This page lists every recorded use of the words injurious and injuriously in parliamentary debate during 1817. Each instance is reproduced in its context as recorded in Hansard.
This survey forms part of the evidence for the correct legal interpretation of injurious weeds in the Weeds Act 1959. See also why “harmful weeds” misrepresents the law.
| Speaker | Context |
|---|---|
| Mr. Blake | The Petition was then brought up and read, setting forth, "That the petitioners beg leave most respectfully to solicit the favourable attention of the House to the peculiar condition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, under the severe penal laws now in force against them; if the petitioners appear to the House to persevere with more than common earnestness in their humble solicitations for the abrogation of these laws, and for a free admission to the blessings and benefits of the civil constitution of their country, they trust that their perseverance will be viewed rather as a proof of their just title to the liberty which they seek, and of their sincerity in its pursuit, than as the result of any sentiment hostile to the peace or true interests of this empire; the petitioners should sincerely dread 10 lest their silence might be construed by a faithful but feeling people as an indication of despair, and they would not lightly abandon the pursuit of a laudable and most important object, strengthened as they are by the concurring support of their generous and enlightened fellow-countrymen, as well as by the fullest approbation of their own conscientious feeling; they beg leave humbly to state to the House, that they have publicly and solemnly taken every oath of fidelity and allegiance which the jealous caution of the legislature has from time to time imposed as tests of their political and moral principles; and although they are still set apart (how wounding to every sentiment of honour) as if unworthy of credit, in these their sworn declarations, they can appeal confidently to the sacrifices which they and their forefathers have long made, and which they still make, rather than violate conscience by taking oaths of a spiritual import contrary to their belief, as decisive proofs of their profound reverence for the sacred obligation of an oath; by those awful tests they have bound themselves in the presence of the All-seeing Deity, whom all classes of christians adore, to be faithful, and bear true allegiance to their most gracious sovereign lord king George the third, and him to defend to the utmost of their power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever against his person, crown, or dignity, to use their utmost endeavours to disclose and make known to his majesty and his heirs all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which may be formed against him or them, and faithfully to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of their power, the succession to the crown in his majesty's family, against all persons whomsoever; that by those oaths they have renounced and abjured obedience and allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm; that they have rejected as unchristian and impious to believe the detestable doctrine that it is lawful in any ways to injure any person or persons whomsoever, under pretence of their being heretics, and also that unchristian and impious principle, that no faith is to be kept with heretics; that it is no article of their faith, and they renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that princes excommunicated by the pope and council, or by any authority whatsoever, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or by any person whatsoever; that they do 11 not believe that the pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence within this realm; that they firmly believe that no act in itself unjust, immoral, or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by or under pretence or colour that it was done for the good of the church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever; and that it is not an article of the Catholic faith, neither are they thereby required to believe or profess that the pope is infallible, or that they are bound to any order in its own nature immoral, though the pope or any ecclesiastical power should issue or direct such order, but that on the contrary they hold that it would be sinful in them to pay any respect or obedience thereto; that they do not believe that any sin whatsoever committed by them can be forgiven at the mere will of any pope, or of any priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever, but that any person who receives absolution without a sincere sorrow for such sin, and a firm and sincere resolution to avoid future guilt, and to atone to God, so far from obtaining thereby any remission of his sin, incurs the additional guilt of violating a sacrament, and by the same solemn obligations they are bound and firmly pledged to defend to the utmost of their power the settlement and arrangement of property in Ireland, as established by the laws now in being; that they have declared, disavowed, and solemnly abjured and intention to subvert the present church establishment for the purpose of substituting a Catholic establishment in its stead; and they have solemnly sworn that they will not exercise any privilege to which they are or may become entitled to disturb and weaken the Protestant religion or Protestant government in Ireland; the petitioners can, with perfect truth, assure the House, that the political and moral principles asserted by these solemn and special tests are not merely in unison with their fixed principles, but expressly inculcated by the religion which they profess; and they do most humbly trust, that, as professors of doctrines which permit such tests to be taken, they shall appear to the House to be entitled to the full enjoyment of religious freedom under the happy constitution of these realms; frequently has the legislature of Ireland borne testimony to the uniform peaceable demeanor of the 12 Irish Roman Catholics, to their acknowledged merits as good and loyal subjects, to the wisdom and sound policy of admitting them to all the blessings of a free constitution, and of thus binding together all classes of the people by mutual interest and mutual affection, yet may the petitioners represent to the House with sincere regret and deep solicitude, that the Roman Catholics of Ireland still remain subject to severe and humiliating laws, rigidly