sideration of parliament in preference to leaving youth altogether unprotected and unrestrained and on this ground, they proposed the clause now under discussion, involving, as it did, a principle, which, they were well aware, might be open to much reasonable objection, but which they did conceive to be the best, seeing that nullity was sure of rejection, and hat preventive measures were, generally speaking, inapplicable. It had been said, that the object of this clause might be so evaded as to render the provision nugatory; and that, therefore, their lordships ought not to adopt it. It could not be otherwise in the nature of things; and, if this common liability were to be taken as ground of valid objection, it would be ridiculous for their lordships to attempt to legislate at all in the matter. They might spare themselves the anxiety of devising remedies, if every remedy proposed were to be rejected, because it was possible that contrivances might be framed which should evade its operation. It had been argued, that this clause would operate principally for the benefit of the male part of our population, and would bear hard upon the female portion of the community; and their lordships had been told that the cases, against the recurrence of which they were called upon to provide, were much more numerous on the female side than on the male. Now he confessed, that his own professional experience had by no means led him to such a conclusion. As far as that experience went, it had rather been his fate to see the misery of families occasioned by sons (the hopes of those families), who had ruined themselves, and had blasted those

hopes by fatal marriages, which had overwhelmed themselves in disgrace and shame, and their connexions in the bitterest sorrow. He contended, therefore, that disgraceful marriages happened much oftener among our young male, than among our female population. And this was very natural. The education of young women was much more correct and guarded than that of young men. The former were, for a considerable portion of their lives, under the vigilant inspection and superintendence of their parents or their families; and, added to these restraints, it was to be remembered, the natural delicacy of their sex scarcely permitted them to be exposed to the same sort of dangers as young men were at that period of existence. Young men were sooner, and more frequently, and for a longer time, removed from parental inspection; they were sent to school earlier in life, and from thence were transferred to public schools, to colleges, and afterwards to great cities. There they could not so generally or so entirely be under the eye of their parents, but, left to themselves, pursued their own course and followed their own counsels. They were neither so much under parental superintendence, nor had so much the benefit of wiser counsels as their sisters had; and it was natural, therefore, that, yielding to their inclinations, they should more commonly form early attachments, and that, if they entertained such attachments, they should more frequently gratify them by improvident marriages.

Lord Redesdale and lord Sidmouth took the same view of the question: but in spite of the authority and wisdom of those who were best qualified to form a cor

rect opinion upon the subject, the clause was rejected by 28 notcontents against 22 contents.

On the 4th of June Mr. J. Williams moved for an inquiry into the arrear of business in the court of chancery, and the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords and the causes thereof. The substance of the speech, which he made in support of this motion, consisted of statements, inaccurate in point of fact, with respect to the expense and duration of five or six particular suits. He did not attempt to show that the delay and expense, of which he complained, was occasioned by the practice of the Court, and not, as is in most cases really the truth, by the mis-management of the parties themselves, or their solicitors and counsel:* much less did he or his confederates endeavour to point out any specific part or point in the system of proceedings in equity, in which the evil lay, or which might be altered with advantage. General declamation was the weapon with which they assailed the highest of the ordinary tribunals of the country; and as the greater part of the public knew as little of the subject as Mr. Williams and Mr. Denman, their oracular assertions were promulgated with all the confidence of ignorance.

Mr. Denman's speech, however, possessed one singularity-the boldness with which he impeached the soundness of the decisions of the lord chancellor. He was very sure, that lord Eldon ought to have issued a commission of lunacy against lord Portsmouth in 1814, and that his

• All his examples were furnished by one solicitor, of whose practice great complaints were constantly making in the court,

determinations in the question of literary property were erroneous. Political hatred and self-conceit, will do wonders: but we confess we never anticipated that they could have deluded even Mr. Denman into a belief of his own fitness for sitting in judgment upon the decisions of a man, who is loved and revered by every individual that has occasion to observe him in the daily administration of justice, and whose patient wisdom, unassuming learning, and simple, disarming gentleness, and courtesy of manner, acting uniformly for more than twenty years, have added to his high office a dignity and influence, the value of which will not be appreciated till we have to mourn over its loss.

Mr. Brougham, Mr. Abercromby, and Mr. Scarlett supported the motion: the Attorney-general, Mr. W. Courtenay, and Mr. Wetherell opposed it, replying most triumphantly to every thing except the vague assertions and general invective of their adversaries. It was rejected after two nights debate, by 174 to 89.

A committee was appointed by the House of Lords to inquire into the state of the appellate jurisdiction. The substance of their report will be found in a subsequent part of this volume [page 63*]. It produced two results. The one was an act for a commission to inquire into the forms of process in the courts of law in Scotland; and into the course of appeals from the court of session. The other was the adoption of certain resolutions, the object of which was, to devote five days of the week, instead of three, to attendance of the requisite number hearing appeals; and to compel the of peers.

