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curate, ad interim, where the misconduct of any beneficed person should seem to demand it. It was painful to him to particularise the circumstances on which he founded his motion for these observations, but it was but too true that, in the county in which he resided, bills of indictment had been preferred against three clergymen, within a short space of time, in the same year, for attempts to commit offences at which human nature revolts. It was to empower the bishop to appoint a curate when such charges came to the length of an indictment, that he wished to see a clause introduced into this or some other bill; and he wished rather that it should be thus collaterally introduced, than make it the subject of a bill in itself.

Mr. Barham was against the bill, and

Mr. Fellowes in its favour.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer remarked, that when gentlemen on the other side spoke about the property of the church in the way which the house had heard, they seemed quite to mistake the nature of that property. Those gentlemen spoke of it as if it were like a man's estate. They did not appear to recollect, that it was a property connected with a trust; that it was vested in the incumbents as a recompence for the performance of a certain duty, which duty if they should neglect to fulfil, it was the object of this bill to provide that the clergyman by whom it was performed should be adequately compensated. Could any thing, he would ask the house, be more fair and natural? Was the term tyranny at all applicable to it? In fact it was nothing more than, that a man having a patent place to which certain duties were annexed,' and to which duties he neglected to attend, should be obliged to pay a deputy for attending to them.

The house divided on the motion.

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Ayes 57-Noes 23-Majority 34. The house having resolved into the committee, a conversation took place on the clause respecting the allowance to be made to curates, and Mr. Creevey submitted a proposition to alter the scale of allowance; upon which a division took place. Ayes 11-Noes 47-Majority 26.

Another division took place immediately afterwards upon an amendment proposed by Lord Porchester, to restrict the power of the bishops, the result of which we did not learn.

HOUSE

HOUSE OF LORDS.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22.

Counsel were heard in reply, in the appeal cause, Reddington v. Reddington, to be further heard on Monday next.

The naval commissioners renewal bill, the military inquiry commission bill, and the wine duty bill, were brought up from the commons, and read a first time.

On the first reading of the last bill, Lord Suffolk expressed Lis regret that the amount of the duty must preclude the subalterns in the army from the enjoyment of a glass of wine.

JUDGE FOX.

The order of the day being read for a motion of an address to his majesty respecting the case of Mr. Judge Fox,

The Marquis of Abercorn rose, and agreeably to the intention which he signified the preceding day, simply moved an address to his majesty, containing an enumeration of the different matters which had been alleged against the conduct of Mr. Justice Fox.

Lord Hawkesbury next rose and moved, that the matters contained in the address be referred to a committee of the whole house; and that they do report their opinion respecting the validity of the facts contained therein.

Lord Auckland repeated his objections against the two modes that had been proposed for proceeding in this business. He was still of opinion that the charge, if any such could be substantiated against the learned individual in question, should originate in the other house; and that their lordships house should only act in their judicial, not in an inquisitorial capacity, to which they might be exposed by adopting the mode of proceeding proposed by his noble friend. He should only again observe, that if its object was the prosecution of a misdemeanor, their proceeding would be inexpedient; if it went to matter of crime, it would be illegal. Their lordships, he trusted, would also bear in mind the long continued embarrassments and hardships to which the learned judge had already been exposed in this business, and the heavy expences which the proceedings already had, and those that were about to be instituted, must accumulate upon him. They would likewise consider the late period of the session, and the im probability of being able to come to a determination on the question before its termination.

The Lord Chancellor felt the full weight of the observations

made

made by his noble friend, but he hoped they would not induce him to oppose the present motion. He perfectly coincided with his noble friend (Lord Auckland) in the opinion he had expressed respecting the complexity and inconvenience of the consequences which the proposed mode of proceeding might involve; he also deeply felt for the embarrassments and vexations to which it would necessarily subject the learned individual who was principally concerned in the matter. He was certain, however, that the pecuniary inconvenience which it brought upon that learned individual was the least distressing circumstance on his mind, and that he was much more affected by the manner in which it suspended his character with the public than by any other possible consideration. That his character would ultimately be cleared, he himself had little doubt; but that it should be done in the most expeditious and satisfactory manner must be the wish of every one who was anxious that the sacred character of a judge should be held in due veneration. The only wish he should further express was, that such matters in the address as did not immediately affect the character and conduct of the learned person as a judge might be omitted.

