is country, than that under which we have so long
prospered? I ask, whether the Civil Government will have more
power--whether it is possible that the Government can be carried on with
a smaller proportion of the army? I beg your Lordships to observe the
transactions which have occurred at Paris within the last two years, and
you will see that, while Louis XVIII, and Charles X. were able to
maintain the peace and tranquillity of the capital with a gendarmerie of
from 500 to 1000 men,--since the period of the revolution of July, 1830,
the Government has not had less than 60,000 once a month put into
requisition to maintain the peace of the city. I say once a month, upon
an average, not to exaggerate the facts; being convinced that upon not
less than twenty-four occasions the army has been under arms.

If the system now proposed to your Lordships is adopted, will any man
tell me that it will be possible for any Government to be carried on, as
the Government of this country has hitherto been, by a civil power,
aided by a small military force? In the course of this last summer,
events of a fearful character occurred, nearly at the same time, in this
country and in France. I allude to the disturbances at Bristol and at
Lyons. The riots at Bristol were put down by ninety men, as soon as an
officer was found who would employ the force entrusted to him. But what
happened at Lyons--were the disturbances there so easily quelled? The
events at Lyons--a larger town, I admit, but not much larger than
Bristol--required 40,000 troops to be brought against the town, under
the command of a Marshal of France, the present Minister-at-War, and a
Prince of the Blood, before tranquillity could be restored. I entreat,
then, your Lordships to consider well, first of all, the causes of this
difference,--to see that it is the sovereignty of the people that you
are called upon to establish in this country,--and whether it is
possible to carry on the civil Government of England, as it has hitherto
been, under such a Government as you would establish, if you pass this
Bill.

_April_ 10,1832.

* * * * *

_Fiscal Regulations for the Extinction of Slavery not defensible._

I can hardly bring myself to believe that any Government can think of
forcing the Colonies to adopt Orders in Council, by holding out, at
once, promises and threats; by saying that those Colonies which adopted
them should not pay taxes, and that t