17. and orator. This verbose habit is very much to be regret- | principle has always been the advancement of ted, for, on the few occasions on which it has the power and glory of his country; and that been avoided, he has left most striking pieces he has taken a part in so many administrations, of oratory. His expressions in each clause of because they successively furnished him with a sentence are generally forcible, often epigram- the means of advancing that primary object. matic; it is the frequent repetition of the same He has been through life not so much a statesidea in different expressions, and putting it in man as a diplomatic soldier of the State. different lights, which weakens the force of his His talents for diplomacy and administration oratory. Yet, however widely it may deviate are unquestionably of a very high from the standard of ancient eloquence or ideal order. To immense acquaintance His characperfection, if we are to judge from the result, with foreign treaties and conven- ter as a diit was well calculated for the persons to whom tions he unites the rarer but not less plomatist it was addressed; for he was mainly instru- essential knowledge of courts and mental in achieving the four great Liberal tri- statesmen, and the prevailing influences by umphs of the last half century—the repeal of which they are severally governed. As Secrethe Orders in Council, that of the Income-Tax, tary at War during the contest with Napoleon, the passing of the Reform Bill, and of Negro and Home Secretary under Queen Victoria, his Emancipation. administrative powers have been equally conspicuous; and such are his oratorical talents, that no man can with greater certainty alternately keep the attention of the House of Commons awake during a long detail of diplomatic proceedings, or fascinate a popular audience by the beauties of a varied and highly wrought eloquence. Indefatigable in his attention to business, he yet finds time, as men of a similar energetic turn of mind often do, for the pleasures of society; and much of his political influence is owing to the charm which manners of the highest breeding, and courtesy of the most finished kind, lend to a varied and delightful conversation. 15. If there is any British statesman of his age who has acquired a European repLord Palmer utation, it may safely be pronounced ston his Eu- to be LORD PALMERSTON, whose name ropean repu will be forever associated with the tation. great change in our foreign policy, and the substitution of Liberal for Conservative alliances. Foreign nations, not aware of the vital change which the Reform Bill made in our Government, ascribe this change chiefly, if not entirely, to his individual influence; and according as their statesmen and historians belong to the democratic or monarchical party, he is the object either of vehement laudation or of impassioned hatred. In truth, however, he is not the fit object of the praise he has received, or the vituperation with which he has been encountered. In a despotic country, a minister may impress his own principles upon the measures of government; in a constitutional one he must receive it from the Legislature. The Reform Bill having vested the government of England in the class of urban shopkeepers, the majority of whom are imbued with Liberal principles, the carrying out of their wishes into our foreign policy became a matter of necessity, to which every minister, however otherwise inclined, must bend. If this change of policy, however, was im16. posed upon the country by the ReHis versa- form Bill, it is equally true that the tile talents character and talents of the Liberal and char- Foreign Secretary, in a prominent acter manner, fitted him for carrying it through. His abilities are not only of the highest order, but they are of the most marketable description. No man knows better how to address himself in speaking to the prevailing feelings and tastes of his audience, in acting to the inclination and interests of the class in society upon which his influence is rested. Great as are his talents, varied his accomplishments, they are rendered still more powerful by the versatility of their possessor. He can be, when he pleases, all things to all men. He has been a member of every administration, with the single exception of the short one of Lord Derby in 1852, for the last fifty years. He has alternately aided in expelling his former friends from power, and reinstating them in office; yet, strange to say, his character for consistency has not materially suffered from all these changes. The reason is that all men see that, like the Duke of Wellington, his leading 18. His errors. The great fault of this accomplished minister and it is a very serious one, for it has more than once brought his country to the brink of the most serious danger-is, that he never calculates the means at his disposal for effecting the projects which he has at heart, and engages in designs which he has not the means of carrying through, or stimulates movements in other countries which he has not the means of supporting. Bred in the school of Pitt, and essentially patriotic in his feelings and ideas, he sometimes forgets the difference in the situation and power of the country at different times, and has often held as high language in diplomatic intercourse, when a refomed House of Commons had not left twenty thousand disposable men in the country, or ten ships of the