The Sun.
London, England, 1835-02-28 00:00:00

to whose party he had 'consented to ettneliThlin.srelf: After such an
assertion fe;t it incumbent upan'.hirri to state, as brieili as t:o
could, the motives that had 4ctuated him in the course he had
pursued. He should• not, upon that. occasion allude to the seve-
ral topics contained in the address, and he felt that he coati
abstain from doing so with perfect safety—not only because the
sentiments he entertained with • respect to them were perfectly
in accordance with those of the noble lord (Stanley) behind him, lus
because he wes satisfied that neither the merits nor demerits of those
topics entered at all into the consideration of the hon. gentlemen erso..
site, whose sole object had been to defeat the ministry. Whether sJet,
a course was consistent with the dignity of any of. the members of t.,at
house, it was not for him to determine. The honourable, member for.
Middlesex had stated his belief that the continuance of the present(hi.
vernrnent in power would not be very long. He (Mr. Tennent) thought
he was warranted in stating: his conviction that the grounds upon wh.ch
the hon. member funded that opinion were not very correct. At all
events, after the declarations that had been made •by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the hon. member for Middlesex might rest assured, that
however ready the right hon. baronet might be to bend to the indeps tr.
rlently expressed opinion of the house, he never would give way to the
capricious vdte of a faction. After having made a few observations upon
the report of municipal refs no, the purport of which' our reporter could •
not catch, the hon. gentleman proceeded to draw a parallel between the
.existing state of things, and that which occurred upon the first,
accession of Mr. Pitt to power, in 1782. In both instances, lie
observed that the leader of the Opposition had allied
self to a party—(Hear, 'hear)—whose opinions' were utterly at
variance with his own, for the sake, if possible, of overwhelming the
minister. In both instances the object was the same—in both instances
the attempted mode of accomplishing it was the same, except that in
1793 Mr. Fox united with an Aristocratic party, whilst the noh'e lord
(the member for Devonshire) sought, to obtain a temporary advantage
over the party in power by calling to his aid the advocates et' pure tie.
=Jersey. In both instances the al'iances had 'been unnatural. In the
first it had lasted but for a short time; and in the present, if the King
and the Minister exhibited the same firmness he believed it would re.n.
time but little longer. When he looked at the means by which :he
major ity on the Opposite side •of the hoUse had been procured, he could
not regard it as representing the opinions of the country. He. could
not suppose that those who had been returned to. Parliament by means
of the grossest and most unparalleled intimidation, were the real repre-
sentatives of the feelings and opinions of the country. It was a mocke--y
to regard persons so returned as the representatives of any other party
titan the ind.vidual under whose sanction they came forward. In Ire-
land every earthly means of coercion had been resorted to to bias the
minds of the voters, and to compel them to vote in favour of the Candi.
date nominated by a particular party in that country ; not only were
endless tortures in the next world threatened, but in this that
fate which is indicated by the death's-head and crossbones. lie
(Mr. E. Tennent) certainly did not dispute the right which that
house constitutionally possessed of commenting upon the manner
in which ,the King might think proper to exercise the preco-

