The Sun. — London, England, 1846-02-18 00:00:00

to that produce, a great deficiency was occasionedby the evil Of a bsenteeism. By the union, a large mass of the rich proprie• tors have ben induced to leave the , and as muh as fro nt t . wo to t e hree millions of mon e y have countr be y en abstracted from it gashome market. In fact, the home market, he might say, not only i mpa i red but destroyed; and until they could re- N l , to Irela n d t h e advantage which that country had 'oyed by the residence of rich proprietors, they would the it unabl e t o enter i nto any suff i c i ent compet i t i on ofe t he manufa c t urers o f E ng l an d , an d a ll th e i r irrts to remedy th e di stress wou ld b e ineffectual. peld_ this was d one t h ey could not expect her manu f actures revive. The cause of the population of that country not tip employed was becaus e th e i r absentee landlords were con llly e,Mari draini n g her of h er resources . If they meant to revive fr il nfacture s of Ireland, they must stop the drain on her q'tla by the absentee landlords. They should opts hat drain, it: should remember that there was a drain on the capital of lo rt i s °° °hlrat of four millions and a half by the absentee land- How wou ld that act against this country? Would they Ituedl lw e Want and misery staring them in the streets, This Q M not th e country cry tint against so great an evil? p: f rom Irela n d cou l d be changed by the Leg i slature. B ut oL'lrere other drains from that country ; there was a sum of le o Zut taken annually from her in the shape of a ground-rent rae when they spoke of the Government grants and the ad lsoatcr to Ireland, an d w h en t h ey made, h e wou ld not say a arm of it, b ut when they made a public declaration of those yo ep ts . had they not a right to say, Look at the conduct of Illese tt°° °trY to us during the last century and a half." Let "fie retaember the language of Huskisson. When speaking traprfshfferings of Ireland, he described them . a; the result. of %e rr % e °t l egislation, and the great drain which was made on f e e t of the country. It might not be in their power . to the y L.llthe evils that have pressed Ireland at once, but this, %ti it in their power to do. They could prevent . this Peered kle d drain upon her resources, for how could it be ex ef , 6 that the ca ital reMaining in Ireland could be in a state circtd p ation, when a constant. amount of eight or they I .ens was annually derived from that country, for which Wie t e ,Tred nothing in return. It was with the body politic Nees,`s ue human body—if the blood were gone, could t ukty dra ins the body would maintain a healthy action ? and if that co . „"ed the resources of a country, could they expect that Wthi e nt rY would imrove its condition ? flow was this state bess es - °' to be changed? There had been some talk of kind hid b ee Ireland in pecuniary matters, and that night mention but .: 1 ? made of 468,000/. given in grants to that country. soap she entire sum given, at this moment it did not °harm; claims of their own revenue which, after I thdl,; 4 ,the of Ireland, went into the public revenue, toter,, Vent in this country. They had a remedy, if this ~eqt If old but adopt it—the restcration of their own Perim :la th e : they refuted them that remedy, let them at least lake 4,e`onesenters, Was it not monstrous that they sh . o . uld these toluu,ooo/. out of that country for years without giving ..„ I° Ner b , Y . re ittro whatever ? If they would not consent to the OldL-;esure th •ght at least adopt the less natural one. it - " t e h tt eved i less effective one, of taxing the absentees. '' t er d e r ° Government allow the surplus of Irish revenue, t tk _ ed . 'II the expenses of Government in Ireland, In be saSta te Ireland ? If they contributed to the produce of s s ic St ate "e) ought t o have a fair share of the expenditure of -11 ' 63 hould not the expenses of the navy be to le Isciailbk.this trio c s ountries? There were splendid harbours L fo _ s,uperior to those in England, but more open those harbours 6 , 114r4 re1e 0 foe. Why should not (IP 4, 1 °1 by English men-of-war ( H:ea_r, ) eye, q r not there be dockyards established in I I : 1 2his ee e o 4 4 :) Why should the whole expenditure be re absorbed e l been visited ;141,0442 had s pne of tht great u ev et i r d ion ' of the Government 44 . es IlehhFent. If there were te time, e he could show that the s e ti, lita ch -4 c,h had been remitted in this country exceeded by rn,e'eei:o-Conttritest hadthe taxes ia remitted in Ireland. The taxes since m ed n this country amounted to ,„ t he ° l l le ,„"en. while i e n . i t re ) lan po d s it had o been as one to eighteen. „ s 7 t 3 hey -,:se.chareed the people of Ireland five per cent. for the tea"useh has been advanced to them, whereas the ad 8N meal to the steeple of England have been : 44- e ,..,-li a jr l 9 four, and in some cases only thtrteer %Zed to Per cent. These and other pettyhaymea snot r e Z tas t e, Isnpoverish the country. 1 4 -ee t y wh it wards Ireland in this as in other Y r o e u spects. The y on "bee h . e `, You boast of advancing to us is the money which le t siti 'llosedl` n ated from us by such means. These are tea ter not eof tub • It was not the fault of Hon. Members on "teud 'le House if th e G overnmen t of this country would 0 . a kzil_ at tais state of things. It was unneeessar forurn ti7d th h_ ( Was of the utmost importance that both countries tt I e 0 1; he artily bound together ; for if war came . on 4tto4 btihences ef the state of feeling which prevailed, 9 . ll‘rh i . gio:e ° , a sY to calculate. Pe felt that he was only zaub i - ,7 4 duty, as an Irish Member, in taking this view Whatever they had hitherto done to alleviate •"t. " he ' 0 f that unhappy country was but small and ineffi aith e d i warned them that now was the time to change al.!tie t „,' and entirely, the system of policy which they had th t 7l'd j: o rs ,!l,e!l toward Ireland.— ( Loud cheers. ) lio: t barry a ;' : us-SELL— I do not altogether concur in G some l of Illob"° 11 2 which have been made by the Hon.. Frit e eLre ffess theany a ' just sat down. I am so very far from wishing to diseussicti on the subject, that I would rather a t lleet t °° •,ltlembe r to take every opportunity to bring he eelreee,herltlon of this House the grievances of Ireland, and lie t Ze ir e -r ," al might be considered most. advisable to adopt e i Zter e ittvement of its concition. The Hsn. Gentleman . loan to p a :, l °Wed that there exists in this House a desire and tetrY tre. -e t'eve those distresses when proved to exist ; and, i hip oll th e " part, I am prepared not only to take into consirde -116, Irie, Pl eserit grievances which exist, but also all the theaeloces under which that country has laboured ; as th e'far 2„,... ,ln easares which may he considered, best adapted IcirtCh', of Ireland.—(Cheers.) Now, Sir, I am h e e t s ;°4- Zng, of opinion that anything the House has inn Laid be regarded as a boon to Ireland.—(Hear, ki„ — •• tipon this House as the representatives of the 1 0 . h to s, -- gthun and if one part of that kingdom should Jet, ii " t e fili'eted more seri° . asly than another, effectual is the et when yof this House to take measures for the 4 ;4 se r , ie :l that evil, and certainly I do not consider that for tile k J h e ' ° r assistance, that afflicted portion of the country 46 4 - . t,he , expected t o he grateful —( Hear, hear. ) b4t t • ""n I have risen on the present occa lett its of et for the purpose of entering into the kteee,,.!tateinents made in reference to this sueet, Co r p l , Hon . rl'ose of joining in the wish expressed by the th e wo i d d _mtlesean opposite, that the Hon. Member for do "I"°t Persevere any further with his motion after tizi r tle raan ' o . after listening Os_°he that, that had been offered by the Government. I evi l arnte. o , I liosite, to the statement of the Right Hon feel satisfied, that while her . Majesty's ese t ' s t hho e 'flave left nothing undone to avoid the impending f ord u t ets t not h d h - een guilty of any neglect upon the one . hand. 'lte roe th. been any ostentatious display of the relief af htor that-tuhtners Holding this opinion, and hearing in mind a le4 4 leree,, e ° C ommission now in Ireland may recommend Rrllk_ deeto measures than those of the Government, if they t r no ao such necessary, I feel confident that there %so' Me or complaint l e ft, an d th ere f ore it i s th a t I be Gmber to withdraw his motion. If he should oat th e „p expiration of a month or so be of opi skene, expect, then h n e o a t r hi ) ng l c e a a n u tr o e t v a e i n t t d h u i w m u t w ro i m tho ruet sayingig i tat- 11 °Ilse s t s he 11 ° 1 1. Member has rendered great service to a te of f r , the information he has afforded it on the present . 'ert i •Ws ty „, the, b o nds el, as an independent Member, wished to say a Rubas then this question.—( Hear, hear.) He thought ehl:'" h a d rre were so many points in the question, ko r l e ftt to ' e els already very ably - discussed, he should be loeatte.rfine himself to the general question, and become Nas ti et lY A I L 4 s than he had been accustomed to be. He had I._ Al bs Mitted the expression oi his feelings to those Shief.SoZrldhheeavy jaassacecustomed to look as his leaders • but Rhoh th. 4a to the question of f to . state hisown opinions for had been brought :eitthetto;sj, 31..enesaernaendd h_ did al:louse, there was no a o m ne m o e n w that side of the House rint s eas "' sarnent the sad position of Ireland, as detailed by the Member for Cork who had displayed oodfteheling in ne t t having intermixed % tilt 14 hiaties • t' g le kti trse e-onsieZeidonwiaiettheermsliisral condition of Ireland. It iothdrawal ,of the gentry vnel:ed, which result svouldeb: of the consequences ° Right Hon. Baronet's measureasr:lisrid would not reduce M ite d to a similar sad condition Another point Nilitt occurred to him was the withdrawal of tai tt t li If it should happen that there slaoucUittasle from the kilost„, Fold to pay for the foreign coin which vsaoull'd"bAte Zge e 50 1 into this country, then the like sad calamity which had glee t i t °llaett'ed as having befallen Ireland would be realised in i i4 sPeh dtd With respect to the potato crop, the . people of Ireland 04 1 ' r ola year to year on its precarious existence, and )its sett tO TI the result •? It was a warning to the people of °eware how they placed themselves in a similar I,l7:4,4l;nsition—to take care how they made themselves I ttio. i illit i r . ° T Year to year on the mercy of a foreign nation, r lf e a •'hor ably be actuated by hostile feelings, and If any ilateltiatie O ccur to revent their supply of corn, the people hti ttpe e.,' b ot lt z w t h;a ti T . be as p wretchedly off as the Irish were at pre - %Pa- Possessing the same resources and commise -743 Ir7 l ,stls;; he bad had the great satisfaction of subscribing eca thescl. Il ls called the Famine Fund for the people 4 4 . 1 theZt th: remembered with respect to that rod 'Yeai tl.l4kiovernment then possessed no power to e ats What atrt tly. .4s'lts a temporary expedient to relieve a tem po led, 0 1 was i ts he whole sum subscribed was 300,0001., tr,, d°l4 bt t e h d hlre it e teet on the people of Ireland? At that th at !tit, h Ri m ; V, the people of Ireland was so great that te - h rloe se ''°Pi s i t i nen. Baronet would have been frightened hi oj e 1, 41 ) 44; and have been induced to come down to th, t 4 ; Tice E ve introduc e d a s i m il ar ex t ravagan t measure 4 0 4% ° Mie le 'lt at that ti me t h ere ex i ste d no fears of the lief °Pero the aub•crib e d was expen d e d in relieving the ap t ie; 0 ., 14 thP e° P!e, and in the employment of t 1 ,40 the-snaostin c onstruction of public works, and eta t •aed ihP r lspos ed 4 she supply of grain at home. rig tub ti ge , e measure would effect. The Hon. Member tat i t t i he I , clai for their patient hearing, and concluded by bq k t itie l 4, 4 4 L y d. never be a party to take any mean advan- L ii- 44 7 1 , ti1: N t !10 ., , e - a l 7 B l 7 it l a w i r n ly interfering with her immense s's. epees Gr asd hoped that she might long continue to then sst • .1()t s • tit , withdrew his amendment. ItiAZI„„itiOURNED DEBATE. re e 4 i g e l's' of e t , " lIERS felt most anxious to promote the ; Nis i ! i l.etl en r„ bi e se e l l t : l l , ln tr9- He was anxious to see the con miteal'riee one I .: - Prevailed at present in the country ti oa Y e srte e t Irmumions peace. The Noble Lord at,ly rua.ie ed a mi srepresentation which had been un keNtieo a nd b Y she Hon. Member for Lincoln on the hi sht Ja r , ill Proceeded to say that, in cowiderirg the hrlidt .4511Ouses it had appeared to him that the YiN t it sie tva, entertained of how a country like vlviZ t °l. to n e H oea ' e to .he supplied with food. Without lest'- - Adam with any of those hackneyed qu0 .141 . 