practice might be prevented altogether. He admitted that, according to the present law, the innocent was often subject to inconvenience as well as the guilty. That must be the effect of all general laws; by the very nature of them, the innocent must be subjected to inconvenience. detect the guilty, it would be necessary to cast the net very wide.

To

He must, before he sat down, protest against another species of exaggeration, which he found to exist on this question. He meant that disposition to take it for granted, that all foreigners who fled from their own country to seek an asylum in this, must be models of their kindmore angels than men, though somewhat fallen, and with at least "the excess of glory obscured," heroes of the noblest order, and patriots of the purest water; forgetting the ancient jealousy which existed, with respect to the coming of foreigners into this country. Did they forget the lines

"London! the needy villain's general home,

The common sink of Paris and of Rome."

He did not say that the Alien Bill had completely effected a beneficial change; but it was not to be taken for granted that because a foreigner came to this country, he was persecuted and driven away from his own. Besides these illustrious heroes-these immortal patriots-these champions of freedom, and martyrs-there were to be found pimps and quack doctors, "et id genus omne," a striking instance of which was to be seen in a recent case at Manchester. He by no means intended to convey an impression that all aliens were of this description; but he thought when gentlemen on the other side assumed that none but heroes and patriots arrive here, he had at least as good a

right to assume, that persons of a very contrary description also found their way to our shores. All he contended for was, that there was a necessity for some such supervisionthat the Alien Bill was addressed to the specific danger of the times, and that it had hitherto been found effectual in suppressing, or he should rather say, in preventing it. He had not heard even an insinuation of an abuse of its powers. He would conclude as he began, with expressing his hope that the measure might not outlive the term for which its renewal was now proposed. Whenever the danger was at an end, he would return, with all his heart, to some more mitigated and moderate system of legislation; but for legislation upon this subject, he should still be an advocate, for the House would ill perform its duty to the public if it left the Government without the means of protecting the country from the dangers to which he had adverted.

The House divided.

For the Second Reading

152

For the Amendment, "That this Bill be read? 92

a second time this day six months".

THE order of the day was read for resuming the adjourned debate on the motion made by Mr. Brougham on the 1st

instant, respecting the trial and condemnation of Missionary Smith, at Demerara. The following is the Address moved by the honourable and learned gentleman :--

"That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, representing that this House, having taken into their most serious consideration the papers laid before them relating to the trial and condemnation of the late Reverend John Smith, a missionary in the colony of Demerara, deem it their duty now to declare, that they contemplate with serious alarm and deep sorrow the violation of law and justice which is manifest in those unexampled proceedings; and most earnestly praying, that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to adopt such measures as to his royal wisdom may seem meet, for securing such a just and humane administration of law in that colony as may protect the voluntary instructors of the negroes, as well as the negroes themselves, and the rest of His Majesty's subjects, from oppression."

MR. SECRETARY CANNING said:

Whatever difference of opinion may prevail with respect to the vote to which the House ought to come on this occasion, and whatever shades of difference there may be even among those who may concur in the same vote, there is one point on which I think the opinion of all who hear me will agree, and that is, that the question of this night is one of the most painful that ever was discussed within these walls. Indeed, Sir, I scarcely recollect any one question upon which I could say, what I feel that I must say upon this-that there is no part of it on which I can look with the

smallest satisfaction. To many of the principles which have been enforced in this debate with so much eloquence, I am disposed to give my hearty assent. But I entirely differ from my honourable friend who spoke last, as to one part of his speech, although I admit that, generally speaking, my honourable friend has put the question on a fair issue. I allude to the assertion, that the House is placed in the dilemma of being obliged either to contend, on the one hand, for the perfectness and propriety of every part of the proceedings of the court-martial, or, on the other hand, to be prepared to assign to the unfortunate gentleman who was the object of these proceedings the title or the honours of a martyr. I, Sir, am not prepared for either of these extravagant extremes, and I do hope to be able to satisfy the House, that they will best discharge their duty to all parties concerned in this transaction-to themselves and to the country-by abstaining from pronouncing any such exaggerated opinions. Sir, it may be a very skilful and masterly artifice of debate, to endeavour to throw upon those who do not agree to the Resolution proposed by the honourable and learned gentleman the task of proceeding step by step through every stage of this protracted, anomalous, and difficult proceeding; and of explaining step by step as they go on, the grounds which justify them in dissenting from that Resolution. For my own part, I do not hold myself

bound to do any thing of the kind. In dissenting from the Resolution of the learned member for Winchelsea, I shall be solicitous only to justify that dissent on grounds which appear to me to be perfectly sound and satisfactory, without necessarily identifying my opinions with those of the persons by whom Mr. Smith was tried, or maintaining in all its parts the sentence by which Mr. Smith was condemned.

Sir, the charges which are brought against the proceedings of the court-martial seem to resolve themselves into three principal heads-first, the impropriety of the tribunal; secondly, the incorrectness of its mode of acting; and, thirdly, the violence of the sentence;-all which charges are aggravated by the assumption throughout, that Mr. Smith was entirely innocent. Sir, it has been stated, that no man can dissent from the honourable and learned gentleman's Resolution, who is not prepared to maintain the guilt of Mr. Smith to the utmost extent to which that guilt has been assigned. Here I am again compelled to declare myself of a different opinion; and, without wearying the House by repeated reference to the particulars of the evidence (which has already been discussed with so much ability, as to have impressed on every man, who has gone through the duty of previously reading it, a complete analysis of all its parts and all its bearings), I have no difficulty in stating the honest persua