Star.
London, England, 1809-04-29 00:00:00

CONSENT OF PARLIAMENT.

Lord HENRY PETTY rose, pursuant to his no-
tice of yesterday, to call the attention of the House
to a subject which, in point of its principle, deeply
involved their most valuable privileges. It appeared
by an account laid upon the table by order of the
House, that in the month of May, in the course of
_ _

the last Sessions, a system had begun to be acted
upon, which called for the most serious interposition
of that House. At that period money had been is-
sued to Foreign Ministers, without the consent of the
Commons House of Parliament. It appeared that
the sum of £5OOO had been given to Mr. Chinnery,
to be by him handed over to the Chevalier Souza, for
the purpose of affording assistance to the Portuguese
emigrants, and of defraying the expences of the pas-
sage of Portuguese families to South America. On
the 3d of June following, another £5OOO was devoted
in a similar manner to the same object. On the 21st
of July there was an additional grant, and afterwards,
during the recess, several sums of money, amounting
in the whole to £85,000. As to the expediency of
the issue then made, he was yet to learn, not having
as yet received any information so far respecting it;
but this, however, he well knew, that there was not
in the course of the late Sessions, any service voted
to which such an application could have any refer-
ence ; it was therefore his intention to call upon the
House to come to a declaratory resolution, in the
spirit of that principle adopted by their ancestors,
and in conformity to that practical lesson taught
them in the course of a contest for a century with the
encroachments of the Crown while Parliament was
sitting. For two months the public money was issued
in different sums, without any application having
been made to that Parliament, though they were then
sitting. He knew of no exception to the great rule
that was not made out by the most urgent necessity ;
a deviation had been made in cases of imperious ne•
cessity, but even in these there was no analogy to
justify the proceeding of which he now complained.
In the case of the 13th of May, in the year 1711,
the money applied had been voted by Parliament ;
but the error here was, that it had been applied to a
different service from that to which Parliament had
voted it, though the service to which it was applied
had been also voted by Parliament. Such a case,
which was only a transfer, could not be adduced as
.a precedent for the present one, where the service had
never been voted by that House—had 'never been
considered—had never been contemplated by it—
nor were they to be told, that in consequence of the
pressing exigencies of the times—of the critical state
of public affairs—of the great necessity for dispatch,
that it was extremely difficult to act up to the good
old constitutional principles of which that House was
bound to be the jealous guardian. In proportion as
they relaxed from those principles, in yielding to any
sudden and uncontroulable necessity, in the same
proportion should they watch and diligently pursue
all such exceptions as might have inevitably occur-
red, tharthey might not be made precedents to jus-
tify cases not at all analogous. Till the year 1727,
Votis of Credit had never been heard of, aid such
was the laudable jealousy of that House, that in the
year 1737, he believed, a limitation was imposed
upon that Vote of Credit, which remains imposed
upon it to this day. There was an exception, but it
was one which Gentlemen would not, he believed, be
very forwar4 to cite—.-it was that which had occurred
in the course of the American war, and the Commit-
tee upon it had pronounced the introduction of such 4
Vote of Service into the Army Extraordinaries to be
a dangerous invasion of the rights and privileges of

the House of Commons He was aworaof the grant
of money which had excited s 6 moth nitseriration in
that House, made by Mr. Pitt to the Eniperor. of.
Auitria, in the year 1796 ; but in the amendment
then moved upon the original Znotion,•it was submit-
ted, that the•advance being made without the consent
of Parliament, was against the law of the land ; this
was admitted by those even who were the supporters
of that Minister upon that occasion. From this view
then of the transaction, he could anticipate nothing
that could possibly be urged in its defence, unless
some plea of paramount necessity was made out in
palliation of the offence. If, however, that plea was
not made out, he hoped they would not be told of
the comparative smallness of the sum by way of ex-
tenuation. The sum was nothing, but the principle
on which it was granted was, and ought to be every
thing in the eyes of those who were the Constitutional
guardians of the public purse. The Noble Lord then
concluded with moving as his first Resolution:

