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

.• _ _
power.; that was not the case in the present instance ; the
opposition to Mr. Pitt was a personal opposition ; there was
nothing personal to the Ministers. in-the present opposi-
tion, and Mr. Pitt did not appeal to the country with any
clap-ta-ap measure. He did nut raise tjae clap-trap cry of
" Cheap Bread," or " Down with the "Itoroughnaongers."
Lie appealed to the country to give him a fair trial, and
they did so. With regard to the inconvenience of such a
motion he would ask,ought any: dministration to hold office
when they had been so repeatedly beaten in the House of
Commons. In this country there were no questions on which
the mob were more easily excited than on questions of the
franchise. The turbulence excited by the Reform Bill
had scarcely yet subsided, and the- Noble Lord had
stated he would not sanction a repetition of any appeal
to popular fears and popular wishes; yet what wero these
measures but an appeal to popular fears and popular
wishes? The Noble Lord would not stir up the caul-
dron himself ; but he would put plenty of hot coals
under, and when the cauldron began to bubble be would
tell the Conservative party to put in their fingers and
pull out the hot coals, in hopes that they would burn
them—(Cheers)—and the Conservatives would do so—
(Cheers from the Ministerial benches}—without fear of
burning their fingers, for the sake of their country.—
With the general principles professed by Lord Melbourne,
with regard to the Corn-laws only two years ago, it was
surprising to see the present conduct of Ministers. Their
conduct had lost them the confidence of the House, and
they had not the confidence of the country. His party
was the one which appealed to the country on the ground
of their consistent opposition to every democratic en-
croachment. The Whigs must disappear, and the con-
test must come between the advocates of religion
and the Monarchy and those of the democracy ; and he
hoped it would end in the signal victory of the friends of
religion and monarchy ; the sooner that contest came the
better.—(Cheers.) Had the Ministers the confidence of
the Church, of the army, of the navy, of the law,
of the gentry, of the commercial interest, of the
colonial interest ? Look at Canada, where a rebellion
had been raised by the conduct of the Government.
and the advice given to the Canadians by a Gentleman, a
Member of that House. However they might have the
confidence of those manufacturers who hoped to benefit
by a repeal of the Corn-laws, We did not believe they.
had the confidence of the working men; and their at-
tempt to rouse the energies of the country by repre-
senting the aristocracy as tyrants would not succeed.—
(Cheers.) They knew that the cry of cheap bread meant
low wages.
Mr. VALLACE had never heard such a rambling
speech as that which the Noble Lord the Member for
Tyrone had delivered, jumbling all parts of the habit-
able world together, even to the mixing up of the case of
Syria with the disputes existing in the Scotch Church,
and which the Hon.. Member who last spoke had praised.
What did he mean by attributing the Arms Bill and
the Irish Coercion Bill to the present Government ?
Those Bills had been brought forward by the Noble Lord
the Member for •North Lancashire. By whom had the
Coercion Bill been proposed? Why, by the Noble Lord
the Member for North Lancashire.
Lord STANLEY.7--No, no. By Lord Althorp.—
(Cheers from the Tories.)
Mr. WALLACE—At all events the Noble Lord was
the concoct er and the supporter of it. But by whom had
the Arms Bill been proposed ?—(Cheers.)
Lord STANLEY.—By Lord John Russell.—(Cheers
and laughter from the Opposition.)
Mr. WALLACE begged to say that he perfectly recol-
lected the introduction of the Bill into the House by the
Noble Lord the Member for North Lancashire ; and he
also remembered that Noble Lord proposing one of the
most obnoxious and disgraceful provisions in it, which was
that every man should have his name engraved on the
arms he might have in his possession.—(Cheers.) Allu-
sion had been made to the mention of the Queen's
name. Now the Queen's name had been abused,
but by whom?—by Gentlemen on the other side, at Can-
terbury and elsewhere. (Loud Ministerial cheers.)
When 1.3. r Majesty had expressed her determination to
see equal justice,. done to all her subjects in Ireland, the
Irish had made use' of the Queen's name, with admira-
tion at her noble conduct.—(Loud cheers.) But that
name had been mentioned with every possible epithet of
abuse by Gentlemen on the other side.—(" No, no," from
the Opposition.) Hon. Gentlemen might say " No, no,"
but he would say " Yes, yes"—(Cheers);--an he d
ould ras a proof
that he was right in saying " Yes, yes, w
them to Canterbury and many other places.—(Loud
cheers.)' The Hon. Gentleman had designated the Reform
Bill as a swindle.
Sir WALTER JAMES—I did not designate the
Reform Bill as a swindle—l stated it was the Hon. and
Learned Member for Dublin who had so designated it.
Mr. WALLACE understood, then, that the Hon.
Gentleman had not called the Reform Bill a swindle,
and should not pursue that point further. With regard
to what the Hon. Gentleman had said respecting the
Noble Lord's (the Member for Stroud) former opinions,
he (Mr. Wallace) had always regretted that the Noble
Lord should have published such opinions ; but, at all
events, the Noble Lord was pursuing the right course
now, and while he did so he should have his (Mr. Wal-.
lace's) support. The Right Hon. Baronet the Member
for Tamworth, as an excuse for not stating what mea-
sures he would propose, had alluded to the difficulties in
which he was placed, and asked for time for deliberation.
Why he had had three years for deliberation, for
during the whole of that time he had been
anxiously seeking the overthrow of the Government;
and he (Mr. Wallace) should not, before these measures
had been proposed, have been very sorry if he had suc-
ceeded, but now that they were proposing measures
which were really for the benefit of the country, he felt
bound to give them his support, and should be very sorry
to see the Right Hon. Baronet succeed against them. He
would not inquire into their sincerity.—(Hear, hear.)
