The Sun.
London, England, 1819-12-11 00:00:00

alarm tot tied out to be unfounded. Recurring to
the Bill before the House, loi'S Lordship seemed
to think that What related to -religious considera7
lions had better he kept apart from the sedi,
'jolts part of the measure. With respect to• the
late prevalence of anti-religious publications, he
alluded to the conduct of some of the Reverend
Prelates, which be did
.not approve of, but he
panegytized the condoet of the Diocesan of Lon-
don as dignified and exemplary.
The Bishop of LANDAFF (Dr. Van Millerol
addressed some ohservatioas to the House on the
subject of Blasphemous Publications, and those
imbued with tie character of Infidelity. These
publications had of late years assumed kl very dif-
tereot, and he thought a more dangerous, cha-
racter. Formerly they were calculated for the
meridian of persons Of education, and rather
above the middling ranks of ; latterly, they
were adapted to the lowest understandings ; rea-
' ,on aml argument were totally disregarded ; the,
lower orders were alone addressed, and in a way
in which they could not he met. by fair argument
or diseossion. Those whose. business it was more
especially to attend to such considerations were
by no means deficient in the performance of their
duties, and they exerted themselves accordingly,
but under the peculiar circumstances of the case,
.sonie legislative provisions were necessary in aid
of the steps which were taking, and it became
necessary to visit the repetition of the offences with
some degree of increased severity.
Lord LILFORD argued at some length in sup-
port of the Bill. . He contended for the necessity
of some provisions of the kind, and voted va.
rious extracts from the evidence before the House
in illustration of his.argutnent.
The Earl of CARNALtYOI4 spoke shortly in re-
ply, after which the question was pot, and his
Lordship's motion negatived without a division.
The Bill was then regularly passed, and order-
ed to be sent to the Commous for their concur-
reuct!..—Adionmed till to-morrow—
When the Training Preveutiou Bill will receive
the Royal Assent by Commission.

PARLIAMENT,

HOUSE OF LORDS, FRIDAY, Dec. 10.

The Training 'Prevention Bill was brought up
from the Commons, who had made certain amend-
nwnts therein, to which they desired their Lord-

ships' concurrence.
The said amendments were afterwards taken
into considefaiion, on the motion of Viscount
SIDMoUTH, and agreed to by their Lordships.

SEDITIOUS AND BLASPHEMOUS LIBELS.
Viscount SIDMOUTH ntove►l the third reading of
tlie Bill for the better prevention of these publi-
ca►ious, which accordingly took place.
The Earl of CARNARVON, pursuant to his no-
tice, rose to move a proviso, for rendering the
measure temporary in its operation. He depre-,
catch' the bringing forward-a Bill so destructive
of the liberties of the Press, before it was fully
tried whether or not the existing laws were suf-
ficient for the purpose. There eras no evidence
whatever that such offences had been duly prose-
cuted, inasmuch as the return of the Ex-officio
informations in 1818, was positively " Nil."—
Neither was there any indictment preferred in
that year. On this principle be felt it Isis duty
to subm►t a clause to render the Act temporary,

as they should not, under the pressure of tem-
porary difficulty or local danger, effect a perma-
nent change in an established him of the country,
and in the best bulwark of the liberties of the

I►rople. He concluded by moving the introduction
of a proviso to limit the operation of 'the Bill to

two years.
Viscount Si ()MOUTH felt it his duty to oppose
the clause propbsed by the Noble h:ori. The sub-
ject had undergone close and repeated discussion,
and it was already repeatedly decided upon by the
House. It was not under the pressure of

