The Sun. — London, England, 1806-03-08 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLTAMENT. HOUSE OF PEERS. FRIDAY, MARCH 7e IN the Appeal from Scotland, " Ogilvie v. the Carron 'Company,"" judgment was given on the Mo tion. of Lord Eldon, by which the Interlocutors of the Court of Session were partly affirmed,and. partly reversed.. In the Appeal from Scotland, " Crawfurd v. Coutts," Lord Eldon delivered his opinion at consi derable length, and then moved to postpone the further consideration of it till Tuesday next; which was agreed to. 'The Qualification Indemnity Bill was read a third time and passed, and a Message ordered to be sent to the House of Commons to acquaint them there with. LIABILITY OF WITNESSES. The LORD CILINCELLOR, after briefly stat ing the nature of the question referred to the Judges, and of their opinions thereon, stated, that he held in his hand a Bill, the obje& of whiCh was to declare. the law with respea to the liability of witnesses to be as stated by the majority of the Judges. The necessity of a Bill of this nature was obvious, in consequence of the difference Of opinion which prevailed amongst the Judges. He had, there fore, prepared a Bill which, in a fevi words, de clared the law to be, that a witness-was liable to answer any question relative to the matter in issue, the answering of which did not tend to suibjed: him to any criminal punishment, penalty or forfeiture, but which did establish, or.tend to establish, a debt, or subject him . to a civil process "at the suit, of the Crown, or ;my person or persons. He was aware that in thus declaring generally the law, it would be necessary to provide against several exceptions which had been-under the consideration of his Noble and 'Learned Friend (Lord Eldon);to whom he trust ed fora proviso to be, added to the BiIL The Bill was presented by his Lordship, and read a first time. Lord ELDOiV expressed his intention of pro posing, on the second reading of the Bill, a proViso, tor the purpose mentioned by his Noble and Learned Friend. He moved that the Bill be printed.--k Ordered. IMPEACHMENT WITNESSES' I/MEMNITY BILL. Lord HOLLAND observed, that in the course of the various discussions respecting the subje& involved in this Bill,.several objediors had been made to the Bill which be had hitherto forebore to notice,' but onfwhich he could not avoid troubling their Lord- - ships with-a few words before he moved to discharge the order on it. After giving a short detail of the progress of the Indemnity Bill brought in last Ses swn,and of the Bill . now before the House, together with the questions referred to the Judges, and their opinions, he contended, that the present Bill had been mis-stated by the Noble and Learned Lord (El don), on a. former occasion', to be an ex po t st faao law, neither was it•the object of the Bill to alter the law as already existing. These 'who had framed the Bill had done it with the best views and the best intentions ; and in supporting the • Bill' in that House, he had no other object than that complete justice should be done in the case to wliich it referred, He wished their Lordships to keep in mind the precise grounds on which the Bill stood ; if a witness in any suit in a . Court of - Law Was interested, he might be rendered.a.competent witness by. means of a release ; the present Bill would have operated as a release to certain witnesses of any debts which might be due from. them to the Crown. •It was here that, according to the law, as stated by a majority of the Judges, and as about to be declared by the Bill presented .by his Noble ,and Learned 'Friend, that a witness could not demur to a question on the- ground that the answer would render him liable to a civil a6tiou for a debt, ,but the Bill went away to release the witnesses in the case mentionesl, from • those debts which could serve them for any grounds of demurrer. He should not press the Bill upon their Lordships' attention, now that a declaratory Aet had been presented, but should only observe, in addition to what had been stated, that the Bill was sant:boned by precedents, r6peCt . ing.which, he would content himself with referring their Lordships to Vines Abridgment, and 'Mr. Cowper'i Reports. There was, however, one objeCtion to the Bill which he bad nc4 heard stated in that House, but which had great weight in his mind, which was, that the advantage sought to be attained by it ought not to be purchased by giving' up any sums of money which might eventually turn out to be due to the Public from any person whom it was the object of the Bill to iudeinuify. He concluded by moving to dis charge the Order for summoning their Lordships for this day, observing, that he should fix no other day for - the second reading, not, however, giving it up altogether, until something definitive was done re- spewing the proposed declaratory law.' Lord ELDON exp!ained the reason of the opposi tion which he originally gave it.. He considered it as unnecessary, and operating, in case it should be enacted, as an es post labio:law, a pradice to which the principles of the Constitution were -extremely adverse... 