Star.
London, England, 1826-11-22 00:00:00

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two languages moderately ; but at least you were
might two songs, Hostler and well ; but in ail
thaiti me P)rtiament had not learnt .even a song. If it
hasilongoeything, itlad takelt a lesion from the Neble
and Learned E al on the`WoolsaCk—a lesson of pausing.
If- you travelled and saw an estate in a ruinous condi-
tion, its fields uncultivated, its fences broken down, you
would say that it was no man's land, or that it was in
Chancery, and the Chancellor was doubting. If the
country were in a state of distress, and the nation half
ruined, it was because the Ministers were doubting.—
Whilst the Chancellor doubted, estates went to rack
and ruin— _ _

The LORD CHANCELLOR—That was when myLord King
was ChanceUor—(General laughter.)
Lord KING resumed. 'fhe capital of the country
bad d windled to nothing, because his Majesty's Ministers
liad be .n pausing and doubting. They were most ex-
craw dinary pausers, and to d.) justice to the Noble and
Le.ttned Earl, his pausing did mischief to poor suitors
only, but theirs to the whole country. A revision and
alteration of the Corn Laws were in contemplation; but
whether the new Cora Bill would be made a Cabinet
quest;on was not known. It had been made one in 1815,
when a protecting price of 80s. per quarter had been
modestly demanded. Let their Lordships look at what
hid passed at all the meetings which had taken place
in the country. They, he was sorry to say, and the other
House, were considered as two bodies of Landowners,
having the power of passing laws, and not ♦ery scrupu-
lous in making nit of that power. It was believed that
an implied contract existed between the Landowners
and his Majesty's ' Ministers, by which the one gained
high prices and the others a high establishment. There was a tax-
ation of fifty millions a year, and no reduction of the National Debt
since the return of peace. And there was a peace, or rather in
time of peace, a war establishment of twenty millions! His Ma-
jesty's Ministers seemed to be trying an eiperiment not how cheaply,
but how dearly, Government could be carried on, and they bad
obtained that " bad eminence," that they were the dearest Govern-
ment in the world. It was in their power to reduce the public ex-
penditure, and in order to induce them to do so, he should propose
an Amendment to be added to the Address, which was at this mo-
ment before their Lordships. The Noble Lord then read and
moved the following Amendment :

