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trusted he had proved, founded on fact, but if, on the contrary, the de ficiencies of the crop of the last year was neither fo great, nor the furplas of that of the preceeding year fo inconfiderable as had been stated; if, on the contrary, there was reafonable ground to believe that there was wheat enough in hand to fupply the country till next harveft, it was difficult to exprefs, in terms fufficiently ftrong, his opinion of thofe who lightly, and without fufficient proof, brought forward to public view the hideous spectre of famine, which they fancied to be approaching, and by founding their boafted trumpet of alarm, proclaim to the people of England, that, as much as they might now fuffer by the high price of bread, they must foon expect to fuffer much more, and probably have none to eat.

The corn and bread committee of the houfe of commons, on the fixth of March, stated to the houfe, that fince their laft report, they had received additional information reSpecting the deficiency of the late crops of grain in many parts of the country, particularly in Scotland; the refult of which had impreffed them with the propriety of fuggefting fuch methods as appeared to them to be moft effectual for diminiting the confumption of corn, for encouraging the importation from abroad, and for bringing into extenfive ufe,fuch fubftitutes as might fupply the place of it. The points to which they called the attention of the house were thefe: first, the expediency of giving a bounty to encourage the importation of corn from the Mediterranean and America fecond, the propriety of individuals reducing the confump'ion

flour in their families; third,

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the propriety of fubiecting millers to fome new regulations: fourth, the adoption of a new table of affize: fifth, the encouragement of the ufe of rice and Indian corn: fixth, the encouragement of the growth of potatoes and other useful vegetables: feventh, the expediency of procuring a conti lerable fupply of food from the fisheries: eighth, the expediency of flipping the diftilleries. It was refolved, by the houfe, to grant bounties on the importation of grain, not only from America and the Mediterranean, but, on the fuggeftion of Mr. Samuel Thornton, from the Baltic; to compel millers to grind the forts of

ur neceflary for making brown bread, at a reasonable rate; to grant bounties to our fisheries; and to take off the duty on the importation of Swedith herrings; and to flop, for a limited time, the distilleries. The miller was to take out an annual licence, which was to be obtained for a fmall fum of money, and infpectors were to be appointed, He was to be bound to grind corn without delay. The price of grinding corn was to be regulated by the juftices. By this bill the poor would be protected, and fecured from much impofition, which, in a great variety of inftances, had taken place, to their great oppreffion. The resolutions of the house of commons, on thefe four points, of encouragement to the importation of grain, and fifh, regulating mills and flopping difiilleries were quickly paffed into laws. As to the relo lution for regulating the price and affize of bread, from which little was to be expected towards the relief of the prefent preflure, it was thought proper, after due confideration, to defer that matter to [K 4] a time

a time when the price of flour fhould be more moderate. A bill for encouraging he cultivation of pota toes on wafte lands, after much confideration of the embarraffiments it must occafion, and even hardships to many of the lower claffes of the people, was thrown o t of the house of commons, after it had been brought into a committee, on the twenty-fourth of March

In the end of February, procla. mations were iffed in Great Britain and Ireland for the importation of grain, free from any duty or impoft, till the end of September next. Though the agreement, propofed by the archbishop of Canterbury, had not been figned by all the lords or commons, the fpirit of it was followed by many who did not fign it, and the effect with which it was followed, in reducing the confumption of bread, was not inconfiderable but a greater effect, we may prefume, was produced by that compulfory economy which, by the enormous price of bread, was univerfally and impreffively inculcated. The other economical measure for making our flock of flour hold out till relief fhould be obtained by importation, or next harveft, viz. the law against felling bread not baked twenty-four hours was quickly found to produce the moft beneficial effects. By a declaration of the mafter, wardens, and court of affiftants of the company of bakers, before the corn and bread committee of the houfe of commons, it appeared, that the confumption of bread, in the metropolis, was reduced, in confequence of that prohibition, at least one-fixth.

On a review of the whole of this calamitous case of the country, and

the conduct of the legislature refpecting it, it appears that the people were patient and fubmiffive to fate, and that the lords and commons, were humane, generous, and paternal. So allo were all the noble and ancient families or gentry, and alfo, a great proportion of those who are wont to hug the riches which they themselves have created, as their only title to confequence and notice in the country. Even profeffed mifers opened their hands liberally on this diftre!sful occafion, and the tenderness of their nature prevailing over the inveteracy of fordid habits, indicated and proved, in a very striking manner, the proverbial humanity and compaffion of Englishmen.

