The Sun.
London, England, 1836-07-12 00:00:00

7_ At 'ItlX,.

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 12, 1836.

07t, I
9',13
11%

The Registration of Births' Bill, and the Marriages'
Bill, were last night brought under the consideration
of the House of Lords by Viscount MELBOURNE,
who moved the second reading of them ; which was
agreed to, though not before Lord ELLENBOROUGH
had vented his party spleen in one of the most ab-
surd, ill-reasoned speeches ever made in the House of
Lords. This is high praise, but the Noble Baron is
every way deserving of it. We cannot bate a jot in
our eulogium. His opposition to the Bills—which,
as we have often before made them the subject of com-
ment in The Sun, we need not here pause to explain
—was grounded on the assumption that they
would be injurious to the interests of the poor
" The Marriage Bill," said his Lordship,
would make marriage to the poor man more ex-
pensive and inconvenient than under the present
law." The Noble Baron is certainly good au-
thority on matrimonial matters, having himself
.figured conspicuously some few years since in the cha-
racter of Benedick ; still, despite his practical ac-
quaintanc,:: with the subject, we cannot at all hold
with his autkritative dictum. The Bill will in no
way injure the intrests of the poorer classes of
the community ; on the contrary, it will greatly
benefit them, while it will ?;rove an efficient
remedy for a grievance universally compianed of. But
even supposing it were otherwise, how is it that his
Lordship has become all of a sudden so vehement an
advocate for the tights of the poor ? He was not so
during the great popular struggle for Reform ; still
less so when Lord BROUGHAM'S proposal for render-
ing justice cheap and expeditious was negatived by
the Tory Peers ; he was aristocratic enough on both
these occasions ; and for him now to come forward,
forgetful of the past, in the character of the poor
man's friend, argues a degree of impudence as
nearly approaching to the supernatural, as the imper-
fect limits of human nature will allow. But these
specious clap-traps are by no means uncommon in the
House of Lords, who, whenever they meditate a de-
nial of the just claims of the middle and lower classes,
always usher in their design by expressing the warmest
attachment to them ; just as a Russian Manifesto,
abounding in words of peace and forgiveness, used in-
variably to precede a fresh slaughter of the Polish Pa-
trots. If Lord ELLENBOROUGH really desir,

rnan.

'e to

become the poor man's friend, let him at once resign
his sinecure of nine thousand per annum, drawn from
the sweat of the poor man's brow. This will show
that he is sincere in his professions ; but, we confess,
we doubt his readiness make such a sacrifice.

We had another capital specimen of hereditary legis-
lation last night. On the motion of the Lord CH AN-
CELLOR, that the House should proceed to the second
reading of the Bill for the Abolition of Imprisonment
for Debt, the Duke of WELLINGTON, who on this
occasion acted as the locum tenens of the learned,
" alien-by-birth" Baron, moved as an amendment '
that the Bill be read a second time that day
three weeks. The Noble Duke did this, as he him-
self stated, for the purpose of putting an extin-

Mr. DANIEL WHITTLE HARVEY has done a
very wise act, and written a very foolish letter to ac-
count for it. It was very certain that the Hon. Mem-
ber could not have been returned again for the bo-
rough of Southwark, and therefore he acted like a pru-
dent man in resigning his seat, while that resignation
carried with it the grace of being voluntary. But we
are sorry to be obliged to say that the reasons which
he has assigned to his constituents and the public for
thus " closing his political career," are not such as,
when coupled with his late conduct, can induce any
thinking person to believe that Mr. HARVEY is
what he holds himself, out to be—" too fond of
the right to pursue the expedient." "Expediency,"
says the Honourable Member for Southwark, with
oracular solemnity, "is the compass of party ; but
I have ever repudiated its guidance, from the conviction
that public men are bound to pursue the dictates of
duty, without regard to partial or incidental evils."
Now, if by this Mr. HARVEY means that it is
the duty of a public man to refuse his support
to any and every measure, which does not come
up exactly to the theoretical standard of perfection
which he has established in his own mind, we say that
such a man is an impracticable fool, totally unfit to
represent any other constituents than the inmates of
a lunatic asylum. We are sure, however, this is not
Mr. HARVEY'S meaning, because it is directly contrary
to his own practice. He has made no secret of his
political principles ; he has on occasions innumerable
avowed himself a thorough-going Radical—we should,
perhaps, rather say an ultra-Radical ; yet he has, we
believe, supported, both by speeches and votes, the
Government which he now finds out is only "by
courtesy a reforming Government." Even on the very
question at which he lately shied—the Irish Church
question—he voted with Ministers last year, when, no
doubt, his sense of duty told him it was expedient that
he should do so ; although, by a process of ratiocina-
tion which we do not quite understand, he vindicates
his desertion of the cause this year by his regard to
consistency. Would it not have been more consistent
to have voted as he did in 1835 ; or at least ought he
not, in his own vindication, to have pointed out the
circumstances which had so altered the state of the
question as to demand a different course ?

