of law; and that until the æra of the Revolution of 1688, England could not boast either of a free Parliament or a free people. HOUSE OF LORDS, February 17. The Earl of Aberdeen presented the Report of the Secret Committee appointed to inquire into certain meetings and combinations, endangering the public tranquillity. On the motion of the Earl of Liverpool, the Report was ordered to be taken into consideration on the 21st instant. In the Commons, the same day, the Hon. Mr. Bennett, after adverting to the notice he had taken last year of the condemned persons in Newgate, said, he now found that three sessions had passed without a Report being made by the Recorder; and on the 19th inst. the fourth session would commence; and that there were 73 men and fifteen women under sentence of death. He moved for an account of the number of convicts under sentence of death in Newgate, and of their crimes, and the dates, of their conviction. Lord Castlereagh said, he could pledge himself that the delay did not lie with the Lord Chancellor. The Attorney General alleged, that the great number of convicted persons made one reason for the delay. They were, it seemed, no fewer than 88. After sentence was pronounced, it was the employment and the duty of the Recorder to examine the particulars, to consider the character of the evidence, to read all through and digest it, and to communicate the result, with his own detailed opinions, to the Lord Chancellor. Each individual case then went before the King or Prince Regent in Council. He had lately conversed with the Recorder, who regretted much that he had not had time enough to prepare his Report for the Lord Chancellor. He had stated his immense labours, and the time which the sessions occupied. There were then sixty unreported cases: and he could state on the Recorder's authority, that he was not then in a condition to make his Report satisfactorily. There was not an unnecessary delay, but only a delay as far as was consistent with justice to individuals. February 18. In a Committee of Supply, Sir G. Warrender proposed a vote for 19,000 seamen, including 6000 marines. Lord Milton concluded a speech, reprobating the grant of one quarter's war salaries to Mr. Croker and the other Secretaries of the Admiralty, in consequence of the expedition to Algiers, by the following motion: that the issue of war-sa laries to the Secretaries of the Admiralty, and other officers, in consideration of the expedition to Algiers was uncalled for, and therefore an improper application of the public money. Mr. Croker said, he had made the demand of the war salary because he thought it a matter of right, and because he thought it due to the office he held. (Hear!) The sum itself was paltry. Had he consented to surrender the 2301. in August last, out of regard to the distresses of the country, it would have been said, " You give nothing-you only abstain from demanding what you have no right to enjoy." After some discussion, the motion was negatived by 169 to 114. February 19. Mr. Grenfell dwelt at great length upon the enormous profits made by the Bank. In 20 years (since 1797) their profits had been not less than twenty-seven millions. He concluded by moving for a "Select Committee to inquire into the engagements now subsisting between the country and the Bank, and to consider of the advantages now derived to the Bank, with a view to the adoption of future arrangements, consistent with that good faith which ought always to be preserved on the part of the country."-After a short discussion, in which Messrs. Vansittart, P. Moore, Marryatt, Huskisson, Manning, and Lord A. Hamilton, participated, the motion was negatived, by 90 to 40. Mr. Bragge Bathurst appeared at the bar with the Report of the Committee of Secrecy, (of which we gave a copy in our last, p. 165.) HOUSE OF LORDS, Feb. 21. Earl Grosvenor said, before proceeding to the Order of the Day, he was desirous of calling their Lordships' attention to a petition which he held in his hand, and which he thought of considerable importance. It was the petition of Thomas Cleary, Secretary to the London Union Society, in which the Petitioner complains of the manner in which the Society is spoken of in the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Lords. His Lordship observed, with regard to the petition he had thus read, that it contained statements which it was of the utmost importauce the House should thoroughly examine, because, if these statements were correct, the Secret Committee was imposed upon. A considerable debate ensued. Earl Grey moved an amendment, that the debate be adjourned, and a Committee named to search for precedents. The amendment, however, and the petition, were finally rejected by a considerable majority. When When strangers were withdrawn, Lord Holland presented to the House of