who supposed the distress of the country proceeded from a diminished demand for our manufactures. The evil lay in the low state of wages. This, he believed, was an evil experienced over all Europe, occasioned almost solely by the change from war to peace, which sent back to their homes great numbers of men who had been engaged in military pursuits. He objected to the resolutions; but he wished to see some other way of disposing of them resorted to than that of passing to the order of the day.

Lord Castlereagh admitted the existence of the distress, but could see no ground for gloom and despondency. He was not disposed to shade the distress of the country, though it was most certain that the distress was fast abating. Last year the House had heard a great deal of the distress of the agricultural interest, and more despondency had been felt than was now entertained on the subject of our commerce. But that distress, as now appeared, had arisen from temporary causes, and the same would be the case as to the fears entertained for the manufacturing interest. The distress had arisen from a diminution of internal consumption, and was not to be imputed to the want of commercial treaties. The fact was, that this country had made too many treaties. A commercial treaty with this country was look. ed to with suspicion by the power that concluded it, and occasioned such a spirit of jealousy, that was productive of more harm than the treaty itself was of advantage. In the year 1816, the exports of British manufactures had amounted to 36,700,000l., a larger sum than had been exported for many years, except the year immediately preceding, when they had amounted to 44 millions. In 1812, the amount had only been 31 millions. In the case of the export of cotton goods in 1816, that had been L.16,300,000, which was more than

for any year, except the one immediately preceding. The case was the same with respect to our woollen and linen manufactures. It should also be taken into the account, that there had been a great decrease of demand in the home market. In the ordnance department, when the demand had formerly been two millions, it was now only L.300,000, and a similar diminution had taken place in the Commissariat, and in the other departments in the government. The exchange was now 6 or 7 per cent. in favour of this country, and was a proof that the demand for our manufactures on the continent was increasing.

Lord Cochrane contended, that the root of this distress arose from the excess of taxation, and not from any temporary causes, or from any sudden return from a state of war to a state of peace.

Mr Alderman Atkins hoped the House would see the necessity of relieving commerce from the distresses and trammels under which it laboured. He thought the House should go into a committee, with a view to meet these evils; and he was surprised that the honourable and learned gentleman had not proposed that measure.

Mr Brougham replied, when the House dividedFor going into the orders of the day............. For the resolutions

118

63

Majority in favour of ministers 55

Although ministers had always frankly stated their opinion, that the general stagnation of industry and employment was an evil which lay beyond legislative controul, they yet brought forward a measure which promised to afford some partial relief. Unfortunately the only thing they could relieve was the difficulty of raising money, at a time when the want was not capital, but the means of em.

ploying capital. On the 28th April the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved that the whole House should resolve itself into a committee, to consider the propriety of a grant of Exchequer bills, for the relief of the labouring classes of society. The first resolution that he proposed for the opinion of the committee was, "That Exchequer bills, to an amount not exceeding one million and a half, be advanced to certain commissioners for Great Britain, to be distributed at their discretion towards the relief of the poor's rates, by the encouragement of industry, and employment of the poor in public works of utility and fisheries. Security for repayment to be taken from the poor's rates of the districts to which such monies might be advanced." Ireland was under circumstances somewhat different from those of the rest of the empire; and he should therefore submit a second resolution for their opinion, "That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland should issue the sum of L.250,000, Irish currency, from the consolidated fund of that country, (repayable un. der certain securities,) for the employment of the poor, in the encouragement of public works and fisheries." On every former occasion of an advance made by government towards alleviating the distress of any community or district, the advance had been preceded by inquiries into the nature and extent of the distress prevailing, and of the relief required. Under present circumstances, unhappily, such proceedings were altogether unnecessary, as the House was but too well acquainted with the nature and extent of the distress prevailing, by the numerous petitions that were lying upon the table, and by the labours of the committee of last session and the present. On other occasions, advances had been made towards the completion of great public works, which

were likely to prove of public benefit; but the present proceeding was somewhat different from any that had preceded it; for the commissioners were not only intrusted with the distribution of money they were charged with, and the completion of public works, but they were always to have under their consideration the effect which the works themselves would at this moment have on the labouring classes; their object, therefore, was of a complicated nature-the utility of the work, and the prospect of benefit to those employed. There were a variety of public works that had received the sanction of parliament, such as harbours, canals, roads, and the like, that languished and stagnated from the want of capital for their completion; and applications were frequently made to parliament by the promoters of such undertakings, for contributions out of the public money. Whatever aid parliament might now be disposed to afford, was to be submitted to the discretion of commissioners wholly unconnected with government; the sums advanced were to be placed with them, and they would receive applications from corporations, or other bodies concerned in public works, such as roads, canals, harbours, bridges, and the like; and as it might be thought advisable that this grant should not be confined merely to undertakings that had received a parliamentary sanction, the fisheries might also be encouraged, and afford ample employment to seamen who are now destitute of any means of support. At all events, much would be gained, if great works of utility or ornament could be brought to a completion, without loss to the public, of which the example of former grants, and the interest to be paid under a proper security, afforded a reasonable hope. In Ireland, where there was not the same facility of lending money on government paper, and where great works

