The Sun.
London, England, 1821-04-18 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY.

ILLEGALLY ASSEMBLING IVITII FIRE. ATlML—Yester-
day Richard Wraight, aged 33, and Cephas Quested, agel 311,
were capitally indicted for ass2mblin,r, with several other per-
sons, armed with fire arms, at Lydd, in the County of bent,
and carrying away prohibited goods, liable to pay duties.
It appeared from the evidence of Mr. Newton, master's mate
of the ship Severn, that on the night of the 11th of February,
perceiving a flash in the direction of the west, he repaired thi-
ther in company with others, having first ordered a party to go
.to intercept any smuglers. On arriving at the spot
from which the flash proceeded, he fired his pistols as alarm
signals, and saw about three hundred men on the ith, an armed
party of one hundred covering the retreat of two hundred more,
who were laden with spirits. Repeated volleys of fire-arms
were discharged by the smugglers, and Mr. Newton and his
party lay on the ground, the shots passirlg over them in all
directions. At length a running fight was kept up for about
five miles into the country ; and whenever the smugglers got
sight of the blockade party, they fired volleys of musketry, in
-consequencenf which nearly every one of Mr. Newton's party
was wounded, and a person, named Mackenzie, killed. Seve-
ral tubs of spirits were seized, and others found on the fi,.1(1
'Of action ; and near one of the tubs a dead smuggler was found.
It was during the running fight that the prisoner Quested
came up to Mr. Newton and threat a musket into his hand,-
saying he was done with the affair. The prisoner was of course
taken into custody ; and shortly afterwards the party met the
other prisoner, raight, in whose pockets they found some
wet powder and W
shot. His hands ands face were, also dirtied
with powder. This witness was confirmed by many others,
who saw the landing of the spirits on the beach.
At the .close of the-ease for the prosecution, the counsel for
the prisoners took several objections, which were overruled.
The pris6ner Wraight put in a written defence, in which he
denied any.knowledge of the transaction; and accounted fur his
being on the spot, by saying That lie missed his way and wander-
ed during the night till he fell in with the preventive party. Se-
veral witnesses were then called, who confirmed his sqternent
All in giving the prisoner a good character. Several re-
spectakle persons also gave Quested a good character. The
Jtiry immediately returned a verdict of against
Quested, and acquitted Wraight.

COURSE Ol' ,EXCI-lANGE, Aratt. 17.
Atnstet dans
' Ditto, at Sight is 11
Rotterdam
15
Antwerp
12 11
tu Haburgh
88 7 23 Cs
•
A Rona
38 8 if Us.
Paris, 3 Day's sight 25 80' 0 Us.
•
Ditto
26 15 Y Us.
Bourticaux, ditto
MFradrid atiiifortun the Pain f
.. 1561 Ex.ftioney
So E Ire ctirt
Cadiz
Bilboa
Barcriona
• M stir,

Seville 4....
......
Gibraltar
ani
Leghorn
46/
Genoa 43i-Venice, Ital. Lir. 27 60
Malta 45 --Naples aak
Paierwo
per .oz.
Lisbob •
49i
Oporto
49
Rioiatteiro
49
8

BULLION.

Portugal Gold, hi Col ii / .0 0 0 per 0:.
Fortigii Gold, iu 13:u s
New Doubloons
New Dollar 4
0 4 10
Silver in Burs, Stand:Lrtl , u I.i 1 I
fa

