The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-29 00:00:00

taAihilxi,eilLlglitiFoe'liiexturtrhdpeHenelsslrcoe:Ahne,liad addressed the House, proess-eded vi ry shot tie
to notice a few of his obse.i vationa, conteano:inioeiritgn,,i:nehrreer:tphoy:.
that he was quite mistaken in the view taken of the rela •
tion subsisting between the number of houses in the till -
—thusrotglis apnrdoptehlety,nuimntbeellrigoefni'eo,terasn;d itpowpausl
four in the smaller places, and one to fifteen in the larger
principles upon which the Bill proceeded. He NV:I4 de-
cidedly opposed to any thing like postponement, for
surely-
nothing could be more disadvantageous than that the first
matter which a reformed Parliament should be called to
decide should prove to be such a question as that whit
they (the present House), with the experience they roe
sessed, would he so much more competent to decide.
would surely be attended with more peril to renew a ques-
tion
to
ld
fn oor w . o
granted
that awpn. tNrptcaeßkhoD:vsai
aonecoatrl:oluol
Np,trlttl
thoe,forrotenartreti:aiihemointotealudhestyngeetedrdhv
nrptpai
hsal
nothing
eti
tliyfuri
friends
was
at
enchonangatui
s,
esgni
‘nl pl time, than
not pledged
fmn;ntpteehi
l:aireeapenadri
dsgesl
assumption
ysoe,tt(vrtio:t soeut.
u.
1,1
tri
e)teseett
b.
takeih
e.eetst
a mere childish imagination, proceeding from a terror of
o
l.
should leave it untouched.
details of the Bill, at least had voted for all its great
principles; but here was a detail upon which he felt that
he could not, conscientionsly, abstain from giving a nega-
tive. In former times, the representation of the parts of
the metropolis was regulated by certain fixed principle.,
and kept perfectly separate; bnt the framers of the Bill
were now about to break up a great town into fractions--
(Hear)—and proceed on a principle wholly unknown to
the Constitution. Every one knew the extraordinary
interest attached to what was connected with the interests
or feelings of the metropolis, that they could not pull down
the corner of an old chapel without its becoming almost
an object of national interest.—(Hear.) He contended
that it was necessary to preserve some power which would
counteract the extraordinary influence which was thus
exercised by the concentrated opinions of the metropolis
on the people of the provinces. He saw no sufficient rea-
son for giving twenty Members to London, when he
marked the preponderating influence which it exercised.
with all the weight and activity of its Press, throughout
the whole of the provincial towns of the empire.—
(Hear, hear.) He did not hesitate to speak his opinions
boldly on this subject ; for he, for one, would not be
overawed by the rod which was held over every Member
of that House.—(Hear.) Reform seemed to be the only
question on which the Members of the Legislature were
not permitted to utter their unbiassed opinions.—(Hear.)
He should, however, feel himself unworthy of the ho-
nour of sitting in that House as the representative for the
city which had sent him there, if lie had permitted him-
self to be awed by any watchword of the whole Rill, and
nothing but the Bill; or, if he refrained from the exercise
of his constitutional privilege to canvas the merits of the
measure before them, and to decide according to his sense
of what was due to the national, as well as the provincial
interests. These watchwords were, in his opinion, got
up for the purpose of deterring the Members from the
fulfilment of their duty; but he was confident that those
who, iu spite of clamour and opprobium, honestly and
fearlessly expressed their opinions, would have their
motives justly appreciated by all the estimable and de-
serving portion of the public, and that they never would
be confounded with the factious opponents of a Bill, the
principle of which bad received the sanction of so large a
portion of that House.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord MILTON thought his Noble Friend (Sandon),
when he spoke of provincial interests, had come to the di ss
cussion with a certain degree of prejudice. It was not a
provincial but a national question, and that was his Noble
Friend's mistake.—(Hear, hear.) If they disfranchised a
certain number of boroughs, what more proper method of
disposing of the enfranchisement could they find than that
of giving it to the overgrown suburbs of the metropolis,
important as they were in population, wealth, and intelli-
gence? His Right Hon. Friend (Sir G. .Murray) had
observed, that if the metropolis got additional Members,
Scotland would be unfairly treated in the system of repre-
sentation ; but admitting the principle of the Right Hon.
Gentleman, he would ask him to compare the population
of Scotland with that of the suburbs of London. If be
did, be would find that Scotland wis over rather than un-
der represented.—(Hear, hear.) Those who applied
themselves to the question had overlooked the fact of the
