The Sun. — London, England, 1821-07-04 00:00:00

Majesty's present Ministers, and in the face of the numerous laws which, under their admi nistration, had disgraced the Statute Book—that a Cabin e t Mi n i ster shoUld stand up in his place a nd admit th e necess i ty o f suc h an Assoc i ation as this to carry the laws against libel and sedi tion into effect. Nr.ll -4 - --- Tnuns , r—cc I did not 'Say one word as itsto necessit y.,, Dr, ' s nlNGToN—cc The Eight Hon. Gentle rni.a,.denied that he admitted its necessity. But as u lo ( he not defend it as being constitutional, and. ,Society whose existence was desirable ? Did receive not allow that Government were willing to ~,ceive the assistance of Sir John Sewell, Knight T r ' Sharp, and Mr. Murray ?" Either the So-!, was useful, or it was not • useful. It was n ecess arYs or it was not necessary. If it was .ecessary, then the Attorney-General had not done his duty, and ought to be made to do it. ut he did not mean to blame his Hon. and Learned F r i en d, f or h e h a d p ro p er ly done his duty, and selected cases for prosecution wherever Proper ones occurred, and - he was fully compe tent to continue the exercise of that power which- 1 "s vested in his office, without the gratuitous assistance thus pressed upon him. The Right 49e • (I :('ntlernan had said that this. Association ' wa s quite constitutional, and not without a pa rallel. ;,These parallels were to be found first in the Association of 1797, called the Crowi and Anchor Associ a ti o n, of which Mr. Reeves was Se cretary, or course he was old enough to re member this Society, but he believed-it never e aneneed a single prosecution. He only spoke fr om recollection. The other parallel was one almost too contemptible to mention, and upon he was ashamed to waste his- breath. 1,% e "want the Society for the Suppression of „lee, that S oc i e ty, w h o s e business it was. to ( "ye into obscene pamphlets and prints, and to I ' re seeute the poor for what they called the pro fanation of the Sabbath, but which in comparison ;ith their own conduct on that clay in the Wrest of the town was whollyblameless. They Mere a set of cowardly puSillaninious hypocrites, 4 ,'to pros ecu t e d-- th e p oor a nd helpless, but left t?e gre a t . an d no bl e unmo l e st e d. At the same tittlet lie was f u lly aware that many characters.of t. 0"? highest respectability and virtue supported }Os Society. With regard to the allusion which id been made to the Societies established for ,"e pro secut i on o f f e l ons , th e y we re established '° Put down - moral crimes to which all the world .4il4'."-'d to award - punishment. But how wide was world 11'." -'d difference between those crimes and what ) titi an term e d p o litical offences. In the writings of Burk e , ever y man was aware that passages :icluently occurred which if prosecuted by such Society as this, would have been strained into e -t ' di tion in a charge to the Jury delivered by a ;: rr uPt Judge : and thus one of the greatest cha clers.that e v e r adorned it would have. been lost i ' I ° the country. Th e Hon. Member then corn etlited upon the difficulty which persons, if ma ously prosecuted, would have in recovering da mages from the Society. If counter AssOcia - . n "s-sh ou ld- be resorted to, the repose which was 3° necessary to prosperity would be disturbed, „ - t n (l nothing but dissention and ill-will would be : e n/instead of that peace and quiet to which the ,I"trY was so - anxiously looking. For the rea -1:•`4 vditi c h h e h a d b e f o re stated he should vote °; :, !.h e motion of his l i on. -Friend. in an ir ,MATIIEW CIIOLMELEY, a,, tone of voice Ih, - " d thle in the gallery, spoke shortly against ; ‘' ( notion. He insisted upon the necessity' of pi e the exposure of obscene prints in the fr ill p in(l °lvs of shops, and stated, that they were pe entiss placed low down, where children ilg"t have an opportunity Of examining e e ntreated-Gentlemen to consider the dread effects which these things must produce, and hp \y as confident he should not hear them talk as ey , had done in that House. -M r. WILBERFORCE said, that he should not Have troubled the House if the Hon. Member 't licho spoke l as t b u t one, had not chosen to speak t terms of the grossest abuse of another Society ° Willett he had the pleasure- to belong,. Sure he g as th a t if t h e Hon. and Learned Gentleman -4 'elv as little of the nature of the Constitutional °c iety,as he did,of the Society for the Suppres til" of Vice, never did a Member come down to I . t [ Lime more completely fortified -in igno- P'ee• lie was quite sure that if the Hon. and t r'ained G en tl eman knew what that SOciety had z °n e, he would be sorry that he had been led to . 