The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-24 00:00:00

to them by his Noble and Learned Friend 1
opposite (Lord Brougham) who had pursued the very
course he was about to point out. The only course that t
could have been legitimately applied to a subject of this
magnitude was to have presented a Bill to Parliament upon
it, and to have given time for the ample consideration of t
i,
not only in Parliament, but out of doors.—(
That That was the course which a manly and an able and
straightforward Government would have pursued.
that course did not correspond with the character, the
feeling., or the habits of her Majesty's Ministers.—
(Cheers.) They thought it better to lewe the Wain high.
road and to deviate into those bye-paths which they were
constantly pursuing in the administration of' their
Government. Abusing the confidence which their
Lordships had placed in them and in the other House
of Parliament, they procured, by a bare majority
of two, a vote for the appointment of a Committee
to superintend this great national subject; and this
policy was pursued for the obvious purpose of excluding
their Lordships from deliberating upon this all-important
question.—( Cheers.) Looking at the composition of
, their Lordships' House, did he say too much when he
asserted there was no Assembly better calculated to dis-
cuss, to consider, and to advise upon the great subject of
national education than the House of Peers of this realm ?
—( Much cheering. ) And yet the policy, the little policy
he would call it, of her Majesty's Ministers was to ex-
clude their Lordahips' House from all deliberation upon
it, and to proceed upon a vote of the other House. There
the Committee was appointed, and of whom did it consist ?
There was her Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the Noble Viscount at the head of the Board of Works,
who conduete:i the business of that House ; the
Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment ; and, as a matter of course, the President
of the Council. This was the Board of Instruction tha'.
was to form plans and schemes for the superin-
tendence of this national education. He entertained the
greatest personal respect for those individuals ; but be
thought he might say they were not precisely that body
and description of persons, that would have been selected
by the nation, or by any individual interested in this sub-
ject, for the conduct and management of a system of this
description.—( Hear, hear.) By their very first act, their
very first publication, it was seen that one of the Members
at least of that Board was totally ignorant of the terms of
the act to which he had applied himself. They published
a scheme, little worth in itself, he admitted, which was
circulated throughout the country, and which met
with universal reprobation—( Hear, hear)—not in England
alone, but in the Northern parts of this island ; and so
strong was the feeling on this subject, that although the
Noble Viscount gave the General Assembly 300 livings,
that body had come to an unanimous determination against
this system of education.—(Cheers.) Their Lordships
had thought it their duty to address the Throne upon this,
not because they had been treated with indignity by her
Majesty's Ministers, but because they had thought that
upon this subject of all others they ought to have been
consulted, and to have formed a part of the body by whom
this question was to be decided. He rejoiced their Lord-
ships had done so, for this reason, that they had now disco-
vered what the designs and intentions of her Majesty's Mi-
nisters really were. It might have been considered
that this Committee was to have been a mere
transient body only to dispose of the small loan of 30,0001.
voted by the other House of Parliament; but the answer
which the Noble Viscount had advised to that address
had told their Lordships the system was permanent, be-
cause the proceedings of that Committee were to be an-
nually laid upon the table of both houses of Parliament.—
( Hear, hear.) They had established, then, by a vote of
the House of Commons alone, a permanent system for
the superintendence of the education of the people of this
country. With respect to the other part of the answer to
the address which had been advised by the Noble Viscount,
it was a mockery—( Hear, hear)—although he could
hardly suppose it was so intended. Their Lordships come
plained that they were not consulted with respect to this
system, and that they had bad no opportunity of exercising
a judgment upon it. What did the Noble Viscount
tell them in answer—Oh I you shall have ample opportu-
nities of exercising a judgment upon it, because the pro-
ceedings of the Board will be laid on your table. Such
an answer was a sneer and a mockery, though it could
hardly be expected to have been intended to be so by the
Noble Viscount. He passed, then, from this subject to another
of no inconsiderable importance. This was a measure of
legislation by the one House of Parliament, of which, in-
deed, they had precedents, but precedents drawn from
1 times of tumult and disorder, such as he should hardly
suppose the Noble Viscount would be desirous of seeing
again. He would come now to the subject of Colonial
policy. The Jamaica House of Assembly had done what
they thought they were entitled to do—what they had done
on more occasions than one, and obtained their end. They
addressed the Crown, and at the same time passed a resolu-
tion, stating they would proceed to no work of legislation
except with respect to cases of absolute necessity, until an
answer was obtained to that addresa. They were imme-
diately prorogued. They were kept under prorogation,
and never afterwards had an opportunity of proceeding
to business. What did her Majesty's Ministers advise?
