The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-12 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON, T

consumption of the year in Ireland. I had been at that
time resident_in the north of Engl.4nd. and had almost daily
communications, in writing, ‘a ill my Right Friend at
the head of the Government; and it did appear to me that this
matter of coming scarcity, if not of famine, to be apprehended I
in Ireland, did have an immediate and indissoluble connexion

with this question of the corn-laws. The Noble Lord the
Member for Liverp, ol said last night that he c.)uld not see
that connexion ; and the Hon. Member for N.orthanaptnnshire,
following the same track, has also said that he did not see the
intimate connexion between the two questions. Will the
House, then, allow me to state what was the effect pro laced

upon my mind by this inevitabl:i-ceming scarcity in Ireland ?
—( Hear.) I foresaw, and lam afraid rightly, that it would
be indispensably necesslry to give to the suffering community
in Ireland aid from the public purse of this country to meet this
great calamity. Already some advance of the public money
has been asked for, and I am afraid that further advances may

still be necessary, Then this great question presents itself—
Can in fairness any Minister of the Crown propose to the neople
of Great Britain to take out of the taxes of Great liritam
public meney to aid in the sustenance of their fellow country-
men in Ireland, while artificially, by leers so designed, the
price of the lood of the people of Great Britain is enhanced?
—( Hear, hear.)- Other persons may be bold enough to make
such a proposition ; but I confess that no power on earth should
have induced me to be responsible for such a proposal.—
( Hear, hear.) I told my Right Honourable Friend, that if
such a course should be neeessary, I strongly advised the
suspension of the existing law—( Hear, hear, from the
Protectionist benches)- and that suspension I find i 3 now
generally approved of on this side of the House.—( Hear. hear.)
The humane, the generous feelings of the landlords of England
could net tolerate for a moment that distress, such as that likely
to visit Ireland, should not be met.—(Hear, hear.) But to
give this aid to the Irish people. and at the same time to en-
hance the price of the food of the great community who contri-
bute towards the taxes of England, and who by their hard in-
dustry are only able to pay those taxes, living in some instances
on potatoes, is a proposition which I never could have ma:re-
tained as a Minister.—( Hear, hear.) But it has been in- i-
mated that, under these circumstances, Hon. Members gene-
rally on this aide of the House would be glad to open the ports.
Then arises the question—if you once suspend the preser.t law,
what is the proposition which. at the termination of that sus-
pension, is to be made ? I have told you that I am satisfied,
that even when scarcity has arisen, when the price of the
quartern loaf was high, and when high prices ought to have
been counteracted by the self-operation of the scale, that scale
does not operate. I have told you that I thought the pre.
sent an unsatisfactory law, and according to my opinion, I
could not, after its suspension, have supported its re-imposi-
tion. 1 have always stated that my objections to a fixed
duty as a fiscal duty are insuperable. because I think that
whenever the duty should be high, it would be impos-
sible to exact it, and whenever the duty should be low, it
failed for the purposes of protection, and the agricultural
[ interest would then incur all the obloquy of maintain-
ing protection without deriving any advantages from it.
We might have proposed some small remnant of the sliding-
scale, and such a reduction of protection, which it would have
been unworthy of the agricultural interest to accept, and still
more unworthy of the Government to offer. Under these cir-
cumstances the abolition of the corn-laws was inevitable on its
suspension. It was, as it appeared to me, absolutely necessary
to suspend the operation of the law ; and I foresaw the twee'.
shy, if you suspended the law, of its abolition ; and I again
repeat that, in my humble view, our duty was, charged as 'we
were with the responsibility of office, to meet this immediate
necessity arid to suspend the law. Nothing could have more
gratified me than to see the general arrangements of this ques-
tion respecting the corn-law conducted by the Noble Lord op-
posite.—(Hear, hear.) The question has been asked, " Have
you any reason since 1842 for changing your opinion?" I say
that since 1842 those who were charged with the administra-
tion of afters, anti who had watched the various circumstances
which have occurred, have had experience, not to be mistaken,
leading to conclusiae consequences. We hat, first of all, the
painful and lamentable experience of 1642 itself, a year of the
greatest distress, and, since it has passed, I may say. of the
utmostdanger. What were the circumstances of 1812.? Allow
we just to glance at them. We haul in this metropolis, at mid-
night, Chartist meetings, assembled in Lincoln s Inn fields.
