regret. Lord Wynford trusted that, when the discussion came on, he and his friends should be able to show that the Bill was a destructive measure; they, however, were not hostile to all Reform. Lord Holland remarked that, if Noble Lords wished any weight to be attached to this observation, they must come forward with some plan of Reform. The petitions were all laid on the table.-The Marquis of Londonderry then brought forward the Belgian question, especially the employment of French officers in the Belgian army, and moved an address to his Majesty for the production of all the correspondence between England, France, and Belgium, on the subject. During Lord Goderich's reply, the Marquis of Londonderry rose to order: he complained that the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack was making suggestions to the Noble Lord who was addressing the House. The Lord Chancellor said, he would not sit in his place as a Minister of the Crown, and be bothered with the confused ideas of any Noble Peer: he should be ready to defend himself against any motion of censure. The Marquis of Londonderry inquired if it were in order for any Noble Lord to prompt another during his address to the House. The Lord Chancellor said, such a line of conduct was as strictly out of order as 99 things out of 100 which were done in their Lordships' House every day, and which were suffered from courtesy. The Marquis of Londonderry said, the noble and learned Lord had made use of words in that House which he would not make use of elsewhere. The Duke of Richmond moved that the words of the Noble Marquis be taken down but at the suggestion of the Lord Chancellor, the motion of the Noble Duke was withdrawn. The noble and learned Lord had made use of no expressions in that House which he would not again repeat in that House or elsewhere. The Duke of Wellington then rose, and observed that he could not condemn too strongly the principle of the Belgian army being officered by Frenchmen. The Lord Chancellor should object to the production of the papers if they really did exist; he adopted that line of conduct in consequence of the delicate nature of the question involved in the motion of the Noble Marquis. He (the Lord Chancellor) offered no opinion one way or the other on the propriety or impropriety of the arrangements adopted by King Leopold as respected the officers of the French army at present in Belgium. The Marquis of Londonderry then withdrew his motion, observing that if the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack would in future abstain from any attacks upon him, he should be the last man in their Lordships' House to give his Majesty's Ministers unnecessary trouble. The Lord Chancellor, with much apparent good-humour, replied, that he should be happy to sign a treaty of peace with the Noble Marquis for the remainder of the Session.

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Sept. 30.-An immense number of petitions were presented in favour of Reform.-Lord Auckland moved the third reading of the Wine Duties Equalization Bill. The Earl of Aberdeen strongly opposed its principle, maintaining that it was not only a violation of the Methuen Treaty, but, in reality, a declaration of war against Portugal. The Duke of Wellington also condemned the Bill. Lord Goderich defended the measure. The Bill was then read.

October 3.-An immense number of petitions were presented-by the Duke of Sussex, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Grey, Duke of Norfolk, Marquis of Cleveland, Lord Radnor, and other Lords, in favour of the Bill, including (by Earl Grey) that of the merchants and bankers of the metropolis, signed by 14,700 persons. Earl Grey rose upon the order of the day for the second reading of the Reform Bill. The tone of the Noble Earl's address was befitting the assembly, the language impressive, and the arguments employed by him of the most convincing character. Little that was really new, in fact or in argument, in inference or conclusion, could reasonably have been expected from any one upon a topic which had engaged the attention, and given rise to nightly discussion in the other House of Parliament during the last four months; yet did Lord Grey succeed in giving to the whole something of a new character, as well as of a new manner. The Noble Earl commenced by indignantly repelling the charges which had been brought against himself and his colleagues, of desiring to destroy the institutions of the country; and while he appealed to a whole half century of his political life, in proof that the measure of Reform now proposed was no new-fangled, rashly, or inadvisedly constructed scheme, declared it to be the object and aim of his address to prove to their Lordships that the measure was not one of a dangerous nature, or one likely to have an injurious tendency, but that it was really essential to the well-being and prosperity of the country, and imperatively called for by its circumstances. His Lordship then proceeded to show that the declaration of the Duke of Wellington against all Reform had lighted up the flame of Reform; that his Grace was compelled to quit office because Reform was imperatively demanded by the people; and that at the time of his own accession to office it was felt, even by the members of the Duke's Administration, that some Reform must be granted. His Lordship next contended, that to have made a promise to the ear, and broken it to the hope to have proposed an effectual, and have only fulfilled a promise of nominal Reform-would, of all proceedings, have been the most unsatisfactory to

