The Sun.
London, England, 1812-03-12 00:00:00

THE MARRIAGE ACT.

Mr. WILSON, in. pursuance of a notice which he
had'prcviously given, moved that the Marriage Ad,
and the debates upon the Journals on that subject,
be entered as read, which was accordingly done.—
The I-Jon. and Learned Gentleman made a variety
of observations upon the abuses of that Aia, so far
as it related to orphans and illegitimate children, and
admitted he was aware of the danger of making any
material alterations therein ; but contended that
there was an imperious necessity for so doing, in
order to protect the rights of that class of persons to
which he had referred. He stated, that since the
passing of the At which was brought in to prevent
;clandestine marriages, many fraudulent marriages
had been toritraeled., but tneie were efl-Zded by
banns, and not by license,- Itorn the impossibility
which arose in populous places of ascertaining the
residence and condition of the parties. He cited
several cases which had come before the Ecclesias-
tical Courts and the Law Courts, to show those faCts.
He proposed to remedy the evil of which he com-
plained, by the introdudion of a Bill to explain and
rt;nend that A&, by rendering illegal all marriages
con t raoed and solemnised where there was no parent
nor guardian inexistence. He did not mean,' how-
ever, to atfeEt by this. Bill any marriage at present
in. dispute. He then moved for " -Leave to bring
Bill to explain and amend the At of the 26th
Geo. H. relating to Marriages."
Leave was then given.
A Message was brought up from the Lords, stat-
ing,
.that their Lord hips, in consequence of the
conference had with this House, did not insist upon
the amendments which they had made in the Not-
tingham Frame Work Bill.

PLYMOUTH BREAKWATER. -•
Mr. WHITBREAD observed, that he held 'in his
hand a list of papers, which he thought necessary
to move for,'respeaing Plymouth Breakwater. The
Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Croker) since he came into
the House, had shewn hint some papers on the
subjea in manuscript, and suggested that it could
not for certain reasons be proper to presi his motion;
to that suggestion he had assented. Since then it
'had been suggested to him from another quarter,
that there was a neces',ity for the papers, betcre the
House Gould come to a decision upon the question
of the propriety of adopting the plan which was in
view. He had no wish to oppose the Bond of Ad-
miralty in their plan ; on the contrary, •he would
rather further their views on the subjea ; but at the
Same time it had been stated to him, that the scheme
of Mr. Rennie required further inquiry. Hs should
therefore vote for -the papers.
Mr. CROKER stated, • that the papers in part con-
tained substantially what the House was already in
possession of ; others of the papers were totally ir-
relevant to the subject, and improper to be pro-
duced ; he had therefore shewn to the- Hon. Gen-
tleman what he thought had satisfied his mind.
The Board of Admiralty could not consent to the
produ6lion of some of the papers for the reasons
which
.be had alleged. 11, however, there was any
snbstantial reference could be made, he had no oh-
je6tion ; but the papers generally related to bye-
laws as bet ween Mr. Bentham and Mr. Rennie.

• Mr. 'WHITBREAD pressed his motion, as the par-
ties meant to publish the correspondence between'
those Gentlemen and the Board.

The motion was then put and negatived.
Goldsmid's Indemnity Bill was ordered to be
read a second time on Friday.

CONVICTS ON BOARD THE HULKS.

Mr. ABERCROMBIE having some, days before
moved for certain Accounts 'elating to the State of
the Convicc,ts, observed, that he since had reason to
believe that persons convided of offences, and sen-
tenced to the hulks, had received free pardons; and
had been sent to serve in one of the regiments of
the line. It had been stated by an, Hon. General,
and not. denied by•the Secretary of State, that one
hundred and forty persons of this description had
been pardoned on the conditions stated. He was
far from entertaining an opinion, that commutation
of sentence should not be permitted in certain cases,
to a limited extent, and that persons entitled to the
benefit of such commutation should not be sent to
serve in the At my and Navy, and also be entitled
to free pardons ; but what he coMplaked of was,
the excess to which the practice had been carried.
He admitted the just exercise of the Royal Preroga-
tive. He wished, however, to ask the Right Hon.
Secretary,, whether, before hundreds of cunvids had
been dismissed, he had inquired into the character
and situation of_the individuals, and, had been-satis-
fied they were fit objeas for mercy ? Whether the
offences of which they had been convified, were
their first ? Whether t het e were circumstances of
.aggravation or of • mitigation in their respective
crimes And whether reference had been made to
the Judges, for the purpose of ascertaining those
p irticulars He understood, that it was on the 're-
presentation made by Mr. Graham, the Superinter.-
dant of Convicts, that they were discharged. To

