GENERAL HISTORY. 



[91 



With this very singular circuni- 

 slaiice we shall dose our account of 

 the parliamentary proceedings on 

 the interesting topic of a change in 

 the administration ; for Mr. Sheri- 

 dan'ssubsequent attempt to explain 

 hig advice given to Lord Yarmouth 

 against the resignation of the 

 household, scarcely merits a nar- 

 ration. After two amendments of 

 ! Mr. Wortley's motion had been 

 ' put and negatived, in one of which 

 there was a division, ayes, 1G4 ; 

 noes, 289; the motion itself wa» 

 negatived without a division ; and 

 thus the old ministry remained de- 

 cidedly in possession of the coun- 

 tenance of the Hou^e of Com- 

 mons. 



Whilst this political ferment 

 was agitating the different parties 

 of candidates for ministerial power, 

 the examinations in reference to 

 the effects of the orders in council 

 upon the commercial and manu- 

 facturing interests in the kingdom 

 were going on with little interrup- 

 tion in both houses of parliament. 

 A vast mass of evidence being at 

 length collected, Mr. Brougham, 

 on June 16th, broujjht the matter 

 for final decision before the House 

 of Commons. He began his speech 

 with observing, that the question, 

 I though of unexampled interest, 

 was one of little intricacy. Its 

 pomts were few in number, and 

 involved in no obscurity or doubt. 

 At a distance, indeed, there appear- 

 ed a great mass of details, and the 

 eight or nine hundred folios of evi- 

 dence, together with the papers 

 aiid pe'.itions with which the table 

 was covered, might cause the sub- 

 ject to appear vast and complicated; 

 yet he did not doubt in a short 

 time to convince his hearers that 

 there has seldom been one of a 



public nature brought before that 

 house through which the path was 

 shorter, or led to a more obvious 

 decision. 



The hon. gentleman then took a 

 general survey of the severe dis- 

 tress which was now pressing upon 

 so many thousands of our indus- 

 trious fellow-subjects, proved not 

 only by their petitions, but by the 

 numerous schemes and devices 

 w hich had been resorted to as a re- 

 medy for the evils caused by the 

 suppression of their accustomed 

 sources of employment. He re- 

 minded the house of the general 

 outline of the inquiry. Above a 

 hundred witnesses had beeri ex- 

 amined from more than thirty of 

 the great manufacturing and com- 

 mercial districts. Among all these 

 there was only one single witness 

 who hesitated in admitting the 

 dreadful amount of the present dis- 

 tresses, Birmingham, Sheffield, 

 the clothing trade of Yorkshire, 

 the districts of the cotton trade, all 

 deeply participated in them. He 

 then adverted to the proofs by 

 which this evidence was met on 

 the other side of the house ; and 

 took into consideration the entries 

 in the Custom-house books, and the 

 substitutes and new channels of 

 commerce said to compensate for 

 those that are closed. He next 

 touched upon the topic so often 

 resorted to by the defenders of the 

 orders in council, that of the dig- 

 nity and honour of the nation, and 

 the necessity of asserting our mari- 

 time rights ; and he maintained that 

 every right may safely be waved or 

 abandoned for reasons of expedien- 

 cy, to be resumed when those rea- 

 sonscease. He lastly, dweitupon the 

 great importance of the American 

 market to the goods produced in 



this 



