LORD STANLEYpresented a petition from St. Peter's, Thanet, complaining of agricultural distress; praying also that the salaries and pensions of public officers might be reduced. He would call the attention of the noble Marquess to this part of the prayer, because the petitioners stated that such reductions were necessary, in consequence of the depreciation in prices which had been occasioned by the late free-trade measures of the Government; and he must he allowed to say, that this was a most significant evidence of the effects of the legislative course which had been pursued, that there should now be an increased demand for parsimonious economy in the administration of the public service, which he was very much afraid might eventuate in preventing adequate remuneration from being given to public servants, by which means the public must themselves suffer. Their Lordships would see that this call for rigid economy was not a strong indication of that universal affluence and prosperity which it was said would be the consequence of the adoption of free trade. The people 296 only asked for strict economy, when they found that their means of paying the taxes were reduced; and the fact was, that the Government, by its course of legislation, had increased taxation disproportionately to the means which the people had of paying it—they had increased by one-third the pressure of the national debt, and a system of taxation which the people had been able to bear under protection, they now found entirely overwhelming. In fact, they found that they could not hear it, and he very much doubted whether they would consent to bear it longer at all. If the Government persevered in this rash experiment, which they were carrying on in the teeth of all experience, they must encounter failure; and he thought the petitioners would be entitled to a large remission of taxation, which it appeared they claimed.
§ Petition ordered to lie on the table.