An account of the quantity of malt charged with duty in Ireland, for the fame period, with the rate and amount of the duty thereon.

An account of the quantity of ftrong beer, table beer, and fmall beer, charged with duty in Great Britain, for the fame period.

Mr. Whitfhed Keene moved for a lift of public accountants, the procefs against whom had been controlled or prevented under the 39 and 40 Geo. 3. which, after a few obfervations from Mr. Vanfittart, was ordered.

An account was prefented from the Exchequer, of the payments to, and charges on, the confolidated fund, which, together with fome other accounts, were ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.

The ftatute duty bill was read a fecond time, and after a few observations from Mr. Curwen, Mr. G. Vanfittart, Mr. H. Lafcelles, and Lord W. Ruffell, was committed for Friday, with an understanding that it should stand over till after the recefs.

Mr. W. Dundas brought up a bill for laying on an additional duty of two pence Scots, or one-fixth of a penny fterling, on every pint of ale or beer brewed at Dalkeith, in Scotland, the produce to be applied towards paving and cleanfing the streets of Dalkeith. Read a firft, and ordered to be read a second time the next day.

PROPERTY TAX.

Lord Temple faid, the Houfe was aware that he had given notice of a motion relative to the payment of the property tax by fubalterns in the army and militia. Upon looking, however, into the act, he had found feveral cafes ftronger in point of hardship than the cafe of the fubalterns, and he therefore thought he fhould do wrong to bring forward their cafe, without bringing forward the other cafes, of equal or greater hardship. He fhould therefore withdraw his notice, and give a new notice of his intention to bring forward, as foon as poffible after the recefs, a motion upon the fubject, when he should submit to the Houfe the propriety of going into a Committee to confider of altering and modifying certain parts of the property tax act.

VOLUNTEER REGULATIONS BILL.

Mr. Secretary Yorke moved the order of the day for the further confideration of the report of the volunteer bill. The report being taken into further confideration, most of

the

the amendments were gone through, and agreed to without difcuffion.

On the claufe impofing a penalty of 20cl. on commanding officers making falfe returns,

Mr. Calcraft withed that a fimilar penalty might be extended to commanding officers who neglected to make any returns, as thereby a whole corps might lofe their exemp

tions.

Mr. Secretary Yorke faid, he did not know of any objection to fome penalty, but he thought 200l. too large a penalty for. what might happen to be a mere inadvertence. He was of opinion, however, that a clause upon this subject had better be propofed on the third reading.

The provifo in the claufe relating to refignation, which prevented thofe volunteers from religning who had entered into any special engagement to ferve during a particular period, was agreed to be left out.

On the clause respecting the allowances to volunteers on being called out,

Mr. Pitt faid, that as the claufe ftood, the guinea to which each volunteer would be entitled who came out on permanent pay and duty, was to be placed in the hands of the commanding officer to lay out the whole or part, as he, fhould think fit, in neceffaries for the ufe of fuch volunteer. Now, when he first took the liberty of fuggefting to the House the propriety of improving as rapidly as poffible the difcipline of the volunteers, he conceived that the idea of the Houfe was to hold out to each volunteer diftin&tly a bounty for fo doing. It was agreed that many must make great facrifices in coming out on permanent duty, and he did un-, derstand that the principle of giving a bounty to each individual was acceded to. But he could not help thinking that the bounty being difpofed of as provided in the bill, it must operate as an impediment to any encouragement to the volunteers to come out, as the fum to be given would no longer be at the difpofal of the individual to provide for his family out of it dur ing his abfence. The money was thus prevented from becoming, what it ought to be, a fubftitute for his carnings during his abfence. As to purchasing great coats and other neceffaries out of this allowance, it was clear that the volunteers must have thofe neceffaries for taking the field in cafe of emergency, whether they went on permanent duty or not. It was evident, therefore, that in merely holding out this inducement

