Star.
London, England, 1822-03-29 00:00:00

JAIL PIILSENTNIENTS.

Mr. S. RICE then moved for a Return of the
number of Debtors and Criminal Offende.s com-
mitted to the Jail of the County of Dubin:, between
the years 1807 and 1820; also for an Account of the
total number of Presentments granted within the same
time; together with an Account of the total Amount
of the Expenses for the Jail of the County of Dubiin.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT made s, me observations
on the charges made for Returns ordered by the
House. He contended that no o!!icer had a right to
make any such charges. He was bound to furnish
papers ordered by the House, as one of the duties of
his office, and he had no awl oricy to saddle the coun-
try with the expenses aaendant on them.
Mr. CROKER said tkat the Honourable Baronet
(Sir John Newport) had raised up a shadow on the
present occasion. He objected to his pot.ition altl-
gether, with respect to the duties of officers making
out Returns ordered by the House. If he considered
that the manual strength of an office may be reduced
to the lowest possible scale, as was at present the case
in the Admiralty, and that people must be hired to
make out these Returns, it would be most unjust not
to allow the office that expense. It was only last
week that some of the clerks in his department had
complained that they had been obltged to work extra
hours to meet the wishes and orders of the House,
and they hoped that if a necessity for similar dispatch
occurred again, they would be allowed to call in
others to assist them. He considered that in such a
case it would be unjustifiable to complain of an ex-
pense arising from the necessity of executing the or-
ders of the House.
Mr. RICE would state a special instance in support
of his former observations. The Clerk of the Peace
in the County of Tipperary received 5,0001. a-year
from the profits of his situation. It was found in an
official paper that presentments were granted by the
Grand Jury in favour of that individual, one of '2501.
and the other of 3001. It was expressly prohibited
by the Statute cf the 56th of Geo. 111. that an addi-
tional compensation should be allowed.
The papers were ordered.
MANAGEMENT OF THE NATIONAL DENT.

Mr. BANKES moved that a paper on the table of
the House, relative to the Sinking Fund, should be
printed. While on his legs, he wished to ask the
Chancellor of the Exchequer if it was the intention
of his Majesty's Ministers to take into consideration
the possibility of diminishing. the expense incurred for
Inanaging the Fund appropriated to the reduction ci
the National Debt?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in
' consequence of the question which had been put to
him, thought it right to say, that the charge alluded
to by the Honourable Gentleman was not among
those items which they considered open to a new and
more economical arrangement. Till the expiration
of the present Bank Charter, he considered that ques-
tion to have been set at rest by Act of Parliament.
Mr. GRENFELL said that papers on the sub-
ject had been laid before Gentlemen of the 134 r for
their opinion. He would not attempt to put his opi-
nion in, opposition to their decision, as he was aware
that the peculiar wording of a case would account
for legal opinions. He could speak on the opinion
of a lawyer of great eminence, one who was now un-
happily no more, the late Mr. Horner, who gave it as
his deliberative conviction frequently to him, that the
subject was not concluded by the Act of 1808. Since