Debates anti tlrocetbings inVarliament.

THE CORN BILL.

Monday being the day appointed for the second reading of the Corn Im- portation Bill by the Lords, great anxiety was displayed by the public on that day to gain admission to the House of Peers. The seats set apart for strangers were far too few to accommodate the applicants. The body of the House was filled very early; shortly after five o'clock nearly two hundred Peers were present.

After many petitions had been presented for and against the bill,

The Earl of HiroN rose to move the second reading; promising to be as brief as possible, but fearing that the very importance of the question, as well as a reference to some considerations of a personal nature, might com- pel him to tax their Lordships' patience— When he introduced the Corn-bill of 1815, it was with the greatest reluctance. He then held a subordinate office under the Government; and when the Earl of Liverpool asked him to introduce the bill, he told him that he had a great ob- jection in principle to any corn-law whatever—to any tax upon food. The only ground upon which he could consent to defend a corn-law, was an apprehension, which be then entertained, of the evils which might arise from this country be- coming more dependent for a supply of food than in prudence she ought to be on foreign nations. He could never bring himself to advocate such a measure on the ground of rent, or of any peculiar burdens on the land from taxes mortgages, or any other incumbrances. Neither could he support it as part of great system of national polity intended to give uniform and universal protection to native in- dustry. In introducing the bill, he told the House of Commons that he thought a corn-law was a choice not so much of difficulties, great as they were' but of positive evils. It was a fallacy to maintain that the high duties which at one time were levied on the importation of foreign goods were originally laid on with the view of protecting home manufactures. If inquiry was made it would be found that in the immense number of instances these duties were imposed for no other reason than that of raising revenue. He would ,give a few instances. The duty on timber was generally supposed to be part of the great system of pro- tection; but it was not so forty years ago for until 1809 the duty on foreign tun ber was next to nothing. Until 1819 there was no duty on foreign wool; and

until 1816 there were hardly any duties on the importation of butter, cheese, and a variety of other articles of agricultural produce. As to the ground upon which he defended the imposition of the Corn-bill of 1815—that of avoiding the danger of this country becoming dependent to too great a degree on the will or caprice of foreign nations—the validity of it was fairly liable to question. He asked such of their Lordships as thought that the Corn-laws were so inti- mately connected with the political, commercial, and financial interests of the country, that they ought to be permanently maintained, to review the course of legislation which Parliament bad adopted in reference to them. The first interfe- rence with the importation of corn to which he adverted was that of 1791, which imposed a very high duty when the price was below 50s. This law continued for two or three years, when it was overthrown by the effect of the seasons. In 1804 another change took place; and in 1815, when the war terminated, it was found,

or supposed to be found, that the act of 1804 was insufficient to secure to the

agriculturists the benefits it was intended to confer. Accordingly, another scheme was devised,—a scheme which certainly was not very popular either at the time of its proposal or after the country had had a short experience of its operation. In 1820, it was admitted that the law had been utterly inefficient; and Commit- tees were appointed to consider the best means of improving it. At length a re- port was drawn up by Mr. Huskisson, the reverse of satisfactory to the landed interest; for it recommended the relaxation of the existing law; and that report became the basis of the act of 1822. The operation of that law had to be twice suspended in 1826; and with the view of remedying its defects the bill of 1828 was passed; and it continued in operation till 1842. He had mentioned these changes for the purpose of showing, that if the present system was one which it was so essential to maintain—one so closely interwoven as had been represented,

with all the interests of the country—it certainly bad been the least stable system that ever was invented for the purpose of maintaining a permanent and stable principle. When he saw the readiness with which capital continued to be applied

to the soil, the extent of the improvements which are going on, and having beard of no instances of land being thrown out of cultivation, or of farmers declining to renew their contracts, he could not bring himself to think that the maintenance of the present system of protection was essential to the due, effectual, ani perfect cultivation of the soil. It, then, he was entitled to look upon the existing system as one which did not bear the character of permanence, the question was at once narrowed down to a question of time. And if this be admitted, no man was open to reproach who avowed his conviction that the time for an alteration of the law had arrived.

Bearing upon the present necessity of a settlement, Lord Ripon referred to the increase of population, and to the circumstances of Ireland. As to the popula-

tion facts had clearly established that it had outran the means immediately pos- sessed by this country of supplying by its own means a sufficiency of food; and as to Ireland, it had been found that the existing law had proved inoperative to supply the deficiency occasioned by the failure of the potato crop. The existence of this distress in Ireland necessarily raised the question, whether it was fitting or not that the Executive Government should exercise the powers vested in them with regard to the importation of foreign corn. He thought that would have been a most undesirable course. He considered that a law passed for a purpose ought not to be suspended on any light grounds. He wondered that it had never occurred to those who advised a suspension of the law, that the very act of sus- pension would destroy its vitality; because the Legislature could not revert to a system that had been proved to -be incapable of answering the purpose for which it was established. He did not believe that the repeal of the Corn-laws would throw land out of cultivation. As a landlord, he could state that he had obtained an advance of rent in the face of the threatened changes; and others had expe- rienced the same. He was not sure whether any evil consequences need be ap- prehended even if an earlier termination were pat. to the present system than the three years proposed in the bill. It might be said that his present course was inconsistent with his previous opinions; but he took no shame to himself on this account. He had acted from the solemn conviction of what was right, founded on much reflection, and stimu- lated by the conviction that he was not proposing a measure calculated to injure any interest in the country, bat, on the contrary, to do good to all. Be might be wrong: he might have forfeited by the course he was now pursuing—but that was nothing to the purpose—even the good opinion of many who had thought well of him. He might be supposed to have abandoned unnecessarily a cause he had hitherto supported, and which some of his friends had told him he had well supported. But he did it because he thought it right: and when he came to the conclusion that the reasons upon which he had advocated former measures of this kind no longer existed, he hoped he should stand fair with their Lordships when he recommended it to them as one in the progress of which they were all equally interested.

The Duke of RICHMOND, leading the opposition, moved that the bill be read a second time that day six months— In his conscience he believed this measure is more likely to inflict a deadly blow on the industrial interests of the nation than any measure ever proposed by a Minister. He thought the House had just cause to complain that Lord Ripon had not stated what in his opinion the average price of corn will be if the proposed bill should unfortunately pass into a law. This is the first time that a Minister has dared to bring forward a measure of the kind without being able to form an opinion upon the question of prices. He contrasted the opinions expressed by Lord Ripon in 1815, in 1841, and 1842, on the same subject, with those he had just addressed to the House. As showing the benefit which the working classes, agricultural and operative, had derived from the system of protection, be quoted the amounts deposited in savings banks. At the present moment there are 1,000,000 accounts, averaging 271. each; 60,000 depositors, whose averages is 7T. each; and the total sum so invested in this country, which has been " pauperized" by protection, amounts to 83,000,0001. sterling. If protection be withdrawn nothing can save the agricultural labourer and the tenantry from ruin. They must either starve, enter the workhouses or emigrate into the manufacturing dis tricts, and endeavour to get employment the very men who had effected their ruin Many members of the League have a deep hostility to the farmers, bezatire these men have ever been warmly attached to the constitution and institutions of the country. It is a curlew fact, that when the price of produce falls the poor- rates increase. In opposition to the League, he asserted that the farmers of Eng- land are skilful in their business; and as to the want of capital with which they had been taunted, was it the right way of correcting that dieadvantage to pass a law diminishing the value of their produce? He had sever disguised the strong feeling of detestation with which he regarded the proposed measure, and he be- lieved that the great majority of their Lordships disliked it as much as he did: he believed that if the votes were taken by ballot, there would not be found twelve balls in favour of it. Some might feel inclined to waive their own convictions on the ground that free trade is inevitable owing to the excitement out of doors: but he denied that the working classes were in favour of the abolition of the Corn. laws. In the very hotbed of their own sedition, the League would not trust their own operatives to have a public meeting without being admitted by tickets. Others might say that they could not think of abandoning their party: but they should recollect that no good could arise from acting on that notion. There is no man in the country who believes that Sir Robert Peel will ever regain the con- fidence of the large mass of the people. It took him ten or twelve years before to regain the confidence of the people after 1829: he has no more chance of regaining the confidence of the people now than he has of sitting upon the throne of this country. "My Lords, I will call your attention to the motives publicly announced out of doors by some of the advocates of free trade. Why, they admit that their oh- je.43t is to crash the Aristocracy of this country. One of them—I will not say the most respectable of the members of the Anti-Corn-law League, because he cer-

