§ A Petition of several woollen manufacturers, resident in the county of Somerset, was presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners have no desire to infringe the property of the East India Company, or to prevent them from receiving such compensation as the wisdom of parliament shall consider to be due for their mercantile claims; and that, as loyal subjects, taking a deep interest in the fate of their country, the petitioners ardently hope to see the United Kingdom rise triumphant from the contest in which it is engaged; and that the petitioners conceive the present opportunity of discontinuing the commercial monopoly of the East India Company, and of opening the trade of the East to the people of the United Kingdom, is one of the means which Providence has given to the legislature for defeating the attempts of the enemy to impair the commercial prosperity of Great Britain; and that, at the present period, unexampled in history, when Britain has the undisputed empire 1088 of the sea, and the sole possession of the commerce of the East, when the field of enterprize which lies open is too extensive for the management of any company of individuals, when the common enemy despairs of making any impression on the country, except by impeding its commerce, at such a moment, if ever, it appears to the petitioners that all narrow views and commercial jealousies should be abandoned; and they confidently rely on the wisdom of parliament, to form such regulations respecting trade with the East, as, by giving ample scope to British capital and exertion, will most conduce to raise this country to the eminence to which by its situation it is entitled; and that the petitioners beg leave humbly to represent, that the restrictions on the trade to the East proposed by interested persons may possibly be intended to defeat the liberal intentions of the House, and to substitute the shadow for the substance; and that the petitioners, therefore, desire respectfully to express to the House, what they believe to be the wish and the confident expectation of the majority of his Majesty's subjects, that the wisdom of parliament will devise such measures for the future conduct of East India affairs as, without either injustice or undue partiality to the East India Company, will most effectually promote the trade and the prosperity of the kingdom at large."
§ A Petition of the gentlemen, freeholders, manufacturers, and other inhabitants of the borough and neighbourhood of Kidderminster, in the county of Worcester, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That, in the exercise of those inestimable rights with which the constitution of the country has invested them, the petitioners most respectfully approach the House on subjects of the highest importance to their national and individual welfare: in the institution of the authorities of the House, they behold that link which unites them to the throne; and to the House, as representatives of the people, they direct their confidence and expectations; their immediate connection with those whose suffrages have entrusted to the House the preservation of their interests, naturally leads them to look to their sympathy for commiseration, to their wisdom for direction, and to their measures for redress; the petitioners will therefore state, with respectful submission, the circumstances and wishes to which 1089 they would claim the attention of the House, and which, they are persuaded, will be found to prevail in the case of a great majority in every part of the united empire; and that the petitioners, residing in a town and district, than which none in their county ranks higher in manufacturing importance, and but one in population, possess the means of accurately observing the effects of protracted war and restricted commerce; in illustration of these effects, they would submit to the attentive consideration of the House the high price of all the necessaries of life, the multitudes of the labouring classes of the community thrown out of employment, the consequent difficulty, if not impossibility, of their obtaining honestly, and without parochial aid, the means of subsistence, and the too well founded anticipation of consequences, which (by adding to physical moral evils) must prove still more calamitous both to the individual sufferers, and to the country at large; in thus adverting to the peculiar distresses of one particular class, the petitioners would by no means have it inferred that they are the only sufferers; it must be obvious to the House that the unprecedented number of failures and bankruptcies in the higher departments of commercial society, and in all its descending gradations, are immediately owing to the same causes, which in their ultimate but severest operation affect the labourer and mechanic, war (and especially when conducted on the principles of that in which we are at present involved) being more injurious to a commercial nation like our own, than to one which possesses within itself greater physical resources; and the petitioners pray, that the House will do all that in them lies for the attainment of an honourable peace; but if this great and truly desirable object proves at present unattainable, the petitioners will still feel an anxious solicitude (a solicitude which has increased with each succeeding day's experience) that the House should give due attention to the importance of public œconomy, and to the removal of all obstacles in the way of commercial intercourse with neutral nations, excluded as this country is in a great degree from the European and American markets; the necessity is sufficiently obvious of widening every remaining channel for the free employment of the commercial capital of the empire; the petitioners therefore most earnestly intreat the House not to allow of any prolongation to the present term of that great national 1090 grievance, the East India monopoly, but to resolve that, on the principles of a liberal œconomy, the ad vantages of that trade shall be enjoyed by the nation at large, without exclusion or limitation; lastly, before the evils, which now press so severely on the various classes of the community, are extended and multiplied in a degree, from the contemplation of which in its various aspects the mind revolts, the petitioners beseech of the House to investigate the causes, to ascertain effectual means of counteraction, and, from motives of humanity, of policy, of patriotism, and of justice, to administer the appropriate remedies."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.