HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



155 



stop short in his progress towards 

 its accomplishment ? No such 

 thing ; the offence, as far as he 

 was to act, was intentionally com- 

 mitted ; and he had no plea of exte- 

 nuation because it ultimately failed 

 from the inefficiency of minor 

 agents. — Mr. Whitbread observed, 

 that the converts to parliamentary 

 reform were now numerous in 

 every part of the country, and 

 that if the motion which his noble 

 friend had submitted to the house 

 should be negatived, they would 

 be still more numerous.— Mr. 

 Tierney did not see that it was 

 any mitigation to say that lord C. 

 %vas so particular about the fitness 

 of the person to be recommended 

 to the writership, as those writer- 

 ships were always given to boys, 

 and the son of a chimney-sweep 

 might just be as proper as the son 

 of a member of parliament, if he 

 had interest to get a recommenda- 

 tion. — Mr. Windham said, that 

 the house in giving their decision 

 were called upon, in his opinion, 

 to make a distinction between the 

 act and the offender. Should they 

 pass to the other orders of the day, 

 he feared it would be regarded as 

 an implied approbation of the prin- 

 ciple. He admitted that any at- 

 tack on the privileges of that 

 house, or the purity and freedom 

 of elections, was a very fair and 

 fit object for parliainentary cogni- 

 zance. But he would be glad to 

 know how far the principle was 

 to be carried? Whether it was 

 to be applied to any man influ- 

 encing, or endeavouring to influ- 

 ence a vote, or procure a seat in 

 that house, under certain circum- 

 stances, or whether it was meant 

 to limit it to ministers ? lie 

 feared that his noble friend had 



taken his principle too wide. If 

 he meant that it should be de- 

 clared criminal in a man to endea- 

 vour to obtain a seat in that house, 

 under those circumstances with 

 which they were all acquainted, 

 that design would embrace much 

 more than this motion. There 

 was not a place in the kingdom 

 that sent members to parliament, to 

 which, with the exception of Old 

 Sarum, it would not apply. When 

 they were called upon to condemn 

 so violently the noble lord, they 

 would do well to ask themselves 

 whether they would hesitate, for 

 the purpose of securing an elec- 

 tion, to recommend a friend to 

 government. It was not the in- 

 tention of the noble lord, from 

 what he could collect, to put a 

 person in that house to answer an 

 improper purpose. It was incum- 

 bent on the house to give an opi- 

 nion on the transaction, but not 

 too strong an opinion on the man. 

 — Mr. Canning perceived that 

 every gentleman who had spoken 

 entertained a due sense of the 

 manner in which his noble friend 

 had conducted his defence, and 

 did not wish to press any severe 

 sentence upon him. To this consi- 

 deration, was to be added another, 

 namely, that the intention of the 

 noble lord was never carried into 

 execution, and that it certainly 

 would have been retracted if the 

 noble lord had afterwards come to 

 learn the circumstances of the offer, 

 and the character of the person who 

 made it. — The voting for passing 

 to the other orders of the day was 

 according to parliamentary usage, 

 a way of showing that the house 

 had taken a case in consideration, 

 the result of which had been, that 

 they did not think it necessary to 



come 



