The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-14 00:00:00

Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government in 1842, bad no
right new to turn round upon him for arriving at the very re- !
suit which they themselves had assisted to bring about.—(Cy-
position cheers, and cries of " No, no," from the Ministerial
benches.) They had rendered the result inevitable.—
(Cheers.) Why, what did they do in 1842 ? They were then
a great party; they had an unassailable majority in that
House.—(Hear, hear.) They had the game in their own
hands. What was the first step of concession which the Right
Hon. Baronet saw he was forced to adopt ? The proposal of
the sliding-scale. And when the Hon. Gentleman had once
admitted the principle of concession, what, he would wish to
know, was the point at which they should stop ?—( Hear, hear,)
In 1841, the holy alliance of those concerned in the
agriculture of the country was formed ; and the agri-
culturists were now reduced to what they themselves
called a most hopeless position, when famine stared them in the
face.—( Cries of " No, no," from the Ministerial side of the
House.) The champions and advocates of Hon. Gentlemen on
the opposite side of the House were now forced to admit, with
the Right Hon. Baronet, that there must be a continual pro-
gress in legislation with regard to the trade of the country;
but then they at the same time thought the desire of the land-
lords to have protection should be duly listened to. But, in
his opinion, the Government of the country had
listened long enough.—( Hear, hear.) It was now
time that the public should have a part in the matter.—
( Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman who had last spoken
had said that he would give a moderate protection to agi icul-
tore ; but he had almost, in the same breath told them, that he
knew an agricultural district ih Scotland where the farmers
placed very little value upon the protection, as it was
called, which was afforded to them by Parliament. He
had told them, that in spite of the hills which
no horses could labour up, the scarcity of manure, and other
obstacles which did not exist in this country, and in spite of the
demoralizirg and ruinous measures which the Right Hon.
Baronet had now proposed, the cultivation of land in that dis-
trict was still very profitably carried on. And as to the trash which
he quoted about the colonial markets, he ( Mr. Ward) would
put it to the good sense of every man in that House te hethcr
this country had run any risk in establishing a trade to New
York. They, in fact, supplied New York themselves.
( Hear, hear.) The fact was that the amount of goods which
were sent to the colonial markets were not one-
eighth of what w, re sent to neutral ports, where
the English manufacturer enjoyed no protection, nor the
slightest preference.—( Hear, hear.) He would now go back
to the statement of the Noble and Gallant Member for Liver-
pool, who had already spoken at the commencement of the pre-
sent debate, and he was sorry to observe that the Honourable
and Gallant Member was not then in his place, because he had
made a long; speech. The Honourable and Gallant
Member for Liverpool had said that he had nothing to re-
gret and nothing to retract since he came into Parliament.
There wrre very few men on either side of the house who
could make such a statement.—( Hear, hear, and laughter. )
The Members of that House were in a very peculiar position
with respect to their constituents. Tho Hon. and Gallant Mem-
ber for Liverpool represented the interests of the greatest com-
mercial town in the kingdom. The Hon. Gentleman had said
that agriculture and labour should ba protected ; but what'
would labs ur do without capital? He said that free
trade might operate beneficially enough in other countries, but
he could not recommend the adoption of that principle in Eng-
land. The Right Hon. Baronet had stated, on the first night
of the session, that he had tried negotiations between
the agrielturists and the manufacturers on this subject for many
years, but all those efforts to effect a conciliation ended in
nothing. He would ask whether our trade had not quin-
tupled, in spite of the most rigorous tariff brought forward
and passed by Honourable Members on the opposite
side of the House.--(Loud cheers.) And were they for
ever to pu ish themselves because other people brought for-
ward measures ruinous to their own interests? The Hon.
ourable and Gallant Member then asked what would
become of their colonies if the present measure were
passed ? The colonies were already supplied by our
manufacturers, and they were, consequently, supplied with
cheaper and better articles than they themselves could pro-
duce. But did this produce utter ruin to England and the
colonies? What was the effect of the abolition
of slavery in the manufacture of sugar in the West
Indies ?—( Hear, hear.) It was universally found that
sugar could be manufactured at a much cheerer rate by
free than slave labourers. The Hon. and Gallant Member also
quoted a speech of Mr. Huskisson. There was no Man in
that House who respected the name of that gentleman more
than himself. No man that had ever sat in that House,
in his opinion, had done more service to his country
than the late Mr. Huskisson. Like the Right Hors. Baronet
(Sir R. Peel) he had Eisen obliged, in the course of a long
career in that House, to make great sacrifices of his party
po'ities. He would beg to refer the House to the closing
speeches of that gentleman, for those might be taken to be the
real and honest expressions of his conscience; he might then be
supposed to be free from all the trammels of office and party.
