NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE first Parliament of WTILLIAM the Fourth is at an end. The House of Commons declared against the Reform Bill on Tues- day ; and on Thursday, dreading a dissolution, resorted to the extreme measure of stopping the Supplies. This vio- lence only hastened the catastrophe—the merited sentence was pronounced yesterday. We had been told, until we almost began to believe in its possibility, that the King would not consent to a dissolution. When the. sophist of old attempted to prove that there was no .such thing as motion, his auditors walked out of the theatre. His Majesty took a similar plan of convincing the enemies of the People and the Crown—lie pro- rogued Parliament in person. . The Lower House, and not. less re- . markably the Upper, had the appearance of a nest of hornets, into which some mischievous urchin has introduced a red-hot poker.

The buz and anger, the bow-wow speeches and big looks, the af- fected dignity and real impotence of the Opposition, would have made Heraclitus bold his sides: The appearance of his Majesty stilled at length the rustling of robes and bluster of voices, and dismissed the chopfallen Lords and Commons, the former to calmer thoughts and more prudent resolves, the•latter to the ob- scurity of a retirement from which no future invitation will call them forth.

The Parliament—let us give it a name, and call it the Agitation Parliament—has been a short and an important one. Whatever Might be the calculations of its friends or its enemies, there was, we believe, no man in the empire, who, on the 26th of last October, looked forward to such a triumph as the 1st of March gave to the cause of freedom in .England. The defeat of the Duke of WELLINGTON in November was a great event, but it shrinks into insignificance compared with the defeat of Corruption four months after. For the doom of the system was sealed from the moment that Lord JOHN Itusseu.'s announcement was made. Had the House of Commons rejected the plan which they were only powerful to mutilate—had the Ministers quailed, or had the King looked cold on them—it was from that moment settled as irrevocably as fate, that the People might take more, but they would never be satisfied with less, than the noble Lord, Speaking for the whole Cabinet, had offered. ' • .

In many other respects, if amidst such mighty interests it were worth while to note them, the late Parliainent has done good, and in many more it has given indications of good to be done. Of good indicated, and in another six months to be accomplished, we must particularly advert- to the Law Reform Bill of Lord BROUGHAM, the greatest and most salutary ever offered to Par- Bement. Of good effected, the abolition of the Coal-tax is a great one ; that the public must still suffer under the absurd regulations which, go to deprive them of the full benefit of that measure, is due to that factious opposition which may now be safely numbered with the things that were. The Newspaper- tax may also be .cOnsidered as. abandoned ; the Candle-tax is given up ; the Printed Cotton-tax is no more. These are small in themselves, but the principle which they establish is of importance, —it is, that knowledge ought to be free, that the poor ought to be lightly burdened, that manufactures- ought to be untrammelled by fiscal regulations. The airangements of the Civil List recognize the propriety of that order and regnlarity in the public accounts, which have been happily 'exemplified' in the annual estimates. The reduction ' of 'the. Pehsidn-list is not what, in our opinion; it ought to have been; but the way is marshalled to the gradual abolition of a large, portion, and to the regulation of all that is really obnoxiotis. Wherever Ministers have, been allowed to act, they have shown_ good faith; and sound views of general poliey. Where they have failed, it .has been froni Jack -of infbrmation, or defective tactics, licit from.nttachment. to a vicious system. As the !Ministry have. been:dittinginshed. by singular _candour .and etraightfOrwtesiness, so the Opposition has been cbaticterized by a very remarkable abandonment of both. On no occasion in our recent annals has the spirit of party been more conspicuously displayed than in the conduct of Sir ROBERT PEEL and his supporters, from HORACE Twrss up to the heir of the house of Buckingham. The history of Parliament does not record a baser combination than that of the expelled Ministers and the Colonial advocates on the question of the Timber-duties; nor does it exhibit a picture more laughable than the stretching forth of hands and interchange of compliments between the Knight of Kerry and HUNT of Stam- ford Street. Of what incongruities was that motley array com- posed, which counted among its leaders the champion of Christendom and the champion of Radicalism, the member for Oxford and the member for Preston—the twin oracles of the . Church and the Rotunda! Next to the supp ut of honest men, could the sacred cause of Reform have desired a better destiny than to be so opposed ? The division on Tuesday took place on a resolution moved by - General GascovNE, declaring that the number of members for England and Wales should in no case be diminished : it was car-• vied by 299 votes to 291. The motion of adjournment on Thursday, in which Ministers were outvoted by 164 to 142, and the supplies virtually stopped, was made by that worthy patriot Mr. WILLI,sar . BANKES.

To the various topics of the week, we hardy deem it worth while minutely to advert ; the great topic has sunk them all. The caw of Liverpool was left on Thursday half-discussed. The Ord- nance Estimates were cut short by the same adjournment ; they are the only ones that had not passed both Houses. For the Ordnance Estimates, Ministers will take a bill of indemnity when Parliament reassembles.

The Lords have had a lengthened dispute with the Times this week; like all their disputes with the press, has ended to the sitisfaction of nobody but the officer who 'receives the fees. The corrected Reform Bill, as now printed, is in several particu- • lars very properly improved—let us hold fast by that which is good. On the first day of public business in a new Parliament, the Bill will . be reintroduced ; and, the interval between the dissolution and the reassembling excepted, we do not suppose that its progress through . the House will be sensibly prolonged by the partial interruption it has experienced. We may almost hazard the prediction, that it will be read a first and second time without opposition, committed by a majority of 150, and, supposing Parliament to reassemble by' the middle of June, before the end ofAugust it will be the law of England.

1. THE REFORM Bn.r.. On Monday, as soon as an incidental dis- cussion respecting the -hardy assertions of Mr. Huirr had terminated, Lord Jous RUSSELL moved the order of 'the day for the House to go into Committee on the Reform Bill. He began by alluding to the ex- traordinary reception 'the Bill had received both in the country and in the House. • The measure was now sealed and stamped with the approbation of the people for Whose benefit it was proposed. • A proof of the general favour with which the Bill had been received by the people might be found in the statement of the member for- Preston, that it was impossible that the newspapers should not advocate the measure,: because if they did not, they would'be left without readers. He could also advert. with pleasure to the extraordinary number of petitions to Parliament, and addreises' to his Majesty, which had been sent up from all parts of the country. It was also a remarkable circumstance, that the majority of the petitions which had been pre-- seated on the subject from boroughs and corporations, was in favour of the Bill, al-. though it bad been described as a measure which would rob freemen and borough- Voters of their rights. -The right honourable Baronet opposite (Sir Robert Peel)" was very fond of quoting speeches which had been delivered on former occasions he could not therefore complain if he followed the example which Sir Rotert. set when he brought forward the Catholic Relief Bill. On that occasion, Sir Robert referred . to the votes given by -the members for 17 counties and 20 towns in England, as the only constitutional and practical mode of ascertaining the opinions of the country. He showed that the votes of those members on the Catholic question were pretty nearly balanced. . Lord John Russell would- refer to precisely the same counties and towns to which Sir Robert Peel thee alluded. The counties were—Yorkshire, Middlesex, Lancashire, Devonshire, Kent., Sorry, somersetshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire, Dorsetshire, Essex, Hampshire, Lin- colnshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire, and Suffolk. Out of the 3d. members who represented these counties in Parliament, 27 had voted for the Reform Bill and only 9 against it. The towns were—London, Westminster, Southwark,. Liverpool, Bristol, Norwich, Nottingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Leicester, Hull. Preston, Exeter, Coventry, Chester, Great Yarmouth, Derby, Worcester, Aylesburir, Carlisle, and oolchetter. Of the members for these towns, 39 voted for the Bill, and,. only 3 against it. These were the members, be it remarked, whom Sir Robert Peel; with something. of. a reforming eye, had selected as representing practically ape constitutionallythe sense of the people of England. These members had voted, not. only in favour of Reform generally, but in favour of a measure which declared that seats should not be sold, and that the elective franchise should he extended. About. one-third of the borough members had voted in favour of the Bill, although their in- terest was dirtied), the other way. This was a decisive proof that the general feeling, of the people on the question had made an imPtession on their minds.

Lord John proceeded to state the alterations which Minister 4/F-0..\

every attention to the various suggestions of its friends ant and,to theinformation which had been received since the Bill read a • second time, had deliberately resolved to make in 1 There were several .boroughs, which, in consequence of t inserted in schedule but. hich more attentive consideration

to possess, in themselves and in the parishes and townships in which-. their population was given 'in the census of 1.821;;

connected with them, a sufficient number of inhabitants to justify their transference from schedule A to schedule B ; and again, there were several which had, from a similar cause, been included in schedule B, which it was just to remove from it. Among those which it had been at first proposed to disfranchise wholly, but which it was now proposed to disfranchise partially only, were-

Aldborough ......... Yorkshire .... ..Population, 2,129 f(a6?

B m 3,6 uckingha Bucks .

Malmesbury... .Wilts . 2,145 (e)

Okehamptou . Devon 2,023 (d) Reigate u rry 2,901 (e) Those which it had been proposed to disfranchise partially, but which would, in consequence of the proposed corrections in, the Bill, continue to return two members each, as before, were— Leominster .. .Hereford . Population.: 4,431 ((Ph)

Morpeth Northumberland

47 (.( )

Northallerton Yorkshire

Tam worth . ..... S tafford;and Warwick

Truro . Cornwall

Westbury Wilts; 11,239 (k)

Wycombe Bucks 0,846 (1) 5,599 (m)

The rule which Government had laid down in all these cases, was, that the district or township, added to the borough, and in future to be considered as part of it, were locally attached. In such a case as Cli- theroe (n), where the borough constituted a part of a township only, with a scattered country population of 4,000 not attached to the town at all, they had not found themselves justified in making any alteration. As for Beeralston (o), even including the parish of Beerferris, there was only one house rated at 10/. in the whole district. Nothing could be more distinct than the cases of Beeralston and Caine ; in the latter case, the parochial part was strictly and closely connected with the borough. If, however, by sacrificing both Caine and Tavistock, he could gain Eve votes to the general measure, most cheerfully would the sacrifice be made. (A laugh.) The only object of the Bill was to destroy borough- mongering, not to preserve it there or elsewhere. (Cheers.) Lord John went on to state, that as by these alterations several smaller boroughs would be preserved, some entire, and others in the enjoyment of one representative, it had been thought fit, with a view to preserve the balance of the Bill, to extend the right of returning representatives to several places not previously contemplated in it, and to add to the representatives in others. The following places would, in future, return one member each—

Bury, Rochdale, Stoke-upon-Trent, Whitby. Oldham, Salford (p), Wakefield,

To each county in England and Wales, having a population above 100,000 aod under 150,000, it was proposed to give an additional mem. ber. The counties coming under this regulation were—

Becks, Oxford, Hertford, Dorset, Bucks, Cambridge, Hereford, Glamorgan.

The town and parish of Halifax, which had been inserted in schedule:C, it was proposed to place in schedule D, limiting the franchise to the town- ship alone : the parish constituted a wild and scattered district, where the town franchise could not be readily or practically established (q.)

Allowing for these alterations, the number of the representatives under the Bill would be 627.

