The Sun.
London, England, 1831-03-03 00:00:00

influence, to intern Mc/libels to the House of Commons, I
that Peer was amt only guilty of a gross breach +elf the pri-
vileges of the House, but subjected himself also to an in-
elictmeret at law.—(Cheers.) They bad been told that
Cie people would remonstrate against the measure now
prcisosed by the Government. Was it possible that the
ratlemen who told them this could 'be sincere ?—that
'they could really believe what they Raid ? If so, let them
but wait a little while—let them see whether the Cettienon-
hall which was to meet is -morrow—let them see whether
the people who might assemble in 'various parts of the
country would re-echo the sentiments of the mourners at
the funeral of the defunct Member for Boroughbridge, and
murmur and remonstrance that it was proposed to Ogee
upon them a better system of representation.--(Chters.)
A Noble Lord had told them that the proposed measure
ought to be brought in, and that it ought to be widely
circulated, in order that the people might deliberate
and pronounce upon it. There could be ne possible ob-
jection to this, only let him express his hope that the
Noble Lord, and all those who had cheered this sentiment
of the Noble Lord's, would submit to the test fel' which
they called.—(Cheers.)—Let him express hie, hope, that
when the people had considered and tramounced upon the
measure, those who desired that the people sheeid have
the opportunity of doing so would submit to the decision
of the people.—(Cheers.)—Most willireaty would he sub-
mit the proposed measure to the judgment of the people ;
most ready would he be to egeee that the decision 'el- the
people upon it ought to he final. The clieraCter of the
people of England was *ell known,. and it was not their
character to approve and applawa acts of spoliation and
robbery; but let him tell his non. and Learned Friend
that it was not by his repeating over and over again the
words robbery and spoliation, sometimes with violent and
'sometimes with humorous accompaniments, that the
people of England would he led to reject a measure like the
present. His Hon. and Learned Friend had talked about the
boroughs that were to be cashiered, about the Right Hon.
the Paymaster of the Fortes, and about military law and
military measures, but though his lion. and Learned
Friend had rung the changes upon these expressions so
frequently, to what did they amount in soberness anti rea-
son, and argument, and when divested of the humour with
which his Hon. and Learned Friend bad clothed them,--
except that the present Government had brought forward
a measure of Reform which they thought necessary foe- the
people, and that that measure had been introduced to
the House in a very able speech by a Noble Lord, who
had always been a steady and distinguished advocate for
Reform, and who happened now to fill the situation of
Paymaster of the Forces.—(Cheers.)—lt was not consis-
tent with the fact to say that the people of this country
had been a happy people for the last century ; for, on
the contrary, it was true thit, during that time, they had
suffered much and severely from measures of that House,
which could never have passed into laws if the people had
been fairly represented in Parliament.—( Hear, hear.)__
Again let him say that Peers had no right whatsoever to
send Members into that House, and that if they did so,
they did it as the Nabob of Arcot formerly had his repre-
sentatives there, to attend to his interests ; and as any
Prince, or Noble or other person, in any part of the world
might have representatives there if moderate caution and
secrecy were exercised, Then, as to the question which
his Hon. and Learned Friend had so chivalrously and
triumphantly challenged him to answer,---namely, where
any lawyer could find a precedent in support of the mea-
teur
e now proposed. He would tell his Hon. and Learned
Friend, in a word, where he found a precedent. He
proved it in the measure which passed only two years
ago, and which disfranchised half the voters in Ireland.—
(Hear, hear.)—That measure passed through this House
with only a very small minority against it, and among that
minority he had not been able to find the name of his Hon.
and Learned Friend.—(Cheers and laughter.)—His Hon.
and Learned Friend required that his questions should he
replied to, and called for answers to his arguments ; but
how had his Hon. and Learned Friend treated the argu-
ments which had been furnished him by preceding
speakers ? His Hon. and Learned Friend had given
no other answer to the arguments contained in the bril-
liant speech of the Hou. Member for Caine, except
that they were nonsense, and that he would only nail
them to the table, as a baker nailed a bad shilling to his
counter. Now he must say that this, though it might he
a very lordly and a very humourous mode of proceeding,
Was neither a very convincing nor a very sensible one.—
(Hear, hear.)—:Hush bad been said by his Hon. and
Learned Friend, and by others, about producing a revolu-
tion, and about revolutionary measures. NOW if he thought
that this measure was calculated to lead to a revolution
or to produce a convulsion, no man would struggle against
it with more zeal and determination than lie would. In
his conscience, however, he did believe that it was a mea-
sure in strict accordance with the spirit of the Constitu-
tion: and in his conscience also he did believe that it was
the only mode of preventing a revolution.—(Hear, hear.)
