Star. — London, England, 1803-03-29 00:00:00

NIL LAND. LEYDEN, MARCH 23.—After having had bad news to give to our readers, we rejoice to have at prefent to communicate to them others of better nature, and equally certain. The French trdops will not enter this country, at leati not unlefs hoftilities commence.—Their marching is fufpended ; every thing proves that the FIRST (.:ONsuc wain: to add, to all kinds of glory, that of the greateft moderation, and that he is deter. mined to let the reproach of provocation fall wholly upon others This news, in removing the uneatinefs of the moment, revives the hope of fee i'g the Government travel fuceefsfully the road of negotiation and reconciliation, which they are following at this moment.-.-Le . yrfen Garda,. The lette►► from Brufrels of the 2111 contain de tails, which prove the extent of the military pre parations ordered by the French Government at the prefent conjundure. several Chief Officers of the Marine have jug arrived at Dunkirk, Boulogne, and Hest e, to direct and encourage the armament of every Chip. At Dunkirk they work inceffantly in the dockyards, fometimes even by torch-light. It is intended to coiled in Boulogne harbour a confiderable flotilla, proper for the embarkation of a great number of troops. Several demi-brigades of the line are to march from Picardy and French Flanders to the asafl, to take poptions from the mouth of the Seine to Gravelines. • DOIDT, MARCH 23.—Yellerday failed alongbe fore this city about 4.0 veffels with French troops, which came from Bnis-IrDuc, and proceeded for Helvoetfluys. It is Paid that the number of troops an board thefe veffels amounts from too to too., men.—Although thefe troops will be immediately embarked, we hear, nevetthelefs, that the expedi tion will not fail before new orders are received from the French Government. The troops have lain at Bois-le-Duc the whole winter, in daily ex isellation of proceeding on their voyage. ROTTIIDAM,MAKCiI 35—We have jolt received the agreeable intelligence, that Cenral of the re turn EMI India thips have arrived in the neigh bourhood of our coafts,snd that Come of them have been feen off the Tem!. This news has relieved the commercial world of great anxiety, as thefe (hips had been given over as loft in cafe of a rup ture, and as they were not expelled thefe fix weeks. They are infused at Ansfterdam to a confiderable imnunt. Within thefe two or three days the Dutch funds in Amfterdam have fallen 3 or 4 per cent. All bufinefs is nearly at a (Land here on account of the expetted war. The holders of Eaft and Well India produce (lilt refute to fell, while every one is afraid to purchafe. FRANCE. PARIS, MARCH 15. The new Government of Zurich has entered on its fonaions. Among other regulations it has fup prelled the Cenfurate of Public Journals. The Editors will be refponfible for the contents of their Papers. C. MrISTER, Prefident of the Cantonal Commit ion. is charged with the infpation of all printed works which flat' appear in the Canton. It was believed at Conflantinople, on the zsdi of • February. that Egypt was then completely evacuated by the Britifh troops. FROM THE PARIS PAPERS. MILAN, FE e. 2 7.—The merchants of Turin have obtained from the French Government liberty to export the wrought fills of Piedmont. According to letters from Rome his Majelly the King of Sar dinia arrived there on the 17th from Naples. We learn from the latter that the important place of 'refident of the Kingdom of Naples, vacant by the death of Cardi n al PIONATELLJ, has beep provi lionally conferred on Lieutenant General Prince de Coro. - - MARCH r¢.—the Confulta of State havintt dreffed to the Flair Consul., our Pref;dent, '‘their thanks for having caufed the flag of the Italian Republic to he acknowledged by the Barbary Punts, and their compliments of condolence on *he death of General Lictsic, have received from bim the following letter Citizen Counfdlors—l have received your letters of the 3d and 9th of January. I return yin thanks for the contents of thou fo flattering to me. Death Is common to all things; the remaubranee of good at tlans alone is eternaL The Miltifter, MareicakhL fault 7:11 the set of mediation. which I gave to Helvetia. The tranquillity and good order of that country are of hoportance to the tranquility and good order of the Italian (Signed) 1101.111MTP. Rows, MARC!! s.—lntelligence has been re ceived here from MefEna that the 13ailli THOSIAISI 11AS accepted the dignity of crAnd Mailer of the Order of Malta, agreeably to the brief difpatched to him by his Bohr:els. . - . . . • RA7IIIOII, MAICH 14.—1 n tire fitting of the Diet of this day the Members continued to vote on the principal , Conclufum of the Deputation of the Empire. Bavaria, Bremen. Ratilb u n, the Grand Moller of the Teutonic Order s Holacin- Gluckftadt. Saint. and Hohenzollern, gave their votes. 