The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1807-08-11 00:00:00

could avail in the a the vast force rereT of France, who had now . to apprehend on the Con. . meditated plata ot invasion, moment of time could never ^Awful alarm to this country , . -1; they were the result cif fas couvinced some more present must be imam. 41 were undone. He must wholly indequate. contended, that the Mi. !hie were the hest troops to be takes to till up and increase the Regiments ot the Line, and that a great Regular Aral was the °lily sue defence. When the privates from the Militia were marshalled under Officers of the Line, their braver 7, skill, and disci: phut, would become most conspicuous and service able, while the Militia could be easily recruited from the people by the usual hallos or would therefore give his hearty support to the present Ball. Lord DE DUNSTAN V .LLE opposed the priociplee of the Noble Lord who spoke last, is two. f o bi judgment, nothing could be more injurious tp rtie:t t the safety ot na't n. not more degrisie hi; and humiliating to the Gent .e•nen ot England, than thus to be reduces to the Win rank of llrill 6erjeants to the Regiments 01 we L no ; nor would these brave Militiamen feel the fasdu.atinn so, sae,. fully anticipated ny the Noble Lord (Bortagdon) He telt it in ills own mind. and he found it to be the sentiment and convietion ot several experienced Officers, whom be conversed with, and he could rot hesitate to oppose, and even to reprobate, such a duartne, respedin that constitutional defence of the country, the Militia ; more especially when the proposed augmentation of force, amounting only to About 40,000 men, in addition to the pre. Sent military establishment, was to be expelled from such an unnatural and impolitic change ; be would therefore oppose the second rea,:ing of this Bill. The Earl of SELKIRK, in an able speech, con demned this Aware:* es .futile. degrading. and ut terly inadequate to any good or useful purpose. He would most seriously ask the Noble Secretai y, whither he intended to adopt ne other mode of safety or defence for the country against the now gigantic power of the enemy, in full maid: for the opposite shores. than the wretched incr.:ase of 44.000 men i Did the Neble Secretary mean that we should sleep until roused by the many beating up a: .oat our ears, when it would be useless to awake. Co a redeiting mind there was only one means of safety mow tuniaining for this coml.. I try, and that was de eat-ma:se. Th. fi rst ea be Bless called out • a u distindion of sin ,24 gle or simnel. lie pcpu :aim of this matey can aimed ao standing army equal to toe ex igency of the nen. All mew noun be armed. and axe booed to reader such service as they are lig for. The King has a right ea cal upon them, it'd the Goverment& has a right to appoint the mums and sees of their service; kut they should, in meet imatances. sot be seen Apia than awone eine tram their berme Gement emisienot e be ehe jealo us y th ropeettig Resis Alte people" inaicts ageism the ' hle at etsatts tia in the Liras a greet eessber at poises atom be este. Wished el ever the country. amd on thecae's. so that at any boding point (as a /mode* most be ailkap prebeade4) a fame swim to that landing dbuld be gqiekly coiletted. This was the only etimm or be. dlre defence He would. tram dose considerations, appose this mischievous and impolitic measure. Strangers were ordered to withdraw. A division took place. Poe the second reading of the Bill, there appeared Oft; against it 13 ; majority 27 ;—oo proxies. Before our reAdatission. we understand that the second re....iing at the Irish Arms Bill was post. poz.ed till tomorrow, sad that the Commutation bill was brought up horn the Commons.—Adjourned. -ww.—..7••••••- r • • • .t less than the leey.tw.oaue tot to resist. with any effeEt. augmented by the Ruler of so obstacle or interruption tc 111.1 tinent of 'Europe. to his med which, before this moment bare been a matter of awful 14111 was sincere in his fean ; mature thouebt, and he wet efficient measure than the dtately resorted to, or we oppose this measure as wholl Lord RORINGDON co —__ HOUSE OF COMMONS. The Exchequer Bills Bal. and the Irish Treasury Bills Bib, were severally read a third time and passed • Lord CASTLEREAGH moved for a return of she number of Transpnrts, with their tonnage, em ployed on the borne service. during the year 1807, distinguishing those cahulated for cavalry, from those for infantry. wheilior copper-bottomed or otherwl : e, Itc. Itc.—Ordered. Mr. HUskisson presented the Copy of the Report of the Commisginners of Escise.—Ordered to he on the table, and be printed. The Stipendiary Curates' Buvension Bill was read titbit d time and passed. Mr. Ward presented the Second Report of the Committee upon the State of the Fortifications on the coast of Mika, belonging to Great Britain. A message from the Lerch acquainted the House that their Lordships had agreed to the Irish Spit it Drawback Bill, the Dublin Pavement 8411, and some private Bills. Mr. WHITBREAD snored, That there be laid before the House • return of the number of Volunteer Serjeants employed in the Rec r ui t i ng Service, together with the numbers recruited t.) , dam. Sm. Ac."