Tuesday, May 7, 1776.

Ordered, That the Instruction, which, upon Thursday last, was given to the gentlemen appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill pursuant to the Resolutions which, upon the 29th day of April last, were reported from the Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider of the Petition of the Merchants and Traders of the Town and County of Poole, (praying to be permitted to export Provisions and other necessaries, for the use of the British Fishery carried on at Newfoundland, and the places adjacent,) and of the several other Petitions referred to the consideration of the Committee, and were then agreed to by the House, to prepare the said Bill, pursuant to the Resolution which, upon the 26th day of April last, was reported from the Committee of the Whole House, to whom it was referred to consider further of so much of an Act made in the thirteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An Act to regulate the Importation and Exportation of Corn,” as relates to the ports and places into which Com and Grain may be imported and landed, without payment of the duties, and was then agreed to by the House, be discharged.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Friday, October 27, 1775.

The House was moved, That an Act made in the second year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An Act to explain, amend, and reduce into one Act of Parliament, the several Laws now in being relating to the raising and training the Militia within that part of Great Britain called England” might be read.

And the same was read accordingly.

Ordered, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to enable his Majesty to call out and assemble the Militia, in all cases of Rebellion, in any part of the Dominions belonging to the Crown of Great Britain; and that the Lord North, Mr. Attorney-General, Mr. Solicitor-General, and Sir Grey Cooper, do prepare and bring in the same.

Monday, October 30, 1775.

The Lord North presented to the House, according to order, a Bill to enable his Majesty to call out and assemble the Militia, in all cases of Rebellion, in any part of the Dominions belonging to the Crown of Great Britain; and the same was received, and read the first time.

Resolved, That the Bill be read a second time.

Ordered, That the said Bill be read a second time upon Thursday morning next.

Thursday, November 2, 1775.

The Order of the Day being read, for the second reading of the Bill to enable his Majesty to call out and assemble the Militia, in all cases of Rebellion, in any part of the Dominions belonging to the Crown of Great Britain:

A motion was made, and the question being put, that the said Bill be now read a second time:

Mr. Hartley said: Sir, I shall beg leave, upon the present occasion, to take a scope wide of the immediate business, and offer an observation or two upon the necessity of having some measure of a conciliatory nature to attend those coercive ones which are brought forward against America with so much haste. 1 would propose that there should be some test of submission held out, by which the Colonies may prove their submission to the legislative power of this country. I think the best would be the recognition of an act of Parliament, to be registered in the assembly of such Colony willing to submit. And I think the best should be one which exercises a controlling power over the Colony; for instance, suppose it was to enact that all the slaves in America should have the trial by jury. The recognition of this, and the submission to its operation, would yield the requisite proof of duty. When this actual recognition of an act of Parliament shall have replaced the legislative authority of this country, without question or diminution, as it was before the commencement of these troubles; then, as an act of merited justice to such Colonies as shall have given this proof of their return to their allegiance, let their grievances be redressed; let the operation of all the acts complained of cease, ìpso facto, in each Colony respectively where the required recognition shall have been complied with. This proposition seems to me to be equitable in itself; I hope it will be thought by all parties to be definite, satisfactory, and practicable.

Mr. Charles Turner. I am against the present bill upon every account, as I am against Militias in general. The proper men to recruit and supply your troops are the scum and outcasts of cities and manufactories; fellows who voluntarily submit to be slaves by an apprenticeship of seven years are the proper persons to be military ones. But to take the honest, sober, industrious fellow from the plough, is doing an essential mischief to the community, and laying a double tax. The Militia is likewise more expensive than the regulars, and therefore the more improper at present.

Viscount Mounstuart. I do not rise to oppose the present bill, because I am clear that the force of a Militia is the true constitutional force to be relied on by this or any kingdom; but, sir, I wish to see no longer a partial Militia; I wish to see an end of a line of distinction drawn between countries, which in nature and in land are the same; I wish to see a Militia in North-Britain. What reason can be assigned against it? The stain of rebellion is wiped out; it is done away for ever, by the loyalty of the people, and the uncommon exertions they made for the Crown in the last war. I do not mean now to bring this matter under consideration, but give notice that I shall take an early open day to propose it.

Mr. Dunning condemned the bill. Instead of the ostensible motives held out by it, the Militia may be employed in the most alarming and unconstitutional manner. It throws a power into the hands of the King, hitherto unknown to the Constitution. He took a retrospective view of measures in general, and introduced some strictures on addresses, particularly that from the First Battalion of the Militia of the County of Devon. My honourable friend, [Mr. Acland,] who helped to procure that address, and presented it, he supposed, consulted the noble Lord [North] upon it; and he had good ground to believe the noble Lord corrected it. The address speaks its origin fully; it makes a tender of their services with their swords drawn, not to use them against the common enemy, any of the branches of the House of Bourbon; not even against the Americans, for they could not act against either out of the kingdom; but against his Majesty’s internal enemies—that is, such who, in this House or elsewhere, dare to hold a contrary opinion with the framer and author of it. The tendency of the bill is exceedingly different from the old Militia law, and therefore demands an explanation, that the House may know how different the situation of the gentlemen now in the Militia will be, when this bill is passed, from what, it is at present. They and the men entered into that engagement with their country, under the express circumstances that they were never to be called out but in time of invasion or rebellion in England, or imminent danger of one or the other. This condition secured them from being at the beckon of a Minister, to be called out under pretences of distant or imaginary danger. They knew the nature of the very cause in which they were to draw their swords; but what will be their situation if this bill passes? It will be in the power of the Minister to imbody the Militia, and put them under the Mutiny Act, if a rebellion is only apprehended in Bengal, in St. Helena, in the most distant and insignificant dependency of the Crown. To draw their swords in defence of their King and country, is what they entered expressly and cheerfully to do; but to be made soldiers in spite of themselves—to serve, not their country in great and fearful exigencies, but to second the apprehensions or evil designs of a Minister, is being in a situation so totally different, that no arguments can convince me they will endure it. I am a friend to the old Militia, because it can only be drawn out in cases prescribed by the Constitution; but I am an enemy to this new scheme, because it in fact annihilates that meritorious Militia, and gives you a monster in its stead.

A noble Lord has touched upon another Militia—a Militia to be composed of a set of people of a complexion which has not, it seems, been thought by the legislature to recommend them to possess it; a Northern Militia! From the manner in which the intimation is given, I take it for granted the plan is determined, and that we may consider it as one of the measures which are at present so rapidly combined. And it leads me naturally to the great question of America, to show how these measures are united in order to