territorial revenues should be insufficient to meet this charge, amounting to 242,000l. there was no doubt whatever that their assets at home would. be fully sufficient to defray itand in twenty years the whole amount of the loan would be liquidated.

The Bill was read a second time, and committed for tomorrow.-Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

THURSDAY, JULY 16.

The House went into a Committee to consider the Assessed Taxes Allowance Bill, when, on the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, leave was given to bring in a Bill to regulate the allowance in proportion to the increase of children in a family. The Bill was afterwards brought in and read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow.

The Report of the Committee on the Prince's Message was brought up, and the resolution for granting them three millions was agreed to, and leave given to bring in a Bill accordingly.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved for copies of the appointments of Commissioners for his Majesty's Estates in South America; and also a copy of the Account of the Commissioners of the Revenue in the West-Indies. They were afterwards brought up by Mr. Wharton, and ordered to lie on the table,

PEACE PRESERVATION BILL.

Lord Castlereagh moved the farther consideration of the Report. He said, there had been a mistaken feeling in the House on Tuesday night, that it was the intention of his Majesty's Ministers to give magisterial powers to persons not connected with the disturbed counties, or not connected with the landed interest. Government meant no such thing, but merely to consign this authority to the sons of Peers, and of persons qualified to sit in Parliament, who, though not in fact qualified to act, were peculiarly entitled to the confidence of the country.

PEACE PRESERVATION BILL.

General Tarleton spoke against the Bill at length; and 631 was proceeding to give a detail of the proceedings in the Irish Rebellion, when he was called to order by Mr. Huskisson, who desired the Speaker to read the question.Gen. Tarleton, persisting in his right to allude to Ireland, was again proceeding on that subject, when Mr. Wallace rose to order.-Gen. Tarleton said, he would come to the point, which was, whether the noble lord, though he might have courage enough to sink with the Royal George, was fit to guide the state vessel in a storm?-(a laugh.) He concluded by protesting against the Bill.

The Report was then taken into further consideration, and the Bill was re-committed.

Mr. Abercrombie objected to the clause empowering Magistrates to search for arms on surmise and frivolous pretences. Such powers should only be given after information furnished on oath. He recommended the employment of the military rather than the civil power.

Lord Castlereagh would not wish the learned gentleman to turn his back on the civil and constitutional power. allowed that it was proper to entertain a jealousy on the He subject of searching for arms, but it should be recollected that it was not mandatory on the Magistrates to exercise this power in every instance, but left to their discretion to employ it only where it might be deemed absolutely necessary. In case of abuse of this power, the Bill furnished the subject with redress. The noble lord concluded by contending, that if, in a period like the present, checks were imposed to encumber the authority of Magistrates, they would be enabled only feebly to torment the community, and not to protect it.

Mr. Bennett wished to know what was the precise security against abuse of power in the Magistrates; and read several extracts from the proclamations issued in the Irish Rebellion, to shew to what excess this power might be carried, and bow liable it was to the most extravagant misapplication. The abuses which prevailed in Ireland under similar powers, were enormous. Lord Cornwallis, in his opinion, saved that country, but it was by measures of lenity and mildness. He wished the same course to be pur sued herd. He thought the powers of the law fully sufficient, and that they had been exercised with sufficient rigour a woman had been executed as an example to women, and a child as an example to children.

Mr. B. Bathurst thought there was no similitude between abuses which the army might have committed in Ireland, and the powers which were prepared to be vested in the Magistracy. As to the good which had been said to have been done by repealing the Orders in Council, he must consider that the system of robbing houses to get arms had nothing to do with the Crders in Council, but was part of a system of the agitators to break out at some future time against the Government. Against such practices he thought some strong measures were absolutely necessary.

Mr. Tighe said, that the act in Ireland entirely failed of the effect it was intended to produce, and the only arms given up were spare arms given by the rebels, in order to save their houses from being burned. He had a high respect for the Magistracy of this country, and hardly knew how to oppose any measure that the inhabitants of the disturbed districts should consider necessary to their preservation. He, however, thought great abuses were probable, when a single Magistrate might act in this manner on suspicion, or on the information of such a description of spies as were now going abroad.

Mr. Gi'es said, he saw no reason for the distinction of requiring two or more Magistrates to sign the warrant in the case of receiving arms, and in not requiring it in the case of the search for arms stolen or collected for improper purposes. He therefore moved, as an amendment to the clause, that instead of giving the power to one Justice of the Peace, it should be to two or more Magistrates in both

cases.

