The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-27 00:00:00

principles of the Bill, but he had frequently expressed in private
to many of his friends, that a repeal of the corn-laws would not
prove very injurious to agriculture were it-not for the panic
which must necessarily follow the adoption of such a measure.
- (Hear' hear.) Entertaining such opinions then years ago,
he had no difficulty in November last, under
the then existing circumstances, in agreeing to
a proposal for opening the ports, but he aced not
go into the details of what occurred about that period,
and it was only necessary for him to confirm the statement of
his Noble Friend (Lord Stanley) with respect to what passed
in the then existing Cabinet.—( Hear, hear.) He must
admit, however, that the state of Ireland alone was not a suffi-
cient justification for so extensive a measure as Throwing open
the ports ; but his real opinions upon this question had been
such, that had his Right Hon Friend at the head of the
Government stated, some years ago, that his opinion upon this
matter had undergone a change, he should have been ready
then to have gone fully into the question —(Hear, hear. )
But their Lordships must remember that this Bill was not
brought forward solely for the purpose of relieving
Ireland, for there were other, and, if possible, mcre
pressing circumstances which called for its adoption.
There were strong apprehensions of a stagnation
prevailing amongst the many manufactures of the country, in-
deed strong symptoms of such a stagnation had in November
last already exhibited themselves, and the question for the then
Government to consider was, whether this Bill should be in-
troduced with the view of reviving the trade of the country by
parties who had always entertainted free trade opinions, or by
the Ministry who were then in office. He, amongst others,
thought it would have been much better for the party with
which the Noble Earl opposite (Earl Grey) was connected, to
introduce the measure, and the consequence was, Sir Robert
Peel's Government was broken up. An attempt was
then made, as their Lordships must be well aware,
to form a Whig Administration, but the attempt failed, and the
former Government were compelled to collect their-forces to-
gether and form a new Ministry. Under these circumstances
and in the then state of the country, he readily consented to
take office again with his Right Hon. Friend, the First Lord of
the Treasury, but he most solemnly protested that it was for the
sake of office, but because he felt and sincerely so that in rejoining
the Government he was aiding others in benefiting his country.
No office that he could be appointed to would compensate for
the loss he would sustain if the pr edictions of his Noble
Friends on the cross benches were realised. He considered,
however, that the evils anticipated would not happen, nor
would the anarchy and ruin prophesied ever come to pass.
The Noble Duke ( Richmond) prophesied that the most dis-
astrous results would follow. The Noble Duke was followed
by the Noble Duke beside him, and also by a Noble Lord
(Stanley) who made a speech of great parliamentary talent.
It was a speech which displayed great conservative principles.
—(Laughter.) The Liverpool correspondent of the Noble
Lord talked sees-. nne.ense _(e -...a I—eaes..,) Tf h.,
(Lord Haddington) considered the course proposed
to be pursued by his Noble Friends, was as he stated
from a desire to yield to the clamour and agitation of the
Anti-Corn law League, he would not acquiesce in it. But he
thought it was not. He believed the country was favourable to free
trade principles, and he believed also that a large portion of
the landed interest concurred in that opinion. They were told,
however, to appeal to the country.—( Hear, hear.) It was all
very well for irresponsible men to talk of that appeal ; but such
questions as those which related to the food of the people were
not fit subjects for popular appeals.—(Hear, hear.) It had
been said, also, that the Ministers had misled the people in
1841, in not telling them what they intended to do.—( Hear,
hear.) But he denied the charge. What had the originator
of these great changes in view in proposing them? He was
not a man to be accused of want of caution or precipitancy. His
conduct could have proceeded, as his Noble Friend (Lord
Brougham) said last night, from no other motive than the
strongest sense of public duty and the most conscientious con-
viction.—( Hear, hear.) His Noble Friend, stung by the
eloquent eulogium of his Noble and Learned Friend on the
previous evening, addressed himself particularly to the Noble
Lord on the cross benches. He thought it would have been
more becoming had he strictly adhered to the resolution which
he had previously formed, as to avoiding all personalities. Cer-
tain Noble Lords had said that they would prefer total and imme-
diate repeal ; and if that were so, he conceived that it was the
duty of such Noble Lords to give their support to this measure.
