Mr. Francis Baring, in moving the adjournment of the House, said, he was sorry to find the gallant Colonel (Colonel Sibthorp) ready to start any objection to it. If he thought that the same objection was entertained generally on the other side of the House, he should, without introducing any topics that could occasion a debate, feel it right to say, that the time proposed for the adjournment was only such as was absolutely necessary for the making the returns to the writs he had just moved. He would take, for instance, the case of his noble Friend, Lord Morpeth. In that case it was in the power of the Sheriff to make the writ not returnable till even after the day to which it was proposed that the House should adjourn. He did not say it was probable it would be so, but as the thing might happen, it was but fair to give a sufficiently long adjournment to meet any case of the kind, if it should arise. Besides, even if it should so occur that his noble Friend, and his other hon. Friends who had accepted office, should, after their return, have a day or two to themselves before meeting that House, he did not think that hon. Gentlemen opposite, who knew the extreme difficulty attendant upon the first entering into office, and making the arrangements, and determining as to the mode of carrying on the public business—he did not think, he repeated, that they would consider a delay of two or three days, under such circumstances, a very great one. There would not, in point of fact, be the slightest real delay in carrying on the public business in consequence of the proposed adjournment. In granting a somewhat long adjournment under such circumstances, the House would not be doing anything unusual. In the case of Mr. Canning, where a number of new writs had to be issued in consequence of a dissolution somewhat like that of the late Government, an adjournment for about a similar period was proposed, and granted for the same purpose—that of making the arrangements required by the accession of a new Government to office. He hoped, therefore, that no real objection would be taken by the House to the Motion with which he begged leave to conclude—that the House 1007 on its rising do adjourn to Tuesday, the 12th of May.
§ Colonel Sibthorpsaid, that he saw no reason in what had been stated by the hon. Gentleman why he should not persist in entering his sincere and humble protest against the proposition just made. The hon. Gentleman had stated truly, that those Gentlemen would require time for making their arrangements, but he would tell him that they would require, not three weeks, but as many months, before they would be what he called comfortable in their offices, and before they could enter and sit upon their new, and, as he trusted they would always be to them, thorny seats. Many months would elapse before that could take place, and he hoped in the meanwhile they would be obliged to give way to men who would afford more satisfaction to the country. When he looked at the gracious speech of his Majesty from the Throne, which promised so much relief to the agricultural interests,—when he looked also at the state of trade which was never so bad, for you could not go into the city of London without hearing continual complaints on the subject,—when he saw agriculture without hope, and trade without support,—when he looked forward to a renewal of the grand fructifying system of the right hon. Gentleman, the new President of the Board of Trade (but who, he hoped would not long occupy that office),—when he looked forward to the opening of the ports, and the inundating of the country with foreign corn,—when he saw those twenty-three Gentlemen now going to enter the lists like racing horses, but not like horses of true mettle, but like splintered, spavined, broken-winded racers, with not a single sound one amongst them,—when he saw such a state of things, when he saw the country in such a condition, he thought it was a hopeless case, and his sense of duty to his constituents and the public induced him to protest against a Motion in every respect so unjustifiable. When, too, he read the statements he did in the newspapers, he would not accuse any man of telling an untruth, but this he would say, that he never could, and that he never would, believe, that the hon. and learned Gentleman opposite (Mr. O'Connell) would have held up his hat the other evening,—would have put on those happy smiles, and that pleasing countenance he then assumed, and would have 1008 stepped forward to correct the hon. Gentleman in moving one of the new writs (for Dungarvon) if he had not been a prompter and adviser in the things that had taken place. Mr. Baring, in moving the writ called Mr. O'Loughlin, Serjeant, which Mr. O'Connell corrected. He (Colonel Sibthorp) had another objection to the proposed adjournment, as it would again oblige him to put off a motion that he had frequently endeavoured to bring in, for the appointment of a Select Committee in reference to the Ecclesiastical Courts' Bill. He was no party man—he had never acted from party feelings, but he must say, that he did not like the countenances of the Gentlemen opposite, for he believed them to be the index of their minds. He should, therefore, upon principle, oppose them upon every point, being firmly convinced that they could do nothing to satisfy the people, to benefit the country, or to promote the dignity of the Crown; and he would only say, in conclusion, that he earnestly hoped that God would grant the country a speedy deliverance from such a band.
Mr. O'Connellsaid, that he could not quarrel with the observations of the gallant Colonel, they were delivered with so much good humour, and were, like everything that fell from him, couched in the language of gentlemanly politeness. But, in one point at least, he must differ with the gallant Colonel. They who sat on that (the Ministerial) side of the House, certainly had not such remarkable countenances as the gallant Colonel and his friends around him on the opposite benches. The hon. Members opposite had the advantage of him and his friends in that respect. He would not abate the gallant Colonel a single hair in point of good humour on that or any other occasion. It was pleasant to have those things discussed in good temper, and with the politeness which characterized the gallant Colonel. Elsewhere they might be treated in a different style, and with perfect impunity, too. Elsewhere men degraded by the Resolution of that House as unfit to hold office, might presume to talk of the Irish Representatives in a manner highly unbecoming any man, and exceedingly indecent on the part of the Member of an august assembly—an indecency that would be insufferable if it were not ridiculous. There was no creature, half idiot, half maniac, it would seem, 1009 elsewhere, that did not think himself entitled to use language there which he knew he would not be allowed to use in other places. The bloated buffoon, too, who had talked of them as he did, might learn the distinction between independent men and those whose votes were not worth purchasing, even if they were in the market. He thanked the gallant Colonel for the good humour with which he had introduced this matter; and if he could not have the gallant Colonel as a friend, it was pleasant to have him as an enemy.
