The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-07-07 00:00:00

1118 SIALUNSON'S LIFE PRESERVER.

Sir F. BURIMIT rose, in pursuance of loth.,
to bring under the consideration of the House Mr.
Mallinsou's life-preserver—an iiivention crd Mated
to save from drowning individuals who were
tunately shipwrecked. It seemed to Lim that this
Gentleman's case was very unfortunate—fur, in
many instances, inventions of less excellence hot
been rewarded with grouts of the public moi,ey,
while Mr. Mallinson had not been in the alightest
degree remunerated. When the plait was oil-
giiially proposed, it had the approbation of the
First Lord of the Admirolty—bute since that pi.
rind, Mr. filallitisou's claim had been strongly op-
posed. Amongst otherv. the Secretary of the Ad-
miralty shelved his hostility to it. Ile h.of de.
dared, that, of 70 different !dans submitted to
the Admiralty for their approbation, that of Mr.
Mallinson was the worst. This, howev,r. was tit
direct opposition to the opinion given by *carrel in.
genious men. lu 1811,• Committee of that Howe,
on which were several naval officer% reported most
favourably of Mr. Mallinson's invention. Why.
the subject ems afterwards brought before the
House, the Secretary of the Admiralty denied that
it was an invention—bat. if the House would look
to the Resolutions of the Committer, they would
find that it was distinctly recoginued as an intentiou.
He was convinced, if it were adopted. that m ii.y
scrum arising from shipwreck, similar to t!,,s,e
of which they daily read in the iiew-oalisr-.
would be avoided. The lionott:able
hen proceeded to compare the itivrotion of Air.
Mallinson with that of Captain Manhy, and gate
a decided preference to the former, as less °peruse
and much cheaper. Many naval officers had taloqr
with them to sea the invention of Mr. llallins,4l---
mod several had declared their determinanou not to
sail without them. On this particular point he
could quote the letter of Captain Minis, it the
Royal Navy, who spoke in the highest telins ..1
Mr. Alallimon's cork-jacket. It w..s said live this
he
reallydidnoit
thiswhat the meaning of phrase " se
was ; particularly as the Hon. Secretary of the Au-
minalty, in his speech on the. Longitude Bill, had
stated, that our ancestors' idea of hiverstiosi apitr4:-
ed to refer to an improvement of what bad More
existed. It was said. "if ibis be so 11.0.0,1 sib 1.,-
vesitiosi, and so extremely cheap. why is it not Li
general use r' But he believed it would he
that many very beneficial inveutions not gr.
nerally adopted until sanctioned by the Legislatio.•.
Amongst three was the plan of vareine inisruiAlt N..
which. useful its it was, made comparatively little
progress fur many years. At this period of lie
Sessom lie did not mean to move for a Comm toe—
pirticularly as a Committee hail already decided oa
the merits of the iuveutiou. He shJultl therefore
prop oar—

" That an bumble Address he resented to ti.e P. inn
Regent, praying that he will be pleased tu ehrrei th.t th.
Mallow'''s jure-slim he submittrt: tu the plover auihu,l,,,a
fur their exam iustion."

Mr. W. SMITH, in seconding the motion,
served, that the invention would, he conceived, lie
found of essential service in saving the lives of ins-
liners employed in watching smugglers.
Sir Iwo COFFIN said, the plan of using cork-
jackets had been known for • century, anal yet 1... d
never been generally adopted. In fact, if the %3 --
tent were acted oil, more lives would be lost in ilir
royal navy, than could possibly be raved I t• it. lie
begged leave to state, in corroloition of 11.,,
fret, what had occurred to himself. tie was
sail -
wrecked oft the coast of Labrador, acd the lim—
ped of the vessel sunk in tweets fathoms %river,
If there had been a supply of coik..iaelers
on board the crew would have brew all last—lar
there was • dangerous reof of rocks against 01
they would have bten dashed by the soil, bad ill.;

jammed into the sea, And their destruction would
have be►n iorvitehle. lie told shoo bairn overboard,
in the harb.str of Port R.•tat, in Jamaica. If,
on that diCraal 1111 l had worst a cork-jacket, it was
mare shoo s rssimshle that hr would have Isnot his
life• for, wink snasiceovrisigjo the water, be would
have fallen a pr.•v to t.ie sharks.

