The above Questions, written in Colonel | migation of law to that which is not, and Vesey's hand, were all dictated by me, (Signed) EDWARD. In the presence of Lord Harrington. (Signed) HARRINGTON. J. A. VESEY. JEFFERY, THE SEAMAN. The following deposition is said to have been received by Government : DEPOSITION. "This is to certify, that personally appeared before me, John Dennis, Master of the American schooner, Adams, belonging to Marblehead, in the State of Massachusetts, and voluntarily made oath, that in the month of December, 1807, he did whilst passing the island of Sombrero, in the Sombrero Passage, in the West Indies, discover from his vessel a man waving his hand on the said island, whereupon the said deponent hove his vessel to, and sent his boat on shore with the mate, ho found a man on the said island extremely reduced and exhausted, so as not to be able to speak. That the man having been brought on board the schooner, and somewhat recovered, declared that his name was Robert Jeffery, a seaman, belonging to his Majesty's brig of war Recruit, commanded by Capt. Warwick Lake, and that he had been eight days on the said island This deponent further said, that the said Robert Jeffery became quite recovered, and went to Beverley, where he resided, working at his trade of a blacksmith when deponent last saw him. JOHN DENNIS. Sworn before me, at Corunna, 19th May 1810. J. L. MANIAC, Vice-Cons Done in the presence of Geo. Digby, Captain of his Majesty's ship Cossack, and Geo. White, Assistant Commissary. (A true Copy) GEO. DIGBY. ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT; on Constitutional Principles. I own that to me, from the vast import ance of the subject to the whole community, it did not appear improbable that some Meinber of the House of Commons would have moved for leave to bring in a Bill, which might have further prevented Public Inconvenience, from the indefinite nature of the claim of Privilege of Parliament. The great benefit of known Laws is immediately and generally obvious. Indeed, I know not how to give the deno which cannot be made generally certain, and upon which Lawyers themselves have no rules and principles enabling them. to answer. The only reasons for leaving the claim indefinite, which I have observed to be advanced, either now or formerly, have been the necessity for Parliament and for the people, that the Privilege should be independent of any exterior judicial interpretation; and that the power of an assembly which, by its constitutional function is protective of the Rights and Liberties of the Community, should act of itself, and its own inherent energies, with out awaiting the judgment of any other jurisdiction within a certain extent, which I have admitted and stated from the first; I think this principle is clear, necessary and certain; that of interfering in cases of direct contempt, or, in other words, to remove obstructions to its proceedings. Beyond this, with the utmost attention to the arguments before or since advanced, and with a desire of finding arguments, if any should appear to me to be justly imaginable, being not solicitous for victory but for truth, I can find nothing. The greatest, wisest, and most virtuous assembly upon earth may be libelled; and I know not any greater, wiser, or more virtuous, than the House of Commons, according to the Constitution, is capable of being, and has been. But were it libelled, when such, and for being such, I do not think it would condescend to bring the libeller to trial: But that rather, it would leave him to his conscience and the pressure of public sentiment. It would lose nothing of the order, dignity, and constitutional efficacy of its proceedings, howsoever libelled. If either House could want this Privilege as a shield against possible violations of its Rights, either by the Crown or the other House, that would be an argument for its existence and for its exercise: But it is not in the nature of a shield, an exemption from injury-a severity necessary to its constitutional functions, which are the proper characteristics of a Public Privilege. It is, as properly has been said, a power; which has no definite limits which claims to be without any but the pleasure of that body by which it is employed ;-to be unaffectable, unexaminable; subject, in case of its being misapplied, to no compensation, redress, or remedy; unlimited by rules of judicial inquiry, or judicial sentence, not only 4 positive, but such as appear most imme- | diately to result from natural right of reason. Can such a power be necessary or expedient to be exercised by any assembly? Can it be requisite for the maintenance of their just and constitutional authority; or to enable them to protect the rights and liberties of the community? And if it be not, ought they not to restrict it within those limits of just and clear necessity within which it would be so? One of the greatest and most peculiar powers of the House of Commons is the power of impeachment; yet in this great and awful power it inquires, it accuses in the name and behalf of the whole community of the realm; but it does not try, judge or punish. It is fit and constitutional that it should have powers which no other assembly has; but it is neither for its dignity, nor the public benefit, that it should exercise powers which many other assemblies have, and have, at the same time, better means of executing them for the attainment of public justice. For this purpose, there are tribunals by the Law and Constitution prescribed and appropriate; where the forms of proceeding, the means and the settled habit of investigation, and their general exemption from all interest on one