health of the individual aggrieved had more rapidly declined.As far as the present question personally related to Mr. Finnerty, he confessed that he was one of those who did not think it the less deserving their attention on that account. He did not stand forward to defend Mr. Finnerty's violation of the laws of his country, for which violation he was now making so severe an expiation; but however culpable Mr. Finnerty had been, he (Mr. H.) could not forget that Gentleman's past life. At a very early age, when a mere boy, he began the world by turning the advantages of a good education into the means of honourable subsistence for bimself and family; it was his misfortune while yet a boy, to live in times when it was criminal to complain of oppression times which every honest and honourable mind must have witnessed with indignant regret times in which such a system of oppression and persecution was pursued, as must, if persisted in much longer, have ended in the ruin of the country-in such times, and under the impulse of those feelings which they were but too well calculated to excite in every ingenuous mind, did Mr. Finnerty pass the limits of temperate discussion, and so bring down upon himself the weighty visitation of the law. To this offence Mr. Finnerty had been led by those sentiments which in periods more favourable to the cause of liberty, have distinguished the brightest characters in the history of this country. He had been in that instance, as well as in a subsequent one, right in principle, a rooted attachment to the cause of his oppressed country was that principle, and it was a principle from which, however punishment might remotely flow, disgrace never could. In this country, as in his own, the same principle had led him into the commission of a similar offence. He had in both cases told the truth beyond the licence of the law, and in this case, as well as in the former, he suffered in the cause of his country, which was the cause of truth and justice. He thought it, therefore, extremely harsh that a man so suffering for telling the truth, unjustifiably should be classed with the greatest culprits and felons in the admeasurement of his punishment, at the insolent discretion of a gaoler. (Hear!) There was besides a circumstance in the sentence of the Court on Mr. Finnerty, which must have operated with peculiar severity in his case. It was well known that Mr. Finnerty had been for many years employed in this great city in a way most flattering to his literary talents, and, he believed, as productive in point of emolument as it was honourable, What then must have been the sufferings of this unfortunate gentleman, not only to have been thrown into gaol for eighteen months, but to be banished to so remote a distance as Lincoln, from the scene of his industry, and thus cat off from his literary connections, and perhaps the means of common subsistence (Hear!)? Under all the cir cumstances of the case, he thought it most particularly deserving the attention of the House. He concluded, by entreating of the Right Honourable Secretary to take the most speedy and effectual means of putting a stop to the system of oppression, by which Mr. Finnerty appeared to have been so shamefully persecuted. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, that his Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary for the Home Department, had done him but justice in giving him credit for his wishes, respecting the mitigation of Mr. Finnerty's sufferings. When he had first heard of that gentleman's application upon that subject, he did not feel himself prohibited from interposing with his Majesty's Government, for the immediate and effectual repression of any undue severities which might have been experienced by Mr. Finnerty (Hear, hear!). In claiming every exemption from such oppression, he thought that the Petitioner was asking not for indulgence, but for justice. (Hear, hear!) Neither could any proceedings that might be taken in consequence of this Petition, be considered as a mark of indulgence to the Petitioner, it would be in effect but remedying a wrong, restoring Mr. Finnerty to a right. In saying this much of the motive of the present application, which appeared to him, if Mr. Finnerty thought himself aggrieved, to be a very justifiable appeal, (Hear, hear!) he could not help alluding so far to the remote cause of the Petitioner's present situation. He (Lord Castlereagh) had not, he trusted, been remarkable for following up with any vindictive animadversions, attacks of a certain nature, but the one made by Mr. Finnerty, was, he must say, so gross a libel, not merely personally upon him, but upon the Administration in general of Ireland at that time, that he thought his passing it over in silence might have been misinterpreted as a tame acquiescence in the truth of charges so extremely heinous. He had, therefore, no alternative left him, but such an acquies- there were any sanction of it to be found cence, or the discharge of a painful pub in the laws of England-but be that as it lic duty; in the discharge of it he had might, if there was such a distinction, was been influenced by no private motive. the imposing of it to be left in the hands The House would do him the justice to of a gaoler? (Hear, hear!)