were commonly effected at the public expence alone, it might be deemed more advisable to place a sum in the hands of the lord lieutenant, and avoid the difficulties that would attend a selection of commissioners. With respect to the agricultural portions of the community, he had never thought that any assistance of this kind could avail to them. Their necessities were far greater than could be embraced by any relief of this sort, and their interest so widely extended, that it was hardly possible to conceive a case in which parliament could advance to their assistance. Indeed, he fancied such an advance would only have the effect of increasing their poor rates, by making them constitute a part of the wages of labour. On these accounts, a general relief of the agricultural distress did not form a part of the present plan, which he thought not likely to have any effect in increasing the poor rates. The amount to be granted to any district on the credit of these rates, was not to exceed half the rate of the last year, and no advance was to be made until that rate doubled the amount of the average of the three preceding years; but although he could not promise a general relief to the agricultural interests, he should have been sorry not to have laid before the House some measure which promised considerable assistance to a portion of the poorer classes, who are at this time deprived of employment. He then moved a resolution, that it was the opinion of the committee, that commissioners should be enabled to issue L.1,500,000 in Exchequer bills, under certain limitations, for the furtherance of public works of utility, the encouragement of the fisheries, and the employment of the poor, for a time to be limited, securities being given for the advances. Mr Ponsonby thought the right honourable gentleman had made a ma

terial omission in the exposition of his measures, by not particularizing the mode for the repayment of the ad

vances.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, his view was, that the advances should be repayable in 1820 by instalments, to be settled by the commissioners according to the circumstances of the cases. In advances made for the promotion of useful public works, there might probably be a farther extent of time allowed. He should propose a clause to meet such cases, giv. ing an extension of three years more. It was his intention that the rate of the exchequer bills should be as it now is. As to public works, the commissioners could not be called upon, except when they were of public utility, and when security was given by individuals. That security was most likely to be found among the proprietors of such works or undertakings.

Mr Phillips declared his inability to comprehend the nature of the security alluded to by the right honourable gentleman. Did the right honourable gentleman mean to confine the proposed loans to public works actually begun? (“No, no," from the treasury bench," they are to extend to works to be begun.") As these loans were to be granted for the construction of public roads, how, he would ask, were the parochial rates to be relieved by pledging these rates to the persons who should become security for the repayment of these loans? Such a plan would, in his opinion, rather tend to augment the rates, and to aggravate the evil so loudly complained of. Then as to manufactures, it was a delusion to conceive that this plan would afford any relief. For, to his knowledge, the manufacturing towns did not want capital to give employ. ment to labour, but a market for the sale of their productions. (Hear, hear!) Again, as to the system of se

curities proposed by the right honourable gentleman, it was obvious that the establishment of such a system must interfere most injuriously with the transfer of property. For who could calculate that, under such a system, any property purchased might not most unexpectedly be swept away by an exchequer extent, or extent in aid?

Lord Cochrane thought the money should be given to the people as a repayment for what had been taken from them, and no securities required. We had been told from authority, that commerce would revive; but had that been the case? That revival was ob

means of employing capital, and rendering it productive. And unless they could provide a market for the produce of labour-unless they could revive the commerce of the country, he did not see how the issue of exchequer bills could be of any benefit, for they could not create resources.

Mr Brougham was most willing to allow this plan to produce all the good effects of which it was capable; but he entertained very strong doubts of its efficacy. The poor were to be em. ployed almost entirely in public works; but what prevents public works from being carried on at present? Is it want of capital? He was afraid it would be found to be solely want of demand. There was at present no want of capital in the country. There was no fear of exchequer process on the part of the borrowers. Private lenders were preferable to a public creditor. The only effect of the measure would be a facility of obtaining loans. It would throw L.1,500,000 into the market, and thus facilitate loans; and this would be its only effect, its only be.

The resolutions were then agreed to.

FEW circumstances, during the present year, excited a stronger interest than the reports and representations transmitted from St Helena relative to the illustrious individual to whom that island had been assigned as a prison. There is something very remark able in the estimate formed throughout this country of that extraordinary personage. There never, perhaps, was an individual, all whose views and conduct were so thoroughly those of a despot. He obliterated every vestige of that liberty on whose foundation he had risen; every thing in France, under him, was governed at the point of the bayonet; and in all the states over which he acquired influence, he demanded and enforced the abolition even of the most moderate forms of popular suffrage. Yet in Britain, each party, in proportion to the zeal avowed by them in the cause of liberty, has made him their favourite; till, among the most inveterate sticklers for popular rights, he is reverenced almost as an earthly divinity. Yet, glaring as is this inconsistency, it were probably unjust to charge them on that account with a want of sincerity in their political creed. It is difficult to estimate the varied motives by which the human

mind is guided in its passions and predilections. The most operative, in the present instance, appears to us to have been the same which we know a witty old gentleman to have assigned as the cause of the love men of large property are observed to entertain for their grandsons-that of being the enemy of their enemy. The natural and irreconcileable enmity between the French emperor and the British ministry, formed a tie between him and the individuals in question, to which every other consideration was apt to appear as secondary.

It must be confessed, that the admirers of Napoleon had something to boast of in the dignified serenity and courtesy of his deportment, when received on board a British vessel, and in the first moments of so mighty a fall. We should scarcely, indeed, from a survey of his life, be justified in ascribing it to a greatness of soul so high, as to render its possessor superior to all the vicissitudes of human fortune. It manifested, however, a very uncommon energy and self-command, not, indeed, unsupported by powerful motives; for Buonaparte, on the deck of the Northumberland, had the eyes of mankind as intensely fixed upon him