should wish ner name to be repeated in the Liturgy at home, as Queen of England. On the other hand, if the negotiation did not terminate satisfactorily, hostile discussions were unavoidable; for it was a duty which ministers owed the Crown not to advise that her Majesty's name should, under such circumstances, be inserted in the Liturgy. Ministers were consequently right in either alternative. If they were now to rescind the act of omission, they would be voluntarily proclaiming, after the proceedings in the House of Lords, that her Majesty's conduct was entitled to every distinction; that it was, if not praiseworthy, at least blameless; and that, since her return to this country, she had acted in a manner respectful to the Crown, and dignified as far as regarded the country. It would be holding her up as a fit example for the subjects of the realm, and giving her conduct an influence upon the morals of the country. . He therefore could not agree to the noble lord's motion; thinking as he did, that it was a difficult matter for any unprejudiced man to lay his hand upon his heart and say, that her Majesty's conduct was such as became her station, or as became any modest female in a much humbler walk of life. The success of the motion would be the triumph of the language, conduct, and sentiments which her Majesty had expressed since her return, over those institutions of the country, which she had reviled and contemned. As her legal rights were fully recognised, he had hoped, that the provision, which, on the proposition of ministers, had been settled on her Majesty, would have set the question at rest. For his own part, he had deprecated inquiry from the beginning, because he felt that its result would be, to lower the tone of the moral and religious feeling of the country; and the course which the honourable gentlemen opposite had taken, could only aggravate the evil.

The House divided: For the motion, 178. Against it, 324..

MR. WESTERN'S MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE

ADDITIONAL MALT TAX.

March 21.

Mr. Western moved for leave to bring in a Bill, for the repeal of so much of the act of 1819 as imposed additional duties on Malt. He contended, that the effect of the high duties was to take away from the comforts of the people, and, by lessening the consumption, to aggravate the embarrassments of the agriculturalists.

Mr. HUSKISSON said, it was an ungracious task at any time to oppose the removal of any burden; but it was particularly so to oppose the relief which the agriculturists specifically called for. Two years ago Government, upon a solemn review of the situation of the country, had come down to the House, and proposed an addition of three millions to the taxes, and Parliament had granted this addition by a majority of 327 to 129; not so much for the benefit of the fundholder, as for the support of public credit. What change, then, had taken place since that period, which made it expedient to diminish the revenue to the amount of two millions? If we were in a situation to reduce any of the public burdens, he would not conceal his opinion, that this was not the first tax which ought to be removed. But when honourable members attributed all the distress under which the agricultural interest at present laboured to its operation, they were guilty of great inconsistency; for the distress had not only existed before the tax was imposed, but, during the war, when it was a shilling a bushel more than it was at present, the agricultural interest was in its most flourishing condition.

Whatever other objections there might be to this tax, he did not think that any could be made to its unequal operation; for to him it appeared, that it fell equally upon all the consumers of the article on which it was laid. Honour

able gentlemen had argued, that it ought to be removed, on account of the general distress which prevailed among all classes of the community. As that argument had been introduced into the discussion, he trusted he might be permitted to say a few words upon it. When he heard it asserted, that the manufacturer, the artisan, the agriculturist, and the land-owner, were all involved in one common state of extreme distress, he was inclined to refer to facts, to ascertain how far that position was made out. He could not state the opinion which he himself entertained upon the subject better, than by showing the effect which the fall of prices had produced upon the different classes, into which the community might be considered as divided. These classes were of three kinds; the first class consisted of those who obtained their subsistence by their daily labour; the second consisted of those who lived upon accumulated and dormant capital; and the third, of those who, by their industry and intelligence in the use of their capital, gave employment to those who composed the first class.

Now, from the view which he had taken of the subject, he apprehended, that though considerable distress might exist in some parts of the country, from want of employment, the fall of prices, occasioned by the late improvement of the currency, had considerably benefited those who were in the first class. He recollected, that the lamented author of the Bullion Report,* with whom he had the satisfaction of agreeing in opinion, upon the very first agitation of the question, had declared himself to be convinced, that the effect of the fluctuation or diminution in the value of money operated very injuriously on the labouring classes, especially in the increased price of provisions which it occasioned. Now, if that proposition were true, which he thought no man could doubt, the converse of it would be equally so; and it would therefore follow, that as

the value of money had become fixed, and the price of provisions consequently lower, the state of the labouring classes would be proportionably ameliorated.

He did not intend to enter at present into any description of the lamentable consequences which had resulted from the rapid rise in the price of provisions which took place in 1801. He would merely say, that this was one of them that farmers had ceased to employ in-door servants, who received part of their wages in provisions, but had engaged them upon wages which were paid entirely in money. One of the advantages which he anticipated from the fall of prices—and an advantage that would not be unimportant, as it would have a tendency to diminish the present extravagant poor rates-was, that it would be the interest of the farmer to employ, once more, in-door servants, and to pay them as heretofore, partly in provisions and partly in money. He inferred, that a considerable improvement had already taken place in the condition of the first class which he had mentioned, from this circumstance that the consumption of those articles, which were at once its necessities and its luxuries, had considerably increased since the fall of prices, and was still continuing to increase rapidly. This ought to be some consolation to the other classes who were not in so fortunate a situation. He would not go through the articles, one by one, in which this increase of consumption had taken place: he would merely say, that one of them was malt, and would confine himself to inferring from it, that the situation of the first class was materially improved, except where there was want of employment.

The condition of the second class was also ameliorated. That class consisted of the public creditor, of annuitants, and of persons whose income was derived from monies placed out at interest. The persons of whom this class was composed, had been taunted-with what justice he

would leave it to the House to determine-as the idle part of the community. He, however, would call them persons, who, after a life of slow gains and patient industry, had confided their earnings to the care of the public honour; and he trusted that, to a British parliament, it was not necessary to make any appeal in their behalf. An honourable member had stated that, during the war, a depreciation of twenty-five per cent. had taken place in the value of money. Under that depreciation these individuals had suffered; and it was not too much for them to expect the rest of the community to allow them to enjoy in quiet the benefit arising from the alteration of circumstances which had since occurred. If the depreciation of money during the war had not equally affected the landlord at the time, it was only fitting that it should so affect him now. But the truth was, that the land-owner had benefited greatly by that depreciation: he had raised the rent of his land in consequence of it, and he must now lower it, in consequence of the fall of prices which had recently taken place.

The third class, into which he had divided the community, included merchants, ship-owners, farmers, and those who gave employment to capital; and on them the change in the currency had operated severely. It was, however, to be recollected, that this was the class which had received so much benefit from the diminution in the value of money. They were, he believed, in a state of considerable distress; but that distress had been chiefly created by the facility with which they had obtained money during the war. At that period the monied man was eager to change his money capital into a fixed capital, the farmer his capital into cultivation, and so on. Men, also, engaged in speculations with little other capital, besides that which was to be derived from prospective advantages. The land-owner wished to compensate himself for the burdens under which he laboured, and, in order to do so,