then be put, was refpecting the day for taking the petition juft prefented into confideration.

Mr. Sheridan then moved that it fhould be taken into confideration on Monday the 23d of April. Ordered,

Mr. Sheridan afterwards moved the reading of the order of the day, for taking into confideration, on the 9th of April, the petition of Mr. Hufkiffon.

Mr. Pitt urged, that there had been no regular notice given to move the poftponement of the confideration of this petition, and therefore, at any rate, fuch a motion ought to be delayed. With a view to the confiftency of their proceedings, they ought to adhere to what they had already done unless fome very ftrong reafons were fhewn to the contrary. It was alfo confiftent with the practice of the Houfe, that a double return fhould have the priority in confideration, whilt in this the queftion refpecting that return could not interfere with the question of right. It was wholly uncertain when that question of right would be determined, and, in the mean time, according to the propofition of the hon. Gentleman, the Houfe was to be kept without any Member being there to reprefent the borough of Liskeard.

Mr. Sheridan faid, he had given notice on the preceding day that he intended to move to defer the confideration of Mr. Hufkiffon's petition until after the difcuffion of the petition of right. As to the argument, that thereby the Houfe. might be kept without any reprefentative for Liskeard, he begged leave to obferve, that if the candidate chofe to give notice that he would not defend the double return, Mr. Hufkiffon might be kept out of his feat for fixty days.

Mr. Pit obferved, that if fuch a notice as that mentioned by the hon. Gentleman was given, the Houfe would know how to proceed, but the threat of giving fuch a notice was no argument for deferring the confideration of the petition.

Mr. Burroughs obferved, that the former order was made with the confent of all parties, and it ought not to be refcinded without die notice.

The Secretary at War obferved, that no queftion affecting the right was likely to arife out of the confideration of Mr. Hufkiffon's petition.

The question was then put for reading the order of the day, and negatived.

CAPTURES

CAPTURES AT TOULON.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the order of the day for the Houfe to refolve itself into a Committee of Supply, and that the papers refpecting Lord Hood's claims relative to the captures at Toulon fhould be referred to the faid Committee; which was ordered.

The Houfe having refolved itfelf into a Committee,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, he had to call the attention of the Committee to a fubject, which he could not help thinking required all that indulgence and liberality which they were uniformly accustomed to thew to the exer tions of the British navy, a fubject which connected itfelf with one of the most splendid exertions of our navy during the last war, and related to officers and feamen as meritorious as any in the British fervice. It was impoffible that any one could doubt the merit of the fervice performed by Lord Hood at Toulon. The prefent fubje&t affected the interefts of Lord Hood, Lord Keith, Lord Radftock, and of all the officers and feamen under the command of Lord Hood upon that occafion, who were now living, and the families of thofe who were deceased; all were involved in the confideration of the subject, which he felt it incumbent upon him to fubmit to the Committee. It was not his inten tion to go into any particular detail with refpect to the fur render of Toulon; it would be recollected that the inhabitants of the fouthern part of France, weary of the worst of tyranny that ever degraded the human race, expreffed a with to be placed under the authority of the legitimate heir of their murdered fovereign. In confequence of this, Lord Hood became poffeffed of the town and harbour of Toulon, and of feveral French fhips, which, by a convention, went to be held, in part, for Louis XVII. to whom they were to be re ftored. During the continuance of the war it was obvious that the nature of the terms agreed upon, precluded Lord Hood from claiming any remuneration for himself and the officers and feamen under his command. After the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace, Lord Hood prefented a memorial to his Majefty, claiming a reward for the officers and feamen, on account of the French fhips deftroyed and taken poffeffion of at Toulon, together with their ordnance and ftores. His Majefty was pleafed to refer the memorial to the Privy Council, a Committee of whom took it into confideration. It was the opinion of that Committee, that it

was

was not expedient to grant any remuneration for the ten fail of the line and other veffels which were deftroyed, because it was not the practice to grant remuneration for fhips destroyed at fea, it was only where they were captured that the captors became entitled to prize-money, head-money, &c. The Committee of Privy Council however recommended that a remuneration fhould be given for those fhips which were brought away from Toulon, and afterwards employed in his Majefty's fervice. It was then referred to the Lords of the Admiralty and to the Mafter General of the Ordnance, to report the value of those fhips, and of the ordnance and ftores taken in them. The Lords of the Admiralty reported the value of the thips at 236,7421. and the value of the ordnance and ftores at 28,5941. 14s. 104d. On these reports being received, the Committee of Council recommended the granting of a remuneration to Lord Hood, which was approved of by his Majefty in council, and it was upon this recommendation approved of by his Majefty, that he submitted the propofition for remuneration to the Committee. In confidering this fubject, it should be remembered, that in other inftances the officers and feamen of his Majesty's navy had been favoured in a fimilar manner to that now propofed. At the Helder feveral Dutch hips were taken poffeffion of by Admiral Mitchell, in the name of the Stadtholder; and without detracting from the merit of that fervice, would any man fay that the fervice performed by Lord Hood at Toulon, did not establish at least an equal claim to the gratitude of the country? The ships taken at the Helder were libelled in the court of Admiralty, but never condemned: the. fhips taken by Lord Hood at Toulon had not been libelled; but would any man fay, that if they had, they might not have been condemned? The distinction, however, was immaterial. The value was given for the ships taken at the Helder. Two other inftances were, the hips destroyed by Lord Nelfon at Aboukir, and those deftroyed and taken at Copenhagen, in both which compenfation was given. He only afked that the Houfe would not, in this inftance, take advantage of the want of condemnation, and that they would give the officers and feamen employed at Toulon the value of thofe fhips which they had taken, and which had been employed in his Majefty's fervice. It might be asked, if the claim he now made was fo juft, how had it happened that it was not brought forward fooner. From the nature of the terms agreed upon with refpect to the ships taken poffeflion of, it was evident it could not be brought forward

