The National Register. — London, England, 1812-03-01 00:00:00

I .- MARCII l. _ t rine, that every thinj was to come through Pariia?:.ent, and nothing froin the favour of the Crown. He always conceived that there was ::)thing improper in the Crown having the power of rewarding services by sinecure laces; and It had•been allowed on aU hands, that if even the sinecures were abolished, some other fund must be provided, in order to preserve to the Crown its prerogative of rewarding services : and he wa.s not afraid to say, that he thought it right that the Crown should have the prewogative of conferring certain places not inertly as a reward of services wlact, ::i.onent could take cognitance of, but in some instances, as acts b.:r4 ee and favour, independent of any consi deration of important -ervie ts, either civil or military. He had often cated to the House Ili', ep..ion respecting those sinecure places, and he did not see why he s nound to recommend the abolition of this -par ticular sinecure more •han any other. Mr. Wit rrkiittAn said, that ,he House was bound in every point of view, to tape up the matter, because an improper appointment had been made—an appointment improper as it respected the Prince Regent—im proper as it t tapected the declared form of the House—and odious as it rciarded the reclines of the people. (Hear, hear /) The Chancellor of the Exchequer had said that he would do every thing to prevent Parliament from taking the office away from the Hon. Gentlemen. If not counter acted by the vote of that night, the Right Hon. Gentleman might per. haps advise the Prince Regent to grant also a reversion of the office. He would again repeat, that it was a grant not decent towards the House of Commons: and he trusted their sense of its indecency would be ex pressed that night. What effect such a decision might have on the Right .1-cm. Gentleman would remain to he seen. He had remained Minister v. hen supported by very smad majorities • nay, even when in minorities Le had still clung to power. Whether, should this amendment be car ried, he would still remain in power, what his fitture colleagues may be, what principles they may have, or what discussion of principles may prevail annnig them, could nut be foreseen at present. Mr. Su ea: DA NI regretted that Colonel M‘Mahon, for whom he en. t• rained the greatest Tegard,•had ever been induced to accept it. Lord CoCIIILANC thought the House itself had been more to blame ht this matter, than either the Minister or the Prince Regent. The ilutise had not acted on their own resolutions, nor had included the anoli:ion of the office in the Act which abolished two sinecures of a simiiar nature. He would not, therefore, so vote as to throw odium where it did not belong, nor would he support the continuance of this sinecure ; but should immediately leave the House without voting on either side. (l'his his Lordship immediately did.) A divi.ion then took place, when there appeared—For Mr. Banker's Amendment, 115; Against it, 112 Majority against Ministers, three.— Adjourned. TUESDAY, FEB. ?si. Mr. BANitts moved fir various papers relative to the trial of Mr. aish; also that he appEars in his place on 'Thursday next. liROl l'S OF THE CROWN. Mr. BROUGIi tas. pur•ttant to notice, rose . to submit to the House a Motion n e on this suhlect. Ii adverted to the arguments which, on a former :5C.C3 , ..4.)11, had been urged b 1 those who maintained that the Droits of Adoth:ity were a separ tt..: right of the Crown, and observed, that no ostehd denied that the. 1 - louse plsieised the privilege of lookiug o the applkation of chi, and sitttilitr fund 4. In the outset, he beggesi :cave to re:o..rit, that no one could doubt of the impropriety of applying runs out ut a food, without the autlia.rity of a vote of Parliament. Nu o!.e could &mitt of the elti•itence of the abuse; but such was the appear ance of the paper; b..i . ‘.)re the House, that he thought it alone suilicicnt (round for immediate. and minute enquiry. In order to simplify any discussion which might take !place on this subject, he wisuld divide the tpers into four classes, hi which he would not include the accounts of uvinies issued in consetriericr of N'les,:,ge6 to the House, or of the sums rrea to the just el:tints of Captors. The first class was the account of sums paid to the Captors, but which soots, on the face of the papers, did tot appear to be indisputably paid. The next related to sums, which, fron, the account, were apparently paid fur the same purpose as the first. Tio third class c .nsisted of certain stints paid, without any ground °f1 .4 Y111.-Ir being ulled.,!ed in the acc:oint ; and the last class, which was the larg,e, included sums issued tor va , ions services, which did nut at aa rdate to the manner in which the Droits was formed. It was his intention to take each class separately, and point out items, which he was t.nivince,l would induce the House to agree to his Motion. The Hon. then entered into a detail of the various grants which had been made from the bruits of Admiralty, to many of which he urged strong objections. He ciaieluded by moving," That a Select Committee he appiinted to inqui re i n t o th e Application of various sums received as Units of the Crown, and to report on the same to the House." The Curt NCELLOR of the Eton coo ts rose, and proceeded to notice the cases off e r e d to t h e cons id erat i on o f the ouse, to justify the itp po;ntruent of a committee, and taking them collectively or separately, he ass.,rted, they established no sufficient grounds for granting what t,ppearcd to b e th e o bj ect O f t h e mot i on . E very i n f o t in ation should be n_orded th e Hon. Gentleman in any particular case where it might think IE neCes,ary ; b ut the rot& iplicity of committees was a serious evil, as obstructing e bsiness of the Hous. Th.: mode of argument used was hardly fair in th the Hon. Gentleman:e it was a double-banded stroke, he w 4 by which he sure to cut e ith er on t h e one s id e or th e other; we think proper to reward, we do wrong in conferring it; if ws withheld, we are • r I. • • • ~, THE NATIONAL REGISTER. WEDNESIMY, TIM 26. 