( Hear, hear.) When Mr. Huskisson then spoke, viz., on
the 25th March, 1e330, being two years after he had intro-
duced his sliding-scale, he said that he really believed that
the then existing corn-laws might be abolished without any
serious injury. It was an easy matter to complain of the incon-
sistencies of men in office, the disappointment of party hopes,'
&c., but there was nothing that public men did that could be
right in the opinions of all parties.—(Hear, hear.) Public
men, it must be admitted, were often wrong, but at the
close of their political careers they generally arrived at
the truth. If the Right Hon. Baronet was not right
in his political conduct until the present time, he had
now the manliness and the honesty to come forward
and confess that he had at last turned into tl'e right path— a
path which was consistent with reason and justice, and most
conducive to the good of the country.—(Hear, bear.) It could
not be doubted that public men had often altered their opinions.
Men on that (the Opposition) side of the House had often done
so. Mr. Huskisson had often done so. The Noble Lord, the
Member for the city of London, had manfully avowed that he
had changed his opinions with regard to the corn-laws—that he
had, in tact, become wiser by experience than he was in his
younger years. He (Mr. Ward) himself, when he first be-
came a Member of the House, voted with the Right Hon.
Baronet on this question, and indeed he universally voted in
favour of the corn-laws. It was only since he had informed
himself thoroughly on the subject, and had looked at the mat-
ter in that light which he wished all Hon. Members on the
other side would do, that was to say without any class or party
feeling-- ( Hear, hear)—that his views became altered in favour
of a total and immediate repeal. But he was a'raid that those
Hon. Members suffered themselves to be bound down by their
party connexions.—( Hear.) They had adopted an opinion.
and to that opinion it appeared they were determined to ad-
here, whether it was right or wrong. They made a few
speeches, hastily got up for county agricultural meetings, until
they found the whole country denouncing the obstinacy with
which they clung to their favourite principles.of selfish pro-
tection. He readily believed that the course which the pro-
tectionists were pursuing was most injurious to their own in-
terests and to their own country. Now, in the course of this
long debate there had certainly been some very able speeches
delivered. There was a speech delivered by the Hon. Gentleman
the Member for Northampton, which, both in respect of its
tune and the manner of delivery, was good enough ; the
greatest fault he had to find with it was that it had reference
to everything but the principles which he got up to defend.
( Hear, hear, and laughter.) It was evidently, from beginning
to end, nothing more than a i?etitio principii, a mere begging
of the whole question. The Hon. Member said that the Go-
vernment ought to legislate in such a manner that all
interests should be protected without injury to any.
Suppose his principle was right, the Government would
than have to protect every interest in the country, because they
mnst not protect a large interest such as agriculture or manu-
factures, and neglect to protect the lowest and most unim-
portant branches of trade in the country. A great injustice
was apparently committed by the recent tariff, to those con-
cerned in the production and sale of clover seed, and yet what
did the farmers, who dealt in that article, say to the Right Hon.
Baronet on that head ? They stated that 99 out of every 100
farmers in that part of the country cared very little about the
changes that had been in the tariff with respect to that
article.—( Hear, hear.) That was the view which farmers
took of the protection afforded them by Government. But
unless the Legislature carried out to its full extent those prin-
ciples of free trade their policy would be defective. It would
be a great humbug.—(Laughter, and cheers from the Oppo-
sition.) They could not carry them out unless they
abandoned their old and mistaken opinions. If the
Government adopted the course recommended to them
by the protectionists, they would put themselves and
that interest into a dilemma from which it would be almost an
impossibility to extricate them. The protectionists would fail
in extricating themselves therefrom if they had a Government
of their own to-morrow.—(Hear, hear.) Those gentlemen
had once the Government in their own hands, but the Right
Hon. Baronet discarded them. The Right Hon. Gentleman
gave them a fair warning that they need not look for his sup.
port in the ensuing session. Was there one single principle
upon which they were agreed, which, if it had passed
into a law, would not have operated most partially
and injuriously not only to the country generally, but to them-
selves in particular.—(Hear, hear.) The Protectionists said
that we could not compete with foreigners in consequence of
the heavy taxes which we had to pay. That wee a question
upon which there really ought to be no difference of opinion
amongst Hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House.--
( Hear, hear.) For ,six years, however, he (Mr. Ward) had
attempted to make them show what were the " peculiar bur-
dens ' upon land, but he had always failed.—(Hear, hear. )
He, however, rejoiced to say that a similar motion was
now about to be brought forward in the House of
Lords by Lord Beaumont. He hoped that he would not be
considered out of order in referring to the proceedings of the
other House of Parliament. Would any Hon. Member deny
that his (Mr. Ward's) motion had been postponed session
after session, in consequence of the conduct of the protec-
tionists themselves.—(Hear, hear.) If they really bad any
burdens, they should be ashamed of themselves if they did
not show what those burdens were, when they were
fairly challenged to do so by Members on that
(the Opposition) aide of the House.--( Hear, and cheers. )
But the truth was they could not prove the existence of those
burdens.—( Cries of " We can," from several Members on
the protectionists' benches.) They could not have any
burdens, or they would certainly have accepted his challenge.
