The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-07-23 00:00:00

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ImptriaT Varitamtitt.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURSDAY.

The soap duties act was read a second time.
Lord LYNDH VAST presented a petition signed by upwards
of 800 bankers, merchants, and traders of Glasgow, com-
plaining of the Russian blockade in the Black Sea, by which
their imPortant trade with Circassia in particular, was com-
pletely cut off, and praying the house to take such measures
on the subject as might be necessary.'
Earl STANHOPE presented a petition, signed by seventy-
two British subjects, late of Melleraie, in France, but now-of
Mount Melleraie, in Ireland, complaining of having been
dragged out of their domicile, erected out of their property,
incarcerated, and transported, and praying for the production
of the documents, and for the adoption of measures to obtain
compensation for indemnity and damages. The noble earl
wished to know whether there would be any objection to the
production of the documents the petitioners prayed for.
Lord MELBOURNE said he believed that the petitioners, in
September, 1831, after events had changed the 'reigning
family' of France, were requested to leave their convent.
Having refused to do so they were expelled by force, and he
believed took up their abode in the south of Cornwall, A
great deal of correspondence had taken place respecting
them, and a question upon their case had been referred to
Sir Herbert Jenner, who was of opinion, that there was no
ground- whatever to authorise the English government to de-
mand compensation for them from the French government.
He did not know that there would he any objection to a pro-
duction• of..extracts of the documents. The whole of the
despatches were extremely voluminous, and it might not be
expedient to make public certain parts of them. He really
could not think that any good purpose could be answered by
their production, but he hoped his noble friend would be
content with extracts.

• CHARTISTS.
Lord BROUGHAM presented petitions from Lovett and Col-
lins, two of the apprehended chartists, complaining of their
treatment whilst detained in custody. His lordship minutely
detailed-the contents of the petition, and severely condemned
the treatment to which the prisoners said they had been ex-
posed. He, however, observed that too much could not be
said in reprobation of those who, instead of being what they
called their posts in the hour of danger, skulked in the dark,
and left the consequences to the dupes of their machina-
tions. One single act, such as that which had recently dis-
gracecl,Birmingharn, was more calculated to throw back re-
form; and to restore oppression, than all that a despotic go-
vernment could ever hope to accomplish. He often recol-
lected the saying of his great and gallant friend, now de-
ceased, Lord St. Vincent, who used to remark that no error
was more fatal than theirs who, from misplaced humanity,
which was often called timidity, abstained from taking im-
mediate and vigorous measures to preserve the public peace.
It was not humanity, it was cruelty to the victims themselves,
only to thieaten when the magistrates were called upon to
act.' He, however, did not mean to impute anything more
than error' in judgment to the magistrates of Birmingham,
and perhaps a Mistaken feeling of humanity : but however
amiable that feeling might be in private life, and however
venial that .error in judgment might be, still when a man
stepped into public life, he ought to brace up his nerves and
act with decision.
The Earl of WA awlc IC defended himself from an insinua-
tion which had been made elsewhere, of his not having, as
Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, fulfilled the duties of his
office. He denied the truth of the insinuation, and declared
that he had always rendered every aid to the government
which was in his power. His lordship added, that if his in-
formation were true regarding the Birmingham riots, there
was not a single magistrate present until after the houses
were all burnt. The other night he was found fault with be-
cause he had asserted that, between the political unionists
and the chartists there was only a shade of difference as re-
garded their -political opinions. He knew full well that at
the political unions physical force was spoken as being essen-
tial if their grievances were not redressed. When those
unionists had gone as near the wind as possible in those
matters,- they then declared those unions to be dissolved.
Now tothe chartists the same sort of language was used. He
had heard that the political unionists now called themselves
whigs, and the hon. member for Birmingham said that he was
no agitator; but he (Lord Warwick) knew not what agitation
was-if the hon. member for the last eight or ten years was
not 'engaged in it. He was of opinion that such men as these
who had been members of the political union, ought never
to have been placed in the commission of the peace,—(Hear,
hear).—,Before the appointment of the present magistracy,
the number of magistrates being twenty-two, the political
feeling was, of course, different om what it now was among
that body. Out of the twenty-two, when the new magis-
tracy were appointed, ten were retained, and of those ten four
were conservative and six were opposition. Thirteen new
magistrates were appointed, all of one political feeling, con-
sequently. there were nineteen on one side and four on the
other. Ile moved for a return of the number of magistrates
appointed by the secretary of state, with the correspondence,
or extracts therefrom (we believe) which had taken place be-
tween the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire and the secre-
tary of state.
Lord MELBOURNE entreated the house to suspend its
judgment on the subject, and read a statement by the mayor
of Birmingham in exculpation of his own conduct and that of
his colleagues.
The Duke of WELLINGTON observed that her majesty's
ministers are naturally anxious to prevent the conduct of the
magistrates of Birmingham from being too closely scanned,
inasmuch as her majesty's ministers are clearly responsible
for the acts of those magistrates.