The National Register. — London, England, 1811-03-24 00:00:00

Tilt NATIONAL R. On the question being put for the Speaker's . leaving the C.lair, • Lord FOLKSTONE rose, and stated several objections to the measure now proposed. The Committee on Commercial Cre dit was very different at present from those proposed in 1793. Then only four out of fifteen were commercial men ; but now, independent of the greater number of commercial m u on the Connalittee, almost all the others were more or 1: u connected with or dependent on the Minister. 'Sir Jolty NEWPORT said, that the market of South . Amerlea, ,instead of increasing must diminish, from the convulsions ane agitations now prevailing in that country. The present Bill, in stead of diminishing the evil, would ultimately augment it ; for it would Five rise to still greater speculations than the pact.— What was the House about to do It was about to Involve the country in deeper distress, and to visit the faults of those who save indulged in extravagant speculation on these who have not. It was better at once th at th e manu f acturer should return to ' tilling the ground, than continue in so hopeless a pursuit. The House then divided,—For going into the Committee 103; against it 16; Majority 87. Mr. Wst. Snsi rH a4tal what would be the amour 4 interest gni Exchequer Bills ? Mr. l'eack:vA t. replied, the usual interest of three-pence- • halfp..iinv per day. The lio..zse then resumed—the Report was brought up and received, And o'dered to be taken into consideration. The other Orders were then disposed of.—Adjourned. • TUESDAY, MARcti 19. sirJonN &sic LAIR moved fora Return of Bills of Exchange, from 1/310 t,) 1811 ; for CopfeS of Papers respecting Gokl Coin and 13111,i0n, for three years past; and for a Copy of an Order lis,tird by the Bank of England, dated the 18th Ins Pant, fixing the current value of stamped dollars, 1n future, at five shillings and sixpence ; and also, Coides of the Communications whi c h hairpassed betw ee n th:Bantt of England atnl the Privy (..:ouncil on this subject.—These motionrwere agreed to. 18; in the mean ture, rapidly increased, This Keit: -et did not, however, at all sin - prise him ;it wus that state of • &Lige which he had uniformly anticipated, and openly predicted, not. withstanding the statements of the Right Lion. Oen:lt:mak op posite.(Mr. Foster,) and the inferences be, at that time, wished to impress upon the Howe. That Right Hon. Gent. had then calculated upon resources which, as he (Sir J. Newport) would fail, and which had so failed him s--the Wine Duties; the Currant and Raisins' Duties, the Windows' Duties; the •fax on Lemons, and those on Receipts, most of these, all of thesi‘, had fallen off. The result of the whole was vhis,—that, whereas +be estimated produce had been stated at 3313,0001. the actuallpro dtice was not more than 20 0001. Taking the average produce during three years still there was a defect of 1,700,0001. These evils were chiefly to be attributed to an over-taxation, and to official expences: one had decr e ased th e consumption ofartichi, and the other had almost swallowed tap the remnant of I, ish revenue. What could, howevesi account for the decline of the Inland Duties on leather, which amounted co 524 MO. in 1799 1 though the amount of the lik e duti es was b ut 4e, 000 1 in Islo l The Hon. Bart, concluded with moving certain Rrstlilltiolli to the effect of his observations ; in sellich he stat e d th a t t h e Funded Dt bt of Ireland, which ad trebled within three years, was, this time, 89,7`t9 Mr. FOST,x It (rising. In replyto Sir J. Newport) remarke . civ hat *there were no papers bef.,r,: the Douse which tended to throw light upon the resolutiong moved by the lion. P,aronet. When, indeed, he (Sir .1 Newp.srt) was staring the produce of thy re venue of Ireland, he had forgot to mention that of the Lottery— and the Re -payments to Government. He had also, if he tuii took him not, omitted other resources. Still the situ :Mon of Ireland was, he would admit, full of importance, and re (;nirieg alt examination which they could allot to it, as well as alt the assistance that could be extended to it. Mr.llANltts thought, that few matters of greater hnporttnce than the present could be submitted to the cognizance of the House, and therefore the postponement of it w a latter pitied in the Session was inexpedient. If it were to be at all postponed, as early a day as pusiible should be fixed far the discussion. Sir JOHN Ntsvro at. would not consent to withdraw his n•c tion but on the principles that he would follow up such conces sion with a motion that a Select Commitue should be appointed to enquire into the public exvenditure of Ireland. A motion to that effect being handed to the Speaker, aid he proposed the previous question, The SPEAK/It observed, that no debate could lake place 'after the question was proposed from the Chair.