ries, was not finished till half after ten o'clock, when the committee rofe, and adjourned. Monday, June 6, Mr. Burke mov'ed an amendment relative to establishing the boundaries of New-York, which alone took up four hours in difcuffion; and after being altered, amended, and added, was carried. The next clause which met with an oppofition was that which annexes the Labrador coaft to the Government of Quebec. Sir Charles Saunders condemned it in the strongest terins, and Mr. Sollicitor General propofed an amendment. The question being put on the amended claufe, the Committee divided, ayes 88, noes 49. Tuesday, June 7.] The Houfe, went into the refumed Committee on the Quebec Bill. The fecond enacting clause of the bill being read, which revokes all laws and ordinances made for the settlement of the province fince 1764, and ordains that they fhall ceafe and determine on the ft of May, 1774, Mr. Burke rofe and moved, that that part of the clause should be left out. He was feconded by Gov. Johnston. A debate now ensued which continued till paft nine o'clock, when the Committee divided, ayes 91, noes 31, that the claufe fhould ftand. They then proceeded to the third enacting claufe relative to the eftablishment of the Romith religion, and the provifion to be made for the clergy of that perfuafion; it underwent a difcuffion which continued till near twelve o'clock, when it was carried without a divifion, A motion was then made for adjournment, but, the friends of the bill infifting to go on, a debate arofe, and the Committee divided; for proceeding 75, against it 31. Several of the moft ftrenuous oppofers of the bill now quitted the Houfe, and the Committee proceeded with very little interruption through the two next clauses, the 4th and 5th but Lord North, at length perceiving the great impropriety of fuch a procedure, moved to adjourn. Wednesday, June 8.] The House went into the refumed Committee on the Quebec regulating bill. The time of the Committee was moftly spent, for the first two hours, in commenting on the very extraordinary conduct of the promoters of the bill, by entering into the confideration of the most important claufe at twelve o'clock at night, and when they had already fat full nine hours. The Gentlemen on the other fide defended themfelves, faying, that the general principle of the bill, as well as the feveral claufes, had been before fully and repeatedly confidered; and that if its oppofers had any material amendment to offer, they might do it on the report. In the course of this converfation, Colonel Barre and Mr. Burke were pointedly fevere on Lord North; the latter in particular. When this altercation was finished, in which his Lordship, with the aid of Meff. Jenkinson, Ellis, Stanley, and Mr. Sollicitor General, made as good a defence as fuch a caufe would well bear, they proceeded with the remaining claufes, to which they made fome trifling amendments, and added two or three other claufes of no great confequence. To clofe this farce, juft as the Committee were preparing to rife, Mr. W. Burke came in, and perhaps, imagining that the rules, orders, and folemn mode of proceeding, formerly current in that House, might be as well violated in point of mere form and decorum, as in matters of real confequence, did not fail to treat them in the manner Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, used to treat his antagonists, or those he would endeavour to perfuade or bring over to his own opinion; in fhort, Mr. B. though he did not call names, very plainly told them, that their conduct was fcandalous and difgraceful, and that their ignorance could only be equalled by their want of candour; with a good deal more to that purport.-The Committee rose at ten, the House at a quarter paft ten o'clock. Friday, June 10.] Sir Charles Whitworth reported the Quebec government bill. As foon as the feveral amendments and claufes propofed in the Committee were read and agreed to, Mr. Mackworth offered to bring up a claufe for providing for a trial by jury, at the option of either or both of the parties. The claufe was then prefented and read, which produced a debate which continued till ten o'clock, when the House divided, ayes 41, noes 83. Mr. T. Townshend then proposed a claufe to make it a temporary bill, and to limit its duration to seven years. This produced a fhort debate; but it paffed in the negative without a divifion. Mr. Mr. Dempfter next propofed three claufes, one for giving notice of all laws to be paffed, and the other two of the fame tendency; and, the queftion being put on them, they likewise paffed in the negative. Mr. C. Fox propofed a claufe to fecure to the religious orders their rights and properties, as a corporate body claiming under the capitulation, which fhared the fame fate with the preceding. Laftly, when all the claufes were rejected or agreed to, and the Speaker was reading over the bill, Mr. Dempfter moved, that a claufe fhould be inferted, that the Canadians fhould, on claiming it, have a right to the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act. A divifion was the confequence of this motion, when the numbers were 76 noes, 21 ayes. Monday, June 13.] Mr. Cooper moved, that the bill for making more effectual provifion for the government of Quebec might be read a third time, which, as foon as finifhed, the Speaker put the question, that the faid bill do now