—They bad been told to look at the proceedings which
ha finitely occurred in France, but did any sane man sup-
j!oae it possible that the expelled dynasty could last one
tingle moment after having fired upon and shed the blood
!the people.—(Cheers.)—lnstead of looking at the pro-
ceedings of the French people with horror, he could con-
sider what they had done only as an act of justice, and as
an act committed in self-defence.—(Hear, hear, hear.)._
He would at once admit, with as much sincerity as he
lamented, the fact, that the French people appeared more
competent to gain a victory than to improve one, and he
was sorry that they had not imitated the example which
had been set them by his own countrymen when they
effected their permanent and glorious, and bloodless Re-
volution of 1688,—( Hear, hear, hear )—lt was, how.
cv(r, idle to compare the proceedings of the French people
with those of the Belgians. The revolution which had
taken place in Belgium, he Iselieved to be a wanton
and a useless revolution. They all knew that it had
this defect—namely, that it had been polluted by
plunder, and it had not prospered. He would not detain
the House with dwelling upon these topics, which he
should not have touched upon had they not been brought
forward by others. In taking leave of them, however,
be must observe, that, in his opinion, nothing could be
more senseless, nothing more irrational, nothing more ab-
solutely absurd, than to compare the measure now sub-
mitted to the House on the subject of Reform, either to
the revolution in France or to the revolution in Belgium.
—(Cheers.) One observation which had fallen from his
Hon. and Learned Friend had, he must say, struck him as
being singularly unfair,—but that had been answered by
speakers who had preceded him, a', indeed, all his other
arguments had been answered,—only the sentences of his
lion. and Learned Friend seemed to have been prepared
and moulded for the purpose of delivery, and so they were
delivered without reference to the arguments which had
answered them by anticipation.—(Hear, bear.) The ob-
servation of his Hon. and Learned Friend to which he
alluded, was that which regarded the boroughs, which it
was not proposed to disfranchise. His Hon. and Learned
Friend had asked why Caine, and Tavistock, and other bo •
roughs, were to be allowed to retain their franchise ? The
answer was plain and obvious, and had already been given
to his Hon. and Learned Friend, and it was this—namely,
that it was necessary to draw sonic line of distinction ; that
if Caine and Tavistock had been on one side that line, they
would have been disfranchised ; but that, being on the
other side the line, they were allowed to retain their fran-
chise. But to retain it how ? Not as a close corporation,
but under a system of fair election. The only other argu-
ment which he felt it necessary to advert to, was the ar-
gument founded on the fact, that boroughs hail returned
many great and eminent men to Parliament. Trite it was
that such men had sat for boroughs; but let him ask,
had not the borough system excluded others ?—and, above
all, let him put it to any reasoning being whether the
people of England ought to remain satisfied to depend
upon such accidents as these for the chance of finding men
who would represent their interests in Parliament.—
(Hear, hear.)—He would not, at this late hour, detain
the House farther. He knew that he had risen under
great disadvantage in coming after so litminous a speech
as that which had been delivered by his Hon. and Learned
Friend—a speech, however, which he hail no doubt was
indebted, for much of the popularity it had acquired, to
the sympathy of Hon. Gentlemen who felt themselves to
be much in the same situation with the about-to-he-
defunct Member for Boroughbridge, as his Hon. and
Learned Friend called himself.—(Cheers and laughter.)—
According to the view of his Hon. and Learned Friend,
he (Sir C. Wetherell) would go out of the House a vic-
tim of injustice, while he (the Attorney-General) was to
leave it as the tyrannical Attorney-General, who had been
employed by a Profligate and disgraceful Government to
revolutionise the country.—(Hear and laughter.)--Pro-
bably his Hon. and Learned Friend would recal this flat-
tering character which
bestowed upon him. Be
that, however, as it might, he cheerfully threw himself
upon the judgment of the House and of the country.—
(Cheers.)—And although Boroughbridge might disappear,
and he might go out of the House as well as his Hon. and
Learned Friend, he had very little doubt that they should
both of them find constituents who would send them back
to that House, there to fight in friendly contest those
battles which he was sure that he and his Hon. and
Learned Friend were equally desirous should terminate in
advantage to the country.—(Cheers.)
Mr. G. BANKES moved that the debate be adjourned
till this day at five o'clock.
The motion was agreed to, and the House adjourned at
Half-past 04e o'clock.