The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1803-02-23 00:00:00

= P ,' it I J O ' , :~ R ♦, I . -apetled to be made on Chenille oTEnglan3, which - might have embarrassed the Bank, and drained 4t .4 the greatest part of its gold, to the manifest in convenience of tire commerce of the country. His Majesty's Government therefore, among whom his Noble Friend opposite to him (Lord Grenville) was a distinguished member, with equal prudence and policy called upon the Legikature, and recom mended it to Parliament to interpose its authority, and 'restrain the Bank from JPayments in specie.— The . measure proved to be as wise and salutary in aired, as.could be hoped for or expeded. It enabled Ministers to preserve the greatness of the country, and to secure to us the full enjoyment of all the 'blessings of our most happy Constitution, amidst 'the wreck of surrounding nations. It was 'by such means that the Ministers of that day were. enabled to place the British Empire on the rock on which it at present stands, and on that 'lofty situation which, at all hazards, it must main min. So fat, his Lordship said, from considering the fluctuation of the .course of Exchanges as an omen that our commerce was not in that proud -condition, of which we had so much reason to 'boast, he regarded it as an indubitable test of our -encreasing prosperity ; and the truth was, that the Course of Exchange at Hamburgh had, as his Noble Friend (Lord PELK An) had said, been turn .ing in our favour for.some time past, having fallen from seven and half to two and half, and this, it was to be observed, had taken .place under the operation pf the Bill. He should, therefore, - think it eurnost rash , and ill-advised step, were Parliament to give way, .and prematurely forbear to continue an Ad which 'had been productive of the most benefiCial conse •quence to our commerce, our prosperity, and our -security. His Lordship added several more gene , raLre4sons, in support of the Motion, that the Bill * 'be read a second time. Lord AUCKLAND entered very deeply into the Mature of the question then under discussion, and said, that sa far was he from thinking that a very strong case ought to be made out, as the Noble Lords opposite to him had contended (Lord Raw 'don and Lord King),before Parliament consented to suffer the Bill to be again continued, he we.; con fident diet the matter ought to be looked at in a very .diirerent point of view, and that an extremely strong .case indeed was requisite to be shewn, in order to persuade the House to forbear to continue.a mea sure of the utmost importance to the preservation and security of the most essential interests of the .country. The Noble Lord had said, that the Bill was a most severe violation .of the property of indivi duals, and a direl and dating breach of a solemn .compaa between the Bank and its customers. In 'both instances the Noble Lord was utterly mistaken. So far from its being a violation of the property of individuals, it was a measure calculated to proted their property.; and it was no breach of a solemn contrail, because, in reality, the Bill did support the riches of the Bank. Since on what did its very ex istence depend ? On a Charter granted by the Le gislature, and subjed to the controul, revision, and restridion of Parliament, whenever it saw occasion to interpose its authority respelling it. As to the specific case that the Noble Lord had put of an individual de positing his cash in the Bank, and recovering nothing but a piece cif paper, called a bank-note, for it, it was visionary and inapplicable. No man expeded it; and besides it was not to save one individual only from inconvenience, but to proted the pro perty of all who were interested in the solvency of :the Bank, that Parliament had passed and continued the Bill, and were now about to continue it still further. If the reasoning . were sound, that the Bank ought to pay all their customers in cash or : guineas, the whole wealth of the country would not !be equal to the supply of gold and bullion that would be nea.asary io support the issue of rash at -the Bank. It was clearly impradicable, and that severy noble Lord in that House, and every rational. Being in the kingdom, must see and feel. He had, his Lordship said, in a former debate, declared, that his support of the Bill stood on very different ,grounds, than any consideration as to the fitidua tion of the Course of Exchange; nor could it be al tered or diminished by establishing the fad ever so strongly, that the Course of Exchange was or was :not against us. No, he looked at the Bill in its true .point of view—that point of view in which .alone it onglit to be considered : not as a measure originating in any application from the Bank Diredors, nor as any compromise between them and his Majesty's Ministers, founded on mu :tual convenience and accommodation, but as a measure founded in State Policy, a pure measure of .Government, a measure which became their vigi lancet.° bring forward, and recommend to Parini anent. It was their bounden duty to superintend all the essential interests of the Empire ; and what would better become them than to keel, a wary eye upon public credit, and to take care to guard it with every possible precaution, since our all might .be said to depend on its being duly proteded and preserved ? The Bill was to be supported'on the consideration of two great and important points .of consideration.; the first of which wag, the po litical circumstances of the country, and the political circircumstances of other countries. It -was upon the consideration of these political cir .cumstances, that the necessity, the expediency, 'the policy and fitness of the Bill depended.