Star.
London, England, 1830-02-12 00:00:00

TIM 4411 COUST4IMITIAL-AT

Mr. KENNEDY said that as the subject of convictions for smug.
&big had been brought before the House, he had a few remarki to
make respecting the case of Wm. Miller. This man was convicted
of smuggling in 1824, and, being unable to pay the heavy pecuniary
penalty attached to his conviction, was sentenced to serve five years
In the Navy, the man served the five years, and, a day or too after
the expired= of the term, demanded of Captain Elliott his release
from further service. It was blowing a gale at the time, and
Captain Elliott remonstrated with the man, and orderedl
him to return to his duty, which he did. On the arrival of the
ship at Plymouth, Captain EUiott, who, in his (Mr. Kennedy's)
opinion, had acted throughout with proper disaetion wrote to the
Admiralty to know how he was to act. The ship afterwards sailed
for Partsmouth, where' five days afterwards, Miller again refused
to work • and, by the orders of the Admiralty, he was put in from.,
and ordered to be tried by a court-martial ; the result of which was,
as must be known to the house, the man bearing a good character,
was reprimanded and afterwards discharged by order of Sir Robert
Stopford. He (NIL Kennedy) wished to put one or two questions
to the officers of the Admiralty upon this transaction, considering
it was one deeply affecting the liberty of the subject. He wished to
know whether the Admiralty had the power legally to enlarge the
sentence of punishment pronounced in a court of law ; for, if It
had, it would be necessary, by some legislative measure, to guard
against such an occurrence for the future. It appeared somewhat
extraotdinary to him that, where a court sentenced a man to five
years' service, that the Admiralty should, of its own accord, direct
the enlargement of that sentence to six, seven, or eight yeas' ser-
vitude. He, therefore, wished to know, first, upon what grounds the
officers of the Admiralty refused to discharge William Miller?—
And, secondly, why they had thought fit to put the man upon
trial before a court-martial ?

Sir G. CLERK observed that the hon. gent. hat! entered into a
summary of the transaction, but was mistaken in some of the facts
relating to it. Persons bring convicted of smuggling offences were,
by several acts of parliament, subject to a heavy pecuniary penalty,
and in default of payment were sentenced to serve on board one of
his Majesty's ships. , The first mention of the space of time, five
years, was, he believed, found in an act of parliament passed in the
6th year of the reign of his present Majesty. But by a previous
act of parliament pawed In IM6, it was enacted that persons so con.
sided were, la default of paying the fine, to serve in his Majesty's
navy to the conclusioa of the war, or, in cases of emergency, so long
as his Majesty's swim required. The asuman directed that any
captain discharging a person so convicted before the expiration of
his servitude should be liable to be cashiered. The subsequent act
is silent as to the limitation of time, and consequently the former
enactments remain unrepesied. (Hear.) The man, therefore, was
not justified in refusing to do duty, as he was receiving his food and
pay whilst saving in his Majesty's ship. The Lords of the Admi-
ralty, however, had co wish to prevent the discharge of the men so
serving, and with this feeling orders had been given to all the ad-
mirals on foreign stations to send borne the men in King's ships,
where they would be maintained and paid whilst working their plu-
me borne. This man, Miller was serving on a foreign station,
and, towards the expiration of his time, was sent home In a sloop of
war. During their passage on the Yid of December they cocoon.
tend a heavy gale, and be refused to work, on the ground that
his five years' service were completed a day or two before. ( Hear.)
Captain Elliott represented to him that he (Miller) was
acting illegally, rinds a mistaken notion of the law. (Hear.)
