a remuneration would be wholly extrava- | the whole, so large a retiring allowance as gant. He should, therefore, support the those who had performed the same quanamendment. tity of business with greater despatch. Sir Charles Wetherell said, the official assignee would perform neither the duties of solicitor, manager, nor steward; his whole duties would be to receive the assets and pay them into the Bank. In general, where his duties would be least, there he would receive the largest remuneration. There might be difficulties in fixing the exact amount of the per centage, but certainly they were not insurmountable, and most assuredly, unlimited payment would cause so much disgust, that it must soon be put an end to. Mr. John Campbell said, all the hon. Gentleman's arguments proceeded upon the fallacy, that the official assignee was to have a poundage, but that was not the case. The remuneration he was to have, according to the Bill, was the exact amount the Commissioners thought adequate to his services, but in no case to exceed five per cent on the assets. It had been demonstrated by the hon. Member for Leicester, that the remuneration must in a great degree be left to the discretion of some person, and the hon. Member suggested the creditors as the proper parties, but that would be to make them Judges in their own cause-a case at all times to be avoided. Mr. Burge begged to observe to the hon. and learned Gentleman, that there were always two parties to a contract: he who performed a given service, and he who was to pay for it; and what they complained of was, that those who would have to pay had no voice in fixing the amount of remuneration. Sir Charles Forbes said, they certainly might limit the sum on which the maximum Commission of five per cent should be granted. Mr. Warburton said, he felt it quite impossible to establish a graduated scale of remuneration. The best course would be to strike out all mention of more or less per centage, and the clause would then leave the payment to the discretion of the Mr. Sergeant Wilde was much surprised at the remark made by the hon. Gentleman. The lists of Commissioners before which private meetings were held, were, in fact, the only lists competent to discharge the duties required of them. In short, solicitors who had business that required such meetings, knew it was useless to go before any of the other lists. Mr. Robert Grant said, as he was one of that list of Commissioners which had had the most private meetings, he felt bound to notice the remark of the hon. member for Bridport. The fourteenth list of which he was a member, had done by far the most work, and they were the least paid. His emoluments, on an average, for fifteen years, had been under 400l. per annum. He trusted the hon. Member meant no imputation upon him; or if he did, it would have been well to have given him notice, that he might have been prepared to defend himself if necessary. Mr. Warburton said, that his remark was not intended to apply to the right hon. Gentleman; he had not said, or implied, that the meetings were held from a corrupt motive, but merely, that they caused delay and expense, and he considered he was entitled to deliver an opinion, let who might be affected by it. Sir Charles Wetherell begged to assure the hon. member for Bridport, it was perfectly notorious, that the Lists of Commissioners which had the most private business, were the most efficient. Mr. Freshfield begged to ask the noble Lord, whether he would permit some alteration to be made in the clause, so as to regulate the remuneration of the Commissioners generally. As the clause now stood, it appeared as if there was to be some distinction made. Lord Althorp said, certainly, it was intended that some distinction should be made. It was never meant, that each Commissioner who would be reduced, was to have a compensation for the loss of his office; because many had been appointed under the express understanding, that if any alteration were made which would abolish their offices, they were not to expect remuneration. This regulation would be adhered to, and it was the object of the present wording of the clause, to carry it into effect. The Clause added to the Bill. The Attorney-General brought up a clause, providing, that the Judges and other officers appointed under this Bill, should be incapable of sitting in Parlia ment. Agreed to. not The House resumed, and the Report it had an inclosure containing remarks on was brought up. PORTUGAL.] Mr. Courtenay, seeing the noble Lord, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in his place, begged to ask him the following questions with respect to the affairs of Portugal:first, whether the Viscount D'Asseca did not address to the noble Lord, on the fourth of May last, an application on the part of the Portuguese Government, in respect of the demands of France, as the Viscount states in his letter of the 23rd of June? Secondly, at what period, and through what channel, did his Majesty's Government receive the first intimation of the intention of the French Government to send a naval force to the Tagus?