The National Register. — London, England, 1812-08-02 00:00:00

470 the opoortou 7 of justifi.:ati , n, was too dangerous to be permitted to be exercised without animadversion, in a country where the liberty of writing formed part of the laws of the land. He was present at the trial of the unfortunate Bellingham, and for the first time line law such cases, the Attorney-General challeng ed twelve Jurymen, only sanctioned the prisoner in this practice, and that too was limited ; but it now seemed that the Attorney-General could challenge to any extent. This appeared to him a most monstrous, dangerous, and in tolerable assumption of power; it seemed to go to corrupt the very fountain ofju%tice—the Trial uy Jury—and to destroy the impartiality which it was the object of those who instituted that mode of trial to establish. Besides this, t here were other grievances comp lained of. We had been threatened with exarticns to support the labouring finances of the country. It was stated, that there were three great exertions of finance, and one was indeed of a terrible de scription, namely, the Income 'Tax. All the evils which had since followed, and all the vexatious inquiries into men's private affairs, were anticipated by his side of the House, and de nied by the persons who introduced the tax.—Another exer tion was to be made in the levying of the war taxes, in the present state of the country ; what was this to be, he would leave to the Eight Hon. Gentleman opposite, but, looking over the final.- tial accounts, he saw instances of prodigality which would preven' his giving his consent to any new exaction until he saw something done in the way of economizing the expenditure of the country. In Ene. land and Scotland there were sinecures to the a mount of 392, , 3611. without any public service being performed. In Ireland there. wa 1000001. of a similar nature; and among these a curious item ap peared, namely, 30, 0001 . to the Prince at Mecklinburgh Strelitz ; what that person had done to deserve this he could not tell. Hr then enumerated the different pensions in the post-etfice and excise depart ments, and alluded to those on the consolidated lona, which were given to Lord Nelson, amid to persons who had served the country, and to which he had no objection. The whole of these sinecures amount ed to more than a Milliotrof money ; 16U,0001 was an wally given to American. French, and Dutch loyalists. There were also the loan t the Emperor of Germany, who was now the ally of Buonaparte; the Subsidies of Sicily a. d Po tugal ; the pensions of the Duke of Schom berg, the Duchess of Brunswick , and the D uke of Brunswick OeLs ; in fine, of these items there was given to foreigners alone the enormou eum of 3,143,5001. There also appeared the sums which were im properly granted to members of the Royal Family, and in particular, that to the Duke of York, during Mr. Andington's administration. The expence of foreign corps was 968,4251. the loans to Portugal and the East India Company two millions each, and one million of money for the exchange of prisoners of war, front which the country had de rived no benefit. There was an item to which he looked with great jealousy, namely, 176,0001. for secret service money. VVlretker this was fir the purchase of war, by the payment of such men as Mr. Henry, in America, or whether it was for spies to entrap men in this country, fur p .rposes of another description, or however it went, it might well be spared. 100,0001. was given to the poor clergy of th e church of England; this, he feared, would become an annual grant, and he thought it would be better if the poor clergy were supported by the rich. The same principles shotald extend to the distressed Manufacturers, and the disturbances wo n cease much sooner than could be expected from the institution of severe laws. Large sums of mow were given to the Commissioners appointed to examine Pub lic A.ccounts, and he was sure that they never saved what would pay their expences for one month. He came next to the items, which he termed jobs, the Board of Agriculture; 65,0001. for roads and bridges in Scotland, a sum that exceeded the land-tax of that country ; 89.0001. for Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and, what was rather odd, _15,0001. to the Princess of Wirtemberg. The who le of these amounted to near nine millions of money, exclusive of the Civil Ltst,which was a million more. He then adverted to the sale of Crown Lands, which were bought by the Civil List, and which made the Crown in a man• per dependant upon the vote of the House, and which caused it to be considered by the country as a great overgrown pensioner. He had s iseen frequently stated as a person hostile to what was called the Con stitute i Authorities; so far from that, he would always support the consti,tyted powers of the Crown, which had been much encroached ,lon by that House. There was in that House an oligarchical govern ment, a borough-monger faction, which set at defiance the principles of the Constitution, and which broke in on the laws of the country. Its object was taxation, which went to palsy the war we were carry ing on. The borough interest was to be found in the Navy, the Army and at the Bar, which had su ff ered a melancholy ch a ng e from the independence that had made the professions respectable in the eyes of the people. Out of the Army Expenditure, only one-third went to the payment of soldiers; and Lord St. Vincent said, that a full third of the expenditure of the Navy might be saved. As that House was a source of corruption in every department of the State, it became necessary fof every man to hold his situation as a Minister by sinister lams. • He wished to speak his opinioh of the rejection of the over tures of peace lately made by the Emperor of France. It was a matter pf little national importance whether Joseph or Ferdinand was on the 'throne of Spain. The Hon. Bart. them adverted to the war between Russia and France, and expected that it would turn out disadvanta :us to the farmer country. When he turned back to former times, could not entertain any sanguine expectations, nor could he look to I , 1 1 !" 