—( Hear, hear.) He proposed to them that they should
appoint a committee themselves, to consist of twelve intelli-
gent, honest men, and he had also said that he had not the
least objection to the Hon. and Gallant Member for Lincoln
taking the chair —(Hear, hear, and laughter.) He proposed
that they should examine the witnesses ; and had that
Committee been granted, he felt satisfied that he should have
brought those men to such a conclusion as her Majesty's Go-
vernment had now arrived at with respect to the core-laws.—
(Hear, hear.) But his motion was always rejected, and the
Hon. and Gallant Member for Lincolnshire slep'c very comfort-
ably on a bench in the gallery, on the last occasion that he
(Mr. Ward) addressed the House on this subjeot.—( Cheers and
laughter.) The country, however, saw perfectly well through
the agriculturists, devise; they saw that the talk about peculiar
burdens was a great falsehood.—( Hear, 'near.) For his own
part he should have been able to lay be".ore the country some
very curious information had tine Committee been grantod. He
should have been very sorry tt.) have done any many injustice;
but in a word, he might say tleet Hon. Members on the oppo-
site side of the House were an xious to keep the question of " the
peculiar burdens" as much as possible in the back ground.
Was the Government then to shrink from endeavouring
to carry out their present measure in all its integrity ? That
proposal was a large one, am 1 in his opinion it deserved the
unanimous support of the co.untry._( Hear, hear. ) He for
one gave that proposal his n lost cordial support, for he be-
lieved that it would be the salvation of the agricultural in-
terest.--( Hear, hear.) 11, believed that the agricultural
gentlemen were not fit to take care of their own interests.—
mforostthettsael thweirheninttisi
reeystawertee entrusted
(Much laughter.) He conceived that it would be
lvetes.
let
themw t
hl epgoi aetre
they invariably damaged theiir own interests. Let the House
look back to their legislation, and they would find that the
strangest mistakes had been committed by thatparty to the
prejudice of themselves as w ell aa of the Hear )
Let them look to the ease of -motile After country.—(Hear.
price 'of
English wool to the highest etessible pointrat riamtgthe could, a
duty of
6d. per lb. was placed en foreign wool.y The
Honourable Member for Somersetshire, amongst then in the House, ' would recollect thategs in fivet others
years after the change, the rice of wol as lower
than it had been for twr, hundred years beofore. w—( Hear. )
Will the Hon. Member e..eny, now that the duty had been en.
tirely taken off foreign wool, that the prices were higher than
they had been ever known within the last century, notwith-
standing we had Imported sixty-nine milli nn pounds of that
commodity. How will the Hon. Member met't that fact, and
what wgialci have been the re3ult had Jig not been

saved from the consequence of his own legisla-
ture by the Bight Honourable Baronet at the head
of the Government ? They found at last that their only re-
medy was to throw themselves into the arms of that monster
" Free-trade," and the consequence has Leen that the price of
English wool has continued to increase up to this period.
Now, why cannot we apply this principle to corn? The
Hon. Member for Northamptonshire (Mr. S. O'Brien) says
that we should destroy the tenant-farmers of the country
if we removed protection from them. He would assure his
Hon Friend that the tenant-farmers of this country enter-
tained very different views of the matter. They had nu fear
of the contingencies which would follow on the relaxation of
protection, provided their landlords met them in a fair spirit.
They say we can do nothing till this question is settled—
( Hear)—settled it must be—and settled it can only be in one
way. Continue the protection, if you please, for a few months,
or only a few years—you must come to the settlement of this
question—that settlement which consists in the total abrogation
of restrictive duties.—( Hear.) The landlords must expunge
front their leases those obsolete forms and exploded notions.—
( Hear, hear.) They must not force upon the farmer the
support of the game of the landlords. —(Cries cf " Hear,
hear.") If they are thus met in a fair and manly spirit,
they may be enabled to bear tbat shock which doubtless, for a
short period, we shall all have to encounter.—(Hear, hear,
from the protectionists.) Hon. Members on the other side of
the House say, Hear, hear, but has the agricultural interests
no difficulties to encounter in the times of protection. lie (Mr.