An answer to that Address ? An explanation ? Any
communication of any description ? Nothing whatever of
that sort, but a Bill for annihilating the Constitution of
Jamaica.—( Hear.) He said a Bill for annihilating and
abolishing the Constitution of Jamaica, because, though it
was a Bill to be in operation only for five years, yet every.
body who knew anything of that island knew that to sus-
pend the Constitution there for five years was to annihi-
late it for ever.—( Cries of " Hear, hear.") That Bill
was too strong for the House of Commons. A reformed
House of Commons could not with any faco consent to
abolish a Representative Assembly in one of our Colo-
nies. The Bill upon the second reading was carried by a
majority of only 5. It was then considered that the mea-
sure was lost, which, in fact, and in substance, it was. What
was the course then pursued by her Majesty's Ministers?
They stated that, in their opinions, they no longer pos-
sessed the confidence of the House of Commons, they
never had possessed the confidence of their Lordships'
House, and with respect to the confidence of the people,
they felt they no longer possessed that. They tendered
their resignations, which were accepted. The history of
the few days subsequent to that event he should pass over,
because it formed no part of what he intended to bring
before their Lordships. He passed it over also, because
the whole subject had been so fully laid before their Lord-
ships by the Noble Duke, and also in such a masterly
manner by his Noble and Learned Friend opposite, that
the recollection of the whole must be fresh in the minds of
all their Lordships, and he should be afraid to impair the
effect of that by any thing he might now say upon it.
But there was one thing which he must observe, as
connected with this. Her Majesty's Ministers tendered
their resignations, their resignations were accepted, and
they declared that they held office only till their successors
were appointed. Communications commenced for forming
another Administration. While those communications were
proceeding, and before they had terminated, those Ministers,
who held office only until their successors could be ap-
pointed, interposed—advised her Majesty—dictated notes
—took part in the proceedings—and themselves were the
negotiators.—( Hear, hear.) The outgoing Ministers car-
ried on the negotiations with their supposed successors.
The result was this, that those Ministers who held their
office only until their successors should be appointed ad-
vised her Majesty to reinstate them in their office.—
( Much cheering and laughter.) He would say they gave
that advice, because that was the constitutional and legal
effect of the course of the proceeding, and the result.
Such a course of proceeding never before appeared in the
history of England, and he trusted in God it never would,
under •any circumstances, occur again.—(Hear, hear.)
The first act of this new Government, then, was to draw
:2n a Cabinet Minute, false and unconstitutional in its cha-
racter, which could only be equalled by its folly and ab-
surdity.—( Hear, hear.) They had before declared that
they had lost the confidence of the house of Commons ;
they had lost the confidence of the people ; they never had had
the confidence of their Lordships ; and he would ask, when
they re-accepted office, what they had done to replace
themselves iu the confidence of the other House of Parlia-
ment ?—( Hear, hear.) That to which he had just re-
ferred, as well as all the circumstances of their case, tended
only to lower them still further in estimation, and so far
from increasing confidence in them, they must have tended
still further to weaken and to degrade them.—(Cheers.)
But it was necessary to make an experiment, and what was
it ? A second Jamaica Bill was introduced, and what was
the effect of it ? Why, that it was necessary to continue
certain laws that were about to expire. The Bill was
drawn up and introduced with that object ; but other clauses
were introduced into it which made it equally pernicious,
but which being objected to were abandoned. That Bill,
on the second reading, passed the House of Commons by a
majority of ten ; so that when they had a majority only of
five, they considered they had lost the confidence of the
House of Commons ; but when they got up to a
majority of ten, tey then ventured to suppose
they had recovered that confidence ; but still they
felt their situation uncomfortable and uneasy—some-
thing was necessary to be done. They seemed to
have looked about for an opportunity of doing something
to retrieve their position with a party in the other House,
and tile question that occurred to them was the question
of the Ballot.—(Hear, hear.) No measure could have in-
volved a question of deeper importance.—( Hear.) After
the passing of the Reform Bill it became a measure of the
deepest importance that could have been proposed to Par-
. liament, and if ever there was a measure in reference to
which the Government ought to have acted, it was that.—
( Cheers. ) The opinion of the Government was known ;
but it was thought this question of the Ballot might assist
in enabling them to recover a little of their lost confi-
dence in the other House, and so they agreed to make it
an open question—a most shabby proceeding this was.
