The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-03-11 00:00:00

THE gRITISII

would be better, quiebt now moverit, not to make any new rule.
but to stand by tke ancient law and custom of Parliament. (Hear,
hear.) If a ease of corrupt motive should arise. he would din.
allow the vote ; but he would not consent to any regulation which
would prevent a Member from exercising his eliocretion as to how
far he could gn in support of a question without being liable to
the accusation of partiality. Nothing, he thought, could be more
subversive of the spirit of the Constitution as an extension of
disallowing votes; nothing so injurions to the interests of the
country, as any prevention On a Member's taking part in a debate
where he might have an interest. They would, by such a course,
prohibit, perhaps, the person best qualified from stating his
views for the information of the House, while they commuted a
wrong by hindering him from serving his cause in promulgating
those views. (I dear, hear.) lie thought every purpose would be
answered by their ►eaving to the Member his discretionary power
of withdrawing after having stated his view of the question, and
lie would therefore withstand the present motion upon the ground
of the sufficiency of the ad law of Parliament. (llear, hear.)
ltlr. ABE iIf.RO3IBY said, he would trouble the house with
• few observations, while he gave the Hon. Member for Mont-
rose credit for the temperate and modest manner in +ditch he had
brought this question before them. Ile could not hesitate in con.
cueing with the Right Hon. Secretary for the Home Department
in regretting that it had been Introduced. and expressing his satis-
faction if it could be expunged from the Journals. Nothing he
knew was more likely to gain popularity—nothing more likely to
any men's minds away with it than an imputation of pecuniary
interest interfering with public duties ; but if they allowed them-
selves to entertain such opinions, and permit an inestigation into
the motives of the votes given in that House. they would be ob-
liged to carry it to such a length that they would render themselves
perfectly obnoxious to the public. So long as men were human—
s° long as they were subject to 'human frailty, they would be go-
verned by motives, and he knew of no remedy for any improper
acts into which they might be led b}• those motives, but the force
of public opinion. (Hear, heir.) It was the only cheek upon the
infirmity of human nature. There was no better safeguard agatost
evil—no better guide to rectitude than our own conscience, sup-
ported by the dread of public opinion. If men, having a share of
one hundred pounds on one side, and tbte interests of a bode they
have been called open to moment on the other—if men so situated
cannot be trusted to their conscientious feelings of rectitude in the
exercise of their duty, he would say, in Genre name, let them de-
part from that house. lie was not surprised at the present pio.
ceediugs in that Howe; they arose from that vast Twisty of speeu.
lotions which had created an interest so unusual in its Members;
but he thought it was very great injustice to say that they were
governed by conupt motives to such an extent as Seas asserted.
Ile thought it would be inexperie it to form any Resolution at such
• time, and much Infer, as he had already said, to trust to the in.
fluerce of public onittion. lie agreed with the Right Hon. Secre-
tary. that they had no light to impose a restraint upon the conduct
of Members in this exercise of whet they may conceive to be their
duty. The Resolution, if carried into effect, would too much re-
semble the right of expulsion, against which he had always ex-
pressed lilt opinion. It was highly unjust to deprive Constituents
of the benefit of a Member's services ; they had a right to them for
the time they heel sent him there, and he considered the power the
House had occasionally assumed as a pool infringement upon the
Constitution of the country. If he caul I take the liberty of eug-
g • ing anything, it wood be gist a Committee should be appointed
to inquire if there were any or what precedent for this motion, in
older that, if possible. the whole might be expunged from the
Journals. One word more he begged to say :—the abuse in the
Committees of canvassing for votes, and asking, Whom do you
attend for? and whom do you attend for? was one of the greatest
magnitude, and which, undoubtedly, deserved the severest repre-
hension. (Meat.)
Mr. S. WORTLEY agreed in opinion with the Hon. Gentleman
who ir seeded him, that the Hon. Member for nlootrose had been
vtry if. utvised n bringing forward the present proposition.
,If
they were to cone it to the Resolution no business could be ear.
tied on—nothing could be done without their being continually
called upon to inquire in o the merits of the votes upon those which
came before them—a pram 'ice which would create a loss of time
fatal to all public business. Ile thought nothing could be more
scandalous and disgraceful than the canvasses which he haelbenrd
of, or the practices which it was said prevailed in Committees;
hut nothing, lie believed, was better calculated to repress that evil
than the dezaunteneunrn of County Members, whose defy it was,
as Chairmen, to set their faces against any attempt to influence the
Committee.
Mr. LOCKHART said • few words in apposition to the Re-
solution.
Sir E. KNATCHBULL said the Resolution was founded upon
the as iumption that public business was carried on in w very cor-
rupt and partial manner, • fact which lie meet firmly denied. If
the practice was general, lie would admit it; but from all that had
come to 144 knowledge in is a attendance above stairs he must say
that he knew it was not, an 1 that he believed those who supported
this proposition knew it. No interference was necessary; for if
any parties felt themselves aggrieved by the practice of a Com-
mittee, that House was always open to any complaint which they
might think proper to br ng forward. But lie begged to deny that
the conduct of the Committees at all warranted the charges pre-
ferred against them.
Mr. ROBERTSON thought there was some ground for the
charges preferred against Members on this occasion. He knew
that no new scheme was set attiat in the City without its Directors
or Projectors appropriating several hundred thousand pounds worth
of shares for the Members of that House; and he thought that
these npeculatie its, many of them delusive, received their principal
support from the countenance afforded them by Members of Par-
liament.
Mr. lICME then rose to reply. lie had been censured by the
Right lion. Secretary for the Home Deputinent as having at-
tempted to introduce something new and unknown to Parlianient ;
but he thought the President or the Board of Controul had satis-
factorily proved that it was the ancient law of Parliament. The
R ght Hon. Secretary, and the Hon. Member for Yorkshire, had
said they wruld 'cave this question to the honour of the Gentlemen
of this House, while they admitted that practices had been going
on of a nature to outrage the feelings. Such had not been the
practice of our eeecestors. Judges, juries, and witnesses haul been
disqualified by, them co constitutional principles, if they were sup-
posed to have any lout rest In the questions before them. They did
not trust to the effect of honour or conscience, but introduced re-
strictions which provided against the poisibility of partial influ-
ence. Ile therefore asked nothing new—nothing unknown to the
Constitution. lie was happy to hear that what had fallen from the
President of the Mend of' Controul was applicable to those who
voted both for and against any measure upon other than public
grounds, and that the House must take upon itself to decide the
question when fairly brought before it. He had consulted the
honour and character of the House in the measure he proposed ;
but as they seemed to be averse from its reception, he would not
press it to a division. It had been said that he had not acted
wisely to try this question, hut he felt fully satisfied with it. He
had gained the opinion of the President of the Board of Controul
that the House had the authority ro apply a remedy to this evil ;
and he had heard both aides of the House disclaim the practice* he
complained of.
The motion was accordingly negatived.

