The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-01 00:00:00

LONDON‘ THUR:iDAY, AUGUST 1, 1839.

WARWICKSHIRE AND BIRMING-
HAM MAGISTRACY-LORD WARWICK AND
MR. JOSEPH PARKES.

TO HENRY RICHARD GREVILLE, EARL
BROOKE AND WARWICK,
DOCTOR OF CIVIL LAWS, &C•, LORD LIEUTENANT AND CUS
TOS ROTULORT.3I OF THE COUNTY OF WARWICK.
MY LORD,-Your Lordship has twice, within the last
twelve months, condescended to introduce my name in
deba,es in Parliament, on the subject of the County and
Municipal Magistracy of Warwickshire. Your unprovoked
and uncourteous reflections on me personally merit and
receive only my contempt. If they gratify your Lordship
you are welcome to repeat or vary them, in or out of Par-
liament—provided you will not wrong my public reputa-
tion by any expression of your Lordship's good opinion. I
am too much accustomed to the salutary licence of liberty
of speech and freedom of the press in this country to com-
plain of the common lot of all who mix in the collisions of
public life ; and if I regret any public act it is an action I
once brought for slander. If, therefore, your Lordship's
Parliamentary speeches had simply applied to myself per-
sonally, I should not have troubled you with this reply; but
when your Lordship, by misrepresentation of my indivi-
dual acts and conduct, publishes false accusations ofothers,
I am bound to expose your Lordship's untruth and in-
justice.
Last Session, on the 17th of July, 'lB3B, your Lordship
took part in the Lords' debates, reflecting on Lord Cot-
tenham for certain appointments of Warwickshire county
Magistrates, under the powers of the Great Seal.
On Tuesday, the 16th of tils month, within twenty-four
hours after the riot in Birmingham, your Lordship (instead
;of :being in. 'Birmingham. .as - Lord- Lieutenant chiefly
and specially intrusted with the conaservation of the
peace of the county of Waraiick)" spoke in the House of
Lords, denounced the political composition of the Bir-
mingham Magistracy, and took credit to yourself for anti-
cipation of the consequences. On Thursday night last
week your Lordship, still in London, again addressed the
:House of Lords on the same subject—not forbearing td
introduce my name.. .
Your Lordship's manner or style of using my name does
not degrade inn but youreelf. You" exhibit only a want of:
real nobility of mind. If your Lordship uses personalij.
ties; unbecoming a'inadof rank; I will not reply ly'any
vulgar retorts unbefitting the character of a gentleman.
I Cut account for your Lordship's spleen. You owe ma
and my coninen ancestors-no good-will, For--
nearly a e'en-Ivry pit 4 -yot&'l'afillY and' mitre; hereditary
political, enemies, have in a small, way resembled the
Guelphs and Ghibelines, who in the twelfth eentory
kept up a perpetual agitation in Germany and Italy.
We Care the last successors to the old family feud.
For twenty years I have not remitted the spirit of my
forefathers. You are vainly striving to keep up the
feudal system, I successfully (in the long-run) to put it
,alown. The original, and present object of contest is,
whether the Earls of Warwick shall nominate the Repre-
sentatives in the Commons House- ofsParliament of our
native town, or whether the, independent Electors. shall
freely chose, their own repsesentatives. The end in view
is the prevention or :gain of improved and popular institu-
tions of Government. Your Lordship must admit that in
our generation your party has been the loser. In 1826-7,
in conjunction with some public spirited burgesses of War-
wick, I professionally, by quo- warranto and crianinal in-
formation, ejected scom the old corporate body-, of _which
your Lordship was then Recorder, your brother, Sir Chas.
Greville, and several of your nominees ; and we published
the before hidden charters, &cv of incorporation. We
reterried two Liberal Members in support of the. Reform
Bill` and two for the county. We subsequently, in• 1833,
successfully petitioned against. the return of your brother,
and ousted him from hia seat—exposing in 1833 4 the
scandalous corruption of the constituency by your Lorda
ship's money. The result of the Corporation Commission
in municipal reform displaced your old governing body of
the town, and placed its powers .in an elective Town
Council, disfranchising you as, the Recorder. In these
retrospective matters, and my humble-professional aid of
them, I have, my Lord, incurred your displeasure. Iliac
illcc lachrymcc.
On one other personal part of your attacks I will only
lobservc—Your.Lordship denounces me as :a former
• niember. of the Birmingham Political Union. I assure
;your Lordship that,' deem my relation.to that association
ino clishopour,..but a credit. I iocurred great,unpepulaa
!rity on the. first formation of the- Union, in 1829, _by op-
posing aaa Radical ,its. organization; first, ',matte is was
founded on the Marquis. of Blanclfersrssproject of Parlia-
mentary Reform which without the Ballot I deernedlecep-
; and, secondly, because the Main object of :its pro-
jectors then was to.depreciate the. currency. The present
Newn-Clerk and myself were' the only two -inhabitants 'of
ißirminghatn, who
.bad, the moral courage to address a
crowded and excited public meering:vvhen the. UniOn was
forthedo and to state our objections. I also further ob-
jected to the organization of the people in' Clubs.: But
circumstances, my Lord, changed. . Public events rolled
forward in rapid succession, as they will do in the next
few years. Tories, Whigs, and Radicals had petitioned
Parliament in vain for the transfer of the East Retford
franchise to Birmingham. By a most numerous public
meeting of all parties, I had been appointed a joint-secre-
tary (with my Tory friend Mr. Unett, the present Under-
Sheriff of Warwickshire), of the local committee, ad.
vancing our common political object ; happily the aris-
tocracy 'and your Lordship's party prevailed against us; .
and. as. fortunately the sucepasi VP. onotioncoofosiossad
