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

he ai=led to call their Lordship,' attention. He would
remind them of what had taken place in that and the nth
!louse of Parliament during the last Session. Their
Lordships would recollect that the question of tithe corn-
position had agitated the country for some time previously.
That question was settled by taking the average of the last
seven years, and no sooner had that Act received the Sanc-
tion of Parliament, and become the law of the land than
the averages, which were the basis of that hill, and which
adjusted all differences between thz.. firmers, landlords, and
tithcoNners, was at once destroyed, and the librie on which
it was built overturned. The propo'itiou of the Noble
Lord was therefore unfair to all the class of land-
owners in that country. He conjured them, as they valued
their country's welfare, the prosperity of its inhabitants,
and the stability of the Throne of theca realms, not to
permit that interest which had always been foremost in
manifesting its loyalty and affection fur the Throne, t, be
deprived of that protection and defence which they only
asked for, because they were fairly and legitimately entitled
to it —( Hear, hear.) He would not trespass further on
their attention, but he felt he would not be doling his duty
to the country at large if he had not, on taking his seat in
that Ho us, performed a duty to those whose confid -nee
he had maintained for so many years—( Hear)—and if he
had not at the earliest opportunity entered his most stre-
nuous protest against the propositoin of the Noble Lora
opposite, arid asked their Lordships not to agree to a mo-
tion which had for its object the entire ov...rthrow of the
Corn-laws of that country. tin disagreed totally with
that proposition, and he adhered firmly to the present sys-
tem of Corn-laws—he wished for no alteration in them,
and in that opinion he was supported and guided by a large
majority of the commerce of that country.—( Cheers.) He
asked forgiveness for trespassing so long on their Lord-
ships' attention, but he could not sit in that House with-
out deeply and honestly giving his entire dissent to the
motion of the Noble and Learned Lord.—(Cheering.)

Len STANHOPE would wish to call tic attention of
the House to the course which had been pursued by the
Noble and Learned Lord, not to tl•e arguments he had
used, for those he had disclaimed, bat to the statements
which he had made. In the whole course of his address
he had not stated what was his ultimate object, supposing
that evidence was produced at the Bar. He did not say
whether he wished for a total or a partial repeal of the
Corn-laws—whether he would be content with a moderate
or a high fixed duty, or no duty at all. He trnsted there-
fore when the subject was brought forward on another oc-
casion in regard to its real merits, that he (Lord Stanhope)
would be allowed to speak his opinions upon the general
view of the question. At present he would confine him-
self solely to the serious series of statements which the
Noble and Learned Lord had made. No man felt more
strongly than himself that it was the duty of that House to
open wide its doors to receive the petitions of the people
—to afford them every opportunity and advantage of
establishing by evidence—nay more, by the arguments of
Counsel at the bar, any grievances of which they com-
plained ; but it was obvious that that could apply only to
a case where in the first existence there existed a prima
facia grievance, and secondly, where the Legislature had
the power of redressing it. He would now proceed to
notice those statements of the Noble Lord in which he
stated that under the existing system of . Corn-laws the
trade in corn had ceased to exist. He would ask whether
the f :ct was not that, with a general deficiency of corn in
that country and abroad, the importation for the last year
had amounted to 1,800,000 quarters.— (Loud cries
of " Hear, hear.") The Noble Lord was misinformed
on many other points. With respect to the price of corn
at Dantzic, it might at present, after an unfavourable sea-
son, fetch the price mentioned by the Noble Lord ; but he
would venture to assert that some years ago the best wheat
could be procured at Dantzic for 28s. a quarter. He was
also most grievously misinformed on other points, for be
confined his observations to the port of Malta (although
that was only a port of deposit, Melts producing no corn
of its own) and the single port of Odessa. He was also
misinformed with respect to the relative price of bread in
that country and on the continent. He happened to have
been at Calais last month, and he had inquired the price of
the 41b. loaf, and was told it was Bd. ; he had also in-
quired in that part of Devon with which he was connected
by property, and he found that the 41b. loaf there was also
Bd. He need not observe, taking into calculation the
comparative value of money in both countries, that the price
on the continent was considerably higher. The Noble and
Learned Lord had told them a very pathetic story of
some unfortunate merchant who, no doubt, from purely
patriotic motives, and the public good, and having no re-
gard to emolument, but ceutenining lucre and pelf, had
provided a large supply of foreign corn—
Lord BROUG HAM—I never said he did.
Earl STANHOPE—The Noble Lord related it as a
matter of suffering, and as if he had been acting solely for
the public good. His Noble and Learned Friend had
grossly misstated the case upon that point. He was not
going to read an extract from an Act of Parliament, for
nothing could be more tedious, and, he might add, unin-
telligible to peruse.—(A laugh.) He would find, how-
ever, that when the average was 725., the duty was Is.,
and that the duty increased 2s. for every is. the price de-
clined. So that that unfortunate gentleman, because he
would I of consent to sell his corn at a moderate loss—

