The National Register. — London, England, 1812-03-01 00:00:00

MIN -,,,T.,. -~----~ F , 132 - . that before their passing, the customs of France were much greater than I at present, because the revenue of that coeetry had been greatly dimi nished in consequence of thin measure; and it they were now repealed, he was coeviliced the: the revenue of France would increase com.ittera bly in consequele• •of suc e repeal. by a repeal of them, all the ports of reince woeh. heitemetiiittely thrown ogee to America. If the Orders of leue were repeait d, their manufactures might be exported under any neutral fht:;, and Feance Would thereby be enabled to carry on a lucra tive trade with every part of Feu% ee. The whole of the trade of this country %els, et erestet, he woeet confte.s, a forced trade; but the re : •eal of the Oteel of iene would place it iu a much worse condition — it worilet of c:eion the loss of nearly halt the trade of Europe. He would ask the elobie Marquis, whether he forgot that iu the year MO, the trade of this country was greater by B,eetterel than in any forint r year ? And he recollected. when at that time ate. t:: ale becane• a suliject of discussion, a Noble lee d ereosite had attributed that peosperity to the Orders now so much compluintel of; and it wes rather strange that what, in lel e, had been the source Of prosperity, should now be repre sented a. a production of the very contrary eth•ct. •I'he trade to the Baltic was not at present very prasperous and that was attributed , but very unjustly, to the Orders in Council. If the last three years were t: ken, it would be found that the exports had been greater by the sum of 10.4)0,0001 than in any three precedieg years. 'file trade to Canada had been needy doubled. It was a fact, that the trade with America It el b en greater while the embargo comiuued than before; and, after that. he did net teink that any person could, with justice, say that the embarrassment to trede arose from any interruption of our commercial c in:lt:tent with tleat country. That embarrassment proceeded, in a great measure, 1. um the vrog:•eti3 the French power had made in the /4,1101 ~t EUrtr::•. They pan iciscil tbinnselves of alntost all the ports of that. count re. etid the lit itish goals seized, in consequence, amounted to upwai ds of 1 ,‘ , C•fl te - 'Ol. In coeseqo eme of this exclusion from the Northern pelts, tee coiewerce of Greed Britain was interrupted ' and th ise elreete followed which were %Tunefully attributed to the Orders in Council. Loi d HOLLAND and the Earl of LA I! Ii Flt DALE supported the motion. The E•tyl of S.Ves•reitie r. t.. ND oppesed the 'notion. The Earl of Ros.os contended at some length that it was impossible • for l . ngland to recall her Orders in Council salting as Bum:lpage should persist in eefot eine his Decrees. • Lord eID %lOU i it opposed the motion. Earl Ferewiette re and Lord Gazevi LTA sueported the motien, and the it Terquis of LAN snow N r. brit fly replied. Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, .and a division took place, when there appeared—For the motion, 71; against it, 1.35 ; majority, fel.--Adjourned at e lialf past twelve. HOUSE OF COMMONS. MONDAY, FEB. '24. RFPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY. Lord Footea roNtt wished to draw the attention of the House to the very great amount of foreign forces now in the pay of this Govern- . went ; not merely those employed on fo rei g n service, but the great numb , rs also which had Litely been enlisted, and were now retained on our home establishment. rt was most extraordinary, that these forces should, in the course of a few yearq, have encreased froM .)O0 to _30,C00 rm_n, and this aQain;t. the law of the land; for there were only two-Acts which applied to foreign troops being allowed to he brought into the kingdom, viz. the 10th and 46th of the King; and those were b;:t:1 Acts of Intkinnity brought forward to protect his Majesty's Mi n:sters, from being limier the necessity of introducing foreign troops into the ciAmtry, and at that time the greatest number not amounting to more than 15,000 men. He had, however, been informed, that Ilppli , :otion had been made to enlist French prisoners, and that of !rise had been taken into our service from 1 artmoor prison. He . I,e!et.l leave also to remind the House, that many foreign officers were ! , t.tvitig in our regiments, which was expressly contrary to Act of Parliament. Foreign Generals commanded corps in our army; and he had evcn I,4!tm informed, there was one foreigti General whO corn minded a distriLr. Lo•d PALM TO N believed the Noble Lord had been misinformed. lkommd certainly been allowed to Germans, who had been taken pri soners in the French armies, to enlist into the German Legion, but no Frenchman hail Leen so enlists& With regard to foreign officers, there w is an Act which authorized the King to avail himself of the services Of foreign oiTic. rs. It the Noble Lord would recollect, he would find that the 97th regiment was originally composed entirely of foreigners, though it was now wholly E' glisb. With respect to any foreign Gene ral's cQjnmanding a dbitrict, the Noble Lord had certainly b. en misin formed. General Liniingen w:l9 not in command of a district, but only of a corps of troops of his own country. Mr. Lmait said, when he saw Buonaparte forcing into his armies, not only single recruits, but whole regiments at a time, of any power on the Continent, he thought proper to make choice of, it would be impossible that with our comparatively small population, we could contend with him, if not allowed to recruit our foreign forces, which had bent allowed to be taken into our pay in the manner which had liaLert been resorted to. After a few abbe:Nations from Mr. Ca:Well and Xr. Freenhantle, THE NATIONAL REGISTER. MARC!! 1. which were answered by Lord up. The Resolutions on the Navy Estimates were then read and agrged ,ton, the Report was brought to. - The Resolutions for the Estimates for• the Army service were then read, and all severally agreed to, until the resolution tor granting 6-2,1, - .91. to defray the charges and Paymaster of Vidows' Pensions was read. Mr. BANI:ES said, that it was his intention to move an amendment to thin Resolution ; but before he proceeded farther, he wishtd the Clerk to read the ed and 3tl Resolutions on the Report of tie Final:cc Committee, in May, 1810; and also the 10th Report of the C _ommis skin r for Public Accounts, in 1783, respecting the office ot Paynnt , t(r of Widows' Pensions. 