—Ordered. WEST INDIA TRADE. Mr. ELLIS, pursuant to his entice of Friday kst, rose, and said, be should now move, •• That early in the next Sessions of Parliament. a Com mittee be appointed to inquire into, and Report to the Hoare, the Commercial state of the Wc.t India Colonies." He prefaced his motion by ob serving upon the hardships under which the West India Philters and Merchants now laboured, by reason of the total exclusion of the produce of those Colonies from the Continent, and the high rate of duty payable upon their importation into this coon. try. He adverted to the great Tiantity of West India produce now filling the warehouses through. out the kingdom. particularly the article of sugar, upon w!lich the duty had been lately reduced, but sot to the extent of relieving the Merchants from the embarrassments they at present suffered under. The m4tket being at present resat:led, the ware houses became consequently overstocked. and it the Planter to transfer his iy. His intention was to ass as much as possible. by liars the more faqir►% in,, the dimmed of the produce now on hands and un podupt-tive. He concluded by particularly calling the .atkention of the Right Hon. Gentleman (thee Ohaniellor of the Exchequer), to this very im portant subje&. Mr. G. H. ROSE. in seconding the motion of his Hon. Friend, most highly approved of the measure, and only regretted that it had not been brought forward at an earlier period of the Sessions. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, he had not the sligheet objelion to the mo tion of the Hon C-ntleman. and agreed with him in considering it nne of the most in•eresting subjeas that cduld oc:upy the attention of that House. As long as he should Rave the honour of holding his present situation, he should feel it his duty, and consider's' it the duty of the Covermueut, to low no time in invest , gating, and giving the best atten tion in their power to WM suhji•R. Mr. LUSHIN.; FON thought it was high time for toe Government to take notice of the subjedt, and laenented that it had not been brought forward at an earlier period of the Sessions, when some mea sure might have been resoeted to, which would have afforded some relief to the persons so deeply injured. It was now, he feared. too late to be of any . use t the ruin had already been completed, and taking it up at this time, was like providing a man with a reprieve, a week after his s -ntence had seen executed. Had this subjea been taken up in time. , and had not the late sudden and extraordinary dis selution of Parliament taken place, many would have been relieved, who now must suffer; and he considered every word of the Report then lying on the table of the House upon this subjeft, as a refuta tion of that falsehood introdu:ed into His Majesty's Speech on the late dissolution of Parliament ; namely, that it would not create any inconvenience in the public burin as. Mr. HIBBERT considered some mestere, upon this subjeft highly necessary. The Motion was then put and agreed to. Mat not in the power of capital in any other WA: c4.irimute the present dute *Such means they would COMMITTEE OF FINANCE. Mr. RANKIiS presented the Report of the Com mittee of Finance, upon the respedlive offices be longing and appertaining to the Bank of England. He said, had t.le Committee been enabled to lay this Report before the House as early as he wished, he should have felt it hi. duty, as Chairman of that Committee, to have gone further than merely moving o That the Report do lie upon the table," as was then his intention to do. This was the una nimous wish of the Committee: but, notwithstand ing the well-known liberality of the Bank of Eng land, whose readiness to inform the Committee, and whoa* assistance greatly facilitated their proceed ings, they were not able to bring it to any thing of a conclusion until now. Had it been laid hem, the House at an earlier period of the Sessions, he should have felt it his duty, as an individual Mem ber of Parliament, to have proposed certain Resolu tions upon this Report. Mr. Bankes then brought up the Report of the Committee of Finance, re &peeling Offices, Places, and Sinecures, granted in reversion on Great Britain and Ireland. Upon this I Report, he said, the Committee had lost no time in proceeding. but were now under the necessi•y 0.1 presenting it in an unfinished and imperfect state, as they had no, boo,. able to get in the returns %vita 'hat esnedition they had hoped they should do. From Scotlaod, a vet y small part of the returns had been received, and from Ireland not more than one or two ; no refieetion, however, was to be thrown upon the persons making these returns, as it was not above a month since the Committee issued their instrultions for that purpose. It was there-. fire for the House to consider, whether any pro.: carding was now necessary to be taken upon this Report The Reports were severally ordered to lie on the table, and, with their respeeive appendixes, to be panted. The Treasurer of the Commissioners of West minster-bridge, presented the annual accounts, which were ordered to lie on the table. _ _ Mr. M'Creagh, from the Transport Board, also probented the annual amount of the tonnage, &e. of ships employed by that Board. &c. &c. Ordered to lie on the table, and be printed. Sir C. POLE observed upon the necessity of having the Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry laid before the public. The last Report he understood contained a (klicit of 30,0001. in one particular department, he therefore wished to know if it was the intention of His Majesty's Government to take this subjea into consideration during the re. cess of Parliament ? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER answered. that it certainly was the intention of His Majesty's Ministers to give every possible facility to these proceedings; and would consider it a matter of grace andfavour, if the Hon. Baronet, or any other Hon. Member, would make any communica tion to diem, which they might think expedient. Mr. WILLIAM SMITH presented a Petition from Dotlor Nathaniel Highmore, praying the interference of that House in his behalf. He stated, that the Petitioner had been admitted a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and afterwards took his 'de gree of Dotlor of Laws, having previoifsly studied the Civil and Common Law for upwards of eleven years, for the express purpose of practising as a Civilian in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Court, and having thus qualified himself, he ap plied to be admitted a Civilian, but was refused by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Head of the Court, upon the grounds of having previously been in Dea con's orders. He then applied to the Court of King's Beiich, who declared they had no jurisdic tion ; so that in the sequel he had no remedy in any Court whatever, and was left wholly without an appeal to any known jarisdittion. This the Hon. Gentleman considered as a case of great public im portance, and thought some legislative provision should be made by that House to prevent the evil in future. His intention at present was merely to lay the Petition upon the table, with a view to found some measure upon it in the course of the next sessions. The ADVOCATE-GENERAL (Sir John Nichol)), said, that as the Hen. Gentleman did not .1 mean to makeany specific motion upon this subj.& at present, it was nit his intention, therefore, now to enter into any general view of the sublet/. but Merely to state, that the Petiticn contained great ,inisrepteaentatios of takfts, aid greater misrepresent. atlas of the legal principles applicable a ens foes. Mr. Barham brought up the Report of the Com mittee upon the detention of nation Writs, which was read, and ordered to lit on the table. RF.VERSIONARY GRANTS. Mr. BANKES row, in pursuoece of his notice, to make his promised motion upon this important sublet. He said, he should take up the attention of the House but a very short time in alluding to the Bill which they had passed, and had beta lately rejefted in the Upper House. That Bill, it had been alleged, tended to trench upon the prerogative of the Crown ; but, in his opinion, it appeared to touch very little upon that subjea. On the con trary, he thought it would rather restore that prero gative to a state of more ample and full exertion, for there was at present an undue and improper an ticipation of it in the granting of olive. in rever sion. The existence of such a prerogative led to a more fit and proper mode of disposing of offices, than if they were on formly to be given away at the time a melitorious and praise-worthy a&ion or piece of service was per formed. Upon such principles and grounds. then, he really conceived, that by the Bill he had had the honour of bringing into that House, the preroga tive of the Crown wou' d rather be strengthened than weakened ; the person coming into possession of an •• once, knowing that he is to enjoy a right which is vested in him by his own merits. and his own right, instead of being derived from any other • source. There were instances in which persons were not qualified for the discharge of such trusts, ani the execution of the duties of those offioes for which the grants were originally made, and parti eularly those persona of the other sea 6 which situ. *bons, if given away at the time they became vacant, no Miaista could think of so disposing of them. It was proper that the causes of their disposal should, in every case, be fully known ; and this would be accomplished by their occupying the at tention of the public. In point of economy too it had been said, that the Bill albs led to ,rid not tend. in any degree, to pry mote it ; but, in his opinion, it did also tend praftically to purposes of economy. because some of those of which have been usually granted in reversion, were Loge in point of emolument, while to these offices no duty at all. or at least very trifling, was annexed. —lt might happen. that some of these *dices might pass under the review of the Committee of Friance; some rot> , might advise the legislature to avoid renewing, and of others they might advise the total discontinuance ; but by the rejation of this Bill, the accomplishment of these objeOts was postponed to a more distant period, and in the mean time they might chance to be in the pos session of young persons, which would necessarily tender them eases of greater hardship. On these principles he conceived the House adopted the Re solution of the former Committee, and recognising the justice of their views, concurred unanimously in bringing In and passing the Bill; which lie had the honour of carrying up to the other House.