The Statesman. — London, England, 1823-02-20 00:00:00

~* - ° T. it were meant by the hon. member to retract what he paid of the gallant Colonel, he should retract the terms which he used to reply to it. The hon. member's speech was occupied In statirg that the irquiry of the Military Comtnisinetners should be followed up ; —but it by no -metes followed that they should be bound hand and foot by that terrible. (hear, hear) But what did these favourite Commissioners recommend? Why, Commis • sinners at /,2061. ti-yeatin place of a Board, anti a Lieut. t;enerul at tee rite of. 1,500/. a year. What then would . he gained by ?Wading*? A continual change of , officers, and that clump for 'the gorse. After all, the • onestion lore Was, if led& lent ground were ;hewn I r the elision of the office of Lieut.-General, and nothing else ; The Hon. Mernher sadly treated the Ordnance Offire; but lie begged to ask him if he were ever at the • Booed; ever raw the business there conducted; if be • were aware of all that had been dove (during the inter gegnem, if he ninst sn tall by his gallant friend, the Sterekeeper•general, who not oply devoted his mornings, but his evenings to the discharge of his duties , forgetful disk own rale and comfort? He (Mr. IV.) did riot - know • if !oldie servants were cided upon to hr !Caves. He was not so Riling as the Hon. Member; and he hop , ol 'he (Mr. itroulol come in without pay, patronage, and • . power,to do thehmsiness of the Ordnance. fur he would • ;. do to Komi by lois misrepresentation. The honourable member hid alike& the honk, if they would endure the • circumstance of thus members of the Ordnance Board being p.id rodreliian the Lords of the Admiralty? There was iometlibiesp• tious, but, at the same time, moat fal lavious in this attempt. Ife,(llfr. W.) would say that the • hon. member was ignorantly honese—he meant nothing • in the least off. nsive by the phrase--what he meant was, that he n as honest when he was properly Informed on his • 'abject. it ilt all his knowledge of every thing and every office, he hilted toask him if he never heard ut' Comm's stoners of the Navy, of the Viet nalline Department, andof a • Paymaster of the Navy, besides th Lords of the Admiralty? Weretlimoa offices to lie romps.el with that of the Ord ! ranee? DA the Nevy Boards, tke Het/Moaner.. manu facture various articles ?—had they f sundries?—an arse nal they contract for supplies? For himself he tboueht the Lay Lords of the Admiralty very inade quately volt. Mr. Pitt said their money pay was no. Oleg; lout that they were paid by the honour of doing a Ferrite to their country. As to t'.e increase of sala ries. the Hon. Member (Mr. Hume) r. (toted to tLe tied of 1796 ; but Though the sal 'ries were increased, they did not eqn .1 in atiourit what in 1796 was obtained in tees. In his own office he had 3001. a-ye or less than hie predecessor hail in 1796 —the goolen period to which the lion. Member was so fond of reterriug. There was beside ten per Cent. now taken off his salary ; and alto. },ether, as he had just stated, be was 390/. myeior below his preJecessor, asth all the increased labor which lie ha•l to undergo. It was not for him to say what he did —(hear, hear l) —At all events I.e wonl.l feel much obliged to the Hon. Member if he wood.: move for an increase , of ois (Mr. W.'s) adore when lie would forgive him too all the trouble he bad caused him (Mr. W ). In 1796 the Irish Ordnance was not attach-oh to the Enlist,; in fact, tie- n hole of the Hon. Member's speech to night, aas vitiating but a recliatiffe of what occurred two ye its zoo, and he (Mr. IV.) wou l d not travel over the Mile gown Haying demonstrated that the Report of the Commissioners was founded on no evidence; and, there for.., that their recommendations should be the less at tended •o—be though', eve if lie let the question here, lie had dare enough to shew that the Office of Lieuten ant-General was of great utility, and ought not to be abo. liaised. But he could not sit 'loon without stating testy seasons ashy it mould be impassiWe to abolish it. The duties wethe Barrack Board were nnw thrown upon the Ordnance ; and was there soothing saved by it? TheComptrollirof bar racks had 1500/. a year, his Deputy 1,000, and the Irish Comptroller above 20001. a year. Here then was 450111. a year at once extinguished ; and yet the Hon. Member had the grace to say, " We'll work yon to the last point apse strength, and now we'll take 16001. a year from you." Would en English House of Commons say that such a Let:welling was just ? Did the Lieut.