The Sun. — London, England, 1812-02-18 00:00:00

LONDON VLIRTER SESSIONS. GUILDHALL, FEB. 17.—This day the Sessions commenced before the - LORD MAYOR, B ECOI;IO,ER, and a Bench of Aldermen, &c, when the fullowivg case of assault-in the Royal Exchange came un to be heard. THE KING V. GUTHIty. - This was an indithnent tor an assault committed by the defendant, a respec.lable merchant, against the prosecutor, also a respectable merchant, a Mr. Campbell. The assault was committed in the Royal Ex change, about the hour of 0..'0 o'clock, where the 'rallies met, at..l the pro Vocation. ,causing the as sault iA as renewed by Mr. Campbell ; upon which the defendant struck hint on the !Ice, and said he Sbould strike him ag .in, if he repeated the offensive expressions, .which were. repeated, and the prosecu, tor was again struck publit 1y by the defendant. — The words of provocation were—that the defendant Lad given false evidence, on 13 certain to i3l in the Court O f .h-itig's-13•,mcli, in a CillSe in ,w Erich the prosecutor was a party, and the defendant a witness, by which falss evidence the prosecutor had lost a sum of three - hundred and two pound:, part of the matter of the s tilt• In the very Court, attcr the trial, the pro secutor charged the delrndat.it with perjury, and ,Pr°P-pted the charge till the parties cnet at the Exchange, wle for the repeatit.g it, the as3ault w as c. ntlll.~ted. Mr. IioLLAND, for the prosecution, contended, that it. lo.vocation coul.l justify the assault ; KNAPP, lor the detendaut, contended, that the ttovocation wa; a cona d le.e justification i r this case. The I Eco HOER charged the July impartially. 1 :3 6 "g down the law a. clearly for the prosecutor ; dui reprooated the gloss and insufferable d4arnation o ttrekt by 'be prosecutor, which wai above the P 'wet' of human nature to endure. He cited an In 'tanife of an eminent person sent for two months to prison, for a similar offence, by striking in the l oyal Exchange ; so much deference was paid to ;tie Place ; I n although he was for , .ed to state the ' a w to the J ery stridly, yet, after their verdta, the Bench would act with the fi,elings' of men in the ach neasbretnent of ponishm , •nt The Jur% returned a verd , ct of Guilty, barely of a; 1 assault ; and Cie RECORDER, expressing his ab horrence o f • tt prosecutor's conduct, sentenced the defendant to pay a fire of one shilliog, and to be (/.l aitaiged. Four young vagabonds, susreaed thieves arid p i ckpockets, were sentenced to six mouths itnpri aonme;;t. -Adjourned till the 2lst instant. POLIL:E. QUEEN-SQUAB E.—The axamination Of Hammer- SOn alias Stevenson, alias Smith, alias Leigh, alas -Grown, v.ith a variety of other names, with his ' l i f e, was tene wed vesterdtly, but the male prisoner, in the King's Bench on a civil suit, was not brought forward. It appeared (hat the two prisoners have, in a short muelval of tithe, ~ b aired goods of different tra-les °ple to the atil..ohl of tno - re than 10001. The' P r iswiers occa;to :illy figured away in their own Chariot or cotlicle, a. tl represented theinielves near 1Y allied t fami;tes in the West of England, whose names they assumed. - Their assn:ord consequence lulled all 3,ls ; ,icion. The ptine:pai suffere- I; Mr. jeweileri in Bo,d-street, who furnished the Prisoners with goods to the atrount of 4001. 11 1 3 wards. This case, ainonst others, was entered' i nto, as was also one preferred by Mr. Parker, a• gun-maker. The male prijouer ordered a single and- a double-barrelled gun, the forinfq of which was paid tor, and the pr sweet talked of the exect.t.. lion lie had done with it in Norfolk ; but, oft the d ouble-barr,lled gun being sent agreeable to •oruer, • a promised check for paymen. never was sent. It turned out that a picture-dealer in the Bench I. l ad got the duplicates of the greater part of the O r °Periy, and the articles had iallen into the hands of a,. J ` to whom the pietute-dealer owed money. The charges were so nu.tuerous that the further e xamination was postponed to a future day. arl WINCUILSEA .was present at the QUEEN'S ` C ounCil on Saturday. The Noble Earl has" re• qued his place of Grown of the Stole, copse : fluently a new one will be appointed to the PitINCE REGENT.' The Irish Court of King's Bench have, after a hearin of Counsel,, for Mr. HARVEY, Proprietor of the Freeman's Journal, decided for the attachment a gainst him, construing a libel into a contempt ; • and a warrant was issued out against him ac cordingly. gLoPerdetirr.—An elopement of rather a singular 41 14(1 has recently taken place in Cheshire :—A pc/- can' , Cr:neral, who was married about eci years ago to an amiable Lady, clos-ly allied to the first families "' that county, carried off last week a young Lady fl. ° ll l her mother's house in Chester, and the fugi tives have not yet been heard of. The Lady, a ith , 'horn the Genes al eloped, was univeisally adMired 14 the first circles at that place, and had received I "Posals of marriage from several young men of fortun e in the neighbourhood but such is some times the waywardness of female taste, that she declined these honourable allia.ices to form,a triinal un i on w i t h a married ma h twice her own age. BA TH: - --Mr. BETTY returnid on. Saturday last !