The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-21 00:00:00

trinity would he taper na at session of bringing forward
this or a similar measure.
Mr. LLOYD said, that it was his own opinion, aid
that of the Gentlemen about him, that the amount of the
license proposed by this Bili was too large, and the hours
to which the beer shops should he kept open objectionable.
He thought that the effect of having different hours for
beer shops and houses licensed to sell spirits would be to
drive the people to the gin shops. He thought it was
better to postpone the consideration of the subject for the
present, until some better measure could be concocted.
He could not assent to the principle of the present
He did not consider that there was any evidence to justify
Magistrates in coming to the conclusion to which many
of them had come—that the increase of crime of poachers
and of paupers in the country was to be referred to the
effects of the Beer Laws as they at present stood. They
said that the consumption of beer had increased. That
he admitted was true; but the reason teas that it was
cheap. Yet every evil was referred to the beer shops.
He could say that in the county of Lancaster the poor
rates were on the decrease, and in the county of Chester
crime had, to his own knowledge, decreased of late; and
he would ,ay, that when allowance was made for the in-
crease of the population, a general decrease had taken
place in crime throughout the country. He could not
therefore think that the evils complained of by the Magis-
trates could be referred to the effect of the beer shops.
Mr. AGLIONBY said that the whole of the evidence
taken before the Committee bore the stamp of exaggera-
tion. He thought the provisions of the Bill ought to be
better known in the country before they came to any de
vision regarding it. The Bill had, however, been so
shortly printed that it could not be known, yet there
never had been a measure before the House which had
created greater anxiety or interest. This Bill was totally
different from the recommendation made in the report of
the Committee, and he thought it therefore could not be
considered as a consequence of that report. He consi-
dered that as the Noble Lord had said that it was not his
wish that the Bill should be carried through this Session,
it would be better net to go further with it, but that before
next Session the whole state of the Beer Laws should be
inquired into, and a general measure introduced. He
allowed that some alteration was necessary in the present
law, but he could not agree to the principle of the Bill
before them.
Sir II WILLOUGHBY defended the conduct of the
Committee, and said that they had come to their decision
after most deliberate consideration. It was a most un-
founded accusation that the Committee wished to return
to the old licensing system.
Mr. S. RICE said that nothing was further from his
intention than to accuse the Committee of any such de-
sign. The Committee was a very fair one, and was com-
posed of Gentlemen who maintained all views of politics,
and they bad given what he believed to be a recommenda-
tion according to their sincere opinions. All he had said
was, that the principle which they had recommended was
bad, and not that they had any improper designs.
Mr. CAREW O'DWYER thought that caution should
be observed before passing this measure.
Sir S. WHALLEY was unwilling that this Bill should
be read a second time, because he wished for a general
plan, and that beer shops should be placed upon a footing
of equality with houses licensed to sell spirits.
After a few words from Mr. WARBURTON,
The Bill was read a second time, and ordered to be
committed that day month.
ROYAL :MARRIAGE ACT.
Colonel WILLIAMS then rose to move for leave to
bring in a Bill for the repeal of the Act 12 Geo. 111.
cap. 11, commonly called the Royal Marriage Act. That
Act had been in force for fifty-one years; and it would be
difficult to show what good had resulted from it, al-
though it would be sufficiently easy to point out a great
deal of mischief. It had been introduced through picque.
It had passed that and the other House of Parliament
with most indecent haste—having been introduced in the
end of February, and passed in the early part of March.
The Bill provided that no descendant of George 11. should
marry till the age of twenty-five, and that he or she
should not even then marry without the consent of the
reigning Sovereign. These restrictions he considered as
very disgraceful to the Royal Family, and put those
Royal personages in a different and worse situation
than the rest of his Majesty's subjects. It had been
passed merely from a vindictive feeling, in consequence of
the two Royal Dukes having formed English alliances ;
yet it was not even asserted that they had done harm by
that choice. The Act had created this mischief, that it
prevented the Royal Family frotn making a choice of con-
sorts in their own country; and they had lately seen two
very remarkable instances of the evil created, in the per-
sons of the late King and the Duke of York. George IV.,
never having an opportunity of seeing his Queen till
the period of his marriage, felt very uncomfortable
in her society ; and they knew the miserable conss,
quences ; and there could be nothing more disgraceful
than what had occurred regarding Mrs. Clark and the
Duke of York. The unhappy result of the marriage of
the late King had brought exposnre and odium upon the
Royal Family and on the country. With regard to the
females of the family, he would only say, that it was a
cruel restriction. The whole of them had delayed entering
the marriage state in consequence of the Act—thereby re-
straining themselves from the must delightful and natural
feelings of human nature—(A laugh)—and the males were
obliged to go the small states of Germany in order to look
for consorts. He thought that, in the present reformed
state of the country, they ought to endeavour to make
the Royal Family as much English as possible. When
George the Third mounted the throne, it was held out as
a recommendation of his, that he was the first of the pre-
sent family who was born an Englishmen. It was to NI
regretted that he was only an Englishman by his nativity,
and not in his feelings. His mother had instilled notions
into his mind that he was to be the King of this country,
and nothing else. " George, the King," was what she
always taught him to consider himself; and he (Colonel
Williams) believed that the war with America and the
war with France arose entirely from George the Third's
German another.—(A laugh) He theught that this ought
to be remedied. It was his wish that the males of the
Royal Family should marry no :oriegners, or the females
any foreign Princes, but that they should be entirely Eng
lisp.

