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it was not very clear whether they ought to be supported. They, the members, were plain downright matterof-fact men. They wished to know whether the men apparently in power were de facto Ministers. "Make it quite clear to us-clear to demonstration-that you are not going out, and then we shall immediately know what to do." In the mean while, they comported themselves as the members were wont to comport themselves whenever they were engaged in such an interesting speculation. The first thing in those cases was a tendency on the part of honourable members to absent themselves from the House. There were suddenly many calls into the country. Journies were to be taken for health, for amusement, or for the health and amusement of dear friends and relations. It was quite astonishing to perceive the ties which bound a member of Parliament to his home, when it was not convenient to him to take his place in the House. Accordingly, at the period to which he had been alluding, the numerical force of the House speedily dwindled to nearly one half its usual amount. The suspense, however, began to be painful; it would have become intolerable had it been much longer protracted. But at length it pleased his Majesty to put an end to all doubt and indecision by changing his Ministers. On the 12th of March, only 60 honourable members could be found to support a strong measure proposed to them by the opponents of the then administration. On the 3d of March, only 57 had been found ready to support a still stronger measure. And yet, no sooner had the House been enabled to look well about them -no sooner had they had time and opportunity to take an observation-no sooner had they made themselves sure of who were to be in, and who were to be out of office, than the 60 or 57 members became expanded in a most

marvellous manner to 258; that being, to the great astonishment of all beholders, the number of members who voted for the negative of the proposition, whether or not the House of Commons reposed any confidence in his Majesty's late Ministers. Thus did a large majority of that House, in which but a very short period before only 57 members could be found to express their disapprobation of those Ministers, come forward to protest that they never liked those Ministers, that they liked any Ministers better, and that they were very grateful to his Majesty for having taken the public affairs out of their hands."

The learned gentleman then adverted, in a strain of the keenest irony, to some acts of time-serving and political watchfulness and subserviency on the part of the University of Oxford, to the Walcheren expedition, the fate of Mr Western's motion last session for the repeal of the malt-tax, and other votes of the House of Commons; and concluded by declaring, that if he should be so fortunate as to have the decision of the House in his favour, it was his intention to follow it up by a remedial measure; in other words, by a proposition for a reform in the representation, the only corrective to that overgrown influence which now predominated in Parliament.

The Marquis of Londonderry replied to Mr Brougham in a speech rather below the ordinary standard of that noble person, leaving all the sore places untouched, and gently covering them with the balm of panegyric. Admitting that the influence of the Crown was a just subject of Parliamentary jealousy, he objected to the course which Mr Brougham had pursued, in attempting, under this weak disguise, to entrap the House into sanctioning a proposal for a reform in Parliament. But whatever that influence might be, he maintained that the House was com

posed of materials too sound and too durable to be acted upon or corrupted by it. He then entered into the detail of our establishments, and, taking into account the reductions which had been recently effected, he contended that, within the last thirty years, the patronage of the Crown had neither been enlarged in the ratio laid down by Mr Brougham, nor had the numerical increase of the public functionaries made any material addition to ministerial influence, He next pronounced a glowing panegyric on the career of honour and of glory pursued by this reviled Parliament, which, notwithstanding the sarcasms and attacks of the learned gentleman, had, he said, by the support which it afforded Ministers, enabled them to struggle against the acts of revolutionary governments, and to meet the machinations of some of the infatuated subjects of this country; which, in periods of great peril and alarm, had nobly done its duty to the empire, and conducted it safely through crises which threatened the very existence of the Government. From all which flattering generalities, he inferred, that it was "the bounden duty of the members of that House to support the Minister of the Crown for the time being;" a bold conclusion undoubtedly, and fit only to be pronounced by the lips of a Minister, who, by long possession, had acquired a sort of prescriptive title to power, and who felt himself too firmly established in office to be very scrupulous about the terms in which he avowed a tenet which all Ministers of all parties hold equally sacred, though few perhaps would have been honest enough to proclaim so openly.

