of the agricultural interest, and on the Irish disturbances; ascribing the latter in a great measure to the system of misgovernment, to which Ireland had been for ages subject; and with respect to the former, ridiculing and reprobating a plan for advancing Exchequer bills as a loan to the farmers, on which lord Liverpool, just before the meeting of parliament, had taken the opinion of the principal

merchants and bankers of London.

Lord Liverpool, in a very moderate speech, adverted to the various topics on which lord Lansdown had touched, and gave them the proper colouring and hue. In speaking of Ireland, he observed, that it was a singular circumstance, that in the disturbed districts, where the laws were daily transgressed, no hostility was manifested towards his majesty's government. The Irish, indeed, amid all their discontents and excesses, had never quarrelled with the government as a government; nor did religion enter largely into the motives or pretexts of their outrages.

A similar address was moved in the Commons by Mr. R. Clive, and seconded by Mr. W. Duncombe. There it excited a keen discussion. Sir Francis Burdett moved as an amendment, that the consideration of the speech should be deferred till the following Thursday. It was, he said, the practice of our forefathers to deliberate before they resolved, to understand before they voted; and they held it no disrespect to the throne to postpone until a subsequent day, the consideration of the speech that had just been delivered from it. They thus knew the topics which it contained, and those which it omitted; and were enabled to make up their

minds both upon the one and upon the other. After the Revolution, that usage was dispensed with; yet still some courtesy continued to be observed towards parliament by the ministers of the day, which, perhaps, secured the practical benefits of the exploded system. The royal speech was read over night in the cock-pit to such members as chose to attend; and its contents found their way into the morning, or at least into the evening, papers of the day, before the houses were convened: so that all who felt an interest on the subject could honestly arrive at a decision. Of late years even this courtesy had not been observed, and the House of Commons, year after year, was expected to come to an instantaneous vote of approbation of all that the minister thought fit to put into the mouth of the sovereign. His mind, he confessed, was neither sufficiently quick, nor sufficiently capacious to be competent to this duty. Not having the power of divination, or the faculty of conjecturing, with any degree of certainty, what would be the nature of the king's speech, he could not be prepared with an amendment ready cut and dried for the occasion. The consequence, therefore, was, either that the vote of the House became a mere formal compliment, pledging no man, or that parliament was taken by surprise, and required to give its sweeping and instantaneous approbation of that which, under other circumstances, it would be disposed to object to. In the first case, the address was not of the slightest value; and, in the last, after a great deal of talk about conciliation. and unanimity, the House was entrapped and cajoled into an apparent but insincere acquiescence.

Under such circumstances, an interval of one day was not too much, before the House ought to be called upon for a decision. The speech, he added, so far as he could collect it, was by no means such a full and satisfactory statement as the country had a right to expect; we laboured under grievances of all kinds; we had not merely agricultural distresses to complain of, but many violations of the law and constitution, of more importance than even the sufferings of the landed interest. Were all these to be passed over without notice? As to economy, the speech made very praiseworthy general professions; but ministers had always been liberal of these; they ought now to have pointed out, how and when they would carry their promises into effect.

The disturbances in Ireland were, of course, ascribed to ministers. "Ireland," said the hon. baronet, "has been driven to acts of desperate retaliation; and that unhappy people have been reduced to so deplorable a condition, that they are now ready to run the hazard of any personal infliction, for the sake of a moment's respite." Surely, it might have occurred to him, that it must be a singular sort of distress and poverty, which collect ed hundreds of well-mounted, wellequipped farmers, and impelled them to plunder whole districts, not to get food or clothes, but to procure arms and ammunition. The footpad may be allowed to plead poverty and hunger as a pallation for his crime; but such an excuse is more than ridiculous in the mouth of the highwayman, who scours the road on a mettlesome steed.

amendment; and in support of it, urged the example of the French chamber of deputies, which took time to consider of a reply to the king's speech, and had recently shown, that they dared dissent from the sentiments contained in it.

