The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-21 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

Mr. H. BERKELEY presented 18 petitions from Bristol
in favour of Parliamentary reform.
Sir GEORGE STRICKLAND presented several petitions
from Preston, praying for an extension of the suffrage, and for
a reduction in the national expenditure.
ELECTION OF BISHOPS.
Mr. GLADSTONE presented a petition from several
bodies of clergy residing in the West of England, praying for
an alteration of the law with respect to the present mode of
eleci log bishops.

_
N AVIGATION-L A W S.;
Mr. CARDWELL presented several petitions from Liver-
pool against any alteration in the navigation-laws.
BOROUGH ELECTIONS BILL.
Colonel SIBTHORP inquired of the Secretary for the Home
Department whether it was likely the Borough Elections Bill
would be further considered by the House to-morrow ?
Sir G. GREY said he should not like to state positively that
the Bill would not be brought under the consideration of the
House to-morrow, but he begged to remind the Hon. and
Gallant Member that the adjourned debate on the West Indian
question would take precedence of the Bill.
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND—DISMISSAL OF A JUDGE.
Mr. ANSTEY gave notice that he should renew his
motion, which was dropped last night, on the House being
counted out relative to the dismissal of a judge in Van Die-
men's Land. He also gave notice that be ahould put a ques-
tion to the Under-Secretary for the Colonies relative to a dis-
crepancy between the statement which he made last night and
that made on Monday night, concerning the recent dispatches
which had been received from the Governor of Van Diemen's
Land.

SUSPENDED WRITS.—CHELTENHAM.
Mr. STAFFORD moved that Mr. Speaker do issue his
warrant to the Clerk of the Crown, to make out a new writ
for the electing of a burgess to serve in this present Parlia-
ment for the borough of Cheltenham, in the room of Sir
Willoughby Jones, Hart., whose election has been determined
to be void. The Hon. Member stated that the total popula-
tion of the boroughs with respect to which writs had been
suspended, amounted to 147,103 persons, and that the total
number of registered electors in those boroughs was 10,122;
and he was of opinion that it was most unconstitutional and
unfair that so great a number of persons should be disfran-
chised as they were at present, in consequence of the illegal
acts and proceedings of only a small portion of the electoral
body.
Mr. ANSTEY seconded the motion.

Mr. MO WATT hoped that before going to a division,
the Government would give the House some idea of the
course they intended to pursue, for at present they were quite
in the dark. He held that it was most unconstitutional that
this House should take on itself the functions of the three
estates, and keep;several constituencies unrepresented in Par-
liament.

Sir GEORGE GREY said that the Honourable Member
called upon him to state what the intentions of the Government
were with respect to suspended writs. He could not afford the
Hon. Member the information he desired, because these were
cases in which every Hon. Member should follow that course
which his own judgment prompted him to pursue. With re-
spect to this ease, he found that the Committee had not re-
ported that cases of bribery had extensively occurred here, and
although he was not prepared to lend his voice to the con-
tinuance of that system, until the opinion of the majority of
this House should decide upon the subject, still he would not op-
pose the issuisig of this writ. The Bill which had reference to
these cases would shortly be brought before the House, but in
the meantime, therefore, he saw no reason why a writ should
not issue for the election of a Member for the borough of
Cheltenham at this time.

Mr. GORING gave notice that, in the event of a writ being
issued for Cheltenham, he should to-morrow move that a writ
issue for the borough of Horsham.

Sir J HANDIER said there were many precedents for the
non-reissue of the writs for boroughs where these offences were
proved to have been committed. These had been cited as occur-
ring in the reign of William 111. He would referthe House to
the reign of Charles 1., when Parliament were op-
posing all aggressions on their liberties, and then
the House decided that the Lord Keeper had
not the power of issuing his writ until the sanc-
tion of the House should have been obtained. He
thought that the House should lay down some rule in cases
like this, and until that were done, he thought this writ ought
to be suspended.
Mr. ADDERLEY hoped the Hon. Baronet would not
oppose the issuing of this writ, because the offences, trifling
as they were, might be alleged against every borough.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD said that although he had formerly
opposed the issuing of these writs, yet until he saw some inten-
tion on the part of the House to ”ring in a Bill to amend the
matter he should not be a party to the depriving so many con-
stituencies of a voice in Parliament.
Mr. SLANEY rose, and was
(LEFT SPEAKING.)