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1822.

Mr Peel, who repeated his solemn assurances of indelible CHAP. hostility to the claims of that body. The progressive change in the public mind on this question was evinced in the increasing majority in the Commons, which this year rose to 12, the numbers being 235 to 223, the largest the Catholics had yet obtained in Parliament. The bill, as was anticipated, was thrown out, after a keen debate, in the House of Lords, by a majority of 42, the numbers being 171 to 129. But as the Cabinet was divided upon the subject, and its ablest members spoke in favour of the Catholic claims, and as the House of Commons, by having the command of the public purse, have the real command of the country, these divisions were justly considered by the Catholic party as decisive triumphs in Ann. Reg. their favour, and as presaging, at no distant period, their admission into both branches of the legislature.1

1

1822, 56,

67.

strength of

on parlia

April 29.

Another question-that of parliamentary reform- 125. made a still more important stride in this session of Par- Increasing liament; and the increasing numerical strength of the the minority majority, as well as weight of the names of which it was mentary composed, indicated in an unequivocal manner the turn reform, which events were ere long to take on that vital question. Several important petitions had been presented on the subject, both from boroughs and counties, and Lord John Russell was intrusted with the motion. He dwelt in a peculiar manner on the increasing intelligence, wealth, and population of the great towns, once obscure

of Norfolk, highest in rank among the peers, the Lord Clifford, and others like him, representing a long line of illustrious and heroic ancestors, appeared as if they had been called forth and furnished for the occasion, like the lustres and banners that flamed and glittered in the scene; and were to be, like them, thrown by as useless and temporary formalities: they might, indeed, bend the knee and kiss the hand; they might bear the train and rear the canopy; they might perform the offices assigned by Roman pride to their barbarian forefathers, Purpurea tollant aulæa Britanni;' but with the pageantry of the hour their importance faded away as their distinction vanished: their humiliation returned, and he who headed the procession to-day could not sit among them as their equal to-morrow."-CANNING's Speech, 30th April 1822; Parl. Deb., vii. 232, 233.

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1822.

CHAP. villages, which were unrepresented, and the impossibility of permanently excluding them from the share to which they were entitled in the legislature. Mr Canning as decidedly opposed him, resting his defence of the constitution on the admirable way in which it had practically worked, and the incalculable danger of substituting for a system which had arisen out of the wants, and moulded itself according to the wishes of the people, one more specious in theory-one which, on that very account, would in all probability be found on trial to be subject to some fatal defect in practice. As the arguments on this all-important question will be fully given in a future volume, they need not be here anticipated; but the peroration of Mr Canning's splendid reply deserves a place vii. 84, 135. in history, as prophetic of the future career both of the noble mover and of the country.1

1 Parl. Deb.

126.

ning's

speech.

"Our lot is happily cast in the temperate zone of Peroration freedom-the clime best suited to the development of of Mr Can- the moral qualities of the human race, to the cultivation of their faculties, and to the security as well as improvement of their virtues-a clime not exempt, indeed, from variations in the elements, but variations which purify while they agitate the atmosphere which we breathe. Let us be sensible of the advantages which it is our happiness to enjoy. Let us guard with pious care the flame of genuine liberty-that fire from heaven, of which our constitution is the holy depository; and let us not, for the chance of rendering it more intense and more brilliant, impair its purity or hazard its extinction. That the noble lord will carry his motion this evening, I have no fear; but with the talents which he has already shown himself to possess, and with, I hope, a long and brilliant parliamentary career before him, he will no doubt renew his efforts hereafter. Although I presume not to expect that he will give any weight to observations or warnings of mine, yet on this, probably the last opportunity I shall have of raising my voice on the question of parliamentary

X.

1822.

reform, while I conjure the House to pause before it CHAP. consents to adopt the proposition of the noble lord, I cannot help adjuring the noble lord himself to pause before he again presses it upon the country. If, however, he shall persevere, and if his perseverance shall be successful, and if the results of that perseverance shall be such as I cannot help anticipating, his be the triumph to have precipitated these results, be mine the consolation that, to the utmost and the latest of my power, I have opposed them." The motion was thrown out by a majority of 105 only-the numbers being 269 to vii. 135. 164.1+

1 Parl. Deb.

127.