John Russell, to give representation to 41;elaagessuire-
presented towns, also failed of,:. success( .
Revolution followed in . 1830, avvitits-dasi .n stn '1414
attendant' excitement Greit,Britain..J. kij ititir -
D uke pf Wellington-(leading 4tober:e'Reel,), -in, the
new Parliament of that yeat committed the fatal, move of
declaring the -boroukliiiil4l4-ering system to be a perfect
representation: You thuspulled down your owls house.
The public mind resolved to overturn the nuisance, and the
Wellington Cabinet broke up. Lord Grey succeeded as
Prime Minister. His declaration of Liberal principles of
government and promise of Parlimentary Reform called
for the most active and bold support of the mis-represented
classes. I did not then join, but I acted with the Union.
With others I conditioned that the Ballot should be
adopted as part of our creed, and from the autumn of
1830 I attended the public meetings, and enforced my
views of representative reform. Those opinions were—
Household Suffrage, the broad and safe basis of the
electoral 60(13—Secret Voting, as its essential and only
protection—Equal division in districts of the Electoral
Body, without which au elector cannot be truly repre-
sented—A Triennial and Fixed Duration of Parliaments,
not subject to the Royal prerogative of dissolution at plea-
sure, or by the demise of the Crown—All elections to take
place on one and the same day—Residence, an essential
to the right of franchise-.-A Reduction of the Numbers
of the House of Commons, and the abolition of the
Property Qualification for English Members. These
were then my political principles ; I hold and profess them
now, and I shall do so, despite the power, the frowns, or
the temptation of the aristocracy. I deemed the original
Reform Bill of the Grey. Cabinet aristocratic; Iso pub
licly declared in 1831 ; and in speeches and in the public
press I stated the consequences of the destructive altera-
tions of the original measure. Nevertheless, in common
with the Liberal party throughout the country, I wished
practically to obtain all we could from the grasp of the
aristocracy. I did not then enrol my name in the Union ;
in truth, I was afraid lest, by any illegal step of a numer-
ous political club, I might be removed from the roll of at-
torneys—my professional means of subsistence ; but I al-
ways publicly declared that on any peril to the Reform
Bill I would then join the Association. Accordingly on
the Bth of May, 1832, the day following the destructive
motion of Lord Lyndhurst, which postponed the considera-
tion of the disfranchising clauses of the Bill till the enfran-
chising clauses had been discussed, I joined the Political
Union, heading a public declaration of between two and
three thousand of the middle classes of the town, who
also enrolled themselves members. And fortunate, my
Lord, was it for the aristocracy that such union of
classes took place. The week after the Royal assent
was given to the Reform Act, I was one of a large body
who withdrew from the Association on a public declaration
stating our objects to be attained. During the whole three
years of political agitation I did not utter a word nor do
an act of which lam ashamed, or of which I repent. I
inculcated in public and private respect for the rights of
property, and resort only to moral force. I represented
that the Working- Classes were above all others most in-
terested in the maintainance of law and order, as they were
almost always the greatest sufferers in revolutions. I was
too well informed of the mighty relations of credit—of the
awful evils consequential on the fall of our monetary sys-
tem, and the non employment of labour, to advocate vio-
lance or riot. At the same time, my Lord, I avow that
had war been made on the Reformers at that eventful mo-
ment by Tory successors of Lord Grey, I was, with my fel-
low-townsmen, prepared to stand or fall by the people. I
have been for years Tory-misrepresented as an instrument
of the Whig Ministry at that period in Birmingham.
The accusation is false. I was scarcely personally knows
to a member of that Cabinet or Government on its for.
mation, except to Lord Brougham. Neither with Lord
Brougham, nor any member of the Administration had
I any private or written communication, excepting on two
occasions. On one occasion, unsought by me, a Peer, to
whom I was personally unknown, wrote to me deprecating
the local plan of arming proposed to the Union in the au-
tumn of 1831, as injurious to the popular cause. I com-
municated the letter to Mr. Scholefield by leave of the
writer at my own special request, and attending next
week the Union Council, the project was unanimously
abandoned after my address to the members representing
the illegality and impolicy of the intended organiza-
tion. After the reinstatement of Lord Grey's Cabinet
I did form some public acquaintances and friendships; but
so far from being used for agitation I had, during the whole
progress of the national movement, reason to believe that
in the view of the Government some of our agitations
were much disapproved. And now, my Lord, what is our
present political condition but Club law, high and low ?
Look around you and see everywhere Political Unions,
of all parties and classes of your country—Conservative
and Reform Associations—Radical and Chartists Unions
—Registration Associations—Corn-law and Anti-Corn-
law confederacies, unhappily dividing the rural and town
populations. The London journals of this present month
have reported a Common Pleas verdict against your Lordship
of 205/. 103. 6d. at the suit of a creditor of the Warwick.
shire Times—an unsuccessful Newspaper, it appears, set
up by your Lordship and Mr. George Lucy (one of your
Lordship's county Magistrates, the descendant and heir of
Shakspeare's Justice Shallow), in conjunction with the
Warwickshire Conservative Club ; and thus, my Lord, you
are a member of a Political Union, and one of " the gen-
tlemen of the Public Press !"

