Star. — London, England, 1808-05-18 00:00:00

-'~~ ' • •s- PAR.L I / I .4iZAT4RT P.ROCANDIYGS. HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 17. In the Roxburgh Appeal " Ker v: Inns . : and F...er,":`.h. Clerk was further heard in reply. . . Mr. Wharton and several Other Members of the Housi of dona mons brought up tie Pa :/masters' Account Lill and the Assessed Taxes Bill, which k were read a gist time, as were also a great num ber of private Bill?' brought up by Mr. S ni”.• Leftvre; Mr. Eyre, Mr. Pm, Mr. Bailey, Sir Martin Eoulkes, Mr. Lygon, Mr. Fel ham, and other Members. ASSESSED TAXES, On the first reading of the Assessed '1 Axel sill , Lord HAWKESI3URY, moved the recond, reading for incs day neat, and that the Lords be surrimoned.—Ordered. The Earl of LAUDERDALE wished the Bill to be pSinted. Lord HAWKLSBURY observed, that the usual course was not to print Bills of this nature. The Earl of LAUDERDALE nrgid the ecimtlicated nature of the Bill as a reason, for its being printed; in order taut it knight be better Anders.tuod by the House. The LORI) CHANCELLOR said it rested' with the Ilouse to decide whethar a•Bhl of thi: nature should be print •d• Lord HOLLAND quoted an instance, that di the triple Ai sessmenx Bill, which was, ordered to be printed. . Alter some further conversation it Scented to be agreed, that the Bill should be printed, but it Was found that an order .1 that nature could not be made after the second reading was hied, and the latter order could not be rescinded the srme day It was made. It was therefore understotii, that the order should be moved to he discharged to-morrow, when the Earl of Lauderdale gave no tice he should Move the printitit, with as understanding however, as stated by Lord Hawkesbury, that the Bill should be read a second time on Tuesday. INDICTNIENT HILL. 1 ord HOLLAND Mentioned, that Thursday would he more • cony .nient than to-morrow for the discussion of thi; Bill, and re quested his Noble Friend to p o stpone the secOnd reading till that day. Ear! STANHOPE Was ready to airee to rite postponement, :.hoLgh he would rather have agreed to defer the second reading tor months. The order for tummOning their Lordships for to-morrow was . discharged and renewed for Thursday. , bEhOlt.i Bat. lord rI.LENBOROUGH moved the Order of the Day on this Bill, and the House resolved itself into a Ogninittee. Lord HOL LAM" obierved, that, he Bill did not go so far as he could have wished, but so far as it went, he thought it a good The Earl of MOIRA repeated hiS objection to the Bill as sane; tioning the principle of imprisonment for debt. Some verbal amendments were made in the Bill on the motion of Lord ELLENBOROUGH, and the House having returned, the Report was ordered to be received on Thursday. SHIPt. • The order of the day was then moved, and Lord SIDMOUTH rose to make his proinised motion rcsfecting the detention and their subsequent condemnation of ships and vessels belonging to Den mark, previotts to ar'y . declaration of hostilities against that kingdom. His Lordship would not re-aitate any of the questions relative to Den.- mark upon which their Lordships had already de cided, but confine himself strictly to the question, to which he should now solicit their attention. It appeared from the Papers on the table, tha,t an im mense number of Danish ships, Many of which had Voluntarily come into British ports before any idea was entertained of a ru:utire betwe en the two coun tries, had been detained ; that Many of them on ap- , plication to the Court of Appeal had been released ; but upon hostilitics having broke out, were . again seized, and condemned as good and lawful priz,es. it also appeared, that the masters and crews of those ships so taken had likewise been detained as prisoners of war ; and that much of the property that had been confiscated in Denmark, add which was confiscated in consequence of our attack on Crtenhagen, belonged to British subjects. Thee transactions wore a com plexion not only highly injurious to individuals, but irreconcileable with the law of nations, repugnant to the usual decisions of our Courts of Admiralty, in compatible with the justice, and inconsistent with the character for which this country had so long been so proudly distinguished among nations. He had several resolutions to propose on this subject, the pur port of which arras to suspend the appropriation of the proceeds of the sales of thosir ships and their cargoes ; first, in order tp indemnify the British subjecC, who had suff:red from the confiscation ordered by the Danish Government, and next the utlsuspecting and unoffencling Danes who had come iii almost upon in. vitation into our ports ; and also to liberate the Da