The Sun.
London, England, 1820-10-03 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

FOREIGN TRADE OF THE COUNTRY.
(Continued front Saturday's Sun.)
.A just respect for the politccal wisdom:from
which the enactment of the 'Navigation Laws ori-:
•ginated, and:asense of the great national advan-
tages derived from them in their effects on the
maritime ,greatness and power of the kingdom,
have rendered them objects of attachment and
veneration t) every P,.itish subject. Nor :can
your Committee suppose that any • suggektions
• they. shay Offer, Can lead to a suspicion of their
being disposed to recoMmend-an abindontnent of
the policy from which they emanated; or to ad-
vise, in fevOur of the extension
,of commerce, a'
remission Of that protecting vigilance under which
the shipping and navigation of the kingdoni have
so eminently grown and. flourished. The only
question which, on this subject, • they have
entertained,., is, whether the advantages hi-
therto 'enjoyed' by our shipping, might not he
compatible with increased. facilitie's afforded to
trade, and its relief from some of the restrictions
whichi-tho- provisiobs' of theie laWs 'impose upon
it. - They are convinced; that • every restriction
on the freedom of commerce is in itself an evil,
to be justified only by some adequ.ate„..political.
expeditncy ; and thnteveri• ;lenity that can he
extended to it, is-a benefit to the public interest,.
as leading, amidst the incalculable changes and
accidents occurring in the circumstances of na-,
tions; and= of society; . to the certain consequence
of laying open, new means of exertion to mercan-
tile ingenuity,Arid enterprize, anal disclosing to
commerce 'new'SbUrCeS of eventual cdvatitage, :ir
beyond the power•of 'human foresight distinctly
to appreciate: This being the admitted princi-
ple; it be regarded as Sul ject to all- the pre-.
caution. in its application, „which interes:ts.em-
barked'under the faith of existing laws, and a
du'e consideititiOn 'of" the difficulties attending an
extensive change in a long established, though do-
kctive system, ought prthienilally tp
The prohillition contained in the Act of the 12th and 14th
Charles It. c. 11. in reitpect to Germany and the Nether-
lands, Was the first direct object of your Committee's ex;uni
nations, with awiew of ascertaining Wiettyer the distinction:
applying to those parts of Europe, might not be safely and
ti vfuUY abrogated. The purpose for which it was originally
enacted has letut-been fulfilled ; and from the evidence of the
Gedtletnen examined;' touching the dilhrent interests which
such do alteration might affect, poi r committee are of "Pi-
niu t, that certain benefit, without ally p.robable chance of in-
jury, W. 1.114 .tesult from, it, -both to the totomei'&,sso4,o)ip-
-pint of the Un4ed Kingdom. Your Committee beg to 'ell"'
to tile examinations of Mr. Frewin, Mr.;Butkle,' Mr. Lyall.
Bow(]en, Mr. Hall, Mr. Nichol, &c. on this subject. A
donht appeared:to be entertained ti the first of these Gen-
Orli"- as to kpossibility•that the alteration in question-
miwpt be Attended with some Irifiuediminution of the reve-.
'nue; and by others, that it might produce some prejudice to

the British ship ping rtnploteiti in the 'commerce of the
.

IVitli respect to the first point, it is to be observed, that
no diminution of revenue could ari:,e, Hitless from importa-
tions taliinz place in Ilrilish shipping Which had hitherto
been made iu lorcign ves:elsy ruid the reduced state of ditty,'
cotisivience tit be received; as, bows it r, this contingency
*invokes in it a certain compensation in the encreased 111-
ploymeot of British shipping, yotir lintititittee do nos top-
sider it. a% a material objectluil to an alteration, in other
views appearing to he desirable. In tespell to the remain-
ing objection, that it was pirssible the trade Wight be conduct.-
rd ttrutigh the medium of diets!. Greeli and Geneose ship.
ping; and the ottrehandire of the Mediteratteati be thUi car-
ried to the Ileiglibouring ports of flolland or the Nether.
lands, for transhipment and cOneryatice to the I:nitid King-
dom in British vessels ; it is an :spin eht its tkin in as hick, tn.r
reasons to he stated in a subseritik tit part of their Report
(appliCable to those its well as other ships of cheiip descrip-
tion), your is:otomittee cannot participate, or be 'policed try
it t 0 entertain any greater doubt of the commercial safety and
convenience, than of 'teal
the political justice utility of plac-
ing our comniercial'interconrse with every Etiropeatittate ill
amity with Great.l.liitaiii, un a footing of equal facility and
freedom. . .

