The Sun. — London, England, 1807-11-26 00:00:00

TO TUE EDITOR OF THE SUN. I,ErrER VI. 5I f: ~ I promised in my last Letter„to point out in the Judgme' nts of the Prize Courts, the clearest illustra tion and continuation of the arguments which 1 have irteci SirWti.LlA:st GRANT, in pronouncing the sentence of the COurt of Appeal on the case of the William, Trtfry,,on the I tth of March, t 806, took a review of the cases of Colonial Trade which had been pre % decided ; some of his observations are so strik inly apposite to our prewnt thscussion, that I must ibeg leave to trouble you with copious extraa,s. It mist be recolletited that the point which I am now to establish is, that allowing. (for the sake of arvat:ll9 that the adoption of Test of importation by the Courts of Prize, would have precluded dis enion on the subjea by the Negotiators, no such Test ever •tufa adopted ; every attempt to establish a flithfii I criterion having been frustrated by the in genuity of the Traders. ereeet this purpo,e simply, it would not be ne cee,ary to cite so largely as I shall do the words of the I.,iiister of the Rolls ; bait I find in the judgment zibeee-mentioued, something that is relative to every part of thediscussion before us, something that elu cidates every observation that I have made, and much that, after 'we' have cleared away the alledged em ban resitnent,will enable us to appreciate the intrinsic malts of the Eleventh Article. I ain not so partial to my own writing as to exped to make a matter clear which Sir WILLIAM GRANT has left obscure. eletll therefore oared nearly the of the judgment, and :if afterwards the case remains in &Jute, I Anil make no attempt to remove it. Sir WILLIAM GRANT, having stattd the illegality of the direa trade, proceeds as follo,ws : " What then, with reference to till's subje6t, is to becOnsidered as a direa voyage from one place to another ?. Nobody has, ever. supposed that a mere deviation from the straightest and shortest course in w loch the voyage could be performed,would change . its denomination, and make it cease to be a dire& one within the intendment of the instruaions. No thing can depend'ou the degree or the diredion of t he deviation; whet her it be of more or fewer leagues, whether towards the coast of Attica or towards that of America. Neither will it be contended that the peiet from which the commencement of a voyage is to h(:e reckoned, thanges as often as the Ship stops in the course of it ; nor will it the more change, bee coteie a party may elio`eSe arbitrarily by, the Ships' Pepers or. Otherwise, to give the name of a ditinCt voyage to each stage of a progreSS. The act of shifting the Cargo front the to the shore, and from, the shore lack again into the Ship, dues not necessarily amount to the termination of one ,Vayage and thecommeneernept of another."— * " * " Let it be supposed that the partybasa motive for desiring to . make the voyage appear to„begin at some other place than that of the original lading, and that he therefore lands the cargo, purely and solely for the purpose of enabling himself 1Q Vim ; th a t i t was at such other place that -the goods were taken on board, would this contrivance at all altar the truth of the Wonld not the real ! voyage still be fro ii the place. of the, original shipment; : notwithstantling the attempt to give it the ofipearance of having begun from a difrerent pklce? . The truth' may not ilways . b4f discernible, bnt.when it is discovered, it is according to the urn!, and not according - to the run -low, that we . ar, to give to the transaction its *charader and delta, - rf time voyage from the place of lading t) not really entled o it matters not 11) what . Gas the . ptl,/y may have evincM his (Moire slaking it ap. I ; ., ; re , That:those aSis have been attenii.:d with tronclle and expellee may, weigh as 607/ wshinc./2.6. of evidence, to !thew them ,purpose for . 