v

desire for compromise. must be applied. The courage and honesty of Ministers must be The affair was clumsily, and, on the part of the Peers, sulkily put to this test. There arc some of them who, we are inclined to managed. The Commons asked for the conference; and on meet- think, will stand it. Round them will the Reformers rally ; and ing the Peers in one of the Committee-rooms, handed in a paper the sooner the others join the Tories, the better. Matters have of reasons for refusing to pass the objectionable clause. The come to this pass, that without Peerage Reform all useful Peers took the paper, gave another in exchange, and then re- legislation is at a stand; and all political exertion which has not turned to their own chamber ; when Lord LYNDHURST, in an ela- this end in view is mere waste of time and pains.

convinced. Lord RIPON, the chief manager for the Peers, The Post-office Bill was perhaps the least exceptionable excused himself by saying, that as the Commons did not coin- measure passed during the whole session by the House of Com- mence the discussion, the Peers would not. The motion of LYND- mons. It received the support not only of the Liberals, but of HURST; however, was carried by a vote of 40 to 29; and then their Lord LOWTHER, the best-qualified person in Parliament to give an Lordships condescended to ask another free conference on the sub- opinion on the existing Post-office ustem. It would have put an ject matter of the last free conference. This meeting was not so end to abominable jobs, and secured a check on the expenditure of farcical as the other; for there was some plain speaking this time, vast sums by functionaries virtually irresponsible. Such being The arguments of the Lords LYNDHURST, ABINGER, and ELLEN- its merits, of course it found no favour with the Lords; who last BOROUGH, were battered to pieces by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Lord night refused to read it a second time, by a majority of 51 to 22. Howicx, and especially by Sir JOHN CAMPBELL; who demon- On this occasion, the Duke of R ICI-15101ND, obstinate in error, strated, in a speech which Lord AB1NGER could not, and Lord headed the Opposition, and denied the existence of abuses, over LYNDHURST did not attempt to answer, that the insertion of the and over again exposed in official and Parliamentary documents. LYNDHURST clause would be productive of litigation and confusion The Duke of WELLINGTON complained of want of information withotri, end, and would not, after all, dispossess the Councils of on this subject ! His Grace must be a very glutton of Reports, the property which is to be applied strictly to charitable pur- if he is not satisfied with the folios on Post-office affairs laid be- poses. Of course the Peers stuck to their clause : so it only re- fore Parliament during the last three years. mainecl for Lord JOHN RUSSELL, on his return to the House of The Voters' Registration Bill was mangled last night by the Commons, to move that the consideration of the Lords' amend- hereditary Destructives. Several of its most valuable clauses meats be put off for three months. This motion no Tory in the were struck out ; but the most injurious part of their Lordships' House of Commons ventured to gainsay;

Amendment Act fell to the ground and the Municipal procecdings was the insertion of a clause to deprive persons resid-

Never in any previous contest with the Commons have the tue of their borough property. This right the Reform Act confers; Lords had less of reason and justice on their side than on this and if it is taken away, even the West Riding of Yorkshire may Occasion; never has their malign intent against the People been be Chandosized. Lie bill never can pass with this clause. Lord so glaringly developed. They refused last year to allow the new WHARNCLIFFE was the Tory operator last night. His Lordship Councils to appoint Trustees for Corporate Charities, on the pre- repelled, with considerable bitterness, the charge, advanced on tears that Lord BROUGHAM had a measure in preparation which the previous night by Lord MELBOURNE, against the Oppotiitiose would embrace corporate as well as other charities; and Peers—that they treated the Commons with insult aad eon- in the mean while, they continued in the trusteeship the tumely. Loid MELBOURNE took the opportunity of repeating all old corporators, whose peculation and dishonest application that he bad said of their Lordships' ill behaviour, and refused tse

of the trust funds were notorious. But this arrange- retract "one tittle of it." The Premier seems to have "screwed mer.t was only to last till the 1st of August 1836. Lord his courage to the sticking-place."

