The National Register. — London, England, 1822-06-17 00:00:00

.-, With a mixture of ability and humanity highly honourable to him, the Marquis of Lansdowne, on Friday evening, brought forward his motion for a Committee of the Lords to inquire into the dis- tressed state of Ireland. This motion, so necessary at this moment—to consolatory to the starving Irish —was resisted by the Earl of Liverpool, not because it was introduced with violence, for he complimented the moderation of the noble Marquis—not because the distress was the creation of the brain, for he ad mitted and lamented its verity and extent—not be- cause he thought it would be unproductive of good, for he implied a belief that it might be utile ; but, forsooth, because it would convey a tacit censure upon Ministers, by intimating that the Government had not done all that was possible fur their relief— and to the whole length of this sensitive feeling did the House of Lords go with the First Lord of the Treasury—millions of our fellow-subjects had better be allowed to starve, than a distant hint of a want of ability or attention be cast upon half a score of the least competent men that ever formed a Cabinet in the United Kingdom. The Alien Bill was read in the House of Com mons a second time on Friday evening, after one of the most luminous spee,hes ever heard within its walls, which was delivered in opposition to it by Sir James Macintosh. We owe to truth, as chroniclers of the day, what we grieve to record—that Mr. Plunkett, once the honoured advocate of liberty, was the upholder, apologist, justifier, and supporter of his cruel outrage upon the principles that ever ought to govern British jurisprudence. We did not believe—we would not have believed from any other than his own mouth, that he would have ad- vocated such a measure, because we thought it pos sible for him to accept an official legal appointment in Ireland without apostatizing from the honest feelings he had so long, so loudly, and so fearlessly professed. A meeting of the Freeholders of the County of Kent, in favour cf reform in Parliament, was held on Tuesday last, in pursuance of a most numerously and respectably signed requisition—every thing went on well—all were of one mind, until some demon threw down tho apple of discord, which descended in the shape of Mr. Cobbctt—that person applying to public affairs the dishonest principles which he has already avowed (in his famous letter to Sir Francis Burdett) govern him is his private concerns, moved a rider to the petition, which had theretofore received unanimous approbation, urging a reduction of the interest on the public debt —We dare sa) Mr. Cubbett has not a pound in the funds, and we know he is not particular as to the fairness of a measure so long as his own pocket is not touched —but that the collected freeholders of Kent could ac cede to so villanous a proposition does astonish us.— t is due to Earl Darnley and the other requisition ists to add, that they all opposed the petition, thus disgraced by Mr. Cobbett's addition, but the meeting, in which we believe the majority were not Free holders, passed it, and the county is thus disgraced by the voices of those who had no right to a voice at all.—The presentation of this petition to the House of Commons on Friday last gave rise to a warm discussion; hat we rejoice to add that, with very few exceptions, the swindling proposition it contained was reprobated on all sides—though we must confess our risibility was excited by the tena city of the Marquis of Londonderry on the score of the public faith, during the very session in which himself and his colleagues have juggled and cheated the poor widow, who had just eaough in the Five per Cents. to exist upon, out of one sixth of her hard pittance. THE LATE DUEL IN SCOTLAND.--The trial of l‘lr. Stuart, for being principal in the duel in which Sir Alexander Boswell 60 justly lost his life, in March last, came on at Edinburgh on Monday last. We have given a report of the trial in another ui rain —, it lasted till live o'clock the next morning, THE NATIONAL RE(IISTER when the Jury, without retiring, pronounced a ver dict of " NOT PUILTT," to the satisfaction of a crowded Court. Mr. Stuart retired from the Court amid the cheers of the multitude, attended by Lord Rosslyn, and other Noble sal Honourable Friends. PARIS, JUNE B.