'Bavaria gal e a very detailed vote in the two Colleges, after entering into different. expla nations in regard to the territorial indemnity en fired to his berenc li•ghnefs, as well as to the dif ferent points of the Cot.clufiam. and various de mands contained in the votes of tonne States ; it terminated by a propofition, that the principal Conclufum of the D.-potation of the astir of Feb. Should be ratified in all its parts without exception or reflriaion; and that his Issvattas Marais's , Should be reveled by a very bumble Conclufnm to give this ratification. Ratifbon voted alto fqr the adoption of the Concluthm, demanding. that in the decifum to be formed on this fubjee by the E m pi re , there Mall be inferted a referee in regard to the right which the Holy See has agreeably to the Concordat. to co operate, and even to deter thine in part in every thing that concerns the rights and coallitutiou of the Catholic Church in Coma-Iy. Bremen, Hollkein-Gluclaladt, Salm, voted for the ratification. The Gra.rd Mailer of the Teutonic Order has lie- ceded tr. the vote 11 Aunt ia. Bator. liumt ea sill I.:ale this place use ter days. PARLMMENT4Rr PROCEEDAvet .HOUSE OF LOkDS, MONDAY, MARCH sit. Heard Connie) on the &inch Appeal Couto. Crawford mid others, and deferred farther hilarity till to-roomy. IRISH CHALCINTS ACT. Lord ELLIE NllOl/01/C if role, and raid, that in. confequence of what had fallen in debate on a for mer night on the fubjed of the Irifb Chalicing and Maiming AO, and conceiving it highly necelffiry that a fimilar puniffiment ought to apply to the fame fpecics of crime in this country, inftances of which had been but too frequent 0 late, he had prepared a bill, not only embracing the ()Neils of the bill to which he alluded in application to both countries, but containing other provifions for ex tending capital punilhment to other crimes corn. mitted with intent to murder, and grocs fraud, in relation to which, the laws of both countries, as they now fiend, are defective. ,The pill already before the Houfe, and which was intended to ope. rate only in Ireland, provided that capital pima ment (bould attach upon any perfon maiming or wounding any part of the body or limbs of any perfon, with intent to murder or rob. His Lord (hip could not fee any reafon why the principle was not equally neceffary for adoption in this country. At recent, as the law (tood in England, although wounding or maiming, with intent to rob, be punifhable with tranfportaticm, wounding, with intent to murder, is only ponifbable as a common mifdetneanor. But the crime furely was more atrocious in the cafe where it was now leaft punllhable ; but it was fo much fo in both, that, in his mind, the pnniffimeut ought to be capital in one country as well as in the other. There was alto another cafe, not lets atrocious, namely, that of adminiflering poifon with intent to murder, but which, as the law now (lands, is only puniffiable as a mirdemeanour, linters the party die in confe quence. But furely fuch a crime calls as loudly for capital puni(hment as fhooting at a man, or any other at committed with intent to murder : this, then, was another of the objeds to which the provifions of his bill extended. Another was, that of adminiftering poifonous drags to women for the purpofe, and with intent, of procuring abortion, which, at prefent, is only punifhable where adual abortion of the living child is effeded. Upon this point too, his Lordfhip obferved, there was a rpe• cies of crime, on which the law, as it now fiends, is Co revere in a conftrative view towards the mo ther of a battard child fuppofed to have been murdered, after its birth ; that in cafe of fuch child being found dead, or being made away with, the proof of the mother having previoufly conceal ed her pregnancy, is to be taken as fufficient to convkt of the murder ; but fo harfh was this law. as to oblige the Judges, in their conftrudion of it, to admit proof of the child having been (till. born, in extenuation of the charge of murder. A claufe was therefore inferted in the prefent bill, repealing the law as it now flood, and re-enacting a provifo, requiring that evidence fhould firft be duly admitted, that fuch baftard child was, or was not, born living, previous to the final decition up on any trial. There was another crime highly atrocious, which was not capitally punifhable by the laws of Ireland ; namely, that of a man fetting fire to, and burning his own houfe, with intent to defraud the infurers ; for this fpecies of Alm, the capital punifhment only attached where the fire extended to the houfe of his neighbour ; but as it was a crime not only calculated to defraud one let of men as much as that of forgery, or of fink ing a (hip at lea, but with incalculable danger to the lives and properties of a whole neighbouihood, and confequently fraught, as much as any ad could be, with the very effence of criminality ; namely, deliberate intention and malice prepenfe, it was as defervedly to be ranked amonglt capital crimes in Ireland as in this country. With there views then, and upon the general principle of affimilating the laws of both countries, fo far as this bill could