Star.
London, England, 1826-12-02 00:00:00

CURRENCY AND CORN LAWS.

Lord VOLE-STONE repeated his question, as to whether it was,
the intention of Government to have another Committee upon the
Currency and Small Notes Act, or to take any measures upon the
Report of the last.
Mr. HUSICISSON said he was not prepared to give an answer.
Lord FOLKSTONE then said, that he should take
the present opportunity, which he had a perfect right
to do, the question being one of Supply, of calling the
attention of the House to the situation in which it was
placed in respect to the question of the Currency. He
knew not upon what ground the Government refused
to enter into the great questions which the present
distracted state of the country requited to be ex-
amined, or why the House were to sit there for no-
thing. He believed that Parliament had been sum-
moned at no time without being called upon to give
their attention to some measure of the Government,
or to remedy some grievances of the people.—
The.present was a period when the people were avow-
edlyttn a state of the utmost distress, and ihen that
distriss was accompanied by an alarming deflee of ex-
citation upon the subject of the Corn Laws, the Go-
vernment had expressed their determination not to
declare whit measures they intended to adopt until
after the tecess. lie believed they had so determined,
and for a very good teason—they did not know what
those measures were. He believed that the real cause
of their silence W S. that they did not know what their
measures would be. They had heard a great deal of
blustering the other night, about a fixed determination
not to be provokedinto discussion; but although the
Ministers said they had made up their minds upon the,

question, he believed they said so untruly. One Hon
Gentleman had said that the House ought to give the
people
11
time
.to petition, its order to ascertain their
opinions. .• supposed the Hon. Member meant that
when the petitions came, the numbers must be told,
and Parliament be guided in its decision by the tesult.
When the agitation which pervaded Vie whole country .
was considered, and when it was remembered that the
bitter animosities raised by this question would not sub-
side until its final settlement, it was trifling with the
feelings of the country to say that it must be postponed
because this was not the proper season. He remembered
the time, although it was before he had a seat in that
House, when Parliament met and sat in November and
December, upon that very question; a d only a few
years ago, when, many who now sat in the House were
present, the Six Acts were discussed and passed in the
same season. He begged now to recal the attention of
the House to the state in which ie stood in respect to t •
Currency of the country. The Right Hon. Gentleman
said, that he was not ready to answer the question,
whether the Committee which last year sat upon the
Carrency and Small. Note Acts was to be re-appointed,
or whether any measures were intended to be brought
in by the Government, in pursuance to the report of
that Committee. Now, he took it for granted, from
the situation which the Right Hon. Gentleman filled,
and from the 'important share he had taken in this
queition, that it was impossible for the Government to
have any intentions in respect'to it, Without his know-
ing what they were. He thought, therefore, that after
what passed last year, Ministers had treated the country
and the House in a most discreditable manner. Let
them recoil ct what were the circumstances of the
country when the Parliament last met. It was in a
situation which had been described by the Right Hon.
.Gentleman himself, or One of his colleagues, as
within 48 hours of returning to a state of bat ter, which
was that state of things when no rights of property
were respected, when no property was safe, and the
strongest possessed themselves of whatever they chose
to seize. And all that was attributed, and very
properly, as he thought, to the state of the currency
of the country. The Ministers lost no time in
bringing forward a Bill for putting a termination, at
a particular period, to the issue of one-pound notes.
_This measure was proposed up'n principle, and
suppoited by himself and many other Gentlemen who
did not usually support the Government. But it had
not passed the Legislature, nay, it had not passed
through that House in which it originated, before
it was so altered, that the principles on which it pro-
fessed to be founded were materially departed from.—
The House should bear in mind, that the last being a
Session preceding the dissolution of Parliament, all its
business was hurried on with such precipitation, that
not even the Corn Question could be entertained. Under
these circumstances a Commit:ee was appointed to
enquire into the state of the law nr,en the subject, and
that Committee reported the result of its labours to the
House. Flom the circumstances which he had men-
tioned, he did not think the 11;port had been well
canvassed by the House. It recommended that the
measure should not at present be extended to Scot-
land end Ireland, and yet one of the reasons which had been ad-
vanced by the Right lion. Gentleman for restoring a golden circu-
lation, and abolishing that el paper, was, that it would replace the
labouring poor, as well of the agricultural as the manufacturing
classes, to their former situation of security. He thought tile
Committee had nut sufficiently imrestigated this part pf the vies.
tion, and particularly with respect to Ireland, which had been left
without any alteration of the law, which placed the poor man in a
state of insecurity. Ile apprehended that bad as was the situation
of this country, the people of Ireland were no more at ease, and
no fteer from distress than our own population. And now it ap-
peared that this important question, upon which aU other questions.
and panicnlarly the Corn question turned, was to be left in this
imperfect state; that they were to be contented with this imper-
fect knowkdge upon the subject, and that his Majesty's Ministers
were not prepared to take any further measuresin regard to it.—
He did not see what reason there was fur this delay in the face of
the sufferings and wants of the country, but he should detain the
House no longer than to declare that he protested against it.
Mr. HUSKISSON said, the Noble Lurd had assumed,
from the answer which be had given upon being ques-
tioned as to whether it was the intention of his Majesty's
Ministers to appoint another Committee to enquire into
the state of the Currency Laws, or to props se any mea-
sure founded on the Report of the Committee which
sat last year, a great deal more than that answer pro-'
perly contained or at all implied. The Noble Lord I
asked him whether it was the intention of the Govern-
ment to renew that Committee, or if not, whether it was
meant that any steps should be taken upon the Report
which it had made ? His answer was, that he was not
in a state to inform the Noble Lord whether his Majes-
ty's Government did intend either to appoint another
Committee, or to recommend any particular measure
is the House founded on the Report. From this the
Noble Lord chose to infer—and, as he thought, most
unwarrantably to infer—that no steps whatever had
been taken upon the Report, and that the Committee
would not be renewed. He would say again, in answer
to the Noble Lord'sciestion, that his Majesty's Govern-
ment had not had an opportunity of taking into their
consideration all the matters connected with the im-
portant question of the currency of the oenintryteand
that he was not now prepared to say what steps they
should hereafter take in regard to 'it.. It, as particularly
with respect to Ireland, on which the Noble Lord had
so particularly dwelt, that he was not prepared to answer
such a question. It was necessary that they should
first wait for the proper information to be supplied 6y
those who were able to collect it, as to the state of
the circulation of that country, and the effect of the new
measures which had been introduced, before they could
be prepared to adopt any further change. Again,
when a Report had been made at the end of a Session,
involving questions'of great public importance, was it
so surprising that ten days after the nest meeting of and
a Parliament called together fur a special purpose un-
connected with the subject, the Government should not
be prepared to say what were the measures to be taken
upon such sr Report? The Noble Lord, indeed, bad said,
and great indeed was 'his surprise tu hear such senti-
ments from one who professed so high an attachment to
the rights of the subject and the liberties of the people—
that he did not see what the Parliament should have
been assembled for at all, if not to discuss the questions
of the Currency and the Cotn Laws. Why, he would
tell the Noble Lord, that, in deference to the Constitu-
tion and the Laws, his Majesty's Ministers considered
that having advised bis Majesty to break the law, it
became them to lose no time in subjecting their conduct
to the impartial judgment of the House of Commons.
They had always understood—but perhaps his Lord-
ship would inform them if they were wrong—that it
was their duty, when circumstances had induced them
to break the law, to lose no time in calling upon Par-
liament to affirm or break down the state of things
which they had substituted in its place. They thought
they should have been wanting in their duty if, having
advised his Majesty to break the law, they had not also

