The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-05-01 00:00:00

IRIS!! Clll.l FINEi.

Sir G. iitt.t. presented l'iiition4 from the
tie■ of Doiniegol, Londonderry, a„)
idiso from the Spirit.deolerl of the city of
derry, proving thrt no ulteration ibould b. ee!l
in the Still Fiile. Bill.

General HART sn vril, ‘. Thit the House :imul
resolve !Nell into* Coinniittee of tht whole
to Nice into consideration the effects of the
Towniands Fines Bi 11."

Mr. DatVsoa rose to second the motion. Und.r
any circumstances, lie would feel it most disaves.
able to encounter a difkrence of opinion. But,
the present instance, it was peculiarly so, 4! o'„ 11.•
had not only to expect opposition from the
Government of Ireland, hut he was COMl:Plied to
differ in opinion frrrn his Right
the late Secretary fir Ireland, who upheld tlie
policy of the existing system. The law itself writ O'
so odious a nuture, that, if he made use of caw.-
pions harsh and iinfrielidly, in speaking of it. he
hope.l no construction of a personal kind woull br
placed on them—but that they would he considered
as forced from him by the peculiarity of the NA.
jest, which a sense of public duty, and that tally,
had impelled him to bring before the House. Flo
object was to get rid of the law, and not to refit et nu
the character or motives of those who introduwdii.
Neither did he mean to cast any censure orrthe
Excise Board of Ireland, who were merely tht•m.
'lister% appointed to carry into execution the eiaact.
ment of the Legislature, which, he believed, tint
did, with as much lenity and forbearance as or ilole.
The lion. Gentleman, in a very feeling and inlet.
getic manner, pointed out the difference which pas
veiled between the system acted on io this cowatry,
and that adopted in Ireland. Here a Commattee
was sitting to expunge from the statute book .those
laws, which, instead of checking, encour aged
crime; hut, with respect to Ireland, it was sup.
posed that the ordinary criminal code was not tuffs
dent, and fresh enactments, of a severely 1,111-11
nature, were resorted to. In this country, there
was a constant remission of punishments, winch
was said to increase offences; but in Ireland pu-
nishment was inflicted with the greatest severisy—
the cent were blended with the guilty—siid
both were, by this mode, converted into enemies of
justice. He hoped that the appeal of this slight souk/
not be boat on the House; but that the lionsioe
spirit of the Legislature would shed its benign vas
titmice over a distant ;out of this empire, where the
voice of complaint, though hitherto exerted in
vain, was not less loud and piercing on that ac-
count. As the provisions of this Bill were little
known in this country, he begged leave shortly to
state them. By the law, a floe of 251. was inflict-
ed on every townland on which a private still, or
certain parts of it, were found, for the first tiinc
for the second, 40/..—mod, tor the third, 601. Matoy
of the snicks used in illicit distillation, it was hest,
proper to observe, were perfectly portable, and
might be taken upon a man'. back from one 'dare
to another. Of this description welt the head mold
worm rif the still.

It was requisite for the information of Engfisa
Gentlemen he should describe the event of a !incu-
bi:id. A towoland, in general, was about the
fourth part of an English parish, but in mountainous
districts, where illicit distillation use pnocip illy
carried on, it was much more extensive ; it might
be taken on an average at about 1,000 acres. 'the
priuciple of the law, was to levy the tine imposed
for shy part of an illicit still discovered within
those thousand acres off every individual resid-
log therein, till the amount seas raised. The
law rodeavouied to compel tf ae innocent to
form against the guilty, and ie. default theeeeii 10
involve tooorrot and guilty iis the same ruilisli-
euent.-1 I lenr, hear.)—But if the principle wo
011111 114 his hail described, still more rigorous and
cruel was Ps execution. / t was unprecedented ia
the advantages it offorded the 'prosecutor, usually
the Excise officer, ill nasrr erity against the accused.
Tue general princitJes of the Criminal Law in
England required all imaginable exactness unit
accuracy to he tol•ed in the form of 111.11 d.
meads cud informatious ; and if, its this twin-
try, the prosecutor conossitted an error ua &-
scribing the offences or the (Window., the emir
was fatal if the hial had commenced, and 11. e dc-
fendaut wrist free for ever. But let Gentleium
mark the diffiretice—if the Excise officer was guilty
of such a nil-take in Ireland, and the defendant
wished to take advantage of it, it was merely !a:sl
imming the evil 'toy, as this Act empowered las
adveraary to load haul with the trouble and cost of
a second trod, *col a new defence—if/earl-11v
Excise office', or infringer, might sue the accused
Individual twice, find of he succeeded in establisti.
tog the charge ma the second attempt, authorised
him to recover lies reward of the Moor:rot, as well.
as she guilty.— (Ilene. )--Another principle of
linelf*ll law was " de minims non carat le.r :" but
the Art of Is 14 proceeded 011 a perfectly d tierent
ground, making the while inhabitatits of a townlawl
stiffer for the most trifling and 'Motile discovery
of any fling connected with illegal distillation
within it. This extraordinary Act, moreover, in
detianer of the most plain lIMIXIIIIII oh 1111111181 twiny
snd el,llltllnll sense, made the prosecutor's evidence
alone a sufficient ground for the verdict of a Jury;

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