go, wiffied to offer it for their Lordthips' conhderation. He trutted it would be found to anfwer every objeet propofed by the bill now before the Houk, and confequently to roper cede the neceffity of palling it; betides aiding many deferable amendments to the exilling laws refpeding murder and fraud in both countries- The Bill was prefented and received. Lord 'AucKLIIIID obferved, that the criminal laws for inffiding capital punithments in this coun try were already fo numerous, that they ought not to be increafed without great deliberation. At the fame time he was ready to admit, that the crime% enumerated by the Noble and Lrarned Lord , were fu:h, as to call for revere and exemplary punilhment. He coincided with the Noble and Learned Lord in the with of affimileting the laws of the two countries, fo far as was predicable ; but however to be lamented, yet Inch was the dif ference of manners, cuftoms, and fentirnents be tween the people of both nations, as to render fuch a purpole, however deferable, but of flow growth. The bill was read the firft time, and ordered for the fecond reading the brit Toefday after the Reeds. lasso /AMR ItISTUCTIOX Lord AutoLagoon(' to exprefs his wißs ofpoß• polling the isteond reading of the Irißi Bank Re iiriaion which Rood for this day, until the Gra Ttiefday after the Either Reeefs. Lord K 1111; was ready to accede to the withes of the Noble Lord, but kid he anuld on that day make the motion sthich he intended to have made this day t namely, thr.t fo foon as this bill (bould be in operation, the Bank of Ireland thould be obliged to pay their engagements, ff royarra. in Bank of England Notes i which would be a vita accommodation in the bufinefs of remittances, either for commercial parpofes, or to perfons com ing from thence to this country, in doing away the exorbitant rates of exchange which have fo long and fo ieverely operated *gauge the people of Ire land in their commerce and capitation with this country._ Lora L, M I R I c a had no objeiton to pollpose the feeond reading o f t h e Bill. bet begged that this agreement might not be underiluod as binding bomfelf. or any perfon on the part of Ireland. In the yripolition mentioned by the Noble Lord who fpnk c liR , nr to any other which might be fup. rind to &fat the intend of the book of Ireland, Without duly confulting its Dirators, who, hp faid, were a mpft refpeCtable and m,rito rious body. The Marquis of Smoo alto bore teftinsony to the high charaCter and meritorkub cundukt of the MOD Bank Direetors, fu,r,y coinciding in the fenti ments of the laft noble Speaker ; but allured the noble Lord who r.it below him (Lord King), that if he could fuggeft an adequate remedy to obviate the difference of exthange between Ireland and England, the people of both countries would be extremely obliged to bim.—Tbe Bill was deferred accordingly. • IRIIN MILITIA. The /Mk 141lItiO Bounty Bill was Tea the fe eond time, and, on the funeflion of Lord Pelham, the difeufgon on its princmle was poftponed till to-morrow, before it goes into the Committee. After force further routine bonnets the Houfe adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Mr. KIVA /TOW POwILL reported front the Coftimittee ap pointed, by ballot, to try the merits of the coutelted Eleatic° for Chippenbiun, that Charles Br.gik, Efq. wa. not duly elected ; and that John Maitland, Efq ought to have been returned. - The Bill for eftabllOslng a Theatre In the City of Glafgow was read a Brit time, and ordered to be read a fecond time. The further confideration of the report relative to the Wool len Manufadturers was poftponed to Friday. The Greenland Flfhery Bill was read a third time and paired. Tbe Roman Catholic Oath Bill was read a fecund time, and ordered to be committed to-morrow. TO Loan Marna of London poflponed, until after the reeefs, his intended motion relative to Supping and tonnage. The CRAPICELLOR of the Exciegyaa faid, he rote purfuant to a notice he had given, to move that a Cadmium be appoint ed to enquire Into the expenditure of the United Kingdom, and the amount of the lams contributed by Great Britain and Ire. land refpefftively, from January ant to January 803.--The motion was agreed to. The SECRETARY at WAR obtained leave to bring in a Bill to increafe the rates of fubfiftanee to Innlikpers, ate. for foldiers quartered upon them. The Report of the kith Militia Bill was put off to this day fortnight. A pence from the Inds Treafury Office prefented an account of the ordinary revenues and extraordinary Tektite= of Ireland for the kit year. Mr p prefented Accounts of the Balance and Ar ran in the bands of the Commithoners of Cufloms of England for the fame period, as far as they can be made up in their dif ferent component pans. The refoludon of the Committee voting an annuity to Sir Jr. Saumarep, and the refolution of the Committee of Ways and Means, voting four millions of Exchequer Bills, were repotted, agreed to, and Bills ordered. The oniPanee amenmodadon Bill was rupee*, sad order ed to be