The National Register. — London, England, 1818-02-15 00:00:00

rms. 15 into a long and circumstmitial narrative of all the proveed inga' in the course of which he was repeatedly cheered by both sides of the Reused lie strongly censured the con duct of the Lord Advocate, and supported in warm terms the charges made by the mover of the question. Sir A. COLQUIWU pa had never been present upon any orca• aims where charges more unfounded were brought forward. Gentlemen needed not to be afraid, they should hear bins while he distinctly asserted, that there was not a shadow of foundation for the charges this night produced ; he denied that they were charges—they scarcely deserved so grave an appellation, since they rested upon bare assertion or distort. ed proof. The Hon. Member who spoke last, had even gone beyond the Noble Lord with whom the motiou originated, and had brought forward written opinions, upon which he intend ed to overthrow the established law of Scotland. Hr had termed the Noble and Learned Lord (the Lot d Advocate), and his coadjutors, unfortunate Gentlemen, and had affected to lament an unlucky dereliction of their duty; but as to one of them at least, the Hon. Member would himself admit that his knowledge was equal to Isis talents, and his honour and integrity to both. Having stated many particulars which went to overthrow all the assertions made by the Noble Lord, and Mr. Grant, he observed, it was not a little singular, that the counsel for the prisoner, among whom was the Hon. Geode in:au (Mr. Grant), at the time, expressed their full approbation of the conduct of the Lord Advocate; though now he (Mr. Gran!) stepped fot ward, and could not find terms sufficiently forcible to express his disapprobation. His warmest applause, however, had been given at the time, when the ink was hardly dry, which by his present statement, recorded the in. (Amy of the Noble and Learned Lord and his coadjutors. Mr. C. WYNN staid, that the material question lay in a very narrow compass, :sod it was wholly unnecessary to dive into the intricacies of the 'Scotch law. No doubt, implicit credit oughtuut to be given to the depositionof Campbell the witness, but it was not an uutrequeut occurrence, that a witness at the trial gave testimony in favour of a prisoner, when there was previously: every reason to think that his evidence would in duce a conviction ; a case of this description occurred in 1693, Vhen trials took place fur high treaton in Lancashire :sod shirv; ; the principal witness there, of the name of Luck, when put into the box, directly contradicted all his former asset tions. Parliament had afterwards investigated the ease, as was flow desired ; fur on the second day oh' the session they bent fur the witemates to London, and finally it was resolved that the Crown had good ground for instituting the prosecu tion. lie trusted, that from what had appeared in the course of this discussion, the Huns, would be unanimous in the opi nion that there existed a sullivient ground for enquiry. Lord easci.eitibusit observed, that notwithstanding all that had been said, and the imlnstry display ed to hi itig the con duct of the Learned Lord and his colleagues jute discredit, there did not appear to him that there were ally sufficient grounds of enquiry made out. Sir S. Rositid.v thought the able and eloquent speech of Mr. Grant 'mans wei able, and fully agreed in the view w Wei' the Noble mover had taken (Attie subject. Mr. J. P. GRANT denied that the cont,sel Inv the isoners had ever paid the Lord Ad vomits. any compliment, or that he (Mr. J. P. Grant) had ever concurred in any such. lie had the authority of Mr. Jetferies to state, that the b-w words said by him had been much misrepresented, he hed only paid a 'brief' compliment to the relict. Mr. V. FrILOI.MALO thought the Lord Advocate not only authorized OM Untand to du what he had done for the further. alter of public justice. lie (31r. V. Fitzgetaid) perfectly agreed with the Learned Lord in his construction of the wards '3lOl. pl - oven,"and thought they Merrily proved that the unless fut oat his had been administered. The ArTuit%Y ONNEIZaL after reading the ease through with great attention, could nut see it iu the light that the Learnea Gentlemen (Sir N.10'8:illy ) nail dune ; out he thought he cleat!) . SOW in the acct n,t