was so laid on there would be the Duties here. The Tables he alludes to I have never seen.

The Sugar Duties are laid generally in our Schedule on the principle of two hundred of Raw Sugar being the quantity necessary to make one hundred of refined. It is true that, in Messrs. Frewin and Jackson's Tables, they state the various species of refined Sugar; the coarser Sugar takes somewhat less than double the quantity of Raw; the very finest takes somewhat more than double: we avoided going into the distinctions, and took a general average upon the same principle on which the present Import Duties on Refined Sugar are imposed, and that because the present duty is a Countervailing Duty.

As to the Excise Duties, they are, I believe, the very identical existing Duties on our own articles, except Beer, which, not having a direct Excise on it, we are obliged to compute upon the Excise put upon the materials of which it is composed, viz. Malt and Hops: we have taken as our foundation the quantities of these materials which Messrs. Frewin and Jackson state to be used in Great Britain, and we have charged the amount of the Excise paid on that quantity.

Rose seems surprised at our charging the Duty on a barrel of 32 gallons, which he seems to think is neither the English nor the Irish barrel. In this he is mistaken; 32 gallons is the legal barrel on which all our Inland Excise Duty has been always paid, and on which our Import Duty is laid. The brewers' barrel, by which they sell, differs from this, and is 40 gallons: we struck the countervailing Duty on 40 gallons at 58. 7 d., which is, on 32, 48. 6d.

I shall only add that, in a great system of the nature of Union, it is impossible to imagine that we can be minutely right, nor is it necessary: these Duties are to continue but for a certain time, and the consequence of a small deviation from exact equality cannot be of any material injury to either country. Yours ever sincerely,

J. BERESFORD.

Lord Auckland to Lord Castlereagh.

Palace Yard, April 21, 1800.

My dear Lord-Mr. Pitt intends to-day to open the whole view of the arrangement. He will take the ground of the new propositions brought forward in your Parliament, in consequence of the resolutions of the British Parliament; and I hope that he will be able to give a right impression both of the Woollen and Cotton businesses, and also to satisfy the doubts of some of our well-meaning sceptics on the constitutional points. He thinks it necessary to insert a provision in the Parliamentary Article, “ "that, until the United Parliament shall have made a Place Bill, there shall not be a greater number than twenty places during pleasure [held] by persons in the new Parliament beyond what there are at present." We hope that this number will be found no inconvenient restraint to you, and the proviso certainly cannot occasion any material debate with you. I am not aware of any other substantial alteration or addition. I conceive that we must put the 10 per cent. on mixed manufactures of Woollen and Silk, and Cotton and Silk, not as a protection to our manufacturers, but from a necessary regard to the high duties. I shall be able, probably in the course of another day, to form some tolerable estimate as to the progress that we may make. Lord Grenville will move the first four resolutions with us, and will make an opening speech on them, and will afterwards wait three or four days for the next Resolution to be settled in the Commons. I am confident that we shall get on well, though perhaps not without delays. Believe me, &c.

Private.

Mr. King to Lord Castlereagh.

AUCKLAND.

Queen Street, April 21, 9 P.M. My dear Lord-I have left Cooke in the House, and have promised him a messenger ready to take his letter to go by

the express the moment it breaks up. I stayed no longer than to hear Mr. Pitt open the Articles in a most masterly manner, and in a speech of not above an hour and a half, I think. The House may sit till late: you will have the particulars from Cooke, and I will take care to send the papers.

I merely write to apprize you, in case Cooke should not remark it, that, in making the return required by the motion of Grey, relative to the offices tenable by the Irish members, Mr. Pitt observed that the time would only allow of a negative return, by stating the offices which the members were disqualified from taking; that to name all the rest, without the exception of any, would be a business of time and research. I only mention this as a hint with respect to the nature of the return to be made.

I do not think that much difficulty will arise here from the clothiers. The ground Mr. Pitt took covers, I presume, whatever of objection might be founded on that partial circumstance.

