Cape Finisterre, and certain ports in the British colonies in North America.

An act to indemnify such persons in the United Kingdom as have omitted to give securities and to register memorials thereof, under an act of the last session of parliament, and for extending the times limited for those purposes respectively, until two months after the commencement of the next session of parliament.

An act for removing doubts as to the registering of certain property purchased or sold under the land-tax redemption act, in right of which persons may claim to vote at elections of members to serve in parliament.

An act to amend an act passed in the thirty-eighth year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled, "An act to regulate the trial of causes, indictments, and other proceedings which arise within the counties of certain cities and towns corporate within this kingdom.

An act for amending an act of the forty-eighth year of his present Majesty, for regulating the British white herring fishery.

An act to extend the provisions of an act passed in the forty seventh of his prefent Majesty, for discharging from the claims of the crown certain real and personal estates belonging to General De Lancey, late barrack master general, and vested in trustees for sale; and also for vesting and settling certain lands heretofore con- ' tracted to be purchased by the said General De Lancey in trustees, to be sold for payment of a debt due to the crown, and for other purposes relative thereto.

An act to authorize the allow

ing officers to retire on half-pay or other allowances, under certain restrictions.

An act for extending and amending the regulations now in force, relative to the payment to the royal hospital at Chelsea of the forfeited and unclaimed shares of army prize money.

An act to enable persons to bequeath lands and tenements to the commissioners for the government of the Royal Naval Asylum, and to authorize the said commissioners to hold the same for the benefit of the said asylum; and for amending an act made in the forty-seventh year of his present Majesty relating to the said asylum.

An act for enabling the wives and families of soldiers embarked for foreign service, to return to their homes.

An act for defraying the charge of the pay and clothing of the militia and local militia in Great Britain for the year one thousand eight hundred and eleven.

An act to revive and continue, until the twenty-fifth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and amend so much of an act, made in the thirty-ninth and fortieth year of his present Majesty, as grants certain allowances to adjutants and serjeant-majors of the militia of England disembodied under an act of the same session of parliament.

An act for making allowances in certain cases to subaltern officers of the militia in Great Britain, while disembodied.

An act to prevent the counterfeiting of silver pieces denominated tokens, intended to be issued and circulated by the governor and

company

company of the Bank of England, for the respective sums of five shillings and sixpence, three shillings, and one shilling and sixpence, and to prevent the bringing into the kingdom or uttering any such counterfeit pieces or tokens.

An act for permitting Sir William Bishop and George Bishop to continue, until the fifth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, the manufacture of Maidstone geneva; for charging the same with certain duties; and for rectifying a mistake in an act of this session, for empowering the lords commissioners of the Treasury to exonerate distillers of spirits from sugar from the excess of duties therein mentioned.*

An act for enabling his Majesty to raise the sum of three millions for the service of Great Britain.

An act for granting to his Majesty a sum of money to be raised by lotteries.

An act to permit the services of the regiment of the Miners of Cornwall and Devon to be extended to Ireland.

An act for amending the act forty-third George Third, to promote the building, repairing, or otherwise providing the churches and chapels, and of houses for the residence of ministers, and the providing of church-yards and glebes.

An act to enable his Majesty to grant a piece of ground within the Tower of London, to be used as an additional burial ground for persons dying within the said Tower.

An act for granting to his Majesty certain sums of money out of the consolidated fund of Great Britain, and for applying certain mo

nies therein mentioned, for the service of the year one thousand eight hundred and eleven, and for further appropriating the supplies granted in this session of parliament.

An act to permit the interchange of the British and Irish militias respectively.

An act for repealing two acts made in the forty-second and fortyseventh years of his present Majesty, for the more effectual administration of the office of a justice of the peace, in such parts of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey as lie in or near the metropolis, and for the more effectual prevention of felonies; and for making other provisions in lieu thereof; to continue in force until the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, and from thence until the expiration of six weeks from the commencement of the then next session of parliament.

An act to amend an act of the forty-seventh year of his present Majesty, for more effectually preventing the stealing of deer.

An act to suspend the payment of all drawbacks on spirits made or distilled in Great Britain or Ireland, and exported from either country to the other respectively; and to suspend the importation into Great Britain of any spirits made or distilled in Ireland, except such as shall have been warehoused according to law; and for regulating the exportation of home-made spirits from Great Britain to Ireland, and from Ireland

to

Great Britain, until three months after the commencement of the next session of parliament.

An act to continue, until the

first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, an act for appointing commissioners to inquire and examine into the nature and extent of the several bogs in Ireland, and the practicability of draining and cultivating them, and the best means of effecting the same.

An act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors in Ireland.

An act further to extend and render more effectual certain provisions of an act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of his late Majesty king George the First, intituled, "An act to prevent frivolous and vexatious arrests;" and of an act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Second, to explain, amend, and render more effectual the said former act; and of two acts passed in the nineteenth and forty-third years of the reign of his present Majesty, extending the provisions of the said former acts.

An act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors in England.

An act to extend an act made in the eighteenth year of his late Majesty King George the Second, to explain and amend the laws touching the elections of knights of the shire to serve in parliament for England, respecting the expenses of hustings and poll clerks, so far as regards the city of Westminster.

An act for making more effectual provision for preventing the current gold coin of the realm from being paid or accepted for a greater value than the current value of such coin; for preventing any note or bill of the governor and company of the Bank of England from being received for any smaller sum than the sum therein specified; and for staying proceedings upon any distress by tender of such notes.

