The Sun.
London, England, 1808-06-01 00:00:00

command of a frireign ship, It was in his Lord.,
,power, as Governor-General, to have put him
under arrest,-...and 4iras-esent him to England ; hut
on the c',onttary, that Noble Lord not wiry ab6taieed
from noticing the trecte',in which he had been ett-
ga,e4d,s'but-conceiving that be had performed • a •va-
luable service to the Company,• by the survey or
Prince of Wales Island, and by other professional
-aedvetoitotts exertions, -mote to the Court of Di-
reciors A Letter (which he read), stating the strong
sense which he entertained of his zeal and gtivity,
and retrieving -that they would recommend him to
the Lords of the Admiralty. He had been so recoils-
- merided, and the consequence was, that the Lords
of the Admiralty reinstated him in theservice for
it was necessary to Mention, that when' be purchased
the Washington (afterwards the Etrusco) he was not
in the King's service, having been struck of( the
list some months before. In that transaaiore he
must he considered as a private individual, and
'could not, therefore, in the words of. the Ho-
nourable Gentleman's Resolution " have disgraced
the character of a British °dicer:" With I.i:site& to
the expellees of Capt. Robinson, it was not owing
to any negle& of h:s that they had. not been paid.
After his return from South America, his Prociar
had nroeght in •an account of those expenees,
in which finding an item of above Hoe'. (principal
and interest) for travelling and other incidental.ex-
puttees, he, thinking this rather a large sum, had re-
quested that it might be submitted to arhitration.-,--
Adverting to the charge made by the. Hon. Gentle-
man, that he had' ". absconded from justice," ho
commented on the coarseness of the apression,
:and on itA inapplicability. After the eapttire of 114!
Xtrusco, be remained on the Continent until his
return in 1796 ; during this period, closely employ-
ed
svith the Army, in a way respeteing which many
I-ion. Gentlemen present could giv'e testimony it;
the doeumeuts on the table were not sutiicient on
that head. But the Hon. Gentleman accused him
of having escaped into Ostend with a boat lead4of
errods. After an absence of twenty months'from his•
family, was it not natural that he should 'be desirous,
when he went ashore, to take soiree presents for them
As to escaping 4 it was in the power Of Capt. Robin-
. son to have stopped him, Who not only had not done
.so, but lied not even taken posseSsion of the ship
until midnight. As to the bribe of 40,0001. offered
to captain Robinson, this was the first time he bad
. ever heard of it; and, although he was bound to
believe that it bad been so offered, he could not
conceive how any pet.,ion but himself was so hue-
-.rested as to be disposed to sacrifice suchca largu gum.
With respeCt to the charge of smuggling, he declar-
ed that' he 'never, directly or indire&ly, suffered
any thing of the kind to take place on board his
ship. In support of this assertion be road a let.
ter Irian the. Rev. F. Tidsdell, the then Magistrate at
Croukhaven, in which that Gentleman e \ pressed
in the strongest terms, his conviction, dial., while in
that, neighbourhood (s 1) favourablelor:smuggling),
no transaction of that nature had taken place on his
}Art,. With respea to the foor boxe of tea landed
at Dungeness, he had no recolleCtion of the circutu-