OF ,L4OI,WS, APRIL 17.
The LORD CLIAN:r,L,L ocn; presented :Petitioit:l
from four different parishes in :LeicesterShire
ainst the
.Catholic 13111.--Laid on the table.-1—
Mr. Richardson, front the :CoMmissioners for
building New Churches, "presented an Account
of thO rixpepces incei red beyoed the provisions'
of the .59th of his late Laid
.on the
I;rogqen, and ooiers brought up
from, the Commons ;the Irlsh judicial Officies
Bill, and several private were read
a first time.--Petitiofts against the Catholic Bill
were presented from the Corperatiou of Kendall,
in Westmoreland, and from the Deanery of lire 7
con and several.other Deanries in Wales. The lar,
ter by the Bishop ofSi. 04 vid's. Laid on the table.
The Earl of .00:.4)4.:n7niultr. rose to correct
ini-
porta mistakes which had inadvertently crept
into sonwof the reports of what had fallen from
hith last night. First, when he presented a petition
from the Catholic Warden and Clergy of Galway;
and when he ad verted to the'Resolutions ofanotlier
respectable body of Cathelics, those of county
of Kerry ;in 'both cases-the parties objected to
the part of the Bill which restricted the inter-
course with Rome, whereas the reports inadver-
tently stated both to be in favour of was
also represented, at the conclusion of his speech,
to have stated he had no ,objection to the veto,
whereas the greater part of what he said was in-
tended to reprobate that restriction, as . entirely
unnecessary, and he considered'it as a heavy and
unjust infliction upon them by the Catholic Clergy.
Ills Lordship added, that, though standing as he
did with the public as the advocate for this mea-
sure to that house, it was important for him to
have the grounds of his argument correctly un7
derstood ; yet he felt himself no less bound to
state how just a sense he entertained of the gene-
ral accuracy of the reports of their Lordships'
proceedings upon that important question.
CATHOLIC BILL.
The Order of the Day for resuming the ad-
journed Debate having been read,
The Bishop of ST. DAVID rose to oppose the
second reading of the Catholic Bill. The Con-
stitution of this country, though originally not
exclusively Protestant, had been formed from
the Cons,titution of Clarendon downwards, by a
series of checks given to the authority of the
Pope, and completed by the laws passed in the
time of Henry 'VIII. Since that period the ex-
clusion of Catholics from the enjoyment of poli-
tical power had , become an integral part of the
Constitution. With respect to the present Bill,
he objected to it, becauselt did not seem likely
to produce the effect which the supporters them-
selves•had in view. The security of the Church
of England could never be increased by giving
power to her rival, the Church of .Rome. Ile
objected to the oath proposed, because the oath,
as it now stood, expressed his real sentiments.—
"Te meant to keep it when he took it, and shot'?

falsify it that night, if he gave his vote in favour
of the bill. He objected to the bill, because it
infringed the great privilege of the King as head
of the Church, and allowed the Roman Catholics
to look upon the authority of the Pope as superior.
The measureappeared to him a complete anomaly,
for it would permit the professors-ofa religion, the
dogmas of which were hostile to the Established
Church, to hold seats in that House without first
renouncing those dogmas. He objected to the
Bill, because it proposed an oath which no con-
scientious Roman Catholic could take, whilst the
whole tendency of the preaching and ministry of
their church was directly or indirectly to over-
throw the Church of England. He objected to
the Bill, because it was contrary to the Acts- of
Union, by which the Protestant religion was de-
clared inviolate, and
.removed the securities
hich alone could make it so, without a satis-
factory equivalent. It. was impossible to con-
template without alarm the consequences of the
'great change which such a measure would effect
in a system, NI hich had given the countrylts pre-
sent dignity. The opponents of the Bill had been
frequently pressed for proofs of its dangerous
tendency. What could be more dangerous than
to commit political power to persons, whose fo-
reign interests made it impossible that they should
give the securities required, and who would not
even swear to give those securities ?
The Duke of Yonle rose with the utmost re-
luctance to oppOse the second readingof the Bill;
but there were occasions oh which it became an
individual-not to step aside, but to come forward,
and boldly avow the sentiments which he enter-
tained. The present he considered to be one of
those occasions; for were not their Lordships
called upon to sanction a measure, which it was
admitted, even by its advocates, would effect a
great change in the Constitution established at
the Revolution of 1688, and in the system which
had placed his Majesty's family on the throne ?
When mehsures similar to the present had been
proposed by a Statesman, who had rendered the
most eminent services to his country, he ,(llis
Royal Highness) had strenuously opposed them,
on a thorough conviction of their dangerous ten-
dency. The more he had since heard the sub-
ject discussed, the more he had been confirmed
in the opinion which he had then expressed. He
had always understood that the Church of Eng-
land was an integral part of the Constitution :
long might it ren.iitin so. But let not their Lord-
ships imagine deli he was an enemy to toleration.
lie should always he happy that every sectshoold
have the full exercise of ifs 'religion, as long as
it did not affect the security of the Established
Church, and as long as its members remained
loyal subjects. But there was a great difference
between allowing the free exercise of religion