HC Deb 23 March 1812 vol 22 cc118-9
General Tarleton

then presented a Petition from the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the town of Liverpool, in common council assembled, setting forth,

"That the Petitioners conceive that the subjects of these realms possess an inherent right to a free intercourse of trade with all other nations and countries in amity with this, subject only to such regulations as may be necessary for preserving a good understanding with those countries, and for securing to our own the revenues derivable from such intercourse; and that the monopoly of the East India Company, however expedient or necessary at the period of their first charter, is, as the Petitioners humbly conceive, in the present slate of commerce and of the world, no longer so; and it is, moreover, inconsistent with those principles which are universally admitted to be essential to the prosperity of commerce; and that every other nation of Europe being, by the signal, success of his Majesty's arm deprived of all territory and influence in the East Indies, as well as of all means of annoyance to the navigation of those seas, an ample field is now open for the exertion of British skill and enterprize, and for the investment of that capital, which is rendered in a great measure useless, in those channels of trade where it has been heretofore employed; and that the Petitioners, as the guardians of the interests of the town of Liverpool, while they lament the distressing suspension of its commerce at this juncture, cannot but indulge a sanguine hope that the era is arrived which presents to the merchants and traders of Liverpool, in common with those of every part of the British empire, new and brighter prospects, in the participation of a traffic from which they have been hitherto excluded; and that the Petitioners disclaim any wish to interfere with the rights of the East India Company, which they apprehend may be maintained inviolate, without the continuation of a system that infringes the privileges of others; and the Petitioners therefore, reposing with entire confidence in the wisdom and justice of the House, humbly entreat that they will be pleased to adopt such measures as may secure to the merchants of the port of Liverpool the advantages of a free trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope."

Ordered to lie upon the table.