The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-10 00:00:00

Sir R. INGLIS said be was now witnessing a party which
orete once united, firing into each others vessels.—(Laughter. )
He could not help asking himself what would become of the
Honourable Gentleman the Member for Durham, or rather the
Member for Southport. What would become of all the
new converts at the other side of the House, if
his Noble Friend thad not come to the rescue.—( Laughter.)
He hoped he would not say (for it was not his wish) an unkind
word to provoke an angry feeling; but he could not help
thinking what unpleasant feelings must be entertained by those
who found that their party was divided. There were three
propositions proposed, which would give full and entire satis-
faction to all political economists, but he begged leave to state
that these propositions were not supported by any argument on
the part of the Noble Lord (Russell). He stated he would
not raise en angry feeling, and he would apply himself to that
part of the question of most importance, and would only
occupy their attention for two or three minutes.—(hear.)
His view of things was this that in trade we should
to procure all articles at the most moderate market. Looking
at the products of Europe generally, he found that averages
could not be made of crops as if they were the products of
steam-engines. Much would depend on the state of the wea-
ther, for the variations in it would create great difference in
the averages, and consequently in the price of food. The
largest average was 140 per cent., and that was an average
extending over a period of twenty-four years.
In Prussia the average was 212 ; in Saxony
it wss 269; and in Westphalia it was 340.
But as he told them himself in his remarkable speech, the
countries which produced potatoes prohibited their € x port.
From Sweden, from Belgium, from Holland, the distress was
there so great, you could have hoped for nothing. lie also
told you that Turkey and Egypt refused t permit the higher
kinds of grain to be exported. But might they not supply
the wants of Ireland with an inferior grain.—(Hear, hear. )
He was quite aware that he could from the pages of " Hansard"
prove various inconsistencies on the part of those who now
advised this measure. But it was needless, as the very authors of
it in the strongest terms admitted them. His Noble Friend
(the Member for London) had himself made great changes in
his opinions on the subject of this very question. He neither
taunted him or the members of the Government with what
passed. He did not accuse him of having been interested in
any such change, and he not only did not accuse the Right
Hon. Baronet ef having been ir,fiaenced in his change by im-
pure motives, from his personal knowledge of him, but from
that which was clear to every one, that he had no conceivable
motive for those changes, and that he had every conceivable
motive from retraining from them. He was at the head of the
largest majority that ever sat in that House since 1834.
It was a party on whom he might have looked with some
satisfaction.—(Loud cheers.) A party who certainly looked
up to him with respect, and only regretted that they were not
earlier acquainted with his weaknesses.—(Cheering and great
laughter.) He hoped, however, that his Right Hon. Friend
would forgive him if he exactly distrusted his powers as a
statesman in the same proportion as he had suddenly changed
the opinions formerly held by him.—(Hear, hear.) if he
were now a great statesman all his former acts were those of a
person insensible to the wants of the country. In these observa-
tions he was speaking his cool and deliberate conviction. They
could not admit the purity of his motives without impeaching
his claim to guide the destinies of a free country.
—(Cheering.) His suddenness of change was such, that there
might not be another change in another month. With re-
spect to his Noble Friend the Member for the city of London,
if he gave him a pledge that he would support the Irish
Church, he knew that he would carry out that pledge to the
utmost extent, and nothing could induce him to swerve from
his promise, he therefore knew to what he had to trust, and
he would much rather trust an open enemy.—(Cheering.)
(Here the Hon. Gentleman paused for a few moments.) " I
stopped," continued the Hon. Baronet, " for my own sake—
I will not pursue the subject."—(lmmense cheering.) He
would not put the Government into the hands of the
Gentlemen opposite. With respect to the Noble Lord op-
posite, he had, however, to observe that his change had been
at least four years old. While he deeply deplored the part taken
by the Government, he could not help asking at what time
were these measures brought forward? They were brought
forward at a time of profound peace. Ireland had not at
that time her monster meetings; England was arrived at
a pitch of prosperity &most unexampled, to which she had
grown under the very system now proposed to be altered.
