have one vote, at any rate. The right hon. I something in 1819; that it was necessary Baronet, in a very elaborate performance, had insisted upon the justice of taking thirty per cent from the interest of the fundholders; and he justified the proposition upon the ground, that the Bill of 1819 had given to the fundholders thirty per cent more than they ought to receive. He had voted for the Bill of 1819, misled by the high authority, of Oracle Ricardo; he had made the amende honorable; but to make it complete, he must vote for this Resolution. There is another person, too, who must not be forgotten upon this occasion; namely, the present First Lord of the Treasury, who had declared in his place in Parliament, twenty times over, that all the great difficulties of the country arose from the Bill of 1819 having compelled the people to pay in sterling gold a debt contracted in depreciated paper. Well, the noble Lord has now the power to cause justice to be done; and why does he not cause justice to be done? It has been said by the right hon. Baronet himself, that there had been great distress as to the changes in the value of money before 1819; and who has ever denied it? The Secretary for the Colonies has said, with an air of triumph, against the poor West Indians, that their distress was stated to exist so far back as 1804. The right hon. Secretary was then a very little boy; if he had been a man then, he would have known that that distress arose from a cause precisely similar to that which is now in operation. The peace of Amiens had been made; and the Bank of England had, agreeably to the then law, been preparing for a return to cash payments. There was always a state of uncertainty, during peace, as to the time when the Bank would be called upon to pay in gold; and, of course, there were frequent fluctuations in the value of money; but this was all well known in 1819; the right hon. Baronet had had the experience of all this; and, therefore, these were so many beacons for him to shun, instead of examples for him to follow. In 1810 and 1811, in the midst of war and of loans, it was proposed by Mr. Huskisson and a Committee of that House, that the Bank should be compelled to pay in gold at the end of two years. Out of Bedlam such a proposition never was made before; yet, even the authors of that proposition, have, in this House, been extolled to the skies. The next defence is, as I gather from the debate on the proposition of the hon. member for Whitehaven, that it was necessary to do

no longer to suffer the currency of the country to be in its then degraded and uncertain state. Whoever denied that? Not I at any rate. Every man that I conversed with at the time wished for a return to the ancient standard of value. But does it follow that it was necessary that it should be done in that unjust and wicked or foolish manner in which it was done? If there be a mortification in a man's foot which, if left alone, will certainly kill him in time, does it follow that it is right to cut off his head, in order to put a stop to the effects of mortification? And, did no one point out the proper and just thing to do? Was there nothing pointed out but the lowering of the standard or a depreciated papermoney? Had the right hon. Baronet no choice, except that which lay between the little shilling and the worthless rags ? Oh yes! there was something else pointed out to him; and that, too, by parties to whom he ought to have listened with the greatest attention. In the year 1817 about a million and a-half of Englishmen and Scotchmen petitioned the then House of Commons for a Parliamentary Reform. But those Reformers were not such fools as to want a Reform that was to bring them no good. They petitioned to be relieved from their burthens; for a lowering of salaries and public pay in proportion to the then rise in the value of money; they petitioned for a reduction of the interest of the debt, proportioned to the recent rise in the value of money; they petitioned against being compelled to pay in sterling gold a debt which had been contracted in depreciated paper: they complained, as the First Lord of the Admiralty and the present Prime Minister have complained, of being compelled to pay, in a high currency, debts contracted in a low currency. In justice to those men; in justice to those Reformers, chiefly belonging to the working classes, I must beg the House to suffer me to read a small part of one of their petitions, sent from Hampshire on the 10th of February, 1817:-'With regard to sala'ries paid out of the public money, your petitioners beg leave humbly to observe, that they have only to refer your hon'ourable House, to your own Journals, ' and to the Statute Book, for the space of the last twenty years, in order to afford your honourable House ample conviction of the fact that the salaries of the Judges have been doubled, that the salaries of the Police Justices have been greatly

that it might follow the advice of those men, instead of inflicting unjust punishment upon them! The Parliament that inflicted that punishment, is, I thank God, never to return; and it is for the present Parliament, which is, really and truly the work of their efforts, to do justice to those of them who are now alive, and to the memory of those of them who are dead. But, Sir, it is not of the past only; it is also of the present and of the future, that we have to speak, when we are talking of the effects of the want of knowledge in the right hon. Baronet. The Resolution which I have the honour to submit to the House, alleges, that, at this moment, there appears to be no human being able to discover any quiet way of extricating the kingdom from its present state of difficulty and danger." And is there any human being able to discover such a way? Vain is the imagination of

