The Sun.
London, England, 1801-06-06 00:00:00

to the objeCtion wouldl)e,foldnd in saying that such
'W:dihe:usual mode ; but he wished to give, the ob-
jeaion a further answer, and that for the character
of the judgment of the House. In truth there was
no Other , There WitS; he thought, in the reign
of BENRY IV. a 'Parliament which, for want of
information, was 'called Pddiamentum bidoager, and
the present House would be subje& to a similar de-
nomination if it followed the doctrine of the Hon.
Gentle Man. Questions were usually answered by
Yes or• ; but it might possibly 'happen that a
question might be so pUt as that neither of these
answers could be striCtly applicable to the question.
Suppose a road diverged at a certain place and
branched out into several roads;' if the question
were to be answered by Yes or No, we should be
obliged put the question upon every one until we
came to the last, and when that came to be so, the
logic of inferior animals Was supposed to be equal
to the task of deciding the poim—Now supposing
the course to be taken here to put the question upon
each individual, taking 21 out of 658, with all the
possible changes that such a mode of proceeding
‘vouldlead to, it would appear by a mode of calcu-
lation, which thine- who were disposed to •it
might find in a book of no great profundity,
that allowing for the interruption of a number of
Dissolutions of Parliament, and allowing that this
world were to last a great'inany hundred times more
than it hitherto had, there would not be sufficient
time to come, to a conclusion upon the choice of a
Committee of 21 out of 658 Members of that House;
that is supposing all changeable modes were to be
put, and which each individual would have aright
to insist upon ; besides, there was another idea to
be, attended to, if ornmittee were to he thus
nominated, for a question might arise upon the
relative fitness of a Member, 'in the opinion
of others, as he was nominated for instance,
when a Member was nominated, another might
say, " I. cannot agree to his name, unless I
know .who is, to- ,be joined to him, for Mr:
Such a one will 'clo very well,. if Mr. Such a one
is coupled with him ; but. Mr. Such a one joined
to another Mr. Such a one will never do, they differ
so much in their way of thinking, Sze." So that upon
a moderate computation, allowing each individual
in the House to give his opinion, and. the ballot
weretto be thus formed, several centuries would
elapse'before one Member could be chosen. Having
pursued this' subjea with admirable ridicule for
some time, he ended with an allegatiop that,
therefore, a ballot was the only mode of chusing a
Committee; he proceeded to observe, that most
unquestionably those persons who had been confined,
or, who' might hereafter be. confined, were objects of
attention ; but the Question was, Whether if this
measure was not to be adopted, we should not lose
to the. Public more' than should' be gained to
individuals by abstainiilg from it,- for it was after
all, a matter of balance -of advantages and dis-
advantages—lt was, hoWever, not a Bill for the
establishment of any system ; it was to be made up-
plicable to faCts as. they should appear to arise, nor
was there any thing now to be done but what should
be subjeCt to the controul of future 'Parliaments
and as tdehis Right Hon. Friend the CIiANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER' having said on a former day
that if necessary he 'should claim to he indemnified
in like manner as this Bill is intended to indemnify
others, he meant by it only, if he had laid the same
grounds for that indemnity as are laid now.—As to
the complaint of Gentlemen:that 'there were not a
'greater number of them in Committees that were
balloted for,, the. thing was perfedly natural, for
the Majority of the House would chose those 'whose
politics they liked, and that-would continue to be the
case,- notwithstanding all that had been said of im-
partiality, unless ,it could be proved that the
House, in order to ahoy its. impartiality, were to
chuse those whose politics they disliked. In a
word, the choke was the judgment of the House,
and the judgment of the = House was in that re-
spea the Representation of. the Country, and the
Minority stood in the opinion of the Country 'in
the same situation as they. did in that House, and
that they must feel whenever they refleCted
upon the subject. He concluded with observing,
that it: did not become him to say how the
powerwhich this Bill recognized was used,
it was, for the House, and the Country to judge ;
but, he was convinced, that without this Bill the
sources of information would be .cut up, and with.
mg applying., opprobrious terms, to Informers, he
would say, that in the preSent state of things they
were necessary to correa the mischief of those cri-
minals who wished to bring the State to ruin, but
who must be countera6ted by means as adive and
powerful as themselves. Upon these grounds, and
independent of any self-interest, he gave his sup-
port to the Motion now .before the House.
Mr. 3. H. TOOKE said, that 'upon this occa-
sion he was actuated by no motives of personal en-.
tnity ; on the contrary, he wished to speak can-
didly and kindly upon the question. He was far
from thinking that the Members of the present Ad-
ministration would follow the example of those
whom they had succeeded. His reason for enter-
' raining that opinion was, that the unfortunate per-
sons whoM it was found necessary to take into 'cus-
tody, were now treated in a: very different manner
to what they used to be ; all they now suffered was'
deprivation of liberty, whereas those, who had for.
merlY been taken up, had been treated with the
greatest severity. He did not impute this treat-
ment to any wish of the late Ministers that such
conduCt should take place, but. he attributed. it to'
their neglect. With respeft to the Right Hon.,
Gentleman, by whom the Bill was introduced, he.
could.not but consider the. Bill, as his Brief, and the'
Chancery and a future Peerage s•his fee [Here there
was a cry 'of Order]. He conceived he was perfealy
in order ; was stating these circumstances, not
as a charge against the Right Hon. Gentleman, but
as his excuse. Within the last forty, years, no less
than twenty Peerages and ten millions of money had
been showered'down upon, Gentlemen of the Bar,
and therefore he really thought that flesh and blood
could not stand against, such temptation. Be iv.is
old enough to remember, and withoUt arty surprizc,
that the Crown Lawyers had upon all occasions uni-
formly defended all the ' measures which had been
proposed, though many of them had been: after-
wards admitted to have beep improper. He even
recollc6ted that once a person very high in the pro.