Star.
London, England, 1817-02-22 00:00:00

Lord CAS rLLREAGH would give leis aceicu•

and earnest support to any inquiry into-this 'toper- •
tent subject, and any individual exertions wilier* Le
or any of his Majesty's Ministers could 'make, would
be made—all the time which, colisisten:ly with me
,•due discharge of the public dtifes could lie given,
would he devoted to it. And whether they should
succeed in attaining that object which the ilaiour-
able Gentlernan was so sanguine in aoticivning, at
least it would not be treated with ; ind i.frrence, much .
less would it be coldly abandoned. It was nut any
such leant., as th.tt of avoiding responsibility that
prevented llina from cu uiag torwatd to take the lead
in this matter. What r.evtutcd lulu trout doing so
was the conviction, that all the ILmbers rot Govern-
ment had engaged in it, and had been able to see
their way to some measure which promised to be
effizient, towaids which the country might feel
much disposed, and wrrild natataly look with strong
hopes; and if the measure thus brought forwa;tl
by Government roved in practice inefficient, the •
disappointment throughout the country wisu,d be
greater, and would bring on such despondency as
might prevent a.sy Lew tiforts. But it. the pro:smell
Committee be did not despair that ore r lhcicgt
ateature wrolti b.t &steed. He msurt d the lionour.
able Gen 1 Mats that he. took as lOot•tny a view as
himself LI the system of the Pont L IWS. He con-
sidered them as calculated to break down t••e writ
of the English people—(Hear, hear).—And t.e was
firmly of oainion, that it they could not succeed in
'raising Op that spirit, and •in inculcating those &sr-
ttiLes which would make tie pecyle deck n I upuh
their own labour for snppott—it they could n"t tu‘-
, eves! in this. the Englishmen of future ages satiali

