The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-06-12 00:00:00

A RIVAL PARLIA':-‘IEgT.

We need hardly offer any apology for subriiitting to
' our readers the following curious and rather amusing
debate; for it .proves that even •in schoolboys there
may be found mote intelligence and much more elocitierice
than amongst a large portion of those who by courtesy
are called the representatives of the people, and consti-
tute what is facetiously termed the " collective wisdoiti"
of the nation.

It is necessary, perhaps, to explain that, previous to
the commencement of the summer holidays, the pupils
belonging to Mr. Stokes's classical academy, in Norton-
street, after being severally examined by competent
judges as to the progress they have made in their several
studies, wound up thewhole proceedings by forming them-
selves into a juvenile House of Commons, and debate a
question previously submitted to them. The debate on
this occasion was as follows it was attended by the
parents of the pupils and many respectable and fashion-
able friends, and the whole scene was interesting and
amusing iu the highest degree: The young- senators
entered into the spirit of the discussion with all the ar-
dour and dignity of graver persons, and conducted them-
selves with delightful propriety. On a raised platform
the youngsters were ranged on benches on each side the
chair, that being placed in the centre, facing the audi-
ence. The speaker had a table, but no mace, before
hiM.; but had Mr. Abercrombie seen how the young
gentleman conducted himself, the strict order he kept, the
unparliamentary language he reprimanded, and the fair-
ness and the impartiality of his deportment, he might
have taken a few useful hints.
DEBATE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION.

• Mr. SPE A KEP.—The hon. member, Mr. George Hitilwen, will
now be pleased to proceed with the motion of which he has given
notice.
Master G: Il,i owser.e--I rise, Mr. Speaker;'' under no or-
dinary degree of embarrassment and dread lest so young a
senator, so inexperienced a debater, so feeble-an advocate as I
am, should 'disgrace the important constituency, to Whoin I am
indebted for the honour of a seat in this assembly ; and under a
still greater degree of dread lest the momentous question which
I have pledged myself to bring under the-consideration of the
house should suffer from not being undertaken -by an abler or a"
more influential member. But, sir, I hope the sages who are
most frequently in the habit of addressing you will extend to me.
the same measure of indulssenee which is usually granted to
persons in my- situation. The esubject of the motion
purpose submittinpi to the consideration 'Of rahe-heirile'lii-one of
paramount importance to the country, one that has been, unhap-:
pilv' too long uni squired into, one that no minister has, as vet,
had sufficient co.irage to examine—" the present state of -the
nation." The great charter of our liberties—the reform bill—if
its principles are to he carried into operation, secures to the
people of England the redress of all their lung accumulation of
grievances, real or imaginary, and to their descendants an ex-
emption from future wrongs. (Hear.) Ifl have rightly inter-
preted the object of that measure, we who sit here in virtue of
its provisions, as the representatives of the people, are hound to
institute a rigid and searching investigation into the origin of
those eVils which afflict our unhappy country. We must_pot,
like unskilful leeches, treat the constitutional disease of the
bode politic as a mere local affection ; no, we must find out the
hidden cause before we presume to apply the remedy; we must
lay bare the gangrened parts, and, when we have done this we
must not hesitate to apply the caustic. There are some daring
spirits who are haedy enough to deny that any peculiar or greater
than ordinary degree of distress exists in the country at the
present period; these, perhaps, will discharge against me the
whole artillery of their arguments founded upon the statistics of
trade, of population, and of crime. But, have these statisticians
ever yet attempted to give us a tabular analysis of human suf-
fering or of human misery either in an abstract or a detailed
form ? I shall be told, no doubt, that the country is in a most
flourishing condition, happy beyond all precedent, and con-'
tented beyend all former example. To such as may be dis-
posed to persuade themselves that this is really the case, I an-
swer, "look through the land arid behold the wretchedness of
its inhabitants;"—turn.your eyes either to the east, the west,
the north, or the south, and you will see nothing but
poverty—dark poverty,
Twin brother of despair,"—
goading the people to acts of savageernaddened vengeance; you
will see destitution in its most appalling, forms ;—and if you do
not understand the hints whir% the bunting embers of your farm-
houses and corn-stacks. are intended to convey to your blunted
intellects and hardened hearts, you will shortly see the picture
which now adorns your palaces of "the man tearing the lion,"
replaced' by that of "the lion tearing the man." (Hear.)