Sir:G.Cocssusei ',mid, he moat give hisdecided
begat* to this mot• .In case* or ehipwreek,
',yore aocidents occurred to thoie iseannen who were
antimiV•to Test the vino, than to those who remain-
ed. 1.1 fart the great el•fliculty which naval officera
encountered, was that of inducing men to stand by
the ship, tsmcfi they would never do, if, they had
_ _

_ -
cork-jarbetis Indeed, those seamen who knew how
to swim. orreiniwir frequently lost, than those who
were ignontos r that art. The reason WI, °below'.
Vef.sels•weee gerserally brit on a lee.shore, on which
tie winds wherransing strongly, raised dangerous
Surf. Throe 'Men who could swim lammed into
the Orel sod were destroyed by the serf, while in.
dividtuils 'wile, *rosined en board were very fre-
quently.miverl. %Yoh respect to Captain Msishy's
investiiin, Woos totally different from that of Mr.
MsHinson. • irly •the former a rope was fired on
shore. Owls prevented the necessity of individuals
plunging into she water - whereas. Mr. Mallinson's
invention required that they should jump into the
sea.

After a few words from Sir F....RURSETT and Sir
I. COMM. the- motion was peg:laved Without a
• •

RF:VENUE COLLECTED AT GIBRALTAR. ,

Mr INSIE said, he was not aware, until he came
flown to the House, that his motion for papers re-
latter to the collection of revenue at Gibraltar,
wrod he objected to. As far as be had tin op-
portunity of examining. lie could trace tin paper
from winch it appeared that the revenue col-
lected will carried to any public account.
knew, as thht garrison was captured, that Isis MM.
jesly, by Acts of Council, controlled all the (Tr-
rations there. When it was originally taken, in
the reign of Queen Anne, sod made a free port, he
believed that little ceveitue was derived from 'it.
In an Order in Council. signed by the Duke of
Bedford, in May, 1749.1'11;MA no mention made
of r e, except what WV produced by the rent
of houses, and duties on wine, rum, and tobacco.
The amount did not appear from any record he had
wen. bar he believed that it was comparatively tri-
fling. All the Orders of Council relative to Gibral-
tar, igen -d from 1707 to 1761, bore a very different
asp- et from those of a subsequent date ; since that
period I irge sums were received on account of duties
ot Gibraltar, theapplication of which was very little
known. The first act, after hit present Majesty's
accesmon to the throne, wait, to give up all the ex-
isting revenue, aoplicable to the support of the
splendour of the Crown, except some leases, held
under the Act of Queen /toile, and in lieu thereof,
a clear sum of 800,0001. a.year was granted. When
his %jest?, iiscome was thus rendered definite,
when it was 110 longer subject to contingencies,
lie conceived any funds that might have pre-
viously beets drawn from Gibraltar became the pro-
perty of the public. But it was most certain, that,
for many years past, Gibraltar was made a source
of reveline to some person or other—he could not
say to whom. Of late years. the Orders its Coun-
cil sent out there gave the most extraordinary
powers. They authorised an itivestigatiou of the
rights of property in Gibraltar, which had created
great alarm there. He understood that a deputation
of nolividnals from Gibraltar had been in London fur
the last 12 months seeking redress from his Majesty's
ItLuisters against two Acts of Council of 1815 and
1817. Looking to the grants of property made '
long since by General Bland and Others, he con-
ceived it was not correct to endeavour to shake them
sine. As these Acts of Council were issued for the
porpo-e of procuring nioney, and as he was iss-
formed 50,000/. ;ter annum was levied on the gar-
risim—/•• Hear," front the Chancellor of the Excite-
ygerj —it was right OW the subject should be in-
ti lured into. The Right Hon. Gentleman seemed
to doubt his statement. He hoped be would ex.
plain the business satisfactorily, since nothing
tended so touch to quiet su-picion us a plain
statement of the trutli.--filear, hear. hear.)—
Of this 60,0001. he understood 18,0001. was on-
smalls transmitted to this country. ‘Vheit he was
in Gibraltar, some year* ago, he was told that the
suit *rot to Elie land was only 9 or 10,0001. an-
nu •Ily. Suppossog that, for the last Is years, the
of 18,000/. hail been annually transmitted from
to ibis country. it would form a total of
3.4,0001. with the application of which the
public were unacquainted. A tax of 3 per
erot. had been laid on all property in the gar-
rison, to defray the expense of lighting, as it
was said. It was kuowu, however, that no person
was allowed to go out after gun-fire without a
lantern—so that it could not be well conceived
why suck a tax should be imposed for the purpose
of deli/tying the expense of lighting. A mune
51110 was paid for pratique, for hai boor duties, &c. :
in short, every thing at Gibraltar was made the
subject of a duty. When they were annually
voting sums for the repairs of the garrison of Gib-
talsui, and it appeared that sufficient was raised
there to answer every demand of that kind, it was
not, he conceived, unreasonable or unfair, that the
house should know how the revenue collected in the
g mom' was appropriated. The Hon. *Member
omit foiled by moving for
" A return of the amount of revenue collected iii Gibes).
vs., and the portion thereof remitted so England in each
year, from 18110 to ISM inclusive, sod to what purpose the
sums sit remitted have been applied." .

