further measures to compel the repayment | extensive and valuable Colonies. He be

"That there be laid before this House Copies of the existing Tariffs and Commercial Regulations of British India and the Dependencies thereof, on Ex-useful to the country, He should be exports and Imports, in the same manner as those laid before the House of the European and Ame

Motion agreed to.

He had, however, risen principally for the | that it was desirable that the information purpose of expressing the great pleasure he contained in the documents referred to, had felt on hearing the hon. Gentleman the and which he considered exceedingly vaMember for Montrose bring forward his luable, should appear in a more portable Motion for returns of our colonial tariffs, form. and on hearing that Motion seconded by the hon. Gentleman the Member for Bolton. He was delighted to find hon. MemAPPEAL IN CRIMINAL CASES. bers in that House turning their attention MR. EWART wished to put a question towards our colonial affairs. He hoped to the hon. and learned Gentleman the Sothat the importance of our Colonies would licitor General, or to the right hon. Baronet not be lost sight of; but that they would the Secretary of State for the Home Debe made the means of adding to the pros-partment. He begged leave to remind the perity of this country. hon. and learned Gentleman that he had last year brought in a Bill for giving a right of appeal in criminal cases. It had always appeared to him (Mr. Ewart) that such a Bill was very much required; and he wished to know from the hon. and learned Gentleman, or from the right hon. Baronet, whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to remedy the existing defect in our criminal law?

SIR G. GREY said, he wished to throw out a suggestion with respect to the manner in which such documents as those in question were usually printed. They appeared in large and ponderous volumes-in a shape which prevented their circulation throughout the country, and which was extremely inconvenient to the Members of that House. He would suggest to the Members of the Printing Committee, of which the hon. Baronet the Member for the University of Oxford was chairman, to take into their consideration whether some mode of printing these documents less expensive than the present, and which would render them more accessible to the public, might not be adopted.

SIR. R. H. INGLIS said, it was much more convenient that documents such as those referred to should be printed in a tabular form; and folio volumes were much better fitted than octavos for containing documents in that form. With respect to the returns in question, he wished to observe that they had not come under the cognizance of the Printing Committee, for they had been printed under the direction of Her Majesty's Government. It had been said by the noble Lord (Lord Seymour) that the returns were very inaccurate. Now, he had not the good fortune to concur in political opinion with the Gentleman who had framed those returns, but he thought that it would be fair to that Gentleman that a Committee should be appointed who would inquire into the alleged inaccuracies in those documents.

MR. HUME wished to state, in reference to a suggestion made by the right hon. Baronet the Member for Devonport (Sir G. Grey), that a Committee of that House, which had sat ten years ago, and of which he had been chairman, had recommended that returns should be published in a tabular form; but folio volumes were those best fitted for that form. He thought, however, VOL. LXXXIII. {Series} Third

SIR J. GRAHAM said, that from what had fallen from him on a former evening, when he had referred to the case of the Brazilian pirates, and the absence of any right of appeal in criminal cases, the House would partly have anticipated that the attention of Her Majesty's Government had been directed to that subject; and he had no hesitation in stating to the hon. Gentleman, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, that it was their intention to introduce a measure for giving a limited right of appeal in criminal cases.

COMMERCIAL POLICY-CUSTOMS-CORN

LAWS-ADJOURNED DEBATE.

The Order of the Day having been read for resuming the Adjourned Debate on the Customs and Corn Importation Acts,

VISCOUNT EBRINGTON presented several petitions from places in Devonshire, praying for an immediate repeal of the Corn Laws.

MR. A. STAFFORD O'BRIEN said, that his noble Friend the Member for Plymouth (Viscount Ebrington) had just presented some petitions which brought to his recollection a part of the speech delivered last night by the noble Lord the Member for London. His noble Friend had presented petitions praying that the repeal of the Corn Laws might be immediate. The noble Lord had stated last night that it had been the custom of Her Majesty's Ministers not to make up their minds as to the details of their measures before consulting those interests which might be chiefly af

