The National Register. — London, England, 1822-03-31 00:00:00

7 , r • niperiat ,Varitamcnt. HOUSF OF LORDS. 5101:DAY. MARCH 25. The Stenlk Gaol Bill was read the third time end passel. The Wakefield Gas Light and Paving Bill was also read the third time and passed. The Earl of matt in pursuance of notice. to move the second reading of his Bill for Registering Irish D:eds in England. The noble Earl wished to say a few words on the subject, as he understood there was still some misuntlersumding respecting the object of the Bill. It was suppo-ed that the Bid would alter the law is it stands at present 4.r registering of deeds in Ireland, whereas it was to facilitate the registering of Irish deeds in England, and would not interfere with the Acts of the fith and 8:11 of Anne. In the Committee lie should have some alteration to prapo-e, which might be discussed in that stage, in cs:e any noble Lord vas desirous of gating any objection. The bill was then read the second time and committed far to- morrow.—Adjourned. trr.-trJav, MARCH 26. The Malt Duty bill w.ts read a thi•tl tint!, Dill passed. Kill GREY presented 41 petition from the inhabitants of the province of Lower Canada, complaining of ag icultural distress. —Head. and laid on the table. Kaal GRRY then asked the noble earl on the opposite tide of the house, whether it was the intention of his Majesty's gllVera • silent to introduce shortly to that house any measure with a view to the relief of distrmcs arising from the deprma.-.1 state of agriculture ? The Earl of LIVERPOOL said, the noble earl must he aware that a measure on the subject of the corn trade was con templated in the other horse of parliament. The subject was under the consideration of the committee, and therefore it W.ls unnecessary to say more, than that he was not aware of the intention of government at the time to submit any motion to the home. Earl GREY. pervtiaded that the labours of the committee so utl not afford any practical relief to the country, should give notice of his intention, a.; 50011 as pmsible after the holiday:, to tic a day thr bringing the prevent state of the country fairly under the consistet ation ef that house. The disensvion would be i..troductsl with a view of effecting a reduction in taxation to a co :skier:dile amount. Earl DARN LEY stated, that lie some time ago moved for p per. relating to the Stationery Departinent in Ireland. and as to communication on the subject hail yet been received, lie should move that the return In male forthwith.—Ordered. SEIZURES BY THE nomu) OF EXCISE. The Marquis of LANSDOWNE called the attention of the house to an order made by the house three weeks ago, calling on tlle Commissioners of Excise to return the orders transmitted to their officers for seizing all masted grain, or imitative cctfee. That order had not been complied with, and a fortnight since a sertud order was issued, calling upon the sail Catiowssioners to make the return thrthwith. The noble marquis had now to compLiin that the Commisdoners had made no return to the second order, and the !mum was certelnly called upon to inforce ob , dit nee to their command. Ile wished for some proceeding by wl ich he could at least know whether the retina would be made or not. The Earl of LIVERPOOL felt the importance of having morns nuule within a reasonable time. Ile had Ito objection to the I:pi:ointment of a committee why returns were not mule--any re;ttlatton on this subject would be beneficial. The Marquis of LANIt , DOWE. after some deliberation, moved that the officers who served the order be c alled to the bar. The motion was agreed to. Mr. Quarme, the deputy usher of the black rod, accordingly copeared at the bar.—lle stated, in answer to question; put by tile Marquis of Lansdowne, that the order of the house was brou : .ht to hint flout the Parliament Office by one of the door le !ye- a, and it was served by mistake on a clerk at the Treasury, named Adrian. It was served on the 1 tilt of February, the day after the order was made. The Ma quis of LANSDOWNE then gave notice, that he should moot to-morrow that Mr. Adrian be called to the bar. CIVIL LIST. Lonl KING rose, in pursuance of notice, to call the attention of House to the present state of civil list allowanees, and to propane a considerable reduction in the same. There was a de cree of extravagance in the civil list, for the purpose of keeping cp influence and patronage. He could not think any one would c intend that 'wintry into the civil list was not open to Parlia ment. I f the funds of the civil list were excessive, or too narrow, Parliament certainly was the authority to which the