REFORM—PETITIONS. (Hansard, 20 October 1831)

Colonel Evans
presented a Petition from Mr. F. Clayton, praying that the House would vote an Address to the King, requesting his Majesty to exercise his royal prerogative by creating such a number of Peers as might be thought requisite for the success of a new Reform Bill. The petitioner further prayed, that the Bishops might be disqualified from sitting as Spiritual Peers in the Upper House. The hon. and gallant Member expressed his concurrence in the sentiments avowed in the petition.

Mr. Hume
took this opportunity of observing that, in his opinion, the slight distrust which, perhaps, was felt by a portion of the public towards his Majesty's Ministers was occasioned, in no small degree, by the circumstance of their retaining in office men opposed to them in politics. If his Majesty's Ministers would be guided by the opinion of so humble an individual as himself, (for he considered the present was a time for them to act with promptitude and energy) he did not hesitate to say that, if he were at the head of the Government, forty-eight hours should not pass before he would remove every Lord-lieutenant of a county who opposed the Reform Bill. He was prepared to recommend the utmost decision and energy, which he considered was necessary to break down a political party which had been in power for so many years. There must be no more attempts at conciliation. The 930 tranquillity and happiness of the country depended on the speedy adjustment of the question of Reform, and Ministers, therefore, should not allow any motives of personal delicacy to interfere in the adjustment of a matter of such vital importance to the country.

§ Sir Charles Forbes
assured the hon. member for Middlesex, though agitation and intimidation seemed to be the order of the day, that honest men would not be deterred from doing their duty, and endeavouring to get the Bill lately before Parliament considerably modified. The hon. Member had alluded to Ministers retaining in office persons opposed to them. He did not think it was very just ground of complaint that the hon. Member's advice had not been acted upon. On a late occasion, the Ministers had removed a high officer in the Queen's Household (Earl Howe); and, if all they heard was to be relied upon—he repeated, that if all they heard, and what had been stated, was to be relied upon, that removal was contrary to the declared wishes both of the King and Queen, and had excited an extraordinary degree both of astonishment and disgust wherever the circumstances were known. He trusted that his Majesty's Ministers would not act again upon a principle so disgraceful, and that they would not be led away by the advice of the hon. member for Middlesex, who, by his own confession, had advised his fellow parishioners to withhold the payment of their rates.

§ Colonel Trench
thought the hon. member for Middlesex need have very little apprehension that his Majesty's Government would be deterred by any feelings of delicacy or propriety from adopting any proceeding calculated to promote their own measures. With respect to the Reform Bill, however, he contended that that there was a reaction in the public mind. It was manifest, by the return of his noble friend (Lord Ashley) for Dorsetshire, by a large majority of freeholders. He had reason to believe that this reaction was palpably manifesting itself throughout Ireland; and he hoped and trusted that the Bill would soon be as much in disfavour as it had ever been in favour with the country.

Sir Francis Burdett
fully agreed with the hon. member for Middlesex, that, at a time like this, all ordinary considerations ought to be laid aside, and that his Majesty's Government ought not to hesitate 931 in removing any persons from office who might evince a disposition to retard the success of the great measure of Reform. With respect to the sneer of the hon. and gallant Member (Colonel Trench) as to the want of propriety and delicacy on the part of his Majesty's Government, he could only say, that Ministers, in his opinion, would be only doing that which was most conducive to the weal of the realm, if they acted on all occasions precisely contrary to the advice of Gentlemen opposite. The remarks of the gallant Member, and of the hon. Baronet were so discreet and well-timed as to remind him forcibly of the proverb—"Protect me from my friends, and I will defend myself against my enemies." No Reformer could have made observations more injurious to the Antireform party. The hon. and gallant Member had alluded to the Dorsetshire election, for instance, and designated the majority by which the noble Lord (Ashley) was returned as a large majority. If he was well informed, if there had been another Assessor, the noble Lord would, in all probability, have had no majority; and, as it was, the majority was very small. He repeated, that his Majesty's Government should sacrifice every feeling for the promotion of the great measure of Reform; and if it was thought necessary to reassemble Parliament again very soon, he hoped the importance of the measure to be brought forward would induce the Irish Members, to whom the country owed so much for their diligent attendance during the present Session, to sacrifice their personal convenience, and appear again in their places on the first day of the ensuing Session of Parliament.