'l'lheOrder of tile Day for a second reading of the Bill was.then discharged sine 4ie.—Adjou r ned till Monday, HOUSE OF COMMONS. FRIDAY, MARCH 7. The Sheriffs of Loudon Presented a Petition from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common. Council London, prayin that the late. Aas.respe(iing the London Free-market for Cdals, might be amended, and the. Provisiops enlarf, ; , ,ed.—lieferred to a Com p.ittee. • Sir JACOB ASTLBY presented a Petition from the Maltsters of Norwich, praying for an alteration in the late Regulations respeating their Trade,,--Order- Fd to lie on the Table. A Petition was presented from the Boot and Shoe makers of Sunderland, against the improper Com binations in that business. 7 -45,rclered to he on the Table. Mr. Hoimpusr presented a Petition from certain Creditors of the late Nabob of Arcot, praying that the powers of the Commision for e.xanaining into Their Claims should be enlarged. He stated that it had'been found necessary to refer the Claims to the arbitration -of a Parliamentary Commission, and that it lrid been understood that if they found their powers deficient they w; re to apply to Parliament. This had turned out to he the -case, and therefore t was now judged requisite to come to this House to obtain fuller powers, especially the right of eta miuing. on oath, - while the• penalty of perjury Would attach to those who did not adhere to the truth. Mr. WHITSHE,D KEEYE rose, but spoke so low that we could scarcely catch any thing he said.— We understood, however, that he opposed the Mo tion, on the ground that many of the. Claims were of such a nature that the Commissioners could not de= cide on their merits, and that it was improper to grant powers to a C,ornmission to examine into a sub jea which• it could not understand. • Mr. GRANT observed, that the 'East India ,Cotii pany had no objetaion to the Motion. Their wish was, that this business should be settled. by persons who should have every facility for doing what was fit and pioper. It was right that 'application for this purpose should be made to the House, and they had no desire to oppose -the present Claim for far ther powers.—The .Petition was then referred .to a Committee. Lord HENRY PETTY presented the Annual , Peti tions for Aid from the Orphan House,. the House of Industry, and several other Charitable Institutions. ' Mr. WIIITEREAD 1110Ved, that the Order respea ing a Return of the EffeCtive Strength, &c. &c. of the.:Volunteers should be rescinded. This being done, he moved an Order nearly to the same ei fea, which was, That there should be laid before. the House the Returns, or Copies of the Returns, from the InspeEtinc , Field' Officers, of the Effeative Strength of the different Volunteer Corps, their State of Discipline, and general fitness for Service, &c. &c. to the Lest period.--Agreed to. • Mr. Fyint.t. moved that the former Order re petting the importation of Wool, should be dis charged, and that another' should be substituted in . its stead, calling for an Account of the Wool im ported for the last ten years, distinguishing the,Spa nigh Wool, and the different Countries from which the Importations were made.--Agreed to. Mr. Alderman PRIN§Er gave notice that on Mon day he would move for the production of the Port Lists of the different Settlements in India, as far as they respected the Trade of that Country with Eu rope and America.- • Mr. WHITSHED KEENE moved for lc Copies of the Covenants of the East India Company with its Servant, and the Orders transmitted to the same re speetinc, Loans to the Princes of India, and the Na tives tirereof,"::-.Agreed to. PARISH BILL. . - Lord•CASTLEREAGH rose. to make' his promised Motion relative : to the effects of the Additional Force AO. He felt it unnecessary to make any ob servations on this point, as he under Stood. that no op position would be made, He then moved, • Ist, For an Abstract of of Men raised under the Additional Force Aft, distinguishing those raised big Parish-Officers, and stating the total Nu mbers raised in each - week, and-the wcekly Numbers for Scotland and_ Ireland respeetively. .• Mr. GiLv.s oberved, that a Return to that of e& had been. lately made, and that there was .no use for this Motion. Lord CASTLEREAGH replied, that the Return Rl luded to 'vas so particularly► detailed, that it could not be so conveniently examined. He moved for -an Abstra&. 