advised him to call Parliament together at the earliest
opportunity, to sit in judgments sposi an act so hostile ih
its nature to the most sacred provisions of the Consti-
lotion? Whatever might be the Noble Lord's opinion,
he thought it would not be a matter of surprise to the
country, or to the majbri:y of that House, that Ministers
.had assembled Parliament for such a purpose, and that
they did not think the present time calculated for the
consideration of a great and permanent measure for the
settlement of the Corn Laws of this country. The pre-
sent was in no respect a convenient period for the dis-
cussion of such a question. The Noble Lord was aware
that this was the first meeting of the new Parliament, and
although they were assembled in the middle of Novem-
ber, yet there were forms and preliminary business in
a new Parliament which occupied a considerable por-
tion of time, and many Hon. Members who had not
been in the House before,requircd to become acquainted
with the form and method of its proceedings. It would
not, therefore, have been fair either to the country or
to the Parliament, to have brought forward a question
of such importance with any thing like precipitation.
The Noble Lord had said he was persuaded that the
assertion of Ministers, when they declined to state what
their measures were, was only a pretext ; that they had ,
not made up their minds to any plan—and that their
having no plan was the reason why they did not now
.propose it. He could only say, on the contrary, that
they were agreed as to what regulations would be pro.
.per for st permanent system of Corn Laws for the coun-
try. As to what the Noble Lord had said about the
divided state of the country, and his recollection of the
time when Parliament sat at this season of the year to
discuss the same subject—that he took to be beside the
question altogether. Under the pressure of an irresisti-
ble necessity they had advised the Crown to exercise
a power beyond the law, and Parliament were now
called together to say whether that advice was pro-
perly given or not. Of all times for the discussion
of the Corn Laws, then, he thought that that must
be the most inconvenient when the question must be
mixed up with another :growing out of an act of tem-
porary expediency. They were now properly sitting
upon the latter question, but as to any measure for the
final arrangement of the former, he again repeated,
that the present was pot a time when it could be under.
taken with any degree of propriety. He agreed with
those who thought the question of the Currency one
which must be looked at in its proper time; but he
would ask whether two such questions as that and the
arrangements of the Corn Laws, besides the common
business connected with all the great interests of the
country, ought to be undertaken in the first sitting of a
new Parliament opened on the Bth or 10th of Novem-
ber ?—(Hear.) He would put it to the House, whether
they were not acting much more wisely by deferring
it to the usual season when business of such importance
was entertained—(Hear). The Noble Lord had re-
proached him with not having restored to the labouring
poor of Scotland that security, by the abolition of small
notes, which had been afforded to the same class in this
country. The Noble Lord had defied. him to shew that
it could produce any other effects as affecting the agri-
cultural labourer of Scotland than those which it must
produce in England. Perhaps the Noble Lord would
allow himself to be asked how they were to get rid of
the difficulty of procuring witnesses so •shew how the
agricultural labouring interest of Scotland were affected by
the withdrawing of a gold circulation, and the substitution of a
paper currency: The diffieulty was to And persons old enough to
remember the change. With respect to that part of the Noble
Lord's complaints, he apprehended that be should have been very
heartily laughed at if be had asked such a question in the Com-
mittee. He did not consider it necessary to go further into the sub-
jests which had beim adverted to by the Noble Lord urn this,
occasion. He was sure that neither the country nor the majority of
that House would consider that his Majesty's Minhters bad been
wanting in their duty in not bringing forward the questions of the
Currency and the Corn Laws, or either et these questions sepa-
rately. at this particular period-.-(Hear).

