The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-25 00:00:00

CORN IMPORTATION BILL.

The Earl of RIPON, in moving the order of the day for
the second reading of the Corn Importation Bill, said,—My
Lords, I am desirous, as much as possible, to compress within
the smallest compass the observations which it will be my duty
to address to the House upon this important question. But,
my Lords, I fear that the very importance of the
question as well as some circumstances of a personal character
connected with it, and applying in some measure to myself, will
compel me, however reluctantly, to trespass longer upon your
Lordships' patience than is usual for me to do. For that pa-
tience 1 ask your Lordships. I do not, however, ask for your
Lordships' indulgence, because it might have the appear-
ance of fault, or might indicate that I was about
to do something for which I was bound to make excuses and
apologies. But, me Lords, I am happy to say such is not the
case. I have a public duty to perform, and one of which I am
deeply conscious of iss policy. I have, therefore, no apologias
to make, but I think I know enough of this House, and have
experienced upon many occasions too much of its kindness to
doubt that the patience which I ask will be denied.—( Hear. )
My Lords, I have stated the importance of this question. I have
always considered it the tar most important question which
could come out of our consideration, affecting as it slid so much
of the social condition and happinese of the country in general.
—( Hear, hear.) Important, inasmuch as it affects one way or
in another, all classes of the connnunity—important, as it ie
unfortunately calculated at all times when brought under ths-
cussion to excite warm, if not angry feelings—important be-
cause whilst one party considers it of great injury to the coun-
try, another absolutely insists upon the measure r f the law
for their own advantage and interest.—( Hear, hear.)
These feelings have prevailed and do prevail on both sides
of the question, but it is nevertheless perfectly true
that the interests of both these parties to which I allude are in
reality substantially identical, considering the nature of the
. question itself,—considering that it refers to the absolute
supply of a sufficiency of food to the peeple.---(Hear,
hear.) My Lords, I need not say then that
the question is an extremely difficult one,—difficult
the more because of the identy, and because of the difference
of opinion to which 1 have referred. I say, therefore, my
Lords, that it is a question most important, inasmuch as it re-
lates to the supply of food for the people, while the course
which Parliament has pursued upon it sufficiently indicates
its difficulty.—(l-fear, hear.) At one time we have had laws
producing great. fluctuations and great scarcity in the supply
of food, and while one party has considered them of the greatest
injury to the country, another has contended that they were ab-
solutely necessary for protecting the best interests of thenation.
I think, my Lords, that those are the circumstances—the ex-
treme difficulty in which this question has been placed. My
Lords, I have never been insensible to those feelings, and it is
true that 1 have taken an active part in the discussion of this
subject. It was my lot many years ago, when I held a subordi-
nate situation in the Government of that day, to propose
in my place in Parliament a very important measure
for the purpose of regulating the trade in corn ;
but, say Lords, I am anxious for my own vindication
with respect to the course I have pursued, not only upon that,
but upon many subsequent occasions, and comparing that
course which I feel it to be my duty to pursue on the present
occasion, I think it is but fit that I should explain to your
Lordships what the principles were on which I supported those
measures, and, above all, to show what were not the princi-
ples upon which I recommended them to Parliament.
My Lords, when I introduced, in 1815, the Corn Bill
of that day I did it. I may say this, for it is fair; and it is
now so long since that I can hardly recollect the inferences
that were drawn from the course that I then adopted; but I
did introduce the measure with the greatest reluctance. I
was not a member of the Government, for I held only a
subordinate situation, and when Lord Liverpool sent to me
his desire that I would introduce the measute, I certainly did
feel this reluctance, and took the liberty of expressing
that I had a great objection to any corn-law whatever. I
thought then—l have thought so ever since—that a corn-law
is in itself an evil—( Hear, hear)— to be justified solely
by the establishment of some paramount necessityhave
sufficient in magnittu'e to overcome our scruples,
ly
be justified by the necessity of the times.
said, the imposition of such an evil upon the co,uintnifroyr;coaLusulrdd
so,n
A'
to the other
the address which I took the liberty
House of Parliament, in reference t.oeettufifs
I thought a corn-law was but a
countrychoi
laboured at the time
makingpsuusbil
vete ,
evils
a meetttend that
the difficulties under which thiseed
ridingertook that atobj e -
ed to show the grounds on which
have mentioned. And I p
propose.
tion, and adopting
thtehmoewaes vet', rounds
that law ; I never su
I thought Parliament wourld7::
My lords, I did not, whichjust eldt nenvuenr
u orted by the house. 1 f •
forted any corn law up any grounds upon which that systeprn"
of policy has been s never, or
supported the Corn-law, or thought it wise
stance, sor even justifiable. I never supported the Corn-laws upon
the ground of any charge being mrde on the owners of
land, or their mortgages, or settlements and incumbrantea'
thata
which they are certainly of thaehature. I consit:er that
nonend I
never
theseof
puta
any g
matters wouldweight
hton
justify
. am perfectlykind,
thatargument.
aware my Loris that that species of argument in
support of the corn-laws is now pretty generally abandoned.
at least I think it is abandoned by Parliament. It was net
be abandoned elsewhere, but I do think that it is not an
argument upon which any one is now prepared in either House
of Parliament to vindicate the maintenance. of any resolution
upon the importation of the first article of nece=sity in
the way of food. My Lords, I never supported the
corn-bill upon the ground of its being the part of a great
system of protection to national industry. I never supported it
on that ground. On the contrary, my Lords, I always have
supported the corn-law upon its own especial grounds,
as entirely contradistinguished from, and every article of corn-
merce, and as standing upon grounds peculiar to itself. Indeed
it would be utterly impossible for me to support the Corn Law
as a part of a great system of national policy with a view to
the uniform and universal protection of native industry, because
I have over and over again laid down an opposite principle with
regard to the principle of protection, and have
shared, year after year, in the earliest measures
of impottsueo of orliioh the ejeot ofel to brisk