Ward) had known in the year 1835, that the price of corn was
355., and that under a law which promised 803. to the tenant
in the year 1815. He asked Hon. Members if they would
legislate upon this principle with any other business? Would
they grant protection to the shopkeeper, if, upon the principle
of the Hon. Member for Northampton, they were to request it,
on the ground that they did not wish to leave the shop that
they had occupied for some time. He considered that a great part
of the land of this country was badly cultivated in consequence
of the want of capital, or from the tenant occupying larger
farms than they could properly cultivate ; and in this manner
numbers of farmers are compelled to struggle against diffi-
culties which, if they had taken smaller farms, they would not
have had to contend with. They should not hold what
they could not do justice with. If the farmer, in
this condition, were to take a smaller farm, he would
then be able to extricate himself from the difficulties which
have arisen from his undertaking, without sufficient capital, the
management of so largo a concern. Reduce the man who
holds four hundred acres to two hundred, and do not cheat him
by the belief that anything this House could do would enable
him to continue the perilous struggle, and do not
allow yourself, upon any principle of what I must call
false humanity, to be warped from the performance
of your plan. Your duty is not to look at one class, but to
look upon all. You have to look especially upon that class
whose interest depend so much upon the price of provisions—
that class to which the Honourable Member for the West
Riding of Yorkshire ( Lord Morpeth) so forcibly alluded upon
the last night of this debate—he alluded to the labour-
ing classes; it is upon them you have to look, and your
duty, is to see they suffer no injustice at your hands.—(blear,
hear.) And can any man have heard the statement of the
Right Hon. Member (S. Herbert ), to the effect that upon his
own estate he had known the prices of corn vary from 755.
to 405., without being convinced that the labouring
glasses are the party who suffer most by this
system of protection. He advised lion. Members on the
opposite side to endeavour to retrace their steps—(Hear)—
to look to the great developement of the industrial resources of
the country, and the consequent increase of employment and
the improved situation of all classes of the population ; anti when
they had ascertained the right course to pursue, at once to
follow it without any regard to selfish motives. He hoped that
feeling would have influence on the great body of English gen-
tlemen now arrayed against the measures proposed by her Ma-
jesty's Government. He thought there never was a body of
gentlemen, who stood higher in the estimation of their country
than Hon. Members opposite • he would be grieved to see them
forfeit that opinion; but when a class, however powerful or
opulent, arrayed itself against the interests of the com-
munity it could not long retain its proud position—(hear,
hear,)—especially when it stood opposed to principles
which involve the great interest of a community. He felt
convinced that light was already dawning upon some members
of that body. Many, he knew, were taking a part in opposing
these measures rather on the ground of character than a genuine
feeling of confidence in the cause. One Noble Lord
( Lord John Manners) he knew had stated that he had
intended to vote in favour of the Bill, though his
own convictions were opposed to it. Can a contest,
then, be long continued which thus °poses itself to the first
prineipies of justice—a principle which cannot be worked out
in detail, and which is at variance with the intelligence and
just demands of the country. Be did not believe, it could.—
( Hear, hear.) An Honourable Member on a former occasion
had spoken of compromise. They had talked of some
ministry which was to be formed of old exploded
theories. They wished for a sort of modified
protection. They would take the sliding scale of
the Right Hon. Baronet without that redeeming part, its fixed
termination. So far as the sense of the country can be known
the general opinion is, that so far from considering the Govern-
ment measure as going too far, they do not consider it suffi-
ciently carried out in the principt's of free trade.—.
( Hear, hear, and cheers.) There is no reason, for
instance, why the duties on cheese and butter
should be reduced one-half, while the duty on corn is
to be taken off altogether. He hoped to see the day when that
scheme would be carried to the fullest extent of the principle
which we should adopt in adopting that measure ; and as to
compromise, he could assure the Hen. Member that the at-
tempt would only serve to protract a struggle already too much
protracted, and to prevent an arrangement which might now
be made with satisfaction to both the landlord and tenant, and
also prevent any injury to the interests of agriculture which
might be caused by admitting foreign corn.
Mr. MILES did not consider, in the discussion of such
a question as the present, it was possible to go too far a-field.
