and then and look at the calendars, Benett, this part of it is an unequivocal good you with will see who it is that has and it is valuable too, as showing the filled the jails with poachers. So true really considerate, merciful and benevo it is that the Judges have been lenient lent disposition of those who have compared with the justices, that it is brought it in. People who live in town's," not long since were abused in both or who live in the country and are not Houses of Parliament for this very lenity. well acquainted with the habits, proThis law has done more to alienate the pensities, and feelings of the labouring working people from the owners of can no of : land, than all the other hardships and portance of this measure. It is millions, cruelties put together. For my part, I and many millions, of men and of women have petitioned both Houses of Parlia- who will feel grateful for this measure," ment twice for the, repeal of this law regarding it as a step on the return to I have always represented it as a source former free and happy days. The county of the greatest danger to the peace of rates will soon feel the effects of it. All the country my readers can bear me men that have any justice in them, witness how often I have represented when they come to consider it in all its it as the source of everlasting heart-natural effects, will exult in its adoption, burnings in every village in the king- and will leave to the Preston Cock dom. How many men, fine and able the melancholy non-anticipation of any and enterprising men, has this cruel law good as the result. " WM. COBBETT. " PRESTON COCK. sent to perish in slavery, or to swing on the ignominious gallows, confounding, as the Attorney-General said, in the minds of the people, all notions of right and wrong, hardening their hearts, and preparing them for acts of atrocious THE Parliamentary report, in the ferocity, whenever the occasion should Morning Herald, of the 15th instant, serve, Hampshire will recollect through- contains the following passage: "RO out the present generation, the hanging "TUNDA MEETINGS.-Mr. HUNT, of the two youg men whom Judge" in presenting a petition from certain Burrowes left there for execution, and 66 persons meeting at the Rotunda, said whose crime was having resisted game- "that it complained of the conduct of keepers belonging to Lord Palmerston" the judges on the late commission. He and Ashton Smith. Resistance, arising "felt himself called upon to observe solely out of this cruel law, which, as "that he had been threatened and dethe Attorney-General so well expressed "nounced by the party to which the peit, was the cause of the crimes. The "titioners belonged, solely because he grey hairs of how many fathers and " had on a previous occasion disclaimed mothers has this law brought in sorrow "in that House all connexion with them, to the grave! How many widows has or participation in their views. So made! How many, good God, how" far, however, from being intimidated many, fatherless children! And this, by these threats, he now reiterated too, observe, solely for the preservation" his former assertion, and, should the of the SPORTS of the rich. "House not protect him, he knew And yet the PRESTON COCK very well how to protect himself—(a not anticipate that much good would" LAUGH)." This "langh" was, as bersult from the measure!" I do antici-1 am told by a gentleman who was płe much good; and this is one of the present, not a horse-laugh nor a merry Bry things that I recommended to the laugh, but a sort of a hal laugh, uttered ninisters in my Register of the 22nd with the chin twisted, the lips lifted, of January, as the effectual means of and the nose drawn up, as if the olfac putting an end to the fires. With res- tory, as well as the risible, nerves had pect to the other parts of the bill, I have been affected. This report may be a not had time to consider them; but fabrication on the part of the reporthers, "did for any-thing that I know to the con trary; but, I find the thing published, aud, as a publication, I remark on it. What! the Preston Cock call for the protection of others, and those others that very body, too, whom he so becalled and so expressed his contempt of, when on his progress from Preston to London! It can never be! It must be an invention of the reporther! What! he, who is called the "Preston Cock," because, in that town, his flags represented him as a red game cock, clapping his wings and crowing, while STANLEY was, upon the same flags, represented as a yellow dunghill cock, running away, HE call on the House for protection! But, then, as to the feasibility of the thing called for, how is the House to protect him against the tongues or pens of those whom he, or his reporther, chooses, by name, to stigmatize in publications, being, or purporting to be, reports of speeches made in that House? He is not " intimidated" (ooh! ooh! who-o-ose afraid!) and he knows" very well how to defend himself." Nobody says the contrary; but I do remember that, at a county meeting. at Winchester, in 1817, there was a good-for-nothing saucy fellow, under the Grand Jury chamber-window, who, as soon as he began to open his mouth, held up a long wand with a white feather tied on at the end of it; and I did not see any-body able "to protect " him against that. I did not see any punishment inflicted, or attempted to be inflicted, for that daring breach of privilege. As to his disclaiming all connexion with these petitioners, and all participation in their views, I leave them and him to settle that matter between them, until, at least, I know what their petition contained; and this, I beg some one or other of them to have the goodness to let me know as soon as possible, asul shall want it for my "Letter to the people of Preston," which will be published on the 1st of March, in No. 9 of the Two-penny Trash. WM. COBBETT. Bolt Court, 17th of Feb. 1831, HOUSE OF LORDS. Nothing of consequence; but in the HOUSE OF COMMONS, REFORM.