to them to go on permanent duty for two or three weeks, in order to attain that state of difcipline which was fo neceffary and important, there was not that encouragement which was adequate to the object. If they wanted the advantages which would refult from the volunteers thus coming out.on permanent pay and duty, the only way of inducing them to do fo was to offer a bounty which would be a real fum in the pocket of each individual. It appeared to him that this provifion in the bill was likely, in a great measure, to defeat the object of the claufe. He then adverted to an instruction iffued by Government, recommending that thofe volunteers who had large families likely to become chargeable to their refpective parishes, fhould not be called out on permanent duty. The material object having been to obtain as many volunteer corps as poffible on permanent pay and duty, Parliament had not only propofed to give a bounty for this purpofe, but also to make provifion for the families of volunteers fo coming out, in the fame manner as with refpect to militiamen. If a large proportion of the volunteers had families, and were not, therefore, to be called out on permanent duty with the rest of their corps, it might have a very bad effect upon the force of the country, as, in cafe of their being called out upon actual fervice, when perhaps one-third, or one-half, or two-thirds of a corps had been for three weeks upon permanent duty, and the reft not, the whole might be thrown into confufion from the inferiority of difcipline in the latter. Could any man fuppofe, that for the fake of a contingency of families becoming burdenfome to a parish, those who had families ought to be prevented from attaining difcipline; who having greater ties and clofer connections, would be the more induced to fight for their homes, their altars, and their country? If any preference was given in compofing a volunteer force, it ought to be to thofe having families, as from the nature of the fervice they were required to go only to a fhort distance from their homes, and only for a fhort period, unless called out into actual service. It did appear to him a little fingular, that whilft Parliament were adopting measures for inviting all the volunteers to come out on permanent pay and duty, another fyftem fhould be adopted by Minifters, and that it fhould be required that thefe having families likely to become chargeable to the parifh fhould not be called out. He was of opinion that every volunteer ought to be invited to come out, whether he had a family or not. There was befides

besides a provision made for their families, in the event of their abfence; and at any rate, the claufe in the act and the fyftem adopted by Minifters were utterly inconfiftent.

Mr. Secretary Yorke contended that the guinea ought not to go indifcriminately into the pockets of the volunteers, as, though there might be feveral induftrious men with families, who might with to appropriate the money to the ufe of their families, yet there were others who might probably lay it out in procuring thofe indulgencies which were not very confiftent with the character of a foldier. Many inconveniences might likewife arife from volunteers having the money given to them to spend in a town where there might be other troops. The money befides would of courfe only be laid out in neceffaries, if the volunteer ftood in need of them; if, on the contrary, he came provided with them, the commanding officer might immediately pay the money to him, and at any rate would be accountable to him for it by law. As to the inftruction iffued by Government, it was merely a recommendation to avoid as much as poffible placing on permanent pay and duty thofe volunteers who had families which were likely to become chargeable to the parish. He knew that much inconvenience had arisen last autumn from taking men from their families to a diftance on permanent pay and duty, as they frequently returned with habits not very congenial with industry. The only object of the inftruction, in short, was to inform commanding officers that they were not obliged to take with them on permanent duty every man of their corps, but that they might, and were recommended to leave those behind who had families which would be left without fupport.

Mr. Wilberforce contended, that the fituation in which a volunteer food could by no means be fairly compared to that of a foldier or a militiaman, who were each of them compelled to ferve. The regulation for providing them with necellaries fhould not, therefore, be enforced with the fame rigour. If married men were not to be called out for improvement in difcipline, as well as perfons without wives or children, he thought that the whole force of the volunteer army would be broken up in fragments by the admiffion of different plans for regulating the conduct of two claffes of men, which in fact ought to be confidered as one in the general character of volunteers.

Mr. G. Rofe mentioned two corps in the part of the country in which he lives, one of which has two-thirds of the

amount

amount of its effective force married men; the other has onehalf of its number perfons of the fame defcription. Several of them were in fuch circumstances as made their families feel the inconvenience of their abfence very feverely. He thought it his duty, whenever fuch a cafe came before him as a magiftrate, to grant relief, even though they should not be out of the parish in which they lived, for they might as well be in Devonshire if their families could not afford the lofs of their industry. He would however hope that, if the right hon. Secretary wished to keep fuch a body of men together at all, he would alter his inftructions, and allow them to receive the same difcipline as the other men, as he was well convinced that, not withstanding their confined circumstances, it would wound the feelings of a very great body of men, who might perhaps by that means become entirely difgufted with their fituation.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that if the instructions which had been fo much referred to were mandatory on Lord Lieutenants of counties, or commanders of volunteer corps, they would have furnished the fubject of very grave and folid objection; but his right hon. Friend had fatisfactorily fhewn that they did not bear any fuch conftruction. The difcretion both of the Lord Lieutenants and the commanders of volunteer corps was by no means restricted as to the number of those under their command to be called out on permanent duty. It was merely held out to be a defirable object, that where a whole corps might not be called out at the fame time, those whofe fervices were not in the first inftance to be called for, should confift of individuals who, having large families, would be doubly chargeable on the public. In this arrangement he faw nothing which could afford the flighteft room for cenfure. A great deal had, indeed, been faid of the bad confequences which would refult from this measure, from the inequality of difcipline which it would create. But when Gentlemen urged these arguments, they ought to confider what was the prefent fituation of the volunteers. They had already reached a certain point of difcipline, which would prevent the inconvenience alluded to. They had not their bufinefs to learn, though he would not deny that greater perfection of difcipline was highly defirable. There were many of the most refpectable corps in the kingdom where the whole corps did not go out to drill at the fame period. This was particularly the cafe with the City Light Horse, in which, however, there

was