1830.] [ 545 ] 



THE CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE COUNTRY A.T THE 

 OPENING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. 



WE believe there never was a period at which the meeting of a new 

 parliament was looked forward to with more intense anxiety than at the 

 present moment ; yet never, probably, were the expectations of a people 

 so indefinite and so opposite in their tendency. The events which have 

 so recently taken place in a neighbouring country, and of which the 

 consequences have spread, or are even now making progress, through 

 every state in Europe, are look ed upon in this country with enthusiasm 

 by some, and by others with fear. By all, these events are viewed with 

 perplexity ; and by all it is agreed, that the future welfare, almost the 

 existence, of the nation must depend upon the measures and policy of the 

 ensuing session. Whilst our foreign relations are daily assuming a more 

 equivocal, if not a more dangerous position, the internal arrangements 

 of the country are acknowledged to require great and important changes ; 

 and it is evident to all classes of observers, that the present Administra- 

 tion is most profoundly ignorant, not only of the nature of these changes, 

 but of their necessity. 



The present Parliament succeeds one which, for incapacity and ser- 

 vility, has not been equalled within the memory of older men than our- 

 selves. We have viewed its measures in detail, and we have traced them 

 in their several and collective operations, and have no hesitation in 

 declaring, that a more stupendous mass of folly and presumption has 

 never been placed on record. In fact, we can scarcely suppose that any 

 set of human beings could have merely blundered into such measures, so 

 perfect does their adaptation seem to the views of the most virulent 

 enemy of our well-being. We doubt much if the genius of any man, 

 living or dead, could have framed a system of destruction so complete 

 in all its parts as that of the late Parliament ; and yet, even now, with 

 its consequences before our eyes in our households and around our 

 doors and these consequences bankruptcy, poverty, and starvation 

 we are called upon to uphold that system, or to forfeit the character of 

 " liberal and intelligent men." 



So far as we have been able to discover, the leading principle of poli- 

 tical economy as it has been applied by the late Parliament to our 

 commercial arrangements is, ' ' the impolicy of all monopolies." It has 

 been asserted that we have an undoubted right in all cases whether as 

 individuals or as members of a community to go to the cheapest mar- 

 ket for our goods that a regulation which prevents us from buying of 

 the foreign manufacturer, in cases when we can do so cheaper than of 

 our manufacturer at home, is impolitic and unjust and, consequently, 

 that it is perfectly right and wise to allow the foreigner, in all eases 

 where he can under-sell our own merchant, the unrestricted privilege of 

 doing so. Now we apprehend that this doctrine of the impolicy of 

 monopolies, although perhaps true in the abstract, is not equally so in 

 its application. There is a material difference between a national mono- 

 poly and one that is merely personal. The latter is, in most cases, bene- 

 ficial to one class of the community at the immediate expense of 

 another ; and we admit that it is bad, and ought to be relinquished ; but 

 the former, as it diffuses its benefits over the whole face of the commu- 

 nity, ought not to be so summarily dealt with. It is not vicious, merely 

 because it is a monopoly, but, on the contrary in its general reference 



M. M. New Series. VOL. X. No. 59. 3 Z 