Lords a petition from Paisley, signed by several thousand inhabitants, and praying for Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage. Lord Sidmouth moved, that a Bill enabling his Majesty to secure and detain in custody such persons as his Majesty may suspect of intentions against his Majesty's peace and Government, should be read the first time. He wished to defer the discussion to the 2nd reading, which he proposed should take place on the 24th inst. The Bill was then read the first time. In the Commons, the same day, Mr. Bennett presented a Petition from 259 inhabitants of Brentford, in favour of a publican of the name of Joseph Harding, who had kept the sign of the Castle in that town, but whose license was taken from him by the Magistrates, in consequence, as the Petitiouers asserted, of some undue bias against him, although, instead of being a disorderly house, the Castle had always been one of the most regular and well-conducted houses in Brentford. Colonel Wood said, that a more ho. nourable set of men than the Magistrates of Brentford, were not in existence. Mr. H. Sumner deprecated loose charges in that House against Magistrates. Mr. Bennett, alluding to the Police Report, described Mr. Merceron's conduct before the Committee, as evincing cool, deliberate, and habitual falsehood. Whenever he was asked a question, his invention seemed immediately to be set to work to get rid of it by artifice. So short was his memory, that he never recollected what he had said ten minutes before, and therefore contradicted himself continually. Mr. Brougham expressed surprise that the Chairman of the Police Committee had not reported Mr. Merceron's conduct to the House. The Petition was ordered to lie upon the table. Mr. Curwen said, he had quite made up his mind not to go into a Committee to take into consideration the present state of the Poor Laws, unless there was a good prospect of obtaining effectual and speedy relief. He said that he had a variety of letters from Shropshire, Sussex, and many other places, stating they paid from 18 to 20s. in the pound. He calculated the number of paupers to amount to two millions and a half, and the amount of subscriptions and Poor Rates to be about 8,500,0001. which made on the whole 26 per cent. on the entire rent. These considerations, he said, required some attention-these evils called for some redress. Many lawyers of high eminence were of opinion that all property in the funds and elsewhere was liable to Poor's Rates; and by a quotation which he made, it appeared, that in the year 1663, it was resolved by the Judges, that every person should be charged according to his estate; and by the 22d of Geo. 1. property in the Funds was made chargeable. But he contended, if the Houses of Parliament should at any time say that property in the Funds should not be charged, that then they would have exceeded their powers, and have acted in opposition to the laws of nature, and contrary to the immutable principles of justice. And as to the policy of taxing funded property for the poor, it was quite as politic to do so as to lay the Income Tax on it. The country had now been brought to a state of the utmost distress, and relief was now essential to existence. The Poor's Rates were one of the many causes which produced these melancholy effects; and now the greatest pains should be taken to equalize the burdens which they imposed. He calculated the amount of interest on Funded Property, namely, Debentures, Bank Stock, India Stock, South Sea Stock, &c. &c. to amount to three millions and a half: if this, together with landed property, was taxed, even at a very low rate, it would yield a sufficient sum for the poor. He also observed, that money lent at interest should also be made chargeable. He was of opinion, that pauperism was more the effect of commerce than of agriculture; and he also observed, that the Poor Laws were peculiarly oppressive upon persons who were not natives of England. After the natives of Ireland or of other places came into England in search of occupation, and after they had spent a long life in labouring for the luxury and comfort of the English, they were sent back to their native country, diseased, destiture, and infirm, forgotten by some friends, and deprived of others by the hand of death. He assured the House, that he felt his inadequacy to perform the task which he had undertaken; and before he concluded, he begged leave to conjure the Noble Lord to raise and immortalize his name, by lending his assistance to the amelioration of those unjust and oppressive Laws. He urged him to come forward; he entreated him to tell the House and the Country what they had to expect, as every thing depended upon him. The Honourable Member concluded by moving that a Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the Poor Laws. Lord