thenektm: liai
nhi
ne
cdandceBea2dtt2hoe
your
no:
us ofmerlBLl
Now, my Lord, to your public acts as Lord Lieutenant
d
Lordship's father was Lord Lieutenant for a quarter of a
your predecessors. -Your
of
061..
anal
The Lordship
pn s
succeeded
late Marquis
deathdMe
dar of s
the
the office. I have heard that at the period of the Bir-
mingham riots, in 1791,
leolaieftent
retNtuVrf century
dwoubipei
there was but one Liberal in the
county commission of the peace—the father of General
Johnson. Subsequently one other Liberal was added
The commission was full of -Tory Clergymen of the
Established Church. Your father refused to accept, on
their own application, three of the most learned and
accomplished divines in the kingdom, living within five
miles of his castle, viz., Dr. Parr ; Rev. H. 'Williams,
a descendant of Bishop Burnet ; and the Rev. Mr.
Wiles, son of Chief Justice Wiles—all of them men of
irreproachable character, and property independent of their
preferment, and the latter gentleman possessed of a large
landed property in Leamington. They died within the
last few years, never having been in the commission. I
challenge your Lordship to publish the correspondence of
these three distinguished clergymen with your father, on
the subject of their rejection on
political grounds. They
were Liberals, who had passed through the severe ordeal
of alarm of the first French Revolution, holding by their
political principles—opposed to your family " interest" in
the borough—and disdaining to barter their opinions for
aristocratic countenance, magisterial honours, or Church
preferment., Dr. Parr died in 1825: your Lordship never
placed him in the commission. A-le had not been a "vio-
lent politician." Though nobly upholding the Birmingham
Dissenters when plundered and burnt out in the Church
and King riots, he had, by well-known pamphlets, dis-
coutaged the democratic spirit of the times. Indebted to
Sir F. Burdett for the generous presentation to the rec-
tory of Graffham, in 1800, the following letter of Dr.
Parr displays his temperance of opinion, and his fore-
sight of the volatile character of that eccentric Member of
Parliament :
" DEAR SIR FRANCIS Bonnie r---My heart aches for you.
I_ cannot assent to the principles or approve the spirit which
,appear in your advertisement. _I do not forget that you
were in-the most disinterested manner my patron. I shall
- never cease to keep in view the nobler qualities of your
inind. -Much I• lament your errors, and I tremble at the
1- prospect of their consequences. 1 think it my private duty
to tell you-so, and my public duty to support the Adminis-
vtration wbial'iou, to my surpriivanif sorrow;have deter-
„MlLO. Frorithe hota-sit of .dear Sir
Francis, I wish you health and every worldly blessing, and
I pray Almighty God to deliver you from coune illors who
mean little good to you, and will do less to their country.
I shall strive to give my vote for you and Mr. Byng on
Monday. Farewell, Heaven is witness to my sincerity
when myself, with great respect, your well
wisher,
'6S.
PARR.
" October 31,18022
ehieir, I subscribe
No, Dr. Parr was, not rejected from the Warwickshire
magistracy simply because of political opinions, but spe-
cially because he, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Wiles politi-
c cally opposed your family to "open the borough." And if
Sir F. Burdett some day becomes a Peer, shall you, my
Lord, impeach a Tory Ministry calling him up to the
'House of Lords, because, like me, Sir Francis Burdett
was a member of the Birmingham Political Union, which
he was for three years; and presided at one of its largest
meetings, being paraded through the town to his great de-
light? You are now politically fraternising with " Eng-
land's Pride and Westminster's Glory," late a member of
the Birmingham Political Union, although you view me
with so much distemper.
I proceed with your municipal biography. Before Lord
Grey came into office, I believe I am correct when I say