1 1PlY such language to it: The chief object of ()t at Society was to prosecute the. publishers of s cene prints. Many of these, of the most dis h Listin g and b ea stly description, were - circulated C l "gst .young p e ople. They had even been , I' 4u ti in seminaries for young women, where s '3 ' bad . been introduced for the brutal (i L i r .P e se of violating the purity of female s The Society had prosecuted forty them of these cases and in no one of Ire c had they failed.—(Hear, hear, hear !) "sidered the lion. and Learned Gentleman's illusionsrpi to.,the conduct of persons in- the' first - t, e § of life to be nothing more than argunients Illit a "ocate. the right of the lower orders to corn cri` e very violation of the Sabbath.—(Cheers and ; co es 01 " No, No.")-The Hon. Member then char ged that if such practices as had been upon them were indulged in by the " o re at l they did no t a t l ea st c omm it th e i r o ff e nces foll ow and-offer a public example for others to ch lew. The . - objects of prosecution with the s ociety were those offences committed in the Public streets. He then alluded to the other Purposes of the Society, and warmly defended its general conduct. With r egar d t o th e mo ti on be fore the House, he thought there never was a time when the licentiousness of the Press had ar rived at-such a pitch as at the present period. It Was quite insufferable. No man was safe from calumny and detraction. And so far was he from being of opinion that no man had a right to step in to assist in the application of the remedy Which the law provided for offences, that he held that right and the practice of it to be the Very genius -and spirit of our Constitution.— (Hear.)—How far the conduct of this Society had been proper or improper, he did not know, for he had not attended to it : he would frankly confess, however, that he thought it liable to much abuse. For himself, he had One or two objections to becoming a member of it. In the first place, he considered it to be his duty, as a 'Member of Parliament, to direct the Attorney- General to prosecute where it was necessary. He would here observe, that when the state of the . press was such that it endeavoured to destroy all reverence for the - authorities of the land, and to do away with all subordination ; be did no.t think that the Law Officers had excited sufficient energy. There was one individual who had committed every outrage upon religion, who had recommended. rebellion and assassination, and whose crimes had drawn upon him the visitation of the law, still contrived to receive the supplies of the poison in which he had before dealt, from London, and to,vornit forth it upon the country from the prison in which - he was confined. He really thought this ought to be put a stop to, or there was an end to the power of the laws alto gether.. Seeing, as he did, this licentiousness of . the Press, he hoped the Association would go. on with its proper object of prosecuting calumny and detraction, on any side, without indulging in improper political bias, whether they found it in the true John Bull, or in_ the false John Bull. For these reasons he should vote against the motion. Mr. DENMAN was happy his lion. Friend (Mr. Wilberforce) had addressed himself rather to the Society which had been incidentally alluded. to, than that immediately under the considera tion of the,House. The objection to the present Society was, that - it must necessarily encourage spies and informers, and he believed it was im possible for any man to act the part of either without abusing it. He never world believe that a man who condescended to the office of a spy, and whose reward depended upon his find ing subjects for prosecution, would not. take care to earn that reward in some shape . or. other. This Was the nature of all spies and informers.- The. Society, however, under debate was distinguish able from , all others that had been referred to for the purpose of justifying it, and when he heard a Cabinet Minister stand up and defend such a Society, his • surprise amounted almost to indignation. Many Societies were instituted for the defence of property, and for punishing all felonious attacks upon it. Were these political Societies ? Were these likely to ingratiate the members with individuals in power ? - Even the -Society for the Suppression of Vice, though ob jectionable, perhaps, on a strict view of the law, .had many laudable purposes for its object, and none which he more approved than those which went •to deck the distribution of obscene pamphlet's among the young.—(Hear, hear!)