ment in the number of seamen, he was not one of those who reckoned on it with much assurance in the present situation of Europe and of the war; and as to the operations in the Scheldt, he still thought that great advantage was derived from them. The bason of Flushing had been so far destroyed, as to render it impossible for any considerable number of ships to winter either there or at Antwerp. This was an object of essential utility to the country. Mr. Whitbread wished to understand correctly, if large French ships could or could not pass the winter in the bason of Flushing at present? He recollected that one of the greatest ornaments of the naval service, commodore Owen, had stated in his examination, that his opinion was that not a single ship would be spared by the result of the operations in the Scheldt, and the right hon. gentleman had now given additional confirmation to that belief. Mr. Yorke said, in answer to the hon. member's question, that the bason of Flushing was not practicable to ships of the line; he did not know, whether the smaller vessels of the enemy might, or might not, make any use of it. The motion was agreed to; and also the following sums voted on the motion of Mr. Yorke :-For wear and tear of the Navy 3,345,850l. for victualling 4,053,3121. for ordnance 639,7501. Lord Palmerstone moved for the sum of 3,000,000l. for his Majesty's Land Forces; and 2,000,000l. for the Militia of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Whitbread wished to know whether it was the intention of the noble lord to recommend any alteration in the system of the Local Militia? to the Courts Martial at present to recommend imprisonment in the place of corporeal punishment. The House then résumed, and the Report was ordered to be received to-morrow. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Thursday, February 21. [SCOTCH CREDITORS BILL.] The House went into a Committee on the Scotch Creditors Bill. Mr. Abercrombie asked to what period the bill was to be extended? The Lord Advocate of Scotland replied; he proposed to extend it for the term of seven years. Mr. Abercrombie suggested, that it would be more beneficial to limit the duration of the bill to the period of two years. This produced a short discussion. Mr. Horner maintained that the principles of the bill would not be generally beneficial to the people of Scotland, and that the learned advocate had deserted his duty in proposing it in the manner it was now framed. The Lord Advocate defended himself against the insinuations of the hon. and learned gent, who he observed had long left his country, and therefore could not be so well acquainted with the laws relating to bankrupts. He had however, no objection to agree with the suggestion of an hon. gent. and would limit the continuance of the Bill for two years. Mr. Horner still insisted that he was justified in what he had before asserted, and though he did not differ with the learned lord upon the general principles of the bankrupt laws, yet he did, in point Lord Palmerstone said it was the inten-of fact, as to the application of those laws, tion of government to diminish the num- which facts he had derived from the opiber of days of attendance from three weeks nion of other persons. to a fortnight, except in the case of those who had not served last year. Mr. Whitbread then called the attention of the Committee to the discipline of the Staff. A doubt, he said, existed in the minds of some, whether under the Militia Bill they had power to try by Court Martial, and that doubt produced bad effects upon the discipline of different regiments; but the point to which he wished principally to advert, was the infliction of corporeal punishment in those cases. thought imprisonment a much more eligible course, and fully as conducive to promote the discipline of the corps. He Lord Palmerstone said it was competent The Chancellor of the Exchequer conceived the hon. gentleman was not justified in repeating the charge against his learned friend, of want of duty to his country; and as the learned gentleman maintained bis argument in opposition to the bill on the ground of opinion, he thought his learned friend had better adhere to his own opinion, in preference to that of the hon. gentleman. After some further observations from Mr. Adam and Mr. Abercrombie, the amendment of the latter hon. member was. agreed to. The House resumed, and the Report was ordered to be received tomorrow. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had no objection to answer the question as often as it might please the hon. gentleman to put it to him. He had already answered three or four different times, and he now again answered in the negative. [IRISH CONVENTION ACT.] The Hon. J communicated to that learned gentleman J. W. Ward wished to ask the right ho- his determination not to add to the burnourable gentleman whether the two dens' of the people by accepting of any Papers already moved for, contained all addition to his public state as Regent of the information relative to the motives the United Kingdom. He was satisfied and circumstances which had induced the that neither that House nor the public Irish Government to enforce the Conven- would have felt any indisposition in contion Act? tributing to the expence of the due support of the state and dignity of the Prince Regent. At the same time, the country would not be backward in duly acknowledging this instance of self-denial on the part of the Prince Regent, and his royal highness could not fail to find that such refusal would, in point of fact, throw around his character and station more real splendour than could be borrowed from any pageantry, however brilliant: that external magnificence, calculated to dazzle the vulgar gaze, and catch the giddy admiration of the populace, the Prince did not hesitate to sacrifice to those solid good qualities which had long since won, and promised to secure to him, the affections of the people. Having stated these circumstances to the House, it was scarcely necessary for him to add that it was not now. his intention to submit to them any such plan; and he had only to call upon the learned gentleman to whom he had al Mr. Ward said, that he had received the answer in a private communication with the right hon. gentleman, and was anxious to have it thus publicly, in order to found upon it his notice of moving to-morrow such other Papers as he might between this and then think necessary to be called for-and he now gave such notice for to morrow.. statement as his knowledge enabled him to say was accurate, or to correct any mis-statement into which he might have inadvertently fallen. [THE PRINCE REGENT'S HOUSEHOLD.