The Sun. — London, England, 1819-12-23 00:00:00

John Leaver (which, was the Petitioner's name) had hero committed on such a charge to that gaol - hy a Magistrate of the name of Fletcher in 181 - e. The person whom he was accused of having toardcred had died of a fever. It had been toilsome() that he had* received a blow, but the verdict of the Coroner's Inquest held on the body, and the certificate of the Phy sician by whom he had been attended, hail proved that he had really died, of a fever ; yet eiotwith *et endine this evidence had been submitted to Co lonel ifrleteher, he had committed the Petitioner in slid' a manner that he had remained in gaol, and io the company of common felons, from Julie to the end of eV/gust, 1812. To his great as tonishmeet, after such treatment, no Bill had been found against him for murder ; none, in fart, he believed, had been presented, but he had been brought out and tried for a political misde meanour, having all the time prepared his defence against the charge of murder only. The Judge had thought the evidence , so defective.-,and the vt'hole case so groundlesi, that in his charge to the Jury he bad said, that even if it were proved, it would at the worst amount only to a case of drunken folly. The Jury, however, (tad chose!) to think otherwise, and bad found the Petitioner guilty. Two men were brought to swear against him, that in a mixed company be had drank to the death of the King, who shohld be sweetened with a pound of sugar, and on this he had been convicted. He therefore prayed that the House would not increase powers which, in their pree sent state, had beets so grossly abused. The Hon. Member coucleded by moving, that the Petition be brought up. Mr. HosterssoN lamented the facility, amount ing almost to credulity, with which the Honour aLle Gentleman appeared to listen to the asser then, of Petitioners to that House, whilst at other he refused to believe the statements made on oeth before Coulee of Justice. He should not ewer into the details of the present case, het he woeld ask whether it teas possible for the House to try again a case which had been decided in a . Court of Justice . 1 If such a line of conduct was adopted, the House would have nothing to do but to interfere with the course of instice, for appli cations would not tail. Even supposing the Ma gistrate to have acted wrongly, or the trial to have been improperly managed, as the Hutton ra bit Gentletnan alleged, he was not aware how the House could reverse a judgment that had taken place ; and he submitted whether stsc)► cases were proper to come helot e Perliament ? He also re ploeekl the bringing of such charges, calculated not only to take away the character of P Magis trate, but if entrrtaiued, to subject hint to the ur st severe prosecutiotse, so many years after the alleged offence was stated to have occurred, and when the means of defence must be considerably diminished. Mr. llooeee WILSKAFIAM bed received from the candour of the Honourable Gentleman t;p posite, private notice of the. Petition which he intended to pi sent, in order that he might procure informatiou to rebut his charges. He had now got that intnenetiou, and with the leave of the House would briefly detail the real state of the case. John Leaver, the'Peti inner, b a d been appy e b en d,d, in 1812, on the wartttnt of a Magistrate. not Colon-I Fletcher. for having .e.temees words, and given out as a toast, " Death to the King.'' Shortly after, Colonel Fletcher, who till then knew nothing of that its dividual, bad received a hater from Mr. Aaron Graham (whirls the Hon. Member read to the House), informing him that John Harper, a con vict on - board the Laurel, had stated, that about the time a perstm of the name of Chadwick had been suspected of being murdered, he had met two men quarrellieg on the road, with birth of whom he was acquainted, John Leaver, and Tho mas Hunt that he bad asked them what they had been doing, and that they had threatened him with being the death of bins if he should titter a word of what he had h ear d. H ar p er had been convicted of forgery, and embarked for Botany Bay, but had been landed and - detained some time, in expectation of Leaver's trial. On re ceiving this information, Colonel Fletcher had issued his warrant for murder against Leaver, who was already in confinement, and he had been committed on that charge to the gaol of Lancas ter. When the time of the Assizes had arrived it had been found that the family of the deceased were unwilling to prosecute, that the evidence was not conclusive, and - that to be.able to use Har per's testimony he must receive a ..free pardon. The charge of murder had - therefore been aban doned, but there was no reason why Leaver should not have been tried on the first charge for which lie had been committed. He was so tried and convicted, and sentenced to ode year's imprison ment. If he had been wronged, there was no Bill of Indemnity at the time to protect the Ma gistrates. He might therefore have had recourse to a Court of Law ; but instead of doing so, he had suffered the business to lie dormant for seven years ! Having answered the remarks of the lion. Gkeitlentan, as he trusted, to the satisfac tions of the. House, lie could not help observing, that in this instance the Magistrate had been harsh ly used, in having such a charge brought against his character at the end of seven years, when the papers necessary to his defence, and which had fortunately been preserved, might have been de stroyed or lost.