Star. — London, England, 1813-05-21 00:00:00

,s 4 period of twenty ear had elapsed, with their wit nesses dead and proofs lost ? In his opinion, the pub lic faith was pledged to give compensation to these persons ; and the - House could not refuse it without acknowledging that it was ban b krupt both in subitance and in honour. Mr. WILBERFORCE thought that, where the interest of individuals was sacrificed to the interest of the State, the State at large was bound to make that loss good. Such was the case in the present instance, and therefore he was in favour of the original motion. If this was a large sum of money for the State to pay, it was 3 still larger sum for individuals to lose. Lord CASTLEREAGH agreed, that if the jus tice of the claim of these individuals could be esta blished, the magnitude of the sum could not be con sidered as an object. He, however, agreed perfectly in all the arguments which had been advanced by his Right Hon. Friends (Mr. Bathurst and Mr. Vansit tart) against the claims being granted, which, con sistent with justice towards the State, he was of opi nion could not be justified. These persons had given up all hopes of recovering any part of their claim at the time Lord Liverpool undertook their cause, and thereicre when he received £600,000 of this bad debt for them, could it be supposed that Lord Liverpool, or the parties themselves, contemplated.that he was saddling the State with a debt of £860,000. When Lord Liverpool recovered for these persons £600,000 which they never expected, was it imagined, that by so doing a claim would be given to them to come and d.p their hands in the public purse for the re mainder? if such a doctrine were once established, it would render Government exceedingly careful how it iinei iered rn behalf of individuals in future. For these reasons he should oppose the motion. Mr. FINLAY conceived, that the debts due by the MerchaLts had been assumed by the two Govern ments in ilieir conveations.• ' The amotiot of the claims of the British Merchants was perfectly known by loud Liverpool at the time of the last convention. Mr. MARItYAT observed, that in questions of this nature, respecting claims of individuals. the Members were always exposed to a considerable deal rivatc solicitation. After bestowing a deal of atteutien to this subject, he must say; t hat ap peared to him that the claim was not well founded. He would ask, what was the real value of those debts ackruieledgd clue in 1782, but of which not a far• thing had been received in 1791 ? Yet it was on ac. count of those bad debts that £600,( Of) had been ob tained in 179.1; but that was now sought to be made a foundation for a much larger claim upon this court try.: He thought that many other Merchants, who had suffered by the ill faith of foreign Governments, had an equal riht to claim compensation from the Government of d.is country. Mr. LOCKHA R T replied, that if the debts had become desperate in 1794, America on that account awed a reparation to this country, whin, if Govern ment did not think proper to insist upon, individuals ought not to suffer upon that account. The Hasse. divided. For the Motion 87—Against it 100—Majoi ity 13. LEATHER 'TAX. On our re admission into the Gallery, The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER teas addressing the House on the second reading of the 811 for repealing the tax. If it was put merely on the ground of repealing a tax which pressed upon the lower rdcrs, there were many other taxes which he would prefer repealing. The taxes upon houses, windows, and coals,-also pressed upon the people, and they could only be supported on the ground of its being imp . asible to do without axes which did not press upon the poor in some degree. The revenue of last year had been less productive than formerly, and the circumstances of the times were such, as not to allow us to give up any part of our fixed revenues. He thought that even from the evidence, it appeared bat the Petitioners bad suffered very little from the to;; but they, like every other class a men in trade, bad probably suffered from the depression of trade in general. The shoemakers might be in distress, not on account of the tax, but from those causes which Ikad lowered the earnings of the poor in other lines. He believed that Stafford had not at present any of the Government business ; but perhaps by extending somt of it to that town, this particular distress might be in sorie measure relieved. The disturbances in the neighbourhood of the River Plate was a sufficient reason for the pot importing so many hides in the last year as in the former years. As to the tanners (al though the business was stated as so very bad), yet their number had constantly increased from 1803 to 1812. Lord ALTHORPE reminded the House, that the tax was imposed last year at a very late period of the Session, when there was but a thin attendance