These reciprocity treaties were adopted with a view to decrease the price of freight in this country to our merchants, and with a view to their taking in abroad, and bringing home, their commodities at a cheaper cost of transit.  These treaties were, my Lords, framed with a foresight of the state of commerce which was likely to ensue in the world in future times which were then immediately before us.  We were, therefore, to diminish the expense of shipping to meet the new contingencies; and to enable those engaged in commerce to carry on their trade under all the difficulties of a new situation; and the object of those laws was to lower the price of commodities for that purpose.  What was the result?—­profits upon specific articles became reduced; but since the year 1814 the trade in them has nearly doubled.  What the shipping interest then lost in the reduced amount of freight per tonnage, they regained in the greater number of voyages which commerce opened to them.

May 13th, 1830.

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Eulogium on George IV.

My lords, our late Sovereign received the best education which this country affords.  He had, also, the singular advantage of having passed all the earlier period of his life, and the greater part of his manhood, under the superintendence of the King, his father, and subsequently in the society of the most eminent men whom this country possessed; and he likewise enjoyed the society of the most distinguished foreigners who resorted to this country.  His Majesty’s manners accordingly received a polish, his understanding acquired a degree of cultivation, almost unknown in any other individual.  My Lords, he carried those advantages to the Government to which he was afterwards called, first as a Regent, and afterwards as reigning sovereign.  During the whole course of his government no man ever approached him without having evidence of his dignity, his condescension, his affability, and his fitness for the exalted station which he occupied.  But these advantages, which shewed so conspicuously the polish of manner which he possessed, were not only observed by persons immediately around him, for I appeal to many of your Lordships who have transacted the business of the country which required an interview with the sovereign, whether his Majesty did not upon every occasion display a degree of knowledge and talent not to be expected of an individual holding his high station, and a profound acquaintance with public business even in its most minute details.  But this is not all, he was a most munificent patron of the arts in this country and the whole world.  He possessed a larger collection of the eminent productions of his own country’s artists, than any individual, and it is as an individual, of him I here speak.  The taste and judgment he displayed in these collections have never been excelled by any sovereign.

I would also beg to call to your Lordships’ recollection the situation in which he found England and Europe in the year 1810, when he became Regent, and the situation in which he has left Europe and this country.  If your Lordships look upon the great and stirring events of his reign, under what circumstances it commenced and terminated, I think you will agree with me in the sentiment, that we have reason to feel proud of such a sovereign.