Star. — London, England, 1821-02-14 00:00:00

which he had givett in early likto tis'et,anse of the Lord Mayor, aldermen. and Livery of Lon'don, !s tary-Reform: The paper by the Heft, praying for an iaquiry into the Milan Commission. Member referred to a Reform in Commons, and The Petition stated, that a person named Cooke, a he admitied, that if {)ye Irish Patliament existed with certain maa of the name of Brown, and one Powdl, the state. of Osirws ,which then exhald also, he would an Attorney, had been sent to Milan to effect the de- support a i for Reform that Parliament, sauCtion of her Majesty! though he believed be never should arrive at that Mr. T. WILSON expressed his regret that he was standard of excellence of the Hon. Member—Uni ohliged to dissent from the opinions of his Consti- versal Suffrage and Annual Parliaments. It. was in tnents, believing, as he did, that his Majesty's Minis- consequence of alaw passed in the Irish Parliament, tern acted under an imperious sense of duty.. If the conceding-the elective franchise to the Irish Catlin allegations in the Petition were true, he should consi - lies, that lie declared he never, foi the future, would der - himself disgraced by sitting near them !—(Lartgh• support the cause of Parliamentary Reform in that ter).--The Queen, he said, was not deserving of any country—(Mbar). thing more than those legal rights to which she was Sir JOHN NEWPORT said, that the Noble Lord entitled by the Bill having been abandoned.. supported the cause of Parliamentary Reform until Mr. BERNAL defended her Majesty, and said that he got into office, and then he supported it no longer the most unprovoked charges had for some time been --(A laugh, and cries of " Hear, hear").,—The Noble advanced against her in that House. Lord had, indeed, advocated the cause of a Radical The. Petition was read, and ordered to be printed. Reform in the Irish Parliament, for he had left Ire- Mr. Alderman WOOD presented a Petition from land without a Parliament—( Hear, hear).—He had the Labouring Classes of the Metropolis, praying for severed the Parliament from the People; and, conse the restoration of her Majesty's name to the Liturgy. quently the Parliament fell—(Cheers). —lt was an Ordered to be printed. - awful lesson for that House ; for the same person was Sir GEORGE ROBINSON presented a Petition pursuing - the same course with the Parliament of toihe same effect, from the Inhabitants of the Bo- England—(CheersYront the Opposition).—He had ob rongh of Northampton. The Hon. Baronet, in the served the Noble Lord from his entrance into public course of some Observations, said, that the Queen life, and he felt a strong conviction that the measures had, with a becoming dignity, refused to acquiesce of the Noble Lord would bring the country to de in the disgraceful proposition which had recently been struction—(Hear, hear, hear). made to her. With a magnanimity worthy of her il- Lord CASTLEREAGII expiained.—He meant lustrious ancestors, she had twice refused to barter not the least disrespect to the Right Hon. Baronet, her honour for a bribe; and the odious tender was as but he certainly should not break his heart because prompily rejected as it was basely offered—(Chests). the Right Hon. Baronet did not approve of his mca- He hoped, however, that the People of England had sores—(A laugh).—He was content that posterity too much spirit to suffer her Majesty to be starved should decide upon his conduct, and he had no fear into compliance with the. proposals of Ministers— that the opinion of the Right Hon. Baronet would (Hear, hear).—Petition ordered to be printed. influence that of posterity. He could assure the Mr. C. DUNDAS presented a Petition from a ter. Bight Hon. Baronet that, upon the present subject, tain Parish in Berkshire, complaining of the distressed he (Sir John Newport) was in a confounded scrape— state of the Agricultural Interest, and praying that (Laughter).—The Right Hon. Baronet had said that her Majesty's name might be restored to the Liturgy. lie (Lord Castlereagh) had given up his opinions on Ordered to be printed. Parliamentary Ref4m on getting into office. Now Mr..HOBHOUSE said, he held in his hand three the fact was, that he had publicly declared he should Petitions fur the same object as those which had al- no longer support the cause of Parliamentary Reform ready been laid before the House in such vast num- at least five years before he was in any way connected bcrs. The first was from the united parishes of with the Government. With this explanation he would h a t. Andrew, Holborn, and St. George, Blooms• leave it to the House to form an opinion of the candour bury. This Petition would have never been presented of the Right Hon. Baronet's statement. but for what was called 46 A Loyal Address" which Mr. MARTIN (of Galway) said, that the late Mr. had been got up in the parish. It was very strange, Ponsonhy had declarei he would support the cause that in a parish which contained 7000 or 8000 of Parliamentary Reform in Ireland, but that on no houses, nut more than 123 signatures could be pro. account would he consent to a Reform of the House cured for that Address, and of these, between 40 and of Commons in England, which he thought really 50 held places in connection with Government— and truly represented the People—(A laugh from the (Hear, hear).