Mr. DAVENPORT, jun. said, that if no Hon. Mem.
ber of greater experience than himself should under-
take the subject, he should feel it his duty to draw the attention of
the House to some particulars in the state of the Currency at an
(early period.
Colonel TORRENS apprehended that there would
be a great scarcity before the Spring was over, and on
that account he was not sorry to see the general question
of the Corn Laws postponed, as the eyes of men would then be
more open ts the great mischief accruing from the state of those laws.
Mr. J. BENETT (of Wiltshire) objected to the
postponement of the question for the very reason that
the Hon. and Gallant Colonel seemed to approve it,
namely, the probability of such a contingency in the
ISpring as would raise the price of corn to an unnatural
standard, and produce a clamour in the nation; which, whether It
originated with the People—the House—or Ministers—was always
Inimical to fair discussion.

On the motion of Mr. Hume, the House then re-
solved itself into a Committee of Supply, when the sums
of 5,000,00 W. and 10,000,0001. were voted to his Ma-
jesty.—The low tone of voice in which the Vote was
put from the Chair, prevented our catching the particular allotment
of the sums. We conceive, however, it was the natal vote for pay.
ingot/ Exchequer Rills.
The House tbe•' resumed, and the Report was ordered to he re-
ceived on Mondry nest.
Sir A. GRANT brought up the Report on the Corn Indemnity
Rill. axeue PILOSICILITIONS.

Mr. D. W. HARVEY rose, pursuant to notice, to
bring forward his motion relative to prosecutions for a
breach of the Excise Laws. When this subject had been
brought by him under the consideration of the House
many years since, these prosecutions suddenly decreased
from the average of 700 to 250 per annum, making a
saving to the revenue of SOOk or 4001. on each person.
He now wanted to ascertain in what degree they had
increased or diminished since 1820; for he should be
much surprised to find that there was not, as soon as
Parliament had ceased to inspect the proceedings of
those individuals, a very considerable recurrence to old
practices, more especially when two such strong in.
ducements presented themselves to the informer as the
ruin of another man, and the furtherance of his own in-,
terests. He had also a second motion with respect to
the practice of the Courts of Exchequer; it appeared to
him that while the Courts of King's Bench and Com-
mon Pleas were overburthened with business, the Court
of Exchequer was little more than a receptacle for legal
sinecures. With respect also to the equity jurisdiction
of that Court, he thought a good deal of the business
with which tke Court of Chancery was burthened,
might be given to that Court, and so remove muck of
the public odium which at present attached to the
former. He concluded by moving for an account of
the total number of Informations filed in the Court of
Exchequer under the Excise Laws, from the years 1820
to 1826; specifying the amount of costs in each case,
whether they had occurred before or after the verdict,
Stc. kc. :Aod another motion fir a return of the munber of causes
tried in the Court of Exchequer during the last seven years. sped.
lying those tried is the Equity Court, and what causes yet remained
undecided. _ _

Mr. HUME seconded the motion. He thought it
would be well if; when people wcte found guilty o

offences ag tinst those laws, they should lie at the loss
of the money they ha,' spent in defending tMem.elvt•t•
but whets, as was frequently the case, they proved to be toritor
innocent, let the Crown pay the eon', as was the cas'e its a similAt
dispute betetern individuals

'Mr. LOCKHART agreed that this would he the
fairest courses provided the Judge should Certify that there was no
cause for filing the information.

Mr. SPNCE did not life the moti ,n of the Hon.
Member with respect to the Court of 4:chequer ; the
number of causes tried would not give a perfect ides of
the practice of the Court, without stating how long the
Court had been occupied in hearing interlocutory el),
dons. He hoped at a future time to be enabled to an iko out gome
mode of arriving at a more perfect conception of the business of the
Court i but, In the Mean time, the only objection he had to the
motive, of the Hon. Gent. was its imperfection, which at present
be was unable to suggest a remedy for.
The Motions were put and carried.