line to form a Channel fleet, as when Lord Castlereagh wielded the power of one hundred and fifty thousand, and one hundred ships of the line bore the royal flag. A sincere friend of freedom, he has sometimes proved its worst enemy, by stimulating movements of the Liberal party among the excitable inhabitants of other states, which the people of this country had neither the means nor the inclination to support, and being forced, in consequence, to leave them to be crushed by the military force of despotic states. With admirable skill he arranged all the other powers of Europe to check the ambition of France on the Eastern Question in 1840; and it was owing to the influence of his diplomacy that the cordial alliance of France and England was formed which put such a bridle in the mouth of Russia in 1854. But on other occasions his ill-timed assertions of British influence have been attended with the utmost hazard; for they brought us to the verge of a war with France, and once with France and Russia united, at a time when the country was wholly unprepared to maintain a contest with | with which his connection is more nominal than either the one or the other. real-a conduct which has done more than any thing else to win for him the respect of the country, for the obvious reason that it is the rarest quality in public men, and the one which most observers feel themselves least competent to imitate. bourne. portraits. If his talents were not of the highest order, they were of the kind of all others best adapted for the important and responsible duty to which he was called, of guiding a youthful Queen in the first and most important years of her reign. To great and almost unrivaled pow. ers of conversation he united the charm of the highest breeding, and the grace of the most pol LORD JOHN RUSSELL has not obtained the same 19. elevated niche in the temple of fame Lord John as Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston; Russell. but still the nobleman who carried the Reform Bill through the House of Commons, and has since for years held the highest place in LORD MELBOURNE was a man of very differthe councils of his Sovereign, or been the lead-ent abilities and character from the 21. er of the House of Commons, must be regard- eminent ones which have now been Lord Meled as no common man. As an orator he occu- drawn; but he has occupied too impies a useful rather than a distinguished place. portant a position in the councils of his SoverHe seldom aims at the highest flights of elo-eign, on her first accession to the throne, and quence, and his speeches are distinguished by for some years after, not to deserve a distin business-like habits, by information on the sub-guished place in a contemporary gallery of state ject, and acuteness in reply, rather than either genius of conception or cogency of argument. If he owed, however, the distinguished position he has so long held in the House of Commons, in the first instance, to family influence, and the prestige of an illustrious name, he has since shown that he was not unworthy of it, by the qualities he has exhibited while discharging its duties. To admirable temper and great tact inished manner. A man of the world in every debate he unites a thorough acquaintance with the feeling and prevailing inclination of the House, and especially of his own side-qualities invaluable in the leader of a party, and much more important than the more showy qualities which often dazzle only to mislead. His figure is not commanding, and his voice feeble, so that nature has not endowed him with the physical qualities requisite for subduing stormy assemblies, but she has in a great degree made up for the deficiency by the gift of the prudence and judgment which succeed in the end in leading them. 20. ity and self Sydney Smith has said, that such is Lord John Russell's confidence in himself, His intrepid- that he would, with equal readiness, at a moment's warning, assume the confidence lead of the House of Commons, or take the command of the Channel fleet, or undertake to cut for the stone. Assuming that the celebrated discourser has here strained somewhat for the sake of point, it is evident, from Lord John Russell's public career, that there is some truth in the assertion, though his success in literature and biography by no means warrants the belief that the confidence is well found ed. On several important occasions he has shown that he does not shrink from responsibility, and that, supported only by courage and conscious rectitude, he can engage fearlessly in the most hazardous undertakings. His conduct as the leader of the House of Commons on occasion of the Reform Bill in 1831, and the war with Russia in 1854, and of Cardinal Wiseman's assumption of titles when he was prime-minister, sufficiently demonstrates this. Unfortunately, his colleagues in the Cabinet are not always possessed of the same determination, and thus it has not unfrequently happened that the most in trepid denunciations on his part have been followed by no corresponding state measures, and thus have entirely lost their effect. In one respect his conduct has always been worthy of the very highest admiration: he never shirks responsibility, but, on the contrary, not only takes his full share of it when his own, but generously comes forward to divide with others a responsi bility which belongs to their department, and sense of the word, he had mingled in