'Nvliich, the a6ls were du is ; but / the evasive fiur. 1 / 64 be atimititM or proved, we,can Clever le hOund to acre/it as a subsiitulc fur the ohnrvance of the Law, t h e means , h owever operuse, which have bees employ- , ed 16 cover a breach of it. Between the neinn/ irtiL pertation,.by which a Nyage is really entletl, and the eJlanrat/e importation, which is to give it: the aiy,l4rance "of' being ended, therei,must necessarily ha a great resemblance. The aas to bee done must ahnost entirely the same ; but there . is this dif ference between them : _The, landing oflhe cargo, 'the entry at the Custom . ..house, and the pay nent of sdch duties as the law of the place requires, are rte es!iary ingredients in rigenninchnporiation ; the trole I,..lrpiA' of the owner cannot he enacted with out:them. But in a fiaitious importation they are mere voluntary ceremonies, which have no natural connexion whatever with the purpose of sending on • the cargo to another market, and which, therefore, would never be resorted to by a person entertaining that purpose,. except with a view of giving to the voyage which he has resolved to contin'ne the ap pearance of being broken by an importation which ra at n r really to tnake.".—.*io****l;-*** He continues with more particular reference to the case before the Court, and adds, " It can never be contended, that an intention to import, once enter tained, is equivalent to importation!; and it would be a contradiclion in terms to say, that, by aas done after the original intention has been 'abandoned,: such original intention has been carried into'execu- - tion. Why should a cargo which there was to be no attempt to sell in America have been entered at an American Custom-house, and voluntarily 'sub jeeted to the payment of any, even the most trifling, duty ? not because importation. was, or in such a case could be, intended, but because it was thought expe : - dient that something should be done which in a British Prize Court might Pass, far importation. Indeed the Claimants sEuicro HAVE CONCEIVED that the in quiry to be made here was, not whether the importa tion WAS real or pretended, but whether the PRE TENCE had assumed a particular FORM, and was ac companied with certain circumstances which by some POSITIVE RULE were, in all cases, to STAND FOR importation, or to be .conclusive evidence of ,it i . and it has, I understand, been said, that our departure from that SUPPOSED rule, in the case of the Essex, Orne, was a surprise upon the Merchanta of Ame rica, who had by our former decisions been led to believe that proof of landing, and payment of duties, in America, would in every case be absolutely deci sive of the legality of the voyage *****"*." After having looked . very attentively into all the cases in which, as far as I am aware, this sort of question has occurred, I conceive not only that it will be impossible to point out a judgment in which any such UNQUALIFIED DOCTRINE has been laid down, but that the judgment, antecedent to that in the Essex has clearly and unequivocally NEGATIVED the existence qf the alle dged RULE (f DECISION. , The first case of the kind, that of the Polly, Lasky, occurred in the High Court of ADMIRALTiC,,. in February, Ism) ; the Learned Judge of that Court expressly disclaimed the attempt to (Nine what should be deemed universally the TEST of .a Berri% FIDE ins portation. He did indeed lay- great and just stress upon the payment of the American Import Duties, which was there sworn to ha : lie - been actually made, but still-it w a s as E v i DE Nck; !date Butc. l / 4 ya)E bit . pollution,. " The very state»ont that the thi ng .i n qu4stion•was. the bona fides ol'ilie importation, did, qf necessity, exclude the supposiati, that ortE UNIVER SAL EFFECT -was, in all cases, to be ascribed to a .... given set of .c ircamstanees,-Othoat . regard to the manner :in which late it df4as evidence might 4 varied by other circumstances, with Ivhich, in Of ferent cases, tl,ey might be found contrasted or combined." * k .. * * * • It is to. be observed, that ,this case of the .molly wag previous to the year 180 t, and appears to have - been that on which the King's lido° . cate founded his Report. Sir WILLIAM Glt ANT proceeded to cite the cases determined on appeal since that period. Th.o Mercury, Roberts, "by all the documents found on board, appeared to have been laden at ChUrleston, and, among those documents, there was an attesta tion sworn at the Custoin-Hou'se, that all the parts of the cargo, which were of foreign growth or mann faaure, had been legally imported, and