The Sun.
London, England, 1826-11-10 00:00:00

MEETING of the CI4 AMBER of COMMERet.

(From the Manchexter herald of yesterday.)
A special general meeting of the Chamber of Commerce
took place in the Exchange Committee-room, yesterday
forenoon, for the purpose of i•onsidering the state of the
regarding; thee exportatiOn Of Machinery ; and the pro-
piety of petitioning Parliament for an alteration of the
Corn IMAM The meeting waa attended by about thirty
geotlerri'm Wtri.mt GARNETT, Esq. WHIT called to the

The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business of the meet-
- ing, observed that the subjects they bad met to discuss
were of vital importance to the country at large, and were
particularly ecionected with the manufacturing and com-
mercial interests of this district. He hoped the discussion
respecting the COrn Laws would be conducted with tem-
per and moderation. He made this 'remark because in
other towns in which the question had been taken up, so
mud) violence and intemperance had in some instances
been used, us to injure rather than promote the cause it

was intended to serve.
Mr. TETER j;WART, in reference to the exportation of
machinery, which: was the first subject claiming the atten-
tion of the filleting, observed that a bill for allowing ma-
chinery to be: exported, hail been introduced into the
(louse of COMITIOIN, and read a first time during the last
Session of Parliament. It had been objected that by
allowing maehinery to be sent abroad, considerable injury
would be done to tnamtfaetursrs 'of " this criuntry, and, in
consequence of this difficulty, the bill had not been pressed.
It was melerstoirl, however, that' the subject would be
tiOn brotOit -forward dining the next Session of Parlia-
ment, and that Mr. llnSkisson, considering machinery in
the sane light as manufactured goods, intended to give his
support to the measure, unless some satisfactory reasons
should be ;urged to the contrary. It had some time ago
been voted in that Chamber, that machinery could not be
considered in the light of manufiwtured goods, and that
even admitting to their fullest extent the principles of free
triode, yet there were Many and weighty reasons why the
exportation of machinery should not be permitted.' It
had been suggested by Mr. Douglas and other gentlemen,
than deputation should be sent to'London, to wait upon
ministers before the meeting of parliament, and endeavour
to bring them to a right understanding of the subject., Mr.
littskisson was understood to have confessed that he hail
not as yet given the subject much consideration ; and it
woh highly requisite that he should be put in possession of
such inforMation as it' was in the power of the Chamber to
furnish, so. that he might be enabled to form a right judg-
ment on so important rt question.
No further observations being- offered, the Chairman
preeeeded•tolead the resolutions. These sentiments ap-
peared entirely to,ivincide:with the views of the meeting.,
And were unanimously adopted, after a good deal of desul-
tory conversation.
A series. of resolutions, stating the necessity for a re-
peal of the existing ,Corn Laws, were then read by the
Chairmo.—Onp.a.fhern having stated that to permit the
impOrtation of foreign corn upon the payment of a too-
' donne duty,
,Would be an irnprOvement upon the present