—ln cases where it was necessary to enforce the law, there could be no doubt of the propriety of the Attorney-General being the prosecutor ; but was the law to be enforced by a combination of men without authority, who raised powerful friends, among whose subscribers many appear to be anonymous, and some, he believed, were not in .existence ? That many of these persons were re spectable in.private life, he had no•doubt ; but mere respectability was not sufficient to justify a Society which required judgment, discretion, and inflexible public principle to prevent it from ,becoming mischievous. . Associations like the present could not be legal in any sense of • the :word, for they sought the ruin of those who published works which this Society forsooth thought proper to condemn. He would boldly say that the proceedings of the Society in the mime of this man, J. B. Sharp," were- ille gal. To prosecute a man, to demand. his stock, to ask him to engage upon oath to do or to forbear from - doing this or that act, was this legal or justifiable ? lie (Mr. .D.) understood that, one person, the Editor of a Newspaper, who had been prosecuted by :this Society, had, under the natural terror of such. a prosecution, paid nearly 80 pounds to stop it.---(Hear, hear.) if it were urged that the state...of •the times required unusual legal interference there was the greater reason for, legal responsibility. The ob ject of Mr. Reeve's Association was to answer Republican works, and this Society . professed somewhat of .a similar object. - He found that in their circular they proposed to employ literary, men of ability to answer the sophistries of sedi tious and blasphemous writers ; but the only written arguments he had knoWn them •to use were indictments, a species of argument powerful though rarely convincing. Conduct like this was in fact placing the press under a censorship with out .the authority of the law. lie believed there were . aa many anonymous subscriptions as he had ever observed advertised in support of any ob ject. Some of the signatures too might be very fanciful. He had just put- his finger upon one— " Ogles, the Misses." Now, whether this was the real subscription of some ladies of the name of Ogle, or whether it was intended as a piece of wit, he really could not say ; but . it was not at all material. Another point of view in which it struck him that the Society was highly dan gerous. was this- 7 Suppose . it were met by a counter Association. Would it not in the course of time be almost impossible to find an impartial Grand Jury or Petty Jury ? The struggle for triumph between opposite parties would be so strong that the very fountain of justice would be polluted. In this point of view he thought the objection to the Society very strong, and he thought it was better to discourage a system which fostered the. detestable herd of spies and informers; for sure he was that while they were encouraged they would never fail to excite offences - in order that they might be paid for de tecting them.—(Hear.) h e ATTORNEY-GETTERA.I. said the motion sought to put an end to all the prosecutions complained of without inquiring whether they were properly instituted or not. His Hon. - and Learned Friend had not ventured to say that the . Society in question was illegal in its constitution. If it was, the Courts of Law would have been applied to for the purpose of pronouncing its il legality ; but no proceeding had been taken in either of those .Courts for the purpose of raising the question. He could see no distinction be tween this Society and the others which had been alluded to in the way of comparison. For the first time, however, in. that House he had heard himself called the public prosecutor, and he had .heard it said that he was the constitutional • . officer, Whose duty alone it was to prosecute for political libels. Why it was a fact, that when: ever he exercised this painful part of his' office; he was universally assailed by the defendant as having takeh unconstitiitional proceedihgs, and he was asked why he had not left the case to the Ordinary proceeding by indictment: There was, he begged to observe, no,such an office in the. English law as that of public prosecutor.. All criminal proceedings were in the name of the King ; and in the year 1792, it was stated by Lord Loughborough, the highest legal authority of-the day, that Associations like that which was then in question, so far from being illegal, were in fact highly meritorious, for it was the duty of every indi vidual to enforce the law. That Society was not the first of its nature, as a Society for enforcing the King's Proclamation against Vice had been form