Act, in every case in which any verdict or judgment by default shall be had against any person for composing, printing, or publishing, &c." should be amended, by inserting the words "maliciously and advisedly" before the word "composing." These words formed part of the Act of the 36th Geo. III. which in all other parts of the present Bill were minutely followed. He objected to that part of the clause following the words blasphemous and seditious libel, viz. "tending to bring into hatred or contempt the person of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, or the Regent, or the government and constitution of the United Kingdom, as by law established, or either House of Parliament, or to excite his Majesty's subjects to attempt the alteration of any matter in church or state, as by law established, otherwise than by lawful means," &c. as being vague, and confused surplusage, if intended merely as a definition of seditious libel, and as not being sufficiently clear and comprehensive, if intended as a description of an additional class of libels. This passage he proposed to amend by substituting the words "or any seditious libel, tending to excite his Majesty's subjects to do any act which, if done, would, by the existing law be treason or felony; or any libel in which it shall be affirmed or maintained, that his Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, has not, or ought not to have full power and authority to make laws binding on his Majesty's subjects in all cases whatsoever." By this definition instigations to murder, assassination, and other atrocious offences not touched in the original clause, would be brought under the operation of the Bill. But its great advantage would be, that it would distinguish between the casual errors, resulting from the warmth of political feeling, in the conductors of the regular daily press, and that class of writers, the outcasts of the human race, who applied themselves exclusively to preaching up irreligion, murder, rapine, the proscription of whole bodies of men, and the perpetration of atrocities never known in this country be-fore, and scarcely even heard in the time of Marat, in the worst period of the reign of terror in France. He then panegyrized the conduct of the daily press in general, and particularly that of the Editor of a Morning Paper, who, though on the side of opposition for 37 years, had never been prosecuted for private slander, nor convicted of a political libel. The conductors of the daily press had been the most effi cient supporters of the nation's interest during the late common contest in which we had been engaged; aud none had exerted themselves with greater energy and effect against the individuals whose inflammatory productions it was the object of the Bill to suppress. Why then were they to be levelled with a set of ruffians, whom they had been the first to combat and defeat. He would not on this occasion appeal either to the mercy or the justice of the House: he would appeal to its prudence, and would ask them whether it was expedient to irritate the feelings of those respectable men against the institutions of their country for in the present state of society against which it was as useless to repine as against the planets in their course, since neither could be altered-it was impossible that the power of the press could be wrested from them. The House might alienate or conciliate them; but he must again repeat, that it could not destroy them. The Hon. and Learned Member concluded by proposing his first amend ment. Mr. Canning objected to any alteration in the clause, except by such an amendment as might include instigations to assassination. In much of what had been said on the daily press he concurred, but he would not consent to surrender the freedom of Parliament to the freedom, or rather the despotism, of the press-a power which, from the description given of it, acted with all the secrecy of a Venetian tribunal, and at the same time struck with all the certainty of the Holy Inquisition. Lord Folkestone spoke generally against the provisions of the Bill. Sir J. Mackintosh and Mr. Canning explained. Mr. Brougham, in supporting the amendment, condemned the appointment of Mr. Manners, the Editor of that most slanderous publication the Satirist, to a consulship in New England. Lord Castlereagh said, when the appointment took place, he (Lord C.) was not aware that Mr. Manners had ever been connected with the publication alluded to. Mr. Scarlett supported the amendment. The Altorney General opposed it, and contended, that in the 36th Geo. III. the words" maliciously and advisedly" referred to words spoken. Sir J. Mackintosh maintained that it applied to priuting and writing, as well as speaking. After some further discussion, the amendment was negatived without a division, and the cause was agreed to. On the motion