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her Cavalier Servente in the prime of life, and is seen digging in the
garden of the family in a grey jacket and white hairs thirty years after.
This does not look like a love of change. The husband is of course
always a fixture; not so the Cavalier Scrvente, who is liable to be
removed for a new favourite. In noble families, the lover must be
noble, and he must be approved by the husband. A young officer,
who the other day volunteered this service to a beautiful Marchioness
without either of these titles, and was a sort of interloper on the in-
tended gallant, was sent to Volterra. Whatever is the height to which
this system has been carried, or the level to which it has fallen; it does
not appear to have extinguished jealousy in all its excess as a part of
the national character, as the following story vill show: it is related
by M. Beyle, in his charming little work, entitle De l'Amour, as a
companion to the famous one in Dante; and I sha" give the whole
passage in his words, as placing the Italian character()
well as later times) in a striking point of view.
"I allude," he says, "to those truly touching lines in Dante :-
"Deh! quando tu sarai tornato al mondo,
"Ricordati di me, che son la Pia;
"Sienna mi fê: disfecemi Maremma:

"Salsi colui, che inannellata pria,

En former as

one upon the back of the other, in town and country, in the course of a few weeks; they all go for nothing; they make nothing against the English character in the abstract; the force of prejudice is stronger than the weight of evidence. The process of the mind is this; and absurd as it appears, is natural enough. We say (to ourselves) we are English, we are good people, and therefore the English are good people. We carry a proxy in our bosoms for the national character in general. Our own motives are " very stuff o' the conscience," and not like those of barbarous foreigners. Besides, we know many excellent English people, and the mass of the population cannot be affected in the scale of morality by the outrages of a few ruffians, which instantly meet with the reward they merit from wholesome and excellent laws. We are not to be moved from this position, that the great body of the British public do not live by thieving and cutting the throats of their neighbours, whatever the accounts in the newspapers might lead us to suspect. The streets are lined with bakers', butchers', and haberdashers' shops, instead of night cellars and gaming-houses; and are crowded with decent, orderly, well-dressed people, instead of being rendered impassable by gangs of swindlers and pickpockets. The exception does not make the rule. Nothing can be more clear or proper; and yet if a single Italian commits a murder or a robbery, we immediately form an abstraction of this individual case, and because we are ignorant of the real character of the people gone the fate of Desdemona, and had it in her power, by a single word, or state of manners in a million of instances, take upon us, like true Englishmen, to fill up the blank which is left at the mercy of our borror-struck imaginations, with bugbears and monsters of every description. We should extend to others the toleration and the sus-sole heiress of the Ptolomei, the richest and most noble family of Sienna. "Nello della Pietra obtained in marriage the hand of Madonna Pia, pense of judgment we claim; and 1 am sure we stand in need of it Her beauty, which was the admiration of all Tuscany, gave rise to a jeafrom those who read the important head of " ACCIDENTS AND OF-lousy in the breast of her husband, that, envenomed by false reports and FENCES" in our Journals. It is true, an Italian baker some time ago | by suspicions, continually reviving, led to a frightful catastrophe. It is shut his wife up in an oven, where she was burnt to death; the heir of a noble family stabbed an old woman to rob her of her money; a lady of quality had her step-daughter chained to a bed of straw and fed on bread and water till she lost her senses. This translated into vulgar English, means that all the bakers' wives in Italy are burnt by their husbands at a slow fire; that all the young nobility are common bravos; that all the step-mothers exercise unheard-of and unrelenting cruelty on the children of a former marriage. We only want a striking frontispiece to make out a tragic volume. As the traveller advances into the country, robbers and rumours of robbers fly before him with the horizon. In Italy,

"Man seldom is-but always to be robbed."

At Turin, they told me it was not wise to travel by a vetturino to Florence without arms. At Florence, I was told one could not walk out to look at an old ruin in Rome, without expecting to see a Laza- | Toni start from behind some part of it with a pistol in his hand "There's no such thing :" but hatred has its phantoms as well as fear; and the English traduce and indulge their prejudices against other nations, in order to have a pretence for maltreating them. This moral delicacy plays an under-game to their political profligacy. I bands of brigands that infest the road the whole way. The fact is, am at present kept from proceeding forward to Naples by imaginary that a gang of banditti, who had committed a number of atrocities and who had their haunts in the mountains near Sonino, were taken up about three years ago, to the amount of two-and thirty; four of them were executed at Rome, and their wives still get their living in this city by sitting as models to artists, on account of the handsomeness of their features and the richness of their dresses. As to courtesans, from which one cannot separate the name of Italy even in idea, I have seen but one person answering to this description since I and I do not even know that this was one. But I saw a girl in white (an unusual thing) standing at some distance at the corner of one of the bye streets in Rome; after looking round her for a moment, she ran hastily up the street again, as if in fear of being discovered, and a Countryman who was passing with a cart at the time, stopped to look and hiss after her. If the draymen in London were to stop to gape and foot at all the girls they see standing at the corners of streets in a doubtal capacity, they would have enough to do. But the tide of public prostitution that pours down 'all our streets is considered by some moralists as a drain to carry off the peccant humours of private life, and to keep the inmost recesses of the female breast sweet and pure from blemish! If this is to be the test, we have indeed nearly arrived at the Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth.

came,

Cicisbeism is still kept up in Italy, though somewhat on the decline. I have nothing to say in favour of that anomaly in vice and virtue. The English women are particularly shocked at it, who are allowed to hate their busbands, provided they do not like any body else. It is a kind of marriage within a marriage; it begins with infidelity to end in constancy; it is not a state of licensed dissipation, but is a real chain of the affections, superadded to the first formal one, and that often lasts for life

day Contai

"Disposando, m'avea con la sua gemma."-Purgatorio, c. 5. "The woman who speaks with so much reserve, had in secret under

to have revealed her husband's crime to the friends whom she had left upon earth.