Mackin

tion regard

Sir James Mackintosh continued his benevolent and important efforts this year for the reformation of our cri- Sir James minal law, and contrasted with great effect the state of tosh's moour code, which recognised two hundred and twenty-three ing the cricapital offences, with that of France, which contained only six. In this country, the convictions in the first five years after 1811 were five times greater in proportion to the population than in France; in the second five years they were ten times greater. "This increase," he added, "though in part it might be ascribed to the distress under which the country had groaned, and continued to groan, was also in part caused by the character of our penal code. The motion to take the subject into serious

* Mr Canning at this period expected to proceed immediately to India, as Governor-general, a prospect which was only changed by his being soon after appointed Foreign Secretary.

+ Lord John Russell on this occasion brought forward a very curious and important statement in regard to the newspapers published in the three kingdoms in 1782, 1790, and 1821, which clearly indicated the necessity of a concession to the great towns, where their principal readers were to be found. It was as follows:

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1822.

CHAP. consideration next session was carried by a majority of 117 to 101. There can be no doubt that this was a step in the right direction, and paved the way for those important changes in the criminal law of England which Mr Peel soon after introduced. But the result has shown that it was a mistake to ascribe the superior rapidity in the increase of crime in Great Britain, as compared to France, to the severity of our penal laws; for the same disproportion has continued in a still greater degree since the punishment of death was taken away, practically speaking, from all offences except deliberate murder. The truth is, that, like the disturbed state of Ireland, the increase of crime arose mainly from the general distress which had prevailed, with very few exceptions, since the peace; and the errors on this subject afford only another illustration of the truth which so many passages of contemporary history illustrate, that the great causes determining the comfort, conduct, and 1 Ann. Reg. tranquillity of the working classes are to be found in those which, directly or indirectly, affect the wages of labour.1

1822, 82,

94.

128.

in the price

But these material distresses had increased, and were Great fall increasing with a rapidity which outstripped all calculaof all sorts tion, and had now reached a height which compelled of produce. investigation, and threatened to bear down all opposition. The great fall in the price of the whole articles of agricultural produce, which had gone on without intermission from the monetary bill of 1819, and had now reached 50 per cent on every product of rural labour, had, at length, spread to every other species of manufacture. All, sharing in the influence of the same cause, exhibited the same effect. The long continuance of the depression, and its universal application to all articles of commerce, excluded the idea of its being owing to any glut in the market, or any excess in trading in particular lines of business, and furnished a valuable commentary on the predictions of Mr Ricardo and Mr Peel, that the change

CHAP.
X.

1822.

1 Ante, c. iv.

of prices could not by possibility exceed 3 per cent.1* This subject accordingly engaged the repeated and anxious consideration of both Houses of Parliament; it was made the topic of repeated and luminous debates of the very $71, note. highest interest and importance, and it forced at length a change of the utmost moment in our monetary system, which for the next three years entirely changed our social condition, and induced another set of dangers the very reverse of those under which the nation for the three preceding years had been labouring.

129.

for the re

classes.

This important debate was opened by Mr Brougham on the 8th February, who in a powerful speech demon- Measures strated the extreme distress of the agricultural class, in lief of the connection with the heavy load of poor-rates and local agricultural taxes with which they were exclusively burdened. The motion he made for the consideration of the burdens peculiarly affecting agriculture was negatived by a majority of 212 to 108; but this was brought about only by Lord Londonderry, on the part of the Government, engaging to introduce some measures for the relief of that interest. On the 15th of the same month his lordship redeemed his pledge, by introducing the measures of relief proposed by Government, which were, the repeal of the annual malt-tax, which produced £1,000,000 a-year, and the advance of £4,000,000 in Exchequer bills to the landed proprietors on security of their crops, until the markets improved. In the course of his speech on this subject Lord Londonderry remarked, and satisfactorily proved, that no diminution of taxation to any practicable amount could afford any adequate relief to the agricultural classes;2 and it was no wonder it was so, for the utmost? Ann. Reg. extent of any such relief, supposing it conceded, could 101. not have amounted to more than six or seven millions

* PRICES OF WHEAT IN DECEMBER OF EACH YEAR, FROM 1818 TO 1822.

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1822, 98,

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