the country, as well as the most dangerous to its tranquillity; and that in consequence he and his colleagues, acting on these considerations, had determined that it was equally expedient and just to grant at once such a measure of Reform as would satisfy all reasonable minds. Indeed, when he took office he stipulated that he should be allowed to make the Reform measure a Government question-a condition with which his Majesty generously complied. The rotten boroughs formed naturally the first branch of the rotten tree to be lopped off, and it was determined to cut them-the natural substitution for them being the grafting upon the old and healthy stock of the English Constitution, an enfranchisement of such places as had grown into importance, while the corruption of the former was proceeding to its natural destination. On this subject his Lordship observed that "the present mode of representation was totally inconsistent with the purposes for which it was first framed. It was contended that the theory and principles laid down was one thing, and that the practice was another; and that in the theory it should be considered as a full, a fair, and free representation of the people; but as the practice now was, it was totally the reverse, for it was neither full, free, nor fair. Would any of their Lordships contend, that while this gangrene was eating into the vitals of the Constitution, when such men as Pitt, and Fox, and Grattan, had endeavoured to bring about a similar measure, that they ever dreamt for one moment that their exertions were tending to the overthrow of all the existing institutions of the country? Did their Lordships not recollect that it was a standing order of the House, that it was illegal for any Peer to meddle with or influence elections? With such an order as that staring them in the face, could any of them be found sufficiently hardy to declare that he had a right to sell seats? It was said by some that this measure was spoliation and robbery; but that assertion he would indignantly repel. His Lordship next adverted to the ancient practice of the Constitution, which gave authority to the Crown to cease the issuing of writs to boroughs which had fallen into decay; and proved, by the example of Scotland and Ireland, at their respective Unions with England, that the practice had not fallen into decay in modern times. He then went on to appeal both to the good feelings of the Peers in favour of the Reform Bill, and also to the fears which might be very naturally entertained for the whole Order, in the event of the rejection of the Reform Bill. The Noble Earl then made a most powerful appeal to history for evidence of the evils resulting from a refusal of timely concession to the steadfast demands of a whole people. He instanced the Spanish Netherlands, the head of Charles I., the Crown of James II., the loss of British America, the extinction of the old French Monarchy under Louis XVI., the extinction of the restored French Monarchy under Charles X., and the utter sweeping off of the French nobility as a power in the State, as pretty solid proofs how much wisdom there is in a stubborn repugnance towards the fixed desires and necessities of a concurrent nation. The Noble Earl particularly addressed the Bishops, upon whom the eyes of the whole country were fixed, and whom he implored, in the most solemn manner, to consider the interests of the Church in the liberties of the people, and not to convert that hatred towards it, which would be the unfailing result towards them of the rejection of the measure. The Noble Earl concluded by saying, by the measure before their Lordships he should stand or fall; his continuing even an hour in office must be grounded on a reasonable prospect of carrying the measure: and he wished to be distinctly understood, that the dangers to be dreaded by the rejection of the Reform Bill were not to be obviated by a measure of Reform of a more limited nature: any such would never be proposed by him: he should never consent to hold out a delusive measure of relief, being well assured that the people of England were entitled to the one now proposed. He trusted their Lordships would be wise in time, and study the advancement of the glory and good of the Church, and the safety and welfare of the country. His anxious hope was, that their Lordships would see the necessity of giving their sanction to the measure; he should therefore move, "that this Bill be read a second time." The Noble Earl appeared to labour under considerable exhaustion towards the close of his speech, and was but indistinctly heard in many parts of the House. The Noble Earl sat down amid loud and continued cheers. Lord Wharncliffe rose, and resisted the measure, declaring that it was not called for by the people of England; and it behoved their Lordships to consider how far the Reform Bill could be adopted with safety to the Constitution, and if they thought as he did, they were bound to refuse it, and not deliver the country over to a new Constitution of which no man could foretell the danger. Their Lordships were told that they were to adopt the Bill as it was; they were not, forsooth, to attempt to mutilate it. The Noble Earl wished them to adopt the second reading, and not to reject it in this stage. Why not? If not, what chance was there hereafter of altering the Bill? Had they paid so little attention to the past? Had they not had some experience on that head? and what was the warning they had received? He could not help avowing that he thought the Bill was one of great hazard, of great danger. They stood not upon their character in that House alone, but upon their character out of doors and in society; and it was next to im

