A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
" THE SPECTATOR," MARCH 25TH, 1837. NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Easter makes the customary break in the Parliamentary. Session ; but by far the greater portion of Members commenced holyday- making on Saturday last, and the number of attendants in the House of Commons during the week has varied from 3o to 7o, Of these most were Radicals, the sprinkling of Whigs and Tories being very thin. It is, however, to the general neglect of duty that we owe the only remarkable event of the week—the defeat of Sir JOHN CAMPBELL on the famous clause in the Imprisonment for Debt Bill, exempting fraudulent Members of Parliament from arrest on the writ of a Bankruptcy Commissioner. The bill was recommitted on Tuesday ; and Mr. WASON moved the omission of the objectionable words ; .which were strenuously defended by Sir JOHN CAMPBELL and Sir ROBERT Rom. One of the argu- ments of the former deserves notice : it was as impudent an attempt to gain votes as was ever practised by an Old Bailey barrister to get a verdict.
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