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have conceived himself to be released from any such necessity. One of the principal topics of his speech was the unusual length of the adjournment of parliament, in circumstances of so remarkable interest and importance. "This delay," he alleged, "was a serious ground of complaint; for, during this protracted recess, it became a matter of public notoriety, that treaties and conventions of vast importance to the interests of mankind, had been entered upon and decided by his Majesty's ministers, who, notwithstanding the paramount necessity of the case, had, during the long discussion attendant upon such proceedings, wholly neglected to call upon the Commons of England for their necessary advice and co-operation. This was disrespect to the people, as well as to their representatives in parliament. It was impossible not to feel a more than ordinary anxiety on this subject, when it was understood that treaties had been concluded, raising doubtful questions of public law, and of constitutional principle; that provision had been imade for maintaining a large foreign military establishment, which must necessarily require a large domestic inilitary establishment for its support. The subject involved not merely legal and constitutional, but financial considerations, all of which were overlooked in the address of the honourable baro. net; and although it would not be proper to go deeply into them at present, he trusted he should hereafter be able successfully to contend, that they ought to have directed whatever might be the terms and provisions of those treaties. What he chiefly regretted, however, in the able speech of the ho nourable baronet, was, the slight and insufficient manner in which he had touched upon the actual distresses of the country. He wished the House to pledge itself dictinctly, that they would enquire and administer speedy

relief, because he was convinced, that, by a steady application of our resour ces, and by a striet economy, the burthens and distresses of the people might be relieved. The country looked to them for some pledge, that the existing system of partial and oppressive taxation should be revised, and he implored his Majesty's ministers and the House not to disappoint it in so just and natural an expectation." He concluded by moving that the following words should be added to the address: "And also to represent to his Royal Highness, that it was the duty of his Majesty's ministers to have advised his Royal Highness, with the least possible delay, to have convened parliament for the purpose of communicating those important treaties with the allies and with France, which after having been acted upon for several months, are now about to be laid before this House; and that the length of the late prorogation was the more extraordinary at a time when the unexampled domestic embarrassments, as well as the important foreign relations of the country, required an early meeting of parliament; and to assure his Royal Highness, that this House will speedily undertake a careful revisal of our civil and military establishments according to the principles of the most rigid economy, and a due regard to the public interests; and also at an early period take into its most serious consideration the present state of the country."

To the principal objection mentioned by Mr Brande, a very satisfactory answer was given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. "If the gentlemen," said he, "who accused ministers of protracting to an unjustifiable extent the adjournment of parliament, had taken the trouble to pay attention to the dates of events which must have come under the notice of every individual, they would have found that the

treaty of peace, about to be laid before the House, was only signed on the 20th of November, and it was nearly two months longer before the ratifications were exchanged. These did not take place till the 20th of January, so that there was only a lapse of ten days between the time that ministers had it in their power to make the communication to parliament, and the assembling of them together. This was the only cause of the great delay complained of, and the ten days form ed the whole of the time that had been suffered to elapse before parliament was informed of what had taken place. Out of this short period must also be deducted whatever time was necessary for the transmission of the treaty from Paris to London, as well as that required for the printing of the papers for the convenience of members. They were now in such a state of forwardness, that when they came to be laid on the table, and when it would be seen that their number, either as treaties, conventions, or proclamations, amounted to between sixty and seventy, every gentleman must be convinced, that not an hour had been lost. This was the sole cause of the delay. Respecting the internal situation of the country, he could assure the honourable gentleman who had moved the amendment, that ministers had paid the most anxious and unremitting attention to it; and however laboriously and honourably some of his colleagues had been employed abroad, he could say for himself, that he had never passed a summer with less relaxation or more anxiety in his life. He could not but think that the speech which had been read contained every pledge which the House could reasonably desire on the subject in question. It gave the strongest declaration from the crown, that all possible measures for producing general economy in the state should be taken that were con

