to the Governor of Madras, who had also a flatly contradicted afterwards, or (withsalary of 10,000l. a year. That was an abuse out answer) so completely turned to the never contemplated by the Act. He found disadvantage of the poor fellows, as to that Lord Sidmouth had a pension of 30007, a year, Mr. Lushington 15004., Mr. Goulbourn produce a conviction of the justness of 20001, Mr. Hamilton 10004., Mr. Croker treating the motion with the monstrous 1500, Mr. Courtenay 1000, Mr. Hobhouse contempt which it met with. But what -10007., Mr. Planta 10007., and Lord Bexley 30004. The services of these gentlemen were can be expected in a speech which benever worth 30004. That was his conscien- gins: "If honourable Gentlemen in tious opinion. He considered that most of that House, possessed of every tathese pensions were a pure waste of the "lent, endowment, and eloquence (every public money, and he appealed to the hon. talent, every endowment, EVERY Member for Dorset, whether the bill had not "ELOQUENCE!) thought it necessary disappointed him? The hou. Member concluded by moving for a return of all persons" to claim the indulgence of the House, entitled to pensions under the 57th Geo. III. how much more necessary must it be chap. 65, and the 4th of Geo. IV. chap. 90 stat-"for him, about as he was, humbly, ing the names of those persons, and the amount of their pensions, and the length of the services for which they were granted. February 7. HOUSE OF LORDS. Lord King's discussion about tithes, which has already been in the Register. See No. 7 of this volume.-Nothing particular in the House of Commons. February 8. HOUSE OF LORDS. Lord King's further discussion about tithes, which also see in No. 7 of this volume. respectfully," &c.? What can be expected when the crest turns white so soon; for really there had not been any-thing that we see to alarm so much; nothing but the ordinary mace, the ordinary speaker's wig; nothing that could cause such crawling upon the very belly, if one compares it with any line of the speeches out of doors; that at Manchester, at Birmingham, or even here in Stamford-street, where a tart allusion to Government practices arose in the circumstance of a pickpocket being seen in the crowd. The Government is thanked by him for its humanity; Lord Melbourne is particularly HOUSE OF COMMONS. thanked; the mob is riotous, and the PARDON AND AMNESTY.-This incendiaries ruffian. Well, then, really night came on the motion of the Mem-all seems right. At any rate there ber for Preston for the pardon of the could be no want of a Parliamentary labourers convicted under the special office to transact such business as this! commissions, and in moving for which the only thing which he seems to have done, is, to make a weak case as it were on purpose to afford the Government an opportunity of sending all over the country a comparatively strong one. For, the reasoning in every mind is, of course, this: "Here is all that can "be said in their behalf; and, as a part "of that all consists of unqualified de"nunciations of the ruffian incendi"aries,' the mob,' and so on, why then "really, until mobs and ruffian incen"diaries are looked upon as innocent "things, governments cannot but put IRELAND.-Expressly by way of "them down somehow." This is what contrast, one would think, O'GORMAN every sober man would say upon reading MAHON rose to move for some papers this speech. Not one argument worth relative to Ireland. He seems to have a straw, not a fact that was not either been treated rather sneeringly by the 6 Nothing done yet that might not have been done full as well without any assistance; but much in this speech that had been better left undone. It was not to call the starved labourers of England mob and ruffians that he was sent into that House. I cannot insert this oration, for it is too long; but I observe that it seems to have produced continued roars of laughter, instead of attention; and displaying, to be sure, some specimens of learning that were enough to set a school-room in a roar. Motion negatived without a division. A of England, betho "had" forshe the battles of the Catholics for half a century, thereby the enjoyment of office, and thuse stations which were an object of ambition to all honourable men. From what had fallen from the hon. Member, it would appear that Dean Swift's assertion, That what was true every-where else was not so in Ireland," was well founded and it would even seem that words bore a dif ferent signification in Ireland from what they did every-where else, and therefore when Roman Catholics talked of gratitude without end, they must have meant gratitude without a beginning (Cheers and laughter.) He must say, that he had never heard any thing with more surprise than the tirade of the hon. Member for Clare against the Whigs, which has re-echoed from the great agitator at the other side of the water. Alive) to ebrew 19 de booty began Whigs of House, and, therefore, instantly began one of the boldest, one of