14 1 " ° "e th e s ' Fnltli and Ricardo on this subject, he 14ef 11;entao rny . s'Plnions o f a great foreign writer on 4 too tt t i ° hi ahe s-t he Count Carli, President of the Col- Ras tai 'aegieetwia of opinion that no prudent Govern- N a s ell eet aippl y of take proper precautions for a regular • kit P, o f ~t 4 t e c e or t:lebeeaus e the produce of the ground os tt . s ht rie n eo._ vicissitudes of the Season, and was ne ,„, attest nu jai nature. Corn was not a subject for eetki,(OPetition, like wine and olives, fur with e.,_aeroe Nob le ', live s but they could not live without clslea;l4'her Lo rd then made another quotation from Whi e 'h 84 to the vvise proposition of the English el eo lit PplY+ vie pet, regulated the sup dy of food, and rens emit independent of foreign aid for thilost th e know n regretted that so able a writer It too octo roons 1 0 this country. He the, ,^try th epini Y. had heard that it was I'o4 ior e b et th e co on of nearly all the statesmen of tato. m ° cam e r?s-laws could be nit longer retained. IrOYatieti t'o/ e 0 me taiirod the, to:_,ttdd ~;(I t au ty of those wh still thought that probabilities considers sof a sueee a s r i e r f u u l l l e y () the ute s t, whole aud ss 'dhnntd. 'inle to ► conclusion ispLssion a a t s el t y o the course to %I_ bo t .mtelttl y hSe opinion that the effects of free trade leti t , Se eaggerated on both sides, and theref. , re he at6-`eteiss' it s heesee fm t I t l: e a rn entertai n efir : lte any project, rs.terk_P to ndo _ anate from the Noble Lord opposite, the iit4,l4ezestrioZ:ufrora the Right Hon. Baronet at the head dr ew tub oft the ci vi c (i tlent, which should have for its object the 11.400 a to et operati_ disc 'which which prevailed on this matter. t . ..hdes...lpor er , u v iLto be successful it must not be mad with e ot f...''ws ; and on shallow . and contradictory t or. t ,ses be ..tch! 013vetifir--77awce4tmoeftlat d l i t e t it :2 *(l th r tnate a. t i:r e _at• !!road, and general principles. terrified Cabinet, to 41014t,`Fle tntroltted t o premature law, 2.111 discussion and ultimate ver -I°4 bls9"PviresatC.fihveeerosf).—vaentdratihneennstueghooadgr:cti --- " - --.s. el , J--"-._-- THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORN] NG, FEBRUARY 18, 1846. a party, and this was not very surprising, considering the great changes which had taken place in the principles of public men. Indeed, they should of necessity be in that position. They were now disagreeing amongst themselves. 'I hey were with out any settled kind of action ; and though they were undis ciplined and unofficered, they were still undismayed.—( Cheers. ) What they believed to be the cause of the good and the just, was one from which they would not become dissenters ; and, with God's help, they would be loyal and true to the end. His Right Hon. Friend had, he conceived, taken undue steps in reference to the failure of the potato crop in Ireland. He (gr. Shaw) had already stated that he would approach that question with great caution, for he was willing to admit its importance. He was ready to admit that the time of periodical distress was approaching in Ireland; but he would contend for it that the statements upon the subject of the failure of the potato crop had been greatly exaggerated. He had visited various counties in Ireland, and he bad received communications from persons in the provision trade, such as contractors for supply ing the gaols and workhouses, and other public institutions, with this article of food. He had also carefully watched the state of the markets ; and the result of all these measures of procu:ing information on this subje.st tended to show that there would undoubtedly be a deficiency of the potato crop in some parts of Ireland, but that in a great majority of districts the crop would be an average crop, and that much of the deficiency compl a i ne d of had been owing to a glutting of the market upon the first rumours of the supposed famine.—( Hear.) He did not mean to dwell at any further length upon this topic; and he would leave it now by expressing the satisfac tion he felt at having observed the encouragement given to the employment of the labouring classes in Ireland this session, by the temporary expedient for meeting this tem porary evil. He knew it would be a waste of time to dwell upon it now, but he thought he was warranted in saying that it was a subject of wonder to many that his Wet Honourable Friend could have recommended such mea sures without a more mature consideration of the pro bability of a worse state of things than they had any real reason to apprehend. It was only the other day he had heard the Hight Hon. Baronet, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, state, in answer to a question from the Hon. Member for Rochdale, in reference to that clause in the Poor-relief Act affording out-door relief, that he was de cidedly adverse to any alteration in the established system.— ( Hear, hear.) This certainly did not accord with the lately avowed principle of the Right Hon. Baronet; and he did think that the impetus that had of late been given to employ ment in this country by the railways, had been very unfairly kept out of view by her Majesty's Government. There was, no doubt, a great deal that was plausible in the Govern ment plans. But he begged to remind the Right Hon. Baronet that Hon. Members on that side of the House were not quite so unlearned as he seemed to think in the doctrines of Adam Smith.—( Hear, hear.) They all knew that those doctrines were very fine, and would be very fair and reasonable if they could persuade other countries to adopt them also. But they should take into consideration the national debt, the com plicated interests, and the very many other peculiar circum stances of this country, its well-being, and its prosperity, in considering this measure.—(Cheers.) The speech of his Right Hon. Friend, delivered the other night, was in fact a free-trade speech, unqualified by any of those exceptions which he had been so strenuous a supporter of for the last few years. It was not upon the ground of the petitio principii that he had put these measures for ward, nor had they been suggested by an anxious anticipation of the state of things in Ireland, which had been so much dwelt upon. It did appear to him (Mr. S.) that, for the last thirty years, the Right Hon. Gentleman appeared 'o think he had beer. wrong, and that it was only within the ' subject of labour, and he thought that it was one of the greatest proofs that the question now agitating the public mind was a labourer's and a farmer's question, by the fact that al most in every part of the country they would find very few of the landed interest present at those meetings, which were entirely composed of tenant-farmers, whc feel that their interests are alone involved in that question. The landlord was opulent, and it would not make any material difference to himl; but the tenant bound to a farm, from which he could not escape, was placed in a very different position. Of the expenses attendant on the cultivation of a farm, and the sums to be paid, the rent was by no means the principal feature.—(Protectionist cheers.) A difference of 101. in the p r i ce o f w h ea t wo uld make a dif ference of one-half of his rent. Now, he did not mean to say that he was a very intelligent man, but he thought, while they were getting only an average price for corn, that a measure ought not to be introduced which would make a difference of one-half his rent—(Hear, hear) — but he did mean to state that if there was a rise in corn, there was also an addition to the wags of the labourer.—(" Hear, bear," from the Opposition.) And so, when the price of corn fell, in the same proportion did a reduction take place in the wages of the agriculturists.— (Loud cheering.) When corn was low, as it was in the years 1822 and IS3s—corn then averaging at 395. the bushel—the price of labour fell, and it had ever been his experience that the pecu niary difficulties of the farmer produced the worst results upon the agriculturist, who appeared never to derive any advantage from the cheapness of bread, though it might reasonably be sup posed otherwise. The Right Hon. Baronet, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, did not always entertain the same opinion with respect to wages as he did then ; he was not going to blame that change, for he believed that it arose from sincere conviction —( Hear, hear)—but he was going to quote from a speech delivered in 1839 by the Right Hon. Ba ronet , f or t h e purpose o f strength ening the case which he (Mr. Palmer) was endeavouring to place before the House. The Right Hon. Baronet asked, wheat he was addressing the parties who advocated a repeal of the cern-law, " What was their object—was it to raise the price of corn ? If it was, he would tell them that they would also raise the price of wages. Was it their object not to raise the price of corn ?—if they des red a low rate of corn, he would tell them at once that they also desired to produce a low rate of wages."—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) These were the opi nions of the Right Hon. Baronet in 1839. He considered at that period that diminished protecticn would throw large quantities of land out of cultivation, and he (Mr. Palmer) was not to be blamed if, in 1846, he adhered to the lesson which he had learned from the Right Hon. Baronet then. —( Hear, hear.) He had already trespassed much too long on the attention of the House, much longer than he had intended, because he felt that the question had been so long, so ably, and so successfully argued—(Cheers) that he could add nothing to it. For his own part, having no such convictions forced upon his mind as were forced upon the Hon. Baronet, and entertaining an opinion both of the justice and the expediency of maintaining the same amoutt of protection to agriculture and the other branches of native industry as had been m iintained heretofore, he could see no sufficient reason for the change now proposed to be carried into law, and the Right Hon. Baronet must, therefore, excuse him if he•declined to follow him in the path in which he wished to lead him.—(Cheers.) They had been told by the Secretary at War (Mr. Sidney Herbert) that this was a golden opportunity for settling the present questio n w ith honour—( Hear, hear)—but he did not see how any question could be settled with honour when it was to be done at the ex pense of political honesty.—(Loud cheers.) He had repre sented his constituents for many years, and he did not believe that be ever was asked to give a single pledge as to his course of conduct in that House. Bat he considered that there was an implied Qerstanding that he should endeavour last four weeks he had been set right by the speeches of the to maintain the law as it then existed, and he considered such Anti. Corn-law League.—( Cheers. ) He (Mr. S.) regretted implication equally binding in honour as any pledge that he that he had not the eloquence or the arguments of his Right could p e r s o na lly g i ve , an d it should never be said that he Hon. Friend to enable him to dwell upon the subject as he deserted the interests of those who had sent him to that could wish, for if he had he would endeavour to exhibit to the House.— ( Hear, hear.) House in its proper position the fact that the words of the Sir CHARLES NAPIER, bad hoped that, after the elo- Right Hon. Gentleman upon this measure, upon former occa quent and unanswerable s peech of the Right Hon. Baronet sions, were now in the actual process of being eaten at that table. at the head of the Government, that Hon. Gentlemen oppo- —( Cheers. ) It would not de for the Right Hon. Baronet, site would have seen the propriety of bringing the present the Secretary of State for the Home Department, now debate to a conclusion.—(Cheers and laughter.) H e cou ld to say that he would rather abrogate his wealth than receive not see what purpose they had in view by prolonging it.— it at the expense of the poor.—(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. ( Laughter.) Th e grea t complaint which Hon. Gentlemen Shaw) could not but contrast the language, the pathetic had to the Right Hon. Baronet was, that he proposed to phrases, of the Right Hon. Gentleman in reference to the bring in a new corn.law, which he had done in con s equence factory children and the people em p lo y ed in mines—whos e of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland. He (Sir C. condition he had said was worse than sending the Poles to Napier) did not see why the Hon. Gentlemen should have Siberia—with his present sentiments.—(Hear, hear.) The expressed such indignation at the change of mind which such a House might depend upon it that those changes of opinion course exhibited on the part of the Right Hon. Baronet. by the Members of her Majesty's Government would be He was not the only person, however, against whom this appreciated as they deserved, and traced to their true source. iedignation should have been evinced. —( Cheers.) The But, to pass from those six-months' converts to those who were Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department not converts as many days, he would first come to what ap had shown a similar change of mind.