or that C.impuell, the artful story an t uunmgai.d dcsigainigniau, w ha knew how to disqua lify himself o here' he dot nut choose to give evidence. ills Leas iiea Friend (gir S. hominy) runs 41111 W him to V the ruotisn before the house, not as a wistont for inquiry, but ter ensure. Vining to have the record put on the table would be swim:- there *sax matter of impeachment against the Lor•• • tr. tllra, hear, from both sides of the house.) . would scent to defend a case such as tile Noble Lor• eia.nision) viewed this cr,e, yet viewing the case as C. • , very differe n tly from the Nook Lord, he did de- Zeno A; Ma . L• . HAMII TON replied. T.. a • -e their di% ided upon the motion of Lord Arelii• bald awn, and toe numuers were— A : i —Noes, 136 —Majority against the motion, 63. U motion t,t Jlr. hoes, leas e was given to bring in a bill f suppi essiou of gaining housed, and regulation of bons, . the purpose lit !“.1" orders 011ie day were then disposed of, and the Ilonie adjun used a hail past 1.2 W . soh viols'. Mr. MEtttsu brought its a Bill to enlarge the powers of the .lc 101 inakisni nra u neratiun to Coroners, and also fur powers to re 1111 l ve (haul from othee.—lCead a first time. G .4 (NO. . _ • ,v words from Mr. K. FLNLAY in support of the Oil the Motion for the sci.ciiisl reading of a Bill for the sup press:on of G, giu ea.'s:seined houses, and to prevent the ails:owing money for su••11 purposes, a cunt ertation ensued iti ' which Ttu• SAmwtHAIHE Mr. LYTTLETON said, he could not have supposed (oat any body wsaild hav e further a princi ple recognizing au immoral and sciaid ~otii, tratho. After a few words from Mr. Bennet, Sir M. Ridley moved It should be priuted,which vas ordered ; also that it should be read a secoud that to-morrow se'imight. SUPPLY. laa,t CASTLEREAGH 1110‘rd, that the papery respecting the treat!. Spans iit• rt feared to the Cosminttee.—agreed to. Ou iise Utotimi iui the Sprakei's leaving the chair, Mr. sl A.111)NWI us alluded to the circumstances attending the callis,.. .of tn. Bash tokens. He thought that Government :nigh. Ist some lacilities fur the purpose. Could they not .vets to thliereut places, which would redound the s edit, and give satisfaction to the country i• A Brea, u ut the tut,eus was in the isussussion of labour ers a sses, who &Mein feel much ust7otivisincnee and loss so send thrill to Loudon. 'l7. • .s. cult in the EXCIIEQULIt . 84i , 1 that he t1:11 slat api..( 11 , L4.111\titteiiec tioolll ()Wit to the Bank, •,:i • •• ,111. given them, for collecting, receiving, sin ; s. • s ..:s st,e. Bank tokens. .•, • wrist RH° a Cimunitte of Supply. st•AMSH 1:11L.1 . 1%. : • as 'I. , • cacti moved, the a sum not exceeding • • Wed to his Majesty. for the purpose of giving THE NATIONAL EEGISTER. etiect i cthe treaty with the Spanish Government for the abo. !Ilion of the Slave Trade, which, after some observations ft um Mr. Lyttletun, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Wilberforce, &c., was arced to. SECRET COMMITTEE. Mr. FAZAX Eimer' rose to move an instruction to the Secret , I Committee, to engire and report what steps bad been taken in respect of the persons employed as spies. The Hon. Gentle- • man professed himiell to be perfectly independent of party, and to be actuated by a desire alone to find out the promoters of thecoufederated assemblies, without implicating any one, I either Oliver, or any body else. The Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended, numbers of persons were imprisoned. and treated most harshly ; the gads crowded ; and he would ask, was it right that nothing tending to prosecute those wino had exceeded their commissions should he shewn by Ministcis ? It had heenseen that most of the imprisoned men were dis charged rapidly without trial. Not, however, wishing to say any thing against the employment of. spies, he should abstain from so doing, but would content himself a ith sating bunt great caution ought to be used in respect to the employment of spies. He moved accordiiigly.. Mr. BATHURST complimented the Hon. Gentleman on the manner in which he had stated his lotion; •to which he ob jected, on the ground, that the Committee had not decided that any crime had been committed by them spies as they Were called, and that the motion went to assume. The Right Hon. Gentleman read the