The National Register. — London, England, 1812-02-16 00:00:00

- Tl} ; NATION AL REGISTF,R7 --FEB. l( over which Parliament had no controul, out of which was to he paid I e very thing requisite to the splend or, d i g nit y , and p ower of the esta blishment of our Sovereign. Under such circumstances, it was necessary that the amount should be strictly limited, that the burdens of the people might riot unnecessarily he increased, or the influence of the Crown un tecessarily augmented. In the coureg of nature it could not be hoped the ! period was far distant, when it would be absolutely necessary to ent,er i fully on the subject of the Civil List, he conceived that the present was a very fit time for commencing the investigation, and however unequal he might be In ability to conduct the inquiry, in zeal, assiduity, »ad perseverance, he would not be exceeded. Mr. Eden said, the objects of the Committee would be to inquire, what were the expenses of the Civil List ; what part of them were proper, and what part improper ; and, from a comparison, to decide what the amount of the expenses ought to be in future. Mr. PRItCLVAL thought it would be better for the Committee, in the first place, to endeavour, from the accounts, cheeks, & c. which s hould be laid before them , to supp l y t h em selves with the requisite information ; and, if they found it necessary, on any particular sub ject, to have liberty to send for persons, papers, and recer4s, they i could come to the House for liberty so to do. The practice of the House was uniformly to restrict Committees in the Crst instance, and he presumed they would not be disposed to depart from this usage on the present occasion. Mr. Coyly' . NAY con!ended, that if the House, in such a matter as this, granted to the Committee the power of sending for persons, papers, and records, they delegated to them a power which they h.ui never as sumed to themselves. He thought an inquity of this kind ill timed, if ;lot indecent, at this peculiar period. He was against an inquiry, which iii:ht lead to disgraceful comparisons. Mr. GILES thought, if there was Any thing disgraceful in the inquiry, it was in the limited means prop sed to be granted fur carrying it into etfict. It was admitted, that ever since the year 1801, the Civil List had been constantly in an arrear of 124,0001. a-year, nut only so, but that this arrear was to he allowed to continue. The question for the appointment of a Conunittee was then put and tarried.ee-Adjourned. TVESDAY, FEll. 11. LEEWARD ISI.AND DUTIES. Mr. CRTF.VEY rose, pursuant to his notice, to make a motion upon this subject, and he thou ht the present moment a peculiarly tit cae, when a new agreement was to be made with the Executive Go comment, and when, therefore, we ought precisely to know what was to be granted. With regard to the abuses, he would state that this flmd had pro:Weed 1,600,0r.01. since his Majesty's accession, and out of this 400,0001. had been paid for salaries to Governors. if this sum had been paid, however, to the Governors of Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, there might be no reason to complain; hut o ut of this 400,00 ' 1. all the Governor; of islands seemed to be paid, even those of Guernsey and Jersey. For special service :328,0001. had bean taken from that fund; and 48,0001. for Secretaries to the Treasury. It had also contri buted 170,e001. in support of his Majesty's Civil List; and all these sums had been applied without Parliament knowing any thing about it.— Numerous pensions, too, had been granted out of this fund, dur ing the same period, to the amout of 740,0001. Among others was 39001. to the Earl of Chatham, and 90301. a year, during twenty ye.ars, to the late Duke of Gloucester. Looking at the way in which it was so injuriously used, he should move, that a Selecet Calamine*: be sus. application. to examine into the nature of this revenue, its amount , and its. application. Mr. Loran wished that the Hon. Gentleman had studied the history of the period he had alluded to with a little more attention. He could not but express his dissent at going into a Committee to inquire into the application of this inferior branch of his Majesty's revenue. Mr. P. Woke said, that the simple question was, did those funds belong to the Crown, or did they not ? contended that they did not, and that they were on the same footing as the re venues of the 'Duchy of Cornwall, and no one would contend that the Crown could grant pen sions on the revenues of that Duchy. Lord FOLKESTONB said, that the only person found on either side of the House to oppose the motion for a Committee, was the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Long), who was A pensioner to the amount of 15001. Mr. LoNo explained. Mr. CREEVEY shortly replied. Mr. Perceval admitted that they Ivid been excepted out of the Civil List of Queen Anne, George I. and George 11. but denied that they were not therefore lett out of the Royal disposal. • Mr. WIIITIREAD could not help thinking the Right Hon. Gentle man (Mr. Long) a most questionable advocate in support of the pre sent mode of disposing of the four and a half per cents. If it was af abuse of those funds, it was an abuse ' front w hich that Right Hen. Gentleman derived 11001. a year. He did not wish to under-rate the public services of that Gentleman, but he would ask, if there had not been those four and half per cents. if Parliament would have voted 1.5001. a year to that Right Hon. Gentleman in consideration of thrse services ? He should vote for going into the Committee. The eallery Was then cleared for a diviAon. Th e iLuie then tn.. , melon. 