The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-22 00:00:00

!

f the only observation made upon it came
The
the Ihmourable Member for Cockermout
h Emmet ah!e Gentleman had tested the Pretec-
1411w-ills by the r prose
~lings on the gasuc-'3, s, l'e
cl'uld now ask the 11010.0 jest to see how th" 110)1•
nt,lerrian himself had dealt eith that question during
the ,ast tire year,. He failed that in March, 1345, the
li°o• Gentlenoto had given wake! for a Committee
thegtons -laws, and in obedience to a suggestion of
Lae Right Iron. Baronet the Mm eber fa T r unw aorth,
who was then at the head of the Government, the Celli-
ir,tee was appoioted. The Committee sat till July,
and then recomeneeded it; re-appointment; hut the Hote
Gentl-eaten the Member f 4. Manchester had in the mean-
time either found hip thirst a 1 or his difficulties increase,
mid he never mote d for the re appointotent of the Corn-
raitfee during me,
t_
ear 1817. In February, 1848, he
vent
Lured to inquire of the Hon. Gent'eamn what his in-
e:tien Ca;, and his answer was, that ho
the growth
u'en eagal,ed in the consideration af
• growth of cotton in India. That might litiee been
a
satisfeet try explanation ; hut at all events, after so
long; 4 consideration, he hoped the lion. Gentleman had
settled that question. In March, 1848, the lion. Gen-
be!nan. moved fur leave to bring in a Bill,
ut': an amendment was propoial that the
th a5O should adjourn, which was carried, and
Lill mysteriously disappeal el, and it had not been
• Decarrd of since. Now, his lion. Friend the Member for
i3lshire. not making such great professions, ha 1
the interval brought in a practical amendment of tee
gllne-laws which was carried. and had since been found
e,hto work exceedingly well.—(Hear, hear.) So that if they
re to go by that test, the Hon. Member for Man•
uneater would come off very poorly indeed.—(Hear, bear.)
tste now came to a subject on which the Secret's:), of
that° for the Home Department had complained that
• 1. ° Member for Buckinghamshire bad touched but
rghtl• He was so h Right Honourable Geu-
rry t
Itileotnan had so closely followed the example of the
noarable Member far Buckinghamshire. Anything
e • utore m
• ' ateeagre or •niggard than his allusions to Ireland,
etteek'nr• Stafford) had never heard.—(Protectionist
• a R, 110 It would be his painful duty to enlighten tbe
-nao on the state of Ireland—at all events, on that
part of it with which he was intimately connected—in
rider that the Irish Members who intended to vote
$X fast any reconsideration of the poor-laws and local
•••' . ;leaden on real property should be able to get up in the
~ense and say why they believed the present state of
• ""e
took . countryshould continue.—(Hear, hear.) He
•
the establishment charges in Ireland to
t am„
"ant to 289,000/. He took the law expenses at about
t+iiuc, • 5,000/
Abe •si the collectors' poundage rate at 41,0001.; and
administration of justice at about 55,000/. He pro-
(-
5"1 is addition to that, that 90,0001 should be
Paid
~,,„biehf Jr emigration ; 490,0001. was the amount
).. Thar a he proposed to be granted to Ireland.
• • °lase-Want" completely satisfy them of the truth of his
I.'' att°ns• Ile would then read to them the commu•
• siac:,7" of a highly respectable Roman Catholic eccle-
• roi'oi on whose word they might place the utmost
aiirt,.ee. The Hon. Gentleman then read the letter,
in I,lr°ra his statement it append that in a parish
t. • le fir which he bad acted as clerk,
it „,''""ng off the applications for relief which
• fiction determined to refuse—for it was a di-
' ahl'ehoodiel°,_ll of the Poor-law Board to deny all relief to
. • .tht2d paupers—the consequence had been that
, • i6l7lghout the union the relief had been reduced from
t.• (4,'4 to 12ot a week. Through that regulation upwards
.11e
120 able-bodied labourers had been put on the list.
• r.ar. °lt'd next pass to the county of Limerick, whence
e,
. of `l.a resolutions had been forwarded from the board
Love guardians to the Noble Lord at the head of the
nruent, in which the idea that pauperism was on
s. ne
It•decrease was folly refuted. He would
