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was unprepared to follow up his own principles.

Mr. Rashleigh followed on the Ministerial side, and Capt. Layard on the Opposition.

Mr. Blackstone recommended Mr. Ferrand to withdraw his amendment, though he should be willing to support the objects of it if brought forward in the shape of a substantive motion. He would oppose the motion of Lord Howick; but not by reason of any confi. dence he placed in the Government, whose measures he considered as having aggravated the evils of the country. The declaration of Sir Robert Peel against further change in the Corn-laws had produced some benefit in quieting the apprehensions of the farmers; but the speech of Mr. Gladstone had been far from distinct or satisfactory; and he apprehended danger from the course which Lord Stanley had announced respecting the admission of corn from the Canadas. He assured the Government that the farmers, though a body slow to move, were alive to their own interests, and that unless they should see a disposition to do them justice, they would ere long be found in opposition to the present Ministry.

Mr. Mark Phillips said, he had received a communication which enabled him distinctly to refute several charges made by Mr. Ferrand, imputing to certain manufacturers the inhuman treatment of their apprentices. This Mr. Phillips proceeded to do somewhat in detail, and added other instances of misinformation given to Members of Parliament, which ought, in his opinion, to serve them as a warning against the too ready belief of all the tales they

present distress to have been produced by the disturbing causes which affected certain foreign markets; there would always be such causes at work in some quarter of the world; but his own belief was, that the distress arose from the excessive prices which the present laws imposed on food, particularly on corn and sugar, On the subject of his country's distress, he did not suffer himself to entertain any party feeling ; and from whatever quarter any remedy might be offered, he should be equally ready to give it his earnest attention.

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Mr. Darby protested against the inferences which some Members drew from Sir Robert Peel's answer to Mr. C. Wood, on the subject of the Corn-laws. Nothing could be more illogical than to conclude, because the Minister had said he did not mean change them in this Session, that therefore he meant to change them in the next. If he believed that the Ministers when they declared themselves against any change during this Session, entertained a private intention of making that change at another period, he should think them guilty of a deception, and would support them no longer. But on the other hand, he should have considered those Ministers the weakest of men if they had pledged themselves that they would never make a change under any circumstances whatever. Such a pledge would have been no security at all; a Government weak enough to give it, would be weak enough, under any pressure, to break it; the Members opposite reasoned like the man who, having asked his neighbour whether he was

received an answer in the negative, went to some of his friends, and told them he knew the gentleman meant to go the day after. If there ever were class legislation it was the legislation sought by the manufacturers against agriculture. They were all free traders as to things in general, but no one set of them were free traders in the article produced by themselves.

Lord H. Vane could not support the motion, but gave credit to the motives of Lord Howick in making it.

Mr. Brotherton enlarged upon the nature and extent of the distress, while he argued that it was the interest of the landed party itself to take some measure for removing it, since the poor, when driven to destitution, must come at last upon the land. He was for no fixed duty; that would be a tax of 20,000,000l. on the people, he was for total repeal. The stream of commerce must not be dammed up; it was that which made the overflow now called overproduction. The landed party opposed the desired relief, that they might keep up rents. The remedy lay in a word-the word free-trade.

Mr. M. Attwood denied, that the abatement of distress could be inferred from the documents or indications to which the Ministers had appealed-from returns of diminished mortality, not laid upon the table for general examination, or from increased deposits, carried to savings' banks, simply because there were no channels in which the poor could invest them with profit. Lord Howick had ascribed the distress to competition; but competition was only the evidence

the other hand, had always argued that monopoly was the main cause of the mischief, and ought to be removed for the purpose of letting in the very competition which Lord Howick denounced. The remedy now proposed by the latter was free-trade. For a series of years the doctrines of free-trade had been in a course of application in this country, and had injured every branch of our productive industry. The silk trade afforded a remarkable instance. The shipping interests furnished another. These opinions he illustrated by statistical references, and reminded the House that it was impossible to drive out onefifth of a trade without inflicting the severest sufferings on the other four-fifths. Entertaining these opinions, he could not vote for the motion of the noble Lord.