'system,
Mr. jOTIN M4FARLANE rose and objected to any duty
• whatever being, iruposed upon the importation of corn.
• The corn question had already been so fully discussed, and
'so Many publications on the subject had issued from the
press, that it was not necessary for him to state his objec.
nuns at Ally great length. He would merely state that he
. objected to the principle, first on account of its immorality,
and secondly ow account of its injustice. It was immoral
in so far as it. wits at variance with the will of that Divine
Being, who, intended that. his creatures should receive the
• produce of .the earth free and unincumbered ; and it was
nnjust, because it pressed with greater severity upon the
, pOor than upon the rich. . A
at.„,„ ,1„,,,,,,,,,teeer ware imposed
effect would he that at least three millions oflabourers now
cm/A(10 in agriculture would have to turn for employ-
ment to manufactures. • No doubt those of the political
economists wise adopted the creed of Peter M'Collocl4,
make nothing at *Hof turning a few,millions of people from
one sort of employment to • another; but for his part, he
could not see how it could be done. If corn should ever
lie admitted without a duty, it', insist be by a very gradual
proses.
Several other gentlemen concurred i;'itit Mr. Ewart;
aed the Chairman explained ,to Mr. M‘Far!;kne that the
frwlatiffit did not, us he seemed to suppose, sanction the
principle of imposing the, import ditty, but merely staigd
that to allow impertation by the payment of u moderate
ditty would' be better than the present regulations,
Mr, GREG observed that the time was not come for
total repeal of the duty. Such a measure at present would
lest both Oltitalt and impracticable. It would in particular
he grossly .unjust to u huge . doss of agricultural labourers,
who wot:.ld thereby be thrown out of empleyMent. At
the he thought that a duty of ss. or Gs, per guar- •
ter would afford ,t sufficient protection to the, agriculturists.
The cilAil6tAr4 llnierved that the charge of transit on
such a bulky article as. corn would of itself afford a con-
siderable protection to the English agriculturist.
mr. M'V,tat.ANt. said it appeared front Mr. Jacob's Re-
,port,that the freight and charge attending the importation
7 of twit from. the continent into this ennntry, amounted
ou
the aveTag'e to about 10s. per quartet'. Now, if the duty
of 12s. were briposed by the legislature, a:r, protection
afforded to the agriculturist would amount not to ;25. but
to 225. Besides, it would be observed that this was
rapidly becoming a feeding country ; a great deal of arable
land hail letely, beets converted into•pasture, in consequence
the increased demand for animal food which bad arisen in.
popelous, towns. This rendered the necessity for, import.7'
trig corn more ingest and imperative,
Mr. .1, Tavunt said that a sudden and total repeal
of the Corn Laws would be productive of much Misery to
it,gro,t proportion of the agricUlturists. He thought they
should ask fora moderate duty at first, bringing it gradually
down, until notioN. was left but the mere expense of int-
,,portation, which of jtself would ultimately he a 1411111(.101a
protection' to the agricuNiriSts.
, The cm/01mo ,ohserve,,l that the more moderate of:the
fanners weredisposed,to concede the contest, if a reason-
able, ditty were permitted to rumaiit,
Mr. Swot briefly stated a few of the michievous effects
, that would attend a free importation-
After some further observations by other gentlemen, a
few trivial, alterations were made upon the resolution upon
which Mr. MI V.iglArke, declared that
it now met withh his
full coneurrence-; ,a
and it,. together with the rest of the
.5 series, was passed unanimously.
The „,,,„„g then direetedthat petitions, founded upon
the resolutions, respecting the corn hors, should be forth-1
with prepared, and that.the resolsttions should be publish-
• ed as speedily as possible the Manchester news-
- papers;
but that the resolutions respect mg the importation
of Machinery, being intended to he presented
:to Ministers,
should Italia, present be published.. vote of thanks was
then passed lo Mr. Oamett, for ,Ins conduct . t 1 te chew ;
after which the meeting separated.

•••...
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„ v
TRANSTARENCY Or THE otAN.---Experimeuts
ring the voyage of the Coquille, to &seer.
were made tit:
tain at what deoll in the sea an apparatus became in.,
visible, composed (sf a a
plank two feet in dimeter,
painted white, And wejgillied, so that on descending it
fib 0 tit a always remain otizontal. The results varied
much. At Ofrale, in the island t 4 Waigion, on the
13th of September, the disc disappeared at the depth
.of 59 feet—the weather calm and cloudy; on the 14th,
the sky being clear, it disappeared at the slepth off
7F e 5.3
feet. At Port Jolson, on the 12th and 13tla o-
Ai it was not visible at more than 38.3 feet in A
' ttary,
tle:ad calm ; the mean at New Zealand, in April, was
3.913 Ted. less : at the Isle of Ascension, in January,
under favorable circumstances, the extreme limits were
28 and 36 feet,