-A good many petitions praying for this measure, and almost all of them desiring that the ballot may form a part of it. CIVIL LIST. LORD ALTHORP brought forward his plan for the Civil List. He proposed a committee of inquiry into it, so that we shall hear much more of this matter. It will not be forgotten that it was this thing, the Civil List, that bundled out the Duke; and now let us see what his successors would be at with it. Out of a million of money, there is a reduction of 20,000l. proposed.! and not one pension to be touched! I have always said that nothing but a reformed parliament CAN do what is wanted; and now see, then, that I am right. I give one short extract from Lord Althorp's speech. He said It is necessary for me to explain the ground on which I do not propose to remove any of shortly. It is certainly true, and no man is the existing pensions, and I will state them more ready to assert it than I am, that many of the pensions on the list are such as ought but after the best examination I have been never to have been granted (hear, hear); able to give the subject, I am able to say that the majority are merely and purely pensions of charity. I willingly admit that we have the legal right to put an end to all those mise of the Crowu, and it has no right to pensions; they expire, by law, with the derenew them. But though we may have a legal right, I doubt if we have an equitable right, to abolish them; because they were that the party receiving them obtained them undoubtedly always granted on the supposition for life. The result of my statement unquestionably is, that there is no immediate saving immediate saving, it ought not perhaps to be to the public. When I say that there is no omitted, that there is a saving to the extent of about 20,000; but I do not put it forward so far as a measure of economy. Mr. HUME's observations upon, this were excellent. He said, He should only now say generally, that the 1 1 site, for he felt that it would occasion deep disappointment to the country at large; he felt that it would disappoint those expectations which the people were entitled to form from the earnest which the present Government held out to the nation. When he spoke of the people, he spoke of those most interested in the matter then under consideration; he spake of those by whom the means of defraying the expenses of the Civil List were supplied; he spoke of the industrious and useful classes of society-the productive portion of the population, and not the drones by whom every-thing was consumed. In the present moment of deep and overpowering distress, the people were looking up to the new Administration in the hope and confidence, that estimate considerably exceeded what he hoped it would have been, and he was satisfied that a great reduction might and ought to be made. Looking at the list of pensions now before the House, he could not find one name in fifty of a person who had ever been at all connected with the crown. That was in itself quite enough to prove the necessity of those peusions coming under the consideration of Parliament every year. He, for one, could not consent to the giving ninety-eight thousand pounds of the public money, to be paid away in pensions at the uncontrolled disposal of the Minister. The noble Lord had, on a former occasion, said that the country could no longer be governed by patronage; he (Mr. Hume) hoped that the noble Lord may also be convinced that it could no longer be go-ou their first appearance before Parliament verned by corruption. He had said that the and the public, they would come forward with greater part of those pensions were, in fact, a proposition for the relief of those wants charitable donations. Now he (Mr. Hume) which it was impossible adequately to dewas of opinion, that if peers were unable to scribe, and scarcely possible to endure. The maintain themselves suitably to their rank Civil List certainly formed but a small portion from their own estates, they ought not to do of the expenditure of the nation; but the so upon public charity, but to lay down their proposition of the Government would go forth tities. (Laughter.) The peerage was insti-as an earnest of their intentions, and the detuted by the constitution to stand between thecision of the House would go forth as an crown and the people; but it was not con- earnest of its intentions, and of what the templated by the constitution, that, when country had to expect from both. On the unable to keep their places in the state, they subject of the noble Lord's statement, he did should be supported by the people. (Hear.) not agree with the hon. Member for Cricklade, When the question would come to be dis-that there was any mystification in it-it was, cussed in the Committee, he should certainly unfortunately, but too clear. He had before propose that each individual pension should that night imagined that it was always the be examined separately. (Hear, hear.) If he object of Government to mystify matters of could not effect that examination thoroughly that sort, and of every sort connected with in the Committee, he would do so in the the expenditure of the country. He had House. Their time could not he better occu- always given them the fullest credit for myspied, even should the inquiry occupy them tification; but on that occasion he must do until Jane. (Laughter.) His view of the them the justice to say, that they had evinced subject was supported by law, according t no disposition to mystify. He trusted that which all pensions cease upon the demise of as he was so young a Member, they would exthe crown. Therefore, pledge of the present tend to him the indulgence his inexperience reGovernment, the law, and the claims of the quired, and give him credit for every wish to country, were now all with him. The pen-avoid, in the delivery of his sentiments, anysioning, indeed, was said to be charity; but thing approaching towards personal effence, he thought that charity ought to begin at or any want of that respect towards the regubome. (Laughter.) It was the duty of the lations of the House, which