Sir HENRY MILDMAY did not think £10,000 at all adequate. Had Jenner kept his secret he might have made at least £100,000. He moved that he should have £20,000.
Mr. WINDHAM said the petitioner had surrendered his discovery to his country, and was therefore entitled to remuneration. The discovery had been the labour of years and the fruit of extensive practice.
Sir JAMES SINCLAIR ERSKINE was assured that Jenner had expended £6000 in the propagation of his discovery, and if he had £10,000, he would be left with no more than £4000. Besides, he had given up a practice of £600 a year to benefit his fellow-creatures.
Mr. COURTNEY observed that the evidence showed that 40,000 men would be annually preserved to the State by the New Inoculation. These would return £200,000 a year to the Exchequer, and if the Petitioner had only a tithe of that sum for one year, he was entitled to £20,000.
Mr. WILBERFORCE stated that Jenner had spent upwards of twenty years in completing his discovery. He was no adventurer seeking to push himself before the world. He had already attained to great celebrity in his profession, and had sacrificed his practice for the public good. In every view he thought the larger sum ought to be granted.
Mr. GREY thought £10,000 would be no more than an indemnity for expenses. He hoped the House would vote for £20,000.
Mr. BANKS said there was no question as to the utility of the discovery. If he felt more niggardly than other members, it was because his paramount duty consisted in guarding the public purse. That purse was a large one, but it was not to be dipped into at pleasure. The strength of the country lay in economy and sound finance. He did not see that a case had been made out for so large a sum as £10,000. The discovery itself might be trusted to pay its author. He always looked on a Report of a Committee with jealousy, for it was controlled by the friends of the Petitioner, and there was no one with sufficient motive to provide the correctives required in the public interest.
Mr. ADDINGTON, Chancellor of the Exchequer, held that the value of the discovery was without example, and beyond calculation. So much, indeed, was not contested. The Petitioner had received the highest reward in the approbation, the unanimous approbation of the House; an approbation richly deserved, since it was the result of _the greatest discovery since the creation of man_. Whatever money the House might see fit to vote on some future occasion, his present duty was to recommend the smaller sum of £10,000. In doing so, he admitted, he surrendered his private inclination to his sense of public duty. He had, however, the satisfaction in knowing that this discussion had conferred on Dr. Jenner a reward that would endure for ever, whilst the comfort of his family would be amply ensured in the extension of practice that would follow the approbation of the House.