The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-10 00:00:00

No. 16,683. LONDON, TUESDAY
N
.1
_ „

HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF LONDON.
A GENERAL COURT of this CORPORATION, to celebrate
the Anniversary of the Battle of Alexandria, will be held at the
Freemason's Tavern, on SATURDAY, the 21st inst.
Dinner at a quarter before Seven precisely.
Ills Grace the Duke of BUCCLEUCIL K.G., President, in the
Chair.

MR. HUTT, M.P., AND THE COM-
MITTEE OF THE DURHAM- COUNTY AGRI-
CULTURAL PROTECTION SOCIETY.
London, Feb. 25, 1546.
Sir,—l regret that I have been prevented till to-day
from acknowledging the receipt of your letter of last
week, which contained a copy of the resolutions agreed
to by the Committee of the County of Durham Agricul-
tural Protection Society, together with a request that I
would express my opinions upon them. Those opinions
I have now the honour of transmitting to you.
I have only to add, that I trust the committee will not
consider as discourteous the frankness with which I have
expressed myself on the somewhat stout resolutions to
which they have called my attention.
1 have the honour to be,
Your very obedient Servant,
WILLIAM HUTT.
J. H. Forster, Esq., Honorary Secretary, &c.
FIRST RESOLUTION.—" That this Committee views
with inexpressible surprise and alarm the Commercial
Policy of her Majesty's Government, as explained by Sir
Robert Peel, believing it to be pregnant either with the
destruction of British Agriculture, or with the reduction
of the wages of all the labouring classes in this country
to the level of those paid in Continental Europe, and in
either case likely to produce an incalculable amount of
individual misery and national degradation."
The opinion expressed in this resolution, that the
Commercial Measures of Sir Robert Peel will reduce the
wages of labour in this country to the Continental level,
is quite at variance with general experience. The laws
which determine the wages of labourers appear, judging
from what has recently passed in Parliament and ema-
❑ated from the Protectionist press, to be very little
understood. I can scarcely recal any subject of equal
importance on which greater errors have so extensively
prevailed. At such a political juncture as the present,
this ignorance is the more to be lamented, because it
affords to factious and prejudiced persons unusual oppor-
tunities of exciting and spreading very mischievous delu-
sions; and I am sure that no parties will view this un-
haupy circumstance with greater regret than the Com-
mittee of the County of Durham Agricultural Protec-
tion Society.
As the subject of wages is really one of science,
though too frequently' dealt with in the loose language
of vulgar declamation, I will state what, in the opinion
of all scientific writers and other high authorities, are
the circumstances which regulate the rate of wages.
It is found that the difference which exists in the
rewards of labour in different countries is caused by
the different degrees of skill and efficacy with which
labour is there applied. In countries where a labourer
performs a large quantity of work in a day, his daily,
wages are high ; and in countries where, on the con-
trary, he executes only a small quantity of work in the
same time, his wages are low.
This may be made fully apparent to practical men, by
contrasting the earnings of agricultural labourers in the
North of England with the earnings of the same class of
labourers in Ireland.

The survivors of the officers of the army and navy, who served
with the expedition to Egypt, under the late Sir Ralph Abercrombie,
are invited to attend this commemoration, as the guests of the
Society.
Members of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and
of the Branch Societies of Aberdeen, Madras, Bombay, &c., are ad-
misable at all the General Courts of the Society without introduction.
Members who intend to be present are requested to give an early
Intimation to the Honorary Secretary, in order that suitable arrange
manta may be made for the dinner.
18, Parliament-street,

GEORGE BAIN, Hon. Sec,

NATIONAL LOAN FUND LIFE ASSUR-
ANCE SOCIETY,
26, CORNHILL, LONDON.
Capital A 500,000.
Empowered by Act of Parliament.
This institution otters important Anti suestantial advan-
tages with respect both to Life Assurances and Deferrod Annuities.
The assured has, on all occasions, the power to borrow, without ex-
pense or forfeiture of the Policy, two-thirds of the premium paid,
(see table) ; also the option of selecting benefits, and the conversion
of his interests to meet other conveniences or necessity. Assurances
for terms of years are granted on the lowest possible rates.
DIVISION OF PROFIT'L
The success and increasing prosperity of the Society has enabled
the Directors, at the last annual investigation, to declare a third
Bonus, varying from 30 to 75 per cent. on the premiums paid on
each Polley effected on the Profit scale.
EXAMPLES.

