The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-02 00:00:00

EQUITABLE LOAN BILL.

Sir W. CONGREV E moved the third reading of this Bill.
WHITBREAD opposed the motion. The number of
Pawnbrokers in London was not more than three hundred,
and the capital they employed was LOOO,OOOl. Their pro-
fit's wore by no means exhorbitant. The only difference be-
tween them and this new Company was, that the Pawnbrokers
charge one halfpenny for the loan of 2s. 6d. for a month.---This
new Company proposed to lend 2s. 7. for the same period for
a halfpenny. He understood the heads er the undertakirg
were already aware that it would not succeed, and wished now
merely to sell their shares without aloes. Under these circum-
stances he moved that the Bill be read a third time that day
three months.

...
Mr. HOBHOUSE also opposed the Bill. There were
plenty of Companies already, and the admission of another
would only lead the way to many others.
Sir W.-CONGREVE defended the Bill.
Sir W. DE CRESPIGNY said a few words which were in-
audible in the gallery.
Mr. DIONCK said that this new Company was Christian in
principle, but Jewish in practice. He did not wish to encou-
rage the employment of large masses of capital to the detri-
ment of smaller ventures. The trade was quite open for any
Company to benefit the public without applying to Parlia-
ment. Let, them lend at one per cent. if they pleased, they
would have the thanks of the public and of the poor man.
Mr. ROBERTSON spoke against the Bill.
DI r. Alderman WOOD strongly, reprobated the conduct of
the supporters of this Bill, who in a pamphlet now upon the
third reading, put into the hands of persons at. the door,
grossly impugned several respectable individuals. Why
were not all these charges brought before the Committee,
where they might have been sifted ? He could not avoid say-
ing this in favour of a most respectable class of persons, the
Pawnbrokers.

Colonel DAVIES defended the Bill. The company were
actuated by none but the purest motives, to lend money upon
more equitable and moderate terms. The arguments against
them were too futile to require refbtation. Many ',Hon. Mem-
bers had an interest in the concern, and he was to observe one
who had a large interest, which he had disposed of at a profit
now turn round and abuse the Company.
Mr. WHITBREAD asked whether such Members as had
a personal interest in this Bill could properly vote upon it at all.
The Speaker said nothing was clearer than the rule of .Par-
liament, that no Member who had a pecuniary interest in any
Bill could vote upon it.
Mr. H. SUMNER proposed ageneral motion, that all Mem-
bers interested should withdraw in the first inStance.

The SPEAKER said that such a motion would be prema-
ture, as Members interested might not think necessary to
vote. The mode was to -challenge the votes which were consi-
dered to be improper.
Dr. LIJSHINGTON said that he was Vice-President of the
Company, and should certainly not vote. At thesame time.he
must declare his conviction, that the Bill Would be most bene-
ficial to the most distressed part of the community,- -viz. tra-
ders who had goods to give as security, which they did not wish
to past with.
The House then divided :
For the Bill
• Against it -
Majority in favour
The Bill was then read a third time.
Several clauses, we understood, were .brought up by
W. CONGItUVE, during the exclusion of strangers from the
gallery.

- 40

'32

. 8

—On the question that the Bills should pass, another division
took place.
In favour of the motion
Aagainst it_
Majority
The Bill was accordingly passed.
The Manchester and Salford Equitable Loan Bank Bill was
read a third time, and passed.
The Hiternian Mining Company's Bill was read a third
time, and passed.
SOUTH LONDON DOCK 'BILL.
A considerable discussion occurred upon the presentation of
the Report of the Committee on the South London Dock Bill,
.but as it chiefly turned upon questions of form, relative to pro-
ceedings in the Committee, we do not think it necessary to re-
port it. The Report having been laid on the table,
Mr. H. SUMNER proposed that the Minutes of Evidence
taken before the Committee be laid before the House.
Mr. CANNING, fearful that the discussion might be apin
opened upon this motion, moved that it be postponed tilt to-
morrow.

.

