aken together; the richest, most extensive,
most peopled, and most prosperous foreign colonies and possessions, that
any nation ever possessed. There is not an important position in the
world, whether for the purpose of navigation, commerce, or military
defence, that does not belong to us.

If this democratic assembly should once be established in England, does
any one believe that we should continue to enjoy these vast advantages?
But a democracy has never been established in any part of the world,
that it has not immediately declared war against property--against the
payment of the public debt--and against all the principles of
conservation, which are secured by, and are, in fact, the principal
objects of the British constitution, as it now exists. Property, and its
possessors, will become the common enemy. I do not urge this argument as
one in which your Lordships are peculiarly interested: it is not you
alone, nor even other proprietors, who are interested in the protection
of property; the whole people, middling classes as well as the lower
orders, are interested in this subject. Look at the anxiety prevailing
in every part of London, in respect to the great revolution to be made
by this bill. My noble friend, the noble baron (Lord Wharncliffe) has
been ridiculed for adverting to the opinions of tradesmen in Bond-street
and St. James's-street. Those in Bond-street consist of more than 200
respectable persons, who are well able to form an opinion of the effect
of this bill upon the resources of themselves, the middling classes, and
the poor, as they supply the luxuries of persons in easier
circumstances, residing in that quarter of the town. Anything which can
effect the resources of their customers, must be interesting to them,
and they do feel that this bill must affect property, private
expenditure, and the resources of themselves, and of those whom they
employ. A noble lord on the other side, who adverted to this topic,
greatly underrated the wealth of these tradesmen. I know of one,
residing in Bond-street, who employs at all times from 2,000 to 4,000
workmen, whose trade depends, as well as the employment of this body of
people, upon the expenditure of his customers: is he not interested in
upholding the public faith, and the system of property now established
in England? Are not the people, of all classes and descriptions, down to
the lowest, interested in the maintenance of our extensive manufactures
and com