pass. Mr. C. Fox oppofed this, on the ground of its being a money bill, and having originated in the other Houfe; he moved, therefore, that the Journals of the House of Commons of the 5th of March, 1677, might be read; and, the fame being read accordingly, it appeared, that they had rejected a bill from the Lords, for the purpose of collecting cuftomary tythes and other dues. He then argued from this precedent, as a cafe exactly applicable, and in point, to the claufe in the bill, which provides for the fecurity of the accustomed rights and dues of the Romish Clergy; and appealed to the fenfe of the House if the prefent bill, under fuch circumftances, were permitted to pafs, whether it would not be, in fact, a relinquishment of the antient and hitherto undifputed right of the Houfe of Commons to originate a money-bill. He was answered by Mr. Cooper, who quoted another precedent from the journals in the year 1691, on the bill for the recovery of fmall tythes, in which the Lord; had made an amendment. Mr. Howard, in a very fenfible speech, obferved, that Mr. Cooper's precedent did not apply, nor that he knew of but one in the whole records of Parliament that did, which was in the reign of Edward the Sixth, on which the learned Bishop who wrote the History of the Reformation remarked, that it was a direct infringment on the rights and privileges of the Reformation. Mr. C. Fox, besides his general obfervations in refpect to the matter immediately under confideration, put the Noble Lord on the Treasury-Bench in mind, that his former apology for facrificing the privileges of the House, in the cafe of the Sheriffs and printers, that they were beneath its refentment, would not hold in the present inftance, as the perfons who now invaded them were the House of Peers. The question being at length put, the House divided, ayes 56, noes 20. The House rofe at half past five. Abftra&t of the Bill for the Government of Quebec. HE A&t for the making more effec TH tual provifion for the government of the province of Quebec, in NorthAmerica, extends the province Southward to the Banks of the Ohio, Weftward to the Banks of the Miffifippi, and Northward to the boundary of the Hudfon's Bay Company. By the first claufe, the proclamation of October 7, 1763, is to be void after the ift of May, 1774. By the fecond claufe, the Romifli clergy are to have the exercife of their religion, fubject to the King's fupremacy, as established by the firit of Queen Elizabeth; and may enjoy and receive their accustomed dues and rights from perfons profeffing the Romish religion; with a provifo that his Majesty shall not be difabled from making fuch provision for the fupport and maintenance of a Proteftant clergy, as he shall think fit. By the third claufe, all Canadian fubjects, except religious orders and communities, are to hold all their properties, &c. as if the proclamation had not been made; and all controverfies relative to property and civil rights, are to be determined by the Canada laws now in being, or fuch as may be hereafter enacted by the Governor, LieutenantGovernor, and Legislative Council, as hereafter described, with a provifo that fuch perfons who have a right to alienate goods, lands, or credits, in their lifetime, may bequeath them to whom they will at their death; and alfo is not to extend to lands granted, or that may be granted granted by his Majesty in common foc cage. By the fourth claufe, the criminal law of England is inftituted, subject to fuch amendments as may hereafter be made by the legislative powers hereafter defcribed. By the fifth claufe, after giving the reafon a legislative authority is appoint ed, confifling of perfons refident there, not less than feventeen, nor more than twenty-three, to be appointed by his Majefty, with the advice of his privycouncil, under his or their fign manual, to make ordinances for the government of the province, with a prohibition from laying on taxes; and alfo every ordinance, &c. made, is to be tranfmitted to his Majefty, and if disallowed by his Majefty, every ordinance, &c. is to ceafe upon his Majefty's order in Council being promulgated at Quebec; provided likewife, that no ordinance touching religion, inflicting any greater punifhment than fine, or imprisonment for three months, fhall be valid till it receives his Majesty's approbation; and provided alfo, that no ordinance fhall be paffed at any meeting of Council, except between January 1, and May 1, unless upon fome urgent occafion, when every Member of Council refident at Quebec, or within fifty miles thereof, is to be perfonally fummoned by the Governor, or by the Lieutenant-Governor, or Commander in Chief in his abfence, to attend the fame. By the fixth and laft claufe, his Majefty and fucceffors may erect any Courts criminal, civil, and ecclefiaftical, within the province of Quebec, by letters patent under the Great Seal, wheneve: his Majefty fhall judge necessary. Authentic Copy of the City of London's Addrefs to his Majefly against the Qgebec Bill, To the King's Moft Excellent Majefty. The bumble Address and Petition of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council affembled. Moft Gracious Sovereign, WE and loyal fubjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council affembled, are exceedingly alarmed that a Bill has paffed your two Houfes of Parliament, entitled "An a&t for making more effectual