The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-11 00:00:00

• ample, and satisfactory .a manner, .mustbave beeti the.
result of long previous rneditation---(Hear, ficar)-77Eof
studies deliberately pursued during ten years of comps
rative leisure, which an almost uninterrupted oppositiot
afforded ; and they came into power fully imbued witl
all'those sound principles, the exposition of which.ha:
excited so much admiration from this side of the'Honse.
—(Hear, hear.) Well, I say, then, that those among tle
party opposite who find fault with the Government.
find fault with them in that respect withou,
due cause. At the satire tifne I must candidly carafes'
that in one respect I think the cotirSe of that party, be-
fore they were in office, is open to some kind of criti-
cism. ' The Right Hon:Barn:let, the Member for Tam-
worth, accused me, upon a former occasion, of too much,
assurance.— (A laugh. -NOV I am not going to reten
that charge ; but I complain, of his own over-modesty,
and that of his colleagues. • I complain of their over
modesty in this, that on many occasions, while the.l
were out of power, matters came under discussion in thi
House, to which those principles, which they have latel
avowed, were plainly and fully applicable. I say tha .
on those occasions, their modesty no doubt prevent ;
them from doing themselves full justice—(Hear, heal,
and laughter)—inasmuch as, by practising an over-scrn-
pulous reserve, they really concealed from the .publi'y
the progress which they had made in their studies.—
(Renewed laughter.) When, for instance, we proposei
a very moderate diminution in the timber duties, the,'
objected to the motion, upon a mere point of techni-
cal form, it was true, and did not go much
into the question itself ; but I think they did
not do justice to themselves upon that occa-
sion, 'because they let people imagine that the real
objection which they felt 'to our measure was, that it
would diminish too much the protection on British I
-timber ; . whereas we now know, by subsequent experi- 1
ence, that the real objection which they felt at heart, al-
though they did not like to make any vain parade upon
the matter, was, that our measure did not go half far
enough—(Loud cheers and -laughter)—that it left toe
great a protection upon British timber, and did not suf.
ficiently shackle all those branches of British industry
into which timber enters.— (Hear.) Well then, again
last session—l do not like to multiply instances, but l
take the leading cases=—last session, when we announced
our intention to propose a material reduction in the duty
on corn, they take objection to it ? They did not say
indeed that they had no objection to a is. duty—that it
was very right and proper that any quantity of foreign
corn should conic in at an Bs. duty—only they wished it
to arrive at that duty by a process of their own, instead
of a fixed duty. They confined their objection to the
question itself. They did not let us into the secret in an
honourable time, but acting up to the good old country-
gentleman adage, of " Down corn, down all"—(Cheers)—
they objected to our reduction in the duty on• corn be-
cause it was not announced as accompanied by a large
reduction in the duty on cattle.--(Cheers.) Now, Sir, I
say, therefore, that those gentlemen have not quite don(
themselves justice in regard to these matters. But, Sir,
I will not entertain them in this way ; we . are
thankful to them for the great advanc(
made to 'large principles they propounded, nor
stop to cavil at any equivocal little matters of that
sort to which, possibly, objection might be made. I say
then, Sir, in regard to our great commercialinterests, this
session.is one of a veryretnarkable character:—(Cheers.)
The measures they proposed have, indeed, fallen very
short of the necessities of the country—very short of the
wishes of those on this side of the House—far short of the
principle upon which they. were introduced.—(Cheers.)
But it is a great step to have a Government speaking te
us as the Government has done, and we must hope for
the future and be content for the present.—(Cheers.)
However, Sir, I cannot say tint in other respects there is
in the present session any- great ground upon which the
Government can congratulate itself with reference to the
execution, or rather the fulfilment of those expectations
which they held out when this session began. Now, Sir,
what are the points which the Government in the Speech
from the Throne—l treat the Speech from the Throne
as the Speech of the , Government—what were the
points connected with domestic affairs to which
they invited the peculiar attention of Parliament ?
Those points were the financial deficiency, the corn and
provision laws, the law of bankruptcy, the improvement
in the law of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the law regulating
the registration of electors, and the existing distress of
the country. Now. Sir, with regard to the financial de-
ficiency, the first thing they did was to increase it by
making an unnecessary sacrifice of a large portion of the
duty on timber—unnecitsseryrbecause we say that if our
proposals had been carried out, then the deficiency would
have been supplied, and that additional reduction would
at all events have been left to a period of greater finan-
cial security. However, having made that increased de-
ficiency, they completely made good the whole deficiency
—they certainly, with a vengeance, supplied it.—
(Cheers.) I think the Income-tax will be even more

productive than they themselves expected—productive,
not only in revenue, but amply productive in discontent.
—(Loud cheers.) Sir, I cannot imagine' that every-
thing which is received in the. shape of Income-tax is so
much gain to the revenues, of the country.—(Cheers.)
The country was told that they would save the Income
tax by the additional cheapness of provisions. -That was
recalled afterwards, when the country was told that the
change in the tariff would not, in effect, make
any great difference in the price of commodities
by which the Income-tax was to be saved.—(Cheers.)
