The Sun.
London, England, 1832-05-15 00:00:00

Wit cl c

V'-
. radii:: and inconsistency. But what could be said of the conduct
of many of the Honourable Gentlemen opposite when they
joined Mr. Canning (whose monument had just been put up in
Palace-yard), who had distinctly declared himself most inimical
to Reform ? There was quite as much political immorality anc
inconsistency in that. In his opinion, they might put Whigs
and Tories into a bag and shake them up, and it would be quite
• indifferent which came out first—(a laugh). He did not believe
that the Honourable Member for Thetford would have said
what he had said unless he had some ground ; and he (Mr.
Hunt) repeated, that although the late Government did not
possess his entire confidence, the country was in such a state,
from one end to the other, that only the late Government could
tranquilize it. There could be no denying the agitation that
was going on. If any one had been at the Bank of England
that day, as he had, he would have felt it. Ile had seen four
or five runs upon the Bank, but none like what he had seen that
day. He had himself been three-quarters of an hour before he
could get a 101. note converted into cash. Placards had been
put up ;we think the Hon. Gentleman said by an eminent
hanker) calling upon the people to defeat the Duke of Welling-
ton by going to the Bank for gold. Under these circumstances,
what might be the situation of London before to-morrow night,
unless what had passed in the House that evening, by going
forth to the public, might assist in tranquillizing the genera;
feeling ?

Mr: O'CONNELL expressed the satisfaction with which he
should see a reconciliation between the Crown and the late
Ministry; convinced as he was that in that reconciliation alone
could be found out the means of tranquillizing the people and

securing the Throne. He concurred in almost everything
which had fallen from the Noble Member for Liverpool, and
especially in the result; namely—that whoever could replace
us in the situation in which we were a week ago, would be a
most bountiful benefactor to his country. The spirit of revo-
lution was Abroad ; and if it were allowed to pass a certain
stage, it would be difficult to check it. Like the pestilence
with which the country had lately been visited, if it were not
arrested at an early stage, cure might be impossible. At pre
sent there was still hope that means might be found to heal the
body politic. Let but a little time elapse and he would be a
bold man who would predict the event. Hundreds of thousands
and millions of persons depended for their subsistence on the
regular working of society ; on receiving wages ; on being
employed. Let but the present state of things continue
for a few days, and they must either starve, or do mis-
.. . _

chief. Let but a single week elapse, and revolution and
the utter destruction of the beautiful fabric around us
might be the consequences. And if this danger existed in
England, was there no other part of the empire in danger ? Did
the House think that a change of Administration, which
would give power in Ireland to those who did not possess it at

present, might not be productive of frightful events, especially
if that change were accompanied by disturbances in this coun-
try ? 'We were in such a state, that every wise and good man
must wish to retire from it. Even those who formerly opposed

Reform, on the ground that it led to indefinable change, now

that the Radicals (of whom he professed himself to be one)
pledged themselves to the late Administration that if the pro.
posed measure were passed, they would give it a fair trial as an
experiment, must be disposed to yield the point. He called
upon them—he called upon all—to stop the progress of revolu-
tion; and they would have a right in return to expect that a
fair trial would be given to the proposed measure before anything
farther were asked for. He hoped, therefore, that after the
petition was received, the House would adjourn. He wished
for Reform, but he dreaded revolution. He wished for the
security of the people's rights, but no man was more anxious to
sec the stability of the Crown established.

Mr. F. PALMER observed, that so strong was the feeling of
the people on the subject of Reform, the multitudes of them
had determined to abstain from using all excisable articles
until they obtained it. From his own personal information he
could assure the House, that the excitement in the country
must by some means or other be allayed, or that violence was to
be apprehended. He thought that great benefit might arise

from an adjournment, with the hope that some arrangement

might be made. The people had confidence in that House.
The vote of Thursday last had occasioned that confidence; and
in consequence of that vote he had heard more compliments paid
to the present House of Commons than he had ever heard paid
to any other House of Commons in his life.

