NEWS OF THE WEEK.

PARLIAMENT, during the week, „has been still but half employed, far the same cause whictr;kept it half employed last week,

Ott . .. - itiss = Thursday only,--and then chiefly for election,. nand . the absence of PvliniSte'rs. The House of Commons met, business. On Tuesday, Lord WYNFORD introduced his bill for, facilitating processes in ,the Courts of Westminster Hall ; and on Thursday,tiLord Iiouoit'ass introducedliis more extended measure for the creation of courts of Local Jurisdiction. A remark by Lord Wysrsoar. on the state of the country, on Monday evening, led to a rather interesting conversation on the power and abuses of power exercised by LordssLieutenant in forming the commission of the peace ; when a gentle recommendation was given by the Lord Chancellor to more correct behaviour in future. The Mar- qui.s-of SALISBURY has obtained a committee to investigate the Poor-Laws. The Marquis's remedies are—the extension orthe cottage system, cultivation of waste lands, emigration. The Regency Bill has been read a second time, and been committed : two amendments have been made to the bills—first, that the young Princess shall not Marry during her minority; second, that if the Duchess of KENT should marry a foreigner, she shall forfeit her title to the Regency.

1. STATE OF THE COUNTRY. On Monday, Lord WYNFORD, i on giving notice of a motion for lessening legal expenses, took oc- casion to ask of Ministers if they were prepared to make any in spiry into the existing distresses of the country, with a view to their alleviation ; and if they intended to give to magistrates any higher powers for the suppression of the disorders arising out of then)? Earl GREY said he had no intention to propose such an inquiry ;

but the motion of the Marquis of Salisbury, for an inquiry into the Poor-Laws, would go far to produce a similar result. He thought the law, as it at present stood, was quite sufcient to put down the disturbances, if it were duly and actively enforced.

The LORD CHANCELLOR coincided in this opinion.

Until the law as it now stood had had a fair trial, it would not be expe- dient—nay, it would hardly be just-40 alter it for the purpose of meeting thote occurrences which unfortunately had arisen, but which he de- voutly hoped would be found only of a passing and temporary nature. Every thing, however, should be done to enforce the provisions of the law ; and if every thing were done to enforce the provisions of the law, he had no doubt thatthere would be an end to those disturbances, which were alike disgraceful to the people concerned in them and ruinous to the:object they professed to have in view ; for there was no truth, he ap- prehended, more obvious than this—that in proportion as the public Peace was disturbed, in the same proportion must the misery of those be augmented who suffered in consequence of the state of the public affairs beipgderanged and troubled. Would their Lordships accept in good part tli..tugge, stion which he would take that opportunity to make ? The com-

ons were now in progress, and not yet completed. Far be it from him o:Eu. to ' eta interfere generally with the discretionary powers which were v . in-the Lordj.aeutensint; but there were some instances of names

being omitted in commissions—some instances of persons being passed over, whose powers, whose activity, and whose character would make them highly desirable accessions to the present force of the magistracy.

He did not allude to any district in particular, nor even to disturbed dis- tricts only, because those which were now peaceable might be disturbed, but to all districts in which such omissions did exist ; and he was sure that when the character of the persons to whom he alluded was considered— when it was recollected, that, besides being men of courage, and activity, and power, they were also not unfrequently the possessors of large heredi- tary property—he was sure, he said, that when these qualifications for a place among the magistracy of their respective counties were considered, the suggestion he now made would be sufficient, and that care would be taken that such omissions should not occur.

Lord ELDON deprecated any interference with the discretionary power vested in the Lords-Lieutenant. During the twenty-five years that he had held the seals, he had interfered but once, and then only for the purpose of causing the authority of the Chancellor to be duly respected. He congratulated the House and the country on the issue of the Special Commissions, because he thought they would not only vindicate the law mercifully, but instruct the igno- rant people of the criminality of their proceedings, of which many of them were not at all aware. He particularly alluded to a notion, very generally entertained, that, provided an assemblage of people used the language of begging only, the compulsion of formidable numbers which such assemblages presented did not render their congregation illegal. He had no doubt large melings of men, whatever were the humility of their language, were Mea. He had heard that one gaol in the country was filled with foreigners charged as connected with the disturbances; he hoped it was not true.

