plicitly-first, whether he will maintain the bill itself, and, secondly, whether he will act upon the spirit in which it was conceived.

With respect to the reform bill itself, I will repeat now the declaration which I made when I entered the house of Commons as a member of the reformed parliament, that I consider the reform bill a final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitutional question-a settlement which no friend to the peace and welfare of this country would attempt to disturb, either by direct or by insidious means.

Then, as to the spirit of the reform bill, and the willingness to adopt and enforce it as a rule of government: if, by adopting the spirit of the reform bill, it be meant that we are to live in a perpetual vortex of agitation; that public men can only support themselves in public estimation by adopting every popular impression of the day,-by promising the instant redress of any thing which any body may call an abuse,-by abandoning altogether that great aid of government-more powerful than either law or reason-the respect for ancient rights, and the deference to prescriptive authority; if this be the spirit of the reform bill, I will not undertake to adopt it. But if the spirit of the reform bill implies merely a careful review of institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, undertaken in a friendly temper, combining, with the firm maintenance of established rights, the correction of proved abuses and the redress of real grievances, in that case, I can for myself and colleagues undertake to act in such a spirit and with such intentions.

Such declarations of general

principle are, I am aware, necessarily vague; but, in order to be more explicit, I will endeavour to apply them practically to some of those questions which have of late attracted the greater share of public interest and attention.

"I take, first, the inquiry into municipal corporations :

"It is not my intention to advise the crown to interrupt the progress of that inquiry, nor to transfer the conduct of it from those to whom it was committed by the late government. For myself, I gave the best proof that I was not unfriendly to the principle of inquiry, by consenting to be a member of that committee of the house of Commons on which it was originally devolved. No report has yet been made by the commissioners to whom the inquiry was afterwards referred; and, until that report be made, I cannot be expected to give, on the part of the government, any other pledge than that they will bestow on the suggestions it may contain, and the evidence on which they may be founded, a full and unprejudiced consideration.

"I will, in the next place, address myself to the questions in which those of our fellow-countrymen, who dissent from the doctrines of the established church, take an especial interest.

"Instead of making new professions, I will refer to the course which I took upon those subjects when out of

power.

"In the first place, I supported the measure brought forward by lord Althorp, the object of which was to exempt all classes from the payment of church-rates, applying in lieu thereof, out of a branch of the revenue, a certain sum for the building and repair of churches,

I never expressed, nor did I entertain the slightest objection to the principle of a bill of which lord John Russell was the author, intended to relieve the conscientious scruples of dissenters in respect to the ceremony of marriage. I give no opinion now on the particular measures themselves: they were proposed by ministers in whom the dissenters had confidence; they were intended to give relief; and it is sufficient for my present purpose to state that I supported the principle of them.

"I opposed-and I am bound to state that my opinions in that respect have undergone no change the admission of dissenters, as a claim of right, into the Universities; but I expressly declared, that, if regulations, enforced by public authorities superintending the professions of law and medicine, and the studies connected with them, had the effect of conferring advantages of the nature of civil privileges on one class of the king's subjects from which another was excluded-those regulations ought to undergo modification, with the view of placing all the king's subjects, whatever their religious creeds, upon a footing of perfect equality with respect to any civil privilege.

"I appeal to the course which I pursued on those several questions, when office must have been out of contemplation; and I ask, with confidence, does that course imply that I was actuated by any illiberal or intolerant spirit towards the dissenting body, or by an unwillingness to consider fairly the redress of any real grievances?

"In the examination of other questions which excited public feeling, I will not omit the pension list. I resisted-and, with

the opinions I entertain, I should again resista retrospective inquiry into pensions granted by the crown, at a time when the discretion of the Crown was neither fettered by law nor by the expres sion of any opinion on the part of the house of Commons; but I voted for the resolution, moved by lord Althorp, that pensions on the civil-list ought, for the future, to be confined to such persons only as have just claims to the royal beneficence, or are entitled to consideration on account either of their personal services to the Crown, or of the performance of duties to the public, or of their scientific or literary eminence. On the resolution which I thus supported as a private member of Parliament, I shall scrupulously act as a minister of the crown, and shall advise the grant of no pension which is not in conformity with the spirit and intention of the vote to which I was a party.

"Then, as to the great question of church reform. On that head I have no new professions to make. I cannot give my consent to the alienating of church property in any part of the United Kingdom, from strictly ecclesiastical purposes. But I repeat now the opinions that I have already expressed in Parliament, in regard to the church establishment in Ireland-that, if by an improved distribution of the revenues of the church, its just influence can be extended, and the true interests of the established religion promoted, all other considerations should be made subordinate to the advancement of objects of such paramount importance.

"As to church property in this country, no person has expressed a more earnest wish than I have done that the question of tithe,

complicated and difficult as I acknowledge it to be, should, if possible, be satisfactorily settled by the means of a commutation, founded upon just principles, and proposed after mature consideration. "With regard to alterations in the laws which govern our ecclesiastical establishment, I have had no recent opportunity of giving that grave consideration to a subject of the deepest interest, which could alone justify me in making any public declaration of opinion. It is a subject which must undergo the fullest deliberation, and into that deliberation the government will enter, with the sincerest desire to remove every abuse that can impair the efficiency of the establishment, to extend the sphere of its usefulness, and to strengthen and confirm its just claims upon the respect and affections of the people.

