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merely carries out the principles of a dissenter from the established church, and chooses to obey God rather than man. I have no doubt that such is the feeling of dissenters who are opposed to church rates; but I cannot say that I exonerate defaulters in payment from all crime against society. I think that in setting an example of disobedience to the established laws of the community, such defaulters act in a way calculated to shake the confidence and respect which ought to belong to them. With respect to adopting another mode for collecting church rates, that is another question. There is one alteration of the laws, which nothing but what appears to me to be indifference on the part of the dissenters with respect to the change, has prevented from taking place. I mean an alteration which would transfer the enforcement of the law, such as it is, from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts. I cannot see the propriety or advantage of such questions going before ecclesiastical courts; while, on the other hand, there is a very great disadvantage attending it; and parties think it a greater hardship to be summoned before the ecclesiastical courts than before others. If church rates were levied by a court of quarter sessions, with appeal to the superior courts of common law, I think they would form as fit a tribunal with regard to payment of church rates, or tithes, as any other. If it be thought better to abolish church rates altogether as onerous and oppressive, let it be done upon the general grounds; but let not the House agree to a resolution, which, in sanctioning the refusal of church rates, may be used in disobeying any law whatever.

RUSSELL.

ON THE WANT OF CONFIDENCE, 1841.

ALTHOUGH I have resisted, and always will resist, any unconstitutional attempt on the part of the House of Commons to trench upon the prerogative of the crown, I have yet endeavored to maintain in the House of Commons, every just principle to which it

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could lay a claim. I supported Lord John Russell last year in defence of the privileges of the House of Commons: I might upon that occasion have been seduced by the temptation of party advantage to take a different course; and, as it was, I had to encounter the pain of differing, perhaps, from a majority of my friends. But I thought that vital interests that important powers were at stake; and I was determined that I would not, to conciliate the favor and affection of my own esteemed friends, put to hazard the legitimate privileges of the House of Commons, and subject the House of Commons to a court of law. I know that it is imprudent and unwise to revert to these things-I know that it would be more politic on my part to conceal these differences with my friends. But I will be guilty of no such concealment. I differed from them and voted against them, from a sincere belief that it was absolutely necessary for the vindication of the privileges of the House of Commons-nay, that it was essential to our existence as a legislative body, that we should have the power of free publication. Why should I shrink from a reference to the opinions I then expressed, and the vote I gave? Is it not rather a subject of pride with me, that I can be permitted to take my own independent view as to the vital privileges of the House of Commons, and yet that due justice shall be done to my motives, and that I shall again be able to rally around me, in the band of common connexion and common esteem, those friends from whom on that occasion I happened to differ?

Acting in conformity with these views, which teach me to resist the encroachment of the House upon the prerogative of the crown, and yet to maintain the House itself in its legitimate influence in the state, I think I may fairly conclude that the House of Commons has a right to expect that the minister of the crown, who is alike the proper guardian of the royal prerogative and parliamentary privilege, should possess its confidence. This present House of Commons has been constituted and moulded upon the views of the noble Lord opposite. The noble Lord was the author of the bill by which this House of Commons was constituted. It was the noble Lord who thought it expedient to abolish the system of nomination boroughs.

It was the noble Lord who thought it expedient to introduce more of popular spirit into the constitution of the House-to make it correspond more with the progress of popular intelligence, and with the advance of knowledge. To achieve this, the noble Lord thought that we ought to make the House more an image of public opinion -an assembly more sympathizing with the people-more expressive of the public view. This House of Commons, thus constituted according to the views of the noble Lord-this House of Commons had the advantage, if it could be considered an advantage, of being elected under the noble Lord's auspices; and whatever benefit there may be from having had its election at the time when her most Gracious Majesty came to the throne, that benefit also the noble Lord was possessed of. Yet this House of Commons so constituted, so elected under the auspices of the noble Lord-this House of Commons it is, that has given, as I think, indication that it withholds its confidence from the government of which the noble Lord is a conspicuous member.

I trust I have executed this duty in conformity with the spirit in which I intended to have executed it-with none of that asperity of party which I may sometimes display, when rising at the end of a debate to speak under the excitement and agitation which naturally belong to that period of our deliberations. It has not been my intention to treat with disrespect those who hold the executive offices of the government; but it has been my intention to say to the government, "It is your duty to the House of Commons -if it has these additional claims upon public confidence which you ascribe to it—if it embodies more of the public spirit—if it reflects more accurately the image of the public mind than those which have preceded it—it is your duty, your peculiar duty, not to deprive it of any of that legitimate influence which it ought to possess."

PEEL.

ON FREE TRADE.

If the great nations of the world perceive that this country—this commercial country—this free country, which has long entertained liberal notions, has come to the decision that restriction and prohibition are the best maxims of commercial policy, they will quote the example for their own guidance—their manufacturers will quote it for their own regulations, and those of the people under them; and restriction and prohibition will thus become the rule of all the intercourse in the world. Now is that for your advantage—is that for the advantage of the world? I say for your advantage it certainly is not; for as a great commercial and manufacturing nation, your plain policy is to promote the extension and diffusion of commerce and manufactures. No more is it for the advantage of the world—because my belief is, that the more free and unrestricted is intercourse, the more the nations of the world are mingled together by the ties of peaceful commerce; the farther you carry your bales of goods and cases of hardware, the more widely will you diffuse that general knowledge, and the maxims of civilization and christianity, which belong to a nation standing in the front rank for these qualities. You must observe that, though you now stand in so proud and prominent a rank in this respect, you are liable to those vicissitudes which may alter your position. You do not stand like Rome

"Rome, it is thine alone with awful sway

To rule mankind, and make the world obey,

Disposing peace and war thine own majestic way:—"

we are, on the contrary, among several nations of great power, of great civilization, with institutions some of them as free as our own, many of them having advanced to great wealth, and competing with, and rivalling us, in the arts of peace and in the productions of Give them a right example, and you will still stand, not only their equal, but the foremost amongst them. Take a contrary course, and say that this is the day upon which you have

commerce.

resolved on restriction and prohibition-tell them that your merchants of the East Indies, your traders to the West Indies, your timber merchants of North America, and the landholders of your own soil, have raised monopoly as the standard under which they mean to march, and by which they will abide, and you will rapidly spread your example; then, when you may wish to retrace your steps, you will find the lesson you have taught too well appreciated ever to be forgotten.

RUSSELL.

ON FREE TRADE.

THE question is not, as some gentlemen seem to suppose, whether capital should be employed in any trade in a certain way or not, but whether ministers, by the course they proposed to pursue, did not run the hazard of giving a fresh impetus to slavery; and in doing this, whether they would not depart from the high position in which they had attempted to place themselves. This country

claimed the right to use high language to other nations on the subject of slavery and the slave trade, notwithstanding we might be such extensive consumers of slave-produced cotton; and this country does so, in consequence of the sacrifices she has made in promotion of the abolition of both slavery and the slave trade, and held out her conduct as having been perfectly disinterested in the course which she had pursued. If, then, we pursue this course, must we not cease to hold up the example of England to other countries? Lord John Russell, the other evening, compared England to Rome, and stated that the circumstances of the two states were different, and that arms were no longer the means of influencing the world; and then proceeded to quote a paraphrase of some beautiful lines by Dryden. The lines quoted by the noble Lord were: —

"But Rome, 'tis thine alone with awful sway

To rule mankind and make the world obey,
Dispensing peace and war thine own majestic way:

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