of the Attorney General, the clause relative to the punishment of a second offence was verbally amended, so as to prevent the bill from having an ex post facto operation. The Attorney General then proposed to amend the clause, by authorizing the court to banish for "a term of years," thus 1820.] Proceedings in the present Session of Parliament. thus doing away the power of banishing for life. Sir J. Mackintosh said this was only a more insidious way of enabling the court to do the same thing. Mr. W. Smith thought the longest duration of banishment should be for seven years. Lord Castlereagh dissented from this proposition. Mr. G. Lamb observed, that the present Ministers thought banishment a mild punishment. Those of Queen Elizabeth had a different opinion, when they enacted banishment as a punishment of greater seveyerity than setting a culprit in the stocks, cutting off both his ears, branding him on the forehead, and making him a slave for two years. The Committee then divided on the whole of the clause, when it was carried by 109 to 30. The rest of the clauses being gone through, the House was resumed, and the Report received. Mr. Alderman Heygate moved for leave to bring up a clause, limiting the duration of the Bill to three years. The motion was seconded by Mr. Denman, and opposed by Lord Castlereagh, and negatived without a division. Dec. 24. The Libel Bill, after some observations against it by Sir R. Wilson and Sir H. Parnell, was passed. Mr. Irving presented a petition from certain merchants and bankers in London, setting forth the general distress of the commercial and manufacturing classes, praying for an inquiry into its causes, and that such relief should be granted as might be deemed most effectual. Mr. Irving stated that the petitioners wished the attention of Ministers to be directed to the removal of the numerous restrictions on our intercourse with foreign countries. The shipping and mercantile interests might, it was supposed, be let in for a share of the trade between China and the continent of Europe, which was at present almost exclusively in the hands of the Americans. In the progress of the Bank towards the resumption of cash-payments, it was conceived that it would be of great advantage to the commercial interest to have the first price at which the bullion was to be issued extended over the whole payments. No relief could be looked for from a revision of the corn-laws, or an alteration of the poor-rates ; nor could he agree to Mr. Ricardo's plan of paying off the national debt, in which, so far was there from being any novelty, that it had been repeatedly suggested and discarded within the last 100 years. Mr. Grenfell expressed his surprize at the presenting of such a petition on the 71 eve of a long adjournment. It was represented to some of the parties applied to to sign it, as having come from Lord. Castlereagh. He conceived the real secret of the petition was, that it was wished to get rid of the late regulations respecting the currency, which bad crippled speculations in the funds and over trading. Mr. Irving and Mr. J. Smith denied that the petitioners had any sinister or selfish motives in view. Mr. Ricardo deprecated any alteration in the regulations made last Session for the resumption of cash payments. He conceived much evil had resulted from the corn-laws; inasmuch as by raising the price of subsistence they increased the reward of labour, and diminished the profit of capital, thereby occasioning its transfer to other countries. He saw no reason to change his opinions as to the beneficial operation of a tax on capital, to be applied towards the reduction of the national debt. Mr. Finlay admitted the respectability of the petitioners, but thought a Committee of Inquiry into the subjects of the petition would produce no good. Mr. W. Douglas supported the petition. Mr. Brougham was in favour of inquiry; but to render it beneficial, it must be cordially supported by Ministers. Mr. Ricardo's plan for reducing the national debt was one which would have the effect of throwing all the property of the country, for five or six years to come, into the hands of solicitors, conveyancers, and fortune-hunters. Lord Castlereagh was convinced, that to enter into so wide a field of inquiry would have the tendency to shake, and not to strengthen, the confidence of the commercial world; but if, on the re-assembling of Parliament, any Member should propose a specific remedy for any of the existing evils, Ministers would be found ready to meet the proposition fairly, and to act with a full view of their own responsibility. With regard to the currency, he deprecated any doubts as to the permanency of the arrangement already adopted. Mr. Ellice regretted that the business of inquiry was not to originate with Ministers. Mr. Alderman Wood said, that at least a dozen of the petitioners