The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-14 00:00:00

TIIE SUN,

struggling thus, as I believe, in vain against machinery,
is embarrassed by this peculiar difficulty—that it is the
manufacture into which the largest quantity- of raw
cotton enters. It is a heavy cotton containing
the largest quantity of the raw material. It hap-
pens most unfortunately that the price of raw cotton has
greatly risen, and the employers of handloom weavers
have been increasing their power of machinery to meet the
difficulty-, and in order to encounter the high price of cotton
are passing from handloom weaving to the greater use of
power-looms. - (Hear, hear.) This is a peculiar circumstance
of recent origin, but I am bound to say I have always felt
and thongbt that the slays of handloom weaving were all but
numbered, and that the struggle with the power.looms must
end in defeat. But this is a question of the price of cotton,
and, strange as it may be, it opens out a ray of hope even to
the landed interest. Whence does this ray come ? Why, it
comes from the quarter whence they least expected it :
" Via prima salutis,
" Quod minime reris, pandetur ab urbe."
It is from the mills of Messrs. Bright and Co.—(Cheers and
laughter.) It is from Rochdale that this light of hope opens
on the landed interest.—(Cheers.) Hopes are entertained,
confident hopes—that by a new management of flax stalk
it may be used in large proportions with great advantage and
diminution of cost in mixture with cotton wool, sheep's wool,
and even with silk wool.—(Hear, hear.) And, Sir, for my
part, I cannot conceive any di-pensetion of Providence more
merciful than that science and skill should succeed in over-

coming this difficulty, whereby we should be rendered in a
great degree independent of foreign supply, while a great
stimulus would be given to oar manufactures; and if, hap-
pily. this encouragement to the cultivation of flax here
should succeed, I am very confident we shall hear no more
of the distress of those handloom weavers, and that the cul-
tivation of land will be largely improved by the introduction
of capital in growing this new plant, and that this
plant will be of peculiar service to the agriculturists from its
being peculiarly adapted to increase the fertility of the soil.
I pass from the handloom weavers to the 'antlers and land-
lords of Cumberland. I know none of the cases to which the
Hon. Member alluded of my own knowledge, but he ad-
verted to a farm which has been recently re-let in Cumber-
land at a considerable diminution of rent. The Noble Mar-
quis has spoken of his labourers. Perhaps I may here be
permitted to say a few words of mine. I have already
stated to you the infinite obligations I am placed under by
the conduct of my tenantry, but I stand here this moment
without an acre of land unlet which I wish to let.—(Cheers.)
I have not for the las'. five years changed two ten :nts who
pay me above 1001. a year, and 1 have not an arrear of
3001. on my whole rental.—(Cheers.) That is the
state of my county, so far as lam concerned. But I
look to the estate of my neighbour, of my colleague,
and of my friend, as I am proud to call him—the
Duke of Buccleuch ; one of the greatest proprietors in the
south of Scotland, and one who differed from me as to the
policy of free trade. He has not in Roxburghshire and
Dumfries let land falling out of lease—and those leases are
usually fI. nineteen years—at any diminution of rent. A
case has been mentioned again of a farm in East Lothian, and
I dare say some Hon. Member more conversant with the de-
tails of that propery than I am will speak upon that point;
but, as I am informed, the farm in question had been pre-
viously in the hands of the owner, and had never been let
before the last letting—that it was never calculated to be
worth more than 1,8001. a year—that some speculative far-
.

mer took it at 2,2001., that he made an imprudent and im-
provident bargain, and that a remission, therefure, has taken
place, reducing the rent below 1,800/. a year, but not much.
I have friends in East Lothian, and I have made it my bu.-

siness to inquire into these matters, and I am told farms
let freely as they fall out of lease without diminution of rent
whatever—(Cheers)—and also I am informed that the
value of the fee-simple, which is the real test among the
shrewd and sagacious people of Scotland has increased since
the repeal of the corn-laws.—( Hear.) I have said I have
no farms to let; but I have perceived that since the repeal
of the corn laws there has been a competition for land,
aireing among a class of persons with whom there was for-
merly no desire to occupy land, while there was the uncer-
tainty which attended the operation of those laws.—
(Cheers.) Shopkeepers retiring from business—(Laughter)
—small merchants in country towns—(lronical Protectionist
cheering)—these persons, attracted by the pleasure of an
agricultural life—(Renewed ironical cheering and laughter
from the Protectionists.) Yes, you laugh at that. --(Cheers.)
But I thought country gentlemen would have been the last
to laugh at that—(Cheers)—or to undervalue the attrac-
tions of securing health and fresh air for which those
persons sought a country life.—(Cheers and laughter.)
But I repeat it, that small traders of little capital in coun-