tainly is not the most respectable—Mr. Bright—(Laughter)—well, Mr. Bright declared openly his desire to crash the Aristocracy." "It is incumbent on you to reflect upon consequences, to consider what will be in all likelihood the effmt of , your sanctioning this measure. Is it expedient? If you concede this, will not other measures be brought forward for destroying the Church—for injuring our institutions—for subverting the constitution of your Lordships' House? If you act well, you will be indeed powerful, because you stand firm in the good opinion of the great body of the people—of the intelligent middle classes of this country. But I tell your Lordships, with perfect respect., that unless you maintain that good opinion—and you cannot maintain it if the people find you voting against your former promises, your former pledges, your former opinions—you will be then powerless indeed. In conclusion, I humbly, though at the same time most earnestly, implore your Lordships to vote against this measure, because I believe that, if you do not reject it, it is accepted only as an instalment of future and greater changes."

Earl FITZWILLIARt would deal with the measure as one of national policy, without reference to the fears which the Duke of Richmond had conjured up—

Although not approving of the measure in all its details, he apprehended no disastrous results from it to the landed interests; and, looking at the transactions which had taken place between landlord and tenant since the question was agi- tated, he did not think that any evil was apprehended by these chetses. By the proposal now made, the Government had abandoned a great revenue which must be made good in some other way. Compensation to the landed interest had been spoken of; but as he did not think they would suffer from the change, no coni- pensation was due. He thought there would have been a revision of taxation; his opinion all along had been that the landed interest had a claim to a great diminution if not to a repeal of the Malt-tax; he thought that when the Govern- ment untaxed the consumer's bread, they ought also to =tax his beer. He could not conceive why, unless for the mere purpose of preserving a rag or a thread of consistency, the bit of a sliding-scale should be maintained for three years. He might be a witness on this part of the subject, for he had been at pains to ascer- tain the feelings of the agriculturists in the counties with which he was connected;

and he undertook to say that they all required an immediate settlement. He had been always of opinion that whenever they began to deal with the Corn-laws, they ought to make up their own minds as to what the state of the law ought to be, and come to it immediately; and he had ever opposed the schemes for ages- dust abolition, which might be favourable perhaps to the landlords, but which were most injurious to the tenants. Therefore, if it had been his lot to have pro-

posed a measure he would have proposed a law very different from that brought forward by her Majesty's Ministers; and he was not surprised at the indignation their bill had excited. He disapproved of the bill; but he must vote for it. He was driven into a corner—he could not help himself. He must vote for the bill, or he must lose the measure for a year, or perhaps permanently; and as he valued the abolition of protection, he would not run the slightest risk of such an event. Ministers ought to have proceeded by resolutions in the first instance, and not by a bill: in that case, their Lordships could have entered into, the fullest considera- tion of the measure with the other House; they might have stated their views, and negotiated with that other House. Now the ground was entirely cut away from them; the smallest amendment would lose the bill, and he would not be a party to such an awful risk.

The Duke of CLEVELAND- said, it was with no ordinary feelings that he was compelled to sever himself from a Government which he had hitherto endeavoured to support—

He was sure that the Duke of Wellington had not changed his opinions from any whim or prejudice; but there had been a total abandonment of all principle on the part of the Government. In 1848 he was asked to move the address; but, In consequence of rumours which prevailed about the Corn-laws, he wrote to the Duke of Wellington on the subject, hoping that he might declare the rumours to be unfounded, and also give him an assurance that so far as the present Govern- ment were concerned, they intended the measure of 1842 to be final. The Duke of Wellington replied, that this was an unusual request, and he declined to accede to it; and the Duke of Cleveland, in vindication of his own consistency, had thereupon declined to move the address. 'Under the protective system, this country had attained to wealth, honour, and renown, superior to any other in the known world: hence the danger of entering upon a course of policy of a totally different kind, and from which they could not recede when once adopted. The measure now submitted was oppressive and un- just towards an industrious and loyal people, for the benefit of a class that were .dishtyal, turbulent, and discontented. He enumerated the various classes con- nected with the cultivation of the land, and showed how injurious, nay ruinous, the effect of free trade would be to their interests. But there is another class of ,a superior description, and not unworthy of their Lordships' consideration, when they reflected upon the nature of their calling, the respectability of their station on life and the alms which they distributed among the poorer members of their .flocksLhe meant the parochial clergy. No class would suffer more than they .would, and he hoped the right reverend Prelates would protect their interest. He looked upon the parochial clergy as the greatest sufferers from this measure:

for the landholders could, by skilful farming and improved modes of cultivation,

increase the produce of the soil; by the former tithe-law the clergy would share in the benefit of that increase; but by the present law they would be precluded from doing so, because in their ease while the quantity was fixed the price would vary. Did their Lordships think that this measure although passed would prove the deathblow to agitation, or that it would for ever close the mouths of your Cohdens and your B. rights ? For himself, he agreed with the Duke of Richmond in thinking that it would be but the stepping-stone to ulterior and more dangerous -legislation.

The Marquis of LONDONDERRY supported the bill—

The Duke of Cleveland had presented a hostile petition from the county of Durham; but from his intimate acquaintance with that comity he could state that the petition did not represent the general opinions of the farmers and free- holders. He had reason to believe that few Protectionist Members would be re- turned for the county of Durham next Parliament. The agricultural body in the :North of England were favourable to the Ministerial pcdwy. He had the other day been conversing with a farmer at Stockton-on-Tees; and in answer to the in- quiry of "What do you expect from Sir Robert Peel's measure?" he had been -told that the farmers anticipated now growing two blades of grass where before they only grew one. This was also his opinion. He would admit that the mea- sure was an experiment, but then it was a great experiment: and such was his confidence in the Ministers who had brought the country in all its domestic and fomign relations to the pitch of prosperity they now witnessed, that he did not see any reason why he should hesitate in following them in the course which they

thought it wise and expedient to pursue. The question was one of rent-roll and profit rather than of any high principle of political economy; it was a question less of party, than as affecting on the one hand, those engaged in agriculture and on the other those engaged in commerce. It was difficult, from the exagge- rated statements made on both sides, to form a deliberate judgment on the ques- tion; but, for'himself, he must say that he generally took, where he was not able to form an opinion of his own, the opinions of those with whom he generally acted in public life. (Laughter.) He found that those individuals—one and all ofrthem—who had carried the country through a dangerous crisis, that they had all found it expedient to change the opinions which they had formerly held. But

change was no matter of reproach to any man. If change was to be made matter of reproach, let them look at the last division in their Lordships' House on this question. Earl Fitzwilliam had stated that he believed this measure would be carried ny a very large majority: but how many of their Lordships ever voted for it before? (Cheers and laughter.) Why, the largest number of their Lord- ships who had ever before voted for the total repeal of the Corn-laws was only six. (Continued laughter.) So, after that, and considering that a majority was now to vote in its favour, he thought there could be no accusation on the subject of change. (Peals of laughter.) The Duke of Richmond, he regretted to say, had been a little personal: he had turned to the conduct of Lord Ripon, and, 137 an industrious searching of Hansard, had got up a considerable number of his noble friend's speeches, and had quoted them as if they proved a great triumph over his noble friend. But there were some not very small changes in the Duke's own opinions; and if he were to look up Hansard wIth equal industry, he thought he should be able to make out as good a case against him—he would perhaps be prepared to do so at another time. (" Hear, hear!")

