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fuch diffatisfaction exifted in the fleet. The answer was that no fuch appearance had been obferved there, and it was fuppofed tha the petitions had been famed for the purpose he fufpected.

On the morning of the 22d of March, the day after his lordship was able to come to town, one of the lords of the admiralty, fince abfent on fervice, happening to call upon his lordfhip, he related thefe particulars to him, fhewed him the petitions, and fent them the fame day to his houfe in the oflice, that they might be communicated to the firft lord of the admiralty. Of the fubfequent events he had no other knowledge than fuch as was to be obtained from the newspapers. He vindicated the character of the British feamen in general, whom he deferibed as open-hearted and generous, but fometimes too easily miled.

What we have now related may be confidered rather as an irregular converfation than as a debate; but the fubject was more formally introduced in the house of commons by the chancellor of the exchequer, on the 8th of May; but not ill after the mutiny had broken out a fecond time with fill more alarming fymptoms. He faid, he was well aware, that when propofing to increase the public burthens, he fhould be expected to fay fomething of the caufes that led to the augmentation. In the prefent inftance, however, prudence and policy would prevent his entering into any difcuffion; and he cntreated the houfe rather to truft to their filent judgment, then to agitate a fubject, of which the flighteft mifreprefentation might give caufe to the moft alarming effects.

He then proceeded to ftate, that the increase of pay to the different claffes of men would amount to

351,000l. and the increafed eighth in the expenfe of victuziling to 115,000; making 536,000l. for one year. It should, however, be obferv ed, that the estimate of victualling was founded upon an old rate, when provifions were much cheaper than at prefent. What the actual fum wanted would be, he could not fay; but he world take the total fum for nine months, beginning in April, at 372,000l. He therefore moved, that a fum not exceeding 372,000l. be granted to his majcity, to enable him to defray the expenfe of the increafed pay of the feamen and marines, and the full allowance of provifions.

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Mr. Fox faid, that he fhould confider it as a dereliction of his duty, if he gave the filent vote hat was called for. It was not frem difcullion, but from filence, that the prefent mifchief had proceeded. if when it was first known that the feamen were diffatisfied, the Loufe had been confidered as entitled to the confidence of minifters, and the bufinefs had been properly difcuiled, the events of Eafter would not have taken place. Or if immediately after Easter the queftien hadbeen openly agitated,

we should not now be reduced to fuch a fituation. But the feandalous delay of a fortnight, which minifters had interpofed, and for which hoped they would be made to anfwer, feemed to have been purpofely meant to give room for mifreprefentation. After obferving that the idea of fmothering the prefent bufinefs by fecrecy was like filly children who think nobody can fee them when they fhut their eyes; and after advifing the houfe not to confide in minifters at once incapable and criminal, Mr. Fox concluded by ftating directly, that he approved highly of the intended addition, but that he withed to be made acquainted with the

circum

circamftances that rendered it neceflary.

Mr. Pitt faid, that the right hon. gentleman had himself fhewn that there was no need of explanation, fince, while knowing no more than any other man, he declared himfelf ready to vote for the motion.

During the reft of the debate, Metis. Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan, the only fpeakers, went nearly over the fime ground; the former juftifying the delay and declining difcuffion, and the two latter reprobating the affected fecrecy and tardy meatures, of the minifters.

The refolution then paffed, and was ordered to be reported immediately.

The fubject was renewed on the following day by Mr. Whitbread. Confidering the impreffions of men's minds relative to the difturbances at Portsmouth, he rose not to inquire into the causes of that affair, but to press upon the chancellor of the exchequer a queftion which had been diftinctly propofed to him the night before, and to which no anfwer had been given. He then ake 1 why the propofition for the aug dentation of the pay of the feamen had not been moved for before the preceding evening? It might have prevented the difaftrous confequences. Unless a fatisfactory explanation was given of to fatal a delay, for which the honourable gentleman was refponfible to that house and to the country, it was his intention to move a direct vote of cenfure against him.

The chancellor of the exchequer acknowledged that he certainly was refponfible, provided there was any mifconduct imputable to any perfon on the occafion alluded to. He would not then, however, enter into any difcuffion on the fubjet, concerning which he thought

as little as poffible ought to be
faid. He obferved, that, on the
26th of April, the petition of the
feamen was referred to a committee
of the lords of the admiralty.
Their report was made to the king
in council, and, as foon as it was
approved of, directions were imme-
diately given at the proper offices,
to prepare an eftimate of the fum to
which the intended augmentation
in the wages of the feamen would
amount; and as foon as that efti-
mate was ready, it was laid before
the houfe, and the fum was voted. A
From thefe circumftances, there was
no ground to fuppofe that it was
not the intention of the executive
government to propofe fuch mea-
fures as might ferve to fatisfy the
demands of the feamen. He con-
cluded with obferving, that he
fhould propofe a bill to be carried
through all its ftages in the moft
expeditious manner; this he fhould
do as the best way of removing all
doubts as to the executive govern-
ment.

