hundred and ninety-nine
men out of one thousand might be peaceable and loyally disposed, yet the
odd units, the few who were riotously inclined, might put out the lights
in the streets, might involve the town in darkness, and might afterwards
commence a scene of riot and confusion which could not end without
bloodshed. If this were any objection to his majesty's attendance at the
civic festival, it was not an objection to which the course of events
had suddenly given birth within the last two or three days. Every one
must have known that such an event as the visit of his majesty to the
city of London must, from its rarity, collect thousands, if not myriads,
to witness it; so that any accident to which the metropolis was exposed
at present, from the collection of a large mass of people together,
must have been as palpable a month ago as at the present moment. In
the course of his speech Mr. Brougham contrasted with severity the
popularity of the king with the hostility exhibited towards the premier.

MAJORITY AGAINST MINISTERS FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CIVIL LIST.

It was now obvious that the duke's administration had received a
shock from which it could not recover. The opposition made a final and
successful attack upon it on the 15th of November, when the chancellor
of the exchequer stated to the house his arrangement for the civil list,
which he proposed to raise to the annual sum of L970,000. They insisted
that government in many of its departments was extravagant, and, above
all, that the portion which was incurred on the personal account of the
monarch ought to be kept apart from every other item. Sir Henry Parnell
moved, "That a select committee be appointed to take into consideration
the estimates and accounts, presented by command of his majesty,
regarding the civil list." The debate on this proposition was brief.
Messrs. Calcraft and Hemes, both members of government, opposed the
motion, chiefly on the ground that it had never been customary to submit
the civil list to a committee, and that retrenchment and simplification
had been earned as far as was practicable or prudent. The motion was
supported by Lord Althorp and Messrs. Bankes, Wynn, and Holme Sumner,
three of which members would in other times have been loath to lend
their votes to unseat a Tory ministry; and on a division there appeared
a majority in its favour of two hundred and thirty-three against two
hundred and four, thus defeating mini