he Duke of RICHMOND—" I deny it." The Marquis of LONDONDERRY continued. One extraordinary circumstance had occurred in these eventful times, that it had brought great statesmen forward

even from amongst their sporting men; but he questioned much, even if they were to succeed in displacing his noble friends whom they now honoured with their bit- terest invectives, whether they would take their places. He should very much be disposed to ask them, as the Duke of Wellington once did the noble Lords oppo- site, how is the Queen's Government to be carried on? (Cheers.) Because he thought it was the conviction of noble Lords opposite, from what the nobla Duke had said, that the country had lost confidence in Sir Robert Peel. (Loud cheers.) He asked the noble Lords who cheered this, whether they remembered what passed after the Catholic Emancipation Bill ? Was there not then the same cry, the same vituperation against change of opinion, resounding from one end of the island to the other; and yet since that time Sir Robert Peel had been placed upon the highest pinnacle of the approbation of the country. At the end of last year there was not a rumour of discontent against his Government in the country. Perhaps he might be asked, whether it was advisable then to propose such a mea- sure as this at such a time. ("Hear, hear!" and great laughter.) But he

would ask, if next year Sir Robert Peel should meet the .Parliament and show theitt that his experiment was completely successful, whether this clamour against him would not cease? (" Hear, hear r) As an Irish proprietor, Lard Londonderry was satisfied that the measure would not be for the injury oethaf country.

Lord STANLEY assured their Lordships that it was with unfeigned dis- trust of his own powers, but at the same time with the most unhesitating conviction of the strength of the case he had to support, that he now ad- dressed them—

On this occasion, unhappily, he found himself opposed to all who have been hitherto the leaders of both the great parties into which each House had been divided: but, however painfully he might feel the inequality of the contest in point of ability, he could not admit that the weight of authority is in favour of those who propose the abolition of the Corn-laws. On this .head he would appeal from the authority of the living to the authority of the dead; to the authority of Chatham, Pitt, Huskisson, Liverpool, Canning, and Grey. He disputed Lord Ripon's assertion that the duties levied on imports were not established as a protection to home industry. The contrary was the fact; for if the records of history were searched from the earliest times, it would be found that the principle which guided the Ministers of this country was that of encouraging the domestic industry and protecting native agriculture. But England has not been singular in upholding that principle. It was recognized and acted upon in France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Swede!), Norway, the Germanic Confederation, Prussia. Portugal, Spain, the Roman states, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States of America. When he saw all this, not only could he not admit that the weight of authority is with the opponents of the existing law, but he ventured to doubt the truth of that which has been put forward as an indisputable axiom, that the prima facie evidence is in favour of unrestricted importation. He contended that the inference, the prima fade inference is, that all statesmen of former times and countries were not wholly destitute of political wisdom and political sagacity. Ile could not be- lieve that not a single beam enlightened and diapelled the universal darkness, till that which flashed simultaneously and with such wonderful and marvellous power of conversion upon the statesmen of the present age, in the month of November last. "1 hope I need not assure your Lordships, and 1. am quite confident I need not assure the noble and gallant Duke near me, (the Duke of Wellington.) that how- ever deeply I may deplore the course he has pursued as a Minister of the Crown, no words shall fail from me in the course of the observations I shall have to offer in the slightest degree inconsistent with the deep personal respect I entertain both for his public and private character, or to cant the shadow of a suspicion--which does not exist or find a place in my mind—upon the entire purity of the motives by which be has been actuated. Even if my noble friend's brilliant career, and the prominent position he occupies in this age and country, did not place fatn—I will not say beyond criticism, but above all apprehension of censure—the uniform singlemindedness of his character, his utter forgetfulness on all occasions of self, and his abhorrence of all that is low, mean, and selfish, would be a guarantee to your Lordships and to the world, that whatever be the circumstances which have produced it, his decision has been formed upon a sincere, though, I respectfully think, a mistaken sense of what is best for the public interest. (Cheers.) Nor, my Lords, will I presume to doubt the sin- cerity of the conviction of my right honourable friend at the head of her Majesty's Government that this measure was called for by a great exigency. A man of far less sagacity and experience than my right ho- nourable friend could not long have failed to foresee, that the inevitable conse- quence of this measure must be the dislocation and disruption of all those party ties without which, in my humble judginent, the affairs of this great country can

never be steadily carried on: he must have foreseen the shock it would give to public confidence in public men, to the confidence of constituents in their repre- sentatives, to the confidence of the country in the House of Commons, and,

forgive me for saying so, in your Lordships House also, if you should unhappily imitate the too facile (=version of that House. (Great cheering.) He must have known the embarrassment, the painful conflict and struggle between per- sonal attachment and public principle, to which it would expose his warmest and most devoted adherents; he most have felt the injury he was doing to his own public reputation, and the diminution he was canning to the means of his own

future usefulness. I believe my right honourable frieod foresaw all these circum- stances; and therefore I cannot but think that he conscientiously believed

