XXII.

wanting to clear off the old and new incumbrances, BOOK would be voted without hesitation."

In reply to Mr. Pitt's courtly logic, it was obvious to observe, that the parliament which fixed the expenditure of the civil list at eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds, until the debt previously contracted should be liquidated, thought it at least POSSIBLE that the DIGNITY of the CROWN might be sufficiently sustained without passing the prescribed limits; and it was by a very peculiar sort of reasoning that the actual transgression of a law was urged as affording of itself an adequate and satisfactory proof of the necessity of the transgression. It might even perhaps occur to some of the members, however indecorous the mention of it in a parliamentary debate, that the executive government of the republic of America was supported, without any apparent forfeiture of DIGNITY, at less than one FORTIETH part of the expence.

This demand was the more extraordinary, as the king in his speech from the throne at the opening of the session, December 1782, had said, “I have carried into strict execution the several reductions in my civil list expences, directed by an act of last session; I have introduced a farther reform in other departments, and suppressed several sinecure places in them. I have by this means so regulated my establishments, that мY

1786.

BOOK EXPENCES SHALL NOT IN FUTURE EXCEED MY

XXII. 1786.

INCOME.

No attempt being made to repeal that clause in Mr. Burke's Reform Bill which regulated the expenditure of the civil list, it was urged to be very extraordinary, while that bill remained in full force, to come down in the face of an act of parliament, and call upon the house to vote money for the debts of the crown. It is almost superfluous to say, that all the arguments offered on this head proved a mere waste of words, and that the money was ultimately voted.

* This species of parliamentary bubble is a royal practice and privilege of very ancient date

The KING shall pass his HONEST WORD;

The chancellor make a speech;

The pawn'd revenue sums afford;

And then come kiss my

DRYDEN.

It is related of Francis I. king of France, that upon using to one of his courtiers-a man of honour-on some occasion, his usual asseveration" Foi de Roi!" he perceived marks of manifest incredulity on his countenance. On which he graciously repeated "Foi de gentilhomme!" and the courtier declared himself satisfied. The Huguenots negotiating with the famous Catharine of Medicis insisted on security for their rights and immunities; and many methods being proposed and rejected as inadequate, the queen at length angrily said, “ Is not the word of a KING a sufficient security?" One of the deputies with quickness replied, "No, by St. BARTHOLOMEW, madam."

XXII.

1786.

Motion of

Lewes for a

Many petitions were presented during the ses- BOOK sion for the repeal of the odious tax upon retail shops; and a motion was formally made by sir Watkin Lewes, member for the city of London, sir Watkin' for that purpose, without effect, though it was repeal of the somewhat mitigated by a reduction of the rates. In this business Mr. Pitt shewed a degree of perseverance bordering upon obstinacy, which it had been surely better to have reserved for a more important occasion.

Mr. Fox acutely remarked on the subject of the proposed alterations, "that the greater part of Mr. Pitt's arguments had been intended to prove that the tax was not personal; and that it must find its level and fall upon the consumer. the consumer. If this were true, what was there to recommend his modifications? He had stated, that he would take off or diminish the portion of the tax paid by the poorer class of shopkeepers, which would considerably exonerate that description of persons. Of what would it exonerate them; of the burden borne by the consumer? Giaring indeed was the inconsistency of his actions, when compared with his arguments."

shop-tax

attempt for

hawkers

An attempt was also made by Mr. Pulteney, Humane supported by many respectable members of the the relief of house, to explain and amend the act of the last and pedlars. session, relative to hawkers and pedlars; and particularly to repeal a most detestably oppressive

XXII.

BOOK clause, by which justices of the peace were em. powered to imprison any person of this profession 1786. at their discretion. This was rejected, at the second reading, by a majority of fifty voices.

Wine excise

bill.

About this period Mr. Pitt brought in a bill for transferring part of the duties on foreign wines from the customs to the excise. The revenue on this article, the consumption of which had certainly not diminished, Mr. Pitt stated to be inferior by the sum of two hundred and eighty thousand pounds to what it had been in the middle of the century. The terrible alarm excited by sir Robert Walpole's memorable attempt to extend the laws of excise fifty years before had now completely subsided, and the bill passed with general approbation.

In the house of peers lord Loughborough, who was now again transformed into a Whig and a patriot, opposed the bill, as in the highest degree arbitrary and unconstitutional. He was answered by lord Camden, whose zeal for the constitution had been subject to no such remarkable variations. Lord Camden admitted" that the excise laws, taken collectively, might in a certain sense be considered as a departure from the constitution ; but the present state of the country rendered them necessary. The present bill, in particular, was calculated to counteract the notorious impositions practised by the wine-merchants to delude

the public, to cheat the health of the consumer.

XXII.

1786.

revenue, and injure the BOOK In these iniquities it was that a justification of this useful and salutary measure was to be found." The bill passed without a division.

Next to the establishment of the new sinking East India regulations fund, the affairs of India occupied, during this session, the chief attention of parliament. A bill was brought in by Mr. Dundas, which with some opposition passed into a law, to explain and amend the act of 1784. This bill, among other regulations of inferior importance, bestowed upon the governor-general of India the high prerogative of deciding in opposition to the sense of the majority of the council. The offices of commander-in-chief and governor-general were in future united in the same person; and earl Cornwallis, who had borne Lord Cornso conspicuous a part in the American war, and minated whose character stood deservedly high in the gover public estimation, was nominated to fill this portant commission.

im

Soon after this Mr. Pitt, stating certain exigencies arising from the peculiar situation of the EastIndia Company, moved that they be empowered to raise the sum of two millions for the necessary increase of their capital. This was in itself a very problematic proof of the vaunted prosperity of the Company; but Mr. Pitt asserted the necessity to be temporary, and that it arose chiefly from the

wallis no

governorgeneral of India.