SPEECH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART., DELIVERED ON FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1849, With THE Work has Wind Ent. Cordlenent STATE OF THE NATION. PUBLIC LỚN HƠN. J. BAIN, 1, HAYMARKET. 1849. SPEECH, ETC. ETC. SIR R. PEEL said,-Sir, I do not propose to enter at any length, if indeed at all, into those considerations of a purely political character, which are naturally raised by the question brought forward by the Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire. It would be totally out of my power to do justice to those considerations during the period for which I could fairly expect that the House would lend me its attention. To discuss the question of Ireland-the colonial policy-the foreign policy of this country in one speech must-if any attempt were made to do justice to those various topics -absorb so much of the time of the House, that little would be left for the discussion of that which I consider to be the main point at issue this night, namely, Shall we displace the Government for the purpose of subverting the commercial policy on which it has acted? Since the accession of the present Ministry to power, I have felt it to be my duty to give to the great majority of the measures they have introduced A 2 a general support. I have thought it but just to make allowance for the great difficulties with which they have had to contend-commercial discredit and distress-famine in Ireland-the greatest moral and social revolution, by which the internal tranquillity of nations or the peace of Europe was ever disturbed. I have thought that it was for the public interest that the energy and power of the Executive Government of this country during such a crisis of combined dangers, should not be impaired by factious or captious opposition. At the same time, Sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that all I mean to imply by the vote I shall give to-night is this, that I cordially approve of the general principles of commercial policy by which her Majesty's Government have been guided, and that I will not consent to a motion, the main object of which avowedly is, to censure them for their adherence to those principles, and to substitute in the place of that policy some other economic system. eeee The course I propose to pursue, with the permission of the House, is this to examine the grounds upon which the Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire has impeached the commercial policy which has been acted upon for some years. I shall then proceed to consider whether or no that new principle of economic policy which he proposes to substitute in its place, has any foundation in reason or experience, and whether the adoption of it would contribute to the welfare and prosperity of this country. In examining the arguments of the Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire I shall take that course which appears to me by far the most likely to conduce to the ascertaining of truth-namely, to state each argument separately, as nearly as I can in the words in which it was conveyed, and then to give the answer to such argument. And I cannot help thinking that if that were the course generally pursued in this House in the conduct of discussions like these, substituting the plain simple test of argument for vague declamation, it would conduce to the full elucidation of the matters with which we have to deal. Sir, I understood the Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire to impeach the commercial policy which has been acted upon for some time past, and to attribute to that policy a great part of the suffering under which it is admitted that some interests in this country, or in portions of this country, are now labouring. But I was struck, I confess, by an admission of the Hon. Gentleman at the commencement of his speech. I willingly pay to him the acknowledgments which are justly due for that admission. He was describing the state of this country when the Noble Lord succeeded to power, and he made this admission with respect to its condition, and the moral influence of that Government, which was in power at the commencement of the year 1846. He said, |