Mr. drah'amis.testinititiY, as to their good conduct,
he had no objection; for the truit was most pro-
perly Confided in him, and no doUbt he discharged
it with fidelity. But Mr. Graham was only an oc-
'casional visitor to the hulks, seeing the convicts per-
haps not more than once within the quarter of a
year, taking of course his account of their conduct
from the inferior servants, which he (Mr. A.) could
not consider the best source of information. He
was afraid the hiilks was not a proper ;lice for im-
proving the morals of those persons. &sicies, last
Sess!on, a Committee had been appointed to inquire
into the State of the Hulks,
.and, that Committees
had nbt as yet made their report. If the Commit-
tee vt ere so long making their report, he Was nor
a•suming too much in questioning the ptipriety of
this mode of punishment. He deprecated, under
these circumstances, the placing the Officers of any
Regiim.nt in so pitiable a snttaii.,n as having to Com-
mand 140 men of this description.
He then moved for,

" A Return of the Number of Persons Conviaed since
the Ist of January, is3:o, sentenced to be transported, after
being capitally convicted. or originally so, and also those
discharged subsequently (having received free pa:dolls) trout
on board the hulk., with the dates of their service, tic."

Mr. Secretary RYDE3 deprecated the motion, but
had no wish to screen himself from any responsibi-
lity for having ed. iced the pardons, because hes°
doing he had followed precedent. • Pardons bad not
been granted latterly to the event as fotmerly.—
In one instance, he undervtood, that upwards of fiae
hundred had been allow ed to enter into the army
and navy. With reseed In the present Subjed, the
fad was, that Mr. Graham had represented to him
drat there were a number of persons o.'hcse conduit
had been so cerreet, that they were 'fir objects for
Royal consideration. In consequeece of this repre-
sentation, he had thought it his duty to recommend
those persons to be pat.doned on condition of enlist,-
ing for life. It had been • found that bad effee.ts
arose from sending them for life to serve abroad, and
a communication' was made to the Commander in
Chief ; the result. was, that it was judged advisable
to permit the.enlistieg under these conditions, but
the men were informed that it rested with them
whether they should revisit their native country
again, and be restored to their families and friends.
The HoUse would agree with him in conceiving that
there could not be a greater inducement to behave
well during their confinement on board the hulks,
than the knowledge that by their good condud they
might stand a chance of being restored to society.
There was no principlestedangerous as that princi-
ple which went to exclude the' chalice of reforma-
tion. But if these persons were turned loose upon
the world, without the means of earning their bread,
and their charaiSlers gone, the probability was, that
they would return to their evil hibits. What. was
the case here ? 'By. permitting them to enter the
Army and Navy ever) objedion was removed, and
they most likely would be drawn from their old hag
bits, and become as it, were new men and good citi-
zens. The Honourable Gentleman therefOre was •
wrong in supposing that it was improper. to permit
these men to enter. He had.drawn his observations
from the state of the convicts before Mr. Graham
held the office of Seperintendant. The Right Ho-
nourable Secretary then read a letter from a Cler-
gyman, stating the good behavionr of two men who
