The National Register. — London, England, 1811-03-31 00:00:00

- TI-IF, NATIONAL ments will the intelligence be received by the Army in general— by all good Patriots—and by the nation at large, when they le;:rn that this fbrt'ress was delivered into the hands of the French by its traitorous Governor, the Conde de Alacha! A proceeding so vile and crimiml, which justly excites in your bosoms feelings of the utmost' indignation, must of neces sity call lotafly for my immediate attention, as Commander of the Army of the Province. I have accordingly ordered a sum mary investigation into the circuriastanses of this infamous af fair, in order that sig . nal justice might be done. In consequence, a Council of War, composed of General Officers to whom the caseveas referred, havo y4terday adjii'dged Oat the said Conde de dacha 4;111 suffer deitYby means of decapitation, and that the sentence shall be e x ecuted at three o'clock in the afternoon to-morrow. " CA FA LANs—The scaffold or the gibbet shalt be the just fate a Traitors of whatever' dais they may be ! The country is in danger ; and, with a view to its salvation, it is necessary to exe• cute the law with equal rigour and justice, without respect to persons ; especially to infamous men such as the Cordes, who basely surrender even a foot of the ground of this Principality, to our inveterate enemies. Such men shall experience no cle mency from fne.—go true Sp;niard will endeavour to obtain it. To our Country we owe this justice. Its salvation is at stake— and while I command in this Province, justice shall be rigor dusly inflicted. (Signed) "EL MARQUIS DE CAMPO VERDE. " Dated 'Tarragona, 25th Jan. 1811." The sentence is then specified in form, setting forth the names of those Officers who assisted at the Council of War; and or dering that the said Governor of Tortosa, the Conde de Alacha, for his infamous surrender of that fortress, shall suffer death by decapitation, under the 45th Article of War, sect. 10, in the most public place of Tarragona. IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT., HOUSE OF LORDS. MONDAY, MARCH 25 ! The London Flour Company's. Annual•ACcounts were pre sented, and ordered to lle on the table. TUESDAY, MARCH 25. LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. Lord STANHOPE having moved the Order of the Day for the second reading of his Bill respecting liberty of conscience, Earl Live& punt rose, and objected to the -Bill • as being unnecessary, and resting on no solid fttundation. The Noble Earl, indeed, bad alluded to a transaction which lately occurred in Ireland; but which, by the direct admission of the Noble Earl himself, was proniptty and elfectnally discountenanced by the Government in Ireland. The Noble Earl had further ad duced a case from Sicily, in which it was represented that great Inconvenience and hardship had arisen to the Irish Catholic ssldiers, from the dismissal of two Irish Catholic Priests, while no spiritual Minister - was left to commune with them in a lan guage which they understood. The fact was, and hirLordship spoke advisedly, that there were in the Army Sicily a suffi cient number of Catholic Priests perfectly qualified to administer to the Catholic soldiers in the English language. His Lordship concluded by moving, that the second reading of the Bill be de ferred to that day six months. • Lord STAN HOPE observed, that the Noble Secretary had comiskenced his speeds by embarrassing the Woolsack with a second motion before the first was disposed of, and that be had /lot advanced a single argument in favour of that second motion. He would not descend from the height of the ground Jn which he stood with his own modem, to contend with the sophistry and evasions of a Secretary. He made his stand on the broad and steady basis of law, against the caprices and injustice of official authority, and he could not help complaining of the want of candour shown by the Noble Secretary on the present question. .When ha (Lord Stanhope) had formerly urged his present object in the shape of a clause, that Noble Secretary asked why .a specific Bill was not prepared ; and then when the Bill was so prepared he was told it was unnecessary, and why? Because the Lori Lieutenant of Ireland had issued orders to prevent the practices of what his Bill was intended to put down by /slits He wished to have every subject of the realm, whether a soldier or a citizen, d e pende nt not on the caprice of any individual, but on the firm, known, and established law of the land. Thoss sentiments whic.h he had often urged before their Lordships were on record, upon the Stave Trade• and other occasions, where he had differed with that Noble Secretary; and he was utterly unable to diseosfer, upon what foundation the assumed pre-eminence of that Noble Secretary could support itself. Was it his retitled humanity ? He would leave the que.stiOu of the 'Slave Trade to answer that. Was it his extraordinary skill in financial arrangements? The present state of ps;blic credit would reply to that. Was it the spirit and vigour of his military en terprise's ? His famous march to Paris would best answer