Lord ALTHORP would oppose the motion. He ob-
jected to bringing forward a motion of this kind at so
late a period of the session.

Colonel WILLIAMS had no intention to press the
measure through this session ; but he would be glad if the
Noble Lurd would consent to allow him to bring in the
Bill.

Lord ALTHORP would consider it inconsiatent with
his duty if he allowed even the first reading of the Bill to
piss without such discussion as the suleject deserved, and
that at the present advanced period could not be given to
it. He knew that on the one hand there were great ad-
vantages to be derived from this Act, and on the other
hand that there were strong reasons for its repeal ; but,
undoubtedly, they could not then go into an argument
upon the subject. On the ground, therefore, that the
question involved too many considerations to be discussed
at that period, be would consider it his duty to oppose the
motion.

Colonel WILLIAMS said that the only object he had
in view in bringing forward the motion, was a conviction
that the Royal Family would be more endeared, to the
people of this country by being more nearly allied to them.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL reminded the Hon.
and Gallant Member that the Royal Marriage Act did not
prevent the marriage of members of the Royal Family,
but merely provided that they should not marry without
the consent of the reigning Sovereign, and that the reign-
ing Sovereign could give them liberty to marry at home
as well as abroad. But even by the common law of Eng-
lend the reigning Sovereign had the right to regulate the
marriages of his children, grandchildren, and the heirs to
his throne. This Act, to he sure, went farther, for it
extended the right to all the heirs of George the Second.
He merely mentioned this to show that by the common
law it was considered salutary that some restriction on the
marriage of the Royal Family should be placed in the hands
of the Royal Family.
Colonel WILLIAMS then withdrew his motion.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and
the House adjourned at nine o'clock.