19 against it, 50- ismessamossowsw. SERJEAN rAT AtevlS' A - ND eLERK Hh 'll-li. ti. Vin. Mr. PERCSVAL moved far leave to brim in a Bill tn repeal .lie Act of the 49th of his present Majeity, reulating the olTh a of t....erk and Serjeant at Arm of thz, House of C-arnmons, and to e , tablish other and farther regulatlua , .: in place thereof. For the last. tltt. ty yeari tiro offices of Serjeant at Arms and Home-keeper had been joined in one, and certain lees had been received in bath capacities. Ile proposed' that the two offices s hould in future be conioliOated, and should not hereafter be capable of separation. The Assistant Cletlx, too, he pro pcsed, should be recornized. The Principal Cleik, the House need not be informed, often acted•by Deputy, and he intended to• propose, that when a Deputy was required, the As4stant Clerk should be pro moted ; a provision having been tirade for a salary for the Principal Clerk, oh retiring. lle also proposed that a provisitui should be made for the Deputy Fterjeaut. Mr. W. Sett i u arid, the House had never found a Deputy Speaker necessary, nor did he See the necessity of having duplicates of any kind. Mr. PiItCILVAI. C:nceivA that nothing could be more necessary than that there 5h0.i.1 , 1 be a Serjeaut or Deputy Serjeaut at all times in wait. lug to obey the call of the Speaker. Leave was then given to bring in the Pill. Mr. PErteevAr. immediately brought it up, when it was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time on Thursday, and iQ .be printed._ Adjourned. •••••••••••• AVEDNESpAY, FFIT. P 2, MARINE CO it PS. Mr. tieurcitirlsoN rose to make his motion relative to the Royal Marine Corps. The Hun. Gentleman's speech, on the occasion, t Aided to show, that Marine. Of dil not stand on the same footing, nor possess equal advan:a.„•es, with any other description of Officers in his Majesty's service. lir concluded with rnovin for a Copy of the Me mort,!ls of Mariqe to the Board of Admiralty, relative to the state of the M.btine Coups. Mr. Yony.E rcp!kii to the assertions of Mr. Illitchinson, and e. - ;n. tended, that upon the wltole, the condition 61' the Marines was in no respcct worse that; of other forces.--The rnotiiin was negatived. On the motion of :lir SAMUEL, RomiLty, a Committee was appointed to inquire into the manner in which sentences of Transportation to Bo tany Bay had been executed, and what elfectswere produced by that mode of punishnicnt,—Adjourncd. THURSDAY, FEB. 13. AMERICA. Mr. WittT'JCIRAH, in ri,ing to submit a motion relative to America s expressA much regt..-t at swing the House so thinly attended upon an occasion of so :inch i mp o rtance to the interests of the country. What ever miAt he the 3entimetits of Gentlemen upon sitch a subject, his wets such its none hot a question of wei;;ltt and magnitude could in spire. A war with Anitlica was what ait concurred in deprecating, Lnd of which all had the no serious a pprehensions. The persoas engaged in the negotiations betwceti the two countries, had individually asserted that each country wcs actuated by a conciliatory disposition ; neverthe less it wag every slay shewn that the breach was more and more widen ed, and if they were to teke the speech of the President as any autho rity, a war was unavoidable, should Great Britain persiit in the line of conduct which she had hitherto adopted towards America. "The car respondcnce for which he should :novo, and which he knew he was to be refused, was already known to all who could peruse a new3paper.-.. Every body wa3 in possession ef i.hat correapondenec but the Ilritish Parliitineitt alone. liow then could the refusal of it be justified. bent clot upon the ground that the production of the docuMeots would put the House an.l the pid , lic in possession of any secret. Fle. was not de strolls to have at:; et Information upon the ,subject. Fie asked for tto iinellieence but what the papers printed by order of Congress up.)tt the pendiog negotiathms between the ) cowl! and sobmitted t the inspection of the whole world contained. In those papers lie saw noaty reasons for COlSilling the conduct of this C,Livetriment, tut he could t'iat he had seen, because that Home, as a I - lonse of Common.; ) wa; inorant of !inch intelligence as that upon which he bad formed his opinion. How had America been treated by this Govern,. ment ? Was nut the cone,uct of Lord Wellesley to that Miuistet tendon, amounting to ? :'he Hon. Gentleman hi.x.. ) stated the varions,occaiiiuns upon which, he said, :Li Mai: ter for Attie.. rica had been treated with neglect by the Secretary for Foreign At:..irs. Numerous letters written by Mr. Vinkuey to Lord \Vat:illy, altht,nli of the utmost importanc e t o both countries, remaincd, many of theist } not answered for a len:th of time, and many of them not answered at all. The conduct of Mr. Er tine Was .by no means of that conciliating t e mper which might l•ave beett expected. That of Mr. Jacitstm., who *ucceeded him was st%U as to produce an undisguised rupture: and Mr. Foster then stepped in to act,naust unfortunately and most inauspitinusT ly for this country. He said that the question now was, whether we should go to war with America ; and tor the purpose of properly (lite cu:sing that question , it was necessary that all the papers of ihe cor t ei. pondent c should he officially and technically before the House as docu ments to act toi 4n: He confe!scd that ..I,inerica was very popular it wh hint; she pad, as far he could see , skew ed a s p irit qt soncilula laticut tins couotry had by her measure;; turnished a contrast to. Ci.:nee had w i zi, ii , ja;:lce to 4.mt , rif.:3, Thitabi had anted with ~- s I k$ t 1 Mr -