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LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 23, 1837.

In the House of Lords yesterday, after the presentation
of petitions for and against the abolition of Church-rates,
the Irish Grand Juries Bill was read a third time and
passed ; and the Post-office Contract Bill was advanced a
stage. Their Lordships then adjourned.
In the House of Commons, Mr. Vlcofts took the oaths
and his seat for the county of Carlow.
The Oxford and Great Western Union Railway Bill was

ordered to be committed this day fortnight. Two other
Railway Bills were advanced a stage ; and a petition was

presented by Mr. TooKE relating to the terminus of the
Brighton Railway. Mr. WARBURTON then called the at-
tention of the House to the two petitions which he pre-
sented on Tuesday, involving the propriety of the conduct
of some Members of Parliament. After a lengthened and
very interesting discussion, which will be found in our Re-
port, a Select Committee was appointed, to whom these
petitions will be referred.
The third night's discussion of the Irish Municipal Cor-
porations' Bill was then resumed by Mr. BROTIIERTON,
who briefly supported the measure.

Lord CLEMENTS followed : believing it impracticable to
keep things as they were in Ireland, and being unwilling to
risk a civil war, he, a Protestant, prepared to defend his re-
ligion " to the death," would give his support to the Go-
vernment in the course they were pursuing. Mr. ROBIN-
SON, in a tone of much moderation, argued against Lord
F. EGERTON'S amendment, and expressed his conviction
that the time had now arrived when it was absolutely ne-
cessary that England should change the whole course of
her policy towards Ireland—that the seven millions which
the latter country contained should be made sensible, by
identifying their interests with those of England, that a real
union existed between the two countries.

Mr. RICHARDS opposed the Bill, talked a great deal of
the French revolution, of ROBESPIERRE, DANWON, &c., and
declared that the Liberals only wished to increase the
power of the people because they thought that power would
be entrusted to their keeping.

Mr. WALKER was astonished at the course of observa.

tion adopted by the last speaker ; and, as a lover of peace,
with a strong conviction that agitation would cease the in-
stant those Municipal rights were conferred on Ireland,
which it was the object of his Majesty's Ministers to bestow
on that country, he would vote fur the Bill, and against the
Amendment.

Sir F. TRENCH opposed the Ministerial measure, on the
ground that it endangered the Church.

Mr. GROVE PRICE took a similar view of the question.

Mr. WOULFE, the Attorney-General for Ireland, sup-
ported the claims of his countrymen to manage their own
Municipal affairs in a speech to which we refer our readers
with pleasure, as furnishing reasoning the most unanswer-
able—arguments tho most complete and convincing in fa-
vour of the Bill.

After Sir J. GRAHAM, Mr. SHELL, Mr. O'CONNELL, Sir
H. PEEL, and Lord Jolts RUSSELL, had severally ad-
dressed the House, a division took place, giving a trium-
phant majority to the advocates of good Government.
The numbers for the original motion were 322 ; for the
Amendment 242—majority for Ministers, EIGHTY !
The House did not adjourn till Half-past Three o'clock
this morning.

The long protracted debate on the Irish Corporation
Bill terminated at an early hour this morning, by a ma-
jority in favour of Ministers of Eighty ! And this majo-
rity, be it observed, is in Sir ROBERT PEEL'S own Parlia-
ment—not a few Members of which were created by
Carlton Club Money, and under the directest and most
immediate Tory auspices ! Is there no reactio❑ here ?
Nothing to make the Opposition pause in its career?
Nothing to convey a salutary warning to the House of
Lords ? Last year the majority was but sixty-four ; this
year it is eighty—and eighty despite the Conservative
gatherings during the recess ; despite the daily denuncia-
tions of the Times ; despite the famous Glasgow Dinner ;
and the still more famous declaration of Sir ROBERT PEEL,
made in a pavilion which cost upwards of two thousand
pounds, that the heart of the empire was Conservative !
To what a state has last night's division reduced the Tories !
What has been the result of all their cry about a
reaction ? A majority of eighty against them ! What
the result of Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S maudlin rliodo-
montade ; Lord STANLEY'S petulance ; Mr. Sergeant JACK-
son's elaborate charges against Government ? A majority of
eighty in favour of that very Governmet ! Nor must it
be forgotten, that this majority is on a question of life or
death to the Tories. They expressly stated—they put it
forth as their leading argument—they thrust into the van

