The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-15 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 15,

flourish Manchester!" An immense mass of the rural
population were suffering acutely; and, therefore, he
was not surprisei that they sometimes gave vent to
strong language. These people were not naturally
disloyal or impatient of control; but they could not
understand, in the midst of their anxiety ani inability
to obtain employment, why the foreigner should be fa-
voured whilst the loyal and industrious labourer was
neglected at home. These very natural feelings of the
rural population ought net to be overlooked by her
Majesty's Ministers; and he could state, as a practical
farmer, that the continuance of the free-trade system
must prove most injurious, if not ruinous, to the agri-
cultural interests of the country.
Mr. SLANEY held views rather differieg from those
entertained by gentlemen on both sides of the House.
He thought it would have bean better if a moderate fixed
duty on corn had been maintained, as an equivalent for
the undue burdens of local and general taxation borne
by agriculture. That would also have been a convenient
mode of raising a part of the revenue. But after the long
struggle and the ultimate settlement of the corn-law
that had taken place, he held that the present experi-
ment ought to be tried for some time longer. He attri-
buted the present depression of agriculture to extraordi•
nary and transitory causes, such as a season of unpa-
ralleled productiveness throughout all the corn-growing
countries of Europe, which was not likely soon to occur
again. He was not over sanguine in his anticip a -
dons; he believed there would yet be very great
distress throughout tho country, and whether or not
the energies of the British people would carry
them over their difficulties without a return t a
protective policy, he was not able to predict. Yet
he advised the agricultural interest to lay aside their
agitation for protection, and endeavour to remove
the shackles and impediments to the success of their
industry and enterprise arising from the complexity of
title and the costliness of conveyance; and he was sure
if they looked to the amelioration of the social condition
of the mass of the people, they would find that if the
great cities of the country prospered, it was impossible
for the landed interest not to flourish also. He admitted
the prevalence of distress in some of the rural districts,
but thought very little of it extended to the peasantry.
—(Hear, hear.) Certainly, in some of the southern
counties where abuses of the poor-law used to obtain,
the distress had reached the labouring classes; but in
the northern counties wages had not been reduced in
proportion to the reduction in the price of the necessaries
of life, and he understood the peasantry were as well, it
not better off now than they used to be.—(Divide.) For
the reasons he had stated, in all sincerity, he did not be-
lieve the present causes of agrieultural distress were of a
permanent character; but if that distress continued un-
abated until the next session, he for nue should be pre-
pared to reconsider the present system of commercial
policy, with the view to establishing a fixed duty on corn
as an equivalent, but no more than an equivalent, for
what might be found, on inquiry, to be the peculiar
burdens on land.
The Marquis of GRANBY said he was not surprised
at the present motion, because there wt.s a reaction of
feeling against free trade amongst persons of all classes
and professions in the country.—(Hear, hear.) The
tenantry of the country, one and all, declared that it
was impossible to cultivate the land under tke present
prices for agricultural produce. But if the case of the
farmers of England was bad that of the same class in
the sister island was still worse—(Hear, hear)—and it
would have been much better if the Noble Lord at
the head of the Government, instead of lowering the
franchise to the level of the distressed condition of the
people, had endeavoured to raise the people to the level
of the franchise.---(Hear, hear.) But the evil was not
confined to the tenant-farmers. The agricultural labourers
came in for their share. It was no wonder, then, that
the labouring classes were beginning to feel the effect
of their free-trade measures, and to perceive that cheap-
ness did not always mean plenty, and that competition
did not mean prosperity.—(Hear.) He believed that the
labourers in the manufacturing districts were coming
round to the same opinion. The Hon. Gentleman who
last addressed the House said that the prosperity of the
landed interest depended on the prosperity of manufac-
tures. He (the Marquis of Granby) admitted that, but
he maintained that the converse of that proposition was
equally true, that the prosperity of manufactures depended
on the prosperity of agriculture. The manufacturers
were beginning to find that the home market was not
only the largest, but the most important and secure. It
was said that the price of corn was rising, and that a
better state of things might be expected. Why, it was
only in the Timis of that day he read that the average
price of wheat for the week ending May the 4th was
only 365. 6d. throughout the country.—(Hear.) Under
such a state of things, of what advantage was it to the
farmers of the country that the price rose sixpence one
week, and a shilling another?—(Hear.) But was it not
the object of free trade to make provisions as cheap as
possible?—(Hear.) The Noble Lord admitted the fact of
distress, but he led them to hope that at some distant and
imaginary period prices would rise; so that the defence
of tree trade now set up by the Government was
that at some future day it would be inoperative.—(Hear,
heat.) His Hon. Friend had been taunted for not bring-
ing forward this question himself; but from the present
spirit of the House of Commons, and from the tone and
temper of the Government since the commencement of
the session, when the first insult had been offered to the
agricultural interest to the moment when the Noble Lord
gave his answer to the deputation which recently waited
upon him, his Hon. Friend had no right to suppose that
!tat House would sanction any alteration of the present
system, more especially when it was remembered how
the moderate proposition of his Hon. Friend for charg-
ing the consolidated fund with a portion of the poor rate,
and that of the Hon. Member for Oxfordshire (Mr.