-19

H. SUM ''ER Orsisted in his motion,and strangers were
twice. ordered.to withdraw, before it was agreed to adjourn'the
discussion. _

PETITIONS.

Mr. CALVERT presented a petitiOn frOM-Hertford, pray-
ing for inquiry into the case Q' the late• Missionary Smith.
Colonel PALMEIt presented a petition from Bath on the
same subject.
Similar petitions were presented from Stowmarket, Ashton-
under-line, Blackrock, Barton, Greenock, Bridgetiorth, New-
castle, Hanby, Plaistow, Shepton Mallet, Peterborough, Ports-
mouth, the County of Gloucester, Yeovil, Merionethshire,
Devizes, Witham in Essex, certain Protestant Dissenters in
and near London, Hindon, Huddersfield, Selby, Plymouth,
Devonport, Sidrnouth, Kirigsreach, Romford in Essex, Thet-
ford,.Harsham, Knaresborough, town and neighbourhood of
Worthing, Wootton Bassett, Swindon,
.Uxbridge, East Grim-
stead, Nuneaton, Unitarian Society of Christians at Bolton-le.
Moor, Southampton, and other places.—Ordered to lie on the
table.
Mr. GOOCH presented a petition from the neighbourhood
of Ipswich against the Bonded Wheat Bill.—Ordered to be
. ,
printed.
A petition-. was., PY_Senterl from the, Butckis of Bury St.
Edmonds against the 'Hides and Skins' Bill.—Ordered to lie
on the.table.

Mr. C. W. WYNN presented a petition from Merioneth-
shire; against Slavery in the West Indies.--Ordered to lie on
the table.

Lord J.,STUART presented a petition from. certain Free-
holders in the County of Caithness, praying that the distillation
of Spirits in Scotland may be put on the same footing as in
England.—Ordered to lie on the table.
Mr. WELLS presented a petition
.from the inhabitants' of
Melconibe, against the Bonded Wheat Bill.—Ordered to lie
on the table.

