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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1284: DEBATE ON THE DISTRESS OF THE NATION.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

DEBATE ON THE DISTRESS OF THE NATION.

On the 30th the chancellor of the exchequer rose, pursuant of notice, to move for “a select committee to inquire into the causes of the recent commercial distress, and how far it has been effected by the laws for regulating the issue of bank-notes payable on demand.” After an intellectual debate, except so far as some incoherent rhapsodies of Mr. Urquhart made it otherwise, the motion was acceded to. Sir Robert Peel appeared to singular advantage in this discussion; he placed the causes of public distress luminously before the house, and supported the policy of government. In the lords there was a similar debate, remarkable for the extraordinary assertion of Lord Brougham, that the public distress was chiefly to be attributed to the obstinacy of government and parliament in not taking his advice and that of the Duke of Wellington, proffered for the last ten years. His lordship seemed ambitious of identifying himself with the illustrious duke on all possible occasions, although scarcely any two men could have entertained opinions more dissonant than these two noble persons.