-Thirdly, was the letter of the 17th of June to Mr. Hamilton, the first communication made thereupon to the French Government? Fourthly, whether Admiral Roussin's letters of July 11th, to which the Viscount D'Asseca refers in his letter of the 1st of August, will be among those papers? Fifthly, whether his Majesty's Government had a copy of M. Cassas' protest, to which the Viscount D'Asseca refers in his letter of the 23rd of June, and will lay it before the House?-Sixthly, whether his Majesty's Government had received any intelligence of the formal termination of the war which existed between France and Portugal ? as Mr. Hoppner's letter, announcing the compliance with our demands, was received till the 14th of May. M. D'Asseca's letter of the 14th of May was not included in the papers presented to Parliament, because it described itself as being a confidential communication, and because the French demands, which it was not thought right to publish.-To the right hon. Gentleman's second question he had to state that the channel through which his Majesty's Government received the first intimation of the intention of the French Government to send a naval force to the Tagus, was a despatch from Lord Granville, dated April 4th, in which that nobleman stated that Count Sebastiani had informed him, in conversation, that the French Government might find it necessary to send a fleet to the Tagus, if no satisfaction were given to France by Don Miguel's Government.-To the question of whether the letter to Mr. Hamilton was the first communication made upon the subject to the French Government, he had to answer, yes, the first written communication.-To the fourth question he begged to reply, that his Majesty's Government had not received a copy of Baron Roussin's letter of July 11th to which M, D'Asseca alluded in his note of the 1st of August,-To the fifth question he replied, that no copy of any protest of M. Cassas against the establishment of a Commission at Lisbon had been received by his Majesty's Government.-To the last question his reply was, that no formal communication had been received by his Majesty's Government with respect to the termination of the war between France and Portugal, except the Convention of Lisbon, and the announcement made by the French Government, that they had attained that satisfaction which was the object of their expedition, and that their fleet had, consequently, left the Tagus. HOUSE OF LORDS, Viscount Palmerston had to apologize to his right hon. friend for not having afforded him the opportunity of asking these questions before. He would then answer them as shortly, and as explicitly as his right hon. friend had asked them. To the first, he begged to reply, that a letter was delivered to him personally by M. D'Asseca on the 4th of May. No answer was given to that letter in writing, but Viscount D'Asseca was verbally informed that his Majesty's Government would not in- Petitions presented. In favour of Reform. By Lord Doves terfere in the case, but strongly advised the Portuguese Government to give just satisfaction to the French demands. At this time, it was uncertain whether England herself would not be at war with Portugal, MINUTES.] Bills. Returned from the Commons; Bank. ruptcy Court and Interpleader; Crown Lands Inclosure. and the LORD CHANCELLOR, from the Inhabitants of Shefford, Dronfield, Knaresborough, Chapel-le-Firth, Peterhead, Royal Burgh of Tain, Fleshers Incorporation of Perth, Inhabitants of Stickney, Steeple Aston, and Dalmellington. Against the Reform Bill. By Lord FARNHAM, from the Corporations of Sadlers, Upholster ers, Coachmakers, Barbers and Surgeons, Cutlers; from the Guild of Merchants, Dublin, and from the Coalmeters of Dublin, praying for Compensation; from the Corpora tion of Weavers, Dublin, praying for the establishment of a Board of Trade in that City; from Clowes, in Monaghan, for the extension of the Tithe Composition Act, and from Grant to the Kildare Street Society. By the Earl of CAWDOR, from Nairnshire, not to be joined with another County under the Reform Bill:-By a NOBLE LORD, from Inhabitants of Fethard, Templetown, and St. James's, the Inhabitants of Drumcliffe, for the continuance of the Wexford, for the Yeomanry to be disbanded:-By a NOBLE LORD, from the Landowners, Merchants, Freemen, and Freeholders of St. Nicholas, Galway, to extend the Franchise of that place to Catholics equally with Protestants. no delay, for the inquiry might have been fully made in five minutes. The Lord Chief Baron of the Scotch Court of Exchequer