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

,roduce a cotemporaneous exportation of manufactures.
The fact, then, was, that it would be quite apparent
from this statement that the truth of the axiom, that
England was England's best customer, forced itself upon
their minds, and that the great cause of their recent.
was the s activityny
afew o!
wordsthe homeupon
thema rkets.
pllreosPwertyoiuld now
dis-
advantageous position in which free-trade laws would
place this country. fie would ask would the position
of the country be such as the llon. Member opposite
had depicted ? Would it alter their position in respect
to France or Germany or the United States ?
They had often evinced a disposition towards
France to relax the English tariff; but the result,
was only to make France enforce her protection
with a still more stringent hand. The United States
would do the same, for he would contend for it that every
President of the United States, from Washington down,.
had evinced a disposition for protection ; and Mr.
Polk's last Message stated that he would be prepared
to recommend a . reasonable amount of protection.
He thought. it was necessary to take every precaution
before they made this great alteration—to make every
trial for improving the condition of the country before
they made this plunge. For what were they about to
do ? They were about to enter into a competition with
hostile tariffs--not with hostile tariffs, for, indeed,.
no tariffs could be hostile—but with rival tariffs.
And the effect of that competition would be to reduce*
the products of British industry and British labour,
which was the chief eomponent in the value of those
projects, :gut to the level, but above the level, of foreign
articles. The liberality was to be all on this side of the
water, for it could hardly Le supposed that foreigners
would purchase articles of British production in their
own markets, at a higher price than those of their own
manufactures, when of equal quality. If, instead of the
scheme now laid before the House, and which he could
designate in no other way than ,to say the least of it, as
the height of imprudence, they hadilooked to the unlimited
resources offered to them in immense variety and exten-
sion of our foreign possessions, they would have im-
proved and extended the market without depre-
ciating its value. But now, by entering into this
competition, they would only prove success.
ful by rendering British labour cheaper than
it now was. It was evident that by this reduction of,
the import duties they would be reducing the revenue of
the country, and they could only restore the equilibrium
of its finance by annual grants. lle contended that it
was not of the slightest interest to lay hoary duties on
articles of importation when foreign tariffs acted in a
similar way towards British exportations. What
was the advantage he wished to know ? Ile
agreed with an observation which fell last night from the
Noble Lord who represented the West Riding of Yorkshire,
that it was necessary to provide food for an increasing
population. The population was increasing to a great ex.
tent, and the question then nnturally arose how they
were to be fed.—( Hear.) His (Sir Howard Douglas)
conviction was that if agriculture continued to be protected
there woald be no difficulty in satisfying the wants of even an
increasing population, for he was satisfied that any reduction
in the price would be followed by a corresponding reduction in
the price of wages and provisions. There was a species of free-
trade which might be introduced with great advantage amongst
ourselves.—( Hear, hear.) When he voted for the Canada
Corn Bill, ha imagined that the principle on which that Bill
was founded would be carried cut with respect to other articles
produced in our colonies, from which he believed the people of
this country would derive great advantage. The inhabitants of
the colonies might also derive great advantages, from which they
were now shut out, by being a market in which they could sell
their produce at the best price it could realise. He believed
that Australian corn ought to be admitted on the same prin-
ciple as the Canada corn ; and he considered that even the
Canada Corn Bill should be carried out to a greater extent—it
ought to have included Prince Edward's Island.—( Hear,
hear.) That Bill (the Canada Corn Bill) was a
solemn compact made between this country and Canada,
and when the measures proposed by her Majesty's Govern-
ment should be passed, it would have the effect of im-
mediately abolishing that solemn compact; and not only
vi ould it act thus towards Canada, but it would also
extinguish the colonial system itself.—(hear.) The colonial
system is nothing more than a system of protection. The mo-
ment you abolish the differential duties you release the
colonies from the necessity of dealing with the producer of
British goods, and also of our dealing with them in return.