,ask the
h Eton. Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland whether
' 0;3 had Lot received intormatioq from Ireland, whether
streetsofLimerick had not been paraded by bands
of
arinedwhose cry was, " Bread or Blood !" and
• to di men,
had Pere whom, not only the police but the military
• eaen called out. This rule of the House refosed
0 ado
TTlyv Ireland to be separated from this question.
"Y believed that Ireland, once ivjured by an Eng-
al
' from
sYstem of monopoly, was now suffering equal),
to a SYstein of free trale—equally a vicar], though
T't more norcl, but yet not less noxious, system.
t .eY told Hon. Gentlemen opposite, that the question
ed
m°Jority wastoo momentous to be decided by a single
and that they should continue, as far
fro ''" in their power, to try and save themselves
• : their friends, if friends they could be called after
The language at public meetings.—(Hear, hear.)
cheer should still continue to contend that immediate
kuiriaPness ought not to be the sole rule which ought to
• the Legishiture ; that with kingdoms, as with in-
the cheapest bargain often proved the dearest
abc"l'et and that a Legislature which only considered
toe interests of consumers did not deserve that claim
• ~abgreatness which they ought to possess.—(Hear.)
ed' believed that they were an increasing party in the
• alailtutiY—a party not pledged to this or that import
that out deeply, and ho trusie I irrevocably, pledged to
lalid„c„antinus and comprehensive policy which had con-
sirb,,ecl the resources of this great nation.—(Cheers.)
• the R. PEEL and Sir J. Gnauast, at the conclusion of
• immediately '4't n. Gentleman's speech, rose together, and
Cy there were calls for each. The
.Speaker,
P°lrereri called upon Sir James Graham, and Sir Robert
eel immediately gave way
„ Sir JAMES GRAIIANI then proceeded to observe
'Qat it was with great diffidence that he intruded himself
lira the House, but if it should be the pleasure of the
o use to hear his Right Honourable Friend the Mem-
berat for Tamworth, then he would at once give way.—
i car, hear.) He was not aware that it was the inten-
tw°4 of His Right Honourable Friend to offer any ob-
orvations to the House at that hour, and it was only in '
eledieace to the call of tho Speaker that he
khad risen a second time.—(Hear, hear.) •
Which
• oe thought it most desirable that they should 1
s hear as possible the precise subject
ha they were to discuss, and, therefore,
h;aehOuld not follow the Honourable Gentleman who
• lust sat down into the game-laws, the
!11 Hours' Bill, and much less should he dis• •
or
Ts the question of landlord and tenant in the question
areland which was more germane to the matter they
GQe about to dehate.—(Hear.) He agreed with the Hon.
,ratleman that the question they had to discuss owed
see•r,}l;largo one. If he thought it was to be nar •
1:1,1-1,1:_t the limits of the motion introduced
tt.tle Honourable Member for Buckinghamshire
th Bnould have Leon perfectly willing to rest his vote on
eouclusive speech of the Right Hon. Baronet the
ryalsiecret f State for the Home Department.—(Cheere.)
heat, with regard to the landed proprietors of Ireland,
lae7,4;(l°n!y to say, that ho was not deficient; in ad-
ike4sl' the interests of that country as much as be pos-
• toldo, even at the sacrifice of his own; because
4,enaved that the maxim of the preference of the good
tt many should always be acted upon. He looked •
3ere'll the basis of this question as too narrow for the ob-
s by the Hon. Mover (Mr. Disraeli); yet he
ssa nut at the same time say, that he believed that this
ta,la the first of a series of questions, all tending to the
aia,-rB,al of the past policy of the country, for be eon-
Vshir,',e" it to be only a fragment of that large measure
opi he (Mr. Disraeli) proposed last year. Ile was of
s"i°ll that the Hon. Mover intended to transfer to the
eoll.otidated Fund, not only the poor-rate, but the
144,Y-rate, and the highway-rate; for he (Mr. Disraeli)
the that for the sake of argument, he would bring
as land-tax under the consideration of the House,
or'LEtlore, that he would also 'present to the notice