The object was to gain some additional votes in the House
of Commons ; but when the question came for considera-
tion and discussion, and when one of the leading Members
of the Cabinet let .oat the secret that he had voted for
making it an open question because he thought it the most
effective way of defeating it, then wasdts s_habbines sur-
passed by its hypocrisy and its decepttrdhaateter.s He
thought he need not congratulate the Noble Viscount on
lsecondJamaica
having gained any accession of strength by the course he
had pursued on that occasion. When the
tßimillehnaodtpaassseidngtlhee
Bill9th ooffJtuhley had arrived,
consequence had
and up to that
ppaasssseedd,tiht wrmaigshtrubeo, hetthHNoluusteiny sofßPdtrltiahme enlnt.demTnhiteyy
Bill,had
some money Bills of the ordinary course and character, and
12 or 14 \ Bills, some of which were to amend former Bills,
and others to continue former enactments, but all trifling
and unimportant, to which no opposition could or would be
made in either House of Parliament. Such was the state
done_ the ssbioenLweasia
of things at that period, and still the table was cowed with
Bills, and it became necessary to inquire what was to be
Government deter
ques-
tion was whet course should be taken ? He found by the
aidnvancing to its close, and the
and for the Registwraastioan Billo
lama. ;o abandon measure after
measure. Therehis hand,i that upon that inti-
mationdoned. The Fictitious Votes Electors ctthe
ors Ri
neg(
itcroattlaC:d of)— Voters
n-i
measure of great importance— (Scotland), admitted to be a
of Rates (Scotland)—atemde,i(eadlF
land)—abandoned. The Heritable Securities 'telt The Payment
eg i tra
(Scotlandtioe ( Sc)ol-
eisaedeued. The Distriz Sessions—also abandoned.
._

The District Prisons—abandoned. The Town Councils
—abandoned. The Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues
—abandoned. The Church Discipline, which went down
from that House—abandoned. The Factories Bill, which

bad been frequently discussed, and was admitted to be a
measure of great importance to the interests of humanity
—abandoned. The Collection of Rates—abandoned.

The Summary Jurisdiction—abandoned. The County
Courts—abandoned. The Bankruptcy Courts (Ire-
land), and a great many others, were abandoned
because her Majesty's Minister., not having vigour or
energy, and not possessing the confidence of the other
House, felt it impossible to carry them during the present
Session. But there was another measure on which he had
no doubt, at the close of the Session, no inconsiderable
reliance would be placed by the present Govern.
ment—he meant the Postage Bill. That Bill had been
ridiculed by the retainers of Government ; it had been abused
and was said to be impracticable, and that forcible argu-
ment had been urged—" Will you abandon a million of
revenue ?" All that had been urged by the retainers and
some of the leaders of Government for a long period.
However, the measure was pressed on them, and because
the Government had not the power, and did not post, 8; suf-
ficiently the confidence of the House to be able to resist it,
contrary to their better judgment, they were obliged
to introduce the Bill. What eras the next step ? With their
characteristic dexterity they tried to get rid of it by a side.
wind, and it occurred to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
that if he could introduce a clause which would render it
distasteful to the House they would reject it, and that
was a clause to make good any deficiency in the revenue.
That clause was resolutely and zealously opposed in the
House of Commons, because that House, as such, was
pledged to make good any deficiency, and in spite of that
artifice—that dexterous manoeuvre, the Bill passed through
the House. The cry then was—" All our hope is in
the Lords—the Lords never will allow the revenue to be
diminished." Now, it was a remarkable circumstance
that when the Bill came into that House the opposite
( Government) benches were thinner than at any other
period. But that was not all. The Noble Viscount who
introduced the Bill, and also moved the second reading
(and he should never forget the Noble Viscount's speech)
used all his ingenuity, and talent, and knowledge of the
world to defeat it. He did not use a single argument in
the course of his speech in favour of the Bill, but merely
said, as it was wished for, he moved its second reading.
