brought up a large sealed packet of papers by order of the Prince Regent, being the information to which his Royal Highness had in his Message alluded, and which he stated should be laid were parliament.

then rose and said, that the course of proceedings which he should recommend, would render it unnecessary for him now to trouble the House at any length upon this important subject. He should first propose that the House should express its thanks to the Prince Regent for the Message his Royal Highness had sent, and should give its assurances that no time should be lost in taking the subject into consideration, by instituting such proceedings as might be deemed expedient. His lordship's next proposition would be, that the papers he had just laid upon the table should be referred to a Committee of Secrecy, not for the purpose of recommending any measures to the House, but merely of examining the private information communicated, of laying the substance of it before parliament, in such a form as would give the House a distinct and fair view of the actual state of the disturbances which had so long subsisted in the interior. By the Message of the Prince Regent, however, it was by no means intended that government should be discharged from the burden of submitting to the country their opinion upon the subject, and of bringing forward such measures as to them appeared likely to correct the evil. His lordship would not now enter into these topics; since, after the committee should have reported, a much more fit opportunity would be afforded; and as nothing could be more injurious than that the matter should be prematurely discussed, so nothing could be more advantageous than that it should be fully and fairly investigated, that the opinions of all might be ascertained, and if possible accommodated. At present any disclosure even of the general outline of the plan proposed by ministers to be pursued, would only serve to excite feelings far better suppressed, and to lead to discussions far better postponed. His lordship's reluctance did not arise from any unwillingness, or fear in exposing what course ministers would suggest, but it originated in an opinion that neither the House or the country being in possession of the facts, were not prepared for any measures founded upon those facts. On a former day an hon. and learned gentleman (Mr. Brougham) had adverted to delay, of which he accused government of being guilty in not calling for the aid of parliament at an earlier period of the session. His lordship felt confident that he should be able to persuade the House that it was to be attributed to a justifiable reluctance to solicit other aid, while there remained a hope that the established laws of the constitution would be found adequate to the exigency. With regard to what had fallen from the same individual as to the Call of the House, his lordship was prepared in a way that, he trusted, would prove satisfactory to the House, to shew, that previous to the discharge of the Call, ministers were not in possession of such intelligence as would authorize them in resorting to the legislature: he was also ready, at the proper time, to detail to the House those particular circumstances which had subsequently occurred, to induce them to take the step which they had now adopted. Of this his lordship was certain, that in government there was no disposition to shun the discussion of the subject before, or to be deprived of the assistance of a full attendance, but the hon. gentleman himself would recollect that on Friday, the day after the Call was discharged, he (lord Castlereagh) stated to the House that he should be authorized to make a communication to it on this subject. His lordship concluded by proposing, "That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, to return his Royal Highness the Thanks of this House for his most gracious Message, and to assure his Royal Highness that this House will immediately take into their most serious consideration the subject recommended to them in his Royal Highness's Message, and will adopt such steps as may appear to them best calculated to afford security to the lives and properties of his Majesty's peaceable and loyal subjects in the disturbed districts, and for the restoration of order and tranquillity."

said, that he did not rise to oppose the motion. He professed his ardent wish that the noble lord would, as he asserted, be able satisfactorily to shew why he suffered the Call to be discharged before he made any communication to the House: as affairs now stood such conduct appeared to require a very ample apology to the peaceable inhabitants of the country. He sincerely hoped that after the Secret Committee shouid have been appointed to report upon the papers sealed and delivered at the bar this day, it would be found that no extraordinary measures were necessary, and as the noble lord had deprecated discussion, so he (Mr. W.) deprecated any ill-advised attempt to do good from which so much injury might ensue. Examples from our own and from the history of other countries were not wanting to shew with what extreme caution we should proceed, and, profiting by dear-bought experience, he trusted that the subject would be discussed without passion, and decided without precipitation. After the whole matter should have been investigated, he could not avoid indulging a sanguine hope that it would be found that the law of the country, as it now stands, properly executed, and that the power of the crown, as it now stands, properly exercised, were quite adequate to the restoration of tranquillity.

entirely participated in the hope, that nothing would be found in the documents laid upon the table to call for any extraordinary measures. He would not allow himself even to express an opinion, lest it might give rise to feelings that ought to be banished from all minds, that might produce dissent instead of union, for the accomplishment of an object of the greatest magnitude. Not being at all acquainted with the nature of the papers supplied, and not having been present on Saturday when the message was brought down, he was, perhaps, of all men the least competent to offer any thing to the House, but he could not avoid rising to express a wish, that the utmost calmness and moderation might be observed in the deliberation. Nearly connected as he was with a district of the country most disturbed, he felt it necessary to conjure the House, that the case of these unfortunate and misguided people might be fully and candidly weighed, that the result might be the restoration of order, unanimity, prosperity, and happiness.

