The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-06-15 00:00:00

ALIEN BILL.

On the Order of the Day tor the second reading of the Alien
Ball—

Sir J. MACKINTOSH rose. and after alluding to the die-
I cession which had just closed, said that he should not have
troubled the Huu.e if it had nut appeared to him that the
whole quest i .n of legislation as it regarded the alien had
been put in new ground. We hail had triennial and biennial
Alien Bills. At first it was proposed as part of the measnres
necessary uu the transition from peace to war. la 1916
they were not to make too great • jump—in 1916 there won
souther reason soden. d—in I b2O the measureless defended I e.t
the Neapolitans aught propagate tentialts at Manchester and
sedition at Birmingham ; but now that all the pretexts were
done with, they most be looked upos as the most frivolous and
ridicalons that were ever adopted as the foundation of !egos.
biting uu a great measure. But those pretexts all acknow-
ledged that the measures were temporary—al least that me.
tit belonged to Aliens all. A new situation had now arisen,
and the House was to decide, not whether the Alien Bill
was to be consideied as an expedient to which occasional
recourse Might be necessary, or whether it was to be
added to the general body of our laws as a ne-
cessary measure which the fully of our ancestor% had
failed to adopt. The first objection be hail to the 'masque
was, that it placed 25,000 subjects of a free state in the con-
dition of political slavery. The second charge be bad aga nit
tt* was, that besides its injustice and oppression, it Would
artustum the citizens of a fire state to the practice of slaeer y,
and he was sore that it was the last power which an honest
Minister would de.ire, or • wise Commonwealth suffer to
be evtablished. To pass from political objections to those
which ease hose to every man's baptisms and bosom, his
third *Nicole's was, that the power was arbitrary and
Might be exerted ruinously to innocent individuals. it
was a power likely to be abused, because the Wiwi-
deals, to exerehe that power, bed not their judgments
stalled by those forms which in all ages bad been found neces-
sary for the protection of immense, agaiust the errors of
those who exercised power. This was • power sure to be
abused; it was the must irresponsible power ever given to
noen. If he were called span to make • short cutup endiurs
of tyranny, be world only love to de.cribe the powers and
operation of this Bill. It not Duly armed the Government with
ty voltaic power, hat it gave to individeals in private society
the same powers which ii pretended to give to the Govern.
meat only. What ought be the effect os foreign wit uess-s ?
Ile would oily allude to that topic, as there were Hou.
Member. fully competent to speak certainty on it. But
thus much he would say, that ignorant as foreigners were of
the spirit of our laws, of the influence and control of opi-
✓iots. and, he would also say, of the character of those who
edmini.ter the law—it was a natural consequence that the
timid might dread its power, and the wicked avail himself of
its terrnes, to Impede the course of jo•tiee, and this objec-
tion did out anomie& any abase of the BIS or those whom it
empowered. There was snob r objection, Chit whether
&noted ur not, the knowledge of its exioence most ne-
cessarily prevent many meritorious men from necktie re-
fuge in this kind as in furore days, for they would out
trust men though they might trust laws. The alien
who came bere sow could no longer brave hi• op•
proem ; he was not received as forme. ly, but with a brand
.opuu his forehead. It could nut be 'tried from the gamu-
t...re that sere here, that none were deterred Guns coming.
Though 50,000 peewee fled Iron' the tyranny of Louis XIV.
loud the Edict of haute, yet numbers still remained behind.
We were told that we lived In an age of rivolutions. lie
should have thought it proper to ossusge the irritation, to
base given every facility to vanquished parties to withdraw,
nnJ nut by keeping them peuued up, force on them the
necessity of selling their liver as dearly as possible. To
admit this law, the pr..pusers thi• measure were now
willing t.t degrade our aiseont law, and stigmatize Magna
Chart+, which had the honour of being the flat law framed
to !Totem slices; they had desecrated their country, and de-
graded its COsisSitollisis in the rte. of fore goers, who had
fiddly believed the institosons 1,1 F.4lE:and not only secured
the freedom of Enalishnsen, hot afforded protective to fo-
reigoers, who crowded to it from quarter of the world.
It had been conteeded that the protection of our ancient sta-
tute* was confined to merchants only, bat the Act of Ed-
ward 111. added the words, " and ntl other aliens." And the
mat ute of HenryYl. which regarded 40 freeholders, expoesaly
stated, that it was" to give aliens greater courage and desire
lu come ht this threatry." He would ask the House whether
the operation of the Alien Bill were not to give leis
and less drove to aliens to come to this ementry ? whether
it was not, is feel, the antipode of that Bill ? How opposite
were the masses of our ancrstots from those of the present
day. They were out content with allowing the trial
by jury to aliens, but they provided that so alien should
be punished for say offence without having had a Jury
of half foretellers, whilst we enabled the King's Govern.
maul to imprint" any number of fureiren frithout any