Again :—I shall be told, perhaps, that the motion which I meals
to propose is vague and indefinite in its character, and that I
should bring forward specific measures of redress fur specific
and well ascertained grievances. This, sir, is the hackneyed
official oft-repeated answer of every administration, from the
days of Bute, North, end Pitt, down to those of the present hour.
Thank God, the time is now passed away when the people will
be satisfied with an answer so ruffles-they are now in reality what
the late Duke of Norfolk was punished for saving they were
theoretically—"the source of power." The minister of the day
—nay the King himself—is now the sertiant tj'ilie people, to whom
he must "give an account of his stewardship." To palter or
trifle with them icon' is impossible, and therefore he who governs
must forget all his ancient maxims of state polity, and no longer
maiutaiu "-the right divine of Kings to govern wrong;" he roust
submit to that tribunal which in Athens banished Thernistocles,
and in France hurled the Bourbons from the throne of their an-
cestors. Hitherto, Mr. Speaker, I have addressed you on the
general state of the country. To descend from generals to-par-
ticulars, to come more immediately in contact, -to. grapple with
and explain the sufferings and depressions of the menu facturieg,
monetary, colonial, tOinmerciale aneleagricultural interests of
the couutry, I shall proceed to state the of some
inquires which 1 have wade at great personal trouble and
inconvenience for the purpose of illustrating my arguments.
I hold in_ my baud, sirLiereturn from one of the oldest manu-
facturing establishments in the couritry--AMITee /nag
Everton, which spews a frightful falling off in the consumption
of that necessary of life ; since the access's a of the present
ministers to office the diminution in the homeitrade-of that con-
cern has amounted to just three and seven-eights per Cent. ;
Eccles, a town in Lancashire, depends chiefly upon its cele-
brated manufactory of "Eccles cakes" for its piitsperity—in the
consumption of these the falling off within the present year is
something snore than four and a quarter per cent., notyvithe
standing the trade at the new railway station; a still greater
falling off' has taken place in the use of Ormskirk gingerbread,
Banbury cakes, and Chelsea buns :—this the conductors and
proprietors of these concerns very naturally refer to the de-
pressed state of our monetary interests arising (torn excessive
taxation. The falling off in the consumption of these articles
must necessarily affect not only the foreign trade but the agri-
cultural interests of the country. A manufacturer, of bats and
stumps, extensively used in the noble invigorating old English
game of cricket, inTerins me that the demand for these articles
has almost wholly ceased; this, as might have been expected,
has been•attended with very serious consequences to the timber
trade, to the shipping interest, and to the British sailors em-
ployed in that branch of our commerce. If we look to the
state of the currency we shall find things in an equally unsa-
tisfactory condition. The establishment of savings banks,
those well-constructed engines of oppression, have tended to
reduce to a most alarming extent the circulating medium.
The money that used to be freely expended in the purchase of
tops, marbles, kites, hoops, 'balls, bows and arrows, pea-
shooters, squirts, sixpenny cannons, gunpowder, and fire-
works, is now absorbed by savings- banks; or, in other words,
by the government, for that is the leviathan, the swallow-all
into whose capacious maw the whole of the money so collected.
has found its way.. The operation of these penny-farthiug
banks is obvious. The money deposited in them is withdrawn
from the epinmerce of the country. The mechanics and attizans
employed in the manufacture of the articles I have enumerated
are thrown out of employ; the dealers hi them are for the most
part ruined. In this state of things can it be a matter of sur-
prise that the spirit of dissatisfaction is advancing by rapid and
mighty strides through the realm ? Can it be a matter of sur-
prise that this house is besieged with petitioners? The motion
before the house pledges us to nothing more than an inquiry;
when that shall have been gone into, when the cause of the
distress we labour under shall have been properly investigated
and ascertained, we can apply ourselves to such remedial ineas
sures as the nature and extent of the evil may appear to re-
quire. I have purposely omitted any allusion to a greater
variety of subjects connected with the motion, ,feeling cou-
vioced that I have glanced at a sufficient number to induce the
house to agree to the motion which I have now the honour of
submitting, namely, "That this house, do, on the first day of
April next, resolve itself into a committee to take into consi-
deration the present state of the nation."
