Star. — London, England, 1821-04-10 00:00:00

right he the cause a great depatture had taken.place l from the old ‘ 44tatidaild ; fah . .fluttss i ttitny hat r i sen . Tra• which of these -fhietuatitig standatdi Would the Honourable Gentleman return ? No one °tr end teed,* pointed out in which gtoss injusrite ; mo ld not be'clime in the case of all contracts made M or e or sifter-the partietilar times. Soon after the peace the tame standard had been restored, which,. by another process the House was about to revive. A depreciationlad 'afterwardi taken place, and that m i g h t be owing to the sums that had been borrowed from the Bank,; in consequence of the failure of the p ro perty Tax. But that depreciatiOn bad never been' ma t. The only viity to 'avoid a number of anoma. riesovould be to adhere to the plan adopted by Par hament b 1818. After a great Reform had been t fected, the House had been called oo to retrace its ste ps, and to undo what had been done. The :Mem ber for Taunton had, on a former night, proposed a vermanent paper system, exchangeable for ingots. 'Vat such a plan could never succeed, unless the F org ery of Bank notes could • be prevented. For snerly the silver currency had been a legal tender; bat in 1774, a legal tender in silver by tale, had been confined to £2. After that year, silver had ceased to be a legal tender, and that had been the object of the last Act, only limiting the tender to £2. The object was to divide the gold, which had become the only legal tender. In the subdivision of the paper currency, the country had all the advantage of a sil ver currency. The statement made as to the value of silver, applied to dollars only. Of other silver the price was 4s. 11 id. per ounce. The Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Attwood) ascribed all the distress to, the low prices. But in other countries the deprecia tion had been equally great, and in America the de predation had been much greater, especially in the• price of flour. But the accumulation of produce, both in this country and in others, had contributed to the low prices. After all that had been uttered, the ques tion was, should the House retrace its steps, and re turn to that state of uncertainty from which it had been the object of Parliament to relieve the country? The Revenue had not suffered from the steps that bad been adopted, and the produce of the last Quarter had been greater than that of the corresponding Quarks of the former year. A much more probable remedy appeared in adhering to the opinion of Par liament, than in adopting any new scheme. By such a procedure the opinions of that House would lose all their weight with the country. ' Mr. GRENFELL said, that the motion of the.Ho rourable Member for Taunton would subvert all that bad been done for upwards of two years. But the theory and the practice of the Honourable Gentleman eemed widely at variance. The real tendency of the motion was to set the whole question afloat, and to rephinge the country in that state of uncertainty which he (Mr. Baring) admitted at the same time to be a great evil. But he (Mr. Grenfell) trusted that the question rested on a basis that could not be shaken. Mr. MONCK thought the subject one of the most important that could come before the House, as it was e hether the National Debt was to be paid in the base cur ency in which it had been contracted, or in the sound currency to which the country was about to return ? Some years back the House had come to a singular Resolution, that a £1 note and a guinea were of the same value in the market, and at that time the Government had employed persons to buy op guineas for 28s. in order to send them abroad— (Hear, hear). Some time after, when the Bank paid some of their notes in gold, the Chancellor of the Ex chequer had triumphantly stated, that cash payments had been virtually resumed. The question did not wholly regard the relative depreciation of paper and sold, but the depreciation both of gold and paper, as it affected commodities. A large issue of paper threw gold out of circulation, and sent it to the foreign markets. The late Lord Liverpool had estimated the guineas in circulation as twenty five millions ; all of which had been displaced from circulation by the issue of Bank of England Notes. If in France, when the currency amounted to ninety millions, if a paper currency was to be adopted, all that sum would be sent abroad, and all commodities would rise in price ; though till the issue of paper had become excessive, gold and paper would keep their relative value. In this country, while corn had been elevated 100 per cent. gold had only been ele vated 27 per cent. A reduction had taken place in the issue of Bank paper to the amount of six millions, and a most extraordinary reduction had also taken place in the quantity of country paper. In 1818 £165,000 had been paid for stamp-duties by country broke-s; next year the sum paid had been £64,000; and, in 1820, the sum paid for stamp-duties had only been 12.51,000. Since 1797 the National Debt had been increased to £800,000,000 ; and the whole of our expenses and of our establishment had been im mensely increased. The whole of the paper in cir culation in the United Kingdom might be stated at fifty millions. The Bank of England, no doubt, could pay in gold their share, which was twenty. three millions; but the country banks had no means of paying in gold the fifteen millions that they had issued. I'o procure gold they must sell their stock, and that would cause a great fall in the Funds.