of Members, and carried only by a majority of eight. -s—The Petitioners, therefore, appealed from a small part of the House to the whole. Mr. PHILLIPS said, that this tax did not press in the same manner as the house tax and the win. dow tax, which fell heaviest upon the rich ; but being laid on the weight of the material employed, it pressed heaviest upon the poor. He thought, that a tax so unpopular, both in the House and out of it, ought not to be continued. Lord CASTLEREAGH conceived that his Right Hon. Friend (the Chancellor of the Exche quer) had acted with the greatest candour upon this tax, in submitting to such a length of detailed exa minations on the part of the petitioners. It was well known that the persons brought forward on such ex. aminations had usually some bias on their minds.— Unless it was said that the country had such a super abundant revenue as to afford a .reduction of taxes, he saw nothing it the principle upon which this tax was sought to be repealed that might not be applied more 4trongly to the case of other taxes. As to the peculiar pressure upon the poor, it WcIS evident that even in the article of shoes, a rich man who wore more of them would pay a higher tax than the poor man ; but when it w,,s recollected in how many ether ways leather was used, in carriages, saddler}', &c. be thought it would not be easy to find a tax that would be distributed in a more proportional manner, It this t ix was opposed on any other ground than merely a relief to the poor, be thought that the tradesmen had already-indemniffed themselves by an addition to their prices of three timer the amount of the tax. It must be recollected also that for some years back they had got the foreign hides, the raw menial of their tr44e, from Duclios Ayres; at 4 11/ , 141xi14f4 V 4 • price far lower than they formerly paid for it. As to the tanners, it appeared that there was no tanned leather imported as there used formerly to be, but on the contrary that the export of it was increasing.— He was convinced that repealing the tax would not take any pressure off from the consumer, while it would be injurious to the revenue. Lord MILTON supported the Bill, which he now conceived to be a question between the House of Commons and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was not customary for Chancellors of the Exchequer to press any tax which had met with so strong an opposition in Parliament, and which had been op posed, as he believed, by every County Member in the House. Mr. W. SMITH had been thirty years in the House, and he never knew a tax persisted in which had met so great opposition. Mr. BARING did not know how to oppose a tax which appeared to him as unobjectionable as any that could be substituted in the place of it. It was evi dent that the general pressure of taxation could not at present be avoided : but if it came to a question of what taxes should be repealed, he would name many others in preference to this tax. As to the unpopu larity of this tax, he knew nothing about it. Al though there was a general dislike to taxes, yet the House had no petitions against this tax, but what came from tanners, curriers, shoemakers, and persons particularly interested in the leather trade. The House then divided.—For the second reading of Mr. Benson's Bill, 120—Against it, 125—Majo rity against the Bill, and in favour of the Tax, 5. IRISH SCHOOL BILL.—On our readmission into the Gallery, we found Mr. PILL on his legs, who stated, that until the House had unequivocally declared its opinion upon the Roman Catholic Question, be thought it would be wrong to press the Irish School Bill, or any comprehensive plan of Irish EduCation. He there fore moved, that the Irish School Bill be read a second time, and that It should be committed on Wednesday, which was accord ingly agreqd to. CATHOLIC QULIITIONe..-LOLd CASTLLRLAGII brought up se veral Papers relative to the Catholic Question (which had been moved for by Sir 3. C. Hipptsley), and moved that they , should be printed, which was ordered accordingly. SUGAR 131rORTATION..- The CHANCELLOR Of theExcIiLQUER brought in a Bill to allow the importation of Sugars from Marie galante, Sr. Eustatia, and St. Tho - nas',, on the same terms as those from Martinique and Guadaloupe, which was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow. Tut l osacco Excise BILL—Was also read a first time, and ordered to be read a stcotal time to-morrow.---Adjourned. 1./111 1 L\7ELLJGENCE. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, MAY W. pARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE. TILE KING v. THOMAS CHLEVEY, ESQ. M.P. Mr. PAuK prayed the judgment of the Court on the defendant. Mr. Justice Le BLANC stated, that this was an in dictment for a libel, in the form of a report of a speech; purporting to have been made by the said Thomas Creevey, in the House of Commons ; containing therein, amongst other things, to the tenor and effect following Mr. Creevey said, upon this subject of the grievances that the town of Liverpool now la boured under, there had been of late another calamity inflicted upon the place, differing in its .nature from those lie had mentioned, but doubly affecting the com forts of the great population of this town ; he meant the sudden conversion of an Attorney in the town, to the character of an Inspector of Taxes. Without meaning any offence to the feelings of this gentleman, Mr. Kirkpatrick, he believed he might safely say, he was not in the most.eminent rank of his profession ; and by way of retreat from an avocation that was either not agreeable or not lucrative, it seems he hail suggested to the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the' Exchequer a new department of equal advantage to, himself and to the State : this new profession of the Learned Notary, was to be, that he should turn public informer or accuser against his neighbours and fellow townsmen, for having their lands assessed below their real value ; and that a great annuity was to be his recompence, for undertaking himself to screw up their assessments to the extent of his own imagination. This operation had accordingly been performed, to the no small consternation and confusion of the town: It was no feeble illustration of die effect of this visi. cation to state, that the nerves of the ordinary profes sional tax-gatherer could not stand it. The surveyor had actually resigned in consequence, and others he understood had expressed their terror at the effects of these rigorous proceedings of the learned Inspec tor. In the inquiries that naturally arose, under such circumstances, from what cause the Minister of the Crown could have listened to such a proposal as that just stated, he found a general impression in the town, that this Gentleman owed this sudden and sin gular elevation in life to the circumstance of his hav ing been a client of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when they were both in the same profession,—one of his early friends,—and that this appointment was only a natural return for such friendship. Of the real truth or cause of such preferment, he himself knew nothing ; but of this, he was quite certain, that the Minister of the Crown, who hires men, by great salaries, to assist him in repairing the devastation which his own ruinous measures bring upon the reve nue of the country, by turning spies and informers upon their neighbours, and by helping to subject their property to additional vexations and oppressive taxa tion,—such a Minister, so acting, is introducing into this country, a state of society that fortunately has never been known before, and that in its nature, and from its consequences cannot be of long duration." The Learned Judge then recapitulated the evi dence, on which the Jury found the defendant guilty. Mr. Creevey now put in the following A ffi davit : It Thomas Creevey, of York -street, St. Jame; 's-square, in the county of Middlesex, Esq. Member of Parliament, maketh oath and saith, with respect to stile alledged libel as contained in the paper called the Livered Mercsry, and which is the subject of this prosecuiiln, that he verily believes every word contained in it was spoken by him in his place as a Member of the House of Commons ; that his motive for printing this speech in the Liver pool newspaper was as follows :—This deponent, on the 6th of February, IS t 1, when the affairs of the East India Company were under the consideration of the House of Commons, had urged, as an argument in favour of an open trade to the East Indies, the then suspension of the ordinary commerce of this nature; and he did particululy state, as of his own knowledge, the great dis tress that bad been brought upon one of the principal out ports of the kingdom, the town of Liverpool, by the late rapid de cline of its accustomed trade; that some time after, whilst this deponent was at Liverpool, General Tarleton, then one of the Members of the town of Liverpool, read a letter iu his place in the House of Commons, from a merchant in Liverpool, staring that the account which this deponent had given of the distress of that town was very inaccurate, and it was much overstated; and it was on this account that upon the 2d of March followniSs the lust opportunity that occurred atter this depot., is return iroat Livereoul e inch was on gestural Tarletun's pi usentiog a • petition from the town of Liverpool in favour of a free trade to the East Indies, that this deponent adverting to what had taken place in his absence, did repeat his former detailed statement of the distress of the toven of Liverpool, and did insist upon the same being strictly true, and it was upon this occasion of speak ing of the distress of he town of Liverpool, that this depo nent stated the additional grievance which be had been