the emergency of the case required this course to be pursued. But I think

my right honourable friend fatally and unhappily mistook that emergency ; that he mistook the public judgment; that he mistook the urgency of thePosition in which he was placed. I think he committed the error the most fatal a stet:40'4 can com- mit-1 think he took the brawling torrent of agitation for the still; deep current of public opinion. (Loud cheers.) And it will not be the least unhappy consequence of this unhappy measure, that this country and time world will believe—truly or falsely, justly or unjustly, I will not say—that a triumph has been gained by an organized and interested association over the Minister of the Crown; and that a still more fatal triumph has been gained by the Minister, of the Crown, acting under the influence of that association, over his Political supporters and the inde- pendence of Parliament." (Loud cheering.) His wish was to avoid all personal allusiqns. Were he to enter into the question of consistency, he should have to direct his observations with tolerable impartiality to lioth. aides of the HON& For he took leave with great respect to remind noble Lords opposite, that up to 1841, there was little or no difference of opinion among them as to the necessity of maintaining the then existing Corn-laws. And though since that period there has been a difference between the two sides of the House, it has not related to the question whether agriculture is entitled to protection or not, but simply as to its extent and amount, and the most efficient and politic mode of applying and ad- ministering that protection. " And such, I believe, was the case down to that memorable month of November 1845—down to tha day when the 'verbose et gran- dis epiatola venit.' (Cheers and laughter.) From that period, and that period alone, we can date the claim—if, indeed, there be a claim—to be considered the opponents of protection. It may be that some of your Lordships who are about to vote for the second reading desire to record your opinion against the principle of the eliding-scale, to give effect to your own conscientious and I believe I may say unaltered opinion in favour of a fixed duty. ("Hear, hear!") In that case, I have nothing to say against your perfect consistency. But if you are about to join a Government for the purpose of abolishing all protection to agriculture in whatever shape, you must not flatter yourselves that you are altogether free from the imputation of that inconsistency with which you are so ready to taunt her Majesty's Government." Turning from the personal part of the question, Lord Stanley entered upon the argumentative. But at the very outset the Protectionists met with a difficulty; for the Ministers decline to say what they anticipate will be the result of the pro- posed measure as regards prices. When we put the question, we are frankly told that they cannot tell. He objected to the mode in which the experiment is to be tried. Instead of trying it on some small scale, in some insignificant corner of the globe, it was proposed to try it in the wea'thiest and mightiest empire of the world, where the slightest derangement of the social scale may produce extensive and most irremedial mischief. Parliament had a right to know from the Minister what he calculates upon as being the probable effect of the proposed measure; but in the absence of this information, Parliament could only turn to the argu- ments by which it has been justified. These appear to be—famine in Ireland. and the successful operation of the Tariff of 1842: but the one is contradictory of the other. If the repeal of the Corn-laws be calculated to relieve the famine in Ireland, grunting that famine does exist, it must be by bringing a large amount of corn into consumption at so low a price as to place it within time reach of the poorest and the most distressed of that starving population: but, if he was not much mistaken in the boast which her Majesty a Government make of the suc cessful operation of the Tariff, it is this—that while it is materially extending commerce, it has not diminished, but has rather tended to raise time price of the articles which have been subjected to its operation. Lord Ripon had stated that the famine was not the inducing cause of the proposed measure: but Lord Stanley would venture to say, and-he was confident he would not be contradicted by any single member of the Government, that if it had not been for the apprehension of scarcity in Ireland, and the supposed failure of the crops, their Lordships would never have been asked, in the course of this session at all events, to alter or repeal the Corn-law.

Lord Stanley proceeded to narrate what had taken place in the Cabinet on the subject of the apprehended scarcity in Ireland. He still entertained the opinion, that at the close of October the real state of the Case with regard to the famine was unknown. Govermnent were then told that foreign countries were taking steps to prevent the export of their supplies: and he certainly thought that this was an additional reason against taking such a step as opening the ports; because the effect of this step, under such circumstances, would be to stimulate consump- tion at a time when, upon the hypothesis, it was desirable rather to discourage it; and that to stimulate consumption would be likely to aggravate the evil of dis- tress, if indeed distress and scarcity existed. He entreated the House to bear in mind the manifest distinction there is between scarcity or famine, and great local and individual distress. "My Lords, I speak of the famine as a vision —an utterly baseless vision—which haunted the imaginationn of the Govern- ment. I speak in very different terms, and with very different feelings, of that amount of destitution and distress, into which a large body of the small cot- tiers in Ireland have been thrown by the partial or total failure of their potato crop: but I conceive, that this is a kind of distress, this is a species of destitution, upon which your repeal of the Corn-law, whatever effect it produces upon the price of wheat, will produce no more effeet, and can produce no more, than if you were to pass a law which should reduce the price of pine-apples." The evil to these people is not that corn is dear: but it is that their whole subsistence is drawn from a patch of land, and when a failure in the potato crop takes place, misery is the consequence. They are not, like the English peasantry, in the receipt of steady wages. Now, the small farmers—a class comprising probably 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 of the people—sustained considerable loss from the failure of the potatoes; but they made the most of the diseased crop by fattening pigs and sel. g them: and there is this in their case that the crop of oats was superabundant. And, by way. of relieving these men, it was proposed, when they had lost their potatoes, to inflict a farther injury upon them by reducing the price of their oats. Lord Stanley therefore recorded his opinion against the opening of the ports. Still, with the view of preserving unanimity in the Cabinet, and although entertaining doubts whether a suspension of the Corn-laws and the opening of the ports would b e of avail or might uot even be injurious, he intimated his entire readiness to yield his own opinion and Consent to a suspension of the Corn-law, provided a sus- pension only was proposed. • But when he found that that temporary emergency was to be made the groundwork of suspending, for the purpose of not reenacting the Corn-law, he felt that he could not take that course consistently with his own feeling as an hononrable man. . When the Cabinet met again, in November, (an adjournment had taken place to obtain better information,) he approved of all the precautionary measures which had been adopted for relieving the anticipated dis- tress; but he confessed it was with some surprise, and no little disappantment, that when the question was put to the Cabinet, not of an immediate issue of an order in Council, but of an early summoning of Parliament for the purpose of pro- posing a gradual abrogation of the Corn-law, he found himself alone in his opposition. "I felt deeply and painfully the prospect of separation from colleagues I esteemed. I felt most painfully. the awful weight of responsibility which I found was about to devolve tangly upon myself. I am not ashamed to say that I asked for forty-eight hours to enable me to decide. My Lords, it was no sacrifice to me to abandon office: on the con- trary, I had to examine most rigidly in my own mind, whether I were unduly influenced to an obstinate perseverance by my anxious desire to escape from the responsibilities and tabours of public life. I tried to school myself into the belief that, under certain circumstances, the interests of the country might require even &sacrifice of personal and public character. My Lords, I could not bring myself to so humiliating a concFusion; and, most reluctantly, but without difficulty or doubt, supported as I was by one of my colleagues, whom I am not at liberty to name, (but whom if I could mine, I am .quite sure his position and his character would satisfy all your Lordship's, that An his subsequently rejoining the Govern- ment he wake by actuated by none but the most honourable motives,) I was com- pelled to tender the resignation of my office. Upon that the Government of Sir Kobert Peel was broken up." He could not see the validity of any reason which had been urged for abolish- ing the law of 1842. In no respects had it failed. He took it that the object of this and every other corn-law was to place this country in :setae of virtual inde- pendence of other countries for its supply of food. This object:might be scouted by .some very enlightened politicians of the present day; but such was not the opinion of Mr. Iluskisson. Well, the law of 1842 has accomplished its great and main ohject, beyond any law which has ever been in force in this or any other country. Moderate and uniform prices had prevailed under it to a remarkable extent; contrasting strongly with the extreme fluctuations which have occurred in other countries. Neither have these advantages been purchased by the sacri- fice of commercial interests. Since 1827, the exports of this country have in- creased from 36,000,000/. in value to 58400,0001.; and in the course of those years the import of cotton alone had increased from 177,000,000 pounds to 721,000,000 pounds. In the course of the period siiice 1814, while the value of landed property, as shown by the Property-tax paid in respect to schedule A, has increased from 39,300,0001. to 45,750,0001.,—bemg an increase of about 16 per cent,—the increase on schedule B, showing the profits of trade manufactures, and professions, has increased from 35,800,0001. in 1814, to 64,341,0001. in 1842, being an increase of no less than 84 per cent against 16 per cent increase in the value of laud.'"Have, then, these Corn-laws been inconsistent with manufac- turing prosperity? and why are we now invited to enter upon this great experi- ment ? It is for the purpose, I suppose, of still further expanding the manufac- turing activity of the country. 1 belong to a manufacturing county; and no man is less inclined than myself to depreciate the great advantages derived from the manufactures of this country, the great increase they have caused in the wealth of the nation, and in many cases the addition they have given to the comfort of the labouring classes. But this system of manufacturing activity is not without its attendant drawbacks, and requires to be steadily and carefully watched rather than to be unduly pampered and fostered. Manufacturing in- dustry is subject to constant, great, and rapid fluctuations. Its powers of production are always overtaking the powers of consumption. A period of prosperity is inva- riably followed by the glutting of every market in the world, and by a corresponding period of adversity. Do nothing, for God's sake, to check the prosperity of manufactures, but do not be led by unwise legislation to promote and pamper an unwholesome increase, which when the bubble bursts involves all in serious evils. But if it is certain that the increase and extension of manufactures are desirable, it is not clear to my mind that the repeal of the Corn-hairs would have the effect of increasing manufacturing industry. If there be no great reduction in the price of corn in consequence of this measure, it needs no demonstration to show that there will be no largely increased consumption of corn; and if there should be no great increase in the consumption of corn, the consequence is, that there will be a transfer to a certain extent of the consumers and customers in this country to the foreign grower; and that would be all. If the Government are to be believed, there is to be no great fall in the price of corn; as in like manner they say that the new Tariff has increased the prices of articles. Of all the paradoxes which were ever palmed on the credulity of mankind, and passed under the authority- of great names for sovereign and supreme wisdom, the boldest and most laughable is that increased competition tends to raise the prices of articles. Reason and facts are both agaiust it." True, the reduction of a halfpenny on imported wool last year, taking, place at a thriving period of manufactures did not produce the effect of checking the consumption of British wool, because the demand exceeded the supply: but for five years after the redaction of the duty in 1825 by Mr. Huskisson the price fell from Is. 4d. to 10d., a fall equivalent to the reduction Of the duty. With regard to timber, it is true that Baltic timber has not fallen to the full extent of the reduction of the duty; but as regards British timber, the price has fallen from 103s., the price of 50 cubic feet previous to the operation of the Tariff, to 91s. 3d.; and in the course of last year, the price fell to 86s. 8d. "„I would ask the noble Lord connected with the Woods and Forests, whether, having intended a sale of bark and timber out of the Forest of Dean, he was not obliged to withdraw those articles from the sale, in consequencOof the depnscia- tion of price?" Lord CANNING stated that they were sold, and not withdrawn. (Cheers from the Ministerial and Opposition benches.)

