sted this,
and Lord John Eussell, with a tone of ridicule and acrimony, offered
the motion an ostentatious opposition. The government was beaten by a
majority of eighty-seven to fifty. The bill was read a first time, but
Mr. Berkeley did not proceed with it, the same pretence set up by the
government on Locke King's motion soothing the reformers.

Mr. Cobden signalized himself by proposing a resolution pledging the
house to arbitration in case of national differences. Mr. Cobden's
motion was in itself impracticable, his statistics partial, and his tone
personal and unjust to the statesman by whom our foreign relations
had been conducted. Lord Palmerston replied in one of the most happy
speeches he ever delivered, vindicating himself from the implications
made by Mr. Cobden. Mr. Roebuck supported Mr. Cobden, whom, and whose
party, he has so often opposed since, when their peculiar opinions were
advocated in a similar manner. The motion was withdrawn, in consequence
of the conviction of all parties being strongly expressed that the
course proposed by Mr. Cobden was utterly impossible.

In the House of Lords a remarkable debate arose upon a proposition of
the Earl of St. Germains, to make marriage with a deceased wife's sister
legal. The measure was opposed by the bishops. The Bishop of Norwich
made a speech of remarkable clearness and force in opposition. Lord
Campbell, the lord-chief-justice, made an oration of an eccentric and
illogical character; its spirit and temper were even worse than its
arguments; the people of Germany and America were referred to in a
manner the most insulting and unjust. The bishops and the law lords
defeated the bill.

Lord Redesdale, one of the champions of Puseyism in the established
church, made a motion in the peers for the revival of convocation, which
was successfully opposed by the evangelical "primate of all England."

One of the subjects introduced during the session which excited most
interest in the country, was the removal of Jewish disabilities. Lord
John Russell produced a bill in the commons which was carried, but was
thrown out in the lords. Events followed of an important nature and of
historical interest. An alderman of the city of London, named Salomons,
had been elected to sit in parliament for the borough of Greenwich. He
determined to take his seat. He presented himself at the table of the
house on the 18th of July, but refused to take the oaths "on the true
faith of