Wh then should they, when well, take physic and die? He
pledged himself to the fact that, in every instance, the actual
produce was greater last year than the year before. Under these
circumstances he. for one, could not see why the Govern-
ment measure should be supported.
Captain FITZMAURICE, who spoke most inaudibly, said
he confessed his view of the question of protection was very
different from that of the Right Hon. Baronet. He regarded
it as a compensation for the industry of the agriculturist,
and as a security against the competition of foreign avicul-
turists, in consequence of the peculiar burdens which fell to
the land of this country. He defended it, therefore, on those
grounds—on the ground of the burdens which pressed on the
agricultural energy of the country. He defended last year the
protection which was given to the West India planters on the
same principle. The Right Honouraele Baronet him-
self, in 1844, had given expression to the same ideas.
With regard to the present measure which has been
broright before the country, it was stated by the Right
Hon. Baronet that he rested it upon the famine, which was
apprehended in Ireland. He would ask the Government had
they taken that view of the question which other countries had
adopted under similar anticipations? Had 'they attempted to
prevent exportation. Had they adopted those other expe-
dients which the necessities of the case seemed to warrant ?
In Ireland, exportation of corn and provisions had been
proceeding to an enormous extent since October last.
'The Right Honourable Baronet had taken protection
off this country when the country had a great impulse from
public works—for instance, such as from railways. Let him
take the county of Wiltshire; they had no shipping which
could bring about a benefit to that county by importation.
How, then, could the present measure—how could free trade
oenefit that part of the country ? Manufactures were carried on
there, agricultural pursuits were prosperous there, but free
trade, with all its importation, would not be of any advantage
to its inhabitants. Now, let there be a railway
constructed through that county, and the people
would be greatly benefited by such a project.—
Hear, hear.) It was said that the manufacturers of this
eoun'r' would be received by foreign countries in exchange
for their corn. Let them take Poland for instance. Now he
spoke from information furnished by a gentleman residing in
that country, and he would say that the growers of corn there,
when the duties would be taken off in this country, would
send corn from there at .30s. the greater. Let them take
America. They were told that the growers of corn there
would take the manufactures of this country in exchange for
their grain, but he had good grounds for saying that they would
want gold and not manufactures. It is well known that
the American shipping left this country, after getting rid of
their corn, in ballast, and, that would be the very way in
which they would leave our ports when free trade
became a law. What said the Right Hon. Baronet in 1844?
At that period he complained that the principles of free trade
were delusive and visionary. Such was not his opinion now,
however. There was one way of remedying the evil of a
famine without bringing forward the present measure, and that
was to be done by taking the price of corn at the weight, and
not by the measure. If this had been done, corn and bread
would now be more corresponding in price, and still protection
he upheld. Can it be expected that farmers will lay out their
money in making improvements, when the law which protects,
or rather ought to protect him, is to be changed by the Right
Honourable Baronet, who had always led them to believe him
their best friend, by his having always spoken in their favour.
It was said that "woman's vows were traced in sand." He
should like to know what men's vows were traced in. Were
they traced in adamant ?—( Laughter.) He should like to
know what the Right Honourable Baronet's vows were traced
in ?-- ( Hear, hear.) He (Captain Fitzmaorice) thought they
were traced in steam.—( Great laughter.) The Honourable
!Baronet had made vows, but they were all broken ; all the pro-
mihs made had been abandoned, those who kid supported him
were not taken into consideration, their opinions, their influ-
ence, and their interests were alike disregarded. He might
well say—
" Blow, blow, thou wintry wind,
Thou art not so unkind,
Nor is thy breath so rude
As man's ingratitude." -
The Hon. Member sat down amidst some applau=e.
Mr. SYDNEY HERBERT said that of all the speeches
which had been delivered against the present measure
of her Majesty's Goverment, he might select the last
two speeches as argurstents in 'its favour.—(Hear, hear.)