`) Thestrical'Boards in this city. Tti.e chataeter 111 which he appeared was the Earl of' Essex. His Person is manly, and his acing was more judicious, ac e'Wing to ieport, than whet) he was so anxiously followed by the public. He %as received with.great aPplAuse by a ciowaed audience, and is likely tobe of essential set-. ice to the Theatre. A pitched battle was fought ou,Monday s'ennight a,t N , !wport, Monmouthshire, bet wern a Wel,htuan, known by the name of George the Sailor, and an ' l7 'nglisbutan, a collier, for so guineas. Bet weep three and four thousand persons were computed to bave been present at this disgusting spectacle, which atter thirteen mortis, terminated in favour of the latter. BREAD.._.NO Court of Aldermen to-tlay. The tu N-M;iyor, after ti,speang tue returns, ordered it to FdvatiLe id. per peck. Quilt - tern loaf 164 d. DIPERL4L PARLI,I2IIENI. HOUSE OF PEERS, MONDAY, FEB. 17. ROXBURGH CAUSE. The House met about two o'clock, ond their Lntdships proceeded to bear Counsel ou that branch of the above cause, wherein the Ladies Essen and Mary rr were Appellants, and Wachope and others Respondents. ' Mr. ADAM and Mr. WCONOCHIE were heard at great-length, as Couns , l for the Appellants, aid Sir S. ROMILLY shortly, tor the Respondents. The jet or leAling point of the case seemed to be, the state of mental heal h in which the late Duke of Rox- burgh was at the time of his executing the Will, which was questioned by the appealing Parties. The LORD CHANCELLOR addressed a tew observa- tions to the House, upon certain points of the evi dence given in the ca,e, and upon the arguments of the Counsel as applying thereto. The Noble and Learned Lord thought the question chiefly depend ed on the evidence of the persons who were with the late Duke at the time of his vxechtirg the Will in vestion, as they were un&ubtedlY the best judges of his state of mind at the particular time.— He was decidedly cf opinion their Lordships ought to agree in the unanimous decision of the Court of Session upon this part of the case. •He therefore moved, that the Decree be affirmed, which was or dered accordingly. REVERSIONARY GRANTS Earl GRnSVENOII called ihe attention of the House 10 1111 s at►bjed, resprtling which, in justice to its own consistency and character, as well as to the interests and expectations of the country, it was in cu ' , bent on their Lordships to do something, He acveried to the decision of the other House of Parlia ment respecting a recent bill for the prohibition of such grants; the was, upon which it founded m that decisi , he necessarily, at a loss to know, but he felt that4heir condo& was not such as would entitle them to the admiration or the gratitude of t htir fellow-subjects. He greatly disapproved of the palliative exprdient of temporary or occasional Sus pension Bills—they were inefficient and of little im portance. A Bill for the Prohibition of Grants in Reversion for a year or any other short space of tune, by no means met the object; an extension of the time, to twenty, thirty, or even fifty years, would be far prefer.ble to that extent. A measure of this kind would bit productive of mUch.substan , ial benefit, and do away one of the principal sources of corruptitn ; and if no other Noble Lord should come forward on the occasion, he should feel it his duty to take up this subject, ,and to propose some measure fur the adoption of the House, on those grounds and principles on which he bad already come forward. NEGOCIATION WITH AMERICA. Lord HOLLAND, sexing the Noble Secretary of 'State for the Foreign Department in his place, could not help putting a question, respecting the answer to which, and every thing connected with it, their Lord,hi i ,s must be sensible that no small anxiety at present prevailed among a very lirge proportion of the Pt9i)le of this eott, try. It must be obi ions that he alluded to the state of our rdations with America. On that point, no ordinary degree of solieitules was telt, and his objett in putting a question of A nature so generally interesting, must only be to relieve in some measure that very general' anxiety. He wish , ed, therefore, to know if tuere was any objection, and it any, ot what nature it , vas, to the production • of the corre,pondence reiritive to the negotiation ,with Amer ca ? He should limit his intended too- Lion only to thoie rape:rs which were iheady in the hands of the public, and if the granting even ot these was declared by the Noble Secretory to be even in its tendency detrimental 'to the public ser-. vice, he should retrain tram making any motion on the subject. The MArquis WELLESLEY had no instru6tions from his Royal Highness the Prince respecting th e • preparation and produttion of such papers to the House, but should make it his business to learn his Royal Highnoss's pleasure in that oat tit:Wert - . In t h e mean while, it would be unnecessary