re cently informed, and believed to be true, affected the town of Liverpool, from a new and vexatious assessment of its property by a person recently appointed an Inspector of the Tams, and. till then a practising attorney in the town : And thla deponent saith, that it was because a most erroneous account of the speech thus made by him, on the twenty-third day of March, One thou sand eight hundred and twelve, was given In the Liverpool and other papers ; that he did, in justice to himself, send a true and accurate account of every thing he said, on this occasion, to be in serted in the paper called the Liverpool M y And this de ponent further saitb, that, in printing this speech, he conceived, and he does now conceive, he was doing nothing that was not perfectly lawful for him to do; that by the Bin of Rightt, it is ex pressly enacted, that no debate or proceeding in Parliament shall be called in question in any Court or other place out of Parlia ment ; and that having proved, or it having been admitted on the trial of this prosecution at Lancaster, that the alledged libel was spoken by this deponent in his place in Parliament, he claims to be within the protection of the Bill of Rights, and not ame nable to the jurisdiction of this or any other Court; that he knows of no exception in the Bill of Rights as to printing debates or proceedings of Parliament, nor of any other law of the land pro hibiting such printing ; that the House of Commons has, by sun dry resolutions on its journals, pothibited the reporting of its de bates by Newspaper Writers, tut in no instance by its own Mem bers. That this deponent admits he is answerable to the House of ' Commove, and to that House alone for any speech made in Par liament, but that no objection was or has been made by the House to the speech in question; that it is the constant practice of Mem bers of the House of Commons to print their speeches, and long has been so. That this is the first time, since the passing of the Bill of Rights, that any Member of the Commons House of Par liament has been called upon, in any Court, for words spoken in Parliament, whether printed or published by himself or other wise; and for all these reasons, this deponent doth protest so lemnly against the jurisdiction o f this honourable Court over him. —And this deponent futther saith, with respect to the charged libelous matter of the said printed speech upon the character of the prosecutor, that, to the best of his knowledge, he never saw the said prosecutor in his life, and that be never had any cause or ground of personal quarrel with him ; that having been in formed of the great vexation brought upon the inhabitants of the town of Liverpool by the prosecutor's mode of assessing the pro perty of the town, as an Inspector of the Taxes, he did in his place in the House of Commons, and in discharge of his duty to the public, as one of its Representatives, state this grievance. And he Weil, as he has before deposed, that it was because the Writers of Newspapers did, in violation of the Resolutions of the House of Commons, make a report of his speech, and that such report was most erroneous; that he did, in justice to himself, and in the exercise,of what he then considered, and now consi ders, as his undoubted right and privilege of Parliament, print and publish that report of his speech which, in this trial, was ad mitted, and which. tat, deponent now swears was the true one." Lord ELLEN/30110E111 asked, whether the defendant, by himself or Counsel, wished to address any thing to the Court ? • Mr. CREEVEY stated, that he had not any wish to address the Court in either way. Mr. PARK then said, that the affidavit of the De fendant was of such a nature, that it would not be come him to take much notice of it. Neither the Court below, nor the Court above, ever meant to in terfere with a Member of Parliament, as to what he thought necessary to say in Parliament ;—but they meant to decide, that every publication in a newspa per, whether by a Member of Parliament, or any other person, was within the jurisdiction of that Court. It would be highly improper if it were otherwise.— The defendant had stated, that his reason for repub lishing his speech was to correct an erroneous state ment which had been given of the same speech some time before in the same newspaper ; but the Learned Counsel stated, that he could not discover any differ ence, except that the name of the prosecutor was erroneous in the first, and that there was some dif ference as to the number of persons who were stated to be in distress in Liverpool. Before a Gentleman published matter so highly reflecting on any person, he ought to be certain that he was well founded in his assertions. There was a part of the libel, the facts stated in which he would have known must have been.false, had he looked into the statutes of the land: He meant that part which says that a great annuity was to be his recompence, &c.