In pursuance of a report of

a select committee on the recovery of small debts, lord Althorpe brought in a bill upon the subject, with the intention that it should stand over until the following session. The principle of it was, that a barrister of some years standing, as assistant to the sheriff, should at certain times in the year, and at different places in the county, hold county courts, in which sums under 151. might be recovered by a simple bill of plaint. The asses sor, it was proposed, should be nominated by the lord-lieutenant, and paid by a fixed salary.

In the last volume an account was given of certain transactions relative to a man of the name of

Borthwick, which were made the subject of imputation against the lord Advocate. Mr. Hope, who, in consequence of the circumstances that followed the debate on that question, had been brought to the bar of the House, was now solicitorgeneral for Scotland: a circumstance, which probably had some influence in producing a renewal of the discussion. A motion made on the 3rd of June by Mr. Abercromby, that the conduct of the lord Advocate towards Borthwick, had been unjust and oppressive, was negatived by a majority of only 6; 102 voting for it, and 96 against it.

ON

N the 14th of February, the report of the committee of supply being brought up,sir Thomas Lethbridge said, that, although he was gratified to find that in the last paragraph of the royal speech the landed interest was characterized as the most important in the country, he regretted that government had not pledged itself to give the great question of agricultural depression that attention which its importance seemed obviously to demand. He was afraid that the landholders of England were to be left during another session in the depressed situation of which it was impossible for government not to be fully aware, unless they had forgotten the five hundred petitions which had been laid, last session, on the table of the House. He professed the most unqualified respect for the talents and character of ministers, and yet could not but view their having failed to propose some specific measure on this subject as a dereliction of their duty. He conceived the depressed state of the landed interest could be ascribed only to the impolitic conduct of the legislature. The importation of produce, from foreign countries, to be sold in the English market

at a price with which the home grower could not compete, and our return to return to a metallic currency, were the main causes in which agricultural distress originated. The hon. baronet thought himself entitled to call the attention of government once more to the subject.

Mr. Canning, while he was far from finding fault with the hon. baronet for having availed himself of the opportunity, which had presented itself, of alluding to the question of agricultural distress, thought he did his majesty's minis ters injustice, in supposing that they had not, on all occasions, been anxious to adopt any practicable measure of direct relief, and not still look with the most sincere sympathy to distresses, which every one must acknowledge and deplore. If ministers had been able to devise any practicable plan of relief, they would have been the first to propose it; but as they were convinced that no such plan was within their reach, they were surely justifiable in not deluding the country, by making promises which they knew they could not perform. He assured the House, that the subject had never been lost sight of by the members

of administration. He had for a time been sanguine of success; but having been ultimately compelled to abandon a certain measure, which he once imagined might have been beneficial, he resolved not to agitate again, what could end only in disappointment, and have the effect of exciting hopes which it would be impossible to realize. Accordingly, while he professed that government did not see their way to any direct measure for immediate relief, he assured the hon. baronet that any proposal of his own, bearing on the question, would be received on the part of the government, as it certainly would on the part of the House, with the most anxious and deliberate attention. The hon. gentleman was unwilling to enter into the disputed point, whether the remission of taxes would afford direct relief, or whether its remedial effect on the agriculture of the country would only be collateral. He said that government had, at all events, thought it their duty to consider this question, and consequently, that the only measure directed to the relief of the agriculture of the country would be comprised in the intended remission of direct taxation, which would soon be submitted to the consideration of the House. And he trusted, that, as the landed interest was the foundation of all others, it would gradually advance with them, and that the relief thus brought, though not so rapid and immediate as might be desired, would be steady and permanent in its operation.

Mr. Curwen lamented that ministers could promise no relief to the agricultural interest. Although he did not hesitate to say that the country was in a more perilous situation than any in which it had hitherto stood, he saw no prospect

a

of amelioration except from direct remission of the taxation which immediately affected the landed interest, and, for this purpose, he proposed charging the funds with a fair proportion of the poor rates. He maintained that this would be beneficial even to the holders of funded property, in as far as it might possibly avert a crisis, which, once arrived, would be more fatal to the fundholders than to any of the other interests taken singly. He allowed, that some benefit would arise from a diminution of taxation, but he insisted strongly on the necessity and justice of making the burdens fall equally on all classes of the people. He thought it much better to have this done at once, than to wait till the agricultural interest should be ruined. He thought that the present distress arose, not from over production, but from lessened consumption, which would operate a diminution in the quantity produced, till that would be insufficient for the demands of the country. In the course of these remarks, the hon. gentleman stated more than once, that he, by no means, wished to break faith with the public creditor. He only thought it unfair, that one interest in the country should be overladen, while another bore no part of the burden.

Mr. Robertson went into an argument, to prove that the system of borrowing on ruinous terms, which had been adopted by this country for many years, was one great cause of the evils the people were now labouring under. It was quite evident to him, that it was this system of credit, which had plunged the country into those difficulties of which all classes were complaining: and he intimated his