The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-07 00:00:00

PRICE 7D.

The address, following the words of the speech, ex-
pressed the satisfaction of their Lordships that the ar-
rangements hid been followed by a treaty between
the five Powers and the King of the Belgians, and
it expressed their Lordships' hope, that the King of
the Netherlands would see the necessity of acceding to
an arrangement in which the five Powers had unani-
mously concurred, and whisk bad been framed with
the most careful and impartial attention to all the in-
terests concerned. Now, he hoped that it was not the in-
tention of his Majesty's Ministers, that their Lordships
should comment upon matters with which they were not
as yet fully acquainted, and which had not been regularly
brought before them; and yet there was something in the
address which might be considered as having this effect,
without some slight alteration in the wording of it. As
to the treaty between the King of the Belgians and the five
Powers, be did not know whether he ought to express
satisfaction with it or not, as he at present knew nothing
about it. Their Lordships could not properly express sa-
tisfaction with it till it had been laid regularly before them.
And then, as to the hope that the King of the Nether-
lands, would see the necessity of acceding to an arrange-

ment which had been framed with a careful and impartial
attention to all the interests concerned, he knew not whether

the arrangement bad been so framed or not, and therefore he
could give no opinion upon it. But then the address
might be so worded in the next stage, as that all might
concur in it, as he was so unwilling to disturb the unani-
mity of their Lordships, that he would not move any altera-
tion at present. Having said thus much, he did not feel
himself called upon to make any further observations on
the address.

Earl GREY—He had no objection to the alteration
proposed by the Noble Earl. Certainly it was not meant
to pledge Noble Lords to any opinion on anything that
they had not full opportunity of considering.
The Earl of ELDON—He had intended, when be came
down to the House, not to say one word on the present
occasion. But he felt extremely distressed at what the
Noble Lord who seconded the address had said with re-

.pest to the Reform Bill of last session. Their Lord-
ships now had nothing to de with that Bill, and there was
nothing whatever in the address that pledged their Lord-
ships to adopt any Bill similar to the Bill of last session.
But even if it should be a similar Bill, or even the same

Bill, it would still be their Lordships' duty to consider it.
But at present they knew nothing about the Bill to be in-
troduced in the present session ; and, as to the Bill of last
session, that was extinct; and to make observations on
that Bill was one of the most irregular proceedings that he
had ever heard of. But everything which the Noble Lord
had said on the subject of reference, had a reference to
that Bill. He had said last session, that the passing of
that Bill would have the effect of destroying that House,

and-trenchingmost perniciously on the prerogative of the
Crown. Perhaps he might have been wrong, but that was
his opinion. But then he said, that although he could not
approve of that measure of Reform, be did not mean to
pledge himself against any other measure of Reform that
might be adopted consistently with the interests of the
Crown, of both Houses of Parliament, and of the people ;
and whatever measure should be proposed, it would be their
duty to consider it and make up their minds as to whe-
thor it ought to be rejected or received. But they had
now nothing whatever to do with the Bill of last session,
and their duty was, merely to give the most attentive con-
sideration to any measure which his Majesty's servants
►night lay before them. The Noble Lord was totally out
of order, when, in seconding the address, he thought
proper, in almost every thing he said, to refer to the
Bill of last session. With respect to the measure of Re-
form to be proposed this session, it was his conscientious
opinion that such a measure ought to be proposed as their
Lordships might conscientiously assent to. Ile could not
here help expressing his surprise, that in the course of the
last three months nothing bad been said or done with re-
spect to a publication, called " The Black List." Was
such a publication ever before suffered to pais without
animadversion ? It was there stated that be himself, ever
since he had a seat in that House, bad been receiving