—The first person on the list was Secre- (affosition).—lle could assure the House he heard it tary to a public Establishment for Lunatics—(A with his ears—(Laughter, in the course of which Me laugh)—and the others were situated in the follow- Han. Member sat down). ing order.—[Here the Hon. Member went through The Petition was then brought up, and on the ques a long / list - of the places which the individuals in ti o n be i ng put t ha t it should be read, question filled, and much laughter was excited while Sir JOHN NEWPORT rose in explanation.—The he read itj.—The list was closed by a host of tax- Hon. Member opposite had spoken of the admitted gathitrers, who, of coarse, weie " all honest men necessity for Reform in the Irish House of Commons. and true r -(A laugh). But though the loyalists He (Sir John Newport) admitted that necessity, but of Holborn only exposed their own weakness, yet so he was sure that no man had done more to render the proud were they of their Address, that they had a House in question venal and corrupt than the Noble public dinner in consequence of it, and many Cler- Lord opposite—(Hear, hear). gymen attended on the occasion. To this he had no Lord CASTLEREAGH rose to order.—He had objection, as he did not agree with those who thought hoped the Right lion. Baronet's first warmth had that the Clergy ought not, in any instance, to inter- subsided. Ile would put it to the House, whether fere in politics. He considered' it right that a Clergy. such language could be tolerated ? Ilk Lordship man should have an opinion in political subjects its repeated, that he was never connected with any party well as any other man; all he complained of was, in lieland, and he considered the attack of the Right that the opinion was invariably on one side-,-(A Hon. Baronet an unworthy subterfuge. 11:rgh ). In consequence of that notable meeting of Sir JOHN NEWPORT explained again.—After the loyal party, the persons who had signed the pre- which the Petition was read, and ordered to be laid sent Petition assembled. The Noble Lord opposite on the table and printed. (Lord Castlereagh) might treat the Petitions to that Mr. HOBHOUSE then presented two other P.eti- House with contempt, but still they could not fail of Lions to the same effect as the last Petition : the first producing the desired effect. The'Noble Lord might from the Bricklayers of London and its environs ; say that he would wade up to his knees in them with- and the second from the Bookbinders of London and out paying any regard to their contents, yet this was a Westminster; which Petitions were disposed of in feeling which did him little credit—(Cheers).—There the same manner as the f )rmer Petitions. was a time when the Reformers might boast of the Sir FRANCIS BLAKE presented a Petition from support of the Noble Lord. He would read to the his Constituents, the Inhabitants of Berwick-upon house a document which would prove the fact.— Tweed, in Guild assembled. The petition was to the! The Hon. Member then read an extract from an Irish same effect as the former petitions ; and the Honour.' Newspaper (The Belfast News Letter), dated the 4th able Member, after a few prefatory observations, said' of June, 1790, and containing a letter signed Ed- he had a question to ask of his Majesty's Ministers ward and Robert Stewart." The letter was from the " which,' said the lion. Member, 4. whether they an- Noble Lord and his colleague to their constituents, swer it now, or hereafter, or not at all, is of little con and promised " that they would exert themselves to sequence"—(Laughter). It was, whether, if her Ma promote a Bill for amending the Representation of jesty's name had remained in the Liturgy at the time the People." Thus, continued the Hon. Member, of what was improperly called her technical acquittal, the House would see that the Noble Lord had once they would have expunged it afterwards - ?—(Hear). stood in the ranks of those very Reformers with The Petition was supported by the other Honour whom be could not bear to fraternize—(A laugh).— able Member for Berwick, in a few words: it was ' But the only cry which ought now to be heard was then brought up, read, and ordered to lie on the table the cry which had been uttered in disastrous times by and Le printed. a great man (Lord Falkland), the cry of peace. Ile Mr. BROUGHAM presented a Petition from the would not employ towards the Noble Lord the lan- Inhabitants, Gentry, Clergy, and Freeholders of Ken gunge which Pym had used to the Earl of Strafford. dal, praying for the restoration of the Queen's name lie would not say, in the words of Pym, " Though to the Liturgy.—Ordered to be printed. you have left us, we will not leave you while that Mr. It. GRANT presented a similar Petition from head is on those shoulders"—(Hear, hear).—Goa some part of the County of Inverness.—Ordered to forbid that he should make use of such language.— be printed. No, though he was among that class denominated THE LITURGY. by the Noble Lord Vulgar Radicals," he should Mr. J. SMITH, in rising pursuant to notice, to never contemplate anything hostile to the Noble submit a motion, begged to remind the House that Lord. If the King and the Peers were represented he had had the honour to present a Petition to them, in that House, for such was the doctrine of the Noble not long since, from • a very large and important Lord, it was as much as to say, that the King and body, imploring that. tlouse to adopt, in their wis the House of Peers were useless—language, which in dom, such measures, as should be the means of re former times would have got the Noble Lord into storing the country to that tranquillity which it bad the Tower—(Cheers).