BILLS FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH BEEF AND TALLOW.

Among other new measures, a successful attempt was made in favour of Ireland, by a bill, permitting the free importation of cattle from that kingdom for a limited time. This, however, was not carried through both houses without considerable opposition, arising from the particular interests of certain counties and districts in several parts of Great Britain, from whence petitions against the bill were transmitted to the commons. Divers artifices were also used within doors to saddle the bill with such clauses as might overcharge the scheme, and render it odious or alarming to the public; but the promoters of it being aware of the design, conducted it in such a manner as to frustrate all their views, and convey it safely to the throne, where it was enacted into a law. The like success attended another effort in behalf of our fellow-subjects of Ireland. The bill for the importation of Irish cattle was no sooner ordered to be brought in, than the house proceeded to take into consideration the duties then payable on the importation of tallow from the same kingdom; and several witnesses being examined, the committee agreed to a resolution, that these duties should cease and determine for a limited time. A bill being formed accordingly, passed through both houses without opposition, though in the preceding session a bill to the same purpose had miscarried among the peers: a miscarriage probably owing to their being unacquainted with the sentiments of his majesty, as some of the duties upon tallow constituted part of one of the branches appropriated for the civil list revenue. This objection, however, was obviated in the case of the present bill, by the king’s message to the house of commons, signifying his majesty’s consent, as far as his interest was concerned in the affair. By this new act the free importation of Irish tallow was permitted for the term of five years.

In the month of February the commons presented an address to his majesty, requesting that he would give directions for laying before the house an account of what had been done, since the beginning of last year, towards securing the harbour of Milford, in pursuance of any directions from his majesty. These accounts being perused, and the king having, by the chancellor of the exchequer, exhorted them to make provision for fortifying the said harbour, a bill was brought in to explain, amend, and render more effectual, the act of the last session relating to this subject; and, passing through both houses, received the royal assent without opposition. By this act several engineers were added to the commissioners formerly appointed; and it was ordained that fortifications should be erected at Peter-church-point, Westlanyon-point, and Neyland-point, as being the most proper and best situated places for fortifying the interior parts of the harbour. It was also enacted, that the commissioners should appoint proper secretaries, clerks, assistants, and other officers, for carrying the two acts into execution, and that an account of the application of the money should be laid before parliament, within twenty days of the opening of every session. What next attracted the attention of the house was an affair of the utmost importance to the commerce of the kingdom, which equally affected the interest of the nation, and the character of the natives. In the latter end of February complaint was made to the house, that, since the commencement of the war, an infamous traffic had been set on foot by some merchants of London, of importing French cloths into several ports of the Levant, on account of British subjects. Five persons were summoned to attend the house, and the fact was fully proved, not only by their evidence, but also by some papers submitted to the house by the Turkey company. A bill was immediately contrived for putting a stop to this scandalous practice, reciting in the preamble, that such traffic was not only a manifest discouragement and prejudice to the woollen manufactures of Great Britain, but also a relief to the enemy, in consequence of which they were enabled to maintain the war against these kingdoms.

The next object that employed the attention of the commons, was to explain and amend a law made in the last session for granting to his majesty several rates and duties upon offices and pensions. The directions specified in the former act for levying this imposition having been found inconvenient in many respects, new regulations were now established, importing, that those deductions should be paid into the hands of receivers appointed by the king for that purpose; that all sums deducted under this act should be accounted for to such receivers, and the accounts audited and passed by them, and not by the auditors of the impress, or of the exchequer: that all disputes relating to the collection of this duty should be finally, and in a summary way, determined by the barons of the exchequer in England and Scotland respectively: that the commissioners of the land-tax should fix and ascertain the sum total or amount of the perquisites of every office and employment within their respective districts, distinct from the salary thereunto belonging, to be deducted under the said act, independently of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the land-tax; and should rate or assess all offices and employments, the perquisites whereof should be found to exceed the sum of one hundred pounds per annum, at one shilling for every twenty thence arising; that the receivers should transmit to the commissioners in every district where any office or employment is to be assessed, an account of such officers and employments, that, upon being certified of the truth of their amount, they might be rated and assessed accordingly; that in all future assessments of the land-tax, the said offices and employments should not be valued at higher rates than those at which they were assessed towards the land-tax of the thirty-first year of the present reign; that the word perquisite should be understood to mean such profits of offices and employments as arise from fees established by custom or authority, and payable either by the crown or the subjects, in consideration of business done in the course of executing such offices and employments; and that a commissioner possessed of any office or employment, might not interfere in the execution of the said act, except in what might relate to his own employment. By the four last clauses, several salaries were exempted from the payment of this duty. The objections made without doors to this new law, were the accession of pecuniary influence to the crown by the creation of a new office and officers, whereas this duty might have been easily collected and received by the commissioners of the land-tax already appointed, and the inconsistency that appeared between the fifth and seventh clause: in the former of these the commissioners of the land-tax were vested with the power of assessing the perquisites of every office within their respective districts, independent of any former valuation or assessment of the same to the land-tax; and by the latter, they are restricted from assessing any office at a higher rate than that of the thirty-first year of the reign of George II.