that you had not a dozen Liberals in the county Magis-
tracy, and only one, Dissenter. This scandalous partiality
of selection, and the non-admission of many county
gentlemen of large landed properties, but Whig politics,
was strongly represented to Lord Brougham, then Chan-
cellor. I have looked over the roll of your Cornmissions
at the Crown-office, and I fine that five or six Libeials
were added in March, 1831. In July, 1833, about seven-
teen Liberals were further added, I understand accepted
by.your Lordship, though most of them forced on you by
Lord Brougham. Among the number were several Bir-
mingham Dissenters. In this addition were comprised the
names of-Mr. Tomes, many years representing the borough,
a banker of large fortune. Also the name of Mr. Knight, of
Barrels, then representing the borough of Wallingford. Now,
why were these two gentlemen previously excluded from
the commission ? They were Liberals, old leaders of the
Reform 'interest in town and county. Mr. Knight pos-
sesses several thousands a year of landed estate in War-
wickshire. He had commenced in 1792 the Whig oppo-
sition in Warwick, as a vandidate against your father's
interest, though unsuccessfully. This political sin was
visited upon him by his exclusion from the commission,
although in the year 1797 he bad served the office of
Sheriff in Warwickshire, and also in Montgomery 1 Can
you deny these facts, or justify the wrong? I might and
can multiply examples of political exclusion, but the fol-
lowing summary of your present roll will best expose its
party character. On inspection of the commission (and
the county has to thank you for public attention being
called to it through your gratuitous abuse of me), I see
that including 15 Noblemen, 6 Honourables, and 14 Ba-
ronets, you have in gross 157 lay Magistrates. In this
number I find 49 Liberals only, many of the latter
or non-residents not acting! Now to your clerical portion
of 'Pareori Justices. Few count im can compete with you
in nUMber or proportion Sisty_
zWears; nectars, -arid-Curates art:tin the commission, form-
ing upwards of a fourth of the entire county Magistracy
'With a ;gtodti: knowledie-4,f the- eotibty and the help- of
local iliien,&; we find-that-in:the sixty priests you have but
five ;Lib:hits True, that Liberal clergy are not very
abundant in any county ; but as,vou havelatslieput in a new
Comer, the Rev.- C. •Vilkingtonrati-ssetiee Tory partisan,
we can find you a few Liberal county clergy, not in the
commission, of " old families," and better qualified than
some Conservatives in your clerical muster roll. As my
s tei
rnsht
ihree cou3n2tyß•ev
startling assertion of the gross number and politics of
deb
ingogt, residing
\‘ro r
e e
your reverend Magistrates may not be credited, I here-
under give a list of their names—some of them, be it ob-
served,l
Lord Aston, vicar of Tar- 31 Rev.— J. Luc
2John D. T. L. evyett
Davenport, D.D. '33 Rev. R. Lickorish
3C. R. Bloitham, D.D. 34 Rev.. F. Mills
4 L. Gardner, D.D. 35 Rev. E. Miller
5 T. Arnold, D.D. 36 Rev. C. Newsam
6 Rev. H. Adams 37 Rev. T. V. R. Nicoll
7 Rev. T. C. Adams 38 Rev. F. Palmer
8 Rev. A. Annesley 39 Rev. R. B. Podmore
S Rev. T. Blyth
40 Rev. J. T. Parker
10 Rev T. R. Bromfield 41 Rev. F. D. Perkins
11 Rev. E. A. Begot 42 Rev. C. Pilkington
12 Rev. W. R. Bedford 43 Rev. P. S. W. Porter
13 Rev. T. Ballard 44 Rev. J. Roberts
14 Rev. I. Boudier 45 Rev. J. Seagrave
15 Rev. W. D. Bromley 46 Rev. R. Sadler
16 Rev. H. Bellairs 47 Rev. T. L. Snow
17 Rev. G. Champigne 48 Rev. J. Scholefield
18 Rev. R. S. Carles 49 Rev. S. Y. Seagrave
19 Rev. T. H. Chamberlain 50 Rev. R. W. Sitwell
20 Itev. A. Clive Si Rev. J. Short
21 Rev. C. Davenport 52 Rev. H. Townsend
22 Rev. J. Ellis 53 Rev. E. J. Townsend
93 Rev. F. Ellis 54 Rev. J. Venour
24 Rev. I'. L. Freer 5.5 Rev. P. S. Ward
25 Rev. G. 11. Gray 56 Rev. \V. Wheler
26 Rev. S. B. Homing 57 Rev. H. Wise
27 Rev. C. Holbech 58 Rev. E. Webb
28 Rev. C. J. Hume 39 Rev. W. C. Wilson
29 Rev. W. AI. Lally 00 Rev. H. R. Woolley
30 Rev. T. Lea

