Star.
London, England, 1814-05-24 00:00:00

ranted by any experience. He concluded, with ex-
pressing his astonishment at the professed filability of
lle.Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Addington) to an-o
mei the question put to him respecting the nature
of the communications between the Secretary of State
Ind the Committee of the Stock Exchange, as the
Night Honourable Gentleman ought not to be igno-
Int of the transactions, of the office with which he
was officially connected.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, that if it
was argued that the warrant for the apprehension of
Mr. De Berenger was issued or obtained under false
retences, he would refer those who went on this
ground to the solemn assertion of the Right Hon.
Gentleman—that Dc Berenger had been arrested on
grounds quite different-from the affair of the Stock
Exchange. The Secretary of State was not only
competent to detain the papers found on De Berea.
ger, but it was his duty to detain and preserve them,
'and if he did not he would act criminally—(Hear.)
The Learned Gentleman said, that the question which
he had put the other night to the Hon. Gentleman
•Mr Whitbread) had been much misrepresented by
I.
him, when he stated it as an 'attempt to puzzle and
mislead the House, and perplex the understanding of
plain, simple country Magistrates. He had directly
asked him, if he did not conceive it would be his-duty
as-a Magistrate to have the papers seized of a person
against whom he should grant a warrant on a charge of
felony ? The Learned ,Gentleman concluded with de-
claring that he was happy to find the conjectures-which
were formed of the improper conduct of the Secre-
tary of State had turned out to be totally fallacious,
and that no person had been admitted to De Beren-
ger since his confinement but those whom. fie had
chosen to see. There was certainly naground what-
ever for the motion, and therefore he should dissent
from it.
Mr. HORNER was of opinion that the Learned
Gentleman had only restated what he had said be-
fore, and hid left De Berenger in the hands of his
Hon. Friend, on whose protection he seemed to have
cast himself. But he trusted the House would bear
in mind, that the time would soon arrive when the
subject would be sifted to the bottom, and he would
assert that Pt would most materially *ndon its duty
if it did not gall for a full explanation why De. Be-
renger was arrested under the Alien Act, and whe-
ther it were trie that the cause of his arrest had no
relation to the occurrence at the Stock Exchange.
Mr. CHARLES GRANT opposed the motion.
He could see no reason whatever for entering into
the Secret Committee.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL declared, that
he should be extremely concerted it it were possible
that any thing he had said on this subject could have
operated to the prejudice of the person in question.
Nc:thet on this ifor on any other occasion had he
ever directed an, sarcasms, or excited prejudice
against the obscure, distressed, or unfortunate. He
niust acknowledge, however, that he had fallen into
a great mistake the other night, by confounding the
contents of the Petition with the observations of the
.Hon. Gentleman %% ho had . presented it. By this
mistake, he had sup that .the Bea-notes had
,not been returned toedllereotter.. If he.had under-
stood that De. Berenger had applied for the peculiar
;,auk-notes which had been taken from him, he
should have been convinced at once that he had
some particular lowan for wishing to obtitip
As to the qition bdore the House—the allegation
that De bcrenger was apprehended by the Secretary-
of State's warrant, only because he was implicated
in the Stock Exchange fraud, had turned to be com-
/, pletelytAlacious : his arrest had nothing to do with,
that affair: and after what had transpired of De Be..
renger's conduct, he would say, that the Secretary oft
./State wonlil have been deficient in his duty Wile had
not sent his warrant for his apprehension. It was
for his supposed good conduct that he was allowed
the enlarged license granted to Aliens, and with this,
indulgence he aflerwards so conducted himself as to
'become a dangerous -character. If he had been,
found attempting to mislead the officers command-
ing his Majesty's fleets, at a most important and aw-
ful- moment, and not succeeding, had returned to
London, and was found acting so as to induce sus.
picion that he was misleading the public mind by tte
promulgation of false facts, and this moreover at a
period when any brave man's rashness or coward%
fear might have produced the most fatal cons..
quences, he would ask, where is the person to be,
found who would justify his being left at large ? He,
is found at length at a distant sea-port, trying to
escape from the kingdom ; and in this situation, it
was an imperative duty in . the Secretary of State to
bring him back. Under all the circumstances, thi;
Officer of the State was fully justified in detaining
his papers ; for it would have been a gross derelic-
tion of duty to have given them back to him for the
purpose of enabling him to destroy them.
Lord MILTON said, if certain persons would
pledge themselves tl.at in a future Session a full in-
quiry should be made into this subject, he would be
content to vote against the motion of his Honourable
Friend on- the floor, otherwise he would take the op,
polite course. - •
Ur. H. 'AD DI NGT ON wished tostate, that ap.
plitations had 'been made to the Secretary of State
y Gentlemen connected-with the Stock Exchange
to detain De Berenger, to which no answer had been
returned—(Hear, hear.) They had also requested
the Secretary of State to prosecute him. To this it
was merely answered, prosecute him yourselves,
as you can."--(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WHITBREAD replied.--He said, that a
Meat deal of responsibility bad been cast upon him
upon this occasion. When he was first asked, whe-
ther he thought this was a case for a motion to be
*lade in Parliament? he answered, that certainly it
was not ; but that if any petition was drawn up,
-imalched in decent language, and complaining of any
tealgrievance, he should have no objection to present-
it. For twenty-three years a sort of despotic power
had been given the Crown with respect to Aliens, to
which there was no other check than the responsibi-
lity of Ministers. Although the case of Colville was
the only one that, before this, was brought before the
consideration of Parliament, yet it could not bt
doubted bat that in twenty-three years there mug,
-hove been many abuses of this power. tie kne
that ;hare were cases of the most capricious ezercis'
of One man had been refused the liberty of gt.
iogto,asighton to bathe; and he believed there wa
an islympt of a tiddler, who for playing 04 of top
at p ;own Was not 011,4401'0 %Itchy of. the p*,