endeavour to show, that, in many points, | take care that they did not give their conthose observations were very pertinent to sent to measures which would produce the question in general debate before the nearly the same causes in England, and House. ["No, no," and "Order."] He thereby deprive them of all possibility of was sorry, it being the first time for many extending their assistance to the people of years that he had had reason to offer Iaeland. He remembered that, in 1822, any observations, that he had met with he had the great satisfaction of subscribing any interruption. He thought, in a ques-wards a fund for what was then stated to tion of such vast importance, it was be for the relief of the people of Ireland quite competent for English Members to from a famine. Now he recollected, as offer their sympathies with the sister coun- regarded that subscription, and that calatry, and feel sincerely the sufferings of its mity, that then the House saw no cause population. Therefore, notwithstanding for the repeal of the Corn Laws. A temthe interruption he had experienced, he porary expedient met a calamity. At that should go on. The hon. Member opposite time 300,000l. was subscribed in England; had said that the absence of the gentry but what was the effect upon the people of from Ireland was one of the great sources Ireland? He believed that the distresses of evil to that country. Now he thought of Ireland at that time would have frightit would be well for those who were hurry- ened the right hon. Baronet at the head of ing on the question of Corn Law repeal, Her Majesty Government from his propriety, and the destruction of the agricultural in- and would have induced him to come down terest in England, to consider whether the to the House with some extravagant meawithdrawal of the gentry from England, sure to meet the necessities of the occaand consequently the withdrawal of the sion. But there then existed no fear of this available capital of the country, by the sort, but 300,000l. was subscribed to purmeasures proposed by the right hon. Ba-chase provisions, which were sent to Ireronet, might not bring a similar calamity land. But what was the result. There upon England. Another point to which was no money in Ireland to buy the provihe wished to refer, was a very significant sions with. Well, then, might not a similar one to the gentry and people of England result occur in England if its population generally. It was in reference to a drain of capital from this country for the purchase of foreign corn. If it happened that there should be a drain of gold from this country for the purpose he had mentioned, then the same calamity which the hon. Member opposite had so well depicted with regard to Ireland, might occur with regard to England also. This was a matter of the greatest importance. He then alluded to the potato crop, and said, if the people of Ireland suffered so much from the failure of an article of food, upon which they depended from year to year, and thereby were compelled to have recourse to others for the means of sustenance, the people of England should take a lesson, and be cautious before they placed themselves in the same precarious and uncertain situation of dependence from year to year, at the mercy of foreign nations, many of whom probably entertained hostile feelings, and others might not retain the same kindly and social feelings towards England which the people of England did towards the people of Ireland. He, therefore, hoped the people of England would consider, when they thought kindly of the people of Ireland, and sympathized with their distresses, that, if they wished still to continue that kindness, they must

was made dependent upon others? It was of no use telling them they should have cheap corn, if they had not money to buy it. What was the step at last taken with regard to Ireland? It was found to be necessary that the money should be sent to Ireland to employ the people upon public works. After that was done, there was a surplus of 100,000l. which it was found impossible to employ in Ireland, and that was reserved to be applied to permanent works. He hoped, therefore, the House would pause before they gave their consent to any measure, such as that of the right hon. Baronet, which must have the effect of making England dependent upon others for the means of sustenance. He would say, in conclusion, that he should never be a party to any measure which would contribute to take away from Ireland that immense advantage which it possessed of affording an ample supply of grain, not only for this country but for itself also. That that country might long continue to enjoy prosperity was his sincere wish, and that, under an improved state of affairs, it might become and long continue to be a source of strength to the Empire at large.

MR. O'CONNELL said that, after what had fallen from the right hon. Baronet (Sir

J. Graham), and the observations of the noble Lord the Member for London (Lord J. Russell), he would consent to withdraw his Motion, reserving to himself the exercise of his right to bring it forward hereafter, if he should deem it necessary. Motion withdrawn.