Lord Ashley
said, he did not expect that it would have been necessary for him to address the House so soon after taking his seat; still less did he anticipate that he should have been called upon to defend the Assessor, at the late election for Dorsetshire. He did not think it becoming of the hon. Baronet, considering his station, and experience, and his constitutional knowledge, to get up in his place, and throw out an insinuation on the character of the Assessor at a contested election, from whose decision there could be an appeal. In effect, the hon. Baronet brought the conduct of that Gentleman before the bar of that House although he did not summon him thither personally. The hon. Baronet seemed to insinuate, that he would not 932 have taken his seat in that House as member for Dorsetshire, had the Assessor impartially done his duty. Such an assumption, he could assure him, was most unreasonable and unjust, as it happened to be entirely destitute of foundation in fact. He was sure, upon cooler reflection, (if the hon. Baronet would pardon a much younger man for making such an observation) the hon. Baronet himself would regret that he had indulged in such a remark. It was impossible for him not to contend that a reaction had taken place in the public mind. If there had not been such a reaction, how happened it that, though he started only on the Wednesday, and appeared at the hustings on the Friday, and though his opponent (Mr. Ponsonby) had started fourteen days before, he (Lord Ashley) polled as many voters during the first two days as Mr. Bankes had done in the preceding election in six? If there had not been a reaction, how could it have happened that he received 500 votes more than Mr. Calcraft had received at the former election? There were many freeholders, who had walked twenty miles to the hustings and twenty miles back again, to poll for him, when they heard the cause on which he had started, without the slightest hope of remuneration. The Yeomanry of the county told him they would be his agents, and, in point of fact, they had been his agents. Many of the electors stated at the hustings—"We voted for the Reform candidate on the former occasion, but we are now satisfied the Bill was a great humbug." In illustration of this, he might state, that the inhabitants of the Isle of Portland, which island contained many freeholders, who had held their freeholds for a number of years, met to the number of 100, and agreed to petition the Lords against the Bill. The petition had been forwarded to the Duke of Wellington, and it contained these remarkable words—"We were deceived into the support of the Bill, in the first instance, by the abuse of the King's name." So far was the hon. Baronet from being correct in ascribing his success to the decisions of the Assessor, that he could inform the hon. Baronet, that his majority in fact would have amounted to more than 100, had no votes on either side been referred to his adjudication. He should not have trespassed on the House with these observations but for what had fallen from the hon. Baronet.

Sir Francis Burdett
, in explanation, assured the noble Lord that he had never meant to asperse the character of the Sheriff's Assessor. He had only alluded to what he had heard stated, that it was calculated, if the votes had not been delayed by the Assessor, that there would have been a majority of fifty-six for Mr. Ponsonby, instead of a majority for the noble Lord. He also begged the House to observe, that the election for Dorsetshire was a very slight symptom indeed of the real state of public opinion throughout the country.

§ Mr. George Bankes
hoped he might be allowed to mention the fact, that the same Gentleman was the Assessor at the late election, and at the former election, when the result was so different. In the mortification of defeat, some of Mr. Bankes's friends on the former occasion, were disposed to impugn the conduct of 934 the Assessor; but he said then what he repeated now, that he knew the Assessor, and that a more honourable man did not exist. If the Anti-reform party had not been taunted and challenged to come forward in Dorsetshire, he did not know that the experiment would have been tried; but, now that it had been successfully tried, the newspapers, which, before the election, were echoing the cry—"No Anti-reformer dare come forward for Dorset," were completely silent.