Star. — London, England, 1819-07-03 00:00:00

great improvement .. gene ration. But he was to be opposed on the ground that there was no precedent for the Motion he was about to make, or if precedents somewhat similar could be adduced, it would be found that they were con nected with public improvements. Without going back to the Adelphi, he could name four or five in-, stassees where Lotteries,had been sanctioned thathad: net far their object any public improvement. The Adamses, he might remark, had been allowed to have recourse to a Lottery, not to effect any public im provement, but to dispose of buildings, which having begun, they found themselves unable to finish. He Might refer to the Pigot Diamond Lottery; to the Lottery sanctioned by Parliament to enable the un fortunate speculators in Pickett-street to pay their debts; and also to a Picture Lottery, recently au thorized. On a recent occasion too, it would be recol lected, that the House had granted a Lottery to the Bankrupts connected with the Bridge at Sunderland. flehiving become a creditor there, had had four tickets in that Lottery, and the House would be stir prized when he read to them the letter which he bad received concerning them. He had not knoWn that it was iu his possession till that morning, when in quiring of one of his family what had gone with the tickets ? they were produced, with an extraordinary note,, which he would read—(The note was from the AsiElgaaes to the bankrupts, and addressed to the cre ditori:' It stated, that having by great perseverance atid private interest, obtained an Act of Parliament foi raising £30,000 by the sale of tickets for a Lot tery, they now required the assistance of the credi tors to dispose of the same, erithoet which the Act stead prove abortive. They proposed that each creditor Shotlid take tickets to the amount of 2s. in the Poundl.---In this note, it would, be seen, there was Absolutely an assertion made that the Solicitor to the Bill had used " private interest," in order to i get • it passed. This would he thought, appear to *Uouseo, as it did to him, to be .a most extraordi miry declaration. In the case immediately before the House, that which the Duke of Kent wished sirti this, that he might be enabled to pay off his debts by the sale of the property beforementioned. —lie could wish every man, from She Prince to the peasant, animated by the same feelings ; and he should not care how many such Lotteries were pro- Posed. His Royal Highness bad for several years bees in the habit of putting aside three-fourths of his income to pay his debts. Half of them had thus been liquidated, and he was willing now t. give up his property to pay the remainder. Not one shilling of tire money so raised would be kept from his creditors, and if it should not be sufficient to satisfy their claims, he would still go on depriving himself of a large pot don of his income as heretofore. He had now done his duty in bringing this subject forward, and it was for the Gentlemen opposite, who had candidly told him that they meant to oppose his motion, to stare' tkir reasons for dCing so. The tlouse of course, if dreiTo agree to the present motion, would not 401 "1 1111 1111.111 r IP".141 pestle Bill till the value of the property was proved. Ifecotat'reded by moving for leave to bring in a Bill to eelable his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent to dais m of ~the Manor-holise Of castlebar, in the parish of , cOtility of Middlesea, by Public Lottery. Mr: ELL was of opinion that the public services of the Royal Duke, the value cf the pro perty, and 'the for Mer Lotteries which had been re ferred to, had nothing to dp with the question now beforethe House. He called upon the House to con :lda what 'Would be the consequencei of sanctioning a principle like that on which the present motion was foundeL'lf on this occasion they favoured a Lot. tery to enable the Duke of Kent to raise £70,000, on what principle could they refuse permission to any other individual to dispose of property in the same way ?—(dear, hear.)