The injury which this measure will produce will affect not
only the colonial producer, but also all dependencies now subject
to this country.—(Hear, hear.) It was not an agricultural
debate, although he must say that a great deal of agriculture
had been mixed up in it.—( Hear.) The present is a scheme
involving questions important to the whole population of the
country. There is no one interest left untouched, nothing to
be left in its present position. The measures which the Right
Hon. Baronet proposed in 1842. although he agreed with seine
of the propositions, to othersof them he gave his most strenuous
opposition.—(Hear, hear.) He quite agreed with the
Honourable Member that protection should be with-
drawn, or equally extended to all. Compromise had been
talked of, but for his part he must say that he was no friend to
compromise. We must either stand as we are at present, admit
the measure proposed by Government, or receive those pro-
posed by the party represented by the Hon. Member for Stock-
port (Mr. Cobden). The measures now introduced are in op-
position to the experience of centuries, andhe bad yet to learn that
the experience of three years should be taken as an argument for
the withdrawal which for centuries had been to agriculture,
and which had raised this country to the highest pitch of re-
nown.— ( Hear, le ar. ) He considered the measure of 1842
was merely a preliminary step towards the present commercial
policy of the Government, and that measure had not been met
n a kindred spirit by other countries. Seven or eight countries
had adopted tariffs in opposition to ours, and had increased the
duties which they before levied on the introduction.—( Hear.)
Look at the present state of the public funds, the state of the
labour market and the manufactures. The price of the public
funds sufficiently indicate the prosperity of the country. In
the labour market there is a great difficulty to obtain labour for
the purpose of conducting the necessary improvements of the
country ; at the same time an immense capital flowing into those
nthe
prosperity country, are circumstances which
of the nation, and give us
gternedattounshdoerwtatkhi
the undertakings
of
warning not to tamper with our commercial policy, and bid us
be sati.fied with the prosperity showered On the country.--
It appeared to him, from information which he had received
from twenty-six societies in different parts of the country, that
se
the failure of the potato crop had been greatly exaggerated.
He hoped that the House would bear with him while he gave
some evidence of the crops of this country, which would prove
that the fears of a coming scarcity were without founda-
tion, and tha reports of the failure in the potato crop
got up for party purposes —( Hear, hear, and cheers. )
He only that morning met a friend from the country, a large
and extensive agriculturist, who had a considerable quantity
of potatoes to sell. That friend informed him (Mr.
Miles) that he went to a salesman in the city
to sell him his potatoes ; that salesman refused
to purchase on the grounds that potatoes now
were decreasing in value, and that the next month or the
month after he would be enabled to purchase them much
cheaper, and advised him (the farmer) to send up his potatoes
immediately. He (Mr. _Miles) considered that statement
very valuable in the present state of the country, as it went
to prove that those fears which are entertained of a scarcity
were without foundation.—( Hear, hear.) He would detain
the House with as few details as possible, bnt he felt it in-
cumbent on him to give some proofs of the state of the
crops, and the increased quantity of provisions which
were produced in the last above the preceding year.—
( Cheers.) These returns extend over one million two hundred
and ninety-five thousand acres, and their accuracy he had no
reason whatever to doubt.—(Cheers.) The House would
observe that the great fears of distress arose from
the state of the potato crop. This was the
universal cry whenever any opposition was raised to a repeal of
the corn laws.—(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Miles) could
prove (and it was not denied, for he believed all parties con-
curred in it) that though the crop was diseased, yet that it
was very large, and a greater quantity of ground than
usual was last year under cultivation.—(Cries of "Hear,")
and cries of " No, no," from the Opposition.) There was
also a considerable increase in the wheat crop above that of
former years, taking an average of that given in the entire
country. Oats were also above the average, and so
were turnips. But in looking at this question he
(Mr. Miles) would not follow the Right Honour-
able Baronet through all his arguments. He would only
allude to some of the remarks of the Right Hon. Baronet.
He stated that since the protection was withdrawn from flax
hemp, wool, and lard, the prices of those articles had greatly
advanced. Now he (Mr. Miles) would take the article
of flax, which was greatly cultivated in the county which
he had the honour to represent (Somersetshire). Since
the repeal of the duty on that article had taken place, the
cultivation of it became limited, and in a short time it would
entirely go out of cultivation in the county of Somerset.—
(Cheers.) They had the price of flax so reduced in Ireland,
that its growth is not now considered profitable, although, as
in Somersetshire, the reward for labour is small.—( Cheers. )
He would now read to the House the amount of labour used in
the cultivation of flax in four parishes with which he was im-
mediately acquainted, which would show the loss sustained by
those places in consequence of the reduction that had already
taken place. [Here the Hon. Gentleman read a statistical
return, which shewed that during the times of protection there
were under cultivation, in flax, 710 acres, while now there
were only 46.] The expense of preparing an acre of flax was five
pounds, and there was altogether expended in these four
parishes in the cultivation of flax, a sum of 5,9001., which, by
this free-trade measure, would be lost to those places.—(Loud
cheers.) It was perfectly true, for the returns showed the
great increase which had taken place in the sale of cattle in
Smithfield market for the last six months—those returns
showed the number to be for the last six months no
less than twenty-five thousand, although there was a deficiency
on the preceding year of 16,000. This showed the prosperity
of the country, and he (Mr. Miles) considered while they
were in that state of prosperity they ought to leave " well
alone."—(Cheers.) Let them look at any of the returns,
and they would find in the article of ore there was not near se
large a quantity imported this year as there was in the year before. .