Stance (WhiCh he had lately taken uncommon pains
given toivelltl tcp the piloteidate),but haesapirehended that they had frefree'e
reward for his skill in hav-
ing conducted the vessel threegh a very dangerous
navigation. That titer four crests did not belong
to tbat'part of the cargo which was ids property,
would be:evident by a reference to the register of the
Admiralty Court, in which it' would be found that
the whole of his tea (with the exception of a single
chest) had been sold after the seizure. The Etrusco
. contained 3,900 chests of tea ; stripping this
transaction therefore of all the decoration in which
the lion. Gentleman had involved it, the naked fa&
was, that ro a pilot who had carried the Ship over
5.11Q319, which would have alarmed the Strongest
nerves, therts had been given at a consideration' for
his fettle and .ability, four chests of tea ! being in
valise ehout 361. and the duties oft which did not ex-
ceed 271. The Honourable Oentlerrtan Win peen-,
liarly qualified for a narrow investigation 'of' this
traniaCtion by his near connexien with Mr. Hesel-
tine, the Kinds IkoCtor, and with Mr., Meyler, his
under partner, who, as he was. credibly infoim-•
ed, bad been for three Weeks' together at Ostend,.
assorting goods anti. preparing Ahem for no ac-
tive importation into this country, • Recurralg to
the report that had been made by the 'King's
?roam', on his Memorial, he remarked; that, in that
Report there was not a hint etreot smuggling, which
it would have been unquestiodably Mr. Heseitine's
duty to notice, 11.34 1410 a circumstance appeared to
him to have occurred. Ttit Gentleman had been
unsuccessfully employed for severel years by Captain
Robinson, acrd it would therefore have been his duty
to do all he cupid to prevent the Lords of the Tree-
soly from giving money to him (Sir H. Ilepham)
rather than to that gallant Officer. With resped
-to Mr. Deconstant, that 'Gentleman had received
10,0001. in becereber, 1798, and 21971. in Fe.
bruary, IMO. It ,had given him pleasure to, hear,
thijs„ and he had never asked for any share of these
sums. 'He was aware that many persons had sutlerest
by the Etrusco. The greatest autferer was
Chernock, to whew executors he had been, and in-
formed them, that as soon as the accounts were fi-
nally settled he should be willing to refer the whole
to arbitration,in order that an average might be
struck of the sums to which the losers were entitled.
With regard to the statement contained in his Me-
mortal, that he was not aware that he had violated
41 general law, such was hjsconvietion; might be
the policy of the East'lndia Company to.oertmt the
trade in Indial if not, why h,ad they rex Stopped
the -numbers who were r enwd in it A4' for
Monsieur De Piro!), the atlidatit of Mr. Decon.
stant sufficiently proved,' that that Gentletnan, not
having advanced one farthing, was not entitled' to
any, saving suffered a food loss of (13,00 a
and having received k?), the Treasury warrant only
18,0001. (with the, expeCtation of another thoulatid)
was he not thirty to be considered the greatest.los.::r
in the sransaCtion ?- Having placed these ergum, es
in a variety Of. the Hon., Claiitain concludej
by exoiessing his hope, that no his retirieg truiu :lii,
Houitt in conformity usege, he should not be_
again a .:used by the Hots. citiotlenyin, of "abseudd,
• •
from Juratce,i

