All subjects of contest being thus removed
An amicable explanation took place between me and the Most Christian King, and declarations have been exchanged by our respective ministers, by which we have agreed mutually to disarm, and to place our naval establishments on the same footing as in the beginning of the present year. It gives me the greatest satisfaction that the important events, which I have communicated to you, have taken place without disturbing my subjects in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace; and I have great pleasure in acquainting you, that I continue to receive from all foreign powers the fullest assurances of their pacific and friendly disposition towards this country. I must, at the same time, regret that the tranquillity of one part of Europe is unhappily interrupted by the war which has broken out between Russia and the Porte. A convention has been agreed upon between me and the Most Christian King, explanatory of the thirteenth article of die last treaty of peace, and calculated to prevent jealousies and disputes between our respective subjects in the East Indies. I have ordered copies of the several treaties to which I have referred, and of the declaration and counterdeclaration exchanged at Versailles, to be laid before you.Gentlemen of the House of Commons; I have ordered the estimates for the ensuing year to be laid before you, together with an account of the extraordinary expences which the situation of tfiairs rendered necessary. I have the fullest reliance in your peal and public spirit, that you will make due provision fbr the several branches of the public service.
The committee then naming was not the committee
And therefore not of equal importance ; but so fully was he convinced of the great utility and importance of the assistance of his honourable friend, and that he should feel himself, who knew the subject as well as most men, so exceedingly crippled and enfeebled without the advantage of bis honourable friend's superior information, that when the day for naming the next committee should come, he would again appeal to the sense of the House, and try to have his honourable friend rein stated.Mr. Fox followed Mr. Burke, and appealed seriously to the gentlemen on the other side, upon one particular resulting from their late vote, by which they had thrown so great a discountenance on the prosecution; and that was, the necessity of filling the chasm in the committee, which they had occasioned by rejecting the only member who, from every con sideration, appeared to be the most proper to be upon it. Mr. Fox, therefore, submitted it to the consideration of the other side of the House, whether it would not be right and becoming in them to supply the vacancy, by naming from among themselves some person of acknowledged information upon the subject He suggested the right nonourable gentleman at the head of the India board; but said, t&at he would agree to the nomination of any other wellinformed gentleman, whom the other side of the House might consider as a proper person for their acceptance.No notice being taken of this address, Mr. Burke proceeded to nominate the committee, which consisted of the same persons as the former, with the additition of Mr. Wilbraham, Mr. Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Courtenay.
Mr. Fox immediately rose, and declared that
He still entertained his opinion, that unless in cases of public libel, or of a libel on the government at large, or legislature collectively, he did not think it becoming in that House to resort to the crown lawyers, as the instruments of pro secuting libels affecting themselves, interfering with their proceedings, or implicating a breach of their privileges. He then moved, " That an humble address be presented to his majesty, humbly desiring his majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to his attorneygeneral, to prosecute toe author or authors, the printer or printers, and the publisher or publishers, of the said pamphlet, in order that they may be brought to condign punishment for the same." The motion was agreed to net con. the apprehensions, which had existed in the course of the last year, of a rupture with the court of France, government had taken a resolution of sending out four additional regiments to India, on board the company s ships, for the protection of our possessions in that quarter; and the proposition had been received with general approbation by the court of directors. But in the mean time the storm having blown over, and government still adhering to their resolution of sending out the four regiments, with a view to form a permanent establishment of his majesty's troops in India, a question had arisen respecting the expence of sending them out, and of their future payment.By an act, which passed in the year 1781, it was stipulated, that the company should be bound to pay for such troops only as were sent to India upon their requisition, and upon this act the directors had refused to charge tne company witn the expence of the troops in auestion. But it was contended by the board of COB troul, established in the act of 1784, that the commissioners of that board were invested with a power of directing, in case of 4 refusal of the company, such expence to be defrayed out of the revenues arising from their territorial possessions. Upon this case the court of directors had taken the advice of several eminent lawyers.
