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fifth day of its proceedings, Colonel Brereton had shot himself.*

Another court martial was subsequently held on Captain Warrington, who had commanded a troop of the third dragoon guards. The charges against him were to this effect, that, when informed, on the Sunday night, that the mob was about to set fire to the custom house, he neither turned out with his troop for its protection, nor communicated to his commanding officer the information which he had received: that, on the Monday, although he received positive written instructions from the mayor to take the most effective and decisive measures in his power for quelling the riot, he neither acted on them, nor transmitted them to his superior officer, but kept his troop inactive in its quarters, till he was again applied to, an hour afterwards, by a magistrate in person, while the mob, during the interval, had fired and sacked several houses: That although it was his duty, as being the only commissioned officer with the troop, except a young cornet of sixteen months service, to be constantly at its quarters to direct its movements, and take the command of any detachment which might be called upon to act, he, on various occasions, either had been absent, or had sent out detachments to act under the command of that young officer, he himself remaining

v. Chronicle.

at home. The court martial found him guilty of the first and second charges, and of the greater part of the third, and sentenced him to be cashiered. The king, however, while approving and confirming the sentence, allowed the captain, in pursuance of an unanimous recommendation of the court, to retire from the service by selling his troop.

The reformers of Bristol did not aim at the military. Their object was to strike down the civic authorities whom they had abandoned, or coldly supported in the day of need. Their organs and partizans insisted that the magistrates should be put on their trial, because their want of energy and discretion had been the prime causes, it was said, of all the outrages. Ministers consented. The attorney general was ordered to prosecute, the prosecution having no other value or end, in the eyes of its instigators, except the hope of rendering the corporation and the magistracy odious. Mr. Pinney, the mayor, was tried at the bar of the King's Bench for neglect of his duty as chief magistrate of the city. The jury not only found him not guilty, but declared their opinion that, in a situation of great difficulty, and when deserted by those from whom he was entitled to expect aid and encouragement, he had conducted himself with great firmness and propriety.

CHAP. II.

on the

Complaints in the House of Commons of want of documents regarding the Reform Bill-Motion to postpone the Committee-Committee Bill-Motion to omit the number of Boroughs that should stand in schedules A and B-Debate on the clause for dividing counties-On the franchise of tenants at will—Amendments moved on the 10l. qualification Clause-Objections to the Registration Clauses-Debate on the principles on which Boroughs were selected for DisfranchisementDiscussions on the Cases of Appleby-Amersham-Midhurst-Dartmouth-Helstone-Debate on the Representation of the Metropolitan Districts-Motion to give a Member to Merthyr Tydvil instead of Gateshead, lost by forty-seven-A Member taken from Monmouthshire and given to Merthyr Tydvil-Discussion on the Cases of South Shields -Walsall-Whitby-Bill read a third time and passed.

Oparliament assembled after the

N the 17th of January, when parliament assembled after the recess, ministers expressed their intention of going into committee on the Reform bill on the 20th. Mr. Croker and Mr. Goulburn resisted this proposition as bringing the House into a consideration of the details of the bill, before it had been put in possession of that information without which no proper judgment could be formed concerning them. On the night of the adjournment it had been stated, that all the necessary information would be timeously furnished; that part of the documents would be furnished on the 22nd, and the remainder on the 26th; but, up to the present hour, this information, so essential towards considering the very complicated scale by which disfranchisement was to be regulated, had not been laid before them. Of such papers again as had been produced, there was scarcely one which did not seem to have been studiously drawn up

in such a way as to perplex and mislead. Thus, the bill proposed that counties having a population of not less than 150,000 should send four members to parliament. All, therefore, that was required was, a specification of such counties as had that extent of population. But the account was given in such detail, and was so artfully constructed, that an individual could not arrive at this simple point, without going over 12,000,000 or 14,000,000 of figures. The counties were divided into districts and sections-the population was not given in totals; neither did the returns already produced contain the numbers of ten of the boroughs which were to be disfranchised. The whole list of the boroughs, and the order in which they stood, according to the scale of Lieutenant Drummond, were liable to be changed by the addition of those ten boroughs. It was impossible, moreover, to go into committee without having the necessary in

formation as to the limits of the several boroughs, with reference to which the number of their houses and amount of their taxes had been calculated. The furnishing of information should be accelerated; and such a day should be fixed for the committee as would leave time for the proper examination of these documents.

Lord John Russell and Lord Althorpe would not consent to any delay of the committee. It had been found that, in the papers given in, there were some deficiencies and some errors; but they had hoped that a great number of correct copies of the borough population returns would have been ready in the week after parliament had adjourned. They had unfortunately been disappointed; and all those who were concerned in the production of these documents regretted that they could not be got ready so soon as had been expected. Some of the tables were then under consideration, and others had been laid before parliament previous to the recess. It was, however, considered useless to produce a number of papers, some of which, it appeared on examination, would have to be corrected by others. Therefore, when Lieutenant Drummond mentioned that it would be necessary to make corrections in some of the papers, he had at once been told, that it would be better to keep back the documents, in order that the corrections might be properly made. The papers were now ready, and would in the course of the week be placed in the hands of members. As to the ten boroughs omitted in the list on which that gentleman had founded his calculations, the reason assigned by him for so doing was that they were so insignificant and so exceedingly

various-some having a few houses and paying a considerable portion of assessed taxes, while others of them had a great many houses and paid but a small portion of taxes-that their omission would make no material alteration in the calculations. Lieutenant Drummond had been so busily occupied that he was not able to produce the desired information regarding them; but it would be furnished forthwith. The county list, again, which had been referred to, had never been intended to give the total population of the counties. It had been drawn up with a view to the division of counties, that each division might contain, as nearly as possible, the same numbers; and it shewed, therefore, the population of districts. At all events, nothing had been stated, which required the House to delay the committee. It would not be necessary, on going into committee, to begin with the discussion of any of the schedules. Those parts of the bill, to which the papers particularly referred, might be postponed while other portions of the bill might be proceeded with. The enacting clauses, even those which regarded the boroughs, might be as well discussed without the information in question; and thus sufficient time would be afforded for the examination of the documents.