Castlereagh doubted whether all the sanguine views of the Hon. Gentleman could be realized by the labours of the proposed Committee, but he certainly believed that much good might be reasonably expected from the measure. He assured assured the Honourable Gentleman, that he took as gloomy a view of the influence of the Poor Laws, in breaking down the national character, as he could possibly do; and if they did not elevate the national character, by inspiring the population of the country with the wish rather to live on their own labour, than on what they could draw from the labour and property of others, he firmly believed that the English people would not in future ages be what they had been in times past. (Hear, hear, hear.) The present system not only went to accumu. Jate burdens on the country which it could not continue to bear, but to destroy the true wealth of the poor man, the capability of making exertions for his own livelihood; for, if pecuniary relief went on with the laxity which now prevailed, and all the cunning of uncultivated minds was to be directed to the means of escaping from labour and the enjoying the fruits of the labour of others, a national calamity might be said to be overtaking us by a double operation-in the increased burdens imposed on the country, and the diminution of the industry from which its resources were derived. Though, therefore, they could not set themselves against the statute of Elizabeth, yet they could look into it, and on doing so, they would find that those objects which were within the original purview of the Law, were the sick and infirm poor, and those labouring under temporary difficulties. Without any innovation, therefore, on the existing Law, or shaking any of those claims which were supposed to exist under the Law, he apprehended that no proposition was more clear than that when a man possessed bodily ability to work, the performance of work might be made the criterion of the condition entitling him to relief, and that this pecuniary claim might be connected with work. If that were made the basis of the Poor Laws, there was hardly a parish in England, however small it might be, where the industry of those able to work and applying for relief, might not be turned to advantage. In every parish they might find materials sufficient for relieving all the distressed of the parish by means of work, excepting children, and those whose advanced age or infirmity precluded them from exertion. But he would push this principle so far, that he would rather employ the labouring poor to dig a hole one day, and make them all it up again the next, than allow them to remain idle, and expose themselves to the danger of losing the use of their hands and legs, and the power of making themselves usefulto themselves and their country. (Hear!) Though this labour might not be immediately productive, it at least kept the labourers in a state which rendered them capable of future efforts, and thus averted one great danger to be apprehended from a great proportion of the labouring poor subsisting without effort at all. If the law did not receive some such COFrection in its administration, the evil would, at last, become too strong for the law.-The difficulty was the getting at personal property by taxation. With respect to the application of such funds as might be obtained from personal property, in aid of the general interest, on a principle of equalization, assisting such parishes as were already taxed to a given amount, he could never approve of such a system. By it, a parish which had once arrived at a maximum would have nothing to do but to put its hands into the pockets of the rest of the country. There would then be no interest whatever to counteract abuses, and to watch over the due application of the parish funds (Hear, hear!) Let not the Hon. Member apprehend, when he touched on these ideas, that he wished to discourage all attempts to overcome the difficulty-he threw them out because he wished them to go into the Committee like Statesmen, with correct ideas of the difficulty. He felt the utmost gratification in supporting the motion for a Committee. The motion was agreed to, and a select Committee appointed, composed of the following members :-Mr. Curwen, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Frankland Lewis, Mr. Bragge Bathurst, Sir Thomas Baring, Mr. Rose, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Morton Pitt, Mr. Legh Keck, Mr. Dickinson, Lord Lascelles, Mr. Holford, Mr. Davis Gilbert, Sir James Shaw, Mr. Brand, Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Lord Stanley, Mr. W. Dundas, Mr. Robinson, Sir Thos. Courtnay. (To be continued.) The Chamber of Deputies has at length finally agreed to the Budget, by a majority of 47: the total expenditure of that country is fixed at about 45 millions