—(Heer, hear, hear !)—He la mented the extreme credulity of the Lion. Gen tleman. The lion's mouth at Venice could have no larger swallow than he had for all charges of this kind, although it always turned out that they were satisfactorily answered. Colonel Fletcher had beets a Magistrate for twenty-two years, in a period of considerable difficulty and danger, anti had never been brought before the Court of King's Bench, to arise er for any improper use, of his authority. It was therefore harsh that he should be exposed to attacks so utsfooncled as the present. But this was ore of a series of ground= less complaints, made from day to clay to the House. Among other representations, it, had been repeatedly asserted, that the Manchester Magistrates had acted on the 10111 of August, un-. , der the authority of Government. This.he posi tively denied. Their conduct, whether right or wrong, was their own. They did not shrink from their responsibility, and they would have to show the grounds on which they had acted, and to jus- e tify their conduct when the approaching trial should come on at the Lancaster Assizes„ lie submitted to. the House, whether it was fair that such charges against them should be brought for ward just before those trials were - going to take place ? Mr. BEN'NET contended, that the character of the petitioner was irrelrroachable, and that nothing had ever been urged against him, except by the convict Harper,. and the two suet' who bad been sent to swear' against him. He would prove by the certificate (which he now held) of the respec table Physician empleyed, that not only no mur der had been committed on Chadwick, but that there was even no charge of murder, except in the imagination of the lie of the deceased, who had become insane, and had finished by banging her self. The certificate st atsd, that the man sup posed to have struck Chadwick was Richerd and not John Leaver, who had not even h:en mentioned, and it was only to clear Hunt's cha racter that the Inquest had been instituted. The certificate explained besides the professional grounds on which it had been sliewn that Chad wick had died of a fever. Was not such a certi ficate a nifficient authority to satisfy any Ma gistrate who was not actuated by private ran emir ? Had any of Chadwick's. , family been even bound to prosecute ? They [tad not ; and he contended that the sole object was to keep an innocent individual in gee!. The petition bad been misunderstood. It not pray the House to ird+ , ire into the petitioner's case ; it only said, " You are going to endow Magistrates with extraordinary do it not, for )•olt see , how they have abused those which they already possess." He had held the Petition a con siderable time iii his hands, but he would not present it without having procured sirfileient do cumente to prove the truth of its asseverations to his own sati" , .faction. lie would not have pre sented it without having obtained a copy of the caleteler of Lancaster gaol. Ile led now received it, and of its antleot ity he had brought the sub itet.torieard. Whether the House would receive the petition or not, was matter of inditlerelice to him. He lied done his duty to the individnai who had pressed him to present it, in submitting it to she House and stating the facts, which he believed to he true. Mr. BeouGeteet recollected the case when tried at the Lancaster Assizes, and bore testimouy to the accuracy of the statements of his Hoe. Friend. The case was one of great hardship to the man, who had certainly been hied on very deficie`nt evi dtnce for a misdemeanour.. though be h irl been charged with a felony which had precluded hint from the, possibility of being balled out. The eouSeqiience was, that Its bad been kept a con siderable time in prison in the company of felons, and had saffersd material inconvenience in his de fence. At the same time he regretted, that 'the charged should have been brought forward after so long ae iuterval, as it was a hardship on the per son accused to have been 7 years wiihout hewing of any complahlt against his conduct. But the whole of tile trial had been a paltry business. The evidence amonuted to very little. The 111411, half lit joke, and more than halt in liquor, had uttered the words ascribed to him., and he remembered per fecly well that the Judge had slimmed up for an acquittal, But the same Jury having acquit ted, much against their will, the , precediug day, 38 individuals, all brought to trial in one indict meta, and on the evidence of only one, spy, were tit-tee - untied to convict the petitioner. He had ne ver been snore disgusted with the conoluct of a Jury in his life than on those two 'occasions. They had hesitated for ten minutes or a quarter of so hour on the case of the 38 