— Most people, from curiosity, would like to bless their eyes with the sight of a guinea. Speculation also would be busily at work, and he was afraid that many, from malevolence, would demand gold, as it was a maxim with the discontented to attack the Exchequer, and not the Horse Guards. But what ever difficulties might occur, they would operate as a warning to us not to interfere with so sacred a sub ject as that of our national currency—(Heer). Mr. RICARDO had recommended to the Bank Directors not to buy gold, but to sell it, and then the alteration in the value of money would not have been !tore than four or five per cent. Upon any system It was impossible to guard against a variation in the toetals themselves. Up to 1797 or 1798 silver bad i been a legal tender, and any quantity might have been taken to the Mint and paid away as a legal ten d,- Government knew that there were two-thirds of salver in circulation, and refused to take the base silver- Thus gold became the standard. It was ex traordinary that the Member for Taunton had given it as his opinion before the Committee that one metal only should be 'the standard, and that gold should be that metal. In his opinion this subject ought to be allowed to drop ; and that the public mind should net be kept in a constant state of agjtation and alarm ° Pon it, as his Honourable Friend always did by re living the subject. His Honourable Friend had said . . • 'that the labourer ran away With a great'sleal of the capital of the country. ; If that were so, he (Mr.'lii cardo) would be extremely glad - of it; but be feared that theiabourer was not so well off as his Honour able Friend would have them tielleve, ' Mr. GURNEY contended,. that. tha.issue of sove reigns at 21s. would have the .affect of laying a tax of five per cent. on all monied gttoperty. Mr. ELLICE denied that:the depreciation in the state of the value of property depetided upon anything but the depreciation of the currency. It might seem strange to the House, that he could get no man in• it to second a Resolution. which he meant to have moved, " That the great distress of 1815 arose from a sudden attempt to return to Casa Payments."—No foreign merchant that was in business in 1818, 1819, and 1820, but must have felt it. The farmers were distressed, that they could not get a market for their commodities. This was true; and it was in vait foi the farmer to look for a remunerating price. His only remedy for agricultural and commercial affairs was to reduce the expenditure, and, necessarily, the amount of taxation. As.long as the Monied Interest• lasted, so long must the present Government last, and not a minute longer. He should always be at his post, advocating public faith, credit, and honour; because he deprecated the crisis which otherwise must ensue, and which he never wished to see this country ' reduced to, though he thought the measures of Go vernment were calculated to force us to that crisis. Mr. PEARSE supported the present system, and especially that now proposed. Mr. IRVING corroborated the statement of the Hon. Member for Coventry, respecting the losses sustained by those whose speculatimis had commenced in the years 1818, 1819, and 1820. He had seen a statement of the concerns of a mercantile house, which had vested 1:360,000 in ships, ventures at sea, &c. which were in a short time afterwards valued at £292,000, but did not, in fact, realize more than £142,000 ; so that the difference. between the esti mated value and the produce was fifty per cent. and the total loss to the owners sixty per cent. He gave that as a proof of the effects of this measure upon commerce; and he would be a bold Legislator who, knowing these results, would have ventured to pro pose such a measure. The Right Hon. Gentleman said, he did not expecrto be called into a discussion upon this subject to-night, but it was impossible to think that the House would .let this Occasion pass without declaring their opinions.. The House ought to be much indebted to the Hon. Member for Cal- lington, for the very able•speech which he had made, the effect of which would be, nat only to make the House, but the country at large, win their attention to this most important subject. He did not think it expedient for the House to review this subject with any view to depreciation of currency, because it was not from a view of depreciation of currency that any advantage could be derived, but from augmentation of circulation, which he now (thought too little— ( Hear, hear). — Some Hon. Members might think that he had changed his opinions, but he did not think that he had ever given an opinion except in fa vour of a return to a metallic currency. He neither agreed with the measure nor the mode proposed for carry ing it into effect ; and his chief objection was to the apprehensions likely to be created in the public mind. In the year 1819, when this country had ar rived at the highest pitch of prosperity by trade, the apprehensions excited by this measure, even before the objects of it were known, had the effect of depre ciating every commodity at least 20 per cent. He confessed that be should be glad to agree to the ap pointment of a Committee, were it not for the alarm which such an appointment would create. With respect to the proposition