The Sun.
London, England, 1803-12-08 00:00:00

übj 41 of this Bill was to invest the Guernment of
I r ,nd with extraordinary powers, to be exercised
mes of great emergency, when the ordinary
*mils 01 taw could not he complied with. Upon these
cc,,,ion; it was thought necessary that Courts Mar.
tial should be resorted to. That being the case he
could not conceive any reason why the Courts Mar.
tial under this Bill should be different from other
Coons Martial. . if the argument about Officers
- being under age was good at all, it was good in
every case, as well , under the Mutiny Bill, as
under the present one. Under the Mutiny Aft
it was well known that Officers and Soldiers'were
tried for their lives, and yet no such regulation
had ever been introduced.. A Clause of this
',attire had been proposed upon a former occa.
riion, and was rejected, because it would in mail),
cases prevent the assembling of the Courts Martial,
and as they were only resorted to in cases of great
emergency, when rite ordinary Courts could not sit,
the consequence was, that persons could not be tried
at all. Besides, this regulation would be very dif.
ficult to be carried into prgtice, because a Prose..
cution might be stopped in limine, by objeaing to
an Officer's age, and it could not be supposed that
every Officer was to carry about him a certificate of
his baptism. The Hon. Gentleman seemed to be
aware of the inconvenience that would result from
his own Clause, by• proposing to give the Lord Lieu.
tenant a .diapensing power : upon all these grounds
he should oppoie the Clause.
Mr. WILIURF.ORCS explained.
Mr. WINDHAM objetted to the Clause, and
principally upon the ground, that it would make
Martial Law inconsistent with itself. If there was
any difference between different kinds of Courts.
Martial, this Clause onht rather to he introduced
into the Mutiny Bill, than into this Bill because
the questions which were to be decided in ordinary
Courts Martial, required in general more knowledge
and more experience than would be necessary on the
Courts Martial under this Bill. As to what his
Hon. Friend had said about 'Officer; upon ordinary
Courts Martial ading with more caution, from a
consideration that they were trying those who
might afterwards.try theM, he could not help con.
bidering that as an unjust censure, because it was
impossible to suppose that Officers could be aauated
by any motives of that kind. Another objelion
had to this Clause was, that it would not produce
the drat which was intended, because it was ab.
surd to suppor,c that in a great coercive measure
like the present, the introduCtion of this Clause
could at all 'operate to mitigate its powers. He
confessed, that if he was disposed to entertain any
apprehension of a had use being made of the great
powers conferred by this Bill, it would not be of
the young men, because they would be in general
attuaterkby those warm, generous, and benevolent
feelings which charaitterize youth, but of those who,
from a long consideration oldie subjeet,had their feel.
ings more irritated against the persons they had to try.
He wished now to advert"to an assertion of a Right
Hon. Gentleman, that the necessity of this Bill was
universal), admitted. This proposition he begged
leave to deny ; .there was a great difference between
.not being prepared to deny its necessity, and being
ready to admit it. He had never affirmed that this
.. h. not necessary }Stir it dittnot 'therefore fol.
low, -that he. admitted • that it' was necessary. A
man ignorant of Kithematics, would not probably
take upon himself to deny the truth of any of the
propositions of Euclid, but it would not follow from
that, that he was convinced of • their truth. This
was his situation : he was unable from want of evi.
dence to deride upon the question, though he was
ready to admit that the inclination of his mind led
him to think that the Bill was necessary. But this
belief was not founded upon the language of Mini.
stets, because, if he was inclined to give them cre.
die, he "must • necessarily he led to an opposite con.
elusion. With regard to the Clause now
.before the
House, he had only again to say, that, in his dpi,
''oion, it would be pertealy useless, and he thought
it would he better if his Hon. Friend would exer.
ciA his
.caution rather in examining the evidence
upon which the measure•itsell was founded, than in
suggesting Alterations of this kind.
rslr. WILBERF3aCr.eXAtifiC,I. ,
_ . _ _

Dr. LAIVRENCE disaipruved of the Amend.
mlnt, because. if it was necessary to have recourse
to Courts Martial, he would rather assimilate to
the ordinary Courts Martial, than make thetn
ferent. For instance, he-wished that the President
of the Courts Martial under this Bill, should always
he'd Field Officer, he wished that the numbers should
be the same as in common Courts Martial, and he
wished that there should he the same means of re.
visiog their c•)nddt that there was tinder the cum.
min Mutiny Bill ; in short, he wished that all
Courts Martial should be upon the same
lie wished to observe that the preamble of this Bill
supposed that the Rebellion in Ireland was now ac.
tivilly in existence, which by no' means coincided
with the language constantly held by His Majesty's
Ministers.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
denied that the Preamble of the Bill stated the Re:
hellion to exist, and was 31.11 C that if the Learned
Gentleman had read it attentively, he wbuld not
,have ftlatip that assertion. The Learned Gentleman,
though he did not wish to limit the age of the 011
cm, yet was of opinion ,that their number ought to
he as great as it was on common Courts Martial.
But it should he ter:Lint:if:led that it might he neces.
nary in Ireland to suonnon.Courts Martial on sudden
ecigencies, and it would be much more difficult to
wisemble a sufficient number of Officers than it would
be in ordinary easel. When the Bill first passed in'
Ireland, the stn,illest number of Officers that could
c:institute a CAM was three ; that number was
afterwards increased in that House' to seven.--
Another alteration whivli had b.-en introduced Was,
that in cases Of death, two thirds of the Members
pre ent must C(Aittir in the sentence of death, or it
Could not be passed ; consequently if there were
only preleut, five must concur or
the Prisoner OWL, nut be put to death.
Dr LAW RENC ft
BE!' X t LEY said, that although the
tstvrS had nor given any reasons to thew the
reeessity of the 1301, yet as he thought it was
cessary, he shouhi not oppose it. His principal tea.
ROa for rising at present, was to do away some tin.
which he con,c)ved had been thrown upon