Sitting of 22 January 1805

MINUTES.—
An officer from the commissioners of the customs presented at the bar, an Account of prohibited East India goods imported and exported during the last year; also, an Account of naval stores imported from Russia, from Michaelmas 1803, to Michaelmas 1804; also., an Account of the number of ships employed in the whale fishery to Davis's Streights and the Greenland seas, in the year 1804: ordered to lie upon the table.—A new writ was ordered for Agmondesham, in the room of C. D. Garrard, esq. who hath accepted the office of steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.—Lord Henry Petty moved, that there be laid before the house, an Account of all the exports to the Spanish ports in the years 1803 and 4; ordered.—Mr. Johnstone moved, that there be laid before the house, an Account of the net produce of the Permanent Taxes and the War Taxes for the year, ending 5th of Jan. 1805; also, an Account of the Exchequer Bills outstanding on the 5th Jan. 1805. Ordered.—On the motion of the Chanc. of the Exchequer, it was resolved, that no petitions for private bills should be received after the 1st of March next.—Mr. Alexander brought up the report of the Expiring Laws Committee. Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.—Mr, Wallace brought up the report of the committee of supply. The resolution that a supply be granted to his Majesty, was read a first and second time, and approved nem. con. Resolved, that the house should tomorrow resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to consider of the supplies to be granted.—Ou the motion of Mr. Huskisson, the following papers were ordered to be laid before the house. An Estimate of the ordinary expences of the navy for the year 1805, including an account of the half pay of officers in the navy and marines, employed during the last war; also, an Estimate of the probable expences of building and repairing ships of war in the present year; also, an Estimate of the charge for guards, garrisons, and other laud forces; also, an Estimate of the probable expences of the office of ordnance, for land service; also, an Estimate of services incurred, not provided for by Parliament; also, an Estimate of the navy debt on the 31st Dec. 1804; also, an Estimate of the probable expences of
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the transport service for 1805; also, an Estimate of the money probably wanted for the hire of transports, from the 1st of Jan. to the 31st of Dec. 1805; also, an Estimate of the monies wanted for the prisoners of war in health, for the present year; also, an Estimate of the probable ex-pence of the sick prisoners of war for 13 lunar months, from the 1st of Jan. 1805.—Ordered, that an humble address be presented to his Majesty, requesting that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to cause the proper officers to lay the above accounts before the house; and that those members of the house who belonged to his Majesty's most hon. privy council should go up with the same.—The speaker gave notice, that for the dispatch of private business, he should in future attend in the house every day at 3 o'clock, and be ready to take the chair, whenever the house should be pleased to direct.

DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY.—
Mr. Windhamsaid, that he had given notice of a motion for Monday next, to inquire into the state of the military defence of the country; but, it having been intimated to him, from the other side of the house, that it would be desirable to leave that day entirely open for the discussion of the Spanish business, he had no objection to postpone his motion to some future day, say Monday se'enight, which he hoped would be convenient. As, for the complete elucidation of the subject which he intended to bring before the house, it would be necessary to move for a variety of papers and accounts, he should take an opportunity of doing that to-morrow. The object of his motion for these papers was, that the house might be enabled to ascertain the increase of our military force within a certain period; and as he intended to include in his motion accounts of every species of our military force; regulars, militia, volunteers, &c. he thought it would be the most advisable plan to move for several distinct statements, so that should an objection be made to the production of any part of these papers, the house would not be prevented from being put in possession of the remainder.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS BILL.—
After several private bills were forwarded in their respective stages, and some routine business disposed of, their lordships, pursuant to the order of the day, resolved into a committee on the insolvent debtors' amended bill, lord Walsingham in the chair.
Lord Ellenborughrose and stated, that in consequence of a gross misrepresentation of the nature and object of the present bill, which had been allowed to go abroad, he found it necessary, both for the public information, and that those unfortunate persons who might suppose that they were meant to be relieved by the bill might not be deceived, or entertain false hopes, to explain the whole extent of the object which he had in view, in submitting this bill to their lordships' consideration. The bill now on their lordships' table, was not meant to extend in the most distant degree the benefits of the act of last session to any persons not expressly and in the true spirit and meaning of the act, comprehended in the bill passed last session. In fact, the insertion of a single word, or rather of a single letter ("prisons" for "prison") into that act, would; have rendered the present bill unnecessary. From the whole tenor of the act, it was evident that its benefits were meant to be extended to all persons, not otherwise disqualified, who had been in prison previous to the 1st Jan. 1804, and still continued there. Yet, by the wording of the oath required to be made by the jailors of the different prisons, with the list of prisoners in their custody, it is narrowed in such a manner as to seem to apply merely to persons who, during the period specified in the act, have been in that individual prison of which the person making the return is jailor. To rectify this narrowed interpretation of the act, and to give it the full scope which its other clauses imported
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it was meant to convey, was the sole object of the present bill. In the court in which his lordship presided, numberless applications had been made by persons who had been in prison during the full period required by the act, praying for a mandamus on the keepers of the different prisons, to rectify their lists, according to the different circumstances of the cases which presented themselves. But, after the most deliberate consideration, and after a consultation of all the judges on the subject, it had been deemed beyond the power of a court of justice to afford that relief which, they were nevertheless convinced, it was in the contemplation of the legislature to have bestowed. Persons who had been in prison, probably in the Fleet, previous to the 1st of Jan. 1804, and had afterwards been removed by habeas corpus to the King's Bench, or vice versa, it was obvious from the whole tenor of the act, of parliament, were not meant, merely on account of such removal, to be excluded from the benefit of the act; yet, on the other hand, it was impossible for the keeper of any particular prison to swear, as was required by the act, that a person so removed had been in his custody during the whole of the period specified, nor could any court of justice so far annul an act of parliament as to dispense with so special an enactment. In this situation, he had thought it his duty to endeavour to procure the earliest possible relief to unfortunate persons in the predicament he had mentioned. He was in his place on the day of the meeting of Parliament, had it been competent then to have brought forward the measure. He had been applied to by gentlemen desirous of extending the benefits of the act to persons not at present comprehended under it: but, however much he might have been disposed to concur in any measure of the kind, he could not conceive it proper to clog with such a burden the present bill, which was meant only to supply an omission, and to place persons in the way of profiting by the act who already clearly fell under its spirit and meaning, but were prevented, by the wording of a particular clause, from availing themselves of its privileges. He therefore hoped no delay would be suffered to take place in giving effect to the present bill, by engrafting on it measures with which it was totally unconnected.—The bill then went through a committee without any amendment, and was reported.—Adjourned.