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fare of the community; and I have had much satisfaction in sanctioning your wise and benevolent intentions, by giving my assent to the act for the amendment and better administration of the laws relating to the poor of England and Wales. It will be my duty to provide that the authority necessarily vested in commissioners nominated by the crown, be exercised with temperance and caution; and I entertain a confident expec tation that its prudent and judicious application, as well as the discreet enforcement of the other provisions of the act, will by degrees remedy the evils which at present prevail, and whilst they elevate the character, will increase the comforts and improve the condition, of my people. The amendment of the law is one of your first and most important duties, and I rejoice to perceive that it has occupied so much of your attention. The establishment of a central court for the trial of offences in the metropolis and its neighbourhood, will, I trust, improve the administration of justice within the populous sphere of its jurisdiction, and afford a useful example to every other part of the kingdom.

To the important subjects of our jurisprudence and of our municipal corporations your attention will naturally be directed early in the next session. You may always rest assured of my disposition to co-operate with you in such useful reformations.

The inanity of the speech was ridiculed by the following parody in the Times newspaper:

"My Lords and Gentlemen, "It is with a deep sense of the exertion and labour which you have bestowed in the prosecution of your plea

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

"I thank you for the readiness with which you have granted the supplies. The estimates laid before you were somewhat lower than those of former years, although they included several extraordinary charges which will not again occur. The same course of economy will still be steadily pursued. The continued increase of the revenue, notwithstanding the repeal of so many taxes, affords the surest proof that the resources of the country are unimpaired, and justifies the expectation that a perseverance in judicious and well-considered measures will still further promote the industry and augment the wealth of my people.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"It gives me great gratification to believe, that in returning to your several counties, you will find a prevalence of general tranquillity, and of active industry amongst all classes of society. I humbly hope that Divine Providence will vouchsafe a continuance and increase of these blessings; and in any circumstances which may arise, I shall rely with confidence upon your zeal and fidelity; and I rest satisfied that you will inculcate and encourage that obedience to the laws, and that observance of the duties of religion and morality, which are the only secure foundations of the power and happiness of empires.”*

sures that I at length close this protracted session, and release you from attendance. I am fully sensible of the application you have given to the business of Crockford's, and of the ardent support you have afforded to the whist table at the Travellers', as well as to

Before the prorogation of parliament, the weakness and vacillation of the Ministry had been apparent; from the moment of Lord Grey's resignation, the want of intrinsic power and steadiness had rendered them dependent for their existence on the support of the radical faction, and of O'Connell's popish delegates: and this support was vouchsafed to them in such a way as tended to bring their government still more into contempt. The very men, whose

the more important parties at Graham's. I rely with entire confidence on your judgment and zeal in maintaining the cookery of our excellent kitchens according to the established principles of Ude.

"I continue to receive most favourable accounts of the white-bait dinners at Greenwich and Blackwall, and it is with great satisfaction that I have observed the two great parties in my parliament, encouraging those entertainments so peculiarly national, and showing agreement in a matter of taste so important to the fisheries.

"I continue to receive from all my neighbours assurances that they are my most obedient humble servants at command, and it is with sincere pleasure that I find myself held by many in high consideration.

"As the autumn advances, there is reason to apprehend that the days will shorten and the leaves will fall, but I am not without confident hopes that the return of spring will bless us with length of days and restore vegetation.

"The Thames continues to run through London, and the Monument stands on Fish-street-hill. The prospects of the Regent's Park are improved, and my people will be partially admitted to the privilege of taking the air without swallowing the dust of the road; but to guard the sudden privilege of walking on the grass from licentiousness will be the anxious object of my government.

"The insanity of the dogs during the summer solstice has long been a subject to me of the profoundest grief and concern, but I trust that the committee which has devoted itself to the preven

votes continued them in office, avowed for them the most undisguised hatred and contempt. Between the end of the session and the month of October, O'Connell addressed a series of letters to lord Duncannon, in which every species of abuse was heaped upon the ministry and the Whigs."The Irish people" (thus he wrote) "complain loudly of the misconduct of the reforming administration' (called, for shortness, Whigs) towards them and their

tion of drunkenness will discover a method of removing the prejudice or delusion of my faithful dogs, and recon cile them to water.