EROIIGHAM was unable to carry his measure last year ; and no The clauSes In the Stamp-duties Bill which provided for tha- NICKS OF THE WEEK— human being supposes that he would have been allowed to carry Proceedings in Parliament -Muni- English, Op. ra.1.0 •se 775 it this session : but the Tory Peers chose all at once to affect a

wonderful veneration for Lord BROUGHAM ; and, lest his plan

blishedelturch Bill-Registration Dit,■s of Registration : NVartting to should be in any way interfered with, threw out a bill passed by of Births and Marriages-M keel. Reformers 776 the Commons for the express purpose of regulating Corporate laneous Estimates- Newspaper Legislating for Newspapets 7",6 Charities, and foisted into the Municipal Act Amendment Bill a ters ' 1 Enclosure of Wiste Lands g • I clause totally foreign to the business of that bill, prolonging for . 14 another year the authority of their useful electioneering friends, The Country 771 Sir Mtn Malculnis Life of Lord the old Tory corporators. The Commons refusing to take this Ireland 772. Cure 778 clause, LYNDHURST and his set turn round ' and rerroach them Scotland 773 A. Visit to Beulah Sri 7SI with the confusion and the waste of property which are to arise Money Market 775 Advertisements 7$3-7 from the unsettled state of the question,—having themselves pre-

vented a settlement on the false pretence that it would be only

NEWS FTHHE WEEK. decorous to wait for Lord BROUGH AM'S bill ; which bill they would as surely reject as their majority holds together. The Tux Peers have this week signalized themselves by more of grossness of their hypocrisy in regard to the BROUGHAM .Bill was those ictories over the Representatives of the People which

fully exposed by Lord MELBOURNE ; who in the whole of the dis- ought to lead directly to the overthrow of their irresponsible cussion on this question has borne himself with a degree of spirit power. The measure for amending the Municipal Act of last and energy, which, while it has proved most annoying to the session was finally rejected on Thursday, after an arduous struggle Tories, must be of no slight service to him among the Reformers.

between the two Houses. The cause of its loss was the refusal The Peers have committed other enormities this week, and of the Peers to give up the clause for _continuing the corrupt ex- have more mischief in store for us; but this would be a good corporators in the management of charitable funds for another winding-up of the session. Has the injurious nature of their year. The Commons showed an inclination to waive one of the policy been sufficiently exposed? or must we have yet another points of difference, and to allow the presiding officer in Councils, session of preparation of good measures for rejection ? At present, where the parties are equally balanced, to be chosen by lot, and all who pretend to the character of Liberals exclaim with more or to have a casting-vote ; but on the question of the Charity Trus- less bitterness against the Lordly treatment of the People and tees they were inflexible. The bill had been bandied about from their Representatives. But what profit is there in talking, if

d

one House to the other, and been the subject of ordinary eon- deeds are not to follow ? What care the Lords for threats and ferences, till, according to the forms of Parliament, the only railing ? What impression is made on them by the " bombard- remaining chance of effecting an agreement was by holding what ment with good measures," of whose wonderful effects the Minis- is called a free conference of the two Houses. For a hundred

terial journals have boasted? The Lords care for none of these years this expedient had not been resorted to till Thursday last ; things; and, with the avowal on the part of their opponents that and the result is, that all idea of procuring harmony between the nothing worse is to befall them—that their power and privileges two conflicting branches of the Legislature by means of a free are to remain intact—we cannot see why they should alter their conference must be alkandoned. Both parties retired, after a course, or what they have to dread. spirited discussion, with an increase of irritation, and a diminished But other and more effectual methods of overcoming the Lords . ing in boroughs of the right to vote for County Members in vir- registration of the name of every newspaper proprietor, with the amount of his interest in the paper, were struck out on Monday by the Peers. This bill was unquestionably a money-bill, and was admitted to fall within the Parliamentary usages applicable to such bills, by Mr.GOULBURS., though Lord LVNDH URST ignorantly Maintained the contrary, in opposition to Lord MELBOURNE. The consequence of the Peers' alteration was the necessity of settiog aside the bill, and the introduction of another ; which was passed through the House of Commons, the Standing Orders- being sus- pended, on Tuesday and Wednesday—read a first (line in the Lords on Thursday—and finally passed, in the shape in which it Was sent down by their Lordships, last night. The only alteration besides the omission of the above-mentioned clauses, is the post- ponement of the time when the reduction of the duty is to corn- Vence, from the 1st to the 15th of September.

