that he had introduced a measure for the Repeal of the Corn Laws, which was not to come into full operation until 1849, and that there must be a dissolution of Parliament before then, what chance the Government thought there was-supposing the Corn Laws to be repealed that this could be a permanent or satisfactory settlement of the question? (loud cheers). He thought that they had the authority of the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) that there would be much suffering among men who had not capital and skill, and that the aristocracy and landed interest and those who had capital and skill would not suffer at all. He (the Marquis of Granby) believed they would suffer, for he believed that the roots of the tree could not be struck and the branches remain uninjured; and he had yet to learn that they ought not to defend the interests of the classes they depended on, because they were defending at the same time their own interests also (hear, hear). He thought that the aristocracy and the landed interest would be unworthy of the compliment which the Right Hon. Baronet paid them the other night if, for fear of such a taunt, they were to be prevented from acting up to their judgment and the best of their belief (cheers); and if the Right Hon. Baronet was right in saying that the aristocracy and the landed interest could not be injured, still he (the Marquis of Granby) thought that would be a poor recompense to them for the loss of the yeomanry of England (loud cheers). And you, good yeomen, "Whose limbs were made in England, show us here "The mettle of your pasture; let us swear "That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; "That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, "Cry-God for the Queen, England, and St. George." (cheers). He might add, and for the Noble Lord (Lord George Bentinck). (Cheers and laughter). He did not believe this measure would pass the Legislature, but if it did, he hoped their anticipations of evil would prove inaccurate, and that the anticipations of the Right Hon. Baronet, however vague and uncertain, might be verified. The Right Hon. Baronet had told them that he would not consent to remain at the helm unless that helm was allowed to traverse perfectly free. But he (the Marquis of Granby) feared that if the Right Hon. Baronet succeeded in altering the course of the vessel from the praiseworthy motive of reaching a port of safety more directly, his fate would be that of many a mariner before him, to be driven to leeward by currents he dreamt not of, and leave the vessel a helpless and deserted wreck on the barren and inhospitable shores of Free Trade (loud cheers). Should that happen, he would venture to prophecy that the Noble Member for Lynn and his crew would come forward and do what they could to recover the ship, but he feared that then it would be too late (cheers). He thanked the House for their great indulgence to him, and moved that the bill be read a third time that day six months. MR. M. GASKELL thought he should be shrinking from the performance of a known duty, if he did not state as shortly as he could the grounds on which he was unable to support the measure. If he had come to a different conclusion since his election, he would have called on his constituents to support him by a renewal of their confidence, or if they did not approve his course, to appoint a representative of opinions more in unison with their own, and he would not take advantage of the privilege they had conferred on him a short time ago, to support measures which he was sent into the House to combat. It was said by many Members, and the Noble Lord opposite (Lord J. Russell), among the rest that this doctrine was not recognized by the constitution, and that it struck at the t or the powers and functions of a Member of Parliament: Mow, he was not disposed to limit those power and actions, and he went further than the Noble Lord, the Member for, who thought that Parliament was not justified in passing heptennial Act; but, however that might be, surely there was a great difference between the legislative competency of Parliament, and the individual responsibility of each member. He could conceive no course more likely to impair their just authority and functions than to disregard the opinion of their constituencies on great national questions (hear, hear). He knew that a powerful combination of parties had declared against a continuance of those laws; he knew that a section of Gentlemen opposite, whom he wished to speak of with that respect which was due to their great talents and their unvarying consistency -he knew that a section of the party opposite had acquired great influence out of doors, and a predominating influence in-doors, and he knew that the leaders of the once great party opposite had appropriated and adopted the arguments of their opponents; and if those measures were destined to succeed either in this or in any other Parliament, he trusted sincerely that they would be attended by all the benefits that the Gentlemen opposite had so long predicted, and without any of the evils which they on that (the Protection) side of the House had always anticipated; but, be the results what they might -whether they should be for evil or for good, it would at least be a satisfaction to them (the Protectionists) to reflect that it was not an untried or a small good that they had preferred to the speculative advantages which were promised them; but a system under