not easy to determine at this day if his wife was altogether innocent, but
Dante has represented her as such. Her husband carried her with him

into the marshes of Volterra, celebrated then as now for the pestiferous
effects of the air. Never would he tell his unhappy wife the reason of
her exile into so dangerous a place. His pride did not deign to pro-
deserted tower, of which I have been to see the ruins on the sea-shore;
nounce either complaint or accusation. He lived with her alone, in a
here he never broke his disdainful silence, never replied to the questions
of his youthful bride, never listened to her intreaties. He waited un-
moved by her for the air to produce its fatal effects. The vapours of this
wholesome swamp were not long in tarnishing features, the most beau-
tiful, they say, that in that age had appeared upon the earth.
months she died.
In a few
Some chroniclers of these remote times report, that
in some horrible manner; but the mode of her death remained a mys-
Nello employed the dagger to hasten her end: she died in the marshes
tery, even to her contemporaries. Nello della Pietra survived to pass
the rest of his days in a silence which was never broken.

66

ner in which the ill-fated Pia addresses herself to Dante. She desires to Nothing can be conceived more noble or more delicate than the manbe recalled to the memory of the friends whom she had quitted so young: at the same time, in telling her name, and alluding to her husband, she does not allow herself the smallest complaint against a cruelty suffering is to be met with, I believe, only among the people of the South. unexampled, but thenceforth irreparable, and merely intimates that he knows the history of her death. This constancy in vengeance and in In Piedmont, I found myself the involuntary witness of a fact almost similar: but I was at the time ignorant of the details. I was ordered with five-and-twenty dragoons into the woods that border the Sesia, to prevent the contraband traffic. On my arrival in the evening at this wild and solitary place, I distinguished among the trees the ruins of an old castle: I went to it: to my great surprise, it was inhabited. I there found a Nobleman of the country, of a very unpromising aspect; a man six feet in height, and forty years of age: he allowed me a couple of apartments with a very ill grace. Here I entertained myself by getting up some pieces of music with my quarter-master: after the expiration of some days, we discovered that our host kept guard over a woman whom truth. She died at the end of six weeks. I had the paelancholy curiowe called Camilla in jest: we were far from suspecting the dreadful. sity to see her in her coffin; I bribed a monk who had charge of it, and towards midnight, under pretext of sprinkling the holy water, he conducted me into the chapel. I there saw one of those fine faces, which are beautiful even in the bosom of death: she had a large aquiline nose, of which I never shall forget the noble and expressive outline. I quitted this mournful spot; but five years after, a detachment of my regiment accompanying the Emperor to his coronati on as King of Italy, I had the Count of whole story recounted to me. I learned that the jealous husband, the -, had one morning fourd, hanging to his wife's bedside, lived. The same day he took her to the ruined castle, in the midst of an English watch belonging to a young man in the little town where they the forests of the Sesia. Like Nello della Pietra, he uttered not a single word. If she made him any request, he presented to her sternly and in silence the English watch, which he had always about him. In this tim to despair, in the flower of her age. Her husband attempted to dismanner he passed nearly three years with her. She at length fell a vicpatch the owner of the watch with a stiletto, failed, fled to Genoa, em barked there, and no til

This story is interesting and well told. One such incident, or one page in Dante or in Spenser, is worth all the route between this and Paris, and all the sights in all the post-roads in Europe. Oh Sienna! if I felt charmed with thy narrow, tenantless streets, or looked delighted through thy arched gate-way over the subjected plain, it was that some recollections of Madonna Pia hung upon the beatings of my spirit, and converted a barren waste into the regions of romance!

to

UNITED PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.
Monday, April 25.

CORN LAWS.

W. H.

On a question asked by Lord LAUDERDALE in regard to the Corn Laws, Lord IVERPOOL said, it was the intention of Ministers, early next Session, ater upon a revision of the Corn Laws. His Lordship declared his pinion that some alteration was necessary, and observed, that the importation price, 80s. for wheat, and so in proportion for other grain, fixed in 1815, was not applicable to the present condition of the country. He then briefly hinted at the changes which might be possibly proposed next session, and suggested that instead of the present system-1. A duty might .be imposed, retaining, however, the system of averages, and fixing a minimum at which importation should be prohibited, and a minimum at which importation should be permitted without a duty :-Or, 2. that a protecting duty should be imposed and levied without reference to price; the system of averages being entirely abolished. To this last | system his Lordship seemed to lean; but he remarked, that in times of general scarcity it would become impracticable to levy any duty upon the food of a starving people, and that it would therefore be necessary to lodge somewhere the power of dispensing with the tax under particular emergencies.

from Sidmouth, which, Lord KING said, was not handed for signatures from door to door, as the Anti-Catholic one was, but it was agreed to at a public meeting, and signed by the most respectable inhabitants. Upon this Lord ROLLE observed, that the petition he had presented was equally respectably signed; and he was surprised that the late Member for Waterford, who had been driven by the massacres from his own country, should exert himself to divide the Protestants, and dis arb the peaceful vale of Sidmouth.-Lord LIMERIC remarked, that a more respectable Gentleman than the one so extraordinarily attacked by the Noble Lord, did not exist in this or any other country, nor one w'no knew better how to protect himself in the discharge of his rights!- Lord ROLLE said he did not mean to throw any imputation on the Gentleman, who was certainly most respectable!

Friday, April 29.