Would any little inconvenience weigh against
The mischiefs that might arise from the discussion of such matters in parliament?' Mr. Fox declared that he felt his share of concern that such questions should ever come under parliamentary agitation; but was the inconvenience likely to arise little?" Was the casting a damper on the whole service of the navy; was the shewing that merit, however successful, however bright, however illustrious, however glorious in a captain, was no recommendation to the flag, a " little" inconvenience? He conjured the House not to set a precedent that would destroy all enterprise, but by agreeing to the motion for a committee, to restore confidence to the navy, and increase ardour by reviving hope in the breasts of its officers.
On a division the numbers were,trade carried on by this country, and other European nations, upon the coast of Africa, for the purpose of purchasing negro slaves, to be employed in the cultivation of the West India islands and certain parts of the continent of America, does not appear, till of late years, to have been considered with that general attention, which a practice so abhorrent in its nature to the mild principles of modern policy and manners might have been expected to excite. This may probably have been owing, partly to the distance of the object which tended both to conceal the sufferings and to lessen the sympathy of the public for the unfortunate sufferers; partly to the connivance of politicians, unwilling to examine too severely into the necessity of the means, by which distant colonies were enabled to pour luxury and wealth into the mother countries The first public attempt that was wade to put a stop to this traffic, was by the quakers of the southern provinces of America, who, soon after the establishment of their independence, not only presented for this purpose a strong and pathetic address to their several legislative assemblies, but actually proceeded, as is said, in many instances to emancipate the slaves that were in their possession.
The Prince of Wales repaired immediately
Windsor, where he was met by the lord chancellor, and they, in concert with the queen, took such measures relative to the domestic affairs of the king, as the necessity of the case required. In the mean time, all those, who by their rank and situation in the state were required to take a part in so new and unexpected aa exigence, assembled m the capital; and an express was dispatched to Mr. Fox, at this time in Italy, to hasten his return. The parliament had been prorogued to the 20th of November; and as the intended commission for a farther prorogation had not been issued by the king, its meeting took place upon that day, as a matter of course. Tne peers ana the commons remained in their separate chambers; and the chancellor in the upper, and Mr. Pitt in the lower House, having signified the cause of their assembling without the usual notice ana summons, and stated the impropriety of their proceeding under such circumstances to the discussion of any public business whatever, both Houses resolved unanimously to adjourn for fifteen days. At the same time Mr. Pitt took occasion to observe, that as it would be indispensably necessary, in case his majesty's illness should unhappily continue longer than the period of their adjournment, that the House should take into immediate consideration the means of supplying, so far as they were competent, the want of the royal presence, it was incumbent UDOU them to insure a full attendance, in order to give every possible weight and solemnity to their proceedings. For this purpose it was ordered, that the House be called over on Thursday die Ath of December next, and that the Speaker do send letters requiring the attendance of every member. Orders to the same effect were made by the Lords.
They contributed to the passing of the bill; willingly subjecting
Tiffany & Co themselves to the disabilities created by it rather than obstruct what was deemed so necessanr to the com rbon welfare. Alderman Love, a member of the House of Commons, and a known dissenter, publicly desired, that nothing with relation to them might intervene to stop the security which the nation and protestant religion might derive from .the test act, and declared that in this he was seconded by the greater part of the nonconformists. This conduct was so acceptable to parliament, that, in the very session in which the test aot passed, and while that act was depending, a bill was brought into the House of Commons, entitled, ' A bill for the ease of protestant dissenters.' This bill, having passed through the different stagesof that House, was Tiffany Co carried up to the House of Lords, where likewise it passed, with some amendments. These amendments having given occasion to a conference between the two Houses, King Charles II., from an apprehension that the Tiffany and Co measure would prove injurious to the ] pish interest, on the 29th of March, 1673, adjourned the parliament to the aoth of October following. In the next session, an attempt was made, in the House of Commons, to Tiffany & Co discriminate the dissenters from the papists, with regard to their qualifications for public offices, by bringing in a bill for a Tiffany Jewelry general test, to distinguish protestante from papists; which bill, having been read a second time, and referred to a committee, was laid aside without being reported.The late reverend and learned Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, in a speech in the House of Lords, in the year 1703, took particular notice of the conduct of the dissenters, with regard to the testact; and justly concluded, that, as the act was obtained in some measure by their concurrence, it would be hard, to turn it against them.