7.c.

Premium. Bonus
, g added.

X I X a. d.
60,1000 74 3 4

1837 £l9l 13 5
1838 165 13 0
1839' 138 13 6
1840 89 0 0

Bongs in
Cash.

£B7 13 5
74 13 10
61 14 3
41 13 4

'0..,Y
m
• .s.—

£l3 17 1
11 S 6
9 8 10
6 0 0

V
&nov
41
• 4"

X 395 Il 1
846 43
296 13 4
247 4 6

Tho divialon of profita is annual, and the next will be made in De-
cember of the present year.
F. FERGUSON CA.3fROUX. See.

THE CAMPAIGN on the SUTLEJ creating
immense interest at the present moment, there is exhibiting
at the ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION Portraits of the
most Distinguished Men both in the SIKH ARMY and GOVERN-
MENT of LAHORE, taken by a lady of rank, distinguished in the
Fine Arts, during her residence in India. By means of the OPAQUE
MICROSCOPE these interesting Portraits are on a magnificent
scale. Mornings, at Half-past Four o'clock ; Evgahtge at a Quarter
to Ten. The LECTURES include those on ASTRONOMY, during
Lent on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, COLEMAN'S WORK-
ING MODEL ascending and descending Inclined Planes, &c. &c.
Admission, Is. ; Schools, Half-price.

DRESSING CASES.
FISHER, 188, Strand.
A large STOCK of CASES, with new and improved morticed par-
titions, which cannot possibly break loose ; warranted to stand the
tropical climate. A good dressing-case, either lady's or gentleman's,
may be purchased from 3/. to 501. Also writing-desks, work-boxes,
leather travelling desks, and dispatch boxes.
S. F. has the best selection of the above in the trade ; also an assort-
ment of fancy articles too numerous to mention.

Just published, post Svo., cloth, price 4s.
THE NATURE AND THE OF
DEAFNESS and DISEASES of the EAR. -

By WILLIAM DUFTON,
=surgeon to the Birmingham Institution for the relief of Deafness.
" One of the best compendiums of aural medicine and surgery
which has hitherto been published."—Lancet.
" The best work on the subject."—Birmingham Gazette.
London : John Churchill ; and all booksellers.

Elegant Pocket Edition, price Is., by post is. 6(1.
DR. CU LVER W ELL ON MARRIAGE,
its lIINDRANCES and OBLIGATIONS.

" To be or not to be, that is the question."—Shakspeare.
Contents :--On Matrimonial Eligibility and Unfitness—Laws
Paternity—Phenemena of Gestation—On Maternal Influence—Or
nfelieitous and unproductive Unions—Curiosities of Medioal Experi-
ence, Cases, &c. &c.
Also Companion to the same, price Is., by post Is. 6d.

. . . . .
CHASTITY ; its ABUSES and DISEASES (71 Engravings).
These two interesting little volumes are not intended for idle or In-
discriminate perusal, but they are earnestly offered to the attentive
consideration of those who may be more legitimately and perhaps
painfully interested.

Shen;-ood, 23, Paternoster-row ; Carvalho, 147, Fleet-street ;
Mann, 39, Cornhill, and all booksellers, or direct from the Author,
..knindol-street. Strand. At home daily till 2 ; Evenings, 7 till

