The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-12 00:00:00

COURT OF COMMON COUNCIL.
A Court of Common Council was held in the Guild-
hall yesterday, in' the purpose, among other business, of
considering the propriety of petitioning her Majesty to
take all such means as she may constitutionally possess
for throwing open the ports of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland for the free importation of
food.

The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor took the chair at
two o'clock.
The minutes of the last Court having been read and
confirmid, and some business of an unimportant charac-
ter gone through,
The LORD MAYOR briefly explained wby he had not
called the Court before the hour of two.
The requisition addressed to his Lordship was then
read.

Mr. D. WIRE then said that he rose on the present
occasion with some anxiety, not because of any doubt as
to the proper course to be pursued, but simply because
of his inability to do justice to so great and so important
a subject. He knew that, in the course of the debate, he
would be followed by those whose talents and whose know-
ledge of the subject would entitle their opinion to great
weight, and he would therefore content himself with briefly
making one or two observations in support of the object
stated in the requisition. He held in his hand four dis-
tinct propositions, and be apprehended that to neither
of them would any considerable opposition be of-
fered. The first proposition was that this na-
tion was a great, a powerful, and a wealthy na-
tion ; but that, great, powerful, and wealthy
as it was. a very great proportion of her Majesty's sub-
jects in Ireland, and a great proportion of her subjects
in England, in Scotland, and in Wales, had long been
reduced to teed upon potatoes. There could be no doubt
that this proposition was a true one—there could be no
doubt that, though these three great elements of
prosperity were in the country, a large proportion
of its people were starving upon a potato diet.
This was a melancholy state of things, and called for
the serious examination of every true and patriotic man,
for the purpose of seeing whether some remedy might
not be found for such a state of things. When millions
of their countrymen were reduced to a potato diet, it
was surely time to examine into the cause. But there
was something beyond all this. There was the deteri-
oration of their moral and physical condition
consequent upon this state of things, and it became
them to see if Parliament had not the power within
themselves of improving this condition of the country,
and of giving the people a more wholesome and nutritious
food than they at present possessed. Even in the
more favoured parts of the country they would find
that the moral and physical condition of the people had
been deteriorated, and he would only ask those who
were iu the smallest degree acquainted with
the agricultural districts to vouch for this. They were
w.yree fed than even the brutes.—(Hear, hear.)
There could be no doubt, then, that this state of
things called for inquiry. The next proposition
he held in his hand arose naturally from the former
ones—namely, that a large proportion of their coun-
trvine3 were living upon potatoes, and this could not
be doubted, for the daily papers of all parties
had affirmed, fur months past, that the potatoes now in
Ireland would not afford food to the people of that
country fur a longer period than March next. It was
therefore their bounden duty to provide a remedy before
that time. It seems to follow as a natural proposi-
tion, that if there be a deficiency in the crops of
one country, there is a sufficient supply of food to be
obtained from another country, and that Providence
takes care that the supply shall be abundant fur the
demand in every part of the globe. My Lord,
it is an undeniable fact that there exists a scarcity of
food in this country, and, therefore, as a patriot, a Chris-
tian, and a philanthropist, I cannot help deploring the
existence of those laws which throw an impediment in
the way of the introduction of corn into this country,
and deprive the poor labourer and the hard-toiling
mechanic of the abiiity to obtain the food necessary for
existence. That this will be the case is evident unless
the protection that is afforded to food that grows in this
country be removed, or, in other words, that the corn-
laws be abolished.—(Hear, hear.) My Lord Mayor,
baring said thus much, I shall content myself with mov-
ing the following resolutions, namely:-
1. " That great, powerful, and wealthy as this nation
is, by far the greatest portion of her Majesty's subjects
in Ireland, and a great portion of her Majesty's subjects
in England, Scotland, and Wales, have long been reduced
for their principal food to potatoes.
2. " That all classes, but especially the poor, have been,
and are, great sufferers from this result of the national
economy.
3. " That the blight which has now fallen upon that
root has subjected the people to great anxiety and dis-
tress, and to the danger of famine.
4. " That their sufferings are attributable to errone-
ous legislation, which, by excluding the importation of
food and restricting commerce, shuts out from the
people the bounty and goodness f God."
5. "That this Court do present its earnest and anxious
prayer to the Queen that her Majesty will graciously
use all the means which are in her Majesty's power to
open the ports of this kingdom to the free importation of
food."