nish, who, tinder these circumstances had been made prisoners of war, upon such terms as to his Majesty's liberality and wisdom should seem meet. He was sorry to observe of late a disposition betrayed to his Majesty's Government in the principles, in the lan guage, and in the measures they adopted, to deviate from that line of policy on which this Country had hitherto acted, and to imitate and pursoe that for which France has been of late years so justly repro bated. Their Lor d ships must recollect, that in speeches from the Throne the boast had been often held out, that the conduct of this Government had in all these particulars formed a stircing contrast fo that of the enemy. Was that contrast now to disar2cai , • and was the conduct of England, which he iiindly hoped would have proved the refuge. and sanctuary of justice and humanity, now confounded with the practices of the tyrant of Europe ? The Noble Vis count then read his resolutions, and concluded with moving the first. The LORD CHANCELLOR, professing every disposition to giVe the utmost weight to the observa- tons which had fallen from his Noble Friend, still;' felt it to be his duty, under existing circumstances, to move the previous question upon all the Resolutions. He felt considerable hesitation in dissenting from the doctrine promulgated by the high authorities cited by his Noble Friend. But he conceived that they had broadly stated as the law of nations what in reality was the result of stipulations introduced into most of the treaties between the maritime powers in the course of the sixteenth century. He would, how ever, remind the Noble Lord, that subsequent to the discussions with France in 1761, the doctrine alluded" to had not teen acted on in this country ; and the opinion of Sir W. Wynne *as at variance with the decision of the Admiralty Court in 1779, in the case of a Spanish vessel brought in the year before, and which would have been restored, had riot hostilities with Spain supervened. Even at common law, enemies' property, wherever found, devolved to the Crown. A debt owing to an alien enemy might be sued for, and recovered for the use of his Majesty. Whatever hard ships might therefore be felt by individuals, he saw nothing in the case nosy under consideration to take it out of the general rule. The same observations would apply to the losses susained by our own merchants. There migltt be particular cases deserving of a liberal exercise of the discretion vested in his Majesty with respect to the application of the fund accraing from captures; but he conceived that it would be produc tive of serious national inconvenience, were an itidis ctiminating legal stnction given to the claims of inch vidaals for loSses alledged to be sttstained in an ene my's territory,. Lora ERSKINE admitted that the vessels destined Must be forfeited to the Crown as enemy's property, and that the Court of Admiralty could give no relief; but that ,as no teased why the Croton could rot give relief. On the contrary, that was the very Object of his Noble_Friend's proposition in this , case, to address the Crown with the view of relieving those.Wlio had suffered from the application iif this principle of law This proposition had his fell and entire aPprobatiOn, and those rho conibated it Must shew that there was an actual necessity for detaining and keeping these trading vessels, otherwise the ptvtiers were entailed in justice to a compenSa.tion. In justification of .the Copenhagen expedition, ,the case of a Conflagration had been put, and it had been said, that a man had right to pull 'limn his neighbour's house. to pre vent the conflagration front spreading to his own ; but if his house itets under such a plea polled down by hi's neighbour, and he afterwards found upon that person some of Ilk property, he would have a right to say, that Stith a man had net been actuated by a principle of self-defence, tiut of mere self-interest. SO in this Case, If there was a necessity for taking. the Danish fleet; a Case tvhich he Would not again argue, let us keep it ; but do not let us be exposed to the imputation of acting upon indtives of mere self interest; by detaining alsb the trading vessels of the Dane ; and thereby committing great injustice towards individuals: He considered, therefore, the motion or his Noble Friend to be called for by the justice of the case, particularly as Ministers had taken no step upon the subject. ~... Lord HAWKESBURY contended, that with re gard to the subject tinder consideration, it Was a mat-' ter of little importance on which side hostilities ortgi. nated. All the riglit,Of war were equally vested in his Majesty the moment the rupture took place; In this view of tile butter, therefore, there