Star.
London, England, 1831-10-03 00:00:00

RELATIVE TO TEE LORDS AND TEE azraax DILL.

The Tories give out with effrontery that the
Reform Bill will be rejected on the second read-
ing. They b mot that they have nearly all the
Bishops with them.
There was a meeting of Anti-Reforming Peers
on Saturday night, at the Duke of Wellington's.--
Various rumours are afloat as to their resolves.
One account is, that the Duke obstinately stands
out against all reforni; while, according to ano-
ther account, they.agreed to a bit-by-bit measure,
an illusory sort of Reform, to which the familiar
term of humbug may be given.
" Stand by the People, and I will stand by you!"
said the King to his Chancellor, the ether day.
His Majesty will keep his word.
We are informed that a meeting of the Bishops
took place on Satniday, for the purpose of consi-
dering what course it would be proper for them to
pursue upon the Reform Bill. The sincere friends
of the Right Rev. Prelates, and the only true sup-
porters of the Protestant Church, fervently pray
that when the question shall be put as to whether
or not the rights of the people are to be assured to
them, their Lordships will soy " Content."
To persuade rather than to coerce the Peers, in
their decision on the Reform Bill, must be the
desire of every sincere friend to the Monarchical
form of Government. But they would be most
insincere friends of the Aristocracy who concealed
the fact that the vote of the House of Lords this
week is the Crisis of the Constitution. The ana-
logy of the political situation of France during
the Turgot Administration, and that of England,
with the present Cabinet of Lord Grey, has been
aptly cited. The Tories would petrify time, and
cannot see the constant and irresistible progress of
alteration and reform in political sprawl'.
In the event of the Bill being throats out, One
of the most curious speculations we have heard is;
that Lord Grey would resign, and that an endeavour'
would be made to construct a new Cabinet, of
which the Duke of Wellington and the Lord
Chancellor should be the pillars ; and the plan of
reform, originally framed by the latter, the basis ofl
politics, as regarded this momentous question.
It is said that four of the Hierarchy will vote in,
favour of the Reform Bill in the Lords- -namely,
the Archbishop of York ; Bathurst, Bishop of
Norwich ; Maltby, the new Bishop ; and Dr. Cop-
plestone.
On this day all business will be suspended in
Birmingham, by invitation, equivalent to command,
of the Political Union. We suppose the whole
population of that town and neighbourhood will
proceed to the field assigned for its meeting. On
Saturday last, there was a meeting in. the same
town, which all accounts represent to have been
one f the most n.imerous and respectable ever
known. Bankers, merchants, magistrates and clergy
ofall denominations, attended in great numbers. The
language held at this and other meetings, not by
mere mob orators, but by men whose lives have been
passed in the pursuits of commerce and industry,
and who have a deep interest in the peace of the
country, will, we trust, make a due impression on
their Lordships. "If thrown out," sail John
Turner, Esq. " the Lords must not be surprised if
the people turn round, and, borrowing an expres-
sion from one of their body, say, Have we not a
right to do as we please with our own ?' (Cheers.)
3he people were determined, whatever the Lords
might determine, ' to have the Bill, the whole Bill,
and nothing but the Bill.' "
In some of the lists which were exhibited on
Saturday afternoon, ihere was an apparent majority
of 17 Lay Lords and 18 Spiritual Lords against
the second reading of the Reform Bill ; in others
the majority of Lay Lords was reduced to two.
A compromise is likely to take place among the
Bishops. They will, it is said, on the recom-
mendation of the Archbishop of York, leave the
Temporal Peers to settle Reform as they see fit.—
If the Bishops imagine that by this neutrality ti.ey
will use in the estimation of the Reformers, we
must respectfully warn them of their error.-1
" Those who ate not for us are against us."—
The gratitude of the people of England it not to be'
purchased by doing nothing. If the Bishops
decline interfering in this secular dispute, their
vote on all other secular affairs may be dispensed
with. While we thus mention the calculations of
the anti-Reformers, ve do not mean that the pub-1
lic ought to receive them, except with allowances,
as coming from the enemy. The fact is, that theil
sentiments of all Peers, even at the moment that
we are writing, are not known to either Minister
or their opponents; nor will they until the division
declare them.