in the ranks of the supporters of exclusion. Now it happens most unfortunately, that that most excellent personage, the Poet Laureat (Southey)-and a most excellent personage in private life I believe him to be—has changed his opinion so often upon every subject, that it is quite uncertain what opinion he may entertain at any time upon any given subject. I have not the honour to be in communication with the Poet Laureat, like the honourable baronet, but the information I have received from those who are accustomed to move in the Poet Laureat's circle, induce me to believe that, in spite of his recent violent protestations against concession to the Catholics, he is not inclined to give his unqualified opposition to the measures to be proposed by his Majesty's government. As to what has fallen from the honourable baronet, intoxicated as he is by the triumph which he has recently achieved in Oxford, I will merely say that it is not unnatural for him to form his opinion of the sense of the people of England on this question, from what he has found to be the sense of his constituents in Oxford. From the position which the honourable baronet has advanced on this subject, I beg most widely to dissent; and with respect to his observation on the rising talent of the country, I concur with my noble friend (Lord Morpeth) in thinking, that if the rising talent of the country is in favour of exclusion, it is particularly unfortunate, that it is to be found everywhere except within the walls of this House: for I have yet to learn that the youth of England who vote within these walls, are prepared to vote in that minority in which the honourable baronet is certain to be placed, if he divides the House upon the measure of concession. However the honourable baronet may rejoice in his recent success, I believe that every reasonable man of both parties will wait with the greatest anxiety to see the names of the voters for each candidate in the late election at Oxford; for it will be manifest, from the publication of those names, that great difference exists even among the members of the church, as to the course to be pursued in the present exigencies of the country. I will state in the presence of the honourable baronet, and without meaning him the slightest disrespect, that I regret the preference which the electors of Oxford have given him over the right honourable Secretary for the Home Department. If the predictions of the other side shall come true-if the church shall be placed in danger-if troublesome times are at hand-if the institutions of the land shall be really attacked-I will venture to predict, that the day will not be far distant, when even the high-church doctors will regret the choice which they have made, and the champion whom they have selected. Turno tempus erit magno cum optaverit emptum Oderit. I have great ease in speaking on this subject at present, because the right honourable secretary is not in the House to hear me. I cannot boast of any acquaintance with that right honourable gentleman in private life. I have been opposed to him on almost every occasion since I entered into public life. I have not voted with him, I believe, on five occasions since I entered into parliament. I think him, however, a really honest and conscientions man, and, considering the great sacrifices which he has recently madethe connections from which he has torn himself the public attachments which he has broke asunder-the dangers which he might have created by a different course-the difficulties which he might have aggravated by adhering to the old. system-the civil war which he has avoided by departing from it-and the great public service which he has rendered to the state by his manly avowal of a change of opinion;-considering all these circumstances, I think the right honourable gentleman entitled to the highest praise, and to the honest respect of every friend of the Catholics." This generous though richly merited tribute of applause, from an avowed political opponent, laid the foundation of a firm friendship between Sir James Graham and Mr. Peel, which has endured ever since without interruption. Mr. Peel, who had taken his seat for Westbury on the preceding evening, (March 3rd,) was on this day absent from the House, because the country was at the moment without a government. The Duke of Cumberland had induced the king to withdraw his consent to the ministerial measures at the eve of their introduction, and the ministers had in a body tendered their resignations. They had to endure another scene of unroyal weakness, and whimpering vacillation; but they had gone too far to recede, and they refused to resume their offices unless armed with a written consent too strongly worded to be afterwards retracted. The scene was at once painful and ludicrous, but the king yielded once more, and left himself without means of escape, by giving the required document to the Duke of Wellington. CHAPTER XVII. THE INTRODUCTION OF THE MEASURE OF CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.-DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. ON the 5th of March, the bill for the suppression of the Catholic Association received the Royal assent. But its operation was nugatory, the Catholic Association having been formally and finally dissolved a few days before. It had been previously arranged that the measure of Emancipation should be introduced on the same day that the harsher measure became law, and the Marquis of Chandos had, in consequence, given notice for a call of the House. Never was there a scene of greater excitement about the Houses of Parliament, than on the morning of the 5th of March: crowds began to assemble in the avenues leading to the House of Commons, so early as ten o'clock, though, in consequence of the Marquis of Chandos's motion, it was known that the doors would not be open until past six in the evening. At noon an immense multitude had collected, and the pressure was so severe that many persons were slightly injured. It was with difficulty that a passage was kept open for the members, and in consequence very few of them were recognized; a circumstance which defeated the intention of the Irish law-students, to greet Mr. Peel with hearty applause as he passed. A little after six, the gallery was opened, and the rush was tremendous: coats were torn, hats were lost, and sides were bruised; it seemed a miracle that no lives were lost, and no bones broken. In a moment every seat was occupied, even including that behind the clock, from which it was impossible to see anything. A brief space of momentary confusion followed, occasioned by members. hastening to their places, and by a rush of peers and other privileged persons to obtain seats or standing-room below the bar. Favoured by fortune, it was our good luck to obtain possession of a spot which commanded a full view of a scene too impressive ever to be forgotten. On Mr. Peel, every eye was fixed: he sat with folded arms and compressed lips, as one who had formed his resolution with pain, but was resolved to maintain it with inflexible determination. A pin might have been heard to fall as he rose, and with a voice which once or twice faltered, moved that the clerk should read the part of the royal speech relating to Catholic disabilities. This formality was gone through very unimpressively, and though the reading did not occupy five minutes, it called forth several manifestations of impatience from the excited auditory. The exordium of Peel's speech was delivered with a measured solemnity of tone which well accorded with its matter, and which at once riveted attention. He said "I rise as a minister of the crown, and sustained by the just authority which belongs to that character, to vindicate the advice given to his Majesty by a united cabinet-to insert in his gracious speech the recommendation which has just been read, respecting the propriety of taking into consideration the condition of Ireland, and the removal of the civil disabilities affecting our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. I rise, sir, in the spirit of peace to propose the adjustment of the Roman Catholic question-that question which has so long and so painfully occupied the attention of parliament, and which has distracted the councils of the king for the last thirty years. I rise, sir, to discuss this great question in the spirit inculcated in one of those simple and beautiful |