Star. — London, England, 1830-03-17 00:00:00

gooey imagined. He doubted marl whether it was an evil. But adinoting. for the mwke of .tegument, that it was an evil, he begged to inquire whether the introduction of the poor laws in Ireland would remove it ?—(hear.) He would maintain that they would have a contrary effect. The Earl of WICKLOW considered that it would be highly ' improper to extern', the English poor laws to Ireland. It might as well be attempted to trtaisplant the woods of Hampshire to the rocks and bogs oftunnemarra. in the expectation of seeing them flourish. sic once the poor lows Wtie introduced into Ireland, then there would he a Nfal put upon the benevolence of private benefactors. From ii.r door of the Irish, let the mendicant be young or old, maimed or lo.:lthy. he was never repol‘ed--(hesr.) There he was sure to find a weleotee. But should the poor laws once be introduced, the effect weeld he to damp those feelings. For the provision of the aged and infirm he w::s anxious to see a measure introduced. After a few words from the Puke of BUCKINGHAM, The Marquis of SALISBURY. " With respect to the Irish coming over in the harvest time, I can only say, my e , r.tinued the noble marquis, " that the harvest is a time when our own labourer naturally expects to make something ad- Jitienal ; and it is like taking the bread out of his mouth, to em ploy the - Irishman. (Gear.) Besides we arc annoyed by a number of lti.h, a fortnight or three weeks previously to the harvest, who go *bout begging from door to door—(hear, and a laugh), causing rows in ale-houses, and committing robberies. These are facts, the truth of which many can vouch. As soon as harvest is over, these men, who have reaped the advantage of their labour, throw themselves upon the parishes, and are passed at the parish expense to their native country. Ido think, my lords, that something should be done to prevent such bodies of Irishmen coming on these foragiag expeditions—claughter), committing excesses and petty robberies, and AfterwaTos to be passed to their own country at the e . ipenee of the parishes where they then happen to be. I do hope that the motion of the noble duke, which stands for Thursday, will induce your lordships to consent to the formation of a committee, in order that the state of the English poor laws 'may be inquired into, if only for the purpose of declaring what the law is." The Earl of LIMERICK could not sit still and hear such an. brought against his countrymen, charging them with I .:lthelering and committing excesses . (Hear.) Ile denied it in nett. The Marquis of SALISBURY assured the noble earl, that he Raul no intention of offending him—(The Earl of Limerick, " I Relieve it") —or of imputing to the Irish nation what he had said of individuals. " The noble earl," added the Marquis of Salisbury, " will not, I am sure, defend the conduct of persons who may be justly accused of crime, any more than he will expect me to stand up for persons similarly circumstanced." The Earl of LIMERICK signified his satisfaction at the expla nation g iven by the noble marquis. the Marquis of CLANRICARDE observed that no case had been mad: out by the noble earl who had brought the subject for ward fur the formation of a committee. A more abominable system could not be introduced into any country than the present system of the English poor laws. He coincided with all those noble lords who spoke of the necessity of having a provision made for the sick and infirm. Earl DARNLEY recapitulated what he bad previously stated, contending that his object was to have a provision made only for the aged, the sick, and infirm. After a few observations from the Duke of BUCKINGHAM and Earl STANHOPE, the discussion terminated. CHANCERY COURT--ADMINISTRATION OP JUSTICE. The LORD CHANCELLOR—My lards, as Monday next I shall submit a motion on the subject of the Court of Chancery. I shall also then proceed to explain thou measures which are in pro. gress with respect to the administration of justice generally. Adjourned at Half.past Six. —. 0 .--. HOUSE OF COMMONS--TittsDAY. A notice for a call of the house having been given for this day, the gallery was not opened for strangers until a quarter past four o'clock. The call, however, was not persevered in. Mr. HOBHOUSE presented a petition from the inhabitant householders of the united parishes of St. Giles 's in the Fields and St. George's, Bloomsbury, against the bill before the house, which related to the better regulation of those parishes, praying that this bill might not be passed into a law • and that they might be heard, either by themselves or counsel, against the provisions of the bill. The petition was referred to the committee upon the said bill. Colonel SIBTHORP presented a petition from the town and neighbourhood of Spihbury, complaining of distress. The hon. member conceived that the prayer of the petition was