should have regarded all this with comparative apathy, as coming from themselves; because this country had been so uniformly moderate and forbearing with an infant and rising state, connected with us so intimately by community of language and a common origin.

He thought that the present extent of our trade with America did honour to the spirit of enterprise in both countries; but if America should persevere in the system disclosed in the tariff of this year, the day might arrive when the commerce between her and this country might become as restricted, and as insignificant, as that between us and France. The commerce of America with this country amounted to more than one half of the whole of her commercial transactions with the rest of the world; but our dealings with America, though conducted on such an extensive scale, did not amount to one-sixth of our general commerce. He would leave it to those who had an interest in the prosperity of that country, to say, whether they would risk the loss of more than half her trade in the vain endeavour to impede us in one-sixth of ours. The rapid increase of the cotton trade between America and this country was a proof, not only of the general prosperity of both, but of the increased comforts which were possessed by every class of our population. In the years 1817 and 1818, one half of the cotton manufactured in this country was consumed at home. As the quantity of the raw material had doubled in the course of ten years, the inference was obvious, that the quantity of manufactured cotton had more than doubled. That was a great improvement in so short a period; and it was the more important, as it indicated a corresponding increase in the comforts, and he might say the luxuries, of the people. He hailed it as an evidence of the advantages which a long peace was calculated to diffuse over the face of the earth, that in the whole of the civilized world, the comforts and advantages of society were rapidly increasing. He rejoiced

to think that they were increasing in other countries as well as our own; for, as they increased, the wants of those countries would increase, with their wants commerce, and with commerce that beneficial intercourse which it must be the wish of every man to cultivate and encourage.

If the United States of America, by a fatal policy, should persevere in shutting out our commerce from her ports, it was absurd to suppose that she could annihilate that portion of our commerce. All she could do was to alter its course,―to send us into other ports of the same continent, to send us into Asia, and into the vast islands which covered the Asiatic seas.

That

To follow up the subject still further. He would say, that those gentlemen who, in another place, laboured with so much useless industry in the inquiry concerning the low price of English wool, were mistaken if they supposed that it was any proof of declining prosperity. The wool trade had decreased, because the cotton trade had increased. They were articles in competition with each other, and nothing could tend so much to raise the price of wool, as raising the price of American cotton. It was a satisfaction to know that the trade in foreign wool had increased. was a fact which no man could deny, and as it was not accompanied with a corresponding increase in the export, it was decisive of an increase in the comforts of the people. The idea of laying an additional tax on foreign wool would be a species of madness, only equal to that which America would exhibit, by persevering in the system disclosed in the late tariff. On looking at the fourth report of the Finance Committee, they would find that a great increase had taken place in the comforts, as well as in the productive powers of the industrious classes.

It was with regret that he should make any allusion to the differences between this country and America, in the year 1825. But, what had occurred at that period between the

United States and the British colonies and the WestIndies? He had then proposed an act, throwing open the trade of those colonies, upon certain conditions, to other nations. The United States, however, so far from acting upon a principle of reciprocity, had imposed restrictions upon British shipping entering their ports, which amounted to complete exclusion. For one long year this country had patiently he had almost said too patiently-submitted to the regulation, without adopting any retaliatory measure. At the end of that period, his Majesty was advised to issue an order in council prohibiting the intercourse between America and our West-India possessions. The intercourse was interdicted; and then came America, with a tardy proposal, accepting the terms which, up to the moment of the prohibition, this country had offered to her in vain. The advice for the issuing of that order in council was given with reluctance; but if they must again be driven to measures unfriendly to commercial intercourse, it became them to persist in it with firmness.

With respect to the present tariff, he would say to ministers," Do not be hasty to determine: look at the various bearings of the question, with a view to your interests, your character, and your trade." But if, after such deliberation, they were forced to adopt a course of retaliation, all he would enjoin them was, that when once they had adopted the course, they should adhere to it with firmness. He would now move, "That there be laid before the House, a copy of the Tariff established in the United States of America, in the present year; together with a copy of their Tariff of the year 1824."

The motion was agreed to.

KING'S SPEECH-MEASURE OF RELIEF TO THE

CATHOLICS-GREECE-PORTUGAL.

February 6, 1829.

The Address of the House, in answer to the Speech from the Throne, having been reported,

Mr. HUSKISSON said, that in rising to trouble the House with a few words upon this important occasion, he could not refrain, in the first instance, from expressing the feelings of satisfaction with which he had listened to the eloquent and manly speech of the honourable gentleman who had just sat down. * The communication which had been yesterday made to Parliament by his Majesty's Government, considered in all its bearings, and looking to all its consequences, was, in his opinion, the most important and the happiest event that had occurred in this country, since the accession of the House of Brunswick to the throne of these realms. Standing in his place in that House, and having had the honour of a seat in it ever since the first agitation of the Catholic question, and anxious as he had been for the success of that great question, it was with infinite gratification that he found his Majesty's ministers recommending it to the deliberate consideration of the House, and announcing their intention of bringing it forward as a government question, and, of course, giving it all the just influence and means of persuasion which belonged to the executive of the country. It had gratified him, as it had gratified many of his friends, to find that the individual who now proposed this measure to the House, so pregnant with the most beneficial results, was the same individual who, from his first appearance in public life, had hitherto felt it to be his duty to give a sincere, a fair and honourable, but at the same time an uncompromising and decided opposition to this question.

Mr. Dawson.

His right honourable friend, the member for the University of Oxford, in his speech, last night, had very properly abstained from going into any explanation of the details of the great measure now placed in his hands. But, looking at the communication from the Throne, and at the sentiments expressed by his right honourable friend, he was satisfied that it was to be a measure of grace. As such he trusted it would be received by those for whose benefit it was proposed; and he further hoped, that it would be ample, liberal, and adequate to the great and important purpose for which it was intended. It was for such a purpose and with such a view that he, and those who voted with him on this question, had uniformly recommended this measure, with a view, to use the words of the resolution which they had so frequently carried in that House, "to strengthen the connexion between the two countries, to increase the stability and security of the Protestant establishment, and to diffuse happiness and concord amongst all classes of his Majesty's subjects."

He confidently hoped that such results would follow from the measure about to be proposed to the consideration of the House. At all events, it was a subject for congratulation, that the overpowering force of truth and justice, in this great intellectual struggle, had at length prevailed over what he might now be allowed to call long-cherished prejudices and errors. In the contest, which he hoped was about to be concluded for ever, they had been long engaged. It had been a severe and a protracted one. But every day and every hour, during which they had been occupied in this struggle, the cause had been increasing in strength, in proportion as it had been growing in importance; until at last it was admitted, that it could no longer be left unsettled, without endangering the safety of the country— nay, until it was distinctly admitted, that all further opposition to it must be unavailing.