for him to en ter into any explanation of the nature of these pa pers, and begged the Noble Lord would allow him till the time he should bring fOrward his motion, to postpone his (the Marquis Wellesley%) sentimtuts respecting them, tit! the Noble Lord's motion was regularly before the House. Lord HOLLAND pressed his question a second time, and was answered nearly as before by the Noble Secretary of State. Adjourned. ROUSE OF commaNs, MONDAY, FEB. 17. The second reading of the Irish Population. Bill was postponed till Thin sday. The Lords' Ad Aniundmmt Bill was read a third time and passed. The Woods and Forests Bill went through a Com mittee, in which a clause was init., duced to em power the Duchy of Lartis'er to grant certain leases for gg years. The report was bought up, and ordered to be taken into further Onsiderat ion on that day three weeks ; and the Bill, as amended, was ordered to be printed. DROITS OF ADMIRALTY. • On the motion of Mr. BROUGHAM, the Accounts presented to - the House, on the mit) inst. relative to the Droits of Admiralty, were ordered to be ,printed. Mr. BROUGHAM expressed his wish to know why the Accounts ordered a nionih ago of the amount and appropriation of the Drubs of Admiralty had not been laid before the House ? Mr. WHARTON replied, that they we're at the bar, and immediately proceeded tkither sod brouglic, them up. They were ordered to be primed. Mr. BROUGHAD4 gate notice, that he ,r,vould to- morrow move fur a return of all the sums that: might have been taken from the Fund of the Droits of Admiralty, and afterwards restored to the same -specifying the partiCular sums and occa.ions. Ihe CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEOU ER said, that he was wholly ignorant of any such occurrence as that 'to which the Hon. and Learned Gentleman's notice referred. -. BROUGHAM observed, that he might have - -;Esin misinformed on the subject, but at least he, oiished to ftscertain whether, or not such an abuse had ever taken place. The CHANCELLOR of the tKCHRMIth declared his peetect readiness to accede to the motion. In a subsequent part of the evening, the accougat was moved -- for by Mr. Calcraft, under the form of an Address to his Royal Highness the Prince Re gent, and the motion was agreed to. STATE OF THE NATION. Sir T. TURTON gave notice, that on Thursday se'nnight he would move for the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House on the State of the Nation. Mr. LUSHINGTON brought up the report of the Committee of Ways and Means. The resolutions (relative to the funding of Exchequer bills) were agreed to; and Bills were ordeted to be brought in accordingly. ARMY ESTIMATES. Lord • PALMERSTONE stated his intention of post poning until Friday the consideration of the Army Estimates, with the exception of one item, which would not admit of delay. On his Lordship's motion, the House then re solved itself into a Committee of Supply ; and, having agreed to a resolution of granting 100,0001. to his Majesty for the expeuces of the Local Mi- litia for-the present year, resumed ; and the report was ordered to brought up to-morrow. The report of the House of Commons Offices' Bill hivi3g been taken into further consPeration, theli was recommitted. The reptatt to-morrow. PUNISHMENT OF FRAME - BREAKERS. Mr. Secretary RYDER moved the second reading of the 8 , 11 for the more exemplary punishment of persons destroying frame-wolf, Mr. ARERCROMBIE disclaimed the intention of offering; any wan , on opposition to a measure of this 'wale, but at the same time declared, that after the most mature consideration, he felt it impossible to concur in a Bill, which, in his opinion, violated one of the most important principles of our penal legis lation: At the beSt he was persuaded that it would be ineffectual. None of the offenders had yet re- - ived the punishment provided by the existing law ; and this difficulty of detection and conviction had been ascribed to their complete con,ccrt and union. Now he was assured that this union would be rendered still more binding, and detection ren dered still more difficult, by the proposed measure, effect of which would thus be the reverse 'of hat which was intended. Mr., ORDE, on the contrary, maintained, that the existing Combination afforded the strongest proof that the terror of the punishment of death was re quired in order to dissolve it. . , The Hon. Mr. HERBERT complained of t he want of information under which the House (from their recent refusal to appoint a Committee) laboured with respect to the causes of those disturbances, and their probable cure. No proof had been ad duced that the existing punishment of transportation for fourteen years was inadequate to the purpose or repressing the offence. Adverting to the State ment made by the Right Hoo.,Gentleman on Fri day, of a supposed connivance on the part of some of the tenants of the hoses id which frames had been destroyed, he asked why a civil suit for the value of the frames had not been resorted to in such, cases He'deprecated she multiplication of capital punishments, and expressed his conviaion that many of the late atrocious crimes had originated in the frevency of such: horrid speciacles. Mr. G. Sr4ITU declared, that the lace-frames were wholly unprotected by any law, and expre-sed his firm conviction; that unkss instant and effectual means were adopted for the restoration, of the peace in she county of Nottingham, .very great mischief, indeed, might justly be apprehended.