-Gen. of the Ordnance 410 nothing? if so, it would be fair to dispense with him ; hut it only required to state what the Barreled( bit.' sinew was, to prove how actively he was employed. Not only the Barrack busineen hut, in other ways, the busi ness of the office, was generally enhanced by the late ar rangements of Use Master-lieneral. Stores and provi sions were formerly msraged in the Colonies by a num ber of clerk', who acted as checks; but this was liable togreat abuse, and the source of great defalcations, which for a time baffled every one's attention. Bat the present Master-General, with that prevoyance which eculisrly characterises hint, had prevented these abuses. lie removed all the clerks of the checks, and issued Or ders that all these charged with the distribution of pay or stores should, on pain of dismissal, send home month ly returns, to be checked by the issues at home. All this maw fell upon the Ordnance. With respect to the Bar racks, there were 100 in Great Britain alone, the ac counts of *bit+ were kept under four beads—the corres ponding, the account, the store, aid the building—and not a day passed without some business being done un der each. Was all that nothing ? There were above 100 Barracks also in Ireland, equally pressing on the Ord napce Office here, and peculiarly cooling within the su pervision of the Lieut.-General of the Ordnance. Yet this was the period at which the Hon. Member wished to cripple the offite Then apain um; the Commissariat Drpartinent thrown upon the Ordnance. Contracts ere to lie made, packages for civil and military uses to lie packed up and sent off ; and at present a plan was be fore the Ordnance for building an iron steeple to be sent off for a church at Trinidad. If any Gentleman would go through all this multifarious business for mere honour, lie (Mr. W.) feared he would be soon heartily tired of it. He did not know that he had much more to say. He would not move the previous question, for he considered he had offered sufficient grounds to reject the motion altogether.—(Hear, hear!) — Mr. WILLIAMS (Lincoln) observed, that the charge of be:ng a good tactition, applied more forcibly to the last speaker, than to hi, Hon. Friend (Mr. lime). The lion. Memb er (Mr. W.) made many reprisals, ant ended them by charging his Hon. Friend with a perversion of the opinions of the Military Inquiry, and a misconcep ion of the evidence on which it was founded. He, fur one, slid not are why, if the situation which the Hon. Member tiled was of such excessive labour as lie had described, that Hon. Gentleman might not ease himself from those laborious duties by retirement from the; office. He thought the proposition of his Hon. Friend bail been treated with ondoeerved and ill-thned jecelarity, not at all suPed to the gravity of the subject. .If the objection urged against the Commissioners were well founded, namely, that choir opinion was not to be received with any degree of weight consideration 'from incompe 'envy to discharge those duties as Commissioners of Mi l-tory Inquiry, why had Hot Iliovernmeet propue d the appointment of more competent Coutinissioners: It was Issithhose Gentlemen hail perverted the evideni e of Lord Chatham. Now, that Noble. Lord only stated, generally, that the Lieutenant Getierril of the dr.:lance bad very serious olutio ato perform. Was it fit on this occa.ion to coon the si hole of the Report of these Commissioners, which formed at le.ist a goailly quarto volume? The *hole night would not he sufficient fur 14.11 an un ler tak sag. he Comooissioners had, in fact, said the (Mite of the Lieutenant tieneral should be abieished, with the iew that the Master General shohl,l be confined to the ntire pet foruaance of his duty. If it were to be abolished, it most be through the interference of Government, or else they had not dose their duty. Was this p'ace too created unnecessarily, or for the sake of patronage ? But eutwi hatanding this recommendation of the Commission- . era, and in the very teeth of it. the appointment had taken place which was now the subject of the Hon. Members motion. It was how. however, argued that the place was essential to the public service. Full as 'much had been said of the nerves ty of basing two junior Lay Lords of the Admiralty, and also of the propriety of baring en additional Postina•ter General. In fact, nothing short of a vote of the house would have induced them ever to have admitted that these public otficers were uenecessary. He considered the public ought to feel itself indebted to the honest and laudable efforts of the lion. Member 'in ex posing on this, as on former occasions, that which lie, and not he alone, considered to be a pro if of the lavish and inconsiderate expensiveness of our public offices. . Mr. Secretary CANNING —Although he might be content time house should go to the vote on the speech of his Hon. Friend in reply to the motion which had barn submitted by the Hon. Memb-r for Montrose; yet bov ine been on a former night called on to stare the reason of this appointment when lie was wholly unprepared to give any such 'replanatim t i from any intimate knowledge of the transaction, and bating