should be a division of opinion respecting the granting of a charter to an individual, what could be done? It might be of importance to an individual at the moment when an election approached. The noble lord had himself alluded to elections. A judge could give up his opinion where a court of review decided against it; but why should a judge give up his opinion, if an honest and conscientious one, when there was no court of review? The consequence would therefore be, when there was an equal division, that no charter and no tutory would be issued. He could not see how such an evil could be remedied without an inequality of numbers. He contended that the commissioners had exceeded their powers, and went entirely out of their way, when they reported on the constitution of the Court of Exchequer. Their instructions were, as stated in their own report, to inquire into the fees, salaries, and emoluments of the several clerks, officers, and ministers of justice. Now, he would be glad to know under which of these heads the "judges" were meant to be included? As to the commissioners themselves, with all the respect and esteem which he entertained for them personally, he must say that he did consider them to be unqualified. One of them, after practising at the bar, went into the country and lived upon his estate, without returning to his practice; another went to India, and, after staying there for some time, returned, and lived almost entirely in the country; and a third, having also practised some time at the bar, retired to his estate, improved the country round it, but never returned to the profession. Now he thought proper to mention these circumstances, because he would submit to the House that the opinions of that commission could not be entitled to any great

weight, even if it stood alone, and unopposed by the weighty opinion of the late President of the Court of Session, Sir Ilay Campbell, but above all, of the Chief-Baron Shepherdan individual who had gone so lately from this country, after acquiring a thorough and extensive knowledge of the whole body of the laws of these kingdoms, and whose special duty it was, if it were any one's, to say whether an appointment of this nature was or was not necessary. He did not know what authority the ChiefBaron's name might have there; but certain he was, that in his (the Lord Advocate's) part of the country, they felt grateful to his Majesty's ministers for having sent among them a man whose talents as a judge were not more respected than his virtues as an individual were admired. After attaining to very high honours in his profession, he declined those highest ones to which he might reasonably and certainly have aspired, and, in the discharge of his duty, was willing, at his time of life, to undertake that duty, accompanied as it was with the necessity of forming new connexions, and in a distant part of the kingdom; although the office was of a nature far below that which he might have been entitled to claim. He submitted, then, that unless they were willing to suppose that there was something infectious in the air of Scotland, which had the effect of instantly destroying that character of honour which an individual had sustained through life, it was utterly incredible and impossible that the learned judge in question, when called upon to decide on the constitution of the court over which he was to preside, should have concurred in the propriety of an appointment of which he did not see and feel the necessity. It was a mistake that the late Lord Chief Baron was ever more than a year absent

from the court at a time; this was when unavoidably obliged to go abroad by the state of his health; but even when generally residing at Bath, he came and attended the regular terms. Some observations were made by Sir John Newport, in defence of Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion.

Lord Castlereagh now came for ward in defence of the appointment. The noble lord (A. Hamilton) had called upon the House, without previous inquiry, without any evidence in the appendix of the report, and without suggesting any facts on his own authority, to come to the conclusion that the constitution of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland ought to be changed that that constitution for ages had been faulty-and that the decision of certain commissioners ought to be preferred to the deliberate judgment of the learned heads of all the different Courts. Lord C. indignantly repelled the insinuation that ministers felt any reluctance to redress and reform actual abuses; but to represent them as looking only to influence and patronage, and all public virtue and purity as monopolized by their antagonists, was a language by no means new to gentlemen on the opposite side of the House, and particularly convenient at the opening of a new Parliament. He did not mean to blame the commissioners for travelling into various matters, and making the suggestion they had done respecting the Court of Exchequer; at the same time, if it had been the purpose of the House to authorise them to examine into the constitution of the Courts of Scotland, as well as into the mere details of fees, he could not help thinking that individuals of a different class would have been more properly nominated to such high, important, and extensive functions. He believed that the present was the first occasion on which the House had

been required to affirm, not the report of a deputation of its own body, but the mere dictum of four out of five gentlemen in no way connected with Parliament. He could not agree to the present motion; on the contrary, he should move the previous question upon it; but he would assent, on any future day, to refer the whole question to a select committee. The noble lord (A. Hamilton) seemed to think that he had made out a good case in favour of four Barons, if he could shew that even once the business of the court had been transacted without the presence of the fifth; and because he found that one ministerial officer was a poet, he jumped at the conclusion that all the offices could be discharged as well by poets as by lawyers. Yet was it not known to all who heard him, that the brightest luminary of the law of modern times, Lord Mansfield, had long been incapacitated from attending the court to fulfil his judicial functions, and no man had been so obtuse in his faculties as to argue from thence that the office of Chief-Justice was a sinecure. He begged to be allowed to say, that of all economies abhorrent to common sense, that was the most absurd which regarded the bench-to secure the pure administration of justice was always the best economy. He must congratulate the other side of the House upon the cheerfulness they displayed. They were never so happy as when they had got some paltry thousand pounds to peck at: as soon as they had hold of a particular sum, how they rejoiced in their supposed advantage, until the necessity of its payment was shewn, and then they endeavoured to overcome argument by clamour. The constituents of the noble lord were a little too enlightened to be persuaded even by him that the addition of a poor thousand pounds would make a serious differ

ence in their domestic finances. Did the noble lord seriously mean to be understood that the sum of 1000l. would make all the difference between practical allegiance and open rebellion in Scotland? He had every respect for commissioners and their reports; but he could not help remarking, that if their suggestions were held conclusive and mandatory-if they were to be erected into judges in supreme, without appeal-it would throw the whole organization and administration of the country into irremediable confusion.