—H e should be glad, at some future period, to see the cause of the, di,turiances brought under the consideratiJn of Parliament : but their first object ought to be to quell them. • Mr. LOCKHART. was convinced that she anxiety not to iticre.Se the number of capital punishments was notcoofined to the Hon. Gentleman oppo•iie, but that it was , geneially prevalent in the House. This,yeas.a case, however, in which he hough t c hat the enaelitient of Capital punishment would have a bendicial 14fea, and would particularly operate .to deter offenders, through the medium of the impres sion N hick the fear of it would make on the minds of their wives and families. The offences in .ques "lion were, - indeed, of the meat serious nature, and approached most nearly to coustruaive levying of war, that was, to high treason. Lord Hales men • tioned a case of breaking looms in L-ndon, which five out of the 12 Judges declared to be aEdually eon struaive levying of war or high treason. A similar judgment had been pronounced on some individuals in the,reign of Anne, for destroying meeting-hOuSes. He should support -the Bill ; but he conceived that the offender ought to have some guards similar • to those'possessed by any one accused of high treason; and, therefore, when in the Committee, he should propose the introduction of a clause giving the pri soner at least the benefit of one counsel. Mt. HattagriT (of Kerry) sill:roiled the Bill, and instanced cases in Ireland in which the terror of capital punishment had led to the detection of crimes. The law would not be unalterable like thoSe of the Medes , and Persians, but might be, and ought • to be, repealed, whenever the emergency should - cease. Mr. WIcOTTE - SLEY, on the other hand, maintain ed, that the greater the punishment the less the probability of convicling the offenders. Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY contended, that the Bill now before the House was not calculated to afford that remedy which the framers seemed to 'appre hend it, would produce. The evils ssould exist as before. With respect so the causes of those evils, whether they proceeded from disputes between the maters and the journeymen, of whether they pro ceeded 'root the diminution of. human labour, in consequence.of the employment of the iostroments . whiCli were the objeds ,for demolition, the !louse Ac as not informed ; but if, instead of hotryiug the Bill on, a Committee was appointed to inquire into those causes„ - tlien'the House might proceed on the principles of justice. The 28th of the King, which went to punish offenders of this description with transportation for t 4 years, was still .in force, yet, as faras-he could learn, not one prosecution had taken place ; From what cause did ,this arise? The Gorerument, the Magistrates, and indeed the of the kingdom sere aware of the Act. He could only trace the want of prosecution to one of two cau*e4 either thpit the Magistracy were in a tot'nA bination not to execute the or thst the diffi• culty of procu'ring evidence to convia the offenders was great. If persons were &erred from -7 lying:, evidence by threats, would the knowledge that such offences were to be punished with death be the means of inducing conviction What prospeat would there be of-drminishing the evils, by inflict inga capital punishment ? Upon Loking at 'he he - found it so worded as to hupo,e the sarne punishment alp on an idle apprentice . boy found in, juring his master's frames, although he had nothing to du will) the more serious olischitsf. This surely could not be legislating equitably nor wisely. He strongly:deprecated the further progress, without minute inquiry into the necessity for the Bill. _ _ There of the evils, and, without information, the House would not do their duty to the Ptiblic if tlyy passt.d the Bill. Mr. BRAdGR BATHURST thought, that after , the long continuance of these disgraceful bcenes,%lter the - notice taken of them in the Fr, nch papers by the common enemy, and the necessity of same mine ef. • _ ficient measure from the Government to put a stop to them ; it would be too much, the present law being insufficient for that purpose, to say, that this Bill should oat proceed. He tegretted the manner in which ,the measure had been received by many Gentlemen, and the appeal of the Honourable and L•arned Gentlerf)an to the House, because all ought to be convinced that it was high time to put do.vn these outrages. He was ready to admit, and regretted, in common with those who did regret, the neces- sity for increasing the A6ts imposing capital punish ment ; but when it wai found that the existing law was inadequate to the prevention and