nd it was opposed by Mr. Liddell, Colonel Perceval, and Lord John
Russell. The latter admitted the reproach--if reproach it were--of
having framed the speech with a view to preclude discussion. It was
desirable that the queen should receive from her first parliament an
unanimous address. In allusion to Mr. Wakley's amendment, his lordship
observed that the hon. member had put his powders into three separate
papers, as portions of what he considered the same medicine. Without
entering into any general discussion of the questions involved in those
amendments. He thought it necessary shortly to state his opinion of
the present operation of the reform bill, and of his own position with
respect to it. He admitted the disadvantages and injuries to which the
reform act was subject; corruption and intimidation had prevailed at the
late elections to a great extent. With respect to the registration of
voters great amendments had been made. These were points on which it
behoved parliament to be always attentive, to see that the act suffered
no essential injury, and to remedy any error in the details which
experience of its actual working might suggest. But these, his lordship
continued, were questions widely different from those now brought
forward, such as the ballot, the extension of the suffrage, and
triennial parliaments, which were, in his estimation, a repeal of
the reform act, and placed the representation on a totally different
footing. He was not prepared to go thus far. With respect to
registration, Lord John Russell said that the attorney-general was about
to bring forward the bill of last session in an amended form, and he
himself would re-introduce the measure respecting the payment of rates.
But as to a second reform of the representation, having only five years
ago placed it on a new basis, it would be a most unwise and unsound
experiment, now to begin anew the process of reconstruction; he, for
one, at least, would decline taking any share in such a measure. Sir
Robert Peel congratulated the house upon the noble lord's aversion to
Mr. Wakley's physic. The member for Finsbury called for a change, in
order to recover for himself and his party the predominance they had
lost; but he was confident that if he were to give Mr. Wakley a _carte
blanche_ to cut and carve the constituency as he pleased, he and his
party would still be in a minority. Mr. Ward, on the other hand, warned
Lord John Russell that by his declaration a