Remarks on the Proceedings in the Collective Wisdom of the
Nation, during the Session which began on the 5th of February,
and ended on the 6th of August, in the 3rd year of the Reign of
King George the Fourth, and in the year of our Lord 1822;
being the Third Session of the First Parliament of that King.

A complete List of the Acts passed during the Session, with
Elucidations; and other Notices and Matters; forming, all to-
gether, a short but clear History of the Collective Wisdom for
the year.

"In multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom."-Proverbs, Ch. 24, V. 6.

C.
LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. M. COBBETT, 183, FLEET STREET.

1822.

Br 2070.15.4

HARVARD COLLEGE

DFC 29 1886

LIBRARY.

Minst fund

B. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.

6971

41-59

PREFACE.

THE Commentaries contained in this volume, were, in general, made and published daily in the Statesman newspaper. But, as I did not begin with that paper, until the end of February, a short account of the proceedings up to that time is now given, in order that the volume may not be defective. The dates are those of the paper in which the Commentaries appeared, and not of the debates themselves. However, the very day of the debate is usually mentioned also; so that there can hardly be any mistake in this respect.

The List of the Acts and the other matter subjoined will, I am persuaded, be found to be of the greatest utility. The great fault of Parlimentary Debates, as they are usually published, is their immense bulk. The heavy cost is something; but, it is nothing compared with the unwieldiness of that mass of confusion contained in two or three large volumes of what are called Parliamentary Debates; which, by the bye, are frequently debates, or, at least, speeches that have never been uttered in Parliament, but things written out by the orators themselves and got in the Debate-Volumes by force of money; so that the richer the more eloquent the orator. This is a curious way of obtaining renown. It is,

indeed, a mere matter of traffic: so much speech for so much money. Hence comes the curious fact, that those who make the shortest speeches in the House, or none at all in some cases, make the longest in the Debate-Volumes. However, we are arrived at a state of things, in which very few persons are to be duped by such means. And, in short, scarcely any body but the orators by purchase either buy or ever look at the cumbrous loads of trash, called Parliamentary Debates, which, in a few years, grow into such a heap, that the very thought of referring to them is enough to drive a man mad.

This Volume is not, at any rate, calculated to frighten by its looks; and, while its outside is not forbidding, its inside does really contain the pith of every discussion of any importance; and it presents a brief and impartial history of the Session. It is my intention to continue the work yearly, and at a very trifling expense, it will, I am persuaded, be found a very useful book.

Wм. COBBETT.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

Income and Expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year

1821.

LIST of the Cabinet Ministers, Judges, &c. at the opening of the

Session of Parliament, in February 1822.

COMMENTARIES ON THE DEBATES. Beginning on the 5th February,
and ending on the 6th August, 1822.

LIST of the Aets passed in the Parliament, in the Session which began
on the 5th February and ended on the 6th August 1822; and to
which copious Remarks, on divers of those Acts, are subjoined,