FOURTEENTH EDITION of the SILENT FRIEND on Human
Frailty, with Coloured Engravings.
Jost published, price 2s. 64., free by post (in a sealed envelope) 3s. 6d.,
THE SILENT FRIEND ; a Medical Work on
the Infirmities of the System 11 both sexes ; and on the loss
of the reproductive powers, with means of restoration. The banefia
effects of indulge- ce, &c., are ttilly pointed out. Illustrated by Er.-
gravings ; followed by observations on Marriage.
By R. and L. PERRY and Co., Consulting Swoons, London.
Published by the Authors, and may be had at their residence
19, BERNERi3-STREET, OXFORD-STREET.
Sold by Strange, 21, Paternoster-row ; Hannay and Co., 63, Ox-
ford-street; Gordon, 146, Lea4enhall-street ; Purkise, Compton-
street, Soho ; Sanger and Co., Oxford-strait ; and all Booksellers.
"We regard the work before us, the Frined,' as a wore
embracing most clear and practical views of a series of complaint,
hitherto little understood, and passed ever by a majority of the me-
dical profession, for what reason we are at a loss to know. We mint
however confess that a perusal of this work has left such a faveurabl,
Impression on our minds, that we net only recommend, but cordially
wish every one who is the victim of past folly, or suffering from indis
creti on, to profit by the advice contained in its pages."—Age and Argus.
The CORDIAL BALM of SYRIACUM is exclusively directed
to the cure of nervous debility, irregularity, weakness, loss of ap-
petite, indigestion, eonsuniptive habits, and debilities arising from
excess, &c. In bottles, price I ls., or the quantity of four in one
bottle for 335., by which lie. are saved. The Ave-pound eases may
be had as usual.

The CONCENTRATED DETERSIVE ESSENCE, a remedy
for searching eat and purifying the blood from scurvy, blotches
on the head, face, and body, ulcerations, and those painful
affections arising from improper treatment or the eticcts of mercury,
removing secondary symptoms, and all eruptions of the skin. Price
l Is. and 335. per bottle.

PERRY'S PURIFYING SPECIFIC PILLS, price 2s. 9d., Ls. 6d.,
and 11s. per box, are the meat effectual remedy for strictures, inflam-
mation, &e., without hindrance to business.
Consultation fee, if by letter, 11. Minute detail of cases neeossary.
Messrs. R. and L. Perry and Co., surgeons, may Ise consulted, as
usual, at 19, Rerners-street, Oxford-street, London, daily, and at
106, Duke-greet, Liverpool, every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday ;
and at 10, St. John-street, Deansgate, Manche ;ter, on Mondays,
Taesdays, and Wednesdays.

LAMERT ON DEBILITY, NERYOUSNESS, AND ALL
DISORDERS ARISING FROM EXCESS, &c.
" He, who in pleasure's downy arms
Ne'er lost his health or youthful charms,
A hero lives, and justly eftla
Exclaim, in me behold a man 1"
Just published (in a sealed envelope), Tenth Edition, price 2s 6d., or
sent by pest, free, to any address, 3s. 6d.,
SELF-PRESERVATION : a Popular Essay on
those concealed disorders, originating in youthful excesses
and terminating in Nervous Debility, Local and Constitutional
Weakness, and all those Shakings, Anxieties, and Tremors, which
afflict the Weak, the Sedentary, and the Delicate. Witk Practical
Observations on Marriage.
By SAMUEL LAMERT, Censulting Surgeon,
9, BEDFORD-STREET, BEDFORD-SQUARE, LONDON,
Matriculated Member of the University of Edinburgh, Honorary
Member of the London Hospital Medical Society, Licentiate
Apothecaries' Hall, London, Etc.
" The various positions of Lover, Husband, and Parent, the in.
kerent privileges of mankind, are frequently marred and prevented
through the follies and frailties of early indiscretions. To such, among
others, this Essay addresses itself; and by its perusal many questions
may be satisfactorily adjusted that admit of no appeal even to the
most confidential friend."—Stafford Gazette.
"Long experience in the treatment of a class of diseases hitherto
neglected and most imperfectly understood by the great balk of the
medical profession, has enabled the writer to prove that there are
concealed causes of Nervous Debility in existence, where the mere
routine practitioner would never dream of finding them ; traceable
to certain habits, forming the most secret, yet deadly, and fatal
springs of domestic misery, and premature mortality."—Wakefield
Journal.
Published by the Author, and sold in London by S. Gilbert, 5l and
52, Paternoster-row; Starie, 23, Tichberne-street, Quadrant, Regent-
street; Hannay and Co., 63, Oxford-street; Noble, 114, Chancery
ane Gordon, 146, Leadenhall-street ; and by all Booksellers.
At home every day till Three. and from Five till Eircht.

PERFECT FREEDOM FROM COUGHS, IN TEN MINUTES
AFTER USE, IS INSURED BY
DR. LOCOCK'S PLTLMONIC WAFERS.
From Mr. James Simpson, 82, Seymour-place, Bryanstone-
square. _ _ _

Dec. 23, 1845.

