B. By the by, have you heard of Mrs. W.'s accident?

A. and the Lady (putting down their cups.) No!

what can it be?

B. Why, she has broken her arm.

A. Poor thing! her husband's half mad, I suppose. The Lady. Good God! I declare you've made me quite sick. Poor dear Mrs. W. why, she 'll be obliged to wear her arm in a sling! But she would go out this slippery weather, when the cold's enough to kill one.

B. Well, I must go and tell my father the news. Let's see how many men killed, Charles? A. Fifty thousand.

B. Ay, 50,000.-Good morning.

[Exit. The Lady. Poor dear Mrs. W. I can't help thinking about her. A broken arm! Why it's quite a dreadful thing. I wonder whether Mrs. F. has heard the news?

B. She'll see it in this morning's paper, you know. The Lady. Oh, what! it's in the paper, is it? B. (laughing Why, did n't you hear Charles read it just now?

The Lady. Oh, that news-No, I mean poor Mrs. W. Poor dear! (meditating.) I wonder whether she'll wear a black sling or a blue. [Exeunt.

What feelings, what habits of thought are these! Distance, it is true, is a great softener of the effect of misery; and when we have no relations or acquaintance in the battle, we may be allowed to feel more acutely for domestic than for foreign troubles, for the sorrows of a friend than for the destruction of hundreds. But a habit of talking indifferently produces a habit of feeling indifferently; and, at any rate, the humming carelessness with which some people read an account of such battles as those of Austerlitz and Marengo, betrays a want of common reflection. Let us think,

for an instant, of one quarter of the miseries in a single campaign, of the hardships of the soldiers, of the thousands of hearts that are pierced in the death of thousands of men, of the lingerings of multitudes left on the field of battle, of the burnings of villages, the diabolical outrages on the female sex, the agonies of fathers, mothers, and husbands: in short, of the murders, the pestilence, and the famine, arising from one great victory! I do not wish my fair readers to plunge themselves, on these occasions, into agonies of sorrow, or into laborious hysterics; I want no German affectation, none of the woe of white handkerchiefs, no starts and sudden attitudes, no pretty dabbings of the eyes, with "How foolish I am!" but the decent sensibility of English women, and the common respect of a good heart for the miseries of the human kind. An age like this should make philosophers of us all.

PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE

EXTRAORDINARY,

[From the Morning Herald, Jan. 19.]

The first day's debate in a certain Assembly having been ex. pected to prove highly interesting, an authentic anticipation of the principal points and arguments, that will be pressed on both sides, cannot fail to be highly acceptable to the public. It is with some pride, therefore, that we declare our ability to afford this gratification to the political world. It had too long been the narrow practice with each distinguished speaker, tardily to furnish newspaper reporters, after a debate, with the heads of his speech, on which he had never spoken. Fortunately a more liberal mode has been adopted by the opponent Orators for the present sessions, by a mutual agreement to furnish each other with the heads of their speeches before they are spoken. Under this new regulation it is, that we have become pos sessed of the great outline of to-morrow's important dis

cussion,

PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE.'

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cussion, and are enabled to sketch the observations that will naturally fall from the minor orators of the day. We cannot be so insensible of our well-doing on this occasion, as not to lay claim to public gratitude for thus laying before them so early and exclusively the prior intelligence of this day's debate!

S

As soon as the Speaker had returned from the Lords, he informed the House, that he had procured a copy of His M's speech delivered by the Royal Commissioners from the Throne, which, with their permission, he should read. The speech being read accordingly,

The Hon. F- Rn arose, and lamented that it had not fallen to the lot of some other Member of that House, more competent than himself to discharge the duty which had now devolved on him-that of moving an Address to His M, for his most gracious speech from the Throne. No man with British blood flowing in his veins, who had heard the magnanimous and parental sentiments just uttered to them from the Chair, but must participate with him in all the digni fed feelings which they so naturally inspire. His M-, with his never-ceasing benevolence, declares the most anxious desire that his subjects may be restored to peace; but, at the same time, invokes his people most firmly to resist the common enemy of mankind, as the only means of securing the only peace that can prove safe and permanent. The Honourable Gentleman here dilated on the superior virtues that adorn the Throne; complimented the steady and vigorous conduct of His Majesty's Ministers, and concluded a neat speech by moving the Address, which, ás usual, was an echo of the speech from the Throne.

Mr. C. M. Sn said, that he had been so completely anticipated in the observations he had intended

to offer, by his Honourable Friend, that nothing was left for him but to give a tribute of applause to his eloquence, and humbly content himself with seconding the Address.

The Right Hon. G— P———, “In rising, Sir, to oppose the present Address, it will be understood, I trust, in common candour, that any observations which I may make to the Gentlemen opposite to me, will be deemed as applicable only to the stagnant course of its channel, and not to its spring or source, the intentional purity of which I never can question. I am just arrived from a country, Sir, still mourning its lost constitution in sackcloth and ashes; and am instructed by my constituents to ask, for what earthly purpose essentially good to their interests, or your own, have you called upon Ireland for so prodigal an expenditure of her blood and treasure? The origin of the war with France might or might not have been just and politic; but will any man, denominating himself a statesman, presume that he can satisfy my mind, that the prolongation of this war, by the measures which have been so fatally pursued, has not systematically prevented the pacification of Europe, the sole object professed to be in view? And does not every man of common observation perceive it, from its present state, to have been so dexterously contrived, that, under the torpid weight of the old Spanish dynasty, the jealousy created of us in their aristocracy, and the apathy of the people, which no wise means have been taken to 'dispel, the termination of the contest must be speedy as to our unfortunate allies, and ruinous and disgraceful to ourselves!--Sir, had we been seriously disposed to fan the glorious flame of Spanish liberty, the first thing was to aid them in the restoration of those rights, of which they had been so long and so basely despoiled; the next, to have rescued them from the horrible torture of the Inquisition, and

not

.

PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE.

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not to have suffered our enemy, with an impious hand, to snatch from England so heavenly a grace: then indeed might the Spanish people have reasonably been expected to rise en masse, and gratefully to surround the standard of Britain, raised for their deliverance; our soldiery would then have fought for them with double ardour; and those of my own country, I trust, might have lost the remembrance of their own depri vations, in so heroic a contest for the liberty of others! But, admitting that the present measure of warfare was right, by what miserable means has it been pursued! Good God, Sir, that the only victorious exploit of our arms should have ended, ex necessitate, in so wretched and debasing a Convention! As to the folly and foolery of what followed, they are too cons temptible for notice; in my blundering isle, this Court of Inquiry would have been denominated a Court of Botheration! And is it thus that we are to effect the deliverance of Europe?-But I will refrain from entering now into topics that demand, and must receive, the most solemn investigation. I may, however, be permitted to inquire of His Majesty's servants, whether, under their present system, they still retain a fanciful vision of a prosperous prosecution of the war? As they do not appear disposed to inform us what is the object they may now have in view, I will at least declare for them what their object has not been. It has not been to rescue the Spanish nation from their oppressors and despoilers: it has not been to give them either Catholic or political emancipation: it has not been to restore to them their Cortes, and thus give them the right of human beings, born to human freedom-a popular representation-[Hear! Hear! from the Treasury Bench.]—I am glad to see an attempt at jocularity from that quarter, however affected or misapplied; particularly at a moment when the sticks that compose the Ministerial faggot are evidently