founded in truth. Sir W. HEATLICOTE presented a petition from the county of Southampton, complaining of distress, and calling upon parliament to enforce economy. The same hon. member presented petitions from several parishes in the county of Southampton, to the same effect. Mr. BATHURST presented a petition from Beverley, against the East India Company's charter. Mr. HOLDSWORTH presented a petition from the town of Dartmouth, against the duty on coals. Sir J. SEBRIGHT presented a petition from the county of Hert ford, complaining of distress, calling for a reduction of taxation, and enforcing the necessity of reform in parliament. Mr. N. CALCRAFT and Lord J. RUSSELL said a few words in support of the prayer of the petition, which, it was stated, had been passed at a very numerous meeting almost unanimously. Col. CRADOCK presented a petition from Cornwall, against the duty on coals:carried coastwise. Mr. HUM E withdrew his notice respecting lighthouses for the present. The same hon. member presented a petition from Irving, complaining of distress, and praying for a free trade in corn. He also presented a petition from Montrose, against the East India Company's Charter; and also another from Aberdeen, to the same effect. Sir C. COLE presented a petition from Olamorganshire, against the truck system. Colonel LYGON presented a petition from the grand jury of the county of Worcester, complaining of distress. The hon. and gallant member presented a petition from the same county, against the truck system. Lord EASTNOR presented a petition from the county of Hera ford, mime free trade in cyder. Lord NUGENT presented a petition from the town of Aylso bury, complaining of distress. The prayer of the petition was sup ported by Mr. RICICTORD and the M arquis of CRANDOS. N Lord UGENT presented a petition from a person named Good. win, against the licensing system, and against the tax upon beer. Mr. MARSHALL presented a petition from Selby, in the county of York, against the East India Company's monopoly. Mr. F. BUXT 3N presented three petitions against suttees. The hon. member said that Lord William Bentlnck was deserving of ;rat praise, in putting an end to so inhuman a practice. Lord ALTHURP presented a petition from the inhabitants of a place.in Waterford, complaining of the union of the parish in which they resided with one eleven miles distant; and with their being obliged to contribute to the erection of a church in their parish, which had not one protestant in it. . Sir J. NEWPORT and Mr. O'CONNELL supported the prayer of the petition. Mr. MOORE, the Member for Dublin, said that he knew no. thing of the particular matter complained of in the petition, but he deprecated hon. members taking advantage dutch a petition to say things that they were not warranted in saying. Mr. O'CONNELL presented a petition from the weavers of the King's County, Ireland, against the importation of English manu factured goods into Ireland. The hon. and learned member said•he did not agree in any one of the prayers of the petition. The hon. member also presented three petitions fkon tanners, against the tax upon leather ; one from the fishermen in Belfast, against the Fishing Board being dissolved ; one from the parish of St. John, in the city of Limerick, against the Subletting Act ; oriesfrom the itoman Ca tholic inhabitants of St. Mary's, Dublin, against the Vestry Act ; one from the inhabitants .of Dunamer, county of Wexford, against the•system of levying tithes in that part. of Inland; one from the town of Gort, in the county of Galway, spinet the Subletting Act ; also, one from the same town, comp laining of distress. The hon. member gave notice of a bill which he intended to introduce on Thursday. next, for the purpose of repealing certain statutes which still affected Catholics and 'Protestant Dissenters. Mr. W. HORTON, presented a petition from Lanarbhire, in favour of emigration. the same honourable member pesented a petition from the licensed victuallers of •Newcastie, aphid trig • the beer trade. He also presented a petition from the same plass, against the truck system. - Mr. P ENDARVIS presented a petition from Falmouth, against the punishment of death in cases of - lisp:7'. Lord MANDEVILLE presented a petition from Huntingdon, against the malt tax. •• Lord MILTON predated petitions from Ilmidenfield, Haiti"; api Bradford, opined* East India Company's charter. Mr. SADLER preeskted a petition hem the stuff menafacturess if Leeds, conspjkinin of distress. .111 r. BYNG presented two whines from persons residing in the laigbbourbad of tbe.Haymarltet, agArrst the removal of the market forishe sale of hay from that part of - Westminster. • CARTWRIGHT presented a petition from the county of , ainvistining of distress. , . • - Les'N4lirstrTMOßP said a few words ea the subject of the petition. Mr. 0. CAVR presented a petition from Moister, complaining et &atlas, adate tipm the Ream C k eiboliee et Cantek.on.Bhee. mol t egebegAls Vestry Act. . r jut; %MOORE .0 that if tbs•Veshy Aet werealed, ie ci9, 11 -g W w rest Ipso She Patatent sea of "MD* a peddle tom the Agricultural • etk it dimes; and two other petitions ' rt e ia th sidnet•tite Kest India. Con .