§ A Petition of the merchants, manufacturers, and other inhabitants of the borough and foreign of walsall, was presented and read; setting forth:
§ "That, in consequence of the usual markets upon the continent of Europe be- 249 ing, with a few exceptions, entirely shut against British manufacturers, and of the unfortunate misunderstanding with the United States of America, the trade of the petitioners, in common with that of the kingdom in general, has suffered very severe and distressing privations; and that, when the petitioners call to mind the uniform and pertinacious system of hostility which the ruler of the French nation has manifested towards the commerce of this country, together with the unbounded influence which his arms or intrigues have procured, they cannot but consider the probability of the usual channels of trade being re-opened as very faint and distant; labouring under the privations of a declining trade, and the pressure of a heavy taxation, the petitioners eagerly look for I ward to the adoption of some measures by which new markets may be opened, and the industry and enterprize of the nation be brought into proper action; and the petitioners further presume to represent, that, in order to accomplish this desirable end, the East Indies would afford ample and effectual means, were they not excluded from that immense tract of country by the sweeping monopoly of the East India Company, a monopoly which has produced no benefit to its possessors as a commercial body, nor at all advanced the interests of the British trade in India, since the exports of the Company in English manufactures are trifling and unimportant; and that the petitioners cannot refrain from expressing their regret that they should be the victims of this monopoly, while the subjects of other nations are admitted to reap the advantage of this exclusion; and praying the House to take the premises into their most serious consideration, and to afford relief to the petitioners, either by preventing the renewal of the East India Company's Charter after the termination of its present limit, or to modify it in such way as to the wisdom of the House may seem most conducive to open the trade of the East to the mercantile energy and spirit of the empire at large."
§ A Petition of the mayor and burgesses of the town and county of the town of Nottingham, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners are impressed with the most lively conviction that the trading and manufacturing interests of the British empire are experiencing severe 250 suffering, owing to the system adopted by the present ruler of the French empire, in restricting the commercial intercourse of this kingdom with the continent of Europe, and to the existence of the British Orders in Council, as they affect our commerce with America; and that many thousands of the labouring part of the community, in the immediate district and neighbourhood of the petitioners, have, by these means, been reduced to poverty and distress, and thereby seduced to temporary acts of violence, to restrain which the strong arm of the law has been necessarily exerted in the conviction and punishment of the offenders; and the petitioners entreat that the House will, under these circumstances, take into their most serious consideration the manner in which these distresses have been increased by the monopoly created in favour of the East India Company by that charter which vests in them the exclusive right of trade and navigation to all countries comprehended between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan; and the petitioners request that the House would determine whether it be conformable to the principles of justice and of a liberal and enlightened policy, that whilst access to these regions should be allowed, by the Act of the 37th year of his present majesty to all nations in amity with this country, all the subjects of the British empire, not clothed with the privileges of the East India Company, are excluded there from; and that the petitioners are extremely solicitous that all the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, without distinction, should on the expiration of the present Charter of the East India Company, be admitted to a full participation in the trade to all those extensive territories comprehended in that Charter, the petitioners being of opinion that such a measure would afford employment to many thousands of workmen in the different manufactures of these kingdoms at present reduced to poverty and distress; that it would create an additional nursery for seamen, and prove the means of encreasing the riches, the revenue, and the national prosperity of the British empire; and praying the House to take these premises into their most serious deliberation, in deciding upon the further extension of the Charter to the East India Company, and to grant such relief therein to the subjects of this empire, engaged in trade and commerce, as the nature of the case may appear to the 251 House to require, and as to the House may seem expedient, in a matter of such serious importance to the British empire."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.