men, although uu doeht could be entertained of their innocence, and had ,at last given a most reluctant acquittal, because it was a polisical ()fleece. But the next day they were determined not to acquit any more, atid convicted every prisoner put upon his trial be fore them. • Lord CASTLEREAGH did not think that any good could result from discussing, the verdicts of Juries in that House.' With respect to the petition, was it not preposterous to expect that its allegations concerning a transaction which had passed seven years ago, and the troth of which could not be ascertained, should arrest the progress of the Hill through the House Were they, from one alleged case of misconduct, to draw the inference that tile whole Magistracy of the country were un worthy, and that new powers should not be en acted ? If the Holt. Member could not find better arguments to support his motion, be had better• desist from pressing it any farther. • Mr. BROUGHAM did not mean to offend by dis• cussing the verdicts of Juries. But he was not the first person who had commented on such ver dicts, for it was not twenty•four hours since— (Or der !)—He should only add, that not only the conduct of Juries, but that of Judges themselves, were competent subjects for discussion in that House —(Hear, hear, hear !)• The question that the Petition be brought in was thet► put and negatived. SEDITIOUS MEETINGS BILL. On the motion of Lord CASTLEREAGH the Amendments made by the. Lords to the Seditious Meetiogs Prevention Bill were taken into 'consi deration anti agreed to. ALIEN BILL. Lord WILLIAM RU SSELL Stated, that be under stood there wewe two ind:vi:4nals from Palga in this country, chiefly occupied with concerns of their own, wh., had been lately much disturbed by a report that the Alien Act was to be pot in force against them as freigners. He trusted that the provisions of . that Act were trot in the habit of being used at the instigation of private ani mosity; Lord CASTLEREAGH did not know what indi viduals the Noble Lord meant, as he had not mentone..d any names. But be should object to state any step which it might be in the contrm• illation of his Majesty's Government to rake con, sistently with their se.:se of duty, and it was only after any measute had been adopted that inquity becaMe practicable. Lord Wm. Russct.t, was understood to say, that he did not know the names of those individuals, as they were strangers in this country. HUSH CATHOLIC CLERGY. Mr. Wm. PARNELL Put f/tr iliS Motion for leave to bring in a Bill to enable Catholic Dissenters to provide residences for their Clergy, till after the I.loliddys. Mr. C. GRANT thought it his duty, injustice to the Catholic Clergy of Ireland, to state, that they had repelled all the efforts of those who wished to iotroduce discord and sedition into that country. —(Neer, hear;-hear!)—This praise was not due to the lower brdeit‘ of Priests aiNe,./but to the Catholic Prelacy. All were animated by the same spirit. And, as a Member of the Irish Govern ment,t he considered it his duty to state, thjst whatever tranquillity was enjoyed in Ireland was due in no small degree to the loyal, patriotic, and Christian exertions of that most respectable and distinguished body.—(Hear, hear!) Mr. LYTTLETON postponed his motion respect ing Conveyancers till to• morrow. THE FINANCES. Mr. MaBERLY, in rising pursuant to his .notice, stated, that 'his reason tor moving War certain documents connected with the Finances of the Country should be produced, was the necessity which he conceived existed that those papers should now be laid upon the table of the House, in order that there might be full time for their consideration between the period of the adjourn ment • and the re-assembling of the House. He had hoped that the Right Hon. Gentleman oppo site would have made no objection to their pro duction, but he regretted to find that that was not to be the case with respect to some of theni, and should therefore move for them separately, in the hope;hat he should learn from that Right Hon. Gentiethan the nature of his objections. He then moved for an account of the net amount of the Revenue of tie Unired Kingdom, trona the sth of January 1819 to the 10th of October 1819, dis ringuishrng each quarter, and separating Ireland from Great Britain. The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER should say no more on the present otcasion, than that it was usual for an Hon. Member when making a mo tion, to state the grounds on which he proposed it 1 9 the House. Did the Hon. Gentleman only mean that the papers moved for should be laid on the table before the adjournment, in order to be taken it'll) consideration immediately after the Recess When the lion. Gentleman considered that the close of the financial year was at hand, when all accounts must be made up, he would probably he disposed to wait till after the Recess, when he could have the whole produced together, whilst they would now only come down to the 10111 of October. To the production of the pre sent Return he had no objection. The motion having.been agreed to, Mr. MaisErtev said, that he was aware - that if he had waited till after• the adjournment, the accounts would have been produced in a more regular order. But the Right Hon. Gentleman knew very well that the appropriation accounts were not laid on the table before the 25th of March. They •were afterwards ordered to be printed, and it fie qoently happened that. Members could :lot see them till the Seskion t was nearly over.. The Speaker with that attention to-the wishes and convenience of Members, for which he was so highly distin guished,—(dear, hear, hear !)