—He thought they owed it to themselves not to suffer such a Bill to be brought in. Mr. HUME would be much disposed to concur with the Honourable Member for Marlow in what had just fallen from him, if this had been the first measure of the kind ever proposed to the House, but after five or six such Bills had passed, it was rather odd that it should now for the first time be disco vered that to accede to a motion like that before the House would be to establish a dangerous precedent. The course taken by the Honourable Member near him, who had questioned Ministers on a for nrer oc casion as to what they meant to do with respect to a Private Bill before the Committee reported on it ? was, in his opinion, a proceeding wholly without a precedent. Was it because the Duke of Kent was son to the King that he was to experience opposition that would be offered to no other subject ? If this were not the feeling, why should a question be asked on a topic of which little or nothing could be known. When he (Mr. Hume) applied to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on this head, he had been told that there was no precedent for such an application ; he had, however, found, that the possessor of the Pigot Diamond had been allowed to dispose of it by a public Lottery, and it could therefore only be said that there was no precedent for the application; be cause the applicant was a Royal Duke, attit had not the rights of a humbler subject. The Right Hon. Gentleman, however, had stated in a candid and manly manner, that he disapproved of the applica tion altogether. On finding that there was a pro. cedent, in the case of the Pigot Diamond Lottery, for that which had been desired in favour of the Doke of Kent, he had made a second represeatation on the subject to Ministers, but without effect. For duce years past the Duke of Kent had retained of his income but L'7ooo, the remaining A:17,000 having been regularly set apart for the liquidation of his debts. It was only when it became a question whether he should sell his property or desert the country, that his /loyal Highness had determined on taking the step on which the motion now before the House I was founded: it was then that he said—" I will put myself in the situation of any other subject, apply for' , permission to dispose of my property by a public Lottery, T and I hope Ministers will not refuse my re %nest.' • He was sorry that the approbation of Mi-: nisters had rapt been obtained (for the Chancellor of . 1 t. 4 had had the candour to say his , d unchanged) but he thought Mmes. ice to the Duke, to state the grounds considered him to be entitled to tb had applied. Few perhaps were awa the Duke of nuHloeinhs 1 8, n e madet he Hanover such commoner in that r a i of ,n s 7 t a th h h h e er ee a p yea m r o h b v er l i e j : l l o 7i n n Besd place l not receive a higher allowance from home than his Royal Highness. It would hardly be believed that for five years atter he went abroad, no more than two pistoles a week were allowed him for pocket money. Coming in contact, as he must, day after day, with the sons of wealthy commoners; what could be expected but that he would be coma pelted to borrow ? This he accordingly did. It was indeed in his situation unavoidable, and in 1790, the debts thus contracted amounted to £20,000. Had the, same provision been made for him as for his elder brothers, he meant to pay his debts in an honourable manner, but he was never permited to enjoy the same allowances. From Hanover he was removed to Gi braltar, and from Gibraltar to Canada, where he re mained for some years the Colonel of a Regiment, receiving but a small table allowance. Front 1790 to 1799, exposed to all those calls for charity which never fail to pursue an individual of his exalted rank, it was not to be expected that he could do any thing to reduce his debts. Not only was he incapable of doing this, but they necessarily in. creased. In the year 1793, his Royal Highness Te 4, ceived orders to put himself under the command of Sir Charles Grey, to proceed to the attack of Martinique. , Instead of waiting, as some officers would have done, to be taken up at Canada, in order to avoid unnecesK .ary delay, he immediately proceeded without leer of time, through the United States of America, toirl wards his destination. During this, he had the mis fortune to lose the whole of his equipment on one of the Lakes. For this loss he received no remuneta tion till thirteen years had elapsed. At last, during the administration of Lord Henry Petty, he received the sum of 20001. in consideration of the loss be had sustained, the interest of which alone had cost his Royal Highness 5000/. He knew it wduld be said{ that the Duke of Kent had received a sum of money from the Droits of the Admiralty: This was true, but every shilling of it had gone to his creditors.