provifion for the Government of the Province of Quebec, in North America," which we apprehend to be entirely fubverfive of the great fundamental principles of the conititution of the British Monarchy, as well as of the authority of various folemn acts of the Legiflature. We beg leave to obferve, that the English law, and that wonderful effort of human wifdom, the tryal by Jury, are not admitted by this Bill in any civil cafes, and the French law of Canada is impofed on all the inhabitants of that extenfive Province, by which both the perfons and properties of very many of your Majesty's fubjects are rendered infecure and precarious. We humbly conceive, that this Bill, if paffed into a Law, will be contrary, not only to the compact entered into with the numerous fettlers of the reformed religion, who were invited into the faid Province under the facred promise of enjoying the benefit of the laws of your Realm of England, but likewife repugnant to your Royal Proclamation of the 7th of October, 1763, for the speedy fettling the faid new Govern ment. That confiftent with the public faith pledged by the faid proclamation, your Majefty cannot erect Courts of Judicature and public Juftice for the hearing and determining all cafes, as well civil as criminal, within the faid Province, but as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England; not can any Laws, Statutes, or Ordinances for the public peace, welfare, and good government of the faid province, be made, constiLaws of this Realm. tuted, or ordained, but according to the That the Roman Catholic Religion, which is known to be idolatrous and bloody, is established by this Bill, and no legal provifion is made for the free exercise of our reformed faith, nor the fecurity of our proteftant fellow-fubjects of the Church of England in the true worship of Almighty God according to their confciences. That your Majefty's illuftrious family was called to the Throne of thefe King doms in conféquence of the exclufion of the Roman Catholic antient branch of the Stuart Line, under the exprefs fti pulation pulation that they should profess the Proteftant Religion; and according to the oath established by the fanction of Parliament in the first year of the reign of our great deliverer King William the Third, your Majefty at your Coronation folemnly fwore that you would, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God, the true profeffion of the Gofpel, and the Protestant reformed Religion eftablished by law. That, although the term of imprifonment of the fubject is limited to three months, the power of fining is left indefinite and unrestrained, by which the total ruin of the party may be effected by an enormous and exceffive fine. That the whole Legislative Power of the Province is vefted in perfons to be folely appointed by your Majefty, and removeable at your pleasure; which we apprehend to be repugnant to the leading principles of this free Conftitution, by which alone your Majefty now holds, or legally can hold, the Imperial Crown of thefe Realms. That the faid Bill was brought into Parliament very late in the prefent feffion, and after the greater number of the Members of the two Houfes were retired into the country; fo that it can not fairly be prefumed to be the fenfe of thofe parts of the Legiflature. Your Petitioners therefore most humbly fupplicate your Majefty, as the Guardian of the Laws, Liberties, and Religion of your People, and as the great Bulwark of the Proteftant Faith, that you will not give your Royal Af fent to the faid Bill. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. The following message was delivered, in writing, to the Lord Mayor by the Lord Chamberlain, previous to the above Addrefs being presented and read to his Majesty. "As your petition relates to a bill agreed on by the two Houfes of Parliament, of which his Majefty cannot take public notice until it is prefented to him for his Royal Affent in Parliament, am commanded by the King to inform you, that you are not to expect an anfwer." I Authentic Account of the Fete Champetre given by Lord Stanley, at the Oaks, in Surry, on Accunt of bis Marriage with Lady Betty Hamilton, Daughter of the Duchess of Argyle. appearance about balf paft fix HE company began to make their o'clock, and continued pouring in till past nine. As foon as any carriage had fet down a party, and they had got within the gate which led upon the lawn, they were faluted by French horns placed in a retreat fo obfcure as not to be obferved by the company. About eight o'clock a fignal was given for the company to attend the Mafque on the Back Lawn; accordingly General Burgoyne, who was the prin cipal manager and conductor, came forward, and conducted the nobility and others the visitors through the house to the voluptuous scene on the back lawn. At the upper end was a moft fuperb and beautiful orangerie, or plantation of orange-trees, intermixed with a great variety of valuable green house plants; behind the orangerie lay concealed a capital band of mufic, under the fole direction of Mr. Barthelemon, the compofer ofthe Mafque. On the right from the company, fwains appeared in fancy dreffes, amufing themfelvs at the game of Ninepins, whilft fhepherdeffes, neatly attired, were at the fwing. On the left fide were other fwains with their bows and arrows, thooting at a bird which had perched itself on a May-pole; whilst others were fhewing their agility by dancing and kicking at a tambour de bafque, which hung, decorated with ribbands, from a bough of a tree.