ttik'e House a very important subject, the malt-
ferred ,Thus was the sum of 20,000,0001. to.be trans-
ef —sirorn the laud-tax about to become a subject
cieeat':'scussion, which lie look° I upon es a
tave-,'n of very great impoitance, for it involved the
there of the past policy of this country, and would
ispee!'oro constitute it as a question of change with re-
.• to the Administration. This was plainly intelli-
alsoei not only from the speech of the Hun. Mover, but
(the e,rern the speech of a Noble Duke in another place
the 4'w, like of Richmond), for that Noble Duke said that
ver(Nectot his party was to throw out the present Go-
aserernent and to dissolve Parliament, for purposes which
filelividcnt to all, but which he believed would not be
Ings
neu for it would be impossible, ceusidering the feel-
reeo-nd opinions of the great mass of the uatiois, to have
total r" to Protectionists' principles, as such would loti!a
thee, reversal of the past policy of the country. t Ile
rit that it would better become those Honourable
4,vowthilaen (the Pcotectionists) that they should openly
their intentions, than to be thus masking them;
'oletc uelieved that they could as well move for the re-
taitee°ll of the opinion of the house without a Com-
-4itien-'l4B With it, and he therefore did not see the requi-
• een such a motion. He would next rt f,,r to the
tor p ent and eloquent speech of the Hon. Member
• that
hat Lothian (Mr. Cnarteris); but he should say
4lreo °4(Mr. Charteris) seemed to he caught and in-
)4eliem hY the speech of the lion. Member (Mr. Dis-
gosr Turnin to the establishment charges, there up-
\say te be g
in respect of them a want of due control,
111'°1 led •expenditure.
to a dangerous and prodigal
if th4e"lis the commencement of a series of transfers, and
t‘ir principle should be violated, it would lead to dan-
thieo 41e agreed with the Hon. Member for East Lo•
!lisle; that this question could only be settled on prin-
ala°t. equity and justice, and that the burden:, which
'Nest.proposed to remove were quite insignificant if the
CEIe 4 was
e.rop, not settled on those great princhpies.—
,• anble ge„lar.) lie could not deny that recent legislative
t,l„- had affected the lauded interest to a con,ider-
at h„-Oees and imposed upon it difficulty and distress;
uokin could not agree with the Hon. Member for
iTspeotg.4aMshire (Mr. Disraeli), when he said that with
was 1•9 the burthens which it was proposed to remove,
.heeded immaterial whether the benefit to be con-
i4Tlt-rarlere given to the landlord or the to
1444erneither did he think that the tenant-
:eutilter.sc'uld agree in that opinion.—(llcar, hear, and
v_gow tb„ The Right Hon. Btronet then proceeded to
40 poe't a decrease of 15 per cent. had taken place in
t,Nvl'cre tri;rateS in the agricultural districts. In Scotland,
be`fre was excellent management of the poor, the
pres recipients bad diminished.—(Hear.) ques-
, thei ented itself, would they consent to a reversal
present Policy in respect to taxation, and would
teal teent t
which property
co place a large portion of the burdens of
tca tbo those articles of primary necessity from
een, he eeY,tunl remitted taxation ? Now, to that ques-
t;:re, wa•Zunkl. not hesitate to pronounce the opinion that
I."'e the,:ti,elther equity or justice in such a proposition.
the
taxa"; thc House would agree with him that inch
e 04 had been carried to demonstration beyond
,'"Prised °f endurance. Since the income-tax had been
7,41111
wortz inielBhhirsl
youll a larno reduction
• .( eano, as had taken place ; that tax
Prot the bore ioaptildeiewihi,en it came to bo reneat
bo the proper time to ad-
ftto wbiet_ens on the land, arid there were burdens
itouu, It certainly required to be relieved. The
b,se"iateb Baronet having alluded to the de-
et!iitilhi the ,71.10 h followed in the currency, consequent
etietllhrilsteerslation in 1819, and which the country
W4peatioe_ touch lauded, said they would now, by the
fi RD:ll)er
cot_ imitertialihwhich they were making, fall into a not
• , ancuity. He then enumerated eleven articles,
and b • reeks, butter, cheese, soap, tea,

