The Statesman. — London, England, 1810-09-21 00:00:00

sis of duty, and remote national and respective 4 .' good. The conduct of Sweden, America, Ire " land, and the Jacobins of England, in their par " !Wily for France, exemplify a want of sense to gg execute the maxims of Ericttaus. h e paper " currency of Bank Notes (there should lie no '' Co!mtry Banks) oilers to Government a tnovt " indeNtrueti7-e support, because 1 NI A K " THE DAILY BREAD OF EVERY IN "DI VIDIJA DEPEND SUB-;TANTIA " ON THE SAFETY OF GOVERNMENT, " whereas money, which may be hoarded, scpa. " rates the individual from the public safety. In " the present revolutionary state of the world, I " think our paper currency a most miracalouv " mean of scdvation, and the 111,111 who would 64 propose the payment of Bank A otes in specie at 6 4 wry period, to separate individual property from " public satety, might as well propose the burn " in; of the Nai.ly to protect the commerce of the ‘• worle." Gentlemen, do you remember the writings of PAINL l) you remember the nights of Man ; fit the ritiog of ts hicti t:)e anther was prosecuted L)' the then Attorney-General who is now the Lord Chancellor ? Do you remember the Bights of Man, the author of winch was prosecuted, and, bt itv; absent, aas outlawed: the puLlishers of which were prosecuted all over the kingdom ; the eircu. 1.1604 of a!iicia was forbidden by Proclamation ; and, to counteract the principles of which Asset- Cl A vtoss ware formed of the rich and the power ful ? %Veit, it was in this v, , ry work, that the doctrine hoe down, by this government wri. ter, was hest sty; tech PAINE said, that the exist. ence of the government depended upon the exist ence of the bank. nctcs ; and that, the question IClii nut, how Ion; the Brilikh Government would s.'and! but, hoz@ long the Funding .System would last. PAINes tootle of reasoning was, if I am correct in my recollection, as nearly as possible lik e th a t o f this govesament writer. He laid it down as an admitted fict, that the people (owing to causes that he stated) must be wholly indfferent crsout the fate of the government; bid, that, as so many of them were, either by holding Storks or bank.notes, interested in the fate of the :govern. intent, they would, while the Stocks and ban/c. notes lasted, continue to support the government, whatever might be their feelings towards it. But, that, when, from whatever cause, the Funding System should fail, not a soul would be found to lift a finger, or, even to express a wish in favour of the existence of the government. Just the same, or rather more, is now "said by this government writer ; a writer one-half of whose pages are filled with invectives against those whom he calls the friends of the Emperor of France.— But, how is it possible for any thing to be written snore agreeable to the Emperor Napoleon than what this writer has put forth ! Until now the world has been told that we entertaiued a real love for our government ; that we were attached to our constitution, because it afforded such fineprotection to our persons and our property; that we loved the constitution, because it insured to us tho en joyment of liberty, and defended us against every species of oppression ; that we had made nume rous sacrifices, and that we Were ready to make as many more, nay, even " to spend oar last Ail. " ling and shed the last drop of our blood," fur the sake of these liberties and in defence of a king, whom we so dearly loved, and in gratitude fur the blessings enjoyed during whose reign, we held a Jubilee. Until NOW, this is what the world has been told. But NOW it is told, by this loyalty. professing writer, that the only motive whence we support the government at all, is, to reserve the value of the Bank-notes that we hold ; that, if it was not for the immediate personal interest of so many people in the National Debt, and for patron age and paper currency, the Government could have no existence; that we support thu government because without its existence, the bank.notes would fall, and because, by the number of bank-tiotes, we are thus made to depend upon the safety of Go vernment for our daily bread; and that, there. fore, the man who would propose the payment of bank-notes in