetings were directly contradictory to the inferences which the lords of the committee had drawn from their examinations and stated in their report, the House ought to have an oppor

tunity of hearing from themselves what their sentiments were. Mr. Fox urged Mr. Pitt not to wait for this or that member moving for persons to be examined, but of his own accord to bring to the bar some of the best informed of each branch of capital manufacture, that the House might sift the matter to the bottom before they embarked in it.

May 12.

During the remainder of the month of March, and the whole of April, the House was principally occupied in receiving the petitions and hearing the evidence of manufacturers and merchants of every description. This laborious investigation having been gone through, the propositions were again brought forward by Mr. Pitt, on the 12th of May, but with a variety of amendments, variations, and additions. To the original set of propositions, several new ones were added, some of them only supplemental to, and explanatory of the former, but several containing much new and important matter. The Propositions as proposed this day to the House by Mr. Pitt were as follow:

"Resolved, 1. That it is highly important to the general interest of the British empire, that the intercourse and commerce between Great Britain and Ireland, should be finally regulated on permanant and equitable principles, for the mutual benefit of both countries.

2. "That a full participation of commercial advantages should be permanently secured to Ireland, whenever a provision equally permanent and secure shall be made by the parliament of that kingdom, towards defraying in proportion to its growing prosperity, the necessary expences in time of peace, of protecting the trade, and general interests of the empire.

3. "That towards carrying into full effect so desirable a settlement, it is fit and proper that all articles, not the growth or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, should be imported into each kingdom from the other reciprocally, under the same regulations, and at the same duties, if subject to duties, to which they are liable when imported directly from the place of their growth, product, or manufacture; and that all duties originally paid on importation into either country respectively, except on arrack and foreign brandy, and on rum, and all sorts of strong waters, not imported from the British colonies in the West Indies or America, shall be fully drawn back on exportation to the other.

4. "That it is highly important to the general interests of the British empire; that the laws for regulating trade and naviga. tion, should be the same in Great Britain and Ireland; and therefore, that it is essential towards carrying into effect the present settlement, that all laws which have been made, or shall be made in Great Britain, for securing exclusive privileges to the ships and mariners of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British colonies and plantations, and for regulating and restraining the trade of the British colonies and plantations, shall be in force in Ireland

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