56 
After some farther conversation, 
the bill passed through the com- 
mittee: but on the question for the 
third reading, 
Lord Folkstone moved, that the 
third reading should be on the 18th 
of February ; this produced another 
debate, in which Mr. Lemon con- 
sidered the bill as an ex post facto 
Jaw, and consequently unjust. 
The chancellor of the exchequer 
replied, that every inquiry must be, 
in the nature of things, ex post facto. 
The object of this bill was not to 
inflict penalties, but to institute 
inquiry. 
Mr, Kinnaird objected to it as 
unconstitutional and unnecessary, 
he thought more places would be 
created by it, and less responsibility 
attached to the board of admiralty. 
Lord Temple supported the mo- 
tion for putting off the third read- 
ing of the bill till after the recess ; 
and thought if the bill was of such 
importance it ought to have been 
brought in earlier in the session. 
Mr, Sheridan supported the bill, 
and in answer to the observation 
that it was an ev post facto measure, 
quoted an expression of Lord Bur- 
leigh, in a similar case of inquiry 
in the reign of queen Elizabeth : 
he said, ‘It is an ex post facto 
law: if you had lost your horse, 
how would you go to find it? Would 
you not go back the way you 
came? So it is now with us; the 
queen has lost her purse, and we 
are going back to seek it the way it 
was lost.” Ile proposed, however, 
an amendment, which was agreed 
to by the chancellor of the ex- 
chequer, that in case the persons 
now nominated, did not accept of 
the appointinent, members of par- 
hament hereafter should be disqua- 
ANNUAL*REGISTER, 
18053. 
lified from holding the office of 
nayal commissioners, 
After some farther conversation, 
and mutual explanations, the bill 
was read a third time and passed. 
In the house of lords, this bili 
was further debated, on the 21st 
and 22d,of December ; but to follow 
the order of time, we think it bet-= 
ter first to present an abstract of 
two important debates which took 
place in the house of lords, on the 
13th and 15th of the same month, 
upon the malt duty bill. On the first 
of those days; when the question 
that the malt duty bill should be 
read a first time, was put, 
Earl Spencer reminded the house, 
that this was the first bill of supply, 
which had been offered to their 
lordships’ consideration, in this first 
parliament which had been called 
since the union; he’ therefore 
thought they should hesitate in let- 
ting it pass a single stage, before 
they had received more information 
as to the state of the country. It 
had been customary atevery former 
period, to lay more precise informa- 
tion before parliament, of the state 
of the country with respect to its 
foreign relations, than had been 
done at the opening of the present 
session. He thought it strange, 
that those ministers who made the 
peace, and had given such strong 
assurances ofits continuance, should 
now demand such a large establish- 
ment, without assigning suflicient 
reasons. He had heard it whisper- 
ed, that it was partly through fear 
ot cfiending France, that the usual 
communications had not been made 
to parliament ; if this were true, 
and ministers had allowed them- 
selves to be influenced by such un- 
worthy considerations, they did not 
deserve 