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose for the purpose of adverting to a former notice he had given respecting the Household to be provided for his royal highness the Prince Regent. It might be recollected, that in the course of the discussions on the Re-luded, to corroborate such part of the gency Bill, he had alluded to the course which, in his opinion, would be the most eligible for the House to pursue in the establishment of the Regent's Household. He had accordingly been preparing to submit a plan which, by the temporary reduction of the office of the Chamberlain, would enable the country to provide and maintain such an establishment at the low rate of 12 or 15,000l. When his royal highness was pleased to signify his determination of continuing in the service of the crown the persons then carrying on the government, he felt that it became his duty to lay the plan of an Household before the Regent; but upon an audience with his royal highness, he learned that his royal highness remained fixed in a perfect determination of adhering to his former sentiments upon that subject. For the nature of those sentiments his royal highness was pleased to refer him to a learned and honourable friend of his opposite (Mr. Adam.) By him he had been informed, that from the moment that he (the Chan-tended establishment; such he knew to cellor of the Exchequer) had first communicated his intention respecting the course meant to be pursued by him respecting the Household, his royal highness had Mr. Adam accordingly rose and confirmed the statement of the right hon. gent., which he pronounced to be so accurate as to relieve him from troubling the House with more than his confirmation of it. He said, that previous to the day on which the right hon. gent. made his motion in that House, his royal highness had delivered into his hands, copies of the letters from that right hon. gent. to the Prince, and of the Prince's answer, accompanied with written instructions to him, requiring him in case any thing should be stated relative to the establishment of an additional Household for the Prince, to state on behalf of the Prince, that it was his royal highness's wish to discharge the duties of a temporary Regency without adding unnecessarily to the burdens of the people; and that he must, therefore, decline the in have been his royal highness's determination in the question of a temporary Regency. In case, however, of such circumstances occurring as might lead to a per manent Regency, he conceived that the question would then be open anew to the consideration of his royal highness. He added, that he had had long opportunity of becoming minutely acquainted with the views and intentions of his royal highness respecting his domestic economy, and that his determination in this particular instance, was but conformable to the principles which had governed his royal highness's, conduct; it was not then a time to go into a detail of such circumstances, but whenever the opportunity arrived, he should be enabled to give the House the most satisfactory information on this head. [DETENTION OF COLVILLE IN THE COLD BATH FIELDS' PRISON.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose to move for a Secret Committee to inquire into the cause for apprehending and detaining Monsieur Colville in the House of Correction. He observed, that it would be unnecessary, and indeed premature for him to discuss the question now, as the appointment of a Secret Committee to inquire into all the circumstances of the case of this person, would be the preliminary step to that discussion. He then moved for a Secret Committee. hon. members. The right hon. gent. then proposed the following members to be of the Committee: Mr. R. Dundas, sir F. Burdett, Mr. C. Long, Mr. C. Wynne, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Leycester, lord Folkestone, Mr. Sumner, sir A. Pigot, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Fane, Mr. Ellis, Mr. Goulbourn. Mr. Yorke wished to state that lord George Stewart had informed him, that so far from the assertion made by the hon. baronet being true of having inveigled Colville on board being correct, it was not true; therefore the hon. baronet had been misinformed. However an opportunity would now be afforded the Committee of examining lord George, and they would learn from him the particulars of the case. The Committee as named were then appointed. He now [AFFAIRS OF INDIA.] Mr. Creevey rose, pursuant to notice, to move for papers relative to transactions, both civil and military, in the East Indies. He had last year moved for several documents respecting some extraordinary trials in the courts of law, at Madras, in the years 1808-9, to which no return had been made. proposed to revive his former motions, and Lord Folkestone expressed his surprise, also to call for new documents.