The National Register. — London, England, 1812-01-26 00:00:00

THE NATIONALBEGISTER. " 51 DROVPS or 'ADMIRALTY. Mr. Be non IT O et, pursuant to notice, r'se to call the attention of the House to the consideration of certain immense sums of money vested in the crown without the grant of Parliament, and which were called the 'toots of Admiraltv. • lit order to chew the importance of the subs je.ct, he would only ask the House what they would think when they same to know that there w re protliolous sums of money tet aside for the private patrimony of the Crown, and that the Crown could raise such sum' of money without the aid or the knowledge of Parliament. It watooore easy to state the amount of the funds from which those isup i dles came, than don - particular itart,re and composition. The Das-Altos Of Cornwall and Lenr:oter were the st subjects to which he ghould eoll the aiteetion of the Elouse—they were both immetoely pro skittles: to the Cr. 'ten ; tl:e forwer sent in all its vast products, when there we,: no Duhe of C..rnwell ; so that during the minority of the Prilee of W.i'es the niche of Corowall was a means of supplying no less tit m halt a million. thteDuchy of Lancaster produced leopCol. per annum. whi:la was demenineted the right of the King. He next atlverted to the 4; per rent. fund in the isian , l of Barbadoea and other Wands in the West Indies, tram which the King also derived a vast ad dition cu his wea'th, and which was rine of the most unjust taxes, and had the . worst effect upon the wosperity the islands. Be then came to tt.e consideration of the Itshaits of the Crown, which he said arose chiefly from prieee, from Ahips driven through ignorance on shore, and front p Azes made be ore nes Kirin on of war. The amoont of these Droi:s or Admiralty raid into the hands et the Registrar of the Court of . I ,d niralty, and the of England, op to the 13* . of January, Itpo, was 7,3_13 Ma anti !'e might n with justice state, that an ad- Aition bad taken place, o hich increased the sum to eight millions. The House oug':t to be couvieced that there exited a necessity for enquiring into this subjqt, for astertaittive whether the application of these sums was even recogoised by law.; tied whether it is was, it should be any )(Mtge!' c )*.si:tint With the Constitut iott to allow the continuance of it. islo utteit hall bate] nt• du to tee use of this morey. It might be squan dered away open a tavourites, thosu a mistress, or upon a Minister to give hint itifbierce in that liouse, or to coats , undue elections in any part of the country. It nee lo he •laeishtil to a foamier either harmless Ile d ingerons to the th•oh ; chieo. fie then moved Resolutions, that the •LlOuse should take int, (11i:`•ilitrati0ii tIIV Droits of 'Admiralty, and cause such a regulation of the produce of them to the Crown, that they shall come under the cognizance of Perliamt nt. Mr. Bea Nn e,CCorde , l the motion. At this tittle, whin taxes were so yigurtatedy exacted Item the pktple, h was of the utotost importance that the appliCation of the flied in question should be enquired Ono: , Mr. C.,uarNl.Y, the AT rottetor•fleer eat., Mr. Pexcevae, and otkoet, opposed the motion. Their arguments went to maintain, that the Crown had a sole and undoubted right to all these Preits ; that .among other useful purpose' they enabled the Crown to repay naval officers the expeuces they incurred, by makisig uncertain captures, and who, hut fur this fund, woul'd be.often ruined ; that unless it could be .shown that the property in question had been applied to corrupt por poss., Par!iantent lusd no just ground for interfering ; and that the mere pos-ibiiity of the motley being hereafier improperly applied was alit just ground for diverting it front its rightful possessor. • Sir Fan NCIS BuRDE•I* r maintained that those who bear the burden of the war ought to have the herefit of it. The Public, as they were eat all the expellee. ought to be entitled to the controal of what arises from the war. Upon the present system, it might happen that a Civil List mi, - ;ht be burthened with debt, while the King might engross half .tile landed estates in the kingdom, as his private property. Mr. TIERNEY moved an amendment to Mr. Brougham's motion, ." '''scat this House having taken into its serious consideration the unpre cedented sums at different and uncertain periods within the last twenty y..ars, received and disposed of by . the Crown as Droits, is deeply im prescd with the necessity of inquiring into and ascertaining the extent and aoplication of the same." 1w gallery was then cleared; and we understand that Mr. ,Broughant's Aesolutions were negatived without a division. The I lot divided upon Mr. Tierney's Amendment—for the Amend meht, :i8 ; against it, 93. %Vitae strangers were excluded, Mr. Brougham proposed that a .Select Committee should he appointed to consider of the best means of withdrawing the Druits tel Admiralty 'rin the management and dis posal of'the Crown, and rendering them applicable to the public ser ,vice to der the direction of Parliament,-ante numbers were, Ayes, ; Noes, 92.—Adjourned at two. WrDNESDAT, JAN.2I I Sir C. PRICE brought , iti a bill for improving the Navigation of the .River • Thames, westward of London. Bridge, which was read a first time and ordered for a seco id reading. • • 71'17e Petition of the Electors of U'ootton Bassett, complaining of an . : "(stadue 1*(41111),* was postpontrd until th • 18:h of February. Oti'a Motion for bringing up the Report of the Distillery Bill, some . • obseryations.were blade lay Sit; Joni, NE %%femur and others, as to the •relative situations of t h e Irish, Scotch, and English Distilleries, if the 'Bill should become a law. The Repml was, however, brought up, and 'the Bill ordered to he rend a third time to-morrow. ' In a Committee of Stiply, tss enty triLions were voted to pay off out standing Exchequer Bills; and, in a Committee of Ways and Means, a like slim was voted to prireidt: for the War 'faxes.