The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-19 00:00:00

show thit truth in every case even of public libel would
not be a good justification, though he admitted that in ge-
•ne:al it ought to be allowed in public cases. The great
difficulty was to say what was a public and what a
private libel. He knew that it was actionable to say
that a man was unfit for his station or business in private
life ; but lie did not think it ought to be a libel to say
that a public man WdS not fit for the office he held, yet
he knew, as the law now stood, the contrary opinion was
held. In the case which had been mentioned by an hon.
member on a former evening, respecting Lord Hardwicke,
he knew it had been held to be a libel to say that that
noble lord was more qualified for breeding sheep and
cattle than anything else. This showed the difficulty, as
the law stood, of saying what was libel and what was
not, and showed the necessity of an inquiry on the subject,
and in the propriety of that inquiry he fully concurred.
The motion was then put and agreed to, and the follow-
tog committee appointed :
l'epys, C. Wynn, C. W. Clive, Robert
O'Connell, D. Abercromby, Right Ord, W. •
Vincent, Sir F. Hon. J. Lennard, 'l'. B.
Horne, Sir W. Simeon, Sir R. G. Shaw, F.
Peel, Sir R. Murray, J. A. Parker, J.
Scarlett, Sir James Pollock, F. Cooke, W.
Howick, Lord Tancred, H. W. Hill, M. D.
Spankie, Sergeant Denison, Evelyn Homily, J.
Perrin, Sergeant Rolfe, J. M. - Baines, E.
highs, Sir R. H. Roebuck, J. A.
Mr. O'COYNELL obtained leave to bring in a bill to
i:nprove the internal navigation of Ireland.
COVENTRY ELECTION.
Mr. HALCOMB said that at so late as hour he would
occupy very little of the time of the house in prefacing the
motion he was about to make for further proceedings in
the case of the riots at the Coventry election.—(Here the
lion. member went most elaborately and minutely into all
the immense mass of evidence that was taken before the
Coventry election committee relative to the riots that took
place at the contest for that city, and the whole of which
was so often discussed during the last session.) The hon.
member concluded by moving—
" That a Select Committee be appointed to make further in-
quiry into the proceedings at the General Election for the city
of Coventry in December, 1832, and to consider and report to
this House thereon, and upon the best means of providing for
the future prevention of riots, and for preserving the peace and
freedom of election, at Coventry ; and that such Committee
be chosen by ballot, two members being appointed by this
house."

Sir OSWALD MOSLEY, the chairman, to whose
report the hon. and learned member had been adverting,
stated, that the report having been laid on the table of the
house, and published, it did not appear to him that there
was any earthly reason for any further proceeding. With
respect to the riot and outrages which had been described
by the hon. and learned member for Dover, they had been
occasioned by the circumstance that there was but one
booth for the polling, and that one of the parties having
taken possession of that booth, was very naturally attacked
by the other party. This was the only cause of what
had occurred. At the last election, booths had been
erected at different places in the city of Coventry, and the
election went off peaceably. In his opinion, the motion
was ill-timed and unnecessary.
Mr. HALCOMB disclaimed any intention of throwing
the slightest imputation on the proceedings, or on the
report of the committee.
Mr. H. L. BULWER declare I that if he believed he
held his seat in that house in consequence of such
violence as had been described by the hon. member for
Dover, he should be ashamed to stay there, and would
walk out of the house immediately. The hon. member
(Mr. Bulwer) proceeded to read various p trts of the
evidence, in order to show that the statement of the hon.
member for Dover was entirely an ex parte one ; and even
that the witnesses who had been examined to prove the
violence which had occurred, had given contradictory
evidence ; some saying that that violence continued during
the whole day, and others that it was over in five
minutes. After some further observations explanatory
of the real circumstances of the evidence, he concluded by
expressing his hope that the good feeling of the hon.
member for Dover would induce him to withdraw his
motion. .

Sir GEORGE GREY expressed his surprise that the
hon. member for Dover, who professed himself t) be of
no party, should call for the opinion of the house by
stating only the evidence on one side of the question—
keeping Itie evidence on the other side totally out of view.
The hon. member (Sir George Grey) proceeded to refer
to other evidence contained in the report, and also to docu-
mentary evidence in the report, in order to show that the
actual facts were very different from what they had been
represented to be by the hon. and learned member for
Dover.