all its circles only to glean from each what rendered him a delightful companion, a brilliant ornament to the most elevated. His store of anecdote was immense, and related to the most interesting characters; his felicity in recounting them equal to the tact with which they were given out or withheld. An accomplished classical scholar, and well versed in the traditional history of great families, he had little information on the subjects required by a statesman, and took his opinion on the measures brought forward rather from the authority of others than his own reflection. Yet his suavity of disposition and courtesy of manner conquered all opposition; and when, as prime-minister, he gave in the House of Lords, with perfect nonchalance, in answer to a question put to him, "I really know nothing at all about the matter," there was a loud laugh from all sides, and no farther inquiries were made. The truth was, all parties, and especially those of them who were nearest the throne, were aware of the vast importance of the duties which, when prime-minister, he discharged as counselor and almost guardian of our present gracious Sovereign in her early years; and if we are to judge of the debt of gratitude which the nation owes him for the manner in which he discharged them, from the strict propriety and wisdom of her Majesty's conduct ever since her accession to the throne, the debt is great indeed. SIR JAMES GRAHAM owes more to natural ad powers. vantages than any of the statesmen 22 trying time, from 1841 to 1846. Indefatigable and satisfaction in the determinations of Parliain his attention to business, and endowed with ment. Any thing short of this will be insuffigreat powers of application, he is always pre- cient. But while seeking for this end, I am pared on his own subjects; and, unlike Lord anxious not to disturb, by violent changes, the Melbourne, can give a satisfactory answer to established principles and practice of the conevery question put regarding them. The ex-stitution. To such a measure I have secured pression of his countenance has a supercilious cast, a quality which has been complained of of him in official intercourse, though none is more bland or courteous in private society. He is a powerful debater, as well from the cogency of argument employed as the stores of information displayed, and is excelled by none in the rare and effective power of reply. Occasionally, though not frequently, he rises to the highest flights of eloquence. 23. his Majesty's assent. The important matter of the poor will also be considered, and the laws which regulate the provision which the State makes for them. The whole and earnest attention of my colleagues and myself shall be directed to economy in every department of the State, and every saving that can Mirror of possibly be made shall be adopt- Parliament, ed with the most unflinching sever- 1830, ◊ ii. ity." 310. 25. winter. alarming a height. But the excitement in the towns was not so easily appeased. Public meetings were every where held, in many cases pre Inconsistency is his great defect, and his rep- After a few routine measures had passed, Parutation has suffered more from this liament adjourned to the 9th FebruHis incon- peculiarity than that of Lord Palmer- ary. The interim was a state of great Distracted sistencies. ston, who is also chargeable with it, alarm and anxiety in England. The state of Enbecause he has at different times taken more southern counties around London gland durdecided and contradictory views on the same were, as Lord Grey afterward said in ing the question. There is hardly a subject of import- Parliament, "in a state of open insurance discussed of late years on which there rection;" and midnight fires or predial outrages will not be found, in the parliamentary debates, seemed to have been imported into the peacean admirable refutation of a previous equally ful realm of England from the distracted and admirable argument on the opposite side, of this wasted fields of Ireland. The special commisskillful rhetorician. This, however, is the fault sion, however, which was opened in December, of the age and circumstances under which he had a salutary effect: the execution of some deslived, rather than of the individual man. Such peradoes, convicted of fire-raising, spread a uniis the mutability of general opinion in every versal terror among the peasantry, and the transpopular government, that the rulers of the State portation of great numbers of others, at length can only maintain their ascendency by chang-arrested the disorders which had attained so ing with it. The philosopher may be consistent, because his aim is the discovery of truth, which is ever the same; the historian, because he traces the unchanging laws of the social or-sided over by distinguished members of the der through all the mutations of fortune. But Whig aristocracy, at which the most inflammathe statesman in a popular community, who tory language was used. Constant reference aims at the enjoyment of power, can attain it was made to the armed insurrection which had only by the suffrages of the multitude, and to overthrown the government in France and Belgain them he must often share its mutability. gium, and hints given that, if the English arisConsistency in such a case is a passport to ulti-tocracy adopted a similar system of resistance mate fame, but it leads to present downfall. Such were the chiefs of the Liberal