—Adjourned. , - * JAN. 20. THURSDAY, JAN. 93. A variety of papers, elucidatory of the Bill before the House relative to the Royal Household, were moved and granted, on • the motion o f Mr. Tierney. The Bill was ord ered to be read a second time to-mop. row, and its merits he further debated on Monday, on the question for the Chairman to leave the chair. DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE. Lord COCURANE rose, pursuant to notice, to move for a copy of a letter from his Royal 114,thnois the Duke of Cambridge, to the Com. mander in Chief, tendering his resignation of the command of the Home District. It appeared that this command had become a sinecure, al. though not less than 4'2001. a year was paid to the General who held it. The object of his motion was to perpetuate the memory of this noble et:natter in the Duke, and to exhibit it as an example to the country.— I le moved, therefore, tor the production of the papers alluded to. Lord PALMERSTON resisted the motion as unnecessary, and it was negatived. ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. The petition of Mary Anne Dicks, who is confined in prison, by a Deereo•of the Ecclesiastical Courts % having been read, Lord knee Fiero N it said, that it did not appear a case of possibility to him, that such circumstances as wenkreeiced in the petition could have existe d . so long without a remedy. That no redress, however, could be obtained by these who suffered from the decisions of the Spiritual Courts, he had now found to be undeniable. 'ln the earliest periods of our history, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction went hand in hand with the 'Temporal, but at the time of the conquest, William, the First separated the two powers, and the Eecleciastical Jurisdiction stood as if threats. • ing the e stablishel Constituthin with an overthrow. The power of those Courts was never at any peried recognizkl by the people. It would be found that remonstrancts were sent into Parliament against the in , tolerable abuses practised by theen. At the period of the 4:formation, it was thought necessary that e reformation should also take place in the Ecelestical Courts, and a•Ccmnittee of 33 persons was appointed fir ' the purpose of altering the laws by which those Courts were regulatei. Nothing, however, was done that had the effect of rendering the system supportable, and the Canons which were then followed were those un der which the Courts new ..cted. It would then appear, and with what feeliegs must it be considered, that, since the period oldie Reformation, nothing' had been, done in order to the correction of the Spiritual Courts. Those Courts had one way of skewing their authority by excommunica tion, another by line-, and a further mode cf enforcing their decisions by imprisonment. That this extraordinary power should be checked coedit not he denied by any who knew the abuses to which exorbitant controul „ in the bends of a body of people invariably tend ed. The charges in those Courts were likewise enormous upon any rase that came under their cognizance. The petitioner, whose case had been the i ostensible grounds upon which his motion would be grounded, was not upon • a citation from • the Court atile to attend. She sent her mother there, and showed the most humble acquiescence in the judgment of the Court ; she was, nevertheless, excommunicated for not having ap ! peered in person ; she was fined and imprisoned. The nature of excom munication was, that the person under such a judgment is looked upon as a heathen, and a publican cannot be a juror or a witness, and is at his death refused the rights of Christian burial. After having mentioned many other instances, which he called dreadful abuses of pow er, he stated, that these Courts cast a kind ofsanction upon their proc: edings by pretending to have heck actuated by a sense of theobligation to cor rect the morals cf the people, at the same time that their only 0 ject was extortion. The Noble Lord then insisted upon the necessity there was• for constituting an examination into those grievances, and concluded by moving for the appointment of a Committee to euquire into the state of the Ecclesiastical Court, and ascertain whether any reformation was ne cessary to be made therein. Mr. H meu rest seconded the motion. Sir WILLIAM Score stated, that the cases which had been cited were most extravatantly exaggerated, and of the few persons who had been in confinement for several years, not • wet was tried but for temporal offences. Ht did notelet:an to atti*Ute the slightest degree of that kind of feeling; by which the person who' had been the Noble Lord's oracle upon the occpion, was actuated to his Lordship ; brit unquestionably the circumstances just detailed, had no foundation, except hi a mind vexed at want of success ' and irritated by disappointment. He sue , eluded an animated reply, by obsereing, that in the Courts of which se much had been said, estice was '§dminietered with as much impartiality as in any °Mose under civil jurisdiction. . The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, Sir J. Nicnoee, and other Members, made some ohsetOations upon the sublet[. Lord FoLXESTONE consented to withdraw his motion, upon Sic W. Sare. having stated, that it was his inteution to bring in a Bill for ties regulation of inferior offices in the Ecclesiastical Courts. The Distillery Bill was read a third time,:auccpassedeeeAdjourna TRIDAY, JAN. 24. The Sheriffs for London appeared at the Bar, and presented a Peti tion for leave to bring in a Bill to enable the Lord Mayor, &c. to erect a new prison, &c. on the vacant spate aground on Moorfields. The Petition stated, that there were hi Newgate at this moment a number both of fefons and debtors, for whom it was desirable to provide sepa rate ae'c'Omniedations. The Pot Won was referred.to4t Committee to inquire and to report. - - I I 1 u