— At Martinique, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucia, he had distinguished himself, and aftewards returning to Canada, he served there till ill-health compelled him ta leave America for England. It was not, however, till ill-health made it absolutely necessary that he should return, that his Royal Highness 'quitted Ca nada, instead of leaving it as other officers do, with out any such reason to offer. He returned to Eng land, and at last, at the age of 32, he received his Parliamentary allowance of 12,0001. per annum. He was then loaded with a large debt, the interest of which up to that time hz had regularlyipaid, and which he had attempted to reduce by a sinking fund plan, which, however, as in another case, had not prevented the increase of the debt. The House would remark the great distinction made between the Duke of Kent and his Royal Brothers. The Duke of York received his Parliamentary allowance at the age of gl, and a large allowance it was—the Duke of Cla rence, who was only two years older than the Duke ' of Kent, had his Parliamentary allowance when he was 24 years old—the Duke of Kent, as he had al , ready stated, did not receive his till he had attained , the age of 32. Why was this difference made be tween the Royal Brothers? It was the withholding of the allowance of his Royal Highness so long that u as the cause of his getting in debt. It was not by debauchery that he had become involved. Not a shilling had he wasted, unless indeed it were in acts of charity. Some had supposed that, because he was in debt, it followed of course that this must be the result of dissipation and heedless profusion. He de nied that this was the fact. Economy and propriety had marked the Duke's conduct, and the systeM which he had adopted was rot surpassed by that of any private gentleman in that house. In fairness and in justice he would say, that his kcyal Highness was entitled to receive his Parliamentary allowance of 12,000/. per annum for the years which had passed from his being twenty-four years old to his attaining the age of thirty-two. This would be hut 96,0007. and this granted to him his Royal lii;liness would not be one shilling in debt. The Doke °flit nt had not received his Parliamentary allowance when his brothers did, and had therefore beer. unable to pay his creditors, but from the moment of his °ix:alining his present income he had begun to make large sa crifices to get out of debt, but this lie had never been able to accomplish. It had been his misfortune - la Canada to lose 23,000/. at three different times. The burden this had thrown on him claimed every shil ling advanced to him from the Droits of Admiralty, and una'ile to satisfy his creditors w!th his present means, he now came forward to ask no more than any other subject might ask to be allowed to dispose of his own property by a Lottery. After a service of eleven years, his Majesty was pleased to promise his ' oyal Highness the first vacant Government. Gib raltar fell vacant in 1802. He was removed to it, not because he was the son of the King, but because he was entitled to it by his military services. It was well known on what grounds he had• been recalled, y many who did not know the circumstances—it was thought a charge against him that the mutiny had broken out—( Cries of Order.) Mr. CANNING spoke to order. He called upon . the Honourable Gentleman, as a matter of discretion,' to consider if the present motion necessarily led to the discussion of the mutiny at Gibraltar; and he put it to him If it would be well to disturb such topics at that moment. Mr. HUME said, if the Right Honourable Gentle man had known what was to follow, he would not have objected to his speaking of what had taken place at Gibraltar. Mr. CANNING had only spoken of the mutiny, as that which ought not to be touched upon. Mr. HUME knew charges were abroad against his Royal 'Highness on account of the mutiny (Cries of Order!) One cause of the embarrassment of the Duke of Kent arose from the allowances which he was entitled to, -us Governor of Gibraltar, being stopped from him. They were transmitted to Eng, land, but never brought to public account. That sum which his Royal Highness ought to receive went to tome fund or other in England, on which fund he had a fair claim to the amount of such remittances. If these were given to him, and the sums which he ebt, and. have The an excess in his hands of no less than £ 5OOOO. h ii N ad h b e ef :o re ui sh d e p w a n y o h ff is t ito he y w a h l o H le i HonoursbLe Gentleman referr ed to the manner in be entitled , which Ministers had acted by J ames Cockburn, for goihnhersis d to merly Governor of Curaeoa, and contended that