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The clause, as amended, was then agreed to.

Lord Porchester, as a penalty against the curate, in case of non-residence, without cause, for a month at a time, proposed that the incumbent should have a right to inflict a fine of one-third; if two months, of one-half; and if three months, to displace him altogether.

Mr. Perceval, instead of making the incumbent the per son to complain, to judge, and to execute his own judg ment, thought it sufficient that the matter should rest, as it did by the bill, with the bishop, on the complaint of the incumbent, of a stranger, or on the observation of the bishop himself.

Lord Porchester's amendment was put and negatived. In the proper clause the Speaker proposed, that in case. of an order being made or refused to be made by any archbishop as diocesan, of which the incumbent or curate might think they had a right to complain, an appeal might be made to the king in council.

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Sir William Scott dwelt on the difficulties, delays, and expence, attending on appeals of this kind; and submit ted to his learned friend the danger of involving incumbents and curates in such contests.

Lord Porchester, till it could be shewn that there was some other court of appeal, great as the inconveniences might be, must insist that some appeal should be suffered to lie.

Mr. H. Brown also supported the motion.

Mr. Windham thought the difficulties attending the appeal presented a strong objection to the bill altogether, as affording a show of relief where little or none was given? He, however, approved of the motion, elusory as the relief might be, rather than that there should be no appeal.

The Speaker said the committee had been of opinion, that justice required that an appeal should be given against the decisions within all the dioceses, except those of the archbishops; and they were now called on to say, if, in the archiepiscopal diocese, no such justice should be given? The house saw that the privy council had already corresponded among the different diocesans on this very subject; and all he asked was, that in the event of an archbishop being called on to act, as it were, in his own cause, or ut all events, in the first instance, an ap

peal should lie to the king, with the assistance of some of the bishops as his commissioners.

Lord Henry Petty supported the motion.

The Solicitor General thought the remedy would do much more evil than good.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer thought uniformity was desirable as much as possible; and with some trifling modification, he believed the mode proposed by his right honourable friend the best that could be adopted. He should propose that the appeal should not be to the king in council, but to the king, who should appoint certain of the bishops to be first commissioners, or delegates, as a standing court of appeal in all such cases; and in this manner a great many of the evils apprehended would be remedied.

The Speaker acquiesced in this amendment, and the motion so amended was put and agreed to.

The several clauses of the bill were gone through, with out any material amendment or division, and the report. was ordered to be received to-morrow.

The other orders of the day being disposed of, the house adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15.

The copper bill and the sugar and coffee bill were read a third time and passed.

The hare shooting bill, the Irish malt duties bill, the auditors' franking bill, and the Dublin police bill, were brought up from the commons by Mr. Wharton and other members, and read a first time.

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• Mr. Wharton and other members also brought up reports of the committees respecting Mr. Palmer's claim,and also respecting distillation from sugar, as requested by messages from the lords, which were ordered to be printed.

The loan bill, and the Irish customs and excise bill, were read a second time and committed for to-morrow.

Upon the second reading of the Paddington canal coal bill,

The Earl of Suffolk thought that a greater facility ought

to be given to the bringing of coals to London, and that the duty in this bill was very high. He could not see any reason for limiting the quantity brought by iuland navigation,

The Lord Chancellor observed upon the importance of the Newcastle trade as a nursery for seamen; with a view to protect which, the limitation was, he believed, introduced into the bill.

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Earl Spencer was of opinion, that if there was no limi tation, the Newcastle trade would not be injured, as the expence of bringing coals by inland navigation would be as great or greater than that of bringing them from New.

castle.

The bill was read a second time, and committed for to-morrow.

The land revenne bill passed through a committee, and was reported, after some observations from the Earl of Suf folk on the importance of encouraging the growth of timber on the crown lands.

In a committee on the pauper lunatic bill, some verbal· amendments were made on the motion of Earl Spencer.

The Earl of Suffolk made some observations respecting the bill not being extended to Scotland, and the want of some provision for officers in the army, or soldiers, who might unfortunately become lunatics.

