he referred, shewing the business done on all the great canals in the country, from 1820, the year following the bill which brought back a metallic currency, down to. 1828. In 1828, the number of tons carried on the Clyde and Forth Canal was 5,960, while the average of the eight preceding years had been only 4,843, and none of these years had equalled 1828. On the duke of Bridgewater's canal, the tonnage for last year had been 1,586; for the preceding year only 1,114. There had been a similar increase, and a corresponding rise in the productiveness of the tonnage duties on the Grand Junction Canal, the Kennet and Avon, the Berkeley, and the Gloucester, Canals. With such facts regarding the internal as well as the foreign trade of the country, the House ought to hesitate before sanctioning an announcement of universal distress. They must recollect, that, if any part of England, Scotland, or Ireland, was free from distress, the amendment could not be supported as setting forth the truth. They had been told that great distress prevailed among the manufacturers of Dublin; that was nothing new: scarcely a year passed without an appeal to public charity on their behalf; but where was the proof that the agricultural interest of Ireland was universally distressed? Neither had he heard it yet stated, that the agriculturists of Scotland were universally suffering? In fact, the importations from these parts of the kingdom, and particularly from Ireland, had operated powerfully in increasing the distress which existed in England; the value of agricultural imports into England from Ireland having amounted, during the last year, exclusive of corn,

to

It

1,270,000l. It was impossible to deny that such immense importations must tend to depress the agricultural interests of England; but yet it was impossible to exclude Ireland from the English market. Great weight, likewise, was certainly due to the effects produced by unfavourable seasons. He believed that the expense incurred by the agricultural interest, both in cultivating the soil, and collecting the harvest, had never been so great as in the last two years, owing to the extreme wetness of the seasons. should be borne in mind, too, that distress was not exclusively confined to the United Kingdom. The agricultural interests had experienced similar depression in other countries. In France, for instance, the distress had been in many places as severe as in any part of this country. In parts of the United States, the distress had been as great as with us. In Russia, at this moment, a proclamation had been issued for lowering the rate of interest, with a view to remedy the agricultural distress prevailing there: therefore the causes, which had operated to produce this distress, were not confined to this country. They were causes not within the control of parliament; for as to the only thing within the power of parliament which had been hinted at, viz., an alteration of the currency, that was a measure to which ministers were determined not to give way, convinced that, even if error had been committed in establishing the present system, again to unsettle it would only expose the country to still greater mischiefs. In this he believed the House would go along with him; and yet, unless the House was prepared to adopt that or some other specific plan of re

lief, it ought not to support the amendment. If the amendment was now voted, and it turned out that their efforts to relieve the distress were vain, they would have done more harm than good, and raised expectations which it was impossible to fulfil.

Several members expressed their intention to vote for the address, although they believed the distress to be much more general than the speech represented; because they trusted that ministers would do all in their power to remove it. The whigs were divided between their wish not to leave the ministry, which shewed a leaning towards them, exposed to defeat, and the fear of endangering their popularity, by appearing to be indifferent or blind to public suffering. Lord Althorp declared, that, in his opinion, the present government had done more for the good of the country than any preceding administration; and he was sorry to give a vote which might give him the appearance of joining the opponents of that government: but nevertheless he found it his duty to vote for the amendment, because from all he had seen and heard, it was his impression that distress was prevalent throughout the country.

Mr. Brougham said, that, if he could persuade himself that there was only a simple verbal difference between the address and the amendment, he would support the former; but the difference was in material substance. The words used by ministers could not possibly go forth to the public with any other than one meaning, namely, that parliament had admitted the existence of distress, but of what nature? Why, in plain common sense, that it was partial-that there might be a VOL. LXXII.

