ney

The Attorney General replied, that it was owing merely to The Attorthe circumftance of having come down late, that he had not General fhewn the motions to the right honourable gentleman; for he certainly intended to have done it. The right honourable gentleman might have expected fome fuch proceeding as the prefent; for when he was laft in office he had a converfation with him on the subject of his balance; and the right honourable gentleman affured him, that in the courfe of a few months he would be able to collect the money, and pay it all in when the right honourable gentleman had told him this, he pledged his honour to the Houfe. The obligation of the oath he took, when he was fworn into office, compelled him to fee, that as far as in him lay, all the money belonging to the public fhould be paid into the Exchequer with as little delay as poffible. He had found, in the discharge of his duty, much difficulty with respect to the balances of the late Lord Holland, and of the right honourable gentleman. With refpect to the former, he was at this moment at a lofs where to find a representative of him against whom he might proceed. Of the three executors whom that noble Lord had appointed, one only had ever acted, the late Mr. Powell; but by his death, the proceedings against him as Lord Holland's executor had abated; and as the other two executors had not thought proper to prove the will, he was as yet at a lofs for a reprefentative against whom he could proceed. As to the right honourable gentleman, (Mr. Rigby) the fame difficulty did not exist with respect to him. The balances in his hands were great; they amounted at the laft payment made by him. to 200,000l. but inftead of paying them off in a few months as he had promised, he had fince applied to a favourable Board of Treasury, and obtained, in addition, the farther fum of 140,000l.

Mr. Fox faid, that of the three executors appointed by his Mr. Fox. father's will, Lord Digby and himself had never acted as fuch; and fince the death of Powell, neither of them had • proved the will, nor would they as for himself, he was deterred from it, when he faw that the public political conduct of men in that house made them objects of favour or persecution, according to the fide they took in public affairs. He understood that in cafes of this kind it was customary to apply to the nearest relation, when the executors refused to prove a will, and that nearest relation was at liberty to make himself the reprefentative of the deceased, and his acting executor. Now, in this cafe Colonel Fox (his brother) was the nearest relation: but he had not been more than ten days in

I

Mr. Rigby.

in England; no very long time for confultation or deliberation whether he fhould confent to prove the will or not; however he could affure the Houfe that he would on this night or to-morrow determine on that point.

Mr. Rigby denied, in the moft pofitive terms, that he had ever faid he would pay his balances in a few months. Indeed it was impoffible for him to have faid any fuch thing; for every man, who was acquainted with the money matters in this country for fome time past, must know that money could not be got by transfer or fale of fecurities, but to the greateft difadvantage; all that he promised on the fubject was, that he would lofe no time in getting in money; and that he would pay it into the Exchequer with all poffible dispatch. He complained of the extraordinary want of candour in the learned gentleman, in ftating the circumftance of the 140,000l. that he got last year from the Treasury. The Houfe, he made no doubt, imagined, from the manner in which the business was mentioned, that he had now that fum in his hands, together with the outstanding balance of 200,000l. but the fact was, that the very day he received that fum, he paid it away for public fervice. The nature of the Pay Office had hitherto been fuch, that large fums had been issued to it for extraordinaries of the army, which generally remained a long time in the hands of the Paymaster General; in the German war they had accumulated to the amount of 5,000,000l. and in the last war to very near 4,000,000l. This was to pay expences already incurred, and not provided for by Parliament. The debt therefore was contracted before the money was iffued from the Exchequer. The debt for which he had applied for 140,000l. had been contracted while he was in office; but having no longer the public money in in his hands, he got it at the Treafury, and paid it away immediately. He would be very glad at this moment to pay in his balances, but money was fo fcarce, that he could not raife it now, without a heavy lofs. It was well known, that in the prefent ftate of credit, and lowered value of lands, the Court of Chancery would not suffer a mortgage to be foreclofed. It was true, that in the mean time he received the intereft of the balances in his hands; but this was an emolument which all his predeceffors in the Pay Office had enjoyed before him, but he wished not on this account to hold the public money in his hands; fo far was he from wishing it, he would confent to pay interest

for

for it to the public, until he could, at a more favourable opportunity, call in the principal, and pay it into the Exchequer. In the prefent proceeding, he would seem to ask a favour; it was not, he believed, in the nature of the

learned gentleman to grant one. He had not experienced from him that civility which was generally fhewn between man and man; he did not fpeak without grounds. He lately received a note from Mr. Chamberlayne (Solicitor to the Treasury) to inform him, that by order of the Attorney General, a diftringas ad computandum had been iffued against him. The note ftated not the time when the diftringas iffued; but, on enquiry, he found it was in Trinity term laft, and yet he received no notice of it till within these few days. Of the candor and the motives of the learned gentleman he would leave the Houfe to judge; to them he appealed, if any man in his fituation had ever met with fuch treatment from an Attorney General, as he had experienced from the prefent. The obligation of his oath was his excuse; but this obligation was not felt so very forcibly by the learned gentleman fome time ago, when he would not fay, for political reasons, his oath did not force him to proceed as he was now about to do. But this prodigious obligation upon oath, which galled the learned gentleman fo much, was never felt to fuch a degree by the most able, honourable, and learned of his predeceffors. Lords Camden, Thurlow, Loughborough, and the late Mr. Wallace, whofe characters he hoped he might venture to oppose to that of the learned gentleman, never felt that the duty of their oath called for such a mode of proceeding as was that of the learned gentleman.