the most really manly, attacks upon a whole host of opponents that I ever read or heard of Exposed to the the ministers and their adherents, to all the lawyers, to the late ministers, and to the shoy-hoys (led by Sir Francis Burdett), he battled away through a storm such as really might have daunted a man of his years and experience. Indeed, he seems to have been put out by it; he seems to have been bewildered; not to know where he left off at the last interruption; but it was the forgetfulness of a man whose blood was roused. Every-body that have heard speak of this, speaks in admiration of this young man's conduct. Had he but more experience, how he might have dealt about him in his reply. Burdett denounced the agitator" O'Connell. The "agitator"! Oh, if O'GORMAN MAHON had but recollected the days of Brentford agitation; had he but recollected the processions to Brent ford, with men on the tops of coaches, hired to wear chains and clank them as they went along; had he but recollected the speeches at Brentford, the placards, the resistance of the Speaker's. warrant, the barricading the house in Piccadilly; all without any agitation or intention to agitate, no doubt; if O'GORMAN MAHON had only recollected these things, how he might have retorted! February 9. HOUSE OF LORDS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. DISSECTION.-Colonel LYGON presented, a petition from the Surgical and Medical Society of Worcestershire, praying for the removal of all difficulties in the way of obtaining subjects for dissection. Devil! what ALL difficulties, COLONEL LYGON! The greatest difficulty of all, you know, Colonel, is, not being allowed to commit murder! That is to say, this is the prime difficulty. Why we shall be chopped at as we walk along the streets, Colonel, if all the difficulties should be removed; and the utmost lenity that we can expect, is, that, in their tender mercies, the petitioners will coutent themselves with a slice or a limb, instead of the whole carcass. MR. WARBURTON said, that it was not his intention to renew his bill in the present session, but that he had not relinquished the subject, and would probably bring in a bill respecting is in the next session of parliament. Sir F. BURDETT remarked, that the Government was in an awkward predicament, and that the hon. Member near him and others, who like him professed to support them, pursued a line of conduct calculated to cause them much annoyance. If they called that backing their friends (a plague on such backing!), he would only say, the Government would find more difficulty in avoiding For God's sake do not, Mr. WARBURthese side attacks than any fair and adverse TON! Do not, I say; for, if you do, motions which might be brought to bear on them by declared opponents. He compared you will only get the whole THING the indiscriminate attack of the hon. Member into more discredit than it now reels for Clare on all men and all parties in that under. It can hardly carry what it has House, to the conduct of one of his own counon it now; but pass this, and you will trymen at a fair, who laid about with his stick, breaking, indiscriminately, the heads of have the whole nation in uproar. Hisfriends and foes. Long as was the speech of tory tells us of nations fighting for that hou. Member, it was difficult to pick out their property, their liberty, their reliany one thing which admitted or required an answer. There was simply a string of general gion, but pass this law, and we shall remarks, in which he reflected on Irishmen, have a living nation fighting for its the best friends of Ireland, and on the manes ! 504 ROTUNDA DENOUNCEMENTS number of clergymen for non-residence. It Here' n e the Member for Preston presented a petition from Mr. Hethering ton, about Mr. O'Connell's trial; and he took occasion to denounce me (amongst others). I have done myself justice in the Register, No. 7, of this volume; and will only now remark, that having in his "progresses" denounced the House of Commons in language that I have preserved in some of my remarks on his speeches, he now, being in the House, being amongst those whom he so becalled when out of it; he now lays about him on all who are out of the House. That is to say, he has made his beginning. The mob, the ruffian incendiaries; the farmers, who, he says, are the instigators of the ruffians, and, lastly, me and the whole Rotunda! So that our turn seems to be now come. Denounce any-body but the man with whom he is standing foot to foot. HOUSE OF LORDS. part. Chancellors and lawyers, and civilians were an attack on the church in the tenderest and clergymen, were all consulted how to prevent these qui tam actions. The informa and the informer had law then equally against tions were laid, no doubt, for the penalties, persons who were altogether absent from their parishes, and against those who resided in their parishes, but did not live in the parsoncivilians, and chancellors, smote their foreThis was an error. The learned lawyers, heads