reduced, but the petitioners suffer a material loss; and that the revenue arising from newspapers is also otherwise deeply affected by the decrease of advertisements, in as much as those persons who incur the expence of advertising are always interested, and therefore peculiarly anxious to promote the circulation of such papers as contain their advertisements; that also a very numerous class of readers were accustomed to purchase newspapers chiefly for the information to be derived from the advertising columns, to which class, by reason of the decrease in the advertisements in consequence of the addi and also since, and that from the best information they have been able to obtain, the produce of the duty upon advertisements in the Dublin newspapers alone, from the 5th of January 1810 to the 31st of March next ensuing was 2,1371. 7s. 6d.; and that from the 31st of March to the 30th of June following it amounted to 2,0221. 7s. 6d. making a gross sum in that period of 4,1597. 158.; and that the new duty commenced on the 16th of July, and including sixteen days of the old duty, the gross amount of the produce of advertisements from the 50th of June to the 30th of September 1810 was 2,175l. 6s. 8d.; from the 30th of Sep-tional tax, newspapers have lost a princitember to the 5th of January 1811 the gross duty was 2,755l. 11s. 2d. making a gross sum from the 30th of June 1810 to the 5th of January 1811, of 4,9301. 17s. 10d.; and that although there appears to be an increase in the produce of the double tax of 7711. 2s. 10d. yet this is to be accounted for by the institution of two daily newspapers, and a third published weekly, the duty upon the advertisements contained in which gave a gross sum of 1,000. 16s. 4d. towards the sum before mentioned of 4,930l. 17s. 10d.; and that from the above premises it is conclusive, that if those new newspapers had not been set up subsequent to the 16th of July, the duty upon advertisements, though doubly taxed, would have been less productive than with the old tax; and that a part of this produce is in fact charged upon government proclamations, and therefore does not in reality add any thing to the revenue of the state; and that the petitioners were led to understand that the principle of the tax was to establish a ratio whereby advertisements in Ireland should be subject to two thirds of the duty payable thereon in England, but they find that the scale was to extend no farther than to advertisements under twenty lines; and that, from twenty lines up to any indefinite number, the duty payable in Ireland exceeds that payable in England by a progressive increase, which makes an advertisement, in any of the petitioners' papers, of three hundred lines, liable to a duty of 37., whilst in England it would be subject to but 3s.; and that, from the doubling the tax upon advertisements, even those persons whose necessities compel them to advertise at any price, limit their insertions to less than half the number of times they would otherwise do, by which practice the revenue is not only pal recommendation; the joint effect of which is a diminution of the circulation of newspapers, and a serious reduction of that part of the revenue which arises from the duty upon newspaper stamps, amounting to considerably more than the additional tax upon advertising was ever estimated to produce; and that so considerably has the public desire to advertise their general and particular wants through the medium of the newspapers abated, that, even if the duty were reduced to its former rate, it would require some time and inducement to bring back the fugitive business to its former standard; and, for this purpose, they conceive that the revenue would be rendered more productive by a moderate rate of duty than the present, which bears no proportion to the means of the general class of advertisers; and that the periodical press of Ireland labours under hardships and obstructions peculiar to itself, not only in consequence of the duty on advertisements in Ireland being commonly four, six, and frequently ten times greater than that imposed upon advertisements of the same length in Eng. land, but also because the proprietors are deprived of various advantages enjoyed by the English proprietors of newspapers; and that they particularly refer to the discount allowed on the payment of their stamp duties respectively, the Irish proprietor being allowed only one and a half per cent. discount, to which it was reduced the last session of parliament, while the allowance in England is upwards of seventeen and a half per cent.; and pray.. ing the House to re-establish the former rate of taxation upon advertisements, viz. one shilling British for every ten lines, and further to limit that duty, so that in no case it shall exceed the sum an advertisement of the same number of lines would be liable to in England, and also | Company, which intention the petitioners that such regulations may be made with respect to the discount allowed on newspaper stamps in Ireland as may place the petitioners upon an equal footing with the proprietors of newspapers in England." Ordered to lie upon the table. were however unable to carry into execution, in consequence of the Bill for effectuating such purchase not having met with the approbation of parliament, the said. company appearing to be trustees of such land for a specific charitable purpose, and the same being therefore considered to be inalienable without the undertaking of the master and wardens of the said company that the money to be received for the said land should be laid out in the purchase of other land to be settled to the same uses, which the said master and wardens did not feel themselves at liberty to give; and that, since the unfavourable termination of such treaty, the petitioners have come to an agreement with the city of London for an exchange of the site of the present hos PETITION FROM THE CITY OF LONDON RESPECTING BETHLEM HOSPITAL.] A Petition of the mayor