1831.] Parliamentary Refrrm. 355 



because it laid hold of the spoliators. The seizure was with those who now 

 cried out so lustily ' Stop thief!' Some delusion was practised upon this 

 subject in the House; the matter was mystified by one gentleman quoting* 

 what another gentleman had said upon some other occasion, or what some de- 

 ceased statesman of great name had been reported to have said some years ago : 

 but he would tell the House that the people out of doors were in the habit of 

 talking common-sense, and that this was the language which they held to the 

 borough-proprietors ' You have taken away our rights, you have usurped 

 our franchises, you have robbed us of our property, and do what you will, 

 you shall disgorge !' " 



As he passed along he alluded to the conduct of individuals as in- 

 fluencing or influenced by the mode of borough election. To the actual 

 law that no bishop should interfere in the choice of members, he declared 

 that there was a direct disobedience in the conduct of the Archbishop 

 of Armagh, the Irish primate, who had returned Mr. Goulburn before 

 his apostacy, and who had lately returned him a second time : 



" He would give up all Reform if he did not prove at that bar that they 

 had among them a member for a borough, who had been nominated by a pre- 

 late. The member to whom he alluded was the late Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer, the representative for the borough of Armagh. Yes ; and as soon as the 

 right-honourable gentleman, the nominee of the right- reverend prelate, had 

 been safely returned by the influence of the right-reverend prelate, the Orarge- 

 rrien and the Presbyterians, and others of the borough, met together, and 

 joined in the work of burning the right-honourable gentleman in effigy. And 

 this was the old and much-lauded Constitution ! Oh ! if the honourable and 

 learned member for Boroughbridge had only been as pathetic as he was 

 comical if he had been, like Niobe, all tears and what an admirable repre- 

 sentative of Niobe he would have made ! they should have been almost 

 washed away in the flood which would have been shed at the notion of de- 

 stroying this venerable old Constitution !" 



The effect of this patronage gave him the opportunity of a remark on 

 the member for Drogheda, whose squabble with him last year was not 

 forgotten. 



" By-the-by, this brought to his recollection the speech of the honourable 

 and learned member for Drogheda (Mr. North) last night. They all remem- 

 bered how that honourable and learned member, when he sat for a rotten 

 borough, and was on the other side of the House, hardly ever opened his lips, 

 and when he did, spoke scarcely above his breath, and always voted with 

 Ministers; but they had all seen how he threw himself forward now how 

 loudly and independently he talked, now that he sat on this side the House 

 and for Drogheda, and was disencumbered of the influence of a patron." 



Concluding with a bitter sarcasm on all who entered Parliament under 

 patronage, a sarcasm which cut right and left among his own friends. 



" Oh ! God help those who would creep into that House. They said that 

 they stooped, and that they were riot ashamed to stoop. Out upon this 

 saying ! they did not stoop they could not stoop for they were already 

 bent so low that it was impossible they could bend lower." 



In adverting to the actual state of Elections, he descanted strongly 

 and justly -on the abominations practised at the hustings He asked, 

 *' was there any member of the House who was not aware of the Election 

 system? Of the class of persons who crowded round a Member cf 

 Parliament, asking him, ' did he know of a third man ?' saying, < that 

 they have got two to stand, and if they could only find a third man, he 

 would be sure to get in ?' " This observation found so much corres- 



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