of their speeches—that if the House of Commons granted
Municipal Reform to Ireland, it would be signing the
death-warrant of the Irish Protestant Church. Yet the
House—PEEL'S own House—has agreed to grant that Re-
form—and granted it, too, by a majority which, in a House
differently constructed, would have amounted to consider-
ably upwards of a hundred
After the division of last night, we presume we shall
hear no more talk about a reaction. Sir JAMES GRAHAM
will lower his tone ; and even Mr. Sergeant JACKSON will
discover, that to exercise the prerogative of mercy is not,
after all, the most unpopular, or injurious act of which a
Lord-Lieutenant can be guilty.
What makes this division the more important is the fact,
that throughout the debate the Tories had tasked their
utmost powers of eloquence ; exhausted all their argu-
ments ; and assembled on parade all the forces they could
possibly manage to bring together. They left nothing to
chance. They did not throw away a blow, or make a run-
ning fight of it ; but boldly confronted their enemies ; con-
tested the field inch by inch—in a word, fought with all the
fierceness and desperation of men fighting with a rope
about their necks. A defeat, under such circumstances, is
of course decisive. We venture to predict that the Tories
will not raise their heads again in the House of Commons
this Session. They may attempt to show fight on the
Church,rate question ; but last night's majority will hang
heavy on their spirits, palsy their arms, and compel them
to surrender at discretion. Alas ! that one short week
should make such a difference in the political position of the
Tories, and the great Tory leader ! Alas, that Sir Jorni
HOBHOUSE'S " proximate Prime Minister" should now
make no nearer approximation to office than the Arctic to
the Antarctic Pole !

The great speech of the evening was decidedly that made
by Mr. SHELL. It was impassioned—sarcastic—argumen-
tative—wielding all the various weapons of eloquence, and
wielding them with a master's skill. The Hon. and Learned
Gentleman made sad havoc of Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S pious
sophistries ; and laid the cat on Lord STANLEY'S back
with an energy worthy of the most experienced drummer in
a marching regiment.

As for Sir ROBERT PEEL'S observations, they were
wholly beside the mark. He did his best, however—and a
sorry best it was ! Not one applicable argument did the
Right Hon. Baronet urge, on the question before the
House. His speech—and it was a cruelly long one—was
exclusively devoted to praises of himself and his Tory col-
league Lord STANLEY. A STANLEY praised by a PEEL !
A leading advocate of the Reform Bill patted on the back
by the chief opponent of that measure—by him who had
publicly and solemnly declared that no honest man could
hold office under the Crown, when once that measure was
carried ! What are we to think of the consistency of a
Statesman who could lay himself open to such disastrous
flattery ? We should conceive that his Lordship must feel the
eulogiums of Sir R. PEEL more bitterly than even the sarcasms
of Mr. SHELL ; and that he is not uninfluenced by remorse, is
evident from the eager, hurried way in which he last night
attempted to do away with the impression that he was
averse to do justice to Ireland, which attempt at explana-
tion, however, like his former one, only made matters worse.
Mr. WOULFE'S speech, which, by the bye, was one of
the most skilful that has been delivered throughout the dis-
cussion, contained one striking point, which we recommend to
the serious attention of all Conservatives. If, observed the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman, Municipal Reform were
not carried, he should cease to be able to defend the
Union between England and Ireland ! We make no com-
ment on this impressive remark, for it sufficiently speaks
for itself.

Mr. RICHARDS'S phillippic which was perpetrated early in
the evening, and conjured up the ghost of the French Re-
volution, with a view to " fright the House from its pro-
priety," was, as usual, a sad display of vapid common-
place ; but nevertheless has produced on our minds this
pleasing conviction—namely, that the llon. Member is
one of those safe members of society who will never put
the Thames into a state of conflagration.