and commonalty and citizens of the City of London, masters guardians and governors of the house and hospital called Bethlem, situate without and near to Bishopsgate, of the said city of London, was brought up and read; setting forth, "That the hospital for lunatics or insane persons, called the house or hospital of Bethlem, situate in Moorfields, in the city of London, is a very an-pital, containing about two acres and an tient brick building, and is become so ruinous as not to be capable of being in any way well and sufficiently repaired, in consequence whereof a considerable part hath been lately taken down; and that it has been thought expedient that a building of proper extent and accommodation, should be erected for the reception and support of curable and incurable lunatics; and that the said hospital of Bethlem, independently of the great advantage arising therefrom to the public at large, has always received and harboured great numbers of the soldiers and sailors of his Majesty's army and navy, whereby a very great saving hath annually, for a long period of time, accrued to his Majesty's government, which would have been otherwise under the necessity of maintaining those unfortunate objects at the private houses established for the reception of such as are afflicted with derangement; and that it is the object and intention of the petitioners, in such new hospital intended to be erected (if the petitioners shall be put in a condition to erect the same), to appropriate a considerable portion of such establishment to the use of his Majesty's soldiers and sailors; and that the funds of the said hospital, being altogether inadequate to the erection of a new building for the reception of lunatics, without the assistance of parliament in furtherance of so useful and benevolent a half, for certain land belonging to the city, situate in Saint George's fields, containing about eleven acres and three quarters, on which spot the patients will possess such superior advantages of air and exercise, as they have never yet enjoyed, and which agreement has been ratified by an act of the 50th year of his present Majesty; and that the whole of the funds actually be longing to the petitioners, applicable to the purpose of erecting a new hospital, including the said sum of 10,000l., amounts to the sum of 28,000l., or thereabouts, to which are to be added the savings which may accrue from such part of the income of the hospital as can be appropriated to that purpose, and from the benevolent subscriptions of individuals; and that a plan hath been lately submitted to the petitioners by their surveyor, comprising within itself a building for 200 patients and for 400 patients, either of which de signs can be executed as shall be judged most advisable, and as the petitioners shall be thereto aided and assisted by the liberality of parliament; and that the estimate for the building to contain 200 lu natics amounts to the sum of 85,000l.; and that the petitioners were prevented applying to the House before the time limited for receiving private petitions was expired, by reason that his Majesty's sanction of such an application could not be obtained sooner; and praying, that leave may be given to present a petition for the purpose above-mentioned.' purpose, the House was pleased, in the year 1800, to grant to the petitioners, on their application, the sum of 10,000l. the Ordered, That the said Petition be re petitioners having it at that time in conferred to a Committee, with power to send templation to erect the new building on for persons, papers, and records. land at Islington belonging to the Drapers' 100 1 measures as may appear to them best cal culated to afford relief.' PETITIONS FROM PAISLEY AND LANARK RESPECTING THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, &c.] Lord Archibald Hamilton presented a Petition of several persons residing in the town of Paisley and Suburbs thereof; setting forth, "That the petitioners, in consequence of the depressed condition of trade, have of dalate been subjected to difficulties unknown at any former period; and that at present such is the low state of the Cotton Manufactures, that great numbers have been thrown out of employment, and the wages of those that are employed have in general, within the last ten months, been reduced two thirds, so that it requires great exertions for an individual to procure the necessaries of life; and such is the general distress, that of a population of about 30,000, upwards of 1,200 families, who formerly supported themselves by their own industry, are reduced to the necessity of receiving precarious and temporary assistance from their humane and more wealthy neighbours; and that the present a calamity, though first felt by the manufacturers and operatives, has not been confined to them alone, but has extended to almost every rank and profession, involving in ruin many respectable individuals of large capital; bankruptcy has succeeded bankruptcy to such an alarming extent as nearly to destroy all confidence betwixt the manufacturer and merchant; and that present depressed state of our manufactures is chiefly owing to the exclusion of our commerce from the continent of Europe, and the stoppage of our trade with America, in consequence of the orders in council and the blockading system; and that the present mode of returning members to the House by such a small part of the population is the primary cause of the evils which this country labours under, as it destroys that connection which ought to exist between the people and their representatives; and that a full fair and free representation of the people in parliament is absolutely necessary, not only to give energy to the state but confidence to the people, who, being restored to that place and those privileges in the constitution to which they are well enti tled, would cheerfully submit to the saerifices which they might be called upon to make, in order to preserve the independence, and promote