to find out how they might relieve the church from the terror of these proceedings, and they suggested the means. Sir William other House by which the qui tams were to be Scott, he believed, brought a bill into the put an end to. The bill was sent down to Oxford to receive the suggestions of that learned body for its improvement, in order to render the bill more effectual. The bill purported real object of it was to allow them to be nonto be a bill to make the clergy reside; the resident; and no bill, he believed, had ever The lay patrons were accused of causing the more effectually answered its real purpose. non-residence, but there was no reason to believe from the qui tam actions that only their incumbents failed to reside. He believed that it was found, that as many non-residents were TITHES.-Lord KING, on presenting some the incumbents who derive their situations among the dignitaries of the church as among more Tithe petitions, wished to suggest to the from lay patrons. He remembered that the right reverend Prelates, that they would act bill he had alluded to was opposed very much prudently, under the excited state of public by a noble Earl, then in the other House, who feeling, if they would inform the country, not was as much distinguished for his zeal against his Lordship, what was the plan they intended the Curates' Bill, as he was since distinto propose. That would tend to allay the ir- guished in that House for his zealous supritation of the people, and the country would port of all measures of reforming corrupt know what it had to look to. He submitted boroughs. That noble Earl had then fought that to the consideration of the right reverend with him in the good cause night after night, prelates. When he first presented a petition and hit hard at abuses-very hard-harder to their Lordships on the subject of tithes, on than he now hit the reformers, though he Monday, he believed he stated that he would had snapped at his (Lord King's) fingers the argue the question solely as a simple political other night. He did not now hit so hard as economist, and he had not made a single ob- formerly. The right reverend Prelate had servation on many of the questions which had charged the laymen with being the cause of attracted attention. word about pluralities, nor one word about the right reverend Prelate would agree to a He had not said one non-residence, and he hoped, therefore, that non-residence-the whole of those subjects return of all persons holding pluralities, dishad been brought forward by the over-zeal of tinguishing whether they were held under lay a right reverend prelate in defending the or ecclesiastical patronage, including ecclechurch. That right reverend Prelate had siastical corporations. Such a return would charged the lay patrons with being the cause show whether more pluralities were held of non-residence, and had provoked the whole under lay or under ecclesiastical patronage, discussion. The right reverend Prelate said and their Lordships would see which class that they had smothered a bill for preventing was most deserving of the accusation of causnon-residence; but when his noble Friend ing non-residence. It was said, as a sort of (the Earl of Radnor) asked the right reverend excuse for pluralities, that they would greatly Prelate to specify the bill, he had not given a increase the number of curates. The curates wery satisfactory account. He believed that resided, and not the incumbents. ne could give a better account than was given said, too, that the curates did the duty as well by the right reverend Prelate. He was old as the incumbents. But what lesson did that It was -nough to remember, that about twenty-five teach the public? It was admitted that the ears ago an attorney excited a great sensa-duty was as well done by the curates for one on by the number of qui tam actions he quarter of the salary. The public would be rought to recover the penalties of a great apt to apply to ecclesiastical offices the prin 2 ciple that was now acted on in civil offices, where it was found that the deputy did all the duty, namely, to abolish the principal office, and retain only the deputy. It was a dangerous lesson to teach the public, that the curates did the duties of the church better than the incumbents, at one-fourth of the salary. With respect to residence, he must say that he highly approved of the charge of the Bishop of Winchester, who spoke of a benefice without a resident incumbent, as an ecclesiastical solecism. The charge of the right rev. Prelate did him great credit. He objected to tithes as a mode of paying the clergy. They were instituted in a barbarous age, when the state of society was different from its present state, and though tithes might be suitable then, they were unsuitable now. They might suit such a country as Poland, where the land was ploughed, and then left to the care of nature to restore to it what the agriculturist had taken from it. Tithes impeded agriculture, they prevented