tioner fhould be deprived of receiving that benefit, which would refult from difcuffing the merits of his petition, by the fentence being previously executed? This was neither confiftent with the fpirit of British humanity, nor the principles of British jefice. It would be difgraceful to minifters to allow a sentence to be inflicted in all its rigour, while they entertained their prefent doubts.

Hon. Dudley Ryder observed, that he thought it extraordinary that this petition, figned three weeks ago, thould never have been prefented till the moment the tranfports were under failing orders; and that then the Houfe fhould be called on to interfere and fufpend the execution of the fentence. The merits of the petition were not before the Houfe; on that ground nothing ought to be delivered. This cafe was new, he thought it unconflitutional, never ufed by our anceftors, and he trusted, not to be adopted by their pofterity. He thought the line of conduct fuggefted, the most extraordinary interpofition ever recommended to the Houfe. Thefe laft words called up Mr Adam, who faid, an extraor dinary interpofition became neceflary on the part of that Houfe, when fuch had been made by the minister. It could not be faid that the petition was to be received or not. It was neceffary to adopt the prefent motion, that if it was received, there might be a fair chance for the iffue of fuch difcuffion, or at least, that the queftion be fairly canvaffed. The charge of delay against this fide of the Houfe was not well founded. At the opening of the feflion he intimated his defign of bringing in a bill for the reform of criminal law in Scotland, and alfo a particular clause, that should have a retrofpective influence to the cafe of Meffrs Muir and Palmer. He was compelled, from the neceffity of the cafe, to make the decifions of a court of judicature the fubject of difcuffion in that Houfe, which he did not think the most proper place. There was no ground to fay that it was attempted to inveigle minifters. Gentlemen on his fide of the Houfe had acted with candour and fairness.

Mr Pitt faid, with refpect to his ex

traordinary interpofition, that he had given his opinion fimply in the discharge of his duty as a member of that House. He thought a petition fo novel, and without any precedent, required mature deliberation. From his own information he felt difpofed to reject it? but he had propofed the future confideration of it from his fenfe of that caution neceffary in difcuffing it. Yet, were the petition received, he did not think that it warranted the moved-for addrefs. The only grounds for receiving it would be strong prefumption of illegality in the proceedings, the legality of which he, with his hon. friend (Mr Dundas), were perfectly convinced of. The delay till the prefent moment, when it could hardly be confidered with fufficient coolness and deliberation, appeared rather fingular. The prefent motion tended to caft a flur on the proceedings of a respectable Court, and at a time when every fuch impreffion was carefully to be avoided, as of the most dangerous confequence. Minifters are unjustly charged with want of candour and openness, in any unneceffary delay in the progress of the prefent difcuffion.

Mr Adam, in explanation, ftated the fact, that he had moved for fome papers relative to the proceedings upon the trials of Mefirs Muir and Palmer, and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, after having taken four days to confider the fubject, had thought proper to negative his motion.

Mr Sheridan faid, he with his friends had most unjustly been charged with attempts to inveigle minifters into a declaration of their fentiments. They, good fimple fouls, it seems, were only to be attacked in this manner, with advantage by oppofition. From the ftatement of facts, the conduct of opposition would be found fair and honourable, that of their opponents appeared at leaft fufpicious. He, with another gentleman, had, at an early stage of the bufinefs, at the request of an hon. Secretary (Mr Dundas,) prefented him with the grounds of their oppofition to the decifions in the late trials in Scotland. The Secretary behaved to them with his

ufual

ufual politeness and the utmost candour, confidering them as of fome importance, he had tranfmitted them to Scotland. Of the answer from the Judges, he had not thought proper to give them a copy. The delay charged fell on the head of minifters, as hath already been stated by my hon. friend (Mr Adam). Motives of peculiar delicacy prevented too, in coming forward with the petition fooner. It was conceived improper to advise this mode while any hope of mercy from the Crown remained. It was conceived too, that it might wear the appearance of trenching on the prerogative of the Crown; befides an idea was ftudiously held forth, that unless oppofition was very strong from a certain quarter, the royal clemency might be expected. The fentence I confider as hoftile to jufticefuch a sentence in England, if it had paffed, would probably have been oppofed by the people in arms. I fhould not have been furprised, if any attempt to introduce the law on which it is founded had coft the minifter his head, who thus fhould dare to infult the principles of the British Conftitution. Why fhould Scotland, a part of the empire, be excluded from the protection of that Houfe, which all have a right to expect? If instead of a fentence of transportation it had been death; fuppofe the petitioner was not the perfon who ought to have been tried; fuppofe the fentence executed the day before the petition is confidered, and the petitioner fhould fall an innocent victim to the weak and wicked policy of a minifter, ought he not to fuffer that death he had wrongfully inflicted? It cannot be too ftrongly urged, that, from the fentence of the Court complained of, there is no appeal. In this inftance it is tantamount to death itself, banishment from all the confolations of, fociety and friendship. If the facts fhall be proved to be fuch as I have endeavoured to fhow, there will be fuch a cafe made out as fhould induce you to give immediate relief to the individual, and to provide a fpeedy remedy for the law. If fuch be the cafe, the feelings of thofe gentlemen, who would refift the affording fuch relief, are pot very defirable, nor are their con

