board, and to stand the buffetting of a number of clerks and officers, all anxious, of course, to get as much tax as possible. Now why should persons be held liable to be examined in this way who are so old or infirm as not to be able to endure this kind of hurry and buffeting? The consequence is, the tax is never reclaimed in such cases. I call this confiscation, because the tax in such cases is not collected as the law directs, the income of the parties who pay being under 150l. a year, and I think that the tax ought not to be so collected. But then, again, there is the case of persons of more easy property, who have property in houses for instance, and with respect to them, I have heard of one surveyor who said that he made it a rule to put on 20 per cent. to the returns made him. Another grievance is, that numbers of people find that having made an honest return, a surcharge is nevertheless made, and upon complaint they are told the remedy is, that they may go to Clerkenwell (or some country town if they live in the country), and so get redress. The consequence is, that many do not attempt it: indeed, the surcharge is made in the confidence that they will not. Every means ought to be taken to diminish the abuses in the admi. nistration of the tax.

He was not satisfied with the way in which the Queen's Speech alluded to the disturbances in the manufacturing districts; there was much in those disturbances which showed on the part of the people conduct deserving of admiration. If you recollect that ther thousands of people who had suffered for three years very great

were

workshops and factories, while there was no force at hand to control them for three days-if you recollect this, and recollect that propositions were made to them to join the Chartists and to overturn the Constitution, urged with all the inflammatory arguments that reckless demagogues could suggest, and that the people of their own mind, and without any influence from without, refused to listen to any inflammatory proposals, and returned to their work peaceably after having been out of work for so long-if you recollect these things, I must say I think some degree of respect and admiration is due to the people who exhibited such conduct. I can see no such feeling displayed in the Speech."

He concluded with a hope that the House would soon give a pledge that it would enter upon an investigation of the causes of the distress with a view to find practical remedies for great practical grievances.

Sir C. Napier condemned Lord Ashburton's treaty.

Mr. Wallace was sure the Speech would be received with dissatisfaction in every quarter of the kingdom.

Lord Stanley, after bestowing a few words on Mr. Wallace, addressed himself to the speech of Lord John Russell, whom he blamed for a premature introduction of the questions connected with Affghanistan. He would, however, now declare, that it was the intention of the Ministers, on the approaching motion for a vote of thanks, to claim for Lord Ellenborough a share in the honour of our Indian successes. There might be faults to be found with

but when the whole case with all its facts should be before the House, the House would judge of it as a whole, and then he should not fear their verdict-nay, he should scarcely fear the verdict of the noble Lord himself. If the Indian Government, in retiring within its limits, had left anarchy behind them in Affghanistan, it was that anarchy which the invasion of the country by the late Government had originally generated. He lamented the excesses of the Indian army, or rather of the undisciplined mass by which an Indian army is always followed: and he assured the House that nothing was further from the mind of the Governor-General than to countenance the idolatry of the people under his rule. The noble Lord had blamed the Ashburton treaty, as though it would have been easy to conclude a more favourable one; but if that was so easy, why had not the late Government done so in their ten years of Administration? He believed that the territory given up was valueless both in an agricultural and in a military point of view. If Lord Ashburton apprehended the separation of Canada from England, the boundary question, so far from being of less, must have appeared to him of so much the more importance; for when Canada should become a separate state, deprived of England's auxiliary resources, it would be of vital consequence to her to be protected by available limits from the encroachments of the United States.

After bestowing some ridicule upon the contrasted opinions of Lord John Russell and the AntiCorn-Law League, Lord Stanley proceeded to deal with some of

against the Income Tax, one of which he declared to have been expressly provided for by the 169th clause of the Act.

Lord Palmerston declared his entire concurrence in Lord John Russell's speech. He claimed for the late Government all the merit of the plans and appointments which had led to success in China, and put some questions which drew from Sir Robert Peel the reply, that M. Guizot had been mistaken in stating, recently, that the English cruisers on the coast of Africa, to the number of eighty had been reduced by one half-the number in the last year was fifty, this year forty-nine.

Sir Robert Inglis would not condemn the general policy of Lord Ellenborough; but he must express his disapprobation of that passage in one of the proclamations in which a Christian Governor, on a subject connected with religion, employed language such as no Mahomedan ruler would suffer himself to use. It was not as Lord Stanley had put it, a mere matter of taste; the Government ought not to take that sort of ground, they ought to discontinue such an officer.

Mr.Villiers complained that the speech disregarded the sufferings of the people at home. It would not do to say there were no remedies. Remedies there were, expected and desired by the people. They would not be satisfied with what had passed that evening. Sir Robert Peel had uttered nothing that looked like an intention to repeal the Corn Laws, and the people were now therefore in a hopeless state, and the excitement of the country was general.

Lord Howick announced that if

board, and to stand the buffetting of a number of clerks and officers, all anxious, of course, to get as much tax as possible. Now why should persons be held liable to be examined in this way who are so old or infirm as not to be able to endure this kind of hurry and buffeting? The consequence is, the tax is never reclaimed in such cases. I call this confiscation, because the tax in such cases is not collected as the law directs, the income of the parties who pay being under 150l. a year, and I think that the tax ought not to be so collected. But then, again, there is the case of persons of more easy property, who have property in houses for instance, and with respect to them, I have heard of one surveyor who said that he made it a rule to put on 20 per cent. to the returns made him. Another grievance is, that numbers of people find that having made an honest return, a surcharge is nevertheless made, and upon complaint they are told the remedy is, that they may go to Clerkenwell (or some country town if they live in the country), and so get redress. The consequence is, that many do not attempt it: indeed, the surcharge is made in the confidence that they will not. Every means ought to be taken to diminish the abuses in the admi. nistration of the tax.

