1799-] 
the lord lieutenant. The Bill was warmly 
fupported by Mr. Ogle, Dr. Duigman, 
Mr. J. C. Beresford, and Sir Henry Ca- 
vendifh. The attorney general contended 
on the fame ground with Sir H. Langrif- 
lie, that it would be an ex pof fado law; 
and after fome debate the Bill was thrown 
out by a majority of 20. 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
The parliamentary proceedings fince 
our laft have not been exceedingly intereft- 
ing. Mr. Secretary Dundas on the 3d of 
April, delivered a meffage to the Houfe 
of Commons from the king, ftating, ‘that 
his majefty in. confequence of reprefenta- 
tions of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, 
informed them that ke judged it proper to 
have feveral perfons confined in the Caftle 
of Dublin and Belfaft, who had been 
guilty of high treafon, to be immediately 
removed to a place of fafer confinement, 
and ordered that they be brought from 
Ireland, and kept in cuftody at Fort 
George, in Scotland.” On the sth of 
April, on the motion of the chancellor of 
the exchequer in a Committee of Ways 
and Means, a farther iffue of a million 
and a halfof exchequer bills was agreed 
to. The lord advocate of Scotland on 
the fame day moved the reading of the 
A& of George the Second, amending the 
A& of William the Third, relative to 
bail in criminal cafes in Scotland. The 
act being read, his lordfhip obferved, that 
as the law now food it was apparent that 
the Scotch magiftrates had no difcretion- 
ary power to proportion the bail to the 
nature and degree of the offence. By the 
law of William the Third, certain fuins 
were fixed for the different clafles of fo- 
ciety. The fum required fora burgefs 
and the inferior claffes, could in no cafe 
exceed 16], tterling. The confequence of 
this was, that perfons charged with fe- 
dition got out of jail, and made their ef- 
cape at a very {mall expence to their 
friends. He enumerated feveral inflances 
of the members of the correfponding fo- 
ciety of Scotland having evaded juftice in 
this manner, and who were at prefent ac- 
tive agents of treafon on the continent. 
¢ therefore moved for leave to bring in 
a Bill to increafe the amount of bail in 
criminal cafes in Scotland, and to detain 
perfons accufed of certain crimes in cuf- 
tody until the day of trial—and leave was 
accordingly granted, 
Lord Grenville on the trth of April, 
rofe in the Honfe of Lords, to move an 
addre{s to his maicfty, on the fubjest of a 
Union with Ireland, expreflive of the 
fenfe entertained by the Houfe of the ad- 
Montury Mas. No. xniv. 
State of Public Affairs. 333 
vantages refulting from fuch a meafure ; 
pledging the concurrence of their lord- 
fhips in the refolutions thereupon which 
had been fent to the Cominons, and pray- 
3 F 
ing that his Majefty would be pleafed ct 
a proper opportunity, to order the fame to 
be laid before the parliament of Ireland, 
Lord Auckland made a fpeech in favour 
of the meafure, and in fupport of the ad- 
drefs in which he adverted to the fame ar- 
gumeéents before made ufe of in favour of 
the Union, but particularly the advantages 
arifing to commerce by the adoption of 
that meafure. The bifhop of Landaff, 
{poke at confiderable length and with 
much ability in favour of an Union. 
Lords Minto, Borrington, and Kin- 
moul {poke on the fame fide. The quef- 
tion for the addrefs was carried zez. dis. 
It was then fettled that a conference be 
held with the Commons the next day, 
when their lordfhips fhould communicate 
to them their proceedings upon the refo- 
lution and theaddrefs. Accordingly on 
the next day (the 12th) a deputation of 
their lordthips met a committee of the 
Houfe of Commons in conference, and 
communicated to the latter that they had 
agreed to the refolutions they had fent up, 
and to a joint addrefs to his majefty on 
the fubject of lrifh affairs. The Houfe 
of Lords on the fame day, in a committee 
on the Volunteer Corps Exempticn Bill, 
agreed to an amendment excluding thofe 
volunteers from the benefit cf the ex- 
emption, who fhould retufe co ferve cn be-~ 
ing called upon. 
In the House of Commons on the roth 
of April, the accounts moved for by Mr. 
Rofe the day betore, of the furplus of the 
confolidated fund, and of.the amount of 
the taxes from 1793 to 1799, were brought 
up and laid upon the table. 
The fame day, the bill for more effectu- 
ally punifhing offences committed upon 
the high feas, was read a fecond time, 
and ordered to be committed. 
Mr. William Dundas on the 16th of 
April, aschairman of the coramittee ap- 
pointed to enquire into the fate of his 
majefty’s prifon of Cold Bath Fields, ap- 
peared at the bar of the Hcufe.of Com- 
mons, and reported “¢’That the com- 
mittee having gone to that prifon by 
virtue of the power granted them by the 
houfe, they difcovered a journal. kept 
there by Thomas Nicholfon, clerk to the 
governor, purporting to be a record of 
the daily occurrences in that place. On 
infpecting this journal, they found an 
entry made on the 21:t of March laf, 
which ftated, ‘* That the governor on 
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