read g third time to-morrow, The Report on the Woolwich Truftee BM was brought pp, and the Bill ordered to be read a third time to-murrovr. NOTTINGH•III ILICTIOV. Stephen Brookes was ordered to be brought to the Bar, to be reprimanded, and difcharged. The SPIAKER addreWed him to the fallowing purport Seleit Committee of the Houfe of Commons, appointed to try the merits of the Not tingham Elation, have found and reprefented you as guilty of wilful prevarication. This is a tribu nal appointed to try the merits of Eleeions, and to do ample juice between all the parties concerned. It is of the higheft importance to the deareß rights of individuals, and to the invaluable privileges of the Houfe of Commons ; but this Tribunal can. not be of any avail, if offences like yours are rd. fired to go unpuniffied. Within two days of your having committed it, the Committee had reported that another perfon had been guilty of a funilar delinquency ; and finding a repetition of the crime occur fo foon, they determined to increafe your punifhment, by fending you from the cullody of their own Officer to a common gaol. Your con trition fine you have been there has induced the Committee to move, that you be brought to the Bar, and be difcharged. Your punifhment, how ever, will not end here for you have proved to the world, that your reputation and charater are RIO longer deferring that troll and confidence which may heretofore have been placed in them—..they are gone for ever. You can never appear here after in a Court of Jultice with that fair fame, In neceffary to give credibility to every man's teßi. mony, but will be received with all that caution and diftruft which the wilful prevarication you have been guilty of cannot fail to draw after it. —The Houfe, however, in its lenity, taking into confideration your contrition, and the punifh ment you have already Coffered, have ordered you to be difcharged, and you are difcharged accord. ingly, on payment of your fees. DUNFIRMLINI ILECTIOW. The Order of the Day was read, that James Trotter be brought to the Bar : and then The Srcaa: a laid, Before I put the queftion, I mua take the liberty of reminding the Houk, that in this mode of proceeding, when the prifoner is at the Bar, no queftion can be put to him by any one but the Chairman t fo that if any Hon. Mem bers have any quefiions to ask, they will be pleafed to put them down on paper, and give them to the Chair. This would be necetfary to be done befbre he was called to the Bar. The Cvaicass.oe of the E.:olives, laid, he did fuppofe, that fucb Hon. Members as had it in contemplation to elk any queßions of the prifener, would, in refpea to the dignity of the Houle, be prepared with them in wriung, in order to be put from the Chair. Mr. Ti Laid, that he had no particular queflions to a& He fuppofed.the prifoner was to be brought to the Bar to know what he bad to fay in mitigation of the crime of which be had been guilty. For his own part, be was fatisfied with the Report of the Committee on this fubjea ; and unlefs he had tome firong reafons to offer in his defence, he Should think him an object deferring the punilltment of the Houle. ' The queßlon was then put, that James Trotter be called to the Bar, and ordered accordingly.— As soon as he appeared at the Bar, The S laid to him, 44 The &lea COM• mime, appointed to try the merits of the Dun fermline Contefted Eletlion, have reported that you, having been duly ferved with the Speaker's warrant, commanding you to appear b efor e the raid Committee, have sot appeared before them and I am now to At, what you have to fay in ex. tenoation of year crime The Clerk then took down the prifoner'sanfwer, which he afterwards read at the table, to the fol lowing purport I was not at home for tea days after the Cat notice was ferved, being Arent on private buftnefs. The fccond time it was ferv ed, I was out early in the morning, and my fa mily did not fend it after me. jam fi neerely forty for baying offended the Houfe i and had I known the dangerous confeguences of my conduEl, would not have aged as I have done. It is tht Orli time I have ever offended by a neglea of my public duty, and if the Houfe (hell be pleafed to pardon it, I will not offend in like ananer in fu. lure." Lord Evsiros, Chairman of the Committee, rote, and (aid, he had conferred wi,t)s many Mem bers of the Committee, before he had Rated what he bad done the other night, who all agreed with him in the opinion he bad then given, and from every confideration of the eircumftances of the cafe, and of the pirnifhment he had already Psi. fered, that opinion (till remained the fame. He, therefore, moved, 66 That jarnes Trotter, uow yj the Bar, be reprimanded and difcharged." Mr. Ti ERNE y expreffed hirofelf furprifed at th-. declaration of the Noble Lord ; and infifled, that being reprimanded and difebarged was net a fuffi eient punifhment for fo Ragraist a breach of the privileges of the Houfe .. - There was only on e precedint, he Paid, of a fimilar cafe, which was that of Alexander Morris, in t 796 ; and the de. cifion of the Houfe then was, that it was a grofs bread; of privilege, and he was fent to Newgate. Mr. Tierney was p'roceeding to read the minutes of the Committee, when he was called to order by Mr. W. DU XDAS. who Paid be could not, in point of order read thole minutes, as they had not been on the Table. _ _ This produced a converfation, on the point of order, between Mr. BRAADE, Mr. W. DUNDAS, and Mr. To [RIMY who contended, that he had at lea a right to re ad? them as part of his fpecch.