The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-03-13 00:00:00

" The Coffee for which H4MPDRN fell le the Field, and STDNETIdied es the lieteold!"

IMPERIAL PARLIA.VILY T.

HOUSE OF 1.011D8.--MONDAT. MARC. 14.
Mr. Johnson, from the office of the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, presented an Account of the Stationery'
supplied to the public departments in that conntry.—
Laid on the table.
Mr. Scott, from the Chamber of London, present-
ed an Account of the Receipts and Expenditure of the
Orpheus' Fund.—Laid on the table.
The Earl of MACCLESFIELD presented a petition
from Chipping Norton, complaisiog of agricultural
distress, and praying for relief.—Read, and laid on
the table.

On the motion of the Rarl of SHAFTESBURY, a
Message was sent to the Commons, to request that
leave be granted to James Drummond, Esq. to attend
and give evidence before the Committee on Foreign
Trade.
The Earl of RAILMAtY, finding that the papers
fur which he had lately moved were very voluminous,
sbeald look them over, to ascertain what parts of it
might be campsisite to have printed. He should now,'
however, move, that the Aeolian* tot. tat Eatrease• of
the proceedings against the Qaeea be printed.—
Agreed to.
The Earl of ROSSLYN presented a petition from
.the Burgesses, Householders, and Inhabitants, of the
Royal Burgh of Kirkcaldy, complainiu.4 of the weight
of the taKes, and the proceedings against the Queen.
Read, and laid on the table.
The Nova Scotia Trade, and the New South Wales
Duties Bil:s, were read a second time.

WOOL DUTIEs.
Lord CALTHOItPE presented 'petitions from the
Wool Manufacturers of the towns of Fronte and Shep-
ton Mallet, in the county of Somerset they complain-
ed of the duty laid on Foreign Wool two years since.
—lt cotnpelled them to pay a higher price for the
raw materials, than if the duty did not exist, and was
injurious, not only to the manufacturers, but to the
landed interest. If this were the case, said the Noble
Lord, it afforded a striking and important illustra-
tion and proof of the inexpediency of attempting to
benefit one class of the community at the expence of
another. He was assured that the facts stated in the
petitions were true ; and that assurance had not been
given by the manufacturers alone, but by our own
woolgrowers. lie believed that the subject had once
before engrossed the attention of his Majesty's Minis-
ten, but he hoped that they would revise the decision
to which they had come to on that occasion. It was
important that when the agricultural classes were la-
bouring under such distress, they should not be sub-
jected to a burthen which had been intended to ope-
rate as a relief. He scarcely hoped, front the multi-
plicity of objects already submitted to the Counuittee
on Foreign Trade,llthat it would be able to investigate
the present question ; yet it was his intention, when'
the petitions should have been read, to move that they
be referred to that Committee.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL oniv wished to make *
few observation• on what had fallen from his Noble
Friend. With respect to the investigation to which
his Noble Friend had alluded. its results had been a
complete conviction in his (Lord L.'s) mind, that the
grounds stated in the petition at the time were sot
well foun.lll. Should, however, a new inquiry take
place, and should he, on revision, feel inclined to al-
ter his former opinion, nothing which had hitherto
been done should prevent him from adopting that new
view of the subject. He had himself taken the liberty
of proposing to the wool manufacturers to agree to the
free exportation of wool, and that he would give up
the duty altogether. It was not fair therefore that
they should charge him wills having done nothin4 on
the subject. Hut they hail all stated that out of the
two alternatives, they would prefer the latter. He was
certainly of opinion that if the agriculturists of
the country did not enjoy the advantages of a free ex-
portation, the importation of foreign wool should be
subjected to a duty.
Lord CALTHORPE explained, that what the peti-
tioners chiefly complained of was, that the duty ope-
rated equally on all kinds of wool.
The petition was then read and referred to the (Ai&
mittee on foreign trade.
STATE OF IRELAND.
The Earl of BLESSINOTON had intended to bring
forward his motion on the state of Ireland this day,
but several reasons had arisen to induce him to post-
pone it. One of these was, that the papers for which
Ire had moved on the fir. t of P'ebreary were not yet
printed. His abject bad been to show the House by
those papers, the state of the duties on the goads im-
ported from Ireland into inglarid, and those exported
from England into Ireland, in order that it might be
considered whether some alteration should not be
road to give the Irish Manufacturers a proper markets
which they now. had not. Another reason which led
him to give up his motion for the present was, that the
Cora Laws, to which he would have called the atten-
tion of the House, were at this moment, he under-
stood, the object of deliberation in another place,
where the mode of taking the averages was investi-
iratedl, and where Government would perhaps find a e
ro-
uted, calculated to remove the evils which were com-
plained of in Ireland as well as England. Another
point in his examination of the present state of Ireland
would have been the Catholic Question, but as this
question was also the subject of deliberation in the
other House, it bad become unnecessary fur him to
draw the attention of their Lordships to its merits,
hoping, as he did, that however the Noble Earl might
differ from him on the subject, the measure proposed
would receive the sanction of Parliament. There was
another point which formed one of the greatest
grievances under which Ireland laboured, and which
he intended to have recommended to the consideration
of the Noble Earl opposite. It was the prohibition,
or if not the actual prohibition, the restriction int-
rtatloo of Irish Spirits into England.
posed on the imp
The law allowed Irish Spirits to be imported, bat then
an order was sent to the out-pow to letter their strength.
Ile trusted, however, from the attendee lately paid to
the lutereets of Ireland, that the dine was at !sitcom,