. Mr. Alderman VENABLES heartily concurred in the re-
commendation of the lion. Member for Middlesex. When
there were so many eminent persons who had access to the

Sovereign, he hoped that some of them would have the

patriotism to exert their powers of persuasion on the occca-
sion. He Was persuaded that if the Reform Bill were not

carried, the country would be torn to pieces, from one end of it
to the other. If, however, it were carried by the Duke of Wel-
lington, such a dereliction of principle would be productive of
as much evil as the Reform would be productive of
• good. He hoped, therefore, that the hint thrown out by the
Hon. Member for Thetford would be acted upon. If not, and if
things were brought to a crisis, he was prepared to join in all
justifiable measures which the House might think proper to
adopt in order to obtain the desired object.
Mr. D. GILBERT said it seemed now to be acknowledged

by all parties that the Reform Bill must pass. Notwithstand-
ing the decided opinion which the Duke of Wellington had
pronounced, and the protest which he had entered against the
Bill, all his friends admitted that even he, if he came into power
rnust pass it. It being allowed, therefore, that the Bill must

pass, it appeared to hiat to be perfectly absurd to argue that the
Ministers who brought the Bill in ought not to be permitted to
carry it through. lie had been thirty years a Member of that
House, and he felt himself to be as independent a Member as
any in it ; and he earnestly entreated every independent Mem-
ber in that Housito join their best efforts to avert the danger
to which the country was at present subject. As the Bill
must be passed, it was surely desirable that it should be passed
in a way which should be satisfactory to the whole nation. He
felt strongly on this subject; and it was his anxiety to avert
the danger of anything like disturbance or civil war, that thus
induced him to call upon all independent Members to unite their
efforts for the benefit of the country.

Mr. WYNN argued, as we understood the Right Honourable
Gentleman, that those Ministers who had introduced the Re_
form Bill, and carried it to its present stage, ought either to be
allowed to reap the glory attendant upon the measure, if it
should prove benficial, or to be subject to censure if it should
turn out otherwise. Nothing but a sense of the deep wound
which the Constitution would have received by the adoption of
the means proposed for insuring the success of the measure in
• the other House of Parliament, could have occasioned the re-
-ieetion of those means. Their adoption would undoubtedly
, have given an irreparable wound to the Constitution. The
_ destruction of the independence of the House of Lords, would
have been the destruction of the Constitution, as established
on the distinct privileges of the King, the House of Lords, and
the House of Commons ; and the precedent would have been
resorted to in future times by any Minister, whenever the
House of Lords might have dissented from the other Estates of
the realm.
Lord INGESTItIE deprecated further discussion at the pre-
sent moment, as calculated to produce differences, rather than
union. Enough had been thrown out to act upon; and he re-
commended an adjournment, in order to give the opportunity of
trying if it could be acted upon beneficially.
Mr. LENNARD was desirous to add his voice, however
humble, in favour of the proposition of the Hon. Member for
Middlesex. There was nothing which the country had more at
heart than that the Reform Bill should remain in the hands of
those by whom it had been introduced. After what had been
stated on both sides of the House, he was very sanguine in his
expectation that that might be the case ; and if, by the inter-
ference of the Duke of Wellington, the Bill could be again
placed under the conduct of its authors, the Duke would acquire
fresh claims to the gratitude of his country.
Colonel SIBTHORP belonged to no party or Administration,
but acted and voted in perfect independence. Until he heard it
from much higher authority than that by which the allegation
had hitherto been made, he would not believe that the means
proposed to carry the Reform Bill had ever received the Royal
sanction. At present, however, there was no responsible per-
son in the House from whom information could be ob-
tained. Adverting to what, had fallen from the Honourable
Member for Preston, he denied that there was any such
run upon the Bank as that Honourable Gentleman had
described. Ile had no fears upon that head. Nor had he any
apprehensions with respect to the people, who were loyal and
well affected, except when they were deluded by false state_
meats. Of this he was convinced, that the last Administra-
tion was one of the most incompetent that had ever held the
reins of power in this country ; and nothing could be more
criminal than their holding out to the people the expectation
that the Reform Bill would be the panacea for all the evils
which they endured.—(Loud cries of Adjourn, adjourn.) The
cries of adjourn having become very loud,
Mr. WELLESLEY said, that this House ought to sit day
by day till they knew that there was a responsible Govern-
ment. He must say, that he had had doubts, and still had
doubts, as to there being any Government in existence at that
moment, and therefore he wished that House to sit till there
should be a Government able to acquaint them and the
country with the facts of the various rumours that had been
spread about. He said this, because he wished his constituents
to know that nothing would deter him from doing his duty.
He should receive in forty-eight.hours a petition from his
constituency to that House, which would enable him to go
into that great question whether they were to have the Duke
of Wellington at the head of a Reform Government. During
his connexion with Essex, he had never known any event that
had made so great a sensation as the statement that the Duke
of Wellington was again in office. If he (Mr. W.) were actuated
by personal feelings alone, he should speak against the present,
or the late Government; but he was not, and indeed he thought
that the best friend of the Duke of Wellington would be those
who most strongly advised him to pause before he took the Go-
vernment of the country under present circumstances.--(Hear,
hear.) He could assure them that on that subject the feeling
of the county of Essex was strong, and that the feelings of the
Tories were more strong than even those of the Whigs. There
was no man who had the blood of the Duke of Wellington in his
veins who would not say that the Duke of Wellington would not
stain his honour if he took office under present circumstances.
The Duke of Wellington was but a man ; but he trusted that the
Duke would not fall into that feebleness of mind, sometimes the
unhappy lot of great men, that lie be again deluded as before in
doing that which would lower his estimation among the people.
Mr. Alderman THOMPSON, in reference to what the
Hon. Member for Preston had stated with regard to the run
on the Bank, observed, that the calls made on the Bank had
not been by any means equal to the amount which the Bank
was frequently called on to pay. It was true, that for the last
three or four days a considerable number of persons had go re
0.01 with 52. and 101. to get them cashed, but that if it was
supposed that the demand for gold was to be compared with
that which took place in 1826, it was perfectly erroneous. The
Bank Director' had no apprehension of inconvenience, much