party, who now succeeded to power, and in Earl Grey's whose hands, with a few brief intermissions, the government of the country has since been constantly vested. Earl Grey, immediately after his accession to office, made the following profession of the principles of his administration, which diffused general satisfaction: "Prominently, and in the foreground, I place Reform in Parliament. I have, when out of of fice, declared that that great question could be satisfactorily introduced. by the Government alone, and that the Government ought immedi The proceedings and language of Mr. O'Conately to propound some measure concerning it. nell," says Mr. Roebuck, "became What out of office I have professed, I am now every day more hostile and threat- Agitation and in office about to perform; and I promise that ening: he went about the country increased misa proposal for the reform of our representative making violent harangues, gather- ery in Ireland. system shall be introduced immediately for the ing together numerous assemblages of the peoconsideration of Parliament. It shall be a pro- | ple, under color of meetings for the purposes posal not of any wild or unreasoning change, of petitioning, or of celebrating some feast or not of universal suffrage, not a mere theory of 24. announcement of his principles of government. Nov. 22. to the public voice, their fate might be the same. Roebuck, ii. of Parlia 26. Mr. Sheil, not the least violent or able of Mr. O'Con pretended accuracy and efficiency. I desire to nell's friends, said at this time: "If the Union is not restand as much as possible on the fixed and set-pealed within two years, I am determined that I will neitled institutions of the country. What I seek to do is all that is necessary to secure to the people a due influence in the great Council of the nation, and to secure by that means confidence ther pay rent, tithes, nor taxes. They may distress my goods, but who'll buy, boys?-that's the word - who'll buy! Mind, I don't tell any man to follow my advice; but so help me God, if I don't do it, you may call me Sheil of the silk gown."-ROEBUCK, vol. ii. p. 15. festival. At all of these meetings he did his utmost to excite his ignorant hearers, but always ending his speeches by some earnest recommendations to keep the peace, hoping thus to escape the law." Such was the alarm gen1 Roebuck, erally excited by these proceedings, i. 18, 19. that the magistrates in the disturbed districts asked from the Lord-Lieutenant how they should act in regard to them, not from any difficulty in determining what was the law, but from uncertainty whether, or to what extent, the Government would enforce the law, or support the acts of the magistrates in carrying it into execution. The answer of the Lord-Lieutenant was sufficiently clear, and such as every lawyer knows to be the law, and every man of sense must see is an exposition of what is essential to the peace of the community. But meanwhile distress, the usual accompaniment of agitation, which distracts the minds of the peasantry, set in with extraordinary severity in Ireland. Potatoes in less than usual quantities had been planted in Ireland, and such even then had suffered under the epidemic which afterward made such fatal ravages in the country. Two hundred thousand persons were without food; and their sufferings were aggravated by great severity of weather, and want of clothing, food, and fuel. The peasants crowded in thousands into the towns, where they introduced contagion and death. When Parliament met in spring, one of their first measures was to vote £50,000 for the relief of the starving peasantry; but though this evinced a sympathy with their sufferings, it did no good except alle1431 viating immediate want, for it was 303 Roe nearly all expended in forming useback, ii. 19, less roads, and making good roads bad ones.2 1831, 302, 20. The declared object of all these movements was to procure a repeal of the Union, and unwearied were the efforts, innumerable the shifts, of Mr. O'Connell to keep up the agitation for The law recognizes the fair and legitimate exercise of the right of petition, and protects them in the full exercise of that right; but it does not warrant any assemblies having a manifest and direct tendency to a violation of the public peace, under whatever name, or for whatever professed object they are assembled. Therefore any assemblies of persons, whether collected under pretense of petitioning, or of public exhibitions of strength and skill, or under any other pretense whatever, if from their number, acts, place, or times of meeting, or other circumstances preceding or accompanying them, they excite in the minds of his Majesty's well-disposed subjects reasonable fears that the public peace will be thereby violated, and the lives and properties of the King's subjects thereby endangered; or if they be so constituted or conducted as to induce reasonable and well-founded apprehensions that the motives and objects of the persons so assembling are not the fair and legal exercise of constitutional rights and privileges, but! the accomplishment of alterations in the laws and constitution of the realm by means of intimidation, and by demonstration of physical force, or by any other than legal and constitutional means; all these, and such like assemblies, however composed, or with whatever view collected, are illegal, and are by the law denominated unlawful assemblies.' And it is the duty of all magistrates within whose jurisdiction such assemblies are called together (being first satisfied of their illegal nature), by all lawful means within their power to prevent such meetings, and to suppress and disperse them."