Star.
London, England, 1830-02-26 00:00:00

004 which he had the honour of that night bringing forward in a
,ery different shape. Had he had such an object in view, he should
have moved a humble address to his majesty to remove the minis.
,1m (Hear, hear.) This would have been the course taken. It
,natter of considerable surprise that such obsimations as those
te which alinsion had been made, as to the object he had in view
I,t inging the motion forward, should have proceeded from such •
•;ticater. Inquiry was what he sought into the distresses which
pervaded all classes, with a view of affording relief. He denied that,
t* the house should accede to his motion, it would have the effect
..;* removing ministers from office. He would now proceed to offer
-.roe remarks on that part of that extraordinary production, the
;,.:evil delivered by the Lords Commissioners at the opening of
Pkrliament, which spoke of the distresses of the country being
OA— of a temporary nature; that they arose from unavoidable
oati4es ; and that they were beyond the power of legislative rell
the minister. sera sincere in their opinions—if they
4.1 the information on the subject which they could obtain—ifg
believed that the speech from the throne gave a true description of
;be state of the country, they had nothing whatever to fear from a
fail investigation on the subject. '.Vas it not their duty, was it not
ti.eir interest, to court inquiry into every part of the subject, and
rot rest satisfied with the majorities which they might possess, and
which majorities would be equally possessed by other ministers In the
same situation ? He contended that the system now acted upon by
the government was most injurious, most ruinous, and would bring
destruction upon the interests-of the country. The noble duke at the
head of his Majesty's government, whose name would be written
in the brighrest page of history as thb deliverer of Europe, and to
whose gallant achievements his Country was so deeply indebted,
would be also consigned to posterity, unless he altered his present
course of government, as contributing to the ruin of that country.
The situation of the country was such as no man could contemplate
without horror and dismay. The sufferings of the agriculturists
excited no sympathy, probably because their complaints had been
uttered in respectful language, for recent experience had shown, that
if they had funned associations, collected rents, and adopted the
language of menace and intimidation, they would have been better
attended to. What, he would ask, was the situation of the agricul-
ture of the country at present ? The rents, which were still paid in
some parts of the country,—for they were by no means paid in all
parts of it,—were paid not from the profits of the farm, but from
the capital of the fanner. Let not such of their loniships as had
been fortunate enough to receive their rents at their last audit lay
the flattering unction to their souls, that they would be equally for-
tunate at their next. They must be aware, that already had many
tenants been driven from their farms, and consigned to bankruptcy
and beggary : that the capital of others was daily extorted from
them to meet their current expenses, and that when that capital
should be exhausted, their ruin, as well as that of the land.
owners, would be consummated. He knew that there were many
landowners who possessed incomes from the funds, from houses,
from canals, and from various other sources—he knew that their shim.
tion was, therefore, different from those who had no other means of
support than those which they derived from land ; he knew that
they might, therefore, be indifferent to the continuance of the dis-
tress in which the landed interest was at present involved. To such
persons he would say, that, whatever they might be inclined to do
with their own rents, they had no right to dispose of the capital of
their tenants. He was well aware that it had been said, that the re.
medy for the existing distress of agriculture was to be found in a
reduction ofrents, and that that advice was daily given by those who
had no rent to receive, and, indeed, no rent to pay save that of
house-rent. He would admit to those persons that when every spe-
cies of agricultural produce was diminished in value, a reduction of
rent was not only just but necessary ; but then he would bid them
recollect that such a reduction would only transfer the pressure from
the land-occupier to the land-owner; and that as such pressure
would compel the land-owner to rednce his establishment, and to
cat out of employment many of those who at present depended
upon him for subsistence. it would only tend to aggravate the pro.
sent distress. But the reduction of rents was talked of as if it were
a new system. Was that the case ? Certainly not. Rents bad been
already reduced 50 per cent. and it was not to be supposed that the
process of reduction could be continued ad itsfinitens. Besides, in
some cases no rent was paid at present ; and where no rent was
he should like to know how it could be reduced. Hs to.
mind their lordships, that according to a statement which had re.
cently been made at a large public meeting, and which had
hitherto remained uncontradicted, thexenses of an awe of
arable land, exclusive of the rent, exceeded by Os. the returns
derived from it; so that the owner lost his rent, and the occupier
the labour which he bestowed upon it, Was this the result of
unfavourable seasons ? It was a curious circumstance that the
noble duke referred the source of our present distress to the pre-
valence of unfavourable seasons, and that the late Earl of
Liverpool had attributed the agricultural distress of 1822
to a long continuance of favourable Gessoes, which had created what
lir was pleased to call a superabundance Of produce. Curious as the
circumstance was, it would be most ludicrous if it were not in its
rssuits most lamentable. One of the worst consequences of the ex.