more of the safety and security of the establishment being en.
dangered.—(Hear.)

Mr. HUNT, in explanation, repeated that he had been kept
there three quarters of an hour in getting a 104 note changed.
Mr. J. CAMPBELL proposed that the House should adjourn
to Thurday.—(No, no.) By that time his Majesty's answci
to the Address of that House would have arrived, and he hops d
that answer would be, that in accordance with the wishes of
that House, his Majesty had restored his late Ministers to his
Councils.

Mr. HODGES strongly opposed adjourning over to-morrow.

Mr. CURTEIS was also opposed to it. He had received:
by express, a petition from Brighton, agreed to at a very large
and respectable meeting there held this day. That petition
vowed the most determined hostility to every Government op.
posed to Reform.

Sir C. BURRELL was opposed to adjourning over to.mor_
row. He thought that the difficulties in the way of carrying
the Reform Bill were smoothed down; for the chief difficulty
was in the necessity for the creation of Peers, and that diffi-
culty now appeared, from the declarations made on the other
side of the House, to be removed, since it seemed from them
that the Government now about to be formed were no longer
opposed to the Bill.
Mr. I). BROWN objected to adjourning over to-morrow.
The state of Ireland imperiously called on the Duke of Wel-
lington to give when out of office the same support to the Reform
Bill which it appeared, from the declaration of the other side,
he intended to give it when he came into power.—jfear,
hear.) Such conduct would show him to be the best friend
of his country.

Mr. PRAEI) had not understood any declaration to have
been made by that side of the House, that they understood the
temper of the House of Lords to be, that they were prepared to
pass the whole Reform Bill, or to give up that freedom which,
if it did not belong to the deliberations of the House of Peers,
that House was, in his opinion, worse than useless. What
they said was, that the House of Lords were likely to agree to
Ow leading principles of the Bill. That had been said over
and over again, and long before that vote on which the late
Ministry had thought fit to retire from office.
The Petition was laid on the Table.

The other Orders wer• then disposed of, and the House ad.
journed at Half-past Eleven to this day.