i State of Public Affairs in Fanuary, Bor. 
vidence is again us. We are ready to 
admit, that fome benefit may accrue to 
the multitude. from the unwearied la- 
bours of the committees in both houfes. 
It isa melancholy confideration to obferve, 
that, although the poors rates for the laft 
two years have amounted to not lefs than 
4x millions flerling per annum, a fum fu- 
perior to the expences of Government it- 
felf in the begginning of the prefent 
reign 5 yet even this tum, fo exorbitant 
in ittelf, and wrung with fuch extreme dif- 
ficulty from the hands of the people, is 
fo far from being adequate to the demands 
ef the dependent paupers, that many 
parifhes, as ttated in the report we allude 
to, are not able to relieve more than ove- 
enth part of the numbers who apply for 
relief and are in abfolute want of it; and 
that even to this tenth-part, to whom relief 
is diftributed, they are not able to allow 
more than one-fifth of the neceflary aid 
they require; and which even, upon the 
common proportion of allowance to pau- 
pers, is a&tualiy given by parifhes that are 
not quire fo much burdened. Is there a 
human nerve that does not thrill with hor- 
ror at a picture fo fully fubftantiated ? 
Some relief, however, mult be adminifter- 
ed ; and it is now fubmitted to Parliament 
that the magiftrates fliould, by a rate over 
the lefs burdened parifhes, compel them to 
fupport, befides their own poor, thofe 
parifhes in which aétual famine is making 
fuch an inroad. The only mode in which 
it appears to us that effectual and proper 
relief can be given, is to prohibit entirely 
for a limited time the ule of grain by 
horfes, which would at once reduce the 
price of grain to a moderate ftandard. 
The principal bufinefs of Parliament, 
fince our laft Number, till the putting .an 
end to the prefent Seffion by his Majefty 
on the 31ft day of December, has been as 
follows :—On the 17th of December, up- 
en the report of theBill for afcertaining the 
Population of this Country being made, 
Lerd Grenville rofe to make fome objec- 
tions to thofe parts of the Bill which had 
implicated the clergy in making the re- 
turn; this he confidered as highly impro- 
per, not only frem impofing an office upon 
them contrary to the civil, nay the general 
law of the country, but from its being a 
precedent, that it would be unwife and 
impolitic to follow; and upon thofe prin- 
ciples he moved, that all the parts that 
reiated to the clergy being concerned in 
making the return be omitted ; which was 
agreed to. The’ next day the Bill was 
read a third time and pafied. 
Mr. Grey, in the Houfe.of Commons, 
{ Feb. I, 
on the r5thof December, prefented a peti= 
tion from Paul Le Maitre, a prifoner in 
the gaol of Reading, under the fufpenfion 
of the Habeas Corpus. | The petition 
ftated that the {aid Paul Le Maitre had 
been taken into cuftody in the year 1794, 
on a charge of being concerned with cer- 
tain other perfons in a plot to murder the 
King; that after lying eight months in 
priion, he was difcharged on bail; but 
that afterwards, in the year 1706, under. 
ftanding an indi&tment was 3 refh preferred 
againft him, he furrendered himfelf, and 
after four months further. imprifonment, 
was put upon his. triai, but difcharged, 
the Attorney General not having evidence 
toconvicthim, That during his impri- 
fonment he was very ill-treated by the 
gaoler; and, in particular, that Jealous 
the Bow-ftreet officer, who apprehended 
him, declared to his mother, that her fon’s 
life was forfeited, and that the mut not 
expect to fee him move, till fhe faw him at 
the gallows. Toat this declaration fo af- 
fected his mother that the fell ill, and died 
broken-hearted, within two’ months after 
his apprehenfion. That his own health 
had been materially affected and injured 
by the cruel confinement he had under- 
gone, &c. The petition concluded by 
throwing himfelf on the mercy of the 
Houfe, and praying for relief.” On the 
motion, that the petition do lie on the ta- 
ble, the Chancellor of Exchequer oppoled 
the motion, on a ground (certainly irrele 
vant to the nature of the cafe) that it con- 
tained much irrelevant matter, as likewife 
injurious reflections on the Privy Council. 
He was followed on the fame ground by 
the Attorney General, Mr. Simeon, Lord 
Hawkefbury; Sir W. Grant, Mr. Bragge, 
and Mr. Percival. The advocates for re- 
ceiving the petition were, Mr. Grey, Sir 
W. Pulteney,Mr. Jolliffe, Mr. Tierney, and 
Sur F. Burdett. A divifion took place upon 
the queftion, ** That the petition be laid 
on the table."" Ayes 8,—Noes, ig 
On the 17th of December the report of 
the Committee relative to the extenfion of 
the quarantine laws to the iflands of Jer- 
fcy, and Guernfey was received, and a 
Bill to that effeé&t ordered to be brought 
il. ‘ 
On the roth of December, a confiderable 
oppohition was given to a motion madeby — 
Mr. Ryder, founded on the fifth report 
of the Provifion Committee, for advan- 
cing money from_the lift civil to relieve 
poor parifhes, which money is to be repaid 
by.a rate on the parifhes relieved and the 
difiriéts adjacent thereto... The relolution, 
however, was carried in a committee. 
I ii Monday 
3 