coffee, sugar, currants, and raisins, which enter so touch
into tae comf..rts and necessities of the poor; Cud asked
the House if it was goinz to az.aiii impose heavy burden'
on those article., for the t cacti: of re!'. property.—(Hear.)
Then there were a few other articles which he would call
I the poor man's luxuries—these narcotics in which he
sought a shell obliviousness of his cares, and which com-
prised tetacco, spirits, and beer—and were they, he
would ask, prepared to impose belv.er restrictions on tile
use of those luxuries of the poor? Would there, he
would ask, be either equity or justice in transferring the
burdens cf the landed interest to those articles? The
Right Honourable Baronet then releried Vie attention
of the House t..) what might be done by the landed
interest to alleviate their own burdens, by the applica-
tion of science in the cuhiva ion of their estates,
rind by great care in the management of them, and
instanced his own estate as an example on this subject.
By care, and by great attention, and by the application
of science, he Lai situeedel in reducing the local
burdens to which his °mat was subject, and in making
his tenantry comparatively- condottibis. With recpeat
to bricks and timber, he showed, as regarded the landed
interest and the public in general, the great injustice
levying and keeping- up a tax en these articles, operating
as the impost did against all improvements, and he
should certainly like to see the existing tax entirely re
moved from them. Ho thoughL that the House, in any
course which it might take in the adjustment of the
burdens, ought not to lose sight of the interests of the
poor; and while those who were in favour of the recent •
legislative changes had the great body c f the community
wall them, he felt that they were strong, and had no-
thing to fear; and to those who, would return to the for-
mer system of restriction, and had not the community
with them, he would say, they were weak and powerless,
•and had no chance of a return to that system.—(Hear.)
Speaking from experience, ho could state that in his im-
mediate neighbourhood there had not been any reduction of
wages. The farmers and employers of labour had not
reduced the remuneration for employment; and all the
articles of filat necessity being cheap, he never recol-
lected on his own estate so much happiness and content-
ment among the working classes. Alluding to a remark
made the other evening by his Honourable Friend the
Member for Surrey, respecting the manufacturing and
commercial classes—a remark that he had heard with
deep regret—the Right Honourable Baronet said that it
was his most anxious wish and desire that all chuses
should be united, and the policy ho had ever adopted he
believed in his heart and cemscience to be that which was
best calculated to promote that end. If they looked to
the city_of Glasgow, which was next in importance to
the metropolis, they would find, on the authority of the
sanitary report of the town council, that that city, which
last year had teen visited by an epidemic, was now free
from that affliction, trade and confidence was restored,
money was cheap and provisions low, the merchants and
the manufacturers were full of hope,. end the workmen
fall of employment.—(Hear, hear.) He knew how dan-
gerous it was to deal in prophesy in that House, but
still he confidently declared his belief that, when the
revenue of the country had improved, when the com-
mercial and manufacturing classes were prospering,when
property was improving in value, the owners and occu-
pier,of the soil would not long remain the only class
subjected to suffering.—(Hear, hear.) Having thanked
the House for the indulgence accorded to him while he
had so long trespassed on its time, the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman concluded by stating that for reasons assigned—
reasons which he believed to be conclusive—ha should
vote against advancing one step towards the considera-
tion of the motion proposed by the Honourable Gentle-
man below him, and to give the proposition at the outset