• --z r_+ ~M pasty's monopoly. The two latter were ordered to be referred to the Select Committee for East India affairs. Mr. W. SDI ITH presented a petition from the freehorders of the county of Rosa, complaining of distress, and one from the Dissent ing Minister of the town of Dudley, against the truck system. Mr. HUME deprecated ministers of religion mixing themselves up with such matters, and said that, instead of stirringup the people, they ought to try everything . in their power to prevent discontent. Mr. SMITH denied the justness of the hon. member's remark, in the instance before the house. Lord STANLEY presented a petition from Rochdale, in Lan. caabire, against the East India Company's Charter. Mr. SYKES presented a petition from Hull, against the shop tax. The hon. member presented a petition from the overseers of the poor of the same town, against the Poor Laws' Amendment Bill Mr. HEATHCOTE presented a petition from Lincoln, core. plaining of distress. Sir C. BURRELL said, that the distress was very great in that part of the country with which he was connected. Mr. IRVING said, that never upon any former occasion was there such great demand for labour as there was at the present mo ment in Leeds. Lord RANCLIFF wits sorry that be could not say the same for Nottingham. Lord J. RUSSELL, in presenting a petition relative to the repeal of the tax on beer, begged to ask the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he intended any alleviation of the regulations respecting the manufacture of malt ? The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said, that in con sequence of an interview which he had with a deputation of malt. avers, at which interview the Commissioner for the Excise was pre. sent, a bill upon the subject had been prepared, which would be in. troduced into the house immediately. Mr. PORTMAN hoped the right. hon. gentleman would intro duce the bill before the Easter recess, in order that the maltsters generally might have the bill in their hands during the recess when they would be enabled to say how far the regulations contained in the bill would go to the improvement of the manufacture of malt. Mr. BROWNLOW made a ft w observations respecting the Irish maltsters. Lord J. RUSSELL presented a petition from Wexford, com plaining of distress. Mr. ESTCOURT presented a petition from a parish in Scotland, to the same effect. Mr. LITTLETON presented a petition from the Staffordshire potteries, complaining of the practice of paying for wages in goods instead of money. Sir J. WRO'f TESLEY supported the prayer of the petition. The petition was then read. Mr. LITTLETON then presented several petitions from parishes in Staffordshire, against the truck system. In one of those petitions, gratitude was expressed to the Marquis of Camden, for his volun tary contributions to the exigencies of the country ; and the honour. able member said that he could not sit down without saying that he approved highly of the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. SLANEY said that he was so satisfied with the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he would withdraw his mo tion on the subject of the poor laws. Sir F. BURDETT presented a petition from a parish in the county of York, complaining of distress. The Itorh hart. then pre sented a petition from parishes in Middlesex, of a similar nature. Mr. DENISON presented a petition fro mi a parish in Surrey, complaining of distress, and praying for relief. The hen. member presented similar petitions from the parishes of Cheats and Her- mondsey. Mr. DICKINSON-presented a petition from Frome, againct the renewal of the East India Company's charter. DISTRESSED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. Mr. EDWARD D. DAVENPORT, in bringing un• der the consideration of the House a motion for a Corn• mittee to inquire into the distressed state of the country at the present moment expressed a determination not to shrink from the task he had imposed on himself, although the statement elicited from the Chancellor of the Exche quer last night, by the repeated calls of the people, had probably afforded some of his (Mr. Davenport's) friends— his lukewarm friends—an opportunity of blinking the pre sent question, and given them an apology for abandoning an inquiry into the distresses of the people, from a sup position that they would receive relief, in consequence of the measures the Government proposed to adopt. He trusted, however, by the vote of that evening, to ascer tain how far they were disposed to exert themselves to obtain the means of giving employment to