-—Ann. Reg., 1831, p. 301, 302. It is impossible to state the law more clearly than is here done, and it was laid down in exactly the same terms by Lord Tenterden and the Court of King's Bench in Mr. Hunt's case. They form a curious commentary on the meetings at Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow, by which the Reform Bill was carried, and the monster meetings by which for so many years the germs of improvement in Ireland were crushed. 27. peal of the O'Connell, this object, without incurring the penalties of treason or sedition. The device usually adopted was to assemble the peo- Agitation ple in such numbers as to intimidate for the reGovernment by the display of phys- Union, and ical strength, and at the same time prosecuavoid an ostensible breach of the law tion of Mr. by recommending peaceable conduct who is aland obedience to the letter of the lowed to es Lord-Lieutenant's proclamation. As cape. fast as one meeting was proclaimed down, another was convened under a different name, or for a different avowed object; and in the interval letters were invariably published by O'Connell, recommending peaceable and ceaseless agitation, and promising a repeal of the Union in two years if his advice was implicitly followed.* At length Government, under the able and energetic advice of Mr. Stanley, wearied with this interminable pacific warfare, determined on a prosecution, and an indictment was accordingly executed against him and several of his associates. The grand jury found true bills against them; and although they threw every possible obstacle in the way of the proceedings, they were successfully carried through. Mr. O'Connell withdrew his demurrer, and actually plead ed guilty to some counts in the indictment. This was so unexpected a result that it naturally created a suspicion of some secret understanding or agreement with the Government. Mr. Stanley, however, the Irish Secretary, upon being questioned on the subject in the House of Commons, emphatically denied that there was any such understanding, and declared in the most solemn way, "It is the unalterable determination of the law-officers in Ireland to let the law take its course against him." But in making that declaration that highly-gifted nobleman was not yet aware of the degradation which sooner or later awaits all who, for political purposes, ally themselves with popular demagogues Mr. O'Connell was never brought up for judgHouse of Commons; a general election might ment! The Reform Bill was coming on in the at no distant period be anticipated; the support of the Catholic leaders in and out of Parliament might be required by Government, and the haughty spirit of Earl Grey yielded to the necessities of his situation. Nothing was done against O'Connell: he openly braved and abused the Government, but he and his party supported them in Parliament, and he and his associates were permitted to carry on for fifteen years longer their unchecked ii. 494; career of agitation, devastation, and Ann. Reg. ruin.' 1831, 317. 1 Parl. Deb. *"Let us be in no hurry. Events in England and on the continent of Europe are working for us. Every sueceeding day weakens the supporters of despotism in every clime and country; each successive day strengthens the friends of cheap government and free institutions. Patience, my dear countrymen, and Ireland will achieve one more bloodless, stainless change. Since I was born she has achieved two such glorious political revolutions. The first was in 1782, when she conquered legislative independence; the second in 1829, when she won for her victory freedom of conscience; the third and best remains behind-the restoration of a domestic and reformed Legislature by the repeal of the Union. This we will also achieve if we persevere in a legal, constitutional, and peaceable course. Let my advice but be followed, and I will venture to assert that the Union can not last two years longer."-ROEBUCK, vol. 1. p. 22, 23. The Crown has procured a verdict against Mr. O'Connell, and it will undoubtedly call him up to receive 28. feated. On February 11, Lord Althorpe brought forward the budget, which, although The budget, not of much moment in a financial which is de- point of view, as its leading provisions were defeated in Parliament, was yet attended with very important results in a political, as that very defeat opened the eyes of Government to the necessity of conciliating their Radical allies, and had no small influence in the construction of the Reform Bill, now under the consideration of the Cabinet. The preceding year had been one of unsparing and unflinching economy, which had brought a considerable and real excess of income over expenditure. Lord Althorpe, basing his calculations on that year, estimated the national income in round numbers at £50,000,000, and the expenditure at £46,850,000, leaving an anticipated surplus of £3,150,000. Instead, however, of reserving this surplus, as it should have been, for the reduction of the national debt, it was resolved to take off taxes to more than the whole amount, and in lieu thereof to impose other taxes, which it was thought would be less burdensome to the people. The taxes taken off he estimated at £4,080,000, and the taxes to be imposed at £2,740,000, thereby reducing the anticipated clear surplus to £1,800,000 a year! A woeful reduction, when it is recollected that, when the new system of finance began, and present popularity was looked for instead of ultimate good, the Sinking Fund was £15,000,000, at which level it might have been retained but for the immense reduction of indirect taxes forced on by the contraction of the currency.1 1 Mirror of Parliament, 1831, 169; Ann. Reg. 1831, 125, 129. 