Debates anti firotettiings in vatifament.

OPENING OF THE SESSION.

The House of Lords met on Tuesday, short!; before two o'cl3ek. Pre- viously to their assembling, the usual ceremony of examining the vaults and cellars of both Rouses was gone through, in the presence of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby, the High Lord Chamberlain, Mr. Puiman the Deputy Usher, of the Black Rod, a number of the Yeomen of the Guard, and several officers and messengers of the House. The Lords Commissioners—the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Nor- saanby, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Dancannon, sad the Earl of Errol— having taken their seats, the Lord Chancellor directed the Usher of the $lack Rod to summon the Commons to hear the Royal Speech on the open- ing of Parliament. In a few minutes, the Speaker and a great number of -M =ben aprared at the bar; when the Royal Commission having been read, the LORD CHANCELLOR said, he Majesty not being present that day, he was commanded to read the following most gracious Speech- " My Lords and Gentlemen—We are commanded by her Majesty to acquaint you that her Majesty has availed herself of the earliest opportunity of resorting to your advice and assistance after the dissolution of the last Parliament.

" tier Majesty continues to receive from Foreign Powers gratifying as- surances of their desire to maintain with her Majesty the most friendly rela- tions.

" Her Majesty has the satisfaction of informing you, that the objects for which the Treaty-of the 15th July 1840 was concluded between her Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia, and the Sultan, Lave been fully accomplished ; and it is gratifying to her Majesty to be enabled to state, that the temporary separation which the measures taken in the execution of that treaty created between the contracting parties and France has now ceased.

" Her Majesty trusts that the union of the principal Powers upon all mat- ters affecting the great interest of Europe, will afford a firm security for the maintenance of peace.

" Her Majesty is glad to be able to inform you, that in consequence of the evacuation of Ghorian by the Persian troops, her Majesty has ordered her Mi- nister to the Court of Persia to return to Teheran.

" Her Majesty tegrets that the negotiations between her Plenipotentiaries in China and the Chinese Government have not yet been brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and that it has been necessary to call into action the forces which her Majesty has sent to the Chinese seas ; but her Majesty still trusts that the Emperor of China will see the justice of the demands which her Majesty's ple- nipotentiaries have been instructed to make. " Her Majesty is happy to inform you, that the differences which had arisen between Spain and Portugal about the execution of a treaty concluded by those Powers in 1835 for regulating the navigation of the Douro have been adjusted amicably, and with honour to both parties, by the aid of her Majesty's mediation.

" The debt incurred by the Legislature of Upper Canada for the purposes of public works is a serious obstacle to further improvements, which arc essential to the prosperity of the United Province. Her Majesty has authorized the Governor-General to make a communication on the subject to the Council and Assembly of Canada. Her Majesty will direct the papers to be laid before you, and [she] trusts that your earnest attention will be directed to matters sc materially affecting the welfare of Canada and the strength of the empire.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons—We have to assure you that her Majesty relies with entire confidence on your loyalty and zeal to make adequate provision for the public service, as well as for the further application of sums granted by the last Parliament.

" My Lords and Gentlemen—We are mere especially commanded to declare to you, that the extraordinary expenses which the events in Canada, China, and the Mediterranean have occasioned, and the necessity of maintaining force adequate to the protection of our extensive possessions, have made it necessary to consider the means of increasing the public revenue. Her Majesty is anxious that this object should be effected in the manner least burdensome to her people ; and it has appeared to her Majesty, after full delibe- ration, that you may at this juncture properly direct your attention to the revision of duties affecting the productions of foreign countries. It will be for you to consider whether some of these duties are not so trifling in amount as to be unproductive to the revenue while they are vexatious to commerce. You may further examine whether the principle of protection, upon which others of these duties are founded, be not carried to an extent injurious alike to the income of the State and-the interests of the people. " Her Majesty is desirous that you should consider the laws which regulate the trade in corn. It will be for you to determine whether these laws do not aggravate'the natural fluctuations of supply—whether they do not embarrass trade, derange the currency, and by their operation diminish the comfort and increase the privations of the great body of the community. " Her Majesty, feeling the deepest sympathy with those of her subjects who are now suffering from distress and want of emplpyment, [hiatus, sic fts orig.] it is her earnest prayer that all your deliberations may be guided by wisdom, and may conduce to the happiness of her beloved people." The Commons then withdrew ; and the House of Lords proceeded with administering the oaths to the Peers, until fear o'clock, and then adjourned for an hour. On reassembling, at five o'clock, Earl SPENCER rose to move the Address in reply to the speech. He expressed general satisfaction with the announcements in the earlier portion of the Speech ; declaring by the way, his personal gratification at the ability which his friend Lord Sydenhani bad displayed in Canada. Respecting the treaty of July, he had at one time entertained the most serious apprehensiens; but the candid avowal of M. Thiers, the unexpected weakness of the Pasha of Egypt, and the whole course of events, had convinced him that he was wrong and that Ministers were right in the policy which they had pursued. Without entertainiog any fear that Great Britain is not in a condition to go to war—for he was satisfied that her resources had increased in a greater proportion than her burdens—he was sincerely rejoiced that a diplomatic union had been completed with France. If the wealth of the country, however, had augmented in a greater ratio than her debt, it was desirable to give full effect to that state of things by lessening the burdens of the people, It was desirable to examine the mode in which taxes were imposed. At present, taxation is based upon a principle of restriction ; and while every one admits that the best policy is to give commerce a free course, people were sure to be met with who contend for exceptions- " I had the honour many years ago of being a member of the Committee of the House of Commons on Foreign Commerce, on which sat many able and ex- perienced commercial men. I remember that all were agreed that the gene- ral principle I have stated was correct and just, provided the partieuler branch of trade in which each happened to be engaged were not included. I myself being disinterested, not having any thing to do with commerce, found ripen'

dividing with different sections of Committee according to their individual interests."

The general principles were admitted to be incontrovertible, only England was so peculiarly circumstanced The main peculiarity is, that England is heavily taxed. Now there are two ways of lightening that burden ; either by redeemiug the perpetual annuity to the public creditor, or by increasing the means of the country to pay it, tie Fe+ fleeted with satisfaction that he had aided Mr. Fescue Greaten in pre,- venting the taking of money from the pockets of the people to pay ir the tenuity, by showing thee, if left in their pockets, the money in- creased by a much larger amount than the sum which it paid ofE. The way, then, is to increase the menus of the people. Lord Spencer adverted to the Budget of lag session as a means of carrying out the policy which he recommended. The change in the Timber-duties was

similar to one which he had recommended himself. By maintaining the existing Sugar-duties, the cost is enhanced to the consumer, the revenue suffers, and our commercial alliance with sugar-growing Brazil is endangered. The Corn-laws are no protection to the farmer, and he did not believe that their abolition would materially alter the price received for corn by the farmer. It was quite a mistake to suppose that much corn- land could be thrown out of cultivation ; for the price seldom fell so low as to prevent even the inferior lands being cultivated. The ad- vantage of the change would be, not that it would lower the price here, but that it would alter the price on the Continent, and would enable our manufacturers to compete with their Continental rivals. At present, the effect of the Corn-laws was to deprive the agriculturists of assistance when they needed it—to depress prices when prices were low ; while it throws out enormous temptations to frauds in suddenly raising the prices. Lord Spencer finished by moving the Address, a direct echo of the Speech.

It was seconded by the Marquis of CLANBICARDE; who supplied a supplementary announcement not included in the Speech. It was, he believed, a matter of notoriety that a treaty had been agreed upon by the parties to the treaty of last year and by France, relative to the na- vigation of the Dardanelles ; but as that treaty had not yet been ratified, it had not been mentioned in the Speech from the Throne. Passing over the other subjects of the Speech very briefly, Lord Clanricarde proceeded to that of the Corn-laws ; imploring the House, as one whose whole property was involved in land, to accede to the opinions expressed in the Address advocating an alteration of the Corn-laws. If they gave expansion to commerce, in the benefits of which landowners must partake, it was impossible to say how far it might go ; but the land was limited, and if they would allow their fellow subjects to acquire wealth whilst they retained their land, their land would increase enormously in value, either for selling or keeping. He undertook, however, to prove that landowners suffer directly by the Corn-laws ; and he quoted returns to show that while the price was very low the farmer did not suffer from competition, but when it was high, and he ought to gain, foreign corn came in to share the market. Since the passing of the present law, 13,000,000 quarters of wheat have been admitted, the price averaging 36s. to 57s.; in 1834, when wheat was 35s. or 36s., only 11,000 quarters were admitted from abroad ; while of the 13,000,000 quarters, 10,000,000 had been admitted at 2s. 6d. duty. While the farmer sold at low prices in 1834, therefore, the foreigner reaped the high prices in other years. But there was another important point. It was quite clear that in 1834 there was not more corn than the wants of the country required ; for in the two following years foreign corn was admitted for home consumption ; but in 1839 there was a deficiency in the harvest compared with that of 1834 of 7,000,000 or 8,000,001) quarters; and taking from that amount the foreign corn received, there would remain a net deficiency of at least 5,000,000 quarters in the sup- ply, and a part of the population which had bread in the one year must have gone without in the other. Was not that an appalling fact? It was said that we ought not to be dependent on a foreign supply ; but we are so already. It was argued that war might break out, and the ports be shut against us ; but the physical wants of mankind are stronger than their desire for war. The ports of the Continent were never so effectually- closed against this country as in 1809 ; and yet in that year 2,000,000 quarters of corn had been imported. At present the law ag- gravates every distress which arises from a deficient harvest, by draining the country of its bullion to purchase wheat precisely at the time when it can least be spared. And it is to be observed, that the manufacturer has less to contend with the effect of the average prices than with the high prices which every now and then occur. Lord Clanricarde taunted the opposite party with unbecoming evasion in not saying at some whether they mean to retain the existing system or virtually to abolish it by sweeping modifications. When he recollected the various acts of the present Ministry—their Reform of Parliament, Municipal Reform, and Church Reforms—he thought that they could not better terminate their official career than in a struggle against unnecessary and therefore unjust taxation.

The Earl of RIPON cordially concurred in some of the points in the Address, but not with others. He rejoiced in the friendliness between

France and England: and for that much was due to the prudence, judg- taeut, and moderation of the King of the French—much to his Minis- ters. His satisfaction, however, would be greater, if he saw that tem-

porary differences had been settled on a firm basis : the Pasha of Egypt was still a powerful vassal, the Sultan a powerless sovereign : some points too remained unsettled between this country and Persia. He was surprised to find not a single allusion in th Speech to the war, fore such it was, now waging on the North bank of the Indus ; of its com

mencement we have but scanty information, its end no man could predict. Our troops, too, were stationed in the Punjab, to watch the execution of a treaty between Shah Soojah ool 3loolk and Runjeet Singh: Runjeet Singh was dead ; the country was in a state of great commotion, and what our troops were to do, or how they were to get away, we were not told. These matters were omitted in the Speech : a more singular warfare was noticed-

" It was a war carried on at a great expense and a great sacrifice of human life, bat carried on against an enemy who would not tight. We knocked his castles about Ids ears, destroyed his ships, and took away his guns; and then asked him to enter into a negotiation to give us redress for an attack, to bear with which would be a compromise upon our honour as a nation. To this negotiation a kind of half-consent was given ; but before its conclusion, the island of Chusan, which we had taken and held for some time at a great loss of human life, was restored to the Chinese Government, and the treaty, such as it was, sent over here last year; but Government refused to ratify it. Ministers had not told them, and showed no disposition to tell, whether all the blundering that had taken place in this affair was the result of the instructions sent out, or of those to whom their execution bad been intrusted."