enforced and universally felt, and inflicting upon them divers injurious and vexatious disabilities, incapacities, privations, and penalties, by reason of their conscientious adherence to the religious doctrines of their forefathers; for more than twenty years the progress of religious freedom has been obstructed, and, whilst other christian nations have hastened to unbind the fetters imposed upon religious dissent, the Roman Catholics of Ireland have remained unrelieved; the penal laws operate for no useful or meritorious purpose, affording no aid to the constitution in church or state, not attaching affection to either, they are efficient only for objects of disunion and disaffection, they separate the Protestant from the Catholic, and withdraw both from the public good, they irritate man against his fellow-creature, alienate the subject from the state, and leave the Roman Catholic community but a precarious and imperfect protection, as the reward of fixed and unbroken allegiance; the petitioners forbear to detail the numerous incapacities and inconveniences inflicted by those laws, directly or indirectly, upon the Roman Catholic community, or to dwell upon the humiliating and ignominious system of exclusion, reproach, and suspicion, which they generate and keep alive; perhaps no other age or nation has ever witnessed severities more vexatious, or inflictions more taunting, than those which they have long endured, and of which but too large a portion still remains; relief from these disabilities and penalties they have sought through every channel that has appeared to them to be legitimate and eligible; they have never conscientiously violated, or sought to violate, the known laws of the land, nor have they pursued their object in any other manner than such as has been usually adhered to, and apparently the best calculated to collect and communicate their united sentiments accurately without tumult, and to obviate all pretext 13 for asserting that the Roman Catholic community at large were indifferent to the pursuit of their freedom; the petitioners can affirm with perfect sincerity, that they have no latent views to realize, no secret or sinister objects to attain, any such imputation must be effectually repelled, as they humbly conceive, by the consideration of their numbers their property, their known principles and character; their object is avowed and direct, earnest yet natural, it extends to an equal participation of the civil rights of the constitution of their country equally with their fellow-subjects of all other religious persuasions, it extends no farther; they would cheerfully concede the enjoyment of, civil and religious liberty to all mankind, they ask no more for themselves; they seek not the possession of offices, but mere eligibility to office, in common with their fellow-citizens, not power or ascendancy over any class of people, but the bare permission to rise from their prostrate posture, and to stand erect in the empire; in thus addressing the legislature, the petitioners are naturally desirous to conciliate all opinions and obviate all objections, and they entertain a conscientious conviction that all impartial opinions may be conciliated, and all rational objections to their emancipation defeated, by the measure of domestic nomination of their bishops, a measure in which their prelates have declared their readiness to concur, and which, if introduced by the proper authority in their church, would meet the most cordial approbation of the Catholic people of Ireland; if, in thus humbly submitting their depressed condition and their earnest hopes to the consideration of the House, the petitioners would dwell upon the great numbers, and the property, of the Roman Catholics of Ireland; already so considerable and so rapidly increasing and to their consequent most important contributions to the exigencies of the state, they would do so, not with a view of exciting unworthy motives for concession, but in the honest hope of suggesting legitimate and rational grounds of constitutional relief; may the petitioners then, with hearts deeply interested in the fate of this their humble supplication, presume to appeal to the wisdom and benignity of the House on behalf of a very numerous, industrious, affectionate, and faithful body of people, the Roman Catholics of Ireland; and to pray that the House may be pleased to take into 14 their favourable consideration the whole of their condition, their numbers, their services, their merits, and their sufferings; and as the petitioners are conscious of the purity of their motives and the integrity of their principles, they therefore humbly pray to be restored to the full and unqualified enjoyment of the rights and privileges of the constitution of their country, to be freed from all penal and disabling, laws in force against them, on account of their religious faith, and that they may thereby become more worthy as well as more capable of promoting the substantial interests of this great empire." |
| Mr. Philips | Again, as to the system of securities proposed by the right hon. gentleman, it was obvious that the establishment of such a system must interfere most injuriously with the transfer of property. |
| Sir J. Newport | adverted to the injurious effect which would probably be produced by the apprehension of becoming liable to a crown process. |
| Sir F. Flood | The first of these acts restrained the interest of money to 10 per cent; the next reduced it to 8, observing in its preamble, "that the high interest of money was injurious to agriculture;" the next statute lowered the interest of money to 7 per cent.; and that which followed brought it down to 6 per cent. |
| Mr. Boswell | But the present measure went to destroy that fair influence which had long been recognized—which, he thought, could not be shown to have been injurious to the well government of the country—and, if that could not be proved, he could not see on what just principle it ought to be attacked. |
| Mr. Boswell | Those gentlemen who did the most efficient service to the country, by resisting measures injurious to the nation, were, by this new principle, precluded from being rewarded. |
| Lord Milton | Nothing could be more injurious to the public wel- 155 fare than a measure which should make the holding of office a mere mercenary object, and on that ground he should consider it his duty to oppose the bill. |