Severa! Petitions against the Catholic claims were presented, one of them from Newport Pagnell, which, Lord KING remarked, bore the sig nature of the Clerical Gentleman who some time ago committed two Dissenters to Prison. His Petition, the Noble Lord, thought, had certainly not to boast of the signatures of tiny dissenters.-The LORD CHANCELLOR': said the Clergyman was also a Magistrate; and though any Magistrate might make a mistake, he had only acted by virtue of his office!

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A conversation arose on these Laws, on the presentation of the City Petition against them, signed by 5,000 Merchants, Bankers, &c. wher Mr. T. WILSON spoke of the evils arising from the present system, and the great necessity of a speedy change.-Mr. Gooch remarked, that the Agricultural Interest did not complain, though the Citizens did, whose trade was going on so prosperously, and who had nothing to do on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, but stuff themselves with roast beef and planpudding! The poverty (he added) of the Citizens of London, was all a humbug. If ever there was a question before the House which called for the exertions of the agricultural gentlemen, it was this-did his Majesty's Government intend to alter the present laws?-if they did, the agi-agricultural gentlemen would be "duller than the fat weed that roois itself with ease on Lethe's wharf," if they did not exert themselves. against the measure.

Lord LAUDERDALE thought that a system which had lasted two centuries should not hastily be departed from, and that the capital which had been embarked on land under long leases would be greatly affected by any alteration in the present laws.

Lord King said, that the subject should at once be settled, as its tation greatly affected the interests of all parties.

CATHOLIC QUESTION.-ROYAL RESOLUTION! Among several petitions presented against the Catholic Claims, one was presented by his Royal Highness the Duke of YORK, from the Dean and Chapter of St. George's, Windsor. His Royal Highness said, "From the time when I gave my first vote on this question, to the present, I have never seen any reason to regret or to change the line which I then took. I have every year seen more reason to be satisfied with my decision. When the question comes regularly before your Lordships, it will be discussed much more fully and ably than I can do it; but there are two or three subjects on which I am anxious to touch: one is, that you - place the Church of England in a situation in which no other Church in the world is placed: the Roman Catholic will not allow the Church of England or Parliament to interfere with his Church, and yet he requires -you to allow him to interfere with your Church, and to legislate for it. There is another subject, still more delicate, on which I cannot, however, help saying a few words. I speak (I beg to be understood) only as an individual: I desire not to be understood as speaking for any body else: .but consider, my Lords, the situation in which you place the Sovereign. By the Coronation Oath, the Sovereign is bound to maintain the Church Established in her doctrine, discipline, and rights, inviolate. An Act of <Parliament may release future Sovereigns and other men from this oath, or from any other oath to be taken; but can it release an individual who has already taken it? I speak, I repeat it again, as an individual; but 1 entreat the House to consider the situation in which the Sovereign is thus placed. I feel very strongly on this whole subject; I cannot forget the deep interest which was taken upon it by one now no more: and the long and unhappy illness in which(Here his Royal Highness seemed to be affected.) I have been brought up from my early years in these principles ; and from the time when I began to reason for myself, I have entertained them from conviction; and in every situation in which I may be placed, 1 will maintain them, so help me God !"

Tuesday, April 26.

Several petitions were presented, against the Claims of the Catholics, from Protestant Dissenters and others; upon which Lord HOLLAND observed, that the degrading and cruel law, the Test Act, had been passed at a time very different from the present, and he was greatly surprised that any Protestant Dissenter should consider it fit to be maintained under au altered state of things.

Some conversation arose respecting the Corn Laws, on the presentation of the City Petition praying for a revision of them. Nothing passed, however, of any importance.

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Mr. HUSKISSON said, that Government had no intention of proposing any general revision of the laws during the present Session.

Lord MILTON said, he could not help regretting the course which Ministers appeared likely to take upon the subject, and it was their bounden duty to come to a decision upon it as speedily as possible. (Hear, hear!) He would ask whether it was right that such a state of things should continue until the next Session of Parliament, (kear, hear!) and, perhaps, until a general election took place? At a period like the present, when the prosperity of the country was increasing, and when the minds of men were cool and undisturbed, it was, that a question of sucia vast national importance should be discussed.

MR. ROBERT GOURLAY.

Mr. HUME presented a petition from Fifeshire, praying that h commission might be appointed to inquire into the case of Mr Robert Gourlay The petitioners were impressed with an opinion that Mr. Gourlay bad been unjustly treated.

Mr. PEEL said, that Mr. Gourlay was not confined by Government, but merely because he was unable to give the security required.

Mr. BROUGHAM was satisfied, that the unfortunate gentleman had been ill-treated in Canada, and the outrage in the lobby of the House arose out of it. It was most absurd to suppose, though such a notion had gone abroad, that he (Mr. Brougham) had anything to do with Mr. Gourlay's present confinement. The assault upon him was committed merely because, on presenting a petition from Mr. Gourlay regarding the education of the poor, he (Mr. Brougham) had not sufficiently entered inte his case.

Mr. PEEL said, that the course pursued towards Mr. Gonslay was only that of every ordinary case. In reference to the outrage in the lobby, Mr. Gourlay bad excused himself afterwards by saying that he had only followed High Example by scourging sinners in the Temple-(a laugh).

Mr. J. WILLIAMS said, that he had been intrusted by Mr. Gourlay with a petition, complaining of the decay of his health from confinement, but speaking in high terms of the conduct of the Governor of the House of Correction.

Mr. PEEL said he had given directions that every indulgence should be shewn to Mr. Gourlay.

The petition was laid upon the table.

THE COURT OF CHANCERY.

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Assessed Taxes and Catholic Claims. In one of the latter (from Buck-be found. (A laugh) It did not, then, become the House to be particufastleigh, near Ashburton) the Petitioners gave as a reason for their opposition, that "the most zealous supporters of those Claims are found, with few, and (unless perhaps in one or two cases) considerable exceptions, among the public men who are invariably seen in the van of those who are arrayed against our happy Constitution in Church and State!" (Hear, kear!)

