The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-08 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, DEF. 7.

Their Lordships met to-day at One o'clock for the pur-
pose of going up with the address, after which their Lord-
ships adjourned till to-morrow.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, DEC. 7.
At Four o'clock the SPEAKER. took his scat, when he
_ .

read the usual sessional orders, which were agreed to.
Mr. WARBURTON gave notice that on Thursday he
would move for the production of returns; relative to the

cholera morbus.
Petitions were presented complaining of undue elec-
tions for the county of Dorset, for Forfar, and for the
town of Drogheda. They were ordered to be taken into
consideration on Monday, Dec. 26.
THE YORKSHIRE PETITION.
(The above petition, which was of an enormous bulk,
was carried into the blou•e by two messengers.)
Lord ALTHORP said he had been entrusted with a
petition from the county of York in favour of Radiomen •
tary Reform, and he felt much honoured by this mark of
the confidence reposed in him by the petitioners. From
the magnitude of the petition, the House must be
aware of the great difficulty he would have in the
ordinary mode of presenting it. There were between
140,000 and 150,000 signatures attached to it, and the
petitioners prayed that in any Reform Bill which might
be brought forward during the present Parliament, the
House would not depart from the main principles of the
Bill brought forward in the last session, and they prayed
for its speedy despatch. In presenting it to the House,
the Noble Lord said he most cordially concurred in its
prayer. He should be exceedingly sorry- if any Bill should
be presented or proposed to the House which should de-
part from the principles of the last Bill, and whatever
improvements might he made in the detail, he hoped and
trusted that when it was introduced, it would be found
that Ministers bad redeemed their pledge.—(Cheers.)

It was not desirable that be should at present enter at
greater length into the subject, and be concluded by ex-
pressing the satisfaction and gratification he experienced
in being intrusted by such a great and important county
with a petition expressive of their sentiments.—(Hear.)
Lord MORPETH said it was unnecessary for him to
say much relative to the petition, after what had been
said by his Noble Friend. The very form and bulk of the
petition were the weightiest arguments in its favour.
That petition was the answer which the county of York
had given to the imputation of a re-action in the country.
--(Cheers.) In addition to what had fallen from the
Noble Lord (Althorp), lie had only to say that be attended
the meeting at which the petition was adopted, and from
which it was circulated throughout the county for
signature, with the particular request that the name
of no person whatever should be affixed to it who
was not of full age, and could not write his name—the
number of signatures, therefore, not only showed the great
ardour for Reform, but the extended sway of the school-
master.—(Hear.) The meeting had been held on the
first rejection of the Bill, and when disgraceful outrages
were taking place in some other Farts of the country, but
no assembly of men could evince more firmness or
temperance than did the freeholders of Yorkshire at
that great meeting.—(Hear, hear, hear.) The number
of signatures, as stated by his Noble Friend, exceeded
140,000, and they were all obtained within the narrow
space of six days. There was one request of the peti-
tioners, in which be (Lord Morpeth) felt strong sym•

