Lords Sitting of 21 November 1826

THE KING'S SPEECH ON OPENING THE SESSION.
This day his Majesty came in state to the House of Peers, and being seated on the Throne, the gentleman usher of the black rod was directed to summon the Commons to attend. The Speaker immediately presented himself at the bar, attended by a great number of members. His Majesty then delivered the following Speech to both Houses:
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"I have called you together at this time for the special purpose of communicating to you the measure which 1 judged it necessary to take, in the month of September, for the admission into the ports of the United Kingdom of certain sorts of foreign grain not then admissible by law.
"I have directed a copy of the Order in Council issued on that occasion to be laid before you, and I confidently trust that you will sec sufficient reason for giving
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your sanction to the provisions of that order, and for carrying them into effectual execution.
"I have great satisfaction in being able to inform you, that the hopes entertained at the close of the last session of parliament, respecting the termination of the war in the Burmese territories, have been fulfilled, and that a peace has been concluded in that quarter highly honourable to the British arms, and to the councils of l the British government in India.
"I continue to receive from all foreign powers assurances of their earnest desire to cultivate the relations of peace and friendly understanding with me.
"I am exerting myself with unremitting anxiety, either singly or in conjunction with my allies, as well to arrest the progress of existing hostilities as to prevent the interruption of peace in different parts of the world.
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
"I have directed the Estimates for the ensuing year to be prepared, and they will, in due time, be laid before you.
"I will take care that they shall be formed with as much attention to economy, as the exigencies of the public service will permit.
"The distress which has pervaded the commercial and manufacturing classes of my subjects, during the last twelve months, has affected some important branches of the Revenue; but I have the satisfaction of informing you, that there has been no such diminution in the internal consumption of the country, as to excite any apprehensions that the great sources of our wealth and prosperity have been impaired.
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"I have deeply sympathised with the sufferings which have been, for some time past, so severely felt in the manufacturing districts of this country; and I have contemplated with great satisfaction the exemplary patience with which those sufferings have been generally borne.
"The depression under which the trade and manufactures of the country have

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been labouring has abated more slowly than I had thought myself warranted in anticipating; but I retain a firm expectation that this abatement will be progressive, and that the time is not distant when, under the blessing of Divine Providence, the commerce and industry of the United Kingdom will have resumed their wonted activity."
His Majesty then retired, and the Commons returned to their House.

ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.
His Majesty's Speech to both Houses having been read by the Lord Chancellor, and also by the reading clerk at the table,
Earl Cornwallisrose, and spoke as follows:—My lords, in rising to move an Address of Thanks, I trust I shall meet with that kind indulgence which others, standing in my place, have invariably experienced. For the communication respecting the admission of some descriptions of foreign grain, before the time allowed by law, there can, I should hope, be no objection to thank his Majesty; as it will be no bar to future discussion, when the Order in Council shall be laid upon your table. In looking to the East Indies, the termination of the Burmese war affords ample scope for congratulation; as I trust that our vast possessions in that quarter will no longer be exposed to inroads of a similar description. In turning to the continent, it is highly gratifying to be told of the friendly disposition existing there towards this country; which I attribute, in a great measure, to the wise policy which his Majesty's ministers pursued respecting the war between France and Spain. There were two parties—the one the ever faithful supporters of existing abuses; the other, the no less dangerous abettors of revolutionary movements, who were anxious to enlist this country under their banners. Each was telling his Majesty's ministers what tone they should hold, and what position they should take up; but they wisely chose their own position, and that upon neutral ground. The late war will, I trust, be a pretty good lesson to the present, and to all future ministers not hastily to embark their country in a continental conflict; and it is most satisfactory to be told, that his Majesty, in
