Star. — London, England, 1816-04-03 00:00:00

had been dune upon•tbe *races orate , be could inform the How' up to the old of the last year. Contingencies, mentioned by Mr. laid on the Table. brought up a Petition from the town of, -.4 the Butter trade. Laid on the rabic•. tsked, if :particular consignment of sugar . the wed , ad been confided to Messrs. R. and W. - tersltdasil. to whom ichad been made? cHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER replied in the alkosit ive • on an early day L o w ALTHORPE gave notice that he would. n H o hdays, move for leave to bring in a. Bill to repeal the Ott"' A n dodo on Les...er. SAVINGS BANKS. • y r yr. ROSE should not long detain the House •in c alling the ir attention to an important subject. He a loded to Savings Banks for the industrious and la boring classes. Many artisans, not knowing hos e a) ( twist their earnings, had spent what they received 4 . 1 d h a d no resource in case of illness. He was much o bli g ed to the Gentlemen of Diimfriesshire and at Bath /owing brought Savings Banks into use. It had bana mutter of dispute who' had been the first in• w oof of these Banks, but it was of no consequence i f i t was beneficial to the public.. If men would de- . r la shilling per week, they might be able , before io years o t age, to establish themselves comfortably. li e remembered one instance of a person, who had, before g 5 years of age, accumulated £lOO, though b r evet had more than 10s. per week at one time. uone p l a ce where a bank had been establ.shed, there r ad ben £l7 depcsi!si in the course of the first au ,. He considered, that the plan would be of much benefit if it had the sanction of Parliament.' It would ii ci ot into the people a 'spirit of real independence, a nd stake them better men and better subjects. In 17 sp the poor-rates were upwards of one million, and ' no th ey were upwards of • six millions. this mea. sere hell ad tvery reason to believe would diminish toe rates. He had dot the Bill ready to 'produce, tube should now move for leave to bring iu a Bill for the protection of Bauks for savings. hlr. THOMPSON, thought the motion would be , spred to, and had great hope that the propasition au eld give much relief to the poor. The Right Ho ;oursble Gentleman had been the means of bringing f?trarst a Bill for Benefit Societies, which, however ilscy eight in some instances have been abused, were of great utility. He only hoped, that the Right lion. Gentleman would make his plans as simple as risible. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER thought, that the Bill would be of great benefit.— Tbe independence of the poor must be the result of aheiroon exertions, and their comfort would be ma terially increased. This proposition, and the gene rally diffused plans for the education of the poor, would effect a very great reform in the lower classes. Mr. ROSE stated, that there were 700,000 mem bers of benefit societies, and he thought that though there had been some impositions practised, much be nefit would result from LW, adoption. After some observations from Sir J. NEWPORT, leave was given. CAPTAIN MANDY. Mr. CURICTEN alluded to the meritorious eon• , dna of Captain Nlanby, and for the purpose of see ing what advantage had been taken of it, he begged lure to move fur a copy of all correspondence be-1 men the Secretary of State for the Home Depart -1 Lent, and Captain Mauby, relative to the steps taken for extending the measures of saving lives from idifiwrecks, by communication with the shore.—• Or. &led. rery thing had Vitateotiote . ofhb 7 1 6, piepurg. were mad e —OK Viers Ma Jur to R oy sere breught up and BKOUOKA brong S) n o r the pruteciion" Mr-URCWOHANt wawa - —h. Wastandica, bad b' MALT DUTIES. Mr. WESTERN begged leave to ask the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, whether he had decided on yr! arringe cuts Tweeting the mode of remitting the Malt The CIiANC-ELLOR of the EXCHEQUE R teplicd, that he had a Ell in preparation respecting that prni,(, which he would• to-morrow submit to the onsidEration of the House. He, therefore, moved, that the House re.oive itself into ii Committee of the whole House to-ntorrow, to consider of the mode of ninittiks Nl.ilt Duties.