On the 20th, when the motion was made for the House going into committee, Mr. Croker repeated his objection to their proceeding in the state of imperfect information in which they were even now left. In the new lists, some of which had been laid before the House only that morning, there occurred what had been called some trifling alterations; but they could scarcely deserve that name, when they had

the effect of changing the places of forty-eight boroughs out of 100 in the original lists. These changes were said to be of no importance in regard to the first thirty or forty, because a greater number was to be disfranchised. There was no soundness in that position, because the House had not yet decided what number should be disfranchised; but even beginning with No. 40, there were no fewer than fortyfour changes in the relative position of the remaining boroughs. Now, if the House was to have lists for the purpose of guiding its judgement, it was important that they should be correct. If the taxation and houses were to be taken of 100 boroughs, the difference would be great with respect to the position which some boroughs would hold; for instance, if Heytesbury, Wootton Bassett, Whitchurch, Downton, and Fowey, were to be taken as to taxes and houses, and if in the same list were introduced Chippenham, Devizes, and others, about which there was no question, the result would be to disorganize and derange the whole, as comparing one with the other. Again; it was said that fifty-six boroughs were to be disfranchised, and for this purpose a list of 100 boroughs was made out; and the effect of this was, that, by taking 100 instead of sixty, from which to select, some boroughs were disfranchised which would otherwise be saved, and some were saved which would otherwise be disfranchised. In the papers, too, which were last presented, there were some singular discrepancies with respect to the number of houses in some boroughs; and this discrepancy did not exist with respect to one list as compared with another, but between every subsequent list, and each and all of

those which had preceded it. Thus as to Calne, one or two lists did not mention it; in a subsequent list the houses were stated at 710; in another list they were stated at 996; and in a third list which had been furnished that morning, they were set down at 673. In the lists as to Chippenham there was a difference of 140. In the case of Malton, as well as Calne, there were some singular differences in the lists. In one list of Malton the houses were stated at 1,079, and of course it was far out of the line of disfranchisement. Some errors were subsequently detected, which were considered to be of no importance, as the number of houses had put it beyond the reach of being affected by those trifling errors. But, on referring to a subsequent paper, it would be found that there was a correction of a trifling error, which reduced the payment in taxes from 1,3007. to 130. That error was set right, but the effect of the first was to give to Malton a very high place. The changes with respect to Malton did not stop here. In another paper, No. 5, the number of houses was fixed at 849. Then Malton was going down in the world. In a subsequent paper it got up again, for it was made 1,031; but in another list it was reduced from its original number of 1,079 to 793; and this within twenty-four hours. Under these circumstances, it was incumbent on the House to wait for better information, before they proceeded farther. The most important information to guide them would be the reports of the commissioners, and the maps which were to accompany the reports. In the absence of such information they would be legislating in the dark, without anything to guide them.

He was ready to go into the committee; but before he did so, he required of ministers that they should give to the House and to the country that information, in the absence of which it was impossible to take the first step in considering the details of this bill.

Lord John Russell admitted, that, in order to investigate the particular claims of particular boroughs, it might be necessary to consider, as attentively and accurately as possible, the relative number of houses in, and the amount of taxes paid by, each of these boroughs; and he would say now, as he had said before, that that part of the bill-namely, the schedules to which the information referred to specifically related would be postponed to a later period, while the House proceeded with other provisions of the bill; but he denied that any reason had been adduced for postponing the committee entirely. There were some points in the list of the 12th December, relative to which it was proper that further inquiry should be made. But was it necessary to wait for the result of that inquiry, and the corrections to which it might lead, before they went into committee? No alteration was intended to be made with respect to any place mentioned in that list; not one of them would be taken from schedule A or schedule B. There was, therefore, no ground for postponing the going into a committee, because the question remained exactly as it was with respect to the disfranchise ment of fifty-six, and the partial disfranchisement of thirty bo roughs. The discrepancies with regard to Calne and Malton, arose from Lieutenant Drummond and the commissioners having adopted

different boundaries. He would propose that they should go into committee on this bill; and he would next move, when the House was in committee, that each of the fifty-six boroughs in schedule A should cease to return members to parliament. Ministers had endeavoured, by a reference to the census of 1831, by information supplied by returning officers, and by the accounts of the collectors of taxes, to procure the best possible information; and he believed that any member would be disappointed, if he hoped to prove that any of the places in schedule A or in schedule B ought to be removed from their present situation.

Sir Robert Peel, Sir C. Wetherell, and Mr. Goulburn, supported the views of Mr. Croker. They had no objection to going into committee, and going into it for the purposes of disfranchisement; but since they were to go into it to disfranchise fifty-six boroughs, they maintained it was impossible to do so, with any regard to either reason or justice, unless the grounds were laid before them on which these boroughs were to be deprived of their representation. It was admitted there was information which ministers themselves considered material; and it was, therefore, improper to go into committee until the necessary documents were produced. It had been said, that certain parts of the bill might be proceeded with; but what was now proposed ? The first thing to be done by the committee was to be, to vote that very clause on which it was admitted there was no sufficient information. If the House had any regard for its own privileges, or for the rights of the people, it would refuse to do so, till all the information that was

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