DEBATES OF THE WEEK.
OF all the labourers in the Opposition, there is none who displays the zeal of the Marquis of LONDONDERRY. It is to no purpose that he is covered with laughter or beaten down with fact. He wears an armour of proof which is impregnable alike to ridicule or reason. On Monday, however, he was fairly dumbfounded. Moving for some papers, which, being accessible to every man in the kingdom, it was requisite to print for the special benefit of the Lords and Commons, he thought fit to enter into a long rigmarole attack on the arrangement of the Five Powers by which the Belgic fortifications erected in 1815 are to be de- molished. Having quoted the speech of PHILIP EGALITE at the trial of Louis the Sixteenth, by way of a sly hit at PHILIP'S son, to show his wit, and read a couple of sentences from Lord GREN- VILLE'S letter to CHAUVELIN, to show his learning, the Marquis went on to enumerate the forts which were to be dismantled. There were no fewer than six of these, and among the six was Courtrai. Think of that !—could they not spare even Courtrai ? To sacrifice Courtrai—it was enough to make the worsted barons come down from the arras to the floor for the purpose of vindi- cating the honour of England against the supineness of a degene- rate Cabinet. The Marquis sat down— "Dry with rage and extreme toil, Breathless and faint,"— when up rose Earl GREY to tell him what ? That his rage and toil were bootless and objectless, for, welladay! Courtrai was no fort !
Previous page