—Ordered. TKPASt'ItY CONTINGENCIPS. Sir.lol-IN NEWPORT moved, that thi detailed *mums of the Treasury Contingencies, as presented tothetiouse, s'sould be printed. • Mr. TIERNEY said, that he would not faithfully toe discharged tiis duty to the country, Litre did not " 1114 autiaion of the House to one item in those acauhts. The papers . presented last week to 'Palle.' °ItOT, swing the increased diminution of Salaries in, 61 T:sultry Departnients, had represented the sit.' 14 1 of Mr. H irriscm, Assistant-Secretary of the' Treasury, as increased from 63,000 to £1,500 per ham. No on- c. , ,u151 more readily acknowledge' sense of (!;e intezr;ty and abilities which Mr. Harrison hal evtr displayed in that office than he , did, but he felt himself imperiously called upon not to suff i x any thing to pass unobserved that in the 'ort,eavuured tit:necessary expense. The office of iissietani•Secraary was originally taken by Mr. iianison at £2,000 a year, which had since been in "se, d to esmoo. 'Stich . 41 salary, he conceived, fully adequate for any Assistant-Secretary, no matter I_ 4l ;ngy be his talents, particularly as the Principal ntary had only £l,OOO. The item in the papers , "mitt, to which- he partieolirly alluded, was a "uitY of &UV) to the same Mr. Hzrrison for his l i er:torious serv i ces . Grai : nities were often given, !atilt/ter to a s um of th at e x te nt ; and if the Trea nrY assumed such a power of granting at its good r4an 'e le51100,• why might it not as well grant 10 1 '' 411 5.000, and where would such proceedings step ? • tcntingent fund for the year in that department via £15 4X 1 0 vete.' in the aggregate ; and had he n c 't moved for th e d eta il e d account , the House would ''t have known of this grant. It was not his inten rt proceed further on this point ; to say the truth , ..._°^ l i motion he could m a ke. would be one of irn .• `nment ; and such a motion, p r oceeding from him, I tin perhaps b e attr ib ute d to party motives. There we re, however, many Gentlemen who had recei v ed t ied instructions from theiiConstituents to keep e ~et watch over the public expenditure, and it was iialprubabl e t h at some one o f th e m might think Ttn dlbound to preceed n it.—(Nsee Clswelkr q tie E L. jc""iffier I/tang—Thy Right awl. Gentle. r f aAll or ' c ontinued Mr. Tierney, mig"t spore his mirth , the rarely the detection of a svelte proceeding like Present, was notof a nature ea txcite merrimen t., Itt ( Ve d the m atter would be b ro ught forward by iti "giber, .'nd sifted to the beam. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEVUER, conceived that the remarks of the Right Honourable Gentleman had been more proper, if deferred until the business had been brougha regularly before the House. The Right Honourable Gentleman had re presented.this.as a detection of a secret transaction ; but every thing had been conducted according to the usual proceedings of Parliament. The accounts were always made up in such a manner as to embrace all the contingent expenses in one sum, and then if any Member taillight proper to move for the details, he would have experienced the same facility as had been shewn on the present occasion. The Right Honour able Gentleman had remarked, on his having smiled on hearing his extreme delicacy in not submitting a motion himself, and at the same time iving pretty broad hints to others to proceed on it. He, however, would feel some consolation in falling under able hands, and not perishing under a less !nighty anta... He stated that Mr. Harrison had, in 1805, been appointed by Mr. Pitt to his situation in the Treasury, at £2,000 a-year, with a promise of an eventual increase of IESOO at the expiration of five years. The Gentleman had been of the profession of the law, and had sacrificed considerable prospects, by accepting the office. In 1807, Lord Grenville was so well ..satisfied of Mr. Harrison's merits, that he thought proper to anticipate the time of service laid down by . Mr.. Pitt, and gave him the increase. In 1809, the business of the office had increased so much, that it was thought proper to make a second increase of £500; and now the Lords of the Trea sury, in consequence of some extra-official dirty of Mr. Harrison, have increased the salary by another £5OO during the continuance of that business. The , salary of W.OOO he conceived burly adequate for a jeer arrsr , t situation—but during the war Mr. Rani son bad peifonued much extra duty, for which he bad received no remuneration. In 1814, he applied to the Lords of the Treasury for some compensation; and they, considering the state of his circumstunces, his family, and his ill state of health, thought the best mode of ccimpensation was to give him a sum. of money, and that sum they raced at £5,000- He contended that the Lords of the Treasury enjoyed the undoulsted right of making, this erazitity, and that there were many precedents for it. Mr. TIERNEY, that he should not seem to take any advantage of the :Right Honourable Gendeman, desired that the Clerk might mad the. minute of Treasury relating to the affair. This beiniF done— • Mr. MEL HUEN-begged leave to ask, if, during the illness of Mr. Harrison, any extra salaries had been paid to assistaats? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQtJER said, that if the Honourable Member had attended to the minute just read, be would have seen that an extra salary had been granted. Mr. WYNNE commented strongly on .the irnpro, priety of making such a grant, without the consent of Parliament. Lord CASTLEREAGH 4. claret. that there was no intention to conceal the circumstance from. the House. There had been many precedents of this nature, is which persons had been rewatded by he Tneasury for extra labour, and he had no doubt, when the House was made acquainted with time es-' tent and importance of the duties performed by Mr. Harrison, that' they would not consider tie Treasury had exercised the power vetted in them, o: making grants of this description, in an uuwarralitalile or culpable manner. Mr. J. I'. GRANT observed, that he did not mean to enter at length into this question at present; yet he trusted he might be permitted to sty, that althotTgh no imputation might justly rest uptum the Right Ho. nourable Gentleman an.l the' Noble Lurd on this oc cilium, yet the course .hey litcl taken with respect to tnis grant, showed no great desire .o attract the at. tention of the House; and they most have well known that it was a subject which was eminently cal culated tti excite inquiry, it it appe ired in the shape M which, mn point of fact, it ought to have appeared. No man was niore•;anxitus than he was liberally to reward public servants but he could not aporove Of the principle of rewarding one public scream, when it %V.ts not possible to reward others who might - Ist! equally meritorious, and have equal claims:; I'ONSONBY was satisfied that the Legisla. tare, in vesting a power in the Treasury to reward their servants tar extra labour, never had it in con templation, that under that poaer they 'shoal.' mdse such enormous g r a ms as that to which the attention of the House had nov been called. He thou ghat his breacho of a guilty.f ..Majesty'sbdinistess had been d uty in not stating this grant in such a way as to meet the attention of the House, so that they might inquire into its fitness or unfitness. The papers were then ordered to be printed. POOR RATES. Sir ROBERT HERON moved for leave to bring in a Bill, for amending certainclaases in an Act re cently poised respecting the Lincoln Poor R•ttes.— He was not aware of any good which resulted from particular local Acts respecting Poor kat:, as be thought the Act of the 22d George 11. was admi rably suited to every case. After a painful recitsl of the miserable state of the workhouse in that city, be mentioned that there were far cells strongly guarded with iron bolts, not for the reception of lunatics, but fbr the punishment of such ror per;ons as might fall into any transgression. In each of tlie.e there were strong iron staples in the wall and floor. to which the poor delinquent was chained. Among. several instances of cruelty, the worthy Baronet men tioned, that a Chelsea pensioner, 70 years of age and totally blind, had been, for a whole fortnight, chain ed to the floor b:cause he bad been drunk I—(Near, hear.)--That a very young girl, having contracted a certain disease, bad been chained in a similar manner to the Moor, lest she should contaminate others. One chain fixed round her body had been weighed. and would the House believe him when he stated, it was no less than 28'pouhds weight! I These facts he pledged himselt were true. He moved, therefore, for ie...ve to bring in a Bill for amending the present. Act.-- , [The House expressed, in the mist decided wanner, its strong abhorrence of such unparalleled . cruelty in this country Mr. ROSE ..xpri.sst:d his approbation of the prin ciple of the But, but stated some objections to the mode ni wni,h h. tt..n. Baronet MAUI to Carry it into edect ; 111(.11 b.r K. tifr.:KON. r:pbed. Mr. iaewinwar a Su 4,imuss. Rossuin and Sir tarncrs. dwelt at considerable length.on the meet. sity of making wore change in the existing system 01 Poor Lawi.