—( Cheers and laughter.) peered to him to be the most inexplicable and unexplained part The Right Hon. Secretary at War had followed in the wake of the question—he meant the colleagues of the Right Hon. of the two Noble Baronets.—( Roars of laughter.) The Gentleman, who first raised an alarm by retiring from office be- Chancellor of the Exchequer had expressed a similar opinion, cause they disapproved of the measure introduced, and then, in and other Hon. Gentlemen on the same side of the House. six or eight days subsequently, turned round.—(Cheers.) It He wondered that Hon. Gentlemen did not tax that (the was contended that they were all honourable men. Opposition) side of the House with having changed their minds He knew the majority of them, and he believed also. They had shown a change quite as great as that ex- such to be decidedly true; but that was not bibited by the Right Hen. Baronet.—( Laughter. ) Did they enough, for the public had a right to require imagine they were to follow the example of country gentlemen every explanation for the acts of public men. ho ploughed the same horses now as they did twenty or thirty But these gentlemen had set the very worst precedent ; as a de years ago.—(Roars of laughter.) Did not the Right Hon. parture from sound principles to meet particular cases of erner- Gentleman explain that so early as the Ist of November last gency was invariably adopted by bad men for their own pur he proposed to open the ports and the only support which such a poses.—( Hear, hear.) He asserted that it was not alone for proposition had-in the Cabinet was from three of his colleagues ? their own country's sake that the principles of their public men The Right Hen. Baronet then resigned. The Noble Lord should be fully intelligible; they should be intelligible to the ( Lord John Russell) was then called to the helm of affairs, and men of all other countries—:hey should not alone be suited for the Noble Lord also failed to construct a Government.— the present age, but for history also.—( Hear, hear.) There ( Cheers and laughter.) He ( Sir Charles Napier) rejoiced fore, while he did not throw the slightest aspersion on the private that the Noble Lord had failed.—(Laughter.) The Noble character of any gentleman, he should say that the conduct of Lord had done so in an uncertainty as to how many of the Hon. many Honourable Members remained to be explained, and Gentlemen opposite would have come over to his opinions, and he believed the public of that country, and the discriminating under the circumstances • he was perfectly j us tifi e d public of every other country, would consider their conduct as in declining to undertake the Government.—( Hear, hear.) an evidence of imbecility of mind, and as a political tergiver- The Noble Lord the Member for Newark asked why the Right sation unprecedented in English annals.—(Loud cheers.) Hen. Baronet did not open the ports now. Had this been Would not France draw a striking contrast between the consis the case, and had the Right Hon. Baronet proposed the im. tency and firmness of her first Minister—whose object was to mediate opening of the p rts, he would have met with the consolidate the power and extend the empire of his Sovereign— same reproaches, and the same complaints would have followed. as compared with the opposite qualities exhibited by the Right —( Hear, hear.) He ( Sir C. Napier) thought that the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Ministry ?—( Hear, Hon. Baronet was perfectly right in the course he had adopted hear.) And, looking to their relations with America, they might under the circumstances. He believed the Right Hon. Ba- flatter themselves with the notion that by the enactment of mea ronet would much sooner have the immediate repeal of the sures of a free-trade nature, they could bribe her to peace, corn-laws than that they should be protracted for three years but was the present the moment that the Ministry should longer, but he sincerely believed that the Right Hon. Baronet select to display their want of spirit, and their crouching with had g..ne as far as he could go.—( Cheers and laught er .) drawal before the pressure of blustering and clamour?—( Hear, But if they (the Opposition side of the House) bear.) He firmly believed that the present Ministry would fell into the trap which the Honourable Gentlemen be handed down to posterity as the greatest political cowards opposite had laid for them, with respect to the that ever held the reins of Government.—(Protectionist immediate opening of the ports, they would defeat the measure cheers.) The Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for entirely.—( Hear, hear.) He therefore hoped and trusted the Home Department not only spoke with all the zeal of a that they would abide by the proposition of the Hon. Baronet, political neophyte, but also acted as one; and he (Mr. Shaw) though it might not reach the full limit of their desires.— could put no other construction on the speech of the Right ( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord, the Member for Newark, Hcaeurable Gentleman but that, for the sake of peace also proposed, that before they concurred in the measures and order, he had discarded the support of a great party which had been proposed, that they should appeal to the coun- which comprised the rank, the wealth, ay, and he would say, try. Now he ( Sir C. Napier) would ask, was that a time to whatever Hon. Gentlemen opposite might think, the intelli make such an appeal, when Ireland was in a state of starve- genre of the country.—(ob, oh, and protectionist cheers.) tion—when the public tranquillity was in imminent danger of Yes, for the sake of saving them and the country from ruin, being disturbed? Ar.d Hon. Gentlemen opposite knew that the Right Hon. Baronet threw himself and the Government such% state of things really existed?—(Cheers, and cries of into the bands of the Anti-Corn-law League and the Repeal " No, no.") The consequence which would follow the carry- Association of Dublin. — (Cheers and counter cheers.) But out of the proposition o f th e N o bl e L or d wou ld he, that the lesson would not be lost in Ireland. He had observed, that matters would become still worse.—( Cheers.) The. Noble Lord Mr. Smith O'Brien, a gentleman for whom he entertained its was the most extraordinary man that ever he had heard speak private the highest respect, though he differed with him in on the subject.—(Roars of laughter.) The Noble Lord had politics, had pointed out the present concession as an always been a sliding-scale nobleman— ( Laughter )--hut now the harbinger of ultimate success for the Repeal Association. Noble Lord proposed to accept a fixed dut Hear, hear.) He was an enthusiastic gentleman , and would profit by the The Noble Lord, theref ore , was as much in fault — as the Right concession. He should declare that, if in two years hence he Hon. Baronet. Th e H on . B aronet was i n fl uenced in his should see Sir Robert Peel, under the pressure of agitation, change of mind by a regard for the public welfare, but the introduce some modified p lan f or a repeal of the Legislative Noble Lord was influenced by self-interested motives and from Union, he would not be so much astonished as if any man a desire to keep his rents higher.—(Cheers, and cries of " Oh, had told him, two years since, that he should witness oh.") He would tell the House what he believed to be the the introduction of a measure like the present. truth—(Uproar) —and he was of opinion that there would not (Cheers.) The measure would have a most dangerous have been such an opposition to the measure of effect, and would be a further inducement to the the Right R on . Baronet if they were not impressed repeaters of Ireland to persevere in their determination. with the idea that the effect would be to cause a reduction in When he heard his Hon. Friend last night threaten these their rents.—( Cheers, and cries of" Oh, o h.") It was not his gentlemen representing the agricultural interest to give them desire to press hardly on Hon. Gentlemen opposite. He con- total repeal, he thought it was not very worthy of the Right sidered, however, that there were certain feelings which some- Hon. Baronet, and he did think that it showed his instability times crept into the human heart, which blinded it to a sense and his infirmity as a public man. The Noble Lord the Member of justice, and prevented it from asserting those principles of for London had spoken of his party the other night, and truth which, under other circumstances , it would at once adopt. gloried in .he share they had in bringing forward this mea- The Right Hon. Baronet, in his speech of last night, adverted sure. He (Mr. Shaw) owned, that when he heard to what had fallen from the Hon. Member for Northampton ; the Member for London state the means that been adopted and he had very properly animadverted upon it. Now if, in- in order to carry this measure he thought that the Noble Lord stead of making long speeches on the other side of the House, spoke in bitter irony.—(Cheers from the Ministerial benches. ) Hon. Members were to give long leases, their tenants would Let what would result from the measure—either failure or sue not suffer half so much, even according to their own argu- cess—let it bring either weal or woe to the interest of this ments, as they otherwise would from this measure.—( Hear, country, neither honour nor glory would. ever be associated hear.) If they were to go down into Scotland, they would with the means that had been adopted to bring it about.— see the improvements in agriculture there. They would see (Cheers from the Ministerial side.) It was well known to them thrashing corn there by steam, instead of by men and men of every system of polities that this proposed measure had horses. It might appear strangely singular to Honour- given a shock to public feeling and confidence which rover able Members for a sailor like him to give them berated through every portion of the Queen's empire, and had such advice, but he was a farmer himself. It was injured all confidence in the Government- When the Noble true he was a farmer upon a small scale—so much the worse Lord, the Member for London, spoke of the satisfaction he felt for him.—(Laughter.) He took a farm about two years ago in the measure, he must have felt well satisfied to look at that of forty acres, and he wished he could have afforded to take side of the House, to see their broken ranks—to see the Right more.—(Continued laughter.) It was now fourteen years in Honourable Baronet, with the very weapon with which cultivation, and, up to the time he had taken it, it had produced he had effected the overthrow of the Noble Lord, now com nothing. His predecessors could grow nothing, the soil was mitting a sort of political suicide--(Cheers from the Minis a barren one, and in fact truly unfortunate All who had taken terial side)—to see the man who had formerly commanded in it up had most signally failed. He had not been on it above the House, and driven the Noble Lord from his position, now a year before he had lost 100/. clear money.—(Laughter.) supplicating the Noble Lord for s upport.—(Hear , hear.) He His next door neighbour was ap- or fellow, but be w a s a g o o d (the Right Hon. Baronet) was humbly supplicating the Noblr , fellow; he had no money, but he managed to live very Lord to uphold the existence of his Government. — (" Oh ! well. He (the Honourable Baronet) said to him, from the Opposition.) Well, then, those gentlemen who cried " Well, old fellow"—(Laughter)—he said to] him, " Oh, oh," could not at least deny that the Government of the " Well, old fellow, how is it you get on—you have no money ? 'tis Right Hon. Baronet existed on the sufferance of the Noble true, you have but a wife and a pony—how is it you manage to Lord. When he thought of what that party was years do so well ?" I said, " I have money, and have spent it on my ago, when the Right Honourable Baronet was at its land, and yet can produce nothing but a loss."—(Laughter.) head, and contrasted its then position with what it was " Well, Sir," said he, "my advice to you is, to dig up all your now, he could not help declaring that he was sorry ditches, and then to go eighteen inches with your plough, and that his political life had lasted until he had seen that day. then sow your seed." He had followed this advice, and he He considered the course adopted by the Right Hon. grew the next year eleven acres of oa ts all good and marketable. Baronet, or, as he trusted he might still call him, his Right Now. by following this adv i c e—b y mak ing all those improve- Hon Friend, to be ruinous. —( Loud laughter from all parts ments, of all this farrow land he had but fourteen acres which of the House.) He entirely acquitted him of any motive did not produce an abundant crop. On much of this farrow besides the one he claimed for himself, viz., a strict sense of land, he could assure the House, that he had grown public duty.