The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-12 00:00:00

• districts, that the labourers there had no hope but either
going to the parish, or such a change as that which was
proposed by her Majesty's Ministers. The distress of
the manufacturing districts was an element which that
House could not overlOok. It demanded its prompt at-
tention, and it would have it. How different, as he had
stated before, was the black population in the colonies ?
There could be no doubt that it was most desirable that
comfort should be attained as the result of labour. But
the comforts of the black population had been produced,
he might say, in an unnatural way, for they were the re-
sult of direct taxation on the labour of this country.
All the large towns such as Sheffield, Leeds, and other
places, had their eyes open and were fully alive to the
declarations of principle made by either of the great
parties in that House. On the one hand they had one of
the most statesman-like and far-seeing declarations that
he had ever heard, on the other side nothing but indi-
vidual declarations of the utmost hostility to all free
trade. The experiment of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer of last year afforded an abundant proof that unless
they changed their system, the crisis in their finances
was but beginning—they had broken the spring of their
prosperity by pressing too heavily upon the great body
of the people. He had only one fault to find with the
proposition of the Government—it was too much in fa-
vour of the landlord.—(Loud cheers.) He spoke as a
small proprietor, but all his prospects in life depended
upon land, yet he thought the proposition of the Go-
vernment was one that would prove highly advantageous
to the country.—(Hear; hear.) An argument had been
raised in another place that he was obliged to charac,
terise as in fact foolish ; it was said " for God's sake
don't tax the bread of the people."—(Laughter.)
That was the day on which the Government intimated
their intention to put a duty of Bs. per quarter on wheat,
while at the very moment the duty was 24s.—(Cheers.)
That was treating the gullibility of the people in a way
that they did not deserve, and he would give his warmest
support to the whole proposition of the Government,
thinking it a step in the right direction. Whatever
might be the fate'of the question in that House, it was
one of great importance thrown before the people, and
their-good sense would induce them to take it up in such
a manner as must make it successful.
Sir R. INGLIS had been anxious to address the
House, because no one on his side of the House had taken
the ground upon which he intended to oppose the propo-
sition of the Government. He looked upon the question
as one connected with slavery and the slave question,
and not one of party at all. The question was not
whether they would adopt the Budget, or reduce the
duties on corn or timber, but whether they would place
the slave-owner in a better position than that which he
new occupied. He complained of the attack that had
been made upon the Right Hon. Gentleman the Member
for the Tower Hamlets from the other side of the
House. No one could appreciate more highly than him-
self the sacrifices which, during a period of 30 years, his
consistent advocacy of the emancipation of the slaves
had entailed upon the Right Hon. Gentleman. He
thought his last appeal on behalf of these oppressed and
persecuted individuals did him more honour than all his
previous efforts. Although he might not have so high an
opinion of human nature as others, yet he did not think
so ill of it as to suppose that with the miseries of the
slave-trade before them, they would place in a worse
position the inhabitants of the great continent of Africa,
and in a better position those atrocious slave-trading
countries, who would necessarily benefit so much from
the adoption of these measures. It was not more than
three years since that House had unanimously agreed to
address her Majesty, praying her to put an end to the
foreign slave trade ; but he asked the Noble Lord, the
Secretary for the Colonies, how he could come forward and
call upon the slave-trading countries to put down the
iniquitous system, while they themselves brought for-
ward measures, the direct object of which was to promote
and encourage slave-labour ? Those who had taken the
same views of the policy of her Majesty's Government
as himself had been taunted with hypocrisy, but he would
not retaliate upon the opposite party in the same
strain. For his own part, he could conscientiously
say that he should have felt it his duty
to vote against such measures, from whatever party in
the State they might come. At what time had the pro-
position come from the Government ? At the very mo-
ment when they had fitted out an expedition, with the
laudable object of putting an end to the slave-trade ;
but, exactly in the same proportion as they had exerted
themselves to send out that expedition, in the same pro-
portion were they stultifying themselves on the present
occasion. He would remind the House of the admission
of the Hon. Member for Cumberland, one of the most
strenuous supporters of her Majesty's Government, that
he thought the measure was calculated to give some en-
couragement to the slave trade. From all these consi-
derations he was induced to withhold his assent to the
present proposition of the Government. One word with
regard to the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary at
War, whose name had been alluded to in the course of
the debate of last night. No man who took any inter-
est in the question of the slave trade, could fail to
acknowledge their deep obligations to the late Mr.
Macaulay, and he, for one, was not unmindful of, or un-
grateful to that individual for his exertions on behalf of
the oppressed African. He should give his Vote in
favour of the resolution of the Noble Lord the Member
for Liverpool.
Mr. C. WOOD expressed his satisfaction that, at
last, some Hon. Member on the other side of the House
had broken through the narrow bounds to which the Noble
Lord who had moved the amendment had endeavoured
to limit the debate. He doubted, however, whether the
omission of the words alluded to by the Right Hon.
