The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-16 00:00:00

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MIL -DARING'S BILT;.°,""1" •
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r t tom th,± Times.) 0.
We feeirtily rejoice to think,. ileit b::ll,e.t.
&rated sacce,s of 7dr. Barieg's 1311,, 74:eur„tilhat.
once .be removed from the eh:trauttir.,La .
of Commons. and a protection
ai...ailoa one of the mos. gdlineetihrtlAftealnir
of d:s'lioneste t-ed fraud. Hith4f,ls4lt
iaf •;3eof C,te eons. has tai co
124
er 1,0utell''.;
telcky f.-tett taeo; end gkoorioS ..t:ria?an etwitee
eeel aerasire .1,
c:. t'sr.!,cos.-7-vt, 110 wm i
ipctv ligtoviy;
vtt 'eh th y 1.1..Vev intended t.?, tlieeW.yseteeerirat-rw4o
i ;wen hrue cal within the..elles, of a„.paianp
et•e:.Hots, while meaner hut. itsa:guilry rogoes have
been ialmured steHrin its wells.—hav:o fnuttd a stile.
re:ire:it in St. Stephen's from Sd tkreir, (kilts and
.dOes. I' they ioappened to have a residekiee in the
g Jo! tl:e titre when a,cOrrurat berAglr"ehose to
nrn then, teefil representatives of its honeer and
intereses in Rehm-rent, they could drive down from
the doors of the Fleet or of the Kin'g's. B rich !
We-tminster in a splendid equipage, a' tie expenee.!
of their ruined cred t rs; and, as law-brealt4ig,
Oer than laW-m,kaig was their object, nriglmtAlante
e-cape to anothcr country, to prateci:
.thenateltee
from the consaluenc,:s i,f th 6. extravaatinedi Ar to
eejoy theist:its of [help keavery. • -The privileges of
tile House ant, conferred drion itsalishoneem-
berg the pried-ge of buying without payirig, and
of incurring debts without the usual risk of penal-
t'e,. The Speaker or Serje,int-at Arms met the
unhappy creditor at the door with the mace, and,
if he was clamorous against his privileged debtor,
sent him to occupy his place in the goal which he
had left, or to suffer a more severe detention in a
different prison.
If, on the other hand, our knavish candidate for
P,rliamentary honours was out of gaol at alle time
of his election, he might, during the time of his
occupying a scat in the contract debts to
any amount, without being liable to those restraints
to which unprivileeed debtors may be subjected.
During the time that rotten boroughs existed (they
are now, we trust, out of date), it might be worth a
man's while to pay a thousand a year to a borough
agent to be guaranteed against arrest. The rules of
the House of Commons bring thus better than the
rules of the King's Bench, might be purchased at a
higher rate, especially when, in addition, to their
protecting quality, they likewise confeired the title
of Honourable Gentleman, and the power of de-
frauding the public revenue, as well as private indivi-
duals, by franking letters to a whole neighbourhood.
The grounds on which these extraordinary privi-
leges were originally granted were justifiable enough,
but they now no longer exist. At a time when the
Crown might choose to paralyse the exertions of an
obnoxious debater, or to prevent the success of a
particular vote, by sending Members out of the way
on charges of debt, it was necessary to surround
Parliamen ary independence with extraordinary immu-
nities. At present fictitious arrests can no longer
take place, and a Member of Parliament has no
right to be protected from the fulfilment of obliga-
tions which his fellow-citizens are compellable to
discharge by the fear of imprisonment.
The Legislature seem to have acted on this sys-
tem by various reductions or changes in its privileges.
A bankrupt now ceases to be a Member of Parlia-
ment by the very establishment of his bankruptcy,
or the appearance of his name in the Gazette; and
why should not an insolvent be subject to the same
rule ? No reason can be given applicable to the
former, which is not equally applicable to the latter.
Indeed, the common award of law, and the legal
treatment of the parties, would seem to indicate
that the bankrupt might continue a Member of Par-
liament, while the insolvent could not ; as the former
is in ordinary cases exempted from that imprison-
ment to which the latter is subjected.
We can conceive no possible practical inconve-
nience in assimilating the law of the two cases, or
in excluding both bankrupts and insolvents from
Parliament, when the character of both shall be
established by an appeal to the usual tribunals.
We have already expressed our objections to ar-
rest on mesne pocess, when practised against ordi-
nary debtors; and of course we would denounce it
as much more objectionable if allowed to be exer-
cised aertinst Members of Parliament, where a ma-
licious private arrest might lead to the interruption
of a great public duty. But when a man is cited
before the impartial tribunals of his ceontry,_wh„
judgment is given against him itt cases of debt, arid
when lie declares that he is unable to satisfy his cre-
ditors, without going to gaol,—we see no reason
why his Parliamentary privilege should protect him
against the extremities to which other debtors are
liable. In this case there could be no surprise, be-
cause notice must have been given, and the cause
must have been tried; there could be no secret kid-
napping of a Member to turn the scale of a vote,
because the Speaker must have been informed of the
award so as to report the case to the House; arid
there could be no inconvenience felt by the consti-
tuent body, because they would either have an op-
portunity of paying the debts of their insolvent re-
presentative or finding a representative who was no'
insolvent.

1 Having thus established, by arguments similar to
those used by Mr. Baring, the policy of the measure
contemplated in his Bill, we might proceed to con
firm it by a reference to recent cases of fraud and
iniquity practised under the existing system, were our
general reasoning deemed insufficient or inconclusive.
If an appeal to such cases were necessary, we should
not need to go further back than to that of General
Burton, which was alluded to irs the debate on Tues-
day, and respee.ing which a correspondent has sent
us a pamphlet of 36 pages, in the shape of a letter
to the Speaker, giving " A narrative of rhe proceed-
ing instituted against Burton's creditors, for a breach
of the privileges of Parliament, in prosecuting an
action against the Wardell of the Fleet prison for
suffering him to escape from custody, in obedience to
an order of the House." The following is a short
outline of the case.
Mr. Christie Burton, in May, 1813, being then in
the custody of the Marshal of the King's Bench,
was charged in execution by a Mr. Muxon, of Hull,.
for a debt of 1,0001., and a considerable airear of
interest. Burton at that period enjoyed the rules,
and removed from the Fleet to the King's Bench, or
or from the King's Bench to the Fleet, as suited his i
convenience. When he had been several years n
this kind of gentle confinement, the worthy electors
of Beverley, in 1818, cast their eyes upon him as a
person Tiaiified, by his talents and virtues, to repre-
sent them in Parliament. The prisoner in execution
left the rules of the Fleet prison on the I 7th of June
in that year, arrived at Beverley on the 19th, and re-
mined there for some time. A Bill was filed against
the Marshal for allowing him to escape ; but the pri-
soner was back, and a4ain in custody, before the time
that the Bill could- be prosecuted. Mr. Moxon
having himself become bankrupt, the right of suing
Burton for the debt fell into the hands of his -as-
signees, and, as the House of Commons had ordered
him to be discharged from custody as a Alember,these
assignees commenced an action against the Warden
for an escape. Then the trials of the poorassignees
began, who all at once, and to their great surprise,
found themselves, not contending With the Marshal
of a prison, but with the Speaker of the House of
Commons. The Committee of Privileges took up
the affair, and resolved that the assignees of Moxon
had been guilty of a high bleach of. privilege; or,
in the words of the Chairman of the Committee,
had incurred the odium " of one of the most aggra-

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