—for by the 48th Geo. 111. cap. 141. sect. 3, it is enacted, that no person to be appointed Inspector-General under this Act, shall be entitled to amend any assessment made under the said Acts, or to surcharge any per son or persons in respect thereof. If defendant chose to publish, he ought to have enquired and ascertain ed that it was the fact ;—although he says, that he was not actuated by any malice, yet before he made a charge involving a character as pure and inviolate! as any that had ever appeared, he ought to have in quired ; so eminent a character should not be attacked rashly. He then goes on to state, u of the real truth cause of such preferment, &c." This was the subject of complaint ; it was not to be endured that a Member of Parliament should say, he had nothing to do with ascertaining the truth of a charge highly reflecting on the character of an individual, but that he would give it all the publicity possible. The defendant com mitted another mistake, when he relied upon his not having any malice ; their Lordships would tell him, ! that if he wrote any thing reflecting on an individual, malice would be inferred. He did not apply to the Court to punish the defendant for any thing which he had said in Parliament ; but he hoped the Courtwould inflict such a punishment as would shew that a Mem ber was not justified in publishing libels in the news- papers. Lord ELLENBOROUGII-.-About the jurisdiction of the Court there could be no question ; and if necessary to consider that question, it had been already considered in the motion for a new trial. Mr. Justice Gaon, in delivering ju dgment, said, that Mr. Creevey was brought up for judgment on an indictment for a libel, in printing a publication tending to create discontent in the minds of the peo ple, and to vilify and traduce the Inspector-General of the Taxes appointed under the 48th Geo. I l The object of the publication was to create dis.ithttion amongst his Majesty's subjects, and to introduce the Inspector. General to the hatred of the people, Bits the Court conld not help thinking, that there was something more in the case than appeared either from the defendant's affidavit or on the face of the trans action, which led hire to suspect, that the prosecution was not entered into for the mere love of justice it was otherwise wonderful that it should have been de layed so long : but he was sorry to say, that the shaft in the publication was not leselled only at the cha, ratter of the present prosecutor, hut also at a person whose character and name were above all implication. He was sorry to say, that this appeared to be more the object'ot the publication, than to throw a stigma on the present prosecutor. The Court having considered eTery part of the transaction, and conceiving that such an evil as this ought not to be tolerated, did yuler and adjudite, that the defendant should pay to the King a Ele 5100, and remain in the cu s t o dy o f the Marshal c: the Marshalsea till such fine was paid. Mr. CREkVEY immediately paid the fir.e. and rew with the following friends, who accompaLtej im into Court : Lords Cowper. Mbemprie. and °unison ; the linrotr:At Mr. Bennett, Sir Harry Montgomery, Sir 'ilomas ! wistu. Sir John Cos Hippoley, Mr. Whitbread, Major•Geier..4: son, and Mr. C. C. Westerp. COURT OF CHANCERY. MAY so. II PARSE STOCKS. The LORD CIIANCIMLOR this day superse.c4 Commission of Lunacy in this Case. THE BATTLE OF LUTZEN. (PRUSSIAI OFFICIAL ACCOUNT.) PARTICULAR STATEMENT OF THE LATTLE 4 1 L 7 GROSS-GORSCHEN, ON THE 2n 01. MM. On the 50th of April, information was received at General Count Von Wittgenstein's Head -quarters, n( the greater part of the French army and the FreLeh Guards having crossed the Seale, in the vici:;:ty c ; Naumburg : it was at the same time reported, tire the Emperor Napoleon had arrived at the army. W e observed that the Viceroy's army drew to the right. It was therefore clear, that the enemy endeavoured by all means to form a junction, and that it was most probably his intention to give a general battle • J. , s Majesty the Emperor Alexander, and his Majesty the King of Prussia, therefore, went to their armies, to animate the courage of the troops by their personal presence. But the better to be enabled to judge of the enemy's strength, a reconnoissance was under taken with General Winzingerode's corps, from Leip. sic, on the road to Weissenfels. This confirmed the intelligence received of the enemy being there in con siderable force. Upon this, a very severe engagement took place on the lit of May, with the said corps, by which we were convinced, that the main force of the enemy Was in the vicinity of Weissenfels and Lutzen. It was be lieved, that the Viceroy's position was between Leip. sic and Halle, and consequently the enemy's plan for the battle was clearly apparent. General Count Von Wittgenstein