Mr. HALCOMB denied that he had stated only one
side of the question, or that he was desirous to make an
unfair impression on the house.
Mr. MARK PHILLIPS attached (in accordance with
the report of the committee) the blame to the Sheriffs as
Returning Officers, for not taking necessary precautions.
He (lid not see, after the evidence of the peaceable election
which had taken place i❑ April, and the precautions
established by the Reform Bill, any necessity for special
legislation with regard to that borough.
Mr. WYNN objected to the decision of a S:lect Com-
mittee being re—opened. He regretted that a teport, con-
veying such strong censure as this, should have ben
allowed to be on the table of the house without being taken
up, and the Returning Officers called to the bar. If the
house passed over the gross violence which had taken
place at the election for this city, it would be as injurious
to the cause of purity of election as if it had passed over in-
stallers of gross corruption.
After a few words from Mr. H. BULATEK and Lord
SANDON,
Tire SPEAKER put the question, when the motion was
negatived without a division.
Mr. HALCOMB then moved that his Majesty's At-
torney-General be directed to prosecute Richard Randall
for an offence proved against him, as appeared by the re-
port of the select committee on the Coventry election.
Mr. RUTH VEN seconded the motion.
Strangers were then ordered to withdraw, when there
appeared—
_

For the motion •
Against it
Majority
CAPTAIN ROSS

20

Lord SANDON, in the absence of Mr. C. Fergusson,
moved for a select committee, on the petition of Captain
John Ross, to inquire into the circumstances of his expe-
dition to the Arctic Regions, with a view to ascertain
what reward was fitting to be bestowed upon him by the
house.
The motion was agreed to, and the following committee
appointed :
Fergusson, It. C.
Peel, Sir It.
Inglis, Sir 11. 11.
Graham, SirJ. It. G

'Gladstone, W.

Mackenzie, J. A. S,

Talbot, F.
Brothertoa, J.
Bannerman,Ewar Evart, W .
Agnew, Sir A.
A. Tennent, J. E.
Stewart, E. Young G. F.
Robinson, G. R. Hughes, H.
Warburton, }l.a Sandon, Viscount
Stuart, Lord D. C. Labouchere, H.

llutt, W.
Aglionby, H. A.
Chapman, A.
Hardinge, Sir H.
Codrington, Sir E.
The Bribery at Elections Bill then went through corn
tnittee, and the report was ordered to be received o❑ Man
day next.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and
the house adjourned at two o'clock.

The Duke of Wellington again proceeded on
Monday from Apsley House, to resume the diversion of
bunting, at Stratbfieldsaye, with Mr. Fellowes's hounds.
His Grace has not received company at his chateau during
the List three weeks, but he has invited a party to spend
the Easter recess with him.
Mr. Valpy's illustrated edition of the " His-
tory of England " cannot fail to attract the attention of
the reading community. In size and price it corresponds
with his new edition of " Shakspeare," which it greatly
excels in the style and execution of the embellishments.
In noticing this economical and elegant edition of our
National History, the editors of some of the public jour.
nals appear to imagine that the work will be limited to a
reprint of the volumes of Hutne and Smollett : it should
therefore be generally understood that the History will be
continued from the reign of George 11. to 1835, by the
Rev. T. S. Hughes, of Cambridge, whose talents and im-
partiality eminently qualify him to become the historian
of the most eventful period in the annals of Britain. The
work will be comprised in nineteen monthly volumes, at
ss. each, and thus form the most complete History of Eag
laud every yet published. This new mode of periodical
publication consults the convenience of all classes, and may
induce many to peruse a volume monthly, who would
shrink from the ta,k of reading the work, it compelled to
await the completion of the whole series.
THE SEVEN TEMPTATIONS.—A book,
full of verse, from the pen of Mary Howitt, is one of the
few intellectual treats which these days of dull utility
afford. It is like a new-born delight to be beckoned out
of the town, as it were, into the green fields of poetry by
one so familiar with the spells of nature. This volume is
a bold attempt—the boldest in which the authoress has
yet adventured. We need not examine these animated
pictures in detail ; they are profusely loaded with beauties,
and replete with dramatic interest. The pictorial com-
binations of the scenes, the vigour of the dialogue, and
the general effects of the contrasts of character, justly
entitle them to the name of dramatic poems—a class of
coinrosition in which they will take a high rank.—
s.