not be What they had been— (Veer, hear.),—As. to the
system from which the present evils arose, whatever
might have been the original purview of the Statute.
of Elizabeth, it was not to be traced from the mode
in winch that Statute had been acted upon.. For it
there was no positive and legal title given by that
statute, yet there was no denying that it impressed
limn the minds of the lower orders a sentiment of
claim to relief. It was curious to see what difference
of practice had grown up in England and in Scot-
land from laws originally of the.sans e kind. With
respect to die character of the Irish rearanity, he
agreed with the Honourable. Gentleman. The de-
scription which had gone abroad as to the situation
and distresses of the Irish peasants was exaggerated.,
'To their own efforts alone they could look for sup-
port and subsistence, and the consequence was, that
there was a cheerfulness, a dignity in their character,
which could not be too highly valued. In England,
on the contrary, too much liberality in the distribu-
tion of parochial pecuniaty relief had broken down
all these feelings. In Scotland, the statute corres-
ponding to tbat of Elizabeth in the English law, re-
mained iii practice, an instrument by which the heri-
tors or landed proprietors were in every parish autho-
rized to assess themselves for the relief of the poor;
and this they, did not do in a manner to encnu-
rage indolence and sloth ; for they supplied with
labour such of the poor as were able to work, and for
ibis they were paid; so that none were supported by
the Pnor Rates but those who were absolutely inca-
pacitated by age or sickners'from earning the means
of subsistence. With respect to one topic—the gene-
ral feelings of the people of England, at this time
'he differed much from the Honourable Gentleman.
Fur his own part. he thought that the patience and
fortitude with which the privations and hardships of
the present time were borne, was truly admirable and
exemplary—they were virtues, the benefit and re-
ward of which would be reaped, when the causes,'
of the present distresses, which were certainly of a
temporary nature, had been entirely removed.—
At the s .me time he was sure the House would feel,
that if the system of pecuniary relief was allowed to
go on with the same degree of laxity that it now did
the same frauds—the same proffgacy and idle.
ness was allowed to be ei courage& and men were
sell to meet with temptations to escape labour, then
ruin would approach the country doubly, for there
would then not only be the pressure of taxation, but
the relaxation of industry. (Hear, hear, hear, from
all 'lda of the Houle.) The great principle should be,
that no man able to work should have any claim but
to the. wages of his laborr.—(Hear, hear, hear.)—
Such men should be supplied, not with money, but
with work, for which they should be paid. On this
principle the system should be founded, and parishes
should find out such work for these mu' to labour
upon, as would be useful to the community. It no
useful work could be found for them, he would rather
oblige them to dig a hole one day, and to fill it up
the next, than pay thiem to live doing nothing, and
drag their limbs about in slothful inactivity, till they
lost the power of industry with the habit.—(Hear,
bear, hear.)—lf men able to work v ere allbweil to
subsist on the charity of their parish without any
,tif )rt towards their own maintenance, they would lose
all thefeelings of men,they would become .urdensome,
offensive, sold worse than useless to society. The'evil
had increased to such an extent, that if it were not
soon dealt with, it would become tonstrong for the law.
The first thing to be done was to cause the laws in
existence to be effectually administered. At present,
with some fen exceptions, the administration of the
laws was radically bad.—(Hear, hear.) In the parish
with which he was connected, the Poor Laws were
administered by a woman—(4l laugh, and Hear, hear.)
Tile truth was, they were generally in the hands of
persons uttetly incapacitated from acting. To be
properly qualified for administering these Laws, re-
quired mute than the experience of one or two years.
The parson ought to know all the individuals in the
parish. The farmers in each parish should be made
Al turn to undettake the office of overseer, with a
permanent officer to assist them. As' to the great
burden of the poor rates being now on the landed
property, he would go along with the Honourable
Gentleman in the abstract principle, that if personal
property could be brought to to contribute, it would
be well : but to this he saw almost insuperable ob-
jections. Yet he would
,not with to be thought the
less ardent in this business because he would not go
into the Committee with the blind determination of
extending this tax to a kind of property to which it
did not at present extend.—(Lord :hems el Hear.)--
If be had the honour to be a Member of the Com-
mittee, he would not go into it with any favourite
idea on the subject—(Hear, hear),—bet with a mind
unprejudiced, with a feeling, that if something effec-
tual was not now done, that system would grow
worse which now threatened us with rain. He would
go too under the deepest impression of the difficulties
which hong around the question in whatever light it
was viewed—(Hear, hear).—The Noble Lord then
spoke highly in praise of the system of Savings Banks.
They ought to be supported and encouraged by the
Lealdapre in every possible way. lie could not,
therefore, approve of that part of the plan of the Ho-.
utterable Gentleman, which tended to make the con.
tribution of the labouting classes compulsory. It
any attempt was made at compulsion, it seemed to
him that the inevitable consequence would be to
bring down the whole system of Savings' Banks—a
system now gaining ground, and which ought to be
nourished and supported br all possible means.—
On these Principles, and feeling that they were called
upon, on every side of the House, to lay aside aU
patty feelings—(Hear, hear, hear)—aod to bring to
the consideration of the subject the utmost industry
and their best judgment, he supported the Motion,
with the utmost zeal and cordiality, and with the
deepest sense of duty which be bad ever felt on any
occasion. He begged pardon for detaining the
House so long—(Hear, hear)7Tobat be thought it in-
cumbent upon him to make the observations which
be did, and to throw opt the ideas that occurred to
him on this montentous.subjeo;' that too high expec-
tations. might not be formed from the Committee,
and that proportionate disappointment might not be
telt. —( Loud cheerio: ftwe sway pal I of the House.)
Mr. CURWEN wished to say one word M rip's-
nation. He did not mean that the slightest degree
'of coercion should be used as tc Savings 8ank5.....1
His plan was to be. adopted only where it met that
wishe. of the majority of the parishioners.—The

LONDON.

THIS DAY WEEK THE STATE LOTTERY WILL BE

ALL DRAWN.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1817.
PRICE OP STOCKS THIS DAY AF TWELVE O'CLOCK
Reduced 8641—Coos. ma 661—Cons. for ace. 644
4 per Coat. 1141-5 per Cast. Navy rolls
Eacbegurr Udb, I Ss. pr.—lodia !bonds, 98s. 29s pre.

