The SPEAKER ftated, that a fimilar cafe had occurred about five or fix years ago, wherein the mover of a queftion being defirous to withdraw it, could not do fo, the feconder being abfent. At that time the question was put that the amendment be withdrawn, and the only courfe the Houfe could now take was to put the fame queftion. The Speaker therefore put the queftion that the amendment be withdrawn, which was agreed to. He then put the original addrefs to the vote, and it paffed nemine contradicente. Adjourned till Monday. HOUSE OF LORDS. Monday, November 13. Received from the Commons by Lord Hawkefbury and others, a meffage that the Commons had agreed nem. diff. to the addrefs fent to them by their Lordfhips, without any amendment. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Monday, November 13. At four o'clock the Speaker counted the Houfe, and there being only thirty Members prefent, the Houfe was adjourned of courte till to-morrow. HOUSE OF LORDS. Tuesday, November 14. The Marquis of SALISBURY reported to the Houfe, that His Majelly had been waited upon, to know when he would be pleafed to receive the addrefs of both Houfes of Parliament; an! that His Majefty had appointed to morrow at three o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Tuesday, November 14. Lord HAWKESBURY informed the Houfe, that he had communicated to the Houfe of Lords the affent of this Houfe to their Lordships' addrefs. A meffage from the Lords informed the Houfe, that His Majefty had appointed to-morrow, at three o'clock, to receive the addrefs of both Houses. HOUSE OF LORDS. Wednesday, November 15.. Their Lordships met at half past two o'clock, and went up with the Commons to prefent the following joint unanimous address of both Houfes to His Majefty; "Moft gracious Sovereign, "We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal fubjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament affembled, have taken into our moft ferious confideration the papers which your Majetty's has been pleafed to direct to be laid before us, on the fubject of the negotiation into which your Majefty had entered, with the view of reftoring to your people a fecure and honourable peace. In every stage of that tranfaction we have recognized your Majefty's invariable and unremitted folicitude for our profperity and welfare, while we have feen, on the other hand, the most abundant proofs of the continuance of that spirit of inveterate animofity and defperate ambition, on the part of our enemics, in which the present contest firft originated. Your Majefty's conduct, characterized by an unexampled moderation, opennefs, and confiftency, has left to the enemy no means of evafion, no fubterfuge of dfguife or artifice. It can no longer be denied that their conduct is actuated by a fixed determination of excluding all means of peace, and of purfuing, at all hazards, their hoftile defigns against the happinefs and fafety of thefe kingdoms. Even the vain pretence of pacific difpofitions, is now abandoned, and the real purpofe of all their Councils, and all their measures, is at length openly and publicly avowed. It is to our laws and government that they have declared their irreconcileable hatred. No facrifice will content them but that of our liberty, no conceffion but that of our envied and happy Conftitution. "Under fuch circumftances, we feel the duty which we owe in this great crisis to God, and to our Country. Animated by the fame fentiments which your Majefty has been pleased to declare to your people, and to the world, attached to your Majesty by principle, duty, and gratitude, and fenfible that it is only from courage and firmnefs that we can look either for prefent fafety or permanent peace, we are determined to defend, with unfhaken refolution, your Majefty's Throne, the lives and properties of our fellow fubjects, the government and conftitution of our country, and the honour and independence of the British empire. We know that great exertions are neceffary; we are prepared to make them. And, placing our firm alliance on that divine protection, which has always hitherto been extended to us, we will fupport your Majefty to the utmost, and ftand, or fall, with our religion, laws, and liberties." HOUSE OF COMMONS. Wednesday, November 15. The SECRETARY AT WAR (Mr. Windham) brought up the Army Eftimates, and gave notice, that he should move for taking them into confideration on Monday. The House then proceeded to prefent their address to His Majefty. A little after four, the Houfe being refumed, Mr. SPEAKER reported, that the Houfe had prefented their address to His Majefty; to which His Majefty had been pleafed to return the following gra cious answer: My Lords, and Gentlemen, Nothing could be more fatisfactory to me than this unanimous declaration of the fentiments of my two Hufes of Parliament. They are