| Mr. Wynn | But then it was to be considered that each case must rest on its own particular grounds; and that there could be nothing more injurious than, when anyone case was brought forward, to say that there were such and such other libels against other committees, which were equally atrocious, and yet had not been punished. |
| Mr. Ponsonby | considered nothing more injurious to the House than to adopt a very strict conduct as to publications which noticed their proceedings. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | Besides it could not be done; other persons held property in their name, so that the names of the proprietors could not be ascertained; but if it could be done, it would be highly injurious. |
| Mr. Ponsonby | How many motions of his honourable friend had been opposed as dangerous to the interests of commerce, incompetent for that House, and even injurious to the character and prosperity of the country? |
| Mr. Bennet | It was well known, that from 1793 to 1809, the commissariat department had been carried on in a way so very injurious to the public service as to produce remonstrances and complaints from those distinguished generals, sir John Moore and the duke of Wellington, of the inefficacy of the system then pursued; and government, wishing to put the service on the best footing, had consulted with colonel, now sir William, Gordon on the best means of remedying the evil. |
| Mr. Bennet | per annum in addition to the same, is an improvident expenditure of the public money, and establishes a precedent which this House conceives to be injurious to the public interest." |
| Mr. Yorke | He was not however disposed to insist on this objection with perfect confidence, because he would wish to be guided by the opinions of the gentlemen who sat in the House for Ireland; who must know the real state of that country, and the probable effects upon it much better than he could do; and he could by no means imagine that those gentlemen, many of whom were descended from those who had established the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, would agree to any measure which they thought likely to be ultimately injurious to those interests, and to that establishment, to which they were bound by so many ties.—But whatever might prove to be the ultimate difference of sentiments respecting the final arrangement (which 346 was not at present under consideration), it seemed to be allowed on all hands, that it was almost impossible that the present state of things could continue much longer; in which it was obvious that so many and such great anomalies existed,—for instance, the Roman Catholics of England, were not now on the same footing as the Roman Catholics of Ireland. |
| Mr. Webber | But in this instance, as well as in his observation on the atrocities of Mary, he was in error; in the gross error that we are in at this day—that all will delusively fall into, and injuriously and unjustly to the characters of Roman Catholics, who judge them on acts which relate to their religion, on the common principles of morality or policy. |
| Mr. Webber | I have stated the injurious and dangerous consequences, immediate and remote, which necessarily or probably would ensue from this measure, and how utterly hopeless it is, as a plan of conciliation. |
| Lord Castlereagh | He was persuaded that the indirect influence of the Catholics in that House was much more injurious than the direct influence could be; because the latter would be accompanied by responsibility. |
| The Earl of Lauderdale | Every writer on the subject of these monopolies condemned them as highly injurious to the community; even the East India company, carrying on a great and distant trade, had been condemned as pernicious to the interests of such a country as this, where there was no want of capi- 561 tal to carry on that trade without any such incorporation; and it was well known that the great number of incorporations, for the most trifling purposes, which had been established in the reign of king William, had been attended with fatal effects to the mercantile interests of the country. |
| The Bishop of Llandaff [Dr. Herbert Marsh] | And though the state ought not to punish men for religious opinions, unless those opinions are injurious to the state itself, it has an undoubted right to trust the management of its own affairs exclusively to those, in whom it has reason to confide. |
| The Bishop of Norwich [Dr. Henry Bathurst] | Anxious to meet, not only the reasonable objections, but even the allowable prejudices of their fellow subjects, and fellow christians of the established church; the Catholics of Ireland bring forward a proposal, which proves at least a strong desire on their part, to adopt some conciliatory adjustment, which may be satisfactory to you, and not incompatible with the doctrines of their religion, or essentially injurious to its discipline. |
| The Bishop of Norwich [Dr. Henry Bathurst] | Such being the character and conduct of these excellent ministers of the Gospel, where, I again ask, is the expediency of making any alteration in their ecclesiastical discipline; admitting, for a moment, the right of a civil government to interfere in the ecclesiastical discipline, or doctrine, of individuals, dissenting from the established church, but maintaining no doc- 624 trines, either subversive of morality, or injurious to the welfare of the state, a right, which I was taught in early life to call in question, by two of the greatest masters of reason whom this or any other country ever produced—I mean Locke and Hoadley? |
| The Bishop of Norwich [Dr. Henry Bathurst] | It is not every idle fear—every mean and narrow suggestion of bigotry—every injurious suspicion—every ill grounded jealousy, which can justify the exclusion of five-millions of loyal civil subjects from their civil privileges. |
| The Bishop of Ossory | He said, he would yield to no man in his recollection of the part of Mr. Locke's works to which he had referred; and not- 638 withstanding the contradiction he had received, he insisted that that great writer had laid it down as a principle, that no man ought to suffer for not being a member of the established church, unless it could be proved that he maintained opinions injurious to the state. |
| Earl Bathurst | But, my lords, if the Catholics, entertain ulterior designs, injurious to the safety of the state, and of the Protestant establishment, the bond of union will still exist, and the addition of power which it is proposed to give will but render it more formidable. |