His ( Lord Lyndhurst's) side of the House felt that as it
was a measure of finance it would not be right in them to
share the responsibility of rejecting it, and therefore re-
luctantly the Bill passed and became law. So much there-
fore as to that great measure. In pursuing the course he
had chalked out for himself,there was another measure which

he felt it his duty to allude to—the Bill for the Suppres-
sion of the Slave Trade. When it was introduced into the

liousc of Commons, he (Lord Lyndhurst) had diligently
read it, and also all the treaties of that country with Por-
tugal, and the communications that had taken place be-
tween the Ministers of both countries, and be had come to
the conclusion that Portugal had violated her engagements
with that country ; that she had no intention to fulfil
them, and he found also that the Ministers were full)
aware of these circumstances two years ago, and yet they
had never felt it their duty to call on Portugal to fulfil her
engagements. Had they blockaded Lisbon, or adopted
any other decisive means, they might have long since
compelled their fulfilment, and the consequence would be,
that the lives of thousands of those unhappy persons who
had fallen victims to this inhuman traffic would have been
saved, and they would have had a straightforward and de-
termined course, instead of the very doubtful one which
the Noble Viscount had introduced. Therefore, he gave
them no credit whatever for the measure they had intro-
duced on that subject. He had now brought them to a
very advanced period of the Session—the month of Au-
gust—when a number of Bills were suddenly brought in,
some of them mischievous and unconstitutional, others of a
jobbing character, but many of them harmless, and which
met with no opposition. They appeared as if introduced
to make up in number what was wanting in efficiency or
value —( Hear, hear.) Was he expressing himself too
strongly ? There was first, the Municipal Police Bill,
which conferred a patronage of 54,000/. on the Secretor)
of State for the Home Department, and he would ask their
Lordships whether that was not of au unconstitutional cha-
racter, when it abolished trial by jury in certain cases, and
in particular descriptions of offences. It vested all power
in a Magistrate paid by the Crown, appointed by the
Crown, and dismissible by the Crown at pleasure. Such
was the fruit of the Reformed House of Commons. That
13111 had been sent up to their Lordships, who had most wisely
and constitutionally, in his ( Lord Lyndhurst's) opinion.
struck out the appointment of these Magistrates by the
Crown. Another Bill, to which the attention of their
Lordships had been directed, was the increase of the salary
of the Judge of the Admiralty Court to 4,000/., and by which
one of the most strenuous partizans and supporters of the
present Government had a seat secured to him in the
other House. Their Lordships had very properly rejected
that measure. Then there was ono of the most scandalous
jobs that had ever been presented to the consideration of
' their Lordships—he alluded to the sale of Spirits ( Ire-
land) Bill. It appeared that a Bill had been introduced
into the other llouse for mere electioneering purposes,
and that Bill, being distasteful to the House of Commons,
and no chance of its passing, what course was advisable to
be adopted ? The Chancellor of the. Exchequer had a
Bill relating to the sale of spirits in Ireland, as he had ob.
served, and that Bill having passed through its various
stages up to its third reading, then it was that the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer allowed the person who had
charge of and had introduced the other, to engraft the
whole of its provisions in the Sale of Spirits Bill ; and it
was thus passed by as base a contrivance as bad ever oc-
curred in the history of legislation. It was un-
necessary for him to add 'that the trick was dis-
covered, and the Bill thrown out by their Lord-
ships. The object was evidently to conciliate the
patron of the former Bill on the Bank of Ireland
Bill, but shabbiness of that kind always failed, and it
failed signally in that instance, for when the measure rela-
tive to the Bank of Ireland came on, that person turned
round and assailed it, although it was a measure of so
much importance, that a Government should have rather
retired from office than see themselves defeated on it. The
other Bills were merely the sweepings of the office, anti
were dealt out like cards by the-Noble Marquis, who ap-
peared to have superseded all the others, and to take upon
himself all the duties and the business of the Government.