—On Thursday, after the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, M. Benjamin Constant demanded satisfaction of Mons. F. des Issarts, for a letter inserted by the latter in the Quolidienue oldie Stii, in answer to one of M. B. Constant, inserted in the Conaitutionuel and the Courier of the 4th. Without any other explanation, the Honourable De puties proceeded yesterday morning to the ground. M. Benjamin Constant was accompanied by Gen. Sebastiani and M. Girardin, Members of the Cham ber of Deputies; and M Forbin des Issarts by Gen. the Count de Bethisy, Member of the Chamber, and Colonel Chamoin, Lieutenant in the King's thirties du Corps, Company of Luxemburg. M. Benjamin Constant being lame, he and his adversary were placed at ten paces distance on chairs. They fired together by signal, neither was hurt, and M. Ben jamin Constant appearing satisfied, the seconds de cided that the combat ought to terminate. It is impossible to show mac sang-J . /O.V than was mani fested by the honourable Deputies. Tua Kite's DIIAWING•hOrtiIis MajESI? held a drawing-room on Thursday last, at Buckingham house, which it is understood will be the last this season. We scarcely ever remember to have seen one so thinly attended as this, but various causes operated to make it so—among which the disgust excited by the late proscription of the amiable Duchess of Gloucester, held no doubt a prominent situation. The King left Carlton-house at half-past twelve, in a plain carriage, attended by the Duke of Dorset, and proceeded to Buckingham house.— His Majesty wore the Windsor uniform. His Ma jesty took refreshment with his royal sister, the Princess Augusta, previous to attiring tin. the draw ing-room. The company began to arrive a little before two o'clock, hut very slowly, and from that time until soon after three, when Cite last equipage drove up, there was not what is called a line of car riages once formed ; they came straggling by twos and threes, and once or twice ❑s many es half a dozen were observed in a line. The Lord Mayor went in state, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress, and attended by the City Marshals, Marshalmen, &c, a very unusual circumstance, we believe. It is many years since a Lord Mayor appeared in state upon a similar occasion. The Sheriffs accompanied his lordship in their carriages. The l'rince and Princess Esterhazy, and nearly all the Foreign Am bassadors, were present. The draaing-room termi nated be four o'clock. On Wednesday last, his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester inspected the battalion of his regiment, the 3d Foot Guards stationed at the Tower. They went through the manteuvies with great correctness, and seemed to give entire satisfaction to the colonel. —His royal highness afterwards inspected the bar racks. He then visited the various armouries, de pots of arms, and ordnance map-room, attended by a numerous company of the officers of the Guards, and a party of the Yeomen of the (herds, and subse gauntly partook of a thjeune a Is j;iurekette in the officers' mess-room. His royal lrighness looked very well, and took his leave apparently much delighted with the business of the day. His royal highness on his way home viewed the Middle Temple Hall, and also the church of the Inner Temple. The occasion of the case of the indivi.lual calling herself the Princess Olive against the King's Proc tor, being postponed on Wednesday last, was as fid lows:—A gentleman of the name of Tucker came into court whilst Dr. Lushington was speaking, and stated to the Proctor of the party proponent, that he CAME direct from a noble Lord whom lie named, and the Attorney and Solicitor-General, to request that the case might stand over to the next court, to afford the opportunity of arranging the matter in the mean time with the party: and the note which he pro duced from the lady, signifying her acquiescence, was written in consequence of a similar representa tion made by him to her. Jet U . ESPRIT —Two Englishmen were recently standing at the dour of an hotel in Boulogne, when a boor-like looking fellow passed by, driving an ass — s ae of the gentlemen observed to the other, There is a pair of asses,' on which the boor, who, from having been a prisoner of war in England, un derstood the observation, replied, 6 0 Je ne sups pas cc game je suit, Car sij'etais ce clue jc suit, Jr ne scram ' , us cc que je tans." —We need not remind our readers that the verbs etre and suivre are precisely the same in the that person singular of the present tense of ate indicative mood. _ _ An official return to an order of the House of Commons, states the amount of the balance in the hands of the Treuaurer of the county of Middlesex, on the 13th April, tlle2, at 16,►9741. 