ment to bring forward, as a government, any one measure on any one of the topics adverted to in that speech. In respect of the topic first adverted to in the speeches of the noble lords-he meant that which related to the measure regarding the West-India colonies-no man would rejoice more than he in the success of the measure for the abolition of slavery. But he feared, that the noble lords who had moved and seconded the address were premature in stating, that the measure had been successful. The law passed in this country had effected, with regard to the negro population of the colonies, a change from a state of slavery to a state in which slavery did not exist. What Jamaica had done was, to adopt that law, but not to pass any measure by which that law was carried into execution. Jamaica had made no law to provide for the new state of society there, but had thrown the responsibility of making it on his majesty's ministers. As to our foreign relations, he assured the house, that there was no man whose voice was more sincerely favourable to the continuance of peace than his; it was essential to the interests of this country to remain at peace, and to ensure peace to other nations, both externally and internally. On these points, however, the government had not furnished any information. Holland and Belgium stood in the same situation now as they did two years ago; and if ministers acted on the same plan which they had adopted for the last two years and a-half, those countries would, ten years hence, be as far off from a settlement of their disputes as at present. In Portugal, the war was notoriously carried

on by the subjects and with the capital of this country. Yet the king of Spain was told, "In this contest you must be neutral; and if you are not, we will interfere and support don Pedro." Under the protection of our fleets in the Douro and the Tagus this boasted neutrality had been shamefully violated. The ministers ought, at a very early period, to have acknowledged the government then existing in Portugal. It was a government de facto, and as such ought to have been acknowledged. The monarch then reigning in Portugal performed his part of the treaties existing with this country, and we ought to have performed ours; but we did not. In Spain, Ferdinand thought proper to make an alteration in the succession to the crown, and don Carlos was expelled. Don Carlos was required to proceed to Italy. He refused, but he went to Portugal to seek assistance there. So that, in fact, the civil war in Spain grew out of the civil war in Portugal, which was fomented by us. He had formerly ventured to advise the government to issue a proclamation to recall his Majesty's subjects from the service of both parties as a means of preventing the evils which now existed; but his advice was disregarded. In the East, too, a most unfortunate line of policy had been adopted. He knew, that on a former occasion, when Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, was desired by this government not to carry into execution certain measures which he wished to effect, and when he was positively told that he must not proceed, he at once desisted. If this country wished to prevent him from carrying on war in any part of the Levant, we needed only to have a fleet there,

and our directions would be as readily obeyed by him now as formerly. If in 1832, or 1833, our ministers had plainly told Mehemet Ali that he was not to carry on hostile operations in Syria and Asia Minor, they would have put an end to the war without the presence of a Russian fleet and army at Constantinople. But instead of thus taking a commanding position, our fleets were in the Douro and the Tagus, protecting civil war, and in the channel, blockading the fleets of the Dutch. The consequence was, that our old allies, Holland, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, were placed under the protection of other powers.

After some remarks on the legality of the proceedings of the commissioners of municipal corporations, and objecting to the plan proposed by them of founding municipal constituencies, almost solely on the 107. franchise, his grace proceeded to state, that the sentiments expressed in the speeches which, during the recess, had been made by the friends and supporters of his majesty's government on the subject of tithes, at various meetings throughout the country, were such as were calculated to excite in the highest degree jealousy and suspicion; and he felt himself fully warranted in saying, that never had there been a question brought before their lordships, in which it was so necessary for them to be cautious in regard to the principles and proceedings of his majesty's government, as upon this question of church property. Two bills brought in by a most reverend prelate in a former session of Parliament-the one to regulate pluralities, and the other for the com