But there were not a few, and these men o' enlightened underftandings, as well as feeling difpo fitions, who, while they acknowledged the philanthropy, and the wildom of parliament, could not help expreffing a degree of wonder, that in an island, abounding with wealth, flourishing in agriculture, commerce, and naval and colonial war, open to the reception of timely aid from all the world, and which could have commanded that aid even by force, if it could not have been invited by gold-there were many, who wondered that, in fuch a country, fo great a proportion of the people fhould be feen, infirm, pallid, and fickly for want of due fuftenance, and forced to abandon their ufual occupations, wandering to foup-establishments, in queft of fubfiftence from alms, inftead of induftry. A late, wet, and unpro mifing harveft threatened want and famine. The parliament had been convened, and was fitting fo late as near the middle of October. Ad miniftration

ministration could have affembled it pro re nata, if it had not been fitting. And the measures, necessary for the public tranquillity and wellbeing, might have been adopted, in due time, without the convention of parliament: yet it was not till February, 1800, that any thing was attempted for the relief of the prefent, or the prevention of a greater preffure.

As it became the bufinefs of parliament, early in the prefent feflion, to confider of means for preferving the people from famine, fo an incident happened that reminded government of the vigilance neceflary against the introduction of peftilence. In the end of 1799, three fhips arrived in the ports of this country, from Mogadore, on the coaft of Africa, with what are cailed foul bills of health, which left that place when the plague raged there with the greatest violence. The goods of thofe fhips being found, on inquiry, to be particularly fufceptible of infection, as well as put on board under the moft fufpicious circumftances, his majefty thought proper, by the advice of his privy council, to order the fhips and cargoes to be deftroyed, in conformity to what had been the ufage in former inftances of the fame nature. This incident, with the meatures by which it had been followed, was communicated, by a mellage, to the house of commons, on the eleventh of February; and his majefty recommended it to the houfe to confider whether any, and what allowance fhould be made to the parties, for the loffes they might have sustained in confequence of the destruction of the fhips and cargoes, Mr. Pitt moved that the matter fhould be referred to the confideration of a felect committee:

obferving that a minute and critical inquiry fhould be made into the motives which induced those ships to fail under fo fufpicious a character: and that, after examining the invoices, fuch reparation fhould be made to the owners, if nothing appeared to criminate their conduct or intentions, as the juftice of the houfe fhould think proper and adequate. The utmost care fhould, at the fame time, be employed to inquire into the motives which prompted fuch hazardous fpeculations.

Sir W. Pulteney faid, he was credibly informed that no plague raged at Mogadore when the goods were fhipped, nor was there any reafon to believe that any danger could poffibly arile from them. But he would not, on that account, resist the propofed inquiry on the contrary, he approved of it, as it would lead to a difcovery whether there were fufficient reafons for deftroying the fhips and goods, and that with fuch precipitation.

Mr. Pitt aflured the worthy baronet, that his information was erroneous, both with regard to the haste with which he fuppofed the fhips to have been deftroyed, and to the reafons for believing that there was no well-grounded apprehenfion of a plague having exifted at the place aliuded to. The matter in queftion had been the fubject of a long and repeated inquiry, and the most eminent of the faculty had given it as their opinion that the precaution thould be ufed that had been reforted to: that the danger of a contagion being spread from the open-· ing and expofing of thofe goods to the air appeared to be imminent in the extreme; for it was well known that two perfons, who had been employed

employed in putting the cargo on board, died before the fucceeding day. He was happy, however, to affure the houfe that no danger of any kind was now to be appre hended from the circumstance. The thanks of the houfe were then voted to this meffage, and a felect committee was ordered to report the fame, with their opinions thereon, to the houfe. In conf quence of a report from that committee, the houfe of commons, in a committee of fupply, on the twenty-third of May, granted, for the latisfaction of parties who had fuffered lofs, by the deftruction of the three hips from Mogadore, the fum of. 41.100'. The fubfequent appear ance of the phgue, at Cadiz, and other parts of Spain, renders it almefi certain, that the precaution of fhms and cargoes, from Mogadore, performing quarantine, was not unnecellary. There are few inftances in which the vigilance, prudence, and juftice of government have been more apparent than in the whole of its conduct in that bufinels.

