The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

At length the Constituent Parliament, having
terminated its labours, is prorogued to the 16th
of October. Before that day it is probable it
will no longer be in existence. If the Reform
Bill will at all work, recourse will hardly be
again had to a Parliament which stands self-
condemned before the country. The speech
from the Throne contains little to which it is
necessary to direct attention. The great orga-
nical law of Reform, the laws relating to tithes
in Ireland, the Foreign Relations of coun-
try, the defalcation in the Revenue, and the re-
ductions in the expenditure, are the topics
touched on in it. His Majesty concludes
with a recommendation to the Members of
both Houses to attend carefully to the preserva-
tion of the public peace and the maintenance of
the authority of the law in their several counties.
One passage will be variously construed. " I trust
that relief from any real causes of complaint will
be sought only through legitimate channels ; that
all irregular and illegal proceedings will be dis-
countenanced and checked." Irregular is a wide
word. We trust that regularity will not be
sought for through illegality. Thus we take
leave of the most important Parliament, perhaps,
in our history. We are greatly mistaken indeed,
if, in consequence of the great work happily
brought to a completion, a new era will not
commence, in which the country will run a glo-
rious career of improvement. To the Ministry
who have achieved this great work the country
owes a heavy debt of gratitude. Faults they
have committed, no doubt : their work is de-
faced with many imperfections (and this was in-
evitable in a first attempt) : but it is not for us
now to dwell with illiberal censoriousness solely
on their deficiencies. Let us avail ourselves of
their measure to effect as many improvements as
we possibly can in our institutions—to remove
as many abuses as we possibly can. Let us
show that we deserved the measure by the use
we make of it. We are far troin wishing that
gratitude to Ministers should induce us to sufTer
from them hereafter more than we should have
suffered from others. But let us at the same
time not be more unjust to them than to those
who have all along been enemies of the people,
and enemies to all improvement. Now that the
causes of agitation are in a great measure over,
the people will return with confidence to their
usual avocations, and British enterprise will, no
doubt, be rewarded with deserved success. We
despair not of the resources of the country, and
we trust that Ministers will ever show themselves
mindful of the dread responsibility which attaches
to those who plunge this country into war which
may be avoided. Peace will enable our public
men to pursue the inquiries necessary to enable
us to legislate with effect on several most mo-
mentous subjects, with regard to the prosperity
of the empire. From a Reformed Parliament
everything is to be expected. Should, however,
the hopes of the nation be disappointed, the
causes of the disappointment will have become
apparent, and the people may afterwards allow
for their want of foresight. But, in the mean
time, let them act as if every thing depended
on the composition of the Parliament about to
he chosen. It will be strange, indeed, if, after
the destruction of schedules A and B—if, after
the introduction of so many new and important
boroughs—if, after the conversion of Scotland
from one great rotten borough into a wholesome
part of the representation—the new Parliament
should not, in spite of all the efforts of Tories
and Conservatives, contain a sufficiency of
honest and intelligent men to carry on the great
work of improvement of our institutions and re-
duction of our expenditure.—Morn. Chronicle.

Yesterday the King, in person, prorogued
Parliament—never, most likely, again to meet
under the laws by which its elective branch has
been hitherto returned. A new session, indeed,
of the existing House of Commons, afterthe dis-
qualifying statute which it has itself passed,—
after " the self-decaying ordinance" to which it has
voluntarily submitted,--after declaring that up-
wards of 140 of its members have no right to
occupy their present seats, and ought, in the lan-
guage of Cromwell to " make way for honester
men," or at least for men more honestly chosen,
after transferring the right of legislation to the
same number of members, coming from places
never before represented at all, or but inade-
quately represented,—after announcing that for
(he good government of the country, and the
safety of its institutions, new classes of electors
must be admitted, new qualifications must be
created, and new electoral districts formed—after,
in short, enacting the Reform Bills, by which
t he constitution of the House is to be materially
changed, it would be absurd, if not illegal, to sup-
pose that the same grotesque assemblage of rotten
borough usurpers, and real popular representa-
tives, should again come together, except for some
merely executive object, or from some unfore-
seen contingency, in which all considerations of
the character of the members, and the origin of
their mission, would be forgotten or overruled
by the necessity of the case. It requires almost
nothing more than the foregoing incidental re-
mark on its chief labour, to show, that the im-
portant session, which has just terminated, will
he one of the most renowned in the annals of
England, and therefore that his Majesty only
acted in unison with the grateful feelings of his
people and of posterity, in making the Reform
Bill the first and the chief topic of his speech.
