The National Register. — London, England, 1812-01-12 00:00:00

31V. 11. T. Lord Moia* gave cordial and unreserved tribute of his applause to the conduct of the Governor, and of the Army in India, but would by no means have it inferred that he a pp roved of the general system of Co lonial warfare. especially in the West Indies, which he considered as a cemetery of our brave troops. Tne Earl of BUCKINGHAMSHIRE expressed his ardent accord with the motion. Lord GRENVILLE declared that the frankness, explicitness, and man liness with which the Noble Secretary of state had spoken did him • .t honour; and a more admirable speech, on such an occasion, had never been delivered 11 Parliament. The Motion being thrn put from the Woolsack and agreca to— The Earl of LLYta POOL then moved severally the Thanks of the House to General Abercrombie Commodores Broughton and Row le y , Sir Samuel Auchmuty, Admirals' Bertie and Stopford, and all the Of ficers, military and naval, serving under them ; and also to all the non commissioned and warrant officers and privates, both European and Indian, engaged in those conquests. All which Motions passed lief% dia. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TUESDAY, JAN. 7. At half _past three o'clock the Deputy Usher of the Black Rod, sum . maned the House to attend the House of Peers, to hear his Majt sty's Commission read for opening Parliament. Upon their return several writs were issued for Members to serve in Parliament. The SPEARER then informed the House that he had received a letter from Lord Wellington, Including one from General Blake. The letters were then read, and contained an acknowledgment of the gratitude of the Spanish army for the honour confe rred u p on them b y the Vote of Thanks of the two Houses of Parliament. THE REGENT'S SPEECH. The SPEAKER then informed the House, that the House had been in the House of Peers to hear his Majesty's Speech, (pr which sec Lords) which was then read. Sir FRANCIS BURDETT immediately rose and addressed the Chair. Lord JOCELYN rose at the same time with the Hon. Baronet, but Sir Francis Burdett having fist caught the eye of the Speaker, The Seem( ea decided that the Hon. Baronet was in possession of the House, if he claimed his fight. Sir FRANCIS BURDETT mated that he was anxious to take the earliest opportunity of laying before the Prince Regent suds an Address as the extraordinary circumstances of the times, and the calamitous situation of the country dictated. He had the greatest confidence in the magnani mity of his Royal Highness. and knowing his af q ction .for the people of Great Britain, it would be an act of iujustice to the country to witjshuld at this time the suggestion of such measures as would tend to relieve it under its present awful embarrassments. The House should certainly concur in granting those supplies which the common exigencies required. and he most heartily acquiesced in the opinion, that the character of the army and navy of Great Britain was of that exalted kind, that its energy could not be encreased, or diminished by the circumstances of glory or defeat; hut he could not but lament that in the struggles in which her • valour was engaged, there was nothing characteristic of the love of free- dom which our ancestors maintained. Within the last 18 year. England had been adding annually to her own humiliation—each year was worse than that which preceded it—and he might indeed with truth declare, that this defection was going on progressively for the Last fifty years. that this had been the case was easily proved by a recurrence to the history of the period at which the reign of his present Majesty com menced ; and if this was the case there must be something radically wrong in the system which bad been adopted since that period. It was easy to state the reason of the continuance of those calamit and he tx rcted to be anticipated be the 'House in the opinions which be was shout to deliver. England commenced the present war•unon principles or despotism, and site was lowt i;kely to be involved in a v....a another country, vial wiali she might have been expected to act in unison.—The French war was destructive to libertythere was a proof of it even in the declarations of many of the former advocate of the war. Mr. Burke. himself was an instance of it; but Mr. Burke was a man whom he c , ,nthl not quote; for though the possessioia Of dove:Dee gained him admiration, his want of ptinciple ensured him contempt. — The reason for carrying on the war, at the present time, was a kind of pretence of defending Spain from the invading hostility of giance. Was it for the purpose of b e nefiting the Spanish people ? The rights of. Sove- • reigns is a language which Ministers understand, hut the rights of the people is a species of dialect with which they are totally unacquainted. The speech of his Royrd Highness hadthe peculiar characteristics of the spirit by which Ministers are usually actuated. They had talked, and they might talk for ever the language of anticipated success, but who would presume to assert that there was the slightest chance of driving the enemy out of Spain? Who would he.so absurd as to suppose it? 