' gative of the Crown in the selection 'of his ministers ; but Le
contended that if, by any factious influence, the house, without waiting
to see what measures would be introduced, should succeed in defeating
and displacing any Ministers that the King might choose, then he said
that it would be transferring the executive authority from the Crown,
where it was properly placed, to the House of Commons, where it could
not properly remain. The authority of the ('rown would be reduced to
less than a nullity ; the King would be a captive upon his Throne—the
first slave in his kingdom. These were the sentiments that had restrained
him from voting with the opponents to the present Ministry. But al.
though he had supported the Government in the vote of the day before,
he begged to say that, as a Reformer, he never could, and never would,
give his support to any Administration that did not enter upon power
with a determination to correct every acknowledged abuse. When he
looked at the declarations made by the present Ministers, both with.ti
and without the walls of Parliament, he thought he should be withhold_
holding from them that courtesy as Ministers which was due to them as
gentlemen, if he did not say that at the present moment he believed them
to be sincere. if the measures which they brought forward were in ar.
cordance with the spirit of the declarations they had made, heshould gds e
them'his honest, cordial, and conscientious support. Rut if he were
deceived, either in their general policy or in any of the individual mea-
sures that they should introduce, there was no Member of that house
who would give them a more determined opposition than he would,
Mr. SPRING RICE rested the vote that he had given upon the
question of the Address on the principles upon which he had alwapi
acted, and which had been so well explained by his noble friend
(Lord J. Russell). The able manner in which his noble friend in his
speech of the other evening hail vindicated the line of conduct which
he and those who ac• ed with him thought it their duty to pursue, more
than Justified the confidence that he (Mr. S. Rice) had always been dis-
posed to place in him. Ile begged to state that his noble friend was not
self.elected to the position which he occupied upon that (the Opposition)
side of the house. He had been placed there by the approving voice of
the whole Whig party.—(Hear, hear.) After the pointed and impressive
manner in which his noble friend had contradicted the assertion that
had been made, that a difference of opinion existed between him (Mr.
S. Rice) and his noble friend, and ' a noble lord in another place, i e
should not have felt it necessary to obtrude for a single moment upon
the attention of the house, except that rumour had again given curren, y
to a report that, notwithstanding his noble friend's direct contradiction.
a difference of opinion did exist where, in point of fict, difference of
opinion there was none. He (Mr. S. Rice) begged again emphatically
to declare that amongst the members of the Melbourne Cabinet there
was no such difference of opinion as had been stated--(Cheers.) And
farther, not to deal with general expressions, but with a particular
question, he begged to state that on the question of the Irish Church the
plan laid down and explained in general terms by his noble friend met
with the entire and perfect approval of himself (Mr. S. Rice) and
his noble friend in the other house.—(Hear, hear.) Nut only
did it meet with his (Mr. S. Rice's) approval, but he took the
liberty of saying, and if the noble lord the member for Lan-
cashire was then in his place, he would ask bins whether he did not
know that long before he (Mr. S. Rice) had the honour of being a mem.
her of the late government, the very plan explained by the noble lord
the member for Devonshire, last night, was a plan upon which he (Mr
S. Rice) had uniformly expressed his disposition to act. Therefore, not
only was it false to state that general differences had existed in the
of ,lbourne Cabinet ; but specially and particularly in the instance of
Irish Church Reform there was the most perfect and entire concord.-2-
(Hear, ocaa I He would not detain .the house further. He merely
wished to avail
e first favourable opportunity to give a
ta-
rect contradiction t self of tide
the statements that had been put in circulation.
Whenever the subject igas brought forward in a specific shape, he should
be pi epared to state in det,;.`., what his views and opinions were. He was
glad that the right hon. baronet the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had
come to the determination of not d'sposing the report upon the address.
The line of conduct that the right l: on. baronet had determined to
adopt upon that subject was exactly what 119 (Mr. S. Rice) had expected
from him. He thought it did the right hon. b.7ronet infinite credit, and
Must be satisfactory to the house. Having discharged what he con-
ceivfti to be a duty to himself and to his two noble friends, by setting
the hotue and the public right as to the alleged differeristes of opinion
that had existed between them, he should not trespass upon the house
'at any greater length. He thought, after the course that the • right
hon. baronet bad determined to take, it would be bad taste on the part
of the house to prolong the discussion on that occasion.
Sir M. W. RIDLEY pert, ctly agreed with the concluding observation
of his right hon.-friend who had just sat down. He should think it very
bad taste on his part if, after the long discussion that had taken place, lie
should enter afresh upon the stage, and attempt to detain the house at
any length upon the subject of the address or the amendment. But the
personal imputation that had been cast upon him by the hon. meinly r
fur Middlesex induced him to claim the indulgence of the house for a
few moments, and a few moments only. Its the position that he:occin.

