The estimates on the table contained details of the most material arrangements of the current year, and would be found, every way, explicit on the subject of the expenditure. The whole force of this country, consisting of the common distribution of guards and garrisons, and colonies and plantations, amounted to one hundred and ninety-five thousand six hundred and seventy-four men, the expence of which would amount to 5,190,000l. The home army contained all the troops which might be considered as serving for the defence of the country: guards, regulars of every description, and fençibles. The army, at home, amounted to sixty thousand seven hundred and sixty-five men. The army, abroad, comprehending the troops in the West Indies, Corsica, Gibraltar, Canada, Nova Scotia, and every foreign service, except those in the East Indres, which fell under a separate description, amounted to sixty-four thousandtwo hundred and seventy-six men. The army, abroad, was composed entirely of regulars; the army, at home, of regulars, invalids, militia, and fencibles. Mr. Wyndham concluded his statements with moving for the land-service of this year, one hundred and ninety-five thousand nien. General Tarleton expected that the bonourable secretary would have gone more into detail. The general, after animadverting on sundry expences, which he held to be unnecessary, adverted to a fact which was of the utmost importance, and well deserving the consideration of the house of commons, especially of a new parliament. Last year the expence of the army amounted to the full revenue of this country, the year previous to the war. His majesty's speech, however, had directed their attention to the atchievements that had been performed by our troops in different parts of the world. He did not think, however, that there was much room for boasting. The armament, which had been equipped for expeditions to the West Indies, had been attended with enormous expence. What was the reason that the full advantage, which it might have been expected to produce, had not been obtained? Had the fleet sailed too late in the season, or did the fault lie at the door of the ministers? Whether we looked at the general state of the West Indies, or at particular islands, there was not much room for satisfaction or exultation. The Caribs, in St. Vincent's, were still in a state of insurrection. The troubles in Guadaloupe, and various other islands, still interrupted, and destroyed, the industry of the inhabitants. Victor Hughes had not been dislodged, nor his operations disconcerted. In St. Domingo the melancholy ravages which had been made, by disease, afforded no satisfaction in the review. Was the attempt to reduce this island to be prosecuted at the expence of the lives of so many gallant and brave men? Almost every person in that house, and in the country, had to lament the loss of their friends, brought to an untimely end by the mortality which swept every thing before it. If we considered the extent of the armament, there was something surely faulty in the plan, or why was there so little obtained for so much expence, and so many sacrifices? Mr. The secretary replied that he was not prepared to give any answer to the question. He Mr. Fox said he had heard it alleged that the engagement, made on the part of this country, with the Maroons, had not been faithfully adhered to. He understood this to be the declared opinion of an of ficer, of whose military talents, and private worth, though not personally acquainted with him, he ntertained the highest opinion. alluded to colonel Walpole. Mr. Bryan Edwards, not having had the honour of a seat in that house, until the present parliament, made an apology for calling the attention of the house to any observations of his. But being perfectly acquainted with the subject to which the right honourable gentleman alluded, he begged the indulgence of the house, while he stated a brief history of the Maroon negroes; the cause of the late war between those people and the inhabitants of Jamaica; and the conduct of the colonial assembly in the termination of the business. The Maroon negroes, Mr. Edwards said, agreeably to what has already been stated, in the volume of this work for 1795, are the descendants of the Spanish negroes, who, when the island of Jamaica surrendered to the English, in 1655, betook themselves to the woods. They were left in posses sion of the interior country, and continued masters of the country for near a century, murdering, without mercy, all such white persons as VOL. XXXIX. attempted to make any settlements near them, not sparing even the women and children. In the year 1760, Mr, Edwards became acquainted with those people: when he soon observed, that they were suspicious allies, and would, some time or other, become very formidable enemies. Yet it was not true, as stated in that house, that the inhabitants of Jamaica wanted to get rid of them. The inhabitants, in general, had conceived the highest opinion of their utility, and treated them