of having two standards, he must confess that he had considerable objections to it. He thought we had mistaken the metal for our standard, because silver was the metal of those countries with which this country traded ; and he confessed he did not know how we could measure our metals by a comparison with countries whose standards were different. He should therefore wish silver to be the standard, as gold was not as silver was, the money of the world. He agreed with his Hon. Friend, that an abundance or scarcity of silver regulated at all times the Exchange. He agreed with the Bank Directors, that the quantity of metals in circulation was too small, and he did not see that the Hon. Gentleman could do better than to take care that the Public should be furnished with a larger quantity of circulation. which he was quite sure would, in a great degree, remedy the evil ; and he would wish the maxtmunt in the variation between gold and silver to be one per cent. Mr. CRIPPS thought that a gradual return to Cash Payments was the best; but he did not under stand why the fa notes should be withdrawn from circulation, which would be a great inconvenience to the Public. It might be said that it would reduce the number of forgeries; but those who now forged £1 notes would then turn their attention to forging notts. Mr. PEARSE did not think that the suspension of the issue of El notes would be any inconvenience to the Public. Lord A. HAMILTON thought they ought to post pone this subject to give time for inquiry. Some years ago a Right Hon. Gentleman got the House to agree to a Resolution that there was no depreciation in the currency. Now he talked very coolly of the depre ciation, but without taking any steps to get rid of that obnoxious Resolution. The Agricultural distress arose from the very change in the value of the cur rency ; and many were reduced to poverty and a jail through the measures of the present Government. Mr. J. SMITH denied that the price of corn had fallen owing to the change isi the value of money.— Corn had fallen for the last two yews 40 and 50 per cent. while the money was not depreciated. During that time he had never found capital more plentiful, or easier to be got at. The crops had been very large, and to that cause alone would he attribute the great depreciation that bad taken place in the money mar ket.—Government might get a loan of E 60,000,000, more, if wanted : the Chancellor of the Exchequer could get it without paying above Si per cent. Mr. f. WILSON was decidedly of opinion enquiry should talce place, and that immediately, or it might' be too late. If no other good resulted from it,. the enquiry would satisfy the People, by stewing them that everything which could be done was done. I Mr. WODEHOUSE supported the Amendment Mr. HART DAVIS wis - in favour of the Bill. Mx. Alderman Ilk YGATE spoke in favour of the Amendment, amid loud cries oN Question r The Gallery was then cleared for a divison: For the motion - - - 141 For the Amendment- • 27 Majority in fayoor of the Bill —ll4 The House then went Into a Committee on the Bill. Mr. BARING repeated his former argument, that labour was in 'many insuncei too highly paid, and again urged the adoption of a silver, as well as gold currency ; he contended, that to equalize the cur rency, the sovereign ought to be raised to 21s. We were now proceeding under a system which, he was convinced, could last but a tery short time. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER de fended the present system. Mr. W. POLE contended, upon authorities which he cited, that a preference had always been given to gold as the standard of the realm. It always had the advantage over silver, which never was,' but in one instance, a legal tender. - The Clauses were then agreed to.—Report to-morrow. IRISH RANK RESTRICTION ACT. On the Order of the Day for the House going into a Committee on the Irish 'tank Restriction Act, Mr. GRENFELL asked if there was any intention to renew the Dish Bank Charter? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, no negociation was yet on foot, and he could give no answer. Mr. BENNETT considered the mention of appeal to Pal liament as a farce ; if Government once gave a promise, no doubt Parliament would sanction it. He could not, however, consent to the renewal of this monopoly to the Bank, with their bonuses, their for ' geries, and their hangings—(Hear, hear). Other times, however, would occur for observations on this over grown system, to•which, in his opinion, the country owed so great a portion of its misfortunes—(Hear). Mr. PEARSE defended the Bank; who, in her dealings, had always consulted the public good. After some further conversation the Bill passed, through the Committee.