aged as much as possible. Mr Calcraft, in reply, stated, that he wished to call the attention of the Committee on the Poor Laws to the subject of making funded property rateable to the support of the poor, and that he had sanguine hopes that their labours would be attended with the most salutary effects.
petitions for reform.
Mar. 10—Sir R. Ferguson presented a petition from Arbroath, praying for a reform in Parliament. It was not reasonable, he said, to think that the people in Scotland should be content, when they could not but know that Cornwall sent as many members to that House as all Scotland. Mr Brand rose to confirm what had been said by the gallant General, as to the anxiety of the people in Scotland for a reform in Parliament. Mr Boswell observed, there was not a single petition from the landholders of Scotland in favour of parliamentary reform. Lord A. Hamilton asserted, that the voters in that country were not commensurate with the landholders. The Lord Advocate had stated on a former night, and he would repeat "it now, that the people of Scotland, taking those classes of the community who were most capable of forming a judgment on the subject, were nine-tenths of them opposed to any change in the representation of that country in Parliament. After much discussion, the petition was ordered to lie on the table.
ARMY ESTIMATES.
Lord Palmerston called the attention of the House to the Army Estimates, when the following sums were voted, from December 25, 1816, to June 24, 1817:
Ditto for Ireland, - - 15,682 10
Chelsea Hospital, - - 25,000 0
In-pensioners of Kilmainham Hospital, - - 8,300 0
Out-pensioners of Chelsea, 393,200 0
Ditto of Kilmainham, - 82,700 0
The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved for a grant of £1,000,000, to be advanced to the armies who fought at Waterloo. Also the sum of £5,152,000, to make good out-standing Exchequer Bills. Also £1,680,000 for the discharge of Irish Exchequer Bills. And the House resumed.
POLICE IN IRELAND.
Mar. 11.—Mr Peel introduced a bill for the better regulation of the Police in Ireland, which would gradually reduce the military establishment of that country.
WAYS AND MEANS.
Mar. 12.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed that the sum of 18,000,000 be raised by Exchequer Bills. Agreed to.
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.
The Speaker informed the House that he had caused the several petitions to be sorted. The total number presented by the Hon. Baronet, Sir Francis Burdett, was 527, of which 468 were printed. After several were rejected for want of form, and others for impropriety of language, the question was put that the 468 printed petstions should be read, when Lord Castlereagh contended, that the rules and practice of the House were against the entertaining printed petitions. The House divided. Ayes 6; noes 58; majority against receiving the petions 52.
MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.
Mar. 13—Mr Brougham, in a long and elaborate speech, set forth the distresses of the lower classes of the community in fearful colours. The pressure in the cloth trade, great as it is represented, was less than in the other branches. At Birmingham, out of 80,000 souls there were 27,000 paupers, who were formerly able to earn from £2 to £3 a-week, who did not make more at present than from 7s. to 9s., in no instance more than 18s., and their wives and children had no employment at all. In Lancashire there were 500,000 persons engaged in the weaving and spinning trade, who could formerly earn 13s. a-week, but then wages in January last were as low as 4s. 3d., and some inferior workmen so little as 2s. 6d. weekly, for the support of themselves and families, and that many of them were actually reduced to live upon half a pound of oatmeal a-day, with a little salt and water. In Spittalfields and Coventry the distresses were nearly as great He did not attribute this state of things to the change from war to peace (except perhaps at Birmingham), but to our restrictions on trade, our neglect of commercial treaties, and our excessive taxation, and keeping up so large a standing army, which not only prevented the nations on the continent from considering us in the light of a commercial country, but excited such jealousy of our power as incited them co every possible means of injuring our trade. He contended, that if the duties on foreign articles of consumption were greatly reduced, our trade would be much increased, in consequence the revenue would be eventually augmented, and all classes of society benefitted, He concluded with proposing resolutions tending to reprobate the conduct of ministers, and calling upon the House to take the subject into their serious consideration. Mr Robinson replied; and Lord Castlereagh, after stating that commercial treaties were calculated to do more harm than good, moved the orders of the day. The House divided. For going into the orders of the day 118; for the resolutions 63; majority in favour of ministers 55.
NAVY ESTIMATES.
Mar. 14—Sir G. Warrender proposed, that the sum of £1,140,000 be granted for the ordinary service of the navy for six lunar months, from the 1st of January 1817.
SEDITIOUS ASSEMBLIES' BILL.
Upon the third reading of this bill, Mr