the welfare of their country; and praying the House to take into consideration the present alarming state of the country, and to adopt auch a الله the Mr. Curwen did not see how any relief could be afforded, but though a friend to reform, he was convinced that their dis tresses had been as fully attended to, as they could under any plan of representation. The Petition was ordered to lie on the Table. Mr. Houstoun presented a Petition of several heritors, manufacturers, merchants, mechanics, and labourers of all denomina tions, residing in Lanark, Ayr, and Ren. frew shires, and the manufacturing places adjacent, which was read; setting forth, That, in consequence of a rapid decline of trade, and a general stagnation of business, the labouring classes of the Petitioners have been of late subjected to sufferings exceeding in extent and severity any thing of the kind ever known in that part of the kingdom; and that at present, such is the reduced and ruined state of the Cotton Manufacture, with which the evil originated, and with which every other profession uniformly suffers, that, of 30,000 looms, which were all employed in June last, about 15,000 are at present unoccupied, and the weavers wandering in all directions in search of work of any kind, which can rarely be found, while an equal number of women and children, or others, who depended on these chiefly, if not wholly, for employment, are also laid idle; and that even those weavers who are at present employed, owing to an unpre cedented reduction of prices, cannot average more than five shillings per week, after deducting unavoidable expences, sum not sufficient for an individual, and bearing no proportion to the maintenance of a family; and that a common rate of prices for weaving was drawn up and agreed to by the manufacturers there in 1792, which both parties considered fair and reasonable, and though temporary fluctuations in trade sometimes occasioned trifling deviations, yet so long as the said regulations were considered the common standard, so long the Cotton Manufacture flourished; but these were unfortunately broke through, and an irregular mode of payment substituted in their place; disorder of course overran the trade, and an ill-directed parsimony on the part of the several manufacturing individuals ac celerated the mischief, and has at last completed, the ruin irregularity had so unhappily begun;cone manufacturer broke REPORT OF THE BULLION COMMITTEE.] The House having resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House to consider further of the Report of the Bullion Com mittee, Mr. Lushington in the Chair, Mr. Parnell rose and spoke nearly as follows: his prices, and another followed his tioners in general are one third of the example, till, contending with one another whole, entirely destitute of work; and for the cheapest made goods, the conscien- that the petitioners are aware that some tious employer, willing to let his work- of the facts above stated may appear exagmen live by their industry, was at last gerated, but, conscious that the most inforced also to reduce his prices, to secure credible circumstance can be attested by himself a chance in the market; and that any number of witnesses, they are ready to such an alarming extent has this errone- to substantiate them before a Committee ous scheme of reducing the weaver's of the House; and praying the House to wages been carried, that the prices paid take the urgent case of the labouring at present do not amount, in many in- classes of that part of the kingdom into stances, to more than one fourth, and on consideration, and devise such means for a fair average are not equal to one third their relief as may appear best calculated of that paid for the same fabrics twenty- | to afford them employment, and reasona. eight years ago; so that, taking the ad- ble wages." vance on provisions, house and shop rent, Ordered to lie on the Table. and on the implements used by the weaver into the account, the price at present paid for weaving twenty-four yards of some fabrics will not procure more of these necessary articles than the price of three yards of the same fabrics would have procured at the above period, nor what four and a half yards would have paid for in 1792 in this way have the operatives. been reduced to poverty, and in place of their employers being benefited by their loss, unless in a few fortunate instances, it has contributed, perhaps more than any other circumstance, to the general bankruptcy, and the present low state of commercial credit; nor was it possible it could do otherwise, every reduction of wages having a direct tendency to reduce the market, not merely for goods made at reduced prices, but also the value of the whole manufactured stock undisposed of, obliging the speculator who had overreached his capital to sell below prime cost to save his credit; and that the present sweeping calamity, so rapid and destructive in its progress, and which the petitioners are convinced has been brought about, in no small degree, by this system of reduction, though first felt by the Cotton Manufacturers and Weavers, has by no means been confined to their department of trade, the petitioners of every other profession depending in one way or other on the above branch, have all in their turn been involved, and are at present suffering a share of the general distress; a very considerable number of the journeymen house carpenters, cabinet makers, and tailors, are out of employment, while those engaged are generally limited in their working hours; the blacksmiths, masons, and others connected with buildings are also but partially employed even at reduced wages; and the peti Mr. Lushington; Before I proceed to enter upon the subject, immediately before the Committee, I wish to deny the accuracy of the assertion of the noble lord (Castlereagh), "That the Committee whose Report is now under consideration had retroceded from their ori. ginal opinion." Having been a member of