in that assembly which was to decide on his cause, by his household, by his state officers, by his ministers themselves, and by all those who were open to influence, either from the highest rewards a monarch could bestow, or from the lowest boons which a peer could accept, to relieve a dependent or to conciliate an adherent. Was this fact nothing in judging of the real value of a numerical majority? Was an array of influence great as this ever excited against individuals who presumed to call themselves judges. The Speaker interposed, on the ground that it was irregular to remark on the motives which had influenced members of the other house of parliament. Mr. Brougham remarked, that the noble lord had himself wandered into discussion of the motives of the peers, to which it was necessary that an answer should be given. the history of times beyond their own personal knowledge, they would find, that never, on any question, had a more violent spirit of partiality been shown. His majesty's ministers avowed themselves the authors, the patrons, and the managers of the bill, and had shown the zeal and spirit of prosecuting parties. If it so happened, indeed, that at last some (not of the ministers themselves be it remembered, but of their adherents) voted against the bill, would the noble lord contend, that by the ministerial side alone were these symptoms of impartiality shown? Was it not notorious that there were three or four of the noble lords with whom it had been his habit to act, with whose opinions he had generally concurred, and whose talents he had admired (never more, indeed, than when they had of late been so misdirected) who formed the most active friends of The Speaker said, that the distinction the bill not in voting, indeed, but in fair as to the remarks made upon the other and open debate? These noble lords House of parliament was this :-At the bore much of the brunt and odium of the end of every session, the journals of measure, while the ministers kept behind the House of Lords were communica-at their safe and effectual labour of ented to the House of Commons, as the votes of the Commons were regularly communicated to the Lords. As soon as the journals of the Lords were so communicated, they became matter of historical record, and whatever appeared on the face of them, could be remarked upon. The noble lord had remarked upon the reasons which noble lords had given for their votes, which, as he understood, were professedly drawn from the protests which were of course found on the journals. If the noble lord had gone beyond this, as the hon. and learned gentleman seemed to have understood him, he (the Speaker) was remiss in not having checked the noble lord upon the same principle as he had checked the hon. and learned gentleman. Lord Castlereagh observed, that he had argued, that the ministers had not made the bill a party question in the other House. Mr. Brougham continued.-If it was true, that the minister had not made this a party question, such a circumstance could not by any possibility appear on the face of the journals, but if such circumstances were so recorded, it would not be found on those journals or any where else, because it was notoriously and directly contrary to the fact. Never, not only in our own times, but if they recurred to trapping and securing votes. Turning from these proceedings he thanked the noble lord for the opening of his speech, in which, with a charity peculiarly his own, he had undertaken to defend the Queen-to defend her from her friends, from his noble friend who had made the motion that night, and from his right hon. friend (Mr. Tierney) who sat next him. The noble lord had referred to the first notice which his right hon. friend had taken of the omission of the Queen's name, and he had repeated the memorable assertion of his right hon. friend, that "the Queen had been insulted, or that the king had been betrayed." The noble lord had also referred to the denial, which he (Mr. Brougham) had givin to the assertion, that the Queen was degraded by the omission of her name in the Liturgy. He confessed, that he was not then willing to allow that the Queen was degraded by that act. It was a part of sound philosophy, that a man should not contemplate the full amount of the injury he suffered from the wrongs of a superior force, which he was powerless to resent or to resist. If this feeling might be allowed to operate on a man in his own case, how much more strongly might it operate when the character at stake was that of a client-not only of a client, but of a woman and a Queen? The noble lord might take the fact in any words, the shield of their protection, and had and no one was better able than the noble covered themselves-he would boldly say lord to vary the combinations of adjec-it-with immortal renown, as lovers of tives and substantives, to pile high sound- justice and detesters of tyranny.