Passing by the subject of the United States in studious silence, Lord Ripon came to the three great subjects comprised in the Budget of last year. The measures were propounded to meet a financial crisis. For the last five years he had called attention to the excess of expenditure over income. For four years of that time Government had continued to supply the deficiency by the most objectionable means, tampering with the funds of the Savings Banks, and changing them for Exchequer Bills I and thus weakening the confidence of the industrious poor whose earnings were invested in those institutions. They had also fol. lowed the still more objectionable practice of reducing the balance in the Exchequer to a very low sum ; rendering the Government liable to the necessity, in any sudden emergency, of proclaiming that it had " no assets." A million a year had been added to the Funded Debt of the country without any provision having been made to meet it. The de- ficiency thus accruing had been swelled by 2,500,000/. hastily sacrificed in the Post-office revenue. There is such a thing as it financial crisis, which, like a commehial crisis, cannot always be met when it occurs ; and the country might be ruined before they knew where they were. This continued mismanagement of the revenue justified a want of con- fidence in the Ministry. By the augmentation of the taxes in 1840, Government admitted the failure of previous plans. In that year, how- ever, they negotiated for a commercial treaty with France ; which, had it been carried into effect, would have made it necessary to call upon Parliament for the means of meeting fresh difficulties, as it would have created new deficiencies. This retrospect brought Lord Ripon to the Budget of last session. He asked how an increase of 100 per cent. on Canadian timber could benefit the consumer? How the con- sumer would profit by a reduction of 5s. in 110s. [55s. the aver- age cost of the article and 55s. duty,] which was the price of Baltic timber ; or what advantage he would derive from a relief ' f a frao- lion of a farthing a pound, sv' ieh the proposed alteration of the duties would effect in sugar? He objected to disturbing the great ex- periment of Emancle .; :on in the West Indies ; and he insisted that con- sideration was due to the East Indies, a country capable of supplying us with sugar, for the extinction of her cotton-trade through our com- petition. With respect to the Corn-laws, he asked if Government were for a tree trade in corn ? The immediate and the ulterior result of their proposition had both to be considered: the arguments of the mover and seconder of the Address went for total repeal of the Corn-laws : it was customary for Ministers to confer with the mover and seconder, and they must have been aware that they would argue for free trade ; and it was, therefore, neither unfair nor uncharitable to infer that that was the end and object of the whole scheme. Lord Ripon undertook to show that the Corn-law had attained its objects : the average price of corn for the last twelve years had been 58s. 3 5-6d.—not at all an ex- travagant price : the average for the first six years bad been 59s. ld., for the other six, 57s. 61d.—something approaching to an equality of price : in the first four years of the same period the price had been 63s. 101d., and the amount imported was 4,936,822 quarters ; in the last four years, the price was 64s. 414., the importation 6,780,803 quarters ; in the middle period the price was 46s. 84d., the importation 205,899 quarters ; so that corn was admitted when it was wanted, excluded when it was not. In the prices of wool, cotton, hemp, silk, and other articles without end, with fixed duties, there had been far greater fluc- tuations than in the price of corn. Nor could he reconcile himself to the risk of foreign dependence— It was not clear to him, if they admitted foreign corn and discouraged the growth of our own, how far they would find foreign countries always to have corn to send us. In Dr. Bowring's Report a curious circumstances was men- tioned. He was arguing against the Corn-laws as preventing the extension of commerce ; and he says that the German League had a population of 22,000,000, and the total quantity of corn grown in the League for these 22,000,000 of people did not exceed 13,000,000 quarters, wheat, barley, oats, and every thing, of which the people consumed 13-14ths: if so, the whole quantity they were capable of exporting would not equal 1,000,000 of quarters per annum. And yet the Government assumed that we must import no less than 3,000,000 quarters of wheat and 3,000,000 quarters of other corn every year ; which ex- ceeded the whole quantity ever imported in any one year.

He- doubted too whether the alteration of the Corn-laws would give such an extensive increase of the foreign trade as was expected--

The trade could not come from the greater part of Europe, because the greater part of Europe had corn- laws to protect their own growers from impor- tation. Holland, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Naples, Sicily, the Papal domi- nions, and even Bavaria, in the interior of Germany, had corn-laws for their own protection. How then could any one possibly argue that those countries would be induced to take our manufactures by a reduction of the duty on their corn ? It was said that the Prussian League was entirely owing to the Corn- laws, and that if they were repealed, nothing could be more easy than to in- duce the Prussian Government to alter their system, and to receive our manu- factures. Now, he did not believe that the Germanic League had any thing whatever to do with the state of the Corn-laws or the commerce of this country in its original conception. The fact was, that the real character of that league was political; it was part of a great political scheme, propounded and carried into effect by men who were under the influence of a spirit of devotedness to their fatherland, and of zeal for the prosperity of the country—a scheme de- vised for the purpose of nationalizing the North of Germany. As to Russia, if ever there existed a country whose policy was restrictive, it was Russia: from the time of Catherine the laws of Russia had rigorously excluded foreign manufactures.

The Government scheme, therefore, was vicious and fallacious ; or at all events uncertain. The Government, the country, and all parties,

were in a position which evidently rendered it impossible for the public business to go on. He therefore moved the following amendment, as a substitute for the latter portion of the Address, commencing with the words " We are more especially commanded "- " Humbly to represent to her Majesty, that we observe with great concern that the public expenditure has of late in each of several years exceeded the annual income, and that we are convinced of the necessity of adopting mea- sures for the purpose of remedying so great an evil.

" To assure her Majesty, that we arc deeply sensible of the importance of those considerations to which her Majesty has been graciously pleased to direct our attention in reference to the commerce and revenue of the country, and to the laws which regulate the trade in corn.

° That in deciding the course which it may be advisable to pursue with re- ference to such matters, it will be our earnest desire to consult the interest and promote the welfare of all classes of her Majesty's subjects. " That we feel it to he our duty humbly to submit to her Majesty, that it is essential to the satisfactory results of our deliberations upon these and other

matters of public concern, that her Majesty's Government should possess the confidence of this House and of the country, and respectfully to represent to her Majesty that that confidence is not reposed in the present advisers of her Majesty.

" To assure her Majesty, that in the gracious expressions of her Majesty's deep sympathy with those of her subjects who are now suffering from distress

and want of employment, we recognize an additional proof of her Majeaty's tender regard for the welfare of her subjects ; and that we cordially join in the prayer of her Majesty that all our deliberations may be guided by wisdom, and may conduce to the happiness of her people." Earl FITZWILLIABI complained that Lord Ripon did not propose any Measures in lieu of those which be rejected, but contented himself with saying that Ministers did not possess what was technically called " the confidence of the House." The meaning of the Amendment was merely this, " We are the many, and ou are the few ; and therefore you must retire and make way for us.' Such was not the case ten or eleven years ago, when a party of whom Lord Ripon was a member was coming into power : they made no mystery of their intended measures. How were they to equalize income and expenditure ? by proposing a pro- perty-tax or hind-tax ? To prove how little we are now independent of foreign countries, Lord Fitzwilliam quoted returns to show that for each period of twelve years since 1775 the average annual importation of wheat had swelled from 179,000 quarters to 863,000 quarters. The foreign supply was unavoidable : the only question remaining for Parliament to discuss was, in what manner the country shall have the foreign supply. The population is increasing at the rate of 250,000 a year : allowing one quarter of corn to the acre, could the country bring an equal number of acres into cultivation yearly ? It was impossible. The question of Corn-law repeal was gaining in public opinion : the adhesion of Go- vernment had enabled it to take a vast stride ; and that the act had destroyed the Administration was of little importance compared to the advantage gained. Lord LYTTELTON would vote for the -Address; but he could not allow his vote to be construed into one of general confidence in Ministers : he did not approve of their adherence to place after repeated defeats last session, to say nothing of previous occurrences. Ever since their aban- donment of their Appropriation-clause they bad remained in office on an unfulfilled pledge. Lord kttelton expressed his belief that in the main Liberal principles must be carried out by any Ministry which may be called to office.

Viscount MELBOURNE began by laughing at the elaborate superstruc- ture which his noble friend Lord Ripon had raised upon such slight foundation- " The noble lord made a sort of omniumgatherum speech ; impressed every thing into his service, as well what we bad done last year as during the present ; and on such a collection of heterogeneous materials he founds a motion of this magnitude—a motion so important in its consequences, and a motion, allow me to say, perfectly new to this House. My Lords, it came like a thunderclap upon me. (Roars of laughter from the Opposition.) 1 own I was ignorant that there existed in this House the spirit on which that motion seems to pro- eeed. We all know that there were a great many factious motions in the late House of Commons, and continual motions of want of confidence ; but there was not the least intimation that your Lordships sympathized with or countenanced any such proceeding. Your Lordships were reposing a tranquil confidence in the present Government, when suddenly, on the grounds stated by the noble lord, unexpectedly, contrary to all former precedent, belieing, in fact, the manner in width you have heretofore conducted yourselves, the noble lord has come forward with this distinct motion of a want of confidence in her Majesty's Government." Lord Melbourne ridiculed Lord Ripon's enumeration of the omissions in the Speech about the Indian wars : he disapproved of Government's proceedings in Candahar, thought that they had formed improper alli- ances in the Punjab, and added that Ruejeet Singh was dead: surely Ministers were not responsible for that ? The Chinese authorities had provoked the measures which had been taken in their country ; but to make any observations on the conduct of the expedition, Lord Mel- bourne said would he premature. Lord Ripon found fault with the measures now submitted to Parliament by Government, but agreed with the principles of all. Why, that was all that Government asked ; de- tails were open to revision. Lord Melbourne was as much opposed to the slave-trade as any man : but he did not think that the way. to eradicate that traffic was by commercial hostility with slave countries. As to the argument that the Indian trade in sugar should not be inter- fered with at present by the sugar of slave states, if it had any force, it would grow stronger every day, and Lord Ripon should take care that he did not shut himself out from measures which he might one day think proper. Lord Melbourne believed that the proposed fixed Corn-duty would give greater steadiness to the market. He would briefly state the arguments which had weighed with him in the question- " I have certainly been, on former occasions, for putting off the agitation and discussion of this question, which, whenever it came on, I knew must be at- tended with the circumstances which my noble friend has described. But I always knew that come it must. I always knew that it was not to be avoided. I always knew that it was entirely a question of time. And I beg of your Lordships to consider what I have always looked upon as the pinch of this question, namely, that these laws have been introduced and supported by those who have a direct interest in maintaining them. They were sanctioned by two Houses of Legislature, one of which is entirely composed of landholders and the majority of the other consists of the same class. I say that is not a state of things which you should look on with com- placency. I am not accustomed to speak in the language of dictation or ad- monition, but 1 tell you it is not safe for the governing powers of a country to stand in such a situation as to he open to an imputation of so popular, so plausible, and so specious a nature as that which I have described; and I do assure your Lordships that you will find it absolutely necessary to put these laws some day or other on a more reasonable and satisfactory foundation." Lord Melbourne believed that no base or sordid motives had governed those by whom the act had been passed ; but he called upon the Lords to free themselves from the imputation of such motives ; " for nothing is so foolish as to have the discredit of that which you do not do." After collecting a number of small things, Lord Ripon's charges against the Government dwindled down at last to a charge of having legally but not constitutionally converted the funds in the Savings Banks, and of leaving a small balance in the Exchequer : if there were no discon- tent, however, among the managers of the banks, no distrust on the part of the depositors, and no inconvenience in the Exchequer, the charge could form no foundation for a motion like the amendment. Lord Lyttelton, too, had excluded Ministers from his confidence : perhaps they would have been as well off without his vote. He had alluded to the Appropriation-clause : all that was meant by the resolution which declared that no settlement of the Tithe question would be satisfactory without the appropriation of Church revenues to some other purpose, such as education, was, that Ministers would do their best to carry it. (Opposition laughter.) Sir Robert Walpole had abandoned his Excise Act after professions very similar to those which Ministers had used.