try towns are now waiting the moment to make in-
vestments in farms; the competition for farms on the
fall of the lease is unusually great, and I know of
my own knowledge that on any change of the
present occupiers I could find men with good capital to take
them. So much with respect to the state of affairs in my
own immediate neighbourhood. i ,ut now let us try another
test. Are enclosures falling off?—(Hear, hear.) Is there
any indisposition to bring land into cultivation in this coun-
try? Now, lam reminded of a melanch,ly event, because
it relates to a Noble Lord with whom I once lived on terms
of great intimacy, and though p,rtial differences may have
estranged us before his lamented death, I will never cease to
speak of him as a man of great talent, of ability, and integ•
rity, of great perseverance in ;he pursuit of his objects, and
of great sagacity in the selection of them. I speak of the late
Lord George Bentinck. He was a great promoter of what
has been called winning from the sea a new English county.
—(" Hear, hear," from Lord J. Russell.) Before his death
the enterprise was not completed. Has it been abandoned
since ?—(Hear. ) I hear that it is going on as vigorously as
ever, and that half of the Victoria county is to be gained—
Lord H. BaNTISCK—" 600.000 acres"] -- that, as my Noble
Friend the Member for Lynn says, 600,000 acres of land are
about being recovered by sagacious men. who have formed
themselves into a company for the purpose of reclaiming half
an English county from the sea.—(Cheers.) The great dif-
ference of prices has also been touched on by the Ndble
Member who has just spoken ; and here I cannot avoid men-
tioning it cursorily, that the cost of production in a long
series of years must regulate the price of every commodity,
but that the market price is constantly for short periods not
regulated by that rule. There are disturbing causes, which
make for short periods the market price infinitely below the
cost of production. Now, the lion. Member for Bucking-
hamshire rather sneered at: the doctrine that the pre-ent
prices are "exeeptional. Bit I should like those who sneer to
answer a case of fact.—( Hear, hear.) There is a country
under high protective duties on corn close to our shores. and
yet disturbance of price has taken place in France even
greater than here. lam informed that the price of wheat in
the neighbourhood of Bordeaux not long ago was 28s. a quer-
ter,and that under a high protective duty. The market price
being below the cost of production, the natural consequence
necessarily follows, and capital is rapidly withdrawn from
the cultivation of the soil. lam told that at the time of the
revolution there were 200,000 fundholders in France. There
are now 800,000 fundholders. What slr•ws still more the
charater of political di,turbances, to prevent persons em-
barking their capital, there is in France at this moment a
powerful disposition to hoard, as is evinced by the rate of
exchange, and still more by the rise in the price of silk. It
is true that in calculating the sources whence corn might be
expected to be imported into this country any supply from
France was not anticipated, and it now turns out that while