ed so far back as the year 1787. The Attorney General was armed with extraordinary power for the punishment of libellers, and it had generally een said by those who had suffered by it, that hat power was unconstitutional. Now, how- ever, it was convenient for the argument to put the case the other way, and to talk of the 're sponsibility of the Attorney General as the pro per Officer to prosecute. Undoubtedly, great responsibility attached to the Attorney General as a Public Officer, but no individual whom he prosecuted unsuccessfully could maintain any ac tion against him without proving express personal malice—a case never yet known in the law. The persons responsible under this Society were those who were responsible in ordinary cases. Any individual who had been injured by an unsuccess ful prosecution could maintain his action against Mr. Murray, Mr. Sharp, and the Committee who had directed the prosecatiott, if malice, or the want of a probable cause, could be shewn. This gave the individual a better chance of redress than he had as against the Attorney General.— His Hon. and Learned Friend had, to be sure, offered one of the most extraordinary arguments he had ever heard; he had said that the Society would encourage spies and informers, because they must send persons to purchase -the works intended for prosecution. And what was the Attorney-General himself compellpd to do ? He also sent to purchase the work objected to, or he could not prove the publication. Would it, for instance, be said that he (the Attorney General) had incited Mr. Carlile, because he felt it ne cessary, to ensure public justice, to send and purchase his works ?—(Hear, hear !)—The Hon. and Learned Member here examined the case of King, his affidavit, and that of Orton in contra diction, and observed that although he did not stand up to defend the proceedings of the Society, he thought it too much to say that the truth was entirely on one side of the question, and false hood entirely on the other. He• begged to re mark upon an observation of the Hon. Member for Bramber (Mr. Wilberforce), who had asked, was it to be endured that such a man as Carlile should be suffered to continue his dangerous publications while he was in prison suffering the sentence of the law ? To what had he (the At torney-General) been driven ? He was compelled to prosecute Carlile's wife. He had done so and convicted her. He had also prosecuted the sis ter and the shoprnan, and he believed the two latter individuals had given up the shop. What more could he possibly do ? It had been his misfortune to be compelled to institute more of these prosecutions than had been instituted by any of his predecessors in the same length of time. And if his exertions failed in putting down these publications, he could not blame a Society of individuals who merely assisted the execution of the laws against the licentiousness of the press. Of the prosecutions themselves he knew nothing but what appeared in public; though, as far as his observation went, there was nothing illegal in their course. - With respect to the Society itself, he had seen nothing upon which he could pronounce it to be illegal ; but that was a question which could, if necessary, be readily decided by a Court of Law.—Neither could he see that any of the Members of the Association were incapacitated from serving on juries, because, _ as he had before observed, it was the duty of all persons to assist in the prosecution for public of fences ; and in principle he could see no distinc tion between Societies instituted to prosecute for felonies, and those raised to prosecute for libels, although it had been thought proper to apply the epithet " political" to the latter, species of of. fence. Mr. BROUGIIAM said, that in his opinion, a man might with perfect consistency approve of the other Societies alluded to incidentally, and yet disapprove of that under the notice of the House; as the distinction between them was as clear as possible. Some offences were, and ought to be, nameless, and ought to be prosecuted, though many a man would feel repugnance at having his name mentioned in the same line with such an offence, even as its prosecutor. The argument drawn from the Societies to prosecute for thefts could not apply to the present Association. How was it possible that a man's feelings could be so in te rested in the case of a theft as they would he upon a question purely political. Party feeling would interfere, and even the Jury become contaminat ed with it by the encouragement of such a So ciety as this. The remedy proposed would be an aggravation of the mischief ; for, as had been well observed by his Hon. and Learned Friend, it would lead to the pollution of the very foun tain of justice. The Attorney-General had said, he did not see that members of this Association were disqualified to sit as jurymen on prosecu tions instituted by the Society. The Court of King's Bench, however, had declared them unfit, and had ordered, that the fact of a juryman's being a member should be a good cause of chal lenge. If he (Mr. B.) subscribed to bring on an indictment, he certainly was an improper person to try it.