(597

698

majority of the House of Commons are to If the hon. member for Middlesex would
be treated in direct defiance, and I should try the question by a motion, either con❤
therefore like to ask the right honourable demnatory or commendatory of the late
baronet the actual fact, and not hypothe: Ministers, he would find that there would
be no majority either one way or the
tically.
other. (Hear and laughter.)

:

Sir R. PEEL I really appeal to the Major BEAUCLERK thought the House House whether I have shown any reluctance to answer any question. The House was travelling away from the real question of Commons came to a division the other before it, though he could say with jusnight on the Address by a majority of 309 tice and truth he had no confidence in to 302 against Ministers. I have said, Ministers, as they did not go far enough looking at that majority, that I did not to satisfy him. (Hear, hear). At the feel it my duty to abandon my place on same time he was willing to vote for so If the honourable Mem- much of the Supplies as would en abl this occasion. ber thinks that he ought to put himself in them to go on: he would not throw any It was of little direct opposition before he understands impediment in the way of their bringing what Ministers intend doing, I shall then forward their measures. know how to proceed. It would be quite consequence whether the Government out of my power to answer the question was Whig. Tory, or Radical, provided the of the honourable Gentleman before I measures introduced by the Government know the actual feeling of the House with were good. If the Ministers could not respect to the measures intended to be make up their minds to bring forward any satisfactory measures he could not proposed by the Government. He thought the atMr. HUME-I ask the right hon. Baro-support them; but if they did he would net whether he thinks that the late vote be bound to do so. against the Ministry be a vote of confi-tacks which had been made on both sides dence or want of confidence in them? It of the House were not likely to be prowas stated by the friends of the right hon. Baronet as being a direct display of want of confidence.

Sir ROBERT PEEL said, on looking to the vote, he did not think it had decided that it was his duty to retire.

Mr. EWART would ask the right hon. Baronet if he thought the vote was not a censure upon Ministers? (Hear, hear).

Sir ROBERT PEEL: I can construe the Address, and I can construe the answer to the Address; but I leave it to those who voted for the Amendment to construe their own course of conduct. (Cheers and laughter from the Ministerial side).

ductive of any good. (Hear). He should only vote for a certain supply, that Ministers might have an opportunity of bringing before the House their measures; but if those measures were not satisfactory he should feel it his duty to stop the Supplies. (Hear, hear).

Mr. O'CONNELL: The right hon. Baronet has said something with regard to the temporalities of the Irish church, which I understood him to say are to be applied to ecclesiastical purposes. I wish to know if I am to understand them to be church? limited to the purposes of the established

Sir R. PEEL: I am bound to state that Mr. C. BARCLAY said it had been stated that the majority of the people out of it is confined to purposes connected with doors agreed with those that carried the the doctrines of the established church. Now, as representing a (Hear, hear). In a short time the reAmendment. very large body of the people, he would port of the commissioners will be laid deny that statement; at least the balance before the House, and I submit whether would be found to be quite as nice out of it is not premature to discuss these details During his at present. doors as within that House

Mr. O'CONNELL: I did not mean to canvass he never heard any lamentations for the loss of the late Ministry. (Cheers excite any discussion, nor do I think my Sir R. PEEL rose and said, I beg leave from the Ministerial side). He found the question is calculated to do so. people out of doors to consist either of Conservatives or Destructives. (Laughter). to make a motion which some gentlemen

may not be prepared for, and to which other tion of the letter of the noble Lord from gentlemen may attribute motives that the Horse Guards, he (Mr. G.) should have really no foundation. It is with the abstain from making any observations on greatest satisfaction that I have the ho- the subject.

nour to propose that Mr. Bernal should Sir H. HARDINGE was obliged to the take the chair as Chairman of the Com-hon. Member for the course he pursued; mittee of Ways and Means. (Immense but as to the letter of the noble Lord, cheering from all sides of the House). I much misapprehension was abroad as to protest against misconstruction of my the purport of it. All it said respecting motives. What might have been the fate the melancholy affair in question was the of another proposition I will not now in-approval of the conduct of the military quire. (Cheers and laughter from the op- for acting in obedience to the orders of the position). It is enough for me that I am magistracy, but not one word did it confor the present (Laughter). Honourable tain of approbation as to how they acted members may laugh and cheer, but I can on that occasion. He (Sir H. Hardinge) say with truth that I never contemplated did not certainly know how it came into any other appointment (cheers); for I the public newspapers, and if his explanahave witnessed with pleasure the great tion was not satisfactory to the hon. Genimpartiality with which the honourable tleman opposite, he would refer him to Gentleman has presided in the chair; and Bristol and to other places, in which inthere are many present who can bear me stances it was always a practice of the out in my assertion that I never had any Government to congratulate the military other proposition to make. If the House for the services which they rendered. is unanimous in calling that hon. Gentle- (Hear, hear). man to the chair, it will, in my opinion, be only paying him the compliment to which he is justly entitled. (Great cheer ing).