In the beginning of March, petitions were offered to the house by the merchants of Birmingham in Warwickshire, and Sheffield in Yorkshire, specifying that the toy trade of these and many other towns consisted generally of articles in which gold and silver might be said to be manufactured, though in a small proportion, inasmuch as the sale of them depended upon slight ornaments of gold and silver: that by a clause passed in the last session of parliament, obliging every person who should sell goods or wares in which any gold or silver was manufactured to take out an annual license of forty shillings, they the petitioners were laid under great difficulties and disadvantages; that not only the first seller, but every person through whose hands the goods or wares passed to the consumer, was required to take out the said license: they therefore requested that the house should take these hardships and inequalities into consideration, and indulge them with reasonable relief. The committee, to which this affair was referred, having resolved that this imposition was found detrimental to the toy and cutlery trade of the kingdom, the house agreed to the resolution, and a bill being prepared, under the title of “An act to amend the act made in the last session, for repealing the duty granted by an act of the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty, on silver plate, and for granting a duty on licenses to be taken out by all persons dealing in gold and silver plate,” was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. By this new regulation, small quantities of gold and silver plate were allowed to be sold without license. Instead of the duty before payable upon licenses, another was granted, to be taken out by certain dealers in gold and silver plate, pawnbrokers, and refiners. This affair being discussed, the house took into consideration the claims of the proprietors of lands purchased for the better securing of his majesty’s docks, ships, and stores at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth; and for better fortifying the town of Portsmouth, and citadel of Plymouth, in pursuance of an act passed in the last session. We have already specified the sum granted for this purpose, in consequence of a resolution of the house, upon which a bill being founded, soon passed into a law without opposition.*

* The next bill which was brought into the house related to
the summons issued by the commissioners of the excise, and
justices of the peace, for the appearance of persons
offending against, or for forfeitures incurred by, the laws
of excise. As some doubts had arisen with respect to the
method of summoning in such cases, this bill, which obtained
the royal assent in due course, enacted, that the summons
left at the houses, or usual place of residence, or with the
wife, child, or menial servants of the person so summoned,
should be held as legal notice, as well as the leaving such
notice at the house, workhouse, warehouse, shop, cellar,
vault, or usual place of residence, of such person, directed
to him by his right or assumed name; and all dealers in
coffee, tea, or chocolate, were subjected to the penalty of
twenty pounds, as often as they should neglect to attend the
commissioners of excise, when summoned in this manner.

