THE EARL OF WARWICK'S DEFENCE.
IT is hardly to be regretted that the proceedings against the Earl of WARWICK are postponed till next session, when we may hope that the House of Commons will dare to act for itself. Cir- cumstances justify the suspicion that he has made his peace with Ministers. There is too much esprit du corps among the Aristo- cracy, to suffer a member of their order, be he Whig or Tory, to be toughly handled by the Commons. The precedent, it is felt, would be dangerous. Moreover, a large proportion of leading men in both divisions of the Aristocracy, labour under the conscious- ness of having sinned in like manner as their delinquent brother is alleged to have done. Certainly the Earl of WARWICK has a right to call upon all such to stay their hands from pelting at his windows, inasmuch as similar sins to those with which be is charged have oftentimes been discernible through their own. But this is no argument against the independent members of theCom- mons of England, whose privileges the Earl has grossly violated. They should have laid hold of their man while he was within their reach, and subjected him to the due penalty of the law, whatever it may .13e.
- Lieutenancy. There are sufficient precedents on record for such a
-course. But here again Lord ALTHORP meets us, and says that Lord WARWICK has returned no answer to Lout MELBOURNE S
letter requesting an explanation of his conduct, and therefore he is 'unable to take any steps in the matter. If such an excuse as this
will serve, Lord ALTHORP may be sure that the Earl ofWanwice ing.,;lorvtteillviasultling age the Sir office.] will never deprive him of it. But what a paltry subterfuge it is! ,, I should think age o u . latthew Bloxam when he entered the office?" Why, Lord WARWICK on Monday night gave his answer in I ink seventy."
the House. Granting that this is the ease, we see nothing to hin- opened the way for Master KEY'S appointment, was a bookseller der the Government from depriving this law-breaker of his high ofCanterbury, in very bail health and extremely unfit for the
offices as conservator of the law—of his Recordship and Lord- place ; but he was appointed by Mr. LUSH( NGTON, the Secretary person to Lord MELBOURNE, in the House of Lords ; and came from abroad on purpose to give it. We have there his recorded defence. If Lord ALTHORP is satisfied with it,— if he believes' that Lord WARWICK'S three thousand and odd pounds were actually advanced for the payment of the legal ex- penses of one of the candidates at the election (which amounted only to about 36/.),—if be believes that his agents interfered against his commands,—in short, if he believes that the Committee of the House of Commons fabricated their report, and the evidence on which it rests,—let him say so at once, and repudiate all these shuttling excuses for the backwardness of Government to do their duty, which no human being believes to be honest excuses. Lord ALTHORP declares that he would be the last man to shield a guilty party from punishment. What is he, what are his colleagues, doing now ? It is plain that if such a defence as the Earl of WARWICK made on Monday last—a defence tantamount to a confession of the illegal conduct imputed to him—is to weigh against the report of the Committee, it is a mere mockery to talk of proceeding against him next session. The Govern- ment had better beware how they truckle to the Court or the Conservatives in this instance, for the eyes of the Country are on them.
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