The Statesman.
London, England, 1814-05-24 00:00:00

ed, he should not hale hj.wird to it, hut that u
Cmvernment ilveleiteleti to a right to detain them, he
Phould hung au action to bee whether they had any
right to take them at all. The other effects which
bad been detained were a disk, a telescope,' and
other things, n hie!' could be of no use to him its pri.
son. The Right Honourable rtnicluded by obsers.
ing, that under the circumstances of the case he
thought it did not call for the interference of the
noose.
•

Mr..A.BERCROMBT atought it en erre. Heave !
s‘sumptirm, that because Parliament had iisteiantnd
• the Executive with power by the Alien Act,. that
therefore there could be no complaints of an abuse
of it. Though he had no sympathy for Mr. de Be.
• reoger as no ittrlkicl-ual, he thought there had 0(4'131
.• heels proceedings under the Alien Act vexatiOss and
p, mid n birb amounted to a denial of Pith
• lice. All cases of niptessimt under this Act were'
• 'peculiarly wnt thy Al the atfelitioll of the House, as
• they ttligt t. nt thy expiration of the Act, he callisd on
• fur its retieunl. Tke only object of the Legislaturt
' in the Alien Act was to subject aliens to a stricter
police than any other individuals, and to authorise.
their detention in case of danger to the State. With.
oat such rfiruger detention was illegal, and oven ad:
nbitliop, he 113% by no means disposed to allow)1
that in contradiction or transgression of tho worts of
the Allen Act, the "papers of aliens might be seined,
yet 'Neil tleiretion could nut he legal, unitise they':
tonlrlincti.u.ut ter rinugerous to the State. Ott' this'
7 d/kelpie it-was hardly possible that De Berengeror'
papers cuuld legally hue been detained, as' it
eras hard, le say where any one could be found
abroad willing to do this nation mischief.—[flenr n
The Government, he thought, ought to satisfy the
House and the country that there were good grounds
for the course which they had pursued to this in.
stance, as there were so many arcamstestees of sal.
picion attending it.
Mr. BATHURST explained that the
'whore
was on the general authority of OSref
'
State. • ..,„
Mr. C. SMITH said he had "'liked fir. delle'ren-
ger in Netvgate, sad found him eery well situated
and well 'satisfied.

Sir S. ROMILLY °been ed) that the Alien Ace
pasted-at a time when lt was apprehended that nn.
tires of France were spreading dangerous principles
in the country. Under this Act foreigners had been
sent out of the country on private and sometimes on
anonymous information. Bet great as had been the
abuses of this law, was it imagined at the time of its
enactment that the private correspondence of any
foreigner was to be seized ? lle cohtended there was
no such power in the Act, though the practice under
the Act barl been most irregular.
Mr. P. MOORE thought it appeared from the cir..
catostaitees of the case that Da Berenger had been
seized im account of his having been supposed to
have hoaxed 4 body of professed hoaxers—the Steck
Esclia.ige Committee. Air. Talteyrand, the present
Minister of Fruiter, had been subjected to the opera-
tion of the said Alien Act, with this difference, that
the Gorrnimetti by sentliog him out of the country
merely a Itlrtled him means to escape front his credi.

tows here. He nivbed to know whether a message
ha& net been sent to the Mock Exchange Committee
as soon as the seek were taken off De Bereoget's

trunks, that they mitt enme te• examine them ?-
Mr. It. ADINISTGTON replied is the negative.
T. did not know that the trunks had been unsealed
et nu.

Mr. C. WYNNE thought that a Secret Committee
•ould not be a good place to try whether the Alien
Act bad been transgressed in the case before the
HOUSO: a Court of Law would be preferable for try.
tug the question. He also conceived, if the seizure
of the papers, Asc. were illegal, yet that it was pro.
per to employ them in a court of justice, as a man
was once tried for fbrgery on proofs which had been
Obtained by robbery. Ile had, however, much doubt
on the subject, from which the Hight Hon. Gentle-
man (4- :!athurat), might relieve him if he could
MVP, ...ot a disclosure of the grounds of De Beren.
ger's apprehension to a Secret Committle would be
injurinuc.

Mr. BATuvRsT answered, that he could not
rest his opposition to the motion on such a ground.
Mr. WORTLEY thought, that after the ample
declaration of his Majesty's Ministers, the House
were bound in candour to desist from further en-

- Sir J. NEWPORlT:observed, that from the np-
pointment of the Committee to encpaire into Col-
rille's case, three years ago, no inconvenience had
arisen. dis Majesty's Ministers, therefore, if they
were conscious of their own rectitude, ought to have
satisfied the House in this case, in which it was
more than suspected that the Alien Act had been
transgressed. •It was too much to trust implicitly a
power so liable to abuse as that of the Alien Act, to
any body of men.
Mr. WILBERFORCE expressed his opinion,
thnt if there were no coincidence between the arrest
of the Petitioner, and the offence respecting the
Stock Exchange, no notice would have been taken
of that arrest; and from the reputation of the No-
ble Lord at the head of the Home Department, he
could not think it justitinble to impeach the exercise
of his Lordship's discretion in this transaction. He
therefore did not feel It necessary to appoint the pro-
posed Contadttets
Mr. BARIIAM declared, that' although he felt
no sympathy for Mr. de Berenger,..yet aware that
if the violation of the law and personal liberty were
col 'Eitel, with regard to the worst mast in society,
the precedent might be acted upon towards the very
best, he thought it his duty to vote for the motion.
By the opponents of the motion an apprehension
was stated that public inconvenience might result
from the appointment of the proposed Committee,
but it appeared that in the only instance quoted of
a similar Committee, no inconvenience whatever had
occurred; therefore the apprehension expressed was
not warranted by any experience. He concluded
with expressing his astonishment at the professed in-
ability of the Right Hon. Gentleman. (Mr. Adding-
ton) to answer the questions put to him respecting
the nature of the communications between the Se-
cretary of Stitte and the Committee of the Stock
Eschange, as the Right Hon. Gentleman ought not
to be ignorant of the traniartiona of the office with
which he was officially connected.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL vindicated hitn-