—(Hear, hear !)—He really thought he must, in this respect. have misunderstood the words of his Hon. and Learned Friend the At- torney-General.—(llear, hear, hear !)—ln the c;se of a felony, if a man had subscribed money to find the bill of indictment, he (Mr. B.) held that this would be a good cause far challenging him as a juror ; and yet in such a case it was not likely that any thing had occurred from that act itself to rouse the passions. But the Bridge- street Association Was founded in party feeling alone; Even their enthusiasm ; however honest, was dangerous:; they attacked only those who -13-iffered from Ahern in politics; :and:.not the least objectionable part of the case was the circumstance, that if the matter Were carried by writ of error to the House of Lords, the last legal resort, there . were some dozen of Bridge,Street - Associators to give check-Mate to' the proceed ings.—(A laugh, and . cries of .Hear t hear!) — Would any man of common understanding say that this was consistent with common justice The influence of the Members.of this Association was not confined to London: How COtild an im partial Jury be found in the - country, half a dozen Jurors being tenants of, the Duke of this, that, or the other, a Member of the ,Society ?• How could the unfortunate defendant have a fair chance ?; A Counte'r-Association, he repeated, would be worse than the present evil ; for it would cause the whole country to be split into _ parties, and would destroy the hitherto prOud character of English. Justice. The strict legality of the Association, on its professed principles, he did not deny ; but the legality was no .objection to the interference of the House. The abuse, even of a legal right, might be a fair Subject for interference. He did not ask whether what Mr. King had said, or' what Mr. Orton had said, was true ; but he was satisfied that Mr. Murray and Mr. Sharp had bragged of the commission of acts which were illegal. lie thought it was not legal to go to a man's shop and. say to him, -" If you don't agree to - certain terms I pro pose, I will indict you. If you do not admit your guilt, give up four property to us, vho have no right to ask it, and who cannot take it without violating the law. If you do not, be sides all this, take an oath never to repeat that which we pronounce to be a legal offence, we will inflict legal -vengeance upon you, and you must endure the consequence."—To do this, he thought was to act more like a robber than any thing else, more like a violator than a protector of the law. This he held to be illegal. If this was the law, he had not studied it ; if it was a part of the Constitution, he did not understand it. If ' these proceedings were to be supported by Peers, who might ,ultiinately have to pro- nounce upon them judicially ; then, all he could say was, that there never was an Association put down as illegal half so much to_be reprobated as this Society, this terror to all good men, com monly known by the name of the " Bridge-street Gang." There were, however, many persons belonging to the Society for whom individually he entertained a very high respect. To those he should prefer using the language of expostulation rather than that of reproach. He believed they had been drawn into the Society by designing persons; that they were the tools of others for whom no one could possibly feel any respect. " Church and State, a Social Order," and' Sa cred Institutions," were fine phrases ; but, in the present instance, they meant that it was necessary that a parcel of individuals should swell their own purses by using those of other people. Something, however, had dropped from the Hon. Member for Bramber (Mr. Wilberforce,) about the propriety of putting down libels on both sides ; but what was the fact ? Why that all on one side were mown down, and all on the other left untouched. Benbow, he believed, had been prosecuted for publishing a caricature upon his Majesty ; but this caricature was actually a parody on another quite as gross, which had been published against the Queen.—(Hear, hear, hear!) —One was a libel on a woman, the other on a man, and this excellent Society had taken no notice of the first.