their lordships would be signing the death-warrant of the Protestant establishment of Ireland and if the Protestant establishment of Ireland fell, that of England would shortly follow; and with the downfall of the church a revolution would ensue. Lord Eldon, in obedience to a general call made on him by the house, spoke at great length, and with evident sincerity on this important question. He commenced by stating that ministers who had introduced the bill, were actuated by a sense of their duty, though he lamented their conduct. At the same time he could not acquit the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel of wilfully deceiving the people, and bringing them into a state of apathy, by leading them into a persuasion that no measure of the kind would be brought forward at least this session. On Lord Lyndhurst, however, the ex-chancellor was more severe; that noble lord having endeavoured to excuse his own frailty by fixing a similar charge of inconsistency on Lord Eldon. As regards the measure itself, Lord Eldon said that he must say, once for all, that he did not mean to rest any part of his opposition to it on the terms of the coronation-oath; neither would he contend that to alter any of the laws enacted at the Revolution was beyond the competence of parliament. This, however, (looking at the 13th, 25th, and 30th of Charles II., that the exclusion from parliament produced by the last of those statutes,) was in conformity with the true construction of the acts of 1688, and with the act of union between England and Scotland in the reign of Queen Anne. These he contended were meant to be the ruling and governing principles of the constitution, until a strong necessity for altering it should be made apparent. His lordship then went on to show the futility of the securities demanded, and of the measure itself, as it regarded the tranquillization of Ireland. The securities tendered, he said, were of two kinds: first, those which belonged to the change as it might operate upon the minds of the Roman Catholics; secondly, those which were connected with the bill itself, and the other measure by which it was attended. First, they had passed a law to put down the Catholic Association; but although that was due to the dignity of Parliament, as a security against the dangers which he apprehended, neither that measure nor the precautionary clauses of the one then before the house were, in his mind, anything else than a mere nullity. But it was said, that only six or seven Roman Catholics could be admitted into that house, and only some thirty or forty into the commons. I ask, said his lordship, whether there is no other mode of obtaining seats in that house but by the suffrage of freeholders? The bill itself is one to which I feel the strongest objection. It provides in no shape for that advice which may be given by the ministers of the crown, who may all but one, be Roman Catholics. If there should be but one or two Protestant ministers I cannot see how they can maintain their opinions; and perhaps on the maintenance of their opinion might depend the maintenance of the Protestant constitution. In conclusion, Lord Eldon said, that he should have preferred that a proposition had been made by the noble duke for going into a committee to examine the reasons for originating such a bill, because it would have been but right that, in a matter of so much importance, your lordships should have known something more of the grounds of that expediency upon which you are called to legislate. Lord Plunkett said that he had reserved himself for the purpose of hearing the unanswerable arguments against the bill which Lord Eldon had threatened to produce when the measure came fairly before the house. As that noble and learned lord, however, had brought forth nothing but the ipse dixit of his own authority, unsustained either by ingenious argument, by historical deduction, or by appeal to public and authenticated documents, he felt himself so far absolved from the necessity of refuting anticipated arguments, that he would apply his observations more particularly to the position, that the bill was calculated to subvert the Protestant constitution. In the course of his remarks on this vital point of the question, his lordship observed, that he had been asked whether this was a Protestant kingdom? and whether this was not a Protestant government, and a Protestant parliament? In one sense he admitted it was a Protestant kingdom, but it did not exclude papists. He admitted, also, that the parliament was essentially and predominantly Protestant; and in that sense, but in no other, the parliament was Protestant. He concluded by saying that the present bill did not give the Roman Catholics any benefit without an oath; an oath too which combined in its language every possible security that such a form could afford. Earl Grey spoke at great length, repeating the argument that an exclusion of Catholics had not originally formed any part of the Protestant government, since they had been found in parliament from the reign of Elizabeth down to that of Charles II.; that the exclusion was adopted to guard against political dangers of a temporary nature, which had long disappeared; that it formed no essential part of the Revolution settlement, or of the bill of rights; and that the coronation oath was never intended to restrain the king from consenting to such alterations as parliament in its wisdom might enact. Earl Grey also entered at great length into that important part of the question, which related to its bearing on the act of union with Scotland. On every ground, he continued, the right to make the change was clear; and, in his opinion, the justice and prudence of making it were equally obvious. The great object of alarm seemed to be the political power which the bill would confer, and which, it was said, was the object at which the Catholics had all along been aiming. The bill would certainly bestow political power; but, he argued, it was power of the most legitimate kind, and that to which they were justly entitled. As to the effect of the bill on the state of Ireland, he would not say that it would at once give tranquillity, and remove all dangers; but he felt sure that without it it was impossible to have tranquillity and freedom from danger in that country. By the system of exclusion, lie said, they had produced more than one rebellion in Ireland, which had been extinguished in blood; but had they, he asked, induced tranquillity? By no means. On the contrary, Ireland had been growing worse and worse every year, requiring a larger military force to keep the people obedient to the laws, and that in a time of peace. Was this the mode of making that country a useful portion of the empire? Was it the way in which we should be preparing for war? But, it was urged, if you pass this bill, the church of Ireland is destroyed, and Catholic ascendancy virtually proclaimed. That church, unfortunately, was placed in a situation which could not be freed from dangers of one sort or another. The great obstacle to its triumph had always been, that it had never been the church of more than a small minority of the people of Ireland; and that it was the church of so very small a minority, he verily believed, was owing to those very laws which they now sought to repeal. Take them away, and the number of its disciples would increase, not from the spirit of conversion..... for any open attempt in that way would be impolitic—but from its superior reason, and from its more wholesome tenets, which would come more fairly into play as soon as it should be relieved from the invidious situation in which it at present stood. Take away the false protection, of exclusive laws, and superior excellence would prevail in the conflict of argument. The debate was closed by the Duke of Wellington, who treated the apprehended danger to the Irish church as futile, considering that the throne would be filled by a Protestant, and that the fundamental article of the union between the two countries was the union of the two churches. Adverting to the charge of inconsistency brought against himself and his colleagues, his grace remarked:—"A different topic to which I wish to advert, is a charge brought against several of my colleagues, and also against myself, by the noble earl on the cross-bench, of a want of consistency in our conduct. My lords, I admit that many of my colleagues, as well as myself, did on former occasions vote against a measure of a similar description to this; and, my lords, I must say that my colleagues and myself felt, when we adopted this measure, that we should be sacrificing ourselves and our popularity to that which we feel to be our duty to our sovereign and our country. We knew very well that if we put ourselves at the head of the Protestant cry of 'No Popery,' we should be much more popular even than those who have excited against us that very cry. But we felt that in so doing we should have left on the interests of the country a burden, which must end in bearing them down; and further, that we should have deserved the hate and execration of our countrymen. Then I am accused, and by a noble and learned friend of mine, of having acted with great secrecy respecting this measure. Now I beg to tell him that he has done that to me, in the course of the discussion., which he complains of others having done to him; in other words, he has, in the language of a right honourable friend of his and mine, thrown a large paving-stone instead of throwing a small pebble. I say, that if he accuses me of acting with secrecy on this question, he does not deal with me altogether fairly. He knows as well as I do how the cabinet was constructed on this question; and I ask him, had I any right to say a single word to any man whatsoever upon this measure, until the person most interested in the kingdom upon it had given his consent to my speaking out? Before he accused me of secrecy, and of improper secrecy, too, he ought to have known the precise day upon which I received the permission of the highest personage in the country, and had leave to open my mouth upon this measure. There is another point also on which a noble earl accused me of misconduct; and that is, that I did not at once dissolve the parliament. Now I must say that I think noble lords are mistaken in the notion of the benefits which they think that they would derive from a dissolution of parliament at this crisis. I believe that many of them are not aware of the consequences of a dissolution of parliament at any time. But when I know, as I did know, and as I do know, the state of the elective franchise in Ireland, when I recollected the number of men it took to watch one election which took place in Ireland in the course of last summer; when I knew the consequences which a dissolution would produce on the return to the house of commons, to say nothing of the risks which must have been incurred at each election—of collisions that might have led to something short of civil war—I say that, knowing all these things, I should have been wanting in duty to my sovereign and to my country if I had advised his majesty to dissolve his parliament." On a division the same house of peers which in 1828 had declared, by a majority of forty-five, that emancipation would be a breach of the constitution, and dangerous to the Protestant establishment, now declared, by a majority of two hundred and seventeen against one hundred and twelve, it was consistent with the constitution; and that, if it did no good, it would not do any harm to the Protestant church.

