The National Register.
London, England, 1816-02-11 00:00:00

T----

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

FEB. 11.

his person ; whereas he had in fait liven Op two of the office' •
which he held, namdy, that of Clerk of the Bail, and that of Cleric
• f the 13.1, ers, sine the Re.,ort was made. Great difficulty had
Amt.(' for erly in accommodating the prisoners, whose numbers so
tar exceeded the number of rooms, which, as he before pbserved,
amounted to only 193 ; and during the first three days of last No-
vember term, no less than 397 prisoners were committed, 160 of
whom were sent on the first day. Steps were taken to obviate as •
far as possible this inconvenience ; he had also the pleasure. of
being a ole to state to the Honse, that those prisoners who could not
afford to pay for advice had medical advice gratis at the expencc
of the Marshal; and be had also much satisfbetion in being able to
state that the number of deaths which took place in the prison
was less on an average than what took place in any other part of
the metropolis. Mr. Lishington, the Gentleman who was appoint-
ed to visit the prison, and enquire into the state of those confined
there, ope;:ed almost every room, and enquired of every prisoner
whether they had any complaints to make of the Marshal ; the. re-
ply in every case without exception was, that they were perfectly
satisfied with the conduct of that officer. Having stated these
facts for the information of the House, he trusted it would be
'found that the Judges of the Court of King's Bench had not been
so negligent of their duty as the Hon. Gentleman represented them
to have been; and that the lion. Gentleman had been negligent of
his, in not taking steps to inform himself better on the subject he-
tine he brought forward accusations against others.
Mr. BENNETT did not ray, no improvement had taken phicein
the Prison, but that be understood mud' rem:lifted undone. He
had particularly objected to the mode in which the Keeper of the
prison was remunerated, namely, by the grant of indulgences, and
by the sale of malt liquors, by which he made large profits : and
thus his duties and his interests was put at variance. With respect
to Mr. Lushington, no man could have a higher opinion than he
(Mr. Bennett) had of that Gentleman. lie had no doubt but he
riceived the answer he represented ; so did Mr. Templar, in 1792,
when a review of the prison took place at that time. But had he
visited the prison in question last year, he (Mr. Bennett) was con-
vinced he would have found it in a most scandalous state, dis-
graceful to this country, and unequalled, for misery, by any other
prison in Europe ; and he.mnst be allowed to say, it was somewhat
ungracious in the Hon. Gentleman •to reflect on the Committee,
because they'were anxious to see their duty perfectly discharged.
—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. LAW observed, in the report which he had seen of what the
Hon. Gentleman had said, it was stated that he had asserted no•
thing had been done towards reforming the abuses of the prison ;
whereas, the two reformations which had taken place, namely, the
curtailnent of indulgeac:es, and the giving up the olices of Clerk
of the Bail and Clerk of the Papers, had done more than any
thing else could have done towards diminishing the profits of the
Marshal.

SUPPLY.

The 1-10114 C went into a Committee of the whole House,
MT. LottiNGTom moved, that a Supply be granted to his Ma-
jrsty : and in doing so observed, that it was the intention of his
Right Hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to lay the
principal Estimates before- the House to-morrow Se'anigh t. The
Resolution was agreed to.—Report to-morrow.
SINECURE PLACES.
Mr. Mvit-rtN observed, that by the death of the Earl of Buck-
inghamshire, an otli was fallen to the disposal of the Crown ;
as
this (Ave was one of those which the Resolution of the House, of
May, Is 10, had declared oulsht, when the then vested interests ex-
pired, to be abolished, and as he was not aware of any vested in-
terest existing tit' present, he-wished now to know from the Noble
Lord if it was now to be abolished, as recommended in the Resolu-
tion to Which he had alluded.
Lord CASTLEREAGH said, he was not prepared- to answer the'
Hon. Gentleman's question immediately.
Mr. M.YnTiN hoped he should have an early and satisfactory
answer front the Noble Lord ; otherwise he should, at an early
day, bring the so bject before the House.
Mr. notzhcis also expressed his hopes that nothing would be'
done in the interval to preVent the abolition of this acid other'
similar appointments as those vested interests fell in.
Mr. BRouGHAH observed, the patent vesting eights in tile place'
queition in Lord Buckinghamshire, and after his Oath in the
-two sons of !owl Hardwick, was made out in 180;) ; in fttilti the
third Finance Re-port, declaring- that this place, Cierk of ihe.Kitigs
Bench in Ireland, was useless and• borthonsolue,•and ought. to b.-
aboliNitedoiras•inalle to the Ictunse,.and itelhlt) the Moist, cane to
a resnlittkin, that at the • espiration of the then-vei,'etinterests it
ougir-tb kr abolished. At' that time, munel:, ieos, them were„no