COMMERCIAL POLICY-CUSTOMS-CORN
LAWS - ADJOURNED DEBATE (SIXTH
NIGHT).

as Adam Smith occupies in English.
Count Carli, the President of a Supreme
Council of Public Economy at Milan to-
wards the close of the last century, in a
remarkable treatise on the Corn Law, ex-
pressly separates the question of supplying
a country with food from the category of
commerce; he says-

"The matter of corn is an affair of administra-
tion, and not of commerce, contrary to the other
productions of the soil, such as wine, oil, &c.; be-
cause without these man can live, which is not the

On the Order of the Day for the resump-case with bread;"tion of the Adjourned Debate on the Corn

Laws,

LORD J. MANNERS: I know, Sir, under what a disadvantage a Gentleman rises to take a part in this momentous discussion, who cannot enlist heartily under either the blue banner of my hon. Friend the Member for Northamptonshire, or that of Her Majesty's Ministers and the hon. Member for Stockport; but who, regarding both as Englishmen, and both as really anxious to promote the best interests of the country, strives to the best of his ability to reconcile the contending forces, and unite in one league of harmony and concord the conflicting elements of trade and agriculture. Knowing then that I cannot appeal to the excited feelings and animosities that prevail within as well as without these walls, and that my appeal must be to the calmer judgment of some less troublous time, I shall confine within the narrowest limits that which I have to say. Before entering into the main question, let me correct a misapprehension into which the noble Lord the Member for Lincolnshire fell the other night with respect to my hon. Friend the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs quoting an isolated passage from a speech of my hon. Friend's on the Corn Law of 1842, the noble Lord placed him in the category of Ministerial converts; but my hon. Friend's speech was altogether a free-trade speech, in which he accepted that amended Corn Law as only an "instalment of justice." Sir, I have been much struck, in approaching the consideration of the question, with the very general inclination on both sides of the House to view the problem how a country is to be supplied with food, as one exclusively of poIktical economy. Now I entertain great doubts whether such a question should be so argued; and, without referring to those English political economists of whose opinions the House must be satiated, I will take leave to cite the language of one who \in Italian literature occupies the same rank VOL. LXXXIII. {Series} Third

and after referring to a period when Eng-
land suffered much from a constant defi-

ciency of the home harvests, he says—

"In these circumstances, with that wisdom
which is worthy of a people free and thoughtful,
the Government set about considering whence
they might animate internal agriculture, and step
by step diminish the need of foreign corn, in pro-
portion as they augmented the produce of their
the material of which we are treating is an affair
own soil. It is sufficient for me to observe, that
of administration, and not of commerce, and that
no prudent Government will renounce it, because
neither are the seasons always equal, nor are men
always heroic."

Well, then, I am justified on such authority
in considering this question apart from the
doctrines of political economy. I will
own, Sir, without giving in my adhesion to
that most melancholy theory of my noble
Friend the Member for Liverpool-a theory
which if carried into general practice,
would place the charter of the poor man,
the mitre of the prelate, and the crown of
the monarch alike at the mercy of that
most odious of all despotisms, the oligarchy
of red tape-without acceding to that
ル
theory, I will own that when I heard nearly
all the statesmen of the country had come
to the conclusion that the Corn Laws
should be abolished, I thought it was the
duty of that great party who still believed
protection to be essential to the welfare of
the country, to carefully reconsider the
whole subject, and, maturely weighing all
the evidence that has of late years been
submitted to the public, counting the cost
of a protraction of the struggle, and esti-
mating the chances of success-then, and
then only, after that anxious deliberation, to
come to a determinate resolution. For my-
self, being of opinion, on grounds with
which I need not trouble the House, that the
effects of a free trade in corn have been
greatly exaggerated on the one side and
on the other, I was prepared to consider
carefully and favourably any proposition
that might have been legitimately submit-
ted to the country either by the noble Lord