forward during the war. Afterwards, fome time was taken up in the confideration of the fubject. The reports of the Board of Admiralty and Ordnance were made on the 31st of March and the ift of April last year. There was no neceffity to recal to the recollection of Gentlemen how much ́ Government and Parliament had been employed from the 1st of April to the end of the last feffion. On the 31st of August the Privy Council finally recommended the remuneration, and it was approved of by his Majefty. He did not think it proper to bring forward a fubject of fuch importance in the prefent feffion previous to the Christmas recefs, when the attendance was thin, and afterwards it had been delayed from obvious reafons. He wifhed, however, that whatever blame might be attached to the delay, it might be wholly imputed to him, and that it might not be fuffered to injure the caufe of Lord Hood, or the officers and feamen who were under his command, and who, he trufted, would experience that attention and indulgence which the Houfe were always difpofed to fhew to British officers and British feamen. He concluded by moving, that a fum not exceeding 265,3361. be granted to his Majelty, to be diftributed to the officers and feamen under the command of Lord Hood at the capture of Toulon, being the eftimated value of the fhips and veffels taken poffeffion of upon that occafion, and the ordnance and ftores on board them.

Captain Pierrepont faid that he had arrived at Toulon foon after the event referred to in the motion, and he rose with pleasure to bear teftimony to the high character which Lords Hood and Hotham had obtained upon that occafion. If these gallant officers, and others concerned with them, had loft their lives in that undertaking, he was fure that the Houfe would have had no hesitation in voting that monuments fhould be erected to their memory. Let then (obferved the hon. Member) the motion before the Committee be adopted; and let it not be faid, that while those distinguished and meritorious officers are living, we withhold from them their bread, the juft reward of their fervices, that when dead we give them only a stone.

Mr. John/tene did not conceive the character of the officers alluded to, to be at all involved in the difcuffion of this motion. The question was, whether the application of the right hon. Gentleman was to be confidered on the ground of right or liberality. The right hon. Gentleman had, in the courfe of his fpeech, deduced arguments in fupport of the propofition

from

from both thofe fources; but the subject before the Committee might be reduced to a narrow compafs, namely, whether those ships were or were not prizes. The inclination of his mind was, that as they came into the hands of the officers mentioned, not in confequence of a capture, but of a convention with the people of Toulon, they could not be legally deemed prizes to our navy, who received the furrender; and as we were not able to convey thofe fhips to Louis XVII. for whofe ufe they were transferred to us, the right of property and of difpofing of them vefted, according to law, in his Majefty, and not in those who had obtained poffeffion of them in the first inftance. The remunerations granted to the captors of the Dutch fleet at the Helder, or to those who destroyed, &c. the Danish fleet, at Copenhagen, he maintained had no analogy to the cafe now under confideration, inafmuch as, in the former of the two other inftances, the prizes were fuch as would have been condemned in the court of Admiralty, and in the latter the fhips were actually libelled before an arrangement was made by Government to indemnify the captors. If, however, it should be determined to grant the large fum fpecified in the motion, notwithstanding all the objections to it on the fcore of right, and notwithftanding the present peculiar circumftances of the country, he would put it to the equity of the Houfe, whether the land army employed in this expedition had not an equal title. to prize money with the feamen and marines? Upon every principle he was of opinion that they had a right to a fair proportion. As to the decifion of the cafe altogether, he would much rather fee it referred to the judgment of the learned Gentleman on the treasury bench (Sir Wm. Scott), in his official capacity, than have it brought at all before that House. That learned Gentleman would not, he was pretty confident, determine in favour of the argument which the right hon. Mover had derived from a notion of right upon the part of the perfons to whom this motion alluded; and if it could not be maintained, which he thought it would be a boldnefs. to expect, that thofe officers, &c. could not claim reimburseinent on the ground of right, and that the application was to reft upon liberality, could it be pretended, he would afk, that this fum was not infinitely more than the fervices performed at Toulon entitled the force engaged to look for? Could it be faid, that to accede to it would not be inconfiftent with that œconomy which Minifters had obferved fince they came into office, and for which indeed they had had no example from VOL. II. 1803-4.

Sf

their