The Sun.
London, England, 1835-02-25 00:00:00

ception made as against the late advisers of the Crown in
reference to the commercial affairs of this great country.
The revenues were flourishing—trade was most prosperous—
an eulogium was delivered upon the happy state of our com-
mercial concerns, and the clearest evidences were afforded of
the general prosperity of the country, without a particle of
blame being attached to—without the least imaginable impu-
tation being cast en—the policy of the late AAiinistration. It
was not for a single moment pretended that the dismissal of the
late Administration arose from any incapacity on their parts;
it was not from any want of success in their measures;
it was not from any failure of any sort or description that on
the 14th of last November the late Administration was dis-
solved. How had the Noble Duke opposite endeavoured to
account for that dissolution ? He told their Lordships that a
Noble Lord, now a: Member of that House, had, previously to
the month of November, enjoyed in an eminent degree the
confidence of the late House of Commons. Now, this w:astin
argument which he ( Lord Brougham) wished to put even more
strongly for the Noble Duke than he himself had put it.
That argument amounted to this—that Lord Althorp possessed
to an unprecedented degree the confidence of the House of
Commons ; that there never was bestowed upon any Minister
more of the love, the respect, the confidence of the representa-
tives of the people, than upon the late Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer ; with the almost unrivalled eloquence of Pitt, with
the gigantic powers of debate, and of every other sort and kind
possessed by Fox, with the long experience of Sir Robert
Walpole, and the many high qualities which secured to that
Minister so much power in the House of Commons—not
one of those distinguished men enjoyed anything like the
pre-eminence to which Lord Althorp bad attained.—( Loud
cheers.) In numbering Sir Robert Walpole with those
whom he had named before him, he was not giving that
Minister more than his deserts ; true, he had occasionally
spoken lightly of matters which in an improved and purer age
were looked upon seriously ; he had therefore laid himself
open to the animadversion of those who were far less honest :
he was still a great Minister, and worthy to be named with
some of the greatest ; but not even he with all his great ser-
vices to the Crown, with all the favour he obtained and de-
served from the country, not even he, and not one of his
successors now enumerated, had ever attained to so large a
share of the confidence of the House of Commons as that pos-
sessed by Lord Althorp. If he did not fear that his saying
so might be imputed to the influence of private friendship, he
would say that Lord Althorp personally and individually en-
joyed more of the confidence of the House of Commons than
any one of his predecessors. He felt that in saying this he
was putting the argument very strongly for the Noble Duke,
and he would, if ho could, put it stronger; and, now, what
did it amount to ? The Noble Duke affirmed that the late
Ministry could not go on. By what tenure did they hold their
offices ? did they hold them par outer vie? had they no
estate in theiri but for the life of another, and that other one
having no connexion with them ? According to the Noble
Duke, it was not an estate for the life of the King nor the life
of the Parliament, they did not hold their places during good
behaviour, nor during pleasure, nor as long as they were effi-
cient, nor upon condition of their measures being attended
with success—no such thing ; they held them simply during
the natural life of the late Lord Spencer, and no longer, that
Noble Earl being then 78 years of age. The position contended
for on the other side was this, that the moment Lord Spencer
ceased to exist that moment the Administration must cease to
_exist likewise. Upon whose authority did that statement
rest ? The House must have been surprised to learn that this
assertion was made upon the authority of Lord Grey ; he
regretted to name him ; he regretted his not having yet taken
the oaths and his seat permitted his being named in that
House. Their Lordship's could not fail to have observed that
all of a sudden that Noble Earl had become a great and para-
mount authority on the other side of the House. He had been
spoken of by the Noble Duke as the Noble Earl who had so
worthily filled the office of Prime Minister, forgetting how that
Noble Earl had been often charged with nothing less than na-
tional robbery—how often he had been threatened with im-
peachment—of what exaggerated accusations he had been
made the subject—with what invective he had been assailed
out of doors, and how he had been vituperated within, the
walls of that House ; that Noble Earl denounced as the au-
thor of a revolutionary bill,—as responsible for the revolution-
ary dissolution of Parliament,—as having sown with a broad
cast the seeds of revolution,—as having aimed, by means of
popular excitement, at the destruction of all legitimate govern-
ment, of the House of Lords, and of the monarchy—was now
in a moment an authority of the highest order. All those
topics of vituperation, all those causes of animosity, were laid
as rest pulveris exigui jactu. All faults were now forgotten,
and his Noble Friend's authority was held to be decisive, anti
according to the Noble Duke did decide the question, the argu-
ment standing thus—because Lord Grey said that Lord Al-
thorp was the right hand of the Administration, it was in-
stantly concluded that the Government could no longer be
carried on. It seemed to have been held by the noble Duke
that he (Lord Brougham) :and his colleagues wee guilty of
great presumption in attempting to carry on the Government ;
and, as their Lordships must recollect, the authority of Lord
Grey was quoted on behalf of this most remarkable argument.
How strongly did such a mode of discussion remind him of the
way in which texts of Scripture were quoted and twisted to
serve the temporary purpose of an argument ? Now, if the
authority of the Noble Lord were good for any thing, it was
equally good throughout—if wise, be could not be wise on
one question only, and of no value upon all the others. If the
Noble Duke might quote him, so might he (Lord Brougham. )
A single exception in his favour could not be allowed, and if
his name be made to serve tae ix-7)=a of one side of the House,
why not those of the other? He should most unhesitatingly use
tl.e authority of his Noble Friend as the Noble ha,l dnn?„.
:de begged of ma Aotate Duke not tol}o alarmed at his passing
over one part of the discussion, to which, at his own convenience,
with the permission of their Lordships, he should presently refer.