Earl Spencer thought that no provision of that nature could be introduced into this bill; but he had great hopes that the bill in its operation would effect nearly all that was wished with respect to the proper care and custody of lunatics who were destitute of other means.

The bill passed through the committee. Report to

morrow.

The Earl of Suffolk said a few words respecting a misrepresentation in one of the public prints, of what he said retative to the droits of admiralty. He did not say that the public had a right to them, being well aware that they were the right of the crown; he merely stated that it was fit it should be known what their amount was, and how they had been appropriated.

Lord Grenville gave notice, that he should present a petition to-morrow from certain catholics respecting what they conceived to be their eligibility to become governors or directors of the bank of Ireland, and that he should VOL. III.-1808. 31

move to refer a question to the judges for their opinion as to the law upon the subject. It would depend upon that opinion, whether he should move in the committee on the Irish bank charter bill, on Wednesday, for a clause enacting that they should be eligible to become governors or directors of the bank, or for the purpose of rendering the bill declaratory with respect to the law.

The local militia bill was, on the motion of Lord Walsingham, read a second time and committed for to

morrow.

Lord Holland suggested the improbability of their being enabled to discuss this ill to-morrow, after the discussion on the motion of his noble friend. Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15.

The following bills were read a third time and passed: the Irish permit bill, the Irish loan bill, the West India commissioners bill, the barrack accounts bill, the Ame rican trade bill, M'Clintock's bill, the smuggling prevention bill, the exchequer bills bill, the redeemed stock bill.

The following bills were committed in committees of the whole house: the Irish customs, bill, the ale licence stamp bill, the post-horse farming bill, the prize goods duties bill, and the spirits regulation bill.

In a committee of the whole house the house resolved, on the motion of Mr. Rose, that certain duties should be granted on printed and painted silks. Report to

morrow.

On the motion of Mr. Rose, leave was granted to bring in a bill to enable his majesty in council to authorize the removal of certain goods now in the king's warehouses, to the outports for exportation.

A person from the British museum presented at the bar a copy of certain regulations relating to that institution, conformably to an order of the house.

The sugar distillery bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed on Friday. The coffee customs' duty bill, and the coffee excise duty bill, were read a se cond time and ordered to be committed to-morrow.

The Cape of Good Hope trade bill, the Brazil postage

bill, the prize captures bill, were read a second time, and ordered to be committed to-morrow.

A message was received from the lords, acquainting the house, that their lordships had agreed to the malt duty collection bill, the copper duty bill, and the coffee and sugar exportation bill..

Mr. Barnard resented a petition from King's county, in Ireland, praying for pecuniary aid towards completing a canal; but the recommendation of the crown being refused, the petition was not received.

On the motion of Mr. Perceval, printed copies of the report of the sugar distillation committee were ordered to be sent to the lords.

Mr. Long gave notice, that to-morrow he will move for leave to bring in a bill to extend the powers of the com missioners for facilitating the access to Westminster hall.

CRIMINAL LAW.

Ou the motion of Sir Samuel Romilly that the house resolve itself into a committee of the whole house on the privately stealing bill,

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Mr. Burton said, that during the last twenty or thirty years, it had been his lot to have some experience on the administration of the criminal law; he should therefore be wanting in his duty to the public, as well as respect to his learned friend, if he omitted to pay what attention he could to the present bill; and he was desirous to state a few observations upon it before the speaker left the chair, because they were connected with the principle of the bill. He confessed he was somewhat at a loss whether to look for the principle in the enacting part, or the preimble, because they seemed to be at variance with each other, or at least not co-extensive. The preamble laid down very general abstract positions, which far exceeded the object of the bill, and went to condemn a very large proportion of our criminal laws. Now in his opinion (without stopping to discuss the truth of the positions), nothing could be more objectionable than to pronounce by statute such a parlia mentary condemnation of a great part of our criminal laws, and yet to leave those very laws in full force. To him consequently it appeared indispensable to expunge the preamble altogether, and introduce another suited to the limited object of the bill. The principle, as it was to be collected from the enacting part, was to abolish the ca

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