The National Register.
London, England, 1818-06-14 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF IORDS.

MONDAY, JUNE 8.
Air. Courtney and others, from the Commons, requested a
•renterence on the sirliject of the amendments made by that
Home in the Slave Trade Regulation Bill. )' Committee, eon-
si-ting of Earlsltatlinrst and .Liverponl, Lords Sidinouth, Ken-
yon and Napier, the Bishops of Chester null Exeter, were
then appointed ; and, MI their .return, :Earl Bathurst mated
that the amendments wifich,this House had made in the Bill
were rejected by the Commons, us unnecessary. The
Fart of Liverpool then moved that the same be not persisted
The Motion, atter sonic übservations from the -Earl ut
.Lauderdale, was agreed to.
THE -SCOTCH AC.T REPEAL .BILL.
Lord SIDMOUTH moved that the Standing Order, N 0.104,
he suspended to-morrow. If it should he their pleasure then
to agree to dispense with its operation, it would leave the
house at liberty to go on with the different stages of the Bill
oL tbeefatne day.—Adjourned.

can AV.
ALIEN BILL.
Mr.BacCUFN, and other Members of thelHonse of Corn
:nuns, brought up a Bill fur mispendirig the operation of the
Act of the Scots' Parliament in 1691, and the other Acts re-
:stive to the Naturalization of Aliens.
Lord Sinsitourit, some time after, rose and moved the first
reading of this Bill, which he stated to be a Bill for prevent-
g aliens from becoming naturaliaed, except in certain cases
therein mentiened.
Lord HOLLAND said, that tie offered no opposition to the
*Mile Lord's Motion, as welt because he had no objection to
:se proceeding, as in obedience to the 23t1 order, which pro-
r Act' for ltills offered to their Lordships passing through the
:Lige of a fast reading.
LordStuatouvit stated, tlict the object of the Bill was to
.prevent any Alien,mialer the Scots Act of 1695, for establish.
.i.g the Bank of Scotland, orainderActs relative to other cur-
-1 nrations,;from beeontlag denizens in virtue °fungi Acts, pre-
s iously to the 15th of March neat. The Bill would merely
upend the operation of these statutes, and atiorit an oppor-
tanity next Session for the due consideration of any propo-
tion for the repeal of the Scots Act of 1695, and other
Aots of a sinlar nature. In order that the Bill might pass
through the sabsequent stages, lie should now move the sus.
pension of the standing orders, agreeably to the notice he
.had given yesterday.
Lord kios.kaso now found that the only reason the Noble
Secretary hal for proposing the suspension of the standing
orders was the dispatch of business. He did not mean to
throw any obstacle bin the way of the measure the Noble
Lord had ultimately in view, but he thought he strained the
preeeritots for suspending the stanting orders itoo far when
he applied them to the present measure. To the order 21,
aiid proceedings which lied been hail thereon, lie•slionld fitter
in contradiction to the Noble Secretary of State's supposition.
(Here the order was teat: by the Clerk.] Their Lordships
%could perceive that shortness of time was not a sufficient
reason for mar:aiding all the standing orders relative to the
reading of Bills, and that it ought to depend upon the neces.
city of the measure. Thongls lie did nut mean to oppose the
measure itself, lie could not help remarking on the ex iraordi-
mary conduct of Ministers respecting it. 'they had declared
themselves ignorant of an important law, and had presumed
that every .I.ntlividnal in Parliament, and the whole country,
bad been equally ignorant. lint if 'they showed ignorance at
the outset, they manifested still more in the progress of the
measure. They began to apprehend Matt here were possibly
other Acts besides that whirl' had at first alarmed theen,which it
would be neressaay fur them to suspend. These laws, how-
ever, they could nut point ont ; hut without specifying them,
it was proposed, contrary to every principle of legislation and
...justice, that they slunild also be taken away. Another in-
•stance of their ignorance was the assertion, that undsr the
.Scotch Act of Parliament, any Alien who purchased stock
swould thereby be enahled to sit ii, Parliament, contrary to
;the Act:by vrhich.foreigners every excluded. 'this .was far
tfrom being the fact for by au Act of Parliament, not that of
private and local description which this Stems Act had been
described to be, but one of the most public and important
Nature—he meant the Act of the titli of Queen Anne, cap. 7
--it was provided, that every person disabled from sitting in
the Parliament of Ireland was also rendered incapable of
sitting in the Parliament of Great itrinin. The; he didnot
urge as an argument against the Bill, but to show their. Lor-
dships hew cautious they ought to be in adopting legislative
proceeding*, on the recommendation of Ministers, who
proved themselves soCompletely ignorant of every thing con-
nectedvrith the subject on which they proposed to legislate.
\V hat had occurred un this occasion reminded him of the ad.
ssiee once given him by an eminent person, a relative of
whose memory he regarded with affection and veneration ;
that person observed to hint, eqnstly wisely and truly, that
" when politically in the dark, the hest thing that could be
done was to stand still." Contrary to this prudent maxim, it
was this practice of Ministers, whenever they were in the
dark, to ran straight forward, nut caring against what they
might run their heads, or whom they might overturn. It was
difficult to say what might be the consequences of this blindly
adopted measure. It might be a qaestion whether it would
not take away the riethts or English' childreu born between
this and the 25th uf March, rho wank! otherwise be natural
born subjects, and whether it hid net take away the rights
of the deseendants of the Princes Sophia of Hanover. fie
ti id not say it had those effects, and he thought it had not;
but still there was much doubt and obsearity on the face of
tie measure, and if time were allowed many errors in framing
it might be corrected. It was now discovered that -there
were certain laws in Ireland by which foreigners were ad..
•wsitted to become denizens. There might be several other
Scotch Acts and English Acts also, to which the Bitt applied ;
bet Miiiisteis remained in total ignorance respecting all the
Acts they, propoved to repeal or suspend; only those which
were excepted were mentioned in the Bill. The flagrant in.
justice of the retrospective clause in the former Bill was,
however, what he hail most objected tu. That objection lie
was glad to find was now in a great measure removed, though
even as the Bill now stood, it appeared to cast " a lunging
•lauk behind" towards old injustice. He could not see that
persons who purchased stock for the express purpose of na.
toralization, under a law authorizing •that object, were less
entitled to the rights so acquired. than those who had par-
t:bandit without that view and found themselves accidently
naturalized. He, therriore, did not approve of the clause
which fised the cominruceinert of the operation of the Bill
snow, rather than at three or tour doss *fier it had passed.
there was another objection which mtgt.t oe urged against
21.5 Bill; bat so little time was ollowtal for considering its