-this would be admit, that in attacks of that kind, merely a power beyond any thing exercised by affecting himself personally, he had not the King's Bench. That Court sentences proved himself extremely querulous; one man to twelve months imprisonment (Hear, hear!) but in the present case had another to eighteen-another to two he passed it over, he should have really years-but what is the difference of a few thought himself guilty of a great breach months more or less confinement, comof public duty; that duty, however, hav- pared with that of solitary confinement in ing been now discharged, he should have a felon's cell, shut out from every intergreat pleasure, in forwarding every means course, and even the means of earning for the removal of any oppressive usage, subsistence withheld; and was this fearwhich the Petitioner may have expe- ful discretion to be left to the whim of a rienced. (Hear 1) Nor indeed should he gaoler? (Hear!)-This was not the case have been unwilling to have been instru- of a private individual-it was the case of mental in applying to the fountain of the public-this was putting into the mercy, had not the repetition of Mr. Fin-hands of every gaoler the severest punishnerty's assertion of the truth of his state- ment that could be inflicted on a British ments of torture, &c. in the Petition now subject short of death. Another considerupon their table, tied up his hands effec-ation was, that the punishment of the rich tually from any such interposition.-It did not however preclude him from joining with the House in providing that the wrongs of which the Petitioner complained, should be redressed.-Having said so much upon the question, as affecting Mr. Finnerty and himself, nothing that had fallen from the Honourable Gentleman who spoke last, should tempt him to go then into the discussion of the conduct of the Irish Government during the times so warmly alluded to; but this he would take the liberty of saying, that upon that question, when brought before Parliament in a way likely to be subservient to the purposes of truth, he should be prepared to meet that Honourabie Gentleman, or any other, and to prove to the satisfaction of the House and of the Country, that the general conduct of the Irish Administration (he spoke not of individual instances of cruelty, which nothing could justify), was at that time fully justifiable. Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY said, that this appeared to him to be a case of the very last importance; there was one material fact which had not been at all explained by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Ryder). When this person was sent to the castle of Lincoln, there to be confined pursuant to sentence; the gaoler locks him up in a solitary cell appropriated to felons-upon what authority did the gaoler venture to do this?the prisoner was not sentenced to solitary imprisonment-a punishment concerning which, however, he believed, there were no small doubts, as whether man would be essentially different from that of the poor man, though confined for the same offence, and under the very same sentence (Hear, hear!) - from gaolers it might not be so wonderful-but what were they to say to Magistrates who could have the face to tell this wretched man, that for three guineas a week more he could be accommodated with a better apartment? What! was this language for Magistrates, who officially stood between the prisoner and oppression, to make use of in answer to an application for redress? (Hear, hear, hear! This was a circumstance which could not rest there; it was certainly very late in the Sessions, but even so he thought that this fact and others, particularly the power so shamefully usurped by the gaoler, ought to be made the ground of a parliamentary enquiry. (Hear, hear!) He never read the libel on the Noble Lord, but if it was as bad as that libel upon the Magistrates, he scarcely knew what punishment could be too excessive. He repeated that he thought the conduct of the Magistrates did furnish a ground for parliamentary inquiry. Mr, WILLIAM SMITH said, that his Hon. and Learned Friend had said every thing he meant to have said upon the subject. If the gaoler can put a man in solitary confinement, how is that man to get redress? He gives, perhaps, a letter to the turnkey to put in the post-office, and he throws it behind the fire-how then is it to be known?. The man may die, and the Mr. CHARLES ADAMS hoped now that the Right Honourable Gentleman had promised every thing necessary to remedy the grievances complained of by Mr. Finnerty, that the object of the petition had thus been gained-since that was the case, he hoped the discussion would not continue the whole night. An Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Hutchinson) had fa Mr. DAVIES GIDDY admitted that the conversation alleged to have been held with the Prisoner by the Magistrates was, on their part, very reprehensible, but there could be no doubt, that even in say-voured them with a high and elaborate ing what they did, their motive could not have been of any base or unworthy description. eulogium on Mr. Finnerty, and had certainly in the course of it brought merits of that person to light, which he had never Mr. Secretary RYDER, in explanation, before heard attributed to him. He hoped, stated, that the one hour's air and exercise however, now that the wishes of the House had been at first enlarged to three hours, were known upon the subject, that there at different times, one hour each time, and would be no necessity for any more eulothat on certain gross and indecent impro-gies upon the great services and great taprieties having been committed by the lents of Mr. Finnerty. prisoner, that time had not been lessened; but it was thought adviseable that he should take the three hour's exercise at once, from eleven till two, every day the cold of the apartment had been remedied by a baize door. It was a mistake to represent Mr. Finnerty as under solitary confinement. He was under no such thing-as to the