—( Hear, hear.) He conceived that the great object of the
corn-law was to prevent fluctuation, and to secure steadiness in
prices, and make us independent of foreign countries. Now,
with all the attention that he had been able to pay to this
question, he could not find that the corn-law had answered any
one of those results. He did formerly believe that the corn-
law did, to a certain degree, contribute to the improvement of
the land, and that opinion he still retained.—(Hear, hear. )
But he did maintain that the change which was now proposed
was much more likely to produce steadiness in prices, and pre-
vent fluctuation in the present law. It was utterly impossible,
as long as they depend on the weather for their harvests, to se-
cure equal and unfluctuatiug prices in corn. It was the ten-
dency of the slidineescale, and indeed of all protection, to accu-
mulate a vast quantity of col n in this country ; and then, at the
most inconvenient moment to the farmers ; the prices were
reduced by the great importation He believed that in one year
alone 12.000,000 quarters of corn were admitted into the mar-
ket. His Noble Friend who had last spoken instanced the
conduct of Frederick the Great about the closing of the port of
Dantzic in the year 1770, but he (the Earl of Haddington
firmly believed that not the slightest fear should be entertained
by the people of this country as to the closing of the foreign
ports. For the last 49 years this country had enormous impor-
tations of grain. His Noble Friend who had so distinguished
himself last, went back to the olden times, and quoted the pre-
amble of an Act of Edward IV. It was true they had always
some protection, but they had never been able to keep any one
system of protection long. The great increase of the popula-
tion of the country, and various other causes, had rendered
these changes necessary from time to time. He considered that
if this Bill were to pass, every benevolent heart would rejoice
at seeing the poor supplied with corn at -a low price.
He did not think that the property of the farmer depended on
the high price of corn. A Noble Lord on the other side
said this measure would not be passed by their Lordships
without taking the sense of the country upon the subject. The
times and circumstances under which this Bill was brought
before their Lordships must not be lost sight of. He believed
their Lordships would be entering into a hopeless conflict if
they strove to maintain their present corn-laws. If they could
appeal to the sense of the country he believed that there would
be an immense majority in favour of the corn-laws. The Go-
vernment had been accused of acting under the influence of the
League—they had done no such thing. He disliked as much
as any Noble Lord any system of organised agitation ;
but he still considered that the great power of that
body should nct be overlooked by any party in the country.
The thousands and thousands of pounds subscribed to the Anti
Corn-law League for the purpose of obtaining a repeal of the
measure, might be taken as a mass of evidence denoting the
feelings of the people upon the subject before them, and he
trusted their Lordships would not refuse to weigh it when they
came to a vote. And now with respect to the Right Hon.
Baronet, he would say there never was a Minister at the head of
affairs more interested for the public weal, and there certainly
never was a more upright and incorruptable man placed at the
helm of the state than Sir Robert Peel. It was objected to
them that they had not explained to the House what were the
views which they entertained of the effect of these measures.
Now he considered a more preposterous assertion was never
made to the House.—(dear, hear). They could not be ex-
pected to name what would be the exact price of corn. They
did not pretend to do so. Their Lordships had the conse •
quences of the measure fully before them. They were even
detailed by the very fact of its introduction to their House ;
and he would conclude by thanking their Lordships for the
favour with which they had heard him, and he would record
his vote in favour of the measure, convinced as he was of the
benefits which would arise to the country from it. —( Hear. )
Lord NORNIANBY said his Noble Friend had completely
misrepresented him, and had imputed to him motives which
would be most dishonourable. What he did say was, that he
preferred a fixed duty, and that was the only thing in which
he differed from his party. He also said, that being stung by
some observations which were made by the Noble Lord last
night, that he (Lord Normanby) had become most personal in
his observations.