side or the other, are manifestly most suited to the end. rules and resolutions of Judicial Courts, solely occupied in legal investigation, can be more necessary. Of a Representative and Legislative Assembly, the glory to which a situation, pre-eminent as theirs, offers to them is, to soar above all thought of libel, real or supposed, and to be entirely occupied in great and public coun cils to avail itself of truth, in whatever form; and of free and valuable sugges tions from all quarters-regardless whether the manner be soothing in which they are conveyed. If, as If I thought, that to commit on charges of supposed libel, and in the manner and to the extent in which alone that power can be exercised by the forms of the House and the nature of its Constitution, could be necessary to the House; could be beneficial, or even safe, to the public, and not most dangerous to both, I would say so. But I can see no reason advanced in support of that opinion; I can imagine no reason that seems to me capable of sustaining such a conclusion. I remain, therefore, in the wish, I can hardly say the hope, that the House itself may discover the propriety, the dignity, the necessity of limiting a power, the exercise of which is not only faintly expressed by being termed inconvenient, but would be faintly character. ized by much stronger language. having no constituted superior, it should It is fit that it should be respected; but think all things lawful to it, this cannot it is fit that the People, its Constituent, be forgotten, that all are not expedient. whenever it exists rightly and according And in a constitutional sense, general and to the Constitution, should be respected permanent knowledge of public expealso. It is fit that the opinions, the rea-diency is the measure and criterion of consons, the feelings of the People, how far stitutional law. soever from pleasing may be the subject, should have the most free access to that great assembly: which, popular in its name, popular in its origin, popular by the very object and peculiar end of its constitution, must be estranged from its most essential character, if at any time it be unmindful of popular rights and interests. It is always in its choice to secure all its necessary and essential privileges from disturbance; but there is no privilege so essential to it-none so dignified, That your Petitioner has been an Officer as that of being felt to be the Representa- in the 15th Light Dragoons, above thirteen tive of the People. It cannot be the inte- years, and senior Captain in that Regirest of the People, or its own true and per- ment above four years. That, during the manent interest, that the House of Com-last mentioned space of time, he has, in mons should be censurers and punishers for publications supposed to be libels on itself. If any are supposed to be so, there is no instance in which all the principles, CAPEL LOFFT. Troston Hall, near Bury, Suffolk, 11th May, 1810. CAPTAIN FOSKETT. To the Honourable the House of Com various ways, been made to suffer, from his Colonel, his Royal Highness the Duk of Cumberland, the most injurious treatment, amounting to no less than a course of systematic oppression. That, in the year 1800, in a manner contrary to the acknowledged custom and constitution of the army, his Royal Highness endeavoured to promote an Officer of the 15th Light Dragoons, and junior to your Petitioner, in preference to him, to a Majority in the Regiment, which purpose he was prevented from effecting, solely by the interposition of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, at that time the Commander in Chief. That your Petitioner having, on the above occasion, solicited a week's leave of absence, in order the more cer tainly to obtain such interposition, by means of a personal appeal, in support of a Memorial transmitted to the Commander in Chief, he was, for five successive months, most vexatiously refused that indulgence, although he was, at that very time, entitled, under General Orders, to leave of absence for two or three months, and although junior officers were then actually allowed that permission. That your Petitioner, notwithstanding his final success, in thus preventing a junior officer from being raised above him, has, from that time, been unjustly deprived of promotion, in the usual course of his regiment, to the injury not only of your Petitioner, but of all the Captains and Subalterns of the corps, whose promotion bas thereby been, and still is, entirely stopped. That, in the year 1808, when the 15th Light Dragoons was ordered upon foreign service, in Spain, your Petitioner, though Senior Captain, was directed, by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, to remain at home with the recruit ng squadron. That upon complaining to the Commanding Officer of the Reginent, of a management so inconsistent with the established custom of the army, and fraught with such extreme hardship to your Petitioner, he (the Commanding Officer) disdaining all participation in the transaction, referred your Petitioner's complaint officially to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, by whom it was dismissed, and who declared the arrange ment to be unalterable. That your Petitioner thereupon thought himself bound to solicit the interference of the Commander in Chief, when the Duke of Cumberland, in explanation of his own conduct, permitted himself to cast on your Petitioner's character the most injurious aspersions, which, notwithstanding the authority from whence they came, were soon proved to be utterly unfounded; as the Commander in Chief, though at first induced by them to sanction the arrangement of which they