Mr. M. Gibson thought this motion an eminently practical one; those who supported it would express an opinion that something ought to be done; those who opposed it, their opinion that nothing ought to be done. The savings' banks were no test. The depositors were chiefly domestic servants, milliners, miners, and others, not coming under the denomination of artizans. He disputed the documentary results stated by Sir J. Graham. Of the forty-nine instances mentioned by him as of new mills brought into operation, in 1842, there were thirty-nine which were cases of mere change of tenancy, and only one really new mill had been built. He was proceeding to exemplify the present state of things from a report of Mr. Horner, the Inspector, when Sir J. Graham, by a question put across the table, elicited the fact,

instinctive feeling in men's minds, that when they suffered general poverty it must be owing in some manner to the fault of their Government. Lord Howick believed this was an instinct which did not mislead; for was it possible to view the world around, and observe in what rich abundance the Creator had given the means of supplying all men's wants, with out the conviction that it was not his intention that the condition of man should be one of privation and suffering. He believed, then, that the distress which this country was now afflicted with, and which had continued so long, afforded a presumption that there must be something wrong in the political organization of society here; for if not, whence came it about that this distress had been of so long continuance? The excessive competition of labour was the cause which he assigned for the distress; and the remedy was, to make a new opening for its energies. The rational field for natural exertion was cabined, cribbed, confined, by arbitrary barriers, which it was in the power of that House at once to remove. In the first place, there were laws upon our statute-book which went directly to the restriction of importation, not incidentally arising nor introduced by accident in providing for increase of revenue, but directly checking importation from foreign countries. These laws had operated most successfully for the purpose contemplated in their enactment; and if modified to-morrow, would open to this country a large and important commerce in all articles of consumption, but more especially in the staple one of food. This was the foundation of his

increased, an additional stimulus would be given to industry.

In support of this position, he quoted Mr. Gladstone's remarks on the Tariff last year, when he said the importation of 50,000 head of cattle would cause but a small decrease in the price of meat, but would eventually lead to the export of 500,000l, in British manufactures; and he cited other authorities and arguments to make out these propositions; first, that we might largely increase our imports but for the obstacles im posed by our laws for that very purpose; and next, that a large increase of our imports would be attended with a very great increase in the exportation of our manufactures. If his arguments were said to be merely theoretic, he retorted, that the whole system of restriction was built on a theory, which no one could now defend; a theory which took its rise in the notion that gold and silver constituted wealth-that all that a nation gained by trade went to increase the amount of its gold and silver, and that to increase its exports, and decrease its imports, in order to have a favourable balance, was a wise policy. He pointed to the advantages which had accrued to England from the removal of restrictions on the trade of Ireland and Scotland at the Union, and of the United States at the Separation. With a direct appeal to the Ministers of the Crown, as to the responsibility which they would incur by rejecting his proposition, Lord Howick concluded by moving : "That this House do resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to consider so much of Her Majesty's Speech as refers to

facturing industry of the country which has so long prevailed, and which Her Majesty has so deeply lamented.'"

Mr. Gladstone admitted the general truth of the description given by Lord Howick of the present distress, but qualified it by explanations respecting several of the suffering interests: "The Income Tax, for instance, had been mentioned as conducing to that distress, by pressing on the middle and upper middle class; yet it had the peculiar merit of reaching the enormous accumulated capital of the country. There had also been special causes for the depression of the shipping trade; viz., the cessation of emigration to Australia, and great over-production in the trade of ship-building. He referred to the deposits in savings banks, to show an improvement in the condition of the working-classes: he would read to the House the sums received from and paid to the savings banks in South Lancashire, during the three several periods of the three months ending 31st January 1841, 1842, and 1843: during the first period, he found that the savings banks received 14,2501., and paid out 2,7501.; during the second period, the savings banks received 7,950., and paid out 10,300l.; and in the third period, they received 22,1007., and paid out 3,250. With respect to the deficiency in the Excise, Lord Howick had compared the quar ter of 1840, when the sum paid for the malt duty was very large, with the quarter of 1842, when the sum paid for the malt duty was very small." He had asked for a Committee of the whole House; to what useful end?