had been liberated in. 1810, after four year confine-
ment, describing them as altered men.' The gene-
ral impression as to this mode of punishment was
quite different to what the Honourable Gentleman
entertained, for he (Mr. Ryder) W 33 in the priadice
of receiving. letters from the masters of apprentices
and servants serf ing on board the hulks, desiring that
the rest,of the sentences against them might be re-
mitted, on account of the reformation in their con-
duct, and they would take them again into their
service. Thaewas the best proof which could be'
given-of the-utility' of the punishment, for would it
be believed that tradesmen would risk their property
if they were not convinced their once dishonest ser-
vants were now trust-worthy ? As to the numbers
enlisted, the House perhaps were not aware that
they formed three, strong, good, and efficient regi-
ments. With resreVto their general condualsince
1803, when they were first liberated, many testi-
monies were furnished. He had made many •in-
quiries, and he found that their general condud was
very good ; as soldiers, they would not yield to any
regiment for efidciency. In the year t 8%07, Colonel
Gordon, then private Secretary • to the Commander -
in Chief, was at the head of one of the regiments,
and he spoke in high terms of that regiment when.
in Alderney and Guernsey. In a letter, which the,
Right Honourable Secretary read, they. are stated to
have received the thanks of the inhabitants of those
islands, for their good condo 1, and it was stated thee.
out of the who!e regiment only two had attempted
to desert. He then referred to the Gazette • of the
6th of March, 18.10, in which General Beckwith
speaks in the highest terms of the Royal YOrk Rin-
gers, another of these' regiments.; and, in General
Orders, returns thanks to Brigadier General Wale'
and Major Henderson, the Commander, for the gal. -
!entry displayed in the conquest of Guadeloope,aind
for tire discipline which the regiment had evinced on
this and formetericcaaions during the campaien. Any
regiment might be proud to have beers, memioned
with such honour as that by. which the York Ran-
gers had been distinguished. He allowed he had
been told by a Gallant General that offence had been
given by allowing so many teen from the hulks to
enter into one regiment. He ;was sorry for it, and
and he was sure that by no one %vat immure regretted
than by the Hits' rions Personage at the bead of the
army. It was intended that it should not be know it
from what quarter these unfortunate persons had
proceeded; unluckily, however, it had transpired.—
But he trested that no regiment could feel disgraced
by the association .of individuals who had shewo so
much' contrition-tor t heir .former errors, and Min had
so well to decried the pledge they had given of future
good conduct. As the present motien could tend
only to revive unpleasant considerations with respect
to these unfortunate individuals, • he for one must •
give it his decided negative. If the Honourable and
Learned Gentieman could bring for ward any parti-
celar case of itnpropriety in the greeting of a par-
don, he would most readily meet him upon it. He
was not aware, howevvr, of the existence of any
such. He might hate erred, Gut he really had used
all possible diligence to a,cel Win the merits of the
indieidoala in ques!ion, before he otfe•red any advice
with respect to them ro time Er°, n. It would have
been much better for the public service, 'amid for
those unfortunate penious, had this cusi.ott not
taken place. • lie had deprecated it w hen the lien,