sterling. The Paris Journals inform us of the probability of a speedy dissolution of the Session: the Ministers, indeed, were already concerting measures to influence the elections, by which one-fifth of the Deputies is to be renewed. The King is declared to be in good health, and the Duchess of Berri perfectly recovered from the measles. General Decaen, the last of the French officers of rank who followed the fortunes ,of Buonaparte, has been set at liberty without trial. A There is the same contest in France as in England, with respect to the magnitude of the military establishment. Member, in speaking of the respective expenses of the two armies in this country and in France, says, that the regular forces of the British army amount, by Lord Castlereagh's statement, to 81,000 men; and the expense of their maintenance is only four millions sterling, or less than a hundred million of francs; while the French army, which is under 80,000 men, costs an hundred and thirty millions. The Army of Occupation is to take up fresh cantonments, in order to relieve the districts in which they are now stationed. The Duke of Wellington gave a grand masked ball on the 18th ult. which was attended by the Freuch Princes and Princesses. Application, it is said, has been made by the French Government to our Ministers, for issuing the usual orders to our settlements, for giving facility to an expedition under Mons. Freycinet, which consists of the Uranie frigate and a corvette, about to sail from France to finish their survey of New Holland. Of course this request will be complied with; and, it is added, that Government have come to the determination of undertaking a similar enterprise; and have sent for that purpose a lieutenant, accompanied by two young midshipmen, who are to perform the service in one of the small vessels belonging to Port Jackson. Several expeditions are described to be in preparation for Cayenne, and other French colonial possessions. Alarming disturbances have been occasioned in French Flanders by the scarcity of provisions; and it has been found necessary to call in the military to preserve the public tranquillity: the British troops CENT. MAG. March, 1817, 10 have received the thanks of the civil authorities for their exertions. Boulogne; many of them persons of There are two thousand English now at respectability, husbanding their fortunes. The price of provisions at Boulogne is friend at Christchurch, dated the 5th inthus given in a letter from an officer to his stant :-A leg of mutton from 74d. to 8d. 5d.; poultry very dear; wild fowl cheap; per lb.; beef and pork 7d.; inferior sorts, a good widgeon or wild duck, from 6d. to is considered dear; a turbot from 8lb. to 9d.; a pair of very good soles, 10d. which 10lb, for 2s. 6d. or 3s. ; 26 eggs for 10d.; ing are one-third dearer than in June 1816, vegetables very cheap: all articles of livNETHERLANDS. The Princess of Orange has been delivered of a son, at Brussels. The joyful event was announced by a salute of 101 He is to take the title of Duke cannon. of Brabant. Holland has suffered much from inundations. The Dutch papers communicate a measure calculated to injure, if not ruin, the trade of Antwerp. A toll is ordered to leaving the Scheldt, in addition to the cusbe collected upon all vessels entering or tom-house duties. Its weight is repre sented as incompatible not only with any prosperous commerce, but with any other intention than that of destroying it; for the toll is seven times greater than the freight of goods brought from a short distance-England, for instance. The king has been petitioned, but his decision is yet unknown. SPAIN. From Madrid, it is stated, that the pro hibition has been renewed with great severity against the introduction into Spain of any of the journals published in England or the Netherlands. Private accounts represent the minds of the people as in the highest state of irritation. Every one repines at the existing system pursued by Government; and the numerous arrests for political offences, it is said, revolt the feelings of every one." For some time past reports have prevailed, of a commotion in Valencia, which are strengthened and confirmed by the following letter: Pamplona, Feb. 10. On the 2d, 3d, and 4th of this month, and in the prison of this city, the torture was inflicted on Captain Olivan; who, for this purpose, was brought down from the citadel, where he had been confined during eight months, merely because he was suspected of disaffection to Government. Amid the most excruciating pangs, no other than energetic declarations of his own innocence were heard, as confined with him under similar circumwell as that of more than 30 other officers, stances. In the night between the 15th and and 16th ult. a most serious conimotion broke out in Valencia. Froin 70 to 80 persons, partly