The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-01-19 00:00:00

COURT MARTIAL.

The following is the sentence of the General
('Hutt I.lartiol, held at Edinburgh io October last,
no Edward Mortimer, private in the 6th Drugoous,
fur desertion and rubbery.
GENERAL ORDER.
Adjutaut-General's Office, Edinburgh,
January 4, 1819.
Parole, Antrint—Conntersigo, Darlington.
Major-Central Hope having beets honoured with the fol.
Ina tog cotonittnicati•tn boot his Royal Highness the COM-
numilrviii•Choef, takes the earliest opportunity of making
the saute ktwou to the troops under his comssiaull :
Horse Guards, December 86, 1818
5111.--Haviog laid before the Prince Regent the proceed.
lugs of a material Court-Martial, held at F.dinburgh Castle,
on the Ist of October, 1810, and continued, by adjouru-
meuts, until the 20th of the same month, fur the trial of
iII
private Edward Mortimer of the 6th Dragoons, who was
arraigned upon die miller-mentioned charge, viz.—
" Fur desertion Gum the bead-quartent of the 6th regiment
of dragoons at Ezell-Non or about the 26th of August, 1217.
after having ritlibed Regimental Quarter-muter Kerr, of
the fith Drumm, of a large sum of money, in bank notes :
"The shove offence being to the prejudice of g I order
and military discipline, and in breach of the Articles of
War."
Upon which charge the Court came to the following
decision
The Court having considered deliberately the esidenee
un both sides, the Pri►oner's statement in defence, and
whole procedure, is of opinion, that the Prisoner, private
Edward Minnow', of the 6th or Enniskillen Regiment of
Dragoons, is Guilty of the charge, and the same being is,
breach of the Articles of War, does, therefore, semester and
adjudge the said private Eilaard Mortimer to be transported,
as a felon, for the term of fintrectea years.
" The mount, lcr mature deliberation of the whole of
the evidence adduct 01, further recommends, that the balance
remitted, as having been found in the possession of the Pri-
soner, when milord in France, amounting to thirty pounds
...ening to hank antes, seven Napoleons, fourteen fuucland
a half, be rimmed to the Prosecutor, iu podium of recovery
of the loss he has sustained."
I as to acquatut you,that Isis Royal Highness was pleased,
in the statue and ott the behalf of his Majesty, to approve
and co:diem the 6udntg and sentence or thee Court, and to
that the Prisitoer shall he trausportrd accordingly
t.l NEW walla Wale/.
I shall therefore take the steps directed by the Mutiny
At tut lhi. CAW. I
tREDERICII. Commander in Chief.

The arrangemmits, stated in several Papers to
have iret•ir made Irir an tacit:lnge of the commands
sit Ihr Beroluitunaire Liffry frigates, between
the Captain FLEETWOOD PELLEW and the
I Ints. Captuot ntflit:AN, It 14 gruerally
will out how take place. Coptaits *III to
I mottittel.ce provet.ll to the illethtearantao 1.1 alit
la( eishitiopmet r iotteod of the Liffry, tasup
tr
lu 1.1111111 fur the the Portsmouth nations:

THE BRITISH. PRESS.

LONDON,

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1819.

By a reference to our Report of the proceedings
at the Old Barley yesterday, it will be seen that
the London Grand Jury, after having discharged
the regular bushier for which they had been sum-
mooed, expressed their opinions to the Court in a
strong and emphatic manner, respecting the seve-
rity of our Crinairi:,l Code, its injurious effects
upon the mural habits of society. mud its conse-
quent inefficiency to check the progress of guilt.
It is distrersiug to think that such is the opinion
generally entertained by the most intelligent per.
sults in the Senate and throughout the country ou
this most import:rut subject, hut still more ohs-
musing is it to find that the occurrences of every
day bring ample proof to justify this conviction.
Every succeeding Session in the Courts of criminal
judicature throughout England, chews, by the
Icrigth of the calendars, that the number of cri.
moods colanders to illetrw.e. uhile there appears
nothing in the peculiar ciretritio a IWell of the COMM-
try to warrant a that this arises from causes
merely temporary. few yeats Sitio.. when the

cduntry Riu labouriti4 under the pressure of sever?