The Duke of WELtascaos rebuked Lord Melbourne for slighting instead of answering Lord Ripon's speech. Ministers were not to be blamed for creating charges by carrying on large operations, but for not using sufficient force to put an end to those charges, and for not making provision for the charges as they arose, in the constitutional mode, by ways and means. But he had other grounds for want of confidence : he condemned the words respecting the Corn-laws introduced in the Speech of June last—that " the trade, the industry, and the burdens upon the community were materially involved in the question of these laws," and that her Majesty had " no other view in the dissolution of her Parliament than the desire of securing the rights and promoting the interests of her subjects." The Speech was said to be modelled on that of George the Third on the dissolution of Parliament in 1784 ; but that

speech related to a question of privilege entirely within the House of Commons, and the terms used were very different : the Dake quoted them-

" On a full consideration of the present situation of affairs, and of the extra- ordinary circumstances which have produced it, I am induced to put an end to

this session of Parliament ; I feel it a duty which I owe to the constitution and to the country, in such a situation, to recur as speedily as possible to the sense of my people by calling a new Parliament. I trust that this measure will tend to obviate the mischiefs arising from the unhappy divisions and distractions which have lately subsisted ; and that the various important objects which will require consideration may be afterwards proceeded upon with less interruption and with happier effect. I can have no other object than to preserve the true principles of our free and happy constitution, and to employ the powers in- trusted to me by the law for the only end for which they were given, the good of my people." The Duke especially regretted that advice which had dictated the Speech of this session should have come from Lord Melbourne—

He had always considered that the noble Viscount had rendered the greatest possible service to her Majesty. He had reason to know that her Majesty

herself was of opinion that the noble Viscount had rendered her the greatest service, not only as a public servant engaged in the conduct of affairs, but in the assistance he had given her Majesty in making her acquainted with the laws, policy, and system of government in the country. It was therefore peculiarly the duty of the noble Viscount to watch over her and protect her. The noble Viscount ought not to have embarked her Majesty's name in this

cause, as bad been done in the Speech from the Throne in July, and still less

in that delivered by the Lords Commissioners this day. The laws which re- gulate the trade in corn were characterized in the most invidious manner, as " aggravating the natural fluctuations of supply, embarrassing trade, deranging the currency, and by their operation diminishing the comfort and increasing the privations of the great body of the community "; and Parliament was called upon to say whether such were not the characteristics of these laws. He was sorry this had been the case.

Before Lord Melbourne charged his opponents with opposing the wishes of the Queen, he should have imparted to them some of that real knowledge which he had possessed : Committees of in'uiry should have been appointed by Government, instead of being content with one appointed on the motion of an individual Member of the other House. In conclusion, the Duke recommended the House to entertain no pro- ject which would destroy the cultivation of the country ; a branch of industry most important to the welfare of all classes. England was

the only country where, in the lowest ranks of life, not only might a competence be acquired, but immense wealth : that fact should never be lost sight of.

Lord MELBOURNE denied that Ministers had ever said that those who opposed the measures contained in the Royal Speech were opposed to the Sovereign. The Duke of RICHMOND was astonished at the arguments used by so distinguished a grazier as his noble friend Lord Spencer. If the pro- posed measures were carried, he should more a bill to enable farmers to throw up their leases. It had been said that those who were likely to replace the present Ministers would turn round when they were in power and make some proposition similar to that which they now opposed : but, in the name of the landlords, he declared, that if they proposed a fixed duty, those by whom they were brought into power would also turn them out of power.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE assured the House, that nothing irre- gular had been done in respect of the funds of the Savings Banks ; the first of which he had the pleasure to assist in establishing. He repeated the denial that Ministers had made unconstitutional use of the Queen's name— In no place, and on no occasion, had any one connected with Government stated either that her Majesty was favourable to a repeat of the Corn-laws, or that she entertained different views from those entertained by her Ministers ; but in all the speeches put into her Majesty's month, it had been the object of Ministers studiously to commit her Majesty to nothing in point of opinion on this question beyond this, in which, he believed, every noble lord would concur, namely, the importance and necessity of considering and inquiring into the subject.

With respect to Committees of Inquiry upon which the Duke of Wellington insisted, Lord Lansdowne said, that the subject before Par- liament had been incessantly submitted to Committees ; and in 1822-3 a Committee sat and reported, of which Sir Robert Peel, Lord Althorp, Lord Melbourne, Mr. Huskisson, and Mr. Robinson (the Earl of Ripon),

were members. The Report, which emanated from Mr. Robinson, re- commended a fixed duty as the best protection to the agriculturist. He reminded the House of the predictions of ruiu which attended Mr. Hus- kisson's proposal to remove the restrictions on foreign wool : whereas the farmers and labourers had actually benefited by the change. The Earl of COVENTRY, who announced himself by saying, " I am Lord Coventry : a few words from me," supported the Amendment in half a dozen sentences ; and then sat down, hoping be had not detained the House, amid roars of laughter and cries of " Go on! " The Marquis of NORTHAMPTON would not vote for the Amendment, for that would be voting in the dark ; and though he disagreed with Ministers on the Sugar-duties and also on the subject of corn, he should vote for the Address.

Lord BROUGHAM first addressed himself to show the fallacy of Lord Ripon's arguments in favour of the Corn-laws based upon the averages

of price. There was no proposition whatever that might not be proved by the mode of calculation adopted : with an average of 60 there might be a fluctuation from 20 to 120, and the question at issue related to

fluctuations and actual prices, and not to averages. But passing by minor points, he regretted the position which Ministers had taken, in a constitutional point of view. With some qualification as to their in- sufficiency, he approved of the measures comprised in the Budget. But in counselling a dissolution of Parliament, his noble friends had been guilty of a great error in judgment— They must, when they gave that advice, not only have entertained a confi- dent expectation, but have felt absolutely certain, that a majority would be re- turned in favour of them and of their measures. They could not have enter- tained the least doubt that they would have a majority—not a bare majority— not such a majority as that which for some time past had enabled them to linger rather than to live--not a majority of twos or threes, or of eighteen or twenty—but such a majority as would enable them to carry on business of the country—such a majority as might fairly be called a crushing majority. On this they could have felt no uncertainty when they tendered that advice to the Sovereign. He was not permitted to suppose that they entertained a shadow of doubt upon the subject. Why did he say so ? Because on no other con- ceivable supposition bad they a right to tender such advice—to advise the Crown to dissolve a Parliament—to council a Sovereign to exercise the highest and most important of the prerogatives; but to counsel the Crown to have recourse to that prerogative for the purpose of what, if it were not to return a majority in their favour, and a decided majority ? for the purpose of returning a larger minority than their adversaries might gain if they succeeded to power and dissolved. He wished to use no offensive expression, and therefore he should only say, that that was an advice which no British Minister dared to avow that be had given to his Sovereign. But he went further, be acquitted his noble friends of having by possibility been guilty of giving such advice. It would be to advise the Sovereign to become a party to a mere factious ma- nesuvre ; therefore he denied that it was possible that any one of his noble friends could have given such advice. He entered a protest against the supposition that the people had pro- nounced judgment on the measures at the late election— If he merely cared for the party that had brought these measures forward, be might say that the country had returned a verdict, not against the Govern- ment, not against the men' but against their measures. But did men suffer nothing in character who had suffered such a judgment ? Would the interests of the people have suffered nothing by returning such a judgment ? and, above all, would the questions themselves suffer nothing by such large majorities pro- nounced against them ? Undoubtedly a great injury would be done to these measures; they would be sacrificed in the hopeless attempt to prop up the fallen fortunes of a party in power who brought them forward. He would not admit that that was the construction to be put on the verdict which the country had returned. He thought their Lordships would perceive that the verdict was on one issue and the trial on another—that the country bad given their verdict against the men, but that on the subject of their policy no verdict had been returned, or opinion expressed. Though it was undeniably true that the attention of Ministers had been for a considerable time directed to these measures,—the corre- spondence with the Governor of Canada showed that they had not been suggested by the defeat of April,—the coincidence in point of time had excited the suspicion of the country : Ministers had delayed this course until they seemed to be driven to it ; and the cause was further damaged by being made a handle to serve their purpose at the elections. But that was not all— The measures were good in themselves. The principles upon which they were founded were sound. They were calculated to relieve the trade of the country ; but they were not brought forward as measures for relieving that trade. Upon that foundation they could have stood, and stood firmly ; but they were brought forward as measures of finance. That was a rotten founda- tion, and upon that foundation they could not stand. They were sound and well-constructed measures as measures of commercial policy, but as measures of financial policy, it was impossible to listen with patience to any argument in their favour. The smallest statement of figures, the most cursory glance at accounts, the slightest knowledge of financial matters, would make it impos- sible for any man to say that they ought to be regarded as measures of taxation and finance. Take the Corn question for instance—his noble friend had argued with respect to the Timber and Sugar duties—but taking the Corn-laws, could any mortal believe that any portion of the revenue could be regarded as be- coming a stationary source of revenue which was to be dependent on the seasons and the price of grain at home ? Look at the averages—look at the prices which had prevailed during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836—aud they would find that not one farthing of revenue could be got from that source. During every one of those years, the duty, the freight, and the charges of shipping, would have made it impossible for a single bushel of foreign grain to be brought into this country. But the great defect in the Government scheme was, that it professed to be a Free Trade scheme, yet it commenced with doubling the duty on Canadian timber, while it took only 9 per cent. off the duty on Baltic timber, and Is. 6d. a hundredweight, half a farthing a pound, off foreign sugar, and imposed a fixed duty of Ss. a quarter on corn. On these grounds he was clearly of opinion that the result of the late election could not be said to have been a verdict against the repeal of the Corn-laws, or against the principle of free-trade; but that it had been clearly against the ge- neral policy of the Government, and that it indicated a distrust of the Admi- nistration, which he could not but say he thought justified that statement in the Amendment—of which, by-the-by, not one word had been said by those of his noble friends who bad spoken upon it—the statement that her Majesty's Ministers had lost, not the confidence of Parliament merely, but " the confi- dence of the country." " The confidence of this House " would have been a very incorrect expression indeed, inasmuch as the Ministers never had pos- sessed it ; but it could not he denied, that the elections had decisively demon- strated that they had lost the confidence of the nation. Lord Brougham had protested, on the 21st June, before the dissolu- tion, against being bound by the " appeal to the people " as it was called, under the circumstances. Ministers ought to have resigned as soon as they knew the result of the elections : as it was, they had in- curred the delicate task of framing the Royal Speech. It might be said indeed that they could know the adverse majority with which they were to meet until they ascertained it in the votes of Members ; but Lord John Russell had announced in a letter to his constituents that an over- whelming majority had been returned against the Government. A Speech, therefore, had been prepared, to be rejected by an overwhelming majority in both Houses. The opinions of that Speech could have been entered upon the journals of the House in a much more regular and constitutional manner. Alluding before he closed to the late elections, Lord Brougham observed that they had been conducts 1 with bribery and intimidation and actual outrage to an unprecedenti d extent : unless in- quiries were instituted, both parties in Parliament must be content to share the imputation of screening the guilty. Their Lordships had peculiar means of inquiry : if they were to inquire—with a view of course to legislation, not punishment—the character of the House would be greatly raised in the estimation of the country. Lord Brougham pro- mised that if the new Ministry should adopt a liberal policy, they should have, not his taunts, but his support. He did not admit the justice of the analogy'between the Ministers' abandonment of the Appropriation- clause and Sir Robert Walpole's abandonment of the Excise Bill; nor did he concur in the too strong language used by Lord Lyttelton, that the surrender of' the Appropriation-clause exhibited a total want of political integrity— He did not agree with him : he thought that he had only exhibited a great fulness of the desire to remain in office. The comparison he thought inappo- site. The case of Walpole would have been like that of the noble Viscouot, if Sir Robert Walpole, in the teeth of the Minister whom he afterwards sup- planted, had brought in tt resolution, as leader of the Opposition, that no plan of finance deserved the support of Parliament and the country which did not involve a tax upon exciseable commodities, and if, after the lapse of a short period obtaining a majority in the House of Commons upon that motion, when he turned out his rivals and got into their place, lie then brought in a budget in which a tax upon exciseable commodities formed a prominent feature, and finding that he would be beaten upon it, withdrew it summarily, said nothing at all about it, and still retained office. Then the case of Sir Robert \Valpole would have borne some resemblance to that of his noble friend, and might indeed have formed some precedent for his conduct.

