ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NEW SERIES OF THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. THE present Volume is, in fact, the forty-second of THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES; but as it commences with the Proceedings of the First Parliament of his present majesty George the Fourth, the Proprietors have thought that they could not better meet the wishes of their regular Subscribers, nor consult the convenience of those gentlemen who now, at this epoch, may be desirous of becoming Subscribers, than by commencing a NEW Series. In presenting the First Volume of this New Series of The Parliamentary Debates to the public, the Editor avails himself of the opportunity it affords him, of returning his acknowledgments for the liberal support which he has received. The declared object of the First Series of this Work, at its outset in the year 1803 was, to give the Proceedings of both Houses at greater length, and with much greater precision, than it was ever before attempted to give them. To accomplish this object, neither labour nor expense has been spared. Aid of every useful kind has been resorted to, and, in most instances, with complete success. The Editor has felt that to his Work after times would refer, for the Public Character and Conduct of the Members of both Houses who took a share in the important measures therein recorded. He has, therefore, not considered himself at liberty to garble or abridge their Speeches, at his own discretion, and according to his own views of the importance of the matter before him. To his unremitted endeavours to procure from members of both sides of the House, the fullest and most correct reports of what has taken place on every important Debate, those Members will readily bear testimony: And so strictly impartial has he been, that in no single page of the Forty-One Volumes, of which the First Series consists, and all of which have passed through his hands, can, he ventures to assert, an instance of unfair preference or prejudice be pointed out. (vi) In addition to the Debates of both Houses, the Work contains an invaluable Collection of Parliamentary Papers, consisting of many hundred Reports, Estimates, Returns, Treaties, Conventions, Lists of Divisions, &c. &c.; and a regular Series, for the last Seventeen years, of Accounts relative to the Finances, and to the Trade, Navigation, &c. of the United Kingdom. These Documents are exact copies of those laid before Parliament. They are to be met with in no other publication, and will be found eminently useful and convenient to the Reader; to whom, indeed, if his attention be at all turned to subjects of Political Economy, they will be indispensably necessary. Each Volume contains a copious Table of Contents, together with separate Indexes, not only of the Debates in both Houses, but of the names of the several Members who took a part therein. It is hardly necessary to add, that this Second Series of a Work which has found its way into most of the Public Libraries, not merely of this country, but of Europe, will be continued with that activity and perseverance which a reception so favourable is calculated to produce. "The PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE YEAR 1803," when the First Series of the above Work commenced, is completed in Thirty-Six Volumes. The Public are therefore now in possession of the only uniform Parliamentary History of the Country that was ever attempted. The plan of the Work will be seen in the following Extract from the Preface to the First Volume: "Whoever has had frequent occasion to recur to the Proceedings in Parliament of former times, must have experienced those difficulties which it is the object of the present Work to remove. Merely to find the several works wherein is contained an account of the Parliamentary Proceedings, is, at this day, no easy matter; some of them being very scarce, and others excessively voluminous. Hardly any of them, those of the last twenty years excepted, are to be purchased regularly at the Booksellers. The far greater part of them are to be come at by accident only; and, of course, sometimes not to be obtained at all. But, supposing them all to be at hand, the price of them is no trifling object; and, in many cases, must present a difficulty not to be easily, or, at least, willingly surmounted. Of these works, taken in their chronological order, the first is, "The Parliamentary or Constitutional History," in Twenty-four Volumes; the second, sir Simonds D'Ewes's" Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments;" the third," Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons in 1620 and 1621, collected by a member of that House, and published from his Original Manuscript in the Library of Queen's College, Oxford," in Two Volumes; the fourth, "Chandler's and Timberland's Deates," in Twenty-two Volumes; the fifth, "Debates of the House of Com vii mons, from 1667 to 1694, collected by the Honourable Anchitell Grey, Esq., who was thirty years member for the town of Derby," in ten Volumes; the sixth," Almon's Debates, from 1745 to 1780," in Twenty-four Volumes; and the seventh," Debrett's Debates, from 1780 to 1802," in Sixty-three Volumes. But still, with all these, the information wanted is very imperfect, without perpetually having recourse to the Journals of the two Houses, which Journals occupy upwards of a hundred volumes in folio: so that the price of a complete set of the works, in this way, cannot, upon an average of purchases, be reckoned at less than One Hundred and Fifty Pounds. "These difficulties surmounted, another, and a still more formidable obstruction to the acquiring of information, is found, not merely in the number and the bulk of the volumes, but also in the want of a good arrangement of the Contents of most of them; and, further, in the immense load of useless matter, quite unauthentic, and very little connected with the real Proceedings of Parliament, to be found in many of them: in the first mentioned work, we find a narrative of battles, sieges, and of domestic occurrences: the real Proceedings of Parliament form but a comparatively small proportion of it; whole pamphlets of the day, and very long ones, being, in many places, inserted just as they were published and sold; and, when we come down even to the Debates by Almon and Debrett (taking in Woodfall and others occasionally), we find, that, in numerous instances, three-fourths of the volume consists of Papers laid before Parliament, of mere momentary utility, repeated in subsequent and more correct statements, and now a mere incumbrance to the reader, and a constantly intervening obstacle to his researches; to which may be added, with respect to all the Debates from Almon's inclusive, downwards, that there is a total want of all that aid which is afforded by well-contrived Running Titles, Tables, and Indexes, and which is so necessary in every voluminous work, particularly if it relate to the transactions of a long series of years. "In a Work of this nature, the utmost impartiality is justly expected; and it is with confidence presumed, that a careful perusal of the following pages will convince the reader, that that impartiality has been strictly and invariably adhered to. Nothing has been inserted without due authority; and, as the object has been, not so much to dive into matters of Antiquity, as to preserve what was really useful, many things have been omitted which would have swelled the bulk of the Work, without adding to its usefulness. Nothing, however, has been left out, except what was judged to be spurious or not agreeable to the design of such a Collection; nor any thing added, merely on account of its being favourable to the reputation or the doctrines of any particular party. In short, whatever appeared to have been actually said or done, in either House of Parliament, that had any tendency to what ought to be the chief object of such a Publication, has, as far as authentic materials could be procured, been recorded with scrupulous fidelity." The Editor is preparing for the Press, to be comprised in Two I. A GENERAL INDEX to the Parliamentary History of The two Volumes will form a complete Parliamentary Dictionary, or ready Book of Reference to every subject of importance that has, at any time, come before Parliament. The great utility of such a Work, not only to Members of the two Houses, but to every Lawyer and Politician, must be self-evident. As many gentlemen, who have not been regular subscribers to the two Works, may nevertheless be desirous of possessing a general Index to the Political History of their Country, such gentlemen are requested to send in their names to the publishers; as only a very limited number of Copies beyond the usual impression will be printed. SEPTEMBER 1820. |