—( Cheers.) Whatever his (Mr. Shaw's) opinion tut nips as large as the heads of many of the might be of the Right Hon. Baronet's political conduct, he Hon. Members advocating the protective interests of the never thought that he was actuated by any but a good feeling. other side of the House. He had no doubt that be would be He would conclude by addressing to the Right Honourable able to grow one thing a fter the other till at l ast he would Baronet the wor d s w hi c h, m a n y years ago, on a g row vetches, after which the land would produce corn, and similar occasion, he (the Right Honourable improvedßevi system ef agriculture. net) had addressed to the Member for London—" You wish to If Hon. Members who made such an outcry against the in- induce us to follow principles in which there are nothing but • lture would but get down their ditches, and sow varying counsels —divided colleagues—statements of facts that roads of agriculture , their corn in accordance with such improvement, initead of cannot be reconciled —arguments leading to opposite conclu makinghey would do well, and th this would be the result of an • those long speeches, t security to to try in would be no loss, but a a ery favourable gain. He had taken up protection now existing as a agriculture, discussion —he thought a new course wasagricultural lottery, in the vain hope of drawing out a prize." a new part in this dis an old tack had e result sions. We cannot surrender our judgment to throw down the very necessary, as the been worn quite —(lmmense cheering.) threadbare, an d h e thought Hon. Members would appreciate Mr. BRIGHT said that the Hon. Member who had just the course he laid down for their guidance, and that the result resumed his seat, and other Members on the protectionist side, would be, that they would vote for the measure before the should have learned by heart the speeches delivered by the House.—( Cheers and laughter.) Ri g ht Hoe. Baronet and the R i g ht Hon. the H ome Secretary. Mr. F. SHAW said t hat, in s p eakin g on t he present mea- —(" Oh, oh," from the Ministeria l side.) If these speeches sure, ho would allow that he had much of that party feeling-, had been correctly committed to memory, sonic two Members although he must confess that much of that party feeling had might have delivered them to the House, and have saved much given was. The course taken by those with whom he had time and trouble, and a good deal of repetition. He had hoped for years 'acted h a d l e ft him but one alternative, either to that when the Honourable Member for Bristol moved the his opinion in uni son w i t h t h e i rs. amen dment the principle of protection was about to b e di scusse d. v t e h r e ify House was one of all oth ers w hi c h The question really to be considered was the repeal of th e corn wouldkTeheep silence, measure before or t o Ireland. The laws, an d not the p art y q uarrel s on the opposite side of the and Gallant House. Th e y were v ery much mistaken if they supposed Member in th e d e bate. that the great body of the people cared anything about debateemb e rd hadu had ar taken a a k t n and introduceda incalculable;new turn. that a injury hTe change H to cn Many of those w h o bad risen on the subject had said they the quarrels of the Conservative party. He had listened would vote for th e treasu re, but many of those who had also to nearly every speech on that side of the House that had risen said they wou ld vo te against the motion. The Noble been made in support of protection, and he, instead Lord the M em be r for Liverpool said that the measure though of entering into their party disputes, would direct his attention he would no t w e e aga i ns t it, if it should.be carried, would to the arguments that had been brought forward in its favour. disappoint th o se w h o h a d b ro ught it forward, and placed such The lion. and Learned Member for the University of Dublin's reliance on it s resu lts, a nd he (the Hon. Member) was of (Mr. Shaw's) speech was entirely directed to the party quarrel opinionthatitwoulddisappointthe public generally. bethought at issue, and therefore he (Mr. Bright) did not intend to Majesty's Ministry answer it ,— (lronical cheers from the Conservative benches.) Lord Ashley), who if he was not mistaken , the question of protection was the real had Right uo Hon.right to say Baronet that a the ee Noblehead had resigned hi s seat , was i n f a vour of the measure; because he question before the House, and therefore he would pass on to the had so resigned, instead of voting for the measure. ThelHon. speeches of those who attempted to grapple with it. The Member for Liverpool, who had said that the meas u r e would Hon. Member for Bristol (Mr. P. Miles), who introduced be of the greatest injury to the interests of the question, said that the farmers would not be content to this country was an i ma d v erted upon in the spcech of sell cheap corn and buy dear sugar ; and the Hon. Member the Right Hon. Baronet, who held it as a right that those: who for Wiltshire dec'ared that it would be unfair for the colonies held opinions contrary to the Right Hon. Baron e t, h a d a it s eht to be protected at a heavy expense to British agri to express themselves to that effect on that question, without culture. The Hon. Member said he could not interfere to being subject to attack. The Noble Lord the M em b er f or t h e (rive protection to the planter or the colonist, if Parliament West Riding of Yorkshire had said, that those wh o h a d a d vo - I te, • : hd r e w p rotection from British g rain. 'ln that principle he sated the protectife interests in that Rouse were broken up as ( m r , .Bright) agreed. He admitted its truth, and he eineerelY lasting benefit. He could even conceive of such a course being taken by her Majesty's Government, and after the speech of the Right lion. Baronet on the previous night, the possibility of adopting such a course could not be disputed. If the Right Hon. Gentleman had announced before the meeting of Parlia ment his long-cherished idea of throwing open the ports, and have told us he was no longer prepared to steer the ship the same course as he had hitherto done, the feelings on this matter in the country and in this House would be very different from what they now were. He (Lord John Manners) had paid great attention throughout these debates to hear a reason assigned by the Government for the course they had chosen to take. The Right Hon. Baronet had last night expressed his satisfac tion at the result of his measure of 1845, but he would ask what confidence cou'd this country have in a Government who adopted a course which contradicted all their former acts? It would not do for the Right Hon. Baronet. to plead that he was placed in such a difficult posi:ion by divisions in the Cabinet that he was compelled to adopt the course which he had adlited. If the Right Honourable Gentleman was in earnest—if he really thought that the danger and difficeite was so pressing—even now he might open the ports, and let in the corn till the danger bad disappeared. Why, what a lumbering birth ! what a lumbering task ! the Government takes upon itselt. How long (lid they expect to be occupied in carrying this great experiment, which affected nearly every interest in the country, through Parliament ? With their commissions of inquiry into the burdens upon land, with their commissions of inquiry into the probable effects of this great commercial revolution upon the colonies, with their commissions of inquiries into its effects upon the finances 'of the country, and with that able, bitter, resolute, and unswerving hostility which they had excited against their proposal, what chance, he asked the Government, was there of this measure being immediately passed through Parliament? Non one word upon the subject of guarantees. He had shown how unfair the Right Hon. Baronet had acted in presuming that a guarantee would have been requ'red from him in re• spec+ of the evening of the ports, and he now told the Hon. Baronet that he (1;(1 not think any man in England would ever again ask the Right Hon. Baronet for a guarantee upon the corn-laws, or anything else. —( Hear, hear, and laughter.) Arid he was sure that those gentlemen who thought protection to native industry was deeply rooted in the affections of the people, and closely allied with the interests of the country, would in future rely ueon the goed judgment, the good sense, the:deterenination, and the coarsge of the English people, rather than upon the promises of the Right. Hon. Baronet.. He for one could not but complain of a spirit of straightfor wardness which was exhibited in the arguments and the tone of the Right Hon. Baronet. It was exceedingly amusing to see how the Right Hon. Baronet disposed of any particular course of action which his opponents might th ink proper to adopt. For instance, the Right Hon. Baronet said, if the Hon. Member for Bristol had taken upon himself to propose a want of confidence in the Ministry, or to propose a direct declaration in favour of native industry, or, in short, if he had tektite any other course than that which he did, the Right Hon. Baronet could have understood this mode of am ion, and been prepared to meet it accordingly.—( Hear, and laughter.) Nothing, in his opinion, could he more unfair than this nioste of di posing of the arguments of opponents ; and although he was not bold enough to take upon himself the task of advising Hon. Members, he would say this much for the lien. Member for Bristol, that had he adopted any other course than the one he did, the Right Hon. Baronet would have disposed of him with very much the same argument. And after the revolutionary senti ments of the Right Hon. Baronet,: he thoustlit both the Hors. ember for Bristol and the Hon. Member for Newcastle upon-Tyne might be excused for withholding their support from the Right Hon. Baronet and his Government. Now the Right. Hon. Baronet alluded to the probable effects which the passing of this measure would have upon foreign countries. Russia, he said, would be shaken by it. An HoN. MEMBER—No ; he said Prussia would be shaken. Lord J. MANNERS resu ed—Russia would be shaken, the Right Hon. Baronet said, by the passing of this measure ; but when it was remembered that such a measure was all that Prussia wanted with this country, he did not think the pass ing of it was the surest way of inducing her to alter her commercial policy. Passing from Prussia to France, the Right Hon. Baronet made a statement still snore unsatisfactory, because he admitted that the aristocracy of France were op posed to free trade; but against this he placed the fact that the intelligence public opinion of France was directly in favour of freedom of leads. Let him, however, ask the Right Hon. Baronet who it was that led this intelligent public opinion? He believed Arago, Thiers, Louis, and tierryer, were men who led public opinion in France, but who were far from entertaining views in favour of free trade, but on the contrary, were favourable to protection to native industry. He now came to another branch of the Right Hon. Baronet's ar guments, and he hoped it would not be inferred from what might fall from him upon this part of the subject that he wished to deal lightly with the calamity which had lately fallen upon Ireland. He must, however, be permitted to say, that when the Right Hon. Baronet argued that a failure in the potato crop in 1845 was a justification for a total repeal of the corn laws in 1849, the Right Hon. Baronet left his reason un convinced though he might have excited his sympathies in his behalf. The Right Hor.. Baronet prefaced his introduction of this measure by a melancholy statement and touching appeal to the feelings of the House, and whilst by this means he had almost safely lodged the corner-stone of his new principles, he dashed it to atoms with the argumentative reasoning with which he followed up his melan choly oration : for after making a touching appeal to them to give the people of Ireland cheap bread, he went on to state that he did not expect the repeal of the corn-laws would reduce the price of agricultural produce, and his Right Hon. Friend the Secretary of War, in improving upon this text, said he did not think the English farmer would be exposed to foreign competi tion. He maintained, then, that after the great proposal the Government had made to the present Parliament, and the sweeping and tremendous revolution which they wished to effect •hroughout the whole commercial system of the country, he felt himself perfectly justified in voting for the amendment of his Hon. Friend the Member far Shropshire for an appeal to the constituencies of England. He might be told that an appeal to the constituency of Newer,: would be suffiMent for his purpose, but his answer to this was that he did riot wish to appeal to the e lectors of Newark but to the constituencies of the coun try. Now, having said thus much, he