the duties thereon paid or seemed; it came out, howeverOn the depositions of the witnesses examined ou th e standing interrogatories, that the cargo had been laden at. the HAVANNAII, and it never had been landed at CHARLESTON, the place of Ilse alledged shipment. It being evident that the touching et CHARLESTON was for the mere purpose of giving to the voyage the colour and appearance of having begun there, we affirmed the sentence of condemnation, without previously endeavouring to ascertain whether any duties had really been paid in America. The nue nature of the transaetion being clearly ascertained, it seemed imtnaterial(to inquire whether the payment qf duties' had been one of the means employed t o disguise it.", * .* * * * " The cargo" of ilia Schoener Freepott " had been landed, and remain ed some time on shore ; ,but the Ivlait,:r admitted in his' claim that, the cargo was intended for the Spanish iVest India market, and did not even imert any purpose of importation into America. We therefore Aimed the sentence of condemnation.— The cargo having been landed, it might be taken for granted, that whatever duties were payable had been paid, but as the case stood, we thought the fa 67 im material, and therefore diretied no inquiry with re gard to it. . * * * Sir WILLIAM cited other cases, and ragain` mentioning " The SUPPOSED principle o/ bolding,' that `'landing and PAYMENT of Dulles in AMERICA did absolutely, and under all circumstances, 'legalize the sabsepent voyage," he adds, I have strewn that there was not ONE decision in which A?IY SUCH PRINCIPLE HAD BERN ASAERTED or imPuED, and that there were at least two decisions which stood in DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO IT." • It is impossible to read the foregoing manes; without asking;•—»if the letter of Lord HAWKESI3us,y to Mr, KING, in t 80 t, was either calculated or in tended to bind the Courts of Prize. as to their rules of evidence, how comes it that even the exigence of such a letter was never alluded to by the Court ? How -Comes Sir WILLIAM SCOTT 4o overlook all his judgments? How happenedit that wlien Sir WILLIAM GRANT, when expressly refuting the charge of change of principle, thought it unnecessary to take the slightest notice of the alledged , promise? Because - Sir WILLIAM GRANT considered the letter; as every body must who thinks for ten minutes on the subje&, as a mere piece of information as to the circumstances of evidence which had theretofore weighed most strongly on Sir WILLIAM SCOTT, ignorant then of the degree in which deceitful testi- ~ mony might be found. Had Mr. ,KING applied but a little earlier, when our Courts were still less in formed of the extent of American fraud, it would probably have been the lot of Lord GRENVILLE, as , Secretary of State, to communicate a report, in which the landing of the goods (without any notice of duties) would have been the supposed test. Had he applied a few years later, Lord HAWKESBURY, Lord: MULORAWR, Mr. Fox, or Lord HOWICK, would have told him, that it would not be sufficient to prove the payment qf the duties, if there were other evidence calling into question the sineerity of the importation. But, Sir, if the judgment pronounced by • Sir WILLIAM GRANT, in March, 1806, involved a ievo-, cation or a contravention of a solemn promise mad& by Government, under whose authority did he .speak ? Who composed, in March, 1806, the Court of Appeal in Prize Causes, of which the Master of the Rolls was only the mouth 7 piece ? Whose care' was it in March, 1806, to preserve4the honour of the Country in its foreign relations ? Let the advo cates of the late : ginisters answer these questions to themselves ; before ,:they repeat their censure upon Lord.HAwxzsault:Y. Conceiving,! Sir,:: that the charge against Lord HAWKESIIIYA.L.A . JAving made a hasty and -gra tuitous proMise . t.r4rica," is founded in total misconception, .it is hardly necessary to repel the charge of " breaking it in a flagrant and vexatious manner." By what a& of Lord HA WKESHURY, or his Colleagues, was the supposed promise violated ? No farther certainly, than by permitting the Court of Admiralty to act, as it always had acted, upon detected fraud! I say, permitting, for the pra6tice