The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-19 00:00:00

into a Committee on the Controverted Elections Bill,
he would move to appoint permanent assessors.
Lord MORPETH announced, that he would, in a few
days introduce a Bill to regulate the grant to the Clergy
of Ireland of last year.
The New Poor-law (Ireland) Amendment Act, a
proof of slovenly legishltion, went through a Committee.
The Highway Acts' Amendment Bill was read a se-
cond time. All the business was unimportant, the
Members seeming to be impatient to get off to hear Lord
BROUGHAM in the Lords, and a rich treat they had.

Lord BROUGHAM brought forward his motion
last night in the House of Lords to refer the peti-
tion on the Corn-laws to a Committee of the whole
House, with a view to hear evidence at the Bar of
the House on that subject. His Lordship made a
most temperate and most able speech, and used not
one word that could irritate and provoke their Lord-
ships. Never did we hear from him more guarded
and careful language, without one taunt or one
sneer, though enlivened by several good-humoured
remarks, when he was interrupted by. " Hear,
hear," or the pithy contradictions of-his opponents.
Never in his whole career did the Noble Lord make
a speech better calculated to avert opposition or win
over all but the most determined enemies. Of its
merits as an exposition of the evils of the Corn-
laws, which it was hardly intended to be, it is not
necessary now to speak. We shall say merely that
we have never heard the evils of those laws in des-
troying a regular corn trade, inflicting equal injury
on our own and on other countries, giving a pre-
mium to the foreign manufacturer against our own,
and banishing our manufacturers from the foreign
markets, stimulating the making of machinery
abroad, which Lord BROUGHAM characterised as
the making of manufactories, forcing the ma-
chinist and the manufacturer to expatriate
themselves, causing great fluctuations in the
market—the very thing the law was made
to prevent, we never heard these various evils
of the Corn-laws, more forcibly, more, clearly, and
more succinctly put. They made no impression,
we are afraid on the Peers, but they will not be
lost on the people, whose conviction that these laws
are a nuisance will be strengthened by Lord
13RouGH A st's masterly speech.
The principal object, however, of the speech was
to move their Lordships to grant an inquiry at their
bar, and as the Noble Lord demonstrated, the evils
of the Corn-laws under the various heads he
treated of, he gracefully and firmly tendered to their
Lordships evidence on oath at their bar to prove
every one of his assertions. Their Lordships were
not prepared to deny, and could not deny the
facts which lie stated ; they could not deny that
the Corn-laws have converted a useful trade
into a ruinous and gambling speculation ;
they could not deny that thoSe laws cause
great fluctuations in prices, rendering every man's
income uncertain, and placing every manufacturer
and trader's operations beyond his control. They
could not deny the moral effects of these laws in
checking or destroying prudence,- but they would
not hear evidence at the bar to substantiate
the facts which Lord BROUGHAM stated. They
denied that the price of corn at Dantzic was as
Lord BROUGHAM asserted, that our manufacturers
were going to decay, or that our trade was liable
to any check, they denied that bread was dearer in
England than in France—they denied that the En-
glish farmer could enter into a successful competi-
tion with the foreign farmer ; but still they would
not hear evidence at the bar, nor call evi-
dence to prove even their own case. Taking
the showing of the advocates of the Corn-laws to
be correct, never was there a law based on so many
mierute facts which require to be substantiated.
For example, the price at which corn can be grown
here and abroad, the quantity which might by pos-
sibility be obtained from other countries, the effects
of skill- in .cheapening production, the quantity of
acres of land which would be thrown out of cultiva-
tion by bringing in foreign wheat, the effects that it
would have on prices both here and abroad, with a
score or two of other points, equally minute and
equally important, are all disputed, and all ought to
he settled to the fraction of a farthing before the
Lords can be justified in levying as Lord BROUG-
HAM styled the Corn-law, a poll-tax on the people ;
but on every one of these points, as well as the injury
those laws do• to our foreign trade, there are
opposite and conflicting statements, and yet the
Lords refuse to allow of an inquiry into them. But
though they refuse to allow of the inquiry, the
public will make it for themselves ; and as they will
certainly come to a different conclusion from their
Lordships, and will, by and by, overturn their deci-
sion, they will make these would-be rulers of society
appear contemptably silly.
The Duke of BUCKINGHAM took a prominent
part in opposing Lord BROUGHAM, and as it
appeared to us almost cried over the horrid
ingratitude of the flourishing manufacturers, who
would not allow the hitherto suffering agriculturists
to enjoy their prosperity in peace now that wheat
is up to 78s. the quarter. The landowners
only want to be let alone. He and they, if they
agree with him, must have lost their memory, and
be deficient in foresight. They are like boys, who,
when the sun shines, believe the weather is to be
continually fine. Have they forgotten that wheat
was down to 365. in 1835, and that since the pre-
sent Corn-laws were established in 1828 the agricul-
turists have called for two committees of inquiry be-
cause they were in deep distress.. Since 1828, the fluc-
tuations in the price of wheat have been upwards of
100 per cent., causing corresponding fluctuations in
the price of all the necessaries of life, and the dis-
tress of the farmers has been continued and great.
Even this year all the farmers of the North of Eng-
land and Scotland, whose crops are a complete failure,
all the growers of hops andfruits, who have had both
short crops and low prices, do not rejoice at those
high prices of wheat, which gladden the heart of
the eich Duke of BUCKINGHAM, while they con-
demn the poor to hunger and nakedness. But
does that Duke expect present prices to be per-
manent ? The low prices since 1828 have been coin-
cident with an increasing trade. According to all
accounts that is now impeded. It is not positively
arrested, but its progress is slower than it was ;
and whenever a slackened trade and a fertile year
shall come together, we can tell this Duke prices-will
fall lower than they were in 1835. The Duke, like
the savage who sells his hammock in the morning,
is equally forgetful of the past and blind to the
future.

The Duke of RICHMOND joined the Duke of
BUCKINGHAM in complaining of the ingrati-
tude and audacity of the manufacturers and
merchants. The Noble Lord has lately been at
Liverpool, and seen spacious clocks crowded with
ships, anti quays loaded with merchandise, he has
seen some of the active and enterprizing merchants
who trust
.their ventures across the globe, making
large fortunes, and heputs up his hands with astonish-