it was not too much for him to call on them to do by the Duke of Kent as they had done by others. He (the Duke of Kcnt) had applied to the Government "repeatedly, but withcut success. Before Mr. Pitt died, an arrangement was in contem p lation, which would have enabled his Royal H i g hness to pay off all his debts; but the death of Mr. Pitt prevented this intention from being carried into effect, and all subsequent claims preferred to the Treasury had time, the ineffectual. From 1816 up to the pres ent ime, the Duke of Kent had r e g ularl y set apart £17,000 from his income to liquidate his debts. He deprecated Lotteries as much as any one, and so long as he remained in the House this feeling would be marked by his vote; but the present casehe thought a fair exception. The Duke of Kent %night to be Fa mily. Place him in the same situ ation with the Duke placed on a footing with the rest o f the Royal d Sussex, the least favoured of all the Royal Fa mily. Give him the sums due to him as Governor of Gibraltar, from the fund to which they were paid in England, and.whieh, in the nine yews before lie left Gibraltar, amounted to £9,000 —give him the arrears of his Parliamentary allowance, and he would pay all his debts, and have £50,000 remaining.— Without these, he had no means of paying his credi tors bat by the means now proposed ; and this being known, he (Mr. Hume) was surprised at the manner in which this question had been met. Knowing the Duke of Kent to be pure—knowing the exertions he had privately made, and the motives by which he was animated, he could not but regard his case as a very bard one (Murmurs.) If those who now ex pressed dissatisfaction felt for an individual as he did for the Duke of Kent, they would not disapprove of his warmth. He would detain the House no longer, but he tould not help, for he felt that it was his duty, offering this explanation of the motives, conduct, and situation of the Royal Duke. Lord CASTLEREAGH trusted that the House would view the motion in in its proper light, and agree with him in thinking that it ought not to le -1 ceive it; sanction—(Hear, hear.)—lf the House would agree to .his proposition, he did not know where it would stop. So far as the application came fi om a Prince of the Blood, he was disposed to receive it with respectful attention; but he must avow, that it was the last case of which he would be willing to make a precedent—( Cheers.) The worthy Alder man had alluded to the liberality of the Royal Duke —his patronage and generosity to Charities and Public Institutions. In what a situation was the, Royal Duke placed? How could the House bring itself to contemplate the case which had been brought before it ? Nothing was more repulsive to the mind than to be driven thus to associate with the character of the Royal Duke, a scheme so contemptib:e, as that of having recourse to the eleemosynary partia lity of the public for the purchase of a parcel of guinea tickets--(Loud cheers.) —It would be unneces sary to follow the Hon. Member over the various topics which he had discussed. Wherever the Hon. Member got his authority, he (Lord Castlereagh) worid tell that Honourable Member, that nothing .was more unjustifiable than any insinuation, however remote, which tended to impeach the parental treat ment of the Royal Duke—(Hear,hear.)—No sugges tion was more uncalled for—nqre less in unison with the feelings of the House—(Cheers.)—He would add, that nothing was more painful than to hear compa risons drawn, and contrasts invidiously urged, .be tween the Duke of Kent and his Royal Brothers.— (Hear).—Such topics ought not to have been g one into. Not to speak of other periods, there was a time during the administration of Lord Grenville— the situation of the junior branches of the Royal Fa mily were brought into formal consideration. Had his Royal Highness claims to urge, that would have been his time. But at this time of day, it was too bad to be reviving questions involving so many de licate considerations, nand characters who should not lightly be subjected to public view. Whatever the Hon. Member might think, the illustrious Father of that Royal Duke knew how to conduct the edu cation of his son, and was capable of discerning the proper time when he should present him to Parlia ment for a proper provision—(Cheers).