29. be taken off This was a sufficiently alarming state of finances, with a view to the ultimate solvDescription ency and resources of the country. of taxes to But it was rendered doubly important with reference to present interand put on. ests, by the description of taxes which were proposed to be removed, and those which were to be imposed. The principal taxes which were to be taken off were those on tobacco, sea-borne coal, tallow candles, and printed calicoes; and no one could deny that the reduction of these duties would be a very considerable relief to the industrious classes of the community. But with regard to the new taxes to be imposed, there was much more room for judgment on it."- Mirror of Parliament, 1831, p. 281. Such were Mr. Stanley's words, in which he was undoubtedly sincere, but he was overruled by the Cabinet. The excuse put forward for this discreditable act-viz., that the act under which O'Connell had been convicted expired before he could be brought up to receive judgment— is unfounded both in fact and in law. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 5, and the Parliament was dissolved on April 22; and every lawyer knows that though an Act of Parliament may be temporary in its duration, the punishment of a crime committed while it was in force may be inflicted or continue long after. In truth, the whole aflair was a mere compromise of justice for expedience, or rather party ambition; and it was discussed as such in the cabinet of Dublin, and produced an estrangement between Lord Cloncurry and Mr. O'Connell, and such a violent altercation between the former and the Attorney-General (Mr. Blackburn), who insisted for punishment, that the Lord-Lieutenant was obliged to take a pledge from both it should go no further. "I strongly urged upon Lord Anglesea," says Lord Cloncurry, "the prudence of allowing Mr. O'Connell to escape, as the infliction of a nominal punishment, which could only have endured a few weeks, would only have the appearance of impotent malice."-LORD CLONCURRY'S Recollections, quoted in ROEBUCK, vol. ii. p. 60. difference of opinion. They consisted chiefly of an increase in the duties on wine, colonial timber, raw cottons, steamboat passengers, and half a per cent. on the transfers of funded property. These taxes were considerable in point of amount, but they were far more so in point of principle, for they indicated in an unmistakable manner the new interests which were rising to the government of the State, and the old ones whose influence was declining, and which were in consequence to be subjected to taxation. For the first time in English history, a duty was to be imposed on funded property; and by the equalization of the duties on Baltic and Canadian timber, and on Cape and foreign wines, the chief colonies of the empire would lose the benefit of protection on the staple article of their industry. These projects might be agreeable to some classes of the community, but they were eminently distasteful to others; and the latter were those who, by the possession of the close boroughs, had hitherto ruled the State. From the very first, accordingly, a violent clamor was raised against the proposed new taxes; and so vehement did it soon become, that two days afterward the Chancellor of the Exchequer was obliged to declare in Parliament, that the proposed tax on funded transfers was abandoned, and that, in consequence, he could not remit the duties on tobacco and glass. The proposed duty on steamboat passengers was also abandoned, and that of id. a pound on raw cottons reduced to ths of 1d. The timber duties also were given up, by not being pressed to a division. In a word, the proposed budget was entirely abandoned, and the defeat of Ministers was so obvious that they must have gone out had they not trusted to the sheet-anchor of the Reform Bill, which was essentially 140; Parl. modified by this calamitous issue of Deb. ii. 526, their first financial measures.1 1 Ann. Reg. 1831, 139, 530. 30. Meanwhile a committee of the Cabinet was sitting, and actively engaged with the formation of the projected Reform Committee Bill. The committee consisted of Lord on the ReDurham (Earl Grey's son-in-law, and form Bill. who was perfectly acquainted with his views on the subject), Lord Duncannon, Sir James Graham, and Lord John Russell. The instructions of the Cabinet to this committee were quite general, but they amounted to this, "that * The budget proposed stood as follows: Taken off. Tobacco Auctions Cape Wines £1,400,000 190,000 830,000 420,000 500,000† 600,000 60,000 80,000 £4,080,000 Laid on. £240,000 600,000 500,000 100,000 100,000 1,200,000 £2,740,000 -- Ann. Reg., 128, 129; Parl. Deb. (new series), ii. 411, 414. Though this tax produced only £500,000 a year, it was stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the loss it inflicted on the community was £2,500,000.—Parl. Deb., ii. 414. |