— We were at present in a state of peace, and we .ought to use everypossible care to render it as last-. •ing and permanent .as .Passible. We saw the sur .rounding State anxious to effect this same object, and cautiously endeavouring to avoid exciting jea lousy and suspicion on our ,part by any wanton -exercise of alarming power, by any rash attempt 4rit aggrandisement, or any measure that had the :least probable tendency to alarm or otfead other -powers. -Indeed, Ave well know, that it was :as much the interest of Foreign Countries to .do every thing predicable to continue to preserve the tranquillity of • which we were at present in the . : fall enjoyment, and during which so many essential snattets of revenue could - be considered and carried into execution. Itut nithougha ll this Were exaaly .as he had stated nO man could say how soon some unforescen event might occur, and put an end to the state of Peace. Every manofpolitical sagaci ty, va eary individual •wlws thought at all, Mint. -that ourattation was new aeleast, and from a view .of' the ; political circtunsiences of the .times, both in ,ejimonatiy stetahroad, every individual must feel, wasinew, so likewise 'mask more wer i t real, tarr,a pethaps more alarming,aad ',posed to and im titre any shoo _ IV I tbteostowybs P"ah aliwwjedforeenturisse it . thesase wise or , 1ie1ai1im........... ./11.6.... MI 16,1 L I~fii ' • . • prudent, to fur:bear the eeertumbf everyprecaugoe • that poiitical' safety could be secured by i It would be a rash, a criminal condo& in any Government to negle& putting all the interests of the State•in every possible state of protection and defence. This Bill had already and notoriously saved the credit of the Bank. Its solidity and solvency were strialyexa mined into by , the Committees of boat Houses, in 1797. He had the honour of sitting in the Commit- . tee of that House. and every possible examination was made in the Committee to probe the situation of Bank to the bottom, in order to satisfy the public, and all Europe, whether the Bank was sol vent and capable of paying off every demand that iould be made upon it. The result of that in vestigation, he was persuaded, was, that the high opinion entertained, both at home and abroad, of the stability of the Bank was increased, and that considerably. It was proved. beyond all question, that after the Bank should have satisfied every claimant, they would have assets remain to the amount of many millions, exclusive of the debt which Government owed the Bank of four millions and a half. Having thus discussed the .ituation of the Bank, and pointed •out the true ' , point of view in which the Bill then Under discus sion .ought to be considered; his Lordship took notice of what had fallen from Lord Kw o, relative to the conduct of the Bank of Ireland. He said, the House would not wonder that he should feel a sort of parental care respectin4 that establish ment, as it was instituted under his auspices; he had the honour to draw the Bill to authorize the establishment of the Bank of Ireland, to propose it to the Parliament of that kingdom, and to conduct it through its various stages, till it received the Royal Assent. lie was persuaded, that no impu tation could .fairly be cast on the conduct of its directors ; and he .could ,not help saying to the Noble Lord, that he ought, at 'least, to have made himself master of factslefore he presumed, in that public manner, to cast a slur on a truly respectable national institution. His 'Lordship next proceeded to examine the arguments of Lord ilawooN, and to answer his various observations on the statements contained in the paper, in the printed "Account of the sums paid into, and the charges upon the Con solidated Fund, between the sth day of January 1802, and the sth of January 1803, inclusive ; dis tinguishing the several quarters," which he handled with great adroitness, and proved, that the'Noblc Lord had himself fallen into the error which he had ascribed to the statement in the paper. His Lordship abo ward* upon the financial remarks of the same Noble Lord, and said he meant, at some future day of the Session, to move for such papers as were most likely to inform and assist in the-discussion of various views of the real and ,bass file state of our finances, resources, and frevennes. lie said he was convinced, that the triumphant account of our finances, said to .have been stated from high authority in another House of Parliament, so far from having been over-rated, as the Noble Lord opposite to him had supposed, was in fact much under-rated. His Lordship said, that even now, when we had rather a Warr than.a Peace Establishment, our resourses were equal to the full support of our expenditure. Most undoubtedly no man could reasonably expect, that, under the singu lar and novel political circumstances of the c the time would very shortly arrive, when wr a c t ld with safety go back to our old reduced Peace Estab lishment ; but Ave had a ,right to expect, th'tt we should sooner or later be atae very considerably to reduce our proem Establishment, and he had no . doubt that the resources of the country would con tinue to prosper and increase to astill larger extent, and then we should be able to make our resources exceed our expenditure, in a still greater 