In respect of the franchise, some alterations were proposed. In coun- ties, in addition to freeholds of 2/., copyholds of 101., and leaseholds for twenty-one years of 501., it was proposed to admit leaseholds for sixty years of 101. per annum to a vote ; and on the same principle, lease- holders who had paid a fine equivalent to an annuity of ten pounds. In towns, persons occupying counting-houses or warehouses, as well as dwelling-houses, would be allowed a vote. And lastly, all appren- tices in corporate towns, whose time had not expired, and all sons of freemen born before the date of the Bill, would, if duly registered, be entitled on coming of age to exercise the franchise during their lives.

There was a difficulty in naming proper returning-officers in every case, and therefore it was proposed to leave the nomination to the Sheriff; and to provide against carelessness or inattention in church- wardens, it was proposed to appoint clerks for the purpose of keeping the respective registries. Lord John said it was unnecessary to go minutely into the details of the BA, as members would have ample time to do so in considering the two first clauses, which they would probably be some time in getting through. (Cheers and laughter.)

In allusion to General Gascoyne's projected instruction to the Com- mittee, he said that it tended to introduce invidious distinctions between the several portions of the empire. To such a proposition he could op- pose a better authority than his own,—that of Mr. Pitt, who, at the period of the Irish Union, well remarked, that it was of little importance what was the exact amount of members from the different parts of a

(a) .41dborough includes Boroughbridge, and five other hamlets and townships : the two boroughs, which are both in the same parish, were in the first instance reckoned separately. (6) Buckingham, including three hamlets, a chapelry, and precinct, in the imme- diate vicinity: exclusive of these, the borough and parish contain only 1,495 inha- bitants.

(c) Malmesbury borough and parish contain only 1976; but there is a parish, " The Abbey in Malmesbury," now included, which contains 169. (d) Okehampton includes the hamlet of Kigbear, in Black Torrington Hundred. (e) Reigate borough contains 1,328; the foreign, 1,633. (f) Leominster includes the townships of Ivington and Broadward. (g) Morpeth includes the four townships of Newminster Abbey, Shilvington, Tranwell, Twizell, in Castle Ward (west), and the parish of Morpeth and township of Butlers Green, in Morpeth Ward (east). (h) Northallerton includes three chapelries and a township not previously reckoned.

Tamworth parish is partly in Staffordshire, partly in Warwickshire; both di- visions are now included.

(k) The parishes of St. Clements and Hemvyn, which contain severally 2,306 and 6,221, extend into the borough of Truro, but were not formerly included with the population of St. Mary's. (1) Westbury includes the chapelries of Bratton and Dillon, and the township of Leigh. (m) Wycombe borough contains 2,864 inhabitants, Wycombe parish 2,735. These alterations make the schedules consistent ; for in every other instance, the parish had been previously included with the borough, the population return not ad. smutting of their,being distinguished. (a) The parish of Whalley, in which Clitheroe is situate, contains 84,198 inha- bitants.

(o) Beersaston is a township, if it may be so called, in the parish of Beerferris: the parish contains 2,198. (p) Manchester will thus return two members of itself, Salford being disJoined from It. (0 The township contains 12,628 inhabitants. country identified in interest and affection. The Bill now offered was the same in essence and principle as that which the House had delibe- rately sanctioned, and which had been carried not only by a majority of the House, but the universal acclamation of the nation. (Cheers.) Lord John concluded thus— On the question in the abstract, there appeared to be at present only two great authorities, Earl Grey on the one side, and the Duke of Wellington on the other. Earl Grey contended that it was just and politic to concede Reform to the wishes of the people ; while the Duke of 1Vellington, to whom the country for former services owed so large a debt of gratitude, urged that our existing institutions did not re- quire any alteration. To act on this advice, admitting it to be wise, was now no longer possible. (Cheers.) But be that as it might—whatever might be the parti- cular views and reasons of others—Ministers, at least, were bound by their princi- ples to abide as well by the advice which they had already given their Sovereign, as by the opinions which they bad expressed in Parliament, consistently with which they would most strenuously persevere until this measure should be carried. (Cheers.) So received by the nation, and so sanctioned by Parliament,should it be substantially broken in upon or impeded by vexatious and tedious delay, the question, he could assure the House, would hereafter be entertained by the people in a very different temper, and perhaps under circumstances less likely to lead to a propitious issue. He did not envy the boldness of those who still persisted in their pertinacious op- position. Were he a proprietor of boroughs, he should look with not a little anxiety to the consequences of continued agitation. How much better would it be to con- sent to what was unavoidable in a period of tranquillity, than in the midst of turbu- lence, anarchy, and imminently dangerous excitement ! If ever there was a man emi- nent by his services—a man entitled, on everyaccount, to the confidence of his country for victories fought and victories gained both in military and civil life, that man was the Duke of Wellington,—a man who possessed the confidence and attachment of, and held the highest offices under, one Sovereign, and who retained his power and influ- ence under another, and who justly merited, by his splendid achievements both in the Cabinet and the field, and who, moreover, united in his single person, the almost undivided admiration and gratitude of the people. And yet, if the Duke of Wellington, in the full possession of his extraordinary power and influence—in the meridian of his fame-

" Exuvias veteres populi, sacratuque gestans Dona ducum," shrunk before the storm which lie could not control—where, I ask, are we to look for the man possessing the power, the station, the character, the daring to venture to oppose himself to the united will, the unanimously pronounced wishes, the enthu- siastic voice of three great nations for Reform

General GASCOYNE rose, amidst great confusion, to propose his instruc- tion to the Committee. The General denied that the Bill now proposed to be committed was any thing like that which had been read a second time : some concessions had been made by the Cabinet, and notwith- standing their vapouring, greater concessions would be made. He could see no reason for reducing the number of members of the House, and therefore should persist in his motion. The population of Ireland had been grossly exaggerated, for political purposes ; and whatever might be said of its numbers, it was notorious that it did not pay one-tenth of the revenue, while it contributed one-sixth of the representation. The Irish and Scotch members uniformly combined to resist any attempt to impose on their countries the same burdens and regulations as on England. When the Small Note Bill was in discussion, no fewer than eighty-three of them declared that they would abandon the Minister if he did not exempt Ireland and Scotland from its operation. Though, therefore, he had no hostility to either country, yet because he found them ever as one when the object was to take a burden from their own shoulders and impose it on England and Wales, he would move that the number of knights and burgesses of the House of Commons be not diminished.

Mr. SADLER seconded the motion of General Gascoyne, and delivered a long dissertation on the general question of Reform ; in the course of which he was repeatedly interrupted by coughing, yawns audible, and other marks of impatience. He said, in abandoning the principle of virtual for direct representation, the Ministers had not only shut themselves out from the support of Mr. Pitt's authority, who always argued for virtual repre- sentation, but they opposed the whole theory of Parliamentary representa- tion, which had been virtual-from its origin. The great county of York in Henry the Third's time had but two representatives assigned to it. In the boroughs, according to Hume, the electors from the beginning were the mayor and aldermen, the governing body of the borough. The object of the constitution was, that the House should represent large masses of property ; and when it ceased to do so, the prosperity of the country must cease. The Revolution in 1688 had been brought about by these very rotten boroughs which were now so maligned, and the Restoration was produced by the same agency. But for them, the Act of Settlement would never have been passed, for the county members were as two to one against it. To these boroughs, sixty-five of which voted for, and only forty-three against the bill, the country was indebted for the House of Brunswick. Mr. Sadler went on to argue, that cor- ruption would not be destroyed under the Ministerial Bill ; that the Colo- nial interests would be deprived of their representatives by it. He added that the constitution of the empire was the original and fundamental act of society at its first formation, and could not be altered by any infe. rior authority. The honourable member, amidst much laughter, quoted Locke to prove that defects in the constituency were incapable of remedy. He charged Ministers with trenching on vested rights, and with being guilty, in their attack on the rotten boroughs, of that impious hardihood which the poet makes the characteristic of fools—rushing in " where angels feared to tread." He compared the constitution of England to Westminster Abbey, which towers so proudly over St. Margaret's on the one hand and the mansions in Old Palace Yard on the other; and called on the House, when the hand of time had impaired the one, to proceed to the remedy on the same principles as they did when the same hand had impaired the other,—carefully removing, stone by stone, what was defective, and as carefully replacing the decayed part by materials the same in substance, and similar in design, with the rest of the building.

Mr. Sadler went into a long and minute calculation, from the Income.• tax returns and other Parliamentary tables, to show that the property in the town part of the United Kingdom was greatly inferior to that of the country part ; and argued thence, that in the distribution of repre- sentatives, the latter had been most unfairly dealt with. He objected strongly to giving a 101. tenant for a year a vote for a town, and limiting a vote for a county to a 501. tenant for twenty-one years. He could see no reason why a farmer of Norfolk should be in a worse plight than a householder of Devizes. Mr. Sadler then compared Cromwell's Parlia- ment to that which he said the Bill would assemble; and contended that the former was much superior to the latter. Cromwell gave the coun- ties 237 members, and the towns 141 ; while the present Bill gave the counties only 143, and the towns 277. There was, indeed, Mr. Sadler argued, but one principle apparent in the Bill, and that was a principle of gross partiality. Durham was to have 5 additional members, and t-orkshire, which was six times as large, only I. Northumberland, again, would have a member for every 20,000 souls, while Buckingham had but one for G1,000. Cromwell, who went on the principle of pro- perty only, gave 3 representatives to counties on which were imposed 1,0001. of the 120,00W. of assessment he had imposed,—Id to those who had to pay 4,000f., and 21 to those who paid 5,000/. Mr. Sadler cone eluded by expressing his determination to oppose the Bill, notwithstand- ing the cry in its favour, " as he knew not on such an occasion as the present any surer or better guide, or rule of action, than that dictated by a man's conscience and sense of duty." Lord ALTHORP said„ the object of the instruction was to destroy the Bill ; and having expressed this to be his decided opinion, he need not say that the speech of Mr. Sadler was wholly irrelevant to what was im- mediately before them. The question was not that the whole number of the House of Commons should be kept as it was at present—were this instruction carried, the number must either be increased, or Scot- land and Ireland deprived of the additional representatives which it was proposed to give them. This motion was the first of a series intended to interfere with the progress of the Committee ; and, if agreed to, would be fatal to the Bill. General Gascoyne, indeed, had said he did not believe that Ministers 'would seriously oppose it. Lord Althorp assured him he never was more serious in his life than he was in opposing it. Lord Althorp ridiculed the notion that the slumber of Irish members could ever be an object of dread or suspicion to England, while the latter were to the former as five to one. The Bill had been called a new one. In what respect was it so?

