of procedure abolished, and another sub- | the hon. Member mark his words, and restituted, which would be more consistent member them. They were these:-He with the object of doing justice to the in- said that there was an unpopularity attachdividuals, than anything that could be ed to the noble Lord, but that he was cereffected under the present system. He tain that every hon. Member who came was sorry if he had expressed himself too down to that House to vote on that subwarmly; he had sat quietly as long as ject had done his best to divest himself of possible; but because he happened to have its influence. When he said that, to be commenced the discussion, all the attacks told that he had uttered exactly the rehad been directed against him, and he verse, and to have expressions imputed to thought he had been called on to express him which, without exception (unless, inhis disapprobation of the course that had deed, he excepted the hon. member for been pursued. Montrose), every human being who had heard him knew he had never uttered, was a little hard. But that was not all: he was told that he had made an accusation that no man had opposed the Bill who had not been influenced by unfair prejudices. and partial reasonings. That was pure imagination. It was not misrepresentation; it did not deserve the name; it was absolutely invention. He could put up with having his words tortured; he could put up with misrepresentations; but he put it to the House whether any debates could be carried on with facility if hon. Members were to indulge their fancy, and to put into the mouths of others, sentiments which they never uttered, and which, indeed they abhorred. He complained, in his turn, of an unjust, an unfounded, and unjustifiable attack, not of a misrepresentation, but of an invention which no fair, no honest, no honourable, no common sense Member of that House could have the slightest possibility of believing he had ever uttered. He would say no more. He ought to beg pardon of the House if he had gone too far, but he felt it due to his own character, and to that of all the Members of that House, to say something in reply to the hon. Member, for he did not know what would be the effect on all if they were to allow to pass unanswered not merely misrepresentations but inventions. He thought that such conduct as that on which he had commented deserved the reprobation of all honourable, honest, and intelligent minds.

Dr. Lushington said, if he had conceived it was within the power of misapprehension itself so to have misapprehended what had fallen from him, as he now found it had been misapprehended by the hon. member for Montrose, perhaps he should have remained silent on this discussion. But he had never believed that such a power of misrepresentation could have existed in any individual. That any man who had the faculty of recollection, that any one who had the power of stating facts that had previously happened, should have got up within three-quarters of an hour after he had delivered his speech, and put into his mouth sentiments which he had never uttered-conceptions he had never entertained, and which he had never given any man of common apprehension reason to believe existed in his mind, was most wonderful. There was no safety for any man if, speaking in plain intelligible language, his terms were to be tortured into meaning they did not bear, unless the House had a short-hand-writer at the Table at once to refute representations that were totally unfounded. What had he said? He had been accused of having said that the opposers of the Bill had been carried away by the influence of the unpopularity of the noble Lord, and had for that cause alone been betrayed into attempting to do injustice. Now what he had really said was, that he lamented he had found a strong feeling against the noble Lord on the ground of his unpopularity; but it was only the hon. Member who could have Sir H. Hardinge certainly seldom had converted such an expression into a direct to accuse the hon. member for Montrose of charge that that hon. Member was in- invention, and in this instance he only fluenced solely by such a motive. The meant to say, that that hon. Member had hon. Member had said that he knew mistaken his arguments. He had said, nothing of that unpopularity, but were it that that hon. Member's view of the evinot for his confidence in that hon. Mem-dence was a perversion of it, and he was ber's statements, he should have had a still of that opinion. The hon. Member little difficulty in crediting such ignorance. had argued that a case of sufficient adulWhat had he (Dr. Lushington) said? Lettery had not been made out. Surely that

was a perversion of the evidence. In in the presence of 300 or 400 Members, stating to the House that calumnies had and there exposed to have questions put been thrown out against his noble friend, to her about matters of which it was to be he had never meant to put the invention supposed she could not, and indeed ought or the circulation of those calumnies upon not, to be cognizant. If the examination the hon. Member: he had only accused was unnecessary, it was a disgrace to the the hon. Member of taking a most per- House, and ought no longer to be suffered; verted view of the evidence. He found and that it was unnecessary no one could that, in the skirmishes which he and the doubt, for the examination was not taken hon. Member sometimes had together, at their Bar on oath, and if it had been taken although he had a pretty good head for an elsewhere on oath, and could have been estimate, he had but little talent for a furnished to them for their information. question of morals or of law; and so this He hoped that an alteration of the mode evening he had not done himself much of proceeding would be speedily carried credit, either as a moralist or a lawyer. into effect. As to what the hon. Member had said regarding the accusation of a want of decency, he had only alluded to what the hon. Member had said regarding English women never denying the exercise of certain privileges to their husbands, and he could not admit that in what he had then said he was wrong.