It is fair to say that three or four of these gentlemen
arc called to another world; but they were all alive when
placed in the last (1837) commission. I may have made
a mistake in the name of one Doctor of Divinity, but I

kno•,v you have four of that degree, Dr. Arnold being the
only Liberal. For some years two Tories, the Rev. Mr.
Boudier, vicar of St. Mary's, Warwick, and Mr. Staunton
were the only county Magistrates resident in the borough.
I will not here, in a letter so necessarily long, remark-
on the inconsistent and injurious functions of a Magistrate
of the peace and a Christian minister of peace. I could
prove that it is contrary to the ancient spirit of the Con-
stitution; and you would do well to observe tae signs of
awt the
tst
soi mol
ueetvsieorni,n
tOl,
:bh4eao, ti
nw forht
he
en
bishops,
cts
obi
meo
pinsl
soosuri so e of
na
any
yf
otherCo
the
m pme
clergymenpassed
have any judicial power in the Star Chamber, or in any civil
court, is a hindrance to their spiritual function, prejudicial
to the Commonwealth, and fit to be taken away by a Bill;
ani that a Bill be drawn for that purpose" (Commons
Journals, vol. ii., p. 102). A Bill was brought in,
inpo r
thaohl
ci belie ordersthat
it
though it did not pass. It recited—
urisdiction, the nthsimat it is found by
ought Whereasnot t
o b be hn ot
apns
glacncido.
man,
nois ,ttui hlcaehs
and
dcgupr
lefeaorarsrtoje
long experience that theire intcrmcddling with secular ju-
risdiction bath occasioned.greate mischiefes and scandal
both to church and state, his Ma,iest.y, out of his religious
of-
ficewil I o f
takethe upnt thenist ministry
wholebein being
care of the church and soules of his people, is graciously
pleased that it be enacted," &c.
I will not detail many local facts in my knowledge of
unpopularity and misconduct in clerical Magistrates, be-
cause I do not desire to bring the clergy into contempt :
it is your Lordship who does that in Warwickshire, by thus
swamping your lay Magistracy.
I will here only add that I never directly or indirectly
communicated with Lord Cottenham on the subject of a
county or other Magistracy, and that I did not know that
eleven Liberal names were added to your commission in
June 1837, until I read the list on Friday last in the Crown.
office. I can only suspect from your anger that the Liberals
then added were quartered on you against your will—illus-
trating your family motto, Vix ea nostro voco ;—translated,
" I can scarce call these our own." I never directly cr
indirectly, while the Great Seal was held by Lord
Brougham, communicated with him except on two names.
In July, 1833, a County Representative showed me a libe-
ral list of your then ostracised Liberals, proposed to be sug-
gested to Lord Brougham., he county Member ask
edme if it comprised expedient additions, and to name any
other gentleman illiberally excluded. I suggested one
gentleman of landed property who had served all the pub-
lic offices in Birmingham, and one who is now a Member
of Parliament. Both were added ; the latter I knew most
politically objectionable to your Lordship, and, therefore,
particularly eligible. Thus, but for the " pressure from
without" (not as your Lordship falsely represented from
me), half the few Liberals in the roll gained entrance,
among them no Liberal clergyman.
So much for your
Lordship's imputations against two Lord Chancellors for
influence.
I Magistrates under my
I turn next to your last commission of Deputy Lieuten-
ants. There I discover tho same party discolouration,
which I did not know of till your Lordship, by your Par-