The LORD CHANCELLOR disclaimed all =necessary interference with the duties of the Lords-Lieutenant ; he merely meant to throw out a suggestion for their guidance. Lord MELBOURNE enforced the recorp:mendation of the Lord Chancellor to the Lords-Lieutenant, to select for the commission of the peace all those persons who, by their activity, intelligence, and respectability, were best qualified to exercise the duties which the commission imposed. Of the committal of foreigners alluded to by Lord Eldon, he was quite ignorant, nor did he think the story had thrs-tXghtest foundation. Lor::•ELnorr—" The fact was communicated to tie 'sa a private _letter this morning." 'The Earl of FaLsroursi seemed to,believe the stbry.- • • It had been currently reported that these incendiaries;seha issted forth. lihefiends from theinfernal regions, were foreigners, who, not contented with. the disturbances which they haAraisel in their own country, hod-come hither to disturb the peace of ours. He did not believe that Special Commissions would be sufficient to lay hold of these ineendiaries ; and in the mean time, though the farmers had been roused to the necessity of associating together for the protection of their property, they were put to so great expense by the watches which they were obliged to keep, that the system could not go on long. These were extraordinary times, and required ex- traordinary measures. The Duke of WELLINGTON thought no alteration of the exist- ing laws was called for The causes a the burnings were, he ad- mitted, yet unfathomed. They were evidently the work of a con- spiracy—of what kind he pretended not 'to say ; but he did not think the conspiracy was a foreign one, or that foreigners had any thing to do with it. He thought local ktiOsidedge was absolutely requisite to the formation of the roll of the peace, and deprecated all interference with the Lords-Lieutenant in its formation.

The Earl Wissounsea, who had not been in the House before that evening since the change of Ministry, took this opportunity of expressing his feelings on the change.

