The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-11 00:00:00

NOTTINGHAM, AUG. 10.

The people of Nottingham have done their duty in the pre-
sent alarming crisis of public affairs. At the meeting which
took place to-day, about 2,000 persons assembled, and the
address to the House of Lords, to pass the Municipal Reform
Bill unimpaired, was all but unanimously carried. Amend-
ments were proposed by Mr. John Hicklin, the editor and
proprietor of the Nottingham Journal, a paper in the interest
of the Conservative and Newcastle clique here ; but he with
difficulty could obtain a hearing. Lord Rancliffe, B. Boothby,
Esq., Thomas Close, Esq., Dr. Pigot, Mr. Shoults, and Mr.
Bradley, addressed the meeting in favour of the principles of
the Bill ; and Lord Rancliffe, in a most splendid and spirited
speech, pointed out the folly of the Peers in opposing this just
and long-wanted measure, and shewed most pointedly the con-
sequences that would befal them, if they persisted in their
opposition to the just and constitutional wishes of the people.
His allusion to the mountebank exhibition made by the Bris-
tol Knight, and the other Knight, was most happy, and in
concluding his speech he proposed three cheers for Lord Mel-
bourne, which was responded to by this great meeting with
the most hearty and honest feeling. It must be observed that
the Tories had done their best to carry their amendments by
working upon the feelings of that class of burgesses who are
always open to a bribe ; but on this occasion they were most
signally defeated.
Petitions are in the course of signature, and will be for-
warded by mail to-morrow.

DUMFRIES.-A public meeting of the inhabitants of Dum-
fries was held on Saturday last, for the purpose of petitioning
tile House of Lords in favour of the Irish Church Bill. Re-
soiutions, approving of the measure, and a petition to the
s,t me effect, were cordially and unanimously agreed to.
PAISLEY.—In Paisley, the decision of the Peers is held as
tantamount to the throwing out of the English Corporation
Reform Bill. We learn that a public meeting of the inhabi-
tants is likely to take place on the subject at an early day, and
that it is most likely, that meeting will come to a very different
esolution than agreeing to petition the House of Peers either
to pass the Bill or do any thing else.—Glasgow Chronicle.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We could fill the Chronicle with accounts of meetings
and preparations for meetings throughout the country. Our
readers will find a report of the meeting of Lambeth. We
observe that several of the speakers make themselves
merry with the admirable device of the Lords to inspire the
country with an idea of the justice of their hostility to the
Municipal Reform Bill, viz., the hearing the evidence of the
Town Clerks, the persons of all others most interested in
preventing all reform. The meeting at Liverpool takes place
to-day ; but a report of it will not reach town till this
evening. The Lord Mayor of London has refused to call
a Common Council ; but nothinc, which this functionary
does will excite surprise. On Saturday' last the vestry of
Marylebonc resolved to call a public meeting for Thurs-
day next, with a view to further the passing of the
Corporation Reform Bill, and the preservation of the
Lords, who, said Mr. Nelmes, one of the speakers, would
if they refused to pass the Bill, " find themselves in
danger." The vestrymen of St. Pancras, also, met on
Saturday, and fixed on to-morrow (Wednesday) for a
public meeting. St. Paul's Covent Garden meets on
Wednesday evening. Ashton-under-Line met on Sa-
turday last, and a deputation was appointed to proceed
to London to place a petition in the hand of Lord Spencer,
which received 1,000 signatures in the course of
a couple of hours, and will receive 5,000 signatures before
the deputation starts. A public meeting took place at
Hythe. A petition to the Lords was agreed on. It is
signed by the Mayor, several of the present Corporation,
and many most respectable electors and inhabitants ; and
it would have received more signatures, but several inhabi-
tants pledged themselves never to petition the Lords till
that House should be reformed. Petitions from Coventry,
signed by 5,727 freemen and inhabitants, confirmatory of
Mr. Cockburn's Report, by Mr. Marriott, contradicting
Mr. Curtis's have been sent to Lord Melbourne,
and anothcr petition by Mr. Browett, in contradiction of
Mr. Woodcock's evidence, to Lord Brougham. The pe-
tition to the Lords, confirmatory of Mr. Cockburn's Re-
port, states—
" That your petitioners have learnt with surprise and indig-
nation that an attack has been made, and gross reflections cast,
at the bar of your Lordships' House, upon the Report and
proceedings of the Municipal Corporation Commissioners who
visited this city.
" That in your petitioners' opinion and judgment the Com-
missioners acted with the greatest impartiality on the occasion,
and that the whole of their Report is strictly true, and that the
evils pointed out by such Report will be remedied by the pass-
ing of the Bill now before your Lordships' House for reform-
ing Municipal Corporations.
" Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray that your
Lordships will pass such Bill. And your petitioners further
pray that they may be heard at the bar of your Lordships'
House in support thereof and of the Commissioners' Report