—He did not deny that the so long beep a stranger to. That Petition spoke his King had a strong force in the Souse, for the Cabinet own sentiments, and lie acted in unison with them in Ministers were there, who perhaps ought not to be the motion he was about to bring forward relative there; but to say that the two other Estates were to to the restoration of the Queen's name to the Liturgy. be represented in the Commons House of Parliament, In coming forward on this occasion he was perform was altogether at variance with the principles of the ing a part of his duty towards those Petitioners, to Constitution—(Heal, hear). —Reform must come at whom that tranquillity they prayed for was more last, and if it did not take place within those walls, important, perhaps, than to any other body in the he would- say, in the language of Lord Chatham, kingdom ; and these, he solemnly asserted, mere his that it mint certainly come from without—(Order, only motives for bringing forward this motion. He o rder). This was his firm belief; it would not come was desirous to avoid every other topic than that to so soon, perhaps, as some people expected, nor so which his motion directly referred. It was his duty late as others, bat come it assuredly would, and that to express his opinions on recent transactions, and he , too at no distant period—(Cheers). The Noble Lord should honestly do so. He begged to call the at. had now a warning before him, and the sooner he tendon of the House to that period of the last year agreed to a change of system the better.—(Tbe Hon. when the Ministers of the Crown advised bis Ma- Member concludpd, amidst loud cheers, by, moving jesty to Omit" the Queen's name from the Liturgy.. that the Petition e brought up). 'He had endeavoured on many occasions to collect, Lord CASTLEREAGH said,.he.sbould offer but front the avowal of. *Gentlemen on the other side of a very few words, and those upononly one o f . t h e th e H o use, and pa rticularly from the Noble Lord topics touched upon in the Hon. Member's speech. (Castlereagh), w were the motives which in- It was that which related to the supposed support duced his Majesty's Government tQ adopt that cle- try, The Queen had received Many hundred , dresses from many hundred thousand That House had received Petitions on the wj - an. amount such as had never before been knows any occasion, and the common praye r o f a il 1 , 2, 4 ' 1 that the Queen's name be restored to the Liture,-' He (Mr. Smith) was One of those who wi tnet , e si - ` Majesty's procession - to St. Fiat Cathecht,l 2 4; did not remember ever to have witnesied a d tig L„." . " . which made so deep an impression On his • '7 6 1 countless multitudes which he saw Collected to ge aT * l on that occasion in the metropolis, were l a a , of perfect quiet and repose. By some Meal s had gotten an idea, that tumult and disonie r.t be unfavourable to the cause of the Quee n , 11 , 4 was their attachment to her cause, that, me pressed all those feelings which are the ' met a' concomitants of all crowded assemblages, f e z: thought, that if such could be the conclixt e tZ. People of this country, there was no obje ct could not attain. Their Petitions flowed i n i cr i a l' House from all quartets, even from those 4 never before interfered with politics. lb sr aki t.,. astonished, that Gentlemen on the other side . imagine that the People of this country ve tt " excited on this question to a greater majority oa k had ever before been evinced. He had bean:lf ni some, that although they . admitted great nud es took part in the interest on the question, yet. were not of a respectable description, bu t N ei those who were adverse to the Governmento* sirous of changes which the country and the I trgq part of that House deprecated and abhone,;: It was said also that all the Meetings which p is place throughout ere country were composed/l e a ufdividuals.; and Gentlemen on his tide of thealim were charged with having no other view in a ig a . eating this matter t h at personal emolument, ;0 the most selfish motives. He might remind ri tte • who expressed these sentiments, that there s e re a small number on that side of the House whocoslo derive any benefit from what they were charges Anticipating. There were many who, V. e hurt* must remain in that mediocrity of station which they at present held. There was, indeed, a mull rim her who might benefit in the manner alluded to,* glad he was that there were some Gentlemen on that side who were ready and willing to take office, at e should think the country in a bad state if it were* so. No man in the kingdom was more atu c ki than he was to the party with which he then sat, fi e was so, because he could not forget their co A A and the great things they had done in former oak advocating those great principles which atone coal/ give happiness to mankind. They had endemics! to do away with detestable bigotry *fifth nent wrought any good, and which had caused soma bloodshed. They lost their places, but they inn . would lose the admiration of all friends of Many! With respect to