The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-07 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT—LOSS OF
PARLIAMENTARY PR tVI LEGES.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
At a cabinet council, held on Thursday last, the par-
liament was further prorogued for the unusual, indeed
the unconstitutional, space of sixty-three d ip, and its
re-assembly for the despatch of business fixed for the
sth of February next ensuing.
The convenience and propriety of this proceeding
will be best estimated if we consider, in the first place,
the exigencies of the present crisis ; and in the second,
the invasion of parliamentary privileges which it in-
volves.
I. The political exigencies affected by this protracted
adjournment, are, first, the state of our relations with
Russia, Persia, and the native powers of Hindostan,
which are such as to leave it uncertain whether we be,
or be not, at this moment, engaged in actual hostilities
with them for the possession of our Oriental empire;
and 2d, the outbreak of a new and more extensive re-
bellion in our North American possessions, menacing
to involve us in a conflict with the United States, and
the loss of all our colonies in the western hemisphere.
If the American republic triumph in this contest, our
West Indian possessions are not worth a year's pur-
chase.
11. The constitutional practice of proroguing par-
liament has limited the prorogation to forty days, with
the view of preserving to members the privileges
which by law are restricted to forty days before the
summons to meet,--during the actual sittings and ne-
cessary adjournments for the despatch of business—
and "forty days after the prorogation." The pre-
sent prorogation embraces a period of sixty-three
days, whereby it is evident that for twenty-three days
the usual privileges of members are put in abeyance.
The privilege of franking letters and receiving them
free, ceases to a certainty, by a special act of parlia-
ment of which the following is an extract :—" And be
it enacted that the privileges of the persons of the first
class (namely members of both houses of parliament)
shall last no longer than during a session of parlia-
ment, and forty days before a summons, or forty days
after a prorogation."—lst Victoria, cap. 35.
We are not lawyers enough positively to assert that
the freedom from arrest be not also included—but our
conviction is, that it is so.
The privileges enjoyed by members are of ancient
date. By the 3d Edw. IV., c. 1, it is enacted—" That
Lords, Proctors, and Commons shall be privileged
against actions forty days before, and forty days after
Parliament ;" and, with respect to the continuance, it
is further enacted—" That the privileges shall begin
forty days before the meeting, and continue during
sitting or adjournment, and forty days after proroga-
tion."

Now, the most valuable privilege which the Irish
tail members and their head enjoy is thus cut off. An
Irish grievance of the greenest water is created, and a
gap made in the ministerial phalanx which will wofully
tell against the cabinet when " muster-day" arrives-.
The object of this unconstitutional and, at the same
time, blundering proceeding, is obvious enough. It
is merely to gain time. Last year, when the news
from Canada startled the administration with a view
of ministerial responsibility, Parliament was assem-
bled on the 15th of November. But new and more
embarrassing perplexities have now arisen which they
dare not face, and under the existence of which they
are afraid to encounter parliamentary scrutiny. Our
eastern relations are embroiled—the western in open
conflagration—Lord Durham—like " the ill-omened
bird of broken beak and cadaverous aspect," hovering
over their destinies—they flinch from the trial—they
defer the judgment—they resort to the practice of the
Irish dock—a practice too familiar to the Limerick ex-
perience of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be
forgotten as a useful precedent—which, when the alibi
has failed, falls back upon the plea of "a long day,
my Lord ;" and, unable to avert the sentence, defers
its execution with a view to the chances of escape
which time and importunity may furnish. It is thus
ministers, conscious of their impending fate, seek to
defer its execution ; it is thus they cling to the slen-
der hope of escape offered in the delay of justice, and
lengthen the interval between the completion of their
crime and its sentence, to increase their chances of im-
punity. But the measure of their guilt is full; and
,o4ne when it may, ("as come it will for a' that,") the
to.y of reckoning will be to them a clay of disgrace
and ruin—if not of personal responsibility and pun-
ishment.
On. the subject of the prorogation, we extract from
the Spectator of Saturday the following paragraph.
Our able contemporary has failed to notice (indeed all
the London prints have done the same) the effect of
the prorogation on the privileges of members. With
the exception that we conceive the disinclination to an
earlier meeting of Parliament, which dictated the pre-
sent unusual prorogation, to be founded on more se.
rious and formidable speculations than our contempo•
rary adverts to, we fully coincide with his view of the
subject :

"A Privy Council was held on Thursday, and it
was resolved to prorogue Parliament to the sth of Fe-
bruary. The natural conclusion from the postpone-
ment of the time for assembling the legislature till the
latest customary period, is not that the condition of
affairs, domestic and foreign, is as satisfactory as usual
—for it is notorious that the country is in a critical
state---but that ministers are afraid to meet Parlia-
ment, and hope to profit by the delay to gain additional
strength. There is, however, no reason to suppose
that they will seek reinforcement where it might once
have been found—from the people. As yet,' says a
ministerial journal, ' we have heard nothing to induce
us to believe that our rulers have adopted a line of
policy which is more likely to lead to a more profit-
able employment of the session that is to come,' than
of the last. On the contrary it may be surmised that
ministers intend again to throw themselves on the
Duke of Wellington's tender mercies. The Morning
Chronicle is profuse in its admiration of the Duke,
whom it would scarcely go out of its way to flatter at
this juncture of affairs, without a shrewd suspicion
that its Downing-street friends have no better re-
source than his grace's support. This at least is cer-
tain—that there is not the slightest indication of an
intention on the part of ministers in any degree to
relax from their opposition to questious which a large
majority of their own friends support. To all appear-
ance, it is their design to play over again the game of
last session—if they shall be permitted."

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE

MANCHESTER.--TUESDAY EVENING.

THE DERBY.—The principal betting, since Friday, has
been the following :-
10 to 1 agst Lord Jersey's Brother to Bay Middleton (t 11)
17 to 1 „ Lord Jersey's Ilderim
17 to 1 „ Duke of Rutland's Flambeau (tk 20 to 1)
20 to 1 „ Mr. Wreford's Westonian (tk)
20 to 1 „ Mr. Bowes's Accelerator (tk)
25 to 1 „ Mr. Bowes's Erin-go-Bragh
25 to 1 „ Lord Albemarle's Pros (tk 27 to 1)
33 to 1 „ Mr. Mostyn's Hugh Lupus (tk)
33 to 1 ~ Mr. Wreford's Wapiti (tk 40 to 1)
33 to 1 „ Mr. Dixon's; Cammelino (off)
20 to 1 „ Sir G. Heathcote's lot (tk 25)
Offers to back the field against ten.