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conjunction with his allies, is endeavouring, not only to arrest the progress of hostilities, but also to put an end to those which already exist. In referring to that part of his Majesty's most gracious Speech which relates to the finances, I see much round for hope, and none for despondency. During the last eight years, taxes on the amount of twenty-six millions have been repealed, and still the income, up to January, 1826, has been equal to the demand upon it, and since that time the deficiency has been less in each succeeding quarter. In connexion with the distress in the manufacturing districts, I will briefly recur to the internal state of the country at different periods since the conclusion of the late war. The restoration of peace did not at first bring with it its usual blessings, security, and content; but, on the contrary, poverty, distress, and a long train of ills. Our manufactures were diminished, and want of employment had engendered a great degree of dissatisfaction in different classes of the community. Since that period the picture was for a short time most pleasingly reversed; our manufacturers were fully employed; our credit had reached its highest pitch; agriculture, too, was resuming its proper position in the different interests of the country; and that from natural causes, and without any interference of parliament, not that parliament was unwilling to interfere, but that parliament declined interfering, because it could not interfere with effect. This was the state of things, when, owing to a plethora of riches, speculations, which for number, folly and absurdity never were exceeded, produced a panic in the mercantile world, and a run upon all the country, and most of the London, bankers. These, my lords, and not the Corn-bill (though I am no friend to the Corn-bill in its present form), were the real causes of those heart-rending distresses, which have been borne with such exemplary firmness in the manufacturing districts, and which, we are to-day told, from the throne, are, in some degree, abating. This would not have been the case had there been much resemblance between the panic of 1825 and that of 1797. In 1797, disastrous events followed in quick succession: a rebellion in Ireland, a mutiny in the navy, a run upon the Bank, and war in its most appalling aspects:—in 1825, we were in a state of peace, and order

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and due submission to the laws prevailed (with very little exception) in every part of the country. I cannot sit down without reminding your lordships of his Majesty's parental anxiety for his people. At an early period of his reign, when every class of the community was suffering from the transition from war to peace, he gave up part of his income for their relief, and what he has done within the last year is too well known to your lordships, and I hope too deeply engraven in the hearts of his subjects to require any comment from me.—The noble earl concluded by moving an Address of Thanks to his Majesty, which was, as usual, an echo of the Speech from the Throne.
Lord Colvillerose, and spoke as follows:—My lords, in presenting myself to your lordships, for the purpose of seconding the motion which has been made by the noble earl, for an Address of thanks to his Majesty. I cannot but feel how much I shall require that kind and patient indulgence, which you are always disposed to shew to those who, like myself, are little in the habit of addressing you, and who, consequently, must rise under some degree of embarrassment. If I had thought, my lords, that the task I have undertaken was one which required the powers of eloquence to support it, I should have been—as I certainly ought to have been—the last person in your lordships' House to have undertaken it; but such is not my opinion, and I therefore trust, that the motion of the noble earl will not suffer by not having had a more able supporter. Under the present circumstances of the country, I think, my lords, our gratitude is due to his Majesty for having called his parliament together. In regard to the first topic to which the Address alludes—I mean the special purpose for which parliament has been assembled at this time—I trust there can be no difference of opinion, and that your lordships will approve of the conduct pursued by the ministers of the Crown—first, in recommending, on their own responsibility, a measure which I think I may safely assert that circumstances, up to the present hour, have proved the necessity of; and, secondly, in their having had recourse, as speedily as possible, to parliament for that sanction to the measure, which the constitution requires it should have, and to which, in my opinion, it is so justly entitled. I am aware, my lords, that in the measure alluded to, there has neces-
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sarily been a departure from the system established by the existing law, but I cannot, for a moment, anticipate any objection to the measure on that account; for, had the Order in Council alluded to, not issued till the quarterly average prices had been obtained, the country could not, whatever distress might have prevailed, have benefitted by the importation of the grain required, at so advanced a season of the year, from the northern ports of Europe.—It certainly does appear to me to be matter of congratulation that peace has been concluded, on terms so honourable and so satisfactory, with the Burmese. Your lordships are well aware that the war against that people, however just and necessary, commenced under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. The little intercourse which had subsisted between Europeans and the Burmese country had afforded hardly any means of obtaining much topographical knowledge of it, and it was soon discovered that, to an invading army, obstacles were opposed of an almost unprecedented nature; added to which, our forces had to contend against an enemy much more powerful than the Burmese themselves, in the effects of the climate of their country, generally considered one of the worst in India. Nevertheless, my lords, it appears by his Majesty's most gracious communication, that these obstacles have all been surmounted; and we have now the satisfaction of knowing that, by the energy of the British government in India, by the zeal, ability, and perseverance, of the commanders of the forces, by land and sea, by the valour and discipline of the officers, troops, and seamen, both British and native, a peace has been concluded, on such terms as seem to ensure the duration of it. This event, combined with the brilliant success of our arms in the capture of the fortress of Bhurtpoor, in the north-western quarter of India, holds out, I trust, reasonable grounds for the hope, that the tranquillity of our Eastern empire will not again be speedily disturbed.—Considering, my lords, how desirable it is, that the nations of Europe should continue to enjoy that repose, still so necessary, after the exertions of a war, unprecedented in its duration, it must be highly satisfactory to your lordships to know, that "his majesty continues to receive from all foreign powers assurances of their earnest desire to cultivate the relations of peace and friendly understanding with his Majesty;" and our

