ABSTRACT
The great object which Lord George Bentinck proposed to himself was to delay the progress of the government measures, that they should not reach the House of Lords before Easter. He believed that time might still ensure their discomfiture. A fortnight elapsed ere the resolutions in committee of the whole house, on which the government bills were to be introduced, were passed. The efforts of Lord George Bentinck during this period, from the 6th to the 20th of March, were unceasing. The second reading of the bill for the repeal of the corn laws was fixed for the 23rd March. This bill was introduced in pursuance of one of the resolutions passed in the committee of the whole house, which had just closed its labours. The first reading of a bill under such circumstances is a matter of course, and almost of form.
