GENERAL HISTORY. 



[29 



going- into ;i connnittee of tlic 

 whole House on that subject. 



The discussion which succeeded 

 took so wide a range of enquiry 

 into the nature of the distress, 

 and its causes and remedies, that 

 after a variety of discordant opini- 

 ons had been started by the differ- 

 ent speakers, the House at a late 

 hour adjourned the debate. 



The resumption of this import- 

 ant topic did not take place till 

 Apnl 9th, when Mr. Westtrn 

 moved the order of the day for 

 the farther consideration of the 

 agricultural distresses of the 

 country ; at liic same time, on 

 account of the thin attendance, he 

 said he did not feel himself dis- 

 posed to urge that the House 

 should go into the committee on 

 that e\ ening. He had hoped that 

 the most persevering attention 

 would have ijeen given to this sub- 

 ject, but whether fjom the pres- 

 sure of business, or from what- 

 ever other cause, the House had 

 not attended to it as he could have 

 wished. 



A debate then ensued concern- 

 ing the })ostponement of the sub- 

 ject till after the holidays ; which 

 was terminated by a motion of 

 .Sir Egerton Brijilges for the pre- 

 sent resumption of the adjourned 

 debate, which being carried, the 

 House resolved itself into a com- 

 mittee. 



Mr. Brougliuiii then rose, and 

 delivered a speech, in which at 

 consideiable length he entered 

 into an historical view of the origin 

 and progress of the difficulties 

 into which the nation had unhap- 

 pily fallen. In this luminous e.v- 

 posure, which was heard with 

 nmch attention, the circumstance 

 which he stated as lying at the 



ro6t of the matter was the pro- 

 gress of agriculture during the 

 j)eribd of the last war, or from 

 the year 1792 downwards. This 

 he traced through the operation 

 of its several causes ; and con- 

 cluded, that by their united action, 

 a start had been made in the pro- 

 ductive powers of this island, 

 <|uite unexampled in any equal 

 l)eriod of its former history. " On 

 the other iiand (said he) when I 

 reflect on the nature of the causes 

 which 1 have enumerated, and 

 lind that most of them areofsud- 

 «Ien occurrence, and that their 

 combination in the space of ten 

 years was accidental ; when, 

 moreover, 1 perceive that the 

 most mateiial of them were of a 

 temi)orary duration, and could 

 not remain long to support the 

 great cultivation which they had 

 occasioned, I am disposed to think 

 that 1 have got hold of a principle 

 upon which something like an 

 overtrading in agriculture, and a 

 consetpient redundaiicc of pro- 

 duce, may be inferred to have 

 happened." He then took into 

 consideration the circiunstances 

 which began and continued to 

 operate to the disadvantage of 

 agriculture ; and finally discussed 

 tiie probable effects of the pro- 

 posed remedies. But as the matter 

 of this speech has been given in a 

 separate publication, it would be 

 useless to attempt to bring a sum- 

 mary of its ai-gumcntation within 

 our compass. 



Lvrd Castlereagh, after compli- 

 menting the hon. and learned 

 gentleman on the ability and 

 temperance with which he had 

 treated the subject, entered into 

 a discussion of several topics on 

 which he differed from him in 



opinion. 



