served, that he chiefly estimated the advantages of that prosperity for its influence in vivifying agriculture. He wished their Lordships, before they came to the conclusion that this prosperity existed, to be sure that they reached that conclusion on a solid foundation. He did not mean to say that it did not exist; but when it was recollected that a great portion of the commercial prosperity alluded to arose out of a new trade to North and South America, it was of importance to inquire upon what footing that trade stood. It was obvious that the advantages of the trade must depend upon the nature of the speculations which had been entered into; and some time must elapse before the success of those speculations could be ascertained. But, be the result of the inquiry what it might, still he must place the chief value of this commercial prosperity in the influence it might have in stimulating to the cultivation of the soil, and in vivify. ing all the branches of agriculture. With regard to the means of relief for the existing agricultural distress, he should be ready to listen to any measure which might be proposed; but he was happy to observe that the speech and the address directly pointed to the only course by which that object could with certainty be obtained. This was the first time since the peace, that in an address from the throne, a large reduction in the annual expenditure, to be produced by a diminution of the great establishments of the country, had been distinctly promised. To retrenchment of the expenditure their Lordships must look for any thing like real relief; and it was with great satisfaction he had heard, that on the present occasion something more than mere profession was meant. But, after the ex

perience he had acquired on this subject, he must beg to be allowed to see the extent of the retrenchment, and the principle on which it was to proceed, before he could look with confidence to it as a means of relief. He must also observe, that when he should be called upon to exercise any species of gratitude for such retrenchment-which he believed he was not called upon to do by this address-he should think it is duty to remind those who made such a demand upon him, that it was much to be regretted that the economy now found to be so advantageous had not been practised before. They were now told that a system of retrenchment would be advantageous, and that great economy was indispensable. This reminded him of an observation which had been made on a book written by a Noble Lord, once a member of that House. When Lord Lyttleton published his Dialogues of the Dead, Dr Johnson remarked, that his Lordship had only told the world, at the end of fifty years of his life, what the world had for fifty years been telling him. The reductions formerly proposed, had always been met with defiance, and positive declarations that no farther reductions could take place consistently with the public interest. During the last summer, therefore, some new light must have broken in upon ministers, which enabled them to see that reductions formerly deemed impracticable could now be effected. The address to the throne, at the end of the last session, had pledged ministers to measures of economy, and the new light of last summer had enabled them to carry them into execution. Though he thought them tardy, he rejoiced at last to see that their professions of economy had been followed by some result;

and he hoped that their measure had been applied so as to effect the intended object on a principle of impartial justice. With the principle on which it had been done, and the extent to which it had been car. ried, he must be acquainted, before he could pledge himself to an approbation of the proceedings alluded to, and of the speech from the throne. He would not now enter into the question, whether economy was the only source of relief that could be pointed out for the prevailing distress, or whether any other means of alleviating it could be applied; but if the paragraph in the address, holding out other hopes of relief, had a reference to a communication said to have been made within these twenty-four hours, by the Noble Lord at the head of the Treasury, to certain bankers, whom he consulted as to its tendency, he must protest against the opinion, that such a measure would be productive of any beneficial effect. He need not inform their Lordships that he alluded to a proposition, stated to have been made by the Noble Earl opposite, for issuing Exchequer bills to the amount of L. 5,000,000, to be advanced to the agricultural interest, through the medium of the country bankers. Their Lordships would consider whether relief could be found in offering to advance money, at a time when money was abundant and security rare. The great aggravation of the farmer's distress was, that he could not find security; because if he produced good security, there was not a banker in England who would not advance him the money he required. If, on the other hand, the advance was intended as a free gift to the agriculturist, the effect of it, even on the Noble Earl's own principle, must be detrimental to the interests