which it was universally admitted this country had risen to the highest pitch of fame, prosperity, and power (cheers). But they had thought that a system like that ought not to be lightly regarded by the Government of a great people, and that by conceding one day that which they had denounced as mischievous the day before, was a sure means of alienating from public men of whatever party the confidence and attachment of the people (hear, hear); that at a time of great difficulty and alarm, when all party attachments were broken up, they had refused to separate the maintenance of public engagements from the promotion of public interests, and in the performance of their public duty-to many of them a most painful duty-they did not abandon or betray the interests committed to their care (cheers). MR. SHERIDAN came forward to rescue his veracity from the reflections which Mr. Floyer on Friday last had cast upon it in replying to the observations of Lord Lincoln, who advised Mr. Bankes to turn his attention to the peasantry of Dorsetshire, rather than to the peasantry of Ireland, as the condition of the former was almost as wretched as that of the latter. That was advice which he hoped that all the Members for Dorsetshire would take at once into their consideration. Mr. Floyer had said that his statements respecting the rate of wages in Dorsetshire were at direct variance with truth, and that he did not know a single case in the neighbourhood of Dorchester, where the labourers only received 7s. a week. He (Mr. Sheridan) then read several letters from clergymen, residing in Dorsetshire, and well acquainted with the poor, from frequently visiting them in their cottages, for the purpose of corroborating the statements which he had published in The Times. He then proceeded to assert, that in Dorsetshire wages were scandalously low, and quite incompetent for the maintenance of the labourers and their families. That was also the opinion of Lord Ashley, and he believed that Nobleman had lost his seat for Dorsetshire, in consequence of expressing it at a meeting at Stourminster. He might be asked how, after the details which he had read to the House, he could oppose the measure now brought forward by the Government to improve the condition of the labourer. To that question he replied by declaring that he had yet to learn that the withdrawal of all protection would improve that condition. MR. FLOYER had no intention to reflect on the veracity of Mr. Sheridan in the speech which he had made on Friday evening, but had risen for the purpose of preventing an unfavourable impression from being created in the public mind respecting the condition of the labourers in Dorsetshire, who had been represented by Lord Lincoln to be as badly off as the wretched peasantry of Ireland. He had stated that in his own neigbourhood the rate of money wages was at the lowest 7s. a week; but he had likewise stated that the labourers had generally, besides this money payment of 7s., a house rent free, some allowance of fuel, and some potato ground-additions which made their wages equivalent to 10s. a week at least. He did not mean to say that the rate of wages in Dorsetshire was such as it ought to be; certainly it was not such as he wished it to be. He concluded by expressing his concurrence with Mr. Sheridan's remark, that the repeal of the Corn Laws would not benefit the condition of labourers in Dorsetshire. SIR J. EASTHOPE was glad that there could now be no longer any controversy, whether the poor creatures in Dorsetshire received 78., 8s., or 9s. a week. The fact was now admitted; and yet Mr. Floyer could not see how a law which was to render corn cheaper, could benefit them. He hoped that Mr. Floyer would go among those poor creatures, and ask them, if they had life enough left in them to give him an answer, whether it was of no consequence to them with their scanty wages whether wheat was 5s. or 7s. a bushel? This, forsooth, was an excellent illustration of the love of the Protectionists for the labouring population. He availed himself of the opportunity to express on behalf of his constituency at Leicester the deep obligations which they felt to Sir R. Peel for daring to break through the trammels of party, and for conferring on the country one of the greatest boons which it had ever received, and from which it would receive incalculable benefit for ages to come. MR. MILES was surprised that no Minister had risen to reply to the two able speeches of the Noble mover and seconder of the amendment. He then proceeded to show by a variety of returns, of which his speech was almost entirely composed, that the Corn Law of 1842, as compared with the Corn Law of 1828, had proved a moderate protection to the producer, had given food at a moderate price to the consumer, and had been highly beneficial in a fiscal point of view to the Exchequer. He therefore recommended the House to let wel alone, and to abstain from adopting a monstrous innovation, under which it would be impracticable for the British landowner, with his heavy taxation, to compete with the comparatively untaxed foreign cultivator, more especially when a perfectly Free Trade was established in corn in 1849. His profits on his capital must be seriousl affected by the competition to which he would then be exposed; an if so, the labourer must also be grievously damnified by the fat change now proposed. After dwelling in detail upon the injuris which it would inflict upon our merchants and