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your pledge with the people; not to play, speaking of IAGO, calls him an excling to your place, and feed the people cellent fellow, a man of unparallelled with hopes that you never can realize; judgment and exquisite penetration, and not, like Louis PHILIPPE, to keep the unshaken fidelity; and, in the last act he nest warm and snug for the enemies of calls him the perfidious, damned IAGO. reform to come and fill. It is truly Yet has the poet inade his hero perfectly curious how the two Governments of consistent, by making his opinion of the France and England have gone on keep-man vary with the acts of that man. › ing pace with each other since the sum- Last week I saw in you a reformer of mer and fall of 1830. There has forty years' standing. I saw in you a been a change in the Ministers of both man who had, the moment he came countries; but not one particle of change into power, set about a work that proved in the measures. In both cases, the new his sincerity; I saw in you a man pledged rulers have enforced all the rigorous laws to stand or fall by a specific bill, in of their predecessors; in both cases, which bill I saw the means of restoring the new have continued all the really greatness and happiness to the country; heavy taxes imposed by the old; all the I saw you, as I thought, ready to prorigours imposed upon the press; and, in rogue the Parliament, augment the short, in both cases, one set seems to peers, and bring in the same bill again. have succeeded the other only for the This week I see in you a man who will purpose of perpetuating the system that not fall with the bill; who keeps his was going on before the change. You place though the bill be lost and be not are gratified" with the expressions of to be revived; I see in you a man who "approbation and confidence with talks of a something quite as effi" which you are honoured by the ad- cient; " a something that shall answer "dresses of the parishes of which all the objects declared to be had in HOBHOUSE was the mouthpiece: "these view by the former bill; but I see in afford you and your colleagues the you a man from whom it is impossible. highest gratification." To be sure to extract any definition at all of the fhey do! And what the devil did Hoв- intended new bill. I see in you, in HOUSE go to those parishes for but to short, an entirely new man, and I enget those addresses! And what did tertain an entirely new opinion with reLord EBRINGTON, the son-in-law of gard to you; therefore, if I had gone to Lord HARROWBY and the nephew of Guild-hall for the purpose of exciting Lord GRENVILLE, get a vote from the suspicion in the minds of the livery with House of Commons for, expressing the regard to your intentions, the act would confidence they placed in you, and give have been perfectly consistent with my notice of his motion, too, before the Re-duty, and a mark of my sagacity. What form Bill had been actually rejected: I did will not prevent you from pursuwhat was this for, but to invite the un-ing the path which you intend to pursuspecting people all over the country to send up addresses to the King still to repose his confidence in you? But the people will soon discover the reason for the playing off of all these tricks; and lastly, if they were never to discover it, their necessities, their distresses, their ruin, their misery, the beggary of some and the half-starvation of others, would finally open their eyes.

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My Lord GREY, some vile parasite will tell you of the inconsistency which I now display, having so praised your conduct last week. But recollect that OTHELLO, in the former part of the

sue; but it will, at any rate, have awakened the public vigilance much sooner than it would otherwise have been awakened.

But, my Lord GREY; like all your predecessors, you reckon without your host: you always forget, or seem never to have perceived, that it was the sufferings of the people, and not any abstract whim, that produced the cry for reform. You seem not to know that, whether there be the whole bill, or a no bill, the cause which produced the cry for reform will go on working its way. Read, I pray you, the letter which will follow

