The National Register. — London, England, 1818-03-15 00:00:00

rittc C 1) No. rA7.—Vor.. IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS. Moms %11', March 9, 1818. in the *peal'case, " Weddell r. Weddell," jutignieuf was affirnwil in favour of the Respondent. l'ersuas- Tim Earl of litnowicKhroneht np an 'account of the Number of Churches throughout the Kingtnu.—Laid ou the • WEVNEW tY. v , . • The E a rl of I, tel . DElln,s LK said, he had a Petition to p ese .Idl certain inhabitants of London add Westminster. cam plaining of the present mode of Lieetising /1 , , considered the subject to be one that deserved to engage the attention of their Lordships. Ile, tnerefore, intended to move, if nut before, certaiiily, immediately after the recess, that the Petition he referred to a Cuintnit:ee. It was, how. ever, discovered, that there wad an into' niality in the Petition rail the signatures being on a separate sheet,) and it was Stet efore withdraw if. Lord ?tit:KLAN') moved, a humble address be presented to the Yrirsee Regenr,praying that his Royal Highness would by pleased to order the Surveyor-general of the Board id Works to make inquiries, in order to ascertain haw far it may be practicable to supersede the use of clinching-boys in sweeping ehiuroies.—Agreed tu.—Adjourned. Twat stoat'. The Mutiny Bill, the Mutiny Act Mistake Bill, the Mad. der Ditties Rill, the Wert India indemnity Bill. and the Kil olainhain Hospital Bill, passed through k:onintittee6, and were reported, Oa the Motion Earl of LauDF.RP %LE accounts were order_ ed of the weekly sinus laid out in the purchase of stuck bti the Cows. for Reduction of National Debt. TRICE OF PORTER. The Eat( of L‘curnoti.e. presented the Anti-Monopoly e.ouphining of the !Egli price of Porter, awl rusted his intention of moving r the recess, that it be re [erred to a Coaintitter.—adjourned. Ertio.w. OFFICES IN REVERSION. Fart tlncrevrtron. in a very low tone of voice, referred to tile sulliect of plaecti in reveNion, to which he had called their J.ord.,Liys attention on o former occoaion. Tae Earl of I drEItPOOL said, with revert to Ireland he could not at that inoilient precisely aay to what extent the regulations had been carried. THE AB WV. The order of the day for the third reading of the Mutiny Bill beiipz moved. Earl Gnu:is - I:NOR rose, in punuance of the notice he had given, to move for an alteration in the preamble of the Hill. After what hail passed on a former evening on the subject of the army, their I.ordships would not surpriscd that he should enter his solemn pretest against the maintaining such a force as it was proposed to keep up in a time of general peace, and at a period when the ti• nanees of the country were in . a most deranged gate. A standing army ought never to he maintamed in this country, unless its liber t:et were threatened from abroad, and. its existence at stake. From the view he had taken of the state of our force, he thought that a deduction of 11,000 might be made. Ile should therefore move that. instead of the words 113,000 men, in the Bill, 100,000 be substituted. Earl B.trlttrasr spoke at some length against the Motion. The amendment was thei, put, and itegatiteil without it division ; liter which the 11111 was passed. Tile Mutiny Mistake Hill. the Kilmainhain Gaol Bill. and souse other Bills were read a third time, and passed.—Adjourneil. HOUSE OF COMMONS. HONDA V, NIA kill 9,1818. The Thames and 3lednay Mr. Bossy ei.t. presented a Petition from the 'Magistrates of Ayr, agaicst the Scotch Luitatic Assylum Bill. Laid on the table. Mr. Vii complained of the Duties imposed upon our West Colonies; and hoped el nment would take soiue steps to provide fur the Colonies in years of scarcity, as they did lint rai<e fond themselves for one-tenth of their po pniatium—The Hill was then passed. ______ I I)ENIN ITV BILL. The .%7TOONI:V.GENERAL moved the Order of the Day for the first reading of this Bill. Ile contended, that though there niigl.t be some difference iu the circumstances which gave rise to this measure, and those of former Indemnity Mils. yet the circumstances of the present Bill fell com pletely within the principle of all former measures of this °Aare. It was incorrect to say that no bulk 'unity Bills haul b-eo passed after the Suspension of the 1 fabeas Corpus Act Gttlemnify Bills had almost always been passed after the I,llpension of the Habeas Corpus, and c%en when that Act hail not been suspended. Even at the Revolution, uuntedi ately after passing the Hill of Rights, circumstances required tlmme establishers