1831.] The Dissolution of Parliament. 477 



"My Lords and Gentlemen, I have come to meet you for the purpose of 

 proroguing- this Parliament with a view to its immediate Dissolution. 



" I have been induced to resort to this measure, for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the sense of my people, in the way in which it can be most constitution- 

 ally and authentically expressed, on the expediency of making such changes 

 in the representation as circumstances may appear to require, and which shall 

 be founded on the acknowledged principles of the Constitution, and may tend 

 at once to uphold the just rights and prerogatives of the Crown, and to give 

 security to the liberties of my people." 



Such was the last day of the House of Lords of the first parliament of 

 William the IVth. 



The last day of the Commons was equally characteristic. On the pre- 

 sentation of one of the Reform petitions, Sir Richard Vyvyan, who has 

 distinguished himself during this session as a singularly manly and in- 

 telligent member, and who stands fairly at the head of opposition in the 

 House, rose and arraigned ministers on all points of their policy. " He 

 charged them with rashness equivalent to frenzy in proposing a Dissolu- 

 tion of Parliament now ; even if they had no reference to any thing but 

 the desperate disturbances of Ireland, unless indeed they had made a 

 compromise with the member for Waterford, which notwithstanding all 

 their denials, he fully believed they had, though they might bring 

 him up for judgment, to blind the eyes of protestants." 



On this point our readers know that we had made up our minds from 

 the very commencement of the proceedings. The delay, the silly suf- 

 ferance, the legal quibbles, the affected employment of irresponsible per- 

 sons, and of that Mr. Bennett, who contrives to make himself as intangible 

 as the fiend in the Freischiitz, and yet sets every thing in motion, all 

 satisfied us of the fact. O'Connell will, we suppose, for shame's sake, 

 be compelled to appear at last, and then after days or weeks, perhaps 

 months, spent in the nonsense of mooting points, on which a jury would 

 have come to a decision without leaving the box, and a government pos- 

 sessed of any common sense or sincerity would have finished the matter 

 in four and twenty hours ; we shall have O'Connell discharged with 

 some pitiful fine, or an admonition to be a good boy for the future. 



As to Lord Grey's declaration alluded to ; his lordship's express words 

 more than substantiated the remark, " that they are well entitled to excite 

 the alarm of every friend of protestanism in the empire." Lord Farnhanrhad 

 stated that the Reform Bill would put an exorbitant power into the hands 

 of popery in Ireland, and would be in fact in the first instance giving up 

 to it the Irish church, and in the next Ireland itself. To this Lord Grey, 

 coolly answered : 



" If, as anticipated by the noble lord, the Roman Catholic church should 

 acquire greater power than it had at present, I cannot agree in the opinion that 

 therefore the union between the two countries would not be maintained. In 

 Scotland I find an establishment adverse to the establishment of this country, 

 but no such result followed. In Canada the same circumstances exist without 

 being followed by the consequences apprehended by the noble lord. And in 

 many places on the Continent, even in despotic states, adverse churches exist 

 without any interference with the general harmony. Seeing this, I hope, if 

 ever that which I should regret should take place, that the union between the 

 two countries would remain undisturbed." 



Let the Irish protestants, and the English too, look to this. The 

 Prime Minister, who is sworn to preserve the Protestant constitution in 

 church and state, contemplates tranquilly the supremacy of popery. 