The natural consequence of these fac's was that it should be
the duty of the Minister not to run risks by these constant
changes. Notwithstanding the prosperity of the last three
years, was it not a feeling in many a man's mind, that the next
year may bring about other important changes ? even
of more magnitude than those of year 1842 ?—(Loud
cheering.)
Tow, what was the Right Honourable
Baronet doing but lending himself to the manufacturers of this
country, and throwing overboard the other industrious classes
of the nation ?—( Loud cheers.) Now while the manufacturers
were in the highest state of prosperity, the skill and energies of
the agricultural portion of the community were left unprotected.
Let them rather look to what had been the commercial policy
of France, and here he did not think he could do better than
quote from a book which had been laid before them, the
" Commercial Tariff," which the Hon. Member for Bolton con-
ceived
to be a book that none but free-traders ever looked into,
hut he could assure the Hon. Gentleman that he had studied it,
and derived great information from its pages.--( Hear, hear.)
lie found it to be stated, in a report from the Committee of
Finance, adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, that if they

admitted food and raiment, they might gain some hundreds of
income for the present ; but in the end their fields would
remain entitled. And he would tell the House that the woollen
trade of France came into direct competition with their own
manufacture, and that in their own market, opposing itself to
all the manufacturing energies of the country. Look to
Russia— if they could force their free-trade notions on
that vast empire, it would have the effect of giving employment
to millions, to such an extent that they would deluge the
British markets with every kind of manufactured
articles. At the very present moment, in the manu-
facture of cotton, they almost compete with you
in the foreign markets.—( Hear, hear.) And was it likely,
strictly prohibitory as their system was, they would approve of
this free-trade scheme now proposed ? It was stated by
an Honourable Member that agriculture was in its infancy ;
now it must be apparent to every one that in the last few years
the improvement had been mcst extroordinary ; they had
brought capital and science to bear upon the soil, and the increase
of the crops kept pace with the increase of competition. But
if Russia still maintains her prohibitory duties and takes ad-
vantage of your measures , what will be the result? The Rus-
sian serfs, at present in the most abject condition, doing nothing
to promote the internal resources of his country, will be ready
to apply their energies, and to come to your markets
and flood it with their productions, enriching themselves
just in the same proportion that they impoverish you.
( Loud cheering.) There will be an exchange to be sure, but
it will not be an enchange that will be equally beneficial. It
is urged, however, that you will be enabled to compete with
foreign goods. In neutral mat kets, what was the case ? He would
quote from memory a statement made by an Hon. Member,
namely, that in neutral markets the cotton cf Switzerland,
the hardware of Alsace, and the hosiery of Saxony, meet on
equal terms with our manufacturers. Even Mr. M-Gregor
states that Saxon hosiery, paying a duty of twenty
per cent., successfully competes with you in
your own markets? Now, what would be the ease when
they teak of that protective duty ? He would ask the manufac-
turer how they would answer that argument? He would tell
him the only way he could meet it would be by the improve-
ment of machinery.--(Hear, hear.) Yes that would be the
only method, and what would he the consequence? Why
they would throw an immense quantity of manual labour
into the market, and at the end of a year Saxony would import
their machinery, and there would be and of it. He defied any
Member to deny the inference. How wouldthe employer meet
such ruinous competition? He could only do it by lowering
the wages of the operative. The result would he a
number of such strikes as they might frequently
have read of, for they would not tamely submit to it.
(Loud cheering.) He would now direct the attention of the
House to the statements made by the Right Hon. Baronet
with regard to the exports of the last year. He considered
that if they took a different method of calculation from
that adopted by the Honourable Baronet, they would
arrive at a far different conclusion. If they took a cycle of
twelve years instead of three, they would find that the price
of corn had nothing whatever to do with their exports.
—( Hear, hear.) If they compared one year with another,
as the Right Honourable Baronet had done, they could
ne-rer arrive at a fair and legitimate conclusion.
