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he knew they desired the Vote by Ballot and Annual Parliaments. He wished to recommend a resolution passed by his constituents to the consideration of the House: it was to this effect, "We rely on your Majesty's known firmness; we implore cr Majesty not to create any more

sures as will secure the passing of the Reform Bill, which can alone restore this country to prosperity and happiness." A similar address had been agreed to at Manchester.

thought, that if this measure was not carried now-legally and by the existing authorities—a larger measure would ulti mately be carried by popular force. They expressed their hope that that House would address his Majesty, entreating him to create 100 new Peers, with a view to carry the measure. They remarked, thaters, but take such constitutional meathe House of Peers had rejected the Bill, and that the House of Commons had pledged themselves to support the measure, in consequence of which the two Houses were in opposition to each other; and that it was not possible that that state of things should continue for any length of time without the country being plunged into utter and irretrievable ruin. With the feeling of regret expressed by the Petitioners he most fully concurred, but he at once admitted that he did not agree with that part of the prayer which desired that House to address his Majesty to create an additional number of Peers; and he did so, because he thought that such a measure at this moment would be quite unnecessary; for he had little doubt that their Lordships would see the feeling of the country was so strongly declared in favour of the measure, that they would not hesitate to adopt it. The petitioners also expressed their hope that the Parliament would speedily be dissolved, and a new one chosen on the principle of the late Bill.

Mr. Hume said, the hon. member for Preston had misunderstood him; he did not mean to say that he disapproved of the prayer of the Petition, but that he thought it unnecessary. He now begged to move that the Petition be printed. He was ready to allow that it contained several very strong expressions but not any that made it objectionable, so far as printing it was concerned.

Sir Richard Vyvyan said, there were two objections to the petition, which he thought would prevent its being received by the House.

The first was, the manner in which the majority of the House of Lords was spoken of; and the next, the way in which the House of Commons was spoken of as pledged to a certain course, which put them in opposition to the House of Lords, and from which course it was obviously meant to be imputed they could Mr. Hunt said, it was rather odd that not depart without violating their faith to the hon. member for Middlesex, in pre- the people. The petitioners stated, that senting a Petition, should denounce the they saw and felt that great and important prayer of it. He could bear testimony to interests were endangered by the obstithe respectability of many members of the nacy of one or two hundred individuals, Birmingham Union, and he found it ne- who, by their conduct, had justly incurred cessary to say this, because the remarks the indignation of the country. Again, in he had before made regarding that Union another part of the petition, it was said, had been grossly misrepresented. He had that from the folly and obstinacy of a been charged with desiring to have it put numerical majority of the upper House of down. All that he had done, which had Parliament, a measure had been lost on given rise to such scandalous misrepresent- which depended the happiness and prospeation, was, to contrast the conduct of rity of the country. He put it to the House, the present Government, when the mem- whether these were proper expressions for bers of the Birmingham Political Uniona Petition addressed to any branch of the had held up their hands against the pay- Legislature. He wished, also, to remark ment of taxes, with that of the Govern- on what had been said by the hon. member ment of the day when a similar proceeding for Middlesex with respect to Political took place at Manchester. In that instance Unions. That hon. Member had asserted, the people were cut down by the Yeo- that the only way in which the public manry. At Birmingham the Union re- peace could be effectually maintained was ceived the approbation of Government. by these Political Unions. He would tell He believed, however, the members of the that hon. Member, that that was the way Birmingham Union were not fairly treated by which the public peace was overthrown. in this petition of their council, because He would say, God defend this country