distress, the offences of inclividuok were ploisiobly
and issturolly attributed to the general calantily ;
rod this miciertinn was then considered II .iufficient

refotation or evrry arg iiiii rot that tended to a revi7

•ion of OUT Criimual Code ; but now, tI9 we ►Lrll
no doubt be informed in a few days by the very

highest authority., the sources of nal I provenly
ire again opened; connneree, both foreign and do-
Malik, 14 Ng:lin established ; awl in the improve-
ment of the finances most be discerned the pro-
grriative amelioration of the country. By a conici-
deuce also peculiarly fortunate, it happens that at
the moment when, by the disbanding of a consider-

able number of our soldiers, apprehensions might
be entertained that the security of individuals,
both in person and property, was exposed to more
than ordinary danger, the war in South America
opens a means for draining off the most enter-
prising and desperate of these men. It is not,
therefore, to the political aspect of•the country that
we call look for a solution of the present difficulty;
there must be something in the system radically
defective, and this something it will be the duty of
the Legislature at no distant period to discover.
A Protest, as it may well be called, against our
Criminal Code, similar to that read yesterday at the
Old Bailey by the London Grand Jury, was pre-

vented un Saturday last to the Court by the Mid.
dints Grand Jury, at the Clerkenwell Seshions.

house. In this declaration the imperative neces.

pity is noticed of an immediate revision of the
Criminal Code, with more direct reference to the
laws relating to forgeries on the Bank of England.

In this branch of our penal legislation are at
once illustrated all the evils that crowd upon

society from the enactment of laws too san-
guinary for the spirit of the age and the feelings
of the people. There is no crime denounced
with more vengeance than the forgery of Bank
of England notes ; there is none where capital
Aronvietion is more promptly and more unerringly
followed by the punishment of death, the severest
recognised by our law, the last of which our nature
is susceptible, and which, by putting the criminal
beyond the pale of human power, can only operate
by way of example ; yet in the face of this there is
no crime which has more rapidly increased. The
great facility of committing the offence is no doubt
a strong incentive to its perpetration ; hut the cri-
minals rely upon the humanity of individuals, who
would be unwilling, in the present severity of the
law, to prosecute them to death, or, on their good
fortune, that the choice to be made by the law
advisers of the Bank, of those who are to suffer the
utmost penalty, will not fall on them, and in the
delusion thence arising they proceed in contempt of
law, and in despite of the gallows, to tempt their
fate. Even while some wretches are undergoing the
torture of a public trial for passing forged notes,
or are suffering fur the offence, we see others brought
up to the police offices charged with the same crime,
and find them at the bar of the Old Bailey
at the ensuing Sessions, to he followed in the
same career by a third set. equally rash and
equally unfortunate. From this it is too manifest,
that the present laws do not check the offence, for
it is certain that all offenders cannot be hanged—
the feelings of the country would revolt at thal—
ami it is equally certain that, when compared with
death, the punishment of transportation is regarded
as insignificant. Some other punishment must
therefore be tried, and several have been suggested.
We think solitary imprisonment liable to many se-
rious objections, both amoral and political, and
should propose hard labour, with occasional whip-
pings, as the conduct of the individual might seem
to warrant, as the most salutary substitute.
The increase of crime throughout the country is
illustrated by statements from several County Ses-
sions. On this point we have particularly noticed
the Chairman's charge to the Jury at the Staf-
ford Sessions, in which the Learned Gentleman (Mr.
CiSETWYND) remarks, that although hut three
mouths had elapsed sioce the previous Sessions had
been held, the present calendar contained more
than 100 criminals ! that the number of persons
confined within the county gaol was great beyond
former example, and totally prevented the exercise
of the rules usually adopted for the internal regu-
lation of the prisoners. Mr. CiteTwytiD'il charge
will be found in another part of our Paper. At
Norwich Sessions the prisoners were unusually nu-
merous ; at the Somerset Sessions there were 112
prisoners on the calendar; and in the Sessions fur
the east division of Sussex, there were no less than
30 bills of indictment found by the Grand Jury !
For this increase of crimes various causes will, no
doubt, be assigned iii Parliament, and every Nleinlwr
who speaks on the subject will trace the evil to Ins
own favourite theory. Poverty—luxury—increase
of learning—want of churches—taxation—disband-
ing the army—.stverity of the penal code—a mis-
taken lenity in the infliction of punishment ; causes
sonic or them vain and illusory, some inconsistent
with reason, mid contradictory each to the other,
will be assigned wish confidence, as the source of
every calamity. The country, however, requires
sonic mitigation of the extreme severity of the laws;
the spirit of the nation revolts et the sight of blood
fur so many various crimes, want' of them in their
nature and tendency essentially distinct. Moth
good, we doubt nut, will wise from the ili,voion
of the %obit et in Pssilianient, and we trust that the
result will be a graduated scale of punishment,

Lerein sortie proportion %ill be divernible letween
the penalty slid the riffence.

We have received Paris Papers of Thar..
day last. They contain no political intrlhgence
of much interest. The French Funds seem, by the
steadiness they have evinced for some day., to hie
at length reached their proper level. The Five. per
Cents. were ois Wednesday at ti 7 I. 23 c. ; 1311,1..
Stock, 1,470 1.

We have received Charleston Papers to the 16111
last. The following are Extracts:—

NEW-ToRK. DECFMIit R 10.

