the treaty; and that, therefore, to that treaty we were
equally pledged. That Holland had refused to pay was immaterial: if one
pledged himself to the payment of a debt to which there was also a third
party, it would be dishonourable to take advantage of that third party
having refused to fulfil his engagement, as a legal reason for also
refusing to fulfil your engagement. With respect to the resolutions, he
had only to say, that, as the two first were merely declaratory of
the fact, he should, as far as they were concerned, move the previous
question; but as the third was a direct censure on ministers, he should
meet it with a direct negative. Ministers had acted on the opinion of
the attorney and solicitor-general, and they now defended that opinion.
Lord John Russell also argued that it was the spirit and not the letter
of the treaty which must be looked at, and that that spirit justified
the payment. He complained that the resolutions were moved with a mere
party view, and not from any love of economy or from any desire to
maintain a constitutional principle. He complained also, that a motion
should be made for censuring ministers, without calling for papers, and
without any allusion to the circumstances which had occurred in 1830
and 1831, and on which the interpretation of the treaty might in a great
degree depend. After some stinging comments upon this speech, Sir Robert
Peel wound up the debate in one of his most plausible parliamentary
addresses. He clearly confuted the main arguments which Lord Althorp
used, and produced an effect unfavourable to ministers. When the house
divided, the previous question was carried by a majority only of twenty;
and government had but the narrow majority of twenty-four for the third
resolution. Many of their adherents, including Mr. Hume, voted against
them on this occasion; and even their secretary-at-war, Sir Henry
Parnell, failed to attend to vote for them, for which conduct he lost
his place, and was succeeded by Sir John Cam Hobhouse. The truth was, as
it afterwards appeared, ministers had entered into a new convention with
Russia, although that convention had not been ratified. Ministers laid
this before parliament on the 27th of June; and on the 12th of July Lord
Althorp moved the house to go into committee to consider of it, with the
view that a bill should be brought in to enable his majesty to execute
it. The convention provided for continuing the payments, and the
oppo