The Sun.
London, England, 1822-05-08 00:00:00

measures proposed by the Noble Lord on this subject futile.
The lion. Member had the merit of taking a clear view of the
subject, when he proposed duties on corn and other articles
which must prohibit importation. The lion. Member wished
corn might rise again to 120 s. the quarter.—(A cry of " No,
no !")—Sir F. Ituniett then observed, that if the sum was not
so high, the Hon. Member was not consistent. His opinion
was, that if the price of corn could not be kept up to that the
country could not be relieved. lie was not certain whether
the Noble Lord was more in earnest or less in joke than he
was yesterday. The Noble Lord had been trifling with the
House, and if he .(Sir r. Burdett) had a musical voice, he
might sing—" Cease your funning." The Noble Lord (Lord
Castlereagh) Iratt been doubtful whether this measure was
to be acknowledged as one of his progeny, or whether he
should declare it was no offspring of his, and abandon the
character of foster-father, for the purpose of acting the part
of midwife. It was to be - lamert.2d the measure did not catch
the vital air and die.„-(A laugh.)—The Noble Lord had told
them to consider *what ought to be the amount of duty upon
importation ; his opinion was, there ought to be no duties at
all. Before theyapplied a remedy, they ought to inquire the
cause. The Noble Lord, who ought to be the. best judge
upon the subject, appeared to have the leait information. The
Noble Lord threw himself upon any person that would be kind
enough to give him information. The measure was recom-
mended because it would . do no harm, but that which did no
good might do a great Meal of harm. Time, which was to act
as a physician, would increase the disease. It was main-
tained by a Noble Earl in another place, that superabundance
was the cause of distress, and that the reduction of all the
taxes would not aflbrd relief. If that was true, there must'
be some cirzumstances in the state of the country beyond re-
medy,-and then they might ask what measures had brought
it to that state ? He couldnot agree to the view taken by the
Honourable. Member of political economy. It was the appli-
cation of sense to objects connected with the interest of the
country. . What the Honourable Member Meant by it, he did
not know. He supposed- the Hon. Member meant low prices,
laugh,) but, with respect to: superabundance, that decla-
'ration was not supported by facts. The Agricultural Report
said, there had been no superabundant harvests. The fact
waS,' the departure from free importation had lowered the
price: Since there had been no importation, the evils which
were: the subject of complaint ha 4 in, a great degree increased.
The.currency of the country haddirninished, so as to occasion
considerable distress. Many had• been ruined by it, and left
Rk,e;itsli in a pond after tlie wafer _had been drawn off. The
-Corntaws had been mischievous. Reduction in every branch.
of the public expenditure oughtlit.be made. It was disgrace-
ful, in the presetiase,of ,the...focintry to have a Civil List ex-
Penditure'of AI cOinitiets ought to he revised and
redncell..._-.The.proverbtsaid=4c The least hair bears upon the
camel!S back,."....When,the people were sulFering, the smallest
relief was acceptable. -,ITe considered the_Noble Lord who re-
POStituistertnfitleif to iihe. thanks bf the House. He
,es,pressed.a hope That,the. Noble Lord would not fail to take
up some other point of itseless. expence : there was no difficulty
in chi:dee::: The Noble Liirdniight look to diplomacy and find
ground for reduction of salaries. With respect to the mea-
sure he really was fighting with—" Trifles light as air," for
nd one''' knew Whether the: Resolutions were real or illu-
sory. -Perhaps •the Nbble Marquis would give it up as he did
yesterday. The lion-Baronet then called upon the Country
Gentlemen to defend their fields, and transmit their estates to
thtir children. They could not support their righti and pro-
perty by voting for miserable vacillating measures. They
were treated as children. It had been said that faith must