He should have Um:milt the arrangements, with regard to the boroughs in sche- dule A and schedule B, were amongst the most important parts of the Bill. Cer- tainly the gentlemen opposite. had appeared to think so. And what alterations had been made in those schedules ? 'Why, fifty-five boroughs out of the sixty in the first, and thirty-nine out of the forty-six in the second, still remained in them. (Cheers.) Now he contended, that the alterations which it was proposed to make In the Bill were only such as were constantly made in measures of importance : the principle, and all the great features of the measure, remained untouched; and the cheers with which the statement of Lord John Russell had been hailed, proved to him that the alterations were considered in that light by the friends of the Bill. (Cheers.) The manner, too, in which that statement had been received by the gen- tlemen opposite, proved that they also did not consider that the principle of the Bill had been departed from. The Bill had been called a compromise. His own opinion on the value of vote by ballot was well known : still he had never said that no reform would be effectual without the ballot ; and others who were much more strongly wedded to ballot than he was, had given it np to a measure which would, it was supposed, render it unnecessary. To the imputa- tion of partiality urged so pertinaciously by Mr. Sadler, Lord Althorp said- " Thinking as we do, that this measure is one of such great importance, and so highly beneficial to the country, that we might rest our hopes of present fame and of reputation with posterity upon it, is it to be supposed that any private motives of personal interest would make ws swerve from the just line cf impartiality ? The honourable member, I hope, said it in the heat of debate ; I cannot conceive that he could intend to impute to us such motives; it' lie does, I can only say, I do not envy him his mind." (Loud cheers.)

He begged all those who were friendly to the measure not to be de- ceived as to the consequences of the proposition now submitted to the House, nor to think it of small importance to the great object. If it were carried, it would effect such damage to the Bill—it would be such a blow to it—that it must be fatal to the success of the measure.

Lord STORMONT contended, that the whole Bill was a tissue of errors and absurdities. Still he denied that the object of General Gascoyne's motion was to throw it out ; it was to remedy the disproportion that had existed in the House since the Catholic members were admitted. If the Bill were carried in its present shape, there would be many more per- sons like Mr. O'Connell in the House ; and was not the House to inter- fere to prevent hint from having thirty like himself at his beck and nod ? General DUFF supported the amendment, on the same grounds.

Mr. C. FERGUSSON said, there was only one way in which the repre- sentation of the country could be remedied—by disfranchising the close boroughs, or by augmenting the numbers of the House, not by ten but by sixty. The objection to the Catholic members, he believed, was less to their numbers than to the frequency of their addresses ; and yet, strange to tell, he believed not one of them spoke so often-as the gallant General himself. The House had been told that boroughs were conve- nient to the Crown, by the shelter they gave to an unpopular Minister; but what came of Ministers when they lost these places—how did they come in then ? It was said, too, that clever lawyers would not other- wise get into the House. He had never heard but of one Parliament in which there were not abundance of lawyers, and from that they were excluded by statute.

Lord LOUGHBOROUGH spoke against the Bill, and for the amendment.

Colonel Woos) denied that Ise was opposed to the Bill ; but he could not assent to it in its present shape, and should, therefore, vote for the amendment.

Mr. H. L. BULIVER, amidst great confusion, rose to move the adjourn- ment of the debate ; which motion was seconded by Mr. HUNT, and, after some time, agreed to.

On Tuesday, Mr. H. L. &imams, who had been left in possession of the House on Monday, commenced the adjourned debate. Mr. Bulwer, while he expressed a hope that the Ministers would listen to such modifications as did not affect the principle of the Bill, declared his dis- approbation of the amendment, which contemplated England, Ireland, and Scotland, as three kingdoms, instead of one united empire. Scot- land was quite able enough to protect its own interests—for Ireland, he thought, looking to its increased and increasing population, it required, and must receive, more members than it now had. The disapprobation of the Bill expressed by a mob at Manchester, so much dwelt on by the member for Preston, was, in reality, the best recommendation of themea- sure. The fact that those persons and prints which advocated revolutionary principles, opposed the Bill, was the best proof of the ungrounded nature of their fears who augured a revolution from its passing. Mr. J. CAMPBELL said, he could see no peculiar value in the number of 513, to which General Gascayne was so much attached ; nor why it should be supposed the only number by which the representation of England was to be measured. Neither was there the smallest ground according to the acts of Union with Scotland and Ireland, or the cor. respondence of the Commissioners, for restricting, in perpetuity, the number of their representatives to 45 and 100. Mr. Campbell showed, from historical documents, that the number of the English members had arisen from a great abuse of the prerogative of the Crown in the issuing of writs. Most of the boroughs in schedule A had received their right of returning members from the Tudors. With respect to the transferability of such rights, the barony by tenure afforded a very marked instance. The present Lord thancollor had, in arguing the Berkeley case, given it as his opinion, that under that tenure an assignee of bankrupts might take his seat in the House of Lords as legal occupant of the estate to which the peerage was annexed.

Mr. PANE thought the cry for Reform in this country had originated solely in the recent French Revolution, \Odell it was wished to copy out in England. He that told the people that Reform would relieve theta, only deluded them. If they had a King, they must have a Civil List ; if they had a Church, they must have Tithes.

Mr. WILBRAHAM regarded the Reform measure as a glorious one ; it struck deep at the roots of corruption, and it maintained entire every interest of the state except the interest of the Boroughmongers. Ile himself possessed a borough, which appeared in schedule A, but he would€ be proud, nevertheless, in giving his last vote in order to keep it there.

lire Iliwasas, in a maiden speech of extraordinary ability, supported the original motion. He ridiculed, very successfully, the ergument that the Bill must be a had one because all ranks of Reformers w re pleased with it. It was said that he who attempted to please everybody would please nobody, but it was singular to hear it made matter of inculpatioa against Ministers that they had succeeded in this proverbially hopeless task. The charge of innovation, coupled with the transfer of the fran- chise of Gams to Manchester, he tie tight was sufficiently answered by the precedents which little more than a century had furnished—the change of a dynasty—the extinction of two independent legislatures— the cutting off by a single enactment the whole of the small freeholders of Ireland. These were surely sufficient precedents for the disfranchise- ment of a nomination borough. To the argument for the abuses of the representative system derived from its antiquity, Mr. Hawkins an swered- When the bludgeon was the umpire of popular meetings and the axe of ledsla- tive assemblies, it was natural and unavoidable that corruption and intimidation should be reckoned the two main pillars of established -government and sod al order. and that political honesty should be identified with blind fidelity to the landlord or party leader. But 110W that the Sunday pamphlet had superseded the bludgeon of the mob—now that the daily journal had been admitted, by mutual consent, as a fitter arbiter between contending factious than the axe—now that the grim school- master was found a more effective bugbear to political disturbers than the grim Beadsman—it was too much to demand of them the continuance of those means of government whose worst corruption was unnoticed amidst the greater hideousness of the ends to which they were rendered subservient. He never contemplated the discussions on this question, Lot he felt himself half a convert to the now unfashionable doctrine of the wisdom of our ancestors.

He was told that they had, of necessity, less experience and less wisdom than ourselves. Less experience he admitted they had; but that they had less wisdom he almost doubted, when he saw that, unlike their descendants-, they made, to the best of their ability, a practical application of that experience to the necessities and difficulties which occurred ; and were Sir Thomas More really to rise from his grave for the purpose of instructing a poet laureate in political economy, lie might well ask what we gained by our superior knowledge and accumulated experience, when a few sounding phrases and a few hard names were sufficient to deter us from putting to a practical use the results of that experience, and the deductions of that knowledge. The House had heard much boasting of the independence of their self-elected legislators; and if independence were always to be mea- sured by irresponsibility, they were most aristocratically independent of the people, whose representatives they were so fond of styling them- selves.

Bat here was that illegitimacy of origin which would over stand in the way of the salutary respect which all rulers, to make their rule effective, should enjoy in the eyes of the people. Legislators they might be—wise and honest legislators—but re- presentatives they were not and could not be. Hereditary members of an elective assembly—Peers in the House of Commons—by their presence there, they intercepted from the hereditary branch of the Legislature that popular confidence which they could not enjoy themselves. There was no remark which the Anti-Reformers were more assiduous in enforcing, than the necessity that the Legislature should enjoy the confidence of the people—that it should not be obliged to act as themere index of the popular will—that it should represent the opinions of the community upon an average of years, and be responsible for the ulti- mate tendency rather than the political line of its conduct. Mr. Haw- kins most cordially agreed in the doctrine, and therefore protested against the continuance of the system of representation which compelled the people to interfere with a jealous expression of their opinions on each particular action of the House that did not fall in with their momentary humour,—because they felt, that whether the ultimate results of that action were such as to justify them or not, they at least would have no future opportunity of controlling the actors, or adopting precautions against the repetition or continuance of the action. It was for these reasons that the press admonished them by threats instead of ad- vice—that the manufacturing artisan enrolled his name in affiliated societies,in- stead of subscribing it to petitions—that the agriculturist winked at, if he did not encourage, the outrages of his labourers, as a circuitous means of lightening those taxes which had disabled him from meeting their demands ; it was for these reasons that revolution had been called for when reform was wanted.

The criterion of legislative capacity was the general effect produced upon public opinion by the conduct of such a legislation— A slow, silent, continuous effect—visible, indeed, through the whole of its insi- dious progress to those whose business it was to watch the signs of the times—the gathering thunder-cloud of a summer's day, unheeded by less attentive observers, until the first audible mutterings of its wrath, and unnoticed by the public in gene- ral, until it burst in storm and desolation on the land. This was that unerring cri- terion to which rulers had never yet appealed until the eleventh hour ; this was that indisputable sign of the times which Governments never deigned to notice until they could no longer close their eyes to the lightning, nor their ears to the thunder.

Here were two parties,—one affirming the good effects of the nomi- nation system; the other, equally numerous, affirming its bad effects; but what would be said when the adversaries of Reform joined with the Reformers in the character of the system which produced these disputed

effects ?

Why, these very trumpeters of this Rouse—these champions of our motley fran- chise—allow that they are astonished when they contemplate the apparently inade- quate causes which produce these vaunted results; they allow that they cannot ex- plain by what miracle of our politico-moral nature such purity is engendered of such corruption. The Reformers inferred the existence of bad effects from bad causes. Their adversaries join with them in their character of the causes, but in- ferred therefrom nothing but good effects. There was another class who, acknowledging that they see no excep Lion to-the .old rule of " like causes produce like effects," demurred. nevertheless, to any proposal for amending the system from an appre- pension of danger, whose magnitude, in their eyes, was perhaps to be explained upon the old principle of omne ignotUm pro magnifico. The sole difference between them and the Reformers was this— Shall the decayed parts of the system he mended or not ? Both were agreed that the system wanted mending, but one party was unwilling to begin so perilous u job. Both were agreed that it was in rags and tatters ; but whenever the Reformers began to thread the darning-needle, they exclaimed—" Leave it alone, in the name of prudence, in the name of caution, iu the name of Robespierre and Banton ; it is so rotten, that if you attempt to put a stitch in, the whole will fall to pieces." He would not stop to remind such objectors what manner of compliment they were paying to the old garment which had served their turn so long, and for which they professed such a veneration ; but did they not see the inevitable inference which the political renovators would draw from this admission ? Would not the answer be ready and irreplicable / If the state of the garment be such as you avow, then it is high time so get a new one. And was not this the dilemma in which the obstitia.e refusal of an the moderate and timely amendments had for some time placed us ? Had we not been told by a lout, if not a strung party, that the Legis. lature of England was incorrisible ? —that it was too rotten to be .picked up, and that it was high time to get a new one ? And to whom did we owe this, but to those who passed by every opportunity for a timely reform, with an impudent denial of the existence of any blemish ? and who now, when such denial was no longer poesible,thought to evade tl.e results of their own obstinacy, by an affectation of sudden discovery that such blemishes had gone too far, had spread themselves too universally through tile system, In leave any part where a repair might he re- commended, without denser of pulling the whole to pieces ?

