CHAPTER XIII.
[1823.]
IMPORTANT DEBATES. EXPENSES OF THE CORONATION. STATE OF THE PENINSULA. MR. PLUNKET'S DISAPPOINTMENT. CONDITION OF IRELAND. DESPATCH FROM THE LORD-LIEUTENANT. THE KING OF SPAIN AND THE CORTES. MR. CANNING IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. LORD NUGENT'S BILL FOR RESTORING THE FRANCHISE. FESTIVITIES AT CARLTON HOUSE. THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. THE FRENCH IN SPAIN. LORD ELDON. CANNING. PEEL AND ROBINSON. THE PRESS IN INDIA. THE KING AT "THE COTTAGE". IRVING AND THE HEAVENLY PAVILION. POLICY OF AUSTRIA. THE KING IN COUNCIL. SCHISMS IN THE FRENCH CABINET.
CHAPTER XIII.
Lord John Russell brought forward in the House of Commons his motion for a reform of Parliament, on the 24th of April, which, after an animated discussion, was negatived by a majority of 280 to 169; but a more important debate was that which arose out of a motion made by Mr. J. Macdonald, for an address to the Crown censuring the conduct of Ministers in the late negotiations with foreign powers. It continued for three days—28th, 29th, and 30th of the same month—and gave occasion for the delivery of several effective speeches, particularly those of Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Brougham against the Government, and of Mr. Peel and Mr. Canning in its defence. In the end, however, the policy of Ministers was endorsed by Parliament, the division being in their favour by a majority of 372 to 20. A few days later, the attention of the House was taken up by a charge preferred by Mr. Plunket against Mr. Thorpe, the High Sheriff of Dublin, for having caused the bill of indictment against the rioters at the Dublin Theatre to be ignored. Debate followed debate on this subject, till the House adjourned about the middle of May. But the subject was resumed on the 23rd and on subsequent days, when a fierce attack was made by Opposition members on the conduct of Orangemen and on the system they supported. On the 26th, the motion was rejected in a small House by a majority of 131 to 77, when Mr. Plunket voted in opposition to Ministers.
We now resume the correspondence. The first paragraph refers to the state of affairs in the Peninsula, a complication regarded in England with increasing anxiety; but the writer, as will be seen, soon passes to a subject that excited at the time a good deal of interest among the economists—this was the expenses of the Coronation, some of which, it is plain, were open to objection. Subsequently, Irish politics—that had been rendered more interesting since the appointments of the Marquis Wellesley and Mr. Plunket to two important offices in the Government of Ireland—began to assume larger dimensions. From these causes Mr. Canning's position had become anything but a bed of roses.
THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
East India Office, June 11, 1823.
My dear B——,
All the accounts from Spain speak of the enormous expense to the French, and that the most effectual means resorted to to resist the invaders consist in the patriotic spirit with which their friends draw upon them. They are also distributing money very largely to the Portuguese insurgents.
The spirit of reaction and the cry for the Absolute King, with the Inquisition, mean time greatly embarrass them. They have increased the columns detached to the south to 20,000 men. Scarcely anything is known of what is passing at Seville, and much apprehension is entertained for the King's life.