gold and silver at any period, might as well propose the burning of the Navy, or, in other words, the giving up of the country to France. What, Gentlemen ! are we never, then, to see gold and silver again ? Every Minister ; every Alember of Parliament; every one of those, who endeavoured to pal!iatc the measure of protecting the Bank Company from paying their notes in cold and silver ; every one of them " lamented the ne cessity," as they called it, of the measure. But, NOW, behold, we are told that it was a good tiring; and not only a good thing, but that the go vernment could not exist without it! Gentlemen, we call ourselves a "thinking people;" but, be. !"sere me, that this is what would not have been said to any other civilized people upon earth. We might here easily show how encouraging a prospect doctrines of this sort hold out to our ene my, and how strong an inducement to use all these ',leans, whir they in the way of attack or of menace, which are likely to destroy the credit of the paper money, that being, if these doctrines he sound, the sure and certain way of destroying our govern nient. But, another opportunity will offer for ob. serrations upon these matters; and, it is n o w ti me th a we return to our inquiry into the SINKING FUND. In the last Letter, having stated tho provisions, made in the ACTS - of 1786 and 1792, for the nation's ceasing to pay interest upon the Stock that should be redeemed, or bought up by the Commissioners, after the year 1808'; or in other words, the na. ti ceasing to pay taxes on account of the Stock, or part of the Debt, which should be bought up after that time having stated these provisions, we were pt oceeditrg to inquire: What was done in the tun;-exported year• 1808 ? What was done when the year of promise came? Why, my neighbours, nothing at all :cas done: just nothing at all in the way provided for. The tuition ceased to pay no dividends of interest ; and, of course, this work of redeutptioo caused none of itv taxes to be taken off. 44 Well," say you, " but, is it possible, that, after such a solemn g 4 proceeding ; after the express and positive de. 66 riai d tiou in two Acts of Parliament, that the " dividends of interest should cease to be paid 64 in .1808 ; is it possible, that, after that, all C 6 the dividends did continue to' be paid, just " the stone as if those Acts had. never been " passed ?" 0, yes ! It is not only possible to be 51, hut it is so. All the dividends have cont . '. lined to be paid ; and are pa . id to this day. The ah•,v►•_unentioned provisions, in 'the Acts of 1786 and 1792 were repealed. The Parliament undid %hat it had before done. It did away the provi. sions, ►which it had made in 1786 and 1792. It passed .on'►ther Act, which said that those provi sions should not he carried into effect; or, in other words, teat wt►ich was law b:•forc was no longer tau:. This new Act was passed indite month of June, 18.12, A noINGTON, the successor and the friend of Prr - r, being then Minister. This Act (which is 71 of the 42d year of the reign of George III.) is entitled " An Act to amend and RENDER '• MORE EFFECTUAL two Acts passed in the " twenty-sixth and thirty.second years of the reign 44 of his present Majesty, fur the reduction of the 4 4 National Debt." Thls Act which was to render those two Acts more effeottud ) - seti out by stating, that the said two Acts had been by-experience found " to be attended with must beneficial consequences 41 to the public credit of the country ;" and hay ing made that. declaration, it sets to • Work, and repeals the two provisions above.mentioned ; and, of course, when the year of 1808 came, when the year of expectation arrived, no dividends ceased to be paid, and interest upon the whole of the Debt was still paid, and is still paid to this day. Gentlemen, it is hardly to be believed, that any men, who, like PITT and his associates and sup. porters, bad invented and caused to be passed, the two first-mentioned Acts, could propose the last. mentioned Act, that is to say,. the Act of 1802. Nut only, however, did they propose it, but the Avcri.JaeoniN writers laughed in our faces and call ed us fools, if not levellers and jacobins, if we ventured to express any doubt at allot the