Star. — London, England, 1814-07-09 00:00:00

peared from the enemy's own account, almost as severe a toss as they might have sustained in a regular action. While en trusted we a large force, on a distant station, and obliged to draw all h's stores from England or from Malta, he had made Lis arra gemeuts with so mach economy and skill, that the country had never had the service of so large a fleet, at such a distance from England, at so little cost in stores, or, in what was more valuable, men. It was highly gratifying to bins to be able to state, that the five three-deckers that came home the other day, were in• such perfect condition, that had the war coninued , they were fit for any service on which it might have been thought desirable to employ them. It was due to the Officers serving under him to say, that in them he had found most able substitutes, whenever he could not he present him. self. He mentiined, in terms of the highest praise, the exer tions of Voce-Admiral Sir Sydney Smith, and those of Admiral Freementle. and addei, that there was not an Officer, or a man, iu thao fleet, who had nqt entitled himself to the gratitude of his county. Aft, r a trw words from Mr. FREEMANTLE and another I-Ton. hltini.:r, the report was agreed to, and a Bill ordered to be brought in. e N ed Wine Bill went through a Committee, the report of which was ordered to be received on Monday. CITY JAILS. Mr. HOI FORD moved that the Report of the London Jail Bill build he postponed to Monday. Sir W. CUR wished another day to be named, as he cold' not attend the House on Monday, and moved as an ansenknent, that it should be taken into further consideration on Fuesday . Mr. I-RiI.FORD objected to the discussion being taken on Tuesday. If it srited the convenience of the House to put it off irons Monday, he hoped it would be postponed to Wednesday. Mr. Alderman C. SMITH, Mr. BATHUSST, Mr.WHITI3II LAD, and sir J uAss tiered a few observations, after which the galley was cleared for a division, but we understand the House nit divide, and that the further consideration of the report was five.l for Monday. 'the Jail Nees Abolition Bill was read a third time and passed. PRINCESS OF WALES. Mr. BROGDEN brought up the Report of the Committee of the whole House on the Message of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, recommending a. grant of ie50,000 per annum to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. Lord CAST LEREAQH rose to call the attention of the House to the Letter to the Chair from her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, in which she arils pleased to intimate to the House, that it would by more satisfactory to her if the vote of the Commit • tee of rES i,OOO should be reduced to £35,000 a-yesr. It was certainly his duty_ to conform to whatever was m o st acceptable to her Royal Highness. He merely wised at present to state what were the considera tions- which had influenced his conduct on this occa sio,i. He should not have thoup,ht of submitting the preposition w!ach he made to the House, if he had not prcviausly apprized her Royal Highness of the measure which he had in contemplation. On the ewet'Uoa Of the day on which he had laid the papers connes.ted wish this subject before the House, he made a commisiacatipn !o her Royal Highness of these Papers, and of the cousse of proceedings which he meant to follow. He was honoured with a reply tru is her Royal Highness, s.a:ing her Issillingness to :accept Site go int offered her, b:catise it was not clog gi..t with any inuilitications derogatory to her rights er her iii.ntittr, aod was not an act of grace or favour the . pirt of die Crawl), but me of mete right and j..si ice. 'riots he lint every reason to consider this ray sion ar having been accepted by her Royal High- S,, bting, as she was pleased to state it, not an act .t .,•..see or favour, but of justice. On the eveniag aio el. sit vote took i slace, he informed her that in a clay, or two he hoped to be able to Lay the Bill before (Ls, and unit no regulations should b: ins.Jted in it 01' a d (feting in any degree from she regula tons in the Resolusion cf the C .nimittee, and that as . , sse was possessed o f these se' B u:ations, she could 5\ idge wile Vier they were not In every respect con torts) rule to lier wishes. He afterwards transmitted io her Roy it Highness a Copy Of the Bill, framed in coniot mitt' with the actual vote which had taken place. hid lama honoured v ith a reply, in which her ':;oval Highness still intimated that she accepsed of toe provision, and again stated that she considered k not in the l4f,ht of an act of 'grace or favonr, but an act of justice. Now what