The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-12 00:00:00

.1.%N. 12.

other Monarch, would constitute a fundamental objection to negotia•
ton. In examining the state of the world, however, and the great in-
fluence
of Bnonaparte over the major part of tire Continent, although he
saw nothing which could actually impede negotiation, yet he saw sill-
dent to warrant a belief that there would be great improbability in ob-
taining a beneficial result to any negotiation which might take place.
Mr. Writ rs it EA D rose to say a few words upon what had fallen from 11
the Right Hon. Gentleman who had just sat down, which he was in-41;'
duced to do, the more especially as the Right Hon. Gentleman begun ,!
his speech with one of the coarsest observations that could be delivered ,
in that House. He felt it his duty, under the peculiar circumstances of 11
the case, to call upon the Right Hon. Gentleman to state whether lie e
did mean to apply the words in question personally to him or not !
[The Chancellor of the Exchequer cried Hear, hear I—Upon which
Mr. Whitbread said, " I do call upon you then to explain."]
The CHANCELLOR of the Ex c rowel( declared, that he had not the
slightest intention to apply th words alluded to by the Hon. Gentleman
in a personal manner. He had merely used them metaphorically, al-
luding
to the spider in his web. There was !tolling very tempting in '
the metaphor itself to induce a particular selection, and could he have
formed a supposition that the Hon. Gentleman would have taken it in a
personal sense, most unqthstionably he would have avoided its intro-
duction with the utmost tenacity; and still more would he have avoided I
it from the vain he should feel In the consciousness of having excited a I
feel n t of uneaainess in the breast of any Gen:letnan in that House.--
(Hear, hear, hear! )
General • l'e LETON proceeded to take a reviewnf the British army
in the i'eninsula, particularly to the failure in the attempt on.Badajoz, in
which the r:;emy, in defiance of all the exertions, skill, and gallantry of
Lord Weiliogton, sent in supplies to that town. The battle of Albuera
was t eight fur Badajoz, but notwithstanding the blood spilt upon that
occasi as, the object in view was not attained. The Hon. Gentleman
then alluded to toe battle of Ciudad Rodr:go, in which again the largest
arms' that had ever to en collected on one occesion by Great Britain was
repulsed, or torced to retire before mere detachments of the French
forces. The separation f Spanish America from the mother country
was another source from whence he derived new conviction of the im-
probability of 'succeeding in the final restoration of the Spanish Alo-
riarchy. History tells us with what importance Cesar regarded money,
witnout tha!, power could not be obtained, and to the procuration of
mooey he sacrificed every thing. Where now was Spain to procure this
silew oz war, and without it what chance of success had she ? The
Hon. Gentleman thought that the guerillas were no more than free-
booters. "1 his system of guerillas he altogether condemned. It firmed
the country to predatory habits, and brought the people insensibly into
such habits of immorality as could not he sufficiently recompensed by
any temporary success. Portugal, he contended, had cost this country,
snice t he commencement of the present struggle, not less than 10,000.0001.
sterling, and yet, after all this exertion in support of that country, after
all the boast that had been made of the discipline and number of the
Portuguese troops, they were not abltto bring into the field at any one
time more than 9000 soldiers. We had completely drained the country
of all its specie fur the support of this cause. He did not wish to see our
armies leaving the country for an object which he could not well com-
prehend.
Mr. CR EEVEY rose. It was his intention to move, that the conside •
ration of the Report should be postponed for some (lays, in order that -
'Gentlemen might have sufficient time to make themselves acquainted
''with the various objects contained in the Address. The country, he
much feared, was now not so well prepared to meet the expenses of this
contest as it was at former periods, for he had some reason to suspect
that the product of the revenue from October, 1810, to the same month
in the last year, was diminished in no less a sum than 3,000er.01. ster-
ling ; and surely, if such were the fact, it could not be doubted that the
country is, by such deficiency. less able to meet the exigencies of the
contest. ',Fins deficiency, he believed, tookiklace in a branch of the
public hurthens from which the stock-holders, had their dividends; and
if such deficiency did really tike place, he wished to know in what man-
ner it was to he supplied. He concluded by moving, " That the consi-
deration of the Report of the Address be postponed until this day sen-
night."
The CHANCF.LLOR of the EXCHEQUER could assure the Hon. Gentle-
man (Mr. Creevey) that the produce of the revenue last year was un-
exampled, and, with respect to Excise,' greater than the year before;
that between the periods the sth of January last and the sth of limitary
preceding,. an increase of at least 2,000,0001. had taken place in that
great source of our revenue. There was, indeed, he confessed, uric
source of national income, he meant the distillation of spirits, which
had suffered a considerable diminution ; but this arose unavoidably out
of the circumstances of the country.
Mr. HUTCHINSON rose. His sentiments were the same now as he
had expressed last year, when the subject of the limitations of the
Prince Regent was before the House. He did then state it to be his
opinion, that the country should approach his Royal Highness, not in
the language of flattery, not in the tone of those who study no object,
who seek no interest but emolument, but in the open, honest, sincere
language of truth, that disdains any object but the public good, and
asks no reward but the consciousness of having promoted it ; that the
country should have come forward and told him, that the plans of those
in •power were plans of ruin ; that they had attempted no grand effort
which had oat &Ware is its trairi: and that even their stic€as.ses were