must be allowed to ex press an opinion that the proposal of the Government was not the best that could have been made. It could not be called free trade, and he doulsted even if it could he called a scheme of free importation, for on the one hand they reserved protec tion to a great number of manufactured articles, and on the other they maintained the prohibition against the growing of tobaceo, and that enormous burden the malt-tax—for what ever might be said in its favour, it must be still allowed that the malt-tax was, to a great extent, a large burden upon land. It did seem to him with all deference to the Hon. Gentle men who entertained strong views on both sides of the question, that if the corn, the produce corn of the British colonies, and Indian corn, had been proposed to be admitted duty free, and other foreign corn at a moderate fixed duty , it . would have placed the corn trade on a basis satisfactory to the commercial interests of the country, and would have bound, by ties of mutual interests, the vast colonial empire to tile British Con stitution, whilst at the same time is would have afforded a safe security against the unnecessary fears of the farmer. He did not stand alone in this opinion, for he found a fixed duty of ss. advocated by the Messrs. Ferguson and Taylor, of Man chester, in a document, it must. be remembered, which was not the production of the Central Protection S iciety, nor the pro duction of the supporter of any fixed duty. but it emanated from parties deeply interested in the prosperity of Manchester and Eng.ish manufactures. Although he could not say that he entertained some of the fears which some of his Hon. Friends did with respect to free-trade, or participate in the hopes which some Hon. Members anticipated would be realised from it, he did most earnestly and heartily deprecate any such harsh or hasty interference with the great commercial interests of the country, or with the system of protection under which trade and manufactures had made mast gigantic and almost miraculous strides, and under which agriculture has made such vast strides that if the people of their own country were not, foreigners were perfectly astounded at it, as that now proposed by her Majesty's Government. lie depre cated, too, the dictatorial tone adopted by the Right Hon. Baronet towards some of his supporters, which, in Ins opinion, only served to aleinate tee sympathies and the confidence of those great classes to which, in times of danger and distress, the Sovereigns of this country have ever looked, nor looked in vain, for a ready obedience to the laws, and unflinching bravery, and uncompromising fidelity.—( Cheers.) For these reasons he, for one, neither feared nor hoped much from free trade, but was, neverthele=s, anxious to have this great question settled to the satisfaction of all parties, gave his most hearty and determined vote in favour of an appeal to the country ; and his most resolute and determined opposition to the pro posal that this House do resolve itself into a Committee for the purpose of considering. the corn-laws, with a view to their repeal.--(Cheers.) Capt. LAYA RD said, whatever might. be the feelings which had been expressed by the Hon. Gentleman who sat below the gangway, he thought. after the eloquent and truly argumenta tive speech which the. Right Hon. Baronet made last night, they c Arid have had no objection to their going into Committee on this question. He for one believed that the measure of the Government was likely, not only to be conducive to the in terests of the country, hut would' tend greatly to advance the interests of agriculture ; and whilst expressing this opinion, he must be allowed to say, that he should b i ‘l,,v e t iet rh a ei l sn t t s e u td y h, s e soy st r r sibenefitedx to see the comm ercial, or any h othe ; a lo gsr s ea t t if ai rt r n e o ra th ti e n r n . -"'- ha ( d ri t e a a k r en e p a l'a r c , e n b l y ont t h h s e in the feelings of the c ountr y with respect to this is g est r t e o a n i The feeling of that House bad also changed upon que .. st i i ) o e n s; a m n e d n th o a n t b c o h l a h ng si e de h i a o d f btheeennoinuse had declared them favour of free trade. rrh would ask Hon. Gentlemen on t he o pp osite side of the House, selves favour of the pres e n t measure.—(Cheers.) He ho were in favour of what was called "protection to native industry," where were their champions of protection now ? (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Those champions who had led thi-m in their battle for protection dare not now stand up in defence of their hollow and unjust cause, either out of doors or in that House. —( Hear, hear.) The present measure was one which should and must be carried without any longer delay. He (Captain Layard) had heard the arguments of Hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House since the com mencement of this debate, and he must confess that they con tained in them no new feature; he had beard them all over and over again years ago. The Right Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government had last night taken the wind out of all their sails —( Laughter.) Hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House had told the House that the land would go out of cultivation if the measure were passed.—(! , Hear, hear," from the protectionists.) He begged to refer those Hon. Members to the meeting which was recently held at Goatacre.— (Laughter from the protectionists, and the rs from the Opposition.) At that meeting the agricultural labourers and farmers of that district said unanimously that they did not believe that one acre would go out of cultivation in the event of the corn-laws being abolished.—(Cheers from the Opposition.) Of course, not the least particle of land would go nut of cultivation ; and he really believed that there was not a man in that House, nor in the country, who conscientiously believed that the land would be left uncultivated. An Flow. Mnstisa on the Opposition benches—l cannot believe it.—( Hear, hear. ) Captain LAY ARD continued to observe that the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary at War had the other night made a free-trade speech, and that he most heartily congratu'ated that Right lion. Gentleman on the speech which he had made. He was sure that be was possessed of talents, and that he would rise in the estimation, of the country. But the Right Hon. Gentleman had said that the corn-law of 1815 was a gi eat mistake and a great error.—( Hear, hear.) He (Capt. Layard) would go further, and say that it was no less than a great and grievous crime.—(Cheers. ) He believed that by that measure not only the agricultural but the manufacturing interests of this country were greatly injured.—( Hear , hear. ) He believed that it was a fearful crime, because the misery of the people was greatly enhanced by that un j ust law. The House had been told by Hon. Gentleme n opposite that England had risen to great prosperity under the operation of the corn laws; they talked of great and glorious England under the corn-law. He knew, and they all knew, that England was a great and glorious country, but he denied that the corn-law made her great and glorious.—(Cheers from the Opposition Members.) Looking at the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government, ne seemed in his (Captain Layard's) eyes to be a free-trader.—( Hear, hear.) But he had been the leader of Hon. Gentlemen opposite. His opinions on the corn-laws had however become changed The difficulties under which the country was labouring had made him. a free-trader. The difficulties under which England laboured consisted orthe present corn-laws, and be maintained that England was great and glorious, not because of, but in spite of the corntaws.—(Cheere.) The Noble Lord who bad just sat down, was scarcely intelligible, at least to him.---(Hear, hear.) Ile (the Noble Lord) had written a letter to his con stituents, and from that letter he (Captain Layard) was led to believe that the Noble Lord would have supported the measure. The Noble Lord, the Member for Liverpool, had also made a speech the other night in favour of the position of Hon. Gen tlemen opposite, and yet he had said that he would vote in support of the present measure. He was sorry not to sea the Hon. Member for Oxford (Sir H. H. Inglis) in his place, who claimed the speech of the Noble Lord as his own, and he (Captain Layard) thought he had every right to it.—(Cheers.) Now, he must say, that the conduct of the Noble Lord reminded him of a circumstance which had oc curred some years ago, at Nottingham. There was a man there who had a vote, and a certain Hon. and Gallant Member if he were present could confirm the statement which he was about to make. That man, for the vote he had given at an election there, was promoted to a choristership at Canterbury, hut when he came to sing he could not sing at all.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) So it might be said of certain Hon. Members on the other side of the House : A sirging man, he could not sing, No need to thank his patron's bcunty ; Excuse me, sir, I cannot sing, My voice is in another county. —(Laughter. ) He was delighted to find that the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the Colonies, in spite of the caustic speech which had been delivered by, the Hon. Member for Shrewsbury, was determined to vote in support of free trade.—( Hear, hear.) And what was the charge—the grievous charge—that that Hon. Member had also brought against the Right Hon. Baronet now at the head of her Majesty's Government ? Why it was this—that he sacrificed party feelings for the good, for the glory, and for the happiness of his country. —( Great cheering from the Opposition.) An Hon. Gentleman on the other side of the House had also said that rotten potatoes formed a rotten argument.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) But what would that Honourable Member say, in answer to the distressing statements which had been laid before the House that night by the Hos. and Learned Member for Cork (Mr. O'Connell). He had nut intended to refer to this subject in consequence of tho,c statements. He would beg the House to consder those statements most attentively, for they depicted suffering of the b most awful and rotten potatoes"grievous description, alluded to o w by h t h i c e h was lio b n A e o „n u g b h e t r a i b n o u sot unmerciful and inconsiderate a manner. He held in his hand a pamphlet which went to show that agriculture was benefited by protection, and that it was a just measure. Now, he thought With the celebrated expression of Mr. Cobden, that the system of protection was one of mutual plunder between the farmers and their landlords—( Hear, hear)—and he had not heard one argument from Honourable Gentlemen opposite showing that such was not the case.—(Opposition cheers. ) He could understand the reason why so little mousy was spent in agri culture—it was because of the uncertainty that at present prevailed with regard to the corn-laws. Hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House had said that they preferred im mediate repeal to the present proposal of her Majesty's Government. Well, then, the Flight Hon. Bart. at the head of the Government had last night expressed his perfect wil lingness to accede to their wishes.—( Cheers and laughter.) They had now, therefore, an opportunity of obtaining their desires.—( Hear, hear.) They would certainly have a num ber of supporters on their own side of the House, and certainly a very great number on his (Captain Layard's) own side of the (louse.—(Great cheering and laughter.) He ever had confidence in his political leaders, and he had every reason to continue his support to their measures. They had never betrayed hins.—( Hear, hear.) He believed that these leaders had ever acted rightly. He could safely say that he had always the gteatest reliance upon the Noble Lord the Member for the City of London, and particularly when he made that startling expression some time ago, that " protection was the bane of agriculture." He (Captain Layard) wished to ask Hon. Gentlemen opposite how they could justly charge that Noble Lord with a sudden change of his opinions upon the free- trade question, when he had uttered such a sentiment as the above years ago?— (Cheers.) For the reasons then that he (Captain Layard) had stated, he should be happy to give the Right Honourable Baronet at the head of the Govern ment his humble support. He believed that the present measure was for the benefit of the country ; he believed that that Right Hun. Gentleman had made the greatest sacrifice that any man could make for the good of his country.— ( Cheers.) He must say that be both honoured and admired him for the sacrifice which he had made -(Cheers)—and he never in his life had given his vote with so much happiness and so much contentment as he should upon this occasion.