The necessary brevity of an address from the
throne would not, of course, permit the King to
allude to the difficulties which the measure had
to encounter, or to describe all the benefits
which it is calculated to produce ; but we have
no hesitation in saying, that from the enactmant
of the Reform Bill, the session of 1832 will
be as memorable in history as the Convention
Parliament, or the Path/ anent of the Act of
Settlement. It has accomplished, without social
confusion or civil bloodshed, a mighty political
revolution. It has wrested usurped ;rower from
the hands of an arrogant and domineering oli-
garchy, to lodge it with the great body of the
people. It has conferred upon the pro..
perty, knowledge, and intelligence of the
country, that control over the national re.
sources, and that privilege of adzipti:p; the
laws to their interests, which has hitherto
been engrossed by the prejudices, selfishness,
and corruption of a boroughmongering faction.
It has reinstated men in their rights,—it has
attached them to the constitution, by making
them sharers in its benefits,—it has rendered
civil convulsions almost impossible, by providing
the means of a legislative adjustment of differ-
ences between antagonist parties,--and it has
opened a path to all the social improvements of
which an active and enterprising people are sus-
ceptible. But if we are entitled to anticipate a
great part, or any eonsidtrable part, of those
securities and blessings from the important act
of Reform, how gratifying must it be to reflect
not only on what it has given us, but from 'what
it has saved us. In revertin& to the history of

the last twelve months, every one must recollect
the menacing aspect of a tempest calculated to
shake the stronvst nerves. The people and
their-opAssora—tfie powers of
_light and dark-
ness, seemed arrayed against each other, and at
several times threatened a collision, which must
have shaken our social fabric to its foundation.
From the moment of its introduction to the
House of Commons, the fate of the Reform Bill
was never, it is true, for a moment doubtful ; but
the safety of its obstinate ad versaries was not ecp all y
secure. The triumph of the reformers was already
evident, but it might have been obtained as well by
a struggle as by a flight. We were sure of the
charter of our liberties, but it might have been
wrested, as of old, from the hands of our do-
mestic enemies at the point of the sword, and
sealed with their blood. The firmness of the
House of Commons, the faithful adherence of
the Ministry to their engagements, the good
sense of the King, and the cowardice of the
corruptionists, saved the nation and reform from
such a sanguinary victory. Hence we are now
in possession of the fruits of a great revolution,
without purchasing them by the sacrifice of pro-
perty or loss of life. Boroughmongering Lords
and Commoners had, in the mean time, a cheap
way of showing their courage and regard to the
rights of their faction. They swaggered and
blustered, as long as they thought that they had
any chance of retaining their ascendancy by big
words or resolute votes. They knew that he
determined spirit of their countrymen rises high-
est, like a paper kite, when dragged against the
wind, but they were not prepared to keep it up
in a threatened tempest, and, therefore, with-
drew their hand when they saw the storm ap-
proach. They ought to be grateful every day
they live, for the order which the people main-
tained, in the midst of the excitement which
their resistance occasioned. To the part which
this Journal took in the great struggle for Re-
form, we shall always look back with satisfaction
and with pride. Supporting the good cause " in
season and out of season," " through good report
and through bad," we never relaxed our efforts till
its triumph was secure ; and we have no hesita-
tion in saying, that to us, and to the other mem-
bers of the liberal press, the country is mainly
indebted for the enjoyment of the rights which
it now possesses, and for its escape from those
convulsions with which it was at one time
threatened. If the collected lightning of popular
dissatisfaction has been guided harmlessly to the
earth, instead of bursting on our social edifice,
and shattering our political institutions, the
Reform press may boast of having been the chief
conductor. We have now left ourselves little
room to advert to the other topics of his Ma-
jesty's speech, either domestic or foreign. Of
Ireland we could say little satisfactory in a long
dissertation, and it would be ridiculous to recur
to its condition in a passing comment. To the
advice with which the speech concludes, we
would beg to invite the earliest attention of all
who wish well to the cause of Reform and
freedom, Let the ensuing elections be con
ducted with good order, and in obedience to
those laws which exist, that the new House of
Commons may meet under the auspices most
favourable for improving our institutions and pro-
tecting our rights. In alluding to foreign politics.
we observe with regret, that his Majesty cannot
yet announce the termination of the diffe-
rences between Belgium and Holland, and
that he makes a very unsatisfactory reference
to the affairs of Portugal. The continuance of
the 64 differences" in the former case, and " the
contest" in the latter, is all that Mini,ters think
themselves entitled to say on the subject. We
yesterday made some observations on the Belgic
and Dutch question, and shall recur to the topic
to-morrow, but in the mean time we beg to sat-
o few words on the Portuguese 64 contes.," sug-
gested by the speech of the Duke of Wellington
more than by that of the King. His Grace evi-
(lenity feels sore on the subject of our foreign re-
lations, both as respects the Netherlands, Greece.
and Portugal, because he cannot find fault with
the conduct of the present Ministers without con-
demning his own system—the system which he
bequeathed to them along with his office. In the
case of Portugal, having unfortunately com-
mitted himself with both parties, he could please
neither, and is not a little dissatisfied that his
successors have been at le:!st more consistent.