ally put an end to slavery. it IV,V, on that account that
he had given it his support, and however be might dis-
approve of some of its details, he did so on the pre-
sent occasion. He had said so much at present, it
being supposed that he concurred in all the provisions of
the Bill. He should make no ether observation, except
an allusion to an amendment proposed last night by
the Hon. and Learned Lord opposite (Wynford), upon
which he had not then an opportunity of stating
his opinion. He objected to the clause principally because
he thought it would have been the means of endangering
the passing of the Bill in the other House of Parliament ;
and he objected to it upon principle. It was assumed
that free labour would be able to compete with slave
labour. In his opinion it was quite the reverse. Slave
labour could not compete with free labour, an example of
which he would quote in the case of the West Indies, which
had only been able to do so by the protective duties,
which he desired to see an end of. He hoped the Go-
vernment would next year propose to equalize all
the sugar duties, and so far from supporting the Noble
and Learned Lord's amendment as a boon to the Wtst
Indies, it would be quite the reverse.
The Bill was then read a third time and pissed.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE moved the third
reading of the Roman Catholic Marriage Bill.
Lord WYNFORD had no more wish than the Noble
Marquis to continue the heavy penalties on Roman Ca-
tholic priests for such an offence, but he could not agree
to the present Bill. Those penal statutes, though rot
repealed by Act of Parliament were now totally in disuse.
He was sorry to see only one of the Reverend Bench pre.
sent on such an important occasion.
The Noble and Learned Lord was interrupted by a
Message firm the Commons, brought up by Mr. BER-
NAL and others, requesting a Copy of the second Report
of the Committee that sat upon Turnpike Trusts, which
was granted.
Mr. BERNAL also brought up the Bank Charter
Bill, the Buckingham Palace Furniture Bill, the
Forgery of Stamps Bill, the Cholera Prevention Bill, and
the Metropolitan Police Bill, which were severally read a
first time.
The Message from the Commons having withdrawn,
Lord WYNFORD resumed his speech. He objected
to the Bill, not on the ground of its affording relief to the
Priests, but because it altered the whole state of the Mar-
riage Law in Ireland. He would oppose any Bill which
allowed persons not of the Established Church to marry
persons of a different persuasion to their own. He should
move that it be read this day six months.
Lord PLUNKET contended that the Noble Lord who
had just sat down was altogether in error in the view he
had token of the Bill. The common law of Ireland was
the common law of Scotland at present, and what the
common law of England had formerly been, an i it was
not necessary in Ireland that Catholic marriages should
be celebrated in facie ecclesice. The present Bill re-
pealed only four statute., the 6th of Anne, by which
Catholic Priests celebrating marriages with Protestants,
were liable to he transported ; the 12th Geo. 1., by which,
for the same offence, they were liable to the punishment
of death; the 19th Geo. 11., by which a penalty of 5004
was attached to the offence ; and lastly, the Act 33 Geo.
111., which in fact was the first Act which restricted the
penal severities against Irish Roman Catholics.
After a few words in explanation from Lord WYNFORD,
The Bishop of HEREFORD expressed his intention of
supporting the Bill, to which he thought no reasonable
ground of objection could be offered. The Right Rev.
Prelate concluded by expressing an anxious desire that a
nieaatire to enable Dissenters of all descriptions to be
married within their own congregations should be intro-
duced to Parliament. The Protestant clergy felt it a
most irksome and unpleasant duty to be obliged to pro-
nounce the marriage ceremony on persons many of whom,
in their opinion, were guilty of blaspheming that religion
of which they were Ministers, and he would take upon
himself to assure the House they would willingly give up
the fees they were in the habit of receiving to free them-
selves from that which they considered a profanation of
their church.—(Hear.)
The Duke of WELLINGTON thought the details of
the Bill should be so amended in Committee that it should
do no more than simply remove the penalty of death as
against the clergy, leaving the general question of the
celebration of marriage for further consideration next
Session, when there would be ample means to draw up a
code of laws for its regulation.
The Earl of WICKLOW did not think any reasonable
objection could be offered to the principle of the Bill,
which was, that the penal statutes against marriage
performed by Catholic clergymen al:mold be repealed—in
his opinion a very desirable subject for legislation. His
principal objection to the Bill was, that by repealing so
many of the laws on the subject of marriage it would,
unless an explicit code of regulitions was drawn up, be
impossible to know precisely in what state the general
law on the subject would be left. The Bill was also
objectionable in not providing a prohibition against a
clergyman marrying two Protestants. Then, with re-
spect to marriages celebrated by degraded clergymen,
r according to the present Bill they were to be considered
perfectly good marriages, and the penalties against the
party celebrating it were to be at an end. Now that part
of the Bill he thought particulariy objectionable, and
should it go into Committee, which be hoped it would,
he would use his best endeavours to have that, as well as
other of its details, amended.
The Bishop of HEREFORD observed that the penalties
against degraded clergymen were still to continued in force.
The Act of the 12th Geo. I. applied to marriages cele-
brated by " disgraced clergymen or Popish priests," and
the present Bill only went to repeal so much of it as
referred to the Catholic clergy.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE having briefly
replied,
The amendment was negatived without a division, and
the Bill, after being read a second time, was ordered to be
committed to-morrow.
CHINA TRADE BILL.

