deliver my own suspicion, it would be, that they did not so much wish for their services, as for their fines. Dissenters have been appointed to this office, one who was blind, another who was bedridden; not, I suppose, on account of their being fit and able to serve the office. No; they were disabled both by nature and by law. We had a case lately in the courts below, of a person chosen mayor of a corporation, while he was beyond the seas, with his Majesty's troops in America; and they knew him to be so. Did they want him to serve the office? No; it was impossible. But they had a mind to continue the former mayor a year longer, and to have a pretence for setting aside him who was now chosen, on all future occasions, as having been elected before. In the cause before your lordships, the defendant was by law incapable at the time of his pretended election: and it is my firm persuasion, that he was chosen because he was incapable. If he had been capable, he had not been chosen; for they did not want him to serve the office. They chose him, because, without a breach of the law and an usurpation on the crown, he could not serve the office. They chose him, that he might fall under the penalty of their by-law made to serve a particular purpose: in opposition to which, and to avoid the fine thereby imposed, he hath pleaded a legal disability grounded on two acts of parliament. As I am of opinion that his plea is good, I conclude with moving your lordships, That the Judgment be affirmed. The Judgment was immediately af. firmed nem. con., and the entry made in the following words: "It is ordered and adjudged by the Lords spiritual and temporal in parliament assembled, that the Judgment given by the commissioners delegates appointed to hear the errors in a judgment given in the Sheriffs' court, London, and affirmed by the Court of Hustings, reversing the judgment of the Sheriff's court and Court of Hustings, be, and the same is hereby affirmed; and that the record be remitted." Captain Hervey's Speech in the House of Commons on presenting a Petition of the Lieutenants of the Navy.] A Petition of the Lieutenants of his Majesty's Navy being presented to the House, setting forth, among other things, That great numbers of the petitioners being now re duced to half-pay, the amount whereof is so far from being adequate to their situation as officers, that it will not supply them, even singly, with the common necessaries of life; and many of them being charged with families, are particularly labouring under the most mortifying distresses; and therefore beseeching the House to take the same into consideration, and grant them such relief as to the House should seem meet: Captain Harvey stood up and said: The paper which I shall ask leave to present to this House, is on a subject, that, in my opinion, should have been one of our earliest cares; and which, if I had not received repeated assurances of its coming before you in a very different manner, with all that weight, dignity, and authority, I must wish to see it accompanied with, I should have much earlier desired to have laid before you; but as I have lost all hopes of that sort, I cannot help imploring the serious attention of this House for a few moments, to what I think myself obliged, from every sense of feeling, for my king, my country, and the service I have the honour to belong to, to recommend to your compassion as well as to your justice. I am sorry, Sir, this has not an abler conductor; I flatter myself it will not want abler supporters: but as the cause I am now engaged in neither requires art to represent its situation, nor eloquence to enforce its equity, I shall be the less anxious on that head. I know it carries with it the good wishes of every man that I ever conversed with upon the subject without doors. I had reason to hope it carried with it the good wishes of most, if not all, his Majesty's ministers; and I have the satisfaction of knowing it had the good wishes of that great and brave admiral, whom his Majesty has placed at the head of that service which is so much interested in the success of the Petition, I beg leave to open to you, and lay before you. Sir, in the success of this motion, in my poor opinion, is comprehended the very existence of as useful a body of men as any this country has; in whom, in wartime, is lodged the honour and safety of these kingdoms: by whom the honour and safety of these kingdoms have been often preserved; and without whom, neither the beneficial services, nor the great glory this country has reaped, could have been obtained. cers, are too frequent in every county of England, not to be known to every gentle man present, and make it evident, how necessary it is to give them some immediate and effectual relief. After this description, I should scarce think it necessary to tell gentlemen, that I mean the Lieutenants of his Majesty's royal navy, without whose watchful care, constant labour, and intrepid conduct, the fleet could not have proved itself, as it has done, the true defence and support of this country; and yet this very body of men, on whom alone our fleet must depend, with out whom we could have no fleet, at least no active fleet, are now starving (for the major part of them, those that are on half pay) for want of subsistence, hiding themselves, in the most remote corners of the country; some for fear of jails, which their necessities and their misfortunes, not their extravagances nor their faults, have reduced them to be afraid of; others to hide their wants from the world, being ashamed to appear where they cannot support that character, which their long services, great merits, and delicate sense of honour, had justly entitled them to. These, Sir, in a few years, must be all lost to this country; already but too many of them have been obliged to seek, with their families, a settlement in America. Many are reduced to go even as second mates, in merchant ships, to the