The course which the House of Lords may now be
pleased to adopt with regard to the Irish Municipal Bill
must be to the Irish people, and those who have supported
them in their claims for justice, a matter of comparative
indifference. The question has been settled by a Ilouse of
Commons, elected under Tory influence, in a more triumphant
manner than even the most sanguine friends of Ireland anti-
cipated, and it only remains to be seen whether the opponents
of the measure will yield without further resistance, or adhere
to their old system, and yield only to dire necessity.
It cannot be doubted that the Bill would be improved by
protracted resistance ; and it is consolatory to think that
the continued denial of justice only increases the amount of
the claim, and that experience warrants the conclusion that
in all such cases more will finally be obtained than was ori-
ginally demanded. According to the system of the House
of Lords, the principle is first resisted—then the perse-
verance—the increasing strength of the claimants—a sense
of justice, and, last of all, the force of public opinion
compel them to yield, and the people, elated with success,
and confident of their power, refuse to accept less than their
just rights. No one knows this better from experience than
Sir ROBERT PEEL. The Catholic Question and Parlia-
mentary Reform are beacons before his eyes ; but, contrary
to his own will, he has been impelled by two parties, who
blinded by self-interest, or soured by disappointment, urged
him to make a last desperate trial for the victory. Every
one who has read the speeches of the Right Honourable
Baronet on the question, or observed his cold despond-
ing manner in the House, must feel convinced that the
desperate plan is not his. It is the plan of the leaders of
the Orange party, and his new allies. The former see no
chance of preferment but in the speedy return of the To-
ries to power. Judges and Bishops and Lords-Lieute-
nant are dropping off day by day ; their places are supplied
by men opposed to their selfish policy, and determined to
thwart their machinations ; and for even one month of Tory
dominion they would endanger the peace of the country,
and sacrifice the political character of the only man fit to
direct their councils. The other supporters of the Tory leader
are impelled by passions perhaps not so selfish, but equally
strong. Their situation indeed is so wretched that they
are forced to make the most desperate efforts to escape
from it. What position can be more humiliating than that
of the chief of that miserable band who deserted the libe-
ral cause ? Elated by the success of his exertions in the
cause of Reform—buoyed up by the praises bestowed on
him by all parties as a successful debater, and flattered by
some with.the appellation of the future Prime Minister—in
a fit of peevishness, or with a view to overturn the Whig
Administration, he first left his friends—then described
them as thimble-riggers and pickpockets—then joined the
party whom he had described as the miserable remnants of
a broken faction, and now has the mortification to find that
the Whig Government can go on without him—that
he is almost forgotten by the public—distrusted by
the old Anti-Reformers, and not much beloved by
the Conformers, whom he disconcerts by occasiona
freaks of liberalism, or encumbers with his bigotted and an•

tiquated religious prejudices. These are the parties who
are to assist Sir ROBERT PEEL in governing Ireland.
Orangemen, burning with hatred towards the people they
have to govern—a Lord Chancellor who has calumniated
the whole nation—and perhaps a Home Secretary, the
author of the Coercion Bill, the champion of tithes, and the
reputed author of the scheme to deprive the Irish people
of their just rights. A Cabinet, composed of such men,
would be tantamount to a declaration of war against Ire-
land. But there is little to fear. Sir ROBERT PEEL has
too much prudence, and too much at stake, to venture on
such a wild scheme ; and now that he has convinced them
of the impracticability of denying justice to Ireland, will
henceforth be guided by feelings more consistent with
those of a wise statesman and practical legislator.

The French papers of Tuesday are filled with accounts
of the regicide, Cnamnom, whose crime, seizure and sui-
cide, were fully detailed in The Sun of yesterday.
The Charte de 1930—an official organ, declares that
CHAMPION had several accomplices. The Pair asserts
that he was but a mercenary tool in the hands of a
rich and hidden party. For some time before he was
seized CHAMPION lived without work, or any visible means
of providing subsistence. And yet during that time he
appeared to have money in abundance.

The political aspect of France was not so unfavourable
since the revolution of 1830 as it is at present. On all
sides indications of a social hurricane arc visible.
Louts PHILIPPE is popular with no class. The main
props of his Throne—the Doctrinaires of the shop-keeping
and small fundholding order—are become indifferent to the

