Star.
London, England, 1821-02-22 00:00:00

could restore the resources of The coantry, a..
a hope of their permanence. Noble Lords sisig..
.s eel as tb the vatic"; causes which might be
d to accipmt for del distress,. and as to the reme-
-1 which might awe Fr; but he vies thoroughly con-
tcests]
ed that the only origin of the distress was in the.
=ion of Ministers, and that the only cure of it.
was to be found in economy, and in the reduction of,
tazation—(Hear, hear).
Earl DARNLEY was persuaded that no legisla- 4
tive proceeding could in the slightest degree relieve
the distress which prevailed throughout the country.
By holding otit hopes which it could not realize,
such a proceeding would tend only to increase tbo
dissatisfaction of the people. He concurred with hial
Noble Friend, that the only effectual remedy for the.
existing distress was to be found in the reduction of.
ti.at taxation which pressed upon all classes of society.
'lt was the duty of Ministers to reduce the overwhelm-
isrof
iag expenses of the Military Establishments; and
'even in the Navy, though he admitted that that was
a department which ought not to excite jealousy—.
but even in the Navy, he conceived that considerable
reductions might be made, without impairing its ef-
fective strength. Little could be done by -lopping
off here and there paltry items of expenditure. The
pruning-knife should be applied with a bold and
liberal hand. The expenses of the collection of taxes,
for instance, were much greater than they ought to
be. In Ireland, particularly, those expenses were
vastly diSproportioned to the sum collected. He had
concurred, however, in the motion of 'his Noble
Friend, in crder that every inquiry should barnacle
on the subject, though he was convinced that any
thing short of the remedy he had stated would pro-
duce only disappointment.
Earl GREY agreed fully in the necessity of eco-
nomy. He was convinced that a greater portion of
relief might be attained, even by lopping off small
items of expenditure, than the Noble Lord on the
bench below (Darnley) seemed to think possible. He
would now make a few Observations on what had
passed in the course of debar. He had come down
to the House with a considerable feeling of curiosity,
to hear what the statement of the Noble Earl oppo-
site would be as to the causes of the distress of .the
country. He had seen the Noble Earl do that which
his Majesty's Ministers—the Noble Earl among dot
rest—had been accustomed to do for a number-el
years. The Noble Earl supported his statement cm
official returns, from which he drew certain infer-
ences, and upon the-se inferences he called upon this
House and the Public to rely, in contradiction to the
actual circumstances which had come under their
own observation—(Hear, hear).—The papers, doubt-
less, were all correct. He did not suspect the truth
of the returns, calculations, and figures which they
contained. But he had found, on former occasions,
that the inferences drawn from such papers were.fal-,
lacious ; and he believed that the inferences drawn
from the returns to which the Noble Earl now refer.
red would be found not less erroneous—(Hear, hear)
—Allusions had been made to the currency. There
Was a period, he remembered, when the Noble Earl's
opinion on that subject was very different from what
it was now.' On former occasions he remembered
the Noble Earl to have contended that there was no
depreciation of paper, and the other House of Par-
liament was induced to come to a resolution that a
pound note and a shilling was equal to a guinea in
gold. To support the reasoning of the Noble Earl,
ireturns were made to this House of the prices of
leather, and various other articles, to prove that the
alteration in the prices was produced,"not by the de-
preciation of the paper, but by other causes. But,
since that period he had heard the Noble Earl, in one
of the most eloquent speeches he had ever made in
that House, contend that there was a depreciation
of the paper currency of the country—(Hear, hear).
In the same fallacious manner it was now inferred,
that there had been, in the last year, rather an in-
crease than a diminution of the comforts of life to the
population of the country ; that the present distresi
Was not general, as had been supposed, and that
it had been produced by an' excess of production ;
and as a remedy for this, the Noble Earl proposed
that the land should be taken but of cultivation. He
did not know how this would meet the views of some
Honourable Members of the other House ; but it
was pretty clear that when the Noble Earl said that
the comforts of life had been increased to the Peo.
ple, lie said that thing which everybody knew not to
be true—(Hear, hear). Was it not notorious that-
the Commercial and Agricultural Interests of the
country were all'suffering under the most acute dis-
tress?—(Near hear). Noble Lords who would take
the trouble of examining into the state of labour,
would find how much the distress, instead of being
diminished, was increased. Were not Poor-rates
raised in their amount? Did not the tradesmen in
all the great towns universally say that• there never
was such a decrease of trade, and such• a pressure or
distress?—(Hear). As to excess of production, he
I did not believe there was any such thing. 'He had
taken some pains to acquire knowledge upon that
sulsject, and all the information which he had ob-
tained went to contradict that fact. He understood
that the last crop, great as it was in many parts of
the country, yet, on the average of the whole eosin-
' try, was a short one. In many districts the tenants'
were unable to pay their rents, and they assigned, as
the cause of their inability, the shortnesi, particu-
larly of the wheat crops. As to the increase of con-
sumption, if that had existed, the consequence would
have been an ?name of demand. If there had been
an increase of demand, it would have benefited every
interest, particularly that of agriculture, which, it
was well known, had not been benefited. The Ma-
nufacturing Interest was also in distress, in proof of
which he appealed to the Petition which had been
lately presented to that House from Birmingham.
In Lancashire also he was informed that there had
been a considerable diminution of the capital *hick
had been applied to manufactures. The true cause
of all these distresses was manifestly derived from;
the war, and the profusion of expenditure with which
it had been carried on. The truthlias, that they had
contracted a debt in reduced paper which they could
not now pay in a restored cutrency—(Year, hear).
He was as reluctant as any Maircordebe to break
faith with the public creditor, and he would adopt
anv measure by :which such a thing might by possi-
bility be avoided; but it was a minim us law, near°
teuetur ad isrpruri6ile. They had conflicted a debt,
in order to support the •Govimment in their profu-
sion; and that destructive line of policy had reduced