| Mr. Wilberforce | The bad principle and the injurious effects of lottery bills had been always perceived and denounced by the wise and good. |
| Mr. Wilberforce | They were not productive of much benefit to the state, and were most injurious to the morals and industry of the people. |
| Mr. J. W. Ward | agreed, that lottery bills were most injurious to morals, and at the same time were not good financial measures; yet he thought the bill should pass at this time, for this reason, because none of the hon. gentlemen on the other side had pointed out any other mode of raising the money which the lottery supplied [a laugh]. |
| Lord A. Hamilton | said, he had been fully convinced of the insufficiency and injurious effects of such bills by the arguments of the hon. gentleman who spoke last on a former occasion. |
| Mr. Boswell | In his speech, delivered at that time, which was on record, so far from condemning those offices, as injurious to the public, he considered it a matter of vital importance to retain them: and observed, that it was right the Crown should have the means of rewarding public services, in a way which even its own caprice could not afterwards recall. |
| Mr. Bankes | was of opinion, that the present bill, enabling the Crown to compensate meritorious services, whilst it was deprived of the sinecure offices which were heretofore at its disposal, instead of proving injurious, would be found beneficial to the country. |
| Mr. Robinson | was decidedly of opinion, that it would be beneficial to the general interests of the country, and, in no ways injurious to the manufacturer, if those duties were repealed. |
| Lord W. Russell | In his judgment, it would be fatally injurious to the character and credit of the House, if, after 117 of its members had supported that vote of censure, it should, only three years afterwards, pass a unanimous vote of unqualified approbation on the same individual. |
| The Hon. J. W. Ward | Such an expectation was calculated to be very injurious to the privileges of that House in any contest which it might have with the other House, or with the Crown. |
| Lord Deerhurst | It should not, however, proceed farther without his warning voice being raised against its very injurious tendency. |
| Lord Sidmouth | The committee stated, that "although in many of the districts particular causes of distress had, no doubt, operated to expose the minds of the community to irritation and perversion, yet they were persuaded that this distress must for the most part be considered rather as the instrument than as the cause of disaffection." And then the committee stated, that "they could not refrain from expressing their opinion, that it was chiefly by the means pointed out in the report of the former committee, by the widely extended circulation of blasphemous and seditious publications, and by the effect of inflammatory discourses, continually renewed, that this spirit had been principally exerted and diffused; that by these the attachment to our established government and constitution, and respect for law, morality, and religion had been gradually weakened among those whose situations most exposed them to this destructive influence; and that it was thus that their minds had been prepared for the adoption of designs and measures no less injurious to their own interests and happiness than to those of every other class of his majesty's subjects." It was incontestibly true, that these causes led to the most dangerous consequences, and that certain persons made use of the distresses to which the labouring classes were exposed, as an instrument to carry into execution their own nefarious purposes. |
| Lord Grenville | In order to prevent crimes, a power should not be given, and exercised, which was in itself, and generally, injurious to society: but in the present case, if asked what were the grounds of his conviction in favour of the measure, he should say, that he thought this important and awful measure necessary for the prevention of great evils. |
| Mr. Curwen | said:—The question I have to submit to the House is of the utmost importance, not only as it relates to property, but in the influence it is likely to have in preventing vexatious and expensive litigations, highly injurious to public morals, as well as to the temporal interests of the clergy. |
| Lord Castlereagh | He hoped their past conduct was such, as to prove they would not have advised the continuance of the act, if they were not satisfied, that of all the measures that could be resorted to, this would be the most effectual, and prove least injurious to the people at large. |
| Mr. Barclay | The employment of spies and informers he considered necessary; but it was obvious that the trust reposed in them might be easily perverted to injurious purposes. |
| Lord Erskine | It had been contended, that the plea did not contain a sufficient allegation that the plaintiff in error had authorized the printing of a libel upon the House of Commons as a paper might reflect upon it without its being an injurious reflection; but the record stated that it was "a libellous and scandalous paper reflecting upon the just privileges of the House;" No averment could be more distinct. |
| Sir H. Parnell | So far was this authority of the clergy from being in any manner injurious to the state, it was the only support the state received in Ireland, in promoting good order and obedience to the laws among the lower orders of the Catholics; and, therefore, instead of being held up as an object of terror and regret, it should be encouraged and protected. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | He trusted, however, that the vote of the House upon that proposition would not lead to the injurious consequences that were apprehended, and that still the public wants would be fully supplied, while a reduction 1353 of the public debt would go on. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | Parliament had also done much good by adhering to the system of the corn laws, which whatever difference of opinion might prevail respecting its merits, could never be so injurious as perpetual shifting upon such an important subject. |
| The Earl of Blessington | objected to the bill, which he thought unnecessary or injurious. |
