Mr. Secretary Peelsaid, that, in pursuance of the notice of adjournment, which was given last night by his right lion, friend (Mr. Canning), who was prevented from attending this day, owing to the fatigue which had sprung from his great exertions when last in his place, he rose to move that the House at its rising do adjourn to the 8th of February next. He could not refrain from availing himself of the present opportunity, to express his entire conviction, that the 399 House and the country had wisely and consistently determined upon taking that course in behalf of Portugal, under existing circumstances, which, while it afforded a just protection to our ally, at the same time held out the surest promise of preventing the real calamities of war. Independently of the real exertion which was on this occasion demonstrated, he did hope that the moral effect of the proceeding would be, to avert hostilities, by diffusing the general assurance, that the policy avowed by England was adopted and confirmed by the unanimous voice of parliament and the people. He heartily joined with those who deprecated war. He fully concurred in their sense of its calamities, how likely it always was to impede the march of civilization, and to check the current of national industry. At the same time he must repeat his perfect conviction, that the surest method of preserving peace was to maintain the national honour and good faith unimpeached and inviolate. He should have simply moved this adjournment without observation, had he not been informed, that some objection was to be taken to what was called the unusual length of the proposed recess. Now every adjournment must necessarily depend upon the particular circumstances of each period when it took place; and there was nothing in the present, different from the practice observed on similar occasions, when parliament had an earlier winter sitting. At their next meeting it was intended to lose no time in bringing forward the most important public business of the nation. Indeed, so fixed was this determination on the part of his majesty's government, that his right hon. friend had empowered him to give notice, that on the Monday following the 8th of February, he intended to submit to the House, a motion which would specifically introduce the great question of the Corn-laws.
§ Mr. John Williamsconcurred with the right hon. gentleman, that the House and the government had come to a sound decision as to the course to be pursued respecting Portugal. He, however, certainly thought the period of the adjournment too long. The situation of the country must at all times determine the circumstances of the case, and it was his misfortune to differ from almost all the members of the House, as to the conduct they had pursued that session. When it was borne in mind, that nothing whatever had been done 400 since the House had met, even with respect to that vital question of the Corn-laws — a question of which it was not too much to say, that its present condition suspended all contracts between landlord and tenant— when it was remembered, that the only thing done was to pass an Indemnity bill which was done with as little ceremony as an ordinary road bill—when petitions were presented from the inhabitants of once-flourishing parts of the empire praying to be removed from a country in which they see nothing but despair—when another most serious and appalling question had been omitted, he meant Ireland; after the hints, not obscurely given, that when England should have sufficient occupation for the troops now stationed there, the Catholics of Ireland would seek to regain those rights for which they have petitioned in vain—when he found that unless that question was met—promptly met—Ireland must be lost—and yet not one word had been said on the subject that looked like relief—when he saw all those things, he could not but think, that a much earlier period of meeting would be more congenial with the situation in which the country was placed.