supprev.ion of any crime, then it became the Legislature to inter- , fere, and point out a more effeetual mode. The re sew- measure was not brought for,vard with a to puniih, but to prevent, the crime to which it re.b ferred ; it bad not ,for its object, as supposed, the -shedding of liuman,Mood, but to render the coau-. mission of' this sort ,of offence less frequent. With resp:d . to the prearnWe 'the Bill, it o rtainly did not comprise: ther . Whole of the - grounds for tire adoption of the measure, nor did the Bill itself, as the Hon. and Learned Gmtleman supposed, pro vide for the punishment of idle or mischievous ap prentices.; it was intended to put a stop to tide out rages. But if there were any objectionable words in it, those might be obviated in the Committee.— The peace of the ,country be cheaply purchased by the forfeiture of? feyLlives, in order to prevent future outrage on the property, of individuals, and the tran!. quility Ole Sttt6. ' • C—Wlrtoohztivought the Right Honourable Gentlen2an,hactßisconceived the question, which was-not whether the present law was effectual, but whetherth'eaiA'ditiOn of punishment would render it more.SU-? - Heatontended too inquiry. Sir A. ProoTT, admitted, that if the Bill was in tended to extend the provisions of the 284) of the King, for the protection of lace-frames, then it was fittingit should proceed; but the object of it was to make both cases, namely, the offence of breaking _ stocking-frames and lace-frames, a capital off-nce. . The Act went to inflict what could not be consi dered -as a light punishment for' the offence—traes portation for 14 years ! Had that punishment been tried Befrire the House was called upon to extend the measure of punishment, they ought to be satis fied that the 28th of the King had been enforced and found ineffectual. If that . was proved, then t h e House might be justified in making the offence czs pital. He understood, howe‘er, that not one con viCtion had taken place in the whole of the time, a period of ,2g years since the passing of the Act.— But thenit might be said that it was not enforced, from the . dihlylty of detecting offenders. Would increasing tie" tit afford greater facilities to detection ?, L , Wou,lßl,..the reludance to give evidence be ditnin'shsd, in ,conrquence of the knowlestge i hat the. offenders would be hanged if convicted ? It had, been sail that: • it'SVaita salutary Bill, because it would operate in terrorent. There were, however, Acts enough of that nature, which the House must ha aware do not operate as a terror. Nay, the very re verse was the case, for many persons were deterreai • from prosecuting, because the punishment for the offence was capital. It the House suffered the Bill to proceed, they legislated upon principles not suf ficiently,uederstne‘ He trusted they would pause, and not suffer it to go to a Committee, where the probability was that it would be ultimately re 'jetted. - My. • Seettaary RYDeR conceived that it was un necessary forehicn-to do more than to advert to two Or three argueents,advaeced against the Bill. Wit ro resped to the arguments of the Hon. and Lear wed Gentleman, - he was not disposed to receive them as' sacred, because they proceeded upon the suppoe tion that, the measure was ao framed, as io exceed the provisions of the twenty eighth of the K,ntg, .which 'Ad the Hon. and . Learned Gentleman a a a, stated to be ineffectual. The Right Hoe. Seem-t.ity was not prepared to say that the Bill would an s wer the purposes for which it was intended, but in a .vase like the present, it was at least desirable to nvike the experiment. The House, lie. was sere, under the circumstances disclosed, would -not be disposed to reject the Bill in this stage, but vk o ed . let, it gO to the Cominittee, and there the argeel a tes would come with more force. If the irate ot the County of Nettingha n was looked at, no Gent,e man would contend that the disturbances ought to be allowed to exist. He did assure those Gen le in-n wholiatVdeire him the opportunity of -vrewieg his coeduktaiiloanOvotrrdble light, that he highly prized their good opinions. Ito what he had d- me towards restoring order, there was no merit attach ed to : in the execution of their duty (a melenchollaserftle it was) they had been guided by a wish to preserve the public 'ranquility, 'He would, however, much rather that the mischief bad been seared to proceed, owing to his own stipiness,ehan that :its ravages should have inflicted unmerited censure upon the local exertions ot the Authorities within the immediate scene of action. Tire conduct of the Mi z sistrates was .exemplary throughout the county. With respect to the exer tions of thesTown Wigi'itrates, these were 'Mailed. to the district. In considering, the Bill the House must recollect iha_t-115,mischief must be put down in some way or Oilier: The, efforts of the Rates, though meritorious, were still found to he ineffectual. file question was not an in-ulattd one; it w-as not a question which -affected tt-e ru.ttauticturing interests of that particular distric