| Mr. Brougham | "That, while the measures of his Royal Highness's advisers at home are calculated to a fiord no relief either to the labouring finances of the state, or the insupportable sufferings of our countrymen, we regret to observe, that a course of policy has been pursued towards foreign states, at once injurious to the prosperity, and degrading to the character of the nation: on the one hand we see, with humiliation, that all the blood and treasure so lavishly bestowed, and all the triumphs of our arms have failed to secure to us the most ordi- 1394 nary share of influence with the very powers which owe their existence to our efforts,—while, on the other, we perceive with shame and disgust the authority of the British name prostituted to sanction every abuse of power;—every invasion of national independence;—every encroachment upon popular rights;—and that lately we have witnessed, nearly at the same time, the humbling sight of British merchants oppressed, without the hopes of redress, by a petty tyrant whom our influence had raised to power, and an authorized British minister joining in the boot-less persecution of an unoffending individual, for the purpose of courting more powerful sovereigns: "That it is a farther consequence of the same false principles, and the same imbecility, which mark the administration of our foreign affairs, that laying down no certain line of conduct respecting the intercourse with South America, but swayed by the groundless prejudices against colonial rights, which have survived the first American war, his Royal Highness's advisers have succeeded in disconcerting the commercial plans of our own countrymen, and exciting the universal distrust of the independent party, while they have failed in giving satisfaction to the Spanish and Portuguese governments: nor can we refrain from lamenting, that, after the unparalleled sacrifices made to preserve the existence of those dynasties, it should be found impossible to obtain from them a renunciation of the execrable traffic in human flesh, carried on, by their authority, to an extent beyond all former example, and very far surpassing, in its repugnance to the law of nations, the French aggressions against themselves, which we interfered to repel: "That when indeed we recollect the prodigious efforts made by this country during the late contest, and contemplate the intolerable burthens which they have entailed upon all classes of his Royal Highness's subjects, however gratifying may be the reflection, that the triumphs of our arms exalted the character of the British nation, it is truly painful to mark the truth which every day's experience forces upon our belief, that the fruit of those costly victories hath been thrown away by the incapacity of his Royal Highness's confidential advisers: even the arrangement of the continent, which they claimed as their own, and boasted would be permanent, offers no prospect of stabi 1395 lity to counterbalance the narrowness of the principles on which it was founded, and the profligacy of the means by which it was effected: for, besides the weakness naturally inherent in every such transaction, and the universal discontent of the people, whose interests have been sacrificed to it, we observe the greater continental powers rather extending their armaments than returning to peaceable pursuits;—the inferior sovereigns striving to follow their example; and leagues of a mysterious nature, with unexplained views taking place of the ancient and known relations between friendly states, while Great Britain, instead of trusting for her influence to the weight of her high character, the popularity of pure and liberal principle, the knowledge of her commanding resources, and above all the incalculable effect of her entire disinterestedness, has been involved in all the intrigues of foreign courts, has submitted to take her rank among them as a second-rate military power, and adopted a system of constant intermeddling, beneath her dignity, as it is destructive of her authority; and that we observe with astonishment and regret, that in order still more effectually to insure the failure of such schemes, their execution has in many instances been intrusted to incapable hands, according to the novel and reprehensible plan, which seems to be followed, of bestowing the higher patronage of the foreign department upon persons recommended by family connexion or by military rank, and rewarding with its inferior posts the basest species of political service: "But that when we turn from surveying the effects of mismanagement upon our national wealth and our influence abroad, to contemplate the blows which have been sustained by the civil and religious liberties of his Royal Highness's faithful subjects, we are filled with a concern so much the deeper, by how much those interests are inestimably dearer to a free people: that to serve the unworthy purposes of a court intrigue, for diminishing the influence of some distinguished men, and widening the difference that unhappily divides others from his Royal Highness's confidence, we have seen the attempt, already partially successful, to revive the senseless clamours of a misguided multitude against his Royal Highness's Roman Catholic subjects, and to embody, as the principle of the government, those bigotted doctrines, which, 1396 after weakening the strength of the empire in war, occasion the necessity for a standing army, that exhausts its resources and undermines its liberties in peace: nor is it one class of his Royal Highness's subjects alone who have to lament the injury to their constitutional rights which this fatal session has brought about: that the measures so disastrous to public liberty, which his Royal Highness's advisers have prevailed upon parliament to sanction, are all the answer that has been given to the petitions of the people; all the return made for their unalterable attachment to the constitution; all the means taken to justify or fulfil their anxious expectations: that on the eve of a prorogation, which will leave, for the first time since the revolution, the most precious of their rights at the absolute disposal of those advisers, we deem it our duty, alike towards his suffering but faithful subjects, and towards his Royal Highness, solemnly to desire that so vast and perilous a trust be no wise abused: that when we consider into whose keeping the personal freedom of each individual in the kingdom is delivered, and reflect that among the confidential servants of his Royal Highness, are to be found both those who exercised the powers of government in Ireland during the darkest period of her history, those whose general incapacity has been recorded by their colleagues, and those whom recent proceedings have stamped as inadequate to contend with the wiles of their own agents, we may well be alarmed at the prospect of the approaching recess; but we deem it a sacred duty not to separate without expressing our earnest expectation, that His Royal Highness will discountenance, by all means, the employment of persons pretending to be spies, and in reality contrivers of sedition for the sake of gain, the encouragement of whose unworthy artifices must end in the destruction of innocent individuals, endanger the public tranquillity, and irritrievably alienate the affections of his faithful subjects: and that we pledge ourselves to institute a rigorous inquiry at the beginning of the next session into every thing that concerns the execution of I the new laws during the prorogation of parliament." |