The EARL of HARDWICKE said, lie would begin his
address to the House in the same manner that many of his
Noble Friends had done, namely, by expressing the regret he
felt at being compelled to address them at that late hour of the
night, but that he had been driven to do se by circumstances
of the last importance, over which he could exercise no control;
and that nothing but the deep sense of the du'y he owed to his
country could compel him to enter up Ele had no doubt
but those Noble Lords who had preceded him in addressing
their Lordships against this measure, had done so from a feel-
ing that they were doing that which was most conducive to the
best interests of the country ; with those observations he
would now proceed to address himself to the subject
matter of the debate. He did not believe that any of their
Lordships were more interested in the passing of this measure
than the humblest man in the kingdom. Nay, more, he would
go so far as to say that he did think that the lower in the scale
of society these were who sought for this measure the more
were they interested, and t hat the rich men would be the least
affected by it. He would ask, were not the-parties who were
urging on this measure the aristocracy of the country ? And
were not the opinions of those men in accordance with the opi-
nions of the most democratic countries in the world ? The
Noble Lord then read an extract from the American Tinges
newspaper in justification of his argument. He then went onto say,
Had this country flourished under the protection system ? His
Noble Friend who spoke last had given them merely speculative
points, but he did not advance one point in support of the posi-
tion taken by the Government. Now they on that side of the
House had one thing to look to in evidence of the good that had
accrued under the protection system. They had raised the
character of the country, they had increased her exports, and
given facilities for introducing imports to a greater extent than
had ever been known before. The produce of the country had
been proved times and oft to have kept pace with the prosperity
of her Majesty's subjects, and he coroended that the revenue
had in the same way kept pace with the produce and prosperity
of the empire. He could show their Lordships that the prices
of the necessaries of life, other than bread, had preserved a
fair proportion with the articles he had referred to. The Noble
Lord then adverted to the contracts taken with Chelsea Hospital,
at different periods, and argued therefrom that very low prices
existed at present in respect to every necessary of life. In ad-
dition to everything else, the capital employed in agriculture,
had employed, as his Noble Friend stated on the previous
evening, a very considerable fleet, with a great number of sea-
men—he meant in the guano trade. He had taken great pains to
ascertain the condition of the people residing in his neighbour-
hood, as to their circumstances in former times, am' he found
that in those days the poor never saw wheaten bread, and they
spun their own clothes. A great improvement had taken
place, they were now better housed, fed and clothed than they
were then. Great quantities of wheat were now raised that
had no existence then. He begged to impress on the minds of
their Lordships that there was no calling in which the
proffits were less than in agriculture, and he believed
them to be such as to render it impossible
to pay higher wages than were now paid. He believed in the
agricultural districts wages oscillated with the price of food,
which was not so to the same extent in the manufacturing dis-
tricts. He was certain that if this measure passed, it would
affect in a serious degree the agricultural interests of the
country, and lead to most deplorable results ; and that it would
operate injuaiously upon the labouring classes. —( Hear, hear.)
hadtich:ezoauarogisnyhi
thought
hrteohhvereea
proved
rate
agricultural
He could refer to another portion of this subject, and a very
curious one it was, and that was the rate the price of corn
,Hogu:l
wheatdw t takewould
uar
l:ds
ent,
hloetteah dveeeptmratoioosnrpqtteauhrl
their
prosperity
yer
from a pamphlet written by Mr. Barker. The pamphlet
mighteaf ut PI
at
usa rr
claimathß el
districts.t price
oet
thing,
decreased, and this fact equally held good in the menufactury-
Lordships at that late hour of the evening, but he
of this country had greatly increased under a protective policy.
They had heard of famine in Ireland as a reason why this mea-
sure should be passed into a law, but Sir Robert Peel bad
already abandoned this position, and therefore there was little
necessity for their Lordships to advert to it. The Noble Lord
referred to Ireland had
statistics to show that the exports from
greatly exceeded the imports into that country, and therefore
he apprehended that as far as the argument advanced by his
Noble and Learned Friend on the previous evening (Lord
Brougham) had gone, it completely
fell to the ground. He
thought• it important to read this opinion in favour of the
sliding scale of his Noble and Learned Friend, because his
Noble and Learned Friend, whose opinions, owing to his
brilliant talents, were considered of great weight, had distinctly
declared last night that he was always a free-trader.— (Hear,
hear.) Besides, in the immense number of speeches which his
Noble and Learned Friend had made, and the large amount of
business he must have transacted in the course of his long life,
must have forgotten this speech.—(Laughter.) Than his