66 sword and pestilence," and "if the solids are but weak, and the blood poor, we only augment the evil by BLEEDING, which we would wish to remove, as thereby the system becomes weakened, and not able to discharge itself from the obnoxiousness it is encumbered with, and thus proves the very destruction it was intended to remedy."§ Bleeding is hurtful when the body is in sweat or perspiration." That these observations directly apply to consumption is sufficiently obvious, and indeed the present dangerous and obsti nate partiality for bleeding reminds me of the observation of an honest Irish practitioner, a rigid disciple of the old school, who in a conversation with me respecting injuries of the lungs, very seriously and earnestly remarked, My dear Sir, you must bleed them, for the only way to save a man's life, is to bleed him to death"; an observation not at all more absurd or contradictory than the present practice. With such principles and such practice we cannot be surprised at the number of those votaries, who, as the ancients would say, are constantly retained and einployed by these her priests in the service of the goddess of COUGHING! Her temple may be at Tivoli, but her seat of empire is in ENGLAND. " To the Editor of the Literary Panorama. Sir,-Considering your province to be looking about for scope of observation, I have been frequently surprised you have never noitced the magnanimous exploits of the Whip Club, whose ability consists in neatly turning concerned to see the pompous accounts in a corner;-to be serious, I have been truly those ephemeral registers and vehicles of folly, the contemptible way in which some of our the newspapers, displaying with great minutiæ fashionables (as they are called) spend their time; for I conceive that the imposing attinobility of England now, more than in precetude of manly dignity should mark the ding ages, and that all frivolities, whether exotic or native, should be eradicated; nor should the upper ranks of society think it a merit to pass off for their father's grooms, and, under the appellation of members of the Whip Club, sink the splendor of their fami lies in the renown of the stable, while the sanguinary Usurper of Europe is literally driving all before him, and with daring im pudence boasting to the servile world, that it is solely owing to their own imbecility, and from their acting in a manner so derogatory to their situation. Men should press forward in FAME's warlike chase ; To the Editor of the Literary Panorama. Instead of flourishing the whip, I should The time of Life is shoft! To spend that little BASELY, were too long . I am, Sir, your's, &c. A FRIEND TO NOBILITY, PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY. CHAP. The Lord Chancellor contended, that the ships and subjects of Denmark had not been detained contrary to the laws of nations. He therefore moved the previous question on the first resolution.-On a division, the num-, bers were: for the first resolution, 16;against it, 36. A second division occurred on the resolution for restoring the condemned. ships, which was also negatived. For the resolution, 16;-against it, 34. MAY 17.-In the upper house, Lord Sid mouth rose to make his long promised motion respecting the Danish ships. After conV.-Transfer of Stock.-Volun- tending that it was unlawful to detain foreign teers from Irish Militia.-Danish Ships. vessels, unless our own had been first de-Nabob of Carnatic.-Capital Offences. tained, he moved three resolutions: - First, Poor's Settlement Bill.-Journeymen that it appeared that friendly traders had Cotton Weavers.-Distillation from Su- been seized in our ports, and at sea, by our gar.-Expedition to the Dardanelles. cruizers, contrary to the laws of nations.MAY 13.-The Chancellor of the Exche honour of the British nation, to advise his Secondly, that it would be expedient, for the quer, in a committee, rose for the purpose of Majesty to suspend, during pleasure, the proexplaining a plan which he had suggested on ceeds of ships and cargoes adjudged prizes, a former night, of allowing persons possessed under the circumstances before described, by of stock in the 3 per cent funds, to transfer the admiralty courts. Thirdly, that such the same to the commissioners for the re-ships should be restored to their owners, and duction of the national debt, with a view of the seamen cease to be prisoners of war. receiving annuities for it, at an estimated value. In the course of his observations, he distinctly disavowed any idea of diverting the Sinking Fund from its object. He meant that power should be given to holders of 3 per cent Consols, Reduced, or South Sea stock, to transfer it to the commissioners, who should be authorized to give for it such an annuity over and above the dividend, as with the dividend would be equal to the value of the stock so transferred. At the calculation, this stock was to be transferred at the current price of the day, and the annuity was to be valued according to the age of the party. He meant, however, to confine the annuities to persons not under 35 years of age, and not to give any for less than 1001. capital; because the trouble would be as great on the smailer annuity as on the larger and the reason why he wished to confine it to persons not under 35, was to prevent the impositions, which would be much more easily practised if it were not so confined, and which had been often practised in the case of tontines. He went much at length into the principles of his plan, to shew that the reception of annuities would be optional, and that they would always be granted at a fair value. AlJuding to the present price of the funds, he observed, that he had no doubt that the constant operation of the sinking fund would keep them up. He concluded by handing to the chairman the first resolution, which was in substance:-" That it is the opinion of this committee, that it would tend to the more speedy reduction of the national debt, if every person possessing stock in the 3 per cent Consols or Reduced, should be at liberty to change the same for annuities to be granted on a single life, or for two lives, with benefit of survivorship, named by the nominee."Agreed and received. MAY 16.