Star.
London, England, 1802-02-13 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Mr. HIORMAM prefented at the Bar the annual Account of
the Conunifßoners for reducing the National Debt for the year

ending the jilt of January, aOz.—Ordered to lie as the Table.
The SrllAKlta fisted that as there was a eonfiderable quanti-
ty of private burin& before the Houfe, he would propofe that
after tie public bufinefs Mould be dipofed of, the Houfe lbuuld
refume the confideratioo of the private bufinefs ; adding, that
during the neat week be would be ready to take the Chair at
three o'clock, or earlier if the Houfe lhould think it neeefary.
Mr. VA NSITTAIT brought in a Bill for enabling his Majefty
to mile the Sum of zAcopool. by Exchequer Bills, for the ufe
of the United Kingdom for the year sfloz.—Read a lirft, and
ordered to be read a fecond time to-morrow.

The Order of the Day for the Houfe to refolve into a Com-
mittee on the Ad relative to the American Treaty was deferred
till to-morrow.

On the Motion of Lord GLEN starts, the Southern Whak
Fithery BM, was read a fccond time, and committed for Mon-
day ; to which day the Committee on the Bill to regulate the
Sale of Eels was poßponed.
Mr. Fa IWIN, front the Commilkners of Cuftoms, relented
at the Bar an Account of the Quantity of Meal, Flour, Corn,
and Rice imported into this country for the year ending the
sth of January, 1802.

BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.

Lord FOLKESTONE role to call the attention of
the Houfe to a matter which he thought materi•
ally concerned its dignity. He could have wifhed
the fubjed were in abler hands than his own, that
it might come forward with the weight and im.
portance that it deferved ; and if the Houfe re-
garded its own dignity, and its privilege, it would
adopt tome meafure which might mark the just
fenfe of indignation which a breach of its privi-
leges deferred. The breach of privilege to which
he alluded was committed in one of the public
prints. We did not mean to allude to the prac-
tice of detailing the debates and proceedings of
' Parliament, though it was a ufage of which he
did not think fo favourably as tome Gendemen,
nor fo unfavourably as others. But fome of thofe
public prints, not content with affuming the liber-
ty of detailing thofe debates and proceedings, had
the audacity to obtrude their own opinion upon
fubeds in difcuffion before that Houle, and to
pats fcurrilous refledions, not only upon the
fpeeches, but the charaFters of its Members, for
the fentiments they had expreffed in the courfe of
the debate. A newfpaper, entitled the True Bri
tax, of the loth init. which he had in his hand,
not fatisfied with having detailed the debate which
took place on the preceding day, upon the fob•
jet of the Army Extraortfinaries, proceeded to
comment upon the fpeeches of tome Gentlemen
upon this fubjed, and that in a (tile of filch auda-
cious fcurrility as be fhould not wound the deli.
racy of the Houfe by reading.—(Here was a. ge.
neral cry of read read! read!) Lord Folkeflone
then read two paragraphs from the paper in his
hand, as follows :

"The only ftep that could have been taken by the precut
Government to avoid difehargieg the expenee thus incurred,
molt have been, to flop the Payment of the Bills drawn by dif-
ferent Comm'traria or Envoys, when prdented at the Treafti-
ry. Such a =afore it might well fuit the wife head of a
14774.44,_0r a ft—s—o to remmunend.

After 'fome further obfervations, it then goes on
thus :---
" But a difeertang Public will have no diSculty in dif-
criminatlng between the frivolous cavilling of half-witted Se-
nators, and the laudable vigilance of the Statcfman or ti e
Patriot.—To the faced cluuseicr of the latter, let net that
individual prefunie to afpirc, who dares to bring a charge of
liandalases p•flisse, from the proof of which he &rinks ; and
who, by a &frilling cant about candour and honey, perhaps,
but vainly,hopcs to impofc upon a Public, in whore ettinution
profeffions will not con ititute worth, on the one hand, nor vague
unproved charges, demerit, on the other."
Such, he laid, was the language a public print
had dared to ufc, in marked difrefpee to the
Houle, and defiance of its authority, and he
thought it was high time for the HouCe to mani-
left its vigilance for the vindication of its privi-
leges. This circumllance had reached his know-
ledge this day by mere accident, and he thought
it his duty to bring it forward at the earlieQ op-
portunity fur the confideration of the Houfe. He
was wholly unprepaled to propofe any motion on
the fubjed, but hoped the Honfe would take it
up in a fuitable manner. With the Gentlemen
to whom the paragraphs he had juft read perfo-
nally alluded, he had had no communication
whatever on the fubjea, neither had he with thofe
Gentlemen any private intimacy or conneCtion
whatever. He was aftuated purely in the ftcp he
had taken by a fenfe of his duty, and hoped he
had not done more. For the difeuMon of the

Houle he would leave the adoption of the
proper Reps in vindication of its own authorities.
Mr. Merril, (Tewkefbury) Paid, he too had
Peen the fcnrrilous comments alluded to, and
fhould have thought them too contemptible to
his notice, had they not been mentioned by the
Noble Lord.
Mr. WILBERFORCE role to fpeak, but the
SPEAKER obferved, that the Noble Lord who had
introduced this topic had concluded his (preen
without any motion, or notice of motion ; and as
it was not before the Houk in the thape of any
queftion in which it could be entertained contin-
ently with regular order, he would fubmit to the
good fenfe of the Houfe whether it was advifable
to take up its time with irregular converlations.
—As, therefore, there was no regular quellion
before the Houle, it was his duty to fuggeft the
propriety of proceeding to the Orders oithe Day.
The Houk accordingly did proceed, and re-
folved itfelf into a Committee on the Plymouth
Back Bill.—Ordered to report on Monday.