Here some allusion wasmade by the Noble and Learned Lord,as
as we understood, to the election of Speaker, upon which the
Duke of Wellington intimated that that vote was not of so
much moment as had been represented.) Theta the Noble
Duke would like to have an amendment upon the address car-
ried by a majority of 10, or if by a majority of 40, it would
be four times as good.—( A laugh.) Would not the Noble Duke
.allow him to use the authority of the Noble Earl. What !
would the idol be worshipped only for a single occasion, and
The image of the god be broken and cast away? It was time
to tell, or rather to remind, the House of what that Noble
Earl had said in the presence of 2,800 persons, who had heard
his declaration, and by whom it was echoed and applauded.
At that time, be it remembered that Earl Spencer was four
months older than on the occasion when Earl Grey spoke of
Lord Althorp as the right hand of the Administration. That
Noble Earl said of the Tories Non meus hic sermo ; his words
a ere. " The Tories are ashamed of their name, and have
'haltered themselves under the title of Conservatives." He
did not quarrel with them for that ; one name was as good as
another, and he hoped that they would be good Conservatives,
notwithstanding the reforming mood, under the influence of
which they were supposed to act. His Noble friend, on the
occasion to which he referred, further said, " Those persons
fancy they can take the Government. Let them only try it."
He could observe that some Noble Lords opposite might ima-
gine that that observation was intended as advice to the Con-
servative party to assume the Government.—( A laugh.) It
would be quite of a piece with the argument by which it was
attempted to fix the responsibility of forming the new Govern-
ment upon his Noble Friend near him, because, and for that
reason only, his servant had carried a letter to London from
Sir H. Taylor to Sir H. Wheatley. Was there anything
that could more completely expose the animus with which
the discussion was carried on, than the manner in which
that part of the argument was used? "They take the Go-
wernment ! Let them try it, and see what the country and what
the House of •Commons will do." The idea was absolutely hope-
less—it was ridiculously impossible. As to the value of Lord Al-
thorp in the House of Commons, it was not overrated by Lord
Grey : at the same time the death of Lord Spencer, though most
unfortunate, was not unexpected. The advisers of the Crown at
that time looked forward repeatedly to that event, and canvassed it
in every point of view. As men of prudence—of ordinary prudence,
they must have most deeply felt the loss—not, as the Noble Duke
seemed to think, the total loss to the Ministry of Lord Althorp to
the Administration, but his removal from one House to the other.
He repeated, that the total loss of Lord Altborp to the Cabinet,
great as it might be, was not contemplated, but even for that event
they were fully prepared; on that point they had not the slightest
hesitation; jt was a subject upon which they entertained not a par-
ticle of doubt, and those who represented them as having any dif.
ference of opinion w;!treference to it made a most false representa-
tion, and still more false was the representation of those who had
dared to represent, in the rose of known facts, that his Noble
Friend near him had ever expre,;_sed to his Majesty a shadow of
doubt as to the practicability of gang on with the govern-
ment, even though it should sustain such .
a loss as that of
Lord Althorp.—( Hear, hear.) Those persons woo madg such
representaions, if deceived, were most grossly deceived--if they
fancied them true, their imaginations were in a state ap-
proaching very closely to unsoundness ; but if they invented
those falsehoods, and, knowing them to be false, propagated
them, there was no language which he could utter in the presence
of their Lordships that would adequately express his opinion
of the total want of good faith which marked such conduct.—
Whether the whole proceeded from an affection of the brain, or
whether it was one of those tales the responsibility of which could
not be affixed to any individual, by reason of one portion being re-
presented and the residue invented, gaining in its progress as it
passed from one to another, so that no single relator could be held
responsible for the entire—whether it were so or otherwise, this at
least was true, that the whole began and ended in London, that
there was not a colourable pretext for it, that there was "not a she-
' dow of a shade" of reason upon which it could rest, that there
never had been a question out of the city where he then addressed
them. What, then, became of the whole argument ? It fell dead
:to the ground. But then the authority of Lord Grey was quoted
tv show that he had in effect advised the King to break up the Go-
vernment ; but he hoped their Lordships would remember that there
never had been an admission on their part that they were not pre-
pared to continue and carry on the Government. Their opponents,
howevs,n-, told them that they knew better than the Members of the
Government themselves, for they thought that the Government
could not. be carried on, and their opinion must be received as de-
cisive. The Noble Duke opposite had put the question thus—Was
Lord Grey Ole only person to have an opinion, and was the King
not to judge ? He would meet the Noble Duke upon that ground.
—(Hear, hear.) To change and to choose itt Ministers was the
undoubted prerogative of the Crown.—( Hear.) Let their Lord-
ships only look at the meaning of that. In every State the filling up
of offices was in some way or other provided for. A monarchy
.did riot allow of elections : from the Monarch himself, down
through all the gradations of office, appointments were not elective
in this ,country. It was evident, then, that the power of nomina-
tion must be vested in some competent authority. In whom had
the constitution of this country vested itiat authority, and for what
purposes? Priviarily in the Monarch, for t;,.; good of the com-
munity at large is, was a thing not to be used amusement ;
it was not to be used as an idle or a pampered man might eitZ:ise
the right of sending away his servants without notice and choosing
others ; and he need scarcely suggest that the man who exercised
that right capriciously would be all the worse served for indulging
his whims. If men of that description turned off their servants
for no assignable cause and without notice—if they so made fools
of themselves, they must pay for it. The Constitution invested
the King with the prerogative of choosing his advisers, not for the
purposes of his own gratification—nor for ,the advantage of a part