The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-24 00:00:00

tions on the remarkable circumstances which have at-
tended the progress of the Bill this night. I, in common
with most Hon. Gentlemen present, came down to the
House expecting that occasion would have been taken
by one of the most eminent Members of the House to
develope one of the most important principles which
concerns the trade and navigation of this country,
namely, the application of the principles of reciprocity
to the Bill now under consideration. I think I was juss
titled in the anticipations in which I had indulged. It had
been no rumour, no transient idea, floating for a moment
through the atmosphere of Parliament, that reached
me. The Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for the
University of Oxford (Mr. Gladstone), on every occasion
hat offered itself, informed the House and the country
that he would take an opportunity of stating, in detail,
the reasons which he had alluded to, rather than parti-
cularly intimated to the House, and that he would, be-
fore the Bill arrived at the stage it hail now reached,
offer to the House on occasion of deliberating on thatim-
portant proposition, and of adjudicating on a subject
which so much interests the public out of doers. The
House, sharing in the interest which stimulated me, was
disappointed in my expectations. I confess, Sir, I was
very much surprised when I heard a Right ilon. Gen-
tleman on the opposite side of the House (Mr. La-
bouchere) make a communication almost as important,
certainly as interesting, and I think much more sur
prising.—(Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman
the moment we went into Committee—l believe
even before it—stands up and informs the
House that he is going to withdraw one of
the most important portions of the re w Bill,
and in fact that which is the only feature that distin-
guishes it from the Bill of last year.—(fleer.) When
I remind the House that of the 32 clauses contained in
the Bill, the alteration of the Right lion. Gentleman
announced so suddenly caused the omission of ten, and
the serious modification of four, making 14 is all, they
can easily understand the surprise of those who bad
given any attention to the details of the sulject ; but no
sooner had the Right Hon. Gentleman informed the
House of this great sacrifice on the part of himself and
of the Government, than the other Right lion. Gentle-
man (Mr. Gladstone) rises, amidst the Lreathless atten-
tion of the House, to compensate us for the lirss we had
already experienced, by seizing on the occasion to ere
lighten us on the all-absorbing topic of reciprocity, an-
nounces that he also is about cto make a great sacrifice,
and that he, on his own part (imitating the example of
the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite), is about to forego
the great principle of reciprocity, which he has once and
for all abandoned.—(Hear, hear.) I must do him the
justice to admit that in making this announcement he
entered into many arguments which must make us re-
gret that he did not give ns the full development of
his reasoning. -lie indulged us alio with the reasons
whieh had induced him to adopt the resolution that
had so much surprised us—the first being, that if he
had insisted upon that resolution he was afraid he
would only be supported by a slight majority of the
House; and the last, that he was unwilling to embarrass
her Majesty's Ministers.—(Cheers.) By what means
the Right Hon. Gentleman thought he could embarrass
a Government so powerful as the present—even by a
slight minority—l am certainly quite unable to compre-
hend.—(Cheers, and a laugh.) We all know the scho-
lastic. ingenuity by which the Right Hon. Gentleman,
treating the intervening reasons betweeu the first and
the last, might easily reconcile them. But, Sir, I con-
fess this was a scene to me almost unparalleled.—(Loud
cheers.) To behold those two eminent and Right Hon.
Gentlemen abandoning the children of their fond adop-
tion—to see them making those mutual sacrifices—
(Cheers)—l own when I saw it I was strongly reminded
of a celebrated day in the history of the French revolu.
don, called, I believe, " the day of sacrifice s," when
the nobles and prelates of the realm vied with and imi-
tated each other in throwing their coronets and mitres
down into the dust. If I am not mistaken it has since
been called " the day of dupes." I have only to hope
that the House and the country, when they r cal the
surprising incidents of this evening, may not have
reason to find they had some share in the application
of a lesson on which I shall not further indulge.—(Loud
cheers and laughter.) There was one observation of
the Right Honourable Gentleman offered as a reason for
the erroneous calculations he entered into with respect
to the, coasting trade, on which I must be permitted to
say a'few words. The Right Hon. Gentleman has ex-
onerated the Chief Commissioner of the Customs from
any blame respecting these calculations. I feel interested
in the public reputation of that Gentleman. He is one
of my constituents.—(A laugh.) But while I feel grate-
ful to the Right Hon. Gentleman for exonerating, Sir T.
Fremantle, I cannot help feeling also that it would have
been more magnanimous on the part of the Government
if his name had not been introduced in the debate.—
(Cheers.) HoWever, the Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr.
Labouchere) may please to put it, he and his colleagues
are responsible for the error.—(" Hear, hear," from Mr.
Labouchere.) Yes, the Right Hon. Gentleman is very
willing to accept it now; but why did he atterept to ex-
cuse his blunder by introducing the name of a gentleman
who never under any circumstances should have been
forced under our notice?—(Loud cheers.) The Right
Hon. Gentleman has hid plenty of time to consider the
propriety of his course; the only difference between your
last Bill and that which is now before us consists of the
clauses in which be so egregiously blunderedee (Cheers.)
What is the result of your communications with foreign
powers, or what was the object of those communications?
As practical men, we aspired to nothing but to go into
Committee and review the details of a well-considered
measure. . But now, having arrived at this stigo of the
proceedings, with the results which are before us, we
cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that this Bill has
sunk under a paralytic stroke. This certainly is not a
source of triumph to us, though to some present it may
be a subject of jest and merriment. Out of doors it is a
subject of serious and mournful consideration. Tit ere is
great distress out of doors—many interests are griev-
ously suffering—l shall not now enter into the causes of
those sufferings; I am not disposed- to enter into the
question of those causes. There are many men out of
doors who have been inclined to enter into the consider-
ation of those causes in a spirit of submission, and
who are still inclined to submit without a murmur; not
that their fortunes have not been injured, but that legis-
lation, with regard to their dearest interests, has been
precipitate, and that it scarcely ever has been matured;
that their interests have been sacrificed, not to necessities
foreseen by great statesmen of wisdom and prescience,
but they complain of this, that their fortunes have been
destroyed, aad their happiness deteriorated by mea-
sures being undertaken suddenly without thought—by
measures having been blunderingly and hastily passed,
though those laws affected the greatest interests of the
country. The agricultural interest has deeply suffered,
not that I am now going to denounce the law; by which
that object has been accomplished, but what I complain
of is, that those measures were passed by Ministers who
did not propose the repeal of the corn-laws from convic-
tion, but in consequence of being panic-struck. A short
time before they advised such a proceeding they found
or thought themselves surrounded by a combination of
circumstances with which they supposed they could not
cope; they changed their opinion in a hurry, and a great
interest was sacrificed upon a very insufficient occasion.
—(Hear, hear.) Your victims would have been more
content if this had been done in a legitimate manner,
and after clue deliberation. How different would be the
position of affairs if the question had come before the
people fairly, and been decided after general elections,
and brought, forward upon the , responsibility of la
Government which had professed opinions favourable
to such a change. I say not a word about its policy;
but what I feel is that the occasion was precipitate.—
(Hear, bear.) Other great interests have likewise
been sacrificed. The prosperity of our colonies, and
especially of our sugar colonies, has been destroyed;
they have been ruined, and their ruin has beers consum-
mated by the votes of those who have spokeu against
the side on which they voted. Against the policy of our
legislation respecting corn and sugar I am not now say-
ing a word, but what I assert is, that you have not only
passed those laws but ruined the parties interested by the
precipitate spirit of your' legislation. Although this ma]
not be a favourable time for a discussion of this charac