was nothing tinpretedefited in the case of the Danish vessels; and as it was not alltdged; that any thing had occurred to prove, that his Majelty should not continue to be entrusted with the discretionary nowers hitherto vested in the Crown, with regard to the Droits of. Admiralty and Ara dorm? • he mast concur with his Noble and Learned Frien d. ' in voting for the pre vious question. Lord ELLENBOROUGH supported the resolu tions, controverting the statements both of law and fact, made by the iqiibie Lords WhO Spoke on the other side. The Unfortunate sufferers, because they had not a locus rtandi injudicio, were not to he exclud"d from the benefit of an appeal to the wisdom and libe rality of Parliament. Lord .STANHOPE ^aid that he had more than once had occasion to teach our bishops religion, and he now had to teach our judges law. He tvould lay the Noble Lords who opposed the resolution, on their backs as flat ac flounders. his Lordship then quoted and reasoned upon the provisions in the 30th chapter of Magna Charta, relative to merchant strangers, contending that they had been most scandalously , violated with regardto Denmark, and that the whole' of our conduct to that country had been a piece of infamous rascality, The previous question being then put, it was car ried, on the first ;resolution, by a majority of 36 to 16; on the second, by a majority of 97 to 16; and on the others, without a division.—:Adjourned. ROVSE OF tOMMONS. A Message from the Lords acquainted the H'ouse, that their Lordships had agreed to the two Exchequer Loan Bills, and to several private Bills. Mr. Ow EN, from the East India Hozse, presented at the Bar several papers relative to the affairs of the Carnatic. I..rd BAR NARD 'gave notice of a motion o' Thursday next, respecting the empowering of Grand Juries In Ireland to purckase lands for th- p• irpose of building gaols. On the motion of the LORD ADVOCATE, the Court of Ses sion Stock Bill was read a second time, and ordered to be com mitted. The Copper Duty Bill was read a first time, and ordered for a second reading to-morrow. . The Cork Duty Bill went through a Committee, and was or dered to be reported. Mr. HUSK ISSON, al!er a few remarks from Mr. N. CAL VERT and Mr. SHAW LE FEVRE, obtained leave to bring in a MI fdt continuing the Act foe authorizing the Military Corn mime of Enquiry to prosecute its duties. TILBURY ROAD B;LL. . • On the motion of Admiral HARVEY, .the Hoist. Ytoieeded to the order of the day for the third leading of this Bill ; and it was accordingly read. Then Colonel Sraurr brought!up a clause, which was received and added to the Bill by way of rider; the purport of which clause was, to empower the Trustees under the Act to cause the roads of East and West Ham, and Barking, to be first repaired, together with Dagenham, Hornchurch, and Rayn hen; before any otlyirpirt of the said road of Tilbury sliouhl be repaired. Mr. BONHAM also brought up a clause, to which likewise the I-rause agreed, and it was, in like manner, added to the Bill by way of rlder; its purport being, that notwithstanding any thing mentioned in this Bill, or the rider last added to it, nit part whatsoever of the Tilbury road should be repaired, nor yet the places so first intended to be repaired, as recited in the first men tioned clause, until 'the whole of the monies requisite for the ge neral purposes set forth in the Bill should be previously collected, and in hand. The Bill was then passed, and M. Strutt ordered to carry it to the Lordi. THE CARNATIC. Sir T. TURTON rose to move his promised Reso lutionsrespecting the deposition of the Nabob of the] Carnatic, and began by requetting the indulgence of; the House, unconnected as he was with any party, and unsupported by any influence except what might, be expected from the strength of the cause. Before he had become a Member of the House, his atten tion had been turned to the subject by different mo tions for papers which had been made, and he was then anxious that the matter should be thoroughly in vestigated, feeling, in common with many others, for the honour and good faith of the country. When he came into Parliament he found the question still float ing, and did every thing in his power to induCe some other Member to bring It forward, preferring to be the seconder rather than the mover : no choice, how ever, was left him. The Right Honourable *Gentle- Man (Mr. Sheridan) to w:loin he had particularly looked, had found himself in - circumstances that pre-. vented his urging the question; as it might have nuich embarrassed those with whom he acted. He had no doubt, however, that that Honourable Gentleman was convinced that he had just grounds for what he did. lie did not mean to impeach his