Baronet the Member for the University of Oxford would
have so well served the interests of party as the reso-
lution in the shape in which it had been submitted to the
House by the Noble Lord the Member for Liverpool.—
(Hear, hear.) The question to be •,-tetermined, in his
opinion, was, upon what principles their commercial
policy was to be conducted ; and whether, without the
imposition of new taxes, they wrze to make their income
equal to their expenditure.—',Ffear, hear.) That was
the question his Right Hon, Friend the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had submitted to the House, and they
were about to go into a Committee of Ways and Means
to discuss the question, when the Noble Lord interposed
with the present motion. His Noble Friend the Secre-
tary for the Colonies, and his Right Hon. Friend the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, had distinctly stated that
their objects were, not to add to the burdens of the
people, but to take off some of the pressure that already.
existed. It mattered little to the people of that country
—it mattered little to tl:Le manufacturing population, who
legitimately looked for relief, under the present distress,
to the financial me`ssures of the Government—it mat-
tered little to therri whether each measure was thrown
out by itself, or the question disposed of as a whole. He
had heard frorA the Right Hon. Baronet the Member for
Tamworth, 'And the Hon. Member for Beverley, a state-
ment of ',heir attachment to free trade. The Hon.
Member for Beverley had expressed his anxiety for
all ar'jcles entering into the consumption of the
poor man, but he was not a little surprised
to find that his practical conclusions resulted in a deter-
.
rosnation to oppose a reduction of the duty on sugar.—
(Hear, hear, hear.) He wished to know how far those
principles would carry the Hon. Member and the Hor.
Member for Kilmarnock, in support of the proposi:aon
of the Hon. Member for Whitby, with regard to the
duties on timber. He would be curious al` A) to see
whether they would be ungrateful to the Hon. Mem-
ber for Lincolnshire, who had no objection to a reduction
of the duties on sugar, but who would resist the proposition
for consistency sake, in order that tlie monopoly in corn
might be supported.—(Hear, 'sear.) He regretted to
find that with but few excep'dons little reference had
been made to the wretched state of the population of
that country. The Hon. Member for Stamford (Sir G.
Clerk) had expressed great indignation at any one on
that (the Ministerial) side of the House being astonished
at the sympathy for the slaves that was manifested by
Hon. Gentlemen on the other side. He (Mr. C. Wood)
should be sorry to suppose that Gentlemen on the other
side of the House did not conscientiously entertain the
opinions on that subject which they now expressed.
But the Hon. Member for Stamford must suppose
hat they possessed but a very short recollection if he
thought they did not recollect the course pursued on th:is-
s-abject by a large portion of the party to which the ROn.
Gentleman belonged. Although he (Mr. C. WrAd) did
not wish to claim for that side of the House al,l that had
been done to put an end to slavery and the ;lave-trade, he
would remind the Hon. Gentleman that the exertions of
Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt were, of little avail, com-
pared with those of the Whig Administration of 1806,
and the resolutions moved by Mr. Canning in 1824 re-
mained but so much waste payer ; the real death-blow
was given to slavery by tide Bill on that subject passed
mdpuraornbinasgbeleLemoeerffddecGttosretlytla'
views HHo ne . Gdorefenwt lt
he
ae-
sktheAelmniprotpotes7 dttrianai:r.e(lasluarlireYe.
highly-coloured picture of sl very, and attributed to
this measure all the horrors
if the question was to be of the last forty years. Why,
_made a matter of principle, and
not a matter of degre,-,and of an infinitely small de-
grr.,e—he (Mr. C. Wood) would be disposed to
yield. (Hear,) If the arguments used on the
[ other side of the House were of any weight,
he would ask why did they put down the growth of
tobacco in Ireland some few years back ? That tobacco
might have put down slave-grown tobacco. There were
reasons of revenue, no doubt, for the prohibition, and
the same was the case with regard to slave-grown
coffee. By their legislation they gave advantages
to the slave-grown coffee of Brazil over the free-
grown coffee of Hayti. The case of the slave-grown
sugar imported into this country from Brazil fur-
nished a still make forcible argument. That sugar
refused to to imported
the purpfQ ose of being refined, and it was
the sL s
to 4 introduced
roduced for consumption. He would
w
tnow where w the distinction. In either case
slave-grown sugar was
was purchased. The Right Hon.
GeAitleman the President of the Board of Trade said with
truth, I'4; whatever extent you export manufactured
R,Yl',.fAs to Brazil you are to the same extentlpaid with
s•axe-grown sugar. Yet, in those cases just instanced,
no feelings on the part of humanity were shocked. With
respect to the present condition of the working classes he
would trouble the House with a fewextracts from documents
which had come into his hands. One gentleman stated
that among the working classes no man could support
himself at the present moment, and that confide-
altogether gone. In South Lancashire #'
tips
InDll
teinthkeePsAsltoaytesellotFttly^Cf?our c:117-

..-uce was
...ge labourer was
.- week. The Report of
—uners appointed to inquire into
—.nand-loom weavers, stated that with al-
-tut-6f them (the weavers) low wages produeedim-
Mediate disiress, and want. of employment producid
medi6.6-deititittion. "We do not believe (said the Com-
missioners) that any one who has not mixed with the
working classes—we do -not believe that we ourselves
can adequately :estimate how' -much mental and
bodily suffering;--how much", disappointment and
disease are implied in the terms fall of wages.' "
What, he (Mr. C. Wood) would ask, must be now the
state of those poor people when there was little or no .
employment ? To what measnies but such as would
improve the trade of the country was that House to look
for a remedy, of that state of things ? Ke xls WO"
. •

most