In the month of April, a bill was brought in for the more effectual preventing the fraudulent importation of cambrics; and while it was under deliberation, several merchants and wholesale drapers of the city of London presented a petition, representing the grievances to which they, and many thousand of other traders, would be subjected, should the bill, as it then stood, be passed into a law. According to their request, they were heard by their counsel on the merits of this remonstrance, and some amendments were made to the bill in their favour. At length it received the royal assent, and became a law to the following effect: It enacted, that no cambrics, French lawns, or linens of this kind usually entered under the denomination of cambrics, should be imported after the first day of next August, but in bales, cases, or boxes, covered with sackcloth or canvas, containing each one hundred whole pieces, or two hundred half pieces, on penalty of forfeiting the whole; that cambrics and French lawns should be imported for exportation only, lodged in the king’s warehouses, and delivered out under like security, and restrictions as prohibited East India merchandise, and, on importation, pay only the half subsidy: that all cambrics and French lawns in the custody of any persons should be deposited, by the first of August, in the king’s warehouses, the bonds thereupon be delivered up, and the drawback on exportation paid; yet the goods should not be delivered out again but for exportation: that cambrics and French lawns exposed to sale, or found in the possession of private persons, after the said day, should be forfeited, and liable to be searched for, and seized, in like manner as other prohibited and uncustomed goods are; and the offender should forfeit two hundred pounds over and above all other penalties and forfeitures inflicted by any former act: that if any doubt should arise concerning the species or quality of the goods, or the place where they were manufactured, the proof should lie on the owner: finally, that the penalty of five pounds inflicted by a former act, and payable to the informer, on any person that should wear any cambric or French lawns, should still remain in force, and be recoverable, on conviction, by oath of one witness, before one justice of the peace.—The last successful bill which this session produced, was that relating to the augmentation of the salaries of the judges in his majesty’s superior courts of justice. A motion having been made for an instruction to the committee of supply, to consider of the said augmentation, the chancellor of the exchequer acquainted the house, that this augmentation was recommended to them by his majesty. Nevertheless, the motion was opposed, and a warm debate ensued. At length, however, being carried in the affirmative, the committee agreed to certain resolutions, on which a bill was founded. While it remained under discussion, a motion was made for an instruction to the committee, that they should have power to receive a clause or clauses for restraining the judges, comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from receiving any fee, gift, present, or entertainment, from any city, town, borough, or corporation, or from any sheriff, gaoler, or other officer, upon their several respective circuits, and from taking any gratuity from any officer or officers of any of the courts of law. Another motion was made, for a clause restraining such judges, barons, and justices, as were comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from interfering, otherwise than by giving their own votes, in any election of members to serve in parliament; but both these proposals, being put to the vote, were carried in the negative. These two motions being over-ruled by the majority, the bill underwent some amendments; and having passed through both houses in the ordinary course, was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. With respect to the import of this act, it is no other than the establishment of the several stamp-duties, applied to the augmentation, and the appropriation of their produce in such a manner, that the crown cannot alter the application of the sums thus granted in parliament. But on this occasion, no attempt was made in favour of the independency of the judges, which seems to have been invaded by a late interpretation of, or rather by a deviation from, the act of settlement; in which it is expressly ordained, that the commissions of the judge? should continue in force quamdiu se bene gesserint; that their salaries should be fixed, and none of them remove-able but by an address of both houses of parliament. It was then, without all doubt, the intention of the legislature that every judge should enjoy his office during life, unless convicted, by legal trial, of some misbehaviour, or unless both houses of parliament should concur in desiring his removal: but the doctrine now adopted imports, that no commission can continue in force longer than the life of the king by whom it was granted; that therefore the commissions of the judges must be renewed by a new king at his accession, who should have it in his power to employ either those whom he finds acting as judges at his accession, or confer their offices on others, with no other restraint than that the condition of new commissions, should be quamdiu se bene gesserint. Thus the office of a judge is more precarious, and the influence of the crown receives a considerable reinforcement.

Among the bills that miscarried in the course of the session, we may number a second attempt to carry into execution the scheme which was offered last year for the more effectual manning the navy, preventing desertion, and relieving and encouraging the seamen of Great Britain. A bill was accordingly brought in, couched in nearly the same terms which had been rejected in the last session; and it was supported by a considerable number of members, animated with a true spirit of patriotism: but to the trading part of the nation it appeared one of those plausible projects, which, though agreeable in speculation, can never be reduced into practice, without a concomitancy of greater evils than those they were intended to remove. While the bill remained under the consideration of the house, petitions were presented against it by the merchants of Bristol, Scarborough, Whitby, Ivingston-upon-Hull, and Lancaster, representing, that by such a law, the trade of the kingdom, which is the nursery and support of seamen at all times, and that spirit of equipping private ships of war, which had been of distinguished service to the nation, would be laid under such difficulties as might cause a great stagnation in the former, and a total suppression of the latter; the bill, therefore, would be highly prejudicial to the marine of the kingdom, and altogether ineffectual for the purposes intended. A great number of books and papers, relating to trading ships and vessels, as well as to seamen and other persons protected or pressed into the navy, and to expenses occasioned by pressing men into the navy, were examined in a committee of the whole house, and the bill was improved with many amendments: nay, after it was printed and engrossed, several clauses were added by way of rider; yet still the experiment seemed dangerous. The motion for its being past was violently opposed; warm debates ensued; they were adjourned, and resumed; and the arguments against the bill appeared at length in such a striking light, that, when the question was put, the majority declared for the negative. The regulations which had been made in parliament during the twenty-sixth, the twenty-eighth, and thirtieth years of the present reign, for the preservation of the public roads, being attended with some inconveniencies in certain parts of the kingdom, petitions were brought from some counties in Wales, as well as from the freeholders of Hertfordshire, the farmers of Middlesex, and others, enumerating the difficulties attending the use of broad wheels, in one case, and the limitation of horses used in drawing carriages with narrow wheels, in the other. The matter of these remonstrances was considered in a committee of the whole house, which resolved, that the weight to be carried by all waggons and carts, travelling on the turnpike roads, should be limited. On this resolution a bill was framed, for amending and reducing into one act of parliament the three acts before mentioned for the preservation of the public highways; but some objections being started, and a petition interposed by the land-holders of Suffolk and Norfolk, alleging that the bill, if passed into a law, would render it impossible to bring fresh provisions from those counties to London, as the supply depended absolutely upon the quickness of conveyance, the further consideration of it was postponed to a longer day, and never resumed in the sequel: so that the attempt miscarried.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760