were the assigned cause, yet, upon further remonstrance on the part of your Petitioner, and on further consideration of the case, his Royal Highness was graciously pleased to revoke his consent to the arrangement in question, and to direct that a Captain should be sent home from the Regiment in Spain, upon whose arrival the Petitioner was to be at liberty to join; a permission, however, of which, gracious and acceptable as it was, your Petitioner was not able to take advantage, as the regiment soon afterwards returned home; and thus your Petitioner was oppressively made to sustain the irreparable loss of an opportunity, so anxiously desired by every British Officer, of serving his Sovereign and his country, against their foreign enemies. That your Petitioner having suffered, during so long a time, such heavy and complicated injuries, finding himself shut out from all hopes of advancement in his profession, by the avowed determination of his Commanding Officer (expressed in terms the most injurious) not to recommend him for promotion; and at the same time, rendered an insurmountable obstacle to the advancement of every Officer, junior to himself, in the regiment; having in vain repeatedly and earnestly called for the strictest investigation of his conduct, and declared his readiness, and even his anxiety, to meet any charge that could be brought against him, and perceiving that fresh complaints of ill-treatment only served to subject him to fresh aspersions; your Petitioner saw that he had no chance for redress, but from the justice of the Commander in Chief-That he, therefore, in the month of July, 1809, laid his case before his Excellency, imploring his interference and protectionThat this communication was accompanied with testimonials to the undeviating good conduct of your Petitioner, from almost every commanding officer of the regiment, under whom your Petitioner had served; and who must have had far better opportunities of observing his general deportment, than his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.-That while your Petitioner's complaints were before the Commander in Chief uis just claims to promotion were again defeated, by the introduction of Officers from other regiments, to fill up the two Majorities of the 15th Light Dra goons, which were then vacant:-Then seeing himself thus excluded from all prospect of relief, in the ordinary course, your Petitioner was reduced to the necessity of soliciting, from the Commander-inChief, an application in his favour, of the 12th section of the Articles of War, which states that, "If any Officer shall think himself to be wronged by his Colonel, or the Commanding Officer of the regiment, and shall, upon due application made to him, be refused to be redressed, he may complain to the General Commanding in Chief our forces, in order to obtain justice; who is thereby required to examine into such complaint, and either by himself, or by our Secretary at War, to make his report to us thereupon, in order to receive our farther directions." your Petitioner's request, as above stated, unless your Honourable House shall be pleased to afford him relief, he has no means of redress for the wrongs which have been heaped upon him, in his milirary character; in as much as the 12th section of the Articles of War, afford the only remedy, of which an Officer of the Ariny, who has been wronged by his Colonel, and by him refused redress, can avail himself; and that, therefore, the denial of justice in your Petitioner's case, by the Commander-in-Chief, in direct violation of the Articles of War, is a most serious injury, not only to your Petitioner but also to the whole Army, by rendering nugatory the only remedy afforded to officers against the acts of their superiors, and by thus depriving them of the inestimable right, so amply secured to every other class of British subjects, that of employing the means provided by the Law Constitution, for the redress of oppression and injustice. All which your Petitioner most humbly submits to the consideration of your Ho nourable House, being ready to verify the same. And he implores your Honourable House, to afford him such relief, as to its wisdom shall seem meet. And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c. (Signed) HENRY FOSKETT, Capt. 15th Lt. Dragoons. That your Petitioner accordingly on the twenty-sixth of September, 1809, addressed a letter to Colonel Gordon, Mi-and litary Secretary, for the consideration of the Commander in Chief, in which, after briefly recapitulating the injuries, of which he had ineffectually complained, he expressly requested the Commander-in Chief, in conformity with the 12th section of the Articles of War, to examine into the complaints which he had laid before him, and (unless he was graciously pleased to afford him redress) to make his report to his Majesty thereupon. That this request being attended with no other effect than an offer of promotion in a regiment of infantry, which your Petitioner could not accept, consistently either with his own just claims, his wounded feelings, and his aspersed character, or, in the situation in which he was placed, with what was due from him to the army, he has since, in two subsequent letters, explicitly repeated his request, that the Commander-in-Chief would investigate his complaints, and report to his majesty thereupon; to which request he at length received an official answer from the Military Secretary, dated February the 12th, 1810, and couched in the following terms: "SIR;-I have not failed to lay before the Commander-in-Chief your letter of the 10th instant, and I am directed to acquaint you, that sir David Dundas does not see sufficient grounds for complying with your request. (Signed) H. TORRENS." That, by this refusal, on the part of the Commander-in-Chief, to comply with OFFICIAL PAPERS. INTERCEPTED CORRESPONDENCE. LETTER from Napoleon to the Queen of Sicily, upon the occasion of the Union he had contracted with her Niece, the Archduchess Maria Louisa. [It was inclosed in a letter from Madam Beuret, dated Paris, the 28th February, to her husband, the Colonel of the 17th regiment of light infantry, in the second division of the second corps of the French army in Spain, and was intercepted by the light parties attached to the army of the left. The original is in the possession of his Excellency the Marquis of Romana, to whom it was delivered.] Letter from Madame Beuret to her husband. just received a pretty large packet, inclosMy dear and good friend!