-In short, every rural paftime was exhibited. In the center of the orangerie fat Mrs. Barthelemon and Mr. Vernon, making wreaths of flowers, and continued in that employment till after the company had taken their feats upon benches placed in a circular form on the green. As foon as the ladies and gentlemen were thus arranged, two Cupids went round with a basket of the molt rich flowers, and prefented each lady with an elegant bouquet; the gentlemen had likewife a fimilar prefent.-- When the Cupids had diftributed the flowers, nin.ble fhepherdeffes supplied their baskets with fresh affortments. Thus, whilft the attention of the company was taken up with admiring the agility and pretty manner of thele little attendants accommodating the nobility and others with their nofegays, they they were on a fudden surprised with the harmonious found from the inftrumental band, which being conveyed to the com⚫ pany through the orange plantation and fhrubbery, created a moft happy and pleating effect. This fymphony being ended, Mr. Vernon got up, and with a light and ruftic air called the nymphs and fwains to celebrate the feftivity of the day, informing them that Stanley, as Lord of the Oaks, had given the invitation, and on that account he commanded their appearance to join the feftive fong and dance. After this air followed a grand chorus; next a dance by Sylvans; then a fong by Mrs. Barthelemon; afterwards a different dance by the whole affembly of Figurantes, was fucceded by a duet by Mrs. Barthelemon and Mr. Vernon. which concluded with a dance. The next air confifted of four verses, fung by Mr. Vernon; at the end of each line was a chorus. The dance of the Sylvans continued during the whole time of the chorus, and had an excellent effect. This being over, the company amufed themselves with walking about 'till the temporary room was illuminated, and and upon a fignal given, another proceffion was made. Lord Stanly, fupported by Lady Betty Hamilton, the Queen of the Oaks, and Mifs Stanly, led the way, the reft of the company following two by two. The noble vifit ors were trft conducted through a beautiful and magnificent octogon hall, with tranfparent windows painted fuitable to the occafion; at the end of the great room hung fix fuperb curtains, fuppofed to cover the fame number of large windows; they were of crimfon colour, richly ornamented with deep gold fringe. Colonnades appeared on each fide the room, with wreaths of flowers running up the columns; and the whole building was lined chair-back high with white Perfian and gold fringe: the feats around were covered with deep crimfon. The company amused themselves with dancing minuets and cotillons 'till half pait eleven, when an explosion, fimular to the going off of a large quantity of rockets, put the whole lively groupe into a confternation. This was occafioned by a fignal given for the Curtains, which we have before described, to fly up and exhibit to the company a large fupperroom, with tables fpread with the moft coftly dainties. The company took their feats in an inftant without the least interruption, and partook of the entertainment. They no fooner appeared fatiffied than the whole was removed inftantaneously, and a hand fome deffert spread on the tables. When the ladies feemed tired with this fecond piece of luxury, the band were heard tuning their inftrument; in the octogon hall. This was another fignal for the company to leave the fupper room, and adjourn to the ballroom. No fooner was the above chamber cleared, than again to the astonishment of all prefent, down flew the large curtains, and made the ball-room appear in its first state of elegance. The ceremony of arranging the company next took place, and was executed by the general, who having placed Lady Betty Hamilton in the center, formed the rest of the company into a circular groupe. This done, a Druid of the Oaks, reprefented by Capt. Pigott, came forward from the octogon hall, with a few complimentary lines, fuitable to the occafion, fummoning the Fauns and WoodNymphs to attend the ceremony within. A grand chorus was then fung by the Nymphs, Fauns, and Sylvans, led on by Cupids. After this chorus, another fpeech by the Druid. Mrs. Barthelemon, in the character of a WoodNyhmph, fung a pleafing air, the words in praise of conjugal felicity. This produced, at the conclufion, a chaconne, which was executed by eight principal dancers with great cafe and agility. The Druid made another fpeech, and having finished, Mr. Vernon fung an air in praife of the Oak. Next was an allemande, by fixteen principal dancers, and afterwards a fpeech relative to the Oaks, by the Druid. Mrs. Barthelemon and Mr. Vernon then fung a duet, which was likewife in praise of the Oak, its profperity and advantage, finishing with a few complimentary lines to Lady Betty by the Druid, and a grand chorus of vocal and inftrumental mufic. During this a device in transparency was introcuced, in which were two hymeneal torches lighted on the top of a fhield reprefenting the Hamilton creft, (an oak with a faw through it, and a ducal coronet); after a chorus, the Druid, Faun, and Wood Nymphs went to the altar: and two Cupids, the Cupid of Love and the Hymenean Cupid, afcending the fteps. |