subject was to be referred. With le •pect to the expences of foreign antbas aalors, Parliament was peculiarly called upon to decide. By an act of Pailiamenr, tile mown had no intereit in that part of the public expence, and Parliament had a right to see the expence was properly reduced. lie should chew that the estimate on which the civil list was made in Baia, was not the proper scale upon which the expence of that branch of public service ought to be now regulated. The noble lord read a speech ot• Queen Anne, in which she gave tip lo.uoci. of the expences of the civil lin. There was certainly not then a mote distressed state of it ings than at present. When the civil list was established in In ire. Vie prices or every article was much higher than at present, and t e change in circumstances rendered the interference of Parliament necessary. In 171.).2. the expences of the civil list acre t 001. In 1822. the expences were much increased. al • though the season Wits oneof greater (listless. Thenobleland then citel a variety of documents to prove that the amount of salaries smil pensions had increased in a way which made it necessary fur Pati:mem to interfere. The ram of exchange was al,o a ground for reduction in the salaries of foreign ministers. 1;e adverted to the rate of exchange between Spain and Portugal, and con tended that the ministers in those countries ought to have re ceived much less, instead of having their salaries increased. The sans, brothers, and relations or members of Parliament were Mund Ellin r foreign Stustiona. At ono time the ambossatlor at die 'ague teas considered of great importance, but now it was of no importance. He could not see the use of paying 12,0001. a year to either Lord Clarneorty or Lard Stewart. If he looked to the embassy or Switzerland, it wtts at least reasonable to re duce the allowance of those who filled the mission. The stun c largest for Switzerland was 4..)n01. a 'ear, for that which was once done toe 2001. per year. The real cause of these extrava gant missions was, however, no more nor less than the desire of ministers to keep up their influence. Every thing gave way to aence. FA' intim:nee certain planes must be retained, whether useful or not. This chewed the inward spirit of govern:neat.— No ennpaign carried on by government had ben so successful as Me campaitm against the independence of Parliament. Rao t•apaete hinistlf never enipbyed more talent in his military movements than ministers hail shown in their attack on the in dependence of Pailinment. Ministers refused to reduce any ex- Feallitare of minions. in order that they might give a few pepper COMB (as places had been termed), to their tiieuds. The noble Lord concluded by moving an Itumlile address to his Majesty, •• that hi; Alajesty would be gran iously pleased to give orders to sext a retina:on of• die expences of the civil government, re toning at the same time sufficient to maintain the true dignity ul dis Ciro, n.' The Ad tress having been read, of 1.1 V ?ul5l. expressed his surmise at the speech of the nrah/e Lord. who had drawn an inference that toiveritinent had shown a wanton disposition increase the public moiety& ttr-. Wastes or might hay.. bi en said on former occasions, he ser. lie felt it strange that at the present day such a charge should bt she avAr..l t gov nn n , . Fort•tnxtcly they had the a cp as of :ortunittar..) to prole Cut the) hind =lied the pubbe .0011. ~-~ r. MEIRM THE NATIONAL REGISTER expenditure to the narrywest limit. They had the fin awe report of I al?, which entered into all the branches of civil and military expenditure, and merle an-award as to what ought to be the public expenditure. The fact was, the expenditure of the country had been reduced 1,200,0(e - i'. below the recommendation of thet committee. If that were Sc. was the noble Lord sate ranted in the charges he had made on the ministers of the country - Last year the saving in branches of civil government bore a large proportion to the unavoidable expences of the military and naval establishments. The amount of thorc esiablishments was gene rally pascal over. The expenses of half-pay amounted to 5.00.0001. an anmeang sum compared to nn expenditure of in,000.0001. A rediteiion had been already made of 80,0001. in the department of the customs, with the prospect of still g reater advantage to the country, but it was impoe,ible, with a feeling that was due to individuals who had served the country, to do more than act gradually with respect to the juriea„ of Par liament over the civil list. The noble Earl then tied that the arrengement made in 1816 did not render it necessary at the present time. The state of the country was then kw, and the civil expenditure was calculated to meet much distress and e oldie emharritsstnent. The noble Earl uppneed the'motion. After some further ill cussion the motion was negatived without a dtv:sion, and the House adjourned. WEDN ESD MARCH Lord Viscount MELVILLE meved there be laid before the !louse papers relating to the Lords Commissioners for executing the office of Lied High Admiral of England. lie made this motion preparatory to tratging in a bill to amend the act of Purliainent which providts that the duties of that Office shall be dune by not leas than three Commissioners.