23

crsimeruremilliMinMow
discomfiture; that a nation, once the proud guardian of Europe and
its liberties, the arbitress of nations, and the matress of commerce,
was reduced by their mismanagement to a state that hardly presented
an object for hepe to rest upon. Our armies indeed did every thing
that prowess could achieve, and our Generals every thing that skill
could dictate ; but their prowess and their skill, have teot, he would
contend, secured Portugal; and was it not clear that-cur force was not
sufficient to meet any thing like combined exertion on the pert of our
eoemies; when they advanced we were forced to retire, and relinquish
objects to which the movement of our troops had been directed, and
wi,ieh were deemed of the utmost moment to the defence of Portugal.
With reseect to America, he contended that we had done every thing
that could be done to provoke a people ; we had made attempts upon
their independence, their commerce, their pride, their pros:ieri.y, but
he hoped it would not be in the power of provocation to draw that
country into measures of hostility, which must he equally ruinous
to
her interests am!: to ours With respect to the King s inness, and the
provisions to be made fer him, while it should please Provideoce to
continue that affliction, he lamented the former, and should reserve
to himself the liberty of discussing the latter when the subject should
conic before the House. But though the different topics of the Speech
may be important in themselves, they swt, in his mind, to insigni-
ficance, when balanced with a subject which had been hardly alluded
to—he meant Ireland ; and he could not but feel astonishment that Mi-
nisters would dare to meet a Parliament, and offer a Speech from the
Throne, containing hardly a shadow of reference to a country which
their measures were calculated to disunite; but in the dreary proepect
which • their driveliing policy had spread over that ill-feted countre,
there was still one cheering gleaM to light him into better hopes': the
hearts of Irishmen were gathering fast into union ; they were ffnging
aside the senseless antipathies and chilling distruet that had long with-
held them from union ; and he saw, with pride and with pleaoirec that
at the moment he was arraigning a British Minister, the big soul of his
(Mr. Fkutchiuson's) country was expanding into liberality, and its Pro-
testant inhabitants, in unison with their Catholic countrymen, dernand-.
ing What they should never have been refused.
Mr. CREEVEY's motion for the petrol:erne= was now negatived
without a division.—Adjoursied.

mm•IMIII

THURSDAY, JAN. 9.

ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS.
Lord G. Tile NN e. reported to the House, that the Address voted by
the House had been presented to his Royal Highness the Prince Re-
gent, and that his Royal Highness had been graciously pleased tu ex-
press his approbation of the same.
ECCLESIASTICAL COURT.
Lord For KSTONK observed, that the Petition he held in his hand
stated, in forcible terms, the v.ry great oppression which had b,
•
undergone by an unfortunate woman named Hicks, who had been c
lined for two years, and still remained confined the jiil of Newgate,
in the city of Bristol, under sentence from the Ecclesiastical Court.
The circumstances which gave rise to this sentence were as follow :
Fsvo women quarrelled in the street, and abused each other for a con-
siderable time hi the most opprobrious terms ; one of them afterwai ds
entered a suit in the Ecclesiastical Court against her antagonist, %\ ho
was a girl nut mush more than sixteen years of age, and who was
consequently foectd to attend the Court daily tor several momlis pend-
ing the tiial, and . t length received notice that she was to perfoim
pe-
nance, and pay certain costs incurred by the progrtss of the suit, io the
anemnt or 121. Having neglected to purloin' the penance enj?ined,
front her ignorance of the mode in which she was to act, and being un-
able to pay the costs from her poverty, She was taken up by a writ
trout the Court of King's Bench, and put into the jail of the city of
Bristol, where she must have perished but tor the trilling assistance her
father was enabled to afford her, who was only a labourer at lees ;ser
week, with five othrr children to support, and from the bounty of -c-
-veral humane persons, who connMserated ht r snuatlon. Since her
committal the costs laid increased from 121. to Sill. amid thus she became
ex,.osed to eternal incarceration, tf not relieved by the House. In tlivere
instances, on the passing of Itholvent Act., clauses were inserted to:
the relict of persons confined under such circumstances; but mittirta-
nately in the Insolvent Act passed in the last S,ssioti, this was t. eany
onii7ted. There was also another mode of obtaining relief under the
33,1 of his present Majesty.; but this too was unavailing to the youebg
woman in question, as, to take advantage of that Aet, 51. would e
required, a sum which she was totally incapable of raising; besides,
that Act only came into operation once in a twelvemonth, namely, at
the Assizes.—Ordered ic lie an the Teble.
On the motion of Sir JohtN NEW roxT, a Comm:tree was appointed
to consider the finances of Irelaiel.
Mr. LOCKHART, after some observations on the great abuses existing
in the management of eublic charities, moved for leave to bring in a
Bill to prevent the like m future. It was his intention to propose, that
all real property and all personal property belonging to charitable Into t-
uitions should be registered—that the names of the Trustees saould he
inserted in a registry, to be lodged in the office of the (led( of the
l'eace—and that a duplicate of this should be Kept in the Coutt of
Chancery.—letve granted.
A select Committee was apFointed to examine the Physisiane, as
the state of his Majesty's health.