There is one point on which I must refer you to a former letter, and upon which, even for the sake of security, Lord Grenville seems still to be anxious-I mean, the question of the Peers voting in the first instance by proxy. Lord Grenville's idea is, that this privilege should not be extended beyond the principle at present laid down in the Bill, namely, to be cised by those Peers who shall have qualified as required, and, further, that it need not be exercised at all in the occasional vacancies in the Peerage to be elected on the part of Ireland in future. The result, therefore, is, that the principle is judged necessary, so far as it is necessary in point of security.

I remain, &c.,

exer

J. KING.

Mr. Cooke to Lord Cornwallis.

London, April 22, 1800.

My Lord-This day the Committee went through the Contribution Resolution. The Committee was thin. Dr. Law

rence made some objections as to the criterions, and stated that British members would vote the Irish taxes, in which they were not concerned, and Irish members British taxes, in which they were not concerned; and he proposed an amendment to that principle, which was not accepted. Banks objected to the Union, because the Catholic point was not settled by it. Mr. Jenkinson' answered him cautiously, and merely stated, that a Union alone could place that subject in such a state as to make its decision consistent with security. The Committee rose at 7, and does not sit again till Thursday.

There has some doubt been stated in the Church article as to the word "Convocation." It arose since I saw Mr. Pitt this morning.

Mr. Pitt will move, as an addition to the Representative article, that no more than twenty members shall hold offices during pleasure of the one hundred members who are to serve on the part of Ireland, until the United Parliament shall pass a law on the subject. He could not avoid it, and there seems no objection, for I think the number will not amount to sixI understand Mr. Grey's motion is to apply to the English part of the Representation. Pitt hopes to have everything passed by the 5th. I am sure, if there was as little opposition in Ireland, Lord Castlereagh would not let the measure hang longer.

I have seen General Knox. He gives a good account of France that the ardour for peace is general; that there is no public spirit; that the idea of one and indivisible is gone; that the claim of the independence of the Netherlands, or their restoration to Austria, would be no bar to peace. He thinks, however, that Buonaparte may make a push to prevent a Union.

I am trying to get the necessary bills settled. It is not my fault, for I have drawn them long since; but they lay in red

1 Afterwards Lord Hawkesbury and Earl of Liverpool.

boxes, and there is such a number of red boxes that not half of

them are opened.

E. COOKE.

Mr. Cooke to Lord Cornwallis.

London, April 22, 1800, half-past 12, A.M. My Lord-The House of Commons is just up. Mr. Pitt, as soon as the House was in Committee, made a fine and prudent speech. Mr. Grey took the line of the Opposition in Ireland, that a Union against the sense of the people of Ireland was tyranny; that the sense of the people, and even the real sense of Parliament, was against it; and he moved that the Chairman should leave the chair, in order to address the King, to have the Irish petitions laid before the House, or to have the Parliament dissolved. He said he was not against Union, if the people of Ireland were for it, and he was not against the terms. Grey was supported by Tierney and Sheridan, who both went in the same line-Sheridan most adverse.

Grey tried to drive Mr. Pitt to a declaration on the Catholic subject, by arguing that a Union could do nothing but by the measures which should result from it. Mr. Pitt avoided it. Mr. Dundas was not quite so cautious: in talking of the Union with Scotland, he said, that the Union led the way to the repeal of the heritable jurisdictions, which the Parliament of Scotland would never have done; and so the Union with Ireland would enable the Parliament to do those things for Ireland, which the Irish Parliament could not do itself.

General Loftus and Lord Carysfort were useful in stating for it, and denying some broad and false assertions of Grey, Tierney, and Sheridan. I think Grey's speech was well calculated for the Irish meridian. The Committee divided: against leaving the chair, 236; for, 30. They then passed the first three propositions.

In the Lords, the first three resolutions were also carried.