— ( Hear, hear.) Believing that it was for the good of the coun try— bel eving that every country would follow the bright example which the Right Hon. Baronet had set them—( Hear, hear)--believing, as he did, that it would strengthen and bind in a link of unity and peace, which we must all desire and hope for, the nations of the earth, he would give the proposal his most hearty support.—(Cheers. ) Mr. G. PALNIER said, he did not hope by anything he might utter to add any new argument in the discussion of this question ; but he felt himself bound to express his opinions in discharge of the duty which he owed to the individuals whom he represented in that House. Those individuals were most anxious to knew the result of the delibera tions of the House on this question, believing, as they did, that on the result of those deliberations depended their future prosperity or distress.—( Hear, hear.) It was scarcely necessary to inform that House of the state of excitement in the country on this question. They had seen that numerous meetings had been held in different parts of the cnuntry—almost in every county—to denounce the free-trade measures of the Government, and they were almost all unani mous in their cone.emnatmn of the present measure.—( Cheers from the protectionists.) For the purpose of showing the quickness of the Right Hon. Baronet's change in favour of free trade, he would beg the indulgence of the House whilst he quoted Hansard for a few moments.—( Hear.) In the year 1844, the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government, in opposing 'he motion of the Hon. al ember for Wolverhampton (Mr. Villiers), avowed himself an advocate for protection, on the ground of the peculiar burden on land, and that that was a subject which he could not deal with upon abstract principles, without regard to all the other interests of the class. Upon these grounds he therefore gave his unqualified opposition to the motion. It was by thus acting, that he (Sir 11. Peel) led many persons to imagine that he did not contemplate a change in a law which was settled only two years Lefore. He (Mr. Palmer) had attended many meetings in the country, and the general feeling was one of alarm at the consequences likely to ensue from the adoption of this measure. The question which was asked throughout the country was, what grounds are there for the change proposed by her Majesty's esovernment ? He had li-tened to a large por tion of the d• bate, but he had not heard any substantial reason brought forward by the Government to account for this change, excepting that melancholy statement of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland. He could not hear the statement matte by the Right Hon. Baronet last evening without feeling gnat alarm and anxiety. He did not think, however, that the measures proposed were calculated to remedy this grievous evil. The necessity of opening the ports had been urged, but he did not think even that measure would have alleviated the distress, unless the persons who were suffering under the calamity had the means of obtaining the corn thus introduced. Hut he would not have objected to any Bill of Indemnity which it might have been necessary to have passed in this House. on account of the suspension by Order in Council of the existing corn laws.—( Hear, hear.) He was not sufficiently versed in Par liamentary matters to know, however, that it was a necessary consequence that the corn-laws should be totally repealed in consequence of a temporary suspension of the measure. He remembered that the late Mr. Canning suspended that law, and orders were given in Council for the admission of 5,000 quarters of wheat. A Bill of Indemnity was given to him, but he (Mr. Canning) never thought of coming down to the House and saying that he considered it necessary to repeal the corn-law in consequence of that temporary suspension. ( Hear, hear. ) The principle of protection seems now to be abandoned by the Government, but they have given us no good reason for changing their minds on the subject. He was however prepared still to adhere to that principle. It was no new system; it had been the policy of England for upwards of a century. He had read in " The Lives of the Lord Chancellors" (a work written by Lord Campbell) of Lord Chancellor Morton, who ',red in the reign of Henry VII., who co, sidered that in a time of scarcity corn should not be allowed to be sent out of the country. This he believed was the earliest case on record. It is under this system of protection the country has arisen to its present proud position. Mr. Huskisson said that the produce of the country should be protected—he cared not how cheap corn was—and he said that in order to ensure a continuance of the supply of cheap corn, vie must ensure to the corn producer an adequate amount of protec tion. He (Mr. Palmer) did not agree in the demand which had been made upon the Government for a compensation ; he did not look at the question in that light. The principle of protection is in it=elf either light or wrong.—( Hear, hear.) If it is right, let us maintain it ; if wrong, the continuance of the principle is wrong, usjwt, and unfair, and we have no admitl-i s h t t: t c o o. grant btco,itnh je. sl compensationtanld,ehda That interest oul f d o r b ef t , h ,gr e i vt removal ihnegaau porlit n o m f inu t om h f r. tttohwionhs injustice. ti c sl h at : y es ! The Right d o. H y o sa n y o , u t r h a t l e w ß h a e r n o e n v e c t r statesh he ha d t that he hasopportunity afforded ofeo a n d suiting the farmers nidde r on ethda t h ti e t w s u aw b sa j s e a e l sta,o thmhaiestannsouoeprtaierno,inohene.aorf.t)AhseTmlretosnwasliil dileeregdouthl at he had got an equivalent.—( b th e e fo ir re, opinion, not on a s called on to concur in. The Right Hon. Baronet, in te course of his speech on a former occasion, stated that the alter ation he had then made had been productive of no injury, but rather was a benefit to all parties. He instanced a great rise in the price of cattle, meat, and other commodities. Now he thought there were many other reasons why the rise in the price of cattle had occurred, besides its being caused by a re duction on import duties. He thought the Right Hon. Baro net could not take particular credit to himself for raising those prices. Even admitting that those benefits had occurred in consequence of the measure that he had introduced, he (Mr. Palmer) thought it was a good argument for not meddling any more.—(Cheers.) He believed that the constant meddling with those laws had occasioned more dis tress amongst the agricultural community than any ether pro ceeding whatsoever. It was not until about the present time that the farmers, in consequence of the alterations made in those laws in the year 1842, were recovering from the losses which the agitation of that measure caused. The labourers were much better employed, general prosperity was experienced by all parties in the country, just at the period when the Right lion. Baronet brought forward his proposition, which turned the scale in a contrary direction.--a Loud cheers.) He. could, from his own personal experience, state that there was a great stagnation in the markets of his own country. No miller would buy any large quantity of wheat at present, but, to use a common expression, was purchasing from hand to mouths. The price may be as high now (he did not mean to say it was not), but there was no business doing in the market since that measure was announced. He knew per fectly well that it made a difference of 75., or Bs., or 10s. to the mechanic, there being no trade carrying on. Therefore he said it was a most unfortunate time to bring forward such a measure. He (Mr. Palmer) should like to ask anybody who took a fair view of the farmers' condi tion whether there was not greater improvement, more capital, and more skill, now used by them, than there was twenty years ago—whether the general cultivation of their land was not much better than it was then—and, taking a full view ,j of the question, he could not believe that protection was a bane to agriculture. He (Mr. Palmer) considered that they ought to make themselves as independent of foreign supply as possible. These were arguments which were supported with great ability at one time in that House by some who had since thought fit to change their minds. He would venture to read .a short passage to the House from the speech of the Right Honourable Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department, on the subject of depending on foreign nations for the supply of corn. The Right Hon. Ba ronet said, " It appeared to him that th e sta t e, an d power, and majesty of great Britain would be humbled by their depending on foreign countries, and was like placing this country in a state of siege. When the supply was withdrawn, and there were many countries which would be glad to place us in that position, what then should we do ?" That was the opinion of the Right Hon. Baronet (Sir J. Graham) in the year 1839, on the question of our rendering ' this country dependent on f o r e i gn nat i ons f or our supplies. ' The Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Go vernment says, a deficient harvest may involve them in difficulties. If further calamities should arise then they may lose their independence, fur restrictive duties were no security against a famine. The House would consider that those were good authorities who had spoken such language, A great deal had been said on the hoped that the same principle would be extended to all. — ( Hear, I bear. ) He would say it was not just to protect sugar, if it was withdrawn from corn; and on the same grounds he hoped that Hon. Gentlemen would see that if any interest or trade in the country was unprotected, while corn was protected, it was equally unjust to that particular trade or interest. Hun. Mem bers could not deny that. Ile must say this as the represen tative, if so he might term himself, of one of the largest trades in the country, to which no Member proposed the protection of the House, and a trade that did not require it. Since he came into that House a proposition had been made to remove all impediments in the way of exporting machinery, and he was, glad to say that every Member in that House, as well, he be lieved, as every one connected with that trade out of the House, supported that motion. Last year the 10 per cent. im posed on the exportation of cotton yarns was repealed, and every one connected with the trade in the House voted for the proposition. Not only the Members in the House con nected with the cotton trade gave their votes in support of the repeal, but out of the House it was supported by nearly all in • terested in that pursuit. klut lie would not take cotton, or woollen, or silk, but he would come at once to the real question to be considered—the policy of a protective duty on corn—( Cries of " Hear, hear ")—and on which Hon. Members on the Opposition side had talked as if they knew so much. He was walking past the offices of the protec tion party in Bond-street the other day, and he must say the place seemed seedy and forlorn.—(Loud laughter.) There was not the slightest appearance of business there. He saw a large brass plate on the door, on which was engraved in large letters " The Central Society for the Protection of Agricul culture and Native Industry." And what, he would ask, was that industry which it was proposed to protect? He recol lected in 1842, when his Hon. Friend the Member for Stock port (Mr. Cobden) proposed that if the protection of the l b a e nded interest was agreed to, that it should also to raise and keep permanent the rate of wages.—( Hear, hear.) It hat answer was given to that proposition? Honourable Members said that they could not understand how that proposition could be agreed to on princi ples of political economy. If warres could nut be settled by Act of Parliament, was it not equally opposed to the laws of political economy, an d equally absurd to law to raise the produce of the landlord's estates He passwould a beg the Hon. Member to give a clea r an d satisfactory answer to this point. That Hon. Member profess e d to understand the question, and he (Mr. Bright) believed that the Hon. Gentleman was a reader of the Economist newspaper. If he did so, and professed to know the principle which regulates trade and commerce, he (Mr. Bright) could not understand how he could reconcile those principles with the speech which he had made the other night. That speech was skilfully con structed, but it was nothing more, and did not deal fairly and comprehensively with the question before the House. Let him look at the increase of population—consider the limited extent of these two islands, with a population of 27,000,000, and which was increasing at a great rate, a million and a half hav ing been added since the corn-law of 1842 was passed— let him consider this, and see how he could reconcile it with the principles of political economy. They would, if they dared, shut out foreign produce altogether from this country; and he believed that many of their sup porters sighed for a law that would do so.