7185

W. COBBETT'S

к

COLLECTIVE COMMENTARIES:

OR,

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.

TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED,

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.

LONDON:

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

B. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street,

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,