Parliamentary Register; OR, HISTORY OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS; CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF The most interesting SPEECHES and MOTIONS; accurate DURING ΤΗΣ THIRD SESSION of the FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. VOL. VII. FLONDON: Printed for J. ALMON, oppofite BURLINGTON-HOUSE, in PICCADILLY. MDCCLXXVII. HISTORY OF THE PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES Of the THIRD SESSION of the HOUSE of COMMONS. OF THE Fourteenth Parliament of Great-Britain February 26. THE Houfe in committee on importing lumber, from the Baltic. For the refolutions agreed to by the com mittee, fee page 274. Adjourned to the 28th. February 28. Private business. Adjourned to the 3d of March. Bills paffed. Adjourned to the 7th. March 7. Private business. Adjourned to the 11th. March 11. Hon. Temple Luttrell (in confequence of having given no- Honourable tice fome days ago) moved to bring in a bill, for manning the Temple Lustnavy in times of war, &c. It is a fundamental maxim, he faid, with the excellent writer on the fpirit of laws, that when any law is proposed which indicates more good than evil to a state, such law ought to be received. The unconftitutional effects, the oppreffion, and inefficacy of the prefent mode of levying men for the navy by an imprefs, are but too fenfibly felt by the whole nation. A valuable fea-officer [Governor Johnstone] who is a diftinguished ornament to this legiflature, and whofe private and public character do real honour to human nature, having formerly treated of the practice of impreffing, fays, "It difgraces government, fhocks the spirit of our conftituVOL. VII. A tion, rell. tion, and violates the laws of humanity; therefore every plan to obviate the evil, has a claim to a patient hearing and candid difcuffion."---That worthy member's remarks muft, I am fure, ftrike every body, who duly confiders them, as juft and forcible. Is it not an abominable fight, in a free country like ours, to have a number of failors, with fire-arms and cutiaffes, frequently, in the dead of night, fometimes intoxicated with liquor, making their way into the dwellings of peaceable inhabitants, dragging a fober, unoffending fubject from his home and fettled means of livelihood, to convey him on board an imprefs tender, from thence to a guard-fhip, imprifoned amidst the moral and phyfical contagion of a mifcellaneous, kidnapped crew, to be driven across the feas, no mortal can tell him where, nor for how long a time; and what is ftill worse, feized by furprize, not fuffered to bid a kind farewel to his wife and family, nor have thought of their future fubfiftence, when deprived of his care; to adopt a new way of life, perhaps that for which his limbs and faculties are the worst calculated and fashioned by his Creator? And, Sir, is it not a serious matter of reproach to this wife, this liberal nation, never yet to have provided a remedy for fuch dreadful and extenfive fufferings? What tumults, fear, and confufion arife in every city, town, and village, within ten or twelve miles of a prefs-gang! and what numberlefs inconveniences to all conditions of perfons throughout Great Britain! In 1770, the Lord Mayor of London reprefented to the board of admiralty, that the city of London was fo infested with prefs-gangs, that tradefinen and fervants were prevented from following their lawful bufinefs. A gentleman in Yorkshire, of rank and veracity, (who was formerly a member of this Houfe) fends me word, that fuch is at this time the general apprehenfion in that part of England from a prefs-gang at Tadcafter, that the labourers on his eftate are difperfed abroad like a covey of partridges; neither could half of them be brought back to their work, till the fteward had given them affurance of his mafter's protection; ftill it feems they are afraid to return to their own homes at night, and therefore conftantly beg leave to fleep upon ftraw in the ftables and outhoufes of their landlord. In the weft of England, the public are now fo prejudiced by prefs-gangs, that I have read a letter from Exeter, dated February 24, which obferves, that there had been no fifh in their town for upwards of a fortnight---a circumftance fcarce known within the memory of man; and another correfpondent of mine paints the miferies of of the neighbouring coafts, in as ftrong colours as if there were famine, peftilence, or fome other awful and almost preternatural visitation of Providence---markets deferted, the price of the most urgent neceffaries of life thereby greatly enhanced, and numbers of families among the inferior claffes of mankind, from the infecurity of the mafters of those families, by whofe toil and induftry they had long been maintained in comfort, reduced at once to the verge of poverty and wretchedness! How fhamefully has this unconstitutional licence of the impress been abufed at the town of Leicester, where men, the moft unfit in every respect for the sea service, were kidnapped, collared with iron, and manacled with cords. or fetters, fent up to London, in the basket of the stage-coach, (as I understand) under command of a ferjeant of militia, in violation of the moft facred laws of your conftitution,--with an heavy local expence, and to no better end than to have them at length put at large, as totally incapable of the errand they set out upon! The animofities within this very metropolis of your empire, on the fubject of impreffing men for the navy, and the law-fuits depending thereupon in the courts of Westminster-hall, muft occafion, as well to government as to people in general, much embarrassment and apprehenfion. În feveral of the ports along the north-east coast of England, you have actually fubfifting, a dangerous commotion among large bodies of fea-faring perfons, occafioned by many lawless proceedings of the prefs-gang, and every day's poft brings fome new detail of innocent lives loft, or limbs broken in that quarter.---Sir, there have been lately no less than one hundred and twenty men preffed, without diftinction, in or about Bethnal-green and Spital-fields, of which between feventy and eighty, after fuffering every hardship, and leaving their families diftreffed at home, obtained a difcharge, as of no ufe to the fervice.---Having already curforily touched on fome of the calamities and unconftitutional outrages affecting those manufacturers, mechanics, and hufbandmen, who never exercifed, nor had in contemplation, the trade of a feaman, I muft next take a fhort view of your cruelty towards mariners by profeffion. They are not only liable to the fame inhuman violence and furprize with landfmen, but when feized on board trading veffels for the purpofe of ferving his Majefty, are often impofed upon by fraudulent or imperfect bills, on account of wages due to them for paft hire in the trader's employ. The lives of many brave officers and their followers have been facrificed, or they VOL. VII. B have |