Alien Bill.-Game laws; prohibition of buying game-Sep- tennial Act.-Alien Bill; Sergeant Copley.-Persons charged with libels put in irons, and kept to hard labour.— Amend- ment to the Alien Bill rejected. Case of a slave murdered in St. Kitt's; misconduct of the coroner's jury, of the petty jury, and of the court. - Court of Chancery incompetent to afford redress in cases of abused charities. - Bill to relieve the holders of negotiable securities without notice that they were given for a usurious consideration.— Alien Bill; clause added by the Lords, rejected by the Commons; speech; new bill not retrospective. Expected dissolution of Parliament; Parliament dissolved. Requisition from the city of West- minster; approaching election; candidates; commencement of the election; Kinnaird and Cartwright withdrawn as can- didates; election closed; Bentham. Meeting of the Oppo- sition; Tierney. - Dinners at the Duke of Sussex and at I. Situation in his profession at that period. Roget's encouragement in early life; conversation with him at Lausanne. - Former and present prospects compared. — Self-exhortations for the future. -Functions of a Lord Chan- cellor; compared with what they were in Bacon's time. Character and attainments of those who are usually appointed to the office. Self-admonitions II. Subjects of contemplation which should be avoided; and III. Explanation of the former letters. Self-admonition re- less an object of desire; domestic happiness.-(Note.) Observ- ations of Sir James Mackintosh. His children's happiness considered. — Political prospects discouraging. Imaginary state of things supposed; general zeal for the public good; supposed interview of the Chancellor with the King; supposed IV. Prospects at this period. Hopes of the Chancellorship Letter from M. Gallois.-I. Papers on the interviews between the French commissioners and the Duke of Wellington in 1815; on the French elections after the restoration of the Jan. 6th. I attended a meeting at Stephen's Slave trade. with Wilberforce, Brougham, and Babington, to consider what measures it would be necessary to take, to make effectual the Act which has passed for the abolition of the slave trade. The most effectual measure appeared to all of us to be the establishing a registry for slaves in all the islands, and a law that every negro not registered should be free; and it was determined that an attempt should be made to procure an Act of Parliament for this purpose. 7th. Parliament met. election. The state of Bristol I find is this: It has been Pristol long agreed between the leaders of the Whig and Tory parties in that city not to interfere with each other in the election; but that each party should have its own member, who should be the person proposed by each of the two great political clubs which have been formed there. Mr. Bathurst is the Tory member, and it is intended that he should be reelected. In the place of Mr. Baillie, it has been Mr. Protheroe. proposed to choose me. Some other candidates, however; have been, within a few days, talked of. Admiral Berkeley has been named by some of his friends, but, on finding that he had no chance of success, his pretensions have been withdrawn. Another candidate, who may, I understand, very probably have a large party in his favour, is Mr. Edward Protheroe, a Bristol man, who lately was a banker there, though he now resides in London. He professes to be a Whig, though he seconded at a public meeting a motion for an address of congratulation to the King on dismissing his ministers in 1807. At the club of the Whig party, which met 7th of January, this gentleman was proposed, and supported, I understand, by some of his friends with much eagerness. His claims, however, were rejected by a very large majority; and the followResolution ing resolution was adopted: - "Resolved, that Sir Samuel Romilly is a fit person to represent the Whig interest of the city of Bristol in the ensuing Parliament, provided he can assure this club through their chairman, that his professional duties are not of such a nature as to prevent his attendance in the committees of the House of Commons, and other duties attendant on the representative of the city of Bristol." of the Independent and Constitutional Club. In answer to the letter of Mr. Claxton, the chairman of the club, who transmitted this resolution to me, I said, “I have lately endeavoured to ascertain the nature and probable extent and frequency of such attendances and duties; and, from what I am able to learn, I have no hesitation in assuring the club that, if I should have the honour of being returned to represent the city, I will give these attendances and discharge these duties." set up at Mr. Protheroe, or his friends, disregarding the Candidates determination of the club, are very actively can- Bristol. vassing Bristol; and both the candidate and his brother, Sir Henry Protheroe, have published in the newspapers addresses to the electors. Another gentleman, a Mr. Hunt, has also advertised that he is a candidate, and that his principles are those of Sir Francis Burdett; and he asks the electors whether it is right to elect as their representative a man who voted against an amendment to the address to the Regent, proposed by that Baronet on the first day of the session. He took for granted that I had so voted, though, in truth, I was not in the House at the time of the division. If I had been there, I certainly should have voted against it. My Bristol friends have pressed me very much to publish an address to the electors; though very unwilling to do so, I have yielded to their wishes, and have this day, 17th January, sent them an address, in these words: "To the Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders, and My address Freemen of the City of Bristol. "Gentlemen, "A stranger to the city of Bristol, and having scarcely a personal acquaintance with any of its inhabitants, it would have been very great presumption in me spontaneously to have offered myself as a candidate to represent you in Parliament. I had not the vanity to imagine that my humble endeavours faithfully to discharge my duty as a member of the to the electors. |