On the 7th and 8th of April the bill passed through a committee, in which, as in the commons, many amendments were moved, but none carried. It was read a third time on the 10th of April, after another debate, in which the former arguments were repeated on both sides of the question; and on the 13th of the same month it received its final confirmation in the royal assent. The working of that measure will be best seen in the future pages of this history; but it may be here observed, that it has proved neither an immediate, nor a sufficient cure for the disorders of Ireland. Protestant ascendancy was too deeply and extensively rooted in all its institutions to admit of such a remedy; nor was it likely that the Roman Catholics, having acquired means to break their chain, would remain long without trying their efficiency. Agitation had procured this boon; and the Roman Catholics, thus successful, have sought to obtain other benefits by the same unhallowed means. Agitation is, in fact, still the bane of Ireland.



BILL FOR THE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE FORTY-SHILLING FREEHOLDERS.

{GEORGE IV. 1829—1830}

Emancipation having thus been gained, Mr. Peel brought in a bill for the disfranchisement of the Irish forty-shilling freeholders, and for raising the qualification to ten pounds. This was part and parcel of the general measure, and it met with no serious opposition even in Ireland. The very Whigs supported it, hostile as it was to popular rights and destructive of vested political franchises, as an essential part of a whole; the other and better part of which they were unwilling to lose. Mr. Brougham said, he consented to it as the price, the almost extravagant price, of the inestimable good which would result from emancipation; and it was described by Sir James Mackintosh as one of those tough morsels which he had scarcely been able to swallow. It was opposed by Mr. Huskisson and others as a measure uncalled for by any necessity, and not fitted to gain that object which alone was held out as justifying it. It was absurd, it was said, to allege as a pretext for it, the influence and conduct of the Catholic priesthood; for all who knew anything of that influence, knew that it was chiefly felt when it ran with the current of popular feeling; and that it was even exercised with a view to maintain submission to the laws. If the forty-shilling freeholders had been corrupt, like those of Penryn, their disfranchisement might be defended; but the only offence of the persons against whom this bill was directed, had been that they exercised their privilege honestly and independently, according to the dictates of their own consciences. In reply to this, Mr. Peel mentioned an instance of the power of the priests as having occurred at the Clare election. At the commencement of that election a landlord of the county had promised his interest to Mr. V. Fitzgerald. The landlord had a voter on his estate who was under great personal obligations to him; and previous to the commencement of the contest, he said to this voter, "I shall vote for Mr. Fitzgerald; I suppose you mean to do the same." The man declared his determination to imitate the example of his patron; but as the struggle drew nearer, a degree of excitement was produced to which it was only necessary to allude: and the freeholder did not escape its effects. He came to his landlord with sixty pounds in his hands, and addressed him thus:—"I have saved this sum while your tenant, and upon your property. I cannot redeem the promise which I gave you. There, take the sixty pounds, make use of it to promote the interests of Mr. Fitzgerald; but my vote I must give to Mr. O'Connell." "Could anything," he asked, "be so painful as the situation of him who was obliged to perform such a part, to observe such a doubtful contest between his religion and his conscience?" On a division only seventeen members voted against the bill; and it passed into a law. Mr. O'Connell had publicly bound himself to reject even emancipation if accompanied by such a condition, and to perish in the field, or on the scaffold, if necessary, in defence of his "forties;" but he forgot his vows, and became silent and acquiescent.



THE CASE OF MR. O'CONNELL.

At the time of the Clare election Mr. O'Connell had assured the people that he was entitled to sit in parliament without taking the oaths, which no Catholic could take. He had staked his professional reputation on this point, and had given assurances that he held other learned opinions to the same purport. His return had subsequently been petitioned against; but a committee to whom the petition had been referred, had reported that he was duly elected. Now, according to the old law, under which Mr. O'Connell's claim had arisen—he having been elected before the measure of emancipation had passed—if a person known and believed to be a Catholic could take certain oaths, which oaths involved an abjuration of Popery, he was entitled to take his seat. The new act, however, did not seem to forward his pretensions. The oath, indeed, which it substituted for those that were abrogated, could be taken by a Catholic as well as a Protestant; but that provision was expressly limited to "any person professing the Roman Catholic religion, after the commencement of this act, be returned as a member of the house of commons." Mr. O'Connell and his friends, however, held that from the moment the bill received the royal assent, there was an end to the power of administering the abrogated oaths, or demanding any of the declarations which then stood repealed. On these grounds Mr. O'Connell hoped to take his seat in parliament. He presented himself at the table of the house on the 15th of May; and the clerk produced the oath which had been repealed by the late act. A brief conversation took place; and the clerk having communicated what took place to the speaker, he addressed the house thus: "It is my duty to state, if I have been correctly informed, that the course which the honourable member has proposed to take, is a course which, until overruled by stronger authority, I do not conceive it my duty to acquiesce in. I understand that he proposes to take the oath prescribed to be taken by Roman Catholics as it is to be found in an act of parliament recently passed. As I read that act of parliament, it is my impression, and on my impression it is my duty to act, that it involves two points relative to the course to be pursued in taking seats in this house. The first point is that of repealing the declaration against transubstantiation; the other, that of appointing an oath to be taken by such members of this house as profess the Roman Catholic creed; but with this condition, that those members should be returned subsequently to the passing of the act. Now the honourable member was returned, as the house is well aware, long before the passing of this act. I have, therefore, only to refer to the law affecting all the members of this house until the late act passed; and, with the single exception of repeating the declaration against transubstantiation, I have to state that the construction which has been uniformly put on the law of the land, and which has been repeatedly sanctioned and confirmed by act of parliament, is, that every member, before taking his seat, shall take the oath of allegiance and supremacy before the lord-steward, and the oath of abjuration at the table of this house. This is the course which, by law, the dignity and the privileges of this house require. I state this the rather because it is well known that this house is open to an appeal by petition, or it may be brought forward by any member in this house. In that case, the house will be better able to judge, and to state its opinion of the propriety of the conduct which it appeared to me to be my duty to pursue. I, therefore, state to the honourable gentleman that he must withdraw." Mr. O'Connell having withdrawn, Mr. Brougham moved, that he should be called back, and heard at the table in support of his claim to be admitted on taking no other oath than that contained in the late act. Mr. W. Wynn was of opinion that Mr. O'Connell was entitled to be heard at the bar of the house, and that it made no difference whether he was heard there or at the table, though it was his opinion it might be better to adhere to the former course. Mr. Peel, however, thought there was a great distinction between hearing the applicant at the table and at the bar; and that he had no right to be heard at the former. The debate on this point was adjourned to the 18th of April; on which day it was finally ordered, on Mr. Peel's motion, "that the member for Clare be heard at the bar, with reference to his claim to sit and vote in the house of commons without taking the oath of supremacy." On his appearance at the bar, Mr. O'Connell maintained that the Act of Union with Ireland entitled him to sit without taking the oath of supremacy; and that the act lately passed entitled him to sit without taking the declaration against transubstantiation. He claimed, under the spirit and effect of the new statute, to sit without taking the oath of supremacy; and he claimed also, under its positive enactments, to sit without taking any other oath than what was therein contained. There were many points in his arguments very strongly put, and they were delivered with a temperance calculated to conciliate the good will of the house. Even the lawyers, also, who were opposed to Mr. O'Connell, confessed that there were doubts as to the true meaning of the oath of supremacy; but the house, notwithstanding, came to the resolution, that unless Mr. O'Connell took that oath, he was not entitled to sit or vote in that house. A motion to that effect, moved by the solicitor-general, was carried by a majority of one hundred and ninety against one hundred and sixteen. Mr. O'Connell was then called again to the bar, and the speaker having put the question to him whether he would take the oath or not, he replied:—"I see, in this oath, one assertion as to a matter of fact which I know is not true, and see in it another assertion, as to a matter of opinion which I believe is not true; I therefore refuse to take this oath." A new writ was now ordered for a new election, and Mr. O'Connell went back to Ireland to be re-elected by his constituents. The decision had an untoward effect upon his mind; for he now loaded ministers with the most opprobrious epithets, as men who having been false to their own party could never be true to any other. It caused him, indeed, to announce his ulterior design to effect a repeal of the union by that system of agitation which had already proved so successful. This purpose he has deliberately followed up by the most inflammatory harangues, and various other modes of popular excitement. From that day to this year, indeed, his whole career has been one long course of agitation to effect the repeal of the union; but whether he or any other agitator in Ireland will ever be gratified by such an event demands a doubt.



FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

The chancellor of the exchequer opened the budget on the 8th of May. From his statements it appeared that the revenue of the preceding year so far exceeded his estimate as to leave a surplus of nearly L6,000,000 for the sinking-fund. For the present year, however, as the house was anxious to abolish the absurd system of defraying the expense of military and naval pensions, or the "dead weight" as it was called, by postponing its burdens, he estimated the gross revenue at L51,347,000 and the expenditure at L48,333,593, by which means he left only a clear sinking-fund of L3,000,000 for diminishing the public debt. The finance committee had recommended that this sum should always be kept inviolate for the purpose of reducing the national debt; and as the surplus on which they could calculate was no greater, no part of it could be applied to the reduction of the burthens of the country.



MOTION FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

The last parliamentary result of the measures passed in regard to Ireland was a motion for parliamentary reform. On the 2nd of June, the Marquis of Blandford, one of the ultra-tories, moved a series of resolutions, which went to declare that there existed a number of boroughs the representation of which could be purchased, and others in which the number of electors was so small as to render them liable to the influence of bribery; and that such a system was disgraceful to the character of the house of commons, destructive of the confidence which the people should repose in it, and prejudicial to the best interests of the country. The Marquis of Blandford supported his motion on the ground that late events had shown how completely the representative body could be separated from the feelings, the wishes, and the opinions of the people. An imperious necessity had also been added to the already existing propriety of putting down the borough-monger and his trade: all the rights and liberties of the country were in jeopardy, so long as majorities were to be obtained by a traffic of seats and services. "After what had happened," said his lordship, "the country demanded some statutory provision to secure its agriculture, its manufactures, and its trade; but more especially to secure Protestant interests against the influx and increase of the Roman Catholic party, one mode of securing this, and at the same time of purifying the representation, would be to abolish the borough market, which had now been thrown open to Catholics." This motion, which was intended to be rather in the nature of a notice, than made with any design of having the topics which it embraced fully discussed, was supported by some of the old reformers, though on different grounds from that dislike of free trade, and apprehension of Catholic influence which animated the mover. Mr. W. Smith, in voting for the resolutions, expressed his high satisfaction that the relief bill had produced an effect unanticipated—the transforming a number of the highest tories in the land, into something very like radical reformers. The resolutions, however, were rejected by a majority of four hundred and one against one hundred and eighteen.



PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT, ETC.

Parliament was prorogued by commission on the 24th of June. The speech regretted that war still continued in the east of Europe; announced that his majesty had been enabled to renew his diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Porte; and adverted to the unfortunate condition of the Portuguese monarchy. In allusion to the Catholic relief bill, the speech remarked: "His majesty has commanded us in conclusion to express the sincere hope of his majesty that the important measures, which have been adopted by parliament in the course of the present session may tend, under the blessing of Divine Providence, to establish the tranquillity and improve the condition of Ireland; and that by strengthening the bonds of union between the several parts of this great empire, they may consolidate and augment its power and promote the happiness of his people." About this time the legal arrangements rendered necessary by the dismissal of Sir Charles Wetherell were completed: Sir James Scarlett, who had filled the same office under Mr. Canning, became the attorney-general of the Duke of Wellington; Sir Nicholas Tindal was made chief-justice of the common pleas, Chief-Justice Best being removed into the house of peers, under the title of Lord Wynford; and Mr. Sugden succeeded the former as solicitor-general.



STATE OF AFFAIRS IN IRELAND.

