of correcting or controlling? No; we have | philanthropist; Canning, on the other to deal with an evil which is the growth hand, who knew that the negro was scarcely of centuries and of tens of centuries, which a man, and that when freed from control is almost coeval with the deluge, which was liable to be dangerous, regarded the has existed under different modifications question solely from the point of view of since man was man. Do gentlemen, in the statesman. "Release the wild animal their passion for legislation, think that after from his cage," said the abolitionist, "and only thirty years' discussion they can now let him enjoy his liberty." "Tame him at once manage as they will the most un- first," said Canning, "and let him know manageable, perhaps, of all subjects? or do how to act when away from the discipline we forget, sir, that in fact not more than of his keeper, and then set him free." Five thirty years have elapsed since we first decades have passed away since Canning presumed to approach even the outworks advocated a system of gradual emancipaof this great question? Do we, in the tion, yet the late insurrection in Jamaica ardour of our nascent reformation, forget has taught us of what the negro, in spite that during the ages for which this system of his thirty years' experience of freedom, has existed no preceding generation of is capable when master of the situation and legislators has ventured to touch it with a in revolt against authority. reforming hand? and have we the vanity to flatter ourselves that we can annihilate it at a blow? No, sir, no; we must be contented to proceed, as I have already said, gradually and cautiously; and what I have now laid before the House is, I flatter myself, sufficient for the first step in a process which will widen and strengthen as it goes."

The course suggested by Canning was adopted. Reforms were effected in our colonies which tended to improve the moral and intellectual condition of the slaves and to prepare the way for the emancipation which was subsequently to be their lot. Canning looked upon the slave question as he looked upon the reform question. To admit a rough and untutored majority, ignorant of how to exercise their power, to the privileges and responsibilities of the suffrage was to put in peril the British constitution; to admit the weak and cruel negro, accustomed ever to be kept in check by the iron hand of command, without any preparatory training to fit him for the civil rights he was to enjoy, was to jeopardize the constitution and welfare of our colonies. The abolitionists, who called the negro a man and a brother, regarded the question of emancipation from the sentimental and short-sighted point of view of the mere

Once again at this time Canning came forward to obtain relief for the Roman Catholics, and once more the measure he advocated passed the Commons and was thrown out by the Peers. Upon this occasion he indulged in a personal confession to the House, which proved how ardently he had the claims of the Catholics at heart, and with what disinterestedness he upheld. their cause. He had most ungenerously been twitted by his foes that he was now indifferent to the Catholic question, that he would make no sacrifice for its advancement, and that he was ready to postpone the subject to suit his own views. In reply to this unjust taunt he showed that in 1812 he had refused office because the administration had pledged itself to resist the consideration of the Catholic claims. That we already know; but of the following confession we were in ignorance.

"I have shown," said Canning, "that in the year 1812 I refused office rather than enter into an administration pledged against the Catholic question. I did this at a time when office would have been dearer to me than at any other period of my political life; when I would have given ten years of life for two years of office; not for any sordid or selfish purpose of personal aggrandizement, but for far other and higher

views. But is this the only sacrifice which | the pages of a most flourishing prospecI have made to the Catholic cause? The tus, fell in swift collapse to the ground.

the session, and before one single bill had that in the future the demand would be passed, to hold out to all who were engaged not for English, but for French silks. in those speculations that they were run- Parliament was appealed to by the silk ning wildly into them; that it was the interest, as it has of recent years been essence of a free government not to inter- appealed to by the agricultural interest, pose any legislative let or hindrance to the to revert to the system of protection. current of individual enterprise and indus- This appeal was opposed by Canning, try, but that those who entered wildly who as a follower of Pitt was in favour of into extravagant speculations did so upon free trade. He asserted that its object was their own risk and responsibility; and that" to impugn those principles of commercial it was the fixed resolution of his Majesty's policy which, under the sanction of Parliagovernment not to extend any pecuniary ment, have now prevailed in this country assistance to the difficulties which were for the last two or three years—a policy likely to arise out of them. As far as the which has for its object gradually to unfetvoice of government could be heard, it was ter the commerce of the country by the heard through the country." removal of those oppressive prohibitions and inconvenient restrictions which had previously existed, and to give every facility and encouragement, consistent with vested interests, to the extension of the skill, the capital, and the industry of the people of England."

