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niSTOET OF ENGLAND.

Such topics as these were doubtless well qualified to inflame■ the passions of the House of Commons. The near prospect of adissolution could not be very agreeable to a member whoseelection was likely to be contested. He must go through allthe miseries of a canvass, must shake hands with crowds offreeholders or freemen, must ask after their wives and children,must hire conveyances for outvoters, must open alehouses,must provide mountains of beef, must set rivers of ale running,and might perhaps, after all the drudgery and all the expense,after being lampooned, hustled, pelted, find himself at thebottom of the poll, see his antagonists chaired, and sink halfruined into obscurity. All this evil he was now invited to bringon himself, and invited by men whose own seats in the legisla-ture were permanent, who gave up neither dignity nor quiet,neither power nor money, but gained the praise of patriotismby forcing him to abdicate a high station, to undergo harassinglabour and anxiety, to mortgage his cornfields and to hew downhis woods. There was naturally much irritation, more probablythan is indicated by the divisions. For the constituent bodieswere generally delighted with the bill; and many members whodisliked it were afraid to oppose it. The House yielded to thepressure of public opinion, but not without a pang and astruggle. The discussions in the committee seem to have beenacrimonious. Such sharp words passed between Seymour andone of the Whig members that it was necessary to put theSpeaker in the chair and the mace on the table for the puqioseof restoring order. One amendment was made. The respitewhich the Lords had granted to the existing Parliament was ex-tended from the first of January to Lady Day, in order thatthere might be full time for another session. The third readingwas carried by two hundred votes to a hundred and Sixty one.The Lords agreed to the bill as amended; and nothing waswanting but the royal assent. Whether that assent would or