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million and a half, between the revelion and the peace of Paris in 1763, although there is now good realon for believing that it has real ly increased in that interval by 2,000,000. And, ftrange as it may appear, even the beft opinions of modern times, and each of them highly refpectable, estimate our prefent numbers, according to one ftatement, at 8,000,000; and, according to other statements, formed on more extenfive investigation, and (as it appears to me) a more correct train of reafoning, fhewing an increase of one-third in the last forty years, the total number now cannot be less than 11,000,000.

"As to Scotland, that country was eftimated, I ought rather to fay numbered, very accurately in 1755; but it was done by private inquiry; and that process has been fine repeated with great induftry, fhewing alfo a confiderable fubfequent increase, in that country, of about one-fourth within the fame period of time.

"But, in Ireland, where the means of calculation for this purpofe have been more ferviceable even than in England, the public opinion on the queftion, as applied to that country, is, nevertheless, ftill fluctuating to a very confiderable extent. It is plain, therefore, that all thefe inquiries and eftimates proceeding without authority, upon fuch imperfect data, have terminated (as might be expected) in nothing but unfatisfactory conjecture; and different perfons reafoning even upon the fame data, continue to give us very contradictory refults.

"This being fo, it remains for us to decide what should be done by us. Unquestionably, in my opi

nion, we are called upon, by every motive of general policy, and still more by the urgent preffure of our prefent circumstances, to do as other great nations have done, and fubftitute certainty for conjecture, and, inftead of approximation, have the fact.

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It was the policy of the famous De Witt, in his day, to reduce all thefe fundamental points to a certainty; and the merits of his adminiftration, at least for the internal politics of his country, have been allowed by all men. In Holland, this meafure has been again recently executed. In Sweden, a regulation to the fame effect was ellablished fo long ago as the year 1749, and is fill in force. In Spain, a complete cenfus has been twice taken during the prefent reign; viz. in the years 1763 and 1787. America, it was taken in the year 1791; and the united states have again directed the fame process to be carried into execution upon a ftill more extenfive plan. And why fhould this great and powerful country choofe to remain in ignorance of its mofi important concerns, when, by an inftantaneous meafure, it can at once diffipate every doubt?

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"The means and the modes by which we may accomplish this object, appear to be obvious and eafy; and 1 fhould propofe to follow the courfe taken by this houfe in the year 1786, for obtaining information upon a point not foreign to this inquiry, I mean the poor rates. All that will be neceffary, will be to pass a short act, requiring the refident clergy and parifh officers in every parith and townfhip to anfwer fome few plain questions, perhaps four or five, eafy to be underflood, and eafy to be executed, which

fhould

fhould be specified in a schedule to the act, and to return their anfwers to the clerk of the parliament, for the infpection of both houfes of parliament. From fuch materials, it will be eafy (following the precedent of 1787) to form an abstract, exhibiting the refult of the whole. This abstract may, of courfe, fhew not only the total number of inhabitants in the whole and every part of the kingdom, but may alfo fhew the proportion borne by the agricultural cla's to the other claffes of his majesty's fubjects; and by fhewing the increate or diminution of baptifms, burials, and marriages, from the latter of which, I mean the marriages, of which the regifters are much more comprehentive, complete, and important, we fhall have a correct knowledge of what concerns our increafing or decreating demands for fubfiftence. And al though we may find that an increafed population adds to our ftrength in war, it is evident that it requires a vigilant attention to the means of fupporting it.

Sir, let me afk, if parliament had thought fit in antecedent times to adopt this course, and if fuch a refuit as I have defcribed were now before us, fhould we not think fuch knowledge most valuable in difcuffing our plans of prefent and future policy for the fubfiftence of the people? And unless we ourtelves inftitute fuch an inquiry at prefent, we fhall not only forego it for our own lofs, but we shall alfo deprive thofe who are to come after us of the affiftance which they might derive from the pofitive knowledge of our ftate, and ftill more from a fublequent repetition of the fame meafures, and a view of their comparative refult.

"Entertaining these fentiments upon this important fubject, I have thought it my duty, fir, to bring the matter fully and diftinctly before the house; and I shall therefore move for leave to bring in a bill for afcertaining the population of Great Britain.""-This motion, feconded by Mr. Wilberforce, being agreed to, the bill was brought into the houfe on the day after, and, through the ufual flages, carried into a law.

To the urgent bufinefs of providing a fupply of food for the nation, a helping hand was lent by the directors of the East India company; who, with the concurrence and approbation of his majefty's minifters, on the 28th of Auguft, 1800, fent directions to their governments in India to afford every encouragement to individuals to fend rice and other grain to England, engaging that the hips fo employed fhould be allowed to carry out return-cargoes, as had been allowed formerly to country fhips; and, on the 30th of September, in order to encourage as large an importation as poffible, before the next harvest should be got in, they fent further directions to India, authorizing fuch thips as brought three-fourths of their tonnage in rice, to bring alfo fuch other goods as are ufually imported into this country, with an indemnification, in cafe rice fhould be under certain prices here on their arrival. And they afterwards offered to grant licences to any hips, to be fent from this country to the Eaft Indies, for the purpofe of bringing home rice, on very liberal conditions, but under the exprefs ftipulation, that the fhips fhould be cleared out from the cutiom-houfe before the 1ft of Des cember, 1800, or from any port in

the

the Eaft Indies before the 1ft of September, 1801.

