The Statesman. — London, England, 1823-02-27 00:00:00

irdPs.v syve L. -•rerierm.l . Dehtin • 1. •Wootrii, , re...• 0 • • C... 6 & Jersey. 0 Lisbon 0 .o....oottenhurg• • • • 3 ARE. • I.:..France ..... ”e•I • o.,..Plantlers , • L.—meta ...I • PRICE OF STOCKS TIIIB Beek Stook 238 9 . 3 per Ct. Reit 3yer Ct. Cons .... 74 4 73f *4 per Ct. 4 per Ceuta 93f Now Tows 7 411 I DAY AT ONE &DIODE. India Stock . 4311 334 Ditto Bonds ..s.26s9lts. South Sea Stock South Sea Old Ana.' • Ez.Bill.4d. ( 9s Its 9s s pm. IMO/. err Ct. 17"7.. s,onsf Ann.. 19 9.10 Imp. 3 per Ct.... ...... Irish 8 per Cents. 300/.91 11 s.9s. s pm. Small 9s. I 15.94 spm Cou.far fieet 7 7441 731 GotseryTieksts 19.1. 19s. tke atattontan. THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY In, 1823. PARLIAMENTARY COMMENTARY. Ist Tat Commons.—The most interesting matter that came before the House was the SURREY PETITION, which was *presented by Mr. Dennison. Mr. Miserly object •1 to that part of the petition which contained a prayer for an equitable adjustment of contracts. Mr. Ricardo followed him, in somewhat the same ?train. This was the. on•set! Not a very furious one, indeed. Nothing late so furious as the on-set last year upon the two little word*, " just reduction," contained in the pe tition of the county of Kent. Here, in the Surrey Pe tition was a Prayer for a general adjustment of contracts private a.; well as public, and specifically with regard to what is called the National Debt; and yet„, so help us Galt, Mr. Calcraft sat still and said not one single word. It is curious, too, that this proposition, though it came this time out of Surrey, carne originally from the same shop with the Kentish proposition. Mr. Calcraft, in the case of the Kentish proposition. said that he would have made the propo'er take Iris horse and gallop off. Goo knows what he would ant Lave done to him. While the discussian last niaht was going on, a friend of ours rigs he sat trembling, expecting every moment to see Mr. Cal craft rise; but the 4601 of one word did Mr. Calcraft av npon the subject!—This shows how we are getting wt. It marks the progress of the thing ; and admonishes tl.e fund-holder to ►ecome a gold-hoarder as quickly as posibl►; for, blind indeed mast that man be who doth nut see that the end approachetb.—•Mr. Ricardo made bat very poorly out. He talked of the phe nomena of increasing revenue; and he called upon his opponents to account for that upon any other ground than that of the prosperity' of the country. He did not know how there could be an increasing re venue and flourishing commerce, if Peel's Bill had been so destructive.—Now. has Mr. Ricardo forgotten how the merchants were slaughtered in 1319? Has he forgot ten, too, what has passer! 'titbits these twenty days; or (="that lie understand the last Register and the last Re ;sister but two, where it is shown as clear as day-light, that a revenue may go on increasing ; that commerce and manerictures may go on flourishing ; end that, u bile these "phersomees," or by whatever other nonsensical n ure they may be called ; while these are going on, all the landlords in the kingdom may be stripped of their estates, the farmers of their capital, and that the agri enitural labourers may be reduced to beggary ? Mr. Ricardo seas called an Grade, by Me• : srs. Brougham' and Wilberforce; at the time when Mr. Cobbett return ed from bong Island, very soon after the passing oi l Pe.l's Bill. Last night the gentleman seems not to have been so confident as he was at the time that we are alluding I to. He seemed to think that hi. doctrine stood in need orate/trap of authorities ; for, he read a letter, it ap pears, stating that Peel's Bill lead had no effect, or very• litt:e erect, npon prices. Some o.e said that this letter was from dlr. P. Steullongh of the kingdom of Sco Lat I; but, we imagine it came from Mr. Gladstone, or some such person at Liverpool; for Gladstone has, in a Liver pool newspaper, unequivtvally asserted, that Peel's Bill sots had no miect at all upon prices, and has even in• sited that it has sot caused the gold to appear. In short, that it has had no effect at all in any way what c..er ; and that prices would have been just the same, and gold come out, just in the same manner and in the same quantity. if Peel's Bill bad never been passed, and no leeislative measure whatever had been a•lopted with regard to the currency. This, to be sure, is as little short of &dim as any thing that one cm well intestine; but, the bleb scene will be, when Peel's Ili shall be repeated! If that should take place; and take place it will to a certainty, if we go to to war ; then will come the high scene ;• then will Mr. Ricardo and his au thorities cut a brilliant figure. Not less than twenty shillings will buy a bushel of wheat in six months after that Bill shall be repealed; and then we shall bear what Mr. Ricardo has to say about the phenomena. Lord Folkestone followed Mr. Ricardo, and in the course of his speech, reminded the latter of his four and a half per rent. Ilia Lordship explained a little, the wonderful phenomena that so surprised Mr. Ricardo, and exposed the folly, the supreme folly, of relying upon the tables of Mr. Mutate. In that he showed, which Mr. Cob belt has show° 1 long and long enough ago, that the price of gold compared with that of the paper, was no standard at all whereby to measure the general depre ciation. After Mr. Sumner had said something tending to make the house believe that it was a poor little meet ing in Surrey, though we are very sure that he newr saw each a one there before in his life, Mr. Bennet rose, and having done justice to the rneetirg; having defend ed the yeomen of Surrey against the observations of Mr. Sumner, proceeded, not to defend the prayer of the petition, for the prayer of an equitable adjustment of contracts, contained in it; for that, in fact, appeared t) stand in need of no defence; bat to state that the House pried Peel's Bill from ignorance, and that that ignorance proceeded from Mr. Ricardo ; that Lis doctrine was the foundation of all the ignorance that led to the fatal measure : that in stead of such a measure, to consummate the ruin of the laud, a measure for an equitable adjustment of contracts ought to have been adopted at that time; seeing that a breach of contracts, a breach of national faith had been committed against the debtors, even before and long be fore that Bill was passed. He distinctly traced the igno- allig. ♦RR. TYIK td.rifriallnibigrrriii=o; V Weld wee 10m! of the "eminent , feattweti of the transactions of tw i t clays and, in :00st Ithid . speerh, maintained the justice and trisikm of the prayer of the petition. Mr. Peel deprecated suck premiere" discussion. The Ministers were all in' their plates. The Chsncelloraf the Ezell° • goer paid not a word ; and that which Re. Peel said amounted to very little. That Mr. Peel should defend his Bill is ss natural as that father should defend child. Buil,* defence that he made last niglit seemed to em brace many eralifications. lt seemed to contain matter of a very abstract nature indeed. Ale said it was just to return to cash payments in 1814 1 ,liecause it would have been just to return to those payments at any time after 1797. 'This was a curious sort of argument. A thing that may be jest in itself, may be wholly inexpedient : — But, can it be just to pass a law to-day which induces me to bargain to giec twenty pounds two years hence for a certain thing, and that compels tw, when the time of p4ment comes, to pay sixty pounds for the thing in place of twenty: can this be justUt is nonsense to tell me, that I knew that cash-payments were to return at the peace. I knew oo such thing; and the hest possible answer to this stale old assertion is, that they did not return at I I the peace, in spite of those acts of Parliament; that they have not returned even yet ; and that they will not have returned until the let of next May. Three-fourths of those who have been malting bargains, were actually children when the suspension of cad►-aynstttta took place. •The idea of returning to prices such as we see now, never once entered their heads since they were born. So that this is an assumption that is not worth a straw. No reasonable person can rest upon it for a mco Hunt. The nation was deceived ; that is enough : it was igetaant of the consequences which would arise from the casb-mcasures. It could not possibly have been otherwise ; but that is no matter. Debtors were not prized o/' their danger. They hare been wronged or ruined by the cash-measures. The wrong has been done; and this wrong now ought to be remedied. After Mr. Peel came Mr. Monck, who maintained the soundness of Lord Folkestone's doctrine with regard to the relative prices of gold and paper, in answer to the doctrines of Mnschet and Ricardo. lle agreed in opinion with Mr. Bennet that the House passed Peel's Bill when it was in a state of profound ignorance upon the subj Pct ; and that ignorance he also traced to Mr. Ricardo. Mr. Ricardo rose to explain. Lord Folkestone bad said that Mr. Ricardo bad asserted at the time of passing Peel's Bill, that prices would fell only four and a half per cent, in consequence of that bill, but that he had since acknowledged that the bill has occasioned a fall of prices to the amount of ten per cent. In explanation, Mr. Ricardo said, that the four and a half per cent. opinion was founded upon the notion that his plan would be adopted, and that it was the not adoping of his plan that caused the further fall of price to the amount of ten per cent.