in upon that principle of what is called protection to British in
dustry, and to get rid as completely as circumstances will ad-
mit, of the system, first of prohibition, and then of restriction,
which I have always held to be dangerous, not only to the
country of itself in genera!, but to the very interest which that
system professes to protect. And, my Lords, lam not prepared
to admit the truth of the arguments in favour of that system,
because I find that the maintenance of the corn-law is sup-
ported and insisted upon because it is a part of that
system. I therefore cannot support it on the ground
on which we are to support the corn-laws, not
only at the present moment, but permanently—as the part of a
permanent system, from which you cannot depart, according to
the views of thnse who support it, without exposing the inte-
rests of the country to very great danger. but I
find it advanced in the most positive manner—much more
positively than I ever heard before, and I therefore immediately
answer and state that that principle I never did support, and
therefore I am liable to no reproach if Ido not support
that principle now. Now, my Lords, I have denied,
aad I now deny, that that is a national principle—
That it is a principle of national policy at all times and under
all circumstances to do what is called protect native in-
dustry. I cannot think it, because when I come
to consider what the law and policy of this
country has been from time to time been found to be the
principle : the Legislature of this country has never laid it
down on the contrary, the Legislature of the country has over
and over again been in direct defiance of that principle.
and the instances brought forward had no reference
whatever to it. I had occasion once to state to your Lord-
ships, when we were about to submit for your considera-
tion a meosure affecting the tariff in the year 1844,
I had occasion then to point out what the circumstances which
gave rise to that which was taken to be the original establish-
ment of that principle of protection, It is quite true that
there were high duties imposed upon articles similar to
those produced in this country. , The imposition of these
duties had the effect in their operation of being protecting
duties. But when we are called upon to look at
the question as a principle, we must see the mo-
tive for imposing those duties. Looking at the
case in that point of view, you will find that
in an immense number of instances all these duties were im-
' posed as the result of fiscal necessity. The duty of 25 per
cent. additional on the customs duties was placed solely
for the purpose of revenue without any considera-
tion to any particular mode in which the impo-
sition of these duties would effect the general
trade or commerce of the country. The duty on timber for
instance, which is supposed to be part of this great system of
protection to native industry. Why, my Lords,
whatever it may have become at the present
period, it cer ainly was not so forty years ago. For
The first time that these duties were imposed upon foreign
timber, was in the year 1809. Till that time, the duty was
next to nothing. There was no idea at that time of protecting
the timber either of our own countries or of the colonies,
by any system of duties of that description. The imposition
of these duties arose entirely from accidental circumstances—
from our being engaged in hosilities with Bonaparte
in the north of Europe. That was the cause, and
no other, and the best proof that it was no
other—that it was not a principle to be interwoven
with the commercial constitution of the country—if I
may use such a phrase- that the Act which imposed
these hsgh duties was passed fur a period of only
the duration of the war.—( Hear.) They might have been
dispensed with immediately after the expiration of the war,
they were not, however, suffered to do so. lam therefore en-
titled to say that this not ion of a large duty being part
of a system formed for the purpose of protecting
native industry is a proposition not founded on nor m-intainable
by fact, and so, my Lords, was it with agriculture,
—the wool trade, for instance. You are awares
my Lords, that there was no duty at all on
foreign wool up to the year 1819—and what was it imposed for
then ? Why, for the sole purpose of the revenue to be raised
from it. I must certainly know something of that circumstance.
because I moved in the House of Commons at that
period a resolution, from which resolution the imposi-
tion of this duty sprang. The result, I say, of those
resolutions was, in order that the Government might
have a surplus revenue. It was necessary that a sinking
hied should be raised at 5 I per cent. in order to meet
this circumstance. This duty upon foreign wool wail
imposed, and not with any view to form a part of a protee,
tive system, it was solely for the purpose of revenue.
There were several objectionable restrictions on British wool
such as preventing it from being removed from one place;
another, which were quite inconsistent with free trade of any
kind, but which were imposed upon that important article
with the notion that it was entitled to have a share in a
great universal protective system, upon which so much
stress has been laid. Again with respect to the
minor articles, such as cheese, butter, &c., they were net
i originally liable to any duty more than nominal, and it
was not until the year 1816 that they were prgposed,
perhaps it was a wise measure, perhaps it might
be otherwise, but it was no part of a general system.
(LEFT SPEAKING.)