"I have seen with a just indignation the racing of omnibuses, with which hundreds of my faithful subjects are pulverized, so that not even their names are left behind them. Persons living and well one instant, are run down, ground to powder, and flying in dust the next moment. These horrors are not unknown nor undeplored by me, and your attention will naturally be directed, early in the next session, to the adoption of some plan by which all my subjects will be enabled to ride in their own carriages.

"Gentlemen of the House of Com

mons.

"I thank you for your supplies. More money and less need of it is the anxious wish of my heart, and be assured that whatever you grant is well laid out, and that the profusest expenditure of which circumstances will permit is the wisest economy. The same course of frugality which has been proposed in my speeches and those of my predecessors for the last fifty years will be steadily pursued, but while it is pursued it is not in the nature of things that it should be possessed, and my people must consequently be satisfied with the pleasure of the chase.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"It gives me great satisfaction to believe, that in returning to your several counties you will find all at home well, and I rely with confidence on your setting a pretty example.

country. They allege, and they allege truly, that since earl Grey came into office, even to the present moment, nothing has been done for Ireland-no one advantage has been gained by the Irish people. Their enemies have been promoted and rewarded their friends have been calumniated and prosecuted. Never was there known a more ungenial or hostile domestic administration in Ireland than that which has subsisted since earl Grey first obtained office, and still subsists.... I am ready to give a detail of the follies, the faults, and the crimes' of the Whigs in Ireland. I will not 'set down aught in malice,' but I will give a full and unexaggerated detail of the principal acts of folly, fatuity, and crime, committed towards and against the people of Ireland by the ministry since November, 1830.....I have two objects in view. The first is to vindicate the popular party in Ireland from a charge repeatedly made against them of having, with out any just provocation, evinced hostility to the Whigs.'. . . My second object is to reconcile, if possible, the popular party in Ireland with the present ministryto make us part of your strength not of your weakness, and in particular to strengthen the ministry in the approaching collision with the house of Lords. The reform of that house is essentially necessary to the establishment and security of popular freedom. I most anxiously desire to assist you in that peaceable struggle by which the house of Peers is, I trust, shortly to yield to common sense, and be converted by law into an elective senate, subject to the necessary control of public opinion." In another letter dated the 11th

of October, he began in the following manner:

แ My lord-I write more in sorrow than in anger-more in regret than in hostility. It is true that you have deceived me-bitterly and cruelly deceived Ireland. But we should have known you better. You belong to the Whigs, and after four years of the most emaciating experience we ought, indeed, to have known that Ireland had no thing to expect from the Whigs, but insolent contempt, and malig nant but treacherous hostility."

While the apostles of agitation thus openly domineered over the constituted authorities, there was little probability that the social state of Ireland should improve. Outrages were still frequent; throughout the greater part of the country it was nugatory to endeavour to enforce the payment of tithes; and the attempt in some instances led to melancholy results. One of the most deplorable of the affrays thus occasioned took place towards the end of the year at Rathcormack. On the 4th of November the impropriator of tithes in the parish of Castle Lyons represented to the Irish government, that the men whom he had employed to serve notices on the landholders of the parish, for the payment of the sums due to him, had met with very injurious treatment; and he requested that troops might accompany the civil power to protect the persons so employed by him. This request was repeated on the 11th of November by the magistrates assembled at the petty sessions of Rathcormack; and they were informed by Mr. Littleton in reply, that the officer in command of the troops in that neighbourhood would be instructed to order the

attendance of such a body of soldiers as might be necessary. On the 17th of November, in consequence of a more serious outrage upon a person employed by the impropriator, the magistrates repeated their request to the government: on the 25th of November, the magistrates were informed that troops were ordered to attend ; and on their requisition, a party of troops was furnished on the 15th of December. On that day every disposition to resist was shown by the country people; but although it was necessary to read the riot act, the persons employed in the collection of the tithe succeeded in levying part of the sums due. On the 18th, however, a larger number of persons assembled, and attempted to obstruct the magistrates, and the civil and military force which accompanied them. The end of a lane, which led to a farm-house, was blocked up by a car and a body of about 600 men resisted its removal and the further progress of the party. Orders were given by the magistrates to clear the passage; the violence of the people became greater. The riot act was then read. The troops were assailed by vollies of stones; some of the soldiers and officers were knocked down; and after every attempt to persuade the people to disperse had failed, the magistrates ordered the troops to fire. They fired; and a considerable number of the mob were wounded, and several killed.