Lord Londonderry contended, that the amendment proceeded altogether upon a mistaken view of the effect of the address. If the address were understood as implying, that parliament, by agreeing to it, would be pledged to support certain opinions and sentiments on the topics to which it referred; then the hon. baronet should have moved, not that the consideration of the speech should be adjourned till Thursday, but that it should be postponed for three or four months, for that period would scarcely be sufficient for the mature consideration of all the subjects adverted to in the speech-alluding, as it did, to our foreign policy, to revenue, to expenditure, to retrenchment, to commerce, to manufactures, and above all, to the state of the agricultural interest. He, therefore, was of opinion that the hon. bart. had taken a false view of the time requisite to consider the speech from the throne, if it were deemed necessary in the reply to enter into these various and highly important points; and he conceived that he did not at all prejudice the public interest, by recommending the immediate adoption of the address as a measure which did not pledge gentlemen to any particular opinion, and which left the subjects before enumerated to be discussed in their natural and ordinary

course.

Sir Francis Burdett's proposition having been thus rejected, Mr. Hume moved the following amendment in the address:

"That, while we return his majesty our most grateful acknowledgments for the various reductions which have been made in the civil and military establishments during the last year, by which some diminution of expense may be effected, yet we should ill discharge the duty we owe to his majesty, if we did not direct his most serious attention to the present condition of his faithful people.

"To represent to his majesty that the distresses, proved to exist before a committee of this House, instituted for the especial purpose, in the last session of parliament, have considerably increased; and that the owners and occupiers of land throughout great part of the kingdom, and with them the tradesmen and artisans usually dependent on them for employment, are labouring under unexampled difficulties.

"To express most respectfully to his majesty our opinion, that an excessive taxation is a principal cause of those distresses, and humbly to intreat that he will be graciously pleased immediately to direct such reductions in every branch of our expenditure, from the highest to the lowest department, as shall enable us, forthwith, to relieve his majesty's faithful people from a large portion of

that burthen of taxation which in their present impoverished condition, presses so heavily upon all classes."

The amendment of Mr. Hume as originally proposed, characterized our system of finance as ruinous, and asserted that our distresses did not arise from temporary causes; but these passages were omittted at the suggestion of sir John Newport.

In support of his amendment, Mr. Hume made an infinite variety of assertions, on an infinite variety of subjects, entrenching himself up to the teeth behind formidable masses of figures and calculations. All our establishments, foreign as well as domestic, came under his survey; and the old crambe recocta was again served up to the House. What he said might be good, or it might be bad; it might be true, or it might be false; but all his statements were matters of fact, not of principle, and depended on evidence, not on reasoning. The introduction of them on such an occasion, was therefore worse than ridiculous: it was absolutely pernicious; because it tended to disgust the House and the public with matters, well worthy, at seasonable times, of their most grave attention.

Lord Londonderry, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Huskisson, besides flatly contradicting some of Mr. Hume's statements, and exposing the fallacy of several of the opinions which he had promulgated, rested their opposition to the amendment on the ground, that neither parliamentary practice, nor common sense would permit them to determine thus abruptly, so large a question as that which had

been suddenly opened, and in the
absence of all information, to de-
cide on a case purporting to rest on
calculations, which no man, on
either side of the House, could on
the spur of the moment comprehend.
Mr. Ricardo opposed the amend-
ment, because he could not agree
with its doctrines, as to the causes
of the existing agricultural dis-
tresses. Mr. Hume said, that they
arose from excessive taxation;
whereas it was evident that they
arose from the low price of agri-
cultural produce; and low prices
could never be caused by taxation.
It was supported by Mr. Tierney
and Mr. Brougham.
The House having divided;
there appeared,

For the amendment
Against it

89

. 171

Majority for ministers -82 In the debate, Mr. S. Wortley, and sir Edward Knatchbull, had spoken against the amendment, and on the division most of the country gentlemen voted against it. They professed themselves determined to enforce retrenchment; but they thought that ministers ought to be allowed time to bring forward their schemes, and that till then it was premature to condemn them. On this occasion, the opposition made their attack too early and too precipitately.