He withdrew our Ambassador from Lisbon ; he
gave up all political intercourse with the
Usurper,—his colleague, the Foreign Minister.
was not much less complimentary towards Miguel
than General Sebastiani, who called him, " a
monster of a new species,"—he acknowledged
the title of the young Queen, and received her
in this country with Royal honours, and yet he
ordered away her subjects from Plymouth,
and fired upon her troops entering the port
of Terceira, which belonged to her Faithful
Majesty. He thus attacked both parties, and
remained for two years in hostility with both ;
and he now censures the Government for not
opposing the claim which he acknowledged to
be legitimate, and for not recognizing the title
which he declared to be Usurped. For more
than two years his Grace refused to renew di-
plomatic intercourse with Don Aliguel, unless
he granted to his constitutional subjects an am-
nesty. The amnesty had not been granted
is hen he left office, and Don Miguel was not,
therefore, acknowledged ; but Lord Grey is •
pronounced wrong for not reversing the conduct
of his Grace, and recognizing the Usurper first,
in hopes of obtaining an amnesty hereafter.—
This, however, is not the whole of the contra- '
dietions and inconsistencies into which his Grace
has betrayed himself by his incautious habits
of diplomatic criticism, or his eager zeal for di-
plomatic censure. In answer to a just retort of
Earl Grey, that the time for British interference
was when the British army was in Portugal—
and not now, when we have no means of termi-
nating the quarrel,—his Grace said, that the
British army had been withdrawn before Don
Miguel began his system of usurpation. Now
we have the means of knowing, that this aver-
ment is not only contradictory of the Duke's
own system at the time, and until the failure of
the expedition to Oporto in the following sum-
mer, but absolutely incorrect. Had the British
troops been withdrawn before Don Miguel's arrival
his Grace would have been correct in his statement;
but the fact is, that they remained some time
after that event, and his usurpation was ar-
ranged and commenced on the hour of his dis-
embarkation. The Chambers, composed chiefly
of Constitutionalists, were then sitting,—the
army was officered by Constitutionalists, and
popular opinion in Lisbon was so decidedly in
favour of the charter, that the capital might be
regarded as hostile to the usurpation. In this
state of things, a conspiracy was formed to over-
tl!row the little tyrant before he had completed
his usurpation, and the parties thought it neces-
sary to consult the Commander of our force
what he would do in such a contingency. His
answer was, that he must protect the Royal Fa-
mily. Thus our troops acted as his Guard, till
he had —dismissed the Constitutional officers

from his army, dissolved the Chambers, :Ind
taken every step to complete his usurpation in
safety. It is quite true that the British troops
were withdrawn before Miguel actually usurped
the throne, but not till his intentions to do so
were well known to every body in Portugal, and
to every body in Er.gland too, who took any
interest in his proceedings. Such are the only
reflections which we have room to insert, on a
document which appears to us one of the most
meagre speeches ever delivered from the throne,
—a speech characterized with more than usual
reserve at a time when, on the eve of a general
election, Ministers might have been expected to
treat the country with more confidence, and for
their own sakes, if no other cause, to have put
forth an additional claim to popular favour.

The most important Session which the his-
tory of this country records has at length con-
cluded. The self-reforming Parliament has
terminated its labours, and probably, within a
short period from the interruption of its active
functions, will cease to exist. There was no-
thing very remarkable in the King's speech de-
livered upon this occasion ; but King's speeches
though they attract abundance of criticism at the
time, do not often communicate unknown facts,
or enforce unexpected observations. It was na-
tural and proper that the Speech to which we
now allude should begin by referring to the great
measure of the Session ; and accordingly the
Ministers put into his Majesty's mouth a brief,
unostentatious, and befitting allusion to the Re-
form Act itself, and to the principle upon which
it was recommended to the attention of the Le-
gislature. It will not he easy to shake the foun-
dation of that advice which proposed to
strengthen our institutions " by removing the
causes of just complaint." Happily the expe-
riment is to be tried which every just view of
human nature would seem to sanction as the
hest and indeed the only efficient means of 1
dealing with rational beings. The next topic
introduced is "Ireland," and it is introduced
in the old way, with the word " disturbance"
close to it. To get rid of the association of
those two words in speeches from the throne is a
desideratum not yet accomplished. Allusion is
made to the proposed change in the tithe sys-
tem, but of course it is only an allusion ; and
!he vigorous execution of the laws, coupled with
an effort to promote its prosperity, is inculcated
as the best means of restoring peace to that dis-
tracted country. It is not, however, to general
declarations of this kind, but to the nature and
extent of the specific measures connected with
the collection as well as the distribution of
Church property, when they come to be applied,
that we must look for the true cure of the exist-
ting disorders. Well does it become a Kiog of
England, and a reformer like William the Fourth,
to congratulate his Parliament on the steps
taken for the promotion of education in Ireland.
