The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-04-12 00:00:00

TIVERTON.

Lord Palmerston has issued the following address to
the denture of Tiverton :

" Gentlemen,—Her Majesty's Ministers having an.
nounced that Parliament is about to be dissolved, I beg
to solicit a continuance of that confidence with which
during six successive Parliaments you have been pleased
to honour sue, and the value ef which has been much
enhanced by that personal kindness of which I have had
the happiness to receive from you so many and such
gratifying proofs.
"When a house of Commons of only two years' stand-
ing is to be suddenly dissolved in an early part of a ses-
sion, and before all the supplies of the year have been
voted, the inquiry naturally arises, what is the important
question im which Her kijesty's Ministers and the
House of (Omni uuu s have differed, and upon which the
Ministers intend to appeal from the decision of the
House to that of the electors id the united kingdom.
" The answer to that itiquiry in the present case is,
that Her Majesty's Ministers proposed to the House of
(201111111111:1 a Bill for .%ineniling the Laws rebiting to the
Representation of the People in Parliament, and that
the provisions and arrangements of that Bill were such
that they were more or less condemned by almost every
member who, on either aide of the House, during •
seven nights' debate, expressed his sentiments on the
subject.
" There were, however, two prominent points of the
Bill which, by a resolution that was proposed previously
to the second reading of the Bill, were specially referred
to as objectionable. The one was the proposal that the
owners of freeholds situated within boroughs represented
in Parliament should ill future be deprived of their vote
for their respective counties. The other was, that no
provision was made in the Bill for any extension of the
suffrage in boroughs by • reduction of the borough +mill-
fieation. . . . .

"This resolution having been carried by a majority of
the whole House of Commons, the Ministers determined
to consider it as a censure of their conduct, and to
regard it as an intended proof that they do not possess
the confidence of the House of Commons; and they
have in consequence advised Her Majesty to dissolve
the present Parliament, and to recur to the sense of her
people on the 'setter.
" The question therefore subniitted to the judgment
of the electors of the united kingdom is, whether the
Bill proposed by the Government was good or bad, and
whether the Government was right in proposing such a
Bill, or whether the majority of the House of Com-
mons were right in disapproving it.
"This question having been put to tits electors of the
united klugdons. I cannot doubt what their answer will
be. . _

'MI think, however, that the Government would have
dune far better had it yielded to the expressed opinion
of the House of Commons, an opinion expressed in
debate even more strongly and generally than by the
resolution which was carried.
_ .

The present Ministers undertook last year the
government of the country, avowing that their sup-
porters were a minority of the House of Commons. An
Administration al circumstanced holds office on the
condition of shaping its course in conformity with the
declared opiniona of the majority, unless in a case in
which that majority way require something which
would be forbidden by considerations of public duty or
by regard for the principles of the constitution. But
on the present occasion it was not the Meuse of
Coninions that was endeavouring to force upon the
Miniatets a measure inconsistent with the established
principles of the constitution ; on the contrary, it was
4110 Ministers who were proposing to the House of
Commons measures w'aich even their own supporters
objected to as ill-judged innovations upon ancient and
fundamental arrangement,' of our representative system,
and which two members of the Cabinet deemed to be so
unadviaable that they resigned their offices rather than
be parties to making such proposals to Perliament.
" The Ministers might, Mooed of putting the country
to the inconvenience and e a pense of a general election. have
withdrawn their objectionable Hill, and have proposed
another framed in conformity with the views of the
large majority of the House of Commons ; and there can
be little doubt that such a measure would Ilaro passed
into law iii the present session, and there seems guod
, reunion to believe that it would have been 'satisfactory
to the country. Much a course would have been in ac-
conlance with that which they aumesefully pursued last
year in regard to the India Mill, and no valid reason has
been assigned by them for not adopting it on the pre-
sent occasion.
" Her Majesty'e Minister.. however, have stated that,
in their opinion, their choice lay between advising &dis-
solution of Parliament and tendering to Her Majesty the
resignation of their oflices ; and that one reason why
they chum the first of these alteniatives was, that they
deemed their continuance in °Moe essential to the
owes of those negociations in which tho Crown is now
engaged with a view to the preservation of the peace of
Europe. Hut the course winch they have pursued is evi-
dently calculated to weaken their hands in regard to
those neguciAt non*.
" A t;overnment of this country to lie listened to with
deference abroml ought to have strength and stability at
home ; 1111,1 fnreign Poisi.r. ought to see in the limbo.
bility of its .turxtion a security for the continuance 14
the policy mi which, ac rrprownting the British Crown,
it ia acting.
" hut the present Administration toilaibita Itself to
Europe at the iiiitset of an approaching Congresa ea hay.
ing an Irreconcileable ibiterenee with Parliament, of
whose asiaistance it will have deprived itself during what
may lie a critical period of the negoolation ; while that
confidence which, no long no no expreasion of puWie
opinion was oinked for, might Imo been au.siuuuii'd to
exist, limy possibly, by the result of the rim:Mono, be
found not to belong to the pivoting Administration.
"The course, therefore, which ifer Majesty'atloverns
moot have determinist to perm,' does not appear to be
borne out by any of the mamas which have been put
forward for its
" I haro the honour to be, gentleman,
" Your obedient and devoted servant,
"PALMERSTON.
"114, Piccadilly, April 7."