The Catholic relief bill was impotent to stem the tide of agitation in Ireland. That country, indeed, in the very year that it passed, presented the same scenes of violence and outrage as before. While the registation rendered necessary by the act which disfranchised the forty-shilling freeholders was going on, Mr. O'Connell was taking measures to secure his re-election for the county of Clare. In a letter to the electors he again raised the standard of defiance to government. It represented himself and his constituents, in fact, as the conquerors of the government; and spoke of it as faithless and insulting. In it he remarked: "The house of commons have deprived me of the right conferred on me by the people of Clare. They have, in my opinion, unjustly and illegally deprived me of that right; but from their decision there is no appeal, save to the people. I appeal to you. In my person the county of Clare has been insulted. The brand of degradation has been raised to mark me, because the people of Clare fairly selected me. Will the people of Clare endure this insult, now that they can firmly but constitutionally efface it for ever? Electors of the county of Clare, to you is due the glory of converting Peel and conquering Wellington! The last election for Clare is admitted to have been the immediate irresistible cause of producing the Catholic relief bill. You have achieved the religious liberty of Ireland. Another such victory in Clare, and we shall attain the political freedom of our beloved country." The victory which had been achieved, he said, was still necessary to be maintained in order to "prevent Catholic rights and liberties from being sapped and undermined by the insidious policy of those men who, false to their own party, can never be true to us, and who have yielded, not to reason, but to necessity, in granting us freedom of conscience." Even the Catholic relief bill itself did not escape the censure of Mr. O'Connell. The prohibition contained in it against the growth of the monastic orders especially was denounced by him. He remarked:—"I trust I shall be the instrument of erasing from the statute-book that paltry imitation of the worst and still existing portion of Jacobinism, a miserable imitation, which pretends to do that which nature and religion forbid to be done—to extinguish monastic orders in Ireland. While it is law, its penalties will be submitted to; but let me add as a matter of fact, that its mandate will most assuredly not be obeyed. It was formerly death in Ireland to be a friar; and the Irish earth is still scarcely dry from the blow of martyred friars: the friars multiplied in the face of death. Oh for the sagacity of Peel, and the awful wisdom of Wellington, that meditate to suppress monastic orders in Ireland by a pecuniary penalty, and the dread of a foreign mission, under the name of banishment!" In this letter Mr. O'Connell made some magnificent promises to the electors of Clare and the people of Ireland at large. He would obtain the repeal of the disfranchisement act, of the sub-letting act, and of the vestry bill; would assail the system of "grand jury jobbing, and grand jury assessment;" would procure an equitable distribution of church property between the poor on the one hand, and the laborious portion of the Protestant clergy on the other; would cleanse the Augean stables of the law, for which Herculean task his professional habits gave him peculiar facilities; would procure for every Catholic rector of a parish, a parochial house, and an adequate glebe; would make manifest the monstrous injustice that had been done to the Jesuits and the monastic orders; would wage war against the East India charter; would strain every nerve in the cause of parliamentary reform; and would provide a system of poor laws for Ireland that would be agreeable even to those who had to pay their money for the support of the poor. He added:—"If the gentry of Clare are desirous to have as their representative a man who is able and most desirous to protect in parliament their properties and permanent interests, let them do me the honour to elect me. But let them not lay the flattering unction to their souls, that they can, without an independent man of business as their representative, postpone the introduction of the English system of poor laws." As soon as Mr. O'Connell took the field an "aggregate meeting" of Catholics, which was nothing else than a meeting of the Catholic Association took place, to consider what steps should be adopted to forward his re-election. The first thing done was to vote L5000 of the rent as an aid to assist the agitator in standing for the county of Clare, The election did not excite much interest, as Mr. O'Connell was not opposed; but it was preceded and accompanied by "triumphant entries" as they were called; that is, assemblages of large crowds of people, to whom were addressed harangues in which inflammatory abuse was mixed up with low buffoonery. On the subject of the repeal of the union with England, he said at Youghall:—"We have now a brighter era opened to us; and I trust that all classes of my countrymen will join together, and, by forming one general firm phalanx, achieve what is still wanting to make Ireland what it ought to be. Ireland had her 1782, she shall have another 1782. Let no man tell me it is useless to look for a repeal of the odious union, that blot upon our national character. I revere the union between England and Scotland; but the union which converted Ireland into a province, which deprived Ireland of her parliament, it is for the repeal of that measure we must now use all the constitutional means in our power: that union which engenders absenteeism, and the thousand other evils which naturally flow in its train. We are bound to England by the golden link of the crown; and far be it from me to weaken that connexion by my present observations: I want no disseveration; but I want and must have a repeal of that cursed measure which deprived Ireland of her senate, and thereby made her a dependent upon British aristocracy and British interests. I may perhaps be told that to attempt a repeal of the union would be chimerical. I pity the man who requires an argument in support of the position that Ireland wants her parliament; and that individual who pronounces the attainment of such a consummation to be Utopian, is reminded of the Catholic question. Look at the Catholic cause. Do I not remember when it was difficult to procure a meeting of five Catholics to look for a restoration of our then withheld rights? I recollect when we agitators were almost as much execrated by our fellow-slaves, as we were by our oppressors. For the attainment of the repeal of the union, I shall have the co-operation of all classes and grades in society: the Orangemen of the north, the Methodist of the south, and the quiet unpresuming Quaker, who may think his gains shall be thereby augmented, all shall be joined in one common cause, the restoration of Ireland's parliament." But this was a mild attack upon England compared with other portions of the agitator's speeches. It is no wonder then that Ireland soon presented scenes of as much violence as those from which the emancipation bill was to relieve her for ever. The hostile feelings of parties continued, and manifested themselves in the same way as heretofore. Catholics and Protestants alike had recourse to organization, and the slightest accident, the most casual collisions produced contention, and generally ended in bloodshed. Thus on the 12th of July, which the Protestants had resolved to celebrate, the Catholics determined to oppose their intention by force wherever they could, and in the counties of Clare, Tipperary, Armagh, Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh, and Monaghan, the aspect of open war was assumed, and it was only prevented by the presence of the military. Many lives were, indeed, sacrificed, and many thousands were driven from their homes by the opposing parties. In several instances where death had occurred from the interference of the police, or from their resistance when attacked, trials ensued; but this only tended to exasperate the Catholics still more. An acquittal, though proceeding on the clearest evidence that life had been justly taken from an armed aggressor, was uniformly ascribed to partiality. Imagining that the law existed only to be used against them they took the task of retribution for supposed injuries into their own hands, and assumed arms to gratify revenge, in defiance of the law Judges, juries, and the government were laughed at by Catholic criminals, for no witness dared to communicate what he knew against them. At the close of this year, indeed, matters had proceeded to such a length in Ireland, and especially in Tipperary, that the magistrates expressed an opinion that nothing but a revival of the insurrection act would secure the peace of the country. But this could not be effected, for it had expired, and parliament was not sitting. So Ireland was left to be rent asunder with the spirit of faction. "State gipsies" were left to pick the pockets of the ignorant as they pleased, or as they could gain control over those of the people, by their artful and seditious harangues.



AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL DISTRESS.

{GEORGE IV. 1829—1830}

England, also, this year presented its scenes of lawlessness. This arose from different causes to those which gave rise to the insurrection in Ireland. These causes were the distress which prevailed among the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial classes. The depression in every branch of trade experienced this year naturally gave rise to a reduction of wages among the artisans. These artisans, however, unreasonably ascribed this reduction, not to the necessities of trade, but to the avarice of their employers; and they still more unreasonably proceeded to their usual correctives—voluntary idleness, and the destruction of property. The example was set by the silk-weavers of Spitalfields and Bethnal-Green, who refused to work except at an increased rate of wages, and made their way by night into the shops of workmen possessed of materials belonging to the refractory masters, and destroyed them. Overawed by the combination, the masters agreed finally to pay the same wages that had been paid in 1824, although its continuation would prove ruinous to them. Similar scenes were exhibited, and the same results followed at Macclesfield, Nuneaton, and Bedworth. Nor did the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire escape the contagion. About the end of May the weavers of Barnsley, like the silk-weavers of Bethnal-Green and Macclesfield, forced upon their employers a list of prices. By August and September, however, the masters found it impossible to keep to these prices; and when they proposed a reduction, the workmen immediately left their work, and commenced a riot. Warehouses were attacked, as were also the houses of such weavers as had taken out work at reduced prices; and it was only by calling in the aid of the military that tranquillity was restored. Yet lawless and mischievous as these proceedings were, it was clear that they originated from the misery of those engaged in them. A report, drawn up at Huddersfield by a committee of masters, stated, "that within the several townships engaged in fancy business, there were 13,000 individuals who had not more than twopence halfpenny per day to live on; and out of this they had to find wear and tear for looms." This report added, "Whatever be the cause of such distress, it is feared that the agonizing condition of families so circumstanced cannot long be endured. The difficulty of obtaining relief by the ordinary course, and the aggravating circumstances often attending applications for it, have a powerful tendency to drive the applicants ultimately to desperation. In laying these painful statements before the members of his majesty's government and other influential gentlemen, the master manufacturers wish to do it respectfully, impelled by a sense of duty which they owe to the government and the public, and especially to their workmen, who have hitherto borne their sufferings with extreme patience." The distress was aggravated by a bad harvest and a severe winter, all of which contributed to bring the productive classes of the community, and especially the lowest orders, into a state of abject misery.



FOREIGN POLITICS.

