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proved of by, the lords commissioners in the name of his majesty, and, in usual form, claimed the free exercise of all the ancient rights and privileges of the Commons. Sir Charles Sutton was immediately called to the House of Peers, by the title of viscount Canterbury; and no citizen in the career of civil life, had ever better earned that reward by a

long course of important, faithful, and acknowledged public services. As his pension had been fixed, when he was about to retire from the chair, after the passing of the reform act, the House which rejected him had no occasion to enter on any question of pecuniary remunera

tion.

CHAP. III.

Opening of the Session-King's Speech-Address in the House of Lords, carried without a division-Formation and Policy of the New Government, attacked by Lord Melbourne and Lord Brougham, and defended by the Duke of Wellington and Lord Lyndhurst-Declarations of the Earl of Ripon and Duke of Richmond-Amendment moved to the Address in the House of Commons-Nature and object of the Amendment-Speeches of Lord Morpeth-Mr. Pemberton-Speech of Sir Robert Peel.

N the 24th of February, the intervening days from the election of the speaker having been employed in swearing in members of the House of Commons, the Session was opened by the king in person. His majesty delivered the following speech from the throne:

"My Lords and Gentlemen, "1 avail myself of the earliest opportunity of meeting you in Parliament after having recurred to the sense of my people.

"You will, I am confident, fully participate in the regret which I feel at the destruction, by accidental fire, of that part of the ancient Palace of Westminster, which has been long appropriated to the use of the two Houses of Parliament. Upon the occurrence of this calamity, I gave immediate directions that the best provision, of which the circumstances of the case would admit, should be made for your present meeting; and it will be my wish to adopt such plans for the permanent accommodation of the two Houses of Parliament, as shall be deemed, in your joint consideration, to be the most fitting and convenient.

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"I have to repeat the expression of my regret that the relations between Holland and Belgium still remain unsettled.

"Gentlemen of the House of

Commons.

"I have directed the Estimates for the ensuing year to be prepared, and to be laid before you without delay.

"They have been formed with the strictest attention to economy, and I have the satisfaction of acquainting you,that the total amount of the demands for the public service will be less on the present than on any former occasion within our recent experience.

"The satisfactory state of the trade and commerce of the country, and of the public revenue, fully justifies the expectation that, notwithstanding the reductions in taxation, which were made in the last session, and which, when they shall have taken full effect, will tend to diminish the existing surplus of the public revenue, there will remain a sufficient balance to meet the additional annual charge which will arise from providing the compensation granted by Parliament on account of the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions.

"I deeply lament that the agricultural interest continues in a state of great depression.

"I recommend to your consideration whether it may not be in your power, after providing for the exigencies of the public service, and consistently with the steadfast maintenance of the public credit, to devise a method for mitigating the pressure of those local charges which bear heavily on the owners and occupiers of land, and for distributing the burden of them more equally over other descriptions of property.

"My Lords and Gentlemen, "The information received from the Governors of my Colonies, together with the acts passed, in execution of the law for the abolition of slavery, will be communicated to you. It is with much satisfaction that I have observed the general concurrence of the Colonial Legis latures in giving effect to this important measure; and, notwithstanding the difficulties with which the subject is necessarily attended, I have seen no reason to abate my earnest hopes of a favourable issue. Under all circumstances you may be assured of my anxious desire and unceasing efforts fully to realise the benevolent intentions of Parliament.

"There are many important subjects-some of which have already undergone partial discussion in Parliament-the adjustment of which, at as early a period as is consistent with the mature consideration of them, would be of great advantage to the public interests.

"Among the first in point of urgency is the state of the tithe question in Ireland, and the means of effecting an equitable and final adjustment of it.

"Measures will be proposed for your consideration, which will have for their respective objects-to promote the commutation of tithe in England and Wales, to improve our civil jurisprudence and the administration of justice in Ecclesiastical Causes, to make provision for the more effectual maintenance of Ecclesiastical Discipline, and to relieve those who dissent from the doctrines or discipline of the church from the necessity of celebrating the ceremony of marriage according to its rites.

"I have not yet received the report from the Commissioners ap

pointed to inquire into the state of the Municipal Corporations, but I have reason to believe that it will be made, and that I shall be enabled to communicate it to you at an early period.

