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

06 --7. f--(
//z

ai-z

Henry Wheatley, at St. James's Pahuse. I will not deny
that I knew that that letter enclosed a letter to the Noble
Duke ; but when so requested, would it not have been the
most captious, churlish, ungracious conduct, if I had refused
to allow my servant to carry it, and if I had said No I send
a messenger of your own ?' And can any approbation of the act
of sending for the Duke be implied from the manner in which
I acted upon that occasion ?"
Lord BROUGHAM said he agreed with the Noble Lord
opposite as to the critical nature of the events which had
lately taken place, and therefore it was that he had put
himself forward to address their Lordships thus early. He
thought the Noble Duke manifestly misunderstood the sound
and constitutional proposition of his Noble Friend (Lord
Melbourne), when he (Lord Melbourne) stated that for the
dismissal of the late Ministry--he came at once to the main
chi; es they had in view—the change of Ministry and the
consequent dissolution of Parliament, without preface,—the
Noble Duke in taking office incurred the responsi-
bility. He also was responsible for the dissolution. The
Noble Duke, indeed, thought that he answered this con-
stitutional proposition by protesting solemnly---and he
(Lord Brougham) believed every tittle that he uttered—
that he knew nothing of this dismissal of the Ministry—that
he was ignorant of the motions and intentions of the Crown
and of the Court for upwards of two months, and that he was
surprised, very much surprised, when he received the intelli-
. ise ice—a surprise, however, which he afterwards compen-
diously qualified by declaring that he *as perfectly satisfied
the removal of Lord Althorp from the House of Commons
must produce some great change. In fact, the Noble Duke's
whole argument rested on a begging of the question—the
erdinary figure of logic, he must with all respect say, of which
the Noble Duke was wont to avail' himself in each and all of
the discussions of that assemblage. The Noble Duke as-
sumed, that the elevation of Lord Althorp must necessarily
have brought destruction upon the late Administration. The
Noble Duke said that he was perfectly unaware of the con-
templated change in his Majesty's councils. He had only a
general sort of notice of it, that notice resolving itself into the
circumstance of Lord Althorp's elevation to the upper house.
But he altogether mistook the proposition of his Noble Friend
Lord Melbourne). It was a high proposition of constitu-
tional law. His Noble Friend did not say that the Noble
Duke, de facto, recommended or advised the dismissal of the
Ministers. No such thing ! Was he at that time of day to
teach the Noble Duke, who had been for some 20 years a Ca-
einet Minister, and who had been for nearly four years filling
a situation to which he before declared that he should be in-
sane if' he aspired—but men very often found themselves in
situations which they never anticipated, and discharging duties
for which they did not conceive themselves prepared—was
he to inform him, that for many of the acts of a Govern-
ment a Minister might be held responsible, and would by law
be held responsible, although ignorant of those acts, and albeit
he did not advise them. The reason was simply this—the
King could do no wrong ; he must, however, have some ad-
viser, and therefore some responsible adviser. Now, the Noble
Duke stood in this position : he was peculiarly, he was em-
phatically responsible for the change of his Majesty's advisers.
For who could be responsible but he who came into the space
which the change had made vacant ? If the King had thought
proper to take the seals from one man to give them to another,
the man who took the seals became responsible for the change;
he was responsible in point of fact as well as in point of law.,
He would next advert to the reasons which the Noble Duke
had given for the line of conduct he had seen fit to pursue,
and he must again respectfully observe, that more inadequate
or more flimsy reasons never yet were given. The Noble Duke
was responsible and guilty alike in fact and in law ; but for
his assistance, the act could not have been committed. If a
person, indeed, had resigned, and would not come back, that
would be another matter ; but if a man were dismissed against
his will, whoever took that man's place atter the dismissal, was
an accessory after the fact, because without his aid it could not
have been completed. If a man were sent for by the Sove-
reign under such circumstances, there was no compulsion upon
him to accept the office—whet had he to do but decline ? No
harm would be then done. It was only an incohate act, until
the place was actually filled up. The constitution was so
cognizant of this, that no office was absolutely considered to
be vacant until it was filled up. This was clearly proved
in Mr. Pelham's case : several persons had declined his
office, he having already resigned the seals, but upon this he
got them back again, and it was decided by the House that
he need not go to a new election—that he had not vacated his
seat—that it had never been effectually vacated, and never
could be until his office was filled up. He had now shown
that the proposition of his Noble Friend was strictly and core
reedy true, and that the Noble Duke was in law and in fact re-
sponsible for the dismissing of the late Government, and the
appointing of this. In sooth there was very little substan-
tial difference between the Noble Duke and himself for,
with his usual manliness, he admitted in substance that
which he had denied iii terms, and fairly took upon himself
the responsibility. They had it now on his own authority
by public and solemn avowal of his own, that he (the
Duke) was the chief party in the whole transaction. They
had his own positive, distinct, and articulate avowal that
he affiarded the only reason, in furnishing the only means
for changing the late Administration. He saw too, that in
the speech from the Throne which they had heard that
day, that grounds for the defence of the late Ministry
were laid down in every line—in the speech, which was
known and felt to be, as it constitutionally should be, the
sole production of his Majesty's responsible advisers. In
that he saw prevailing throughout one strain—it might
have been extorted by the mighty force of truth—it might
have been torn forth hr the irresistible necessity of the case;