Lord SasueLats continued. Ile would not enter into' the question of butcher's meat, or into the several causes which had produced the deficient supply and oc- casionetIthe rise in price. Much has been said about the increase of shipping under the Tariff: but that increase, for the years 1842 and 1844, does not exceed 17,000 tons; whilst the biennial increase since 1833 was 197,000 tons. Had it not been for the increase which has taken place in a branch of shipping for which the Tariff can take no credit, but which has arisen from agricultural improve- ment fostered by protection—the guano trade—a great decrease would have been shown. In the years 1843 and 1845, an increase had taken place in the ship- ping employed in that trade, of 200,000 tons; whilst the whole increase which has taken place in our commercial marine is only 17,000 tons.

As to the price at which wheat can be introduced into this country under free trade, he thought there would be a large importation at 40s., inundating the markets, and making 40s. pretty nearly the maximum price which can ever be et- pected to be realized in this country. He had that morning received a letter from a gentleman who describes himself to be the head of the oldest firm engaged in the corn-trade in Liverpool, stating it as his "deliberate opinion that if the mea- sure now before your Lordships is suffered to become law, we shall, at the expi- ration of three years, be annually in the receipt of 5,000,000 quarters of foreign wheat, provided the seasons be ordinarily fitrourable"; and he added, that the prices would admit of the sale of this wheat at from 36s. to 40s. per quarter, the duty in England being is. per quarter. The writer also stated that he held in bond two cargoes of air red wheat, imported last year from a port in the Danube at a cost of 14s. the quarter, and the freight to Liverpool was 9s. 6d. IThis letter, which was long and loosely worded, abounding in abuse of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stanley read at length, but suppressed the signature.] There are many districts of country on the Continent, larger, perhaps, than many of their Lord- ships imagined, which might be devoted to the growth of cern. Look, for exam- ple, at the plains of Hungary. There you have a very considerable district) admi- rably qualified for the growth of wheat; and there can be no doubt that the application of skill and capital to the improved cultivation of that land would give to the cultivator a far greater amount of produce from the present area than it now yields. The effect could not be instantaneous, certainly; but this rather aggravated than lessened his objections to the measure, because it rendered it im- possible to calculate the entire result- He could not understand how the manu- facturers were to sell their goods cheaper under a system of free trade thou they do at present, unless it be by reducing wages; and to the operative this reduction would more than neutralize the advantage he might derive from cheaper bread. Lord Stanley adduced the usual figures to show that it was all a fallacy to say that foieign nations do not take our manufactures because we will not take thew corn. It was madness to sacrifice the home market in the expeotation that these nations will liberalize their tariffs.

He would now speak of those upon whom the loss would chiefly fall. Some- thing had been said in another place of the difficulty of administering the Go-. vernment, and of reconciling the conflicting claims of an ancient Monarchy, a proud Aristocracy, and a Reformed House of Commons. He ad:nitted the truth of the sentiment; but whatever difficulty there may be in administering govern- ment with, in the proper sense of the word, a proud Aristocracy, if you substitute for that a pauper and deper.dent Aristocracy, you break down one of the strongest bulwarks that remains between a limited Monarchy and the Democracy which is represented by the House of Commons. "Do not mistake me when 1 speak of the Aristocracy. I do not speak exclusively. I do not speak mainlysof that body which I have now the honour to address. I speak, my Lords, of the great body of landed proprietors..of this country. I speak of men unennobled by rank, and many of them undistinguished by great wealth, but who,, and their ancestors be- fore them, for generations after generations, have been the centre each of his res spective locality; who have the prestige of old associations attached to their names; who conduct the business of their respective counties; who influence the

opinions and feelings of their • respective neighbourhoods; who exercise a modest and a decent hospitality, and preside over a tenantry who have hereditary dahlia upato their consideration and affections.. Lords, these are the Aristocracy of this country to whom I allude. Reduc these men and you inflict an irretrievable and irreparable injury upon the country. Lower their scale, and you have de- ranged the social machine beyond the power of conection." He was satisfied that the loss would not fall mainly on the landed proprietors- those who will ulti- mately suffer most will be the tenant-farmers. When the lees reaches them, the first effect will be the suspension of improvements, the discharging of labourers, and the reduction of wages. Small farms will be swallowed up in large. But if this system is to be adopted in England, will any one dare to advise its being pot in execution in Ireland?

Lastly, look at the Colonies. One-third at the least of the exports from this country goes to the Colonies. Destroy this principle of protection, and the whole basis on which England's Colonial system rests is destroyed. If their Lordhhips did not know the value of colonies and of a colonial system, Napoleon Bonaparte knew it well. In connexion with this system, Mr. Cobden had spoken of the protection extended to the Colonies as " mutual robbery ": if he had made une of the words " mutual insurance," he would have been nearer the truth. Lord Stanley did not doubt the loyalty of the Colonies; but if protection was withdrawn, Parliament would be doing all in its power to weaken that attach- Meat by destroying all reciprocity. If commercial independence be granted to the Colonies, will that have no tendency towards political independ- ence? Take the case of Canada. You have induced her to impose a duty of 38. a quarter on American corn coaling into Canada; you have in- duced her to expend large sums of money in improving the means of com- munication; and now it is proposed to destroy the trade which you have thus fostered, and to make the channel of communication to the interior of Ca- nada, not your own St. Lawrence, your own vessels, your own seamen, but the port of New York. Remove the differential duties and the British shipping will no longer be employed in bringing goods down the St. Lawrence. "I say, my Lords, that nothing is better calculated to affect the feeling of the people in Canada, or to shake their loyalty, than the course it is proposed to adopt. You are doing your utmost to irritate them; you are proposing to break your engage- ments with them, and to confer the influence of their commercial communication on a rival power. Commercial influence, my Lords, is connected with political influence: and as I remarked a relation between commercial independence and political independence, so I may now add, that political dependence might also follow commercial dependence." With the view of confirming his opinions on this subject, Lord Stanley read an extract from a despatch from the present Governor-General of Canada. Be quoted also the opinion of Mr. Greg, an exten- sive manufacturer and member of the League, to show the almost hopelessly severe competition to which the English manufacturer is exposed in the markets of the world. This showed the folly of sacrificing protected markets, where our iinanufactarers and merchants could defy competition: than this,

" The force of folly could no further go."

