The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-10 00:00:00

Sir R. INGLIS said he was now witnessing a party which
were once united, firing into each others vessels.—(Laughter.)
He could not help asking himself what would become of the
Honourable Gentleman the Member for Durham, or rather the
Member for Southport. `
other sided
become of all the
new converts at the other side. of the House, if
his Noble Friend %had not come to the rescue.—( Laughter.)
He hoped he would not say (for it was not his wish) an unkind
word to provoke an angry feeling ; but he could not help
thinking what unpleasant feelings must be entertained by those
who found that their party was divided. There were three
propositions proposed, which would give full and entire satis-
faction to all political economists, but he begged leave to state
that these propositions were not supported by any argument on
the part of the Noble Lord (Russell). He stated he would
sot raise an angry feeling, and he would apply himself to that
part of the question of most importance, and would only
occupy their attention for two or three minutes.—(Hear.)
His view of things was this that in trade we should
to procure all articles at the most moderate market. Looking
at the products of Europe generally, he found that averages
could not be made of crops as if they were the products of
steam-engines. Much would depend on the state of the wea-
ther, for the variations in it would create great difference in
the averages, and consequently in the price of food. The
largest average was 140 per cent., and that was an average
extending over a period of twenty-four years.
In Prussia the average was 212 ; in Saxony
it w.s 269; and in Westphalia it was 340.
But as he told them himself in his remarkable speech, the
countries which produced potatoes prohibited their export.
From Sweden, from Belgium, from Holland, the distress was
there so great, you could have hoped for nothing. He also
told yon that Turkey and Egypt refused t permit the higher
kinds of grain to be exported. But might they not supply
the wants of Ireland with an inferior grain.—(Hear, hear. )
He was quite aware that he could from the pages of " Hansard"
prove various inconsistencies on the part of those who now
advised this measure. But it was needless, as the very authors of
it in the strongest terms admitted them. His Noble Friend
(the Member for London) had himself made great changes in
his opinions on the subject of this very question. He neither
taunted him or the members of the Government with what
passed. He did not accuse him of having been interested in
any such change, and he not only did not accuse the Right
Hon. Baronet et having been influenced in his change by im-
pure motives, from his personal knowledge of him, but from
that which was clear to every me, that he had no conceivable
motive for those changes, and that he had every conceivable
motive from refraining from them. He was at the head of the
largest majority that ever sat in that House since 1834.
It was a party on whom he might have looked with some
satisfaction.—(Loud cheers.) A party who certainly looked
apt° him with respect, and only regretted that they were not
earlier acquainted with his weaknesses.—( Cheering and great
laughter.) He hoped, however, that his Right Hon. Friend
would forgive him if he exactly distrusted his powers as a
statesman in the same proportion as he had suddenly changed
the opinions formerly held by him.—(Hear, hear.) if he
were •now a great statesman all his former acts were those of a
personinsensible to the wants of the country. In these observe-
lions be was speaking his cool and deliberate conviction. They
could net admit the purity of his motives without impeaching
his claim to guide the destinies of a free country.
—(Cheering.) His suddenness of change was such, that there
might not be another change in another month. With re-
spect to his Noble Friend the Member for the city of London,
if he gave him a pledge that he would support the Irish
Church, he knew that he would carry out that pledge to the
utmost extent, and nothing could induce him to swerve from
his promise, be therefore knew to what he had to trust, and
he would much rather trust an open enemy.—(Cheering.)
(Here the lion. Gentleman paused for a few moments.) " I
stopped," continued the Hon. Baronet, " for my own sake—
I will not pursue the subject."—( Immense cheering.) He
would not put the Government into the hands of the
Gentlemen opposite. With respect to the Noble Lord op-
posite, he had, however, to observe that his change had been
at least four years old. While he deeply deplored the part taken
by the Government, he could not help asking at what tune
were these measures brought forward? They were brought
forward at a time of profound peace. Ireland had not at
that time her monster meetings ; England was arrived at
a pitch of prosperity almost unexampled, to which she had
town under the very system now proposed to be altered.
