not the right hon. gentleman had found
all this to be the case, during the time
be had been absent from the house. He
(Lord Folkstone) however, would tell
him what had passed here during the
interval of his absence. A question
had been brought forward, charging
some of his Majesty's ministers with
bargaining for and selling seats in that
house; and so far from being denied,
the offence was endeavoured to be
palliated and extenuated. Farther, va-
rious members protessed their belief of
the existence of a train of abuses of the
kind, and the investigation into them
was not gone into, because it was even
held out that all the public men in the `
house would be found to have been
implicated. If the right hon. gentleman
heard these things, and, moreover, was
informed, that they were as clear and
notorious as the sun at noon day, the
noble lord left it to him to say, if the
present bill was the effect of popular
clamour.

Mr. Lockhart should object to this, measure if it were intended to stop here, and allow the rotten boroughs to be held by their present tenures. He had always been of opinion that a moderate reform was necessary.

The bill was then ordered to be committed for to morrow.

Mr. Wharton brought up the report of the committee of supply of yesterday for granting the sum of 600,000l. to the prince regent of Portugal by way,

of loan.

Mr. Whitbread was satisfied that a loan of this kind would never be restored, either principal or interest. He wished it, therefore, to be a gift.

Mr. Perceval was of a contrary opinion, from a full confidence that both principal and interest would be repaid. The Report was then agreed to. Mr. Wharton brought up the report of the committee of ways and means of yesterday.

Mr. Whitbread restated his objections to lotteries, and declared his determination to take the sense of the house on the resolution on this subject, He proceeded to read passages from the Report of the lottery committee, and to enforce the statements it contained by additional facts and arguments of his own. He maintained that sanctioning brothels, as had been the practice in this country down to the year 1540, and putting them under the

superintendance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as they had formerly been under that of the bishop of Winchester, would be a less moral evil than the continuance of lotteries. They bad first made their appearance soon after the abolition of the other; and in assuming them we might be said to have cast out seven devils and taked in 17. In lotteries would be found the breach of every article of the DecalogueTheft, inurder of the worst kind, false witnessing, nay even the crime of selling their children to devils!

Sir T. Turton supported the resolu

tion.
Mr. Windham thought the practice
scandalous, disgraceful, and unprofit-
able. Ruin and vice were the con-
sequences necessarily to be expected
from it.

Mr. Perceval professed a desire to put an end to all the evils complained of by the gentlemen on the other side; but being of opinion, that if the lottery were set aside, the spirit of gambling would still go on, and be productive of much greater evils, because exempted. from the regulations which the lottery. imposed--he was therefore an advocate for this system.

Mr. Wilberforce considered the lottery peculiarly objectionable, because it diffused a spirit of gambling among the people, while it produced no bene fit to the public treasury in any degree commensurate to the injury it inflicted upon the interest of the community, by the number of victims which it produ ced; by the crowds which it deprived of the means and detached from the pursuit of industry. With regard to the argument that gambling would still go on, if this licensed course were put an end to, and therefore that it was better to continue the lottery, and thus place the system under certain regulations, it appeared to be quite of the same nature, and equally fallacious with the reasons advanced to palliate the slave trade. For there it was urged that if we discontinued the traffic, that it would be prosecuted by others with out the mitigation of our regulated system. But such pretences could never reconcile his mind to the existence of a law for the toleration of that which was obviously wrong.

Sir S. Romilly thought there was a very great difference between the cases relied upon by the Chancellor of the

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

ON A REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. ment; all we want is the restoration

emolument ;-and I should think he said, attempted to deceive the people with any such promise.

that the example of those places where the weight of the election is in the hands of a needy populace, who are always bought by that can didate who has the longest purse, would be sufficient to convince those who are friends of the unlimited right to vote, of the dangerous tendency of that measure,

To the second objection against the proposed reform, viz.-That it will be useless, because it will produce no reduction in the taxes, and consequently in the price of provisions, it may be answered, that a reform in parliament solely cannot do this, yet the reforms which an honest parliament may make in the public administration, and the public expenditure, will undoubtedly be the means of effecting such a saving as must considerably reduce the taxes, with which the middle ranks of people are so grievously oppressed; and should I specify a few of those reforms which may be expected from a house of Commons so constituted as to be the organ of the people, and not of the government or the aristocracy, it will be seen that the argument of Mr. Perceval on Mr. Curwen's motion, was a mere verbal quibble, and like most of his arguments was drawn from the practice of special pleading; the fact is he dared not to dive into the subject, to examine it impartially, to lay it open in its full extent, because be could find nothing in the shape of an argument wherewith to answer the serious and weighty objections which have been urged against the present iniquitous system; and therefore having first attempted to produce something in the likeness of an argument, he next resorted to calumny, a never failing weapon with the advocates of a bad cause; and assuming as a fact, that no relief from the public burthens could be expected from a reform of parliament, he branded with the name of Jacobins all those who, as