—( Cries of " Oh, oh.") Well, then, they would prohibit it to the point at which it would be safe to stop.—to the point of starvation. What mattered it how much distress might be felt by the labourer in Wiltshire or the weaver in Lincolnshire, if high prices for wheat could be safely maintained ? Up to that went, then, they wished to prohibit the importation of foreign corn, although they well knew that, with the increasing population, there would be a greater difficulty in supplying them with home-grown corn. But the landlords probably argued that the increased demand for food would involve an increased amount of rent for the land.—(Hear, hear.) Was this protection to the labourer or to the farmer ? They said, yes, or they would not thus struggle to maintain it. Ile (Mr. Bright) had heard a clergyman of the Church of England say that the labourers' protection was the poor-law.—( Hear, hear.) The poor-law was as much a protection to clergymen as to the labourer, for the reduced clergyman like the labourer could fall back upon the workhouse. In what condition was the land under the existing system of protection? He (Mr. Bright) would tell them it was badly cultivated in most parts of the country. There was scarcely a parish in which there were not more labourers than could find employment. They found one labourer competing with another—they found a fierceness of competition that was destroying them, yet that House had never passed a law regu lating the wages of labour. The Honourable Member for Wiltshire, the senior Member (Mr. Bennet) he expected, iorne time ago, at a meeting held in his own county, made a long speech to the farmers, and made one of the most extra ordinary statements that ever had been made in the hearing of his fellow men. He was reviewing the state of agriculture in that very happy county, and he was lamenting his misfor tune in being born to the possession of some thousand acres. He said that if he had the happiness to come into the world again, he knew no condition which he should choose with so much alacrity and contentment as the condition of the agri • cultural labourer. Well, he did feel some delicacy—(lronical cheers and laughter)—in saying, that this remark might imply a doubt as to the wisdom of the Ho nouable Member's choice. But he certainly ought to knoe the condition of the labourer; he lived among them, and therefore was qualified to form an opinion on the subject. Bill he (Mr. Bright) would rather have the opinion of the labourer ; and he would still confine the Hen. Gentleman to his own county of Wilts. They had heard of a meeting at Goatacre. —( Hear.) Some Hon. Member had stated that this meeting was got up by the League.—(Cheers, and laughter. ) Hon. Gentlemen opposite were so convinced of the omnipresence of the League, that he, perhaps, need not affirm that the League had nothing to do with it. But they had a later meeting of labourers at Bremhill, and a certain labourer, Job Senning, took the chair. He did not know whether he was a prize la bourer cr not.. But Job said, " I be protected, but I be starved." It was not in Wiltshire alone that misery existed. An Hon. Friend had put into his hand a paper, drawn up by a respectable person in the town of Tiverton. The paper gave the condition of 28 families, the number of children, and the wages which they earned for a week. What were these wages ? Seven shillings. Men with wives, and five, six, or seven children—living in miserable huts, paying high rents, and obliged to pay out of their scanty means a high price for winter fuel—and all this out of seven shillings a week. Now, he should like to ask the Hon. Member for Northamptonshire, who boasted that the labourer could earn 125., if this was the protection that they gave to the labourers ?—( Hear)—and if it was, whether it was commensurate with the benefits which the landlords had been reaping for the last thirty years.—( Cheers. ) The Hon. Member spoke of the condition of the coachmakers Would the Hon. Member go clown to Southampton, and ask Mr. Andrews, the celebrated coachmaker, what the state of trade at that time was ? He would find that he was building coaches for all the countries of Europe. He (Mr. Bright) would not insult his countrymen, as Hon. Members opposite did, by declaring that they were behind their rivals on the Continent in anything requiring fine taste and execution. Why even foreigners acknowledge the superiority of the English workman in all the branches of manufacture. But these gen tlemen affirmed that the tradesman was behind the artizan of France, as their labourers were behind the serfs of Poland. lion. Members had expressed great horror of coming evils if these corn-laws should be abolished. There were different sorts of inundation. He had heard of inundation of water, but now agricultural gentlemen were alarmed at a threatened inundation of corn.—(Hear, hear. ) Those who had travelled abroad must know there was nothing in the climate, nothing in the land, which was likely to com pete successfully with the agriculture of this country. What could be more certain than that they grew for every acre of land in England a larger quantity of corn than was grown upon an acre in any other country in the world. Mr. Web ster, in a speech in the United States, gave a statement of the number of acres grown in this country, and the number of quarters per acre, and Inc pointed to - England as exceeding America, and he exhorted his countrymen to en deavour to equal this country. If they grew more acres than any other country in the world, another thing was just as sure, and that was that the labourer gut a smaller portion for his share than in any other country in the world.—( Cries of " No, no.") Why if tire prices were so much higher in this country, as they said they were, and if wages were seven shillings per week in some of the countries, and it their acres of land grew clearly twice as much as any other acres in the world, he would ask how was it possible for them to come to any other conclusion than that the labourer reaped their fields, but got a smaller portion of the produce for his subsistence than in any other country in the world! Let them look to their advantages, They had a larger supply of manure than was found in any other country they had far better agricultural implements —s the) had them at a much cheaper rate they had fat better roads than they found anywhere else and they had markets so much better that hardly any com parison could be drawn. True it was that protection had da maged them. It was not foreign competition that they neer. fear. They had protected the farmer into a state of decripi tude, and now, when a stimulus was offered to them, the) trembled for the consequences that might ensue.—( Hear.) Let them take the county of Cheshire. There was a high aristocracy there and a very poor tenantry. There w land of at least an average quality mos t wretchedly cultivated, uallmg and there would be a mass of pauperism in Cheshire e e the south-western counties, if it were net for the p r rn r xilni . ty to Lancashire, in which county th e labourer found nelt was not the soil of Cheshire that made the farmer poor— it was not the climate—it was the Legislature. of that House which destroyed the vitality ot agriculture. in the course of this debate, nothin g , had been said upon the subject of mortgages. The lion. Member for Berkshire said, that he did not ask for protection—if the law was not a good law, let it be abolished, and if the principle were unsound let it be abandoned. The late Paymaster of the Forces it was who first talked about mortgages, and they need not be surprised if the people in the country used that ergument which had been put into their mouths. But he would discuss this question solely with reference to the peculiar interest to the landowner. The lion. Member for Berkshire spoke of burdens—he spoke of poor-rates. Now he (Mr. Bright) thought he could show that Hon. Gentleman that the capital of the tenant-farmer of this country paid no poor-rates whatever.—( Hear, hear.) They complained that he ( Mr. Bright) did not pay rates upon ma chinery in his mills. They said that stock in trade should be rated to the poor-rate. But if that argument were applied to him, it must be applied to the agriculturist also. how did this work? The Hon. Member for Berkshire, he would say, ' bad some thousands with which to culti vate his. land. He paid nothing in the shape of poo r - ra t e upon his household furniture, or the produce in his barns—his growing crops —upon 11' ma nure, upon his cattle, or upon any kind of stock orimple men t he might have. Ile did not pay a single farthing fer poor rates until the time w h en a permanent improvement in the soil had taken place, anti sumo portion of the tenant's capital had become incorporated with the land. Now if he (Mr. Bright) was to pay upon his machinery and his cotton, it was quite clear that the tenant mnst pay poor-rates upon tire stock he had mentioned. They had better say nothing, therefore, about the poor -rates. Mr. PALMER—I did not allude to the poor-rates. Mr. BRIGHT-1 think the lion. Gentleman did. Mr. PALMER—I quoted from a speech of the Right Hon. Baronet. Mr. BRIGHT—WeII then there was another burden which had not been mentioned, and that was the burden of game. There were two sons of the Duke of Rutland in that House, who had 'spoken in the debate, and 'S ho were about to vote against the proposition of the Government. In 1844, that Noble Duke paid 9151. for game damage on 309 acres of land. Now he asked how Honourable Members could come to that House, when for their own amuse ment the produce of the land was being devoured ? He was of opinion after all that Hon. Members opposite were not in earnest in this debate. He believed there was no fear of the repeal of the corn-laws amongst them. They were angry with the Government, but they were not afraid of the abolition of protection. In that House, however, they had stated that if the corn-laws was abolished, the land would be thrown out of cultivation, and there would be no rents paid: they had told their tenants that it the corn law. was abolished they would be ruined, and he would . pro , T a ir 3 them that before twelve months had passed over thei t rl iem l . that statement would be brought up in judgment ago's* 1 They said that such a step would involve thecooufntthrties ruin, for there would be no revenue; and the aristocracy Ountry would be abolished; and that the ( Church,and tchoiensagsuunentol Christianity, would be j tha a t nd injured, that meant.), would f England (he did not know in opposite had predicted be set for ever; which lion. Members would result from the abolition of the turn laws ; but did they adhere to these s t a tements and were they anxious to rep new diste them? Why t he re was no alarm in the country ,alth oug h these 111ov:table calar;.ities were laid to 4 fastcionain upon then. There nit no ielottwe to the meulue of any un. t portance, there was no insurrection, notwithstanding it wassa- 1 / 4 4 4- I said that seven-ninths of the country were connected with e'el agriculture, i t r e lture, and the majority of them in favour of protection. 4sse: calamitiesthe smallest r f n a i s t o coming o i s n n s i u n g rr e n c p t o t i a i n t . lq c , r and ies o yet f , there , . 41 17 ' was l" not e oh.'' ) The Right Honourable Baronet the Secretary ) . .t. for the Home Department had told them that there' . 's was siot the remotest sign of insurrection in tho country,'- %; and did they sum ose that the country would be in this quiet state while these great calamities were impending over them? V.'hy the fact was the public did riot believe what they said, and the majority of the people were in favour of the Government proposition. When were the meetings of the Hon. Gentlemen opposite? where had they been held? Why one of them had been held in Dorsetshire, and it was trumpeted forth to the country as the great meeting of the county, and yet it was only attended by 1,500 persons. Now let them look at the contrast. Why he himself addressed 3,400 per sons in the very same field, and he .had presented peti tions to that House which were unaninmously agreed tef by those persons, and prayed for the immediate ? total, and unconditional repeal of the corn-laws. Where else had they held their meetings ? Why he could not find any that was worthy the attention of that Heise. But let them look on the other hand, and they would find petitions had been presented from all parts of the country against the corn-laws.—( Hear, hear.) Look at the petition that was presented from Manchester—it was signed by 3000)0. Look again at the petition which were presented by the Me tropolitan Members, with 400,000 signatures attached to it. Compare these with the petitions presented by Hon. Mem bers opposite, with about 12 or 18 signatures to each. 