§ Mr. Sinclairregretted, that the hon. and learned member had followed up his eulogium on politeness, and good humour, by a tissue of offensive personalities, on individuals not present to defend themselves.—He had always admired, and had himself long since adopted, the principle laid down by his learned Friend, of never being induced to sanction the practice of what the world calls, giving satisfaction.—But for that very reason, it was peculiarly incumbent upon both to avoid such expressions as could hurt the feelings of others, and lead them to seek that redress, which the assailant was determined not to grant. He had refrained from hazarding any remarks as to the new, or rather renovated, ministerial edifice, until the complete elevation stood before the public in all the stateliness of its outline, and in all the symmetry of its proportions. The three divisions of the empire had contributed their respective quotas, towards promoting its stability, and providing for its embellishment. It must be admitted that consummate discretion and admirable dexterity had been displayed, not only in the choice, but in the exclusion of certain materials: some hypocrites had expected to see the main building supported by a colossal column of basalt, from the Giant's Causeway.
§ Mr. Methuenrose to order.—he could not see what the Giant's Causeway had to do with the Question before the House.—[go on—go on].
§ Mr. Sinclairproceeded—He believed that if he dug a trench deep enough to reach the foundations, he would find the corner stone of the edifice so entirely composed of that substance, that, if this support were taken away, the whole would at once be laid prostrate on the earth.—The fabric of this late Government was now destroyed—What a number of anxious days and sleepless nights the prospect, 1010 and still more the accomplishment of that catastrophe must have occasioned to the noble Secretary at War, who, on two memorable occasions, had declared that he should consider that event as a misfortune. Now however, like Marius on the ruins of Carthage, he may wander amid the storied urns and broken columns, indulging in a lugubrious soliloquy on the instability of human greatness, unless the official syrup which had now been administered, should operate as a soothing and salutary anodyne, to calm his perturbed spirits.—With respect to his right hon. Friend, the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, he must take the liberty to observe, that no one ever quitted office with a more unblemished character, or a more established reputation.—The lynx-eyed vigilance of party had never accused him of jobbing or of nepotism.—He had shewn a zeal beyond all praise, and an integrity beyond all suspicion, a talent which no difficulties could perplex, an eloquence which no efforts could exhaust, and a courage which no discomfiture could intimidate. He could not deny that, in paying this humble tribute, to his right hon. Friend, he was not entirely divested of personal feeling.—He had witnessed, in early life, the brilliant dawn of those abilities, which since then, in their meridian brightness, had attracted the world's admiration.—He had often foretold that there was no situation however exalted, to which his right hon. Friend was not justified in aspiring. The need of public respect awarded to him had increased in proportion to the responsibility and importance of the offices which he was respectively called upon to fill. And when he had for a few months been placed at the pinnacle of power, he had been enabled to arrive also at the zenith of popularity.—He, though separated, but not estranged, from his right hon. Friend, by an honest difference of opinion upon certain great political subjects, had witnessed his brilliant and useful career, without the meanness of envy, or the folly of emulation; and when the Questions on which they had chiefly differed, had been adjusted, he had been happy to assist in ensuring to the Government of his right hon. Friend, a fair trial, by pausing before he censured, and listening before he condemned. With respect to the new administration, he was afraid that they would find their position, both painful and embarrassing—they would 1011 feel themselves compelled to pursue a dubious, and vacillating course, now veering towards the Radical reefs of Scylla, and then tacking towards the Conservative quicksands of Charybdis.—They would be halting between the court and the Radicals, anxious to keep well with the one, and yet afraid to break with the other: bold enough to alarm the Tories, and yet too timid to satisfy the Destructives; the consequence of which at length would be, that at an early period of the ensuing session, if not before, on some day which he left to be settled in the next edition of Moore's planetary almanack, an ominous and temporary conjunction would take place between the Wellington Mars, and the O'Connell Jupiter, with all his tributary satellites, a motion would be made, perhaps by the Member for Kent, and seconded by Mr. O'Dwyer, the late and probably future Representative of Drogheda, that the House has no confidence in his Majesty's Ministers, and on a division the numbers would appear:—Ayes, 426; Noes, 197—Majority, 229. They had formerly complained of the pressure of adversaries from without; they had now to dread the importunity of confederates from within, who were rather anti-tory than pro-whig, and with whom on a sudden thought striking them, they had sworn a temporary friendship, but whose permanent support they could only purchase by such sacrifices as they themselves would shrink from consenting to. He had no objection to the length of the proposed adjournment; it would ena- 1012 ble the ministers calmly to prepare, and mature their measures and plans, and would afford to the Members of the House, a welcome opportunity to relax from their past, and prepare for their future labours.
§ Mr. Charles Buller, not seeing any of the late law officers of the crown present, begged to ask the right hon. gentleman opposite, if it was the intention of the Members of the late Government to go forward after the recess with an important bill they had introduced—he meant the Ecclesiastical Courts' Bill.
§ Sir Henry Hardingesaid, that the very reason which the hon. Member had given for asking him the question—namely, the absence of the late law officers of the Crown—prevented him, from being able to answer the question.
§ The Motion for Adjournment carried.