on the country generally. He trusted, therefore, that he should avoid giving dissatisfaction to those who were interested in the question, when he said, that it was not the intention of ministers to bring forward any measure connected with the Corn-laws in that portion of the session which would precede the adjournment; and he was determined not to be provoked into a too hasty discussion of that question. Certain works had been denounced; but he would maintain that the prosecution of public works was of the first importance, when the crying evil of the country was the want of employment for its working population; and, what ever might be the sufferings of particular classes, and however those distresses might be attributed to different causes, he was con vinced that the good sense and proper feelings of the country generally would never go to the extent to which the hon. and learned gentleman had carried his remarks, and seriously encourage a desire to curtail the decent splendor of the Crown. The hon. and learned gentleman complained that no reduction had taken place in the naval and military departments of the state; but what was the amount of his objection? Had Great Britain no station to maintain in the world? Had not this country been forced to carry her army to a remote corner of the globe? Did not his majesty say in his Speech, that he had been employed "to prevent the interruption of peace in different parts of the world?" and did the House believe that, in prosecuting that purpose, there was no necessity for maintaining expensive establishments ? It was the duty, for instance, of this country to take care, that the confines of Portugal should not be crossed by a hostile army; and the House would learn with satisfaction that, during the last three anxious months, the appearance of the naval force, which we maintained in the Tagus, had prevented acts that might have involved all Europe in war. In that very force, who would take upon him to say, that the seeds of safety were not sown, and the wisest and best economy exhibited? It was not, therefore, for the purpose of an unnecessary display of the strength of this country, that the present naval establishment in the Tagus was kept up; and there was no branch of the policy of great Britain, that he was not equally prepared to go into, and defend. In regard to Ireland, it was the full intention of his majesty's ministers to bring that subject before parliament, but he would not be tempted by the hon. and learned gentleman into the discussion of a subject, which must, of necessity, be brought forward in the course of the present session. 1 Mr. Hume delivered a long speech, on the necessity of an immediate reduction of expenditure and taxation, an immediate revision of the Corn-laws, the immediate emancipation of the Irish Catholics, and an immediate reform of Parliament; and moved an amendment, which pledged the House instantly to proceed to execute these various measures, and thanked his Majesty for having called them together at so early a period, as to leave them time to make all requisite inquiries into the estimates before voting the supplies. This amendment, which form required to be moved as a substitute for the original Address, was seconded by Mr. Marshall, one of the new members for Yorkshire. It was supported by alderman Waithman, sir Ronald Ferguson, and alderman Wood, but was lost in a division by 170 votes against 24. The agriculturists did not seem to be better pleased than their adversaries with the omission of the subject of the Corn-laws in the Speech; and, when the report on the Address was brought up, Mr. Western said, that the operation of the Address, as it now stood, would prove exceedingly injurious, by giving the sanction of parliament to the opinion, that the manufacturers were suffering from the undue gains of their fellow countrymen and neighbours, the agricul turists. Now it was most material not only that parliament should do all in its power to guard against the propagation of such an error, and so prevent its injurious effects, but that the House should specifically pledge itself to an investigation of the causes which had led to this state of perplexity and distress, and which, ever since the year 1815, had placed this country in a situation perfectly unparalleled. He conceived that the first duty of the present parliament was, to undertake the charge of that investigation to undertake the duty of tracing the causes which had led to such an extraordinary state of distress for the last ten years. He therefore moved as an amendment "That your Majesty's faithful Commons feel it their duty to represent to your Majesty, and at the same time to express their deep regret, that the Agricultural classes, though not suffering in the degree they did a few years ago, particularly in the year 1822, are yet in a state of severe pressure, from the heavy burthens to which they are exposed. They will endeavour to trace the causes which have led to the dreadful alternations of prosperity and adversity which all the industrious classes have experienced since the termination of the war in the year 1815, and they trust they shall discover the means of restoring the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of the country to the same condition of prosperity and progressive improvement in which they were steadily advancing antecedent to that period." The amendment was opposed by sir John Sebright as unseasonable, considering that the