To banish ignorance is not only a beneficial con-
equence of good government, but a guarantee
for content. The allusions to our foreign policy,
in the Speech, are of a most guarded, and, we
nest add, of a most unsatisfactory description.
The only distinct avowal upon this head is the
isurance of pacific prospects, which the general
I,pect of the Continent does any thing but con-
firm. The struggle in Portugal is merely al-
luded to, without an encouraging word to
either party ; the proceedings of the Diet of
Frankfort are not hinted at, even by im-
plication ; and Poland is never once named.
We hope that Lord Durham will make Po-
land amends for this silence ; but it is im-
possible not to feel some approach to shame
Ind indignation when we think how completely
Ministers have been lock-jawed with respect to
the sufferings of that glorious people, and to
the iniquities of the barbarous Power by whom
.hey were oppressed and trampled upon. After
a slight allusion to the finances, the Speech con-
cludes with an exhortation to peace, and to the
maintenance of law, in the different counties ; a
proper caution, at such a moment, when the
two parties are preparing to enter the lists again,
and struggle for predominance. The tone of
the Speech is pacific; and peace, we at once
is a good, and ought to be a welcome,
tone. But even the love of peace may be car-
ried too far, when the liberties of mankind are
threatened. There is much in the acts and much
in the present attitude of the despots of Europe
to excite suspicion, if not alarm, as to the real
purposes they have in view. Heaven grant that
we may not endanger the cause of freedom by
listening with too credulous an ear to the pro-
fessions of those who have already proved, in a
thousand instances, that their professions are
good for nothing.—Morning Herald.
We yesterday witnessed the conclusion of a
Session of Parliament, the proceedings of which
seem calculated to produce consequences to the
future weal or woe of this country of deeper
and more lasting importance than those of any
other Session of the Legislature since the first
establishment of Parliamentary authority in
his Majesty's dominions. Unwilling as we
are to forbode evil, we cling to the hope that,
whatever may be erroneous in the provisions or
Pernicious in the tendency of that measure of
tremendous innovation, by which the past Ses-
,ion of Parliament has been signalised, may be
overruled by the sober and steady good sense
of the people of England, under the favourable
superintendence and interposition of Divine
Providence, which has upon so many previous
occasions averted from our country evils which
seemed unavoidable, and counteracted errors w hich
threatened to be fatal to her peace and welfare.
The authors of the measure have, as they them-
selves arc at length compelled to avow, been
proceeding at random and by guess. They
have, it is confessed, been ignorant throughout
of the effects to be produced by its first and
simplest operation. There is much consolation
in this acknowledgment. The persons who
make it are of an order who, being blindfolded,
may by chance have gone right. Their intention
evidently was to flatter, and gratify, and strengthen
the lowest and most ignorant class of society, by
conferring upon it a monopoly of political power.
If, as it now appears, they have not known how
to accomplish their mischievous purpose, the
country, and that part of it especially upon
whom his Majesty's Government meant to
confer this dangerous gift, have the greatest
cause to rejoice that their rulers have shown
themselves equally incapable of effecting an
evil purpose and of meditating a good one.
The dissolution of Parliament leaves the Exe-
cutive Government in a most lamentable condi-
tion with reference to that measure upon which
they have employed the time and attention of
the Legislature fur nearly two years. The de•
mocratic party throughout the country are infu-
riated by the discovery that " the Bill" does not
confer upon them, as they understood it was in-
tended to confer, the right and the power of
controlling and directing every future movement
of the State machine. The Ministerialists are
confounded on finding themselves suddenly se-

pa-aced from their Radical allies, the only source
of strength to their cause. The scenes which
have been presented in the House of Commons
during the few last nights of the Session, would
be rich as farce if they were not of incalculably
greater value as an intimation to the country
that Ministers knew nothing of their own Re-
form Bill, not even whether it can or cannot be
carried into effect. " What will be the opera-
tion of such a clause?" asks one Honourable
Member. " How will the voters of this or that
parish or borough be affected by another clause ?"