Their glorious flag might still fly—there might be those who
would wi,h to die under that flag in support of their country's
rights-that flag under which their ancestors had fallen,
but he (Sir H. Douglas) would tell them that their
ships might guard their colonial coasts, and their troops
might garrison the country, but their colonies woad
be useless to them. This country would no longer have
any right to regulate the commerce of the colonies.
Mr. Huskisson's Acts were not free-trade Acts. They had
for their object rather the protection of agriculture. He
found the colonial trade in a state of monopoly, and he
then brought forward his Acts of 1824, for the regulation
of colonial trade. The object of his measures
was to allow the Colonies to have free-trade with other
countries that were independent States, but all free-trade
intercourse with the mother country, either circular or
direct, was prevented, except that of the coasting trade.
They had taken off the timber duties here.—( Hear. ) Now,
the American colonies laid a tax upon the West Indian produce
—they had a perfect system of free trade amongst themselves
and the German States had also a free trade amongst themselves,
but by a compact they had a protection against the foreign im-
ports. It could not be denied that the German States pros-
pered by the protection they had fenced themselves
with. We had introduced our cotton manufactures
into India, and by so doing we had ruined the
native manufactures of that country.—( Hear, hear.)
The manufacturers of this country bad superseded the manu-
facturers of India, and thereby rendered the price of manufac-
tured articles in that country much cheaper.—( Opposition
cheers.) Mr. Huskisson,in a speech which he delivered in that
House on the Bth April,, 1826, clearly pointed out the great
dangers which this coun try would render itself liable to by
making itself dependent upon foreigners for the supply of corn,
The Hon. Gentleman here read an extract from the speech
in question to the foregoing effect, stating that from 1765
up to the period of the war, we had been to a considerable
extent dependent on foreigners ',for the supply of food—that
we had paid sixty millions of money for a scanty supply o f
corn ; and yet, though we had parted with our gold and silver
currencies, Europe had shut its ports against this country,
and America laid an embargo on its produce, and went to war.
The statesman to whom he (Sir H. Douglas) alluded, further
stated, that if this country was made to depend for food on
foreign nations, improvements would stand still, inferior lands
would go to waste, and the nation be subjected to general de-
cline. He (Sir H. Douglas) considered they should
protect the colonies so as to provide for their safety
and defence. honourable Members should never
listen to the theory which would put an end to colonial protec-
tion, on which depended the safety and commercial ascendancy
of Great Britain ; and least of all should they listen to repre-
sentations evincing disregard to the nation's security and
peace, and maritime ascendancy in war.—( Hear, hear.)
He alluded not to what other nations were now doing.
He believed they had a sincere desire to cultivate the relations
of peace ; still he was sure that those powers, though they had
no immediate intention of going to war with this country, had
an intention, whenever a a favourable opportunity occurred in
the future, of giving it a stab, their ultimate object being
to deprive Great Britain of the dominion of the sea,
He felt that he had trespassed long upon the House—( Cheers,
and cries of " No, no")-but he hoped and expected that his
Right Hon. Friend, who was• as devoted to the interests of the
country as his judgment and his experience enabled him
hto be,
would see grounds for changing his opinion.—( Hear, ear.)
Sincerely did Le hope that the opinions which he
(Sir Howard Douglas) professed might turn opt to
be erroneous, but under the strong conviction that this measure
cannot be carried out with advantage to the British labourer,
and that agriculture will be injured, arid that manufactures or
commerce would not be improved, he would give his vote
against the measure.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) In soma
respects he (Sir H. Douglas), reluctantly opposed the Bill ;
but, on the whole, he gave a confident, conscientious, and con-
sistent vote against it, for it appeared to him that the measure
was an unnecessary and dangerous experiment. It appears it
was a movement from which there was no retreating, and on
it depended in a great measure the prosperity, the wealth, the
\
honour, and the glory of this great country or its utter
ruin.—( The Hon. Gentleman sat down amidst loud cheers.)
vie House
that s.
onLtelladt V
occasioni L iE R
itS
wsaid, i
itshiantteonnt i
oappearing
briefly as possible.- (Hear. ) Was not every p .
