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that promised permanent repose to Europe. Lord Castlereagh, June 6. therefore, upon entering the House of Commons for the first time after his return from France, was greeted with long, animated, and repeated cheers, which interrupted business for some time, and took his seat amid the acclamations of the members, while those to whom his general politics seemed most exception able, were among the first to tender their approbation of the manner in which he had, during these arduous circumstances, maintained the honour and secured the safety of the country.

The treaty of peace which he presented to the House, fell only in one instance short of what the warmest enthusiast could have desired. The French had positively refused to concur in the immediate abolition of the slave trade, and the utmost which Britain had been able to obtain, was a stipulation, that the abominable traffic should be prohibited in the course of five years. The concession which the British minister found himself obliged to make upon this important subject, was a sacrifice to the deep and jealous apprehensions which the French entertained of our commercial rivalry. That people could not be convinced that the interests of human nature alone prompted the English to demand this sacrifice at their hands. They imagined they saw, under the mask of humanity, a treacherous disposition to secure our own colonial commerce at the expence of theirs, and to render the cession of the West Indian possessions, which we restored to them, a barren and unfruitful grant. It appeared of so much consequence to eradicate suspicions, which might go far to frustrate the restoration of general confidence to Europe, that the British ministers did not insist on the

abolition of the traffic, as a sine qua non in the treaty of Paris. The address, congratulating the Prince Regent upon the definitive treaty of peace with France, was thus qualified by an amendment, intimating the hope of the House, that the abolition of this wicked traffic should be speedily accomplished. In other respects the address passed unani- June 29. mously, as might be expected, since the terms of the peace to which it referred, exceeded by far the most sanguine hope of the most sanguine anticipators.

The festivities attending this happy pacification, were extended to those shows and entertainments which the common people best understand and relish. Fireworks, on an uncommon scale of expence, were exhibited in the Parks, and the Serpentine River was dignified by becoming the scene of a mimic sea-fight. The expence of these testimonies of rejoicing was noticed with censure in the House of Commons.

The rulers of the multitude, however, must act like the tutors of childhood, who, while in general they endeavour to turn their pupils' attention to amusements which enlarge the intellect and do credit to the judgment, do not cynically debar them, on fitting occasions, from such sports or playthings as are suitable to their youth or their ignorance. A more dignified and heart-felt display of rejoi cing, was the appointment of a day of public thanksgiving, on which the Prince Regent went in solemn procession to St Paul's, attended by his whole court and the two Houses of Parliament, to return thanks to the Almighty for the unexpected mercy which had brought light out of darkness, and the unspeakable blessings of peace and good order out of an apparently endless labyrinth of bloodshed and confusion.

Thus honoured and successful abroad, and full of hope and expecta tion at home, Britain, at the period of the peace, seemed to be placed upon the very pinnacle of national glory and felicity, had not the events of the American war been to her like the exhortations of the slave in the tri

umphal chariot, an intimation of the uncertainty of human affairs, We shall presently see that new subjects of embarrassment arose to her statesmen out of that very restoration of peace, which had so long been the theme of our wishes and prayers.

CHAPTER XIX.

Domestic Affairs continued.-Embarrassed State of Commerce and Credit.Causes of this Distress.-Low Price of Corn, and Decline in the Value of Land.-Origin of this Depreciation.-Proceedings on the Corn-Laws.Disorders in Ireland.-Justice Fletcher's Charge at Wexford.-Division among the Catholics of Ireland.-The Marriage Treaty broken off between the Hereditary Prince of Orange and the Princess Charlotte of Wales.

As the best blessings which this imperfect world affords are balanced or alloyed by corresponding evils, the public were not long in discovering, that hopes had been formed of a revival of our national resources through the influence of peace, far too sanguine to be speedily realized. In common sense, indeed, such an immediate restoration of prosperity was no more to be expected, than that the cessation of a combat should at once restore the wounded and exhausted victor to the strength which he possessed at its commencement. Like the same victor, the country hardly felt her wounds in the moment of triumph, and it was not till the first animating glow was over, that men began to see and feel the difficulties in which they were still involved.

The revival of commerce was naturally the subject on which the highest expectations had been formed, and the merchants of Britain, long excluded from the continent, expected now to pour forth upon Europe the stock of colonial produce and manufactured goods, which had lain so long on their hands, and that they would be called upon to supply demands rapid and

extended, in proportion to the priva tions which the continent had sus tained. But this species of intercourse among nations, when once deranged, resembles a dislocated bone, which cannot be reduced to its natural and proper state without much pain and trouble. The hand of military extortion had exhausted the resources of the continent, and deprived almost every individual of a large proportion of the funds which, in better times, he could afford to dedicate to the purchase of comforts and luxuries. Habits of indulgence thus broken off are not instantly resumed, especially when checked by economical considerations. Coffee and sugar, once almost generally used by all ranks on the continent, are, for the present, comparatively disused, and the females have resorted to manufactures of their own, to supply the want of the English cottons and muslins. These difficulties were still farther enhanced by the improvident eagerness of commercial speculators, who, forcing forward cargoes of English goods and colonial produce in large quantities, glutted the market, and annihilated the slow sale as it began to commence, as a dy

