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

Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government in 11t3i2 ,!..t.
right new to turn round upon h:ai for arriving a ;tr. eve
suit which they themselves had assisted to bring aboni—(Olie position cheers, and cries of " No, no," from the., Ministerial
- benches.) They had rendered the result . ineVitabler
'( Cheers.) Why, what did they do in 1849 ? The were thee.
a great party; they had an unassailable majority in that
House.—(Hear, hear.) They. had the game in their...pin
hands. What was the, first step of coOnenien Which the Right
Hon. Baronet saw he was forced to
,adopt ? Thepropetial of
the sliding-scale. And when the Hon. Geetleinan had once
admitted the principle of conces-ion, what, his WOUld Iva to
know, was the paint at which they should stop ?--( Hear, bear,)
In 1841, the holy alliance of tintse concerned hi .the
agriculture of the country was,• formed ; pod" the • • iikki-
culturists were now reduced to what
,they. themsehvei
called a Most hopeless position, when famine e't.e.•ecd then? in the
face.—(Cries of " No, no," from the Ministeetal eide of, the
House.) The champions and advocates of Hon. Gentlemen on
the opposite side of the House were now. forced Co admit, with
the Right Hon. Baronet, that there must boa enntirival, pro-
gress in legislation with regard to the trade of the country;
but then they at the same time thought the clesire.rif the land-
lords to have protection should be duly listened to. But, in
his opinion,- the Government of the country had
listened long enough.—( Hear,
_hear.) It was new
time that the public should have..a pat in the matter.—
( Hear, hear.) The Hon. Guido-nail who had last spi:tken
had said that he would give a moderate protection to agricul-
ture ; but he had almost, in the same breath told them, that he
knew an agricultural district in Scotland where the farmers
placed very littli value upon the preteenion, as it was
called, which was afforded to them by Parliament He
had told them, that in spite of the hills which
no horses could labour'up, the scarcity of manure, and otht r
obstacles which did not exist in this country, and in spite of the
demoralizing and ruinous measures which the Right. Hon.
Baronet had now proposed, the cultivation ofland in that dis-
trict was still very profitably carried on. And as to the trash which
he quoted about the colonial markets, he ( Mr. Weal) 'would
put it to the good sense of every man in that Flousee whether
this country had run any risk in establishing a trade to New
York. They, in fact; supplied New York' ,themselvese_
( Heal, hear.) The' fact was that the amount of goods which
were sent to the colonial markets were not one-
eighth of what w. re • sent to neutral , ports,, where
the English manufacturer enjoyed ne protection, nor the
slightest preference.—(Hear, hear.) He would now go back
to the statement of the Noble and Gallant Member for Liver-
pool, who had already spoken at the commencement efehe pre-
sent debate, and he was sorry to observe that. the
,HOnourable
and Gallant Member was not then in his.place,' begause be had
made a loe,g Speech. The Honourable arid • Gallant
Member for -Liverpool had said that he had Lathing to re-
gret and nothing to retract sinee.he came into. Parliament.
There were very new men on either side of the House who
could make such a statement.e-(flear,' hear, and laughter.)
The Members of that House. were in a very peculiar position
with respect to their constituents: The Hon. and Gallant Mem-
ber for Liverpool represented the. interests of the greatest com-
mercial town in the kingdom. The Hon. Gentleman hid said
that agriculture and labour should ba protected ;.• bait 'What
would labeur do without capital? He said that free
trade might operate beneficially enough in other countries, but
he could not redimmend the ad Trion of that principle in Eng-
land. The Right Hon. Baronet had stated, on the first night
of the session, that he had tried negotiations between
the agric'turists and the manufacturers on this subject for many
years, but all those efforts to elleet a conciliation ended in
n 'thing. He would ask whether our trade had not quin-
tupled, in cite of 'the most rigorous tariff brought forward
and passed byTy4ktirable Members on the oppositte
side of the Eld&P-17,ottd cheers.) And were they for
ever to pu ish thengelve4 because other people brought for-
ward rneaShres ruinous to their own interests? The Hon.'
ourable and Gallant Member then asked what would
become of their colonies if the present measure were
passed ? The colonies were already supplied by our
manufacturers, and they were, consequeey, supplied wilt
cheaper and better articles than they themselves ceuid pro-
duce. But did this pioduce
,utter ruin to Ettgland and the
colonies? What was the effeet of •the abolitien.
of slavery in the manufacture of sugar in the West
Indies ?—( Hear, hear.) It was universally found that
sugar could be manufactured at. a much cheaper rate by
free than slave labourer,, • The Hon. and Gallant Member also
quoted a speech of Mr. Huskisson. There was no man in
that House who respected the name of that gentleman more
than himself. No man that had ever ,sat ,in that House,
in his opinion; hid done more service to his country
than the late Mr. Huskisson. Like the Right Hon. Bannet
.(Sir R. Peel) he had b-en obliged, in the course of a long
career in that House, to make great sacrifices of his party
politics. Ile would beg to refer the House to the closing
speeches et' that gentleman, for those might be taken to be the
real and honest expressions of his conscience; he might then t e
supposed to be free from all the trammels of office and party.
