likely to become one of the most dis- aware to what he alluded. They had, intinguished judges of the country. He deed, differed in opinion as to the noble assured the House that he had been lord's bills against the liberty of the press, perfectly serious in that appeal, which and the sacred right of petitioning, but he understood the right hon. member to above all, as to extending these hateful meahave answered by stating "that the sures to Ireland, where there had not been members for Ireland had agreed to the even one solitary instance of a tumultuary extension of these bills to their country, meeting on parliamentary reform, or on because they felt that there existed a commercial and manufacturing difficulties, system of violence and intimidation." nor one in consequence of the proceedWhere? in Ireland! would the right hon. ings at Manchester on the 16th of August, gentleman assert any such thing? he had which had created such a flame, and had indeed, and doubtless to the great satis- given rise to so many meetings in Great faction of ministers, given his opinion as Britain, and which meetings were stated to the illegality of the Manchester meet- as the main foundation for all these meaings, when the question really interesting sures. He certainly considered it an unto the public and to the constitution was, necessary insult and cruelty practised how that meeting had been dispersed, against Ireland, to extend the training whether the manner of dispersing it by bill, and that against seditious and blasthe magistrates had been illegal, and at- phemous publications there, where there tended by circumstances of the utmost had not been a single instance of training, brutality committed against the people, nor a single trial for any such publicaby which lives were lost, and men, wo- tion; yet the right hon. gentleman apmen, and children, most inhumanly treat- proved of the extension of these bills to ed; but the right hon. gentleman resisted Ireland, which Mr. Hutchinson was happy any such inquiry, and gave the weight of to oppose with all his might. There was, his talents to support ministers in stifling indeed, another occasion, a very signal all investigation, and in their deep laid one too, on which he was proud to have plans against the liberties and constitution differed from the right hon. gentleman, it of the people of England; but above all, was on the investigation into the conduct had willingly joined with the minister of an Irish county member, which occuwithout the shadow of an excuse to ex-pied the attention of the House during a tend these claims to his unfortunate and unoffending country, where, Mr. Hutchinson said, he hoped, he and the rest of the Irish members who agreed with the right hon. gentleman, would be called to account for their extraordinary conduct with regard to this bill and the whole of the system of the noble lord. The right hon. gentleman had talked of exclusive loyalty and exclusive patriotism. Mr. H. said he believed there was such a thing as fashion in loyalty, such a thing as occasional loyalty, that for himself he did not lay claim to the credit of exclusive patriotism, but he confessed he should be rejoiced to have had it in his power to induce the right hon. member to give with him a patriot's vote on the present question. The right hon. gentleman had made use of the very hackneyed observation of a "little learning is a dangerous thing" in his (Mr. H.'s) opinion, extensive information and super-eminent talents misapplied, were not more dangerous than reprehensible. The right hon. gentleman had stated, that the present was not the first occasion in which they had differed in opinion. He was not part of last session. The right hon. gentleman was absent during the whole of that investigation, but he afterwards attended in his place, and, after as able a display as perhaps he had ever made in parliament, or on any occasion, he supported that speech with as objectionable a vote as had ever been given in the House of Commons. On these occasions, Mr. H. said, he had on his part too, no reason to regret having most decidedly differed both in opinion and conduct with the right hon. gentleman-a difference of opinion which he hoped would be recorded, and on measures which he flattered himself would never be forgotten by the people, notwithstanding the able attempt of the right hon. gentleman to palliate and defend them. With regard to the hint from the right hon. gentleman, not to mix up the Catholics with this question; perhaps he did not know, that, as the bill originally stood, there could have been no Catholic meeting to petition the legislature, and that, since the first presentation of it to the House, a clause had been introduced to remedy this defect.