The House then divided : for the Address, 96 ; for the Amendment, (including 13 proxies,) 168 ; majority against Ministers, 72.

On the return of the Commons from the' House of Lords they ad- journed till half-past three. On reassembling, the usual Sessional Orders having been read and agreed to, and other preliminary business transacted, Mr. Manx PHILIPS rose to move the Address. It was, like Earl Spencer's in the other House, a mere echo of the Speech ; and his own speech consisted of an amplification of what he proposed for the Address, incorporated with commendatory comments. In coming to the Free Trade of the Budget, it was strange, he said, that those who quarrelled with the evidence taken before the Import-duties Committee as ex parte should never have asked for the reconstruction of that Committee. Since the proposition to alter the Sugar-duties last session, the consumption, although the price had been reduced, had fallen off considerably ; indicating most distinctly that the power of the people to consume that commodity was decreasing year by year. A most extraordinary depression was hanging over the people : in many towns the inhabitants were starving upon the most paitry pittances. He mentioned the case of one hundred and two individuals who received 8id., or even 7d. a week. These people were driven to subsist on the smallest possible quantity of food—far less than was given in any gaol or workhouse in the kingdom. Mr. Philips quoted a protest in the House of Lords against the Corn-laws in 1815 as a restriction on aim• merce, and a delusive attempt to secure plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price : this protest was signed " Augustus Frederick (Duke of Sussex), William Frederick (Duke of Gloucester), Grenville, 'Welles- . ley, Essex, Torrington, Dutton (Marquis of Douglas), Chandos, Buck- ingham, Montfort, King, Carlisle." He also quoted Sir Robert Peel, the father of the present Baronet, to the same effect, as follows- " He was anxious to correct a mistake that seemed to prevail in the House, that the interests of the landholder and of the manufacturer were conflicting and incompatible. They were, in the view of enlightened policy, the same; and the success or ruin of the one was the success or ruin of the other ; inas- much as the country generally bad been enriched by the sale of our manufac- tures, the landholders had received their share of the wealth and advantages. It had been the wise policy of former governments to keep the price of the chief article of subsistence as low as possible; upon this principle Mr. Pitt had acted with success, but the system was now about to be changed. It was undoubtedly true that the rent of the land would be diminished by the unli- mited importation of corn ; but if the resolutions ul:on the table passed in their present shape, the manufactures of the towns would be destroyed, and the land must consequently he depreciated; corn might he grown, but paupers would be the only customers for it."

Mr. Philips went on to argue that the existing Corn-laws are in- compatible a ith a mixed currency of bullion and paper.

Mr. J. C. DUNDAS seconded the Address.

Mr. STUART WORTLEY excused his early appearance before the House, by saying that he was the bearer of nut the least signifi- cant portion of the answer to the question which the Queen had put to the country ; and he heliel ed he gave voice to the wishes of the great mass of the constituencies, when he asked whether the present Ministers were those with whom the House would intrust the Government ? That was the question before the House, however convenient it might be fur Ministers to put fora ard the other questions of Free Trade and the Corn-laws. He was not dis- posed to shirk them at the fitting time for the discussion. He charged Ministers with abandoning the three great principles upon which Lord Grey, of whose Cabinet many of them were members, entered office—, Peace, Economy, and Reform. Their " peace" had resulted in a little war at Antwerp, a somewhat larger but unintelligible war in Spain, a war in India, a war in China, and a war in Sy ria. Under their prede- cessors, from 1815 to 1830, there had not been any thing like a war, except the isolated and almost accidental battle of Navariuo. The -Whig " economy " had terminated in a deficiency of seven or eight millions. In " reform " they had been more successful : Corporation Reform had been carried, though perhaps they were not quite disin- terested in that. But the boast of Lord A lthorp, in moving some stage of the Reform Bill, "Thank God, the day is past when the government of this country can be carried on by patronage," had not prevented this Government from lavishing more patronages and Peerages than any Government that ever existed in this country. Look at the very last act of last session, the attempt to clu-eb at the patronage of the Admi- nistration of Justice Bill before the act was to come into operation. The abandonment of the Appropriation-clause was another signal in- stance of their abandonment of principle. The Budget exhibited new inconsistencies : Mr. Labouchere opposed in 1840 the change of the Sugar.duties which he proposed in 1841 ; and the same was the case with Lord John Russell and Lord Melbourne on the Corn-laws. Mr. Wortley wondered at the omission in the Speech of all mention of the United States. And he condemned the alliance of Ministers with men whose political lives had been devoted to agitation, and who sullied the name of the Sovereign by using it for their factious purposes at the very moment when they gloated over the prospect of a foreign war, and in their seditious harangues offered aid to the enemies of their country. Mr. Wortley moved the same amendment that Lord Ripon proposed in the House of Lords.

Lord BRUCE seconded the Amendment. He observed, that though

Lord John Russell's address to his constituents declared that he knew the majority returned to Parliament to be against the Government, yet he did not say a word about surrendering his trust or abstaining from the exercise of all authority not necessary to the public service while he held it ; and the Gazettes gave the lie to any such supposition. Lord Bruce denied that the existing deficiency was altogether owing to the military expeditions which Government had fitted out: the Miscella- neous Estimates ought to be closely scrutinized. Although opposed to the views of Government, he was not the enemy to Free Trade as ex- pounded by Mr. Huskisson.

Mr. LenouctrEnn was at a loss to understand the import of the Amendment, or what policy it marked out to be pursued. When Mr. Wortley accused Ministers of meeting in office a majority notoriously against them, he hardly knew near whom he was standing : in 1835 Sir Robert Peel met a hostile majority, and had never been able to carry a single measure ; even his success in resisting the Marquis of Chandon, his own ally, in an attempt to repeal the Malt-tax, he owed to the aid of his political opponent -. It was right to remind the House of these circumstances, since Lord John Russell had said to his constitu- ents, with a frankness which Mr. Labouchere owned he did push to a very great length, "I know very well I am in a minority, and we shall soon be turned out" Mr. Labouchere contended that Ministers had maintained the three principles of government enunciated by Lord Grey—peace, economy, and reform—under very critical circumstances, with as much steadiness as it was possible to do. With minor interrup- tions, peace had been preserved for ten years. if they had been a lavish Government, it implied a great censure on the Opposition, whose pecu- liar province it was to watch the expenditure. Ile looked back to the reforms which Government had effected as to great improvements, which had served the institutions of the country by securing to them a greater share of the affections of the people. And if ever measures were deliberately considered, they were those very measures which had been condemned as hasty and inconsiderate. Mr. Wortley avowed himself a disciple of Mr. Huskisson : now Mr. Huskisson had always been supported by the Whigs ; but when he brought forward one of the very measures now under discussion, only of a more sweeping nature, an alteration of the Sugar-duties, he was opposed by Sir Robert Peel. The next considerable attempt to improve our commercial system was made by Lord Grey's Government, in a proposition to alter the Tim- ber-duties: it was defeated by honourable gentlemen opposite. Sir Robert Peel, however, had said in debates on the Corn-laws, that if the whole commercial system were to be examined, and if Government were pre- pared to do justice to all classes, then he might not be indisposed to consider the question of the Corn-laws : well, Ministers having made up their minds as to the necessity of submitting some measure relating generally to the commercial system, felt bound to ask the lauded in- terests whether they were not to be included in the consideration. To show how little hastily the measures were proposed, the change in the Sugar-duties was preceded by the redress of grievances in the West Indies, in the alteration of the Imperial duties. With respect to the necessity of the change in the Sugar-duties, let the supply of the first six months in 1840, 899,000 hundredweight, be compared with that of 1841, 707,000 hundredweight —a decrease of nearly 200,000 hundred- weight—to show how the promise of abundance in the West Indies alone could be depended on. On the other hand, the quantity con- sumed in the first six months of 1840 was 2,050,000 hundredweight ; in the first six months of 1841, 1,861,600 ; and the falling-off in the revenue derived from Sugar-duties in the latter year was 278,0001. He had been taunted with opposing a motion for alteration in 1839: but all questions of a financial nature were questions of time ; the incon- sistency would have been, had he, when prepared for a revision of the whole Tariff, omitted such an article as sugar. Quoting the words of the Amendment, Mr. Labouchere said, that he could conceive no course more improper or dangerous than " spargere votes in vulgum ambi- guas"—to raise a hope unless they were prepared to fulfil it, and to look into the Corn-laws with a view to their alteration. On the whole, he was inclined to hope that the conviction was forced upon them, that the time was come when it was absolutely necessary to reconsider the Corn-laws. Mr. Labouehere cited returns to show that the average importation of corn each year is 1,500,000 quarters ; the question therefore is no longer whether they would have a corn-trade, but how that trade was to be conducted ; especially as the supply from Ireland is yearly decreasing, partly in consequence of the greater consumption of corn in that country, and partly because steam-communication has facilitated the trade in live stock, and has thus diverted farmers from the culture of wheat. On the other hand, while the price of bread had reached so great a height within these few weeks, there were 800,000 quarters of foreign corn in bond, kept out of the market until the averages should be raised to a famine price. Mr. Lahouchere went on at considerable length to recommend to the consideration of the House the duties on foreign provisions and on raw materials ; warning them, that if ruin began with manufactures it would end with agriculture.