since then informed Lim self as frilly as the materials which cause in his way, or the short interval of time which had since transpiree, would admit, an t having in consequence come to the conscientious conviction that a falser point never was made than that time office of the Lient-General of the Graame. was unnecessary—he could not permit himself under such circtun , tances to give a silent vote. The sub bect of this appointment had, on the occasion alluded to, een brought forward with the ai i of everypessible topic of exaggeration, and all that species of unfair colouring which might tend to stamp it as an iniquitous and cor rupt transaction. It was then stated that this appoint ment bad taken pl:e t, not only in defiance of the recom mendation of the cetitiTnissioners of military inquiry, n ot only i* violation of time gracious recommendation of all possible economy in the Speech from the Throne, but that the appointment had actually been made in favour of a 'result who was unworthy of thesituation, and through the most unworthy motives—(Cries of No, n i ! from Mr. Hume and the back le nclies on the Opeo iiion side, with considerable noise through the house.) Lie could not be mistaken in the nature of the words u hick were used on that occasion. The words then used imputed the ap pointment of the influence of family connexion—to an unworthy and corrupt motive. It was a charge levelled against the Government of the country for tnelver. ratio!) in office, amid against Lord Beresford as having been othernise unworthy of the aim mrion but through the inilu once of lii• family, which had been improperly exercised. What else was this, bust a charge of pet sonal demerit on the one hand, and corruption on the other? Was it proper or becoming in that Hon. Mem ber to dm characterise the conduct of a Government which had been sincerely labouring for the public bene fit at the moment when the accusation was levelled at it; or would it be fit that His M 'jetty's Government should, for 24 hours, permit itself to lie under such min-, chirvims and false a calumny? He felt the effects of that foal and disgraceful calumny hail been removed by the official statements of his lion. Friend ; and before lie sat down he believed lie should he able to remove all foun dation for the motion by the recital of a few facts, Udine. were indeed necessary. The motion of the lion. Member referred to and was forniled on the 13th Report of the Commissioners of Military Inquiry, and should there fore be considered with a constant reference to that on which it professed to be founded; which, it was contended had expressed an opinion that the office of Lieutenant General of the Ordnance was not necessary in time of War. Now be would canton:ay that in the whole &Oft of the Commissioners there was no such pasitage ; the only one which was at all simi lar to it was that whiil stated that, " from the inform e. tion the Commissioners fiat heen enabled to obtain, as to the &mina duties which the Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance had to perform, they were inclined to consider the office of Lieutenant-General was not necessary except in cases where the Masser-General of the Ordnance should he absent from l,ondou. or withdraw his services or assist ance, owing to unforese-n circumstancee, from the office. The evidence of Lord Moira, on this subject, was princi pally applicable to the possibie ease of illness on the part of the .Raster-General ; whilst Lord Chatham's evidence went to establish that the office of Lieutenant-General was necessary to the due perform once of the duties of the Ord nance Department, the office of Lieutenant-General being essential, as the link hetneen the civil and military servi ces of the Department. The report proceeds to say, that Lord Chatham's evidence seemed to proceed on the suppo sition that at times the Master-General might be away, or absent; but it lead occurred to thein—<" Malt, said Mr- Canning, the vagueness of this language, ' It occurred to us,' which is nevertheless to be construed into the so lemn recorded opinion of the Commissioners.")—it had occurred to then' that in the event of the Master-General of the Ordn ince being confined to the fulfilment of the whole of the duties of his office, the situation of Lieu tetratit General might be dill) owed with • but except this preliminary point were arranged, it would be impossible for the Commissioners (as they stated) to wake any recommendation relative to the reduction of the ot fice of Lieutenant-General. The Report then proceeded to recommend the reduction of two clerks in this &part ment—which, by the bye, had since been semi al into ex ecution—and then with needless care provided. after having it mi as said abolished virtually this officer, what should be the ditties of this defunct Lieutenant-General —(a laugh) ant also settled the precise amount of sa lary which should he equivalent to his posthumous la bour*, which, it s ated, might be performed by him or the senior Board Offirer.