They had been told that the House of Peers could not exist without the support which it derived from its nonline!!s.

But, were they to grant this, they would itninediately ask, what supported this assembly ? If the House of Peers were thrown back upon the House of Commons, on what did the House of Commons rely ? After all the discussions of the theore- tical, and the intrigues of the practical statesman, we came ultimately, and in the last resort, to public opinion, us the tortoise which was to carry the elephant which carried the Ministerial world; and, however we might consult our distaste for un- palatable remedies,--however we /Weld think to avoid the bitter necessity of phy. sic by attributing our strength to the disease of which we were dying,—however we Weld flatter our imagined dignit y by a vaunted independence of popular opinion,— it was that popular opinion which was our best staff of support, though we would continue to insult it by clinging to a broken reed.

The Reformers had been accused of attempting, by a threat of revolu- tion, to intimidate those very opponents whose favourite argument against the Bill was their own fear of revolution.

Why, threat for threat, upon their joint showing of the case, the question would only be, which way led soonest and straightest to revolution. They did not defend acknowledged iniquities of the present system upon any other grounds than those of general expediency; they acknowledged the occasional, persenal, and constant moral corruption inflicted by the present nomination system ; but it was the only nay, forsooth, of keeping things quiet—the only way of saving the Monarchy, the Peerage, and the Church. Might not the Reformers entertain the same fears as their adversaries? Why were they to be allowed to allege their own prospective cowardice as a reason against that measure in favour of which the Reformers must not state their present apprehensions ? (Hear!) He was not afraid of a revolution in either case. He was not afraid of that physical violence against which, if they were not protected by the good sense of the people of England, the bigotry of their self-elected rulers would be but as a broken reed. But he thought that they would give no small confirmation of that charge of legislative incapacity which was now ringing in their ears, if they neglected to repair their house while it was still sum- mer, because the winter hurricane was nut yet upon the horiton.

Mr. Hawkins thus concluded his masterly address, which would have produced a powerful effect if pronounced a month ago— Where, indeed, was ever seen a fabric of time-worn political privilege tottering to its fall, the majority of whose possessors had not displayed the same idiotic se- curity amidst the ruin which every one else foresaw ? ( Loud cheers.) He would nut detain the House by quoting proofs of that melancholy truth, of which political history was but one long example. He would go no farther back than to the early days of many whom he then addressed, and ask, was it the firmness of real, or the madness orlancied security, when the Court of Versailles drove the representatives of popular opinion to swear, in a tennis-court, their own inviolability and the rege- neration of France ? Or was it the firmness of real, or the madness of fancied se- curity when, as it were but yesterday, the breathless herald of approaching insur- rection was ordered to trait on the threshold of St. Cloud,

Donee Borbonico libeat vigitarc tyranno.

What price, not the people of France alone, but all civilized Europe, were com- pelled to pay for chaining that first madness, was now matter of history ; what price, not France alone, but all civilized Europe, was about to pay for chaining this second madness, he dared not trust himself to prophecy ; but he appealed to all impartial observers of past and passing events, who had witnessed the reluctance with which that mighty people commenced the struggles for which they had paid so much, to say whether that people would not have repaid, with a rich return of con- fidence and love, the voluntary sacrifice of antiquated power, worthless and de- fenceless though it was. That such gratitude would have been felt by the people of France for such sacrifice, he most sincerely believed ; that such gratitude would be felt by the people of England for far less painful sacrifices, he did most unhesi- tatingly affirm ; and the more gratitude, inasmuch as such sacrifices on our part were not yet inculcated by the presence of that other fearful alternative. For the honour of this ancient Monarchy, whose perils and whose triumphs for so many generations were chronicled in the proceedings of the House—for the sake of this faithful people who had stood by them in the hour of their trial, and borne with them in the hour of their pride—let them seize the opportunity which now pre- sented itself, to inscribe themselves on the page of history as the first recorded ex- ample of power correcting its own usurpation. (Continued cheers.)

Sir GEORGE WARRENDER said, that by General Gascoyne's motion, let Scotland and its towns increase in wealth and consequence ever so much, they must still be restricted to the original puny number agreed on more than a century ago, under circumstances wholly different. Mr. C. W. WYNNE entered into a detailed consideration of the Bill; to all the parts of which he declared himself hostile. To the motion of General Gascoyne he did not attribute so much consequence as others did ; although be certainly could see no good reason for augmenting the representatives of Ireland beyond the number fixed at the Union— an event to which so much of the wealth of Ireland was owing. Sir GEORGE CLERK said, if he thought that in consequence of its being carried, Scotland would be deprived of any future addition to its num- bers, he would not vote for the amendment ; but he did not think it would have that effect.

Sir Jonsi MaLcoras said, he had studied the constitution for the last ten years ; and, as an old man, he must deprecate any tampering with it.

Sir ROBERT WILSON said, he had had a conversation with some mem- bers in confidential communication with Ministers, in consequence of his disinclination to vote for any measure that involved a diminution of the number of English representatives ; and he had been leen() con- clude, from that conversation, that they were not seriously opposed to the amendment before the House. He had afterwards communicated with General Gascoyne, and had been assured by him that it was not framed in a spirit of hostility to the Bill. The speeches of Lord John Russell on the 12th, and of Lord Althorp on the 14th, further tended to convince him that he had rightly interpreted the sentiments of Ministers ; and he was therefore beyond measure surprised to hear Lord Althorp, on the 10th, speak of the amendment in the terms in

which he bad done. •

He was a Reformer—a consistent, but not a vague Reformer ; and, as such, was prepared to vote for the principle of the present Blip, though entertaining objec- tions to some of its provisions. He, at least, was not a shifting Reformer. (Loud cheers from the Opposition, echoed in a tone of irony from the Treasury. .Benches.) He could not change his opinion every week as he might his old clothes. (Cheers from the Opposition.) He was not one that could play the part of vacillation, as it might meet the purpose of the passing moment; far less could he permit himself to be influenced to do so by the most base and sordid motives.

Sir Robert finished by stating, that he was ready, if his vote dis- pleased his constituents, to resign.

Mr. STANLEY thought it not very consistent in Sir Robert Wilson to effect in the first place the very mischief which he was sent intothe House to prevent, and then to take credit to himself for his readiness to resign. The confidential communications with Ministers, lie could not well un- derstand. The motion now under consideration bad been but two days before the House. How Ministers omit! express any opinion on what they did not know, was not very intelligiiiie. With respect to the other confidential communications, it was notorious that every means 101(1 been adopted to frame the resolution of General Gasroyne so as to render it if possible fatal to the Bill. Its terms had been lour tittles changed, with that sole view. And yet this resolution, the consistent, 11:forming member for Southwark declared his determination to support! Mr. Stanley, after adverting to the general argument against the increase of Scotch Irish members—which, he contended, was much more than counterbalanced by the extl.nikd constituency of England—ex- pressed his surprise at the attack on tae details of the Bill by Mr. Wynne, more especially when the whole of the details had been corn- nutilicated to that gentleman no less than ten days before the measure was introduced. It was objected that Ministers proceeded wholly on the principle of population ; but that was not the case. The principle of property was employed as well ; the population principle was but a test.

The six towns immediately below the line of 2,000 bad 152 houses of the value of 10L, giving an average of something more than 25 houses or 1W. value to each of those towns. Of the six towns iminediatey above the line of 2,000, the total

amount of houses of value was 411, giving an average not of 25, but of 63 houses, of 10/. value, to each of those towns. Of the six towns immediately below the line of 4,000, the number of 10t. houses was 7a0, giving an average of 127 and a fraction to each of them. Of the six towns immediately above theline of 4,000. the number of 101. houses was 1,314, giving an average of 219 houses of 101. value to each of those towns.

Mr. Stanley concluded by exhorting members to consider, that on their vote of that evenino. the fate of the Bill was suspended ; and that they must be judged by Lir constituents as they supported the amendment or opposed it.

Mr. Wy:sxn said, lie had certainly seen the Bill the Saturday before [qy. Saturday sennight 9] the measure was introduced ;. and he then ex- pressed his disapprobation of its detuils,—though not so strongly, lie ad- mitted, as he afterwards had done.

Sir GEORGE MURRAY complimented Sir Robert Wilson and Mr. NVynne on their independence ; and declared his perfect approbation of the amendment.

Mr. BERNAL opposed it. Mr. NORTH asked why the Ministry had involved the principles of the Unions with Scotland and with Ireland in their present measure, unless to excite a contest between the Scotch and Irish members—to make the • member for Waterford naggle with the member for Kirkcudbright ? He would also ask, how the towns, cities, and boroughs Would be repre- sented ? Men convicted of political libels and persons sent to prisons for riot would be selected for representatives. The whole system would be changed. Mr. North contended.that the people .of Ireland did not call for Reform. They complained of the Sub-letting Act, of the Vestry Bill, of the Grand Jury system. Mr. O'Connell had said the repeal of the Union was impracticable, as Parliament was now constituted; but in a Reformed Parliament he would answer for its success. Mr. North agreed with him. The franchise would be given to . the small shopkeepers and publicans in the towns—persons utterly unfit to exer- cise it—a class adverse to the Union both on religious and political grounds. If they gut the franchise, it would be exercised under the in- fluence of the very worst counsellors of agitation. Mr. O'Connell might nominate to nineteen or twenty seats.

Mr. O'CONNELL. Said, that Mr. North was the first person who had introduced into the debate the topic of religious distrust. He complained that Mr. North had misrepresented him—he had never said " Give me a Reform, and a repeal of the Union is certain ;" but undoubtedly; if justice required a repeal of the Union, it was only to be expected from a Reformed Parliament. The Irish friends of Reform were not the Anti-Unionists only ; the parts of the country most friendly to Reform were those most opposed to the Repeal of the Union. Ireland complained, that she had only one hundred members to attend to her interests. England, Scotland, and Wales seemed to have united to prevent an increase to the number. With few exceptions, all the Scotch members supported General Gascoyne's • amendment. He looked to the Repeal of the Union only as the means of obtaining good government ; and Ireland could not have this Without adequate protection ins a domestic Legislature or in that House.. General Gascoyne had charged the Irish members with opposing every measure beneficial to Ireland,. and instanced the Poor-laws. Did the gallant General think the Poor-laws were such a panacea for the ills of England, that he was ready to say they would be a specific for Ireland ? It was said that Ireland did not pay the same proportion of taxation. as England. (.4 laugh.) He thanked them for that laugh ; it showed how ignorant they were of Ireland. Did they who laugh know that the taxes of the Customs were never brought into the Irish Treasury ?—that half a million for teas was all paid in London ?—that the duties on rum and wine were paid in England, and not one farthing from these taxes found its way into the Irish Treasury? But what did they say to the sum taken by absentees ? The Marquis of Hertford took 42,0001. from Ireland. Did not that yield to taxation. Taxation had been likened to the moisture absorbed by the solar ray, which fell in refreshing dews; in Ireland there was indeed a scorching sun, but no dew descended again. All the public offices, the arsenals, the dockyards, were in England. But to come to the principle of population— In Ireland there were 32 counties ; and if there was a real union between Eng. land and Ireland, there would be an increase of 32 members for Ireland. Only two of the counties had less than 100,000 inhabitants ; 20 counties had above 150,000, 12 had above 200,000, four above 300,000; and one about 600,000. • Why should not Tyrone, with 290,000 inhabitants, be equally represented with Glamorgan; and Down, with 313,000, with Oxford, having only 100,000 ? Talk not then of agitation. The honourable members for Liverpool and Drogheda (General Gascoyne and Mr. North) were the agitators. (Hear!) The first object in this proposition was to raise English prejudices ; the next- to excite Irish prejudices; the third to revive religious feuds.. nut it was a base calumny to say, that the Catholics of Ireland would prefer a Catholic to a Protestant, if their merits were equal. " Show me any instance of it. I call on the honourable member for Drogheda, who is the chief Calumniator of Ireland"—(Cries of" Order!'') The SPEAKER requested the honourable member to refrain from such

language.