inquires a second, trembling for his seat. " What
is to become of my judicious and patriotic con-
stituents ?" timidly demands the Secretary at
War. " The Political Unions are dissatisfied,"
grumbles Mr. Hume ; " and, what is still
worse, every election under the Bill will be dis-
puted, and the new Parliament will not furnish
the materials even for a single election Commit-
tee." " It is a Bill for the benefit of nobody
but the lawyers," complains another friend of
the Administration. " It will not improve, but
destroy, the representation of the people," says
another apostatising advocate of the Bill- " Re-
peal theßili in ail its most important provisions,"
cry the Manchester and other petitioners, " and
for sake of this boon we are content to relin-
quish the privilege of representation." We can
give no more that this feeble and imperfect pic-
ture of the assaults which have been made upon
the unfortunate measure of Reform, the chief
labour of Ministers and Parliament during three
Sessions—of assaults committed on the eve of a
dissolution, upon a measure once popular, by
Members who, of all others, are the least indif-
ferent to popularity. And how have Ministers
defended their great and glorious work ? The
task seems to have been left, rather unhand-
somely, by Lord John Russell and the other
authors of the measure, to that easy, good-na-
tured person Lord Althorp, who would have
been glad to find something to say in its favour
if possible. But this might not be. The Noble
Lord tries to expound, and, after two or three
failures, the more discreet friends of the Admi-
nistration, when he again attempts to rise, pull
him by the skirts of his coat, and implore him
for Heaven's sake not to commit himself ; " the
Bill is now a law, and may only be interpreted by
Lawyers and Judges. Inquiries in Parliament as
to its probable operation are irregular, imperti-
nent, and so forth, and cannot be answered with-
out the risk of agitating the country, and pro-
ducing doubt and confusion in the public
mind." This sensible admonition proves en-
tirely successful—the Noble Lord remains silent,
and even the Attorney-General is struck dumb.
The Attorney- General, a leading advocate of
the measure, a person to whom it belonged, as
part of his official duty, to see that nothing was
introduced into it which should he either un-
intelligible or impracticable—a Learned Gentle-
man, who was ready, a few months ago, to ex-
plain and defend every clause and word of the
Bill in Committee, is now dumb, now that the
Bill is attacked by every man who is out of
office, and some of the men even who are in
office, of those who formerly supported it, he
cannot hazard an opinion. " He doesnot know—
it is dangerous to give an unconsidered opinion—
he had rather have before him a written case
(he did not acid a fee) before he pronounces
upon the doubts and difficulties which have un-
fortunately arisen. He hopes the measure may
operate less perversely than his Honourable
Friends apprehended ; but he fears, if he were
to say any thing more, he should only increase
the agitation and dismay that have unfortunately
been produced." Thus the Reform Bill is left
to work as it may, or to be suspended more
probably for another year or two, during which
it may perhaps divert the attention of the exist-
ing Parliament from every other subject, and
contrive advantageously, as heretofore, for his
Majesty's Ministers, to amuse an injured and
suffering community. Next to the Reform Bills,
the most important measure of the Session has
been that for the Composition of Tithe in Ire-
land—a measure which would probably have
proved beneficial to that country, by abating that
religious animosity which is the source of many
of its greatest calamities, had it not been ac-
companied by the expression of principles and
views on the part of his Majesty's Ministers
eminently calculated to keep alive inordinate
expectations in one of the two sects which un-
fortunately divide Ireland, and to excite well-
founded jealousy and apprehension in the other.
The letter of the Act goes to separate, and de-
fine, and secure the legal endowments of the
Protestant Church. The spirit in which the
Act has been introduced, and the uniform lan-
guage of its authors, instruct the people of Ire-
land that this mass of property is not separated,
defined, and secured for the use or enjoyment of
its present owners, but set apart as a rich and
tempting prize to encourage the future efforts of
sectarian agitation, hoarded up as the fittest fuel
by which to feed the flame ofreligious and political
strife. The remaining proceedings of the session
are purely of a negative kind. Lord Althorp
would have introduced a Bill to make the great
measure of Reform intelligible and practicable,
but unfortunately the discovery that it is now
neither the one nor the other not having been
made until the time arrived for the respectable
constituency it creates to pay their rates and
taxes, and this time coinciding still more un-
fortunately with the period fixed for the conclu-
tion of the Session, the difficult though indis-
pensable process of reforming the Reform
Bill is of necessity postponed to a more
convenient opportunity. Lord Althorp, again,
would have reduced the burden of taxa-
tion ; but, unfortunately, trade does not
flourish in the midst of political agita-
tion, and Reform :Vlinisters, therefore, cannot
be happy financiers. Instead of reducing taxes,
the Noble Lord has had much difficulty in making,
or seeming to make, the estimated produce of
the actual taxes equal the estimated expenditure
for the year, and has even been compelled for
this purpose to resort to the very questionable
expedient offcutting of the regular annual supply
of timber to the dock-yards, of leaving the militia
untrained for this year, and of intermitting the
established system of relief to those unfortunate
portions of the British army which happen to be
stationed in the Colonies. Neither is the
Chancellor of the Exchequer the only Mi-
nister whose wishes and intentions were des-
tined to prove abortive. Mr. Stanley, the
Secretary for Ireland, would have followed up
the Tithe Composition Bill by other measures
calculated, in some degree, to withdraw that
theme of strife, the property of the Protestant
Church, from the arena of Irish agitation ; but
Mr. O'Connell and the other representatives
of Popery could not spare a weapon so formi-
dable in the warfare in which they are en-
gaged, and Mr. O'Connell and his party fol-
lowers must be propitiated, for the Administra-
tion could not spare their votes on an important
question of diplomacy and finance, at that
moment about to be brought before the House.