An act to explain an act passed in this present session of parliament, intituled, "An act to permit the interchange of the British and Irish militias respectively."

TRIALS FOR LIBEL.

The King v. Finnerty.-On January 31st, the judgment of the court was prayed against the defendant, who had suffered judgment to go against him by default. The indictment was for a libel on Lord Castlereagh, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of last year. The de

fendant had accompanied the expedition to Walcheren, for the purpose of writing a narrative of its proceedings, when a general order was issued to Lord Chatham and Sir R. Strachan to inquire of all the vessels which accompanied the expedition, whether a gentleman of the name of Finnerty were on board, and if found, to convey him to his lordship or Sir Richard, with a view to his being sent

home.

home. He was accordingly conveyed to Sir R. Strachan, and sent home on board of a revenue cutter. The letter in the Morning Chronicle, charged as the present libel, consisted of a narrative of these facts, and an attribution of the whole to Lord Castlereagh, and insinuated that this measure was only one instance of a course of oppression which the defendant had received from the personal malice of his lordship, and that his lordship had been guilty of great villainy in and concerning the administration of Ireland.

Mr. Finnerty, who appeared without counsel, put in a very long affidavit, in which he stated that the court baving, in an application by him to postpone the trial of his cause, on account of the absence of material witnesses, thrown out their opinion as to the calumnious nature of the libel, he had thought it most respectful to the court to suffer judgment to go against him by default, reserving to himself the testimony of such of his witnesses, whose regard to justice would induce them to make affidavits for him, and the present opportunity of justifying the whole imputed libel, which he did most unequivocally. The affidavit proceeded to state, that he had, at the same time when he wrote the Jetter, no intention to libel any -body; and that he had, before its publication, consulted an eminent barrister as to the libellous tendency of it, who was of opinion that it was not libellous; that the defendant was no conspirator in Ireland; that he was invited to accompany the expedition by Sir Home Popham, for the sole purpose of narrating the proceedings VOL. LIII.

of the expedition; and the affida vit quoted a letter from Sir Home to that effect the deponent solemnly declared he had no other view in accompanying the expe dition; that he rejected the proposal of Lord Chatham and Sir Richard Strachan to publish nothing but what had undergone their revision; that he had incurred considerable expenses in his voyage; and that the prejudices which had been excited against him by the order for his quitting the expedition, had deprived him of 500l. which he calculated he should have gained by his intended publication; that he had intended to bring an action against Lord Castlereagh for a libel, but was advised against it by his counsel; that he did not accompany the expedition clandestinely; that the main object of Lord Castlereagh was to harass the deponent; and that a noble lord, nearly connected with Lord Castlereagh, had been heard to declare in a public coffee room, I wish some man would shoot that fellow (meaning the deponent) out of the way." The affidavit was then proceeding to enter into the circumstances of the trial of Mr. Orr, in Ireland, for administering a seditious oath, in which trial, the letter in the Morning Chronicle stated the verdict of guilty to have been obtained from the jury by promises, by threats, and by intoxicating them with liquor; and was about to quote two affidavits made by as many of the jurors to this effect, when the court objected to their perusal, as irrelevant.

made; and he thought it proper to verify that statement. The affidavits were not long.

Lord Ellenborough consented to hear them, long or short.

The defendant's affidavit travelling still further from the record, however, as it proceeded,

Lord Ellenborough at last objected to trying the government of Ireland, under pretence of passing sentence upon the defendant, and refused to hear any more affidavits quoted upon the subject of Lord Castlereagh's conduct in Ireland.

Mr. Finnerty said, that such a liberty had been granted in the case of Governor Picton; the government of Trinidad was fully investigated upon the trial of that man for torture; the defendant's (Mr. Finnerty's) crime was merely that of reprobating a man who patronized torture. The letter in the Morning Chronicle made a general charge of cruelty against Lord Castlereagh; and the defendant was now proving particular instances of it.

After some further conversation on this topic, in which Mr. Garrow attacked, and Mr. Finnerty justified, his affidavit, the defendant was advised by the court to prepare a more temperate affidavit, and was then remanded to a future day.

Being brought up again on Feb. 7th, he presented his affidavit to the court. It was read, and detailed, in the first place, the reasons why the defendant was not in court before, when judgment was prayed against him; it next proceeded to state why he had suffered judgment to go by default; but now stated his belief of every

circumstance with which he had charged Lord Castlereagh, and at this period offered the truth in justification.

Lord Ellenborough said he had objected to this before, and had warned him to amend what he had done; and hoped he was now come in a proper spirit to mitigate a crime of which he had confessed the commission.

It appeared, however, that such was by no means Mr. Finnerty's intention; and in a long conversation which ensued, he repeatedly presented affidavits to prove all the enormities practised under Lord Castlereagh's government, and with his concurrence, and declared that nothing on earth should induce him to make any submission to his lordship. The court as repeatedly refused to admit them, and warned him that he was introducing irrelevant matter, and only aggravating his offence. He was heard, however, in a long and spirited defence, which was replied to with great severity by the attorney-general; who, after representing in the strongest terms the additional criminality the defendant had incurred by his justification, trusted that if there was any kind of punishment in their lordship's discretion more degrading than imprisonment, that too would be inflicted upon him. This hint for the pillory was not, however, attended to by the court, which, by Mr. Justice Grose, pronounced the following sentence:-" That the defendant be committed to his Majesty's gaol for the city of Lincoln for the space of 18 calendar months, and find security for his good behaviour for five years from that time, himself in 5001. and two ! sureties