§ The Marquis of Buckingham presented a Petition from a number of inhabitants of the county of Middlesex, against the bill for restricting the quantity of Coals to be brought to London by the Paddington Canal, and for imposing a duty on them. The house having gone into a committee on the bill, the noble marquis stated his objections to it, as tending severely to affect the lower orders.—The coals in question were chiefly used by the bakers, so that any duty on them would necessarily increase the price of bread. Several manufactories, worked by steam, had been erected within the limits of the operation of the bill, (twenty five miles from London,) which must inevitably stop working.—He should be more scrupulous in opposing the measure, if it were one intended as a means of supply to the revenue; but as it was merely a local regulation, he moved that the chairman do leave the chair, with the intention of afterwards proposing, that the bill should be read a third time this day three months.
§ Lord Harrowby defended the bill, contending that it protected the Newcastle trade, which it was well known was of inestimable value to Great Britain, as a nursery for her seamen; and that so far from lessening the quantity of coals to be brought to the London market, it permitted the introduction of what was totally prohibited. The marquis of Buckingham persisting in his motion, the house divided. Contents 13—Non-contents 8—Majority 5. The different clauses of the bill then underwent considerable discussion, in which the marquis of Buckingham, lord Harrowby, the duke of 805 Montrose, the duke of Norfolk, lord Holland, and lord Hawkesbury, participated.—It chiefly related to the mode of conveying to the pit and barge owners, the information, when the limited quantity, (50,000 tons) had passed the boundary, to the duty which the bill appeared to impose on the cinders of sea coal, sent by the canal into the country, as manure, &c. and to the object of which the duties were to be levied. Several amendments proposed by the marquis of Buckingham were at length agreed to be deferred till the third reading, for the purpose of facilitaing the progress of the bill.