most distant countries, where the merits of an English officer are too well known for them not to meet with every allurement and seducement for their remaining and consequently for their leaving this country. Others have fixed themselves in trades, to endeavour to maintain their numerous families; and these must also be all lost to the service, on any emergency or sudden call for them. I have no occasion to remind gentlemen when this half-pay was first established, nor has the House time, at present, to let me enter into a comparison of that with the present time. The high price of every necessary of life will sufficiently make that felt by every one; but I must beg leave to appeal to gentlemen's attention and humanity: what an insignificant, insufficient, totally inadequate pittance, is two shillings a day for an officer who bears the King's commission to subsist upon? Is there a footman, is there a stable boy in any gentleman's family, who, from one considera. tion or other, has not more to maintain himself? Sir, it is too melancholy a scene to dwell upon. I could lay before you many distressing scenes, but I will not take up your time, as business of such great consequence is now coming on: but, Sir, I believe scenes of the distresses that are suffered by these brave, deserving offi Sir, it was insinuated the other day, when I gave notice of this motion, that it would open a door to more representations, more claims and solicitations of this kind; that there would be more applications, and that this might be of bad consequence. In the name of God, Sir, are these reasons founded on equity, compassion, or principles of justice? Are such as these to invalidate what I have urged? Shall we be afraid to-day of doing what we know to be an act of justice, lest we should be asked to do another act of justice to morrow? I never heard such reasons in private life; I hope I shall not hear them seriously urged in public life. But, Sir, I will go farther; I will be candid enough to say, that I do not mean to shut the door here: no, Sir, bring me any cases, similar to these I represent to you, and I will give all the assistance I can towards obtaining redress: but, Sir, I would endeavour to avoid all comparisons; they are ever odious: but in this case they are particu larly to be avoided. But let gentlemen recollect that lieutenants in the navy are not, like mushrooms, to be bred in a night: they must be of a certain age before they go to sea; must be six years before they can pass for lieutenants, and many of them many more before they can obtain a commission; and go through very hard service too, before they can be qualified or entitled to a rank that can make them of use. Sir, I take this corps, on a medium, to be upwards of ten years before they are lieutenants; and on the same calculation, they are one and twenty years before they can get on the two shillings and sixpenny list, which consist of the 130 senior. Tell me where the service is that equals this? Sir, I will go no farther; I honour and respect the gentlemen of the land service: I know the value of them, and am happy that I have been often a witness to their great unanimity and cordiality; and therefore whenever their distresses are proved to be as great as those I now represent, I shall be equally zealous in their behalf. I think the necessities of the one may be pleaded, and the principles for redress supported, on principles very different from the other. Sir, I shall say no more at present, but hope for your indulgence to make a reply to any answer I may hear to this. This speech produced an Address to his Majesty, That he would be graciously pleased to take the case of the lieutenants of his Majesty's navy, on half-pay, into consideration, and to make such farther provision for so useful and deserving a corps not exceeding one shilling a day, over and above their present half-pay, as his Majesty in his wisdom shall think fit; and that the House would make good the same. Governor Pownall's Speech on the Bill for Suspending the Assembly of New York.] May 15. Mr. Fuller having reported from the Committee of the whole House, to whom it was referred, to consider of the several papers which had been presented to the House this session of parliament, relating to the North American colonies -several Resolutions, importing, 1. "That it appeared to the committee, that the House of Representatives of his Majesty's province of New York, have, in direct disobedience of the authority of the legislature of Great Britain, refused to make provision for supplying with necessaries his Majesty's troops, in such manner as is required by an act of parliament, made in the 5th year of his Majesty's reign, entitled, An Act to amend and render more effectual, in his Majesty's dominion in America, an Act passed in this present session of parliament, entitled An Act for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters.' 2. That an act of assembly hath been passed in the said province, for furnishing the barracks in the cities of New York and Albany, with firewood and candles, and other necessaries thereinmentioned, for his Majesty's forces, inconsistent with the provisions, and in opposition to the directions of the said act of parliament. 