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of these measures have attained their height, and can go no further. The evils are daily increasing both in number and magnitude. Look at our state, in a pecu. niary point of view only: look at our constant uncertainty: look at our constant peril : a bank with a driblet of gold amount.. ing to a million or two, with twenty millions of paper afloat: Scotland and Ireland with 17. notes still, and with scarcely a bit of gold ever to be seen in either: fourteen millions of money, borrowed by the Go

'augmented, and that a like augmentation | if it could be carried back to 1817, in order 'has taken place in almost all other salaries, and in the pay and allowances of an enormous military staff establishment, and 'that all these augmentations have been adopted upon the express ground of the augmentation which had taken place in the price of wages, in the price of all 'articles of dress, in the rents of houses ' and land, and in the prices of all the 'necessaries of life; and, therefore, now 'that it is notorious that these latter have 'all been diminished in the degree of nearly one-half, your petitioners will not insult your honourable House by appearing to • suppose that you will refuse their humble request, that the above-said salaries and pay may be immediately reduced in the same degree. And, as to the interest on the ' annuities constituting the funded debt, 'your petitioners, agreeing in opinion with a noble Earl of the other House of Parliament, that the currency of the coun-him who supposes that the evil consequences try has been changed, that the taxes, ' which were imposed in a currency of low ' value, are now collected in a currency of 'high value, beg leave to observe also, that the far greater part of the debt, which was contracted in a low currency, is now 'paid an interest for, by the people, in a 'higher currency. Therefore your peti⚫tioners most humbly pray, that the rate of interest on the funded debt may be im'mediately reduced, in such a degree that 'the fruit of the whole productive labour 'of the country may no longer be swal-vernment through the means of what are 'lowed up by the dealers in funds, or, to 'adopt the words of a petition, received by 'the House of Commons from the town of 'Leicester, at the time of the South-Sea bubble, your petitioners most humbly implore your honourable House, "that the 'last drop of the nation's blood may not be 'poured out to be licked up by the cannibals ' of Change Alley." And, Sir, what was the answer that these sensible and industrious men received? There came petitions from 1,500,000 of them; and one single answer was given to them all; and that answer was, an Act of Parliament, passed by the then House of Commons, and the then House of Lords, to put them into dungeons at the pleasure of two Secretaries of State; into any dungeons in the kingdom, without their being informed of what they were put into dungeons for; and for keeping them in those dungeons as long as the Ministers should please. Ah! Sir, that is not forgotten by those men and by their children; and happy would this House be

called Savings' Banks; the most sensitive the easiest alarmed, and the quickest in seeking safety, and all liable to be drawn out and demanded in gold in one single day. In short, it must be evident to every man living, that a run for gold may at any time plunge the whole country into confusion; and that there are many causes, any one of which might happen any day to produce such a run. Every thing, then, hangs by a mere thread; every thing worthy of the name of property has thus been placed in jeopardy by that series of measures which began in 1819. If, indeed, the sufferings which the nation has had to endure during these thirteen years had purchased for it security against further pecuniary convulsions; even then it would have been purchasing future security at a very dear rate; but this is not the case; it has only purchased us greater insecurity than ever: it has been thirteen years of suffering to purchase insecurity and peril, which are never to end until some convul

