fore you, copies of arrangements which have been entered into with the kingdoms of Denmark and Hanover, for improving the commercial intercourse between those states and the United Kingdom. A treaty, having for its object the more effectual suppression of the slave trade, has been concluded between his Majesty and the king of Sweden; a copy of which treaty (as soon as the ratifications thereof shall have been exchanged) his Majesty has directed to be laid before you. Some difficulties have arisen with respect to the ratification of the treaty for the same object, which was negociated last year between his Majesty and the United States of America. These difficulties, however, his Majesty trusts, will not finally impede the conclusion of so beneficial an arrangement. In conformity with the declarations which have been repeatedly made by his Majesty, his Majesty has taken measures for confirming by treaties the commercial relations already subsisting between this kingdom and those countries of America which appear to have established their separation from Spain. So soon as these treaties shall be completed, his Majesty will direct copies of them to be laid before you. His Majesty commands us not to conclude without congratulating you upon the continued improvement in the state of the agricultural interest, the solid foundation of our national prosperity; nor without informing you that evident advantage has been derived from the relief which you have recently given to commerce, by the removal of inconvenient restrictions. His Majesty recommends to you to persevere (as circumstances may allow) in the removal of similar restric

tions; and his Majesty directs us to assure you, that you may rely upon his Majesty's cordial co-operation in fostering and extending that commerce which, whilst it is, under the blessing of Providence, a main source of strength and power to this country, contributes in no less a degree to the happiness and civilization of mankind.”

In the House of Lords, viscount Dudley and Ward moved the Address in answer to the Speech, and in doing so, displayed the same ingenuity and precision of thought, with the same elegance of style, which had so often pleased and instructed the House of Commons. He took a view of the state of the country since the conclusion of the peace, and dwelt particularly upon the great increase of our commerce and manufactures. Our present prosperity, he said, was a prosperity extending to all orders, all professions, and all districts, enhanced and invigorated by the flourishing state of all those arts which ministered to human.comfort, and by those inventions by which man seemed to have ob tained a mastery over nature by the application of her own powers; and which, if any one had ventured to foretel it only a few years ago, would have appeared altogether incredible, but which, now realized, though not yet perfected, presented to us fresh prospects, and a more astonishing career. There never was a time when the spirit of useful improvement, not only in the arts, but in all the details of domestic administration, whether carried on by the public, or by individuals, was so high. That world, too, which had first been opened to us by the genius of a great man, but afterwards closed for

centuries by the barbarous and absurd policy of Spain, was, as it were, re-discovered in our days. The last remnant of that veil which concealed it from the observation and intercourse of mankind had just been torn away; and we saw it abounding, not only in those metals which first allured the avarice of greedy adventurers, but in those more precious productions which sustain life and animate industry, and cheering the mind of the philosopher and the statesman with boundless possibilities of reciprocal advantage in civilization and in commerce. He remembered that a great historian and statesman, after describing what appeared to him (and what, according to the imperfect nature of those times, undoubtedly was) a period of great prosperity, still complained, that there was wanting what he called a proper sense and acknowledgment of those blessings. That, of the want of which lord Clarendon had once complained, was not wanting to us now: the people of England felt and acknowledged their happiness: the public contentment was upon a level with the public prosperity. Alluding to the benefits which had arisen from the removal of commercial restrictions, he recommended that the principle should be persevered in. In every case in which the principle had been

acted upon, the effects had been highly beneficial. When the bill for the removal of the restrictions on the silk trade was brought forward, how numerous and weighty were the complaints which were made? Yet so far from the trade having decayed, as had been anticipated, it had flourished since that period more rapidly than before, and had since extended almost as fast as the manufacture of cotton

had done. We no longer dreaded the rivalry of the foreigner in our market, and were able to contend with him in the markets of the continent. We were now fully taught, that the great commercial prosperity of England had not arisen from our commercial restrictions, but had grown up in spite of them.