Mr Bennet followed the Noble Lord, and eulogized the efforts of Mr

Brougham as fervently as his Lordship had done the actual constitution of Parliament. Mr Stuart Wortley opposed the principle and object of the motion, and alleged that the Opposition had not only lost the confidence of the House, but of the people, and that they were outbid in popularity by those who were willing to go greater lengths than they could promise. Mr Peel defended the University of Oxford from certain imputations of Mr Brougham, founded on their election of Lord Grenville as Chancellor, at a period when he was generally expected to come into power, and on their allowing a measure of concession to the Catholics, which they had opposed in 1807, to pass in silence in 1817. Lord Grenville, he said, had been elected solely on account of his high character, his attachment to our ecclesiastical establishment, his opposition to French principles, and the station he had held in the University, as one of her most distinguished scholars; while, with regard to the measure of 1817, it was not precisely the same with that of 1807; and even if it had, circumstances were changed, the conscientious scruples of his late Majesty no longer requiring them to continue their opposition. Mr Brougham, in reply, asserted, that they had opposed the bill, not on the score of the King's conscience, but on its own merits, and that he complained much less of those who yielded to these scruples, unconstitu tional as such compliance was, than of those who raised the cry of " No Popery," caring as much for Popery as for the King's conscience, and as much for the King's conscience as for the opinions of William the Conqueror.The motion was lost by a majority of 216 to 101.

CHAPTER VII.

FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Mr Hume's Motion on the state of the Ionian Islands.-Cause of the Greeks; and question concerning the interference of this country in their behalf.-Lord Grosvenor's Motion respecting the Greek Hostages at Constantinople.-Alien Bill.-Foreign contraband Slave Trade.-Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope.-Canada Government and Trade Bill.-Colonial Commission.-Mr Lennard's Motion respecting the Recognition of the Colombian Republic. Piracy in the West Indies.

No subject within our recollection has been more vehemently agitated, or given rise to greater diversity of opinion, in this country, than the policy pursued by Great Britain in the government of the Ionian Islands. The cession of Parga to the Turks, or rather to Ali Pasha, was undoubtedly a most unpopular proceeding. This may be This may be accounted for in various ways. The little Christian community occupying the town and territory of Parga, had been protected from Moslem jealousy and cupidity by the powers who successively governed in the Ionian Islands; and enjoying independence, it had made considerable progress in wealth and civilization. The inhabitants were industrious, contented, and happy; and Parga, forming one of the few bright spots on the dark zone of Turkish domination, began to be viewed with an affectionate interest by those who looked forward with hope to the future re

generation of Greece. The treaty of Paris, which placed the Ionian Islands under the sovereign protection of Britain, was supposed to have transferred to this country the Russian guarantees in their fullest force; while the inhuman butcheries perpetrated by Ali Pasha at Prevesa, Vonitza, and Butrinto, had not only excited the utmost horror and indignation, but had furnished grounds for hoping that the Government of the Ionian Islands would not deliver up to this monster, upon a forced construction of the treaty of 1800, the only Christian community left on the Albanian coast. banian coast. The reference to this treaty, in that of Paris, amounted, it was alleged, to nothing more, than a reference for territorial description; and it could not possibly be revived as to its provisions, the political circumstances of the countries referred to having been so materially altered. The history of the surrender itself having somehow

become a question in which the personal conduct of the Lord High Commissioner was implicated, produced a powerful sensation, and gave rise to much angry discussion and a good deal of recrimination; while the rupture between Ali Pasha and the Porte, which soon after followed, and the final subversion of the power reared up by the Albanian despot at the expense of so much blood and crime, seemed to countenance all that had been said of the impolicy, as well as the injustice, of strengthening his hands by the surrender of Parga, under the pretence of keeping faith with the Divan. But whether these considerations be well or ill founded, the fact is unquestionable, that the surrender of the fortress and territory of Parga not only roused a spirit of distrust and aversion to the British Government in the Islands, and in Greece, but was very generally and loudly condemned in this country, as a needless sacrifice of national honour and public principle, aggravated, as was said, by the partiality shown to Ali Pasha throughout the whole transaction, and by the neglect with which the interests and feelings of the Parguinotes were treated by Sir Thomas Maitland.