with the utmost kindness. They never asked a favour of government, or of the assembly, that was refused them. The immediate cause of the late war with the Maroons, Mr. Edwards stated to be this. "Two of the Maroons, having been found guilty of felony, in the town of Montego-Bay, by stealing from a poor man two of his pigs, were tried according to law, and according to the very letter of the treaty, and sentenced to receive a few lashes at a cart's tail. The sentence was mild, and the punishment not severe; but the whole body of the Trelawney town Maroons, in revenge for the indignity offered to two of their number, immediately took up arms, and soon afterwards actually proceeded to set fire to the plantations. Sir, I shall not take up the time of the house with a long detail of military operations. The gallant officer, whom the right honourable gentleman who spoke last named, had undoubtedly the merit, under the judicious orders of the earl of Balcarras, of putting an end to the most unnatural and unprovoked rebellion: and if those two distinguished persons differed in opinion,concerningthe terms on which the Maroons surrendered, it is much to be lamented. They both deserved equally well of the communityof Jamaica and the British empire at large. Such, however, I am sorry to say, was the fact, and therefore the governor, very properly, left the whole to the determination of the assembly. Sir, the first conditions on which the Maroons were to surrender, were these; 1st. that they should, on a day appointed, give up their arms, and surrender all the fugitive enslaved negroes who had joined them. 2d. That they should ask the king's pardon on tbeir knees. On these terms their lives were to be spared, and permission granted them to remain in the country. Now, sir, it is a fact, not to be denied, that they did not surrender on the day fixed; and that they did not, then or on any day after wards, give np the fugitive negroes. I do not believe that colonel Walpole avers that they did. Colonel Walpole, sir, who is not less distinguished for his humanity than his bravery, thinks, I believe, that it would have been generous in the assembly to have imputed their not surrendering in time to their ignorance, rather than to any wilful delay, and politic to have let them remain in the country; but I do not conceive that he charges, either the earl of Balcarras or the assembly with treachery. The assembly,how ever, thought differently from colonel Walpole, and that men who had violated their allegiance, and enter ed into a bloody and cruel war, without provocation, were unfit to remaia in the island; yet, in the disposal of these people they manifested a degree of generosity and terderness, which is without example. Sir, after providing with fit and proper clothing for a change of cli mate, the assembly sent them to America, and appointed three gentlemen to accompany them thither, with a sum of 25,000l. to purchase lands for their future settlement, and for their maintenance for the first year, after which it is hoped the example of the white people, with whom they are settled, and being removed from the former wild and savage way of life, they may become an useful body of yeomanry. I will add only one word more. Sir, there is now a gentleman in this town, 'who conversed with the Maroons the night before they sailed, and who assures me that they expressed themselves well satisfied with the conduct of the assembly towards them; and declared that having conversed with some American negroes, concerning the country to which they were going, they said they were content to go. I hope, therefore, we shall hear no more of the business. Mr. Wilberforce observed that the Maroons had been for one hundred and forty years on the island of Jamaica, and he conceived that, if not fit subjects of lenity, they were yet fit subjects of instruction. They had been British subjects. But he was yet to learn, whether any steps had been taken to instruct them, or to bring them to a true knowledge of the blessings of Christianity. He did not stand up as the advocate' of the conduct of the Maroons, but he thought the necessary means. had not been taken to make them acquainted with habits of virtue. Mr. Edwards, in reply, said, when he took the liberty of answering the charge of the right ho nourable member over the way, (alluding to Mr. Fox) respecting the faith of the country hav ing been broken; he did so, be cause cause he knew the assertion was not true. Colonel Walpole could not say it had been broke; although he disapproved of the measures against the Maroons. He did not expect, after he had answered one observation, to have another started. Now the planters are accused of not instructing the Maroons in religion, and initiating them in the habits of civilized life. When objections were started, upon speculative grounds, there was no end of them. Were he called upon to deliver his own private opinion upon the subject, he would perhaps disapprove of the mode of confining the Marooos to separate