-Leave was given to bring in a bill to amend the 46th of the King, relative to empowering his Majesty to accept the volunteer services of persons from the militia of Ireland into the line. On the same evening, in the House of Commons, Sir Thomas Turton entered into a review of the affairs of the Nabob of the Carnatic. The hon. Baronet observed, that he had no personal enmity to the noble Lord against whom the object of his motion would be directed; but he had understood that it was intended to place that noble person (Marquis Wellesley) in an elevated situation in the government of this country. If the noble Lord, from the statement he should lay before the house, should be deemed guilty of those acts of tyranny and injustice attributed, to him, he would pronounce him most unfit for any situation in the state. Here the hon. transactions in the Carnatic, from the year. Baronet proceeded to give a narrative of 1740, to July 5, 1801, the day on which the Prince of the Carnatic, Omdat ul Omrah, was deposed, and the new Prince in his stead ascended the Musnud, and from thence to the period of the death of the deposed Prince. In this narration he appealed to the voluminous papers laid on the table, deducing from the whole, that in deposing one. Prince, and exalting the other, the Governor-General of Bengal was guilty of tyranny, injustice, and breach of treaty and of faith. He concluded by moving a string of resolutions, one of which went to the appointinent of a committee to inquire into all the circumstances attending the deposition and death of the Nabob; while the last resosolution was declaratory of those principles of justice and policy on which our Indian possessions should be governed. Mr. Wallace and Colonel Allen spoke in defence of the conduct of the Marquis of Wellesley; and Lord A. Hamilton supported the resolutions; after which, on the motion of Mr. Windhamn, the debate was adjourned to the 24th. It did not, however, come on again till June 1. The first resolution, against the Marquis Wellesley, was then negatived; by 102 against 18; the second, by 109 against 21; and the third, by 124 against 15. The remainder were postponed to June 15. finnocent man was taken from his family, and MAY 19.-The poor's settlement bill was thrown out, by 114 against 11. MAY 18.-Sir S. Romilly rose to submit a measure to the house, for the purpose of diminishing the number of offences made capital by law. He had always conceived that the number of capital offences in this country was too great; the natural effect of which was, that in a vast number of instances the punishment pronounced by the law was not put in execution. He conceived that there was no principle of jurisprudence better founded than this, that crimes were more effectually prevented by the certainty, than by the severity of punishment. It appeared by returns from the Secretary of State's office, that in the year 1805, the number of persons capitally convicted in this country was 350; of whom only 68 were executed, which was not one-fifth of the number convicted; and in 1806, the proportion was much the same. The fact was, that except in the cases of murder, forgery, burglary, or some other heinous and aggravated offence, the punishment was rarely inflicted; and he believed that in 19 out of 20 cases of simple larceny, the punishment Mr. Rose moved for leave to bring in a bill of death was commuted for some compara- to remedy the existing depression in the tively trifling infliction. Stealing in a dwel-wages of journeymen cotton-weavers.-Seveling-house to the amount of 40 shillings was a capital offence; and even stealing privately from the person of an individual to the value of 12 pence, was visited by a like punishment. This last was enacted by a statute, 8th Eliz. cap. 4; and when the prodigious change in the value of money which had taken place since that time was considered, it was a matter of astonishment that it should Lord Binning rose for the purpose of movstill be suffered on our statute books. It re-ing, that the report of the sugar committee mained to consider of a remedy for these evils; and he was fully aware of the propriety of proceeding by slow and gradual steps. He should, therefore, only propose at present, that the statute of 8th Eliz. which pronounced a capital punishment on stealing to the amount of 12 pence, be repealed; and that afterwards the house should take into consideration other statutes of a similar description, and re-enact laws by which the sums stolen would bear some proportion to the great fall in the value of money. The second subject to which he would now call the attention of the house was, the case of those persons who, after long confineinent, were acquitted of the charges brought against them. It frequently happened, at least in the country, that an ral members opposed this motion, on the ground, that as manufacturers could not be forced to employ men, they would discharge all those for whom wages would thus be raised; and they must either perish, or be come burthensome to their respective parishes. Under this impression, Mr. Rose consented to withdraw his notion. be referred to the consideration of a committee of the whole house. [For a copy of this interesting report, vide PANORAMA, Vol. IV. pp. 372 and 417] First, however, his Lordship observed, it would be necessary for him shortly to explain the nature of those resolu tions which he had originally meant to sub. mit to the committee, and then to state the change which he had been induced to make in them. In the course of their examination, a variety of facts came to the knowledge of the committee, inducing them to think that the substitution of sugar for grain in the distilleries would, upon the whole, be wise and expedient in the present circumstances of the country. From the testimony of various witnesses, there was reason to believe that the supported the resolutions, the house divided. for the Speaker's leaving the chair, 122;against it, 108;-majority, 14.