But, of all the modes of relief afforded to the poor, or rather the ordinary clafs of the people, that which was adopted by the directors of the bank of England, in their conduct towards their fervants, is entitled to the highest praife, and furnishes an example every way worthy of imitation. They made a very liberal addition to the falaries of their numerous clerks and other fervants. In miniftering to the wants of the people, in the way of donation or charity, there is fomething humiliating to felf-efteem, and fomething, too, that has no indirect tendency to relax indufiry, and weaken

a confidence and pride in felf-exertion. The step taken by the bank was not liable to either imputation. It may be remarked, at the fame time, that the conduct of the bank was no more than juftice. For, if, by their enormous iffue of paper money, they leffen the value of the old guinea, it was fit that they fhould, in fome meature, make up to their fervants that disadvantage.

Having thus given fome accont of the proceedings of parliament re fpecting the fcarcity, we proceed to thofe relating to the other great topic comprehended in his majefty's fpeech; the important queftion of peace or war,

СНАР.

CHA P. II.

Motion in the House of Commons for Papers refpeeling the Evacuation of Egypt-negatived.-Motion for the fame Purpofe in the House of Lords negatived.-Motion in the House of Commons for a feparate Peacenegatived-Motion in the fame for a Difmiffal of his Majefly's Miniflersnegatived.-Navy and Army, and other Eftimates.—Supplies granted for three lunar Months.-Ways and Means.-Army Returns.-Army and Navy Sedition Bill.-Sufpenfion of Habeas Corpus.-Alien Bill.-Prorogation of Parliament.-Proclamation refpecting the Compofition and the Meeting of the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.-New Arrangements required by that great Event.

*

N the 13th of November, 1800, copies of the verepondence between his majefty's minifters and the French government, refpecting overtures towards opening a nego tiation for peace, were prefented to the houfe of lords by the fecretary, lord Grenville, and to the houfe of commons by Mr. fecretary Dundas. On the 18th, as no motion had been made by minifters for taking that correfpondence into confideration,

Mr. T. Jones begged the attention of the house to the fubject of the evacuation of Egypt; a fubject to which he had already called that attention laft feffion, and which had now become, by the incapacity of his majefty's minifters, the bone of contention between England and France, and the ftumbling-block of peace. From the correfpondence on the table, it was evident that

thofe counfels which oppofed the evacuation of Egypt by the invading army, prefented a very ferious obftacle to the conclufion, and even to the negotiation of a peace. Of the two points most infifted on by France, and which operated as, impediments to peace, one was the demand of fending fuccours to Egypt; and it remained for the houfe to inquire, why that difficulty had not been precluded, by accepting the terms of the convention agreed on, by general Kleber and the grand vizier, and guarantied by the fanction of a general officer. Mr. Jones, after fix motions that he had made on the 23d of July, laft feffion, on the fubject of the evacuation of Egypt, were read by the clerk, faid, that the object of his metion this day would be, the production of a letter, on the fubject of which almoft the whole

The fubftance and refult of that correfpondence is given in our laft volume, History of Europe, p. 213: and the correspondence itself in the Appendix.

1

of

of the voluminous correfpondence duty at Cyprus? What was the confequence? Did not eight or nine thousand of our good allies perith in the field? Was not the very exiftence of the Ottoman government threatened at its centre? In Mr. Hammond's letter to lord Grenville, after the conference with Mr. Otto, which letter referred, almoft in every line, to Egypt, there was this particular affertion," Mr. Otto added, that he would not conceal from me, that the reinforcement which France intended to fend to Egypt amounted to 1 200 men, and that the fupply of military ftores confifted chiefly of 10,000 mufkets. The language of Mr. Otto, in this part of our converfation, and of Mr. Talleyrand's letter, appeared to me to be fo decifive, and peremptory, that I was induced to afk of him, diftinctly, whether I was to underftand, that this tipulation was a point from which the French government would not recede? Mr. Otto replied, that, in his opinion, the French government would not recede from it." Mr. Jones having recapitulated the whole of the correfpondence, moved, "That the letter alluded to in general Kleber's letter to the Kaimakan of the fublime Porte, be now laid on the table of that houfe.”

which he held in his hand turned. Having read a number of extracts, for the correfpondence, and particularly lord Grenville's inftruction to Mr. Hammond, for holding a conference with Mr. Otto, on the fubject of the proposed armistice between Great Britain and France, be atked if fir Sidney Smith was not joined with his brother Mr. Spencer Smith, as joint plenipotentiary of Great Britain at the court of Conftantinople? Had he not power to treat at Acre? Did not miniftry know that, in conjunction with the bafhaw Ghezzar, fir Sidney offered to convey the French out of Egypt, individually or in the aggregate? Did his majefty's minitters, previous to January 24, 1800, countermand the orders under which, it was prefumed, he acted from the beginning of May in the preceding year, as if not warranted in his conduct? Did they, to prevent a repetition of fuch conduct, exprefs their anger within the eight following months, or even fome time after he had acceded to the convention? Did not lord Elgin, before and fince the prefent year, inftruct fir Sidney Smith to get the French out of Egypt by all poffible means? Was not the intention of the court of London, not to ratify the original treaty, fent immediately to general Kleber in the firft inftance? Ought it not to have been fent to the French general through fir Sidney Smith? Ought not our ally, the Ottoman Porte, to have had the earlieft notice? And, farther, did not La Conftance galley deliver the letter of lord Keith, firit to Kleber, at Alexandria, and then proceed with the fame inftrucsons to fir Sidney, who was on

Mr. Pitt replied, that it would be hardly poffible for his majefty's minifters to comply with the object of the prefent motion. It would be a very difficult thing for government to undertake for the prodaction of a letter referred to in one from general Kleber to the Kaimakan, even fuppofing the reprefentation given of it to be true, and the defcription of it in the motion proper, which it was not. But the answer he had to give to

the

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