was in town, and if they had called on him to attend there, he would at once have told them, that the Court in question only tried, on an average, two defended causes in the course of a year. He would not have troubled their Lordships on this subject, however, had it not been for the imputations that had been thrown out against the Lord Chief Baron, as if he had been the cause of this Bill being introduced, in order to procure a sinecure for himself; whereas, in point of fact, the only effect of the Bill, as far as it regarded him, was to reduce his salary one-half! His hon, and valued friend, the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, had nothing to do with the Bill. He (the Lord Chancellor) had not had the slightest communication with the Lord Chief Baron about it. He had had no reason to believe that his hon. friend was any otherwise than averse to the Bill, since it reduced the income of his sinecure from 4,000l. a-year to 2,000l. The whole was a sinecure, except as to the trial of the two causes, and he had had no reason to believe that his hon. friend would not have been very willing to try two causes in a-year for 2,000l., being at the rate of 1,000l. per cause. He declared most solemnly, that he himself had matured the Bill, without any communication with the Lord Chief Baron. To be sure, his hon. and worthy friend cheerfully consented to the arrangement made by the Bill; but that was an abandonment by him of 2,000l. of his income; and yet, ignorant and factious men imputed to him that this Bill was a job of his, prepared by him for his own benefit. It was of great importance to the public to get rid of the expense of this Court, and it was of much more importance in another view than that of the mere money saved; for it was of the highest importance that the public should not be put to expense for the support of Courts where the situations of the Judges were sinecures, since an expense of that kind was derogatory to the judicial character, and Judges ought always to be not only without blame, but above sus EXCHEQUER COURT (SCOTLAND) BILL.] The Lord Chancellor presented nine Petitions in favour of the Reform Bill from Tain, Peterhead, and different places in the counties of Derby, Lincoln, and Ayr. On presenting some petitions for Reform, his Lordship took the opportunity of saying a few words respecting a Bill which had been by him lately brought into their Lordships' House, and which had passed there without a dissentient voice. The Bill to which he alluded was the Bill for the abolition of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland. The consideration of that Bill had been postponed from time to time in another place, in order to make way for what was there considered as business of a more urgent nature, and was ultimately thrown over for the present Session. He took the opportunity of stating his deep regret at this delay, and his deep sense of the inexpediency of that delay, and his thorough conviction of the total uselessness of the inquiry, upon the ground of the propriety of which the delay was attempted to be justified. It had been said, that an inquiry by a Committee was called for, since, without such inquiry, the House could not know that the Court was a sinecure. But, what was passing in Courts of Justice was matter of common notoriety. What passed in the Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Exchequer, or Chancery, or any other Court of Justice here, was matter of common notoriety, inasmuch as they were open to all his Majesty's subjects, and to which the public had a right of access, and upon the ground of that notoriety, he had always understood that Parliament had a right to legislate. To say that this, or that the other House had no right to legislate upon the open, broad, and notorious fact, without a previous in-picion. This last consideration was of quiry by a Committee, was the most extraordinary proposition that he had ever heard of. If, however, they thought fit to go into the inquiry, there need have been more consequence than the mere saving, and he hoped that the Bill would be passed at the earliest period in the next Session. Having thus cleared his hon. friend, the Lord Chief Baron, from the unfounded | appointed him to be a Master in Chancery; accusations against him, he might be per- and Lord Eldon not having done it, he mitted to say a few words about some ad- had determined to do it. But the imputaditional unfounded imputations against tion upon him as to the appointment of himself. It had been said, that he had this gentleman was not a bit more perverse called upon Masters in Chancery to retire, and unfounded than the imputation with in order to have an opportunity of appointing respect to Mr. Henry Martin, who was the others in their stead, who were considera- fittest person that could