DREADFUL COAL-PIT EXPLO-

LION.

SWANSEA, TH uRsDAY.-Ticdreadful explosion took
place on Tuesd,ty last at Alyreydduewidd Colliery. On
Tuesday morning the men were told that " all was righ.t,
except one portion, which they had barricaded up with
timber so that it should be known; but ere an hour had
clapsal a tremendous explosion shocked the entire pit,
causing the instant death of five men, and several others.
much burnt. The first t,ody found was that of David
Jones. It presented an awful aspect, the whole of his
intestines having fallen out, showing the violence with
which he had been driven against parts of the colliery by
the violent concussion. The remainder were also shock-
ingly disfigured, and were blown some 200 yards from
wnere the explosion happened. At the Coroner's in-
quest on. the bodies, it was clearly proved to have
resulted from the imprudence of one of the miners, who,
notwithstanding the caution he had received, went into
the dangerous part before spoken of with a naked
candle. The jury, after a very lengthened investigation,
returned a verdict of Accidental Death.

We also regret to mention two other fatal explosions,
one at Pwllgraig, neer Merthyr, and the other at the
Mountain Pitts, Pennydarren. Four persons lost their
lives at them, which appeared to have resulted from the
same circumstances. The greater portion of the unfor-
tunate sufferers have left large families utterly destitute.

FEATHERED QUADRUPED.—An egg was hatched
last Saturday, under a hen, the property of Mr. William
Barsby, Bunker's-hill,, the produce of which was a chicken
with four two of which are in the usual place, while the
supernumeraries, as if ashamed of their own ridiculous selves,
endeavour to conceal themselves under the tail—we are
forced to add with very indifferent success. And yet they
are not a bad pair of legs, complete in every particular--
claws, legs, and thighs to match ; and certainly, if it had
.
only these, no chicken need be ashamed of its locomotive en-
dowment. Nor do these constitute the only singularity at-
tached to this winged quadruped ; we are assured by its
owner that it has actually managed to return froin 4, that
bourne" wherefrom, according to Will Shakspere, "no tra-
veller returns." But then tue poet never calculated on such
extraordinary pedestrian facilities; with four legs it would
be a pity if a chicken could not accomplish a little more than
its relations can, who are compelled to put up with two. The
fact is, that on Sunday last, Mr. Barsby locked up the pro-
digy with its mother, room, in an upper during his temporary
absence from home; but on his return found it, to his great
concern and disappointment, lying apart from its maternal pa-
rent and the rest of the feathered fatnily on the cold plaster floor.
If ever a chicken appeared dead, that did; it was handled by
numerous visitants, whom curiosity impelled to the place, and
tivir unanimous verdict was, that it was as dead as a door
nail. Its owner, deeply lamenting its untimely end, threw
it upon a shelf, where it lay for some time, until fetched
down again by female curiosity. Mrs. Barsby. not having
previously inspected the phenomenon to her entire satisfac-
tion, repaired to the chamber of death, and proceeded to com-
plete the examination ; but had not held the deceased in her
hand long, before `it all at once exhibited undoubted
symptoms of vitality, at which surprising circumstance
the good woman declares she felt " as if she should sink
through the floor." This latter event, however, did not ensue,
as it happened ; the chicken progressed rapidly in its course
to full animation, and was so far advanced towards perfect
convalescence by Sunday night, as to feel itself quite ade-
quate to the performance of numerous small chirps. We
car. assure our readers the illustrious bird is now in very
likely circumstances; we have been favoured with a Per'
sonal inspection of it, and can cheerfully bear witness in a
court of justice, if required, to the fact that the surprising
creature, legs and all, is alive, and kicking.—Nottingher°
Review,
THE BATTLES OF ALIWAL AND SODRAON.— T"
paintings, in illustration of these recent events, are now on
Rooms, exhibition at the Cosmorama Regent-street, and
have, we believe, in consequence of the interest felt in the
event, already attracted a considerable number of visiters
In the first painting the time chosen is that of the charge ofu
the 16th Lancers upon a square of Seikh infantry, which
by the determined onset of her Majesty's troops, is broken
and thrown into disorder. The Sutlej is seen in the distance!
and the general character of the surrounding country is wet!
described. The second picture, pourtraying the battle 0'
Sobraon, is by far the best of the two. We here see the
rushingfialetno
death of Sir Henry Dick, who is rledpiererssenwtheod
amongst a crowd of the brave so
a murderous dis-
charging up to the cannon's mouth, ansci to have swept a
storm the batteries of the enemy. The 10th Regiment is
charge of grape and round shot ere
more truly before the
set' the attacking party.
lane through the unyielding mass °
the smooth waters of the
aret Lave
c,
ye
rleocotd
byanadwrsiltatuegnh(tieerscrairre
The horrors of this field
Itubrwe'ith it, like the Simoere'
brought, by means of this P
ofts of
such
c themans vanquished.
a sa are
the
plain, to be
al'omlonsghortly tinged with
tspectatorioihi thante
rear it
t tahre possibler3,ea.
Sutlej wind across
Seikli blood, and to c
fret of Sobraon is one which our
confirms
The deadly 1-
hand 't
shouldsh shields!
ad: ,a
avail
and
himself
es
power over the Selk s, is nothing more than right that
every
his reach to enable him
within
with which our brave troops had to contend, and to teach
the7Emnegrioisu stub: bodies,
blurt to set a proper value upon their services.

