The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-12 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMM op S—FEB. 11.
The SPEAKER took the Chair shortly before Four o'Clock.
Mr. KNIGHT presented returns from the Bank of
England.
M. G. W. WOOD brought up the Report of the
Committee on Public Petitions.
Mr. BANNERMAN presented a petition for leave
to bring in a Bill fur the erection of a public market in
Aberdeen, which was referred to the Committee on Pri-
vate Bills.

Mr. MARK PHILLIPS presented a petition for leave
to bring in a Bill to extend a Railway from a cm.-
thin point in Staffordshire to another point on the
Birmingham Railway, called the Manchester and Birming-
ham Extension Railway. •
Sir GEORGE STRICKLAND presented a petition
for lc,ive to bring in a Bill for the establishment of Gas
Works at Bolton.

Mr. BAINES presented a petition for leave to bring in
a Bill for the recovery of small debts in Leeds.
Mr. FINCH presented a petition from the South-Eastern
Rail w-ay Company, for leave to introduce a. Bill to perfect
the jikriction between that and another railway.
Mr. COLQUIIOUN presented two petitions from
Glasgow, against the late Act for the regulating of wages.
The lion. Member also pre:;el.ted five petitions from Scot-
land, praying that some provision might be made for the
spiritual destitution in that country. The Hon. Member
also presented eight similar petitions from Perthshire,
Dundee, Inverness-shire, Forfarshire, and other places.
C 0 RN- L A W S.
Mr. BAINES presented a petition from the borough
of Leeds, signed by 23,000 of the inhabitants, including
merchants, manufacturers, bankers, and he believed all
classes of inhabitants in the borouh. He should, in pre-
sentieg it, conform strictly to the rule laid down by that
House for the presentation of petitions, conceiving on the
n bole that that was the plan most conducive to hearing.
fairly the voice of petitioners. While he did that, he would

teke the liberty of cAling attention to the allegations and
prayer of the petition.
The SPEAKER said the lion. Member had an
undoubted right to state the substance and prater of the Ac-
tion. That was the practice that had always prevailed.
Mr. B A INE S understood that to be the case. The
petition expressed in clear and distinct language what he
believed was the principle on which these petitions were
founded, and the arguments and facts by which they were
sustained. The petitioners say that all men bad an
inalicnabl•- right to the free exchange of their
capital, skill, and labour, for the productions of their
own or foreign nations, and that all restrictions on inter-
course are against the principle, and contrary to the well-
know n practice of wise legislation. They further say that
the welfare of all the industrious classes of that country
was involved in the enlargement of their foreign trade;
that the manufacturers of that country had for a long
series of years enjoyed great advantages from the amount
of their capital—the production of their machinery and the
skill of their workmen—that these ads antages were no longer
in their exclusive possession, and that the other nations of
Europe wisely availing themselves of twenty years of
peace, bad established manufactories by which they were
not oily supplying the people of their own country, but
had placed themselves in an advantageous position for sup-
plying the wants of other countries ; that the formation and
production of manufactures on tl e Continent was
ie a very great degree attributable to the Corn-laws, which
by excluding foreign grain from the ports of that country
prevented them purchasing their manufactures, and compel
them to become manufacturers themselves. The petitioners
recorded thou.. deliberate and solemn conviction that in order
to compete successfully with foreign countries, either the
Corn laws must be repealed, or the wages of labour in
England must be forced down to the level of the rates paid
on the Continent. In conclusion, the petitioners so-
lemnly declared that a large reduction of manufacturing
wages, while the Corn-laws were maintained, which en-
hanced the price of the necessaries of life from 60 to 70 per
cent. in comparison with the necessaries of life or.
the Continent, would not only be productive of serious
p:ivations and sufferings, but would excite great indigna-
tion and threaten the existence of the social system of the
country, the petitioners therefore pray that a measure of
strict justice to all consumers of feed, as the only mode by
which the foreign trade could be pi eserved, was necessary, for
the purpose of giving stability to the social institutions of the
conutry, and as a guarantee for the maintenance of peace
in all civilised countries. They prayed for a total repeal
of the laws with respect to the foreign corn, and that every
article of the produce cf foreign countries, and also of Great
Britain, might be left free and unrestrained. lie cordially
concurred in the prayer of the petition.
Sir WILLIAM MO LES WO RTH supported the pe-
tition.

Mr.. FERG LTSON presented a petition from the
Chamber of Commerce of KirkaLly, praying for the repeal
of the Corn-laws.

Mr. M. PHILLIPS presented a petition from the Cham-
ber of Commerce of Manchester against the Corn-laws,
and praying for their total repeal. The petitioners viewed
with great alarm the increase of manufactures abroad:
whilst the country was enjoying the blessing of peace,
and while population was increasing, the exportation
of British manufactures did not exceed that which took
place for the first five years after the peace. At the pre-
sent moment, the petition stated, great quantities of goods
were sold in foreign countries, manufactured in Saxony ;
that in fact this country did not supply more than a
fourth part of the manufactured goods suld in the
countries where the Saxon goods were introduced ; and
they stated this important fact, that notwithstanding the
charge of 20 per cent. charged on Saxon goods for the
p.-otection of British manufactures, they are actually in-
troducing themselves into this country. That workmen
from this country had recently proceeded to the Continent for
the purpose of instructing the foreign workmen ; that the
recent improvements tri meet hee.tr........,beingt--introdUCed
on the Continent to such an extent as to enable them suc-
cessfully to compete with us; and that there are actually
workshops in Manchester and Birmingham who assist the
foreigners in the construction of machinery ; so that thti
country was not likely to maintain that superiority in
machinery she had hitherto possessed, as both the
foreigners and Americans were making rapid progress.
British workmen, the petitioners contended, possessed
the inalienable right to exchange the labour of their
hands for food, and they concluded by strongly urging the
policy of repealing all the laws imposing restrictions on
the free importation of corn, as a sound system of policy
calculated to meet the evils complained of. Mr. Phillips
concluded by stating that he perfectly concurred with the
prayer of the petition.
Lord MARCUS HILL presented a petition from
Evesham, in Worcestershire, in favour of the plan for a
penny postage.
Mr. CII RISTOPHER presented a petition from some
parish in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, against beer shops.
Lord DUNGANNON presented four petitions, three
of them from places in Shropshire, and one from Denbigh,
complaining of the spiritual destitution of a portion of the
population of Canada, and praying that some mode of
relief might be adopted.