The National Register. — London, England, 1819-05-16 00:00:00

ft II itittr+ - . )1 4 , tpL 4, a • ~I • .. .....~-M. ~,q..• ""u ......~ • . [PRICE 90. - imperious!: rarliament, which has now been sitting for some menthe, bet during which time scarcely a question had arisen, previous to the Catholic Claims, which seemed of sufficient importance either to ensure the attendance! of its Members, or fairly to try its senti ments upon the general policy so long pursued, but which, both on that occasion, and again since upon the hardly less important Question of the Scotch Burglv, bas so nobly done its duty, it is impossible not to feel a deep anxiety as to what may be its con duct and decisions upon the great Trials that are now immediately before it. The Plot of the Drama is now at its very height, and the developement, he it happy, or be it miseraltle must be soon disclosed A want of some strong and decisive measure en the part of what is called the Opposition, had begun to be much complained of; but the uniform resistance ehewn to any amelioration and hnpravement, the notice for an extensive Loan for the current Service, without a symptom of Retrenchment, and the Report of the Bank Committee, which holds out no hope of any carly.return to a more wholesome Basis of Public Credit, or a more rational medium of com mon Barter, has at length roused them. They are now tieing in proportion to the exigence that calls for their exertions. Mr. Tierney, we arc happy to observe, ha:teem notice of a motion for an Enquiry into the State of the Nation, a motion which to some may perhaps savour of the character of an investiga tion of an old and entangled account between a spendthrift and his creditor, which the former so na turally hates to contemplate and shudders to enter tain, but which we have yet no he:;itation in affirm ing, is due to Ministers themselves, if it can be the means of proving the impossibility of avoiding the difficulties in which we are involved, and still more due to the country which hos a right to expect s ither that such a case should be made out, or that all conlitlence should be immediately withdrawn liom those hands in which it line been abused. If, then, his Majesty's Ministers should chilir directly oppose or attempt beget rid of it by any of those miserable expedients so often had recourse to as screens for a bad cause. whatever may be the fate of such motion in the [louse of Commons, yet the real motives on which such investigation is ace f iuted , canrot fail to be clearly understood or pro perly appreciated by the whole country. In a sizoation like ours it will not do to tell us that intutiry is not needed, nor shall we readily believe tnat improvement is not bothpracticable and abso iutely required. In the first place, the Finances of the country are universally admitted to be in a oon ilition in which a national bankruptcy might almost ht - • greeted as a blessing. We have spent in the fast 12 months thirteen and a ball millions of money beyond the amount of our revenue, and, contrary to very former precedent, as we proceed in the duration of peace, we proceed also in the depression cfpublie present be possibly discharged. Our army, tvhich is the modern instrument of conciliating allegAhnee, and promoting tranquillity, costs within 9, millions and a half of the charge of the whole Peace Establishment, Army, Navy, Ordnance, Civil List,' &c. &c. in the time of Mr. Pitt. Commerce is every where stagnant and depressed. Petitions are day by day crowding the tables of tho House of Com mons, stating that the persons 'employed both in our cotton and woollen manufacturic cannot by their utmost exertions earn above five shillings a weak, whilst !snipers, as a necessary consequence, are multiplied by hundreds and thousands throughout the land. Agriculture, which can never' prosper but in union with Commerce, any more than Com merce without Agriculture, is fast s i nking under the civil policy of the times, from the weight of taxation, from the depreciation of money, from the gross abuses and defects which signalize our system of parochial relief, and, above all by the glaring mischief arising from the crude and absurd enact ments of our present Corn Laws—Laws, which instead of affording any steady and pt:rmanent support to agriculture, are only found to encourage a spirit of gambling and speculation, to throw the , markets into et al ansi-vioient fluctuations, and to , produce to fan orris, to tenants, and to the poor, a , total derangement of those first principles upon which their respective connections can alone-prosper. : How, for instance, in a year like tine, is any fair average of the value of land to be drawn from the value of its produce? How is the landlord to fix, mrequitable rent? How is the occupier even to guess what he can atlod to pay ? How is the poor man to value his labour, or to hope that his wages will keep pose with the perpetually varying price of that upon !he production of which his labour is employed? Ilotv, again, does