The Lord Chancellorsaid, he had now to present a Petition to their Lordships, from the county of Cornwall, also praying for Reform in Parliament; and in so doing he would take the opportunity of correcting an error which seemed to have gone abroad respecting the motion which was to be brought forward on Reform in another place, by his noble friend the Paymaster of the Forces (Lord J. Russell). In communications made to him on this subject, he had been asked, whether the plan to be submitted was the plan of Lord J. Russell, to which the Ministers would give their support, or whether the noble Lord was only the organ through which the plan of Ministers was to be submitted? He now answered, that the plan which his noble friend, the Paymaster of the Forces, would bring forward, was altogether the plan of Ministers, as much as if it had to be introduced by the noble Lord who represented the Government in this or the other House of Parliament. From the prominent part taken by the noble Lord on that subject, it was considered that the plan of Ministers might, with great propriety, be placed in his hands. A similar course was adopted under the Rockingham Administration, when a plan, avowedly that of Ministers, was brought forward by the Paymaster of the Forces.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.