his decided opposition.Li(Cheeri.) -
Mr. GLAI)STONE said that, concurring with Lis
Right Hon. Friend in the general opinions he had ex-
pressed wiih regard to the effect of the recent commer-
cial policy, having voted with him since the advent of
the present Government to power on every questio❑ of
importance affecting both the trade and internal economy
of the country, and attaching the greatest weight to his
authority, even independently of the ability with which
he had enforced his arguments, he felt it incumbent
on him to state briefly the reasons which actuated
him for the vote he intmded giving, inasmuch
as that vote would be different from the vote of his
Right Hon. Friend.—(Cheers from the Protectionist
benches.) The Right Honourable Gentleman wished to
impress tha House with the conviction that they were
not really canvassing the details of the proposition of
the Honourable Member Buckinghamshire, but a
change ofAlir inistration, the transfer of eighteen milLons
to the Consolidated Fund, and the reversal of free-trade
policy. Now, in the vote which he was about to give,
he confessed he could not see any of those things. With
respect to the change of Administration, he should say
that even such a contingency should not exercise any
paramount influence in the determination of a claim
which was viewed as a clam of justice on the pat of a
great portion of their fellow. subjects. But, if he un-
derstood the Right Honourable Gentleman the Secretary
for the Home Department, that was not the Tround taken
by the Government, for he had told them that when the
financial statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was moved they could then consider the points of the
Hon. Member fur Buckinghamshire's proposition, and
that those who now voted against it could, if they saw
reason for changing their opinions, then vote its adop-
tion. This showed pretty clearly that the question was
not one for change of Administration. Then with re-
gard to the alleged result of transferring eighteen mil-
lions to the Consolidated Fund. He met that statement,
firstly, by disputing its accuracy; 'and in the next place,
by maintaining that, irrespective of all threatened ulte-
rior measures, they shonid consider the proposal of the
Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire on its merits, and
►:ot withhold that which was just and reasonable because
the motion might be followed by that which was unjust
and unreasonable.—(Hear.) With regard to the Right
Hon. Gentleman's statement that the adoption of the
proposition would be a reversal of tree-trade policy, he
wished to stato distinctly- that if—