Why then should they, when well, take physic and die? He
pleQed himself to the fact that, in every instance, the actual
produce was greater last year than the year before. Under these
circumstances he, for one, could not see why the Govern-
ment measure should be supported.
Captain FITZNIAURICE, who spoke most inaudibly, said
he confessed his view of the question of protection was very
different from that of the Right Hon. Baronet. He regarded
it as a compensation for the industry of the agriculturist,
and as a security against the competition of foreign avicul-
turists, in consequence of the peculiar burdens which fell to
the land of this country. He defended it, therefore, on those
grounds—on the ground of the burdens which pressed en the
agricultural energy of the country. He defended last year the
protection which was given to the West India planters on the
same principle. The Right Honouraele Baronet him-
self, in 1844, had given expression to the same ideas.
With regard to the present measure which has been
brought before the country, it was stated by the Right
Hon. Baronet that he rested it upon the famine, which was
apprehended in Ireland. He would ask the Government had
they taken that view of the question which other countries had
adopted under similar anticipations? Had 'they attempted to
prevent exportation. Had they adopted those other expe-
disate which the necessities of the case seemed to warrant?
In Ireland, exportation of corn and provisions had been
proceeding to an enormous extent since October last.
The Right Honourable Hemet had taken protection
off this country when the country had a great impulse from
public works—for instance, such as from railways. Let him
take the county of Wiltshire; they had no shipping which
wild bring about a benefit to that county by importation.
Hove, then, could the present measure—how could free trade
benefit that part of the country ? Manufactures were carried on
there, agricultural pursuits were prosperous there, but free
trade, with all its importation, would not be of any advantage
to its inhabitants. Now, let there be a railway
constructed through that county, and the people
would be greatly benefited by such a project.
( Hear, hear.) It was said that the manufacturers of this
country would be received by foreign countries in exchange
for their corn. Let them take Poland for instance. Now he
spoke from information furnished by a gentleman residing in
that country, and he would say that the growers of corn there,
when the duties would be taken off in this country, would
send corn from there at 30s. the quarter. Let them take
America. They were told that the growers of corn there
would take the manufactures of this country in exchange for
their grain, but he had good grounds for saying that they would
want gold and not manufactures. It is well known that
the American shipping left this country, after getting rid of
their corn, in ballast, and, that would be the very way in
which they would leave our ports when free trade
became a law. What said the Right Hon. Baronet in 1844 ?
At that period he complained that the principles of free trade
were delusive and visionary. Such was not his opinion now,
however. There was one way of remedying the evil of a
famine without bringing forward the present measure, and that
was to be done by taking the price of corn at the weight, and
not by the measure. If this had been done, corn and bread
would now be more corresponding in price, and still protection
he upheld. Can it be expected that farmers will lay out their
money in making improvements, when the law which protects,
or rather ought to protect him, is to be changed by the Right
Honourable Baronet, who had always led them to believe him
their best friend, by his having always spoken in their favour.
It was said that " woman's vows were traced in sand." He
should like to know what men's vows were traced in. Were
they traced in adamant ?—( Laughter.) He should like to
know what the Right Honourable Baronet's vows were traced
in ?---( Hear, hear.) He (Captain Fitemaurice) thought they
were traced in steam.—(Great laughter.) The Honourable
Baronet had made vows, but they were all broken ; all the pro-
mises made bad been abandoned, those who had supported him
were not taken into consideration, their opinions, their influ-
ence, and their interests were alike disregarded. He might
well say—
" Blow, blow, thou wintry wind,
Thou art not so unkind,
Nor is thy bi eath so rude
As man's ingratitude."
The Hon. Member sat down amidst some applause.
Mr. SYDNEY HERBERT said that of all the speeches
which had been delivered against the present measure
of her Majesty's Goverment, he might select the last
two speeches as arguments in its favour.—( Hear, hear.)