possible that any of them walking the streets should not, by his own observation, perceive that the violent demonstration in favour of the Bill was discountenanced by the wishes and mass of society. It was all very well to talk of the House of Peers being a deliberative assembly, and of their exercising their rights in an independent and free spirit; but he believed in his conscience, that sitting there in deliberation on a Bill, which was to effect a change in the Constitution, and sitting too as Peers and hereditary legislators and advisers of the Crown, to give weight to the voice of the people on the one hand, and to support the just prerogatives of the Monarch on the other; it was their duty, if they were not satisfied with the Bill, and with the prospect of the results which were to be expected from it, to reject it, and to refuse to sanction its being passed into a law. He was willing to admit that there was the greatest excitement existing on the one hand, and on the other there were equally strong feelings to counterbalance that excitement; but he conjured their Lordships, as they valued the Constitution under which this country had so long flourished, as they valued their own rights, to show to the people of England that they considered it to be their duty to deliberate and to act without being influenced by intimidation, or by their own private interests, but that they would do their duty as they ought to do, and leave the rest to Providence. He therefore fearlessly left to their decision his conduct on this occasion; and he now moved, as an amendment to the motion of the Noble Earl, that the words now read a second time," be erased from the motion, and the words "be rejected," inserted in their stead. The Earl of Mulgrave strongly supported the Reform Bill, maintaining that those who resisted its second reading were prepared to tell the people of England that they resisted all Reform. The Earl of Mansfield resisted the measure as one that was calculated to disturb all the institutions of the country. Lord King lamented that the Reform Bill was so resisted, for the country could put no other construction on such opposition than that their Lordships were against all Reform-they were for utterly rejecting the Bill. The Marquis of Bute admitted that some concession should be made; but he objected to the provisions of the Reform Bill, which disfranchised so many boroughs, took away the rights of Corporations, and gave the right of voting to 10l. Householders, or those who paid 3s. 6d. per week. Lord Wharncliffe had no intention that his amendment should bear the construction of offence towards the other House of Parliament which had been put upon it, and he would therefore withdraw it, and move "that the Bill be read a second time this day six months," as being a form less offensive to the members of that House. Lord Holland said there was a good deal of difference between moving that the Reform Bill be rejected, and that it be read a second time this day six months. To carry the former motion, was to declare to the people of England that those who supported such amendment were against all Reform. The question had been regularly put, and could not be withdrawn. This gave rise to a long conversation on the forms of the House; and the Noble Baron, having asserted that the words of his motion had been " inadvertently" put, at length obtained permission to withdraw the original motion, and substitute the amended one. Oct. 4.-The Lord Chancellor took his seat on the Woolsack precisely at four o'clock, and the House was occupied till six in receiving petitions. They were so numerous, it is utterly impossible to name them.-The Earl of Winchilsea deplored the excitation which had been caused, and the efforts at intimidation which had been made; but, more than all, he deplored the conduct and influence of a malignant press, which for the last six months had levelled its most rancorous opposition against the aristocracy, and particularly against that House. He admitted that there was a strong necessity for Reform, but he denied that the feeling of the country was in favour of the Bill. The Earl of Harrowby said, on the subject of the interference of Peers in elections, gross misrepresentations had been circulated throughout the Country: they did not deserve the character of boroughmongers, or persons who lived upon the vitals of the country: money did not always influence the return of members; it was, in his own family, on the contrary, the continuance of "hereditary friendship," and he trusted that he should be able to transmit that friendship to his descendants. As to the Bill itself, so sweeping, so bold a measure, he would venture to say, was never proposed by man; it was a measure which no Government ought to have produced, as it was almost equally dangerous to agree to it or to reject it. The Bill, if passed, might prevent some mischief, but it might produce mischief which no human wisdom could remedy. When the Government of the Noble Duke was destroyed, he hailed the coming into office of the Noble Earl: not of the Mr. Grey of 1793, but of the Lord Grey he had heard with pleasure in that House. The Noble Earl was placed in a situation in which he might have done great good: he was placed between two parties-a radical party, and a party who objected to all reform, though he believed that party was almost gone: he might have introduced a Reform that would have satisfied the reasonable part of both. "He might," said the Noble Lord, "have stood between the dead and the living; and, in my conscience I believe, he could have stayed the plague." He would admit that the people called for the Bill, and he was anxious to treat their petitions