he wattle,' at present was to be assured of what her Royal Highness's wishes really were— (!kar, sear, .ear,) —because if this re nunciation of past of the safe voted to her were the spontaneous wish of her Royal Highness, he would led himself precluded on a principle of public duty from voting any part of the public money to a sub ject who was not inclined to receive it. He must con ceive that the Letter to the Chair was more conch:- live go that subject than the one to himself, because,' while the Letter he had received was couched in ge neral terms, the other was special. In following his present intention, therefore, he conceived himself to be acting in the spirit of her Royal Highness's wishes on the subject. If Parliament, howcirer, thought proper, on this occasion to relax, and to agree to the clinsinution of what it had voted as an act of justice, he ho,.ed that no persons would be allowed, on that account, at any future period, to revive in that House discussions connected with the Royal Family, discus sions which were painful to every person in the cour.- ss y v. ho felt a proper respect for the Royal dignit:., could not be sufficiently deplored by every pet ioss in the House. It they now receded from what they were pleas:'d to vote to her Royal Highness as an act of justice, he hoped they would not again hear the questton of nn act of justice revived. He hoped it would now be considered that every disposition bad been s:Aten to make every arrangement in this case consisanit with her comfort; and that Parliament inight be relieved from all future appl cation on her behalf. If there were any individual in the House who could give the House more full information of her It syal Hig s hness's sentiments, he could wish him to ;ay such intormation before them. He understood the Letter to the Chair came by the hands of an Ho. ninrable Gtialernaii opposite. Both Letters, that to himself, and the one ti. the Chair, were of the same date, the sth instai.t, but the former being more ge nevi, he should tielnis hesitation, if he received the assuiance os the Honourable Gentleman, opposite, that -in so ding he was ftiltillin; the wishes of her Royal Highness, in moving that the vote of £50,000 a-year to ti l e Princess if Wales be reduced to '1235,000. gr. WHITBREAD. had to complain of the Noble Lord for putting an interpretatioo an the conduct of ' himself and his friends, at if th e y had been th e agita tors ctf• questions in that' House Teetcling* the -.l l sincess of W 414. • 11;116 was a Consittregon, the just 'would al- any communication of these papers, and of his inten tions, the Noble Lord answered that measures had been taken tor making that communication. The Noble Lord did communicate the papers, and in the Letter to her Royal Highness, he informed her that he had made a communication of them to the House, and that it was his intention on a future day to move an augmentation of her allowance. To this Letter her Royal Highness returned an answer without any advice from himself, or any person with whom he was in the habit of acting. [At this time Lord CASTLEREAGH appeared to be communicating some observations to one of' his friends near him.] He begged his Lordship's pardon : he did not know whether he could flatter himself with the hope of drawing his Lordship's attention to the statement he was making. He would repeat part of the con tents of his Lordship's first letter. After stating that he had made that evening to the House a communi cation of the document relating to the separation in 1809, he acquainted her that these Papers had been referred to a Committee of the whole House, in which it was his intention to move that her allow. ance should be augmented to £50,000. He thought he was correct then in his statement, that the Noble Lord had not made any communication to her Royal Highness, till alter the statement in that House.— The Noble Lord had communicated correctly the substance of her Royal Highness's first letter : the consent and acceptance in that letter were expressed in very general terms. When the Noble Lord sent the Bill, a written answer was then also returned to him. intimating also a general acquiescence in the measure. This letter was also written by her Royal Highness without any adviser. After that, lie had no hesitation in saying, that when he was consulted on the subject by her Royal Highness, he stated to her, that the sum was disapproved of by him, as bring larger than circumstances required—larger than what he could consent to vote for—and larger than what he thought the Noble Lord ought to have proposed. Her Royal Highness did then say, that she approved of the proposition