The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-08 00:00:00

one part of that kingdom by a system, the_ whole ohj. cf
whi,•ll was directed against a body of men, not because they.
were political opponents, but because they were the repre-
sentatives of Ireland.—( Cheers.) He eos wished to address
a few observations to the Right Hon. Baronet the Meritle-r
for Tamworth. For that Right Hon. Gentleman he had
ever entertained a high opinion as a eanscientious poli-
tical opponeet, and he now asked him whether Le ap•
proved of the olket and application of these moneys ?
( Hear. )—lf -the Right Hon nurable Baronet could not exo-
net the Hon. Member for North Wiltshire, and thought
that these subscriptions would a-'d no moral strength to his
party, let 11m ask him why he inisted on preserving just long
enough life to the sys-em to afford an acknowledgment of the
malignity of party ?—( Loud cheers.) When the present state
of patties was taken into consideration, and when it was not
impossible that be might, at no very distant period, resume hi •
position as Pri.,-ne Minister of this country, it did appear to
hint ( Mr. Buller) to be nothing mnre than what wag fair and
just towards Ireland that. she should know whether it w s
such means as these that the Right Hen. Gentleman would
maintain the power of his Government—(Cheers)—and who
tit's. the ►epresentatives of the one-third part of this emi.ire
were to continue to be thus put up to auction—( Loud
cheers)--and candidates to be intimidated ale] deterred from
corning forward by the adoption of means intended to ruin
their characters ?—( Hear, hear.) He thought, too, that the
Noble Lord the leader of that House ous_•ht to come boldly
forward and protect his representative. The Noble Lord had
ever been the consistent advocate of religious liberty anti
toleration, and these suhscripti,ms were peculiarly dir,eted
against t!;e religious liberties of the Irish people. —(
hear.) They came from the same party that refused a Mayor
an l C.rioration to list' communities —( Cheers)—from a
party which would now be.satisfied with nothing leis than a
wholesale disfranchisement of the Irish people.—( Cheers. )
On the question b.ing put from the Chair, a rathri u.testr.l,
circumstance occurred. No Hon. Member rose on either
side, and the eries of " Divide" were loud and frequent.
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, but. within two
minutes afterwards the gallery was reopened, when

S:r W. FOLLETT rose and said—When the lion. Mem-
ber for Limerick said that the circumstance of a le dy of pe
sens wlio were not his constituents, nor localli connected with
the con- ty which he represented.. presu.ring to question the
legality of his return, was a breach of privilege, h, ( Sir W.
Follett) tYd think it was the pa: t either of sonic Member of
her Majesty's Government, or of one of the law officers of
the Crown to condescend to state to the House whether it
was either unconstitutional or a breach of the privileges of Par-
liament for any part of the people or constituencies of this
empire to subscribe or associate for the purpose of bringing be-
fore a legal and constitutional tribunal the right of persons
returned to act as representatives of the people in that House.—
( Loud cheers.) He would, if that was the question—if it was in
reality cantended that such proceedings were unconstitutional
or illegal—at once enter his protest against such a supposi-
tion—( Great cheering from the Opposition benches) —and he
would like to know when it was that her Msjesty's Attorney
General, or the Noble Lord the Secretary for the Home De-
partment, first discovered their illegality.—( Immense cheer-
' ing.) He could not help thinking that it was some-
' thing in the peculiar state of parties at the present mo-
ment—something in the peculiar position of the Govern-
ment—some latent suspicion.of infirmity in the titles of their
supporters—( Loud cheers)—which had induced them to dis-
cover illegality in a practice which had prevailed longer than
the period to which their memories could carry them back,
and existed, perhaps, as long as Parliament itself.—( Cheers. )
Had not any Member of Parliament full and unfettered power
to legislate, not only upon matters affecting the general in-
terests of the country, but even upon the local and:personal in-
terests of every town or village of the kingdom ?—( Cheers.)
He could no longer, then, listen with patience to the doctrine
that it was unconstitutional to subscribe in support of petitions
to refer the question of the validity of the returns to that
House, to the proper tribunal appointed to decide upon it.—
(Cheers.) He knew no time of party excitement and ani-
mosity that had not been witness of similar practices. Before
he himself entered the House as a Member he had used his
best exertions to promote the return of a Noble Friend of his
for the county cf Dorset, in 1831. The Noble Lord"was
returned ; but he had no sooner become a Member than no-
tices and placards were issued from a Committee sitting in
London—( Hear, hear)—calling upon the Reformers of the
United Kingdom to come forward and subscribe in aid of a
petition to unseat his Noble Friend.—(Hear, ;hear.) That
petition was presented, although the cause of the opposition'
to the Noble Lord's return was most -frivolous and unfounded.
But who were the Members of that Committee ?—( Hear,hear.)
He should like to know if the Noble Lord the Member for
North Devon was in the House or not ?—( Loud cheers.) If
he was, would he now say anything more about the same men
being both Judges and jurors ?—(Cheers and laughter.) He
would ask him whether he was not himself a Member of that
Committee, and whether he bad not a hand in the circulation
of those notices and placards ?—( Iromense cheering.) Was
the Hon. Member for Bridport a Member of that Committee?