Report alluded to ; and assured the Hon. Gentleman that no such steps had been taken. It was clear that it would be impossible to detect designs of the descrip• tion to which the motion referred without persons being em ployed to detect the conspirators, which persons must pre tend to have views similar with those of the conspirators, lie defended the conduct of Oliver, who bad pi oceeded in his career with a view to discover the ultimate object:of the con • spirators, nd bad given them information to induce the con spirators 16 consider him as a friend. Government knew of no misconduct in that person. His instructions were to com municate the results of his information to the :Magistrates from time to time. His saying to the conspirators that there were seventy thousand persons united in Londoh in support of their came, was to hill suspicion ; because they would not have eu tertnined him if they had thought his object was to give notice of their conduct to the Government. Those who were objects of the prosecution had turned round and charged ()fi ver with having in>tigated them to commit treason ; when in fact, he found them acting, with hostility to the Government, and he considered it his duty to expose that hostility in order to prevent the greatest of evils which could happen to the country. If it was true that a conspiracy existed, it was de tected by those employed by Government. With respect to this man Oliver) having given inforinntiiiii to Government, that was cer tainly no crime. or was his having mingled with the disaffected, and thus obtained knowledge of their inten tions, to he imputed to him as a crime. One thing lie would assure the Hon. Gentleman, and that was, that not a single individual had ever been apprehended on the information of Oliver. With respect to the trials at Derby, one (tithe per sons who suffered there was represented as has lug Said, that he was brought to the sittintioa in %Mali he wis by the Go vernment and Oliver- Now tb it representation, tilt was, as roported, could not be correct, as Brandreth never saw Oliver nor did Oliver give Government any iuturatatioti whatever on the subject out of which the trials at Derby arn,e. lint I Right lion. Gentleman coneln.led by opposing the motivu, fur which, he considered. Ito Imindation had been laid. Lord AIILTON could not divest hilueelt of the opinion that it was the agents ol*Gost` It Omni, and pri.:eipally this min, Oliver, that kept the conspiracy together, and raised the em bers of disaffertion into a flame. The Magistrates of the coun ty were ut the same opinion, for they were most anxious to get bold, if possible, of the London Delegates. The Right Gentleman had said that no person was apprehended on the information of Oliver—perhaps not upon his legal infor mation ; but if his informatiuu led to the examination (dotter persons, and on their inforinatian persons were afterwards apprehended, they were iu fact appreheutleil un infirm:vitals originally derived front Oliver. Air. II volt. ttsT here said across the House, Oliver was not in Derbyshire. Lord MiLies--Oliver net in Derbyshire? Mr. BATHURST—Not iu those parts which rose. Lord MILTON would leave the !louse to judge of the Right Hon. Gentleman's assertion. He must declare his opinion, that the Constitution of the country had been suspended un necessarily. Ile vi ould not assert that Ministers bad nut been misled by the imformation they had received. With respect to the present Motion, lie could nut refrain, as a Member of the Committee, from thanking his Hone:II-able Diem! for brMaing forward this Motion, by acceding 10 Whiell, the House would enable the Committee thermally to discharge that duty to the Public,w Inch the House bad imposed oil them. Mr. C. GALANT said, that in order to induce the House to adopt this Motion, and thereby to part (sum the usual and established cent se, Gentlemen must make out a prinnalacie case of more than ordinary delinquency on the part of Clove' ti • meth, It was semewliat extraordinary, that w ith all the en beenquit y vvitich hid institnied, no pi nua.tirric rave of that (testi lotion had been made out. With respect to Oliver, it was something extraordinary that all the cireinastatices ut the meetings of the loth and 13111 of March were arranged before Oliver made his appearance. And, a- far as