2 N

Sir, will it do for the right hon. Gentleman to say that the opposition he met with from his Cabinet was so strong, that he could not carry his proposal; for there is not, I venture to say, a man in England who be

the Member for London, or by the right | by adopting a course fatal, as they believe, hon. Gentleman the First Lord of the to the best interests of their country? Nor, Treasury, that should have for its object the settlement of this long agitated question, and the extinction of those flames of civil discord which were then, and are now, so fiercely raging. But I was persuaded then, and am so now, that any such pro-lieves that those Members of the Cabinet position, to be permanently successful, must who, returning to power at the invitation of be made not on narrow, temporary, evan- the right hon. Gentleman, acceded to this escent, self-contradictory, and suspicious far greater revolution, would have offered grounds, but on broad general principles; any very resolute or determined resistance not hurried as the expedient of a terrified to the minor step of opening the ports, Cabinet, through a mystified Parliament, sanctioned as it had been in the interim by into a premature law, but submitted to that the Central Protection Society of England. full and free discussion, and verdict of the "But if I had done so," says the right hon. English people, without which I am con- Gentlemen, "the country party would have vinced no such mighty change can be be-expected a guarantee from me that I would neficial now, or satisfactory hereafter. I close the ports again, and that I was not can easily conceive such a course being prepared to give.' Now, Sir, I have not adopted; and indeed, after the speech last heard any one Gentleman on this side of night of the right hon. Gentleman, were it the House say he looked for any guarantee not for the indisputable evidence of eyes of the sort: on the contrary, the universal and ears to the contrary, I should deny the language has been, let that question be left possibility of an adverse policy being at- to the decision of the country; and even tempted. How different, Sir, would be now, late as it is, far later than if that muchnow the position of Her Majesty's advis- derided Protection Government had been ers; what other and far better feelings formed at Christmas, even now, if the right would now prevail in the various counties of hon. Baronet is really in earnest-if he beEngland, had the right hon. Baronet open-lieves the danger to be so imminent, the ed in the autumn of 1845 the ports, and on the meeting of Parliament announced that his convictions were changed; that, to use his own metaphor, he could no longer steer the vessel the same course; and that after those measures which the exigencies of the time required had been passed, he should appeal to the people to know whether they had faith in his wisdom, skill and integrity, and would sanction his new commercial and industrial policy! I have listened Sir, to all these long debates, in order to hear what reasons could be as-mittee to inquire into the burdens on land, signed by Her Majesty's servants for pursuing an opposite course; and the main plea of the right hon. Gentleman I take to be this: Most people," said he, "agree that, following the example of foreign countries, and the precedents of our own Parliaments, we ought, being satisfied of the reality of the danger in Ireland, to have suspended, in the autumn of 1845, the laws regulating the importation of grain." Yes, Sir, I for one, agree with the right hon. Gentleman, the ports ought then to have been opened; but what can we, what can the country think of a Government who, not doing then what it affirms it ought to have done, turns round now to its old supporters, and calls on them to remedy its own laches,

66

necessity so pressing, and the remedy so easy-the shortest way would be, before the end of this week, with the assent of every Gentleman in this House, to suspend the Corn Laws, open the ports, and leave it to the good sense of the English people to decide whether they should be closed again, and this Corn Law, or any other, or none at all, be adopted. But if you persevere in your present lumbering course of action, let me ask how soon do you expect to pass your measures into law, without your Com

and, for aught I know, your Committees to inquire into the operation of free trade on the Colonies and on the finances of the Empire! No, Sir, if you believe present Irish distress is to be remedied by these measures, open the ports now, and leave your great schemes to the decision of another Parliament. I trust, Sir, I have shown how unfairly the right hon. Gentleman has urged that plea; and as in urging it he taunted needlessly many Gentlemen around me, I will take leave to assure him, that so far from expecting from him a guarantee to close the ports again, I don't believe there is a man, woman, or child in England who will, for the future, ask him to guarantee the Corn Laws, or anything else. No, Sir,