public spi rit, which certainly, on many occasions, had shown itself superior to any private motive* consideration whatevert: and even on this subject' the Honourable Gentleman had seized the occasion off a motion for papers to declare, that a more inhuman, a More atrocious, o.nd a more disgraceful act never had dis gtated any Government He had evefy disposition to think well of the Polities of die Itiarquii Wellcsley, who had been educ:ited in the same school with Mr. Pitt, and had for some time followed his steps ; but at the same time he had no hesitation to declare, that if he was guilty of the acts detailed in these papers, he was a most improper Minister for this country, as he might bring ,into our. Councils that tyranny %dial had disgraced his Indian Government. — The Honourable Baronet gaioi a brief histoi ieal view of the progress of the Company's interference with the Carnatic from the beginning of the siarthat ended in 1734, when they supported one candidate• for the Musnud iii opposition to another supported by the French; down to the treaty of 1796 with Omdut ul Omrah, by which the p:iyment of a certain kist was secured to the Company. That treaty continued till the death of OmdtunlOmiali, hi 1801, when those disgraceful transactions commenced which the Ho- nourable Gentleman opposite had not cOlourel more strongly than they deserved. On the sth of July 1801, Colonel M'Neil advanced to the palace of Ar an, with troops, under pretence of preventing corn- I motion at the death of Omdut ul Omrah. On the entrance Of those, the old Monarch, labouring wider the disorder which in eight days after terminated his existence, sprung from his bed and begged of Major Grant not to &pose him to the contempt of his sub jects, penetrating into the interior of his palace ; and Major Grant applied for instiuctions to Colonel *Neil; who; from motives of humanity; did .not enter. The troops, however, remained,' surrounding ' the palace from the sth to the 15th, when Omdut ail Omrah died, wall appearance in perfect amity with the Company. At no period were our dominions in India more quiet and secure than at the time when , this outrage was committed, under the pretence of guarding against a petty commotion. On the same •day ih which the old Monarch died, the Prince, his heir, was dragged from the apartment, and railed Upon to answer to certain interrogatories on i charge! of treachery preferred against his father. He was told that his father and grand-father had Carried on a treacherotis correspondence with Hyder Ali, • And Tippo Sultann, and that he. though inno-1 cent, Was to be deprived of his &minions, and reduced to the siruatioh of a private petton, where he expected to be a sovereign: That his succes sion would be set aside, and another placed on the Musnud, unless he complied with certain requisitions, which were, that he 'should give up the civil and mi:: lit:try administration of, his possessions, and accept of an indefinite suit to keep up his dignity, and of a body guard furnished by the Company. The Honourable Baronet gave a minute detail of the various confer-1 aces between the Commissioners of our Indian Go;.I veittnent and the Prince ; who, with the advice of two old Cawns, appointed Regents by hi's father, refused to accede to these conditions, though these Cawns 'were willing to gi' any reasonable security for the , payment of the kist. Among the expedients tiled in I order to procitte the Prince 'consent, intimidaticai was one. Troopers with drawn swords paraded be fore the tent in which one the conferences was held ; and the Prince was told that the propositions did not solely originate with Lord Chile, but that they Were I sanctioned by the Governor-General, by the Court ofl Directors, anti by the British Government. If the ! Directors hid sanctioned this conduct, their letters Of approbation would, no doubt; have appeared ;1 and it wns intunibent on those who had been Mem bers of the British GovernMent at the time to clear themselves, and to declare that they knew nothing of i this transaction. But, if they Were silent, he would prove that they could not have known it. The Prince, however; still continued to rely upon the faith and protection of the Company, and Was at last told to prepare to receive the final resolution of the Governor-General, which was, that his future situa tion would be that of a private person considered as hostile to the British interests. Where was British justice then ? troin the year 1798, When Lord Well.' lesley had landed in India; the kist had been paid with fidelity almost tinprecedeined, at.d yet this Was the result. When the Commissioners had set aside the Prince, one would have thought that they would have applied to the