pathy, although it was not very complimentary to those
gentlemen who had delivered long speeches ; it was the
prayer that not only the Bill, containing all the essentials
of the last Bill, be introduced, but that it may be passed
with the least possible delay. Although be knew that no
man had a right to interfere with the free latitude and
the free discussion of Members in this House, yet he
begged to remind the House that it was from the delay
caused by those long speeches that there had resulted a
great stagnation of business, a great decrease of employ-
ment, awl much individual suffering, which was now on
the increase ; much greater delay, he feared, would but
augment those evils.
Mr. CROKER would not have made a single observa-
tion on the presentation of this petition, but for the latter
observation of the Noble Lord who spoke last. That
Noble Lord attributed all the delay, and all the stagnation
of business, to the long speeches which had been deli-
vered last session. He could tell the Noble Lord that he
was mistaken in his facts, and mistaken also in his deduc-
tions. The delay in the Committee did not arise from
the opponents of the Bill.—(Loud cries of " Hear" from
the Opposition.) It arose in a considerable degree, and
he would say also in a meritorious•degree, on the part of
many of the Reformers, who thought it necessary to intro-
duce some amendments in the Bill. During the debates,
he (Mr. Croker) introduced a proposition for which the
Noble Lord himself voted—a proposition that went
to prevent a most gross act of injustice being com-
mitted. So it had (lectured with many other errors.
It was well for the Noble Lord to complain of Mem-
bers making long speeches, when on the very
night of last session it was not the fault of the Noble Lord
that he did not himself treat the House with a long
speech.—(Laughter.) He (Mr. Croker) now repeated
what he had said last night, and be did not mean any
reproach when he said so, that it was the first agitation of
the Reform Bill that occasioned the stagnation of trade.
—(Hear.) Whether or no the Reform Bill be the cause
of the stagnation, or whether it be caused by the delay,
he would prophecy that, should the Bill be carried, there
would not only he a greater stagnation of trade, but also a
great convulsion of all the old established institutions of
the country.
Mr. STRICKLAND could not let the present oppor-
tunity pass without bearing testimony to the respectability
of the meeting at which the petition was agreed to. He
thought it would be the means of convincing any person who
would be convinced,of the fallacious notion that any re-action
had taken place in the country with respect to the Reform
Bill. In his opinion the greatest advantages were likely
to result from that question being brought to a speedy ter-
mination, for when a question occupied the public mind
as this had done, the sooner it was concluded the
better. He had no doubt that the measure intended
to be proposed by his Majesty's Ministers would go a
great way in effecting the happiness and prosperity of the
country.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HUNT denied that he had ever stated there was a
re-action in the minds of the people of England with re-
spect to Refocus. What he had stated was that a re-
action had taken place as to his Majesty's Ministers' plan
of Reform. He had been to several public meetings, and
should wish very much to know by bow many signatures
the petition from Leeds was signed ?
Mr. EVANS stated 22,000 p:,rsons.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HUNT would take upon himself to say that every
person signing the petition wanted much more than the
petition prayed for. He thought it an extremely erro-
neous notion to suppose that such petitions as had been
presented front York were proofs that no re-action
had taker place in the minds of the people with
reference to the plan of his Majesty's Ministers. He had
attended a meeting at Huddersfield, and with but two ex-
ceptions they disapproved of the measure of Mini-
sters. They wished, however, for more than that
measure gave them ; in fact they wished for something
for themselves.—(Cheers.) He did nut mean to say for
a moment that the public were not in favour of
Reform, and he had hoped the Honourable Gentlemen
sitting on the aide of the House be did, would have
been the advocates of a much greater Reform than that
introduced by his Majesty's Ministers—(Loud cheer-
ing)--and he thought he was justified in that hope
by what had been stated by the Honourable Member
for Tamworth, who bad observed that he would
rather advocate the extended measure proposed
by the Hon. Member for Presten than the one brought for-
ward by Ministers. He had no doubt that nineteen out of
twenty who had signed that petition had signed it merely
because it was in favour of Reform, without understanding
what the plan of Reform was. The petition was then
read, and ordered to be printed.
Mr. HUNT presented a petition from the inhabitants
of Failsworth, near Manchester, praying that the Rev.
Robert Taylor's confinement might be mitigated.
Mr. G. VERNON presented a petition from a parish
in Nottingham in favour of the proposed plan of Reform.
Lord MORPETII presented is petition from Wakefield,
agreed to at a most numerous and respectable meeting, to
the same effect as the one from Yorkshire.
Mr. CROKER wished to know the number of signa-
tures to that petition?
Lord MORPETH observed, 2,700.
Mr. CROKER said lie thought there must be very few
of the rural inhabitants left to sign when the numbers were
considered that had signed the York petition, the 22,000
who had signed the Leeds one, the 2,700 from Wakefield,
and other places.
Lord ALTHORP observed that the Hon. Member had
forgotten that Northallerton could furnish 1,700 sig-
natures.
Mr. CROKER felt surprised that the new borough
of Northallerton, than which there never was a greater
job, the extent of which was to b seventeen miles, could
not furnish more than 1,700 signatures.—(Cheers.)
Lord ALTHORP observed that it was no job on the
part of those who then sat on that side of the House.
Sir J. C. HOBHOUSE moved for certain returns re-