wisdom and justice of any of these succusive measures; and, these writers stoutly denied, that it ever was intended to take off any of the taxes in 1808 ; and, of course, they maintained, that we, who felt dis. appointment, in this respect, were fools for our pains, and, indeed, they expressed themselves thus, that we, " were nature's fools," and not (be fools of the Minister. Never, surely, were any portion of mankind treated with such barefaced contempt as the people of England were, at the time referred to, by the venal writers of news-papers, pamphlets, maga tines, and reviews, who, seeing the people terrified out of their senses, by alternate alarms from with ' in and without, seemed to think that he was the best man, who could show the greatest degree of scorn fur their understanding an.l character. Had net this been their persuasion, would they have dared to tell us, that none but fools ever expected the Sinking Fund•to produce a repeal of Taxes, when it must still remain in the memory of every man, who was then at all conversant in political matters, that the repeal of taxes; the lessening of the tuxes; the making of their burthens less, was the promise held feria to the people by the supporteis of PITT ; nay, when it is notorious, that PITT. owed the establishment or his tremendous power to the opinion which the people entertained, that he had discovered, and would put in practice, the means of reducing the load of their Taxes? This, as the great end of his schemes, was so much talked of ; it k so well known, that this was so distinctly stated in the speeches in Parliament, and so many times repeated, that I am almost ashamed to trou. ble you with any proof of the fact ; yet consi dering that the point is of great importance, I will put the matter beyond all dispute by a reference to a work on the increase of the Resources of the kingdoM, published in 1799, under the name of Gsoace Rosa, who was thee a Secretary of the Treasury, and who is now Treasurer of the Navy and a Privy Councillor, and who, in the execution of the work about to be cited, was, doubtless, as sisted by PITT himself. Indeed, this must have been the case ; or, at least, it must be believed, that no. thing, upon such a subject, and under the name of his official Secretary, would be published without Pmt.'s previous approbttion. In this work, which is entitled, " A Brief Examination into the Increase " of the Revenue, Commerce, and Manufactures " of Great Britain, from 1702 to 1799 ; " in this work the hopeful effects of the Sinking Funds of 1786 and 1792 are pointed out, and the writer says - : " By the operation of these Sinking Funds, " without any further intervention of Parliament, the one txisting before the war will attain its 6t marimiro (4,000,0001. a year) most probably, in 1808, in tio case later than February 1811. As the dividends due on such parts of the old ' 4 debt as shall be paid off after the sinking fund '‘ shall have attained iti maximum, ael the annul. 6 ' ties which shall afterwards fall in, will be at the " 6 disposal of Parliament, the period of RE. " PEALING 7'AXES annually, to an amount " equal thereto, cannot be delayed more than nine, " ten, or eleven years." Need I'ask you, Gentlemen,' whether you have heard of any repealing of taxes? ‘Vliether you have felt your load of taxation lightened P Whe , ther . you pay less taxes, than you paid when this .plscenian wrote his beak in 1799 ? No . : These questions I need not put to you ; nor need I ask you what are your feelings towards those, who fed' you with hopes of a diminution of your burdens; nor need I, perhaps, say one more word upon the l subject 'of the Sinking Fund, not to have seen through which by this time"would argue a much greater want of discernment than I am disposed to attribute to any part of my countrymen,p and es pecially to you, u hige di - seeming faculties have, as to matters of this sort, been, of late, pretty well sharpened - try experience. Nevertheless, with the hope of leaving no ,possibility of bewildering any body in future, er . its regard to the, nature or effect of the Sinking Fund, I shall add kurteaddi. tional remarks ; but, as these remarks Wilt open to es qUite new views of the matter, and will ex tend to some length, I shall postpone them to my next; and I remain, in the meanwhile, Yubr faithful friend, WM. COBBECT. Skate Prison, Neiognir„ Monday, Sryloishr • • dillimi if1!1IIIII.i.. 4• a. • liVittllMG roil uotbjpaper: 13to St-et. 1510. Mail isillimes•rm ~:,.