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this article; you will then see arithmeti- up the system, and, as far as a minister cal demonstration that this state of can be, you have now become answerthings cannot continue; you will see able for all its effects upon the people. that something, some great limb of the In conclusion, notwithstanding these system (and more than one limb), must forebodings of mine; notwithstanding give way; you will see that what you call my strong disapprobation of the conduct national faith, and that tithes and taxes, of the Minister, no man in England will cannot all go on. I have not wanted be so happy to find that the forebodings Parliamentary Reform to gratify any are not verified, to find that the disapwhim of mine; I have not built my call probation was premature, as far as that for it upon any abstract principle; but disapprobation relates to acts not alupon the absolute necessity of it to ready done. If a measure quite as enable the government and Parliament efficient; " that is to say, quite as effito do the things necessary to provide cient in the work of disfranchising for the well-being of the people, to re- rotten boroughs, and in causing an exstore them to prosperity and happiness. tepsion of the suffrage: mind what I The following letter to the borough- say, reader if a measure quite as mongers will inform you of the state in efficient" for these purposes be brought which the people are in two important in; be proposed to the Parliament, it counties, and in two immense branches shall receive from me all the support of trade. With very little exception, that I am able to give it; and, if it be much about the same is the state of carried, I shall be ready to confess that commerce in all its branches, and of the Minister is a wiser man than I am. agriculture alsc. It must be so, which But, again I say, that, rather than have a is a thousand times better than any measure short of this, it would have been statement of facts or pretended facts: infinitely better for the country for the there is a cause at work which must Minister to have kept his pledge; that make it so; and that cause goes gradually is to say, to have fallen with the bill, on making the state of the people worse and to have left the people to pursue and worse, as the interest of money their own course with regard to his keeps rolling on till, by degrees, it ab- successors: for a Minister who has dissorbs the thing upon which it was lent. tinctly broken his pledge, whose own You cannot stop this cause; no bit-and-statement shows that the bill is gone for bit reform will stop this cause: if Hon-ever, who has not fallen with the bill; HOUSE could bring you up a palaver for him to ask for the confidence of the from every parish in the kingdom, it would not arrest this desolating cause for one single moment. Nine years ago I addressed letters to yourself, in which I distinctly foretold that things would come to this state at last, unless arrested in their progress by a reform of the Parliament. There has been a doubt in my mind, whether the bill, if it had Wednesday Morning, 19th October, 1881. been passed, could have retrieved our LORD GREY'S account, above inserted, affairs in a peaceable manner; but of his interview with the PAROCHIAL there is no doubt in my mind that, DEPUTATION on Wednesday night, the if the bill be not passed, and speedily 12th of October, has, at last, brought passed, too, you will have sorely to la-out Mr. PLACE, who, it appears, was ment that you did not quit your post if one of the Deputies, and he, in a letter to you found that you could not accomplish the Chronicle, published this morning, a new creation of Peers. For, observe, and dated yesterday, after he had read you have now made the concern your Lord GREY'S account, gives the followLast Sunday week it was not ing account of the matter, which, I yours now it is yours: you have taken dare say, is the true one.

own.

people; for him to say, and under his own signature, that he has a "claim lo their confidence," does, I think, surpass any-thing of the sort that ever before cane from mortal man.

Wм. COBBÈTT.

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MR. PLACE'S LETTER. on Wednesday night, as in the House of SIR,-In the leading article of your Lords on Monday, cannot, I think, come paper of this day you have incorporated to any other conclusion than this-the a portion of Earl Grey's speech in the fears of the persons who appointed the House of Lords on Monday, respecting deputation were well grounded. That the Deputation which waited on his it was in contemplation to prorogue the Lordship on Wednesday night. His Parliament beyond Christmas, or that Lordship is reported to have said, that" it was ascertained," as you expressed expressions had been attributed to it, "that Parliament would be pro"him which were not correctly stated rogued till after Christmas." by those who made them public." His Lordship says, "I repeated what This statement of his Lordship is not had said before, that I would never be quite correct, and as the error is of some a party to the recommendation of any importance, I beg leave to correct it. measure not founded on the same prinIn making this communication to ciples as that which had been rejected, the public, you used these words :- and as effectual for the accomplishment "The result of the interview was the of the objects which it was declared to "ascertaining that Parliament would have in view." This is undoubtedly the "be prorogued till after Christmas," substance of what his Lordship said, and this is as correct as any inference though the words are not quite the same from mere reasoning can be. There as those his Lordship used to the depucan be no incorrectness in stating his tation.

I

Lordship's expressions on this point; In your paper of Saturday, you say for it is not said that his Lordship used" the deputies assured his Lordship that any such " expressions," the words used" the people would be content with Lord being merely inferential. "John Russell's bill!" and that his The memorial presented to Earl Lordship answered, "That it would be Grey says, that they whose names and "absurd to think of again proposing addresses are attached " have heard" Lord John Russell's bill-that Minis"with astonishment that it is intended" ters would not think of bringing in a to prorogue Parliament, and not to bill which they knew would not be "re-assemble it till after Christmas; "carried." and they "most urgently implore his This is substantially correct, though Lordship's immediate attention" to that his Lordship did not use the words, and the other matters contained in the" Lord John Russell's bill;" the latter memorial. part of the sentence is literally correct. His Lordship observes, "I said no- In his Lordship's statement, on Monday "thing of any period of adjournment-I evening, no notice is taken of the im"said nothing of any prorogation of Par-portant passage. "liament to the end of January. I said