permanence of his dynasty. They have had time to pre-
pare for an altered state of things, and they have taken
care to avail themselves of it, in the best manner they could.
They stood by the KING while their pockets were in danger,
and they would openly desert him to-morrow were they
certain that so public a defection would cost them nothing.
The army is completely disorganized. There is hardly
a regiment upon whose entire devotion to his person
and family the KING can place unlimited reliance. The
higher officers are filled with discontent, and the great
mass of the private soldiers reciprocate the sentiments
and feelings of their fellow-countrymen. All know
and feel that the KING intends them as instruments
for the re-establishment of a tyranny of which France
once rid herself at the expense of an ocean of in-
noeent blood. To such men as form the bulk of the French
army, the semblance of a violation of the dear-bought
liberties of their native land must appear in the light of
the most heinous crime. France enjoys not a right which
she has not purchased with torrents of her bravest blood
—with torrents of that blood which flows in the veins of
her chivalrous military force. Despite of the artifices of
the KING, her soldiers are citizens and will remain so.
Hence their general disaffection.

The higher ranks are for the most part decided Royalists.
They declared for the Revolution of July only to save their
lives and preserve their estates ; but at bottom they never
ceased to lament the overthrow of the Bourbon family.
With the exception of the Nobles who receive pensions
from the Crown, or in some way or other profit by the
new dynasty, there is hardly a representative of an old
family in France who at heart is not disposed to assist
HENRY V. to recover the French Throne.

The very lowest grades of society in France are still
more opposed to the ORLEANS dynasty than the highest
ranks. As they have little to lose, they seek not to con-
ceal their sentiments, nor shun opportunities of carrying
them into execution at the peril of their lives. Their cause
of complaint is just and natural. By them was the Revo-
lution of July effected--they nobly delivered France from the
shackles of a despot, and generously confided to LAFAYETTE
and the Duke of ORLEANS, the formation of a Govern-
ment which would secure to their redeemed country the
fruit of their disinterested patriotism. They were as honest
as they were brave and enthusiastic. Well, they now find
that they were the dupes of an artful political adventurer,
who dares to bind them by sanctions which he was the
first to trample upon. They have discovered to
their cost, that instead of having freed France
from tyranny, they but obtained for her an
exchange of tyrants. Europe is no stranger to the
results. They may be enumerated in the regicidal plots,
the insurrections, the conspiracies, and the other treasonable
attempts which since the beginning of 1832 have so re-
peatedly menaced the stability of the revolutionary dynasty.
The only steady supporters of the KING in the Chambers
are the pensioners of the Crown—the hired tools of the
Ministry. As a body, the Peers have no national influence.
The popular names among the Deputies are all, with a few
exceptions, to be found in the lists of the strenuous and
consistent opponents of the established order of things.
Thus the Throne of Louis PHILIPPE has no popular
basis. It derives its exclusive support from the corruption
of officials and the passiveness of the great bulk of the
people. Forced to depend upon national sympathy, it could
not stand an hour against the efforts secretly made to oser-
throw it.

The KING alone is culpable for the existence of such a
state of things. Had he governed the people in the spirit
of the Charter, there would not have been a more popular
Sovereign in Europe. But led away by his ambition, and
a foolish confidence in abilities which qualified him for a
Stock-jobber, rather than for the Sovereign of a great and
free nation, he commenced a career which momentarily
threatens to terminate in his own destruction, and the ba-
nishment of his family.
The shopkeepers and working classes of Paris effected
the Revolution of 1830. We are much mistaken, or the
army will conduct the next revolutionary movement. The
storm will certainly burst first in that quarter, and when
it does, the Royal Family will act wisely in taking a preci-
pitate farewell of France. LOUIS-PHILIPPE, we know, is
in the habit of boasting publicly that were he to fall at any
moment, his son would succeed him: He even told the
Chambers so when he last addressed them from the Throne.
This is a delusion. The ORLEANS dynasty will not, and
cannot, survive the fall of the KING.

In consequence of the late hour to which the House of
Commons sat this morning, the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER has postponed the Church-rates question, which
stood for this evening, to Monday next.

