apportion taxation that we shall relieve industry and labour from any un- due burden, and transfer it, so far as it is consistent with the public good, to those who are better enabled to bear it. I look to the present peace of this country; I look to the absence of all disturbance—to the non-existence of any commitment for a seditious offence; I look to the calm that prevails in the public mind; I look to the absence of all disaffection; I look to the increased and growing public con- fidence on account of the course you have taken in relieving trade from restrictions, and industry from unjust burdens; and where there was disatisfaction, I see contentment; and where there was turbulence, I see there is peace; where there was disloyalty, I see there is loyalty. I see a disposition to confide in you, and not to agitate questions that are at the foundations of your institutions."
On the division, the members were :
| For the third reading | 327 |
| Against it | 229 |
| ——— | |
| Majority | 98 |
In the House of Lords there was less delay than was anticipated. For the second reading, there was a majority of 47. On the 22d May the bill was passed, and became law on the 26th.
From May, 1815, to May 1840, a period nearly equal to the life time of an entire generation, the nation had suffered grievous wrong. During all that long period, comfort and prosperity had been only exceptions to the rule of wide-spread misery. The law was mitigated now : in three years more it was to cease. The man who had long supported the heavy infliction, at last yielding to the calls of justice and humanity, and breaking through all the ties and trammels of party, and earning, by his last and best act, the gratitude of his country and a deathless fame, soon after lost the official position for which he was now so well qualified. In the last speech he made before quitting office, he said:—