—(llear, hear! from the Oppo sition benches.) Did the lion. gentleman mean that this appeared to be a concession of the necessity or propriety of a re luction of time members of time Board of Ord nance? Far front it; no point would be main. d by the hon. mover were it possible to take it in that light ; for there was now no proposition made for a redo. tion of the members of this Board. So, whether the business was done by the Lieutenant General, or the senior Board officer, it would be oily changing the name of the officer doing the business of this department, and it here would be the economy effected ? A considerable change in the constitution of the whole Board hid been stated to be requisite; but if the lion. member wished to be at all consistent, he should, as he professed to shape his motion with a constant reference to the 13th Report of Military Inquir y , he should have suggested the reduction of the Mader General, and not the Lieutenant General, of the Ordnance ; for the Commissioners expressly say, that no change in the office of ihe Lient. General can possibly be recommended, unless thepreliminary point of a change *Rh respect to the situation of Master General shall first take place. The motion of this night could only he con• sidereal as according e ith the recommenrittion of the 1311 m Report, if the honourable member should first hove succeeded in persuading the house and His Majes ty's Ministers to melte this change iii the office of Master General. As to the very high and-confidential circa ion, he should incidentally observe. that it alwa) s had hither-, to been filled by some great military person who Ithid fill- ed the highest commands. The Report proceeds on the pr. seiteption that the. Lieutenant-General should be e wers capable of supplying the place of Master-Gen. of the Ordnance, during his abstraction Irani its defies; but there was nothing in time Report which stated that it would be wise or proper to snake the Master-General the constant drudge of the office, attending to i's most mi nute duties. It should be recollected, that in the reign of Queen Anne, time Duke of Marlborough, then Master General of the Ordnance, achieved the victory of Blen heim; and that, in our own day, the Duke of Welling ton, b y not being fettered and restricted to time minor de tails of his situation as Master General, liael been en- . TitE STATESMAN. . Mr' ••••• • tabled to anotain so effectively at Verona, that high and leading part which he then to ok in the Counsels ot B:trope. He could not then see why bon. gentlemen. well this experience before tier eyea.should contend for the propriety of cbtionine down so stagily tot office duties such men as a ere of that high zhararter and . siderat ion, which alonecewld fit them to fill so high a station. With all his respect for modern attainment.herould not be persuad ed that any new light had dawned en the public mind.to en force the opinionof the hon. Member, that persons of this high char titer and distinction slionld be o upletely mer ged in the details of suffice. If others thought differently. at all events they road' not. with setetilanee of truth, game the recomtnendatim of the. Report in favour of such an opinion. Once mo•e, to vary the groand of ob jection taken u 3 by the holoorable Memt•er, be would observe, that if it could by possitoiiity lie proved, that the recommendation to this noel mafiosi of the Noble Lore!, Bereeford. proceeded on improper or corrupt noo• Lives, it would be a just ground for moving that an Ad. dress, stating this fat meet otinctly, should he laid at the fo et of the Thro ie. But was it p essible a tilt an int potation cool,' enter (not in o the speech of the Hoes. Member, for there it had been (mend), bet irsto the mind of any other man in England ?—(hear. hear!) — Wes there the least gro end fur any such imputation in the n oninatien 'Batted to ? It is assn lied that after the sittnatios had heesms• vacant, there was some hesitation an the pert of the Government in filling it no ; that this place was not filled up for four months ; that it was not until after a long strokes Demerit cues ieme and cor ruption the latter overpowered the f and the untni nylon took pl ice. The real fast is simply thiio, that not fame hours hesitation ever was apiarer t as to the proprie ty of making this appointment. The situation became reran , on the death .1 that gallant and esteemed officer, General Oak's, which took place on the 91' of September. The Noble Duke set oat for Vien na on the 17th. and although so all tha: he was confined to his renm, he had during that period an interview ni h His Majesty, sod instead of hesitating upon the snliket a 'moment. he Miring that Orin interview