The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-11 00:00:00

LONDON:
T UESDAY, MAY 11, 1841.

TheLoup CHANCELLOR, last night, reported to the
Lords Admiral. STOPFORD'S acknowledgment of their
Lordships' thanks.
Another short discussion took place on the Corn-
laws, on the Earl of ROSERERRY moving for some re-
turns to show the Earl of WINCIIILSEA and RIPON that
the bread-tax, whicicis not a bread-tax, doesitt rcjility
abstract a large sum from the pockets of the people,

Earl FirzwiLmax gave the landlords a proper cha-
racter, and showed that the present Corn-laws caused
enormous fluctuations.

Lord BEAUMONT deprecated such incidental discus-
sions, and Lord ASHBURTON insisted that the present
Corn-laws were intended to keep the price of wheat about
56s. per quarter, which has been the case, he said, except
in two instances ; but those two instances he did not say
occurred within four years of each other ; and in the one
case the price was down to 36s., and in the other up to 88s.
What delightful steadiness in price! The short conversation
was instructive, particularly the remark of the Earl of
WicicLow, that the United Kingdom produced sufficient
for the supply of the population, after the landlords have
starved the p )pulation down to the supply. Their Lord-
ships were entertained wids conversation on this subject
till Severi o'clock, and then adjourned.
The House of Commons did nothing except receive
petitions and resume the adjourned debate. Mr. Ew.tirr
began and dwelt chiefly on the great commercial advan-
tage which would ensue from revising our tariff, of
which the sugar duties were a part. It would make
our country the entrepot for sugar, and place Great Bri-
tain iu her proper position at the head of the commercial
Aations of the world. He had as strong an abhorrence
;lavery as his Right Hon. Friend Dr. LUSHINGTON,
but like him he could not forget what was due to our own
pE ple out of compassion to the blacks.

Mr. IfEATHcoTE took up the corn part of the question,
and declared that the whole agricultural interest would
resist the proposed..alteration. of the Corn-laws. He
ievyr9zaw.4.- them more.determined. Mr. GROTE looked
at the measure as a psrt of a wbo'.e, and considered them
as a wiSeAnefins of benefiting- the people and extending
she resourm; of thState.
Mr. Cot r:I:tors wished to confine the discussion to
sugar and avoid free-trade ; at the same time he advo-
cated protection to the West Indies, which is only free-
trade, and was for kei ping slave-grown sugar out of the
1114 arket.

Mr. GREG gave his hearty support to the Ministers,
aid as Lord JOHN RUSSELL had carried Parliamentary
Reform after much opposition, so he hoped he would carry
this commercial refin-m. Though the people had suf-
.1q.e41 much from the scarcity of sugar, he did not think
'the Sugar-laws so had as the Corn-laws.

Mr. WALTER wanted something done for our people,
but he did not think that the reduction of the sugar
duties war; that. something. He was for altering the
PoOr-law, and the Nottingham election ought to con-
since Members that the law must he altered.
Lord F. EGERTON would not deal with the financial
part or the question, and (lid indulge at great length on
the above yin of the question, which, being an intangible
subject, is one of the happiest themes for declamation that
itas been thrown bcfore.the pftru
Lamont for many years. It
will supply matter for a debate till Christmas.
Noble Lord was prettily poetical at the end, and pro-
nounced a benettiction on the ship which is to pierce, as
Mr. aSTONE has it, the tt cincture" of malaria
which guards the coast of Africa, and to carry Sir
FOIVELL 131.TXTOWS, plait of civilizing that vast continent

into efea t.
Mr. LABOUCITF.RE made an elaborate and statesman-
like speech, full of fact and grave arguments, worthy of
lite high place he occupies at the head of the Board of
Trade. Unfortunately the Bight Hon. Gentleman wants
impressiveness in his manner, and a far less able speech,
delivered with somewhat more vehemence, would have
had more effect on th? House, and much less effect on
The country. He adverted to the trade question, the
r.
inanClal question, an l tie slave question, and did justice
to them all.

Mr. GLADSTONE was the last speaker of the evening,
and he was extremely eloquent about the quantity of
-,tigar which the West Indies can produce ; about the
injury the Ministerial propositions would do to the West
India interest ; about the little benefit they would confer
ou the revenue; and about the encouragement
.they would give to slavery. Like other gen-
tlemen who have spoken on the same side, Mr.
GLADsToNE insisted very strentously on the great and
abundant sitpply 'of sugar which our own possessions
'over!, e tliis year to furnish us. Last year, he thought,
TAO the price, was very high, there might have been
some re: sou ti,r the alteration in the sugar duties, but
this year, wherr• prices are moderate and the sup-
ply icerialo, • there was no pretext for it. There
'ia'ore at least 9.07,000 tons of sugar coming for-
was more than ever had been consumed.
In such an argument there seems to us more effrontery
than capdour. alleged on all. hands, that were it not
r the West India monopoly, the consumption of sugar
would be doubled in this country. But the West India
monopoly having been very strict, scarcely a grain more
.sugar has come into use than our colonies could supply.
Every grain they have supplied has been consumed. Last
ear the price was at one time so high, that foreign sugar
was actually introduced into home consumption at the
enormous duty of 66s. The consumption, therefore, has
been limited by the West India monopoly, and now Mr.
GLADSTONE and his friends, meaznring the national
power to consume sugar by that quantity which