Star.
London, England, 1820-04-22 00:00:00

sition of the Right Honourable mover, he was aware
that he was placing himself in a situation to which
he had no other claim than the length of time during
which he had filled a seat in Parliament : his service
as a Representative had taught him how much of
the regularity and dignity of the proceedings were
connected with the office of Speaker. If he had had
to recommend a Gentleman who was unknown, it
would have been fit to have entered at some length
into the foundation of his claim ; but, as had been
already remarked, the individual now proposed had
proved himself, in every way, worthy of the confi-
dence and approbation of the House. As he had
never known Mr. Sutton but in his public capacity,
he could not propose hitn with the partiality of pri-
vate friendship; but the respect and regard he hasi
excited in his public capacity were amply sufficient
to establish his competence. When it was recol-
lected that the education of that Right Honourable
Gentleman had been directed to the laws of his coun-
try, and to the principles of its inestimable Consti-
tution, that alone formed a high claim to the suf-
frages of the House ; but after it had been seen in
how short a time after he had been first elevated to
the situation of Speaker, three years ago, he had ap-
peared to have deeply studied the laws and rules,
and investigated the principles by which the pro-
ceedings of the House were regulated—after the
readiness he had displayed in the discharge of every
point of duty, it would have been supposed, by those
iin.icquainted with his previous history, that he had
made the subject the diligent occupation of his life
(Hear, hear).—To this knowledge was to be added
a becoming deference for the opinion of the House,
which, while it evinced a confidence in his own in-
formation, by the manner in which the rule was
prescribed, did not diminish from the dignity of the
station he was appointed to'occupy. He might ad-
vert, also, to the peculiar facility with which all
Members obtained access, to the urbanity of his com •
munications on all subjects of Parliamentary diffi-
culty ; but it was needless, as most of those who
heard him had had frequent opportunities of expe-
riencing it. Otter the manner in which the motion
had been made by a Right Honourable Gentleman
so remarkable for his eloquence, and after the mode
is which the distinguished individual proposed had
been designated by him, were he (Mr. Sumner) to
make any attempt of the same kind, he should only
succeed in making conspicuous his own incompe-
tence to the undertaking ; he would therefore merely
thank the House for the kindness with which it had
already heard him, adding, in conclusion, that, since
he had been honoured with a oat in Parliament, he
had never voted with greater satisfaction than he
should do on the present occasion, from a conviction
that the individual in question combined, in his own
person, claims of every kind ; and was not only
most competent for his high office, but most accept-
able to the House : he therefore seconded the motion.
Mr. C. M. SUTTON rose from his seat on the
Treasury Bench, amid the cheers of the,House.—He
hoped that neither the Right Hon. Gentleman who
had moved his nomination in a manner so flatteriog,
nor the Honourable Gentleman who had so hand-
somely seconded it, nor the House, which had received
the proposition with such proud marks of approba-
tion, would measure the strength of his feelings of
gratitude on this occasion by the feeble manner in
which he should express them. He fully concurred
in all that had been said of the high duties and
weighty labours of the office of Speaker, not only as
it was immediately connected with the House itself,
but as it respected the Public at large. At all times
the most embarrassing subject was that where the in-
dividual addressing the House was personally con-
e( raed : no man who spoke honestly was too ready
to undervalue himself; and when the difficulties that
surrounded the situation of Speaker were considered
—when it was recollected how much, as the Honour-
able Member for Surrey had observed, the public
business had increased, being of late years almost
double—and when were added to that the new em-
barrassmeats arising out of the times in which we
live—that man must be a bold one who dared to
presume that he was adequate to such an office.—
His Right Hon. Friend, whose kindness in public and
private he had experienced on many occasions, but
never more than on the present, had been pleased to
refer with approbation to his previous conduct in
the Chair ; he could only say, that if he bad the good
fortune so give satisfaction, he had already obtained
his first and highest remuneration—( Hear, hear).—
As to any services, the performance of which was
within his reach, he would honestly state, that be at-
tributed their succesi, not to any exertions he was
capable of making, but to that for which he was at
all periods most thankful—the constant and cordial
co-operation of the House—(Hear, hear). Its indul-
gent assistance had been always ready, and it had
ever :hewn a forbearing disinclination to notice acci-
dental mistakes, or to mark involuntary lapses, and
a friendly determination to be satisfied with such ex-4
ertioris as its Speaker was competent to make. The
House would pardon him, if, in his anxiety to relieve
them from the painful task of listening longer to a
subject embarrassing, inasmuch as it was personal,
he contented himself with adding, that he had no
reliance whatever on any pretensions of his own he
would not deny that to secure the approbation of the
House had been the highest object of his ambition ;
and if it were again its pleasure to place him in the
dignified station of Speaker, the most he could say,
and the most he could do, was to assure it, that his
anxious and constant exertions should be employed in
its service—(Cheers).
The Right Hon. Gentleman was then conducted
to the Chair, between the Mover and Seconder.—
Having taken his seat, he again rose and observed,
that it was quite impossible for him to convey to the
House the deep sense he entertained of the honour
just conferred upon him. After what had already
fallen from him, it would ill become him to attempt
to mislead the House by any assurance that he could
discharge the duties of the office in which he was
placed with the abilities they required ; he must now,
as heretofore, implore the constant assistance and
kind indulgence of the House. He might, however,
without too much presumption, ask credit for this
assurance—that he would discharge his duties ho-
nestly, with the utmost zeal, and with the strictest
impartiality—( Confirmed cheers).
Lord CASILEREAGH said, that in the situation
in which the House now found itself, the only ques-
tion that remained was that of Adjournment; but
he hoped he might be permitted, in the name of tho