Those changes had not been forced upon the Government by
any choice of their own, but by the advent of circumstances
which it was not possible for any human power to foresee. He
wished be could be convinced that the position of
Ireland was really not such as had been represented,
or that he could be justified in declaring that the
contemplated change in the law affecting the price
of food would be unnecessary, but they had had too many
proofs to the contrary not to be satisfied of the justness and ex-
pediency of this measure. The Hon. Member had stated in his
speech, that there was deficiency of food in Ireland, or rather
that there was an average supply, and that therefore the appre-
hended loss or deficiency need not be apprehended.
Sir R. INGLIS said he alluded to the potato crop.
Mr. SYDNEY HERBERT continued by saying that the i
potato crop was not the exclusive food of the people of that
country. It would not be necessary for him now to expatiate
upon the miseries end misfortunes of a large mass of people who
were accustomed to subsist upon that article of food. They
had already heard a great deal as to the state of
that portion of the population who were compelled to
depend upon this worst kind of subsistence for the
greater put of the year. But if the Hon. Members had
followed oat his argument by quoting the returns, the state of
the crops for several years past, he would have found that in
many instances there had been actual deficiencies for the supply
required, even where the crop was stated to have been an
average one. During the whole of those discussions he should
lay, Mat he had heard no arguments or statements which had
the effect of lessening the truth of the reports the Government
had received from the magistracy and constabulary in Ireland
on this subject. The Government had neither lent too willing
an ear to the reportethat they had received as to the exaggerated
state of the prevailing distress on the one hand, or of the asser-
tions with regard to Ireland being a fool's paradise on the other.
But, whiethwriererd4
teo the actual state of the potato crop in Ire-
Government had could
persuade himself that the reports the
nay erroneous or received,e as to the actual deficiency, were
of fonts upon
whichx4;gegated. The melancholy combination
pit*, to be disbelieved, and Government had acted, were too pal-
sail
to
avert the erefore some measure was neces-
sary
confined to r apprehendedeilanntdh
ealown
t oo f he had calamity.
Nor was this state of
ascertained, upon
good authority, that
England also, where the
potato crop was extensively cultivated, it had there failed to as
great an extent as any part of Ireland. As had been stated
by the' Noble Lord the Member
sfionrguleeLondon, the potato crop
crop when
a crop
was one which presented this
it was, in
was often pronounced to be an average
fact, of so inferior a quality as to be almost -unasfitaZ
they looked at the returns of the year 1839, it would be If 1
that the prices had been raised precisely in that same way seyen
bad occurred in November, 1845 ; but there was a greata-dias-s
tinction to be noticed between the causes upon these two
occasions. For instance, it would of ten be found that the
wheat crop was an average crop, but the quality was
bad, and yet the bread made from it was not;
the result was, that bad bread was not
made, but that a greater quantity of interior wheat
was required to make the same quantity of bread than would
have been necessary if the wheat had been good. This had
the effect of lessening the price of wheat, while no change
whatever took place in the price of bread. No, he would not
hesitate on an occasion like this—for he, like many others, had
a change of opinion to announce—to declare that his opinion
had undergone a change upon this subject, because he had seen
that the law of 1842 had most signally failed.—( Hear, hear.)
This might have resulted from a combination of circumstances
that no Government could have foreseen. But Hon. Members,
while they argued in favour of the corn-laws, seemed to forget
that those laws were enacted in order to meet the expediency
caaasdby atransition from a state of war to a state of peace, and
"sw that the time came when they ought to be abolished, for
they had seen that other countries had met the circumstance of
a scarcity of food by throwing open their ports to all the world.
He regretted that the course then being pursued had net been
ad"tatrrfoud. ulgioll°pneededn' Gelittnaentn, lied ex OW agbpcwite A Noble
expressed it aa his opinion that
dm moment measere was one which should not have beenro-
dgeedly the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of ism Majesty'snt
Government. Now he (the Hon.Meinber)had no • ton in
saying that he was strongly of opinion, and bad advocated the
ascemoty of its adoption, that the measure should be left in