several branches of the House of Bourbon, that they do not look upon themselves bound to give us any previous information of their hostile intentions, either by declaration of war, or otherwise, on account of our capture of the French Ships before the commencement of the late war. On the whole, the noble Earl, who spoke last, has put the matter upon the clearest and most incontrovertible footing, not upon the faith of Spanish assurance, or their ideas of political justice or injustice, but on what are our powers of immediate resistance, should such an attempt be made. I do, therefore, call upon the noble Earl, at the head of the Admiralty, to inform the House what Force we have immediately ready to put to Sea, should the first accounts from that quarter bring us intelligence that Gibraltar was attacked by a Spanish Fleet.

The Earl of Sandwich. The noble Lord who spoke last, has called upon me, particularly, to come to certain explanations which I do not, by any means, think myself obliged to give, nor his Lordship authorized to ask. How, ever, as the main part of his inquiry depends upon facts, already sufficiently publick, I can, with propriety, tell his Lordship, that we have seventeen. Sail-of-the-Line, fit for immediate service; that the number of Men wanting to complete the Ships, to their full complement, is not more than four thousand five hundred; that, by issuing Press-warrants, they might be readily procured in a week; and that the whole Armament would be ready to proceed to Sea within ten days. In a very little time we shall have eighty Men-of-War, of the line, with all the necessary Stores for their equipment, ready, as occasion may require, to be drawn out into actual service; which is a force superiour to, any the united efforts of our enemies can possibly bring against us.

The Earl of Bristol. The noble Earl has told us that we have seventeen Sail-of-the-Line ready to proceed to Sea, at a few days notice; but I should be glad to know, in the event of Gibraltar being attacked, with such a Fleet as has been, this day, mentioned, whether his Lordship is of Opinion if would be prudent to send the whole Force, he speaks of, to the immediate relief of that Fortress.

The Earl of Sandwich. I can hardly think myself enabled, from, my official situation, to answer the noble Earl's question. That is a matter of state, not, in my opinion, at all connected with the immediate business of my Department. If I was ordered to comply with such a requisition, I must, certainly, obey it, whatever might be my own private opinion, my sentiments in this House, or the arguments I might use elsewhere, when it came under deliberation as a matter of state. For instance, if I received directions to order out half the number, or the whole, or keep the Fleet at home, to defend our own Coasts, the question would not turn on what I, in my official capacity, wished to do; but what the majority of his Majesty's servants had, really, decided. As to the Force, and the facility of sending it to Sea, I need only appeal to the noble Earl himself, to whom, in a great measure, the Ration \s obliged for that arrangement. When his Lordship sat, as a member, at the Board at which I have the honour to preside, I stood much indebted to him for his assistance in effectuating the plan, by which we are enabled, at all times, to have a Fleet ready to put to Sea, on a few days notice, by converting the Guard-Ships, which, formerly, were almost totally useless, into Vessels fit for immediate service; and, though still I have his private assistance, I must confess I have great reason to regret his absence from that Board.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in answer to what had fallen from the two noble Dukes, and the noble Lord who presented the Bill, observed, that so far from the Protestant Religion being totally neglected at Quebec, four Clergymen, of the Church of England, were actually established in that Province, with a stipend of two hundred Pounds per annum each; that more would be appointed, as soon as the necessity of the case, or an increase of population, should, require it; and denied that the Popish religion was established In Canada, or that it was possible for Parliament to have acted otherwise, consistent with the faith of the capitulation, or the terms of the Definitive Treaty.

The Earl of Shelburne. It is with great reluctance that I presume to trouble your Lordships on a subject which has been so ably and fully discussed by so many noble Lords, much better informed and capable to decide on it. I cannot, however, be so entirely wanting in my duty, as a member of this House, to pass over, in total silence, some things which have fallen in the course of this day's debate. A noble Lord, who spoke early, has said, that there are some present who regret the absence of a certain noble Lord, from his place (the Earl of Chatham.) If that be a crime, I am willing to share part of the imputation, for I own myself one of that number, though I, by no means, agree with his Lordship in the motives he has assigned for that absence, nor in the supposed sentiments attributed by him to the noble Earl, respecting the Quebec Act. I am, on the contrary, convinced that he would have been present in his place, on this occasion, were it not for an accident; and so far from approving of the Bill in every other part but relative to the sedentary Fishery, that, from every thing I could learn then, and in every private conversation I have had the honour to have since had with him, I have found his sentiments to be for condemning the Bill in toto. I believe the noble Lord has but a confused recollection of the true state of that matter, otherwise he must have remembered that his Lordship's supposed reconcilement to the Bill was no part of what he now alludes to, but that, the very Ministers themselves disapproved of divesting the Commodore, on the Newfoundland station, of the control over the Fishery on the Coast of Labrador. The other parts of the Bill having been already so fully discussed I shall just crave your Lordships' patient attention to a few words on the dangerous consequences which must flow from annexing this fishery to the Province of Quebec, and taking it out of the superintendence and control of the Commander of his Majesty's Ships-of-War, on the Newfoundland station. By the Bills lately passed, it seems to be the professed policy of those in power to reserve the whole of the Newfoundland Fishery for the benefit of the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland. I will say nothing of the immediate spirit which has given rise to this policy; but this I will venture to affirm, that not a single reason was adduced, either from the evidence at your Lordships' Bar, or in the House, that did not directly apply to evince the supreme folly of annexing the Labrador Fishery to the Province of Quebec. It was both proved and pressed, in argument, that the spirit of the Act of the twelfth of William the Third should be strictly adhered to, that of preventing settlers, and making as many Sailors as possible; in fine, strongly condemning the permission of a sedentary Fishery. What was the evidence of a most able and experienced Naval Officer (Sir Hugh Palliser) on that occasion? That the settlers had done every thing in their power to defeat the periodical Fishery from Europe; that they destroyed their Nets, seduced the Men to run away, and get over to the Continent; and that they supplied the Fishermen with French spirituous liquors, and other French commodities. Now, my Lords, I would submit, if there be any one Lord in this House who will take upon him to affirm, that every one of those evils will not increase an hundred fold; or that we shall be able to prevent them on the Coast of Labrador, where, if aggrieved, the party must go all the way to Quebec to seek redress against Frenchmen and French smuggling, when even numberless evils were, by the nature of the service, obliged to be left uncorrected, under, almost, the very eye of the Commodore. The Peltry, or Skin trade, my Lords, is a matter which, I presume to affirm, is of the last importance to the trade and commerce of the Colonies and this country. The regulation of this business has cost his Majesty's Ministers more time and trouble than any one matter I know of The noble Earl, (of Hillsborough), it is true, differed from me, among others of his Majesty's servants, on the regulating the trade with the Indians; but it was never so much as dreamt of, that the whole Skin trade, from Hudson's Bay to the Forks of the Mississippi, should be at once taken from the several American Colonies, and transferred to the French Canadians; or, which is substantially the same thing, that, by a Royal instruction, the sole direction of it should be vested in the Governour of Quebec. For, I will be bold to contend, whatever colourable construction may be put on it, it will operate as a complete exclusion and total monopoly, so far as the Protestant British Colonies can possibly be interested.

However foreign the Spanish Armament may be to the