The question was then put, and the resolution was agreed to, nem. con.

then moved, that the papers he had presented, should be referred to a committee, that it be a committee of secrecy, and that the number of members be 21; which were severally, ordered. His lordship likewise moved, that the members be chosen by ballot.

protested against this mode of proceeding, since it would give the noble lord the appointment of every member of the committee. He wished that the members of it should be publicly named and chosen, that the House, and not the noble lord, might have the formation of the committee.

persisted in his motion, since he was certain that on no side of the House on such a question would party feelings be exercised; he was convinced that it would be treated by parliament in a manner, which while it did it honour, would give satisfaction to the people.

, looking at the precedents to which the hon. gentleman had referred, could not help feeling great jealousy as to the conduct of government; he hoped that the bounds of the constitution would not a new be transgressed by them. The mode in which the committee was formed, if the satisfaction of the people were looked to, was of the utmost importance. It ought to be of such a description that the country would place reliance upon its wisdom and impartiality, and not to be merely composed of the creatures of ministerial nomination.

The question that the committee be chosen by ballot was then put and carried, though there were a number of dissentient voices.

On the question that members prepare lists, and appear to-morrow to put them into the classes appointed for their reception,

declared that he should not attend for that purpose, as experience had shewn that it would be useless, since any list he might prepare would be smothered in the vast heap of names supplied by the noble lord and his political friends.

It was ordered that the papers communicated by the Prince Regent should remain sealed until the appointment of the committee.

rose for the purpose of moving for leave to bring in a Bill to regulate Ecclesiastical Courts. He commenced by a learned examination of the original institution of the ecclesiastical courts, but although detached sentences were caught, the general thread of the narrative was altogether lost in the gallery. He quoted the opinion of lord Bacon, to shew that some alterations were even then deemed necessary, and referred to the attempts made by James the First, Anne, and in 1772–3, without success, to effect this object. He then went on to state what in his Bill he had accomplished, and what he had left unperformed. In the first place he had provided, that the process of excommunication should be discontinued, and in its place he had substituted the process de contumaci capiendo. He had next abolished excommunication generally, excepting in cases of great enormity. He had not thought it fit to destroy it altogether, since as every other establishment possessed the power, he did not think that the Church of England should be placed in an inferior situation. The next provision was, that the civil consequences attendant upon excommunication should be removed, except in cases of incest and some others.—The object he had next contemplated, was the abolition of a number of minor ecclesiastical courts on the maxim, that improvement in jurisprudence is promoted by extension of jurisdiction. A number of clauses had been inserted for the purpose of removing the proceedings of the inferior tribunals into the diocesan courts. The qualification of the judges had then occupied his attention, and the remainder of the Bill was occupied in making provisions relative to Church rates and tythes. He had omitted in this measure two matters that some gentlemen might have wished inserted; it was silent on the subject of defamation, because, if the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts were taken away in matters of slander on the Church, they would not be cognizable in our courts of law. All provisions regarding Ireland were also omitted, sir W. Scott professing himself not sufficiently acquainted with the constitution of the consistorial courts there. Under many circumstances of disadvantage he had discharged the task imposed upon him by the House with great diffidence, well aware of the magnitude and importance of the subject: if the House should adopt his Bill, he should feel much pleasure; but if it disapproved of it, he would take leave of it without regret. He moved for leave to bring in a Bill for the better regulation of Ecclesiastical Courts in that part of the United Kingdom called England, and for the more easy collection of Church rates and tythes.

expressed his satisfaction at seeing the promise of the right hon. and learned gentleman fulfilled: the measure as disclosed met his entire approbation; he lamented only that it had been introduced at so late a period of the session, and that it was brought forward under such ill auspices, when the right hon. and learned gentleman declared that if it were thrown out he should take leave of it without regret.

explained, and adverted again to the difficulties with which he had had to contend, in separating the ecclesiastical law, when it was so interwoven and united with the very substance of our constitution. He denied that he was indifferent as to the fate of the Bill.