Gentleman gave notice of the motion, and he trust-
ed it would go no further.
Mr. WYNNE condemned the, deviation from the
ancient pradice of forming these persons into sepa-
rate corps, in which they had always been found to
behave ...ell. P had been said, that this was to pro-
nounce On. them a sentence of eternal banishment
from t heir country. By no means. Their tate was
not irrev.cable. They might entitle themselves, by
go>.!ci behaviour, to be transferred into the general
army and when he was in the Secretary of State's
Office; he had had Several opportunities of witness-
ing tilt cneouragetnent to good conduti, which, their
hope cherished. For his part, he really could not see
the antage of transferring 120 men at once from
the hulks into a regular and respeCtable regiment.
The Right Hon, .Gentleman talked of its being kept
secret,; a secret kept. by 120 men ! As easily might
20,000 men lie in ambush at KnightsbriAe. It
was reasonable to suppose that a regiment composed
of. men who had entered the profession with ho-
nourable feelings, would be disgusted by having such
persons forced upon their association. It was na-
tural to imagine that the name of jail-birds, and
other opprobrious epithets, would be freely applied
to them, Such an association was unquestionably
degrading to an English Yeoman, and tended to
lower that military spirit, which, under the present
circumstances of the country, it was most desirable
to maintain. ••

Mr. S. BOURNE said it appeared that the greater
part of the persons who were enlisted from tee
hulks, had previously, in a great degree, atoned fur
the offences they had com,mitted, and redeemed their
chara&ers. Some of those persons had been con-
foed five years, and would it be just that persons
thus situated, should be dealt with the same as persons
who hadjust received their sentence ? In two years,
those pers..ns would be free to enlist, like others,
and in that case, would it also be .contended, that
their entering into the service, would contaminate
those they joined ; yet this, it might be contended,
would be the effect with almost as much reason,, as
that that would be the effe& of sending persons to
join the army, such. as he had described. TO pre-
eentehe enlistment of such persons would be to de-
prive them .of one chance of being reclaimed. It
was frequently the case that the persons confined on
board the hulks were very, young. The greatest at-
tention was paid to their conduct 'while there, and
if a favourable report were made of them, it was
thought proper to commute their sentences by al-
lowing them to enter into the army. The preroga-
tive of the Crown to shew mercy was in his opinion
the last which ought to be called in question. He
hoped his Hon. Friend would withdraw his 'notion,
and accept of the challenge which had been thrown
out to him by his Right Hon. Friend, and bring for-
ward any particular case or cases which seemed to
call for inquiry.
General FERGUSON observed, it had been stated,
that those who were sent from the hulks toel,e
army were young persons: • This was not always
the case. He knew of-one offender who was sent
when above 50 years of age from the hulks. This
person had at a former period of his life been in the
service, and borne his Majesty's commission. He
bad been convicted of a forgery, and received' seit-
tence of death. He was oroeied for execution, but
his sentence was afterwards changed to transporta-
tion for life, and from that it vas commuted to,
serving in the Army. As to what bad been 'said of
its being kept a secret that men were sent from the
Hulks to the Army, he had to state that he had seen
30 men marched us publicly, with, fixed bayonets,
to join a regiment, and turned loose into the barrack
yard, a receipt having been- openly given for their
bodies.
Sir S. ROMILLY contended, the motion could do
no mischief. It was very necessary to find some
employment for the unfortunate persons confined on
• board the hulks, and of this his Hon. Friend had
not complained; but finding that a considerable
number had been sent front the hulks at one time,
be wished for some information on the subject, to
shew if they had all been confined the same time, or
if some, by their good conduce, had redeemed their
_ characters in less time than others. There was no
branch othe Prerogative of the Crown more re-
speard than the power of pardoning offenders ; but
in propprtion as it was to be respected, the greater
was the responsibility of those who advised its exer-
cise. It Was °Utile utmost importance to the pub-
lic that pardons should never be granted from per-
sonal favour, but only inconsequence of the circum-
stances of the case, or of a change of condu& in the
party. He did not say any one had been improperly
pardoned, but in some instances they had been pant-
ed in a manner which excited surprise, as men had
been transported to New &it'd) Wales, pardoned as
sown as they got there, and sent back in the sane.
ship which conveyed them. He noticed two cases
of this nature, the one of a person convi&ed of
robbing his master, and sent to New South Wales,
in March 1808 ;.,the other of a person convicted of
perjury. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman spoke
at some length in favour of the motion, and con-
cluded, observing, that in proportion as it might be
desirable that the Prerogative of the Crown, to par-
don, shoulU be frequently exercised, it was neces-
sary that it should always be exercised upon good
grounds.
Mr. WILBERFORCE thought the Prerogative of
the Crown to pardon, had been exercised with the
greatest attention to justice, and be believed there
never was a country in which criminal and civil
instice were administered with such pelted fairness.
He was well aicprainted with a very valuable Officer
who had commanded a number of men seat from the
bulks to the army. This Officer had drawn the
teen up, on his taking the'command of them, and
assured them that he would never relied on the
-past, but that he would attentively look to their
future conduct, anxious to. reward those who de-
ported themselves in a satisfaaory manner. These
men subsequently concluded themselves adtbirably
well, as the. Officer had declared to him, so as
fully to justify the system of management he had
adopted. He thought it very desirable that is many
as possible of those confined should be admitted into
the service, as nothing was more to be wished than
that such unfortunate petons should have an op-
portunity given them of again uniting with the great
mese of their countrymen.
Mr. Rvoin explained. .

,General TARLETON was of opinion, the persons
confined in the hulks, wi►o wet e tit for the army,
might be advantageously employed in our colonial
territories; but, he hoped the high reputation of oor
regular army would not be sulteci by being so aug-
mented, whatever the amount ot. its casualties

might be.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE shortly replied. He refused
to_witiidi-21w his motion, which he thought would
at least Oaye the etied of preventing such numbers