fciences much to be envied. I fhall only add, that if the fentence, which it is the object of this motion to fufpend, fhould take place before Thursday, ministers will ftand in a fituation of refponfibility, which it certainly will not be pleasant for them to incur, and which, perhaps, at a future period, they may wish they had avoided.

Mr Anftruther faid, the gentleman had introduced matter altogether foreign to the queftion. Mr Palmer had been convicted of a crime by a competent Court, which, in their difcretion, had pronounced the fentence of the law. With respect to the illegality of the fentence, nothing was before the Houfe. Were this inftance of petitions received, this Houfe would at once become a court of appeal and judicial authority. There was no ground for complaining, that the report of the cafe referred to the Judges was not granted for the infpection of gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe; the ordinary mode was merely to state the refult. Miniftry, in the prefent occafion, had done their duty, and no greater responsibility could be attached than in any other instance.

Mr Whitbread confidered himself as unjustly attacked concerning the motives urging him to propofe the address. Of thefe, as they were pure, he was not afhamed; and those who knew him. would give him credit for the affertion. The charge of tardinefs, in the operation of feelings, was contradicted by an irregularity he had been guilty of, from a defire to feize the firft opportunity for making his motion. It was faid this proceeding was novel-it was fo;-and happy fhould he think himself were their journals to afford no precedents, and that this fhould be the firft. He had not stept forward fooner, because he thought the cafe in more able hands of the merits of the petition he would fay nothing, they were not before the Houfe. He only hoped, it would not reject a measure which alone could infure any refolution they could pass from having the intended benevolent effect.

Mr Thomfon faid, that as every subject had a right to petition that House,

it was their duty to receive their petitions. Mr Palmer demanded juice, why fhould he alter the expreffion? for if oppreffed, he had a right to do so, and it was the duty of that Houfe to provide against his being illegally punished. The proceedings of Mr Pitt, in the zenith of his glory, with his friends, the Duke of Richmond, Dr Jebb, and others, at the Thatched House Tavern, had been the caufe of all Mr Palmer's fufferings; he had only echoed their fentiments. And what time for a reform could he judge fo proper, as when he who had been the advocate of unequivocal conftitutional reform is the prime minifter of the country. He and his friends alone are refponfible for all the mischiefs fuch an unprecedented perfecution may occafion.

Mr Wilberforce faid, he had purchafed a copy of Mr Palmer's trial, and would confider it with attention.

THE further confideration of this fubjeft being put off till March the 10th, ON that day Mr Adam rofe to bring forward his promifed propofitions, which he prefaced in a fpecch of three hours length, difplaying a great extent of hiftorical and legal information. He obferved, that, as the tranfaction alluded to had taken place in Scotland, it was proper they fhould be examined by the laws of that country. The object of his prefent motion was, to have produced to the Houfe certain parts of the records of the trials of Meffrs Muir and Paimer. Of both thefe cafes he wished to fee produced the indictment, the plea, the verdict, and the fentence; and alfo fome things which regarded Mr Muir folely, as his objections to certain of the jury; the warrant of the commitment of a certain witnefs of the name of William Muir, and also of another witness, John Ruffel; alfo the notes of the Court relative to parts of the tefti mony adduced on both fides. He stated, that on these papers he intended to found an addrefs to his Majefty, praying the Sovereign, in the moft refpectful terms, for an extenfion of the royal prerogative to prevent the execution of a fentence paffed on them, which was not ftrictly according to law. The question turned on several propofitions: Firf, on the legality of the