But other legislative miscarriages befel the

Administration in relation to the affairs of Ire-
land. A Bill having for its object more effec-
tually to keep arms out of the hands of persons
in that country whose only use of arms is the
commission of murder, was introduced, for no
reason, we suppose, but that the Government
thought it a necessary measure of precaution,
and abandoned, certainly, if our former suppo
sition be not incorrect, for no other reason than
that it was dipleasing to Mr. O'Connell and his
party. One other instance, and we conclude
our imperfect catalogue of negations. In several
parts of Ireland, the most savage and brutal out-
rages had been committed with the certainty of
full impunity to the offenders ; murders in the
presence of many thousand witnesses, of which
no testimony could be procured ; murders attested
by unexceptionable evidence, for, which no con-
victions could lae obtained ; the terror of a lawless
banditti had, in short, assumed such a dominion
over the minds of men as to supersede the
authority and to suspend the operation of the
law. For months society had remained in this
horrible condition, and Government devised a
measure which they thought might cure or miti-
gate this appalling evil. But the measure was
destined to perish at the very moment of its
birth. It was introduced at a period of the
Session when, for the purpose of legislating
upon a subject so important as the administra-
tion of justice in Ireland, there was no longer a
Parliament in existence. It was introduced in
such circumstances as gave it all the air of a
premeditated surprise upon the Members more
particularly connected with Ireland. It failed,
and we cannot regret it, for we should have been
sorry to see such a measure carried by means of
the small coterie of Ministerial hangers-on who
then remained in town, although the alternative
to this mockery of legislation be the prevalence
for some time longer in Ireland of unpunished
and unpunishable murder.—Morning Post.
The Session of Parliament is, thank God, at
an end ; and whether there be or be not another
of it—whether it do or do not meet again—we
bid it good-bye with a heartfelt satisfaction
which those only can appreciate who have la-
bowed with us in the vineyard. What a Ses-
sion—or rather what a Parliament, it has been !
Early and late sittings—the spending of more
than the midnight oil at one time, and the hail-
ing at another of the morning sun—discussions
upon discussions, and divisions upon divisions
—hope suspended by fear, and enthusiasm
checked by treachery—Ministers at one time
preponderating, and at another baffled—the King
believed to be with us and then against us—ne-
ver, we say, did such a Session of Parliament occur
within the memory of man—never were so much
toil and perseverance manifested—never was the
public mind kept in such a state of suspence—never,
let us add, did the country border so nearly on
revolution, and yet, through the firmness of Mi-
nisters, the decision of the House of Commons,
and the good sense of the country, escape that
great evil. There is now an end of all these
things. The country has been triumphant—the
Tories have been made to bite the dust, and Eng-
land, notwithstanding all the threats, prophecies,
intrigues, lies, and factious proceedings of her
enemies, is herself again ! She has burst her
chains—she again breathes and moves freely ;
and if her people do not henceforth hold firmly
on by the anchor of hope and future prosperity
to which they are now moored, they will not
only disappoint their best friends, but prove
themselves to be utterly unworthy of the toil,
and care, and anxiety, which have been borne
for them. To Lord Grey, the consistent father
of Reform, no tribute of praise can be too mag-
nificent, for undertaking the glorious task of re-
storing to the people their ancient rights and
privileges—to Lord Althorp, who night after
night so successfully and unweariedly withstood
the attacks of the enemy, and never flinched
from his painful position, while even an appear-
ance of danger remained, it is not too much to
say, that a similar mead of praise is due—to
his Majesty's Ministers generally, and to the
House of Commons, no monument of undy-
ing regard can be raised too high—and let us
add, with all due humility, that no small
share of the victory which has been achieved
is owing to that much-abused organ of
public opinion, the Press, which it has hitherto
been the pride of every Parliament to tread
under foot, but without whose aid and cheering
assistance, we have no hesitation in saying that
the Reform Bills had not, even now, become the
law of the land. How it argued, and reasoned,
and toiled— how it battled with the enemies of
Reform, and cheered its friends- on to vie-.
tory—how consistently it held by the side of
the people, in the midst of threats and tempta-;
tions of no ordinary magnitude—it is not for us
to say ; but we do hope that the memory of its
exertions, whatever they may have been, will not
fade with the accomplishment of its purposes,
and that when a Reformed Parliament shall
meet, there will be a majority in it to say " God
bless ye" in the only boon which we claim
—a relief from harsh and tyrannical laws.—
Morning Advertiser.

