indeed, a mere matter of traffic: so much speech for so much money. Hence comes the curious fact, that those who make the shortest speeches in the House, or none at all in some cases, make the longest in the Debate-Volumes. However, we are arrived at a state of things, in which very few persons are to be duped by such means. And, in short, scarcely any body but the orators by purchase either buy or ever look at the cumbrous loads of trash, called Parliamen tary Debates, which, in a few years, grow into such a heap, that the very thought of referring to them is enough to drive a man mad. This Volume is not, at any rate, calculated to frighten by its looks; and, while its outside is not forbidding, its inside does really contain the pith of every discussion of any importance; and it presents a brief and impartial history of the Session. It is my intention to continue the work yearly, and at a very trifling expense, it will, I am persuaded, be found a very useful book. WM. COBBETT. C CONTENTS. LIST of the Cabinet Ministers, Judges, &c. at the opening of the Session of Parliament, in February 1822. COMMENTARIES ON THE DEBATES. Beginning on the 5th February, LIST of the Acts passed in the Parliament, in the Session which began on the 5th February and ended on the 6th August 1822; and to which copious Remarks, on divers of those Acts, are subjoined. OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FOR THE YEAR 1821. WHY our curiously pretty Gentlemen choose to make their Accounts up to the Fifth of January in the new Year, instead of to 31st of December in the old Year, no mortal can tell, unless it be, that they think, that those who have to manage a thing which is the envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the world" ought not to do any thing like the rest of mankind. This is the case, however; and the Account below is for the Year ending on the 5th of January 1822. 66 426 3 11 Loans, Remittances and Advances to other Issues from Funds for local purposes in Ireland.. .... Ditto....... Abroad .... Paid for Collecting and Managing the Taxes. 48,038 11 14 3,567,482 2 93 302,560 10 9 4,161,833 5 113 143,404 ì 94 4,237,988 5 9 £ 64,784,460 9 10 Our readers will observe, that there was a Loan during the year of Thirteen Millions; and that this Loan was made OF the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund TO the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. No money was either seen, heard, or touched; but the whole transaction enters into the Account; and it requires no small quantity of clearness of head to be able to extract any thing like the truth from this enormous mass of perplexity. However, we shall by no means attempt a description of the thing after what the reader has seen at page 226 of this Volume, in Lord King's proposed Preamble to the Dead-Weight Bill, which Preamble we beg leave again and again to point out to the reader's attention. Such confusion never was seen in any other papers that went by the name of Accounts. The above is as nearly as we can possibly state it, what is paid annually on account of Debt, exclusive of Sinking Fund. To this is to be added the Debt's share of the expense of collecting the Taxes, which makes about two millions and a quarter more; this makes the expense of Debt amount to thirty-five millions and a half. Allow it again its share of the Standing Army in time of peace; and then you earry it up to forty-two or forty-three millions; for it is obvious to every one that it is the Taxes which demand the Standing Army. LIST OF THE CABINET MINISTERS, At the Opening of Session of Parliament, in February 1822. The EARL of LIVERPOOL. Mr. ROBERT PEEL First Lord of the Treasury. {Secretary of State for the Home Department. The MARQUIS of LONDONDERRY 5 Secretary of State for Foreign Af The EARD of WESTMORELAND ...The Lord Privy Seal. The DUKE of WELLINGTON Mr. CHARLES WYNN .....Master General of the Ordnance. ... LORD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH,... First Lord Commissioner of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. {{ 1 PERSONS NOT OF THE CABINET. Sir ROBERT Gifford...... ..Attorney General. Sir JOHN SINGLETON COPLEX. Solicitor General. |