Now, with the leave of the House, he would go into those
triennial calculations. He would begin at the year 1814 for
that purpose. He found that in that year the average price of
wheat was 465., while the average amount of exportation was
41,000,000. In the year 1835 the average price of
wheat was 485., while the exportation was 47,000,00-a In
the year 1836, the average price of wheat was 38s. 9d., the
amount of exportation was 47 millions, so that for that period
the average price of wheat was 41s. Bd., and the average quan-
tity of exportation was 45 millions. In the years 1837, 1838,
and 1839, the following would be found to be the respective
proportions :—ln the year 1837 the average price of
wheat was 455. 9d., and the amount of exportations
53 millions. In the year 1838, the average price was 655. Id.;
while the average amount of expenditure was forty-two
millions. In the year 1839 the average price was 755. 5d.,
while the average amount of exportation was fifty millions.
This period showed the average price of wheat to be 63s 9d.,
and the average amount of exportation forty-eight millions.
In the years 1841, 1842, and 1843, the following ap-
peared to be the result :—ln 1841 the average price of wheat
was 665. 3d , and the amount of exportation fifty-three millions.
in 1842, 645. 3d., and the amount of exportation 51 millions;
and in the year 1843, the average price was 575. 3d., and the
average amount of exportation 47 millions. This period,
therefore, showed the average price of wheat to be 625. 7,1., and
the average amount of exportation to be 50 millions. The last
period embraced the years 1844, 1845, and 1846, and as stated
by the Right lion. Baronet, showed the following results :
In the year 1844, the average price of wheat was 50s. Id., and
the average amount of exportation 52 millions. In the year
1845 it was 51s. 3d., and the amount of exportation was fifty-
eight millions. The average for 1846 had not been made up,
but taking them at the amounts which appeared for the
portion of it that had elapsed, the average price was 525.,
and the average exportation fifty-eight millions. So that this
last period presented an average price of 51s. for wheat, and
;ho average amount of exportation at fifty- six millions. It would
appear, therefore, that by this calculation the price of corn
presented no relative affinity whatever with the amount of
exports.—( Hear, hear.) That price entirely depended on do..
mand and supply.—( Hear, hear.) The cause of their recent
prosperity had been alluded to by the Right Hon. Baronet and
the Hon. Member for Oxfordshire. If the Right Honourable
Baronet had made his speech, in which he made that allusion,
on the seconetrright of the session, the country would have been
at no lose to know what was the cause of that prosperity.
He (the Right lion. Baronet) then alluded to the immense
amount of capital which had been embarked in railroads. It
would appear from this statement that ne less a sum than
twenty-three millions of capital were directly thrown into the
labour market during the last three years.—(Cries of
Hear, hear.) He would ask, therefore, in the face of these
statements, whether it was not this immense flow of capital thus
cast into the labour market, to which must be attributed
the extraordinary prosperity which existed in the country.—
( Hear, hear.) But his Right Hon. Friend had also alluded
to the extraordinary impetus which the trade of the country
had recently received. The other day a document had been
placed in his hand, which showed a relative statement of this
prosperity, from the year 1832 to the present time.
He found that in the iron trade in the year 1832,
common bars were sold from 41. 10s. to 5/. ; in
the year 1835, the price ranged from 9/. to 10/., and
in the year 1842, the proportional increase was still greater.—.
( Hear, hear.) That would at once show the nature of the
prosperity to which he alluded, for he understood that 7-Bths
of the iron trade came. directly into the British market, where
it found a ready consumption.—(Hear, hear.) He
hoped and trusted, therefore, that what he had said
would be sufficient to show the nature of the impetus
which the manufacturers of the country had received, and the
influence which the capital thus embarked had upon the trade
of the whole country.—( Hear, hear.) He should like to know
whether the foreign market presented similar results ? He
should like to know whether China was not at present over-
glutted with their manufactures ? (Hear, hear.) lie
should like to know whether the Indian market was not
in the same state ? And if they went on in the same way
for another cycle of years, and proceeded to manufacture in
the same unlimited extent, a season of adversity would come,
and the country would be precipitated into a state of the most
indescribable misery.—(Hear, hear.) From the way that com-
petition was carried on, it would be perfectly impossible, not-
withstanding the scientific improvements which had
been made in machinery, to avert this calamity.—
( Cries of " Hear, hear.") He trusted the House would for-
give him for alluding to these details. That, however, was a great
question—( Hear, hear)—and though he had entered very im-
perfectly into these details, his object was to show, as well as
he could, however feebly, the grounds on which he had formed
his opinions. He addressed himself not to the agricultural
part of the question, but to the commercial. He would now,
however, with the permission of the House, say a few words on
the subject, as far as agriculture was concerned. In glancing at
the corn-law of 1842, he had to say that he heard the Right Hon.