—Who would not imagine, from this, that Mr. Ricardo opposed Mr. Peel's Bill. Let us now, then, hear what he said, in a Committee of the whole House, on the report of that Committee wbicb reported ia favour of this very Bill of Mr. Piet. He said that " the pro " posed mode of resuming cash payments appeared to " him the easiest that could de imagined." After des. eanting upon the ignorance of the Bank Directors, observed upon the fearful and destructire depreciation that hal at one time exialmit he way happy to reflect " that we had w far retraced oar steps. We itad nearly " got" home , and he hoped that the-Right Hotjurfilia " Gentleman (Mr. Peel) would lend them his assistance "to enable them to teach it in safety. He would ten " ture to state that, in a very few weeks, all alarm would beArgetten, and at Me end of the year we should be " all surprised to reflect that any alarm had ever pre " tailed, at a prospect of a variation of three per cent. "in the value of the circulating medium!" The Ho roura!,!e Member sat down amidst LOUD AN GE. NERAL " CHEERING FROM ALL SIDE ON' " THE HOUSE!!!" This scene aas in the 'Horse of Commons, on Monday, May 24th, 1819. It was at this, particularly, that Mr. Cohbett laughed in Long kind. He sent twenty miles to bring his son up to help him laugh ; and. he. wren them, they read this passag i i over twenty times: " Mind," said he, " James, I te you " what precious laughing we shall have at this in 'Eng . land." We dare not laugh at what pants in the House of Commons now since Si: Acts have been pltst d ; but we may laugh at what took place there before. — And so, he sat down amidst loud cheering from all farts of the House! Does not Mr. Rennet wait truly, then? And was not the Act passed in consevence of the ignorance communicated to it by Mr. Iticarslo ? Oh. szrvc, that the extract that we have just made Oates out of the speech made af? ef' il Mt. Ricardo's own project had been rejected, and anoth e r put in its pace. It wA4I4 . be easy for us to show that bis project would lrveqpir- duceithe same e(fect ; but fist is wholly unnecesiiity.2 Our extract is made from a speech made in favour of Mr.. Nati own report on which his Hitt was foandetl.Xisi so. he "sat down amidst loud Cheers fi•ont all sid4 of " the house"! He did not so sit down last night. We imagined when we first read the report, that Mr liroughain could not have been present; because we saw nothing from him in support of his " oracle." We find, however, that Mr. Brougham was pre:en', and we ee that lie did say nothing ; though this very Surrey peti tion contained almost the whole of that Norfolk petition which Mr. of thought proper to censure on the first day the Session. What is become of the Norfolk petition itself Mr. Coke will of course let us know one of these days, when he is done with the hole and-corner meetings in that county. He will take an opportunity, we dare say, of presenting the county petition when he presents that from the Hundred of Xatramtrecu, which petition from Launditch was intended to 60 s protest against the connty petition, bat trii ich is a petition/or the county petition ; and, what is Taber sigslar, and must be singularly gratifying to Mr. Coke, it 'is a petition coining from, not only his own constituents, bat, for the greater part, FROM IBS OWN TENANTS. This petition from the Hundred of Lanndirlfh will be found below, and we do hope that it will not be suffered to be presented to the House without due attention paid to it. We repeat that a meeting of the nobility, gentry, clergy, nwncrs and occupiers of land in the Hundred of Launditch was held en Wednesday, 19th of February, ._-~, ._ . , THAN tncl;l7;;;;;inings inbstetilbe R d Dixon Hoste to take the Chair; that Mr Ovinnan charged Magistrates, General Keppel and dm Rev. D. Neste having refused to accept a requisition from fifty-six rep' spectable individuals of the Handred ; that General Keppel, after saying that be respected cennty meetings' and thought that what was passed at them ought to be final, and that no other meetings ought to be held to put them aside; but that "here was a man that they knew " nothing about, stepping forward with such resolutions " that it became them to express their disapprobation of ; " that Cobbett would not propose any thing for their " good ; that he cared not for the farmers, whom he had " called stupid and jolter-headed."