be found. He bly advanced in age. But he had never hoped he did not improperly trespass on called upon Masters in Chancery to retire; the time of their Lordships when he took he had no power to call upon them to the opportunity to repel these most unretire, or at least he had no power to call founded imputations, which he did with on them to obey. But one did retire, and perfect good humour, although it might at presented to him a certificate that he had first be difficult to conceive the ignorance served the office for twenty-six years, con- and perversion of understanding from siderably more than the time required to which they had originated. But certain entitle him to his retiring pension; and persons had successors, and these persons that he (the Lord Chancellor) was bound did not much like their successors, and to admit, unless he could show, which he were not very scrupulous about matters of could not, that the retiring master was fact when they endeavoured to vituperate perfectly able to discharge his duties. But and disparage these successors and to then it had been said, that he had appointed destroy the Government with which they masters of sixty-five and seventy years of were connected; and the hostility was the age. Well; what then? If they had been more embittered when they saw no reasonpersons in high practice, and of acknow- able prospect of succeeding their successledged experience and talents, and were ors. Their position was, indeed, cheerless, still in the full possession of their powers, and dark, and dismal, with scarcely the why not appoint them? But at the same feeblest ray of light to comfort them, or time he had taken care that they should alleviate the despair to which they were not have their retiring pensions unless they doomed. "But we," continued his Lordserved the office for the full period required ship, " cared less for this dark position; for by the existing regulations, and a minute we were intent upon plans of Reform in of this had been entered in the Court of the Law, upon plans of Reform in ParliaChancery, so that his successor might be ment, and upon projects for the advantage officially apprised that, unless the masters of our own country and the general benefit when they retired had served the office of mankind; and the contemplation of for twenty years, they were entitled to no these subjects enlightened and cheered us pension. And this was what was called in the long gloom in which we were imjobbing! Oh; but then it was said that mured. But now that our opponents are one of the appointed masters, his old and immersed in that dismal gloom, they have valued friend, Mr. Henry Martin, had nothing like this to cheer them--nothing to been retired from practice for fifteen years. dispel the dark horrors of their position, The fact was, that it was fifteen months. except a dim, twinkling, glimmering light, He had been in practice in the Court of to shew them the way back to their old Exchequer, and at the head of that Bar, places. Under these sad and dismal till within this year and a quarter: he had circumstances, it is natural that they seen him there; and he defied any one to should resort to a little railing to comfort find a better Master; he was the very best and cheer them; and hence we may acthat could have been found in the Court count for these gross misrepresentations of of Chancery for these last twenty years. fact, to some of which I have had occasion With another Master in Chancery-the to call your Lordships' attention. I have first whom he had appointed-he had never returns to prove what I have stated in been in the same room till he had ap- regard to the Court of Exchequer." pointed him; and a gentleman more adverse to his party and to his political views, both as to Church and State, he could not have appointed. That gentleman was a friend of Lord Eldon's, and he thought that Lord Eldon ought to have The Duke of Buccleugh inquired whether the noble and learned Lord had any objection to lay those returns on the table? The Lord Chancellor said, that he had no objection, SELECT VESTRIES' BILL.] On the Order | Petitions presented. By Mr. SADLER, from Joseph Alday, of the Day being moved for receiving the Report of the Select Vestries' Bill, He The Earl of Falmouth said, that he had already given notice of an Amendment he intended to propose, and to induce their Lordships to adopt his views; he begged to repeat the observations he had previously made. There was a palpable difference between large and populous places, and small rural parishes, and they required a different method of management. therefore thought it was inexpedient to extend the provisions of the Act before them indiscriminately, and he meant to propose an amendment from which he considered some advantage would be derived. He proposed to insert the following