Baronet then utter the most extraordinary things, as con-
trasted with the opinions which he now held.—( Hear, hear,
and cheers.) He ( Mr. Miles) then supported the Right lion.
Gentleman because he considered that that law was better than
the one of 1818. He recollected also that the Hon. Member for
Dublin had then stated that the consumption of corn had beets
very much increased in the country, and that they would not be
able to grow as much as would be sufficient for the demands of
the country. Now what he (Mr. M.) would ask was, the cause
of that increased consumption ? He would tell them. The
cause of that apparent consumption was the addition which had
been made to the number of towns from which the averages
were made up. 180 towns had been added to this number, and
that was the cause why a greater quantity of corn appeared to
be consumed.—( Cheers.) A return had been also moved for
about that time, as to the relative prices of bread
and corn and wheat. This return showed that there was us
approximation between the price of wheat and flour. The
blame, however, was not to be thrown upon the farmer, but
upon the baker and miller. The relative price of
bread and flour in the Parisian market was more
nearly allied than the relative prices in the London market.
It was in foreign markets 625., and at that time the price of
bread was more approximate than it was in this country under
the same circumstauces. He could assure the House. that
when the price of foreign wheat in this country averaged 625.,
allowing a fair profit to the farmer, the miller
and the baker, the price of bread ought to be 7d. instead of
at the price it was now selling.—( Hear, bear.) It was well
known what were the prices of 1842, and the result of that
measure. He trusted that the Right Hen. Baronet, at the
close of the debate, when he came to speak, would state what
was to be the result of 1849 and 1850. He should like to know
what will be the prices of bread in those years? The law, as
proposed by the Right Hon. Baronet, after three years
would be the same as a shilling rise and a shilling fall. Much
as he was opposed to taking off protection, he would acknow-
ledge that he preferred the principles of the Noble Lord
(Russell) to the measure of the Right Hon. Baronet. He
would not sacrifice his principles by supporting such a meets
sure as the present. If the Noble Lord were to pro-
pose a repeal of the corn-laws, he would of the two
rather support it than the proposition of the Right
Honourable Baronet; and he would say, that of the
two the Noble Lord's plan was the better one.
But he was grieved to have heard the speech of the Right
Hon. Gentleman, the Secretary at War. He would ask him
from what source had they even a chance of the supply he had
led the House to expect. America could not send it, because
when that country was thinly populated they could produce
no more than was necessary for their own consumption, and
now that it had increased, so also should increase the demand
for food ; and if they had ass overplus of produce, and an over-
plus undoubtedly they would have to an enormous amount, so
sure as the corn-laws of this country should be repealed,
America would throw in such a mass of grain upon it
as would entirely destroy the British markets. There
was one point in the speech of the Secretary of War to which
he wished particularly to allude. The Hon. Gentleman had
said that the time had come when the alarmists should lay aside
their cry. Now when he (Mr. Miles) should read the extract
he held in his hands, showing the vast increase of American
produce, he thought he would convince the House that this cry
of alarm had not been raised without a just cause, and that they
afforded a triumphant answer to the arguments of the Secre-
tary at War. Passing by all the corn that came by Liverpool
from other ports of America, he would turn his attention to
the quantity of corn conveyed by New Orleans, all of which
was the produce of the nine great States which sur-
rounded the !Mississippi, which comprised an almost
illimitable territory. The whinle area of Great Britain,
including Scotland and Ireland, did not exceed 19),000
square miles ; whereas the area of the nine great States he had
mentioned, and which poured their -produce into New Orleans'
market, contained an area of over 250,000 square miles, and a
population of 5,500,000; which facts alone, he contended,
were sufficient to fill the people of this country with alarm.
The Secretary at War had also s poken of the produce of the
West of Russia as being such as could not affect prejudicially
the markets of this country.- —(Here the lisn. Member
read the extracts, and then proceeded.). He was anxious to
lay before the House a statement of the extract of the different
corneproducing provinces of Russia. He held in his hand tables,
by which he would show that this country had more to contend
against in the article of corn than they seemed to apprehend,
while Russia would certainly not, take any of their manufac-
tures. In order to make this matter plain, he would read those
returns as short as he :possibly c ould, though he felt that in
doing so he would be trespassing considerably on the/patience
of the )louse.__( Hear, hear.) And here let him say that he
felt deeply grateful for the kind attention with which lie had
already been heard.—[The Hon. Member then unfolded a large
bundle of papers, from which e took several large sheets con-
taining figures set forth in to nular form, and detailing very
minutely the area of the different provinces of Russia
arid Poing, whichwere remarkable for the quantity