thereon." ,
Deputations are arriving from all quarters. Yesterday
a deputation, headed by an alderman, from Rochester,
waited on Lord Radnor, with a petition from that city.
Paisley, Dumfries, South Molten, Plymouth, Reading, have
already sent. Berwick-upon-Tweed is preparing to wipe
away the aspersions cast upon it by the recent evidence, by
a petition to the Lords. It appears that the public feeling
of the inhabitants of that town has been grossly misrepre-
sented. Meetings to petition are announced for Falmouth,
Truro, Scarborough, Shepton Mallet, Dartmouth, and
Bridgewater. One word more, and we have done for the
present. The Lords are evidently divided ; and it is in
that division alone that there is any source of hope for the
country at this time. On the more moderate the demon-
strations of the country may not be thrown away ; and
we, therefore, repeat the advice to the people to speak out
loudly and promptly. For the sake of union, the more
moderate Peers might yield to the more violent, if the
country did not loudly interpose.—Morning Chronicle.
Lord Brougham is fighting the cause of his late Col-
leagues most vigorously ; in fact, they appear to have very
little other efficient support in the House of Lords but his,
yet the Woolsack is vacant—Lord Brougham is not ap-
pointed to it, and Lord Melbourne seems not to have the
courage to appoint any one else. In the mean time, the
state of the three Equity Courts is any thing but satisfac-
tory
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The Commissioners of the Great Seal, having more to do
than they can satisfactorily get through with, move about
from Court to Court, scarcely knowing which they shall
attend next. Poor Sir Lancelot Shadwell seems, of all
men, most to be pitied in this worrying, vexatious state of
things. Of all things, and above all men, he hates official
costume, and he, above most men, loves talking. He would
much rather be rowing, or swimming, or at any athletic exer-
cise, than cooped up in his Court in gown and wig. But even
there he has that greatest boon, liberty of speech. It is no un-
pleasant thing, to be sure, to have one-third of the patronage of
the Great Seal. But then to be doomed, at the close of the
day, and frequently till after midnight, to " the silent sys-
tem," which Sir Charles Forbes declares has worked such
wonders—" There's the rub !" And to see Sir Lancelot
Sliadwell presiding over an assembly in which he cannot
open his mouth ; he himself a voluble Tory, the silent vic-
tim of the Whigs ; flesh and blood can hardly stand the
mortifying spectacle. All 'the while not a stiver will John
Bull afford to reward this patient endurance, this unprofes-
sional self-denial ; and the Vice-Chancellor, therefore, holds
one-third of the Great Seal, and a silent seat on the Wool-
sack, without a single shilling at quarter-day in the shape of
quantum meruit. In the mean while Lord Brougham fights
arid fumes away, as if he were actually in office. Not be-
ing admitted to the meetings of the Cabinet, the Learned
Lord now and then mistakes the reckoning, or in other
words overshoots the mark, as in the case of advocating the
bearing of Counsel on the Municipal Reform Bill ; but still
Lord Melbourne must be the most ungrateful man alive
if such self-devotion can for a moment be lost upon him.
But leaving this strain of badinage, let us in sober earnest-
nezs ask, whether any thing can be more extraordinary—
and we may add unconstitutional—than the Ministers of
the Crown, at such a period as this, going through a whole
Session of Parliament with the highest law office vacant—
leaving the Crown and themselves without that adviser
who is at all times most essential to the guidance of the
one and the deliberations of' the other ; and in either case
never so mach so as when alterations in established
institutions are proposed, which, whether right or
wrong in themselves, °tight at least to have the
grave and solemn sanction of that person who ought
to be clothed at once with the soundest knowledge and
the 4,2epest responsibility ? There was no part of
Sir Charles Wetherell's late speech at the bar of the
House of Lords nac,re cutting and sarcastic than his allu•
sion to this vacancy ; but vrlia, as far as appearances go,
seems as likely to extend through another Session as it
has through this, We can understand the foreign policy
of
a Lord Chancellor in the Cabinet, though even in that
re-
spectieciueimportant questions of ohfisinatsesrisntaatniocneaml haw must not
on::
iumn:
f
I pyrtant ; but the progress of measures at home, whisk tend