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, lie
felt it to be his duty to oppose this motion. Ex-
cept iu cases where the Crown applied to the
for ail addition to its fonds, it was not cui-
toinary to give information of the nature now called
tor. 011 uremia's of that kind, a statement of the
di►burumrt►t of the Civil List revenue was laid
before the House, in order to shew that the
call for a more extended grant did not arise
fioin any misapplicition or waste. He was pre-
psred to contend for the principle that that
House had not been entrapped, and that it was
not a province of Parliament to make inquiries
rispecinig private revenue; at the same 'joie he
did not mean to withhold the information desired
by the lion. Gentleman. The Crown undoubt-
edly bad exercised the tight of ahplyiug the reve-
nues derived f►om Gibraltar, but then they had
been *wird principally to the support of the

Government there; to the payment of the salaries
of the Governor. Deputy-Governor, and similar
charges. The Hon. Geistkmaii had epillien of
this as if it was a practice of late date; whereas. ou
the contrary, it hail been a principle sanctioned by
the usage of the State from a very early period of
our history. that any surplus of revenue in such
lependencies,.. above what was required for the Or-
Penses of the Government, should be considered the
property of the Crown. The local Government of
(libretti', cost about forty thousand a year, and sur-
pluses from thence hiul been received by the Crowu
from time to time. The revendes were chiefly de.
rived from the duties on' 'hipping; these being
variable, the amount of it during the late war had
Fern at some times much greater than at other..
In a state of peace the surplus was Moth diminish-
ed. and fur the last three years it had been whin-
hstely nothing 7(llmq —lint during the nineteen
years preceding these. the Crown had received from
thence sorpluses innonstting to seventy-two thon-
sand pounds. The House was now substantially
in isnseession of what would be gained by agreeing
to the. motion ; but at the same time lie was bound
to protest, oil ancient principle, against the right of
the House to demand such informal-1 tttt , except
when a royal message was conveyed to it.
Colonel DaVtes expressed his stsprise at the na-
ture of the objection made to the motion, which ap-
peared to him to be one of extreme importance.
It was but justice to the people to sheer them that
the great saint they were called on to pay to the
State, were not capable of diminution by such
means as these. The Hun. Member then Com-
plained of many of the loral taxes, and affirmed
that the manna was highly reasonable and proper.
Mr. Gonoost said, it did not appear there should
'be any spiorial exemption from a general rule in
favour of Gibraltar. He was sorry the (oration
had been brought on in such a thin house, and he
hoped if it were now rejected, the Hun. Geotle-
man would renew it next Session. Whether the
revenue *us seven or seventy thousand pound",
111411 to him immaterial ; it was the principle for
which lie contended, and lie doubted that the
Crowe possessed the right it had exercised. As be
was on his legs. he should take leave to say that he
hail means of knowing that the mode in which the
public business had been managed for the last
fortnight, and particularly the way in which two
importaot Bills had been hurried forward, had ex-
ci►ed the surprise and iudiguatiou of many persons
in the country.
Mr. HUSKISSON said, that the measures relating
to the regulation of finance had been necessarily
delayed till after the Report of the Select Com-
mittee on the affairs of the Bank. With respect to
the rights of the Crown. if the Holt. Gentleman
had looked to the Act to which he had referred,
he would perceive that the Civil List revenue had
been conferred iu lieu of the hereditary revenue grill.
big in England ; and lie maintained that the
casual sources of revenue growing up out of
this country, were nut included within the lan-
guage or meaning of the statute. The subject
was by no turas', a new one—the four and a half
per cent. duties bad furnished au occasion to the
greatest lawyers to bring forth their learning on
the point. During the nineteen years of the
war, the reveaue of the Crowu had been short of
four thousand a year.
Mr. Hume repled.—Gibraltar was included in
the Act, front which it was to be inferred it was
not understood to be an exception, as all the re-
venues intruded to he excepted were mentioned by
name. It would scarcely have been expected that
in August, 1817, au Act should have been passed
by the Prince Regent that no will by a Catholic
or Jew in Gibraltar should be valid. unless lie had
paid ten dollars a year in taxes fur a number of
veers before. He should, with the lease of the
House, withdraw his motion—intending, however.
1 to bring it before the House in the rotating Session.