from Political clubs. He would tell the believed it had always been considered hon. Member what sort of a Parliament their right freely to express their opinions had been within a short time back consti- on the whole or any branch of the Legislatuted at Naples under the government of ture. Yet now the doctrine was put forthese Political clubs. He was there him- ward in that House, that strong language self at the time, and he could speak posi- from the people was not to be there entively as to the fact. There was a legis dured. He said, on the contrary, that lative body in existence, every member of such a doctrine was not to be endured. which was threatened by Carbonari Clubs The attempt to stifle the free expression of if he did not speak and act in a certain just complaints would promote all the way. He repeated, that he hoped he evils which they affected to dread. Hon. should never see the time when this coun- Gentlemen complained of Political clubs try would be governed by Political Unions. indeed: why, had not these very GentleSir Francis Burdett said, that after the men established clubs of all kinds? They observations just made by the hon. Baronet, governed Ireland for years by Orange he could not abstain from saying a few clubs. How long, too, was it thought an words on the subject. He was not aware honour to belong to Brunswick clubs? that these Political Unions were either and when the people at length insisted on illegal, or unconstitutional, or improper. a measure of Reform, and the Ministry had He said this, because he was himself a the honesty to bring a measure of Reform member of a Political Union, and he did before the public, whether it met the wishes not think that he was laying himself open of every one man in the country he would to any censure on that account. He not venture to say; and there was no man thought that, instead of being improper, in his senses who would expect, as the they were both justifiable and necessary: hon. member for Preston seemed to do, that it was absolutely necessary for the that it should meet the wishes of all; it people of England to show their determi- was at least a measure in which the internation to obtain a remedy for that scanda- ests of all men were consulted; in which lous state of corruption which existed in men of property were conciliated, because the system of the election of Members of the value of their property was for the first that House; and which, until within these time considered in the system of Reprefew late years, no man had ever ventured sentation, and in which all men saw a to have the face to say was defensible in probability of enjoying the elective franany point whatever. Who, he would ask, chise, and of exercising it freely and had been the occasion of these Political honestly; such a measure, though it might Unions? They had arisen out of the per- not satisfy every one man in the country, petual denials of that House to give the would at least satisfy all men of moderapeople their due share in what was called tion, and all such men were united in its the representation of the people. That support-but when an honest Administrawas the cause of these evils, if evils they tion, for the first time in the history of were; and evils, in one respect, he ad- Government, had come forward with a mitted them to be; but they were attri- remedial measure of that sort, and debutable entirely to such persons as the manded support from the people of Enghon. Baronet, and those who supported land, it was most provoking—so provoking him. The present Ministry had brought that it was difficult to keep language in this Bill to prevent the necessity of the within the limits of the rules of that House, people taking steps of such a nature, and difficult to keep it within the bounds of their object had been most unhappily de- decency and propriety, it was, he repeated, feated. But as the people were disap- most provoking, the king having nobly set pointed in their just expectations, were himself at the head of the Reformers, they to be kept from expressing their dis- and a whole people supporting the Reform, satisfaction? If the language they used that a few persons should be found directly was thought too strong, he could not but opposed to it, and that, when it was rejectsay that he thought it, under all the cir-ed, those persons should expect that all the cumstances, very excusable; and that those who by their conduct had occasioned that language to be used, were the last who ought to find fault with it. Ever since he had known his countrymen, he

world would bow and bend to their will, and consent quietly, at their good pleasure, to give up all hope of what every honest man was convinced was necessary for the prosperity and happiness of the country.