CALEDONIAN CANAL.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that as the
time had arrived when the votes of money for the Caledonian
Canal had ceased, and as there were many calls for compensation
under the Act for lands through which it had pasted, it became
necessary to put some limit to the period when those demands may
be brought forward, that the House might be freed in some pro-
bable time from all claims upon that subject. Ile should therefore
move fur leave to bring in a Hill to amend and limit the operation
of the Act commonly called " The Caledonian Canal Act.
Mr. lIUME took occasion to observe, that he hoped the Right
Hon. Gentleman, as he was so anxious to protect the Treasury
against individuals, would be equally willing to protect individuals
against the Treasury—he alluded to the claims of military and
naval officers and °trim, which he had mentioned a few evenings
ago to the House.
The motion was then agreed to.
DUTIES UPON FOREIGN PRODUCE.

Colonel DAVIES rose to bring forward his promised motion
upon the subject of the Duties upon Foreign Produce. The lion.
Gentleman began by observing that high duties counteracted the
effect intended, and that they invariably lessened the revenue by the
diminution of consumption. In his attempt to persuade lion.
Gentlemen opposite that a great reductlon or total repeal of many
of those duties would be of great benefit to the country, he knew
that his arguments would not be met in that spirit which formerly
swayed the councils of the Treasury Bench—a spirit which re-
girded every improvement or suggestion of relief only as it might
increase or diminish patronage; but that those who now fortu-
nately presided over our finances would hear with attention and
adopt with candour whatever might seem likely to bandit the re-
venue of the country, decrease the comforts of its in.rabitanta, or
relieve their burdens. The conduct they had hitherto pur-
sued deserved the highest praise, and lie (Col. Davies) trusted they
would continue a course, which, while it enabled them to rule the
people, would at the same time, through them, give them the
power to comma' that House. The paradox, that reduction of the
duty would increase the revenue, had now been solved; and he
hoped to persuade them to profit by the knowledge they had ac-
quired. The Honourable Gentleman then proceeded to argue, that
a reduction of the duties on tobacco, tea, and spirits, would be
much more likely to put an end to the practice of smuggling,
than the reduction upon wine ; first, because wine was not, from
its packages, so easily stowed away for the convenience of the
smuggler, and next, because the articles of tea, tobacco, and
sprits, being in more general demand amongst the poorer classes of
the community, were more likely to create a temptation to that
tilicit traffic both in the smuggler and corsumer. lie adduced
several instances of die deStructive effects attendant upon the con-
flicts between the blockade-men and the smugglers, and implored
the Chancellorof the Exchequer to put an end to a system which
cost the country upwards rat 322,090/. per annum; which en-
geidered ill.will and hatred, and proved totally inefficient to the
purposes for which it was intended. The Hon. Gentleman then
entered into some comparative oatements of the duty upon foreign
spirits at different periods, to prove that it was greater when the
duty was 12s. 74d. per gallon, than when it was 19s. Ile re-
commended that duty to be tried again. The same, he
argued, had happened in the case of tobacco, which had de-
creased in consumption as it hail been advanced by duties.
He then adverted to a memorial which had been presented to the
Lords of the Treasury, and read some extracts in support of his
opininns. From the tenth report of the Commissioners of Irish
Revenue, the Hon. Gentleman also read some passages, and dwelt
upon the strung temptations which existed in Ireland fur the
smuggling of tobacco, it being almost a necessary of life to the
peasantry of that country. So soon an the str.u3gler is driven