| Lord Valletort | The noble lord concluded by moving, "That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, to thank his Royal Highness for his most gracious Speech: "To assure his Royal Highness of our participation in the deep regret expressed by his Royal Highness at the continuance of his Majesty's lamented indisposition: "To express our satisfaction at the assurances which his Royal Highness continues to receive of the friendly disposition of foreign powers towards this country, and of their earnest desire to maintain the general tranquillity: 10 "To offer our humble congratulations to his Royal Highness on the complete success which has attended the hostilities to which he was compelled to resort in vindication of the honour of the country against the government of Algiers: "To assure his Royal Highness, that we reflect with pride and satisfaction on the splendid achievment of his Majesty's!-fleet, in conjunction with a squadron of the King of the Netherlands, under the gallant and able conduct of admiral viscount Exmouth, which led to the immediate and unconditional liberation of all Christian captives then within the territory of Algiers, and to the renunciation by its government of the practice of Christian slavery; and that we are duly sensible of the importance of an arrangement so interesting to humanity, and reflecting, from the manner in which it has been accomplished, such signal honour on the British nation: "To express our thanks to his Royal Highness for informing us that peace has been concluded with the government of Nepaul, in India, upon just and honourable terms, in consequence of the judicious arrangements of the governor-general, seconded by the bravery and perseverance of his majesty's forces, and of those of the East India company: "To return our humble thanks to his Royal Highness for having directed the estimates for the current year to be laid before us, and for the gracious assurance that they have been formed upon a full consideration of all the present circumstances of the country, with an anxious desire to make every reduction in our establishments which the safety of the empire and sound policy allow: "To assure his Royal Highness that we shall not fail to enter into an early and serious investigation of the state of the public income and expenditure: "That we learn with sincere regret that there has been a deficiency in the produce of the revenue in the last year, which we shall be happy to find may be ascribed to temporary causes; and that it may be practicable to provide for the public service of the year without making any addition to the burthens of the people, and without adopting any measure injurious to that system by which the public credit of the country has been hitherto sustained: "To return our humble thanks to his Royal Highness for his gracious commu- 11 nication of the progress which has been made in carrying into effect the arrangements made in the last session of parliament with a view to a new silver coinage, which we trust will be productive of considerable advantages to the trade, and internal transactions of the country: "To assure his Royal Highness that we are fully sensible that the distresses consequent upon the termination of a war of such unusual extent and duration have been felt with greater or less severity throughout all the nations of Europe, and have been considerably aggravated by the unfavourable state of the season: "That, while we deeply lament, with his Royal Highness, the pressure of these evils upon this country, we participate in the apprehension expressed by his Royal Highness, that they are of a nature not to admit of an immediate remedy; and that while we observe, with peculiar satisfaction, the fortitude with which so many privations have been borne, and the active benevolence which has been employed to mitigate them, we trust it will be found that the great sources of our national prosperity ate essentially unimpaired, and that the native energy of the country will, at no distant period, surmount all the difficulties in which we are involved: "To assure his Royal Highness, that in considering our internal situation, we cannot but feel a just indignation at the attempts which have been made to take advantage of the distresses of the country, for the purpose of exciting a spirit of sedition and violence: "That we are persuaded his Royal Highness may rely with confidence on the loyalty and good sense of the great body of his Majesty's subjects, as a security against their being perverted by the arts which are employed to seduce them; and that, while his Royal Highness is wisely determined to omit no precautions for preserving the public peace, and for counteracting the designs of the disaffected, we shall at all times be ready to afford our cordial support and co-operation in upholding a system of law and government, from which we have derived inestimable advantages, which has enabled us to conclude, with unexampled glory, a contest whereon depended the best interests of mankind, and which has been hitherto felt by ourselves, as it is acknowledged by other nations, to be the most perfect that has ever fallen to the lot of Any people." |
| Earl Grey | Without having attained one British advantage, or consulted one British interest, the result of the arrangements made by his majesty's government, with the governments to whose schemes of ambition and aggrandisement we sacrificed the rights of all minor powers, at whose unjust conduct we shamefully winked and connived, is to make us the objects of suspicion and distrust on the part of those very governments themselves who hate our prosperity, and envy our commerce, against which they make war by prohibitory duties, and by other modes of attack almost as injurious as those formerly resorted to by Napoleon himself. |