But if those who pay the Income-tax cannot save it in
the cheapness of their living, if they cannot save it in the
price of the articles of their consumption, they will save
it in the extent of their consumption, and therefore
depend upon it the Government will not act wisely it
they reason that all which they may receive in the
shape of Income-tax
.will be a clear addition to the
revenue of the country.----(Hear, hear.) That measure,
however, has been carried, and as it is carried I trust it
will have the effect of making good the deficiency. Now
the next point was the corn and provision laws. I
have already . said that I think the measure on
this sultject• inefficient. 'The next point related
to the law of bankruptcy. Now it is curious
to trace the course of the Government with
respect to that matter. In the Royal Speech, which
was delivered on the 3d of February, they invited the
attention of Parliament to the amendment of the bank-
ruptcy law. They found, I. believe, a new Bill upon
that subject, prepared by the late Lord Chancellor, Lord
Cottenhant. Trey had not much to do ; they had
merely to see whether they approved generally of its
provisions, and they might then immediately bring it in.
Well, on a very early (lay in the session—.-on the 18th of
February, I believe—that Bill was brought into the
House of Lords, not the whole Bill. I do not know
whether there was anything but the Bill—(Laughter)—
but they omitted one portion which was exceedingly im •
portant Still the Bill contained provisions, all deserv-
ing .of the attention of Parliament, and not very small
in their extent. That Bill was brought into the House
of Lords on the 18th of February. Now, one great
complaint which gentlemen opposite used to make
against us when we were in power was, that we did not
bring in Bills as soon as we might have done—that we
did not make Sufficient use of the legislative power of
the. House of Lords, and that Bills of the utmost im-
portance were sent up in a heap from this House to the
other House quite at the end of the session, when it was
utterly impossible to give them due consideration. Now
here is a Bill which began in the House of Lords, toed
what use was made of the legislative" powers of that
House ? Why, from the 18th of February, down, I be-
lieve, to the 18th of July—a period of five months— that
Bill, struck, I suppose, by the torpid influence of the
genius loc;, remained in a state of suspended animation.
It was not until the 18th of July that it came
down to this House, when, in order to give it
that most decent consideration, it became necessary
that the House should sit ut twelve o'clock in the morn-
ing, contrary to its usual course, and when many gen-
tlemen whose opinions and sentiments it was desirable to
hear were necessarily absent ; and if it had not been
for my Learned Friend (Sir T. Wilde) who is himself
such a host that when he is here no other aid is required,
we should, as far as this•sido of the House is concerned,
`have been obliged to diseusi the Bill almost entirely
without legal assistance. Upon that point we have not
yet seen what are the intentions of the Government.
Of course legislation on the subject during the present
session was out of the question, but we may v•?nture, it
appears, to indulge a hope that during the interval between
this and the present session we may be enabled to meditate
on the propositions of the Government with regard to
the yoters of Great Britain. There has, however, been
one step gained in regard to the subject of registration
during the present session. The Right Hon. Baronet oppo-
site stated at the beginning of the session, in answer to a
question put to him, that he could not as a Minister of
the Crown, take upon himself the responsibility of pro-
posing the Bill for the Registration of voters in Ireland,'
which in the preceding session, his noble Colleague, the
Noble Lord, the Member for North Lancashire, had been
so anxious to press upon the House.— (Loud cheers.) That,
certainly is so far a step gained:—(Cheers.) If we do not
know what we are to have, at least, we know one thing,
that we are. not to have.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
I now come to the most important topic of all,
I mean the distress of the country.—( Hear, hear. That dis-
tress was adverted to in the speech from the Throne during
the course of last autumn, and on that subject I grieve to say
that not only no effectual means haVe been proposed by
Government, for the relief of that distress, but that they are
about to prorogue Parliament at a time when that distress is
more extensive and more severe than it was when Parliament
met, and when the attention of Parliament had been called to
the subject at the beginning of the session. When the atten-
tion of Parliament at the beginning of the session was called
to the subject of the distress of the country, it was generally
supposed that allusion would have been followed by the recom-
mendation of legislative measures, for the relief of that dist re. s.
I know that the Government think that distress will be
alletriated. I know that they hope that times will be better
than I believe they will be, lam sure that if that distress
should augment during the coming winter, they will feel them-
selves obliged to call Parliament together, and if it should not
augment, or if it should slightly diminish—l trust that the
fortitude of the British character will enable the people to hear
the distress for a while, in the confident hope, from what has
passed this session, that during the course of the next session
something or other must be done to investigate the causes of
that distress. With regard to our domestic affairs, then, it ap-
pears that, although there may be something to reprove, we
are not without some top;cs: of consolation. The language of
the Government has been, as fir as domestic affairs are con-
cerned, without exception—although their conduct has not been
so entirely worthy of approbation—(Cheers and laughter)—
with regard to their management of foreign affairs, however, I
feel bound to state that it is my duty to find fault with their
language and conduct.—(Cheers.) I know it is irregular to
make any allusion to former debates ; but I hope that, on the
present occasion, considering the nature of the subject, that
the sweeping charges which have been made, not only against
inyself personally, but against the Government, of which I
was a Member, that I may be permitted cursorily to allude to
language which has been held during the course cf the present
session on the subject of foreign affairs.—( Hear. )
The Noble Lord, the Member for North Lancashire, who was
a member of the Melbourne Administration, is the only one I
of the present Government who, in this session of Parliament,
had said much about foreign affairs.—(Hear, hear, from Lord
Manley.) The Noble Lord made a very off-hand speech—
( Hear, and a laugh )—and off-hand debaters are often apt to
say of things, without much consideration whether what