words as part of the clause, " And be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act contained, shall extend to parishes where there is not a greater number of persons than 600 paying rates to the poor." Viscount Melbourne requested that the consideration of this Amendment might be postponed, because he apprehended it must be a rider to the Bill. The Earl of Falmouth had no objection to the noble Lord's proposal. The Bishop of London proposed an Amendment, to the effect that, when the places where Vestries had been usually held were found inconvenient, they might be held in other places. now confined in Birmingham, against the Law of Libel, and from the Corporation of Galway, for equalizing Civil Rights in that place; from the Overseers of Spinning Mills at Dundee, for the extension of Cotton Apprentices Bill to Scotland; from the Landed Proprietors and Inhabitants of the Island of Freenish, complaining of the Reduction of the duty on Barilla, and from the Rector and Inhabitants of Satwell, for the abolition of Slavery:-By Mr. HODSON, from the Shipowners of Barnstaple against the Tax on Marine Insurances:-By Colonel TORRENS, from Inhabitants of London and Westminster, for a revision of the Corn Laws. For Reform. By Lord KILLEEN, from Screen and Rath :-By Mr. HUME, from the Chairman of a Meeting at Paisley; from Merchants at London, complaining of Vessels being captured by the Brazilian Squadron, in 1826 and 1827; from the Inhabitant Householders of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the abolition of the Church Establishment in Ireland, the discontinuance of the Grant to the Kildare Street Society, and the continuance of that to Maynooth; from the Members of the Clerkenwell Reform Union, for the Repeal of the Duties on Newspapers, Pamphlets, &c., and from the Tithe-payers of the Parish of Knockbreda, for the abolition of Tithes :-By Mr. SPRING RICE, from the Committees of the Clare and General Dispensary of the Barony of Gallen, for an Amendment of the Act 50th George 3rd; from the Foreman of the Clare Grand Jury, praying, that the Act 4th George 4th, for Repair of Roads, be renewed; from the Magistrates, Clergy, and Landholders of the Barony of Meycallen, for the reduction of the duty on Barilla; from the Chairman of a Meeting of the Inhabitants of Dublin, for the introduction of Poor Laws into Ireland; from the Inhabitants of Stockport, against the proposed plan for enabling Parishes to mortgage their rates to furnish the means of Emigration; from the Free Burgesses of Liverpool, against the Liverpool Franchise Bill; from the Chamber of Commerce, Galway, for a provision in the Irish Reform Bill to preserve the peculiar Franchise of that place; from the Members of the Doagh Reform Committee, complaining of the Expenditure and Tolls of certain Turnpike Roads:-By Mr. HUME, from Owen Davies, complaining of his arrest for vending Berthold's Political Handkerchief, and praying for an alteration of the Law:-By Mr. ROBINSON, from Inhabitants of Blockhouse, Worcester, for an alteration of the Sale of Beer Bill; and by Mr. HENRY WILLIAMS, from the Freeholders and other persons, Owners of Real Property at Darlington, Gainsford, West Auckland, Heighington, and Harworth, against the General Registry Bill. REFORM-PETITIONS.] Mr. Hunt presented a Petition from John Duffy stating that the Reform Bill was defeated by the Bishops, and praying that they might be disfranchised. Mr. John Campbell said, he deplored the presentation of such a petition. It could not fail to be productive of bad effects. Nothing could injure the cause of Reform, except the indiscreet efforts of MINUTES.] Bills brought in. By Mr. SADLER, to better the pretended friends. He likewise begged condition of the Labouring Poor. Read a third time and passed; Crown Lands; Inclosure. (Standing Order suspended). to observe, that attempts such as those lately made to dictate to Ministers, by cerReturns ordered. On the Motion of Colonel EVANS, of the tain parties in the metropolis, relating to a short adjournment were most decidedly mischievous. He doubted whether the petition ought to be received. Vessels employed and belonging to the Port of Rye from the years 1820, to 1830, respectively:-On the Motion of Lord KILLEEN, of the number of Newspaper Stamps issued for the year ending the 5th of October, 1831:-On the Motion of Colonel Sibthorp, the number of Persons convicted of the crimes of Horse and Sheep stealing, and the Sentences passed upon them throughout England and Wales, from the year 1826, up to the latest period, and of the number of Steam Vessels belonging to Government with their Tonnage, and the power of their Machinery. Mr. George Robinson said, this petition had a family likeness to several other most extraordinary petitions which the hon. Member was frequently in the habit of in |