—(Much laughter.) He (Mr. Warburton) could perhaps
tell them whether any foreign potentates had interfered on
that occasion ?—( Laughter.) Perhaps, too, he could tell
them where the persons came from who subscribed their shil-
lings in aid of the petition, for the chief part of the subscrip-
tions were paid in shillings.—( Hear, hear.) The Hon. Mem-
ber for Chester and for Cornwall were also on that Co nmit-
tee, as was also an Hon. Member for Wiltshire—not, how-
ever, the Honourable Baronet, the present Member ( Sir
Francis Burdett), who was now the object of such virulent
attacks, but another, whom the House would recal to mind
(Hear, hear.) He should like to ask the Honourable Mem-
ber for Bridport, who talked so largely of the duty of, persons
absenting themselves under certain circumstances from voting
with regard to Election Committess, whether he was not him-
, self present at the Ballot for this very petition— ( Hear, hear,
hear,)—and whether he did not take a very active part in stri-
king it ?—( Loud cheers from the Opposition Members.)
Would he tell the House if he and the Member for Chester,
and the rest of those Honourable Gentlemen, thought it neces-
sary to absent themselves on the occasion to which he re-
ferred ?—( Continued cheering.) The lion. Member for
Lincoln had that night brew extraordinarily eloquent on the
impropriety of the Hon. Baronet the Member fer North Wilt-
shire's subscription of 20/. "He ought not to subscribe," said
the Hon. G ntleman, t" in a case in which he is at the same
time both Judge and jury." Would the Hon Gentleman say
that he had himself never subscribed to the aid of an election
petition 2—( Hear, hear.) The Right Hon and Learned Gen-
tleman then read the following extract. from the Glebe news-
paper of the 27th of March, 1835
.4 We understand that Mr. Villiers has the strongest case
against his opponent, and would be sure to unseat him on pe-
tition. But the misfortune is, that the expense to which he
has been already put will probably incapacitate him from re-
newing his efforts. The electors of Canterbury, who have a
more permanent interest in the establishment of their right,
have come forward most nobly."
—(Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) Hon. Gentlemen
cheered, but let them not cheer toe early, fur it did not stop
there, he could assure them. The extract from the Globe
went further and said:—" It would be a shame to the Re-
formers of England if these patriotic exertions should be left
unaided." (Cheers from the Opposition, answered by ironical
cheers from the other side.) The H et. Member for Lincoln-
shire was not an elector for Canterbury—( A laugh)---but not-
withstanding this the paper expressly named him as a subscriber
to the petition in question :-
44 We perceive in the list of subscribers to the funds for
conducting Mr. Villiers's petition ag iinst the return of Mr.
Lushingtnn the name of Mr. Ed eard Lytton Bulwer, M.P.,
for 51. 5..."—( Cheers from the o position side.)
' Mr. BUL WE R rose to order, but resumed his seat upon
being told he could not do so un lee the circumstances.
Sir W. FOL LE CT said he should be glad if the rez)ort in
the paper was not correct.
Mr. BUI•WER--It is not.—( Hear, 1-ear.)
Sir W. FOLLETT said the Hon: Gentleman had sub-
scribed in aid of an election petition.
Mr. BULWE R—Never.—( Hear, hear. )
Sir W. FOLLETT—It might be that the Globe stated
what was not true; but he would refer to another circumstance
upon a similar subject. A meeting was held no later than yes-
terday in the city of London, to take into consideration the
petitions presented against the return of the Members for that
city. At that meeting resolutions were passed that those pe-
liens were frivolous, vexatious, and unfounde.i, and the chliir-
man of that e 7 meeting was a Member of Parliament—
( Hear, bear, from the Ovposition benches)—and an individual
who was liable to be called upon to serve on the Committee
Letore whom the merits of the petition against the city of Lon-
don Members would be tried.—( Hear.) Was there any dif-
ference between this case and that of a party of miens' ex-
pressing their opinions upon any other election petition? In
this ease, too, the resolutions not only expressed the opinions
of a party. I ut a Member or that House was also actually the
chairman of the meeting. But it was said that they ought not
ts subscribe to petitions without examining their merits or de-
merits. Let him, 1 owever, call the attention of the House to
what took place at the meeting of an Association in another
place. The Hon. Member for Lincoln asked why it was
against the Irish returns alone that these petitions were pre-
sented, and designated them as an attack upon the Catholics
of Ireland. Now he ( Sir W. F. ) was the last person to stand
up and offer offence to any particular class of persons, but it
certainly did appear to him to be an abuse of the term to say
that the persons petitioned against were the representatives of
the Irish electors.—( Hear.) There was strong reason to
believe that many of those elections had been carried by inti-
midation, or by means of those who had no right to vote, and
the House ought to come to so:ne conclusion as to whether
thfe shat
3 oti was
called fictitious voters had been brought forward or not. It wasrr u-ed against these petitioners thattohke
place meeting
on
o
called the " Spottiswoode gang" to
August, a period too soon for them to know anything Of de
real eircurrstnnces of tl-e Ir's'a returns. Bat he found that a
meeting had been held in Dublin at an earlier period still,
ie., en the lath of August—( Hear)—at which it was stated
that it was well known then that petitions would be presented
against the returns for Dublin, Queen's County, Belfast, Ca--
low, Clonmel, and other places, 23 in number.—( Hear ) He
had received a letter from the Secretary to this so much com-
plained of Association (the Spottiswoode meeting), who stated
that no communication, either direct or indirect, had taken
place between that body and the electors of the county of Li-
meriek.—(llear. ) • A resolution passed at th,t Association
stated the fullowing, fat's :
" It has never beer. their purpose, nor do they now enter--
rain the idea, of originating or cadent king the presentation
of election petitions from Ireland, cr of interfeoing with their
management when
presented. They merely propose to mace
grants of money, in aid of tile necessary expenses—( A laugh)
—in such cases as seem to them to 1.),C of a just and deserving
charazter, and in which the parties promoting them are really
in need of the support of the public."
ft They will therefore racers:, it all cases in which their
assistance is asked, to be satisfied that Oa* itre good grounds