liamentary self-defence, directed my attention to its com-
position. You have thirty-six in number, of whom five-
sixths are Tories, and one-sixth only Liberals ! You
have contrived to find but seven Warwickshire county
gentlemen of Liberal politics 1 To prove my assertion, I
give their names, marking the Liberals with a star :-
1. Lord Hood 19. W. J. Harding
2. Lord Lifford *2O. D. Heming
3. Hon. C. B. Percy 21. W. Holbech
4. Sir F. L. H. Goodricke 22. H. Holden
5. Sir E. E. C. Hartopp 23. J. F. Ledsam
6. Sir J. Mordount *24. Lord Leigh
*7. Sir F. Shuckburgh 25. J. Ward

*B. Sir G. Skipwith
9. J. 111. Boultbee
10. T. Caldecott

26. J. W. Lellingston
27. F. Lloyd
28. F. S. Miller

11. W. S. Dugdale 29. R. E. E. Mynors
12. H. Elliott 30. F. Newdigate, jun.
13. J. B. Freer 31. S. F. S. Perkins
*l4. T. T. Galton 4632. G. R. Philips
15. B. Granville 33. E. J. Shirley
*l6. A. F. Gregory 34. W. Staunton
17. H. Grimes 35. J. Taylor
18. F. B. Hacket 36. H. C. Wise

