ABSTRACT
When Ministers decided the character of the Speech read from the Throne, on February 1, 1816, to the reassembled Parliament, they seem to have been under the delusion that, though agriculture was admittedly distressed, manufactures and commerce could safely be described as being “in a flourishing condition”. Ministers’ peace-making, too, was criticised from another angle by Lord Grenville in the Lords. Moving an amendment against Government, on February 19th, he found Europe too full of armed men and regretted Ministers’ failure to call for a general disarmament which might have spared Britain the effort, impossible to maintain in the long run, of keeping together a great army. Ministers’ most trying day on the Army Estimates came on March 11th. Opposition opened by enforcing the taking of the Estimates in detail. The first important speech delivered at the Westminster meeting was given by Mr. Wishart, a local politician whose political ideal was Mr. Fox.
