The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-27 00:00:00

IL s. 6d. wholly unaccounted for.—(Tory cheers and
but -hter.) The Hon. Member having concluded the
read, ug of the extracts of the speeches of the members
of the' League on this subject, referred to a paragraph in
the QL.artcrill Review, and then said he would now ad-
vert to .the last section, namely, the interfercnce of the
Corn-law- League in the elections of the country. The
Hen. Moinher then proceeded to read extracts from
speeches 'made by members of the League on the subjt et.
The Leave hnd offered a reward of 1001. at several of
the elections for the - detection of bribery, but had not
succeed in esmblishing a single case.—(The Hon. Mem-
ber exhibited a plamrd offering the reward. .He then
read a letter from the Bight Hon. Gentleman, the Mem-
ber for Edinburgh, teo Mr. Maclaurin, a member of the
League, declining to attend an Anti-Corn-law meeting.)
He (Mr. S. O'Brien) :had learned that, in consequence of
this refusal, Mr. Maclaurin had determined to contest
the representation tif Edinburgh with Mr. Macaulay ;
and he (Mr. O'Brien) hoped, if he did, that he would be
•well beaten. The !League had recently interfered in
sev:.ral elections, b-at had been succesful in none—all
the victories of the League came at first, all its reverses
at last. The only borough that had returned a member
of the League, was that in which the League bad not,
and would not, be permitted to interfere. The League
was very extravagant in its promises, but very scanty in
its performances. Notwithstanding that they had vast
res nieces, and considerable ability, six months ago the
League was in the height of its power and influence—
what were they now ? and.what bad they accomplished?
.'I he had desired en organised body, possessing all the
i Deans and appliances for the destruction of our insti-
-1 ntions, he would have selected the Anti-Corn-law League.
Alley had endeavoured to sow dissension among the
, kifferent classes of the comiauaity ; in fact the League
possessed all the elements for sedition—they had de-
clared that this House did not represent the people, and
Lad impudently attempted to tamper with and influence
i
1,11.3 constituencies of the kingdom.—(Laughter.) If
the proceedings of this body were not adverse to the law,
they certainly were abhorrent to the Constitution of this
country. He would vote against the motion, b:cause he
did not wish to see protection to British agriculture
• abolished, and because he did not consider the present a
fitting or a proper time to make the motion ; and, at the
seine time, he would enter his protest against the narrow,
selfish, uncoustLutional policy of the Anti-Corn-law
League.

Captain LAYARD said another opportunity was now
given to the House of taking under consideration a law
which, in Ks opinion, was opposed to the best interests
of the people, and in direct opposition to the principles
of humranty and justice. And althonzh there was no
doubt twat the Ministers would, on this occasion, com •
mend an overwhelmin7, majority, and that the lion.
Member for Wolverhampton's motion would be defeated,
yet he felt that the opinion of the people of this country
was:, that the interests of the many were sacrifices for
the benefit of the few; and that the tower of strength
which the agriculturists prided themselves upon, not
being founded on the rock of justice, would finally be
swept away by the tide of public opinion, which, for
F ome time hat been setting in against it, and by which
it was already undermined.—(Hear, hear.) It was not
only the injustice of this law in itself, the depriving the
people of cheap food, the restriction it put upon manu-
factures, the feeling of distrust which the people felt
against those who acted upon such selfish as well as
ridiculous opinions, but the other bad consequences
which it entailed ; for it was for the sake of the corn-law
that the House had been made to' lower itself as it had
done upon the Factory Bill; and alas! which miserable
example it had again followed on the sugar duties. We
were apt to speak of the superiority of this country to
others in.her laws and institutions; but for his (Captain
Layard's) part, he thought that as long as this law was
in operation we could not do so with justice. Some
years ago, when in China, he was fortunate enough to
become acquainted with one of the Hong merchants, a
clever, intelligent person ; and they often used to con-
verse on the different customs and manners of their re-
spective countries. He (Captain Layard) told his
Chinese friend how barbarous the practice was ac-
counted which they (the Chinese) followed of bandaging
up the feet of their children as soon as they were born, and
pressing all the small toes under the sole of the foot, and
he asked his friend if many of the children did not die
from such treatment, and what could sanction such a
barbarous custom? The reply was, the custom is a
cruel one. Hundreds die from mortification; but we
have a set of old women who live by it, and is a part of
their trade, and we cannot break through it. Now, if
the Chinese merchant had asked him (Captain Layard)
if it was true that we had a law by which the food of
our people was restricted, if he had said, true, our wo-
men take short steps, but yours are on short commons;
ours die in infancy from mortification, but yours die at
all ages, from disease an:l decline, brought on by insuffi-
ciency of food—what could lie (Captain Layard) have
answered, not at that time having heard the celebrated
speech of the Paymaster-General of the Forces, that
this law must be enforced for the dower of young ladies
and the jointure of old ones? For his part, he thought
our Legislature quite as barbarous as the Chinese. lie
felt that some gratitude was due from the Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government to the
League ; for the very man, who some time ago he had
charged with wishing to have him assassinated, had
come to his assistance, and saved for a time his political
existence. The Right lion. Baronet had certainly lost
the great guns from his party; but as they had been
pretty well used up, perhaps the Right lion. Baronet
did not think it of much consequence. He alluded to
the lion. Members for Knaresborough and Shrewsbury.
The Hon. Member for Knaresborough was at first con-
sidered a great gun; inc Led, he had been fired right and
left. amongst the manufacturers ; the Hon. Member for
Knateshorough having, as he thought, had enough of
the manufacturers, took a shoot at his own party,
whin the Right Honourable Baronet the Secre-
tary for the Home Department, calling Mr.
Mott to his assistance, rushed in to step the
discharge, but it had taken place, and in his (Captain
Layard's) opinion, had considerably damaged all who
had anything to do with it. The Hon. Member for
Shrewsbury, he thought, might very fairly be compared
to a clock which went pretty well for some time, hut not
having been oiled, at last began to go rather irregularly.
The hands at one time were supposed—the clock hav-
ing gone three or four hours without stopping—upon
foreign policy, to point to some diplomatic appointments
abroad ; it had been hinted that the Shrewsbury clock,
though it had not yet aspired publicly to being the
clock at the Horse-guards, and thus to regulate all the
other clocks, had certainly wished to be the clock at the
Admiralty, where exact time was not of se much conse-
quence. The Right Hon. Baronet not thinking the
Shrewsbury clock to be a chronometer, was perfectly re-
gardless of what way it went ; so at last it became quite
irregular, attacked the Right Hon. Baronet for taking
the liberty of talking about the gentleman who said he
would squeeze himself into a quart :bottle, no doubt
knowing it was no very pleasant operation to try to
squeeze into any place, however small, and not be able
to effect it.—(Loud laughter.)
" A fellow feeling makes one wondrous kind."