fuch as the conduct and declared intention of the enemy could not fail to produce. We are engaged in a caufe which is common to us all, and contending for every intereft which a free and independent nation can have to maintain. Under the bleffing of Providence, I look with confidence to the iffie of this great conteft: but in every event my refolution is taken. It is fuch as I owe to God, to my Country, and to myself: and it is confirmed by the fentiments which you have this day declared tò me. I will not be wanting to my people, but will stand, or fall, with them in the defence of our religion, and in the maintenance of the independence, laws, and liberties, of thefe kingdoms. Mr. Chancellor PITT faid, that he rofe in pursuance of a notice which he gave yesterday, to move for a Committee to inquire into the expediency of continuing the restriction upon the Bank. There were, he faid, many obvious circumstances to make a motion neceffary. The avowed policy of our enemy, and other circumstances, rendered this a very important matter. He did not mean to propose a continuance of the act of Parliament upon this subject, without examining what has been the operation of the prefent reftriction. He meant alfo to proceed conformably to precedent, as well as to propofe that the Committee which were formerly ballotted, should be voted to be the Committee upon this occafion, with the exception only of fuch as were not now Members of the House. The House was moved, That the feveral reports which, upon the 3d and 7th days of March and 21ft day of April last, were made from the Committee of Secrecy, who were appointed to examine and state the total amount of outstanding demands on the Bank of England, and likewife of the funds for discharging the fame, and to report the refult thereof to the Houfe, together with their opinion on the neceffity of providing for the confirmation and continuance of measures taken, in pursuance of the Minute of Council, on the 26th day of February, and who were inftructed, on the 9th day of March laft, to inquire into the neceffity of iffuing the Minute of Council of the 26th of February, and to report their opinion to the House concerning fuch neceffity, and what should appear to them to have been the caufes which produced the fame, might be read. And the fame being read accordingly, The House was alfo moved, That an act, made in the laft feffion of Parliament, intituled, "An act for confirming and continuing, for a limited time, the reftriction contained in the Minute of Council of the twenty-fixth of February, one thousand feven hundred and ninety-feven, on payments of cafh by the Bank," might be read; which being done, The House was alfo moved, That another act, made in the laft feffion of Parliament, intituled, "An act to continue, for a limited time, an act, made in this prefent feffion of Parliament, inVOL. IV. Cc tituled 'An act for confirming and continuing, for a limited time, the reftriction contained in the Minute of Council of the twentyfixth day of February, one thoufand feven hundred and ninetyfeven, on payments of cash by theBank,' "under certain regulations and reftrictions," might be read. And the fame was read accordingly. The Houfe was alfo moved, That the entry in the journal of the Houfe, of the 3d day of December, 1781 *, of the proceedings of the House, upon re-appointing the Committee of Secrecy to inquire into the caufes of the war in The Carnatic, and of the condition of the British poffeffions in those parts, might be read. It was then ordered, That a Committee of Secrecy be appointed, to inquire whether it may be expedient farther to continue the reftriction contained in the faid acts on payments in cafh by the Bank. A refolution then paffed, That the number of the faid Committee be fifteen. The Houfe was moved, That the entry in the journal of the Houfe, of the 1ft day of March laft, of the names of the perfons who were reported from the Committee, appointed to examine the lifts of fifteen perfons' names, to be the Committee of Secrecy to examine and state the total amount of outstanding demands on the Bank of England, and likewife of the funds for discharging the fame, and to report the refult thereof to the House, together with their opinion on the neceffity of providing for the confirmation and continuance of measures taken in purfuance of the Minute of Council on the 26th of February, 1797, might be read. The fame was read accordingly; and the names follows, viz. William Huffey, Thomas Berney Bramfton, Charles Bragge, Efquire, are as Ifaac Hawkins Browne, Efquire, and John William Anderson, Efquire. The Houfe was then moved, That the entry in the journal of the Houfe, of the 17th day of July laft, of the order for iffuing a new writ, for the electing of a knight of the fhire, to ferve in this * Vide Commons' Journals, vol. 38, folio 598. |