—That Royal Duke bad many advantages which the Duke of Cla rence never enjoyed—he had the emoluments of his Government in Gibraltar for 19 years. His allow ance was successively increased to £24,000 a-year, being about £ll,OOO more than that of the Duke of Clarence. But in whatever light the relative situa tions of the Royal brothers may be found to exist, it was enough for the House to know, that this was an application that, consistently with every feeling of a public and private nature, ought to be discouraged. 1 :b ti e ii s s t r f e r s ie pe n d ai s w ai l l i d o w m h o o s t e n w d • His Royal Highness may yet feel, that they were his l o y ur o e p d po to se t d ea li c i h s h w i i s sh c e o s un i a . ar ea rn v ~sellors that this was not the manner in which the Duke of Kent should be treated—(L ou d cheering) 'Mr. HUME,In explanati on , sa id, h e h a d meant to draw no invidious comparisons between the ' • situations of the Royal Dukes, nor to throw any reproach o n been the his Majesty. He understood it t o have pri vate intention of the King, before his lamented ill ness, to interfere in behalf of the Duke of Kent. Mr. FORBES supported the motion. He thoug ht the case deserved the attention of t h e House, and hoped, if unsuccessful now, the Mover and Seconder would bring it forward again early in • the ensuing Session, by which time he thought the public would be prepared to take a very different view of the ques tion. He contended the Duke of K ent h a d not been treated as the other branches of the Royal Family had been. He wished him placed on the . same foot ing with them, and he wished also the same anxiet y to get honourably free of debts unavoidably incurred, which was displayed by his R o y a l High ness , was more frequently witnessed. He contended that his allowances had been inadequate, and reminded the House of the inducements h e l d out to the Royal Dukes to marry some eighteen months ago, when a general alarm prevailed lest the succession should g o out of the direct Brunswick li ne . These remem bered, they ought now to be liberal, and avoid op posing the present motion. Sir C. BURRELL observed, that it had been stated by an Honourable 'Member, ttat his Royal High had refused, for the payment of his debts, a coati:,ct which he, for one man, thought would have been 'most advantageous. It had been said, that his Ituval ' Highness disposed yearly of 127,000 for that pi a . pose, reserving to himself onlyl"7,(XX) pqr annum. Now, on referring to varies's authentic documents, he found that his allowances were. Out of the Consolidated Fund - For his salary, as Govitnor of Gibrahar Parliamentary grant, last year 0,-t o Besides some additional allowances for clethi:v,.;, to which, in common with other heads of regin.c he was entitled ; and for his sogiment sornztl more than 11600, making altogether Ez,1,'.2 . 75. '1 Honourable Member had spoken ofehis Royal lii XlB,OO cow ness's income as 1:21,000. Mr. HUME, in reply, begj the Honour thl..y ronet.to consider that the grant which he haci :dimd to of 0,000, was to br considered as only for 1. current year—(Hear.). Having' been voted erly year, he (Mr. Hume) was justified in tak;n7 the • as stated; £17,000 were a pplied by the Duk. , lignidation of his debts, and the remaining were so reserved as he had mentioned. Loid LOWTHER thought the Honourable ber should have taken the advice which -v.:s him, to withdraw his motion. He who ro often stood forward as the deprecator of Lotlejes, oi!;1:t not to have proposed one on so 'ungracious a subj:Lt. The Duke of Kent had received a grant snore 2.~~ ~t )i ago, which was understood to be for the in.'s of baggage. If this Bill was allowed to Frocezd ther, he should think it hi, ditty to say soinetliiiK; ftirther against it. Mr. Alderman WOOD disclaimed the idea cf bringing for.vaTd this measure with any such view as that supposed by the Noble Lord on the Treasury Bench—namely, that of rewarding the alke ai Kent for his exertions in the cause of public charity. Fir these exertions indeed his Royal Highness saes entitled for a higher and more dignified reward. hat his Royal Highness himself had in fact' no concern whatever in bringing forward this measure, for it Was pressed upon him (Alderman Wood) by others— namely, by the Trustees for liquidating the Dule's debts-4 Some coughing). The worthy Alderman here requested the House to favour hini with a little cf i:s attention, in order to save time, as he was determined ' never to sit do;vn, whatever interruption ,he 'need, when he had' any thing to say which he telt it his duty to submit to the consideration of that Hout:l —View, hear). The worthy Afeiet man concluded by expressing his consent to withdraw the motion. Lord CASTLEREAGH expressed his satisfaction to find that the illustrious personage alluded to Was no party to a measure of this nature. Mr. GRENFELL declared that in what he had said upon this subject he was not actuated by aq persOnal motive whatever,—Motion withdrawn. ... irtettrrpr4r-r- - - -- "" 4 " - " , , ~ • : ... . • , . ,4 ' 1 • . 