Mr. O'CONNELL continued. He had not stated half the case of Ireland. He had not referred to the towns. There were fourteen towns, which, if they had been in England, would Ave had representatives. II-3 believed, however, that the Bill was fur the benefit of England ; and no mean rivalry would prevent him from supporting it. He called upon the gallant General t3 give his motion to the winds, that Ireland might have some benefit from the measure. CI 2.o:tient cheers.) " 0, I am laughed at : I have my am wer !" said Mr. O'Corriell, and sat dawn.

Mr. Idoxs. said, lie would support the Bill all through, although he had strong objections to it, inasmuch as it went to remove the chances of that Reform—universal suffrage and vote by ballot—which he thought alone satisfactory. • Sir ROisiucT Pita . opposed all measures that went to disturb the

settled proportion of representatives in the three countries, because, if once disturbed, he could site no end to discussions and disputes about the relative number, which not only each kingdom, but vitals division of the several kingdoms, should send to Parliament. Sir Robert said he would not bring forward any other scheme of Reform, b: anise, in that case, he ntight be taunted with a base desire to return to office. At the same time, no one could be more desirous than he Was of a moderate Reform. After some remarks on the details of the Bill, Sir Robert con- cluded by adverting to the question put by Lord Althorp the previous evening—" How, without such concessions as those contemplated in the Bill, any future Administration could carry on the business of the

country?"

Assuredly, in the most mitigated sense, such a question bad the effect of saying that those who should accept office would do that which they believed to be deel..• dedly wrong, or give up the power of carrying on the government. He raw nothing in the case put, but the alternative of yielding to popular clamour, and to the dic- tates of that press which had exerted itself in so degrading a manner—which exer- cised a great lint ii responsible power—a power which ought to be exercised with the greater moon because it was irresponsible,—or resigning the charge of direct- ing the artirs of the country. Sir JANE.; G;ZANAM did not say that if the amendment were carried

the Bill would be abandoned ; but it would be matter of grave conside- ration, whither, after being so impugned, it could be with advantage carried forward. He should most cheerfully return to a private station, where he would endeavour to do his duty as became an individual, slot without pride from the recollection that lie had endeavoured to win back the lost affections of the people of England by a measure which, being abandoned, the stability of the Throne and of all the institutions of the country might let shaken.

The ATTonaoty-Gastonsi., amidst loud and general cries of 0 Ques-

tion !" and " Divide ! " which continued during the greater part of his speech, answered the arguments of Sir Robert Peel. Sir Thomas said lie did not concur with Sir James Graham that Ministers must resign ; but if they did, how were the gentlemen opposite to form a Ministry ? The Duke of Wellington could not, after his late declaration, join them ; and without the Duce, their Cabinet would be the old story of the play Of Hamlet with the part of the Prince left out.

Lord Dons Russo:Jo in replying, said that the rejection of the Bill

might lead to various results. His Majesty might dissolve Parliament, and appeal from the present to a future House of Commons; or a modi- fied plan of Reform might he carried,—in which case, Parliament must of course be dissolved ; and what, in the latter alternative, was to prevent any member from movingthe present Bill once more, and what was to prevent those who had already voted for it from voting for it again ? The House then divided ; when there appeared—for the amendment, 299; against it, 291 ; majority against:Ministers, 8. The announcement Of the numbers was heard in perfect silence on both sides.

2. TILE Hiss otouT ION. On Thursday, after some discussion on the. subject of the Bill, and sits possible operation in Ireland,—where, the

Duke of WEiroxotox and Lord FaastnAot contended, it would be destructive to the Church establishment,—Lord WisantscrArra asked Earl Grey whether there was any truth in the rumour that it was the intention of Ministers to advise his Majesty to dissolve the present Par- liament ?

Earl GRES" said, that lie believed no answer was expected to so un- usual a question ; and he certainly would decline giving any answer whatever.

Lord WtotnYcLIFFE then said that be should, on the following day, move an address to his Majesty, praying him not to exercise his prero- gative at the present crisis.

• In the House of Commons, during the same evening, a similar ques- tion was put to Lord Althorp, by Sir Itrcumus VYVYAN, and a similar answer returned. Sir Richard also asked his Lordship, whether, after the decision of Tuesday, it was the intention of Ministers to go on with the Bill; and was answered that it was not. The answer of Lord Grey led in the Lords to a conversation of some length ; in which Lord WINCHILSEA spoke in favour of the abandoned Bill, and the Duke of WELLINGTON, Lord ELLENBOROUCH, and Lord CARNARVON against it.

Lord CAENAIIVON commented on the Bill and on the anticipated dissolution in terms of great bitterness.

" How could the country refuse to believe that jobbing was the object in view with respect to a measure which they saw founded on such a basis that it could not he carried into practice in itself, and could only take effect by a succession of arbi- trary acts to be proposed by his Majesty's Privy Council. There were not less than eighty boroughs which were to have their constituency supplied by the Ministers of the Crown. What would his noble friend have said of such a proposal at the time of the Friends of the People ? (Hear, hear !) Would he not have denounced this as a most profligate and tyrannical proposal? Hoping that their existence might be prolonged for t we:ay-four hours, he would not enlarge further upon the subject at present. [Earl Grey gave here a sign of dissent.] His noble friend shook his head, as if this would !lathe so. He hoped he misunderstood him. In the present state of Ireland and of this country, he believed that no man could advise the Sove- reign to dissolve Parliament, who had not a fool's head upon his shoulders, or a traitor's heart in his bosom. (Cheers.) He did not believe that his noble friend bad either one or the other ; and therefore he could not believe the reports he had heard. But he must say, that if such advice had been given, it was tantamount to advising the Sovereign to abdicate his Throne.- (Cheers.) In the House of Commons, the conversation was more extended. Mr. MAURICE FITZGERALD and Sir THOMAS ACLAIVD spoke with great ear- nestness of their consistency; and Sir ROBERT PEEL declared that the excitement of the country was casual, and would -pais-away when -the

beautiful Revolution of July was forgotten. Lord NORREYS, Mr. Gaeyx Pawn, and Mr. AnExANnau "Isamu went at length into the principle

and details of the Bill, with a view to the condemnation of both ; and were replied to briefly by Sir Jonx NEWPORT, Mr. BROWNLOW, Mr. WYSE, and Mr. O'CONNELL, and bitterly by Dr. Lusnixo.rost.

The business tff the evening in the House of Commons terminated by an adjournment, carried on the motion of 311.. Wn.i.usa Bxxxxs, by a majority of 22 against Ministers ; the numbers being for the adjourn- ment IG4, against it 142. Previous to the division, and while the public were excluded, Ministers

are said to have earnestly entreated Mr. BAN KES to forego his intention of adjourning. the House, and to content himself with adjourning the question, which, formally considered, was on a motion for confirming the report of the Liverpool Election Committee, but really had turned entirely on the Reform Bill, and the dissolution of Parliament. Mr. BANKES refused to accede to this request, and determined to take what is usually looked on as the ultimom remedium in Parliamentary matters, namely, to stop the supplies, by not permitting the report on the Ord- nance.Estimates, which was on the table, and ready to be presented, to be brought up.

3. Immo:toot, Cox oils-tom:Y. Mr. Baxuei-r, on Thursday, moved a resolution declaratory of the corrupt state of the constituency of Liver. pool. He explained, that the resolution was a previous step to a bill for the purpose of preventing such abuses as had beets proved to prevail at

the last election.

General GASCOYNE, with great warmth, vindicated the purity of Li-

verpool.

He had been for thirty-five years a member for Liverpool, and he could truly affirm that he knelt, not of any corruption having been practised there. This charge haft been brought by the honourable member for Wiltsiiire, whose practices were known to that House, and whose estate was in consequence deeply mortgaged. (Loud cries

Order" fc.en both sides ifthe

The SPEAKER said, that such observations ought not to be made. General GsscoyNE said, lie did not mean to apply his ofarrrat ions in- dividually but generally ! * The General said, that when he stood for the town, there might have been treating, butt he knew nothing of it ; and, so help him God, he had never paid a farthing for it. Mr. Wools said, the money in the cases of contest which General Gaseoyne had stood, was subscribed by a committee ; and the sub- scribers received a share of the patronage that fell to the member in the regular proportion of the amount subscribed. In one case, a man had subscribed 3001. to General Gascoyne's Committee, in order to be made an exciseman ; he died before the appointment, and his executors atonally demanded restitution of the sum from the committee.

After souse further remark from Earl SEFTON', Mr. G r„spsToN.Y.:, and others, the SPEAKEit suggested, that the regular course would be first to move the confirmation of the report. The discussion was, how- ever, interrupted by Sir Richard Vvvyan's question respscting the dis- solution ; and not once again alludedto until the motion for an adjourn- ment was made, which terminated the business of the night.

4. MR. HUNT. The bold assertion of the member for Preston, re peated on several occasions last week, that the opinions of the lower classes in Lancashire and elsewhere were decidedly opposed to the Reform -Bill, was adverted to in very strong terms on Monday night. Mr. Henn said, be had the authority of persons who were present at the Manchester meeting to contradict the assertion in tot°. So. far from any dislike of the Bill, at that meeting, the u-hole company, and among others, Mr. Hunt himself, drank the health of the Ministers and success to their plan. Mr. LITTLETON also stated, that he was au- thorized by his constituents to give theassertion of Mr. Hunt the flattest contradiction. He read, in confirmation, a letter from a clergyman at Darlaston, who had made inquiries into the fact, and who distinctly stated, that it had no foundation in truth. Mr. Iiirri.Erox, and after- wards Lord SraNnuy, commented on a speeds of Mr. Hunt, in which he told the people to lay hold of the Wigan electors who refused to vote for Mr. Potter, and if possible to coax them out of their determination ; and if they continued to refuse, to "give them a squeeze—a Lancashire squeeze—and if they still refused, not to pull their arms off, but to do

something very near it ; " and on his declaration, that rather than have Mr. Burley returned for Manchester, he would have the blood of the

half of Manchester spilt. Mr. HUNT repeated his objections to the Bill, which he called "Russeli's Boroughmongering Powder." He said the speeches were inaccurately reported : he had said something like what was attributed to him, but not all.