Lord JOHN RUSSELL said he rose merely for the purpose of bearing his testimony to the fact that Mr. Bernal was now only reaping the advantages which his strict impartiality and gentlemanly behaviour in the chair had justly entitled him to at the hands of the House. (Cheers).

Mr. BERNAL then went and took the chair, amidst the most enthusiastic cheering

The honourable Member then read (pro forma) the paragraph of his Majesty's Speech which was addressed to the House of Commons. He then put the question, That a supply be granted to his Majesty," which passed without comment, and was reported to the House.

THE RATHCORMAC AFFAIR.

Mr. O'CONNELL said, without participating in the motion, he hoped the letter would be laid on the table, and from the explanation which the right hon. Baronet had given, and as the question was still sub judice, he hoped that no discussion would take place. The explanation which had been given, until replied to, if it ever should, would have all the weight it deserved.

Sir JOHN BYNG, without desiring to provoke a discussion, would wish to know what would justify the expression of " forbearance" contained in the noble Lord's letter of congratulation to the military.

Mr. LITTLETON defended the late Government from the responsibility imposed upon them respecting this affair; neither it nor the present Government were chargeable for any blame on this subject. (Hear, hear). After a few observations from the right hon. Gentleman, the motion was agreed to, and the House adjourned.

Mr. H. GRATTAN said that he did not wish to excite any debate on the motion of which he had given notice on a former STATE OF AGRICULTURE. evening, respecting the melancholy affair AFTER all, this is the most important of Rathcormac. (Hear, hear). If the matter; for, though farmers do not claright hon. Gentleman opposite, (Sir H.mour; though they make little noise, if Hardinge) would consent to the produc- they be broken up, there must be what is

the greedy and seabby wretches before- [count of what has been done, as to this mentioned. By the by, we owe this mea-matter, during the present session of Parsure in great part, if not in toto, to the liament, and particularly the part which scientific and economical Mr. JOSEPH I have taken in the discussions relative HUME, who here wasted a couple of mil. to it. lions of money, at the least, on a thing that could never, by possibility, be of any

use.

On the 27. Feb. Sir William Ingilby made a motion for the House to go into a committee of the whole House, to conBut, to return, fat hogs were eight sider whether there ought to be a repeal, shillings a score in 1822; so that farm-partial and entire, of this mischief doing produce is now greatly less in price than tax. I spoke upon that occasion, against it was then. It is less in price by a fourth, the further continuance of the tax; but or a fifth, at least, than it was last year; I did not vote, because the motion was and it must go on, coming down lower not direct, and because it was not positive and lower, till an arable farm, rent-free, as to a repeal of the whole of the tax. will be a burden. And, is Sir ROBERT There was, upon that occasion, a division, PEEL going to carry on the Government when there were 170 for the motion, and upon the principle, or rather, upon the 271 against it.

opinion, that the distress of agriculture Things standing thus, and I, seeing arises from the "pressure of local the ground all forestalled until the 27. of charges"; and that all farmers, land- May, gave notice that I would make a lords, and tradesmen, may be insolvent, motion on that day, for a repeal of the and that a nation may be sustained, and whole of that tax; but, upon further congreat and flourishing, in spite of their sideration, I withdrew that notice, and ruin, so long as the fundholders have fixed the notice for a similar motion on their interest duly paid in full. If these the 17. of March, to be made upon the be the opinions and principles upon which motion for the House to go into a comhe intends to carry on the Government; mittee of supply. My motion was, "Reand if he be permitted to attempt to carry" solved, that it is expedient, that from it on for two years longer, this nation" and after the 5. of October next, all must be revolutionized; most likely, the" the duties on mall shall cease and Government totally destroyed, and an "determine." This motion I made on American Government established in its the 17. of March; and this motion was stead. It is impossible to collect fifty decided in the manner hereafter to be millions of taxes a year with wheat at described. It would be irksome to myself, four and sixpence a bushel, without producing a revolution in the kingdom.

