this country from them, as his honourable friend seemed to apprehend. Nevertheless, let the consequences be what they might, he would tell his honourable friend, that but for the policy of Mr. Canning, the passage of the Pruth would have been effected long since, and under circumstances by no means so favourable to this country, as those under which it had now occurred.

His honourable friend had alluded to the force in the Mediterranean, and had laid the expenditure and the occurrences there at the door of Mr. Canning. Did his honourable friend never hear that the Mediterranean had been infested by numerous pirates ?-that the commerce of all nations, and particularly British commerce, had suffered severe losses in consequence of their depredations? It was to put down that system of piracy that the force had been sent out to the Mediterranean; and no blame could attach to his lamented friend, or to those who concurred with him in the policy of sending out that force, if a shock had afterwards taken place, which had never been anticipated, as one of the consequences of those instructions which Mr. Canning, in the discharge of his duty to the country and the Crown, had prepared.

The next point to which his honourable friend had adverted, was one upon which it was desirable that no discussion should have been provoked. His noble friend, who had addressed the House with so much eloquence and feeling, had adverted to the delay which had taken place in bringing forward this proposition. Now, he could assert, that there did not exist in the late Administration, any indisposition to consider the claims of the family of Mr. Canning; and he could positively say, that in the present Administration there prevailed one unanimous concurrence in the present proposition, and that the delay which had taken place was not to be attributed to any desire on their

part to defeat the object of the proposition. All personal feelings had been laid aside, when this question came to be considered by them. All angry passions were for the time forgotten, and they approached the consideration of the question as public men, looking only to the circumstances which had reference to the public services of the man, and the loss which his family had sustained by his death.' In this they imitated the great example of Mr. Fox, who at a period when the finances of the country were greatly embarrassed, notwithstanding the many angry and violent encounters which had taken place between them in Parliament, was amongst the foremost to support the bill for the payment of the debts of Mr. Pitt, and, with the characteristic virtue of great men, laid aside all recollections of the differences which had prevailed between him and his lost rival.

He felt that he had already trespassed too long on the attention of the House. He would, however, say this of Mr. Canning, that, during the course of a long parliamentary life, he had known all the great men who, for the last twenty-five years, had served their country, and that he never knew one of them who had exceeded Mr. Canning in the exclusion of every thing of self, when concerned in the discharge of public duties. In his anxiety to discharge those duties, he was regardless of all other considerations. His desire for power arose from his love of fame; and his constant exertions, while in power, were directed to the advancement of the fame of his country. Animated with these feelings, he had lighted up that flame in the Peninsula which had blazed throughout Europe, and had at last restored the peace of the continent. The same feelings influenced him in the latter part of his career-the same desire still animated his breast, to promote the good and to advance the greatness of his country. The anxiety which he

exhibited, and the incessant exertions which he devoted to the accomplishment of that great object, destroyed a frame which had been otherwise robust, and caused his premature decease―too soon, alas! for his country, though not for his own fame. He last saw his lamented friend in the month of

July. His health was then drooping-his strength was gone, and his frame was fast sinking to decay; but his spirit was still as young as ever, and his enthusiasm in the cause of his country knew no bounds. If his lamented friend had errors, they were the errors of a great mind. In none of the illustrious men who had yielded themselves up to the calls of public duty, had he seen the same devotedness of soul to the cause of the country, which had been uniformly exhibited by Mr. Canning, with the exception of Nelson, and, as their feelings were similar, so their fate was the same; for both had fallen in the service of their country. If departed spirits retained the feelings which animated them in their earthly sojourn, sure he was that those kindred spirits were still pervaded with the desire for England's fame and England's greatness. That was the all-pervading ambition which influenced the public conduct of Mr. Canning, and it was on that account that he called on the House to adopt the present motion. His honourable friend opposite had calculated what he reckoned Mr. Canning to have cost the country, and had estimated it at sixty thousand pounds. No doubt his honourable friend had discharged what he conceived to be a public duty, in opposing this proposal; but gladly would the family of Mr. Canning relinquish more than sixty thousand pounds, if they could have restored to them that parent who had fallen a sacrifice to his devotion to his country.

The committee divided: For the motion, 161. Against it, 54.

EAST RETFORD DISFRANCHISEMENT BILL.

May 19.

The House being in a committee on the Bill for disfranchising East Retford, and transferring the franchise to Birmingham, Mr. Nicholson Calvert moved an amendment to the preamble, that it should be transferred to the hundred of Bassetlaw. Upon which, Lord Sandon, referring to the fate of the Penryn Disfranchisement Bill in the Lords, reminded Mr. Huskisson of his declaration, that if there was only one case of delinquency before the House, he should recommend and support the transfer of the franchise to some great commercial town,' and claimed his vote in favour of the present bill.

Mr. Secretary HUSKISSON said, that his noble friend was not incorrect, as to what had fallen from him on a former occasion; but when he said, that if they adopted the proposition of the honourable member for Hertfordshire they would create a precedent for future occasions, he could not admit the principle, that the franchise should always in future be transferred to a great town whenever any borough might be disfranchised. The House might make a bad selection; and as what his right honourable friend near him had said, related only to a choice between two towns, so his opinion had been, that it would be better to extend the franchise to the neighbourhood of the town which had formerly enjoyed it, rather than to a distant part of the kingdom. Now, as to the present course, it should be recollected, that when the House first took upon itself to punish for corruption, it did not disfranchise any borough, but considered that a corrective was applied by throwing the liberty open to the vicinage. This had been done in the cases of Shoreham, Aylesbury, and other places; and the argument in favour of that course was strengthened, when there were numbers in any place, who had not vitiated their franchise by using it for corrupt purposes. In such cases, Parliament had no right to take away the franchise, and thus punish

innocent persons for guilt incurred by others. The propo sition, however, of the honourable member for Hertfordshire, was not to infuse fresh blood into the borough, by letting in the freeholders of the vicinage, but to deal with East Retford as they had done with Grampound; and then, by giving the franchise to the neighbourhood, to create a new representation. Under these circumstances, he felt great difficulty, and wished to postpone the decision, until the fate of the other bill which had been sent up to the Lords could be known.

The committee divided: For the amendment, 146. Against it, 128. Upon this occasion, Mr. Huskisson voted with the minority.

EAST RETFORD DISFRANCHISEMENT BILL— MR. HUSKISSON'S STATEMENT, RESPECTING HIS REMOVAL FROM OFFICE.

June 2,

Mr. Tennyson having moved the order of the day, for going into a committee on this bill,

Mr. HUSKISSON rose and said:-Sir, the circumstances under which I offer myself to your notice will, I trust, bespeak for me-that, of which I shall stand so much in need-the patient indulgence of this House, without my making any elaborate appeal to their good feelings.

Notwithstanding the example of modern times, more especially the precedents of the last session,-notwithstanding the appeal just made to me by the honourable member who has moved the order of the day,-I, for one, am not prepared to subscribe to the doctrine, that a minister of the Crown, on quitting his Majesty's service, is necessarily called upon to give an account, either to Parliament or to