IRISH ELECTIVE FRANCHISE BILL.

Mr. LITTLETON moved the second reading of this Bill, the object of which, he said, was not to interfere with any vested interests, but to check a most unconstitutional and mischievous practice, that of creating 40s. freeholders for corrupt purposes, by which means the persons of respecta bility, the real freeholders, were kept down. He said the Irish 40s. freeholders were generally considered as part of the live-stock on an estate; that they had little choice in the election of Members of Parliament; that they were frequently induced to commit perjury, in order to obey the commands of their landlords, whom they seldom resisted, except in cases of peculiar emergency; and that to raise the qualification from 40s. to 10. would be a real gain and benefit to all parties. Mr. FOSTER observed, that the existence of the evil was admitted, but the path which it was intended to lead out of it might be so replete with danger as to be worse than the evil itself. If the Hon. Gentleman was prepared to apply his remedy to every description of fictitions freeholds in Ireland, he was ready to go along with him. (Hear, hear!) The rock upon which his scheme would be wrecked seemed this-he carefully avoided meddling with the fictitious freeholds when they assumed the garb of fees simple, but he attacked them with a bold hand indeed when they were only terms for lives

larly nice on the subject of perjury!-Officers of the army did not hesitate to declare, upon their honour, when about buying a commission, that they had given the regulation price only, when they knew that they had paid double. (Hear, hear!) Even-and it grieved him to state it—even Tat CHURCH was not without stain! (4 laugh). Reverend Persons were the babit of talking of perjury as a crime not to be heard of without abo=; mination-they declared that truth and frankness were the essence of religion. If, then, perjury were criminal when committed by laymen, it must be ten times more odious when practised by churchmen: and yet what did these Reverend Persons do? He would suppose that a Reverend Gentleman was about to be inducted into a bishoprick of about 4,000l. a year. He declared, in the name of God, that he felt inwardly moved (a laugh)—yes, that he felt inwardly moved at that moment by the Holy Ghost to take upon himself the office of Bishop and the administration thereof, and for no other reason, although he knew at the same tiare that he had opposed the Catholic question and the claims of the Dissenters onl a thousand occasions. (Hear! and a laugh). How all this could go foya ward was a mystery which he professed himself unable to understand; but he supposed it was calculated for the end which the parties had in view. He could not, however, help thinking that Members who took one oath, and the Bishops and Clergy who took another, were the last persons in the world who should be so exquisitely squeamish with regard to the Irish Catholic freeholders, whom they had all along treated as if they were the only mortals under heaven who had ever been guilty of perjury. (Hear!) He would say nothing with regard to Custom house oaths, because they went to the support of the revenue. (A laugh.) As to the policy of the present measure, he felt staggered, when he saw one of the most disinte Mr. BROUGHAM Complained that the measure was novel in its nature, port) strongly in its favour-but he had reason to fear that it would not rested Statesmen and truest Patriots, in or out of the House (Sir J. Newon the face of it sounded in disfranchisement, and was grounded on contradictory evidence. It was urged by some of its advocates, that the conciliate the Irish people. The Catholic question ought to be decided elective franchise in Ireland, as in England, was too large, and that the upon its own merits, and not in the way of compromise: legislators ought Bumerous voters were found troublesome! Would not this alone make caution should be used when the question was that of narrowing the elec not to be bribed to support one measure by passing another, and great them pause? The Political Economists, who carried their dogmati- tive franchise. He therefore demanded enquiry into the subject. It was cal satious almost as far, and with a similar spirit, as the religious perse- said, that by agreeing to the present Bill in the dark, the Catholic question secutors of other times, said they ought to pass this bill for the purpose would be carried. He thought that those persons who said so were reckof checking the abundant population of Ireland: but he saw nothing in oning without their hosts; at all events, they were reckoning without the evidence to bear out this assertion. The great subdivision of property their Lords. (4 laugh). It was not for him to allude to what passed in was laid much stress upon; but the reasoning urged was altogether worthless, for it was not borne out by the facts. The 40s. freeholders on leaseanother House of Parliament, except as a matter of history; but be would balds for life were not the cause of the mischiefs complained of, and the alaran, not only for the good government but the safety of the Constitution say, that he had heard of passages in another place which gave him an picture drawn of their being driven up to the poll like slaves could be seen of this country, and for the stability of the monarchy as by law estain England as well as Ireland. English landlords could say, not to blished-(loud cries of Hear!)-and at the Revolution of 1688 settled. O'Drisco! and O'Shaughnessy, but to Thompson and Jackson, "You The passages to which he alluded had given him so deep and serious an shall have a renewal of the leases of the farms on which your ancestors alarm, that he protested before God he could not believe his ears when the have lived for generations, on one condition, which is, that you shall quatify yourselves to vote for a Knight of the Shire, by getting a 40s. free-believe what was stated. The papers were filled with libels that must be news was brought to him that morning. It was impossible even now to bold" Of course Thomson and Jacksou found it necessary to consent. The freehold was a mere cover, but the tenants kept it for the sake of their farms, just as the Irish freeholder kept his bog. (A laugh). Without the bog, the Irish 40s. freeholder would be no more au evil than the 40s. freeholder in England would be without the farm to which he was annexed. In England, as in Ireland, it was the practice for tenants to be brought up in droves to vote at elections. The counterparts of the O'Driscols and O'Shaughnessys in England were obliged to do just what their landlords pleased, unless they had the good fortune to have a lease on parchment, unshackled with any condition. The evil lay in the natu ral influence of property. (Hear!) This influence existed in England as well as in Ireland, and it must exist everywhere. Much had been said respecting the horrid practice of perjury; but was this debasing system confined to Ireland? And did it become those whom he was addressing to declare,that they could not contemplate without abhorrence that a man should swear he possessed certain qualifications, which, in fact, he did not possess to hold up their hands, and bless God that in this country people could not be found, as in Ireland, to take the dreadful and sacrilegious oath that they were worth 40s. a-year-to rush down with a bill to save the souls of the Irish peasants? (A langh) Did it become them to do this?-The ery was, disfranchise the Irish freeholders, and put a stop to perjury. Let the Honse take care that they did not disfranchise themselves. He was credibly informed that certain Members of a former Parliament-of course it could not be of the present that he was speaking—(a laugh)-did sacri legiously make oath in the Lord Steward's office, one day, and at the table of the House, on another, that they were worth 300 a-year in lands and tenements, when some of them were not worth a shilling, and others had no land at all! (Laughter.) Suppose that the Irish freeholders should bring such a charge against the House, he should be without an answer to it. He might, it was true, look big and say, "Do you know what you are doing, in imputing systematic perjury to the Members of this House? It is a breach of privilege, and I will send you to Newgate " To Newgate they must go, for he could have no other means of getting rid of the charge. (Hear! and a laugh.) It could not be denied, that it was the practice of Senators to do that for which the Irish freeholders were now to be disfranchised. The fathers of honourable Members had done so before them, and they, their worthy sons, swore perhaps more glibly that they were worth 3004. a-year in land; nay, they went further-they did what some of the Irish freeholders could not do, because they did not know bow to write-they gave in a schedule specifying very minutely the particular county pad parish in which their lands and tenements were to