the application of capital to land; and there was no property more prejudicial than a tax on gross produce. No jury of twelve men would say that any greater benefit could be conferred on the country than a commutation of tithes. He would read to their Lordships an opinion of a gentleman, a very sensible man, as to property; he was a Republican, and therefore his opinion on some subjects would not be much valued by their Lordships. His Lordship accordingly read a short extract from the works of Jefferson, stating that the earth was the great capital stock, and was only inherited by individuals that the produce might be increased. That was Jefferson's opinion. He had placed property on a true foundation. He objected to tithes, that they diminished the produce, and diminished the beneficial effects of the right of property. The noble Lord concluded by presenting a petition from a place in Cambridgeshire, for an alteration in the tithe system. The Duke of BUCKINGHAM required that the petition should be read. The Clerk read it "a petition for the repeal of the assessed taxes." (À laugh.) Lord KING required that the petition should be read further, and it appeared also to be a petition for a commutation of tithes. The Earl of WINCHILSEA was disposed readily to extend to other, noble Lords that indulgence for any difference of sentiment which he himself had frequently received at the bands of their Lordships; but often as such indulgence had been granted to him, he felt that he had no other claim to it than the sincerity with which he had always delivered his sentiments. Viewing the conduct of the noble Baron, as it was shown by his attacks on tithes night after night, and particularly his observations on the established Church of the country, he was constrained to say that he could not give him the credit of sincerity in the professions he continually made of intending, by his observations, to promote the in terest of the church. (Hear, hear.) In presenting the petition, the noble Lord had permitted himself to make some unwarrantable personal attacks on some of the most respectable Prelates of the church. (Hear, hear.) He had made repeatedly attacks on that church (hear,) and had always spoken in the most contemptuous manner of the church establishment since he had had a seat in the House. The noble Baron, too, had spoken contemptuously of everything connected, with religion, which made it doubtful whether, as the noble Baron could see nothing good in the Established Church, he meant to correct abuses. Whatever the noble Baron might say of the effects of religion, in his humble judgment the clergy of the Established Church were a most respectable class of men; and he maintained that religion was the only sure ground for private virtue and public honesty. It was a proper complaint of a right reverend prelate, on the other evening, that the noble Baron brought forward no measure of his own. He had spoken of all sorts of abuses: of tithes, of non-residence, of pluralities; and had gone into all sorts of questions connected with the church. (Hear, hear.) It was high time that the noble Lord's attacks, which might cause a pernicious effect if they remained unanswered, should be noticed, and he, for one, was determined not to allow attacks to be unanswered which he believed to be most injurious to the best interests of the church and the country. (Hear, hear.) He agreed cordially with the observations made by the noble Earl, the night before last; and he hoped that the good advice of that noble Earl would have been received by the noble Baron in good part. He agreed with the noble Earl, that no individual could trace the conduct of the Established Church for the last twenty years without being convinced that it had made very great improvements, owing to the exertions of the members of the Bench to euforce the residence of the inferior clergy. He was convinced that the clergymen of the Established Church stood as high in general estimation as the clergymen of any church in the world. Would to God that the upper classes possessed an equal influence! He spoke not of the influence of wealth, but of that influence which was founded on character; and he heartily wished that the upper classes possessed as much influence of that kind as the clergy were proved to possess in the late disturbed districts among the misguided peasantry. He would only add, that he would not stand up for abuses, and was prepared to say, that many alterations might take place to improve the Church; but he had no doubt, from the exertions already made by the members of the Beuch, that the individuals of that body would correct abuses, and would place the Established Church on the very best footing. He would not sit in that House and hear attacks made on that Church without replying to them; and though he was an inefficient defender, practice might enable him to meet the noble Baron. If the noble Baron brought forward any measure, he would pay as much attention to it as was