'Why one Noble Lord, who at upon the opposite benches, presented a number of petitions in favour of protection, and he stated the number of signatures which would be found attached to it. Taking the whole, on an average, there was not more than 30 signatures to each petition Did this prove that public opinion was in favour of protection ? No, it proved quite the contrary ; look again at the public press, and they would find that the majority of the largest circulating papers of the country were in favour of the Geeernmtest proposition. He had heard of men going to the veld of battle with light and merry hearts, and he had heard too of men who had mounted the scaffold with a bold and resolute step; but he declared that in the whole course of his existence he had never seen a number of men gliding down to ruin with faces so jovial and so complacent as 'hose of Honourab'e Members opposite. Honourable Members opposite had accused the Right Honourable Baronet et the head of the Government with being a traitor, but it would ill become hint to attempt the defence of that Right Honourable Baronet after the speech he delivered last night ; that speech, he sa ould venture to say, was more powerful and more to be admired than any speech which had been delivered in that House within the memory of any Honourable Member present; he watched the Right Ho nourable Baronet home last night, and for the first time in his life he envied the Right Hon. Baronet the feelings he must have felt on that occasion. That speech had been sent into every part of the kingdom, and it would be read by those who had been trampled upon, and it would infuse renewed hope in the hearts of those whose rights had long been treated with scorn and cuntempt.—( Hear, hear. ) He did not say that all the mills in Lancashire would to shut up in a week if Hon. Members on the other side of the Honse had taken office, but he was quite sure that there would have been the utmost consternation in the conntry. The Noble Lord who lately represented the county of Lancaster—Lord Stanley—must have been a man at the head of that Govern ment.—( Protectionist cheers.) Now let them just recollect the remarkable knowledge of geography—(Opposition cheers) —which that Noble Lord once displayed in that House with respect to a Russian province.—( Renewed cheers.) Let them look at the Hon. Member for Norfolk who sat at the table, and who was deputed, as he (Mr. Bright) supposed, by the Great Central Protection Society, to have, in the phraseo logy of that body, a shindy—(Laughter)—with his Honour able Friend the Member for Stockport ( Mr. Cobden) in St. Andrew's Hall, in Norfolk. That Hon. Member for Norfolk had said that he advocated certain principles which ase said were supported by the li on . H enr y Cl a y, who, he believed was once President of the United States ofA merica. Now, if one man did not know more of geography, and another man of history; than those two did, he confessed he did not think they would make a very brilliant Cabinet in managing the concerns of this; country.—( Hear, hear.) But no doubt the Duke of Rich mond must have been held a Member of that Cabinet— ( Hear, hear.) Why he heard the Noble Duke speak in another place—he beard him say that Mr. Cobden got thirty thousand pounds by his business.—( Hear, hear.) And, more over, he beard him say in another place th at one of his tenants paid more poor's rates than all the Leaguers put together. That might be quite true —he (Mr. Bright) did not doubt it ; but if it cl,d, it spoke very badly for protec tion, when he said that one of his tenants was obliged to pay more than the who's amount paid by the Leaguers altogether. —(Cheers.) Now what sort of Cabinet would they have had if Lord Stanley, and the Hon. Member for Norfolk, and the Duke of Richmond, had been Members of it. Why, he was quite sure that in all the public speaking in which he had ever been engaged, he had never done anything so disastrous. to the aristocracy of this country, and especially to the order of things, as had been done by that Nobis Duke within the last three or four months.—( Cries of " Oh, oh," from the protectionists,: followed by cheers from the Opposition.) Such charges upon men who differed from him in opinion—such statements as those which he had made in another place, to the effect that it were an easy matter to send itinerant agi tators to the north, and to say that corn could bens as well as flax.—( Loud Opposition cheers.) Now really was that the man that they professed themselves anxious to Place at the head of the Government? They knew very well that that country would not tolerate such a Cabinet for a week.—eop position cheers. ) But it was not to place a Protectionist Go vernment in office that they carried on this violent opposition to the Government, but he believed it to he that they might be avenged of those who had forsaken the obligations of party, that they might obey the call of a great country, which was calling upon them to work out its commercial deliverance. lie would make one observation on the speech of the Hon. Member for Oxford (Sir H. Inglis). He confessed that he could not: participate in the lamentation which he made on the breaking up of his party. He considered that the country always gained when parties lost.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") The Honourable Member says he is going to vote against the proposed measure.—( Hear, hear. If he did so, he (Mr. Bright) must confess that for the future he , would always doubt his orthodoxy. for he had been given to understand that the whole bench of bishops intended to vote in favour of the measure.—( Hear.) Knowing the intense suf fering in the country—knowing that filmier? with all its attendant horrors is fast approaching the people of Ireland, who is the per son, or dignitary of a Christian church, who in this state would refuse to give his sanction to a measure for the opening of the ports, and thereby afford a supply of food to the suffering people of Ireland ?—( Hear, hear.) The lion. Member need be in no fear for the dissolution of the Tory part ; he may be certain that so long as there ;are any abuses in the country, any imposition, whether civil or ecclesiastical, that party will still continue to have the power of throwing their shield around them.—(Hear, hear.) And as regards the University which the lion. Member represents, from the time of their passing the famous Oxford Decree, in the year 168,3, to the present time, there has ever been the greatest spirit of perse cution associated with the most profound ignorance.—( Hear. ) But the question which we have now to consider is, " shall the measure be passed in its present state, or shall the repeal of the corn-laws be total and immediate? He considered .hat the measure of the Government was a great and a noble measure—(Hear, hear)—and not all the Shibboleths of the Anti-Corn-law League would make him deny that state ment. It was a measure which reflected great credit on the Minister.—( Hear, hear.) But great measures, Ilke great pictures, are tarnished by small defects, and tic thought that the defect in this measure was that the repeal was not immediate.—( Hear, hear.) An lion. Member had stated that a friend of his holding large property had consulted sixty-three of his tenants with reference to their leases, and they consented to have their leases as they were, nor did they raise a muriner against the repeal of the corn-law. They signed agreements for fresh leases at the very time when the present measure was brought forward in this House; and there is one Noble Lord who is a large landholder, who states that he he has obtained higher rents 'ham before, although the measure is on the table of the House. [lon. Members opposite have tried to frighten these farmers, and with some few they have succeeded. Now, he thought that the exertions of the League had, to some extent, prevented this panic. lie asked for an immediate and total repeal of the corn-laws, because they were in opposition to the laws of heaven. It was a great wrong upon many. So grievous was the injury that it was impossible for them to remain where they nosy were. If there was famine in Ireland—and of t h at the re was doubt no sane person, he believed , who now en t e rtained a ld f not a —he thought that the Governme nt wou o_ f ou r advo cate shinkgs m easure which would retain a . duty on food, but would pro ceed to theimmediate and total repeal wer e emergencies, and of the corn-laws. The y knew ther e He hoped that it that eou'd not be overrate d. e emergencies . . h there , was a famine, although wou ld be remembered t here it it , reached the Id not admit until we re some who wou ld dwellers of rich 13 e lgrave-square.—(Cheering. ) The Anti • Corn-law League had, he believed, some influence on that subject, and they it was well known were advocating a total repeal. The country, more now than ever, were anxious that the repeal should be immediate ; and unless it was, he promised the House that before the close of the session there would be another discussion—( Cheer)—in order that the corn laws may be repealed. The Hon. Gentleman the Member for Warwickshire, who he (Mr. Bright) was sorry he did not see in his place, made an attack on the League, and said its acts were illegal, but he would recommend the Hon. Gentleman to read when he had leisure the decision of the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on that question.—( Cheers.) That Chief Justice declared it was not only legal, but it was highly honour able for the League to pursue the course they had adopted. It was to some a matter of rejoicing that there was a mode dis covered by which they could bring together the constituencies of that kingdom. He told the Hon. Gentleman that the for bearance of the League was a quality not generally observed by other bodies on such occasions. They (the League) have asked those who held free-trade principles to become qualified for their counties, and he could assure the lion. Gentleman opposite that the Leauge was a powerful weapon. The Noble Lord called on the Government to put a stop to their pro ceedings, which were carried on for the purpose of procuring the abolition of the corn-laws. But he would tell the Noble Loral that when a repeal of those laws had taken place, the League would be dissolved, and not till then. If there be truth in the Minister—if there be truth in the documents read at their table--if there be truth in the statements of the Honourable lr.ember for Cork (Mr. O'Connell) —if there be truth in the newspapers there was a calamity impending, fo r which somebody must. be responsible. The Government liens refused to be so; they have risked everything to remove it front them, and they come forward to ask the House to do that which r.'s common justice they ought to do, and which necessity would reader impera tiveitstem. that they must do.—( Cheers. ) He w":' a fkor}their would posterity or the country hold them guiltless 1 e t. y _ n _ present conduct, because, forsooth, they succeeded in r t c r it t eert : s gance against time Minister ?—( Cheers, and counter cheers- . e _, „. 2 If famine be in Ireland, and pestilence treading n F . ' h glorioult if famine and disease sheuld waste the lan.di,,..w that they hart recompense it would be to them to eon s a majority op turned the Minister out of office, and obtained e reee, that they hid this question—recollecting, at °le, samiseeries of tee nation by been accessories to the want ano ne . , ud cheer.. 1 their factious opposition.—(Lo . r) ,,, ~i sr .,..ik on the pre- Mr. HUDSON said, that in r e ls. too d bespeak Cu, iodulgenee sent occasion, he was qui te prepar lie had ih , en :n t hl ;;;!bit t f of the Hots e.—(Hear , - I"r. 2blic assemblies, but lie had sue! not unfrequently assemblyaddrnessitii as lie was then before, and he dom addressed such acessity of throwing himself on its indulgence, peculiarly felt th e ne whilst he explained his opinions on the important. question thcis before them. .-le had not been returned for a pocket borough. —( Hear, hear . ) Ile came there on as independent grounile I . the Hon. Gentleman who last addressed the Ileuse. (Cheers from the protectionists.) ell de ep l y .ft i, .. upon the subject, and it was not the first time that it presented itself to his mind ; and the speeches of the Right Hon. Baronet hail induced hint to give it a more serious consideration. He thought of it as an individual who felt deeply for the interest of his fellow creatures.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") He had listened to the speeches which the Right lion. Baronet had made since the Parliament assembled, and he returned from that House with a perfect conviction that the principles to which he (Mr. Bright) had given expression when ad dressing the electors of Sunderland, were the sound and consti tutional principles which should be carried out in the Govern meat of this great country._(Hear, hear.) They had no- , tiling to do with the great ealar.ity which had befalksn the coun ‘ trY. iiti tegrettei it u ra.cla as any min, and trafichised with M i r 4 7----- ,--- , go. -‘ 4. .