'The successes of the British arms were little better than so many defeats, and why were those calamities so strongly marked upon a people so sit-' per-eminent in every respect in the mouth of the ivUnister? Because the. country is engaged in an attempt to support despotism. Wily are.otif friendships acting upon a people to whom England is a stranger, while her humanity is denied to a country whose heart's blood cherishes her s, and by whom fihe has been stipyffied in her alight of *spi as hailed:sod congratulated in h er tiav of glory and enthatlcrit', as. well • E NATIONAL REGISTER sesssemeseseseseep. . that we should be fighting for the Catholic religion upon the Continent, for those who ,profess none but the Catholic religion , a nd at the same time good and persecute our brethren in Ireland, when their firm love and fidelity can be purchased upon such trilling conditions, upon giving t:; them that part of their liberty , the absence of which ;lone is calcu lated to make them slaves ? Ii this the doctrine of a House which con• tains the supposed Representatives of the People ? The SPEAKER here called the Hon. Baronet to order, and. Stated, that he had used unparliamentary langnage.. - . Sir FRANCIS BURDETT said, that :heivas very happy at hayin g been Called to order by the House upon such aft occasion, for when the,Hoi.i.e 4hewed their displeasure at the expression of a doubt of what they were, it was a proof that they knew what they ought to be—( Loud But what was in the insinuation that was not just ? .When the odious system of bartering seats in Parliament was defended, could those men who countenanced so abominable a practice have any claims to purity or propriety of character, however fair and indisputable their conduct un der other circumstances might have been To prevent all this was, the Hon. Baronet said, his object, and he looked forward with joy and confidence to the happy moment when the Executive should be re stored, when his Royel Highness should be In possession of the unre strained exercise of his judgment and power. The grand defect which he had to deplore, but which he trusted would he in a short time effec tually removed, was the present state of the representation of the people. Some writers had written in de fence of Aristocracy ; some in defence of Democracy ; and some in defence of a mixed government; but he-head never heard of one who had written in favour of an oligarchy-ean oli garchy of rotten boroughs too, composed of persons not to be found in any other part of the globe.—The Continent, said the lion. Carom t, is the book in which the consequences of all this are to be rca I. What does it signify that we call ourselves free ; . that within our walls we boast of the glory and the lib ert y of the Mull eat ien ? The internal strength of the country is nothing consolatory. What have w, hut taxation amounting to almost total deprivation—amongst the lower ce - tiers, pauperism, which is dreadfully wig grarited by the wasa: if the pa lie money ? In cases of taxation the most dreadful oepressieu is expe rienced—an individual is denied the assistance of a by Act ( , f . Parliament—and no trial by a Jury of his countrymen is allowed.—Bt.t this is not all we have to deplore: Military possession is taken of ti e country, and as if the Government were afraid of the ft eling of the'. own countrymen, a number of foreigners have been sent in amongst its. Our soldiers are obliged to undergo transform ers ation in th ar as t eir ess en , cnn- end they are compelled to imita te those foreign, even so f dr o rage the growth of their whiskers to an enormous site, in order to ne taken for any thing hut Englishmen ( Laughter.) is not this a mass absurdity and folly ? The plain, unadorned red coat of the Eligliehmeo, in the lion. Baronet's opituors,serried wish it a greater stmeatenatior strength and bravery than , all tbst,creth .and frippery of foreign finery. He then made some obserettiallo upon the torture of the lash, and said the use cf it was so very _freqtient, that r ng l a nd might well be railed a floppedunti.m. It would be advisable to substitute any thing for that which operated a disgrace not only to the individual but to the flatten. But it the men were to be flogged, why not flog the Officers too ?TI e Hon. Baronet treat adverted to the state of the liberty of the/tress, which he said weull be a fair baromt•ter of the Conduct of Governent. lib Whe erty n that conjuring word, by wh ich,the sub j ect was deerived o m f his and of the b. te•fit of the law of the realm (he meant ex dficia inforiee tions) was uttered, how in a moment did its magic operate? Thejuke might do what he pleased, definition was law ; but this povs - t r, which was falsely called law, was indefinite. Was not the proof of this flit y exhibited in the conduct of the Judge, who. according to his partiahtie or enmities, adjudged one rota to two or three years imprisonment, and perhaps never called up another, who had been equally guilty in the eye of the law, to receive judgment ; if he did, limited his confinement to a few months ? He c ould not help expressing his amazement at the nduct of a Judge, who bore a strong testimony to the justice of this ob servatien as could ' be adduced by the circumstance o ft anticipating the guilt of N i lr. White during his trial fur a libel. The erney-Genie too had his power, which was a power that went hand in hr;nd a ith every Administration. hat office should te permanent, or dining toe reign of the King, instead of changing seith every Administration, a change which of course involved a total change of the tenor of libel. The severity of a Government always occasioned brutality amongst the people. Education, said the Hon. Baronet, is much taqted of; some soy, that reading and writing is the definition of education, and that a den ciency in those respects is the want of it. It is no such thing. The :mat valuable, the most useful education is that proper moral education which is inculcated by an impartial administration of justices l'he opposite instills into the minds of the people principles of the nioin abandoned p o flizacy. He then moved an Address to the l'; .nce Ree nee. ssity of a nt, the subs radical tance of which is contained in his speech, t xpress;ng the change in the representatimnof the people, the melancholy state Of our internal and external resources, the propriety of acceding to the claims of the people of Ireland, the prospect of a w.s with AniericA, ;kc. lord COCURANE seconded the motion. Lord JocuLYN then rose, and made a short speech, in which be hail's! the bright prospe c t which the aff:.:;rs in the l'cninct;la present.•(;; a l .. planted the valour of our soldiers, and those of .our ailie Ile regrete d that Spain was not successful as Portugal en; hits - here was * celnolatien in reCeeting that the French had kitidled a spirit of l=ost the bi - eacts of 'Tanisit whits!) 1' ':'td never hr (nti•!ir.-Votoq, 21