THE GREEK Missions:ENT Yom—June 17.
Lord Stanley's motion is carried against Ministers by a majority of 37 For the motion (present 113, proxies 56) .... 169 Against it (present 77, proxies 55) 132 37
This division is the second instance in which proxies have been called for this [session. The first instance occurred in the disposal of Lord Stradbroke's Anti-Free-trade amendment upon the Address ; and on that occasion, both the present and proxies were in favour of Ministers : with- out proxies, the majority would have been 17 ; with them, it was raised to 49 : the aggregate number of votes was 2.55. It is not often that the Peers go'to divisions at all ; and it is still rarer that proxies are called for. In the ten years ending with the session of 1849, only twenty-two in- stances occurred in which paper votes were used, and in none of these years did the occasions exceed three. In 1849 that number occurred; and although on each occasion the majority was with Ministers, this result was attributable to the proxies, for of those present the majority was in- variably against Ministers. It was this circumstance which caused some restiveness to be displayed by malecontent Peers at the existence of a practice which places those who hear a debate and those who do not hear it on the same level.
The instances which occurred in 1849 are worth mentioning. On the second reading of the Navigation Bill, Ministers were in a minority of 14, but when aided by the proxies, a majority of 10 turned up. Lord Brougham's resolutions against compensation to the Canadian rebels would have been carried by a majority of 8 had not the proxies turned the scale and given Ministers a majority of 3. Lord Brougham's denim- ciation of our doings in Italy, through the instrumentality of Lords Pal- merston and Minto, would have been sanctioned by a majority of 6; but proiies were produced, and the living voice was compelled to yield to the written by a balance of 12 votes. This last instance bears the nearest approach in point of subject to Lord Stanley's motion of Monday last.
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