Mr. DISRAELI supported the Amendment ; and reminded Mr. La- bouchere, that the great reformers of the Tariff were Walpole, Pitt, and Huskisson, two of them opposed to Mr. Labouchere's party ; nor must the services of Mr. Wallace, the Vice-Pre-■dent of the Board of Trade, be forgotten. Mr. Disraeli spoke in ang terms of the use which had been made of the Queen's name at the eh. tons : no sooner had Par- liament been dissolved, than the Government had sent round their clan- destine champions to every borough in the country, profaning the name of the Sovereign, as if the Majesty of England was a second candidate upon some paltry poll. Mr. BERNAL junior did not know whether he was among the "clan- destine champions " alluded to by Mr. Disraeli ; but he had been re- turned by a constituency which had rejected the honourable gentleman. Mr. Disraeli certainly understood very well free trade in politics : he went down with letters of recommendation in his pocket from Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Hume, and he was proposed by his friend Mr. Treacher, a Radical, and seconded by his friend Mr. Rose, a Tory. Mr. Bernal recommended the agriculturists to accept the eight-shilling linty now, lest it should hereafter become "fine by degrees and beau- tifully less." Sir CHARLES NAPIER reminded Mr. Wortley of two wars under Tory Administrations which he had forgotten—an untoward war in

Algiers, and the Burmese war ; while Tories had allowed France to carry on a war in Spain for putting down liberty in that country. The Whig " little wars' had got rid of absolute government in Portugal, had given Spain a Parliament, had removed a despicable tyranny to Syria, and restricted Mehemet All to his proper limits.

Lord POLLINGTON said that no one ever doubted that British valour could effect glorious achievements under a Stopford or a Napier ; but those successes did not evidence the wisdom of the policy which bad given occasion to them. Mr. ROEBUCK could have no difficulty in shaping his judgment if the question were simply an inquiry into the character of the present Mi- nistry: his opinion would have been adverse to their character; but his dislike to them was because they so much resembled honourable gentlemen opposite; it was a question of comparative character. In- stead of likening them to doctors treating a patient, as Sir Robert Peel had done, it was a fairer analogy to consider them as servants; and he was not prepared to dismiss even a bad and lazy servant to get one per- haps ten times worse, absolutely wanting in honesty. To guide his judgment in the comparison, he would contrast the past conduct of the two parties— He found in the outset of the inquiry that the present advisers of her Ma- jesty—the party which in the first Reformed Parliament, that met in 1832, was predominant and paramount in the country, having full power to do any thing they might desire—who then ruled all before them, and who were forced into power by the strong will of the people—he found that this party had been day by day losing influence till they had become weak, tottering, and wretched, unable to do any thing they might wish. And he found the right honourable gentleman opposite, who was at that time powerless, and who, it was thought, must thereafter lead a deflated and dispirited host, at the head now of a party flushed with victory and ready to divide the spoil. How did this come to pass ? The right honourable gentleman and the party opposite were very willing, as it was their interest, to say that they had not only vanquished the Ministry in their persons, but in their principles. They were glad to say, " Here is the Ministry, the Reforming Ministry, that was ever pushing on, the moving Mi- nistry, conquered by the Conservative party. He found the Ministers in- terested in saying pretty much the same thing, although not in the same words, and in claiming for themselves the character of martyrs to freedom. He could not allow them to claim any such title. They were ruined by forgetting— they would pardon him for expressing his opinion strongly—forgetting their principles. Thrust into power, when they ought to have carried on Reform they stopped short. They had cast contumely on those who represented to them that the natural order of things would take place—that the other party were strong in wealth; that they represented, as he was free to confess, a strong feeling in the country ; that they bad with them the clergy, almost all the landed interest, and many of those in the professions. The Ministers did not care for this : they considered that their victory was complete; they declared that they had obtained what they had all along intended, a preponderance of the landed interest of this country, and they declared for Finality. Hence their loss of power ; which they could only recover by a long course of virtuous opposition. He denied that the last election had tried the question of Free Trade : he could not permit great principles to be sacrificed to party purposes— The question put to the country was, Do you like the Whig Ministry? The country answered—he was grieved that the country had said so, but it did say—that it did not like that Ministry ; and when he said that the country had answered, let him not be misunderstood—he meant the constituencies. And when the Ministers complained that the question had not been fairly tested—that there bad been bribery, and intimidation, and corruption—he said that these were the natural incidents of that state of things which they had determined on. They had refused all means for putting down corruption and intimidation : therefore they were condemned by that body which they had themselves created, and let them not complain that the constituencies had acted according to their nature. Mr. Roebuck traced the conduct of the two parties for the last ten years, at home, abroad, and in the Colonies ; showing that where the Whigs failed it was because they fell between two opinions, and suc- cumbed to their opponents. But the Tories had opposed the Reform Bill, without which we should still have had the old Parliament, and none of the improvements that have followed the change ; they op- posed Municipal Reform. They resorted to the most illiberal artifice sin appealing to the passions of the people against the Poor-law, which was really supported by their own party, and Sir Robert dared not rebuke them. Ministers had been blamed for "small wars "—he pre- ferred them to great wars, as lesser evils : but had any Member oppo- site said that any of their wars, small as it was, was unjust ? A war with the United States had been deprecated, and yet the conduct of Ministers had been impugned for not sooner making a warlike demon- stration. Here Mr. Roebuck entered upon the case of M`Leod ; which he placed in a new light. That part of his speech is not reported well in any paper ; but his views may be gathered to be something of this kind. Mr. M'Leod is in custody within the State of New York upon a charge of murder ; a crime which the State Courts, and they alone, are competent to try. The Courts of the Federation have no common law jurisdiction, and no cognizance of that crime. The case of a person in M'Leod's predicament, arraigned under the laws of one of the Sovereign States and claimed as the subject of a foreign country, is a cases omissus in the constitution of the Union—an emergency for which no provision is made ; and Mr. Roebuck does not see how the proceedings against M`Leod, hitherto carried on with strict legal propriety, can now be arrested. The proper course, as soon as the American Minister, Mr. Forsyth, informed our Ambassador, Mr. Fox, that the Federal Government had no jurisdiction, would have been, to send an extraordinary embassy to the sovereign State of New York, and from that State to demand the surrender of M'Leod. Such a course would have called the attention of the whole Union to the great omission in their Federal Constitution, and their means of main- taining international relations with other countries. Turning to Canada, Mr. Roebuck prophesied that there the tragedy is not played out The old rule, Divide et impera, had been reversed : Canada had been united, and the next Colonial kinister would find the United Parlia- ment too strong for him. The Government had sacrificed itself to every piece of bad advice : their schemes of economy had been treated as cheeseparing, and profusion had become one of their evil geniuses. The Army, Ordnance, and Navy, furnished instances. Thus he found the Whigs halting in the path when peat measures were brought forward ; but the Tories stedfastly rejecting every improvement. The people of England were about to witness the result of that change of principle in favour of which they had pronounced somewhat too hastily. Mr. EWART moved an adjournment of the debate. This was at first opposed; but ultimately agreed to, with the consent of Sir ROBERT PEEL; and the House broke up at twelve o'clock.

On Wednesday, the debate was resumed by Mr. EWART ; who ap- proved generally of the Address, though he regretted that it omitted any notice of the abuses of our representative system. He rejoiced that Ministers had taken a course of liberal commercial policy, in which he and some Mends of his had been the forlorn hope. Coming to the sub- ject of the Corn-law, he quoted Sir Robert Peel, who in July 1836 had told the farmers that they must rely upon their own exertions, and pointed to the farmers of Scotland for an example to them. The farmers of Scotland, indeed, in the use of imported manures, recognized the alliance between commerce and agriculture. Mr. Ewart was convinced that agriculture would at last become a manufacture, or at least the subject of machinery. It was already a trade, and the measures pro- posed by Government would give it advantages common to all trades, steadiness of demand and competition. He believed that those mea- sures were merely the beginning of a system of reforms which would

i

be consummated in removing taxation from commerce and labour, and placing it upon wealth. He went on at some length to illustrate the advantages of free trade by extracts from the Report of the Hand-loom commissioners on trade in Germany and Switzerland. What were the German Customs-Union, the proposed Customs-Union of Luxem- bourg and Holland, and even that of Belgium and France, but so many indirect homages to the genuine principles of free trade ? Parliament was asked to extend for Great Britain to the world the system which. was thus adopted in separate parts of it.

Captain HAIM.TON recalled the House to the consideration, that the real question before it was the question of confidence, not that of corn- laws. But he observed in passing, that those on his side of the House had been warned by Mr. Hume to mind what they said about corn and sugar, lest they should lose their seats : Mr. Hume's own absence fur- nished the best commentary on the warning.

Mr. WARD, as well as Mr. Wortley, was the bearer of some part of the answer to the Speech ; and had the more intelligent portion of Mr. Wortley's own constitutents had their just share of influence, the answer which he brought would have been very different. Mr. Ward compared Mr. Wortley's professions on the hustings, where he appeared as " the farmer's friend," with the very different grounds of indictment which he preferred against Lord Grey's Administration as well as the present. Mr. Ward set off Sir Robert Peel's tergiversation on Catholic Emanci- pation against the Whigs' abandonment of the Appropriation-clause : the one had broken up the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet ; the other had very seriously damaged the present Administration, and had weak- ened them in meeting the array of interests combined against their present policy. The weather, however, was not amenable to party influences : the prospect of a short harvest strengthened daily. ; and there was now no doubt that the deficiency would amount to a sixth or at least an eighth of an average crop—equal to 2,000,000 of quarters. That would have to be paid for in cash, and there mast be another drain upon the Bank. Unless instant steps were taken, there must be a repe- tition of the commercial crisis of last year. Within the last three years 10,000,000 quarters of wheat had been imported, and 21,000,0001. had been paid for it. This year, 4,000,0001. or 5,000,0001. more must go to pay for the corn to make up the deficiency. Mr. MANNERS Strwrote, in supporting the amendment, called upon Lord John Russell to state more distinctly the imputation against Mr. Sutton's father, Lord Canterbury, which he had hinted at the election of Speaker, on Thursday last. Lord Josue RUSSELL had merely wished, without reviving other matters, to correct a statement by Sir Robert Peel that his opposition to the reelection of Sir Charles Manners Sutton to the Speakership rested

o n a difference of politics only. But, being now appealed to, be would say, that he had alluded tb the attendance of Sir Charles Manners Sutton at a Privy Council in 1834, called especially to arrange the transfer of the Government from the party having the majority in the House of Commons to the opposite party. That act was not a positive breach of duty, but it was very unbecoming in the Speaker of the House. Although he felt much resentment at the time, however, Lord John regarded it as only an error in judgment.