The question was again revived on Wednesday; when Mr. Joust Wool) presented a petition from 2,400 inhabitants of Preston, in favour of the measure. Mr. Wood said he felt assured, that the opinion that the people of Preston were against the Bill, was wholly unfounded. Ire Lancashire, the declarations of Mr. hunt had caused a universal feel- hug of surprise. • At a subsequent period of the night, Mr. LENNARD spoke to the conduct of Alt.. Hunt ; which Mr. II UNT deprecated as a misrepresenta-

tion equally of the views and feelings of the people, and of the supporters of the Bill. . •

Mr. LITTLETON afterwards presented a petition from Bilston, which gave the lie in nearly as many words to the Member for Preston's re,. marks. The latter said, it had been got up for the purpose of doing what Mr. Littleton was afraid to do in a manly and direct way ; the petition had been got up fraudulently in London. Mr. LITTLETON denied the truth of this charge, in very strong language; he felt as- sured that Mr. Hunt, while he made it, knew it to. be false. Sir CHARLES FORBES defended Mr. Hunt, and complained of the treat- ment he had received. '• Had any member treated him so, he would have made him eat his words."

5, Tat Civic. LIST BILL. This bill passed the Lords on Wednesday night. On Thursday,'soine conversation took place on the eircumstanO of its not having received the Royal assent ; which, it seems, was given in the cases of the Civil List Bills of George the Third and Fourth, bui not in those of George the First and Second.

6. THE TIMES AND THE EARL OF LIMERICK. On Monday, the Earl of LIMEIUCK made a formal complaint of a malicious libel in the Times of Saturday last. The passage complained of was the following.

• Forms illustration of this principle,viddropies of the Day—" Of the Lie Imper- sonal:, • " Yet mean, cruel, and atrocious as every civilized mind must consider the doc- trine, that Ireland has no need of poor-laws, or some equivalent for them—hateful and abominable as is such a screen for inhumanity—there are men, or things with human pretensions, nay, with lofty privileges, who do not blush to treat the mere proposal of establishing a fund for the relief of the diseased or helpless Irish with brutal ridicule and almost impious scorn. Will any mad credit that an Irish ab- sentee Lord could say what he is reported to have uttered in the House of Peers last night, when Lord Rosebery presented a petition, praying that a compulsory tax on land might he introduced into Ireland, towards alleviating her pour ? We shall not name him—because the House of Lords is armed with a thing called a 'Bar ' and other disagreeable appendages. But there are members of that House who surprise nobody by declaring their indifference to 'popular odium,'—especially when they are at such a distance from Ireland as to insure the safety of their persons." Lord Limerick said, that he was a friend to the liberty of the press, and for that reason an enemy to its licentiousness. It was a new doc- trine, that one who possessed estates in Ireland and in England must be compelled to reside on the former. The South of Ireland, where his es- tates were situate, was, he was sorry to say it, proceeding from bad to worse. The riotous conduct of Clare had extended to Limerick ; and it was no pleasant affair to reside where it was necessary to keep doors and windows barricadoed, to live as in a place besieged, or, if venturing abroad, to be forced to have recourse for protection to a party of police or a company of soldiers. His Lordship concluded by moving, that the writer of the paragraph be called to the bar. On the suggestion of the Lord Chancellor, the motion was so framed as to bring the printer to the bar, be being the only responsible person. The LORD CHANCELLOR said, all his experience in the other House, where such questions occurred more frequently than in this, led him to deprecate this Inca! of visiting what was no doubt a breach of privi- kge, as indeed publishing any of the proceedings of the House was, In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, he had found the party who made the complaint, after an hour's deliberation, most anxious to get well rid of it. He did not deny that the language of the paragraph complained of was coarse ; but paragraphs had been applied to him and to his friends, compared with which, that complained of by Lord Limerick approached even to courtesy. In justice, however, to the press, he was bound to say, that notwithstanding occasional licentiousness, it was conducted on /much purer and fairer principles than when he first entered public life.

The Earl of Elawe having risen to speak, and not being distinctly heard, Lord Ronan exclaimed, with great vehemence—" Silence at the bar ! if silence is not obtained at the bar, I will—"

Lord ELDON then went on to say, that there could not exist a doubt that the paragraph was a libel. If Elie Lord Chancellor divided the House, he would vote against him.

The Earl of HADDINGTON said, attacks' on Lord Brougham were dif- ferent in their character from attacks on a private nobleman. The ge- neral conduct of the latter was less before the public eye, and he might be more seriously injured by such attacks. That the paragraph in ques. turn was a gross breach of privilege, no one doubted ; and now it was brought before them, it could not be passed over. The present period was one of great excitement. Even the Queen had been assailed with the most scurrilous abuse on this question. If the House divided, he would certainly vote for the motion.

The Loan fit:Ansel:mem said he had no intention of dividing the House on the subject: if the Earl of Limerick persisted, his motion must of course be complied with.

Lord ROLLE eulogized the charatter of' the Queen.

The Marquis of LONDONDERRY complained severely of a lord being called a thing.

He would put it to their Lordships to say whether it was pleasant for any noble Lord to be called a "third" in a public newspaper. This was not ail, for not only bad their Lordships been called " things," but they were dr■signated as "things with human pretensions." No person could hesitate to say, that the calling of a Peer of that House "a thing," and " a tiring with human pretensions," was a libel and a breach of privilege. What ? because a noble Lord made a speech upon a public question of great interest, was lte to be called "a thing with human pretensions ?" This was an outrage from which the public would relieve tire Parliament of this country. He would defy any man to read the paragraph and not to direct it to the noble Earl. [When he heard the noble Lord on the woolsack deliver himself on the case, he was so surprised at what he said, that he could not but think that the noble Lord was himself the writer of the article in Tire Times.]* He hoped in his conscience that such an apology would be exacted from the person to be brought to the bar of the House, as would occasion the press of the country to know that it 'was not to attack the sacred personages of the monarchy, and that the Parliament of Englund was not to be brought forward in such an indecent mariner as to call a Peer a " thing," cud a " thing with human pretensions."

Lord Londonderry concluded by asking if the Lord Chancellor had taken any steps for vindicating the Queen against the attacks upon her character ?

The Loan CHANCELLOR said, the question was a curious one. He had never heard of such attacks before that night—how, then, was he to take any notice of them ?

Tire Marquis of LONDONDERRY—" The learned Lord has heard of them now."

Lord Row: put a question respecting the lectures and other proceed- ings at the Rotunda ; which Earl Grey said had been brought under the notice of Government.

Mr. Lawson, the printer of the Times, was ordered to be brought to the bar on Tuesday. Mr. Lawson was accordingly brought up on that day. He was first asked to give the name of the writer ; which he re- fused, respectfully but firmly, as involving a breach of trust to his em- ployers and a loss of character to himself. He was then asked if a cer- tain person (the Times does not state the name) was editor; but Mr. Lawson refused to answer. Lord WeNeotin proposed fining Mr. Law- son 1001., or sending hint to Newgate. This was opposed by Earl Gime, the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, Lord Bnotantam, and, it is said, the Duke of WELLINGTON. Mr. Lawson was ultimately consigned to the care of the Black Rod ; under whose custody Ile withdrew to Oliver's Hotel. The whole affair, as is usual in such cases, was managed with closed doors.

The reprimand was administered with closed doors. In the course of the discussion that preceded its administration, and from the benefit of which the public were shirt out, the Earl of MANSFIELD offered a suggestion of a very singular character,—namely, that the Lord Chan- cellor should be instructed what terms to use. Lord Mansfield was

• The words in brackets appear in the Time;; but there must surely be some mistake in the report. We hardly think the Marquis of Londonderry, though one of the most confident men living, would have dared to say, even in the House of Lords, so very impudent a thing as he is thus made to say ; or that, if he bad, he mould escaped castigation. aeraid, from Lord Brougham's vindication of the press when the breach of privilege was first mooted, that he might not express the sense of the House in a sufficiently marked mariner. The instruction to the

Chancellor was not pressed. A petition from Mr. Lawson, expressing his regret that he had vic. lated their Lordships' privileges, and craving pardon, was presented by Lord KING 011 \Wednesday. The Earl of LIMERICK, contrary to usage in such cases, spoke in aggra- vation of the offence ; and quoted the case of Mr. ferry and his printer, in which the House of Lords sent the two offenders to Newgate for three mouths and fined them 50/. a piece. Mr. Perry's offence was a jest on the grave labours of the great House, which had been seriously employed in discussing, not the freedom a the subject, but the length of the Opera- girls' petticoats. When the discussion on Mr. Lawson's petition commenced, Earl BATHURST was anxious to shut out the public from tire benefit of it,—

but the netempt was put down by it general " No !" The Earl of MALMESEtlitY thought that it would be most fitting to take the petition into consideration the following day ; a course which, after some argu-

ment, was agreed to. In the ceurse of supporting the motion of the Earl of Malmesbury,

the Marques of LoNnusneenne expressed an earnest wish to have the author of the paragraph before the House, and proposed the examina- tion of the proprietors, with a view to ascertain who he was. The Marquis went on to lament, that the Lord Chancellor, whom he had always considered to be a guardian of the privileges of the House, had, on the previous night, attacked them rather. The Chancellor, he said, spoke on the subject in such a way, that his Lordship was ready to be- lieve that he was acting as counsel for the defendant. Lord BROUGHAM. fired at this insult, and called Oil the Marquis to abandon insinua- tions, and, if he had any charge to make, to make it manfully and openly. Thus called on, Lord LoaDoseerenue preceeded to vindicate his independence, and to state, that great as were the talents of the Chan-

cellor, he would not be put down by him or by any man.

Lord Ilinouetiata after commenting on the speech of the Marquis in a

strain of bitter irony, went on thus-

" That I should over agree with the noble Marquis to fine a man 1011'. and com- mit him to Nenvgate for six nmetim, for such a breach of privilege this, is alto- gether impossible. I must first have this qemstion of your Lordships' privileges debated at le og;11. I must Open up the rows+ ion of tine right of the house to im- p.lison for sx months and inflict a tine—it runty be of 10,000/.—on an individual, tried by no jury, and defended by no counsel, because a noble Lord may complain of his feelings being majored by a newspaper paragraph. If such a principle were to be admitted, one noble Lord might complain of one newspaper, another might direct your attention to a breach of privilege in a second ; and the practice might be ex- tended tended till Lordships' House would be converted into an inquisition instead of a court of justice. Before I can admit such a principle, I must have this matter' argued. If the noble Marquis thinks it a mere motion of course that One King's subjects shall be sentenced to imprisonment and fines, he is very much mistaken. He will find, that every time alien a motion shall be proposed, he and I must meet and battle first the point of law, secondly, the point of privilege; and if, upon these points, the right of line and imprisonment be estublishtd, then we must dispute the point of justice to the public, of humanity to the individual, and of prudence and discretion in your Lordships." Lord L'oritoemenze expressed great sorrow at finding the right of the

House to imprison and fine so disputed. He still thought Lord Brougham spoke as art enemy to their privileges, instead of their defender.