our colonies, whom it left to struggle unprotected against hostile tariffs, and after quoting the opinion of an eloquent but anonymous American writer in illustration of the benefit which the protective system conferred on all, but more particularly on the poorer classes of the community, he concluded by thanking God that there was still another ordeal through which this measure must pass-an ordeal, which was undeterred by popular clamour, and as yet unswayed by political economy, and which, he trusted, would still interpose successfully between the people and that Minister, who had been guilty of the grossest tergiversation in abandoning his principles and his party, and who now held office merely by the sufferance of his former opponents. SIR J. GRAHAM observed, that though the House was evidently weary of this debate, and though the public was sighing for the settlement of this question, which had now been hanging in the balance for more than two months, he must still out of respect to the Marquis of Granby and Mr. Gaskell, delay the division for a short time by replying to their able and animated speeches. The Noble Marquis and Mr. Miles had both anticipated that this measure would meet defeat in another place. He would not, like them, make any prophecy; but his anticipation was that this question, after the discussions which had recently taken place in Parliament and elsewhere, was completely settled, and that the free importation of corn would speedily be the law of the land. As one who had a deep interest in agriculture he differed from Lord G. Bentinck, and did not think that either the landlord or the farmer had derived any benefit from these protracted discussions; on the contrary, if he were asked who they were whom these discussions had affected most injuriously, he should reply "the farmers." There was now in this country an accumulation of 1,500,000 quarters of foreign wheat. When Parliament met in January, all the foreign corn then in the country might have been admitted at once into the market with benefit to the consumer, and without detriment to the producer. 1 But now, he repeated, there was a large accumulation of foreign corn in the country, owing to the various importations of it which had gradually taken place in the last three months; and the effect of this long delay would be to cause a large influx of it to pour into the market just at the time of the approaching harvest. He could not agree with Mr. Miles that the existing Corn Law was a good financial measure; for as a fiscal measure it was not right to levy a fixed duty of revenue on an article of first necessity like wheat. Neither could he agree with Mr. Miles that the producer was satisfied with the existing law; but even if the producer were satisfied, he was not the only party concerned; for the great body of the consumers must be considered, and they were dissatisfied. He then proceeded to show that the laws restricting the importation of corn into this country were not conducive to the welfare of the labourer and the tiller of the soil; and after establishing that point, went into what he called the Irish part of the case. Commenting on the expressions of Lord G. Bentinck on Friday night, he gave the most decided contradiction to his statement, that Government had received from Sir E. Blakeney, the Commander of the Forces in Ireland, any information contrary to that which it had already published. He also asserted that the report of the Poor Law Commissioner in Ireland fully sustained the assertion of Ministers as to the extent of the famine in that country; but though the Irish case was one of great pressure already, and would force itself on the attention of the House more and more every day, he had never stated that his support of this measure rested entirely upon it. The Irish case had precipitated his decision; but views of general policy, affecting the commercial, moral, and social condition of the country, had previously convinced him that a repeal of the existing restrictions on corn had become urgently and indispensably necessary. IIe called upon the House to consider the effect of the existing Corn Laws on our home and foreign trade. The foreign trade could only be supported by articles taken in exchange. Now the high price of provisions prevented the home consumer from purchasing our manufactures. That circumstance paralysed the home market, and the paralysis of the home market served as a stimulus for foreign exportation; that again led to a glut in the foreign markets, that glut was injurious to our foreign customers, and thus a derangement of commerce took place, which, in its ultimate result, was equally injurious to the home and foreign trade. The effect of such a state of things was most pernicious to the comfort and happiness of the labouring classes, first in the manufacturing and afterwards in the agricultural counties. For the first could not be prosperous without inducing the prosperity of the latter, not in adverse circumstances without affecting the other with their adversity. He then proceeded to contend that it was for the interest not only of the agricultural labourer, but also for the tenant-farmer and the landlord to obtain a steady price for agricultural produce, and that such steady price could only be obtained by a relaxation of restriction, and a free importation of corn. He told the Hon. Members in the gangway that they had no right to boast that they represented the landed interest PP |