this horrible state of uncertainty in the first necessaries of life, operate upon their price to the general consum. r, even beyond the actual variation of of the market ? Great profits must necessarily be imposed by the merchant or dealer, as the only means of enabling hint to guard against the sudden reverses to which he knows and feels hhnsellexposed. That such a state of things is wrong, that if left without investigation, mel without remedy, its consequences mnst soon be dreadful,-no one, surely, needs be told. The last Corn Bill was a measure of his Majesty's Ministers ; and ithas all the character and fruits of their common policy. Now with these and a thousand other aggravations which we have not time to enter upon, what is there on the other hand to soften the harshness of this picture? Alas ! nothing. What has been done to conciliate attach ment, to protect morality, to relieve the pressure of cur burdens? Alas! nothing. Nay, as if their seats should endure for ever, and their very names were above reproach, ,they have, in the compass of this short Session, resisted the revision of our eau guitiary Criminal Code with all their might, they have continued the infamout, gains scraped front the Lottery, and they have moved and carried a grata to the Dole of York, of ten thousund pounds* year, fur a weekly viait to his aged mat atilluat foam. Mr. Orenfell, on Thursday nig4tt, , brought for ward his motion for a Committee of.the whole House, to consider the expediency pi aulscribing.tie Sinking Fund of the year to any loan whiNusity be necessary for the year's public service. It was opposed by the Chancellor of the Exehequer.; and if the question depended upon evidence and argument, kis opposition would Eave been feeble indeed. He suc ceeded, however, in persuading the I-louse to reject the motion by a majority of 117 to 29. The pr".:. cipul grounds urgill by him were, the inexpedieut of interfering, by the authority of an Act of Farti:, meat, with the discretion vested by the former Act in the Commissioners, and the danger of len% ing the market at the mercy of the Jobbers, by withdrawing the Commissioners from the mallet. With respect to the first, it is difficult to see why the LeOslatute should not direct the application of the Sinkivi• Fund from its ordinary purpose to the current ser. vice of the year, if the public iaterest demand it; and we think the dealers is stock (for stock is come a commodity like any other) nmy be safebf left to their owe .wits, sharpened by their interests, to guard them against any attempt ut deceptica by the Jobbers. The stuce night the Attorney-General obtained leave to bring in a Bill to prevent cr.listments into foreign service, and the equipment of vessels of war without lice"ce. This sill may, we think, act in its progress ma test of attachment to general principles ofliberty. We regret that the learned gentleman did not express his intentions more fully to the House on one point; we mean, whether he proposes to give a retrospective action to his Bill—whether he wears to give Ministers the power of recalling, wider 15, - naliy of detia, all those who have already engaged in the patriot war.—Sir James Mackintosh most truly • described it " as an enactment to repress the rising liberty of the South Americans, and to ena ble Spain to re-impose that ycke of tyranny which they were unable to bear, which they had nobly shaken off, and from which he trusted in God they would finally be enabled to flue themadv-s, what ever attempts were made by the ministers of this or any other country to countenance or assist their oppres.nrs." And if the retrospective clause we have above alluded to be introduced, we think he might have added to his description " that it WES a manifest attempt to continue the system of perse cution against an enterprising nobleman, whose services had shed brilliancy over our own naval an nals, and whose success in the patriot eanA! was ardently wished for by every lover of the real rights of Man." The latter part which relates to shipping, is destructive of a considerlible branch of commerce, and our already half-star4d turers of Birmingham, will doubtless feel griateful to the proposer of a mPasnre which will certainfv drive their custerr tc other warket. •• fte -- - _ • • - ./ 7-7-77. • ifgveroitfititution ant VE at - . . • • - No. 1191.—VoL.itII.] • ATNIVIV,OtAir 16, 1819. • • W credit. e 3 per Ceitti. arc actually 12 per cent. • OW TO lower than 'they were 18 mon . tlk alo, and let us SI,',ATE OF TILE NATION. not forget how confidently these funds were then appealed to by Mlniaterm as a clear and unquestioned TIM attention of the country was never more criterion of pub ,prosperity, and of public wealth. Iperiously directed to the proceedings of the legis- We ow 800 debt. and let the tore, than at the present moment. With a new "leek ebon, .even j 1 pene hat linty lean grittino , for ElMA should beleterral, this debt at the prespnt rate can , • ,LL r• .71 i9.' ,„,,•. •.:.„,.., ~,„.....4 ~„.,.. “1. 1 .