, after some observations on the injurious tendency of the jurisdiction in question, said he understood it was not the intention of the right hon. gentleman to extend the provisions of his Bill to Ireland. He supposed that this arose from the difference in the constitution of the spiritual courts in that part of the empire, but he could not help wishing, that a measure which promised to be so generally advantageous, should not be communicated to that country.

strongly recommended the Bill to be extended to Ireland, where if the spiritual courts were different, the difference was for the worse.

said a few words in explanation, when it was ordered, that he and the Attorney-General should prepare and bring in the Bill.

moved the order of the day for the third reading of the Assessed Taxes Bill. On the question being put from the chair,

remarked, that nothing had fallen from the right hon. gentleman to diminish his objections to that part of this Bill which went to impose an additional duty on horses employed in agricultural pursuits. He had heard nothing urged in favour of the principle of the Bill, to which he now, as he did on a former occasion, declared his total disapprobation. With these feelings he should propose an Amendment, the purport of which would be, to leave out that clause of the Bill in which the additional duty was proposed to be levied on husbandry horses.

having remarked, that the question then before the House was for the third reading of the Bill generally, and that the Amendment of the hon. gentleman could not then be proposed with propriety, it was withdrawn, after which the Bill was read, clause by clause, and at the proper season Mr. Westerne moved that the whole of schedule F. No. 2, containing the part to which he had signified his dissent, should be omitted.

expressed a sincere hope that his right hon. friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he would allow him so to call him, would agree to some modification of the Bill, so as to meet the objections which had been made to the clause in question. The proposed additional tax would press with particular severity upon the small farmer, the more especially when it was considered that there were many of them, in a bad season, like the present, who were obliged to have recourse to seven or eight pair of horses, when their usual stock did not exceed two pair. He thought some course might be adopted in which the object might be met half way, and signified his intention, in an after stage of the Bill, to move a clause to that effect.

said, that all the inconveniences complained of by the hon. and learned gentleman might be avoided, provided the small farmer, instead of purchasing his additional horses, would hire them. In that case, the additional tax would not affect them.

apprehended that additional hired servants, as well as additional hired horses, would have to pay a tax, but at a mitigated rate. The benefit, therefore, to be derived from the suggestion of the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, would be of little avail. It had been said, as an argument in favour of the additional tax, that it was extremely small; when, however, it was added to the tax already in existence it became really oppressive. To the principle of this tax altogether he had the strongest objection; and although the House had done wrong by agreeing to its institution, in the first instance, he saw no reason why they should not now make a stand against it, and correct their former mistake. In all events, he thought the addition to the revenue from this objectionable increase of the tax upon husbandry horses would be so small as to render it scarcely worth imposing.

suggested, as a mode of obviating the necessity of the proposed tax, to substitute a duty upon hot-houses and green-houses. This, he said, would be laying a tax upon luxury where it would not be felt, and relieve the small farmer from a burden already oppressive, but which, if in any degree increased, would become intolerable.

A division then took place. The numbers were—In favour of the original clause 69; Against it 43; Majority 26.

moved the third reading of the Per Centage Bill.

rose to say a few words respecting some misconception which pre- vailed relative to the opinions which had been given on the legality of Mr. Palmer's claim, by sir J. Mansfield, lord Erskine, sir Vicary Gibbs, and Mr. Adam. It had been said that the opinion of those eminent lawyers had been formed on exparte evidence. This he was prepared to disprove, and to shew that it was delivered on a full review and knowledge of all the circumstances of the case. Here the hon. baronet read an extract from the written opinion of Mr. Palmer's counsel. He acknowledged that there was some part of that gentleman's conduct that was not strictly defensible; but he denied that it could at all affect the question as to the justice of his claim, inasmuch as the conduct alluded to, so far from evincing any want of integrity in his public trust, arose from his impatience at the ignorance of those who were set over him. Lord Walsinghaim and lord Chesterfield had, nevertheless, greatly to their honour, borne ample testimony to the general merits of Mr. Palmer. There was, likewise, sufficient proof in the great increase of the revenue, of the value and importance of Mr. Palmer's plan—a plan which had required great talents and exertions to carry into execution—an object, however, which Mr. Palmer had successfully accomplished. It was a most unfair principle, then, to assume, because the gain to the public had been enormous, and the per centage to the individual must of course be great, that therefore the House ought to pause before they fulfilled the demands of justice. When he saw sinecures actually increasing in proportion to the increasing distresses of the country, and the House refusing to interfere, on the ground that the gentlemen holding them had a legal right to their possession, he thought it very hard that such an argument should be urged in a case where great actual service had been performed, and where no improvident bargain had been made.

said a few words in opposition to the Bill, which was read a third time and passed without a division.