933

person's interest in it except the three persons he bad named ; thoy
were all dead, and unless hay tit* Interest was created in the
interval between Isbh had 1810, there could be none now existing
but such as were in dhalet opposition to the resolution of the
House. He wished to ktiew froth the Nelda Lord if any new
grant. had.beeh Made, and at Whit period it was made, main
fa-
your of wheati.
Lord Ca,:siri.titsaell could riot answer with certainty, but woeld
enquire.
Here the conversation drhpped.—The other orders of the day
were then disposed Of..--Adjourned.
Wici.NEittAit,-FitetteAnY 7.
PROPEUTV TAX.
.Mr.liaatdiost PreSehted a fietition from certain Criltivators of
Land in the county tit Dirilmtn, Oain4t any renewal of the Pros
gperty Tait. In presenting this Petition, he would Make bet one
observation ;
.that IS, exprisa his hopes that this Petition
would be fdlanired bi thotiaauhs (hear, htai9 ; and that the ()Ithaca
thus expressed by. tit'd *bold be so far attended to by Mi-
nisters as to piesent the* piesiang a tax so obnoxious to the coun-
try at laige ; Whither it WAS iniposed for the purpose of sew:, t-
ing on their Thrones the Bhurhons of France, or the Bourberis of
Spain, or any unprincipled Gov4ihrie.rit whatever. The Petitiea
was. read, andordereo to lis bri the table.
Sir S. bring fortvard, once more, his
li able motion
to
for leave to bniik Its a Rill to make Freehold Propetly
the Payrhent of Simfile•ContraciDebta.' the lion. Gentleman ch-
*reed, in again bringing this arihjeet before the House, it NVC111:1
(not be Aceelisary.for him to detain the House long. He must, how-
ever, one objection which had been Made to the measure,
iota of. doors. It had beefn said; if the Bill should pass as he pros
posed, it would be iitAgiary, in all cases wheie a person died in
debt, to seta decree of a Court cif nity before the freehold pro-
perty could be tints applied; hut he was not aware that any such
difficulty could arise, as all he was anxious to do in ibis case was,
to put simple contract debts on the same footing as bond debts,
or rather to place them next to bond debts in consideration. Ano-
ther objection to this Bill Wes, that it did not go far enough; but
that it might td attar 'h to C011)17041 property also. This, however,
was a snide he wiis tint alt rreseat prepared to take; there being a
strong, mid, he feared, insurmountable, objectiou to it, namely,
'the rights of Lords Alt 191rmers. He had also heard of a third ob-
jection, which was, that the adoption of the treasure he had now
to propOse, woald have tire tea
seitiug. ritroie evidence
aoainst real p.toperty ; 6at tra must observe, in reply to this ob-
i. e
Iteetion; trill the wens-Objectiois would apply to allowing parole
evidence io'be sef ittainst personal property after the death of
a testator. He did not' Believe that there were many false demands
substantiated' noW ag'ainst ptrsouni property; nor did he bdievo
the ohjection wouhl any more apply to real property. Another
objection tweed against the Bill was, thatt
it would afford
wou facility
young null of landed property to ge ld be,
is jerious to them. H. aid not Consider that the measure would
;wall lt,•,vc that effect. Other persons had objected to his proposi-
tion of giving a creditor his reMetly mica Bill in Equity rather than
a Trial by Jury. He had ai bleb "a reverence as any rear could
have for a Trial by Jury ; and if he proposed a in Equity, in
• his present measnre, it was oh:y than in his opinion, it was the
better mode of thc two ; but 'shan't' it appear olherwhie to Gentle-
men, thelliti might be altered in that-respect, when it should cote('
into a Committee. The lion. Geotleman then proceeded to 'hake
some obst.rvationi Oh the hresetit tante of our laws, as related t,
Debtor Mid Creditor ; he observed, were adopted at a pe-
riod when the manners and- custoats of the people were widely
present, and they were therefore •
differeet froth what they seers at
altdinapplicableto their object.. adverted
fti-liltlytteliedeui(Tlattlts'iolVent. Acts, which had been passed bylie the ;10 ran
at differeat pet codes ; and Observed, that they were in many respects
Itiohlyiniatiote; Mid though it was necessary to do something oce
casionaliv fur the relief seree mifortunate debtor, yet at the time
that that was done, tith instsot the ilsequently more unfortunate
respectst nottotally negtPcled; as they mid
hopeen in
some ia the adoption of the' bisoivent Act whi assrd
the Ifou'se si,cret ti.ee stace. The hitt. Gentleman coacinded by
moving for It ate to :iritig in -a Bill to render freehold property
lia-
ble to the Pita: stmele contract deats.—Leave was given.
EAlifir OF liDelilliGHAMStilltE.
Mr. Batiaretia.m, adverting to the conversation %stitch took
k•ilace on the.subje tof the place Cim kof the Pk.. Ireland,
'Vacant- by lite &Mira the Noble Earl, asked, whether the
Secret, for Ireland had ohtained any infuraimien
iti
he.epeatflieh: the plat+ to any other person.
.
111r:r t i that at present no grant of the place ha