sat'sfied themselves on t he expedieucyofperinitting
the immolation into the United I.:Medi-Mr.lU British ships,
of articles the growth or produce of. European states, fronts
any Enropeair Mill, without reference to the place of their
growth or production ; the. Heir subject 'which engaged the,
cousiderainiti of yOur, Committee, was the extenstrin of the
same latitude of importation to articles the produce of Asia,
Africa; and America, to which the restrictions ibf the Act .irf
the 12th of Chat les, the Second, have been stated principally
to apply. . .
The 'evidence adduced 'before your Committee, nn tills
point, is more at variance than that on the point before ad-
veiled to Although it cannot be denied that every additional
degree of freedom -is generally beneficial to contort rce, and
no alarni secured to be entertained by merchants eirgaged. in
general trade who were examined, in resi,ect to the probahlc
effects pf such a relaxation of the law on the navigation of
Great Britani ; yet those whose interests , were more exclu-
sively connected with British shipping, expressed considera-
ble alarm lest the proposed alteration should be followed by
a charige in the existing course of trade, by which their in
ter ests might be eventually alit cted ; an I represented, that if
any benefit accrued to "commerce by the increased facility
afforded, it might Ire chiefly to the commerce of foreigners;
and that the participation of lit itish stripping in the convey-
ance (settle produce' of the di•tant (rat's of the woo Id, might.
be confined to tit e't anspoi t ftunt the putts of the Continent
to those of the United liingdorn, while the more valuable and
extencled.navigation devolved triton the shipping of foreign
states. Ytillr Committee hare felt the importance of this re-
presentation, and exatiriniilit with the attention it appeared
to deseive. "'hey are coo,cions that the. commercial results
th,y sanguinely anticipate from the establishment of a system
more enlarged and liberal than that wider which the British
trade has been hitherto conducted (of which this relaxation
of the navigation lass's form a part) could riot be deemed, a
satisfactory con petis;ttiort for ati) serious hazard to which
the inter-tits of our shipping might be exposed : hut they Kaye
found nn r..-rason to believe, that- tire „probable consequences
of :olopting the measure tordef c:citisideration would be, to
hunt the danger
,described, or to transfer to foreignets any
of the advantages. now possesseAtif British strips.
In prot.tedilig to state the gtountts your
Committee are desirous of reValling tot'oe recollection of the
.1-lotise,.that the laUm in 4111r,,ticin tithe aces subjected to al-
teration at different perhoL. apd their principle relaxed
wlnmerer a new state of Poiitjeal..tiectimstarices appeared ..t o
Parliament to afford sufficient reasons for such a change.
Under the regulations which this-Kin;; in Council wait autho.
rizcd to Ruche, • Ir) the 23d of. Geo. III; cap. 39, turd subse-,
qtieiitly by the -49th of Ora, followe.d recently by
.tbe 59th of Geo. lit. cap: the manufactures and proitace.
ofthe Unitest States of America have been admitted into the
uitited ant golly in.l3ritish ships, but in ships of
the United States or condetrined as prize to them, and owned
and navigatrid by their subjects.
_By the 51st also of the tate
King, a similar relaxation of the lirw was made in farmer of
the produca and manufactures of the territories of the CrOWn
of.Porttigat an America; cluringlU continuance of the Treaty
concluded with that Power in the year IS to: the latwr aris-7
ing tort irf the changes.that liar( takenplace in the political
situation t.f the Brazils ; as the former did out of the national-
tharacter,sicquired by the Utrite,d States of America, by their
separaiMn fruits tilreat Britain.
• •Both these relaxations may be said to leave been a
notion of the -protection afforded by the Navigatioer Law to
fi ritliflUghipping;. btit a'dithintition which political Crinsidera-
irons demanded, and Which was indtspetitable, to the con-
tinuance of our commercial relations with those conntries.
( l'o be continued.)

LAW INTEMAGENCE.

COURT OF KENG'S BENCH, Ocr, 2.

PERJURY 1.,5; MIsS GLENS'S CASE.
THE KING V. MARY WHITBY.