of the Noble Lord— but the amount of the sum had never entered into her consideration ; she then wrote the letter to the Chair in her own hand. He thought that too sum 01 X 35,000 a-year was amply sufficient for her situa. tion at this time, till the period should arrive, fixed by Act of Parliament, at which she would have to receive £50,000 a-year. Her Royal Highness there tote gratefully and thankfully accepted II the thiity five thousand pounds a-year, as fully sufficient for all her purposes on this occasion. However painful any discussions on the subject of her Royal Highness or any member of the Royal Family might be—all he could say was, that whether the allowance should be £50,000 or £35,000 a-year, things were precisely in the same situation in every respect. There was not entertained by the friends of the Princess of Wales the slightest idea that she was less in need of the protection of the House by receiving £50,000 A-year, than by receiving only £35,000. Her Royal Highness had accepted the provision, on the condi tion that it was not derogatory to her honour ; and whether the slim should be £5j,000 or C 35,00“, she had not the slightest idea that the difference of the sum made in that respect the slightes: difference in her situation. He simuld have voted against the £50,00H, becatee he thought that sum improper, and he would now vote for tee £3.5,000, bee wise he con sidered it what the circumstances of her Royal High ness required. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, that he should not have proposed the grant of R 50,000, had lie been in formed that it was the wish of the Pr incess of Wales that the sum should not be so considerable; but feim the note of her Royal Highness, f.e naturally implied directly the reverse. It was impo,sible that she conial think, at the time lie c.imitimt:cated the inten ded proposal, that the vote had already beea passed for a sum, the. whole•of which, he imagined, WAS in i 11.52-;;;;: due to her. The Honourable Member (Mr. Arjstbre4cl) had fairly avowed that lie had been the adviser of her Royal Highness ; but he (L tea C tstle reagh) should be sorry to find hereafter that the counsel given had induced the Pt iecess of Wales to adopt a different line of conduct from that which her real feelings dictated. The design of the House Was to give a liberal income; but if the Ptincess of Wales' had now finally receded, on consultation, from what his Lordship had first understood to be her sponta neeus and uncontrouled desire, he should most cheer folly accommedate the resolution to her wishes, by alts ing the vote to R3:5,900. The same amend ment must also be made in the Bill. The determi nation of Parliament would undoubtedly make a be , u!ficial change in the• circumstances of her Royal Highness; instead of being dependent upon the vo linuary provision allowed by Ow Prince Regent, her income would by right be derived from the Consoli dated Fund, and that sum must, pro tank, form a part of the income she would receive in case of the ' sketch of the illustrious individual now at the head of public ff Mr. TIERNEY observed, that an intimation ha t d been given, that a clause was to be introduced tow the Bill to prevent her Royal Highness from intuit ring (Hits for which the public might be liable. Alf circumstances considered, he (Mt. Tierney) hardly thought it delicate or prudent in the Noble Lord to make allusions to Royal debts. Such a provision as that suggested, might render some inquiry upon this point necessary ; and if a discussion were to be forced regarding the debts of the Princess of Wales, he (Mr. Tierney) would not s hrink troru his ditty, in calling the attention of the House to the debts of other branches of the Royal Family. His principal object in rising was to prevent the House from run ning away with the idea first introduced by the Ne.' ble Lord (Castlereagh) that all the recent discussions arose from a desire, on the part of the Princess of Wales, to'obtain money. The truth was, that these debates arose from circumstances which lie did not wish to revive ; and the object of the pecuniary al biwance was only to recognize the Princess of Wales, Who had been abandoned by all, as under the pro. tection of the House of Commons—Wm'. /wail — in her letter her Royal Highness expressly called it "4 an extraordinary and unsolicited mark sif munifi. cence,'' and it was not candid in the Noble Lord to create the impression that the uniform Princess of Wales was to extort money ; lion bad been denied by her Royal by all her friends. He did not set to complain of the conduct of the Noble Mice .• r Leh en he f or one 'would always strenuously 1 cence ! " ana it cien . x.. 