The state of Ireland was the first subject which the ministers brought before parliament. Their purpose at the present moment, was not to devise schemes for the general improvement of its condition, but to propound measures for immediately arresting the career of outrage and rebellion.

With this view they recommended the re-enactment of the Insurrection act, and the suspension in Ireland

of the Habeas Corpus act. By the Insurrection act, any two justices might cause an extraordinary session of the peace to be holden for their county; and when the justices were assembled on such session, to the number of at least seven, in a county at large, or of three in a county of a city or town, the majority might signify to the lord lieutenant, that they considered the county or any part thereof, to be in a state of disturbance, or in danger of becoming so, together with the reason of such their opinion, and might pray him to declare, by proclamation, the county, or any part thereof, to be in a state of disturbance, or in immediate danger of becoming so. Thereupon, the lord lieutenant was empowered to issue such proclamation, in which the inhabitants of the proclaimed district were to be warned, from and after a day therein named, to remain within their houses, between sunset and sun-rise. After that day, any justice of the peace, or person authorised by his warrant, might, between one hour after sun-set and sun-rise, enter into any house in the proclaimed district; and such of the inhabitants or inmates, as should be then absent, were to be deemed idle and disorderly persons, unless they should prove that they were absent on proper and lawful business. In like manner, all persons who between the same hours, should be found out of their usual places of abode, were to be apprehended, and were to be committed as idle and disorderly, unless they could show that they were abroad on their lawful occasions. Under the description of idle and disorderly persons, were also comprehended all persons

tendering, administering, taking, or entering into any illegal oath or engagement; all persons printing, writing, circulating, or delivering any notice or message, tending to excite any riot, or produce any unlawful meeting, or threatening violence to any person, or making any demand of money,arms,ammunition, or other matters; all persons having in their power or possession any offensive weapons, after they had been called upon to deliver up the same; all persons found assembled, after nine at night, and before six in the morning, in any house where malt or spirituous liquors were sold, not being inmates thereof, or travellers; all persons unlawfully assembling in the day-time; and all persons, who should hawk or disperse in the proclaimed district, any seditious paper or pamphlet, unless they discovered from whom they received the same, or by whom they were employed.

For the trial of these descriptions of idle and disorderly persons, a court of special sessions of the peace was to be held within seven days from the date of the proclamation, and was to be prolonged by adjournments from time to time, so long as the district should continue proclaimed. The assist ant barrister of the county was to be always present at such sessions; and the lord lieutenant might name one of the king's serjeants, or king's counsel, to preside. This court, so constituted, was empowered, without any grand jury, or bill found, to try any persons accused of being idle and disorderly, in the sense above explained, and to acquit, or convict, and pass judgment upon them. Hawking or dispersing seditious papers was to be punished with imprisonment,

for not more than twelve months: all the other offences specified in the act incurred the penalty of transportation for seven years.

There were only two limitations upon the power of the courts of special sessions, and both depended on the will of some of their own members. The first was, that they were empowered, when they thought fit, to try any person or fact by a petty jury. was, that if the presiding counsel did not agree with the majority of the justices, the execution of the sentence was to be suspended, till the pleasure of the lord lieutenant was known.

The second

The other legislative measure, that for suspending the Habeas Corpus act, provided, that any person, who should be in prison in Ireland for high treason, suspicion. of high treason, or treasonable practices, by warrant of the lord Lieutenant, or of his chief secretary, or of six of the Irish privy council, might be detained in custody, without bail or mainprize, until the first of August following. That was the date to which the operation of the Insurrection act was likewise to be confined.

Lord Londonderry, in moving for leave to bring in these bills, stated, as his reasons, the alarming height to which the disturbances had risen; the opinion of the Irish government, and of him who was at the head of it, that the safety of the country required that they should be armed with extraordinary powers; and the inefficiency of the application of a larger military force alone to preserve the peace. The ministers had been willing to try what could be done by a strenuous enforcement of the laws, aided by a numerous body of