Resolved, That the applying any sum or sums of money, ap-
propriated or unappropriated, during the Sessions of Parliament,
without consent of same, is a misapplication of the public money,
and a dangerous invasion of the rights and privileges of that
House.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
stated his surprize on hearing the Noble Lord say,
that the Grant of which he complained was unprece-
dented. If he had reverted to some of those Grants
voted during the time he was in office, he would find
that there were some of an analogous nature. He
by no means wished to contend the present question
upon a recriminating principle, because he was aware
that such an issue of public money could not be with-
held without a great public inconvenience. What
was the amount, either in expence or quality, of the
present motion ? It was no more than this, that on
the 23d of May and the 3d of June, 1808, two sums
of 325000 each were applied to the purpose of assist-
ing those Portuguese who loyally and nobly preferred
an emigration to the Brazils, rather than submit to
the dominion of the enemy, by which their 'native
country was subjugated. The objection was, to have
the amount of that application brought before that
House in the Estimate of the Army Extraordinaries.
He could not see the validity of that objection. It
was to be recollected, that the persons served were
our allies, cleaving to our protection—looking to
England for an asylum, and he was sure with the
same expectation of protection as if they had found
refuge in a British camp. (Hear, hear ! ) It was under
the reciprocal feeling both of the Government which
ordered the issue, and of the unfortunate and loyal
persons who were assisted, that the sums now at-
tacked by the motion of the Noble Lord were con-
' ditionally issued to the Chevalier de Souza. He
would it to the House to say whether, if any other
means of pecuniary assistance were applied to that
portion of our emigrating allies, suppose to the Bri-
tish Commissary, there would be any opposition to
such an application. But the Noble Lord complained
that it was a sum appropriated to one service and de-
voted to another. The answer to such complaint
was, that it was an application truly referable to the
Army Extraordinaries, inasmuch as it was a pecu-
niary claim upon the country, growing out of the
circumstances and accidents of the war, and there.'
fore ought to be met out of the fund voted for such
extraordinaries. What then did the Noble Lord in-
troduce by his present motion ? Nothing less than a
sweeping clause, affecting not alone the present and
past Administration, but the very branch of Admi-
nistration which the Noble Lord had lately filled, and
the very conduct which he himself had practised. He
did not condemn that conduct, but at the same time
could not suppress his surprise at the sudden disincli-
nation of the Noble Lord, not only to find fault with
his own acts, but finally to withhold the power of
Government to meet what the Noble Lord must
know were most pressing exigencies. He, therefore,
could not suppose that the House could concur in such
a motion, and therefore moved the Order of the Day.
Mr. TIERNEY denied that there was any com-
parison between the sum of £85,000, now voted in
opposition to the appropriation of Parliament, andl
the money supplied out of the Army Extraordinariesi
,during the Administration of his Noble Friend. The
latter was a perfectly military application, with a view
to future operations in Hanover, and under that im-
pression, and for that object, the money was,issued I
to Count Munster. Besides, military co-operation
was intended in Hanover under Lord Cathcart.
Would any man assimilate such an application of the
Army Extraordinaries to the present one, of applying
certain monthly sums to certain Portugueie emi-
grants,
merchants, traders, &c. to the Brazils, men I
who had nothing to do with the Army ? The House
had also to bear in recollection, that it had voted in I
the same Session a sum of £120,000 for the relief of I
distressed emigrants, and therefore to apply another
fund for the relief of such persons, was nothing leis
than a gross deception upon Parliament. But at
what time did the Government make this undue ap-
plication ? Why, at the time that the same Govern-
ment
announced to Europe, that it had dispensed a!
blessing upon Portugal, that it -had released that peo-
ple from the intolerable burthen of their invaders.—
So
that poor England was to have the expence of
conferring the blessing of expelling the enemy, and
afterwards of paying for the passage and subsistence
of the very Portuguese who ran away from this iden-
tical blessing. It was not true that these sums to
Chevalier de Souza were paid before the Army Ex-
traordinaries of the last Session were voted. Two
sums of £5OOO each were voted on the 23d of May,
and the Extraordinaries were not voted until the 25th
following. It was therefore that he felt it his duty to
pronounce such an application of the public money
both unjustifiable and unconstitutional. In the
Army Extraordinaries of the last year, the King's
Ministers had taken a Vote of Credit for £2,800m0,
and the claim now amounted to £4,loo,ooo.—With
such an excess beyond their proposed estimate, he
could not but vote for the motion of his Noble Friend.
Mr. HUSKISSON contended that the periodical
grants of £5250 to Count Munster by the late Admi-
nistration, were in a great part for the distressed Ha-1
noverians, and were, without any censure from the
Noble Lord for that policy, analogous to the very
issues of public money, of which he now so much
complained. He begged leave also to state that a
number of the Portuguese emigrants were invited to ,
this country in order to be sent to-the Brazils by the
Proclamation of the Commanding Officer of the Bri.
tish Fleet at that period off the Tagus.
Lord HENRY PETTY explakted, that such pen I