The National Register. — London, England, 1809-05-28 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. "•• UESSAGi FROIC Hti'mAsEiTir. GrORGE RE X, Ills Majesty having directed returns to be made and certified by the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales, of the number of livings under the value of one hundred and fill) pounds per annum, and perceiving from those returns, that not withstanding the operation of the Act passed in the second and *bird years of her Majesty Queen Anne, for the making more effectual her Majesty's gracious intentions for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor Clergy, by enabling her Majesty $o grant in perpetuity the revenues of the First Fruits and Tenths, the maintenance belonging to the Clergy divers parts of the kingdom, is still mean and inefficient, his Majesty has di rected an abstract of the returns as far as she same have been completed, to he laid before the Haute of Commons ; it the House of Commons can find any proper method of enabling his Zblajesty to accelerate the operation of the said Act, it will be a great advantage to the public, and very acceptable to his Ma jest y. S G. It. The Mes-sage was ordered to be referred to the Committee of Supply on Wednesday next. MA Y .294 . . extraordinary' of any that Iran ever been known in'the ;nulls oT the House of Commons. They were not only accused of corny. rlon nut of doors. hut the charg e was acknowledged ithin the house; and by the confession if its own members, the House could no longer be considered as the free represeutatives of the people. All delicacy was done assay with, and what would formerly have drawn down t!-.. heaviest displeasure of the House, was now unblushingly acknowledged from alt quarters of it. The times of Sidney and Russel had been quoted, and it had heen said that those illustrious men did not scruple to become the pensioners of France. He pitied the understanding of any man who conld lead his belief to such a calumny. Such stories mixht suit the taste of the 'Alacphersoos and I.)::lrymples of the day, but he would never consent to sully the fame of those inflexible and steady patriots, who had cemented with their blood the li berties of the 'people of England, on melt authority as the pa. pers of Barilloo, the French A oroassador, which was the sole, authority on which that posthumouz charge against the memory of Russel and Sidney wns: supported. After the memorable ac= know ledgements we have heard, it is impossible that we can continue to call ourselves the representatives of the people of fireat Britain. (here the Han. Baronet was loudly called to or der; and the Speaker interposed, and said, he conceived the lion. Baronet tear disw - drrly.) Lord A. id Asti urns contended, that after what passed in the House, he thesught it impossible that they could be considered any longer as the yepresentatives of the people; and, therefore, he did not see how the Hon. Baronet had been disorderly. Sir F. ButtnETT resumed, and said he conceived it a mere mockery of terms, after what had passed in the discussion on the .I`..!th inst. (the motion respecting Lord Castlereagh's proposing to barter a Writership for a seat in Parliament), to call the llonse of Commons the representatives of the people. Never till that period did ally Minister of State, or any Member of cage House, venture to avow what had then been uobloshingly ac kuoisledged. The misfortune was, that the confetfsion then made, disgraceful as it was to the House, did not rest with I lse party accused alone, but• was freely acknowledged in every qoa'r. Li. of the Honse to he a long existing evil. ft wits conended that a Reform in the Commons House of Parliament would he arischievous, becanse it would separate property and political power. But he contended that it would do no such thirsg„ Het did mint complain that property . commanded poli!icikl powers hot that political power was derived from What was not substan tially property, namely, from rotten boroughs. W ita regard to Cie present 13111, it was not that kind of reform which he wished fAr. Ile could not conceive any good effects that could result tom• it, .and he thought it might be attended with some very in jurious con4'quences. It would take the traffic in seats in Par liament out of the publie market, and 'throw the whole mono. poly of that trade into the hands of the administration fur the time gains;. If the evil could not he got Hi of by a radical re form, the'best course to pursue, he thought, would he to make sits saleable at a public mart, and the money so raised, instead being paid into the Treasury for unknown purposes, might be applied to alleviate the public burtheus. •In no respect did he conceive the present measure likely to answer airy good end. It appeared to him a sham remedy, and therefore he. objected to it altogether. He could not, however, help doing justice to the motives of the lint'. Member by whom it was !nought forward, and whim) he believed to be aetuated by the best intentions. But