being sent at once to join the army as had been sent

before.
The question .was then put and negatived.
Colonel PALMER stated his anxiety to correEt a
misrepreseroatton he ci.as sorry to have seen iu some
of the Papers, of what he was reported to have
stated in answer to the assertion, that an order had
been issued to his •Royal Highness the Prince Re-
gent's regiment to exclude the admission of Irish-
men. Being aware that there were some grounds
for such statement, he did not at the time take on
himself to contradict it fully ; but that he was now
enabled to slate,. from the highest authority, that no
order of the kind had ever h-en issued. He admit-
ted that the .Recruiting Officers had received in-
struttions from the Corntuandipg Officer, Colonel
Quinton, to enlist Englishmen in preference to Irish,
and it any blame was to be attached to him for this,
he begged, as far as his own opinion went of the
propriety, to take his share. That he had not stated,
as. reported, that. his objection had been on account
of the Irish desertiog to the enemy ; on the con-
trary, no one was more convinced than himself, in
common, be believed, with every other British
Officer, of the loyalty, courage, and fidelity of the
Irish. What he stated was, that the description of
Irish they met with in this country were liable to
desert, which was a reason for objecting to them,
and to prove that his regiment entertained no nati-
onal prejudice, they objected,. in the same manner,
to various classes of their own country mi-n—to all
Londoners, and inhabitants of manufatiuring towns,
and confined their recruits to that class of persons
brought up to agricultural pursuits; for they found,
that Irishmen, and those of their own country, who
were not .in early life accustomed to the care of
horses, made bad grooms—and also thought that
the best :infantry were extremely .objettionable as
cavalry. He therefore trusted these reasons would
clear his regiment of all • suspicion of the motive
which had been attributed to it; and he would add,
that this system was not -confined (as had been
stared) to his own regiment and the 15th, but that
it was" pursued by every English coialry regiment in
the service. He would only add, to prove that he
never objected to Irishmen who were well recom-
meaded, and stirl less that he preferred foreigners,
that the number of Irish then in the regiment ex-
ceeded that of the foreigners, and that the amount
of the latter did not exceed 30, out of a complement
of nearly nine hundred. He concluded by observ-
ing, that it was an unpleasant subject, and that he
should not have taken a part in the debate of last
had he not felt called upon to do justice
to a brother-Officer, than whom he believed there
was not a more deserving man in the service, and
to whom that credit for its appearance and discipline,
which he trusted was not unworthily bestowed on
he regiment, was due.
Mr. WILSON brought in the Marriage Amend-
nent Bill, which was read a first time, and ordered
:o be read a second time on the 11111 of April, and
:o be printed.—Adjourned.

An address, signed by his Excellency H. W.
BENTINCK, the 'Governor, and the ptincipal inhabi-
tants of the colony of Demerary, has been presented
to Captain W: H. Smurtr, of the Demeraq sloop
of war, accompanied by a time-keeper of the value
of 150 guinea., in consideration of the zealous and
meritorious services which Capt. SmITEI has render-
ed to the commercial interests of that colony during
the two last years.
A call of Serjeants will take place in the course
of the next Term.

Extra& of a letter from Vienna, dated Jan. IF3.
" Our public papers make mention of Mr. Hesen-
trotn's Travels in the Northern part of Siberia, and
state some part of them, which are a&ually very
curious. He is now at Petetsburgh, having travel-
led through Siberia as far as the Frozen Ocean,
from whence'he visited two Islands, now called the
Holy Islands; he there found a vast number of
skeletons of the . mammoth, rhinoceros, elephant,
and whale fish, and thencefrom
.considers those un-
inhabited Islands as the burial place of unknown ge-
nerations. He has also found the pinions and claws
of a bird which must have been at least three times
the size of the condor, in South America, which is
the largest of all the known feathered creation, and
the e..ings of which, when extended, measured from
15 to 16 feet. In both the Islands path-ways were
discernible, which 111:1S1 h lye been made by wild
beasts. From all these circumstances, it is sup-
posed that theie must be a continent orland, ex-
tending from the 80th degree of the Pole, and
which must be chiefly inhabited by white bears and
black ravens, who are particularly fond of the
climate."
Monday week an extraordinarrinstanCe of swift-
ness took place in the coursing of a hare at Poynton.
A hare was started by three greyhounds, which
run 15. minutes and 55 seconds in the most asto-
nishing style, when she was killed. The distance
run, in that shurt period, it is supposed was six
miles.

On Monday, at. the Chelmsford Assizes, James
Harvey, coachman to William Chinnery, Esq. was
indicted for forging a receipt, Or acquittance for
money, with intent to defraud W. Thompson, jun.
of Waltham Abbey. It appeared by the evidence,
that. Mr. Chinnery dealt with the prose: utor for
small articles. and the • coachman was instrueled to
pay him. He produced a receipt as evidence that
he had paid him 81.. when, in tact, he had not paid
him ; but the paper was merely this, " paid Mr.
Thompson 81." without any signature,•but a receipt
stamp. The Jury found the prisoner Guilty ; but
the • LORD CNIEF BARON said, he doubted if it
amounted to a forgery, and he should save the point
for the opinion of the Judges.
Last week, a youth, not quite eleven years of
Age, son of Mr. J. Hubbard, of Coldhaibour, was
found by his lather hanging on a beam in one of his
stables.

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