—had caused the printing of some to he hastened at his request last Session, and he took this opportunity of rentm ing his sincere. thanks: But if the usual course were adopted, the House would nut be able to discuss the state of the Finances till a very late period of the year. He should ask tl►e Right Honourable Gentleman whether it would be Pro 7 per to postpone so-important an investigation, at a tune when the situation of the country was so unsettled and alarming ? He should now move for an account of the amount received from the New Duties imposed in July 1819, to the latest period at which the said could be made up, distinguish ing each Duty. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER should propose an amendment to this motion, limiting the making op of the return to the 10th of Octo ber, because all accounts were complete up ,to that period. The House must be aware that the payments of the Revenue were received with a certain degree of irregularity, which rendered it impracticable to judge of the produce of-the whole quarter from a part. Now he took •the object of the Hon. Member to he, the ascertaining what inferences could be deduced .from the produce of the new Taxes. That object would be better at tained by having complete statements to the 10th of October, than by partial returns to a later period. He had expected that the lion. Gentle man would have given something like a general statement of the object which lie had in view, but no information of that kind had as yet been af forded to the House. With respect to the pre sent motion, he thought it would be as well to confine it to the produce of the Excise Duties, as it would be very difficult, if not impracticable, within the time, to dissect the fractiond parts of the new Custom Duties from the general produce of those Duties. He should therefore propose•an amendment, that the Return be limited to the 10 h of October, and should merely distinguiSh the Customs from the Excise Duties. Mr. MAIIISRLY had said, in a concise manner, that he t►►ought those Papers necessary before it was possible to inquire into the state of the Fi nances, in order that that state should be well understood. It would be impracticable for the House to enter into such an investigation if it had no facts on its• table. He therefore'trnsted that he had sufficiently explained his motive, though not in a long speech. The Right Hon. Gentleman had calculated on the new duties be ing productive, and no one rejoiced more than he had done at the statement put forth this night respecting the Revenue. The Right Hon. Gen• tlem,:n had relied last year on' raising a total of 3,190,0001. - by means of those New Duties, viz. 500,0001. front the Consolidation of the Cus toms, and 2 G 90,0001. from Excise Duties. He had besides transferred 1,000,0001. from the Customs to the Excise.; the whole, therefore, now - formed - A complicated and' varied subject, and he wished to have a full view of the pro duce of every branch, in order to ascertain what probability there was of being able - to. realize the 3,190,0001. He was aware of the objec tion' which the Right Honourable Gentleman might start he might say that many of those duties did nor come in till the 10th of October. The New Malt Duty was not- paid in till the middle of No-culber but at all events something most haTC come in between the months of Jail anti December. He had understood, indeed, that little had come in on the new ditties, or if they had been productive, that the old duties had almatt entirely fallen o ff . If 'newspaper Acconn e . ; were to be mentioned in that House, the Cust is had ,' fallen off, between July and Ocyber, 90 ,49001. ot 1,000,0001. and it was said that they continued to decrease at the rate of 40 or 50,0001. per week. He therefore trusted that the House would not think it unnecessary to be in possessiobof facts before it came to a discussion on subjects of that importance. With respect to the amendment of the Right Hon. Gentleman, -be thought 'big objection reasonable. It would certainly be diffi cult to dissect the tractional parts of the ne , f. Custom Duties from the rest. Ile should there fore agree to the amendment, but he hoped that it would remain open for him to move, after the Recess, that Returns should he made from the .10th October, to that period,—(Hear.) The CitaNctit.t.oit . of the EXCHEQUER 8110111 d • certainly_ not object to the production of the Ile-. turns at that time, when the whole of the finals- cial year would have closed. He should nowt only state, that down to the end of the month of November, the whole amonnt of the Old Duda had (as we understood) been something less (hail 1000/. under the produce of the corresponding quarter in the preceding year, and that the now Excise Duties had produced 236,0001. 