pied as a public man, he (Sir M. W. Ridley) had nothing to look to but
his public character ;- and he was not afraid to put the consistency of
his public character, or the merits'Of his private character, in competi.
tion with either the public or private character of the hon. member for
Middlesex, who, in his peculiar manner, had thought proper to attack
Lim (Sir R. W. Ridley) personally.—(Chcers.) The hon. member quoted
from sonic newspaper an account of a meeting which was stated to have
taken place at the house of the noble lord the member for Lancashire.
The very first part of that account, which described Lord Arthur Len-
nox as being present at the meeting, was false and unfounded, for Lord
-Arthur Lennox was at that moment in Scotland. As far as it related
to himself, he (Sir M. W. Ridley) was bound to say that he did attend
the meeting held at the house of his noble friend the member for Lance.
shire ; and he was proud to say farther, that he fully acquiesced in the
opinions his noble friend entertained upon all general subjects of re-
form; and he would tell• the bon, member for Middlesex, although he
(Sir M. W. Ridley) and his noble friend, and those who thought with
him, were not prepared to sweat that black was white—(loud cheers)—
although they were not prepared to say one thing one day, and to vote
another the next—although they did not attempt to gain a temporary
popularity by truckling to popular passion, they were prepared to go oie
as honestly. and as conscientiously in the reform, not only of
alleged abuses, but of every thing that was found to operate prejudicial:7
to the institutions of the country, as the hon. member himself. lie
(Sir M. W. Ridley) should not be afraid ofeinking in the scale of po-
pular opinion by contrasting the line of conduct which he and his
friends should pursue with the line of conduct that might be adopted by
the lion. member for Middlesex. Tht hon. member stated that, twenty
years ago, when he (Sir M. W. Ridley) acted with him, in preparing
lists of the House of Commons, he always thought that he (Sir M. W. R.)
tves not a stanch Whig; and that, at the present moment, he did not
know what to call him. He would relieve the hon. member from his
difficulty—he would tell him what he was. From the first moment that
he had been introduced to public life, he had continued to he a sin-
cere,:nd constitutional tiv hig—(hear, hear)—and as sincere a Reformer
as the hon.member for Middlesex, or any other member of the house.—
(Hear, hear.) :seath,e was not ono of those who blindly tollo%v the boo.
member for Middlesex -.hen he saw that hen, member lending himself
.mina the character of ap independent re-
to everything that was unbea. ,Ad not followed the steps or ileFol7:e
presentative.—(Hear, hear.)
He '4le.ez.—(Cheers.) Although
one of the tail of the hon. member for Mit._ clown the anitnadver.
the hon member might seek popularity by to denorni-
sions of the house against those whom he had been plea. • • kt.
nate the tail of the noble lord the member for Lancashire, lie (Sir .
Ridley), for one, should look upon such conduct (he did not wish to use
the word offensively) with the contempt it deserved.—(Ciu era.) He felt
satisfied that no other member of the house, in diseessing a great con.ti.
tutional question, would have descended to such petty and unworthy pet-
sOnalities, as had disgraced the speech of the hon. member for Middle-
sex.—(Hear, hear.) As to the general question of the address, he
would simply observe, that his object, in the course he had pursued, *as
not to vote anything whatever that might tend immediately to turn
out the right honourable baronet and his colleagues from the Go-
vettnneot. That being the case, he thought it more consistent
with duty, and more consistent with his principles, to give a direct and
decided vote upon the question than to seek to shelter himself under the
pretext, that although the right hon. baronet might be left in a minority,
he would not r. tire from the situation that he held. In pursuing thet
course he. had consulted no personal feeling, no personal interest; he
had adopted it simply because he thought it the most straightforward

and the mat manly—(hear, hear)—and having adopted it. Ile was not
- • - - -

afraid to leave his constituent:, or the people of England generally, to
form their own conclusions as to his conduct, or the motives that had in-

ilnenced it—(hear, hear.) He umderstood than another report had been
circulated that he (Sir M. W. Ridley) bad somewhere or other coaanu-
nicated to some one, that the right hon. baronet the' Chancellor of the
Exchequer did not intend to take the sense of the house upon the pre.

sent occasion; and farther, that. he had commtinicated to the Govern-
ment, that in case of a division he should not oppose them, because he
thought the opposition was factious. In answer to that report, he bepe I
to state, in reference to the first part of it, that he had had no comma.
nicatien whatever with the government; and in reference to the first
part of it, he could only say that all the intercourse he had had with

any one upon the s'ubje:t was with a friend whom he met in the street

that day, and who asked him what turn he supposed the debate would
take. In reply to that question he (S:r M. W. Ridley) stated that r•e
did not know, but that as far as he was concerned, if the right hon. ba-
ronet should think fit to take the sense of the house, he thought' he
would be sitting a very unwise and unworthy part, for that the opinion
of the house having been fairly expressed Cie night before, he considered
it the duty of the right hon. baronet to yield to that vote; and if he
took-a different course, he (Sir M. W. Ridley) should certainly vi.te
against hint--,(Qeers.)

Mr. F. O'CONOIt said that the Irish members who had tendered
their adherence to the opposition patty in the house had been chargvd
with having given themselves up to de-hon. and learned member ills
Dublin, to be dealt with as he might think proper. He had :not heard
from that hon. and learned gentleman, who was justly considered as the.
able friend and advocate of the interests of his countrymen, anything !.alf
so assuming and ar:ogant as what fell from the noble lord the inerner
for Lancashir, who spoke of himself as being at the head of a compact
army of observation over the proceedings of the house. Although the
Irish members with whom he (Mr. F. O'Connor) acted had given their
adherence to the opposition now formed, they were not open to the charge
of a pliancy of principle, or of compromising their opinions in any shape,
He recollected reading an extract from a speech once deivered 1)3 the