Mr. S. Rice said, that whatever disputes there might be as to the propriety of granting this divorce, there was no one who disputed that the present law was bad, and that the judicial duty which the House had just exercised must always be most imperfectly performed by them. The conclusion he took to be this-that if they allowed the Session to pass away without making any attempt to remedy the evil, when all admitted its existence, he thought they would not stand well with the country, nor could they be considered as having discharged their duty to their constituents. Mr. W. Smith had given his vote for the Bill, because he thought that the facts of the criminality had been so distinctly proved. He trusted most sincerely that this mode of proceeding would be speedily altered. He had been scandalized at the House permitting a person of such respectable character as Miss Steele to be brought to that Bar, and there questioned in a manner that seemed to him unnecessary, and if unnecessary, was most discreditable to the House, and that offered a monstrous and detestable affront to female delicacy. That a woman should be exposed to such an examination, merely because she happened to have been in a situation which no woman need be ashamed of having held, was most distressing; and every one must regret, that because the woman, in whose family she had resided, had not performed her duty, it should have become her duty to be placed at that bar,

Sir G. Clerk said, the hon. Member for Montrose had misrepresented him very much. He did say that no person could see the articles that appeared in the public press for a few weeks past without coming to the conclusion that there was a studied attempt to influence the decision of that House. And if he did not know the extraordinary talent for misapprehension displayed by the hon. member for Montrose, he should have been led to believe that the extraordinary perversions which he had displayed before the House that evening were not the result of his having read the evidence, but had been taken from some of these publications. But he supposed that they really did arise from the extraordinary formation of his mind.

Mr. Hume." That is very impertinent: but I am glad that these observations will be made public."

Mr. Alderman Wood voted in the minority, because he was of opinion that the noble Lord ought not to receive the relief he claimed. He knew nothing about his unpopularity either in that House, with the country, or with the ladies. Certainly the situation of the noble Lord, whether he were popular or unpopular, was not enviable.

Sir H. Hardinge rose amid considerable confusion, to order, and observed, that what had been stated was a most foul and atrocious calumny. His reason for rising was, that the hon. Alderman, member for the city of London, appeared to be making observations re-echoing the foul and atrocious calumnies which were in circulation.

Mr. Alderman Wood had not the slightest intention of doing what the gallant officer appeared to imagine. The observation he had made was in allusion to what had fallen from the hon. and learned member for Tregony, as to the supposed unpopularity

of the noble Lord. For his own part, he | When the law of divorce came under conwas not aware that the noble Lord was un-sideration, he should press upon the House popular. How could it be imagined that the necessity of putting the law of mara noble Lord, who filled a high station as riage-which was the foundation of all a Minister of the Crown, should be un- social order-uponʼan uniform footing in popular. It would not be doing justice to every part of this now United Empire. the noble Lord to suppose that he was an The question that the Bill do pass was unpopular member of the Ministry [a put and agreed to. laugh]. He was merely stating why he gave his vote as he did, and he hoped it STAMP DUTIES.] Mr. Huskisson prewould be the last vote of this description sented a Petition from one of his constiwhich he should be called on to give. He tuents, named Middlewood, who carried hoped there might be no more bills brought on the trade of a perfumer, and had inin under such circumstances. Neverthe-vented a soap, composed of vegetable less he should himself have occasion, perhaps, to bring a bill of the same nature into the House; but he was sure he should have a better case than the present. Surely we were not to be judges in such a case by what passed at the Bar, which, to some of the young men present, might be very agreeable, but perhaps it was not so to the seniors. Probably this was the last Session, if it were not the last case, in which the House would be called on to legislate under such circumstances. He now gave due notice he should have a bill. He was of opinion that the evidence did not bear out the bill, and that there ought to have been further inquiry; but no opposition was offered by the other party, and every thing considered, he thought the noble Lord had been let off very lightly [a laugh].

Sir H. Hardinge wished to set the hon. Member right as to what he had said. He meant that there had been gross and atrocious calumnies publicly circulated against Lord Ellenborough, stating that he was anxious to re-marry. He repeated, this was a most gross and atrocious calumny. Thinking that the hon. Alderman alluded to those statements, he rose to order.