"It is unnecessary for my purpose to enter into further details. I have said enough, with respect to general principles, and their practical application to public measures, to indicate the spirit in which the king's government is prepared to act. Our object will be the maintenance of peace-the scrupulous and honourable fulfil

ment, without reference to thesr original policy, of all existing engagements with foreign powers,— the support of public credit-the enforcement of strict economyand the just and impartial consideration of what is due to all interests-agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial.

"Whatever may be the issue of the undertaking in which I am engaged, I feel assured that you will mark, by a renewal of your confidence, your approbation of the course I have pursued in accepting office. I enter upon the arduous duties assigned to me with the deepest sense of the responsibility they involve, with great distrust of my own qualifications for their adequate discharge, but at the same time with a resolution to persevere, which nothing could inspire but the strong impulse of public duty, the consciousness of upright motives, and the firm belief that the people of this country will so far maintain the prerogative of the king, as to give to the ministers of his choice, not an implicit confidence, but a fair trial. I am, Gentlemen,

With affectionate regard,

Most faithfully yours, (Signed) ROBERT PEEL,

'Her majesty the queen regent of Spain during the minority of her daughter, Donna Isabella II., queen of Spain, and his imperial majesty, the duke of Braganza, regent of the kingdom of Portugal and of the Algarves, in the name of the queen Donna Maria II., being impressed with a deep conviction that the interests of the two crowns, and the security of their respective dominions, require the immediate and vigorous exertion of their joint efforts to put an end to hostilities, which, though directed in the first instance against the throne of his most faithful majesty, now afford shelter and support to disaffected and rebellious subjects of the crown of Spain; and their majesties being desirous, at the same time, to provide the necessary means for restoring to the subjects of each the blessings of internal peace, and to confirm, by mutual good offices, the friendship which they are desirous of establishing and cementing between their respective states, they have come to the determination of uniting their forces, in order to compel the infant Don Carlos of Spain, and the infant Don Miguel of Portugal, to withdraw from the Portuguese dominions.

"In consequence of this agreement, their majesties the regents have addressed themselves to their majesties the king of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the king of the French; and their said majesties, considering the interest they must always take in the security of the Spanish monarchy, and being further animated by the most anxious desire to assist in the establishment of peace in the Peninsula, as well as in every other part of Europe; and his Britannic majesty considering, moreover, the special obligations arising out of his ancient alliance with Portugal, their majesties have consented to become parties to the proposed engagement.

"Their majesties have therefore named as their plenipotentiaries, that is to say :

"His majesty the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the right hon. Henry John viscount Palmerston, baron Temple, a peer of Ireland, a member of his Britannic majesty's most hon. privy council, knight Grand Cross of the most hon. Order of the Bath, a member of parliament, and his principal secretary of state for foreign affairs.

"Her majesty the queen regent of Spain during the minority of her daughter, Donna Isabella II., queen of Spain, Don Manuel Pando, Fernandez de Pinedo, Alava, y Davila, marquis de Miraflores, count of Villapaterna, and of Florida-blanca, lord of Villagarcia, a grandee of Spain, Grand Cross of

the royal and distinguished Order of Charles III., and her Catholic majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty.

"His majesty, the king of the French, the sieur Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, prince duke de Talleyrand, peer of France, his said majesty's ambassador extraordinary, and minister plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen of Hungary, of the Order of St. Andrew, of the Order of the Black Eagle, &c.

And his imperial majesty the duke of Braganza, regent of the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, in the name of the queen Donna Maria II., the sieur Christopher Peter de Moraes Sarmento, a member of the council of her most faithful majesty, nobleman, knight of the royal house, commander of the Order of our Lady of the Conception of Villa Viciosa, knight of the Order of Christ, and her most faithful majesty's envoy extraordinary, and minister plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty. "Who have agreed upon the following articles:

"Art. 1. His imperial majesty, the duke of Braganza, regent of the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, in the name of the queen Donna Maria II., engages to use all the means in his power to compel the infant Don Carlos to withdraw from the Portuguese do

minions.

"Art. 2. Her majesty the queen regent of Spain, during the minority of her daughter, Isabella II., queen of Spain, being hereby requested and invited thereto by his

imperial majesty, the duke of Braganza, regent in the name of the queen Donna Maria II.; and having moreover received just and grave cause of complaint against the infant Don Miguel, by the countenance and support given by him to the Pretender of the Spanish crown,-engages to cause such a body of Spanish troops as may hereafter be agreed upon between the two parties to enter the Portuguese territories, in order to co-operate with the troops of her most faithful majesty, for the purpose of compelling the infants, Don Carlos of Spain, and Don Miguel of Portugal, to withdraw from the Portuguese dominions. And her majesty the queen regent of Spain, further engages that these troops shall be maintained at the expense of Spain, and without any charge to Portugal; the said Spanish troops being nevertheless received and treated in all other respects in the same manner as the troops of her most faithful majesty; and her majesty the queen regent engages that her troops shall withdraw from the Portuguese territory as soon as the above-mentioned object of the expulsion of the infants shall have been accomplished, and when the presence of those troops in Portugal shall no longer be required by his imperial majesty the duke regent, in the name of the queen Donna Maria II.

"Art. 3. His majesty the king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, engages to co-operate, by the employment of the naval force, in aid of the operations to be undertaken, in conformity with the engagements of this treaty, by the troops of Spain and Portugal.

"Art. 4. If the co-operation of France should be deemed necessary