Master G. POTTER.—Sir, my hon. friend, in his able,
eloquent, and argumentative speech, has left me but little in-
deed to say in seconding the resolution which he concluded ,
by moving. But there are some points to which he has not
adverted, and to these I will endeavour to draw the attention)
of the house, as additional reasons why we should enter upon
the proposed inquiry. We all remember the large promises of
uninterrupted happiness and prosperity which we were told
would be the natural and necessary consequences of carrying
the reform bill. Have these " words of promise" been kept or
broken? True, the taxes on "foreign sweets" have been re-
duced; but I would ask gentlemen on either side of the house,
first, whether their finances have been increased, and, secondly,
whether "sweets" are cheaper now than they were under the
unreformed parliament? .We have heard much of the spread
of knowledge; we have been told, too, that the schoolmaster is
abroad. Again I appeal to honourable members on both sides
of the house; I appeal to their personal knowledge of the fact,
and ask if he be not as much at home as ever—and if he be not
the same arbitrary, tyrannical despot he has ever been since
the time when Soioinon recommended the frequent use of the
rod, as if the growth of "young ideas," like that of the walnut
tree, would be accelerated by frequent beatings? (Hear,
hear.) if the people of England are still to be ruled by those
ancient maxims of government which the reform bill professed
to abrogate; if legions of armed men, regiments of police, and
squadrons of revenue officers are necessary, first to pillage, and
then to keep them in subjection; and it every village, nay,
almost every street in every town, possesses in its schoolmaster, an
unconstitutional officer who "nips i' th' bud" of the infant
mind the opening- blossoms of liberty, by the uncontrolled
exercise of his power, the reform bill is a thing of naught, a
mere lullaby to hush babes to sleep, and as unsubstantial as
the shadow of a shade. These, and more especially the latter,
are wrongs of which the people do cnmplaiu; these are some of
the grievances into which we must inquire, and for which the
people will have redness. On these subjects they are now
humble petitioners to us their representatives •
.we may turn a
deaf ear to their complaints—the house stay be cajoled into a
rejection of the motion; but, should we be so besotted as to
commit such an act of unparalleled folly, such an act of abso-
lute insanity, they will soon force us to obey their couainaudse
they will soon address us in language less courteous, such as
he "who runs may read," and ajmut which there can be "no
mistake." Unless, then, the house is prepared to act in direct
opposition to the declared wishes and feelings of the people, the
motions of my hon. friend will be carried. I shall, not, Jr.
Speaker, occupy your attention any luuger, but 'conclude with
seconding the motion before the house.
Master J. FlieNketN.—The 'notion just read from the
chair is, perhaps, if considered merely as an abstract proposi-
tiou, unexceptionable. But I object to it in rotor—first, be-
cause such ait inquiry. ie. impracticable ; secondly, because it
would occupy the times of the house most unprofitably; thirdly,
because by entering upon it we should exerts bows tort to blast
them, or create in the public mind a feebug of uniningled scorn
and contempt for our proceedings; fourthly, because the coun-
try is generally in a state of unusual prosperity; and, lastly,
because I foresee, if we enter upon this inquiry, we shall, like
the mountain in itthour, be delivered of—a mouse; or, more
probably a much less respectable brute, (Hear.) Dunning's
celebrated resolution "that the influence of the crown has in-
creased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished" is the
Adam,-or first parent of ,the hon. gentleman's motion. Since
the days of that great political charlatan, this stock-farce of the
opposition, with same trilling variations in its phraseology, has
been annually performed, like the tragedy of George Batustell,