Y

fected; and the noble Lord had called upon | retract that error, but to persevere in and the Ministers to take the question of imme- maintain that law? If the right hon. diate repeal into their consideration; as Baronet at the head of the Government their proposed measure had been laid be- said, that he had now given an opportunity fore the farmers, and, according to the to hon. Members to retract their opinions noble Lord, the farmers had expressed a as regarded that measure, he must say that general opinion in favour of immediate re- although he felt much obliged to the right peal. Whether there had been such an hon. Gentleman; yet he must add, that opopinion expressed by the farmers with portunities had not been previously wanting. whom the noble Lord had conversed, he The hon. Member for Wolverhampton had would not take upon himself to say; and given them ample opportunity year after neither would he pronounce any opinion of year; but they always refused to avail themhis own as to the feelings of the farmers selves of the opportunity; and the most able upon the point. But he would remark that, and eloquent reasons for continuing the error as regarded the Government, they had not of 1815 had proceeded from the bench upon taken the opinion of the agriculturists at which the right hon. Gentleman was seated. all upon the question. And however This brought him to a question which much, therefore, other interests might feel might be slurred over, but on which he obliged to the right hon. Baronet for the should feel himself called upon to make communications into which he had entered some remarks, which, he feared, would be with them on the subject of his commercial extremely distasteful to his right hon. measures, after they had been announced Friend (Mr. Sidney Herbert). His right to the House and there were obvious rea- hon. Friend said that if he had changed sons why such communications should not his opinions, he should be ashamed of himbe entered into until after these announce- self if he did not rise and declare that ments had been made-he was not aware, change. He should have been ashamed during his Parliamentary experience, that also if his right hon. Friend had not made the right hon. Gentleman had ever ex- that declaration. But what he wanted to tended a similar courtesy to the agricul-know was, upon what principles parties in turists. In entering on the discussion of this country were in future to be kept tothis great question, he had little hope of gether? You might say, that all this was engaging the attention of the House by the old story; and that here they were atany novelty of argument. As far as he tacking the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. himself was personally concerned, he had Peel), in support of a bad case, by personlittle to say. He had nothing to regret alities. He (Mr. S. O'Brien) distinctly nothing to explain-nothing to retract. denied that retort. It was not the case. Whatever might have been the change of He was as far as any man from imputing others, he had not changed his opinion. to the occupants of that bench where the He would say now what, perhaps, he had Cabinet Ministers sat, any other than the often said before; and, if he had not had purest and most patriotic motives. But it the advantage of consulting those tariffs was notorious that this country had been which the hon. Member for Bolton thought governed by party. It might be an obsoso useful, he had, at any rate, the same lete prejudice; but he was not ashamed to prejudice and the same bigotry, as it would own himself a party man. It had been be called, which he had ever had. His hitherto the custom in this country to beright hon. Friend who spoke last night lieve that discussions of questions on party (Mr. Sidney Herbert) had not only felt it principles-that distinct enunciations of his duty to announce an alteration in his those principles, and a rigid adherence to opinions, in reference to the present great them, formed, on the whole, notwithstanquestion, but also to deliver himself of a ing all the imperfections of the system, and sentence upon which, as it formed the sa- all its anomalies, the best mode of eliciting lient point of his right hon. Friend's speech, truth, and the best process for conducing to he hoped to be permitted to comment. sound legislation. But not only had the The purport of the sentence was, that the Government changed the principles upon law of 1815 was the greatest error which which it came into office; it had taught the landlords had ever committed. That the lesson that, henceforth, practically, no might be the case; but he turned to that principles were to bind a party together. side of the House, and begged to ask who He had not been long in the House before the parties were that urged the landed the present Government came into office; interest of the country not to explain or the first vote which he ever gave was to

the sliding scale, there was still a fixed duty left for him he might still have rested upon a fixed duty-that haltingplace between a sliding scale and a free trade. But, in his opinion, his right hon. Friend had judged too quickly of a law which had been only three years in existence, answered two years, and failed one. Two years' success and one year's failure, was surely a bad reason to induce him, not only to give up the measure, but even to abandon the principles of his whole life. His right hon. Friend had also stated, that this was not a question of pickings, or a question of delegates; but these words seemed contrary to the tenor and meaning of his right hon. Friend's speech. Surely, his right hon. Friend did not mean to charge any of those on the same side of the House, whatever their opinions on controverted questions might be, with being more desirous of pickings, or of becoming delegates, than was his right hon. Friend himself. But if he said that this was a question of pickings, or of delegates, or that the great Conservative party ought not to be bound together, or split asunder, by a mere question of imports, he would remind his right hon. Friend that that was not the way to talk of a great question like this. If it was merely a question as to the im

place them in their present position. But he could undertake to say that, if ever an Opposition was conducted upon party principles, marshalled by party tactics, and led with party views, that Opposition was that which was marshalled, headed, and led by the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Government. The disappointment had been too bitter-too great, and too general, at his change, to permit any feelings of personal friendship, any fears of giving offence, preventing him from giving a distinct reprobation of such conduct. His right hon. Friend (Mr. S. Herbert) had said-and that was the main substance of his speech-that as the law of 1842 had failed, he was, therefore, prepared to abandon the protection principles on which the Government had been formed. His right hon. Friend had said that the law of 1842 had failed; but that word 'failure" was to be understood in two ways. When he remembered what his right hon. Friend had been in 1845, when he solicited and obtained the suffrages of the farmers of Wiltshire, and what he was in 1846 when he had become a convert to free trade, he wished to know whether the law of 1842 had failed to the Sidney Herbert of last year, or to the Sidney Herbert of this? He was quite sure that his right hon. Friend did not suppose that the in-port duty on one article, why were such genuity of man could frame a law agree- changes of opinion manifested-such proable to the wishes and opinions of both positions agitated-such points raised and those Gentlemen. His right hon. Friend discussed? It was not merely a question of in 1845 would have found the measure a import duty when they put out the Governfailure if it had admitted corn too freely. ment of the noble Lord opposite. It was His right hon. Friend in 1846 would have not merely a question of an import duty found the measure a failure if it did not let on one article of produce which sent that corn in as freely as possible. Highly as House, at the last dissolution, to the conhe thought of the legislative powers of the stituencies of the country. It was not right hon. Baronet, and sincerely as he merely a question of the duty on one artimight believe him capable of effecting any-cle when the country returned a triumphthing-and the House had seen how much he was capable of effecting-still he could not conceive that the right hon. Gentleman could ever succeed in satisfying Gentlemen of such variable tempers and opinions. He could see nothing in what had been stated beyond an argument, perhaps, for the re-adjustment of the law. But it appeared that the question of the averages had been all that had disappointed his right hon. Friend. If this were so, it would be competent to him to open again that question, for then the dispute would still be, not as to the principle of protection, but as to the law by which that principle should be carried out. And if his right hon. Friend thought fit to give up

