The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-26 00:00:00

THE NATIONALBEGISTER.

" 51

DROVPS or 'ADMIRALTY.
Mr. Be non IT O et, pursuant to notice, r'se to call the attention of the
House to the consideration of certain immense sums of money vested
in the crown without the grant of Parliament, and which were called
the 'toots of Admiraltv. • lit order to chew the importance of the subs
je.ct, he would only ask the House what they would think when they
same to know that there w re protliolous sums of money tet aside for
the private patrimony of the Crown, and that the Crown could raise
such sum' of money without the aid or the knowledge of Parliament.
It watooore easy to state the amount of the funds from which those
isupidles came, than don- particular itart,re and composition. The
Das-Altos Of Cornwall and Lenr:oter were the st subjects to which he
ghould eoll the aiteetion of the Elouse—they were both immetoely pro-
skittles: to the Cr. 'ten ; tl:e forwer sent in all its vast products, when
there we,: no Duhe of C..rnwell ; so that during the minority of the
Prilee of W.i'es the niche of Corowall was a means of supplying no
less tit m halt a million. thteDuchy of Lancaster produced leopCol.
per annum. whi:la was demenineted the right of the King. He next
atlverted to the 4; per rent. fund in the isian,l of Barbadoea and other
Wands in the West Indies, tram which the King also derived a vast ad-
dition cu his wea'th, and which was rine of the most unjust taxes, and
had the .worst effect upon the wosperity the islands. Be then came
to tt.e consideration of the Itshaits of the Crown, which he said arose
chiefly from prieee, from Ahips driven through ignorance on shore, and
front p Azes made be ore nes Kirin on of war. The amoont of these
Droi:s or Admiralty raid into the hands et the Registrar of the Court
of .I,d niralty, and the of England, op to the 13*. of January,
Itpo, was 7,3_13 Ma anti !'e might n with justice state, that an ad-
Aition bad taken place, o hich increased the sum to eight millions. The
House oug':t to be couvieced that there exited a necessity for enquiring
into this subjqt, for astertaittive whether the application of these sums
was even recogoised by law.; tied whether it is was, it should be any
)(Mtge!' c )*.si:tint With the Constitut iott to allow the continuance of it.
islo utteit hall bate] nt• du to tee use of this morey. It might be squan-
dered away open a tavourites, thosu a mistress, or upon a Minister to
give hint itifbierce in that liouse, or to coats, undue elections in any
part of the country. It nee lo he •laeishtil to a foamier either harmless
Ile d ingerons to the th•oh ; chieo. fie then moved Resolutions, that
the •LlOuse should take int, (11i:`•ilitrati0ii tIIV Droits of 'Admiralty, and
cause such a regulation of the produce of them to the Crown, that they
shall come under the cognizance of Perliamt nt.
Mr. Bea Nn e,CCorde,l the motion. At this tittle, whin taxes were so
yigurtatedy exacted Item the pktple, h was of the utotost importance
that the appliCation of the flied in question should be enquired Ono:
, Mr. C.,uarNl.Y, the AT rottetor•fleer eat., Mr. Pexcevae, and
otkoet, opposed the motion. Their arguments went to maintain, that
the Crown had a sole and undoubted right to all these Preits ; that
.among other useful purpose' they enabled the Crown to repay naval
officers the expeuces they incurred, by makisig uncertain captures, and
who, hut fur this fund, woul'd be.often ruined ; that unless it could be
.shown that the property in question had been applied to corrupt por-
poss., Par!iantent lusd no just ground for interfering ; and that the
mere pos-ibiiity of the motley being hereafier improperly applied was
alit just ground for diverting it front its rightful possessor. •
Sir Fan NCIS BuRDE•I* r maintained that those who bear the burden
of the war ought to have the herefit of it. The Public, as they were
eat all the expellee. ought to be entitled to the controal of what arises
from the war. Upon the present system, it might happen that a Civil
List mi,-;ht be burthened with debt, while the King might engross half
.tile landed estates in the kingdom, as his private property.
Mr. TIERNEY moved an amendment to Mr. Brougham's motion,
." '''scat this House having taken into its serious consideration the unpre-
cedented sums at different and uncertain periods within the last twenty
y..ars, received and disposed of by. the Crown as Droits, is deeply im-
prescd with the necessity of inquiring into and ascertaining the extent
and aoplication of the same."
1w gallery was then cleared; and we understand that Mr.
,Broughant's Aesolutions were negatived without a division. The
I lot divided upon Mr. Tierney's Amendment—for the Amend-
meht, :i8 ; against it, 93.
%Vitae strangers were excluded, Mr. Brougham proposed that a
.Select Committee should he appointed to consider of the best means of
withdrawing the Druits tel Admiralty 'rin the management and dis-
posal of'the Crown, and rendering them applicable to the public ser-
,vice to der the direction of Parliament,-ante numbers were, Ayes,
; Noes, 92.—Adjourned at two.

WrDNESDAT, JAN.2II
Sir C. PRICE brought,iti a bill for improving the Navigation of the
.River • Thames, westward of London. Bridge, which was read a first
time and ordered for a seco id reading.
• • 71'17e Petition of the Electors of U'ootton Bassett, complaining of an
.:"(stadue 1*(41111),* was postpontrd until th • 18:h of February.
Oti'a Motion for bringing up the Report of the Distillery Bill, some
. •
obseryations.were blade lay Sit; Joni, NE %%femur and others, as to the-
•relative situations of the Irish, Scotch, and English Distilleries, if the
'Bill should become a law. The Repml was, however, brought up, and
'the Bill ordered to he rend a third time to-morrow.
' In a Committee of Stiply, tss enty triLions were voted to pay off out-
standing Exchequer Bills; and, in a Committee of Ways and Means, a
like slim was voted to prireidt: for the War 'faxes.—Adjourned.

