should not plead in vain to the national liberality; but
that the remedy would be promptly afforded to an evil which he trusted
would be found but temporary. If they should be so happy as but to
succeed in discovering new sources of employment to supply the place
of those channels which had been suddenly shut up, he should
indeed despond if we did not soon restore the country to that
same flourishing condition which had long made her the envy of
the world. The royal Duke then moved the first resolution,
as follows:--"That the transition from a state of extensive
warfare to a system of peace has occasioned a stagnation of
employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the
situation of many parts of the community, and producing many
instances of great local distress."

The resolution was seconded by Mr. Harman.

Lord Cochrane offered himself to the attention of the meeting,
but was for some time unable to proceed, his voice being lost
in the huzzas and hisses which his presence called forth.
Silence being at length in some measure obtained, his lordship
said he would not have addressed the meeting but that, having
received a circular letter from the committee, and feeling
the importance of the subject, he would have thought it a
dereliction of his duty if he refrained from attending. He
rose thus early because the observations he had to submit
would not be suitable if made when the other resolutions were
put. The first resolution was, in his opinion, founded on
a gross fallacy; and this was his reason for saying so. The
existing distresses could not be truly ascribed to any sudden
transition from war to peace. Could it be pretended that it
was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all
agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that
the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes
had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of
taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so
active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and
he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with
disrespect when he repeated that the resolution was founded
on an entire fallacy. But, not to content himself with a mere
assertion of his own belief,
he had brought official documents to prove the correctness
of his