Again, Mr. HARVEY dissents from the " entire
policy of the Government, as temporizing and timid."
When did he make this discovery ? Is not the policy
of the Government far less temporizing and timid—if
these words must be used—than when the present
Ministers came into office, and when they had his
hearty support ? As to the construction of the House
of Commons, we regret with Mr. HARVEY that there
should be so many Tories in that House ; but that, so
far from being a good reason for Liberal IVlcmbers re-
signing their seats, is the very reason why they ought
to maintain them, and do all in their power to defeat
the enemies of every thing that bears the stamp of
liberality.

As to the personal motives which Mr. HARVEY
brings forward, we allow them their full force. No
man, be his patriotism ever so ardent, ought to be ex-
pected to sacrifice 3,000/. a-year in the public service,
more particularly if he have already spent 30,000/. in
the cause, without any hope or chance of being reim-
bursed. NI e shall only add that we observe Mr.
HARVEY addresses his constituents as if they had called
him to account for following the " dictates of duty ;"
whereas, at the only Meeting of the electors which took

place to consider his conduct, he appeared, made his
defence, was triumphantly acquitted of all blame, and
declared to be as worthy as ever of their confidence I
We now bid Mr. HARVEY adieu, and wish him all

tat he promises himself in his retirement from public
re ; and, above all, protection from that which a

popular advocate, it would seem, holds in the greatest
abhorrence—" the restless and unreasonable meddli n?-s
of popular discontent."

We congratulate the country at large, and our rail-
way friends in particular, on the doom which was so
strongly shadowed forth in the House of Commons
last ni,g;:t, in reference to the Railway Revision (21'
Tolls Bill.

Sir ROBERT PEEL avowed his determination of
opposing the Bill on principle—and we are sure that
four-fifths of the House wiil, this night, join the
Right Hon. Baronet in indignantly refusing to cajole
extensive proprietors, to impede enterprise and indus-
try in the country, by substituting a twenty-one years
lease, or any other lease of years, for permanent rights
and privileges, already granted by Parliament.
It seems to us that this proceeding can only be se-
riously supported by two classes of persons—theorizing
Utilitarians, who, having no money to adventure in
great enterprises, deny the enjoyment of occasional
prizes to those who earn them by an expenditure
,of
much capital, toil, and talent—and by fox-hunting
Aristocrats, who, having long exercised dominion as
lords of the soil, would now control our locomotion,
and treat capitalists, who provide it for the public, as
though they were their own,ferrE naturee.
The simple fact is, the Tolls of Railways are all
limited to about half the present cost of conveyance ;
and all recent Acts have been granted after a more
Jealous scrutiny than was exercised in any previous
session. Whilst we earnestly hope a final quietus Will
to-night be given to this meddling, unhinging Bill of
Mr. MORRISON, we almost suspect his advocacy of it
has noi O 9 much arisen from his love of chesnuts, as
that other parties, fc,^ring they were hot, used the
Hon. Member as a cat's-paN) to extract the nuts from
the fire.

As friends of the Government, we speak advisedly,
when we caution Ministers against either interfering
themselves, or using any other person ; but, above
all, against being urged to interference in the Matter

gusher on the measure for the present Session,
comforting himself with the anticipation that Noble
Lords would by that time he released from the
amazingly laborious duties which have almost entirely
consumed their strength, and be enjoying the pleasures
of rural felicity. We are sorry that these happy vi-
sions should have been so cruelly dissipated by the
declaration of Lord MELBOURNE, who stated be had
no reason to think that the present session would be
much shorter than its immediate predecessors.
But be that as it may, the Duke carried his point.
The Bill was rejected.

The public are well acquainted with the objects of
this Bill. One of these objects is to make the law of
debtor and creditor, which is now an instrument of
cruel oppression,' more consistent with the law of hu-
►nanity and the rights of freemen. Another is to give
the creditor more po.ver over the property, and less
over the person, of his unfortunate debtor. Of
the means by which these important objects
are to be accomplished it is not necessary for us to
say any thing, as-no objection seemed to be made to
the principle of the Bill, and Noble Lords would not
have compromised themselves on the details by as-
senting to the second reading. But they have, no
doubt, their " reasons " for the course they
have pursued in this instance, as in so many
others. They know not what it is to be immured in
a gaol for debt. They cannot suffer in their noble and
hereditary persons, and they are loath to subject their
property to the just claims or their creditors. They
have no sympathy with the people: in this or in any
other respet.