| The Earl of Harrowby | To adopt the course the noble earl recommended, might be in many cases highly injurious, by subduing that spirit of confidence and hope which can alone give sufficient energy to rescue a country from a state of difficulty, and restore its prosperity. |
| The Marquis Wellesley | The inconsiderate concessions we had made, of territory and colonies, had deprived our commerce of benefits it had long enjoyed, and had even opened doors for smuggling to an extent most injurious to the revenue; but the great cause was, as he had said, the magnitude of our expenditure. |
| Lord Castlereagh | replied, that it might be imprudent, and even injurious to the individuals themselves, if the correspondence were disclosed. |
| The Earl of Lauderdale | Nothing could be more injurious to the interests of this country than the existence of such an understanding. |
| Mr. 309 Maurice Fitzgerald | He stated, that in consequence of the late rigorous season, the poor of Ireland were reduced to extreme distress for want of food; that the crop of potatoes, their usual means of subsistence, had in general been very deficient; and that as oats were the only substitute to which they could look, the consumption of them in distillation and their free exportation were attended with very injurious consequences. |
| Mr. Huskisson | What could be the motive for spreading such an injurious and unfounded report? |
| Mr. Lockhart | Where a large and continued extent of ground was possessed by one lord of the manor, it might be done: but where, as in most cases, a manor was interspersed with small freeholds, the only consequence of it would be to beget a system of trespass and ill neighbourhood in every parish, as well as eventually to cause the total destruction of the game itself—a circumstance that would be extremely injurious to the community, as the amusement of sporting frequently induced gentlemen to reside on their own estates rather than in large cities. |
| Mr. Tierney | For himself he felt perfectly convinced, that while the noble lord on the treasury bench was making a very rational speech the other evening in favour of practical economy, many who were seated near him, viewed him with extreme horror, as uttering sentiments essentially injurious to the public service [a laugh]. |
| Earl Grosvenor | No man could, he thought, be considered a friend to his country, who, without a case of the most urgent necessity to justify him, could recommend the adoption of measures injurious to the liberty of the subject. |
| Mr. Curwen | Should that be the case, I do not think it would ultimately be injurious to the general interests of the country. |
| Sir F. Burdett | The poor were taught to consider that burthens imposed on the rich were not injurious to them, and that the taxes on articles of consumption, such as leather and soap, were alone injurious to them. |
| Sir F. Burdett | The poor were taught to consider that burthens imposed on the rich were not injurious to them, and that the taxes on articles of consumption, such as leather and soap, were alone injurious to them. |
| The Hon. J. W. Ward | The diminution of secondary offices would also be injurious, as lessening the competition among men who might become ornaments of the state: the number of persons who would be willing to contribute their services for a proportionate reward would be reduced, and the consequence would be, that all places would fall into the hands of an oligarchy, of all others the most odious—an oligarchy of wealth. |
| Mr. Bankes | The broad and better ground of resistance to the motion was, that these offices formed a part of the justifiable influence of the crown, and that young men were, by the hope of this reward, induced to devote their labours to the public service; yet this argument was most indefinite, and under this pretence of a nursery for statesmen, the power of the sovereign might be augmented to a most injurious extent. |
| Lord Lascelles | The object of the bill, therefore, which had his support was not injuriously to affect the lower orders, but to preserve them from being led astray by those delusions that were set as a snare to entrap them into their own destruction. |
| Mr. Curwen | But, while he readily admitted that, he did not conceive that the House was prevented from striking off those which were made to reward services directly injurious to the true interests of the country. |
| The Earl of Liverpool | The stopping of the distilleries now would only tend, by a rise of price, to give enormous profits to persons who had a large stock on hand; and besides, the little advantage which might have been derived from the measure would now be lost, as it would be peculiarly injurious to those parts of the country which had much bad corn to dispose of. |
| Lord Cochrane | It might be very convenient for ministers to divert the attention of the public from those objects which were really injurious to the country, and which struck at the very roots of trade and commerce. |
| Mr. Wynn | He said, that considering the great number of valuable members who were by neglect lost to society, it was a most prudent measure to provide for lunatics; for leaving out of view every feeling of humanity, it was an economical proceeding to erect lunatic ayslums, as they might be the means of curing, and thus preserving to the community many persons who would otherwise lead a life burthensome to themselves and injurious to society. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | Before he entered into any negociation with that power, he had candidly told the government of this country 931 what proposals were made to him, and had expressed in the most manly manner his willingness to relinquish any share in the transaction, if it could prove directly or indirectly injurious to this country. |
| Lord Holland | The plan hitherto adopted, if indeed it deserved the name of a plan, was most injurious to the purposes of ministers themselves: they refused to abolish at once in an open and manly way; but, by degrees, they clipped and trimmed one office and then another, without giving satisfaction to their own or to any other party. |
| Sir J. Newport | No tax that could be devised could be half so injurious as this; not even a tax on the necessaries of life. |
| Mr. Brougham | However injurious this measure may prove to the constitution, it seems we are to regard it as highly favourable to trade. |