Such was the history of the Government proceedings
during the present Session. But there were three Bills,
some of which were still before their Lordships, that
called for some observation—he meant the Manchester,
Bolton, and Birmingham Police Bills. Why, he would ask,
were these measures to be passed in Parliament?—because the
Ministers in granting Charters to these towns had been
so careless and indifferent to the validity of these charters
that they were utterly useless, and were now under the
consideration of the Courts of Law. These Bills, there-
fore, were necessary in consequence of the bungling of the
Ministers themselves, and they were not entitled to take
any praise for having introduced them. But unfortunately
they had become necessary for other purposes, and on ac-
count of the tumults and disturbances that had taken place
in the northern parts of the island, for which he considered
that Ministers were completely and entirely responsible.—
( Hear, hear.) It was they first roused the people—it was
they first sent forth the watch-word, " agitate, agitate, agi.
tate !" It was they who were responsible for the
consequences of that agitation which they had
found so convenient up to a certain point, and
so necessary to maintain them in power —they
wished the flood to roll's° far and no farther, and that there
the proud waves should be stayed. But, in cases of this
kind, it was much easier to let loose the tempest than to
enchain or direct it afterwards. In every period of the
worlo's history the same results had followed. Ambitious
men had made use of the multitude for their own purposes
and to promote their own objects. They were raised into
power on the shoulders of the people, and then when
tumults and violence ensued, and they were firmly seated
in power, it became necessary that the people should be
discountenanced, coerced, and restrained, and then their
deluded followers found out, for the first time, that they
had been the dupes and the victims of these who had on
former occasions been prodigal of praise and fine promises.
The present Government was in that position. They
could all remember that proceeding, when the Noble
Lord at the head of the Home Department received an
address from 150,000 men assembled in the neighbour.
hood of Birmingham. With what affected humility, for
" Lowliness is young ambition's ladder,"

did the Noble Lord receive that address. lie was utterly
undeserving of it ; lie was full of gratitude for the honour
they had done him, and then the Noble Lord drew a pa-
rallel between the proceedings of that meeting and their
Lordships' proceedings, which all must recollect, designat-
ing the one as the voice of a nation, and the other as " the
whisper of a faction." Were they astonished at the re-
sults? They were only those which might naturally be
expected to flow from the proceedings of the Government,
and he ( Lord Lyndhurst) would have been much more as-
tonished if it had been otherwise. lie bad now gone through
the business of the Session, so far as his recollection served
him. lie had executed his task with plainness and sim-
plicity, as had been always his habit, and he trusted he had
done, it with scrupulous accuracy, and without the slightest
exaggeration_ ; and he now. put it to their Lordships to say
whether a Ministry which had thus conducted itself
in matters of legislation for the last eight months, could
be said to enjoy the confidence ;of Parliament or of the
country—whether they were capable of conducting the
affairs of that mighty empire in- a manner suitable to
its wants and necessities, and in a manner which the
people were entitled to expect from them as Ministers
of the Crown ? He was confident as to what would be
the verdict of their Lordships. He had now discharged
his task—he had discharged it to the best of his ability,
and he would conclude by moving for a return of the
Bills which had come up to the House of Lords since
the commencement of the present Session, with the dates
at which they had been respectively brought up.
The Noble and Learned Lord had sat down amidst
loud cries of " Hear, hear," and cheering, from the Op-
position side of the House.
Viscount MELBOURNE said the Noble and Learned
Lord had delivered himself of his usual criminal charge at
the end of a Session, and after enumerating all the cir-
cumstances of the Session, he said he left the whole mat-
ter to their Lordships' judgment and for their decision,
but he brought it forward in such a shape as to preclude
them from coming to any dec:si.m upon it. It was brought
forward, and the Noble and Learned Lord did not deny
that his real meaning and object was to foster any discon-
tent that might be found in the country with the conduct
of Ministers—it was to make out a case against them ;
and possibly the Noble and Learned Lord had some hope
thereby to raise himself in the esteem of his fellow-subjects.
He might be able to show that they were unfit to hold the
reins of Government—he might succeed in showing they
were unfit for power—all that ho xnight be able to do,
lout as to obtaining for himself any credit in the country—
as to his gaining character or confidence for hin,self oriany
that party which! followed him, should they by ar y unfor-
tunate chance he recalled to power, if he had ten times the
at,ilitie;,—if his eloquence were ten times more poweifil,
he would-utterly fail in effecting so herculean and impos-
sible a task. He said the Ministers were unable to govern,
to conduct the business of the country, and he then re-
fe; r2d to what had fallen from the Noble-Duke opposite
when the 'Reform Bill was under consideration, viz. if' the