proper; but he would not silently hear his attacks. (Hear.). tants," to consider of the propriety of pe titioning Parliament in favour of Parliamentary and economical reform, and particularly for the grant of the elective franchise to Leeds and other popular places. The attendance LORD RADNOR said that, one of the Reverend was such as has never before been seen in Bench started the subject of non-residence, this town at a Reform meeting, in point of and contended that the fault of non-residence respectability, wealth, and intelligence; and did not rest on the Bishops, but on the lay it afforded the gratifying spectacle of a comimpropriators, who possessed so many advow-plete union between all classes of reformers 4 in seeking their grand object. sons. He was old enough to recollect when Lord Stowell, then Sir William Scott, brought the bill to promote the residence of the clergy into the House of Commons, in 1803. He was then in the House of Commons, and re- The CHAIRMAN:-Gentlemen, we are now membered that the bill had been avowedly met to take into consideration a subject the sent to Oxford for the revision of the heads of most important of any which can come before the University, and that when it came back an assemblage of Englishmen. We have again, Mr. Windham fought it out to the last, some of us long and anxiously looked forward aud said that it was a bill, not for residence, but to the time when our fellow-countrymen for non-residence, and the bill was almost for would demand their right to a thorough rea whole Session before the House, Was it form of the representation of a corrupt ever denied that that bill had been shown to House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) We have and revised by the Bishops? No one ever endeavoured, as far as in us lay, to promote doubted it. He did not wish to prolong the that object. We have followed it through discussion, but he could not but notice, that good and evil report, and hitherto without the subject of residence had been brought by success; but, we have at last seen one set the heads of the Church under discussion in of Ministers driven from their places by Parliament, both in 1803, and afterwards in their determination to refuse all Reform. 1817, by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, (Hear, hear.) We have seen the formation and yet that their measures had proved ineffi- of another Administration,, which has procient to promote residence. He thought the fessed to advocate those principles of Reform residence of the clergy a matter of great im- and Retrenchment which we think so necesportance, and was willing that the Bishops sary to the state, and they have pledged themshould have more power to enforce residence.selves to bring those measures forward in But they must in the first place put an end to pluralities, as residence and pluralities could not exist together. February 11. HOUSE OF LORDS. Nothing of much consequence. Parliament at no distant date. Gentlemen, if they redeem their pledges-if they bring forward such a Reform as the state of the country requires, they will deserve the gratitude of their country, and will have the support of every honest and independent man. (Hear, hear.) As the plan will be produced on the 1st of March next, it behoves us to prepare ourselves for receiving it, to watch over the measure, and to see that those regulations which we consider proper and necessary to the peace and well-being of the town are madeI mean that the election should be taken in a oc-short period, that the votes should be taken in divisions, each division of the town having its own poll, and the out-townships the same, so that the poll may be taken in a few hours, or at least in one day; and, what is of more HOUSE OF COMMONS. THE BUDGET. Lord Althorp brought forward this subject; but, as it is amply discussed in the body of this Register, it is not necessary to cupy room by putting in any part of the long speeches made upon this occasion. FRANCE. I HAVE not room to publish my son's letters; but they show, that there will speedily be an end of the cheat that has been going on ever since July. LEEDS REFORM MEETING. (Abridged from the Leeds Mercury of Saturday last.) importance, that we should consider in what manner we are to support the bringing forward of those arrangements for taking the poll, so as to exclude all bribery and corrup tion, and intimidation of voters-in short, that the poll should be taken by Ballot. (Ap plause.) Mr. RAWSON, in moving the first Resolution, said, an independent House of Commons would never allow any government ON Thursday last a numerous and highly to commence and carry on a system respectable meeting of the inhabitants of this of iniquity, for the sake of promoting borough, was held in the Court-house, at and providing for their numerous dependtwelve, at noon, convened by the Mayor, on ents and connexions. An independent a requisition from sixty respectable inhabi- House of Commons would most indignantly |