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for whatever might be thought of a power in any Government to arrest without any caufe, and to detain for an unlimited time, it was generally admitted that perfons confined in the Baftile had every accommodation which a state of confinement allowed. As to the bill before the House no grounds had been stated for it, much lefs was there any caufe for the precipitation with which it had been hurried on. Sir Francis faid, he had come down the preceding day to ftate his reasons against it, but he found that at a very early period of the evening it had been difpofed of. It was a meafure, however, which demanded all the attention of the House; it was more important than any measure of finance could be, inasmuch as men's perfons were of more confequence than their property. He was the more furprifed at this, because when he made his motion for a lift of perfons taken up under the act for fufpending the Habeas Corpus, to which the right hon. Gentleman had thought proper to agree for reasons of his own, and not for those which were ftated in fupport of it, a kind of threat was thrown out that a renewal of the bill would be moved, and that the right hon. Gentleman fhould then unfold the dangers with which the country was threatened, and bring forward the proofs of the confpiracies which had existed. No ground had, in his opinion, been ftated on which the Houfe could furrender fo important a bulwark of the liberties of the fubject.

The Speaker faid, I wish to fet the hon. Member right. The bill was not hurried through the House, for a notice of a motion for leave to bring it in, was given fome days before by the Secretary of State, and it was not till after the House had gone through fome public bufinefs, being near five o'clock, that the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Pitt) brought in

the bill.

The Solicitor General faid, one good effect had followed from the difcuffion, that it seemed to be admitted that now there was no reason to complain of the manner in which the ftate prifoners were treated. It was a habit, however, with gentlemen on the other fide of the House, to beftow upon every measure which originated on this, and on every part of the conduct of administration, the most opprobrious epithets. One thing resembled Robespierre's committee; another the Taille in France, and they were compared to any thing that was likely to excite prejudice. What were then the reasons for continuing the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus a&t? One hon. Gentleman faid he had affented to it on the finding of a grand jury. When the nature of the thing is cooly confider

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ed, however, it would be feen that this could not be any reafon for agreeing to the measure. The purpose of fufpending the Habeas Corpus act was to enable the executive government to fecure fuch perfons as were fufpeed to be confpiring, and against whom no cafe could be immediately made out. From the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus act this country had, in different periods, derived the greatest advantage. It was used in King William's reign when many perfons were hostile to the existing establishment, and it contributed to confirm the authority and the fafety of the new government. In the rebellion of 1715 it had been ufed with the utmoft advantage. Many perfons fuppofed to be ill affected to the family on the throne were taken up, and when the danger was once over, were fet at liberty; and to this falutary measure the country owed its fafety. The benefits refulting from it were the more confpicuous when contrafted with the fituation of affairs at a period when it was not employed. The rebellion of 1745, though at a period when the family on the throne was more firmly established. and when the prejudices against the line of fucceffion had fubfided, threatened to be of more ferious confequence to the public fafety than the former attempt, because in the former cafe the concert and plans of the leaders were defeated. What had happened in Ireland? the difcoveries made in that country afforded powerful reafons for the meafure. It was then proved, and it had likewife been proved to those who attended the trials at Maidstone, that attempts had been made to inftitute focieties of United Britons; that governments within governments were organized with all the appendages of executive directories, councils, and committees. It was very easy to underfland that, though fuch defigns did exift, it was extremely difficult to bring them home to any individual, becaufe individual guilt was fo wrapped up in the general mafs. In Ireland, catholic emancipation had been the pretext for deep designs of treafon, and the veil employed to conceal the plot for dif folving the connection between the two countries.-Reform was here the pretext, and would any hon. Gentleman fay that this pretence concealed nothing? The powers committed to executive government had often been employed with the utmoti advantage to the public fafety. They had in recent times, as well as in earlier periods of our hiftory, enabled us to defeat the dangers with which we were threatened, and till the danger was fully over, it was the duty of the House to grant thofe powers by which only it could be encountered.

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Mr. Mainwaring faid, that as he was in fome degree implicated in what had been faid on the fubject of the treatment of the ftate prifoners, it was to be observed that the correction houfe in Cold Bath Fields had not been established for any fuch purpofe as that for which, in the prefent fituation of affairs, it had been found neceffary to employ it. With regard to its management, he could fay that there were none of the abufes ftated. The keeper of that jail was a perfon of great humanity and attention to his duty, and every care was exerted for preferving the health and comfort of perfons confined. He was fure that there was not a more comfortable. place of the kind in the whole country, or in one which, in proportion to the numbers confined, there was lefs ficknefs. Every thing was provided for the ftate prifoners in the moft liberal manner. He did not know to what the hon. Baroneţ (Sir Francis Burdett) had alluded when he faid, that the pri foners were out only for a few minutes; they were out every day for feveral hours, and he now understood that they were allowed to be altogether in the fame room. Of the propriety of fuch an indulgence, he was not called upon to fay any thing, but if he had been confulted as a magiftrate refpe&ing fuch a thing, he should have confidered it his duty to refufe it. Unquestionably great mifreprefentation must have been given of the ftate of perfons confined in this prifon, and the manner in which it was regulated.