Dr. BOWRING appeared to give testimony to the dreadful distress pre- valent in Bolton. While the people of that town saw themselves skit out from the use of food grown in excess in other countries, they were purchasing their scanty meals of bacon in halfpennyworths, sometimes to divide among many. He had heard a poor girl exclaim, as she took her halfpennyworth of bacon, " It is a very little bit among six of us." A large portion of the trade of provision-shops was now carried on in halfpennyworths. He pointed to the peril which just now attended our commercial relations with the United States, Brazil, and the countries of Europe, in consequence of our restrictive system ; and said that the agriculturists had no reason to look with alarm on a change of the pre- sent laws ; for the surplus growth of all the corn-producing countries in the world did not probably amount to more than 5,000,000 quarters of wheat : we could consume not only our own corn, but all the corn the world could furnish us with besides.

Mr. P. M. S'TEWART, as the holder of Colonial property, thanked Ministers for the general principle of their proposed measures ; though he did not approve of all the details. In 1828, Mr. Huskisson said that the Corn-law of 1815 had made the prices fall lower than they had ever done under free trade ; and that he was prepared in the following year to fix a certain rate of duty, to be gradually reduced. At the same time, Mr. Peel observed, that the advantage of a permanent system would be a gradual increase in the importation of corn. Mr. Stewart took occasion to protest against the language used by Mr. Roebuck in saying that Mr. M`Leod was amenable to the laws of the United States, and might be hanged. Mr. Stewart would not allow Ministers to usurp the merit of having invented the Budget : it belonged to Sir James 13raham, and was to be found at page 100 of his pamphlet on "Corn , and Currency." Mr. Ste wart read the passage, amid the loud cheers of his party— "The last object, a steady supply of corn at a moderate price, will be ob- tained by a repeal of the present Corn-laws, and by a constant import at a fixed duty—a duty, as I have before stated, equal to the burden borne by the land. Nor will it be wise to stop even at this point. If the landowner is to give up his monopoly for the public good, shall the East India Company and the West India proprietors be suffered for one day to retain the full enjoyment of their exclusive privileges? Shall the consumer be obliged to pay an exorbi- tant price for his tea and for his sugar, that particular interests may be bene- fited ; and shall the landed proprietors and the gentry of these realms alone be sacrificed ? On the contrary, let us adopt the sound principles of free trade; bat let us not permit their application to the staple produce of mere land. Let us destroy the heavy duties on timber, which, at the expense of any man build- ing a ship or a house in the mother-country, are but a paltry premium to our colonies. And, since we are bent on establishing a foreign competition, let us reduce largely those taxes which affect both the commerce and the manufac- tures of the country."

Mr. Stewart claimed Sir James, on his return to the House, as an ad- vacate of Free Trade— He called on him to discuss his old opinions with his new friends, and to turn to a right honourable baronet on his left to discuss with him the "corn" question, and then turn to the right honourable baronet on his right and dis- cuss with him the " currency " question; and, if he discussed his old opinions with his new friends, they should, perhaps, have him, like water, finding his level at last.

Mr. Stewart drew a companion picture to one painted by Sir Robert Peel— He bad read with great delight a graphic sketch given by the right honour- able baronet opposite, at the conclusion of the last session of Parliament, of a good man struggling with difficulties, sitting on an empty chest, and fishing in a bottomless abyss for a Budget. He thought it probable that they should see the good man, the right honourable baronet, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, battling with the difficulties of that situation, and that they should have the spectacle of the right honourable baronet himself bobbing for a Budget. But it was often easier, as anglers knew, to hook than to land a fish ; and he would venture to apply the lines written by Peter Pindar when he took the part of the trout against Isaac Walton- , Aud when he tries to pull thee out.

God give thee strength, thou little trout, To pull old Isaac in."

Mr. SHARMAN Cesweonn would have preferred the Address had it suggested an extension of the Suffrage and the protection of the Ballot. He looked upon the Poor-law as incompatible with the Corn-law. Though his property was wholly in land, he was anxious for the re- moval of all restrictions.

Mr. COBDEN observed, that the question tested by the late election was said to be that of confidence in the Ministry : gentlemen opposite, therefore, did not appear as the representatives of monopoly : he was glad to know that the people of England were not enamoured of mo- nopoly. Members on the opposite side chose to touch upon every point in the conduct of Ministers for ten years past, but had left untouched their last and most important act, the recommendation to revise the Corn-laws. In the olden time, Conservative gentlemen used to treat the Speech as if it were something pertaining to the monarchy, and not to drag Ministers prominently forward without great occasion ; and that, he thought, should still be done with the Speech of the most popular Monarch they had since the time of Alfred. For three years four millions of the people of this country had been petitioning for repeal of the Food-tax. Twenty millions of the people were dependent upon wages, and the Food-tax was a direct tax upon the body of the people. He called the attention of the House to its working— The effect was this—it compelled the working-classes to pay 40 per cent. more, that is, a higher price than they should pay if there was a free trade is corn. When honourable gentlemen spoke of 40s. as the price of foreign corn, they would make the addition 50 per cent. He would not overstate the case, and therefore he set down the bread-tax as imposing an additional tax of 40 per cent. The Report of the Committee on the Hand-loom Weavers gave, among other things, the amount of the earnings of a working-man's family, and that was put down at 10s. The Hand-loom Committee then stated that out of the 10s. every family expended in the week 5s. in bread. Their tax upon that was 2s. weekly ; so that every man who bad lOs. weekly, gave out of that of 2s. to the bread-tax. That was 20 per cent. out of the income of every labouring family. But let them proceed upward and see how the same tax worked. The man who had 20s. a week still paid 2s. a week to the bread-tax ; that was to him 10 per cent. as an income-tax. If they went further—to the man who had 40s. a week—the income-tax upon him in this way was 5 per cent. If they mounted higher—to the man who had 51. a week, or 250/. a year—it was 1 per cent. income-tax. Let them ascend to the nobility and the millionaires, to those who had an income of 200,0001. a year. His family was the same as that of the poor man, and how did the bread-tax affect him? It was one half- penny in every IDOL (Cries of " Oh, oh!" and laughter from the Opposition.) He did not know whether it was the monstrous injustice of the case, or the humble individual who stated it, that excited this manifestation of feeling; but still he did state that the nobleman's family paid to this bread-tax but one half- penny in every 100/. as income-tax, while the effect of the tax upon the labour- ing man's family was 201. per cent. He wished not to be misunderstood upon this point. Suppose an honourable gentleman were to bring in a bill levying an income-tax upon the different grades in society: let it then be supposed that it was proposed to impose upon the labouring man an income-tax of 20s. per cent., and that the nobleman was to pay but a halfpenny out of every 1001.: in such a case as that he was sure that there was no Member of that House, and he hoped no Christian man out of it, who would be parties to the imposing such a tax. And yet that was the tax which was actually levied, not for the purposes of the State, but for the benefit of the richest of the community. It had been said that the manufacturers, who had never been allowed to state their own case, were desirous of lowering wages—that a repeal of the Corn-laws meant reduction of wages— Now, if he knew what it meant, it meant increased trade. They did not wish to diminish wages, but they claimed the right to exchange their manu- factures for the corn of all other countries, by which means they would, he maintained, very much increase trade; and how they could do that except by calling into operation an increased amount of labour, he was at loss to imagine. And he would ask, how could they call an increased demand for labour into activity without raising the rate of the wages of the working-classes. Besides, ae to foreign competition, he maintained that we did already compete with the foreigner. He maintained that we sold our manufactures cheaper than they were sold by any other country ; for if we did not, how could we sell our ma- nufactures upon neutral ground in competition with the producers of other countries ? We now sold in New York every article in competition with the foreigners of other countries, and if we could there sell it cheaper than the foreigner, where was the protection given to the home producer? Ddr. Cobden argued to show that the rate of wages depended entirely on the demand for labour. He then alluded to the assemblage of 650— not thirty—ministers from all parts of the country, at an expense of 3,000 or 4,0001. paid by their congregations. At that meeting state- ments were made, on unimpeachable authority, which showed that the condition of the people had wofully deteriorated within the last ten.

years, and that in proportion to the rise in the price of food. Besides the 650 ministers actually assembled, 1,500 others from whom letters had been received were " offerimi up their prayers," said Mr. Cobden, " in their several localities to incline the will of Him who rules princes and potentates to turn your hearts to justice and mercy." Lord Stanley knew how to estimate such influence, when he said that the moment the religious community and their pastors took up the question of Slavery, the agitation must be successful. What would the people, in the con- dition he had described, feel, when they saw the recommendation of the Queen, to consider the restricted supply of food and diminished labour, scouted by the majority of the House as of secondary importance to the question whether a gentleman in a white hat opposite, or a gentleman m a black hat on this side, should occupy the Treasury benches ? Mr. Cobden declared himself to be neither Whig nor Tory. While acknowledging the virtue of the Whigs in coming so far towards his own position, he promised that if Sir Robert Peel would advance one step further, he should be the first to meet half-way and shake hands with him.

Mr. J. H. Bamtrz questioned the advantage of Mr. Cobden's remedy for existing distress—the increase of trade. The increased production of our manufactures had not hitherto tended to raise the wages of the labourer. During the last twenty years the manufacturing productions had more than trebled, while the wages of the operatives had fallen 70 or 80 per cent.: the master-manufacturers had been making great for- tunes, while the workmen had been reduced to the greatest misery. Mr. Baillie quoted official returns of the exports to prove his state- ment— Cotton goods exported in the year 1819 were 16,631,7091. official value in 1833, 40,058,153/. ; in 18.19, they were 58,471,8051.; and vet in this branch of trade there was now, and had been for a considerable period, an appalling extent of destitution. Was there ever a more magnificent exhibition of manu- facturing prosperity, so far as the master-manufacturers were concerned ? But now let them rererse the picture. What, during the same period, had been the condition of the labouring-classes ? He held in his hand an account of the average sum a good weaver could rain per week in each of those years. In 1814, be could earn 26s.; in 1818, he could only earn 14s. 5d.; in 1823, 9s. 4d. ; in 1828, 6s. 6d.; in 1833, 5s. 4d.; and this last, he believed, was the average at the present moment, exhibiting a reduction in wages of about 79 per cent. How was this to be accounted for ? Was it possible to account for it by the existence of the present Corn-laws ? The effect of the Corn-laws might rather have been to prevent this vast amount of capital from being invested in manu- factures; but they must look in some other direction for the real cause of the distress which prevailed among the labouring classes in the manufacturing districts.