-After ing epithets, and to frame phrases which adverting to the notice lord Castlereagh filled the ear and eluded the mind. He had taken of himself, Mr. Brougham allowed, that he had not been unwilling proceeded to observe upon the reluctance to believe, that the Queen had not been with which minsters, not long since, had degraded. It was not for him, at that been compelled to pronounce the name time, to declare, that his royal mistress of Queen. In this respect he had lived was degraded, when she had to meet all to see strange changes. He had heard, the terrors of the threatened investiga- not only the right hon. the Chancellor of tion; he said "the terrors" of an inves- the Exchequer, pronounce the title as tigation, not that innocence should be glibly and as frequently as sums of money exposed to danger from justice or from to be voted out of the pockets of the inquiry, but her majesty was on the people, but even the noble lord had been brink of an investigation in which in- prevailed upon to treat her majesty with nocence was no security; in which she the respect which became "an old courtier was to be met by perjured men and of the Queen's, and the Queen's old perjured women; and by bribing men courtier" [hear, hear!]. What was still and bribing women-where perjury and more astonishing, was, that in another bribery were suited to accomplish one place, where her majesty had so recently object, where the long arm of power and been upon her trial, he had heard even the long purse of an administration the sovereign himself pronounce the name joined their influence over Italian hands of Queen. As to the form in which his and Italian hearts-over hearts ready to noble friend had made his motion, the crouch to the one, over hands ready gree- accusation which was made against it was, dily to snatch at the other. From such a that it was so framed as to catch stray trial, from such a threatened prosecution, votes, and specially, for he was so pointthe most guiltless might shrink without ed out that he could not be mistaken, to incurring, for a moment, the imputation of catch a worthy alderman, who had the crime. After her majesty's ill-advised, other night spoken on the subject [Alderill-fated migration from this, the land man Heygate]. Now any one who had of her adoption, contrary to the repre- heard the worthy alderman's speech sentations of his late revered friend (Mr. must, have seen, that it was vain to Whitbread), contrary to his own advice make any such attempt. Whatever might recorded and in her majesty's possession, be the words of the motion, however for six years she had been all but forgot- the bait might be varied or dispos ten by the people of this country. Nowed, no art, not that of the most comnothing was talked of on the other side, but her increasing and inconvenient popularity. Why was she popular, and why were the hearts of all classes interested in her behalf? Because she was oppressed and persecuted; and if ministers wished to sink her into comparative oblivion, he would give them a recipe:"treat her well;"-they had nothing to do but to abstain from persecution. The people had witnessed a woman and a Queen maltreated, insulted, trampled upon; they had seen injuries inflicted where injuries were possible; and insults where injuries were powerless. They felt for her, because they loved the monarchy and the persons of their rulers with what an historian had called, with somewhat of a sneer, 66 a childish admiration of Royalty." For this the people of England had covered their Queen with plete angler, would be able to hook the worthy alderman. There was so much of the tortuous motion of the eel in the way in which the worthy alderman wound through the argument, he was so slippery and so winding, that he would defy the best-sanded fist to gripe him. The worthy alderman had so carefully stated the question, now a little remark on the one side, now a little set-off on the other, that if the arguments were cast up one against the other, the difference would be found the most perfect zero that was ever exhibited in the best-balanced book in the city. All this arose, no doubt, from the infinite candour of the worthy alderman; but it proved, that the motion would not have the effect of catching him, as it certainly was not framed for that purpose, as it was drawn up in its present form, before the alderman gave that candid exposition of his sentiments. It was fair, that gentlemen who thought variously on one point, but who agreed on others, should choose the point on which they could unite; not that on which they differed. Most of them thought, the omission of the Queen's name was illegal, some of them doubted as to its illegality; all were clear as to its being inexpedient and ill-advised. He was of opinion most strongly with the hon. and learned member for Oxford, that it was illegal. But, was there any thing unfair, was there any thing other than candid and manly, in his joining in a declaration that it was inexpedient and ill-advised? He