thousands who were, as he would presently show, not only living on the bread, but the roots of charity (a laugh), from the pressure of distress. It would be seen whether they were desir ous of giving relief to those who demanded it, and whe ther they were determined to persevere in giving a Mi nisterial or patriotic vote. He could not understand how that House could continue as it did to disregard the prayers of the people, who were now suffering a distress which might be truly stated as unprecedented in the his tory of the country. He doubted, indeed, whether in any country whose interests were entrusted to Repre sentatives of the people, there ever was an instance of that people being placed in such a state of deprivation and distress as they were now suffering, and yet, at the same time, being refused by their own Representatives all means or opportunities of proving their case and real condition ; and still more, he believed there was no instance in the history of any country possessing Re presentatives, who displayed no disposition to relieve that distress, or even to inquire into its cause. In proof of that distress, he would call in the evidence of one of the largest of the central towns in the kingdom—he al luded to the town of Birmingham—and he would also call in the evidence of the Petition from the town of" Leicester, presented that evening, as a proof that he had' not been guilty of exaggeration of the facts ; but the pe titions were disregarded. Those to whom they were ad dressed seemed to be deaf to the prayers and blind to the misfortunes of the people. They seemed, indeed, to come truly under the description of those who " Made the measure snail and the coin great, Falsifying the balance by deceit." Some Petitions, it was singular to saw were not addressed to the House f Commons, to the gouse of Lords, nor even to the King ; for the Father of his People in these times was no more heard of than if he was not a member of the family. (bear, and a laugh.) The petitions were addressed to the Most Noble Arthur Duke of Wellington, who was generally supposed to be a kind of fourth estate in the country, and to unite in his person the .other three put together. (Hear.) The people seemed to think, with some reason, that it was better to address the person from whom all power emanated, and they hoped that he would show more solicitude for his countrymen, who had showered on him such boundless favours, than they bad received from those representatives to whom they bad entrusted their interests. He could not blame them for this. The fault lay with that House, which refused to hear the complaints of the people : but this he would say, that an innovation of that kind, coming in a petition from no less than three counties, would have made their' forefathers start from their graves with horror, to reproach them for their degeneracy, and to incite them to recover their independence. A country placed in such a situa tion was a thing scarcely to be believed. The shipping interests, the trading, the manufacturing, the agncul titral, every class in the country, came before the House with petitions, complaining of distress • but when they ventured to allude to the cause of that distress or called on the members to inquire into the cause, they were tieeted with indifference, or silenced by clamour and contempt. He did not overstate this. It was but too true; and if any one presumed to mist his voice in their defence, or dared to interfere between the spoliators and their victims, they were opposed by a conspiracy of per sons interested in a continuance of the abuses . , and anx ious to prevent the voices of the people being heard in that House, or even to allow what was said in their favour being beard beyond . its walls. Government, however, seemed just now to have !lightly altered their tone, and .to be determined, if he was to judge from the redu ctions announced last night, and the explanations connected with them, to give a kind of Dutch concert, in which there would be an ample number of bass voices. He would ask them, however, to extend their candour and their entertainment a little farther, and grant him a com mittee to inquire freely and fairly into the cause of the sufferings of the people. Why was it, indeed, that such an inquiry should be refused ? It was never re sisted in the case of a turnpike or a road bill ; and why it was that they should refuse to look into the abyss of misery in which they were plunged, and reject all ex amination into the method of alleviating their condition, it was impossible to conceive. If they rejected all in quiry, it might end in locking up the House of Commons. He did not venture to predict that which was said of the House elsewhere ; but he really did think that they might be very properly disposed of by such a fate.