The Sun. — London, England, 1812-07-18 00:00:00

• ,• - IMPERIAL PARLTArvIENT. TiOUSE OF, LORDS; FR I D 44, The Lord C11A . N ..- CLL ' OR took his sea( on the :Woolsack ab6Ut half past fouio'clack,and shortly . --after prayers were read. / The Stone Bottles Duty, the Bonded Goods Transport, and the Manure Carriage Bills, were read a second time., and committed for to-morrow. The Irish Stamp Duties Consolidation, the , %lalt Duty Securities, • and the East India Loan Bills- were read a third time, and passed. • .11r. TIERIIEY, from the Tax Office, presented an account of the expenses incurred under the Acts for the sale and redemption of the Land ; TaX. The Earl of Li'rEaPdot. said, that understand • thF.,t th h objections to the Local Token Bill 1 - ere more t r ci.the details than to the p r incipl e o f toe measure, he should propbse to discharge the order for going into a Connnittee on the Bill - th at e ven i ng, w i t h a v i ew to fi x: that 'stage for ;I` , l onday. The Earl of LAunEnngt.p. took the occasion to observe, that his decided opinion open the mea sure was, that if the Bill passed as at present Famed, it would tend to create. more confusion than any Bill that was ever presented to that Rouse. With reference to the state of the paper, C oMparatively to the metallic circulation of the Country, he believed it would be almost impossi ble to dlvise means to remedy the evils complained ;It According to a variety 'of communications he had received, it,would be impracticable for the r etail businesses to go an, if the Bill, as now Proposed, should pass into a law. Added to this, the Bill was- drawn in. such a way, as not to ex- Press the real meaning of those who brought it forward ; the period of the year, too, was such, that a subject of this real consequence could tot be sufficiently attended to in ,point of dis cussion. The Earl of LIVERPOOL then suggested Tnes uaY, instead of the preceding day, for the Com mittee on the Bill—to which the Earl of Lauder dale immediately assented. INSOLVENT DEBTORS BILL. Lord REDESDALE called the attention of their laordships to the general Bill for the 'Relief of Insolvent Debtors, in England, now before the 4 °use. This, with the amendments, were agreed to by their Lordships, and ordered to be printed. tt was not his intention to press the Bill further is Ses s i on. hi s w i s h was, t h at i t should circu late throughout the country ; but, early in the text Session of Parliament,: he should certainly ring forward he' measure. LATE ATTEMPTS AT NEGOCIATION. Lord HOLLAND said, before he moved the Or 71' of the D a y, h e b egge d' le ave t o as k kt the anoble Earl, whether fit was the intention of his 44 ajesty' s Government to lay before Parliament °r the public any further inforinntion respecting negociation between the Government of this : cl unt and that of F rance , res p ec ti ng w hi c h ?nie dry ocuments were published in foreign p a p ers ? ''e Would forbear to give any opinion on the f l ibject. Ad verse as he was to treating on any awn which should continue King Joseph in t rio, yet he w as f ar f ro M see i ng t h e utter impos %! dity of entering into a negoc i at i m i on a b as i s gbieh would afford a tolerable opportunity of lidni being left independent of France. His _.4,ordship repeated his question, an d seeme d to 72 ( jiress his disapprobation at some apparent dis-. og that the Ruler of France should be Emperor rdrlCt. hi ':he Earl of L IVERPOOL sa id, h e - h a d no I : 4-4 Y in stating, that as far as his Majesty's Go . tleirnent were aware, the papers alluded to by e ~In oble Baron w e re au th en ti c co pi es o f w h at 'lll4Bsed betli',en the Government of Fiance a nd h a t of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent.— Lordships and the Noble Baran would re that the affair alluded to began with a °Position which gave opportunities for further I:Nanations, if the other paKty judged it proper aaord them. His Majesty's Ministers would 4. ref °Te bare acted inconsistently with their ,11 , if they h a d laid papers before Parliame n t, 11`;`4er circumstances, in which frirther explana -I,l7!'nns were not unlikely t o h ave b een g i ven. — 'to rth respeCt to any other p o i n t, h e was a t a l oss co nceive how there could exist a difference of i l t n ion respecting the substantial part of the an hileP given to tire Government of France ; and en called upon, th e y ac k now l e d ge th e Govern 4tent of Spain in the w a y it was seem i ng l y pos th's.ed; there was not a nation in the world . e a ` Could sa-y, we should not have ruined our own -e recter if we acceded t o suc h a b as i s . A n d v ..47:1 respect to - that point, he:begged l eave f ur th er a c ' t Ba Y3 that his M ajes ty' s prese nt serv a nts h a d zne td upon the same principle that every Govern tlt had acted upon, since the event to which the kPers referred took placle,in every negotiation with i 4 41 " e, and since the t.r doutifries were placed T sttch a s i tuat i on w i th respect to Spain. h, he Ea r l Of L AUDERDALE wished to be informed. b }he Nobl e -E ar l, w h et h er t h ere b a d b een any tv }She proceeding, or any explanations what oetween the two Governments, sin ce th e p u b- Tion of-the Pa pers ? , • tk, he Ea r l of LIVERPOOL answered, that since Vi„(loctiments in question had app ea r e d i n th e th.-vel's, there had been no proceeding whatevet, any Communication on the subject. EX OFFICIO INFORMATION BILLS. sVhe Order of the Day (upon which their Lord -14 PS ewad ere summoned) respe c ti ng th ese _bill s .bc g • iltel'oo frou.Axn prefaced his Motion f o r th eir both, readi ng w i t h a speec h o f Co n s i dera b le k iii b t , ll, (of whi c h our li m it s res t r i ct us to a b r i e f lie a ,: l astY sketch). After some general observe-, N I as to, the great legal and'iconstitutional a nte' of the subject, he entered upon an Lis tieteal sketch from the earliest period of the prac tra ° F Proc ee di ng upon i n f ormat i ons, unt i l ,the • I. tet °l the R evo l ut i o n , when he particularly di l)ro:d the attention of th e i r Lordships .to the v n t i t i e uings of the Com m itt ee o f the COITMIOTA, e s ubject of which the great Lord',.then Mr. ~e ii Was a leading Member, which re.cam- Oy i ,„ . . ( ' e d to the House to suppress all proceedings -mortaatiora, and Which the House then una ninifir.sly agreed tO 4, and in tvi.b years - after, iti 3 Oceeded not, to suppress; , but to regulate the practice: , • 'Though he -entertained such senti 7 nients on the subject; he must deCifi,re that the Noble Lail Who administered that part of the law, in the Court of King's Bench gene rally, had executed the existing law upon the sub ject in a way that did great honour and credit, 7 - But the extensive and uncontrdided power_whieh these laws give to the Oflicei4,of the Clown, was, from its very nature, he iimst contend, liable to the greatest abuses; and those which had pre vailed, and were on record, were- amply sufficient to shew to the House and to the World, thil,ne ceSsity for retrenching and regulating that power. By it an individual was left at liberty, on the'sug eestions of his own mind, to place a fellow-sub ject in a situation in which, he could not constitu tionallyle placed, by the verdict of a majority of a Grand Jury. - Not only that, but the Attorney General possessed the power of,holding and s"s pending over the head of such person, the charge or accusation for an indefinite length of time.— To shew the liability to abuse of such a power, would by a waste of their Lordships' time—it was in itself a truism. In what he referred to, he should name no individuals, wishing to argue the subject solely on the principle of the, thing. He would refer to a case, where three successive in formations had been filed against the individual. On one of these he was acquitted—the other two had never been tried ; but he was involved thereby in expenses to the amount of 2731..1'85. lid.— Thus he had been amerced and fined, on the ver dict of a, single man—perhaps upon the honest verdict, for he meant to lay no personal blame on Sir Vicary Gibbs, but it was against the excessive power so likely to be converted into means of op nression, that he was contending against a power being vested in one individual, which constitu tionally should attach only to twelve of his equals. With respect to the immense abuses which he contended had of late years arisen Out of this ex cessive power, it would be proper to compare the number of Ex Officio informations issued latterly, with those deemed necessary in former periods.