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gratitude is due to his Majesty for the exertions, which his Speech, delivered this day from the throne, informs us "his Majesty is making', either singly, or in conjunction with his allies, as well to arrest the progress of hostilities, as to prevent the interruption of peace in different parts of the world." Your lordships will, I am sure, feel grateful to his Majesty for the deep sympathy which he has expressed for the sufferings which have been so severely felt in the manufacturing districts of the kingdom, and it is highly gratifying to know, that "the depression under which the trade and manufactures of our country have been labouring, and which has led to that distress, has, in some degree, abated, and that there is reason to believe that that abatement will be progressive." From a topic which alludes to the sufferings of any class of our fellow-subjects, it is indeed a difficult task to find subject for consolation; yet, my lords, I cannot but think that even there some consolation is to be found I mean, my lords, in that patience with which those sufferings have been borne; because that patience, and the implicit obedience to the laws, which have been everywhere observed, afford the strongest proofs, that the operative classes of the kingdom are well aware, that their sufferings do not proceed from causes, which it is in the power of man immediately to remove; and that they entertain a full reliance on receiving all that aid which can be afforded in the paternal anxiety of their sovereign, and ill the watchful attention of his ministers to avail themselves of every means that offer towards alleviating their distress. The feverish excitement consequent upon the sudden changes which arose from the transition from war to peace, appears to have subsided, and the illusions which it gave birth to have disappeared. Time and patience will, by the blessing of Providence, soon, I trust, restore our commercial pursuits to their wonted prosperity—that prosperity which has placed our country on the proud eminence on which she stands amidst the surrounding nations of Europe. I shall not, my lords, avail myself of your kindness any longer; but beg to add, that I have the honour to second the motion of the noble earl.
Lord Kingrose to assure their lordships, that he had no objection either to the Address proposed by the noble earl, or to the Speech which his Majesty had delivered
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that day from the throne. All the fault which he had to find was, that the Speech did not go far enough—that it omitted the most material occurrences. As far as it went, it was good enough, but it did not say enough: it did not describe the real state of the country, and it was therefore his intention to move an Amendment. Their lordships had been told, both in the Speech from the throne, and in the speech of the noble seconder, a great deal about the distress which had prevailed; and this was repeated in the proposed Address, so that it was a seven-times repeated tale. To speak of that deep distress in such a manner was to no purpose. It was not a bit more manly or more useful, than the proclamation published yearly, at every assize town, in the name of his Majesty George 4th. Talking of the distress did I no more to relieve it than that proclamation could do. He would rather sec some remedial measures; a determination to reduce the expenditure of the country; a: determination to diminish the army, to diminish the national burthens, and to get rid of the Corn-laws. It was all vox et prœterea nihil—mere opiates to lull them asleep, and what parliament wanted was, not opiates, but something to rouse it to examine the state of the country. The beginning of a new parliament was a favourable opportunity to revise their past acts, to repent their manifold sins and transgressions, and to resolve to lead a new life. The last parliament had done something good; but it might have done more, if they had adopted the Corn-bill of; the noble earl opposite, and the economy recommended by that side of the House. That parliament did many things it ought not to have done, and it left undone many things it ought to have done. That parliament voted a profligate expenditure, and for that he found fault with it. It was also an army-voting parliament, and; for that he condemned it. It was a palace-voting parliament, and he hoped this would not be a palace-voting parliament. That parliament did many incorrect and many foolish things; but the worst and most foolish thing it did was that relative to the Dead Weight, which surpassed in mystery the mystery of transubstantiation. The Catholics were often derided in that House for their absurd faith; but they might now retort on the Protestant chancellor of the Exchequer of that day, who had proposed the extraordinary mys-

