had been prohibited; and the duty then laid was imposed
merely for the purposes of revenue, and not as a protection to trade.
The Duke of Wellington said that much more had been made out of the
expressions in the speech, concerning the bad seasons, than was meant.
It was not set down as the only cause of distress, but was alluded to
as one circumstance not to be lost sight of: there had been one bad
harvest, and another had been attended, in getting it in, with unusual
expense; these were facts to be taken into consideration. Another cause
of distress, he said, "was to be found in the state of our manufactures:
this it was to which his majesty alluded, when he spoke of me operation
of causes beyond the reach of legislative control. Were not, he asked,
competition at home and abroad, the introduction of machinery, and the
general adoption of steam, calculated to produce distress among our
manufacturers? Yet could parliament prevent competition? Could it
prohibit the use of machinery, and the application of steam, all
of which, by throwing labourers out of employment, produced
distress? But," his grace continued, "I am satisfied that the distress
is not universal; that there are parts of the country free from it. The
exports of last year had been greater than they had ever been before;
and there was not a canal or railway in the country which did not
present an increase of traffic. It was true, no doubt, that all this had
been done at small profits; but profits there must have been, otherwise
the traffic would not exist. Pressure upon the country there certainly
was; but not so great as to prevent it from rising, though slowly. The
country was not stationary; much less was it falling; it was improving."
His grace in continuance said, that he could not agree with the
supporters of the amendment, that what distress existed was to be
ascribed to the restricted circulating medium to a metallic currency.
There was no foundation in fact for such an opinion: the circulation
was greater now than before the restriction, and therefore the distress
could not be properly attributed to a deficient circulation. The Marquis
of Lansdowne opposed the amendment because its true object was to
bring the house to the adoption of one of the greatest evils which this
country had ever endured, an unlimited issue of a paper circulation. If
the first were taken, it would lead to subsequent steps, against which
it was his duty to guard the house and