Commons Sitting of 9 May 1805

MINUTES.
On the motion of Mr. Leycester, it was ordered that a message be sent to the lords, requesting their lordships to permit lord Harrowby to attend and give evidence before the committee of naval enquiry.—The Irish land partition

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bill passed through a committee, and was ordered to be reported to-morrow.—The ballot for a committee on the charges against sir H. Popham, was put off till to-morrow, on the suggestion of Mr. Kinnaird, as several members did not know that it was to have come on this day.—Mr. Shaw presented a petition from the corporation of the city of Dublin, against the Roman catholics' claims. Ordered to be laid on the table.—On the motion of Mr. Fane, it was ordered that the late sheriffs of the county of Middlesex, be tomorrow brought to the bar, in order to their being discharged.— The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved, that the order for the house to-morrow going into a committee on the bill for the continuance of the naval commissioners' powers, be discharged, and that a new order be made for Tuesday next. Ordered.— On the motion of the same right hon. gent. it was ordered, that the committee on the bill for authorizing enquiry into other departments, be put off to the above-mentioned day also.—The house resolved itself into a committee on the Irish election regulation bill, in which several verbal amendments were made. Upon the house being resumed, the chairman reported progress, and obtained leave to sit again on Wednesday next.—The report of the committee on the Irish stamp duties act was brought up. The resolutions were read and agreed to, and a bill ordered conformably to the tenour of the resolutions.—Mr. Foster presented copies of the letters patent of the lords commissioners of his majesty's treasury in Ireland. Ordered to be laid on the table.—The wine duty bill, and the slate duty bill were read a second time, and ordered to be referred to a committee to-morrow.— On the order of the day for the second reading of the Irish small debt bill, Mr. May objected to the bill, on the ground of its throwing too large a quantity of business on private gentlemen, acting as magistrates, who had already as much as they knew what to do with; and as these small debts were recoverable at the quarter sessions. Sir J. Newport supported the bill as highly necessary. He said that the recovery of small debts was very precarious and uncertain at present, as it was attended with considerable expence. Persons might now recover to the amount of 5l. before the magistrates at the quarter sessions; but many of them in the different counties lived 15 or 20 miles from the
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session house, and had to carry their witnesses so far, and to pay their expences, which rendered it a great hardship on all and actually precluded many from pursuing their just claims. He thought, therefore, the bill would prove very advantageous to the country, and as such would vote for the second reading. Mr, Lee said, magistrates were allowed to try causes of 51. for wages, and why not for common occurrences?—The bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed tomorrow.

PETITION FROM BERKSHIRE RESPECTING THE TENTH NAVAL REPORT.
A petition of the gentry, clergy, and freeholders, of the county of Berks, assembled at a public meeting for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of adopting resolutions in consequence of the decision of the house on the tenth report of the commissioners of naval enquiry, was presented to the house, by Mr. Charles Dundas, and read; setting forth, "that the petitioners have read with indignation the intimation in the votes of the house, of the abuses discovered in the said report; and they share the national exultation at the resolutions of the house of the 8th and 10th of April last; and the petitioners observe with gratitude that the house intend to prosecute further enquiry to the detection of all abuses which may exist in any other department of the state, and that they have ordered bills to be prepared for that purpose; and the petitioners entertain a confident hope, that in framing, the above-named bills, the house will carefully provide that the power constituted will be equal to the professed object, both as to the authority to be conferred, and the integrity of those by whom it is to be executed; and that the house will attend particularly to obviate a repetition of the obstacles raised by persons in office to investigation; for the petitioners submit, that if any thing can be worse than a deep-rooted system of abuse and peculation in the management of the public money, it would be the institution of a system of revision, in its nature a burlesque upon investigation, and in its result a mockery of justice; and that the petitioners conceive, that the most effectual method to check abuses, will be to punish already detected delinquency; and they therefore hope the house will be deferred by no considerations from pursuing with effect what they have begun with so much honour; and that

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they will not relax in their efforts till they have brought all persons concerned in the misapplication of public monies to condign punishment, and given to the world a signal demonstration, that in the representatives of the people will be found, not the abettors of iniquity, but the faithful guardians of the nation, and the zealous vindicators of the law."