| Mr. Brougham | I feel now, as I did then, that its first effects are injurious, by cutting off a great article of foreign trade; but I look for an ample compensation of that injury in advantages of a higher nature; the ensuring a regular, a safe, and ultimately a cheap supply of the great necessary of life, which no change of foreign policy, no caprice of hostile governments, can impede or disturb. |
| Mr. Brougham | There exists no want 1028 of means to buy them, if the trade is so far facilitated as to afford them at reasonable prices; and if any proof were wanting how tar the taste for using them might be introduced by opening the ports, the speculations at Buenos Ayres abundantly supplies it; for, though injurious to the projectors, that traffic has certainly had the effect of diffusing among the natives an inclination to use British manufactures. |
| Lord Cochrane | When however they were congratulated on the prospect of the bank resuming its payments in gold and silver, he thought it right to say that for the bank to return to cash payments at present, would be most injurious. |
| Mr. Brougham | Such conduct I maintained, while it must prove most injurious to our character, unless disavowed by parliament, would also ultimately injure us in money, as well as in reputation; since those who profited by our departure from principle, would be the first to laugh at our folly, and despise us for joining in their crimes. |
| Lord Holland | He rejoiced that he had made a motion which produced a contradiction of charges that were injurious to the honour of the country. |
| The Hon. Mr. Lyttelton | The right hon. the chancellor of the exchequer, and those who sat beside him, had been used to say, "You only find fault with the lottery puff's;" this excited a laugh, and then the matter dropped These lottery puffs were considered merely as so much nonsense which every body saw through and not as having any injurious tendency. |
| The Hon. Mr. Lyttelton | During the discussions on this question, in the last session, the chancellor of the exchequer had said, that the state lotteries were conducted on so magnificent a scale, that it was difficult, nay, almost impossible, for poor persons to adventure even in the purchase of a sixteenth, and, therefore, that they could not be exten- 1174 sively injurious to them; but to him (Mr. Lyttelton) it appeared by no means impossible, that a poor man might scrape together 1l. |
| The Hon. Mr. Lyttelton | He had, some time ago, in consequence of the notice which he had given on this subject, received a letter from the active and most exemplary magistrate who now presided over the metropolis, who thanked him for the step which he was about to take, and told him, that he was thoroughly persuaded of the injurious effects of lotteries, the mischiefs of which were daily increasing. |
| The Hon. Mr. Lyttelton | The system was radically bad and injurious; and he felt convinced, that if he could succeed in removing it, he would be doing an essential service to his country. |
| Sir Samuel Romilly | R.) would: and the chancellor of the exchequer should hear all the objections re-stated, whenever he might think proper to propose a measure so injurious to the best interests of the country. |
| Mr. J. W. Ward | It was injurious to the principles and practice of industry and economy. |
| Mr. J. W. Ward | If it was thought a great object of finance to get one pound to the treasury, which cost the payer two, he could only say it was a very injurious contrivance. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | He admitted that it would be injurious to the country to continue such a system from year to year; but he approved of it as a temporary expedient, until an opportunity should arise of converting the unfunded into a funded debt, with more advantage than could be done at present. |
| Mr. Curwen | Every day went to prove that this odious measure was altogether unnecessary; and, as the right hon. gentleman in the chair was labouring under severe indisposition, and, consequently, a late debate might be very injurious to him, it was highly important that the discussion should be deferred. |
| Mr. Calcraft | The increase took place; and in the 45th of George the 3d, four years after, and in the very teeth of the report of the committee of 1801, moved by the chancellor of the exchequer, who characterized the duties as most injurious to the national interests, they were farther increased to fifteen shillings a bushel, at which rate they stood to the present moment. |
| The Chancellor of the Exchequer | the principal proprietors of salt works in the county of Chester, and stated, that they understood that a measure was about to be submitted to the House of Commons, by the member for Rochester, for a reduction of the duty on salt, and that they were of opinion that this measure would be injurious to their interests, and disadvantageous to the public treasury as well as to individuals, who would thereby be tempted to embark their 1328 capital in a trade already too much overstocked both with hands and capital for the present consumption. |
| Mr. W. Smith | It was this; every committee which had before sat on the subject had recommended the abolition of the tax, and that measure was never rejected, but when it was brought before the House at large, which proved that every body of men which had thoroughly examined the subject were convinced of the injurious effects of the duty in question. |
| Lord Ebrington | Economy might render such a substitute unnecessary, but if a substitute were to be provided, he might safely assert there could not be found a tax, the imposition of which would be so injurious to the country as the continua- 1347 tion of this, the operation of which was so injurious on the lower orders. |
| Lord Ebrington | Economy might render such a substitute unnecessary, but if a substitute were to be provided, he might safely assert there could not be found a tax, the imposition of which would be so injurious to the country as the continua- 1347 tion of this, the operation of which was so injurious on the lower orders. |
| Mr. Calcraft | He had pointed out a tax which was oppressive to the people, and injurious to the country; and on these grounds he thought it ought to be repealed, even though the chancellor of the exchequer, with all his ingenuity in the art of taxation, should be unable to find a substitute. |
Injurious weeds and the law | Why “harmful weeds” misrepresents the law