After stating his conviction that the concession of the claims of the Catholics was essential to the tranquillity of Ireland, he expressed his mortification at seeing much in the language and conduct of the Roman Catholics themselves which was calculated to keep alive the remembrance of old times; to fix upon their church the charge of being semper eadem in its most odious sense; and to strengthen the arguments and embitter the feelings of those who were determined, at all hazards, to resist their claims. Their language had become menacing, and their conduct trod upon the utmost verge of the law; provoking the hostility of their enemies, and terrifying their friends. They had already lost all those that wavered; and they might ere long shake those that were still firm. It was only by reverting to another line of conduct, that they could justify the cordial co-operation of their friends, or conciliate opponents, too strong to be overcome except by the entire subversion of the state itself. They should keep in mind that this is no country for rapid changesthat even our liberties were of slow growth. If they would but compare their own condition with what it was forty years ago, they would see ample reason to be content with the past, and sanguine as to the future. There were now living many who had grown up

to manhood before the claims of the Catholics in their actual extent had ever been heard of, and before any statesman would have ventured to espouse them, had they been advanced. While he thus disapproved of the conduct of the Irish Catholics, he entreated the House not to be diverted by a just indignation at their extravagant proceedings, from the permanent state of the question. It would probably be the duty of that House to concur in some measure to curb their licentious spirit; but that done, their lordships ought to consider anxiously, whether the state of the Catholics was one that could continue; and whether, if the admission of the Catholics to the stations from which they were excluded, were an evil, it was not a less evil than their discontent in good times, and their possible disaffection in bad ones. In congratulating the country on the assurances which his majesty continued to receive from all the governments of Europe, of their amicable and friendly dispositions, the noble viscount observed, that this general peace rested on the secure foundation of strength united with moderation. The only contest which existed in Europe was, not between governments, but parties. There were two great parties-one desiring to restore the ancient order of things, and the other constantly striving after some new order. The former were not contented with that order which existed before the revolution, but wanted something more despotic; such as had been adopted by mankind in an uncivilized age. They did not like our form of government, and naturally looked on our national institutions as a pregnant source of principles which they

always dreaded, and wished to repress. The other party were desirous of destroying every thing which existed; and the only remedy they could find for all the evils of mankind was, to sweep away every institution which had long been held in veneration. They were, while they boasted of their attachment to freedom, extremely narrow and illiberal; and however they might differ among themselves, they were all actuated by a bitter hatred towards this country. They were not sincere in their love of liberty, of which they talked so much; for they had crouched down before Buonaparte, and worshipped him, and had endeavoured to reduce England to an imperial province. They were the enemies of all the principles of national liberty or national independence; and the institutions of this country they above all things abhorred. They resembled their predecessors, the Jacobins, but had less sincerity: and it was only when they were subdued by their opponents, that they called out loudly for liberty, by which they meant power. They now complained, that this country had not done that which would have proved its injury, if not its destruction.

In the recognition of the South American states, lord Dudley and Ward contended, that we had proceeded with caution, justice, and delicacy. It was a difficult question to decide, where insurrection ended, and legal government began: and his majesty's government had not pretended to determine where allegiance ought to end and lawful resistance begin; but had acted openly upon the undisputed fact of those states of South America, with which treaties had

been concluded, being actually independent. Our intercourse had grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength; and had at length become complete, as their independence had become unquestionable.

Lord Gort seconded the Address. Lord King then made a speech, in which he was too intent upon being witty to trouble himself about sense: the wit consisted in describing the members of the cabinet by Turkish titles. The marquis of Lansdown gave his hearty concurrence to all that had been said concerning the internal prosperity of the country, and the wisdom of its foreign policy in the recognition of the independent states of South America. That part of the Speech which touched upon the state of Ireland, he regarded as peculiarly important; and he went at some length into the subject, cautioning ministers not to be hasty in repressing open complaint, and not to beguile themselves with the idea of curing a malady, merely by removing the outward symptoms. After a few observations from lord Liverpool, which did not bring forward any new topic, lord Donoughmore and lord Clifden expressed their disapprobation of that part of the Speech which related to the Catholic Association. Lord Roden, on the other hand, contended, that that body had been allowed too long to pursue their dangerous career without molestation. The Address was then agreed to without a division.

