Lords Sitting of 27 April 1843

MINUTES.
BILLS.Public.—.1a. Testimony In the Colonies Common Law Courts Act Amendment; Law of Succession in Moveables Amendment (Scotland).
2a. Schoolmasters Widow's Fund (Scotland).
Private.—1a. Cromford and High Peak Railway; St. Helen's Water Works.
2a. London and Brighton Railway.
PETITIONS PRESENTED. By Earl Stanhope, from Dublin, against any further Grant to Maynooth College.—By the Bishop of Ruchester, and Durham, from the Isle of Ely, Lindsfarne, Hertingfordbury, Stapleford, Bramfield, Stapleford, Bramfield. Secombe St. Andrew's, Hertford, Stockton-upon-Tees, wells Wolverhampton, Llansannan, Gravesend, Milton, North Ewell, West Andover, and Fordingbridge, against the Union of the seek of St. Asaph and Bangor.—From Worcester, for Medical Reform—From the Prisoners for Debt in the Queen's Prison, for Postponing the Operation of the Queen's Prison Act — From Nottingham, and Beverley, against the Bankrupt Law Amendment Act. — From Harting, Trotton, Terwick, Rogate, and Bepton, against the importation of Corn from Canada at a Low Duly.

ADDRESS OF CONDOLENCE—THE LATE DUKE OF SUSSEX.
The Duke of Wellington: My Lords, I now proceed, in conformity with the notice which I gave on Tuesday last, to more your Lordships to agree to an Address to her Majesty, expressive of your Lordships' deep concern on the occasion of the death of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, and of your condolence with her Majesty on the lots which the has sustained. My Lords, his late Royal Highness was well known to all your Lordships'. His Royal Highness frequently took part in the discussion of those subjects which come under your Lordships' consideration; and although it was impossible for every person endowed with such acquirements, and possessed of such an understanding, as belonged to his late Royal Highness, not to have felt strongly on the various events and questions which from time to time were brought under the consideration of this House, yet we ought to recollect that his late Royal Highness had always treated those subjects, however exciting they might have been, with much moderation, and with great forbearance towards the feelings of others with whom he
998
might have a difference of opinion. I must do his late Royal Highness the justice to say, that though I had the unhappiness to differ from him in opinion on various subjects which came under discussion in this House, yet, notwithstanding that difference of opinion, his late Royal Highness ever treated me with unvarying kindness, and with the utmost condescension. My Lords, his late Royal Highness having received the benefit of an excellent education, and having in his youth passed a considerable portion of his time in foreign countries, was a most accomplished man; and he continued his studies, in all branches of literature and science, until almost the latest period of his existence. His late Royal Highness was during his whole life the protector of literature, of the sciences, and of the arts, and of the professors and representatives of all branches of knowledge. For a number of years his Royal Highness was elected president of the Royal Society, and he received the members of that learned body in his house with the greatest amenity and kindness. Having himself sedulously cultivated all subjects of literature, science, and art, his late Royal Highness was, I may say, tire patron, protector, and friend of all those who pursued such studies, on every occasion when that protection was necessary. But other praise belongs to his late Royal Highness. His Royal Highness was not backward— on the contrary, he was equally forward with all the princes of his family— as a patron and upholder, as a supporter and protector, of the various charitable institutions of this great metropolis; and, my Lords, up to the last moment of his life, he was the friend of the indigent and the unfortunate wherever they might be found. Under these circumstances, I hope your Lordships will be induced to agree to offer to her Majesty an address expressive of your condolence for the loss which she has sustained. I shall therefore move—
"That an humble Address be presented to her Majesty, to express the deep concern of this House at the toss which her Majesty has sustained by the death of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, and to condole with her Majesty on this melancholy occasion; and to assure her Majesty, that this House will ever participate with the most affectionate and dutiful attachment in whatever may concern the feelings and interests of her Majesty and her illustrious house."
The Marquess of Lansdownesaid, although, my Lords, I am perfectly aware that no words and no arguments can be wanting to induce your Lordships to give your unanimous approbation, and your heartfelt sympathy to the motion which the noble Duke has made, yet, when I consider how many there are among your Lordships who, for a long period of years, had been honoured with the personal friendship, and had experienced the unremitting kindness of the illustrious prince who is the subject of the noble Duke's motion, I think it will not be deemed superfluous that I should add a few words to the statement which has been made in so kind a spirit, with so much feeling, and with so much ability, by the noble Duke. The illustrious prince who is the subject of his motion, had been, from a variety of circumstances, to which it is unnecessary for me to allude, in the possession of means comparatively circumscribed—I mean comparatively circumscribed in relation to that standard which belongs to the station which he held in society; but, however limited those means may have been, 1 believe there is hardly one of your Lordships who does not know that they were, constantly and generously (and, perhaps, in some instances, almost too generously), applid to every laudable, and to every humane object. My, Lords, I say, and I do firmly believe, that if any future writer or historian of the Royal Society for the last half-century should endeavour to depict the progress of that society, and to analyze its details, I do believe he will find, that during that long period, there had been no one movement, there had been no one act for the promotion of useful science or for the spread of useful instruction, and though last, not least, for the awakening the spirit of enlightened charity in the public mind of this country, with which his late Royal Highness's name has not been most closely and constantly connected. My Lords, if it may with truth be said of this illustrious person, that the circle of those courtesies and attentions which derive peculiar value and importance from the station of the person from whom they come was by him extended to the utmost limits which his knowledge and observation permitted, and that those c6urtesies and those attentions have never in any one instance been withheld from any person or from any object that was worthy of them,—and if, in addition, it may be averred with reference to
1000
that more narrow circle of private and personal relation and enjoyments which belong to every station, his Royal Highness was enabled to form solid, honourable, and estimable friendships, no one of which had ever been forfeited by him to the last hour of his life, I say, my Lords, that if both of these things can be truly said of him who has departed, and I am convinced that they can be said with the most perfect truth, then I know of nothing that is wanting to entitle him, his character, and his memory, to that unfeigned respect on the part of this House and on the part of the public which is justly due to him as a British prince, and I will venture to add, as a British gentleman. With these feeings, I now beg to express my entire concurrence in the motion which has been made by the noble Duke; and, upon the part of all those who have had the honour of being admitted to the personal friendship of the illustrious prince, I will venture to add the expression of my unfeigned thanks to the noble Duke for the manner in which he has brought the motion under the consideration of your Lordships.
The Marquess of Northamptonsaid, that from the situation which he held, as president of the Royal Society, he felt that he should not be doing justice to that body, if he did not express, in their name, the deep sense they entertained of the eminent benefits which had been conferred on them by the illustrious object of the present motion. His Royal Highness had exerted himself to the utmost, to forward, in every way, the interests of the institution over which he had for some years presided. It was most truly observed by his noble Friend who had just sat down, and by the noble Duke who had proposed this motion, that his late Royal Highness had sedulously studied every branch of science and of art; and it was, he might be permitted to add, a remarkable and a happy feature of our time, that all the members of the royal family took a very great interest in studies of the same elevated and ennobling description.
Motion carried nemine dissentiente.
The Address was ordered to be presented to her Majesty by the Lords with white staves.
Adjourned.