In Ireland, twenty labourers are frequently occupied
in cultivating 100 acres of land. In the county of Dur-
ham three labourers will raise from 100 acres a larger
produce than twenty Irish labourers can derive from the
same extent of land of equal or superior fertility. The
consequence is, that the real wages of our agricultural
labourers—(l mean by real wages the comforts and ne-
cessaries of life which their earnings will purchase)—
exceed by three or four times the real wages of the
Irish labourers. The rate of the wages of the labouring
classes is therefore entirely a question of their power
of production ; or, to repeat the terms I have before
used, the real wages of labour, in every country,
must depend on the efficacy with which that labour is
applied.
I think I could make this plain to any intelligent
farmer who would favour me with his attention. I will
state a practical ease; and, to render the subject as clear
and distinct as possible, I will not speak of the farmer's
outgoings and returns in money (which often leads to
confusion in arguments of this nature), but, as it is often
taken in Scotland, in a simpler form—in kind. We
will suppose that the rate of farmering profit is 10 per
cent. ; that the cultivator obtains from his farm an
annual produce equal to 110 quarters of wheat ; and
that his expenses, exclusive of wages, are equal to 60
quarters. It is evident that, under these circumstances,
the real corn-wages of the labourers who raise the 110
quarters of wheat cannot exceed 50 quarters without a
positive loss to the farmer—or, in more exact language,
,without diminishing his profit below the rate for which
he will continue to farm. It is equally plain, that if,
through increased skill and energy, the same number
of labourers could raise 120 quarters instead of 110,
their aggregate wages might rise to 60 quarters and
that, should they raise less than 110 quarters, their
wages mast fall below 50 quarters.
It is a principle or law, established by the experience
of mankind in all countries, that the point to which real
wages rise is regulated by the quantity of work which
the same number of hands can perform in the same space
of time.

" Gentlemen,—l have been afflicted for many years with a most
severe cough (which was always said to be consumptive), and for
which I never found a remedy until I used your wafers, which, from
the benefit I kave received from them, I shall most strongly re-
commend to any one afticted as I was."
DR. LOCOCK'S WAFERS give instant relief and a rapid sure of
Asthma, Consumption, Coughs, and Colds.
TO SINGERS AND PUBLIC SPEAKERS—in a few hours they
remove all Hoarseness, and wonderfully increase the power and
flexibility of the Voice. Price Is. 14c1., 2s. 9d., and lls. per box.
Agents : Da Salva and Co., 1, Bride-lane, Fleet-street, London ;
and sold by all medicine venders.

LOSS OF THE GREAT LIVERPOOL STEAMER. —We
are authorised to state that the Great Liverpool was insured
to the extent of 30,0001.
The Pacha steamer did not get aground on the bar of
Oporto, as was stated in some of the newspapers. This re-
port no doubt originated in her having touched the South
Cotchness shoal at the entrance of the Tagus (through the
alleged incompetency of the pilot), but without sustaining
anv injury.
The General Steam Navigation Company's steam
ship Soho, arrived early yesterday morning at the Black-
wall pier, after a fine passage of nineteen hours from Ant-
werp. The Trident steamer passed the pier immediately
after from Edinburgh, which place she left on Saturday
evening.
THE REV. R. COBBOLD'S HISTORY OF MARGARET
CATCLPOLE.—The adventures of the Suffolk peasant girl,
Margaret Catchpole, have attracted so much attention, that
after exhausting two large editions, the public demand for
the work has called for a third, in which the original three
volumes, without abridgement, have been compressed into
one. Perhaps there never was a true story, the incidents of
which so much exceeded in strangeness those commonly
foand in imaginative narratives, as those in the history of
Margaret Catchpole. In her extraordinary career figures the
real heroine of the cottage, a very different being to the arti-
ficial specimen of perfection who takes so prominent a place in
modern romances. _ _