—Let us stop here for a moment to ask who this General Keppel can be. We know, however, that he is one of our Generals; we know that we have to pay him ; and we also know, that we for our parts have never heard of any of his military exploits. The yeomanry of Norfolk knew, we dare say, a great deal more of Mr. Cobbett, than they ever knew of General Keppel or ever will know of him. Mr. Over man proposed the Rev. Mr. Maul to take the chair in stead of Mr. Hoste. Mr. Drosier then moved certain resolutions beginning with a disclaimer of the county petition; which the second resolution views with ab horrence and detestation, and charges with proposing' " a violation of all contracts between man and man, " a confiscation of property, and a total destrnction of, national honour." Mr. GODDARD JOHNSTONE proposed that instead of these resolutions, the petition which we subjoin should be adopted. General Keppel said some- thing here, the report of which we can hardly credit, though we take it from the Norfolk Chronicle. " The lion. Gentleman " also expressed his earnest desire to avow his disapprobation of the petition carried at the late county meeting, because he had been so terribly laughed at by his friends on account of that petition." Mr. SUTTON said it was the hireling press which had endeavoured to hold the county up to laughter ; " the same press that lad frightened Lord Suffield," (great laughter here,) " The Rev. Mr. Maul appears to hale left the Chair.—Mr. Beck manfully said that he would second Mr. Johnstone, and be reprobated the requisition ists fur their abuse of Mr. Cobbett. He called upon them to show that Mr. Cobbett was in the wrong ; to meet him fairly and openly in county-meeting, instead of acting the part of assassins and stabbing him in their dark holes and corners. Mr. Beck appears to have made a very excellent statement, and he concluded by calling upan his opponents for another county-meeting; he called upon them to leave their barn-assemblies and to cease to stab in the dark.—Driven up into a corner in this way, the Rev. D. Host. said, that perhaps it would be beet to follow Mr. Archdeacon Bathurst's ad vice, and adjourn this meeting to a county-meeting. Here were • few cries of " Adjourn! Adjourn!" Now came the test. Mr. Host and General Kep pel were asked if they would now sign a requi sition for another county-meeting. Mr. Hoste an swered NO ! General Keppel said that he had de clined the invitation of the Arch-deacon : " for who," he would ask, " was Mr. Cobbett that they should give " him a county-meeting ? lie was not a Norfolk man !" Some one said, " but he is an Englishman, as much as " you !" Towards the close of the scene, Mr. Maul left the chair, and the magistrates also left their places and retired from the room. The Rev. T. C. Manning, said, he " could remember the time when Mr. Coke was deno " minated the Dictator of Norfolk : cow Mr. Cobbett "was become the Dictator of Norfolk." The chair br ing empty, Mr. Beck rose and said, that " in the ab sence of those who were called their legitimate lealers, he should propose Mr. ROBERT FURNESS as their chair man ;" which proposition was received with great ap plau.e. The amendment was then put and carried un animously, and here that amendment is : Bhewent,—That your petitioners, during a long and dis astrous war. cheerfully made every sacrifice requisite for the honour end sentrity of the country,that now,overwhelm ed by an immeasurable burden of misery and distress, they are constrained to approach your Hon. House. to require that attention to their just and grievous complaints, which their lamentable nature ' , lands. That the numberless appeals made to your Honourable House, by an impoverished and degraded people. have hi therto been regarded as the mere effusions of idle discon tent, not as the weilings of a long-suffering and overbur thened nation, which apathy and neglect they can only as cribe to their not being duly represented in the Commons House of Parliament. That their bounden duty to the Constitution, transmitted to them by their forefathess, compels them, boldly though respectfully, to assert their claims to those rights and liber ties confirmed to them by the glorious Bill of rights. And that excessive and unequal taxation is the primary cause of all the mils they so poignantly deplore. That to evert impending ruin, anarchy, end confusion, restore happiness and prosperity to this once envied land, tie Members of your Honourable House must be fre ly chosen by the people, and become what the Constitution contemplated they should be, the jealous and undaunted de fenders of the people's rights, and the faithful guardians of the nubile