—The returns were ordered. Sir T. TYRWIIITT announced, that Mr. Adrian, a clerk in the Treasury Office, was in attenluice, in obedience to diva Lirdshi,i order of yesterday. Mr. Adrian wax accordingly conducted to the Bar. The Marquis of LANSDOWNE then put the following eves i ins; — Q. Do you remember receiving, on the 11th of March, from an Aim'. of this House. an order to serve on the Cotninissitniers of Lecim.—A. I do. I ractived it on the 12th. The order was dated the 11th of March. Q. Did any conversation pass between you and the person who brought the order ?—A. Ile asked if it was right to leave the order. I told him it was correct, and it would be sent to the Bonn! of Excise. Q. What did you do next ?—A. I transmitted a letter, dated the same day I received the order, directed to the Board of Excise. (lie then stated that the letter was in substance ;—) Genile men, I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of his Ma jesty's Treasury to desire you will cause a copy of all orders sent to the Excise offices of England for the seizure of all roasted grain, or breakfast powder, in order that the same may be laid before the House of Lords, in compliance with the order of that House. (Signed) LUSHINGTON. A similar letter was sent to the Commissioners of Excise in &oiler 1. Q. By whom was that letter sent P—A. By one of the Trea sury Messengers. Q. Do you remember to have received from one of the mes sengers of this blouse on the 231 inst an order dated the 22d of March ?—A. I do, my Lord.—The order I received on the e3l, and I wrote another letter to the Commissioners of the Excise, in these words.—" Gentlemen, I em commanded by the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury to call your attend in to my letter of the 11th of March, so far as relates to your orders far the seizure of roasted grain, &c. and I am to reqatat you to send the same to me with all possible dispatch." Treasury Chamber." •• LCSIIINGTON." Q. Ditl you, in consequence of the last letter, receive any re turns ?—A. The returns were put into my hands tide interning. Q. But you had received no communication on the subject before this mo.ning?—A. Nene whatever. 'the letter front the Commissioners says, In obedience to their Lordeltips order, we have the honour to tran-mit copies of the order for chic seizure of roasted Amin, or breakfast powder." Excise Office, Mardi lath. The witness was ordered to withdraw. The Marquis of LANSDOW NE then addressed the House. After wh it their Lordships had heard they would readily believe there had been no negketon the part of the officers of that House, or the officers of the Treasury ; he should therefore follow up this inquiry by calling to t"eir Lordships bar the Chairman of of the Canumittaioners, to give an account why the delay took place. 'l'hc Earl of LIVERP3OI. suggested that the examination of the Secretary to the Commissioners might answer the object the noble Marquis had in view. After a tew observations from Earl Grey. The Nlarquis of LANSDOWNE moved, that the Secretary of the Board of Excise be summoned to attend the Ake un Mon day next. The motion was agreed to. Mr. Adrian then presented at the bar returns from the Excise of England. Ireland, and Scotland, of all instructions given by the Commissioners respecting the seisure of roasted wheat or other substances, prepared and sold as breakfast powder, or by any other name. The return was laid 0.. the table. The Earl of LIVER POOl. then asked Mr. Adrian who signed the letter which came with the return. Answer—Thomas Woodyer. On the motion of the Lord Chancellor, Mr. T. Woodyer was ordered to attend the House on Monday next. Adjourned. THURSDAY, MARCH , 2b. The House did not proceed to business this day until half past five o'cioe It, in consequeuee of the detention of the Lord Chancellor at the Council. Viscount NI El. VILLE brought in a Bill pursuant to notice. to amend the Act for regulating the duties of the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of England.