2d, For an Abstra&. of the Numbers of men raised by each County, the Delicielsces of each County, the Penalties incurred and paid, and those that were as yet unaccounted for. 3d, 'For a Copy of the Circular Letter of the 16th of September, 1803, and the Report made in consequence. _ _ _ 4th, For a:Copy of the i_tter of the Secretary of State to "the Inspeeting .Field Officers, of the 31st of December, 1805, with the inclosed InstruCtion3. sth. For Copies of the Letters of the Inspeaing Field Officers, ;itating. the Proceedings in conse quence of the above. - 6th. Fora Return of the total Number of Men raised by the ordinary recruiting, from the Ist of January, 1801. 7th. For a, Return of those raised .for general Service during the same period, and from what sources. Bth. For a Return of the en - calve Strength of the Infantry and Cavalry, abroad and at home, from January, 180 t, to January, 1806. oth. For a similar Return respelling the Ar. tillery: loth. For alleturn of those who enlisted for the Artillery since 1801. Lord HENRY PETTY had no objeCtion to these Motions, but begged leave to add another, calling for an account of all the Penalties incurred by the Parishes, distinguishing the times of assessment and those of payment, tic. &c. . Lord CASTLF,REAGH observed, that this was in cluded in his Motions. Lord tIENRY PETTY replied, that it was hot in cluded as concisely and dire&ly as was necessary. All The. Motions were then agreed to. . Lord 05iTILSTON postponed WS Motion 'for Pa . - pers respeaing the India Debt till Monday, LORD MELVILLE's IMPEACHMENT. • Mr. W HITBREAD moved -the further consideration of the Report from the Committee *for conduat :ing Lord Melville's Impeachment, This being ao-reed to, Mr, IPHITBREJJD agaiil rose, and observed, that he would have been very unwilling to have oc cupied the time of theliouse by a long Speech, pre paratory • to the Motion which he was about to submit to their consideration, and he was therefore glad that it was unnecessary. But it might be ne.f , cessary, however, notwithstanding the accuracy with which the Report had been drawn up by an Hon. and Learned' Gentleinan who was then in the House, and Nebo was a Member of the Committee, to say a few words, stating the. substance of the proceeding which had taken place respeaing this business.—That the. information which the cum-- mime bad received Ought not to have been withheld all would agree ;. and he holed ilso that it would be granted, that it could not have been presented to the House sooner, nor in any other way than that which the Comtn . mett had choen. It• appeared •tlkat the_first Tmasurership of Lord while Mr, Doughy,-; 'was Paymaster of the Navy, NO;; Lora had taken 1 ‘1,0,04 of ;4 public money ; ana by hi's own confession, and that of Mr. Trotter, it was.evident that he had possessed himself of very considerable sums. It appeared that he was a debtor to the Public when he went out of office the first time; that he continued a debtor while lie was in office the second time; and that he had the couragi (he might call it) to leave his Office again while he was debtor to the Public for this 10,0001. the application of which he refoSed to account for. Now it was acertained, that instead of applying this money tp the service of the Navy, or any other public purpose,he had applied it for his own private ends, to accommodate certain indi viduals with whop -he was conneeted; that he had gone out of Office a debtor to the Public on this account, and that on his again coming into Office, he had increased his debt. It would be unnecessary to enter more particularly,' at present, into these transactions; but it might be material to observe, that he was a debtor in this manner. at the time when the Bill passed for regulating the Navy Pay office, and continued to be so during the whole time he was. in office. '• It might, perhaps, have been possible to bring the evidence respeding this business under the .first article of the Impeachment.; but then it might perhaps be objedionable, if brought forward in this form ; and - the Com mittee certainly did not wish iat they should be defeated from such a cause. Besides, it would have been itdecorous' in themselves, - as well as unjust .to the accused, to make use of the letter of an article, in order to bring forward a charge upon, it, which. its spirit did not authorise; because it was not in the contemplation of the Committee, or of the Hous,e, when the Article was framed. It had therefo're been deemed, upon the whole, the most proper mode of proceeditig, to apply to the HOuse in the way in which the Committee had done by this Re port. With