of our liberty should puss three several lets fur suspending the hOd Indemnity Bills followed each of them. Such also was the ease in 1711, and t' , it Act of Indemnity was. like the present, intended for tl, protection of those who had acted tor the prcserva taint Or Illy public peace. lit 174.1 the Habeas Corpus was Stl9lcOdril; bat it was not till 1716 that an Indemnity Hill had passed. I t wits. however, deemed insufficient, iss the 'Magistrate- Mond it it crssary to apprehend persons in order to pr,•.t e T h e I , .llVie peace a rem after the expiration of the 11.0)c.t• Ca.rptis Ad. Fr th.tt ptiiod till 179:3 the Milked , . C•irilias set *Ls not ; [tot after the riot. io 1:80 Art bad viii . Oily W0411411 ,4 e11 to protect Nho had been obli2ed ;at do some acts not r;etly couion table In late, in order 11141 the:, Might pieservc the public to am.. 1111792, io ISO& Use was Ilse case. These iihtanees w ~uld skew that it /Ufa nal' AraiOW+ Our Iting, 00119taUttOlt itaivs. SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 1818. was the practice of our ancestors to indemnify both those who acted in preservation of the peace, as well as those who load given information. Parliament therefore having thought tit to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act twice in the Insil4 months, and as he thought the House must he satisfied, from the then state of the country, of the necessity of that suspen sion, lie load too, doubt the House would see also the necessity of granting an indemnity. to the Magistrates, and even to pre vent the publicity of the mimes of those who oaac information to Government, whose 11:1111CS had been pi omised to be kept secret from those against whose prActices they had given in formation. Men might Itlioik that sour trfrren ‘‘ neeevlosey, without ,desigothig against the Stare; but einartili any nue of 1110114114 of tti6ttr who held the Ainflgnate that i*y hair Sc. carry their l'etition In one hand, anti their sword tile oilier. In his mind Animal Parliaments and Universal Suffrage meant nothing hoot rev olott Lou and anarchy. The object of the 801 l Wm to indemnify Magistrates and others, who had apprehenJew persons,and seined papeas and arms, as also to protect those who had oli , persed tuntooltsoos and dis orderly meetings; to protect them from actions at law; and from giving up the sources of their information. Ile' hoped the noun would suffer the 801 l to be read a first time. Mr. LAMB'COS assithi not even to the first reading until the conduct. of Ministers, doting the period the Habeas Corpus was sitssensled, had been ins 'litigated. Ito therefore felt it his defy to move as an Amendment, that this Bill should be read a first time that day ASK mouths. Sir. :11. Rintry supported the alotion of his lion. Vriend. Mr. STANIIIOIsS could slot Stlispoo tie Motion, ' Mr. SMICTII (of Cambridge) in a long speech was against the Bill. He thought the house ought to pause bee they erected a pi ecedent of the nature of this Bill, whirl, would go to lessen the reverence which the people had for the laws. Mr. It Ann observed, that if it was necessary to oppose the Bill, which he was convinced of, that necessity had been en• creased by the singular arguments of the Honourable and Learned i(ientlemaii, with his precedents ; which had nut any application to ti:t• late trunsactions—it was, indeed a danger ous Hill. Ile content! oil, that the Bill had in it the principles of injustici---it ssoliki exclude the people of England from obtaining, their rights, amid therefore be maintained, that the Bill oug!it to be rejected. Mr. M trer - A.l - r could toot ii.nd any grounds for accusing Ministers of having abased the power entrusted to them, and bhonld therefore sate for the Motion. Mr. FRUCH A NTLE thiltlaht it was due to those who executed this trust, to pass a Lill of Indemnity ; and therefore' he should never regret haviLg voted for it. Lord Mir; Ear, though he voted fur the Suspension set, still considered he could tind reasons for opposing a Bill of In_ demnity,independent of those which induced his vote on that OCCAiiOII. He asked how was the House called upon to de cide upon the conduct of Ministers ? Why they desired Par liament to judge of their conduct by evidence furnished by themselves. They went into the Grand Jury Box and found the It'll of indicuawn', and then vent their own Jury who pronounced a verdict of Acquittal. The Noble Lord com mented in warm terms ou the employment of spies—that horrid and polluted source of information--whielt every Wan ought to be ashamed of. Ile instanced the story told by Ler• vantus. of a man who procured a friend uf• his to tempt the wife of the former ; the consequence was that the tempter triumphed in the opportunity afforded, and exceeded Isis commission. But who, after such a procce•diug on the part of the husband, could pity him. It was a bad proceeding, and what pity would be slsewn to Mini►ters if they went about tempting to the ronimission of sin. The House then divided --Ayes, 190—Noes, rilMajority, 120. This Majority was received with cheers.