EAST-INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER-AND BANK OF ENGLAND CHARTER.

February 9.

Mr. Secretary Peel having this day moved, "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the present state of the Affairs of the East-India Company, and into the Trade between Great Britain, the East Indies and China,"

Mr. HUSKISSON said, he had heard with the greatest satisfaction the speech of his right honourable friend, thereby redeeming the pledge given last session by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that a Committee should be appointed, which Committee should have all the necessary powers for instituting a general, comprehensive, and effective inquiry into the interests which connected this country with India. No one could doubt, after the speech of his right honourable friend, that this inquiry would embrace every question connected with the subject.

He was glad that the Committee was so formed, as to be enabled to make a full and complete report to the House. He had heard with satisfaction, that it was not to receive from Government any preconceived notion or opinions on the subject of its inquiries. He agreed with his right honourable friend, that in making alterations they ought to proceed with care and caution; but, at the same time, he should have been better pleased if his right honourable friend had not exhibited too strong a bias towards retaining the present machinery, by which the trade of India was carried on. He should be sorry that an impression should go forth, that the Government had a bias towards retaining every thing as it was; and that it was their opinion that there ought not to be those changes which the public voice, out of doors, had said ought to be made. To the Committee would be opened a fearfully extensive field of

inquiry, and he perfectly agreed with his right honourable friend, that the House at large, and not the Committee, ought to decide upon those great subjects which sprung out of the question. The extent of the inquiry inclined him to agree with the honourable member near him, who had suggested that the appointment of two or three Committees would be preferable to the present course.

He would take the present opportunity of asking the right honourable gentleman, whether it was the intention of Government to deal in this manner with the Charter of another company, which would expire about the same time with the Charter of the East-India Company,-he need hardly say that he alluded to the charter of the Bank of England. And when he spoke of the Charter of the Bank of England, he must say, that in his conscience he believed, that out of the use-not to say the abuse of that charter, had arisen most of the evils and the difficulties, under which the country was now labouring. He would not say "the abuse" of the charter but the misuse, if they pleased; for he had no intention of attaching blame, either to the Government or to the Directors. He would not go into that point now; but in alluding to it, he must say, that if the productive interests of the country were now in difficulties, many of those difficulties might be traced to the manner in which the affairs of the Bank of England had been conducted during the late war. No man could look dispassionately at the history of the last thirty years, without seeing that the powers vested in the Bank of England had affected the property and the pursuits of all classes of the country, in a most important manner.

It was his own opinion, that the Charter of the Bank of England, subject to certain modifications, ought to be continued; but he was also of opinion, that there ought first to be an inquiry, because much good would result from such a course.

EAST RETFORD DISFRANCHISEMENT BILL-REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.

February 11, 1830.

Mr. Nicholson Calvert having moved, "that leave be given to bring in a Bill to prevent bribery and corruption in the Borough of East Retford," Mr. Tennyson moved as an amendment, "that leave be given to bring in a Bill to exclude the Borough of East Retford from electing Burgesses to serve in Parliament, and to enable the town of Birmingham to return two representatives in lieu thereof." After the original motion had been supported by Mr. Batley, and the amendment by Mr. Marshall, Lord Howick, Mr. O'Connell, and Lord Normanby,

Mr. HUSKISSON rose and said*.

So few months have elapsed, since, at a late period of the last session, I had an opportunity of stating fully my views and sentiments upon the question now under consideration, that I shall not think it necessary or warrantable to go over the same ground again on the present occasion. I may, however, be permitted to say, that every thing which has since occurred-every thing which is now passing—has confirmed and strengthened me in my conviction of the importance of transferring the elective franchise from East Retford to the great and populous town of Birmingham, instead of giving it to the adjoining hundred of Bassetlaw; -has satisfied me, that this is the best course, not only in reference to general interests, but also the safest and most prudent for those who, like me, wish to guard against the growing danger of abstract and general reform;-of those, in short, who, like me, wish to take every opportunity of erecting a good, and fortifying a strong, defensive position, against that formidable aggression upon the general constitution of the Government.

VOL. III.

• From Mr. Huskisson's MS. notes.

21

If, by the influence of his Majesty's Government, I am driven from this position which I now occupy-if the present proposition for a moderate and reasonable reform be defeated by means of that influence-I may perhaps, from the same feeling, be compelled to resort to another; but if I am, it is one that I shall fall back upon with reluctance, and only because I will always take the best position that can be resorted to, against what appears to me the more general danger of an overwhelming and sweeping change in the mode of sending representatives to this House.

I have said, Sir,- if I am driven from the position I now wish to take by the influence of his Majesty's Government, --because I have reason to believe, that that influence is exercised to its utmost legitimate extent on the present occasion, and because I have no doubt, that without such an exercise of it, we should be able to succeed in procuring the representation for Birmingham. When it was not so exercised, this House transferred the representation of Grampound to the important town of Leeds; and that of Penryn, as far as this House could effect it, was transferred to Manchester. And yet, Sir, the feeling in favour of such a transfer, and the circumstances which called forth that feeling, were much less strong at that period, than they are at present.

From the bottom of my heart, and with a deep sense of the unsettled and disquieted state of men's minds, not only in what relates to their own concerns, but to almost every question long dear to the country, and not less to Parlia ment than to others-I say, from the bottom of my heart, I wish that those who exercise a preponderating influence in the councils of his Majesty's Government, and who are strangers to this House, had a more just sense of what the Commons House of Parliament is, or ought to be at least, and of what the influence of public opinion is, on the practical workings of our constitution.

Sir, we have had lessons on this subject, which ought to

teach statesmen something of prospective wisdom. As much as any man I rejoice in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. As much as any man I rejoice in the final overthrow of every vestige of the Roman Catholic penal code. As much as any man I rejoice in every suc cessive concession which has been wrung from prejudice— concessions in favour of civil and religious liberty, conces sions in favour of intelligence, concessions in favour of commerce, concessions in favour of general improvement. But let me tell gentlemen, let me solemnly warn them, as they take a retrospect of the history of these concessions, that the independence, and dignity, and efficiency of a legislature (I say nothing now of the executive government) are at stake, in not appearing to yield, till necessity and the pressure of public feeling without renders resistance no longer possible, or at least safe.

Strongly impressed with this feeling myself, I own that at the opening of this session I did not quite despairthough I confess my hopes were faint-that his Majesty's Government would take a different view of this question from that upon which they have hitherto acted. I did not wholly despair when I heard the noble lord who moved the Address with so much ability and good feeling, explain the grounds which had induced him, after sitting in Parliament seventeen years, to take the task upon himself, usually assigned to younger members, and address you, from the position which he then, for the first time, occupied in the House. How, Sir, could I despair, when I heard that noble lord state, that, during those seventeen years, he had been uniformly on the side of liberal principles, and that he was prepared to support the present Government as he had supported, I believe, that at the head of which was my late right honourable friend, Mr. Canning, because it was disposed to give fair play to those principles, to adopt • The Earl of Darlington.