He had not heard the speech of the noble Earl to whom his Majesty

had confided the head of his Government, but he had read that speech ; and the sentiments contained in it not only gave him great satisfaction, but he knew that they had giyen satisfaction to the great body of his Majesty's subjects. He was sure that prudent retrenchment and a wise economy, as well as the restitution of :a constitutional representation, were objects to which the public mind had long -been directed; and he was satisfied that the declaration of the noble Earl on those points, would afford general gratification. For his own part, he complimented their- Lordships on seeing at the head of his Majesty's Government an indi- vidual like the noble Earl, of talent and energy, who was capable of meet- ing the exigencies, of the country. (Cheers.) 2. LAW AMENDMENTS. There are few features of the times more marked than the numerous bills for the amendment of the law, introduced during the last, and, even in its short currency, the present session. Sir JAMES SCARLETT has brie `bill; Lord TENTERDEN haS five ; and on Tuesday Lord WYNFORDintroduced one of no Small importance.. The Object of Lord ynford's bill is to prevent delay and lessen expense in the Courts of Westmin- ster,-Hall: It is partly -ibundecton the recommendations of the Law Commissioners, partly on views now ;or the first time developed by Lord -Wynford himself. The twe.great causes. of expense, according to Lord Wynford, Are, first, the complicated. and absuid method according used in special pleading ;..second, the 'manner of taking evidence. Leaving the former, for the time, for: he judges.to.deal with . (which. it is understood. they mean to do), Lord Wynford prOceeds, by his present bill, to offer a re- niedy to the latter. At present, there is a host of witnesses in every case who are called to depose to matters not essential to the suit. It is proposed to get rid of this burdensome superfluity, by examination of the parties on interrogatories, in order to put the court in possession of the facts that either is prepared to prove. By letting both sides see clearly the facts which each is prepared to prove, Lord Wynford calculated that one-fourth of the expense of all suits will be saved, and that one-fourth of the suits entered on will not go to trial. On the subject of cheap law, his Lordship observed— It had been said, that to lessen the expense of legal proceedings, or, in other words, to make law cheap, would-be productive of evil, and not of good. He could not concur in this sentiment. He admitted that to make law cheap would have a tendency to increase litigation, and he was not pre- pared to deny that litigation commonly produced angry feelings between man and man. While he made these admissions, however, he must say that he thought the great expense of legal proceedings was a far greater evil than increasing litigation. He was strongly confirmed in this opinion by the notorious fact that our present expensive system of litigation gave rise to feelings than which none more angry, none more bitter, could be excited by any system which the perverted ingenuity of any man could invent. What, he would beg their Lordships to consider, must be the feelings of that man, who, conscious that he had been injured by an opu- lent neighbour, and that he had a good cause of action, was restrained from attempting to obtain redress by the fear that the expense of the pro- cess would reduce himself and his family to poverty? Must not such a man feel more bitter and more lasting hatred, both against his neighbour and against the Government, who, in effect, actually denied him justice, than any degree of litigation could possibly excite? While justice could be defeated by formal objections, which was now the case, and while a man might be ruined as well as lose a just cause, they tolerated evils far greater than any that could arise from the prosecution of any number of cases which could be attended with no injurious consequences to the parties. The putting of the parties on oath, his Lordship said, was a matter of everyday practice in the Court of Chancery, and there- fore no serious objection could be made on that head; and so far from an accurate knowledge of the cause to he tried being hostile to jtistice, it was notorious that those which were best known were alwayg most satisfactorily tried. The answers to the interrogatories, it is proposed, shall be oral ; and the examiners, in addition to the questions set down, shall be allowed to put any other arising out of the answer to these questions,—with leave, however, to the parties, on application to the judge, to have any such additional questions as appeared to them exceptionable, struck out. The next proposal of Lord Wynford is a very important one,—namely, that where the judge shall see, or think he sees, on the face of the examinations, that a cause is without the slightest support of evi- dence, he shall be entitled to call on the party espousing it to find security for the amount of costs before going to trial. This inter- vention of the judge is not, of course, meant to operate in any case where there is a dispute as to fad between the parties. The next additional power proposed to be given to the judge, is the power of suspending process in certain cases. If a party came in, either on receiving notice of action, or on m- ceiving the bill of particulars of the plaintiff's demand, and said, " I admit the debt, but I cannot pay it immediately," or " I admit your claim to the premises, but it will ruin me to quit them instantly," the judge should be enabled—liable always to the revision of the court—to give him a space of time, not exceeding three months, to pay the debt, or to sur- render the lands in, security being given in both cases for the payment of the debt, and for the surrender of the premises within the allotted time. His-reason for inserting such a clause into his bill was simply this.—Sup- pose a man to be carrying on a business beneficial to himself and family on lands not legally belonging to him; if he were called upon to give up the lands immediately, he must give up the trade with it, and mi"ht, consequence, be instantly ruined. So, too, if a man were called on to pay a debt instantly, which he honestly admitted to be due, the results might be most prejudicial to him, if compulsory measures were to follow instantly after his admission of it. The knowledge of the frequent occur- rence of circumstances like these, supplied an excuse for the employment of sham pleas. He therefore proposed to give the judge the power of doing directly for the parties without expense, that which any one could not do indirectly but at an immense ultimate expense, both to the plaintiff and to the defendant.

There is another clause of some importance in Lord Wynford's bill. If a man, who is in what he deems bond fide possession, erect a house or sow a crop on lands of which he is afterwards -found not to be the legal possessor, he forfeits on ejectment the whole of the improvements that he may have made. This is purely English law • in no country, ancient or modern, with the exception of England, has such a rule ever held. Lord Wynford would have it enacted— That where property was recovered from a party who thought him- self the bond fide owner, and who had expended money in the improve- ment of it, the judge should be empowered to suspend the execution of the judgment until he had taken away the improvements, and left the land in as good condition as before ; or until the party who, having become, in the language of the-civil law, locupletior, should pay to him such sum as an arbitrator indifferently appointed should think fit. After a few observations from Lord TENTERDEN and the LORD CHAN Flan the necessity of deliberately weighing the, char ted, the bill was read a first time. It will be rea , pro formd, previous to the recess, and dis- cuss ee when the two Houses resume.

