The National Register. — London, England, 1811-08-18 00:00:00

:12 ings of any assembly,. stamp •its .formation with legality, if it was originally unlawful ?,The Con stitution allows all Of us to provide in the best manner we can for the comforts of our families, and tilt pros perity of our affairs. It admits, when we deem our -selves injured, of our approaching the Crown with • petitions, and of our adopting the most efficient legal mcans for preparing and perfecting them. But if we were to cause a thrOne to be erected, and assuming all the pomp and insignia of royalty, to call the dis contented around us, and attempt to exercise Sove ' reign power, should we not expose ourselves to be ll tried for high treason ? Or should the plea, that we really meant no harm, but thought this a legal and the most efficient way of preparing* a petition for the Throne, avail in our defence, and justify our undue assumption of authority ? The folly as well as the illegality of such a step would be so conspicu ous. as to render any attempt at justification an en crease of our offence. How - then can it be as serted, by any man in his senses, that the con. duet of the beads of the Irish Catholics, in erect ing themselves, not, it is true, into Monarchs, but into a Parliament, ought not to be reprobated ? How can any voice be r:tised against the mild measures of the Government ; which, however se vere. they may be made to appear, only tend to de- ' termine by law whether the Catholics really possess, by the ConstitutiOn, the right of electing represen tatives or not ? Their right to petition never can be, and has never been, denied. It is born with them in common with their fellow-subjects : but certainly it is equally; and not only the right but the duty of Government to see that the mode in which they proceed to carry a lawful intent into execution, be not illegal and dangerous.. After mature investi. gation, it was • declared by Proclamation, illegal, ' and *ordered to be discontinued, under the threat eried penalty of- the law, on conviction. After such a declaration, it would have been more decent, as troll . as more prudent, had the Catholics wisely re frained from pursuing an erroneous course : but they preferred bringing • the mutter . to trial, and standing against the Eiecutive on no other ground than that of innovation. It remains with the Go vc.rnment now, to prove, what seems self-revealed, f.'at they . are in the wrong : their elections must then cease, and they must resort to another method of preparing their petition: The arrests lately made at Dublin will bring this question to an issue almost immediately, and the judgment of the Court will be followed by measures of a more decisive nature on the part of Government. Hitherto the arrests have beeu confined to Dublin alone, not as the advocates 'for the Catholics have erroneously supposed, 4 , be e ause Government cannot act now its own Proclama• NATIONAL REGISTER. tion throughout the Counties as in the metropolis, ont of weakness ;" but because its sole end is to settle the legality of the point, which will be sufficiently established by the trial of a few as of many ; trusting that when this is decided, the Catholics will of themselves, if their professions of fairness and loyalty are sincere, abandon their present course, should it be ascertained to have been unlawful. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. ELEVENTH REPORT. The first subject treated upon by this Report is, the office of 46 Paymaster of Marines"—an office which, it will be remembered, was filled by Kr- V/LLIERS. The same subject occupied the first part of the 'Fifth Report. Among the many other cu rious but unaccountable things which it mentioned was one that created considerable discussion in the House of Commons, namely, the loss of the bosd given by Mr. VILLIERS. To the researches made for it the invariable return was—non est inventa : s Nobody knew any thing about it—all wondered • what could have become of it ! At last', however, the precious relique was found ! According to .this Report, it was " discovered" by one of the Admi ralty Clerks, who is employed to arrange the whole of the Marine Papers, 66 in the midst f one f the bundles of Marine Monthly Returns . 1 " An account of the proceedings adopted for the recovery of the 66 debt" (the defalcations, which amount to 261,5071.) is published in this Report. By this statement it appears that 56,4621. 19i. re sulting from the sale of estates, &c. has • already been received, and it adds under the head " to be expected" the sum of 79,7191. 17s. These two sums, that is, including the large one which is 44 expected" to be received, . make together 136,2121. 1.55. Thus, if all be received that is 46 expected," even then the Public will lose the enormous sum of 128,2951. 15s. by the late Pay master of the Marine Forces ! Besides this loss a great sum will go to defray the necessary expenses attendant upon recovering the 136,2121. 15s. In a previous Report, the Committee recom mended that the office of Paymaster of Marines should be abolished, and the duties of it transferred to. the Navy Pay-office. This recommendation gave rise to a correspondence and discusSions on its propriety between the Commissioners of the Trea sury, the Treasurer of the Navy, and the Com mittee, an account of which is set forth in the Appendix to this Report. But the Committee are inflexible. They say, " after perusing these Papers (the. statement of the correspondence and discus. sions), they see no reason to alter the opinion btfuro given." 4