—It was that no answer had been given to the necessary especially that the military statement made by his hon. friend with concerns to which he alluded should be respect to the detention of this person. distinctly elucidated, that it might be He did not, however, mean to object to the clearly seen where, if any where, blame appointment of the Committee, and hoped ought to rest. In the first place, any one that the result of their investigation would might see that the suspension of major enable his Majesty's government to refute Boles, on account of his obedience to the the statement of the hardships of his case. commands of his superior officers, was the The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed, immediate cause of the agitation which that the House must recollect that the prevailed in the Madras army. This case statements made by the hon. baronet were had recently been considered by the Innot merely, that Colville had been appre-dian government here, and the consehended and detained, but that he was de- quence of the inquiry was, that major nied the use of pen, ink, and paper, and, Boles was restored. Such being the rein short, closely confined, without know-sult of the inquiry, the obvious inference ing what were the charges against him: was, that the conduct of sir G. Barlow these were material circumstances for the could not have been regarded as in every House to inquire into. It was material to instance correct. The next prominent know, too, the circumstances attending feature in these transactions was, that by his capture. Whether he was taken as an order of sir George Barlow of the 1st an open enemy, as a spy, or in what cir- of May, certain officers had been suscumstances he was placed, which induced pended upon an ex-parte inquiry. They. his Majesty's officers to apprehend him. too, had appealed to the directors. He The Committee would inquire into all would abstain from calling for any docuthese circumstances, and the noble lord ment on this point for the present, reservhe conceived, would not find much cause ing to himself the liberty of proceeding for objection, when he informed him that hereafter according to circumstances. The he proposed to entrust him with the in- only other subject connected with the miquiry, in conjunction with some other litary transactions to which he would that 4 L VOL. XVIII. night call the attention of the House, was the trial of several officers by courts mar. tial. After the suppression of this unfortunate rebellion, the government of Madras selected for trial by court martial colonels Bell, Storey, and Duncan-and as the opinions of the courts martial were at so much variance with those of the government, it was proper that the House should have documents to enable it to decide upon that question. This much relative to the military transactions in the presidency of Madras. With regard to the other case, certain trials at law, which took place at Madras in 1808-9, he must again say, that they were of a most extraordinary nature, and ought not to be passed over without inquiry and explanation. He had before moved for documents on this subject, but as it was one of great importance, he would shortly state the outlines of the case as they had come to his knowledge. It was well known that a certain sum, five millions, had been set aside by the East India Company to answer the just and legal claims upon the nabob of Arcot. Claims to the amount of thirty millions were preferred upon this five millions, and suspicions were naturally entertained that vast numbers of them were false. Commissioners were appointed to examine and ascertain the real and bona fide debts. A certain number of gentlemen at Madras, interested in this business, being bona fide creditors, and acting in behalf of bona fide creditors, instituted a prosecution against a native of the name of Reddy Row, for forging one bond, and for a conspiracy with respect to another cash transaction, involving the foulest perjury. Reddy Row was convicted by juries of Englishmen, upon all the charges. But the extraordinary part of the transaction was, that sir George Barlow identified himself with Reddy Row, and directed notice to be given Mr. Maitland, a justice of the peace; to Mr. Roebuck, an officer high in the government service; and several others, individuals of the first respectability, prosecuting in behalf of the bona fide creditors, that if they presumed to interfere they would subject themselves to the serious displeasure of the government. Authority was besides given to the advocate-general, Mr. Anstruther, to defend this Reddy Row, and an order was made to defray his expences, from the funds destined for the payment of the real creditors. The first thing done by sir G. Barlow, in execution of his threat, was to remove Mr. Roebuck, who had been 36 years in the service of the Company, from Madras and his connections, without stating any grounds for this proceeding, though earnestly applied to for that purpose. He was removed at the risk of his life to a distance of 500 miles, to a most unwholesome situation, with less than half his former emolument, and in a few weeks after Mr. Roebuck in fact died. The magistrate who committed Reddy Row was also removed from his office: a third was sent to England against law; and from each of the juries who convicted Reddy Row, some were selected and sent to a distance of hundreds of miles with far inferior situations to those they held before, and the duties of which they were incompetent to discharge. Sir Thomas Strange, the judge at Madras, seconded the efforts of the governor. He gave it as his opinion, that the commissioners might still pay the bond, though found to be a forgery, and sent to this country a recommendation of pardon for Reddy Row. The pardon was granted; but in its voyage out to India, fresh matter had come out, conclusive as to the character and objects of this gentleman, who at last thought proper to relieve the anxiety of his friends by administering to himself a dose of poison. If the facts bore him out in this statement, he