slightest avail here, or elsewhere; still I am anxious to place, as well as I can, upon record the opinions I entertain upon this subject (hear, hear). And it does seem to me, with all due deference to what has been said by those who take strong views on this question on both sides of the House, that a measure that would admit corn the produce of the colonies and Indian corn duty free, and other foreign corn at a moderate fixed duty, would place the Corn Laws on a basis satisfactory to the mercantile interests of this country, would bind by ties of mutual interest our vast colonial empire to the mother country, and afford a moderate security against, it may be, the unnecessary fears of the English farmer (hear, hear). I must, however, beg to refer the House to a remarkable document, which has been lately submitted to the public from one of the largest houses in Manchester, Messrs. Fergusson and Taylor, in which they say that the best policy is to develope domestic agriculture, and that, although high Protective duties are alike the bane of agriculture and commerce, still moderate duties ought to be maintained. Now, that is not the production of a central Protection society, or even of any old supporters of a fixed duty-but it comes with all the weight and authority of persons most deeply and altogether interested in the property of Manchester, and in English manufactures; and, I say, that opinions and language such as this, backed up as they are by the expressed opinions of a gentleman so eminent in the commercial world as the Hon. Member for Huntingdon, are not to be pooh-poohed away by an idle sneer (hear, hear). And, I must tell the Right Hon. Baronet, at any rate, that it will not do to tell the Commons of England that a fixed duty cannot be thought of, because, some time ago, he said he never would support it (hear, hear). Well, then, although I am anxious that another Parliament should have the opportunity of considering and sanctioning some such scheme as that to which I have alluded, I do most earnestly and heartily deprecate any such rash and hasty interference with the great interests which have grown up under this system of Protection. I do deprecate any rash interference with those great interests in consequence of which, or in spite of which, if you please, manufactures have made great, and almost miraculous strides, under which, or against which, if you please, agriculture has made such vast progress, that foreigners, if not persons in our own country, are astounded at it; and, above all, do I deprecate that this House should, at the dictation of the Right Hon. Baronet, repress the affections, the sympathies, and associations of those great rural classes to whom, in times of danger and distress, the Sovereigns of England have been ever wont to look up, and not in vain, for ready obedience, unswerving bravery, and uncompromising fidelity (cheers). For these reasons, and as I do not fear, nor do I hope much from free trade, but as I am anxious to see this great question settled in a manner satisfactory to all classes of the community, I give my most hearty vote in favour of Protection, and my most determined opposition to the proposition that this House do resolve itself into committee for the purpose of considering the Corn Laws, with a view to their repeal (cheers).

CAPTAIN LAYARD said, after the argumentative speech of the

Right Hon. Baronet, he should have thought the Hon. Gentlemen who were sitting on the other side below the gangway (the Protection benches) would not hesitate upon going into committee upon this subject. He had heard the arguments adduced by the Hon. Gentlemen opposite who were supporters of Protection; but he thought that the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) had completely taken the wind out of all their sails by his speech last night. He believed that all who read that speech, though they might not have had an opportunity of hearing it, would be of the same opinion. Hon. Gentlemen opposite had talked of the greatness and glory of this empire, and of the height of prosperity at which the country had arrived, as if it was attributable to the Corn Laws. He entirely denied that those laws had had the effect of rendering this country great and glorious. The Corn Laws had been the difficulty of England; she had been a great and glorious nation not on account of the Corn Laws, but in spite of them (hear, hear). He really did not understand what the Noble Lord who had just sat down (Lord J. Manners) intended to do. From a letter that Noble Lord had addressed to his constituents, he was led to believe that, although he considered the Right Hon. Baronet's proposal a just one, he intended to vote against it. The Noble Lord the Member for Liverpool (Lord Sandon) had taken a different course, for while he expressed his disapproval of the measure, he declared his intention to support it. The Noble Lord (Lord Sandon) who attacked the measure of the Government, while he promised them his vote, reminded him of a circumstance that occurred some years ago at Huntingdon. A person in that town had a vote, which he gave in favour of the successful candidate at an election. The M.P., actuated by motives of gratitude, obtained for his supporter the situation of a chorister at Canterbury, but when he entered upon the duties of his office he was found to have no voice; and some one who was gifted with the genius of poetry, though not in so high a degree as the Hon. Member for Pontefract (Mr. M. Milnes), put the story into rhyme, which ran thus :