complaint made by an Honourable Gentleman (Mr. Hutchinson) of the severity of banishing the petitioner to a gaol so distant from the metropolis, it was in compliance with the earnest applications of the prisoner's friends that he was not sent to a prison in the immediate vicinity of London, but sent to a country gaol, and one which is considered the healthiest in England. He understood that there the offensive smell complained of did not exist. He professed himself however, ready to recommend the adop-active against him in this country, and tion of every measure likely to promote the health and accommodation of the prisoner, and at the same time consistent with the precautions necessary to prevent a recurrence of the same indecent irregularities to which he had alluded. Mr. WHITBREAD said, that it appeared from various statements of Mr. Finnerty, that the Gaoler had acted towards him in the most brutal manner possible, answering all his applications for redress by messages through the turnkey conveyed in terms the most insolent and scandalous. He hoped the Right Honourable Gentleman would engage to get Mr. Finnerty one of the front apartments in the more airy part of the prison, Mr. HUTCHINSON said, in explanation, that in what he had said of Mr. Finnerty, he did not affect to pass any eulogy upon him. He had merely stated, what he understood to be facts; and if these facts were of a nature so praise-worthy as to amount in effect to an eulogy, he did not see why the statement of them should have been so offensive to the Honourable Gentleman's delicacy. He might, however, call it eulogy if he pleased; but while it was true, he (Mr. Hutchinson) should not be ashamed of it, if Mr. Finnerty deserved it. He (Mr. H.) did not think it ought to be withheld from him merely because he happened to be at that time an unfortunate prisoner, pining in a cell. His motive in saying what he had of Mr. Finnerty was to do away that prejudice which he feared had been but too which was, perhaps, in part the cause of the oppressions under which he now laboured, and which it would be to the disgrace of that House to have heard, and not remedied. Mr. C. ADAMS, in explanation, said, that he did not doubt the statement made by the Honourable Gentleman; but had said only that he had attributed to Mr. Finnerty qualities by which he had never before heard of his being distinguished. Mr. BABINGTON explained. Mr. BROUGHAM agreed with the Noble Lord who had expressed himself so handsomely on this question, that this was an application for justice, not indulgence. Nation knows now, by experience, that the Marshal General was not mistaken in the nature and extent of the evils with which she was threatened, nor less of the only means of cautioning against, or of stopping its effects; which were, and are still, a firm resolution of resisting; removing and concealing all goods and effects that may contribute to the subsistence of the enemy, or facilitate their progress.-Near four years have elapsed, since the tyrant of Europe invaded, with a powerful army, the kingdom of Portugal; that invasion had for its motives, not personal defence,— not to avenge insults, or injuries, that the benevolent Sovereign of this kingdom might have offered to him ;-not, lastly, for an ambitious desire of augmenting his political power; for the Portuguese Government had, without resistance, condescended to comply with all demands of the tyrant ;-No, his object was an insatiable desire of booty, and of disturbing the tranquillity, and of carrying off the riches of a nation, which enjoyed the sweets of peace for nearly half a century. He wished to set the Right Honourable | Secretary right as to one point he was present when the sentence was passed on Mr. Finnerty, and the jail then mentioned, he perfectly recollected, was the Castle of Lincoln. He contended that the state ment in the Petition amounted to an allegation of solitary confinement. A Learned Friend of his had applied for admission -he at first got a flat refusal, but on his pressing his right of access, he was told that Mr. Finnerty did not wish to see any body. This evasion would not serve-his friend insisted upon Yes or No, and intimidated them into their duty. The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to comment upon the great hardship and injustice of lodging in the hands of a Gaoler a power he may so easily pervert to sa tisfy the mean purposes of private pique. He insisted that the allegations of Mr. Finnerty respecting the dampness and noisome smell of the room were perfectly correct. Let the Magistrates or Gaoler who doubt them be treated with a night or two's lodging in the same apartment, and perhaps they might be then better-The same wishes occasioned, in the disposed to agree with him. A common sewer passed through the middle of the room immediately under the flooring, and emitted a most noisome effluvia. Sir FRANCIS BURDETT said, he now recollected another friend of his who had called, and had been refused access to Mr. Finnerty. He was however admitted to him at a subsequent period; and so dark was the room in mid-day, that Mr. Finnerty was obliged to read the letter he brought him at the grate by the light of the fire. Mr. RYDER repeated what he before said as to the advice he should give for the redress of Mr. Finnerty, stating at the same time, that he had understood that the persons charged with the custody of the Gaol of Lincoln, had in general discharged their duty with fidelity and attention to the general accommodation of the prisoners. The Petition was then ordered to lie on the table. OFFICIAL PAPERS. PORTUGAL. THE WAR.