— In this view, they should consider, first, the ac tual number of informations filed w ithi n a n y l ate interval; compared withthose filed within the same time, at some former period ; secondly, the num— bers filed, compared with the numbers eventually convicted ; and third, v, which was perhaps the most important view of the ease, the number- of informations filed, c om p are d w i t h the number of cases that had been tried at all: In illustration of these points, his Lordship referred to'some nume rical details, in oiler to shew a considerable in crease of the number of Ex Officio informations filed of late yeais.Pursuing his arguments against the general practice, he tooted the sentiments of Mr. Justice Blackstone on the subject, who seemed to approve the principle, as tending to the safety of the Executive Power, and in order that not _a moment should be lost in bringing the individual tojustice. This principle, he asserted, was greatly departed from in the practice of late years, when not above one half of the accused persons were ever brought to trial. He also referred to the senti ments' expressed by Chief Justice Hale, as bear ing out his o.rn views of the subject. He then, proceeded to observe, that he believed for the last ten years, in the instance of libel, only one case had been proceeded upon in the old regular way, whereas those presented under Ex-Officio infor mations were at least fifty ! The Noble Lord then refereed to the subject as, applicable to Ire land, where, he believed, until about the last 25 years, the practice was unknoWn, and therefore the sword of this Goliath of the law was till then left Untouched in the Temple It would 'appear that the Attorney-General -of that country had resolved to make up for such a long loss of time; when he proceeded to summon the party to pp , pear before him at his own houSe, a proceeding which he pointedly censured. He also referred to another case, proceeding under information, and which appeared in such a light ) that the Court thought.properto order a new trial. The Noble Lord then adverted to the leading provisions of his Bills, one of which was to limit the periOd from the commission of the offence to the time of the accusation ; and another to limit the pe riod. or interval between the time of accusation and the period of trial. Some minor proposed regulations were also described by his Lordship ; and he wished to introduce a part of the principle of the Treason Laws,- as applicable to the offences in question, - under-which, if -the party Were not brought to trial, within the given period after accusation, he should he discharged as free from the offence. The intended regulations he should not propose, in the present _state of the country and the revenue, to extend to the Revenue Laws. With respect to the second Bill, he .Seemed to say, that if strong objections were entertained, he should not press its adoption 'this Session.— His Lordship concluded by moving the . second reading of the Bills. Lord ELLENEOROUGH assured the Noble Lord that ifhe were convinced of the expediency of the Bill, it would be his - utmost anxiety to assist in carrying it into effect, otherwise he should be most unworthy the high situation which he had the honour to hold - in another place, as well:as his seat in that House, • But he lamented that the Noble Lord had not inforined himself sufficiently on this subject If he had done so, he would not have asserted that a proceeding by information . was not as 'conforMable - to. the Constitution as any, civjl or criminal, known to the law -of lag land.. With respect to what Blackstone bad said respeCting•enormous offences being the only war rantable subjects of proceeding by information, he must be allowed to observe, that Blackstone had said this ignorantly. Far was it from .him to de tract from an elegant and classical writer, who had so happily succeeded in..giving a general idea of the• English law: But .as - he would not flatter the living; so neither Would be bestow a fulsome panegyric on' the dead. When 'Blackstone be gan his- Commentaries, he was a Fellow of All Souls College. He grew learned as he proceeded with the work. Having beevriginally possessed of a strong mind, which he stored 'kith classical knowledge,. he was enabled. to produce a book, which he (LoM E.) must be the grateful eu logist, as lie was indebted to it for an easy