resolved on being before-hand with him, to obstruct him in his dispositions by a bold attack, and to restrain his offensive operations. It was oe. cessairy in this attempt to make it our main object, immediately to fall on such part of his force as was, on his side, considered to be the best troops ; in order, after such a stroke, to give larger space for the ope rations of our flying corps, over whom the enemy had latterly acquired a superiority. Therefore it was re quisite, if possible, to direct the attack immediately against the rear-most troops. For this purpose, the main army broke up in the night between the Ist and 2d of May, from Notha and Borna, in two columns, and pushed forward as far as the defile of the Elster, in the vicinity of Pegau. General Von. Winzingerode received orders to mask this operation, to leave his posts of cavalry standing, and to unite himself with the main army by the way of Zaenkau. At break of day all the troops passed the defile of the Elster, near Pegau, and drew up in order of battle on the left bank of Elster, with their right wing to the village of Werben, and their left to that of Gruna. By reconnoitring, we discovered, •that the enemy's main body already extended beyond Weissenfels, to the villages of Gross-Gorschen, Klein-Gorschen, Rahno, Starsiedel, and Lutzen. The enemy did not venture to attempt disturbing our march, nor to get before us into the plain, but took his position in the village between Gross•Gorschen and Starsiedel. About twelve o'clock at noon, General Blucher received orders, as commanding the van-guard of the army, and supported by a part of the Russian artil lery, to attack the enemy. The attack was made on the village of Gross-Gorsqhen, which was obsti. nately defended by the enemy. It was taken by storm. General Yorck marched with his corps to the right of the village. The whole army wheeled to the right, and presently after the battle became general along the whole line of Blucher's corps.— t'he enemy, at the same time, displayed a nume rous artillery, chiefly of heavy calibre, and the fire of musketry in the villages was kept up with great vivacity for several hours. In this murderous battle the villages of Klein- Gorschen and Rhano, as likewise the village of Gross Gorschen, were early taken by storm, and with unex ampled bravery, and kept possession of for several hours. At length the enemy returned in considerable force, surrounded, and in part retook these villages ; but on the attack being renewed, was not able to re tain possession of them. The Prussian Guards moved forward, and after a most obstinate combat of an hour and a half, those villages were again retaken from the enemy, and remained in our possession. During this time, the corps of General Winzingerode on the left wing, and the corps of General Yorck, with a part o the Russian troops under General Berg, had taken a share in the battle. We stood opposed to the enemy, at the distance of 100 paces, and one of the most bloody battles became general. Our reserves had drawn nearer to the field of bat. tie, to be in readiness wherever needful, and thus was the battle continued till near 7 o'clock in the even ing. During its course, the villages on the left wing were likewise several times taken and retaken by both parties. At seven o'clock the enemy appeared with a new corps on our right wing before Gloss and Klein-Gorschen— probably with the Viceroy's army ; made a brisk attack on us, and endavoured to tea from us the advantages we had gained. The infantry of a part of the Russian-reserves was now brought tortard to the right wing, to the sur aTtratcokefd,GeannercialthYeomrcoslets d c e o si r wr ps a , te wh e i n c g h ag w em as e b n o t briskly which the Russian Artillery during the whole re. maining time greatly distinguished itselt, as did the corps of Yorck, Blucher, and Winzingernde, the whole day) was now continued till night CAMe on.-- The enemy had likewise again attacked our centre and the villages with great briskness, hut we mair ;alined our Position. In this situation night put end to the battle. The enemy was to have been .tg " 2 attacked on the following morning, the :I‘l of : 44 )• He had meanwhile taken Leipsic during the battle. This obliged us to manoeuvre with him. It WAS UO, till afterwards that we were informed, that colt'll_ (pence of the battle he had again been force to it, and had by the same means lost 1.3 i h . : men of his best troops ; many of his caution are itswagg mounted, and a number of his powder ' blown up. Our light detachments are .I:•;..in al c: Wi!) e r g 11. E red at ers, retlth c; tin: We cured I most His ty the to sonal r of nder- Leip. !cl the con. ice rat e were was in as be. Leip. lan for it Von h him, !Ira t It, as oe• kject, was, Order, e ope- -17 had ras liately e, the st and umns, Elstzr, ;erode se his f with !file of battle 'jug to ;runs. envy's to schen.