1830.] at the Opening of the New Parliament. 547 



landholders. This cry has been eagerly repeated, alike by the manu- 

 facturer, the public annuitant, and the fundholder. 



At this moment, when the first excitement of the measure has passed 

 away, we are called upon to look steadily upon its consequences, and 

 to examine whether the arguments which were advanced in its support, 

 have or have not been confirmed. The manufacturer was led to expect 

 not only a very material reduction in the cost of the necessaries of life, 

 but also an increase in his profits and in the extent of his commerce. 

 The labourer was led to expect an increase of wages, accompanied with 

 a decrease in the price of provisions. Have such expectations, we ask, 

 been fulfilled ? Have they ever been partially fulfilled, or is there the 

 most remote hope that they will ever be so ? They are allowed on all 

 hands to have utterly failed. The labourer has not gained any thing, 

 for the price of labour has declined even more than the price of corn, 

 and in truth it was never intended by the real agitators of the measure 

 that the labourer should gain. The manufacturer intended that so much 

 as was taken from the farmer should be added to his own profits. Has this 

 been the case ? No the profit of the manufacturer has been progres- 

 sively declining since the measure was passed. The very parties whose 

 selfish views were consulted have been disappointed in their expectations ; 

 and yet, to gratify this restless and unprincipled spirit of experimental 

 legislation, a great proportion in fact, the greatest proportion of the 

 moral and numerical strength of the country has been thrown into 

 wretchedness and poverty. 



It would be very easy to shew the impolicy of this measure, and its 

 injustice to a deserving and estimable part of the community ; but, 

 with the fact of its utter failure before our eyes, we apprehend that argu- 

 ment is unnecessary. We shall therefore proceed to view the object of 

 the legislature, as evinced in this and similar measures. The policy of 

 ministers has been to throw the entire strength of the country into the 

 hands of the manufacturing interest, to the exclusion and at the expense 

 of every other. We were to advance this object by any sacrifice even 

 by the total subversion of the existing state of society. We were to 

 monopolize the commerce of the world, and it was roundly asserted that 

 we were able to effect this, in despite of our heavy taxation, by even- 

 handed competition with other states which were comparatively unbur- 

 thened with debt. We were to throw aside every privilege which we 

 had formerly enjoyed to relinquish every protection which the wisdom 

 of our ancestors, and in many instances, the success of long and arduous 

 warfare, had wrested from the possession of the continental powers. 

 We were to throw open our ports to the world ; and then, alone, 

 unaided, in our naked strength, we were " to weave and spin against a 

 world in arms ! !" 



Such was the magnificent picture which was held out to the sanguine 

 imaginations of our manufacturers; but unfortunately one material 

 objection was overlooked. The age of chivalry had gone by. In these 

 degenerate days men prefer to fight with odds ; and the world was too 

 old a soldier to quit her " points of fence," and doff her triple mail, for 

 the dangerous frolic of entering the ring with an armed barbarian. 

 The note of challenge was sounded in vain, and the exhibition of our 

 naked person appeared so formidable that the world was wary enough 

 to keep her valuables under lock. She was sufficiently eager to share 



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