recominentled, no one petaso to this office, bat three; for being altoit io I ace England for some time, he was anxious to let his Majesty know his hole micd as to the Persons eligible to fill this eidiatian. Influenced, as it has been slid, with thane corrnpt views and moives,he named suecessively the Earl. f Uopetoun, Lord Hill. and lastly L red Beret:fart On h s M %leafy expressing his acqnieseenee. heaetptainted L asel Hooetoun with his wishes that he woul t accept the situation. And here the house shonbl first mark what were the charges attempted to be brought home to the Noble Duke in mak ing this nomination. They were, that the Duke know ing, first, that this offre was at inecess ry, and had been pro:Jounced (though it never had, as he hoped lie hail disproved) to be unfit to be continued, had, through corrupt motives, made this appointment. How utterly must the science and tact of &planetary hare affected with hypoerisy and utterly changed the wanly openness and na oral eandoar of the Noble Duke might he best, per haps, detected by the perusal of she letters which, passed on th it nceaseon, both of which, by permission of the st,bte Ea..l and his Grace, he was enabled to read .to the liouse.—(clear, hear, hear ) The Dolce'. letter i begae, "My dear Lord, You are aware of the vacaney which has oceurred in the Ordnance Office by the ,'cars of Gettesal Oakes. it will be a &t reat pleasure to me if you will pemi• me to recommit I par apeenttenent to his aiejesty. which I am certain will be agreeetle to his wishes. The sa'ary is 15001. a year. 'the ditties of the °lice are congas, and onremit'ing, and during one half the year will rcaptire your constant te.iilrlire in town." Here forsooth was a sinecure! Wel, Lord Hopetoen writes him in reply, that he felt obliged by his kindness. but that he had not softie:len• health to b ear confinement to business, and that he must decline Isis offer. If this was a Gls• representalon whit's the Solite Mike had made of the labosions mature of the situation, certainly Lord Hoe etonn had a right ta rein onetriate and consider himself Messed by being thus deterred from the accept sure of the aup ointment in c.onsequence of the ttp,,rel,en sion needlessly awak lied In his mind of its beim , on encumbered ;with labosiona dnties. No v lie wolf I ask the house and the country, MSS this lento treble lair FieSS Was this cendonr, or wis this public sprit to bring for ward aecusationa so IbUi, its caluntieioeta against the very first and most distinguished men in the land, merely for the purpose of carrying a proposition of this very goes tiostahle nature? But so it was ; the testa it of the Re port of the Commissioners was violated. Sentiments were quoted which formed no one part of that Report ; and a Noble Lord (Lord Cha.ham) was charged hastily, or without reflecting on cousettencea, nits wilful perjury, in the testimony givon before those Commissioners.—(Hear.)—[Here the Itiglit Honourable Gentleman rea I the letter of the Duke rC Wellington. dated Verona, written ;annelid:ly doer recetved the. former letter of Lord Hopetoun. It beg an —" My Dear Hill.—Yon are aware of the death of our highly respected fiend General Oakes. It places it in my power to nominate to the valiancy. Da let me name you to soiceeed him. The salary is IWO/. a year, and the only drawback on the appointment will he your being obliged to reside for a great part of the year in town, to attend to the duties of the office.") Thus he still went on, this incorrigible hypocrite! always mentioning the lehorions Wine of the duties of the office, an I the necessity of a prolonged residence in town; as if his letters hats pros pectively been formed, expressly to serve a purpose this night which it could never have been in human sagacity to foresee., namely, an sister to the motion of this even ing, in affording a proof of the I thorious feature of the place (now (mitten to I to be a sine cure) out of the mouth of the Duke of Wellington himself! Then what was the bootee ta think of this false, foul, deliberate, and mis chievous caluntay, on the best and bravest lel eel in the land? Personal merit, public character, tried integrity, long years of faithful service in the path of honour and refloat'. must all be sacrified, and trampled on, awl in sulted, to pave the way for a motion like this. The effect of this 'notion being carried would be. that a malignant, false, and scand 'lons imputation would be cast on all the parties concerned. The Government of the country was accused, the Duke of Wellington was accused, and the Noble Lord wes accused, of being parties to the most corrupt and disgraceful transaction a. But lie was conli dent, that, as they were now put put upon their trial in the eyes of the whole nation, they would, to the confu sion of their accuser, be acquitted by the unanimous verdict of their country.