—Leave was then granted. , Sir.R. HERON immediately brought in the B;11, which was reed a brit time, and , ordered to be read a second time on 'ruesday, w and to he printed. PUBLIC ACCONTS. Mr. W. WYNN moved" That there should he laid before the House an account of all 5411115 paid lit way of contingencies, during tile last ten years, in the Officts of the Treasury, Secretary of 5t..1.44 ling, Admiralty, Stamps, War Office, Army Prize, Customs and Excise, Navy Pay, and Ordnance."— Ordered. DUTIES ON FOREIGN WINES. Mr. SHARPE presented a petition from certain importers and dealers in f?,reign wines, praying Oat the duties on foreign wines might be reduced. The CHANCELLOR. of the EXCHEQUER begged to state, before the Petition was laid on the table, that a deputation of the Petitioners had waited upon him to make the same prayer which their Petition contained, stating that a diminution in the duties on wine would increase the-revenues of the country. He had told them, however, that he en tertained a different view of the subject, and that if he was disposed, .or could, c ons i s te nt ly with the cir cumstances of the country, reduce any duty, it would 'be some one that affected the lower order of the peo ple, some necessary of life, and not one that affected the luxuries of life.—(Hear. The Petition was then ordered to lie on the table. OFFICERS' TABLE AT ST. JAMES'S. Sir M. RII)LEY rose to submit a modem to the House, to which he apprehended there would be.no objection—it was fur an account of toe contracts en tered into or supplying the Officers' table at St. James's—the , um p.tid to the suss -contractor, toge ther with the names In the contractors. The CHANCELLOK of the EXCHEQUT:R thought he could state a circumstance whits), at..uld preclude the necessity of the lion.iurable Ihtionet's nviti , n— i•h,ch was, that an order had been issued for Discontinuing the °dicers' table at St. James's, in lieu of which sn Dr comp e nsation was to be pude to the ().deer..—( flew ) • Sir M. in consequence of this intima tion, withlrea his twition. IIF:\IISSMS PfIOSECUTIONS. Mr. BROUGHAM lose, in pill stiance of his no tice, to stib.iitt to the attention of the liouse a sub ject Witco, in his apprcheosion, demanded the seriints consideration of every or in who regarded the corn ' merci il, the financial, a:,d what was of much greater importance, the constitutional interests of the coun try : he aAucled to the great change ....Inch was ef. 'crew.' within the List two years in the laws of this kingdom, with res t ect to the collection of its reve nue. Ia order to sunder the mition with which he should conclitle upon this subject intelligible, he should take the lihe.ty of statiee, whit the law was before the event to waich he alio hid taken place. should promise, that toe whole ant 'u:,r ut the re venue of this c-tri•l v. arising front eu:ies on articles imported, amounted to no less a stun than forty-three noiTions, upon. the importance of the law , concerning the collection of which he thought it %Was unnecessary to m 'lce one tomment. It was, of course, known that in former times e‘e whole of this enormous re v..nue was-collected under Iwo great heads, namely, of Excise arid Customs. and.. under. the controulA Commissioners. who held thi-ir oftizes for life, .or du ring their rod behavionr. These persons were taken trout that independent ego of society. who, beside being possessed of property, were Men of such in telltiAce and inforntatiOn as fully warranted the discretionary power which was placed in theni,, to consider and decide upon all tevenue Among other important branches which their dory embraced, was the con:roul which they•had over 2 1 . prosecutions against persons alledged to ha 7e corn mitted any breach of the Revenue Laws—Laws which of themselves v:err so extensive as to f1:1 three or tour of • the. Statute Books. To their discretion, however, . and that of the A:torney General, as the adviser of the Cr.twii, the ,expediency of foregoing prosecutions und.:r those Statutes Was intrusted.