92], 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



this country, and the danger of ac- 

 customing the Americans to rely on 

 their own resources, and manufac- 

 ture for themselves. After a long 

 and eloquent harangue on these 

 and other connected subjects, Mr. 

 B. concluded with the following 

 motion : ♦' That an humble ad- 

 dress be presented to his royal high- 

 ness the Prince Regent, representing 

 that this house has for some time 

 past been engaged in an inquiry 

 into the present distressed state of 

 the commerce and manufactures of 

 the country, and the effects of the 

 orders in council issued by his Ma- 

 jesty in the years ]8ii7 and 1809 ; 

 assurfng his Royal Highness that 

 this house will at all times support 

 his Royal Highness to the utmost 

 of its power in maintaining those 

 just maritime rights which have 

 essentially contributed to the pros- 

 perity and honour of the realm — 

 but beseeching his Royiil Highness 

 that he would be graciously pleased 

 to recall or suspend the said orders, 

 and adopt such measures, as may 

 tend to conciliate neutral powers, 

 without sacrificing the rights and 

 dignity of his Majesty's crown." 



Mr. Rose acknowledged that a 

 very considerable degree of dis- 

 tress did exist among our manu- 

 facturers, but would not admit that 

 it was so iiitich owing to the orders 

 in council as the hou, gentleman 

 had represented. He corrected 

 several statements made by him, 

 and showed that the commerce of 

 France had suffered in much great- 

 er proportion from the eflf'ects of 

 these orders. Our shipping inter- 

 est, he asserted, had been benefitted 

 by them, and if they were repeal- 

 ed, the Americans would come in 

 for a large share of our carrying 

 trade, especially to South America. 



Upon the whole, he would not de- 

 ny that our manufacturers were 

 likely to obtain some relief from 

 the repeal, but government was 

 placed between difficulties on both 

 sides, and it was their duty to adopt 

 the measures which would be least 

 detrimental. In his opinion, the 

 preponderance of argument led to 

 the conclusion that the repeal of 

 the orders would be more prejudi- 

 cial than their continuance. The 

 great body of merchants held the 

 same opinion. Four-Hfths of those 

 of Glasgow had petitioned in sup- 

 port of the orders ; those of Bristol 

 were unanimous in their favour; 

 and so were a majority of those of 

 Liverpool : there was no petition 

 from London against them, whilst 

 a great number of London mer- 

 chants had petitioned in their fa- 

 vour. 



Mr. Baring, after a warm eulogy 

 of the enlightened view of the sub- 

 ject taken by the hon. mover, said 

 that the house had two questions 

 to decide : 1. whether these dis- 

 tresses were attiibutable to tlie or- 

 ders in council ? 2. whether any 

 benefits had arisen from them in 

 any .other quarter to compensate 

 for tiiese calamities ? Mr. B. made 

 a numberjof particular observations 

 relative to these two points ; and 

 he concluded with giving it as his 

 conviction, that by our orders in 

 council we lost th^ most substan- 

 tial commercial advantages for an 

 object we could never obtain — that 

 of forcing our trade with the con- 

 tinent. 



Lord Castlereagh began with 

 lamenting the precipitation of the 

 hon. gentleman in bringing for- 

 ward this motion, and pressing to a 

 hasty discussion a question than 

 which none more vital ever came 



before 