—(A laugh.) He only suggested the possibility of such a catastrophe. Another danger to be apprehended was, that the people would begin to suspect there was a distinction drawn be tween the rich and the poor—between the capitalist and the producers of capital—between the payers and the re ceivers of taxes. Of course, there was no such thing in that House as a preference of their own interests ; but then there was a danger that the people might not be aware of the wisdom of the House, or of its excellence and probity ; and at all events there was prudence in not calling on them to take these things too much on asser tion. He did not attribute to others that which he was not willing to confess applicable to himself. He had a personal interest in the discussion of the question. He was not one of those who had amassed a large fortune through the means of laws made for the protection of themselves. He had not made a fortune by usury, or by taking advantage of favourable changes to turn over his property in the Money Market. He was one of those whose estates had descended to him from his forefathers —one of' that unfortunate class to whom belonged almost the whole of the land in the country ; and in the name of that class, and of every other class suffering in common with it, he solicited an inquiry into the nature of the evils which produced their distress. He knew well that the Government were determined to oppose whatever course he might think proper to adopt, but he hoped, at the same time, that there might be some Members who were now sensible of the cajoleries attempted to be prac tised on them, and who would join with him in compet ing the House to do justice to the people. He did not mean by the motion to turn the Ministry out.—(A laugh.) —He did not understand the laugh. He knew that it would be madness to hope for such a result, and that he might as well say he would pull the House down, as at tempt to remove a Government supported by such ma jorities. For two-and-thirty years all contracts had been framed, all taxes imposed, in one currency. That cur rency had been altered; and yet his Majesty's Ministers said that the currency question had nothing to do with the distress, that the currency question had nothing to do with the want of currency! He knew, however, that they would endeavour to shut the eyes of the House to the present state of the country, by painting flatter ing pictures, in the most glowing colours, of the state in which it would be next year. The fallacy of such a prediction would be best exposed by a reference to the fallacy of similar predictions in former years.— The noble duke at the head of his majesty's government had adopted a very convenient method of answering all the arguments and statements on the subject. In the first place, the noble duke directly denied the existence of any distress ; but afterwards, abandoning that direct denial, behind which he was as impregnable as behind the lines of Torres Vedras, he admitted that the situation of some of the retail traders was an exception to the general prosperity. That was certainly true ; for a peti tion had been presented from Manchester, signed by almost every retail dealer in the place, stating that the distress was never so great on any former occasion. The noble duke then talked of the great quantity of business done on the canals. He carefully abstained, however, from saying any thing of the present value of the shares, most of which were at a discount of thirty-five per cent. To that the noble duke added, that wood and meat still produced remunerating prices ; the fact being, that wood had fallen a half, and meat five and twenty per cent. in one year. After all this it was evident that the noble duke ought not to meddle with calculation ; but that he should content himself with silence, or, like Lord Bur- leigh, with shaking his bead. Reverting to the question of the currency, the noble duke had stated that the amount in circulation was 28,000,0001. ; the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that in 1828 the amount of sovereigns in circulation was twenty-two millions, and that there having been since issued 4,800,0001., the amount now was twenty-six millions. But from that must be deducted what had been exported for the pay ment of corn. He had reason to believe that 11,000 quarters of foreign corn had been so purchased ; and therefore that the amount of sovereigns at present in circulation did not exceed twenty-five millions. The noble duke had made several other discoveries of equal value ; for all which he supposed it was that his grace received so large a salary from the public. The right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in May, 1828, that the amount of one-pound notes in circulation 2,400,0001. He (Mr. Davenport) impugned that state ment on grounds the accuracy of which had been proved by the result ;* and had maintained that the amount was nearer six millions. The right hon. gentleman bad said, that if