The National Register. — London, England, 1808-04-25 00:00:00

.: ASTER. .0.0 11-- Millig • 4 - 7 t . • ,4011 Ammo. -kr illtumviu7% No. 17. MO N DAY;L.A PR I L 25, 1808. PRICE Bd. _ GRATIS.. A PORTRAIT OF HIS MAJESTY GEORGE 111. IMIUTIFULLY ENGRAYEN BY SCRIVEN, AND INTENDED 41 /- FRONTISPIECE TO • THE NATIONAL REGISTER, • Has been THIS DAY DELIVERED GRATIS to all the News- . men for the purpose of being transmitted to the Subscribers ;. the Proprietors therefore hope that no Subscriber will be appointed of receiving it. Our Patrons in the country are re quested to observe that the Portrait of- his Majesty will be forwarded to them by the safest and most convenient mode. But as it will be impossible for the Newsmen to forward the Portrait by the Post, without incurring the risk' of spoilin. , the. Print, and the Expence of Postage, the Propri.•:ors beg leave to submit to their Friends the necessity of their requesting some Bookseller in the Country to obtain it from his Agents in Lon don, who will inclose it in his parcel. This will obviate every difficulty, and secure its safe arrival. To any of the Friends of the Piper, who may be disappointed of the Portrait, or to any Friend commissioned by them, an impression will be gra tuitously delivered at the Office of The National Register. But it will 1)e necessary for the Subscriber, in this case, to tend his real name, and place of abode, in a note addressed to the Pro prietors. Those who may have neglecteilto complete their set:, arc re que,,ed to give early orders, to prevent the chance of disap pointment. POLITICAL DISQU ISITION. criminal shall have escaped, there can be but small satis faction to injured society in merely confiscating his pro perty. But in all cases short of treason and felony, our lawgivers forbade the seizure of any man's person before conviction : conceiving that few would fly their country for fear of conviction on an offence which could not affect their lives, and probably considering also, that to those who, by the dread of punishment for a minor offence. should be induced• to desert their home, the banishment alone would be a sufficient penance. In the 2:3th and 35th years of his present Majesty's reign, it was judged expe dient to authorize a previous arrest upon certain offences relating to the public revenue and au arrest upon mesne process is allowable, as every body' knows, in civil cases of debt. The reasons of these anomalies are however cleat, if not incontrovertible. The power of arresting a defaulter to the public revenue is a power that can seldom be twisted to purposes of private malice and the temptation to error in this particular is so strong and so frequent, and the. chance of detection so flattering, that a more than ordi nary degree of severity may here perhaps be necessary for preserving the good order of society. To the question of arrest upon mesne process for debt, the last argument all plies very forcibly : every body knows how easy it is to contract debts, how eagerly debts are contracted, how greatly honest creditors perpetually suffer, and how infi nitely more general the mischiefs of the practice would become, if debtors were permitted to walk securely about their business till the period of the adjudication 'against them. la - av, the very fear of arrest perpetually produces payment of the debt when all oilier means have been found ineffectual. But these a:guments must not he stretched beyond their natural reach : we are not to allow per petual encroachments on the liberties of the people without reasons of a very strong and imrerious kind. How little reason is to be found for the Bill now introduced by Sir Vicary Gibbs, which proposes to extend yet further the dangerous system of arrest. all impartial readers will easily judge on perusing the propositions made in the Ball itself, which goes to enact : "'That when any person shall be chargtd with any effence for which he or she may be prosecuted by indictment or information in the Court of King's Bench, not being treason or felony, and the same shall be made appear to any judge of the said . Court by aplaoit or by certificate of an indictment or information be ing filed against such person in the said Court for such offence, it shall be lawful for such Judge to issue his warrant, and cause such person to he apprehended in order to his or her being bound to the King with sufficient sureties in such sum as expressed in the warrant, and to answer, &c.: And such person, in case he or she shall neglect or refuse to become hound as aforesaid, may be committed to the ccmmon Goal of the county, city, or place where the offence shall have been incurred, or where he or she shall have been apprehended, there to remain, &c. And in case he or she shall not enter an appearance and a plea or demurrer in the said Court, within a certain number of days after receive ing a copy of the indictment or infoim4lon,:,the prosecutor may cause an appearance, and also thalikalra.ut Guilty, to be ea- NUAIBER SEVENTEEN. ON THE DANGERS OF THE PENDING BILL. FOR ALTERING THE COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS ON ~..,; ,~;_ :t~sr.: 4_ ~. INDICTMENTS AND INFORMATIONS. .. A fortnight ago we called the attention of the public, and more particularly of the Peers, to the Bill introduced by Sir Vicary Gibbs, the Attorney-General, which al ready has passed the House of Commons, and which, if it shall be sanctioned by the Lords and by the Crown, must strike a deadly blow at the liberties of the English nation. We at that time had no opportunity of inserting the whole mass of proof that beats against this unconstitutional mea sure : but the more we have considered it, the more we bare been convinced of its dangerous tendency, and we therefore think it our duty to explain most fully the prin ciples of the old law and constitution that must be violated by the enactment of this Bill, and the peculiar aggrava tions with which it will fall upon the pporer classes of society. The great principle of the British constitution we take to be this : that every man not convicted of any crime shall be protected in the free enjoyment of hislife, his liberty, and his property, unless that free enjoyment be incompatible with the well-being of the community. Persons accused of treason or felony, certainly cannot be safely trusted with these privileges even before their Wel : because any guilty man, in possession of his liberty, will abandon every thing for the sake of securing his life, and when such a IV*. 1 L ~~ ~1 '~ • _ ...~ A