—(Cheers !)—The Press. had teemed with the most disgusting libels ; yet had this same, this immaculate Association, emptied all the phials of their wrath on the other side, and on that only.—(Hear, hear !)—The Society was, in fact, evidently erected for party purposes, to punish libels on one side, and if not to encourage, at least to leave untouched all those on the other. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL thoughtthat,in order to form a correct opinion on the present question, it would be proper to inquire what was the state . . of the proceedings , referred to by the motion Bills had been found by Grand Jurors against individuals for various libels ; the Judges o' the- Courts of Law had held these- defend. ants to bail; and now the House of Commons was called upon to' address the Crown to stop these prosecutions, without any inquiry into their merits. The Hon. and Learned Member here entered into a review of the proceedings against' Dolby, and contended that the Society had, in the course of the proceedings, done •nothirht that was not justified 'by law. The stock of Dolby was not demanded, he was only • desired to give up the remaining copies of the libel referred to , in the indictment. His Honourable: and Learned Friend (Mr. Brougham) had not denied the lepality - of the Society. Another Honourable and' Learned Member denied its legality, •on the ground that no individuals had a right to subscribe for the purpose of prosecuting public libels, That was an argument Which it appeared had now been given up. Indeed no attempt had been, made in the superior Courts to question the legality of the Society ; and an attempt made before another tribunal had completely. failed. The Hon: and Learned Gentleman then referred to the Society. of 1792, which he said had been ably and eloquently defended by Lord Erskine himself, on the trial of Williams for pub lishing'Paine's " Age of Reason." What, indeed, Could be a more proper object than the prosecut ing of • seditious libels ? And what sound objec tion could be raised against a Society who could not take a single step without the previous . Opi, nion Of a Grand Jtir'y ? That such a Society was . capable of abuse he did not deny, but no ground had been shown to induce a belief that any abuse whatever existed in the conduct of these 'proseCutions. He begged to correct his Hon. and Learned Friend as to . a remark he had made on the proceedings in the Court of King's Bench on the motion respecting the Mein , bers of the Association qualified to serve on the Special Jury. The order of the Court relied on by hiS - Hon: and Learned Friend had been made with the consent of the prosecutors themselves. — (Hear!)—No person, unless called on by a sense of duty, could consistently make charges of this desi_ription, which went forth with an iiipearaiieli Of authority. A to the proposition itself, it was of so extravagant a nature, that it was impossible to give it the sanction of the house. It was mak.; ug an attack which the House would never sup -4 )ort. Mr. BROUMIAM and the SOLICITOR-GENERAL mutually explained. _ _ Mr. SCARLM- said his -Hon. and Learned . Friend .had risen for the purpose of - calling him up, at the same time making . statements offacts for the mere purpose of making them the_ foun dation Of his arguments. e never - had pledged. himself to. any opinion on the legality : of this Association. He admitted that he did not Con sider the Society legal. Much as he respected the talent of his Learned Friend, he . W'Ould not, in compliment to that talent, revoke any opinion he had once given: He thought this 'Association usurped the functions of the A ttorney-General: All offences which -affected the tranquillity of the State, should be prosecuted by the Goitern ment of the country. It was the duty of the Attorney-General to exercise a discretion whe ther the parties. sere to be prosecuted or not but an Association of men, when they undertook to prose Cute, usurped that discretion, and their proceedings were illegal and dangerous.