Lord MELBOURNE announced the formation of his Ministry in the
House of Lords on Saturday evening. The policy of his Go- vernment would, he said, be the same as it was last autumn— confirmed and strengthened by what has since taken place. The Duke of BUCKINGHAM, the Marquis of LONDONDERRY, and Lord ALVANLEY could noccontain their mortified spleen. Their angry questions drew forth from Lord MELBOURNE some unwelcome de- clarations. Whilst he disavowed any secret coalition with Mr. O'CONNELL, or participation in his extreme opinions in regard to the House of Peers and the Repeal of the Union, he declared that he would be no party to any system of " exclusion ;" that he had not put a" veto- on O'CONNELL'S entrance into the Government, and that the terms " veto" and " exclusion " were such as he should be sorry to use or acknowledge. Equally unpleasing to the Tories and gratifying to the Country was Lord MELBOURNE'S solemn pledge to act upon the resolution of the Commons on the appropriatiou of the Irish Church revenues. We cannot in writing give the full force of this important avowal of the Premier; but we beg our readers to understand, that it was delivered with a tone of voice and an energy of manner which made it exceedingly impressive. Lords LoornosrnEnev and ALVANLEY sneered at O'CONNELL and the Irish Liberate in very coarse language,— wyling them the " Radical Tail," the " Radical crew," the "curse of the country,"—as if they were ignorant that this "Tail ' consisted of sixty Representatives of the People, not a few of them men of high character, superior ability, ancient family, and large posses- sions. The single fact that they represent the Irish millions in the British House of Commons, ought to have restrained their foul- mouthed vilifiers. The noble Lords aforesaid, however, "took nothing," as the phrase is, by their display of disappointed malice. In the House olCommons, on Monday, Mr. O'CONNELL gibbeted the "half-idiot, half-maniac, degraded by a resolution of the House as unworthy to hold office," and the "bloated buffoon," who though in the market could persuade no Minister to buy him. Colonel SIBTHORPE spoke on this occasion : as usual, he was superla- tively ridiculous, and utterly incapable of comprehending the good-humoured sarcasm with which O'CONNELL held him up to the laughter of the House. • Mr. GEORGE SINCLAIR sported an- other set of confused, broken-winded metaphors, in the style and tone of a superannuated pedagogue. There never was a more melancholy exhibition of conceited fatuity. The case of SINCLAIR is quite hopeless: as a Member of Parliament he is ruined beyond red em ption.
Both Houses have adjourned to the 12th of May, in order to allow time for the elections of the new Ministers.
Previous page