The press of strangers to be admitted below the
bar of the House of Peers last night was greater than
we have witnessed for a long time, excepting when a
Speech was to be delivered from the Throne. The
Lords having been specially summoned, for the con-
sideration of the Report of the Secret Committee,
the unusual number of admissions by written orders
from the Members of the Peerage was unprecedented-
Among the groupe we noticed Mr.Cosaerv. He was
accompanied by Lords LAUDIRDALZ and HOLLAND.

The business commenced in a way rather unex-
pected, by Earl GROIVIINOR presenting a Petition

from a person named CLEARY, who represents him-
self to have been Secretary to the London Union
Society," and complains that the Secret Committee
had, by its Report, associated this Society with the
" Spencean Philanthropists" and other Societies, or
Clubs, " busily and extensively at work, establishing
branches and affiliations, carrying on' an active cor-
respondence, and producing plans of conspiracy, re',
volution and treason." 1

The London Union Society, be states, was founded
in 1812, by Mr. EDWARD BOLTON CLLR, Mr. WAL-
TRR FAME"; the iete Colonel BossriLLE, Mr. MON-
TAGUE BURGOYNE, the present LORD MAYOR, Mr.
Alderman GOOD/MIER; Mr. FRANCIS CANNING, Mr.
WILLIAM HALLZT, Sir F. BURDITT, Major CART•
WRIGHT, Mr. ROBJIRT SLADE" Mr. TIMOTHY BRQWN,
Mr. J. J. CLARKE, and several other individuals
equally respectable;—held meetings but a very short
time, and never did any act except he publishing of
one address to the nation, on the subject of Reform ;
never had a single branch ; never held correspon-
dence written or verbal with any society; had not
even met for between three and tour years past, and
consequently was not now even in existence. He
suggests, from the use mad* of the name of this
Society is the Report, that the Committee may have
been misled on other points; prays .to be allowed to 1,
produce all the books and Papers of the Society at
the bar of the House, and concludes with an offer
to prove all the allegations in his petition.
The most curious points pressed forward by the
debate to which this Petition gave rise, were the
practical use of what is commonly known by the
name of " Legal Fictions." On the one hand it was
contended, that the Petition•embraced proceedings
!chick could be llama eat, to the Moon (fur though the
Report has been printed and circulated ; though it
has been read by every person in the Kingdom ; none
oat of the House, speaking technically, can know
even of its existence), and therefore could not, with-
out a violation of order, be placed on the table. It
,was true, that by favour—by indulgence--some per-
sons might be aware that a certain Bill was that night
to be proposed; but of this even the House could
know nothing. • for the Bill was not yet before than,

On the other hand, the Law maintains that for every
.grievance there is a remedy I but if any person ap-
plied to a Court of Law for redress of any alleged
grievance occasioned to him by any proceeding in
Parliament, he would soon learn that that was not
the place for redress—that the Couris have no cogni-
zance of these proceedings; and that•he should have
applied by Petition to Parliament.—The simple point
of dispute was the difference between real and legal
: or rather, whether there could be a real
when there is not a legal publicity s The Petition was
rejected.

A Bill was then brought in by Lord &MOUTH,
entitled 11 An Act to enable his MAJESTY to secure
and detain such persons as his MAJESTY should sus-
pect of conspiring against his person and Govern-
ment"—that is, a Bill to suspend the Babes, C9rins:
Act ; bat, owing to the lateness of the hour, it was
agreed chat the Bill should b 2 read a first time, and
the debate take place on the second reading—on
Monday; on which day his Lordship intimated his
intention to move the subsequent stages of the Bill.
This measure, it is therefore plain, is rutended to be
carried through Parliament with the utmost dispatch!
Su much for the benefits conferred on the community
by red-hot Refinmersl—by men who would be
equally dissatisfied tinder any fcrm of Government
whatever which by its laws prevents dishonest men
from applying the property of their neighbours to
their own use—by men who in too many instances,
by their intemperance, their ignorance, and the rude
terms of even their Petitions to the Throne and to
Parliament, have shown themselves, we will not say
the exclusive, but the principal enemies of every thing
like rational Reform.
Let us hope, however, that Parliament and the
Government will keep practical reform in their eye,
tor in fact they are as much interested in effecting
this as, any class in the community. The first essen-
tial reform called for, is in expenditure; and indeed,
in all the Petitions presented for Parliamentary Re-
form, this has been the object proposed to be gained.
Every measure then that leads to this salutary end
wil be hailed with satisfaction by the country. We
menttioned yesterday that the Committee of the
House of Commons, on Finance and Expendlture,
had resolved to recommend the entire abolition of
nine particular offices, after the death of the present
holders. We gave the names of seven of these ; bet
we now present a list of the whole. They are—the
Wardenship of the Cinque Ports, Four Tellersliips of
the Exchequer, Two Chief Justicesliips in Eyre, the
Governorship of the Isle of Wight, and the Clerkship
of t'-.e Yells—amounting to between twenty and
thirty thousand pounds a-year.

