uation, and confess his constituents had reposed an unworthy confidence in him. He regretted deeply being called on to express those feelings. He said most distinetly he was unchangeable in opinion and unchangeable in conduct. He confessed he was astonished at the manner in which that party, to which he had been proud to attach himself, had ventured to express themselves in that House. He had heard the word "duplicity." He was sorry to say that was his opinion. He quarrelled with no man for his political opinions, whether they be free-trade or protectionist; but let him know who his man was, and on which side of the House he was called on to take his seat. He knew he ought not to have trespassed on the House; but, as an honest man, he was anxious to do his duty fearlessly, and he could not have retired to rest without expressing his disappointed feelings, and his determination to uphold his own principles.

Resolved accordingly.

Committee appointed, "to draw up an Address to be presented to Her Majesty upon the said Resolution: " Lord Lovaine, Mr. Edward Egerton, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Secretary Walpole, Sir John Pakington, Mr. Herries, Mr. Henley, Lord John Manners, Sir John Trollope, Mr. Attorney General, Mr. Solicitor General, The Judge Advocate, Lord Naas, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Stafford, and Mr. Wilson Patten, or any five of them.

Queen's Speech referred.

matter in his hands, and it will probably come to a better conclusion under the conduct of a Member of the Government, than it would do in mine. I hope my noble and learned Friend opposite (Lord Brougham) will not consider I am trespassing on his manor- -[Lord BROUGHAM: You have my leave and license]-even if I put a question to my noble and learned Friend on the woolsack which has been repeatedly put to former Governments, but which never received a satisfactory answer. The question is this-"Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government in this Session to introduce any measure for the purpose of carrying into effect the report of the Criminal Law Commission?"

The LORD CHANCELLOR: I need not say I should have been glad to leave the subject of the expense of commissions of lunacy in the hands of my noble and learned Friend, because I know nobody who is more capable of treating it adequately, or who would do it more justice. But I considered it a duty which I ought to take upon myself to deal with that subject, and accordingly I assumed that duty. I may as well mention that on Tuesday next I propose to state, with your Lordships' permission, the different measures of legal reform which the Government intend to introduce. Whether all of them. will be introduced in this short Session or not, I cannot undertake to say; but they are all in preparation. Every care has been taken with the details, and every care will be taken to render them fit to be

House adjourned at half after Nine laid before your Lordships in a short time.

o'clock.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Friday, November 12, 1852. MINUTES.] Took the Oaths.-Several Lords.

LAW REFORM.

I hope this answer will be satisfactory to your Lordships; and my noble and learned Friend will excuse my going any further.

LORD BROUGHAM: I said, somewhat irregularly, whilst my noble and learned Friend opposite was speaking, that nobody could be more gratified by having a trespass committed on his manor than I should LORD LYNDHURST: I wish to put a be by my noble Friend's trespass on mine; question to my noble and learned Friend and I have only to add, that I should be still on the woolsack (Lord St. Leonards) with better pleased by my noble and learned respect to the expenses of proceedings Friend on the woolsack making himself an under commissions of lunacy, in pursuance accomplice in that trespass; and I am glad of a Motion I made in the last Session. that he has announced his intention of doing My noble and learned Friend will no doubt so. I hope my noble and learned Friend will, recollect that I introduced a Bill in the on Tuesday next, give us reason to believe last Session for the purpose of endeavour- that he has taken up that most important ing to reduce the expenses of such pro- measure-Criminal Law Reform. Passing ceedings. I wish to ask my noble and to another branch of the same great subFriend whether it is his intention to intro-ject of the improvement of our jurispruduce any measure this Session on the sub-dence, I hope he will also tell us that, on ject?-for if so I shall cheerfully leave the behalf of the Government, he will introduce

a measure for the further improvement of be taken into consideration on Monday the County Courts.

The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: I also take this opportunity of referring to a subject mentioned yesterday. It is my intention on the 26th of November to lay before the House those alterations in our system of taxation which we think the change in our commercial system renders necessary. The House will permit me to say, if any notice is brought forward the object of which is to prevent me making that statement, I reserve to myself the right to take a different course.

send to the Governors of the Hospital to | same time, lay on the table of the House know what observations they had to make an estimate of the probable expense. upon it. He should think it his duty to lay the Report, with their observations, on the table of the House, in order that Parliament might consider and determine the course proper to be taken. Those observations he had pressed for from time to time, and he had been informed that they would be sent. They had, however, not yet come; and without them he did not think it exactly fair towards the Governors of the Hospital to lay the Report upon the table. He thought it only right that those who were implicated by the inquiry should have an opportunity of stating their

case.

MESSAGE FROM THE CROWN-FUNERAL
OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

The Right Hon. Cecil Forester, Comptroller of the Household, appeared at the bar, and stated that he had a Message from Her Majesty. The right hon. Gentleman then advanced to the Chair, and delivered the message into the hands of Mr. Speaker.

MR. SPEAKER read the Message, as follows:

"VICTORIA R.

