The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-06-23 00:00:00

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atterwseds•t/emitteil by the I,ortis of the Trehsury,
leaving the thefrodatit, however, to pay the casts of
the suit. What benefit then did this individual re-
ceive-, who, it should hr observed, had previon.ly
tendered • bill of exiseptionr, which he declared he
was tillable to awe up, no to-room of hi* poverty ?
Yet this poor in4ll, 6114 ee',l!Oceli to Koury,
obliged to oily no less is silo, for twat', to the So.
hcitur of Excise, thin IGO/. ; yea. to the Solictior
of the Excise, tin irrr.pttttslhle offierr, who hail it
•iti his olowte to prosecute and to persecute eves y
person he plen.ett ! In zolihUoti to thk, lie had to
limy 891. 84, 5.1. to him twin Httortiey--quakitig• n
total (d 2491. B+. fi.l. If thoi were an
perhaps it would nut be ,io'worthy of isitiktiettyet.
unit ; but when it appeared, 1:r papers laid be.
fore the House, that, in the course of ooe Year, ho
les: than 760 infortriattoo+ were Weil, which oven-
'mord no rxprii‘e of 140,#)(01. It bveitiov a soh-
jrvt of the mom orrion%
the c.ise of the Prtilio.irr. the nolieitur's bill 111
rvtaa contained the fillow lug it urns ;—t he Attorney.
(:etter:ll, to giitoro.; the Soltvitor-(iriirral, to
guineas; Mr. I)iiiiivrv. s 11r. 1Vadt...),11,
4 guiiirioi; mod. 10 keep op the Ppleiiihur of the
rouliti..hoient, 7/. 13.. 4.1. to the t:ryer of the Al it-
t.ll4lore Cto,ort.— )—The suhjeet was i•I
the uritio•t if health were sp.r.il
hell, lie wiiiitil, its the 'text S-s•ioo, solpoit a ilt•D•
11011 to the /limo.. lor a Committee, to inquire into
the mode of conducting them! proseeotiowt. Ott
ttttt lie hoped lie would Hot wily not hiss
oppiliteel Is his Nitiii%ter., but tiitit
would crevice the pt....villa support of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer.—/l/Par. hear.)—The
lion. Member theta moved, 'DLit this Petition

be hrought up,"
Alt lion. Nlemher, whose came we could not
collect, said, the fin. Grath-nem who introduced
the Petition, was nit exactly correct in some of the
übservaiiims he had swede se it:t respect to the Salt.
citor ohhe That iil.iivut...l was merely a
ministerial officer, and aeleil tinder the totOledlate
directieri of • higher power—O./ear, /tend—he
never acted until lie received positive instruction*
to llie login,. who filled Ilse situation was
of irreproachelde character. and hail nut, he was
sure, deinauded greater f.e. 'hats he was entitled to.
Those fern .were. framed by the hvgliest legal audio-
rity, and, he believed; on a very moderate scale.
Et.i.ice, without meaning to east way reflec-
tion ou thus who were immediately connected with
the itistitittom of prosecutions of this kind in the
Court of Exchequer, could Hot avoid expressing
less aldturrettee of the general system which pre-
vatted, mid which called lousily fur alteration.
Inc Sot.icurnit-GVIEOAL felt it necessary to
make some observations on (twain-reit of the Huth
Gentlemen who heed, in fact, made an attack on the
iiriniiitist ration of jii.tice in the Court of Exchequer.
—(No! No !)—Umloobtedly, the Hon. Gentle-
man had essitoilated the procreetiogs there to those
formerly adopted by the Court of Stur-Chainher,
and he had reinsured the conduct of the prestcliiig
Judge.—//fear, bedr.)—lle was walling to accept
of these cheers—lott, if Gentlemen conceived that
the Judges of the Coon of Exchequer deserved
censure, the fair and manly way would be, to bring
their cooduct before the {louse by way of impeach-
ment.—(//cue, /tear./—The Act of the efith of the
II King, under tv;ttell this prosecution was iiestituted,
was one of great ittip,:rtance to the revenue. It
provided, that the Captaiti of every vessel, on his
his arrival at the Custom-lonise, should produce a
manifest, epecife imm all the ;II tit :es he had on
board. The (..sinaie, i.t 11,14 instlnee, stated,
that he had a certain quinitity of coffee um board—
but. when en exaiiiiitatitio took piece, it corona
derahle de-licieticy was ths•mwered. This wl5 I" e- -
curly what the Act of Parliament was passed to
guard agant‘t --and. therefore, the prosecution was
;impel-1y instituted. The delay complained of
arose emt;rety from his own apprcations. With
ZeSia.et to the tiltimate remittance of the penalty,
the fact was, that the Commissioners, on account of
his poverty, were willing to lean as lightly on him as
possible—they hail therefore remitted the petteltY
but the duty they owed to the public would nut
sullier them to go further: they left hint, of coinse,
to pay those costs, edict, otherwise must be sup-
plied out of the pockets of the public. Wllil re-
spect to the attack made on the honourable person
who 61641 the situation of Solicitor of the Excise,
it was wholly iiefoutitled. That individual, as had
',heady heen *Wed, could out, and dud HO, origt-
nate prosecutions. He acted from the orders of
°shear, after all the circumstances of a case had
been inquired into. Here he felt it necessary
to say a word in defence of his Right Honour-
able Friend (Sir Samuel Shepherd) who hall lately
VdCited his seat ill that House. Nothitig could be
inure mijuat than 'he insinuation that be had been
missions, in his official situation, to institute prose-
cutout's—not for the pithlic service, not for the be-
nefit of the revenue, but for the purpose of enabling
particular individuals to receive large feee.—(flear,
heur.)—Here he begged leave to correct the Hon.
Member on a puha on which he had been set right
formerly, although he appeared to have forgotten it.
lie alluded to tlw compromise of actious la the
Court of Exchequer. The Hon. Gentleman ought to
have known, that a compromise never proceeded
r the Crown, but always was solicited by the
defendant. If a great number of informations
were filed in the course of a year, that fact only
proved the number of frauds that were daily perpe-
trated, and lie tired not 1 t out the necessity
which existed fur the. king them. Al to the num-
ber of Cutinsel employed, it could not be avoid-
ed. It was necessary that the Crown should have
a stroog bar of Counsel—since it would have the
worst possible effect. if, in oue case, certain Coun-
sel, who were employed fur the Crown, should,
in the next, appear as the advocates of the defend-
ant. 'flue larorneel Gentleman concluded by ex-
prelude% a hope, that he had abeam, from the nature
of the transaction its question, that the Petitioner
had too just g I of complaint.
Mr. CA INERT dill nut meats to impugn the con-
duct of those who were at the head of the Eecise
department—but he must observe, (hat the system
acted wee by the Excise was by do means congenial
with the general principles of British law. and was
Carried 111 an exttmt, which, in some instances, was
extremely obnoxious. The system was only tole-
rated because it was necessary to collect a revenue.
As this was the case. he conceived that those who
were concerned with the Exchequer, ought not to
feel so sensitively on the subject, when complaints