conceiving the Bill altogether inadequate to meet the evils coops plained of,' and rather likel) . to inCrease them, he should vote against it. lir. FULLER was astonished !hat the lion. Mciiiber Ifho h d spent 1'0,001: in elect ion:, j 'war ! hear ! ) and 'who had got people to vote, for him and some of whom n ereatat In Botany Bay, should talk as he did of coree ot too . and reform. Ile never gave a bribe to any man for his vote, and he wished every . of e could say the same. With respect to the Bill, i,e did not think it would be 'effectual, for there' were. many things besides money which a mail mi;zht give to procore votes, such as a puncheon Of ruin to wee ( loud laughing), a horse to another, and a pipe of wine to a third. lie, however, should vote for the Bill going into a Committee, but would not pledge himself to support•it further. The CII ANcEI.I.on of the ExcticQuErt declined saying nny thing upriii the principle of the Bill at preseti a he had delivet e.d his sectimenti at length ,upon it on a former - occasion. Ile w6heti it, however, to go into a Committee, that the4lifkrrot clauses tn;glit be separately discu;sed, ;led that the House should exerrisa its jodgment upon its w 14.de tnerib:. The Bill vas ordered to he rommitiNd on Tuesday next.—Ad jonntd. PARLIAMENTARY INDEPENDENCE. Sir Joint NE wro nr said, that there was no period of our history in which the consideration of a measure of this kind would not he of great importance, but the present evas time for its discussion, of which the memory of man, he believed, could not furnish an instance of greater moment to the welfare of the country. Solicitous as he was at all times to avoid giving Cause to men's minds to dwell on any measure out of this House, bC•thotight the subject now under consideration was one entitled to the attention of every man In the country. He was an tins ions slipporter of the Act entitled the Greuville Act, and all other iticdsurei which had for their object the correction of sitnilar abuses. The House was indebted to such Acts as these for that 'Wild discretion it has 'exercised on occasions when remedies have been found necessary for abuses in Parliamentary nepre 'mutation. It was by this poster that the House was enabled to Supply a remedy to the ea , e of the town c.f Aylesbury, the repre 4titation of which was so corrupt, that it wa found absolutely necessary for Pas liament to entrust it to other than those to whom it had been originally consigned. Ile considereo the resent Bill as one of the same nature as that of the Grenville Act. with this difference, that it was intended to prevent the re currence of these abuses to the first instance, it'tcad of apply a remedy for corruption still liable to be committed. In the Instance of abuse he alluded to, it was notorious that to such a pitch of corruption had the electors proceeded, that the re:ire *emotion was constantly kept on sale for the highest bidtkr.— This being actually proved.in evidence, the House, improsiseri with the disgraceful coaductAof the electors, felt it their bounden duty to apply the remedy on record. With respect to the rot HT of the Bill he thought it was well calculated to compass all the objects'it professed to tin, and he could not conceive it pos - *We that objections could he urged sufficiently strop; to shew the impolicy of it. He could not understand the of matte, that young men of talent and genuine worth' would be lost to the Maine by the effects of this Bill, upon what was called the Bur lap tenures of the country.--For his own part, he thought such Men would find their way into Parliament equally as soon, and Uttlth wuchinore credit to themselves 'and their country, by lay ink Out the purchase-money of a se;at in the ordinary Way, in porurini their return by popular election. There were ex amples, and bright ones too, wheeet the right of Bargage tenure was exercised in the most laudahle manner. His !tight honourable Friend (Mr. Grattem) of whom the world *fluid not but speak in the highest terms of eulogium, owed his first entrance into Parliament, 'to the illustrious Lord Charlemont, who held that tenure, as he said him- Self,' for the purpose of sending to Parliament those only. who were the defenders of the public liberty and the Constitution of the county-... Favourable as these exceptions *very, Its could not but bighly approve of the principle of a measure w h ich wen: $O, put a stop to the trafficking for seats in Parliament; a prin ciple which laid an avenue open to any class of men to find their way into Parliament. Few, indeed,. were Ihnse }t; ho purchased !heir seals in this manner, that did not do so upon some interested spewlatiop or other. He could not hut c'ontpare the purchase of ascot on these terms to the purchase of a ;!arliamentaiy Lot tery Ticket, the prize for which was to be paid by the public. Be saw no bad effects that could result Gout the operation of this Mr. D. GIDDY opposed the Bill. lir F4LANGIS UVAPICTT ceniidercd the premt period the mist i' : . ... _s 1 ,f . A