The Attorney General faid, it was always the practice of The Attor his predeceffors to order a diftringas to iffue regularly twice ney Gen.. a year, in order to put the public accountants in mind of their duty. If he forbore to proceed fooner against the right honourable gentleman, it was in confequence of the promise he had made to pay in his balances in a fhort time.

Lord John Cavendish obferved, that by the operation of Lord John his honourable friend's (Mr. Burke) bill, not one fingle Cavendish, fhilling of balance would in future be in the hands of the Paymaster General, but all would be depofited in the Bank. The motions all paffed without a divifion.

VOL. XIII.

Ff

February

Mr. Alder

ham.

February 24.

The Houfe went into a Committee, Lord Maitland in the chair, on Mr. Dempfter's Naturalization bill, the principal object of which was to declare it to be at this moment the law of this country, that children born out of the British dominions, of British mothers, are entitled to all the rights of natural born fubjects of this country. The preamble stated, that there were doubts on this subject, which this bill was to remove.

Mr. Eden objected to the bill on the ground that no doubts did really exift, and that ill confequences might arife from it.-The bill was loft.

The report from the Committee on the bill for the Receipt-tax act, was brought up and read.

Mr. Alderman Newnham rofe to oppose the motion, man Newn-That the report be read a fecond time," and confequently to defeat the bill if poffible. He faid, that early in the feffion he moved for leave to bring in a bill for repealing the tax entirely; but his motion was negatived. Since that, the present bill was brought in, which, as it was meant to enforce the tax, was very unpopular through the nation. Those who difliked it had conceived that the right honourable gentleman at the head of the Treasury was an enemy to it; there were bills ftuck up at the corners of the streets, which stated he disliked the tax. If this was the cafe, he would now give him a fair opportunity of proving that he was; for if he would rife and fay he was an eneny to the tax, he would vote with the right honourable gentleman against the bill, in obedience to the inftructions of his constituents.

Earl Nugent

Mr. George
Onflow.

Mr.B.WatCon.

Earl Nugent, fo far from concurring in an opinion that the bill ought not to pass, wifhed that the principle of the Receipt tax was carried ftill farther; and he made no doubt but it might be made to produce 1,000,000l. annually, inftead of 260,000l. for which it was originally given.

Mr. George Onflow called upon the right honourable gentleman at the head of the Treafury to declare himfelf an enemy to the tax; and in the thin House that he then faw, there was not a doubt but he would have a majority for rejecting the bill.

Mr. B. Watfon faid he approved of the different regulations that had been made in the Committee; they would be neceffary if the tax was to be continued; but as he

meant

meant to obey the inftructions of his constituents, he would vote against the report generally.

Mr. Eden thought there was no occafion to call upon the Mr. Eden. right honourable gentleman to declare himfelf farther than he had already done; he, or whoever fhould happen to be the Minister of this country, could not look for much popularity, when he knew there were 18,000,000l. of unfunded debts, and 12,000,000l. of navy, victualling, and other bills, which were now at 201 per cent. discount, to be provided for.

Lord North was also of opinion, that the right honour- Ld. North. able gentleman ought not to be called upon to deliver his fentiments on the Receipt tax.; he had already fufficiently declared, that he would fuffer the prefent bill to go on; and confequently he could not be a friend to a repeal of the tax.

cellor of the

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that as the Houfe The Chanhad thought proper to negative a motion for the repeal of Exchequer. the tax, he would fupport a measure that was calculated to render it productive.

ham.

Mr. Alderman Newnham thought it a poor way to court Mr. Alderpopularity, by affecting to be the enemy of a measure man Newnwhich he was in fact fupporting; it was not becoming a great Minister. If the right honourable gentleman was, what he affected to be, an enemy to the tax, he was entitled to the popularity he enjoyed through the fuppofition that he was, but if he was a friend to that tax, as from his conduct he appeared incontrovertibly to be, it was pitiful in him to endeavour to court popularity, by suffering his friends to infinuate to the public that he was an enemy, when in reality he was a friend to a most unpopular tax.

Sir Watkin Lewes spoke against the bill, because it tended Sir Watkin to enforce a tax which was greatly oppreffive, vexatious, Lewes. and unpopular.

The Houfe at last divided on the question for reading the report a fecond time, when there appeared, Ayes, 51; Noes, 12. Majority in favour of the bill, 39.

The report was then read a fecond time, and agreed to by the House, without any alteration.

Mr. Huffey had a claufe received on the report, for making the writer of a receipt furnish the ftamp, but at the fame time for empowering him to charge it in his bill.