Star.
London, England, 1817-03-14 00:00:00

Atienascipitete return to cash payments would, how.
. eerie only serve to increase the distress of the country.
, .Tbe.Three per Cents. tau years atter the peace of
. /783;ssitb America, had not been higher than £55,
yet Qnrtfentecial Treaties had then been entered into
with various Powers. He did not look at the future
;with despondency, but trusted that the situation of
the country would speedily mend.
Sir J. NF.WPORT considered the numerous Peti.
Lions which loaded the tattle sullicient documents on
which el groeni the motion which his Learned Friend
had made. The Ri•;:,!it H in. Gentleman who had
last spoken, expected that the country would speedily
right itself, but how yeas that to be done, if the reme-
ilirs preps, ti were rejected, and no other sssggested ?
11.- contended that the present distress was not the
off:•ct 1)1 the sudden transition from war to peace, but
the result of overpowering taxation. As to the emi
gralion of Gentleman to other countries, they were
striven away by the taxes. It they were enabled, they
would prefer to live at home. He had beard the late
rise in the hint attributed to the suspension of the
Hiheas Corpus, which secured the country from the
plots and d-ingers with which it was threatened. If
so. the srgnment would lead to the total abolition of
that holwat k to the liberty of the subject. He objected
to a Sinking Fued which was not kept up by a sur-
plus revenue, and considered it, except in that case,
as a mere delteinn imposed upon the public.
Mr. BROUGHAM explained that he did not mean
to represent machinery as injurious to the country ;
and In what he had said of the watch trade and unemployed
tailors, he meant merely to advert to them as developing some
of the gen-ral syrneuens of the prevailinz tl,sttets,
Mr. C. GRANT could not agree to Resolutions
which chat;ted his Majesty's Ministers with being the
authors of the existing distresses, and which tended
to create, a sentiment of hopelessness which he did
not share. He • maintained that there were many
symptoms of improvement in the situation of the
country.. The chief ceuse of its distresses was the
cessation. of foyeign and domestic demands for the
produce of its industry. The former Was occasioned
by the exhausted state of the Continent, and the lat.
ter by the reduction of the means of purchase in the
hands of the people of this country. He stated, that
in the cotton and woollen manufactories theje was a
renewal of hope and of activity. Orders were fide-
itig in from various quarters, and not quarters ef
speculation, bet of confidence and safe dealing. It
had been argued that the state of the money-market
was no test of the situation of the country. Whyei
thin were the fuels so much lower three months ago,
when the distress of the land was greater than at the
present time. Because that confidence did not then
exist which now began to revive. The Continent I
might wish to rival our manufactures, but in vein.
It neither possessed equal ingkuity nor equal capitals.
As to conimereial treaties, those who were so eager
for them meant treaties which should secure every
advantage to ourselves, to the misery of the other
party. He cou'd nut 'complain of the restrictions
imposed by fureigh countries upon our trade when
they had only followed our example (Near, aar).
Should tee have used our power to compel them to
acquiesce with our views, even if we had succeeded,
such treaties would contain the seeds of their own
dissolution. He contended that it was the duty of
Covet nment to look to the temper of those for whom
they were to legislate. How then could the restric-
tive system be abandoned, although it might be dis-
apirefed of, when mpst of the manufacturing inte-
rests attributed their distress to the slight relaxation
which had already taken place in its severity. in
spite of the restrictions imposed by foreign Powers,
who did not fa:l that our manufactures would
as they had done, over the iron power of Bo-
naparte, vas it too sanguine to say that the heaviest
of the storm' was past—that we had tegained the
ascent, and would rapidly resume our ancient pros-
perity ? When we saw the increase which had taken
place in agriculture, commerce, population, and era
pile ; when we betaild British ascendeucy and supra.
Macy in all that gave litnmortel fame, in stets, in
arms, in Morals, could we believe that the sentence of
candemriation was already passed, and that we were
one of those nations which PROVIDENCII would hull
from its guilty greatness to ruin ? He did not ask
what markets were opened : he appealed to the cha-
racter of the people, to its great qualities and me-
sources ; he relied on the ascendency of tire national
genius, and on that spirit of enterprise which bad ear-
ned the country gloriously through the perils of veer,
and would bear her triumphantly through all the dis.
tresses of peace. Believing, therefore the present
diffitulties temrrary, he could not subscribe to the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman's Resolutions.
Mr. SHARP only rose to explain bow it was that
the fends were now so high, and had been so low
a few weeks since. This was not to be imputed, as
it appeared to have been ridiculously dome to the Sus.
pension of the Habeas Corpus, but to a measure lately
adopted' by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the re-
duction s thr interest en Exchequer Bills, from sto
t per cent. This offered greatir temptations to place
enmity in the Funds, and was the real cause of their
late rise.. As to the argument that ttg Funds were
low after the American Peace in 1794 . the reason
w is plain. because an :wive commerce had been fin.
mediately restored with America, and all the money
had been thrown into that channel. The assertion of
the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite, that although
the regulations of trade were impolitic, yet Govern-
ment were obliged to adopt them. by the importuni-
ties of the various interests for whose protection they
were funned, was a oonfeuion of weakness on the pert
oldie Administration, which shewed bow necessary
it was for trie House to interfere.
Mr. S. THORNTON took a genczal view of tlje
commtecial relations of the country, ;hewed the Bank
to have pursued the strait forward line of duty, and
not wishing this country to interfere between Spain-
aod her Colonies, expressed a hope that means would
be taken. in the event of their becoming independent
tn eeCtliC to this country a commercial' intercourse,
with them.
Mr. FINLAY denied that the distressof the coun-
try ..rose from the want of demand. The consump-
tier+ of goods was great, and yet the prices were un-
prec!-detitedly low. He could only account for it from
the impoverished state of Europe generally, and from
fte transition from war to peace. An improvement
had undoubtidly taken place in the manufacturing
.4.4ricts, and when this got on a little further, less
• tabenr would be brought into the market, and the-
itituaion ot_suip affairs might be expected rapidly to