It is not my intention to offer any other observations at
present. but I will afterwards move a resolutiin, that,
moreover, it be presented to the Queen, praying her
Majesty to repeal the corn-laws.
Mr. JOHNSON said that he rose to second the reso-
lution. This was a question respecting the abolition of re-
vrietive laws that had been argued over and over again.
it, after all that had been said on the subject, all the
money that had been spent on the question, and all the
efforts of the Anti-Corn-law League, the same objections
were still offered, and he could not but be surprised to
think that now, in the year 1845, those same objections
should still be made. There never was a question of greater
importance. You find among those who are opposed to
the abolition of the corn-laws a class of objectors
who say there is no necessity for alteration.
But was the commerce of this country of no import-
ance ? Without this were done away with, that
would be seriously endangered, as was shown by
agricultural countries having become manufac-
turing countries to a considerable extent. In
answer to those who said there was no distress or
danger of distress, he would call their attention to the
great fact, that in this country population was in the
course of rapid increase. The population of the British
islands was increasing, at the rate (4.1,100 souls daily, or
to the extent of 380,000 per annum ; and these souls
had bodies, which must be fed. Yet to feed these it had
been calculated that additional food would be
required, equal to the produce of two of
the largest counties in the kingdom.—(Hear, hear.)
This one fact was quite sufficient to show the evil opera-
tion of any law that interfered with the free importation
of foreign corn.—(Hear, hear.) He might be told that
thread was not so dear in price as it had been in former
times, and that therefore there was no pressing danger.
But his objection was not so much as to what the price
of food might be at present, but to the principle by
which it was artificially raised. If a law
existed which made the food of the people
dearer than a hat it ought to be, he main-
tained such a law ought not to exist—a law which
operated to the benefit of a class to the injury of the
whole community. Another objection taken to the de-
'nand made to the repeal of the corn- laws, and in reply
to the apprehended scarcity, was, that there did not yet
exist any deficiency of food in France, Spain, and other
continental counties, or even here—that the danger
had been much exaggerated. This objection, if worth
anything, only amounted to this, because there is as yet
no famine or starvation, therefore we must wait till this
famine or starvation is actually developed before we
admit any foreign corn duty free. It had also been
much insisted on that a repeal of the protective duty on
corn would injure the agriculturists and the farmers ;
and by many this had been considered a conclusive ar-
gument. He would not, on the present occasion,
take up their time in exposing such a fal-
lacy. It had been so repeatedly knocked down
and depressed, that now it had not the least basis
to stand upon.—( Hear, hear.) The farmers had been
completely gulled with this barefaced fallacy by their
pretended friends, and so lost sight of their true inte-
rests and that dependence which they should place in
their own resources. Comparing this country with
another European country, he found that the latter was
more heavily taxed than this --a country where the
labourers were better paid, whose climate was not so
good, where general advantages were much inferior, and
and yet one that managed to export a large amount of
agricultural produce to foreign countries.—(Cheers.)
The country to which he referred was Holland. In
looking at the statistical account of the British empire
published by an eminent writer and first-rate authority,
Mr.lL'Culloch, he found acomplete answer to Sir Henry
Halferd, at a late agricultural meeting, who declared
that the farmers were not able to do without
protection ; that they could not enter upon that
competition with the rest of the world which
the manufacturers of England at present had to do. In
that statistical account ho found the following facts in
Telethon to this country and Holland, to which he had
referred: -in England the quantity of cultivated land
Arne 48,700,000 acres ; in Holland it was ealcu-
ated at 5,500,000. The population of England was
i_a_p w ard s of 26 millions ; that of Holland was 2,900,000.
The Proportion of population to each square mile was
England, 250 persons ; Holland, 240 persons ; show-
ing that in this respect the countries were nearly
equal. The climate of England was much superior toy
that of Holland. No country could compare with this
in the luxuriance of itsverduretlor in the general mild-
ness of its climate ;
whereas,other country had a
a.evere winter. he rivers
and canals
were frozen
,ovsr the greater part of tohcatetsizson, and even
tie Ztlyder Zee was
ntesollanudndoer ice..d
Now, with all these disadvantages, H
the position he had already shown, and yet the ccufarmers
prohibition.
There this country were afraid Of the removal of
There was yet another fact in favour of En land
la this comparison. In England the land-tax wasgonly
1,200.000/., while the general taxation of the country
was 51,700,0001. per annu-rn. This land-tax Was only 2f
pwr cent. on the whole tax of the country, while the land in
Holland paid 25 per cent; and while the labourers' wages
in England were on the average Is. 6d. per day, in
land they were Is. Bd. These were important facts on the
tuestion under consideration. A more powerful set of men
han our aristocracy does not exist in Europeor the world.
They were men who were looked to in consequence of
their high. station, and yet he found them wealthy, great,
and powerful as they were, contending with the
poor artisan for a portion of his scanty meal. He
believed that Sir Robert Peel was favourable to
a repeal of the corn-laws, and weuld have given them
the benefit of the power he had possessed—for they
might have heard that he had resigned it ; but then
thee. was another power behind him, which crippled
him even in the great position he held. Ile alluded to
the power- of voting by proxy,_by,
„w
Nlaced in the hands of one. man hich_ could he
aving the power of
a majority on any question he chose, and he
maintained that such
_a power ought not to be allowed.
lie every slay passed the Royal Exchange and saw the