-I have ing a letter for myself, one for M. Clerisif, another for the Mayor of La Riviere, and a fourth for M. De Barthiley. I am very glad that you have written to the last mentioned, as my papa had just received a letter from him, complaining of your silence, and expressing his fears, that you would imitate your protector, and forget him. He is much attached to you, and will write to you as soon as we have informed him of the number of your corps and division. You say nothing concerning your health; but I conclude that you are completely recovered, from your frequenting the lodges of the freemasons. Mine is good, notwithstanding the cold we experience here. Papa and mama are very well, and Eugene better than any of us. He is continually talking of you, and is the favourite of the family, and the object of our caresses. I shall give the best reception to Mrs. de Bureau, when she arrives. You need not be uneasy, for I will carefully attend to your orders. A number of new battalions are raising for the imperial guard; and all the young men prefer serving in a corps which usually remains in garrison, in Paris, to going to die in Spain. It is said the Emperor sets off for that kingdom on the 20th inst., but there is nothing certain upon this subject. God grant that he may go; for you might, probably, in that case, be placed near his person, and obtain a hardsome estate of 5,000 pieces a-year, with the title of Baron! This would be tolerably well, and I assure you that I should be not a little proud of hearing myself styled my Lady Baroness; but for the present I have renounced all hopes, and shall think myself very happy in seeing you once more. The war with Spain is universally pronounced to be an endless contest; for such is the ferocity of its inhabitants, that they would sooner convert the whole of their country into a desert than receive the Emperor's brother! What barbarians those Spaniards are! What a set of cannibals! I hate them implacably, and particularly the friars. You are already apprised of the intended marriage of our Emperor with an Archduchess of Austria. Some think favourably of this match; but the major part are of opinion, that it will prove the ruin of Napoleon. It is said that Josephine already begins to be an object of alarm to the Emperor; and it is confidently rumoured that Russia is on the eve of breaking with us. When will our wars have an end? Our Italian friend, who visits in the Duke of Bassano's family, has given me the inclosed copy of a letter to be forwarded to you, which is certainly a very singular production. It is said that the Queen of Sicily will not accept the proposals of the Emperor, and that a new and sanguinary war is about to commence. I leave you to think with what regret I hear such tidings. Adieu, my esteemed friend! I embrace and love you with my whole heart! Your best and most faithful friend. P. BEURET DE CELLERIER. P. S. Mama and Papa, and the whole family, charge me with a thousand things to you. I have not yet received the letter for your pension as a Member of the Legion of Honour. Copy of a LETTER from his Majesty the Emperor of the French, King of Italy, &c. to her Majesty the Queen of Sicily. Madam and Cousin.-The events of the year 1805 interrupted our friendship and harmony. A formidable coalition against France, artfully planned in the cabinet of Mr. Pitt, and masked in an extraordinary manner, had put in motion against my legions, that were posted on the coasts of the ocean, the Russian, German, and Prussian armies. In that critical situation, my duty was to deliver France from the conflict, and to disperse the dreadful storm, or at least to diminish its effects. This I at length accomplished, by bringing Prussia, Wirtemberg, and Bavaria, to a sense of their own interests; and by forming a treaty with King, Ferdinand, your Majesty's spouse, in which he engaged not to receive in his kingdom either Russian or English troops. In consequence hereof, my troops evacuated his states. War was declared; and scarcely had my eagles entered Vienna in triumph, when I learned that the Court of Naples had violated the sacred faith of the treaty, and was admitting an army into its very capital. I instantly knew that the seductive gold of England, opportunely employed by her agent, Acton, had triumphed over the debility of King Ferdinand. The battle of Austerlitz secured to me the happy result of a war unjustly provoked; and France and her allies loudly demanded the destruction of the Dynasty of Naples, which its perjury had covered with disgrace. Placed in this critical situation, and being a Constitutional Monarch, what resource had I left? Your Majesty, who have experienced the arrogance of your subjects, knows, and I ought to know, that we Sovereigns must frequently stifle our own inclinations, from a regard to the in |