respect to the form' of the proceeding, it might be _saki that Lord Melville had given in his answer to the Articles that had already been preferred; and that, in the whole history tl;,. Parlia ment, there was no instance of any fresh Articles having been brought forward after the answer had been put in to The former Articles. But he hoped, notwithstanding this, that no want of precedent. would stand in the way of the justice of the case, or prevent a fresh Article from being exhibited where new matter had. conie to light. For if nothing could be done on the part of the prosecution in such cases as this, after the accused bad put in an answer, then it might always be ip the power ofany one to preventany fresh charge by an immediate general plea of—Not Guilty to the first. But, in addition to the equity of the case, which was in. their favour, the circumstances in which tote Committee had been placed were somewhat peculiar, and thesehe would shortly state :. They had sat almost every day since, their appoint, ment, arid the knowledge of the additional matters had only come to them a few hours before the pro rogation of Parliament, and they had not at thA time procured the papers and evidence that had of-. terwards corroborated the circumstances. He would say no more, as he understood that no opposition was to be made, only it might be proper to state, that as soon as the reply to this charge should be put in, the Committee was ready to proceed to .trial on the earliest day which the Lords might appoiut. He concluded by moving, ". That the Committee have leave to prepare a farther Article of impeach ment on the matters contained in the Report, and report the same to the }Luse." Leave was given accodinely ; and Mr. WHIN BREAD brought up the Report containing the addi tional Article, which merely charged Lord Melville with having at divers times employed upwards of 27,mA. of the public money for his own use, of which a considerable sum remained unpaid. As this Article is merely an echo of the matters in the Repori; it is unnecessary to detail it farther. Mr. WHITBREAD moved that the Report should be considered on Monday. Mr. PitIICEVAL stated that there might be an objection in point of forin by the Lords to this Ar ticle. Mr. WHITBREAD replied, that as the reason of the thing was so clear, they were not at present to anticipate objections; but if the Lards should re fuse; then the Qommons ought to prefer a fresh Im peachment, whiCh they could not refuse. The Motion was then carried, and the Article ordered to be printed. ARMY ESTIMATES. The SECRETARY at WAR moved that the House should resolve itself into a Committee of Supply, and that the Army Estimates fdi two months should be referred to . it. . . . General TIIRLETON took this opportunity of adverting to the state of our Military Force. The declared intention of repealing the Additional Force A& had produced bad etle6ts upon its operation, and . the known hostility of the Right Hon. SeCretary opposite to him (Mr. Windham) to the Volunteer System had caused this to languish, and yet on the 7th of March we had no plan as a substitute for ,these. The numerous plans which the Right Hon. Gentleman had mentioned, when on the Bench near him, might have taught us to . expeft something be fore this time, when he got to the other side. But probably it had been found that the plans of me.; taphysical Theorists were not well 'calculated for praClice. But one of two things must happen We must have another Coalition, or if the War continue, we must tight the Enemy ourselves. It was time, therefore, that we should be prepared. IVINDErIM answered to the charge of delay, that it was only a relative term. He would not bring forward a plan without mature delibera tion, and the advice of men of experience, because lie thought that a difficult matter which they thought so easy. It was unreasonable to expe6t that he shoUld have a plan cut and dry in his pocket the Moment he came into Office. They were calling out for a plan as if they were in a Theatre calling out for the rising of the curtain and tl;e commencement of the entertainment, This might be sport to them, but it was death td the interests of the Couutry. Th is -I might be a r stratagem of war to bring lum out, t).ut fie would not cone forward w on this accomnt one •, nmo went before he as prepared, Mr. CANNING observed, bat the' 'declaration alludedto was not wrung Improperly from the Right Hon. Qentleman for the notice of the Re pmil of the iye given on the first day of the Session one at the. present Onister . (ti 4. Sheridan) bad wgreat effea on the operat4l,n of that measure in at parts. of the Country. The House 434 ercainly ..