Almost for nearly three weeks there were assembled in all the
environs of th.s metropolis immense masses of people, greatly
discontented, and acting in a spirit dangerous to the public
peace. What was the condition of Lancashire, the seat of our
great staple manufacture, depending for its prosperity on unin-
terrupted tranquillity and labour? Such was the tuatincss of
the people on that occasion, that a great combination existed
to stop machinery, and to put an end to the source of the
labour, on which they depended for subsistence. —( Hear, hear. )
What was the duty of the 0 .vernment under these exeunt-
stances ? It was my painful duty to consult with the Horse
Guards as to the precautions that were necessary for the
maintenance of the public peace ; a large farce was marched to
alanc'nester, and the troops were actually called on to enforce
public tranquillity. I can safely say that for three months
the anxiety which I anti my colleagues experienced with re-
ference to the public peace was greater than we ever felt be-
fore with reference to public cormerns. Those were the days
of high prices and scarcity. lam certain from what I have
since ebe rved, that that turbulent disposition, that slatigerous
disposition, mainly arose from the want of adi quate
sustenance, combined with low wages.—(Loud cheers )
What has been my experience for the last two years ? I
don't take credit to her Majesty's Government for the altered
circumstances. Our measures may o. may not nave conduced
to that great end ; but by the bounty of Providence we have
had abundant harvests ; with abundant harvests we have had
cheapness and fad employment ; and what has occurred ? I
can safely say that for the last twelve months I have not hael a
single interview with ohe of the Commissioners of Police with
respect to the maintenance of the peace of this metropolis; I
do not believe that for the last twelve months I have had one
interview with the Horse Guards with respect to the move-
, mete of troops for the maintenance of the peace of this coun-
try —( Hear, hear.) Perfect tranquillity, comparative happiuess
prevailed; and that is a contrast between scarcity with discon-
tent, and plenty with social comfort, more striking than any I
ever b, fore witnessed.—(Loud cheers.) I will not trouble you
with many statimies. The document I am about to read is
short, but still, as an anal) sis with reference to crime, it is
pregnant with instruction. 1 have taken the six counties which
may be said to be the seat of our manufacturing industry; I have
taken the county of York, the county of Lancaster, the county
of Warwick, the counties of Gloucester, Cheshire, and Staf-
fordshire, and have compared the commitments for trial iu
these counties in 1840,'41, and '42, when the prices of wileat
were 635. 4d, 643. 6d., 575. 3d., with those which took place
in 18-13, '44, arid '45, when the price of wheat was about silt.
Now, ob,ierve, in Yost:shire the committals were, in 1340,
1,8-47; 1641, 1,69,; 1842, 2.591. Tie scarcity then ceased,
abundance with low prices begins, and we have committed for
trial in 1843, 2,304; 1814, 1,691 ; 1845, 1,417.; shoeing a
decrease of commitments in the last, as compared with the pre-
vious period of them. years, of 149 per cent. In Lanes-hire
the commitments in those years were respectively 3,5(16, 3,97,
4,497, 3,677, 2,893, 2,852, eahibiting a diminution of 21.4
percent. Iu Warwickahire the commitments were 1,001.
1,046, 1,003, 1,045, 694, 769, a decrease of 11.2 per cent. In
Gloucestershire, including Bristol, the number. were 1,045,
1,236, 1,252, 1,186, 1,071, 920, showing a decrease of 9.8 per
cent. In Cheshire the commitments were 1,042, 943,
1,05:'6, 1,019, 777, 6eB, a decrease of 19 -1 uer cent.
In Staffordshire the numbers were 923, 1,059, 1,465,
1,175, 885, 717, a deer ate of 19 9 per cent.; exhibiting
an aggregate decrease of 17 per cent.—( Loud cheers.)
Upon the whole of these six counties, comparing the }ears
1842 and 1845, there is a diminution on the aggregate of 18
;ter cent. lam convinced with the Right Hon. Baronet, at the
head of the Government, that. it is a fallacy to contend that
wages fa'l with falling prices, and rise with rising prhtea.—
( Hear, hear.) It was my Noble Fi iend the Member fur Liver-
' pool, I think, who last night contended that it was true in the
agricultural districts that wages did rise with rising prices;
but he admitted that the proportion was not always canal.
Now 1 beg you to observe, that to the labouring man the equal
proportion between the mice of food and the rise of wages is
a matter of life and death. But it was necessary to observe
that the proportion should be concurrent as well as equal.
