The National Register. — London, England, 1818-02-15 00:00:00

ifi TN' fl No. 323.—V0L. XI POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON THE SECRET COMMITTEE. TIIE powers which the Suwon of the Habeas Corps Act at any time, •tilaces in the Itincht of Mi iisters, s triate ... them to ernTterterrittt, - titen powers are withdrawn, subjects them to'suits at Com mon Law. To prevent this, it has ever been the prac tice of the two Houses of Parliament to grant them a Bill of Indemnity, by which, they are secured from the necessity of pleading as individuals, in defence of acts done in their Ministerial capacity. To obtain such an Indemnity, the present Ministers, are like all their predecessors who have been placed in similar cir e,.....nstances, no doubt extremely anxious, nor can such a security with any propriety le deaied, when the Le gislature is satisfied that the gnat powers intrusted to the Executive have not been abused. To ascertain this, is only practicable through the labours of a Com mittee, and to this Cotnmittee, the 'conduct of the present Ministers has been submitted The only pJints at issue between the two opposing . parties in the House ofCommons, are, themanner in which that Committee has been formed, and the kind of information which has been communicated to it, b) which its opinion of the guilt or innocence of the Ministers must be regu lated We arc free to conli•ss that we are among the number of those who approve of the Committe3 being secret, but with the manner of it:format ion we are Icsssa tisfied, or rather we should say we are dissatisfied with the manner in which suchCornmit tees are usually formed,for t e common practice had not been in this instance departed "glitt - If by hallbtlialc,Xicul a proper club of proceed ing in the formation of a Committee, it ought to be fairly and honestly done,.and no juggling tricks be re f.orted to as was the VISO last session, whets upon some occasion, which we have now forgot, Mr. Drou g ham, previously to a ballot, produced a list, which he had .tomeerh...n3 obtained, rind which carresßonded exactly with thy names aftervm• Is chosen by t!'e ballot ! Of this i • iption we strongly suspect the recent proceed ing : ive been, anti we lament it the more, because we'' ~ notwithstanding all that hal been said, Minis tera • • .ght safely trust themse•i :es in the hands of a C'omilittee Moly chosen. Not all the asperity of Mr Deunct,nor the more solemn and ostcmtatious,arguments ef Sir Sanniel Idomilly will be able to persuade the na tion that under the Suspension Act, Ministers did nut " bear their faculties meekly." Those who actually mffered by its operation, may complain and heap all manner of abuse upon their persecutors, as they choose to call them, but to us who can form a pretty correct estimate of the value of Mitchell's evidence given to Mr. Bennet, the sufferings which are narrated with all the aggravatious which party hostility can give them, r.ppear to be but slight punishment for the offences which many of the prisoners committed. It has been, oddly enough, made matter of charge against the Minister that he did not apprehend an individual of sal under the rtspension, and the same gentleman who made this charge, in the same breath accused him of having th:Jwn a drag net over the country and taken all that came in its way ; Without observing that one part of this charge belies the other, we would appeal to every dispassion ate man whether the conduct of Ministers was such as to deserve this? How many obnoxious men might they not " with hare faced power" have swept from their sight "and bade the law avouch it !" had they been eispored to stretch their power to the utmost. But to return to the Committee. It is elwrged upon the Ministry as a crime that they have made it secret ; and it is argued that secrecy was na longer fleeces:try since, by tlicir own :::•count, all danger was past ; but Cm there be no impropriety in exposing names and eirctuastances which Plight inv9lve . intlividuals in icx/te<.. /')ecAteP-- atioliall At t itOttr+ Our tttg, toittitution auto 31 a 36. SUNDAY, FEI3IWARY 15, 1210. culty, and sutject them to the vinaCtive ir'schinations of dim, who conceive themselves persecuted by the acts of the Government ? Although disapproving of the -mi ner in which the Committee has been formed, yet have we an opinion of4mie of the gea t s i iensess com lin .4 rciftiWOri t ,# 4lll t i ltiall.lllV. 3 ability to investigate the w ole conduct' of 11 In 0 and we will give them credit for ro.,i•A,ing spirit inf. ticient to prompt them to an avowal of their discoveries even should they sink it! a minority. It is mentioned as a grievous fault, that the evidence before the Committee iliktrnished by those who are to be