he should be at all House to consider that the distresses of the times willing to manifest; but having been country had been occasioned by the pressure scut there by the people, and having been of taxation, of which so great a part was im returned in a very extraordinary manner posed for the maintenance of pauper peers. by a great body of the people, without any Who were the fitter objects of the charitable solicitation on his part, and even without consideration of the House? The distressed his knowledge, he felt that he should people of England, or the peers who had relations rich enough to provide for them? To support such persous with the money of the people was not charity-it was profusion and extravagance. (Hear.) It was a time for Parliament to interfere and put an end to the system. He trusted that Ministers would not allow a false delicacy to prevent them from falfilling their promises of retrenchment. Look back once more at the motto, reader. Read that over once more. Mr. HUNT said, he heard with great pain the statement made by the noble Lord oppo grievously disappoint the expectations which they had a right to form, if he permitted that opportunity to pass without giving expression to the considerations which the conduct of the Government unavoidably suggested. He confessed, it appeared to him,, that the whole of the question then before the House had been that night argued as if the people had nothing at all to do with the mattween the crown and the House-as though ter-as though it was a matter entirely be the House were to pay so much money out of their own pockets to the crown-and that there was no such thing in this country as a people from whose hård earnings alone could that they could not think of going could ass himself how much a friend to his to ask themselves how they could even in dra more 900 sensible people was the present King. The King of reetly be accessary to a system that kept England proved that he felt for his people, people iura condition in which they were while bis Ministers site disposition effect the noble Loudrayed a very oppo-unable to attend public worship so ragged 2 had told them that and so miserable, so filthy so destitute, even of was no relief to be expected on the motion of them was compelled to remain at home, and to clean, themselves, that every one of soap the Civil List. Now, he desired to learn why never to visit their parish church. They were it was the former Government had found taxed in bread, they were taxed in beer, soap, cmselves under the necessity of resigning? candles, auil even in potatoes, and all that was it that broke up the former Govern- with the Pension List, which was now to be metit, and called the present Ministers to fill submitted to Parliament. They had been told their places? Nothing more or less than that all of those pensions legally expired at the this, that the former Government told, the demise of the crown. Why, then, he would Parliament, and through them the people, ask, not abolish the whole Pension List, and that no relief could be afforded through the allow the King to grant all the pensions anew medium of the Civil List-that in that depart to such only as deserved them? There was ment there could be no reduction of the public not a petition presented to that House which expenditure. (Hear, hear.) It was upon touched upon the subject of the public dis this ground, then, that he affirmed the disap-tress, or the financial difficulties of the coun could not fail to be generally try, without calling for a reduction of the course which his Majesty's Pension List. It was the unanimous demand Government had thought proper to pursue of the people, that all pensions he abolished It was not for him to determine what might except those which had been merited by ac be too much or too little for the Civil List, but knowledged public services. If those petitions he too well understood, and too painfully felt, were to be definitively answered in the mane what the people were able to pay. If all the ner in which his Majesty's C Members of that House were to visit the proposed they should be answered, the people Government then wretched dwellings which recently, it had would be driven to despair, from whence the been his distressing lot to enter, they could transition to disturbance was easy, and but too not but agree with him, that so far from being certain. He was not the man to say elsewhere able to continue the endurance of the heavy what he should be ashamed to repeat in that burdens laid upon the people, they were in a House; but as long as he was a M condition demanding instant and extensive re- that House he hoped and trusted that he should Member Jief. In presenting a petition yesterday he so conduct himself as never to fail in respect had an opportunity of stating a fact, which towards any individual Member, or towards the had he then known he certainly should have House collectively; (hear, hear hear stated, but the knowledge of which only with every wish to be governed by such reached him by means of a letter since re- feeling, he would call upon the House, to deceived. It was, that in one of the districts mand information respecting the property de whence that petition came the working people rived from the Duchy of Lancaster. It was the were not able to earn more on an average duty of the House to see all that the crown posthan from 4s. 6d. to 5s, a week; and from sessed. He was not one of those who called for what he saw at another place in the same any reduction of what was necessary for the ease County, he could declare most conscien and comfort of the crown, but let the means for tiously, that he readily believed that state-promoting that be seen and understood. ment. When he was at. Preston one Sun was perfectly sensible of the disposition which day, instead of going to church (a laugh), his Majesty had shown to contribute to the rehe went round to the habitations of a lief of his people.The King was justly s considerable number of the poor persons popular that