BIRTHS
cfnart,
--
On the 4th ult., at Mallabuleshrar, the wife of Charles J. F. '-'-` Esq., of the Oriental Bank, of
toy
al
ofth eEldly,e,va.lo,dEf
vial lii:iaaerst,ll,4Eilitsl:trs.o.,le of
On the 13th inst., at the Royal hospital, Greenwich, the wife
oars:l:aught". lad/
On the 18th inst., at Wyool's-court, Swallowfteld, Berks, the •
On the 20th inst., at Handlton-place, St. John's-wood, Mrs. Samuel
Phillips,
On the 20th inst., at Eddins House, Dorset, Mrs. Edmund Wright"
of a daughter.
On the 21st inst., the wife of the Rev. Archer Thompson, Rector or
Hotham, of a daughter. TidsWelh
On the 21st ilist., at Champion-hill, Surrey, Mrs. Robert
of a son.
Wood, of a son.
On the 21st inst., at the Rectory, Littleton, the lady
wife Of fr.
On the 21st lust , at John's-terrace, Hackney-road, the
tree_,4
Wallace, surgeon, of a son.
Albion-0/
,----
On the 21st inst., the wife of R. G. Stevens, Esq., of -
........
Hyde-park, of a son.
____..------7
of the Bev. P.

MARRIED. .L, of
On the 20th Inst., at St. Pancras Church, T. M. Phillipson, -,,..-.l'; 0
Adelaide, South Australia, to .latilda Constance, eldest (Mug"'
Sampson
son G2lsoldst., minst. id, Esq. t
,t
ofGeorge's, Meeklenbllanover quare, James urg,h-square. JosePl,
On , a :-s u
~,, Otter
Power, Esq., M.D., of Makistune, Kent, to Eliza, youngeSt "
of Iloratio Pope, Esq., of Fant, in the same pitlt

DIE
On the 20th inst., at Winchester, John Mecdermeit, second Son °f
Andrew Crawford, M.D., aged 13.
On the 20th inst., Mr. William Perkins, of elvedere-road, Lan'
beth, aged 70.
On the 20th inst., at Battersea, Charlotte, the relict of WilliV3
Cruiltshank, Esq., aged 03.
On the 21st inst., at East Acton, Charles James, second son of .1
C. Weir, Esq., aged 12. e Est'
On the 21st inst., at Croom's-hill, Greenwich, George Brown
John
,
On the 21st inst., at Clapton, Emily Augusta, theLoxley, Esq
wife of
2
London: Printed and Published by &ORD° YOUNG, of 4.0.. • -
Strand, Printer, at The Sun Oilice N 0.112, Strand, in the Pfeeitle'
of the Sayoy, in the County' of laiddlooeit Monday,
26, Is 4

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