of the country, not excepting the agricultural itself. This, he thought, could not be denied by the Noble Earl himself, if he still believed that the farmer's distress arose from a superabundance of produce above the demand of the consumer. The application of four or five millions of additional capital, to increase an amount of produce already above the demand, seemed a strange mode / of remedying the distresses of the grower. On the Noble Earl's principle, the remedy ought to consist in a diminution, and not in an increase of the capital applied to agriculture. He had stated thus much, not to withdraw their Lordships' attention from the subject of the agricultural distress, or to discourage all hopes of its alleviation, but to direct their efforts to the only real, certain, and expedient mode of relief-a reduction of the public expenditure. He came now to the second great topic in the speech of the Noble Earl who moved the address; namely, the state of Ireland. There were none of their Lordships who could refrain from experiencing the deepest feelings of pain and sorrow, on contemplating the scenes of outrage and violence which had occurred in some districts of that country; and all must look forward to the means of removing them with the greatest anxiety. And here he must observe, that he was most happy to express his approbation of the choice which Government had made of the individual whom they had deputed to superintend the administration of Ireland. A more wise or judicious selection could not have taken place. In the Marquis Wellesley would be found, he was convinced, a firmness and vigour sufficient to repress existing disorders, and to restore speedy tranquillity'; at the same time that he would dis

play a reach of mind capable of discovering future legislative and political remedies: the causes of these afflicting evils he would not fail to probe to the bottom, and, soaring above the prejudices of the past and present, would lay the ground of general and lasting amelioration. He (Lord L.) was not now prepared to inquire into the causes of those frightful disorders to which he had alluded. He believed their removal must be effected, not by any single remedy, but by a combination of remedies; as they were occasioned not by a single cause, but by a combination of causes. The evil of absentee proprietors (within which number he was included, from causes beyond his own control) which the Noble Earl who moved the address had deplored, was not the sole, or even the principal, evil to be cured. An evil he admitted it to be, not only as a cause, but as the effect of others, and which, in its combination with others, rendered Ireland different in law, and different in fact, from any other country. He did not look to the vigorous arm to which its government was now confided merely for a present and immediate termination of outrage, but for the commencement of a new system of policy. The liberal mind of the Noble Marquis would discard the absurd, though by no means uncommon prejudice, that there was something in the soil and climate of Ireland which necessarily tended to produce a semi-barbarous race, incapable of improvement, and insensible to the advantages of civilization. When we looked at the state and condition of that people, we could easily discover that it had its origin in causes unconnected with their natural situation; that the evils under which they laboured were deeply fixed in the events

of their history, and the system of government under which they had been ruled. The Noble Earl who moved the address had alluded to the state of our relations with foreign powers; and the observations he had made on that subject, with the paragraph in the address which embodied them, relieved him from the necessity of expressing any opinion, which must be in entire concurrence with what had been already said. He fully agreed with the Noble Earl, that in a contest between Christians and infidels, and between Greeks and their oppressors, there could be but one feeling and one hope amongst a civilized and Christian people. He was happy, however, in this opportunity of expressing his hope-a hope which he should be ashamed to disguise, that Greece might be freed from the yoke of its tyrants, and become happy and independent. With these observations, and with this reserve, he was willing to give his support to the address.

The Earl of Liverpool said, that as the Noble Marquis had made no positive objections to the address, he should not have felt himself called upon to offer any remark, had it not been for one passage, in which the Noble Marquis had alluded to a transaction in which he (Lord Liverpool) was concerned; namely, to the interview which he had had the day before with some of the London bankers. Although called up by this circumstance alone, he would, however, take the opportunity of saying a few words on the other topics introduced into the speech of the Noble Marquis. Adverting to the subject of economy, the Noble Marquis had accused his Majesty's Ministers of tardiness in making the necessary reductions, and had spoken of the present as the first time in which any

practical retrenchment had been ef fected. Now, it would be in the recollection of their Lordships, that in the course of last year, reductions had taken place to the amount of between one and two millions; and that at the time those reductions were announced, others were promised for the present year. Whether the reductions alluded to in the speech from the throne would satisfy the expectations of the Noble Marquis, he, of course, could not say, nor did he now feel himself bound to state either their amount, or the mode in which they had been effected. He only wished to guard himself from a suspicion hinted at by the Noble Marquis, that, in carrying them into execution, any of the principles of justice or impartiality had been violated. Being on this subject, however, and allowing as fully as any of their Lordships, the propriety and expediency of all practicable retrenchment, he could not, at the same time, permit their Lordships to go away with the delusive idea, that any possible reductions could afford any material or sensible relief to the distress of the agricultural classes. Reductions of every kind might, he acknowledged, be right in themselves: they might relieve the minds of the people, and reconcile them to the endurance of their temporary difficulties, and might ultimately be of real advantage; but, to hold out that they could immediately remove the existing pressure by such means, could only mislead the public mind, and raise hopes which must be disappointed.-The Noble Marquis had concurred with that paragraph of his Majesty's speech which represented the improving state of our commerce and manufactures; and he added, with perfect truth, that such improvement was the more satisfactory, as it must

