Star.
London, England, 1824-02-04 00:00:00

sides of the Channel. My Loriip, thevrincipal.lbje3
of the Society is to' 'we emploftse •• to the female
sentry in V* spinni end-1,612de" '.'ng oT flax, and'
I
in ittentiolt topers al pd dam c and
economy.P.The.firs ill Nnuch betnifit our great staple.
manufactsee, phd letith together • sliest rapidly improve
the condition of the poor creatures for whose relief this
Society has been established, and who, heretofore, have
been nearly, if not altogether, neglected, and, in their
domestic habits, more degraded than can be imagined
in this happy land; but as civilization advances this
must cease, and the women.will. have their proper sta-
tion in society. Having thus,..my Lords, taken a very
cursor 1 view of some matters in Ireland, I would again
entreat Noble Lords to meet all questions upon Irish
business with candour, and studiously to avoid in their
speeches any expressions that may tend to induce the
people to imagine that.their wretchedness proceedsfrom
the Government under which they live, which in truth
is not the case, but must be looked for nearer frame, and
will continue till we find it our own interest, indepen-
dently of higher principles, to cheriih our peasantry,
place them on a level with their British fellow-subjects,
and thus rescue them from the power of those dema-
gogues who would urge them into acts that must even-
tually bring destruction and perdition on themselves
and their families. My Lords, it now becomes my duty
to apologize for having encroached upon your Lord-
ships' time by the introduction of mattes that may not
appear altogether relevant ; but I trust some allowance
will be made for the feelings of an Irishman, who has
taken the opportunity of speaking on a subject that he
knows is constantly misrepresented, and too frequently
brought forward in the spirit of party.
The Marquis of LANSDOWN did not rise to in-
terrupt the general satisfactions of the House, nor to dis-
sent from many of the topics which had been urged by
the Noble Mover of the Address, and the Noble Viscount
who seconded it. It must afford great satisfaction to
the country to learn that our improved state arose from
the operation of natural causes. Haiing felt formerly
the weight of the public burthens in depressing the
community at large, but never once despairing of re.
novation by the adoption of proper means, he now saw
with unmingled satisfaction that portion of the Speech
which admitted, with signal fairness, that the reduction
in taxes, with increased freedom of trade, had accom-
plished so much good. The removal of restrictions on
the freedom of trade, although long resisted by 'mein.
dice, had succeeded in producing the renovation of
trade beyond what even the most sanguine of its ad vO-
- had anticipated. The relaxation for instance of
those restrictions which fettered the trade between Great
Britain and Ireland was now petitioned fur by the par-
ties once most inimical to all relaxations; so awake were
the people of the North of Ireland to those advaatages
which' had resulted from the removal of restrictions in
only one year. Here then was evidently one operating
cause of our improvement, which ought never to be
forgotten. The next proxithate cause, the reduction of
taxes, was an immediate relief, by setting Free expendi-
ture and increasing demand. With respect to our foreign
relations, it might rather have become his Majesty's
Ministers to have deprecated an allusion to the termina-
tion 6f the war in Spain, instead of just noticing the
situation of herformer Colonies. The example of the
Prench Government went to affect the right of all inde-
pendent States to improve their own Constitutions in
'arty way. When they saw that countries could be invaded
for the, purpose, and under the pretence, of putting
down. Constitutions, and that a military occupation was
consequent on such proeeedings, it was difficult to know,
judging from the Speech, whether his Majesty's Minis-
ters did or did not approve of such measures, or whether
the predicament of Spain were not gratifying to them.
He thought, when speaking upon that subject, that it
would have been becoming in Ministers to have put
into the mouth of his Majesty other language than that
which could only be described as an attack upon the
institutions of a country, and prevent its people from
obtaining their freedom, from which only could result
that degree of perfection in their system of Govern-
ment of which it was susceptible. Ministers professed
their dislike to Ultraism, and yet they expressed their
friendship for the most odious and pernicious of Ul-
traism—that which was founded upon military power.
It s% as the duty of Ministers, as advisers of the Crown
and guardians of the interests of the country, not to be
silent upon that point, but to declare that a great act
of injustice had been done, that the law of Europe, the
law of nations, had been departed from. Let not Mi-
nisters say that that infringement upon the rights of
a nation would end there: on the contrary, a hundred
similar acts of injustice would follow, because one had
succeeded. Let them not imagine that a state of things
could not arise by which this country could be affected,
and that the state of things established in Spain was
too remote to call for the expression of our feelings
upon it. After the overthrow of Bonaparte, it was de-
clared that the independence of the different countries of
Europe, and the happiness of the people, were fixed
upon a solid basis ; on the contrary,' we bad since found
that the consequence of the defeat of Bonaparte was to
place the fate of Europe in the hands of four or five
Kings, who had exercised their power in an arbitrary,
indeed a tyrannical manner. Could he be contradicted
when he should say, that in no country under their do-1
minion, did there remain a portion of independence? Was
there a State in Europe which had not felt the i nfinence of
those Monarchs, and of the principles on which they
acted, and which might not be called upon to alter or
abandon its Constitution, to waive its rights, and suffer
itself to be controuled by those despotic Powers, even
at the dictates of their caprice? He did not feel him-
self called upon by the statements in the Speech which
had that day been delivered, to declare that the situa-
tion of Europe was satisfactory. In many parts of the
Continent there existed grounds of complaint against
those wept Powers ; even the once independent and pa-
cific Republic of Switzerland had been subjected to
their interference—an interference of a nature which,
if directed against this country,we should Teem outrage-
ous and insulting. Was it not an attack virtually upon
this country—was it not an attempt to establish a sys-
tem of coercion, to take away the independence of ano-
ther State? and in doing so did it not destroy that
principle upon which this country bad always acted,
that of maintaining the balance of power by supporting
the weak against the strong ? If the state of Europe
were such as he had described—and if the many minor
States were to be subjected to the orders of the few
greater Powers which he had described, hOw could he
: be called upon to express his satisfaction at such a po-
• sition ? But he turned with pleasure and real satislac-
-1 tion to the liberal principles upon which, with respect
• to the South American States we had begun to act. Ile
, saw with no common degree of satisfaction the pi in-
, ciple of free trade at length acknowledged and acted
1 upon ; because upon the cultivation of commerce, upon