sistent with the safety of the country; and this was a point which ministers. and the House would never cease to keep in view. He believed, indeed, that if we could be brought back to the state we were in before the war began, and on one side were placed all the dangers and difficulties which we had undergone, and the expence which we had incurred, and on the other, the high station which we had attained, there was no British heart so base as not to choose our present glorious eminence, notwithstanding all it had cost us. As so many opportunities would soon occur for the House maturely to consider what could be done to improve the state of the country, he should touch but slightly on any thing relating to that topic. It must be evident, that several circumstances contributed to produce this stagnation, which could not possibly be avoided. For example, a very considerable difference arose in all commer cial transactions, as soon as the general, intercourse was renewed with the continent, which had been interrupted by the war; this caused a reduction in the prices of all articles similar to those which were allowed to be im ported, and particularly in those which formed the necessaries of life. On looking back to the year 1801, it would be recollected that apprehensions were entertained of a great deficiency in the supply of bread-corn, the produce of our own country; and these alarms at an approaching scarcity were continued for several years following. Thus the prices of corn and every necessary of life rose rapidly, and continued at a high rate; but when, by the restoration of peace, channels of commerce were re-opened, the prices necessarily found their level, and wheat, in particular, was reduced to the price it formerly bore. Another cause was the scarcity of money, occasioned by the continental

wars, now so gloriously concluded. Very large sums had been drawn from the capital of this country by the great loans of the last and the preceding year. In the last three years the immense sum of 142 millions had been granted for the expences of the war in Portugal, Spain, &c.; of which about 42 millions only were in paper. The abstraction of so large a sum from the ordinary channels of industry of the country must necessarily have produced a great stagnation. But when the papers that were preparing on this subject should be laid before the House, the whole matter would be clearly seen into; and all that was requisite would be for gentlemen not to consider them in the gross, but scrupulously to examine the items, and, after an attentive investigation, to form their opinion as to what parts of the public expenditure can be properly dispensed with, as well as how those wants are to be met which are most necessary to the welfare of the country. He had no hesitation to avow the intention of ministers to continue the income-tax, on the modified scale of five per cent. He should be able, at the proper time, to show, that of all modes that could be thought of, none would be equally advantageous and economical, or less oppressive and burthensome to the community at large."

The strongest statement of opposition, however, was embodied in the speech of Mr Brougham. This gentleman began by saying, "that he had no difficulty in agreeing to the address, because that address bound parliament in nothing but to enquire into certain things, and if they approved of them, to express their approbation. But his principal anxiety was to dis cover whether ministers were really in earnest in those promises of immediate attention to the alleviation of the distresses of the agricultural classes, which

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had been implied in some of the speeches of their adherents. The distresses of the landed interest of England had been unabated by the peace, and unpalliateď by all our victories. When it was asserted in the speech that our revenue was in a flourishing condition, the House must take it for granted that it was so, because that was a proposition, that ministers themselves alone knew the correctness of, and concerning which all the rest of the House remained in darkness. But let them remember that their responsibility for this assertion would be very great, if, after having put these words into the mouth of their master, it should be found that agriculture must be excepted from this flourishing condition,' and that it stood in need of relief; that the number of bankruptcies was daily increasing, and that the home trade, no less than the foreign, presented another melancholy exception to the boasted flourishing condition' described by the address. He might safely venture to say, that the home trade, the substantial groundwork of national industry, was at a stand-still. Shops were every where empty, and tradesmen's books covered with debts, on which not one per cent. could be collected. Yet the war was at an end, after victories such as could never have been looked for. In the negociations at Paris, it was our own fault if the terms were not such as were best suited to our manifold interests. The pressure, however, was greater than it had been in 1810 and 1812; no business was done, and if the reason were asked, it was said the landlord received no rent-the tenant could sell no corn. If this turned out to be a part of that picture, of which a general sketch had been given-if out of the flourishing condition of our commerce must be taken that lumping exception of the whole internal trade,

in comparison of which foreign com- . whom we could exercise some influence,

merce was so inconsiderable that it might be considered merely the ornament of the system, a very heavy responsibility would fall on the framers of the speech. In the speech of the hon. baronet who moved the address, he was surprised to hear a comparison of the present peace with that of Utrecht, which had justly been considered the most improvident bargain ever made. The Assiento Contract, indeed, was the only advantage which this country derived in that treaty from the victories of Marlborough and the councils of Godolphin. The comparison of that with the present treaty on the subject of the slave-trade was said to be advantageous to the latter. He was, therefore, led to suppose, that among the sixty or seventy conventions and treaties which they were to be presented with, would be found one in which Spain and Portugal had agreed to relinquish the slave-trade. As Buonaparte had abolished the slave. trade in France, all Spain and Portugal were bound to relinquish that detestable commerce. He hoped, therefore, to find not only no Assiento Contract, which would be felonious by the present law, but an abolition on the part of Ferdinand of this great and crying evil—an evil next in magnitude to his persecutions religious and civilto his butcheries and torture of his own subjects. This contemptible tyrant-contemptible in every respect, but in the portentous power of doing mischief which he possessed, in consequence of our having raised him to the throne which he so meanly and unworthily filled-whose slightest crime was his usurpation of his father's crown, was now the grand slave-dealer out of Europe, as he was the grand maker of slaves in Europe. He hoped, therefore, that we had insisted on the abolition of that trade; and that Portugal, whom we had also saved, and over