rbeesfseorrisveiisnthvel
of contention, and could he conscientiously support a principle
of that character ? He would be bound to say, that whatever
House aware that protection would always remain a subject
opinione he had entertained upon this question at a former
period had been completely changed by the experience of the
last few years.--( Hear, hear, ironical cheers, and cries of
o Oh, oh.") He would repeat that the experience of the last
few years had established beyond a doubt that this law was no
oplonpgoes re
d necessary
the
otpoi
ntiloi
ne s pros
advanceperi t yd
oo
nf thethe cloaus
tn t
nryi
g.
htHbey wasthe
Honourable Baronet the Member for Rutlandshire,
that the prosperity of the last few years and the
abundance of capital, originated not in 'the measures
of the Right Honourable Baronet, but in the good
harvest and the employment afforded by railways. He (Lord
Villiers) contended that railways had not given birth to
capital, but that capital had given rise to railways. He con-
tended further that the reduction of taxation did not.
necessarily imply a fall in the revenue. They had seen the
country rise from a condition pregnant with difficulty to a
state of comparative prosperity. He should give his most cor-
dial support to-the measure.—(Cheers.)
Mr. F. SCOTT said, that when this measure was first,
brought forward by her Majesty's Government, he had come
down to the House with the hope that he might have
been enabled to afford it his fullest support.—
(Hear.) He had alwavi 'given .his voice and his vote
'to the measures of the Right Honourable Baronet,
He regretted that he was now compelled to de otherwise, in
justice to his own principles and the inferred understanding
with his constituents. Although he had not given any
distinct pledges to them, his principles in the year
1846 would be the very same as those he had avowed
when he stood an unsuccessful candidate in the year 1834.
In 1841, he addressed them with more success, and he obtained
their support. When he again entered that House be main-
tained the same course from a firm conviction of its rectitude,
and a belief that he could not follow a safer leader than the
Right Honourable Baronet, whose opinions and ideas
on the subject he knew from his childhood, and
whom he had always regarded with respect and admi-
ration. Those feelings had increased the stunning effect
which he had felt when he heard that his friend had turned
round on all his former opinions, and had deserted the men vt
had placed him in his high position.—(Hear, hear.) He (taht.
Right Hon. Baronet) had no doubt felt it his duty, and had
a firm conviction that it was incumbent on him, too'ctaarctigebow.
course, and to hoist another flag. He (Mr.
ywnmiserable when
ever, felt it his duty to deliberaateppwehatraeitilhiveeor
be. He felt that, although he Scoctourse shoulti
intelligence or saga-
compared to the Right Hon. Baroilne
hihissperception of his duty
guide. He had tem
uide him • in his politicei
one to look to but himself
ctoitytheyecteuhnetwr
Ri ht lion. Baronet great ere& li•
course. He gave the g
youldni
s yield
consciencet to n mtoa nwas
I credit for the sincerity of his convictions
he gave him equa . .
bl for him, ' three
n, It would be impossi e in days, or ie
forn st..h e sincerity okf hais
retrospectnvic t itlir)ifn.
the
s sincerity
last three
eoepyi neiaorns s;, earl:,
attempt
htetr
it would be hard for him to obliterate from his memory all thst
pwteteoksenttoertainteo the labyrinth of past circumstances. I .
He would n . t
ehenae,d read and heard during the last 30 years.
sneeglgaganigentlemangvde daa
wnni
t instance
}lavinga e possessed
oin largeinN'ee .
would, with theeessplie,enruretmtshheinesotsfki osioccasion.nncgoodtfatralnicdo,HfwoAaEus
the continent, with which he disagreed. Pe
aiec, Pxir
2.lot:el:nes
fiirs ttirevymeti to
tntthalt:
entered into a law-suit, and engaged the moo
in
able and distinguished counsel, both the Cour ,
of Chancery and at Common Law, to defend his cao.
The claim set up on the continent was, that, as they sharis
largely in his profits, therefore they desired to become partne
in his firm. Counsel were engaged,• and although the plea w
acknowledged to be untenable, the question was argued befo ',..
a special jury ; it also had a hearing in the House -.
Lords. The /engem% in question vent down to his seats