The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-18 00:00:00

lasting benefit. He could even conceive of such a course being
taken by her Majesty's Government, and after the speech of the
Right lion. Baronet on the previous night, the possibility of
adopting such a course could not be disputed. If the Right
Hon. Gentleman had announced before the meeting of Parlia-
ment his long-cherished idea of throwing open the ports, and
have told us he was no longer prepared to steer the ship the
same course as he had hitherto done, the feelings on this matter
in the country and in this House would be very different from
what they now were. He (Lord John Manners) had paid great
attention throughout these debates to hear a reason assigned by
the Government for the course they had chosen to take. The
Right Hon. Baronet had last night expressed his satisfac-
tion at the result of his measure of 1845, but he would ask what
confidence cou'd this country have in a Government who
adopted a course which contradicted all their former acts? It
would not do for the Right Hon. Baronet. to plead that he was
placed in such a difficult posi:ion by divisions in the Cabinet
that he was compelled to adopt the course which he
had adlited. If the Right Honourable Gentleman was
in earnest—if he really thought that the danger and
difficeite was so pressing—even now he might open the
ports, and let in the corn till the danger bad disappeared.
Why, what a lumbering birth ! what a lumbering task ! the
Government takes upon itselt. How long (lid they expect to
be occupied in carrying this great experiment, which affected
nearly every interest in the country, through Parliament ?
With their commissions of inquiry into the burdens upon
land, with their commissions of inquiry into the probable
effects of this great commercial revolution upon the colonies,
with their commissions of inquiries into its effects upon the
finances 'of the country, and with that able, bitter, resolute,
and unswerving hostility which they had excited against their
proposal, what chance, he asked the Government, was there
of this measure being immediately passed through Parliament?
Non one word upon the subject of guarantees. He had shown
how unfair the Right Hon. Baronet had acted in presuming
that a guarantee would have been requ'red from him in re•
spec+ of the evening of the ports, and he now told the Hon.
Baronet that he (1;(1 not think any man in England would
ever again ask the Right Hon. Baronet for a guarantee upon
the corn-laws, or anything else. —( Hear, hear, and laughter.)
Arid he was sure that those gentlemen who thought protection
to native industry was deeply rooted in the affections of the
people, and closely allied with the interests of the country,
would in future rely ueon the goed judgment, the good sense,
the:deterenination, and the coarsge of the English people,
rather than upon the promises of the Right. Hon. Baronet..
He for one could not but complain of a spirit of straightfor-
wardness which was exhibited in the arguments and the tone
of the Right Hon. Baronet. It was exceedingly amusing to
see how the Right Hon. Baronet disposed of any particular
course of action which his opponents might th ink proper to
adopt. For instance, the Right Hon. Baronet said, if the Hon.
Member for Bristol had taken upon himself to propose a want
of confidence in the Ministry, or to propose a direct declaration
in favour of native industry, or, in short, if he had tektite any
other course than that which he did, the Right Hon. Baronet
could have understood this mode of am ion, and been prepared
to meet it accordingly.—( Hear, and laughter.) Nothing, in his
opinion, could he more unfair than this nioste of di posing of the
arguments of opponents ; and although he was not bold enough
to take upon himself the task of advising Hon. Members, he
would say this much for the lien. Member for Bristol, that
had he adopted any other course than the one he did, the
Right Hon. Baronet would have disposed of him with very
much the same argument. And after the revolutionary senti-
ments of the Right Hon. Baronet,: he thoustlit both the
Hors. ember for Bristol and the Hon. Member for Newcastle-
upon-Tyne might be excused for withholding their support
from the Right Hon. Baronet and his Government. Now the
Right. Hon. Baronet alluded to the probable effects which the
passing of this measure would have upon foreign countries.
Russia, he said, would be shaken by it.
An HoN. MEMBER—No; he said Prussia would be shaken.