regarded the trials at Derby, if the deciatation of the influence which divers acts bad had in producing the rams out of which these trials arose was true, how was it tha ithe able counsel retained for the prsoonets did not call him Such a measnre was the I only one which could have given a chance of safety to the prisoners. Mr. BENNETT SIIOIIIII support the Niotion as considering it a it at by .shish the sincel sty of Government %%mild he proved. If this Alutien n.ts ie;ns, d , the refusal would prove, that the appointment of the Cointnittee was what it hail ueeu described to be—a (bile bran the pcoide. With respect to the tan. ploy mem to spies by Government, he wmild not take on him himself to decide how far it was to be defended or not ; but this he knew, the the narrative which had been detailed in the !tense by an Honourable Friend of his, respecting the employment of those spies at Manchester, had created an rxuaordinary sensation up the conntry. The Honourable Meunier then proceeded to detail the origin of Oliver's ex pedition into the comiti v, which the Honourable Emonet said CUIIIIIIOIICCII Cl) the ittli of April; that he went tu Bir mingham, Leeds, :Manchester, where he represented himself t o var i o us individuals as a person eogagtal in 1 lit cause of Reform. The lion. Member then proceeded to tram. Oliver to Nottingham, and said he world also prove to Ilie House that Oliver had then at Derby. He would also sliew• the Right Hon. Gentlemen that bete be saw Brandi - oi. lie had-ail affidavit made by a prison to that etieets Mr. BADIVRST.—" amt', name !" Mr. BEN NETT had told the Right Hon. Gentleman he would not mum:. He was, however, ready to produce the persons 24 evidence at any time. •• • Mr. WILBERFORCF: thought the House should reject this Motion, became it was formed on a tithe assumption, timely , that theConimittee had declared atiopinion,that theinsurrt chins had been occasioned by the arts awl insinuations of Oliver. Now he. as a Member of the former Committee, begged dis- tinctly to contradict this; all. he Committee intended to illy was, that they were pessuadcd Oliver might know something about it. The Socicuroll GENERAL was ready to contend, that there was nothing in that passage of the Report alluded to, which attached such criminality to those persons as could be made the subject orcaitninal prosecution. The passage iu question did not impute that the spies were the original cause of the insurrection, but on the contrary, decidedly stated that the simultaneous rising had been agreed on long before those per -110114 %ere employed. With respect to the evidence to which the Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Bennet) had alluded, but the names of whom he hail so carefully concealed, he doubted it came from the most polluted source. The Honourable Gentleman had fortunately dropped two or three names in the commencement of his speech, which enabled the House to form an opinion of the character of the evidence. He had named Pendrill, now in America ; Stevens, now iu America ; an! Mitchell, who hail been imprisoned on a charge of high treason. (Loud cheering.) Gentlemen cheered ; and he knew well, that, out of doors, a wan baying been charged with MO treason added, with some, to his credit. But he would ask whether within the House, he was not at liberty to call this A polluted source. With respect to the non-production of Oli ver as a witnesQ, Government had been accused of producing Castles as a witness to prove facts which he had promoted, and to earn blood money. What would has e been said if Oliver had been produced? NVould not the accusations have been the same? The Honourable Gentleman, ill describing the crime of the persons executed at Derby, had said—these persona had been guilty of an illegal act. Was that the sub lime language in which die Honourable Gentleman vonld des cribe the crimes of persons guilty of high treason and murder. The Learned Gentleman then proceeded at considerable length to comment on the observations of Mr. Bennet, awl to deltoid the conduct of Government in the course adopted by them in conducting the prosecutions at Derby and in London. He was loudly cheered throughout his speech. Sir S. Restiesv supported the motion, and declared that in his opinion, never 114,1 be heard a person inure unfairly