next in succession ; but no— they. passed over two, and opened a negociation with Azum ul Erowlah, who, from his situation, they imagined would be most likely to comply with ! all their requisitions. He, as was usual in that coinl ' try, had been kepi in c'onfinement and, when taken out, was greatly frightened lest they were going to kill him. • .They found him, however, wonderfully well qualified to undertake the GovernMent, and the conferences with him ended in his acknowledging that the whole right was in the CoinPany, his ances tors having forfeited it by their treacherous corres pondent-li%, The Honourable Baronet declared, that he would hate been much surprized if this hied not been the result. Azum would no doubt he willing to believe that his ancestors had been capable of act ing Very improperly since they Confined him. This puppet was presented in form to Lord Clive, on the 26th of JUly, and on the 28th was installed in the Musnud, on which case none of the Nobles attended, except one, who was now an outcast from all parties. A treaty was executed on the 31St, in which it was stated that the hereditary right of Azum ul Dowlah to the of his ancestors had been acknowledged by the Company. But this being communicated td the Governor-General, ,this expression of right 'Was objected to, and a direction sent to Lord Clive to get ' the words altered, if he conveniently could, and to have it stated that Azum had been established in the possessions of his ancestors by the liberality and mo deration of the Company's GovernMent, \which libe rality extended to the provision of a guard of their own for him, and a promise of a turn to support his dignity. But what was remarkable in this treaty was, that in one part it gave these possessions, and in another took them away. The rightful Prince Was, from the 15th of July, 1802, to the day of his death, confined with his mother in. the Palace of Chit panke, which was his own private property, but where, notwithstanding, Azum resided. The Ho nourable Baronet dwelt upon the imprudence 'and indecency of placing the Prime hi the same palace with the usurper, and stated that as soon as Mr. Ad dington heard of it,, orders had been tent out to re move him. He would not charge the persons con cerned in this with murder, such as those that 'were sometimes proved at the Old Bailey—he would not say thit lord Clive could have had aat iotesti% to have the Wine,: a reaslinated—bu t he affirmei those who placed hiM in such a dangerous sitnate • i with their eyes open were in fore eo4,:cientie in a gr e ,, I degree implicated. ( Hear ! hear !J: The Home; able Baronet here adverted to a paiephlet, eet'tl' ; g , The Carnatic Question Stated," :led said that h. 4 never read so disgraceful a defence of any tr,uisactre or one which was more calculated to condemn tit ' party hi whose fa 4 7our it was writtei. With ee'eer, ! to What had been said of himself in, it, he pitied ale author, if he wrote froth necessity ; is not, he de,erze,, him. He had scarcelYeeeer seen a productien cii .iii political question that contained such monstrous. h e Might say, such villainous doctrines. Was it dyensoribw true," that Marquis Wellesic'e si-a ; foiced to resort to ? Reverting to the situation of the Prince, he stated, that the unhappy man, efter several ineffectual petitions to be re:roved, had written a letter, in which he strongly pleaded for being sent to another place, instead• dieing kept constantly in the power of the usurper, wholiad only to commit one act to finish his crimes. This proved prophetical ; for the Prince not long after died of a desenteri, would not take: upon hilt absolutely to affirm; the there was something unfair this transacti on; b ut h e world say, that he believed there was. In these trans. actions he could discern nothing of the Brio,isli cha. racier: The moment they passed etc Cape, he be. belied, With Mr. Burke, that they unhaptized them. selves ; and that when they landed in India, they be . came something like the trpas-tee, described oy a Swedish traveller; that blasted and destroyed every Thiele that came within the reach- thfits pernicious in. fluencit. . The Honourable Baronq then entered uper e • the examination of the alledged treacherous cOnes. pondence of Wallahjah and Omdut ul Omrah, Hyder and Tippoo, and contended that there *as nothing in them that could be considered as sufficieet evidence of the charge. He several times asked the Honourable Baronet opposite (Sir J, Anstruthei), Whether he would admit such evidence in hi! Courtin • India ? Sir JOHN ANSTRUTHER rose to order; asked, whether it was in order to make perpetual allu ! 'ions to him, whose opinion oh the subject had not as • ytt been given ? 