It was not wonderful that such scenes should occur among a people, who were taught by their most dignified and influential religious instructors, that the laws of their country were of no binding obligation, and that to conspire to resist them was the first of

duties. Dr. M'Hale had been elevated to the see of Tuam ; and since the death of Dr. Doyle had stood forth as the most strenuous advocate of Irish Pope. ry. In a letter full of fustian and bombast, addressed to the Duke of Wellington, which he published about this time, he propounded the following doctrines: "Your grace is not, I trust, one of those persons who imagine that the mere will of a sovereign or his ministers imposes the obligation of law; nor is it, I trust, your impression, that every enactment brings with it that solemn sanction, provided it is passed by a majority of the senate. No, my lord, all the united authorities of the sovereign and the senate, can never annex the conscientious ob ligations of the law to enactments that are contrary to right, reason, and justice; and hence the stubborn and unconquerable mutiny of the minds of the people of Ireland against those odious acts (I will not call them laws) which have ever forced them to pay tribute to the teachers of an adverse creed." The letter conclud. ed with this passage :-" Com. positions and land taxes in lieu of tithes are all vain artifices. If the landlords take on them the payment of tithes, and attempt to charge them on the tenantry, then the landlords will be conspiring against the payment of their rents, nor need they any more dangerous combination, I shall freely declare my own resolve. I have leased a small farm just sufficient to qualify me for the exercise of the franchise, in order to assist my countrymen in returning those, and those alone, who will be their friends, instead of what their representatives usually

were, their bitterest enemies. I must therefore confess, that after paying the landlord his rent, neither to parson, nor proctor, nor landlord, nor agent, nor any other individual shall I consent to pay, in the shape of tithe or any other tax, a penny which shall go to the support of the greatest nuisance in this or any other country."

A circumstance, which contributed not a little to lower the reputation of the ministry, even with those who were favorable to liberal measures, was the hostility evinced to them by a considerable portion of the public press. There was scarcely a daily newspaper, except the Morning Chronicle, which did not occasionally express contempt for them: The Times in particular exposed their feebleness and their incapacity to carry on the government on any fixed set of principles and it drew the attention of the public to the strange vagaries and inconsistencies in which the lord chancellor indulged. Lord Brougham's own conduct tended not a little to bring his colleagues into contempt. He spent the autumn in traversing different parts of Scotland, making speeches wherever hearers were to be found. This would not have been very decorous in so grave and distinguished a functionary, even if the matter uttered had been unobjectionable; but too often both the substance and the language were such as sober reason could not approve or justify. At one place his lordship would not hesitate to go the utmost lengths of ultra-radicalism; in another, he would speak in such a way as would have induced the conservatives to hail him as their own to day,the house of peers would be the subject of his eulogy: to

morrow it would be held up to scorn and ridicule. Sometimes the violations of decency became ludicrous. At Inverness his lordship assured his audience, that he would write to the king by that night's post to inform his majesty of the loyal sentiments they entertained,

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The death of earl Spencer, which took place on the 10th of November, hastened that dissolution of the ministry, which, in the natural course of things, could not have been long delayed. As that event removed lord Althorp to the House of Lords, it was requisite to find a new chancellor of the Exchequer, and a new leader of the House of Commons. On Friday, the 14th of November, lord Melbourne waited on the king at Brighton, to submit to his majesty the changes in official appointments which the death of earl Spencer had rendered necessary. Lord John Russell was the individual selected to be the leader of the House of Commons. It appeared to the king, that the public business could not be car-. ried on by a ministry, such as it was proposed to construct; and he expressed, it is said, his opinion that Lord Brougham could not continue chancellor, as well as his dissatisfaction with the selection of the members of the cabinet who were to frame the Irish Church bill. He therefore announced to Lord Melbourne that he should not impose upon him the task of completing the official arrangements, but would apply to the Duke of Wellington; and accordingly a letter to sir Henry Wheatley, enclosing another to his grace, was transmitted to London on the same evening by lord Melbourne or one of his

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