The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-02-21 00:00:00

i• 1 to• '

PRICE SEVEN PINCE: 7

Lad a short time ago moved fora return of the number
of freeholdees who returned the County Members of
Scotlinfi. offs Noble Friend bad obtained that paptr,
by which it appeared that the County Members of SA.
lend wlte zetur ed ,on an average by ;0 or SO constitu-
ente. No lbht r o than Ilst *night his Noble Fume*
had obtained 'otter return, trona the Royal Burghs yj
Scotland, showing the actual number of their town tsowee
sit epecifying the 'office or offices they each bold, dist*,
guisling those who have property within the burgh, and
those who 'have their Weal residence within it. Wily
then was. he (Lord .1. Russell) to be treated with:leo.
courtesy then is Noble Friend ? Why was a return Isa
be denied to him which was necessary fur the considera-
tion of the gait question of Reform? lu the other
House of Parliament a Committee had been ap;
pointed on the 3d July, 1815, to search for records mai
documents relative to all matters touching the dignitY
of Peers of the Realm. The House of Lords had no Lean
about the investigation of the origin of their dignity.
and accordbigly a report came forth, ander the auspice,"
of Lord Redesdalt, mogligble Joe ill loisials.Auailidoter
try of its l'elitittillstottelefeetierrnerit but that of ae.
•enfor3r.—(A laugh.) There were many other preceden'et
which he might motion in support of the present mo-
tion. The Member' for Shrewsbury (Mr. G. Bennet)
had, under the advice of the Chair, moved for a Con.-
mittee to inquire *hat Members of that House he:st
places and pensions, and a return had been made slow-
ing the number of Members, and the places and offices.
which they held. He could not conceive why a Com-
mittee to examine ioto the number of voters and that
right of voting in the several cities and boroughs might
not proceed exactly in the same way. If it were objeckerl
that there would he difficulty in obtaining such a return,
because the returning otlicer might not knuw the e=ast
number of voters, nor be able to determine precisely the
right of toting; he answered, that the Committee would
he satisfied with such a general return as would enable
them to form a tolerably accurate judgment on the Fah.
ject. It should be recollected that returns had beets
made to the Committee on Education from the clergyman
of every parish in the kingdom, stating the number of
places of education. If honourable members who op-
poeed reform, on the ground that the House, as at present
constituted, performed all its functions, refused the p:c-
sent motion in order to conceal the actual state of the
repress 'nation, they would abandon the ground whirh
they had originally taken. Nor would the refusal of this
return be of any avail, unless they could also coma!
many other notorious circumstances which injured the
reputation of that douse. Could they conceal, for in-
stance, a circumstance which took place last summer, in
a borough of the County of Cornwall, where at a meet-
ing of the Municipality a letter seas read from a Noble
Lord, in which he declined continuing to be a patron of
the borough ? The comman report was, that he was dis-
gusted with the Borough in consequence of the freq ie.at
applic ttion for patronage with which he was importuned
by his dependent Burgesses. This, however, was not;
the most intereeting feature of this constitutional trans-
, lesion. What would the house think, if, after reading
of the Noble Lord's letter, a member of that house pros
posed to this Corporation—to this assembly of freemen,
another Noble Lord to offi•late as their Patron Noble
Lord, too, who had ne.property teithisea-bondre& Miles
of the Borough, and with whom they had no natural
connertion.—(Hear, hear.) When such things as these
were perfectly notorious. it was surely not too much to
hope that all independent members of that house, whe-
ther favourilee or adverse to the ptiociple of Par-
liamentary Reform, stout(' support a motion which
merely went to ascertain the number o f voters in the
cities anti boroughs, anti the grounds upon which they
field anti ascertained their franchise. Whatever oppositioa
might be made to the question of Reform itself, he felt
the house would have no objection to have the grounds
of its own composition known.—(Hear, bear.) They
would not surely like to have it known—to have it go
'abroad to the world, that they were either ashamed or
afraid to look at the grounds upon which they held their
seats.—(Cheering on the Opposition Benches.) The
Noble Lord concluded by moving for the appoinment of
a Select Conitnitt-e to inquire into the right of voting
and the number of voters, in the different towns an I
boroughs of England sending Members to Parliament.
—The Noble Lord sat due n amid loud and continued
cheering.
Mr. Secretary CANNING had not refused to com-
municate to the Nohle Lord whatever information might
be necessary for the fair, candid, and dispassionate in
et-
ing of the great question of Parliamentary Reform,
which the Noble Lord had annually brought before the
beusefor souse years, and of which he had given a no-
tice fur the present Session. In the remarks which tie
should take the liberty of making upon the speech an,'
motion of the Noble Lord, he should be careful not to
be drawn into the larger question, but would conti.l3.
himself to the specific motion before the House. Before
he came to state the objections which he had to the mo-
tion itself', he could not help remarking that, if the pre-
sent motion were cart ied, it would go to prejudice the
people with regard to what he trusted was the reel:l4,
and would he the decision of the house, upon that great
quesion. Undoubtedly it wold be agreed that the car-
rying of the present motion, without opposition, would
give a false impression to the pabiic on the subject of
the great question of Reform ; it would either lead
them to believe that there had been a progress in the
House upon that question, which no vote of the house
had sanctioned, or that there was a disposition to e,:.apt
changes weich the Noble Lord himself had not come
it-
plated, arid for which he would not contend. It wua. I
bias the judgment of the people in a way which Was
quite unfounded; and in consequence of that, a diffi.ei;ty
would be felt ice meeting the greater question with that
raltnne-a which its importance deserved. It had been
described -as a very sligut measure, but it would have an
influence which would draw consequences far beyond
those which the NeWe Lord bad anticipated. But he,
(Mr. Secretary Canning) objected to the motion, not
merely on account of the undue ant unfair influence that
it would have upon the question of Reform; he object-
.