ripe to come to a decision on a point of so much importance, as that of giving the East India Company notice, that parliament would pay off the 4,200,000l. Before the House attempted that rash step, before the noble lord hazarded his speculation of a new company, the state of the Company's accounts ought to be laid before them, the state of the acquisitions in India, the state of the revenues, and every other paper and document that could enable the House to form an opinion and judge for themselves. He repeatedly asserted, that they were not yet ripe to form any such opinion or any such judgment. It was, he said, the rapacity of the minister to gain a great revenue from America, that had lost us the thirteen colonies. Let that be a warning to the House not to let the revenue mislead them again. Let them regard the East India Company as their friends, as their best commercial allies, and as their brethren. The noble lord talked of the public, and the rights of the public; the East India Company was a part of that public; as dear to the House, and as worthy of their attention, as the noble lord and his speculations of revenue,as any minister who now did or ever had existed. After pursuing the subject with great animation, and in the most glowing terms, Mr. Burke spoke more coolly, and said, he asked pardon if he had been betrayed into too much warmth, but the vast importance of the subject had impressed itself so strongly on his feelings, that it was impossible for him, on hearing such a fatal, such an alarming motion, to speak of it with moderation. He urged the noble lord not to press the motion at present, and concluded with moving the previous question.

Mr. Burke's motion was rejected on a division, by a majority of 142 to 68. The main question being then put for the Speaker to give notice to the East India Company of the payment in three years of their capital stock, it was carried without a division.

MR. DUNNING'S MOTION FOR SECURING THE INDEPENDENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

THE

April 10.

HE House being this day in a committee for taking into further consideration the several Petitions for an Economical Reform, Mr. Dunning, in pursuance of his plan for reducing the influence of the crown, moved the following resolution: "That it is the opinion of this committee, that, for preserving the independence of parliament, and obviating any suspicion of its purity, there be laid before this House, within seven days after the first day of every session, exact accounts, authenticated by the signature of the proper officers, of every sum and sums of money paid in the course of the preceding year, out of the produce of the civil list, or any other branch of the public revenue, to, or to the use of, or in trust for, any member of either House of parliament, by way of pension, salary, or on any other account whatsoever; specifying when and on what account." This resolution being agreed to, Mr. Dunning next moved, "That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is incompatible with the independence of parliament, that persons holding the offices of treasurer of the chamber, treasurer of the household, cofferer of the household and his clerk, comptroller of the household and his clerk, master of the household, and the clerks of the green cloth, be entitled to hold seats in this House, if such places shall be permitted to exist." Mr. Dundas opposed the resolution, and in support of his argument read to the committee copious extracts from Mr. Burke's "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents." If the idea had been suggested to the House by a bill, it would have appeared to him a much fairer way of proceeding, because at the bringing in of such bill, or in any of its subsequent stages, it might, he said, have been coolly discussed, but in the present instance, gentlemen were called on instantly to decide upon an extensive and important proposition, popped out of a member's pocket, and wholly new to those whom it most imme. diately concerned. This mode of taking the House by sur

prize was of itself sufficient to excite his objection to the motion.

Mr. BURKE began with saying, that the learned gentleman's feelings of surprize were of the most extraordinary kind. Surprize to the learned gentleman was preparation. The learned gentleman's speech was the plainest and most direct answer to his argument against being taken by surprize, for though he had known nothing of the motion then under consideration, an invisible agent had conveyed into his pocket a long written extract, which the learned gentleman had thought convenient and applicable. The learned gentleman had descended to steal that from another which was of little worth. He had confessed himself a plagiary — a plagiary too of the most pitiful kind! He had robbed the poor, and taken what could avail him nothing. With regard to the author quoted by the learned gentleman, would any man say that a writer was bound to follow in all cases, and under all circumstances, those arguments which he had thought wise and proper ten years ago, when times and circumstances were excessively different? At that time influence was not carried to the extent to which it had been carried since. The American war had not been commenced. America was not lost to this country by influence. As far, however, as he was acquainted with that author, he would take upon him to assert, that what were his opinions, when he wrote the passages the learned gentleman had cited, were his opinions now, exactly and entirely. The extract had no reference whatever to the point then under discussion; but he would appeal to the committee if his conduct had differed from the doctrines contained in that extract. What was the principal argument of them but this? That a general place bill, tending to disjoint the military and great professional departments from the legislature, and give them separate feelings and separate interests, would not only be a violent but a dangerous innovation on the constitution. Who would now say otherwise? The place-bill at pre

sent proposed was not the sort of measure the extract alluded to.

After arguing this for some time, Mr. Burke went into a defence of the motion as perfectly consonant to his own bill, though it fell somewhat short of it. The clause, however, having been lost, was it to be wondered at, or charged against him as an inconsistency, that he should take up his friend's proposition which came so near to his own meaning? This led him into a defence of his own clause, which the committee, who sat upon it before the holidays, had rejected. He declared it appeared to him that the offices aimed at in his plan of reform, such as the king's cooks, the king's dog-keepers, &c. were much too menial to be held by members of parliament, and therefore he had wished to abolish them. To do those members who held these sort of places justice, it was but fair to say, they had a most gentleman-like ignorance of the duties of the respective offices they filled. From this Mr. Burke returned to a defence of the present motion, and trusted that he and his friends should prove to be linked by a more tough and durable chain, than a rope of sand, by the decision of the question, which he justified from the lord advocate's attack on the ground, "that it would, if carried, do an injury to many an honest man, but not prevent men willing to be corrupted, from being corrupted," by desiring the committee to remember that part of the Lord's Prayer, which says, "lead us not into temptation," and telling them it was their duty to lessen the inducements to members to be corrupted by taking away the means of corruption.

The committee divided: Yeas 215: Noes 213.

N

PUNISHMENT OF THE PILLORY.

April 11.

On the 8th of April, one Read, a coachman, and one Smith, a plaisterer, stood in the pillory, on St. Margaret's-hill, for unnatural practices; the former of whom perishing before the time expired, owing to the severity of the mob, the same was taken notice of in the House of Commons, on the 11th, when

Mr. BURKE rose, and called the attention of the House to a very particular matter. He said, they sat there to make laws for the subject; that the laws which chiefly came under their consideration were laws of civil polity, but those which most claimed their attention and care were, the criminal laws. The first only regarded men's property; criminal laws affected men's lives, a consideration infinitely superior to the former. In making criminal laws, it behoved them materially to consider how they proceeded, to take care wisely and nicely to proportion the punishment, so that it should not exceed the extent of the crime, and to provide that it should be of that kind, which was more calculated to operate as an example and prevent crimes, than to oppress and torment the convicted criminal. If this was not properly attended to in the criminal laws which passed that House, they forced his majesty to violate his coronation oath and commit perjury, because his majesty, when he was crowned, and invested with the executive government, had solemnly sworn to temper justice with mercy, which it was almost impossible for him to do if that House suffered any penal laws to pass on principles repugnant to this idea, and in which justice, rigid justice, was solely attended to, and all sight of mercy lost, and foregone. He said, the matter which had induced him to make these reflections, was the perusal of a melancholy circumstance