would ask if ever there was a stronger case before the House? It was needless for him at this time to mention what further proceedings might be requisite; but he would now say, that if these facts bore him out, he would move for the recal of sir George Barlow, as necessary to clear the character of the nation. He concluded by moving for several papers relative to these transactions, to the production of which he understood there was no objection. Mr. Charles Grant never heard a more aggravated statement of any case than that now laid before the House. When the papers were produced it would appear how very much the circumstances had been distorted. He would in a few words state his view of it. It was well known, that for 30 or 40 years back the Arcot debts had been a source of corruption. When the company took the territory into its hands, it was thought but justice to a3certain what claims there were upon it; and a commission was appointed; a branch of which sat here, and another at Madras. Before the arrival of sir G. Barlow at Madras, a large manufacture of forged House, and he trusted gentlemen would take the trouble to examine it thoroughly. They would find it well worth their labour, and in the mean time he only requested a suspension of their opinion. bonds had been carried on, and the bonds many individuals and interests were conwere publicly sold. The law officers of cerned, there would be a great deal of prethe commission were directed to make in- judice. But the Indian government wantquiries, with a view to check this evil; ed nothing but to have the whole investiand a case of forgery, by one Paupiah gated; and the more gentlemen conBrahminy, a native notorious for his want sidered the documents, the more reason of character, a prosecution was determin- they would see to distrust a great number ed upon; and an application made to the of stories that were circulated by indivigovernment, after the arrival of sir G duals. He had no personal connection. Barlow, for the assistance of its law officers with sir George Barlow. He had only to carry on the prosecution. This was corresponded with him as an officer of the granted. Upon which Brahminy turned governinent; but he viewed the great round, and commenced a prosecution lines of his conduct as entitled to the against Reddy Row, who had been 30 highest approbation. Although in a situyears a servant of the company, and of ation of such difficulty, some of the minor whose assistance the commissioners had steps might have been faulty, yet he had, availed themselves. Mr. Maitland, him- no doubt but sir George Barlow had done self a creditor, took the evidence against a great service to the public; a service Reddy Row, and refused to take it in the which even men of considerable merit other case. Under these circumstances could not have rendered. It was a misthe government thinking the prosecution take to suppose that this business had against Reddy Row to have originated in originated with the suspension of major malicious or interested motives, ordered Boles. The origin of it was much more rehim to be supported. The whole settle-mote, but the whole would be before the ment was divided into parties respecting this business; and by one of them the conduct of the government would of course, be represented in its very worst light. Mr. Roebuck had been removed not only for his interference, but for his factious Lord Folkestone would have been perconduct in other respects. The place to fectly satisfied with the hon. member's which he was removed was on the sea- statement, but for some little inaccuracies. coast, and very healthy; but he was an It had been said, that Mr. Roebuck, from old man, above sixty, and in bad health his time of life, and the peculiar nature of before his removal, which accounted for his services, which had lasted so many his death without ascribing any thing to years, might have died, without leaving the effects of a noxious climate. Mait- any other cause to be looked for than his land had been removed, because un- age and services. But this argument cut worthy of office, as would appear from both ways: and it was rather a singular the papers when laid before the House. vindication, that an old and infirm manThe governors had no object but to sup- a man, too, whose infirmities arose from port the cause of justice against faction. his services to the Company, should have With regard to courts of law, the direc❘ been sent to an unwholesome spot, and tors had taken no notice of any thing ex- left to take his chance of living or dying cept the conduct of its own servants. As there; and that, after having made every to the death of Reddy Row, from what- submission that could have been required, ever cause it arose, it was entirely un- and written a supplicatory letter. connected with the case of the bonds. The Mr. Maitland, who was removed from his commissioners had reason not to be satis- situation as a justice of the peace, for res fied with him, and dismissed him in the ceiving the evidence of one man, and reexercise of their discretion. He only re- fusing that of another, he ought to have quested that the House would suspend its been praised for his sagacity; for it turnjudgment till the papers were produced. ed out in the event, that Reddy Row was As to the military transactions, if the last given up by the government, and Paupiah session had been longer, all the documents Braminy, though his trial had been put on that subject would then have been pro- off for three sessions, for the collection of duced. They would soon, however, be full evidence against him, was finally let brought forward, and, he hoped, consider- off without their urging the trial to coned with a degree of attention suited to viction. Thus, according to Mr. Maittheir importance. On a subject where so land's judgment, the event actually ex As to |