'Tile N,ble Lord hadaorrectly enough stated ' , endeivour to a e cunt rhuntr A t tu n w hi c h had t a k e n place between. design of the l'i L _ . r itoye Vllighitess and himeelf.. When the Noble I such an kntenti cord, it presenting the papers relating to her Roy'al : Highness and Ili Mien to the tioOset was rust asked it he had made J much reooll to Lord in other respects, excepting that ho had gone a little too far in leasling the House to believe that he had consulted the Princess of Wales. One of his (Mr. Tierney's) principal objections was, that the Princess of Wales had. not been treated as a pee" fit to be consulted. The Noble Lord had brought down a parcel of papers and had given notice of motion, but the wish of her Royal Highness eras never asked, whether the sum should be larger or smaller than what was proposede This might be thought tke more extraordinary as the Noble Lord had never before shewn any reluctance to pay sufficient respect and reverence to the members of the Royal Family. It was, no doubt, a new principle of action which the Noble Lord did not understand, to see an individual consulting the public interest instead of her own, in refusing £15,000 a year, and he hoped this case would not be drawn into a precedent hereafter to lead the Noble Lord to make smaller offers than the actual merits of persons interested required. Lord CASTLEREAGH was of opinion, that it' would have been hihly indecorous to have nego. elated with her Roya l Highness upon the extent of the sum she required : he had, however. gone so far as to mention the amount, and if t:.11 Princess of Wales had felt any personal repugnance she would have informed him of it in her note, instead of stating that she considered it as an act of justice.—(Hear, hear).—He was not to presume that what her Royal Highness termed an act of justice to herself was, at the some time, an act of injustice towards the public. Since that period, however, it seemed that she had been better advised, and that she had determined to do injustice to herself rather than do injustice to the public. As to his having given a wrong colour to the recent discussions by asserting that money was the object, all that he had argue) was, that such must be the resultf since Parliament could only inter pose by pecuniary relief. (Hear, hear.) Such in common sense ought originally to have been the mo tion, and the House would never have been troubled with subjects ctistressing to itself but doubly painful to the various branches of the Royal Family. Mr. TIE RNEY observed, that he had disthctly stated, on a former debate, that he had had no pri vate communicatio❑ with the Princess of Wales ; be had, however, advised, that her Royal Highness should not accept £.5t),000: it was very likely to ap pear to the Noble Lord an extraordinary proceeding, and, no doubt, he would not have advised it. When, however, the Noble Lord talked of the indelicacy of making a bargain with the Princess of Wales, he seemed entirely to forget one of the documents he had laid upon the table, in which the income t.f her Royal H.ghnesi was reduced to £17,000. The :mg mentatinn made by the liberality and justice of Par liament was, no doubt, very acceptable to the Prin ces of Wales; but it was no less creditable to her Royal Highness to have had so much consideration for the situation of the public. Lord CASTLEREAGH remarked, that. at the time the document just referred to was signed, it was absolutely necessary that there should be some under standing ; the parties also were the Prince and Prin eesa of %Vales. It did, however, nor become the Minister of the Crown, in subt.itting a propos il to the liberality of Parliament, to make the amount of the vote the subject of negociation with iacess of Wales. Mr. WHITBREAD begged to be allowed to say a few words open what had fallen from the NAL! L0r..1. The Pain:ess of Wales had not b.en treated even fairly by him : he had said a great deal regard ing the supposed change in her determination regard in. the .4'50,000 upon advice with her friends. He ap wared to have forgotten that the late Mr. Perceval had ben one of her ;advisers ; that he had written an elaborate defence from charges which had long been concealed, but at length were published; he had for gotten also that once her Royal Highness had had the benefit of the advice of Lord Thurlow, and more recently of Lord Eldon. hid the Noble Lord mean to say, that because some of her friends were dead, 'and others no longer continued to be her friends, that her Royal agliness was to be left entirely without counsel and assistance ? It might, by him, be deem el hardihood, bat