The Express.
London, England, 1848-06-06 00:00:00

Under thew circumstances he hoped the sedan would be
withdrawn.
Mr. ANSTEY trusted the opposition would Cot be pens-
mired in, as the refusal of the writ would itetablish a dan-
gerous preeedent—that treating was just es bed as bribery'
Biel. HARMER said he felt the incenvenie to which
the uncertain progress of his bill subjected themeouse lie
hoped the writ would at least be suspended till after Whit-
suntide.
Sir It. PEEL said the bill of 1842 had made certain acts
liable to the penalties of bribery, not theretofore so punish-
able. Ile regretted to find that that act had been inopera-
tive. This session had afforded repeated proofs that these
usages were still committed by local agent , without the
knowledge of the candidates, whereby their wets were corn-
promesed. (Hear, hear.) This was very hard upon hon.
members; and if no attempt were made to shack such prac-
tices, they would be placed under a manifest disadvantage,
and probably an inferior class of persons might be returned
to that house. (Hear, hear.) On this ground he thought
the writs ought to be suspended ; but while doing this, the
duty of the house to the constituencies required that other
public business should be postponed for the consideration of
this important question.
Lord J. RUSSELL thought it would be advisable to sus-
pend the writ, as toe house purposed inquiry, which was
evident from the Borough Elections Bill, now before it. At
the same time, he could not agree tut a bill of that nature
ought to take pr,cedence of all other business Whatever.
Mr. DISRAELI said the government had in effect ad-
mitted that there was not the slightest chance of any general
measure affecting these boroughs being catriee ibis year.
That being the case, the least inconveniesce would be to
issue the writ immediately in all these cases, and let the in-
quiry be afterwards undertaken if nectwory.
Mr. BANKES said the noble lord had omitted to remark
on his own bill for Horsham, which stood for Wednesday
neat, and which would probably be carried without oppobt-
tion, if the noble lord chose to press it. If he would do so
he (Mr. Booties) would oppose the writ now issuing; if not,
he could not consent to such an injustice.
Mr. STAFFORD said he did not think the hon. gentle-
man the Attorney-General had acted well towards Horsham,
which bad done for his near and dear relative all that a
borough could do ; but, when the question for the re-issuing
of the writ came on, left his place vacant, and the noble lord
behind to vote for the suspension of the writ. (Hear.)
They were told that a party had been formed in St. James's.
square, and that Sir J. Walmsley had been named as tbe
gentleman who was to act as whlpper-io. That
party was not very well organised to be sure; and
one hm. gentleman and then another declared that
his name ought not to be amongst those who termed it.
mach machinery of a party. (Qution, question.) on
Hean could
well understand hon. gentlemen belonging to that party
wincing under those observations—(• hear, hear," and
laughter)—and that a party which protessed superior purity,
and advocated an extension of the suffrage, should receive
with disgust the announcement that the hon. gentleman
who was to look after their seats had so completely failed in
the commencement as not to be able to retain his own, and
that it had Leer* proved with respect to the constituency of
Leicester that bribes had been tendered and accepted. Nt ith
respect to Harsher's, there had been only some insignificant
cases of treating proved. Ho would vote for the issuing of the
writ, because he thought no case was mode out for &Arun-
: chisement, and because the parties most guilty were not
before them. (Hear, Ilene)
Mr. MUNTZ thought the best way of removing the
practices which had been complained of with respect to
Horsham was to extend the franchise.
Mr. tiOULBURN said the effect of the hon. gentleman's
plan would be to give them more Leicester* and Derbys,
instead of another Horsham. (Hear, hear.) lie would
pursue on the present occasion the same course he pursued
with respect to the Derby writ.
Mr. MANGLES said he had been informed by a gentle-
man who lived in the neighbourhood of Horsham that
bribery and treating to an enormous extent prevails 1 in the
borough, and if they were to agree to the hewing of the writ
without investigation into that bribery they would become
the laughing -stock of the country.
Mr. S. HERBERT said it was of importinee that they
should be consistent in the course they meant to pursue, and
therefore be would support the suspension of the writ.
Mr. J. STUART said that it was not the wry to do justice
to Horsham to suspend the writ on the surmises of hon.
gentlemen. 11 they had any judicial grounds on which to
proceed, he could understand their suspending the writ; but
as they had not, it was a ',oestrous iujustice to continue its
disfranchisement. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. GORING thought the public would draw their own
conclusion horn the members of the government voting for
the looting of the writ for Derby, where bribery was
proved, read opposing it in the case of Horsham, where
no bribery was proved. (Hear, hear.) The public
would he opt to conclude that this took place from the
feet of Derby having returned two whip members fur the
last 30 years, and that Horaham would probably return a
member opposed to them if the writ wee now issued. (Hear,
hear.) The hoe. member for Guiliferd (Mr. Mangles) spoke
of the bribery at Horsham as being quite notorious. Ile
could only say that the Attorney-General was deeply impli.
cat d in it if It existed.
M. HUME thought that those were the real despots and
destroyers of the constitution who refused inquiry in the
present case. (Question, question.).
The house divided—For the writ
Against it

ARREST OF COL. BRISTOWE.
The O'GORMAN MAIION wished to know from the
noble lordlwhether he had remised any official information re-
specting the arrest of a British officer by tit., government of
Spain ? The subject had excited considerable interest.
Lord PALMERSTON said he had received information to
the etfect that Col. Bristowe had liven arrested and expelled
the Spanish territory. No reason as fer as he knew was as-
signed for that expulsion. lie thought it his duty to make
inquiry on the suo;ect, and as yet had received nosatisfactory
answer.