ICTION BILL. Lord BROUGHAM, on Thurs- day d this bill, which, •previous to his Lordship's ele rage, he had obtained leatteto bring forward in the ons. There was no reason why such a inea- suret.s Oduced in one House of Parliament more than the the two, the House of Lords seemed the more fit, as being e highest judicial tribunal in the country, and as containing the persons who, from their aim' ence in the knowledge - and administration, of the law, were best qualified to aid him by their acquirements. He introduced the measure on his own responsibility, without any sanction of the Government, but ad- dressing it to the Government in the same way as he addressed it to their Lordships. The evils which it is the object of the bill to remedy are-1st, the necessity, in all cases of moment, of hav- ing recourse to the Courts of Westminster Hall ; 2nd, the delay which this necessity imposes, as the Assizes sit only from six months to six months' 3rd, the expense entailed on the suitor, from being compelled to assemble his witnesses at the assize- town, and often- to keep them there for a considerable time ; 4th, the charges of attornies, and the personal expenses of suitors arising out of the same circumstances. The sad aggravation of all these expenses, Lord Brougham observed, was, that even where a party was successful, though by the theory of the law he had his costs allowed, by its practice he recovered only a small portion of them. Let their Lordships see how this system bore upon causes in which small interests were at stake. Would they tell him whether it was not expedient, and reasonable, and just, to lessen the expense of legal pro- ceedings ; which could be effected in no more certain and more effectual way than by bringing justice home to every man's door ? He had ob- tained three bills of costs, with the results only of which he would now trouble their Lordships. The first amounted to 4001. ; and of this, the Master, on taxation, struck off 2001., that was to say, just one-half. The second amounted to 2101. ; and of this the Master taxed off 701., or one- third. The last amounted to 60/.: this was an undefended cause—the amount spent in the litigation of an undefended cause was 601.; and of this the Master taxed off one-fourth, 151. Now their Lordships would see, that in these cases the successful parties had to pay out of their own pockets—in the first case 2001., in the second 701., and in the third 151. The sums in question in the first case were large ; it was an important case, and probably no cost had been spared in getting it ready for trial. In the second case, the sum at issue was somewhat about 1001. ; so that the unfortunate suitor, after an outlay of 2101., in order to recover 1001., got at last only 301. In the third case, the sum at issue was 501., which it cost the party 451, to recover ; and he need not remind their Lordships that the costs would have been quite as great if the debt had been only 102., and that also no greater amount of costs could have been recovered against the defendant; consequently, if a poor man had brought this ac- tion for 10/., the costs amounting to 601., and he being allowed to recover only 451., he would have been 51. the worse for bringing the action, and obtaining a verdict in his favour. And in this last case the party suing would be placed in the most favourable circumstances possible ; for the defendant offered to him none of those obstacles which the law placed within his reach, and by which he might have increased the amount of the plaintiff's costs. The cause would have been undefended, and yet the plaintiff would have lost by bringing the action. Of the vast preponderance of small over great interests in ac- tions at law, and of the consequent prevalence of the evil thus complained of, Lord Brougham gave the following proof, drawn from the Report of the Common Law Commissioners. In the year 1827, the number of affidavits for debt above 101. filed in the, court of King's Bench, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Exchequer, was 93,375. Of this number not less than 30,000 were filed in cases where the debt was above 10/. and under 201.; 34,000 were filed in cases where the debt was above 201. and under 501.; so that two- thirds of the number of affidavits of debt filed in the year 1827, or 64,000 out of 93,000 affidavits, were for sums under 50/. If they looked at the number of affidavits filed for sums above 1001.—and he took that sum as a natural limit for those actions which ought not to be removed from the jurisdiction of the Superior Courts—their Lordships would find that they did not exceed 15,000: so that 78,000 out of the 93,000 affidavits filed, were for sums under 1001. Thus, one-sixth of the number of affidavits filed were for sums above 100/., two-thirds of them were for sums under

501., and five-sixths were for sums under 1001. As this was an important feature of the case, and as the proposition which he was going to de- velop to their Lordships was intended to remedy this grievance, he would endeavour to illustrate it more fully by placing it in another point of view before them. At the London sittings for 1829, there were tried before his nobleand learned friend the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 909 cases ; of which 184 were for sums above 100/., 319 for sums under 502., and 406 for sums under 20/. At the sittings for Middlesex, the pro- portion was nearly the same ; and in the two places together, more than half the causes tried were under 501., whilst more than a third of them were under the trifling sum of 201.