163. Gd. 189 On Wednesday feat, pursuant to mnice, a ballot took place at Lloyd's on a motion for a subscription of SOOl. for the distressed Irish, when there appeared fisr the grant 246, against it 269; thus negativing the motion by a majority of 23 . The ground, of op position arose from such a grant not coming within the usual application of the funds. Among the presentations at the levee on Wel nesday last we perceive the name of " Mr. Denman, on'his being elected Common-Sergeant of the City of London." Knowing the perfect absence of con temptible, petty, pitiful feeling on the part of our • Monarch, we doubt not, un ler all the circumstances, that his reception was most gracious. The Austrian Observer of the 33 inst. contains a paragraph, confirmatory of the pacific termination of the negotiations in the East. On the 6th of May, this paper observes, it was announced in the Divan, at which the Chiefs of the Janissaries were present. that the evacuation of the principalities was decided on, and that liencetbrth the places of the Hospodars would be filled with natives. This determination, it is added, was heard with unanimous satisfaction. Five of the soldiers belonging to the cavalry depot, at Maidstone, have, with a generosity which does them credit, voluntarily subscribed the sum of, 601. towards the fund now raisins for the distressed Irish—bein4 their share of a seizure of contraband spirits, made by them, a short time since at Coxheath. A new dial has been affixed to the clads on the west entrance of St. Paul's. It may be amusing to many persons to know, that the minute - strokes are eight inches in length—the hour figures two feet two inches ; the minute hand, eight feet two inches in length ; the hour hand five feet four inches ; the weight of the minute hand, 751 h. the hour hand 441 b. The •London, Capt. Rogers, of SOO tons burden, arrived in the river on Thursday, and is now un loading her cargo of ice, at Cox Quay, London . Bridge. The whole of the freight is consigned to Mr. Rhodes, of Islington, and conveyed from the wharf to his ice hotssz on the Edgware-road. 'port the average it is sold at 301. per tun. On Thursday evening 40 tons were conveyed to Carlton Palace.— , The above vessel began to load on the Ist of May, completed her lading on the 14th, and arrived in the river June 13. Two snore ships of the same size were left employed in procuring the same article, and may be daily expected to arrive in England. On Monday last the venerable Earl of St. Vincent came to town, and took his seat for the first time this Parliament, for the purpose of giving his proxy in support of the Catholic Bill. When it is consi dered that his Lordship, now in his Ssth year, and feeble in bodily strength, underu,sok the journey for the sole puriwe of giving in aid his last efforts for the Catholic cause, it strongly marks the interest ha takes upon it. Nay, so much does he feel, that be fore he left his house, he declared that he would go, although, like his old friend Grattan,• he should pe rish in the attempt. Ireland at this moment presents a frightful pic- tore of pestilenee and famine. The accounts re eeived on Wednesday from that unfortuate country are still more heart-rending and more appalling than • any that previously reached us. Instead of a robust and sturdy peasantry, none are now to be seen in the exhausted districts but pallid, weak, and slowly moving specters—mothers weeping over their starves ing children, and thousands lying on the bed of death and sickness. The Dablin Evening Pad gives a feeling and melancholy account of the yen sal dis tress, which, it is feared has not yet reaclaA its height. The west and south of Ireland, it says, present a tkuse population in a state of famine, and on the brink of pestilence ;—a million of men, wo men, and children, are starving—are actual:y dying of hung2r—and this in one of the qnest seasons ever remembered. In the western part of Galway, • the mortality is so great, that every person who could quit were flying in all directions, as from a plague. Sligo is similarly circumstanced, where. the fever has already made frightful ravages, and in the county of Cork a typhus fever of a malignant kind has made its appearance. INFORMATION TO MARINERS --In consequenc.: of a representation made to the committee for ma naging the affair of Lloyd's, that the crew of a vessel which was wrecked last winter near Deadly Heal, might have titan saved had there been any place of refuge on the cliffs, they entered into a correspon &ace with their agent at Newhaven on the subjeal, and having ascertained that caverns might be cut at a moderate expence, they submitted the subject to the subscribers, and it having net with their appro bation, six caverns, with entrances three feet wilt, and flights of steps e 0 feet in height, terminating in an apartment eight feet square, hive beea cut in the clit6 • between Cuckmore and Beaelr ' i Head, awl a place called Derby's Cave repaired, by which means mariners and passengers trLa may be unfortunately wrecked on that part of the coast of Sussex witl now find a safe p l ace of refuge from the dangers of the seas.