The foreign affairs requiring notice, as affecting Great Britain, were principally those in the East. During this year Turkey was obliged to sue to the Russian autocrat for peace; for both the Russian army and navy were successful in all their operations. The terms granted were as follows:—The Pruth was to constitute the European limit as before; but Silistria was to be dismantled. An alteration was to be made in the Asiatic boundaries, so that the whole eastern coast of the Black Sea, from the Kuban to the harbour of St. Nicholas, together with the fortresses of Anapa and Poti, should remain in possession of Russia. The principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were to be confirmed in their rights; but the Hospodars were to be nominated only for life, and no Turks allowed to dwell there. Free trade was to be allowed on the Black Sea, and navigation through the straits for vessels belonging to Russia, as well as all other countries at peace with the Porte. The sultan was to defray the expenses of the war, and to accede to the treaties concluded at London regarding the Greeks. The bases of the intended negociations respecting Greece were finally arranged among the allies, at a conference on the 22nd of March in the present year. The protocol signed by them read as follows:—"1. The continental boundary line of the Greek state is to be drawn from the gulf of Volo to the gulf of Arsa. All countries south of this line to be included in the Greek state, to which the adjacent islands, comprehending Euboea and the Cyclades, are likewise to belong 2. An annual tribute of 1,500,000 Turkish piastres to be paid by this Greek state. Only a third part to be paid during the first year, and to be gradually increased till it reaches the maximum in the fourth. 3. Turkish subjects who may be forced to depart from the Greek territory to be indemnified. 4. Greece is to remain under the suzerainty of the Porte, which form of government is to approach as nearly as possible to & monarchical form, and to be hereditary in the family of a Christian prince, to be chosen for the first time by the three powers, in concert with the Porte. He is not to be a member of the families reigning in the states which are parties to the treaty of July 6th." Finally, the three powers, however, agreed to restrict the territory of the new state within narrower limits than were assumed in this protocol. The line adopted was further to the south. It commenced on the east at Zeitouni, a little to the northward of Thermopylae, and ran across the country in the direction of Vrachori, till it reached the river Aspropotamos, or the ancient Achelous, whose course it was then to follow as far as the sea. It thus excluded not only Thessaly, but Acarnaniaand the town of Vonizza, which the Greeks had taken early in the year, and an extensive tract of level country lying round the gulf of Calarno. The whole western frontier of northern Greece was left open by it to the attacks of its barbarian foes. And this determination was made without the wishes of the Greeks being consulted, or any communication made to the Greek government. The matter was, in truth, decided at London without the intervention of either Turkish or Greek minister; but the Porte and the Greek government were alike compelled to agree to the articles drawn up by the three powers.

In the Netherlands the session of the States-general, during the present year, was less tranquil and satisfactory than any that had been held since the Restoration. The king himself continued popular; but his government produced general dissatisfaction by some obnoxious measures; especially by dismissing judges who were supposed to be too obstinate; by partiality in official appointments; and by exercising severity against the press when it criticised the policy of administration. When the States-general met, the second chamber was immediately occupied in discussing an immense number of petitions, recommending improvements in the present system of government. Some ameliorations were made; but government resisted the proposal that cases of alleged abuse of the liberty of the press should be tried by a jury, and also the introduction of grand juries, and the extension of jury trials to the provincial courts and other criminal tribunals. On the other hand, a numerous body in the chamber censured every measure of the government, and resisted every project of its ministers; and the session ended with an increase of that excitement and dissatisfaction which for some time had been growing up in the public mind.

During this year, also, the government of France was embarrassed with difficulties. A new ministry had been formed under the presidency of Prince Polignac, all the members of which belonged to that section which advocated irresponsible power in politics, and essential domination in religion. Nothing could exceed the unpopularity of these appointments. The press teemed with denouncements both of the men and their measures; and prosecutions for its bold sentiments became the order of the day. Prosecutions increased, from the fact that associations were formed to resist the payment of taxes, in case ministers should attempt to rule without a chamber. Finally, the cabinet itself became divided. One great cause of its unpopularity was, that it contained Labourdonnaye, who had signalized himself by recommending a terrific system of proscription, and had, after the manner of Marius and Sylla at Rome, classified those descriptions of people on whom he demanded vengeance. Labourdonnaye retired towards the close of the year; but public opinion continued against the administration as strong and unanimous as ever. At one time, the organs of the cabinet threatened a dissolution of the chambers, and at another, the ultra-journals preached the doctrine of ruling without the chambers. The more accredited organs of the cabinet, indeed, did not openly repeat such sentiments, but they were connected in the minds of the people with that set of opinions which the cabinet represented. If the one party, indeed, were led astray by assuming evil designs not in existence, ministers were equally blind as to the character of their antagonists. The year finally closed in mutual recriminations; ministers keeping their places until the convocation of the legislature should determine, whether the chambers were to decide the fate of the cabinet, or the cabinet that of the chambers. One fact, however, was favourable to the interests of France: namely, that its foreign relations remained peaceful and unaltered.

In Portugal, Don Miguel this year unfolded to the world his true character. Early in this year an unsuccessful attempt was made in Oporto at insurrection in favour of Donna Maria, and the usurper made use of this occurrence to multiply arrests in the capital. Every individual whom any creature of government disliked, or any private enemy thought proper to denounce by an anonymous accusation, was forthwith consigned to the dungeons of the Limveiro, or of St. Julian. The actual conspirators at Oporto were tried by commission, and several of them were exiled, and the rest acquitted as persons against whom nothing was proved. Miguel, however, was shocked at the lenity of the sentence, and refused to ratify it; ordering at the same time a new sentence to be framed, by which five prisoners condemned to perpetual exile were directed to be hanged, and two who were to have been transported for ten years, to transportation for life. In comparison with death, the condition of the prisoners, with whom the jails and fortresses were crowded to suffocation, was scarcely to be envied. Though all were uncondemned, and most of them innocent, the whole were delivered over to the merciless authority of apostolic miscreants, who seemed to find no gratification but in the invention of new modes of inflicting misery.