-After some other observations, Mr. Hutchinson con cluded by asking leave to bring up his | The House would, therefore, extend its clause. protection to Ireland against an evil by which, though not now visited, she might be afflicted at no distant period. Mr. Plunkett assured the hon. and gallant general, for so he believed, without meaning to deny his learning, he must call him [a laugh], that he did not feel his temper at all ruffled. The hon. and gallant member quarrelled with the observations he had made to the House; but the hon. and gallant member should recollect, that he had been reluctantly compelled to address the House in consequence of an appeal from the hon. and gallant member. But the hon. and gallant member complained, that his argument was bad. If it was so, he assured the hon. and gallant member it was not intentionally so. He was called upon to say, why the Bill should extend to Ireland, when Ireland was not disturbed? Why, many English members for counties perfectly tranquil, voted for the extension of the Bill to the whole kingdom,-and with reason. A system of violence and intimidation was now pursued, which, though his country was not deemed particularly timid, would have its effect there also. It was like the stone thrown into the water-circle succeeded circle; every new proselyte added to its power, every one who was terrified became the instrument of intimidation; if it went on, he knew not where it would end. He regretted the less the extension of the bill to Ireland, because all legitimate meetings there, being generally held in rooms, would not be affected by the bill. Mr. R. Martin contended for the necessity of including Ireland in the operation of this bill, for the purpose of more effectually ensuring the stability of both countries. Mr. Tierney wished to know on what principle it was, that if, in 1817, when the danger was greater than it was now, Ireland was excluded, while now, with no other difference than that she was more tranquil, the bill was to be extended thither? She was then open to all the mischiefs which were now held forth, and the additional danger of Spenceanism, which was no longer talked of. Lord Castlereagh denied that the danger was greater in 1817 than it now was. It was now more systematic and dangerous. The measures were of a description to show that vigilance and permanent measures were necessary to suppress it. The extension to Ireland served to show the measures to be permanent and general. (VOL. XLI.) Mr. Brougham said, it was a somewhat whimsical mode of arguing in the noble lord, when the necessity for strong measures was questioned, to hold up their severity as a proof of their necessity. In 1817, according to him, they had only the suspension of the Habeas Corpus-a common rod; now, said he, we have a whip of scorpions. The noble lord had forgotten that at the former period of alarm, the danger was deemed to be as great as at the present moment; so it was nearly in 1812; so it was in two or three cases during the war. If any gentleman would look into the reports of 1817, and measure the danger by the assertions to be found there, he would rest his claim to his vote in his declaration, whether the dangers were not greater then than now? There was then a central committee in London, directing an organized system of disaffection throughout the country; the Tower was summoned; magazines were collected; bullets provided, though as it afterwards turned out, in the foot of an old stocking. The bridges were to be blown up, and the soldiers to be smoked in their barracks. He was mixing up, perhaps, the detection with the assertions; but on the comparison of the present dangers with those described in three reports, he would rest his case. As to Ireland, he could not do better than borrow from his right hon. friend the remarks he had on former occasions applied to that country. It was a most ungracious act to that country to declare her suspected before there was a ground for suspicion; to hasten to declare her guilty, or about to become guilty, though there was not the shadow of a charge against her. As in private life there was no more certain way to make a man unworthy of trust, than to distrust him when there was no need, so he feared it would be found with Ireland. This was not the way to regain those who were lost, or to retain those who were well affected. The House divided-For the amendment, 69; Against it, 265: Majority, 196, Yet, if I were inclined to maintain, that this moment is peculiarly favourable for entertaining the question of reform, I might cite an authority much respected in this House; I mean that of Mr. Pitt. On bringing forward, in May, 1783, resolutions, two of which are not very different from those which I shall have the honour to propose to the House, he is said to have stated, "that the disastrous consequences of the American war, the immense expen❤ diture of the public money, the consequent heavy burthen of taxes, and the pressure of all the collateral difficulties, produced by the foreign circumstances, gradually disgusted the people, and at last provoked them to turn their eyes inward on themselves,' in order to see if there was not something radically wrong at home, that was the cause of all the evils they felt from their misfortunes abroad. Searching for the internal sources of their foreign fatalities, they naturally turned their attention to the constitution under which they lived, and to the practice of it. Upon looking to that House, they found, that by length of time, by the origin and progress of undue influence, and from other causes, the spirit of liberty, and the powers of check and control upon the executive government were greatly lessened and debilitated. Hence clamours sprung up out of doors, and hence, as was perfectly natural in the moment of anxiety, to procure an adequate, and a fit remedy to a practical grievance, a spirit of speculation went forth, and a variety of schemes founded in visionary and impracticable ideas of reform, were suddenly produced."