CASE OF SUSPECTED MURDER.—For some weeks
past the inhabitants of the parish of Tacolnestone have been In a
state of much excitement, in consequence of a a-eport having been
circulated relative to the death of a young woman, under twenty
years of age, the wife of a man named George Mick' eburgh, a weaver,
living in that parish. Since the death of the w.oman, which hap-
pened some few weeks ago, information was givrA, to the Hon. and
Rev. It. Wilson, of Ashwelthorpe, one of the county magistrates,
that It was strongly suspected that she had been pa'soned by her hus-
band. The magistrates, thinking that such a 'case ought to be
thoroughly investigated, granted a warrant for the; apprehension of
the husband, and he was remanded until the chiarge was inquired
into. On Monday last Mr. Pilgrim, the county .coroner, attended,
and a most respectable jury was empannelled trout the adjoining pa-
riAies. The jury met at the Earl Grey public-house, in Tacolnestone,
The body was exhumed, and a post mortem exams nation was made
by Mr. Barton, of Stratton. Several witnesses: were examined ;
but it was found impossible to proceed further in the investiga-
tion until the contents of the stomach had been analysed. This,
from the state of the body, was found to be a mattr.o of some littlo
difficulty, and would occupy several days. The inquiry was, there-
fore, adjourned until Thursday. Mr. Barton declined to proceed any
further in the examination of the body without the assistance of
some skilffil surgeon and chemist. To this Mr. Witson, who attended
the inquest, and who considered the charge one oi7 the greatest im-
portance, and required a strict investigation, con tented. Mr. Firth,
of St. Martin's-at-Palace, assisted Mr. Barton in waalysing the con-
tents of the stomach. The Rev. W. Corbould, ;the rector of the
parish, and several of the neighbouring gentry, wi ire in attendance
daring the inquiry. On Thursday last the corocaar and jury again
assembled, when Mr. Barton and Mr. Firth., who analysed
the stomach, were: examined. They were clearly of 'opinion that the
deceased died from fever, and not from the effects ,of poison, and as
the evidence given by the other witnesses would its St allow the j ury
to come to any other couclasien, they gave their vet diet itecorclinlY•
—iVartoich Mercury.

Unless, then, the Commercial Measure of Sir Robert
Peel shall have the power of diminishing the strength,
the skill, the spirit, the perseverance, of the labouring
classes of England, it is manifestly impossible that these
measures should reduce the wages of the English la-
bourers to the Continental level. Poland, where the pea-
santry subsist on black bread, is, I think, the country
commonly selected as an example to excite the fears of
ignorant men on this subject. I believe that Sir Robert
Peel's commercial policy has no more tendency to re-
duce English labourers to the Polish diet than it has to
make them speak the Polish language.
Equally impossible is it that these measures should be
destructive to British agriculture. Granting, for the sake
of argument, that the repeal of the corn-laws will lower the
relative value of corn. it must at the same time raise the
relative value of other products of agriculture. It is an
important principle, and one established by careful ob-
servation and general experience, that a rise in the re-
lative value of corn (for the sake of clearness, I put aside
the terms money and money value), is less beneficial to
the farmer than a rise in the value of those products of
his farm which are not, strictly speaking, necessaries of
life, When corn is dear, a rise in the value of corn
does not give the farmer any increase of profit upon that
portion of his corn which he must give to maintain his
labourers in health and strength ; while a rise in
the value of those other products of the soil, which
do not form the main subsistence of the labourers,
yields upon all such productions increased profit to the
farmer. This important law may be otherwise and more
simply stated and developed. A rise in the value of
corn increases the cost of producing corn, and therefore
cannot give to the farmer an increase of profit propor-
tionate to the rise of value; while a rise in the value of
those other commodities which do not constitute subsis-
tence, does not increase the cost of growing them, and
therefore yields to the grower an increase of profit in full
proportion to its rise.
To explain my meaning with correctness, I have been
compelled to use exact language; but this is not theory,
it is experience—not inference, but fact. In the im-
mediate neighbourhood of all large towns, we observe
that the cultivation of corn has diminished, and that the
cultivation of other articles, not strictly necessaries of
life, has increased. Why ? Because the latter cultiva•
tion has been found to yield a higher profit than the
former. _ _