ter, yet I cannot refrain—influenced by receet
stances—from reminding the House that year after year
the successful supporters of these precipitate measures had
advocated an opposite policy; suddenly, in the teeth of
their own often repeated convictions in opposition to men
of light and lead in the country, they changed—not in-
fluenced by any new or striking conviction, but
they changed because they wanted to keep a
Government in office. In saying this, I express a
feeling that prevails out of doors. lam not now
objecting to the change, but I denounce the manner
in which it has been effected. Here, in the present
Bill, another great interest is to suffer—the siege has
been longer, and the attack more vigorous. We are now
in the second year of this projected legislation against
the shipping interest, and is there anything in this pro-
ceeding which did not characterize your previous legisla-
tion in similar cases? There are many answers to the
questions that have been put with respect to this Bill.
It cannot be doubted that it will be impussiWe for you
to proceed in this course of legislation. Ihduatry has
been disturbed and tortured by your experi:ecnti, and
can you now wonder that the people complain when they
find their most important affairs dealt with by 6tatesmeu
who have merely sought to catch the gale of the moment
unqualified for the task they undertake, with no mastery
of the subject, and therefore with no rational prospect of
success.—(Hear, hear.) In the courses which you pur •
sue you are not merely destroying material interests, but
laying in a stock of political discontent which will do
more than any opposite policy could effect to diminish
the revenue, to disturb the industry of the coon try, and
even to shake its institutions to their centre.
_ _ _ _

Mr. GLADSTONE and Mr. LABOISCMERE rose
at the same time; the latter giving way, the former said,
I scarcely know whether I should endeavour to take

precedence of the Right Hon. G,ntlernan, -bur, after the
reference which has been made to me by the Hun. Mem-
ber for Buckinghamshire, I presume it will he felt that
I ought not to shrink from following him in the debate.
He has made two charges against me, one that having
undertaken to express my reasons in favour of a modi-
fied and conditional legislation, I faded to tulfil the ex-
pectations which I had so raised ; the other was, that, in
stating certain reasons I had given such v.s were incon-
sistent with each other. I propose briefly to reply to
each of those charges. I submit that my reasons are not
inconsistent with each other. There were only a few

Members in this House who would *upport my proposi-
tion on its own merits, and if I bad chosen that alter;ia-
tive there would have been no benefit—there would have

beeii—noprogT;smadetowards determining the issue e;
this question by taking to a division on that point.
On the other hand, I was supported by a number of
gentlemen whose acceptance of my proposition was not
bona fide. They merely wished to rnidce a tool of it.
and to employ me as a tool during the progress of the
measure in Committee, and then abandon me and Env pro-
position on the third reading of the Bill; rod 1 lio:d my.
self now in no respect responsible for ri,,t alluv,,i;:g the
course which they wished re pto:wribe
are not inconsistent.—(flear, bear) It is not true that
I gave pledges which I failed to fulfil; I appeal to those