Mr. Whitbread boldly avowed that he had advis:d tile Princess of Wales regarding the letti r she had written to the Speaker. Did the Noble Lord mean to assert, that in the discussions in which Perceval partook his object was money ? If it were, then inde:d, the same charge might be brought against bitn, Mr. Whitbread. Had the advisers of the Regent, who recommended the letter to the Queen, stating that his Royal Highness would meet his wife neither in private or public, money in their contem• plation ? It they had Mr. Whitbread would allow that his o . j..ct was and had been entirely pecuniary. What was the true cause of all these painful and distressing discussions as the Noble Lord termed them ? Injus tice and indignity to the Princess of %Vales. Not a word regarding an increase of income would have been uttered had it not been provoked and com pelled by the conduct, or rather misconduct, of Mi nisters. Tee insult was the ground of complaint, and he (Mr. Whitbread) declared that the fi nances of the Princess of Wales had never entered into his contemplation : every man, not only of feeling, but who was almost destitute of feeling, must have been struck by the forlorn, destitute situation of her Royal Highness, and the vote of Parliament was not so important from the sum as from the recognition it contained, that she was taken under the protection of Parliament. • He contended that the letter sent to the Speaker was the most respectful mode of informing the House of the determination she had maie, and the real fact was that her Royal Highness had mis taken the purport of the Noble Lord's communica tion, and had at first imagined that as early as the 29th ult. a vote of some amount or other had actually been agreed upon in the House. In her reply she had never reflected upon any sums ; she had accepted the principle which, on the part of Parliament was an act of Grace, and nn the part of the Crown an act of jus tice. It was but fair to state that the instant the re duction was suggested it received the hearty concur rence of her Royal Highness, and she felt grateful for this assistance, waving no right and clogged with no condition. There was, at least,something invidious and unhandsome in what the Noble Lord had thrown out on a former Right, that in proportion to the smallness of rite sum received was the necessity of introducing into the Bill .% provision against the debts incurred by the Princess of Wales. Surely such a threat was unnecessary. when it was known that her Royal Highness, even limited as was her present income, did not owe a dulling : the insinuation that it was possible, nay, probable, might have been spared, un less, indeed, the Noble Lord's experience in other quarters had shown him that however enormous the revenue allowed to an individual, the incurring o! immense debts was still inevitable. Much had been said to exonerate the House in future from hearing of the case of the Princess of Wales. All he (Mr. Whitbread) could say was, that he hoped no cause• would be given for bringing it again under the notice of Parliament. For his own part, lie did not feel himself precluded firm asserting in his place the cause of the Princess of Wales, or of any other indi vidual who had to complain of indignity or injustice, whenever he should think it expedient. He felt happy in the conviction that the House of Commons did riot give, and tll►e Princess of Vs did not accept the sum now voted as a compromise, barter, sale, or pur chase of any right of person ) dignity of sta:iG:i, or purity of character. Lord CASTLEREAGH did not think that any thing he had.ctid called for the warm expressions employed by the Honaurzeale Gentleman : he still maintained, that if the Princess of Wales had had any objection to the re-30,00U mentioned in his note of the .sth instant. it was natural that it should be noticed in the reply. lie did not wish to refer to any cireettistances that could excite controversy or irritation, lint whatever might be remarked of the advice given by his late Frientl t Mr. Percey4l, it could not be denied that lie had given rige strong proofs that he did not think it tic that the family di! ferences of the Royal Personages in questinn should he agitated in Parliamont :--he hoped that the Honourable Member would in future Ite of the same sentiment. With regard to the sum, it the Honourable Member had ot iginally thought that an augmented income was necessary, it WAS a great pity that Parliament bad not arnved at that conclu sion betore any ot the painful deliberamns had taken place. Mr. WHITBREAD felt it impossible to refrain. from adding a few words. He pat it to tile Noble Lord whether, with his