One of the consequences of this national distress was to press severely upon certain trades, and especially upon the silk trade. Within the last few years the government had been busy in attempting to free the commerce of the country from the restrictions which had cramped and encumbered it. Protection was no longer found to be consonant with the spirit of the age, and free trade in certain articles was called for. The silk trade of the country had been among the last of our manufactures to undergo this system of revision, and had created much discontent among the class now no longer protected. The silk manufacturers not unnaturally regarded the innovation solely from the point of view of the producer. The truth of economical principles was nothing to them; it was nothing to them that the consumer, thanks to the abolition of the restrictions which had formerly existed, could obtain his silk goods at a cheaper rate, and thus had more money to spend upon other articles; but it was everything to them that their markets were being glutted by foreign goods produced at a cheaper price, owing to the cheapness of foreign labour. Macclesfield and Coventry complained that they were now working with reduced hands and at reduced wages; that French commodities were pouring in at a rate which must undersell the English manufacturers; and

The question at issue, he said, was neither more nor less than whether a restrictive or an enlarged system of commercial policy was best for the country. He supported an enlarged system. He believed that foreign commerce was eminently conducive to the wealth and prosperity of the country; that freedom from restraint was calculated to give the utmost extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the capital and industry of the country; that to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market was the best rule for the trade of the whole nation; and that a policy the reverse of that only resulted in "each country trying to exclude the productions of other countries, with the specious and well-meant design of encouraging its own productions, thus inflicting on the bulk of its subjects, who are consumers, the necessity of submitting to privations in the quantity or quality of commodities, and thus rendering what ought to be the source of mutual benefits, and of harmony among states, a constantly recurring occasion of jealousy and hostility."

He entered into statistics proving that

the silk manufacture had flourished since "Sir," said Canning in conclusion, "I the introduction of free-trade principles, have not to learn that there is a faction and that its present decline was due entirely to the recent excessive speculation which had taken place. He was opposed to protection in this instance. "To my mind," he said, "it is clear that a law of prohibition would fail as a measure of protection, while it would reintroduce in our system those vicious principles which we have found such difficulty in expelling from it. The evil which we have put down would reappear, and like a noisome weed, rapidly increase in growth, till it overspreads the whole soil of our commercial industry."

in the country-I mean not a political faction; I should, perhaps, rather have said a sect-small in numbers and powerless in might, who think that all advances towards improvement are retrogradations towards Jacobinism. These persons seem to imagine that under no possible circumstances can an honest man endeavour to keep his country upon a line with the progress of political knowledge, and to adapt its course to the varying circumstances of the world. Such an attempt is branded as an indication of mischievous intentions, as evidence of a design to sap the foundations of the greatness of the country.

It was evident, he continued, that, under cover of their motion to inquire into the depressed state of the silk trade, an oppor- "Sir, I consider it to be the duty of tunity had been taken to "attack the com- a British statesman, in internal as well mercial regulations now in progress-meas- as external affairs, to hold a middle course ures more seriously deliberated upon, and introduced with the more universal consent of all those whose judgments were likely to be best enlightened on such matters, than any other acts of our public policy within my recollection."

Were ministers, he asked, deserving of censure for the enlightened policy they had pursued? Were they not rather worthy of praise? Was not the doctrine and the spirit which animated those who attacked the government the same which in former times stirred up persecution against the best benefactors of mankind? Was it not the same doctrine and spirit which embittered the life of Turgot? Was it not a spirit such as that which consigned Galileo to the dungeons of the Inquisition? Was it not a spirit such as that which had at all times been at work to stay public progress and to roll back the tide of civilization? a doctrine and a spirit actuating the little minds of men who, incapable of reaching the heights from which alone extended views of human nature could be taken, consoled and revenged themselves by calumniating and misrepresenting those who had toiled to those heights for the advantage of mankind.

between extremes; avoiding alike extravagances of despotism or the licentiousness of unbridled freedom-reconciling power with liberty; not adopting hasty or illadvised experiments, or pursuing any airy and unsubstantial theories, but not rejecting, nevertheless, the application of sound and wholesome knowledge to practical affairs; and pressing, with sobriety and caution, into the service of his country any generous and liberal principles, whose excess, indeed, may be dangerous, but whose foundation is in truth. This, sir, in my mind, is the true conduct of a British statesman; but they who resist indiscriminately all improvement as innovation, may find themselves compelled at last to submit to innovations although they are not improvements.

"Two objections have been stated to the course which his Majesty's ministers are pursuing. We are charged with having abandoned the principles of Mr. Pitt, and of having borrowed a leaf from the book of Whig policy. If the latter accusation refers to the useful and honourable support which we have received on questions of commerce from some of those who are habitually our antagonists in politics, I

have only to admit the fact, and to declare | point, and with respect to measures leading