,
- *

JAN. 20.

THURSDAY, JAN. 93.
A variety of papers, elucidatory of the Bill before the House relative
to the Royal Household, were moved and granted, on
•the motion of
Mr. Tierney. The Bill was ordered to be read a second time to-mop.
row, and its merits he further debated on Monday, on the question for
the Chairman to leave the chair.
DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE.
Lord COCURANE rose, pursuant to notice, to move for a copy of a
letter from his Royal 114,thnois the Duke of Cambridge, to the Com.
mander in Chief, tendering his resignation of the command of the Home
District. It appeared that this command had become a sinecure, al.
though not less than 4'2001. a year was paid to the General who held it.
The object of his motion was to perpetuate the memory of this noble
et:natter in the Duke, and to exhibit it as an example to the country.—
I le moved, therefore, tor the production of the papers alluded to.
Lord PALMERSTON resisted the motion as unnecessary, and it was
negatived.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS.
The petition of Mary Anne Dicks, who is confined in prison, by a
Deereo•of the Ecclesiastical Courts% having been read,
Lord knee Fiero N it said, that it did not appear a case of possibility to
him, that such circumstances as wenkreeiced in the petition could have
existe d. so long without a remedy. That no redress, however, could be
obtained by these who suffered from the decisions of the Spiritual
Courts, he had now found to be undeniable. 'ln the earliest periods of
our history, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction went hand in hand with the
'Temporal, but at the time of the conquest, William, the First separated
the two powers, and the Eecleciastical Jurisdiction stood as if threats. •
ing the e stablishel Constituthin with an overthrow. The power of
those Courts was never at any peried recognizkl by the people. It would
be found that remonstrancts were sent into Parliament against the in,
tolerable abuses practised by theen. At the period of the 4:formation,
it was thought necessary that e reformation should also take place in the
Ecelestical Courts, and a•Ccmnittee of 33 persons was appointed fir
' the purpose of altering the laws by which those Courts were regulatei.
Nothing, however, was done that had the effect of rendering the system
supportable, and the Canons which were then followed were those un-
der which the Courts new ..cted. It would then appear, and with what
feeliegs must it be considered, that, since the period oldie Reformation,
nothing' had been, done in order to the correction of the Spiritual Courts.
Those Courts had one way of skewing their authority by excommunica-
tion, another by line-, and a further mode cf enforcing their decisions
by imprisonment. That this extraordinary power should be checked
coedit not he denied by any who knew the abuses to which exorbitant
controul„in the bends of a body of people invariably tended. The
charges in those Courts were likewise enormous upon any rase that
came under their cognizance. The petitioner, whose case had been the
i ostensible grounds upon which his motion would be grounded, was not
upon • a citation from • the Court atile to attend. She sent her mother
there, and showed the most humble acquiescence in the judgment of
the Court ; she was, nevertheless, excommunicated for not having ap-
! peered in person ; she was fined and imprisoned. The nature of excom-
munication was, that the person under such a judgment is looked upon
as a heathen, and a publican cannot be a juror or a witness, and is at his
death refused the rights of Christian burial. After having mentioned
many other instances, which he called dreadful abuses of power, he
stated, that these Courts cast a kind ofsanction upon their proc: edings
by pretending to have heck actuated by a sense of theobligation to cor-
rect the morals cf the people, at the same time that their only 0 ject was
extortion. The Noble Lord then insisted upon the necessity there was•
for constituting an examination into those grievances, and concluded by
moving for the appointment of a Committee to euquire into the state of
the Ecclesiastical Court, and ascertain whether any reformation was ne-
cessary to be made therein.
Mr. H meu rest seconded the motion.
Sir WILLIAM Score stated, that the cases which had been cited were
most extravatantly exaggerated, and of the few persons who had been
in confinement for several years, not • wet was tried but for temporal
offences. Ht did notelet:an to atti*Ute the slightest degree of that kind
of feeling; by which the person who' had been the Noble Lord's oracle
upon the occpion, was actuated to his Lordship ; brit unquestionably
the circumstances just detailed, had no foundation, except hi a mind
vexed at want of success' and irritated by disappointment. He sue-
, eluded an animated reply, by obsereing, that in the Courts of which se
much had been said, estice was '§dminietered with as much impartiality
as in any °Mose under civil jurisdiction. .
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL, Sir J. Nicnoee, and other Members,
made some ohsetOations upon the sublet[.
Lord FoLXESTONE consented to withdraw his motion, upon Sic W.
Sare. having stated, that it was his inteution to bring in a Bill for ties
regulation of inferior offices in the Ecclesiastical Courts.
The Distillery Bill was read a third time,:auccpassedeeeAdjourna

TRIDAY, JAN. 24.
The Sheriffs for London appeared at the Bar, and presented a Peti-
tion for leave to bring in a Bill to enable the Lord Mayor, &c. to erect
a new prison, &c. on the vacant spate aground on Moorfields. The
Petition stated, that there were hi Newgate at this moment a number
both of fefons and debtors, for whom it was desirable to provide sepa-
rate ae'c'Omniedations.
The Pot Won was referred.to4t Committee to inquire and to report.