the one-pound notes were withdrawn from the circulation, they would be replaced first by a small issue of sovereigns, and then by an increase of ten and five. pound notes. What was the fact? That although there had been issued 800,000 sovereigns, instead of 400,000, yet that there had been a diminution of above four mil lions in the circulation of five-pound notes ; which, added to the six millions one-pound notes, made the quantity of paper withdrawn from circulation in one year nearly ten millions. Was it surprising, after this, that so much dis tress had shown itself ? Many of the friends of his Majes ty's government endeavourid to screen them on the Word of their ignorance. He should be deficient in candour if he did not give them the benefit of that plea. But it could not go beyond a certain extent. How could it be pleaded, after they saw the havoc which their measures were pro ducing in the country ? They saw that the country was filling with pauperism and misery, and yet they adhered to the measures by which those evils had been occasioned. He rather accused them, therefore, of tenacity of purpose than of ignorance—between culpable ignorance and cul pable obstinacy he believed that they had chosen the latter. How had the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statements of last year been borne out by the results ? The price of wheat had fallen in May and June last five and twenty per cent. and if the last harvest had not been so bad, he had no doubt that the present pried Would have been 4s. 6d. a bushel. The graziers had fared still worse than the farmers. RAM* to the prices at Ballinasloe fair, as compared with preceding years the prise of cattle had fallen considerably. At Dumfries they had been told at a loss. In Warwick shire the price had fallen twenty-five per cent. It would be said that this was good for the consumer. But it was no great consolation to the firmer that the value of his commodities was thus to be converted through the consumer into three per cents. Cheese shad fallen thirty per cent. in nine months. Cheshire alone pro ducedl2,ooo tons of cheese, so that by that fall no less a sum than 240,000/. was lost to one county. In the value of pigs a similar reduction had taken place. Was it not high time, therefore, for the legislature to interfere While all this confiscation of property was going on, the government papers kept talking of improvement and of ' changes. Changes there certainly had been, but they were changes for the worse rather than for the better. What must be the feelings of the poor farmers who were rendered unable to fulfil their contracts ? The moneyed interest were very liberal in their advice to the landed interest to reduce their rents. " Reduce your rents," they exclaimed, " and all will be well." But it was the turn of the moneyed interest now to make sacrifices. The agricultural interest had already reduced their rents. The confiscation of property should, in justice, be made to affect equally all classes. In the downhill race, all ought to start fair. The question had suffered from the indisposition of the land-owners of England to . _ speak out. He w•as sorry to say that their servility, their love of titles and distinction, and still more, their disposi tion to provide for their families in various professions, pre- vented them from speaking out, and denying the statements of his Majesty's Ministers. The commercial interest did not speak their minds freely on the question, from appre hension of personal results. It was far better that a mer chant should have his honour suspected than his wealth. With the merchant, respectability and wealth were con vertible terms. When the matter was put to them, "Oh dear," they answered, " there are some sufferers, certainly, but persons of credit and capital are doing vastly well ; • and at the very moment they themselves were probably on the verge of bankruptcy. Out of a hundred great foreign merchants in Birmingham five and twenty years I ago, only five now remained; and of the internal merchant., in the same place three -fourths had disappeared. There had been 1677 bankruptcies within the year, a greater number than in any preceding year except one. The hon. member here read a letter from a respectable merchant of Manchester, a man of the highest character, to show how much the trade of that town had suffered ; and how inef fectual the precautions which up to 1828 had been success ful in preventing bad debts had lately proved. The insol vencies were as numerous as the bankruptcies. There was no money circulating. The consequence was that in many cases people were obliged to revert to the old system of barter. The miller and the ironmaster interchanged their commodities. The manufacturing districts were struggling with absolute want. At Coventry alone, a short time ago, a charitable subscription having been raised, there were 12,000 applicants for relief on the first day. Macclesfield was equally distressed. At Huddersfield, 13,000 people had been working through the winter at 2? d. a day. Leeds, Blackburn, Norwich, and a variety of other places, were all experiencing the greatest misery. He had reason to know that at Barnsley, Settle, and Skipton, half the po pulation were maintained out of the poor rates. At Barnsley, the impatience of the people broke out into riot. .