ant majority, nor when that majority placed the present Government on the Treasury bench below him. Whatever they did, if they had changed their opinions, let them say so fairly and manfully; and those who had not participated in that change would, while differing from them, respect their motives, though they might feel their confidence impaired. But let them not make it an insignificant question; let them not say that the Gentlemen opposite, who had worked so long to bring about the consummation now about to be achieved, had done this on a mere question of import, and by phraseology like that attempt to disguise the magnitude of the question. The change might be for good, or for evil;

strong and antagonist opinions were enter- | In his opinion, neither course was correct. tained concerning it; but he had never He had just arrived in England from Ireheard until now, and he was sorry to hear land, when he was called back by the it at all, that this was a light and unim- frightful accounts which reached him of the portant question. His right hon. Friend failure of the potato crop; and if the dishad mentioned Ireland, and he had charged ease had continued at the same rate of his hon. Friend the Member for the Uni-progress till the present time, he did not versity of Oxford with saying that there believe that a single vegetable would have was no ground for the present measure been left. Anxious to ascertain the real from the potato rot, in a particular parish extent of the evil, he carefully examined in Ireland. He did not, he could assure every field in the district around him, and the House, undervalue the imminent dan- found the disease rather diminishing than ger to which that country was exposed, on the increase. He took all the precauand he was glad to find that the hon. and tions in his power for the protection of the learned Member for the county of Cork, in-poor in his neighbourhood, and went away tended to bring the whole question before in a fool's paradise as they might call it, the House to-morrow. But he had al- thinking that no great cause existed for most said, that his right hon. Friend had alarm. Unfortunately, however, the rot (though he knew it would be impossible had again set in-owing either to the confor his right hon. Friend to do so) un- tinuance of the wet weather, or to some fairly represented his hon. Friend the mysterious dispensation which it was not Member for the University of Oxford. given them to understand; and he beHis hon. Friend had said, as he understood, lieved that there never was a country that for a particular evil there should be which called for more urgent measures a particular remedy; they were the last upon the part of a Government than Irepersons who would hesitate to open the land, and that there had never been a Goports in time of national distress to prevent vernment more anxious for the welfare of the supply of food to starving people. But that country than was the existing Governwhat his hon. Friend had said was, that a ment. But it was only fair to the hon. sufficient case had not been made out to Baronet the Member for Oxford, to say alter the whole commercial legislation of that the case of the Irish farmer would not the country-to introduce a new principle be met by this proposed change in our for a disaster they hoped would be casual; commercial system. He did not believe, and withal, to announce that new principle if they passed the Government Bill towithout in the least tracing out how the morrow, that one more quarter of corn, or Corn Laws had contributed to the famine one more hundred-weight of meat, would be of Ireland, or how the total abrogation of placed within the reach of the poor of Irethose laws was likely to alleviate that coun- land, unless it were accompanied by other try's distress. And he would remark, that measures. His right hon. Friend said, while the Government was bringing forward that when he looked round Wiltshire, he this question of free trade as a benefit to wondered how the poor could live; and this Ireland as well as to England, all the letters he said after advising them not to allow which he had received from Ireland-and their attention to be directed to particular the hon. Member for Limerick also, who in spots, but to extend their view over the Ireland was only second in influence to the whole country. All he could say was, that hon. and learned Member for Cork-had he had always found the misery of agriculpronounced strongly against a repeal of tural districts greatly attributable to the those laws. They all asked for employ- conduct of those who owned the soil; and ment. They wished to have the railways rural districts possessed this great advanforwarded, and they thought there would tage over manufacturing parts-that whenbe great difficulty in obtaining seed for po- ever you saw a parish destitute, cottages tatoes next year; but they said, if you wretched, and families half starved and half wish to complete our ruin, destroy our clothed, you could inquire the name of the agriculture. And he must remark, with man, whether landlord or farmer, who was reference to the potato disease, that his responsible for this state of things. He right hon. Friend (Mr. S. Herbert) had had conversed with some Wiltshire farmers praised the Commissioners for not having that very morning, who bore most honourgiven way to the panic in the first instance; able testimony to the conduct of his right and then, subsequently, for not having fal- hon. Friend, and did him the justice to say len into what he called the fool's paradise. that no part of the distress to be found in