did not spring front Government, but from the Chair of Justice in Doc - tors' Commons. Ministers neither originated the praCtice (strangely conceived wrong!), nor put a stop to it. How was it under the late Administration? Did Sir Wit.i.rAis SCOTT, in complaisance, in his equitable administra tion of justice ? The very idea is a libel. Did those Ministers instruct him afresh, or reverse his decrees ? Certainly not. It surely follows, then, that as far as there is any deMerit in the breach of a promise never made, it is shared with the Court of Admiralty, equally by Lord GRENVILLE and the Duke of PLAIT.. LAND, Lord HENRY PETTY, and Mr. PIIIICEVA L. gir,. no promise was either made or broken; Lord Hot.Liktri. and Lord AUCKLAND had the matter freely before them ;'—how wisely they stipulated for the honour and advantage of their Country, shall be discusspd in the next from DECIUS. MAILS. AR/LIM:S-2 Lisbon, 3 Waterford. Dy.s.-.2 9ottenburgli, 2 I )ut)lin, Woterfor,t. PRICE OP STOCKS THIS D- I AT O'CLOCK. C 0115016 • Tfi E SLT N. 60 . 004 QUIS DICZRIt FALSUM Alit/LAT.? LONDON,• Ttio . It iDAY , NOVEMUitito 26, 1807. Tuts morning a Lisbon Mai) arrived, :brought by the Prince of Wales Packet, in eleven days passage. It is a most. singular circumstance that Madrid Gazettes dowtrto the 4th inst. bad been received in Lisbon, which do not contain the Prqclamation which We yesterday laid before our Readers, nor de they men tion any thing . of a plot having been diicovered. This circumstance is calculated to throw some degree of doubt upon the intelligence which reached us- -yes terday : we are nevertheleis still inclined to give it credit. It is. very well known that the Prince of Peace has long been 'desirous of getting the Prince of Asturias out of the way, in order that, in case of the death of the king, the succession might fall upon abrother of the Prince of Asturias, for w hose welfare the Prince is supposed to be particularly interested. BUONAPAKTE will, we have no . doubt, give his sap port" to the plot to.a certain extent,, liveause it will forward his own views-; but it is not to be sup posed he will suffer the Prince of Peace to realize, his ambitious projeas. The French, Army has not yet entered Portugal.' The Russian Fleet, consisting of seven Sail of the Line and two Frigates, entered the Tagus on the Loth inst. under English colouri. The Raven Sloop or War was fired, at by the forts while laying in the Tagus on the Gth instant,- so that we may ennaider nurselve4 nt _ _ denunciation in the Mr niteur may has.i the etre of -driving the Prince Regent to seek relief from the only -Nation that can give., it.—Lord SraheeFol ,o arid: Consul GAMBIER still remain at Lisbon. . The following are the only articles of interest 14. ' BAYONNE, OCT. Ig.—The army, of observa4 tion has already begun to put itself in motion. Yetl' terday a Corps of 2,400, belonging to General BORDE'S .Division, entered Spain ; others will fol. 19w successively. It appears that the Troops march straight to Salamanca, where the French Head-quar ,ters are to be established till further orders."—lia drid Gazette, O. 27.) the " INYpv.-NE, OCT. g3.--Part of coliugu— Legation from Paris, passed through this City for Madrid. The Whole of General LA BORDIeII division, with its' artillery, has entered Spain ; that of Gene ral LA ROCHE is following. On the 20th arrived 10 0 . waggons, for the purpose of conducting provision and other effects belonging to the Army. Gener4l KELLERMAN, son of- the Marshal, of that name, in also arrived. " It appears that the Commander in Chief," JtJa NOT, will not leave this place .till the egtiv instat • by which day all the French Troops will have entorid. Spain."--(Madrid Gazette, Qa. 0 0.) A Russian Squadron, of seven Sail of the , LitA .. and two Frigates, entere d the Tagus previous to the sailing of the Packet ; a Portuguese Messenger came over in her. This morning advice was received at the Fillot, 441ka11-Jouse of the arrival of thelpdus off c l'Oq , " mouth ; she left Madras the 26th, July. - :` • Lord MINTO left Madras 21st July, for Bengal. The InduS on the 20th September spoke the Arno. rican Ship Columbia, which sailed from Batavia the Bth February, 1807, and from the Isle of France the 12 . 