the Public Meetings in the Comp -to which allusions had often been made, he wastes. vinced they spoke the sentiments of the greataajo. trite of the Nation • he alas convinced that this re the true state of t he temper of the country, and la did therefore hope that his Majesty's Governed would accept the motion he should-have the bum to make, or would hereafter insert the Queen's um in the Liturgy, and retrace their steps. He had bem 'told that the Noble Lord opposite had stated that never would hold office at all on the condition (fro storing her Majesty's name to the Liturgy. .Oates point perhaps his Lordship was the best judge; tat so far was he from thinking that such an act wadi have the effect of removing the Noble Lord from office, he solemnly protested • that it would cotes hint in possession. Nor did he see, in that event, aq chance of any party in that Hnuse disturb* do Noble Lord and his friends. Assuring the NAh Lord, as he did, that this was the state of theta'. timents of the Nation on this momentous queitioah would ask him, whether the situation of the emit was such as to enable him to despise the public von It was not his wish to draw a gloomy picture. Nab withstanding the distressed state of the Agricoltia classes was very great, it was not so great as me presented. They were depressed beyond all fast example ; and he asked, was it worth while toitelk them by turning a deaf ear to their prayers fa al restoration of her Majesty's name to the Lu t e . With respect to their Commerce, he was notated' believed they were ruined. He knew fully the Jerold state it was in, and feared it would continue. Wilk* spect to the internal politics of the country, there'''at many questions which must be agitated shortly House, on which the country and they weregradli issue—The Poor Laws, for instance, could not le* put off, and when it did come, they would bare 0 0 10 sion for all the kindness, good sense, and rail ,inour, the country could afford. He shouldl4 l to hear that their external relations were not Itit same situation. They were told that there wog a continuation of peace, but they could not ' ,eyes on what was passing. There were two principles contending for mastery ut ibis moised! Europe—a good and a bad principle—Ube:g o slavery ! Would the Noble Lord opposite s/ them, that this country would not be called erig stand in the breach made by the tyranny of elJee i . over-ruling Despot? Was there no great miT. in Europe who held hundreds of thousands of mit t in training? And should such an occasion etrigi s l he adverted to, would they not require all the humour, energy, and patriotism of the natio, did, therefore, think that it was the worst Pel* the present moment, either to put the country eat humour, or to keep it In that state. He had lin ,. sitation in saying, that all those parades, Pr" el ' imm. and disturbances in the country, which w! .. plained of, would continue to increase till_ ht gave in to the wishes of the People. Thekilt io tleman concluded by moving the following " This House having taken into consideration Cite l'. stance of her Majesty's name not being inserted In else Collects, and Litanies, of the Church Service , end ali° wi • metous Petitions from the People, complaining of the is of opinion that It is highly exp edient, under all es cumstances, that her Majesty's name should be son iss"'" all the Prayers, Collects, and Litanies aforesaid, 04 • • measure would greatly tend to remove the discontents on . that subject in the public mind." • Aid° Mr. TENNYSON seconded the moti on Hon. Friend Pad introduced with so much der; and perspicuity. The Hon. Gentleman entereo.ll an examination of the legal merits of the. The King and Privy Council, he contendoi_, bound to devote one of the blanks left in the 1 ,1 72, 1 , attached-to the Act of Uniformity, to the to: had not fit CoLsort. The King and Privy Counc il telninatiosrt bet he never had been able to com prehend their ptecise reasons for this. So much had been 'said as to the tinfairnett and cruelty of this step, under the peculiar circumstances of the ea" and was so well known and admitted by all, that he should not urge anything in support of that judgment. Although there was much difference of opinion both in and out of that House on many points connected with that subject, he solemnly pro tested that he had never met with more than one person who approved of the measure. It would ap pear the more extraordinary and incomprehensible, when the House recollected, that if there was any thing in which Ministers had explicitly explained their motives for their conduct, it was in avowing their decided wish that her Majesty should live abroad. He (Mr. Smith) never complained of them for this. He would have rejoiced if her Majesty had remained abroad, as all those disturbances which had of late agitated the nation would have been spared. But how had it happened, that with this anxious de site, Government had adopted the only measure which could make it impossible for their wishes to be complied with---(Hear). He had heard, and he be lieved from the Nobie Lord opposite himself, that they bad adopted this measure from the continuance of rumours which travellers brought from foreign countries. Ile (Mr. Smith) had heard rumours in common with others, both at earls and in London; but he begged the House particularly to remark, that not one of