—Adjourned. PIIICE 90. of the Poor Laws. The Hon. Member gave notice Out h► ivould on 'Thursday move for leu%e to bring in a Bill on the Sinneer. On the Motion of Mr. CALCKASZ, a Committee was ap• pointed on theSaltDuties. . . . . The Indemnity Bill was read a second time, after a division. —for it, Iit); against it 2.1.--. Adjourned. WtousEsnAr. I ti l le au l t o i l tie p t r u ic re e r o s f a l t ab L: u ic r. ester, stating Mr. BenteeToN presented a Petition from the Hosiers and' the delay of trade and PARLIAMENT4RV trl7,Voirat. Sir F. Burt ntrr presented Pentiony for Petliemeutary Ire "form from Mneelestbid, from Pre t s on, and from Sr tv ea..l le. mem-Tyne. Ile also presented a Petition from James Si tiers, complainine of having been pet into 11titditig gaol and ironed, under the Suspension Act. INpEANITY BILL. The ATToRNEY Girtiert.s I. moved that the House should go into a Committee on the Indemnity Bill. Sir S. ItostiLse said, he hail not objected to this Bill yes. terday,on account of the then state ef the Honse ; but lie now considered himself at full liberty to debate the princi ple, and oppose the Bill. The trite nature of thiaßUl was, to. putt out of tile protection of t lie law all persona, who, since the. 27th of Jan. Ixl7, have stifle red by at bitrary and illegal acts.• Let Gentlemen recollect that this country way one of law and. justice, and our Monarchs, by their oaths,. were bonnd to support them both ; and that our great chaster says, that justice shall be denied to no our. If no one had been gaily confined, then was this 11i11 completely unnecessary ; but they Fere called on to stop the course of law and justice, without knowing the causes of oppression that might have occurred tinder the suspension of the Habeas Corpus. The Bill might be divided Wm three parts--the protection of Mi nisters and Magistrates front the acts they had committed— and to prevent the persons who have given information ta tiovernment from being know it. Gentlemen laboured nutlet a great mistake when they ,supposed that Ministers should have an Indemnity for their acts miller the Suspension Bill. Now that was tint at all necessary, because the Siivemion Act was itself their ludestmity, fur it authorised them to do cer tain acts. But this Ituatmnity was wattled for acts not done tinder the authority of the Suspension Act. Did ally one, he would ask, ever bees. of Ministers requiring an In demnity to be granted for putting on an embargo on all the vessels in the country ? No more was an bidet 111 l ity Ball ne cesaery fur colitiuing mei without britteiug them to trial ; for the Sutpension Act was their indemnity' in ever' Court of justice in the kingdom. Neither was thieuiswiteleuuty reqnir ed for those men who had 'given their intormation to Go. vernment, it' they liatl given that information ue oath aliel their names had been regularly inserted on the warrants of commitment, The House was easily convinced, if it took the words of 3ittlistets, that they had not abused the emsaueli eary power vested iu thou. Ile did o u t soy they had abus ed it, but the House could nut say they half not until engin: y was granted. Miuisters, it seemed, considered that they ought, out of delicacy, to take no port in their owu defetwe in tin bile debate; but their conduct was diderent in secret Committee, where they reoilated the whole of the proceed. ings, produced what evidence, and drew tip such reports as they pleased. The appointmeet of a Committee sty ballot was always carried like every thing else in the way !bat Ali. iiistei s aisheet These were lists handed round by Ministers of those Gentlemen they wished to be on their Committee. ; 97 of these lists out of 10:t which had been issued, were claret!, by one of the scrutineers, to be in one baud writing ; and lie had no doubt but that to save trouble, in a short time the lists fur ballotting for Secret Committees woitld be print. ed. What was the reason why this Indemnity was to be car tied back to the 24th of Jan. I ell Was it to enrweal an d protect some