whole question of the Corn-laws would soon be before the House; and it was not pressed to a division by the mover. re On the presentation of a petition, lord Liverpool repeated in the House of Lords the declaration which had been made by Mr. Canning, in the debate on the Address, that ministers were prepared to propose a general measure garding the Corn-laws, but that it would be unfair towards the country and towards parliament to bring it forward before the Christmas holidays. It had been fully understood that parliament was not to meet for business till after Christmas, and that it had been convoked in November merely for a special purpose. It would, therefore, be unjust to enter upon business which it had been negatively intimated would not come at present under the notice of parliament; and, independently of other considerations, the complicated interests involved in the subject would, of themselves, have prevented ministers from entering upon it, until they were sure of a full attendance. On the motion of lord Lauderdale, an Address was voted to his Majesty, praying him to order his return ambassadors and consuls abroad to notices, with all convenient speed, of the laws at their respective stations regulating the exportation and importation of grain, and the alterations in the duties for the last fifty years. On the 24th of November, the House having resolved itself ourselves from foreign ports, from the general character of the harvest abroad, ministers would have been unworthy of the trust reposed in them, if they had hesitated to secure the country, so far as security could be obtained, against a scarcity of food. If they had waited till a committee, "to take into conto the 15th of November, when by the ports might have been opened, the consequences would probably have proved most calamitous. From the rapid rise of prices before the first of September -their continued elevation subsequent to that period-the condition of the crops at home-and the discouraging prospects of supply from abroad, he had no difficulty in saying, that the minister, who should have hesitated to e the admis deration the Corn acts," Mr. Huskisson stated the circumstances which had led to the order in council allowing the importation of foreign grain. He said that, as most of the gentlemen whom he was addressing had been resident in the country at the time when that order was promulgated, their own observations, throughout their respective neighbourhoods, would bear testimony to the fact, that the sion of foreign grain, would have state of the harvest had been such as deserved neither the favour of the to justify the expedient adopted by monarch, nor that fair and liberal government: for, in no year within confidence which is reposed in the the reach of his own experience, ministers of the Crown, while parhad there been so much unanimity liament is not sitting. He put it of opinion in the reports of the to the committee, whether it could probable issue of the harvest. It be for a moment thought, that any was in oats, beans, and peas, that man merited to be trusted by the the prospect of failure had been Crown, or supported by parliament, most alarming. On the 4th of who could for an instant hesitate August they exceeded 27s. 3d., to choose between a breach of the and were still at that price on the law on the one hand, or the risk, 11th. Ministers thought it expe- nay, the certainty of famine the dient to wait during the remainder other. There was another feature of that month, and by the begin- of the case which required noticening of September oats had risen he alluded to the duty imposed on to 30s. The accounts received at the grain admitted, or rather, he that time from Lancashire, and should say, undertaken to be paid the very unpromising appearance thereon. The advisers of the of the crop of potatoes, were Crown, on this occasion, had desuch as to excite not merely parted as little as possible from the alarm, but despair and despond- spirit of the existing Corn-laws; ency; and had it not been for they required the parties importing the rains which followed, nothing to pay certain duties that is, the could have saved Ireland from order in council imposed upon the famine. In these circumstances, importers the necessity of entering to which was superadded an in- into an engagement to pay a specreasing difficulty of supplying cified duty, provided that duty on US Gentle should be sanctioned by parliament; and, in pursuance thereof, bonds had been entered into: therefore, the act necessary to be passed on the present occasion, should not merely indemnify the parties who incurred this responsibility, but should give power to the Crown to recover those duties. men might differ as to the amount of duty to be imposed; he had merely to state, that the amount fixed by the order in council was 2s. as a permanent duty, and 2s. as a temporary duty for the first three months. It was obviously a case in which parliament should not impede indemnity, but rather encourage and sanction similar conduct, on like occasions. The committee would observe, that the order in council did not impose the duty; it only required the party to enter into the next that the duty specified by the order in council should continue till the 15th February, when averages would be struck, and that, in the mean time, corn should be permitted, on the payment of that duty, to be introduced as it had been done since the issue of the order in council. If the prices were 