were favourable to the late regulations as to the currency. Mr. Alderman Heygate had declined signing the petition, on account of its being couched in such general terms. The withdrawing of 9,000,000l. from the current circulation could not but produce much commercial embarrassment; but he believed that the greater part of the mischief had already taken place, and was convinced that trade and manufactures would revive as soon as the country clearly saw to what point the diminution in the value of our currency would extend. HOUSE HOUSE OF LORDS, Dec. 27. The Earl of Donoughmore presented a petition against the Libel Bill, from the Edinburgh booksellers. Lord Sidmouth having moved, that the amendments made to the Bill by the Commons should be read, the Earl of Donoughmore moved that they should be read this day three months. The latter motion was negatived, and the amendments were read. Lord Ellenborough objected to the amendment substituting banishment for transportation. The Lord Chancellor did not approve of any of the amendments, but would agree to them, rather than lose the Bill. The Earl of Donoughmore disapproved of both the original punishment and the amendment: the cruelty of either was enormous. Viscount Melville, adverting to the petition from the Edinburgh booksellers, said the present Bill made no alteration in the law of Scotland. The amendments were then agreed to. Lord Sidmouth then moved the second reading of the Newspaper Stamp Duty Bill, and entered into a detailed explana. tion of its provisions, which, with the other measures lately passed, were, he contended, regarded by the great body of the people, as important safeguards of religion and public tranquillity. Lord Donoughmore opposed the motion. He considered the measures alluded to as forming a system of pains and penalties inflicted on a distressed and suffering people, The Duke of Athol expatiated on the dangers which threatened the religion and constitution of the country, and justified the measures taken to arrest those dangers. He called upon the Noble Earl to disclaim any personal allusion to him, or impeachment of his motives, when be thought fit to describe a large portion of their Lordships as the instruments of his Majesty's Ministers, The Earl of Donoughmore and the Duke of Athol severally explained. Lord Harrowby and the Lord Chancellor supported the Bill, which was then read a second time. HOUSE OF LORDS, Dec. 29. The Earl of Liverpool moved the third reading of the Newspaper Stamp Duty Bill. Lord Erskine opposed it, as imposing severe and unnecessary restraints on the press, and particularly objected to the recognizance clause as an anomaly in the British code. He predicted, however, that Bill would not answer the purpose of its projectors, for rather than publish under its provisions, the authors of the publicatious it sought to put down would continue them in numbers of more than two sheets, or print them monthly, instead of at intervals within 26 days. Lord Liverpool had no doubt as to the operation of the Bill. It should be remem bered, that in order to continue the ob. noxious publications in their present shape, they must pay the duty in addition to the present price, and the other modes suggested by the Noble Lord would make them equally dear, or less frequent. The recognizance clause would occasion no difficulty or embarrassment to the respectable part of the press. Lord Ellenborough supported the Bill, as tending only to curb the pauper press, from which so much mischief had arisen to the lower orders.. The Bill was then read the third time, and passed. Dec. 30. The Royal Assent was given, by Commission, to the Libel Bill, Newspaper Stamp Duty Bill, Bakers' Regulation Continuance Bill, and two private Bills. In the House of Commons, the same day, Mr. Williams presented a petition from certain Irish labourers residing in the parish of St. Giles, complaining of the distress in which they were involved for want of employment, and praying the House would adopt some step for their relief. The petition having been read, was ordered to be printed. Lord Castlereagh having moved that the House should, ou its rising, adjourn to the 15th of February. Mr. Grenfell took the opportunity of observing, that in what he had said of overtrading on a previous evening, he had been misunderstood. He could never have inteuded to apply it to such houses as the Barings, Smith, English and Co. and the seventy or eighty other respectable firms whose signatures were affixed to the petition which called forth his observations. Lord Castlereagh said that, on the occasion alluded to, Mr. G. had spoken so as to imply some doubt as to the stability of the system adopted last session, as to the currency. He would again assure the House, that there was no intention whatever of interfering with the arrangements then made. Mr. Calcraft begged leave to enter his protest against any adjournment of the House, without instituting an inquiry into the means of relieving the distresses of the country. The motion was then agreed to. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in re ply to a question put to him by Mr. Maberley, as to the statement made by him on a former night, said he had no objection to repeat that statement. He then stated, that 1820.] Proceedings in the present Session of Parliament. that between the 10th of October and the Sir H. Parnell, in moving for several accounts relative to the salaries and expences of several public boards, observed, that the charges for collecting and managing the revenue fell little short of 13 6,000,000%. a year, the means of reducing which enormous expenditure ought certainly to occupy the serious attention of the House. Mr. Vansittart assented to the motions of the Hon. Baronet, but was not very sanguine as to the practicability of much further savings than had already been effected. The Chancellor of the Exchequer gave notice, that after the recess the Chief Justice of Chester would move for leave to bring in a Bill to provide for the employment of the poor of the Metropolis. He at the same time signified, that the object of the plan was to employ them in the cultivation of Dartmoor. Sir W. De Crespigny and Mr. H. Davies expressed their satisfaction at the notice now given; and the latter praised the generosity of the Prince Regent, who had refused to grant a lease of Dartmoor, and reserved it for the purpose of contributing, as far as he could, to the relief of the poor. 1 Adjourned to the 15th of February. FOREIGN OCCURRENCES. FRANCE. On Tuesday, Dec. 28, the Chamber of Peers agreed to the Projet de Loi of the provisional collection of six-twelfths of the taxes, according to the assessments of 1819. After this business had been dispatched, a Report was made by the Committee of Petitions: one of the Petitions, from a Sieur de Vincens, praying that the law of the 16th January 1816, which banished the Regicides, might be repealed as unconstitutional, incurred the high indignation of the Peers; which they manifested by ordering the petition to be taken out of the Chamber and torn to pieces; and it was further resolved, on the motion of Marshal the Prince of Eckmuhl (Davoust) that the Committee should for the future take no notice whatever of any petitious of a similar character. On the 3d instant the case of Savary, Duke de Rovigo, came on before the First Permanent Council of War of the First Military Division, at Paris. The question was, as to the validity of the judgment awarded against him par contumace, on the 24th December 1816, by the Council of War. It was, somehow or other, pretty well understood, before the Duke of Rovigo surrendered himself to abide the event, that this judgment against him would be set aside. All the requisite forms, however, were gone through, and a very able speech was made in his behalf by his Advocate, M. Dupin. The result was, that the Council, after deliberating GENT. MAG, January, 1820. for three quarters of an hour, unanim Susly acquitted the Duke of Rovigo, and ordered him immediately to be set at liberty. as Jands The King held his usual Court on the 9th inst. which was attended by the Ministers, the Marshals, a great number of General Officers, Peers, Deputies, fr Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmiatia, introduced, and received from the of his Majesty the baton of a Mars al France. The Prince de Talleyrand, nas of been indisposed for some days; Ex-Director Barras is dangerous Under the head of Berlin, int papers, is the letter of a Pruss sor, M. Wette, to the mothe after his assassination of Ko soling her for the fall, and the deed of her son ! His jesty has dismissed the P chair, on account of thi duction. and the ly ill. he French ian Profesr of Sandt, zebue; con pologizing for Prussian Ma rofessor from his s detestable pro The greatest activi y is exerted, and means, not of the most creditable kind, employed by the Liberals, to excite the petitioning zeal of the electors against any change in the law' of elections. The King on the 6th, received, on the occasion of the new year, the Queen of Sweden, who will reside at Paris, under the title of Countess of Gothland. On the recommendation of the Duke de Berri, several establishments have been formed in Paris, for distributing cheap soup to the poor and indigent The females of Paris are still kept in a continual continual state of alarm by the monsters who prowl about the streets, inflicting wounds upon women; and who, strange to say, have hitherto escaped detection by the police. A lady has also been wounded in a church at Bourdeaux, and another at Soissons. There appears a strangely mutinous spirit in the great schools of France. The Schools of Medicine and Surgery at Toulouse are