Earl Carlisle expressed a very lively sense of the hardships to which the protracted continuance of the proceedings must subject Mr. Justice Fox, who, on every occasion, had displayed the utmost promptitude and alacrity to meet every charge that could be brought against him.

Lord Holland argued upon the embarrassments that might result, from that house acting, in the first instance, in an inquisitorial capacity.

Lord Hawkesbury said, that the same objections that had been urged against proceeding against a judge in the manner proposed, would also militate against proceeding against any officer of state, whom the house might think proper to charge with improper conduct. As to the late period of the session, he did not see but that much progress, nay a termination of the business might take place before the close of the

session:

The Marquis of Abercorn, after some explanation, consented to withdraw the matter in the address objected to by the lord chancellor, and with that exception, after some observations from Lords Carysfort and Mulgrave, the motion was put and agreed to without a division.

It was next moved by Lord Hawkesbury, that the petitions presented

presented respecting the conduct of Judge Fox, be referred to the said committee, and that on Friday it be determined how and when Mr. Judge Fox should be heard in his defence. Adjourned till Friday.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22.

The committee appointed to consider of the expediency of permitting coals to be imported by the grand junction canal to a certain extent, obtained leave to report their opinion thereon from time to time to the house.

Lord Glenbervie moved an address to his majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to order a statement of the proceedings of the commissioners for the sale and redemption of the land tax, &c. to be laid before the house. Ordered.

Colonel Stanley presented a petition from William Stowel and others, merchants of the Isle of Man, praying the house to grant such compensation for the claims of the Duke of Athol, as the circumstances of the case may require. Ordered to lie on the table.

Mr. Loveden moved, that there be laid before the house an account of all the monies, stocks, funds, or securities for monies, standing in the name of the accountant-general of the court of chancery, or of the deputy remembrancer of the court of exchequer, at the bank of England, or South Sea house, being the property of persons suitors in these courts. Ordered.

The poor bill was read a second time, to be committed that day se'nnight.

GRAND CANAL IN IRELAND.

Mr. Bernard, pursuant to notice, rose to move that a com mittee be appointed to inquire into the tolls on the grand canal in Ireland, and what measures have been adopted, or may be adopted for their reduction. The hon. member prefaced his motion by stating the reasons that had induced him to postpone it so many different times. He had hoped that some amicable arrangement would have taken place between the directors general of inland navigation and the grand canal company in Ireland, but finding that expectation frustrated from a late laconic answer of the former board, he felt it his duty to solicit the interference of the house, as his constituents were

materially

materially affected by the tolls now levied, which exceeded any levied in this or any other country. The parliament of Ireland had granted, at different times, considerable sums of money for the reduction of the exorbitant rates of tolls on the canals in Ireland. These grants had produced the desired effect on the Barrow and Royal Company's canals. The rate of toll had also been lowered, in consequence of a former grant of the Irish parliament, ten miles below Banagher, whilst the exorbitant rates were continued in the King's county. Above two hundred thousand pounds of the public. money had been granted to the grand canal, and if the rates now levied should not be lowered, he could assure the house that the expected advantages would not be derived from it, as many persons in the vicinity of it now preferred land carriage. He therefore moved, &c.

Mr. Prinsep rose to second the motion, and stated briefly the necessity of lowering the tolls, in order to render the canal system in Ireland, for which an expence of no less a sum than one million of the public money had been incurred, nationally beneficial; but disclaimed on his own part and that of the hon. mover, any wish for any reduction of the tolls, except an adequate compensation being made to all the parties.

After a few words from Mr. Alexander, the motion was agreed to, and the committee appointed and directed to report on the subject, together with their observations thereon, to the house.

Mr. Wilberforce presented a petition from the inhabitants and manufacturers of the parish of Wakefield, also one from those of the parish of Saddleworth, both in the county of York, against the corn bill, which were referred to the committee to which the other petitions on the same subject had been referred.

Mr. Fellowes, pursuant to notice, moved, That there be laid before the house a copy of the return or returns made to the privy council by the archbishops or bishops, of the names of any persons holding preferments within their respective dioceses or jurisdictions, who may not have resided thereon in consequence of exemptions or licences under the 43d of his majesty, chap. 84.

A long conversation ensued, and it was at length agreed, on the suggestion of Mr. Speaker, as the accounts were voluminous and could not be speedily produced, that the accounts VOL. III. 1805. should

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