--- For these reasons then, without at' all • con sidering the motives of the individuals, he whs of opinion the Constitutional Society in itself was unconstitutional, and consequently illegal. He did not mean to say the-Judges of the land had decided on the question, indeed he did not know how they could obtain judgment upon it. He considered it a Society far the. prosecution' of po litical offences which affected the safety and tran quillity of the State. Their prosecutions did not emanate from'persons aggrieved ; but they were. preferred to benefit the State. Every man had an interest in the preservation of the State, and the law did not require an Association to do that which belonged to the Government alone. Upon his solemn word, he believed one or more of the prosecutions that were undertaken by the Association, would not have been undertaken by the Attorney-General. The Society for the Suppression of Vice might abuse the power they used. In one instance Lord Erskine , threw. up his brief because the Society obstinately refused to be governed by his advice. All So cietie's prosecuting upon public principles were dangerous. He did not wish to give any opi nions on the law of the land in that House, be cause legal opinions in that Assembly were not always impartial. He did not think any case 'had occurred in the King's Bench to support his 'Learned Friend's opinion. The time might ar rive when the Attorney-General would find-he had not been sufficiently instructed. He felt this motion could not be supported, and he ex pressed a•hope that his Hon. Friend would not press - it to a diVision, because he should feel obliged to vote against it. Mr. DENMAN explained. Mr. WnrrnnE=to in reply, said nothing he had heard could convince him this Society ought to be endured. With respect to Benbow and Dolby, lie would say. if those persons were acquitted, and they sued for damages for a malicious pro secution they would find J. 13. Sharp had bee. a bankrupt. The question was then put and negativeit without a division. SLAVES. Dr. PHILLIMORE moveo, pursuant to notice, that there be laid before the House the number of slaves imported into all the West India Colonies, distinguishing the number in each year,.together with an account of the slave population. The number of slaves seized and sold under execution for debt, &c: 'and within given data. Ordered. The Bankrupt Courts Bill was read a third time and passed. PEACE PRESERVATION ACT. Dr. LUSHINGTON took the opportunity of a question of Supply being before the House, to ask a question respecting the Peace Preservation Act in Ireland, He wished to have souls information as to .the mode of its.being carried into. effect. . . Mr. GRANT said, a large portion of the inhabitants of the proclaimed distrietsi in Irdand had earnestly intreated that this Act might be ,put in force in in their neighbourhoods. The or dinary Police Ireland was so defective in practice, owing to the supineness of those in whose hands it was.placed, Cut o 1/eminent was obliged to have iecoin* to an extraordinary mili tary 'Police. WhereVer Magistrates in Ireland;bad resolved.to do.their duty actively, there was no occasion for such extraor. dinary severity. ..Dr. LUSHINGTON hoped that some means ,might soon be taken to put a stop to the unhappy state Of Ireland. The Letters Bill. was ,read a, third time and passed. APPROPRIATION ALT. On the third reading of the Appropriation Act, Mr. CREEVEY took that opportunity of impressing on the House the necessity of resisting corruption, and taking every possible pains to bring about economical Reform in all departments of the State; and after all that. had 'been done so successfully that, SesAion by. his Hon. Friend (Mr. Hume) he was confident that although no immediate effect was produced from his efforts, a great deal would be done next Session. The Marquis of LO . NDONDERRY congratulated the House on the improved sentiments of the Hon. Member, who arknowledged, in opposition to the opinion.; of others, that the, House was Capable of reforming all the abuses that were . said to have prevailed in it ; and that great be nefit was likely to arise fro . ni the failure of all the motions of the lion. Member for Aberdeen ; and from this favouraWe view whiCh the Hon. Gentleman took of the proceedings of Perth:- merit, it was to be hoped that they would all be Perfectly cordial in the next Session. Mr. (.3ttouoilmst was sure-that if it was not for the inquisition of the measures of Government his side of .the House, no concession would be made on. the part of G ovsnment.. After akv words frQ,4l l Sir- R. WilsOn Mr. Bennet, Mr. Hutchinson, Sir R. Ferguson, ao4 iilanck, the Bill was 'read a third time and pass?.d. The To'aacco I3ill was.. read a, third time and passed.--Tbe ' ether Orders of the Day were then disposed of. THE 1100 SE, The Margtuiss of LONDONDEII,II, Y said that in rising to move the adjournment Of the House,: he wi,bed to state that the House had sat on each sitting day, eight hours and forty minutes-on an average, independent ?f, the duties of the Mem bers in the forenoon. 'S'o that they would con wince the country, that if they had done little good, it was not for want of labotir, He moved that the house do adjourn to Tueslay Adjourned at HALF PAST ONE.