Mr. Baillie attributed the result in part to the improvements in machinery and the substitution of infant for adult labour. He under- stood that 50,000 adults were thrown out of employment yearly, and that master manufacturers contracted with Poor-law Unions for regular supplies of children. The consequent misery was excessive : in Glas- gow, the rate of mortality had increased, between 1822 and 1837, from 1 in 44 to 1 in 24i. Turning to agricultural districts, they found that in Scotland vast tracts of land had been brought into cultivation ; and many more people were employed in happiness and content. Those lands, however, did not return much to the owners—perhaps not more than 5 per cent. : repeal the Corn-law, and they would be thrown out of cultivation ; and the population upon them would be driven to the manufacturing districts, to seek what subsistence they might

Mr. HENRY GRATTAN was surprised to hear the accounts of Scotch prospetity from Mr. Baillie, who had applied for a grant of public money to transport his distressed countrymen to the Colonies. He alluded to the forbearance of the Irish, in not agitating the Corn-law question against Ministers, as proving their dislike to Sir Robert Peel. He charged the Opposition with insolence and arrogance in their treat- ment of the Speech—" words which had fallen from the lips of virtue and goodness." And he described Tory election outrages, and Mr. Nixon's freak of sealing an election-return with a violent anti-Popery seal, to show the sort of allies that Sir Robert Peel must expect to help him through his difficulty with Ireland.

Lord WORSLEY deprecated unseasonable discussions on the Corn- laws. If improvements might be made in the mode of taking the averages, he could not admit that gentlemen opposite were alone capable of dealing with that change; nor could he trust Sir Roberts tampering with the sliding scale.

The House adjourned at twelve o'clock, on the motion of Lord SANDON.

In taking up the debate, on Thursday, Lord SANDON spent some words to show that the question of Free Trade was not that upon which Parliament was sent to the country ; for if a single defeat were a suffi- cient motive to the dissolution, Ministers had often had that motive before. It was the distinct condemnation implied in the vote of want of confidence which really obliged Ministers to dissolve ; and that, therefore, was the question actually submitted to the country. Speaking for himself, he could say that he appealed to his constituents to know whether they approved of the Government's Irish administration, of their conduct with respect to the Church, and the distribution of patronage and magisterial appointments ; questions more deeply and permanently affecting the interests of men than the questions whe- ther a sliding scale should be preferred to a fixed duty, and whether Brazil sugar should be admitted at one time or another ; and the verdict of the people was given on those questions. He believed, indeed, that it also intimated that the people were not satisfied with the propositions of Government ; though he did not mean to say that in returning him, who preferred the sliding duty to the fixed duty, they expressed any opinion on that poiut; yet he did believe that they gave the negative to the proposition of Ministers for the total abolition of the Corn-laws. They might be, and he be- lieved they were, divided on the mode and degree of protection ; but he believed that the great majority were entirely united on the principle that domestic and colonial produce were entitled to protection. He was not insensible to the sufferings of the people, bat he thought that the question of measures like these could be more safely intrusted to others than the present Ministry. Lord Sandon pointed with satisfaction to the fact that the price of sugar was still low ; showing, contrary to the predictions of the opposite party in the debate on the Sugar-duties, that there was an increased supply from the West Indies.

Mr. MILNER Grimm; believed that the country and the great mer- cantile classes attached very little importance to the party questions of which Lord Sandon made so much ; while he was astonished to see him making light of really momentous subjects. Liverpool, no doubt, was a most important town ; but he conceived that if an analysis of the

votes were made, it would prove that Lord Sandon was not returned by the majority of respectable householders, merchants and bankers, but by the freemen. What Lord Sandon said about the general distress amounted to this, that the people were to take courage and not to de- spond—

Now, really, this was not enough to hear from the noble lord. Probably he meant that we were to trust to what the right honourable baronet the Member for Tamworth would do for the country when be came into power. But both

the right honourable gentleman and the noble lord had left them in doubt as to what he really would do ; and much as they bad heard of the evils brought

upon the country, and the uncertainty to trade that was caused by the Mi- nisterial agitation of these questions—much as had been said of the importance of not agitating the country, for fear of unsettling the arrangements of com- merce, and of preventing persons from investing capital—yet he must say that

the uncertainty and indistinctness that hung around the intentions of the right honourable baronet, who was known to be coming into power and able to carry whatever he willed into effect, were much more likely to produce the re-

sults that were so much deprecated. Symptoms of the effect of that uncer- tainty, indeed, had already been seen. Had they not heard a noble Duke else, where declaring, that if the right honourable baronet touched the Corn-laws- he (the noble Duke) would do so and so, and that if he attempted to introduce any thing like the measures of her Majesty's Ministers, the landed interest, who had brought him in, would also turn him out again ? Or, was Sir Robert's

Silence to be taken as merely nothing after all ? Was its significance only on the principle of mane ignatuni pro magnifica? Yet he could not believe that the right honourable baronet would abandon the sound system of policy which ought to guide all future statesmen in this country—the_ principle which he had so emphatically laid down at the time of his introducing Catholic Emancipation—that of yielding to the pressure of the times, and con- ceding when not able longer to resist. He could not believe that the right honourable gentleman could shut his eyes to the fact, that at the present mo- ment such was the state of our commercial interests—so great was the distress and difficulty of obtaining employment for the labouring population, and such was the spirit of discontent and disaffection growing in the country, that he would be unable to resist the repeal of the Corn-laws and the relaxation of one commercial code.

Mr. Gibson was astonished at the conduct of one honourable Member, who had asked for a vote of money to enable his famishing labourers to emigrate to foreign lands—he did not know his name, but that was the remarkable feature of his political character. [Mr. Baillie was the Member.] That same person bad used inflammatory language about

the tender mercies of master manufacturers, and had contrasted the state of the manufacturing population with the agricultural. Mr. Gibson would meet those descriptions of rural felicity with an account of what had taken place in 1839, when the price of corn was high— On the 14th February 1839, at an ordinary meeting of the Board of Guar- dians of Grantham, it was moved by the Duke of Rutland, and seconded by

Gregory Gregory, Esq., and unanimously resolved, that whereas during the high price of corn the labourers not receiving parochial relief were only able to get bread of barley, or barley mixed with wheat, while the paupers were re-

ceiving wheaten bread, the latter should in future receive only the same quality of bread as the independent labourers, in order the sooner to bring about the time when both should be able to eat the same quality of bread. Yet this took place at a time of high prices, when the condition of the agricultural labourer ought, according to the calculations of honourable Members opposite, to be particularly prosperous.

Mr. Gibson cited the testimony of an American gentleman (Ms. Curtis) to show that the chief thing sought in the repeal of the Corn-- laws was not reduction of prices, but the means of exchange with other countries. He acquitted the supporters of the Corn-laws of sinister motives; but it was an unfortunate coincidence, that the peculiar inte- rests in that House were so nearly allied with the preservation of those

monopolies. They were told that the Corn-laws procured permanent employment for a large portion of the population : how stood the fact ?— The fact was that the Corn-laws did not even afford the means of giving employment for the agricultural population. If they referred to the state of the population between 1821 and 1831, the ten years included in the last

census, it would be found that while the population of the whole country had greatly increased, the number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits had diminished to no less an extent than 17,000 families. This was a very remark- able fact, if they looked to the circumstance that the population of the whole country had greatly increased. It should also be recollected, that the Poor-

law Commissioners in their reports stated that pauperism existed in a much greater extent in the agricultural than in the manufacturing districts. Even if it were found that the Corn-laws afforded ample employment for the agri- cultural portion of the population of the country, what advantage could pos- sibly arise in thus keeping in employment one class of the community by keeping another class out of employment ?

No doubt gentlemen opposite were fully justified in discussing the question of want of confidence ; but it was not respectful to the country

altogether to pass over the question of the Corn-law, which pressed so heavily on its great interests. From the general avoidance of the sub- ject, however, it almost seemed as if that silence had been planned and directed at the great political divan which, according to the Times newspaper, assembled at Sir Robert Peel's House on Sunday, probably during the hours of divine service.

Mr. BORTHWICH stuck to the question of confidence : at the proper time he undertook to show that the existing distress had no connexion

with the Corn-laws. The question before the House was not whether

they should discuss the Corn-laws, but how they were to arrive at a discussion. The present Ministry were obstacles to it, and they must

be removed before the subject could be fairly dealt with. The distress was owing to their conduct, in neglecting practical matters while they were wrapped up in theoretical abstractions. Look at Spain and Por- tugal, where they had lost a market for manufactures of 14,000,000E sterling, the amount which those countries used formerly to take ; while now they barely take enough to cover the pay of the miserable Legion. Mr. Borthwick promised for Sir Robert Peel that he would govern Ire- land with even-handed justice, and without mixing up theological and political questions.

Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN supported the Government policy generally. Colonel SIBTHORP rejoiced to see Ministers in their places : he did not want them to resign, but to be drummed out. He recommended their successors to adopt a good military practice of purifying the stables

with good Conservative lime on the introduction of a new set of horses, lest they should be tainted with the political glanders. Alluding in his usual strain to Ministerial appointments, he promised that if Lord Campbell should come into the enjoyment of a pension as Chancellor of Ireland, he should move for a return of the number of days, nay, hours and minutes, that that learned person had worked for the public money.

Mr. C. Pows.m. and Mr. E. TURNER spoke in favour of the Minis- terial Address.

Mr. B. Escorr followed on the opposite side, in a discursive commen- tary on the remarks of other speakers. Speaking with high respect of Mr. Roebuck, he asked if the electors who had returned a Conservative majority, which Mr. Roebuck admitted to be against him, were not the very parties who constituted the people of England ? He deprecated Mr. Roebuck's imputing "sordid" and "mean" motives to the impugners of the Poor-law, and his calling the agricultural interest the starvers of the poor. He contrasted Lord John Russell's with Sir Robert Peel's Claims to the confidence of the country : while Lord John talked of his regard for constitutional principles, Sir Robert Peel showed his regard rather by his acts than his professions.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that if the Government had forfeited the confidence of the country because it had broken the pledges of Lord Grey's Administration, there were two gentlemen opposite whom he should beg to put into the criminal's box in company with the present Ministry (Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham): they shared the blame of the " little war " in Antwerp and the war in Spain ; and they shared also in Parliamentary Reform, and even in the prelimi- nary steps of Municipal Reform. Mr. Baring defended Government from the easily-uttered charge of profligate expenditure. He quoted a return to show, that in the five years preceding 1830 the average yearly expenditure was 54,999,0001., while the average expenditure of Lord Melbourne's Government, since their accession to office in 1835, was li2,148,0001. ; a decrease of 2,450,000/. Or, taking the three years of Lord Wellington's Government, which exhibited an average of 63,462,000/., the decrease appeared to be 1,313,0001.; or, com- paring the Duke of Wellington's average with the very expensive year just past, the decrease was 18,0001. When the Whigs came Into office in 1831, the whole public debt was 838,549,0001.; in 1841, including the 20,000,0001. of West Indian compensation, there was a decrease of a million; or excluding it, the debt was 815,597,0001. He went on to explain that the use of the Savings Bank funds caused no insecurity : the depositors had the same guarantees as the holders of the Public Stocks. He justified the policy of Government in getting rid of the cumbersome and delusive Sinking-fund, by the increase which it had induced in the revenue ; in 1831, the revenue was 51,000,000/. and odd ; in 1839, it was 51,927,0001., though taxation had been taken off to the extent of six millions.