This was an indictment against
,the defendant
for wilful and corrupt perjury. -The case ex
cited a great deal of interest,• and the Court was
crowded to excess the-whole day, from half past
nine o'clock in the morning, when the trial com-
menced- until nearly half past eleven at nig4t,.
when the Jury delivered in their verdict.
The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Scar-
lett, Mr. Gurney, Mr. Adolphus, and Arr. Jere-
my,and the defence by Mr. Serjeant Pell, Mr.
Ganlee, and Mr. A. Moore. , •.

. It will be recollected- that at the Dorsetshire
Summer Assizes, 1818, JameS Bowditch, and
nine other persons; were convicted of a conspiracy
before Mr. Justice Park, to 'take away by force
a young lady named Maria Glenn, a native of
St-. Vincent's in the West Indies, and then under
the guardianship of . her uncle, Mr; Tuckett, A
provincial' Barrister, residing at Taunton in So-
mersetshire, in order, to compel her to marry
James Powditch. In the Michaelmas Term fol-
lowing, the defendants moved for and ob-
tained a rule to shew cause why a new trial should
not be granted, founded_ upon affidavits tend-
ing to shew that there was no force
_justly hn-
puted, and that Miss Glenn -had willingly con-
sented to the elopement, "although the marriage
was intended to be effected: without the know-
ledge of her gnat-Tian. From the facts; disclosed
on the trial, it -.appeared that in 1817,: Mr. Tuc-
kett had removed Miss Glenn, his waxd, to the
houie of a widow Bowditch, distant': about a
Ale and' a half from Taunton, for chinge of air,
and removal from the hooping' cough infection
which then afflicted his own children. During
her sojournment there the conspiracy imputed
took place, but failed of its object. Ti ie affida-
vits in support of the motion for :the view trial,
stated a variety of facts' to shew that. gt.eat fami-
liarity subsisted between Miss Glenn j nil James
Bowditch, and that, she had consented to the
marriage. Amongst other particulars it was
sworn that on the 27th of 'August, 1817, she
had disguised herself in the clothet, of BOWditch's
sisters, for the purpose of attending the'christen-
ing of a child of Mrs. Mulrainr, and standing
as one • of the godmothers, and by such disguise
to deceive ber•uncle ;--that she did attend the
-christening, and acted as godmother—that after-
wards she returned to dine with the flowditch
family—that in the evening she drank tel. 'with
them—played her harp in concert with a young
man, named Turnell, a music master, who ac-
coMpanied her on the pianolorte—.-7that she after-
wars„l,s danced with the young persons present,
and kissed by Turnell, James gowditch,
and other men or the company, and waspther-
wise generally faMiliar in her demeanour, by
playing at cards and blindrnan's buff with the

younger members of the family. Cause 015
shewn against the Rule, uPon affidavits tie'dy
tieing these facts. One of the principal'awmo
Wits relied upon for this purpose was that of
g.og
defendant in this record, Mary Whitby, )(eo
woman who acted as servant to Miss Gle,v,,
durit, her residence in the Bowditch
and she swore that her young mistress was tie
present at the 'christening mentioned, that so
never, played cards or blindman's buff with
~ot
Bowditcb family, and in short that she viras;io
guilty of any of the familiarities mentioneue
the affidavits in support._ of the rule -for althili
trial. Upon the, statements contained in itad,-
affidavit, the assignments of perjury were fount'44
In the outset of the case, the prosecution P,t,
nearly failed for want ref proof of the hand-ivri
ing of the, defendant to -the affidavit ; butl.llls
consultation ,with her Counsel, she consenteao
admit, her hand-writing, The evidence of
less than-twelve witnesses was then adduced, rgt
sitively proving, that- on the 27th of .Angt!°l
1817, Miss:Glenn had attended. .the christealu:
of Mrs. Mulraine's child, in Magdalen Chu-
Taunton, disguised inclothes not her own; 4
she was one of the god-mothers; that she 44.,
-d,
present at the' christening festivities which jO,l
loWed ; that she played her
,harp, danced,
was kissed by James Bowditch, William 13°'i`o
ditch and William 'Purnell ; and that she
the habit of playing earth and blind man's Z,r
with the young Bowditches. It was futt%i
sworn, that the defendant, Whitby, Was preSe's',
on these occasions, and must have seen what Pe,
sea. The. evidence of a Mrs: Atkison, wh",l:4
sided at Bath, and in whose house Mr. Tuctr,
and Miss G lean lodged after the trial at
(Mester Astizes, was then adduced, and she (1,1
posed that the defendant appeared unitpp)ll•s,
in a conversation with her, camfesSed that
Glenn had been at the christening, but that
Tuckett did not know it, add she begged tti e,
witness would not tell him, complaining at bYj
same time of the ill temper of the latter to her't;
.Mr. Sergeant PELL, in an elaborate address 0,
the Jury, confessed the difficulty he had
counter in removing itte impression whiCh the elo
dence for the prosecution was calculated to alii
on their minds ; but he relied upon the eyidea',.
of Miss Glenn to dispel that impression, conviu,vo
ed that her demeanour when under examinat'co,
would stamp her evidence with truth, and
the falsehood of that for the prosecution— t
f
also relied upon the. testimony of Mr. Tuelc'eti
and that of a person named William WoodOr`i:
carpenter, who was at work in the church wilt;
the christening in question took place ; and fri°
their evidence it would incontestibly appear t`,ll3'e
Miss Glenn conld not have been present' 3t