- .
when justice woeld be delis . ker. . Her usaaufeettesei
(mkt to be encouraged ; the poor Irish had nilliistor
to look to for support Ibt* thtir labour, and tie*
provisions were extremely cheep, yet if labour falledi
they bad sedllng to parsffiatß them, and meet stare,
in the midst of plenty. Under the circumstances wide&
be bad detailed, be should content himself with dis-
charging his notice, and moving " That the papers or-
dered to be laid before the:House on the first and 16th
of February, he produced forthwith."
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE did net rise to esti-
cipate any discussion on tia state of Ireland, Let there
was one point to which he wished to call the attentios
of the Noble Earl opposite and of the House. That
Noble Earl well knew that much of the distress ex-
perienced in Ireland had originated from the state of
domestic credit in thettousw, and that one of the
rest efficient mesas *5 reuse* that distress would be
to assist the revival of donieitic credit. To yield re-
lief in the form of a loan was a mode to which no one
could have a meager objection than himself; especi-
ally when these was a measure which would prove at
once far easier of exemstion)r.and more effective in its-
operation. Ile useanttlse removal of the restrictions
imposed upon those persons who might become pais-
seri in Basking firms in Ireland. The effect of those
restrictions, in a country where capital was deficient,
was to leave many of the large towns without say
Bank whatever. In the City of Cork, where three
Banks once flourished, only one, and tilt the smallest
of the three, was now in operation, and no effort had
been made to replace the two large Banks, the failure
of which had swept away nineitenths of the circulat-
ing medium. In Scotland, where no such restrictions
existed, no inconvenience whatever had resulted from
their absence, but much good had been produced. If
that policy was jnstifiable towards Scotland, how
much more so ought it not to be towards Ireland,
whose connection with the British empire was now as
intimate? He was aware that no measure tending
to remove those restrictions could he adopted without
negociatiug with the Bank of Ireland; but he trusted,
that when the welfare of the country was in question,
the Bank of Ireland would throw ndditficsilties in the
way of an arrangement. Ile should therefore wish to
direct the attention of the Noble Earl, and of the
House, to the consideration of that important point,
whether it would not be possible, or how far it would
be expedient to remove those restrictions which at pre-
sent prevented many persons of property from embark-
ing it in Banking concerns.
• The Earl of LIVERPOOL admitted, that he hail
bat reluctantly adopted the mode of relieving distress
in Ireland by a loan, to which the Noble Marqnis had
alluded, and which he had termed improper. lie also
agreed with the suggestion of the Noble Marquis re-
specting the propritty of removing the restrictions on
the formation of firms. Ile assured the House that
the subject hail sot escaped the attention of his Ma-
jesty's Ministers; and be was certainly of opinion
that those restrictions ought so he altered, net only
with respect to Ireland, but to England also. He was
satisfied that the best mode of having good Banks in
this country, would be to enable persons of property
to associate to carry on the Basking system. lint the
Noble Marquis must be aware, that cousidersble diffi-
culties might be encountered in the removal of t/sose
restrictions from the chartered Banks, o( Englsoid-and
Ireland. lie.trtisted, however, that those difficulties
would not prove insnperable. When it was irontiderOd
what Liverpool and Bristol had grown to, that such
cities should not have the power of establishing Bank-
ing concerns, inns% be retarded as a considerable
check to industry, whilst the e:fect mast be to create
false capital. Ile therefore thought, that whenever an
opportunity could be found, or an arrangement could
be made, the remora! of restrictions upon firms was a
measure which ought to he adopted.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE had heard the
opinion expressed by the Noble Earl with much satis-
faction. With ultra to the difficulties to be en-
countered from the. Bank of Ireland, he did not think
they were likely to prove so great as the Noble Earl
seemed to anticipate. The fact was, that a proposal
had been made to the Bank of Ireland, to form
branches of its own establishment thrionchunt the
country. Bat this bad been refused on the ground
that the Bank could not work the necessary machi-
nery at a distance, with the same ease and security as
other Banks. Waving expressed such an opinion,
the Irish Bank could certainly have little objection
to the establishment of other Bakke on the system
proposed.
'fhe Earl of LIVERPOOL was understood to say,
that if the Bank of Ireland could not establish
branches.consistently with its view of security;
though it could not be made to establish •tbase
branches, vet it ought to allow other Banks to be
formed on a proper Costing in every part of the coun-
try where they were wanted.
The Earl of LIMERICK considered that the laws
respecting the Banking System were still more severe
in Ireland than in England, and highly approved of
the measures suggested.
The Earl of DAWSLEY thought that many other
censer beside, the stair of domestic credit, had prts-
deceit the distress experienced is Ireland. Among t
those causes were, the want of capital, the 'pressure
of taxation, and the misgovernment of the conetry,
which had been greater than in England. Of this
he would show a striking instance, in the collection.
of the Reverse. In eases where the Revenue was
collected at the rate of 10 per cent. in this country,
he understood that in Ireland it conld not be done under
20 per cent. He should be happy if a Cotntnittee
were appointed to inquire late the Mate of Ireland,
to give his Noble Friend every assistance in his power:
The Earl of BLESSINOTON only wished to ask
the Noble Elul opposite, whether be was aware that
any sum of mosey *till remitted in the bands of his
3lajeety4i tioversesent oat of the 300,0001. voted for
the relief of ration! parish,* is Ireland; becasise if
any pdrtles still restudied, be Attila call for an ac-
cess* et the eitaet sets, and a copy of the carrot-
poedeated wide* had taken place between the differtiat
departments Sid parishes.