necessarily produce a beneficial influence on our agricultural interests. In this sentiment he most cordially joined. There was no idea so erroneous, or so unworthy of a statesman, as the supposition that the interests of any of the great classes of the community could be separated from, or placed in hostility to each other. They were all, agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing, linked together; they all flourished or suffered from the same causes, and the prosperity of one must finally extend its beneficial influence to the rest. He agreed with the Noble Marquis, that notwithstanding the importance of our commercial and manufacturing interests, agriculture must still be considered the great source of our wealth and greatness; but prosperity could not exist for a long time, or to any great extent, in the two former branches, without promoting the improvement of the latter. Those, therefore, who would depress one class in order to raise another, who spoke of making one class pay the price of relief to another, were striking a blow at the interests of both. The advancement of our trade must lead to the relief of our agriculture, as an injury to the former must be prejudicial to the latter. The doubt which the Noble Marquis had thrown out, regarding the possible insecurity of our present commercial transactions, and of the danger of excessive speculation leading to re-action, he trusted would prove unfounded. He could not, indeed, say how far the continuance of our recent commercial successes could be relied on. On former occasions, he was aware that over-trading had produced serious calamities; but there was this difference between those periods and the present, that our merchants were now more cautious, were satisfied with smaller pro

fits, and were free from that spirit of gambling enterprise, natural in time of war, and which had prevailed during the first years of the peace. Al. though, therefore, their profits might not be so great as heretofore, they were raised upon more solid foundations, and might fairly be regarded as more substantial and durable. As connected with this subject, he now returned to that topic which was the cause of his rising he meant the proposition which the Noble Mar quis supposed him to have submitted to certain bankers of the city of London, with a view to the relief of agricultural distress. That Noble Marquis stated him to have proposed an issue of Exchequer bills to the amount of L.5,000,000, to be applied, through the medium of the country bankers, in advances to the landed interest. No such communication was made, nor was the proposition, thus specified, in contemplation. Government had taken, undoubtedly, into their serious consideration, the best mode of extending the relief in question; and a proposal for issuing Exchequer bills was certainly in view, and might yet be brought before Parliament. He would not now enter into its details; he admitted that the state of agriculture must be judged of by the usual principles of supply and demand, and that reference must be had to those principles in every proposed measure of relief. There were some who thought that excessive importation in 1816 and 1817 was the cause of the present distress. In this opinion he could not concur; because the distress had continued and increased, after the ports were shut against foreign grain. There were others, and he was certainly one of them, who ascribed it chiefly to su perabundant home production. When the situation of Ireland was taken in

to the account, this opinion was rendered the more probable. In the course of the last five years, seven and a half millions of quarters had been imported into Great Britain from that country; and even during the last nine months the importation amounted to a million and a half quarters. The last Corn bill, which excluded foreign competition, and allowed a free import of corn from Ireland, had (and he had suggested the probability at the time) caused an excessive increase in the production of that part of the United King. dom, and must have, in some degree, extended cultivation throughout the whole. It had been said by the No. ble Marquis, that the advance of further capital to agriculture could not remove an evil that arose from an already excessive production; but there might be a natural evil of this kind, and another that was artificial, and which the principle of over-production would not account for. The latter might be removed by a measure like that in contemplation. Government had, on several occasions, issued Exchequer bills for the relief of

commercial distress, in cases where the objections were nearly the same. These issues had produced their effects: they had been advanced upon good security, and had been repaid without the smallest loss. He was aware of the difference between agriculture and commerce in many re spects. He contended, however, that the difference between the two cases did not consist in the principle itself, but in the difficulty of its application. In this instance, as well as in the cases of commercial distress, no assistance certainly could be granted except upon good security, or without conditions, to be explained when the measure should be brought forward. All that he would now observe was, that there was no