those who were afraid of an over-abundance of bread in this
country thought the imports from the United States would
be overwhelming, they have been far less than were antici-
pated, while from France, which was excluded from these
calculations, the largest import of any foreign country has
been drawn. What do I infer from this? I ask this
question—Have we always been very accurate in our
calculations?—(Hear, hear.) Have we, for instance,
always been very accurate with respect to the cost of
production, and as to what is a remunerating price in
this country ?—(Hear, hear.) lam unhappily grown old in
these discussions. I remember in 1815 being told that 80s.
was the minimum of remunerating prices. I may be told
that was under a depreciated standard of currency. I lived,
however, to see the discussion renewed in 1827, after the
standard was restored, when the lowest remunerating price
was declared to be 60s. I remember another discussion on
the corn-laws in 1842, when the remunerating price of 60s.
was abandoned, and 565. was declared to be the proper
amount. And now, I believe, the landed interest, and I use
that term in the meaning which has been given it in the
debate, as signifying landlords and farmers, would be quite
content to abandon 565., and would be most thankful and
satisfied with a permanent price o. somewhere from 48s. to
465.—(Cheers.) I therefore cannot but observe that this
matter of remunerating price is one which largely depends
on the exercise of skill and labour. You talk of disturbiag
causes, but there were no disturbing causes under your
old corn-laws, and yet they were far more disastrous
in their effects, and the low prices were more ruinous.
The Noble Marquis, accustomed to the old rule of
reasoning on this subject, spoke of our natural produce
being 24,000,000 quarters; but, grant that to be true, and
what was the result? If in an abundant season there was
an excess of 1,000,000 quarters and it was impossible to
avoid such an occurrence iu the change of seasons—the
effect on the market was more instantaneous and powerful
than any which can now occur.. Why, I remember the year
1822, when Mr. Western moved for his Committee, when
there had been some bad harvests, the result of which
was to have a greater breadth of land sown than usual, that
there was a good season, that there was a great redundancy
of supply, and down went the prices at once to 441. a quar-
ter, and I believe for six weeks they were even under 40s.
—( Hear ) But that case is not so strong as that which
took place in 1835, when the average for the year was
only 395. 2d., and for some weeks the price fell below any
that had been yet reached. But, Si:, anxious as lam to
admit any ground of complaint, I cannot, while I acknow-
ledge the distress which unhappily prevails, lose
sight of the fact that the Channel Islands, in
view of the English coast, did enjoy perfect freedom
in the trade for corn, and from their vicinity to Eng-
land there was the greatest temptation held out to have as
much corn stored up as was necessary for their own con-
sumption, and yet what was the price of wheat during the
protective system? For a long series of years it was, as I
remember, but 48s. Now, I will not venture to make any
prediction with respect to the price of corn in future, but
this, Sir, I say, that be the price what it may, the time has
arrived when it must be left to its natural level, and
that for any Government or for any Legislature artifi-
cially, and by power of law, to enhance it—l say the
day is past.—(Cheers.) And why do I say so? I say
there is not a ploughboy who treads the heaviest clay in
England who does not feel practically his condition im-
proved within the last three years— and he knows the reason
why.—(Cheers.) I tell you there is not a shepherd on the
most distant and barren hill of Scotland who does not now
have daily a cheaper and a larger mess of porridge than he
ever had before—and he also knows the reason why.—(Re-
newed cheering.) I tell you again there is not a weaver in
the humblest cottage in Lancashire who has nut fuller and
cheaper meals, without any fall in his wages, than he had
before —and he knows the reason why.—(Cheers.) Now I
must tell you the whole truth. The time has arrived when
the truth fully must be spoken.—(Cheers.) I will speak of
another class still. There is not a soldier who returns to
England from abroad that does not practically feel that his
daily pay is augmented, that he has a cheaper, larger, and
a better mess, and that he enjoys greater comforts—and he
also knows the reason.—(Loud cheering.) Now, Sir, I en-
treat my Hon. Friends who sit below me to be on their
guard. You may convulse the country—you may endanger
property—you may shake our institutions to the founda-
tion—(" Heir, hear," from Lord J. Russell, and cheers from
the Government benches)—but I am satisfied that there is
no power in England which can permanently enhance by
force of law the price of bread.—(Renewed cheering.)
Now, that is my honest and firm conviceion. The peace
of this country, my own possessions, are as dear to me as
to any Ilona Gentleman who sits on the benches below
me; but I feel we have arrived at the period when it is
necessary to speak the truth, and I have spoken it with-
out reservation.—(Loud cheering.) And now to look upon
this question as one of taxation, as the Noble Marquis
says it is. He put it in the fairest possible manner.
He says the question we have to decide is in what way-
revenue can be raised wi h the least burdens on the
great body of the community. I accept that definition.
Nothing can be more fairly put. The Noble Marquis had
observed on the fact that the labourer in„this country was
heavily taxed; that he paid taxes on his tobacco, his sugar,
his tea, his beer. Now, the question that naturally presents
itself to me when I hear that is, what is the reason why
he should pay a tax on his bread also?—(Cheers) The
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