1832.] Parliamentary Movements of the Month. 253 



Hobhouse's declaration, that his feelings are, as yet, unchanged by 

 office ; and that this foul and revolting stain upon the armies of en- 

 lightened England will be of no lengthened existence. 



Col. Trench has introduced a very important motion, relative to the 

 improvement of the House, which, it seems, requires Reform as much 

 as its occupants. Much was said about a new building, and more 

 about enlarging the old one ; but the general feeling seemed to har- 

 monize with that of Sir Robert Peel, who confessed that he was 

 " attached to the present building, from the associations with which it 

 was connected." Barrington, who used to practise his art in the lob- 

 bies of the theatres, might say the same of Covent Garden he was 

 " attached to the theatre, from the associations with which it was con- 

 nected." The narrowness of the benches was made a subject of com- 

 plaint, and many honourable members for close boroughs thought that 

 they ought to enjoy their seats upon a broader basis. The narrowness 

 of the policy which had been for so many years inculcated upon these 

 very benches, was a subject of slight consideration, compared with the 

 narrowness of the seats themselves ; and the scarcity of conscience in 

 the sitters, was lost sight of in the scarcity of cushion. 



While this laudable anxiety for the comfort and dignity of Members 

 of Parliament was going on, Mr. Baring was more usefully employed in 

 obtaining leave to bring in a bill for limiting their privileges ; or, in 

 other words, a bill to prevent Members of Parliament from cheating 

 their coach -makers and wine-merchants. Among the minor points of 

 reform, this is an item of some importance ; the public have long looked 

 with disgust upon the abuses to which the present rate of privilege has 

 led. But we are indebted to Mr. E. L. Bulwer for the promise of a 

 motion of far higher importance the Repeal of all Taxes upon Know- 

 ledge ! This is a question to which we look forward with high hope 

 not unmingled with fear for the consistency of ministers. We are glad 

 that Mr. Bulwer has been the first to introduce the subject, in a specific 

 shape ; and we hail this instance of public spirit as an omen, that his 

 political ambition will be no less elevated than his literary genius. 



But we have another source of high congratulation to the country, 

 in the announcement made by Lord Althorp, relative to the meditated 

 extinction of tithes in Ireland a promise that will materially tend to 

 soften the rigour of Lord Grey's threat, to force submission to the exist- 

 ing laws at all hazards. Yet even here, in what an absurd, yet per- 

 fectly statesmanlike dilemma, have they gratuitously placed themselves. 

 They admit the law to be improper, and pledge themselves to repeal it ; 

 but first they must exact from its victims an acknowledgment of its 

 justice : they promise to abolish the rack, but in the meantime they must 

 insist upon placing unhappy Ireland upon it not to dislocate her limbs 

 exactly, but to prepare her, by a few wrenches, for the delights that 

 are in store for her. 



