ed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity
without assigning
either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been
his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never
enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged
leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead
the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the
weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There
were, however, other times and other places for men to engage
in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the
noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the
introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they
had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of
a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion
as follows:--

"Resolved that there do at this moment exist 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."

Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite
a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after
the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more
pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment;
but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary
for him to say that he never would have thought of his
amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause
of existing distress--he had no doubt in his mind as to the
nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable
that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one.
After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent
for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord
consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally
concerned in it.

Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the
hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the
amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last
the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and
carried.

The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned
his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in
which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following
resolution, which was