Sir JAMES GRAHAM interrupted his Right Hon.
Friend for the purpose of assuring him that he had not
made any such statement, or at least, if he had done so,
it did nut express the sentiment he intended to convey.
What he wished to he understood as having stated was,
that he considered the proposition would lead to a re-
versal of the relief now afforded to the labouring classes.
Mr. GLADSTONE rejoiced at the explanation, and
felt happy that an accidental expression had misrepre-
sented the opinion of his Right lion. Friend. His views
of the Hon. Member's motion were so weak, alter the
gigantic picture drawn by his Right Hon. Friend, that
he felt almost ashamed to occupy the attention of the
Honse, but he desired it to be understood that in sup-
porting the proposition for a Committee he did not
in any way intend to deliver up his discretion to any
specific propeieal, nor to bind that discretion with
respect to the terms of the three resolutions which the
Hon. Member for Buckinghamshire had announced,
nor to any ulterior measures which in his judg-
ment he might subsequently bring forward.—(hear,
hear.) He meant simply to pledge himself to this ex-
tent, that presuming there were portions of the charges
of poor-rate and county-rates, which might be trans•
ferred to the Consolidated Fund without abandoning the
advantages of local legislation, be was willing to go into
Committee for the purpose of considering and deter-
mining which of those charges might with advantage,
and a due regard to the great principle of local control,
be transferred to the Consolidated Fund. There was,
in his opinion, direct connexion between the motion and
their commercial policy, and he considered that its
favourable considecation would have a tendency to
weaken the agitation for a restoration of protection.
Ile supported the motion on the very ground which his
Right Hon. Friend intended opposing it, namely, on the
prieciple of justice. It was impossible to look at the
tax levied for the support of the poor without being
convinced of the inequality of its pressure. They
could not, it was true, have an exactly equal tax, but
then there could be an approximation to that equality
of pressure. The objection of impracticability did not
apply t) the motion of the lion. Member for Buck-
inghamshire, because that proposition affirmed the un-
equal pressure of the ratss. Neither was the question
one between labour and property, but between certain
descriptions of property on the one hand, and certain
descriptions of property on the other. His Right Hon.
Friend had asked what party would be relieved ny the
change proposed? and he (Mr. Gladstone) was not a
little surprised at the estimate he (Sir James Graham)
had formed of the 'immediate effects of the motion.
Looking at the relation between landlord and tenant
respectively, they could not in their consideration of this
branch of the question pass by the yeomen and inde-
pendent small farmer class, who, unthr present circum-
stences, had peculiar claims for support. His Right
Hon. Friend admitted that the holders of leases of the
tenant-farming class would during the continuance of
those leases get the benefit of the change. Then came the
case of the tenant-at-erill. Looking at the relation exist-
ing between the landlord stud his tenants, not in a legal,
but in a moral and social point of view, he believed that
the tenant-at-will would not be deprived by his land-
lord of the benefit of those changes. The toaant-
farmer and the independent yeoman, then, wore the class
that would he benefited. But supposins, that after a
time the whole benefit came to the landlord thereof,
his Right Hon. Friend would not argue that such a re-
sult should he considered a valid objection to the propo-
sition. If these were objections to the scheme, the
Right Hon. Gentleman then proceeded to show that
there was not one of them which with equal force might
not be urged against an equalization of schedule A in li
the Property-tax Bill, which the Right Hon. Member
for Ripon seltnitted pressed unjustly on the agricultural
classes, and ought to be removed. With regard to the
financial objections urged, that they should have before
them a statement of the year—know the available
surplus, and the relative claims that different classes
and interests might advance previously to the consi-
deration of the proposition, be met those objections
by stating that he was prepared to advocate, or at
least t ) consider the claim on the ground of justice.
But, independently of this circumstance, he men-
tioned that there were considerations of policy which
might incline the Government, and those who did
not object about the abstract justice of the motion, to
give it a Lir hearing. Admitting that there was much
prosperity in the country, he could not shut his eyes
to the fact, that in the agricultural class there was se-
vere struggling going on, and that the farmers were man-
fully exeiting themselves; and though there might be
some whose 'hearts had already given way, and who had
prematurely learned the lesson of despondency, still the
great mass of that class were engaged in a straggle
which they supported with all the energy they pus-
sesied. He would. not discuss the large and over-
whelming questions mooted by his Right Hon. Friend.
Whether the effect of agreeing to the motion would have
the effect of overthrowing the Government, and trans-
ferring 13,000,000/. of taxation to the Consolidated
Fillet, he would not discuss. He was contented to vote
on the motion as it stood before the House, and in it he
saw no indication of such overwhelming changes. The
Right Hon. Baronet, the Secretary cf State for the
Home Department, certainly did not look upon the
motion in the same light ee his Right Honour-
able Friend, for ho distinctly stated that when