Lord Castlereagh said, that when it was only to receive arms from those persons in whose houses they were not suf ficiently secure, time might be well allowed to apply to two Justices; but when a search was to be made for arms stolen, as in many places there were not two in the neighbourhood, it would defeat the very object of the search if there were to be such delay. It was certainly possible that, with all the care which might be taken, some abuses would take place; but in all those considerations, one must balance the degree of abuses to be apprehended, against the advantages to be expected from the adoption of the measure.

Mr. Tierney saw no reason for the distinction which was made, except in the case of an immediate pursuit to be made after the robbers who had stolen the armis. But if a Magistrate were to grant his warrant merely on general sus

picion, or the information of his spies. He thought it would be very useful that he should be required at least to convince some other Magistrate that the suspicion was reasonable. When it was considered out of what description of persons constables might be taken to execute these warrants, and that they might take whom they would for their assistants, there was every reason to expect great abuses in acting upon them. An Englishman's house would be no longer his castle. When he was summoned in the dead of the night to open his doors, and give up his arms, he might possibly take the constable's party for General Ludd's people, and shoot one of them. He respected highly the Magistracy of the country in general, and thought no character more amiable or useful than a man of fortune, who spent his time in doing justice among his neighbours gratuitously, and in reconciling their differences. There was a sort of Justices of Peace, however, for whom he could feel no such respect. There were men of very small fortunes most anxiously soliciting to be made Justices, for the view of increasing their personal importance, and recommending themselves to the Government as most active Magistrates. Their activity would be 'their recommendation; and the number of people whom they had taken up would be their pride. Now he did not wish to see this description of Justice of the Peace armed with so much power; neither did he conceive it safe to arm with it the Magistrates of every petty borough town. If the Mayor and Aldermen of those towns were to have such extensive powers, they might abuse them very much in every ferment arising from an election. He could not approve either of allowing two or more Magistrates to determine from what qualified person arms were to be taken, or from whom they were not to be taken. If a blind man, to be sure, had arms in his house, they might pronounce that he could not make use of them, and might as well give them up; but when the arms were in the possession of a man that had eyes and good health, how could the two Magistrates determine whether they were safe or not? What means had they to pronounce upon the courage of each individual, or his power to retain his arms? If the arms were to be taken from a man on the ground of their not being safe, he would conceive that an imputation either to his loyalty or his courage, and the latter imputation might be just as painful to his feelings as the former. He would declare, as a Member of the Secret Committee, VOL. III.-1812. 4 M

that he did not believe there was any depôt of arms made for the purpose supposed; that he did not believe more than 200 stand of arms had been taken altogether, and that he believed the arms that were stolen were for the purpose of defending the nocturnal depredators in their excursions, and not for the purpose of making war upon the Government or the army. He did not believe that what was called drilling among them amounted at all to learning the use of arms or military discipline. Indeed, he learned very little more from being a Member of the Committee, than he had been informed by the newspapers before; and every new information that he had got, diminished, instead of increasing, the alarm he before felt. He was as well convinced as any man that these nocturnal meetings and destruc tions of property ought to be prevented, but he did not think it necessary, for the prevention of them, that Englishmen should no longer be allowed to conceive their home their castle; at all events, he thought the ground proposed by his honourable friend (Mr. Giles) would be right, and that it should be left at least to the opinion of two Magistrates, before a power so rigorous should be exercised.

Mr. Martin (of Galway) also supported it, and observed, that with regard to its operation, nothing unplea sant could result from it, provided no illegal and tumultuary resistance was offered.

Mr. Sheridan said that he certainly did not mean to have offered a word in the Committee, reserving his objections against the principle of the Bill, upon the Report being brought up; but what he had heard from the honourable gentleman who spoke last, and from other Members, induced him to depart from that resolution. His honourable friend who spoke last had maintained that, with regard to the operation of the Bill, there could be no strife where there was no opposition; certainly that was true, and so he might have said that no rape could be committed where there was no opposition-(laughter.) His objections to the clause in question were strong. It went, not only to take the arms from the suspected disloyal, but from the man who was suspected of timidity. The Bill was intended to provide against the forcible seizure of arms; and yet what did the law in question propose to do? To emulate, to copy the very crime it condemned (Hear!) It was empowering its own agents to plunder arms from all who had them in possession. And