Mr. Fox faid that, after the explanation which had just been given, he could not help obferving that the delay complained of was an intolerable and fatal neglect of duty. In his opinion, minifters were guilty of delay both before and after the fact. The hiftory of the tranfaction was, that in Eafter week complaints had exifted in the fleet, meetings of delegates had taken place, and various other circumftances happened. A letter was written from the admiralty upon the fubject of thefe complaints, which ftamped upon them a character of incapacity the moft flagrant, or want of talents for acting upon a great and difficult crifis, unexampled in the annals of any adminiftration. This letter not having produced any effect, a fecond

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had been fent, with which the feamen were faid to be fatisfied, and on which they were to return to their duty. This tranfaction had taken place on Sunday morning, the 23d of April. Under all the circumftances with which this affair was accompanied, he would fubmit to any impartial mind, whether this was an occafion for tardy forms and official delays?

It was the duty of minifters, after they had recognised the delegates from the feamen, with whom they treated, to have loft no time in completing the promise they had made, and fo to have finished the tranfaction; instead of which they took no step till the 26th of April, three days after the agreement had been made. They waited, it was faid, for the opinion of the council. "Was this the time, faid Mr. Fox, to wait for the opinion of the council, when the active members of administration formed the most efficient part of that council?" The order of council at length appeared on the 3d of May. But it was not till the 8th of May that the propofition was made to the house of

commons.

Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Sheridan fupported the fame arguments, to prove the unneceffary delay of the minifter in this important affair. In fome cafes, they faid, he was famous for celerity: he avoided all delay, and fet afide all forms, in granting the imperial loan; he was fo anxious upon that measure, that he would not wait for three days, although it was notorious that intelligence was expected to arrive which would put that loan out of the queftion.

To thefe accufations the chancellor of the exchequer replied, it was indifferent to him when Mr. Whitbread brought forward his pro

mifed motion, for a cenfure of his conduct on account of delay in this affair. He moved, "That a meffage fhould be fent to the lords, to defire that they would continue fitting for fome time."

Mr.

When the speaker was about to put the queftion, Mr. Fox faid, that the motion of his honourable friend, whenever it fhould be made, would have his warm fupport, if it even went to fuperfede the executive government; for the executive government, as it was then conducted, was an infult to the country. Baker called to order; he thought that nothing could be more out of order nor more dangerous than what he had just heard. Mr. Fox explained. The minifter's motion was agreed to, and Mr. Pybus was ordered to carry up the request to the houfe of lords.

After the refolution of the committee of fupply was read, which paffed the day before, for the augmentation of the pay of the feamen, the chancellor of the exchequer moved for leave to bring in a bill pursuant to the faid refolution. Leave was given to bring in the bill; and it was ordered to be an inftruction to the perfons appointed to bring it in, that they should make provifion in it for granting a full allowance to wounded feamen, and to empower feamen to remit part of their additional allowance for the fupport of their wives, children, or mothers.

As foon as the upper house had agreed to the request of the com mons, the bill was brought in, read a first and fecond time, and paffed through every ftage; and alfo fent to the lords that day, who paffed it through all its stages; when it immediately received the royal affent by commiflion.

The mutiny of the feamen at
Portsmouth

Portsmouth had been appeased but a few weeks, as we have already feen, before another broke out among the fame clafs of men at the Nore, which in magnitude and audacity greatly exceeded the former. On the first of June his majefty fent a meffage to both houfes of parliament, acquainting them, with the deepest concern," that the conduct of the crews of fome of his thips, then at the Nore, in perfifting in the most violent and treasonable acts of mutiny and difobedience, notwithstanding the full extenfion to them of all the benefits which had been accepted with gratitude by the reft of the fleet, and offers of pardon on returning to their duty, had compelled his majefty to call on all his fubjects to give their affiftance in repreffing fuch criminal proceedings. That he had laid before them a copy of a proclamation which he had iffued for that purpofe; and that he recommended it to the confideration of parliament to make more effectual provifion for the prevention and punishment of all traitorous attempts to excite fedition and mutiny in his service, by fea or land."

