The Duke of Norfolkpresented a Petition from certain manufacturers, traders, and others, of the town of Birmingham, against the continuance of the Orders in Council, which was ordered to lie on the table.
Earl Fitzwilliampresented a Petition to the same effect, from the body of merchants, manufacturers, and other loyal inhabitants of the town of Sheffield, in the county of York, and its vicinity. The Petition expressed, in strong language, the opinion of the petitioners respecting these measures, and praying their lordships to adopt such measures as in their wisdom 501 they may deem proper for the purpose of rescinding the same.
The Duke of Norfolktook occasion to observe, that the Petition just presented had received the signatures of more than 14,000 individuals, and urged the propriety of their lordships paying the most serious attention to a subject of such vital importance, and respecting which the sense of such a large portion of their fellow subjects was so decidedly expressed.
Earl Fitzwilliamthen adverted to the notice he had given of a motion respecting the Orders in Council, with reference to the numerous Petitions which crowded the table of the House, setting forth the distresses of the manufacturers in consequence of the operation of these Orders, and moved to discharge the order for summoning their lordships on that motion on Tuesday next, and to renew it for Thursday the 30th instant.
The Earl of Lauderdaleobserved, that the various applications to parliament upon this important subject, strongly expressed the opinions and the feelings of the great body of those most interested in and affected by the measures in question. What they alleged against those ruinous measures was strictly founded in fact, and this he would be the more enabled to prove, were the documents which he should move for on Friday ordered to be produced. The petitioners took a right view of the subject, and he agreed with them, as he was sure that no measures could more effectually aid the enemy than the means afforded by those Orders in Council. They would tend eventually to the creation of a marine for the enemy, and would, instead of diminishing, tend to increase the supplies for those armies with which he subjugated the continent. He conjured their lordships to attend to the subject, when it should, ere long, come under their consideration, as involving points not only vitally affecting the commercial and trading interests, but even the national existence of the country itself.
§ Earl Bathurststrongly contended that a very mistaken and erroneous sense of the nature and effect of the Orders in Council was entertained by those whose opinions were expressed in the language they had just heard read. He would put it to their lordships what would be the inevitable effect of a repeal of the Orders in Council? 502 It would, in fact, be to open the ports of France to importations from the Baltic, from the United States of America, and various other places; it would be to transfer the entire advantages of a traffic to the enemy, which might otherwise direct itself to this country.
The Earl of Lauderdaleinsisted that the petitioners in such a question were the preferable authority.
The Duke of Montrosedeprecated all premature discussion of a subject not before the House. He contended that the opinions of noble lords on his side of the House were intitled to as much attention and respect as those so loudly urged by the noble earl. The line of argument and tone held by noble lords opposite, tended to deceive, instead of informing the manufacturers upon the subject. They represented that the effect of the British Orders in Council was to benefit the trade and the navigation of the enemy, and to divert the tide of commerce from the ports of this island. His conception of those measures was very different. He regarded them as making part of a wise and just system of retaliation against the unprincipled and aggressive conduct of France, providing that where the neutral had not the wisdom or spirit to defend its right, the enemy should not reap the advantage of commerce, nor that the valuable products of the West Indies should be carried into his ports. The number of speeches which were made, nor the clamour which was raised against these measures, did not alter the nature of those Orders, or tend in the least to shew their want of wisdom or justice.