Lord BROUGHAM (handing the Act of Parliament
across the table)—Look at the Act.
Earl STANHOPE (throwing it back again)-oh, I
can't.—(Great laughter.) There was no variety of
opinion or interest which had not some class of
supporters—no idea so paradoxical that had not some
zealous supporters. They had been told by the
Noble and Learned Lord, to their great gratification and
entertainment, that the Corn-laws threatened the land
with famine. Now was it not much more probable, and
much more to be apprehended, that those laws being re-
pealed, and we being obliged to rely for food upon sup-
plies from foreign countries, should be much more
liable to the visitation of famine. If our communications
with those countries were interrupted, either by edicts from
their respective Governments, or by the occurrence of
war, the inhabitants of these realms would un-
doubtedly be much more in danger from famine,
if they had to depend upon those countries for provisions
than if they could draw them in general, as now, from their
own resources.—( Hear, hear.) Now was it not a fact that
the soil of this country was well able to supply its people
with food? Why even the Noble and Learned Lord him-
self admitted that from 1832 to last year there had been no
importations whatever of corn into this country.—(Hear,
hear.) He (Earl Staphope) would now proceed as ra-
pidly as he cold to disprove the points on which the
Noble and Learned Lord had successively dwelt with so
much emphasis as the ground work of the propositions
whieli he expected their Lordships to adept. It was ne-
cessary to do this as carefully as possible, as there was
no ether question in which were so deeply involved the in-
terests of those engaged in commerce, in manufactures, in
agriculture---and most, though last of all, the labourers.
—( He;:r, hear.) One of the strangest complaints of the
Noble snd Learned Lord against the Corn-laws was, that
thee caused a fluctuation of prices. Now he (Lord Stan-
hope) would admit this proposition. He actknowledge•.l that
the Corn-laws had not answered their purpose in main-
taining remunerative prices to our agriculturists. But
could it with justice be asserted that the fluctuations wet e to
be ascribed to those enactments ? Were they not rather
ascribable to the measures which from time to time
bad been adopted respecting the currency—( Hear, hear.)
—and which had had a great influence in producing the
fluctuations they had witnessed in the various articles of
trade and manufacture?—(llear, hear.) In 1822, he
(Earl S.) showed that a fluctuation of not less than 30
per cent. had taken place in the prices of several articles
of foreign manufacture, from the very same cause that had
caused the fluctuations in the prices of corn—nan-iely,
the alteration in the currency. ( Hear, heat.) And the
argument he and others then advanced had never been
conclusively replied to. The Noble and Learned Lord
had enlarged upon the benefits that would arise from the
reduction of a full tax of one shilling per individual, per
year—that being taken as the annual consumption of each
—assuming that to be the amount of burden imposed on
each member of the community, by the Corn Laws. Now
he ( E trl S,anhope) was anxi,ess to declare that no one
regarded with more anxiety than he did, the paramount im-
portance of the duty which was incumbent upon them to
do all they could to raise the condition of the labouring
classes, to alleviate their distresses, and to promote their
comforts. But he would ask the Noble and learned Lord
to ask the opinion of any intelligent labourer (for to
labourers a great portion of his argument ought to be ad-
dressed) whether he would consider himself relieved to
the amount of one shilling a quarter, per annum, for
each member of his family, if the Corn Laws were
repealed, or whether lie would not consider it more
conducive to his personal benefit, to pay somewhat
;store for wheat, and with that price have the satisfaction
of procuring permanent employment. ( Hear, hear.)
But there was a subject on which nothing that had fallen
front the Noble and Learned Lord, in connection with this
argument, should induce him now to advert to, he meant the
New Poor-law Act. On that subject nothing should in-
duce him to enter at present, as he should reserve what he
had to say regarding it until the subject was regularly be-
fore the House '1 he Noble and Learned Lord had said
much on the difference of wages, and on the difficulty of
competing with foreign manufacturers. If you were by
iegt:lative enactments to lower the price of corn Is. per
quarter, you could not thereby enable the English manu-
facturer to compete with the foreign one.
• - •

Lord BROUGHAM here begged leave to remind the
Noble Lcrd that he had merely taken the Is. per quarter
poli-tex as a hypothesis, for he had previously argued it
on the basis of 7s. and ss.

Lord STANHOPE would then take the hypothesis
of Is. Now the object of the manufacturers in g for
a repeal of the Corn laws was to undersell the foreign
manufacturers in their own market, being enabled to re-
duce their prices by having lowered the scale of the wages
of their artizans to the level of those on the Continent—
( Hear, hear.) But even if those reductions in the price
of food, of articles, and of labour had taken place here,
the English manufacturers could not succeed in under-
selling the foreign producers in their own market.
Hear, hear.) Here he would retort on the
Noble and Learned Lord. After all he (Lord B.) had
said of the great increase of foreign manufactures, did
he think that the Governments of the Continent would, in
compliment to 113, and to gratify that spirit of inordinate
gain which distinguished the manufacturers of this coun-
try, permit the importation of English manufactures, ut-
terly to crush and extinguish their own ? Did it occur to
any rational human being that they would exhibit such a
feeling of acquiescence ?—( Hear, hear.) The Noble and
Lear, ed Lord had with his customary judiciousness and
ingenuity abstained from detailing the modus operandi of
thi.; desirable object. Supposing, for the sake of atgu-
ment, that which he (Earl S.) denied to be in the power
of any Legislature to accomplish, were carried into eff.:ct. If
it were possible for our own Legislature to give English ma-
nufacturers a charter on these terms to supplythe whole globe
with their produce, would thetsubjects of the several States
have the baseness to submit that their respective Govern-
ments should abstain from imposing heavy duties for their
protection ?—( Hear, hear.) Being certain that the reduc -
lion of wages here must be not in the proportion of is.,
or as. a quarter, but to an enormous extent, if the Corn-
laws were repealed. he (Earl Stanley) could not
suirHentl' express Lis abhorrence indiatitio% at
the conduct of those persons, who with consummate
falsehood and hypocricy, had, at various public meetings,