isting agricultural distress was the constant increase of the poor-
rates, which bore upon the landed interest with a pressure which
was almost incredible, and quite intolerable. He knew that in that
fertile district of England, the vale of Aylesbury, the poor-rates
were in the proportion of 30s. an acre. What, then, could remain
to be decided as profit between the landlord and the tenant ? Their
lordships would also recollect the statement which had been made
on a former evening by a noble viscount (Torrington,) res
the condition of the parish of Mereworth, in which he residedPe!thirt
appeared from that statement—he quoted from memory .for he had
not a copy of it—abat the amount of the local assessments in that
parish reached within 401. of the amount of its whole rental. He
'himself was acquainted with a parish in Sussex, where all the pro-
ms& of the land in the parish did not suffice to maintain the poor,
and where they had been obliged to apply to neighbouring
parishes to give them relief. (Hear, hear.) He therefore ire.
plored their losdahips to look at the progression in which the
country was advancing, and to consider what was the first stage
on their road to ruin. The first stage—a , which he was
afraid that they had almost reached—was that thelanded proprietors
were not the real possessors of their own estates, but held them as
trustees for a large and increasing number of fundholders. The
seat stage, which was not far distant from the first, was that that
class of persons, supported at the public expense, and, unable, from
a defalcation of the rents paid to the landed proprietors, to obtain the
comforts to which they had been long accustomed, would demand,
lid by their superior numbers would endeavour to force a partition
oi the land. Their lordship. were already acquainted with the de.
piorable state of the labourers in more than one district of the country.
Their lordships must have seen that they have been degraded to the
lesel of beasts of burden, and that they had been yoked like cattle to
• the wain, to draw loads from one place to another. Was that a
situation to which their lordships wished to see labourers reduced in
England—in that country which boasted of its free constitution, and
which looked down with an eye of compassion on the condition of its
neighbours These evils were not, however, confined to England ;
they extended also to IxLnd, as he would prove by an extract from
a letter which be had LITZ nom a highly respectable person in
Cork, as a proof of the truth of his assertion. Before he read that
letter, however, he would just call their lordship? attention to the
expressions used by no less a person than the Chancellor of the Ex.
chequer, while alluding to the same subject in the other house of
parliament. Tbat right hon. gentleman was reported to have ex.
pressed himself thus--" It was not to be denied that there was a
great and severe pressure of distress on the manufacturing and
cultural classes of the community in some *parts of the united king.
dour ; and if he excepted some portions from that summary, it was
because be believed that there were parties.wWch, so far from being
visited with such infliction, were enjoying a comparative state of easel
mid of comfort. It was oblervable that the hen. baronet (alluding
to Sir Edward Knatchbull) had confined his statements to England
only, and had omitted all notice of that past of. the united• kingdom
which at all times commanded much of the tare. and attention of
that House—he alluded to Ireland. lithe honourable baronet had
investigated the state of agricultural produce in that annoy, he
would have found that great prosperity and comfort were existing,
and he would likewise have found that there were parts of this
country in which much of the pressure of distress had arisen from
the free introduction of Irish produce; so that in proportion as one
part of the kingdom was depressed, at least another portion was
benefitted and advanced." Now this was reported to have been art.
tered in a house in which there should have been at least one hun-
dred Irish Members present, every one of whom could have borne
testimony to its falsehood. He would now return to those facts
which proved that the assertions of the right bon. gentleman
were unfounded. The writer of the letter to: which be alluded,
stated in Bendon—a town of 12,000 ichabitants—there were 4,000
in a state of the greatest distress ; and that in the city of Cork more
than 9,000 persons were wholly supported by voluntary contribu-
tions to the house of industry, nom whence it was administered for
their support. The writer of the letter also lidded, that bacon pigs
had fallen 30 per cent. in price during the lest twelve months--that
oats were almost unsaleable—that wool wee in the same state, and
had been parted with for Od. a pound. He also added, that he: had
received several notices of the surrender of a farm which had for.
merly always been let with a fine ; and that debts, instead of being
recoverable, were in almost every case being compounded fee at the
rate of six or eight . shillings in the pound. [Lord was
here observed to smile, and express his dissent.] The noble lord
might smile, but it vrottld be wall for him, if, as the possessor. of
Irish estates, ale did not rod the statement but too true. Having
said so much ton the subject or the agricultural distress, he would
now entreat 'Heir lottishiff tq Mosider what we the state of the
manufacturing closes. Witltbereexist a man possessed of a heart
to feel for the situstlos of his fellow creatures, whose bosom
did not throb with paw when be beard that thou.
sands of unfortubstar 414 s out of employment were com-
pelled to drag on a miserable existence with an allowance
of twopence halfpenny a day. It behoved ministers to consider