The man, who Dove a good character, expressed his contrition, and
wee allowed to teturn to his duty. On the ship arriving at Ply.
mouth, Captain Elliott communicated the man's conduct to the
Admiralty, and the ship then sailed nand to Portsmouth, where
the crew were to be paid off. A letter fresh the Admiralty was fir.
warded to Portsmouth, diluting that, as the ship's canapesy wire
on the eve of being paid off, AI iller should be disehtrrpi whit the
rest. The man refused te obey the Guises of Ms esemnondi
dew, although it was denial that he-did se ea the avert airtlsl, and
ceasegasady the Leeds of the Admiralty felt that it' wield he
highly Warless to the smitheneata el discipline, and deisionseml
to the swiss, V this mash suiesithinet was passed over in silence ;
and thirster* Masi the seart.thardal to be held, in order, from
the publicity the weld obtain, to remove the erroneous
oedema which night pews 11 among* men serving in the navy un-
depekesear ciramosteesse to Minim He (Sir (Merge Clerk) could
wily repo. that these was no ilepesitioa en the part of the Admi.
ralty to add ere the sentence et the smarts of kw. He trusted the
esplanade, he had given yeah peeve satisfactory to the ben. gen.
time" said to the home.
After a law wads thews Mr. Hanauer. she subject
Dr. PHILLIIIIO/L1 inquired has the Tight howinththarr4decre.

• doing
Made the same proposition last year, there was an average feel.
log in the country in his favour, but he now f.tund that that
warmth of concurrence had in a great degree abated. The dis-
tress under wiich the country laboured, the conviction which
was entertained that partial relief did but little good, made the
body of the people lukewarm on this particular subject, and he
feared that be could not command their average support. StiU he
persevered, and he thought that his proposition was fraught with
decided advantage to the country, and with no benefit more dis-
tinctly than this, that it checked to a degree the wild and visionary
schemes of paliamentary reform, and gave a certain and steady
point to rest on. He observed that the noble lord (Lord Howick)
was prepared with an amendment of a more comprehensive or
sweeping nature, but he thought the course that he (Mr. Tennyson)
was pursuing was more beneficial, inasmuch as it neither militated
against parlismentary reform, nor did it range itself as a partisan
at its side. It was that soft of safe and practicable measure which
the house wur always disposed to adopt, and he trusted that in this
instance thee was a disposition in his favour. He would not
trouble the souse at length on a subject which had been so fro.
queenly dimmed further than to remind it that in 1820 it was
proved that, out of 169 votes, 165 were notorionsly bribed. He
concluded by moving, as an amendment, that leave be given to
bring in a bill to exclude the borough of East Retford, from electing
burgesses to serve in parliament, and to enable the town of Birming-
ham to return two representatives in lieu thereof.
Mr. MARSHALL was understood to be in favour of the propo-
sition, which would not add more members to a house already suffi-
ciently large.
Mr. BATLEY said he would only give his consent to the motion
when the case was distinctly proved against the borough.
Lord HOWICK said he would submit the resolutions whic!, he
had prepared, in case the amendment of the bon. member near him
was adopted. He would communicate the purport of the resolu-
dons' in order to put the house in possession of his meaning, and
then he would follow them up with a few brief remarks. His reso-
lutions tended to show that bribery and corruption were not confined
to that town, but that they were prevalent in many parts of the
united kingdom, and that it was expedient, instead of attacking par-
ticular instances in detail, to take such steps as would procure a
general relief from these notorious evils. He would admit that be
had last year supported the proposition of the hon. gentleman (Mr.
Tennyson) for the curtailment of the privileges of East Retford,
and the return of two members by Birmingham, but the experience
of the last session had greatly changed his mind, and in the present
situation of the country, a partial act of that description would be
little short of a mockery and a delnsion--(Hear.) In eases like
that of East Retford and Penryn, parliament assumed the tone of
a severe judge, determined to punish the offender who was
caught, though it well knew how general was the offence.—
It seemed to act with bad temper and passion, and not with justice
or consideration. Severity had been used in more than one instance,
but be begged to know with what effect. Had bribery and cm.
riga* stopped elsewhere ? or did not the last election show as
Mill corruption as was evinced on any former occasion ? It was,
thuefore, idle to pursue those particular cases, unless some general
benefit was produced, as it was evident to every capacity that they
bad altogether failed. The very remedy was worse than the
disease, and the course which it was necessary to pursue, in order
to develope the bribery and corruption of an offending borough, was
as tortuous as unsatisfactory, and as expensive as a Chancery suit.