Brussels and German papers have been received. Ac-
counts from the frontiers of Wallachia, of the 31st ult.,
mention serious disturbances in Bulgaria, fomented with a
view to destroy the dominion of the Porte in Europe. The
Greek subjects of the Porte are bribed to protest against
living any longer under the dominion of any but a Christian
Prince of their own religion. The Rajahs report that
Russia is at the bottom of this infamous conspiracy.
A Russian corvette was recently seized on the coast of
Circassia by the natives, who made prisoners of her crew,
and set fire to the vessel. Not a plank escaped destruction.
The Courrier Belge says :—" All the military journals,
published in German, Russian, Swedish, and Italian, speak
of the immense preparations for war making by Russia. A
recent Ukase orders a fresh levy of one man in every five,
throughout several provinces of the empire. Russia has
also made a contract with Sweden for a vast number of
cannon, of which 157 have already arrived at Dantzic,
whence they will be conveyed by steam-boats up the Vis-
tula." The Courrier Beige surmises that these prepara-
tions are to put down the war in Circassia, which annually
costs the CZ-Alt the loss of 25,000 men, besides materiel.

It is, however, more likely that these preparations are an.
ticipatory of a war with Great Britain.

Letters from Beyrout, in Syria, of the 11th ult., an-
nounce the occurrence of a dreadful earthquake on the Ist,
by which the towns of Tiberias, Safod, St. Jean D'Acre,
Naploos, and all the villages in their neighbourhood, were
reduced to heaps of ruins. One letter states that nine-
tenths of the inhabitants were destroyed, and another esti-
mates the loss of life at fifteen thousand souls, at the very
least. The misery of the survivors was excessive.
Advices from Constantinople of the 25th ult. inform us
that the plague is fortunately on the decline in that capital.
Of the patients admitted into the Greek hospital, during the
week preceding the date of these advices, one was a female
servant of the Russian Ambassador. This circumstance
gave M. BOUTANIEFF the greatest possible alarm.
A quarrel, which threatens to be followed by serious
consequences, has taken place between TAIIIR PASHA and
Mr. WARRINGTON, the British Consul-General at Tripoli.
Some British vessels of war have been sent from Malta
with orders to bring the imperious PASHA to his senses.

tetters and Papers from Madrid to the 14th inst. have
been received. They contain no news of any moment, with
the exception of the defeat of the Rebels under the Carlist
chief PATILLO in La Mancha,

The Government has sent orders to Gen. ESPARTERO
to send 6,000 more troops to reinforce the army under
General EVANS, at San Sebastian. Should ESPARTERO'S ill
health prevent him from immediately taking the field, the
War Minister, in the name of the QUEEN, permits him
to resign the command, that another chief may be ap-
pointed.

General EVANS, who is prepared to take the field the
instant the forces under ESPARTERO and SAARSFIELD are
ready to co-operate with him, has addressed the following
stirring proclamation to the inhabitants of Guipuzcoa :
" Head Quarters, San Sebastian, Feb. 15.
" Guipuzcoans I—At the head of a powerful force, com-
posed of Spanish and British troops, I am about to advance
into your country. Still more numerous forces of her Ma-
jesty the Queen will also at the same time enter the dis-
turbed districts from other points.
" In the name and by the authority of your innocent and
august Queen I offer you peace and forgiveness.
" Guipuzcoans I we come not as invaders, we come as
liberators, to rescue you from the tyranny and oppression of
which you are the victims.

" The lives, families, property, and religion of all who
may lay down their arms and return to their homes shall be
respected and protected.
" Guipuzcoansl you have been deluded by your chiefs,
whose selfish and short-sighted ambition leads them to at-
tempt what is impossible; and which can only lead, if per-
severed in, to ruin and death.
" The struggle has now lasted long enough to prove to
every reflecting mind that its continuance is senseless 1
" Portugal, France, and England, whose flag is ever in al-
liance with that of Spain, are now united in support of the sa-
cred cause of your rightful Sovereign. The armies which
surround you are formidable by their discipline, overwhelming
by their numbers. I have peremptorily ordered the troops
under my command to avoid all injury to the peaceable inha-

bitants, and the execution of this wish, which is nearest my
heart, I have confided to the paternal care of your excellent
and benevolent countryman, General Jaureguy, her Majesty's
governor of this province.
" All Spain is now determined to have free institutions simi-
lar to your own. Avoid, then, the consequence of not listen-
ing to these words of advice. Return to, or remain in, your
homes. Pursue your former industrious occupations. Be con-
vinced that the power I possess is equally efficient to protect
and to overcome ; and you will soon again behold your pro-
vince—now devastated by war—among the happiest and most
flouriling of the ancient Spanish monarchy.
( Signed) "DE LACY EVANS, Lieut.-General."
We have received the following from a Correspondent at
St. Sebastian. It embodies the latest news from that
quarter:—