false. No man living could believe, that a Prince of that House which sat on the revolutionary settlement of 1688, should promulge to the world, that happen what would, when he came to fill another situation, if all— Mr. PLUNKETT rose to order, aud Mr. Brougham sat down amidst tremendous cheering, which lasted for some minutes. Silence at length being restored, Mr. Plunkett expressed his regret that he had not taken He said he felt himself bound, for the preservation of decency-for the an earlier opportunity of calling the Hon. and Learned Gent. to order. sake of the Illustrious Person alluded to—and for the sake of that cause in which he could not help thinking that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman was deeply interested, to prevent him going farther into a discussion which he was sure his deliberate judgment would hereafter condemn. (Hear!)

Gentleman was correct, unquestionably the further proceeding in the The SPEAKER observed, that if the anticipation of the Right Hon. course which he had commenced would be most disorderly.

somewhat prematurely. (Hear!) No Member had a right to interrupt Mr. BROUGHAM said that the Right Hon. Gentleman had proceeded another because he himself expects that that other Member is going to be disorderly. Good God! was ever such a thing heard of? It was the privilege of a Member to go on free from all interruption, until he had said something disorderly. (Hear, hear!) It was an unworthy course Lords, collectively or individuaily, if you will, but if you only glance at for the House to say, "You may attack the Bishops-the Woolsack-the the Heir Presumptive of the Crown, privilege shall rise up against you, even before the words which are to constitute offence can be utteredan Hon. and Learned Member (himself the most disorderly in all the world) shall get up, and complain that you are out of order, not because anything irregular has been said, but-quia timet-merely because he apprehends that something possibly may be!" (Great cheering.)

Mr. WODEHOUSE rose again to order. He said that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman was out of order still. If he was not, let him explain what those words, quia timet, meant. (Excessive laughter and cheering.)

Mr. PEEL said, he would put it to the Hon. and Learned Gentleman himself, whether he would introduce a topic likely to unfit the House fo the immediate business before it?

Mr. BROUGHAM insisted that the fact to which he alluded was a mos 1 important one as it regarded the measure before the House. Twenty-four hours back, gentlemen might have expected to carry Catholic Emancipa tion with the help of the bill now under discussion; but what gentlen

in that House. It was contended that the object of the bill was to assi-milate the practice in Ireland to that in England. The bill could do no such thing. It went only to oblige the freeholder to swear to 107. insteadi of 40s. but if so much abuse already existed by persons swearing to 40s.. | freeholds, which they did not possess, what security did this bill afford! against parties swearing to a higher amount? What guarantee did it afford against perjury in the one case more than in the other? (Hear, hear!) It was said that this bill, concurrently with the Catbolic relief bill, would Admitting that argument for what it was worth, it might be an answer to raise the Catholic from the state of degradation in which he is now placed. the Catholic for the loss of his franchise; but what answer would it be to the Protestant for the sacrifice of his constitutional privilege, which he had never abused? (Hear!) The bill was not calculated to strengthen the Protestant interest, or to assimilate the freehold tenures in Ireland to the freehold tenures in England, or to remedy any of the evils which Mr. O'Connell bad described as arising out of the present system of 40s. freeholds.

Sir H. PARNELL highly approved the Bill; and so did Mr. V. FITZGERALD, Mr R MARTIN, and Mr. BROWNLOW.