— By the papers laid on the Table, the Lords would see that his Majesty had been advised to reduce the Commissioners of the Admiralty from seven to tire. By the law as it stood, four were allowed to be a Quorum, for the purpose of transacting the business of the out-ports and other place; ; but under the late reduction it would be impossible to go on with the public service unless the Quorum was also reduced from Four to Two. The bill he had brought in was to make that amendment. Upon the expediency of reduction in the number of the Lords Commis sioners, he could not concur. In case lie had been in the other House, he should have voted against it. His principal objection was, that die reduction of two members of the Boanl would tend notch to obstruct public business. The noble Viscount took upon himself to say. mat reducing the number to Five, would .be attended with great trouble and inconvenience. The re duction of one would not have been so detrimental to the service, but a. it was, the noble Viscount was satisiied it would be found necessary to raise the number again to seven. In every view of public hu , iness, it would have been better if there had been six Commissioners instead of live. All he could then say was. that so far from this being a 111Caillte of economy, he was prepared to prove it would occasion a considerable increase of expellee. — The urgency of the public service required the bill be had in ter:Weed to VIM without delay, anti he expressed a hope that the House would dispense wren the standing orders, and allow the Bill to pass to-morrow• The 11.11 was then read the first time, and the Lords were summoned tbr to to morrow, in order to take into cordite:anon certain standing orders of the House.—Adjourned. rooms.. magus 29. Several private bills were brought up from the Commons by Lot ii Lo s tiler. Mr. S. Wonky, and others. 1.1 r 1 KEN YON moved that the Committee on Church brief.: be allowed to report from time to Min.—Oak:ill. - - } a . STATIONARY IN IRELAND. Earl DARNLEY said the House would recollect that a noble Viscount (Sit!mouth) undertook. towards the close of last Ste. sion of Parliament, to institute further inquiry into certain gross abuses which had been discovered in the supply of suitionary nt Ireland. As no communica . ion had been made to the Howe on the subject, he wished to know whether that investigation had taken place. The Earl of LIVERPOOL said, the investigation alluded to wac carried on as soon after last session as was practicable, but in consequence of the alteration which took place in the lush go vernment at Christmas, it was found impossible to con.e to a conclusion last year. The first question which became the sub ject of inquiry, was whether there had been any abuse or (lir ruption on the part of the individual who supplied the siationary. The Crown offi:tis in their report acquitted the party of that charge. Then :twee another question, namely, whether the terms on which the articles were supplied were exorbitant ? That question had been under consideration, and correspondence was in pros,ercss. fur the purpose of bringing it to a determina • tion.—The noble Earl said, he should have no objectons, the moment it is concluded, to lay the whole proceedings W i in; the llouse. Lonns OF THE ADMIRALTY. Visconnt ENI LLE moved the order of the day for the comidenttion of the standing orders, which he proposed to sus pend, for the purpose of passing through all the stages of file hill to amend the act for regulating the office of Lord High Admiral. Lord DARNLEY having heard that the noble Viscount stated on a former occasion, that the reductian of two Lords of the Admiralty would prevent the saving of much expence to the country, wished to know whether the noble Viscount really en tertained that opinion. Lord M ELVILLE said, the statement to which the noble Earl alluded was, in point of fact, true. The noble Viscount was convinced the reduction would not produce a saving. The Earl of LIVERPOOL wished to say a few words with respect to the composition of the Board of Admitalty. The subject bad been agitated in the other {louse of Parliament, and his opinion had ever been that the abolition was not expedient, since the reduction lie had conversed with various Lords who had been used to the business of the Board, and all woe of opinion, that if the Board only consist of five, with a tuajotity of seamen, such a Board would not be able to carry on public business. laid HOLLAND said, the declaration of the noble Earl (Liverpool) lost part of its force, because the noble Earl had formerly stated. that the government of the country