Mr. Alderman Wood assured the gallant officer that he had not much time for reading newspapers, in which he supposed the statement complained of was contained. For his own part he had certainly never heard of it.

Mr. Croker wished to make a single observation as to the present state of the law with regard to marriage. There was one law for marriage in England, another law of marriage in Scotland, and in Ireland there was no law of marriage at all [a laugh]. As a matter of course, the laws relating to divorce partook of the diversity of the law of marriage, and were affected by the want of law on the subject,

matter, which was serviceable in promoting the growth of hair. He wished particularly to call the attention of his right hon. friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the subject. The petitioner complained of the system of Stamp Duties upon Patent Medicines, and stated that he had been fined, and was now under prosecution by the Board of Stamps. This the petitioner represented as a great hardship, and prayed for the revision of those duties.

Mr. Bright inquired of the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he meant to bring in his bill to alter, consolidate, and amend the Stamp Acts.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated the course he intended to pursue with regard to the Stamp Duties. He should move for a committee of the whole House to-morrow on the subject, in order to obtain an opportunity of presenting the new schedule of duties. Although he meant to bring the matter forward on a Wednesday, in contravention of the usual practice, he hoped he should be excused, when it was considered that it would be desirable to have the schedule printed and circulated during the recess, and Wednesday was the only opportunity for taking steps to effect that object. He hoped, however, that the matter might not become the subject of discussion, particularly on a Wednesday, when the House would probably not be very fully attended, and at a time when the subject could not be properly treated, Members being but partially acquainted with the schedule. He should lay the schedule before the House tomorrow, and the consideration of it would come on appropriately after the holidays.

Mr. Hume suggested the propriety of having two columns in the schedule, one to contain the present duties, and the other to contain the alterations which it was proposed to make,

Mr. Bright said, that the schedule would | intended to make any change in the laws 1404 not be sufficient-the Act itself ought to relative to the growth of Tobacco in Irebe produced. However, if it were impos- land. He was sure that the right hon. sible to do this before the holidays, he Gentleman was sensible of the importance hoped it would not be delayed one day of this subject, considering that at present after the re-assembling of Parliament. 1,000l. worth of Tobacco paid 10,000 duty.

HACKNEY COACHES.] Mr. C. Pullmer presented a Petition from George Green, an owner of Hackney Coaches, against the Commissioners of Hackney Coaches, and complaining of a system of favouritism and monopoly.

believed it would not be necessary for him to describe farther than by calling it the "Dropped Duty."

lor of the Exchequer would, perhaps, be Mr. W. Smith said, that the Chancelgood enough at the same time to give the House information respecting another part of this question, in which his constiMr. Warburton observed, that considered to the Is. per pound duty, which he tuents were deeply interested. He alluding there were a million of persons in the metropolis, it was monstrous and prepos terous that public conveyances should continue in their present state. No coach, excepting Hackney Coaches, was allowed by law to carry passengers to any part of the town, unless it took its departure from a distance. He considered this a most monstrous regulation. It was impossible that such a state of things could continue, and that the public convenience should be thus needlessly sacrificed. He hoped that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would turn his early attention to the subject.

Mr. Hume said, that it was nearly three years since almost a promise had been given that the state of the Hackney Coach Office should be investigated. Nearly 10,000l. a year might be saved by throwing the business into the Stamp Department.

Mr. Monck remarked, that while all the short stages had so materially improved within the last few years, Hackney Coaches had deteriorated, arising from the imbecility and misconduct of the Board. Sir J. Wrottesley gave notice that on the 13th May, he would move for a Select Committee, to inquire into the Duties, Salaries, and Emoluments of the Commissioners of Hackney Coaches; and into the present state of the public Carriages of the Metropolis.

that with respect to the subject alluded to The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, by the hon. Member who spoke last, he believed that it would be included in a motion which was to be made by the hon. member for Southwark. He had, however, no hesitation in stating at once, that the constant answer which had been given by the Board of Trade to petitioners on this subject, since 1825, was, that the parties complaining had no right to compenhon. member for Southwark had been there sation for this dropped shilling. If the to bring forward the motion of which he had given notice for that evening, he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) should have been prepared to state to the House the reasons upon which he and his colleagues spcct to the dropped shilling. In answer had come to this determination with reto the questions put to him by the hon. member for London, he begged to state that he had no intention of altering the relative duties on stem and other Tobac

Co.

morrow that the House should resolve He proposed, however, to move toitself into a committee upon the laws with respect to Tobacco in Ireland, and then he should be prepared to go more fully into the question.