The case was, undoubtedly, matte out against East Retford, but it
was equally notorious against several others. Why was this borough
alone t 3 be punished ? It must be not for the sin, but because the
Parties suffered it to be discovered ; and he was certain many mem.
ben supported the disfranchisement, not from any horror .of the
Aimee, but for the clumsiness with which it was conducted. It was
to meet this sort of opposition or support that he proposed to make
the measure general. He could not forget the observations of
the honourable member for Liverpool (Mr. Huskisson) last year,
vies this question was before the House. He did not hear these
observations, but he toad read them, and they certainly, in him, ex-
ited a great deal of surprise, and, at the same time, afforded him
no
slight degree of information. That right. hon gentleman, on
that occasion, said, " that what remained behind was parliamentary
edam% sod he hoped the House would resist it firmly ; and if the
Ream adopted the resolution of the hon. member for Bleehingly
(Mr. Tennyson), the chance for resisting it would be inereased."—
He bad no difficulty of understanding the meaning of the right hon.
poideman. He, and these hon. members who voted with him,
seemed to think that a particular ease might be punished, but that
doe general body in which the evil lay was to be preserved from all
=h. It w sufficient for them that, while the system worked
as y
well, it was to be kept apart from every operation of reason
and common sense. Orampound and Pcnryn and Ent Retfurd were
to be thrown to the fury of the reformers, as, in Spain, the mantle
was held up to catch the attention of the bull, and then abandoned
Is its rage, while the assailant escaped behind it. (Hear, hear.)—
Were the public ignorant of the means by which many members oh.
laid their seats in that house, they might well declaim against
dun venality of East Reacted ; but, it being notorious how matters
Was in that respect, it would be more judicious in the house to
preserve silence. If they were determined to maintain ancient
abuses, silence would be better than insincerity and hypocrisy
hypocrisy too clumsy to deceive even a child. lf, however, they
led p red plan to propose for the effectual prevention of bribery and
corruption, he hoped at least that the bill offered tonight would be
rejected. Having said thus much, as he was not able to follow up
his resolutions by a motion, he would merely read them. They
were to the effect that bribery and corruption were used as instru-
ments to influence the return of representatives to parliament. That
this fact, often established and never denied, had been recently
proved in the cases of Penryn and East keened. That similar
practices were prevalent in other boroughs ; and that the house,
finding bills of disfranchisement not to have the effect either of
putting an end to or arresting the progress of such practices, thought
it better to abandon such expensive proceedings, and adopt some gene.
gal mode of attaining that object. It was not, the noble lord thought,
necessary for him to say that, if there were any members disposed
to rote for his resolutions, they might vote fur the motion of the
hon. member for Blecningly.
Mr. I MON N ELL could not persuade himself on this occasion,
to gives silent vote. Being himself a radical rdwaser, and dolmens
to extinguish every thing corrupt in the itrallat of replotted*,
he must be anxious to make an example of such pied** emelbut
came within the scope of that general Me. Be theft* die Imo.
member for Beverley was mistaken whin be mid thee the beaseWas
now to decide whether East Retfoed was ge=sf Asset
The )ton. member said that the house was i 1 but tt~
he thought so, he did not go far enough tas br Me,
oppose the moiled of the honourable member ter Nesibiddlut,
Weems his bill presupposed that bribery and ecangydera bud been
peeved (bear, bear). Another argument urged 'eras, that it had
net bees preyed t he (Mr. O'Connell) had, however, mad de evi.
pease alionthely, and from it, his troneekatime• easvieden was,
that Nast Itetford had been a sink d WOW shies *1 kllikstog.