tried; be it so, the indttstry of the opposite party is such,4 that, although the Ministry may gain their Indemnity, they will not go without an exposure. How far the . ex posure may lower them in the estimation of the Public, it is not for us to eav; but after the nQrrcaives with which Messrs. Cliff and Co. amused their auditory at the Crown and Anchor, we think they iriay safely trust their cause to the good sense of their countrymen. Mr. Bennet has announced the evidence in his pos session with great confidence as containing overwhelm ing facts ag.iinst the Executive, but we repeat that it is not a man like Mitchel, who was cilitt-dcep in all the schemes of the disaffectisd .;that can furnish matter of charge against those who teaprisoned him. The Com mittee will well consideX,xhis, 'dad the House will consider, whether it is prudent to foster the spirit of disaffection by attempts ' iminate the Nli,tistry, or t whether they will tilt re . a greater service to the community by confirminmbose acts by which the tran quillity of the Country wis restored, even in less time than the most sanguine had anticiliztt,4. _ .. TIIE LEVEE Thursday the Prince Regent had a Levee at Carlton house; being the first since the lamented death of the Princess Charlotte, and the only one that hats been held fur mere than six months, it was extremely crowdod. The usual preliminary ceremonies were complied with ; the military hand, and a due prop'ortion of foot guard::, life gnarls, and constableis, were in attendance. The company began to enter about one o'clock, and continued to set down till half past three. At a quar ter past two the Prince of Hasse Hon:berg arrived, in one of the Prince Regent's carriages; he was in full military uniform, and attended by stfue-servants ; he was presented to the Prince Regent by Lord Stewart, at the entree levee, previous to the general one. At this previous levee was also introduced Mr. Rush, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America : he I.•as presented by Lord Castlereagh, us Foreign Set rotary, and was most graciously received. The Secretary and Under Secretary, Mr. Adams Smith, and Mr. Taylor, were likewise presented. The Duke of :;an Carlos, the Spanish Ambassador, next underwent the same ceremo nies, end was similarly receivtxl, as also was the Baron Gueldt and Count Ludoff. The l)ukes of York, Cla rence, Cumberland, and Gloucester, the Andibishop of Canterbury, tha Cabinet Ministers, the I louschold Of ficers of the Queen anu Regent's Establishment, the principal Law Officers, the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and some ether official persons attended in their appropriate dresses and uniforms. It appears by a German Paper, that many of the Hanoverian Nobility go to tar4;el, to he present at the approaching marriage of the Duke of Cambridge, and that the Baronness Kielmansegge is appointed one of the Ladies of Honour to his intended bride. This is a name ir.t unknown in England. A Baron Kleiman segge was Master of the Horse to George I. as Elector of Hanover., and the Baron's Lady was invested with several English titles. A daughter of this lady was ►r.other of the late Earl Howe, so that the present .13a raness has some relatives in - this citatory. The Lord Chancellor has fixed the days for hearing :weals ana writs of error, in .tbe House of Lords on the Moatlays, Weansaalskys, .Ind Frillays during the Session of liarliament, on which days Mr. Viet, Chan cellor sit is the Court of Chancery for the dispatch of unity business. • Pazet gt FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. FRANCE. • PARTS, Fee. 9.—The Royal Clemency has been extende3 to the 74 person condemned by the Prevotal Court of Lyons. for participating in the seditious movements of the month of June last. The 39 ci.triletnneil to a short imprisonineut have Lereited'alree pardon, and the punishment of the remaining "11140Viin were. eldrer to deportation or Live years' imprisonment and tweed lalsona.—lnes " imprisunmentof a shorter duration, w h ichlon ug wit it no mark of infamy. M. Rocca, whose marriage with Madame de Slav! was not published till after the death of that celebrated woman, lately at Melts of a lingerin4 disease with whielt he N 44 attacked Jo, eral years ago. tie was a member of the Lew.iusi of IlOsiour, and had served with distinction in several cam. paignx• lie publislit•il two well-known works, one on the wars of the French in Spain, and another, eutitled " The Cam paign of Antwerp and Walcheren." TURKEY. CONSTANTINOPLE, J 4N. 3.