CANVAS FOR THE SPEAKERSHIP.

IT is now ascertained that Sir CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON is to be the Horse Guards candidate for the Speakership of the New House of Commons. He is himself sedulously though quietly canvassing for the appointment, and he haS numerous tools and partisans either openly or stealthily employed in the same work. Should he succeed, the Tories will rejoice greatly ; and with rea- son. For Sir CHARLES, to do him justice, is not one of the Trimmers; he has never pretended to abandon his High Tory principles; he is no Conformer, but an old-fashioned Church and King man of the RUTLAND family and school. The appoint- ment of such a Speaker, therefore, would be a capital hit for the Tories just at this time—a good thing, not only in itself, but on account of the deceptive uses to which they might turn it : they would hold it out as a proof of their strength in the New Puha- meat, and employ it as a lure to Waverers. Some of the grounds of objection to his occupancy of the chair of the Reformed Parliament were in existence, and were strongly stated in this journal two years ago, when the Whigs took hint by the hand as their candidate for the Speakership. They appeared to us, and to many others throughout the country, sufficient for setting him. aside ; but at that time, Sir CHARLES had not very puomincntly distinguished himself as a Tory partisan, though his anti-popular opinions were not a secret. He has recently, however, come before the public in a new character. With a disregard to decency which has seldom been matched, the Speaker of the Reformed House of Commons has been actively intriguing with a faction, which an immense majority of that House were resolved to keep down. He has flung aside the appearance even of that dignified impartiality which the Commons of England have a right to expect from the man they have chosen to fill their chair. In speaking thus confidently, as of the known conduct of Sir CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON, we appeal to common and notorious sources of information, and shall certainly not violate any private confidences which may be within our reach. We can appeal to the numerous boastful allusions to the future Premier of the Ultra Tories, which have appeared in the favourite journals of the party within the last two years; and more especially to the record oft his motions since the 15th of November 1834, when the dis- solution of the MELBOURNE Ministry was announced. The Court Circular and the Tory Morning Heralds notices of fashionable movements shall be our authorities ; we shall have nothing to do with Radical or Opposition journals. The Duke of WELLINGTON was at Brighton on Saturday the 15th November; and on the Monday following the King carne to town, and summoned a Privy Council exclusively of Toriess, Here our memorandum commences.

1834.

November 17. The Speaker at the Tory Privy Council, with Wel.. lington, Lyndhurst, Cowley, Ellenborough, and the set.

18. The Speaker had an audience of the King.

19. The Speaker visited the Duke at Apsky House.

20. The Speaker at the Tory Privy Council.

21. The Speaker at another Tory Privy Council.

21. The Speaker dined with a Tory party at the Palace. December 2. The Speaker at a Tory Privy Council. 7. The Speaker had an audience of the King. 9. The Speaker had another audience of the King.

11. The Speaker visited the Duke of Wellington—two days

oiler Sir Robert Peel's return.

11. The Speaker on the same day visited Sir Robert Peel.

18. The Speaker was closeted with Mr. Goulburn at the Home Office.

19. The Speaker again at the Home Office.

22. The Speaker dined at Sir Edward Sugden's, in com- pany with Wellington, Peel, Rosslyn, Croker. Baring, and Bonham. It was SUDDEN'S farewell dinner.

31. The Speaker again at the HomeOffice with Goulburn.

The Speaker dined at Sir Charles Wetherell's with the Duke of Cumberland, Mr. Croker, and the Duke's Solicitor-General.

Sir Henry Halford gives a grand dinner, to which (in the terms of the announcement) all the Cabinet Ministers are invited, and Sir Charles Manners Sutton.

No person who reads this catalogue of Sir CHARLES Surroat's movements before, during, and since the formation of the new

Ministry, can deny that be has been at work in the vet), hotbed

of Tory intrigue, with men either personally disreputable, or poli- tically odious to the Nation, and to the vast majority of the late Parliament, as well as of that now almost elected. It has been said—" Surely you would not have Sir CHARLES disobey the com- mands of his Sovereign to attend a Privy Council ?" This is a

mere subterfuge. He was summoned because he was deemed useful in the intrigues then going forward. In case PEEL should

refuse to take the Premiership, lie was to do the Duke's bidding in that office : so said the Tories. His enmity to Liberal politics, the polities of the majority of the House over which he presided— his eagerness to take office in a Cabinet of opposite politics—were notorious ; and therefore was he among the trusted of the Court and the Anti-Reformers. But even admitting, what nobody believes, that lie attended the Court when all but Anti-Reformers and intriguers for place staid away, solely from a principle of loyal obedience to the King—still this apology will not avail him as a reason or apology for his frequenting Ansley House with the COWLEYS, COWLEYS, MARYBOROUGHS, ELLENBOROUGHS, CROKERS, BONHAMS, HERRIESES, and the rest of the clique.

