The National Register.
London, England, 1812-08-02 00:00:00

470

the opoortou 7 of justifi.:ati ,n, was too dangerous to be permitted to
be exercised without animadversion, in a country where the liberty of
writing formed part of the laws of the land. He was present at the
trial of the unfortunate Bellingham, and for the first time
line
law
such
cases, the Attorney-General challenged twelve Jurymen,
only sanctioned the prisoner in this practice, and that too was limited ;
but it now seemed that the Attorney-General could challenge to any
extent. This appeared to him a most monstrous, dangerous, and in-
tolerable assumption of power; it seemed to go to corrupt the very
fountain ofju%tice—the Trial uy Jury—and to destroy the impartiality
which it was the object of those who instituted that mode of trial to
establish. Besides this, there were other grievances complained of.
We had been threatened with exarticns to support the labouring
finances of the country. It was stated, that there were three
great exertions of finance, and one was indeed of a terrible de-
scription, namely, the Income 'Tax. All the evils which had
since followed, and all the vexatious inquiries into men's private
affairs, were anticipated by his side of the House, and de-
nied by the persons who introduced the tax.—Another exer-
tion was to be made in the levying of the war taxes, in the
present state of the country ; what was this to be, he would leave
to the Eight Hon. Gentleman opposite, but, looking over the final.-
tial accounts, he saw instances of prodigality which would preven'
his giving his consent to any new exaction until he saw something done
in the way of economizing the expenditure of the country. In Ene.
land and Scotland there were sinecures to the amount of 392, ,
3611.
without any public service being performed. In Ireland there. wa
1000001. of a similar nature; and among these a curious item ap-
peared, namely, 30,0001. to the Prince at Mecklinburgh Strelitz ;
what that person had done to deserve this he could not tell. Hr then
enumerated the different pensions in the post-etfice and excise depart-
ments, and alluded to those on the consolidated lona, which were
given to Lord Nelson, amid to persons who had served the country, and
to which he had no objection. The whole of these sinecures amount-
ed to more than a Milliotrof money ; 16U,0001 was an wally given to
American. French, and Dutch loyalists. There were also the loan t
the Emperor of Germany, who was now the ally of Buonaparte; the
Subsidies of Sicily a. d Po tugal ; the pensions of the Duke of Schom-
berg, the Duchess of Brunswick, and the Duke of Brunswick OeLs ;
in fine, of these items there was given to foreigners alone the enormou-
eum of 3,143,5001. There also appeared the sums which were im-
properly granted to members of the Royal Family, and in particular,
that to the Duke of York, during Mr. Andington's administration.
The expence of foreign corps was 968,4251. the loans to Portugal and
the East India Company two millions each, and one million of money
for the exchange of prisoners of war, front which the country had de-
rived no benefit. There was an item to which he looked with great
jealousy, namely, 176,0001. for secret service money. VVlretker this
was fir the purchase of war, by the payment of such men as Mr.
Henry, in America, or whether it was for spies to entrap men in this
country, fur p .rposes of another description, or however it went, it
might well be spared. 100,0001. was given to the poor clergy of the
church of England; this, he feared, would become an annual grant,
and he thought it would be better if the poor clergy were supported
by the rich. The same principles shotald extend to the distressed
Manufacturers, and the disturbances won cease much sooner than
could be expected from the institution of severe laws. Large sums of
mow were given to the Commissioners appointed to examine Pub-
lic A.ccounts, and he was sure that they never saved what would pay
their expences for one month. He came next to the items, which he
termed jobs, the Board of Agriculture; 65,0001. for roads and bridges
in Scotland, a sum that exceeded the land-tax of that country ;
89.0001. for Henry the Seventh's Chapel, and, what was rather odd,
_15,0001. to the Princess of Wirtemberg. The whole of these amounted
to near nine millions of money, exclusive of the Civil Ltst,which was
a million more. He then adverted to the sale of Crown Lands, which
were bought by the Civil List, and which made the Crown in a man•
per dependant upon the vote of the House, and which caused it to be
considered by the country as a great overgrown pensioner. He had
siseen frequently stated as a person hostile to what was called the Con-
stitute i Authorities; so far from that, he would always support the
consti,tyted powers of the Crown, which had been much encroached
,lon by that House. There was in that House an oligarchical govern-
ment, a borough-monger faction, which set at defiance the principles
of the Constitution, and which broke in on the laws of the country.
Its object was taxation, which went to palsy the war we were carry-
ing on. The borough interest was to be found in the Navy, the
Army and at the Bar, which had suffered a melancholy change from
the independence that had made the professions respectable in the eyes
of the people. Out of the Army Expenditure, only one-third went
to the payment of soldiers; and Lord St. Vincent said, that a full
third of the expenditure of the Navy might be saved. As that House
was a source of corruption in every department of the State, it became
necessary fof every man to hold his situation as a Minister by sinister
lams. • He wished to speak his opinioh of the rejection of the over-
tures of peace lately made by the Emperor of France. It was a matter
pf little national importance whether Joseph or Ferdinand was on the
'throne of Spain. The Hon. Bart. them adverted to the war between
Russia and France, and expected that it would turn out disadvanta-
:us to the farmer country. When he turned back to former times,
could not entertain any sanguine expectations, nor could he look to

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