The enormous peculation which has been brought to light by the reports of the different committees instituted for the purpose of enquir ing into public abuses, are sufficient to convince any impartial man of the saving which might be made in the different departments of the state, were it not the interest of ministers to protect these abuses for the sake of gaining them a corrupt influence, all which influence ultimately tends to obtain them a majority in the lower house of parliament, which majority is requisite to vote them money at their will, to support their schemes of public ambition, or pri vate interest. In one single depart ment alone, that of the navy, it has been asserted by an hon. member, once in office, that a saving of FIVE MILLIONS might be effected without any detriment to the public service: we have therefore just reason to conclude, that a similar retrenchment might take place in other departments, were ministers not resolved to oppose every measure of economy.

The editor of a ministerial paper has lately ventured to deny, that the number of debtors has increased in consequence of the pressure of the times; he might as well deny that the sun ever shines, for the fact is capable of proof as easily as that of the common operations of nature; and it has been proved by the tax gatherers, that hundreds of people, maintaining a decent appearance have been distrained for their taxes, and of course have run in debt to their tradesmen. We all know, as this venal writer asserts, that a great number of debtors arise from impru dence, misfortunes, and other causes, which at all times will operate in every country; but it is not to be denied, that the number has considerably encreased during the war, and there can be no doubt, that it arises from the heavy pressure of

taxation. In 1800 the Society for bettering the condition of the Poor, drew a most distressing picture of the state of the lower classes, and even of those above the condition of parish relief; and there is every reason to believe from the increased price of every requisite article of life, that their situation is not much improved. Private benevolence does much for their relief; but that is a humiliating resource; it is degrading to the spirit of Englishmen, and tends to destroy that national character of independence which has hitherto supported the people of this country in a state above that of all other nations; and no man who is a friend to the hberties of Britain, will ever wish to see the number of the indigent and necessitous increased.

public expenditure occasioned by ill concerted expeditions is an evil which must and may be remedied by a new administration, and consequently will prevent an encrease at least of the public burthens though it may not effect a diminution. Mr. Perceval's loan of nineteen millions, added to the income tax, which was promised by Pitt to supersede in a great measure the necessity for any future loans, is a fact which ought to make a deep impression on those who wish to save their country from the gulph of bankruptcy, and revolution.-Had we to boast of victory and success for all this, we might bear it without murmuring; but as it has produced not one single advantage either to the people for whom it was spent ; nor added one atom to our own safety, we must be lost to all feeling, and even to a sense of our interest, if we continue our confidence to the men by whom we have suffered such shame, and been so impudently plundered.

The proposed bill of Mr. Curwen, from which some expect so much in the way of reform, seems to me in every light objectionable.-It is at best but a half measure, and I detest all half measures, because The effect which the late inquiries they are but compromises with the and meetings for reform bas proevil they propose to remedy. It is duced on the house of Commons will directed against a particular set of shortly be seen in a coalition bemen, the monied interest; and is tween the two parties which have therefore partial and unjust. It been so long opposed to each other; tends also to multiply the number the whigs having merited the confi of oaths already too numerous, and dence of the present, ministry by to throw a snare in the way of those their explicit declarations on the who are at present too liable to err. subject of parliamentary reform, and The only way to make men honest each party thinking it their interest is to remove temptations, and not to unite against the common foe, to imagine they can be rendered un- they will shortly agree to a comcorrupt by taking an oath: for to promise, by which one or two of the men disposed to do wrong this is most unpopular members of the preonly affording them an additional sent administration will be compelled temptation. Remove the cause of to retire, a few reforms in the difcorruption, which is the venality of ferent departments of the state will boroughs, and the effect will be be submitted to, but none in the removed, which is the venality of representation. The truly honest parliament: the fault is in the sys- whigs will join the party of Sir F. tem, not in the individuals; this has Burdett, and thus a new opposition been said again and again, till it is will be formed in the house of Coman aphorism almost stale by repe- mons, small in number, but formitition. dable by its talents and integrity": these will in time it is to be hoped,

The alarming encrease in the

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.