Before he sat down, Lord Stanley addressed some remarks to such of their Lord- ships as, although disapproving of the bill, are still prepared to sanction it. In Some cases this may arise from the votes recently given in the House of Commons. He had great respect for the authority of that House; but, looking at the votes which the present Parliament bad given on many previous occasions on the sub- ject of the Corn-laws, he was justified in saying, that those sudden conversions which had been displayed tended to diminish the value which he should otherwise have attributed to the last vote. Others of their Lordships may be actuated by reaped forahe Duke of Weningtbia "I sympathize with the feelings of these *he are so actuated, but I cannot assent to the justice Of the course they have Chosen. The great interest's of this country ought not to be complimented away finm deference to any Ministry, or from the consideration Of personal feelings towards any individual; and I am confident that it never can be good for the pub- lic interests that the House of Lords should sacrifice and turn round on its own oPinionsthat it should sacrifice its character to save an Administration." To Sanction this measure will not put an end to agitation..: This is shown by the accredited speeches of many members of the League,—such as Mr. Laurence Heyworth, who on a very recent occasion spoke of extending the principles of free trade to the Church, and of making an attack on the House of Lords as the Stronghold of the Aristocracy. "My Lords' if, against your own opinions, you consent to pass this measure, be prepared to abdicate your high position in the constitution of this country. If you give up your own opinions under the intimi- dation of faction, or at the dictation of any Minister, however great that Minister May be, prepare hereafter to be considered as a subordinate part of the constitution. Prepare to be regarded is flue registers of the edicts of the House of Commons, and as the blind followers of the Minister of the day. My Lords, if I know anything of pie constitution and of the value of this House, it 14 that it should interpose a wholesome and salutary obstacle to rash and inconsiderate legislation. It is to protect the people against the consequences of their own imprudence. It is not, my Lords' it never has been and never should be, to resist the expression of well- formed and enlightened public opinion—to that your Lordships have always, and I:trust always will bow:, but it is sours to cheek the progress of hasty and irre- ble legislation—it is yours (though against this danger the constitution can hardly be supposed to provide)—it is yours to protect the people, not against their own hasty judgment, but against the treachery of those whom they have chosen as their leaders. My Lords, if acting on your own deliberate and impartial judgment you scorn the degrading suspicion of unworthy motives and you follow that course which in your consciences you believe to be for the geed of the empire, you may be unsuccessful, but you will not be contemned—conquered you may be and overborne by numbers, but you will not be degraded. You may fail in saving the people from the threatened evil, but you will secure the approbation of your friends, and will compel the respect of your opponents. (Cheers from the cross- henches.) And if, my Lords, by the blessing of God on your endeavours, you Should arrest the progress of this hasty and inconsiderate measure,—if you should giye time for the intelligence of the country to act on the public mind, and should hairpily be successful in bringing the people back to the wiser counsels and too much despised wisdom of your ancestors,—then indeed You may well be a proud Aristocracy; proud of hating discharged the duties which the constitution has imposed on you; proud of having discharged that duty unseduced by the allure- ments of power and unintimidated by the clamour of agitation; proud of having rescued the country from a serious and hazardous experiment. The best reward, my Lords, will be the consciousness that you have done your duty. You will have another—you will have that reward which will arise from the approval and the thanks Of a grateful and an admiring'people who will justly esehlim Thank God, we have a House of Lords!"' [Lord Stanley resumed his seat amidst loud 'cheers, which ktsted for some seconds.] . . Lord BROUGHAM rose amidst mingled cheering and cries for an adjourn- ment--

" My Lords, you have heard a speech of singular ability, but delivered at so late a period in the evening—[The noise prevented Lord Brougham from finishing The sentence: after a palm he continued.] Among the many great advantages which my noble friend enjoys over me—advantages which I need not stop to enumerate, because all who have heard his admirable speech must at once feel to whit I allude—but amongst those advantages which belong to himself at all tiffies, and if all hours of the night, he certainly has one advantage over me which is purely accidental, but which upon this occasion is equal to all his other advantages put together. He has made a most exciting, a most animated, a most eloquent, a most spirited, and over a large portion of your Lordships a most

aucceasful speech: but it so happens that in my case, I rise to address you, not at nine o'clock of the evening, but at mat twelve o'clock at night. This is a great advantage to possess in any assembly; but it teaches me one lesson of utility —to confine myself within narrow limits and to proceed at once and without further preface to the question. I trust, my Lords, as I am about to address myself not to those members of the House with whom I agree, but to those with whom I have the great misfortune to differ, that I shall be favoured with some portion of attention whilst I apply myself to answer the speech of my noble friend. 1 waive with my noble friend all personal allusions. He did well to keep them out of his speech. I will follow his example. But there is one subject of a per- sonal nature I cannot pass over, and I will begin with it. I mean as to the origin of the present measure. (Here a cry of •' Adjourn ! " was raised from, underneath the gallery.) I beg pardon of noble Lords for interrupting them. I have a duty to perform; and if they have any duties to perform elsewhere—if they think it becoming to listen to the arguments upon one side mid decline to hear a reply from the other—perhaps the sooner they go elsewhere to the dis- charge of those duties, or to the tasting of those other enjoyments which they may prefer to anything here, peradventure the house will not be the worse for their absence, and they themselve will very greatly profit by the move which I recommend—and which I see they are tnking advantage of." He would allude first to the origin of the present question. It had never been stated that famine was general in Ireland; but that there was a great scarcity in many large districts, is a fact which cannot be questioned. He denied Lord Stan- ley's assertion that this scarcity did not furnish sufficient ground for doing away with protection, or even of opening the ports. But it is perfectly immaterial to the merits of the bill what was the origin of it Ho might deem its introduction by Sir Robert l'eel a rash, absurd, speculating and improper act; "yet when- ever introduced, under whatever pressure, however indiscreetly, I care not one whit; for if, upon the merits of the measure itself, I hold it to be a sound one' I am bound as an honest man to give it my support. 1 state this in the outset, to guard myself against being supposed to depend upon extraneous and accidental circumstances, as the ground the real ground, of my approval of this measure. But I am free to admit, that I see nothing superfluous, nothing rash or indiscreet, in the choice of last autumn or laat winter as the time for tinit proposing this measure." Returning to the question of Irbil] scarcity, Lord Brougham remarked that Lord Stanley had omitted to notice what had happened since the bill had been introduced into Parliament. Why, maize has been allowed to be imported as if the Corn-bill had been passed; that article having been included in the Cus- toms Bill, and the country was now enjoying the benefit of it. " How does that apply to my noble friend's argument, who says that this measure is unnecessary amid mischievous and speculative, and that as a remedy it will not meet the calm to which it applies? II by, it does meet the case; for it is in order to provide for the wants created by the diseased pa ato crop that maize is introduced; and those connected with the sister kingdom will tell your Lordallips that they have been thankfully feeding, not their cattle merely, but the pour peasants of the country with it," No part of Lord Stanley's address had made a greater impresaion cat their Lordships than where he spoke of the absurdity of attempting to relit* the dis- tress of the small farmers of Ireland by reducing the rice of their oats: but to this Lord Stanley supplied hie own answer; for he adulated candidly, that Ile was perfectly ready to have opened the ports, and for a period to have let in oatmeal, to lower the value of the Irish peasant's oats, thus lowering the price at which he trembled so greatly if this measure became law. But, when charging all round: with inconsistency, did Lord Stanley forget the Canada Corn-bill? And what was that bill? It was a Free-trade Corn-bill for Canada. It was a bill giving , Canada Corn-law repeal. It reduced the duty upon the importation of American bread-stuffs into that colony. It allowed the whole of those American bread- stuffs imported into Canada to be brought over to England—where the Corn-law still existed, where protection was still in being, and where protection is still said to be absolutely necessary to the landlord, the tenant, the peasant, the labourer, the manufacturer, the aristocracy, and to all our institutions. As to the reduction in prices to be effected by the abolition of the Corn-laws, he wished Ile could take the same view that Lord Stanley did of the extent of the reduction. The Government had been blamed for refusing to say what the effect of repeal would be upon prices; but a more difficult question could not have been propounded. The means did not exist for forming any just calculation. Observe:. wheat is now selling, we shall assume, at 30s. in Dantzie: the question is, bow cheap, it will sell in England when the Corn-laws are repealed I In order to tell that, you must be able to tell what will be the effect of the .English markets being .open on Dantrie. The question is not whether it is now sold at 40s. in Dantric, but what will be its price after the ports are opened in England ? Can any snap doubt that the im- mediate effect of opening the ports here will be to raise the price of grain in foreign ports? It had been said that a great deal of new land will be brought into cultivation:: but this is an operation not so easily accomplished in all the countries of Europe

