22] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S12. 



pronouncing the proposition of the 

 riffht honourable secretary the 

 silhest that could possibly have 

 been made. After supporting this 

 assertion bv ridiculing the notion 

 of a grave inquiry into the state of 

 the nightly watch, he digressed to 

 the conduct of the Sliadwell ma- 

 gistrates on the late atrocities in 

 that quarter, to the suspicions 

 thro n on foreigners and Irish- 

 men, and the harsh treatment of 

 the latter, to the neglect in suffer- 

 ing Williams to commit suicide, 

 and the unseemly parade of his 

 funeral. He concluded with re- 

 commending to the right honour- 

 able secretary, that as he had shown 

 to-night that he hud not as yet 

 thought at all on the subject of the 

 |)olice, he would begin to think of 

 it with all possible dispatch. 



Other members joined in the de- 

 bate, of which it is unnecessary to 

 relate any further particulars. The 

 q-'jestion was then put and carried, 

 a+id "the^jcmmittee was named, in 

 which .were the members for Lon- 

 don, Westmiu&ter, Middlesex, and 

 Surrey. 



With respect do further proceed- 

 ings on this subject, w-e only tind 

 that on March 24th the committee 

 appointed for the purpose, present- 

 ed to the House an elaborate report, 

 in which they suggested a variety 

 of regulations and improvements; 

 tSiat a -bill was framed upon these 

 suggestions-; and that on July -Ith^ 

 upon the presenting of a petiiion 

 against it from one of the London 

 parishes, several members express:- 

 ed their disapprobation of its pro- 

 visions, 041 account of the expense, 

 and the new and extraord/vary 

 powers which it would create, and 

 wcoumiended its postponement. 



No further mention of it occurs 

 during this session. 



On January 21, Mr. Brougham, 

 pursuant to notice, called the atten- 

 tion of the House of Commons to 

 a question which he stated to be 

 simply this, whether the crown 

 had the power to use certain sums 

 of money without any grant from 

 parliament, or even without its 

 privity ? That, to which he meant 

 particularly to direct his observa- 

 tions, was the enormous fund 

 called the droits of admiralty, con- 

 nected with which, however, were 

 tlie crown revenues arising from 

 the duchies of Cornwall and Lan- 

 caster, the 4| per cent, duties 

 raised in Barbadoes and the Lee- 

 ward Islands, and the surplus of 

 the Scotcji revenue. After some 

 statement relative to these last 

 funds, he went to that which was 

 his peculiar topic, viz. the droits 

 of the king as lord high admiral of 

 England, supposed to be vested in 

 the crown, because for the last 

 century the office above mentioned 

 was not conferred away from it. 

 To this belonged all sums arising 

 from wrecks and goods of pi- 

 rates ; but the great bulk of it 

 arose from prizes. All ships de- 

 tained previously to a declaration of 

 war; all coming into port from 

 ignorance of hostilities between this 

 and other countries ; all taken be- 

 fore the issuing of proclamation, 

 and those taken by non-commis- 

 sioned captors, were sold, and the 

 profits arising from their sequestra- 

 tion composed the droits of admi- 

 ralty. By the last returns laid be- 

 fore the House on May 30,1810, 

 it appeared that the sum of 

 7,344,077/. had been paid in on 

 this account since 1793, and it 



might 