Lord J. MANNERS resu ed—Russia would be shaken,
the Right Hon. Baronet said, by the passing of this measure ;
but when it was remembered that such a measure was all that
Prussia wanted with this country, he did not think the pass-
ing of it was the surest way of inducing her to alter her
commercial policy. Passing from Prussia to France, the
Right Hon. Baronet made a statement still snore unsatisfactory,
because he admitted that the aristocracy of France were op-
posed to free trade; but against this he placed the fact that the
intelligence public opinion of France was directly in
favour of freedom of leads. Let him, however, ask the
Right Hon. Baronet who it was that led this intelligent public
opinion? He believed Arago, Thiers, Louis, and tierryer,
were men who led public opinion in France, but who were
far from entertaining views in favour of free trade, but on the
contrary, were favourable to protection to native industry. He
now came to another branch of the Right Hon. Baronet's ar-
guments, and he hoped it would not be inferred from what
might fall from him upon this part of the subject that he wished
to deal lightly with the calamity which had lately fallen upon
Ireland. He must, however, be permitted to say, that when
the Right Hon. Baronet argued that a failure in the potato
crop in 1845 was a justification for a total repeal of the corn-
laws in 1849, the Right Hon. Baronet left his reason un-
convinced though he might have excited his sympathies in his
behalf. The Right Hor.. Baronet prefaced his introduction of
this measure by a melancholy statement and touching
appeal to the feelings of the House, and whilst by
this means he had almost safely lodged the corner-stone
of his new principles, he dashed it to atoms with the
argumentative reasoning with which he followed up his melan-
choly oration : for after making a touching appeal to them to
give the people of Ireland cheap bread, he went on to state that
he did not expect the repeal of the corn-laws would reduce the
price of agricultural produce, and his Right Hon. Friend the
Secretary of War, in improving upon this text, said he did not
think the English farmer would be exposed to foreign competi-
tion. He maintained, then, that after the great proposal the
Government had made to the present Parliament, and the
sweeping and tremendous revolution which they wished to effect
•hroughout the whole commercial system of the country, he
felt himself perfectly justified in voting for the amendment of
his Hon. Friend the Member far Shropshire for an appeal to the
constituencies of England. He might be told that an appeal to the
constituency of Newer,: would be suffiMent for his purpose,
but his answer to this was that he did riot wish to appeal to
the electors of Newark but to the constituencies of the coun-
try. Now, having said thus much, he must be allowed to ex-
press an opinion that the proposal of the Government was not
the best that could have been made. It could not be called
free trade, and he doulsted even if it could he called a scheme
of free importation, for on the one hand they reserved protec
tion to a great number of manufactured articles, and on the
other they maintained the prohibition against the growing of
tobaceo, and that enormous burden the malt-tax—for what-
ever might be said in its favour, it must be still allowed that
the malt-tax was, to a great extent, a large burden upon
land. It did seem to him with all deference to the Hon. Gentle-
men who entertained strong views on both sides of the question,
that if the corn, the produce corn of the British colonies, and
Indian corn, had been proposed to be admitted duty free, and
other foreign corn at a moderate fixed duty, it. would have
placed the corn trade on a basis satisfactory to the commercial
interests of the country, and would have bound, by ties of
mutual interests, the vast colonial empire to tile British Con-
stitution, whilst at the same time is would have afforded a safe
security against the unnecessary fears of the farmer. He did
not stand alone in this opinion, for he found a fixed duty of
ss. advocated by the Messrs. Ferguson and Taylor, of Man-
chester, in a document, it must. be remembered, which was not
the production of the Central Protection S iciety, nor the pro-
duction of the supporter of any fixed duty. but it emanated from
parties deeply interested in the prosperity of Manchester
and Eng.ish manufactures. Although he could not say that
he entertained some of the fears which some of his Hon.
Friends did with respect to free-trade, or participate in the
hopes which some Hon. Members anticipated would be realised
from it, he did most earnestly and heartily deprecate any
such harsh or hasty interference with the great commercial
interests of the country, or with the system of protection
under which trade and manufactures had made mast gigantic
and almost miraculous strides, and under which agriculture
has made such vast strides that if the people of their own
country were not, foreigners were perfectly astounded at it, as
that now proposed by her Majesty's Government. lie depre-
cated, too, the dictatorial tone adopted by the Right Hon.