- -. -•! • - • • • OLD BAILEY, SEPT. 20. Bridget Prendergact, alias Betty Smith, a girl about - 15, was capitally indicted for privately stealing in the dwelling-house of Charles Cutts, to whom she had been servant, several articles of wearing apparel, valued altogether at 71. lls. The facts of the robbery were proved, part of the pro perty being found on the Pr isoner, and other parts she had sold to a milliner for 21. But the Jury only only found her guilty of stealing to the value of 395. William and Charles Luz:rence, brothers, were indicted for a highway robbery on Thomas Rut-1 lege, in James-street, Covent-garden, on the night of the 12th July last, by forcibly taking from his person liSs silver watch. The Prosecutor said, that having spent the evening at the Horns tavern, Doc tor's Commons, he was returning at past one in the morning, through James-street, to Oxford-street, where he lived; and a man rushing out of Rose street against him, knocked off his hat, and while he stooped for that, he felt his watch plucked from his fob, and the man ran off with it ; he was much intoxicated, and could not identify either of the Prisoners. But in a month afterwards, Humphries, a Bow-street Officer, found the Watch on the Pri soner William, and the key in the possession of the other Prisoner. In his defence trillium said that he bought the watch of a man at Deptford for 31. and made his brother a present of the key ; and he produced se veral witnesses to character ; one of ohom, a wo man in whose house he lodged, swore positively that he was in her house every night from the 4th to the 25th of July before twelve o'clock, and never out later. The Jury acquitted the Prisoners. Richard Ogle. aged 17, IVilliam Hamilton, aged 16, and 3lichael Doyle, aged 15, were capitaly in dicted for a burglary in the dwelling-house of John Atlington, at Tottenham, and stealing therein vari ous articles of drapery and hosiery, ealued at 20s. One of the witnesses against the Prisoners was an accomplice, who turned approver, named Richard 111 1 Namara ) who had been a bookbinder's appren. Lice; and from his testimony it appeared there was a gang of seven or eight of them, all boys about the same age, whe had formed a project for robbing through the country. The burglary was not sub. stantiated, but the Prisoners were found guilty of the stealing; and also upon another indictment for stealing under the valukuf ss. in the shop of James Wright. John Wheeler was capitally indicted for stealing a hurse value 31. a cart_yalue 305., a quarter of beef, and a less piece, valued at 51. 10s., 'and four carcases of lamb, on the 11th of August, the pro: perty of a butcher at Ratclitf, whose wife had purchased the meat of a carcase-butcher in White. chapel, and was conveying it to Rateliff, 'in a cart. The Prisoner followed her, told her he was a ser vant to the carcase.hutcher, that she had . not set tled for the whole of the meat with his master, and she must come back and speak to him, pro. 'Main to take care of the cart in the mean time. The woman went back, bait found she had been deceived by a false story ; and that the Prisoner during her absence had gone off with the horse, cart, and meat. She gave the alarm, and 'he was pursued a'nd taken,. The Jury found the • Prisoner Guilty; upon which the Prisoner, who is disabled of his left arm, which he carried in a crape sling, with Isis right hand caught up a large pewter inkstand which stood before the Jailor's clerk, on the side .of the desk, and in a paroxj sin of rage was abbot to strike with it the head of one of the witnesses who stood within his reach, which would in all probability have fractured his skull ; but fortunately his de. sign was instantly perceived by Mr. Newmin, the keeper, and one of the Turnkeys, who seized his arm. The Court ordered him to be instantly locked up in a solitary cell. CLEIIKENWELL SESSIONS, Sspr. 20. Before W. M.ruxr►4arNa, Esq. and a Bench of Magistrates. No Jury causes *ere