unknown criminal? lie would ask the House to recollect the petitions on the table, detailieg the cases of individuals chat ged only with libels, whose houses were bro ken (Iwo in the dead ufnight, their papers acized, and theme selves dragged to prison, and kept to hard labour. These facts had been asset led, and not only never yet been dig. proved, but they hail been trussed user in silence. He repro bated the eunduet of Government in writing to the Magis trates, that they might apprehend anti load with irons, and keep to hard labour, men suspected of bullion seditious libels even before they were tried. That leas the case with a poor man of the name of Swinton, and Chester ' who had been dragged from his bed in the dead of night, his wife being far Advanced in pregnancy. The unhappy svonum, in euee.i queitee, died in premature labour, and her child also. 'rhea. rem. li ll ing child was scut to the parish workhouse. a,i this poor niaa was afterwards discharged without any thing being hron2lit agaiiwt him. They miclit savend the laws of the land as long as Iltry pleased, hot they could not suspend the laws of God : they might indemnify MiMeters and Magistnites from human process, but they could out preserve :lain front the torment of a conscience burdened by deeds like these. The great and awful lesson of Ireland ;Smola be present tie their nl i 11l 14, in order to see whit Otis 0 loyal Magistracy had • committed. A Noble Lard had said all those hot rible trams actions had better be bellied in oblivion; it would have been much better that they hail never esisteil. Vet were all these horrid cruelties committed in Ii i•laili under the mild Go vein meat, as it was called, of this country. These should Isere been warnings to them, not to eats list extraordinary powers to Magistrate*, ecru Limn; I t Ill's were most of them men of excellent ch.iiarlt rs. and of 1110011 Ser•loe to the country. It WWI :laid that MtirtOlory wi• necessary for the pe r sona .o, c , had given inforaoiti hod del the Howie believe that sh e state of il.e• rountrs was eutelt th it any such man's safety was eie l asi gered Had they seen any reluctance in ally of the witn , „„, al 10,• 1 by, or elsewhere, to give the it evidence, Or had ,t r ot ari.iled to the Court for its proteethin There seemed to he a new system introduced into this et ' try., that persons should he sent Among a •iit , • ing poptilase i • • to excite them to insurrection, and then the Spies and Itifotnl• ssn (1. Several Petitions were presented by Mr. Curwen and others, praying au Amendment in the 'lythe Laws. Mr. IlitoixHAst gave notice that 011 Tuesday next he would move for an account of the method of collecting the Assessed 'f axes. POICITK Mr. Loci, SRI' presented a Petition signed by upwards of 5,000 persons, magistrates, tradesmen, and others, of the people of London, complaining of the high price of Beer ; and also its b►d quality. The Beer now sold, the Petitioners said, was not brewed from malt and hops. as formerly, but of deleterious drugs, tending rather to poison and destroy, than to cheer and invigorate the constitution. This evil they said, arose from the monopoly which exi.tt d in the Breweries, and which enabled eleveu individuals in the metropolis to raise or fall the price of the coinmodity as they thought fit; and this monopoly had its ori.in :out support in the power possessed under the 'accusing let by the Magistrates, and the property of the Brewers in puhlic•huuscs 4, to remedy which the Peti tioners pout Out that the trade should In. thrown °peel, and that any person have the power of engaging in the trade aithout uliccose from Magistrates. That increased duty should he imposed on licence•, and that the ;mower of the Magistrates should be coctined to stopping disorderly houses. The Petition was then read. Mr. BARCLAY entered into several explanations. He de clared the statements contained in the Petition fake and Rut led, and expressing his hope that the House would empiii c into I he allegations it contained. Mr. Carstr:tic said, the subject was one which vatted for consideration. There never was a Petition presented to the H.obse containing more false 44egatil.1115 111511 this Petit Mie.— He trusted, kir the "a -hill's.' of the enitlic, and w fACI for the pirservaliun pUblic pe4ce, that this Petitinn lir retried to a Cuminittee, that the subject :night be iiivess Spited. Tug debate wa• then aikieurned fill tomorrow. TIIP. POOR LAWS. Mr. S. fit►Ll pre.enietl R Report from the (nmmittee ►rpniuted to consider the Petitions presentel oz the sohket