3 d of August; she gave the importalit ineel• ligence of ten Sail of .China Ships being off La gullas ,the 12th of September, under convoy of the Lion, bound, as supposed ; for the Cape, having . had a very long passage from Prince of Wales Island. The Marquis Welleiley 'had arrived at thelsle Of France as a Cartel. The Indus did not touch at S;. Helena. • Yesterday, about twelvt, o'clock, His Ms.risra arrived at the Queen's Palace, from Windsor, where • the Duke of KENT was 4 7 waiting to receive Ht Mtses'ry. The Dukes o( Yank; Cutattattida4h and st,ssax, arrived awn atter, tapay their reapeas to thsir RovAL FATMSIII. of t t two cecloot Hit JESTY ' held a private Leveed which Was attended blr i, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of Y. Bled, tnc Lord titancellor, the Secretaries of State for eft llorad and foreign Departments, the Fiist Lord of the Aaie , iniralty, the Master-General of the Ordnance, the chancel.. lbr of the E xeliAluer, the MO Advocate General, she Rea corder of Lo::don, Eaiis Ilarliutst and Pembroke, yistwunt Stuploru, Lord ;givers, Major. General Claufnrd, Lieulenank Colonels Stopfurd and Napier, Major Fletciier, Captain! Man Fen and Shepherd, and Messrs. Ryder, Fawkner, arla Villiers. The following bad the honour of being presented to Hea IVIAJEsTy-: Thai Rev.,Dr. Vernon, by the A rchhishop,of Carderbutfi upon being noutin:tted to tic translated trorn the Bla hokqiCiP ot to the Archbishopriik of York, Major.(generat Crauturd, upon his bnin4 appointed to tNe , command of the 2,41 Regiment Qt Dr,iglion (guards. The /don, Richard. Ryder, upon his' appointed Midge Advocate-General, in, the room of Mr. liond, resigned. #. Earl l'entomke, upon h!..; I„ving appointed Governig Guernsey, and upon his return to England. Capt. Shepherd, ol.thr Royal 'Navy, of his Afajestri the Wilmer, by ~4ord, Mulgravir, upon his return twtir Copenhagen. ' Li,ut—colonel Stopferd, by his brother, Viscount Stor ford, upon his return hum Copenhagen. - tly t Lieut.-COL:let Napier, upon his being appointed to comm,inibe gad Regiment, or Gordon Highlanders, air , d (g upon' h.& return tram Copeoligen. s • • .\l4jor lleteher, tl.o Royal Engi nee r s , u pon his rata ril Mow. ‘;ppenhagen Captiiii Man g er), of the Royal Navy, upon hie return froth : -Copbilhagen. f-t4.A4AINSTI gaVe private'audiences to the Arch - - biShom ut CANTEItI3!.7R y and YOR X, Lords HA WKSI . BURY and MULURAVE, tfIr.CANNING, PaacaVAP, and Mr. BOND, who laid before His MAJEsTY lb° Proceedings of several Courts Martial. HIS MAJ itSTY. beide Pay 'Council, at which E 3 ° PElthaoas assisted, and eras sworn into °dice Governor of Guernsey. The Austrian Messenger who returned a few daYs ago from Hollind, was twice dispatched from Lau' don to Vienna, and each time was detained Dutch Port until he was examined by a French C. ficer, then plundered of his papers, both pa hh ee l ' and private, and sent back to England. His ' i f • lency Prince STAMM:4BEBG will this day ser" another Messenger with dispatches lot his Court. As the last Courier who arrived in this Country fro! Vienna. came by way. of Paris, iS belhe boater of .the present dispatches, and is to proceed ay the same route.' Sir Jo N WARREN bad yesterday • -jot/ a long inter+ , . with the Iloarti of Admiralty.. Sir Jon sr will leav°, t • the same person Moro own # few days for Portsmouih. .Liptaards of 170 Danish Vessels, tured since the declaration of War by the Court • g aol' , 'Denmark, 'were condemned yesterday in D Commons. _ ' - . - 71 itoivizsE L. L, 'Secretary to Lord _tattat_s to eM the Er,pedition to Copenhagen, detained or C31 ,, ' i ." is Made Naval S r keeper at Deal. Et.oPemewr,—A young Lady of forr oase on Sunday morning, from her father 1_ man, Ch a rioitei r st reel, Bedford-square , w ith a young re a dourest 'in the family. Intelligence were: . une C‘oP ia the ceived of the route the fugitives had pursued by some friends - of 'the Lady, .! co p. bridge, where they bad rep . . osed .No promisv ) . . her return, who expreo" . day morn i ng, surprised them at the }{o o . P.in,Lb.. cou ld induce the young Lady to u _.. th determination to marry the adventurous y .. 74001. A hid Carried' her off. The Lady's fortu ;.„1.,,,,,,dent of her father.