* This, however, did not deter Mr. Pitt from proposing a plan which he thought calculated to preserve the constitution from decay. Soon after he says, "An Englishman, who should compare the flourishing state of his country some twenty years ago, with the state of humiliation in which he now beholds her, must be convinced that the ruin, which he now deplores, having been brought on by slow degress and almost imperceptibly, proceeded from something radically wrong in the constitution. Of the existence of a radical error no one seemed to doubt." Now, if we compare that period with the present, though indeed we have no foreign calamities to deplore, might I not urge that our expenditure and our burthens are qua REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.] Lord John Russell rose and said: Mr. Speaker; The House will readily believe, that it is with no common feelings of anxiety that I rise to address them on the present occasion. In private life there is no task more painful, or more inviduous, than to tell an individual of his faults; and those who have had occasion to address this House on any question connected with reform, have found it no less irksome a duty to point out defects, and require amendment, in a numerous assembly. This difficulty, I am aware, has been much in creased since last year, when I gave notice of my intentions. It is impossible not to see, that there are two parties dividing the country, both greatly exasperated, and both going to extremes: the one making unlimited demands, and the other meeting them with total and peremptory denial: the one ready to encounter any hazard, for unknown benefits, and imaginary rights; the other ready to sacrifice, for present security, those privileges which our ancestors thought cheaply purchased p. 830. with their blood. * See Parliamentary History, v. 23. drupled? Might I not show that undue | and richest towns, it is not possible but influence is enormously increased? Might that cities must lose their importance, I not maintain, that we, the successful and trade transfer its seat. It is for this belligerent, are suffering all the calamities reason I conceive that the ancient practice which defeat and disaster could produce? of our constitution allowed the greatest But, Sir, however great may be the au- facilities for changing the places entitled thority of Mr. Pitt, I cannot but feel that to send members to parliament. As towns circumstances like those which he has de rose into importance they received a writ scribed, have at present too much embit- from the Crown, requiring their services tered our political parties, to allow me to in the great council of the nation: others, think the present a favourable moment for which fell into poverty and insignificance, a proposal of moderate reform. On that obtained an exemption from this charge; question, above all others, these extreme Maldon, in Essex, for example, received parties are in open hostility. The one would a charter allowing the borough no longer leave the fabric of the constitution, like to send burgesses to this House, on conthe temples of Rome in her last days of dition of maintaining a bridge. But there empire, when they were found by the was another mode by which large and Goths covered with cobwebs, and falling important districts received the right of to ruin from the neglect of their worship- taking part in the deliberations of the pers. The other party consists of those state. No one, who has read the speech audacious men, who seek to raise their of Mr. Burke on conciliation with Ame names from obscurity to fame, by setting rica, can forget his description, as true a firebrand to this magnificent edifice, the as it is eloquent, of the manner in which glory of our Ephesus and of the world, the privilege of having representatives has which has been a sanctuary even to those been conferred at various times by act of who now wish for its destruction. Amidst parliament. Wales, for two hundred these conflicting feelings, I know how hard years, was vexed by rapine and violence: it will be to obtain a hearing for those who fifteen penal statutes were passed against wish to clear away the pollutions and im- that unhappy country: the remedy was purities of an undue worship, but to pre- at last discovered; it was representation: serve the fabric unimpaired. It may tend Chester suffered the evils of exclusion to reconcile these parties to my proposi- from the sympathy and protection of her tion, however, that those who have op- governors, and parliament gave repreposed any general plan of reform, should sentation; Durham a long time after was reflect that they have always said found to suffer from the same evils, and they were ready to correct a particular representation was still the remedy. The defect; and that those who are for the case of Haverfordwest offers, perhaps, largest plan of reform, should recollect the most direct precedent for what I shall that sir Samuel Romilly, a warm reformer, hereafter move; for eight years after a said, a great object would be gained if representation was granted to Wales, a only two or three government boroughs special clause in an act of the 34th and should be destroyed, and that the duke of 35th Hen. 8th extended that privilege Richmond, two years after he brought in to Haverfordwest In the Chester act, his bill for universal suffrage, was the the preamble is most remarkable, and chief promoter of the bill for preventing although before quoted, I cannot refrain corruption in the borough of Cricklade. from reading it. "To the king our sovereign lord, in most humble wise shown unto your excellent majesty, the inhabitants of your grace's county palatine of Chester, That whereas the said county palatine is and hath been always hitherto exempt, excluded, and separated out and from your high court of parliament, to have