as it is in Middlesex or Bucks. Lord Stanley had spoken about Hungary; but if he inquired of any Hungarian nobleman about the possibility of suddenly clearing

such a breadth of land as to export to this country 500,000 quarters more than are now exported from Odessa and the ports of the Danube, he would soon learn his mistake. It is stated that in thin country every tenant, to cultivate a farm, must have capital to the amount of 10/. an sore, 1,000/. on a hundred acres. But in Poland, the Ukraine, or Hungary, 401. or 501. an acre would hardly suffice. "My noble friend's correspondent Mr. Saunders perhaps, or somebody else of the same class— talks of 5,000,000 quarters being suddenly thrown upon this country." , Lord STANLEY—" No: he said, if the price should be from 80s. to 40s. within three years, there would be a supply. of .5,000,000 from abroad." •• Lord BROUGIIA31—" Why, that Is just the sante thing. My noble friend is a little fatigued by his speech, and has not recovered his faculties, otherwise he would have said yes. There in no difference." Lord STANLEY—" There is the difference between suddenly and three years."

Lord BR01;011A31—" suddenly ! But we are talking of the "eternal interests of trade, of agriculture, of the institutions of the country, andthe protection which you say it is necessary to maintain and extend as a part of the system. You may almost say that in three years it would be done suddenly, rather than by a gradual or slow process. My noble friend's correspondent may be a most respecta able man, but I am sure he is not a very sensible one. A man who meddles in this matter ought at least to he rational, for he not only states facts but OVSII opinions; lie ought to be trustworthy, and with judgment and sagacity each As you may rely upon. Ile ought not to be a man totally in want of information and judgment, who cannot reflect at all, or put two ideas together. Of all the blunders in the way of calculation, I never in all my life beard one so monstrous, portentous, and incredible as this—thrst in the short space of three years, nay, if you will, three years and three days as the lawyers say-5,000,000 quarters are to be added to the produce of the cultivation ef foreign countries, and to be ponied into our tarts to overwhelm our markets, and to deluge our agriculture, and de- stroy our industry." (" Hear, hear 1' ") He could appeal to the farmers themselves for en opinion in support of what hg had advanced; for if they entertained any fears pi:being overwhelmed by foreign competition, they took an extraordinary way of showing 'it, by taking farms when out of lease without hesitation, and outbidding each other in the matter offeat. In Durham, a friend of his asked some tenant-tanneni who were about taking 184, whether they-were not afraid of the risk they ran; an their answer was;_. Oh, wihave taken it all into account, and we have no fea 'Whatetier of the' result." Lord Brougham's own opinion was, that under free trade wheat would be cheaper; not immediately, but after a little while, and in the course of years it would, per lisps, fall 88. or 4s. a quarter. Ile was confident that the agricuilturists would

benefit much more in other respects; for he looked forward to the measure atone which was certain almost immeasurably to extend the foreign trade of the coun- try in a very short period. There could be no doubt whatever but that the interest of this country, and of every other country, required that the bulk of the food of the people should be grown within the country. As far as England is concerned, the utmost they could expect from abroad is relief in a time of scarcity, or a supply to diminish the dearth of a bad year. But it was said that foreign countries might at any moment shut their ports and starve the people of this country. He had an an- swer to that. When was the Continent ever seen under such a power as it was in 1810 ? But did Napoleon, with all his unbounded Continental means, succeed in his favourite project of shutting up the ports of Europe against his most power- fal enemy ? On the contrary, in that very year 1,250.000 quarters of corn, or, including the flour imported, 1,514,000 quarters were brought into this country : and of this ninety parts of every hundred came from France!

