Star.
London, England, 1822-02-26 00:00:00

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the Petitioners that a system of-severe economy ought to be
adopted; but on that part oftheir Petitiottirhere they called far
a timely and salutary Rfforfn In Ihrliament, he would now say,
as be had the honour of sayipg to the Petitioners at the Meet-
ing, he differed from those who favoured that call. Os this
subjectoit was fiie, opinion Ir alsonicHaest„ do bisduty to his eon.
stituents by acting on his own judgment. The Petition was not
framed exactly in the usual way. Instead o 4 praying the House to
accord with that which they tleshvjlvtgltr9 confidently relied that
the House would afford the relief they craved. He, however,
hoped, when he stated that he was present at the Meting..
and knew the intentions of the Petitioners, that any little in-
formality of this sort would not prevent the House from receiv-
ing the Petition.
Lord G REA VES said, it came within his knowledge, that
when it was known that the Petition called for a Reform in
Parliament, a great number of respectable men, of high rank
and consideration in the County, desired to withdraw their
names from it. He did not believe that on that subject tbe sen-
timents of three-fourths of the County of Devon were expressed
in the Petition.
Mr. NEW Asti stated many to have been disposed to sign
the Petition, and to call for a Reform in Parliament, who had
been prevessted from doing so by inability to hear the charge of
the travelling expenses. This might account for its not being
snore numerously signed. At the Meeting a very large majority
had been in favour of a Reform in Parliament.
. Lord EBRINGTON thought the Noble Lord could not im-
pugn the numbers and respectability of the Meeting, and he
could not deny that that part of the Petition which related to
Reform in Parliament had been carried by a very great majo-
rity. To prove what were the feelings of the People in Devon
generally, he would remind the Noble Lord, that a Meeting
had been held last year on the subject of Parliamentaryßeform,
and a Petition voted, which, in the course of ten days, received
the signatures of 4,000 Freeholders—a greater number, he be-
lieved, than had ever 'United in one cause in that County.
Lord Garrets and Lord Eaarxemox severally explained.
The Petition was ordered to be printed.
ILCIIESTER JAIL.
blr. Alderman WOOD wished shortly to call the attention
of the House to the case of two persona who had died in Itches-
ter Jail; but, in the first place. he thought it necessary to call
for the proceedings before the Coroner's Inquest which had
been held on their bodies. He moved an Address to his Ma-
jesty, praying that he would be pleased to direct that a copy of
the notes taken on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of January, at the
Inquest held on the bodies of James Bryan and Honey-
wood, before I:phatn, Esq. Coroner for the County, should
be laid before the House.
Mr. PEEL made a few remarks on the difficulty of comply-
ing with the motion, and on the attendant expense ; and, after a
few words from Mr. BENNET, Mr. Alderman WOOD withdrew
his motion till to-morrow.

IRISH TITHES.
Mr. BROUG 11.1 )1 wished to ask his lion. Friend. Mr.
Hume, if he would postpone his motion on the subject of
Tithes till after the Easter recess? Ile begged to suggest that
it was desirable that the greater part of those Members of the
House who were in the profession of the law should be present
when the subject came on, and these must leave town to go on
the Circuits in the course of next week. lie therefore thought
it would he better for the question itself that the subject should
Nand over for the present, for the reason he had given, and also
for the purpose of affording time to his Majesty. Government
to come to some decision on the subject.
Dir. IIUDIF. agreed to postpone biz motion till April 16th.
Sir J. NEWPORT remarked, that than this there was no
question connected with Ireland of more vital importance.-
1k was sure that nothing would be more soothing to the people
of that country, than to know that that subject was under the
consideration of Government. For forty-four years, within his
knowledge, this had been the leading cause of all the evils that
had been known in Ireland.
Mr. GOL'LBURX said, the attention of the Irish Govern-
talent had Seen directed to this subject; but, in the present state
of that country, the Right lion. Baronet must be aware that,
if the Government had been longer there than it had yet been,
there were other matters which would have demanded its more
inunediate care.
Sir J. NEWPORT imputed no blame or dereliction of duty,
but he gave it as his opinion that the consideration of the subject
would prove highly beneficial.

POOR LAWS.
Sir T. LETHBRIDGE begged to put a qaestion to the Hon.
Member for Peterborough (Mr. Scarlett). He wished to know
if tap Hon. and Learned Gentleman intended to introduce any
new Bill on the subject of the Poor Laws?
Mr. SCA KLETT could not answer the question till be saw
whether or not the Noble Marquis (Londonderry) intended to
persevere in his plan for lending £4,000,000, or any consider-
able sum, to the Overseers of Parishes—( Hear, hear).—lf he
did, he (Mr. Scarlett) saw not the least hope of ameliorating the
Poor Laws—(Hear, hear).
BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.
Mr. JAMES said, that he would beg the indul-
gence of the House while he made some few obser-
vations on the grounds of the motion which he in-
tended to submit, in pursuance of his notice. The
person whose case rendered his motion necessary had
been sentenced to the cruel punishment of two years'
confinement in Lancaster Castle, for having attended
a Meeting for Parliamentary Reform, in the year
1819. His (Mr. James's) letters to that individual
had been broken open repeatedly, and were entirely
detained in one instance, and a copy only given him.
That was a practice so derogatory from the privileges
cif Members of Parliament, that he hoped the House
would not sanction it. There was so much of op-
pression and cruelty in such treatment, that he trusted
the House would discountenance it. It was, in his
opinion, sufficient punishment to the unfortunate pri-
soner that he was debarred from the liberty of com-
municating with his family and friends, but the prac-
tice of preventing any communication between him
and Members of Parliament was intolerable (Hear).
It might be answered, perhaps, that an application
should have been made to the Magistrates, who would
give every satisfaction on the subject, and would re-
dress any grievance which might really exist. But
the Magistrates themselves were not, probably, aware
of the abuses which existed; and even though they
were, they were not always willing to correct them. It
was not clear that they did not authorise and sanction
them. In another jail (llchester), it appeared by the
Report of the Commissioners who were appointed
by that House to make inquiry into the existing abuses,
that even torture had in same cases been applied--
(Hear).—From what he had been able to discover, he
was inclined to believe that the odious and oppres-
sive practice of which he complained arose out of a
desire which the Magistrates of Lancaster had to op-
pose the progress of Parliamentary Reform. The
Magistrates were hostile to Reform, and were there-
fore anxious to know if an,ything had been said on
that subject in the prisoner's correspondence. With
that view they had given orders to the jailer to break
open all letters addressed to the prisoner, or sent from
him. The Magistrates having at first some doubts
of their authority, submitted a case for the opinion
of Counsei• The opinion was given in favour of
them, and the practice was declared lawful. They
did not, however, deem that quite sufficient. They
then determined on introducing new rules and regu-
lations into the government of the prison. He would
maintain that the practice was not only a breach of
privilege, but was also a violation of the laws. The
Hon. Member then adverted to the statute, the 9th
of Anne, and read one or two clauses, one of which
. prObibited any person knowingly and wittingly to
presume to open letters, &c. except by an express war-
rant hr writing of one of his Majesty's Secritaries of,