It wee Ilse that it had not been peeved Wit' bitanite Ibe pine had
set beariatually paid. There was die itilainetia tire! !ley did
nor /et tie moor, beforehand, but bad Se air" °Pea "IMP OM..
*Sr la stye than the twenty auhrso. Ile maid not tabs le ebbs
• "•lark° Pat br tga (netwki) 'wig.
Webb 'Se Wailed, and be bid resew for hu wain wee
*se Bea Itaind abeald vat bare ti fraischise that it did net de.
vim wantt
un le the bal Ileks me fa "
may ea e e gum alio, be lowa to read-
.

general reform. He called upon ill who felt with him to take up a
defensive petition against the evil of aggression threatened ; and
if, by the conduct of his majesty's ministers, be was defect'
from that, he might, with reluctance, fall back upon another
but still a defensive position, and one in opposition to what tic
so much dreaded--abstract reform. His principle was to
deal with the evil before him, and to confine himself to apply-
ing a remedy to each individual case. Wrien he put the matte:
hypothetically he would say that if the member for Blech.
ingly's motion was lost by the influence which might be lcgi.
theately exercised by an administration, and which he under•
stood would be exercised that night to the utmost extent it le-
gitimately could, he should endeavour to try some other pro-
ceeding; and he said so because, when that influence had
not been exercised, the decision of the house was to transfer
the franchise from a miserable place like East Itetford to the
flourishing town of Leeds. By this the house went as far as
it could ; and it also went as far as it could to transfer the
franchise of Penryn to Manchester; and, therefore, when a
greater neuesity existed for showing to the productive classes
a sympathy, amid a desire of giving them the means of laying
their sufferings before the house, the greater should be their
desire to transfer these franchises to the great manufacturing
population. (Hear.) From the bottom of his heart, and from
what was passing in the minds of the people of the country—rot
the ignorant rabble, but men of education, competent to form a
sound judgment--he would say, looking to the disquiet state of the
minds of men, not only with reference to their own concerns, but to
institutions long dear to the country, it would be a gratification to
him if there existed a sense that the Housed Comtuons was what it
ought to he In the practical administration of the country. The
experienced last yearm4ht have taught not a little practical wisdom.
He rejoiced at the repeal of the corporation and test acts. He was as
happy as any one that every vestige of the penal code was el.
hoed, and that the spirit of the age had wrung great concessions,
favourable to the liberty of intellect, to the freedom of religion, and
M the liberty of commerce. Those who had witnessed these things
should ask themselves, did It belong to the character and eflicience
at bedecks only to grant when prudence would no loupe permit
them Mardis to be withheld ? He had every wish that the admi.
Wand= shield awns to the consideration of these subjects in ac.
anima with the spirit of the country, and he did nut despair
when he bird the noble hied who had moved the address assign
his noses why he, who had been for seventeen years a member of
that house, had undertaken a task usually assigned to younger
members, and taken a position upon the ministerial benches.—
The noble lord had told them that during the seventeen years of his
parliamentary life he had been a constant friend and supporter of
liberal principles; that, witnessing with satisfaction how his Illejes.
ty's government had curled into effect many measures which had
bass always recommended by his aide of the house, he had now
Mow their supporter, because they were, as he expressed it, a
mey government acting upon whig principles. When he heard these
sattiments cheered, he supposed it was the intention so to act, aed
he believed so, and rejoiced when he found that they had appointed
to MI the first law office of the crown the same gentleman who had
been appointed to it in the time of his right hon. friend, Mr. Can-
ning. He was again confirmed in this idea on the nomination of
another hon. member, who had been promoted to a high situation
by Mr. Canning, to a still higher dignity. He rejoiced that the
government had done so, for he had a long acquaintance with the
character of that honourable gentleman, and he would say with.
out fear of contradiction, what he would not say in his pre.
pence, the being deprived of which for ever was the only regret he
felt at his appointment, that a man of stronger sense, and of more
incomparable seal and spirit in the reform of abuses, in whatever
department he should preside over, could not be recommendedto
his Majesty. But when he recollected,l further, that not three years
ago the appointments of these very pereons were wailed by those
who now praise the declaration made by the noble lord, that the
present is a Tory government acting on Whig principle', he should
come to the reason, while he adverted to them, because they showed
that the designs of his friend (Mr. Canning) were not forgotten.