He

(laughter). So it was with the Noble Member for Liverpool. made a speech in favour of Protection, but his voice, though not in another county, was in another direction. He (Captain Layard) thought it would have been quite as well if the two Noble Lords had paired off without making any speech on the subject. As it was they had a speech on each side and a vote on each side (laughter). He (Captain Layard) had voted with the Hon. Member for Wolverhampton (Mr. C. P. Villiers) in favour of his motion for the Repeal of the Corn Laws when, not more than a hundred Members went out with him. He (Captain Layard) at that time foretold that the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) would become a Free Trader. He (Captain Layard) had some time since compared the Right Hon. Baronet to an Opera dancer, and had said he thought that Right Hon. Gentleman would continue coquetting

with Free Trade till he opened his arms and clasped the reality (a laugh). He thought the Right Hon. Baronet had got the reality now (laughter). But though the Right Hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel) had but recently become a Free Trader, everybody admitted that he acted from the most honest and conscientious convictions (hear, hear). Indeed, many considerations might naturally have influenced him to adopt a totally different course (hear). It was true that the Right Hon. Baronet was open to the charge brought against him by the Hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Mr. Disraeli), and it was an accusation to which he (Captain Layard) would be proud to plead guilty. The charge made by that Hon. Member was, that the Right Hon. Baronet had sacrificed party feelings for the good, theglory, the happiness of his country (hear, bear, and loud cheers). He believed that that measure would tend materially to benefit the country; and the Right Hon. Baronet had made as great a sacrifice as any man could do to promote that object. He must say, for his own part, that he both honoured and admired the Right Hon. Baronet for his conduct (hear, hear). He had never, during the time he had occupied a seat in that House, given any vote with so much satisfaction as that which he intended to record in favour of the Right Hon. Baronet's proposal, because he believed the effect of the measure would be to benefit our own country, while it would prove one of the strongest links in binding together the nations of the earth in unity and peace (cheers).

MR. R. PALMER said, although, after so lengthened a discussion, he could not expect that he should be able to add anything new to the arguments which had been already advanced with so much force and ability by several gentlemen on both sides of the House, he wished to express the opinions of those whom he had the honour to represent (hear, hear), and with whom he entirely concurred, on this important subject. Those individuals were waiting with the most intense anxiety to know the result of the deliberations in that House, believing as they did that upon the result of those deliberations depended either their future prosperity or their permanent distress. It was almost unnecessary for him to represent to the House the state of public feeling in the country upon this subject. They had seen that numerous meetings had been held in different parts of the country-indeed in almost every county-since the Ministerial measures had been announced; and he believed that the sentiments expressed at those meetings were, almost without exception, unanimously condemnatory of those measures. Persons in the country connected with agriculture had never contemplated the possibility of the Right Hon. Baronet-who had for so long a time advocated the principle of Protection, and who had frequently and most ably argued the question in that House-turning round almost at a moment's notice (hear, hear), and advocate a contrary course. considered that they were justified in that opinion by the speeches which had been delivered at various times by the Right Hon. Baronet. The Right Hon. Baronet in his first speech had mentioned among other effects of the new tariff, that a great rise had taken place in cattle and meat, notwithstanding the anticipadtions of a fall in their value. His Hon. Friend the Member for So merset (Mr. W. Miles)

