The National Register.
London, England, 1808-04-25 00:00:00

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No. 17. MO N DAY;L.A PR I L 25, 1808. PRICE Bd.

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GRATIS..
A PORTRAIT OF HIS MAJESTY GEORGE 111.
IMIUTIFULLY ENGRAYEN BY SCRIVEN, AND INTENDED 41 /-
FRONTISPIECE
TO
•
THE NATIONAL REGISTER, •
Has been THIS DAY DELIVERED GRATIS to all the News-.
men for the purpose of being transmitted to the Subscribers ;.
the Proprietors therefore hope that no Subscriber will be
appointed of receiving it. Our Patrons in the country are re-
quested to observe that the Portrait of- his Majesty will be
forwarded to them by the safest and most convenient mode.
But as it will be impossible for the Newsmen to forward the
Portrait by the Post, without incurring the risk' of spoilin., the.
Print, and the Expence of Postage, the Propri.•:ors beg leave
to submit to their Friends the necessity of their requesting some
Bookseller in the Country to obtain it from his Agents in Lon-
don, who will inclose it in his parcel. This will obviate every
difficulty, and secure its safe arrival. To any of the Friends of
the Piper, who may be disappointed of the Portrait, or to
any Friend commissioned by them, an impression will be gra-
tuitously delivered at the Office of The National Register. But
it will 1)e necessary for the Subscriber, in this case, to tend his
real name, and place of abode, in a note addressed to the Pro-
prietors.
Those who may have neglecteilto complete their set:, arc re-
que,,ed to give early orders, to prevent the chance of disap-
pointment.
POLITICAL DISQU ISITION.

criminal shall have escaped, there can be but small satis-
faction to injured society in merely confiscating his pro-
perty. But in all cases short of treason and felony, our
lawgivers forbade the seizure of any man's person before
conviction : conceiving that few would fly their country
for fear of conviction on an offence which could not affect
their lives, and probably considering also, that to those
who, by the dread of punishment for a minor offence.
should be induced• to desert their home, the banishment
alone would be a sufficient penance. In the 2:3th and 35th
years of his present Majesty's reign, it was judged expe-
dient to authorize a previous arrest upon certain offences
relating to the public revenue and au arrest upon mesne
process is allowable, as every body' knows, in civil cases of
debt. The reasons of these anomalies are however cleat,
if not incontrovertible. The power of arresting a defaulter
to the public revenue is a power that can seldom be twisted
to purposes of private malice and the temptation to error
in this particular is so strong and so frequent, and the.
chance of detection so flattering, that a more than ordi-
nary degree of severity may here perhaps be necessary for
preserving the good order of society. To the question of
arrest upon mesne process for debt, the last argument all-
plies very forcibly : every body knows how easy it is to
contract debts, how eagerly debts are contracted, how
greatly honest creditors perpetually suffer, and how infi-
nitely more general the mischiefs of the practice would
become, if debtors were permitted to walk securely about
their business till the period of the adjudication 'against
them. la-av, the very fear of arrest perpetually produces
payment of the debt when all oilier means have been found
ineffectual. But these a:guments must not he stretched
beyond their natural reach : we are not to allow per-
petual encroachments on the liberties of the people
without reasons of a very strong and imrerious kind.
How little reason is to be found for the Bill now introduced
by Sir Vicary Gibbs, which proposes to extend yet further
the dangerous system of arrest. all impartial readers will
easily judge on perusing the propositions made in the Ball
itself, which goes to enact :
"'That when any person shall be chargtd with any effence for
which he or she may be prosecuted by indictment or information
in the Court of King's Bench, not being treason or felony, and
the same shall be made appear to any judge of the said. Court
by aplaoit or by certificate of an indictment or information be-
ing filed against such person in the said Court for such offence,
it shall be lawful for such Judge to issue his warrant, and cause
such person to he apprehended in order to his or her being bound
to the King with sufficient sureties in such sum as expressed in the
warrant, and to answer, &c.: And such person, in case he or
she shall neglect or refuse to become hound as aforesaid, may
be committed to the ccmmon Goal of the county, city, or place
where the offence shall have been incurred, or where he or she
shall have been apprehended, there to remain, &c. And in case
he or she shall not enter an appearance and a plea or demurrer
in the said Court, within a certain number of days after receive
ing a copy of the indictment or infoim4lon,:,the prosecutor may
cause an appearance, and also thalikalra.ut Guilty, to be ea-

NUAIBER SEVENTEEN.

ON THE DANGERS OF THE PENDING BILL. FOR
ALTERING THE COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS ON

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