The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-27 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 27, 1854.

ARE YOU GOING TO THE HIGHLANDS
THIS SEASON ?
if so, you must visit the TAR CAN and TWEED WAREHOUSE,
12, High-street, Inverness, where you wit Bid the sp'endid speci-
mens of Highland Manufacture which trained the Prize Medal in the
Great Exhibition in Issl, and the INDUSTRY and ?ROHM rio NS
of the HIGHLANDS of SCOTLAND. and. COTHING of every
kind for DEER-STALKING, GROUSE-41100TING, and for Ladies
and Gentlemen TOURI,TS' Wear, with an 'unrivaled select!on of
Plaids, Shawls, and Ladies' Tartans, Tweeds, and Linsey Woolseys,
&c., &c. D. MACDOUGALL.
Inverness.
lUD. and all his Patterns may be seen at I2A, Golden-square,
London, from 2 to 6 o'clock, until Ist

and with regard to the argument of delay in dispensing the
proceeds of prizes in the last war, he contended that there I
had beeti no other delay than was necessary by the state of
the law with regard to appeal. If there was delay it was
not for the advantage of the agent. "It had also been said
that considerable sums had been lost to captors by the de-
fault of priza agents. He had no doubt that in the colonies
a description of gentlemen were employed as prize agents
during the war whose Orocaedings had caused loss to cap-
tures; but no, such instance of leashed occurred during the
whole war in London or other parts of England where
agents were established. He denied, too, the statement,
that though advances wero made to officers by these agents
'none were made to the mon. With respect to the Navy Pay
Bill, he objected to the 10th clause, which would have an
injurious effect upon the navy agents by its retrospective
operation. A great number of cases were already pending
in which they had done work, for which, if the bill passed
in its present shape, they could recover no renumeration.
The noble earl concluded by observing that if he was ever
called into active service afloat, which he did not expect,
he should infinitely prefer the oldsystem of having an able
trustworthy, and wealthy man for his agent, than a Go-
vernment officer. ;
Lord COLCHESTER expressed general concurrence in
the remarks of his noble friend (the Earl of Ellenborough),
especially with regard to the distribution of prizes cap-
tured by joint operations. And he thought is would be
much more advantageous to the captors to have a confiden-
tial agent •of their own, than a Government officer to look
after their interest.

The Duke of NEWCASTLE, in reply, said complaint
bad been made that the navy agents would not have the
same amount of remuneration a 3 they had- formerly re-
ceived, But it should be remembered that they would not
have the amount of trouble which they had on former oc-
casions. As regarded' a very large portion of the prizes, a
very-great proportion was taken and condemned in the
colonies, and in such cases serious loss had been sometimes
sustained by the captors. The bill enacted that they should
be 'sold by public auction instead of private contract, -which
would -undoubtedly be a more advantageous arrangement,
and, combined with the-appointment of a responsible pub-
lic officer, would entirely preclude the possibility of decep-
tion: For defraying small expenses incidental to the tran-
saction, the agent would be authorised to take out a power
of attorney ;, and if he declined to do so, then the officers of
the court would be required to settle all demands. With re-
gard to provision for insurance, the marshal was empowered
in all cases to effect it. In respect to conjoint operations
of the navy and army, it had not been thought expedient
to make provision for this case in the present measure. The
enactments of the bill were framed throughout both on
former practice and legal decisions. Great difficulties
would arise from any attempt to assimilate the regulations
of the navy to those of the army in reference to the assign-
ment of proportions of prize money, as suggested by his
noble friend opposite. Another suggestion made was,
that the payment of head money should be extended to
cases of capture of fortresses as well as ships ; but the
principle was one liable to abuse, and it would hardly be
safe to give it any greater extension than it now had. In
some such cases particular grants had been made by Parlia-
ment, which secured every object of pecuniary reward in a
sounder and more effective form. His noble friend was
quite in error in supposing that the bill would have any
retrospective effect ; it would come into operation on the
Ist of June, and be applicable-to all prizes taken from and
after that date-.

The bill then passed through committee, and was re
ported with amendments.