In the Lord Chancellor the country sees a
person who is at once able and willing to carry
into effect those reforms in the administration of
the law, the necessity of which has been for
many years admitted on all sides, and the adop-
tion of which has been earnestly and almost uni-
versally called for. Many Members of the
House of Commons have bestirred themselves
in favour of those reforms, and many indivi-
duals, as well as those who have, as those who
have not, a voice in the legislative assemblies of
the nation, have advocated them with unques-
tionable sincerity and with acknowledged ability.
Abuses so old and rooted as those which must
be destroyed before the better system can be
brought into action, have hitherto baffled the
exertions of the enlightened and disinterested
men who sought to abolish them, and it has
never happened until the present moment, that
any one has addressed himself to the task, in
whom are united the energetic will to do the
state this worthy service, and the power to put
that will into action. In the speech delivered
on Wednesday, by the Lord Chancellor, in the
House of Peers, are detailed some of the fea-
tures of the changes contemplated by him—
changes, the usefulness, the necessity of which,
no intelligent or candid mind will dispute, and
which, so introduced and explained, may defy
the little caballing that envy or interest will pro-
bably array against them. In addition to the
changes effected by the Bill just passed for abo-
lishing certain sinecure offices connected with
the Court of Chancery, his Lordship has an
noumed, that his intention is first to put
down the Report Office. Of itself that of-
fice is perhaps of no great importance ; but
as one link in the chain of abuses, it is
well got
of;
expensea will be saved to the
s the effect will be, that
duoeiltayr s and as well as
practitioners, without producing the
nd
slightest inconvenience or dnninution in the
emolmnents of those who earn as well as receive

fees. In the Registrar's Office, changes of a
similar tendency are to be made. The most im-
portant, however, of the measures connected with
the practice of the Court of Chancery, is the
projected alteration of the system prevalent in the
Masters' Offices. All persons acquainted with
the course of business in the Court of Chancery,
are aware that it is in this department that the
abuses of delay and expense are most deeply
seated. Under the name of copy-money, par
ties are compelled to pay for copies which they
do not want, and often do not take, and the
specious appellation of gratuities is conferred
upon those sums, often very large ones, which
the solicitors find it expedient to give to the
Masters' clerks, in order to expedite the busi-
ness passing through their respective offices.—
Nothing can be more objectionable than this
latter mode of paying officers, and with all
reasonable reliance upon the probity of the per-
sons whose exertions are so rewarded, it must be
admitted that it would be more just to them, as
well as more safe to the suitors, if the Masters'
clerks were exposed to no such temptation as
these gratuities hold out. Both these often-
denounced abuses are to be abolished, and the
Masters are to be paid, as they and all Judges
and other Law Officers should be paid, by fixed
salaries. Other improvements in these offices
are adverted to, but not detailed. We have no
reason to doubt that they will be founded upon
the same right principles as those alterations
which are explained, and we are sure that in no
branch of the administration of equity is a Re-
form more absolutely called for, or in which
it can be effected more beneficially to the public,
than in the Masters' Offices. • The Six Clerks'
Office and the Subpoena Office are also marked
for reduction, although the time has not yet
arrived for effecting the improvements of which
they are susceptible. The evils and absurdities
whLh beset the appellate jurisdiction in equity
have also engaged his Lordship's attention. He
purposes at once to establish an appeal court, to
be composed of the Chancellor, the Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, the Master of the Rolls, and
the Vice-Chancellor, to which appeals may be
brought from the decisions of any one of those
judges made when sitting alone, and in the
hearing of which appeals the judge whose de-
cree is disputed shall have no voice. It will be
for the appellant to choose whether he will come
at once to the Court so to be constituted, or
to the House of Lords ; but there will be no
double appeal, as at present, first to the Chan-
cellor, and then to the House of Lords, except-
ing in those cases where the appeal judges shall
entertain different opinions. A part of the
same plan consists of making the House of
Lords, as a tribunal of appeal, an effective court
of justice. The absurdity of an appeal from the
Lord Chancellor in Lincoln's-ine, to die same
Chancellor at Westminster (he being, however,
in the latter case assisted by two reluctant Lords,
pricked by accident, or forced in rotation, to listen
to matters which, it is no disparagement to them
to say, they often do not understand), has been
frequently exposed- To remedy this, it is pro-
posed that the House of Lords, in hearing
equity appeals, shall have the same assistance
from the equity judges, as they now commonly
resort to and receive from the common law
judges, in cases of which those judges are
cognizant. His Lordship then alluded to the