1 Sir T. IURTON observed, that he had merely asked what would have been his practice in his Court in India ? Sir JOHN ANSTRUtHER said, that this weal not exactly the question when he rose to order, but if it' had, it was not in order , to be perpetually asking win opinion upon points of line .The SPEAKER observed, that he had never un derstood it to be disorderly to put questions in argu ment, and that nothing was more common in the ire ; bites of that Housse than such questions. Sir T. TURTON then proceeded. The eighth letter was merely a translation of a copy, and hi asked if any lawyer Would admit this as evidence ? The ninth was from l'ippoo to Umdut ul Omrah. is which the latter Wits Idled the Nabob of the Carnatic, I though the letter was dated 1795, and Omdut ul 10mrah had not ascended the Musnud till 1796, from which it would appear that the document was a fors gery. The Hon. Baronet Went through all the twenty ! three letters, commenting upon each separately, and contending that they were merely representations bf third parties of what they had heard, they were totally inadmiSsible as evidence of the guilt of \Val lahjah. But, even Ornitting that they could be re : ceived as .evidence, h 9 asserted that no honest nun could lay his hand upon his heart and say, that they contained any indication of hostile intention on tae part of that Prince, or of Omdut ul Omrah, much lets evidence sufficient to justify 'the deposition of sovereign; and the tisiwpation of his dominions.= Upon the parole evidence he observed, that it vres given by the Creatures of Tippoo, and the immediate dependents of the Company, whom they alternately cajoled and threatened into giving such an account of the correspondence as it Was the wish and interest of the British Government, at the time s shouldhe given. But neither by promise nor threats could they attain the Object of making good their accusation, for the witnesses (and it Was material to obseriie that they were their own Witnesses) not being at liberty to state the truth at it really was, involved themselves itt in conlistencies which tie} - could not explain. The base ! ness and Meanness of tampering in the Manner they did with their Witneteet, he declared to be more repttl sive and disgusting than the commission of the 'ant* itself. There was not a crime in this country on which such evidence would be tolerated, and yet it was upon this evidence that a Prince was stript of his 'crown and his territory. But even supposing that Wallahjah, Omdut ul Omrah, had been guilty of the alledged offences, what ground did his actions afford for the punishment of the son tithe latter, and the grandson of the former ? He put it to the House what effect such conduct would have, Were any Mi. nister wicked or daring enough to attempt to practice It in this country ? .And was not justice the same all over the world, Or had we one set of principles for India and anbther for England ? With a view to the interests of the country, he maintained, that the extension of our Indian territory tended only to entail an immense load of debt upein the country. Put this was but a secondary 'consideration, When corns pared with the iniqttitous spoliation of an indepen dent Sovereign. Before sitting down he conjured the House by the national honour and faith, of Which it Was the guardian ; he Conjured his /eta jesty's Ministers, in the name of the national clia7ac • ter, of which they were the protectors ; he conjured I every man, in the name of that eternal justice which was the foundation of our happiness here and here- I after, to consider the importance of the Vote which 1 he Was to give this evening. He was confident that ! it was essential to the security of our Indian empire, to declare, that the British Legislature hever would I sanction any unjust or tyrannical act. He concluded with moving a series of resolutions, containing a re ntal of facts relative to the assumption of theCarnatic, ! reprObating the deposition of the Naboh and &elm - - ling that the Bsitish Parliament will 'ever counte nance an act of injustice and oppressibft in India, and stating the propriety of appointing-a Committee to ins quire into the best means of indemnifying the family of Mahomed Aly, and of ensuring the safety of our Indian possessieAs. 414 r. WALLIS expressed his aurplise, that the present meeen *as not brought forward till after the papers had been six years before the House, and printed and re-printed in titer successive Parliaments. The Honourable Baronet, it was true, bad not ha a , seat in chi House for a long time ;but if these were any Geit:e nen laths Wisp Tote tad sl fvo art 1/014r sra.lo. l d, bad was 14 1 0 1 _, ari l OW I Ifil_l et* via tetel )1 the) the Tee hoc l IX