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tery of the Dead Weight, and persuaded parliament to agree to his proposition. He hoped that this mystery would be got rid of on the first opportunity. It would be no great exertion of the present parliament to grant ministers that indemnity they asked for; namely, allowing the importation of that grain which had been described as food for man in Scotland, and for horses in England, and the importation of other corn that was fit to be eaten by other animals. But he hoped the present parliament would do more than this. Parliament was, however, the slowest learner, the most backward and perverse scholar, he ever knew. It took ten years to teach it some few of the truths of political economy, of which some gentlemen even yet entertained so much dread. For two years it was drilled into, and then seemed scarcely to comprehend, the doctrine of transition from war to peace, which was frequently and forcibly inculcated on it, that it might not insist on reducing the expenditure, and that it might not suppose excessive taxation was the cause of the distress at that time. A whole year and more it was taught without ever learning, he believed, the great truth of over-production. For a long time it listened with surprise to the great merit of digging holes and filling them up again, and then again digging holes and then refilling them. But the most difficult lesson of all, was the Canada Corn-bill, the doctrines of which many persons still refused to assent to. Then there was that other Corn-bill, which the other parliament had never comprehended, and which he hoped this parliament would. Much was said about the bad system of Eton and Westminster, where people passed ten years of their lives learning two languages; but these two languages were effectually taught; the boys did not learn much, but they did learn to read an old song. Homer and Virgil were good old songs. But the parliament, with all the teaching it got, did not learn an old song. Their lordships had heard what the last parliament had done; and he would now turn to what ministers were doing. They were learning too—they were taking lessons of the noble and learned lord on the woolsack, and had not done any thing. They were taking a lesson of doubting and pausing. If in riding through the country one saw an estate falling to ruin, the fences broken
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down, the land over-run with weeds, the house falling to decay, there was hardly any occasion to ask the reason—that estate was in Chancery. In like manner, when the country was in a state of distress, that was because the ministers were doubting and pausing. An estate was ruined because it was in Chancery [That was when lord King was chancellor, from the lord chancellor—hear! and a laugh], and the country was involved in distress because ministers were doubting. If our intelligent artizans were emigrating, and carrying with them that knowledge which would establish manufactories in other countries, it was because ministers were pausing. If capital was driven out of the country—if profits were low—if our manufacturers could no longer compete with those of other countries—it was also because ministers were doubting and pausing. They were the most extraordinary doubters and. pausers, excepting lord chancellors—whether lord chancellor King or lord chancellor Eldon—he had ever witnessed. He must say, however, in favour of the noble earl, that his delays only ruined the suitors in his court, while nothing less than the ruin of the country was caused by the doubts and pausings of ministers. It was yet doubtful whether the Corn-bill was to be a cabinet question or not; and, like the Catholic question, he believed it was not, because no measure of importance was made a cabinet question. The famous Corn-bill of 1815 was not a cabinet measure; it was got up by Irish jobbers, well seconded, indeed, by the jobbers both of England and Scotland. They fixed the importation price at eighty shillings; at which sum they, in their great mercy, would allow the people to get bread. They had not, indeed, always obtained this sum, but they intended to wring it from the people. If parliament wished to see in what light its conduct was received, let members look at the different public meetings. Their lordships and the other house of parliament were considered as a body of landlords, who had the power to make what laws they pleased, and made use of that power to levy a tax on the people. Of the other House it was said, that the country gentlemen had entered into an implied contract with ministers to support extravagant establishments, if ministers would secure them high prices. It was in this manner the parliament was spoken and thought of

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in the country. In this way was the extraordinary expenditure of the government accounted for. The country gentlemen sanctioned a taxation of upwards of fifty millions a year. This was the cause why, in the twelfth year of peace, there was no reduction of the national debt; and why the peace, or rather war, establishments still cost upwards of twenty millions sterling per annum. It seemed as if the object of government was to try by experiment, not how cheaply, but how dearly and costly, government could be carried on. We enjoyed the bad preeminence of being the most taxed people, and having the most expensive government, in the world. His Majesty, though it was so generally allowed that this enormous taxation was a cause of distress, said nothing in his Speech about reducing it. The estimates were to be framed with a consideration to the exigencies of the public service, but not with any regard to the distress of the people. Under this view of the matter, he had drawn up an Amendment, which he should move should be added to the Address.—His lordship sat down with moving, that the following Amendment be added to the Address:—
"We trust that a steady adherence to just and liberal principles of policy will prevent a repetition of those distresses which, in the course of the last ten years, have repeatedly and severely afflicted all classes of your Majesty's subjects.