the Sugar Laws? to undo this year what they did last year? No such thing; but to consider the state of the country.' Was it possible to conceive that any good could come from such a motion? He was sure the noble Lord in bringing forward his motion must have been convinced of the certainty of its rejection, But the inconvenience of this proceeding was not the only ground for its rejection: he did not think that anything could operate with more pernicious effect on a feverish and languishing state of commercial industry than such a proposed inquiry. Did not the noble Lord opposite charge his right honourable Friend last year with unsettling everything by the propositions he made? and it was notorious that on the declaration of the changes intended to be effected, trade became stagnant, employment was diminished, and capital rendered redundant. This was the temporary effect of a plan which was definite and specific: his right honourable Friend did not propose to go into a Committee to fish out what might be desirable or not, but he laid on the table of the House a specific proposition; and even that was sufficient to disturb men's minds from one end of the country to the other. But the noble Lord, who felt the evil of this state of things, proposed now to renew these agitations with tenfold violence; for he had not thought fit to state the measures on which he depended for the relief of the distress of the country."

Was Lord Howick's objection to the commercial laws concentrated on one particular law-the Corn Law? That, indeed, was

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Mr. Gladstone had expected that Lord Howick's speech would lead to the naked proposition of simple free trade; but he did what he last year accused Sir Robert Peel of doing, and "halted between two opinions," hesitating to declare how far he would remove restrictions trade. He was sure Lord Howick professed that which he felt, and did not undertake to defend the interests of the people from any personal or party object; still it appeared to him, that the present motion served a purpose which no other motion with which he was acquainted could effect: The noble Lord the Member for London was determined last year to lead the attack on the Corn Laws; and he arranged with the Gentlemen who sat behind him-he did not know whether that noble Lord could still call them his friends, to quote an expression of the noble Lordthat he should commence the movement of the session with the debate on the fixed duty. The debate on the fixed duty went off with éclat. The noble Lord mustered the whole strength of his party, and, all circumstances considered, made a respectable appearance. But what became of the Member for Wolverhampton? The noble Lord took all the bloom off his motion, and the honourable Member for Wolverhampton had nothing but stale dregs to offer. (Continued laughter.) After he and his friends had passed muster, and helped to swell the minority of the noble Lord, they were allowed to have a separate debate. Very few Members attended, and the noble Lord joined in increasing the majority against them.

minds of these gentlemen, that this was a disadvantageous position to leave the Corn Laws in, and they had determined no longer to march in the rear of the noble Lord while waging his own battle. This being the case, a difficulty might be felt how to unite the body, which was so divided in its opinion as to what ought to follow the repeal of the Corn Laws; and he thought that it must have been clear that the movement in favour of the fixed duty could not be repeated. (Cheers and laughter.) But then it was said, that the motion was for an inquiry into the subject of the distress; and there was something so satisfactory in its first aspect, that though it did not pledge anybody to anything, yet at the same time it testified the interest Parliament took in the condition of the people.

The difference between Government and their antagonists was not really so great as the Opposition made out, but was one of degree only: "The question raised by the noble Lord, it was manifest, was by no means whether restrictions should be altogether removed, for there the noble Lord and his right honourable Friend at the head of the Government were agreed in the negative; it was not whether restrictions ought to be judiciously relaxed, for there the noble Lord and his right honourable Friend were agreed in the affirmative; and he must say, that although much had been proclaimed concerning the doctrines of Free Trade put forth by his right honourable Friend, he was not struck with the novelty of those doctrines in the mouth of

his right honourable Friend, be

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