GENERAL HISTORY. 



[9 



House to weigh well the'nature of 

 a measure which went to prohibit 

 the intercourse between the two 

 islands forming tiie united king- 

 dom ; and he referred to the 6th 

 article of tlie Union, b}' which it 

 was declared that no bounty or 

 prohibition should exist between 

 the two kingdoms. He lamented 

 tliat the general intere^ts of Ire- 

 land were so neglected in that 

 House; and observed, that at the 

 time of tlie Union it was alleged 

 that the benefits resulting to Ire- 

 land from an exportation of the 

 products of its distilleries to Great 

 Britain would be one of the chief 

 advantages resulting from that 

 measure, but, after various suspen- 

 sions, it was now proposedfto pro- 

 hibit such exportations, so long as 

 the prohibition of distillation from 

 grain was continued here. 



Mr. Sinclair then submitted to 

 the House some observations, on the 

 subject, so far as the measure 

 affected Scotland, and contended 

 that the prohibition of distilling 

 from grain would be very injurious 

 to the agriculture and landed in- 

 terest of that country. 



Sir Geo. Gierke proposed to in- 

 troduce a clause into the bill for 

 preventing the English distillers 

 from defrauding the revenue, on 

 the ground that they drew more 

 spirits from a quantity of sugar- 

 wash than the calculation by which 

 they were charged. 



TheChancelloroflhe Exchequer 

 said, that the matter alluded to by 

 the honourable baronet had been a 

 subject of long and deliberate re- 

 flection, and he thought it unwise 

 to embarrass a temporary system 

 without full consideration. He 

 assured Mr. Sinclair, that he bad 

 received more applications from 



Scotland for the adoption of the 

 prohibitory measure, than from 

 any other part of the united king- 

 dom. He replied to sir J. New- 

 port, by observing that the Sus- 

 pension bill had been enacted for 

 the purpose of relieving Ireland ; 

 and that while the English market 

 was restrained from the supply of 

 spirits distilled at home iVoni grain, 

 it would not be right to suffer it to 

 be affected by an importation of 

 such spirits from a country where 

 the prohibition was not in force. 



Mr. Hutchinson spoke with 

 warmth on the injustice done to 

 Ireland by the various attempts to 

 deprive her of the advantages ex- 

 pected from the Union. 



The amendments made in the 

 committee were then agreed to, 

 and the clause proposed by sir G. 

 Gierke was negatived. 



On the motion for the third 

 reading of the bill, Mr. Hutchin- 

 son rose to enter his solemn pro- 

 test against that clause which had 

 for its object the suspension of the 

 intercourse between England and 

 Ireland, which he charged with 

 being in direct violation of the 

 solemn compact entered into be- 

 tween the two countries, and he 

 called upon the chancellor of the 

 exchequer to assign his reasons for 

 venturing upon such a breach. He 

 was replied to by Mr. W. Fitzge- 

 rald, who affirmed that those in- 

 terested in the manufactures, agri- 

 culture, and revenues of Ireland, 

 considered this bill as a most im- 

 portant benefit; and he asked if 

 the honourable gentleman would 

 wish that the provisions of the 

 whole bill should be extended to 

 Ireland i 



Lord Folkestone affirmed that 

 the last speaker had advanced no- 

 thing 



