§ Sir J. Mackintoshpresented a Petition from certain British merchants who had suffered the Confiscation of Property in Denmark, in 1807, in consequence of the unexpected bombardment of Copenhagen, at a time when we were on friendly terms with Denmark. The original value of the property confiscated was 200,000l. but the claims had, by various circumstances, been reduced to 100,000l. The droits of the admiralty occasioned by the attack on Copenhagen, and the seizures in consequence, amounted to two millions, so that 5 per cent. on this sum would relieve the petitioners. A long negociation had taken place between the petitioners and the treasury; the petitioners founding their claims on the ground that one of the principal purposes of the droits of the admiralty was to relieve sufferers by the accidents of war. A precedent of a similar grant to that required was to be found in the compensation given to British subjects for confiscation of their property in Spain, which compensation was granted out of the proceeds of the Spanish frigates seized before 1145 the commencement of hostilities in 1805. The petitioners were encouraged to rely on the justice of their case by the proposition made in the other House in 1808, that the whole of the droits resulting from the Danish expedition should be retained, with a view to their ultimate restoration to Denmark with the exception of as much as would compensate the British merchants whose property had been confiscated in that country. No doubt the noble lord who made that proposition and who was at present the secretary of state for the home department, was still of the opinion which he then expressed. The treasury, however, refused the claims, on the grounds; first, that it might establish a precedent for similar compensations in foreign wars; forgetting that the compensation granted to the Spanish merchants had already done that; and secondly, that it might appear to be a recognition of the principle on which the Danish government seized the property, than which nothing could be more futile.
§ Lord Lascellessupported the Petition. He had presented many memorials from the petitioners to his majesty's government on the subject; and although he allowed that the general principle of national policy was against granting such compensations, yet, under the very peculiar circumstances in which the petitioners had been placed, he thought they were justly entitled to it.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.