He defied the Government to go on without adoption could only be secured by the adopting such a measure. Suppose the people giving their full support to those Ministers had been silly enough to shrink Ministers who had so well deserved it by from their duty to a most brave and gene- proposing such a measure for parliamentary rous Sovereign-to shrink from their duty adoption. Let them, then, give their conto the public-suppose they had done this, fidence to the Ministry-let them show then, even then, he would ask, if they that they were convinced, as he was, that threw up the reins of government, who the Ministers would not abandon the duty would venture to take the conduct of the they owed to their Sovereign and to the Government except upon the basis of this people. At the same time he was certain measure of Reform? It came then to that whatever steps were adopted by perthis, that the opposition to this measure sons out of the House, they were adopted, was a factious opposition-an opposition not with a view to dictate to the Ministry, for the purpose of turning out the Adminis- but to shew the Ministry that they ought tration. He was the more convinced of not to shrink from completing the great this when he saw those Gentlemen who work they had begun, and to prove to began with opposing all attempts at Re- them and to their opponents that there form admit, at last, that Reform was neces- was nothing likely to throw the country sary, while they threw in the way of every into confusion but the rejection of this species of Reform all sorts of obstacle, and measure. Every one, however, was contried to veil their real opposition to Reform vinced that the measure could not be under an affected opposition to this par. finally rejected; but every one was also ticular measure. Why, even the Duke of convinced, that to enable the Ministers to Wellington himself now admitted that carry it, the people must zealously give some Reform was necessary. A short time them their support. The people were well since it was not so with the noble Duke, inclined to do so, for they felt how much and the world gave him credit at least for they were indebted to the present Mimanliness and courage when he made the nisters, and that their interests required declaration. But even he had been com- them to give Ministers their support; for pelled to recede from the point of absolute they knew that the country would never refusal of Reform. He found himself in be settled till this measure was adopted; a false position, and had receded from the and they did not despair, for, knowing the point which he appeared at first to have general feeling of the people, they knew taken up with the same desperate resolu- that the measure could not long be retion with which he had taken up his po- sisted. And who were those who resisted sition at Waterloo-a position from which it? One set of its opponents was a parcel he said he would not move, and which of intriguing gentlemen at the west end of the valour of our brave countrymen, on the town; and there were intriguing ladies, whose rights they were now deciding, had too, mighty gossips in this our commonenabled him to maintain. On that occa-wealth," whose interference in such matsion his resolution was nobly justified by ters was a thing, he must say, hitherto the courage of the men whom he then com- unknown. He regretted that interference, manded; but on the present he was forced because he thought that when ladies once to abandon his ground. It was true he had got out of the domestic circle, and got into not now the same steady troops as on that the political, they lost much of the inoccasion; his present followers fell off from fluence they would otherwise properly the advanced posts to which he had ordered possess; and he was tempted to pass upon them, but which they found to be positions them a similar judgment to that which that were quite untenable, and he himself Mrs. Peachum, in The Beggar's Opera, was at last obliged to give up his position passed upon them. Mrs. Peachum said, and effect his retreat. But what was the" Women are bitter bad judges in cases of cause of all this? It was the strong ne- murder;" and so, he said, "Women are cessity which neither he nor any other man bitter bad judges in cases of politics." could resist. It was clear that there was For himself he could only say, that, conno hope for the amelioration of grievances sidering things as they now stood, he of which the people had often complained, could almost wish the Kings in past times -but the complaints about which had had made use of their prerogative, and hitherto been disregarded-but the adop- had discontinued to send Writs to decayed tion of this measure of Reform-and its boroughs, and had, at the same time, sent

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must all recollect the play of Henry IV.,
when Hotspur, Owen Glendower, and
others, were engaged in portioning out
England. In that scene, Glendower had
taken the Trent for the limit of his
portion; and Hotspur, thinking it would
trench too much upon his portion, said—
"I'll have the current in this place damm'd up;
It shall not wind with such a deep indent,
To rob me of so rich a bottom here."
Glendower, of course, objected, and words
ran high between them; Hotspur was told
he should not anger Owen Glendower, for
Glendower was a friend; on which Hot-
spur, with true English feeling exclaimed-
I'll give thrice so much land

To any well-deserving friend,
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me,
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair."
So said the people of England at this
moment. They would recede much if
they were satisfied that they should get
what they wanted, and what they had a
right to ask, namely, a practical control
over the public expenditure; but if that
were refused them-if friendliness was
dropped, and the matter became one of
bargain, they would "cavil about the
ninth part of a hair." In his opinion, his
Majesty's Ministers deserved the confi-

Writs to boroughs that had grown great and flourishing. If that prerogative had been used, that House would not have been in the situation in which it was now, but there would have been, as it were, a daily Reform, suppressing the elective franchise of inconsiderable boroughs, and transferring it to new and populous and flourishing towns. The King, no doubt, possessed the right of withholding these Writs, and of issuing them; and had that course been adopted from the beginning, there would have been a Reform of Parliament which would not have required the interference of the House of Peers. Indeed, he was almost prepared to say, that as Reform essentially concerned the privileges of that House, and the control over the public purse (a control of which, on other occasions, they were so jealous that they would not permit the other House to make the smallest alteration in their money bills-not even in a relaxation of the public burthens), it was a matter with which the other House ought not to interfere. He was sorry that the House of Lords should thus have brought themselves into a situation far from estimable, in the eyes of the country, doing themselves no good, and forcing upon the minds of the people an inquiry as to the limits of their privileges.dence of the country; and he was anxious He wished to see the Constitution pre- to impress that on the country, for they served; he believed it was an excellent had given an earnest of their honest Constitution in practice; but when it had intentions, and confidence in them would been corrupted, it should be purified; and, enable them to follow out what they had therefore, he wished to see a fair and free thus begun, while a different course would and full representation of the people, for but impede them in carrying into executhat was part of the Constitution; and he, tion the plan of Reform they had laid therefore, did regret most deeply, that the before the country. He knew it might be Peers should have opposed themselves to said that the people were properly jealous a demand which was made by the whole of bestowing their unlimited confidence ; people of England-namely, that a mea-but if it was unwise to give the Governsure should be passed to secure to them meat their confidence lest they might be their constitutional right-the right of betrayed, was it not equally unwise to controlling the public purse. What did withhold their confidence when they had all the rant about Jacobinism and revolu- good grounds for yielding it? In the tion mean-what did it come to but this conduct of all matters confidence was --that those who ranted thus wished still necessary. In this instance it had been to exclude the people from the right he given, and it should not now be withdrawn. had referred to the right which they now What greater claim to confidence could sought with so much anxiety? In what be put forward by any Ministry than was was passing out of doors he saw nothing put forward by the present in this one to alarm men, except they went on ex-measure? What they proposed was a asperating the public by delay and refusal, voluntary act of theirs-they had embarked till the public would no longer be satisfied themselves in the same boat, in the same with this just, rational, and effective mea-vessel, with the liberties of their country, sure, but would be determined to have more than their warmest friends now called on the opposite party to grant. They