A Dutch Mail arrived this morning, but its con-
tents are wholly uninteresting.
At the markets of Arras, Lisle. and other places,
there has been a considerable fall in the price of corn,
and the apprehension of a scarcity is now fast abating.
Yesterday, the Committee of the House of Com
mons, appoint d to decide on the merits of the
Wotton-Basset Election, sent to Newgate one of the
Petitianer's witnesses, for refusing to answer an in-
terrogatory, and for prevarication.
ORATOSIO.—The Season commenced last night at
Covent-Garden Theatre, with the sublime perfor-
mance of the Mersiah. The treat was esquisite—
the principal singers were greatly applauded. The
novelty of the evening was the performance, at are
end of the first part of the Oratorio, of a Concerto
on the Violin, by Miss Thrums, a child apparently
not more than eight or nine years old. The instru-
ment ass rimed in her hands a mastery of skill that
made it " discourse most eloquent music." She was
loudly and deservedly applauded. The audience
wits fashionable and numerous.
ASTRONOMY. —Mr. D. WALKER commenced his
Lectures last night at the Lyceum, when the Solar
System and the great phenomena of the Heavens
were firmly illustrated by that Gentleman, to the
infinite gratification of all present.
DISCOVIRT OF Tda MINIMUMS OP Ma. LONOURT,
AT Ream:ca.—Strong suspicion having arisen that
the murder was committed by soldiers, the appear-
ance of the wounds justifying the idea that they were
made by a sword and bayonet, the Commanding Of-
ficer of the Oxford Blues, quartered ,at Reading,
called out his regiment, and surveyed every man at-
tentively, in walking up and down the ranks—when
two of them, conscious of their guilt, fainted away
On recovery, they confessed that they, in company
with another soldier of the frame regiment, were the
perpetrators of the horrid deed, and immediately sur-
rendered the money taken from the deceased's person,
amounting to thirteen guineas, which Mr. Loniourr
bad that day received for tuition. • It appears that,
they mistook this unfortunate genaleman for the post-
man, for whom they were lying in wait, expecting
great booty from the contents of the post-bag.--Mr.
lavaroorr was a Roman Catholic Priest, and a teacher
of the French language, residing at Reading. 0*
Thursday se'nnight be paid a visit to the family of
Thomas Moms Esq. who resides about six miles
from Reading. Mr. LONOULT quitted Mr. Mottion's
house between eight and nine o'clock; previous, how-
ever, to his quitting it, Mr. Monrox earn* to the
door with him, and, observing that it was a very dark
night, endeavoured to persuade him to continue there
all night. This offer was, unfortunately for the poor
gentleman, rejected, accompanied by these words :
" I know the road very well ; and although it appears
very dark now, it will be much lighter to me wheal
get from the light of the candle. ' He then bade
Mrs. Morton a good night, and pursued his journey.,
He had not proceeded more than three miles Wore!
he was attacked by the villains, who barbarously
murdered him. When he was found next morning,
his head was nearly severed from his body, and he
was dreadfully wand, cut, and stabbed in various
parts of the body was opened, and in
his heart were no less than five stabs. There is not a
person who knew Mr. L. that does not regret the loss
of a man whose virtues and qualifications endeared
him to all capable of appreciating
mstitserOseford Nereid his worth and