conjured the House, such of them as doubted of the illegality, to look to this part of the question. He had the implied promise of the noble lord, that if the Queen was not convicted she should be restored to all her rights. He had the direct words of the noble earl in the other House (Liverpool); -he had the still higher authority and warrant of sound reason and the law of the land. The Queen has been acquitted -she must be treated as if she had never been tried, or there is no justice in England. To call back the attention of parliament to the weighty affairs from which they had been distracted-to give opportunity--which, while this overwhelming subject occupied the country, could not be afforded, to consider the distresses of a people, who now, unmindful of their own sufferings, poured forth their generous and disinterested petitions in favour of their persecuted Queen-to calm the agitation of the country by doing justice to her majesty, and then to rescue from imminent and hourly-increasing danger the fabric of the constitution was the object of his noble friend's motion. Mr. Alderman Heygate said, that uninjured as he felt himself by the attack of the hon. and learned gentleman, he had no wish, rising unexpectedly, and at that late hour of the morning, unnecessarily to protract the contest. He would, however, tell that hon. and learned gentleman (never more ingenious than he had been that night, and never less convincing), that he was not vain enough to imagine, that the trap which had been alluded to was set by the noble mover, for so humble an individual as himself. But, at all events, he gave credit to the hon. and learned gentleman for having discovered at an early period of his speech, that he (Mr. H.) was not likely to be its victim; a sagacity at which he wondered the less, when he called to mind the small success of the recent efforts of that hon. and learned gentleman to catch and manage another alderman [a laugh, and cries of "Hear!"]. But his were light and playful sarcasms, and far less terrific than the heavy artillery brought to bear against him a few evenings since from another quarter [Mr. Hume]. On that occasion, the weighty epithets of "barbarous and unmanly, were lavished upon the line of argument, he had then thought it his duty to pursue, and which, whatever faults it had, was at all events clearly straight forward, and decided-lavished upon him because he had ventured unconnected with party, to allude moderately, openly, in his place in parliament, in the face of her majesty's advisers, official and extraordinary, and for his own justification with his constituents, to public documents bearing. the name of the Queen, and circulated with indefatigable industry to the remotest corners of her sovereign's dominions. He professed not to conjecture, and must leave it with the House to decide, whether the method pursued for putting him down was adopted because better arguments were not to be found, or whether it was intended to afford in his person, an example of that degree of liberty of speech and freedom of debate which would be hereafter allowed to individuals who dared to speak their own opinions by some of those to whom he alluded, when they should have attained that power which they now so confidently anticipated. But he could not doubt, that the British House of Commons would, in spite of this system of terror, shew by their decision that night, that they were resolved still to support the majesty of the throne, and the constitutional authority of the legislature; and that no individual, however illustrious by birth or exalted rank, not even the Queen Consort, the first subject of the state, should be able with impunity to suffer her name to be used, even without design, as the vehicle of sentiments at variance with the first principles of civil liberty, because calculated to induce the interference of a military body in political affairs, in opposition to the Crown which commands, and the parliament. which pays it [Hear, hear !]. As to the motion now before the House, he hoped, in a few minutes, to shew the hon. and learned gentleman, that however refined and candid he might be called, he was able to come to a decisive conclusion at last. He objected to the motion, as he did to some of the answers of the Queen, and for the same reason. The maxims were true in the abstract, but mischievous in the application. If carried, this motion was to be followed by others in endless succession; and it would tend only, in his judgment, to prolong the unhappy agitation of the public mind, and to interrupt still further the important business of the nation. He felt confident the House would that night, endeavour, by their vote, to draw a veil over transactions neither creditable nor beneficial to the parties concerned. He would add only one word more. He was no supporter of ministers, nor an enemy to the Queen; on the contrary, he sincerely wished-no one could wish it