—Motion with drawn. Auer some further observations, the question was loudly cal led for, and . the House divided. The numbers were, in favour of the motion 44; against it 71 ; Majority against it 27. REPEAL OF THE LAW RESPECTING PRINTERS. On the re-admission of strangers to the Gallery, Mr. 11. MARTIN rose, in pursuance of his notice, to incite for leave to bring in a Bill to alter and repeal certain parts of the Act passed in the ::9th year of his present IVlajesty, imposing heavy penalties on Printers, for offences therein sp .cified, which was attended with particular hardstrips.- r The Act was passed at a time whoa the public mind was excited, 'and when the; fu ture consequences which might ensue from such a measure were not taken Into consideration. In bringing forward leis motion, it was requisite that he should deccrine tnc nature of the griev. :Ince of which he comp' tined. To do this was lint difficult, as he was possessed of information respecting various inetancps in which persons became amenable to the law, op occasiofts to which lie was convinced it was never the intentip4 of the Legis. 'attire the Act should apply. in one case, inforipations ‘were laid before a Magistrate to recover penalties f 4 no less a sum than I t,sO,(IX)I. In order to shrw the li-,use the Mintier in 'Which persons were entrapped into an offence against the Act, be would state the f.cts attending this case. It might he in ,he recothilion of every Gentleman in the House, that 'sortie time bark a ptrson • went a7)out to different Printers and Booksellers. staging, tlia4 wanted sonic title pages printed to the Efeivir Edition of Cicero, to which, of course, the name of the Printer could not ne at• t ached, as it would at once be conceivt d, were such a step taken, that the work was spurious, and the desired 4itd,Oamely, tt . ) pre serve the character of the work, would not he answered. Many persons foil into the snare, whit.. others more cautious, 'fortu nately avoided it. Informations were, however, laid before Magistrate for the fall amount of the penalties against those who had unwittingly offended, when the informer conlessedthlit he hid formed the scheme for no other purpose than to gain the. p ll:titles. What ws the consequence the Magistrates having no power of mitigating, or re mining altogether the tines; «as obliged,fra his, pert-et conviction of the innocence of tile men Who were charged with the off.etace, to discharge the complailit. SPILSBY PAUPERS. Sir S. Romier.r (hearing the second reading of the Spilsby I - louse of Industry Bill moved) objected to it. The Bill, In his view of it, contained provisions unknown to the justice of the country, provisions which empowered the Ma-ter of this indus trious establishment to punish the intllittes of its house, not only with privation (1 food, and by frogging in the storks, but even with solitary confinement—and this without limit. Nor wzs flits - the only fault in the Bill: should any pauper damage the said House of Industry, the endamagement of such building was here made felony. This was not the worst. The present Bill authorised the Directors of this Establishment to let out the poor within its walls, like job-negroes, to work any where; and if these slaving paupers happened not to do work enough, or not to return in time to their house, they were to he accordingly chastised, at the discretion, however, of their Directors. He could not, therefore, regard this Act in any other light than as an Act for introducing and establishing a system of pauper-sla very. Private Bills of this description were, in fact, too little scrutinized by the MeMbers of that House, who were frequently unknowingly made parties to measures which would otherwise never have obtained their asgent. In fact, he (Sir S. komilly), from the avocations in which he was necessarily engaged, should, perhaps, have been unapprised o f the content s of th e p resent Bill, had not its obnoxious provisions been pointed out to him by a Noble Lord. Sir .Tastes Olt i l RAM assured the House of his being, till now entirely unacquainted with the particular provisions of the Bill in question ; which had been regularly introduced, and had also heen delayed for the purpose of meeting any objections that might he urged on the part of those who best understood ir. He was, however, p&rfectly willing to postpone the secsind reading of the Bill till to-morrow week. The motion of adjourning the second reading of the Spilsby I - I , )use of Industry Bill, until to-morrow week, was . now put, and agreed t u.• REVENUE Olr IRELAND. Sir 3. Nr.wpoßT rose, on the Speaker putting the question that ti.s: Sugar Driiw Back Bill be read a third tinw—adverring to hi, notice of a Inotiou for taking into consideration a paragraph in the speech of the Lords Commissioners, at the opening of the present Session of Parlianlint, respecting the deficiency of the Revenue of Irtliuid, the Honourable Baronet asked the House what wou:d be their reflections, when informed that the Re venue of Ireland was last year 660,0001. ksit than the amount of the pubiic debt of that country ? This debt, large as it always was, hzd.nearly trebled within the last three years. If these cir cumstances did not call for:ParliAmentary interference, he knew not what. did. The net revenue of Leland, during 1810, was 800i0V0t. mess titan diving the pear atimi ip public debt had : IMMEIOM