He hoped that they would be extended to ate present question, the
more so because these individuals strongly supported the vies 4
taken by him (lie.he
H.) on the subject. if did not mistake. a
friend and connection of the noble lord who had moved the
address, and who was then member for Durham, not only gave
the aid of his vote, but of a speech on the same side. If,
however, they were now to vote for Bassetlaw, he should regret
it, as tending to cause an unfavourable impression with Teepee r
to parliament. It was in.possible fur any one like him, tile
representative of a town equally important with Birmingham, Man-
chester, or Leeds--a town which bad rapidly grown up to wealth
and importance—not daily to ask this question, •• Would it be pos-
sible fur the member for Liverpool to say that Birmingham, Man.
skeeter, and Leeds, ought not to be represented in Parliament
He was well aware how humbly his constituents estimated Li.
powers, but he also knew that the communications which pewit b. -
tween shim pioved how extremely beneficial it vas to have repress I .
wives In Poliement. For instance : last night it was nut tome
any compliment to himselfthat his name appeared on the committee :
but it was as the representative of a great town, and he thereiere
asked himstlfb if Birmingham or Manchester ihould be ex:Jutted
fain being beard on such an occasion, had they representatives in
Parliament ? Luting the lest summer he had spent a fortnight
amongst his constituents, and had an opportunity of a short visit to
Manchester; and he was proud to say that, fresco his intercourse
with the intelligent nianufacturet,s of Manchester and merchants of
Liverpool, he derived information which could never be acquired
bees any formal deputation that might attend the Board of Trade.
For, by the difference of opinions, and the collision of acute minds,
he was able to arrive at results which would serve thelbest interns a
of the country. When he moved that the name of Mr. Mar-
shall, of Yorkshire, should be put upon the India. Committee
instead of that oethe honourable member for Sussex, he tiol
se because he krk w that Mr. Marshall would direct his met:
Lion to India, and that his other bonoufable Wald would not.
But what did his right hum friend, the Secretary of State say—thet
it was true the committee was already very numerous; that he hod
endeavoured io have upon it something like a representation cf every
separate interest of the country; and then, out of this Modelle
anxiety, he had put the member for Sussex en as the representative
of die wool interest. (:t laugh.) Ile confessed that his own gravity
was almost upset by that of his right hem. friend shen he Wood
this rents*. Was there any member, he would ask, who was sot.
in some way, the representative of the wool interest ? He would beg
to ask whether his hoer. friend, the member for liPafferdoshin, was
nos. Altisough he was, in additioD, the representative of the iron
mod the hard wars, and the universal intact, the mut of which is
they had no direct representation in that.housevbteau.e
the 7 lear up since the representation had been adjusted and
mauled. • Tim immtibmi d Bassetlaw was already represented in wool
by the Number tot ihmesx, and by the members fur the county of
uttingbare ; and be must say, that to compare ii to the interest of
Birmintm, was to armpit things net capable et couparian.
(Hear„ hear.) And dos, whet he tented to another' ants
sidomeisin as between Ilinainghiss and Basorlaw, is was WA*
asmilimati that la shoe was now as Asseolmbia
*mud es the typo of the High Catholic Arsociniew with
tai* with Mods, and with peat agitation too, (*.bash)
to all the mean, to johali raising a indailmereejf If
rehonno• by mane at esteggeratoirldrilitte lit tits
of the am cry. Ile adatied thaiondllgimobrad *Put
sini *stalest of rim isabridasi whepsesidii.st .11101111111111151 but
. .