tective duties upon those things which form a part of
the labourers' subsistence, and the increased value of
which increases the cost of production, or, in other words,
diFuinishes the efficacy of industry.
It is contrary to all science—contrary to all the ex-
perience on which alone true science is based—to say
that Sir Robert Peel's measures for retaining duties
upon luxuries, and abandoning them upon the necessa-
ries of life, are, in thi language of the resolution,
" unjust and inequitablik" They are, as regards the
whole of the producing clauses, just and equitable in
the highe•t degree.
THIRD RESOLUTION-.—" That it is unjust and in-
equitable, with a free trade in all the products of
our soil, that the maintenance of the clergy of the
Established Church, according to the principles of
the Tithe Commutation Act, should fall entirely
upon the land, and that merchants, manufacturers,
commercial and monied classes of every descrip-
tion, whilst enjoying equally with the agricultural
classes the benefit of religious instruction and con-
solation, should be entirely exempted from contri-
buting to its cost."

The resolution betrays, permit me to say so, an utter
ignorance both of the history of tithes and of the opera-
tion of the Tithe Commutation Act. The title of the
tithe•owner is anterior to that of the landowner. A
tenth of the produce of the soil was appropriated to the
Church before the period to which any existing title to
landed property can be traced in England. The owner
of land has no better title to the tithe than the owner of
tithe has to the land. The two properties are totally
distinct and dissevered from each other. I assure you
that it is a pure absurdity to call either a charge upon
the other.

It is true that when tithes were paid in kind they
operated as a tax upon agricultural improvement, inas-
much as a farmer who raised an additional produce by
incurring an additional outlay had to make an additional
payment out of the fruits of industry: But, under the
Tithe Commutation Act, no injury is inflicted. The
farmer may now increase his capital to any amount he
pleases or can command, and may double or treble his
produce, without being called upon to pay an additional
shilling on account of his tithe-rent charge.
Under the old law, every acre of land (the tithe-free
land of course excepted), and every pound sterling ex-
pended upon its cultivation, was subject to pay a tenth
of the produce, either to the Church or to the lay-im-
propriator ; but every acre of land, and every portion of
capital applied to it, was not subject to rent ; and for
the plain reason, that the last quality of land resorted to,
and the last portion of capital applied, yield nothing be-
yond the ordinary rate of profit upon the farmer's outlay,
and afford nothing towards the rent of the farm. On
the same principle, a fall i❑ the value of produce might,
under the old law, have extinguished rent without extin-
guishing tithe. But in this case the landlord could never
have had any reasouable cause of complaint, because the
title to a tenth of the produce of land is prior to the title
to the land itself.

In like manner, under the new law, the tithe rent-
charge will be paid for qualities of land which, correctly
speaking, pay no rent ; and a fall in the value of pro-
ree may extinguish rent, without diminishing the tithe-
nt charge to a greater extent than that in which the
value of produce may have fallen. But the landlord
cannot in this, any more than in the former case, justly
complain of his property being unequally burdened.
Tithe never formed any portion of his property. He
inherited or he purchased his estate subject to a mort-
gage equivalent to a tenth of its produce. Unless the
estate should be capable of yielding something more
than the amount of the tithe-mortgage, he can have no
property in the soil.
Under the new law, an extreme case may arise, which
deserves consideration. Land thrown out of cultivation
by a fall of prices, and yielding no produce, might still
be subject to the tithe-rent charge. In this extreme
case, however, the landlord is protected. He is not per-
sonally responible for the tithe-rent charge. The tithe-
owner may take possession of the land, but if it yield
nothing he can get nothing.
FOURTH RESOLUTION.—" That it is for the honour
and common good of the nation at large, that the help-
less poor should be supported and protected from want;
that the township roads and county bridges, and other
county buildings, should be repaired and maintained;
and that it is unjust and inequitable that the rich com-
mercial and monied classes, equally interested in these
matters with the agricultural classes, should throw
almost the entire weight of these burdens on the re-
venues of the land; that a merchant or manufacturer,
possessing carriages for his pleasure and numerous
waggons and teams of horses for his commerce, should
only contribute a rate in proportion to the rent of the
buildings he may happen to occupy, bearing scarcely
any assignable proportion to his capital and profits,
whilst a farmer is rated upon every acre he occupies,
and thus in practice pays a rate bearing a large pro-
portion to the whole capital employed in his business."
If taxation, local or general, press more heavily upon
the owners and occupiers of land than upon other pro-
prietors or other producers. then the owners end ooeu-
piers of land are fully entitled to be relieved from their
disproportionate burdens. There is no doubt of it. But
the relief to which they are entitled is not the mainte-
nance of a law injurious to all other classes of the com-
munity : it is an equalisation of taxation.
FIFTH RESOLUTION.—" That this Committee re-
gards any step to be taken by the present Govern-
ment, and its usual supporters, in the House of
Commons, towards giving this scheme the force of
law, without an appeal to the sense of the people by
a general election, to be an act of individual dis-
honour and treachery on their parts ; and that those
gentlemen having been elected Members of Parlia-
ment under pledges to their supporters, expressed or
implied, to maintain the principle of Protection to
Native Industry against foreign competition, cannot,
without shameless dishonesty and a gross breach of
trust, make use of the power so given to them in
support of public measures in direct opposition to
those in favour of which they so pledged them-
selves."