would now say that he had any hope left of so carrying it? (Hear, hear!) Would not the ominous news of the day go forth as the knell of despair, rung over, the Catholic question, and those interested in it for ever? (Hear, hear!) Ought not the knowledge of that news to operate in the House? He said that it ought; and the conclusion which he drew from it was this fair, honest warning was given to the Catholies and to the country. The Catholics had a very honest and avowed obstinacy to deal with; for no monarch who ever sat upon the English throne had ever been prepared for such resistance to his people on their behalf as was now not only meditated, but openly avowed. Then he (Mr. Brougham) held up this warning, and repeated it, for the benefit of Ireland and of Irish Members; and what he said to them was, "Do not believe that anything will ever carry the Catholic question but a powerful majority in the House of Commons." But if, instead of such majorities as 17 and 27, to save the whole empire from a convulsion, which the events of the last 24 hours led men still more anxiously to think of—if, to save at once. England and Ireland, a large increase in the majority on the Catholic question might be hoped for, the present moment-the present reign-was the time for its appearance. (Hear!) A little while, and it would be too late. rest-a little slumbering-a little folding of the hands to sleep a little A little more pausing in apathy, and we should find DESPOTISM and INTOLERANCE in a far different light, and begged, as the firm advocate of the Catholic Mr. C. H. HUTCHINSON regretted that he was obliged to see this matter coming upon us like an armed man; and the power of pacifying Ireland question, to disclaim the incidental aid offered by the promoters of this and of saving England would be gone for ever (Loud cheering.) He Bill; for what, after all, did this Bill call for? For a remedy which the (Mr. Brougham) was no lover of discord, (Laughter from the Ministerial gentry of Ireland had already in their hands-namely, to abandon the benches) and those who would deem him such were themselves only not practice of corruption among their tenants, to correct their own disgracelovers of discord, because they preferred to what they called discord and ful conduct in creating these 40s. nominal freeholders, and then there commotion the solitude and silence of passive obedience, and bending would be no room for such a measure as this. (Hear, hear!) Let that before absolute and uncontrolled despotism. A charge against consci portion of the gentry of Ireland who spread corruption among the people entions frankness was the last he would bring against any man. did happen that the men sometimes who had most of that frankness, unBut it begin by reforming themselves, and then they need not appear before Parless at the same time they were men of enlightened understanding, were, it proscribed the most humble part of their own dependents. They first liament with such a bill as this, which admitted their own disgrace, while of all others, the most irreclaimable; and that in fact all hope of recalling made the poor man their tool, and then they called upon Parliament to them from their errors-so help them God! (Great cheering and laughter) make him their victim. (Hear, hear!) But after all, was there more was but visionary. Under these circumstances, it did become the House corruption in the lower body of the elective franchise in Ireland than in to embrace the very earliest opportunity of going up to the other branches England? In behalf of the poor Irish he denied that there was; and he of the Legislature with an overpowering majority upon the Catholic question. There was not an hour to be lost, for the time might come, think so, and consent to diminish a principle for which he had always been was astonished that his Hon. Friend the Member for Westminster could and Honourable Gentlemen would do well to recollect it, when the unanimous vote of both Houses of Parliament, joined to the expression of so unqualified a supporter. opinion from the whole country, would have no other consequence than to lead to an irreparable breach with the Crown. (Much cheering.) Mr. B. sat down, amid loud and continued cheering, reminding the House that they could not fail in carrying the question of Catholic Claims without involving England in the deepest peril and confusion.

Sir J. NEWPORT contended that the proposed measure would not trench upon any one existing constitutional right.

Mr PLUNKETT insisted, also, that the measure did not go to disfranchise a single individual whatever, or to dispossess one human being of his rights. It was in itself absolutely a good one, and though it had even been cruel and unjust, he would support it on account of the measure to be coupled with it. The act of 1793 had begun at the wrong end, and let the rabble into the elective franchise, while it shut out the gentry: ever since the country gentlemen of Ireland had deliberately set about trying how many freeholders they could make, for the express purpose of trafficking with them. The valuable property was not the freehold, but the freeholder; the latter was so entirely a man of straw, that if a prosecution for perjury happened to be instituted against him, it was met by this man-the freeholder-disappearing altogether. After having the miserable 40s. leasehold made over to him, which was not worth 40d. the wretched being was actually compelled to swear to his freehold at the command of bis master, even although moral or religious scruples disinclined him from doing so. He would not be deterred from an endea vour to get rid of this most appalling grievance, by hearing it said that Members of Parliament and Clergymen did, under some circumstances, swear falsely. He had taken a list of the number of freeholds in Ireland; and looking at the proportion of the 40s. voters, and those of a higher class, he found that the former were as 18 or 20 to 1 of the 201. and 50 voters. It was thus that the really independent voters were overlaid by a host of voters who really had no stake in the country, and who, in general, only represented the opinions of the landlord. But it was against the abolition of a franchise so abused, that the Hon. Member for Corfe Castle (Mr. Bankes) fired with a constitutional zeal for the privileges of the people (Cheers and laughter), had objected -The measure, he was con vinced, would give general satisfaction in Ireland; but if the Catholic question was carried without it, much dissatisfaction would prevail. Mr. BANKES maintained that the Bill was an uncalled for violation of the rights of the people, and he moved that it be read this day six

months.

Mr. PEEL was ready to admit that there did exist great abuses in the present mode of exercising the elective franchise in Ireland, and he was prepared to consider any remedy for the evil But, in looking to the measure proposed, he was convinced that it would be most injudiciously and unjustly applied. He did not mean to assert, that if it could be proved the passing of this bill would strengthen the Protestant interest in Ireland, he would still continue opposed to it; but under any circum stances he would have great hesitation in supporting any measure which would make a change in the elective franchise as it now stood. On this Faciple he had opposed all the motions for reform which were submitted

Mr. GOULBURN contended that the measure merely gave them a remote security against an immediate danger.

against that Oligarchy, which, though he himself was a part of it, he
Lord MILTON was of opinion that the measure would operate as a blow
wished to see reduced. He was anxious to raise a middle order of yeo-
tholic Emancipation, he should support it.
manry in Ireland; and, coupled as the Bill was with the question of Ca-

Mr GRATTAN could not possibly support a measure which went to disfranchise the people of 32 counties, because of the corrupt practices in a few of them Let the gentry of Ireland begin the work of reform among themselves, and not introduce this moustrous precedent of popular disqua lification. (Hear!)