Those changes bad not been forced upon the Government by
any choice of their own, but by the advent of circumstances
which it was not possible for any human power to foresee. He
wished he could be convinced that the position of
Ireland was really not such as had been represented,
or that he could be justified in declaring that the
contemplated change in the law affecting the price
of food would be unnecessary, but they had had too many
proofs to the contrary not to be satisfied of the justness and ex-
pediency of this measure. The Hon. Member had stated in his
speech, that there was deficiency of food in Ireland, or rather
that there was an average supply, and that therefore the appre-
hended loss or deficiency need not be apprehended.
Sir R. INGLIS said he alluded to the potato crop.
Mr. SYDNEY HERBERT continued by saying that the
potato crop was not the exclusive food of the people of that
country. It would not be necessary for him now to expatiate
upsn the miseries and misfortunes of a large mass of people who
were accustomed to subsist upon that article of food. They
had already heard a great deal as to the state of
that portion of the population who were compelled to
depend upon this worst kind of subsistence for the
greater part of the year. But if the Hon. Members had
followed out his argument by quoting the returns, the state of
the crops for several years past, he would have found that in
_many, instances there had been actual deficiencies for the supply
required, even where the crop was stated to have been an
verage one. During the whole of those discussions he should
say' that he had heard no arguments or statements which had
the effect of 'este ng the truth of the reports the Government
bad received fro:the mistrac and constabulary in Ireland
on this subject. The Government
l had neither lent too willing
an ear to the reportathat
state of the prevailing they had received as to the exaggerated
tions with regard to distresslreland being on the one hand, or of the asser-
But, with regard to the actual state a fwd's
paradise on the other.
persuade
of the potato crop in Ire-
land, he wished he could de himself that the reports the
Government had received, as to the actual deficiency, were
really erroneous or exaggerate
of facts upon which the Govern
rm. hail acted, were too pal-
he melancholy combination
pable to be disbelieved, and therefore some measure was neces-
sary to avert the apprehended calamity.e,
for he had
was this state of
things confined to Ireland alone,
glanddascertained, upon
where the
good authority, that in the West of En
potato crop was extensively cultivated, it had. talliseore failed to as
great an extent as any part of 'lreland. As had been stated
b? the Noble Lord the Member for London, the otatecrop
was one which presented this singular parado P x crop
was a
was often pronounced to he an average crop when it was, in
fact, of so inferior a quality as to be almost unfit for food. If
they looked at the returns of the year 1839, it would be seen
that the prices had been raised precisely in that same way as
had occurred in November, 1845 ; but there was a great dis-
tinction to be noticed between the causes upon these two
occasions.
For instance, it would often be found that the
e quawaslity nots
wa
wheat crop was an average crop butrom,
bad, and v
yet the bread made fthd it ;
the result was, that bad bread was not
made, but that a greater quantity of inferior wheat
was required to make the same quantity of bread than would
have been necessary if the wheat had been good. This had
the effect of lessening the price of wheat, while no change
whatever took place in the price of bread. No, he would not
hesitate on an occasion like this—for he, like many others, had
a change of opinion to announce—to declare that his opinion
had undergone a change upon this subject, because he had seen
that the law of 1842 had most signally failed.—( Hear, hear.)
This might have resulted from a combination of circumstances
that no Government could have foreseen. But Hon. Members,
while they argued in favour of the corn-laws, seemed to forget
that those laws were enacted in order to meet the expediency
caused by a transition from a state of war to a state of peace, and
now that the time came when they ought to be abolished, for
they had seen that other countries had met the circumstance of
a scarcity of food by throwing open their ports to all the world.
He regretted that the course then being permed had net been
adopted by Hon. Gentlemen at the o A Noble
Friend, who preceded him, had expressed it his OD that '
the present measure was one which should not-haveleemni ro
duced.by the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty'sint-
Government. Now he (the Hon.Member)had nohesitaiionin
saying that he was strongly of opinion, and had advocated the
;meaty of its sdoptieu) that the measure theald to left is