anomaly of the Lord Chancellor, the most emi-
nent of all the judges in the land, being remo-
vable at the pleasure of the Crown, while all the
other judges are subject to no such accident. He
exposed, with that powerful eloquence of which
he is so great a master, the absurdity and the
disgrace of this exception to the principles acted
upon in the case of all other judges, and
pledged his efforts to wipe away the stain from
our judicial system, as well as to separate the
burdensome, if not inconsistent, duties which
the Chancellor is called upon to discharge in his
multiform capacity of judge of private rights,
adviser of the Crown, Minister of State,
Speaker of the House of Lords, &c. In the
allusion made by his Lordship to the difference
between the salaries of the Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas and the Master of the Rolls,
we are not quite sure that we rightly
comprehend the observations. If the Master
of the Rolls, whose talents for his office are
universally acknowledged, is not sufficiently re-
munerated, it is obviously expedient that an ad-
dition should be made to his salary ; but it can-
not be right to put his claim to such an addi-
tion, upon the ground of his having given up his
house in Chancery-lane to the public service. It
is true that the Rolls house is now used by the
Record Commissioners; but it is equally true,
that for years before it was dedicated to that pur-
pose, it had ceased to be the residence of the
Master of the Rolls, whose taste and habits, like
those of his predecessor, Lord Lyndhurst, in-
duced hint to prefer a different quarter of the
town for his abode. The observations of his
Lordship on the subject of the suitors' fund
were lucid and satisfactory ; and for the first
time, as well as we recollect, was a distinct and
intelligent statement made in Parliament on this
seemingly involved affair. It is one which has
evidently occupied much of his Lordship's con-
sideration, and requires, hardly less than some of
those we have before noticed, to be put upon a
better system than has hitherto been pursued.
All that can he said of it now is, that no abuse
has been committed respecting it ; but this is
not enough. It is capable of being made a
source of large profit, without intrenching
upon, or hazarding in the slightest de-
gree, the interests of the suitors whose pro-
perty it is. From the anticipations of projected
improvements, his Lordship turned to a satisfac-
tory statement of the actual benefit which has
been found experimentally to result from the ex-
tensive change he has affected in the administra-
, Lion of the bankrupt laws. The instances he
brought forward of the saving which has been
effected in the estates of bankrupts, by means of
the new system, and of the vigorous exertions of
the officers to whom its execution has been in-
trusted, are triumphant answers to the flimsy
charges and the inane forebodings of those who
opposed, with a pertinacity not likely to be for-
gotten, that salutary improvement in a law so
directly affecting the domestic corn merce of the
country. Against that opposition the en,
lightened author of the measure is abundantly
and properly avenged. One part of the new
system indeed, and only one, can be said to
have fallen short of the expectations he had
sgeesdte notd a
tr)
e m
concealed, . It cannot formed, and for this his fertile mind has already
u
ctahiantio t
thebec denied,ourtoh Re-
view it need
.
siew has not worked so well as it was believed
it would,—as there is no reason to fear it yet
will do. We are bound to speak with all
due respect of so important a tribunal, but
eccdcle
we may be permitted to regret that its
constitution was not happier. The persons
selected to fill it, all, no doubt, very worthy
persons, have failed to draw together ; and
this want of co-operation has prevented
them from overcoming, as they otherwise, per-

haps, might have done, the difficulties naturally
incident to every new institution. Unfortunately
for them, all that they have said and done has
been exposed to a great share of publicity; and
the diligence of the persons who have undertaken
to report the proceedings of that Court, has
chronicled their judgment with a minuteness
which it would have been well for the reputa-
tion of some of them to have omitted. The
business of the Court has as yet not been enough
fully to occupy their time, although it must be
owned it has been no fault of the Courts to
despatch the matters before them with too great
haste. In future, however, they will not have
to struggle with the evils of too abundant leisure.
They will have an opportunity, in the union
which it is proposed to make between them and
the Insolvent Debtors' Court, of proving how
usefully their labours may be exerted in the pub-
lic service to which they have devoted themselves,
and at the same time of making the administra-
tion of the law relating to insolvents as beneficial
to the interests of trade as it is capable of be-
coming. To praise Lord Brougham for his elo-
quence, or for his ability as a Statesman, would
be to repeat eulogiums which are echoed by al l
men who are properly interested in the welfare of
their country ; but to withhold from him, on
this occasion, the applause which is deserved,
by one who has devoted the best energies of a
noble and highly-gifted mind to the national
good, and who has been able to effect public im-
provements which hardly lie with the reach of any
other living man's power, would be gross in-
justice. Times.