lee. still ot:e strain of justifieatien, n not of Retrial panegyric,
on all the measures of their predecessors in office. All abroad
was tranquil—all abroad was at peace—except in one only
spot of earth ; this they learned from one passage. All our
alliances had been strengthened and improved, they *ere in-
formed by another passage. Therefore, except in one case,
had there ',ice n accomplished that most difficult of all tasks, as
it was proclaimed and prophecied to be, the maintenance of
peace abroad, and this not for a period of four months, but
tour years. He thought he could tell what kind liberal hand
it was that had penned these eulogistic passages; the hand of
one who was once in all respects liberal, and who would still,
it would seem, retain his kindly and liberal feelings towards
his enemies. He remembered that gentleman (the President
of the Board of Trade) formerly his Right Honourable Friend,
now his Right Honourable Adversary, when he was the de-
cided enemy to all Corn Laws, and ywhen he discleised those
laws with the most patriotic and unvvearying Pertinacity—a
pertinacity which was fully responded to by tne people out of
doors; but in latter days that Right Honourable Gentleman
had been converted to the Corn Bill, and to the foreign po-
licy of the Noble Earl opposite ( Aberdeen) from his old ha-
tred of the Holy Alliance, which he fully felt when his Right
Hon. Adversary and Itheiself together fought the battle of
liberty at home and abroad. Now, that Right Hon. Gentleman
had declared in his place that it would be a miracle if the late
Government should succeed in keeping the peace of Europe
for four months, and he could not but suppose that that Right
Hon. Gentleman, not in a truant fancy for panegyrising or
eulogizing the by-gone Administration, but from the
strong pressure of truth upon his mind and heart, had
made it point to have those passages inserted wherein he con-
gratulated the country upon the performance of an infinitely
greater miracle than that to which he had alluded. The.
speech also felicitated the country upon the happy results
which had attended the emancipation of the negroes, upon
the settlement of a question in which not only the property
but the very existence of our colonies was involved. He had
wished, he had longed, he had prayed, he had hoped for this
result ; but he confessed that it surpassed his most sanguine
expectations. It came fully up to his most anxious wishes and
desires to find that not only had there been no mischief, but
that there had been a vast amount of' good. Much of this was
undoubtedly to be attributed to the spirit and capacity of his
Noble Friend, whom he ought to have thanked sooner—the
late Governor of Jamaica ; much also to the admirable arrange-
ments and great talents of the individuals whe had lately filled
the office of Secretary for the Colonies, but of these praises
certainly the Cabinet to which the Noble Lord ( Stanley) be-
longed must have its share, in having considered and digested
a measure which had been wrought forth with a measure of
success which was singular and all but unexpected, There
was another topic touched upon in the speech, tes which he
should also feel it necessary to advert. nn the subject.
of the report on municipal corporations, he should say no-
thing in detail, as that report was not then before their
Lordships ; but he rejoiced to hear that report spoken
of no longer in the terms which the act of advising the is-
suing of the. Commie-slon had formerly been described. The
Administration' under whose advice that Commission was is-
sued, Were no longer represented as spoliators of public and,
of private property; the measure was no longer spoken of as
a violation of chartered rights, no longer were its authors
charged with being guilty of an unheard-of encroachment upon
the privileges of others,—of an unexampled infraction of the
rights of corporations. lie rejoiced that he had lived to see
the day whet, it was acknowledged that that Commission had.
been legally issued, and this acknowledgment made not only
with the assent, but amidst the unanimous plaudits of the Mi-
nisters of the Crown—that he, in being amongst the number
of its advisers, and therefore responsible for it, had not been
guilty of any illegal act. He rejoiced to think, that in the
opinion of Noble Lords opposite, he was not liable to impeach-
ment for recommending a measure to reform such boroughs as.
Leicester and Norwich, such seats of closeness, such haunts of
corruption ; they had no longer to endure denunciation as de-
siring to destroy those venerable bodies whose antiquity, great
as it was, formed their least title to the favour and respect of the
community, to the high consideration of the Ministers of thes
Crown, forming, as these corporations were alleged to forrt,
the pillars of the monarchy, while they presented the most efr.ec-
tual check upon the undue exercise of prerogative. All 'these
blessings, bestowed upon the subjects of the King by these im-
maculate bodies, the late Ministers were accused of destroy-
Mg, and for that heinous offence they were condemned by in.
corruptible aldermen, and denounced by learned recorders.
But these accusations " vanished into thin air" before the lights
which broke in on Noble Lords so soon as they found them-
selves within the precints of his Majesty's Cabinet. Then, for
die first time, the light which guided their judgment was clear
and splendid; but whether that light broke in upon them bte
fore or after they had resoled on dissolving the Parliarneeit
was a matter of small moment to his mind, for it afforded 'him
the most satisfactory ground for eongratulation to find That in
some form tee another, fror' sonic cause or other, it hr so hap-
Period that bri"tai and shining light found 'entrance ,he
ti"tl2'a—nav,e overjoyed—to find that in the last place in
4".1.',..a he entertained the remotest expectation or chance of
anything of the sort, the fullest and most ample justice had
been done to one of the most important proceedings, of which
the foundations had been laid by the predecessors of the pre-
sent Government. He was also entitled to fecilitate his No-
ble Friends and himself upon the testimony which the speech
from the throne bore to the success with which their colo-
nial as well as their domestic affairs had been administered
during the last four years ; nor was there the least ex-