-The house then went into a committee pro forma; after which the chairman reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again. MAY 20.-Mr. Taylor, on rising to bring forward his motion respecting Sir John Duck worth's expedition to the Dardanelles, recapitulated the various treaties that had been concluded between Turkey, Russia, and this country, for a series of years back. From a perusal of all these treaties, it seemed to him evident, that the fleet which had been sent by the then government of this country, with a view to commit hostilities on Constantino as regarded the interests of this country, and in direct violation of our treaty with the Sublime Porte. It might be urged that Turkey went to war with our then intimate ally, the Emperor of Russia, whom we were bound to assist. This assertion, however, he would not permit to be made, as it was evi dent, from the official documents then before the house, that the aggressions had proceeded entirely from Russia. The good disposition of the Turks towards the people of England, might be authenticated by the first military aud naval characters in the country; he, therefore, conceived it incumbent on the members of the late administration to defend their conduct to the country; as the failure of the expedition sent to the Dardanelles, though not so disastrous, was certainly as disgraceful to the national character as the loss of Monte-Video or Buenos-Ayies. The hon. member then moved, as a preliminary resolution, "That his Majesty's fleet appeared before Constantinople, remained 10 days, and retired without effecting any object." last year's crop of barley and oats was defi- | cient in various parts of the country. Mr. A. Young had stated, that in the district with which he was best acquainted, Suffolk and Norfolk, the crop of barley also had been deficient. The testimony of Mr. Wakefield was much to the same effect; and the evidénce of certain corn-merchants imported that the crops of oats and barley in the North of Scotland and Ireland had sustained great injury from the wetness of the season, and were unusually deficient. From all these circumstances, the committee thought themselves justified in concluding that the average crop throughout the country, of barley and oats, was deficient; but that still, though shut out from foreign supplies, we had a re-ple, was impolitic in the extreme, in so far source within ourselves, and that was, the application of grain consumed in the distil leries to the food of man; conceiving that it was consistent with sound policy to avail ourselves of this resource, at least till the next harvest has removed the propriety of such a measure, or rendered it still more necessary. It was thought that the very agitation of this question would lower the price of grain, but instead of that it had risen, and was every day rising. The noble Lord compared the prices of grain in the last year with those of the present, and from the whole drew this conclusion, that they were considerably higher in the present year; he thought himself, therefore, warranted in saying, that the profits of the farmer at present were such, as to be out of the reach of any diminution from this measure. Conceiving that unanimity was very desirable, he had been induced to make some alterations in the resolutions, which he should have the honour to submit. The first was," That it appears expedient to this house, that, from July 1 to Oct. 1 next, all distillation from every kind of grain Mr. Thomas Grenvile said, that the exbe prohibited."-The second was, "That pedition was sent in consequence of the refrom Sept. 1 next, it shall be lawful for the commendation of Mr. Arbuthnot, and not King in council to continue this prohibition with a view to create a diversion in favour from Oct. 1 till 30 days after the next meet- Russia. He hoped no gentleman who had ing of Parliament." He should afterwards perused the documents then on the table subunit the propriety of reducing the duty on would say that it was impolitic to interfere sugar-wash, so as that spirits might be pro- between Turkey and Russia. The stipuladuced from it. It was his wish that Ireland tions in our treaty with the Porte acknowshould be included, on account of the great ledged the right, and we never interfered unrise in the price of grain, &c. in that country. til that power, through the machinations of With regard to the case of the West India Sebastiani, abandoned our alliance, and subplanters, he did not mean now to enter upon stituted that of France. The hon. gent. then it. From all that he had heard on the subject, drew this conclusion from the several papers however, he believed that their distresses were he had read, that the Turkish fleet was becoming every day more urgent; and cer easily assailable, at the time the expedition tainly if any thing could be done for their re-arrived at Constantinople, and that the force lief, it must afford the greatest satisfaction to every one. The noble Lord concluded by moving that the resolutions be referred to a committee of the