The question involved in this resolution is one with
which I am surprised that the County of Durham Agri-
cultural Protection Society should concern itself. It is
a moral and political, not an industrial and commercial
question. Instead of discussing it, I will, with your
leave relate, an anecdote.
Fifty substantial farmers of the county of Durham,
panic-struck by the representations of their friends the
protectionists, and believing that the repeal of the corn-
laws would be destructive to British agriculture, deter-
mined to try their fortunes in Australia. They engaged
a first-class ship, paid down their passage-money, and
sailed from the port of Newcastle under the guidance of
a captain of high character, whom the owners had per-
mitted them to select, and who, with the concur-
rence of the owners, had entered into an engage-
ment not to put into any intermediate ports, but to
sail direct to Sydney. For many weeks they scudded
pleasantly before prosperous gales; but after they had
performed about half the passage, their progress was re-
tarded by adverse winds and a heavy sea. The farmers
became a little impatient at the delay, and inquired of
the captain if he thought their voyage likely to be a long
one. "Not very much longer," was his reply, "but I
have a little altered our course, and have veered the ves-
sel round to run for the Cape of Good Hope." The
Cape of Good Hope!" exclaimed the farmers: "your en-
gagement is to take us direct to New South Wales, and
you shall not break your engagement by touching at
South Africa." "It is very true, gentlemen farmers,"
replied the captain, " that I engaged to convey you direct
to Sydney; and 1 freely admit that, had the circum-
stances under which I made that engagement remained
the same, I should have been found to fulfil it. But new
and unforeseen circumstances have arisen ; and I am
compelled, under a far higher obligation than that which
I owe to you, to alter the vessel's course." The indig-
nant farmers demanded an explanation, and were in-
formed that, during the heavy rolling of the ship, the
water-casks bad been stove in, and that not more than
a few days' supply for the crew and passengers had been
saved. " But," exclaimed an influential farmer, " the
cabin passengers have beer enough on board to last
throughout the whole voyage ;—salt water and Cayenne
pepper will do for the steerage passengers and crew ;
indeed, it is a very wholesome beverage." "If the
cabin passengers will drink the:salt water and Cayenne
pepper, and give the beer to the rest of the ship's a
leading com-
pany,protec-
I will steer direct for Sidney," said the captain.
l
the land as well as
! and
nn shoutedd plough
therefore
can plough the
deep as well as any seaman. You must either shape
your course direct for Sydney, as you are pledged to
anytr efs apt roms passengertee rr oiun sEp nr pl
a‘o ‘ns Ida
do, or else resign the command to me." "To you !"
demurred the skipper : " the weather is unsettled—
there are heavy gales and dangerous currents in these
seas sunken rocks are under our lee. Destroy
yourself, if you please ; but before you shall endanger
the general safety, I'll see you in Davy's locker. I have
a serious duty to perform to the crew and passengers
committed to my care, and to the owners of this noble
bark ; I will not desert my post at this hour of peril ;
you shall not, Farmer Gammon, while I live, take
my ship to brave the stormy spirit of the
Cape.' " When the crew and people in the
steerage heard the captain talk in this fashion, they
cheered him loudly. They all sung out, 6, Bravo, cap-
tain !" Then the cabin passengers began to reflect that,
during that protracted voyage, the seamen and steerage
passengers, if pressed by thirst, might possibly invade
the beer-barrels, and leave the salt water and Cayenne
pepper for their betters. They grumbled audibly, but
they inwardly approved. Even Farmer Gammon began
to suspect tint he was not trusted, By and bye, the
ship anchored safely in Table Bay ; and all parties,
when they found themselves with replenished water
casks and with beer-barrels undisturbed, acknowledged
that the captain had taken a right view of tl e matter,
and had done his duty like a British seaman.