(Hear, hear.) He would call the attention of the house to the state of the Bullion Market. He had stated three years ago, upon the authority of a Mi• nieter of Finance in Spain, that the supply of the pre cious metals would cease as soon as the South American Colonies were independent of the Mother Country.-- The Government, therefore, had chosen a wrong period to call in the paper, and to revert to a metallic medium. He objected to depriving the people of the option of pay ing in gold or silver, and he had to complain of the repeal of the laws against exporting the current coin of the realm. The Honourable Member went through numer ous statements respecting the currency, which it was im possible to hear in the gallery ; and he concluded by moving : “ That all the Petitions sent to that House by various parties. and complaining of distress, be referred to a Committee of the whole House, with a view of inquiring into the Distress, and its Causes. and to report upon the Remedies." Colonel SIBTHORP seconded the motion. The question having been put from the Chair, Mr. IRVING expected, from the picture of distress which the hon. member had painted in glowing colours. that the hon. member would propose a remedy ; but ho did not ; he left it as it was. The hon. member at tributed the distress principally to a change in the cur rency. Though he (Mr. Irving) had opposed the mea sure in 1819, yet he would not now advocate a re turn to the same system. He felt satisfied that no good would result from it. There was plenty of money in circulation to answer the purpose of the country ; there were five or six millions of bank-notes in the hands of the bankers at present, for which there was no demand. The Bank of England, he felt sure, would do anything in their power to increase the circulation if necessity re quired it, but they felt it difficult at present to keep the gold at home, and prevent it from being exported. Ile believed that there was an impetus given now to trade, and that there was room to hope for a growing prosperity throughout the manufacturing districts. The hon. mem ber here read an extract from a letter from a gentleman in Manchester, stating that there was much activity in the trade of that town at present, and that very high wages were given. The letter further stated that there were large exportations of silk and cotton from that town to France and America. The hon. member hoped that this letter would satisfy the house that distress is not so general in the manufacturing districts as some members would fain to represent. The produce of the manufactures had doubled since the year 1819, and there was room to conclude that the profits had doubled also. No class had suffered more than the shipping interest ; yet ships were so cheap, and the fitting-out so easily accomplished, that he believed that even that was not unprofitable. The ex changes had been in our favour for some years, for we had been importing gold, which was indicative of the excess of our exportations. Distress was not so general as it was represented, even at this period of the year. which was generally the most inactive ; there was abun dance of employment in the agricultural districts. He found an increase of consumption in several articles con nected with the trade and manufactures of the country since the first of January last above that of a similar period in the last year : which induced him to entertain sanguine hopes of the growing prosperity of the country. There is nothing in our condition which ought to exclude hope, or create despair : (hear, heir.) From all the ac counts which he had received from Ireland and Scotland, he believed that distress was not so extensive in those countries as in this ; he thought that the distress was correctly described in his majesty's speech. Mr. WARD begged to correct a mistake which had been made in reporting his speech on the night 9f the moving the address. He did not say that distress was general, or that it was only partial; he merely said that it was of a peculiar kind ; he was not one of those who would wish to lessen the importance - of landlords in the eyes of their tenants, but he believed that before long the rents should be lowered. He looked on rents in the same light as capital In the hands of the manufacturer; and as the manufacture declined, so should the proat of the Capital, and so in like manner the rents. The hon. aim , bar here entered into a statement of the currency, and