press hardly on any statesman for changing He (Mr. Milnes) had always maintained, or modifying his opinion on the subject. while allowing the right hon. Baronet's Though the hon. Member for Cumberland (Sir R. Peel's) helm to traverse as freely might maintain the same opinion he did in as he could wish, there were two questions 1815, very few of those who had mingled which the present Government were nearly practically in political life, had not in some precluded from deciding. One was the degree modified their opinions. When they secularization of the Irish Church, and the saw such singular instances as Lord Fitz- other the repeal of the Corn Laws. He william supporting the high duty of 1815; thought those restrictions were imposed by and Lord Spencer, not content with Mr. honourable engagements entered upon at Ricardo's proposal of a 10s. fixed duty in the time of the discussion of the Appro1822, insisting on its being raised to 20s. ; priation Clause, and at the election of 1841; and Mr. Ricardo himself, who was tho- and only within these limits Her Majesty's roughly convinced, if any man in the coun- Government could be allowed freely to act. try was, of the truth of the doctrines of He felt this so deeply, that but for the free trade, recommending a 10s. fixed circumstance of the right hon. Baronet at duty; they ought not to judge statesmen the head of the Government having revery hardly and harshly for modifying signed power, and of the noble Lord's their opinions. But these peculiarities were refusing to accept it, he could not in any not confined to one side of the question. case have given his support to the GovernHe believed that the opinions of his hon. ment; but would have preferred withdrawFriend the Member for Newcastle-under-ing from Parliament altogether. Nor could Lyme had undergone a modification in a different direction; and he was quite sure that his hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury, if he candidly declared the real state of his mind, would admit he had not always been so strong a protectionist as he was at present. Thus, considering the difficulties of the question, all possible allowance ought to be made for the men engaged in the government of the country. It was hardly for one like himself, totally inexperienced in such difficulties, to estimate the amount and the gravity of the considerations with which they had had to grapple. No one could have heard the right hon. Gentleman's earnest mode of describing his sense of responsibility, without feeling that every allowance should be made for the change in his opinions, from the purity of the motives which dictated it. "O faciles dare summa Deos, eademque tueri Difficiles." The House would decide whether, under such circumstances as those under which the country was now placed, they were to allow a statesman to modify his opinions, or whether they would prefer to have the Government constantly changed from the hands of one party to those of another, and leave the country exposed to the inconvenience of all those changes. He was not, however, prepared to take the question in the light in which it had been placed before them by the President of the Board of Trade. He was not prepared to look at the measure before them the measure proposed by Her Majesty's Government as a legitimate deduction from their former propositions. he take the view of the question which had been taken by the noble Lord the Member for Liverpool, and think that Members of that House were bound to follow, on this question, any guidance other than their own judgment. With respect to the influence of party obligations, he would say that the present state of the party to which he once belonged was such, that he did not see how these party obligations could any longer exist. He looked upon the Government of the right hon. Baronet as a Government ad interim, to carry out the measure which had been proposed to them. It was a Government which depended on the sufferance of its opponents-which hung upon their will; and if any sentiment weighed heavily on his mind, it was, that the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Government had thrown away the opportunities for doing good which Providence had placed in his hands. He saw him at one time the leader of a powerful party, and he believed him capable of allaying animosity, suppressing intolerance, and leading to the greatest and most lasting improvements-performing many of those great services to the country which hon. Gentleman opposite were, perhaps, inclined to perform, but which they wanted either the power or the opportunity to accomplish. He had seen the fabric destroyed he had seen the opportunity lost, and he deeply regretted it. Perhaps it was a vain regret, but he should not have done justice to his own feelings if he had not expressed it. He could not say that it was because he had any longer confidence in the right hon. Baronet that he intended to give him his support on this occasion. He gave him his support because it was the only course which he could pursue, being desirous as he was to pursue the most consistent course practicable in the emergency; and however he might regret to find himself separated from many of those friends with whom he had so often acted, and who had so distinguished themselves during this debate unwilling as he might be to vote differently from those friends with whom he was connected by such close ties of private friendship, yet he felt it necessary to support the right hon. Baronet; for he believed that on the conscientious vote of every man on this division depended the settlement of the question, whether or not we were to adhere to the doctrine of protection, not as laid down by the moderate and most prudent advocates of protection, but as maintained in all its integrity, by the Central Agricultural and other associations. Now, he had ever looked