EAST-INDIA MUTINY BILL.

The next object that claimed the attention of the commons, was a bill for improving the regulations already made to prevent the spreading of a contagious distemper, which raged among the horned cattle in different parts of the kingdom. The last bill of this session that had the good fortune to succeed, was brought in for punishing mutiny and desertion of officers and soldiers in the service of the East India company, and for the punishment of offences committed in the East Indies and the island of St. Helena. This being a measure of a very extraordinary nature, all the members were ordered to attend the house on the day fixed for the second reading; at the same time all charters, commissions, and authorities, by which any power relative to a military jurisdiction, or the exercise of martial law, had been granted or derived from the crown to the said company, were submitted to the perusal of the members. The bill was by many considered as a dangerous extension of military power, to the prejudice of the civil rights enjoyed by British subjects, and as such violently contested by the earl of Egmont, lord Strange, and Mr. Alderman Beckford. Their objections were answered by the solicitor-general and Mr. Yorke. The bill, after some warm debates, being espoused by the ministry, was enacted into a law, and despatched to the East Indies by the first opportunity.

Some other motions were made, and petitions presented on different subjects, which, as they miscarried, it will be unnecessary to particularize. It may not be amiss, however, to record an exemplary act of justice done by the commons on a person belonging to a public office, whom they detected in the practice of fraud and imposition. Notwithstanding the particular care taken in the last session, to prevent the monopolizing of tickets in the state lottery, all those precautions had been eluded in a scandalous manner by certain individuals, intrusted with the charge of delivering the tickets to the contributors, according to the intent of the act, which expressly declared that not more than twenty should be sold to any one person. Instead of conforming to these directions of the legislature, they and their friends engrossed great numbers, sheltering themselves under a false list of feigned names for the purpose; by which means they not only defeated the equitable intention of the commons, but in some measure injured the public credit; inasmuch as their avarice had prompted them to subscribe for a greater number than they had cash to purchase, so that there was a deficiency in the first payment, which might have had a bad effect on the public affairs. These practices were so flagrant and notorious as to attract the notice of the lower house, where an inquiry was begun, and prosecuted with a spirit of real patriotism, in opposition to a scandalous cabal, who endeavoured with equal eagerness and perseverance to screen the delinquents. All their efforts however proved abortive; and a committee, appointed to examine particulars, agreed to several severe resolutions against one Le ——, who had amassed a large fortune by this and other kinds of peculation. They voted him guilty of a breach of trust, and a direct violation of the lottery act; and an address was presented to his majesty, desiring he might be prosecuted by the attorney-general for these offences. He was accordingly sued in the court of king’s bench, and paid a fine of one thousand pounds, for having committed frauds by which he had gained forty times that sum; but he was treated with such gentleness as remarkably denoted the clemency of that tribunal.