lolland

fac surplus reseeue aae ascertained it would then be
proper to consider how it could best be appropriate 1.
fie trusted that considering that protection had been
taken away four agriculture, the hence would treat t'o
motion in a liberal and conciliatory spirit. He appealed
to theses who had gained a great triumph by the recent
commercial policy-which had been adopted to support
the motion, on the ground that it would tend to remove
a leir cause of complaint, and render tle cry for protec-
tion less powerful than if this inequa,!itv was removed,
fo tlsose wire were animated by an abstract sense of
justice be appealed, because he believed the claim .was
just, and he believed the motion also deserved the sup,
port of those, who though they might sympathise with
an abstract and mathematical Justice, could yet sympa-
thise with the geellant struggle which the farmers and
yeomanry of this country were now making, and with
the condition ef the peasantry throughout the coun-
try. For his own part, he gave the proposition his
most decided and cordial support, because the result of
the debate on his own mind had keen, that in all sub-
stantial points. the proposition itself, and the reasons
adduced by the Honourable Member who moved it,
bad brea fully and reasonably sustained. (The Hon.
Gentlemen sat down amidst loud cheers from the Pro-
tectionists.)
Mr. J. WILSON joined issue with those who sup-
tsd the motion on the ground of its justice, and con-
tended tient the inequality of a tax on property was
sooner or later lost in the transfer of it to new proprie-
tors. He came to another point much insisted on by
lion. Gentlemen opposite. It was said that inasmuch as
landed proprietors inherited those charges under a pro-
t .ctive system, they had at, present to meet a new and
unforeseen difficulty. But he denied that the protective
system had been a real advantage to the landowner;
and he was also prepared to deny, or at least very ranch
to doubt, that the removal of that system had been a
real disadvantage to the landowner. The Hon. Gentle-
man the Member for Northamptonshire (NU. Stafford)
had asked what was the cause of the preeent depression
in the prices of agricultural produce? Now, in reply to
that question, he should endeavour to show that the pre-
sent prices were of an exceptional and accidental charac-
ter, and that they were such as no prudent land-
owner or farmer, and still less such as the Legislature
could proceed to act upon. He should first, however,
observe that, at some former period, and more especially
in the year 1836, greater distress and a greater depth of
despair prevailed among the cultivators of the soil in this
country than that under which they were at present suf-
fering, while he had reason to know that the agricul-
tural labourers had largely benefited by the cheapness of
all the chief articles of subsistence. He had spent a por-
tion of the recess in the county of Wiltshire, a county
by no means remarkable for the flourishing condition of
its labouring population, and yet he had received there
as unequivocal admissions of the improved condition of
the labourers and of their families at the present ee:iod
as any that had reached him from the north of England.
But he repeated that, as regarded the prices of corn, we
had of late been living under very exceptional circum-
stances, and he should endeavour to prove that statement.
The first fact to which ho would call the attention of the
House was, that the farmers of this country were at pre-
sent suffering, not so much in consequence of the harvest
of 1849, or of the prices which were the result of
that harvest, as consequence of the bad harvest of
1848. IJnfortunaeely we had in this country very scanty
means of knowing the yearly amount of our agricultu-
ral produce. But we had date sufficiently accurate for
the.purposo of his argument. He found that the quan-
tities of cern sold in the 256 towns from which the ave-
rages published in the Gazette were taken, had been as
follows in the last four years, each year commencing on
the Ist of September, and ending on the following 30th
of September e-
-1845-46 5,929,788 qrs.
1846-47 ... 4,995,518
1847-48 5,450,631
1818-49 4,298,901
It appeared, therefore, that in the year 1848-49 there
had been sold in those 256 towns nearly 1,200,000 qrs.
less than in the preceding year; and as the quantity
sold in those towns was supposed to represent one-
fourth of the entire quantity sold in the country, the
total deficiency in the sales throughout that year
amounted to 4,800,000 qrs. Now, taking the value
of that deficiency at 455. a quarter, which was the
average price, the total loss t the farmers in that
way must have amounted to 10,000,00(1/. But the crop
so sold was not only deficient in quantity, but was also
deficient in quality; and the total loss which it entailed
on the farmers, as compared with the produce of the
preceding year, might, he believed, be fairly calculated
at 15,000,000 L That was one ground for his opinion
that the present circumstances of the corn trade were of
an exceptional character. He should, however, further
observe, that the greatest amount of agricultural distress
prevailed in those counties in which there had been the
greatest (2eficiency in the crop of 1848. The average
deficiency throughout England and Wales had been 20
per cent., but in Bedfordshire it had been 28 per cent.;
iu Cambridgeshire, 30; in,Suffolls, 25; in Worcestershire,
33; in Soreersetshire, 25; in Wiltshire, 22; in Berk-
shire, 26; in Devonshire, 40; and in Sussex, 45; so that
in Sussex, where agricultural distress was at present most
acutely felt, the deficiency in the harvest of the year 1848,
as compared with that of the preceding year, had amounted
to more than double the average deficiency of the whole
country. During the same period we had had an
enormous importation of foreign grown corn; but ho
believed no lion. Gentleman would contend that too
much had been imported for the consumption of the
people. Let it be remembered that, after that large
importation we had very little corn left in our bonding
warehouses. It was said, however, that foreign corn
was displacing home-grown corn in our markets. But
that statement could not be accurate, for in those 256
towns there had been 2,000,000 quarters of corn sold
this year, as compared with 1,700,000 quarters sold last
year. Now, let them look at the countries from which those
large supplies of foreign corn had been received, lie held
in his hand returns showing the various countries from
which we had derived our importations last year; and
he believed that the details of those returns would show
that the importations had taken place under circum
stances which were not likely to be permanent. Perhaps
the House would be surprised to learn that the country
which had sent us the largest amount of corn last year
was France. The following was a list of our importa-
tions of wheat from the chief countries from which we
had last year derived oar foreign supplies:—

. _ ..
Qusrterc.
Franco ... ... ... "41 ... ... 742,023

'russia ...

