day, some of the leading clauses fared according to expectation

under The Marquis of LANSDOWNE and Lord PLUNKET argued ably and their hands. The " inchoate rights " of freemen, both to the property conclusively against the assumption of the Tories that the rights of of Corporations and the Parliamentary franchise, were preserved by freemen rested on the same grounds as individual or private titles to two clauses, moved by Lord LYNDHURST; the first of which was property. Lord PLUNKET pledged his reputation as a lawyer to the passed in opposition to Ministers by the rampant majority of 130 to correctness of his opinion on the point at issue : the common sense of 37, and the second without a division. Thus, if the Peers are to unlearned persons would lead them to the same conclusion from a review carry the day, the greatest blemish, but one, in the British body politic, of the circumstances connected with corporate property. Lord RADNOR will be retained in perpetuity. It is notorious, that a large majority of reminded the House, that, to serve the purposes of Tory candidate; the freemen are venal paupers : it is for this reason that the friends of 800 persons had been admitted to the rights of freemen of Leicester good government, local and general, demand that with the present in one year, and were entitled to claim a compensation for any depri- generation the nuisance of their existence shall cease ; it is for the vation of those rights which the Legislature mijiht decree. Is there

same reason that the Tory Peers are resolved to continue it for ever. any power in the country that could compel individuals in their private

The House of Commons decided that the boundaries of the new capacity to admit so many partners in the rents and profits of their Municipal Boroughs, excepting such as returned Members to Parlia- estates ? If the notion of such injustice is absurd, what becomes of meat, and whose limits were fixed by the Boundary Act, should Lord LYNDHURST'S argument ? Are we not compelled to allow, with be determined by the King in Council,—that is to say, by the King's Lords LANSDOWNE, PLUNKET, and RADNOR, that the right of freemen responsible Ministers ; but an amendment proposed by the Duke to their share of corporate funds is based on something very different of WELLINGTON, and of course adopted by the majority, provides from the title-deeds of lords to their private estates? that their limits shall remain as they now are until Parliament shall Lord BROUGHAM has not received justice this week from the resolve upon altering them. Thus, a distinct act of Parliament will reporters, who seem to have shirked the task of following his elaborate be necessary in order to fix the boundaries of a large number of the and masterly defence of the bill and the;Commissioners on Wednesday. boroughs which come under the operation of the bill. The effect of He has also been uncivilly treated by his brethren of the " Order :" his this amendment will be to delay for an indefinite period the complete assailants, however, have " taken nothing" by their attacks. It wtaild execution of the bill, supposing it to pass. It is very doubtful whether be an equivocal compliment to say that Lord BROUGHAM is always a in the course of the next session both Houses would agree upon a match for the Duke of NEWCASTLE and Lord WICKLOW, whether be- Boundary Bill. But mark what would be the effect of the clause in fore or after dinner ; but neither, in a Parliamentary affray, need he The mean time. fear Lord LYNDHURST, who only exhibits a prudent discretion in at- It is not proposed that the boroughs in question shall be exempt tacking him behind his back. It is now some months since we recorne from the operation of the bill. No ; on the 25th of October next, the mended Lord BROUGHAM to apply himself to the service of " showing persons entitled to vote—that is, the rated inhabitants within the pre- up" the Hereditary Legislators on every fair occasion : be appears to cincta of the existing boroughs—are to elect Town- Councillors for be acting on this estimate of his peculiar powers, to the no small an- -three years. These Councillors will have all the powers which it was noyance of the " Incurables." intended by the framers of the bill, and by the House of Commons, Of the Tory orators, only one deserves especial notice. The Duke to confer on the representatives of a much larger, and probably, in most of NEWCASTLE has been, as usual, prosy, passionate, and imbecile; instances, afar more intelligent and honest constituency. What amount Lord FALMOUTH, bigoted in his ignorance ; Lords HADDINGTON and of mischief may they not perpetrate during the two years in which MANSFIELD, respectably stupid ; the Duke of WELLINGTON, uncon- they will have the preponderance in the Council !—for, supposing that scions of the meaning of what he uttered,—for his Grace could not have .a Boundary Act is passed next year, and a considerable addition made intended to be grossly inconsistent. Lord LYNDHURST was adroit and to the constituency, still only one third of the Town-Council are then elaborate, though not so pointed and amusing as last week. LYND. to vacate their seats; the remaining two thirds will have the power of ritourr Is aiming at the post of Ultra-Tory Premier.....- He sees that legislating for the whole of the new borough, though. elected by the PEEL cannot screw his courage up to head the party, and that inhabitants of only part of it. The probability is, that in too Wsultrovolv is passé. His actual position is uncomfortable; front many Places they would make the best use of their time—best for an income of 7,0001. a year, he is redticed to 4,0001., with nothing themselves, worst for the community. This is a most insidious alters. to do but to intrigue and make speeches. He had solid reaarefeleatht- tion ; and strikes a blow at the principle of -the bill, which was that of less, for quitting the snug permanent seat of Lord Chief likrem-fat 44 /*liking rePrssentation and taxation coextensive.

• ephemeral Chancellorship; but he must have been_diasprotittedxt*i_i„,

NEws or THE WERE- nd boroughs from being elected Town-Councillors. It divides the Parliamentary Proceedings —Cor- Public Sale of Parliamentat y Seats 777 rate-payers into six classes, and enacts that out of the sixth class alone, poration Reform—Irish Corpora- Multiplication of Votes 777 being that which pays the highest amount of taxes, shall Town- The Budget 766 The Infernal Machine 778 Councillors be chosen. This alteration was justly characterized by The Court 774 SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY- Lords MELBOURNE, LANSDOWNE, GLENELG, BROUGHAM, and PLUNKET.