The order of the day for the Committee on the China
Trade Bill having been read,
Lord AUCKLAND stated the object of the Bill was to
provide a substitute for the existing British Factory at
Canton, by which the trade with China had hitherto,
under the auspices of the East India Company, been ma-
naged. It proposed, in the first place, the appointment
of three superintendents, to reside at Canton, to whom
the entire regulation of the Canton trade should be en-
trusted, with power to appoint such officers as they might
require to assist them in the execution of their duty, and
to grant such officers whatever amount of salary they
might deem necessary. It was likewise provided that
his Majesty should be empowered by an Order in Coun-
cil to give to the superintendents so appointed entire
power over the trade and commerce to he carried
on by his subjects with any part of the Chinese domi-
nions, and in furtherance and execution of such power to
erect any number of courts of justice, and to frame such
rules and regulations for its observance as they might deem
requisite. The powers which the Bill proposed to entrust
to the crown were undoubtedly of a most extensive cha-
racter, but they were not without precedent; and, taking
into consideration all the circumstances of the case, he
contended they were quite justifiable. The principal ob•
jection which he understood as likely to be urged to the
Bill related to the mode in which it was proposed the esta-
blishment should be paid and supported. The plan which
the Bill proposed was certainly not without precedent ;
but, although he would contend there was nothing in
the manner of the clause which justified the objection
expressed to it, to avoid all possible opposition he had
come to the determination of preparing an amendment
which he trusted would prove satisfactory, His pr„po-
sition was, in lieu of the charges mentioned hi the Bill
as it stood, to levy an amount ofduty not exceeding one
pound ad valorem duty on the amount of goods, whether
imports or exports, and a charge not exceeding five shil-
lings per ton on the amount of tonnage; by which means
it was estimated a fund amply sufficient to defray the ex-
pense of the proposed establishment would be obtained.
A further objection to the Bill related to the proposed
establishment of resident superintendents at Canton,
without the authority or concurrence of the Chinese
Government. in the first place he begged to remind
the House that such an interference on the part of
Great Britain towards a foreign State was not new ;
and, in the second place, he was happy in
being able to
state that, from all the evidence which had been collected
on the subject, there was every reason to expect the esta-
blishment of a well constituted authority to take the place
of the Company's factory in the regulation of the trade
would be well received by the Hong merchants, and
through their influence by the Chinese Government. The
Noble Lord concluded by moving that the House resolve
itself into a Committee.
The Earl of STRATHALLEN thought the establish-
ment of Courts of Justice within tie Chinese territories,
without the consent of its Government, would be found a
ifi
nh
t not
e result,
a v
lead to a total loss of the
Chinese territories. dangerous
one ewhichvery
hazardous
m might,
gl
Lord ELLENBOROUGH said there was not a sing le
detail, even as the Bill then stood to which be could
accord his approval. The Bill proceeded to give the
Crown a power of allotting to the superintendents and to
any officers they appointed any amount of salary they
might choose to demand. Now that he looked upon as a
monstrous power, and one which Parliament should, be