outrages which have been committed are marked with a character of savage atrocity which is without example in this country. Mr. Ryder, the Secretary of State, has, in consequence of these enormities, moved this day that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the state of the nightly watch. I expressed on this occasion (as I felt) great surprise and disappointment that for such an evil such a remedy should be thought of. Crimes had multiplied, and this, too, in a time of war (during which crimes have generally been observed to be comparatively few in number) to a most alarming degree.* Two whole families, one consisting of four and the other of three persons, had, at a very short distance of time, been murdered in their houses'; and the Minister proposes nothing more than to inquire into the state of the nightly watch. I suggested that the inquiry should be into the causes of the late increase of crimes, or into the state of the police. I stated that I believed that amongst the foremost causes of this increase would be found the mode of punishment now in use, that of imprisonment on board the hulks, or of promiscuous imprisonment in gaols; which turned loose upon the public the convicts, at the end of their terms of punishment, much more hardened * The number of persons committed for trial at the Old Bailey for the last six years, for offences of all descriptions, have been as follows: In 1806 1807 1 The murders of the families of Marr and Williamson: the first took place on the 7th, and the last on the 19th of the preceding month.-ED. Abuses in Ecclesiastical Courts. and profligate than they were before. I spoke of the system, now in use, of giving rewards for the apprehension and conviction of offenders of some descriptions, such as burglars and robbers on the highway, as extremely pernicious; since it gave a direct interest to the police officers and thieftakers that crimes of great atrocity, but extremely profitable to them, should greatly multiply. After the debate had continued for some time, Abercromby moved as an amendment, that the inquiry should also extend to the state of the police of the metropolis, which Ryder at last agreed to; and the committee has been so appointed.* Perceval, in the course of the debate, said, he doubted whether it would not be expedient, if any alteration were made with respect to rewards, to extend them to all crimes (proportioning the amount of the reward to the enormity of the crime), rather than to take them away as to any. 23d. Lord Folkestone moved for a committee to inquire into the state of the inferior Ecclesiastical Courts. What led to this motion was a petition presented by a young woman' not of age, who has been confined two years, having been arrested on a writ de excommunicato capiendo, for not paying costs in a suit for defamation. Sir William Scott defended the Spiritual Courts with great * This committee has since made a report, the object of which seems to have been to suppress all information as to the present state of the police. It contains no evidence, and does little more than refer to some old Acts of Parliament. 1 Mary Anne Dix; her case, as stated in her own petition to the House of Commons, will be found in Hansard's Parl. Deb., vol. xxi. p. 99.- ED. adroitness. I spoke after him, and strongly endeavoured to impress on the House the mischiefs of this power of excommunication which the Spiritual Courts possessed.* I took advantage of what Sir William had said upon excommunication, as being a very inexpedient mode of enforcing obedience to a judgment; and I pressed him very strongly, as being the person best qualified for it, to undertake himself the task of reforming this by a statute; and I represented to him how few difficulties he, as a friend to the Administration, was likely to encounter in such an attempt, and what good he might do by such a measure. Several persons who spoke afterwards adopted this idea, and the matter ended by Sir William Scott undertaking to prepare and bring in a Bill for the purpose.' 31st. I moved for some returns of convicts. Having been told by some of my Bristol friends Bristol that my address had been understood to mean that I would not, even when an election should take place, go near Bristol; and that it was very important that they should be undeceived in this respect, and that they should have some public assurance that I was not unwilling to undertake their business; I wrote a letter to Mr. Edge at Bristol, and gave him permission to publish it as he might choose. My letter was in these words : — * I mentioned that the evil had been stated to Parliament in King James's time, by a message from that prince, delivered by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Vid. Lords' Journals, 1st April, 1606. No remedy, however, had ever been applied. 1 This bill was brought in, and it passed into a law in the next Parliament. See infra, July, 1813. — Èd. Ᏼ Ꮞ election. My letter to Mr. Edge. "Sir, Lincoln's Inn, January 31st. "I have learned with much surprise that the declaration in my address to the electors of Bristol that I was not about to commence a personal canvass for their votes has been construed to mean, that I intended, whenever an election might take place, to remain in London, as if I were little interested in the event of it. Nothing certainly could have been farther from my meaning; and I really should have hardly thought it possible that such an interpretation could have been put upon my words. It is, and always was, my intention, upon a dissolution of Parliament, to hasten to Bristol, and there offer myself to the choice of the electors, and to express to them my gratitude for the honour which I have been led to believe they would confer upon me. But I entertain too high an opinion of the public spirit of the citizens of Bristol, to believe that at any time, and much less in such times as those we live in, their votes are to be gained by the personal attentions, and individual flatteries, and the other little artifices which are so often resorted to at elections. I am at this moment canvassing for their votes, and I shall continue to canvass for them, by a close attendance in Parliament, and by an anxious care not to neglect my public duty. These are the only arts I am practising, and which I shall continue to practise, to obtain their suffrages. Another opinion which I am told has been propagated is, that, as a Member for Bristol, I should be either unable or unwilling to give that time to the local and particular interests of my constituents which they would de mand. This opinion is just as unfounded as the former. As I would never consent to be placed in any situation in which I should be unable to discharge the duties which might justly be expected from me, it was not till I had ascertained, as well as I could, the nature and extent of the business which usually devolves upon the representatives of Bristol, and found that I could well undertake it, that I presumed to address the electors. I have presumed, Sir, to trouble you with this letter, in the hope that you would have the kindness to endeavour to remove these misconceptions, if they really exist. I am, &c." This letter was printed in all the Bristol newspapers. Bill. Feb. 7th. On the second reading of the Bill to Reversion prevent the granting places in reversion, Perceval, without giving any previous notice of his intention, opposed it; although on former occasions the Bill had passed the Commons almost without opposition. I spoke in support of the Bill. It was rejected in a thin House by a majority of two.' 89 Eliz. On the same day I moved for, and obtained Bill to repeal leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the Act of 39 Eliz. c. 17., which makes it a capital offence for soldiers or mariners to wander and beg, without a pass from the magistrate or their commanding officer. (Vide infra, p. 19.) 12th. I moved for a committee to inquire into the manner in which sentences of transportation have been executed, and into the effects which ation to Transport- Wales. |