little somewhere, but not much of it. This was the meaning of the words in the address. Such a description of the present condition of the country he could not sanction by his vote, and he was driven to take the other, and, as he thought, more correct description which the amendment presented, as approaching nearer to truth, in conveying what he and the public felt. This vote he gave with reluctance. It was a vote wrung from him, and in giving it, he was anxious to avoid having his motive misconstrued. If he could bring himself to think that the effect of the amendment would be to displace the present government, it should not have his vote, and imperfect as the original address was, he would prefer lending it his support in such an alternative. In an equal spirit should his decision be formed, if he thought the amendment were in any degree calculated to pledge him one step in the line of policy involved in the general principles attributed to its promoters-if, for instance, his vote for the amendment were to be said, in the smallest degree, to commit him in retracing the commercial steps which the country had taken,-if, above all, he were to be implicated in the least desire to tamper with the currency as at present established,-bad as the alternative was, either to vote for this address, or give the vote which the amendment called for, he repeated, he should not hesitate to raise his voice for the former.

Mr. Spring Rice likewise declared, that, if he thought his vote for the amendment, or the issue of debate, were to decide on the continuance of the present ministers in office, he would gladly lend them all the assistance in his power. [C]

These declarations, however, of some of the leading members of the opposition, did not prevent their adherents from carrying their votes to the ministry; and, on a division, the amendment was nega tived by 158 against 105. The majority of fifty-three contained about thirty members of the opposition, among whom were Mr. Hobhouse, while his colleague, sir Francis Burdett, voted for the amendment, and Mr. Hume, the most frequent declaimer on public distress that the House of Commons had yet seen.

On the following day, when the report on the address was brought up, the marquis of Blandford introduced the subject of parliamentary reform, and prepared an amendment such as had never before been offered as an address. He moved that the following "wholesome admonition to the throne," should be appended to the address: "That this House feels itself called upon, in the awful and alarming state of universal distress into which the landed, commercial, and all the great productive interests of the country are at this moment plunged, to take care that your Majesty shall not be the only person in your dominions ignorant of such an astounding fact, as well as of the consequent impending danger to the throne, and other great national institutions established by the wisdom of our ancestors, for the protection and benefit of the people over whom your Majesty has been called to preside.

"That this House is at no loss to indicate the real cause of this most unnatural state of things, and, in justice to your Majesty and the whole nation, it can no longer hesitate to proclaim that cause to the world.

"It is a fact already too noto. rious, that this House, which was intended by our ancient and admirable constitution to be the guardian of the nation's purse, has, from causes now unnecessary to be detailed, been nominated, for the greater part, by a few proprietors of close and decayed boroughs, and by a few other individuals, who, by the mere power of money, employed in means absolutely and positively forbidden by the laws, have obtained a 'domination,' also expressly forbidden by act of parliament, over certain other cities and boroughs in the United Kingdom.

"That in consequence of this departure from the wisdom of our ancestors, the nation has been deprived of its natural guardian, and has, in consequence, become so burthened in the expensive establishments of all kinds, that, in a period much shorter than the life of man, the taxation has increased from 9,000,000l. to nearly 60,000,000l. a year; and the poorrates, or parochial assessments, during the same period, have augmented from 1,500,000l. to 8,000,000l. annually.

"That to render such a mass of taxation, so disproportionate to the whole wealth of the kingdom, in any degree supportable, recourse has been had, either from ignorance or design, to the most monstrous schemes in tampering with the currency or circulating. money of the country; at one time by greatly diminishing the value of the same, and at another time by greatly augmenting such value; and at each and every of such changes, which have been but too often repeated, one class of the community after another has been plunged into poverty, misery, and ruin, while the sufferers,

without any fault or folly of their own, have been hardly able to perceive from what hand these calamities have come upon them. "That, under such circumstances, and with this knowledge before its eyes, this House would consider itself lost to every sense of duty towards your Majesty, and guilty of treason towards the people, if it did not seize this opportunity of declaring to your Majesty its solemn conviction that the state is at this moment in the most imminent danger, and that no effectual measures of salvation will, or can, be adopted, until the people shall be restored to their rightful share in the legislation of the country-that is, to their undoubted right, according to the true meaning of the constitution, of choosing the members of this House."