Among the incarcerated were many persons in affluent circumstances, who charitably contributed to support the poorer prisoners, whom their tyrants were willing should perish by starvation. To deprive them of all assistance, indeed, government ordered their benefactors to be removed from the dungeons in the city, to those of St. Julian, Belem, and Bugio. Here, without being brought to trial, the prisoners were cut off from all communication, even with the members of their own families. Many of them died of want and confinement, and the usurper was suspected of poisoning others. No rank, sex, or character was respected; a child of five years of age was kept in solitary confinement five days, and subjected to the tortures of a prison to extort evidence against its father and mother. A refugee Spanish bishop, who had been a member of the Cortes of 1812, and had since lived in security at Lisbon, was thrown into a dungeon, and died in four days, in consequence of maltreatment, and his body was thrown into a hole in the esplanade of the castle without burial. The most sanguinary scenes took place both at Oporto and Lisbon. The rage of the tyrant was backed by the priests, who in their sermons and publications applauded the work of death and devastation as an acceptable offering to the Divine Majesty. One Jose Agostino, a monk and court preacher, published a pamphlet called "The Beast Flayed," urging the necessity of multiplying sacrifices, and recommending that the constitutionalists should be hanged up by the feet, and the people joyfully treated with fresh meat from the gallows. These sentiments only added fuel to the flames of Don Miguel's vengeance, and the kingdom was laid at the mercy of a set of men to whose vengeance, brutality, and avarice there were no bounds. One step downward in the path of moral turpitude ever leads to another. From the moment of his return, Don Miguel had hated his sister Bonna Maria, because she had been her brother's regent, and had been faithful to the constitution. Miguel learned that a footman formerly in the service of his sister had set out for England, and he fancied that he had been sent by Donna Maria with her money and jewels, in order to secure them from his rapacity. It is probable, also, that he imagined the servant had been sent to England for the purpose of making known the dreadful state of the country; and enraged thereby, he rushed into her chamber with a pistol in his hand, and demanded an account of the flight of her servant. Donna Maria stood for a while trembling in silence, but as Miguel was about to strike her with the pistol which was armed with a bayonet, she threw herself upon him, and overturned him. Her chamberlain now flew to her rescue. Miguel sprang up, and when on the point of again attacking her, Count Camarido threw himself before him. The tyrant disabled him by stabbing him in the arm, and fired at the princess; and though the ball missed her, it killed a servant by her side. Other domestics now interfered, and the life of Donna Maria was saved. She was hurried away from his brutal fury. While scenes of outrage and wrong were being committed daily throughout the whole of Portugal, the necessities of the government increased, notwithstanding a forced issue of paper money was made. Recourse was had to an expedition to reduce Terceira, one of the Azores, the only spot in the dominions of Portugal which remained true to its rightful monarch. This expedition set sail about the middle of June, and the troops succeeded in effecting a landing; but they were totally defeated by the islanders, under Villa Flor, who had made his escape with the Marquis Palmella and nineteen other general officers from the rage of Miguel. In the meantime the tyrant's interest was supported at Madrid by the great influence of his mother over the family of Ferdinand, who, in fact, regarded Miguel with peculiar complacency, because he had destroyed a constitutional government. The other sovereigns of Europe however, still kept aloof from any communication with the usurper. It was contended by the Portuguese refugees, and the ministers of Don Pedro, that they ought to drive Miguel from his throne by positive interference. These applications were especially made to the British ministry; but though Lord Aberdeen admitted to their fullest extent the obligations created by the treaties existing between Britain and Portugal, he maintained that they gave no countenance to any demand made for interference in an internal revolution. He remarked: "It is assumed that the usurpation of the throne of Portugal by the infant Don Miguel has given to her most faithful majesty the right of demanding from this country effectual succours for the recovery of her crown and kingdom. But in the whole series of treaties there is no express stipulation which can warrant this pretension, neither is such an obligation implied by their general tenor and spirit. It is either for the purpose of resisting successful rebellion, or of deciding by force a doubtful question of succession that Great Britain is now called upon to act. But it is impossible to imagine that any independent state could ever intend thus to commit the control and direction of its internal affairs to the hands of another power. For, doubtless, if his Britannic majesty be under the necessity of furnishing effectual succours in the event of any internal revolt or dissension in Portugal, it would become a duty, and, indeed, it would be essential to take care that no such case should exist if it could be prevented. Hence a constant and minute interference in the affairs of Portugal would be indispensable; for his majesty could never consent to hold his fleets and armies at the disposal of a king of Portugal, without exercising those due precautions and that superintendence which would assure him that his forces would not be employed in averting the effects of misgovernment, folly, or caprice. Is this a condition in which any state professing to be independent could endure to exist? The truth is, that the whole spirit of the treaties, as well as their history, shows that the principle of the guarantee given by England is the protection of Portugal from foreign interference." The British government, therefore, refused to interfere in this domestic quarrel; and it also considered itself bound to observe a strict neutrality in regard to all military operations. A considerable number of Portuguese exiles, resident on our southern coast, appeared to have some design of fitting out an expedition against Don Miguel; and the British government, holding such views as above unfolded, informed the Brazilian minister that it would not allow such designs to be carried on in British harbours, and that the refugees must remove further from the coast. The Brazilian minister replied, that these troops were about to be conveyed to Brazil; and accordingly four vessels, having on board six hundred and fifty-two officers, with Count Saldanha at their head, sailed from Plymouth. The British government, however, suspected that the true design was to land those troops at Terceira; and notice was given to them before they sailed that any such attempt would be resisted. A small force, under the command of Captain Walpole, was despatched to enforce the prohibition; his instructions being to cruise off the island; to inform the Portuguese that he had authority to prevent their landing; and if they made any effort to effect a landing, to resist such an attempt by force, and to drive them away from that neighbourhood. The suspicions of the government were in this instance justified. The expedition of Count Saldanha appeared off Terceira on the 16th of January; and was discovered by Captain Walpole standing right in for Port Praya. Two shots were fired for the purpose of bringing them to; but without effect. The vessels then lay-to; and to a note from Captain Walpole, inquiring what was their object in coming thither, Saldanha answered, that his object in appearing there was to fulfil the orders of her majesty the Queen of Portugal, which directed him to conduct, unarmed, without any hostile appearance, to the isle of Terceira, the men that were on board the four vessels in sight, which island has never ceased to acknowledge Donna Maria II. as its legitimate sovereign. He added:—"As a faithful subject and soldier, I think it unnecessary to assure you that I am determined to fulfil my duty at all peril." Captain Walpole replied, that he had instructions to obey, and an imperious duty to perform; that both of them prevented him from allowing the count, or any part of his force, to land either at Terceira, or on any part of the western islands of the Azores, or even to continue in that neighbourhood. To this communication Saldanha replied, that he considered himself and his men, in such circumstances, Captain Walpole's prisoners; that they would follow his vessels where-ever he chose to take them; but must have a written order to that effect, and be supplied with water and provisions; if he had not this written order, he said, he would pursue his course, and endeavour at all risks to fulfil his instructions. Captain Walpole's reply still was, "Go where you choose, but don't stay here; if you persist in hovering about these islands, it is my duty and firm determination to carry those measures you are already in possession of into full effect." After this angry correspondence the Portuguese finally sailed away; and the British commander having watched them until they arrived within five hundred miles of Sicily, returned to his station at Terceira. Count Saldanha and his squadron instead of returning to England, proceeded to Brest. This occurrence excited much notice in Europe, and it was brought under discussion in the British parliament. It was represented by the opposition as a direct act of hostility in favour of the usurper, against the acknowledged Queen of Portugal, then residing in England; and as an armed interference in favour of Miguel at the very moment when it was pretended that the duties of neutrality did not admit of interference. It was asked, if not bound by treaties to assist the queen in recovering her crown, whence arose our right to prevent her, by means of her own subjects, from making the attempt? Why, when recognizing her right, refusing to admit the title of Miguel, and pretending to maintain a strict neutrality, had we interfered by force against a lawful sovereign? And what could excuse the barbarous injustice of telling the lawful monarch that, in so far as we were concerned, she must work out her own restoration by her own strength; and then, when she puts forth her strength; telling her that we would not allow it to be employed? To all this it was replied that the armament attacked had been fitted out in a British port, an answer which decided the merits of the question; for whether the observance of neutrality between two competitors for the crown of Portugal was right or wrong, appeared in this case a matter of indifference; as it had been decided on, no other course could justly have been taken: and if Miguel's armament had been fitted out in a British port, it would have met with a similar interruption. If ministers were to be attacked, indeed, the only vulnerable point was the maintenance of a strict neutrality towards a tyrant who had voluntarily sworn to our government that he would obey the laws and preserve the constitution of their country. In the meantime negociations had been going on between Don Pedro and the ministers of England and Austria to effect some arrangement of affairs; and a deputation had been sent by the Portuguese constitutionalists to point out how these affairs stood, and to urge the necessity of adopting active measures. Don Pedro, however, refused to accept propositions from foreign negociation which involved any sacrifice of his daughter's claims, while he assured the Portuguese that he would maintain the rights of their queen without entering into any compromise with the usurper of her throne. But Pedro did not strengthen the hopes of his friends at this time by the resolution which he admitted of recalling his daughter from England to Brazil; and the British government itself remonstrated with him on the impolicy of that step. Donna Maria's return to Rio de Janeiro seemed to convey the idea, indeed, that she had abandoned all pretensions to the crown of Portugal, and had left Don Miguel undisputed master of the field. But such was not in reality the case. Don Pedro had ulterior objects in view by the recall of his daughter; and the Brazilian minister made a public declaration, to the effect that Donna Maria's departure from Europe neither involved an abdication of the crown on the part of her majesty, nor an indifference on the part of Don Pedro to his daughter's rights.

The history of Spain furnishes but few events of importance during the present year. In the early part of it, Ferdinand lost his queen, and towards the close he contracted a third marriage with a princess of Naples. The marriage was celebrated at Madrid, to the great dissatisfaction of the adherents of Ferdinand's brother, Don Carlos. During the year, conspiracies transpired in Catalonia. They were supposed to have been excited by the Count d'Espagne for the sake of private advantage, and they were followed by cruel executions. The rest of the country remained tranquil; but its finances were in so dreadful a state of exhaustion from a long continuance of misgovernment and exclusion, that Cadiz was declared a free port, in the hope of restoring foreign commerce to its ancient condition. At this time, however, the Spanish government, which had been driven from the English money-market by its faithless conduct respecting the Cortes' bonds, ran the risk of losing its credit with all the European states, by a discovery of its fraud in a French loan.



CHAPTER XL.