that Committee, and well acquainted with the sentiments of those members who sanctioned the Report, I distinctly declare that there has not been among them any retrocession of opinion.I wish also to make some observations upon a charge brought forward against the Committee by the noble lord, a charge which has been repeatedly urged out of doors, "That the Committee were guilty of a great breach of duty in having framed a Report containing doctrines and conclusions diametrically opposite to the evi. dence of all the witnesses, except two, that they called before them." It does not seem to me to be necessary, in order to defend the Committee, to question the accuracy of this assertion, for though it would be easy to shew, that the facts admitted by many of the witnesses, formed a complete refutation of their own doc. trines, I prefer to allow the assertion to stand uncontradicted, and to endeavour to prove that the Committee acted wisely in not suffering themselves to be entirely guided by the opinions given in the evidence. The Committee had a duty imposed on them by the House of this description; to 4 of th If the Committee had examined witnesses, all of whom concurred in opinion with that hon. member, then indeed they might have been exposed to blame, but, in having adopted a course exactly opposite to this, they certainly evinced the greatest candour, and the best proof of their inclination to discharge most faithfully and most impartially the great duty imposed upon them. I now beg permission to say a few words upon the value of the evidence given by that description of persons, whom it is the fashion to extol as so very superior to men of science, I mean those who are called "practical men,' or « men in business." I feel that I tread on very safe grounds, and have the sanction of the highest authorities, when I say that the evidence of persons of this description ought to be received with caution; for if there is one, doctrine more firmly established than another by those who have most studied their character, it is this, that men in business are commonly most ignorant of the science of the particular business which constitutes their profession. decide upon a great and difficult question, in in respect to which, on one side, the principles of a very abstruse science were to be attended to, and on the other the details of the most complicated facts, and the most intricate practices of trade, were to be unravelled. The science of the case they were able to learn from books of established authority; the facts and the practices they could only discover by the examination of those, who by profession were the most conversant with them. They therefore did not call before them men of great learning in the science of political economy, or those who were most competent to give opinions, but those men in business, who in the public estimation, Con were considered to be the best qualified to give that information on matters of fact which was wanting to regulate the extent, to which the principles of science were be applicable, to enable them to form a correct judgment on the case to be decided upon. They did not select witnesses whose I opinions were known to lean to the conclusions that the principles of political economy offered; but they selected those who peculiarly claim the character of being, in the strictest sense, the decided advocates of those inferences which mere practice suggests. In doing so, it seems to me, that the Committee acted in the most correct and impartial manner; that they could not have adopted any course so well calculated to enable them to form a just and safe decision. They almost seemed to declare by so doing, that they were sensible of being liable to be led astray by a leaning in favour of the abstract maxims of science; and that they wished to expose any pre-existing opinions, they might have formed, to the test of the severest trial which they could discover. I therefore think that the conduct of the Committee in examining those only who were mere practical men, which is the cause of the evidence being all one way, so far from being censurable, should secure to them the praise and confidence of the House. If it were an object to have avoided this charge of censure, it would have been easily attained; it was only necessary for the Committee to have followed the example of the Secret Committee of 1797, and to have examined one of their own members, the member for Southwark (Mr. H. Thornton), and in way, they might have given in evidence those sentiments so ably delivered by him in the first night's debate in favour this of the Report. It is certainly true, that among men in business there are to be found those who are eminently distinguished for their scientific acquirements concerning the principles of trade. This fact could not be more fully illustrated than by the great number of practical men, who have so ably treated this subject, but those form an exception to the general rule, for experience shows that the science of the practice of trade, and the science of its principles, are not often found together. There is another reason why the evidence of practical men on this particular subject, should not be held to be infallible. All men in business are interested in preserving the paper system, and preventing a recurrence to the practice of those barbarous times, as they were called by a noble lord (Castlereagh), when the circulating medium consisted of coin. While this was the case all persons in trade were under the necessity of keeping by them considerable sums, at a great loss, to meet the daily demands to which they were subject, and thus the profits of their capital were so far diminished. But in proportion as the paper system has been introduced into general use, and has been extended beyond its natural limits, the accommodation derived from it has enabled them to dispense with keeping those large sums of money idle, and to convert the whole of their capital into direct |