THE SPANISH QUESTION.
Mr. BANKES rose to move as an ameudrnent to the
order of the day the volution of which be had given notice.
That this house teems with deep regret from a correspitudenci be-
tween the British government and the government of Spain, now on
the table of Ude home, that a prove.% interference with the internal
concerns of the Spanish government, as conducted under the authority
and with the entire approval of her Majesty'a niinistere, bus phtoed
the Briti.h government and our representative at the curt of Madrid
in a poon Lumtliaticg in its character, awl which is calculator to
affect the friendly relations existing between the courts ul Great
Britain and Spain.
Amongst the singular events which distingui-hed the pre•
sent year it was not the least singular that a British minister,
perhaps for the first time, had been expelled from a friendly
foreign country by the court to which he was accredited, and
it in no degree tended to diminish the singularity of this
event to observe the manner in which that fact had la een re-
ceived by her Majesty's government—the complacency, the
quiet and tranquillity, they evinced in regard to it. And yet,
it was utterly unexpected by them, because, a few days ego,
their answers to questions put to them on the subject were
to the effect that notwithstanding any transactions which had
taken place, the friendly dispositions of the two courts were
in no degreedisturbed. So little emotion did it excite in their
minus, when on a sudden they received a despatch, inform-
ing
them of the extraordin .ry event, that were it not
for questions put to him in that house, the noble lord
the Secretary for Foreign Affairs would nut have thought it
necessary to make any communication to this house, and
they should have learned this transaction for the first time,
as they had learned all other transactions relating to the
foreign diplomacy of the country, from the columns of
foreign newspapers. It did seem surprising that no member
of the government, on receiving the report of a transaction so
utterly unexpected by them, should have thought it right to
give some explanation on to anxious a subject—anxious to
all who felt interested in the honour and character of the
country ; and that it should be left to a member of the oppo-
sition to give the government an opportunity of making
this explanation. It was asserted by the Duke of Soto-
mayor, or in the papers before them, that the cabinet
of Great Britain did not justify the conduct of their ambas-
sador. The noble lord would now have an opportunity of
stating whether or not the cabinet of Great Britain had
given authority to the Duke of Sotomayor to make any
such assertion. The noble lord ought to thank him for
giving him the present opportunity of making explanations
with regard to the reel state of the qui scion, because he was
greatly mistaken if he supposed that there was any want of
spirit in this country to resent an affront to it in the person of
their arnhaisailor, or that it would endure an injury of that
description. He should like to know from the noble lord
whether it was or was not the fact that the whole grounds
of the charges brought against their ambassador were as-
signed in the pupers before them? It was most essential
that they should know that; and he could coneeive
no grounds for coacealment upon the subject. It
was impossible that the noble lord should not be
cognisant of the whole facto, for ho bad every individual
before him from whom information could be obtained —the
ambassador himself and the special envoy from the court of
Maerid. smith whom he beliescd the noble lord was in com-
munication through the Spanish ambassador. He knew the
story on one side and the other; he knew what the other
accusations were, if other accusations existed than those
contained in the papers. He believed that the despatch of
the noble lord was an unhappy and unfortunate piece of
diplomacy, but that that could form any justification for the
expulsion of their ambassador was what no man in that
house would believe. (Hear, hear.) He might and did
lament that any instructions given to their ambassador—
though not exceeded by him, as far as his judgment led him
to form a conclusion—should have led to a result so humi-
liating to them —that the government of Spain should have
rejected the despatch of the noble lord, and that they, as a
nation, should be insulted. As the noble lord had
justified the conduct of the ambassador the latter
should receive no blame from him (Mr. Bankes).
But having gone to that extent, which in his opinion was
far indeed, the Spanish government went a step further,
when they not only returned the ambassador's despatch, but
rejected also the ambassador, telling him that though he
and his nation "might not be offended," yet that he had
better not stay there, but take himself off in order to avoid
offence. (Hear, hear.) The house had before them, in the
papers presented by the government, the siespetches which
had first passed respecting these matters. Undoubtedly
those despatches were from the first considered in that
house to present points for grave consideration. It
had seemed to him, and he believed to others,
that an interference had been proposed with the
affairs of a friendly p ewer which no government could have
borne without resentment; and certainly, from the first, he
had anticipated that something would follow calculated to
disturb the friendly relations subsisting between England
and Spain—relations which had existed for many years, and
which were maintained by many important cenaiderations.
True it was that Spalnowed to us a debt of gratitude; but it
could not but be felt by a generous people that a claim of
that sort insisted upon at all tames and under
all ci eumstances could not be advanced creditably
to ourselves nor without offence to a proud,