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The bill was then reported, and ordered to be read a third time to-morrow.

STAMP DUTIES.

It was next moved to go into a committee upon the bill for new-regulating certain stamp duties, &c.

Lord Holland inveighed against the principle of this bill in the severest terms. It went to oppress those who were already labouring under circumstances of distress and diflicully, by increasing the duties on deeds of conveyance, which besides must fall with peculiar hardship on the proprietors of land. The bill would also severely affect attorneys, and he should never approve of any principle of taxation that tended to press with peculiar weight on any particular class of the community,"

Lord Hawkesbury observed, that under the urgent exigences of the present moment, it was necessary to have recourse to every possible resource of revenue. The principle of the present bill had long been acknowledged and acted upon by parliament; and the increase of the duties in the present instance was only a further extension of that principle. That principle did not bear harder on the landed than on the commercial interest; on the con trary, it must weigh heavier on the latter than on the former, as transfers of property were more frequent among commercial men than among landed proprietors. It more, over will operate equally on the buyer and the seller.

Lords Rosslyn and Lauderdale contended, on the contrary, that the hardships of the increased duty would fall almost entirely on the seller, who, from urgent circumstances, was compelled to transfer his property. Indeed the principle of the bill was in every respect iniquitous aud unjust.

After a few words from Lord Hawkesbury, the house resolved itself into a committee on the bill; after which, the report was received, and the bill ordered to be read a third time to-morrow. Adjourned,

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29.

The minor estate bill was read a second time, and or dered to be committed.

A person from the office of the chief secretary for Ire land presented, pursuant to order of the house, an account, shewing the manner in which 500,000l. granted for the inland navigation of Ireland had been disposed of. Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed.

A person from the tax office presented a statement of the expences incurred by salaries to clerks in the office of the commissioners for the redemption of the land tax, Ordered to lie on the table.

The inspector-general of exports and imports presented an account of the quantity of articles which had been imported and warehoused, and exported in the present year, up to the 21 of May. Ordered to lie on the table; and after a few observations from Mr. Tierney and Mr. Huskisson, to be printed.

A person from the commissioners of Westminster bridge, presented their four quarterly accounts for the year ending the 5th of April 1808, together with the minutes of their proceedings,

Ordered on the motion of Mr. Tierney, that there be laid before the house, copies of all orders given by the lord chamberlain of his majesty's household to the board of works, for the improvement of the avenues leading to Westminster hall, and the two houses of parliament, since. the first of January 1800; also an account of all works done in execution of the e orders in the same period; and lastly, an account of all sums of money which had been issued by the lord chamberlain to the board of works for such purposes, specifying the date of each issue, from the 1st of January, 1800, to the present time.

Mr. Long presented the report of the committee appointed to consider of the report of the commissioners to whom the memorial respecting the improvement of Westminster had been referred. Ordered to lie on the table, and to b printed.

Lord Archibald Hamilton rose to put a question to the right honourable gentleman opposite (the chancellor of the exchequer), on a subject to which he had long since

called the attention of the house, and the prosecution of which he had on that occasion relinquished, in conse quence of an assurance given to him and to the public, that the proper steps were in train for procuring justice to the public. The subject be alluded to was, the matter of one of the reports of the commissioners of military in quiry respecting the conduct of Mr. Alexander Davison. It was now near twelve months since he had received the assurance that proper measures were to be pursued on this bead, and yet all that the house: knew at present was, that an inquiry had been instituted, and it was manifest that very great irregularities, to say the least, had been committed. The question he had to put was to ascertain by the answer, to what extent the measures, which it might have been more desirable to resort to, had been or were acted upon. If the answer he should receive should not prove satisfactory to him, he should feel it his duty, in an early part of next session, to bring the subject in some shape, or other before the house. He had but one more observation to add to what had been stated, and which was rather of a nature personal to himself. It had been intimated to him from several quarters, that, if he had not taken up the matter, it would have been in the hands of others, who would not have lost sight of it, and consequently he was bound to bring it under the cons sideration of the house.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer could not have the smallest objection to the production of the fullest information on the subject of the inquiry to which the noble lord had alluded. The noble lord could not be unaware that a parliamentary commission had been appointed, to whom he whole of Mr. Davison's accounts had been referred. That commission had from time to time made reports upon the subject of the inquiry intrusted to them, to the treasury, which regularly submitted these reports to the law advisers of the crown for their opinion, whether a civil or criminal process should be founded there on. It appeared upon some of them that the inquiries were not sufficient; upon others, on the contrary, it was considered that a leg demand existed on the part of the nation, to be recovered by civil process; and in every such case, application had been made to the party, as was customary in all private transactions, for payment of the sum deraanded before the commencement of a civil