temporary difficulties or local dangers that
the lull was proposed, but as a permanent
regolation tor the better security of the Re-
heion of the Country, and the Constitution of the
State. The penal enactments of the Bill were by
nn means so severe as the inflictiOns of the Libel
Ltw were before the abrogation of the pillory.— . The Cotton Factory Amendment Bill Was read
Thete was no accretion of puuishment uow pro., a second time, and ordered to be committed on
voted, except upon a second conviction. He yin- Monday.
(heated the line of conduct now pursued
,hat his The second reading of the Penryn Bribery Bill
Nliajesty's Law Officers, either with respOt to was postponed to next Monday.
their using or declining progeamtions, according Lord A. HAMILTON gave notice that on Tuesday
to their couceptions of the nature and merits is• se'unight he should move for the revival of the
the respective cases. 'I hose Wes, were opposed to . Committee on Scotch Bergh*.
his Niajesty's Government were, on vsrions occa- MALT DUTY.
&tons, prone at some times to censure the conduct Mr. LosniNGTote having brought up the Re-
of Government, institutiog too
.many prosecu- ;sort of the Malt Duty Bill,
tions, awl at others too few. He particularly le- Lord A. HAMILTON complained of the manner
'erred to the occurrences in these respects, in the in which its provisions affected Scotland. They
year 1792, and in some preceding years. That had the effect of raising the ditties on Scotch bar-
directed against Paine's " Rights of Man " had Ivy to about the same price as the barley itself, or
been partietdaily reprobated by them. The mea- 1 within a shilling of it. This was putting the two
sure before their Lordships, he must contend, was 1 countries on an unequal tooting, and ought to be
lieculiarly applicable to meet the new shape and corrected. This arose probably from the existence
character the evil of dangerous libels had asstun- of two Bills upon the subject, the one permanent
-ed, and he should therefore resist the Noble and the other annual. He should delay further
observations till the permanent measure should be
The Earl of RossevN briefly supported the ar- Uetore ode noose, ...nest too should eallita totsn.
gotnents of his Noble Friend, and insisted that no tion to the gross injustice which was thus done
necessity was proved for such an alarming inno- to Scotland.
vation'itt the laws militating against the liberties Mr. LUSBINGTON stated, that the correction
of the press. In the course of the present year, of any ctror which might have been committed
some libels of a dangerous and malignant tender- I would come more properly in the permarrent
cy appeared, and yet Ministers did not think rro- The subject should be investigated with the
per to institute prosecutions in the view of re- greatest care to ascertain whether any error
piessing them. existed, and if it did, his Majesty's Government
Lord EUSKINE eOusidered it as appearing that would be most willing to correct it.
of late Ministers were culpably supine with respect The Report was then agreed to, and the Bill
to prosecutions ; they should have showed by the ordered for a third reading on Monday.
failure ttt prosecutions rendered, that this new and .1111.EACII OF PRIVILEGE. '
dangerous accession of power was necessary. No Mr. Costal-as:AY assured the House, that no
than was more opposed to libels of every descrip- one could contemplate with more pain and
Lion that, himself ; yet lie thought these restric- 'reluctance than he (lid, the task which he had
rive laws would fail in their object, and he argued undertaken ; and that nothing but a strong. and
that a more liberal and. enlightened course of po- 1 conscientious conviction, that after what had pass-
licy would be more effectual in conciliating the ed within the walls of the House, he should be
affeetions of the people, instead of alienating them wanting in his duty if he remained silent, had en-
from their Constitution and Government, as in the gaged him to otter himself on this occasion.
case of the Americans. The Noble Lord quoted Having made up his mind to think that some no-
largely frotn some of Mr. Burke's productious at tice ought to he taken by somebody, he had been
the time, in support of his arguments. induced to take that notice.,because he had, per-
The Duke of WELLINGTON observed, the Noble haps, heard more distinctly than other Honour-
Lords opposite seemed to have mistaken the actual able Members the passage which had been read
provisions of the Bill. The real question was, in the House. As he was totally unconnected
whether the House should pass a law to enable the with any of the parties, or defy of the -oh-
Court to inflict a severer punishment upon the jeers which they might have in view from the na-
ptablication of the second libel. The cause which tore of the seat which he occupied, he had
he conceived had not a little contributed to pro- thought that it would not he improper, however
duce the present Bill, was that which lately oc- unpleasant,_ to take upon himself the duty which
tarred in the City of London, where a person was he should now, endeavour to perform. He was
convicted of a blasphemous libel, yet he conduit- disposed to agree with an Honourable and Learn-
ed to sell the work after his conviction, and not ed Gentleman opposite, in thinking that there
only that, but he published a second libel in ano- might be many cases in which it might be more
ther form, before sentence was ptissed. He wool(' consistent with good sense and prudence not to
remind the Noble LordS that the increased punish- take any notice of what had been done. But
ment under this Bill only applied in the event of with regard to the publication in question, there
repetition of the crime ; and the effect of this his 1 was a manifest distinction between it and till
Grace conceived to be the only question before the nothers that had ever fallen into his hands. The
House. House had been placed iu a situation of extreme
delicacy by having such a pamphlet read and com-
mented on within its walls. lie limj never met
with any publication which appeared to him to
contain, not merely so 'gross a libel on the House,
but direct advice to the people to abrogate its ex-
istence, to resume the power delegated to its
members, and by the use of " brute force" to ef-
fect that change in the Constitution which the
writer conceived it required. The flotase woald
recollect that for some time past a number of pub-
lications of a seditious character had been circu-
lated. it would also recollect that the language
held on that occasion was this :—" You with
whom rests the power of suppressing these publi-
cations, do encourage them, by taking no step to
put them down." With what tenfold force would
such argument iu future be used, if time House,
having Such a tvink as the present submitted to
its notice, should taken() measure consistent with
its dignity. to bring the writer to an account ?
He need ant take up the time of the Hoose with
a search.for.precedents. Whenever the 1-louse had
telt it necessary to vindicate its honour and its
character, it had proceeded against the author of
the publication by which they were' as, ailed. It
could not he forgotten, that in many cases pro-
ceedings of this nature had been set in motion by
those Statesmen to whom the canon was acet4.*:-.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Lord HOLLAND, at some length. supported the
arguments of Noble Lords at his side, against the
Bill. In his view of the case, the Noble and
Gallant Duke mistook the real nature of the goes-
firm, for his argument, if pushed, would extend
even to the infliction of punishment with death.
'Adverting to the conduct of Ministers, on the oc-
casion of the WI, he deemed them repreliensih!e
in not trying the existing laws to the utmost, be-
fore they came to Parliament for powers of such
a novel and extraordinary description. •
The Earl of WESTMORLAND briefly supported
the. Bill, which in the utmost case did not go to
increase the punishments beyond what they were
previous to the abrogation of the pillory.
Earl Gaosvalloit impirgued. the measure as
tenr:iug to convey new and dangerous powers
to the Governtneut, and which instead of a sa-
- 'wary, he conceived, would have an injurious
operation. Nothing was more impolitic. at
this crisis, than measures tending to alienate
the public mind. The Noble Earl adverted to
so.,e recent appearances of disturbance which
existed in a part of the county well known to
him. It was cbidy among the colliers in that
neighbourhood the alarm prevailed. Military as.
sisrance was proposed; but it appeared that the
disputes were soon adjusted, and much of the