with respect; but he must consider the subject of their petitions; and when it was one of the most awfully important, requiring the most extensive knowledge of human nature, he might be permitted to doubt whether it was possible they could form a correct opinion. He admitted that the 101. householders might be more intelligent than formerly; but what could they know of the effect of the Bill, but that they were told it would make bread cheaper? Was it surprising that, under such delusion, their table should be covered with petitions? But though they were told by the Press that they must be cashiered if they did not register the acts of the House of Commons, yet he would say that House would never desert its duty, but should act on its own conviction. The Noble Lord concluded with declaring that he considered the cry for Reform to be a mere clamour, which would soon cease; and he said he could not, however much he had endeavoured to bring his mind to it, vote for the second reading of the Bill. The Noble Lord was loudly cheered by the Opposition. Lord Melbourne, in an eloquent speech, supported the measure; and implored their Lordships to consider in what situation they stood, and not to procrastinate an act, which, if promptly granted, might avert ruin. The Duke of Wellington agreed with his noble friend (Lord Harrowby) that the measure was a most extensive one: it was to trample down boroughs, to divest corporations; every thing came within its operation-there was nothing but what was to be altered by the measure. The Noble Earl (Grey) had indulged in allegations that the cry for Reform now was owing to what he (the Duke) had expressed when he had occasion to address the House of Lords a year ago; but he would beg leave to remind the Noble Earl, that when that expression was used, to which so much allusion had been made, he (the Duke) was then the King's Minister; and it was not the custom for a King's Minister to abandon the institutions of the country. When the Noble Earl quoted expressions a twelvemonth old, he ought at least to quote correctly. He (the Duke) said, on the occasion which had so often been alluded to, that he approved of the Constitution of Parliament; and had said, that if he had to invent a Constitution of Parliament, he could not have invented a better; because, making allowance for the imperfections in the inventions of man, he would have had one the same, where property was to preponderate. It was as a Minister of the Crown that he had said he would resist all Reform; and as a Minister of the Crown had he said that no Reform was necessary. It had often been repeated, that it was owing to his speech, in which he used these expressions, that the cry for Reform had now prevailed so much; but he denied the allegation: it was the revolutions of France and Belgium that had accelerated the cry for Reform in England. The Noble Duke then alluded to the aspersions that had been cast on his name on account of the affair that took place in last November, when the royal visit to the city of London was prevented; but he could assure the House that he had now in his possession documents to prove that their interference at that time was not without foundation. The Noble Duke then proceeded to state, that it was not a question of Parliamentary Reform which caused the resignation of the late Ministry, although he was ready to admit that there was a general call for Reform at that time. A Bill for reforming the representation had been in consequence brought forward by the Noble Earl; but he was not guided by the majority of the House of Commons against that measure-no; a dissolution of Parliament was resolved, and upon that the present excited state of the country was chargeable. He should not enter into all the details of the Noble Earl's measure; there were one or two points however which he could not help alluding to, and which had not been touched upon by either of his Noble Friends near him throughout all the towns in the kingdom the proposers of this Bill made room for combinations amongst electors; he was persuaded, as soon as the Bill passed, there would be committees appointed all over the country to superintend elections, by which means the real character of the House of Commons would be effectually changed. He objected also to the measure, because the landed interest by it would be very imperfectly represented. Copyholders and leaseholders in towns, deprived of their corporate rights, would vote for county members, and the landed interest would thereby be brought more under the influence of low voters. He believed that England, under the present system, had been the best governed country in the world for the last sixty years. A House of Commons, constituted as the present measure required, would be nothing else than a democratical assembly, chosen by innumerable voters, such as waiters at inns, postilions, and menial servants of every description. He declared if Radical Reform meant any thing, it was such a measure as the present. Taking it as a whole, it must inevitably lead to Radical Reform, vote by ballot, and universal suffrage.