Baronet towards some of his supporters, which, in Ins opinion,
only served to aleinate tee sympathies and the confidence of
those great classes to which, in times of danger and distress, the
Sovereigns of this country have ever looked, nor looked in vain,
for a ready obedience to the laws, and unflinching bravery,
and uncompromising fidelity.—( Cheers.) For these reasons
he, for one, neither feared nor hoped much from free
trade, but was, neverthele=s, anxious to have this great question
settled to the satisfaction of all parties, gave his most hearty
and determined vote in favour of an appeal to the country ; and
his most resolute and determined opposition to the pro-
posal that this House do resolve itself into a Committee for
the purpose of considering. the corn-laws, with a view to their
repeal.--(Cheers.)
Capt. LAYA RD said, whatever might. be the feelings which
had been expressed by the Hon. Gentleman who sat below the
gangway, he thought. after the eloquent and truly argumenta-
tive speech which the. Right Hon. Baronet made last night,
they c Arid have had no objection to their going into Committee
on this question. He for one believed that the measure of the
Government was likely, not only to be conducive to the in-
terests of the country, hut would' tend greatly to advance
the interests of agriculture ; and whilst expressing this
opinion, he must be allowed to say, that
he should
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to see the commercial, or any
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in the feelings of the country with respect to this
is gestrteoani
The feeling of that House bad also changed upon
que..stii)oens; amnednthoant
bcohlahngsiedehiaodf btheeennoinuse had declared them-
favour of free trade.
rrh
would ask Hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House,
selves favour of the present measure.—(Cheers.) He
ho were in favour of what was called "protection to native
industry," where were their champions of protection now ?
(Hear, hear, and laughter.) Those champions who had led
thi-m in their battle for protection dare not now stand up in
defence of their hollow and unjust cause, either out of doors or
in that House. —( Hear, hear.) The present measure
was one which should and must be carried without any longer
delay. He (Captain Layard) had heard the arguments of
Hon. Gentlemen on the other side of the House since the com-
mencement of this debate, and he must confess that they con-
tained in them no new feature; he had beard them all over and
over again years ago. The Right Hon. Baronet at the head
of the Government had last night taken the wind out of all
their sails —( Laughter.) Hon. Gentlemen on the other side
of the House had told the House that the land would go out of
cultivation if the measure were passed.—(!, Hear, hear," from
the protectionists.) He begged to refer those Hon. Members
to the meeting which was recently held at Goatacre.—
(Laughter from the protectionists, and the rs from the
Opposition.) At that meeting the agricultural labourers and
farmers of that district said unanimously that they
did not believe that one acre would go out of cultivation in the
event of the corn-laws being abolished.—(Cheers from the
Opposition.) Of course, not the least particle of land would
go nut of cultivation ; and he really believed that there was not
a man in that House, nor in the country, who conscientiously
believed that the land would be left uncultivated.
An Flow. Mnstisa on the Opposition benches—l cannot
believe it.—( Hear, hear. )
Captain LAY ARD continued to observe that the Right
Hon. Gentleman the Secretary at War had the other night made
a free-trade speech, and that he most heartily congratu'ated
that Right lion. Gentleman on the speech which he had made.
He was sure that be was possessed of talents, and that he
would rise in the estimation, of the country. But the Right
Hon. Gentleman had said that the corn-law of 1815 was a
gi eat mistake and a great error.—( Hear, hear.) He (Capt.
Layard) would go further, and say that it was no less than a
great and grievous crime.—(Cheers. ) He believed that by
that measure not only the agricultural but the manufacturing
interests of this country were greatly injured.—( Hear, hear. )
He believed that it was a fearful crime, because the misery of
the people was greatly enhanced by that unjust law. The House
had been told by Hon. Gentlemen opposite that England
had risen to great prosperity under the operation of the corn-
laws; they talked of great and glorious England under the
corn-law. He knew, and they all knew, that England was a
great and glorious country, but he denied that the corn-law
made her great and glorious.—(Cheers from the Opposition
Members.) Looking at the Right Hon. Baronet at the head
of her Majesty's Government, ne seemed in his (Captain
Layard's) eyes to be a free-trader.—( Hear, hear.) But he
had been the leader of Hon. Gentlemen opposite. His
opinions on the corn-laws had however become changed The
difficulties under which the country was labouring had made
him. a free-trader. The difficulties under which England
laboured consisted orthe present corn-laws, and be maintained
that England was great and glorious, not because of, but in
spite of the corntaws.—(Cheere.) The Noble Lord who bad