be kept with the public creditor. He admitted that posi-
tion, but faith ought to be kept with the whole country.
There was no reason why the public creditors should receive
more than they contracted for. The currency ought to be
looked into, and contracts with respect to the value of money
put right. The Government had appeared so imbecile that
they had lost the, confidence of the country. The Noble Lord
had left the rudder of the' State to move about in the storm.
The Noble Lord was a bold man—he expected to get into
harbour by cessation of the tempest, but himself and others
knew they must perish if they suffered the fury of the e le-
ments without more skilful pilots.—(Hear, hear, hear.)—The
time of affording relief was always put off: Committee after
Committee, and Session after Session, notwithstanding the
petitions with which the 'table was loaded. Those petitions
were mostly well founded, indeed all of them were so; for if
taxation was not the cause of low prices, yet in conjunction
with the existence of low prices it carried the distress to a de-
gree which was altogether insupportable. He was persuaded
that this distress was now so great that it was impossible the
country could go on much longer without another set of Mini-
sters.—(Cheers from the Opposition.)
Mr. ROBINSON thought that the Hon. Baronet had
chosen a bad opportunity for throwing out his invective.—
(Cheers from the Opposition ; returned from the Treasury
side.)—He did think that the Honourable Baronet dealt in in-
vective, and that his opportunity was ill chosen.--(Repeated
cheers.)—lf the Honourable Baronet thought as he expressed
himself of the Administration, let him call the House to an
une, ...vocal vote upon their conduct, and then he (Mr. R.)
should be quite prepared to meet him upon 'that question._
But when he considered what the present question was, and
the great divergency. of opinion which prevailed upon it, it
-did appear to him the% they should not attend to the wishes of
die Petitioners and of the countfy, unless they confined them-
selves to the consideration of some specific measure as apJ
plying to the difficulties of the question, arid not to-go into that
sort of attack and invective in which the Hon. Baronet had in-
dulged. Although it might' be true that some Hon. Gentle-
men on the other side, and'although it might be true that some
of the Petitioners might wish for their removal from power,
yet the great majority of the Petitions pointed to a specific
course of measures very different -from the subject which the
Honourable Baronet had introduced.—(llear' hear the
reduction of taxation to the extent wished for by the Hon.
Baronet and others were to be carried into effect, they must do
it by lowering the interest of the debt.—(Cheers from the Op-
position.)—lt was well to find that so many Gentlemen oppo-
site expressed themselves so unequivocally upon this subject,
for their object would now be • seen.—(Cheers from both
sides.)—And if that was their object, it being a question
of an importance and magnitude . not to be exceeded, it was
still more necessary for them to exclude from its considera-
tion the presence of invective and party feeling.—(Cheers.)—
He had always professed his belief that no measures of altera-

' tion in the. Corn- Laws could afford immediate relief, because
the distress•depended upon low prices. When he first intro-
duced a measure upon this subject to the House, he did not
regard it as a good, but as a necessary measure, because he did
not like the principle of restrictions upon the corn trade.
Yet he fc;t that they were called upon now to remove a spe-
cific defect which existed in the present law, and that he would
be.ready to do. The question really was, whether or not the
proposed measure was calculated to remedy that particular
evil, which the Report of the Committee of last year repre-
sented to be a grievous one,, and one susceptible of remedy.---
This was the object of his Noble • Friend in moving the re-
appointment of the Committee. If they did not want to abro-
gate the kW, they mitst-restore its operation ; and the scale of
duties now proposed appeared to him calculated to accomplish
that object. When the Hon. Baronet attributed the distms to
taxation, he knew not how they would account for its existence,
even to a greater degree, in. all other corn-producing countries.
Yet all these countries, as well as Spain and Portugal, who
did not grow their own supply, either had established, or were
about to establish, a_system,of restricting duties. With regard
to the subject to which he had first alluded, if the Hon. Barn-
net thought the removal of :the present Ministers from power
was thethily means of 'relieving the agricultural distress he
had.- better persuade the cOuntry, and -if the country, the
House to remove them. But lie would tell the Hon. Baronet,
that his taunts:would pot induce them to alter the course
Which they' conceives) to bebost.suited to _promote the true'in-
terests of the country., r,: .
Sir J. NEWPORT expressed his doubt whether, under the
present circurnstandeS, be Wise to tamper with existing
laws upon the subject of corer.
Mr. RICARDO said, ain't as he 'considered the distreis of
agriculture to depend upon Ile system of our Corn Laws, he
thought this thtproper timelfor delivering his sentiments upon
'the question. -He contended:that there was an inconsistency an
the arguments of his Hon—Friend (Sir F. Burdett) when he
admitted at first that abundance would produce'distress, and
decrease the value of prodtiee. He was aware that his Hon.
Friend afterwards correctedihe'admission, and said that abun-
dance would not reduce the value of produce beyond what it
would be reduced by small crops with' high prices. Ile after.
wards applied the first argument to the currency. Now the
fact was, that an increase in the quantity of any particular ar-
ticle did not necessarily reduce its aggregate value. Suppose,
for instance, that such an article as superfine cloth were wholly
unknown in this country, and 10,000 yards should be intro-
duced. It would necessarily be distributed among the rich,
at a very high price. If this quantity were then to be doubled,
and there should be 20,000 yards introduced; although the
yard might become cheaper, yet the aggregate value of the
20,000 yards would be greater than that of the 10,000 yards
'before the quantity was increased. If they then doubled the
quantity to 40,000 yards, the same result would be obtained ; but-
if they went on doubling until they had supplied all classes of the
Community, and then they doubled the quantity again, then,
undoubtedly, the aggregate' value would be decreased. The
same with respect to Corn. Such an effect must follow, be-
cause the consumption of corn must necessarily be limited.—
But the currency was an exception to this argument; because
money could he applied to all purposes, and its employment
had no bounds. Any increase, therefore, in the circulating'
medium would only affect the prices of produce in a.certain
increase
of but not at all upon the same scale as an
of any other supply for which there was a limited demand. He