Mr. GOULBURN combated these statements and inferences. By taking the average of the expenditure in the five years ending with the Duke of Wellington's ministration, a delusion was practised ; for that ex- penditure in the first year was at a very high amount, and it was con- tinually decreasing: the proper point of comparison, therefore, would have been the last year under the Duke. The extravagance chargeable against Ministers was, not that they spent so much, but that they did not apportion their expenditure to their income. But Mr. Baring's financial sagacity exceeded any thing on record he said that Ministers had reduced the debt by 13,000,0001. in ten years. Mr. Goulburn ex- plained the trick— At the time when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, be brought into Parliament an act which gave the power to the Commissioners for the National Debt to cancel portions of the debt on granting to the parties annuities for terms of years. The effect of this was to create a sinking-fund, which di- minished the amount of the capital of the debt, but increased the annual charge to which the country was subjected. Suppose that these annuities were granted for twelve years, they. were worth twelve years' purchase from the commence- ment only; but the right honourable gentleman valued these annuities still at twelve years' purchase. Mr. Goulburn, having an additional charge to provide for, took care so to regulate his financial income as to nmet it. At the end of ten years they had two years still to run, and were in reality worth two years' purchase instead of twelve; and what did the right honourable gentleman do ? Why, be conveniently took the difference as a material deduction from the na- tional burdens !

Mr. Goulburn was glad that Mr. Baring bad disabused the public mind as to any insecurity in the Savings Banks ; but he objected to Mr. Baring's conduct in that matter— The Savings Banks bad the power of vesting the monies received by them in may security which they might think most eligible, and moreover, if they in- vested them in Exchequer Bills, of ransoming them, and requiring the Govern- ment to furnish them with new stock, which must be added to the principal of the Funded Debt of the country. This power was given with a view to meet the cases of Exchequer Bills which from time to time it became necessary to fund, but not to enable a Government artificially to provide a temporary re- venue without the knowledge of Parliament. Yet this was the course to which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had resorted ; and the money thus obtained from the Savings Banks was applied to the curreot expenses of the year. Mr. WAKLEY laughed at the way in which the public accounts were kept, so that one gentleman could prove a gain and another a loss at the same time. Meanwhile; what was the condition of the people ? They bore their misery quietly, and then the House cheered! Mr. Wakley devoted great part of his speech to show that Ministers were entitled to a hearing of their measures in the new Parliament ; which Sir Robert Peel claimed and obtained to its fullest extent in 1835, though beaten from the first in division after division. By doing otherwise now—by setting the Royal Speech at nought—the majority were acting to the injury of monarchical institutions. Ministers had lost a golden opportunity of serving their country— They would not listen to the advice of the Radical party. He had himself pre- scribed without a fee in 1837. He did not wait for a fee, but he considered be was fairly called into consultation when his constituents sent him to that Rouse. All that he had prescribed was three small powders. The noble lord reliected them. But Mr. Wakley would ask them how be liked the 360 bitter pis that be saw opposite. (Laughter.) His remedy was simple and appro- priate ; but he feared the medicine which had been prescribed for the noble lord, and which he thought he would be compelled to swallow, would very soon re- move him from the seat which he then occupied. (Roars of laughter.) He wished the noble lord with all his heart well out of his difficulty, and more especially as he was now one of the Metropolitan " demagogues."

However, Sir Robert Peel should have no factious opposition from

Mr. Wakley ; who would support him as long as he behaved well— The right honourable baronet had undoubted capacity ; he was a man of vast abilities. He knew more of the right honourable baronet's abilities than many other persons in the House, for he had taken a phrenological survey of his head. Yes, the right honourable baronet commanded that intellectual power which was so essential in a Minister of a great country.

If Sir Robert avoidetl bad advice, he might do incalculable benefit ; but if he went on in the old Tory track, he would raise up a great national party to oppose him. Mr. Wakley recommended a revision of the Currency Bill of 1819 : a debt had been contracted in paper which the nation was now called on to pay in gold. But if Sir Robert should come into office, who were to be his colleagues ? Did he agree with Sir James Graham about currency? or with Lord Stanley about Ireland? Mr. Wakley advised Sir Robert to administer soothing medicine to Ire- land ; and commended the Poor-law to his serious attention.

The House then adjourned, at a quarter past twelve.

MR. 14PLEOD'S CASE.

Mr. ROEBUCK, on Thursday, put a series of questions to Lord Pal- merston, respecting the detention of Mr. M'Leod by the State of New York, on a charge of murder. When the Caroline steamer was destroyed in the waters of the United States, an application was made to the Government of this country, but to that no answer was returned. Mr. M'Leod was afterwards in the United States ; and from his own boastful statements, he was arrested on the charge of having participated in the attack. Mr. Fox, the British Minister, demanded his liberation ; but Mr. Forsyth, then the United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said that the matter was wholly within the jurisdiction of the State of New York, and that the President neither could nor wished to interfere. The United States had very early in their history declared themselves amenable to the international law of Europe, and had also declared that their sole medium of communi- cation with other nations was through their Federal Government, or, in other words, through their President. Under such circumstances, this country could be assumed to have no more knowledge of the views and feelings of the State of New York than the citizens of that State had of the views and feelings of the county of Rutland. Therefore the answer of this country ought to have been, that this country knew nothing of the State of New York. Mr. Roebuck now asked, whether there had been any change is the language of the United States Government since the change in the Administration in that country? whether by any formal declaration the British Government had as- sumed the responsibility of the attack upon the Caroline? whether the American Government had demanded reparation for the injury in- flicted upon the United States?—for if so, the United States could not turn round and say that the separate State alone had jurisdiction in the matter: whether the British Government had specially informed the United States that Mr. M'Leod had acted in the matter under the com- mand of his superior officer, and under the express sanction of his Government ? whether the United States Government had been asked if it was able and willing, after such a declaration, to guarantee the safety and liberation of Mr. M'Leod, notwithstanding the determi- nation of the State of New York to go on with the proceedings against him in the State courts? whether the United States had admitted the validity of such an authority as a protection over Mr. M'Leod ; and if so, whether Lord Palmerston could state any circumstance which justi- fied his continued detention ?

Lord PALMERSTON, with a protest against the irregularity of pre- facing questions by a narrative which might lead to a discussion, ad- mitted the substantial correctness of that narrative. The first reply of the United States was unsatisfactory. It was, however, a doctrine of international law, that no government could reply to a demand for redress from another government that it had peculiar institutions within its own country. A subsequent reply from the United States had been quite different from the first; and as an answer to more than one of Mr. Roebuck's questions, Lord Palmerston read extracts from instruc- tions addressed by the new Foreign Secretary of the United States, Mr. Webster, to Mr. Crittenden, the Attorney-General ; in which, after stating that Mr. Fox had avowed the attack on the Caroline to have been planned and executed by persons duly empowered by the British Colonial Authorities, Mr. Webster admits the law that a person acting under the authority of his Government is not to be regarded as a private malefactor or trespasser, and says- " Since the attack on the Caroline is avowed as a national act, which may justify reprisals or even general war, if the Government of the United States in the judgment which it shall form of the transaction and of its own duty should see fit to decide, yet it raises a question entirely public and political—a question between independent nations ; and individuals concerned in it cannot be arrested and tried before the ordinary tribunals as for the violation of municipal Jaw. If the attack upon the Caroline were unjustifiable, as this Government has asserted, the law which has been violated is the law of na- tions ; and the redress which is to be sought is the redress authorized in such cases by the provisions of that code. You are well aware that the President has no power to arrest the proceedings in the civil and criminal courts of the State of New York. If this indictment were pending in one of the courts of the United States, I am directed to say that the President, upon the receipt of Mr. Fox's last communication would have immediately directed a nolle prosequi to be entered."

Only one question remained to be answered—namely, whether the American Government had made a demand for reparation on the part of the United States at large, and not of New York especially ? Un- questionably the first demand had been made on the latter ground. These facts, however, upset Mr. Roebuck's suggestion on a former evening, that a special envoy should have been sent to the State of New York ; for that would have been to deny the fundamental principle of the United States Constitution, and would have been an affront to the Federal Government. Lord Palmerston would say no more ; for he would not anticipate the future conduct of the United States Govern- ment.

MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTICES OF MOTION. In the House of Commons, on Tuesday, Sir VALENTINE BLAKE gave notice, that on the 30th instant he should Move for leave to introduce a bill to exempt Members of Parliament from the necessity of taking the Oath of Supremacy ; Mr. EWART, that on the 30th he should move resolutions to diminish the number of mem- bers in Private Committees ; Mr. BROTHERTON, on the same day, re - solutions against beginning new business in the House after twelve o'clock at night ; Mr. Fasmcn, that on the 31st he should move for a Committee of the whole House on Irish Railways ; Sir EDWARD Sea- DRN, that on the 2d September he should move for leave to introduce a bill for the better Administration of Justice in the House of Lords and in the Privy Council, and on an early day for a Committee to inquire into the Acts suspending the Usury-laws. On Wednesday, Mr. SHARMAN CRAWFORD gave notice, that, early next session, he should move for leave to introduce a bill to amend the law of landlord and tenant in the United Kingdom, with a view to pro- tect the tenant from ejection until he shall have been paid the cost of permanent improvements made at his expense; and Dr. BONN RING, early next session, to move resolutions for the better security of the Public Revenue, and the greater accuracy, completeness, and intel- ligibleness of the Public Accounts.

On Thursday, Mr. WAI.LACE gave notice, that on the 31st August he should move an address praying the Crown not to appoint a suc- cessor to the present Postmaster-General ; and also a resolution to restore the old practice of speaking on petitions upon their presentation to the House.

CONTROVERTED EsEcTrotss. Petitions have been presented against the returns for Great Marlow, Nottingham, Weymouth, Melcombe Regis, Thetford, Clitheroe, Belfast, Lewes, and Longford.

SYRIAN WAR. Sir CHARLES NAPIER asked, on Thursday, whether it was intended to give compensation to the peaceable inhabitants of St. Jean d'Acre and of Syria, whose property had been destroyed in the late war ? Lord PALMERSTON had received a copy of a despatch con- taining a renewed order from the Sultan to the Governor of Acre to make full reparation.