in comparison of which foreign commerce was so inconsiderable that it might be considered merely the ornament of the system, a very heavy responsibility would fall on the framers of the speech. In the speech of the hon. baronet who moved the address, he was surprised to hear a comparison of the present peace with that of Utrecht, which had justly been considered the most improvident bargain ever made. The Assiento Contract, indeed, was the only advantage which this country derived in that treaty from the victories of Marlborough and the councils of Godolphin. The comparison of that with the present treaty on the subject of the slave-trade was said to be advantageous to the latter. He was, therefore, led to suppose, that among the sixty or seventy conventions and treaties which they were to be presented with, would be found one in which Spain and Portugal had agreed to relinquish the slave-trade. As Buonaparte had abolished the slavetrade in France, all Spain and Portugal were bound to relinquish that detestable commerce. He hoped, therefore, to find not only no Assiento Contract, which would be felonious by the present law, but an abolition on the part of Ferdinand of this great and crying evil-an evil next in magnitude to his persecutions religious and civil to his butcheries and torture of his own subjects. This contemptible tyrant-contemptible in every respect, but in the portentous power of doing mischief which he possessed, in consequence of our having raised him to the throne which he so meanly and unworthily filled-whose slightest crime was his usurpation of his father's crown, was now the grand slave-dealer out of Europe, as he was the grand maker of slaves in Europe. He hoped, therefore, that we had insisted on the abolition of that trade; and that Portugal, whom we had also saved, and over

whom we could exercise some influence, at least, had abandoned that dreadful traffic. The right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer had stated, that he reserved himself for a future occasion to enter upon the detail of the flourishing condition of the revenue, which was one of the topics of the speech, and was re-echoed in the address of the hon. baronet. But he could not help taking notice, in this early stage of the business of parliament, of what had fallen from the right hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer by way of intimation upon this subject. As one reward of our exertions in the late contest, so gloriously spoken of in the address, and as an immediate consequence of what the hon. gentleman who had so eloquently seconded it, termed the breaking of the rod of enchantment, and dissolving the spell by which the nations had been bound in slavery, he had heard with more regret, than perhaps astonishment, that the most oppressive of any of the taxes that had been imposed upon the nation-the heaviest and most obnoxious of these burthens under which the country had groaned that that most oppressive and tormenting tax upon income was to be continued. It was for this we had been fighting, not only our own battles, but those of other nations! Our fortitude and perseverance had led to this happy consequence, that we were not merely to bear the other burthens which had been so heavily laid upon us, but were to be borne down by this most tormenting of all taxesa tax which was still more oppressive in the detail than in the bulk and this, it was said, was necessary, notwithstanding the flourishing condition of the manufactures, commerce, and revenue of the united kingdom!' If this odious tax could be dispensed with-if there was any other means of going on without it, no man in his senses

-still less would the right hon. gentleman, on the very first day of the meeting of parliament, intimate an intention of renewing it. Such an intimation surely could arise only from the consciousness of there being no other means of carrying on the financial affairs of the country. He, however, did trust, that this early hint, which had been so plainly and unequivocally given of the intention of government, would not be lost upon the country or upon the House, and that the constituents of such of them as had any constituents (A laugh, and cries of hear, hear!) would take those steps, which, if they had been adopted last year, would have rendered it impossible for the burthen to have existed beyond the present spring. He reserved himself upon various other branches of the national finances, until they should be brought in detail under the consideration of the House. Some seemed to suppose that there were no means of relieving the landed interest, because their affairs were so interwoven with the national prosperity, that it was impossible to separate them from other objects. But he could not help expressing a hope that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would speedily find that there were means of separating them, and that some seasonable relief would be afforded to the distresses with which so important a part of the community was afflicted. He had consoled himself with the thought that the right hon. gentleman would seriously set about a revisal of some part of the revenue and finance, with a view to mitigate as much as possible the severity of those taxes now imposed upon the country. Was it then to be understood, that not only half the property-tax, but all the other war taxes were to be continued? Was the country to understand from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that at a season when grain was almost a drug in the markets, and when corn was not

only at the lowest price, but when no price could be obtained at all; and when the most grievous burthens were imposed upon the barley growers, was it to be said, that under such circumstances the war malt-tax was to be continued? Was it to be said, that the landholders were still to pay five per cent. property-tax, and endure in times of peace all the hardships to which they had been exposed during the war? Was the malt-tax of 38s. per quarter laid on during the war, to continue during peace? If this was to be the state of things, he trusted the House would not separate without hearing a notice from some of his honourable friends, who were conversant with this subject, for bringing the question of the war malt-tax immediately under the consideration of the House. But there were other matters independent of the subject of reduction in the taxes, to which he hoped the attention of parliament would be speedily called. If the amendment of his hon. friend was carried, the House would pledge itself speedily to take under its consideration the state of the country; he doubted not that one of the first objects of their enquiry would be those laws which prevented the exportation of some of the most important staple commodities of the country. He trusted also that the state of the usury laws would be brought under consideration with the like celerity; for there was no subject more deserving the interposition of parliament. He hoped those laws, which operated most oppressively on the indigent borrower, which had been disapproved of by the first characters of the country, which Sir Francis Baring more than thirty years ago had strongly pronounced against, as injuring the interests of those they were intended to protect, and which were so manifestly impolitic and ruinous, would soon receive a thorough