sion - This he positively denied. The Trewsay
had'not been-deceived. He'Was. willing to take-the
whole responsibility of the affair on 'himself, for on
the closest re-examination which he boxt been able

0 make on the .sobjett , he was ,satistied that the
Treasury had aCled on the soundest-principles ; that
they must have done what they did even to an in-
different person,' how much more to a man so well
known by the servioes he had rendered to the pub-
. lie, What was the case; After a litigation of ten
years, a part of the property was restored to the
neutral proprietors ? a part was allotted to the cap-
tors ; a part was forfeited to the Crown by The laws
securing the me nopoly of the East India COMpany
having been . violated: But who were the sufferers
by this violation ?--- the East •Lelia C;empany. 'Did
they appear to feel much, injury %--No; Did they
institute tiny Troseeutian in consequence ?—No.
Did they present • any memorial on the subject ?•,--
NI)? I Did they interfere in any way -,whatever re-
speaing it ?—No. Was it not evident then, that
they were willing to allow a relaxation of the laws
in which they alone were intexested I Nor was this
surprising. .These laws were made at a dine when
a Company were !brining in the Austrian. Nether-
'lands., which the
.East India. Company feared as -a
rival.' This was at the commencement of the.last.
century. In 17c5, however, that Company. was
„suspended, and, in. 173 t totally abolished. Since
that period it was. notorious that British subjects
bad been engaged in trade in the Eastlndies. What •
'unfairness was to be inferred from.therecoturnenda-
tielf of tlit lion. captain by the Governmental
India to the Court of Director; ? Either that the
Goverunient of India thought that they sustained no
it,jnry thy the infiaCtion of the law, or if any injury
had been sustained, that it was counterbalanced by
the services rendered to the Company by the Hon.
Captain. ' The only cases at all annlogoui to that of
;be Ei casco, were those of the Walsingham Packet
and of the Prince of Wales. In the tbrmer, half
was given to the captors, and half to the original
proprietors; in the latter, a third was given to the
captors, and the remainder to the original pro-
prietors.
If the Treasury had atled otherwise than
what they had to the Hon. Captain, they would
have mado iris case au exception. What he had
received was4tot a reward for violation of the law,
It was a restitution of a small part of his depreciated
. property.- Adverting to the continuance of the lion.
Captain on the Cch,tinent, atter the seizure of' the
}anise°, of which circumstance such an uutair ad!
vantage had been taken by the Hon, Gentleman,
he read the Letter from the Duke of York to Lord
Spencer, then at the head of the Athniralty,in which
his Royal Highness described the extraordinary ex-
ertions of Mr. Popham, whoa with the British aruty
in Holland, and recommended him most- strongly
to be promoted to the rank of Post Cap;aiu. He
also read the answer of Lord Spencer, who inform!.
ed his Royal Highness that he would take the ear-
liest opportunity ol complying with his requetit, and
that-he. should tel the 4reatest satisfaction in pro-
moting an Qfficer who had deserved so well of his
' Country. •The.present' was a most serious accusa-
tion against the Treasury
,Board ; against that Great
man (Mr. Pitt), whose purity of character neither
the Veice of party nor the breath of caliminy itself
had ever yet attempted to sully. It was his pride
and satisfy aien to relied that he had been publicly
conottiied in the saute Administration, and that he.
bad been honoured by the private intimacy at that
illustrious charatter, who io the whole course of
his splendid career had been distinguished by the
must inflexjbla inregrity,by the highest sense of
homer—and by the toast ,perfect devotion to the
cause of his Country. -
Mr. CA LC tt A irt• should never shrink from bringing
any Charge, which ht felt it his duty to urge agates'
' any Member of that House, whatever Might be Ins
situation ; and he was sorry that the rules of that
House did not allow the Honourable Admiral to be
present at the short speech Which he had to deliver.
The expressions which he had used on a former oc-
casion, respe6ting the disgust excitedln the navy by
the appointment of that Officer to the rank of Cap-'
' tain of the Fleet, had been founded upon documents,
and he could not better show the odium in which
that appointment was held in the navy, than by.
reading these documents, The Hotiovable Gentle-
man then proceeded 'to read the document, (said to
be a remonstrance to Lord Gatnbier, from Admirals
Hood, Keates, and Stopford, on the subject ut wat
appointment), andcontended that this documeot fully
Justified the expressions be had used on the former
occasion. The tlonourable Gentleman was pro-
deeding to sumo observations respecting the question
relative to the 4achefort Squadron, whets he was
plied to order by •
iylr. W. POLE, who contended that there was no
connection bet Ween the obS•ervations of the Hon.
Gentleman and the question before the House, at the
same time declaring,
.that he was peitectly 'ready to
tseettheef terse n.;,Genileman upon the topics to which
he t
lead r
whenever . they shoolti be brought
regittter,lsyob4forchittloiewleirveotidst.
that
as
theexp'
\tssiow
used by the 4i9uouranit, gentleman on a tortnq pc-.
tciaesrio inl elixait:lll.l3ietieinngatdivieeireted extpo, restsiiepiwlsr
apen,'dVtehetel6yroituit
upon which he had used them. It would be foi the
11,1 th Gentlenan, however, to decide 'how far his
I statement may be carried for the purvase of Suds
iexvlanations
i- - .

CIIANCIILLOIt. of the, x.c.ttp.corrat appeoying
to artestion the. nece,sity fur the Honourable
. .
to µ ti hdraw.