(Hear' hear.) When Mr. Huskisson then spoke, viz., on
the 25th March, lts3o, being two years after he had intro- .
duced his sliding-scale, he said that 'he really believed that
the then existing corn-laws might be abolished without any
serious injury. It was an easy matter to,complain of the incon-
sistencies of men in office, the disappointment of party Koper,
&c., but there was nothing that pubic men did that could he
right in the opinions of all parties.—(Hear, heer.). 'Puhlic
'Men, it must. be admitted, were
,often wrong. but at She
close of their political careers they generally arrived at
the truth. If the Right Han. Baronet was not right
.
in his political conduct. until the present time, he had
now the manliness and the honesty to come forward
and eanfess that he had at last turned into tl e right path— a
path which was consistent with reasan and justice, and most ,
conducive to the good of the country.—(Hear, hear.) It could ,
13 .t be doubted that public men heel often eltered their opinions.
Men on that (the Oppositien) side of the House had often done
so. Mr. Huskisson had often done so. The Noble:Lard, the
Member for the city of London, heti Manfully avowed that lie
had changed his opinions with regard to the corn-laws-that.e ,
had, in feet,' bccome wiser by experienee then he was in his
younger years. Be (Mr. Ward) himself, when he first be-
came a !Weather of the House, voted with • the Right. Hon.
Baronet on this questioe, and indeed he universally voted in
faveur of the core-laws. It was only since bali informed
himself thoroughly en' the subject, and had looked at the mat..
ter in that light which he wished all Hon., Menibers, on the
- ..._..
other side would do; that was to Fay without any class or paray. ,
feeling - ( Hear, hear)—that his views beeanse•altered_ in favour .
of a total and immediate repeal.. But he was ereid „that those
Hon. Meml ers suffered themselves to be bound doetn. by their
party connexiens.—(Heara) They had adopted an opinion,
and to that opinion it appeared they were determined to ad- ,
here, whether it wan right or ewrong. They
.neadeea. few .
sitecches, hastilyght up.e6ety agriculter4 meetings, until ,
thee,- found 0,4' whole cOuntry. denouneing the obstinacy with
a theft the c'ting to 'their faydurite principles of selfish pro-
tection. ' He readily believed that the course which the pro. .
tectionists Were pt,lrsuieg was' most irojarious to ,their own in- •
!crests-and to 'then. own country.. Noyi, in the course of this
long debate there had certainly een some very altirspeeches
delivered. There 'was a speech delivered by the Hon. (ientleman ,
the Member for Northampton. which, both in respect of jts .
tone arid the manner of delivery, *as good enough ;• the
greatest fault he had to lied with it was that it had reference
to everything but the principles which he got hp to defend.—. Bear, hear; anddaughter. ) It was evidently, from beginning
io end, nothing more than a ret;,io princip.i, a mere begging
tef the whole question. The Hon. Member saidthet the. Go-
vernment ought to legislate in
.such
.a .meoner. that all
interests should be protected without injury to any.
suppose his principle was
_right, the Government . would
than have to protect every interest in the country, becauie they
ennst not protect a large interest' such as agriculture or manu-
factures, and neglect fo pretect the lowest and most unien-
liortant branches of trade in the country. A great injustice
was apparently committed by the recent tariff. nethose con-
cerned in the production and sale of elever,seed, . and yet what
did the farmers, who dealt in that article, say to the. Right Hon.
Baronet on that head ? 'They stated that 99 out of every 100
farmers in that part of the country eared very littl.ahout the
lhanges that had' been 'in the tariff with respect to that
article.—( Hear, hear.) , That was the vew A high farmers
spook of the protection afforded them by Governitent. But
Unless the Legislature carried out to its full extent those prir-
Ciples of free trade their policy would be defective. It would
be a great humbug.—(Laughter, and cheers from the Opp-
anion.) They could not carry them out unless they
abandoned their %Id and mistaken opinions. If the .