ceremony alluded to:
Miss Maria Glenn was then examined.
trembled greatly, and appeared much
Het demeanour was, prepoSsessing and genteec'ti,!
She swore positively ti contradict inn to, all ;v
several facts deposed to tv the witnesses for '0
prosecution, touching her supposed carnet
the christettift • ,
`'ll-Tr. Tuckett Swore that he was with hil",4(
'oh the 27th of August, 1817, from half P'r,
fdii o'clock in the morning.until four in the tlfter'
noon, and that she was not out of his sight “tii
inr,er that. time.
William Woodford deposed. to his being' f7rii,
sent at a christening in Magdalen Church in I
NV hen James Bowditch, Bowditcb, /lore
two female Bowditches were, present, and hetw.oo
positively. that Miss Glenn was not prestrittol
that occasion. It appeared, however, froto
cross-examination, that he could not have 01
present at the christening, which took 0148'
was alleged on the part of the prosecutions,
the 27th of August, 1817. ad
Two Bristol Police officers, named Reaci*:,e,
Roberts, who had apprehended Mrs. MuliVi'he
were called •to contradict the statement 01.1i,5
latter, that she had never said to them that'
Glenn was in fact not at the christenitig Ott pen'
son, and was only there by proxy. These "id
in cross-examination, admitted that tliei who
taken Mrs. Mulraine before Mr. Tuck ettl
had examined her;. and that he had .delivered

them the warrant for her apprehension. the
t
Mr. SCARLETT replied most powerfully I°.
prosecution.
The CHIEF JUSTICE summed up the .Dif
;with his usual perspicuity. When his 11t)r7-cl4
had nearly closed his charge, at about ten o'c'°3o4
one of the Jurymen, exhausted by fatigue
long fasting, fell from his seat in a fit- MO
diate attention was paid to his infirmity. il`'4o
removed from the box, and a Medical GentlB°lii4
happening to be present, promptly came t.? 1,04
assistance. The unfortunate accident otos° ote
a long suspension of the trial. - At length3oo
L.sarned.. Judge sent for. the Mezlh'al.Geritle'ihe
to ask his opinion, as to the p..obability of
Juror being able to resume his seat. His L
ship's sc./inn-ions was immediately obeyed, aProrof
surgeon gave` it as 'his opinion, that the d' Do
having been overcome by exhaustion, woul vele
wholly unfit to discharge his duties this cot
ing, but would probably be well enough °l:a he
purpose to-morrow. Ilis Lordship then s''!, to'
should adjourn the further proceedings tinif
the
merrow, when he would finish his charge
disabled Gentleman was fit to, attend•
soeo
Court was then on the point of adjourning,eever
the jurOr, whom we ,understood to be the l'opio
of the Woolpack Inn, Gracechurch-street/uslob
made his appearance, though greatly e‘ha °
took his seat, and sat out the remainder
charge. . • fines
The rest of the Jury complained 0f . we
re pr-1
from want of food, and at their request, weiog rei;
vided with sandwiches and wine. Olotit 9,
cruited their strength, they retired for aia th
minutes, and returned• with a verdict find "
•orit
defendant Ouilty.
for
„erg ,
The trial of Miss Maria Glenn/ iorlace
arising out of the same transaction, take
morrow. (this day )

N ti‘
LoNDON: PrintedaitSTAlllrSaili,'l;r:;'lqo.ll,l;:r:
Ormood-street. Queen-square; and
SCRIPPS, of No. 7, South Nlohon-strtett at a Of
01E0,, No.. 112, Strand where Advertisement"'
looters, &c. (post-paid) must be addressed.

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