the right hon. Gentleman may rely on it, | been submitted to us to show that Prussia that those who think protection to native is shaken: on the contrary, every public industry as inseparably connected with the sign that Prussia has given is in the oppowelfare of the country as it is deeply site direction; and I shall be much survery rooted in the affections of the people, will prised if Prussia, after the passing of these depend for the future on the good sense, measures, does alter her present policy, for courage, and determination of the Eng- she will then have got all that she can ask glish people, not on the pledges or guaran- or wish for from us, without making any tees of statesmen and politicians. Through- equivalent to us. But passing from Prusout the speech of the right hon. Gentleman, sia to France, the right hon. Gentleman I have to complain of the same want of said, that although the commercial aristocandour and fair dealing with the argu- cracy of France was opposed to free trade, ments of his opponents. Now, it is ex-yet intelligent public opinion was in favour tremely pleasant at the time, though I don't think much of it, afterwards to hear the way in which the right hon. Gentleman disposes of the particular course of action, or line of argument, his opponent may chance to adopt. Thus, last night, the right hon. Gentleman said, if the hon. Member for Bristol had proposed a vote of want of confidence in Ministers, or a declaration in favour of protection; or, if in short, he had done anything except that which he had done, then the right hon. Gentleman could have understood, and perhaps have been induced to support him; and Members are rather caught by that sort of reasoning. I was myself at first; but it is my firm conviction that whatever course the hon. Gentleman had adopted, he would have been met by a similar opposition from the right hon. Gentleman. But to return to the right hon. Gentleman's main line of argument. He is horrified that the hon. Member for Bristol proposes the question shall stand over for six months: "to stand still for six months in a country like this is to retrograde." We used to hear very different language not only from right hon. Conservatives, but even from that eminent champion of progress, the noble Lord the Member for the city of London. He used to tell us that the country could not stand a yearly revolution; but now the right hon. Gentleman's specific for all the evils of the country is a revolution every half year! Truly, Sir, after such a declaration from the First Minister, I think my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-proving on that text, delivered a most eloLyne, and others who think with him that there are still institutions and things worth fighting for left in England, are justified in withholding their confidence from so revolutionary a Government. Well, Sir, I now come to the right hon. Gentleman's estimate of the effect to be produced on foreign countries by this great commercial and industrial revolution. "Prussia,' said he, "is shaken;" but no evidence has

of it. Let me ask, Sir, who are the leaders
of this intelligent public opinion of France?
I suspect Arago, and Thiers, and Berryer,
and Louis Blanc, are the leaders of that pub-
lic opinion; and so far from being advocates
of free trade, they are strenuous main-
tainers of protection to French industry. I
come now, Sir, to the main plea on which
this Parliament is asked to consent to these
sweeping changes-the failure of the Irish
potato crop. Of that failure, and the pro-
bable results, more especially after the
statements we have lately been listening to
of the hon. and learned Member for the
county of Cork, I wish to speak in deep
sympathy; perhaps I cannot evince that
sympathy better than by not needlessly
parading it. But, Sir, I must be allowed to
say that when the right hon. Gentleman
argues from the failure of the Irish potato
crop, in the autumn of 1845, to a total re-
peal of the Corn Laws in 1849, my reason is
not so much convinced as my sympathy is
affected. The right hon. Gentleman inau-
gurated with solemn and melancholy pomp
the laying
of that great corner-stone on
which the new social edifice of free trade
was to be raised; but the very first stroke
of the argumentative trowel he applied to it,
shivered that stone to pieces, and now it
lies there a shapeless mass of jarring and
self-contradictory atoms; for the right hon.
Gentleman himself told us that he did not
expect his measures would reduce the price
of agricultural produce; and the right hon.
Gentleman the Secretary at War, im-

quent homily to show that not only prices
could not fall, but that there were no fo-
reign provisions that could come in. Well,
then, Sir, if this be so, how can present
Irish distress be remedied by these mea-
sures? I say, therefore, that apart from
the merits of free trade or protection, no
case has been made out by Her Majesty's
servants for proposing to this Parliament a
total repeal of the Corn Laws; and I am

