the details, there would be a disposition on the part
of the majority of the house to follow the course of ministers, and to
introduce more amendments into the measure. Lord Althorp, on the
other hand, said that he could not recollect a question moved from the
opposition side of the house with respect to any of the alterations
which had since been made in the bill. Ministers had given their
attention to every reasonable suggestion with regard to the details of
the bill, and some of those alterations now proposed might have been
pressed upon their consideration; but he did not remember that an
opportunity had been given them last session to adopt such resolutions.
The bill having been rejected, ministers had employed the interval
which had since elapsed in endeavouring to remove all objections to the
details of the measure, and in introducing such improvements as were
consistent with its great principle; and yet, because they had done so,
the right honourable baronet taunted them with unstable conduct. The
giving up the clause regarding commissioners, he asserted, was the
necessary consequence of the fact of the commissioners having now made
their inquiry. Great alterations were said to have been made in schedule
A: fifty-one boroughs out of fifty-six remained as before. The ten-pound
clause, again, it was admitted, had not suffered from the alteration
which had been introduced in it: the fact was, the clause had been
merely simplified in its wording and provisions; in its practical effect
it was precisely similar to that contained in the late bill. Some of
the Irish members complained that injustice was done to Ireland in
not allowing her a greater number of members: twenty-three additional
members, it was said, had now been given to England, and eight to
Scotland; and yet Ireland was still to receive only the one hundred
and five which had originally been allotted her under very different
circumstances. The bill, however, was read a first time without a
division, and the second reading was fixed for the 16th; after which,
Lord Althorp stated that the house would adjourn for the Christmas
holidays.

On the 16th, on the motion being made that the bill be read a second
time, Lord Porchester moved an amendment that it should be read a second
time that day six months. He had hoped, he said, that ministers would
have framed a bill which would have been generally acceptable. The
debate which followed was continued by adjournm