—Report to-morrow. MURDER ON THZ COAST OF SUSSEX. Mr. HOBHOUSE wished to know whether Eng land, tried at Horsham, and convicted of the murder of Swaine, the Hastings fisherman, had received his ' Majesty's pardon ? Mr. CLIVE (Under Secretary for the Home De partment) said he could not answer that question. The ra,sicsu.os of the Excurciuxe was proceeding with the next Order; but Mr. Canvas' moved, that the House should be counted. This Was accordingly done ; and there not being forty Mem bers present, an adjournment took place at Half-past Twelve. GLOUCESTER ASSIZES. CRIM. CON. WATERHOUSE, ESQ. V. COLONEL BERKELEY. This case, which has excited so much interest among the fashionable visitors to the town of Chel tenham, and among the inhabitants of the surround ing counties, came on to be tried on Saturday. The Court was crowded to excess as early as seven o'clock in the morning. A full Special Jury was then assem bled in the box and sworn. The Counsel for the plaintiff, were Mr. Jeans, Mr. PULLER, Mr. RUSSELL, and Mr.Wisr. Those tor the defendant, were Mr."l-10RACE Twrss, Mr. TAUNTON, Mr. LUDLOW, and Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. %ST opened the declaration, which stated the nature of the action. The damages were laid at Twenty Thousand Pounds. Mr. Jaftvis then proceeded to address the Jury. They had heard, he said, from the pleadings opened by his Learned Friend, that this was an action brought against the defendant, for criminal conversation with the plaintiff's wife. The plaintiff, Mr. Waterhouse, was the son of the late Mr. Waterhouse, who was for merly a Merchant of eminence, carrying on business in London under the film of Willis, Waterhouse, and Company. In 1810 he went to the Isle of Man, where" be became acquainted with the very respectable fa mily Captain Blake, of whom the unfortunate Lady, who was the subjectof the present action,was the eldest daughter. The plaintiff was then about twenty, and the Lady nearly of the same age, but rather younger. On the 15th of September, 1812, with the mutual consent of their parents, they were married. Soon after their union it was found convenient, from the pecuniary circumstances of Mr. Watethouse,s-that he should retire with his Lady to live in some cheap part of the kingdom ; they went, in consequence, to reside at Scarborough. In the course of the three following years they were blessed with three children, two girls and a boy. In the year 1817, from the state of the health of Mrs. Waterhouse, it was thought ex pedient that she should remove to Cheltenham ; and, after a short stay in that town, Mr. Waterhouse set tled with his family at a small village, called Charl ton Kings, about a mile from thence, where an aunt of Mrs. Waterhouse, the Lady of Sir William Wrax hall, then resided. In the winter of 1818, a Mrs. Probyn, who had been an early friend of Mrs. Wate rhouse, arrived at Cheltenham for the benefit of her health. Their intimacy was, of course, renewed ; and, through the medium of this Lady, the defend ant, Colonel Berkeley, was introduced to the plaintiff and his wife about the beginning of the year 1819. No particular intercourse followed between the Gen tlemen, nothing further having happened between them than an exchange of cards. On the 16th of April, in that year, Mr. Waterhouse went to London to see his brother, who was at that time in an ill state of health. It was material that the Jury should at tend to dates. He continued absent till the lOtli of May, when he returned to Charlton. On the 10th of July following, he was again under the necessity of quitting home, for the purpose of going to Jersey, to see a sister whom he had not seen for many years before. On this occasion he was absent a little more than a month. He returned to Charlton on the 15th of August. These were the longest absences which, up to that period, had ever taken place between him and his wife, from the time of their union. It was fit to state, at on both these occasions Mrs. Water house was left under the immediate protection of her aunt, Lady Wraxhall, the sister of her mother. In, the beginning of the year 1819, it had been proposed to Mr. Waterhouse, in consequence of the increasing state of his family, having had a fourth child born at Charlton, to proceed to Jamaica, to endeavour to obtain a situation, by which he might be enabled the better to consult the comforts and happiness of l these whom he so tenderly loved, for up to this time he did not entertain a doubt that he was in the full possession of the warmest affections of his Latiy..4- Although, in the first instance, his feelings prompted him to resist this solicitation, and to remain in the bosom of his domestic circle, to which he was se tenderly attached, yet prudence at length suggested its propriety, and at the commencement of the year 1820, he resolved to prosecute that design, and on the 18th of January, in the last year, he left Charlton Kings for Bristol, with a view of embarking forth with for Jamaica. Adverse winds detained hind in port till the 14th of February, when he proceeded on his voyage. During his absence, and very soon after his departure from Charlton, Mrs. Waterhouse, for reasons which he would, by and bye, take the liberty of explaining, removed from Charlton to a lodging or furnished house which she took in the town of Cheltenham. It might be proper here to remark, that on thus leaving his wife for Jamaica, Mr. Wate rhouse left her under the same protection as he had on the two former occasions, with au ample provision for her maintenance during his absence. From Ja maica Mr. Waterhouse returned in July, and know ing that he had had no intercourse with his wife frem the 10th of January preceding, the Jury might better imagine than he was capable of describing, the age, nized situation in which he was thrown on being in formed of the course which she had adopted, and of her being then far advanced in pregnancy. He went to Cheltenham, but took the precaution of avoiding the abode of his wife. He remained there three dais after the communication of this painful intelligence, and then left the place, determined never to see her again. At this time, not having sufficient evidence as to the period of time when her delinquency had taken place, so as to enable him to take any decisive steps, he resolved to waif the time of her deliiery.