"We have observed, with the utmost anxiety, those vicissitudes in the state and condition of the landed, commercial, and manufacturing, interests, those alternate seasons of prosperity and adversity, of a short and fallacious prosperity followed by wide-spread calamity and ruin, so unusual and so unnatural in a period of profound peace. We cannot avoid comparing the condition of all the great leading interests of the country during the last ten years of peace, and contrasting it with the uninterrupted prosperity and comfort enjoyed by all classes of our fellow-subjects during the ten years which followed the conclusion of the American war. At that period the civil and military establishments were fixed on the most economical scale of expense; the advantages of our insular situation were duly appreciated; a state of peace was then a state also of repose from unnecessary taxation; the wise economy which afforded ease to the subject, prepared, at the same time, for the government the
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means of those astonishing exertions which were called forth in the course of the last war. At the present time, with a taxation exceeding fifty millions, little if any progress has been made in the reduction of the national debt; and, with a peace establishment of twenty millions, nearly quadruple that of the former peace, we fear that, from the state of our finances, this kingdom is very ill prepared to resist the aggressions of foreign states.
"During the former peace, the prohibitory system did not apply in practice to the most important article of produce—to the trade in corn. The ports of Great Britain were then constantly open to the admission of foreign wheat at a low and almost nominal duty, and at no period of our history did the landed interest, as well as the whole community, enjoy greater security and prosperity.
"The existing laws, which prohibit the importation of foreign corn, except when the price of grain shall have risen to an extravagant height in the home market, are found to be highly detrimental to the public prosperity. They cause an unnecessary waste of labour in the cultivation of poor lands; they enhance the cost of food; they diminish the profits of stock; they have a strong tendency to drive capital abroad; they are most injurious to trade, by limiting the beneficial exchange of foreign raw produce with the manufactured produce of British industry; they encourage the establishment of rival manufactures in foreign countries; and, lastly, they are unjust, inasmuch as they prevent the people from obtaining a supply of the first necessary of life at the cheapest market.
"During the former peace, and until the unfortunate era of 1797, the currency of the country was in a fixed and perfect state, being composed, in a large proportion, of the lawful gold coin of the realm, in its nature not liable to excessive issues and sudden contractions. We have since endured all the evils arising from a large, and, in many instances, from an insecure circulation of paper, creating at one time, by an undue extension, an artificial and delusive prosperity, and producing at another time, most sudden and severe reverses, destructive alike to property and industry.
"In the course often years of uninterrupted peace, we have observed, with the utmost pain, the frequent recurrence of a

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state of calamity and ruin, unexampled in the midst of war, and feel convinced that the only substantial security for the future will be found in reducing and retrenching the public expenditure, in the full and entire restoration of a secure currency, by the removal of all traces of those innovations in our monetary system made in 1797, together with such additional securities as may be necessary to place all that part of the currency consisting of the promissory notes of private bankers on a solid foundation; and, above all, in a repeal of the Corn-laws, and in the abolition of all that is still suffered to remain of that impolitic prohibitory system, which sacrifices the interests of the many to the few, and favours the producers at the expense of the great body of consumers, who are the community at large."
The Amendment was put and negatived. On the question upon the original Address being put,
The Earl of Lauderdalerose, not to object to the Address, but to say a few words on the subject of the Order in Council, alluded to in his Majesty's Speech. He should not have troubled their lordships, had it not been from what fell from the noble seconder. His Majesty's Speech, in reference to the Order of the Council, said, that it should be laid on their lordships' table; and when it was laid on the table was the proper time, according to usage, to take it into consideration. When that took place, the noble earl opposite would probably move an Address to his Majesty. [The earl of Liverpool expressed his dissent.] If the noble earl did not, it was competent for any other noble lord to do so; and when that time came, he should be ready to give his opinion upon the subject. He wished, in consequence of the noble seconder having thought proper prematurely, to praise that Order in Council, to guard himself from being supposed to approve of it. He should be ready to state his opinion when the proper time came; but it was not yet before their lordships, and could not with propriety be discussed.