—(Laud and long continued cheering.) Mr. HUME said he was not one to be worked into a passion like the Right Hon. Gentleman. Flourishing was not his forte. The epithets " foul and ma'ignant calumny." had been applied to his lib erration' ; and it lied been sated that he had on a former night objected to the apeointment on ;he ground of the personal demerit ef the. Noble Lord appointed. This was a total misre presruta'ion. and the imputation was altogether false • nd la wilful misrepresentation. If the Right Han. fiends- Pion was made of such rery intlamm tble stuff—if he was melt a touchstone, so apt to catch fire--(loud laughing) -That laugh nas quite in the style and worthy of the Right Hon. Gentleman ; for the Right Hon. Gentleman very well knew what be wanted to have said When he said the word touchstone. (A laugh.) That Right Hon. Gent. might, to serve his purpose, flaurish a deal about a MasterAleneral of the. Ordnance ritualising the l imey of Blenheim; but he would fell him of another Master-liener.l who headed the disastroqvalstlditioa tO Walcheren. " Now let him," said ht;:a takolfis dimwit out of that."—(Loud laughing and hide h&L.;ltaliat the Right Hon. Gent had sapid' aas cutrhut,lealifuldaMe•injury to Colonel Chapman ;but he would contend that injustice •- ~• f s +. ' ~~ ti ,~.-~;-r,---~~ and injury bad 'been done to that Gallant Officer, by his having been displaced—turned out of office to make reom for ajunior.—(hear!)--That Gallant Officer had gained his office by his talents and services; and yet, after so many years of attention, he was displaced to make room for a voting man. The commission had recommended that the office should be recast, yet that had not takbn /dare ; and notwithstanding that recommendaion of the commission, no reasons had that night been brought for ward by the advocates for the office, as it stood, for its eontineance. There had been lectures given to him for 'ravine vet Men a letter, as if to make out a case ; but he disclaimed any such ides. He would allow. the Right Hon. gent. all the advantages derivable from his having dories so; but he could assure the 11.'1m:-that he had not dealt with those le tors As to the ottice,for the abolition of which he moved, it could not be said to he usi fel, since even ti e Commission of Inquiry had denied that; nay it was use less, noise than u.eless, for the duties of it could not be performed without rendering the services of the Dirrte of Wellingtou,as Master-General, unneeespary. If it was to he retained, it became a mere sinecure,lOr the Lieutenant General had no duties to perform when the Master-Gene ral was present. As to the duties which the Hen. Grille man had contended were so leborious, and of which he had given so great a detail, they were not grereer than those of other men. The lion. Member had reasoned upon his labours as if he was in Turkey, where he would lie under the necessity of performing there duties atthe risk of his head. The number of clerics and of uselese offices had increased every year, and rendered the expel'. &tore of the country heavy, while it prevented the p ossibilityot reducing tt. Thusfor managing the barracks the public had to pay 18,0001., for 100 heirs. ks in England and in Ireland there were also 100 barracks. Ira fact,he complained that the whole country was a barrack one, and so much the worse for the Itinv,dom. The Commissariat bad its 150 Clerks, and the department se whose head was the Hon. Member opposite, had the r proportionate number of Clerks, ill costing the country immense Wits of money. it wss not altogether of the numier of Cl-rks he comp!aiued ; no, but of their be ruse ; for some of those clerks had their 7001. 800/. and 9eol. per annum. As to tin, labours which the Iten. tientleutte had attribute.) to those offices, they were through the business being sifted throngta various officer, all reduced to a nut-shell before they came before those persons of whose labours the Bon. Member ha I boasted so mech. This was the first ran- . don for retrenchment, awl he regretted the reception welch it hal 'net with. Of the Foreign Policy whiOt lot lately been adopted, he could not hat cononstoldil ; ir it lrsoke.i Ike the old English policy; he only re. greet II that it had not been adopted soouer. It IVOO , I ive been useful to the kingdom if it had. He was will ing to give Iris a?plaorse to the Eight Hon. Secretary for !ravine itt:o.rte 1 it ; but when he sew the Hight Hon. Se cretary, instead of becoming the able advocate of the peo ple's rights, was still the ready defender of abuses, ins could not but regret to NC, that the British spirit veld , • a seemed to animate the exertions oldie Hight IL,n. Sec. e tary abroad, wire forgott-n or reviled at home. He di-- chainn any idea of wishing to give pain to Lord Beres ford ; but when a situation, which was a sinecure, and of cour.e injurious to