vast wealth, intelligence, and growing prosperity of the
suburbs of London'; and he was quite sure, if that Par-
liament neglected their claims, they would form one of the
earliest and most prominent topics for the consideration of
the Parliament when it was reformed.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. HUNT rose amid calls of question. He agreed
with the Noble Lord that the suburbs of London should he
represented ; and he was confident if the House of Lords
threw out that clause—for in the Commons there was no
danger of it—there would not be peace in the country fcr
a single day. The clamour would commence instantly,
He agreed with all the facts stated by the Right Hon. Bs,
ronet (Sir R. Peel), and thought them so true as to be un-
answerable ; but he differed with him on the conclusions
be drew from these facts.—(A laugh.) He knew no
house in his neighbourhood at so low a rent as ten pAnids
a year, and therefore the Bill might be said to give almost
universal suffrage to the metropolis. But what of that ?
The Right Hon. Baronet said that such persons would
overlay the middle classes ; that they would be swamped
by the poorer classes. He denied this ; and he was confi-
dent they would prove mere virtuous, and less corrupt,
than those above them. It was said, however, that the re-
presentatives for the metropolis and the great towns would
be all demagogues. Could there be any greater dema-
gogues than some they had seen there already ? Could
any one be more democratic than the late Mem hi r
for Westminster, now the Secretary at War (Sir J.
Hohhouse) ?—(A laugh.) Let the democrats once get
into the House, and let the most violent get once
the way to the Treasury Bench, ann he would warrant
the democrat would soon be quiet. It would cure his de-
mocracy.—(A laugh.) It was said that if the Bill
l(seaA'oe
of
lea,Ausi sure toes
Manchester,
re-
turned for the University of Oxford.—(Much laughter.)
No, no. Manchester, they would find, would return some
arpkenantste:7lwerdline:eo(biamsdealistell.v:iAa.ndiglet it just ertjhirunsesgtfooapranisndAiloliknalneorle.yfhtCethsh:tabeptbr:—oti they would he
great merchant, and no persons of that kind they might
depend on it. They had heard too that a Colonel Jones
(Radical he was called) would certainly be the representa-
tive of one of the metropolitan districts. He (Mr. H.)
knew a little of the opinions of the people on that point,
and he beleved that Colonel Jones had no more chance or
a metropolitan district than lie had.—(Hear, hear, and a
laugh.) In conclusion he would observe, that those who
voted that night against the question, would be considered
as voting against the Bill itself, and so held by their con-_
stituents. For his own part, and he never said so before,
he believed, if the clause was rejected either in that House
or in the Lords, they must expect to see the country
that
hol plunged gutr eh.l
co into
convulsion.—(
.Iconfusion,(lHueeas
rt.i)on
FERGUSON,
e
ain
clause argued as if wealth, intelligence, and population
idcthhcarmitesutsohtfe lead
Question,"
opponents es amnseo fgsrate'ahi 4te
were so many reasons for exclusion. He agreed with the
Member for Caine, that the necessity of proving the pro-
priety of exclusion was thrown on the other side, and they
had failed to support tb .r case.
Mr. SHELL, as th, only Member for Ireland who had
taken any part in tne debate in which the Irish were
deeply interested, said, that although a wrong was about
to be done to his countrymen, that was no reason for
them to wish to support the doing of wrong to others ;
and he, therefore, gave his cordial support to the clause.
He could not, indeed, conceive what lion. Gentlemen
could mean by any Reform Bill giving Reform, unless it
conferred representatives on the overgrown, powerful, and
wealthy suburbs of the metropolis.—(Hear.)
The Committee divided :
Ayes 316
Noes 2361
Majority for Ministers
On our re-admission we found that the House had re,
sumed, and the Speaker in the Chair.
The other orders of the day were then disposed or, and
the House adjourned at Two o'clock.

ROBERT LE DlABLE.—Extract of a letter
from MEYERBEER to a friend in London:—" I shall be
in London in the course of next month, to superintend
the production of the original Robert le Diable ; but, in
the meanwhile, I think it necessary to acquaint you that
I have bad nothing to do with the instrumentation of the
operas of the Damon and the Fiend Father, as performed
in your metropolis ; and that some of the must prominent
vocal pieces produced in them do not belong to me—,
(ne m'appartiennent pas). The entire opera, arranged
for the pianoforte, Las not yet been published in Paris ;
therefore your adapters have been able to procure only
few detached pieces; so that the gaming scene, that of the
cemetery, and the finale to the fourth act, which are not
roust be th reprod nuction of some other person.
" Imai, Btc.
yet engraved,
"Paris, Feb. 24.

" Almsuza."