10 % • ... ' . (# the Exchequer 1 '., v. e was at the head of almost all the ition,rernainesi .t ' * :• ; , • City, and so much was his time oc- boa in Judie ' 3 •""" ..Mat there was hardly a day in which on sihich •he ct ••••••• • ,4 , 1. , , $-. r. ~ e d u pon to 2 Kend a charity sermon or for which be hs ,t‘'' 1=• .. '" ~: t).!—(A kagh )—This might excite a that at the age -.• '• - "t i ..:. ; but he would say to those who indulged in Kent went to E it, "go thou and do likewise -" and, if this advice Guard, when SI were taken, he was confident ihe effect would be, a that there was 1 tritest improvement in the morals of the rising gene- place who did • , . .., ~.! . • 411 0 ' 0 11. 10 % • 1 . . . MR. H. SWAWN. Mr. C. HERVEY presented a Petition from this Gentleman, praying that the House would give direc tions that Mr. Serjeant ti ho was his ccnfidential Counsel upon the Election Committee for l'enryn, should be released irom his engagement by the At ' torney-General, to conduct the prosecution against him for bribery, at the next Assizes for Cornwall. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL observed, that an application to this effect was made to the :Attorney- General • but he thought proper to refuse it, on the ground ;hat the learned Serjeant alluded to was the principal law Serjeant on the circuit for conducting crown prosecutions; and also that he had conducted the prosecution some time ago against Sir C. Haw kins, although the learned Serjeant had had the same relatiou to Sit Christopher on the Committee which gave birth to the prosecution that he had lately held with the petitioner. Besides, the learned Serjeant having attended the consultation of the Crown Law yers upon the subject of this prosecution, he could not, with any degree of consistency, be discharged from his engagement for the Crown, so as to become the advocate tor petitioner. Mr. WYNN was not aware what kind of relief the' petitioner could receive. The House had instructed the Attorney-General to commence a prosecution against him, and thq conduct of that proceeding must, therefore, be left to that Law Officer. The petition was then rejected without a division. CANADA. Mr. F. DOUGLAS, seeinit an Honourable Gentle man in his place;begged to now if the commotions which had existed in North America, and alluded to on a former night, might be considered as now sup pressed ? Mr. GOULBURN replied, that he had stated, on the night alluded to, that measures had been institu ted by Government for . the maintenance of order in the Settlements where these commotions had pre vailed, and that there was every reason to expect that they would prove effectual. Mr. BENNETT wished to know if Government were in possession of the proceedings which took place upon the trial of the person who was con demned and ordered for execution in these Settlements? Mr. GOULBURN replied, that Government was not in possession of an official copy of the trial. CAMELFORD ELECTION. Mr. D. W. HARVEY, after observing that enough of time had been allowed for the consideration of this case, to enable every Member to make up his mind upon it, moved that the Report of the committee on this Election be taken into consideration this day six months. •Mr. WYNNE thought such a course as that now proposed would be very inconvenient, and; alluding to the situation of William Hallett, now in custody, and to the circumstance that no writhad been issued for the election of a new Member for this Borough, moved as an Amendment, that the Report of the Committee be taken into further consideration ort- Monday next, when Mr. Hallett should be called be fore the House. Mr. M. A. TAYLOR thought the House cugl:t to proceed immediately to this Report, and he intemled to move an Amendment to that effect. Lord CASTLEREMiII rose to order, and The SPEAKER suggested, that there was a mo tion and amendment before the House, which mu .t be disposed of before any other amendment could be proposed. Mr. M. A. TAYLOR proceeded to say that no care had been made out against the Borough general:-, yet the House was called upon to suspend the issuing of the writs for an indefinite period. The Committee had made no report against the Boronsh, yet it was