to, and the house adjourned.

In the house of commons also the address was agreed to without a
division, and the house adjourned.

NATIONAL DISTRESS.

Allusion had been made in the royal speech to the distress which
pervaded the country at this time; and in this state of things Lord
Howick give notice for a committee of the whole house to investigate the
causes of this distress. The debate commenced on the 18th of February,
by Lord Howick, calling attention to the paragraph in her majesty's
speech referring to diminished revenue. This having been read by the
clerk at the table, his lordship then moved that the house do now
resolve itself into a committee upon the said passage in her majesty's
speech. The debate on the motion continued during five nights: various
members on both sides of the house supporting or opposing the motion. On
the fifth and last night Mr. Cobden said that his chief objection to
the motion was, that it did not include agricultural as well as
manufacturing distress. The agricultural labourers were in a wretched
state; neither them nor the farmers were any gainers by the corn-laws.
With neither of these classes had landlords any right to identify
themselves. The landlord was no agriculturist: he might live all his
days in London or in Paris. He was no more an agriculturist than a
shipowner was a sailor. The real agriculturists were beginning to get a
glimmering of light upon this question. The member for Dorsetshire had
attacked the league; he protested against the notion that the league had
been the movers of sedition and assassination. He would next inquire
why the present motion was to be resisted by the government. When Sir R.
Peel took the reins of government, he took with them the responsibility
of introducing the measures necessary for the country..The ministers
were advocates of free-trade: why did they not carry it into effect?
They adopted it, it was said, only in the abstract: the house had
nothing to do with abstractions. Length of time was pleaded; he should
like to know whether that would be a defence to the claim of a just
plaintiff in a court of law? It could not be said that the period was
unsuitable; the year lay before them, and there was no pressure of
legislative business, publie or private. Had government any other
remedy? They had last year imposed a corn-law which gave umbrage to
all classes of mercantile men. That law had not given any extension to
regular trade, an