revision and alteration. There were various other subjects, unnecessary for him to allude to at present, which were equally pressing upon the notice of the House; he would only instance the state of the poor-laws, as they respected the equalization of rates. All that he was desirous of urging upon the notice of the House at present was, the absolute necessity of redeeming their pledge, by immediately entering into that enquiry, which was, of all others, the most important-namely, into the state of the finances, and by thus showing to the country that their condition was not absolutely hopeless, and that the promises of parliament were not mere empty sounds without meaning. Before he concluded, he begged to allude to one part of the hon. gentleman's speech opposite, and the more so, because it formed a part of the address under consideration. He meant that part which pledged the House to measures of economy. That part of the address and speech of the honour able gentleman must be taken to mean, such a rigorous investigation into the amount of our enormous establishments, both at home and abroad, as would lead to this result, that our expences would be reduced to the smallest amount possible, consistently with our safety. For it was a robbery of the people of this country, it was a cruel mockery of their sufferings, to tell them, after twenty-five years of distress and misery, and when the long-looked for peace was at length arrived, that they were still to endure the expences of war, without the benefits of peace. And for what purpose? For the purpose of securing the cession of new islands, of appointing new governors, new secretaries, Dew clerks, of establishing new sources of patronage, new causes of alarm to the people, and new quarters from which danger may be portended to their rights. The right honourable

the Chancellor of the Exchequer had. expressed a hope that gentlemen would turn their attention to the accounts that would be laid before them, not in the gross, but in detail, and that they would investigate the items. He would promise the right honourable gentleman that he, for one, would not only examine them en masse, but would go through every estimate and item in all its bearings, in the humble hope of assisting the right honourable gentleman in his laudable enquiry. Thus the problem might be discussed this session, as to what was the least farthing of expence in every department, from the establishment of the prince down to that of the common soldier, which was necessary for the country to pay, consistently with its security, and what was the lowest reduction in our civil and military establishments which that security could admit of."

A variety of remarks, similar to those of Mr Brougham, or illustrative of some of the positions contained in his speech, were made by Lord Milton, Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr Tierney, Mr Coke (of Norfolk), and Mr Horner. But the state of the agricultural classes formed the subject of subsequent and far more deliberate discussions, of which we shall soon give an account. Lord Castlereagh replied, at some length, to the speeches of the opposition members. He began with reprobating that freedom of language which some of these gentlemen assumed, in regard to foreign governments not represented or able to defend themselves in the British Senate-house. His lordship then proceeded to state, that "though he expected great differences on all the foreign questions, he still denied the accuracy of the assertion that had been made, that the address now under con. sideration was entitled to support, because it pledged the House to nothing. The merits of the peace under existing

circumstances would be subject to the examination of the House on a future day. He admitted it would then be for them to consider whether a wiser peace, or one more advantageous for this country, and for Europe in general, might not have been made, after the successes which had crowned the army of England in conjunction with her allies. These were points that would be open for discussion, and for these ministers stood responsible in their characters and in their situations; but still it would be seen, that, agreeing to the present address, the House acceded to the proposition, that there never had been a peace concluded for this, or perhaps for any other country, so advantageous, so glorious in all respects, and so completely accomplishing the most sanguine expectations of the country. He was not surprised at the gloomy apprehensions expressed by some of the gentlemen who had spoken on the other side remembering, as he did, what were their feelings while we were engaged in the prosecution of the war, it was not to be expected that these would be at once removed by the return of peace. Some difficulties were to be anticipated; for he should be glad to know where a peace had been made in any part of the world, which had left all the community for whom it was made without one grievance to complain of? He, however, should be glad to have this peace compared with any of those which had been pressed on the attention of parliament during the war by their opponents, as models for that which it would be desirable to gain, and he would confidently ask, if, among these, any one could be found at all to be compared with the present?

"The attention of parliament must necessarily be soon directed to the internal situation of the country. He wished the question to be fairly look

ed at. They ought not to turn aside either from the view of the general policy, or that of the internal state of the country; and with respect to the latter, there was certainly much to be considered; but he wished to know what peace could have been made which would not have left much for consideration, how best to conduct the country from one situation to a state so immensely different, as that was to which we were now coming, from that which we have so long known-from prosperous war (for even in the war the marks of prosperity failed not to manifest themselves, and continue to accumulate in every year), to profound peace. There was no man who could suppose, at the close of such a war, that some indications of calamity would not result from the changes consequent on the transition of the industry of the country from the war market to the peace market. But, looking at this, he desired that an exaggerated view might not be taken of the evils to be surmounted. It was fit that the country should look them in the face; to meet them with success, it was necessary they should know the extent of the difficulties with which they had to contend; but it was not from taking an exaggerated view of them that parliament would be enabled to supply the proper remedy. While he admitted that the difficulties referred to existed to a certain degree, he felt he might even now congratulate the country on the situation in which it was found at the close of such a contest-a situation very different, and gratifyingly different, from that in which it had been left at the termination of every former war. If they looked back to the end of the American war, would they find that it was possible for the Chancellor of the Exchequer of that day, while seeking for topics of consolation, to speak of the flourishing state of the