whole house. After a discussion of considerable length, in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer sent thither was quite suficient for the pur pose for which it was sent. The inference was, also, that the late ministers were fully vindicated respecting that expedition, and that they were justified in their expectation of the co-operation of Russia, by her sending to the assistance of Lord Collingwood eight sail of the line. He complained of being deprived of the report made by Sir Thomas Louis to Lord Collingwood, of the state of the forts of the Dardanelles, and of the Turkish fleet at the same period, which would have elucidated this matter, and corroborated the conclusion and inferences which he had drawn. He imputed the failure of the expedition to adverse winds, which for the space of six weeks prevented the timely approach of our ships, added to the activity of general Sebastiani, who disciplined the Ottoman troops, and provided them with French officers and engineers, who, with an army of 200,000 men, must have baffled any effort which we could make, either by land or sea. The hon. gent. adverted to the expedition to Alexandria, and laboured to shew that, notwithstanding the result, it was planned on the wisest principles, and for the most prudential purposes. He blamed the present administration for giving it up, the station being, both in a naval and military point of view, one of the first importance on the coast of Egypt. He concluded with paying many compliments to the ability and gallantry of the officers engaged in both expeditions, naval and military, and to the whole of the navy in general. Mr. Canning entered into a most luminous account of the treaties between the confede rate powers, giving an historical detail of events since the period when Mr. Pitt's administration ceased, to the present time. He deprecated, by inference, the rupture with the Sublime Porte, and condemned it as impolitic and unwise. He admitted the propriety of preserving amity with Russia, but he did not consider that by breaking with the Ottomans, we could preserve those relations; for the attack on Constantinople only shewed a Darrow, grasping, scitish policy, directed wholly to our own interest, and neglecting the interest of Russia, as our ally. He condemned, with animation, and the most pointed irony, the conduct held to the Porte, who, for being our friend, was to be quarrelled with; who, for being our ally, was to be bombarded; and who, for making or striving to keep pe ce with all the world, was to be annihilated. He desired the house to reflect on the local situation of Constantinople, the attempt to bombard which was nothing short of extreme wickedness; especially when all reasoning men must acknowledge, that it was not only not necessary, but, from their own shewing, wholly unprovoked; which did more injury to the political character of the country, than it did even dishonour to her arms. But the great imputation to be cast on the expedition to the capital of the Turkish empire was, that with an affectation of proceeding by an amicable | negociation, an attack was made on the outworks of that capital, by attacking and passing the Dardanelles. It was in the knowledge of the house that this discussion was not sought for by any of his Majesty's ministers; that they neither desired nor courted it; but that it was urged and provoked by the right hon. gent. opposite to him (Mr. Grenville) and his friends. The cui bono he could scarcely understand. It would not vindicate the late administration; it would not convict the present; it would not restore the friendship of the Ottoman Porte; it would not defeat the ascendancy of French influence in her councils; it would not bring back the good will of Russia, nor restore us the city of Alexandria, nor cure the injury done to our wounded character, nor retrieve our political importance in the eastern part of Europe. The right hon. gent. imputed misconduct to the late administration in fitting out the expedition; and read a letter sent from Admirał Louis to Sir John Duckworth, stating, that more troops were necessary to effect the enterprise. It was necessary to attack the castles of Sestos and Abydos, in order to force the passage of the Dardanelles. From the account transmitted by Admiral Duckworth, these castles were formidable, and had the Turks been allowed another week to raise fortifications, it would have been impossible to force the passage. It had also been said, that 50,000 men were in Constantinople; and what could 2000 British troops do against such an army? The truth was, that the troops were not employed in the expedition, but were sent to Alexandria, when they might have taken possession of the castle on the Asiatic side of the Strait, without annovance from the force at Constantinople. As he conceived the subject had already occupied a considerable time, he would not prevent other members from expressing their opinions, but conclude by moving the order of the day. Mr. Windham observed, it was not known that more troops were requisite for the expedi ion, until Admiral Louis wrote to Admi ral Duckworth, Jan. 22, for an additional force. Eight days previous the Admiral had said, "I can go up with three ships ;" and it was evident that a sufficient force at one time was not sufficient at another. After farther discussion, the question was negatived without a division. Our readers will be enabled to judge on the cogency of the several arguments used in this debate, by the gentlemen who spoke on each side of the question, by referring to the description of the approaches by water to Constantinople, in our second volume, p. 112, &c. and especially to the map given in the same volumep. 315; Compare also p. 607. |