— This power was subject to a limitation' °la material d nair.ely, first, that their power should only he exercised before judgment given in the Court of ExclieVer ; *secondly, that they slunild only have the powerof excusing persons, and of restoring pro perty, where it appeared that the breach of the Re venue Laws hid not taken place from a honnfide frau dulent intention, but from a mistake ;—and the last and most important limitation was, that their dis cretion did not extend to the breach of the Navigation Laws. The House would naturally see the great importance of the trust thus vested, and at the same time the propriety of placing such powers in the hands of independent men, who were unconnected with his Majesty's Government, and could not be influenced by an; changes which might take place in Government., In this state the law continued till the month of July, 1814., when it appeared that tie two Houses of Par liament passed aau which had received' the Royal Assent, and which, in extent, did not exceed half a page of one of the Journals on the table, the eff.vt of which was totally to alter the old Constitutional reve- nue laws of the country, and to vest in the Lords of the treasury that po suer, which had previously been confided to the Commissioners of Customs and Ex cise, without any Of these limitations by which the power, when in their hands,. had been exercised., Every thing had, in fact, been swept away, and the, Lords Commissioners of the Treasury had assumed to themselves cite paramount right of deciding on all cases of prosecution, whether judgment had been given or not—whether frauds were intentional or accidental. In fact, .they had . taken upon them selves the whole judicial power, witnegord to the collection of a revenue amounting to forty-three mil lions--and tins too without one word of discussion, or a single remark, indicative of the feelings of the House on MI great and important a change.— ' The truth was, that the Bill had been introduced on the 19th of July, after the hour of.twelve at night, and had subsequently passed through all its stages, without the House receiving any intimation of its ob ject ta. tendency. Thus had the rights of the public been compromised, and every meicbaitt in thi coun try w.:s placed at the hazard of becoming a suitor at the door of the fte.isury, a circumstance not a little imporunt in the scale of ministerial influence. It now appaired, that those abuses, which would nata -1 rail; bum suggested themselves to the Home, had the object of the Bill, •vebea k Mai introduced, -beat known, had occurred, and the object of his motioer • would he, first, to call for a rigorous inquiry into those'elsuses, which he thought the Kruse would be blind not to concede, when they heard the Cases he had to state--and next, if those abuses were fiund to have takeu place, which he had no hesita;jou so stating he shoulst be enabled to prove, that the Honor should express its opinion on the conduct of Govern ment. The Hon. Gentleman then proceeded to state • the cases to which he adverted. He commenced wi,h that Of Mr. Davie, common brewer, of Lyme Regis. This. Mr. Davie had incurred penalties under the Er. ' site Laws, to a large amount. On proceedings bring taken against him, a verdict, on the 4th aline, was obtained, probably mitigated by consent, for 4100. The first attempt made'by Mr. Davie to obtain a re mistion of this penalty was by a memorial presentitt r the Treasury on the 13th of June. This memo. rial was backed by a letter to one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, a Right Hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Arbuthnot) from a Noble Lard, a Member of the other House of Parliament. This letter was as follows: "Dear Arbuthnot—l have received' the inclined letter frill& Mr. Devi*. of Lyme, hawing that the circumsainees he stases may be attended to, and that Ma ease may be folly ant faltiV laid before the Lords of the Treasury, when tbe7 give their j.id ;meat upon It. 1 am, ramie, very sincerely, • (.hoto!) . " Augun IS, Itl4. " WEETAIOICLA ND." .He (Mr. Brougham) certainly admitted that ifiere were no grounds in this letter for asserting that the Noble Lord was rash enough to apply fottavour to wards'Mr. Davie on the reasons stated in the memo rial. The Noble Lord (for lie was desirous Hot to overstate the case) merely desired that the atren•ion of the Lords of the treasury might, be directed to the subject. The cAnscrovice of this application ',as, that the Lords of the Treasury referred tre whole !natter to the Board of Excise, to consider aad report, thereon. Of the favour thus conferred on him, Mr. Davie was duly sensible, for k a letter immediately afterwards he expressed his sense of his obligation to the Noble Lord in the toilowing words r—.. 