150,0001. of which had been received before the entl of Cie-. tober, and the rest since. Mr. TIERNEY snggested that as weekly Returns of the Revenue were , made out for his Majesty's Government, there would be no great difficulty in producing the accounts down to the period noW proposed. Mr. HusxtssoN was understood to object to the production of such weekly accounts, which, besides, had nothing to do with the question beo fbre the House. Mr. TIEHNRY wished to know how Much Ma• ney had been received - upon the whole. The aca counts had long since been made up to the Nth of October, and published iu ail the newstotpersl what' it was important to ascertain was, tlic amount• of the receipts since that period. Had Parliament sat till the 10th of January, he should have been for giving up the present motion, ss the accounts might have been produced complete; but when the Right Hon. Gentleman had beets venting forth his pleasing forebodings. lie wished to see whether they rested on facts. IVith re s}sect to the Papers asked for, he considered theta so much a matter of course, that with all his expe rience, he should not have thought it intpr.;per to move for them without any previous notice. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER objected to furnishing the Accounts of a broken quarter. • Mr. TIERNEY.--If the Right Hon. 6entlemaa objects to this, he will be exercising more powa than ever Mr. Pitt hail. flusKissoN observed, that the Accounts would be generally known to the whole public inr. the usual means on the 6ch of January, whethcc the House was sitting or not. The CHANCELLOR of the ExcHEauEtt then stet ed, that the amount of the New Duties receives up to the 10th November, was 10001. at the Duff on Wool, and 236,0001. on the General Account- A Gentleman under the Gallery, whose nattat we could not ascertain, objected to the unintelli.• gibility of the public accounts, and suggested that a Committee to regulate them would be as bone' ficial ficial as one on the subject of economy. The motion, as amended, was put and agree(' to; Mr. MABERLY, preparatory to moving his third resolution, made a few observations rela. tiveto the payment of, the interests of the losing of 1818 and 1819. He said, there was a year's interest of the loan of 181,8, and half a year's 10-• west of the loan of 1819 ; and there was only s provision of 237,0901. from the new duties,. The - re had been an Act passed also to enable the Right Hon. Gentleman to repay 5 ,000 ,0001. tO the Bank, and the deficiencies on this fund were charged on the Consolidated Fund, without API assets to meet the charges. The Bank Director's had ;tilted too, that they could not return to east' payments untesS they had a controul over their issues, and they could not have such a controls!' unless they were repaid the sum which they 110 advanced to Government. He then moved for "an account of the deficiency of fhe Consolidates Fund on the 10th of October, 1819, together writ' an.account of the manner in which the same w's l made good. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER stated ra reply, that there was a surplus on the fund at ties elate specified, though he did not mean to deal that there was a large deficiency on former sums' He did not object to the motion, which was se cordingly put, and agreed to. .Alr. MABERLY' next moved for an Account of the Amount payable out of the Consolidated Filo' from the sth of July, 1818, to the sth October, 1819, for the interest of the loans of 1819 ad 1819, distinguishing the quarters, &c.—Agreed Also an account showing how the five milliatl° voted to pay the Bank had been applied, distill' guishiug the dates of the several payments. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER Salt!, 0 h lion. Gentleman had now come to those of hts Resolutions, which he should feel it to be hi f duty to oppose or to modify. These ResolntioV 6 were divisible into two parts : the first, affectiog the finance of the country generally : the secodf the transaction between Government and 111 Bank, in order to bring before the House rbo j proceedings which had been arranged and agre e ! to by Parliament, with a view to the resumpti° of cash payments.. It might not be unnecriss" for him to offer a few remarks and explanations ° the former subject, especially after the increduli t y e which had been expressed by Gentlemen on chi other side, and the sarcasms and'mitrepresenttili°ll which had been resorted to out of the Houseu to j induce a belief of the failure of the 6 " depress the public mind on questions of the d E e # most consequence. The House was well assa h r e of the falling off during the quarter ending 0 0 C P c , 10th of October, whets compared with the c° responding quarter of the year. In the G a it) toms alone, it. amounted to 960,0001.; an d =ii i other branches which lie particularized to ceilsl, sums, making a total deficiency of .1,15L° 0 o f The House would see that the greatest portion to bt