communities; but situated as they were, in this respect, they spoke a language of their own; and of course, being unacquainted with the language of the island, they were not capable of benefitting from the common means of instruction, a circumstance which, of itself, was a sufficient reply to the objection of the honourable gentleman. Their language was a mixture of the Spa nish and another language, which made it impossible to teach them the principles of religion. He thought whoever took it in hand would have hard work to make Christians of them. They were so addicted to polygamy, that it would require the utmost exertion of human ingenuity to confine them to one woman. He was contented with one woman, but he was sure no Maroon was. With regard to instructing them, by sending clergymen ainong them, he believed such an attempt would be impossible, for he did not know any clergyman that would much like to go. To his certain knowledge, the Maroons were cannibals. He was sure, if a clergyman was to be sent to them, in stead of listening to his doctrines, they would eat him up. He believed that, under all these circumstances, the honourable gentleman would have some difficulty to make them converts; but there was no mode of proselytism which he (Mr. Wilberforce) could suggest, that would strike him with surprize, after having once heard him propose, on the moment that a ship arrives from Africa, to send a clergyman, with a pail of water, to baptize all her cargo, without ever previously attempting to instil into their minds the principles of religion, or to inform them respecting the nature and end of the ceremony. Mr. Fox was extremely glad that he had said the few words that he did on the late transactions with the Maroons, as it had given rise to the explanation of the honourable gentleman (Mr. Edwards), which was perfectly satisfactory. After this interesting digression, various resolutions, moved by the secretary at war, for defraying a variety of expences for the public service, were unanimously agreed to. In a committee of supply, on the 2d of December, the secretary at war observed, that the estimates of expences, on the table, that remained to be voted were so much matter of course, and so little different from those of last year, that he did not conceive it to be necessary for him to say more than to move the differ, ent resolutions founded upon them. These resolutions were then moved and agreed to accordingly. On the 7th of December the chancellor of the exchequer produced his annual estimate of the public revenue and expenditure, with a demand of supplies, or what is barbarously call [K 2] ed, ed, his bag or budget. The sum total of the supply required for the year 1797, digested under the heads of the army, the navy, miscellaneous services, diminution of the national debt, ordnance, and deficiency of taxes, amounted to27,647,000l. The ways and means, proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, for raising this supply, amounted to 27,945,000l.: so that there was an excess of ways and means, over the amount of the supply, of 298,000l.+ new taxes were to be laid for raising the interest of former debts to be liquidated, and sums now borrowed or anticipated to the amount of 2,110,000l. The interest on the loan was calculated at 6l. 15s. per cent. The new taxes for raising the interest on public expences, contracted or to be contracted, being stated, § Mr. Pitt said, that these were diffused * Under the head of miscellaneous services were comprehended, besides the various sums usually voted for such services, the sums given for the provision of the emigrant French priests, amounting to For the diminution of the national debt Defraying of land and malt taxes Deficiency of other taxes, after deducting the surplus of grants for L. 378,000 200,000 1,623,000 350,000 1,023,000 1796, which amounted to 420,000l. A vote of credit, which he intended to move for, and which he should 3,000,000 afterwards explain. The ways and means proposed, were, Land and malt tex Produce of the consolidated fund Surplus of grants of 1796 2,750,000 1,075,000 420,000 A voluntary loan Surplus of the lottery, after deducting the sum due upon it to the loyalists 200,000 18,000,000 Exchequer-bills to be issued Total of ways and means 5,000,000 27,945,000 Total of supplies demanded 27,647 Surplus of ways aud means 298,000 For the interest of 13,000,000l. of loan 1,215,000 For interest on 5,000,000l. of exchequer-bills 275,000 For interest on excess of navy debt, beyond the estimate of 1796, ing 8,250,000l. , be-} 315,000 For interest of future excess of navy debt, calculated at 5,702,000l. From this was to be deducted the interest to the subscription to the loan of 200,000l. by the East-India company, therefore the sum of taxes to be provided for would be 2,110,000 The new taxes were as follow. Ten per cent. on teas Ten per cent. on coffee EXCISE. Additional duty on sales by auction, 24 in the pound on estates, and} and 3d. on goods L. 42,0000 30,000 40,000 On |