1 all ex ceedingly obliged by your Lorafriip's kinaitess:" and itt another.letter, dated August 15, he said, .. I shall esteem it as tiie greatest favour it your Lord ship wail mention this circumstance to either of the Lords of the Treasury, before their decision is passed upon the memorial, and your Lord ship's influ.nice (supposing with the ignorance and simplicity of the country people on such occasions, that undue influence was scmdinser exercises in the various public departments) will have great weight, and will be most gratefully acknowledged by my father and family." Although the explanation might elucidate this transaction, he (Mr. Brougham) felt that he was not at liberty to state the connexion that subsisted between the Noble Earl and the Borough of Lyme Regis. . Several other Memorials were'pre. -Dented by-Mr. Davie, and referred from time to time I by the Lords of the Treasury to the Board of Excise. —The Report of the Board was communicated to Mr. Davie, who furnished the materials for replying to it, paragraph by paragraph. Finding, however, that his affair did not go on so well as he expeCted, Mr. Davie (being, as lie (Mr. Blougham) before ob served, one of those simple ignorant beings whi) be lieved in the existence of undue influence) thought it just as well to have two strings to his bow, and there fore applied to the Member for the County, Mr. ,Meseton Pitt, through the medium of a Mr. Fisher, an attorney, whose letter, with a fresh Memorial on the part of Mr. Davie, was transmitted by Mr. Pitt to Mt. Lushington with the following note, Which shelved that he had interposed on the subjecsebef ore : gi My Dear sir--t fnrgot before I left London to send you the two inciosed Papers, which I mentioned to you one night coming .00t of the Hou,e of Commons. The writer of the letter, Mr. Fisher, is anion respectable Solicitor in Lyme. " Your., most truly, • (Signed) " D2C2Mber sB, 1814 " W. M. l' . 111'." - After this came another letter of acknOwledgriienc from Mr. Davie to the Noble Lord, the concluding paragraph of which ruins class— ., boor Lordship's interest and influence on our behalf will most deeply.engage the warmest gratitude of my tether, and of • " Your Lordship's most obti d ed and very humble servant, (Oigned) " ).S. Darla." On a further reference of these papers to the B.iard of Excise, a final Report was made by that Bo.;rd, adverse to Mr. Davies wishes. With that. decision the" Lords of the Treasury had complied. The BOard refuted all the arguments in Mr. Divie's.MemCiiial, declaring also that all the representations which had been made in his favour were unfounded, and' ex pressed their hope that the judgment which had been given against ham would not be set aside upon any es-park, or extra judicial proceeding. The Report concluded by saying —a We shall think it our dpty to proceed in due course of law, unless, as we trust win not be the case, we should receive your Lord ships' positive orders to forbear." The Lords of the ' Treasury at length submitted, after having thus at tour several times treferred the consideration of the subject to the Brard of Excise, notwithstanding the unequivocal opinion whiCh they had received from that Board in the first instilice, and notwithstanding the deciiion of the Court of Exchequer. : The result had been neither more nor less than a most substan tial advantage to Mr. Davie. For, in contequence of the delays arising from theinteiferente in his favour by the Noble Earl and by Mr. Moretoitl'ite-- the first his friend in the botough of Lime, the second the Member for the county of Dorset, in whiCh t':e borough of Lyme was situated. Mr. Davie obtaiii ed, in the first instance, a delay of eleven months, during Writ time the proceedings agaiast him were stayed ; add, ultimately, wl}en the Lords of the teasury.relused to tempi), with, his prayer totally tO remit the penalties which he had i ncurr ed; t h at lir !refusal, with a view to render it less galling, was ac. 'cOnspanied with another decay of two months, in ord er to enable him to pay the penalties with more facility. Next to an - absolute remission, that delay was'the greatest favour that Mr. Davie could receives . and the whole detail of the' 'transaction bore him (Mr. Brougham) out in the assertion that that favour Kr. D a vie would Rot have experienced, bad he not, to use a vulgar expression-:-44 had a -friend at Coon." The neat - case to which be should advert, was that re John Abbot, common lie*, of Canterbury. It ap peared that Mr. Abbot hidleette. a ged as a brewer for nearly thirty years, ea.:fillet a bbootu two years ago a prosecution warcorninenett by ' Board of Erma against him, for having Mixed vi ' aod.othe; Me. terioos matters in die, beer whin k brewed. at *go quantity of that most.poiionmas sidiewalhaving_heen . found on his premises. It was 'maws to die House t X to Id