and they had identified their interests with those of the people. They were in the same situation as the Roman army which

printed, to such language as this-" that the interests of the country were sacrificed or endangered by the selfish obstinacy of 200 individuals?" And that no doubt might apply to whom it alluded, this paragraph followed, "by the folly and obstinacy of a numerical majority in the House of Lords." Was this language which the House would sanction as applying to the majority of the other House of Parliament? He would put it to the noble Lord at the head of the Government in that House, whether he would consent to the printing of a petition containing such an attack on the other House of Parliament?

went out to conquer their neighbours, the | before them. Would the House, he asked, Samnites. The Roman Consul, who had give its sanction, by causing it to be determined not to retreat, placed his army in such a position, that it was impossible for the army to escape from a victorious enemy, and they had, therefore, no alternative but to conquer. The Roman Consul, in his speech to his soldiers, told them, that the contest would be desperate -that they would have to combat an enemy equally numerous, equally well disciplined, equally provided with arms, and equally full of courage with themselves; but he added, that they had one advantage-quod maxima et ultima erant necessitate superiori. That was the situation of the Ministers-by necessity alone they would be compelled to be victorious; they were to fall or stand by this measure; and they were sure of victory, for they were sure of the public support, and with that support they could not fail. He trusted that they would not be pressed in any way to promise a particular line of conduct. He trusted that his Majesty and his Majesty's Ministers would be enabled to relieve the country from those difficulties in which for a century past it had been involved, and that they would succeed in procuring for the country that representation, without which it was in vain to hope for good government without which a good Government could not go on, and which alone would be able to secure the public tranquillity and hap-he would answer, was altogether a quespiness.

It was

Lord Althorp did not think that the wording of petitions from the people in times of great excitement ought to be too strictly looked at. If the hon. Baronet opposite meant to ask him, did he approve of the language of the petition? He was perfectly ready to say he did not. language such as he hoped he never approached to himself, and such as he was sure could be of no sort of use in the discussion of political questions. But if the hon. Baronet asked him, did he think that the petition ought to be received in the ordinary manner in which petitions upon important subjects were received, and should be permitted to be printed? That,

tion of expediency. The expressions to which the hon. Baronet objected related to the particular conduct of noble individuals in the other House of Parliament; and he had known the House to receive and to print petitions animadverting, in very strong terms, not only on individuals in either House of Parliament, but upon the conduct of the whole Legislature. He, therefore, did not think that the House would do wisely in negativing the Motion of his hon. friend. But in giving that opinion, he hoped he should not be supposed to agree in or to sanction the language of the petitioners.

Mr. Goulburn was surprised at the course which the hon. Baronet had taken on this occasion. He would not, however, follow him in his very excursive speech. It was a speech which would almost make the House believe it had been intended for another occasion, but that, by some accident or other, the hon. Baronet had missed the opportunity of delivering it, and was therefore anxious, as he seemed to think it so good an oration, that the House should not separate without having had the benefit of hearing it. He would not presume to inquire whether the hon. Baronet was smarting under the witicisms Mr. Kennedy said, he must enter his of that sex he had so ungallantly alluded protest against the doctrine of appealing to, but he would confine himself simply to Ministers, as members of the Governto the question before the House, and he ment on questions like the present. They would contend that there would be an end ought to give their opinions only as indito the freedom of debate, if the conductvidual Members of the House in matters of Members in either House were to be which were not connected with the policy attacked as that of the majority of the of their Government. As to the question House of Lords had been in the petition | before them, he must say, that if hon,

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