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Oct. 5.-Earl Dudley and Ward rose, and strongly opposed the measure; maintaining that, as the Ministers had failed in their financial measure, they had no right to expect confidence in a measure to change the Constitution. He could not sanction so levelling, so destructive a measure. The Marquis of Lansdowne replied that those measures had not failed, but had eminently succeeded- they and measures of law reform having passed the House unanimously. He attacked the in

consistences of the opponents of the Bill; remarking, that though they admitted the necessity of some Reform, they refused to divulge their plan; and said the country had a right to complain that they, who were the State physicians by prescription, refused to prescribe, so that there was no remedy but to have recourse to the quackeries of the Noble Lord (Grey). The people saw through the flimsy disguise that sought to conceal dependence on corruption. It was from that Constitution that lived in the hearts of the people-it was in the exercise of those constitutional privileges that the people revered, that their Lordships maintain their opinions, but not from a system founded on the evasion of law-the violation of justice and liberty. That was not a system on which Noble Lords ought to trust for the prosperity, for the benefit of the public; those honours and privileges he inherited from his ancestors, as useful in the state of society in which we live for the preservation of liberty and property. He hoped he need not add that it was far from being his wish that their Lordships, in the decision they should come to, should be influenced by threats :-if threats were used, they would be treated with disdain; but their dignified disdain, he was confident, would not be tarnished by a disregard for the opinions and feelings of the people. They had by useful legislation increased the population and knowledge of the country; and they would not refuse to their own posterity the privileges themselves enjoyed. After having opened so many new streams of thought and feeling, he would not believe that they would seek to confine them in narrower channels than before; but rather that they would prepare for that diffusion of knowledge and industry which it was the policy of their Lordships to incorporate with the free institutions of the country. The Marquis of Londonderry said, the Ministers assailed the very vitals of the Constitution by uniting the King's name with Radical Reform; and they finished by bringing in a Bill that would overthrow the Constitution, as Necker had done in France, by concession, which brought Louis to the scaffold. Happily we had then a George the Third, and a Pitt, who saved the country. Would the Noble Earl become the Necker of England, and rally all the democracy of the country in the support of his government? He was sure that he would not. He offered his humble, but earnest, prayer to Ministers, to weigh well the course they were pursuing. Though the Noble Lord deprecated menace, was there no menace in saying he would stand or fall by the Bill? and in his caution to the Bench of Bishops? How dare he doubt that the Rev. Bench would not act from a sense of honour and duty? For himself, he would give his decided vote against the Bill. Lord Goderich refuted the arguments of the Noble Marquis, who had taunted the Noble Earl (Grey) that he wished to make himself a Necker:-he hoped not; but let those who referred to the French revolution recollect what had led to it. Those who said that it was owing to any act of Necker's must be grossly ignorant of the French-the revolution of France had originated in a degraded nobility and an enslaved people. If they referred to history they would find that institutions had always conformed to times. Lord Haddington had always been a supporter of the Noble Earl (Grey); but the Bill was not content with sweeping away nomination boroughs; it contemplated greater changes, which he could not sanction, and he would not sacrifice what he considered the best interests of the country, and the constitution itself, for the sake of supporting that Noble Earl. The Earl of Radnor said some great measure was necessary to correspond with the present state of things. Man was a creature of habit, and adverse to the grievance of change; but when a greater grievance arose from want of change, any wise man would instantly adopt the former, even in matters of private interest-in short, every thing was changing around us; institutions were changing; the ideas of the people were changing; therefore to contend against change was to contend against a principle of nature; and their Lordships might as easily prevent men growing older as prevent the great body of the people from obtaining, sooner or later, their just rights. He trusted that Noble Lords would support the Bill, to prevent those calamities which might otherwise ensue: for his own part, he cordially gave the measure his support.

Oct. 7.-Lord Wynford rose to address the House, and, from infirmity, was allowed to sit. His Lordship was convinced that the country was on the verge of a great, a dreadful crisis, and he deemed it the duty of every man, however slender his abilities, to employ his best means to endeavour to extricate his country from the political difficulties which now impended over it. The Noble and Learned Lord then went into a detail of the provisions of the Bill, and avowed his intention, as long as he had a leg to stand on, to oppose the Bill. If Noble Lords would look at the most seditious publications from the Press, they would find that the real Radical Reformer was not satisfied with the Bill-that class of persons made it the stepping-stone to higher measures; their intention was to go on, and finish a revolution when the Bill had passed. He objected strongly to the extension of franchise which the Bill gave; and, finally, called upon the Rev. Bench of Bishops to protect the rights of that religion of which they were the guardians, by throwing out the Bill. Lord Eldon said he might plead the same indulgence, on account of age and infirmity, as that of the Noble and Learned Lord; but with respect to the