ABSTRACT
The Session of 1823 went a good deal more prosperously for Ministers than many had forecast. Though party contests about the Queen occupied much energy and attention during the 1821 Session, the continued “distress” of which the “agricultural interest” was complaining made another main Sessional theme. Industry, though calling loudly for tax reduction and “economy”, was, during the Session, in the very act of making a rapid recovery from the “bad trade” of 1819. It is against this background of a thoroughly irritated “agricultural interest”, calling loudly for “economy”, remission of taxation and much more, that other Sessional events have to be seen. On August 6th, Parliament was prorogued and, on August 12th, Castlereagh, since 1821 Lord Londonderry, committed suicide under the illusion that he was in great personal danger. Dangerous as seemed the omens for the 1822 Session, Ministers were not without the means of strengthening themselves. Reinforcement was, indeed, sought in several different directions.