133 wrung in that also. He again repeated that it intormation were ast:ca for on any particular case, he had netibjecti in to give any paper chi manded ; but as he saw no advantage from a Committee, but rather great inconvenience, he_would vote against it. _ _ After some further observations from Mr. Brougham, Mr. Croker, and Mr. Wilberforce, the queition was . put from the caair, and nega tived.--Adjourned. A Message from the Lords informed the House, that the I,nrcis had agreed to the insolvent Debtors' Amendment Bill. Mr. M. A. TAYLOR, pursuant to notice, called the attenti.m of the House to the subject of delays in the Court of Chancery. The nnist of bis statements and argumeuts were the same as those he last year on the same question. He concluded ‘N ith moving f.:r 11 - lea Committee to inquire into the causes of the delays of caws in Chancery, &c. The motion was greed to.—Actjotirned. .. THURSDAY, EEL 27. The Sugar Drawback Bill was read a third time and passed. Mr. BANK Es having moved that the Order of the Day should be read for the attendance of Mr. Walsh in his place, Mr. Ant RCROMBIE wished the business to be postponed, suMricnt time not having elapsed for duly considering the Paper.: on the I*.l►:e. After a desultory conversation (in the course of which the petilter informed the House, he had received two letters from Mr. Walsh, stating, that it was not his intention t.► attend in his place), an ortlvr was Made fur him to attend on Tttesd 'y next. STATE OF THE N ATION. Sir T. Tv RTO N °Nerved, that on this occasion he was fully aware of the disadvantages under which he rose, without the support of party, and fully conscious of his own inability; bet, if he brought no party to support him, he brought no party feelings to warp his judement or to mislead his arguments. In going over this subject, he mare, front the nature of it, be in some degree ted•ous; hut there ci manly v.-a 6 cite Len ground, which, tI ugh it had been glanced at coll:tterally, bad ;lever been fairly brought under view of the I louse—he meant the war of tbe Peninsula, and that subject would, in his opinion, sulli , ,lentiv justify the fl ution he was abut to trouble the Howe with. But that was not all • be wished to draw tre attention of the House to the rituaiiim 4•I the; country, both externally and internally ; and to contrast it with what it had been when the Right Hon. Gentleman and his colleagues cane ieto office. The Hon. Gentleman then adverted to the situation of t!.e cu. pire at the commencement of the present Admieistrutien, and salt!, the first expedition they had planned on coming into office—the eepeeition . to Copenhagen, however it might be defended on the grounds of ex.pedi ency, must be acknowledged to have been a most atrocious act et . ii;jm tier.. He then 4- .tverted to the origin of the contest in tipuin, and eb serveth that in the first paper published under the controul of the Spa • nish Government, called the paper of Precautions, it was reconmu .1 that the Spaniards should never attempt to meet the French in a reeiCar battle, but should content themselves with harrassir.g the enemy, by at tacking them unawares. How was this resolution adhered to? lr a short time after it was stated that an army of 500,000 foot and .0 OCg) horse would be raised, and soon after fir A. Wehesley was sent t aid this supposed army. He did not mean to blame Ministers, but !ht• re sult of that unfortunate expedition was yet in the remeniliranee of tees y one. Next came the still more disastrous expedition under Sir Jae Moore ; and most of the misfortunes of that expedition resulted irom the want of co-operation of the Spaniards. . These facts, and the whole course of the transactions in Spain, ought to have proved to Ministers the fallacy of attempting to expel the French irem Spin. 'Tice Ho- • nourahle Baronet then adverted to the expeeition to Walehe ten, and to the last Austrian war. • The result of the first had bee,' most melancholy, might be expected ; not a single shot was firs d by England, to:the purpose of causing a diver•qou in favour of :he Archduke Charles, till after the battle of Wavam bad taken plaCe, and Austria was humbled to the dust; and then, and not till then, i the famous expedition to W.ilchrren—an expedition to Walcheren to snake a diversion in favour of Austria! And bad the Noble 1.e:l V. 1.0 planned that expedition, so ruinous to the country be is called to -a...- count for it ? No. Had he been impeached by Parliameet No An . enquiry bad been instituted, but insteadeof censure, .Parinanent declared its approbation of the policy-of - the measure.—( He:r e ;tear front Me Ministerial benches)-1 he Right Hon. Gentle men might call • Hein., but was not this a reason for instituting an inquiry net) the state of the Nation ?—(Hear, hear !) e —The Rt. Hun. Gentleman inighteanit, and eat/ , lam invulnerable. He might say, the is are meie fieeteb4 —(4 laugh.)—He might laugh, but he could not, especielly etehen ho contemplated the reported return of that No bl e Los dto otfic,.; es, that cast-, he foresaw more expedition::, equally ruinous to the tareirett and resources of the empire, The Hon. Baronet then returned to a 7, review of the affairs of Spain, and contended that it was impolitic to persist in maintaining a contest- so expensive and so ruintme, with out even a probability of success The proceedings of the Spanish Go vernment, he contended, had always been hinguid ; they had never been hearty in the cause; end was it too much to gointe inquiry, -not whether we should abandon the Spanish people, hut how we could best assist them. It was not with the Government nt Odaiu • but with th• -/ . ~:~ N 2. :___ II