the interests off the pecoiee, required its being aloolishe 1, it was his duty, as a 51..mhereof the House vot Commotei, to prop tae its redectinn ; par icerlsrly at a time when the people aonopleihed on a 1 sides of the op?teistott the taxes. ' The house was preparing to divide, when r. MACDONALD rose and said that he wished to ad dress a few observations to the House before it came to its decision. The rnoliun of the lion. Member for Aberdeen was founded upon the basis of the Report of the Coia.W.4- sioners of Military Inquiry. The words of that Report were conditional. that the situation of the Lieutenant-Geste ral of the Ordnance might be abolished if the Office of the Ordnance was remodelled. lie and many other Members cau.d not hut be emb ed in the vote they should gis a WI the motion; fo if they were to vote fir the motion as it was, they would decide the question without cond tion. per=- Imps tojet..t!y and without foundation. lie did not whit ta, pass al undeserve.l censure either on the Noble Lord et the trial of tee Ordnance nor on his Majesty's Government, and he e.oshi not, theref..re, ovoid thinking that a Committee r, inquire ioto the uti ity of continuing or discontinuing the of fice. or Lieutennnt-General would be the best mode of contihg to a fair division. Tue Besse would, in that inquiry, ha: the full benefit of the experience and knowledge of the No ble Dake at Cie head of that Department ; and every one knew, whatever might be the errors or faults attributed ei other matters to that Noble Person, that he never slirai!< from the public business. Ile threw out this suggestion to the lion. :Brattier, with a hope that the motion would be formed into more expedient shape. such as one for a Com mittee of Inquiry into the duties of the office, with a ciew to its abolition; and he hoped nett such Members as concurred, with him in that opinion would not hesitate to express it. Mr. Secretary CANNING. Before the Hon. Member for Aberdeen consents to a re-modelling of his motion, I beg to declare, that I cannot consent to his withdrawing the motion hefore the [louse. The lion. Member who has suggested thnt modification ought to have consulted his Honourable Friend before he came here.—(Cries of spoke from the Op position.) Strangers were ordered to withdraw, and the gallery was cleared for a division. Daring our ahteoc•, we understoo 1 that Mr. Macdonald was about to propose his suggest! so e . an Amendment, but that the cries of spoke" preventeA him. Lord Normanhy then moved it as an amendment. — No division took place before the gallery was again opened. On our return, we found . _ Mr. C. 11CTC111NSON on his legs, stating that he-should vote Co the motion of the lion. Member for Aberdeen. rv , t from any feeleg of disrespect to Lord Beresford or the Doke of Wellington, but from his cons ietion that the coun try, now on the eve ofentering into war, required Clot thoso motions which had for their object the introduction of just cram of economy into the public exp-Ttiture spoilt support.—lie could oat but object to the tdme no 1 manner of the Right lion. ts,cretary for Foreign Atf,ire on that occasion, for the first motion of th• Session for econo:. my ought to be treated with attention, and not. with dis respect. - • Strangers were again ordered to wir.draw, and the !vit. lery was cleared. The Amendment was tier rejected with out a division. The Ilouse divided on the original motion, Ayes 73; Noes 200—Majority 127. The other Orders of the Day were then disposed of, and the House adjourned at a few minutes after tea o'clock. During the late severe wea'll..r, a gfest number of woodcocks acre killed in the neighboarla antl of Port I sa ac where they were s f sixpence rata , Several witlt wans have been shat between Port Isaic.and iVadelo gi. • —(West Briton.) At Liskeard fair on Monday last, the de4nan I for rattle and sheep was brisk and sales weat etfeeteil‘_at advanced prices. . . At Totnes Great Market. on the 4th instotary teff sheep were shown, which were so an sol I at an advance of d. per lb. am the last anarkea's prices. Fat Bollocks alio sold well. At the Taunton mon hly c,ttle marke on theist lits 4 the show of stock was eery eon aideratde ; an iWprt.ist l :. mit in the valne of the castle oirered for sal, was expo. rienced in every drscriptioi of the stork. Cews.with calves were eagerly in rripiest, and fat bullock, sold for Is. liatand 2s. a score more than on tie preceding nionthlr market. --- Trrguny fair, on Nfontliv last. Lit rank and sheep wham ti.l in price front 10 'co 15 per ern . ; owing, •it is 'toilets nod, to the sevel ity of the wea. her, and a scucity of fat Taal .The lonurs in this and the neithho tang county have snstained vetl.severe losses by the death a lambs during the late inclement season. - `~-~ fj 1 `.~~~ ~- ,~ i ~, ~ : ~~ V ; t' ~'~ , • : t .# 11 t " 1. . :AU • c.u.so •