0 4M77 .- THE NATIONAL REGISTER. AUG. g. bright day, notwithstanding the link gleam of Fght uad broken in upon us. All the expeditions managed by the Noble Lord opposite, (Lord Castlereagh,) and his method of carrying on th e wai . with Buonaparte, was like a child and Phi l lioon play ing a game of chess. He alluded to th,! war which commenced . with Ann iica, which he feared no negotiation could stop, and hoped that the Pr;rice Regent would awake to the necessity of doing something to subst,:n. tially satisfy the people of the country. By some accident we might lose his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and that might be n event pregnant with the greatest danger. Why, he asked, was there not a provision mode which would insure the country against the danger of a situation of that kind ? Was the Princess Charlotte of Wales now of an age, which would enable her in such an emergency to take upon her properly the duties of a Regency ? The Hon. Bart. then slightly adverted to the (litre! en; political sentiments that wire laid betore the public during the late m etisterial negociatioos, line con . eluded by moving an Add , ess to his Royal Highness the Prince Re. gent, expressing, in a formal manner, the various opinions contained in ins speech. No menthe' seconded the motion, and it was withdrawn. A Message front the Lords announced their assent to the Irish In. solvent Debtors' Bill, with several Amendments, to which they desired the concurrence of this House. The Lords' Amendments to the English Insolvent Debtor's Bill were taken into consideration, and agreed tq. Mr. BARII4C moved—" That an Accopat of the Amount of the Land Tax rede:med, el Stock transferred to r ! , :s Commissioners of the stoking Fund, and of the Annual Amount of In_ Land Tax 7inrcdccm ed, .1.,) to the last period, should be laid before the House." Tile Motion was put and carried.—Adjourned. WEDNESDAY, J ULY 29. Mr. VANSITTART moved tar a writ tai the county of Londonderry, in the room or Lord George Berestord, who ha accepted the place of Comptroller of the Ft , usebold ; arol also new writ .or the same county, in the room of the Hon. Ge►:er:sl C. Stewart, who had accept. ed the place of Groom of the Bedchamber ; ako for tl►e B •rouge of Ashburton, in the room of John Sullivan, Esq. wl'o was appointtd Commissioner f.r India A ttiiirs. Another writ was, also or,:ered for Ashburton, in the room et Lord Charles Bentick, who ha. , accepted 'he place of Treasurer at the Household. Mr. C. JOHNSTONE moved for severol accounts relative to Army Agents, stating his motive to be, that some better .ieLurity slwold be fixed upon far the payment of public money. After sc•me conversa tion the accounts were ordered.—Adjourned. TUESDAY'S LONDON GAZETTE. WAR DEPARTMENT. nowt:ll4n syn kET, JULY '27, 181 g. A Dispatch, of which the following is an extract, has been this day received at E.q-I•l3athursi's Office, addres-ed to his Lordship by (iez arra' Earl of Wellington, dated Rueda. July 7, 1811 : The army broke up diciu the •encamptuent on the Guareaa on the flouting of the Ist instant, and the enemy having retired from Al ejos, encamped on the Trabancos, with the advanced-guard at La Nava del Rey. Having heard that the enemy had tit strop d the bridge of I or desillas, our advanced-guard crossed the Zap.irdiel, and moved open Rueda, on the morning of the 2d,• supported by the left of he army, while the right and centre moved towards Medina del Catnpo The enemy, however, had not destroyed the bridge o'er the Douro, as reported; and the main body of the army had retired upon Tordesil las, leaving the rear-guard at Rueda. • Lieutenant-General Sir Stapleton Cottoa immediately attacked the rear-guard with Major-General Anson's and Major-General Victor Alten's brigades of cavalry, and drove them in upon the main body at Tordesillas. As the right and c entre of the army were a t a cousi'der able distance, I could not bring up a sufficient body of tr op- in time to attack the enemy during their pas , age of the Douro. and they ef fected that operation without%aterial loss; and took their position ou that river, with their right on the heights opposite Pollos, their centre at Tordtsillas, and their left at Simanc , s, oil the Pi.uergt. I moved our left to Pollos on the 3d, an.l obtained possession of the ford over the Douro at that place. But as the lord was scarcely r ue ticable for infantry, and the enemy's c or p s was strongly posted, with a considerable quantity of cannon, on the heights which command the plain on which the troops must have formed after crossing the ford, and as I could not establish that army on the right of the Douro till should have adequate means of passing the river, I did aot think it proper to push our troops further. General Bonnet was at Aguilar dcl Campo in the end of last month. ADMIRALTY=OFTIC4. JULY 28, 1812. . Admiral Lord Keith has transmitted to John Wilson Croker , Es,q• dispatches from Captain Sir Horne Popham, of his Majes sip subse aerable, giying an account of his former proceedings, ren t to