Sir F. BURDETT thought that the question of Reform was totally distinct from the present. A certain sacrifice was necessary to secure the possession of an invaluable boon. There had arisen a mutual feeling of concession which it would be well to cultivate; and it really appeared to hime that it was taking up a heavy responsibility, to go against the declared sense of gentlemen who had consented to wave their own interests in favour of a common measure for the common benefit. Snch motives of public conduct, however beautiful in theory, could not be tolerated by any practical men who preferred real advantages to those which were more abstract and for that reason less to be expected, though in prospect more perfect. (Cheers.) He rejoiced in the conciliatory effects which had been produced between people of two religions by the examinations, which had conduced to destroy mutual prejudices. He concluded by an earnest entreaty to all friends of Emancipation, to sink their differences upon the question, for the sake of succeeding in that object.

Mr. DENMAN wished to justify his adherence to those principles which (with pain and surprise he had witnessed it) the Hon. Baronet now disowned, though they had for many years supported them together. He could not be persuaded to look upon this in the light of a trifling sacrifice to obtain a more valuable blessing. The inference attempted to be drawn was, that if the Catholic disabilities could be removed, it mattered not under what system of laws Ireland should be governed. He would make no such concession. The question did not belong to Catholic more than to Protestant, nor to Ireland more than to England. It belonged to them all, and they ought to view it with equal alarm. He was not to be told that they could form no precedent for invading the franchise of England, becanse he knew on what slight pretences things of this sort were raised into precedents. He would arm against the most distant approach of a theory so pregnant with evil consequences, aud be therefore must oppose the present measure.

Mr. ABERCROMBY thought that the measure would be good for Ireland at any time, as it would deprive a certain class of Irish gentry of the means of jobbing,-a disgraceful and ruinous system;-for the 40s. freeholds were the raw material out of which the Irish gentleman manufactured all his jobs!

opinions, but from the observations which had fallen from his Hon. Mr. LAMBTON said he should not have trespassed on the House with his Friend (Sir F. Burdett), who had been pleased to prescribe every one

who should have the misfortune to differ with him in opinion. (Hear,
kear) The Hon. Bart. had said, at least that, for the future, he should
consider it unsafe to act with those who possessed this beautiful virtue"
in such a degree, that it would not accommodate itself to circumstances.
Now he (Mr. Lambton) acknowledged that he was of this proscribed
number (hear, hear!) and, however painful it might be to be thus
opposed to bis Hou. Friend, yet, if by reason of his declaration, he was
to separate from the Hon. Baronet, he must protest that he could not
conscientiously support this bill. From anything that he had heard, he
did not believe that the 40s. freeholders were really that description of
persons they had been represented to be. (Hear!) He believed them to
be much better than they were made out; and though by this bill they
themselves were not to be disfranchised, yet their children would be;
and he for one, following that principle which had ever guided his
public conduct, never would consent to any measure having for its
object a limitation of the elective franchise of the people. (Cheers.)
Mr. LITTLETON now said a few words, when the cries of "Withdraw"
(it being nearly 3 o'clock) became quite predominant over every other,
and the Gallery was cleared, when the numbers were-For the amend
ment, 185-For the second reading, 233-Majority, 48.

Wednesday, April 27.

would give 3,000,000l. An advance in the price of any article of agricultural produce always produced a corresponding rise in the price of other articles. He had therefore a right to calculate that the rise in the price of grain which would result from a duty of 10s, on its importation, would cause an advance in the price of grass and vegetable produce to the extent of 5,000,000l. Those items added together would make 18,500,000%. which more than covered the burdens which pressed exclusively upon the landed interest. He was aware that any sudden alteration would be viewed with dread, on account of the quantity of corn which was said to be collected in foreign ports; but he was of opinion that the alarm was groundless, for the price of corn would find its level; foreign corn would rise somewhat in price, and ours would somewhat decline. He did not believe that at the present moment there were more than a million of quarters of corn in the ports of the Continent, and that would not all be imported into England; for Spain and Portugal, at present almost in a state of dearth, would compete with us in the foreign market. The system which he wished to proceed upon, then, was shortly thisWhen the price of corn in this country was at 55s. he would admit foreign wheat at duty of 10s.; and go on as the price fell 5s. in the quarter, adding 5s more to the duty; so that when corn was 55s., the duty would be 10s. a quarter; when it was 50s. it would be 15s.; at 45s., 20s.; and

At four o'clock the SPEAKER counted the Members, when there appear- at 40s. it would go as high as 25s. A plan like this might be adopted, he ing to be only twenty present, an adjournment took place.

Thursday, April 28.

A number of petitions for and against the Corn Laws and Catholic Claims, were presented and laid on the table.

The second reading of the Severn Railway bill was opposed, and, on a division, was thrown out, there being 39 for and 140 against it.

CORONATION OATH.

was convinced, without any of the ill consequences which were appre hended; if gentlemen doubted that, let them look very briefly at the probable rate at which (duty apart) foreign corn would be able to be sold here. At Rotterdam, the average price of foreign corn sold for the ten years ending in 1825, had been 47s 94d a quarter. In New York, the average for the last five years was 38s. a quarter; add to this, 12s. or 14s. a quarter for freight and insurance, and New York wheat could not be. Mr. GRENFELL sincerely hoped, from what had recently passed in which foreign wheat could come to England to be from 45s. to 52s. the sold in England (duty free) under 50s. Then, taking the average rate at another place, that the present Session would not be suffered to expire, until some person in that or in the other House, of character and talent quarter, 10s. a quarter duty upon that was as high a tax as he could feel sufficient to justify him in bringing forward a measure of very great for the fears of the agriculturists, that under such circumstances very justified in imposing; nor did he believe that there was any foundation importance-would bring under the consideration of Parliament the propriety of considering, and of altering, if necessary, that which was enormous importations would be made. No better time could be taken called the Coronation Oath. (Hear!)-[Not a word from the well-lay it till a time of scarcity and agitation would be productive of the most than the present, for the settlement of this important matter; and to depaid side.]

