who studied them in his closet. Whatever ridicule might be attempted to be thrown on the science of political economy, that science could not be discredited. It was the result of general principles warranted by observation, and constituted the guide in the regulation of political measures. After all the animadversions, insinuations, and obloquy to which he had been exposed, in consequence of last year's Report, he had offered his Resolutions to the Committee, in order to absolve himself from all responsibility for the consequences of the present corn laws, and for the destruction of capital in agriculture already carried to a fearful extent, and which he imputed mainly, not to importation, but to monopoly. Desirous of protecting himself from the responsibility of the evils which, he was satisfied, would follow, he had recorded his opinions. Having done so, he should leave them to be dealt with by the Committee as they thought proper, without entering into any discussion upon the different practical measures under their consideration.

May 13.

The Resolutions agreed to by the Committee were this day reported to the House. On the motion, that they be read a second time,

Mr. HUSKISSON rose, for the purpose of submitting his Resolutions, not with any view, he said, of opposing them to those of his noble friend, but he wished to have them recorded on the Journals. He thought that the House, in agreeing to the Resolutions before them, had attended too much to one inconvenience-that of the danger of too great an influx of foreign grain from the warehouses, while they had overlooked another-that of the want of a steady remunerating price to the farmer. It was his opinion, that the safest mode would be to allow a free trade in corn, subject to a fair protecting duty. Without

this the farmer would, in time of dearth, be inundated with foreign corn, without an adequate protection. The time, he was convinced, would at length come, when we should have such a trade, by which the British grower would be protected in a degree equivalent to the disadvantages under which he laboured.

Mr. Huskisson then moved his Resolutions by way of amendment. In negativing them, the Marquis of Londonderry said, he would not deny the general principal which they involved; but he thought that principle applied to a different state of things. He was anxious to see the general basis of the Corn Laws in other countries settled down, before he consented to such a measure. The Resolutions were then put and negatived.

MR. WESTERN'S MOTION RELATIVE TO THE EFFECTS OF THE RESUMPTION OF CASH PAYMENTS ON THE AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE OF THE COUNTRY.

June 11.

This day Mr. Western, pursuant to notice, called the attention of the House to the effect which the Resumption of Cash Payments by the Bank of England had had in producing the present Agricultural Distress. The honourable gentleman stated in the outset of his address, that his object was to arraign the wisdom, the justice, and the policy of the measure passed in 1819; and he concluded with moving, "That a committee be appointed to consider of the effects produced by the Act of the 59th Geo. III. c. 49, intituled, 'An Act to continue the restrictions contained in several Acts on 'payments in cash by the Bank of England, until the 1st of May 1823, and to provide for the gradual resumption of such cash pay'ments, and to permit the exportation of gold and silver,' upon the Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, of the united empire, and upon the general condition of the different classes of society."

Mr. HUSKISSON rose, and spoke in substance as follows: The subject which the honourable gentleman has brought under the consideration of the House is one of the greatest magnitude. It involves nothing less than an alteration of that standard of value by which all property is secured, and all pecuniary contracts and dealings measured and ascertained. The course suggested for the attainment of this object, is pregnant with consequences of the most fearful importance. These considerations-the magnitude of the subject, and the alarming consequences to be apprehended from the present motion-will, I trust, be sufficient to induce the House to afford a patient hearing to the discussion, without any personal appeal to their indulgence, even from an individual standing so much in need of it as myself.

I have listened with every attention in my power to the statements and doctrines of the honourable member, during his long and elaborate, but able speech. Some parts of it I have heard with surprise; other parts, I must candidly confess, with regret ;-surprise, at the view which he has taken of the subject, and the extraordinary positions which he has laboured to establish ;-regret, at some of his inferences and suggestions, which appeared to be incompatible with every principle, not only of private right and individual justice, but of public honour and national faith: although I feel perfectly assured, that, in all the relations of public or private life, there is no man more incapable of countenancing any wrong-doing than the honourable member for Essex.

It was my lot, Sir, to be a member of the House of Commons, in the year 1797, when cash payments were, for the first time, suspended. I have continued to enjoy the honour of a seat in this House for the long series of years which has since elapsed. During that period I have not

been an inattentive observer of the proceedings in Parliament, and of the effect of those proceedings, in respect to the Currency. In my opinions upon this subject, it was my misfortune, in 1810, to differ from some distinguished members of this House to whom I was personally attached, and in whose political views I had generally concurred; but, having formed those opinions deliberately and conscientiously, I could not honestly withhold them from the public. I shall not at present advert more particularly to those differences, or to the measures adopted by this House after the Report of the Bullion Committee; but I own that if I had been uninformed of all that had passed on this subject since the suspension, I should have inferred from the speech of the honourable gentleman, this evening, that it had been something of this sort:-first, that the liability of the Bank to pay all its notes on demand in the legal coin of the realm having been suspended in 1797, a difference had ensued between the nominal value of those notes and the real value of the coin which they purported to represent:-and secondly, that this difference had been acknowledged by the legislature, and acted upon by the public;-that it had been allowed and compensated for in the adjustment of all pecuniary contracts made prior to the suspension ;-that all dealings since had been made in reference to that difference; and, consequently, that it was a difference, which, however fluctuating in its degree, was at any time capable of being ascertained by exact measurement, and set right by specific adjustment.

I should further have been led to infer, from the reasoning and statements of the honourable member, that at some period of this long suspension (perhaps about 1811, when the difference between the nominal value of the paper and the real value of the coin was very considerable), an attempt had been made in Parliament to prevent that difference

from being any longer acted upon in the adjustment of pecuniary contracts; and that, for this purpose, it had been proposed to enact, that all such contracts should be satisfied by a tender of bank notes at their nominal value, and to inflict penalties upon any one who paid a guinea for more, or received a bank note for less, than its denominative amount. But I should have felt quite sure, that this attempt, whenever made, had been rejected with scorn and indignation by the House, and particularly by the landed interest :-that the leading members of that interest had vied with each other in denouncing the iniquity of a proposal calculated to defeat the just claims of age and infancy-to rob a parent of a part of that dower which had been allotted to her, in the old standard of the realm, long before the suspension of cash payments-to defraud orphan brothers and sisters of a considerable portion of those fortunes, which the will or marriage settlement of their father had assigned for their education, and maintenance in the world—or, if there were no widows to be curtailed of a part of their jointures-no orphans to be stript of a share of their inheritance-was there no unfortunate mortgagee (possibly a near relation or friend) to be deprived of a part of that interest which he had stipulated to receive in the same standard of value in which he had advanced the money for his mortgage? What! could it be expected that the great land-owners would suffer such a proposal as this to be entertained, doing such violence to their love of justice, so offensive to their best feelings as men, at a moment, too, when they were conscious that their estates, whether liable to the portions of younger children, or charged with dower, or incumbered with mortgage, had doubled in rent since the commencement of the suspension? -and, if their personal feelings revolted at a suggestion which was calculated to injure those who were near and