-Proclamations of Lord Viscount Wellington, K. B. Marshal General of the Armies of H. R. H. the Prince Regent of Portugal, &c. &c. &c. (Concluded from page 1505.). The Portuguese year 1809, the invasion of the Northern Provinces of Portugal; and the inclination to pillage and theft occasioned that of the year 1810, which happily has been just now frustrated; and the Marshat General appeals to the experience of those who have witnessed the three invasions, who may testify, whether, during those invasions, the conduct of the French army has been other than seizing, plundering, and perpetrating every kind of outrage that their barbarous and atrocious disposition could suggest to them; and whether, from the General to the private, they were not delighted in the practice of such excesses.-Those countries that did submit themselves to the tyranny, had not a better fate than those which resisted; the inhabitants lost all their goods, their families were dishonoured, their laws trampled upon, their religion banished, and above all, they were deprived of that honour, that manly resistance to the oppression, against which all the inhabitants of Portugal have given so singular and happy instances. The Marshal General, at the same time that he announces the result of the last invasion, thinks it to be his duty to remind the inhabitants of Portugal, that notwithstanding the danger which threatened them is removed, it has not entirely disappeared.-The Portuguese nation has yet riches, which the tyrant will strive to their women protected from a brutal violation, and their lives secured.Vain hopes! the inhabitants of those resigned towns have suffered all the evils that a cruel enemy could inflict; their goods have been plundered; their houses and furni ture burnt; their women atrociously vio lated; and the unhappy inhabitants, whose age or sex did not provoke the brutal violence of the soldiery, have fallen victims to the imprudent confidence placed in the promises, which had only been made to be forfeited. The Portuguese now see that they have no other remedy to avoid the evils with which they are threatened, but a determined and vigorous resistance, and a firm determination of obstructing, as much as possible, the progress of the enemy into the interior of the kingdom, removing from their reach every thing of value, or that may contribute to their sub plunder: she is happy under the moderate government of her benign Sovereign, and this is enough for the tyrant to endeavour to destroy her happiness: she has successfully resisted, and, of course, he will not leave any thing undone that can be done to subject her to his iron yoke. The nation must not slacken in their preparations for a firm and decided resistance. Every individual capable of taking arms must learn their use, and those who, on account of their age or sex, cannot take arms, must have previously fixed on a spot, the most concealed, and of the greatest security, to retire to; adopting at the same time the necessary arrangements to shelter themselves in it, whenever the dangerous moment approaches.-The effects of value, which tempt the avarice of the Tyrant and his Satellites, and which are the object of their invasion, must be previously buried; each individual concealing theirs,sistence or facilitate their progress. These and not trusting the secret to the weakness are the only and sure remedies to frustrate of those who have no interest in keeping the evils with which the people are threat. it.They must take proper measures to ened.The army under my command conceal or destroy the provisions, which shall protect the greatest possible portion they cannot transport to places of security; of the country; but it is obvious, that the as well as every thing which may contri-people only can deliver themselves, by rebute to facilitate the progress of the ene-sisting the enemy, as well as by saving my; because it is notorious, that the enemy's troops seize upon every thing they find, and leave nothing to the lawful owner. Should these measures be adopted, however superior the numbers of the enemy's forces may be, that the desire of plunder and of vengeance may induce the Tyrant to send to invade anew this country, the result shall be certain; and the independence of Portugal and the happiness of its inhabitants shall be firmly established, with eternal honour to the pre-trates, and persons in authority, which sent generation. WELLINGTON. Head Quarters, 10th April, 1811. THE period of time which has already elapsed during the stay of the enemy on the frontiers of Portugal, has happily furnished the Portuguese Nation with an experiment of what they are to expect from the FrenchThe inhabitants of some towns had remained in them, trusting to the promises of the enemy, and vainly persuaded that, treating the enemies of their country in an amicable manner, could thus conciliate and reduce the enemy to act towards them with sentiments of humanity, and a clement behaviour,that their goods should be respected their goods by removing them out of the reach of the enemy. The duties, however, which bind me to H. R. H. the Prince Regent of Portugal, and to the Portuguese Nation, oblige me to make use of the au thority vested in me, of forcing the weak and indolent to endeavour to save themselves from a danger, and from the evils which await them, and to save their country. And, in consequence, I do de clare and make known, that all Magis shall remain in their towns or villages, Head Quarters, August the 4th, 1810. ALMBIDA. GEN. BRENNIER'S Report to his Excellency Marshal Duke of Ragusa, Commander in Chief of the Army of Por tugal. Salamanca, May 17.00 Almeida was invested on the 7th of |