'Mae Resolutions were accordingly re:ld by the Clerk, and their tenor was, that the office in (11'e-tion had been condemned by them as one totally unnecessary, and of no possible betiefit to the public. No duties were performed by the principal, slid very little by the ueputy. Tlio• Resolutions of MO confirmed these of 1783, but at the same time alluded to other sinecures w hich they re presented as not deserving to be abolished, considered them as situa tions which the Crown had at his disposal, for the reward of onaur able meti, who might find it necessary to retire, through age, or other ' circumstances, toms former efficient services fur the State. tut lie would put it to the candour of his Right lion. Frielid,v.liether the Pev • mastership of Widows' Pensions was amongst the number of tines sinecures which the Committee considered en honoureble rett eat for dc. serving men, and which it te ought right not to recolt.mend to abolition ? This office, as the House :oust see, was an ''hl stienia wheel the Per liament had intended to wi e out as soon as the de nth ef Gen. la.e caeid make it practicable.s—He i-egged gentltinen tnly t.,, look into the ,:at report on the subjectvand . hey would 1: - I that Ow whole hui,iile-s con nected with that office was perforried 1.1 - 1001.4 ye:lr, by one of the first clerks in the Vs'ar Office, who did I:esides, all the I , usinez;s of his own efficient situation. Was net the cenferrine such a place on such a peroln a--on a person who was one of the Prince's own family, tz.ther an eKpc riment of the Minister, to try how he could do odious thines he a way most advantageous to hinveif ? Was it net, at least. the iltitTtion of a Certain system of conduct, by follem ing (.1 which, If obloquy was ta be the consequence, that obloquy would not tall undivided on his own head ? ( Hear, hear ! ) The Minister 'ead obtruded the consideretien of this question on the license : there it was in the estimates : vote ti!ey must upon it : and when the alternative of the preservation or of the abolition of this office Was placed le tore him, he had little diiiiculty, indeed, in forming his choice. lie was sorry that some more efficient place had not been bestowed on the Hon. Colonel, whute merits it appeared, deserved a better situation. Ile was particulerly sorry that the appointment had taken place almost at the outset of the Regency, when it evidently made the public look with no little anxiety and indig nation at the conduct of the Government. The Hon. Gentleman con ; eluded his speech in the midst of loud cheering, by moving as an ! amendment, that 59,900 and odd pounds be inserted in the resolution, instead of (et thousand, dec. Mr. C. ADAMS supported the amendment. Mr. M. Mo rflosou a complimented the motives on which Mr. Banises acted ; but, at the same time, begged him to consider, whether in pur suing his favourite and laudable object of public economy, he miizlit ;lot push it so far as to destroy all animation and alacrity fur the see vice of the public. Mr. Wienearoace said, be was ready to move, that this very sum of 27901. which he was not willing to vote to Colonel AV Mahon, should be given in addition to what had been voted ler the widows. Ile could not but strongly condemn the principle of the present appointnu or ; he thought it extremely dangerous to introduce such a principle into the expenditure of the public money : and, if it were once introduced, he knew nothing that was too corrupt or too ext' as igant fir such a prin ciple to cover. Besides, he thought it dangerous, and iihely to produce much serious discontent, if broad, palpable blots, like this, which every man could see and point out, were to be left exposed to the public view. It would appear as if ministers, instead of lightening the vessel of the State to meet the storms of the present times, were razhee putting in fresh loading and fresh incunibrances. General TA it le ea cm thought, that the Right Hon Gentleman hail used Col. MiMalion ill, in appointing him to a situation which necessarily held him up to much obloquy. The Cneatee Lew( of the Excites:aura certainly had not expected to he charged with ill-treating, not only the Prince and the country, eut , Colonel M'Mahon also. If .it was enough to move the halienetiell ut a gallant officer to be recommended to a lucrative situation, as the reward of his services, he was afraid thet he had incurred the indignetion et the gallant General also by recommending hint to be Goveruor of Berwick. (a laugh) If he had anticipated any serious danger to the country Ironi recommending Col. M'Mahou to this appointment, he should certainly have abstained from doing so. He cook, however, tee no danger in giving the place, on the express understanding that the continuance ot it was as fully open to the determiration of Parliament after the appoint ment, as it was before. When it was said, that a Committee eo veers ago recommended the abolition of this place, he shouhl consider the length of time rather an argument the other way, as it shoved cle'° ithat Parliament, during all that time, had not thought proper to . act upon those resolutiowe He would not allow it to lee cvustitutienaldoa• M