Lord Stanley had spoken about the paradox of competition raising prices. Now it was never put by any man, at least by any rational man, that increased com- petition among the producers of an article would raise prices: competition be- tween the consumers of an article must inevitably do so. " What then, my Lords, do I expect from the repeal of the Corn-law with regard to our foreign trade? I do not look forward to a very sudden, a very rapid, a very instanta- neous increase of our traffic with f reign markets. But there is one thing to which I do confidently look forward: I confidently expect, if we set the ex- ample of removing the restrictions which bet our commercial code, other coun- tries will follow in the same track: I have no manner of doubt of that. Of one thing I am perfectly certain, you do yourselves no kind of service by retaining your restrictions. Even if the improvements in their system should be postponed, you are none the worse: if they should be accelerated, you have a great, an im- portant, a valuable acquisition to your trade. I am not one of those who take the gloomy view of the subject which Mr. Greg has taken." The existing sliding-scale had been highly spoken of by Lord Stanley; but the test is to be found in a year of scarcity, and that had not occurred since the stale was in operation. It was therefore in vain to speak of it as having answered all the purposes for which it was established. Lord Brougham disclaimed all sympathy with those who heaped opprobrium upon the landowners of England. lie was the last man in the world to give a consent to the measure if he thought by its passing that the interest, the safety, the security of that great body, would be placed in jeopardy. "But that, my Lords, is not my view; and when I am told that our institutions require this protection, and that without this protection of raising a little the price of food— and if it be to raise it but Is. a quarter, it is a poll-tax paid by every man in the country; and suppose you wanted to raise a million and a quarter, is not that the last tax you would have recourse to, however much you stood in need of it ay, though your fleets and armies were endangered—is not a poll-tax of Is. the very last that any man in his senses would propose for raising the necessary supplies? And yet if the Corn-law keeps up the price of the subsistence of the people only Is. a quarter, it is a poll-tax upon every man, rich and poor, in the kingdom." Lord Brougham repeated the fable of the magician and the treasure in the field, and thus applied it. " And so to apply the allegory, I would say of the landed aris- tocracy, Although they have failed (and most fervently do I hope that they may fail here as they have elsewhere) in obtaining the object of their great exertions— although they have failed in getting the measure defeated against which they are leagued, they have, notwithstanding, gained another and a greater object— they have achieved a more effectual protection for themselves, and a better security for those institutions of which they are the chosen guardians, and I will freely admit the best defenders; for they have made a display of ability, a talent for affairs, powers of debating, and intellectual endowments of every description, such as their adversaries perhaps gave them but little credit for, but which they may themselves be well proud of, and from which their country will hereafter most assuredly derive great glory and lasting benefit. No longer let them rely for power on their pride of heraldry and the immemorial splendours of their ances- try, lint take that position to which they areentitled as well by merit as by birth.'" "My Lords, I have studiously avoided all personal allusions; but I should fail of discharging a duty I owe as a citizen of this country ani as a member of this House—a debt of gratitude upon public grounds, but a debt of strict justice as well—did I not express my deep sense of the public virtues, no less than the pro- digious powers of mind, and the unexampled moral courage, which my right hon- ourable friend at the head of the Government has exhibited in dealing with this , question. He has cast away all personal and private considerations of what de- scription soccer, and has studiedly disregarded his own interests in every stage and step of his progress. He has given up what., to a political leader, is the most en- viable of all positions—the calm, unquestioned, undivided support of the other House; he has exposed himself to the frenzy of the most tempest-troubled sea that the political world in our days, perhaps, ever exhibited; be has given up what to an ambitious man is much—the security of his power; be has given up what to a cautious man is much—influence and authority with his party; he has given up what to an amiable man is much indeed—private friendships and party connexions; and all these sacrifices he has voluntarily and with has eyes open incurred, in order to discharge what lie deemed a great public duty. (Loud cries of Bear, hear!") He, in these circumstances—he, in this proud position— may well scorn the sordid attacks, the wretched ribaldry, with which he is out of doors assailed; because he knows that he has entitled himself to the gratitude of his country, and will leave—as I in my conscience believe he will—his name to an admiring posterity, as one of the greatest Ministers that ever wielded the des- tinies of this country." (Lord Brougham resumed his seat amid loud cheers.) On the motion of the Earl of WILTON, the debate was adjourned, at two o'clock on Tuesday morning, till five in the afternoon.

[The continuation and conclusion of the COTS debate, on Tuesday and Thursday, will be found in the Supplement.]

THE BRIDPORT ELECTION.

On Thursday, the debate on the amended motion, "That the petition f William Rockett be referred to a Select Committee, which shall be ap- pointed to inquire into all the circumstances under which Joseph Welch gave evidence before the Select Committee on the Bridport election peti- tion that William Beckett voted for Mr. Hominy," was resumed. - Mr. HENLEY moved as an amendment, the extension of the inquiry into whether any means had been resorted to by the parties to the petition for withholding from the consideration of the Committee matters relating to bribery and treating. [This addition was a virtual restoration of that pert of the motion which was rejected last week by the casting-vote of the Speaker.) Mr. BANKES seconded the motion; insisting that the House was bound to inquire into this case, in order to vindicate its conduct in the eyes of the public.

This Was followed by a renewal of the argument by the Soracnort- GENERAL and Sir Romcwr PEEL, in support of the position that the proper tribunal for inquiring into compromises is not a Select Committee, but the mode prescribed in Lord John Russell's Act.

Mr. Dinscommx, Mr. HUME, and Mr. WAKLEY spoke in favour of the inquiry being conducted before the Select Committee. On a division, the amendment was negatived by 80 to 32. The original motion HU then agreed to Mn. &WITH O'BiftEar.

On Monday, Mr SHAW moved the liberation of Mr. Smith O'Brien, on the payment of the usual fees— The authority of the House had been vindicated by the imprisonment of Mr. Smith O'Brien for five-and-twenty days; and although in point of form the report of the Committee on Group XI had not yet been present, he had been informed that the business had been really concluded, and that a mere matter of detail in- terfered with the presentation of the report.

Mr. HENLEY, the Chairman of the Committee, seconded the motion— The House would be glad to hear that no great public inconvenience had re- sulted from the absence of the honourable Member for Limerick from the Cons- mittee--( Cheers and much laughter)—however public affairs might have suffered from his absence from the House. The honourable gentleman seemed wisely to have preferred his own company for twenty-four hours in the day to the company- of the members of the Committee for only four hours in the day. He hoped he had profited by it. (Laughter.) Mr. P. BUTLER had a communication to make on the part of the captive— Mr. Smith O'Brien took exception to the latter part of the motion, which re- garded the payment of the fees. He thought that the payment of them might compromise his principle; and, without attempting contumaciously to resist, he intended to protest against the demand. He believed that at the present mo- ment his services were important to his country. The House would recollect that he hash been exposed to all the ridicule of a powerful press. (Cheers and lassyk,- ter.) The present was a very auspicious moment: a young Princess had yid been born; and he hoped that his honourable friend would speedily be delivered also. (Laughter.) Sir ROBERTS PEEL assented to the motion— Ile expressed his deep regret that it bad been found necessary to subjects Member to restraint, and thus to interfere with the discharge of his duty towards his constituents. As to the payment of the fees, the protest would prevent any personal acquiescence in what seemed opposed to principle in the mind of the honourable Member for Limerick. He rejoiced in the opportunity of permitting him to resume his functions in the House; entertaining a sincere belief that the authority of the House had been sufficiently vindicated, not merely by the punish- ment inflicted, but by the almost universal feeling among Irish Members that they were bound as well as entitled to take part in the Legislature for the whole empire. Not a few of them had rendered important services by undertaking and discharging duties on Committees. (Cheers.) The SPEAKER put the question, and it was carried nem. con.

Mr. Smith O'Brien shortly afterwards took his seat very quietly on the front Opposition bench.

Tug Brum or A PRINCESS. At the assembling of the House of Commons on Monday, Sir HOBERT PEEL moved an address of congratulation to the Queen- on the birth of a princess. He well knew the deep feeling of loyalty to the Sove- reign which prevailed in the House and the country; and he well knew how much that deep feeling of loyalty is exalted by the highest personal esteem, respect, attachment, and admiration, for the manner in which her Majesty discharges every public duty of a Sovereign, and every private duty of domestic life. Lord JOHN RUSSELL expressed his entire approval of what had been said by Sir Robert Peel; and the address was instantly agreed to. A similar motion was made in the House of Lords by the Duke of WELLING- TON, and agreed to with the like loyal readiness.

THE SUGAR-DUTIES. On Monday, Lord JOHN RUSSELL pre notice, that in Committee on the Sugar-duties he should move the reduction of all duties on, foreign sugar to the rates proposed by her Majesty's Ministers for foreign free- labour sugar: and if the House should agree to that resolution, he should further propose prospectively the abolition of all differential duties on sugar.

PENAL SETTLEMENTS. On Tuesday, Mr. Ewartr was to have moved the fol- lowing resolutions—" 1. That it is expedient that the present system of making the colony of Van Diemen's Land a general receptacle for convicts should cease. 2. That it is expedient that transportation be no longer maintained as a punish- ment, but be continued only as a supplement to the previous punishment of impri- sonment." Just as he opened his address, however, the House was counted out, only twenty-seven Members being present.