MOTION FOR INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE NATION.
After passing the celebrated “six acts,” the Marquess of Lansdowne moved for a select committee to inquire into the state of the nation, and especially in those districts where distress and radicalism prevailed. His lordship said that the principle called radicalism existed in exactly the same proportion as that of distress in the respective districts; and that he had a right to infer this from the agricultural part of the country being yet untainted, and from the spirit of the principle having reached its height in the manufacturing districts both of England and Scotland. The distress, he thought, arose from the long war, which gave us the carrying trade of the world, and which created a fixed capital, which still existed, and filled the markets, while no vent could be found for their produce. It was also increased, he thought, by the poor laws, the paper currency, and the spirit of speculation. Two propositions were enforced by his lordship on the house for the alleviation of the distress: namely, to rescind the duties on articles which had decreased in various districts, as tea &c.; and the establishment of favourable commercial treaties, which government had not yet succeeded in accomplishing. The Marquess Wellesley deprecated all such inquiries, as did other noble lords, and the motion was negatived by a large majority.
GEORGE III. 1818—1820