any thing in which the Ministers resident in that town and its vicinity. The failed would be laid at their own door, and not highest sum that any of them could earn was at that of the King; for example, nothing 6s. a week. Their breakfast was oatmeal could more merit the gratitude of the people broth-their mid-day meal was potatoes, and than the manner in which his Majesty had deoatmeal broth in the bit a year for the wretched hovel they inha- How differ outfit for the Queen of 50,0002. bited; 2s. a quarter for taxes; and 2s, a quarters! the reason their 'conduct formed a bad ter for the clergy, with 14d. for each chimney earnest for the future was, that it afforded inin the miserable dwelling. He inquired of dication that they had no intention of reducthem how long since any of them had new ing their own salaries. He remembered well clothes, and could not learn that any of them when those salaries were raised to the present had bought a new garment within the last five high a message came from the paid the He Minis years; they never were able to compass any- Crow unt-when an increase of the in thing beyond second-hand clothes, and the poor unhappy beings were so ragged and dirty comes of the several Members, of the Royal ground that t every article of life had risen fail in respect towards any individual one fundred fold, and that, therefore, the member of or towards the House collec the the Judges, and the other Officers of State, could no longer live Lively; out of whose would upon their pockets from these Om all e sayings one have him a dif ere those incomes to come? Out dent beardless boy, taking his station of the pockets of those who themselves were before his time amongst men. But, is called upon likewise to pay for every neces this the man that made the speech at sary of life at an enhanced price. He thought that if that consideration had been mentioned the dinner at Manchester? Is this the at the thine, it would have had the effect of man that swore by the living God what preventing so unjust an arrangement. As he would do; and swore away 'till the matters then stood, he hoped the House would not let it go forth that there was to be no re- Company (good, innocent, believing duction in the Civil Listno reduction in the company!) stood up in rapture, and Pension List. Though it was intimated that gave three cheers to hail the oath? there was to be a reduction of one-half in the Is this the same man? This the man Pension List, he must take the liberty of say who called them "rips," accused them of ing that, substantially, there was no such reduction. It would be little, then, to the credit uttering "Billingsgate" outdoing the or advantage of the present Government, to first of the oyster season; this the man have it go forth in the papers of the following who compared with blackguards of morning, that just expectations of the people St. Giles's, low blackguards, drunken were to be disappointed, and that the present blackguards, those whom he is now so Ministry, like the last, were pursuing a course calculated to drive the people to de- anxious not to offend in any manner, spair. In making that observation, however, either "PERSONALLY" or " col he felt bound in justice to bear testimony to the lectively;" is this the same man?“ Body humanity and wisdom which the Government had recently shown in respect to the unhappy if it be the same, sure he must persons who had been tried and found guilty in have been "planet-stricken!" the disturbed districts-that proceeding was Sir JAMES GRAHAM (who was for some momore calculated to restore tranquillity thauments inaudible) said, in reference to the any other which they could adopt, and he speeches of the hon. members for Cricklade sincerely hoped that these merciful dispositions and Preston, that he should gladly have the would be carried still further; under the in benefit of their assistance, to enable him to Auence of such a sentiment, he intended on determine whether or not the speech of the an early day to move an Address to the Crown,“ hon, member for Durham was intelligible. praying for a General Amnesty to the whole of As to the particular question under consithose unhappy beingsit such an act as that deration, he thought he had a right, on was passed-fcries of question). He apolo- behalf of his colleagues and himself, to gised to the House if he had departed in the claim from hon. members a little indulslightest degree from the precise question gence, in, the way of time. He thought under consideration. He should be ashamed of they were entitled to a little forbearance himself if he wilfully travelled out of any from those who had expressed so high an question which he might take a share in discus- opinion of their honesty. Before they desing; at o me; i still more ashme time, that he should be cided, something ought to be seen of the of himself if, sent to that House by poor and honest men, who lived by the sweat of their brow and the toil of their hands, he did not deliver his sentiments manfully and sincerely-if he did not make an humble, though earnest, appeal to his Majesty and to his Ministers on so pressing an oc'casion." measures of the Government. The bon. member for Preston had treated the House with respect; and though recollecting the constituency who sent him there, he did not forget what was due to the House. Oa that ground, he (Sir James Graham) should treat the hon. member with forbearance." MORE PENSIONS. Mr. HOME said there was consideration of the House, on account of the another class of pensions well deserving the abuses of them. The 57th of George III. was passed at a time when there was a great reduction of sinecares, with a view of giving to public servants. But the manner in which the Sovereign the power, of rewarding his that Act had been carried into execution had led to great abuses. He found that persons received pensions three times more valuable granted to persons who had 50,000 a year. than their services. He found pensions There was a pension of 15001, a year granted |