THE ADDRESS-REPORT. LORD LOVAINE brought up the Report on the Address.

MR. FAGAN said, he had reason to complain of a statement put forth in the Speech last evening. Hon. Members complained yesterday of the ambiguity and deception which characterised some portions of that document; but he thought the Irish Members had more right to complain of the unnecessary and uncalled-for libel it contained on the people of Iroland. Her Majesty had been advised to state to the House that there existed in Ireland "an unhappy spirit of insubordination and turbulence. For his part, he was not in a position to guess at what that allusion pointed. If it was to agrarian disturbances, he would join with the Government in endeavouring to repress those disturbances which were a stain on the country, and tended to prevent the amelioration of its social condition. But he did not believe that that was the intention of the allusion. Neither did he believe that the noble Lord the Member for London (Lord John Russell) was right in supposing that reference was made to the natural excitement at the last elections in Ireland. What was the cause of that exHe traced the cause to a procitement? clamation of the Government which revived the forgotten penalties of the Emancipation Act, and interfered to prevent many of the religious services of the Roman Catholic The result of that proclamapopulation. tion was seen in the Stockport riots, and in the insults offered to the Roman Catholic clergy in the public streets immediately The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE-after it was issued. Speaking of the city QUER said: I will propose for the consideration of the House an answer to Her Majesty's most gracious Message on Monday next.

“Her Majesty, desirous of marking in the most solemn manner Her sense of the pre-eminent Services of the late Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, and of affording to Her subjects an oppor. tunity of testifying their veneration for his memory and their sorrow for the loss which they have sustained by his death, has directed that measures should be taken for the public interment, at the earliest possible period, of His Grace's mortal remains in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's. The Queen is persuaded that, in taking this step, Her Majesty has only anticipated the general wishes of Parliament and of the Country, and that you will afford to Her Majesty your cordial aid and concurrence in giving to the mournful ceremony a degree of solemnity and importance worthy of the Country and of the occasion.

“Her Majesty relies on the liberality of Her faithful Commons to make suitable provision for the due discharge of this debt of Public Gratitude and

tribute of National sorrow."

MR. HUME would beg to suggest that the right hon. Gentleman should, at the VOL. CXXIII. [THIRD SERIES.]

which he represented, and which had been
pointed to as one where excitement existed
during the recent election, he knew that
the excitement was not greater on that oc-
casion than at any former election.
must therefore say that the expression in
F

He

would lend its aid to maintain the authority of the law. If the Government had meditated any present appeal to Parliament on this head, the language would have been different. For a long series of years past it had been the complaint of Irish Mem

Her Majesty's Speech relating to Ireland was a libel, uncalled for, and totally undeserved; and at that moment he could say with all sincerity that he did not know to what the Government alluded. With respect to the relations between landlord and tenant in Ireland, he was afraid the mea-bers that no remedial measures had been sures contemplated by the right hon. and brought forward with a view to ameliorate learned Attorney General for Ireland would the social condition of the people, and esnot give satisfaction. He was greatly afraid pecially the relationship between landlord it was the right hon. and learned Gentle- and tenant; and thence, they contended, man's intention to leave the whole matter the necessity for Coercion Bills. Now, to the landlords in Ireland. It was no however, Her Majesty did not say she askdoubt the interest of the landlords of Ire-ed for any coercive measures with regard land to develop the resources of the coun- to Ireland. So far from that, she sugtry; but he (Mr. Fagan) was afraid, judg-gested to Parliament what he (the Attoring from past experience, that they were ney General for Ireland) hoped Parliament blinded to their own interest; and he was of opinion that if the Government wished to develop the natural wealth of Ireland, they could not attain that end by leaving the matter in the hands of the landlords, and without doing at the same time justice to the tenant-farmers.

por

MR. NAPIER said, if any libel had been meant upon Ireland in the passage in question, he should have been quite as ready to resent such an imputation as the hon. Gentleman the Member for Cork himself (Mr. Fagan). But, the truth was, there had been such a deliberate design on the part of some persons to misunderstand tions of Her Majesty's Speech, and such a determination that plain language and plain English should be ambiguous, that really he was not surprised that persons should again come down to the House to torture from passages in that document a meaning they were never intended to express. The passage of the Speech in which allusion was made to Ireland was as follows:

"I trust that the general improvement, notwithstanding many obstacles, has extended to Ireland; and while I rely with confidence on your aid, should it be required, to restrain that unhappy spirit of insubordination and turbulence, which produces many and aggravates all of the evils which afflict that portion of my dominions, I recommend to you the adoption of such a liberal and generous policy towards Ireland as may encourage and assist her to rally from the depression in which she has been sunk by the sufferings of late years." How it was possible to torture this passage into a call upon Parliament to adopt coercive measures towards Ireland, he was at a loss to conceive. The language was plain and direct, and meant that, in the event of bad men taking advantage of the spirit of insubordination, which it must be admitted had existed in Ireland, Her Majesty's Government hoped that Parliament

would be ready to carry out, and what Ireland needed and expected, and had a right to expect a liberal, generous, and high-minded policy, to enable it to rise from the depression in which it had lately been sunk. With respect to the Bills which he himself intended to introduce, he would ask that before any discussion took place on those Bills, they should be read and understood. He did not know whether those measures would satisfy the hon. Member for Cork; but he hoped they would satisfy all those who were sincere in desiring the welfare and prosperity of Ireland.