MR. COBBETT'S SPEECH,

as well as to my readers, for me to be in the habit of reporting my own speeches in the Register; but, this is a subject of such vast importance, that I gave as correct a report as I could of the speech made upon this occasion, and also an analysis of what other gentlemen said in AND THE OTHER SPEECHES ON HIS the same debate. I have here put the MOTION FOR AN ABOLITION OF speeches one after the other, just as they THE MALT-TAX. occurred, giving them all with as much accuracy as my memory will enable me to do it, with the assistance of the reports in the newspapers.

My readers are aware that I have, for many years, contended that this tax was the most mischievous thing existing in the country; and, being in Parliament, they would naturally expect that I should do my utmost to get it repealed and abo- Mr. COBBETT Mr. Speaker, I rise to lished. I did my utmost, during the last submit a motion to the House, for the session of Parliament; and I am now total repeal of the malt-tax, which motion about to lay before my readers in general, is in the following words: "Resolved, and my constituents in particular, an ac- that it is expedient that from and after

"the 5. of October next, all the duties which is absolutely necessary to them, to " on malt shall cease and determine."

Certainly, sir, such a motion ought not to be submitted to the House, without reasons given for the measure of which it proposes the adoption; and yet, to give those reasons will require the consumption of a much larger portion of the time of the House, than I shall like to call upon it to bestow; but, when duty bids me to proceed, and reluctance to occupy the time of the House would draw me back, I feel myself under the necessity of obeying the former.

Before I proceed to the reasons which I deem more than sufficient for the total repeal of this tax, it is my duty to endeavour to remove two very gross and mischievous errors, which, from what we have heard recently in this House, appear to me to be generally prevalent through out the country; or, at least, amongst almost the whole of those who are prominent in discussing political affairs.

cost more than twice as much as it would cost if there were no tax upon malt. Further, nineteen-twentieths of the tradesmen, though they may pay from three pounds to twelve pounds a year, on account of house and window-tax, pay, on an average, a great deal more on account of the malt-tax.

This gross error is, then, backed up by another, if possible still more gross; namely, that the persons owning, occupying, labouring upon, and deriving their subsistence out of, the land, are a mere nothing in number, compared with those who are employed in manufactures, trade, and commerce, and, especially, in manufactures. The right honourable Member for Manchester has called upon us to thank God, that England was the great manufacturing shop of the world; the noble Lord, who is one of the representatives of the West Riding of Yorkshire, calls those who are hostile to the cornThe first of these errors is, that the laws, the body of the people; the holandlords, the farmers, and all the persons nourable Member for Middlesex has told immediately concerned in the cultivation us, that this is now a manufacturing naof the land, would be exclusively benefited tion, and that England was poor before it by the repeal of these duties; and that was a manufacturing nation. I wish, sir, the inhabitants of towns are very little that the honourable Member for Middleinterested in the matter; that they have sex had drawn a little upon his storean interest in the repeal of the house and house of knowledge, and had named the window tax, but that they have scarcely time when England was poor, and when any interest at all in the repeal of this she was not a manufacturing nation. I tax; that the tax being taken off, the state, sir, without fear of contradiction honourable Member for Bridport recently from that honournble Member or any told us, would only be so much money other, that England was always the richest, put into the pockets of the landlords, who and always the most manufacturing nation would be the sole persons that would gain in the world. by the change.

The ground-work of this great error, An error so monstrous as this, has with regard to the number engaged in scarcely ever found its way into the hu- the different pursuits, are and have been man mind. What, sir! do not the people for many years, the population returns, in towns, and, particularly, the hard-laid before this House, which, by reckonworking people in towns, drink beer? ing all persons as manufacturers, traders, And, is not their beer made of malt, as &c., except the mere occupiers and workers well as the beer of the country-people?upon the land; that is to say, except the The fact is, that the repeal of the malt-mere husbandmen, the ploughmen, the tax would be greatly more beneficial to reapers, the mowers, the thrashers, and the tradesmen and workmen in towns, woodmen; by considering all these as than the repeal of the house and window- not belonging to agriculture, have led to tax, both put together. Seldom do work-the conclusion that the husbandmen and ing-people pay any part of the house-tax all belonging to the land, are a mere or window-tax; but the malt-tax lies handful, compared with the rest of the heavily on them all, causing their beer, community. I can give an instance with