Mr Tierney made an animated speech against ministers, and endeavoured to ridicule the shifts to which they had recourse in opposing all economical reform. If a proposition were brought forward for some general financial reform, then the cry of the other side was, that the whole fabric of the state was about to be overset ; and if a particular practical retrenchment were suggested, the cry was, "What a fuss you are making about nothing-what a noise about one or two thousand pounds!" In fact, if ministers were credited, they were the only proper judges of what public money should be spent, and who ought to spend it. It was impossible for them to be economical -they were obliged to call in the aid of patronage and influence for their support-they existed upon it-it was the foundation of all their hopes, and they could not lose even the fifth part of a fifth Baron of the Exchequer, without some risk to their stability. The establishment was the strong-hold behind which ministers entrenched themselves. If any body spoke of removing the third Secretary of State, or of abolishing the Secretary at War, the cry was the same-" it breaks in upon the establishment:" it was soon very easy to call the establishment the constitution, and then woe to the

man who lifted his unhallowed hand against it! The noble lord had certainly made a very dexterous speech

it possessed all his wonted circuitous ingenuity, and the result must have satisfied the House, that if his health had recently suffered, his intellects and abilities were as great as

ever. The Lord Advocate had come down to the House like a true Scotchman, that was, like an honest man, and had maintained that nothing could induce him to think the appointment of a fifth Baron wrong-five was the true, orthodox, infallible number in Scotland; and that no change was wanted, and no inquiry to produce one. But what was the conduct of the noble lord? First, he makes the appointment-then he justifies itand, thirdy, he requires a committee to ascertain whether it was right or wrong. But, looking at the whole of the circumstances, he would askcould any man say that this was not a plain, downright, unequivocal job? The fact was, ministers dared not refuse the appointment of Sir Patrick Murray: he did not intend by any means to disparage the qualifications of that gentleman, but the ministers were afraid to refuse his appointment. They well knew that if they had done so, they would have lost some votes in that House. The present ChiefBaron of Scotland (Sir S. Shepherd) had lately been an ornament to that House. He went down, not fully acquainted with the practice of the Scottish courts-a stranger amongst them and it might have been said, "Don't you think we ought to have five Barons instead of four ?" to which he, in his good nature, would say, "In the name of God, let us have five;" and then the Scotchmen cried out, "Five for ever!" Considering how favourite a number five appeared to be in Scotland, and what infinite mischiefs might result from re

ducing it to four, It was somewhat odd that the Lord Advocate should have consulted the opinions of only four heads of courts. With still greater singularity he had actually appealed from the magic and mysterious five to dangerous and neglected four, and now set up the opinion of four judges against the decision of five commissioners! In short, Mr T. contended, that the present appointment was a manifest abuse; and that if the House were entrapped by Lord Castlereagh's

proposition into rejecting the present motion, they would put an end to all hope of economy and retrenchment.

After a few words from Mr W. Dundas on the ministerial side, the House divided, when the motion was negatived, but by a majority so small, as plainly shewed a strong sense unfavourable to the appointment. Of 366 members present, 177 voted for the motion, and 189 against it, making a majority only of 12.

THE subject which, beyond perhaps any other, occupied the attention of Parliament during this early period of the session, was the very serious distress in which the agricultural interest was involved. The great depression consequent upon the low prices of 1814 and 1815 had been sensibly mitigated by the rise which ensued after the scanty crops of 1816 and 1817. The plentiful produce of 1818, however, caused a rapid fall, and though that of 1819 was much inferior, yet the ample stock on hand caused the depression of prices still to continue, when there was no superabundant quantity to compensate for it. A general cry of distress rose among the landlords and farmers in the different quarters of the kingdom, and petitions to Parliament for relief were poured in. There is a sort of impression throughout this country, as if parliament were omnipotent-as if its empire extended over the mar

kets, the seasons, and over nature itself. It did not appear very conceivable that a power which could make war and peace on earth, and could sway the destinies of twenty millions of men, should not be able to regulate the price of a peck of oatmeal, or a pound of butter. It was some time, indeed, ere Parliament itself became fully aware of its own impotence, or could believe that all its ponderous machinery of committees, examinations, and reports, had no action whatever on the movements of the economical machine. By welcoming and acting upon the applications made to it, this assembly encouraged the false expectations which the nation had been led to cherish from its interference. Buoyed up by these, the farmers now came, and demanded that Parliament should procure for them a price for their grain, such as would pay the expense of cultivation. The fact, however, was, that Parliament