MR. JOHN MACGREGOR said, he wished to notice a passage in the Speech which related to the difficulties or the misunderstandings that had taken place between this country and that of the United States of America, on the subject of the North American fisheries. That was a question of the greatest importance, inasmuch as it might have broken the peace and tranquillity existing between this country and the United States, and prevented the reception in this country of the raw material of cotton so necessary for our manufactures. His view with regard to that question corresponded with that taken by Mr. Pitt immediately after the peace of 1783, when a proposal was made during the Presidency of Washington, by Mr. Adams, for placing the commercial and maritime intercourse between England and the United States on the footing of a coasting trade. That proposal fell through in consequence of the breaking-up of the Shelburne Administration, in which Mr. Pitt was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The amazing progress of America since 1759, when we conquered Canada, rendered such a policy more than ever desirable. Ninety

CAPTAIN WALCOTT said, he begged to trespass on the attention of the House for a few moments while he adverted to the first topic referred to in the Address. He rose for the purpose of expressing his admiration of an illustrious individual whose services were known and acknowledged throughout the world. He rejoiced that it was the intention of the country to place his remains in St. Paul's Cathedral, by the side of the heroic Nelson; and no person could ever pass that building without offer ing a thanksgiving to God that two such men had been given to promote the glory and welfare of the country. He was sure that through the length and breadth of the land but one opinion would prevail as to the merits of that illustrious individual, and that every mark of national gratitude would be paid to his remains.

three years ago, there was no British sub- | American Colonies would have a free inject who possessed an acre of land north tercourse with the United States. of a few small villages in Nova Scotia and Maine, nor south of a small colony in Georgia, nor east of the Alleghany Mountains. Now, all the countries from the shores of the Atlantic to the coasts of the Pacific; from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, were under the dominion of two great Governments, the British and the United States, the inhabitants of which speak, write, and legislate in the English language. The population during the same period had increased from less than two millions to more than thirty millions. If there was one policy more than another which the Government should pursue, it should be to maintain amicable relations between this country and the United States, by placing all the navigation of all the British dominions in North America and the United States as nearly as possible upon the footing of a coasting trade; VISCOUNT PALMERSTON : Sir, I to allow the citizens of the United States called the attention of Her Majesty's Goto fish without restriction in the British vernment yesterday to that passage in Her American Seas, on condition that the fish Majesty's Speech which alludes to the cocaught or cured, by British fishermen, operation of the Government of Brazil for should be admitted free of duty for con- the suppression of the slave trade, and to sumption in the United States; and to the significant omission of any mention in admit all British colonial articles, on pay- that paragraph of a similar co-operation on ment of no other duties than we should be the part of the Spanish Government to put paid on similar articles imported from an end to the slave trade in Cuba. I am the United States into the said Colonies. afraid that omission is but too significant, During the period of the late Government, considering that we have seen lately in the when his noble Friend the Member for newspapers an account of the landing of Tiverton (Viscount Palmerston) held the several cargoes of slaves on the coast of seals of the Foreign Office, and also during Cuba. It is undoubtedly without any exthe term that the Earl of Aberdeen was cuse on the part of the Spanish GovernForeign Secretary, those amicable relations ment that such an infraction of the treaty had been kept up. The Earl of Aberdeen between Spain and this country should had most wisely made those concessions to continue. I am afraid there are influthe fisheries, and maintained the harmony ences at Madrid, and pecuniary interests in which it was just and proper to observe. Cuba, which tend to induce the GovernIn consequence also of the adjustment of ment of Spain to forget its treaty obliga the boundary question and the settlement tions, and to omit to perform its duty in of the Oregon boundary, the affairs of this regard to this important matter. It has country and the United States were put on exposed itself also to the imputationsuch a footing as to leave no cause of dis- whether well or ill founded it is not for me agreement between the two countries ex- to say-that it is part of its policy, with cept this fishery question. Every com- regard to the retention of the island of mercial man in the country looked forward Cuba, to encourage the increase of the with the greatest anxiety to the satisfac- black population, believing that in proportory adjustment of the fishery question; tion as the blacks increase, the fears of the and he trusted the negotiations now pen-whites may increase also; and that the inding would be settled upon the principle of crease of the slave population may tend a free and uninterrupted course between to make the white population cling more the countries. He trusted that the eitizens of the United States would have the freedom of fishing in the British North American seas, and that the British North

closely to the mother country for protection. I do hope that no such motive influences the Government of Spain. My object in rising is to state to Her Majesty's