The

TOBACCO DUTIES.] Mr. Alderman he rose for the purpose of putting some PORTUGAL.] Lord Palmerston said, Thompson rose to put a question to the questions to his right hon. friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer respecting Chancellor of the Exchequer, with referthe intentions of his Majesty's Govern-ence to a statement which had been made ment on the subject of the Tobacco Du- public during the last few days. ties. He wished to know from the right statement to which he alluded related to a hon. Gentleman whether it was intended to certain document, called an amnesty, make any alteration in the relative duties which it was said had been issued, or was on stem, leaf, and the other kinds of To- about to be issued, by the government of bacco. He also begged to know if it were Portugal. According to this statement,

the amnesty was to be,-" first, an am- | foreign court. Thirdly, whether such pronesty to all privates and officers below ject of an amnesty had been the spontathe rank of captain; secondly, it includes neous act of the present government of all civil officers who have taken no active Portugal, or whether it had resulted from share in the re-actions which have occur- the negotiations of the English Governred in Portugal against the authority of ment in its endeavours to mitigate the Don Miguel-but these are not to be re- severity of Don Miguel towards the Portuinstated in their offices; thirdly, the am- guese. Lastly, he wished to ask his right nesty states that the Treasury, in restor- hon. friend, whether those negotiations, ing the property of those emigrants who supposing such negotiations to have had shall return to Portugal within six months, this effect, had been carried on with Don will not restore the rentals of which the Miguel directly, or by the intervention of government may have disposed." Now, any and what foreign Power? He would upon this part of this delightful document, put these questions into the hands of his he had only to observe, that he believed right hon. friend, and he should be obliged there was no law in Portugal which war- to his right hon. friend if he would give ranted such a proceeding as withholding him an answer to them; or to such of these rentals. But to proceed: "fourth- them as he felt he could answer consistly, the garrison of Terceira, and the in- ently with his public duty. habitants of that island, are to be included in the amnesty-fifthly, the prisoners will be set at large, but some, designated by government, must leave the kingdom and reside abroad for a certain time; sixthly, with regard to all other classes of emigrants, Don Miguel engaged to grant another amnesty eighteen months after the recognition of his authority by England, reserving to himself such exceptions as he may please; lastly, Counts Saldanha and Villa Flor, Generals Stubbs and Mello, the Marquis de Valentina, and some other noted characters, who fought against the Marquis of Chaves and General Povoas, are proscribed for life." He had said upon a former occasion, that every body knew what the meaning of an amnesty was in the language of Spain, of Turkey, and of Portugal; but he begged leave to retract that statement so far as related to the latter country, for certainly, now that he had seen this document, he must confess, that he was not before aware of the meaning of the word amnesty in the language of Portugal. He spoke, of course, upon the supposition that the document was genuine, though he did not mean to pronounce any opinion upon the genuineness of it. Supposing, then, that the document was genuine, he begged to ask his right hon. friend, first-whether the English Government had received any, EMPLOYMENT OF THE POOR.] Lord and what communication of a project of Nugent, after presenting a Petition from an amnesty to be granted by Don Miguel. labourers of an hundred in BuckinghamSecondly, whether such project of an am-shire, complaining of distress, and attrinesty, if it had been communicated to the English Government, had been communicated to them by Don Miguel direct, or through the intervention of any and what

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that he could perhaps satisfy his noble friend without referring to the document, which, however, he thanked his noble friend for being obliging enough to put into his hands. His noble friend had referred to a document which had been copied from the foreign into the English Newspapers, and which purported to be an amnesty granted, or intended to be granted, by Don Miguel, to persons who had taken part in the recent political events in Portugal. He had seen that document in the papers, but he could assure the House and his noble friend, that his Majesty's Government had no knowledge of the existence of such a document, or of any intention of issuing such a document. His noble friend, therefore, had as much information as his Majesty's Government had on this subject; and it would be seen, therefore, that as the newspapers were the common and only source from which any thing respecting the document could be learned, he could tell no more about it than any other hon. Member could. This, he believed, would satisfy his noble friend, and there was no occasion for him to go through his noble friend's questions, which, after this explanation, of course fell to the ground.

buting a great portion of their misery to the injurious administration of the Poorlaws, proceeded to move for leave to bring in a Bill to enable parishes to make bet