The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-03 00:00:00

... a
question respectine• the pension of Sir John Newport
and a third time did the House affirm its want of con
fidence. They had proved that they had no confi•
Bence in their, economy—no confidence in their
wisdom, and a very small degree of confidence in their
political integrity. The Government, however, had suf-
ficient to shuffle through the House the remainder of the
Session. Was it confidence in their weakness or in
their strength ?-', Was it confidence in their love of
country or confidence iii their love of place ? The Go-
vernment having declared their intention to -relinquish
their attempts to purify the system of registration in
Ireland, the Noble Lord the Member for North Lanca-
shire brought foi•ward his Bill, and upon several occa-
sions obtained a majority of that House against the Go-
vernment. He was at last defeated, not by the
votes but by the speeches of those Members, who
sought to delay what they could not otherwise defeat.
So closed the Session of 1840, and then came that of
1841 ; and in that Session surely the Noble Lord must
have felt that the confidence which the House reposed
in him was at a' very low ebb indeed, for he failed in
almost every question which he brought forward. In
the present Session; then, what was he to do for the pur-
pose of gaining the favour he had lost ? Why, he
brought a Bill into the House which was to give a new
constitution to Ireland. Had the Noble Lord the con-
fidence of the House on that occasion ? No, he was defeated,
and then came the Budget of the Chancellor of the Ex •
chequer, and the proposition for cheap sugar, cheap
corn, and cheap timber. Why, he would ask, were they
to have measures brought forward which, two years ago,
some of the colleagues of the Noble Lord had declared
to be madness to think of. Those who supported the
Noble Lord in his proposition with respect to the Corn-
laws did it not from a supposition that they would be
benefited by a protective duty, but under the hope that,
from the weakness of the Noble Lord, they would be en-
abled to obtain a total repeal of the Corn-laws.—(Cheers.)
Did the Noble Lord, he would' ask, remain in office now
for the purpose of carrying on the real business of the
country ? No;
,it was only for the purpose of bringing
on debates on such subjects as the Corn-laws for
the purpose of exciting turbulence and disaffection
throughout the country.—(Heari hear.) Was the Noble
Lord holding office for the purpose of fighting the battles
of the Crown against the House of Commons, because it
had encroached upon its prerogatives ? He was doing
no such thing. Ile was remaining in office in order that
he might mae the representatives odious to the repre-
sented.—(Cheers.) He trusted that the Noble Lord
would pause ere he attempted to carry out the course he
seemed determined to pursue. He hoped the Noble Lord
had some regard for posthumous fame, and he thought
that he was likely to attain it through the instrumentality of
the Hon. Member for Finsbury. They had heard of Whig
and Tory Administrations ; they had heard of Broad-
bottom and Reform Administrations, the latter of which,
in the hands of the present Government, had dwindled
down to what the Hon. Member for Finsbury had called" the
Squeezable Administration."—(Laughter.) He thought
if the Noble Lord continued to pursue the course he
was now attempting to carry out, lie and his colleagues,
instead of being called " the squeezable," would be de-
nominated the wicked Administration. In conclusion
he begged to say that he supported most cordially the
resolution proposed by his Right Hon. Friend.
Dr. LUSHINGTON thought that the House would
not be surprisek_ when it recollected the circumstances
which had recently taken place, at the part which he had
thought it his duty to take, and the vote which he then gave.
He thought the House would not be surprised that he
was most anxious, on the present occasion, to explain
and defend the course which •he had thought it his
humble duty to take on a late occasion. Nothing was
further from his intention than to refer back to the de-
bate which occupied the House so many days ; by what
he then stated he was ready to abide—(Hear, hear)—by
the reasons he then offered, he was ready to stand—he
repented not of the part he then took—he would not re-
argue the question, but he would re-affirm the statements
he had then made.—(Hear, hear.) He should, however,
deprecate the course taken, both on one side of the
House and the other, with respect to the agitation of the
question. He denied, on the part of his Right Hon. Friend,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer that he had a right to
combine together questions which stood under very dif-
ferent circumstances, saving to the Members of the
House that they should take them as a whole. He re-
pudiated that which fell from the Right Hon. Bart. in
the course of the debate, when he said that the question
was a vote of confidence or not. He had a right to address
that observation to those who were his supporters, and
he would not have the meanness to shrink from the vote
he intended to give. But he declared now as then, that
uponithe merits of the question his vote was alone d -
termined. With respect to the motion of the Right
Hon. Baronet, notwithstanding all that had been said by
the Hon. Member for Hull, he (l)r. Lushington) would
still adhere to Whig principles.—(Hear.) When they
were speaking of the great principles advocated by Fox
and Grey, it was not to those who had repudiated those
principles that they were to look to see if they were
maintained, but it was to those who had never failed to
support them. It was not to the Noble Lord the Mem-
ber for North Lancashire, who had left his friends on
that side of the House, or the Right Hon. Baronet the
Member for Pembroke, to charge them with defection
from those principles. Let Hon. Members look to the
father of the House of Commons, and several other Mem-
bers, and they would see that there had not been a single
defection. The same observation would epply equally to
the House of Lords, for there the conduct of the late Lord
Holland had shown the true Whig principle still existed.