—The English Ambassador to the Porte, is still at VilfianCr Nith the Divan, on accountof the indemnities for the two forts of Pieocsa mid Billeted°. The Potty always lays the blame on the Pacha of Janina, and thcte negotiations h ad to new references. The Russian Minister has at length had the conference with the Reis Effendi, which NW: fised fur the lttli of lleccon her; ono or the princip;tl ',Mots in debate is the regulation of the indemnities to be given by Tot kev to Russia,aveortling to the treaty of Bucharest, dm final execution of which is still delayed. Strong rr presentations were also matr res. perting tine .•omp:aints which the Servi, ns c , mtiotte to make ot the ill t t atment whirl, they sutler 110211 dte . 111s4.As agents. 'Ulm 'rock ish Government alledge.l in cse aSe the (lithe 'dry of tug the statements of the Paellas, and of the Survidis Walworks who accuse them. It will be remeinhared that the Govers.or of a Rossini) port in the rim int. stripe ...it a Tilt kid, Caney, and forced the wanimunder to release all 0., io 1 , 4 lilict were not Nlshoardans. 'this net of violence did not 4'414 , e 50 moth sensation at Constantinople as was t %peeled ; the dis pute did not grow warm till some female Citeassittits were spok , ti of, who were al-0 in the hands of the Toll:kis Coto. mender, and lite Irwin! possrFFiott of 15110111 was eutitestr.d him. Al the end of this memorable conferenee, two touthers (Italians) were ir.trodaced in the usual firma, Drat.. warns recently attached to the Rustilan Legation to the finite. ... y SOUTH AMERICA. The packet front Rio de Janeiro brings letters from that place to the 12th Dec. They eleses arc the 'arid decline of Artigas's power. A division of hi% sert from ;he Vracteay to oppose the Portuguese general Onkel° had oven defeated: one of the Chiefs, Verdun, was taken pr.seitcr, and the other, MondrAgon, killed. Otorgues still blockaded Mimic Video ; but 4uJ black troops, which made a part of his disision, dr serted to the Portuguese on condition of being seen to Bue nos Ayres, which wai dune, General Pinto is mimed (le vet-nor of Monte Video, and left UM tie Jaheiro in Nostentow, he is to proceed front the frontier with 3.000 ca. alry to re-in. force General Leror, who Is then to make a movement in Vraguay, which, ter the present, seems to be the !Milts of the Portugnese operations. At Monte Video come Spaniards of a turbulent dispositien were lately arrested ; they arc said t..) lie on 'he it way to Wu de Janeiro, in a Port iigm!se brig of war. Letters from Guaymptii and Panama have been rceeived by way of Jamaica, 'they state, that in Noventhcr, a ship and some smaller privateers, muter the Buenos Al re r day, had ap peared no that coast, and captured two brie :mei one packet ; in consequence, the trade was at a :taint, at... 1 HO force near to protect it. By the Nereid, from Trinidad, se...prat riammtnieationir latimt to Venezuela have been rec..; ed. The Patriots are said to have gaiaed an . - aeurra tit aci;mi i e the Leighlymi hood of Nutria, on the contioes ur Ilir pririnee. o f I,; : irinar an Carthagena. Bolivar, fern e'.`.•-ea.1.11% and other causes, ap." pears to has ei been dolayed in Lis gliet:lii9llll for about three months, bat he had at I-Jgth set sail, with I ,tid,) men, to . :rei tirnera I ..!..,riLa and other, as,ecnibling near Calahozo,eurty teat:nes south of Carace.:4. A Council et State Nas f.,eme• •I in .%eigost era, on the: Joh rd . Nov. tor the a lne:nistra::oll linvertiment, accruing In th i n .1e: or (eat. i.e.iim, .a a have no town r.) insert. Genet el iis Supreme (lii.”; opened the sitting with an appropriate speech, and the vari,e utlicers were ;laurel This '7,i•ei,t :I i. divided into, three partments—State and Firriiiee. of which itic President is D.,rs Antonia Zea ; War and Marine, Pi•esdetit Admiral Brim, ; Interior and Justice, Doti Jirtt: ltlartinez. A gnarl! of Tr-de has also been organirs:/. Crewe-al M:aigui inn! been teemed Governor of the province of Barcelona. and t itentral Bermu dez of that of Clllll3lll. Til i•:and of ?la ita was under Generals Arisinendi and Gomei. and the pror ;I , et et and l'aganara ;metre (ieneral al Codeno coo:. mended in GILly 3113. The organized trereps belArging to Vt. neauela arc 14,000 men. The heirs of M, Bertrand, a l'rJtestant Minister L t Berne, have discovered, among the papers of that Clergyman, a great number of unpublished _m en o f Aroltaire, most of which are in his own writing, and all of which bear his sign:ware. I.c is said that they are to be hwthwitli poblished a 4 %.'aris. The pa. lilies, mo rals, and religion of Voltaiv OL nearly hurit.l, we hope, be this time, under t'.e ruins which they have ceeasioned ; but the lor. - .s of nitre ainusemei.t wel.i repaid by any gencino may have their curiosity framments of duet extraordinary thoug:i unprincildte. writer. S ." . g 44,,V rs ... 1f.. . ,i, . _a, etit :M s l / 4tvir l .`,.._ • ••• . w 0 g; 1 11 - ‘• V, l'i> • - ~Mf•" . J-