Henley) had been received.—(Hear, hear.) He rested
his reliance fur the reversal of their present policy not on
the decision of that House, but on the force of public
opinion out of doors'.—(Hear.)
Sir B. HALL said, if it were possible to suppose that
a person, not a isiember of that House, could come there
that evening and ask what the subject under diecussiou was,
and be told it was the great and important question of
the corn-laws, about which so much had been heard and
said outside that House, be (Sir B. Hall) thought that
individual would be very much astonished at the little
interest manifested within these walls on the subject;
and probably if that same stranger—whom it was impos-
sible to suppose present—should be asked on which side
the Protectionist Members sat, he might, drawing his
own conclusions, reply that they sat on the right of the
chair and not on the left.—(Laughter.) The majority
in the House that evening sat on the right of the
chair; and therefore it might be supposed that
those who took an interest in the matter had come
down in large numbers to support the agricultural in-
terest, then more or less involved in the motion before
them, and which emanated from that side of the House
also.—(Hear, hear.) But let them go further. He (Sir
B. Hall) had sat there during the whole of the debate, and
observed that during the addresses of the three last
speakers—particularly that of the Noble Marquis who
represented to a great extent the agricultural interest in
the midland counties—the largest number at the oppo-
sition side of the House amounted to 27, and fluctuated
between that and 17.—(Hear, hear.) Therefore was it
not a perfect farce for these Hon. Gentlemen during the
recess to go amongst their constituents, stimulating them
to opposition, and styling themselves "the farmers'
friends," yet, when the question came to be decided
within the walls of Parliament, out of a body of be-
tween 200 and 300 Protectionist Members who
affected to advocate the interests of their deluded
followers—(Hear, hear)—not more than from 17 to 27
Hon. Gentlemen were found in their places.—(Hear,
hear.) If the Members of the Manchester school had
adopted that course out of the House, and had not the
moral courage to bring forward their propositions and
take the sense of Parliament on them; they (the Pro-
tectionist Members) would have lavished their censure
on them, and demanded of them why they went abroad
stimulating the minds of the public, making them dis-
satisfied, and yet, though affecting to be the friends of
the people, fearing to bring the question at issue before
the sense of Parliament.—(Hear.) The Noble Marquis
who had just addressed the House expressed his gratifi-
cation at the fact that the first political wave broke from
the Ministerial aide of the House. Well, the farmers
out of doors had long been looking for the bursting
of a wave from the opposite side, but could never
succeed in seeing even a ripple, so that they should
hold themselves indebted to an Hon. Member on
the Ministerial side for affording an opportunity to bring
forward the question.—(Hear, hear.) What he (Sir B.
Hall) then said he spoke not alone for the House, but
also for, those outside its walls; because he considered it
a farce and a mummery for Hon. Gentlemen to go
amongst their constituents and get up a clamour, and
then allow three years of a Parliament to pass over
without ever endeavouring to bring forward the ques-
tion.--(Hear, hear.) He thought a man making an as-
sertion outside that House should at least have the
moral conrage to fulfil his word.—(Hear, hear.) Now,
let them look at the position of the metropolitan Mem-
bers, who, being anxious to repeal the window-tax, con
sequently brought forward a motion to that effect every
session.—(Hear.) The Protectionist Members, on the
contrary, went amongst their friends and supporters as-
suring them they would advocate the renewal of the corn-
laws. Yet session after session went over, and the quest
tion was never brought forward. The case of the Hon.
Gentleman was somewhat similar to that of the re-
peaters of the legislative union, in fact, pari passu. The
repeaters of the legislative union professed that repeal
was everything with them; but yet, strange to say, they
never brought it forward.—(Hear. hear.) In 1833 it
certainly had been brought forward; but, between that
period and 1848, there was a single Conciliation Hall
Member found to bring it forward ?—(Hear, hear.) In
•1848 the question of repeal was brought on by a gen-
tleman representing an English borough, and who was
at perfect variance with the repeaters. The case of the
Protectionist gentleman was precisely similar.—(" No,
no," from the Opposition benches.) Well, what had
they done? Would they rouse the people without an
object, a definite object?—(Hear, hear.) What was that
object but to amend the laws?—(Hear, hear.) Where
could they be amended unless on the floor of that House
by argument and plain speaking; and if they intended to
amend them otherwise why not say so? 'That House
was the proper place for discussion; and the question
was then brought on for discussion, not by the consent
of Hon. Gentlemen opposite, but because it was forced
upon them from the Ministerial side of the House.—
(Hear, hear, and No, no.) Now they could not
deny this fact, that when the question was brought for-
ward that evening they could not muster more than
twenty-seven Members; and if Hon. Members on his
(Sir B. Hall's) side of the House chose to walk out, Hon.
Members opposite would have the House counted, so
that they should be thankful to gentlemen sitting on the
Ministerial benches for keeping a House for them.—
(Laughter, and " Hear, hear.") He would not then
enter into the question beyond saying that they would
have an opportunity of testing the votes of Hon. Gentle-
men opposite; and he hoped when these gentlemen
would tell their constituents in future that they were
prepared to bring forward this great and insertant