purse. - That the large stints voted by your Ilonourable House in support of the Church Establishment, entities your petition er; to pray for an appropriation of a moiety of the public etsifoperty, called Church property. and also the proceeds of 'the sale (gall Crown lands or estates, towards the liquida tion ofthe public debt. That your petitioners further pray for an abolition of all sinecures, pensions, grants, or emoluments, not merited by public senices. For a reduction of the Standing Army, in all its various departments, to a scale of expeoce not exceeding that of the army prior to the last war. For a co-extensive reduction of the Civil List, and of all the salaries of the Royal Family, Officers of State, and others, now paid by taxes, extorted from the vxuausted funds of a sinking nation. For the total repeal of the tax on malt, beer, snap, can dles. and leather, and such a diminution of the Interest of the National Debt as the imperious necessity of the times requires, end public justice has a right to expect. And that your Honourable House will forthwith enact a law, that will secure to Englishmen an efficient repreg. !na tion in the Commons House, restore to them the Constitution in its original purity, anti thus perpetuate the once boasted supremacy of Britons. And your petitioners will every pray. &c. We beg Mr. Coke to have the goodness to appoint a day for the presenting of this petition, and to illiprm Mr. Cobbett, who is one of his constituents, of t h at day. We think it should be presented with the petition that is coming from the bans at Cromer, they will form such a loving pair. Both taken together will o' , -ev how very wise it is to endeavour to over-set county pe itions by hole and corner meetings.—We have wandtred very widely here from our Parliamentary subject : so widely, indeed, that we have no hope cf returning to it to day, and shall %herders not attempt it. >w~-,.~: • • procx Erpj:iNGE, HA LT-P.IiT TWELVE K IVicst parties are busy this morning in settling the diEer enees of their accounts ; in consequence of which there has been but littlo doing in the market up to this hour. Consols opened at 73band went op to 714, at which p-ice they remain. Two expresses. have arrived from Paris this morning bringing the French Funds Sof. 25c, STOCK EXCHANGE, ONE O'CLOCK.—Among the many failnres which have taken place in the Stock Exchan ge , we have to announce one declared this morning, that of a gentleman of the Hebrew persuasion, of some come tplence. We understand he pays 14 shillings in the pound, and is allowed to keep his books. Consols are rather lower,-73n. FOREIGN Id A RKIIT.—Some besineSS has 1,..en done in the above market this morning. Spanish Bonds opened at 3213, and went up 33. The moment it was known an Express had arrived from Paris, they went to 34, but af terwards lowered to 331. Chili, 69—New Spanish, 321-01 d. 42—New Prussia, 76-01 d, SO—Russia, 74—Danish. 74—Neapolitan, 67 Colombian, ss I—S in aI sh Scrip. SS. The Paris papers to the 25th instant which have arrived contain a report of a very important debate on Monday in the Chamber of Deputies. The debate was on the motion for voting 100 millions of francs, (abut t four millions sterling) for extraordinary expences incur red by the military preparations now going on. It was on this occasion we suppose anticipated that M. Chateaubriand would have made the exposition we re ferred to yesterday, as the galleries it appeared were filled by an immense concourse of persons in the expectation, (in which they were disappointed) of hearing M.Chateats briand deliver a speech. The decision on the motion was, very singularly, postponed, because the number of m.m. hers present became at last too small to carry on the dis cussion ; but the discussion was carried fur enough to be unequivocally decisive, of the question of war. M. Royer Collard, apposed the war as unjust, uunecessary, and dan gerous to the French. M. Lahourd otnaye, on the oiler hand, abused the ministers for not going to war sooner. A series of 'rakers followed, supporting the differer t sides of the question ; after which lien. Foy, with grer t eloquence, lamented that an army, which he as an old soldier could not help wishing to succeed, should be employed in a ,mice in which lie, as an honest man, must hope it would fail.