IVe learn from Capt. IVliiihead, of the sciaamer
Rising Mtn, forty days from Pernambuco, that a
few days before he sailed the prisons who ti,t-re
confinement for being concerned in the late revolu-
tion, had received the King's pardon, and were
berated.

Captain Noble, from Aux Cayes, states, that it
was reported at that hive that a Baltimore 1 sc.iooner
had been captured by a pirate, and :ill hands r,a
board murdered, and that the pirate was alterwaids
chased ashore by a man of war schooner belonging
to Aux Cayes.
FROM Rtu JANEIRO.—We learn from Captain
BARTLING, of the brig James Murdock, who U.
rived this forenoon from Rio Janeiro, that the
patriot troops, under General ARTIGAS, have had
several skirmishes with the Portuguese forces, near
Monte Video, but no great advantage was gained
on either vide. Accounts from Chili, received at
Rio Janeiro, represent the Patriots to have been
victorious in every engagement they have had with
the Royalists.

It will be seen in an article in another part of our
Paper, that a Petition will be presented imme-
diately to Parliament in behalf of the Catholics of
Great Britain, for the Repeal of the reututiling
Penal Laws in force against that loyal, respectahle,
:ind long-suffering body of his Majesty's subjects.
The Petition to the Lords will be presented by
Earl Cs'atv, and that to the Commons by Lord
NUOENT.—The British Catholics have hitherto
united their cause with that of the lriah Catholics;
upon the present occasion they mean to stand
upon their own distinct and separate merits. From
this departure from their usual practice, it must
not be understood that there exists any dissension
or disagreement in the Catholic Body of the
United Kingdom ; their interests do not admit of
any difference or distinction, and never were the
Catholipi of both islands more firmly united is sea•
tumid and principles. But in the agitation of this
important subject, some objections have been made
to the conduct of the Irish Catholics, which their
adversaries have never ventured to apply to the
Catholics of England ; and consequently, if these
objections be founded, and of weigh►►, the latter,
by standing on their own exclusive merits, present
themselves to more advantage.

The verdict obtained on Saturday by Mr. WARD
against Mr. CLEMENT, the Proprietor of The
Observer Newspaper, is hailed as a further exposure
of the misrepresentations by which Lord CASTLE.
REAGII was enabled to obtain the as,ent of l'ai-
liament to the suspension of the Milieus Corpus
Act, and, as such, will be celebrated by a politic
dinner this day at the Crown an.l Anchor Tavern.
The term " hail" is perhaps too cold. To use the
language of the 7'reasury Journals, the frieuils of
freedom glory in the result.—But, add these pure
and faithful guardians of the people's 6tlits, the
libel, on which the verdict has been obtinied,
is not precisely the violent abase best 'wed
upon the Plaintiff by his Lordship, in the debate
of t' a 17th of February, on the motion for a Com-
niittee to inquire Into the truth of the Petitions
preferred by the persons arrested under the [Libras
Corpus Suspension Act. 11'e grant they are not
the same; the philippic of Lord CASSI.Eat 41:11
is infinitely mole virulent thus the libel its Th..
Observer. But does it, therefore, follow, that the
libel is 'tot to be charged to his Lordship's ?
What Editor could hesitate to receive the state.
went io The Observer, as true, who had loald
or read the cliarg,es preferred by Lord CAsris.-
11EAL111 against Mr. WARD, and seen thew
repots by a majority of the I louse of Commons
Mr. CLEMENT did not attempt to justify the
libel, and we presume could !wt.—Lord C ssTi.E-
NEAGH need out justify his eh ir. ger. lLs Lordship
has obtained a 11111 of lid ty.

Much mischief uvab dime uu the ,oittlt-went coast
of Ireland, by a vtilleut t.t...roi. oil ;%I d%
The IiOUIII•West coast of England also buffered front
the borne cartu.e.
The hart ludic C patty's ithip Ludy Lushing-
sus arrived at Bombay the 1 2111 September.
The Abut-Blare, 74, mud Seulark behoutier, a
ordered to 641 bold
The Corninibbnosers of the Navy are about to dis—
pose of bitch Plstro as sulay be SO ile.t 41 fur sale at the
different ports by teistivi, 111.14tbli of by Dutch
unction, as hitherto.
The bucks at Lloyd', tinting the latter part of
the pubt uve• k exhibitvd the • tfeci of the late peaty
gales 111 II 'Ong 84 V. tet•lks and other disasters
at bets. The hisses were those
the kitty, f Norioik to London. flus
shore near Fivitguarol, u, %1. ale.; •tsiol of the hittiribs,
front Snuyi mu, wreck. it nu the Ctiritialt coabt,
Padstobv. These vt—m-ls %ere unsuited at Llo)(1%
11,/ the 81110111 A VI. 31.01101. 'rite Kitty, we 'mulcts
stand, will be a tut .1 tub*.

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