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were matte of the severe operat:mi ..f the :'e'+. .;11(
Icarer, it appeared to bun, ought to be lull) (.1
vasoetl. .

-Mr. DENMAN objected to the tone and temp. a.
which subjects of this kind were received by indi-
viduals who felt themselves in slime degree con-
nected with prosecutions of this nature. Fur bit
putt , hit conceived there was no pert of the mho.-
nistration of justice that called more decidedly for
the jealous, and, at the acme time, wholesome ic.
vestigarion of that House. lie felt the ligliest
aprct fur the individual who presided its the Coots of
Exchequer, and for the Solicitoh of the Excise, wkiia
hr had the I our of knoering. he entertained a sin"
core esteem. lie, however, differed from those %hi
brl.eved that the Solicitor of :the Excise had no (fibs
crettion in the instituting prosecutions: the cons
(nil,. lie beneved, wee the fact. tie was far froni
insostrating that this discretion was abeased—but he
I most so), that the Solicitor of the Excise, bottle
' performance of air arduous duty, wee surrounded
by temptation.. In the case immediately before,
he considered the ruling of the Learned
1 Judge to have been tocorrect—.and he was of op-
gum., that, had the Petitioner been able to ii.ve
! followed op his bill of exceptions, it must have
%Viten he said that, he begged to
express sincere conviction, that, if the Learned
cmiceirstl that he was in error, lie "timid be
the tiro individual to rectify it. 14itli respect to
what had been said out the abject of compromising
cores, he wi-bed to observe, that lie om-r sat eta.
'Oiled fur a defendant in the Court or
who.. he did not counsel, whether innocent O:t1
guilty, to make the best compromise he could—fee
sure lie was, that it was by far the wriest anise.:
The Crown had, in all Exchequer ca,, so teiew
cided an advantage over the subject, that, in his
opiiiion, the Excise Laws which gave that otbao-
tage, ought to he strictly resi.ed. Sorry he was
say, that ',Milts had been conceded under Exec,
and C11.1.0111•Acts. that were never meatit to be r4,.1-
hecteit with them, which rendered a revision
mire neceteot)y.
Sir C. 13caitit.r, said, certain causes had oretirw:
in the last )ear, where wretches had prosecuted in-
nocent people foe breaches of the Ext Ise [AWN t.),
~riser their own base ends. Their perjury
afterwards made eniiiiifebt 110f11 his own 'Know-
ledge, lie could aver, that the L:orumis-loners .slut
every thing in thrir power to make up the losses of
those who had suffered by such false accusations,...)
(l/ear, hear.)
1 The Pctit!oil was then brought up and read.
Oct the motion " That this Petition be Lid 01