If the rise in wages should lag behind the rise of prices
life itself might tie in danger. But I have the experience
of Sir John Waltham, who long had the charge of the dis-
tricts of Norfolk and Suffolk, himself an extensive landed pro-
prietor in the county of Hereford, and who, in the West
Riding of Yorkshire, assisted the Poor-law Commissioners,
and he tells me that he has never known that wages have
risen beyond from Ba. to 10s. and I Is. in certain counties,
and from 9s. to 13s. in other counties ; the utmost rise being
25 per cent ; while he has seen at the same time the
price of corn rise from 455. to 935. It is unnecessary to say,
in reference to this point, that the rise of wages its those dis-
tricts is not at all commensurate with the rise in the artic:e of
first necessity.—(Hear, hear.) But, as truly stated by my
Right Hen. Friend the Secretary-ut-War, whatever may be
the case in the agricultural districts, the converse of the as.er-
tion is true with respect to the manutacturing districts. Inva-
riably in the manufacturing districts you will fied low prices
accompanied by high wages, arid high prices by low wages. I
mentioned some circumstances which occurred in the month of
November with reference tt Ireland; but I have not the whole
of the case with respect to that time. From a report which
[ I have received from Mr. Sanders with respect to the West
Riding of Yorkshire, I fried that at that time there was
not merely a rise in prices, but a strong apprehension of
mill higher prices in several parts of the West
Riding, particularly in Bradford, and that several won ks
were put on short time. In several of the cotton districts,
also, I learn the mills, were about to be put on short time.
%nen, therefore, we looked to the circumstances of the
whole country in the months of November and December, we
had no option left, as the general guardians of the condition of
the great body of the community, bat to pursue the course
which we have pursued. We have been told of the danger
of being dependent on foreign states for the supply of food ;
but when we consider that the population of these 14ritaiu in
1815 was 18,000,000, and that at the present moment it
is 23,00j,0U0, it seems to me that the time has arrived
when it may well become a question, not whether Great Bri-
tain can alone supply the amount of food necessary for the
population, but whether it will not be difficult, at a
moderate price, to secure food for the whole of that po-
pulation, even with the aid of foreign countries.—(Loud
cries of " Hear, hear.") For myself, I have no apprehension
of any great fail of prices from the abolition of the corn-lass.
I think that both the hopes and fears of many people
on the subject are greatly exaggerated. Ido not be-
lieve that the abolition of protection, as matters now
stand, will materially lower the price of eorn; but I
consider that to the great body of consumers it will
be a security of inestimable value against high prices
when the harvest happens to be deficient in this country.
That is my view with regard to supply, With regard to the
commercial principle there can be no doubt whatever. The
Hon. Member for Northamptonshire oescribed a state of
things where a certain individual has the walls of his House
covered with Fsench paper-hangings, furnished with articles
of German hardware, and who rides in a Brussels carriage,
while workmen are crowding the market with nobody to hire,
them. How does the Hon. Gentleman think those carriages
are to be obtained? Whatever may be the form of the trans-
action by which they are obtained, that transaction of neces•
sity resolved itself into a bargain. Directly or indirectly there
must be an exchange of commodities, and you must in the long
run export some of your own home productions to pay for
what you have got from abroad. I am quite satisfied, if your
extend the sphere of your commerce and do not attempt by I
fits and t tarts to force its expansion, that the Prosperity of all
classes will steadily advance with the increase of your
exports. The Hon: Member for Northampton (Mr. S.
O'Brien) referred to the case of a farmer, whom he de- '
scribed in the most pathetic terms. for the purpose of illus
crating the consequences which the Hun. Gentleman pre-
sumes will flow from the measures of her Majesty's Ali-
niaters. But another picture was given last night by the
Noble Lord the Member for Liverpool (Lord Sandon). The
Hon. Gentleman represented his farmer as petitioning his
landlord in vain for a reduction of rent. 'the Noble Lord
considered the condition of the farmer as peculiarly helpless
and exposed. He said this unhappy man had constantly had
held out to him the expectation of prices which he had never
realised—prices vihich were made the basis of calculation,
Isaenedklionrgda
nw i
at hb a't
abatement
aetnetd
obfr
reeant tts." an
Tdh
emloasnt
when he agreed to pay a fixed rent; then he comes to the
dlohrudmgbrlaen
tdemeanour
less than the farmer requires; an abatement of 10 per cent. is
found quite inadequate ; and at last the farmer is forced to take
refuge from all his difficulties in some lower occupation. Such
are the results, as described most accurately by the Noble
Lord himself, of this system of protection and of disappoint-
' ment.—(Cheers. ) The abundant crop, the diminished pro.
Mt:floe, and the fixed rent, have been a failure. —(" No, no,"
and " Hear, hear.") From the very spot where the Hon. Gene