the proposed resumption. On the whole, it is inferred that Great Britain has the power of commanding a metallic currency, but that the return to it ought to be gradual; and the committee conclude by recommending to the attention of parliament the following outlines of a plan for the purpose:“That, after the 1st of May, 1821, the bank shall be liable to deliver a quantity of gold, not less than sixty ounces, of standard fineness, to be first essayed and stamped at his majesty's mint, at the established mint price of 37. 17s. 101d. per ounce, in exchange for such an amount of notes presented to them as shall represent, at that rate, the value of the gold demanded: that this liability of the bank to deliver gold in exchange for their notes shall continue for not less than two, nor more than three years, from the 1st of May, 1821; and that at the end of that period, cash payments shall be resumed: that on a day to be fixed by parliament, not later than the 1st of February, 1820, the bank shall be required to deliver gold, of standard fineness, essayed and stamped as before mentioned, in exchange for their notes (an amount of not less than sixty ounces of gold being demanded), at 47. 1s. per ounce, that being nearly the market price of standard gold in bars, on an average of the last three months." Two bills, founded on this report, were accordingly brought in by Mr. Peel and lord Harrowby, and passed.

A bill was passed at the same time to authorise lord Camden's disinterested sacrifice of his salary of 9000l. a year as a sinecure teller of the Exchequer. The sanction of an act of parliament was adopted,

either because the donation might be regarded as an unconstitutional benevolence, or to give solemnity and éclat to it, as an example for other sinecurists. As an example it wholly failed.

The reduction of the army upon the termination of war had left a great number of officers ill provided, and unemployed. Many, for the most subalterns, went out to join the South American independents, against the mother-country. The Spanish ambassador in London complained of this as an infringement of the friendly relations between the governments of Spain and England; and an act was passed against enlistments, or naval equipments, for the service of any foreign potentate or power. It is just to the ministers to add, that the foreign enlistment act, though rigorous in its provisions, was not rigorously enforced.

Another act, understood to emanate personally from the regent, and creditable to his feelings, was passed at the same time, to reverse the attainder of lord Edward Fitzgerald. It would be little becoming to detract from the generosity and grace of this proceeding of the late king, though it is wonderful that royal acts of grace are so easy, so eulogised, and so few. The attainder itself, passed by the Irish parliament, was an instance of complaisant servility and infamous judgment worthy of the French convention, or the senate of Nero. Lord Edward was dead of his wounds some months, when he was subjected to a mockery of trial in the persons of his children, by the faction which then held execrable sway in Ire

land. Mr. Curran appeared at the bar of the Irish house of commons as counsel against the bill. "I have no defensive evidence," said that unrivalled advocate and true patriot, whose eloquence and patriotism were both of the heart; "I have no caseIt is impossible I should. I have often of late gone to the dungeon of the captive, but never yet have I gone to the grave of the dead for instructions to defend him; nor, in truth, have I ever before assisted at the trial of a dead man."

The epithets "gallant" and "unfortunate" are those commonly applied to lord Edward Fitzgerald. He who has discarded every advantage in the highest range of vulgar ambition, for the most generous of all inspirations, and the most perilous of all missions, and who has been faithful and brave, loved and lamented in his life and death, should not be called unfortunate. He fell, indeed, by dastardly and ignoble hands. Among his three chief captors, however, Messrs. Ryan, Swann, and Sirr, a distinction should be made. The first-named (Ryan) approached fearlessly to arrest, not murder, and lost his life in the performance of his duty.

. The financial business of the session was remarkable only for the imposition of new taxes to the amount of three millions. The motive of the ministers in laying this additional burden on the people is stated by the speaker in his address to the regent, at the prorogation, as follows:-" In considering, sir, the state of our finances, and in minutely comparing our income with our expenditure, it appeared to us that the excess of our income was not fairly adequate for the purposes to which it was applicable

the gradual reduction of the national debt. It appeared to us, that a clear available surplus of at least 5,000,000l. ought to be set apart for that object. This, sir, has been effected by the impo sition of 3,000,000l. of taxes." The regent closed the session on the 13th of July, with a speech which contained the following observation on the state of the country:-"I have observed with great concern the attempts which have recently been made in some of the manufacturing districts to take advantage of circumstances of local distress to excite a spirit of disaffection to the institutions and government of the country. No object can be nearer my heart than to promote the welfare and prosperity of all classes of his majesty's subjects; but this cannot be effected without the maintenance of public order and tranquillity."

Ministers, it has been observed, indulged only in felicitations at the opening of the session. Destitute of strength of mind, they tried to shut out from the contemplation of others and their own, existing evils. Without sagacity to perceive the political and moral causes which were working around them, they cradled themselves in their imaginings of the future. One of the chief causes, and that of which they were probably least sensible, was in their own measures of administration. The government, especially of the home department, was odious and despised; the house of commons, regarded rather as the instrument of the minister than the representative organ of the people, had fallen into utter disrepute; the unretrenched luxury and pride of those who lived upon the public purse obtruded

themselves; the wealth, pomp, and political subserviency of the higher clergy were exposed and exaggerated; and low trafficers in infidelity and sedition sought subsistence or notoriety by practising with wretched publications, and still more wretched harangues, upon the distresses and discontents of the working people. The rural population, dispersed, simple minded, and passive, suffered quietly; but the working manufacturers and other congregated masses in the midland and northern districts of England, and south western part of Scotland, entered into combinations, held tumultuary public meetings, and in some instances broke out into disorder and riot. The utter and contemptuous want of confidence in the house of commons acted, perhaps, still more powerfully than the violent, yet weak, administration of the government, upon masses of population reduced to extreme misery; and the general rallying cry in harangues, resolutions, and petitions, was a radical reform of the house of

commons.

The most numerous and the most formidable of these meetings were yet orderly and peaceable. There was a daring hardihood of deliberative enquiry into actual grievances and natural rights, called forth by the circumstances among a people who knew that the first of their rights was that of being the assertors and judges of their own freedom. The town of Birmingham, that vast focus of wealth, numbers, and intelligence, was unrepresented. The people, ascending from the municipal law to abstract right, assembled and appointed “a legislatorial attorney" to represent them in the house of commons;