On the following day, the chancellor of the exchequer moved an addrefs of the commons to his majefty, upon the subject of his moft gracious meffage; and, after a debate of fome length, the addrefs was agreed to nem. con.

The chancellor of the exchequer then moved for leave to bring in a bill for the better prevention and punishment of all attempts to excite Tedition and mutiny in his majefty's fervice; and the attorney-general, having feconded the motion, proceeded to ftate to the houfe the grounds upon which the propofed bill was founded. The frequency and malignancy of attempts to ex

cite mutiny was a fact so notorious, that no reasonable man could refufe his affent to it. His official fituation had enabled him to acquire evidence of the exiftence of the attempts which this measure went to remove. Seditious perfons had at fecret hours circulated handbills of a dangerous tendency, for the purpofe of attracting the notice of the foldiers in the army; these attempts had been connected by a regular and concerted fystem, and were not cafual, or confined to particular fpots, but diffused all over the country, appearing in different and diftant places on the fame day. At Newcastle, at Nottingham, at Maidstone, and various other places, thefe proofs of concert, of fyftem and defign, had been found to occur. Falle and unfounded rumours were echoed and re-echoed, that these attempts had fucceeded in fome inftances, in order, by fuch report, to encourage the attempts in other places with the hopes and example of this fuccefs.

The circumftances recorded in dif, ferent hand-bills were all of them equally falfe: the fame feamen who had been worked upon by handbills, ftating the difaffection and mutiny of their comrades in a different part, were themselves reprefented to thofe comrades as having fet the fame example. The attempts made to feduce the foldiery, he faid, were notorious; and ftrong fufpicion lay, that the like attempts had been made upon the failors fince the melancholy fact of the existence of a mutiny had been proved to that houfe; and it was well known that mutiny was not of native growth among our feamen. The knowledge of fuch attempts, as to the army, was fufficient to autho rife the fuppofition of their existence

with regard to the navy. He then ftated the infufficiency of the exifting laws to punith the offences in queftion. At prefent he faid, to excite a foldier to defert was no more than a common mifdemeanour; but furely, when that incitement was made with an intention to create mutiny and defertion in order to destroy the government, it was as dangerous as the worft fpecies of treafon. The meature which he fuggested was, to put the offene upon the footing of an aggravated mildemeanor, and leave it to the difcretion of judges to punith it with transportation, in the fame manner as was provided by the bill which paffed the year before, for punishing fedition. He confidered the offence, however heinous, as not fo fpecific as treafon.

Mr. ferjeant Adair expreffed his opinion, that the punishment propofed, and the defcription of the offence, were extremely inadequate; and that the propofed punishment was infufficient to prevent fuch cractices. He thought that the title of the bill fhould be," for the more effectual preventing and punishing of attempts to excite mutiny and fedition:" and if fuch was termed the offence to inflict fuch punithment as the law applied in capital cafes. He objected to the offence being called a mifdemeanour, becaufe he conceived that no punishment which could be inflicted for a misdemeanour would be adequate to this offence, which ought to be punished with death. He propofed that the defeription of the offence fhould be felony, in which cafe it would be most easy and expeditious with respect to the trial; and if there thould be any degree of doubt of the guilt of any perfon, the laws applicable to felony would apply. Nothing, in his mind, but the im

preffion of the emergency of affairs could bave induced him to recommend the punishment of death for this offence; a punishment which he thought was already too much multibhed in the ftatute-bocks; and he withed to be unde for d, even in this cafe, that the act the uld be limited as to its duration.

The chancellor of the exchequer obf rved, that he would have the de feription of the bill ftate the general nature of it, and a blank let: for the committee, to be filled up with the punishment. He then moved, that it be read a firft time, which was carried: it was then read a fecond time, and committed to a committee of the whole boufe for the next day.

On that day, upon the motion that the Speaker fhould leave the chair, Mr. Hobhouse obferved, that he would not object to the bill, if three points could be made clear to the houfe. The firit was, that the mutiny among the feamen did not originate from themselves, but arofe from the incitement and feduction of others; the fecond, that the laws, as they now flood, were inadequate to prevent and punish that offence; and the third, that the bill then offered would antwer that purpose. He believed that there might be wicked incendiaries working upon the army and navy, with a defign to make them inftruments for the overthrow of the ftate. The fact of hand-bills being diftributed both in the country and in the metropolis inconteftibly proved, that there was a

band of emiffaries, all acting in concert for that purpofe. But upon the other points he could not agree with the chancellor of the exchequer. He thought the exifting laws adequate to the punishment of the offenders, were they to be put in force. The common law prescribed fix years' imprifomment, and stand

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