St. Sebastian, Feb. 15, 1837.
Since my last letter from this place, the affairs in these pro-
vinces have assumed a more flourishing appearance. General
Evans has been reinforced by 6,000 men, the elite of the army
of Spain, animated by the most anxious desire to be led on to
victory—to equal, if not surpass, the honours gained by the
troops under the command of General Espartero ; and he is
promised a further reinforcement of 6,000 men. Should they
arrive here in time for the advance, and if the other Spanish
Generals can be induced to agree to a combined movement,
nothing on earth can preserve the Carlist cause. They are
working very hard everywhere in front of their lines, doubtless
with the idea of impressing on the minds of the troops here
that they intend to defend their ground to the last ; but what
effect can that possibly have on the minds of the heroes of the
sth May, the 6th June, and the Ist October, and their asso-
ciates, who are anxious to equal the heroes of the 24th Decem-
ber. Other correspondents may write to you other versions of
the affairs in these provinces, but they are doubtless actuated
by party principles, and merely write what will assist their own
cause. I write to you the truth, and will, in a few days, in-
form you of the result of the advance. A. B.

The signal triumph of justice and constitutional principle
in the House of Commons last Right, has come upon the
Tories like the shock of an earthquake. They now feel
the ground tremble under their feet, and are exhibiting all
the symptoms of excessive alarm. They actually stand
aghast with despair ; and well they may, for,never did there
occur a more " untoward" event—never did cruel fate inter-
pose a more provoking contretemps into well-laid political
plans, than that which has demolished the hopes of the
faction, in the division on the Irish Municipal Bill. They
had been trumpeting forth, through every channel to
which they had access, that their long-meditated at-
tack upon place was to be covered by such a di-
vision on this great national question, as would show
that a decisive change had taken place in the opinions
of the representatives of the people—no less decisive,
indeed, than that which they would fain have it believei
has come over the people themselves. They did not, to be
sure, say that there would not be a majority in favour of
the Ministerial measure ; but that majority was to be ID
small, so dwindled down from what it was last year, that it
would form no obstacle to their views, but rather an easy
stepping-stone to the Elysian retreats of Downing-street,
Well, they get up all the steam at their command. The
Times bullies, the Standard prevaricates, the Post gets into
ecstacies, and poor old Granny twaddles away double tides—
all are unanimous in predicting the grand result, when be-
hold, a majority in favour of justice to Ireland greater by
nearly a score than that of last year ! This is the glorious
upshot of all the boasting, all the falsehood, and all the slan-
der, which the " miserable, monopolizing minority " have
been venting for months. We wish them joy of it.
What positive results may follow this unequivocal de-
claration of the House of Commons, it would perhaps be
premature to conjecture. We cannot, ill as we think of the
House of Peers, imagine that so decisive an expression, of
the sentiments of the Commons of Great Britain will, pro-
duce no effect upon their minds. It is not to be supposed
that a majority originally great and successively re-inforcea
until it has reached the overwhelming number of EIGHTY.
should make no impression on their Lordships. They cannot
surely any longer delude: themselves with the hallucination
that there is a steadily increasing contrariety going on be-
tween the represented and their representatives—that
liberality of political sentiment is advancing among the
Members of the House of Commons, and retrograding
among the people. This absurdity they cannot beliee-e.,
They will therefore, we trust, see the necessity of Ipling
aside their prejudices and party feelings, and cease td carry
further a contest in which it is evident they must eventually
be worsted, if not overwhelmed. If the Tories were to
come in to-morrow, what could they do ? Their dwn Par-
liament—a Parliament packed by the most unscrupulous
means ever used by a Government—has grown more and
more hostile to them. And if they should dissolve the
present Parliament (supposing it for a moment possible
that the KING should refuse a dissolution to. Lord MEL-
BOURNE and grant it to Sir ROBERT PEEL), would
they be in any better condition ? They would be ten times
worse off than they are. They would find that, however
they may by skilful tactics, by bribery and intimidation,
force a stray Member or two into the House of Commons
when a vacancy occurs, the case would be very different
at a general election. Not that they always succeed in
individual cases, though they crow loud enough when they
do. Let them look to the late Irish elections, and to that
of Anglesey just decided.