The measures themselves were substantially good, and
he would give his vote for those measures. He firmly
believed that the agricultural as well as the manufacturing
class would be benefited by them. They knew very well
that the low wages they received would buy a much larger
quantity of wheat were that wheat cheaper, and
that so long as the landlords could maintain their
monopoly, they would never have cheap bread. The
mode of introducing corn at a fixed duty of Bs. was a
greater protection than the agriculturists had a right to
expect. With respect to the alteration in the postage,
of which so much had been said, there had been mani-
fested in that debate, by the Right Hon. Baronet the
Member for Tamworth, a degree of heartlessness and a
want of care for the working classes of this country, which
he had not expected to see in that House.—(Hear,
hear.) Not one word did lie say of the advantages
conferred upon the poor.--(Hear, hear.) If the Right
Honourable Baronet had inquired—but to do so per-
haps would be quite beneath his dignity—he would have
found that though there had been a failure in a certain
class 4:lf correspondence which was expected to pass
through the Post-office, there had been a great increase
in that class whkh it was chiefly intended to benefit.
In what was expee,!'d to pass through the office in a
printed form there ceriainly had been a great failure,
but in manuscript correspondeie the increase was con-
siderable. In the year 1839, in `he four weeks in
May, 1,619,765 letters passed throu' the Lon-
don office ; in the four weeks of May, .?84O;
there were 3,461,278, and in the four weeks
May, 1841, 5,236,210. It was also very gratifying to
see the increase in small sums of money sent through
the Post-office. The Noble Lord the Member for North
Lancashire's memory may perhaps serve to remind him
that when he sat on this side of the House, defending
the management of the Duke of Richmond as Post-
master-General, it was denied point blank that any
such office existed, in connexion with the Post-office, as
the money-order one ; but on his (Mr. Wallace) obtain-
ing a return t. show its locality and proceeds, it turned
out that Sir Francis Freeling endeavoured in vain to
conceal its existence, and that it was actually managed
by two of his favourite clerks, who were allowed to ,
pocket the whole proceeds, amounting, if he remembered
right, to some 6001. or 7001. a year. This discovery
might be taken as one small proof of the benefits of
agitation, for had it not been for his continual agitation
for exposing the gross mismanagement of the Post-office,
the great benefits conferred on the very poorest classes
by her Majesty's Government, in reducing the charges
on money orders, and giving great facility, as well as
encouragement to the able and industrious to. aid
their parents, friends, and families, when at a dis-
term, would never have been obtained.—(Hear,
and cheers.) The windows for money orders were
crowded with persons who were availing themselves of
that means to send money to their parents and others re -
s.aing in distant parts of the country. Mr. Wallace
concluded by stating his conviction that he would best
discharge his duty. by opposing the motion of the Right
iwyroiot:pedßucblioltedrute}tnnthite,rety,ooand by upholding the present Government
until the the proper time should arrive for taking the sense
rnoduerwtohhfei
cthihiei godchcalayysiboaennndefiltleehialttlrtihiinsetecaldisouanrgie. measures now
for Hull, whowliitandiiiilist sat' down, should receive his
full share, alonf,
difference betweenKaof the benefits which would accrue
from allowinc, i•he• , • eto judge with their eyes of the
I.e had no eoubt woulda
would
Luldsaid the
be
loaf
hoisted a
et Hull
ahlsmall a
s one,
h e which
should
a
takAeirg.ocoßdEcisirsewittaL• Greenock.—(Cheers.)
for Ireland, had contended that the
Lord,Government the Se e rheud a
large share of the confidence otf that House. He quite
agreed that they had as large a share as they deserved ;
but he could not admit that they had such a share as
made them fit to hold the reins of
maintained that they never had bee
N\n,hvfia Government.
w spneenetiheAa
snsde
nhi7e
chdi lister}'
i
bling of the present Parliament.
of the Government from the period when it succeeded thec
suee
expelling the Right Hon. Baronet from office ?
Hon. Baronet retired from office in consequence of thee
passing of the resolution, embodying the principle of
appropriation. For six long years had they held the
reins of office without carrying that principle. In 1835
and 1836, the principle was proposed, but it was finally
abandoned. In 1837, to gratify the enemies of the
Church, a scheme was propounded for the abolition of
the Church- rates, and the Noble Lord succeeded in car-
rying the resolution in support of that measure, by the
glorious majority of 287, against 282.—(11ear, hear.) If
they did not consider the measure essential, why seek to
deprive the Established Church of the sacred fabrics
in which they had paid their homage to the Deity, by
taking from it that support which it'had received beyond
di.) period of legal memory ? But the measure was
abandoned, In 1838, the Government brought in
a bill for settling the Irish Tithe question, and
in that bill they omitted the appropriation clause. Thus
had they shifted their ground from ti.SW to time. Having
passed this Tithe Bill, and abandoned the principle of
the rr.i.solution upon which they came into office, what
did they ne*t propose to satisfy the enemies of the
Church ? Why if# 1.139 the Government proposed a
whew tor eciacating the people, which was so unsatis-
^tory to the House ot (30.mniona that the Minister was
.
i,„
:' ke considerable modi6eutiom,
- agul p..t last
obliged to n .—Ana a majority of two Members in
he succeeded in obta_. • - .eeer met. Then came
memorable Jamaica Bill. What
one of the fullest Houses tha.,
witnh
intended nt
hdee do
Government
rnm conciliateent
were pa::: that m:B2
couldtonanotnapoillastseibtlhye
con-a.,
preparedie