Sir CHARLES SUTTON is openly pointed to as the future leader of the more violent section of the Ultra Tory Cabinet; and yet it is hoped that he will be palmed upon the National Representa- tives as a fit person to be their organ and spokesman in the great controversy that must ensue between the Lower House and the Court and Tory factions, of which he is himself one of the most active and thoroughgoing ! A struggle is about to commence— nay, it is going" on—between the Representative order of the Legislature and the Hereditary. The collision is inevitable ; and it is exceedingly probable that it will become the duty of the Speaker manfully to uphold the rights and privileges of the Com- mons of Englan-d against the Court and the Peers. Does any human being believe that those rights and privileges can be safe in the keeping of a man who by habit, connexion, opinions consistently maintained for many years, and a personal interest to be promoted by his party's ascendancy, is irresistibly inclined to curtail them, and augment the power of the Oligarchy and the Crown ? We put this question distinctly to every Independent Member of the House.

It would no doubt be an exceedingly convenient arrangement for the Duke, if the New House could be persuaded to reappoint his nominee. Sir CHARLES SUTTON being the Premier in pelt°, after Sir ROBERT PEEL has retired, as it is thought he soon will, it would be very pleasant to have him snugly ensconced in the Chair, ready to move to the Treasury Bench on the first opportu- nity. If this should not happen, the Governor-Generalship of India may yet be his portion. The Tories think nothing too good for so zealous and assiduous an ally. The Speakership of the House is in fact to be made a convenience for MANNERS SUTTON. An insult which Mr. PITT would not have dared to inflict upon his majority of Rotten Borough Members, is to be patiently en- dured by the majority of the Reformed Parliament ! A part of the juggle consists in describing the qualifications of Sir CHARLES SurroN as unattainable by any other Member, and his labours as absolutely superhuman. The Standard de- clares, that the business he has to go through out of the House, in addition to "(his enormous public toils," would seem to be "too much for any four men, but that we know it is executed with per-

1835. January 19.

26.

feet efficiency by one:' What extravagant hyperbole is this! Any lawyer in full practice works as hard as the Speaker of the House of Commons. But if it be true that any other four men could scarcely accomplish what Sir CHARLES SurroN alone dues efficiently, then is a speedy reform in this department required ; for Sir CHARLES is a bird on the wing, and intends the chair merely for a stepping-stone to some other appointment, less labori- ous and perhaps more profitable. His invaluable services may be wanting in the course of a month or so.

" The Speaker (says the Standard) is the counsellor, correspondent, and adviser of, probably, from 100 to 150 Committees in each session. He is the ultimate editor of yenerally more than 100 folio volumes ofJournals and Reports in each year. He iv, besides,privately, the ready and the courteous referee of each of 658 Members of the House of Commons, in all doubtful questions of Parliamentary law."

If this be true, we must say, either that he has given very in- different advice to Committees, or that the Committees have sys- tematically eschewed it ; for nowhere else is business conducted in so slovenly a manner as in the Committees of the House of Com- mons. Then as to his editorial labours, if it is intended to insinu- ate that he is editor of Reports in the usual meaning of the word, he must be sadly careless and inefficient in that capacity—as any one will discover who takes the trouble to wade through the produc- tions he is said by the Standard to have revised. No one denies his tact, his urbanity, his plausibility : yet if he had chattered less with the little hunchback who was eternally at his ear in the last two sessions, with a few other self-important members of the Tory minority, and had fixed his attention better on what was going forward in the House, the business would have been conducted perhaps with more ease and order. The Standard gives Sir CHARLES SUTTON the credit of having disciplined an unruly House.

" Two years ago, Sir Charles was placed at the head of the Reformed House of Commons—at the head of an assembly, introducing with other reforms, the practices of the upper galleries in the theatres; shouting, screaming, singing, cock-crowing, &e. giving and taking the lie, giving challenges, and other inno- vations upon the system of gentlemanly society, which must occur to the memory of every reader. Without any exercise of coercive authority, the Speaker kept this rude assembly from worse violence by the mere force of his personal equanimity and well-tempered good sense; and at length brought it to a state of respectable discipline."