In the course of the discussion on this bill, Lord LYNDHURST advised Ministers to do away with the Newspaper-duty entirely : it was most unwise, he said, to preserve so much complicated ma- ch mery for the collection of a miserable penny tax. Lord Met: aounaz said this was bidding for popularity with a vengeance; and Mr. SPRING RICE said LYNDHURST threw out the hint as a lure to a false scent, as poachers use a red-herring. This may be; but it proves at all events—and it behoves the Whigs to mind it—that the Tories are willing to bid pretty high fur popularity.

The Registration and Marriages Bills have been taken by the Commons very much in the same firm as passed by the Lords; which is the same as saying that they have lost much of their original value. In the Registration Bill, the Lords made a most mischievous alteration. By an "amendment" in the 7th clause, and the addition of a proviso, the power of appointing District Re- gistrars is taken from the Home Secretary and given to the Guar- dians of the Poor. It is known that these functionaries are mostly Tories; and the patronage now placed at their disposal, will in most cages be used for the furtherance of party purposes. In every case the Clerk of the Guardians is to have the refusal of the office cf Superintendent Registrar ; and the only qualification of this provision is an amendment proposed by Lord Joinv Rus- SELL on Thursday (the Peers will probably reject it.) that the Registrar-General shall be satisfied of his qualification for the office. The effect of the alteration we have been describng, will be to create nearly a thousand new offices, with handsome salaries, for the Tories.

The Lords have contrived, with "much ingenuity of ill," (as Dr. IUSHINGTON truly &d(l.) to damage the Marriage Bill in various ways; but one clause, the 6th, as altered by the Peers, is so grossly insulting to the Dissenters, that we are surprised it should have been accepted by the House of Commons, and especially that Mr. Ilusie did not spurn instead of voting for it. The enactment is to this effect—that notices of marriages given to the Superin- tendent Registrar shall be read at three weekly meetings of the Guardians of the Poor, after the conclusion of other business ! Stalely such a provision cannot fail to disgust the Dissentsrs; who are the parties for whose relief this part of the bill was framed proffssedly, the Churchmen being married by licence or banns, as before. Fancy the names of the applicants being conned over by a set of persons fresh from the discussion of bastardy accounts, and other low matters, and then the promulgation of a bashful womau's secret all over the district I What man of common feel- ing, or woman of ordinary delicacy, would submit to the annoy- ance? Publication of banns is nothing to it. This clause must reticles the bill all but nugatory ; and it seems to us little less than infateation on the part of Reformers to agree to it. Mr. HUME on the stone principle—namely, that some parts of the bill are good —might have suppoited the Established Church Bill.

Asa this remark brings us to that precious piece of legislation. The Lords, as our readers are aware, struck out Mr. Jeesrts's clause which required Welsh Bishops to understand the Welsh language. Lord JOHN Russeee recommended the Commons to acquiesce in the omission, using precisely the same argument as the Ai chhishop of CANTERBURY—that the clause would limit the exerch,o of the Royal prerogative! His Lordship, however, very nearly suffered a defeat on this question; the numbers being 51 and. 45. Twenty persons holding office under Goer:meta, and seventeen Tories, voted in the majority. Deduct the Tories, and the vote would have been 34 Ministerial men against 45 Liberals. Yes—Lord JouN RUSSELL carried the Bishop's Bill, after all, by the nid. of Messrs. BORTHWICK, BROWNRIGG, PRAED, TREVOR, Gousnuesr, and GLADSTONE. An angry debate succeeded ; but at last the bill was pushed through the House.

The Pluralities Bill was last night postponed to next session. No thanks are due to Ministers for the reprieve. On Tuesday, Lord JOHN RUSSELL seemed determined on pressing the measure through the 1-louse; but, finding that, after a debate of four or Eve hours, only one clause was passed, he allowed the Chairman to repect all the progress the Committee bad made. He suffered tuviratal defeat, and last night acknowledged that lie had been foik So our 'seders see that legislation proceeds finely in Eng- lasd this summer. Some bad bills are passed; all the good ones are Licked out by the Peers. Then, are we to have the same plased.over again next session? If we are, surely matters mighthe managed so_as to arrive at the same end with less trouble. Why should not Lord LYNDHURST have a seat at the table of the Commons, and say, as each bill is brought in, "This bill shall pasa—that shall not !" Thus much useless labour would be saved, and the result would be the same.