{GEORGE IV. 1830—1831}

State of Parties..... Meeting of Parliament..... Motion for a Committee of the whole House on the State of the Nation..... Reduction of the Salaries of Public Officers, &c...... Motion for revising the whole System of Taxation..... Committee on the East India Company's Charter..... Debate on the Proposal to alter the Currency..... Financial Statements..... Bill for Repealing the Duty on Beer, &c...... The Question of Reform..... The Case of East Retford, &c...... Mr. O'Connel's Bill for Reform by Universal Suffrage and Vote by Ballot, &c...... Bill for Removing the civil Disabilities affecting the Jews..... Bill for Capital Punishment in Cases of Forgery..... Bill for Amending the Law of Libel, &c...... Alterations in Courts of Justice..... Illness of the King..... Bill to authorize the adhibiting of the Sign Manual by a Stamp..... Death of the King, and Accession of the Duke of Clarence, William IV...........



STATE OF PARTIES.

{A.D. 1830}

At the commencement of this year, government found itself in a new and unsafe position. It had carried the great party question of Catholic emancipation, but in so doing it had lost the confidence of a large body of its most faithful adherents. Ministers had, it is true, on the other hand, gained the seeming support of their old enemies of the opposition; but this could not be depended upon. The Whigs were willing to lend them such assistance as would prevent the necessity of seeking a reconciliation with the offended Tories; but they were not willing to concede even this, except as the means of gradually introducing themselves into an equal share of power. They assented to a coalition in parliament; but the price of this assent was coalition in office. In a word, their policy was to aid the government with their countenance and their votes, so far as it would be sufficient to keep it alive, but by no means to give it the robustness and vigour of perfect health. On the other hand, the Duke of Wellington was willing to use them as supporters; but he was not disposed to extend to them an equal share of power. It was his wish, indeed, to be reconciled to his old friends; and, therefore, he stood aloof from a more intimate connexion with the Whigs, that he might keep open the door of reconciliation to the former. He flattered himself, that as each of the two divisions of his adversaries would be unwilling to drive him for the preservation of the ministry into the arms of the other, he might command the occasional assistance of both, to an extent sufficient to enable him to govern without placing himself in the power of either. But this was chimerical. The Tories showed no inclination to trust men whom they considered as their betrayers, and they resisted them as statesmen who had abused their power, and coalesced with their political antagonists, to force upon the country a measure contrary to its opinions, interests, and institutions. They resisted them, also, as politicians who, to effect their purpose had abandoned their tenets, betrayed and surprised their own confiding adherents, and introduced as a principle into the conduct of government, that everything was to be granted which was demanded by clamorous agitation. Between the Tories and the Whigs, the distance was not greater than between the Tories and the ministry; and perhaps it was not even so great, as the Whigs had not betrayed their opponents. The Duke of Wellington, indeed, seems to have had some fear that the two parties might coalesce, in order to effect his expulsion from power. Nor was this fear without foundation. Neither party was in heart his friends; and his own conduct had at once furnished the motives to such an union, and removed one irreconcileable point of difference between the parties whose union he feared. Moreover, in itself the ministry was without the means of making any commanding figure in the house of commons. With the exception of Mr. Peel, who filled the post of leader in that house, there was no man who could fight their battles of debate with any degree of talent and vigour, no one that held any high place in public opinion, either for oratory or information. Finally, the ministry increased their unpopularity by prosecutions for libel arising out of the Catholic relief bill. While that bill was pending, the press had given birth to much vehement and angry discussion, and some of the papers having gone beyond the bounds of allowable invective, the attorney-general resolved to crush them by ex-officio informations. But these prosecutions were received with an universal dislike by all parties in the country; and the temper in which the Whig attorney-general conducted them, gave a severe blow to his public character, and increased the unpopularity of the government.



MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

Parliament was opened by commission on the 4th of February. The royal speech expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of war between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, and alluded to the embarrassing affairs of Portugal. Concerning the prevailing distress, it remarked:—"His majesty laments that, notwithstanding an indication of active commerce, distress should prevail among the agricultural and manufacturing classes in some parts of the United Kingdom. It would be most gratifying to the paternal feelings of his majesty to be enabled to propose for your consideration measures calculated to remove the difficulties of any portion of his subjects, and at the same time com patible with the general and permanent interests of his people. It is from a deep solicitude for those interests that his majesty is impressed with the necessity of acting with extreme caution in reference to this important subject. His majesty feels assured that you will concur with him in assigning due weight to the effect of unfavourable seasons, and to the operation of other causes which are beyond the reach of legislative control or remedy." This qualified admission of the existence of national distress gave great offence in both houses of parliament. In the lords, Earl Stanhope moved as an amendment to the address, "That this house views, with the deepest sorrow and anxiety the severe distress which now afflicts the country, and will immediately proceed to examine into its cause, and into the means of effectually providing the necessary relief." His lordship said that a more inappropriate and unsatisfactory speech had never been addressed to any public assembly. The speech said that distress existed "in some parts" of the country: he asked, in what part it did not exist? The kingdom, he asserted, was in a state of universal distress, embracing alike agriculture, manufactures, trade, and commerce. These great interests had never before at one time been at so low an ebb, nor in a condition which demanded more imperatively the prompt and energetic interference of parliament. The speech ascribed the distress existing, so far as it had admitted it, to unfavourable seasons. This of course operated upon grain; but was the effect of unfavourable seasons usually visible in a reduction of price? Did a bad harvest make corn cheap? The evil was so notorious that nobody but his majesty's ministers doubted its existence, and they could not deny it, if they only cast their eyes around, and saw the counties pouring on them every kind of solicitation for relief. Why then was inquiry evaded or denied? It was not true that the causes of distress were placed beyond the reach of parliament, it was parliament that had produced them, and yet ministers now wished parliament to disregard the effects, and treat the public distress with indifference. The amendment moved by Earl Stanhope was supported by the Duke of Richmond, and the Earls of Carnarvon and Winchilsea. The Earl of Carnarvon declared that the address called upon them to pledge themselves to statements inconsistent with truth, and declared that he would never lend his countenance to the fallacious representations of mere partial distress, as set forth in the speech. That speech, he said, did not contain one word of the true causes of the country's suffering; but gravely desired them to take "the state of the seasons" into their consideration. He contended that no small part of the distress was owing to the change in the currency. There had been periods of distress in former times, but they had soon passed away. Now, however, the kingdom was placed in very different circumstances, as the circulation of specie was no longer commensurate with the demand. He suggested that a silver standard should be adopted, by which he conceived that the resources of the country would be emancipated from the artificial fetters in which they were now bound, and prove sufficient to feed the now starving population. The Earl of Winchilsea said, that, if the house refused to take the distress into consideration, an opinion would be forced on the country, that it was unable to legislate for the public good. A spirit was springing up, he said, in different parts of the country, for forming associations, not to lay the grievances of the people before parliament, but to propose remedies of their own, and to redress their own wrongs. To that spirit, he contended, their lordships would be supplying encouragement if they refused to institute an inquiry into the nature and causes of the existing distress. The amendment was opposed by Lord Goderich, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the Duke of Wellington. Lord Goderich said that the true object of its noble mover was to get rid of the alterations lately introduced into our commercial system, and to unsettle the basis on which the currency now stood. For his own part he had never been able to learn, from the opponents of what was called "Free Trade," what that was which they denounced under that name. The noble mover seemed to menace by it the refusal to foster domestic agriculture by prohibiting the importation of foreign wool. That refusal was no modern invention. It was not till 1819 that the importation of foreign wool had been prohibited; and the duty then laid was imposed merely for the purposes of revenue, and not as a protection to trade. The Duke of Wellington said that much more had been made out of the expressions in the speech, concerning the bad seasons, than was meant. It was not set down as the only cause of distress, but was alluded to as one circumstance not to be lost sight of: there had been one bad harvest, and another had been attended, in getting it in, with unusual expense; these were facts to be taken into consideration. Another cause of distress, he said, "was to be found in the state of our manufactures: this it was to which his majesty alluded, when he spoke of me operation of causes beyond the reach of legislative control. Were not, he asked, competition at home and abroad, the introduction of machinery, and the general adoption of steam, calculated to produce distress among our manufacturers? Yet could parliament prevent competition? Could it prohibit the use of machinery, and the application of steam, all of which, by throwing labourers out of employment, produced distress? But," his grace continued, "I am satisfied that the distress is not universal; that there are parts of the country free from it. The exports of last year had been greater than they had ever been before; and there was not a canal or railway in the country which did not present an increase of traffic. It was true, no doubt, that all this had been done at small profits; but profits there must have been, otherwise the traffic would not exist. Pressure upon the country there certainly was; but not so great as to prevent it from rising, though slowly. The country was not stationary; much less was it falling; it was improving." His grace in continuance said, that he could not agree with the supporters of the amendment, that what distress existed was to be ascribed to the restricted circulating medium to a metallic currency. There was no foundation in fact for such an opinion: the circulation was greater now than before the restriction, and therefore the distress could not be properly attributed to a deficient circulation. The Marquis of Lansdowne opposed the amendment because its true object was to bring the house to the adoption of one of the greatest evils which this country had ever endured, an unlimited issue of a paper circulation. If the first were taken, it would lead to subsequent steps, against which it was his duty to guard the house and the public. Distress, he added, unquestionably existed to a lamentable extent; but he concurred in the recommendation that it should receive the most cautious attention. On a division the amendment was lost by a majority of seventy-one against nine.