It admits of practical demonstration, that after that
destructive panic which the protectionists are labouring,
in a spirit of infatuation, to create, and which I greatly
fear cannot now be averted, shall have done its work,
and subsided, the effect of Sir Robert Peel's commer-
cial measures will be to increase, by various means, and
especially by those which I have pointed out, the value
of land and of its produce throughout Great Britain.
In noticing this resolution, I have confined my
observations to the effects of Sir Robert Peel's Com-
mercial policy on the agricultural population of Great
Britain ; but so far from coinciding with the County
of Durham Agricultural Protection Society, and think-
ing that this policy is likely in any way to pro-
duce "an incalculable amount of individual misery
and national degradation," I am convinced that a
greater benefit to all classes of our industrious people—
a greater security to our best institutions—and, if it
of nations in all that regards the highest interests of
really conduce to our country's glory to lead the march
mankind—a greater glory to the name of England than
this policy will achieve, it will not be in the power of
any future Government to devise. I shall always con-
sider it a most fortunate circumstance in my life that I
have in any degree contributed to promote it.
SECOND RESOLUTION.—" That it is unjust and
inequitable to maintain, as a general rule, a pro-
tecting duty of ten per cent., ad valorem, in favour
of manufactures, whilst corn, an article upon which
a very large amount of manual labour has been ex-
pended, is to be entirely deprived of protection
against foreign competition.'
The answer which I have just given to the first reso-
lution is in a great measure applicable to this. Those
manufactured articles which come under the description
of necessaries, are cheaper in England than in other
countries; and therefore, as far as they aro concerned,
the protective duty of 10 per cent., if there be such duty
applied to any of them, will be wholly inoperative. The
protection afforded to other manufactured articles may
no doubt increase their value to tho consumer, and in-
crease the profit of their producers; but it is otherwise
with protection to corn; because every increase in the
value of corn increases the cost of producing corn, and
of everything else which is brought to market by la-
bourers subsisting upon corn, and must therefore, in
its ultimate effects, reduce wages or profits, or both. I
will explain this by recurring to my former example. I
assume that, in the first instance, there is a free
trade in corn, and that under this state of freedom
a farmer obtains a return of 110 quarters, for an
outlay of 50 quarters as wages, and 50 quarters for
other expenses. His profits are now 10 per cent., and
the aggregate wages of the labourers employed 50
quarters. Now let foreign corn be excluded by a pro- A NEW Darer IN AN OLD PHRASE.—In the recent
tective duty, and let the consequent rise in the value of naval combats between the Watermen steam•boat people
corn lead the farmer to grow it upon a soil yielding a re- and city authorities, a certain steam-tug was put in requi•
turn of only 100 quarters, to an outlay, exclusive of sition for the purpose of democratising the watermen ; that
"—Mephystophiles.
wages, of 50 quarters—it is evident that the effect 0f,,. is to say, lueVag off their piers. From the belligerent na-
the protecting duty, in driving the growth of corn to,= tare cf.AarqsastapetleL,, is tugsupposedwtahsahtitnigiiaton
this inferior soil, must cause a serious reduction in theY'6tliagltW4l4l;kll6"4"' " tug-of-war.
statesis n
real wages of the labourer • because, were the farmers,,
to continue to advance as before, 50 quarters to the la- tat 'GelieFal Felix grrundy APConnell, the renowned repre-
bourers he employed, he would obtain no profit at all. tentative in. Congress from the seventh district of Alabama,
G Pttair:olitti x !—A letter from
Thus a reduction of the real wages of labour, or an hag triveseonlnittioounts afsorh itshseerious immediate
"re-annexation"
atnonmexovsetioa
,r,orife;reo f'
abandonment of profit, must always result frrm pro- land to the United States! Gooti—American Paper.n-