position of tithes,-had received the support of his majesty's ministers in that house: both were highly desirable measures for the purpose of conciliating the public mind; and yet, notwithstanding the omnipotent sway which the present government possessed and exercised over the other house of Parliament, it was not, somehow or other, able to get these bills passed through the house of Commons. There was another subject with regard to which the intentions of his majesty's government had not been stated in the speech from the Throne the Irish coercion bill. The greatest benefit had been derived by Ireland from that necessary and most salutary measure; and he therefore thought, that when his majesty's government came down to Parliament, and stated as they did in a paragraph of the speech from the Throne, that "the public tranquillity had been generally preserved, and that the state of all the provinces of Ireland presented upon the whole a much more favourable appearance than at any period during the last year," at the same time they should have informed Parliament, whether it was their intention to propose the renewal of that law, to which such desirable consequences were mainly attributable, and which, as their lordships were aware, would, if not renewed, expire at the end of the present session of Parliament. Their lordships knew only that ministers complained of the agitation which had been practised in Ireland on the subject of the Union. Now, he would repeat, that ministers should have told them whether it was their intention to propose the renewal of that measure, to which was owing

the case,

the restoration of something like peace and tranquillity in that part of the United Kingdom. He wished further to address to their lordships a few observations on the question of Irish tithes. With regard to any measure which it might be the intention of his majesty's government to bring forward on that subject, he begged in the first instance to say this-that, as far as he could learn, the clergy of the church of Ireland were at present precisely in the same miserable situation in which they had been for the last seventeen or eighteen months. If such was notwithstanding the measures which had been brought forward and passed on a former occasion in reference to the clergy of Ireland, he must say, that if that race of men was to be preserved at all, their lordships should lose no time in passing whatever measures were required to complete proper arrangements with respect to the church of Ireland. He believed, as he had already stated, that the clergy of the church of Ireland were at present in the most miserable and destitute condition. If, as he learned upon the best authority, they were reduced to the lowest ebb of distress, so much so that many of them had been obliged to let insurances, which they had formerly effected on their lives for the benefit of their families drop, and to abandon all the advantageous arrangements which, in several instances, they had in former years adopted with regard to their property, and that, in consequence of distress, many of them had been under the necessity of taking the boon which was held out to them them under most unfavourable circumstances by the government bill

of last session;-if, he repeated, such was the case, and he believed there was no doubt that it was so, their lordships, he was sure, would agree with him in thinking, that no time should be lost in bringing forward whatever measures were required to complete some arrangement with respect to the church of Ireland, and to rescue that most deserving race of men, the Irish Protestant clergy from such an unparalleled state of suffering and distress.

Earl Grey replied to the duke of Wellington's remarks upon his foreign policy, by stating, that don Miguel had not been recognised by his grace's administration;

that the ruin of Turkey was the consequence of the passage of the Balkan and the treaty of Adrianople; and that the still undecided question of the Netherlands and Portugal was a legacy bequeathed by the late administration to the present. But when he dated the downfall of Turkish independence, from the treaty of Adrianople, he did not go far enough back. He ought to have called to mind the liberal achievements, diplomatic and belligerent, of the Cabinet of 1827-achievements which he had admired and approved. He ought to have remembered the treaty of London, and the triumph of Navarino, which opened to Russian armies the defiles of Mount Hamus and the gates of Adrianople. Great Britain could not take part in a war upon the Danube; but the administration of that day did interfere, as far as it might; it interfered by negotiation for the protection of the Porte; and secured terms to the Sultan which might still have preserved his empire free from Russian control,

had it not been for the connivance, not to say encouragement, afforded by the French and British governments of the last two years, to the rebellion of the pacha of Egypt. So with respect to Belgium, the charge against the ministry was, that during three years and three months nothing had been done to effect a settlement, and that this country had been placed in relations to Holland utterly inconsistent with our national interests and the obligations imposed by treaties. The defence of lord Grey was, that the duke Wellington's administration had had two months to dispose of the Belgian question, and did not bring it to a close in that time.