— Of the impropriety of the war, he said, he was convinced the Minister, M. de Villele, entertained the same opinion as the opposition, but that he was induced to engage in the contest by the fear of losing his place. This called up M. de Villele, who fairly acimittt d that he had Ices desitous of place. "Such also," lie added, " was the desire of the Monarch, and there is no Minister who would have remained Minister, had he advised the ling to make an unjust war. Yes, had it been possible to have avoided war, we should have done it—and we have tried every thing to preserve peace. We have even made all the sacrifices we could to remain in that situation. No doubt peace is preferable to war—hat war rather than disgrace—war rather than ccmpromise the dearest in terests of my country—and that is the situation in which the Spanish Revolution has placed us."—After assuring the Chamber that France had never proposed to impo.e her Charter upon the Spaniards, M. de Villele concluded in the fallowing manner It is because peace appears to us more dangerous than a state of war, that we pr - pose to you to rote the scppli.-s demanded."—Aecording to these papers, the Franca treops were to be placed (st cnchelon about the end of thi. month along the exmesue frontier, and 5000 additional sailors were to be rend at Bast. The internal state of F raire, ho never, it appears, is by no means tranquil. Front the alwrireor we learn that on the 16th inst. there was a disturbance at Lyon:, oerr.• sinned by the opposition offered by the Anttiorities and the Military to the progress of a procession of masks, which, under the privilege of Carnival, repr,s ,, nted Funeral of Trade. The ear was talc• n and retaktr, and the military ultimately beaten off. The next day, iu the afternoon, an individual uttered aloud several times ore the Place Bellecoar, the forh'dd .n cry or rive 1 . F;utp.- rcur. Attempts were made by Gen !armee and officere to arrest him, but he was sudden!y surrounded by a numh , r of persons wlso struck them and rescued him. The crowd increased, and menacing rres of "into the Rhone ! into the Rhone!" were heard. A strong mili tary force having at last been assembled, order •aa et stored, anal with much difficulty the offending individaal was seized and placed in the hands of ,!ustime FRENCH FUNDS, Fan. 24.—Five per Cents. ooed at SUE 2.5 c„ closed at 79f. Sltc. Wink Stock,l4:ol.—Nea politan Five per Centq. 671. —Exchange on Lands's: one month, 2af. 55c. ; three mon the. 2,3!. 35c. German parrs have beer. eceived this mo ning cot - tieing an article from St, Petersburg, (Wel Feb. '. In that article is announced the arrival o tlie Emperor on the preceding day, and this announcement is foli o% e d by an article from the ( vaservatcur lntperiol contaiainic the imtructions sent from Verona to Count Ballad Charge d'Affaires, from the Emperor to his Catholic Majesty. Our limi.s will ailow, of these ins!rnceons,hat the fade. extracts :—" In the instructions it Web you receive to. day we have attacked, without reserve, the Coasitntinn viced by the Cortes in btll ; and we ha% e. .0 impute to the mode of adoinistration witielt a establishet, almost all tin' evils under which Soain So malty facts demonstrate their t uth, that certainli nobody in Europe will venture to qn• s• ion it. A charter wisich eitshiialtes f,r the pe. pie the right of cover is theta, ercise of which is happily impossible, b 0 the mere theory of 060., if once admitted, still prodOces calami ties, a shorter w hi c h cells to :hl feminine of the laws. the only elms intere.ited in the absenix of laws,vehich t!o s not even leave the monarch the free power of choosi ng a consort, and which diss-tainatra, as it were, the public power antothr the nuliberless authorities, instituted by the 510 articles of which it iscomposed, each a charter car:- not find a defen :er in any enlighte.:ed publeist in any of those men who know that order aad peace are OA ' first objetis as well as the first diluents of the happiness of societies." An attempt is then made to set wide the treaty made with the tortes in the year and afterwards a con fession is made that " ttossia i, to frank, tun sincerely 3 friend to the Spanish n ition, to staffer any treaty what ever, to wake it desire the prolongation of a system, which his brought o's that glorious and estimable na tion, all the cells of anarchy —all the excesses of a -anguinar; revolution—au , ' all the loins which follow the train of crime, united with rant of foresight. In suck a situation his Majesty cannot recognise any ha hut that of the welfare of Spain, and this is the only one which he is resolved to billow. " Serb, Cutout, is the laugua,:e you w:11 be sts good as to hold," London : added, Printed, and Pub:lined, at the (Ass " The STATESMIN" No. 297. Strand, by R. WARDELL. LL.B. to whorl) all Co" , urrieationa, Orders, &a. are raquaatad la be *Urea , odl It l t at ik tar *Ol the 111 • E. 0 $ I I woo ~~ _~ ~T ~- ,~ I T I hop a h can biz am So Po wl 04 . a B