and. pleaSant introduction into the thorny science of the law. But nevertheless there were many things in Elackqonc'a tt•ork Yhiihs fir, a LaWyer i „he Was bound to:sayavere nnstatetnents Amonohen4 was the nropositi:m to ; yitieli the :.Srohle• told bad re ferred. In, proof of this,bc. adduced the ease of IlOilia, arid.the otherfil , e MentherS 6f . ParilAment; AA variety of other cases; and entered-into:a learned argument On the sul;ject., The Noble and Learned Lord then proceeded to contend slit a proeeediug by information was moreliumane than a proceeding by indictment; becaiise in the one case the individual on wboseaffidavit, the At torney-General filed his information; might :be prosecuted _for perjury, which could not be the 'ease in that indictment before the Grand Jury.- 7 h- Adverting to the recent case in Ireland; to which the Noble Lord had referred; heallowed; that, had. he been the Irish Attorney-General, he would not have required the printer to attend at eham-' bers, merely because su-'h a retittisitioti, , i4it be liable to misconstruction. Every one knew, how:- ever, that it was not compulsory. Th e c h arae.7 ter of .an Attorney-General ought to be treated with great respect. He was an officer whose du ties were such as to invest him with a sancity which ought not to- be wantonly assailed. The provision in the Noble Lord's Bill, liniiting the arraignment to a period o f - three months after the offence, would in many cases allow the escape. of criminals. He cited the cases of Davidson and Mr. Valentine Jones, and Mr. Hulse, in prOof Of this. He shOuld not move that the Bill be read a second time on that day three months, but that it should he utterly rejected. As to the other Bill relative to holding to bail, he had already given his opinion upon it. If the N o bl e L or d c h arge d any Crown Officer with oppression, he (Lord E.) would see that the charge' should be well sifted, and if that officer, be be Attorney-General, or who he might, should be found to have disgraced his high situation, in the name of God, let the heavy hand of justice fall on him. Lord ERSKINE bore testimony to the ,purity of motive which influenced his Noble Friend in the introduction of the present Bill ; but thought that as it would ,be necessary -in the future stages of the measure, to consult and examine very minutely the Statute-books, his Noble Friend would do well nyt to press it forward in the present session. He contended, however, admitting that proceed ing by information was as ancient as the law it self, yet that it never had been considered - so fa vourable to the liberty of the subject as trial by indictment. As a Peer, Jac was bound to- say, that no Attorney-General ought to be put on a footing with the Grand Jury. No man could sup pose that he imputed to any individual impro priety of conduct ; but 'speaking . generally, and without the slightest personal reference, he must say, that he knew nothing of the sanctity of the Attorney-General„ He was an Officer of the Crown—removable at pleasure by the - Crown-- not amenable for a malicious prosecution—and no man should tell'him that' there was equal secu rity for - the liberty of a subject in the determina tion ofan Attorney-General as in that of a Jury of his countrymen. Lord STANHOPE supported the Bills. He could not concur in giving the Attorney-General the power or a Grand Jury, .He said nothing of At torney-Generals of our own day ; but he could not forget that Judge Jefferies had been an At torney-General—and, recollecting that, he could not approve of such power being held by the Attorney-General. The Noble and Learned Lord bad said, that Mr: Justice Blackstone had written ignorantly on this subject • had -he (Lord 5..) made such an assertion, in what a ,rage would the Noble and Learned Lord have risen to take hint to task for such a libel on the Bench ! The Noble and Learned Lord had said, that Blackstone had commenced his book in ignOrance, - hut that he had become leained before he had concluded it. He would say something like it of the Noble and Learned Lord, He was more ignorant of the law when he was first made a Judge than be was at present ; and ) perhaps ,he might knoW more than he did at present, ,before.his death. Here his Lordship cited certain ancient 'Statutes, with which he preSumd the Noble and Learned Lord was not very , well acquainted ; one of which en acted, that any persea giving a Scotchmm a horse should lose his right hand.