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To this cause may be ascribed the hostility which has been frequently manifested, both within and without Parliament, to the vigorous government of that eminent person, and the eagerness with which charges of various descriptions, and some of them of a very grave character, have been preferred against him. On the 14th of May, Mr Hume brought forward a motion on this subject, comprised in four resolutions, which he prefaced with a long speech, containing a repetition of his former statements, with some fresh charges of oppression and cruelty on the part of the Lord High Commissioner. The object of the motion was twofold; first, as related to Great Bri

tain on the score of expense, which, he contended, had been needlessly increased by the profuse and extravagant government of Sir Thomas Maitland; and, secondly, as related to the happiness of the people of the Ionian Islands, and to the character of the nation in her capacity of protectress, which, he maintained, was compromised by the harsh and tyrannical measures of the Lord High Commissioner, no less than by the marked hostility he had shown towards those who had ventured to sympathise with the Greeks in their noble struggle for independence against their Mohammedan oppressors. The resolutions were as follow:

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"1. That it appears by documents upon the table of this House, that the Ionian Islands were, by a treaty signed at Paris on the 5th November 1815, between the courts of Vienna, St Petersburgh, London, and Berlin, declared to be a single, free, and independent state,' and were placed under the immediate and exclusive protection of the King of Great Britain; and that, by article 6. of the said treaty, his Britannic Majesty consents that a particular convention with the Government of the said United States shall settle, according to the state revenues, all matters relative to the maintenance of the fortresses now existing, as well as to the support and pay of the British garrisons, and to the number of men who are to compose them in time of peace, and that the said convention shall also establish the relations which are to take place between the armed force and the Ionian Government.' That by article 12. of the 2d section of the 7th chapter of the constitutional charter of the United States of the Ionian Islands, agreed to by the legislative assembly on the 2d May 1817, and sanctioned by his Majesty the King of Great Britain, it is settled, 'that all expense of quartering the regular troops of his Majesty, the pro

tecting sovereign, and, generally speaking, all military expense of every kind to be incurred by the states (as far as relates to the 3000 men therein named) shall be paid out of the general treasury of the same.'

"2. That it appears by returns on the table of this House, that the expenditure of Great Britain for the military establishments in the Ionian Islands amounted to the sum of L.145,023 in the year 1817; and to L.120,045 in 1818, exclusive of the expense for transports, relief of troops, passage money, and other charges, which have not been laid before the House.

"3. That it is expedient, in the present state of the finances of the united kingdom, that the military expense incurred for the Ionian Islands should be paid from the revenues of those islands, and regulated agreeably to the stipulations of the treaty of Paris, 5th November 1815, and the convention of the United Ionian States, agreed to on the 2d May 1817, and sanctioned by his Majesty.

"4. That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to direct an inquiry into the state of the Government of the Ionian Islands, the causes of the general disaffection, and of the numerous arrests and banishments which have taken place there, and for what reasons the inhabitants were disarmed, and martial law proclaimed."

Mr Wilmot made a detailed reply to the remarks with which Mr Hume had prefaced his motion, combating the authenticity of the facts upon which he had relied, and maintaining that the measures now enforced in the islands were merely continued, and not introduced by the present Government. He, therefore, moved the previous question on the first two resolutions, which were merely historical and assertive; the third was negatived without a divi

sion; and on the fourth, the House divided, when there appeared 67 for, and 152 against it.

Not remotely connected with the foregoing discussion, was a petition from certain inhabitants of Lees, in the parish of Ashton-under-Lyne, presented by Sir James Mackintosh, on the 15th of July, and praying the House to interfere in behalf of the suffering and oppressed Greeks. The learned gentleman declared that the sentiments contained in the petition were those of all the inhabitants of Great Britain who had thought upon the subject.

Mr Hume wished to know whether it was true that the Greeks, in their endeavours to escape from the persecution of their oppressors, by taking refuge in the Ionian Islands, had been forcibly expelled from thence by the insular Government.

Mr Wilmot was not aware of any measures taken by the Government of the Ionian Islands which could have had the effect of preventing the reception of the Greeks in the situation alluded to; no official information of any such measures having been received by Ministers.

Mr Wilberforce declared, that there could be but one feeling among generous, enlightened, and Christian minds, in behalf of the Greeks; that it was in truth a disgrace to all the powers of Europe, that long ere now they had not made a simultaneous effort, and driven back into Asia a nation of barbarians, the ancient and inveterate enemies of Christianity and of freedom; and that he knew of no case in which the power of a mighty country, like England, could be more nobly, more generously, or more justifiably exerted, than in rescuing the Greeks from bondage and destruction.

Lord Londonderry thought the present not a very fit occasion for the discussion of so wide a question as that into which gentlemen had been pleased

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