This "new regulation" was adopted in consequence of the Act of 1819; and, those regulations continued up to the fall of 1830, when they produced their natural effects; and, though acts of violence and revenge are in a very few cases ever to be defended; and though I, by no means, defend those acts to which I now allude, let me ask the Members of this House to look at those regulations; to look at the hale young man condemned to labour throughout the whole year for 3s. 6d. aweek, without food, without drink, without lodging, without anything but the bare 3s. 6d. A hundred and thirty-five labourers (most of them amongst the best of the county) transported, and most of them for life, leaving behind them seventy-nine wives, and upwards of 200 fatherless children: these, in Hampshire alone, we are to look at as amongst the consequences of the right hon. Baronet's Bill of 1819. I call not upon the House to ascribe any portion of this shocking result to the right hon. Baronet's intention; for it is impossible that he ever could have dreamed that such dreadful consequences could have proceeded from that Bill: what I ascribe to him is a want of that sort of knowledge which he ought to have possessed before he attempted to bring forward that mea

sion come to put an end to our fears by realising that which we fear. This state of things has been produced by the Bill of 1819, and its consequent measures; and if there be no responsibility on those who inflict sufferings and dangers like these on a people, then let the word responsibility be effaced from our language; or, at any rate, never let it be again pronounced in this House. Before I conclude, I must notice the effects of the Bill of 1819 upon the condition of the working people throughout the kingdom. Had the evils of this bill flown over their heads, left them unharmed, I should have given myself very little trouble about its other consequences, and should certainly not have troubled the House with the Resolution now before it; but, having witnessed the ruin and misery brought upon them, and having once heard the right hon. Baronet assert that his Bill had mended their lot by making provisions cheaper, I cannot refrain from describing the consequences of this Bill to them; so mischievous have those consequences been, that, in my estimation, they surpass, and far surpass, all its other evil consequences put together. When the right hon. Baronet was speaking upon this subject, he forgot that lowering of wages could take place as well as lowering of prices; and I will now show him, by a document as authentic as any that can exist in the world, that his Bill, while it was producing all the other evils which I have attempted to describe, was absolutely working the destruction, either of the bodies, or the morals, of the labourers in agriculture. The document to which I refer, is, a new regulation of allowance to the poor," dated from the Grand Jury Chamber, Winchester, August 31st, 1822; and issued by the authority of Sir Thomas Baring, two other Lay the Motion of his hon. colleague, begged Mr. John Fielden, in rising to second Magistrates, and five other Magistrates to claim the indulgence of the House while being highly beneficed clergymen. It is he stated to them his reasons for doing so. signed by Mr. Woodham, of Winchester, He was actuated by no feelings of personal their clerk. From this document, which I hostility to the right hon. Baronet, who put upon record at the time, and which will was the subject of the Motion, but felt now reach every part of this kingdom, it compelled from a sense of duty to adopt appears, that these Magistrates, recom- the course he had done. Whatever were mended the officers of every parish to offer three shillings a-week from Michaelmas to Lady-Day to every unmarried man, and four shillings a-week from Lady Day to Michaelmas, so that he may be engaged 'to work the whole year; and any un'married man refusing that offer shall not ' be entitled to any relief,'

sure.

boast of the forbearance of the House If, in sitting down, Sir, I cannot towards me, I have no wish to complain of the contrary. I have simply done my duty, in bringing before the House a subject of greater importance than any that can be named. I have done it in a manner conformable with the practice of Parliament; and I now leave it to the House to dispose of the Resolution in any manner that it pleases.

the opinions of this House on the Bill of 1819, and the measures subsequently connected with it, the prevailing opinion out of doors was, that it had produced misery and suffering such as were never before inflicted on any people so industrious and productive as were the people of England. His hon, colleague had stated

price of that day, would purchase 1,7407. and that B's 1,000l. should be invested in land. The present price of three per cents, was 877. 10s. and this would give for A 1,522l. 10s. The 1,000l. of B's, invested in land, was not now worth more than 7501., so that the principal belonging to A was more than double the principal belonging to B. The interest the trustees of A received, from the time of the investment to the present period, amounted to 9391. 12s., while the interest upon B's