• Government adopted the course recommended to .them, ,
by' the g pioteetionists, they would put themselyes and
that interest into a dilemma from which it would be almost an
iinpnssibility to extricate them. The
.protectionists would fail
in extricating themselves therefrom if they had a Government
Of their own to-morrow. —(Hear, hear. ) Those ,geritlemen
had once the Government in their own hands, but the,. Right
, Hon. Baronet discarded them. The Right' Hob. gentleman
Was there one. single ,principle
passed
' float rvte inth em
thea
if ft had .
efnasiruiwngarnieinssgiotnh.at they need not Iciek ,fOl. hisspp-
upon which they were agreed,
country generally, but to them-
ouse.—
and injuriously not only"
to theh
r)
. The Protectionists said
wopheierhat'ed most pardons.
~
mats a law, would . not have
selves in particular.—(ll
the heavy taxes whichn
-W had to pay. That was a question
etooeb,epotniotedsiiffdeeteonfcteheollf opinion
that we could not compete ' withea foreigners in consequenceeef
amongst ..
(11-lear, hear.) For six years, however, he (Mr. Ward) bad
attempted to make them show what were the " peculiar bur-
dens' Gentlemenon oughttb
upon whicfrhonth these re a
upon land, but he had always failed.—(Hear, hear. )
elle, however, rejoiced to say that a similar motion was
renv about to be brought forward in the House of
tords by Lord Beaumont. He hoped that he would not be •
considered out of order in referring to the proceedings of the
other House of Parliament. Would any Hon. Member deny • that his (Mr. Ward's) motion had been • postponed session
after session, in consequence of the conduct of the protec-
tionists themselves.—(Hear, hear.) If they really bad any
burdens, they should he ashamed of themsefves if they did '
not show what those burdens were, when they were '
fairly challenged to do so by Members on that
(the Opposition) side of the House.—( Hear, and cheers.)
Rut the truth was they could not prove the existence of those
burdens.—(Cries of " We can,' from several Members on
the protectionists' benches.) They could not have any ,
burdens, or they would certainly have accepted his challenge.
-•-( Hear, hear.) He proposed to them that they should
appoint a committee themselves, to consist of twelve intelli-
gent, honest men,, and he had also said that he had not the
least objection to the Hon. and Gallant Member for Lincoln '
taking the chair —( Hear, hear, and laughter.) Be. proposed
that they should examine the witnesses ; and had that
Committee been granted, he felt satisfied that he should have
btought those men to such a conclusion as her Majesty's Go-
vernment had now arrived at with respect to the corn-laws.--
(Hear, hear.) • But his motion was always rejected, and the
Hon. and Gallant Member for Lincolnshire slept very comfort-
ably on a bench in the gallere, on the last occasion that he ,
(Mr. Ward) addressed the House on this. subject.—( Cheers and '
laughter.) The country, however, saw perfectly well through
the agriculturists, devise; they saw that the talk about peculiar
burdens was a great falsehood.---( Hear, hear.) For his own
part he should have been able to lay before the country some
very curious information had the Committee been granted. He
should have been very sorry to have done any many injustice;
but in a word, he might say that Hon. Members on thefoypoe..
site side of the House were anxious to keep the question of th
peculiar burdens" as much as pessible in the ground.backkaouriog
Was the Government then to shrink frome endeavouring
?° That
to carry out their present measure in all
.itemint g
) He for
unanimous support of the country.— 1l
ear,
for he rdial Support, proposal was a large one, and in his opeenair,
one gave that proposal his most
salvation
of the agricultural be-
lievedin-
terest.—(Hear, that it world be the satl,eviaieved
that the agricultural
hear.)
tadrieserved the
terest.—(Hear, hear.)
el conceived that it uhuld be
(Much laughter.)
interests to let them legislate
most fatal to thir
When
they were entrusted with power,
for themselves.
their own interests. Let the House
gentlemen were not fit toe Like care of their oen interests.—
their legislation, and they would find tha' the
lock hack to
kes had been committed by that party to the
strangest mistakes
h mselves as well as of tee &envie 0,,a 1
prejudice of
t ethe se of wool. After raisin '.----
r.'
Let them look to ca 'R. the price of
they invariably' damaged
..
English wool to the highest possible point that they could, a
duty of 6d. pee, lb. was placed on 'oreign woe). The
Honourable Member tor teortaersetshiree arenegst ' others
then in the House, would recollect that in five;
years ' after the change, -the price of wool' was lower "
tNiY,
eilllthtaekeHnotoiff. Nfoleocrribeipi,ve.:r4rlebenvi,, nthoawt tthhaetptrbiecedsti*tyerheandi'
than it had been for two hundred years before:--(Rear.)
giteeenr thiann •
etanding
they had been iiknnlfttlifYie 'within the last centtiry,- notwithe -
...
we h,(l' iiinffirttA sixty-nine million pounde of that
e .namedity. How Will the Hon. Member Meet fihitt' -fie, and i
what would have been the result bad he no been