The remedy for this evil, or the remedy rather for a part of it,. proposed by the Lord Chancellor, is the reinstitution, with en- larged powers, of the ancient County Courts. The County Courts had originally jurisdiction in all cases not exceeding 40s.; which, from the difference in the value of money, had, even in Hale's time, and on a very low estimate of the depreciation, be- come equal to 101., and which in our times, according to Lord Brougham's estimate, would be equal to 40/. To causes not ex- ceeding 401. in value, he accordingly proposes to limit the juris- diction which it is his object to revive. The model of these local courts his Lordship has sought in Scotland; a country where, in ancient 'times, the law was—as how was it otherwise possible? —so absolutely identical with that of England, that it is mat- ter of antiquarian dispute, whether the oldest law authority of Scotland, the Regiam Ma jeetatem, be translated from the treatise of Glanville, or the treatise of Glanville from the 2?egiarn Mojes- tatem. In Scotland, in the days of Henry the Second, the County Courts existed in the same way and with the same powers as in England. The Sheriffs, or rather he should say the Earls, originally elected by the people in the Saxon times, were afterwards, in the progress of years, nominated by theCrown. By an abuse of its prerogative, those offices were afterwards rendered hereditary in private families, to such a degree, that a noble duke, or rather the ancestors of that noble duke, enjoyed as an hereditary office in Scotland that very situation 'which his noble and learned friend on the Cross Bench now filled in England, with so much credit to himself and satisfaction to the- public. The office of Lord Jus- tice-General in Criminal matters in ScOtland Was hereditary In the family of the Duke of Argyll, and could, if it bad not been etiftifeu, have been taken in execution by Any petson who had gaieectajueementagainst In case any of the dukes of that family had been traders, it could have been taken under the bankrupt-laws ; and as it would have passed by sale, his assignees could not have been prevented, if they had thought fit to ex- ercise their legal rights, from sitting and acting as Lord Justice-General of Scotland. Neither had this privilege been allowed to fall into desuetude; for on one occasion, where a Campbell was on one side and an individual of a different clan was on the other, his noble friend's ancestor came un- expectedly forward to assert his privilege, and had actuallya!tended the circuit where his clansman was to be tried, in order to try him in person for his life. Similar privileges were exercised by different noble families in Scotland for some years after the rebellion of 1715 ; but they were all abolished, as such abuses deserved to be, by an act of Parliament passed in the year 1745 ; although theAct of Union was cited for the express pur- pose of showing that these heritable jurisdictions were specially reserved to their several possessors, but cited with the same want of success as had attended it on various occasions,—a fact to which he called their Lordships' attention for objects of a very different nature from those con- nected with this bill. When these jurisdictions were abolished, Sheriffs. Depute were substituted in their stead. Now the Sheriff-Depute retained the jurisdiction of the old County Courts, little shorp of their ancient splendour and authority. He was the judge ordinary of each district in Scotland ; he was also the judge in the first instance in those tribunals in which all actions may he, and are habitually, brought. He exercised all his jurisdiction, he heard all cases, at the door of the suitor ; not at stated intervals, but daily throughout the year ; his door being always open to the suitor, redress being in the hands of the suitor at every hour from his tribunal, without delay, without expense, and without the vexatious pro- cess of waiting long for his remedy, and of going into another part of the country to seek it. The yearly number of actions brought in the Scotch Sheriff' Courts, on an average of three years—a pretty good proof of the public satisfaction with the jurisdiction—was stated by Lord Brougham to have been 22,000.

The whole expense of this litigation, where the cause was defended as far as it could be—where every thing was done to create delay, except placing a plea on the record to carry it as an appeal to Edinburgh—was 51. where the property in dispute was of the value of 121., and 131. where the property was of the value of 100/. ; and of this 131. only 11. can be taxed off by the officer who is the auditor of the court.

