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RESTRICTIONS.

COMMERCIAL

THE PANICK, AND ITS CAUSES. MEASURES OF THE GOVERNMENT AT THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. - PROPOSED ISSUE OF EXCHEQUER BILLS.- MR. ELLICE'S MOTION ON THE SILK TRADE. COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN

CORN BILL.

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES AND THE UNITED STATES. BETWEEN MR. CANNING AND

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CORRESPONDENCE

MR. GALLATIN.

In a preceding chapter it has been stated that, although at the close of the summer of 1825, the contentment and good humour with the Administration, which every where prevailed, made the juncture extremely favourable for the election of a new Parliament, yet Mr. Canning opposed a dissolution for reasons exclusively connected with the Catholick Question. At the time when he did this, he was well aware, that the state of things which produced this content

ment was not likely to continue, for he, in common with some other observant members of the Cabinet, foresaw that ere many months had elapsed there would, in all probability, occur a financial and commercial crisis, which, by producing for a time general distress, would in the ordinary course of things excite a clamour against the Government. Such a clamour, too, he well knew would be directed chiefly against the liberal part of the Administration, by whom the relaxations of the restrictions of our commercial system had been introduced, and by whose firmness they had been carried, in spite of the opposition of a powerful party, who looked upon such innovations with distrust and apprehension.

These considerations, however, to a minister who looked not to temporary advantage, but to the attainment of lasting good, were not suf ficient to outweigh the injury which the vitally important question of Catholick Emancipation might have sustained from an immediate dissolution; and the appeal to the Country was accordingly postponed for another session. In the course of the November following the crisis, which had been expected, arrived: and a panick, such as never had been witnessed since the fatal South Sea Bubble, shook all commercial credit to its foundations. But before entering upon the history of this calamitous event, the attention of the reader must be drawn to the

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