CORN LAWS.

Mr. WHITMORE called the attention of the House to the important subject of the Corn Laws, in which, he said, the true interests of the country required an alteration, particularly after the recognition by Ministers of those free principles of trade which had been elicited by these enlightened times. These laws were a grievous burthen on the manufacturing classes; and though at first it might appear that the agriculturists were called upon to make a sacrifice, this alteration would really be beneficial to them in the end The present system produced the most alarming evils-at one time, all the mischiefs of a dearth; and at others, those caused by a profuse supply. The supply of grain on the Continent had of late been greatly reduced, owing to the diminished demand of this country, and in case of a dearth, we should find it very difficult to obtain a supply. To avoid so fatal an evil, the trade in corn should be open to the whole world; and he ventured to assert, that unless the system was soon changed, we should shortly reap the bitter fruits of it, as a day would arise which it required stronger nerves than his to contemplate. (Hear, hear!) Our laws had already greatly injured the continental corn-growers, and the effects of their depression were, that the consumption in Poland, &c. of British Colonial produce and manufactures was only half now what it had been. Most persons in Poland, who formerly grew corn, now grow wool; the natural consequence of which would be, the depression of the English manufactures. If the present system was continued, the capital, on which the power of England depended, would be driven to some other parts of the world; the result of which would be, that in comparison with the populous nations of the Continent, we should become a second-rate power, for our present strength depended upon our capital. The consequence of the Corn Laws was to raise the price of provisions in this country for the benefit of one class, and that the most powerful in the State, at the expense of the great mass of the people. Was this a safe course to pursue? Was it imagined that the people of England were not aware of the object for which the existing laws were imposed? THE PEOPLE KNEW THAT THE OBJECT WAS TO RAISE RENTS (Hear!)-it was impossible to conceal that fact. Was not such a proceeding totally opposed to the principle which ought to regulate the proceedings between man and man? It was impossible that the people of this country, who were daily becoming more and more enlightened, would submit patiently to laws which were passed, almost avowedly, for the aggrandizement of a privileged class! The alterations which he would propose would have for their object to place the trade on the same footing as that on which it stood previously to 1815-viz. to leave the importation of corn virtually, if not nominally, free, subject to the payment of such an amount of duty as should cover the peculiar burdens which pressed on the landed interest. Those burdens he estimated at eighteen millions, and be would state the amount of duties which would cover them. The consumption of corn was estimated at about 14,000,000 quarters. He proposed a duty of 10s. per quarter on the importation of corn, which would increase the price to that amount which on 14,000,000 quarters would give 7,000,000l. On barley, he would fix a duty of 5s. which, as the consumption was 14,000,000 quarters, would give 3,500,000l. On oats, be would fix a duty of 3s. which on a consumption of 20,000,000 quarters I

fatal consequences. He therefore moved, "That the House should resolve itself into a Committee to consider of the present state of the Corn Laws.” House in disturbing a system, which gave equal satisfaction both to the Mr. Gooch thought that no case had been made out to warrant the last six years, had been 58s. 3d.; and it was impossible for the agricultu grower and the consumer! The average price of corn in England, for the rist, burdened as he was, to farm his land at a lower price. Paying such heavy exclusive taxes, the home farmer could never compete with the foreign grower; and, as he objected to agitating the country upon a point as to which it was perfectly quiet, he should move the previous question. Mr. CURWEN said a few words, which were quite inaudible in the Gal lery.

Lord OXMANTOWN opposed the motion.

Mr. HUSKISSON admitted that the question was one of great importance, and he only differed in degree with the Hon. Mover of it; but the present was not the fit time to enter on an alteration of the Corn Laws. He would assert that, with the facts before him, of corn being sold in the ports of France and the Netherlands at half the price at which it could be purchased here, no man would be warranted in contending that the present Corn Laws could be adopted as a permanent system. (Hear, hear!) But, owing to our system, there was a great increase in the stock of corn in all the continental ports from which we had usually imported; and this was farther increased by the fact, that Spain and Portugal, imitating our example, had latterly received less than their usual supply from the northern ports. The result was, that the supply was at present so much beyond the demand in many of the European ports, that in some corn did not produce half, in others not one-third, and in others again not onefourth of the average prices of the last 40 years, before they had ceased to export corn to this country. (Hear, hear!) The effects of such an accumulation gave rise to difficulties in bringing about any effectual alteration in the Corn Laws. If we now opened our ports to an unrestricted trade, we might introduce all at once the great accumulation in the foreign ports, and thus disgust the home grower with a free trade. That there were inconveniences attending the system in whichever way we treated it, he did not deny, but they were the necessary result of the system which we had adopted, and which could not afford a permanent advantage to any party. The question then was, with this accumulation in the foreign market, what course ought we to pursue? One mode suggested was, to prohibit importation as long as corn did not exceed 60s. here; and another was to have the ports constantly open, with such a duty as would afford a protection to the English farmer. If, however, the reduction were made to 60s. the whole of the accumulation of the ports of the Continent would be thrown upon the country. What the effect of that would be, he would not attempt to describe, though he did not partake of the general fears entertained on the subject. (Hear, hear!) If a permanent duty was to be fixed, how were they to deal with the accumulations on the Continent? Were they to be admitted at once, or gradually? These considerations showed the difficulties with which the question was surrounded at present, which could not be expected to embarrass it at another period. it was not for him to assert that the whole of the difficulty would be removed by the next Session. It was possible that some vent might be

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