— Ile then moved, that the report be read, which was read accordingly ; and he (hewed, that the Speaker's warrant was iffued the IL of February; that the prifoner, notwithitanding two notices, had taken to the 21(1 of March to Gavel to LondOn, which was a period of near (even weeks; and from the whole of his conduit, and even from the de. fence he had made, be had no doubt, in his own mind, but be had been wilfully abfent. In point of proceeding, therefore, he thought himfelf Juni. fled in moving, that he be committed to New. gate. He fhOild firit, he Paid, move a refolution. That be has been guilty of a grnfs breach of privilege." Mr. SHERIDAN commented shortly on Come of the obfervations made, as to the point of order ; 40 laid, he perfectly coincided in opinion with his I-lon. Friend, that the prifoner was deferving punifhment of the Houle. It was highly impor tant to prated the privileges of the Houfe, which could not be done, if perfons were allowed to tref. pars on them with impunity. The prifoner's pwa defence (hewed the neccffity of convincing the pent pie at large of this ; for he had avowed, that be would have obeyed the fummons had he known the dangerous confeqnences of a contrary condua. If he, therefore, was muted, other people would expett to be the fame, and be might return to Scotland, and fay 10 his country Tien, You fep how they mature out jullice in the Houk of Commons; and when you want to carry a point at a future elation, abfent yourfelf when called on, and you will be difmiffed with a reprimand, as I have been. He was, therefore, againfl the No. ble Lord's motion. _ . _ The LORD AnvocATs OF SCOTLARD raid, be had every refpee for the privileges of the Houle. but he thought the authority of the Houfe would be belt preferved, by (hewing their power of ma deration. This poor man had offended. not from wilfulnefs, but rom ignorance. He we, Brit led into this error from die date of the notice, the §rft of which was delivered on the 7th of February, commanding him to appear here on the Bth, the very next day. This he knew was impolfible, and he had therefore gone from home when the fccond notice was (erred. He thought this offence not fo great as prevarication, which had only been punifhed by a reprimand. The Committee had taken into confideration all the circumnances of his cafe, and had thought that a reprimand was fulficient. He was entirely of that opinion, and he thought the Houfe would alio, when they eon fidered that he had been obliged to leave his f;• mily and farm at a very critical period ofthe year; that he had already been more than a week is cultody ; had the expences. of his journey np and down again to defray, as well as his fees; and there, altogether, he thought formed a punithmen; fully adequate to the offence be bad thus igno rantly been guilty of. Mr. I. H. BROWIII (aid, he thought the cleft 'tion for confideration was, 'Whether the abfence originated from wilfulnefs or ignorance? and that the degree of pun i fbm en t ()multi - follow accordingly. Lord Due tows (late Mr. Trench) profeled the utmoft anxiety to fupport the rights and vileges of the Houle, and to point's with the at. molt ((verity any attempt to prevent the freedom of cleftion. Severity, when carried ton far, might* however, in many inflances be more prejudicial than len ity blended with a proper degree of firm nefs ; the prefent did appear to him a cafe where 'extraordinary feverity was not required. Asti gond deal had been relied on the cafe of Morrie,. he thought it hut right to fay that. in the firfk infiance, he aged criminally with the belt means of infor• mation, whereas this was a cafe merely of unin tentional difobedience. Morrice had only been three weeks confined in Newgate; he had then beat difcharged on a petition, ezprelfive of his contri tion. The prefent petitioner had already been a week in the cuflody of the Serjcant at Arms. He had been obliged to come up to London at a great expense, and be would be under the neeeSty of returning at an expellee fiill more confiderables after an abfenee, attended with the greateltincon veniencies. He therefore deprecated any feverity beyond what the noble Lord's motion involved.-- There was a cafe to which be could not, before he fat down, help calling the attention of the Houfe. It was a cafe of John Snick, who, after being duly itimmoned to attend, and -failing in his appear ance, an order of the Speaker was made for taking Dim itto quawdy. This was on the a tit of March I