similar petition was presented from. certain Land Owners
near Croydon.—Ortlered to lie on the table.
Mr, S. RICE' iitesented a petition from the Chaniber of •
Commerce at Lime ' rick against the Warehousing NlL—Or-
dered to lie on the table.
Mr. SYKES presented 4 petition froM Certain 'Holders of
Corn at ,Beverley, praying that Bonded Foreign Corn might
be admitted into home consumption. The HOM. Member was
of opinion that complying with the prayer of this petithin would
be a benefit to the agricultural intereSt'Or this country, by ve-
lieiing the market frOm the present overhanging load of corn
which oppressed On the, table,
CASE OF THE MISSIONARY SMITH.
Mr. BROUGHAM confessed that, in bringing forward this
Motion, of which hei bad lit,sti ' k notice, he felt some difficulty
oppress him from the. intense interest which it had excited out •
of doors, and the view taken of' it-there. lie ought.perhaps to
feel more, embarrassed than Dc,dia, for he could not disguise
from himself. that there seemed to aversion ~to this subject,
where he' butt .least expected that. such ,a,feelkng would pre-
vail- He had licard men who were alive to every case of
.individual hardship—to every unjust Or Opp.resive exercise of
power' or to. the smallest infraction of ;Constitutional rights;
,Ate had with astOnishment_4ard treat this as a -matter which
had better not be agitated. They seemcd anxious to avoid tin-
tering into details, and to. find excuses for not doing their
duty, It had been asked, what did that signify which had
occuned at Demerara ? As if injustice being Committed
at a distance, beyond the scope of' that ' House, did not
furnish one of the best reasons for taking, up the subject.
Then, it had been said, " .:alt those Meetings out of doors,
and the petitions received froth so many places, are all about
an obscure.individualof the naine of -Smith, who was connected
with, to make the
.th,ing,still there unpalateable, the Methodists."
It was the first. 'tine lip had heArd'in that House, that because
a man was tinnroteetc4--because' he stood single and alone
who.. were poWer, that that was a reason
for shutting
ho
their easy to the h
against
ardsliip of his case. Ile, would
suppose that the complaints which reached them were only
those of the Methodists. Unpleasant as that name might
sound in some ears, he would use iconce to avoid cireinnlocu-
tion, and would suppose Mr. .Smith to have been of the Me-
thodists' Society. Assuming these things, he had yet to learn
Separated as they were from the Established Church, that they
were not to be attended to when
they laboured, as to their great
lt himour they had now done, to interest their epre4entauves
in a cause which they believed to he a just one. But Mr.
Smith was no Methodist,, nor was the Society which ethployed
him of that persuasion. It was by the Church Mitc:iionary So-
ciety, which was composed individually of Members of the
Established Church, that had sent him out. He was'a Mem-
ber of a respectable and enlightened Society of Religionists, who
were entitled to peculiar veneration from the universal tolera-
tion which they favoured, and to whom in all ages, the
country. generally had owed a debt of gratitude. Ile belonged
to a Society which, if at a former period it had fallen into some
excesses, had seen its Members in latter times distinguished by
the purity of their lives, which rivalled those of the early Chris-
tians, by the zeal of martyrs, anti by the skill and perseverance
of warriors who had largely contributed to the conquest of those
civil and religious rights which the people of England now en-
joyz.d. He repeated it, that the Society to which Mr. Smith
behinged deserved in a peculiar degree to be venerated for the
glorious eminence which it had gained by its principles of uni-
versal toleration. This was so decided, that not the most
. amiable and enlightened of other Societies exactly reached the
same point, though he rejoiced to say, that many had made
near approaches to it. He hoped Gentlemen would not let
reluctance to go into details like those connected with this
case prevail ,upon them to withhold their attention from
it. Without further preface, as abridging his observations
as much as possible, he should be obliged to trespass on the
House for a considerable time, he would at once bring before
them the tharge which he had to prefer. He would under-
take to shew those Gentlemen who honoured him with their
attention, that from the beginning to the end of the trial of Mr.
Smith, there had been a violation of the most common forms of
law, as well as of sttbstantial justice, such as lie had never
known in modern times, to be connected with any thing that
Was galled a judicial proceeding. He had tried the character
of them en almost every ope he had met with out of doors,
as well members of the profession to which he had the honour
to belong, as others, and he had found none who, on look-
; ing. into the details,' did not assent to this proposition, that
a 'breach of the law had taken place, a violation of justice,
atntgenl English
of
on of the House andwaans onieiatreasgsae4onferthheimfortienseaolfl theee
to matters alluded to by Governor Murray in a proclama-
," tion, which when issued had tilled the' Colony with just and
reasonable alarm. In consequence of certain resolutions which
. had passed unanimously in that House,,,new instructions
been sent out to the Coloniesl generally,
and
ainnnl the
e had
to the conquered Colonies. Whether those instructions were
. the best that could possibly have been devised to fulfil the
intention of those who sent them out—whether they did not
. in some instances go too far, while in others they fell short
of the point to' which they ought to have reached ; whether
being 'tramed in reference to West India Soeiety, where there
were few freemen and a numerous population of slaves, who
had hithertd known their master, and recognized his autho-
rity by the symbol of punishment, it was well to lay that in-
merara early in the month
hitedtois)e,ay the instructions in question
,struntent wholly aside—these were questions which lie should'
iwioettenoe-dtiscauusts;
aSnduifirecae'c
of July latt year ; as it appeared, that on the 7th day of that
month they were acted upon. Great alarm was innutdiately
excited ; a meeting was called, and an adjournment' took place ;
,a second meeting and a second adjouinment followed; and a
Ih;rd,rneeting Was called. Considerable discussions took place
at those meetings,
and the
,NegrOeuartook of the general anxiety
which prevailed in the Colony. unhappily it did not occur to
the Authorities there (lie could nirike every allOWance for them
in the alarming state of things which they witnessed), to do