The Duke of Buckinghamsaid, that, agreeing, as he did, with the Address, he wished to state, in a very few words, the grounds upon which he gave his assent to it, and the limits within which he confined his approbation of it. He could not approve of the policy or propriety of painting in deeper colours than neces-
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sary, the difficulties and the distresses under which the country laboured, yet the magnitude of those difficulties and distresses could not be denied. It was not his wish to exaggerate them, nor could it be the wish of their lordships to do so; all he wished was, a discreet, sober, and steady view of those difficulties, in order that not a moment might be lost—and he felt that not a moment was to be lost—in altering that system to which he firmly believed all the distresses and calamities of the country were to be traced. The difficulties under which the country laboured were not to be attributed to any administration in particular—they were wholly attributable to the system which had subsisted ever since the year 1793—which, ever since that time, had been working mischief—which had twice thrown the country from the highest pitch of prosperity down to the lowest depths of distress. So long as that system was continued, he was persuaded the country could never prosper. Nothing, he was persuaded, could save the country from ruin, but an entire alteration of that system. Of that system it might be said—if he might be allowed to use so figurative an expression—that it had again plunged us into the depths of ruin, from the top of the wave to which the commercial tempest had raised us. It would be impossible for him in that desultory discussion to enter into any detailed views of the subject. He wished, on the present occasion, merely to express his belief and conviction, that our commercial and agricultural difficulties arose out of the state of the currency of the country, and that to an alteration in the state of that currency they could alone look for relief. It was the disproportion between the paper and the metallic currency that had occasioned high prices, and produced commercial difficulties, which could only be remedied by an open competition in the market, instead of the system of treating with the Bank alone, which the government had hitherto pursued. He was persuaded that the true principle of relief was to be found in the adjustment of the metallic and paper currency, in such proportions as experience might prove to be necessary, in order to prevent gold from being driven out of the country. To restore the currency to that healthy state, and to settle the proportions which ought to be established between the metallic and paper currency, the government ought not to com-

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municate merely with the governor and company of the Bank of England, but with the merchants and traders of the city. His feelings on this part of the subject had been excited by the manner in which his Majesty's ministers had acted on the question of free trade. He could not see, nor had he ever been able to see, the reason why the question of the trade in farming should be separated from the question of the other trades and manufacturing interests of the country. What had been the principle on which his Majesty's ministers acted in establishing what, in common parlance, was called the free trade of the country? They were not starting in a fair race with the rest of Europe; for, unfortunately, when the amount of taxation under which this country laboured was taken into consideration, it would be found that our manufacturers were wholly unable to compete with the foreigner. The country looked to his majesty's ministers for relief, and it became absolutely imperative upon them to bring forward some specific measure, in order to effect that relief. His Majesty's ministers possessed the confidence of the country, and in return for that confidence it was hoped, expected, and believed, that they would bring forward some measure—not to provide for high or low prices, for it was neither the interest nor the wish of the farmer to have high prices, but to place the trade in corn on the same footing as the other trades and manufactures of the country, protected only by such duties as might enable the British farmer to compete with the foreigner. Every man who knew any thing of this important subject, knew well that the farmers did not wish for high prices; what they wanted was, not high prices, but stability of prices; such a stability as might enable them, in common with other traders, to buy and sell their commodities with confidence and security. He repeated, that what the country looked for—and he wished again and again to impress it on his Majesty's ministers—was, that they would bring forward some specific measures which might attain the great end of putting our commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural, interests on the same footing of free trade, regulated by such protecting duties as would enable them to enter into fair competition with the foreigner. All measures short of this would be inadequate to relieve the distresses of the country.
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Such a measure could alone save the country from ruin, and without it, it would be in vain to look for a restoration of that prosperity and pre-eminence, which this country once enjoyed above the rest of the nations of Europe.