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The memorial contains these words :nothing of time." True it is that his "That they (the memorialists) should Lordship said "nothing of the proroga- "neither do their duty to themselves, to "tion of Parliament to the end of Ja-" their country, nor to the Government nuary; but his Lordship did say "itself, if they did not assure your something of "time." He said, "that" Lordship it is their firm conviction, "the framing of the bill to be presented" that unless Parliament be prorogued to Parliament would require much at-" for the shortest possible period (not tention, and occupy much time." It "exceeding seven days), and that the would neither have been respectful nor "bill for reforming the Parliament, decent to have pressed for a more par-" which has passed the House of Comticular reply; and, indeed, none more mons, he then again introduced, and particular seemed necessary. Whoever" the necessary means be adopted to attends to the words of the memorial, "secure its becoming the law of the and to what his Lordship has been" land, the country will inevitably be pleased to say, as well to the deputation" plunged into all the horrors of a vio

"lent revolution; the result of which no | Wednesday evening, laid before the pubman can predict."

The words "" necessary means," &c., imply the creation of Peers; they were intended respectfully and delicately to suggest this to his Lordship, and they seem to me, and will, I conclude, to every man who reads them, to have no other meaning. His Lordship must, I think, have so understood them; yet his Lordship did not, either to the deputation or to the Lords, take the slightest notice of them.

The deputation was composed of men who knew the world, as well as the respect due to his Lordship, too well to urge any point too far, or not to take any reply his Lordship might make as at once conclusive.

Looking, then, at the words of the memorial, and at those used by his Lordship, no unbiassed man can, I think, come to any other conclusions than those which his Lordship says contain "an incorrect statement of his expreesions." They may be stated thus:

lic in detail, they would be as highly creditable to them as the result will, I conclude, be acknowledged to be useful. Should that result be no more than shortening_ the prorogation, of which, however, I have great doubt, much good may be done-much mischief prevented. Whether the apprehensions of the meeting, expressed in the memorial, are well or ill-founded, time will show, if the prorogation be continued over Christ

Good! Good, Mr. PLACE! but this ought to have come out on THURSDAY MORNING, the 13th, instead of WEDNESDAY MORNING, the 19th. I give you credit for having made the communication to the Chronicle on the 14th, and to that paper for having published it on the 15th, and thereby having enabled me to let out the ominous tale at the Guild-hall on the evening of the 15th. But, in justice to the country, it should have come out from you, and with your

1. That it was contemplated to prorogue Parliament till after Christmas. 2. That Ministers did not intend to re-name, on the morning of Thursday, the commend the creation of Peers.

3. That the bill which had passed the Commons, and had been rejected by the Lords, was not to be again presented to the Commons.

13th; for there have the people been set on by Lord EBRINGTON to implore the King "to continue his confidence in his present Ministers," the people thinking, of course, that that confidence It was apprehensions of these three meant a new creation of peers, and a circumstances, now proved to have been speedy passing of "the bill; but if entertained on good grounds, that in-you had, on the 13th, published under duced the meeting, which was a public meeting, called by advertisement, to sign the memorial, and send the deputation to Earl Grey; and, Grey; and, not withstanding the false quotations and scandalous imputations of the Courier, the proceedings of the meeting will, I trust, be acknowledged as generally as they have already been pretty extensively, to be warranted by circumstances, and this is all which I think need be said in reply to Lord Brougham's assertion, in which he endeavoured to attribute the proceedings to one or two well-meaning but overanxious individuals."