the table"—
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCIIiQUER sai:l, if
the Hon. Member had not thought proper, in pie-
sentitig this Petition, to make an attack iii the
Mead of Excise, and on the odinioistratiao
justice in the Court of Exchequer, lie would in.t
have made • single observation. But, as he 11:01
taken that course, it was necessary for hurl to say 4
few words with respect to the Board of Excr-e.—
The other parts of the subject hail been so folly
met by his Learned Friend (the Solicitor-General
that it was unnecessary fur him to notice them. 11,e
Board of Excise undoubtedly were intrusted witb
very extensive powers—hut he believed ito ittstative
could be adduced in which they had abused thr
powers. They ordered no informations to be filed,
except where the evidence appeared to justify such
a step. The Hoot. Member complaisant, that, in
one year, 761 informatious were filed. But this
was oat to be wondered ur, when it was :•eridlecied,
that 35,000,00 UL of revenue eerie to be colleCted
iu the course of the year, from a greet vanity of
individuals, by many of whom uudoubtedly frutole
were committed.
Mr. It. GotteloN said, no attack had been made,
as warns asserted, on the Court of Eechtqiier, or on
any other hotly—the existing system alone was corn-
pl lined of, and, in his opinion, moat justly. The
Ittglit Hon. Gentleman said, his Learned Friend
had unswered every allegation that had beet' mode
lie the Hon. Nletuber who presented the Velition.
lle. denied this entirely. The Learned Gentleman
had not, in fact, answered any of them. The sys-
tem was one that called for revision, nod he hoped
in the next Seysion that the subject would be fully
inqd:red into. A case of peculiar hardship had
come oithin his own knowledge. An individual
was prosecuted in the Court of Exchequer. unit.
while the trial was in progress, he %111 i solivited (itr•
nocent or guilty, as his Learned Friend hat ex-
irressed it) to cooryomise the busines.. While
the ch..flcring and harteriog on this point were
going oil between the Counsel, the Judge waited.
The defendant, however, refused to compromise
the case—and lie brought forward evidetice which
clearly proved his in:ince:ice. At that moment.
the Attorney-General rose and withdrew the record
—but the deferidant was saddled with heavy costs,
although lie committed tin offence. This lie coo-
, ceived to be as oppressive an act as even the Court
of Star-Chamber could be guilty of.
Mr. 1). W. HARVEY, in reply, observed, that the
general aspect of proceedings, ut Excise eases, or
the Court of Exchequer, did, certainly, bear a C. 1114
siderable resemblance to the course formerly adupt-
ed by the Court of Star-Chamber.
After a few words front the CHANCELLOR of the
Ext.:llEounit, the Petition was laud out the table,
and marred to be printed.
Mr. D. W. II ARVEY then moved—
" That there be laid before this Mouse cimirs .f ail
Petitions, Memorials, and oilier Diteuntritts, hires, to
the I..ords of the Treasury and the Commissioners of Elitist
by
Samuel Biyaii—and of all Pruceetlimet, Marro, and lb-
-1101114, of the Lords of the Treasury and Cimmtiattiermrs
Excise, thereon —and of the coals mem sell in the Ilf1114(U•
lion of Batumi Bryan, and the result therent."—( liarred.
BANISHMENT FROM 5C07.1..1N
Mr. KENNEDY, otter a kw peeratta‘ ,a)•ereatiOull,
in the course of which he complaiaell if the larste
with which Mt 3Sures, connected with Semiarid,
were hurried through) the House, unit expres-eil
wish that soniething, its the nature of a staiiili,g
order, should he entered on *heir Journals, provid-
ing that fourteen tbiys should elapse between lite
first and second reedit% of Bills relating to Scot-
land—moved—
" 'lnt there be laid before ibis House a return of all
perilous against whom sentence of banisioncsit from Scutlaral
has been pronounced, during each year, fruits Jemmy
—specifying the offence is each case, fur *kith suds pile
twist was decreed, and whether tt was prtmuuncetl by the
High Court of Justiciary, or by any oilier C.lllll,
what Judge."—Ordered.
SUPERVISOR OF EXCISE ACCOUNTS.
Mr. LUSSIINGTON obtained leave to bring in a

tllll fir transferring the duty or SJpervidor or
Excise Accounts to the Comptroller Ceittral of
Customs.
COALS.

)♦fir. LUSIIINGTON obtained leave to bring i.l g
to regulate the drawback on coals
Mt long iron and tin ores in the counties of Devon
and Cornwall.
PREVENTION OF SMUGGLING.

Mr. LUSH.INCITON. in mowing forl .... to Innis;
s Bill far the better prevention of snin•zzinsg,
~used, that one object of the me:sinore wmilii lie, to
!wade Magistrates, when sailors were brought before
them for smuggling of laces, to convict them, by
summary process, which, nt the law at present
stood, they could lint rhos Next, it was rimmed
to give a Rowe► to Magistrates to punish per.olig
were discovered making signal tires on the
rolst, in order to r?irect smugglers where to hind.
There were several oh her pun' ta jut the Ihll, on
ivlnch, in its progress throng's the House, lie would
be ready to afford ii,foriss stion.—Lesse