Mr. Wilberforce faid, that as a great deal of mifreprefentation had arifen upon this fubject, it was extremely important that it thould be fully explained, and that the falle impreffions which it had been attempted to make on the minds of the public should be removed. A day or two ago, he had received a letter from a friend of his, informing him, that certain reprefentations had been made to Gentlemen in that Houfe, commonly called members of opposition, refpecling the fituation and treatment of fate prifoners, which were very likely to be incorrect. His friend, therefore, to enable him to judge of the fubject, had fent him minutes of the proceedings of the magiftrates who fuperintend the conduct of the prifoners, with remarks on the fate of the prifon; to this fubject he had not had an opportunity to turn his attention, as his mind had been occupied with the important plan of finance before the Houfe. He had now, however, revifed the documents and obfervations fent by his friend, and they would be found to be of great importance in clearing up the fubject of the treatment of the itate prifoners. He

was

DEC. 21.]

WOODFALL'S PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

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was aftonished at what the hon. Baronet had faid, refpecting the fituation of the prifon in Cold Bath-fields; he had been there as well as the hon. Baronet, not for the purpose of vifiting any particular perfons there, or on the fpur of the occafion, but to examine the general ftate of the place, and to view the fituation of the prifoners. He had likewife been in the habit of correfponding on the fubject, before there was any idea of its being agitated there, and the accounts he had heard were very different from what fome Gentlemen had ftated that day. He had been informed, that by the prudent regulations which then prevailed, feveral perfons had been reclaimed from habits of vice and idlenefs, to industry and good behaviour, and had been restored to society as ufeful fubjects. The charge which had been made, was certainly of a very ferious nature, it was no light thing to fay, that the Executive Government could be fo malignant, as to exercife any feverity against the perfons taken up, farther than was neceffary for fafe cuftody, and to prevent them from tainting the minds of thofe with whom they had communication in confinement. It was a charge either against his right hon. Friend, or against the noble Duke, more immediately at the head of this department; or against those who were more directly employed in the custody and fuperintendance of the prifoners.. The latter were perfons who in their station were no lefs refpectable than his right hon. Friend and the Duke of Portland, and who must equally feel for their character; no body imputed to his right hon. Friend, or to the noble Duke, any particular inclination to rigour, and the magiftrates to whom te fuperintendance of the prifon belonged, were therefore implicated if any extraordinary feverity was exercifed. From the documents of his Friend he was enabled to lay before the Houfe a great deal of fatisfactory information. It was proper in the first place to observe, that the regulations which prevailed in this prifon were many of them founded upon the principles recommended by the excellent Mr. Howard, and fuperintended by feveral perfons who had an active and laborious fhare with that benevolent character in his enquiries upon the fubject. Different boards exifted to fuperintend the regulations, and to receive information refpecting the ftate of the prifon. One of thefe boards met at least once a week, and the minutes of their proceedings would be found to contain much matter which would throw light on the prefent queftion. As he was reading the account of the prifon in thefe documents, and heard

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the reprefentations given of it, he could not conceive any contraft more ftriking. It reminded him of the ftory in "Jofeph Andrews," of the different remarks which were made by two travellers in a stage-coach on the character of a gentleman whofe eftate they paffed. One faid that he was the best hufband and father, the most generous friend, that exifted. The other, who had been asleep during this panegyric, awoke, and remarked the fine eftate they paffed, and lamented that it belonged to fuch a rafcal. Parfon Adams, in the simplicity of his heart, concluded that the Gentlemen must have been fpeaking of different perfons, and when he himself compared the reprefentation of honourable Gentlemen with the documents before him he was almoft tempted to think that gentlemen on the other fide could not be talking of the fame perfon. Nothing can be more fatisfactory than the account which his friend gave of the ftate of the prifon, as to the health and treatment of the prifoners. The gentleman who wrote the letter, a refpectable clergyman, ftated (here Mr. W. read several extracts) that he had feen the food intended for the prifoners, which confifted of as good legs of mutton and pieces of beef as he had ever feen at his own table; that the utmost cleanliness prevailed throughout the place; that of the number of which the prifon contained at any one time, which was two hundred and forty, the fick were only three, and the deaths for the whole year only two, though if the fituation of many of the perfons when they came in was confidered, the place rather refembled an hofpital than a prison. The minutes of the fittings of the magistrates, to which he had alluded, would ferve to fhew what had been the conduct of fome of the prifoners, and the neceffity there was to watch them with care. It appeared in thefe minutes that it was flated by the chaplain that two of the perfons confined in this place, Burkes and Smith, had behaved fo ill at church, had fo openly expreffed their contempt of the worship, that he propofed that their attendance fhould in future be difpenfed with. Thefe minutes likewife contained the meffage of Lord Kenyon on the occafion alluded to by his learned friend (the Attorney General), and teftified his lordship's approbation of the conduct of the magiftrates, and the management of the prifon in the highest terms. It was fo very in portant now that the fobject was under difcuffion that the mireprefentations which, ha gone abroad fhould be thoroughly corrected, that he hoped the Houfe would forgive his dwelling upon it with fome minutenefs of detail. What then was the fituation

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