The National Register.
London, England, 1818-02-15 00:00:00

ON THE SECRET COMMITTEE.

TIIE powers which the Suwon of the Habeas
Corps Act at any time, •tilaces in the Itincht of Mi-
iisters, striate...them to ernTterterrittt,-titen
powers are withdrawn, subjects them to'suits at Com-
mon Law. To prevent this, it has ever been the prac-
tice of the two Houses of Parliament to grant them a
Bill of Indemnity, by which, they are secured from
the necessity of pleading as individuals, in defence of
acts done in their Ministerial capacity. To obtain
such an Indemnity, the present Ministers, are like all
their predecessors who have been placed in similar cir-
e,.....nstances, no doubt extremely anxious, nor can such
a security with any propriety le deaied, when the Le-
gislature is satisfied that the gnat powers intrusted to
the Executive have not been abused. To ascertain
this, is only practicable through the labours of a Com-
mittee, and to this Cotnmittee, the 'conduct of the
present Ministers has been submitted The only pJints
at issue between the two opposing.parties in the House
ofCommons, are, themanner in which that Committee
has been formed, and the kind of information which
has been communicated to it, b) which its opinion of
the guilt or innocence of the Ministers must be regu-
lated We arc free to conli•ss that we are among the
number of those who approve of the Committe3 being
secret, but with the manner of it:format ion we are Icsssa-
tisfied, or rather we should say we are dissatisfied with the
manner in which suchCornmit tees are usually formed,for
t e common practice had not been in this instance departed
"glitt-If by hallbtlialc,Xicul a proper club of proceed-
ing in the formation of a Committee, it ought to be
fairly and honestly done,.and no juggling tricks be re-
f.orted to as was the VISO last session, whets upon some
occasion, which we have now forgot, Mr. Drougham,
previously to a ballot, produced a list, which he had
.tomeerh...n3 obtained, rind which carresßonded exactly
with thy names aftervm• Is chosen by t!'e ballot ! Of
this i • iption we strongly suspect the recent proceed-
ing : ive been, anti we lament it the more, because

we'' ~ notwithstanding all that hal been said, Minis-
tera • • .ght safely trust themse•i :es in the hands of a
C'omilittee Moly chosen. Not all the asperity of Mr
Deunct,nor the more solemn and ostcmtatious,arguments
ef Sir Sanniel Idomilly will be able to persuade the na-
tion that under the Suspension Act, Ministers did nut
" bear their faculties meekly." Those who actually
mffered by its operation, may complain and heap all
manner of abuse upon their persecutors, as they choose
to call them, but to us who can form a pretty correct
estimate of the value of Mitchell's evidence given to
Mr. Bennet, the sufferings which are narrated with all
the aggravatious which party hostility can give them,
r.ppear to be but slight punishment for the offences which
many of the prisoners committed. It has been, oddly
enough, made matter of charge against the Minister
that he did not apprehend an individual of sal under
the rtspension, and the same gentleman who made this
charge, in the same breath accused him of having th:Jwn
a drag net over the country and taken all that came in
its way ; Without observing that one part of this charge
belies the other, we would appeal to every dispassion-
ate man whether the conduct of Ministers was such as
to deserve this? How many obnoxious men might they
not " with hare faced power" have swept from their
sight "and bade the law avouch it !" had they been
eispored to stretch their power to the utmost.
But to return to the Committee. It is elwrged upon
the Ministry as a crime that they have made it secret ;
and it is argued that secrecy was na longer fleeces:try
since, by tlicir own :::•count, all danger was past ; but
Cm there be no impropriety in exposing names and
eirctuastances which Plight inv9lve.intlividuals in