—lt might have been well, if_ this law had not been suffered to become obsolete, as, rigidly enforced, it was probable so many Scotchnien Would torhave come posting-to that House. The Duke of MONTROSE observed, the House had been amused with a fine speech from the Noble Lord, but if they were again treated with such a speech, he should certainly take the trouWe of clearing- the House Of strangers. Lord Hou.aNri made a long and animated reply; aftet which the House divided. For the Second Re4ing of the Bill • " - 7 agaimt it ~. Majority • -19 HOUSE OF COMMON'S, FRIDAY. The SPEAKER having'counted the Members at four o'clock, and finding only tbiity-seven pre sent; the House adjourned till to-rnorrotv. ' CAMBRIUGE JULY 17 at Gandingdy .—On Thursday se'nnight a dreadful.fire. took place et Ganilingay in this county..., It broke out at about ten o'clock - in the morning, in Mr. Thos. Wright's wheelwright's yard, 'the fire from •the forge•cora inunicating to the thatched building adjoining, from Whence it 'extended to Mr. W. Woodham's farm, ,the barns and other out buildings of, which •were entirely destroyed. The fire continued its dreadful ravages along both sides -of Mill-street, burning tion twenty-two dwelling-houses, six barns, and,a great many out-buildings, when the arrival of A n engine from Potton - prevented the ,further extension of the flames, but which con-- tinned burning furiously amidst the -ruins - till nine o'clock in the evening. The alacrity with which the inhabitants of Potton forwarded their engine prevented, the destruction of nearly the whole parish, . which, would probably have otherwise 'been the case. / the flames burning with such amaz ing rapidity, that in about an hour and a half they had proceeded to the extent. above-mentioned.— Mr. Woodham's house and...malting were not much injured ; and .his other property Was insur ed. The calamity, however, falls heavy upon the occupiers of the houses destroyed, 18 of whom are deprived of their homes. ICtit 111 E t,,iiriN. ( SMALL-PDX -trACCINATION T 0 - - - I w'lts,.i.tititiced, on 14'rida;7 t;rtiric youryaper, to call at-the hou'se . of Mr, Mor.nrs, an. Apothec::r'- iii Chandfis-street,' I:is datight, who was ,described to - be affected witii . - _;mall-poit after Vaccination. ..Airs.-Moryis very civilly slim : edam! the 3val spotted wth an erupt , on,. width: was - begin-. ning to. dry up. Stijl said that her -husband haft' vaccinated* this daughter in :infan. - cy with sin 7. gle . tinctu re, ~and -opened, the .at.;,; c h, usual4ime, to obtain lymph for other This proceeding . explains eery sat:sfaetoriry the cause of the fairtire,; fi,r it is. now knoyin, that a single vesicle, NNticli has, be.en.drained- of lymph, affords. do ; . certain security from, p yet it appears,, that, even in this case of imperfect Voceination, a great wit:otiOn of .:be virulence of the Small-pox was produced,` for the child was never _ in Alangerr 7 the-,pustules. which, broke-cut were small, Surrounded.ffith little infiationation, and.htid 4gpai ,to crust, so'early . as the sixth Jay., It is therefore highly. probable,. that if cheYac-. cirre process hadfally taken effect, without being disturbed,, that. this child would have been .con - ,1 7 pletely seat - red against the: Snail-pox;, and_ is is •. also probable, that if the,operatiou had been en tirely)omitted, the girl,. ,whois.now well, . might by this, time have been ,colisigned to the grave.— ThuSjt, rint'Y be- owing to th,ebeneficial effects of Vaccination that ;Mi. Molyis is, not at this in— stant lamenting ; the untimely death of-his datigb- • ter 3 yet_this ease is addttced as an obj - ection _to the practice : Porttinatcrly no stronger obje c ti ons ' can be raised than the ,promulgation of a very. few Cases, ''here after Vaecination - a , mild species of Small-pox appti:ared; deprived of.all malignity. Even these rare exceptions_hardly ever . oeeur to those. who completely tmderstand the ,most proved practice. And among the millions vacci nated, no Anti-vaccinist, -after the strictest. search; has had the pleasure of authenticating one who died of the Small-pox. But we are at no loss to find numerous instances of persons who have not been