— What the tate of it there war, had been shewn by the search which had been made ot the Journals of the House of Linde. It was sufficient to state, that it was pet off by a division on the question of adjournment, to a time beyond which it was im probable this Session would extend, and therefore the Bill might he consiJered for the present as com pletely lost. Now, in order that no inconvenience might wrise to the public service, by its being con sidered that no imitation was put upoa the prero gative. as originally proposed by tow House ; or tnat it might not be thouguo that because a legis lative measure had tailed, that prerogative was therefore to come naturally into full force to any extent whatever, it appeared to him that it would be becoming in that House humbly to lay before His Majesty their desire upon tots subjett. Ibis was necessary, is order that th.t LOU the other House of Parliament might yet have a fair and lull opportunity of re-connecting this subject, before any prejudice to the public should take place, by conferring these situations otherwise than was in tended by the Bill in question. He had thought, that an humble Address was the best mode of bring ing this matter again before the House during this Session, as he was anxious to avoid giving any co lour or pretext for an opinion, that he was uregu . larly interfering with any of the funftions of tue Legislature. The more be admired and loved the Constitution, the more he wished to preserve it within its natural funftions, and therefore he was aware ot what others had suggested to him, that if he had proposed a Resalutios ter the adoption of the House in the present instance, it might, it adopt ed, be by same looked upon as carrying the appear. ance of endeavouring to do that by their own aft, which ought only to be done by them in conjunction with the other branch of the Legislature. The mode. however, which he had chalked out, did not appear to him to interfere with any other branch of the Leg's- Lture ; and there were other instances where subjects I had been under consideration, and inquiries pending, where it had bees found desirable, for a certaitt time and purpose, that the power of a puticular brands of prerogative should be suspended. It was, there fore, with this view of the subjerft, that he had to propose a nsotian o to which he ousted there would be no objedion, as it would be in direta conformity to, and consisteney.with, the resolution of the Finan cial Committee of last Parliament, and which had been most deliberately approved of and sanCtioned by this one. The Hon. Gentleman then concluded with moving— " That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, preying, that he may S. greesuu.ly pleated but to g.•iit any offices, places, pensions, or elltaly, is fateirUil, er lit plat lives, we the b..elit .urvivoiship, %Lad six months alum the meeting of the next Session of Pailliment." before this m oion was put from the Chair, Mr. BANK E:S added, that during next Scssiun of Par • lament he should take an opportunity of submit ting a motion for the purpos e o f d iscuss i ng an d re vising this subjed. The motion was seconded by Mr. Alderman COMBS. Mr. WARD then rose, and said, that the purpose of his rising was to express what he believed it was competent to him to d s upon such an o:r.asidu, his surprise at the result of die in4d ries of the Commit tee, which had been appointed 014 a few day. A4O to search into the Journals of the House of Lords. It had been found that the Bill which had passed the House, relative to the abulititin of reverswns, had minded by the Hour * o lt or d s ; aid at this l ie ',prised, because it appear e d somewhat nac WM) etitntional, that whit had paned almo s t withoao7 position. or at lend with a very slender oppos tit; " in the one House, should !se lig' ly treated and t rejected in the other. I t was a ns our of retor t '" s ; both on accou.tt of th e noturent eiv t o.i t a ;w.f.' a , the impression which it evi nce d as to we dispsiti a of the Upper Ho us e of P ar li ament not to - with the lower one in those views which thy had taken ass in the necessity of inquiring into abeses in every branch of toe public expenditure. They (the House of Commons) knew nothing of the details of what had p asse d up o n tha t raj" ion, and it they had any indite@ mane of kneeing them, it would b e thought highly irregular.to allude to them. 