He was not satisfied with the way in which the Queen's Speech alluded to the disturbances in the manufacturing districts; there was much in those disturbances which showed on the part of the people conduct deserving of admiration. "If you recollect that ther

were

thousands of people who had suffered for three years very great

workshops and factories, while there was no force at hand to control them for three days-if you recollect this, and recollect that propositions were made to them to join the Chartists and to overturn the Constitution, urged with all the inflammatory arguments that reckless demagogues could suggest, and that the people of their own mind, and without any influence from without, refused to listen to any inflammatory proposals, and returned to their work peaceably after having been out of work for so long-if you recollect these things, I must say I think some degree of respect and admiration is due to the people who exhibited such conduct. I can see no such feeling displayed in the Speech."

He concluded with a hope that the House would soon give a pledge that it would enter upon an investigation of the causes of the distress with a view to find practical remedies for great practical grievances.

Sir C. Napier condemned Lord Ashburton's treaty.

Mr. Wallace was sure the Speech would be received with dissatisfaction in every quarter of the kingdom.

Lord Stanley, after bestowing a few words on Mr. Wallace, addressed himself to the speech of Lord John Russell, whom he blamed for a premature introduction of the questions connected with Affghanistan. He would, however, now declare, that it was the intention of the Ministers, on the approaching motion for a vote of thanks, to claim for Lord Ellenborough a share in the honour of our Indian successes. There might be faults to be found with

but when the whole case with all its facts should be before the House, the House would judge of it as a whole, and then he should not fear their verdict-nay, he should scarcely fear the verdict of the noble Lord himself. If the Indian Government, in retiring within its limits, had left anarchy behind them in Affghanistan, it was that anarchy which the invasion of the country by the late Government had originally generated. He lamented the excesses of the Indian army, or rather of the undisciplined mass by which an Indian army is always followed: and he assured the House that nothing was further from the mind of the Governor-General than to countenance the idolatry of the people under his rule. The noble Lord had blamed the Ashburton treaty, as though it would have been easy to conclude a more favourable one; but if that was so easy, why had not the late Government done so in their ten years of Administration? He believed that the territory given up was valueless both in an agricultural and in a military point of view. If Lord Ashburton apprehended the separation of Canada from England, the boundary question, so far from being of less, must have appeared to him of so much the more importance; for when Canada should become a separate state, deprived of England's auxiliary resources, it would be of vital consequence to her to be protected by available limits from the encroachments of the United States.

After bestowing some ridicule upon the contrasted opinions of Lord John Russell and the AntiCorn-Law League, Lord Stanley proceeded to deal with some of

against the Income Tax, one of which he declared to have been expressly provided for by the 169th clause of the Act.

Lord Palmerston declared his entire concurrence in Lord John Russell's speech. He claimed for the late Government all the merit of the plans and appointments which had led to success in China, and put some questions which drew from Sir Robert Peel the reply, that M. Guizot had been mistaken in stating, recently, that the English cruisers on the coast of Africa, to the number of eighty had been reduced by one half-the number in the last year was fifty, this year forty-nine.

Sir Robert Inglis would not condemn the general policy of Lord Ellenborough ; but he must express his disapprobation of that passage in one of the proclamations in which a Christian Governor, on a subject connected with religion, employed language such as no Mahomedan ruler would suffer himself to use. It was not as Lord Stanley had put it, a mere matter of taste; the Government ought not to take that sort of ground, they ought to discontinue such an officer.

Mr.Villiers complained that the speech disregarded the sufferings of the people at home. It would not do to say there were no remedies. Remedies there were, expected and desired by the people. They would not be satisfied with what had passed that evening. Sir Robert Peel had uttered nothing that looked like an intention to repeal the Corn Laws, and the people were now therefore in a hopeless state, and the excitement of the country was general.

Lord Howick announced that if

should at an early day call the attention of the House distinctly to the existing distress, with a view to procure an explicit declaration whether any legislative remedy could be found for it or not,

Mr. Hume approved the treaty with America, and hailed the peace with China as likely to produce the greatest advantage to the country; he urgently called upon Sir Robert Peel for "a second Tariff," and threatened to turn his back upon him, as he had upon Lord John Russell, for asserting the doctrine of finality.

Mr. Ferrand made some severe observations respecting the manufacturers, and declared there would be no protection for the poor, unless machinery were taxed. Not only the manufacturing districts were in a state of ruin, but the agricultural districts also.

Mr. Ewart censured the sweeping generality of Mr. Ferrand's imputations, and asked if he meant to include all manufacturers? (Mr. Ferrand intimated that he did not.) Mr. Ewart proceeded to argue in favour of free trade

in general, and recommended in particular the reduction of the duties on tea and sugar, the opening of the trade with Ceylon, and, above all, an alteration of the Corn Laws.

Mr. Milner Gibson argued to shew that Sir Robert Peel must inevitably give his consent to a total repeal of the Corn Laws; and condemned his holding out to the occupying tenantry the notion, that without a repeal of the present duties, it would be possible for them much longer to employ their capital safely in the cultivation of corn-land.

Mr. Brotherton followed on the same side, and asked whether Mr. Ferrand, in proposing to tax or abolish machinery, intended to include the plough and the harrow,

Sergeant Murphy, Dr. Bowring and Mr. Mark Philips followed on the same side; and Mr. George Bankes spoke in favour of the Government.

The motion for presenting the Address was then put, and agreed to, without a division, and the House adjourned.