The Sun.
London, England, 1807-07-09 00:00:00

.After a few more words from Mr.
Cli GKANT and
eavey, ,the Petition was
.ordered to be re-
` !erred. to. a Committee Of • the whole House on
'Priday,
Mr. WALLIA replied, that it was true an Aft of
leireament must •be 'passed before the Company
eouitt raise more money on bonds, and to procure
such an -Mt was the precise obje4 of the.Pe-
titioneusepresented by his Hon. Friend. The COM-
pany had never stated that -they. could not increase
their capital; they merely stated that at the present
moment :it wae.: more convenient and expedient to
adopt the mode of raising Money upon bonds.
cOMMUKTER,OF. HtiVi:LEGEt..
IVI r. Rose brought up the Report of the Committee
of Nivile.geaeto whom the letter addressed by George
,Gal. Way Mills, Esq. to the Speaker of the House of
• ,Com nuns; ande he Petitions presentedagainst the said
er7iteorge CielWay•Milli, Esq. had been referred. The
Ileilort gated; that the Committee had examined,
keel !build that the Said, George Galway Mills, Esq.
ee:ai a member of the House of:COmmoua;and that
'be was• then in. the custody of the Marshal of the
'King's Bench. The Committee had consulted pre-
-Cedents, and had abstained from examining the alle-
gations contained in the Petitions which .had been
referred to them, conceiving that even had those aIIB
. galiohs been proved, that wad not have infhienced
their Judgment, or prevented them from coming to
the resolution which they had adopted, namely, that
the said George Galway Mills, Esq.' was entitled to
the PriAegeeof Parliament.
Mr. Rase then moved, that the House do agree
with the Committee in that Resolution.. •
P..1140014E, ,as e Member of the Commit-
te'e, and as having himself presented a Petition to'
the Hoese against Mr. Mills, stated a few points,
• " whiCh, iu his opinion, the Hoese, duly regarding
its own ehon6ur and dignity, circumstances much
. More important than the privileges of an individual, ,
ought deliberately to consider. The Petition to
which he alluded had. been presented by him with,
"the cohcurrence of, the person against whom it was
direeted, and far whose Interests he and others had
exerted their utmost efforts; those efforts had been
, feinless, beeattie that Hon. Gentleman did not
chow() to abide by his own propositions. Mr.
Nills'e debts, of .various descriptions,. exceeded
30,000 i.. Not one, of hiS creditors wished to inter-
w.ith the ,privileges of Parliament;. but 'they
thought, and certainly..ther,ivere justified in. think-
itigethet while the House of Commons attended to
file preservation of their privileges,-they should alsO
attend to the deMands. of justice, and to the pre-
sereation of their credit with the Public. As far as
time would fiIIONV the Committee had examined,all
the precedenla which appeared to bear upon the pre-
. Spilt i.e4:eeet, but,. iii his opitlion, net 9ne was. feund
that met the ease stated in the Petitions. The Pe-
titions eentaleed this allegetien, eleit the. Petitioner
• bed obtained .his seat in -Parliament ,15 a terneorary.
_proteelion, in oldtlr to evade the dereseedsOf; his ere-,
ditors, and ultimately, he was compelled to say so,
. defrau4 was sorry to be obliged tteuse,
*wit language when speaking of one with whom he
ftet been in habits• of intimacy ; but in a .cease so
glarine, which so Siroegly excited the public (men-
cede at three: like these, it would be well for the
Ittease to pause before. they granted to any man, un-
der suelreikumstances, the benefit of the privileges,
by which the ends of public justice would be defeated.
tit had prepefiekleo t he CoMmittee to gonna the alle:
'tower, cootahled in the Petitions. The Report can-
.iated wily they had not done so. There might
' eeeeliar cases ill winch it would be adviseable to
geint eTteileee, wittellit such an examination ; hut
die not 'appear to be one of them. Was it pro-
r !hat, he xln uld be •a Leeislatore who himself af-
..leee-e to treople upon law
ele wherved, that there was a precedent
It COUid.poSsibly ne•expeded ; . it
a of 4.c. Basset, in the reign of Charles.l.
swild net been arerested on a inesnt; pfocesa,. when it
.ezes resnived that he was Aecidedly entitled to the
riGi:eges 'of Par;iltnent. On this ground, and Qll
`filly c the groued dee even were the allegations proved,
mid 'not influence the Reiolutions of the
to.eeettee iu this respect, Oose allegations had not
"been gone into.
• Mr. O.OI',VAT agreed. .most cordially to the
Report Of the Conenittee. The House were bound
.to support tliey ‘vhich were given to
•the:n, not for their advantage, but for drat of the
yeutory et large, The privileges which' Members
;ei•fPerliainent enjoyed of freedom froM ariest, was
;good ter the EleAtirsos fbr the Eleaed • 'ware it
'not se, litany of the former might go unrepresented.
Therer viits not a single instance ott the Journala of
the House, refusing the privilege when clearly
de-
;fined. telepaid the' abandonnlvot of this privilege
argued, he treated. it would be argued, not on a
'yttOctilarl but on a general view of the sutijea—
not With si refereriee to the individual immediately,
'concerned, but With.;a refereece ' to.the lienoitr of
'Parliament, and, the adVantage of the Community.
" Mr. COCHRANE' JOHNSTON E, thought that'
e speeitfl
4epuit might to have. been made the
Comiisittee on an iaspatioe of the Petitions. Which
coitteine4 so strong a charge on the charatier of one
of the Members of that House :, they stated that be
;bed procured Si seat in that House fur the express
,
rporpoNe of enabling him tp evade the .payment of
hisdebits, and to escape to the West Indies. He
understood that four or fiVe persons now in the
King's Bench were' anxiously waiting. the,decision.
•of the House, in order that if that decision• were
favourable to Mr. Mills, they might avail themselves
of his example, 'and take similar steps in order to
relieve themselves of similar embarrassments. He
entreated be House, jar their credit's sake, before
they ordered the liberation of this Gentleman, either
to refer the Petitions back to' the Committee, or to
take the subject into their grave and serious consi-
deration. ' • " '
ELMSONcleelared, that the Committee had
• entert4 upon this subjael ‘iith feelinga as allied to
the foulness of; the civic as could possibly-be enter-
tained. If the allegations of the Petitions were
proved against Mr. he thought that no Hon.
eVJettiber ought to sit iii the House, with him ; but
he thought, tleit circumstanced as they were,
the Qommittee could do no more than they had
dotle. A 1111,410 he was of Opinion that it would
be bvttoqo eonsjOr this subjeet'generally, yet if it
werie leeined adtiSable to take it up particularly, he
wu I gti'its far as 'any' Man to' rescue the Howie
feel'. the imputations that might Otherwise be cast
upon it. It thews was one duty more tioleant than