... 618,734 ••• ••• •.• •••

United States
Russia ...

... 617,131
... 600,373

Rause TownF, and Rostock and adjacent ports 498,983
Belgium ... ... ... • ... ••• ... 366.098

308,432

Now it should he borne in mind that not withstanding
our large importations from France, that country was
itself usually an itopnrting country; and that two years
ago she had been actually compelled to search the whole
world for the surplus necessaries for her people; and
after having reminded the House of that fact, ho
thought he was. justified in stating that that was
an exceptional circumstance in our importations during
the last year. As regarded the different countries he
hai!mentioned, he should proccei to inquire what had
been in each of them the average price of corn during
the last eight or ten years, in order that he might
ascertain how their importations might influence the
prices in this country. With respect to the United
States, however, he should observe that he had been un-
able to obtain any account of the average prices on
which he could rely; and he should, therefore, merely
observe that the prices there were at the present moment
above the prices in England, and that from a country
with such growing wants and such a high rate of wages
as prevailed in the United States we could not expect to
receive large importations of corn, except in yeara when
the prices here should become exceedingly high. But
let them look at the case of France. From that country
we had received during the last five years, the following
importations of corn:—ln 1849, 742,023 quarters; in
1848, 320 010; in 1847, 179,259; in 1846, 73,774; and
in 1845, 35,809. It therefore appeared that our impor-
tations of corn from France had last year reached a
most unusual amount. He held in his hand a return
showing the averaze price of wheat in France since
the year 1838; and that return he should proceed to
rears t,) the Ilouee. In 1838 the price had been
_ _

465. 91 per quarter; in 1839, 539.; in 1840, 51s. 61;
1841, 43g. 6,1.; 1842, 465. 9d.; 1543, 49i. 5d.; 1844, 475.
3,1.; 1845, 475. 3d.; 1836, 575. 6d.; 1847, 695. 7d.;
showing an average price for those ten years of 51s. 2d.
rer quarter. It was true, however, that that price had
f Alen in a most extraordinary manner dining the last
two yt ars. He found that in the yevr 1848 the average
price of wheat in France had amounted to only 395. 9d.;
and in the year 184914 had only amounted to 335. 9d.
There had, therefore, been a fall, after the lapse of a
single year, from 51s. 2d. to 333. 9d. That, he felt jus-
tilled in stating, could only be regarded as a very ex-
ceptional circumstance. It was well known that on an
average of years France imported more corn than she
xported; and he therefore said that our recent impor-
tations from France could in no way be taken as a cri-
terion of our trade in corn with that country. Then
again, let them look at Belgium, from which our impor-
tations of wheat during the last five years had been as
follows: Qrs.
1349.. ..• •• 306,098
1848_ ~. 178,399
1847... ••• ••• 27,469
1846... ... ..• ••• 3,063
1845... ... ••• 983
Notwithstanding the large amount of those importations
last year, Belgium was a corn importing country, and an
Act was actually in the course of being passed in 13e1-
glum for putting an end to a corn law which had been
established there some years ago, in imitation of our
former sliding scale, it having first been found necessary
to suspend that law from year to year. He could not
think that Honourable Gentlemen opposite need be
alarmed by any large importations of corn we could re-
ceive from Belgium. He did not wish to eay a word
that could be considered derogatory to the character of
the very industrious and inoffensive people of that coun-
try; hut he certainly did not believe that they could
prove very formidable competitors to the English
fartnem He found that in ono of the most important
districts of Belgium—the district of Maliiaes—the aver-
age size of the farms amounted to only eight acres,
while out of 13,000 holdings not less than 7,000 con-
sisted of less than two acres of land.--(Hear, hear, and
a laugh.) Surely the English farmer, with his great
resources, could meet the competition of a people so
situated. lle found that the average price of the quar-
ter of wheat in Belgium during the ten years from 1839
to the end c f 1848 had been as follows:

S. (1,
1839 ... ..• ••• 55 3
1840 ... .•• ••• 51 6
1811 ••• 43 0
1842 ... 53 0
1843 ... ..• ... 46 9
1844 42 6
1845 ... 49 0
1846 ... 58 0