The Sun.
London, England, 1828-06-03 00:00:00

•
1444151 is 7 t int (Rat). but deliberately on MI own
part—to accept of offiee in concert with the Duke of Wel-
lington, would seize the first pretext that offered itself to
leave the Administration in a state of difficulty; and I ani
equally unwilling, on the other hand, to suppose that the
Duke of Wellington, baring sought the alliance of the
Right Hon. Gentleman to strengthen the administratiou
which he was about to form, and to acquire that popularity
and confidence which Mr. Canning's administration had
obtained from the public,—l cannot, I say, imagine that
the Duke of Wellington would seize on the first pretext
that offered itself to throw off the Right lion. Gentleman,
when the object for which he sought his alliance was ac-
complished. It appears to me that there are only two
modes by which a Minister can retire from the situation
which he holds in the public service. The first is by the
resignation of his office of his own free will, and the next
is by a dismissal by command of his Sovereign. I know
of no intermediate course. I know of no justifiable me-
dium in civil tactics between the two.---(Hear, hear.)—
It therefore appears to me at present, either that the Right
Hon. Gentleman opposite abandoned his post in a time
of difficulty, or else that in a time of difficulty the
Noble Duke at the head of the Government adventured of
his own accord to 'dismiss him. I trust that, when the
order of the day shall have been read, the Right lion.
Gentleman will indulge the House and the country with
information upon this high matter (hear, hear) ; snd I
trust that when he shall have developed to us thafrinfor
mation. it will be clear that this Bill cannot havejieen Ili,
real cause of the disunion. However that 11134. be, -my
duty is to persitt in this Bil' (make same gromide of puhlie
j expediency end of constitnt'onal polity whinir induced in,
tdembark originally in an undertaking which, in its career,
rs..
has Iver.m,Mt',Mt',ardtut 1 have expounded to- fle•
Hoer+ - • 4,.-..''i 'AO' p tie 1341-- ct ;mil length 4: ,
fotrber%o4,-Isiuoa, 'that / 'l:ltem- it.aymeeeseary to expoema
them again at present. I shall therefore conclude by ex-
pressing a hope that the period has now arrived when the
House and the country can have fully explained to them
the reasons of the recent extraordinary catastrophe_which,
though it appears to proceed from this Bill, I am firmly
convinced proceeds from other and very different causes."
The lion. Member then moved the order of the day for the
commitment of the East Retford Disfranchisement Bill to
a Committee of the whole House.

Mr. HUSKISSON spoke to the following effort : —Sir,
the circumstances under which I offer myself to your no-
tice are such as will, I trust, bespeak for me that of which
I stand in touch need—the patient indulgence of the
House. (Hear, hear.) Without making any furthe.-
appeals to its liberality and good feeling, Sir, notwithstaud-
ing the examples which have been set in modern times—not-
withstanding the precedent set by my Right Hon. Friend
the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he
retired from office, and notwithstanding the appeal which
has been made to me by the Hon. Member who has moved
the order of the day, I am not prepared to subscribe to
the doctrine that a Minister of the Crown is necessarily
obliged to explain the grounds which led to his ceasing
to hold his situation.—(Hear, hear.)—For any thing which
I may have done whilst I had the honour to hold a respon-
sible situation—for- any thing which I may 'have omitted
to do whilst I held the office of a Minister of the Crown—
I am ready to answer any questions ; I am ready to render
as full and as explicit an account of my conduct as has ct-er
been required from my predecessors in respect of such pub-
lic employment. Sir, whilst I deny the abstract oblige -
tions of giving an account of the motives, of the reasous.
which led to my ceasing to be in office, I am ready t
admit that there are, therefore, several peculiar cir-
cumstances in the present case, which call upon use,
I think in justice to the public, and, if I may be allowed
to say so, in justice to my own character, to ask the pa,'
tient indulgence of the House whilst I eater into such es
planation.—(Hear, and cheers.)—Sir, when my Right
lion. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment, retired from office, he explained the motives
which induced him voluntarily, though reluctantly, to
resign an office, during his continuance in which he
had done so many services to the country. Sir, my ditty
is of a different description, I have to state, not the mo-
tives, but the circumstances- which led to my remova
for, of the motives which induced others to remove me
from office, it belongs to them to speak—(Cheers—and
of those motives I shall say nothing but this, that I am
perfectly satisfied, be those motives what they may, they
were such as appeared to them necessary to the dischare-e
of their public duty.—(Hear, hear, hear.)—The event
is one of a public nature, and if it lee represented in env
quarter that I lightly or inconsiderately, and upoa what I
must look upon as a trivial occasion in itself, have re•
tired from office, I own that I should be much
to [dame in public opinion if I have been so far
forgetful of my duty to my Sovereign, if I have
been so far forgetful of what I owed to an im-
portant and arduous public trust—if I had overlooked the
difficulties and arrangements which must occur from such
a circumstance taking place in the tnidet of a session—it
had overlooked the interruption which it must necessarily
create to all business in this House and the public depart-
ments, it I had overlooked not only the inconvenience
suspending the ordinary march of public business, but the
still greater inconvenience -which it must-produce at a cri-
tical conjuncture of Foreign Affairs, in occasionin;,-.