Now, my Lord, the Warwickshire Reformers could sup-
ply you Liberal substitutes, of ancient county family and
large landed possessions, for a third of your excessive ma-
jority of Tories.
I will now examine the truth of your animadversions on
Lord John Russell for partiality in the appointment of
the Municipal Magistrates of Birmingham.
The Town Council presented for approval a list of 21,
including 7 County Magistrates acting for Birmingham.
Of these 21, two were Tories; five were Whigs, and the
remainder (14) Whig-Radical and" Radical. The' Go-
vernment reduced the list to 19, retairiing all the County
Magistrates: presented.:Of 22 County Magistrates, actin,*
for Birmingham, seven were therefore presented by the
Town Council. Mr. Richard Spooner, Dr. Booth, Mr.
C. Alston (Tories), were added by Lord John Russell ;
and also Mr. Henry Smith and Mr. William Phipson
( Whig County Magistrates), thus making 24 in gross
numbers of the Municipal Justices. Half the Commission
was, therefore, formed from the county list The Birming-
ham County Magistrates omitted were, Mr. Price, Mr. Lee,
Mr. Beale, Mr. Blakeway, and Mr. Cadbury—all five
advanced in years, and four of the five being Liberals.
Two clergymen were omitted, beingEineligible under the
98th sec. of the Municipal. Act. Mr. Isaac Spooner and
Mr. Grilles, were also omitted, and are non-residents.
The-only tae other nerves omitted Of the county list were,-
Mr. F. Lloyd and Mr. Daniel Ledsam (Tories). Thus,
in truth, the real omissions from the county list were seven,
viz., four Liberals and three Conservatives.• So much for
your Lordship's correctness and knowledge of your own
Commission.

Now, my Lord, as to your charge, that I manufactured
the Birmingham Commission of the Peace, and obtained
a Liberal majorityL.-I have already exposed your partia-
lities for Tory majorities ; ' I will now contrast my own
conduct with yours. As London agent of the memo-
rialists soliciting the Charter of Incorporation, I was
written to respecting the number and political character
of the intended presentment. I replied to the present
Mayor that I strongly recommended them not to
present an exclusive party list ; that keeping their
majority they should present a considerable and
unmixed political number from the County Magis-
trates acting for Birmingham ; that I was confident
that Lord John Russell would otherwise add County
Magistrates. to their presentment, and not approve a
rank party list ; and that if they (the Town Council)
acted partially in their selection, they could not justly
complain of your conduct in the county. The subse-
quent Town Council presentment I did not consider wholly
proper; and all my connection with the commission was
accompanying the local deputations to the Home Office,
as their agent, and where I openly stated spell my opinion.
Pending the settlement of .the Commission, I again wrote
to personal friends in the Town Council, representing the
policy and justice of having a more mixed political Magis-
tracy in times- of riot and political excitement. On the
19th of July, since the riot of the 15th inst.; an intelligent
Liberal Magistrate has written to me expressing his sense
of my better opinion, and stating his consolation that three
of your county Magistrates in the Borough Commission
shared, as Tories, in the responsibility and anxieties of the
week. To verify my assertions _of the injustice of your
Lordship's accusations, I offer to show you my correspon-
dence.
Such has been your Lordship's conduct; and such my
part as to the Warwickshire Magistracy.
My Lord, the entire Municipal System of the Counties
ere many years must and will be. changed. The,
system, of an unpaid and amateur Magistracy must,
as in other countries, be stiperieded by competent func
tionaries properly reinuneratect-lor dispensing justice, to
the peopie. The return of the gross. county-rates levied.
in England for the year 1834, ending sth January, 1835,
was the enormous sum of 651,971. 3s, of which
Warwickshire contributed 15,336/. 4s. Id. Will the
country allow this enormous local taxation to be irrespon-
sibly levied and irresponsibly administered? The Libe-
rals demand popular control and municipal and county in-
stitutions, adapted to the wants of the present age ;
and they will, sooner or later, compel the Lord
Lieutenancies and Squirearchy to yield up pos-
session of this ill-exercised power—a defective system ad-
hered to only to maintain abuses and electoral influence.
I htfve now publicly answered your Lordship; and as I
;despise, anoeymoua, attacks, I shall aflix my name to this
letter. ''Your%Lo *p.'s priiste character justly, commands,
the respect r'neoepotirs; but still, my. Lord; you
• ..
are no your, osvn‘country. Although you had
the advantage'of a Scotch University,education, and were
the pupil of an eminent Liberal (the late Profesior
Stewart, of -Edinburgh), your- fellow students held you in
no great inteileetual respect. A Warwickshire friend of
mine (now alive) once told me, that meeting the late Lord
Dudley, his Lordship said to him, " You know Brooke, I
suppose; ah, ah, poor Brooke; he would never be taught
any thing, even by Dugald Stewart I"
I have the honour to subscribe myself,
Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,

Westminster, July 28. JOSEPH PARKES.
P. S. Any provincial Liberals may inspect county com-
missions of the peace, at the Crown-office, Rolls-court, for
a shilling fee, and procure copies at a small cost.

