§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLrose and spoke as follows:—Mr. Speaker;—Sir, after the occurrences of last Friday night the House will be prepared for the announcement I have now to make. At a meeting of Her Majesty's servants on Saturday we considered what course it was incumbent on us to pursue. It appeared to us that it was impossible for us to carry on satisfactorily the business of the Government in this House after the event of the preceding night. We considered the alternative of advising Her Majesty to use Her prerogative to dissolve Parliament. But we conceived that there were such grave objections to such a course, that we declined to advise the Crown to take that step. We therefore determined, promptly and humbly, to lay our resignations before Her Majesty, which I accordingly did on the same afternoon. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept our resignations, and has since sent for the Earl of Derby, who, I understand, has undertaken the task of forming a Government. And, therefore, we now only hold office until our successors are appointed by Her Majesty. Sir, after this statement, I do not wish to recur to the various events which have taken place since the commencement of the Session, and which may form, perhaps, the subject of debate hereafter. But, Sir, I cannot conclude what I have to say on this occasion, without expressing my sincere thanks to those hon. Gentlemen who have supported Her Majesty's Government, and who, during upwards of five years, have enabled me to sustain a burden to which, I must confess, I was otherwise totally unequal. Having their confidence, and having had the advantage of their support, I have been enabled, during that period, so to conduct affairs, that we shall not leave them, now, in any great branch of our domestic or our foreign relations, in a situation of which we need be at all ashamed. I wish further to say, with respect to one of my Colleagues to whom I am particularly indebted, that it is to the temperate wisdom and to the respected character of the Marquess of Lansdowne that the Government have owed the facility of being enabled to carry measures of great impor- 888 tance through the House of Lords, where a Ministry composed of the party to which I belong does not usually command the support of a majority. Sir, as I have said I do not wish to recur to past events, or indeed to dwell upon anything which may raise a difference of opinion now in this House. As to the future, I shall only say that I shall think it my duty to oppose, out of office, as I have opposed in office, any restoration of the duties on corn, whether under the name of protection or of revenue. That I shall think it my duty to support an extension of the suffrage to those who are fitted to exercise the franchise for the welfare of the country, believing as I do that such an extension will add strength and solidity to our Parliamentary system. I will say further that I shall always use the little influence that I may possess, for the maintenance of the blessings of peace. I have only further to say that, since I came into the House, I have had a communication from the Earl of Derby, stating that it is his wish, for the convenience of the official arrangements which he has been charged to make by Her Majesty, that this House should adjourn till Friday next. In compliance with that wish, and for the promotion of the public convenience, I, therefore, now move that this House at its rising do adjourn to Friday next.
§ MR. HUMEsaid, it was only fit and proper that those who were entrusted with the formation of the Ministry should have time to make their arrangements. What he rose for was simply to express a hope that the House, when it met on Friday next, would have the opportunity of hearing from the new Ministry an explanation of the policy on which they proposed to carry on the Government. He said this because he had heard a rumour that it was intended that that House should not have the opportunity of meeting again. For himself, he was not wedded to party. If they brought in good measures he should support them, and if they brought in bad measures he should oppose them. He was not wedded to either party, but was the strenuous advocate of liberal measures, carrying out free trade further than it was now carried; and he could only say he should be sadly disappointed if he did not hear from Her Majesty's intended Ministers some explanation of what they meant to do. If they were hostile to free trade, let them have the candour to state it, but do not let them go to the country 889 without a knowledge of what their policy was to be.
§ The House adjourned at a quarter before Six o'clock till Friday.