any knights and burgesses within the said court; by reason whereof the said inhabitants have hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, and political maintenance of the commonwealth of their said I will not now presume to enter on the abstract discussion whether uniform suffrage, or variety of suffrage, be the best principle of representative government. But thus much I think is clear, that a system founded upon variety of suffrage is the more liable of the two to corruption and decay. If the principle of uniform suffrage be adopted; if, for instance, all persons of 100l. a year have a vote, the system, whether good or bad, may continue always the same. But if the principle adopted be that of giving representatives to the largest cities, the proportion between the two countries of England and Scotland would by that means be changed. But by this departure, a necessary departure perhaps, from the old custom of England, two great evils have been introduced. The first is, that small decayed boroughs, finding their suffrages eagerly sought for, have sold their seats to the highest bidder. The second is, that towns and districts have risen to great importance from their trade, population, and manufactures, and have not been admitted to parliament. A third evil, flowing from the two former, has also made itself very sensibly felt; namely, that the House of Commons has been found in various instances not to represent the people. The first of these evils is too notorious to require that I should dwell upon it. In the instances of Shoreham, Cricklade, and Aylesbury, the abuse has been acknowledged by the House. In that of Aylesbury, as it appears from the evidence, a mark of infamy was affixed to the houses of those voters who were too honest to receive the usual bribe. Now, it is a mockery to say that, in such a case, the present system "works well." One of the least evils which can happen is, that the managers of the borough apply immediately to the secretary of the treasury, who recommends two friends of undoubted solvency and approved steadiness. This is one of the most respectable modes of these boroughs being represented; yet even this secures the votes of the members to government, and the patronage of the treasury to the managers of the borough. But, it often happens, that specu country and forasmuch as the said inhabitants have always hitherto been bound by the acts and statutes, made and ordained by your said highness and your most noble progenitors, by authority of the said court, as far forth as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been that have had their knights and burgesses within your said court of parliament, and yet have had neither knight ne burgess there for the said county palatine; the said inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes touched and grieved with acts and statutes made within the said court as well derogatory unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and privileges of your said county palatine, as prejudicial unto the common wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of your grace's most bounden subjects inhabiting within the same."-Now, if any member of this House should say, that to grant representatives to a part of the kingdom which has not hitherto enjoyed that right is a novelty in this country, I will refer him to this act, and show him the principle consecrated in a statute more than three hundred years ago. Or if any one should maintain that those who are not represented suffer no grievance, and require no redress, I will point to the preamble which I have just read, as an authentic and solemn record of the evils which flow from an exclusion from this House. The wholesome practice of altering and enlarging the basis of representation continued till the end of the reign of Charles the 2nd. The Durham act was passed in the 25th year of that king; and Newark was for the first time summoned by writ during that reign. At the æra of the Re-lators expend the surplus of their wealth, or volution, this practice seems to have ceased. A day's proceedings in this House, which I need not detail, show that the great authors of the Revolution seem to have been unwilling to disturb the state of the representation: they probably thought that having cut off one of the three great branches of the government, it would be unsafe to attempt a change in one of the other two, and that any further alteration might shake the frame of the whole constitution. This disposi tion, which they brought into the practice of administration, seems, at the time of the union, to have been introduced into the substance of the law. From that period it has been generally considered that the king no longer enjoyed the right of sending writs to unrepresented places, as sometimes their whole fortune, to obtain a return to parliament. Their object in wishing for the honour of a seat in this House, is often far from being the public good. They have either debts owing them by government, which they require to be paid, or suspicious accounts which they wish to be settled; they either hope to repair their poverty with office, or to crown their fortune with a coronet. These are the men whom every good administration must dislike; for the necessity of conciliating their favour withdraws the government from that which ought to be their wish,-the task of gaining the unbought approbation of their country. We are often told that the publication of the debates is a corrective for any defect in the composition of this House. But |