that the taxes had been doubled since the Bill was adopted, and he (Mr. Fielden) hoped the House would have patience with him while he showed them that the scale of taxes imposed on him, and the class of manufacturers to whom he belonged, had been trebled since the year 1815-the close of the war; he had a right to complain of this. A responsibility for having done this injustice rested somewhere; and, believing, as he did, that it had been caused by a contraction of the currency, and what was called a return to cash pay-investment would not be more than 5407. ments, without any measure being adopted so that the trustee of A now was in to reduce the taxes to the alteration made possession of 2,4621. 2s., while the trustee in the value of money by the Bill of the of B had only 1,2901. Now, neither of right hon. Baronet; he complained of these children nor these trustees had done the operations of that Bill; and as the any act to produce these results; but A right hon. Gentleman had in this Session was now possessed of double the property set up a justification of his Bill, and said of B. Were changes like this, arising he would not shrink from the responsibility from the alteration in the value of money, it involved, and as the right hon. Gentle- to be overlooked? Was it just? Was man was still opposed to that adjustment it reasonable? He would then proceed to which should have accompanied it in show what had been the effects of the 1819, he had a right to complain of him. alteration in the value of money as meaHe had heard that the right hon. Baronet's sured in the manufactures which he (Mr. father had warned him of the consequences Fielden) produced; and the intrinsic value of that Bill, and had stated to him, that if of which is the same now as in 1815, notit were passed, it would double the value withstanding such alteration. He should of his funded property, but somebody here have the support of the hon. member would lose it; whether the right hon. for Essex, who, on a former night declared, Baronet had had such a warning or not, that money, which was the mere measure he could not say, but such, he would of commodities, did not alter their value. endeavour to show to the House, had been To illustrate what he had to show to the its effects. He would suppose a case, that House, he would claim their indulgence, a parent, at the close of the war in 1815, while he read to them a table, showing had two sons, A and B, to whom he the prices of cotton, and of articles manubequeathed the sum of 1,000l. each, to factured from it from 1815 to the end of be vested in the hands of trustees until 1832. The table contained twelve cothey came of age, with a direction that lumns, and he would first read what those A's 1,000l. should be invested in the three columns contain: [Here the hon. Memper cent consols, which at 571. 10s., the ber read the following table.]

(See over leaf.)

Here he had shown that the class of | equitable adjustment between the public manufacturers to which he belonged had, at the end of 1832, not only paid both interest and principle, if the account between them and the national creditor had been kept in those manufactures: but that they had overpaid the account by eleven pieces and two-thirds of a piece. The Government had had from the cotton manufacturers what this table shows for this account, and, if it be not settled, proof is here given of the wrong done by Government to the manufacturers by raising the standard of value. It was perfectly right to recur to a metallic standard, but wrong to do so without accompanying it with an

and the fundholder, and between all debtors and creditors who would be seriously injured by such a change. But how do the manufacturers now stand with regard to the national creditors? They are told that they now owe not sixty-six pieces and two-thirds for every 601., as they did in 1815, but that they now owe 218 pieces for every 601. Notwithstanding this he declared that, if they be fairly dealt with, they should be considered as having paid off the whole of the debt. Here is crying injustice, and for which somebody ought to be responsible. He would ask, was it right or equitable that his class should be

*No. 1. Shows the number of pounds weight of cotton required to make a piece of third 74s. calico. 2. The average price of cotton per pound.

3. The average cost of cotton for one piece.

4. The average price of such calico in the Manchester market.

5. The average sum the manufacturer had for labour, expenses and profits, in every year from 1815 to 1832 inclusive.

6. The average sum for labour, expenses, and profit, for three periods of six years each.

7. The sum less per cent for labour, expenses, and profit, in each of the six years than in the year 1815, the close of the war.

8. The number of pieces of said calicoes which 601. would purchase the fundholder in 1815.

9. The number of pieces the fundholder was entitled to receive annually, at the rate of 5 pieces per cent.

10. The number of pieces the manufacturer has had to pay annually.

11. The excess of pieces over and above 5 per cent. he has had to pay in the respective years. 12. The simple interest on such excess from the year in which the manufacturer had to pay it to the end of the year 1832.