more seriously--that her majesty might continue, after so eventful a career, during many and happier years, to enjoy, with a suitable dignity and with credit, discretion, and repose, the ample income which he doubted not the liberality of parliament would in a few days provide. After a short reply from lord A. Hamil ton, the question being put," that the House do now adjourn" the House divided:-Ayes 310-Noes 209. Majority 101. Denison, William Grant, J. P. Byng, George Hume, Joseph Althorp, viscount Butterworth, Joseph Hurst, Robert Russell, lord John Anson, hon. G. Buxton, T. F. Anson, sir G. Calcraft, John James, W. Calcraft, J. H. Jervoise, G. P. Baring, Alexander Baring, Henry Barrett, S. M. Beaumont, T. W. Bernal, Ralph Cavendish, lord G. Clifford, captain Clifton, viscount Kennedy, T. F. Lambton, John G. Legge, hon. H. Lloyd, J. M. Lushington, Stephen Russell, R. G. Stuart, lord J. Sykes, Daniel Talbot, R. W. Tavistock, marquis of Tennyson, C. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Wednesday, January 31. PETITIONS RELATIVE TO THE QUEEN.] Mr. Lambton presented a petition from Durham signed by 3,340 inhabitants and agreed to at one of the most respectable meetings he had ever seen. The petitioners expressed their disgust at the late proceedings against her majesty. They also prayed for an inquiry into the proceedings of the Milan Commission. It was needless for him to say, that he gave his support to the contents of the petition. Mr. Cumming rose to present a similar petition from the lodge of Odd Fellows, No. 1, of Inverness, and No. 2, of Scotland. The Speaker begged to draw the attention of the House to this subject. A similar petition had been presented a few days since, but it was withdrawn. The question was not as to the wording of the petition, but as to the right of any society to present such petitions. He meant no objection to the society in question; but it was for the House to consider whether they were to receive petitions from societies unknown to the law. He was not aware, that there existed any precedent for receiving such petitions; but he, begged to call the attention of the House to the inconvenience, which would arise from such a regulation, however harmless the petition might be in itself. There were many such societies in this, and a much greater number in the sister kingdom. What, then, would be the feelings excited on receiving petitions from the Orange men, the Peep-of-day-boys, the Whiteboys, and the other slang names by which societies were designated? This, then, was the proper period for considering the question. The name of this society could not, of itself, give any offence to any party. He threw it out for the considera tion of the House, whether it would not be better to have the petition withdrawn, for the purpose of altering the heading of it; as the alteration could be easy made by making it the petition of the undersigned individuals. Sir John Newport was decidedly against receiving the petition in its present form: he thought the admission of such a petition would be productive of calamitous consequences. Sir W. De Crespigny opposed the reception of petitions from any lodges or societies not known to the law. Mr. Caleraft apprehended, that the reception of the petition might lead to a peecedent which, on other occasions, would be found highly inconvenient. Mr. Abercromby thought the subject worthy of mature consideration, as its determination might be the means of abridging the right of petition. It appeared to him, that this was merely a petition from private individuals who stated themselves to belong to a certain society. He did not wish to depreciate any opinion which had the sanction of the Chair, but he really thought, they ought not to decide hastily on this question. The Speaker observed, that the suggestion he had made to the House was not to decide the question. He merely called the attention of the House to the difficulty of the case, and therefore suggested the propriety of sanctioning the alteration he had recommended rather than involve the House in those inconveniences which he had indicated as the probable consequences of receiving the petition in its present shape. Mr. Denman observed upon the inconvenience of sending back a petition to a remote part of the kingdom for the purpose of being re-modelled, during which time the measure against which it petitioned might be passed, and thus the object of the petitioners be defeated. Ordered to lie on the table. PETITIONS FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.] Mr. Wyvill presented thirty-two petitions from the City of York, praying for parliamentary reform. The petitioners were under an erroneous impression, that an act of Charles the second made it illegal to attach more than 20 signatures to a petition for parliamentary reform, and therefore it was, that such a number of pe titions had been presented. They prayed, for a restoration of triennial parliaments, |