The Country 774 de Buren; Paraceltts; the Story as a deadly stab at the measure. It makes the accidental possession of Izeotland 775 or Justin Martyr—Tales of the rateable property in a borough the test of a man's fitness for office, and Miscellaneous 775 the Square of the Circle ;so draws a line of exclusion against all those—five-sixths of the commu- Demonstration of Polialar Feeling Progress of Publication 783 nity—who do not conic up to the arbitrary and unprecedented standard, POSTSCRIPT TO THE WEEK'S NEWS- Births, Marriages, and Deaths 784 whatever may be their virtues, talents, and repute with their fellow Money Market 776 The Army 785 citizens. It was asserted by the Duke of Buccseucir, and repeated by Prices Current 785 T■Orus riADDINGTON and LYNDHURST, that the Scotch Municipal Bill

afforded a precedent for this innovation, inasmuch as the 101. qualifies-

TIIE WEEK. tion is required from Councillors as well as burgesses : but Lord

NEWS OF

LYNDHURST'S amendment requires a different qualification for Coun- cillors—in the Scotch Bill, the qualification is one and the same, every Tire farcical exhibition of evidence against the Municipal Bill was person qualified to elect is qualified for being elected. Lord LYND- closed in the House of Peers on Satruday; their Lordships having HURST and the Tories deny to the burgesses the privilege of choosing satisfied themselves of the worthlessness of the Commissioners' Re- their local administrators with a view to fitness alone : and only 39 port, and the purity of the assailed Corporations,—including those of Peers, out of 159 who were present, were found to vote in its favour.

Leicester, Bristol, Norwich, Marlborough, and East Retford. Such Thus we find, that without daring to reject the bill in a manly and was the conclusion of the Tory majority in the Upper !louse. The direct manner, the Tories are doing every thing in their power People of England will not acquiesce in this decision. They cannot to render it inefficient for Municipal Reform. They have already doubt the existence of abuses, which they meet in all directions, damaged it to the full extent of the worst anticipations of its Mende, though the Town- Clerks and other Corporation tools swore till they and no doubt will proceed next week in the same course. BOURNE to hit him so hard on the score of his old politics—to remind him of the notoriety of the fact that in former times he had been what was called a " Jacobin " in politics, and consequently had become a " rat." Lord LYNDHURST solemnly asserted that he bad never been " something more than a Whig." Alas for his Lordship's memory !

In the House of Commons, Mr. HUME'S Orange resolutions were triumphantly carried. Lord JOHN RUSSELL did not flinch from a very intelligible intimation that the Duke of CUMBERLAND had not got out of the scrape in which the evidence given before the Orange Commit- tee had landed him : the "illustrious " Duke's letter was not deemed satisfactory by Lord JOHN. This was going as far perhaps as was clecorous in a Minister of the Crown towards the brother of the King ; but other Members were not so punctilious, and there can be no doubt whatever as to the feeling of the great majority of the House,—which axes that of entire disbelief of the Duke of CUMBERLAND'S assertion that he knew nothing of the establishment of Orange Lodges in the lArmy. Thanks to the silly officiousness of Mr. HORACE 'farms, the ;House came to a clinching vote on this point. Mr. Twiss moved to strike out from one of Mr. HUME'S resolutions, the words which conveyed a censure on the Duke of CUMBERLAND: on this motion the -House divided, and adopted Mr. HUME'S stigmatizing resolution by a majority of more than four to one—of 183 to 40. So much for the credit attached by the British House of Commons to the solemn asseveration of the Duke of CUMBER LAND.

The whole of this debate may be read with interest, but especially the speech of Mr. SHELL; which was in his very best style—terse, pointed, logical, and replete with facts skilfully selected from the evi- dence to strengthen his argument.

The Irish Church Bill passed through the Committee of the House of Commons with little difficulty. It was read for the first time in the House of Peers on Thursday; and if their Lordships should take pity on the Irish Clergy, and resolve to maintain the Irish Church Esta- blishment for a time, it will be read again on Thursday next.

The Irish Corporation Bill has also passed the ordeal—a very favourable one, certainly, in this instance—of a Committee of the House of Commons. The Peers will soon, therefore, have to deal with this necessary accompaniment to the English Bill. Will it re- ceive any better treatment ? We fear not—so much the worse for the Lords.

Mr. SPRING RICE opened his Budget last night, in a thin House. Time was when no Parliamentary proceeding excited greater interest ; but, this year, every one knew the small extent to which reduction of taxation could go, without a change of system for which the Repre- sentative Assembly has not yet shown much aptitude; and few were ignorant of what Mr. SPRING RICE chose to occupy a great part of the night in repeating. The small surplus at his disposal is exhausted bya reduction of the duties on flint-glass and spirit-licences, and the abolition of the Irish Stamp.duty on awards. The Times rails at the trifling amount of these reductions: this is absurd as well as disingenuous, for the Times knows that all is given that can be spared. The only fault we find with Mr. RICE is, that having so little to say, he should have made such a parade of stale materials : it would have been in better taste, and more suitable, had he delivered a speech of a quarter of an hour, instead of two hours and a half in length.