'degree: than it did at present. His Lordship enteredanto a minute detail of the former, which he calculated at - thirty-four millions, out f which we had to pay only so much as would leave nine millions surplus of reserve over our expenditure. He held up .this flattering picture of our prosperity, in the most ad vantageous point of view ; and, after dilating upon , it a considerable time, he concluded his speech with giving his hearty and decided suppcirt to the motion for the second reading of the Bill. Lord GRENVILLE said, he had net come down with any intention of saying a word upon the Bill, and, indeed, particular considerations, which were lodged in his mind, would restrain him from utter ing a word, either for or against the Bill now under discussion. What he rose for was, to make a few remarks on the sort of notice which the Noble Lord, who had just sat down, had taken occasion to give in the latter part of his speech, touching the finance of the country. He rejoiced that the noble Lord meant to move ter certain papers, and to bring forward a discussion on the resources of the coup- , try. No man could do it more ably than the No-; ble Lord ; and it gave him the highest satisfaaion to hear, that Government were determined to look the real situation of the country in the face. But he trusted they would not place any reliance on the' expeaatinns held out by the Noble Lord, as to what the produce of cur Revenue would be at a future; time, and under future circumstances, the speedy or possible existence of which, at any time, no man , was sanguine enough to hope fur, or to expel. He' trusted,nhat Ministers would examine what waspre cisely our present situation in point of finance, and: would zealou:ly an ardently endeavour to increase our resources equal to our expenditurz i not as either one or the other would be at a future time, but as they both aaually toed comparatively at •the pre sent moment. Let Members of both Houses, or .men without doors differ as much as they would upon political sublets, sure he was that there was not a refleaing man in the country, who would not applaud such an inquiry, and such an effort was the wisest, the most laudable, and the most patriotic that could bc.entered upon. He for one would, most sincerely, and with the utmost anxi ety join in such an inquiry, and in forwarding such measures as should seem best calculated to improve and increase our resources, because he was deeply convinced that by such manly measures alone that the country could le , saved from the imminent dangers to -which it stood 'exposed. Ills Lordship said, he begged pardon for tite irregula rity of rising, and not saying one word that bore. the smallest relation to the Bill under discussion,. but disorderly as he had been, he could not hear the . notice of the Pioble'Lord relative to certain papers . -on the alibied of Finance, without risingto make the few observations - that Jiadfallen from- him, and to hope that his Majesty's Ministers were in earnest, 'aid that they senonsly meant to reitchir.sheir coun try OW importasit service which must :Malt from , . looking the dangers•of our situation in the face, . 1 and making adequattexertions to secure the nation from those dangers. It was by such conduit alone, that'the system df Finance resorted to by Go vernment, when he had the honour to be a Mem ber of Administration, and which the Noble Lord had .been "leased to praise highly, could be given permanency to, and rendered in its fullest extent useful to the country. Lord RAWDON (Earl of Moira') rose to explain ' a part of his speech, which, his Lordship said, the noble Lord had placed in 'such a point of view, as to make the very reverse of what he meant, when he stated it. His Lordship then went over his own statement again, and said, he also differed with the noble Lord as to the amount of the surplus that there would be, if the statement of Resources and Expenditure of the Noble Lord should be found to be true. The Noble Lord had made an error in his calculation of one million, far instead of nine., there would be only eight millions surplus. Ile was pro. ceeding to speak to other topics, when The LORD CHANCELLOR reminded him, . that what he was 'going into was not explanation. Lord KING defended what he had said about the Bank Notes of Ireland being at considerable dis count, and insisted that the fact was notoriously so, and that guineas in Dublin were bought at a pre mium, with Irish Bank Notes. In Belfast, he said, the Irish Bank paper would not be received. The Marquis of SLIGO said, it was true that the Notes of many of the private Banks in Irelard were at discount, bdt.not the Notes of the National Bank of Ireland. Lord SHEFFIELD entered into a variety of shrewd observations on the mistake that some of their Lordships fell into respeaing•many great inconven iences.resulting from the Itestriaion of the Bankfrom making their payments in cash. He desired their ' Lordship to look to the great increase of prosperity, commerce, &c. in Scotland,; a part of the kingdom in.which there was scarcely any cash in circulation. Holland, like Great Britain, was a commercial coun try, and in commercial countries trade could not be supported but by paper. France, and the rest of the Continent had plenty of trillion and cash, but had they been able to 'make any commercial efforts with it ? The fault, he said, lay in our management. We ought to revise our corn laws. They had been grow ing worse for these ten years past. The question was carried for the second reading of the Bill; which was instantly done.; and at Eight o'clock the House adjourned to Thursday next. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TUESDAY, Fib. 22. Lord EUSTON brought up a Report from the Committee appointed to try undue eledions for Dumfermline and Sterling, which met this morning; but, on account of the-absence of the Right Honour able Isaac Corry, the Committee adjourned until . ten o'c.iock to-morrow morning. On the motion of Lord EUSTON, ?dr. Buck ley, the apothecary who attended the Right Hon. Isaac Corry, was called to the Bar of the House. He informed the House, that the Right Hon. Mem ber was not able to attend his duty with safety to his health. .His Lordship then moved, that the Right Hon. Isaac Corry be therefore excused for his non-attendance upon th , . Committee this.morn ing, and also from an/ furth •r attendance upon it— Upon the question being 1 ut by the Speaker, it was carried in the affirmative. _ _ Dr. GILA, attended at the Bar of the House, and presentad the Accounts of the Trustees of the the. British Museum ; which were ordered to lie on the Table. ADDRESS TO HIS &lAJF.STY. lord EUSTON rose to .congratulate the nation : upon the escape which it had just had, from one of the most daring and foul conspiracies which ever was conceived by the most nefarious men.—From certain occurrences, which •had lately taken.place, ' we had seen the developement of a plot., aiming at . nothing short of a subversion of one of the hap piest and soundest Constitutions whiCh this globe ever witnessed. (General cry of Hear! Hear!) He would ask, whether there was a man within these walls, who did not hold every man who would snake an attack upon the constitution of this country, in perfeet abhorrence, and whether he would not immediately cry out for justice—he had almost said vengeance, against the insidious plotter, and the miserable del uded wretches who would abet such a scheme ?.We have had proofs of a most dark, settled, determined .conspiracy against the life of a Sovereign, whose .virtues so far exceed any com mendation.of.his, as they were deeply engraven on his heart. A cry of, Hear ! karl) Placing therefore a just value upon blessings which we possessed, and which we could not sufficiently appreciate ; upon the blessings of aGovernment, administered with that steady hand of justice, of which there is no other ex ample, let us address our. Sovereign, in terms which our own kelingswill best diollate,evressivenf ourgra titude for the preservation of his life. [An unanimous cry of",llear.! bear Pl . The Hon. Member pro ceeded to move, that an humble Address he pre sented to his Majesty, to offer him the .heartii:lc. congratulation of the House, upon the detea;on and failure of the late most atrocious conspiracy against his Majesty's life and governmeat ; which -conspiracy afforded the most ample prvaf of resist ance being intended against the regular constituted authority of the country, and die - happiness of the subjetcl; to assure his Majesty of the perfect and loyal attachment of his Marsty's stihj,:cts, in Great Britain and Ireland, to his person ; and of their fixed determination to support their present glorious Constituticu, and transmit it, unimpaired, to their .posterity. Lord BOYLE seconded the motion in a short speech, wherein he expressed his hopes that .the late conspiracy may be the expiring efforkof a desperate faction, and 'that the peace of is Majesty's subjects may be no more interrupted by like attempts. lie ended with a wish, that our g.O aus Constitution may outlast its enemies, ,a i . s .Majesty's reign long continue. The Motion being put, wa.s c r ied nem. con. and Lord Euston, Lora • Boyle, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Hawkesbury, the Attorney-Ge neral, Solicitor-General, Master of the. Rolls, and Se cretary at War, were, with , other Membevs, ap pointed a Committee to prepare the Addict Mr. GEORGE VANSFITA (T r. t , that the Order of the I lause of yesterday, foi c Iv .4r the 'names of absentees, and taki th, tody by the Serjtsmt , . at Mini, do /,. • x' ts' such Members:as may be tarving upon Oelett. ,~ _....' nAttees for trying .contested Various. This Ml ` ion was carried in the affirmative. Mr. LKE moved for leave to bring in a Bill for rendering the Process,of the Courts of King's-Bench, Common► Pleas, and Exchequer in Ireland, more beneficial ; and prevent private and vexatious Ar rests ; also -to repel certain Afts passed in the 21st and 22d years of his present Majesty, by the Irish Parliament. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, he had no right to objeft to the Motion of his Hon. Friend, the purpose of which was to as similate the process of the Courts of Ireland, as nearly as possible .to those In England. 'He said. that upon a former arrangement, all those Patentee, who came within the scope of it, and were to be dispossessed by it, were made a proper connpensatiou. He Mt perfedly well assured that the House, urn, this as well as upon every other occasion which should present itself before 'it, would endeavour to do stria justice, and piovide a compensation fir such officers as held patent places, and should be dispossessed of them by the proposed alteration. He alluded •in particular to a Right lion. Friend of his, one of the Secretaries of state ; not but there were many others who would ewerience a loss of their patent places equally with him ; but the House must recollect, that the Nohle Lord, ty whom he alluded, had given up 20001. a yeas for this very place of which he might 'be now dis possessed. '!