— In the meantime his suspicions, which were, unhap pily, but too well founded, were confirmed by an in tercepted letter—the contents of which, as had come.from Mrs. Waterhouse, he was not at liberty to state. It was addressed to the present defendant, hi language calculated to excite sensations which be would not venture to express. The suspicions were, however, more fatally supported, for, on the 11th of November, being a period of forty-two weeks from the day on which the plaintiff Jeft his wife, she was delivered of another female child, which, from the course of nature, could not by possibility he his. He had endeavoured to state these facts with the greatest possible plainness. He had given nothing more than a dry detail of dates; he would now proceed to state also, in a plain and simple way, the evidence of which he was in possession against the defendant, and from which it would appear most clearly that he had been guilty of criminal intercourse with the plaintiff's wife. And this he would make out, not .only by the testis mony of living witnesses,. but by letters in she hand. writing of Colonel Berkeley himself, which would leave no doubt on the minds of the Jury as to the guilty fact. The first letter with ivhich he would trou r ale them, and which was-probably the first that passed between the parties upon the subject,was of the date of thelstofMay,.lBl9: And now the Jury would see the materiality of the dates, to which he had re quested their 'particular attention, for they would have the goodness to - recollect, that the first absence of the plaintiff on going to see his brother, who was then ill, commenced on the 16th of April, 1819, and terminated on the 10th of May. Now the letter in question from Colonel Berkeley to Mrs. Waterhouse was dated the Ist of May, during that absence. et was in the following terms: " Nothing, but the fear of losing an opportunity of seeing you, could induce me to when, but I am obliged to be in Loudon as Monday, therefore I now send. To-night, at nine, I will be at the appointed spot. If you love me, do not fail me—there is no danger." He (Mr. Jervis) was in possession of twenty-four letters and eight notes, written by the defendant to Mrs. Waterhouse, which were obtained from that Lady on the 12th of December, in consequence of Mr. Waterhouse, with his Solicitor, having gone to her lodging, and obtained them by means which, under the circumstances, were not to be reprobated. From these letters he had made a selection, which he would now take the liberty of reading, and from which it would be impossible to doubt that a crimi nal intercourse had taken place between the parties. The Learned Counsel then proceeded to read the let ters in question, which were couched in passionate terms, and contained allusions which could leave little doubt as to the nature of the intimacy that had subsisted. At length the defendant evinced the way- , wardness of illicit love, and, in his last short and hasty notes, proved that his once ardent attachment had altogether subsided 1 The Learned Counsel then went on to state the oral testimony with which he was provided, as to the occasional visits of the defendant to Mrs.. Waterhouse.—their private interviews, and the subsequent disordered appearance of the Lady's dress; and, finally, made an animated and eloquent appeal to the Jury, to compensate, as much as da mages could compensate the plaintiff, for the injuries -which he and his helpless infant family had sustained. The witnesses were then called, and ten letters from the Colonel were,put in ana.read. Mr. TAUNTON, in a powerful speech, denied that the act of adultery had been proved ; but, even if it had, concluded that the plaintiff had but little reason to complain of the loss which he had sustained, as Mrs. Waterhouse had proved herself to be tlte tricr_t abandoned of her sex,. by making the first advances to Colonel Berkeley,,,who would have been more or less than a man, if he had not fallen beneath the in fluence of her passion. theti'reid the letters of the Lady, the first two of 'which *tre in a disguised hand, aad the last two written in her own natural character. • Those letters exhibited a painful picture of the mind of a woman who bad fallen from that' purity and virtue, which constitutes the greatest or. nament of 14r sex. • _ _ _ Mr. JERVIS made an admirable reply, commenting upon the baseness of •the defendant in betraying the secrets of her whom he had destroyed, and insinu ating that the letters attributed to her were fabricated. Mr. Justice PARKE summed up the case with per spicnity and impartiality ; and, at twelve o'clock at n►ght, the Jury found• a verdict for the plaintiff—. Damages, One Thousand Pounds—Costs, 40s. DRlllit LANE Tunante.—Last night the new Tra. gedy of Conscience; or, The Bridal flight, was re presented to a very full House, and the sustained and increasing interest of the Piece was ackno‘sledged the repeated and ardent acclamations of the audience. The Actors supported their respective parts with zeal and abilitt; indthe curtain fell amidst the loudest ex.- pressious of approbation from all parts of the House. n 1 i