suit, with directions, in case of non-compliance with the application, to resort to legal process. As the inquiries were still in prosecution, the noble lord might, in the next session, if he desired information upon the subject, apply to the treasury, and he had no doubt the business would then be in such a state as to allow of the whole proceedings being laid before parliament. For the present, he was sure the noble lord would not expect him to explain further, but of this he could assure that noble lord, that the subject had never been lost sight of by his majesty's ministers..

Mr. Martin wished to know in what manner the sums granted for the service of the island of Ceylon were accounted for.

After a short conversation between Mr. Martain and Mr. Huskisson, it was ordered, on the motion of Mr. Martin, that there be laid before the house an account of the money issued to William Huskinson and

Courtenay, Esqrs. as agents for the island of Ceylon, or otherwise, for the service of said island, from the year 1796, to the present time. ⠀

Mr. Creevey gave notice, that as no part of Mr. Forsythe's debt to the public, had been liquidated within the last three years, he should at an early period of next session, call the attention of the house to that subject.

A message from the lords informed the house that their lordships had agreed to the Irish jail, the Woolwich water works, the southern whale fishery, the Tower hamlets indemnity, M'Dougall's estate, the Irish vote of credit, the coffee customs, the excise duty reduction, the spirit import duty, the silk duty, the six millions exchequer bills, the hop bag, the Irish spirits duty, the seamen's encouragement, the Madeira and Brazils postage, the Cinque ports, and the privately stealing bills, without any amendments, as also the Danish prize bill with an amendment, and the Scotch local militia bill with several amendments, in which they desired the concurrence of that house.'

Sir Thomas Turton stated, that as the papers which he had moved for in the course of the last and present sessions were voluminous, and would, if ordered to be printed, be productive of great expence; and as he was not sanguine enough to expect, after what had passed, that the prosecution of the business would lead to any result

consonant to his views respecting all the circumstances of the ca e; it was not his intention to move that those papers should be printed.

FINANCE COMMITTEE.

Mr. Bankes presented from the bar the third report of the committee of finance.

On the report having been read,"

Mr. Bankes rose to move that it do lie on the table, but before he should make that proposition, he felt it necessary to address an observation or two to the house. He hoped that gentlemen would not be alarmed at the enor◄ mous mass of papers which he had brought up, because under the instructions which had been given to the com mittee, he had conceived it necessary to communicate all the returns upon which the report of the committee was founded. Only a small part, however, of the papers be fore the house, would be necessary to be printed, and he trusted, from the part he had taken in the discussions respecting questions about the printing of papers, that the house would give him credit for not wishing o have more printed than were absolutely necessary to put the house in possession of the subject. It was only a small part there fore of the papers which he had brought that he should move to be printed. On presenting a report, which had occupied so large a portion of the attention of the committee, he was afraid that the house might suppose that much time had been lost in preparing it. But he could say, as well for himself, as on the part of the other members of the committee, that they had not been wanting in their duty. The delay, and that of some months, in presenting the report, had arisen from the contrariety of opinion which had arisen in the committee, owing perhaps to its' being composed of too, numerous an assemblage of members. If it should be the pleasure of the house, that the committee should be renewed in another session, it would be a question, founded upon the experience of the present session, whether it ought to be composed of so large a number. Though this was the only report which the committee had presented in the present session, he assured the house that they had attended to other subjects, upon which they had made some progress, though under the instruction given to them by the house, they had looked upon themselves as bound to suspend such in

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