3. That it is the opinion of the Committee, that until provision shall have been made by the said assembly, for furnishing the King's troops, with all the necessaries required by the said act of parliament, the governor, council, and assembly, be respectively restrained and prohibited from passing or assenting to any act of Assembly, for any other purpose whatever;" In consequence of these Resolutions, a motion being made, that a Bill be brought in upon the last of the said Resolutions, Governor Pownall rose and said: Mr. Speaker; having borne so great a share in the service of North America, I hope it will not be thought improper, that I take some share in the present debate. When matters are brought under consideration, the facts and circumstances of which cannot be supposed to be fully known to this House, it becomes the duty of those whose service and station have rendered them duly cognizant of such circumstances and facts, to bear their testimony of the state of things, and to give their opinion of the state of the business also. However clear and distinctly these matters may lie in my own mind, in the strongest form of conviction, yet, being unaccustomed to speak in public, I am afraid I shall be unable so to dispose and explain them, as to exhibit that same distinctness, and to convey the same conviction to others. This being the first time I have presumed to speak in this House, I feel that kind of awe in the presence of it, which every one must feel, who compares the little importance of his own sentiments, with the experience, the knowledge, and the wisdom of so great an assembly; so that, instead of finding myself master of my own sentiments and opinion, I feel as if I had risen only to experience my own insufficiency. But the indulgence of the House gives me encouragement, that they are willing to hear and receive what I can say on this subject. And indeed, it is not only from the situa tion in general in which I stood, and the relation which I have borne to the business of America, which seems to render it proper that I should not give a silent vote upon this occasion; but the particular manner in which I have been concerned in this particular business, does especially call upon me to give my opinion on the matter now under debate. As the present measure, now under consideration, is the proposal of a bill for enforcing an act of parliament, directing and regulating the quartering his Majesty's troops in North America, this matter will be best explained, by a plain narrative of the rise of that act, and by comparing it with the circumstances and nature of the service which it was meant to provide for; and also by comparing it with that province law, which it took (though mistook) for its model on this occasion. It may be remembered, that the commander in chief of the King's forces in North America applied to government to furnish him with sufficient powers, whereby he might quarter the King's troops; and ideas of the necessity of quartering in pri A measure so exceptionable and so alarming, must necessarily meet with opposition in this House. There was an opposition made to it. This opposition gave occasion to the minister of that day to recollect himself. vate houses were suggested by some. A country, as they arise and present themselves Bill was formed on these ideas, and variously in various parts thereof; nor, as brought into this House. they must be perpetually changing from time to time, in the same parts; but directs particular modes, and establishes regulations to particular and special points, which must necessarily be incompatible with the nature of the country, and circumstances of the people in many parts, and on many occasions. It endeavours to lay down general rules, which can never be applied to numberless particular cases that must arise; and, under this spirit of impracticability, it allows no latitude in the execution thereof. And therefore, if there were full and effectual powers to enforce it, such powers could not produce an execution of this law, nor could produce any thing but confusion, so far as respects the law, and an arbitrary quartering of the troops contrary to law; of which, if you have not already had instances, you most certainly will have, whenever this law is attempted to be carried into execution. I had heard accidentally of the state of this business, and thinking (as I did) the measure dangerous, and knowing that it was not necessary, I took the liberty to give this my opinion of it to that minister, and suggested a measure by which this business might have been done, and by which every thing so contrary and discordant to the constitution, might be avoided. I acquainted him, that there had passed, in the province of the Massachuset's bay, whilst I was governor there, An Act for providing quarters for the King's troops,' which as it was adapted to the nature of the country, and to the circumstances of the people, so it was universally submitted to, and (during the war) constantly carried into execution. That, as I had been the author of this measure and knew the effect of it, I was certain, that if that province law (adapted to the stated circumstances of the colonies in general) was made a clause in the act of parliament, allowing to the several provinces and colonies a proper latitude in the execution of it, it would answer every purpose required, could meet with no objection here, and would meet with no opposition in the colonies. I was desired to explain this measure to a certain office; but I am afraid I was so unhappy in the effect of my explanation, as to be totally misapprehended; because I see, that the act of parliament, which the proposed Bill means to enforce, by its errors and defects, has mistaken and perverted every means of carrying the measure into execution; and has, from the tenor of it, been the natural occasion of all the confusion and misconduct which government now complains of. The province law had in it every provision necessary for the carrying it into execution, and was accordingly constantly and invariably executed. If you are determined to enforce this law, you ought, at least, to make it practi-. cable. 