some suspension to that intercourse which this country
must keep up with its allies, and to those measures
which it becomes this country to take for the true main -
tenance of peace and the harmony of Europe. If, undet
those circumstances I have resigned, as it is said I have,
or that I have been removed, as I contend I have,
without some circumstances to cause such removal, there is
I admit, a proper subject for enquiry, and it is that which
should be unravelled. It is my duty to take care
that the fearful consequences—the unavoidable delay
to public business which must be the result of such
a circumstance, be not laid at my door.—(Hear, bear.)-
-I am afraid I must trespass upon the patience of the
House.—(Hear.)—The House will recollect that at an
early period of the Session two Bills were submitted to
their consideration in consequence of two Boroughs having
been reported to be guilty of bribery and corruption in re-
turning Members to Parliament. One of those Bills
affected the elective franchise of the borough of Penryn, and
it was proposed to transfer the franchise of that borough to
Manchester ; and it was also proposed by the Ho-
nourable Member for Blessington to transfer the
elective franchise of East Retford, the other delinquent
Borough, to Birmingham. On the 2 lst of March, a Ions:
discussion took place in this House upon the latter proposal,
and my Right Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the
con-
sideration of the House, it would be desirable to transfer
iHnaosnakreuDepa
diarstmtheenrte, saidw acceretiewrdg
oinßtiloiskisunvedien of
under the
tht cas
e,
inasmuch ca
the elective franchise of one borough to some great com-
mercial town, and of the other to the adjoining Hundred.
My Right Hon. Friend urged at
great length, and with
his usual ability, the expediency of such a course ; and
a long debate ensued, in the course of
which many
gentlemen on the other side of the House
propriety of transferring the elective franchise
came (town to the House
on that day without any, the slightest intention of taking
urged
two great towns. the
any part in the discussion, but as no other person but my
a late period of the
t
Right Hon. Friend had addressed they
nght Hon. Friend.
Hoiusefroimtheßench
on which he now sits, I, a
and it would evening, rose to state the reasons which induced ire
to support
appearproptohsait i the course of, Inv observations
proposition of
I made use of the following expressions—at least I find
that I am reported to have used them ;—"lf the pre-
sent case stood alone, I should certainly recommend and
support the measure of transferring the elective franchise
to some great commercial town."—l do assure
th-
House,--I do assure my Right Hon. Friend, that in
making that statement, and in putting forth that decks-
ldt be
ration, I conceived that I was not outstepping the fair spirit
of the line of argument adopted by my Right Honourable
Friend•—(Loud cheers. )-1 wish to state that now, and
in the situation in which I stand, I would riot be in-
clined to do any thing improper, but I must say, that
it so happens, that in making that observation I am not
the only individual who thought I was concurring in the
view taken by my Right Hon. Friend. (Hear.) But 1
am also bound to say, and 1 speak it in sincerity, that after
the explanation given by my Right Hon. Friend it seems
that I did OR that occasion outstep the necessary infer„,„
which was meant to be drawn from hie statement. Sir, ou
the Ist of April, about ten days after the discussion-to
which I have alluded, a Bill .for disfranchising Pen-
rvn, and transferring the franchise to Manchester,
I Muse
passe( this and was sent to the other House •
from that day until the 19th May, no further proceeding
took place with respect to the East Retford Bill, and
I understood, but -I do not know how correctly, that
it was suggeete I by my Right Hon. Friend to make that
Bill a waiting Bill, depending upon the fate of the
other Bill in the other House of Parliament, and to have
the future proceedings upon this Bill dependent upon the
fate of the Bill in the other House. On the 19th of May