Lord WYsF'Osu denied that he had ever proposed fine and imprison- ment : he merely proposed fine or imprisonment until the fine was paid,. as was the usual way in the inferior courts. Ile thought the case of the " Kim?: and Flower" was quite sufficieut to show that the House had the right of fine or imprisonment.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE thought that Mr. Lawson had already

suffinred and said enough to induce their Lordships to reprimand and

dismiss him.

Earl BA t sr agein reverted to the inconvenience of discussing these

important subjects with half-a-dozen of reporter's at tine bar ; iii which observations hie Lordship was cheered from the Cross Benches.

Lord TENTERDEN rose to state what be undiestood tq be the law. He said that the superior courts. hi inflicting a fine, always ridded imprison- ment "until the same be paid." He could not believe that the inferior

courts possessed a power which the highest courts did not possess.

This right, which he considered to be chew, distinct, and indisputable, was con- ferred, not fer the protection of these who pessess it—not for theauke of the House of Lords—not for the sake of the House of commons—not for the sake of the courts of law, all of whom are in equal possession of the power—but for the sake of the nation at lac y, for whose welfare and well-government it was absolutely necessary that all men should he taught to pay due reverence to the great Legislative Council of the kingdom, and to these tribunals of justice in which the laws of the land are administered. These, my Lords, are the reasons why the two Houses of Parlia- ment, and why courts 4,f law, possess this power ; these are the reasons why each of them oeght to possess it ; and I am quite sure that if they, and especially the two Houses of Parliumeht, did not possess this power of vindicating themselves, it would be impossible that their respective duties could be performed with dignity to themselves, or with advantage to the country." The Lout) CHANcELLon said, that still entertaining the same doubts of the power ,u the House, and convinced that if those doubts were un- founded—if the power were really as it had been described—that it never ought to have been possessed by the House, as it was one which could not, in tine nature of things, be calmly, deliberately, and disinterestedly exercised—ire could feel no hesitation in saying that the reasons upon which the Chief Justice had grounded his opinion were utterly untenable.

" Good God !" exelaimed Lord Brougham, " who ever heard till this moment— when were you ever told till this any, whoa you have been told it by a Lord Chief Justice of England—that the House of Commons has the right to inflict fines and imprisonment upon his Majesty's subjects in vindication of their privileges ? (Much cheering.) No one who laiows any thing about the law and the constitution of the country can hesitate for a 1110Mellt that the Lord Chief Justice is grievously in error here ; met until I am told by my noble friend, in terms the most clear and the most explicit, I will not believe that he is prepared to defend and justify in law what he has thus said ; for be has thereby collo-red upon tire House of Commons a power, which none or his least learned, none of his worst, none of his most cor- rupt, none of his least calm, his least temperate, or his least respectable predeces- sors dreamt of arming it with." Lord TENTERDEN allowed that be knew very little about the privileges of the Commons, and might be mistaken respecting them ; but he had no doubt of the privileges of the Lords. Lord BROUGHAM observed that the fact was notorious : the House of Commons could commit for the purpose of removing an obstruction, but not for a definite period. The House of Lords, it had been contended, had the power of committing for a definite time; Sir Arthur Pigott thought it had not ; but the King's Bench, he admitted, had decided against Sir Arthur's views.

The discussion on privileges here ceased. Mr. Lawson was brought up on Thursday, reprimanded, and dismissed on paying his fees.

7. THE PROROGATION. The House of Commons met on Friday about an hour earlier than usual. The Speaker was attired in his robes of state, and the House was completely filled with members. A Reform petition, from Hythe in Kent, having been presented by Mr. HODGES, on the question that it be read, Sir RICHARD VYVYAN deemed it a fitting time to make a speech ; as he judged from the Speaker's dress—from his being thus early in his place, and from the agitation which he had observed in coming to the House, that they were on the eve of a dissolution of Parliament.

His Majesty's Government bad, for the first time during many a long year, after the vote of the /louse of Commons last night, which hindered them front bringing

forward the Ordnance Estimates, come to a determination to dissolve the Parlia- ment. (Cheers.) The motion of Mr2W. Bankes was looked upon as a motion in- troduced in defiance of his Majesty's Government ; and now he saw that same Government coming forward to propose the dissolution of Parliament, when the supplies were not voted, and when the Ordnance Estimates were not gone through ; calculating, no doubt. on a bill of indemnity from the next Parliament. (Cheers.)— Let them, however, be not too sure of that ; let them not be too sure that the Par- liament which succeeded the present would agree to " the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." (Cheers.) Even in a new and Reformed Perliament, a tnea-

sure of indemnity might be refused to more prudent men ; and to find a body of

men less prudent than they were, would be a very great difficulty indeed. (Cheers and laughter.) It might happen in a few years that they would have bitterly to repent of the course they had taken. Let them look well, then, to the awful responsi- bility which they incurred, whenthey adopted measures that might compromise the safety of their wives, of their children, of their property, of all that was dearly con- nected with them. It was quite useless to conceal from themselves the evident fact, that this country was on the eve of a revolution. (Cheers and laughter.)

Sir Richard was glad that this opportunity was given to any gentle- man to speak his sentiments at this crisis ; and he would tell Alinisters (as he had the privilege for a few moments more) on what grounds they had come into power,—grounds which, he was compelled to say, they had mistaken and misrepresented.

There was, in the last two years, a strong and influential party of men, who were discontented with what took place in that House. They wanted to see a strong body of efficient men in the Government. They saw with regret that motions which were made for inquiry into the distresses of the country were defeated ; they la- mented to find that all motions of that important nature were, under the then ex- isting state of things, useless. He well knew, and so did Ministers, that when they came into power, it was through the weight of that body of men of whom he was then speaking. (Cheers.) It was that body, and not the present hlinisters, who turned out the preceding Ministry, and occupied their places. (Cheers.) He would tell them also, that it was not the question of Reform, nor the declara- tion on that subject of the noble Duke who was then at the head of the Government, that effected the removal of the former Ministers. (Loud cheering.) No ; it was the general wish of the country that its distressed situation sdould be inquired into—it was the anxious desire of those who complained of the misfortunes under which the country was labouring, that such misfortunes should be investigated and remedied—it was these feelings which caused the removal of the late Ministry. (Cheers.) But it could not escape observation that his Majesty's Government, since they came into power, bad not done one thing to satisfy the ex- pectations which had been raised. (Cheers.) They were the most incapable, the most inconsistent body of men that ever attempted to govern a great country ; making and moulding measures on one day, and altering or abandoning them on the next. (Cheers.) Even that very bill of Reform, " the whole Bill," was to be withdrawn, because Ministers would not allow independent men to vote that England should continue to send the same number of members to Parliament as she sent at present. (Cheers.) It was well known that that party which voted against his Majesty's late Government, did not expect the establishment of a pure -Whig administration, fortified, perhaps, by that band of condottieri, who went round and about the House, first stating that they were opposed to Reform, and then declaring that they were favourable to the whole bill. (Cheers.) The present Ministers, however, he would admit, took office with the feeling of the House of Commons greatly in their favour, and they knew well that, without such favour, they bad not a majority in their own party. They had tried them, however, and found them wanting. (Cheers.) if a change of opinion had been effected with respect to Ministers, he would tell them why he and others bad changed their opinions. For the first time in the history of this country, he saw Ministers coming down to Par- liament and declaring that they would not use any Ministerial influence—that they would in no way attempt to govern by influence. And what followed ? Why, directly after they bad said this, they turned individuals out of his Majesty's House- hold, and other persons were ejected by them from Whig boroughs, because they bad voted according to the dictates of their own minds. (Cheers.)

After rambling over a variety of subjects, Sir Richard made a stand at the funds.

He contended that the fundholder, after the passing of a Reform Bill such as had been proposed, would vainly hope to save his property entire. (Cheers.) It was argued that preceding Administrations had shackled the country with debts which ought to be removed. But how were they to be removed—how were they to be in any great degree lessened—except by taxing the fundholder ? (Cheers, and a cry of " Order Question!") Situated as they were, there was no use in standing on a point of form, and speaking on the question immediately before the House. The question before the House was," whether we are to be dissolved or not ?—(Laughter on the Ministerial benches)—whether we are to be dissolved, because we have voted that the number of English representatives shall not be reduced ?" (Order, Order.) Sin FRANCIS BURDETT spoke to order. There was a petition before the House, but Sir Richard Vyvyan's speech was not addressed to that petition, or to anything connected with it. The SPEAKER. pronounced a contrary opinion. MR. TENNYSON disputed the Speaker's dictum.

The SPEAKER complained of this.

Sin RICHARD VYVYAN resumed, and went on to argue against the Bill, as if it had now for the first time been debated.

He owed no apology to Ministers when he said that this measure would destroy funded property—that it might destroy tithes—that it might overthrow the House of Lords—that it might perchance even shake the King's crown on his head (cheers and laughter). He owed no apology to those who introduced a measure fraught with such frightful danger. [At this moment the report of the first piece of artillery, an- nouncing the approach of his Majesty, was heard, and was received by Ministers with cheers, laughter, and, in some instances, cries of " The King ! the King !" Each successive discharge was hailed in the some enthusiastic manner. Sir It. Vyvyan continued speaking ; but the report of the artillery and the noise in the Rouse prevented the reporters from catching more than a passing word of what the Hon. Baronet said.] SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, Sue ROBERT PEEL, and several other Members rose, when Sir Richard sat down ; but their oratory was nothing but " inexplicable dumb sheer and noise." The SPEAKER interfered; and then it appeared that LORD ALTHORP had moved that Sir Francis Bur- dett should be first heard. The motion was carried by the rule of con- traries; for the Speaker, having put the motion, called on Sir Robert Peel to speak to it.

Sin ROBERT PEEL proceeded, with great violence of tone and gesture, to complain of the interruption, and to exclaim against Reform and its consequences.

If "the Bill, the whole Bill" were to be passed, it did appear to him that there would then be established one of the worst despotisms that ever existed. They would have a Parliament of mob demagogues—not a Parliament of wise and prudent men. Such a Parliament, and the spirit of journalism, to use a foreign phrase, bad, as they must have seen, brought happy countries to the brink of de- struction. At that moment, society was wholly disorganized in the West of Ireland, and that disorganization was rapidly extending elsewhere. Landed proprietors. well affected to the state and loyal to the King, anxious to enjoy their property in security, were leaving their homes to take refuge in towna abandoning the country parts, ns no longer affording a safe residence. At this critical conjuncture, instead of doing their duty, and calling for measures to vindicate from the visitation of lawless and sanguinary barbarians the security of life and the safety of property, his Majesty's Ministers, anxious only to protect themselves, and fearful of the loss of power, were demanding a dissolution of Par.. liament. (Great cheering.) Alas ! he already perceived that the power of the crown had ceased. (Cheers.) He felt that it had ceased to be an object of fair ambition with any man of equal and consistent mind to enter into the service of the Crown. (Cheering.) Ministers had come down there, and had called on the Sovereign to dissolve Parliament, in order to protect themselves. But they had first established the character of having shown, during their short reign of power, more incapacity. more unfitness for office, more ignorance of their duties, than ever was exhibited by any set of men who had at any time been called on to rule the proud destinies of this country. (Great cheering.) After having accused their predecessors, during the last two years, with having done nothing—with having expended much time int useless debates—not one single measure had they themselves perfected. (Cheers.), What had they done in the last six months? They had boasted much of the good which, by acting on liberal principles, they would produce. But what had they done—where were their works to be seen/ They had laid on the Table certain Mile —the Emigration Bill and the Game Bill, for instance, founded on their so much boasted liberal principles, and what then?—Why there they had left then. (Much[ cheering.)