now rehearsing the scenes of turbulence and riot which broke out last year among the Law Students of Paris. It was found necessary to call in the military. The Bourdelais ship of discovery, has, after a voyage of three years and a half, arrived in Bourdeaux. This ship has traversed the Pacific Ocean, and collected at the Sandwich Islands some interesting accounts respecting the fate of the unfortu naté La Peyrouse and his companions. ITALY. A private letter from Naples says, "On the 1st inst. snow fell here, accompanied with much thunder. About the middle of the night, the inhabitants were awakened by a subterraneous noise; and soon afterwards one of the most dreadful eruptions of Vesuvius commenced that has been witnessed for twenty years. The inhabitants of Torre del Greco, of l'Aunienziata, and even of Portici, experienced the greatest disquietude, apprehending the fate of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The lava, however, fortunately divided itself into five torrents, and flowed to the foot of the mountain for the space of a league. The crater is much enlarged, a part of its brink having fallen into the gulph. On the 7th the lava still continued to flow. M. Steewen, a Quaker celebrated for acts of philanthropy, lately had an audience of the Pope, at Rome. As the principles of his sect did not permit him to take off his hat, he suggested that some one might do this for him in the anti-chamber; and it was done by M. Carrecini, of the Secretary of State's Office. A Circular Letter has been addressed by the Pope to the Lrish Prelates on the subject of the Bible Schools. Among other severe animadversions he remarks, that the "Directors of these Schools are, generally speaking, Methodists, who introduce Bibles, translated into English by "the Bible Society," and abounding in errors; with the sole view of seducing the youth, and entirely eradicating from their minds the truth of the Orthodox faith," But notwithstanding this order, and though a rescript issued by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, in accordance with it, is in circulation in his diocese, still the Bible is sought for in the counties of Mayo, Sligo, and Galway, with the greatest avidity by the Roman Catholic peasantry. Mr. Walsh, Roman Catholic Bishop of Waterford, has lately addressed an Apos tolic charge to his diocese, peremptorily enjoining every member of the communion carefully to peruse the Holy Scriptures; pointing out also, that the difference of translation between the Douay and English Bible should be no hindrance, as they are all alike in matter. ASIA. An expedition, consisting of the Liverpool frigate, Captain Collier, Eden, Catron, and Curlew sloops, and four Company's cruisers, with 4700 troops under Major-General Sir W. Keir, sailed from Bombay last September, to root out the pirates in the Persian Gulph. It appears that Lord Amherst is not the only Ambassador who has failed in an embassy to the Chinese Court. The Russian Government, in 1805, dispatched a Count Golowkin, on a mission thither; when the offensive ceremonial of the Kou-tou being insisted on, the Count returned to his own country without reaching Pekin. AFRICA. Letters from Tripoli, dated the 11th November, announced, that the pacific system adopted by that Regency is producing the happiest effects. Its commerce and navigation are flourishing. No Corsair has issued from the ports of Tripoli since the 1st of July 1818; and the Dey has solicited the mediation of England, to make his peace with all the Christian powers. He offers to engage never more to molest any foreign flag. It appears by recent accounts from Cape Coast Castle, that that part of the coast of Africa was infested by swarms of pirates of the very worst description; who frequently, not content merely with plundering the vessel, murdered the crews also. This happened to a Dutch ship, called the Drie Vrienden, in Dexcore roads, which was boarded during the night; when the captain, mate, and all the crew, were inhumanly butchered; and the ship was afterwards blown up by the marauders. Letters have been received from the Cape of Good Hope of the 30th of October. Lord Henry Somerset, up to that date, was still engaged in treating, it was reported, with the Caffre Chiefs for the cession of a large portion of their territory. The late military operations have terminated in the total discomfiture and dispersion of the savages. AMERICA, &c. Advices from the United States say, that some important commercial arrangements have lately been entered into between the Government of the United States and the King of Prussia. By these, all vessels belonging to his Majesty are placed on the same footing, as to tonnage, as those of America; and also as to the duty on goods imported by them, being the produce or manufacture of Prussia. An order had been issued from the Trea sury |