. _
The Sramcatt observed, that no doikbt could 4.
ist oil the subject, after reading the rcsulutiona

,t

imputed blame not only to the Honourable Captain, Mr. tALCHaFT WAS not diseased to proceed II:6,
but to some other'of his Majeiityls Servants. slier on the initial, a. his übjea llad only been to
Mr. LONG complained of the mantle in which thew that the case he bad urged was supported by
the Hon. Gentleman had brought forward. this undouhlea authority. Be should coneude by de-
charge against the Treasury, If the' Right Hen. daring, that as the case of lii% Hon. Friend seemed
Gentleman would prefer, a distina *charge apinst to him _tp be fully made out, lie should vote in sq.-
himself, he should always be ready to meet it ; if port of his Resolutions:.
against. his late Right Hon. Friend, t here were others
in the House much better to defend tharlirt.ylitOlZ4l-Zurt discharge
thatof
illustrious and lamented charaeler than himself. Of trious individual, who wai now unfoitunatey no
many of the circumstances Mentioned by the Holt, more (Mr. Pitt), if he did riot state to the Hoag'
Gentleman, he was perfectly ignorant until the agi- the grounds-of the opinion upon which he had row
cation of this 6hbjeet. He was ignorant that any cointnended the grant. Leer sinee 1114 subject hs&
charge of smuggling had been imputed to the lion. been titst'inentioned, he hid felt personally embed.
Captain.; for no such charge had been made in Capt. rassed with respeta to the matter. It had been said
Robinson's Memorial.; he was ignorant that the that the grant had been made upon a reluctant Report
Von. Captain had pleaded, in bar to an action, the frOm the King's Advocate ' • but so far. from that
Illegality of the transadien in which he had been having been the case, the Report concluded without
;concerned. The Hon. Gentleman declared that expressing any opinion, which, oil so novel a case,
,thii was a misapplication of the public money, and .'the Law ',a-livers who signed the Report were 119 E
that his principal object was to prevent a recur,. , competent to give. On so grave a question as tht3
r`elice of that misapplication in future. He theta exercise of the inqUisitorial power of that Houses
proceeded to state that the Hon: Captain had de- respecling the.expenditure of public money, it wet
ceived,the Treasury, and had titled under that delu• ; important to keep in view the object of the motioth

Mist ob)e6l was a censure on t 1 condo& of a ism
AdMinistration for an improvident grant of moneys
in order to.prevent a similar att in furore. It was
unfortunate for any individual to be the obje6t of ac•