those which he had heard had been made matter of accusation against her Majesty. He was justified, therefore, in the inference that they were totally false. He might here remark, that per sons in high rank were at all times, and in all places, liable to be attacked by calumny. He must, on the whole, consider that there could not have been a worse reason alleged than the existence of rumours for the adoption of this measure, It was not his in tention to travel into the evidence. It was odious and dis ,, nsting to everybody. Ile begged the House to go along with him to the moment of her Majesty's trial. That trial, as they all knew, had occupied a very considerable time, and, at length, in the last stage of the Bill of Pains and Penalties, the Noble Earl at the head of the Administration in the other Rouse found himself in a majority of nine. What the Noble Earl said on that day, as he under stood, was, that the preamble of the Bill had been proved, and now, under the circumstance of so small a majority, he would not press the Bill any further, and he himself moved the rejection of it. The true reason why he did not press it was, that he felt that it never would have been kndured,either by the House or the Country, that such a Bill should pass with a majo rity of nine, and howwas that majority composed ? There were exactly the same number of Cabinet Mi nisters, all of whom had a direct personal interest in the Bill. They knew they would have been exposed to the insults and taunts of all mankind had they not' abandoned a measure, the majority for which was' made up of nine individuals, who, in the triple capa city of accuser, judge, and juror, had the strongest personal interest in the conviction of the Queen.— , With respect to the opinion delivered by that august Tribunal, he should offer a few remarks, because he had beard in that House doctrines broached, utterly in contradiction to the plain simple rules of justice. It was true that 2 majority of nine had been obtained: but had they not a right to suppose that the interests of the Crown in the other House had some in fluence in procuring it? He had not the slightest intention_to cast any reflection on the Noblemen who composed the majority; but he appealed to the House if there might not exist a variety of motives in their minds calculated to obscure and blind their judg men:s ? For example, he would mention a strong, entire confidence in his Majesty's Government, which might certainly operate in that way. Another cir cumstance which frequently operated on the judg ment was, the recollection of great favours and kind nesses. Tor an illustration of the effect of the confi dence in Government he had mentioned, they need not go out of that House. Many were known to sa crifice their own opinions to those of the Ministers, in whom they placed confidence. When, therefore, they heard it asserted in that House, that the Queen's moral guilt was established, it amounted to nothing. They had no right to draw such an inference from the transactions of that tribunal. He remembered an anecdote of an Ilonourable Gentleman belonging to that House who Vas found drinking claret up stairs in former times, and upon being asked by some one what were his motives for supporting a question then under discussion in the House? answered with naivete, . " I don't trouble myself about the mat . - ter, Mi. Pitt takes care of that for me." Now the Noble Earl, at the head of the other House, had also many Peers in the same predicament ; and he did not therefore think that the 'majorities of nine and of twenty-eight, on the Bill in question, gave any right to any one to talk of the Queen's moral guilt. It was contrary to all rules of justice, and would not be endured in any ordinary case.— In the case of Mr. Hastings, for instance, what would be said, if ally Gentleman were to get up in that House after trial, and charge Mr. Hastings with a conviction of moral guilt in. the transactions of the ltohillah war, or any other of the matters which had previoesly been disposed of by the trial ? Would it be endured, that any Gentleman, under similar cir cumstances, should get up and charge Lord Mel ville with moral guilt, 'Tho had been acquitted of all guilt? If such an attempt were made, there would be competition among his countrymen in that House to defend his character from so foul an attack— (Hear, hear). Yet from day to day, and from hour to hour, were they subjected to hear such attacks male upon a woman and a Queen !—(Hear,hear). He should abstain from touching upon the more im portant part of the question—the legal part, con tenting himself with expressing his conviction, de duced from all he had heard in that House on the ' subject, that the omission of her Majesty's name from the Liturgy was utterly illegal. The motive, he as sured the House, which had induced him to give no tice of his present motion, was that an end might be put to the disturbances and distractions of the coun try. On this subject he heard with astonishment, Gentlemen in that House declare that they did not believe the public interest on this question was so great as had been represented. He feared that to Gentlemen capable of doubting this, nothing he could say wou ld be of any avail. They had only to use their eyes and ears to be sensible of .the in tense feeling which prevailed throughout the cowl- ; , - _.~__ ~~.