" We trust that a steady adherence to just and liberal principles
of policy will prevent a repetition of those distresses which, in the
course of the last ten years, have repeatedly and severely ailicted
all classes of your Majesty's subjects.
" We have observed, with the utmost anxiety, those vicissitudes
in the state and condition of the lauded, commercial, and manufac-
turing interests—those alternate seasons of prosperity and adversity
—of a short and fallacious prosperity, followed by wide-spread
calamity and ruin, so unusual, and so unnatural, in a period of pro.
found peace.
" We cannot avoid comparing the state and condition of all the
great leading interests of the country during the last ten years of
peace, and contrasting it with the uninterrupted prosperity and
eumfort enjoyed by all classes of our fellow.subjects during the
ten tears which followed the conclusion of the American war. At
that period the civil and military establishments were fixed on the
most economical scale of expense—the advantages of our insular
situation were duty appreciated—a state of peace was then, also, a
state of repose from unnecessary taxation ; the wise economy which
Worded ease to the subject, prepared. at the same time for the
Government, the means of those astonishing exertions which were
called forth in the course of the last war—at the same time, with a
taxation exceeding fifty millions, little, if any progress, has been
made in the reduction of the National Debt, and with a peace esta-
blishment of twenty millions, nearly quadruple, we fear that, from
the state of our finances, this Kingdom is very ill prepared to resist
the aggression of foreign States.
" During the former peace the prohibitory laws did not apply,
in practice, to the most important article of produce—to the trade
in corn. The ports of Great Britain were then constandy open to
the admission of foreign wheat at a low, and almost nominal duty,
and at no period of our history did the landed interest, as well as
the whole community, enjoy greater security and prosperity. The
existing laws, which prohibit the importation of foreign corn, ex-
cept when the price of grain shall have risen in the home market to
an extravagant height, are found to be highly detrimental to the
public prosperity ; the cause an unnecessary waste of labour in the
cultivation of poor lands; they enhance the cost of food; they di-
minish the profits of stock; they have a strong tendency to drive
capital abroad; they are most injurious to trade, by limiting the
beneficial exchange of foreign raw produce with the manufactured
produce of British industry ; they encourage the establishment of rival
manufacture in foreign countries ; and, lastly, they are unjust, inas-
much as they prevent the people from obtaining a supply of the first
necessary of life at the cheapest market. During the former peace,and
until the unfortunate era of 1797, the currency of the country was
in a more Geed and perfect state, being composed in large peopor-
don of the Uwful gold coin of the realm, not in its nature liable
to excessive issues and sudden contraction, we have since endured
all the evils arising from a large, and in many instances, from an
increased circulation of paper, creating, at one time, by undue ex-
tension, an artificial and delusive prosperity ; and, producing at
another time, most sudden and severe reverses, destructive alike to
prosperity and industry. In the course of ten years of uninterrupted
peace, we have observed, with the utmost pain, the frequent recur-
rence of a state of calamity and ruin, unexampled in the midst of
war, and feel convinced that, the only substantial security for the
future, will be found in all traces of those innovations in our mone-
tary Elysian, made in 1797, together with such additional securities
as may be necessary to place that part of the currency consisting of
the promissory note of private bankers, on a solid foundation; and
above all, in respect of the Corn Laws, and in the abolition of all
that is still suffered to remain of the impolitic prohibitory code,
which sacrifices the interests of the many to the few, and favours
the producers at the expense of the great body of consumers, who
ate of the community at large."
The LORD CHANCELLOR then pot the Amendment to the
Vote, and it was rejected nab /ikon* and news. coos.
The LORD CHANCELLOR then put the question, that the
original Address be agreed to.
The Earl of LAUDERDALE objected to the House
pledging itself to grant an indemnity for the Order in
Council (as the Address implied), before that Order was
laid before the House. He would, on that proper occa-
sion, state his reams for dissenting from the policy of that Order;
all he wished searewas to caution the House against pledging itself
implicitly to the Indemnity Bill, by too readily concurring with the
Address.
The Duke of BUCKINGHAM cordially agreed with
the Address, though he could not but wish that Minis-
ters had declared their intentions of applying themselves
to the real cause of the diseased state of the country, by
embarking in a sound plan of retrenchment, and of di-
minutions of the public burthens. Without this the
country would be jacialus per undas—one day pros-
perous, another steeped in distress, floating like the froth
of the sea over the waves of chance, till the country
would, he feared, be irremediable. This was, in his
mind. the main source of renovation to the state—re-
trenchment in the public expenditure. Adapting the
expense of the state to its means, and not a rivalry of
extravagance with foreign nations, were the :luaus he
would recommend. Free trade principles, or an alter-
ation in the system of the Corn Laws, without this
necessary preparation, would be of no avail—if not
actually injurious. He hoped, therefore, that Ministirs
would realise the expectations of the country, by firmly
pursuing some wholesome plan of retrenchment ; the country expect
it front them. Without It, it would be folly to talk of the Corn
Laws or free trade principles. The Agricultural interest did not
set k far high prices, but for remunerating prices, under the bur-
then, which they and the other interests of the country were labour-
ing under. The Noble Duke concluded with censuritg the mea-
sures of ;Ministers in the last Parliament in relation to the currency.
The Fad of DARN LEY entirely concurred with the observa
thins of the Noble Duke, and would support the Address, reserving
to a proper opportunity the discussion of its contents.
Lord CLIFDEN also thought the Indemnity Bill
should be grafted, as the failure of the oat crop in-this
country and in Ireland, and the consequent necessity of
1, not only exonerated
admitting a foieign suppl
•Minis-
lets ttom blame for tie Orders in Council, but cons-.