knowledge of all the transac tions of the parties, he did not think it would have keen impossible to have avoided discussions like those which had recently occurred, if that Book had lonn publ•shed, which such great pains had been taken to conceal ? It the Noble Lord meant to arraign him for not having proposed the reduction of the vote in the Committee, he must know that he had concurred who!!y in what fell from his Right Honourable Filen(' (Mr. Tierney) upon the subject. As to the former debts of the Princess of Wales, Lord Thurlokv, who then advised her, had used the strongest expressions to induce her not to accept ,E 12,000 per annum : the had in tact told her, that if she did take it ' , she would he a beggar, and the result proved the truth of his assertion. He col - Au:fed by repeatieg his assertion, that pecuniary considerations bad never operated upon him, and his belief that it had never influenced the Princess of Mr. PONSONBY wislit...l to say a few wordi in justification of the vote he had given: it was not go. yernei by a consideration of the pecuniary situation of the Princess of Wales, and consequently he had never conjectured whether the sum was likely to be more or less. He lamented boor, as be bad done hefore, that the subject had ever come before ParFa ment, and be hoped that some steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence of the evil. The House was incompetent to enter into such questions, as whether the Princess of Wales should or should not be received at the Drawing-room ? The-only constitutional mode of entertaining her case was by a grant of money.— It was true that be telt considerable resentment at an act of wanton oppression and unjust indignity offered to her Royal H ghaess, and he was desirous of shew , ing, for one, his disappmbatien of that injustice and indignity. These considerations, and these only, had governed his vote. The question was then put, and on the motion of Loed Catrrt.saaaott, the Amendment of £35,000. instead of d50,0)0 per annum, was introduced.—A ; Bill was ordered to be brought in to carry the Reso lution into effect. PEACE OF ICELAND. Mr. PEEL said, some time ago he had introduced a Bill for the preservation of the Peace of Ireland, which gave to the Government or the Magistrates no new or eatraoreinary powers ; but he was curry to say, that the examples that had been made of offenders had only had a temporary effect ; and that new illegal organizations and associations had commenced in the disturbed districts. To suppress these, he would pro pose a measure (at least part of it) which had received the approbation of the House in 1807. He was sorry that a degree ot opprobrium had attached to that measure which it did cot deserve. It was founded on an Act of the Irish Parliathent of 1797, called the Insur rection Act, which allowed two Magistrates to transport persons guilty of that offence. He proposed, Crerefore, to renew all the provisions of that Act for two years longer. The object of the Bill would be to euahle the Lord Lieutenant to declare disturbed districts to be so by proclamation, on the representation ot the Magistrates. The inhabitants would then remain in their houses from sun-set to sun-rise ; and if they did not, witiout lawful excuse, they should be consi dered as disorderly persons, and liable to be trans. ported for seven years. The trial by jury might be dispensed with, and the Magistrates should be allowed to enter houses by force, if refused admittance.— When the state of Ireland was considered, he hoped this measure would not be thought very severe; for he was sorry to say, that all *other measures 11.td failed to prevent the horrible atrocities committed in that country. He then read extracts from several Magistrates in Ireland, expressing their co:lvicti. , n of the necessity ot the measure recommended by the Hon. Gentleman. He asked the House to con s ider the horror of the situation in which a poor indu:tri ous creature must feel who knows himself a marked v:ctim to one of those illegal agociati(ms. Was it to be wondered at that his fortitude would I orsake hint, and that he should join thefr assembly ? Let the House not think that he was stating any imaginary evil ; tor there was hardly a day passed that he .lid not receive some accounts of such atrocities naviiig been committed. • He was aware that this tneat,ute would he branded as cruel and oppressive by thefac tious and turbulent. This was not, however, inten ded to operate against one sect, and not another. — It was not necessary for him to state (nor ir.deed would it be true) that there wits any extenSive con spiracy in that country threatening the existence .ot J