could not be conducted without sae two additional Lords of the Admiralty. The noble Earl moaned the loss of two of the Board, but his groans would not bring them to life. Lord DARN LEY expressed himself at a loss to understand how reduction of expense in the dock yards could depend on the number of Lords of the Admiralty. They had still fie lords, and he trusted economy would not be interrupted by the reduc tion of two. It the country was to sulhr in that respect, he would rather have the Lords back again. Lord MELVILLE did not mean to say, that some of the Lords might not attend at the deck yards. but they could not long !remain away from the board. With the number of five they were subject to accidental illness, and casualty which must lead to loss and expellee. Inc of the acts of lrarliament re quired the attendance of four members of the board, and unless that number were present nothing could be done. After a few observations horn Lord Holland upon the urgency which required the suspension of the standing °ram, Lorn MELVILLE stated, that the bill must pass before next Tuesday, to avoid great inconvenience. The standing oilers, which forbid a bill to go through more than one stage at a sitting, were then suspended, the bill was carried through all the stages, and passed to the Commons.— Adjourned. HOUsE OF COMMONS• MONDAY, MARCII 20. The Dover Gas 1,i;:111 It I! Waa read a second lime. Fortntws Col V.— Mr. 1% 1 11150N Said, lie held in his Land a pet.tion from certain importers of corn in the t of London. 'rite pet itione, s said, that they were consiitr bottlers of foreign corn, either an their own account or a 4 culaignee , s ; that they had heard with much alarm thot there am about to be a graduated scale of important duties, which was calculated to alli ct their interests most seriously : and that they therefore prayed the protection of the House. Mr. W ARRE presented a petition from Taunton, pray ing l•r a revision of the critumul code.—Ordered to Ire printed. Mr. C. Ili. HUTCHINSON brought inn bill fur the im provement of the city of Cork.—Read a first time. Mr. BRIGHT presented a petition from Bedminster, So raersetsliire, slating that they had witnessed with satisf.c thin, the public exertions of Mr. Hunt, and praying that the House would interfere with its endeavours to procure a mi tigation of his sentence.—Ordered to lie on the *aide. Mr. 11. BLAIR moved for returns of spirits distilled in England and Ireland for exportigtion, from the FOiit of Oct. to October 1821, and for a variety of oilier returns connected with the distillatiou and exportation or sign its.— Orili red. Puiecs or CORN —Lord G. SOMERSET presented a petition, complaining of agricultural distress ft some hundred iii Maiimoutlishile. Mr. BIRCH did nut like these petiti• as; they proceeded on bum-what too narrow a prior iple. The peiitioneis seemed to think it, rt if prices could he produced, exist ing evils would be retuediad ; but while the growers is eie considered, it seemed Unit the consumers Were forgotten. — It hail been rumoured that it was proposed in the tigricul tura' committee to advance money (al behalf of goveromei:t to boy corn, with the view of advasicilig the prices; tint that plan would have no effect —nothile, but a reduction of tax ation would remedy the evils comp lained of. r. CALL:RAFT was rather surprised at the titlark on the A Riskiness of the petitioners, especially when the lion. member who last spoke agreed with the petitioners oit the necessity of a reduction rot t oration. N o enlightened farm. r required high prices; what lie wanted was, relief form those burdens aloes prevented him from coming into the arket Oil something like lair terms. Su far Item ing of the petition, he had retrain thick well of it, and he was pleased that it should be presented by a Lind of the reasury. (Hear.) ould Sir I'. LETHBRIDGE hoped that this petition ss have some eller( on the governing tit. Ile leg' , tied thid the glen( question allecting the agricultural int. rests excited so little attention in that House; but lie felt assured that the session ("Mild nut pass assay without Something being done fur the benefit of the farinet s. The sianiifactoiers and the country would lied, he thought, that they would do well to support the landed interest. As to thesrheme for advancing money to relieve agriculture , i t would may lie pui,min a plan that was acted upua heretofore to benefit the mom . ill , lllrPrS. Lord G SOMERSET said he had only fulfilled his duty in presenting the petiti tttt , but these were some of its idle gatiuus host hie Le differed. He, hu,lever, should aot --.... - ~: •••-..••• .