In the House of Commons the Address was moved by lord Francis Leveson Gower, in a very neatly worded speech, which was received with the kind indulgence usually

shown by that assembly to the early efforts of young men of powerful connexions and great expectancies. Mr. Alderman Thompson seconded it. Mr. Brougham was the first member who spoke from the opposition side of the House. He began by observing, that in giving his assent, and in joining his congratulations to those contained in the address upon many of the points noticed in the Speech, he could not claim for himself any extraordinary stretch of candour. He was rather withheld, as indeed were many of the friends around him, by a feeling of modesty, from giving their due meed of praise to the measures alluded to; since those measures which were now the theme of so much eulogy, were measures which the gentlemen on his side of the House had urged years ago, but in vain, upon those who at that time were intrusted with the administration of the country. For years the House had been told, that it was either a wild chimera, or a dangerous innovation, to talk of the doctrines of a free trade, and of the right of men to employ their capital and their industry according to their interests, their wishes-ay, or even according to their caprices. At one time, when it pleased the ministry to view them with contempt, these doctrines were described as a visionary code, specious in theory, but impossible in practice; and at another, when it pleased our rulers to excite alarm against them, they were viewed with as much detestation and abhorrence, as if they had been a leaf taken out of that book which some men thought they could never sufficiently detest and abhor, " The Rights of Man," by Thomas Paine. He had himself heard them treated as idle chimeras by one set of

ministers, and as jacobinical innovations by another; and yet he, who had seen them first contemned and then abhorred, had now the happiness to say, that they had reached the consummation of their glory, not merely in being adopted by ministers, but in being publicly recognized, both in the Speech which had just been delivered to them from a high quarter, and also in the addresses which were about to be returned to it by both Houses of Parliament. The House would see, that it required but little candour in him to approve those parts of the Speech, which referred to the late mercantile reforms. Eight years ago he had himself expounded-very inadequately, he admitted, but still he had expounded-the very alterations in the Navigation laws which had lately been adopted: and, by so doing, he had drawn down upon himself the heavy disapprobation of a great guardian of the commercial interests of the country, -the late Mr. Rose. He had ventured, however, to preach them more than once-ineffectually, indeed, at the time, but, as it now appeared, with undeniable ultimate success. At the same time, he had also proposed the changes which had recently been adopted with regard to the silk trade. They were assailed, on his first propounding them, with great and extraordinary severity: he was told over and over again, that nothing could be more speculative, nothing more absurd, that though they might appear very plausible in theory, every person in the trade considered them inapplicable to practice: and he was even met by the taunt, that what he advanced might be very true, but that it looked very much like an ingenious sophism. Ministers had, however, sanctioned such

principles: they had carried into effect all the detestable nostrums of that side of the House: they had taken an entire leaf out of the book of their opponents: they had even enacted measures to legalize the damnable heresies of Adam Smith and the Scotch economists, and to stamp with that odious name the opinions of their adversaries: nay more, the country was now called to thank God for having ministers who had courage to support such measures, though it was formerly called upon to thank God for having ministers who had courage to, oppose them.

His majesty's ministers would, he hoped, go on in the course on which they had entered. If they did not, their work would be only half accomplished. What they had done was chiefly to be prized as a pledge that a better policy than the past would be pursued in future. For example, they had adopted the recommendations which he had proposed in 1817 regarding the navigation and the silk laws. Now, another of the measures which he had recommended was one that had never been described as either so chimerical or so abominable, as either of those which had been recently adopted, and might be easily carried into effect. Let the wine duties be at once reduced; and let there be not only a reduction, but an equalization of these different wine duties for all foreign countries-in fact, a general and total revision of that arrangement, which was made under the name of the Methuen treaty, at a time, and under circumstances, when a far different foreign and domestic policy prevailed from that which ought at present to regulate the affairs of such a kingdom as Great Britain. One good effect which