that. In admitting, as the Noble Secretary did, the principle of the Bill *while' he yet opposed the Bill itself, he scanted desirous to keep himself in reserve for some future occasion. He appeared to remember the maxim of Hudihras : " The man who fights and runs away " bias 'live to fight another day— " But he that's in the battle slain " Will never rise to fight again." Soldiers bad four duties to regard—a duty to their Country, a duty to their King, a duty to their Officers—but paramount to .to ar y or ,ta all ,of those, they had a duty .to perform to the Almightf. That duty cohld•never be observed Without liberty of conscience, and liberty of conscience was never to be asked as a boon ; it was a sacred right, which no human power, without manifest injustice, could invade. He had long been contend ing against that Hydra injustice: One head of the Hydra had been cut off on the oceasidn of the Act against E X post facto Laws. Arthtlier in the Bill. for t orrectien of abuses its Jails, anti the bettering of the condition of unfortunate Debtors. He con gratulated himself that his efforts had not been unavailing; fur whatever might still be the opinion, or the sentiments of the Noble 'Secretary of State, he would defy him then to touch the the hair of any •rnati's head, on the score of his religion. His Lordship repeated 'his former statement as to the increase of Dissenters during the present reign ; and among the in,rances of perseCution and tyranny which arose from the caprice of power, without the clear and known establishment of •law. F named some aft's which had taken place in Trinidad, where, under the pretext of military law, persons had their. ears cut off, had been flogged and banished, and condemned to work in shackles, and even sometimes to be sold for the 'benefit of the colony. • Lord lt ens:spate observed, that martial law was not so much a known and defined law as incidental art necessary sus pension of law. He perfectly agreed with his Noble Friend (Lord Liverpool) in thinking thepresent 1:i:1 superfluous; and could not help remarking in the Noble Earl. who moved it, a dispositionAo decry all persons of the Established Church. By the act of the Ist of William and Mary, Roman Catholics were prevented from entering into the army ; that restrictions for wise reasons, was afterwards removed, and afterathe subsequ , .nt regulations *Web had taken place on the subject, he could per ceive no use in the Nol;le Earl's motion, especially as •be was firmly persuaded that the Roman Catholic soldiers themselves are not the complainants. •. Lord HOLLAND complained of the imputation of un worthy motives ascribed by the Noble and Learned Lord to his Noble Friend (Lord Stanhope), and thought he was not fairly dealt hy, since, while the principle of his was acknowledged to be just and equitable, it was yet resisted with no other argu ment than that the principle had recently hen wisely and pro perly acted upon. If the principle was wise and politic: why pot make it law? As the case stood at present the Recruiting Ser vice would be material./ injured by the scruples of the Catholics. Lord 'I.;ARLIaLLa acknowledge-d,. in ardent terms, the wis dom, justice, and humanity of. Lord Harrington's orders re specting the Catholic soldiers, bat could not help agreeing in the expediency and policy of his isloble Friend's (Lord Stanhope) motion, and-he earnestly deprecated the c.;nsequence which the creation of it might occasion abroad. Lord STANHOPE could not avoid taking notice of the ex. traordinary and, if it were intended, scandalous thisrcpresenta don which their Lordships had heard horn the Noble and Learned Lerd of his expression , . lie had never either 111 that House, or elsewhere, breathed an imputation against the honesty of the persons attached to the established Church; though there, as in all other places, and at all times, he had contended for the justice, wisdom, and policy of the ut most freedom in the use and exereise of religious opinions. —Would the Noble and Learned Lord (Pedesdale) tell-him that there was not a clause its the Bill for compelling both Ca tholics and Dissenters ' rch then, was his law ; an , .order issued by the soldiers to worship agreeab l . maintain that this order Besides, he would not greatly as lie respected . would he trust those right In the present case, he fell butchet, between two having then given it to t theft : for one measure • other, he was told, for thrown back like a shwa._ Learned Lord (Redesdale) how little he knew of Acts of Par- to go to the estahlisheci church ? There, id there, top, was their lawyer! As to the Earl of Harrington, permitting Catholic reeably to their own consciences, he would er was not aiacienc authority tor them. t trust the right:s.(4 the people to any mats, d the character . Of Lord l-farrington ; nor rights even to any body of inen whatsoever. e felt as though he was placed, like the o thieves ; one crwhrmt stole his meat, yet, o the other, could not be charged with the •e would not do for aiWCatholics, nor the the Dissenters. Why, however, was bathos ;huttleceek? He could show the Noble nut I El