•bis instance of sell-denial in the Noble Lord, he had •no doubt would dispose the House to do him that justice, which, upon a past occasion, other patentees had experienced. The Bill might, in its progress through a Committee of Supply, receive that shape .which would prevent any injustice being done to the. patentees ; and he therefore expressed his wish that the Bill might act be suffered to go out of the House before care was taken to that effect. He added, that there might be some few in the liouse who might object ; but he wds well assured, that the generality were of the same opinion with himself. Mr. LEE rose .to explain. He said, that •the House would recollect, that any compensation which the House should be inclined to make, could be only during the life of the patentee, but the be nefit arising to the nation from the alteration would be ,perpetual. "'his he, thought would be ample in ducement to the House to grant a compensation•to those patentees who should be dispossesed by it. Leave was given .to bring in a Bill accordingly. The-SECRETARY at WAR moved the Order of the Day, that the House do resolve itself into a Corn. mittee of the whole, and that the Mutiny Bill be read. Read accordingly. After which the Secretary at War again rose, and said, that he meant to propose certain amendments in the Bill just then sead ; the most prominent of those amendments was to punish desertion, which he was eetiernely sorry to say was very prevalent. The House must be sensible how prejudicial it must be-to the nation to have,as well as ineffectual in the louse to vote,a defective asmy. The loss to the nation was, moreover, very considerable, as every recruit, from the time of -his enlistment to that of his being rendered a complete soldier, stands it in 501. at the least. He.expatiated upon the ege gravated nature of this offence, which was a com bination of fraud and perjury, as the recruit took not only the bounty-money, but an oath of faithful service to Cis Majesty. The offence at present is punished with death, or corporeal pains inflicted by sentence of .a Court Martial. If the Court do not think proper to in flict either of these, there yet remains an alterna tive : they sentence the offender to serve in his Ma jesty's dominions abroad, forlde or years. This al ternative, experience has -shewn to be fruitless, as a soldier cannot be made to serve any longer than. he is able ; and to send them abroad to serve for life, or a longer term of years than they may continue able, answered no other purpose than that of filling the hospitals at a great expence. He therefore meant to propose, that Courts Martial should be deprived of the power of intliaing this latter pu nishment. He meant that :this deprivation should be followed up by a power to be vested in his Ma jesty, of commuting all punishments for transpor tation. Be also proposed, that -the amendments should be attended with other regulations for laying abeavier penalty upon persons harbouring deserters. At present, the penalty was only 51. He proposed that it should be in future 201. or six months impri sonment. He then adverted.to the reward to per sons apprehending deserters, and which, by the present bill, is directed to be paid only.to constable: or pact-opers. In order to stimulateevery body to stand forward on this. , head, he proposed that the re ward should be to persons 'in general. The next amendment would be to extend the forfeiture of pay to such soldiers as .should be confined for crimes, ;in the same manner as it stood at present, with tegsteet to those contined.for debt. ile said, that if it was not an inducement, it, at Icest,.made the commission of a crime a matter of little import, since the sol dier who committed it was suffered to receive his pay in gaol, in the like manner as if he had been on Actual duty. The next amendment would respect doubts which had been entertained about the clause in the present bill, relating to baggage-carts. lie wished it to be ascertained, what power thes Magi s trates had -to make them travel beyond a cer tain distance, and what should'be the compensation to the owners of those carts which should be taken up on that duty. The next amendment would be, to hate a clause inserted, declaratory of his Majes ty's right of having those baggage-carts pass over any private bridges without paying toll. The next amendment went to the providing a summary pro cess against persons purchasing .oats, and other military stores. He said, he thOught it his duty to be very precise in gado* these proposed amend ments, that Gentlemen might ,have time to see :nto the general utility and propriety of them. He had the satisfaction to say, that they had already met with the approbation of .his Majesty's Law Offi cers. ,Ceneral TARLETON offered a very few word*, which drevi on a desultory conversation between him and 4 the Secretary- at War. Some further amendments were proposed . ; and upon the motion of the Secretary at War, that this report be .re ceived to-morrow, it was ordered to be brought up accordingly. • The SPEAKER. called the attention of the House to a circumstance which had happened 19 the morning : he alluded to the .absence of Mr. JOHN ATHINS from a Committee which then sat. obtd ash and which was, in consequence ( thereof, • to be adjourned. He had further ,to state, ~ ' 'Mr. 2 THINS could not attend that morning I