ing flame is drowned by too rapid a supply of fuel. These disappointments produced unpleasant effects on the commercial world at home. The credit of many respectable houses had been chiefly supported by the knowledge that they had extensive quantities of stock upon their hands, which, it was supposed, would be readily convertible into money at a peace. Meanwhile, the goods circulated from name to name, and from warehouse to warehouse, the price affording upon each change of proprietors the subject of new commercial bills, which sustained the credit of the holders. But this system of accommodation ended at once, so soon as it became too probable that the stock, which was represented by these bills in the money market, was itself, for the present, of little or no value. Much distress was the consequence of these unfounded expectations, many sunk under the weight of their disadvantageous speculations, and, as in such cases, the fear always spreads farther than the actual danger, even the best and most established houses found unusual difficulties in discounting their bills of exchange and liquidating their funds, so as to meet the demands upon them. When the shock was once given to credit, it was felt through every part of that complicated machine which is put in motion by it. The distresses of the general merchants communicated themselves not only to the wholesale dealer at home, and to the retail dealers his correspondents, but, occasioning general doubt and distrust among bankers and monied men, embarrassed and clogged the operations of those whose business was totally unconnected with the department in which the distress originated. The speculations of monied men in the funds went far to increase the evil. Many had bought stock at extravagant prices, and were unwilling to sell at a

discount-others continued to hold what they had purchased at a moderate rate, in expectation that the public credit would improve, and the funds rise in proportion. In both cases very large sums of money, which formerly had circulated for sustaining the credit of the country, were now locked up in the public funds. The causes of this general commercial distress had begun to operate since the opening of the continent to British trade, and probably would have been much more severely felt, had that important event taken place suddenly, and in consequence of the peace. Still, however, commerce, which had suffered so much during the war, was as yet little revived by its triumphant conclusion, and it now seemed as if agriculture, which, on the contrary, had flourished in the most uncommon degree while hostilities lasted, was now to suffer a severe check by their conclusion.

Many causes had tended to raise the price of grain, and, of course, the value of land, since the breaking out of the war. Britain, excluded in some measure from foreign supplies of imported grain, was obliged to rely chiefly upon the produce of her own agriculture, and the supplies which she drew from it being limited, their value rose in proportion. Two successive bad crops in the beginning of the century, gave to the market the impulse of a still more pressing scarcity, and although the prices declined from the excessive height to which they had then risen, yet they did not for several years subside to the level from which they had mounted. The hope of gain which these large prices held out to the farmer, stimulated him to extraordinary exertions. Every patch of ground capable of bearing a crop was torn up, at whatever expence, and often that which nature had intended for pasture, was permanently injured by such acts of agricultural violence

perpetrated upon the soil. The fortunes acquired by some agriculturists stimulated the avidity of others. The value of land increased in proportion to the confidence with which sanguine speculators contended with each other in offering an advanced rent. The landed proprietors, in general, according to the nature of that class of men, increased their style of living in proportion to their increased revenues, and, what was worse, the tenants themselves forsook, in most instances, the parsimonious and humble mode of life pursued by their fathers, and launched forth in expences proportioned to the fortunes they expected to acquire. Houses of a superior style and expensive accommodations were provided for them by the landlord ; to inhabit these mansions required another stretch of expence, and the rent of them in one shape or other was a charge upon the farmer's industry, and a diminution of his means of improving the soil. Thus a large part of the funds which ought to have gone to the cultivation of the farm, was diverted into a channel of expence, not only altogether unproductive, but leading in its necessary consequences to farther waste both of time and of money. The high price of grain to which these evils are to be traced, was sustained not only by the circumstances which excluded the importation of foreign grain, but by the large contracts of government, which consumed great quantities of agricultural produce. This double influence of the war terminated with its existence. "Who is your security?" said a Scottish landlord to his tenant, when the latter announced to him that he was unable to pay his rent." Buonaparte," answered the poor man," was my only security, and now his head is under water, I must sink also." In fact, the importation of immense quantities of foreign grain, joined to the unusual circumstance of two consecutive har

vests having proved uncommonly productive, lowered at once the price of grain to a standard which would nei ther repay the increased expence of cultivation, nor support the new mode of life adopted by the cultivators of the ground, nor pay the advanced rents of land. The stagnation of credit was speedily felt in this department also, and added to the general agricultural distress. The farmer, who could no longer obtain money for a speculating corn-factor's bill of exchange, was obliged to carry his grain to market, and sell it for what ready money it would fetch upon the instant. This pressing cause, operating in every quarter at the same time, forced a very large quantity of corn into the market, which was thereby glutted, while money increased in power as it became scarcer and scarcer, and as the value of the commodity to be purchased sunk in proportion to its augmented quantity.

It was more easy to trace the cause of these evils, than to foresee their duration or attempt their cure. Parliament, however, took into their consideration such a revision of the corn laws as might be calculated to alleviate · the mischief. Here the jarring interests of the consumers and of the growers of corn were placed in direct collision with each other. It is the apparent interest of the landlord and farmer to keep the price of grain as high as possible; while, on the other hand, it is the apparent interest of the other classes of the community to obtain the bread which they are to consume at as low a rate as possible. But though this be the case in a general and abstract point of view, yet in the frame of society the various interests of both classes are so completely blended and warped with each other, that it would be easy to prove that either must be ultimately more affected by the sufferings of the other than they can be

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