at least, had abandoned that dreadful traffic. The right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer had stated, that he reserved himself for a future occasion to enter upon the detail of the flourishing condition of the revenue, which was one of the topics of the speech, and was re-echoed in the address of the hon. baronet. But he could not help taking notice, in this early stage of the business of parliament, of what had fallen from the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer by way of intimation upon this subject. As one reward of our exertions in the late contest, so glo. riously spoken of in the address, and as an immediate consequence of what the hon. gentleman who had so eloquently seconded it, termed the breaking of the rod of enchantment, and dissolving the spell by which the nations had been bound in slavery, he had heard with more regret, than perhaps astonishment, that the most oppressive of any of the taxes that had been imposed upon the nation-the heaviest and most obnoxious of these burthens under which the country had groaned that that most oppressive and tormenting tax upon income was to be continued. It was for this we had been fighting, not only our own battles, but those of other nations! Our fortitude and perseverance had led to this happy consequence, that we were not merely to bear the other burthens which had been so heavily laid upon us, but were to be borne down by this most tormenting of all taxes a tax which was still more oppressive in the detail than in the bulk: and this, it was said, was necessary, notwithstanding the flourishing condition of the manufactures, commerce, and revenue of the united kingdom!' If this odious tax could be dispensed with-if there was any other means of going on without it, no man in his senses

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-still less would the right hon. gentleman, on the very first day of the meeting of parliament, intimate an intention of renewing it. Such an intimation surely could arise only from the consciousness of there being no other means of carrying on the financial affairs of the country. He, however, did trust, that this early hint, which had been so plainly and unequivocally given of the intention of government, would not be lost upon the country or upon the House, and that the constituents of such of them as had any constituents (A laugh, and cries of hear, hear!) would take those steps, which, if they had been adopted last year, would have rendered it impossible for the burthen to have existed beyond the present spring. He reserved himself upon various other branches of the national finances, until they should be brought in detail under the consideration of the House. Some seemed to suppose that there were no means of relieving the landed interest, because their affairs were so interwoven with the national prosperity, that it was impossible to separate them from other objects. But he could not help expressing a hope that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would speedily find that there were means of separating them, and that some seasonable relief would be afforded to the distresses with which so important a part of the community was afflicted. He had consoled himself with the thought that the right hon. gentleman would seriously set about a revisal of some part of the revenue and finance, with a view to mitigate as much as possible the severity of those taxes now imposed upon the country. Was it then to be understood, that not only half the property-tax, but all the other war taxes were to be continued? Was the country to understand from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that at a season when grain was almost a drug in the markets, and when corn was not

"only at the lowest price, but when no price could be obtained at all; and when the most grievous burthens were imposed upon the barley growers, was it to be said, that under such circumstances the war malt-tax was to be continued? Was it to be said, that the landholders were still to pay five per cent. property-tax, and endure in times of peace all the hardships to which they had been exposed during the war? Was the malt-tax of 38s. per quarter laid on during the war, to continue during peace? If this was to be the state of things, he trusted the House would not separate without hearing a notice from some of his honourable friends, who were conversant with this subject, for bringing the question of the war malt-tax immediately under the consideration of the House. But there were other matters independent of the subject of reduction in the taxes, to which he hoped the attention of parliament would be speedily called. If the amendment of his hon. friend was carried, the House would pledge itself speedily to take under its consideration the state of the country; he doubted not that one of the first objects of their enquiry, would be those laws which prevented the exportation of some of the most important staple commodities of the country. He trusted also that the state of the usury laws would be brought under consideration with the like celerity; for there was no subject more deserving the interposition of parliament. He hoped those laws, which operated most oppressively on the indigent borrower, which had been disapproved of by the first characters of the country, which Sir Francis Baring more than thirty years ago had strongly pronounced against, as injuring the interests of those they were intended to protect, and which were so manifestly impolitic and ruinous, would soon receive a thorough

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