The Earl of Darnleysaid, he did not rise to enter into any discussion of the merits of the Order in Council, for he agreed that that question could only be properly discussed when it came regularly before their lordships; but as the subject had been incidentally mentioned, he should not do justice to his own feelings, if he did not say, that, taking into consideration the time at which the Order was issued, the aspect of the crops in Ireland, and the effect which a deficient harvest was likely to have on the population in that country, his Majesty's ministers were perfectly justified in the measure they had adopted. He would go further, and say, that they were not only perfectly justified in adopting that measure, but that they would have deserved reprobation if they had not adopted it The calamity anticipated had, by the bounty of Providence, been averted; but ministers were not the less entitled to the approbation of the country, for mitigating the expected evil. For his own part, he heartily approved and commended the measure.
Lord Clifdensaid, that ministers were perfectly justified in issuing the Order in Council, though, by a fortunate dispensation of Providence, the rains, which had fallen in August, had averted the expected calamity. The failure of the potatoe crops in Ireland would have made the price of oats and barley enormous. No rents could possibly have been paid under such circumstances; the farmers must have eaten their rents, for they could not be 4 expected to starve, in order to pay their landlords. Ministers had his hearty thanks for the provident and judicious measure they had adopted to mitigate a calamity which the bounty of Providence had happily averted.
The Earl of Liverpoolsaid, he did not rise for the purpose of entering into the discussion of any of the topics which the noble lord opposite had introduced into his amendment. The Address had, indeed, been framed in such a way as to render any observations on the topics introduced by the noble lord unnecessary, and many of those topics were of such an

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extent, and such a character, that if any administration had embodied their opinions upon them, in a Speech from the Throne, they would have justly subjected themselves to the censure of the House, for having proposed them in so exceptionable a shape, on the first day of the session, without any previous notice. With respect to the observations which had fallen from the noble earl, he could only say, that the Address did not pledge the House to any opinion of the propriety of the Order in Council, but merely to an early consideration of the propriety of that measure. It had not been the usual course to move an Address upon the Order in Council. The Order must be followed by an act of indemnity, in some degree conveying an approbation of the measure; and when that bill came regularly before the House, it would be the fit time to discuss the propriety of the measure. He admitted, however, that as soon as the Order should be laid upon the table of the House, it would be open to any member either to move an Address upon it, or to make any other motion he might think proper. It was not necessary to say anything more on this subject, but he would remind their lordships of one fact, which ought not to be forgotten—though facts of this kind were apt to be forgotten, when a time of difficulty and danger was past—that there was about one fortnight in the course of the last summer, as alarming with respect to the produce of the earth, as any period that had ever been remembered. He did not mean to rest the propriety of the Order in Council upon that fact alone, but he begged to call to the recollection of the House what was the state of this country with respect to the crops towards the end of August, and the beginning of September, and what change took place, fortunately for this country, and still more fortunately for Ireland, in the course of the ensuing weeks. Having said thus much, it was not his intention to make any observations on what had been thrown out by the noble duke, with respect to the important subjects of the currency and the Corn-laws. From the noble duke's opinions with respect to the currency, he had the misfortune entirely to differ. This, however, was not the moment for entering into the discussion of that subject; neither was it the time for discussing another important subject, which would require the most serious consideration of parliament; namely, the
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Corn-laws. Looking to the peculiar circumstances under which parliament was assembled, and to the attendance which was to be expected at that period of the year, it certainly would not be consistent with what the government owed to the country, if, in a parliament convened in the month of November for a specific object, they were to bring forward so extensive and important a measure. He now gave notice, and he wished it to be distinctly understood, that at the earliest convenient day after the recess, it was his intention to call the attention of that House to the important subject of the Corn-laws.
The Address was then agreed to nemdiss.
The Earl of Liverpoolmoved, that the noble earl who had so long acted as Chairman of their committees, with so much honour to himself, and benefit to the country, should continue to take the Chair in all committees of that House.
The Lord Chancellorsaid, the House fully appreciated the services of the noble earl, and no' man was more sensible than himself of the able manner in which he had discharged the duties of the office.
The Earl of Shaftesburyexpressed his high sense of the approbation which his endeavours to discharge faithfully the duties of the office had received from their lordships, and relied upon the indulgence and assistance of the House to enable him to deserve a continuance of that approbation.
The motion was agreed to.