In the commons the battle on this subject was much more fierce than in the lords. An amendment to the address was moved by Sir Edward Knatchbull, founded, as in the lords, on the alleged misrepresentation contained in the speech regarding the distresses of the country, and the consequent determination of ministers to adopt no measures either of inquiry or relief. Sir Edward Knatchbull contended that the distress was universal; and if he were called upon for other proof than that of his own testimony, he would say, "Let every member who now hears me state honestly and fairly, and without reserve, what is the situation of the place with which he as a representative is immediately connected." The house was asked on this first day of the session to approach his majesty with a declaration something like a downright falsehood. He did not mean, however, to advert at present to any remedy for the distress. All he asked was this, to state in their address to his majesty the naked truth as to the distress of the country. He therefore moved to strike out of the address the clause affirming existence of partial distress, and to insert the following:—"We lament the existence of that distress which your majesty informs us is confined to some places; but in the painful discharge of our duty we are constrained to declare to your majesty that that distress is not confined to some places, as your majesty has been advised, but is general among all the productive interests of the country, which are severely suffering from its pressure. We beg to assure your majesty that we shall adopt the caution which your majesty recommends in the consideration of the measures to be adopted in reference to these interests, and that our earnest endeavours shall be employed to alleviate and remove the distress now so unfortunately existing." The amendment was supported by Messrs. Western, Protheroe, Davenport, Maberly, Duncombe, and R. Palmer, who all joined in condemning the extenuating phraseology used by government, as either being the result of gross ignorance regarding the true state of the country, or betokening a reprehensible determination to propose no measure of relief, and to institute no inquiry. The house, it was said, had long been in the habit of hearing complaints from individual classes in the country; but these complaints were no longer reiterated from the old quarters. The productive and industrious classes of the community were in a state of great misery; their distress was settling-down into universal discontent, and the voice of their disaffection would soon be heard, he said, with alarm. It was urged, also, that the pressure was severe on the classes immediately above the industrial portion of the community; and that those who dealt in manufactured goods were in no better situation than the agriculturists. It was stated in proof of this, that among the great body of the traders in the city of London, their stocks had suffered a depreciation of forty per cent. Sufferings so general, it was argued, affecting every interest of importance throughout the country, could not be the result of local causes. The amendment, it was said, corrected a most erroneous representation of a matter of fact, and it pledged parliament to nothing more than a cautious inquiry into the origin of the state of things which in fact existed. On the other hand the chancellor of the exchequer maintained, that no amendment had ever been moved so little at variance with the speech to which it was intended to apply; and that, although there was distress among both agriculturists and manufacturers in some parts of the kingdom, other parts were in a comparatively flourishing and prosperous state. Mr. Goulburn contended that there was great agricultural prosperity enjoyed in Ireland. This called up Mr. O'Connell, who denied that such was the case. He had, he said, travelled through the provinces of Leinster, Connaught, and Munster, where he not only had not seen proofs of prosperity, but had observed much distress. Mr. Huskisson supported the amendment, thereby giving the signal for his friends to divide against the ministry. It was of the greatest importance, he said, in the present season of universal disquietude and dissatisfaction, not to provoke a hostile discussion between the representatives of the people and the people themselves, and not to call down reproach on the house of commons by understating the distress and difficulty of the time. He believed that the country, in so far as the productive classes were concerned, was suffering greatly; and that if parliament looked at the subject properly, and acted with the caution which one part of the speech recommended, they would find themselves fully competent to cope with the existing difficulties. To some of the causes which had led to the distress parliament could apply no remedy; but it was in their power to satisfy the country as to what those causes were, and to afford a partial relief by giving a better direction to the capital of the country. Mr. Peel expressed surprise that Mr. Huskisson should support an amendment like the present, considering his long-expressed opinions. Session after session Mr. Huskisson had resisted commissions of inquiry, lest he should excite false expectations; and he now supported an amendment founded on principles and intended to lead to conclusions from which he totally dissented, because he thought it stated a matter of fact somewhat more correctly than did the speech itself. Mr. Peel then contended that the speech did not misstate facts; but proved the non-existence of universal distress by the increase of the internal and foreign trade of the country. Several members expressed their intention to vote for the address, although they believed the distress to be more general than the speech represented. As for the Whigs, they were divided between their wish not to leave the ministry, which showed a leaning towards them, exposed to defeat, and the fear of endangering their popularity by appearing to be indifferent to public suffering. Lord Althorp, for instance, was sorry to give a vote which might give him the appearance of joining the opponents of government; but found it to be his duty to vote for the amendment, because he believed the distress to be universal. Mr. Brougham, also said his vote for the amendment was wrung from him, because he thought it more correctly represented the state of things; but if he could bring himself to think that the effect of the amendment would be to displace the present government, he would vote for the address. Mr. Spring Rice expressed himself to the same effect. But these declarations of the leading members of opposition did not prevent their adherents from carrying their votes to the ministry; and the amendment was negatived by a majority of one hundred and fifty-eight against one hundred and five.

On the following day, when the report on the address was brought up, the Marquis of Blandford moved that the following extraordinary amendment, which he termed, "a wholesale admonition to the throne," should be appended to the address:—"That this house feels itself called upon, in the awful and alarming state of universal distress into which the landed, commercial, and all the great productive interests of the country are at this moment plunged, to take care that your majesty shall not be the only person in your dominions ignorant of such an astounding fact, as well as of the consequent impending danger to the throne and other great national institutions, established by the wisdom of our ancestors for the protection and benefit of the people over whom your majesty has been called to preside,"—"That this house is at no loss to indicate the real cause of this most unnatural state of things; and, in justice to your majesty and the whole nation, it can no longer hesitate to proclaim that cause to the world.

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

"That, in consequence of this departure from the wisdom of our ancestors, the nation has been deprived of its natural guardian, and has in consequence become so burdened in the expensive establishments of all kinds, that, in a period much shorter than the life of man, the taxation, has risen from L9,000,000 to nearly L60,000,000 a year, and the poor-rates, or parochial assessments, during the same period, have augmented from L1,500,000 to L8,000,000 annually.