The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-16 00:00:00

BOARD OF TRADE RETURNS.

Lord STANLEY asked if there would be any objec-
tion to lay before their Lordships the monthly returns
of the trade and commerce of the country, prepared by
the Board of Trade ?

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE would make inquiries
on the subject. _ _ _

Their Lordships then adjourned.
[ln the Parliamentary report of Tuesday evening it was
stated that certain petitions had been presented by the
Bishop of Durham. This was an error. The Right
Rev. Prelate who presented the petitions in question was
the Bishop of Llandaff, and not the Bishop of Durham.]

ROUSE OF COMMONS, Dec. 15.
COMMERCIAL DISTRESS.

(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
[The following is a fuller: report of Lord G. Ben-
tinck's speech than appeared in our Afternoon Edition
of yesterday.]
Lord G. BENTINCK said that it had not been his
intention to attempt to address the House until his
proper turn came, when the name of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade should
be proposed as a Member of the Committee; but he felt
that he might perhaps be consulting the convenience of
the House, if he rose to endeavour to draw back its
attention to the real matter under debate, and, if
.possi-
ble, to stop the debate from running into a diseusston on
the general question of the currency.—(Hear, hear,)
It was not his intention to be tempted, by anything
which the Hon. Mei*ber for West Surrey had said, to
say one word on the currency question, but to address
himself entirely to the constitution of the Committee,
Perhaps he should also best consult the convenience of
the House by debating now, once for all, the whole ques•
tion of the alterations in the Committee, and though it
would be necessary to take several divisions, he would
not again trespass on the attention of the House.—
(Cheers.) In proposing to exclude the names of several
Hon. Gentlemen, he could assure those Gentlemen that
he meant no disrespect or discourtesy of any kind to
them. He was, by the circumstance that the House was
pledged to have twenty-six Members, and no more than
twenty-six Members, in the Committee, reduced to the
invidious necessity of excluding the names of certain
Members. When he addressed himself to the Right
Hon. Gentleman opposite, he could especially assure him
that if he (Lord G. Bentinck) had his choice of all the
Members of her 'Majesty's Government whose names
were placed upon this Committee, and if the Right Hon,
Gentleman were not fettered by the obligations which he
(Lord G. Bentinck) thought properly belonged to a
Member of the Government, there was not one name
which he would sooner include than that of the Right
Hon. Gentleman. So, again, in addressing himself to
the Hon. and Learned Member for Liverpool, he would
say the same thing to him. No man could appreciate
more highly than he did the great talents and abilities
of that Honourable Gentleman; but seeking, as he did.
to reconstruct the Committee in the least invidious and
least personal manner in which he was able, he thought
the course most open to him was to take the two
gentlemen who stood lowest down in official rank,
and that consideration, and that only, had induced
him to select the Right Honourable Gentleman the
President of the Board of Trade and the Honourable and.
Learned Member for Liverpool. In proposing the ex-
clusion of the other Hon. Gentlemen, he might say, in
like manner, addressing himself to the Hon. Member for
Stoke-upon-Trent, that he had selected him him as re-
presenting the least large commercial or manufacturing
interest. So, in proposing to exclude the Hon. Member
for the Tower Hamlets, Sir W. Clay, and selecting Mr.
Pattison, he had done so because he felt that the city of
London ought to be represented on both sides of the
question ; and that, while the Noble Lord at the head of
the Government must of course be placed upon this Com-
mittee, it was only proper that some other Member for
the City, representing the commercial interests of Lon-
don, should also be put upon it, and that it should not
be a gentleman wbo was fettered and tied down by being
the author of a work on the subject of the currency.
When his Right Hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer said that there were fourteen gentlemen on the
Committee who took the same views as he (Lord G.
Bentinck) did on this question, and only five who agreed
with him (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), he was dis-
posed to take rather a different view of the facts. First
of all, as the Committee stood now, there were eight
members of the present and the last Government upon
it. The House I,liew perfectly well that every member
of a Government going into a Committee went there
with his mind fettered. He was disenabled from ex-
pressing his own judgment. He must follow the course
pointed out by his leader. He (Lord G. Bentinck) did
not know whether the Noble Lord at the head of the
Government would take an active part in the Committee,
he rather thought that his Right Hon. Friend the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer would take the lead in it, and all
the other members of the Government would probably
abstain from any inconvenient course of examination,
and vote with their leader through thick and thin. And
when his Right Hon. Friend spoke of past, present, and
future Governments, he (Lord G. Bentinck) begged
leave to tell him that there was a great distinction be-
tween independent gentlemen, such as his (Lord G.
Bentinck's) friends were, who were in no way bound to
take any particular course, and members of a past Go-
vernment, who had "eaten the King's salt."—(Hear,
hear, and laughter.) And there was this further diffe-
rence, that the Right Hon. Gentleman who represented
the ank Charter Act, and the Right Hon. Gentleman
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, were intimately allied
on this subject. Indeed, for all practical purposes, the
Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworih, was
he might almost say, the Government. Nothing was
done in consequence of the representations of the mer-
chants until the Right Hon. Baronet came up to
London, and the House had heard in the course of that
debate, which was so very inconveniently bucked—(A
laugh)—that before any definite course of action was
determined upon, the Right Honourable Baronet had
had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Surely, if the matter .were submitted to a jury, they
would be disposed to think that the Right Honourable
Gentleman the Member for Tamworth had dictated the
measure of his Right Honourable Friend the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. What struck him as a fundamental
vice in the construction of the Committee was, that it
was entirely overwhelmed and swamped by eight place•
men and ex-placemen. They were all connected to-
gether, while the Protectionists, and those who opposed
the Bank Charter Act, were none of them committed to

any particular views, and there was none of that union
between them which existed between parties whose poli-
tical honour and consistency were bound up with the
maintenance of that law. What the country desired
was, not to see an old Committee reconstituted, but to
see some new blood infused into it.—(Hear, hear.) His
Right Honourable Friend the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer had said that he had endeavoured, as far as he
could, to appoint a Committee capable of forming a clear
and impartial judgment. It was because he (Lord G.