Here Sir Robert, who had worked himself into a state of perspiration by his exertions, was interrupted by the mace of the Black Rod thun- dering at the door. This put an end to the tumults of the House. The Speaker rose, and followed Black Rod to the bar of the House of Lords.

The scene in the Lords was even more noisy and irregular than that in the Commons. The reporters of the morning papers were by some accidental awkwardness of the doorkeepers shut out, and the 7imas of this morning professes to give the debates front the notes of two friends The House had met about half-past two o'clock. Many of the Peers, chiefly on the Ministerial side, were robed, as is usual on such high occasions ; the area below the Throne, which is reserved for members of the House of Commons who appear as spectators in the Upper House, was crowded; and a number of peeresses were also present.

The LORD CHANCELLOR. having left the woolsack, in order to receive the King,—and the'Earl of SHAFTESBURY, as Deputy Speaker, having taken the chair,—the Duke of Ricitarosu rose to move for the purpose of stilling in some measure the noise and regulating the movements of the Peers, that, agreeably to the standing order, their Lordships should take their seats in the order of their precedence. The Duke particularly adverted to an Earl (it was impossible to perceive what Earl) who was at that moment in conversation with one of the Junior Barons. The sup. gestion of the Duke of Richmond was objected to ; but he maintained its propriety ; and again adverting to the Noble Earl who was then seated on the Barons' bench, he declared, if order were riot restored, he should move for the exclusion of strangers from the House. The uproar and confusion which followed this observation, and which were in very bad keeping with the usual decorum of the place, here drowned the words of the Duke. Lord LYNDHURST (who is, from that circumstance, sups posed to be the Baron previously alluded to) made rise of some strong expression ; and when the Duke of RICHMOND was next heard, he was complaining of what had fallen from the Chief Baron, and declaring that he should move that the standing order against offensive language should be read. The Marquis of LONDONDERRY'S voice was next heard above the hubbub, shouting order !

He rose to accuse the noble Duke with bringing forward a very unfounded charge. He was not aware of any offensive language having been used on the part of the noble Baron which could provoke the remarks of the noble Dukes The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said, it was most desirable that the noble Duke should persist in his motion.

The Marquis of LONDONDERRY- " I call on the Duke to mention any offensive language that has been used. The noble Duke seems to think he is to be the hero of the coup de dot on this occasion, and that he is able to smot her that feeling which is essential to the expression of the sentiments of noble lords on this most extraordinary meeting. The noble Duke is endeavouring to stop the right of peers of this house to declare their sentiments by having recourse to this miserable shift of n olving the standing order."

Here the waxing of the tumult rendered even the stentorian voice of the Marquis unequal to the task of commanding attention ; and he sat down. After the confusion had partially subsided,

Loins WHAIINCLIFFE said, he was in his place as a Peer of that House, and he should take the liberty of demanding to be heard.

He had given notice of a motion which Ile would not then preface with any ob- servations, but which he would, according to the notice, take leave to read. The terms of the motion were—" That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, representing that his loyal subjects, the Lords spiritual and Temporal, had heard with anxiety the report that a dissolution of Parliament was about to take plage, and imploring his Majesty not to prorogue or dissolve Parliament at the present juncture, as under the present excitement which prevailed in Ireland, and through- out Great Britain, it would be likely to lead to great danger to the Crown and pre-

vent that calm and ' and discussion which the importance of such an event

demanded."

At this instant, the House was startled by the voice of the Cusxcer... LOR, who had a few minutes before gone out to receive his Majesty. The Noble Lord rushed forward to the table, and exclaimed, in the loudest tones of his voice- " My Lords, I have never yet heard it doubted that the King possessed the prero- gative of dissolving Parliament at pleasure; still less hove I ever known a doubt to exist on the subject, at a moment when the Lower House has thought fit to refuse the supplies."

On pronouncing these words, his Lordship withdrew with the same hasty strides with which he had entered. The moment the Chancellor

withdrew, Lord LONDONDERRY shouted on Lord SHAFTESBURY to take the chair ; and the call being echoed by several other Peers, the Earl again sat down on the woolsack, which he had quitted on the Chancellor's en- trance. His resuming of the chair was accompanied with loud cries of ii Order ! " " the King ! " "Shame ! " The Peers rose in their seats, many of them gesticulating with such vehemence as seemed to cause some alarm in the Peeresses that a scene of personal violence was about to ensue. The body of the House had for several seconds a strong- resemblance to the area before the hustings at a contested election When something approaching to regularity had been restored— Earl MANSFIELD addressed the House. He said he never had wit- nessed such a scene before, and he hoped sincerely never would witness such another.

He had heard from the Lord Chancellor, with the utmost surprise, that it was in- cumbent on the Crown to dissolve Parliament when the noose of Commons refused the supplies. The noble and learned Lord, perhaps with wilful ignorance, declared this to be the case. He would use no intemperate language, but he would. nevertheless assert, as far as God Almightby gave him the means of ender: standing, that the Crown and the country was now about to be placed ill • a most awful predicament—a predicament unparalleled at any previous period.

• Be would not accuse his Majesty's Ministers with any thing like criminality of in- tention, but he did accuse them of great weakness and incapacity ; of conspiring

• together against the safety of the State, and of making the Sovereign the instrument -ADE his own destruction. (Cries of hear, hear! and great confusion.) Upon the - question of Reform he had not stated his opinion, because he could not trust him- self to speak upon it. He thought too that the probability was, the Bill never would come there—that it must, as in fact it had done, close the list of those inglorious aberrations, those untried theories, those untenable speculations, in which a Mi- nistry had indulged, whose only distinction was a degree of incapacity such as no Ministry had ever before displayed. (Cheers from one part of the Boum) The • dissolution of Parliament was one of the measures suggested by faction fur the purpose of working on a disturbed country. It tvas the result of the councils of those who had advised the King to adopt a plan of reform such as they themselves had never before thought of, and such as they had never hoped to carry even when they presented it to Parliament, which they had presented merely to show that they redeemed their pledges, applying', at the same time, with mendicant intimidity to their -antagonists to suggest a better plan. It was not, in fact, a dissolution of Parliament

• they now meant, but it was what they themselves candidly confessed they wished to Stave—namely, a Reformed Douse of Parliament.

The Earl went on to argue, at smite length, that the Reform which - Ministers meant to grant was not the kind of Reform for which the people, through their petitions, had solicited. He had thought it his duty to state to his Majesty, that if his Majesty should be -unfortunately advised to assist the progress of the measure or Reform that had been introduced into the House of Commons, that should he give it his assent, even in a considerably amended shape, though it was impossible to predict either the manner -.or the gradations of the attack, yet that it IVila certain au attack would immediately afterwards be made upon the credit of the country—upon the national debt—upon • the privileges and upon the existence of that Rouse, and, at last, upon the privileges .of the Crown itself.

The noble Earl was offering an apology for his warmth, when he was . interrupted by cries of " The King ! the King !" The loud voice of some one was heard exclaiming, " God save the King !" the large fold- ing doors on the right of the Throne opened, and his Majesty entered wearing the royal crown. The noise was with difficulty stilled even in . the presence of his %iajesty, and angry interjections were uttered, and scowling glances are said to have been directed towards him, by more than one of the furious Opposition Lords.

His Majesty mounted the Throne with much firmness and dignity ; and being seated, bowed courteously to his right and his left, and com- manded the Peers to take their places.

A numerous array of the Royal Household accompanied their Royal . master ; and Earl Grey and the Lord High Chancellor, the former with the sword of state, tine latter with the purse and seals,baving taken their _ place on the right of the Throne, Black Rod was ordered to summon . the House of Commons.

When the Commons, ushered by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, and beaded by the Speaker, had made their appearance and obeisance, the public and private bills that waited for the last sanction were presented, and re- ceived the Royal assent. Among these were the Civil List Bill, and a number of private bills.

On presenting the hills, the SPEAKER said- Eis Majesty's faithful Commons of England approached his Majesty with pro- , found respect ; that he was sure that at no period of their history had a Commons House • Al:Parliament existed which had more jiiithfidly responded to the real intercstsfeelinys, and wishes of his Majesty's dutiful, loyal, and all4tionate people ; and that it had been uniformly their earnest desire to maintain the dignity and honour of the Crown, upon which mainly depended the greatness, the happiness, and the prosperity of this country.

His Majesty heard the Speaker's address, and when it wag finished, • and the formal business of the Royal assent was over, he rose, put on his spectacles, and read, with great distinctness and emphasis, the fol- . lowing address My Lords and Gentlemen—I have come to meet you for the purpose of pro- roguing the present Parliament, with a view to its immediate dissolution. I have been induced to resort to this measure, fur the purpose of ascertaining the sense of any people, in the way in which it can be most constitutionally and authentically expressed, on the expediency of making such changes in the representation as eir- Jcumstances may appear to require, and which shall he founded on the acknowledged principles of the Constitution, and may tend at once to uphold the just rights and prerogatives of the Crown, and to give security to the liberties of my people. " Gentlemen of the House of Commons—I thank you for the provision which you have made for the maintenance of the honour and dignity of the Crown ; and I offer you my special ucknowltdgments for the arrangements you have made for the state and comfort of my Royal Consort. I have also to thank you for the supplies which -you Lave furnished fur the public service, and I have observed with satisfaction that • 'ou have endeavoured to introduce the strictest economy In every branch of that service, and I trust that the attention of the new Parliament, which I shall • forthwith direct to be called, will be applied unceasingly to that important subject. My Lords and Gentlemen-1 am happy to inform you that the friendly inter- . course which subsists beta cep myself and Foreign Powers affords the best hope of • the continuance of peace; to preserve which my most anxious endeavours shall be constantly directed.

"My Lords and Gentlemen—In resolving to have recourse to the sense of my people in the present circumstances of the country, I have been influenced only by az paternal anxiety for the contentment and happiness of my subjects—to promote "which I rely confidently on your continued and zealous assistance. " My pleasure is, that this Parliament be prorogued to Tuesday, the 10th day of Kay."

The Lord Chancellor then prorogued the Parliament in the usual form.

The King retired immediately after delivering, his Royal Speech. The Commons withdrew front the bar, when the Lord Chancellor had finished his formal announcement ; and the Peers slowly separated.