Were the whole of the proceedings of the gentlemen who assembled on the

your name, the account which the Chronicle published on the 15th, the people would have known, that, to call upon the King to continue his confidence in his present Ministers, was, in fact, to call on him to prorogue Parliament till after Christmas; to refuse to cause a new creation of peers; and not to cause "THE BILL" to be proposed again. Thus have the people been acting in the dark: they have, in fact, been doing precisely the contrary of that which they thought they were doing. However, this error will do neither the Ministers nor the boroughmongers any good: the error will soon be corrected; and the public indignation will alight with double weight on both the parties,

This matter is, I think, now pretty well settled: the "abrupt intrusion of the parochial deputies, on the 12th, disconcerted the schemes that were on foot: it took the head contriver, the "stand or fall" man, by surprise: it let out, at once, that which we were to have learned by bit-and- bit; that which was to have confused us; to have first pledged us to support the Ministers, and then imputed inconsistency to us, if we disapproved of their abandonment of the bill. It was a real, a genuine Whig scheme; but the "abrupt intrusion disconcerted it.

of this country, namely, that the political "power of the Bishops ought to cease. He himself was of that opinion. (Hear, hear.) He was surprised that the honourable and learned Member should think that that wish, as expressed in the petition, was a solitary wish, and that no part of the people of the country sympathised with it. He was equally surprised that the honourable Member for Worcestershire should say it was false to state that the bill was lost by the vote of the Bishops, when it was clear, that as the majority against the bill only amounted to forty-one, and as twenty-one Bishops had voted against the bill, the majority would have turned the other way, had the Bishops voted in support of that mea"" sure. He believed that the time would come for all these changes, but he admitted that this was not exactly the moment for discussing Now let us go to the House of Com-it. Then as to the observation of the hon. mons on Tuesday night, where we find and learned Member for Stafford, that these "Colonel EVANS giving notice that he expressions of opinion were like dictating to 66 would, to-morrow, the Ministers, he did not agree at all with that Wednesday, move statement of the honourable and learned 66 a resolution to the effect, that it is Member, and he believed that it would be only "inexpedient to defer the re-introduc-playing the game of the anti-reformers, if the

❝tion of the Reform Bill for any longer people of this country were to lie on their period than a month." The result of of the rejection of the bill. Instead of doing arms, as if they did not care about the success this motion will, I dare say, be a nega-this, he recommended them to use every contive upon it by "the whole-bill" House stitutional means of showing the deep anxiety of Commons, and will leave no room they felt upon the subject. for doubt, even in the minds of idiots, which the people had manifested on this subBut, in the meanwhile, there was a de-ject was both natural and proper, and be bate last night, worthy of great attention, relative to the Bishops. I insert it at length. It is worthy of our best

attention.

Mr. HUNT presented a petition from an individual, stating that the Reform Bill was defeated by the Bishops, and praying that they might be disfranchised.

Mr. RUTHVEN said, that the strong feeling

hoped that they would continue to show their anxiety, upon it in every constitutional way. He sincerely deprecated violence of all kinds,

for riots were only injurious to the cause of Reform; but he trusted that all other efforts would be made to sustain the Ministers.

Mr. J. CAMPBELL, in explanation, said, that he too wished the people to come forward in a constitutional manner in support of the Re form Bill, but not to send delegates at midnight to the noble Earl at the head of the government, nor to address petitions to that House couched in such improper and unconstitutional language as the petition now presented to their notice.

Mr. J. CAMPBELL deplored the presentation of such a petition. It could not fail to be productive of bad effects. Nothing could injure the cause of reform except the indiscreet efforts of pretended friends. He likewise begged to observe, that attempts, such as those lately made to dictate to Ministers, must Mr. FRESHFIELD could not let this opportudecidedly be mischievous. He doubted whẹnity pass without protesting against these ther the petition ought to be received. constant allusions to the Bishop-these attacks upon a portion of the Legislature, the existence of which was so neccessary to the support of the constitution of the country. He could not avoid, too, expressing his strong objection to the sort of language held by the hon. Member for Middlesex, who, not content with saying that the Bishops should not have voted against the bill, actually seemed to declare that they should violate their consciences by voting in its favour.

Mr. ROBINSON said this was very like the things the honourable Member was bringing down every night. He also doubted whether the petition ought to be received. It bore no date, and he hoped the honourable Member would be able to show how it came into his hands.

Mr. HUME said that the House ought not to reject the petition merely because it was contrary to the opinion of the House. With respect to the observations made by the hon. and learned Member for Stafford, he begged to say, now he was thus called upon, that he believed the opinion expressed in that petition to be the opinion of a large portion of the people

Colonel EVANS said, that as the honourable and learned Member for Stafford had alluded to the conduct of the delegates who had waited upon Earl Grey, he begged to say, that they had done nothing which deserved the censure of