THE BANK OF IRELAND MONO

POLY.

From the (Dublin) Pilot.
The speech of Mr. Spring Rice, made with the mon-
strous purpose of continuing the visitation of the Bank mo-
nopoly which it pretends to justify, is one of the most in-
solent, shallow, and absurd documents it has been our
misfortune ever to find uttered for the vindication of evil.
What a contempt he must have for the public ! Not one
of his arguments but prove the direct reverse of what
he produces them for—not one of his f.icts but subvert his
inferences. We never knew the case of the Bank so weak
as in his hands. He really pursues his mischievous object
with an obstinacy which, as it is now clear, cannot be for
the reasons he has given, causes people to think he must
have some reason which he will not give. What can that
reason be ? He seems as if he held a brief for
the Bank. If he got a " hand-over" from the rich
old lady, he could not be mare unreasonably obsti-
nate. Of course he did not take that ; but what
possesses him to assist his opponents, destroy his country,
and cause himself and his family to become as odious as
the Lutterels of Ireland ? No, never can he be forgiven.
Any objects of ambition which he may hereafter look to
Ireland for shall be disappointed. We now only deal in
general with his shallow and most dishonest speech—we
shall take it to pieces on another occasion—for this day
we consign Mr. Rice and our disposable space to a meet-
ing now assembling on the subject, which we have made
arrangements to report in full.

GooDwooD RACER.—Bell's Life in London
of. Sunday next will contain an accurate Engraving of the
Goodwood Cup or Plate, value 300 guineas, together
with an exclusive and accurate account of all the races at
this splendid meeting. Full reports of all the cricket
matches, aquatic sports, and other important events of the
week. The Bloomsbury Question.—Belts Life in Lon-
don of Sunday, August 18, will contain a full report of the
trial of the Bloomsbury question at the Liverpool Assizes,
which will bo taken in short-hand expressly and exclusively
for this Journal. Early orders to agents are indispensable.
Price of Bell's Life in London, fivepence. The Country
Edition is published on Saturday, at twelve o'clock, and
may be despatched by the afternoon trains, so as to reach
their destination the same evening.—Office, 170, Strand.
39, ALBEMARLE-STREET, PICCADILLY.
DEAFNESS AND DEFECTIVE VISION. The late melan-
choly occurrence of death by operation for deafness has
induced the Messrs. S. and B. Solomons, Aurists and
Opticians to the Royal Family, to lay before the public
the simplicity of their invention, by which it will be seen
that serious risk of torture by medical treatment is com-
pletely obviated by merely placing a small voice conductor
in the ear, which is not more uncomfortable nor percepti-
ble than having a piece of wool in its place; it pours into
the cars the general conversation to such an extent that
most severe cases in company are not the least perceptible.
The newly-invented Spectacle Lenses, immediately they
are placed before weak and imperfect eyesight, either by
day or candlelight, every object becomes clear and dis-
tinct, and the most minute particle is seen with exact dis-
tinctness. Those new inventions have met the sanction
and unqualified approbation of the principal members of the
medical profession, by the use of which both the sight and
hearing become much improved. No agents nor travellers
are employed.
The Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar is
making a tour in Scotland. His Serene Highness is now
in Glasgow.
At King's county assizes, Peter M'Cowley was
indicted for the murder of James Rafter. Several wit-
nesses were examined on the part of the Crown, and a
confession of the prisoner was read, from which it appeared
that the prisoner and a man of the name of Walsh were
hired by farmers of the name of Spollen, to murder
Rafter; the wages of their guilt was a quart of whis-
key. Rafter was waylaid early in the morning going to his
work, and beaten to death. Walsh was taken soon after the
commission of the crime, tried, and executed more than
five years since; the prisoner, M'Cowley, succeeded in
absconding, and was only arrested in April last. The
Jury at once returned a verdict of guilty. Chief Justice
Bush pronounced sentence of death on the prisoner. The
prisoner, who seemed between sixty and seventy years 01.1,
during the address shrieked aloud, and at its conclusion
fell down in a faint, and was removed by the officers from
the duck.