He

had stated that this rise in price was attributable to several causes, and had shown that it had no connexion whatever with the reduction of the tariff. He (Mr. Palmer) thought that, under any circumstances, the Right Hon. Baronet could not take credit for the rise in price; for his tariff was introduced with the professed object of reducing the price of food, and the fact that the prices had risen showed the incorrectness of his anticipations (hear, hear). Even admitting that the benefits expected by the Right Hon. Baronet would result from his former alterations of the law, he (Mr. Palmer) thought that would be a strong argument for leaving things as they were, without any further meddling (hear, hear). The constant alteration of the law caused more difficulty and distress among the agriculturists than the effect of unfavourable seasons. The change of 1842 produced very great inconvenience among the farmers, and just when they were beginning to recover themselves and to obtain remunerating prices, they were again thrown into a state of uncertainty and anxiety by the measure now proposed. The Noble Lord opposite (Lord J. Russell) had some time since uttered an expression which had since been frequently repeated, that Protection was the bane of agriculture. Now he (Mr. Palmer) would ask any one to compare the state of the farming districts with what they were ten years ago, and to say whether there was not now a much larger amount of capital employed in agricultural operations than was the case at that period, and whether the soil had not been placed in much higher cultivation? And yet this had been effected under the operation of that principle of Protection which the Noble Lord had called the bane of agriculculture. He considered that one great reason for supporting the principle of Protection was, that this country might be, as far as was possible, independent of foreign supplies. He (Mr. Palmer) was not one who would cast blame or throw imputation on any gentleman who should think it necessary to change their opinions or course of conduct from conviction, and after full consideration of the subject; but when he saw a statesman like the Right Hon. Baronet as the Government, who was no novice in the conduct of public affairs, and must have made these subjects the study of his life-when he saw a gentleman of his ability and experience overthrowing all his former arguments, and abandoning his former principles (hear, hear)when he heard that Right Honourable Gentleman admitting that the arguments held by the Honourable Gentleman opposite for so many years were right, and that he after a few years' experience, was convinced that he were wrong; and when he (Mr. Palmer) heard the complimentary language addressed to the head of that body which went by the name of the League, he must say that his confidence in the Minister was shaken (hear, hear). For his part, having no such conviction forced on his mind, entertaining an opinion both of the justice and expediency of maintaining, as well for agriculture as for other branches of native industry, the same amount of Protection as was secured to them by the existing law, and seeing no sufficient reason for the proposed change, the Right Hon. Baronet must excuse him (Mr. Palmer) if he declined to follow him in the path through which he wished to lead them (hear, hear). They had been told the other night by the Right Hon. Secretary at War, that this

was a golden opportunity for the gentlemen connected with the landed interest to seize; and that they now had an opportunity offered of settling the question with honour. He (Mr. Palmer) could not conceive that he could maintain his own honour at the expense of political consistency (hear, hear). He held a position in that House as independent, he believed, as any Hon. Member. He had had the honour to represent his county now for many years, and he believed that he had never been asked for, and never had given, a single pledge or promise beyond that of endeavouring to discharge his duty to his constituents to the best of his ability. But he thought that with respect to this question, on which he had always declared himself, that there was an implied understanding between him and his constituents that he should endeavour, as far as possible, to maintain the law as it now existed (hear, hear). He considered such implied understanding equally binding with any pledge, and he felt himself bound to maintain it towards his constituents; and, as long as he had the honour of sitting in that House, it should never be said that he deserted his constituents, or betrayed the interests committed to his charge (hear, hear).

SIR C. NAPIER would fain have hoped, after the able and heartstirring and unanswerable speech of the Right Hon. Baronet last night, that Hon. Gentlemen opposite would have allowed the debate to come to a conclusion that evening. He was happy to say that the Hon. Gentleman who spoke last had not given vent to any of that bitter and invective feeling which other Hon. Gentlemen on the same side who had addressed the House had sent forth against the Right Hon. Baronet; and he believed, if all the Gentlemen on the other side had followed his example, they would have carried more weight in that House. The great complaint against the Right Hon. Baronet was, that he had proposed a new Corn Law, in consequence of the state of the potato crop in Ireland, and the scarcity that was likely to take place there. Now, he did not see why the Right Hon. Baronet alone should be blamed by the Gentlemen opposite. The Right Hon. Baronet at the head of the Home Department had changed his mind also, the Secretary at War had very properly followed in their wake (laughter), and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he believed had changed his opinions likewise (laughter). These Gentlemen had all followed the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government; and he must say he also wondered that Gentlemen opposite did not attack the Noble Lord (Lord J. Russell) and Hon. Gentlemen on his side of the House, who had maintained their notions of a fixed duty just as strongly as the Right Hon. Baronet did the sliding scale (hear). But those Gentlemen who had held by a fixed duty, were not attacked for changing their minds. And why should not Gentlemen change if they adopted a better course? He was a practical farmer of four years' standing (much laughter). He took a farm in his neighbourhood -not a very large one-of 40 acres (renewed laughter). Gentlemen might laugh, but what was good for 40 acres was good for 400 (cheers). He took these 40 acres, and found it was bad land-what was called in Hampshire forest land. His predecessors could grow nothing; the land was foul, and had never been cleaned out; like many Gentlemen opposite, they went