tried here this day. A number of_Appeals, from different parishes, as to the settlement of paupers ; and several disputes he. tween masters and their apprentices, were heard, avid decided ; but nothing occurred of any interest except to the parties concerned. - • HORRID MURDER. • .7111 husband to atoccudifli • (Prom a German Paper.) There lately happened in the ntighb h ou r 004 ~ Frankfort.hpon.the:Oder, au event, vat' h • ' " itc is ii, sidered as au intlic‘ion of the Divine - venge a ,, ce A woman, conceiving that her husband, 4 ,1 1 „ ~--- a soldier in the Prussian service, had bejn 1o%; " ,the b at tl e (Jr jillit, in 1806, married anoth er ~ ' It turned' out that her lii lbb.ltid had hir t '.,•,,.. Wounded and taken prisoner by the F rench ' cure was sotaiiiitiltted,atid the soldier, on rercreri;f j o in e d one of the Prussian regiments or!ii e l i at i 7 period entered into the pay of France. A 6 ...,,er s ett, jug ti p tiarcli of three years in 'Spaiu, h e was ti:i, charged, and returned suddenly to his native c ow, try. On reaching his old habitation he api.e„,... to b.. , greatly rejoiced to find his i%ife alive. . 1. .. received him, according to the statement of seietil young persons who were at the door when the u'j soldier Arrived, with every Ind ri of allevann %oa t ', so long an absence might naturally he s orrow:l4 produce. It is prob.ible that she did not av ow i i i , new matrimonial connection she had funned. m in , partaking of some refreshment, and giving a she tt account of his adventures and escapes, h e c ,, a .. plained of being quite overcome pith fad ve. _ His wife advised him to retire to rest, which he did. She immediately conceived the horrid pur. o f instigating her new pose patch the unwelcome visitor its his st em I Alic e a short interval passed in devising the aw , :wi , and providing against detection, !dished their object, by strangling the poor man s and put his bud y into a sack. About no. night, in conveying it to the Oder, the Itei;fit of the corpse birst the sack, mid one of the Ir 4 wis protruded. The woman set about sewing up Ilia rent, and in her hurry and c on f us i on , 5 ,,, / ,,, i is at the same time the skirts of her accomplice's cum. Having reached the bank of the river, and niakin a great effisrt to precipitate his load as far hit o . the stream as possible, lie was dragged fruit, the elevated ground he had chosen, into the Ever with the corpse. lie contrived, partly by swimming, and partly by treading the bottom, to keep his hesd above water, for several minutes. The woman not considering liww . important it was to keep silent at this critical moment, filled the air with • her cri e s, and brought to the spot several peasants, who, at the hazard of their own lived, extricated the drusn. ing man from his perilous situation. ' Their surprise at finding so large a substance attached to him vas great, but much greatei when they found digit was a dead body. On inspection there appeared such minks of violence about the throat, as not to leave any doubt that the man had been murdered. The man and wotnan on being charged with the crime, made a full confession, and were consigned to the officers of justice. The inhabitants of Cannungate, Edinburgh, were amused on Friday afternoon with a very singular spectacle. A hare, pursued by a host of men, am men, and children, made its way up the street, arid hating entered the church-yard, she afforded considerable sport for some time. The long grass, the inequalities of the ground, the tomb.mote4 and the numerous inciceoires, serving to waive and distract the efforts of her innumerable ed. versaries. The multitude. ho'wever, hsvisg in. creased so much as to spread over the ci,urch. yard in every directi , in, puss 'was driven hen tier covert under a grave-stone, and the pursuit became general ; but, from the difficulties of ibs ground, it lasted near half an hour, when, drivel frum her last refuge, and worn I iut with 'ranger, she fairly gave in, at the door of the vialt whi.h contains.the remains of the celebrated Allan Rain. say. Swis tING:—A man of 'genteel appearance end ln.inuating. address has been practising depredations on Cie town fur about a fortnight, to a very cum. si.lerable extent, by. assuming different characters and titles. Helirst made his appearance at a family hotel under the feigned name of Colonel Smith, and he obtained expensive furniture of different niihol. sterers, al; of whom lid has defrauded. He is about ' 35 Years of age, near 6 feet in height, with a good face, and he wears powder in his clerical diiguisc. lie is supposed to be leryiNg contributions at the cast end of the town, as a merchant. CORONER'S Isisaucsv.