soldiers and partly private individuals, fired on the Captain-General Elio, who escaped into the fortress unhurt, with some soldiers who joined him. The cry of the people was, Constitution and Cortes," and the troops took an active part,some in favour of the people, and others in behalf of the King. In the afternoon of the 16th, Elio received reinforcements; and on the 17th, after a long and obstinate resistance, he was enabled to restrain the progress of the people. In the contest many were killed on both sides, and many arrests were made. Several also have been execured without trial. This event has created great alarm at Court, particularly as the troops joined in favour of the people. In consequence of this, the King has ordered all the regiments to be changed from their respective quarters. Numberless arrests have again commenced in Madrid, Bilboa, Pamplona, Valencia, Valladolid, and many other parts of Spain." ITALY. The French negociations with the Court of Rome are reported to be broken off, and M. de Blacas to be on his way home. The Pope has restored the independence of the little Republick of Saint Marino. Foreign papers reckon at this moment above 800 English families to be resident in the three cities of Florence, Leghorn, and Pisa. The number of young English who are receiving their education in various schools in Italy, may be estimated at 1,500. General Maitland has arrived at Corfu, and has convened the Senate, in order to complete the administrative organization of the Island. GERMANY. The States of Wirtemberg were opened on the 3d inst. at Stutgard by the King in person; when the project of the new Constitution was presented to that Body. It consists of 337 Articles, and is highly favourable to the liberty of the subject. The Prussian Government has refused permission to the States of Lower Lusatia to assemble, on the plea that the arrangements regarding such institutions in the Prussian States are not yet completed. The Bavarian Minister of State, Count Montgelas, has either resigned, or been dismissed from office: he was in the Buonaparte-interest. RUSSIA. The Emperor of Russia has induced the Nobility of Courland to liberate their pea sants. Another noble act of Alexander® has been the issuing of a rescript to the Governor of Cherson in favour of the Duchobooze, a sect of Dissenters from the Greek Church. It is as honourable to the noble feelings and humane sympathies of the Monarch, as any public act of his life. The rescript forbids all further persecution of this sect; and asks, "Does it become a Christian Government to employ harsh and cruel means, torture and exile, to bring back into the bosom of the Church those who have gone astray? The doctrine of the Redeemer, who came into the world to save the sinner, cannot be spread by constraint and punishment. True faith can only take root with the blessing of God, by conviction, instruction, mildness, and, above all, by good example." This rescript bears a striking similitude to Trajan's celebrated letter to the younger Pliny, in consequence of the accusations preferred against the Christians; but its superiority is unquestionable. SWEDEN and DENMARK. The Hamburgh Journals state, that all apprehensions of a scarcity is at an end in Denmark; and it appears that Sweden is amply supplied with corn for the present year. Bernadotte seems anxiously intent on bringing his son Oscar forward in State affairs. TURKEY. Accounts from Constantinople mention, that the German physician, M. Von Rosenfield, who, in the course of trying on himself the experiment of inoculation for the Plague, had been in the Lazaretto thirty-eight days, was attacked by the disorder on the thirty-ninth, and fell a victim to it. ASIA. Calcutta papers to the middle of October have been received. According to the latest advices from the Northern stations, an epidemic sickness had broken out in that quarter of India; at Cawnpore, eight or nine Europeans were buried daily; and all the corps cantoned there, but especially his Majesty's 66th and $7th foot, have suffered exceedingly. The Cornwall East Indiaman has arrived in only 112 days from Canton.At her departure it was generally understood, that the Emperor of China had declined to accept the presents sent out with Lord Amherst; and that his Lord. ship and suite were on their way to Canton, to embark in the Alceste, and return home. The Alceste had come down the Yellow Sea, and was lying at Canton. The cause of this failure of the embassy is thus described:-During Lord Amherst's stay at Pekin, he made various efforts to deliver his credentials to the Emperor of China; but the permission, if promised, was clogged with the necessity of submitting to certain prostrations, or other etiquettes of the Chinese Court, which Lord Amherst considered derogatory to the dignity of his Sovereign, and |