fentence, and the crimes fet forth against Meffrs Muir and Palmer; which were chiefly, according to the technical language of that part of the kingdom, leafing-making, or uttering words, and publifhing matter, tending to fow divifions between king and fubject. Secondly, that by the ancient law of Scotland, the punishment of transportation could not be inflicted for the above crimes; and that even by the act relating thereto, paffed in 1704, banishment only was the highest punishment which could be awarded. And thirdly, that the accufation, as fet forth in the indictment, could not be properly or legally conftrued into a charge of the above nature. All these propofitions, he obferved, he was confident of being able to fubftantiate to the Houfe. In the endeavouring to accomplish this, Mr Adam went into a wide field of observation, where it is almost impoffible to follow him, or to do juftice to the manner in which he difcuffed the fubject. On the first and fecond propofitions he took a minute view of the accufations, as fet forth in the indictment, and comparing thefe with the provifions in the Scotch law, he drew the conclufion of the illegality of the fentence; contending, that the punishment of tranfportation, as appeared from the act 1704, was not known or recognized by the law of Scotland. Banithment, the punishment of leafing making, he showed did effentially differ from tranfportation; by the former, the culprit was expelled from his native country, with the whole world befide to range in ; by the latter he was confined within the limits of fome diftant, cheerless, perhaps barren fpot, for a definite term of years. He afferted, that from the origin of the Court of Justiciary, to the 31st Auguft 1793, the punishment of transportation had not been adjudged, except for capital crimes. Refpecting the third propofition, he was equally minute in the applications of the laws of Scotland; and contended, that if the arbitrary and difcretionary power of appointing punishments, claimed by the Judges, was allowed, the liberty of the fubject in that country was in danger, by the erection of a Court as hoftile to it as ever was the

far

ftar chamber in England. Mr Adam then adverted to part of the trial of Mr Muir, the mode of treating two of the witneffes, one for refufing, from motives of conscience, to take the oaths, and the other, who was prevented from giving his evidence, from an alledged incompetency. The conduct of the Court, in both inftances, he cenfured, as an unjuftifiable extenfion of the power of Judges. On the whole, he was decidedly of opinion, and he hoped the Houfe, when it had impartially confidered the matter, would agree with him in thinking, that there were fufficient grounds for a new trial, particularly to Mr Muir; and the cafe was fufficiently strong to juftify the interference of the House, in entreating the extenfion of the royal prerogative. -He expatiated on the feverity of the fentence in this inftance; for had even Mr Paine, the author of that work Mr Muir was accufed of circulating, been tried in England, the extent of his punishment would have been fine, imprisonment, and perhaps not even the pillory; but the unhappy gentlemen in queftion were doomed, for the long period of fourteen years, to exift in a diftant island, the voyage to which was long, irkfome, and dangerous, the foil fteril, and of fuch a nature that the utmost exertions of this country can, with difficulty, fubfift the wretched colony who are doomed, to refide there; and above all this, the cruel reflection to thofe gentlemen, that they are destined to fpend the remainder perhaps of their lives in the fociety of a fet of hardened wretches, convicted felons, the deferved outcafts of fociety. What greater outrage can be conceived to the feelings of men of fenfe, education, principle, and humanity, than fuch a destiny? fuch a ftretch of arbitrary power and unneceffary cruelty, abftracted from the illegality of the proceeding, was fuch as muft alarm every well-wisher to the conftitution, excite the indignation of every man of feeling or humanity, and above all call for the interference of that House.

He then moved, "That his Majefty would be pleased to give directions, that there be laid before the House a copy of the indictment, warrant of committal,

plea, &c. verdict and fentence, paffed the 31st of August 1793, on Thomas Muir the younger, of Hunterfhill, &c." Mr Fox feconded Mr Adam's mo

tion.

His

On the queftion being put, the Lord Advocate of Scotland rofe. He faid, this was a fubject of as ferious difcution as ever came before that House, as it involved the confideration of the proceedings of a court of juftice, both in regard to their legality, and the defectionary exercise of their power Concurring the character of the Judges of the cart, he would fay no more, but that they were men who had made the ftudy of the law of their country the bufinefs of their lives, and by which they had gained the highest reputation. If they had erred in this cafe, they were without excufe; as it ha i been argued before them again and again, and they had perfifted in their original opinion. He admitted the juftaefs of the general principles of the learned gentleman who had opened the debate, but differed from him totally in their application. fpeech was founded on mifreprefentation and ignorance of the law of Scotland, and of the practice of the courts in that country. He hoped the Houfe would not allow the dignity and character of one of the fupreme courts of juflice to be attacked on flight grounds; the clamours which had been raised tended to bring the character of the Judges, and the respectability of the court, into difrepute in the eyes of the people of that country, which he hoped that Houfe would discountenance. The learned gentleman had imagined, that the law of leafing-making only had been applied to Meffrs Muir and Palmer. They were tried on a charge diftinct from that, which he would explain to the Houfe. In this official fituation he had been called in a particular manner to attend to the criminal law of Scotland, and to bring forward parts of it which had flept for a century, and which till lately no perfon imagined would have been neceffarily called forth. With the perfons whofe duty it was to act with him, he had confulted the ftatutes and acts of parlia ment, from the times of Robert III. down to the prefent day; in particular,

they