vaccinated, who are the victims of the Small pox. The Bills of Mortality ascertain that there are still from ten to t wen ty human b e i ngs who arc destroyed by tlii&horrid contagion every week; whiCh 'mortality is imcpiestiooabiv continued by certain inferior practitioners; whO persevere in Small-pox inoculation'. No eminent Surgeon, who values his character,. is ever guilty of inocu lating the Small-pox : this condemned practice 'it' now almost confined to a Tew persons who deal in drugS, and who, by selling plenty of medicines, even to the poor,. whom they charitably inoculate gratis, contrive to indemnify themselves. Interest, sordid interest alone, can tempt men to such deeds; SHAKESPEARE described a _Mantuan Apothecary, the prototype of some, in the Well-kn Own pas sage; . . " An' if a man did heed a poison noiv, 'Whose sale is —death, Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him." Who, is there that doubts that Soiall-m;x Is a poison i 'for it is a malady which has destioyed far More.person thEtTl any other poison, even , More than th'e plague itself. And who is 'there that is ignorant th a t i nocu l at i ng w i t h t h e Small pox is propagating a fatal disease I. The learned Dr. WILLAN, in a Report published by kiln Of the 'Diseases of London, announced a fact, that one Child, inoculated in .a court, communicated the Small-pox to seventeen persons, eight of whom died. , And those w h o c r e di t t h e assert i ons, that persdns inoculated with the Small-pox always re cover, should read a very sensible pamphlet, writ ten lately by Mr. LEESE, which is entitled " An Explanation of the Causes why Vaccination has sometimes failed." They will there find a Icing and melancholy list of fatatinoculations, of which I shall make two extracts _ . Mrs, nooth, N o . 5, Lis.sonllace, has been particularly unfortunate with. respect to Stnall, pox. Inoculation, having at different tipies taken tiro of her children to the Sm a ll-p ox H osp i ta l , where they were i noc ulated for Small-pox, of which they both died. I have since vaccinated au infant for Mrs. B.— " Mrs. Last, No. 3, South -street, Manchester square, was thus plunged into affliction acid re morse ; her first three children were vaccinated in 611 respects satisfactorily ; the father wished a iburth to be the same, but some female acquaint, ance persuaded the 'mother against it, and the infant was taken, imknown to the father, to a:i Apothecary's shop near, and inoculated for S:nall pox. On the ninth day after it wa a corpse." Those who , feel an interest in this subject, and who wißla to investigate more of these .horrid facts, should consult the work of IVit• LErst ; who declares, that eight,of the fatal inoculations col lected by hint - were performed by one Apothecary! Whoever occasions the death of innocents, by puncturing their bodies Nvith-a poioned instru ment, or by raising up a fatal and wide-spreading infection,. may escape the punishm'e.it.of the law, but must endure the stings of CONSCIE•SCE. ST. JAMES'S PARK.—WOHMICEI have commenced grubbing up the old ' decayed elm trees, in the great mall, St. James's Park. Of these, there'arz three nearly opposite the gate-from • St. 'Jame*',.,' Palace, at the milk house, near the - Green Park. One 'of them has been taken out of -the .greilind. The trunk is about five feet diameter, and for Th,i't "greater part quite rotten. The workmen are now employed on its neighboutl, which 'is aiso dead, ..and is expected to be grubbed up this &ay. There is a third - within a few yards, in , - tearly the same .state. The first of these trees is said to be 160 „years old, the oldest in the Park, except one about /fifty yards more to the R'esty which is apparently of the same age. The. latter; however, is alive . and sound, except on one. side, which was struck by lightning last spring. The Earl of CARLLK - J - : has a picture of the Park, drawn about. the time these ancient trees were planted. The great mall was then' tha fashionable .resort of -the Loudon elegantes, who are. exhibited walkiug in masks, or carried in sedan chairs, before, Hyde Park, Hot -ten-row; and barouches became the order of the day. The western sith: was then the_market for the sale of birds. Cages full of them are suspend ed -fron“-he branches of the trees. it SYCIS thence called the Birdcave-wan:.