But now the Right Hon. Baronet, and the Right Hon.
Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade, might
boldly come forward upon free trade principles, seeing
how little power those gentlemen had,_ and having no
reason to fear the watch-word of the Hon. Member for
Reading, however powerfully exerted—" To your tents,
0 Israel !"—(Laughter.) Nothing could be more as-
tounding than to find the Hon. Members for Knaresbo-
rough and Shrewsbury against Ministers, and the Hon.
Members for Stockport and Durham supporting them.
But such bad been the case. The Noble Lord, the Se-
cretary for the Colonies, had brought forward a fixed
duty for Canada ; would he do so for this country? Why
he had not done so, be (Captain Layard) could not
tell ; except that, following the example, instead of
learning from the history of Jeptha, and having made
unwise promises and rash vows at the end, it might be
called the twilight, of one session of Parliament, he was
determined that the House should pay the sacrifice in
the next, which it accordingly did. At any rate, he
thought the Noble Lord ought not to object to an in-
quiry into the law as it at present stood.—(Cheers.)
Some short time ago he (Captain Layard), being at the
Opera, had the pleasure of seeing the Right Hon. Ba-
net there—(Laughter)—and he certainly thought that
the beautiful ballet of Ondine—(llenewed laughter)—
was a fair representation of what was going on in the
Right Hon. Gentleman's mind. Cerito seems a fair and
lovely representation of free track, flitting and dancing
before the mind of the Right Hon. Baronet, and when
the Ondine comes out of the shade and is startled at her
own shadow, how just a representation of what happened
to the Right Hon. Baronet when he first broached free
trade principles !—(Cheers.) How he started back
(though the start was not quite so graceful as the one
made by the fair Cerito) when he saw, not indeed his
shadow, but the shade which came over the mournful
countenances of the agricultural Members. But fur his
(Captain Layard's) part, he trusted the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet would soon give up coquetry, after the manner of
the fair Cerito, with the shadow, and that when lie
opened his arms to embrace it, it might prove to be the
reality and not the shadow of free trade. The Right
Hon. Baronet had said he would not go back.
" E'en not to retrograde is to advance,
And men must learn to walk before they dance."
For his part, he would rather have a small fixed duty,
thinking it a fair source of revenue to the country, but as
there seemed no hope of that, he should vote in favour of
the motion of the Hon. Member for Wolverhampton.
Trusting that the time would come—
" When free as seas or wind,
Unbounded Thames would flow for all mankind,
While nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide."
Colonel RUSHBROOKE, who spoke in so low a
tone of voice as to be scarcely audible, read a statement
to the House, in reply to the letters which have recently
appeared in the Times, re,pecting the state of Suffolk,
and the cause of incendiarism in that county. Ile
regretted that such letters had sppeared in a journal so
widely calculated as the Times, as he thought they
would do more harm than good. The writer of those
letters seemed to have a strong prejudice against the
new poor-law. Now the partial and superficial inquiry
which he, a stranger, must have necessarily made could
only have led him to a lame and impotent conclusion.
The Times reporter stated that the increase in the num-
ber of prisoners in Suffolk, since the passing of the
new poor-law, was very great. Now, he (Colonel Rush-
brooke) had ascertained that, in the seven years before
the passing of that Act, the number of prisoners was
upwards of 5,000, while the number since was only
4,100. Notwithstanding the representations of the
Times reporter, he (Colonel Rushbrooke) could say
that in no part of the kingdom were the pour better
taken care of than in Suffolk.
Lord RENI)LESHAM believed that the tenant-far-
mer and the poor man were as much interested in this
question as the landholder. The assertion that the te-
nant-farmer would be benefited by the repeal of the
corn-laws, because his rent would be reduced, was un-
founded; it,seemed to be supposed that there was but,
one party to the letting of a farm, but it should be re•
membered that the landlord, like every ene else, could.
•