There was another danger which threated the British nation, not fo great, certainly, as famine or peliilence, but which, in the opinion of not a few of the legiflators, called loudly for timely prevention. This was the increafe of popery, likely to enfue from the continuance, or admiffion of new members into monaftic focieties in England.

On

the motion of fir H. Mildmay, the houfe of commons, on the twentyfecond of May, refolved itfelf into a committee of the whole house, to confider of an act made in the thirty-first year of the reign of his pre

fent majefty, intituled An A to relieve, upon Conditions, and under Reftrictions, the Perfons therein deferibed, from certain penalties and Dilabilities, to which Papifts, or Perfons profeffing the popish Religion, were by Law fubject." Sir H. Mildmay, after expreffing, in the ftrongeft terms, his extreme fatisfaction in the bounty and indul gence that had been fhewn by this country to the French emigrants, doing juffice to the moft regular and peaceable demean r of that unfortunate clafs of men, and what he termed, not unhappily, their most unafuming and most unobtrusive gratitude; and, afo, after difclaiming the contracted and odious fpirit of religious intolerance, obferved, that, as he conceived, it could never be the intention of government to encourage the re-establishment of mo naftic inftitutions in this proteftant country. However it might be to our honour to have fuffered thofe individuals, who had previously bound themselves to a monaftic life, to difcharge, in this country, those vows, from which, in their mind, no human power could release them. fuch indulgence ought to expire with the life of the prefent incumbents. We ought not, in his opi nion, to fuffer the vacancies, which might happen to rife in fuch coni munities, to be filled up by fubjects of this country, actually fince their refidence here, but should, on all grounds, carefully guard against the admiffion of any new members into thofe focieties, whofe firft obliga tion, on entering into them, was fubverfive of thofe laws and liberties, which the wifdom and policy of our ancestors long fince intro

* The Aurora, the Mentor, and the Lark.

duced

duced amongst us. It fell within his own obfervation to know, that in each of the two monaftic focieties eftablished at Winchefter, feveral perfons had been fuffered actually to profefs themselves, and to take both veils, fince their refidence there; and, as he was credibly in formed, a great variety of fimilar inftances might be produced, from different parts of the country, where thole monaftic inftitutions had been permitted to establish themselves, Thefe practices, fir H. Mildmay thought, fhould be checked in the bud, otherwife we might live to lament that the national humanity had been abufed; and that parliament, by voting money for their fubfiftence, had, in fome degree, been made a party to the revival of what seemed to them the most unnatural part of the Romish faith, when it might be too late to extirpate the evils, which the influence of fuch a fyftem might have introduced into the country. Having admitted upwards of five thoufand priefts into this country, of a perfuafion inimical to the religion eftablished by law, and continuing to fubuit there at the public expenfe, it was a duty firongly incumbent upon them to be particularly careful to give no offence to the regular church, and that the interefts of the proteftant communion fhould not fuffer by the excels of their humanity and indulgence. Another fubject, to which he would call the attention of the houfe, was the recent foundation of a great variety of catholic schools, many of which were engrafted on, and under the immediate fuperintendence and influence of, their monastic establishments. This fact had given confiderable alarm and uneafinels to thofe

reverend perfons, whole high fituations in the regular church had placed the interefts of the proteftant communion particular only in their hands. The refolution he meant to propofe was fimilar to a regulation which he understood to have taken place in the year 1763, when the catholic province of Canada was ceded to this country, namely, to place within the protection of the law thofe convents which actually exist, but not to fuffer, on any prétence whatever, the admiffion of any new members into fuch focieties.-Sir H. Mildmay laid, that, in fubmitting this fubject to the attention of parliament, he had complied with the general voice of the public, laity as well as clergy When he added, to the other confiderations he had mentioned, the temptation, he might fav the bribe, which was held out to the public, by educating children, in thofe catholic feminaries, free from any expenfe to their parents. he thought he was not calling on the houfe for any unreasonable interference, when he fuggefted the expediency of revifing and reconfidering the prefent laws, and of adding fuch firength to the arm of the executive power, as might be neceffary to meet the emergence of the prefent moment. The refolutions which he moved, for guarding against the evils to be apprehended from a popifh zeal for making convents, were toefe;

"That it is the opinion of this committee, that the temporary refidence in this kingdom, of certain monaftic, focieties, fhould be permitted, fubject to the provifions of an act palled in the thirty-third year of his prefent majefty, intituled, " An Act for eftablishing Regulations refpecting Aliens arriving in this King

dom,

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