54,000/. annually out of the taxes. He wished these
black list people would tell him where he could get it.
And then they said that a nephew of his—meaning a
brother of his—who was now eighty-seven years of age,
and whom they chose to call nephew, had 4,000/. a year
out of the taxes; whereas, in reality, he had not one far-
thing out of the taxes. In the same manner others of
their Lordships had been represented as receiving mil-
lions from the taxes who did not receive one farthing
from them ; and yet these things were suffered to pass
without animadversion.
Lord DINORBEN said a few words in explanation.
The Earl of ABERDEEN wished merely to make a
few observations on one or two parts of his Majesty's
speech, and of the address which had been moved in
answer to it. In that speech his Majesty stated that,
although a treaty similar to that which had been concluded
between the Five Powers and the King of the Belgians
had not yet been agreed to by the King of the Netherlands,
he trusted the period was not distant when that Sovereign
would nee the necessity of acceding to an arrangement in
which the Plenipotentiaries of the Five Powers had unani-
mously concurred. Now he (Lord Aberdeen) must say,
that he should be exceedingly surprised if the King of the
Netherlands should be found disposed to accede to an ar-
rangement by which the free navigation of the canals of his
kingdom was granted to the people of Belgium. To so
unjust and unreasonable a proposition it appeared to him
to be impossible to expect that the King of the Nether-
lands would be disposed to yield his consent. In the
first place, the subject to which that article of the treaty
related was not one of those subjects which properly came
under the consideration of the Conference of the Five
Powers. The King of the Netherlands had called en the
Five Powers to arbitrate between him and the inhabi-
tants of his revolted provinces. By the conduct pur-
sued on the part of the Five Powers, however, the
King of the Netherlands bad not only been reduced to
the necessity of abandoning his revolted provinces, but was
actually required to give permission to the inhabitants of
those provinces to navigate the canals of his own proper
territory ! Why, they might as well insist upon the King
of the Netherlands allowing them a free passage through
his palaces. The canals were the private rights of the
people of the Netherlands. The course which has been
pursued upon this subject had placed the King of the Ne-
therlands in a situation much worse than that from which
the Five Powers had professed to extricate him. In his
(Lord Aberdeen's) opinion, the article to which be referred
was as impolitic as it was unjust. He was willing to ad•
mit, that to other parts of the treaty, more especially to
those which related to the arrangement of the debt, the
concurrence of the King of the Netherlands might be
reasonably expected. But the Five Powers had ren-
dered it impossible for the King of the Ne-
therlands to assent to the whole treaty, in
consequence of the introduction of this obnoxious
article ; for the proposition had raised such a strong and
general feeling of indignation throughout Holland, and had
united the people of that country so completely with their
Sovereign in opposition to it, that he was enabled to de-
clare, that in resisting so unjust a measure he was sup-
ported by the whole body of his subjects. It was, there-
fore, most unwise, with a view to obtaining the accession
of the King of the Netherlands to the treaty, to arm him
with the unanimous support of his people in opposition to
it; and never, he (Lord Aberdeen) believed, in the history
of the world, had the people of any country been more
unanimous on any subject than the people of Holland
were at the present moment en the subject in question•
How, therefore, his Majesty's Government could count on
the King of the Netherlands' accession to the treaty he knew
not ; but this he knew, that he should be exceedingly sur-
prised to hear of that accession. However, as the address
did not call upon their Lordships to express any opinion
with respect to the articles of that treaty, he was enabled
to assent to that part of it which adverted to the sub-
ject. There was another part of his Majesty's speech,
and of the address which had been moved by his Noble
Friend, to which he bad no objection, although he cer-
tainly did not understand the course which his Majesty's
Government were taking upon that point. He alluded to
Portugal. He would not then enter into any investigation of
opportunities(tthi
did not
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speech The conduct of the Portuguese Government
and the repeated injuries to which my subjects have beet)
exposed, have prevented a renewal of my diplomatic ar-
rangements with that kingdom." It was undoubtedly
true that British subjects had been exposed to injuries it:
Portugal, but for those injuries redress had been afforded.
Nor could those injuries be fairly attributed to the Govern-