The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-04 00:00:00

_

thumberland said that from month to month your supporters
have been dropping off. Will the noble lord opposite observe
what has been the tendency of those same principles with re-
spect to the members of the Government and its constitu-
tion ? How happens it that ever}, man who has attempted to
assert the authority of the laws—who has engaged himself
on the side of adherence to the ancient institutions of the
country, or Who had been so engaged at the period of the
Reform l3ill—how happens it that every man, with few ex-.
ceptions, and amongst them the splendid exception of the
noble lord—that every man conspicuoUs for talents, or enjoy=
ing from his superior station any share in the confidence of the
country, has step by step been driven from the Government ?
Since the beginning of the year 1832 the following members
of the government left it:—Lard Grey, Lord Stanley, Sir J.
Graham, the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Ripon, Lord
.Broughani, Mr. C. Grant, Mr. S. Rice, and Lord Howick.
Step by step these men, for some reason or other, have been
gradually expelled from the government. They have been
expelled because it was necessary to make a sacrifice of them
in order to conciliate a different party. The-last instance
was that of the noble lord the member for Northumberland.
.That noble lord has left the government because he distrusts
'the principles on which it now acts. Yet the noble lord read
:us a lecture upon the withdrawal of individual 'members of a
:government. I ask you (addressing the noble lord) upon
what ground did you relinquish your connexion with the go-
vernment—you, who are prepared to vote confidence in that
government ? Upon what account did you sever your con-
nexion with them ? (Hear.) • You left upon public princi-
ple. It was no mortification or personal disappointment
that led you to take that step ; for you had too little interest
•in office, and too high an ambition to have felt either ; you
left it upon the consideration of public principle. Are you,
then, entitled to censure us for withdrawing our confidence
from the government and publicly recording our vote to that
effect? How strong must have been the motives which could
justify your secession ? The government was in great diffi-
culty, and you returned to office to protect your Sovereign,
according to your own avowal. You think that an unjust
and ungenerous attempt was made to dictate to Her Majesty
what should be the appointments in the household. I differ from
you. I think it would have been humiliating to me, as well
as unconstitutional, to have submitted to the conditions that
were proposed. (Hear.) I adhere to that opinion ; but you
entertain a different one. How strong, then, must your con-
viction have been of the danger to which those ministers.
were exposing the country, when at such a time and -under
such circumstances you withdrew your aid from them—you,
who were bound to• them by every tie of private friendship
and personal esteem. We have none ; we have always
opposed them ; you have always given them your support.
What strong considerations must have influenced you at this
period of great public difficulty; how convinced mast you
have been of the danger of the course which they were pur-
suing, and the principles which they avowed, when you and
the hon. gentlemen who retired with you could break your
connexion with them, and retire from the service of the
crown. (Hear, hear.) You retired at a time' when, so far
us the public were aware, the proposal was to place the
the right hon. gentleman, the President of the Board of Trade
in that office you had vacated. I certainly was not aware
that the right hon. gentleman professed any opinions which
would not bear to 'be contrasted with those of his col-
leagues, or which could alarm the public as to the conse-
quences of such an appointment. Will the noble lord
let me ask him whether the subsequent appointments
tended to conciliate him and his colleagues? (Hear, hear.)
The right hon. gentleman the Secretary at War had not
been appointed when the noble lord withdrew. That ap-
pointment has taken plaae since; and I ask the noble lord
whether the lecture which he read on the first night of the
debate, upon the subject of politiCal agitation, has tended
much to conciliate him with confidence towards the Govern-
ment? (Hear.) I say therefore (addressing the ministers)
that I have the evidence of your own colleague, of your own
friend, of him who entertains for you personal regard and
private esteem, and he thinks you unworthy of public confi-
dence, at least so unworthy that he cannot consent to commit
his fortunes with yours. (Cheers.) I say, then, that I con-
vict you upon your own testimony, and upon your own
incompetence.
Lord J. RUSSELL said, that at the end of to-night's de-
bate, the right hon. gentleman opposite had chosen to make
a three hours' speech, which he had divided into two parts—
one in which he endeavoured to prove that this country was
in a state of calamity, of internal discord and disorder, that
our finances were fatally embarrassed, our credit nearly
ruined, our difficulties almost insuperable ; and having for
about ari hour and a half proceeded in this strain, he had de-
voted the remainder of it to prove that he was capable, was
ready, and was willing to remedy those disasters, and fill that
place in the councils of the Crown now occupied by Lord
Melbourne. (Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) He
readily admitted that the commencement of a session was
the best time to bring forward this motion ; but he must
complain that not even the usual motion for papers, by
which to obtain information, had preceded the present dis-
cussion. No complaints of the disturbed state of the country
had been made last session, when he was employed day by
day in providing against the dangers that then threatened it.
He (Lord J. Russell) was inclined to ascribe those dangers.
to the existence of a large and uneducated population in those
great cities which had sprung up within the last 100 years,
exposed to the temptations of an advanced state of society,
and the violent language of an inflammatory press. It was
difficult then to stop the excitement created by large meet-
ings and an inflammatory press. .
The debate terminated, as had been anticipated, ill favour
of ministers, Sir J. Y. Bulfer's motion having been negatived
by a majority of 21, the numbers being 208, and 287. The
ministers and their dependents in the house amount to more
than 31, so that we are rather surprised at the smallness of
the majority.
The hobse adjourned at a quarter to 5 o'clock.