'They must therefore natarelly su p pose that a measure wtoch had already passed, or received the soudioa of one Home, was debased and argued with a lun attendance in the other. They of course must ima gine that all His Majesty's „Waists-es of the tipp er House %sere present upon such an occasion, odor 'decidedly to support, or m an f u lly to oppose the measute then und e r di scussion; or t h ey tarot bs. love, that if by any accident they were prevol:-d from beirg present, they, out of regard fo ttit House, and out of respell to the cou:itty, outd o have empowered other Noble Lords to too ,e. ceded to the :idiom nmeat which had been proposes., in order to Afford them an opportunity tit after wards intending in their places. Toe,' could 'it possibly imagine that the Noble Mons.., s in sh e other House coulJ have submitted t the Jodie. of having a hest) decision pronou iced up in tuella measure, without Oleic being im 'citable to trust either iustifferoble negligence, or inn lees of a sonless worthy description. We do not ki»w wh s propo o o the rejedion of that Bill, or by seli on it we, sop. ported; but they had tb- setiOadoxi in their Gen minds to conceive it was quite imp.issible Ilia mat rejedioo could have been proposed by one of their Lordships' number, its the enjoyment of a revessioa himself. and supported by another Nob/eLeed, who had ever evinced an avidity fur reversions!, Krum. If, however, the case was otherwise, the antherity of such a decision in the upper House ought us weigh very little against the united opinion of the House of Cotnmons. Ndtsvithstaedlug the cob fated wedge of the authority of the aristocracy, by which some minds sti;et be weighed down, he should still be bold enough to adheis to the Jo charge of what he conceived to be his duty ; and although the Haim of Lords had put A:1 end to that Bill, yet the House of Commons ought still to persevere in sons a way, as to proven the cool taking i place. He hoped the mover *mod again oe !brought forward in toe course of the next oesuoti and if again rejeded, that it would be persevered ie. in another, and again in another, tilt Cmt ob. jell was attaiiied. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE4OER said, he did not rise to oppose the no..iun n soi or. fore them, but he merely wished to 'sprees toe grounds of his former suppers to the 8.11, and his motive for not opposing it upon the present occo. sirs*. The Hon. Gentleman who had spoken Lao. had made the condo& of the Ministers elsewiteie, the suhjee of severe animadversion ; but et appeased by the course adopted by these, and outer Neale Lords in the Upper House. that the. measure was not considemili of that great and extreme impoteance which that Hon. G2raldinan had d..7strobc.t. the Get was. Ministers had not looked up ri tut Bill is such a light as to make them give sliest Jll: . j,eiii, sup port to it in all its statics Sam: H inoiraute Gentlemen, however. ii. this House, seemed :o look upon it as tending to promote etooeseir in the pubiic expenditure ; wOlie others concaved tt formidable, as trenching loom rite I'. arogatiee of the Crown. From both of th se lie begged leave to separate himself, as not beiv, involved iii any of their opinions. He could not conceive it to be a Kill that had Any °hi:amoebic effect up .n the Pre rogative of the Crown It was, ind,•ed, a matter of nice calculation to ascer ago wheth r, upon the whole, it W Ai prejudicial to, or tending to the ad. vancement of, the Prerogative of toe Crown. It might diminish the neon ire of persons in unite favour the Prerogative of the Clown might be ea• ercised, within a given time ; but it would increase the amount of favours to be granted, at one parti cular time, and might leave the matter very little effected, either in one way or another. It im posed no new burden, of any kind. upon the people, while it tended equally to sati , !) , indi vidual claims mote Liberally, without providing . for whole families. It was, no doubt, the duty of all Members of Parliament to one*, but when they felt a subjed to be of no material import ance, they might surely be allowed to all in ins Cline way upon this occasion, as upon any other. Although he was not disposed to oppose it upon any public ground, yet he could not see et in such a fa vourable light, as to make it a eubjed, which he was particularly called upon anxiously to support. As to the decision of the other House of Parliament, be could not see any reason why their exercising their privilege, and giving a contrary judgment, should be viewed as a matter of surprise. Whether tent decision was right or wrong, he could not take upon himself to determine; he should only observe, that its his opinion nothing could be more mischievous to the common interest, than that the one Huase should assume a didotorial authority in Legolotioa. For what reason should it be disputed, that the House of Lords had not as complete a right to exer cise its authority as the House of Commons loci f The present motion was quite unexceptionable, :i5 the Ilonse of Commons had as good a right to si.- terposie in the exercise of the pre-ogotive of e Crown, as the other House had to itaterrotc in their measures. It was, however, surely. a matter of fair consideration. and ezuemciy reasonable, that this House should at sit aid of the Committee of Finance now sitting. and prevent their deliberations from being rejudged by any subsequent reversionary grants. Upon tort ground alone. he thought that such a motion as the present one might have been made with great pro oriel'', entirely uncnnneded with what passed in the ether House of Parliament with raped to the lii.l now under consideration. As to the alleged inde cency of conduct of those who, in the otter &Iwo!, (ppm di the Dill, that was a matter to be dioar:nei J by ocors, as well as the Honourable Gcnileoso• who had stated it. fire rejedine of that Bin mu•t be perledly unconoeded with any interest: fe!. ' f