Now, " giving and taking the lie, and giving challenges," were not practised for the first time in the Reformed Parliament. They were common occurrences under Sir CHARLES SUTTON'S presidency in the old House. We all remember when CANNING, for instance, gave BROUGHAM the lie, and BROUGHAM took it. " Challenges" were so often given, and the usual consequences so often prevented by the interference of the Speakers, that a challenge in the House has become a symptom of a desire of any thing but fighting. We never observed that Sir CHARLES SterroN was remarkable for throwing oil on the angry feelings of debaters before they had proceeded to gross personalities. He inter- feres, to be sure, but then it is generally too late to prevent scenes of " most admired disorder." It appears to us, that there is quite as much of decorum in the bearing of Members towards each other when Mr. BERNAL is in the chair, as when the Speaker is in his place. The cock-crowing and shouting (put down at last by the Press, and by some intelligib'e hints to the offenders by other Members in private) if we mistake not, all occurred when the House was not in Committee. And here we may remark by the way, that it is a great mistake to suppose that the Speaker is in the chair all the while the Meuse is sitting. A very large proportion of the most fatiguing and laborious business is done in Committee, when Mr. BERNAL'S constant and minute attention is required, and given. He has no time to talk and take snuff with loungers.

The Standard contrasts the conduct of the Peers with that of the Commoners, very much to the disadvantage of the former; attributing at the same time the fault of their House having be- come "a perfect bear-garden," to Lord BROUGHAM'S incapacity as a presiding officer. But the Standard should remember, dint the most disgraceful scene on record was that in which his friend Lord LONDONDERRY was so conspicuous an actor when the Par- liament was prorogued for dissolution in 1831. The ladies in the gallery thought that their noble spouses were going to have a boxing-match; and this occurred while Lord BROUGHAM was off the Woolsack, and before he had been Chancellor long enough to corrupt the elegant manners of the Peers. Besides, the Peers absolutely denied any authority to the Chancellor, and declared fiat although the Speaker could command order in the Commons, every Per had as much tight as the Chancellor to interfere for the preservation of order in their Lordships House. But all that the Standard has said on this point only proves the impropriety of appointing an unqualified person to the Chair or the Woolsack ; about which there is no dispute. The vast knowledge of Parliamentary law, supposed to be pos- sessed by SirCiierreEs SUTTON, is matter of puffing by the Tories. Our observation has led us to believe that an exceedingly small portion of such learning has enabled him to get through his duties ; and if the courteous reader who peruses this, should have the curi- osity to bestow half an hour on the second volume of HATSELL, he would rise from it with no very exalted estimate of the kind of knowledge—the formal vanities—the usages bearing marks of a barbarous origin and a degraded condition—which go to make up the sum of " Parliamentary law." We should pity the capacity .of any experienced Member of the House, who could not make him- self master of the whole code, and its applications to modern prac- tice, by a few days study. But let the amount and value of the learning be what pedantic Parliament-men please to make it, must it all die with CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON? What shall become of' us, then most miserable nation !

To return to our own text. The Tories wish to trick the public by getting their man made Speaker : will the Reformers assist in the juggle ? There is a struggle about to ensue between the Representative and Hereditary branches of the Legislature : shall the Speaker of the Commons hold and profess the faith of the Commons, or that of the other side? Should he not be, in the words of Speaker GLANVILLE to CHARLES the First, " the mouth, indeed the servant, of all the rest, to steer watchfully and prudently in all their weighty consultations and debates . . . . to represent them and their conclusions, their deliberations and pea- lions, upon all urgent occasions, with truth, with right, with life?" In case of a contest with the Crown, the Speaker should be one who might be depended on to act in the spirit of LENTH ALL, when he addressed the misguided Sovereign in the well-known words- " I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant lam here."

If any Reformer believes that the High Church and king par- tisan, Sir CHARLES SUTTON, would act with siini.ar courage and fidelity on a like emergency, let him vote for the Ultra Tory : if his conviction is the opposite of this, it is his bounden duty to place a resolute Reformer in the chair of the Reformed Parliament.

The compromised election on the first meeting of the late Parlia- ment was the result of difficulty in adjusting some Cabinet dis- agreements • Earl GREY supported one gentleman, Lord ALTHORP another, both of their own party. Ultimately and in public, Sir CHARLES was supported by the Whig Ministers, on false pretences. It was their first downward step ; and to us, who knew the truth and despised the conventional hypocrisies, it was the first cause of serious distrust in honest Lord ALTHORP. The impressio on the Country was very unfavourable. This time let us at least star! well.