This amendment was seconded by Mr. O'Connell. Mr. Western, Mr. Protheroe, Mr. W. Smith, sir Francis Burdett, and Mr. Davenport, declared themselves friendly to its spirit, but thought it was injudicious to bring forward, as a mere amendment on an address, a topic of such immense importance, well deserving a deliberate discussion for itself; and they therefore expressed their hopes, that the mover would not press it to a division, and give the House of Commons the appearance of containing only a dozen or half a dozen members friendly to Parliamentary Reform. The marquis of Blandford, however, insisted on a division, the result of which was, that eleven members voted for the amendment and ninety-six against it.

In the course of his speech on this occasion, sir Francis Burdett gave the ministry fair warning that they must either enter into a closer connection with the whigs, or no

longer count on their support, and furnished to his grace of Wellington ample means of estimating the good will which they bore towards him. Sir Francis said, that, when he found the prime minister of England, 66 so shamefully insensible to sufferings and distress which were painfully apparent throughout the land,— when, instead of meeting such an overwhelming pressure of calamity with some measure of relief, or some attempt at relief, he sought to stifle every important inquiry,when he called that a partial and temporary evil which was both long-lived and universal,--he could not look on such a mournful crisis, in which public misfortune was insulted by ministerial apathy, without hailing any prospect of change in the system that produced it. What should we say to the ignorance which could attribute our distresses to the introduction of machinery, and the application of steam, that noble improvement in the inventions of man, to which men of science and intelligence mainly ascribe our prosperity? He felt a high and an unfeigned respect for that illustrious person's abilitics in the field; but he could not now help thinking, that he did himself no less than justice, when he said, a few months before he accepted his present office, that he should be a fit inmate for an asylum of a peculiar nature, if he ever were induced to take such a burthen on his shoulders. In fact, both he and very many hon. members about him had long treated the illustrious individual with much tenderness, because they felt that he had conferred the greatest benefit on his country. He was the only man in England who could have accomplished what

he had done, and be his praise in proportion. But let it at the same time be remembered, that, if his service was great, his recompense had been commensurate. They had repaid him abundantly in returns of confidence and approbation. The time, however, was come when it would be necessary to do much more.

In the debate on the address in the House of Lords, earl Stanhope had given notice that he intended, at an early day, to bring the state of the country under their lordships' notice by a special motion. In fulfilment of this notice, he moved, on the 25th of February, that their lordships should resolve themselves into a committee of the whole House on the state of the nation. It had been represented, he said, by those whose only political vocation was to join in every thing with the ministry which happened for the time to exist, that this motion was, in substance, though not in form, a motion for turning out the present administration. If such had been his object, his motion would have assumed a very different shape; he Iwould have moved at once for an address to his Majesty to dismiss them from his counsels. It sounded like a satire on ministers to say, that a successful motion for inquiring into the state of the country would necessarily lead to their expulsion from power. If the statements made by themselves were true, if they believed in their own minds the language which they made his majesty speak to the legislature, if they were right in holding that only partial distress existed, and that such distress as did exist would be found to originate in causes beyond the control of parliament-if all these things

were so, their truth must be ascertained by inquiry; and to ascertain and publish the truth of them must be to ministers the most desirable of all objects. His motion, instead of tending to injure or embarrass them, must terminate for their advantage, if the representation, which they had given of the state of the country, was correct.

The proposition on which his lordship founded his motion was, that all the great productive interests of the country were suffering grievously under the pressure of a distress, the tendency of which, if not checked, was, to go on increasing. The first of these interests, which he passed in review, was agriculture. Complaints and applications for relief had come up from every county; they had been disregarded, probably because they were couched in respectful language: for recent experience had shewn, that, if they had formed illegal associations, collected funds, and spoken to government in the language of intimidation, they would have been better attended to. Of the reasonableness of their complaints no man could doubt who knew their situation. Where rents still continued to be paid, and that was by no means every where, they were paid, not from the profits of the farm, but from the capital of the farmer. Numbers of tenants had already been driven from their farms in bankruptcy and beggary; the capital of others was daily extorted from them to meet their current expenses, and when that capital was exhausted, they, too, must go forth ruined men. Reduce your rents, it had been said, and you will remove the mischief-this was the advice always given by those who had no rents to receive,