treated, in a Parliamentary point of view, than his Honour. able Friend had been, in the observations made hytli Solici: for General on the evidence his lienourable Friend had alluded tt. Mitchell bad been mentioned by the solicitor General, that Mitchell was one of the persons who Was COM milted by ;Ministers on a charge of treasonable purposes, and berefitre the whole evidenc►, said the Solicitor General, came flout a polluted source Aecording to this statement of the Solicitor General's, it was only necessary that Gas et ;itent sitoold commit an individual under a charge of high treason, keep hint in prison some time and then discharge him with out trial, to render him mierot thy of credit ever atter. Mr. CANNINt; cuude nned the manlier in which this goes. tion was brought forward. Its only ohjeet he con,:eised was, that Hououraute Gentlemen might be able to tell their con. atitutents that they had done all they could to produce en ,and it was nut their fault it' that enquiry was not go anted. What would the Hume say when they heard that Gus eminent 11411 I eceived a report that the insurtection that had taken place was not the consequence of watt of employmmt, poverty, pr scarcity, or dearness but was a consequence of, or pealieps, connected is tilt, the Meetings lu Spafields ; and that notlitn4 less than a eimipttme overthrow of our constitutional institutiuns was in the contemplation of the agitatuts ? It' such a report had come front a simple Jus tice of Peace, and Government had not attended to it, what would the House have said But what would the House say, when he told them, that this Repot came from a Justice of the react'; aye, limn a Master of Justices, as Lil:go calls such a man—arum the Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire ! Upon the whole, he thought the House ectild not hesitate in disposing of the motion of the Honourable Ge❑t. us there was no ground for it. Mr. TIERNE S was prepared to defend the motion as a most correct one, and wai tented by strict Pa rliatnen ary usage.— If an agent could not be punished, who acted unjustly be tween the parties, the law of this country was most grossly iniAiderstood. But Government knew they Inuit nut touch , a hair of Oliver's bead; and the object of this Motion was to see how the Committee would deal with it. Lord CASTLEREAGH could not avoid ails et ling to the ntfi. davits introduced to the Honourable Oeutiemiiii, ,Mr. Beg_ net), which were fuun•ted on the grossest fieleeliouds and t a;- enlisted to deceive the House. Mr. Fat AKERLY replied, in the course of which he obsersi.d, that the times were most momentous, and he could nut avoid saying, that the country, it the pot sent system was to be pas. sued, was on the eve or a great change in its political con stitution. The House then divided—Ayes SS—Noes 111—Alajority against the Motion 56. 'rho I louse adjourned at half pest two o'clock. R,11411. Lord Mturox presented a Vetitien from Sheffield respe c t_ the tuaniti.natire of cast iron, &C. r lilill %%AS la cal ed to 4 LEATHER TRADE. Lord AI.TnORPK moved I . (I I' various accounts respecting the leather trade.— Ord veil. S1:1 ) 1 ) 1.1 COM ITTE. On the order ottlie day on the Giant to Spain 0(.009301. Nlr. CUCAVEN !Mid, he thought this was .1 pliglClr opporlibility t!t otter sows further ouservations as In the Data tokens. had heard it said, that the tokens might be sent up to town from the connity, ;Ind I per cent. might oe had upon thrill. It was s.tid. that they were wanted to pay gold. got it was to be considered whether the gold was inte n d e d to go out of the kingdom, and win ;her that was to be t h e reason for continuing the restriction. Great incouvernenr e would arise td'iliaily of the lower order woo could h ot k eep the tokens. There were in:rsosts passing about the country who would give t rer cent for them. 'The 1(a elution oft c C ttttt mittee for tilt Giant was.agreed to. The CHAYeet.Loe of the LietitmuLdt moved the other orders of the day. (For theremairder of Ike Parlismentarti, see C:c Se.rth Paget A f e w day' since 411 aged man ‘11:1A seen sitting, nearly the %% !wit ul the d.iV, on the sit ps of .1 door to \S St base's, and in tke.evening a yonng man Who attempted to move him, perceiving he vsas in an expirin . g state, fur %Ilion arrival it W. ti 111111:d his last. i I , ,