—The wife of a tradesman in Pimlico was found drowned in the Thames, oar Chelsea College, on Friday last, and a Coroner's Inquest sat on the body on the following day. The deceased had gone on a visit to Wimbledon on the morning of Wedneadav, and as she was accustomed to tarry all night at times, "there was no anxiety about her until the following day, when it was ascertained that she had left Wimbledon at sit o'clock Oil Thiirsday et eniag. There was no (al deuce to shear how the deceased got into the water, but it was supposed 'she had fallen in by accidoit. The verdict was—Found• Drowned. _ _ . At the,Warwick Assizes,' List %seek, 11'.'fottol; M. Ruston, and 7'. Davies, eunvicteo of 1 ' 64 ringleadi;rs in a riot, in Birmingham, and for be ginning to demolish a house in . that Wan, received sentence of death. BIRTIIN7•• Ou the sth inst. at the seat of her father, the Earl of Ken' mare, in Irelaml, Lad , / Mary Atli G a ge, of aan aad heir, On NVeitoesda), the at Hammersmith, the Lady of James Scott, of a soot. ittri At Glasgow, on the 14th i. , lttitsit, Mr. Richard tlerinent, Old 'Change, Loudon* to Katharine, daughter of Willia m Nax well, lisq. of On Wednesday last, to St. I.tikei Chattel, Norwich, by the Reverend Paul Goluothier,. I). 0. ltichird Jackson, Highwood Niddlesex, Eiizahetli; yoUsgest dau,; mer of the late Reverend H. Satility, Chancellor of tliat titl owse. DIED. At Stneklin-upon-Tres, st,:sd 43, Mr. F. A. IleMeets , of Jewry-street. Atrigite. On thu ipiii ;Lt tvis itnive in Duehesb-street, the WWI daughter of Thnin:is 11•.ite, Lty. On Sunday I a 4, at Fumble), Mrb. Middleton, albino."' street. " ?RIC s roc flank Stork for open. 235 per Cent. Ited. ,S per Cent. Cutts. 64.65 e 651 4 per Cent. 5 per Cent. Navy 984-6 Y ESTERDA F.,1 61 ( 10 . •liolia Rondo 14 13 15 pr. Er. Bills 1 dis. 3 pr. Cons. for Ace. 651 b 6 66 Lowry 1.50. LONI)ON Printed net Published hi U. Lusstfr- id Its Sthirions.3 °ivies di. rhiet`il" .6 • PO LICE. UNION HALL.—John Mortlake was charged by several respectable inhabitants of Itotherhithe with cutting the banks of Mr. Surry's millpond at that place, and thereby endangering the safety of the neighbourhood. It appeared that the Prisoner re-. aided in a house, the garden belonging to which borders on the pond. Ile had. frequently been [ guilty of the imprudence complained of, and they had remonstrated with him without effect, and froM his general conduct they had reason to sup. pose he was insane. Goff, the Officer, who went to apprehend him, stated that. he found' him em ployed in boiling .something in a kettle over.a. fire which he had made in the midst of the Yawn, and the flames from which nearly reached the cell ! ing; there was no furniture in the house, not even a bed. - The Prisoner, on , being called on to _ac count for his conduct, denied having injured the banks of the pond at all ; so far from it, he had preserved the neighbourhood from destruction ; he -was proprietor of most of the land thereabout, and the only living reproentative of Sir Cloudesley Shovel, to whose immense property he was legal heir. All Bunhill.row, also, which' was claimed by Mr. Whitbread, of right belonged to him. With respect to the fire of which the Officer had spoken, it was made in self.dafenee; the house and neigh bourhood was annoyed to a great. degree with fleas, and.. h,e was making a fumigation to destroy them. The Magistrates, being convinced. of his. being in. sane l ordered him to be taken to the Wdrkhouse • and proper attentiou to be paid to him. An act of the most atrocious nature was lately committed in the Island of Sandsy, Orkney :—A farmer hating bad 19 cattle and's horses stabbed in the course of one night, This is the third time . tbe same person has lost cattle in ksimilar way. ___.L...... _.~.; .