upon the Corn Law as a temporary arrangement, and the best, perhaps, for the purpose of educating the agriculture of this country to such a degree that it could compete with the foreigner; and when he saw how much had already been done-when he witnessed what he might call the miracles of physical agriculture which had developed themselves, and which showed that it was not a deficiency in our soil that had retarded our agriculture, he could not think otherwise than he did about a settlement of this question. When he looked at the increasing cheapness of drain tiles, and of other adjuncts to improvement, he thought it more just to suppose that the Corn Laws were approaching a termination, than that they should be permanently and in all their rigour retained. The principles which he on former occasions advocated, he could still maintain; and when the Bill was in Committee, he would hold no other line of conduct. He did not participate in the hopes which the warmest advocates of the measure entertained, no more than in the fears which were indulged in by those who opposed it. No one had satisfactorily shown him that abundance of corn on the banks of the Ukraine, or in the Valley of the Mississippi, necessarily involved abundance of food to the people of this country. There was surely an analogy between the produce of corn and manufactures; and they often saw that, while the warehouses of Manchester were stuffed with goods, the people of Ireland went cold and naked. He did not, therefore, hope, from the proposed change, the great relief that was expected. There would certainly be a loss somewhere in the change; and in his opinion it must be divided between the landlord, the farmer, and the labourer. It was maintained by hon. Friends of his, that a large proportion of that loss would fall on the labourers; but he did not think that at all proved. Hon Gentlemen had often asserted that they were perfectly convinced that wages would fall in proportion-the fall in the prices of which would be an injury to the labourer; but in his opinion the labourer in many parts of the country could not be worse off than he was at present. He did not know whether it was from seeing the produce of labour in foreign countries that he had imbibed the notion that there was a far greater equality between the prices of labour in England and on the Continent than was generally believed. There was something in the remuneration of labourers which political economy could hardly account for, but which depended on the physical capabilities of the labourers. He was told by gentlemen engaged in railroads on the Continent that they were ready to give to the English labourer half as much more as they would give to the French labourer, provided he would not get drunk. When he saw the Frenchman ploughing with his nightcap, and stopping every five minutes to talk to somebody, and singing if that somebody was not there to talk to-when he compared that to the hard work of the English ploughman, he did not see reason for that great fear that was entertained by his hon. Friends, with regard to the interests of the labourer. The labourer, he did believe, would not be the immediate sufferer in this case. He was sorry to say, that in many parts of England the labourer was already reduced to the minimum of subsistence, and his wages went below the possibility of reduction. He believed that if the hon. Member for Northampton looked to the county of Northampton, he would find -not perhaps in those parts of it to which he extended his benevolent influence the labourer receiving from seven to nine shillings per week. Here at least they could not find it possible, under any form of Corn Laws, to reduce such wages; and when he came to the labourers in the north of England, where he lived, and where ten shillings was considered very scanty remuneration for work, he thought that the advantage of the la- the landlord's capital, and was the same excited; but let them be only true to themselves; let them maintain all that was really good and useful, all that was really advantageous in their position, and although they might lose something as the ruling class, yet, notwithstanding that loss, he believed that they would maintain a powerful and prosperous condition in the community, and remain the chief element of peace and permanence amid the fluctuating fortunes of this extending Empire. Debate again adjourned. INDEX. INDEX ΤΟ HANSARD'S PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES, VOLUME LXXXIII. BEING THE FIRST VOLUME OF SESSION 1846. EXPLANATION OF THE ABBREVIATIONS. 1R. 2R. 3R. First, Second, or Third Reading-Amend., Amendment.-Res., Resolution. - Com. Committed. Re-Com., Re-committed. Rep., Reported.-- Adj., Adjourned.-- cl., Clause.-- add. cl. Additional Clause.-neg., Negatived. ., Lords. - C., Commons.- -m. q., Main Question..-0. J., Original Question. o. m., Original Motion.- p. q., Previous Question.- r. p., Report Progress— A., Ayes. N., Noes.- M., Majority.- 1st Div., 2nd Div., First or Second Division. It has seemed better, instead of incumbering this Index with a reference to Private Bills, upon which debate seldom occurs, to collect them in a table at the end of the Session, in form similar to the Paper issued by the House of Commons. The date will be a sufficient reference to the volume. The indicates that no Debate took place upon that Reading. Agricultural Protection, 7. Petitions (Duke of Richmond), 164, 234, ANSON, Hon. Colonel G., Staffordshire, S. Railways, Com. moved for, 213 Anti-Corn-Law League, Proceedings of the, l. Petition, (Lord Dacre) H67 1147 Appeal in Criminal Cases, c. Question, (Mr. Ewart) 642 Archbishops, Incomes of, c. Returns moved for, (Mr. H. Elphinstone) 449 ASHBURTON, Lord Anti-Corn-Law League, Proceedings of the, Burdens on Land, Com. moved for, 957, 958 Railways, Com. moved for, 361, 365 ASHLEY, Viscount, Dorsetshire |