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resident therein, in certain cases, and manufactures of the isle of man, and for improving the revenue thereof.

and for substituting other provisions in lieu thereof.

For repealing the rates and duties of postage upon letters to and from France and the Batavian republic, from and to London, and for granting other rates and duties in lieu thereof; and for exempting from the duty of tonnage the ships and vessels to be employed in conveying the mails of letters from France to the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

To authorize the lord high treasurer or commissioners of the treasury in Great Britain, and the lord high treasurer or commissioners of the treasury in Ireland, to order the use of the hydrometers, now employed in the management of the revenues, to be discontinued, and other instruments to be used instead thereof.

For enabling his majesty to permit the importation and exportation of certain goods and commodities into, and from, the Fort Road harbour in the island of Tortola, until the first day of July 1803, and from thence until six weeks after the commencement of the then next session of parliament.

For authorizing, and rendering valid, the discharge of certain militia men in Ireland, and for giving indemnity to the several counties and places in Ireland which may incur any expense in consequence of the discharge of certain militia

men.

To continue, until the 5th day of July 1803, two acts, made in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of his present majesty, and in the last session of parliament, for the further encouragement of the trade

More effectually to prevent the stealing of deer.

For increasing the rates of subsistence to be paid to innkeepers and others on quartering soldiers.

For extending the provision of two acts of the thirty-fifth and thirty-eighth years of his present majesty, so far as they relate to the encouragerveut of persons coming to Milford Haven for the purpose of carrying on the southern whale fishery.

June 28, 1802.

For granting to his majesty certain sums of money out of the respective consolidated funds of Great Britain and Ireland; for applying certain monies therein mentioned, for the service of the year 1802; and for further appropriating the supplies granted in this session of parliament

For granting to his majesty certain additional duties on goods im→ ported into, and exported from, Ireland.

For defraying the charge of the pay of the militia in Ireland, until the 25th day of March 1803; and for holding courts martial on sergeant-majors, sergeants, corporals, and drummers, for offences committed during the time such militia shall not be embodied.

To suppress certain games and lotteries not authorized by law. Also

Road and bridge bills
Enclosure bills
Building bills

54

28

10

10

Canal and internal navigation bills

METEOR

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STATE

N.B. The quicklver in the bafin of the barometer is 81 feet above the level of low water spring-tide at Somerset-house.

STATE PAPERS.

Message from his Majesty to the House of Commons, 15th February.

G. R.

HIS majesty feels great concern

in acquainting the house, that the provision made by parliament for defraying the expenses of his household and civil government, has been found inadequate to their support.

A considerable debt has in consequence been unavoidably incurred, an account of which he has ordered to be laid before this house.

His majesty relies with confidence on the zeal and affection of his faithful commons, that they will take the same into their early consideration, and adopt such measures as the circumstances may appear to them to require.

Message from his Majesty to the House of Commons, 27th April.

G. R.

IS majesty, being desirous of

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Haines Competent provision interests of my people, throughout

for the honourable support and maintenance of his dearly beloved sons the duke of Sussex and the duke of Cambridge, which the monies applicable to the purpose of his majesty's civil government would be

every part of my dominions.

Gentlemen of the house of

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acknowledgments; and my particu- duous contest in which we have

lar thanks are due for the liberality which you have shown in exonerating my civil government and household from the debts with which they were unavoidably burdened.

Whilst I regret the amount of the supplies which circumstances have rendered necessary, it is a relief to me to contemplate the state of our manufactures, commerce, and revenue, which afford the most decisive and gratifying proofs of the abundance of our internal resources, and of the growing prosperity of the country.

My lords and gentlemen,

As I think it expedient that the election of a new parliament should take place without delay, it is my intention forthwith to give directions for dissolving the present, and for calling a new parliament.

In communicating to you this intention, I cannot suppress those sentiments of entire approbation, with which reflect upon every part of your conduct, since I first met you in this place. The unexampled difficulties of our situation required the utmost efforts of that wisdom and fortitede, which you so eminently displayed in contending with them, and by which they have been so happily surmounted. From your judicious and salutary measures during the last year, my people derived all the relief which could be afforded under one of the severest dispensations of Providence. And it was by the spirit and determination which uniformly animated your councils, aided by the unprecedented exertions of my fleets and armies, and the zealous and cordial cooperation of my people, that I was enabled to prosecute with success, and terminate with honour, the long and ar

been engaged.

The same sense of public duty, the same solicitude for the welfare of your country, will, now, in your individual characters, induce you to encourage, by all the means in your power, the cultivation and improvement of the advantages of peace.

My endeavours will never be wanting to preserve the blessings, by which we are so eminently distinguished, and to prove that the prosperity and happiness of all classes of may faithful subjects are the objects which are always the nearest to my heart.

Lords Protest against the passing of the Malt Bill. (Vide Debates.)

BE

Dissentient,

ECAUSE the constitutional argument which was urged for suspending the grant of any supply, until the accustomed communication had been made from the crown to parliament, rests on two propositions drawn from the law and usage of parliament, and from the very essence of the British constitution. First, that no grant of supply can in any case be made to the crown, except in consequence of a previous demand for aid; and, secondly, that such demand must not only describe the general services for which the aid is asked, but must also specify whether those services are calculated on an expectation of peace, or of war, or of preparation for war. These two propositions have been invariably adopted in the practice of our constitution. No instance has yet been alleged in which they have ever been violated, except in the present case, and their maintenance is essential to

the

the discharge of all our most important duties. If parliament can alone decide upon the amount of the supply to be granted, it is obvious that parliament must be informed of the extent and nature of the services which that supply is to defray; a question which must always essentially depend on the probability or certainty of peace or war. For the solution of this question we are now referred to public notoriety alone. We answer, that the constitution of our country entitles us to more authentic information; that such is the course which the law and usage of parliament have established, and that, unless the uniform practice of our ancestors be adhered to in this respect, we can neither satisfactorily regulate our own conduct, nor judge as we ought of the measures of government. But we deny that any notoriety as to the point in question does in fact exist, The dangers of the country are indeed sufficiently notorious, but parliament is yet to learn by what system of conduct the king's government proposes to avert or to encounter those dangers. The determinations of the ministers, as far as we know them, have been uncertain and fluctuating, their councils undecided, their measures inconsistent, and their language contradictory. We are called upon to provide for an establishment large beyond all former example; but we have not yet been distinctly told, not even in debate, much less in the constitutional way of communication from the throne, what is the purpose for which it is intended to provide; whether this be a peace establishment calculated to last until the power of France be reduced or her ambition satiated; or whether it be a measure of temporary prepa

ration which is to apply to some adtual pressure, or to support some depending negotiation; or, lastly, whether it be intended to meet the imminent danger of immediate war, and to resist the continued growth of that power which hourly threatens our own destruction. In this situation, yielding to no men in duty, loyalty, and attachment to the crown, and feeling more anxious for the immediate adoption of all practicable means of defence, in proportion as our sense of the impending danger is greater, we are still desirous that some short interval and pause should take place before the final grant of any supply; though we desire that such interval should be no more than will be sufficient to enable his majesty to show to us the same gracious confidence which his majesty and his royal ancestors have reposed in all preceding parliaments, and to place us in a situation in which we may, without violating the constitution of our country, cheerfully concur in granting to his majesty all such aids as the present exigency of affairs does, in our opinion, peculi arly demand.

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