After the example of the Scotch tribunals, Lard Brougham pro- poses, that (beginning with two counties only, to give to his plan a fair trial previous to its universal adoption) in every county or riding, there shall be an ordinary resident judge, sitting riot once in six months, or once in every month, but every day of the year, with the exception of a short vacation in autumn ; and it is his in- tention to give to this judge the right of trial in all cases of debt under 1001. and in all cases of tort under 501. excepting only such cases as involved questions of tenure, or other complicated inte- rests incapable of speedy decision. On the commonplace argument, that litigation which the new courts might be supposed to foster, ought to be discouraged, his Lordship observed with much force and novelty of argument:— The complaint was not that we had too many suitors, but that we had too few; so long asavrongs were committed and rights withheld, so long there was necessity for litigation : and as it was vain to assert that infer Tior causes required judges of inferior knowledge and ability for their decision, so it was vain and preposterous to take any standard for the ne- cessity of providing for the wants of the less wealthy suitors in courts of justice, than the amount of wrongs committed—the amount of rights withheld. So long, therefore, as injustice was committed, was litigation necessary, and so long had the people a right to demand a more accessible and cheap administration of law than the present means afforded ; and, be justice denied by force or by fraud, by the oppression of the rich, by unne- cessary and vexatious expense—se far and so long were the subjects of the King of England denied what they were entitled to under the Great Charter to which the King Bad sworn,—namely, that he should " neither sell nor delay justice." And justice was sold, so long as suitors had to pay three times more than was necessary for it ; it was delayed, so long as they had to wait a single unnecessary week, day, he might say hour, for it. The last feature in his Lordship's bill is one empowering the Judge to counsel the parties to actions, on proper application ; or, in other words, to act in the same capacity towards suitors as the Courts of Reconcilement in Denmark and other Continental states, where actions have been diminished in an extraordinary degree by the very simple process of enabling the parties to seek advice i of the Courts, which can have no interest in the plea, instead of asking it of an attorney who has. "My Lords," concluded the Chancellor, " it is the duty, the great office, the high function of the Government—it is the King's most sacred duty —it is all our deepest interests, that the law should be obeyed. It is the no less sacred, and high, and paramountly important duty of your Lord. ships, as legislators, to take care that the laws be loved : and when the Government resolve, on their part, in their executive capacity, with a determination from which no threat shall make them swerve, no supine- ness can make them slumber, to faithfully perform their duty to them- selves, to their King, and, if possible, still more faithfully to the King's people, by,enforcipg the laws as the greatest mercy to the deluded of- fenders against them; let me pray your Lordships, on the other hand, in your capacity as lawgivers—in this most fitting moment—on this most graceful occasion-=to take care, by making the laws better, that you make them the more loved. (Cheers.) I counsel you to leave no means unbefitting your high station—to let no pride of place prevent your ear- nestly attempting this great work. And let neither your station nor pride be offended when I tell you,, that a feeling has gone abroad of dis- respect towards both Houses of Parliament, which, fortunately, both Houses haVe it yet in their power to allay. The ties which should bind the several orders in the state to each other, particularly the people to their Parliament, should be, as they have been often compared, like those of domestic union ; and if, unhappily—to continue the simile—there should arise domestic jars between the two parties possessing so deep and intimate a common interestif one party should be temporarily alieneted,—I would not counsel you to practise unworthy artifices to re- move that alienation; far lesi would I counsel you to condescend to me- retricious blandishments, to allure those who stood aloof from you.. No ; I would say, Maintain your own Tights, preserve your own dignity; but take care and do your duty to yourselves and the alienated party, by removing all just grounds of complaint?"' (Hear, hear.) Lord. LYNDIiintai observed, that-the usual ecitirse was, to lair the bill on the table, order it to be printed, and consider it tho- . roughly previous to the second reading.

" At present I content myself with saying that the plan is one of the highest ipportance ; and I fully concur with my noble friend in the opi- nion, that your Lordships are bound to give it your most serious atten- tion : for we must consider that the effect of it, if it should he adopted by the Legislature, will be to create fifty new courts of justice, to be presided over by fifty new judges, and each of these courts to be attended with the establishment which is necessarily con- nected with a court of justice. These may be considered as minor cir- cumstances ; but certainly the consequence of adopting the measure will be to make a wide and expensive alteration in oor judicial establishments. When the bill shall haye been printed, I will direct the most anxious and careful attention to its principles and the whole of its details, that I may come to the discussion on the second reading, as fully prepared as the most unremitting inquiry will enable me to be. And if, after the most anxious attention and the most careful inquiry, I should feel myself com- pelled to differ from my noble and learned friend, I will ffeelx.and can- didly state to your Lordships the grounds and reasons of my dissent ; but if, upon the most candid, careful, and anxious inquiry, I shotild be con- vinced that this is a wise and salutary measure—a real improvement— then I will give it my most cordial and zealous support."