"I have appointed a Commission for considering the state of the several dioceses in England and Wales, with reference to the amount of their revenues, and to the more equal distribution of episcopal duties; the state of the several cathedral and collegiate churches, with a view to the suggestion of such measures as may render them most conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church; and for devising the best mode of providing for the cure of souls, with reference to the residence of the clergy on their respestive bene

fices.

"The especial object which I have in view in the appointment of this Commission is, to extend more widely the means of religious worship according to the doctrines of the Established Church, and to confirm its hold upon the veneration and affections of my people.

"I feel it also incumbent upon me to call your attention to the condition of the church of Scotland, and to the means by which it may be enabled to increase the opportunities of religious worship, for the poorer classes of society in that part of the United Kingdom.

"It has been my duty on this occasion to direct your consideration to various important matters connected with our domestic policy.

I rely with entire confidence on your willing co-operation In perfecting all such measures as may be calculated to remove just causes of complaint, and to promote the

concord and happiness of my subjects.

"I rely also, with equal confidence, on the caution and circumspection with which you will apply yourselves to the alteration of laws, which affect very extensive and complicated interests, and are interwoven with ancient usages, to which the habits and feelings of my people have conformed.

"I feel assured that it will be our common object in supplying that which may be defective, or in renovating that which may be impaired, to strengthen the foundations of those institutions in Church and State, which are the inheritance and birth-right of my people; and which, amidst all the vicissitudes of public affairs, have proved under the blessings of Almighty God, the surest guarantees of their liberties, their rights, and their religion."

In the Peers, the address which, as usual was an echo of the speech, was moved by the Earl of Hardwicke, and seconded by Lord Gage. Lord Melbourne moved an amendment in the same terms with that which we shall immediately have to notice as having been proposed in the House of Commons, extremely undecided in its character, and apparently framed for the very purpose of catching stray votes by being so constructed that even its success could not lead to the resignation of the ministry. The speech, with which lord Melbourne introduced it, gave no information regarding what had occurred at the dismissal of his administration, and was principally occupied in blaming the late dissolution of Parliament, a measure with which the opposition could have no substantial reason for finding fault, except that it had

greatly diminished their numbers. After expressing his surprise that the speech from the throne had made no mention of the change of ministry, he attacked the conduct of the Duke of Wellington in having held at one and the same time the office of first lord of the Treasury and the seals of the three great departments of the state. He admitted that his grace had assumed these offices only for a temporary purpose, and that his doing so would be defended on the ground of the necessity and urgency of the case; but it lay with the duke of Wellington to justify that necessity. This union of offices was incompatible with the principles of the constitution; it placed in the hands of one man, without check or control, all the powers and all the pecuniary resources of the empire. He would not say, that the duke had taken these offices with such an intention that would have been a high misdemeanour; but it would be a matter of consideration for their Lordships to specify the extraordinary circumstances under which these offices had been held, in order to prevent it from being drawn into a dangerous precedent. The dissolution of Parliament his lordship treated as an extraordinary step, disturbing the tranquillity of the country without any intelligible reason except that the new ministers, being set against reform, could not proceed with a House of Commons pledged to reform. In a speech delivered by sir Robert Peel at a dinner given to the ministers at the Mansion-House in December preceding, he had referred to the calm and tranquillity which had existed in the country since the downfal of the ministry, as proving that this event was not one which the nation thought re

quired or would justify any degree of excitement. "We are tired of agitation," he had said, "we are tired of that state of continued excitement, the effect of which in private life is to withdraw men from their proper business, and, in public life, to consume the energies of public men in other than their proper duties. We hate the pressure from without. We are content that the public will should be expressed through authorized and constitutional organs." These said Lord Melbourne, were the very reasons against a dissolution. What could produce agitation more effectually than a general election? What could more completely take private men from their business, and public men from their duties? What could more effectually cause the pressure from without than a general election, which brought the influence of the people immediately to bear on their recognized and constitutional organs? He was aware there were precedents for such dissolutions. They had occurred in 1804, 1807, and 1831, but the defence of these dissolutions was to be found in the success with which they were attended. In the present instance, the government had met with more success than it had expected, and yet not with so much as they required; and if dangers should arise, they would be attributable solely to the dissolution of the late parliament. That parliament had not been elected, like the Parliament of 1831, at a time of great public excitement. The great majority of its members had been returned with professions of reform on their lips, from which it was to be inferred that such was the general feeling of the country. If then, the new ministry were prepared to

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