The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-30 00:00:00

EAST INDIA DESPATCHES.

Sir E. PERRY moved an address for copy of financial
despatches between the Government of India and the Secre-
tary of State for India, respecting new loans required for
India (in continuation of Parliamentary papers, Nos. 55
and 69, of the present session). And of all notifications of
the Government of India concerning the public debt (in
continuation of Parliamentary papers).—Agreed to.
THE ADJOURNED DEBATE.
The adjourned debate was resumed by

. .
Mr. GLADSTONE, who said—lt appears to me, sir,
that there are other remarkable features in this debate be-
sides the great ability with which it has been conducted,
and among them all I know none so remarkable as e sin-
gular accordance of opinion On both sides of the hot se—l
may say, with the exception of official speakers, amon all
i\
those who have spoken—with respect to the great quest n
of Parliamentary Reform. (Hear, hear.) I do: not say
that there are no shades of difference upon it, but when we
compare the opinions of those who are disposed to give the
least with the opinions—at any rate, so far as they have
been avowed—of those who are disposed to give the most,
we find they lie within such moderate and reasonable limits
as to afford, one would hope, the very beat prospects for an
early and satisfactory settlement of the question. (Cheers.)
In point of fact, sir, 1 may venture to say that there is
no difference perceptible—l do not refer now to the
particular features of the present bill, but to the
general question of Reform—between the speakers on
the two sides of the house ;thed were a member of this
ouse blindfolded during
debate, I would almost
defy him to say from what quarter their addresses respec-
tively had come. (Hear.) It is recorded of the oldest tra-
veller whose voyages have come down to us that he arrived
at a place so remote that he lost all power of judging of the
points of the compass, and the same observation is appli.
cable to the present debate on the subject of reform, with
the single difference that, instead of its being at a place
immeasurably remote, the point where our differences are
lost sight of is in the centre of the British House of Com-
mons. (Hear, hear.) Again, I could not help being struck
with what fell from my hon. friend the member for Bir-
mingham upon this subject. He selected, in the course of
his speech, one address from those which had preceded his
own for commendation, andthree—shall I say for anathema
or for censure ? The speech which he commended was the
speech of a county member on this side of the house—l
mean the hon. member for Dorset—a gentleman, I believe,
of unsuspected orthodoxy in his political creed. (A laugh.)
The speeches which were censured by my hon. friend—the
speeches which he said filled hire with alarm—were the
declarations of three right hon. friends sitting on the other
side of the house. (Hear, hear.) He was alarmed at the
speech of the right hon. gentleman the member for Stroud;
he did not say for what particular reason, but I concluded
because he regarded my right hon. friend a disorderly per-
son upon the present occasion. (A laugh.) He was alarmed
at the speech of my right hon. friend the member for
South Wilts, because-I suppose my right hon. friend gently
suggested in one portion of his excellent address that that
chamber in the mind of my hon. friend the member for Bir-
mingham which ought to be supplied with a certain rever-
ence for ancient traditions is less well furnished than all the
rest of that remarkable structure. (Cheers and laughter.)
Then, sir, the hon. member, still adhering to his'own side
of the house, censured likewise the sagacious letter of my
right hon. friend the member for Coventry. There the rea-
son,
I think, wasplain enough—because myrighthon. friend,
whose hospitalities are proverbial, in that letter promised
to his constituents a magnificent banquet of reform, where
the viand was dressed in every possible shape, but con-
aided by exprettsiDg W Piga tit as 4canzt cd the