of

On the subject of the church and of Ireland, the statements of the premier though vague, were somewhat more intelligible. He declared that he was a sincere friend, a devoted and zealous supporter of the church, and he would not for a single moment appear to encourage the theorists who were for separating church and state. Such designs he considered wild, extravagant, and dangerous. As far as real grievances were concerned, he felt anxious, and the heads of the church were also anxious, that any relief, which could reasonably be required, should be afforded to dissenters; but if the dissenters pressed for the destruction of the church establishment, he at once took his stand against them. For the sake of the church itself, he thought that the state of the establishment should be looked into, and that anything, of which complaints were justly made, should be corrected. But, at the same time, he well knew the difficulty of the subject, and his de

termination was, if he continued a member of the government when the period of reform arrived, to look at the matter with the utmost caution. The reform, which he contemplated, would be adopted with the view of supporting the establishment, and not for the purpose of injuring and destroying its foundations.

The noble duke had called on his majesty's government to declare whether they intended to continue the coercive (it might be more properly termed the protective) law which was passed in the last session of Parliament. That question, lord Grey said, was to a certain extent answered by the speech from the Throne. Government had expressed their decided intention to maintain inviolate the legislative union between England and Ireland as a firm bond of our national strength and safety; and his majesty had called upon Parliament and all his subjects to join in the adoption of measures for "putting an end to a system of excitement and violence which, while it continued, was destructive of the peace of society, and if successful must inevitably prove fatal to the honour and safety of the United Kingdom." The protective measure passed last year would not expire till the 1st of August; so that there was plenty of time to apply for its renewal, if necessary. had stated last year, on introducing this measure, that it was with pain and regret he proposed it to Parliament, and that it would be the happiest day of his life when he could say, that such a law was no longer required by the circumstances of the country. Circumstances admitting of the repeal of that measure, he was sorry to say, did not now exist; what might

He

be the state of Ireland a few months hence, he could not foresee, and he must decline answering as to the future conduct of government. This however he would say, that the king's government was determined to do its duty as hitherto, with the aid of Parliament, and supported by the country. When we considered, that at this very moment, notwithstanding the excitement referred to, and all the agitation and insecurity consequent upon it, the country was in a state of prosperity greater than any other country in the world-that trade and manufacture were improving -the prospect was of an encouraging nature. That the blessings of Providence should be marred and counteracted by a malignant spirit of disturbance, and that instead of prosperity, peace, and order, which were within our reach, the country should be subjected to the evils of excitement and violence, was not to be borne.

In the Commons the address was moved by Mr. S. Lefevre and seconded by Mr. Morrison, who gave a flattering picture of the prosperity of our manufactures. Colonel Evans complained, that the house and window taxes had not been repealed-applauded the neutrality of our Portuguese policy -expressed his hope that the commercial relations which Prussia was establishing with many of the German States, would not be allowed to have any injurious influence on our interests, and his dissatisfaction with the conduct of Russia in relation to Turkish affairs and regretted that he had ever taken any part in supporting the government, more especially as in that house that reformed

there were

house of Commons still upwards of 100 placemen, pensioners, and sinecurists.

Mr. Hume said, there was in the speech a good deal about the independence of Turkey, and something about Portugal, and something about regret; but of poor tax-ridden England not one word. This preface he followed up by a string of desultory remarks, in his usual style, on his usual topics; and concluded by moving as an amendment—“That the house would take into its immediate and serious consideration the state of the established church as regarded its temporalities and the maintenance of the clergy; and also with a view to the removal of those complaints which arose out of the mode in which tithes and church-rates were levied, in order to accomplishing such changes in them as might give effectual relief, not only to the members of the established church themselves, but to those conscientious dissenters who suffered under the present state of the law, thus carrying into effect the recommendation which proceeded from the throne at the commencement of the last session." The amendment was negatived by 191 votes to 39.

Mr. Hume then moved, that instead of the second paragraph in the address expressive of the satisfaction of the House at " uninterrupted enjoyment of the blessings of peace," the following words should be introduced :-"That this house pledges itself to cause such reductions to be made in all the civil, military, and naval establishments, as shall bring home to all his majesty's subjects an immediate and large reduction of taxation, the practical advantages and blessings of a continued peace,