ettsation in that House,. hat' it was particularly 00'
fortunate ler him to heincidentally or collateral .
asugbaijteletst.G(ot)'v
ecrhuatingeett
were,2whenmtaldtee strotedeeitpselowf au chino
hii
merits or demerits. This Was mute particularlyix
case when the accusation was founded, in part, ePoo
letters, which had been that night first read tgitil
House. It was not stri6tly coned to call theti lt
in this case a misapplicetien of public money; ``
was the King's money; though he would not SI
that the Denise might not inquire inm any imitrtivt*i .
dem appropriation of such a fund. The grant
'not a donation or a reward, but a remission of a for"l_,
feiture, and there had been many case's in IrbiriP.l
that House complained of the rigid enfier ettient, w
forfeitures. The exercise of justice with-mercy, risk
prerogative of pardon or of .remission forfeltareil
was one of the, brightest jewels in the power of .the
Crown, and which that House' would, least' be tit",
posed to interfere with, Such was the charaeter u'e
sthe,ssel next was ,to be considered the charsteer
the forfeiture. • The Etruseo, on her return ,
Canton; h'd been detained and adjudged forfeit UP
the Crosin in the Prize Court, fora violation of.
monopoly' of the East India Company. This WI,
been the first case of the kind which had occurta•
for according to the laws respelling the tot loclij
Company, the forfeitures are 'to that CosnpanY, au"
not to the Crown. And if ever there had heal
case in which liberality should have been exercise'
with reaped to the forfeiture it was this.• M Judge.
the Reuse ought to take into its consideration what
had been, at the time of this transaction, the stars
of the East India Company. From the In'
crease of their territory, they invited foreigner*
to engage in their trade, and even connived er
tish subjects embarking in it,' The HononraL"r
Officer who was the subjeCt of this charge had
engaged in the trade in common with other Brit
subjects and officers, and recognised as it British ,„A
Sat), by the Company's Government in India, in th,!
reciammendation to the Court of Directors to
for.promotion for him to' the Admiralty,. in wise'
queue of his services. As to the charge of smug'
filing, it had never been urged in the wlu progress
of the cause, by any. of the advocates, nor even it%
rapt. R's memorial ; the former had too Much tasty„
and'the latter was too flinch of a Gentleman to fin
'ply such a disgtisting term to the circumstiuce la!
. lone or five out of 3goe+ &tests of tea being delivered
ont of the ship at Dungeness, whilst the Captain h;
gone on shore; He contended that by the loss °:
40,000}. Sir Home Popham had suffered soffioie"
punishment for the illegality of the trent:l64T' to
His whole .property in the vessel amouete%pt
.63,0001. the Government would give him ick,"t
r 5,0001. and had restored to him but 18,n0QB• „
19,0001. so' that he was a loser to the anieont'a.
43,0001. Besides, it ought to he considered how,ir,
he had e:spJated sulgeqtient services for this.?ltf,
fence, The India Company, inieusible of any
itizy, had not prosecuted him, and though the 0,4
lin might t,e interested: in this question, it aPPe'''
by the papers, that he 1)4 on the relief of l'ostrnorf;
and Ghent, contributed to Save much publiefirtVfo
ty, as also to facilitate the retreat of the '
consequence of these services he had -been
. mended by the Commander in Chief, tor f
Lion, to Lord Spencer, who expressed his lit6stiatch
lion• at promoting an officer thin had per forineu 4-110
service to his conntry. Looking to such services, 6
was sure the Hcrase.would not think of the vorigs, •
to the East Indies, and therefore no hesnLa
tion to say, that the grant was an a& of justice 00 tit
Part of his Majesty. But it had been sail'. th.rhst'
was an ad of injustice to Captain Robinson' f-tire
Officer, however, had had the enemy's P"lrt,l-hve
property, condemned tq the eaptocs, bUt
no right whatever to that to: art reCOll7
- of It from
the
longing to a British subjeCt, was forfeited to pot
ding. Besides, the seizpre of khis vesael :41•„°;9ts *ifs
what ought to be calkd a 9apture, and she
ut
t n
in the Road of Ostend, had given rise to a tiqsz.,,,
of territory which had not been
years. The Captors had their reward hi, the
detonation of M. De Piron's part of the Mee Pr If
010 '
petty, and it, was the fault of Captain 'lout
uld
he had not yet brought in a Bill of Coats, that ")the
be allowed, if he had not received them. 013,..0r
whole, therefore, he thought the grant an 06t 'fit) of
tice to Sir Home Popham, and that Mr.
PII sord
his Board of Treasury was not deserving (if 4:4° ore
for hav'aig, advised 114 Majesty to rank 111 P
tenure. ur of
. Mr. WINIIHA.AI spoke atsetnelarigth favour bis
i. the motion* of gr. Lushingtou, and expresse7)3o3;
disapprobation of the condud of Sir Home PoP,
not only in the business then before the flour nestle
• for the Expedition to Buenos Ayres. Ile adn'..roid
decided Jor
to the hardship 'of the situation its which ne_
Capt. Robinson had been .suancei*-
bad been ruined for seizing this Ship, in pei
his orders. 'd dot feel
The CktAricEtt.ott of the EXatlizatisn di ,es
it eeo
tlaesiary to say much after the very able sheo
dt
of his Right Hon. and Learned Friends• boa
placed„ and. said that
bu
feted from the Right Hun. GetltlestnanW
theati
spoken last, as to the propriety.of separtiting
of the Treasury from.lhe consideration of ttruitlot
I Of §ir Home Pcram, though by wOlti