The bill was read a first time, and ordered to be printed.

4. POOR Laws. On the same evening the Marquis of SALIS- BURY moved the appointment of a Committee to consider the state of the Poor-Laws. The motion was seconded by Earl GREY, and unanimously agreed to. The Committee consists of the fol- lowing noblemen—the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Rich- mond, t he Marquis of Bute, the Marquis of Camden, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of Eldon, Earl Bathurst, Earl Stanhope, the Earl of Rosslyn, the Earl of Carnarvon, the Earl of Winchil- sea, Lord Sheffield, Lord Auckland, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Suffield, and Lord Stourton.

5. THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE AND ,SIR THOMAS DENMAN. A complaint was made last night to the House of Lords, by the

Duke of NEWCASTLE, of a speech reported to have been made by Sir Thomas Denman, at the Nottingham election. Sir Thomas was charged by the Duke with designating him as a borough- monger, and with affirming that the Duke's expression in his cele- brated letter—" Is it not lawful for me to do as I like with my own ?"—meaning, that if his tenants did not vote as he pleased, he would turn them out—was "wicked and scandalous." The Duke spoke under very considerable agitation, while he deprecated this attack on himself and his class by the King's Attorney-General, at such a time as the present, and at the chief town of the county of which his Grace was the Lord-Lieutenant. He had, he said, the greatest confidence in Earl Grey, and believed he could save The.c.ountry if he chose ; but he,was most anxious that the Earl shoulduotugitate the question of reform at present; as, in a lime of no ordinary excitement, it could only be productive of disturbance. Earl GREY expressed himself at some loss how to reply to a complaint which pointed at no specific proceeding. Had the Duke made the expressions alluded to, a question of privilege, the House could have dealt with it; but as he had not, it was not easy to see how the House could take any notice of them. The Earl said he did not like the term " borouglimonger ;" but it was to be considered that the expressions of the Duke in respect of Newark had brought on him the strong animadversion of many persons who considered the Duke's conduct on that occasion as an invasion of the rights of election. With respect to reform, he had only to repeat what he had said before—that so far from its being a question that ought not to be discussed in the present state of the country, the state of the country imperatively called for its discussion. He was convinced that reform must be looked in the face fairly. and fearlessly, since, if it were deferred longer, "instead of the improvement being effected cautiously and care- fully within, the change might be made from without, to an extent i and in a manner that would carry destruction to the Constitution itself."

On the vote by ballot, which the Duke of Newcastle hadstrongly deprecated,he should make no observation. If the whole ques- tion should receive the sanction of the other House, he should then state his sentiments on it.

The LORD CHANCELLOR observed, that some allowance was to be made for election-speeches ; and it was as a candidate for a seat in Parliament, not as Attorney-General, that Sir Thomas Denman had used the words imputed to him. Lord Brougham said. he had also the best authority for saying that the terms " wicked and scandalous" had not been used at all.

6. POSTMASTER-GENERAL OF IRELAND. In answer to a ques- tion from Mr. HUMS on Tuesday night, Mr. SPRING RICE stated, that it was not the intention of Government to fill up this sinecure. Mr. GOULBURN said that such had also been the intention of the late Ministers. The case was again noticed on Thursday, and the real faets of it were then stated. When Lord O'Niel resigned, the late Ministers, as Mr. Goulburn truly said, determined not to fill the office ; but though the office was abolished, the salary re- mained, being drawn by Lord Rosse, Lord O'Niel's coadjutor ;- when the present Ministry came into power, Lord Rosse also re- signed, and they abolished both the office and the salary.

7. 'SCOTCH INFEFrmemrs. A bill for the purpose of diminish- ing the expenses attendant on these instruments, and facilitating their execution. was introduced by Sir WILLIAM RAE on Thurs- day. Sir William stated the annual expense of infeftments is Scotland to amount to 80,000/. •