• • • right td have expeßed their system before He, had read of " A mighty mate, but not without a plan ;" but this Administration, seemed to be, " A mighty maze; and quite without a Om Mr. WINDHAM replied, that the quotation, might be very happy ; but that was no reason why, at the call of every Gentleman who thought proper, he should havo3 a plan ready cut and dry for them. The SPEAKER having then left the Chair, The SECRETARY at WAR proposed as a supply for 134,000 men for two Months, 795,4601. for the Troops at home, and 336,6931. for the Troops abroad. T,hc Resolutions were agreed to, and tho Report ordered on Monday. Mr. Fox prasented a Petition from the Cities of London, and Westminster, praying for relief against the fines imposed by the Parish Bill.—Ordered to lie on the Table,' . LORD coLLIN.GwooD. _ _ . The Commitment of the Report on Lord Coning wood's Annuity Rill was postponed till Monday. The other Rills were forwarded in their different stages.—Adjourned till,Monday. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. SIR, The extreme respeftability of your Paper induces one well acquainted • with Parliamentary pra&ice to endeavour to corre& a mistake into which yOu have, without doubt, been led most inadvertently. In. your Publication of last night you say, that the Dim vision of the House of Commons on Monday night last was unexpeCted, and had not been intended by Opposition t 9 have taken ?lace, That the paucity of the Division on their part, was indeed zmexpeaed, I -grant you—but that it was as eagerly and as loud , . ly called fbr by them, as is ever usual on such occa.. sions„' I as positively assert ; the -words « agreed, agreed," • were vociferated froM their Benches,• when the SPEAKER_ rose to put the Question, and was de cisive upon the going into a " DiVision. A measure they have- Since heartily ,(for very obvious causes repented ) and which has given rise to the paragraph 'to Which I have alluded. Am, Your warm Adthlrer and - CONSTANT READER, 79 CU IZES,PONDAINTS. tilt kg leave to decline inserting the 4a4cle sirsvi Aps,ibec, .(r is left for him in tbe Offce, At44,tkvip;),-1 Dublin. DyL-3 Ha mburgh, s G.otteaburgb„ A Lisbon, t Dublin, $ Walerforci. PRICE OF STOCKS Wilt; rotlk AT TWELVE O'cLOCK. Cor,Rals. „ TILE SUN, O{,INI . tZVIS DLCER FALSTiM. AVDEAT ? L 0 N 0 Ac SATURDAY, MARCH 8, IBGG, l l ' has been stated:ln several of the Papers.„ that the Proposition made b7.the French Government tOr ,an exchabge of Prisoners en . 71R4SC hA been je6ted. This is et corred: We do not pretend to, be acquainted with the intention of Ministers ui)ort this subjeat, but certainly nothing has yet been de. cided upon. The French Governme' not do nat, as we stated yes-terdAy; defend the principle upon the British Subjeds who were in France when hose tilities commenced, were detained as Prisoners of War, but they contend that the l'r qff s NiTh. Q Awn rendered to us at St. Domingo ought not to be considered as Prisoners, because it was only to avoid being slaughtered. by the. Blacks that they gave themselves up to the British Force. Th 4 quest a= upon which Government has to decide is 'certainly a most important and delicate one, and consequently requires mature deliheratlon; for we do not agree with our Cotemporaries, who think that the Proposition of the French Goverrimen4 ought at once to have been reje6ted with inAioan. lion. No intelligence whatever reached Town thisi morning from the Continent ; nor have any ad-. vices been received at _ the Admiralty respecting the French Squadrons. The LORD CHANCELLOR last night, in the House of Lards, brought in a Bill for the purpose of de claring the law respe&ing the Evidence of Wit- nesses, who by that evidence might expose them selves to the consequences of a civil a&ion. It was observed by his Lordship, that the majority of the Judges had decided that . Witnesses had no right to demur upon questions tending to that effeet, and that such a ground ofdemurrer had never beenheard of in the Courts. In this opinion of the Judges his Lord ship declared that he heartily concurred, but that he deemed it to he duty to put an end to all doubts, upen the subjeet, by a decisive legislative measure. The declaratory Bill which he now brought in was, his Lordship stated, framed as nearly, as possible to the terms of the question proposed to the Judges; with out any reference- to a particular case, and for the ge neral and stlbstanti,ve purpose of expounding and settling the Law. The LORD Qmorc;r.4.oit then brought in the Bill, which was _read the first time, and ordered to be printed. Mr. WMTBREAD last night, in the blouse of Commons, moved the Order of the Day on the sub jeet of did Additiouid Alticle of Impeachment against Lord I:llfr,Vat t s. Ir. WHITEEE4D ob.