They were not to be displaced by mere assertions from
the position they occupied—they were to be judged by
those who were beet acquainted with their principles,
and also by the country. The Right Hon. Baronet had
said, that in retaining office the present Ministers were
acting against the spirit of the Constitution. He (1)r.
Lushington) could not help observing, that throughout
the whole speech of the Right Hon. Gentleman there
was an apparent wish to avoid the true question.—
Tt-le Bight Hon. Gentleman well knew that
(thCehesoelres.) question We:" whether, looking at all the circum•
stances of the case, her Majesty's Government ought to
resin office, or appeal to the people ? In every
instance to which the Right Hon. Baronet had referred,
there was this clear line of 4111411P4tion, that wherever
there had been a resignation in eonsecinenPe of not com-
manding a majority in that Hotly, there bad boon an
absolute impossibility of dissolving Parliament, Such
was the case in the time of Sir Robert Walpole ; so In the
Administration of 1807, In that year what said Mr.
Canning ? Why, thut he ticked nil their votes ; that
he would stand by the Crown, and appeal to the people,
and he was just in a- situation to -cio so, Til INIIO the
Ricrlit Honourable Baronet was defeated, and in
1835 he forestalled a dissolution, because he
could not, with the slightest probability of
success, have called a new Parliament together.
Now what was the case with respect to the present Par-
liament ? It had sat four years, and during that period
many great measures had been bronalit forward by her
Majesty's Government. In some of them they bad been
defeated, and in some they had succeeded, and he (I)t',
Lushington) • wanted to know whether, speaking as to
the principles of the Constitution, it was not competent
to her Majesty's Government, though they were judges
in their own case, as every Ministry must be when they
dissolved Parliament—lie wanted to know what prevented
them from
they had done, and what they had attempted to
do, and then calling upon the country to emn-
pare their principles with those who must
succeed them if they were displaced ? In the course of
the present debate he had heard with surprise Hon.
Members state that because other Iron, Members dif-
fered from the Government on one topic that they were
bound to differ from them in all. Ile was surprised to hear
it stated that such a course should have been pursued by
the Noble Lord the Member for Lincolnshire, and that
it should be said that he ought to have assisted to put men
into power whose principles he had opposed through life.
If an important principle had not been involved In the ques-
tion, he would have followed the usual course, and yielded his
judgment to those with whom ke generally acted, But upon
groat and important questions, men ware justified in acting
upon separate and independent principles. Bet because he p)
voted, was he to recant the principles he had maintained
form his earliest days ?—( Hear, hear.) He did not mean
any disrepect to the Right Hon. Baronet and those by whom
he was surrounded, hut. he could not avoid limiting at the con-
sequences which a change in the Government would produce,
He could not help tutninz his thoughts in the first Instance to
Ireland. Two year 3 ago the Right Hon. Gentleman had 544,
" Sly difficulty is not Canada--my difficulty is Ireland."—
( Hear, hear.) If he thought the Right Hon. Baronet would
be allowed to pur-us the dictates of Isis own sound understand-
ing, he might perhaps express leap alarm. But how was Ire-
land governed now ? In accordance with the w fishes and feel.
ings of the great majority of the people.-4Cheprs.)
With prosperity, which might be but slowly increasing?
and with peace and tranquillity, which if is t entire was yet
greatly beyond what it had ever enjoyad,—(iirar, hear,) If
the Right Hon. Baronet came into power what would be the
first consequence? Why he must govern Ireland by the aid
and assistance of the remnant of a party in opposition to the
great majority of the population. Look at the Irish Registra-
tion Bill proposed by tho Noble Lord opposite—its objects
were to diminish the already too scanty tranchisp of Ireland i
the consequences would be that the preaont proptgity Gnu .4
not be maintained—confidence could not exist—the peace of
the country would be districted, or could not be maintained
except by force of arms.—(Hear, hear.) If he passed to
other considerations he confessed the same views forced them-
selves upon his mind ; the Right Hon. Baronet had spoken of
France, and reserved tR himself the right to offer an opinion
as to whether it was not thrOugh the policy of the Govern•
ment that that great country had beat estranged front its
bends of amity with England. But he asked which party was
most likely to 'restore peace and amity between the two
ponntries 7 A government which, in the •opinion of the world,
and it 'gold uqt he denied en the opposite side
of the House, was ene which for man); yekri had been the sup-
portersof the despotic policy pf Genpapy, 041'Erus.si, and
—or the party which had declarod awry thi advocate Of

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