30s. in the harvest time, could they, at this season of the year, hesitate in adopting such a resolution? He concluded by moving two Resolutions one declaratory of the opinion of the committee, that the parties advising the order in council of the first of September, and acting under the same, should be indemnified; and the other recommending the admission of foreign corn to be permitted, on payment of the duties specified in the said order. a bond to comply with the duty, if parliament should think fit to sanction it. His majesty's government felt, that it would have been a gross and culpable violation of the first principles of the constitution to have done otherwise, and he trusted that the House would give them credit for being incapable of giving such advice. On the subject of the amount of the duty, he would observe, that he thought it should not have exceeded 2s.; for, had 4s. been imposed, there could be little doubt, that the importers would have waited until the 15th of November, and taken their chance of being then able to introduce it. In confirmation of this, he would observe, that of the quantity imported, 600,000 quarters of wheat, 150,000 were actually overheld, the owners declining to pay the duty of 2s., and preferring to take their chance on the 15th of November. He had farther to propose to the committee, The proposed measure experienced no opposition from any quarter; the agriculturists only protesting that their approbation of this particular step, which they thought had been wisely, if not necessarily, taken, should not be construed into a deviation from opinions on the Corn-laws which they might formerly have expressed. Sir Thomas Lethbridge gave the measure his full concurrence; but, as he would not have assembled parliament at so unusual a period, for the purpose of discussing the general question, so he thought that ministers might have delayed their indemnity till the ordinary time of meeting. Mr. Whitmore considered the whole matter as a new proof of the absurdity of the exist ing Corn-law. It was a law which it was found necessary every now and then to break, and nobody seemed to think its infringement unconstitutional. Within three years it had been thrice broken; and he could not conceive why a law should be retained, which it seemed to be even meritorious to violate. The bill having been introduced, passed both Houses without farther notice. any On the 23rd of November, the House being about to resolve itself into a committee of supply, Mr. Brogden, who, for many years, had been chairman of that committee, declined the honour of being re-elected at present. Among the bubble schemes of 1825, one had been formed for purchasing and working the iron mines of Arigna. Although equally evanescent as most of its perishing companions, it enjoyed for a while, like them, the services of a Board of Directors, and the profits of the sale of fictitious shares. In an evil hour, Mr. Brogden had allowed his name to be set down as a director of the company. It was asserted that the original speculators had agreed to pay 10,000l. for the mines; that they had charged them to the company for which they acted as having been purchased for 25,000l.; and that the 15,000l. thus raised by knavery, had been divided among the directors and their dependents. Alderman Waithman, who seemed to have marked out these speculations as the peculiar objects of his parliamentary castigations, had introduced them into the debate on the address, and had pointed out the omitting all mention of the dishonesty in which they began, and the bankruptcies in which they ended, as one great deficiency in the royal Speech. In particular, he expressly declared, that, if Mr. Brogden should be again proposed to fill the situation which he had recently held, he would oppose his election, until certain transactions, in which he had been engaged, should have been explained. Mr. Brogden, on that occasion, stated, in answer to the alderman, the history and particulars of his connection with the Arigna company; admitting that unjustifiable transactions had undoubtedly been resorted to in the conduct of its affairs, but averring his total ignorance of any thing improper having been even contemplated, and confirming his assertion by the fact, that a committee of the very proprietors against whom the fraud had been directed, had, after due inquiry, not only fully acquitted him, but reported that he had conducted himself throughout with strict honour and integrity; a judgment which had subsequently been ratified by four or five general meetings of the share-holders. On the motion that the Speaker should leave the chair, with the view of the House resolving itself into a committee of supply, Mr. Brogden now said, that, for two parliaments, he had enjoyed the honour of filling the chair of the committee of ways and means; and, during the whole of that time, he was not conscious of having done any thing contrary to the station which he individually held in society, or derogatory to that with which he had been honoured by the House. However, for some time back, he had been assailed by calumnies and aspersions the most unjustifiable and unfounded: prejudices must naturally have arisen against him, both within and without the walls of parliament; and though he had repelled them in quarters to which he had access— though he had been thanked and applauded for his conduct by those who best knew his character-still the attacks against him had been |