ng their pretensions. Ministers had resolved not to intrust
ten-pound voters who paid weekly; and this having displeased
the Birmingham Political Union, they addressed a letter to the
prime-minister on the subject, and that noble lord honoured them with
the most friendly recognition. The speech of Mr. Macaulay, a nominee of
Lord Lansdowne for the borough of Calne, in favour of the bill, elicited
much applause. He remarked:--"The country and their children for ages
to come will call this the second bill of rights; the greater charter
of the liberties of England. I believe that the year 1831 is destined
to exhibit to mankind the first example of a great, complicated, and
deeply-rooted system of abuses removed without violence, bloodshed, and
rapine; all forms observed, the fruits of industry not destroyed, and
the authority of the law not suspended. These are things which may well
make Englishmen proud of the age and country in which they live. These
are things which may make them look forward to a long series of tranquil
and happy years, during which nothing will disturb the concord of a
popular government and a loyal people; of years in which, if war
should be inevitable, it will find the people a united nation: of years
pre-eminently distinguished by the mitigation of public burdens, by the
prosperity of industry, by the reformation of jurisprudence, and by all
the victories of peace: in which, far more than in military triumphs,
consist the true prosperity of states and the glory of statesmen. It is
with such feelings and hopes that I give my most cordial assent to this
measure of reform, a measure which, in itself, I think desirable,
but which in the present temper of the public mind is indispensably
necessary to the repose of empire and the stability of government." The
debate was closed by Lord John Russell, who defended his plan: and on a
division the second reading of the measure was carried by a majority of
three hundred and sixty-seven against two hundred and thirty-one.

It was proposed that the house should go into committee on the 12th of
July, when Lord Maitland, one of the members for Appleby, rose to oppose
the disfranchisement of that borough, on the score of a mistake in the
population returns. He moved that his constituents should be heard at
the bar by themselves and their counsel against the bill, in so far as
it affected them, and in support of the allegations in their petition.
Ministers declared th