The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-23 00:00:00

tions under which this country had so long flourished.
To the present constitution of Parliament, with some
trivial changes, we were indebted for the pos.,ession of
nt arly all our liberties. We owe to it the curtailment of
the excessive prerogatives of the Crown, the abolition of
monopolies and of benevolences, of the Star Chamber, of
the power of taxing the people without the consent of Par-
liament. We owe to at the Petition of Right ; and
finally, at the great Revolution, the placing of our liberties
upon that firm and solid basis which nothing but
our own imprudence can overturn.—(Hear, hear.)
If the supporters of the Bill would not demonstrate the
advantages likely to be derived from the new Constitution
of Parliament, he was anxious to point out what he con-
ceived to be its dangers. In the first place, it unsettled
completely the relative weight of the different interests re-
presented in that House; it took from the land that power ,
which it had so long and so properly possessed, and gave
the preponderance to the commercial and manufacturing
interests ; and why, did he desire to protect the interests of
the landed proprietors? Because they enabled us to re-
tain our faith with the public creditor, because they were
the best and most legitimate consumers of our manufac-
tures, and because they bore nearly all the burthens of the
Church and the support of the poor. But the great object
of the Bill was to give representatives to the large com-
mercial and manufacturing interests which had grown up
of late years in this country ; but even this object, he
feared, would not be accomplished, in consequence of the
low rate of franchise fixed upon by the framers of the Bill.
He believed that in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and
other great towns, representatives would be chosen totally
unconnected with the trade is those places ! He believed

that the master manufacturers would have little or no con-
trout over their workmen, and that Members would be re-
turned to this House of the most dangerous and revolu-
tionary principles. He believed that at the first election
for a reformed Parliament the vote by ballot and universal
suffrage would be clamoured for by those classes which
were then being led into political power. He believed
they would demand the abolition of the Corn Laws, an
equitable adjustment of the National Debt, and the destruc-
tion of Church property. But the excited appetite of the
people would not be restrained here, and the abolition of
the Hereditary Peerage, and the downfall of the Mo-
narchy, would, sooner or later, follow the adoption of
_ _

this ill-fated measure. But let them look to the Acts of
a reforming Parliament, such as the one he had at-
tempted to describe. Let them look for instance at the,
Acts of the Long Parliament, which, whatever great names
it may have contained, disgraced itself by a most atro-
cious system of spoliation and plunder. Notwithstanding
the self-denying ordinance, let him quote to the House a
few instances of the spoils divided among the Members of
that goodly Parliament. John Bradshaw, one of its most
noted Members, obtained for his share of the spoil Earl St.
Alban's manor of Summer-hill, in Kent, worth 1,500/. per
annum ; Lord Collington's estate of Foothill, in Wiltshire ;
his manor of Hanworth,in Middlesex,and the Dean's house at
the College of Westminster. John Blakeeton obtainedl4,ooo/.
and 3,0001. were afterwards given him out of the Mar-
quis of Newcastle and Lord Widrington's estates, in com-
pensation of the loss of the pedlar's ware in his shop...—
Colonel Brereton had the sequestration of Casbiobury,
and the other lands of Lord Capel, worth 2,0001. per
annum ; also the Archbishop's house and lands at Croydon,
where (his authority states) he turned the chapel into a
kitchen, a goodly reformation, and fitted with his stomach
as well as his religion. Fleetwood got Woodstock; Wil-
liam Pierrepoint got seven thousandpounds in money, and
Lord Kingston's estate, worth ten thousand pounds; Sir
Henry Vane obtained five thousand pounds, and the Bishop
of Durham's manor, park, and !femme of Evenwoorl ; Sir
Thomas Walsingham got the Earl of Dorset's manor of
Elthain ; also Mr. White's house and park, where he cut
down five thousand pounds' worth of timber trees, and
scarcely left (as the writer stated) one single tree to make
his own gibbet. Sir John Trevor got nine thousand
pounds out of the Marquis of Winchester's estate, besides
Richmond Park and grounds, and the Great Park at
Nonsuch. He would only trouble the House with one
more case—that of Sergeant Wylde (for there was a
Sergeant Wylde in those days)—he got one thousand
pounds out of the privy purse of Derby House, after the
hanging of Captain Burley ; and it is also affirmed that he
had one thousand pounds more upon the acquittal of Major
Rolph ; so that it was all one to the Sergeant whether he
hanged or hanged not.—(Hear and a laugh.) And did
the House really imagine that these things would not
occur again? Did they imagine that the possession of
the Abbey Lands of Woburn and Tavistock, the demesnes
of Ruby Castle or Chatsworth, avers fixed upon such an
immutable basis that no spoliation could reach them ? Our
descendants would point to this Parliament as having
Keen the first to shake the foundation of property—as
having been the first to violate, in later and more civilised
times, the rights of the church, and the sanctity of char-
ters—(Hear, hear)—and of having thus opened an in-
road to those revolutionary tenets which would, sooner or
later, lay all our ancient institutions in ruins. But what
would be the effect of this measure upon the House oe
Peers? By infusing so great a democratic power Ml° this
House they would paralyze the influence of the other
branches of the Legislature. If the people were the only
source of legitimate power, you are indeed about to create
,t House drawn from its purest springs. But the House
so created will he unconnected in sympathy, in feel-
ing, and in interest with the House of Peers ; for that
aody would represent the interest of the Lint:, and this
House would, he feared, too much and too exclusively re-
present the commerce and the manufactures of the coun-
try. The first collision between the two Houses of Par-
liament would prove fatal to the Peery, for no power they
possessed could resist a House of Commons purely !effect-
ing the wayward passions of the people. He trusted, in-
deed he felt convinced, that the Peers of England would
10 their duty.—(Hear.)
Mr. WASON denied that the Bill would either over-
throw the Church or the Throne; on the contrary, be
considered that it woula consolidate the best interests of
:itith. The people of this country were in favour of the
Bill, and far better would it be to mike changai in that
louse than leave them to be made by the people from
,without,
O'CONNOR DON contended that the only means of
preventing agitation in Ireland would be to do justice to
he people of that country. No one could deny that the
question of Reform had considerably advanced, and if a
calf-anthhalf in,asure had been proposed it would disgust
rather than satisfy the people. I. would be as riticulous
o check the progress of Reform as to prevent the Nile
rain its accuetoined oveifluw. The people of Ireland had
cured Catholic Emancipation, and aril nut the people
f England their Reform Bill ? lie wished to pre•erve
,lie Peerage, as necessary to the welfare of the Stier, and