§ A Petition of the chamber of commerce and manufactures of the city of Edinburgh, was presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That it hath been represented to the petitioners, in their corporate capacity, that in the present limited state of the commerce and manufactures of this country, owing to the continental restrictions laid thereon of late, the trading and manufacturing interests of Great Britain and Ireland have suffered greatly; and that many thousands of workmen employed in our manufactures are reduced to a state of poverty and idleness, without there being any immediate prospect of their being soon restored to their former situation; and that, by the act of 33 Geo. 3, c. 52, the East India Company are vested in the exclusive right of trade and navigation to all those countries comprehended between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, containing a population of many millions of inhabitants; and that, although all the rest of his Majesty's subjects are thus excluded from trading to any of those extensive territories, yet, by the act of 37 Geo. 3, c. 57, the same is allowed to the subjects of all foreign nations in amity with his Majesty; and that the East India Company are not known to have hitherto traded to many of these extensive countries, their own settlements and China excepted; and that the private trade to the settlements of the East India Company, under the regulations of the year 1793, is laid under so many restraints as tend to deter many people, especially those who are at present unacquainted with India, and who reside at home, from engaging in it, while foreigners, who pay no part of the heavy taxes imposed on the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, are entirely relieved from the restraint of these regulations, by which means they are enabled not only successfully to combat the exertions of the private traders from this country to India under the regulations of 1793, but also to compete with the East India Company itself, both in the east, and on the continent of Europe; and that, were the trade to the countries lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan laid open to the industry, exertion, and enterprize of the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland at large, it would afford employment to many thou- 337 sands of workmen employed in the manufactures of this kingdom, who are at present reduced to a state of idleness and consequent poverty; it would create an additional nursery for seamen, a set of men who have, especially of late years, eminently contributed to sustain the consequence, perhaps even the political existence of this kingdom, and would, at the same time, prove the means of adding to the riches, the revenue, and the national prosperity of the British empire; and praying the House to take the premises into consideration, and to grant such relief as to the House may seem necessary, in a matter of such great national concern; also to allow the petitioners to be heard, by themselves or their counsel, at the Bar of the House, in support of the objects of this Petition."