consequently justified in voting with my temptuous sneer; and, with all respect for noble Friend the Member for Salop (Lord the right hon. Gentleman the Home SecreClive) in favour of an appeal to the coun-tary it will not now do for him to say that try; nor am I answered if told that I can a fixed duty cannot now be thought of beappeal to my own constituents, for it is cause some time ago he said he never would not an appeal to the electors of Newark vote for a revenue duty on corn. Enteralone that I seek for, but an appeal to all taining, then, these opinions, not fearing the constituencies of England. But now, free trade, and hoping that a future ParliaSir, let me say that I do not regard the ment may sanction some such scheme as proposal of the Minister as the best that that I have presumed to sketch, I yet decould be made. I concur in many of the precate any rash and hasty interference objections that have been urged against it. with that system of protection under which It is not a fair measure-it is not a free-trade and manufactures have risen to so trade measure it is hardly a measure of marvellous a prosperity-under which agrifree imports; it leaves on the one hand a culture has made such gigantic strides10 per cent. protection on manufactures; and above all do I deprecate this House, at and a burden of 5,000,000l. in the shape of the dictation of the right hon. Baronet, so a Malt Tax, and a prohibition of the culti-acting as to alienate from itself, and from vation of tobacco, on the other. It is of those rulers whose edicts it seems prepared course in vain for a person in my position to register, the sympathies, the affections, to offer any opinion to the country on so and the confidence of that great rural po-great a question; but I am anxious to leave pulation to which, in times of danger and on record what that opinion is, and I think distress, the Sovereigns of England have that a scheme which would admit the pro- ever been wont to look-nor look in vain— duce of our own Colonies and Indian corn for ready obedience to the laws, dauntless duty free, and foreign grain at a moderate courage, and unswerving fidelity. For fixed duty, would place the corn trade on a these reasons, while I neither fear nor hope basis satisfactory to the great mercantile much from a free trade in corn; while I interests of this country, would bind the am anxious to see a settlement of this great various Members of our vast colonial em- and long-agitated question—but in a manpire by the closest ties of common interest ner satisfactory and honourable to all classes to the mother country, and afford to the-I shall give a most hearty vote in favour English farmer a fair security against the undue competition of his foreign competitor. Were this, Sir, my opinion alone, it would be worthless; but it is the opinion of many able and experienced men in the city of London and in Manchester; and I entreat the attention of the House to the folCAPTAIN LAYARD observed, that whatlowing extract from the last circular of Messrs. Ferguson and Taylor, of Man-hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the ever might be the opinion formed by some

chester:

"We are not," say they, "insensible to the

advantages of providing the benefit of cheap food for the population of these countries; and we think the safest means of doing this, is by affording every facility for developing the resources of our soil, and making its yield abundant by the encouragement of those engaged in its cultivation. A low fixed duty of about 5s. or 6s. would uphold British agriculture, whilst the protection would not be so great as to place the native corngrower beyond the risk of competion."

of an appeal to the country; and oppose a resolute, though it may be an ineffectual, negative to the proposition that this House of Commons do resolve itself into a Committee for the purpose of considering the Corn Laws, with a view to their repeal.

House, concerning the great question proposed to their consideration by the right hon. Baronet at the head of Her Majesty's Government, looking upon it, as he did, as a question of vital importance-as a question by which the great principles of free trade were at once to be established; or, should the measure be rejected, for some time delayed (for he was one of those who never had the smallest doubt that free Non meus hic sermo: this is not the lan- trade must ultimately succeed), it was his guage of the Central Protection Society, intention to give his warmest support to nor of any of the old-fashioned supporters this great and beneficial measure; and he of the landed interest; it comes from those earnestly trusted that hon. Gentlemen most deeply interested in the welfare of would well and deeply consider the fearManchester and English manufactures; ful responsibility that would attach and I say that opinions and authorities them if they any longer banded themsuch as these cannot be pooh poohed away selves together, and, under the cry of proin a single sentence, or got rid of by a con-tection to native industry, tried to main