on the other side of the House, to make our trade free as the air, to enlarge it by opening it to all the winds of Heaven, to extend it to the very ends of the earth. This, Sir, we were called upon to do; and, I am willing to admit, in perfect rectitude of intention, by men generally holding political opinions different from our own.

Sir, we have attempted to free the trade of the country from those restrictions which cramped and encumbered it; and to establish an enlarged system of commercial policy, more consonant with the spirit of the age, and with the demands of our situation. In adopting the regulations necessary for the carrying such a system into effect, we found that if there was any one branch of our trade which, more than another, called for revision, it was the silk manufacture of this country; and, acting upon this conviction, and aided by the honest, honourable, and effectual assistance of those who had previously, from time to time, preached similar doctrines, we succeeded in carrying their opinions and our own into effect.

What was the course taken by the opponents of that measure? After the entire defeat of their opposition to it, what did they do? They asked for time to enable those who were engaged in the silk trade to prepare for the altered system. Sir, the time was given. And how was that time employed? In preparing for the opening of the ports? In taking steps to adapt the silk trade

to the state of things that was about to arise out of the new law? No such thing; but, in raising every possible obstacle to the operation of that law-in doing every thing that human ingenuity could devise to make the new arrangement which comes into effect in July next, impracticable. Has there been, Sir, any gradual alteration adopted in the mode of manufacturing and trading in that article, calculated to meet, and to give effect to the proposed regulations? No. Was employment gradually reduced in extent, or the importation of the raw material lessened? Neither. The market has become glutted with a redundancy of manufacturers, sufficient in itself to have occasioned the existing distress in that branch of our trade, and by the increased importation of the raw material (which, in the last year alone, was more than doubled), the distress has been still further increased. And, after all this, an outcry is now raised upon those very difficulties which have been thus wilfully and purposely contrived, and a fresh appeal is founded upon them, for a still further prolongation of the restrictive system. Is this any encouragement to us to comply with the call for delay in the present instance? On the contrary, with such an example before our eyes, to grant a further delay would, in this case, be to fall twice into the same error; in fact, to stultify our own measure,

and to render it impossible, when the time shall arrive, to carry it into effect.

I hope, Sir, it is entirely unnecessary for me, or for any member of His Majesty's Government, or for any member of an English Parliament, at this time, to avow the sorrow and anxiety which every feeling man must experience at the commercial and financial distress which prevails to so large an extent throughout the country. Indeed, I am bound to confess, that much as I differ in opinion with several honourable gentlemen who have taken part in the present discussion, there has been, nearly on all hands, a prudent and generous avoidance of such topics and expressions as might, if introduced into debate in this House, have been made use of out of doors, whether mistakenly or mischievously, to enhance the difficulties of Parliament, to embarrass the Ministers of the Crown, and to aggravate and inflame the national distress. The question has been fairly argued on its own merits, and with an honourable abstinence from every thing that could have had a tendency to create unnecessary irritation. It cannot be necessary for an assembly of Englishmen to declare that they feel for the distresses of persons with whom every individual of that assembly must, necessarily, be more or less intimately connected or acquainted; and far less, to make a protestation of their sympathy with the privations and sufferings endured by the more humble, but not

less valuable class of our fellow subjects, upon whose labours, and upon whose comfort and happiness, the well being of society depends. It is with regard to those humbler classes of the community that I think this measure, important as it is to all, of the most immediate impor

tance.

I am not so absurd as to assert that the proposed alteration of our currency will directly put an end to those commercial embarrassments which have mainly arisen out of the unwholesome and preternatural extension of commercial speculation; but this, Sir, I do say distinctly, that I believe it will tend materially to prevent the recurrence of that distress, which beginning with the higher, is sure to find its way, sooner or later, to the lower classes of society.

Sir, it was the wish of the most favourite monarch of France, that he might live to see the day when the condition of his subjects would be so far improved that every peasant in his realm should have a fowl in his pot on a Sunday; and sure I am that if this resolution of my right honourable friend should be acceded to, it will at least do this much for the peasant and artisan of England-that it will ensure to every man at the end of his week's toil, that he shall carry home, as the earnings of his week's toil, not a piece of, perhaps, worthless paper, but a portion of the precious metals in his pocket.

MR. BARING moved, by way of Amendment, "That it is the opinion of this House that, in the present disturbed state of public and private credit, it is not expedient to enter upon the consideration of the Banking System of the country."

The original question was then agreed to, and the House resolved itself into the committee.

STATE OF THE SILK TRADE.

FEBRUARY 24th, 1826.

Mr. ELLICE, on the 23rd of February, moved "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into and examine the statements contained in the various petitions from persons engaged in the Silk Manufactories, and to report their opinion and observations thereon to the House."

Mr. JOHN WILLIAMS seconded the motion. He said that he understood it to be always desirable, that any experiments in the way of trade should be made when countries were in a state of ease and tranquillity, and not in times of difficulty and danger like the present.

He would show, from the situation of the silk interest in Macclesfield, what would be the effect of a perseverance in the contemplated measures.-That town, under our old