Sitting of 19 March 1807

MINUTES.
—The following members were chosen to try the merits of the Lanark election petition: lord G. H. Cavendish, J. F. Cawthorne, esq., lord R. E. H. Somerset, C. Chester, esq., hon. W. Gore, T. Wood, esq., E. Harvey, esq., T. Thornton, Esq., W. Bagwell, esq., lord Brooke, right hon. R. P. Carew. Nominees: C. Dundas, esq., J. Paterson, esq.—The Secretary at War rose, pursuant to notice, tomove for leave to bring in a bill for paying the allowances to half-pay officers, their widows, and persons on the Compassionate List, at their own residences. In the object of this bill all would agree. It was one which was very desirable, if it could be effected, and he could anticipate no objection to it. He therefore need not trouble the house at length on the subject. He concluded by moving for leave to bring in two bills, the one to pay the allowance as above, and the other to enable the Kilmainham hospital commissioners to make regulations for the more easy add speedy payment of pensions. Agreed to.—Lord H. Petty obtained leave to bring in a bill to rectify an error in the act of last session, for settling additional allowances on the younger branches of the royal family.— Mr. Vansittart obtained leave to bring in a bill for extending to the outports the provisions of the custom-house office reform bill, and for applying to the superannuated fund such retrenchments as may be made in consequence of that extension.—The Advocate General presented to the house, according to order, a bill to authorize the payment of Prize Money, arising from captures made by ships of his Sicilian majesty in conjunction with British ships, to the Sicilian envoy, for the use of the officers and men of such ships; and the same was received, and read the first time.—The Serjeant at Arms at the bar informed the house, that pursuant to order he had taken the rt. hon. R. B. Sheridan into custody as a defaulter at one of the late calls of the house. It was ordered that Mr. Sheridan should be discharged at the rising of the house this day, paying his fees. Shortly after Mr. Sheridan left the bar, where he was held in custody, and advanced to the treasury bench; upon which the Speaker called order! order! and observed that nothing could be more irregular thou the en-
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trance of the rt. hon. gent. into the house; Mr. Sheridan being, strictly speaking, still in the custody of the serjeant at arms. Mr. Sheridan appeared altogether unaware of the irregularity he was committing, and hardly sensible that the Speaker was addressing himself to him, till Mr. Hobhouse took him by the arm, and explained the matter to him as he was conducting him back to the bar. The Speaker informed the serjeant, that it was the pleasure of the house that Mr. Sheridan should be discharged at its rising this day. Of course it was his duty to keep him in custody till then. Mr. Hobhouse apologized for his rt. hon. friend, who was not aware of the irregularity of coming into the house while in custody.

SCOTCH TAXES REGULATION BILL.
Lord H. Petty rosepursuant to notice, to move for leave to bring in a bill to provide for the payment of the public revenues in Scotland into the banks of that country, for the purpose of being remitted to the bank of England. The principle of the measure had already obtained the sanction of the last parliament by the acts requiring the payment of the public money from the several departments of the excise, customs, post-office, &c. into the bank of England. The same principle would apply in the measure he now proposed, with some circumstances of local distinction, rendered necessary by there being two national banks in Scotland. The collectors of the revenue in that country would be required, by the bill he was about to propose, to make up their accounts on the last day of every month, and to transmit them, with the sums they should have on hand, to the receiver general of the land tax for Scotland, who was to deposit the money, half in the bank of Scotland, and the other half in the royal bank, from which banks it was to be remitted to the bank of England, whenever it should amount to 5000l., there to be kept with the other public monies received from the different departments of the revenue, according to the provisions of the acts of the last parliament. As the Scotch revenue was liable to certain occasional, and sometimes sudden, demands for particular services, provision was to be made for advances for those services, and when the receiver general should certify the occasion to the banks, that certificate would be a warrant to them to issue the money and to make a deduction to that amount from any sum on hand to the remitted to the bank of England. The banks of Scotland were to keep accounts of all monies thus

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received, and these accounts were to be liable to the inspection of the lord advocate for the time being. This bill, when it should have received the sanction of the legislature, as he hoped it would, would be the completion of the system he had the honour to introduce, and he had the satisfaction to think, that when it should have passed, the whole of the public money would be placed in a perfect state of security. He moved for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the payment of the revenues of Scotland into the banks of Scotland, in order to their being remitted to the bank of England.—After a few words from Mr. Rose, who coincided entirely in the propriety of the bill, leave was given to bring it in.