1st, Where the act directs, that the troops shall be quartered in barracks, provided for that purpose, you should, at least, direct the manner of that quartering, so that the barracks might answer the purpose thereof; and not first put the people under a kind of compact and agreement to the expence of building barracks; and then, after such are built, leave it in the power of the commanding officer of your troops, to judge, or to say, that these barracks do not answer the purpose of quar tering, and under that decision, to demand quarters either upon the inns or upon hired houses, even before any troops are quartered in such barracks as have been provided for them. 2d. Where the act would mean to direct the quartering of the troops in inns, alehouses, &c. you should, at least, collect the peculiar circumstances of those inns and alehouses in that country, and whether they can answer the demands which the act makes upon them. You should consider, whether the officers which you direct to execute that business, can be required to do what is not practicable, and whether your act has proThe act of parliament has neither any vided any means adequate to the enforcing effectual clause to enforce its execution, nor them to do what they know is incompatimakes any sufficient provision for the ex-ble with the nature and circumstances of pence incurred by the person who shall carry it into execution. It neither considers the various circumstances of the service in that the country to perform. 3d. Where the act directs that uninhabited houses, outhouses, &c. shall be hired for the accom modation and reception of the residue of the troops, and provided with those special and particular articles, which the said act directs; you should at least consider, whether there be any such uninhabited houses, and unoccupied out-houses; and whether your act contains any thing that shall oblige the people to let them; or whether, when they are so hired, they will suit the purpose to which they are intended; or whether the circumstances of the people and country, where this service may be required to be performed, can supply those particular and special articles which you require of them. ing no share in the will, or in the authority, must submit to the power of the act, and have no duty left, but submission and implicit obedience. If parliament, the supreme legislature, shall order and impose a tax on a body of people, and shall order the legislative part of that body to provide for the payment of it, and to see it payed, it must consider the members of that assembly merely as commissioners of taxes, appointed in such case to receive and register the act, to apportion and assess the tax. Yet surely this course is somewhat eccentric to the system of our happy constitution; it approaches, I am afraid, too near to the course taken by the arbitrary and despotic spirit of a neighbouring government, with the parliaments of its several provinces. This publishing the ordinance, this ordering a deliberative body to take it up as an act of its own will, and, as such, to register and carry it into execution, verges surely too near to that point which unites legis When the act requires a service, which (supposing it capable of being executed) engages the person who executes it in an expence, if you mean to enforce that act, you ought to provide effectually for his reimbursement and in this instance, the act which you now propose to inforce, is, in every point of consideration, absurd and impracticable; as it neither provides itself for that reimbursement, nor puts the mat-lation and execution in the same body, to ter in any way of execution, that either can or will provide for it; but, on the contrary, entangles this business in a matter of controversy, which would of itself, if nothing else did, obstruct and stop it. the utter destruction of political liberty. But I hope, and am willing to persuade myself, that I mistake this matter. It is impossible that, by any construction, this can be supposed to be meant; yet there is an use in that suspicion, which takes even a false alarm; as such alarm, when proved to be false, may lead to the conviction of truth. The act of parliament for quartering his Majesty's troops in North America, directs, that the expence incurred by that measure shall be provided for by each respective colony, and raised in like manner, as the usual expences incurred by the province or colony are raised, that is, by an i act of assembly. This was an original error, which did prevent, and must for ever prevent, this act from being carried into actual execution as an act of parlia-if it has the free will to say Aye, it must ment. If it be prudent and advisable, that parliament should charge any expence upon the colonies, by way of tax, originated in this House; how shall it direct that charge to be levied and payed? Shall parliament direct the assembly of any province or colony, to make provision and supply for it? Or shall parliament, directly and avowedly, imposing that sum upon the province or colony as a tax, settle the ways and means of levying it, and appoint executive officers to collect it? Or shall it direct the usual executive officer of the colony to levy and collect that tax so imposed? If the imposing by a direct tax be the proper political mode, the latter step is all regular, and but consequential of itis conformable to law. The people hav If, on the other hand, we consider each of the assemblies of the provinces and colonies as what it is, as a legislative, deliberative body, as the will of that province or colony; it must have a right to deliberate, it must have a right to decide: have the same power of will to say No. You may properly order an executive power to execute; but how, and with what propriety can you order this deliberative body to exert its will only in one prescribed direction? If any supreme and sovereign will shall pre-ordain what this inferior power of deliberation shall will, it will make the same confusion in practice, which the divines and metaphysicians have made in theory, between predestination and free will absolute. If you mean to try this experiment of reducing these absurdities and inconsistencies to practice; if this Bill must pass, and you have not yet pre-determined on the title of it, it seems to me the Bill may justly be entitled, An Act to render more effectual predestination over free will.' For as |